Friday, August 28, 2015

Deuteronomy, Chapter 1, Verse 17

In rendering judgment, do not consider who a person is; give ear to the lowly and to the great alike, fearing no one, for the judgment is God’s. Any case that is too difficult for you bring to me and I will hear it.”

Deuteronomy is the last of the five books of Moses. The book explains to the Israelites how to make a success of their life. To be a success we must as General Paton said lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way. After appointing Elders this was Moses advice to them; fear no one except God.

The greatest of our church is that we when we are troubled and don’t know what to do we can always approach Him in prayer and seek the advice of his elders (Mary and the Saints) anywhere we are. If we desire we may also approach our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and bring any case that is too difficult for Him to hear and He will answer us. Likewise we may approach a priest in confession or connect with a local parish spiritual director. How great is our God that He does not abandon us. Furthermore there is a multitude of great Catholic websites where there are elders of the church who can assist us in our difficult moments.

Today's Saint is one elder of the Church that may provide us with consolation and direction in our journey with the Lord.

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Numbers, chapter 22, Verse 2-3

² Now Balak, son of Zippor, saw all that Israel did to the Amorites,³ and Moab feared the Israelites greatly because they were numerous. Moab was in dread of the Israelites.

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Numbers, Chapter 21, Verse 34

The LORD, however, said to Moses: Do not fear him; for into your hand I deliver him with all his forces and his land. You will do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Numbers, Chapter 14, Verse 9

Only do not rebel against the LORD! You need not be afraid of the people of the land, for they are but food for us!Their protection has left them, but the LORD is with us. Do not fear them.”

There’s a happy thought. The Israelites were a hard people but little did they know that God would turn that around to Him being food for us. Yes, we are all hard people. Yes, we eat our young. Look at the recent comments coming out of Planned Parenthood about making so much money from tissue sales they will be driving Lamborghini's.

O LORD, you have probed me and you know me; you know when I sit and when I stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. My journeys and my rest you scrutinize, with all my ways you are familiar. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know the whole of it.

Behind me and before, you hem me in and rest your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; too lofty for me to attain. (Ps. 139:1-6)

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin,
and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish,
but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.” (Mt. 23:23-26)

Monday, August 24, 2015

Leviticus, Chapter 25, Verse 43

Do not lord it over them harshly, but stand in fear of your God.

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Leviticus, Chapter 25, Verse 36

Do not exact interest in advance or accrued interest,but out of fear of God let your kindred live with you.

Everyone serves something. Some serve gain, some serve pleasure, some serve others but the wise person serves the Lord not out of servile fear but Holy fear; that is out of love.

Can we say with Joshua, “As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Jos. 24:15) If we serve the Lord our own house should be open to our kindred. If everyone did this would we have any who are homeless? Search your hearts; do you have kindred who are in need? Sustain them. Real charity is looking after widows and orphans.

In the summer of 2011, four Air Force officers deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. During their stay there, they discovered beautiful hand-crafted artisan scarfs produced by a group of local women. Over time, it was brought to light that all of these women had tragically lost their husbands to the Taliban and now had the responsibility of providing for their families – most of which was through the sales of their handmade crafts. This fact brought a realization to the four Air Force Officers that a vehicle of empowerment for the local population did not exist. Thus, Flying Scarfs was officially founded, and with it, a business means through which the local Afghani widows could continue to find financial stability.

Today, via their work with Flying Scarfs, these four social entrepreneurs have reshaped the manner in which many Americans think about social change. Through a lens of free market capitalism and micro-economic development, Flying Scarfs is an enterprise dedicated to the empowerment of the artisans not just in Afghanistan, but around the world. What was once just a small goal of providing employment for the Afghan widows after Americans had withdrawn from Afghanistan has now turned into a worldwide mission to find and aid other individuals in similar situations.

Flying Scarfs is a not-for-profit team of military officers and volunteers that seek to be an engine of change by building the necessary bridges so that underdeveloped countries may one day flourish in a global economy. Our goal is to promote microeconomic development around the world in order to provide comprehensive networks of stability with a concentration in providing opportunities for women to succeed.

In short, this means we buy from the “small guys” through localized economies while promoting peace, both at home and abroad. We intend to ultimately make a change by providing a "hand up" rather than a "handout."[1]

[1] http://www.flyingscarfs.com/

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Leviticus, Chapter 19, verse 32

Stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the old, and fear your God. I am the LORD.

With today being the Queenship of Mary; I would like to continue the book study of John McCain's book“Character is Destiny”[1] John highlighted the life of Mary Clark; also known to those in the prison at Tijuana, Mexico as Mother Antonia as an example of a person who best portraits the characteristic of mercy.

The winners of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting tell the astonishing story of Mary Clarke. At the age of fifty, Clarke left her comfortable life in suburban Los Angeles to follow a spiritual calling to care for the prisoners in one of Mexico's most notorious jails. She actually moved into a cell to live among drug king pins and petty thieves. She has led many of them through profound spiritual transformations in which they turned away from their lives of crime, and has deeply touched the lives of all who have witnessed the depth of her compassion. Donning a nun's habit, she became Mother Antonia, renowned as "the prison angel," and has now organized a new community of sisters-the Servants of the Eleventh Hour—widows and divorced women seeking new meaning in their lives. "We had never heard a story like hers," Jordan and Sullivan write, "a story of such powerful goodness."
Born in Beverly Hills, Clarke was raised around the glamour of Hollywood and looked like a star herself, a beautiful blonde reminiscent of Grace Kelly. The choreographer Busby Berkeley spotted her at a restaurant and offered her a job, but Mary's dream was to be a happy wife and mother. She raised seven children, but her two unfulfilling marriages ended in divorce. Then in the late 1960s, in midlife, she began devoting herself to charity work, realizing she had an extraordinary talent for drumming up donations for the sick and poor.

On one charity mission across the Mexican border to the drug-trafficking capitol of Tijuana, she visited La Mesa prison and experienced an intense feeling that she had found her true life's work. As she recalls, "I felt like I had come home." Receiving the blessings of the Catholic Church for her mission, on March 19, 1977, at the age of fifty, she moved into a cell in La Mesa, sleeping on a bunk with female prisoners above and below her. Nearly twenty-eight years later she is still living in that cell, and the remarkable power of her spiritual counseling to the prisoners has become legendary.The story of both one woman's profound journey of discovery and growth and of the deep spiritual awakenings she has called forth in so many lost souls, The Prison Angel is an astonishing testament to the powers of personal transformation.