DAY 42 - MARY, QUEEN OF CONFESSORS, PRAY FOR US
YOU MADE US FOR YOURSELF
PRAY A ROSARY
- Rosary of the Day: Sorrowful Mysteries
- Traditional 54 Day Rotation: Glorious Mysteries
St. Michael the Archangel, we honor you as a powerful protector of the Church and guardian of our souls. Inspire us with your humility, courage and strength that we may reject sin and perfect our love for our Heavenly Father.In your strength and humility, slay the evil and pride in our hearts so that nothing will keep us from God.St. Michael the Archangel, pray that we may be blessed by God with the zeal to live our lives in accordance with Christ's teachings.St. Michael the Archangel, you are the prince of angels but in your humility, you recognized that God is God and you are but His servant. Unlike Satan, you were not overcome with pride but were steadfast in humility. Pray that we will have this same humility.It is in the spirit of that humility that we ask for your intercession for our petitions... (Petition: Protect our nation from unGodly liberals gaining power and control)Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Those who would like to pray with others via The Telephone Rosary, call 1-951-799-9866 daily at 6 pm Eastern.
2 Corinthians, chapter 12, verse
20-21
20 For I FEAR that
when I come I may find you not such as I wish, and that you may find me not as
you wish; that there may be rivalry, jealousy, fury, selfishness, slander,
gossip, conceit, and disorder. 21
I FEAR that
when I come again my God may humiliate me before you,
and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not
repented of the impurity, immorality, and licentiousness they practiced.
In the gospel Christ warns us much like Paul. Jesus said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplaces, seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets. They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext, recite lengthy prayers. They will receive a very severe condemnation.”
Although Paul exhorts the Corinthians, but I can hear Christ saying this same warning to modern man; the same warning has been repeated by Mary at Fatima. Change your hearts.
Pure hearts want to live
the Shema Yisrael which Christ Himself practiced:
Hear, O Israel:
The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with
all your Heart, and with all your soul, and with your entire mind, and with all
your strength.
Strengthening
the mind, heart and soul[1]
Dr. Daniel Amen a noted
Psychiatrist tells us; our thoughts are often negative and seem to at times
come automatically severely limiting a person’s ability to enjoy his or her
life. How you think “moment-by-moment” plays a large role in how you feel (a
deep limbic system function). Negative thoughts may cause you to feel internal
discomfort or pain and they often cause you to behave in ways that alienate you
from other people. Hopeful thoughts, on the other hand, influence positive
behaviors and lead people to feel good about themselves and be more effective
in their day-to-day lives. Hopeful thoughts also are involved in helping people
connect with others. Healing the deep limbic system requires a person to heal
their moment-to-moment thought patterns. Most people do not understand how
important thoughts are and leave the development of thought patterns to random
chance. Did you know that every thought you have sends electrical signals
throughout your brain? Thoughts have actual physical properties. They are real!
They have significant influence on every cell in your body. When your mind is
burdened with many negative thoughts, it affects your deep limbic system and
causes deep limbic problems (irritability, moodiness, depression, etc.).
Teaching yourself to control and direct thoughts in a positive way is one of
the most effective ways to feel better. Here are the actual step-by-step
“thinking” principles that I use in my psychotherapy practice to help my
patients heal their deep limbic systems.
STEP #1 KNOW that every time you have a
thought, your brain releases chemicals. That’s how our brain works…you have a
thought, your brain releases chemicals, an electrical transmission goes across
your brain and you become aware of what you’re thinking. Thoughts are real, and
they have a real impact on how you feel and how you behave.
STEP #2 Every time you have an angry thought, an unkind
thought, a sad thought, or a cranky thought, your brain releases negative
chemicals that make your body feel bad (and activate your deep limbic system).
Think about the last time you were mad. How did your body feel? When most
people are angry their muscles become tense, their hearts beat faster, their
hands start to sweat, and they may even begin to feel a little dizzy. Your body
reacts to every negative thought you have.
STEP #3 Every time you have a good thought, a happy thought, a
hopeful thought or a kind thought, your brain releases chemicals that make your
body feel good (and cools your deep limbic system). Think about the last time
you had a really happy thought. How did you feel inside your body? When most
people are happy their muscles relax, their hearts beat slower, their hands
become dry and they breathe slower. Your body also reacts to your good
thoughts.
STEP #4 Your body reacts to every thought you have. We know
this from polygraphs or lie detector tests. During a lie detector test, a
person is hooked up to equipment that measures: hand temperature, heart rate,
blood pressure, breathing rate, muscle tension and how much the hands sweat.
