A Blogging Break

May the stars carry your sadness away,

May the flowers fill your heart with beauty,

May hope forever wipe away your tears,

And, above all, may silence make you strong.

Dan George

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Dear Friends,

I shall be taking a blog break for a week or two. I hope to drop by now and again to read all the wonderful inspirations that you have placed on your blogs. Till then....

Au Revoir

Marie xooxoxo

When Love Dies & Lust Begins

When two people marry they do so because they love one another, but, very few people realise the cost it will be to themselves. Both sides expect the other to 'make them happy' without realising that happiness and contentment springs from within. No one person can bring you happiness that is something you give to yourself.

If you have low self esteem and feel unworthy to be loved, this abnormal view of yourself will affect not only you, but your partner as you lay the onus on your spouse to provide what is lacking within yourself. This is the heaviest burden one can lay on another and is the quickest way to the divorce courts.

Your spouse is not God, he or she cannot heal your inner wounds and brokeness, only God can do that. To expect your spouse to fill the void that lay within your soul is to expect the impossible. You are setting yourself and your marriage on the road to disaster.

The only Being who can heal your soul is God. Only God can make you whole.

When we look at past generations we wonder why the divorce ratio wasn't as high as it is today, and what made things then so different? Back in earlier times there wasn't the gratuitous sex and lust which the generation of today are inundated with. In days gone by the most popular TV shows were 'I Love Lucy' or 'The Honeymooners', then came 'The Walton's or 'Happy Days'. Television back then promoted the Sanctity of marriage while still being able to gain good ratings, mainly because it was the audience who dictated what was acceptable to them. What has happened between then and now?

The difference between the generations is what we have allowed to occur as the morals we once held dear become passé and promises become conveniently forgotten. What truly lies at the heart of infidelity though is selfishness, as a person seeks their own self gratification and pays no heed to the pain this will cause their entire family unit. The focus has become SELF centered rather than self GIVING and it is this that lay at the heart of the unfaithful spouse.

Through the onslaught of TV and the internet where television serials become more and more graphic leaving nothing to the imagination and where the internet can cause great harm. Still the responsibility over what people watch or do not watch is for each of us to decide. Therefore we are responsible and will be held accountable if we choose to immerse ourselves in activities that we know to be sinful.

In these days of blaming society for everything we leave out personal accountability. No one is holding a gun to the head of those who, despite their religious upbringing, continue to pursue acts which they know to be outside the Law of God. It is way too convenient to simply lay the blame for personal choices on the media or the internet as if the person were not at fault. Though there may be more temptation in the world now than what our grandparents had to endure, does that exonerate an entire generation from choosing to sin? We are responsible for the choices we make and as the Bible says when something causes you to sin then pluck it out. If you cannot resist the temptation to sin on the internet then stop using it. If television serials causes you to sin then turn the TV off.

Be careful of the choices you make lest your children pay the price for YOUR mistakes!

Written by Marie

Beauty Tips for Women

Beauty tips for everyone:

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair, let a child run his fingers through it once a day.

For poise, walk with the knowledge that you'll never walk alone.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived,

reclaimed and redeemed and redeemed ... never throw out anyone.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.

As you grow older, you will discover you have two hands: one for helping

yourself and the other for helping others.

Anon

In This Life-Delta Goodrem

This young girl was diagnosed with cancer. I think the whole country was praying that she would beat this insidious illness. In pics of her with short hair was when she was undergoing chemotherapy.

If you are able. Donate to cancer research in memory of Melissa Hackney.

God's abundant love to you all.

Marie xoxoxo

Prayer for Melissa-RIP

Lord at times we do not understand Your Will but we do trust Your Love for us, even when we fail You.

We know your love for Melissa was so great that You as a Loving Father have brought her into Your Majestic Presence.

Though her loving presence will be missed by her family and friends, yet Melissa is now with You and by the side of our Blessed Mother and the Saints in Heaven.

We pray now Lord great Comforter and Consoler of the sorrowful that You in Your great Mercy will comfort and aid her grieving family and friends.

Thankyou Lord for the wonderful gift of Melissa, a unique, extraodinary and loving human being.

Joy she gave and Joy she has received.

Amen.

Thankyou Kathy and Kimberly for keeping us informed about this dear child of God. God bless you both.

Laughter Is The Best Medicine LOL

(click pic to enlarge)

The Pope We Come To Hear

It is intriguing that, when young people talk of World Youth Day, they commonly say that they are going to hear Pope Benedict. At previous World Youth Days they spoke of going to see John Paul II.

Does this mean that in being heard rather than seen Benedict is shaping up as a Protestant Pope? That would really stretch credulity. The change is of everyday significance. It reflects the differing personal style of the two Popes that the young people have caught.

