Rainbows at Night

I haven't been on the computer lately all that much. I felt the need of lots and lots of quiet time. I need to pray. I want to be very sure I am living the messages of Medjugore: Pray, Peace, Sacraments, Fast, Holy Scriptures.

Once in awhile, one needs to get one's priorities in order; it's simply foolish not to. Foolishness, silliness and hilarity mixed with drinking alcohol is not a smart way to go. When I look back on the times I acted like that, I'm embarrassed.

I'm ashamed.

I confess, I've wasted much of my life to foolishness. Why? What's wrong with having a little fun?

I love fun, but only the kind that evokes love, and makes me so happy for the other person I want to hug them.

I have found that simple pleasures truly are the best. I shy from things that shock my soul. Like t.v.

I really believe that most of the reality shows have been sneakingly damaging to many, many souls.

My daughter watches them sometimes. The other day, I caught a glimpse of one. It was a mother who had about ten little kids. She was getting a divorce. They showed her sitting on the couch explaining why divorce was the right thing to do.

"Oh, so simple. I see, ........that's the way you do it." Thoughts like that permeate people's minds when they are given an opportunity to be shown how to be evil, yet look acceptable, normal and even attractive....or worse, justified.

What about a reality show where you live day in and day out with a parish priest? Straight away, people would think it would be about exposing his secret sins. Might they watch it if it were not?

What if it were a holy, good and loving priest? A parish priest is a busy guy. Always putting out fires and helping all sorts of people, he also brings us hope.

Hope.

Evil tries to take hope from us because loss of hope pulls us away from God and we start depending on people to cheer us up, or encourage us. We become weak and even more scared.

There are tens of thousands of people right now praying for nine straight days a Novena of Hope.

You can read about that at mej.com

Help by praying for people to hope in God, not the news media, or the bottle or their anger's fury.

If you haven't prayed because you think there is no hope for you because of past sins, that God will not hear you, or if you are afraid of His Wrath (which is the beginning of wisdom), regardless, go to God.

Tell Him what I said when I thought I was too lost; "I am Your child, help me!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Who am I to be sitting at Mass this morning receiving Holy Communion?

Who am I? I'm nobody. Just an ordinary woman who believes, who has experienced God's love and refuses to let go.

Our Lady said if you knew how much She loved you, you would jump for joy.

I've experienced Her love, just a tiny bit, for a second, when my son died...........that second has got me through 22 years of deep grief, relentless fears and doubt.

Sometimes at Mass I think to myself, "oh my dear Lord, where would I be right now had God not allowed Our Lady to guide me?!!"

She is leading me on the path to Heaven.

My sins? They are paid for.

By who? Yes, you've heard it a million times from a million people, it's Jesus, God's Son. You've heard His Name.

I'm still in utter awe that me, a scrawny middle aged woman, a sinner and pity-party-type person with no education, really; I have nothing except my family, anyway, regardless of my failings and my miserable goof ups, I am a daughter of Jerusalem, an Israelite (belongs to God). I'm all the things this world hates.

I'm all the things that embarass people.

Yep, and I'm eternally grateful.

Last night, after the storm, I saw a rainbow at night. I've never seen that before. I had been praying and meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary. When I finished, I went to the window and saw this rainbow. I called to my husband to come and see and he said "go get your camera!"

So, thanks to him, I can share it with you. The other photos are taken at the same time, the firey sky is the west, the bluish is the north, and the rainbow was in the east.

Peace to all you who happen by.

How to be good

How many times have you heard or said, "be good"?

I say that to my dog when I leave the house, most times she listens. I say it to my daughter and husband, and most times they listen too! And, I say it to myself!

In re-reading a passage in the book "The Poem of the Man God" by Maria Valtorta, where Jesus explains a way or method of how to do this being good stuff.

In replying to Peter who had just asked what Jesus and the disciples were discussing as he came upon them. (Jesus had been teaching about being good).

Jesus said, "order, patience, perseverance, humility, charity.

Peter asked what order had to do with it.

Jesus responds, "Disorder is never a good quality. I mention it first, whereas I mentioned charity last, because they are the two extremities of the straight line of perfection. Now you know that a straight line on a plane has neither a beginning nor end. Each extremity can be either the beginning or the end, whereas in the case of the spiral, or any other design which is not enclosed in itself, there is always a beginning and an end. Holiness is linear, simple, perfect and has but two extremities, like a straight line.

Peter said, "It is easy to draw a straight line..."

Jesus says, "Do you think so? you are wrong. In a drawing, even if it is a complicated one, some imperfections may not be noticed. But an error is noticed at once in a straight line.

Joseph, when he taught me the trade, insisted a great deal that the boards should be straight and quite rightly he used to say, "see son? a small imperfection may not be seen in a decoration or in a turned work, because the eye, unless it is very experienced, if it watches one point, does not see another. But if a board is not as straight as it should be, even the most simple work will not be satisfactory, such as a poor table for a peasant. It will be on a slant or it will wobble. It is only good for the fire".

Who starts his spiritual work in an unplanned manner, starting from useless things, jumping from one thing to another, like a restless bird, will end up by not being able to join the various parts of his work. They will not fit in. Therefore, order and charity. Then, holding those two extremities firm in two vices, so that they may not move, you can work at all the rest decorations or carving, whatever it may be."

So there you have it, Order, patience, perseverance, humility, charity. These 5 things starting with order, ending with charity will help you "be good".

You can apply this to all sorts of things you want to be good at. Even shopping for groceries, making a bed, planting flowers or washing dishes, etc. Practice being good at small efforts and discover that you will remember to apply these methods at doing good in other areas of your life.

By the way, I highly recommend reading The Poem of the Man God:)!!

Peace.