Bread of Life

Prayer...

Prayer is, in the strictest sense, a humble religious petition of man to God to seek divine benevolence and benefits he needs for life, both temporal and eternal. It is a conversation with God, either by accepted prayer forms, or from the heart. Consider these words as if God were speaking them to His children...

"It is not necessary my child, to know much in order to please me much; it is enough that you love me fervently. Speak here to me then, as you would speak to your most intimate friend, to your mother, to your brother."

~God your Father~

He Gave His Only Son

"Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

John 21:29

Quotes to Live By

There should be less talk. A preaching point is not a meeting point.

The dying, the cripple, the mental, the unwanted, the unloved-- they are Jesus in disguise.

In the West there is loneliness, which I call the leprosy of the West. In many ways it is worse than our poor in Calcutta. (Commonweal, Dec 19, 1997)

It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.

The poor give us much more than we give them. They're such strong people, living day to day with no food. and they never curse, never complain. We don't have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them.

I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?

I do not pray for success. I ask for faithfulness.

Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

~Mother Teresa~

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The Light of Faith in Darkness

by Stella Armstrong

Since November of last year after I got my learner's permit for driving I have been getting up before sunrise during weekends to practice driving with my husband. Driving in almost complete darkness makes me appreciate the few meters of light ahead of me coming from the headlight, and drives home the point of how limited the human eyes are. At the same time I begin to really understand what darkness really means. Far from being the absence of something, I have come to define darkness as more of the inability of my eyes to see. The offices and the other things that I see in daylight are still there when I go driving before sunrise, except that in the dark all my vision can see depends on where the car's headlights would fall a few meters ahead and nothing farther than that. When I think about nocturnal animals like owls and bats and possums that are equipped with senses that enable them to navigate their lives in what we call darkness, it becomes easy for me to understand that whoever is engulfed by darkness actually has the potential to render it frightening, or powerless.

I have come to dfine darkness as...

...more of the inability of my eyes to see.

In our pilgrim journey toward our eternal home in heaven, we also come across darkness of different kinds the darkness of sadness, of our different trials, of our hurts, of our various sufferings borne out of the imperfection of this earthly world. Like a journey before sunrise, where everything is cloaked in darkness that our human mind cannot unlock, we have two choices: to either depend on our limited human understanding to navigate our way, or to let the Prince of Light guide us safely through each dark valley. Our Lord Jesus Christ says:

In our pilgrim journey toward our eternal home in heaven...

...we also come across darkness of different kinds.

I am the light of the world; he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (John 8:12)

What does He mean or, better still how do we try to live what we believe, how do we practice and strengthen our leaning on Him? In my own journey through the various dark valleys I have learned that:

His way is not necessarily the one that I would have chosen, so through a lot of patience on His part and a lot of trial and error on my part, I am coming to learn to have an open mind and look at the twists and roadblocks as doors and opportunities leading to a better relationship with God.

I do not have to fear darkness because I know that even if I cannot see, Jesus who is leading me can see. Although it is difficult to let go of the driver's seat I am learning to trust more and surrender more each day to the Ultimate Author of our lives. I think of the many times I have trusted other humans like myself: when I was a child I learned to swim by trusting my swim instructor when he told me to tread in deep waters; when I was learning how to read and did not know what I would gain from reading I trusted my teacher when she said I would love reading books; when my husband and I got married it meant we trusted each other's promises. What more our Heavenly Father, who gave us His only begotten son Jesus Christ to suffer indescribably for us, to lay down His life for us?

Now when a darkness in any form descends, tempting me to lose sight of the greater joy that lies beyond it, I try to curb the impulse to ask, "why me?" Instead I ask our Good Lord to give me patience as I try to decipher His instructions on where He wants me to go and what He wants me to do, and the wisdom to see the many graces He has provided to sustain me, and thank Him for another opportunity to increase my faith in Him.

URLVD

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