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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Her Obedience

by Stella Armstrong

One of my favorite lines that I repeat to myself and reflect on throughout the day are the first two lines from Angelus: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to Thy word..." It continues to amaze me whenever I remember that it is not only the Mother Mary who generously submitted to Our Father's will but also her son Jesus, who is a model to us of His obedience to the will of Our Father.

Let it be done to me ...

...according to Thy word.

Who else to better show us what obedience means than the Blessed Virgin Mary, a human like us with limited understanding, asked to bear a son not conceived in a human way but in a supernatural way. Her life did not get easier because of her obedience but, in terms of how most of us judge what is a blessing and what is horrible, her life actually became a series of sorrows - their flight into Egypt, her agony as she watched her son Jesus being tortured and crucified, and finally her suffering the brokenness of heart of a mother holding the lifeless body of her son. What could be more final and hopeless than knowing, based on how we humans perceive death and its finality, that physical death abruptly ends all that used to be - the presence of a loved one, the days of knowing that coming home means finding our loved one being there to see and to hold and to hear? When she agreed to the will of the Lord, did she know what would really happen, that her agreeing would mean her being pierced with so many sorrows?

My attempt to obey God's will in my life...

...has seen a long series of changes.

My attempt to obey God's will in my life has seen a long series of changes in what motivates me to obey. It used to be that I never obeyed - I just demanded that He fulfilled my requests. Finally realizing that Our Father would not give in at all, I thought that I could make Him accede if I gave in to a compromise. My prayer became, "I will do this after you give me this." That did not work as well so I learned how to become gracious in the face of waiting and sacrifice, thinking that He would be gracious in return and then give me what I wanted. But Our Father is wise and smart and most of all He knows what is good for us and what will get us to heaven. And so now, I guess I can say that my attempt to be obedient is little by little being conformed to the kind of obedience that reflects a complete trusting of His mysterious but loving ways. I will never know the details of how God is actually leading me to perfection upon my physical passing, but one thing I am sure of is that He knows what He is doing. At times He will ask me to pass through agony to teach me to look beyond the pain and see the bigger picture. Each of those times He gives me the grace of being able to feel His peace and joy, a peace and joy not of this world, but His. How could there be peace and joy in suffering? It is hard to explain but it is possible through His grace and if you ask Him, He will give it generously. It is a light in the heart that shines through even pain that you can see in the eyes of those who suffer but has firm faith and obedience in Our loving Father. For those who truly believe that our life here on earth is simply a beginning and not the end, sorrow simply becomes a stepping stone, a minute page in a lifetime of eternity.

When the Blessed Virgin Mary said, "let it be done unto me," she is showing us the way to traverse our sorrows, a model of obedience and complete trusting that no matter where our Father leads us, He is always there to take care of us, especially of our eternal life.

URLVD

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