Do you Hear the Word? – What is Your Goal? – Harmony & Peace – What is God’s Job?

Vincentian Day of Prayer and Fast Tuesday July 22, 2014

Dear Vincentian Family:  During these lazy days of summer, remember to pray and talk to our Lord.  We cannot take a vacation from God and He never takes a vacation from us.  I am at our cabin in the mountains, the temperature is scorching and our solace is the lake.  We sit there and look at the water and mountains and are immediately called to prayer.  One of my friends said I should hold retreats here, because you cannot help but pray when you see the majesty of our God.  What could be more beautiful than His creation?  Remember to breathe and pray; the two most important things to do and everything will be better.  Lord I thank you for your creation, my families; Church, Vincentians and my blessed spouse and our family.  Amen

Do You Hear the Word? – Are you listening?  God’s miracles and mighty deeds happen every minute of every day.  Are we afraid to hear the Word or embarrassed or perhaps too busy.  What could be more important?  Listen, you can hear Him in the silence.  He is there 24/7 and waiting to spend time with you.  Do not be afraid, fear is a feeling you get when you seem alone or abandoned.  We must trust God is always there.  Like love, trust and belief is a decision.  Believe and trust in God to help us make the decision.  Jesus is our Saviour and one thing is for sure, He is always there, when we are at the top of our game and when we strike out.  He is our intimate friend always, listen to Him and rejoice in His love.  We can bring His love to others we encounter each day and especially those in most need.  Just listen, simple enough.  Open our ears and our heart to God’s word and you will truly have a great day and so will others because of your peace and security surrounded by the wisdom and love of God.

What is Your Goal? – How do you measure success?  Sometimes our days are filled trying to succeed in so many things.  Reaching goals society sets for us is so unimportant if it is not heavenly based.  Our goal should be led and directed by the Trinity who has no limits.  When we let God make our goals a reality there is no failure, fatigue or worries.  His goals are the most rewarding.  The Holy Spirit is always with us directing and guiding.  The Holy Spirit is our great gift and a sure thing to reach our goal.  The one thing we sometimes forget when God is our guide and we succeed in the achieving the goal which we always will with God, is to give the glory to Him.  We are always His messengers in our Vincentian work and any success we have belongs to Him.  Remember our goals are insignificant if they are not God’s goals.

Harmony and Peace – So, we hear the Word and God is the leader of our goals, so we can now focus on harmony and peace.  It seems we are always struggling for harmony and peace.  The work to achieve this is ongoing, lifelong.  We have a major tool to help us in the Eucharist.  Each day we receive the Eucharist we meet Christ amidst His people and He is ready to bring harmony into our lives and the lives of those we love.  It sometimes seems peace is out of reach in our world.  We pray constantly for peace.  Always remember to have peace in yourself first.  We have the body of Christ to heal the world and we pray daily for peace.  During the Eucharist we consume Christ’s body and His blood.  It is so difficult sometimes to get this concept.  I recognized that while talking to my grandson on his first communion.  It is not magic, but a miracle.  Miracles are not easy to explain, we just know and believe.  Jesus exists in the Eucharist and when we receive we carry Him with us.  He exists today and every day for our peace and harmony.  When we praise our Lord and receive His body and blood, we will put smiles on the grumpiest faces.  We will be drawn to appreciate others, especially those we serve and those who are with us daily as well as our co- workers.  Appreciate everyone God places before us and praise God.

What is God’s Job? – A good question to reflect on.  God is love!  Therefore His job must be to love us.  Even when we are not thinking about Him, He is there loving us.  Who forgives us more than God?  Such a powerful love!  He sends the Spirit to ruffle our feathers and remind us the Trinity is there.  He gave us Jesus to love beyond words and He places people in our lives to follow.  People like St. Vincent de Paul, Blessed Frederic Ozanam, Blessed Rosalie Rendu, St. Louise de Marilac and all holy people in your lives.  Reach and feel the love.

Blessings,

Lynn

Lynn L’Heureux is Special needs co-coordinator & Advisor of the Society of St Vincent de Paul Calgary Alberta Canada.

Her newsletter is translated into 3 languages, hopefully soon to be 4. They have a group which brings the prayer into China and it is translated into Mandarin and other Chinese dialects.

Subscribe to her weekly newsletter Vincentian Day of Prayer and Fast (English and Spanish) by sending an email to calgaryssvpadm@gmail.com