Abraham Lincoln BIRTHDAY
Deuteronomy, Chapter 6, Verse 13
The LORD, your God, shall you fear; him shall you serve, and by his name shall you swear.
Whom do you
serve? What is the first thing you think of when you get up or the last thing
before you sleep? We all serve something; whom or what do you serve?
FOLLOW
ONE MASTER ONLY
What is meant by serving God?
Doing the will of God in all things which He requires of us, in whatever state
of life we may be placed, and doing this with fidelity, with unwearied zeal,
and out of love for Him.
Who are the two masters whom we cannot serve at the same time? God and an inordinate desire for worldly gain. One cannot serve
both, because they demand things that are contradictory.
Who are they that serve mammon, or worldly
wealth? The avaricious, who, impelled by their longing for riches, offend
God by manifold transgressions of His commandments.
Why does Christ refer us to the birds of the air and the lilies
of the field? To awaken in us confidence in Divine
Providence. If God feeds the young ravens (Ps. cxlvi. 9) and the birds of the
air if He decks so beautifully the flowers of the field, how much more will He
not care for men, whom He has created after His own image, and adopted as His
children.
Are we, then, to use no care or labor? That by no means follows from what has been said. The Savior forbids
only that anxiety, proceeding from little faith, which, in striving for
maintenance, neglects God s honor and commandments, and the good of one’s soul.
For the rest, God Himself has commanded man to labor (Gen. iii. 17-19); and St.
Paul says, “If any man will not work, neither let him eat” (n. Thess. iii. 10).
What should preserve us from excessive anxiety? A firm and living faith that God can and will help us. That He
can is clear, because He is almighty; that He will is certain, for the reason
that He is love that He has promised it to us, more than once, most expressly,
and that He is faithful in keep ing His promises.
Let us, then,
trust in God, and daily renew our confidence in Him, particularly when we say
the Creed, or when, in the Our Father, we pray, i i Give us this day our daily
bread.
Consolation in Poverty
In your misery
and poverty, say often, with Job: “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away;
as it hath pleased the Lord so it is done; blessed be the name of the Lord (Job
i. 21). Or seek comfort in these words: “We lead indeed a poor life, but we
shall have many good things if we fear God and depart from all sin and do that
which is good” (Job iv. 23).
Warning against Usury
Usury is that
mortal sin which takes advantage of our neighbor’s poverty and need to extort
from him what is justly his own. Would that usurers might bear in mind what the
Lord says: “What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the
loss of his own soul?” (Matt. xvi. 26.)
Lincoln's Birthday (1809)
celebrates the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, one of the most popular presidents
in United States history. It is a state holiday in some states on or around February
12. It's also known as Abraham Lincoln's Birthday, Abraham Lincoln Day or
Lincoln Day.
“Character
is Destiny” [4] is
a book written by John McCain in it he highlights the 16th
President, Abraham Lincoln, of the United States as an example of a man who
demonstrates for us the characteristic of RESILIENCE. Resilience is the ability
to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens.
Abraham
Lincoln had known loss and grief all his life yet rather that than succumb to
defeat; he somehow, always found a way to rise back up. He was inarguably a man
of action. Although he was known to have chronic depression he never yielded
and, in some way, resurrected from his melancholic states thinking, “To remain
as I am is impossible; I must die or be better.” Lincoln rose to the highest
office in the land after surviving a hard and poor childhood in the Indiana
wilderness, a harsh father, little education, and deep loneliness. He survived
the death of his brother, a sister, his mother, his first sweetheart, and his
own children and his marriage to Mary Todd was troubled. As president he was
considered dismal by most. How did Lincoln persist? He willed it. He was
neither swift nor brilliant at work, but he was exhaustive; he continued. His
resilience sprang from his deep conviction that America was, “the last, best
hope of earth.” In the end he paid for his devotion with his life; so that the
government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish
from the earth.
"Read
these counsels slowly. Pause to meditate on these thoughts. They are things
that I whisper in your ear-confiding them-as a friend, as a brother, as a
father. And they are being heard by God. I won't tell you anything new. I will
only stir your memory, so that some thought will arise and strike you; and so
you will better your life and set out along ways of prayer and of Love. And in
the end you will be a more worthy soul."
Let your will exact
from your senses, by means of atonement, what your other faculties deny your
will in prayer.
Daily Devotions
fun movie
[2]Goffine’s
Devout Instructions, 1896.
[4] McCain, John and Salter, Mark. (2005) Character is destiny. Random
House, New York
[5]http://www.escrivaworks.org/book/the_way-point-1.htm
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