Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hands of evildoers. Jeremiah 20:13

 

Lord, I will sing your praise until the end of time, for you have not only delivered me from evildoers, but brought me out of darkness into your great light.

How many of us put ourselves into the darkness with our negative thinking, because of outside influences, I did. When we try to focus on the positive, yet the voice of those with a negative influence, take a grip, it is hard to shake free. As a testimony of my own, I can say that God does deliver us.

For a long time, I thought it would be impossible to go back to school, because of the cost, the time for study,  and many other things that would make it difficult. Such thinking also involved, am I capable after not going to school in a very long time, and the answer is yes. What I found is a strong support system in my family, as they cheer me on.

I happen to be one of those people who went directly to work  after graduating from high school, so you can imagine 30 years of not having a job that is supporting for two, let alone one person. Then when illness enters the picture and changes your life you can imagine the devastating effects. Such as how am I going to take care of myself, if anything else happens.

So again God delivered me, and put me in a position where I was able to receive schooling with financial aid, he gave me the chance to learn. What a loving God. He does things for us to help us see how truly special we are, when we ourselves don't always see it. And yes, at times those little thoughts of negativity do much harm to ourselves, but when we look at what Jesus has done for us to free us, our thoughts change, to think on the positive, to realize that with God nothing is impossible. He shows us the way, the truth  and the life. He really does deliver us from evildoers, and I will sing his praise until the end of time.

I know there are many out there who lose hope, because of the crosses they endure daily. God gives us the strength to see each day with grace. If he wanted to take us home to him, so we would not suffer, then how would we be able to offer our suffering along with Jesus for the sake of his kingdom, for those who have no faith. We are his witnesses for those who do not believe in what our Lord went through.  My life and some of the errors I have made may not be what people would understand, how is it possible for God to dwell within, very easy, I love him with all my heart, my mind, my soul. It is not only praise I give, it is my undying love I give to Him who made me.

Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually. Psalm 105:4

 

There is something about prayer that when it is said from our hearts, how refreshed we feel when we are done. So it is when we seek the Lord. We are full, his strength we know, we lack nothing, and we seek nothing else but what comes from Him.

When we pray in front of the Most Blessed Sacrament, imagine how intense our prayers are, how full we become, just by being in His presence. For me I always come away strengthened, refreshed and renewed. It is in those quiet moments in His presence where we are the closest to Him. Just as the touch of a breeze lets me know he is near, a promise always kept. It is His presence above all that we seek, for the strength he gives, but mostly for the everlasting love he gives without condition.

If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us. Daniel 3:17

It is written king Nebuchadnezzar put three men to the furnace of fire, to witness a fourth accompanying them, all because they would not worship his idols.

Because of their unrelenting faith to God and not of the many idols, it was shown the mercy God delivered in their need, they were never alone.

Doesn't that show us that we never walk alone too. How when we faithfully follow God we are rewarded with this knowledge. All too often when we lack faith we tend to think God is never there, yet he is. It is recorded for us to know this, to strengthen us in time of trial.

I recall the story of "The Footprints", I had one to hang on my wall, that had the picture of one set of footprints. I'll always remember this, because of the many trials and detours I had taken, only to realize that he was beside me all the time, even when I didn't know he was there.

For me I suppose it was a way to always realize this truth, just like the three men who went into the furnace, they too were never alone. They were delivered from their enemy and put into the hands of God all because they worshipped God.


Father, today I pray that amongst the trials of this world we will strive to feel your loving touch upon our hands as you walk beside us.

Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to you. Psalm 102:1

We have become a world that is filled with much sickness. We pollute our bodies with so many chemicals, that our babies are born polluted. How is that possible, yet the food we eat is in a large part filled with chemicals for preservatives. Then we have the many over the counter drugs available to counteract the problems caused by the pollution in our bodies. So what is it we do, we begin to cry of our woes, our suffering, our pain. We pray for an answer to the problems that afflict us, we cry to the Lord to rescue us from our ills. Come, Lord Jesus make us well. But what happens when he makes us well, and we fill our bodies with more pollution, aren't we then the one's who have done more wrong, yet we cry to a good God that we need healing, when we know what has made us sick in the first place, but we didn't change it. This is how we treat sin, just as we treat our bodies, from what we fill it with. Hear our prayers, O Lord, let our cry come to you.

Yesterday was our formation class for the Postulants. It was a beautiful day to be shared in community with the many Dominicans. After our class there was Mass, and then a meeting for all the Third Order Dominicans. The reason I'm writing about this is because something was done that was also done here through another blog (A Catholic Life), who had a Saint picked for those who wanted one. Anyway, they did this yesterday. I was delightfuly surprised when I had this strong pull to take this one particular piece of paper. I was surprised to find that I chose Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. You see, in February we had the grace to have his relics at one of the meetings and to learn about his life. When I kissed the Reliquary I felt such warmth on my side, and again when it was touched to a specific spot, there was again warmth at this spot. God's grace has a wonderful way of coming about. I was given a special blessed to be mine, and for me to pray for him.

For me this was indeed very coincidental, it was a joy, for this special Blessed is indeed pure of heart.