“Autumn Storm Coming In.”
Picture taken at Lewiston Falls
The beauty of this scene reminds me that even in the storms of life, God’s love is ever present.
Picture and comment by Kathy Sheehan
The Holy Spirit inspired our blog.
Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
“Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”
He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name,
your Kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test.”
Emphasis mine Luke: 11:1-4
The above prayer is the Lord’s Prayer by St. Luke. I prefer St. Matthew’s version of The Our Father.
About six weeks before I applied to go on a Maine Honor Flight trip to Washington, The Holy Spirit told me to start praying for all the people state-side who had called our troops “Baby killers” and those who spat on them, which I did, and this was not easy as we talked about in last week’s blog. I pray you also notice the timing.
Why?
Because Jesus said “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.” Luke 6:37 (GAI)
In short, if I don’t forgive but continue to condemn, as I had for sixty one years, I was not helping myself.
Where?
Here and Now!
The condemnation reduces the Love, Joy and Peace I can enJoy now by imitating Jesus.
Easy, but hard, as we reported last week. But, by following the suggestion of The Holy Spirit, my trip to Washington really started the cleansing process.
Is the process complete?
No!
It will take time, but now I believe the biggest impediment I had in forgiving others is being removed so the statement for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, is being met and I am filled with Joy.
Interesting, the minute I saw the above reading I knew this is what we would write about. God working in my life.
Prayer:
When satan knocks at your door, Pray: “Jesus for you.”
Sidebar:
Well this is the second time this has happened in the five years we have been writing our blog. I had the Sidebar all typed out, and this morning as I was driving to Mass the Holy Spirit told me to delete it.
Soooooooooo we did.
Jesus said we are to love God with our whole Mind, Body and Soul, and our neighbor as our self. Matthew 22:37-39 (GAI)
Notice again the timing on what we are writing about next.
Eight weeks before the trip to Washington D.C., Steve Rosacha told me about the Humility prayer. After he left, The Holy Spirit suggested I read the prayer. I Googled The Humility Prayer and when I read it I was brought to my knees. Below is the first third of the prayer.
O Jesus meek and humble of heart, hear me
From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being Loved, ….
From the desire of being extolled,….
From the desire of being honored, ….
From the desire of being praised,….
From the desire of being preferred to others, ….
From the desire of being consulted, ….
From the desire of being approved,
First, I recognized Jesus on the Cross, and secondly I desired to be loved, extolled, etc.. My life was totally backwards to how God wanted me to live, and I didn’t even know it.
How can I put my neighbor first when I want to be first?
I can’t!
But change did happen. We showed last week the picture that was taken of me at the Vietnam Wall, and at the end of the Blog, we stated I never want my name mentioned with this picture.
Wow!
What a change, and I meant it and I love it.
You see, what we all experienced was the Honor Flight Team making this trip 100% about us, with their team taking no credit. With the encouragement of The Holy Spirit, I have thought a lot about our trip, and I am blown away by what I encountered and how it has affected me.
Now I am starting to fully understand why God wanted me on this trip at this time.
And,
I also realized you can’t fully love God and Neighbor when you put yourself first, and you can’t fully appreciate The American Military who put the safety of our country ahead of their own needs.
And,
With the above statement, we will expand this statement to the Police, Firemen, First Responders, Nurses and all those who also put their lives on the line to take care of us.
At the beginning of the Sidebar we said notice the timing. Eight weeks before our trip God had me read, and I am now praying everyday, the Prayer for Humility. Next, God, through a cancellation, had me go on this trip so I could see true Humility in action. And finally, requesting that my name not be used with the picture of me in front of the Vietnam Wall (old Fred would have wanted the credit). I told satan when he suggested it, to get behind me! I didn’t want my name mentioned with this picture. It’s a picture representing ALL of the men who served in Vietnam.
Talk about taking a one eighty in my life, and I love it, and I NEVER want to go back!!!!!
Thank you Father!!!
One last side note: I am sitting here laughing because of what we just wrote – it’s all true, and I love it.
Change in the format of our blog: I have been rereading the past four years of our blog, and The Holy Spirit got me to notice that the explanation of the picture is at the end of the blog. By the time one gets there they have forgotten the picture. Soooooo, we will try this new format.
Please keep Snapping!
Remember, if you want to submit a picture, please do not include people. We have to get permission from that person to use their photograph.
And if you want the ten calling cards shown above, email me and I will send you my address, send me a STAMPED self-addressed envelope and I will send you ten cards.
The offer for the cards is sadly for American readers only. The Post office won’t accept foreign stamps.
If you want a copy of the prayers we discuss.
Send an email to: fprince101@gmail.com
Disclaimer:
We decided to share with you that I do use Google AI for spelling, punctuation, and helping me find a Bible verse. BUT we go to the Bible to print out the verse we find. If we do use Google AI it will be noted (GAI). I believe in a while this type of disclaimer will be needed on all created works.
