facing challenges

After reading the Gospel passage of this week, are you more like the widow or the judge? why?

A life of Thanks

What can we be thankful for? suggestions?

The Spark

Faith is a great gift; Jesus reminds us that it's not about the size of the gift but it's about using it, and stirring up the flame so that we can experience God's love in our lives.

How can we stir up the flame? What can we do, personally and as a community?

in pursuit of what?

Please, read the entry at www.heavenwards.org in the My Journal section. Thank you.

We make so many excuses as we continue to justify our unwillingness to share. I found this little "litany" and I wanted to share it with you. let me know what you think? is it right? should we take some out or add some new ones?

"I WAS HUNGRY and you circled the moon.
I WAS HUNGRY and you told me to wait.
I WAS HUNGRY and you set up a commission.
I WAS HUNGRY and you talked about bootstraps.
I WAS HUNGRY and you told me I shouldn't be.
I WAS HUNGRY and you had napalm bills to pay.
I WAS HUNGRY and you said, "Machines do that kind of work now."
I WAS HUNGRY and you said, "The poor are always with us."
I WAS HUNGRY and you said, "Law and order comes first."
I WAS HUNGRY and you blamed it on the Communists.
I WAS HUNGRY and you said, "So were my ancestors."
I WAS HUNGRY and you said, "We don't hire over 35."
I WAS HUNGRY and you said, "God helps those who help themselves."
I WAS HUNGRY and you said, "Sorry, try again tomorrow."

-- T. T. Crabtree, 1985 Pastor's Manual, (Zondervan, 1985), p. 91.

Introducing Chiara Luce Badano

On September 25th, the pope will make Chiara "Luce" Badano a blessed. She is one step closer to be a Saint. 

I never met Chiara Luce but after reading her biography I feel very close to her. She met Jesus Crucified and Forsaken first hand when she was told she had cancer. Her answer to this encounter has become my own prayer: "Jesus, if you want it, I want it, too." 

From this encounter, a new life. From her life, a whole new generation of people can learn to say Yes to the will of God and find behind everything the hand of a Father who loves us so much. 

Yes! there is still hope in the world and God's love shines brighter than ever in the life of so many young men and women who have said yes to God. 


Get To know Chiara Luce Badano:

• Chiara Luce website
• Focolare Movement Webiste
• Ordinary, extraordinary life 
• Generation X gets a saint
•  Italian teen one step closer to sainthood
• Focolare to have 1st beatified
• Blessed Chiara Luce Badano, pray for us
• Chiara Luce a luminous masterpiece
• Chiara Luce: 18-yo Focolare teen beatified (with a video)
• Video: Chiara Luce Badano (english)
• Video: Song written by a youth group about Chiara Luce

You can watch the Celebration on Sept 25 live from here:

• Live Streaming from Rome, Italy 

Life in the Father's House - The Tranquil Life

Does it make any difference that we are "found" by the Father? or, do we live our life as though we are still lost?

In other words, what does it REALLY mean to live a Christian life? Why does Paul say that we should live a "quiet and tranquil life?" Is it possible today?

Like Mary, Mother of Sorrows

A meditation by Chiara Lubich (May 1987)

There are a great many ways of honouring Mary.
But there is one which is the best of all: imitating her, act as she would on earth, as if her other self. I believe it would be the way to please her most, because it enables her, in a certain way, to return to the earth.

This is what we need to aim at, without excluding all the other possibilities we have for honoring Mary. Imitating her.

But how? What do we imitate in her?


Let's imitate her in what is essential. She is a mother, Jesus' mother and spiritually our mother. From the cross, Jesus gave her to us as such in the person of John. We have to be like her other self, as a mother. In practice we have to state this intention: during the Marian Year I will behave toward every neighbour I meet, or for whom I shall be working, as though I were their mother. If we do that, we will discover a conversion in ourselves, a revolution, not only because we will find ourselves acting as a mother even to our own mother or father from time to time, but because we will have adopted a particular, specific attitude.

A mother is always welcoming, always helpful, always hopeful, and covers up everything. She forgives everything in her children, even if they are delinquents or terrorists.

The fact is, a mother's love is very similar to the charity of Christ of which Paul speaks about.
If we have the heart of a mother, or to be exact, if we propose to make Mary’s heart our own, who stands out as the most perfect model of motherhood, then we shall be ever ready to love others in all circumstances, so that we keep the Risen One living in us. We will play perfectly the part asked of us to keep Jesus, the Risen One, present in our midst.


If we have the heart of this mother, we will love everybody, not just the members of our own Church,
but those of others too. Not only Christians, but also Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, etc., and all people of goodwill, everyone dwelling on the earth, because the maternity of Mary is as universal as the Redemption.


Even when she is not loved back, she always loves, and loves everyone.So here we have our intention for the next two weeks: to live like Mary, as if we were mothers to
everyone.