SHANE MULLIN

Tara showing Jenny how to use her new phone! (Taken with instagram)

Is it art? Perhaps not, but it’s cool. :) (Taken with instagram)

Tara Mullin is very wise. (Taken with instagram)

Jed Bartlet Lives!

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!

Thanks to Wyatt Aguirre of Aguirre Studios for honoring me in his art.

Philip Gulley

If the Church were Christian

May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilitie s that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.
It is there for each and every one of us.

- St. Theresa

“If change and growth are not programmed into your spirituality, if there are not serious warnings about the blinding nature of fear and fanaticism, your religion will always end up worshiping the status quo and protecting your present ego position and personal advantage—as if it were God! Although Jesus’ first preached message is clearly “change!” (as in Mark 1:15 and Matthew 4:17), where he told his listeners to ‘repent,’ which literally means to ‘change your mind,’ it did not strongly influence Christian history. This resistance to change is so common, in fact, that it is almost what we expect from religious peope, who tend to love the past more than the future or the present.”

Richard Rohr in Falling Upward

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered :

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives:

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies:

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you:

Be honest and frank anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous:

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow:

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough:

Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God:

It was never between you and them anyway.

- Mother Teresa

http://youtu.be/ZrNhKcxBbZo

Why are we so enamored with a side of God (His transcendence), an attribute we can’t really wrap our minds around anyway, when there is so much of God we can experience right here, right now, with faculties God has gifted us with to know Him, to enjoy Him?

We want to know him in some abstract, spiritual way, when He is cooling us with a breeze and warming us with a sun ray. We look for God in miracles, in some out of this world (supernatural) phenomenon and we miss Him in so many, many ways every single day, every single moment. The question is not where is God, but where are we?

Florin Paladie

Fast from judging others; feast on the Christ indwelling in them.

Fast from emphasis on differences; feast on the unity of all life.

Fast from apparent darkness; feast on the reality of light.

Fast from words that pollute; feast on phrases that purify.

Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude.

Fast from anger; feast on patience.

Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism.

Fast from worry; feast on trust.

Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation.

Fast from negatives; feast on affirmatives.

Fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on unceasing prayer.

Fast from hostility; feast on nonviolence.

Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.

Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion for others.

Fast from personal anxiety; feast on eternal truth.

Fast from discouragement; feast on hope.

Fast from facts that depress; feast on truths that uplift.

Fast from lethargy; feast on enthusiasm. Fast from suspicion; feast on truth.

Fast from thoughts that weaken; feast on promises that inspire.

Fast from idle gossip; feast on purposeful silence.

Gentle God, during this season of fasting and feasting, gift us with your presence so we can be a gift to others in carrying out your work.

Amen.

William Arthur Ward (1921-1994)

(American author, educator, motivational speaker)

“As I travel across the country folks often ask me what is it that I pray for. And like most of you, my prayers sometimes are general:  Lord, give me the strength to meet the challenges of my office. Sometimes they’re specific: Lord, give me patience as I watch Malia go to her first dance  where there will be boys. Lord, have that skirt get longer as she travels to that dance.  

But while I petition God for a whole range of things, there are a few common themes that do recur. The first category of prayer comes out of the urgency of the Old Testament prophets and the Gospel itself.  I pray for my ability to help those who are struggling.  Christian tradition teaches that one day the world will be turned right side up and everything will return as it should be. But until that day, we’re called to work on behalf of a God that chose justice and mercy and compassion to the most vulnerable.”

- Barack Obama 

Prayer Breakfast speech

This was the Description of my first blog ever: 

“Thoughts and musings from a young nobody who is earnestly seeking for greater clarity while trying to be in step with the Holy Spirit, instead of lagging behind…”

I still don’t want to lag behind the Holy Spirit - I want to be in step, don’t you?