Sunday, February 22, 2009

Daily Bread - Feb 23rd - God Knows!

God ALREADY knows!


"...He himself fixed beforehand the exact times and the limits of the places where they would live." (Acts 17:26)

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Daily Bread - Feb 22nd - Humility

Pride vs Humility.

"He must increase in importance, while I must decrease in importance." (John 3:30)

"We need to understand what humility is and what it isn’t. Some people believe that humility is putting ourselves down: saying that we aren’t smart, or aren’t pretty, or aren’t anything good. This isn’t true. 
We all need to have a healthy sense of self-esteem and be secure in what God made us and the gifts he has blessed us with. 
So humility is not thinking less of ourselves. Rather it is thinking thinking less about ourselves. Take the focus off us and put it on somebody else, and we’re on our way to being humble." 

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Daily Bread - Feb 18th - Mother teresa

Saintly Steps - Speak what matters...


"Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness."

Monday, February 16, 2009

Daily Bread - Feb 17th - Anxious?

Anxious?


Psalm 46

Matthew 6:19-34

Philippians 4:6

1 Peter 5:6-7

Friday, February 13, 2009

Daily Bread - Feb 14th

What is Love?


Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy.
Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude;
It is not self-seeking, nor easily angered.
It keeps no record of wrongdoing.
It does not delight in evil,
But rejoices in the truth.
It always protects, trusts, hopes, and preserves.
There is nothing love cannot face;
There is no limit to its faith, hope, and endurance.
In a word, there are three things that last forever:
Faith, hope, and love;
But the greatest of them all is love.
(1 Corinthians 13:4-7)



Thursday, February 12, 2009

Daily Bread - Feb 13th - Inspiration

Saintly Steps - Inspirations.


"In this world there is no fruitfulness without suffering--either
physical pain, secret sorrow, or trials known sometimes only to
God. When good thoughts and generous resolutions have sprung up in
our souls through reading the lives of the Saints, we ought not to
content ourselves, as in the case of profane books, with paying a
certain tribute of admiration to the genius of their authors--we
should rather consider the price which, doubtless, they have paid
for that supernatural good they have produced."

St. Theresa - Help us to act on the inspirations we receive!

Daily Bread - Feb 12th - Worry

Why Worry?


"Don't worry about anything, but in all your prayers ask God for what you need, always asking him with a thankful heart." (Philippians 4:6)

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Daily Bread - Feb 11th - Love

Saintly Steps - Not your works!


“You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole soul, and with all your mind” (Deuteronomy 6:5).


He has need of our love--He has no need of our works.

He was athirst, but when He said: "Give me to drink,"[6] He, the Creator of the Universe, asked  for the love of His creature. He thirsted for love.

St. Theresa - Teach us to love God!

Monday, February 9, 2009

Daily Bread - Feb 10th - Afraid?

Afraid? Read these...


Psalms 34:4

Matthew 10:28

2 Timothy 1:7

Hebrews 13:5,6

St. Benedict - Pray for us!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Daily Bread - Feb 5th - Power of Prayer

Saintly Steps - Moving more than Mountains!

Jesus answered them, "I tell you with certainty, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you be able to do what has been done to the fig tree, but you will also say to this mountain, 'Be removed and thrown into the sea,' and it will happen. (Matthew 21:21)


"Give me a lever and a fulcrum on which to lean it," said Archimedes, "and I will lift the world."

What he could not obtain because his request had only a material end, without reference to God, the Saints have obtained in all its fulness. They lean on God Almighty's power itself and their lever is the prayer that inflames with love's fire. With this lever they have raised the world--with this lever the Saints of the Church Militant still raise it, and will raise it to the end of time.

St. Theresa - Teach us to persevere!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Daily Bread - Feb 4th - Repentance

When Nineveh repented!


So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD'S bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day's walk announcing, "Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed," 
when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth. .......
 
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out. 
(Jonah 3:3-10)

Monday, February 2, 2009

Daily Bread - Feb 3rd - Salvation of the Family

Saintly Steps - St. Theresa on the Salvation of Loved ones


They answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you and your family will be saved." (Acts 16:31)


O my Jesus, there is no need to say: "In drawing me, draw also the souls that I love": these words, "Draw me," suffice. When a soul has let herself be taken captive by the inebriating odour of Thy perfumes, she cannot run alone; as a natural consequence of her attraction towards Thee, the souls of all those she loves are drawn in her train.

St. Theresa - Teach us your ways!

Daily Bread - Feb 2nd - Charity

Saintly Steps - St. Theresa on Charity


The practice of charity has not always been so pleasant as I have just pointed out, dear Mother, and to prove it I will recount some of my many struggles.