The tester then asks questions, like “Did you do that thing?” If the person did
the bad thing his body is likely to have a “stress” response and it is likely
to react in the following ways: hands get colder, heart goes faster, blood
pressure goes up, breathing gets faster, muscles get tight and hands sweat
more. Almost immediately, his body reacts to what he thinks, whether he says
anything or not. Remember, the deep limbic system is responsible for
translating our emotional state into physical feelings of relaxation or
tension. Now the opposite is also true. If he did not do the thing the tester
asked about it is likely that his body will experience a “relaxation” response
and react in the following ways: hands will become warmer, heart rate will
slow, blood pressure goes down, breathing becomes slower and deeper, muscles
become more relaxed and hands become drier. Again, almost immediately, your
body reacts to what you think. This not only happens when you’re asked about
telling the truth, your body reacts to every thought you have, whether it is
about work, friends, family or anything else.
STEP #5 Thoughts are very powerful. They can make your mind
and your body feel good or they can make you feel bad. Every cell in your body
is affected by every thought you have. That is why when people get emotionally
upset, they actually develop physical symptoms, such as headaches or stomach
aches. Some physicians think that people who have a lot of negative thoughts
are more likely to get cancer. If you can think about good things you will feel
better. Think of your body like an “ecosystem.” An ecosystem contains
everything in the environment like the water, the land, the cars, the people,
the animals, the vegetation, the houses, the landfills, etc. A negative thought
is like pollution to your system.
STEP #6 Unless you think about your thoughts, they are
automatic or “they just happen.” Since they just happen, they are not
necessarily correct. Your thoughts do not always tell the truth. Sometimes they
even lie to you. I once treated a college student who thought he was stupid,
because he didn’t do well on tests. When his IQ (intelligence level) was
tested, however, we discovered that he was close to a genius! You don’t have to
believe every thought that goes through your head. It’s important to think about your thoughts to see if they help you or
they hurt you. Unfortunately, if you never challenge your thoughts you just
“believe them” as if they were true.
STEP #7 You can train your thoughts to be positive and hopeful
or you can just allow them to be negative and upset you. Once you learn about
your thoughts, you can choose to think good thoughts and feel good or you can
choose to think bad thoughts and feel lousy. That’s right, it’s up to you! You
can learn how to change your thoughts and you can learn to change the way you
feel. One way to learn how to change your thoughts is to notice them when they
are negative and talk back to them. If you can correct negative thoughts, you
take away their power over you. When you just think a negative thought without
challenging it, your mind believes it and your body reacts to it.
STEP #8 As I mentioned above, negative thoughts are mostly
automatic or they “just happen.” That is why I call these thoughts “Automatic
Negative Thoughts” or ANTs. Think of these negative thoughts that invade your
mind like ants that bother a couple at a picnic. One negative thought, like one
ant at a picnic, is not a big problem. Two or three negative thoughts, like two
or three ants at a picnic, becomes more irritating. Ten or twenty negative
thoughts, like ten or twenty ants at a picnic, may cause the couple to pick up
and leave the picnic. Whenever you notice these automatic negative thoughts or
ANTs you need to crush them, or they’ll ruin your relationships, your
self-esteem and your personal power. One way to crush these ANTs is to write
them down and talk back to them. For example, if you think, “My husband never
listens to me,” write it down. Then write down a rational response; something
like “He’s not listening to me now, maybe he’s distracted by something else. He
often listens to me.” When you write down negative thoughts and talk back to
them, you take away their power and help yourself feel better. Some people tell
me they have trouble talking back to these negative thoughts because they feel
that they are lying to themselves. Initially, they believe that the thoughts
that go through their mind are the truth. Remember, thoughts sometimes lie to
you. It’s important to check them out
before you just believe them!
Here are nine different ways that your thoughts lie to you
to make situations out to be worse than they really are. Think of these nine
ways as different species or types of ANTs (automatic negative thoughts). When
you can identify the type of ANT, you begin to take away the power it has over
you. I have designated some of these ANTs as red, because these ANTs are
particularly harmful to you. Notice and exterminate ANTs whenever possible.
ANT
#1: “Always or Never Thinking” This happens when you
think something that happened will “always” repeat itself. For example, if your
partner is irritable and she gets upset you might think to yourself, “She’s
always yelling at me,” even though she yells only once in a while. But just the
thought “She’s always yelling at me” is so negative that it makes you feel sad
and upset. It activates your limbic system. Whenever you think in words like
always, never, no one, everyone, every time, everything those are examples of
“always” thinking and usually wrong. Here are some examples of “always”
thinking: “He’s always putting me down.” “No one will ever call me.” “I’ll
never get a raise.” “Everyone takes advantage of me.” “You turn away every time
I touch you.” “My children never listen to me.” “Always thinking” ANTs are very common. Watch
out for them.
