MONDAY JULY 31ST, 2023 “Every day, at home, on the street, at work, on holiday, we have the possibility of discerning good. And it is important to know how to find what counts: to train ourselves to recognize the precious gems of life and to distinguish them from junk. Let us not waste time and freedom on trivial things, pastimes that leave us empty inside, while life offers us every day the precious pearl of the encounter with God and with others! It is necessary to know how to recognize it: to discern in order to find it..” Pope Francis
Oliver gets air in the woods with his teacher, coach and father: Owen: Mountain Biker extraordinaire !
SATURDAY JULY 29TH, 2023 “Dear brothers and sisters, the Lord does not seek skilled commentators of the Scriptures, as much as he seeks docile hearts that, welcoming his Word, allow themselves to be changed within. This is why it is so important to be familiar with the Gospel, to always have it at hand — even a small-sized Gospel in our pockets, in our purses to read and reread, to be passionate about it. When we do this, Jesus, the Word of the Father, enters into our hearts, he becomes intimate with us, and we bear fruit in Him. It is not enough to read it and understand that we should love God and our neighbour. It is necessary that this commandment, which is the “great commandment”, resound in us, that it be assimilated, that it become the voice of our conscience.” Pope Francis
When I have a docile heart, the Lord becomes intimate with me and I bear fruit in Him.
It’s the birthday of writer Alexis de Tocqueville, born in Paris (1805). He was 25 years old when the French government sent him to America to study the prison system. He spent nine months touring towns and cities and taking notes. A few years later, he published his famous book, Democracy in America (1835).
During his tour, the aristocratic Tocqueville was impressed by the fact that American Democracy actually worked. He wrote: “There is one thing which America demonstrates invincibly, and of which I had been in doubt up till now: it is that the middle classes can govern a state. I do not know if they would come out with credit from thoroughly difficult political situations. But they are adequate for the ordinary run of society. In spite of their petty passions, their incomplete education and their vulgar manners, they clearly can provide practical intelligence, and that is found to be enough.”From The Writers Almanac for July 29’23
On Stanley Kuntz: It was more than 10 years before he published his next book, The Testing Tree (1971), and slowly but surely, people began to take notice. He was appointed the poet laureate when he was 95 years old. He died at the age of 100. He said: “It is out of the dailiness of life that one is driven into the deepest recesses of the self.”The Writer’s Almanac for July 29’23
FRIDAY JULY 28TH, 2023 “Faith is born and reborn: not from a duty, not from something that is to be done or paid, but from a gaze of love to be welcomed. In this way Christian life becomes beautiful, if it is not based on our abilities and our plans, but rather based on God’s gaze. Is your faith, is my faith tired? Do you want to reinvigorate it? Look for God’s gaze: sit in adoration, allow yourself to be forgiven in Confession, stand before the Crucified One. In short, let yourself be loved by him. This is the starting point of faith: letting oneself be loved by him, by he who is father.” Pope Francis
THURSDAY JULY 27TH, 2023 “It is precisely in our frailty that we discover how much God takes care of us. The difficulties and situations that reveal our frailties are privileged opportunities to experience his love. Those who pray with perseverance know this well: in dark or lonely moments, God’s tenderness towards us makes itself, so to speak, even more present. We feel God’s tenderness more. This tenderness gives us peace; this tenderness makes us grow, because God draws close to us in his way, which is nearness, compassion and tenderness.” Pope Francis
WEDNESDAY JULY 26TH, 2023 “The wheat and the weeds grow together, in the same field (Mt 13:24-30). This image helps us to see things realistically: in human history, as in each of our lives, there is a mixture of light and shadows, love and selfishness. Christians, motivated by the hope of God, are not pessimists; nor do they naïvely live in a fairy tale, pretending not to see evil and saying that “all is well”. No, Christians are realists: they know that there are wheat and weeds in the world. Looking at their own lives, they recognize that evil does not only come from “outside”, that it is not always the fault of others, that there is no need to “invent” enemies to fight against in order to avoid looking within themselves. They realize that evil comes from within, in the inner struggle that we all experience.” Pope Francis
