I can Make a Difference

Dave and I went to the Knights of Columbus meeting on Monday evening and we had a wonderful evening. They played a video with a speaker, Matthew Kelly, from Australia and his topic was....What does it mean to be a Christian. Since I can't remember anything anymore, I took lots of notes. After I transcribed the notes, I decided I would post them on the blog. It certainly is better than anything I could write. I thought it was a great video. Lots of things to ponder........so here goes:


File: Word-Pat-What does it mean to be Christian
3/27/06 – OLOL Knights of ColumbusVideo
Matthew Kelly
Sidney, Australia

The path of our Salvation is the JOURNEY OF OUR SOUL from point A (where we are now) to point B (where God wants us to be).

To become more Christ Like, we cannot stay as we are we must CHANGE and GROW.
. Be open to change
. Realize you are not perfect

Following church rules and not sinning is NOT being Christian. Changing and becoming Christ Like is our goal.

Read Genesis, Chapter 3 - Adam and Eve have just eaten the fruit of the forbidden tree – they are naked and are hiding when they here God coming.
God asks Adam….WHERE ARE YOU? …. Where are you Adam? God didn’t need to ask Adam where he was because he knew where Adam was. HE wanted Adam to think about where he was and what he was doing.

How can we change and grow and find out WHERE WE ARE? Well Jesus calls us to be true disciples and gives us the following helpful tools to use on this journey.
1) PRAYER
a. Why don’t we pray?
b. We have attitude that prayers don’t get answered, so Prayer doesn’t work?
c. Prayer is boring?
d. We don’t know how to pray?
e. We don’t know what to say in prayer?

If you aren’t changing and growing…you aren’t praying. God challenges us to change and we reject change. We don’t want to change. When we reject change we reject Christ. Prayer should bring about pure joy, peace, love and happiness. We are body and soul limited by our mind and our will.
How to pray :
1. Focus on GOD – be in Union with God
2. Sit and be STILL for a few minutes – focus on an image of God (i.e. a rose which represents the image of Christ)
3. Distractions will come and go in your mind….be still…focus on God and experience UNION with God
4. Be thankful for gifts we take for granted …then our hearts will dance with joy!

“JOY is the fruit of appreciation for all the things that you have.”

Count your blessings….gratitude list. Woke up this morning (some people don’t wake up – they have died in their sleep). Got up (some people cannot get out of bed due to illness) took a shower (some people don’t have clean water to drink or clean water to bathe in) got dressed (some people don’t have nice clothing to wear) ate breakfast (some people don’t have food to eat). Read the paper (some people cannot read) etc. Be thankful for what we have. Count our blessings.

God calls us to prayer for us…not for HIM. HE is Happy and HE wants us to be happy and share in HIS happiness and He invites us to Prayer to experience joy, peace and happiness with Him.

2) HUMILITY
a. Without God we can do nothing….WITH God there is nothing we cannot do.
b. God calls us to Humility and Gratitude
c. Jesus was humble.

To help us on our Journey God has given us
Prayer - to find our peace and joy
Sacraments - to help us see who we really are and challenge us to be more Christ like
The Church - to give us guidance and discipline
Scriptures - Road map for the journey of success & failures
Family and Friends and People who irritate you! They each serve a purpose. They act as mirrors. They show us the defects we have in ourselves. Especially the people that irritate us…sometimes we learn the most about ourselves from those people who are put into our lives. We see in them, the reflections of ourselves and God is saying……’WHERE ARE YOU” ???

3) PERSERVENCE - persistence

Ever notice people who want material things? They go for it…they are persistent…they work hard to get what they want.
They set a goal…write down what they want. Every morning they think about what their goal is and what they want to obtain. Every night they think about their goal to be wealthy and what they have to obtain that goal. They use every means they can to get to where they want to be. They work hard and then they reach their goal. They persevere.

Babe Ruth. Babe was persistent. He struck out 1,324 times. He had 114 home runs. He never quit and he reached his goal.

Vincent Van Gogh He painted 1,700 paintings. He only sold one for $85 while he was living. After he died, just ONE of his paintings sold for 40 million dollars! He never quit, he never stopped painting. And we are blessed with his paintings to enjoy today. He persevered.

We Christians don’t have perserverence for our journey of the soul like the folks who want material things do.

Prayer, humility and perseverance are what it takes for us to become more Christ like. Jesus never had wealth, he was betrayed by a friend, crucified unjustly and buried in a borrowed grave. YET….Jesus made a difference in people’s lives. We are called to be holy like Jesus was holy.

Have you ever gotten an unexpected letter? Didn’t it just make your day! So why don’t you write one to someone? Send some flowers, bake some cookies for someone, make a phone call, and tell someone how much they mean to you. Make a difference in someone’s life. If you are not happy today and you do everything the same tomorrow as you did today, you won’t be happy tomorrow either. If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got!