ANT #2 (red ANT): “Focusing on the
Negative” This occurs when your thoughts only see the bad
in a situation and ignore any of the good parts that might happen. For example,
I have treated several professional speakers for depression. After their
presentations they had the audience fill out an evaluation form. If l00 of them
were returned and 2 of them were terrible, but 90 of them were outstanding,
which ones do you think they focused on? Only the negative ones! I taught them
to focus on the ones they liked a lot more than the ones they didn’t like. It’s
important to learn from others, but
in a balanced, positive way. Your deep limbic system can learn a powerful
lesson from the Disney movie, “Pollyanna.” In the movie, Pollyanna came to live
with her aunt after her missionary parents died. Even though she had lost her
parents she was able to help many “negative people” with her attitude. She
introduced them to the “glad game,” to look for things to be glad about in any
situation. Her father had taught her this game after she experienced a
disappointment. She had always wanted a doll, but her parents never had enough
money to buy it for her. Her father sent a request for a second-hand doll to
his missionary sponsors. By mistake, they sent her a pair of crutches. “What is
there to be glad about crutches?” they thought. Then they decided they could be
glad because they didn’t have to use them. This very simple game changed the
attitudes and lives of many people in the movie. Pollyanna especially affected
the minister. Before she came to town he preached hellfire and damnation, and
he did not seem to be very happy. Pollyanna told him that her father said that
the Bible had 800 “Glad Passages,” and that if God mentioned being glad that
many times, it must be because He wants us to think that way. Focusing on the
negative in situations will make you feel bad. Playing the glad game or looking
for the positive will help you feel better.
ANT #3
(red ANT): “Fortune Telling” This is where you predict
the worst possible outcome to a situation. For example, before you discuss an
important issue with your partner you predict that he or she won’t be
interested in what you have to say. Just having this thought will make you feel
tense. I call “fortune telling” red ANTs because when you predict bad things
you can make them happen.
ANT #4
(red ANT): “Mind Reading” This happens when you believe
that you know what another person is thinking even when they haven’t told you.
Mind reading is a common cause of trouble between people. I tell my wife,
“Please don’t read my mind, I have enough trouble reading it myself!” You know
that you are mind reading when you have thoughts such as, “She’s mad at me. He
doesn’t like me. They were talking about me.” I tell people that a negative
look from someone else may be nothing more than they are constipated! You don’t
know. You can’t read anyone else’s mind. You never know what others are really thinking. Even in intimate
relationships, you cannot read your partner’s mind. When there are things you
don’t understand, clarify them and stay away from mind reading ANTs. They are
very infectious.
ANT
#5: “Thinking with Your Feelings” This occurs when you
believe your negative feelings without ever questioning them. Feelings are very
complex, and, often based on powerful memories from the past. Feelings
sometimes lie to you. Feelings are not about truth. They are about feelings.
But many people believe their feelings even though they have no evidence for
them. “Thinking with your feelings” thoughts usually start with the words “I
feel.” For example, “I feel like you don’t love me. I feel stupid. I feel like
a failure. I feel nobody will ever trust me.” Whenever you have a strong
negative feeling, check it out. Look for the evidence behind the feeling. Do
you have real reasons to feel that way? Or, are your feelings based on events
or things from the past?
ANT
#6: “Guilt Beatings” Guilt is not a helpful emotion,
especially for your deep limbic system. In fact, guilt often causes you to do
those things that you don’t want to do. Guilt beatings happen when you think
with words like “should, must, ought or have to.” Here are some examples: “I
ought to spend more time at home. I must spend more time with my kids. I should
have sex more often. I have to organize my office.” Because of human nature,
whenever we think that we “must” do something, no matter what it is, we don’t
want to do it. It is better to replace “guilt beatings” with phrases like “I
want to do this…It fits with my goals to do that…It would be helpful to do
this….” So, in the examples above, it would be helpful to change those phrases
to “I want to spend more time at home. It’s in our best interest for my kids
and I to spend more time together. I want to please my spouse by making wonderful
love with him (or her) because he (or she) is important to me. It’s in my best interest to organize my office.”
Get rid of this unnecessary emotional turbulence that holds you back from
achieving the goals you want.
ANT
#7: “Labeling” Whenever you attach a negative label to
yourself or to someone else, you stop your ability to take a clear look at the
situation. Some examples of negative labels that people use are “jerk, frigid,
arrogant and irresponsible.” Negative labels are very harmful, because whenever
you call yourself or someone else a jerk or arrogant you lump that person in
your mind with all of the “jerks” or “arrogant people” that you’ve ever known,
and you become unable to deal with them in a reasonable way. Stay away from
negative labels.
ANT
#8: “Personalization” Personalization occurs when
innocuous events are taken to have personal meaning. “My boss didn’t talk to me
this morning. She must be mad at me.” Or, one feels he or she is the cause of
all the bad things that happen, “My son got into an accident with the car. I
should have spent more time teaching him to drive. It must be my fault.” There
are many other reasons for behavior besides the negative explanations an
abnormal limbic system picks out. For example, your boss may not have talked to
you because she was preoccupied, upset or in a hurry. You never fully know why
people do what they do. Try not to personalize their behavior.
