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Volume 28, # 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 2013 |
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![inspiration, motivation, Apple Seeds, [Apple]](AppleSeeds-1c.jpg)
![inspiration, motivation, Apple Seeds, [Apple]](AppleSeeds-2c.jpg)
Plant these "seeds" well and water often. Enjoy!
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Inflame Intellects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Robert M. Hutchins
"Education is not to reform students or amuse them or make them expert technicians. It is to unsettle their minds, widen their horizons, inflame their intellects, teach them to think straight, if possible."
A Daily Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Henry Cardinal Newman
"May He support us all the day long, till the shades lengthen and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in His mercy may He give us a safe lodging, and a holy rest and peace at the last."
Know Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bernard M. Baruch,
Bits & Pieces, 3/1992"Only as you know yourself can your brain serve you as a sharp and efficient tool. Know your own failings, passions, and prejudices so you can separate them from what you see."
A Blessing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fr. Brian Cavanaugh, TOR
"Be resolved in believing ‘I am a blessing!’ Therefore, be the blessing, just realize you are not the only blessing."
A Better Way to Live . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Og Mandino,
p. 96"Rule Twelve…Never neglect the little things. Never skimp on that extra effort, that additional few minutes, that soft word of praise or thanks, that delivery of the very best you can do. It does not matter what others think, it is of prime importance, however, what you think about it. You can never do your best, which should always be your trademark, if you are cutting corners and shirking responsibilities. You are special. Act on it. Never neglect the little things!
Wisdom Seeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Arthur Ward
"Wisdom is the habit of being so grateful for our blessings that we forget to be irritated by our inconveniences."
True Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anonymous
"Your true character is revealed by the clarity of your convictions, the choices you make, and the promises you keep. Hold strongly to your principles and refuse to follow the currents of convenience. What you say and do defines who you are, and who you are…you are forever."
The Church Exists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anonymous
"The Church exists for the double purpose of
gathering in and sending out."
On Tolerance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ernest Kurtz, et al,
The Spirituality of Imperfection, p. 197"Tolerance…is not a grudging putting-up-with but a loving identification with – the tolerance that is the antechamber to forgiveness, the tolerance that is the flowering of a spirituality of imperfection. When we accept ourselves in all our weakness, flaws, and failings, we can begin to fulfill an even more challenging responsibility: accepting the weakness, limitations, and mix-up-ed-ness of those we love and respect. Then and only then, it seems, do we become able to accept the weakness, defects, and short-comings of those we find it difficult to love."
This Nation Stands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Gardner
"The idea for which this nation stands will not survive if its highest goal that free men and women set for themselves is an amiable mediocrity."
Poverty of Heart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . St. Peter Julian Eymard
"Be natural in your meditation. Use up your own stock of piety and love before resorting to books. Remember that our God prefers the poverty of heart to the most sublime thoughts borrowed from others."
The Mother Sings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Henry Ward Beecher
"What the mother sings to the cradle goes all the way down to the coffin."
A Common Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anonymous
"Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishment toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results."
What You Become . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jim Rohn
"Beware of what you become in the pursuit of what you want to attain."
Man’s Deepest Fear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Eldredge,
Wild at Heart, p. 45
"This is every man’s deepest fear: to be exposed, to be found out, to be discovered as an imposter, and not really a man.…A man bears the image of God in his strength, not so much physically but soulfully. Regardless of whether or not he knows the biblical account, if there’s one thing a man does know he knows he is made to come through. Yet he wonders…Can I? Will I? When the going gets rough, when it really matters, will he pull it off? Every man feels that the world is asking him to be something he doubts very much he has it in him to be. This is universal; I have yet to meet an honest man who won’t admit it."
Your Profession
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vincent Van Gogh"Your profession is not what brings home your paycheck. Your profession is what you were put on earth to do with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling."
Grow Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cherie Carter-Scott
"Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were."
Hiding Behind Masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sower’s Seeds of Encouragement, p. 35A man came back from a weekend retreat experience, and when a neighbor asked him how it had gone, he said, "I died!"
Puzzled, the neighbor asked him what he meant. "You see," the man answered, "I went to this thing not knowing what to expect. But in the process of that long weekend, I discovered that I had spent my whole life hiding behind a lot of masks. I realized that I had never even let my wife see me as I really was. I’d been playing games with her, and playing games with my children, and playing games with others – never letting anybody know who I really am. The worst of it was to discover that even I didn’t know myself. I was not in touch with my own honest feelings about myself. And, as all of this was being exposed over the weekend, I died over and over again."
He went on, "It is a painful thing for a middle-aged man to discover that he is not even in touch with his own honest feelings about himself. I am convinced," he said, "that I had to go through this death experience in order to become the new person that I hope to be now."
As Scripture says, "Unless a grain of wheat falls to earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (Jn. 12:24).
We’re All Missing Something . . . . . . . . . . . .
Kate DeSmet, THE CRITIC, Spring 1993, p. 21Bishop Ken Untener, now deceased, had his right leg amputated just below the knee when he was in his late teens. Ever since, he wore an artificial leg and continued to play golf, handball, racquetball, and his favorite love, hockey.
Losing his leg, Bishop Untener said, was difficult but not overwhelming. "It wasn’t like someone who was a great runner just lost a leg. I lost a bad leg (from a congenital defect). I didn’t take it casually, but it just took a little adjustment." He recalls the visits he made as a youngster to the shop where his artificial leg was made. Other kids needing replacement limbs would also be there.
"We’d sit in a room all together and there was a certain bond because we were all missing something," Untener said. "And we wouldn’t let the others get away with anything. It didn’t take a social worker to make us aware of that. It made each of us feel normal to be together like that.
Untener continued, "And that’s what the church is supposed to be. It’s where people get together, acknowledging together that we are all sinners and that we can challenge each other to be what we can be. The lesson I learned is that we all are imperfect and all are failures, and we’re all missing something we once had."
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