Gratitude & Thanksgiving

Taken from Sandra Cisneros' short story Eleven.... What they don't understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when you are eleven, you are also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one. And when you wake up on your eleventh birthday, you expect to feel eleven, but you don't. You open your eyes and everything's just like yesterday, only it's today. And you don't feel eleven at all. You feel like ten underneath the year that makes you eleven. Like some days, you might say something stupid, and that's the part of you that's still ten. Or maybe some days you might need to sit on your mama's lap because you are scared, and that's the part of you that's five. And maybe one day when you are all grown up, maybe you will need to cry like if you are three.  That's what I tell mama when she's sad and needs to cry.  Maybe she's feeling three. Because the way you grow ol...

What matters in prayer is not what we do, but what God does in us during these moments. ------------------------ CCC 2672: “The Holy Spirit, whose anointing permeates our whole being, is the interior Master of Christian prayer.  He is the artisan of the living tradition of prayer.  To be sure, there are as many paths of prayer as there are persons who pray, but it is the same Spirit acting in all and with all.” --------------------------- This post is an excerpt from the Daily Rosary Meditation with Dr Mike Scherschligt (@ The School of Faith).  Please feel free to share.   https://www.dailyrosarymeditations.com/ --------------------------- In prayer, one must be less concerned about doing things and more concerned about being open to God’s action. The essential act of prayer is to place ourselves in God’s presence and remain there.  We cannot sit before a fire without becoming warm.   We cannot be out in the sun without tanning.  Likewise, i...

Jesus died, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven around 33 AD .  A bout 10 years later, in 42 AD, King Herod unleashed a violent persecution of the Catholic Church. He put to death The Apostle James and all the Apostles were scattered.  -- ------------------------- This post is an excerpt from the Daily Rosary Meditation with Dr Mike Scherschligt (@ The School of Faith).  Please feel free to share.     https://www.dailyrosarymeditations.com/ --------------------------- PLANTING CATHOLICM BEYOND JERUSALEM Propelled out on mission by this persecution. Thomas the Apostle travelled from Jerusalem to Damascus in Syria and then eastward, preaching the Gospel and establishing the Catholic Church in towns along the way in Persia (modern day Iraq and Iran) until he arrived in Punjab, Pakistan, 20 miles north-west of Islamabad.  ------------------------ RECALLED BACK IN JERUSALEM TO WITNESS TWO IMPORTANT EVENTS Having planted Catholicism there, the Hol...

How often do we find ourselves overwhelmed by our situation or by the world around us?    Some of us spend a lot of our time worrying about the chaotic storms that are blowing all around us - the dysfunction within ourselves, dysfunction in our families, the dysfunction in our church,  the dysfunction in our politics, the dysfunction in the international scene... and we despair, and we sink, like Peter did... -------------------------- This post is an excerpt (with my re-arrangement of the learning points) from the Daily Rosary Meditation with Dr Mike Scherschligt (@ The School of Faith).  Please feel free to share.    https://www.dailyrosarymeditations.com/ ---------------------------- Matthew 14:23-33 When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was many furlongs distant from the land, beaten by the waves; for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw...

Psalm (118/119)  [Mass reading on 5 Oct 24]: "It was good for me to be afflicted, that I may learn your statutes . (v67) And in your faithfulness you afflicted me . (v75)" Dr Tim Gray shares his reflection on this psalm: "We don't often know to think that God in his faithfulness afflicts us . We think that God has forgotten us, that he abandons us or that he is punishing us when we suffer. But o ften times, affliction and suffering and trials are a sign of God's deep love for us . God in his faithfulness is doing a work in us. In suffering, we learn to submit, we learn God's Word, we learn His ways, we learn to trust in Him, and we learn the great divine wisdom. It is what Job models for us, as he came to deeper wisdom." ------------------- St John Paul II in his apostolic letter " Salvifici Doloris": " Suffering is in itself an experience of evil, but Christ has made suffering the firmest basis of definitive good, namely the good of eter...

Today is the Feast of St Therese of Liseux.  The wise young girl who was so filled with the Spirit says,  “Jesus does not demand great deeds but only gratitude and self-surrender .” This is the key that unlocks the power of the spiritual warrior that was Therese.  -------------------------- This post is an excerpt (with my re-organisation of the learning points) from the Daily Rosary Meditation with Dr Mike Scherschligt (@ The School of Faith).  Please feel free to share.    https://www.dailyrosarymeditations.com/ --------------------- Surrender to God simply means this :  We do what is within our power.  Then we let God do what He wants, through all the people and events  that are beyond our power   or our zone of responsibility. ---------------------------------------------- 1     SURRENDERING  - With a  positive and fruitful attitude Often, when we are confronted with painful occurrences, we either rebel, endure t...