TFTD - Inside voice

"God speaks more frequently in persistent whispers than in shouts."


                                                                           - Life Application Study Bible -

TFTD - Live in love

"God makes of all things mysteries and sacraments of love, why should not every moment of our lives be a sort of communion with the divine love?"

                                                                       - Jean-Pierre de Caussade -

TFTD - Meet you there

"Don't worry about tomorrow.  God is already there."

                                                                          - Unknown -

TFTD - Present

"In every place where you find the imprint of men's feet there am I."

                                                                                          - The Talmud -

TFTD - Nothing can keep Me from you

"Live your human task in the liberating certainty that nothing in the world can separate you from God's love for you."

                                             - Brakkenstein Community of Blessed Sacrament Fathers -

TFTD - My prayer for you this day

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. ( Romans 15:13 English Standard Version)

TFTD - I wouldn't cast the first stone...

"A dear old friend of mine used to say with the truest Christian charity, when he heard any one being loudly condemned for some fault:  "Ah! well, yes, it seems very bad to me, because it is not my way of sinning!" 

                                                                           - Charles D. Williams -

TFTD - Prayer is

"Prayer does not mean simply to pour out one's heart.  It means rather to find the way to God and to speak with him, whether the heart is full or empty."


                                                                       - Dietrich Bonhoeffer - 

TFTD - Help me live it *

"Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.  Where there is hatred let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy."

                                                                        - Francis of Assisi - 

It seems like the least we should be praying for, but oh how huge it really is! How crucial, how challenging, how small, how life-changing - like so much of God's work :)


*I pray this prayer in the spirit of yesterday's post. It's the same message, though obviously St Francis was much more articulate, concise, and got to the rub of the thing far more effectively!

For the love of Love, be kind today/this week/always

"One kind word can warm three winter months."  (Japanese proverb)

Please, please, please, make the effort, just for one day, to be nothing but kind. It may be difficult, especially when life is happening to you, people are being unreasonable, and the world may be making you furious. It happens a lot, I get that. But just think of the last time someone was unkind to you, deliberately or through thoughtlessness; remember how that made you feel? Why would you want to do that to another person? Even if they have done something awful to you, inflicting pain won't make you feel any better - has it ever, in your personal experience?

Words have power. Words can hurt. And you don't know what the person in front of you has gone through, in their life or even just in that day, week or month. You don't know if you might turn out to be the straw that broke the camel's back. So bite back the mean.

Instead, smile. Say something nice, just because. Tell someone how much you appreciate them, and what they do, even if it's "just" the barista who serves your coffee just so and keeps smiling in the face of hordes of (often rude) caffeine-deprived commuters in a hurry. Or the girl who holds the door for you. The bus driver who sees you running dementedly and waits so you can catch his bus. The guy who got the book/tin/mug off the high shelf for you. Especially the person who let you have the last cookie or piece of chocolate! And the friend who you know you can always call, who will be there if you need to talk, and who understands if you can't speak, but will sit with you and hold you. 

Think of all the people who lift you up, and put a little of that back out there. It will probably cost you nothing, and you will make someone's day - or maybe even save a life. 

TFTD - You bloomed while you weren't looking!

"Many a humble soul will be amazed to find that the seed it sowed in weakness, in the dust of daily life, has blossomed into immortal flowers under the eye of the Lord."

                                                                         - Harriet Beecher Stowe -

TFTD - the "mistake" might turn out to be the most beautiful part

"Many of the world's finest Oriental rugs come from little villages in the Middle East, China, or India.  These rugs are hand-produced by crews of men and boys under direction of a master weaver.  They work from the underside of the rug-to-be.  It frequently happens that a weaver absentmindedly makes a mistake and introduces a color that is not according to the pattern.  When this occurs, the master weaver, instead of having the work pulled out in the order to correct the color sequence, will find some way to incorporate the mistake harmoniously into the overall pattern.  In weaving our lives, we can lean to take unexpected difficulties and mistakes and weave them advantageously in the greater overall patterns of our lives.  There is an inherent good in most difficulties."

                                                                          - Norman Vincent Peale -

TFTD - Mine, or Yours?

"When you lay aside your personal goals, desires, and ambitions, that is when God will reveal the goals, desires, and ambitions that He has for you."

                                                                              - Greg Laurie -

TFTD - A friend indeed

"I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his calendar." 

                                                                                 - Robert Brault -

In memoriam

"We love, because He first loved us." (1 John 3:19)

In loving memory of my grandfather, Sam, who was the kindest, most generous, most loving person I have ever had the privilege to know, and who returned to the Father's embrace this day 20 years ago. 

I have a lot more to say, but I will have to say it later because my heart is too full to do it right now.