ANT #9
(the most poisonous red ANT): “Blame” Blame is very
harmful. When you blame something or someone else for the problems in your
life, you become a victim of circumstances and you cannot do anything to change
your situation. Many relationships are ruined by people who blame their
partners when things go wrong. They take little responsibility for their problems.
When something goes wrong at home or at work, they try to find someone to blame.
They rarely admit their own problems. Typically, you’ll hear statements from
them like: “It wasn’t my fault that….” “That wouldn’t have happened if you
had….” “How was I supposed to know….” “It’s your fault that….” The bottom-line
statement goes something like this: “If only you had done something
differently, I wouldn’t be in the predicament I’m in. It’s your fault, and I’m
not responsible.” Whenever you blame someone else for the problems in your
life, you become powerless to change anything. The “Blame Game” hurts your
personal sense of power. Stay away from blaming thoughts and take personal
responsibility to change the problems you have.
Summary
of A.N.T. Species:
- “Always”
thinking: thinking in words like always, never, no one, everyone, every
time, everything.
- Focusing
on the negative: only seeing the bad in a situation.
- Fortune telling
predicting the worst possible outcome to a situation.
- Mind
reading: believing that you know what another person is thinking, even
though they haven’t told you.
- Thinking
with your feelings: believing negative feelings without ever questioning
them.
- Guilt
beatings: thinking in words like “should, must, ought or have to.”
- Labeling:
attaching a negative label to yourself or to someone else.
- Personalization:
innocuous events are taken to have personal
meaning.
- Blame:
blaming someone else for your own problems.
St. Michael Helper of the Sick and Dying[2]
Saint Michael the Archangel was
the protector of Israel and is also traditionally known as “The Medicine of
God.” Saint Michael as the military captain of the church of God has a great
interest in the happenings of his people, their calamities and he does not
overlook their calls for his aid. Let us therefore have recourse to him in
times of sickness. He will most certainly come to our assistance bringing the
healing graces of the Redeeming Blood. Yet, if it is the will of the father
that we depart from this world Saint Michael does not abandon us for he is
especially our advocate at our hour of death and assists at every deathbed for
it is part of his office to receive the souls of the elect on their quitting
the flesh. When the last hour of our earthly career draws near we are
confronted by that awful moment when our soul must leave the body which it has
loved so much, to pass through the narrow portal of death, satanic hosts like
raving lions will make a last attack upon our souls. But we need not fear (but
be at peace) if during life we have had devotion to the Precious Blood and have
been faithful in venerating St. Michael and imploring his aid. He will cover us
with his strong shield and lead us safely through the midst of our enemies.
Recognizing that God, the Father created man on Friday the 6th day
I propose in this blog to have an entry that shares on how to recreate and
renew yourself in strength, mind, soul and heart.
Is interval training more effective than steady-state cardio
training for fat loss?
·
Exercise combined with diet modifications has been shown to
be more effective than either alone for promoting weight loss.
·
Establishing exercise habits during the weight loss phase can help
prevent weight regain and yo-yo dieting down the road. One of the most
common excuses for lack of exercise is a lack of time.
·
These results show that the type of cardio performed for fat loss
(intervals vs. steady-state) probably doesn’t matter as much as the number of
calories burned in the exercise session. Moreover, the overall amount of fat
loss is small.
·
Focus should be placed on how the exercise session impacts other
areas of life, such as appetite, food intake, and leisure-time physical
activity.
·
Focus should also be placed on whether you can see yourself
sticking with your chosen exercise modality for the long-term.
·
Exercise may not be all that for fat loss, but it certainly
impacts fitness and health improvement. As such, all forms of exercise should
be encouraged despite their relatively minimal contribution to fat loss.
·
Strength training is especially important for developing lean body
mass.
·
High-intensity training such as interval endurance training
appears to be more effective at reducing inflammation and increasing insulin
sensitivity than lower-intensity training such as steady-state cardio.
Evidence has shown that exercise has additional benefits on health
that warrant its inclusion in daily life, such as reducing inflammation and
increasing insulin sensitivity. Moreover, high-intensity exercise appears to be
more effective than lower intensity exercise at inducing these beneficial
changes, which might be one reason to prefer interval training over
steady-state even if fat loss would be similar. Ultimately, though,
adherence is key. Thus, enjoyment and personal preferences when it comes to
exercise are what’s most important.
35 Promises of God[4]
cont.
Daily Devotions
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
[2] St. Michael and the Angels, Tan
Books, 1983.
Comments
Post a Comment