Story: There was a little boy walking along the ocean one day and he noticed that many star fish had been washed up on the sand. As he walked, he started picking up the star fish and throwing them back in the ocean so they might live. As he walked along throwing the star fish back in the ocean an old man came upon him and asked him what he was doing. When the boy replied he was saving the star fish by throwing them back into the ocean, the old man said, “son, look down the shore line as far as you can see there are many many star fish that have washed up on the beach and you can’t make a difference to them, you are wasting your time trying to save them.” As the man was talking, the small boy picked up another star fish and threw it way out into the ocean and said, “ I made a difference to that one, didn’t I?”

Jesus made a difference. Salvation depends on us making a difference. Now you go make a difference.

Another day

How do the days go by so quickly? The days just seem be flying by at a rapid pace. Too fast for me. Too much to do, too little time to do it and less and less time left. I finally finished all 5 of my bird houses....they all needed repainting and refinishing. Now they are done. I can even take a picture of them with my new camera and maybe if I can figure it out (may have to consult Justin for that) can post them on this blog. Although I am not sure why I want to go to all that trouble. If I have TIME, I'll do it eventually! Finishing the birdhouses has been therapy for me...and although my original designs aren't all that fantastic, they were so calming for me to do. Used some new brushes Stacey and kids gave me for my birthday! Golly...good brushes really do help!!

Seems to be a confusing day for me. After several sleepless nights and about 20 phone calls back and forth, finally the doctor (whom I couldn't find...seems he is a retired doc donating time at the clinic - but the pharmacy gave me good information onwhat to do until today) when he saw son, David, today took him off the lithium and put him on Depacote. He was on Depacote one other time, so hopefully he won't have bad side effects this time. Needs meds (I sent another hundred bucks for the Depacote..just for one months supply) needs counseling, needs time for all of this to work. Wants to bolt..want more money..etc. etc.. Just can't be fixed over night..took many years to get to this place...will take TIME to improve. Seems like a month ago (was only two nights ago!) I had my bags packed and was ready to leave for a night ride to WVA. Since my husband wouldn't let me go, I just stayed up all night and did research! It was an education. Same old stuff, just different time. Many questions...few answers. Lots of conversations, and still no answers. We are thankful he has a caregiver for awhile as the doc says he needs one.
Anyway, that was only a few days ago...seems like a month ago! Maybe I am sleep deprived and don't know it. Dave has been handling the phone calls today...helps a lot. Yes, I am just tired.
But...grateful that when I woke up this morning...there was Dave right next to me..breathing softly and Scruffy snoring at his feet!! Yes...it was a great morning! The sun was shining this morning also. Every morning when I see him and hear him....I am grateful. Another good thing. Although it is raining now...the rain is falling softly making millions of tiny ringletts in the river and they they keep floating down in the current. Pretty cool.

Well, enough for now. I have several friends who need lots of prayers...so will concentrate on them today. Plus everyone in our family. Many things going on. Maybe tomorrow I will do better at trying to do this blog thing. Or....maybe not!

But for now...another day...zipping by!

Happy St. Patrick's Day -- again!

Well...seems the "note" published okay! Now I can't remember everything I said or wanted to say! So....will just say we are looking forward to celebrating St.Patty's Day with some corn-beef and cabbage and maybe a little green beer!
I am grateful that Dave is feeling good today and we are looking forward to another day together.
Wishing everyone a blessed and Happy St. Patty's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I have written three posts and non of them will actually post! Says there is an error? I am just trying it again.

Happy St.Patrick's Day

Well...another year has rolled around and it seems I am another year older (along with all of YOU!). But St. Patrick's Day is my day for turning over another year! Looking forward to some cornbeef and cabbage and listening to the bagpippers tonight. Always a lot of celebrating to partake of on St. Patty's Day! Lots of wearing of the green too. We are headed for Lafayette this afternoon...going to visit the cathedral and then to Panara Bread probably for some coffee and toasted cinnamon roll. Later on to dinner. We had snow last night, but the roads are all clear today so no problem there. Dave just took Scruffy out for his walk with his little green (John Deer) hat on! Funny!

I wrote a blog last night, but when I went to check it today...it wasn't there so not sure what I did wrong. Having computer problems since Dave updated my Norton it just doesn't work right and is slower than swamp water now.

I'm grateful that Dave is feeling okay now and we can celebrate this day. Just celebrate every day as it comes.

I have no words of wisdom....just want to wish everyone a blessed and happy St. Patrick's Day.

