I was an early adopter of the Internet as a means of teaching and providing resources for spiritual growth, and have been at it ever since 1996, when we connected to the Internet via phone modem and excruciatingly slow speeds. It seemed like an amazing opportunity to reach people, so I began learning
everything I could about how to create web pages, which was difficult at that time -- you had to actually know how to code html back then, and upload it to a web space using very clunky FTP software. Email was the hottest thing going and relatively easy to use, so priority was given to A Daily Spiritual Seed. I used Eudora Pro ($85 -- yes you had to purchase email apps!!) to create the emails and managed the list from Eudora's address book. Nowadays, this is all so much easier, with
powerful email apps, online listserves to many subscriptions and mailings, and lightning fast Internet speeds. The technology journey has been interesting, and as it evolved, so did the kind of outreach that could be offered. More on this tomorrow. Your financial support helps us keep going. Thanks for your consideration. Phil St. Romain Internet Ministry Coordinator ---
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eligible for tax-deduction. Online donations (secure payment link): Check payments: - Heartland Center for Spirituality Internet Ministry 3600 Broadway Great Bend, KS 67530 Gratitude gift will be sent to
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My dear Jesus, my savior, is so deeply written in my heart, that I feel confident, that if my heart were to be cut open and chopped to pieces, the name of Jesus would be found written on every piece.
- Ignatius of
Loyola - (What name(s) would be written in your heart? Invite the Lord Jesus to take residence there this
day.) |
Ti 2:1-8, 11-14; Psalm 37:3-4, 18 and 23, 27 and 29
Lk 17:7-10 Jesus said to the Apostles:
“Who among you would say to your servant
who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field,
‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’?
Would he not rather say to
him,
‘Prepare something for me to eat.
Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink.
You may eat and drink when I am finished’?
Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?
So should it be with you.
When you have done all you have been commanded, say,
‘We are unprofitable
servants;
we have done what we were obliged to do.’” Reflection on the Scriptures
A life of serving may not seem significant when we are
caught up in all our ambitious clamoring, but its impact tells another tale. Evidence of her training can be found in my sisters who continue her good example in their families, and even in my brothers and me who, by the grace of God, managed to marry women remarkably like our mother. We do well to learn to recognize the gifts of those who serve among us, which we are prone to overlook.
In today’s gospel, our Lord illustrates that the habit of serving depends on commitment, not accolades or even gratitude. Perhaps this is what the letter to Titus was getting at through identifying the need for training. When the going gets tough – and it will – sometimes we simply must keep loving and serving. Grace comes to us in those times, saving us from godless behavior and allowing us to persevere toward the hope of our salvation,
following our Lord who indeed “gave himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people as his own, eager to do what is good.”
Lord, please help us to be eager to do what is good, to serve willingly and joyfully. Give us eyes to recognize true greatness in our midst
in the form of servanthood and help us to express gratitude for their gifts. Thanks be to God.
by Edward Morse
The Existence of God by Francois Fenelon SECTION XXVI.
Of generation Therefore let who will
suppose that there were moulds in the animals that lived four thousand years ago, and affirm, if he pleases, that those moulds were so inclosed one within another ad infinitum, that there was a sufficient number for all the generations of those four thousand years; and that there is still a sufficient number ready prepared for the formation of all the animals that shall preserve their species in all succeeding ages. Now, these moulds, which, as I have observed, must have all the
configuration of the animal, are as difficult to be explained or accounted for as the animals themselves, and are besides attended with far more unexplicable wonders. It is certain that the configuration of every individual animal requires no more art and power than is necessary to frame all the springs that make up that machine; but when a man supposes moulds: first, he must affirm that every mould contains in little, with unconceivable niceness, all the springs
of the machine itself. Now, it is beyond dispute
that there is more art in making so compound a work in little than in a larger bulk. Secondly, he must suppose that every mould, which is an individual prepared for a first generation, contains distinctly within itself other moulds contained within one another ad infinitum, for all possible generations, in all succeeding ages. Now what can be more artful and more wonderful in matter of
mechanism than such a preparation of an infinite number of individuals, all formed beforehand in one from which they are to spring? Therefore the moulds are of no use to explain the generations of animals without supposing any art or skill. For, on the contrary, moulds would argue a more artificial
mechanism and more wonderful composition.
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