The previous Pope had an instinctive feel for an audience and an occasion. He was a media performer, a Pope for television. Even though what he said was often deep, his speaking was theatre and what he said was declaratory. So people went to see him speak.

Benedict is a scholar and a naturally reserved man. Public performance comes less easily to him. He has a care for words and argument, and many Western readers find him easier to understand than his predecessor. For all his taste for colourful and ancient clothing, he is perhaps a Pope for radio.

In his intellectual style, too, Pope Benedict belongs to the university, to a world where different positions can be heard, argued and evaluated. Even his sermons are conversational in the sense that his imagery allows each reader to appropriate what is said in a personal way. He is a man whom we might go to hear speak.

Underlying the personal differences, however, is a different Papal style. Pope John Paul inherited a Polish history whose decisive encounters with the West were with the medieval church. The Pope was at the centre both of political and of church unity. After the Reformation the central focus on the Pope became stronger even as his political role diminished. The Pope was the universal face of the Church. Pope John Paul II enacted this role especially in his journeys. Wherever he went he often described himself to the people as 'your Pope'.

Pope Benedict comes from Bavaria, whose Christian beginnings in the fourth century are still a living memory. His history and his studies make him at home in an earlier church where the Bishop of Rome had a central place in guaranteeing the unity of the Church, but was placed within a network of significant Churches each of which claimed foundation by the Apostles and each of which had its own tradition. A central task of the Pope was to encourage and to strengthen the local Churches.

These subtle differences of personal and papal style may help explain why the present Pope, despite the fears stirred by his media image as 'God's enforcer' when Prefect of the Congregation for the Defence of the Faith, has seemed a more eirenical figure within the Church than was his predecessor. Certainly many tensions and conflicts about what it means for the Church to be faithful to the Gospel remain. But the conversation about them is not as fraught.

World Youth Day is a celebration for young Catholics. But it is also a theatrical event whose climax is the Papal Mass. There the Pope is on show to gather the whole event together. Whether pilgrims came to see or hear the Pope, they will take home the memory of being there, of seeing and hearing.

But the depth of their experience will depend on the quality of conversation that the event generates, the sense that as well as hearing they have been heard. Both active and passive voices are important in Popes.

Written by Fr Andrew Hamilton

Myfanwy

Kind o’er the kinderbank leans my Myfanwy,

White o’er the playpen the sheen of her dress,

Fresh from the bathroom and soft in the nursery

Soap scented fingers I long to caress.

Were you a prefect and head of your dormit'ry?

Were you a hockey girl, tennis or gym?

Who was your favourite? Who had a crush on you?

Which were the baths where they taught you to swim?

Smooth down the Avenue glitters the bicycle,

Black-stockinged legs under navy blue serge,

Home and Colonial, Star, International,

Balancing bicycle leant on the verge.

Trace me your wheel-tracks, you fortunate bicycle,

Out of the shopping and into the dark,

Back down the avenue, back to the pottingshed,

Back to the house on the fringe of the park.

Golden the light on the locks of Myfanwy,

Golden the light on the book on her knee,

Finger marked pages of Rackham's Hans Anderson,

Time for the children to come down to tea.

Oh! Fullers angel-cake, Robertson’s marmalade,

Liberty lampshade, come shine on us all,

My! what a spread for the friends of Myfanwy,

Some in the alcove and some in the hall.

Then what sardines in half-lighted passages!

Locking of fingers in long hide-and-seek.

You will protect me, my silken Myfanwy,

Ring leader, tom-boy, and chum to the weak.

John Betejeman

Make A Difference In Tough Times-Esther's Blog

I read this article over at Esthers blog and found it very aspirational. It is when we forget our own private concerns and worries and step outside of our own safe confines that we become true to ourselves and true to God.

We need to be constantly reminded to give from our hearts and not from our largesse. Rather than spend our time whining about life, instead rejoice that we have an opportunity to show God's unfailing Love to those who need to see it and feel it.

It is a paradox that in giving we receive much more in a spiritual sense, and surely that is where our hearts should be and not always on the size of our wallets.

Please do read this excellent article at Esther's blog and ask yourself where can I make a difference in someone else's life?

A Strong Woman

A strong woman works out every day to keep her body in shape

...but a woman of strength kneels in prayer to keep her soul in shape.

A strong woman isn't afraid of anything

...but a woman of strength shows courage in the midst of her fear.

A strong woman won't let anyone get the best of her

...but a woman of strength gives the best of her to everyone.

A strong woman walks sure footsteps

...but a woman of strength knows God will catch her when she falls.

A strong woman wears the look of confidence on her face

...but a woman of strength wears grace.

A strong woman has faith that she is strong enough for the journey,

...but a woman of strength has faith and wisdom to know that it is in the journey that she will become strong.

Anon