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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

• 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~

I thought that I would continue with the topic Claire started about worry in last week's issue. You know, I use to worry a lot and I mean just about every little thing. That of course was well before I began to realize that if I let Jesus into my life that there was a way around all that worry.

My life seemed to revolve around worry, I seemed to worry about everything and everyone. And it seemed the more that I worried, the worst things got. The worry would just cause more tension which then of course would lead to anger. Needless to say the worry did nothing to solve any of the problems. In fact it only increased my inability to deal with the problems.

It's been a long journey but through the growth in my faith, I've been able to talk things over with God. I've learned that God may know what our worries may be He still wants for us to bring them to Him so that we will willingly give them over to him. By giving them over to Him we are letting Him know that we truly trust His decisions and not our own.

There have been so many times in my life that I chose to make my own decisions about something that was worrying me and would always walk away even more distressed and more incapable of getting out of a bad situation. The worry and my decisions not to let Christ in only kept me there digging the hole of discontent even deeper.

The Evil One wants us to worry. He thrives on our problems, especially since a lot of them he has had the pleasure of presenting to us with his false lies and false promises. He wants for us to turn from God and take our worries upon ourselves so that we might become less connected with God and His grace.

It is true that sometimes there are things in your life that you feel that you must worry over. I admit that but as difficult as it is not to worry about employment, a roof over your head, enough food, etc. it becomes even more difficult if you allow yourself to be consumed with worry. I've been unemployed for several years now as well as my husband, but every time we turn around something comes up to were we don't have to worry about rent, food and the necessities of life. God always seems to be able to find a way to keep us from falling apart. It is through faith and pray and willingly handing over these worries to Christ that we have been able to survive. And I praise God for that each day that I offer Him my prayers.

St. Padre Pio put it nicely..."Pray, hope and don't worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayer. Prayer is the best weapon we have; it is the key to Gods heart."

URLVD

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