Lord, Hear Our Prayer

Gospel 

John 6:60-69

Many of Jesus' disciples who were listening said,
"This saying is hard; who can accept it?"
Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this,
he said to them, "Does this shock you?
What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending
to where he was before?
It is the spirit that gives life,
while the flesh is of no avail.
The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe."
Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe
and the one who would betray him.
And he said,
"For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me
unless it is granted him by my Father."

As a result of this,
many of his disciples returned to their former way of life
and no longer accompanied him.
Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?"
Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe
and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."

Think

"We must, each of us, be willing to sacrifice our own will, even at a heavy cost. There is no need to sacrifice one’s health or money or to undergo privations, penances, or extraordinary fasts. The sacrifice that is needed is the sacrifice of the will. Each of us must be equally prepared to preach or to cook, to teach or to sweep, to catechize or to pray, to supervise or to obey. Such an attitude shall obtain God’s blessing on us because then we shall be true, faithful disciples and servants. As Samuel said to Saul, “Does the Lord desire holocausts and victims and not rather that the Voice the Lord should be obeyed? For obedience is better than sacrifices and to hearken rather than to offer the fat of rams.” We are therefore to hearken and generously follow our superior’s voice, for he represents God and the call of duty. Thus we shall achieve the purpose of our vocation, earn many merits, and save our own souls and those of others."

- Don Bosco

Pray

Dear Lord, 

Help me to know your will. Give me the grace and strength to follow it. Please keep me from being distracted or dissuaded.

Act

What is it He calls you to do? To preach or to cook, to teach or to sweep, to catechize or to pray, to supervise or to obey? Whatever it is, do it cheerfully and with your whole heart.

Golf Lessons

A leading difficulty with the average player is that he totally misunderstands what is meant by concentration. He may think he is concentrating hard when he is merely worrying. 
- Bobby Jones

I've always made a total effort, even when the odds seemed entirely against me. I never quit trying; I never felt that I didn't have a chance to win.
- Arnold Palmer

What other people may find in poetry or art museums, I find in the flight of a good drive.
- Arnold Palmer

Forget the last shot. It takes so long to accept that you can't always replicate your swing. The only thing you can control is your attitude toward the next shot. 
- Mark McCumber

Don't be too proud to take a lesson.  I'm not.
- Jack Nicklaus

As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round.
- Ben Hogan

One of the most fascinating things about golf is how it reflects the cycle of life. No matter what you shoot - the next day you have to go back to the first tee and begin all over again and make yourself into something. 
- Peter Jacobsen 

This is a game of misses. The guy who misses the best is going to win. 
- Ben Hogan 

There is no such thing as a natural touch. Touch is something you create by hitting millions of golf balls.
- Lee Trevino 

Of all the hazards, fear is the worst. 

- Sam Snead 

needle &thREAD

This week, I listened to Anything by Jennie Allen. One night, the author and her husband prayed "God, we will do anything. Anything,"  A quick search of typical Catholic morning offerings assured me that I am not alone in thinking that lots of people offer God anything, every single day. Still, I found the book compelling and I'm grateful for it. I admit it got me thinking about the anythings that could be out there. Was I missing God's call? Africa? Costa Rica? A great, big, new ministry? I bounced the idea off a couple friends. They both reminded me that I live my anything every day in the heart of my home. Still, my head buzzes with the possiblity of anything.

I was all set to sew yesterday. I had a few Anna Maria Horner scarf kits I bought last winter to turn into Figure 8 scarves. Browsing my closet, I was pretty tickled to find that they will pull together some ancient clothes to become smashing autumn outfits. Since they were "kits," I figured an afternoon of sewing would offer quick rewards. I laid out the fabric and was dismayed over how much I was going to have to cut to square it all up. Just as I was psyching myself up to do all that cutting, the phone rang. New plan. Off to the pharmacy for an unexpected refill and then to serve dinner to my favorite octegenarians. That's just fine. I'm up for anything.  Right now, my anything is focused. I embrace the strong, bear of a man I know as the best father and grandfather a family could ever hope to have and I pour a lifetime of gratitude into loving the frail gentleman he has become. I live the moment and know that the moment holds the day's truest treasure; and it answers His truest call. It is our anything.

Perhaps today I will sew. Perhaps not. I'm up for anything. 

What about you? Sewing? Reading? A little of both?  Or are you embroidering? Pulling a needle with thread through lovely fabric to make life more beautiful somehow? Would you share with us just a single photo (or more) and a brief description of what you're up to? Will you tell us about what you're reading, also? Would you talk sewing and books with us? I'd love that so much.

