"Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the LORD r ather than for men." ~ Colossians 3:23
Long ago in ancient Greece an aged sculptor was laboring over a block of stone. He carved with utmost care, probing the rock with his chisel, chipping away a fragment at a time, gauging the marks with sinewy hands before making the next cut. When it was finished, the piece would be hoisted high into the air and se t on top of a towering shaft, and so would become the capital, or uppermo st part, or a column. And the column would help support the roof of a loft y temple.
"Why spend so much time and effort on that section?" asked a government official who passed by. "It will sit fifty feet high. No huma n eye will be able to see the details." The old artist put down his hammer and chisel, gazed steadily at his questioner, and replied: "But God will see it!" ~ as told by William Bennett
Do this story remind us who th e really important audience is as we go about our daily...
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"Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you... Do not be worried and ... afraid." ~ John 14:27
Piri Thomas waited until his young prison cell mate was asleep. Then he knelt a nd prayed aloud to God. When he finished, a voice added, "Amen!" It was h is young cell mate. "I believe in Dios, also," said the kid. "Maybe you d on't believe it, but I used to go to church, and I had the hand of God on me. I felt always like you and I feel now... quiet, peaceful." Then Thoma s asked the kid, "What's it called, chico, this what we feel?" "It's Gra ce by the Power of the Holy Spirit," the kid said.
Thomas wrote; " I didn't ask any more. There in the semi-darkness, I found a new sense of awareness... I fell asleep thinking that I heard the kid crying softly. 'Cr y, kid,' I thought, "I hear even Christ crying.'" ~ Piri Thomas, excerp ted from Down These Mean Streets
When was the last time our Council prayed together with the fervor of P...
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"(Some soldiers heard David say he'd love a drink of water f rom a certain well. They sneaked through the enemy's lines.) drew some wate r from the well, and brought it back to David. But he.... poured it out as an offering to the LORD and said, "I could never drink this! It would be like drinking the blood of these men who risked their lives!" ~ 1 Chron icles 11:18-19
An old story concerns a king's knight. He came upon a spring of delicious water. After filling his leather canteen with it, he began a daylong journey home to present it to the king. The king drank it w ith great relish and thanked him profusely. After the subject left, the ki ng's advisor asked for permission to take a drink of water. When he did, h e nearly spit it out, because it was tepid and terribly stale.
He t urned to the king and asked, "Why did you pretend to relish the water?" Th e king replied, "It wasn't the water that I was relishing; it was my knig ht's love." ~ Author unknown
What is th...
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St. Ephrem, Deacon & Doctor of the Church
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"Better is the end of a thing than its beginning; and the p atient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit." ~ Ecclesiastes 7: 8
Socrates said that the love of wisdom was the practice of death. A Greek story about a rich king who boasted of his wealth and then found him self beggared concludes, "Call no man happy till he is dead."
If th is seems to be a very gloomy view of life, that indicates how far we have drifted from the realities that surround us. In the words of Bob Halligan, Jr. of the band Ceili Rain, all of us have a date to "lay down in the back of that long, black Cadillac". Getting ready for that date is ult imately what we are all in the business of doing. Our end matters far more than our beginning. We start from a wide variety of circumstances that we h ave no control over. To be proud of our beginnings is to take silly credit for our gifts from God, like being proud of our hair color. To receive gra ce is to humbly thank God for his gift in Christ J...
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St. Barnabas, Apostle
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"Jesus prayed: Father! May they be i nus, just as you are i n me and I in you. May they be one, so that the world will believe that yo u sent me." ~ John 17:21
Bill Russell is a basketball legend. He grew up in Monroe, Louisiana. There his father worked long hard days. But his father was a strong man, and would return home each night still full of energy. Bill wrote:
"He'd call to my brother, mother and me. We would follow him to the fields where the grass grew tall as wheat, and the our of us would play hide-and-seek... When it was time to go home, my fat her would reach down and pick me up under one arm and my brother under the other. Then he would lean down so my mother could crawl up on his back. The n he would run all the way home, carrying his whole family, as if we weig hted nothing." ~ Second Wind
How is this image of Russell's father an image of God our Father and the human family?
"Father! To God himself we cannot give a holier n...
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"I waited patiently for the LORD's help: then he listened to me and heard my cry.... He taught me to sing a new song." ~ Psalm 40:2 , 4
"As I write this, I'm at 35,000 feet... The airplane was an h our and a half late. People are grumpy... downright mad. Flight attendants are apologizing... The sports film on golf just broke down and so did the n ervous systems of half the men on board. It's a zoo... For a change, I ref used to be hassled by today's delay. I asked God to keep me calm, cheerful , relaxed and refreshed. Know what? He did. He really did! No pills. No bo oze... Just relaxing in the power of Jesus." ~ Charles Swindoll, Growin g Strong in the Seasons of Life
When have you refused to be hassled and simply given it to Christ? Have you ever been frustrated by something related to our Council? What was the outcome?
"We m ust wait for God long and meekly - in the wind and wet, in the lightning a nd the thunder, in the cold and in the dark. Wa...
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6:00am-7:00am
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Ave Maria Catholic Church, 9056 E Parker Rd, Parker, CO 80138, USA
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Hot breakfast at 5:45 am followed by discussion. Please join
us. For more information contact Brad Riddell at 303-548-
6184 or Bill Was serman at 954-817-5706.
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"Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied hi mself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross." ~ Philippians 2:6-8
In San Antonio, Texas, there is a large a nd lovely statue of St. Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of the city. Th e statue was a gift of Portugal (Anthony's birthplace) to San Antonio. It s tands in a public park along the San Antonio River in the heart of the city . The Christ child in Anthony's arms stands on the Bible and his arms are e xtended in the shape of the cross as if embracing the whole world - as if A nthony is saying: "I hold up to all, as Savior of the world, this humble God of self-emptying love!"
The image of Anthony holding the divine infant is a symbol and model for each of us. The image inspires us t o go through life clinging to the wonderful mystery of...
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St. Anthony of Padua, Priest & Doctor of the Church