Category: Finding Jesus

10.21.2023

41 cloudy NE@6mph SR0719 SS1803

Morning Offering given

Artha B&B in Lanark is quiet and restful

Cofffee brewing… fresh ground beans

Antonio Cardinal Bacci (Meditations for Each Day pg 422) has an interesting comment in today’s reading “We are under an obligation to work, because work is the result of, and the punishment for, sin, It enables us to co-operate with God in His work of creation and has been ennobled and sanctified by Jesus Christ.” Quite the thought isn’t it? I am obligated to work. I wonder how many of today’s young or not so young know/feel this obligation? I know for certain I have felt this obligation from early on in my childhood. An obligation first to God to use the talents and treasure he has entrusted to me and an obligation to my family to joyfully do what is necessary to keep the family. I did not always succeed in meeting my obligations and now I still fail at times.

I remember hearing these words from my G’ma “we don’t wash the dishes because someone told us. We wash the dishes because we love and care for the person who will use them next.” A form of this quote is attributed to Mother Teresa. I have no clue if that is true or not, but I do know my G’ma said it to me. I doubt she had ever given Mother Teresa a thought as she was protestant. I’ve also come across someone who said to her children “wash the plate” meaning clean up after yourself.

This last statement brings me to confession. How does one go from dishes to confession you might ask. Confession is the spiritual side of “wash the plate”. Because you love God, you go to confession. Because you love yourself, you go to confession. Simple “WASH THE PLATE”

Know you are prayed for.

10.18.2023

44⁰F S@13mph SR0720 SS1815

Morning Offering given

Village quiet

Coffee good

The man sleeps

Day #6 Intermittent Fasting… continue to work on drinking more water and increase walking.  Knee pain continues to be an issue. Not at all impressed with the recipes on this program nor the new age words they are using to coach or the assumption everyone struggles to fast. But there are some good things as well. No results as yet, but I am told that’s normal.

Another very interesting Bible Study class. No class next week.

DS#2 arrived yesterday. He mowed the lawn and gathered all the lawn furniture. It is now put away for the season. It’s so nice to have the help to get it done.

No word from friend HenryLinda after their move. A week today since they left.

Need to get 2 Hibiscus in the ground and 4 rose bushes moved. St. Francis should come in for the winter. Horseradish should be dug.

Need to have: hearing aides checked and updated, November cards ready, pick up paint for the office, trim paint for the house, car washed/vacuumed, and go to confession

K… ck with A for your stuff.

The Church struggles today. The parishioners struggle. It is hard to believe (at times) there is any interest in the parishioners other than the gaining of their $$. When is the last time your minister knocked on your door, called you on the phone, or even sent a txt? When was the last time you did this to them? What used to be set in stone isn’t any longer. At times, it seems to be the thought that those who continue as they were taught are considered ridged and judgemental. While reading Exodus, when Moses went up on Mt Sinai for 40 days and nights, he returned to find the people doing their own thing. I was thinking if that was today… someone would have canceled Moses and replaced him with someone less demanding. Someone who wouldn’t return to the mountain to get the 2nd copy of the commandments.

Know you are prayed for.

10.04.2023

70⁰ F SW@12mph SR0703  SS1839

Morning Offering given

Village quiet

Coffee aroma infiltrating the house. The taste is ambrosia.

12 years ago, I came across the most wonderful smelling plant. The giant blooms looked like trumpets. The colors were glorious. I studied it and found it was 100% poison. I wanted one. The man brought one home a couple weeks ago. It sits on my front porch. I will try this winter to keep it alive. It over winters in a dark basement till spring.

Angel’s trumpet is a very poisonous plant, causing intense hallucinations, seizures, and even death in the most severe cases. This plant can also cause poisoning through various routes. You can get poisoned by touching, inhaling, or eating almost any part of an angel’s trumpet. The intoxicating scents are variously described as musk, lemon, mint, lily, hyacinth, citrus, jasmine, gardenia, and more. Regardless, the fragrance is most noticeable on warm summer evenings. (WI Hort. EDU)

We humans are fickle and vain. We want beauty, comfort, adoration, and power. We want it knowing it will poison us. This plant reminds me of that defect in my character.

