+++++++++++++++++++++God's timing is not our timing, but He is never late.+++++++++++++++
"If we're open to it, God can use even the smallest thing to change our lives." Donna Van Liere, The Christmas Shoes


Layers - in the knowledge of God and the path to holiness

Learning about God is like unwrapping a head of lettuce, pealing back one leaf at a time. Always there is another leaf below. We will eventually reach the center of the head of lettuce; but we will never unwrap everthing there is to know about God.

The path to holiness is like pealing an onion. God shows us what is sinful and convicts us that we have sinned. No matter how sweet the onion, there are always tears in the peeling. No matter how sweet the grace of repentence, there are always the pain of letting go of the sin. As the peeling of the onion reveals another layer, so God shows us what we lack in holiness, drawing us ever closer to "be(ing) perfect even just as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:48




What I Believe

Why I am and always will be a Catholic. "So Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. Tthe living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever." John 6:53-58 The words and actions of man cannot sanctify. Only the priest, empowered by his ordination, can invoke the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine into Jesus so we can receive Him - Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity into our bodies and souls. This is the core of the Catholic Church; without this there is no purpose or meaning to the Catholic Church. There are other ways to holiness, to grow in grace; there is no better way than union with Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

Visitation Catholic Church

Visitation Catholic Church

Mother Teresa

Prayer to Jesus
“Dear Lord, help me spread your fragrance where I go.
Flood my soul with your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of yours.
Shine through me, and be in me, so that every soul I come in contact with may feel your presence in my soul.  Let them look up and see no longer me, but only you, O Lord!
Stay with me, then I shall begin to shine as you do; to shine so as to be a light to others.  The light, O Lord, will be all from you; none of it will be mine; it will be you shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise you in the way you love best, by shining on those around me.
Let me preach you without preaching, not by words, but by my example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to you .
Amen.”
Mother Teresa In the Heart of the World (page 89)
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Prayer is not asking.  Prayer is putting oneself  in the hands of God, at his disposition, and listening to His voice in the depths of our hearts.”

Mother Teresa    In My Own Words    (page 9)
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Bread of Life                       

“Christ changed himself into bread of life.  Changing himself into bread, he became totally at our disposal so that, having been fed by him, we would feel the strength necessary to give ourselves to others.”

Mother Teresa    In My Own Words    (page 100)
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Forgiveness                          

 “God is a Father who forgives.  His mercy is greater than our sin.  He will forgive our sin-but let us try not to commit the sin again.”

Mother Teresa    In My Own Words    (page 100)
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Abortion                               

“A great poverty reigns in a country that allow taking the life of an unborn child-a child created in God‘s image, created to live and to love.  His or her life is not for destroying but for living, despite the selfishness of those who fear that they lack the means to feed or educate one more child.”

Mother Teresa    In My Own Words    (page 26)
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Life

“The first person in the world to welcome Jesus, to recognize him in the womb of his own mother, was a child: John the Baptist.  It is wonderful, God choose an unborn child to announce the coming of his redeeming Son.”

Mother Teresa    In My Own Words    (page 68)
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Happiness                            

“I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete“ (John 15:11)

We are talking about the joy that comes from union with God, from living in his presence, because living in his presence fills us with joy.

When I speak of joy, I do not identify it with loud laughter or with noise.  This is not true happiness.  Sometimes it hides other things.

When I speak of happiness, I refer to an inner and deep peace, which shows itself in our eyes, on our faces, in our attitudes, in our gestures, in our promptness.”

Mother Teresa    In My Own Words    (page 42)
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“I know God won't give me anything I can't handle. I just wish he didn't trust me so much.”
Mother Teresa
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My Dear Children: Mother Teresa's Last Message

“I worry that some of you still have not really met Jesus, one on one, you and Jesus alone.  We may spend time in chapel, but have you seen with the eyes of your soul how He looks at you with love?

Do you really know the living Jesus-not from books, but from being with Him in your heart?  Have you heard the loving words He speaks to you?  Ask for the grace; He is longing to give it.  Until you can hear Jesus in the silence of your own heart, you will not be able to hear Him saying, “I thirst” in the hears of the poor.  Never give up this daily, intimate contact with Jesus as the real living person-not just the idea.  How can we last even one day without hearing Jesus say, “I love you?”  Impossible!

Our soul needs this as much as the body needs to breathe the air.  If not, prayer is dead-meditation is only thinking.  Jesus wants you each to hear Him speaking in the silence of you heart.  Be careful of all that can block that personal contact with the living Jesus.  The devil may try to use the hurts of life, and sometimes our own mistakes, to make you feel that it is impossible that Jesus really loves you, is really cleaving to you.  This is the danger for all of us.  And so sad, because it is completely the opposite of what Jesus is really wanting, waiting to tell you.  Not only that He loves you, but even more-He longs for you.

He misses you when you don’t come close.  He thirsts for you.  He loves you always, even when you don’t feel worthy.  When not accepted by others, even by yourself sometimes, He is the one who always accepts you.  Only believe you are precious to Him.  Bring all you who are suffering to His feet.  Only open your heart to be loved by Him as you are.  He will do the rest!

Mother Teresa
- Mother Teresa, 1910-1997


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