St. Patrick's Day

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day....and my birthday...golly I hate to add another year! But I love to celebrate St.Patty's Day!
We will be going to a fun place in Lafayette for corned beef and cabbage and to listen to the bagpippers! It is so fun! My sister and her family, my nephew Anthony and his wife and maybe my brother Mike will be there. But even if no one can make it, Dave and I will have a great time. We will miss all our grandkids, but know they are having fun whatever they are doing on their own.
We are busy living one day at a time here. Dave's cancer came back in November, but he took a treatment in January that seems to be working. At least, for right now, he is feeling good and we think the treatment is working. All we really have is this one day...at a time anyway. We all have an "expiration" date stamped on us somewhere, we just don't know when that date will be. So...be grateful for today and for all the people you love.
Happy St. Patricks Day to Everyone!

ASH Wednesday & IU

Ash Wednesday has always been a very special day for me. Since I was a little girl and my grandmother used to take me to get the ashes on my forehead which I walked around with all day and was very careful NOT to brush them off! It was supposed to be a cross on my forehead and I was always disappointed when it turned out to be a "smudge" instead of a cross! Every time I looked in the mirror I would say to myself, "remember Patty, that you are dust and unto dust you shall return". Remember ...one day you will meet the Lord...you must be prepared.
Today I ponder on what Ash Wednesday really means to me now other than just the beginning of Lent....which is preparation for Easter. And what is Easter? Easter ...the promise of the Good News....of eternal life.....of the resurrection of our Lord. Well for today I will walk around different because I have ashes on my forehead, but what does it mean to me for the remaining 39 days of LENT? It certainly identifies me as a Roman Catholic....but more than that it reminds me that I have an "expiration date" engraved on my soul and one day I will be facing my creator. It identifies me as a christian who is trying to live a life that is following Jesus so when it is my turn to meet HIM I will hear Him say, "well done my good and faithful servant". I don't think I am ready for that yet! :)
Obviously my expiration date has not yet arrived! But I feel a need to follow my lenten practice much better this year in preparation for Easter.
What is there in me that needs to be raised from the dead? What will prepare me to be raised from the dead? What will make way in me for Christ and create room for the mystery of resurrection? In an article written by Pat livingston, she says "Our lives are filled with many kinds of deaths. The ashes are a symbol of this, of our mortality, the death that is part of life; of the sufferings, the sinfulnesses, the deadenings that block love".
In the movie The Incredibles, which is about a family of superheroes who live in an ordinary neighborhood and have been forbidden by the government to use their super powers, when Mr. Incredible picks up the family car sitting in the driveway (seems the powers surface occasionally) a little boy who witnessed this is sitting on his tricycle and day after day he just sits there sttaring toward Mr. Incredibles House. One day Mr. Incredible turns to the little boy and demands:
"WHAT are you waiting for?". In a hushed, musical little voice, the small boys answers:
"I don't know, something amazing, I guess".
Well...this is what I intend to do for my Lenten practice this year. Rather than bracing for more bad news or hiding in the darkness about the world's fights and deaths or worrying about my own precious family and their pain and sufferings, I want to spend the forty days and forty nights with my eyes open and my heart and mind ready and "waiting for something amazing".

I never did well at giving up something for Lent....so I always tried to do something extra like attend mass more often, work at the food pantry, help a friend in need, etc. We also always tried to go to the Stations of the Cross every Friday night in lent. A beautiful service where you walk with the Lord in his passion and death and resurrection. I tried to teach the children about lent and what it means and we used to draw names (just the four of us) and then pray every day just for that person and their happiness and we also had to try to do something nice or say something nice to that person every day without telling them we had drawn their names. It was fun and most always we could each guess who had the luck of the draw and got OUR names! So my lenten practice this year will be to look for surprises...make a gratitude list of all my blessings, open my soul to new life in the midst of the difficulty of my personal family, open my heart, let God work in my life, and WAIT FOR SOMETHING AMAZING.

Now....about IU !!! Well Ash Wednesday started with a trip to a doctor's appointment for Dave. Found out that his white and red counts are still dropping (as expected) and the creatinine level is holding in at 1.5. After the doctor's appointment we went to lunch and then came home for a little while...Dave went to tutor some students and I picked him up at 6:00 and we headed to Lafayette to watch the Purdue and IU basketball game. !! It was great! I was happy because IU won...Dave was sad because Purdue lost! Neither team is all that great this year and so we were just happy to be celebrating Dave's birthday a little early. (This was one of his birthday gifts!). We had never been to Mackey Arena .. and Dave had said he would like to do that sometime. This was the perfect SOMETIME! It was a lovely night. GO IU !! haha. I'll add this to my "gratitude list" for sure.

I noticed when I got ready for bed that just a tiny bit of the "smudge" was still visible on my forehead. What a day to be grateful for. When Easter comes this year, I will be more prepared. I want to turn my heart away from death and open it wide to the the good news and to something amazing that ended death for all of us on that special Easter day.