🧀The Cheese & Crackers = Quotes by St. Robert Bellarmine, Shepherd of Hermas, and John Michael Talbot
🌽The Veggies = My 2💰
🍟The Potatoes = "Sr. Mary Martin Weaver”, by the Dominican Sisters of Peace
🍗The Meat = "Bearing with the faults of others", by Thomas À Kempis
🍰The Dessert = YouTube video: " "Mercy – St. Faustina’s lifestyle”, Evenings with the Merciful Jesus”, by Sr. Glaudia Skass
🧀 “Cast aside sadness. Do you not realize that it is worse than any other state of mind? It is that which most discourages and rebuffs the Holy Spirit. A happy person works well, enjoys good things and pleases God. But a sad person always acts badly” . By Shepherd of Hermas
🍛”The root meaning of obedience is “to listen.” When we are obedient we learn to silence our opinions and desires to really hear what others have to say. Most importantly, we learn to silence the displaced ego that so often generated our own opinions and desires. When we let go of displaced ego, then we can more easily be silent”. By John Michael Talbot
Fr. Andre Prevot: “By union St. Gertrude appropriates 2 herself da merits of Jesus. She does da same wit da merits of da Saints. 1 day, b4 Communion, finding herself little prepared, she asked da Blessed Virgin & all da Saints 2 offer 2 God 4 her all da good dispositions wit which they had prepared 2receive His graces. She also besought Our Lord 2 offer 4 her His own perfect dispositions, when on da day of His Ascension, He was about 2appear b4 His Father. Then, some time after, as she tried 2 discover what she had gained by this prayer, Jesus said 2 her: Thou hast gained 2 appear in da eyes of da citizens of Heaven, adorned with all da merits thou hadst asked 4. Then He added Why shouldest thou distrust Me, Who am da Lord Almighty &beneficent?Cannot I act like an earthly friend who adorns his friend wit his own ornaments, in order dat he may appear as richly attired as himself?”
Seems the soup du jour is grace, grace, grace. A quote in the book by St. John Paul II expounded on how amazing grace really is. A tie in for me is to loosely see how a front row seat can be possible in the heavenlies. For sure, who can have claims on an assured entry, but by grace a gratuitous gift can be given to whomever God desires. Prepared and desirous souls stand at the door, while unprepared souls do not stand a chance who fail to respond to their time of visitation.
📖Luke 19:44 “and will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
📖Matthew 24:44, “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
📖Romans 9:27, “And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved.”
📖Romans 13:11-14, “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
😇St. John Paul II: “In the Virgin’s case, God’s action certainly seems surprising. Mary has no human claim to receiving the announcement of the Messiah’s coming. She is not the high priest, official representative of the Hebrew religion, nor even a man, but a young woman without any influence in the society of her time. In addition, she is a native of Nazareth, a village which is never mentioned in the Old Testament. Luke stresses that everything in Mary derives from a sovereign grace. All that is granted to her is not due to any claim of merit, but only to God’s free and gratuitous choice.”
How fantastic to be able to gain so much, if we But only turn to the Lord and surrender our trinkets we grab so tightly, and hold fast to the treasures that are offered us. What is lasting certainly outweighs what is constantly deteriorating and passing away. May we all awaken to the reality of what lies ahead and keep our backs to what is feeling and illusional.
Sr. Mary Martin earned a Bachelor of Arts in elementary education from Marymount College in Salina, KS. She received a LPN from St. Anthony Hospital, and an RN degree from North Community College in Denver, CO.
Sr. Mary Martin’s ministries were focused on caring for God’s people at the beginning and the close of their lives. Her first ministry, which lasted more than 20 years, took her across Kansas and Colorado teaching elementary school children. After observing that, in her opinion, some nurses didn’t “care enough for their patients,” Sr. Mary Martin decided to enter the field herself. She returned to school to obtain her RN degree and began a ministry in senior care. She found much satisfaction in her work with patients at the Castle Garden Nursing Home and as a Kindred Care Nurse Consultant in Northglenn. “It’s a joy to be with these people at the nursing home,” she told the Denver Catholic Register.
She expanded her personal ministry to her community by playing the organ, working with parishioners going through the annulment process and by helping the seniors in the parish. Her prayer and presence in the Motherhouse infirmary was much appreciated by her Sisters and the nursing staff.
More than strong in spirit, Sr. Mary Martin was fit and strong in body. Sr. Mary Martin enjoyed basketball, technical walking, horseshoes and speed skating, winning more than 85 medals in local and national senior competitions. She won a number of medals at the National Senior Olympiad, leading to the nickname, “The Speed Skating Nun.”
In 2007, while living in Denver, CO, she was struck by a car walking home from church, and moved to the Great Bend Motherhouse. She lived in the Motherhouse infirmary until the end of her life, where her always-sunny disposition made her much loved by Sisters and nurses alike.”
“Until God ordains otherwise, a man ought to bear patiently whatever he cannot correct in himself and in others. Consider it better thus -- perhaps to try your patience and to test you, for without such patience and trial your merits are of little account. Nevertheless, under such difficulties you should pray that God will consent to help you bear them calmly. If, after being admonished once or twice, a person does not amend, do not argue with him but commit the whole matter to God that His will and honor may be furthered in all His servants, for God knows well how to turn evil to good.
Try to bear patiently with the defects and infirmities of others, whatever they may be, because you also have many a fault which others must endure. If you cannot make yourself what you would wish to be, how can you bend others to your will? We want them to be perfect, yet we do not correct our own faults. We wish them to be severely corrected, yet we will not correct ourselves. Their great liberty displeases us, yet we would not be denied what we ask. We would have them bound by laws, yet we will allow ourselves to be restrained in nothing.
Hence, it is clear how seldom we think of others as we do of ourselves. If all were perfect, what should we have to suffer from others for God's sake? But God has so ordained, that we may learn to bear with one another's burdens, for there is no man without fault, no man without burden, no man sufficient to himself nor wise enough. Hence we must support one another, console one another, mutually help, counsel, and advise, for the measure of every man's virtue is best revealed in time of adversity -- adversity that does not weaken a man but rather shows what he is.”
Link to video:
youtu.be/TWQUWTfw5UQ