TUESDAY JULY 25TH, 2023 “To better appreciate God’s way of acting, let us remember that our life is meant to be lived to the full, and that our greatest hopes and dreams are not achieved instantly but through a process of growth and maturation, in dialogue and in relationship with others. Those who focus only on the here and now, on money and possessions, on “having it all now”, are blind to the way God works. His loving plan spans past, present and future; it embraces and connects the generations. It is greater than we are, yet includes each of us and calls us at every moment to keep pressing forward.” Pope Francis
SUNDAY JULY 23RD, 2023 “This year, the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly takes place close to World Youth Day. Both celebrations remind us of the “haste” (Lk 1:39) with which Mary set out to visit Elizabeth. They invite us to reflect on the bond that unites young and old. The Lord trusts that young people, through their relationships with the elderly, will realize that they are called to cultivate memory and recognize the beauty of being part of a much larger history. For the elderly, the presence of a young person in their lives can give them hope that their experience will not be lost and that their dreams can find fulfilment. Mary’s visit to Elizabeth and their shared awareness that the Lord’s mercy is from generation to generation remind us that, alone, we cannot move forward, much less save ourselves, and that God’s presence and activity are always part of something greater, the history of a people.” Pope Francis
Sixth Sense Sleeping
When I have no hearing aids, I might as well be sleeping.
The movies in my mind play to their hearts content.
When I have no glasses on, the fog descends to eve and setting sun…
When I have my mouth dry with thirst I pine for clean water’s fresh taste.
Even sleeping I see taste hear touch sing using my sixth sense: everlasting light!
SATURDAY JULY 22ND 2023 “Let each of us ask ourselves: Is my prayer “substantial” does it bare my heart before the Lord? Do I take my story and life experience to him? Or is it anaemic, superficial, made up of rituals, without feeling and without heart? When faith is alive, prayer is heartfelt: it does not beg for spare change, it is not reduced to the needs of the moment. We must ask everything of Jesus, who can do everything. Do not forget this. We must ask everything of Jesus, with my insistence before Him. He cannot wait to pour out his grace and joy into our hearts.” Pope Francis
It’s the birthday of Emma Lazarus (books by this author), born in New York City (1849). She came from a wealthy Jewish family, and her father paid to have her first collection of poems published when she was 17. Her early work impressed Ralph Waldo Emerson, and they corresponded for many years. In the 1880s, she was horrified to hear of violent anti-Semitic attacks in Russia and Germany, and her work took on a new Zionist focus. She became concerned with the plight of the poor and the refugee, and organized relief efforts for immigrant Jewish families. The Statue of Liberty committee approached her in 1883 and asked her to write a poem that they could auction off to raise money for the monument. She responded with “The New Colossus,” which includes the famous lines, “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”from the Poetry Almanac…July22, 2017“
It’s very easy to destroy. It’s not so easy to construct. That requires endurance and dedication and tests your mettle. This life is all about what we do with our power. How do we use it, what do we create with it, what do we destroy with it? If you look at every choice you make, is it constructive? Or is it destructive?
Carolyn Myss7/20/23
THURSDAY JULY 20TH, 2023 “The value of a person does not depend any more on the role they have, the work they do, the money they have in the bank. No, no, no, it does not depend on this. Greatness and success in God’s eyes are measured differently: they are measured by service. Not on what someone has, but on what someone gives. Do you want to be great? Serve. This is the way.” Pope Francis
MONDAY JULY 17TH, 2023 “When we seek first and foremost the satisfaction of our needs, we risk using people and exploiting situations for our own ends. How many times have we heard it said of someone; “But he uses people and then forgets about them”? Using people for one’s own gain: this is bad. And a society that puts interests instead of people at its centre is a society that does not generate life. The Gospel’s invitation is this: rather than being concerned only with the material bread that feeds us, let us welcome Jesus as the bread of life and, starting out from our friendship with Him, learn to love each other. Freely and without calculation. Love given freely and without calculation, without using people, freely, with generosity, with magnanimity.”Pope Francis
The Vibrant Channeled Creator 