| PRAYER FOR REFUGEES AND VICTIMS: Lord God, no one is a stranger to you, and no one is ever far from your loving care. In your kindness, watch over refugees and victims of war, those separated from their loved ones, young people who are lost, and those who have left home or who have run away from home. Bring them back safely to the place where they long to be and help us always to show your kindness to strangers and to all in need. Grant this through Christ our Lord. ---SOURCE: USCCB Secretariat for Liturgy |
| ON MANAGING ONE'S SPEECH: Rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. --Proverbs 12:18 Mastery of temper is high proof of intelligence; a quick temper makes folly worse than ever. --Proverbs 14:29 One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and one whose temper is controlled than one who captures a city. --Proverbs 16:32 If you are angry, do not be led into sin; do not let sunset find you nursing your anger. --Ephesians 4:26 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God's righteousness. --James 1:19-20 The Lord God has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. --Isaiah 50:4 Mind your speech a little, lest it may mar your fortunes --Wm. Shakespeare Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret. --Ambrose Bierce Nothing lowers the level of conversation more than raising the voice.--- Correction does much, but encouragement does more. --Goethe Words are as strong and powerful as bombs, as napalm. --Dorothy Day |
| Words to Ponder |
| A PRAYER FOR PEACE Loving God, Grant us respect for all people whom you have put on this earth. Help us to see the Iraqi people as our brothers and sisters. Grant us hope for a world at peace, where conflict and hurt are healed through dialogue and sacrifice, where we as people of faith may strive to be examples of self-giving love. Give us the courage to work for peace, to share what we have with those who are without, to speak the truth of your love to all people. Help all leaders to see that war does not bring an end to our conflicts, but rather deepens them, hurting those who are innocent and increasing hatred between people. Be with our world in this time of peril. Help us to know the way from war to peace, and grant all of us the courage and fortitude to walk that way. Amen. --Sent by Laura and Dan Robinson |
| BUILDING UP OTHERS: ...resolve never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. --Romans 14:13 If your brother is being hurt by what you eat, your conduct is no longer in accord with love. Do not because of your food destroy him for whom Christ died. --Romans 14:15 Let us then pursue what leads to peace and to building up one another. --Romans 14:19 If I [do the things God calls me to do], this is no reason to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not....If I do so willingly, then I have a recompense, but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship. --see 1Cor 9:16-17 "Everything is lawful," but not everything builds up. --1 Corinthians 10:23 So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. --1 Corinthians .10:31 Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ. --Galatians 6:2 A candle loses nothing of its light by lighting another candle. --James Keller The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. --Samuel Johnson Whenever I see a wall between Christians, I try to pull out a brick. --Pope John XXIII Peace begins with a smile--Smile 5 times a day at someone you really don't want to smile at...do it for peace. --Mother Teresa of Calcutta |
| God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission...I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it-- if I do but keep His commandments. Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain; He knows what He is about. --John Henry Newman |
| We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace. ---Aristotle |
| Life is like walking through the snow-- every step shows. |
| "It helps now and then, to step back and take a long view. The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the Church's mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything. This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own." Amen. --Archbishop Oscar Romero |
| I bind unto myself today the power of God to hold and lead, His eye to watch, His might to stay, His ear to hearken to my need, the wisdom of my God to teach, His hand to guide, His shield to ward, the word of God to give me speech, His heavenly host to be my guard. Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me; Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger. I bind unto myself the name, the strong name of the Trinity, by invocation of the same, the Three in One and One in Three, Of Whom all nature hath creation, Eternal Father, Spirit, Word; Praise to the God of my salvation, Salvation is of Christ the Lord. |
| Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. --Martin Luther King, Jr. |
| Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become your character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny. |
| Love casts out fear, but we have to get over the fear in order to get close enough to love them. --Dorothy Day |
| Where you see there is no love, put love, and you will get love. --St. John of the Cross |