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Our Storybook Year: Eric Carle

No time for words today. We're happy to share images from our summer days with

Eric Carle.

 Remember when we celebrated the Feast of Eric Carle?

For more about our Storybook Year, please visit here.

Morning Has Broken...

It didn't begin as a new habit, really. Instead, it was a bit of serendipity. A wave of hot, sticky days--too hot and sticky to play out of doors. A mother who was ready to add more exercise to her day and was eager, too, to be outside, instead of only pedaling away on a bike that goes nowhere. I needed to bike alone, but I needed, also, to breathe in fresh air and laughter of children. And, so, early one morning, while looking at the forecast, I made a decision: if the temperature was going to soar into the 90s and above for ten days (and beyond?), we'd have to get out early or none of us would ever get out at all.

Right after breakfast, I made the announcement. Everyone was to get walking shoes; everyone was required to come along; everyone was to be cheerful. Karoline and Sarah Annie each had a stroller. Off we went!

We traveled a neighborhood trail, roughly two miles along wooded areas, grassy areas and a lake. We talked the whole way and watched for wildlife.  When we returned home, we settled into the living room, lit a candle and had some morning prayer time. The day was off to a great beginning. The time? 9:00.

It occurred to me, after the third day of this "routine," that I rather liked beginning the day with my children this way.  The rhythm is well-established: exercise, prayer, shower, dress, tea, Bible. All before 7:30. Even if the day unravels from there, I can still take comfort in the fact that I got to those things. When I considered my personal routine in light of the new habit that was unfolding, it dawned on me that the acquisition of habits could be a layering. Habit upon habit, I could build into each segment of the day the rhythm I desired. This morning walk was the next layer.

The walk suited all of us.

I loved that we were all together. it was just the right amount of physical exertion to wake us, help us focus, and energize the day. The out-of-doors time gave birth to all sorts of conversations and observations. Nature study happened, well, naturally:-). There were questions to ask and answer. There were rocks to throw, flowers to sniff, and ducks who begged us to quack back--all in our own backyard. This was the world waiting to be explored. These were the plants and animals my children should be able to name.

This habit found us and we are eager to embrace it. Our nature study time is set now. A walk to get things started, home for Morning Prayer, and then nature notebooks to record what we saw along the way (cameras tend to come with us on walks:-). This will be the way we begin our days--from now on, well into the school year, and until it's absolutely too cold to venture forth even if bundled. And why not?

Our first thought with regard to Nature-knowledge is that the child should have a living acquaintance with the things he sees.

Let them once get touch with Nature, and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life.

She will point to some lovely flower or gracious tree, not only as a beautiful work, but a beautiful thought of God, in which we may believe He finds continual pleasure, and which He is pleased to see his human children rejoice in.

Let us, before all things, be Nature-lovers; intimate acquaintance with every natural object within his reach is the first, and, possibly, the best, part of a child's education.

Beauty is everywhere--in white clouds against the blue, in the gray bole of the beech, the play of a kitten, the lovely flight and beautiful colouring of birds, in the hills and the valleys and the streams, in the wind-flower and the blossom of the broom.

What circumstances strike you in a walk in summer?

By-and-by he passes from acquaintance, the pleasant recognition of friendly faces, to knowledge, the sort of knowledge we call science.

 He begins to notice that there are resemblances between wild-rose and apple blossom, between buttercup and wood-anemone, between the large rhododendron blossom and the tiny heath floret.

He must be accustomed to ask "why?"--Why does the wind blow? Why does the river flow? Why is the leaf bud sticky?

Every child has a natural interest in the living things about him which it is the business of his parents to encourage.

It is infinitely well worth the mother's while to take some pains every day to secure, in the first place, that her children spend hours daily amongst the rural and natural objects; and, in the second place, to infuse them, or rather to cherish in them, the love of investigation.

The boy who is in the habit of doing sensory daily gymnastics will learn a great deal more about the beetle than he who is not so trained.

We are awaking to the use of nature-knowledge, but how we spoil things by teaching them!

The child who learns his science from a text-book, though he go to Nature for illustrations, and he who gets his information from object lessons, has no chance of forming relations with things as they are, because his kindly obtrusive teacher makes him believe that to know about things is the same as knowing them personally.

All quotes are Charlotte Mason, taken from the excellent book Hours in the Out-of-Doors: A Charlotte Mason Nature Study Handbook, available at Simply Charlotte Mason.

~repost from the archives