For a long time my place at meditation was near a Sister who fidgeted continually, either with her Rosary, or something else; possibly, as I am very quick of hearing, I alone heard her, but I cannot tell you how much it tried me. I should have liked to turn round, and by looking at the offender, make her stop the noise; but in my heart I knew that I ought to bear it tranquilly, both for the love of God and to avoid giving pain. So I kept quiet, but the effort cost me so much that sometimes I was bathed in perspiration, and my meditation consisted merely in suffering with patience. After a time I tried to endure it in peace and joy, at least deep down in my soul, and I strove to take actual pleasure
in the disagreeable little noise. Instead of trying not to hear it, which was impossible, I set myself to listen, as though it had been some delightful music, and my meditation--which was not the "prayer of quiet"--was passed in offering this music to Our Lord.

Another time I was working in the laundry, and the Sister opposite, while washing handkerchiefs, repeatedly splashed me with dirty water. My first impulse was to draw back and wipe my face, to show the offender I should be glad if she would behave more quietly; but the next minute I thought how foolish it was to refuse the treasures God offered me so generously, and I refrained from betraying my annoyance. On the contrary, I made such efforts to welcome the shower of dirty water, that at the end of half an hour I had taken quite a fancy to this novel kind of aspersion, and I resolved to come as often as I could to the happy spot where such treasures were freely bestowed.

St. Theresa - Teach us to love!

Friday, January 30, 2009

Daily Bread - Feb 1st - St. Theresa on Prayer

Saintly Steps - The Little Flower on prayer...


How wonderful is the power of prayer! It is like unto a queen, who, having free access to the king, obtains whatsoever she asks. In order to secure a hearing there is no need to recite set prayers composed for the occasion--were it so, I ought indeed to be pitied!
I do as children who have not learnt to read--I simply tell Our Lord all that I want, and He always understands. With me prayer is an uplifting of the heart; a glance towards heaven; a cry of gratitude and love, uttered equally in sorrow and in joy. In a word, it is something noble, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites it to God. Sometimes when I am in such a state of spiritual dryness that not a single good thought occurs to me, I say very slowly the "Our Father" or the "Hail Mary," and
these prayers suffice to take me out of myself, and wonderfully refresh me. (St. Theresa in Story of a Soul)

St. Theresa - Teach us to pray!

Daily Bread - Jan 31st - Don Bosco

Saintly Steps - Don Bosco: The Friend of Youth.

"Show me your friend and I will tell you who you are!" - Don Bosco


"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." 
(1 Timothy 4:12)

Don Bosco - Pray for us!


Thursday, January 29, 2009

Daily Bread - Jan 30 - Fulton J Sheen

Saintly Steps - We are born to Love others!

"Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? 
Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? 
Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?"
 - Fulton J Sheen


But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. He said to him, 'My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?' But he was reduced to silence. Then the king said to his attendants, 'Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.' (Matthew 22:11-13)

Servant of God Fulton J Sheen - Pray for us!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Daily Bread - Jan 29th - St. Augustine

Saintly Steps - Restless Hearts!

"Come to me, all of you who are weary and loaded down with burdens, 
and I will give you rest." 
(Matthew 11:28)


"Our hearts were made for You, O Lord, and they are restless until they rest in you." – St. Augustine

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Daily Bread - Jan 28th - St Teresa

Saintly Steps - Love is above what you feel emotionally - it is an act of the will!


"Perhaps we do not know what love is: it would not surprise me a great deal to learn this, for love consists, not in the extent of our happiness, but in the firmness of our determination to try to please God in everything, and to endeavour, in all possible ways, not to offend Him, and to pray Him ever to advance the honour and glory of His Son and the growth of the Catholic Church. 
Those are the signs of love; do not imagine that the important thing is never to be thinking of anything else and that if your mind becomes slightly distracted all is lost." 
(St. Teresa of Avila in her wonderful book The Interior Castle)

St. Teresa of Avila - teach us the way of true love and prayer!

Monday, January 26, 2009

Daily Bread - Jan 27th - Slow and Steady

Wisdom Pearls - Slow and Steady.


"My son, don't get involved in too many things.
If you try to do too much, you will suffer for it.
You won't be able to finish your work, and you won't be able to get away from it either.
For instance, here is a man who never stops working like a slave, but gets further behind all the time.
On the other hand, another man may be very poor and not up to his task. He may be slow and he may need help, but the Lord is pleased with him and pulls him out of his bad situation.
When he is back on his feet again, everyone is astounded." 
(Sirach 11:10-13)

Mother Teresa - Pray for us to do the few things we do with LOVE!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Daily Bread - Jan 26th - Criticism

Wisdom Pearls - Criticism


"Before you start criticizing, get your facts straight and think the matter through. 
Don't interrupt while someone is speaking; 
hear what he has to say before you answer. 
Don't get into an argument over something that is none of your business."
(Sirach 11:7-9)

Saints Timothy and Titus - Pray for us!