Loving others as you would yourself...

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?"  Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind; this is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.  All the Law and the prophets hang onto these two commandments.  ~Matthew 22:36-40

Tough questions from kids - Why do we pray for our enemies?

The main reason to pray for our enemies is because God tells us to. In fact, He tells us to love our enemies. Praying for our enemies and loving them is God's way.  Another reason is that all people, especially bad people, need prayer.  There is no better way to change them.  If we want bad people to stop being bad, we need to ask God to do it.

I Don't Ask For Your Pity, but your understanding, not even that , no, just your recognition in you, the enemy, time in us all..~Sweet Bird of Youth ..Tennessee Williams...........

The Parable of the Lost Son

There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, "Father, give me my share of the estate." So he divided his property between them.

Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.  After he had spent everything there was severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.  So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to the fields to feed pigs.  He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

When he came to his senses, he said, "How many pf my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Make me like one of you hired men."  So, he got up and went to his father.

The son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy of being called your son."

But the father said to his servants, "Quick, bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  Bring the fattened calf and kill it.  Let's have a feast and celebrate.  For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and now is found." So they began to celebrate.

Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing.  So he called one of his servants and asked what is going on.  "Your brother has come" He replied, "and your father  has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound."

The older brother got angry and refused to go in.  So his father came out and pleaded with him.  But he answered his father, "Look! All these years I have been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.  Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.  But when that son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him."

"My son," the father said, "you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.  But we have to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and now he is found."

~Luke 15:11-31

Looking out with faith and hope

1st Sura of the Qu'ran

We begin in the Name of God

Everlasting mercy, infinite compassion

Praise be to God, loving Lord of all worlds.

Everlasting mercy, infinite compassion

Eternal strength of every living being

Whose majestic power embraces us on the day of the Great Return

Only you do we adore, and to you alone do we cry for help

Guide us, O God, on the path of perfect harmony

The path of those whom you have blessed with the gifts of peace, joy, serenity and delight

The path of those who are not brought down by anger

The path of those who are not lost along the way

So be it

The Na'at

O, dear Master, Friend of Truth

O, beloved God, the divine message bearer of the Creator without equal.

You are the pure One, whom the Lord of majesty has chosen among his creatures.

O, my Friend, my King

You are well beloved of the Eternal, the Light of our eyes.

O, protector, Friend of Truth.

O, my Friend and King,

messengers of God

Thou knowest how weak and defenseless are Thy people.

Thou art the guide of the powerless and the humble in spirit,

Friend of Truth, my King.

Thou art the cypress in the garden of prophets.

Thou art the spring season in the world of knowledge.

Thou art the rose-tree in the garden of the way of harmony and surrender.

Thou art a nightingale of the world above.

The sun of Tabiz has praise the glory of the Lord.

Thou art purified, the Chosen, the Exalted.

O, thou, who hears the heart,

the true friend of God.

O, God, give me light in my heart ~

O, God, give me the light in Your heart,

and light my tongue,

and light my hearing,

and light my sight,

and light in my feeling,

and light in all of my body,

and light before me,

and light behind me,

Give me, I pray thee:

light on my right hand,

light on my left hand,

and light above me,

and light beneath me.

O, Lord, increase light within me,

and give me light and illuminate me,

these are the lights that the Lord asked for

verily to possess such light

means to be contemplated by the light.

Meditation for the day~ I pray that I may not let the beast in me hold me back from my spiritual destiny. I pray that I may rise and walk upright.

Lay upon God your failures and mistakes and shortcomings. Do not dwell upon your failures, upon the fact that in the past you have been nearer a beast than an angel.  You have a mediator between you and God - your growing faith - which can lift you up from the mire and point you toward the heavens.  You can still be reconciled with the spirit of God.  You can still regain the harmony with the divine principle of the universe.

Summertime remembered.....

Doxology - Awake My Soul......

Awake my soul, and with the sun

Thy daily stage of duty run

Shake of dull sloth and joyfully rise

To pay thy morning sacrifice

Lord, I my vows to thee renew

disperse my sins as morning dew

guard my first springs of thought and will

and with thyself, thy spirit fill

Direct, control, suggest this day

All I design or do or say

that all my powers with all their might

in thy soul glory may unite

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow

Praise Him, all creatures here below

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host

Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost

Then it doesn't matter which way you go, said the cat.................

God's grace......

We can believe that somehow the cry of the human soul is never unheard by God.  It may be that God hears the cry, even if we fail to notice God's response to it.  The human cry is for help must always evoke a response of some sort from God.  I may be that our failure to discern properly keeps us unaware of the response.  But one thing we can believe is that the grace of God is always available for every human being who sincerely calls for help.  Many changed lives are living proof of this fact.

Ode on Imitations of Immortality From Recollections of Early Childhood

To me there came a thought of grief;

A timely utterance gave that thought relief,

And I am again strong.

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:

The soul that rises with us, our life's star,

Hath had elsewhere it s setting, and cometh from afar:

Not in utter forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God who is our home.

Though nothing can bring back the hour

of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;

We will grieve not, but rather find

strength in what remains behind.

In the primal sympathy which having been must ever be;

In the soothing thoughts that spring out of human suffering.

In the faith that looks through death.

Thanks to the human heart by which we live,

thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears, 

To me the meanest flower that blows can give

Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

~William Wordsworth

O, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil. (Prayer of Jabez)

Jonah's Prayer

In my distress I called to the Lord,

and he answered me.

From the depths of the grace I called for help.

and you listened to my cry.

You hurled me into the deep, 

into the very heart of the seas,

and the currents swirled about me;

all your waves and breakers swept over me.

I said, I have been banished from your sight;

Yet I will look again to your holy temple.

The engulfing waters threatened me, 

the deep surrounded me;

seaweed was wrapped around my head.

To the roots of the mountains I sunk down;

the earth beneath barred me in forever.

But you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God.

When my life was ebbed away, I remembered you, Lord.

and my prayer rose to you holy temple.

Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit

the grace that could be theirs.

But I, with a song of thanksgiving will sacrifice for you.

What I have vowed, I will make good.

Salvation comes from the Lord.  

~Jonah 2:1-9

Tough questions from kids

The main reason to pray for our enemies is because God tells us to. In fact, He tells us to love our enemies.  Praying for our enemies and loving them is God's way.

 Another reason is that people, especially bad people, need prayer.  There is no better way to change them.  If we want bad people to stop being bad, we need to ask God to do it..