Faith
Trust Fall
"...He is carrying you through it like a lost sheep, cradling you in His own all powerful hands, which are the hands known so some extent by all religions and which Christians know are also bloody, nail-pierced hands." page 34 of How to be Holy When you are wrestling with God, trust that he will catch you and lift you up. Whether you feel it or not. T…
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Faith
What is Your Magnificat?
Here is Mary's Magnificat: "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. He …
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Faith
How to Be Holy
De Caussade states clearly, "How easy it is to be holy" If it is so easy, why aren't we holy? William Law's answer is that "...we are not as holy as the saints: because we do not wholly want to be." Why aren't you fit? Because you don't want to be. Why aren't you 20 lbs. lighter? Because you don't want to be. But...…
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Faith
Sanctifying My Life
"How can I sanctify my day? How can I sanctify my week? How can I sanctify my month? How can I sanctify my year? I will write this down and share it with my husband or wife if I am married, or with a friend, roommate, or small group. If I have a plan and share it, it will bear fruit." page 24 There are all sorts of quotes about plans. "Plan for to…
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Faith
Carmelite Spirituality
Here are some of the stand-outs pieces in this book: "...we learn to be conscious of the simple and small things as signs of God's presence and tokens of His love...We all have the tendency to long for peak experiences, but we are invited to receive God int he drab little things of everyday life." page 8 My home office is currently sharing the space w…
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Faith
Pilgrimage
"When we start to look upon our entire life as a pilgrimage, our attitude will change gradually. the small things of everyday life tend to become more important. every little step we take becomes immensely valuable. we become aware that we are walking with Jesus to the Father with the wind of the Spirit driving us onward, step by step, every step brings us close…
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Faith
Habits for Holiness - Notes
Here are just some random quotes and notes from this book for myself and might as well share them all with you: "Are there areas of my life where I tend toward self-sufficiency?" page 16 Fr. Mark-Mary continues with another question which is a great one, but didn't feel it pertained to me. The above question does because we are supposed to be relying o…
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Mary
Marian Consecration - Which One?
If you are looking to do a Marian consecration, I would recommend that you go with the original by Saint Louis de Montfort. The readings are deep. The prayers are perfect. Overall, exactly what I would seek for a running retreat. I wouldn't recommend this is a Marian consecration. It was written for those that don't have time to do the prayers of the …
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Faith
Reflection of the Lord
Is your life an expression of love? Are you leading people away from God? Is your life the wrong kind of lesson of who God is? What in your life is not a reflection of heaven? You have those friends, or you are that person, whose parents spoke about Jesus in such a way that the child/ren want nothing to do with him. I believe this is all of us in some way. Let'…
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Storyteller
Spiritual Storyteller
If you have followed me for any length of time, you know my Storyteller work. This is some of my most favorite writings. I feel like I need to share my spiritual story to make way for some different writing that I know will result from the latest chapter in my story. I have been trying for a while to give the in-depth story and it isn't coming so let's …
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Wholeness
What is wrong with you?
You are stupid. You are fat. You are inadequate. You are ugly. Look at your chin. You will never be enough... What is wrong with you? I am sure you have a really long list. You tell your loved ones that you hate your belly. You talk to your friends about how awful your hair is. Amongst your friends, it's basically a challenge to see how much you hate y…
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Wholeness
Time to Take Inventory
If you aren't aware, Spring Cleaning is one of my favorite things. I wrote about it here . Everything that applies to Spring Cleaning applies to the Fall. Working with that though, we are drawing to an end for the year. If you stop now and take inventory, are there ways that you can achieve your goals for this year? Are there ways that you can end the yea…
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Faith
and my prayer is pure
My face is red with weeping, dark shadows ring my eyes; yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure. - Job 16: 16-17 Let's try something. I have a feeling this will help for when dark times comes upon us. Because let's get real. You are IN a dark time. You are coming OUT of a dark time. Or you are about to head INTO a dark time. That …
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Faith
Acting in Faith
For a moment, let's remove religion for this. I'm also OK with always removing religion from anything, but that's a separate point. Let's say that we trust ourselves. We trust in the process in why a goal is important to us. We trust in the process in which we choose the course of action. We trust the why and we trust the plan. Now we act in fa…
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