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	LISTING THOUGHT ARCHIVE

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Listing September - 2010

Tuesday

Sep-07

'In the quiet of prayer we learn how to keep God's love alive in the world.' ~Author Unknown

A prayer for Guidance: O God I ask you to be with me with this day. I don't know what lies ahead of me but I pray to you to help me discern the path of life you wish me to follow. Help me to see clearly the things that matter and the things that don't. Help me to use every gift I have, remembering that it is from you. May the Spirit of God give me a generous and open heart, making me an instrument of peace and love in whatever choice I make. Help me to use the coming days of this week to make good positive choices in everything I do. Amen

Monday

Sep-06

'What's Black and Amber and goes beep, beep, beep, beep? The Kilkenny five in a row open top bus reversing back into the garage!!' ~Text doing the rounds last evening

Judging by the number of texts having a poke at Kilkenny last evening, it seems that it was 31 counties shouting for Tipperary yesterday. Clearly Tipperary were outstanding and the real winner was the game of hurling in a cracking game. Kilkenny were gracious losers too and no doubt they will be back. The many neutrals watching wanted a new winner and were longing for something different and fresh. It's an in built desire in all of us and when it comes to spiritual matters the same desire is there too. We look and long for something fresh and new. Our faith and our belief in a loving God is what makes this all possible. Sometimes we take everything for granted, we drift and loose touch. It is up to us to change this and allow what we believe in make a difference in our lives. What is fresh and new is always within our reach, especially when it comes to spiritual matters.

Sunday

Sep-05

The following reflection by Tom Cahill

You hear them in the street, on buses and on trains: mobile phone conversations. They can be annoying; for two reasons at least. First, some users of phones seem to think it necessary to shout into them presumably because of the distance between themselves and those at the other end. Second, you get only a 'halfalogue' one side of the conversation.

Scientists at Cornell University, New York, claim that hearing only one half of a conversation is more draining on one's attention than hearing all of it. They experimented with students who were given concentration exercises while hearing one or two speakers on mobile phones. Their conclusion: people are less able to divert their attention from a half-heard conversation than from a fully heard one.

Half of anything rarely satisfies. It can even be irksome. It's the whole hog or nothing. The same can be said for half-hearted effort. Take today's Gospel reading for example (Luke 14:25-33). It ends on a note that could be sombre, or joyful, depending on the generosity of one's response to it: "None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions." What a prospect! You can't follow Jesus half-heartedly. It's total commitment, or no commitment. To put flesh on that, it means there can be no Jesus-free zones in my life; that nothing in life is more important than the values he holds out to me. Therefore, I don't sacrifice these, ever, for anything else. I wonder how many of us get that part of the conversation.

Saturday

Sep-04

'What strikes a chord sometimes is that when Jesus spoke he had no amplification. Neither were there large plasma screens dotted through the crowds. Isn't it possible that everybody didn't hear everything but that as people walked away they talked about what he had said?' ~Vincent Sherlock

There was something about what they heard that made them talk. The little bits and pieces of the good news they heard was shared and they were all nourished in some way. They were excited and refreshed by it. Each day we can be the carrier of good or bad news. It is clear we are saturated with negative and sad news all around us. We feed into it and we want more. What a shame and pity that we are not more open to the little bits of good news all around us. Unless we share some of this it gets lost. Such news is refreshing and exciting but we have to be the ones to make sure it happens. We can't leave it to someone else. If we start, someone else will want to share it and so it spreads. We don't need any qualification or degrees or further studies only a willingness to nurture our good news and to be a little slower in embracing whats negative and not life giving.

Friday

Sep-03

'It is with the smallest brushes that the artist paints the most exquisitely beautiful pictures' ~Andre Bessette

We all have our own favourite painting hanging up at home. We may have got it as a gift but the chances are high that you bought it and you did so because it caught your eye and imagination. Lots of brushes are used to create each painting but it's the smallest ones that bring out the finer details. The same goes with all we do in life. Big sweeping changes and happenings in life are rare. But God always calls us to work with the smallest of brushes. Even if we don't do it, God most certainly does. We are the canvas, God is the artist. But for the artist to work, the canvas must be open, welcome and receptive. It's with all the small bits and pieces put together that God creates something special. That something special is you.

Thursday

Sep-02

I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that God didn't trust me so much. ~Mother Teresa

There is a story told about a gardener who wanted to start a flower garden. The soil was prepared and the seeds of many beautiful flowers were sown. As the flowers grew, her garden was not just filled with the beautiful flowers but it was also overrun by dandelions. She sought advice from gardeners all over and tried every method known of getting rid of the weed but all to no avail. Finally she heard of an old gardener who was around for many years and seemed to know everything that was needed to be known. She met the master gardener and they sat together in silence. After a while the master gardener spoke: "I suggest you begin to learn to love the dandelions." We all yearn for beautiful flowers in our gardens but also in our lives. But it never works that way. There will always be weeds. They are flowers in the wrong place and sometimes we just have to live with them. We ask God to help us get through and handle anything that might be unexpected or not to our liking today.

Wednesday

Sep-01

Holidays are enticing only for the first week or so. After that, it is no longer such a novelty to rise late and have little to do. ~Margaret Laurence

Today is back to school for many after the summer holidays. For some children it is a very exciting day and their parents as they begin school for the first time. For others they have made the transition to secondary school and begin a whole new journey there. For nearly everyone it is good to be back to a routine again. Routine allows us to be comfortable with what we have to do and what we like to do. For many schools September feels like the beginning of a new year. There is a great sense of anticipation and looking forward. As we begin our journey through this month of September, we ask God's blessings on all of us. We ask God to help us with our daily routine. We pray also that back to school will go smoothly for everyone especially for those starting school for the first time.

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