The face of God

www.spiritual-art.info/screensavers.html

~GOD~

One must see God in everyone.

St. Catherine Laboure

Endurance

www.theperfectstick.com

Dirty water filtered through sand still remains soiled

*

But dirty water filtered through dense rock flows out clensed, purified, refreshed and full of life.

Straining toward the light

www.gardenmob.com

Like a flower that opens it's petals toward the sun.

Let me always set my sights towards God's light.

I Ask

www. newmanumass.org

I ask not to see

*

I ask not to know

*

I ask simply to be used.

Cardinal Newman

Just a thin dark curtain between us and God

www.oldncastro.org

I heard a quote somewhere saying how the night sky is just a dark curtain between us and God and how the stars are pinpricks that the angels have pierced through so that we may always see God's light in the darkness.

When I look up at the endless stars in the night sky I am reminded of God's infinite reach.

I know that I may lay down to sleep within the gravity of his love.

Quotes of Mother Theresa

The success of love is in the loving - it is not in the result of loving. Of course it is natural in love to want the best for the other person, but whether it turns out that way or not does not determine the valueof what we have done

~

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.

~

If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive.

*

We can do no great things; only small things with great love.

• 
  

There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives - the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them.

• 
  You and I, we are the Church, no? We have to share with our people. Suffering today is because people are hoarding, not giving, not sharing.Jesus made it very clear. Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me.Give a glass of water, you give it to me. Receive a littlechild, you receive me...
• 
  
  Love cannot remain by itself -- it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service
• *

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

**

Before you speak, it is necessary for you to listen, for God speaks in the silence of the heart.

***

There is only one God and He is God to all; therefore it is important that everyone is seen as equal before God.

I've always said we should help a Hindu become a better Hindu, a Muslim become a better Muslim, a Catholic become a better Catholic.

What do you think the angels will say?

I do believe I've posted about my 3 year old daughter before.
She is a cupcake!

The other day she was being such a good girl helping sweep up some crumbs with a dustpan and brush that had fallen from the table onto the kitchen floor.
"Oh" I exclaimed pleasingly, thinking quickly of some encouraging words "I think the angels will be watching you help your Mummy and they'll tell God all about what a nice girl you are" :)
Not 10 seconds later her 1 year old sister toddles over to the bin, fishes out an apple peel nochalantly discarding it from her chubby little fingers onto the newly swept floor.
Daughter no 2 looks toward me wearily, places her hands upon her hips indignantly and shakes her head in solemn disapproval.
" Well mummy, what do you think the angels will be telling God about (name) then!
What could I say?

She is a cupcake!

Hope

www.allposters.com

BABY LOVE

BABY LOVE

Our new baby is 8 weeks old already. How time flys...

I found this sweet poem and it made me smile :)

In a baby's smile,

we discover the joy

of each moment.

In a baby's eyes,

we see the promise

of tomorrow...

In a baby's touch

we feel the miricle

of Gods love.

From the inside out

www.pbase.com/merriwolf/image/66414798

It always amazes me how God can work on us from the inside out. Every time we choose Jesus first, everytime we turn to gaze at the light of Jesus' face God illuminates the path ahead just a little more and clears the dust from our eyes so we may see it a little better.
I had my first daughter when I was just 18.
I was a very different person then. I had lived on my own since I was 16 and had become a bit of a survivalist. Some parts of my life were destructive and everything around me felt transient and fragmented, there were no solid foundations to my world. I felt consistantly empty inside. However, God new how he could call me so I would listen. His voice was steady and true amid the chaos.
My daughter was born one beautiful Springtime morning. The crisp sunlight washed over her face for the first time and I as I stared into her eyes I new there was a new life for me somewhere behind them.
That day I surrendered my life out of love for another to Jesus.
I chose Jesus :)
Slowly but surely I have felt a continuing sense of transformation from within since that moment.
And since that precious moment I have endeavoured to always choose Jesus first. To follow him first.
And as he transforms me on the inside, I find, he transforms my life on the outside too.

Beauty

beauty is often found between brokeness..

Kindness

This is a quote from Roald Dahl and I quite agree with him.....
From an interview with Brian Sibley broadcast by the BBC world service, November 1988


I think probably kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. I'll put it before any of the things like courage or bravery or generosity or anything else.


B.S. or brians even?


oh,gosh,yes,brians are one of the least.you can be a lovely person without brians, absolutely lovely.kindness-that simple word. to be kind-it covers everything in my mind.
If you're kind that's it.

Wings of an angel

Fragile yet Strong

www.wingsofangels.net

Angelwings

We have had housemartins nesting in our roof this year. I has been exciting to hear the rustle of feathers in the attic and we have eagarly awaited their fledging.
Sadly, my little girl just raced upstairs, her eyes stung by tears with the sad news that she found one of the little birds, fallen from the nest in our garden.
" Oh Mummy" she said in her sweet trembling voice " I'm so sad the little birdy died but I know that the angels have brought some new wings for it so that it can fly up to heaven."

