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Meant to add this a while back.. |
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Gregorian Chant An Ode to John Paul II
Many waves flow against a high shore, incomprehensible, unless you know there is more-- The complex made simple, like in old days. And so as a simple pine box is carried out the world says "How beautiful!" And stops, holds breath, waits...
This strange new world tries, with vanity, to make this same complex simplicity, but though it is lovely, it is not the same with computers.
Battousai-nii · Sun Apr 09, 2006 @ 07:52am · 0 Comments |
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About A Loving Relationship With God and How Prayer Works |
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I'm sort of wondering what response I will receive to this.
God is the most important thing in my life. He is the reason I find the strength to wake up and go to sleep each night. If it were not for God, I would not be here right now.
To me, a relationship with God is something unique that cannot be described in human terms. He is infinitely more than any friend, more than any father, because he loves me and understands me better than any other being. I am less than an ant compared to Him, yet He condescends to my level and deigns to care for me as for something infinitely precious.
Prayer works--I've seen it cure people of diseases physical and mental, seen it bring about remarkable feats of serendipity that are too unlikely to be mere coincidence. I talk to God about my day, about what is on my mind and about my needs and I think my life is better for it. Lately I've found that just telling God my troubles (without suggesting how I would want to resolve it) brings about their prompt resolution--and I mean seriously like the next day something happens: the friend I've been worrying about or angry with will call, the weather will suddenly improve, a family illness will start to clear up, and so on...
Sometimes God says no though... He won't get you that nice car--or me those anime DVDs I've been wanting...alas... xp He also won't cure somebody whose time it is to die (although he'll often grant some extra time, as he did with my grandfather and others I have known). Generally, I think He wants to do what's best for people. (I can hear him saying, "You could never afford the insurance on that car even if you got it!" wink ). That's why half the time you have to trust in the Lord's Will (really all the time, but it's only hard about half the time). He can see consequences that we can't. Often a hardship allows people to overcome a greater one or to grow spiritually. So you have to trust in him to know.
An anecdote here: A friend at church told me this story. Before he began working full time at the church, Mr. Salgado was a High School English teacher. (He's a really nice guy too, I wish I had had him instead of some of my teachers). Anyway, he didn't make a lot of money (like $20,000) and he had six kids, so stuff was pretty tight at the end of each month. One month they were really low on cash and they happened to run out of toilet paper. Now who in the world is going to spend their last few bucks on toilet paper when they got more important things to spend it on, like gas and heat? Not my friend. (Teacher remember. Logical. wink )
Which eventually produced something like the following:
Kids (whiney): But Dad! What the heck are we suppose to use to...y'know... Mr. Salgado(confident): I'm praying that the Lord will provide. Kids: But Dad! Mr. Salgado(authoritatively): I said, the Lord will provide! Now get dressed. We're going over to your aunt's house for dinner.
So they went over to Mr. Salgado's sister's to eat dinner. (Sorry if I'm boring you at this point, it gets better, that's what happens when you try to tell real life stories... stressed ) Since you will probably ask, Mr. Salgado did not ask his sister for toilet paper, he was far too embarrassed and she was just as poor as they were.
"Get to the point. Get to the point." I can imagine you thinking. Well here's the point: That very night a bunch of kids from around the nearby neighborhoods thought it might be a fun idea to toiletpaper all the trees in the English teacher's front lawn, approximately three to six hours after Mr. Salgado bravely stated that "the Lord will provide." (Yup. They got their toilet paper). No one has had the same inclination before or since. (but I bet they would if someone really needed toilet paper again.)
Battousai-nii · Thu Dec 08, 2005 @ 08:30am · 2 Comments |
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St. Teresa of Avila~ "Nada Te Turbe" or Let's study on Gaia! |
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Mel is trying to learn Spanish. sweatdrop
Yay for Spanish religious poetry... I try to find ways of making studying interesting... I read Spanish fanfiction as well... This poem is by St. Teresa of Avila. Translation below.
Nada Te Turbe
Nada te turbe Nada te espante, todo se pasa, Dios no se muda; la paciencia todo lo alcanza; quien a Dios tiene nada le falta: SDios basta
Eleva tu pensamiento, al cielo sube, por nada te acongojes, nada te turbe.
A Jesucristo sigue con pecho grande, y, venga lo que venga, nada te espante.
?Ves la gloria del mundo? Es gloria vana; nada tiene de estable, todo se pasa.
Aspira a lo celeste, que siempre dura; fiel y rico en promesas, Dios no se muda.
?ala cual merece bondad inmensa; pero no hay amor fino sin la paciencia.
Confianza y fe viva mantenga el alma, que quien cree y espera todo lo alcanza.
Del infierno acosado aunque se viere, burlarᠳus furores quien a Dios tiene.
V鮧anle desamparos, cruces, desgracias; siendo Dios tu tesoro nada te falta.
Id, pues, bienes del mundo; id dichas vanas; aunque todo lo pierda, sDios basta.
Translation: Nothing Disturb You
Nothing disturb you Nothing frighten you, all is passing God moves not, nor changes; patience attains it all; To the one whom God has nothing is lacking; God alone suffices.
Elevate your thought, to the sky raise it, Over nothing be distressed nothing disturb you
Follow after Jesus Christ with great heart and, come what comes, nothing frighten you
You see the glory of the world? It is vainglory; nothing has stability all is passing
Aspire to the celestial thing, that always lasts; Faithful and rich in promises God moves not, nor changes.
Love as it deserves, the immense kindness but there is no fine love without the patience.
Confidence and living faith sustain the soul, that one who believes and hopes all attains it all.
Of harassed hell although it will be seen, it will outwit its frenzy to the one whom God has
Come to him forsaken; crosses, misfortunate; God being your treasure Nothing is lacking.
You go, then, goods of the world; you go vain happiness; although all is lost, God alone suffices.
Battousai-nii · Wed Nov 09, 2005 @ 10:45pm · 0 Comments |
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Grief... Consolation... A Lesson in Suffering... |
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Seek God.
How?
He is in the silence.
Listen, he is speaking to you.
Have faith.
He is here right now
and at every moment of life and death.
You have only to pray.
God answers to knee mail.
(The last line is not mine.)
On this Pentacost, I thought about the Holy Spirit's influence in my life, how I pray to be an instrument of His Will. Like St. Paul writes in his letters, I constantly slip up, doing the things I would rather not do. In these times, it is often harder to hear and feel the Spirit, but He's always there, and by the fountain of God's Mercy the Spirit comes upon me as Grace in Reconciliation, drawing me closer than I was before to His Sacred Heart.
Battousai-nii · Mon May 16, 2005 @ 09:40am · 0 Comments |
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Something to clear the mind:
"Elected Silence, sing to me And beat upon my whorled ear, Pipe me to pastures still and be The music that I care to hear." ~Gerard Manley Hopkins
Battousai-nii · Sat Apr 23, 2005 @ 12:37pm · 0 Comments |
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"Help us O Lord, To love as thou wouldst: To give and not to count the cost. To fight and not to heed the wounds. To toil without thought of any reward, save that of knowing we do your will." Amen. ~Prayer of St. Ignacious Loyola
*shrug* It's true I can be selfish and ego-driven as the next person, but I've concluded that there's no point to living if you don't live for others. If I can help just one person then my life has meaning. If, when I die, the world is just the tiniest bit better for my having been here, then my purpose in existing has been achieved.
wink After a lot of confusion and clowning arund, I've finally decided on my major: Human Services. Perfect ne?
Battousai-nii · Mon Jan 31, 2005 @ 09:58am · 2 Comments |
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