We are in NY and the newspapers are filled with the news of the day. Page after page of scandal. I hope people didn’t miss this story. This is the story of 8 Long Island teens who are changing the world for the better.
Do yourself a favor. Read this story and rediscover your faith in your fellow human.
Merrick teens design clothes, jewelry for charity
I am not a big fan of my own birthday. I usually let it pass without much fan fare. With the advent of social networking we now know when everyone’s birthday is. I received many awesome birthday wishes. Thanks to all.
If you want to do something form my birthday (which I wouldn’t expect) please consider this e-mail I sent to the APeX mailing list this evening.
“Let there be peace on earth
and let it begin with me.”
We can not find, expect, or create peace in the world unless we first find it in ourselves.
Our job is to recognize the peace that already lives within us, which we are not seeing.
When we experience a lack of peace in the world or our would, the first questions should be,
“Where am I not at peace?”
“Why am I not at peace?”
“What lie am I telling myself about myself?”
[via giantmonster]
Things I love:
* The democratizing power of the internet to give people access to people the would never meet in a very low cost way.
* Creative ideas
* People willing to share what they have.
This has all three.
Michael James is a musician from California.
For lent he has created a web site called 40 Days of Praise.
Each day of lent he is posting a video of a praise song he has written. The video includes playing instructions, a brief introduction to the song, and him playing it. He also provides the sheet music for you to download.
A book that was started in the jungle of Costa Rica is finally done. It is a short reflection on prayer.
It is FREE!
Read it. Copy it. Share it.
Download: here
ALSO, very exciting news about a new project is coming. I am working with three other people (with a full cast of characters helping from time to time). Sign up for the big announcement here:
| Information about the new project: |
You are just a few laughs away from letting a whole lot of good stuff in. You are just a few kisses away from letting a whole lot of good stuff in. You are just a little bit of relief away from letting a whole lot of good stuff in.
prayer
On my prayer page yesterday and today I have this prayer.
Those words are chosen very carefully.
The problem I have when I try to solve a problem is I try and solve the problem myself.
I might pray for help, but what I am really asking for is strength and fortitude so I can do it myself, with my gifts and talents.
No mater what it is we want, there is already way for it to happen. We just don’t know what it is.
For every 2 million pieces of information that comes in to our mind through all our senses, we only process 2000 of them. This is done by the reticular formation in the brain. It’s job is to have you only pay attention to what is important to you.
For example, when you are in a crowded room, all of the sounds from all of the conversations are going into our ears and into your brain. You are able to filter out all the excess noise and only pay attention to the person you are listening to.
That is what is important to you.
But in the person in the conversation next to you says your name, then all of a sudden your focus will shift and you can hear the conversation next to you.
They aren’t talking louder. The reticular formation just found a piece of information that think is important.
If we have the faith we profess, then we believe that prayers are answered.
The problem I have is I miss them being answered because I ask for something, but also ask for the way that I think it can best be filled.
If we are open to the possibilities that our prayers could be answered in ways we never dreamed then when unexpected possibilities pop up the reticular formation will recognize it.
So we pray that we are open to the answer to are prayers in unique and different ways that we would never dream.
[ pray with | need prayer]
Prayer for this morning “I am ready for any and all doors which will open themselves to me today, no matter how unexpected or strange, which will allow my soul to live its dreams.”
My other prayers today.
We promise we will never send you two e-mails in 24 hours.
We just receive the same question a number of times and thought you might have the question as well.
But first a story…
A few years ago a youth minister from NC gave me an envelope of cash with the instructions, “The next time you are in Central or South America make sure this finds good use.” The envelope sat on my desk for almost two years. I felt bad about this, but for some reason, something just told me it was fine. I knew the right moment would come.
Last May I found myself in Chimbote Peru and I handed the money to Fr. Jack. I told him the story of where the money came from. Later that night Fr. Jack found me and asked if I could come meet some people.
Fr. Jack introduced me to a young couple and their 11 year-old son. Fr. Jack told me how the young man had an infected eye. (I saw the eye and “infected” doesn’t begin to describe what was going on.) Fr. Jack then informed me that $90 from the envelop of cash was going to pay for an operation that was going to save the eye and the boys sight.
I could easily spend $90 at the mall and give it a little thought. For the members of Our Lady of Perpetual Help who on average make about $1 a day, that is three months of income.
The reason I tell this story…I received a number of e-mails from people asking if there was some way they could help out.
If you would like to make a donation to the work of the parish (which has over 35,000 parishioners and that is NOT a type), you can do it through our web site. If you don’t want to make a donation on line, but would rather send a check, just e-mail me and we can work that out.
On-line donations can be made at
http://www.apexministries.com/store/donateOLPH.htm