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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Saints

by Claire Clow

Nov. 1st is a Holy Day of Obligation, or as Fr. John calls them a Holy Day of Opportunity, a day when the Catholic Church says we are to attend Mass even though it is not a Sunday. It's the Feast of All Saints.

We have such great traditions in the Catholic religion, seems I'm constantly saying that, but I believe it, having a day of honor just for the Saints.

The word saint is a term used to describe a person who is perceived of being an example of exceptional holiness. Famous saints are people that died and the Church has pronounced that they are in Heaven, or canonized them, and much has been published about their life and the graces they received by living for Christ. They strived to honor Jesus in everything they did. There is a patron saint for virtually every cause, nation or quality. We can pray to those saints that had virtues or traits that we admire or simply need help with and they can be our models and intercessors. We can learn by their example and become closer to Jesus by following that example. Some of the saints didn't start out living a devout life, they had a conversion later on, and so there�s hope for all of us.

...they had a conversion later on

...and so there's hope for all of us.

Today I heard something that caught my attention, I had never thought of what this man was saying in just this way. He was discussing the fact that if we get to heaven we'll be praising God non-stop, but here on earth when we go to Mass, or prayer, we consider that we�re opening our time of worship when we begin that Mass or those prayers. In reality, we're just uniting ourselves to the Angels and Saints as they unceasingly worship our Creator. It's continually going on, 24-7, with the Communion of Saints and all the Angels in Heaven and we are just joining in on the celebration. We are not just starting our prayer time as an individual but we are united with all of them and doing what we were created to do, praise and worship our God.

We can do this in prayer, or song, or Mass, or helping others, or just offering all our actions up to the Lord. You can make your day a continual prayer. There is no better way to spend your time than praying like the saints in constant worship of God.

We are all called to be saints, we're all saints in the making, I personally feel I have the privilege of knowing several people that I'd call saints right now. Whether you'll be recognized by the Church as a famous person who lived your life devoted to Christ or whether you simply live quietly, a faithful, loving life, our true reward will be in heaven. We can, however, have a piece of it here on earth if we choose.

We are all called to be saints... ...

...we're all saints in the making.

I enjoy learning all I can about the saints and there are various ways to do this. The priests at daily Mass will usually give a short explanation on the Feast Day of a saint or we can read all about their lives in the hundreds of books written about them. There are books with short stories on many of their lives, you can watch movies about them, or you can read an entire book that�s entirely about an individual saint. There are also many books written by many of the saints themselves. We can grow closer to Jesus by learning and studying their lives. I am grateful for the devotions we have and the examples of all the holy people that have gone before us showing us the way to true happiness.

Can people look to you and see you as a holy and pious person? Is Jesus the center of your life? Let's all pray for each other and invoke the help of the saints that this can be our main goal in life.

URLVD

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