Dear Friend,

Paul and the Philippians remembered and supported one another in prayer.

A joyful, loving, and caring Catholic Community is one which keeps each other in prayer. Oftentimes, we fail to be a joyful, loving, caring Catholic Community because we fail to remember and support each other in prayer.

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Dear Friend,

Do you remember the cartoon with Wiley Coyote and Ralph the sheep dog? I use to love that cartoon. Every morning Ralph and Wiley would meet at the time clock which was mounted on a tree. As they clocked in they would greet each other and then they would go to their respective departments.

Ralph the sheep dog went to his post on the cliff and took his position as head of the sheep protection department. Wiley, true to his nature, would slink away into the forest to plan his strategy as head of the sheep acquisition and consumption department.

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Dear Friend,

A bishop friend of mine in Ireland recently sent this to me and I want to share it with you: Ten Commandments of "Human Relations"

1. Speak to people. There is nothing as nice as a cheerful word of greeting.

2. Smile at people. It takes seventy-two muscles to frown, only fourteen to smile.

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Dear Friends,

I once read a marvelous story about a country doctor in Ireland who had a very poor practice. Although his patients would pay him in eggs, chickens, vegetables at harvest, and meat at slaughtering time, his huge ledger book would contain many names, symptoms, treatments, and prescriptions, but a lot of empty boxes or columns where nothing was paid.

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Dear Friend,

What does hope in God do for humanity?

Hope shines brightest when the hour is darkest.
Hope motivates when discouragement comes.
Hope energizes when the body is tired.
Hope sweetens while bitterness bites.
Hope sings when all melodies are gone.

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Dear Friend,

A Catholic Magazine carried a story about four young men, Catholic College students, who were renting a house together. One Saturday morning someone knocked on their door. And when they opened it, there stood this bedraggled-looking old man. His eyes were kind of marbleized, and he had a silvery stub of whiskers on his face.

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Dear Friend,

Sin demands to have a person be alone. It withdraws the individual from the community.

The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him or her, and the more deeply the person becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is the isolation.

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Dear Friend,

One day, two Irish monks, James and Patrick, were walking through the countryside.

They were on their way to another village to help bring in the crops.

As they walked, they spied an old woman sitting at the edge of a river. She was upset because there was no bridge, and she could not get across on her own.

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Dear Friend,

Saint Theresa of Avila once said, "A growing Christian must have at his or her roots the life-giving waters of penitence.

The cultivation of a penitential spirit is absolutely essential to spiritual progress.

The lives of great saints teach us that self-distrust is vital to godliness.

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Dear Friend,

During this time of the Coronavirus, we are realizing that God is never pleased with those who prayed the "easy" way. Let us think of Moses, he was not a "weak" dialogue partner either, from the very first day of his vocation.

When God called him, Moses was in human terms a "failure". The Book of Exodus depicts him in the land of Midian as a fugitive. As a young man he had felt compassion for his people, and had aligned himself in defense of the oppressed. But he soon discovered that, despite his good intentions, it was not justice, but violence that came from his hands. His dreams of glory shattered, Moses was no longer a promising official, destined to rise rapidly in his career, but rather one who gambled away opportunities, and now grazed a flock that was not even his own. And it was precisely in the silence of the desert of Midian that God summoned Moses to the revelation of the burning bush: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God" (Ex 3:6).

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Dear Friend,

The Book of Genesis, through the occurrences of men and women of a far off time, tells us stories that we can reflect on in our own lives. In the Patriarch Cycle, we also find that of a man who shrewdly developed his best talent: Jacob. The biblical account tells us about the difficult relationship Jacob had with his brother Esau. Ever since childhood, there was a rivalry between them, which was never overcome later on. Jacob is the second-born - they were twins - but through trickery he manages to obtain the blessing and birthright of their father Isaac (cf. Gen 25:19-34).

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Dear Friend,

Prayer belongs to everyone: to men and women of every religion, and probably also to those who profess none. Prayer arises in our innermost self, in that interior place that spiritual authors call “heart” (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2562-2563). Therefore, it is not something peripheral that prays within us, it is not some secondary and marginal ability that we have, but rather it is our most intimate mystery. It is this mystery that prays. Feelings pray, but one cannot say that prayer is only feeling. Intelligence prays, but praying is not simply an intellectual act. The body prays, but one can speak with God even having the most serious disability. Thus the entire man prays if he prays with his “heart”.

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Dear Friend,

Francois Fenelon, a seventeenth century Roman Catholic writer said this about prayer:

"Tell God all that is on your heart, as one unloads one’s heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend.

Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, that He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you conquer them; talk to Him of your temptations, that He may shield you from them; show Him the wounds of your heart, that He may heal them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved tastes for evil, your instability.

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