Words to Lift – Possessions and Generosity– Sins of the World – Let Your Light Shine

Vincentian Day of Prayer and Fast Tuesday October 7, 2014

Dear Vincentian Family: We are into October and I know our days have flown. October is a full month of feast days. Some days to celebrate are:   Oct. 1^st – St. Therese of Lisiex, 2^nd – Guardian Angels, 4^th St. Francis of Assisi, 7th, Our Lady of the Rosary, 11^th St. John 23^rd , 18^th St. Luke, 22^nd St. John Paul II, 28^th Sts. Simon and Jude. It is also the month of the Holy Rosary and we are encouraged to pray the Rosary each day. It is a beautiful prayer to meditate and become one with Mary and Jesus. It is also good to pray the Rosary for peace and change in our world. We really need divine intervention for peace although, I do believe it starts with each one of us and a smile sharing God’s love. I pray for all of you to be at peace and one within the Vincentian Family. Amen

Words to Lift – Our Father who art in heaven! How glorious, how holy and wonderful it is to have a Father in Heaven. The words of the prayer always lift me. I have said before it is the ultimate prayer. Words are so sacred and once said they are forever in the ears of the listener and we cannot take them back. We must always be aware of what we say and ensure we are not careless with our words. Our words always drift through time and we do well to make them blessings and happy words rather than hurtful and mean words. I think you can agree our harsh words stay with us and we should always use comforting words which make us feel good. Words are powerful and when spoken they do not have a delete button. Good news, we can pray constantly and ask the Holy Spirit to help us with lifting words and we can pray for our tongue as I do each day. We can also take a vow of silence, but uplifting words are better than a vow of silence. “Your Word is a lamp unto our feet.” (Ps. 119) Words are sacred; they prove our love and service to others. Amen!

Possessions and Generosity – How much are you willing to lose? God never abandons us. Even if we lose everything He is still there. In fact reality is we should abandon all things keeping us from God. Generosity does not mean giving everything away, it means to give both of our time and treasure and is do not focus on our possessions more than we focus on God. God is our foundation for true holiness. It is all we need. Give of our possessions in generosity to those in need. Build an intimate relationship with our Lord and build it with our friendships, family, workers, acquaintances and especially those we serve. Choose what is right and good. It will be pleasing to God and you will feel the goodness. Nothing really matters except God even if we lose everything, we always have God. God’s love, the unity of Jesus, and the direction of the Holy Spirit is who we should follow. Who are we following?

Sins of the World – Jesus took away the sins of the world. He asks us to do the same by loving, serving and praying. Sometimes it takes understanding. We pray to be Holy. This is not a selfish request.  Holiness means doing good deeds every day in spite of the bad in the world. Praise the good of others and brush off the criticism. God gives you the strength. You are never alone. There is so much jealousy, hatred, mistrust, anger and anguish around us and we are called to dispel this with God’s help. Removing these tensions in the world is one circle at a time. You cannot change the world, but you can change your circle and someone else will change their circle and around it goes constantly. Jesus wants us to imitate. If we love as Jesus loves, we are living in the kingdom of God now. Everything we do in imitation of Christ is a fruit that has grown as a result of following Christ. In this way we can take away the sins of the world.

Let Your Light Shine – “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine, all the time. Don’t try to blow it out; I’m going to let it shine.” Looking back on childhood and another lesson my grandmother taught me. She was the queen of quotes and they were usually very profound and memorable. Letting our light shine is instant peace, it includes forgiveness, love, caring and belonging. It truly shows the light of Christ and all it means. We must let our light shine always. It heals others and us. Let Your Light Shine to dispel fear which is darkness so strong it refuses to let the light of Christ enter. We all have the light of Christ. Do not hide it. Let it shine. Sing the childhood song, “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine all the time”. Be the light of Christ to others. Look up Luke 8:16-18

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.