Apparently, people need twelve hugs a day to feel well. These may be physical, verbal or visual hugs.

This is so because we need food for our feelings, a food coming from other people or spiritual food that we get from prayer or meditation*.

I must agree with it when I watch our kids, who, by their nature, need much hugging all the time, even in a conflict situation.

I must agree with it when I am waiting for and appreciate each good word, a compliment from my husband, children and friends.

I must agree with it when I experience extraordinary peace and appreciation when I spend time with God at the Adoration. He has seen me and could say a lot of good things about me whan I was still under the fig tree.

“When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”
“How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

(John 1: 47-48)

If it is so, I shall hug today, in a more aware way, above all those whom I love very much, so that they never doubt that. And I wish the same to you.

Have a nice day.

* read in “7 Habits of Highly Effective Families” by Stephen R. Covey

Dorota

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” – we read in today’s Gospel.

For each one of us God has a wonderful plan, full of peace and love. It is also full of invitation to step beyond ourselves and not stand in one place, to trust more. In spite of everything.

But sometimes it happens so that our life becomes very complicated. We do not understand anything any more and we fight against the temptation of resignation, we may tend to fall into scepticism, bitterness and depression.

At such moments it is worth coming with the questions to God, as Mary did and not sticking to our doubts. We may then hear ““The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you”.

It is good to change the change the perspective at the prayer and to have the confidence that beyond all the porblems and difficulties there is always love and grace, thet all things have their sense, that God knows best and He will lead us in a perfect way. We must only believe that “all things are possible with God”.

“But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”” (Judges 6:23)

When I read these words at the beginning of the day, my attitude to many matters and situations changes immediately.

Although I am grown-up, I need such assertions very frequently much as such a sensibility is outdated today. But I need a sense of security, I need a good word, I need a warm relationship.

I wonder how my family feel today. Do I give them this feeling of security in return, do I support them? Not only by thoughts but with concrete words, gestures. Perhaps they need it as well but they are ashamed to talk about them?

Regardless of what it is like, I would like to assure them about it because the Lord has told me about it today and has strengthened me.

Because “with God all things are possible”. (Matthew 19: 26)
Dorota

Although we experience the height of the summer, long holidays unfortunately are not for everybody and we have always too few days of annual leave. What is more, after the leave we have not less but more to do. We run, followed by reality, and in everyday life kindness and friendliness are not very frequent. So sometimes weariness and dispiritedness follow, because perheps it is not worth trying after all?

But regardless of the situation, regardless of the mood and the situation, we should repeat the words of the psalm:
“I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken..” (Psalms 16:8)
Before Him, before His face, I am really myself. Before Him I will always find out the truth about myself. I sahll acquire confidence and trust. With Him t is easier to fulfil all obligations. I can always count on His support and He will always encourage me to do what is good and beautiful.

With Him I can always start from the beginning. In spite of everything.

Dorota

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. ( Matthew 13: 46)

A lot of time passed since we met at the last programme, Programme 4 (ME + God). We meet in precisely the same group so we know each other a little, although each family comes from a different place.

When we shared our experiences, it was easy to see that each one of us, when coping with the difficulties of the previous year, felt relief when surrendering all of them to God and letting Him lead. Although this is costly and sometimes requires a lot of effort. But the awareness of the pearl of great value, the Kingdom of Heaven, is worth this effort.
Greetings from Trzęsacz, from Programme 5: WE + God 🙂

Dorota

When I reflected on today’s Gospel, I thought about different crop that the same seed can bring. Isn’t it just like with our different duties, things to do, for example making a tea or a coffee for somebody. Can we talk here about different amounts of crop?
I thought that maybe if we co this tea right, the crop may be thirty times what was sown. If we do it willingly, it may be sixty times, and if joyfully – a hundred times. Right, willingly, joyfully. The same thing to do and we can express with it so much.
Today I am sending you my greetings as joyfully as I can:)

Father Jarosław

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick”. (Matthew 9:12b)

Retreat is the time when we show our wounds to God. First you think that you need to arrive combed and well clad so as to make a good impression on Him. Sometimes you can also come very worried, feeling that you don’t fulfil the expectations.

But for God it is important that you are accepted regardless of what you are like. And that you are so long awaited in father’s house not because of what you can offer but to be offered. To be assured that you are loved and to be healed because in today’s Gospel He says about Himself that He’s a doctor.

He is an exceptional doctor. When He exposes the sore and wounded places He does not humiliate the patient but does it very gently. Sometimes everything is dried up, sometimes the wounds rankle and sometimes the patient has lost hope for a good prognosis. It’s good because we can finally let the Specialist take care of us. He is a patient doctor who has time. There is no queue in the waiting room and He knows the whole medical history, all the injuries and wounds. And He know the best cure.

We call Him through our sufering, limitations and sin that He can touch with His love. The first contact aid.

M

“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household”. (Ephesians 2: 19)

For the Lord even what we think of ourselves is important, how we call ourselves. He knows how these words can lift us up and strengthen us and which words have the opposite effect. He wants us to have a helathy self-confidence built on Him. Therefore He gives us through His wor a beautiful identity: fellow citizens with God’s people and members of His household. He looks at us as His people. He invites us to be His dear and near, members of His household.

When we believe His word and look at Him with His eyes, it alsways lead us to a happier and better “me”.

Basia

For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. (2 Corinthians 1:5)

Dear Reader, if you are the kind of person who always sees the donut not the hole, we’re happy for you! The world needs you so much!!! However, if you don’t belong to that minority group, feel invited to stay with us for the next several lines.

You might have not noticed until now that even in real hardships the Lord is giving you reasons for joy and so many proofs of His concern for you. He’s sending His Angels, often in the person of actual people, who for instance will tell you on the phone: “Where are you? In a shop? is there a mirror anywhere near? Come closer to it. What can you see? A smile? See, that’s not so difficult.”

And yet among many memory disorders, apart from total amnesia, there’s a very dangerous disease of “selective memory”. It chooses from the whole day only the things that went wrong. The dinner was too late. Even though you should be grateful that it took place at all, and you all could gather and have it together (which is not so obvious, if someone in the family is ill or away). 

Of course one should neither ignore real suffering, but try to help it, nor neglect problems that need solution. But optimism brings us closer to God’s view of things. The lives of the most cheerful people I’ve ever met were not all roses. But when they checked the balance of each part of the day, they were always “in the black,”, and not “in the red”. They could notice even the smallest things that worked out well. And they were also able to appreciate other people’s efforts in a similar way.

Margaret

It is on Her day that six years ago we found our home. It was after a short search but after a two yeras’ prayer of our children to find “a house with a garden”. The keys to that house with a garden we received also on Her day (12 September).

So many times we experienced in our lives help, friendship and dscrete presence of Mary. We like to remember that our youngest son was born at 12.00 – when the the bells for Angelus Dominus were ringing.

In my view the words of today’s Bible reading refer so much to her:

“A loyal friend is a powerful defence: whoever finds one has indeed found a treasure. A loyal friend is something beyond price, there is no measuring his worth. A loyal friend is the elixir of life, and those who fear the Lord will find one”. (Sirach 6: 5-17)