March 19, 2010 Happy St. Joseph's Day!

Verse of the Day
"Happy are the pure in heart; they shall see God." Matthew 5:8

Song of the Day
Mercy Said No by Greg Long
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E4hFUDwZHw
As you read the Book Discussion, you will see how God threw this song into my head out of nowhere. So cool! And again, the date is January 19th, 2008, the one year anniversary of my mom's death. Seems a little strange that January 19th keeps popping up everywhere.

Food
Since it is St. Joseph's Feast Day, the church lifted our Lenten sacrifices for today. We had lunch at a friends house. She had cookies, the girls each had two and Race Car said "No thank you." Remember, sweets have been few and far between and he says "No, thank you." Then my kind friend sent three more home with me. Tonight at dinner, I offered each of them one of those cookies and one of the cookies they had received earlier in Lent (in the freezer). The girls and curly enjoyed them thoroughly. Race Car tried one of them and asked to save the other one. Huh? Can he really be one of my descendants?

"Stuff" Detachment
Guess what I found under the girls bed? The item of Joke-A-Lot's that I threw away yesterday. Artsy saw it and pulled it our of the garbage. I wasn't kidding when I said Artsy has a hard time detaching from stuff. Let's see, today I threw away an old plastic cup, a small useless funnel, and a book.

Spiritual Growth
We did our Family Formation packet tonight. Joke-A-Lot kept asking what exactly Mercy was. I kept trying, but even until the end of the discussion, I could see that it didn't click. I explained that Jesus showed Mercy when he suffered and died on the cross for our sins when he didn't do anything to deserve it. But just now I looked up the definition and this is what I found as a definition for mercy:

"A moral virtue that prompts its owner to have compassion for and to succour those in spiritual or temporal want."

I looked up succour as well, it means to help in a difficult situation. So, my question to any of you who would like to attempt, how do you explain mercy to an almost 8 year old girl? If you have an idea, you can either leave me a comment so others can also learn or email me if you have my address.

Book Discussion
Title: Searching for and Maintaining Peace
Author: Fr. Jacques Philippe
Section: The Lord is My Shepherd, I Shall Not Want

Yesterday, I put Psalm 23 as my verse of the day. This psalm is clear that the Lord has left us wanting for nothing. Yet, we are prone to succumb to the temptation of believing that our situation has left us lacking something that prevents us from progressing spiritually.

"I am concentrated on the negatives of my situation, on that which I lack in order to be happy. This renders me unhappy, envious and discouraged and I am unable to go forward. The real life is elsewhere, I tell myself, and I simply forget to live. Oftentimes it would take so little for everything to be different and for me to progress with giant steps: A different outlook, a view of my situation which is one of confidence and hope (based on the certitude that I will lack nothing). And then doors would open to me of unhoped-for possibilities for spiritual growth."

"It is not the exterior circumstances that must change; it is above all our hearts that must change."

"Our minds are sometimes so clouded over by that which is not going well, by that which (according to our own criteria!) should be different in our situations, that we forget the positive."

"The fundamental problem is that we employ too much of our own criteria as to what is and what is not good and we don't have enough confidence in the Wisdom and Power of God."

"Many of the circumstances that I consider damaging could, in fact, be for me, if I had more faith, precious opportunities to love more: to be more patient, more humble, more gentle, more merciful and to abandon myself more into the hands of God."

"God may allow me to occasionally lack money, health, abilities and virtues, but He will never leave me in want of Himself, of His assistance and His mercy or of anything (song of the day just popped into my head, amazing how God does that!)that would allow me to grow unceasingly ever closer to Him, to love Him more intensely, to better love my neighbor and to achieve holiness."

I know that was a lot of quotes, but they were so meaningful.

Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Some days the theme of the blog really comes out strong and on others it doesn't, but today the message was clear Your Divine Mercy! Praise you dear Jesus! Thank you for the tremendous gift of your mercy to us and help us to in turn show that mercy to others (even those who work for our flex benefits who frustrate me to no end). If you can send down such mercy upon us, we can work to shower it upon others. Thank you dear Jesus! Amen.

Today's Menu
Breakfast: Smuckers natural peanut butter on either Natural Ovens Brainy Bagels or Nature's Pride 100% whole wheat double fiber bread, whole milk (running late, had to get going)

Lunch: Ate at friends house: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, ham and cheese sandwiches, tortillas and salsa, mandarin oranges, and cookies

Dinner: Angel hair pasta, Classico Red Pepper sauce, take and bake ciabatta roll, Wisconsin Sausage Company meatballs (Mr. Fix-it said they were average. We are on the search for some good meatballs that Mom On A Mission doesn't have to make), cookies