Whoops ... guess I need this one tattooed on my arm ....

My homepage, the page that comes up when I click to enter the wonderful world of the world-wide web, is MyCatholic.com.  It's a great site since I can pick and choose which news feeds, rss', personal links that I want to see each time I get online. 

One of the choices is "One Minute Meditations" from St. Josemaria Escriva's writings ... today's was a real thwack upside the head for me:

You are not happy because you make everything revolve around yourself as if you were always the centre: you have a stomach-ache, or you are tired, or they have said this or that...


Have you ever tried thinking about Him, and through Him, about others?

– St. Josemaria Escriva, Furrow, #74

Ouch!  He always puts things so succinctly ... 

And the knitting content pictured above is because it makes me happy to add a bit of knitting to everything I do ....
 

Just had to post this ...

... if only so I commit it to memory.

You feel a gigantic faith. He who gives you that faith, will give you the means. -- St. Josemaria Escriva, The Way #577 

... and a pretty picture of a lace design I just finished ... because it makes me smile ...

Birthdays: Happy Birthday, Mr. President!

Happy 201st Birthday, Mr. Lincoln ....

you don't look a day older than 56!

Feast Day: St. Angela Merici

St. Angela Merici (1474-1540) probably best known as the founder of the Ursulines, opened two schools for the education of girls and was a third-order Franciscan.  Orphaned at the age of ten, St. Angela saw that the girls of that age were not being educated.  In 1535, she brought together a group of women (under the name, Company of St. Ursula) who remedied this iliteracy by creating schools, although St. Angela preferred to send her associates to teach girls in their own families since one of her favorite sayings was,

Disorder in society is the result of disorder in the family.

It was by educating children in theplace where they lived that she tried to effect an improvement in social conditions. St. Angela created a new way of teaching but change was handled gently as shown by this quote:  Beware of trying to accomplish anything by force, for God has given every single person free will and desires to constrain none; he merely shows them the way, invites them and counsels them.

St. Angela Merici, pray for us!

Feast Day: Conversion of St. Paul

Conversion of St. Paul by Peter Paul Rubens (1601/1602)

Feast Day: St. Lucy

Legend of St Lucy, from The Golden Legend

1480, Oil on oak panel

Sint-Jacobskerk, Bruges

Feast of St. Lucy -- December 13th

Those whose hearts are pure are temples of the Holy Spirit.

– St. Lucy

My Thinking Spot ...

St. Peter Canisius (1521-1597)

Today's "Reflections from the Saints" on myCatholic.com (which is the BEST homepage I've used yet!), is a quote from Jesuit St. Peter Canisius ...

If you have too much to do, with God's help you will find time to do it all.

Now this is all well and good as long as what I'm doing is the GOOD!  I tend to "have too much to do" because I get caught up in the minutiae of daily living rather than focusing on the big picture of getting me and mine to Heaven! 

I've been thinking about this alot lately.  Maybe it's because I recently had a birthday ... not a momentous, earth-shattering day (like turning 50 or something), but still a time to look back, reflect and fix what ain't workin'. I've realized just how much of my time is spent in the minutiae ... in the self-serving ... in the muck and mire! 

For instance:  I just recently reactivated my Facebook account as I realize that it is a great way to connect with those far and wide ... friends in Austria ... or Rome ... or Australia ... or even here in the States.  A chance to see and read what we're all doing.  This is all good stuff ...

BUT ...

I spent over an hour this morning just trying to work my way around and trying to add things to my Facebook "profile".  I searched out friends ... and acquaintances ... and fun games to play ... but this is not what I SHOULD have been doing. 

Facebook can be a major time-waster; so too, many of my other online activities.  They are good things, but can lead to overindulgence ... self serving  ... one-upmanish in which I really shouldn't be participating. 

The solution? 

Who knows? 

Cutting back on my online time ... obviously.  Being aware of the "danger signals" and keeping all in perspective ... duh!  Letting the internet and online activities set the schedule for my day ... NO!

So, what have I learned over the last month or so of meditating on all this?

If I have too much to do ... activities that are the good, the true and the beautiful ... with God's help, I will find the time to do it all.  All the other stuff ... too bad! God shows us the way ... it's just that sometimes He has to hit me upside the head to get my attention.

Can I be self-disciplined enough to make a change.  Can I separate the online wheat from the proverbial chaff?  Am I making sense or am I being too Quixotic?