What are you thankful for?
I am thankful that I have a job at a hotel and I get to see people from all over the world come into it. Really it’s a blissing for me. What about you?
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I am thankful for my wife, our family, our home, retirement, healing, health (pretty good for 72), faith …
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Thankful for understanding the Trinity in the powers becoming again
Happy Thanksgiving to all,
Stephen
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Thank you for your positivity. I am thankful for my Family, my Church Family, and my Friends. I am thankful that I was born into a free-ish Country.
I too worked in a Hotel for a time in my life and it was sort of a retreat for me. I worked the night shift (front Desk) and it gave me time to read books and to Pray. Most of the guests were already checked in and asleep. Then around 4 A.M. I had to do the Night Audit, deliver receipts/newspapers, and get the morning coffee brewing. Thankfully, most nights, I did not run into many problems. Perhaps an answer to my Prayers (I would often Pray for individual guests).
When I drive past this Hotel, it feels like a Holy place for me, because I spent so much time with God (in His Word and in Prayer) while working there. I sometimes still Pray for some of the guests (and wonder where they are and how they are doing). “Mr. Brewer” especially. He was a terrible human being when he was intoxicated, which was often. He had a lot of responsibilities in his life. He was a project manager, a husband (a bad one at that), and a father. His drinking did not help him, it made him not pleasant to be around. And I sometimes Pray still for his conversion (after fifteen years have passed since I worked at the Hotel).
I don’t know if you believe in Prayer, but I invite you to implement this practice of Praying for Hotel guests. They may never know that you are Praying for them. I’m sure you have regular guests like we did and you start to get to know these individuals. I think of “Miss Fulllove,” “Mr. James,” and “Mr. Fitzgerald” who were so kind to me when they would check-in.
I am grateful for this time that I worked at the Hotel (even though I only took the job after being let go from a good-paying job after the company I worked for was bought out). I was going crazy on unemployment and I took this job to do something. I was making more on unemployment, but this job gave me my dignity and purpose back. I have since moved on, but look fondly to my short time there.
Hi Steve! You wrote a few days ago about life being a a kind process that brings us forward in our understanding of who we really are. I forget the words that you used……but I’ve been thinking about it………something a priest once told you. Please repeat the phrase for me. I have been thinking about the concept however……..and what occurred to me is that our life is, “The school of hard knocks”. I can see that I’m addicted to the cultivation of vanity and false pride, but that life continues to show me that I am insignificant…..and this is very painful for me. But at the same time, until these contaminations of the spirit are removed, they stand as a barrier between myself and God. All the apparent misfortunes are to teach me about my insignificance. But because I wish to think of myself as a powerful, capable, superior person (which is ludicrous), when something doesn’t pan out the way that I aspired, it is daunting to my spirit. This is painful. At the same time I understand that we are instructed to approach God with a joyful heart. Jesus tells us to “Rejoice and be exceeding glad…..”. Therefore, to accept my insignificance, and at the same time be joyful and enthusiastic in the cultivation of worship…..I am working on this……because a broken heart can stand in the way of my ability to give praise and thanks. I know that I am rambling…..but I am trying to get a grip on what I am beginning to understand.
You’re 72. I’m 82 in March.
I’m thankful for this new-found ability to feel that God is my best friend, that He loves me, in spite of my competitive tendencies. He is “the greatest”. And in my tiny world, I want to be “the greatest”. I’m in competition with God. But gradually, He’s breaking me down, little by little. Instead of feeling the despair of defeat, I am beginning to understand that He’s helping me to grow in the right direction.
Peace to all ,
So true Peter1 and I often have to think what he said logically so that I can remember the words
The Priest was a Mystic, I believe, and he said that we cannot pick and choose the doctrine to fit a lifestyle, and we cannot perfect what was derived from infinite wisdom and improve on God’s word.
If we truly believe in the divinity of The Christ, we believe in everything he taught on earth and in heaven.
He said if everything were written, not even the world could contain the books so we know where to go and get the answers through the Catholic Church.
He spoke of the brain surgeon that used the brain surgery manual to perform surgery on his own head and how logically I see this is successfully imposible, I believe,
And then learning the truth, and the Holy Spirit, I have become to know the Holy Spirit as a family of God, the church in the father son and the mother Mary always together in the Holy Spirit family always together as a holy family existing before creation becoming again in all one family.
Peace always,
Stephen
A pastor I had in Virginia once said that this world is a saint-making machine. That was only one line in a sermon, but I think the gist of it was that the world is full of troubles and opportunities (and blessings), and our response determines what kind of person we become.
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That’s it! A “saint-making machine”!
I have not yet examined/scrutinized the dynamics of the temptation of “Adam and Eve”, by reading what others of the church have spoken on this matter. But what comes to mind is as follows:
The first factor or ingredient is the spirit of independence. “Let me explore the arena, or expanse, of activity beyond the jurisdiction of the understanding that God is the Supreme Master and Controller, my only Support, and my only Shelter.”
From this demeanor of the heart, expands the conviction that, “I am the lord of my own world. It is by my strength, and by my efforts, that I bring satisfactions into my life. If I succeed, according to the judgments of men, I will feel proud, and if I fail in this sociological context, I will feel, despair, defeat, unworthiness.”
In this way our lives become filled with struggle and anxiety, and we labor for sustenance and success by the sweat of our brow, figuratively speaking, or literally.
And Jesus says in response, “Oh ye who are heavy-burdened, accept the yoke that I bear.” Meaning that as much as we abandon our spirit of independence, and accept that all of our actions, (thoughts, words, and deeds) are to be done for His pleasure, while understanding that the apparent success and failure are actually in His hands - this affords us the relief of the burden of self-judgement. And the satisfaction of the devotional heart that swells with the sense of loving reciprocation with God, makes the worldly orientation less significant in our lives. One begins to feel, “My cup runneth over.”
But the man who strives on his own, with false-pride and and self-judgement is caught in the never-ending grip of anxiety of concern over issues of success and failure, victory and defeat, honor and dishonor.
In this way toiling, day after day, year after year, experiencing frustration and pain and constant stress…….if one is fortunate, his desire for the cultivation of his false-pride weakens, and his heart begins to enquire for finding a solution to the “heavy burden” that he carries, through his days, and sleepless nights. And when his heart is prepared in this way, he becomes able, by degree, to accept, to embrace the understanding that God is in control, that “He has the whole world in His hands”, and that all He asks of us is our love. In this way, he begins to feel a great relief. He is still working. But now he is accepting the “yoke” that Jesus speaks of and wishes to share with us. Now he is beginning to work for the Master, instead of for himself.
But to come to this understanding, and to accept and embrace this orientation of the heart…..he has had to go through the arduous process of cultivating an independent spirit. And if he is fortunate, he has responded to God’s therapy. In this way, “this world is a saint-making machine”, set up by God for our reclamation. Everything is under His control, His determination; but at the same time, He affords us this tiny measure of free will. This is my little understanding.
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