"Jesus is in my heart".

I love making crafts with my girls. I put the baby in her rocking seat and sit at the play table cutting, sticking, gluing and painting. ( A big tub of wet wipes close at hand!)
Over the weekend we studied the story of creation and made two collages. One was of the sky, dividing the nightime from the daytime with the moon, stars and sun bordered by feathers and the other was of the earth as a beautiful and unspoiled garden.
My three year old is starting to understand much better the bible stories I read her now.
" I have jesus in my heart"
She said before her prayers the other night.
She is such a loing little girl and I am so happy that she knows Jesus is in her heart already.

Extract from a devotional by Charles Stanley

There are certain important points to understand about joy. This gift to every believer in Christ has a spiritual source — the Holy Spirit — and is produced from within by Him. Being supernatural in nature, divine joy exists independently of our circumstances. Happiness, on the other hand, comes from external causes, is earthly in character, and increases or decreases as events change. The success of a sports team, recognition by others, or completion of a project all represent sources of earthly happiness.

Pure simple Joys

Pure, simple Joys.

Sunlight seeping through the gap between the curtains in the morning.

The sunsetting behind the stark outlines of winter trees.

The smell of hot chocolate after a walk in the countryside.

The heavenly peace of a sleeping child.

A smile from a stranger.

Crisp, clean, freshly washed bed linen.

A cool breeze on a hot sunny day.

God is expressed through the beauty of the world in so many ways!

Those who live in accordance with the spirit

"Those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires."

Romans 8:5

As one has to give before they can recieve so our hearts must be tempered by our focus on God day by day, hour by hour and moment by moment.

If we keep communion with God through every breath then our deeds become a living prayer.

By giving our bodies minds and hearts to God we can find the freedom from our own desires and inadequacies.

Often our own desires have no other function than to prop up a sense of identity wrought within the imperfect framework of an imperfect world.

Faith in God replaces both the oppression of our desires and the reppression of our limited abilities with a quiet strength and a fearless peace. With Gods strength and peace we can see beyond the limited perspective of our isolated selves and the perameters of our foreshortend horizons. With faith we can find out what true fullfillment means and stretch to our full potential. With faith we may see with vision instead of just sight.

Yet by it's very definition faith must take it's first steps in the darkness before it can be illuminated. Therefore we must look towards the kingdom of God in every step we take so as not to lose our direction along the way.

Standing at the gate of a new year

Unless a wheat of grain falls on the ground and dies,

it remains only a single grain;

but if it dies,

it yields a rich harvest."

(John. 12:17)

"For it is from within, from men's hearts, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within and make a man unclean."

(Mark. 7:13)

There is so much emphasis, especially at this time of year, on "decluttering" "setting goals" and "making resolutions."

Most of these adjendas centre around the concept of renewal as the new year dawns upon us. But is it an internal renewal we are looking for or a quick sweep around the external framework, of our lives: dusting the cobwebs from the windowframes instead of the residues from the windows. Is the renewal we are seeking focused on the interiers of our being or are we simply trying to gain a little curb appeal? Certainly most of the tasks we set ourselves centre around material objectives. The grand resolutions we proclaim to make are more often than not simply an attempt to control the variables of life by managing risk factors (i.e.) giving up various vices and/or reaffirming or redesigning our identities to fit the life we think we aspire to have. In the modern world we consume the symbols which affilate with the lifestyles we hope to attain and as a result the emphasis seems to be upon owning our lives as opposed to living them. The incentive is not to become better from within but to patent the exteriors with physcological gloss of smoke and mirrors. Beneath the facade this ideology comes down to what we want to have as opposed to what we want to be.

The real business of de-cluttering means striping back the surfaces not applying more whitewash to the walls.

Becoming that which you were intended to be from the beggining is really what it means to be reborn and renewed along with the change from one year to the next.

It is the distractions that lead you away from God, turn your head from the light and your body from the path are what should really be put out with the trash.

Whether this is the television, overtime at work, video games, shopping, unhealthy food, alcohol, drugs or negative people.

The elements that often provide transient, mute, numbing pleasure to our senses while desensitising us to the truths about ourselves and our lives are like non degradable rubbish in an ever deepening landfill.

The sadness being that the landfill is our soul.

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the new year: "Give me a light that I may tread saftley into the unknown." And he replied :" Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord make us instruments

of your peace.

Where there is hatred

let us sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is discord, union;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkenss, light;

Where there is saddness, joy.

Grant that we may not

so much seek

To be consoled as to console;

To be understood

as to understand;

To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving

that we recieve;

It is in pardoning

that we are pardoned;

And it is in dying that we are

born to eternal life.

Amen