Tread carefully, my friend. satan entices with beauty and power but can only survive in dark dormant places.

Know you are prayed for.

09.22.2023

59⁰F overcast SE@11mph SR0650 SS1900

Morning Offering given

Village peaceful

Coffee good

The man sleeps… he should, worked hard yesterday.

Nice meal@ Peck’s with B last evening.

Hearing test this morning and pulmonary consultation… they suspect sleep apnea.

Cadi in the shop. Getting time to put her away for the winter.

New wheels picked up yesterday. Ford Expedition XLT. Our old one is over 300,000, time to replace it. Can’t trust it for long trips with that many miles on it.

Vivid in color, dreaming last night. In my dreams, we were moving to some place with a quaint small church that had a retired old school priest and was just receiving a priest who has been contemplating his vocation. The old one lived in a ramshackle rectory with a daily housekeeper coming in from the nearby village. The new one complained of everything, including the old style confessional that always seemed to have a penitent kneeling outside of it and the study that always seemed to have a parishioner waiting for advice or just conversation.

The old priest had assigned the new one these two duties for the next 90 days. With instruction to be readily available regardless of time of day, as in his words, “sin and loneliness,” don’t keep regular hours, and this will teach you how to “die to self.”

Unfortunately, I woke and will never know the rest of the story. But I will ponder dying to self.

Romans 6:6; John 3:3,36; 2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 Peter 1:23; Galatians 2:20

Know you are prayed for.

09.18.2023

46⁰F SSE@7mph SR0645 SS1909

Morning Offering given

Village silent

Coffee

Breakfast very good

Bow season opened with hunters testing sundown. Very hard to see camoed hunters on a dark roadside. They lived, so did I.

Monday morning is here… the to-do list is long.

Much improved this morning in the health department.

Test driven car won’t be good for what I need it for. The search continues.

Baby run last night, still waiting for outcome.

The funeral… very nice Protestant service in a Catholic church.

I keep waiting for the grief and sadness. Over the weekend, I realized I went thru that process for the loss of my entire family when my dad died years ago. I was devastated and depressed for quite some time. I hadn’t had contact since then except for superficial public moments. I grieved and accepted their deaths at that time. I tried. I failed. I confessed my faults/sins. I accepted the loss of what could have been if we hadn’t been so broken. I leave the door open.

Know you are prayed for.

09.17.2023

49⁰F N@7mph SR0644 SS1909

Morning Offering given

Village quiet

The man sleeps

Coffee good

Congestion has lessened, cough is productive, and ears are feeling better. I’m still staying home. No one else needs the cold. Although the old saying was it won’t get better till you give it away. Fiddlesticks to that.

Found next year’s planner at christianbooks.com check them out quality and price are right.

Have a Blest day.

Know you are prayed for y e

Old message, new reminder

Once upon a time, the devil appeared to three monks and said: If he gave you power to change something from the past, what would you change?

The first of them had great apostolic fervor, and he answered, “I would prevent you from making Adam and Eve fall into sin, so that mankind could not part ways from God.”

The second of them was a man full of mercy and said to him, “I would hinder you from God and condemn yourself forever.”

The third of them was the simplest and, instead of answering the tempter, he fell on his knees, made the sign of the cross and prayed saying, “Lord, deliver me from the devil of what could have been and was not.”

The devil, giving a loud scream and trembling in pain, flew away.

The other two, astonished, said to him, “Brother, why did you react like that?” “. He answered them:

“First of all, because we must NEVER DIALOGUE with the enemy.” Secondly, because there is no power in this world that can CHANGE the past. Third place, because Satan’s interest was not that we test our VIRTUE, but that, stuck in the PAST, we neglect the present, because it is the only time in which God gives us His grace and we can cooperate with it to FULFILL His will. Of all the demons, the one that traps men the most and prevents them from being happy is the one that CAN BE AND WASN’T. The past is left to God’s Mercy and the future to His Providence. Only the present is in our hands.”