La Petite Fleur

Today is your feast St Therese!  I want to thank you for the many lessons you taught me. Most especially your message about not taking any more exception to the wrong I do than I take pride in the good I do.  That has helped me so much.   Like most people I have a tendency to minimize good  actions for which I may be applauded saying, "it was not really a big deal ".  The good part is that now I can say that about mistakes I make. That's  better than getting all upset about having done Another Thing Wrong and focusing on that.   God is my Father and if I tell him sincerely that I'm sorry He does forgive me.  He sees my heart. I do not need to think at all about the opinions of others
Thank you for this little rose you gave me.  

Easter JOY~ one liners

Don't let your worries get the best of you; Remember, Moses started out as a basket case.

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Many folks want to serve God,

But only as advisers.

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It is easier to preach ten sermons

Than it is to live one.

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When you get to your wit's end,

You'll find God lives there.

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People are funny; they want
 the front of the bus,

Middle of the road,

And back of the church.

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Opportunity may knock once,

But temptation bangs on the front door forever.

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Quit griping about your church;

If it was perfect, you couldn't belong.

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If a church wants a better pastor,

It only needs to pray for the one it has.

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We're called to be witnesses, not lawyers or judges.

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God Himself doesn't propose to judge a man until he is dead. So why should you?

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Peace starts with a smile.

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I don't know why some people change churches;

What difference does it make which one you stay home from?

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Be ye fishers of men. You catch 'em - He'll clean 'em.

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Stop, Drop, and Roll won't work in Hell.

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Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous.

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Don't put a question mark where God put a period.

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Don't wait for 6 strong men to take you to church.

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Forbidden fruits create many jams.

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God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

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God grades on the cross, not the curve.

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God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.

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The one who angers you, controls you!

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If God is your Co-pilot, swap seats!

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Prayer:

Don't give God instructions, just report for duty!

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The task ahead of us is never as

great as the Power behind us.

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The Will of God never takes you to where the

Grace of God will not protect you.

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We don't change the message,

The message changes us.

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You can tell how big a person is

By what it takes to discourage him/her.

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The best mathematical equation I have ever seen:

1 cross + 3 nails = 4 given.

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s p r e a d    t h e     j o y

They LOOKED on him whom they have pierced

There were some among the crowd who must have believed he was Jesus, the Christ and Savior. Or some who at least believed he was an innocent man who'd done nothing wrong - even healed people. They watched. They "looked on him". They hadn't done the actual piercing of his side but they might as well have. They were a mob, a crowd of followers who could have revolted en masse but they didn't. They looked. Some may have been very sad, crying even as they looked at his body weakening with every moment. They watched the blood flowing from his side as it turned into an ever clearing liquid.  Jesus cried out,"God, why did you abandon me?"  They heard and still they watched.

We can't blame them tho. We do it all the time. We don't get involved in situations of domestic violence. We hear. We watch.

People are dying alone in hospices all over. We don't even visit or watch.

Young girls are caught up in the slavery of human trafficking. At 15 they are having their captors' babies. We could donate to the emergency shelters that house them  or be like the crowd.

We can watch the news or watch the movie about

it...looking on him whom we continue to pierce.

Transfigure ME Lord!

The Transfiguration has always been very meaningful for me. I'd love it to be the day on which I die because its appropriate.  Jesus, you weren't transfigured. The apostles actually were. You'd always been the Son of God and this may have been the point when the guys actually got it .  If there was any doubt before , the Father's proud voice broke thru it.  "This is My Son!"  Your three best friends are thunder struck. The Rock , Peter, turns into a fountain of ideas.  They get it!

I wish I did.

I'd love to be transfigured from who I am into who I could be, who You created me to be. No mountain or blazing white light needed, Lord. My brain and my ego just need to cooperate with my heart and soul. I want to,I really do. I want to do all those things in 1 Cor 13 ( patient,kind , enduring all things) but I just don't do it. Like St Paul "I do the very things that I hate."  What is needed for my transfiguration to finally happen?  Do I need to be thunderstruck too?  Go for it God! Teach me how to be more like you.   Amen

...and I don't like your hair-do!

If “where there is peace there is God” then where there is no peace there is the absence of God or the presence of evil. If peace is valuable to me I’ll choose it as my goal even in the midst of chaos and negativity. I will choose to be where God is in situations of stress or illness or financial pressure. I will MAKE my mind be still and non-reactive so as to see the issue or event with God’s eyes. Since I am made in God’s image and likeness it is possible. I received the Holy Spirit and Christ’s actual body in the Eucharist so it is possible for me to swallow my instinctive non peaceful reaction in order to act more like Jesus.


