Tag Archives: Service

Thought For The Day 05/18/14

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This Is The Word Of The Lord

Sunday, May 18th, 2014

Post #1162

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http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=HN.607998748848359003&pid=1.7

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Teach Us to Serve

Loving Father, you care for the human family with the gift of your Son, and by urging us to carry your love into the world. Make us attentive to Christ’s example of service. 

Help us to follow him in announcing your reign. May we look to all the ministers of the early Church as models for our work among your holy people. Inspire us to be advocates for the poor, and make us mindful of the dignity of each human person.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

Amen.

A prayer found on
http://www.eseton.org/documents/Worship/Easter%20PDFs/Eng_05_18_14_Color.pdf

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Author of Today’s Reading

St John the Apostle

It is God who calls; human beings answer. The vocation of John and his brother James is stated very simply in the Gospels, along with that of Peter and his brother Andrew: Jesus called them; they followed. The absoluteness of their response is indicated by the account. James and John “were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him” (Matthew 4:21b-22).

For the three former fishermen—Peter, James and John—that faith was to be rewarded by a special friendship with Jesus. They alone were privileged to be present at the Transfiguration, the raising of the daughter of Jairus and the agony in Gethsemane. But John’s friendship was even more special. Tradition assigns to him the Fourth Gospel, although most modern Scripture scholars think it unlikely that the apostle and the evangelist are the same person.

John’s own Gospel refers to him as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (see John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2), the one who reclined next to Jesus at the Last Supper, and the one to whom he gave the exquisite honor, as he stood beneath the cross, of caring for his mother. “Woman, behold your son…. Behold, your mother” (John 19:26b, 27b).

Because of the depth of his Gospel, John is usually thought of as the eagle of theology, soaring in high regions that other writers did not enter. But the ever-frank Gospels reveal some very human traits. Jesus gave James and John the nickname, “sons of thunder.”

http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1242

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Today’s Gospel Reading

John 14:1-12 NIV

Jesus Comforts His Disciples

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Jesus the Way to the Father

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

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Reading 2

1 Peter 2:4-9 NIV

The Living Stone and a Chosen People

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

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Thanks Be To God!

Amen

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Copyright © 2011-2014 “MandysPath” Ministry

Thought For The Day 11/23/12

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Changing “Black Friday” To “Act Friday”?

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http://cdn5.groovypost.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/black-friday.png

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Imagine what a harmonious world it could be if every single person, both young and old, shared a little of what he is good at doing.

Quincy Jones

http://www.dailycelebrations.com/service.htm

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Now that you’ve eaten your fill of your Thanksgiving Dinner and those neatly wrapped leftovers are at the ready for the requisite hot turkey open-faced sandwich planned for tonight’s dinner, what will you be doing with the rest of today? Will you have been like the nearly 160 million other people throughout the country, hovering around the entrance of your local retail establishment in the wee hours of the morning like a plague of locusts hovers over crops just before annihilating the plants? Did you even wait that long given the new retail lure of Thanksgiving Day shopping? Are you guilty of trampling over the guy next to you to grab the last of the $1000.00 computers which they are offering for $250.00? Mark my words and listen to the wisdom of Mamma Mandy who learned some very valuable advice from my own mother more years ago than I care to remember….”If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”. The hook has been baited by retail establishments. You are already in the door the moment you discover that the quantity of $250.00 computers that are available is 2 not 200! So before you become a Black Friday “Humbug”, why not consider avoiding the mall entirely, and instead, think about establishing a new family tradition to kick off the Christmas season? Why not embrace the true reason for the season and change “Black Friday” into “Act Friday”?

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I actually was patting myself on the back thinking I had come up with perfect thing to light that inner fire of inspiration within your hearts, only to discover that churches actually encouraged something similar in 2010 called “Bless Friday”. And identical to the intent begun by those churches, I want to encourage you to take a moment and give some thought as to what God expects of us as we prepare to celebrate the birth of the Savior of the World! How about beginning the holiday season by thinking about service to others? And what better way can there be than to do something to banish hunger or want or despair that has become an epidemic, albeit an invisible one, in our communities here in the United States and throughout the world.

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Now I am not going to make any specific suggestions this morning. I would much rather you search your own heart to discover just where it is leading you. However, I do want to remind you that you are all intimately familiar with that miracle of miracles…..the internet. You are, after all, reading my post here thanks to the information highway that has become a part of your everyday existence in this, the 21st century! So why don’t you let your fingers do the walking across the keyboard or even across your very own yellow pages for some ideas of places that might need your help? The possibilities are endless!

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1 Peter 4:10-11 ESVAs each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen

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Please remember the millions of our brothers and sisters as well as furry companions today who are suffering from the effects of Superstorm Sandy. Give as much as you can, as often as you can to the following organizations or groups.

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The American Red Cross

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Text REDCROSS to 90999
or click
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Staten Island Gift Cards For Relief
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or
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The American Humane Association
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or by texting HUMANE to 80888

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Copyright © 2011-2012 “MandysPath” Ministry