In my professional life I’ve been rejected and in my personal life too. Someone betrayed a confidence. Someone doesn’t like my way of doing things. Rejection doesn’t come naturally. It’s a blow to the ego. Instinctively my insides begin to churn and my blood pressure goes up. Instinctively –almost without any thought process involved- I become defensive or angry. I immediately look at the person differently, i.e. with judgment. Inside I’m saying “Oh yeah? Well I thought there was something I didn’t like about you. And, by the way, I can’t stand the way you do your hair.” Red flags are waving and if the person persists or says something that hits me to the core, bombs go off in my brain.

                          

 

Is all that from God?

Did the red flags, bad hair comment or exploding bombs come from Jesus Christ? Did God initiate the judgmental thoughts or the defensive reaction? Of course not! Where there is peace, there is God. My really, really hard challenge is to feel my own rising blood pressure and lower it. I don’t have to be that person. I’ve got the Holy Spirit’s guidance and I don’t want to ignore that. I received Eucharist. I have God’s grace. I am made in His likeness. And THIS time is going to be different. THIS time I’m not going to be that defensive person.

While my BP is rising – or if I’ve already failed and given in – I imagine myself on old planet Pluto and watching all this from afar. (Pluto= the rejected planet). Maybe I’ll even hide myself behind my guardian angel’s fluffy wings. I imagine myself physically uninvolved. The person’s lips are moving and the tension is high but I choose not to be there. Let them keep the judgments and words of anger. I just don’t want them. They aren’t God’s so I’m not participating in the process. I take a breath, step back and remove my feelings from the situation.

This is much easier to do in a non-confrontational situation. Those type situations are good for practicing. Anytime of the day I can put myself on un-planet Pluto and observe. I can search out God’s actions in my day from behind fluffy wings, while I take a deep breath. The more I practice the more peace I feel.

Where there is peace there is God. That’s what I want.

For Lent 2013 Be a hole in Gods Flute

"I am a hole in a flute that Christ's breath moves through. Listen to this music."  14th century Persian poet Hafiz

I am not the instrument

I'm not the music

I'm not the breath

I am the hole in the flute only.  I am the absence of something. Ego. Selfishness. Control.

When several such holes in the flute make themselves ready, music results. They allow Christ's breath to pass thru and that makes beautiful music.

If I allow myself to be only a hole in the flute (only yes, but essential for the flute to make music) I can be useful to the Master. If the hole decided to open and close when it wishes it would be useless.
Don't I do that?  Don't I decide when and if I will be available and open to the working of God?

If I allow Gods fingers to manipulate me as he wishes ( why do I internally react "ouch" to that thought?  Don't I trust in his love?) then Gods touch alone makes me useful to him and its nothing i have done. His movement makes me useful to his will despite  how essential I may believe my productivity is.
And Christ's breath passing thru me? Isn't that the Holy Spirit?  I close my eyes and visualize the air in my body filling every space from my skull to my toes. But it's not my own lungs doing  the work. The breath is Gods and it  fills me like gentle CPR. The air comes from Gods lungs into the flute passing thru the emptiness of the hole into the  atmosphere   And in that moment if there is no resistance a musical note is formed. Ahhhhh. Sublime surrender!
Together we become a melody. 

When's the End of YOUR Lifespan???

Ps 90 says " Seventy is the sum of our years, or 80 if we are strong and most of them are fruitless toil..."

I don't believe the fruitless toil part but can't disagree with the suggested end of a lifespan.  Tho I'm not in those decades I am "of a certain age" as the phrase goes.  It's time to reflect on what to do with the limited time left. I am very happy that I do not wish i lived my life differently.  No regrets.  I ABSOLUTELY wish I could have been a nicer person, a kinder person and less of a sinner. {I heard the word perfect   in the Gospel command but didn't hear the word be in front of it until recently.  My life was spent doing instead of being- but that's a totally different reflection. }   So I won't waste the time looking back and it can't be changed anyway.  But going forward what do i do about family, friends, job, church involvement, health, financials, spiritual and personal growth? 

I am fluid and always changing as is everyone else, partly due to outside situations but also in part a result of personal choices. 

• Will I finally put an end to worry and completely trust God?
• Will I actually chose a simpler life style?
• Will take proactive measures to help and protect my body instead of forcing it to do things that may hurt it?

                                                                

How many years do I have left to get around to doing these things?  There are more years behind me than ahead of me most probably now.  If the Scripture is right maybe I should begin this very minute to live the radical life style God requests.

What about you?