Your faith has healed you!

"'A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house,' And (Jesus) did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith."

Matthew 13:57-58

Jesus needed the faith of the people to work miracles in his time and he needs our faith to work the miracles in our lives as well. Otherwise, Jesus would have been like a traveling magician, going from town to town awing people with his "tricks." But Jesus constantly told the people, "Your faith has healed you..." Isn't that an amazing thing to realize? The faith of the folks in Jesus' hometown was not enough for him to heal. I think he was showing us that we need to participate in our own healing. Isn't not just a magic show...but we need to take hold and participate through faith. Stunning, that. Today, let's participate in our own healing by coming to Jesus in faith and thanksgiving for so many blessings in our lives! Celebrate a beautiful summer weekend in awe of our glorious God! Love, heidi

Pray for what God wants!

"God always wants more than what you can wish for...

You have the chance to transform these wishes into prayer.

'Father, you know what is best for me. Fill my longing with your Holy Spirit.'"

Fr. Wilfrid Stinissen, "This is the Day the Lord Has Made"

This was so right-on for me this morning! Our wishes and dreams can only be this big...(put your index finger and thumb about an inch apart). But God, who knows the Big Picture, can give us so much more than our dreams can imagine! Like we learned from the feeding of the five thousand in Sunday's Gospel, Jesus can take the little we have and multiple it by a gazillion...providing so much more than we come with--or even think we can attain. Today, let's not limit ourselves by praying for what we want, but let's pray for what God wants to give us--infinitely more! Love, heidi

Call in the cavalry!

"The psalmist says it very well: we are not strong at all. God is. It's a very liberating thought. It means that we can all get up tomorrow. There is nothing at all that can take us down as long as God is in our lives."

Joan Chittister, OSB, "The Psalms"

That is indeed liberating! Think of the scariest situations in your life and reflect on how they all turned out. Did they turn out OK? If you are reading this you must have survived! We can all think of times and situations that were fearful for us and we can all think back on how, somehow, we got through the difficulties. Maybe that is why older people have a certain calmness and peacefulness about them. They have the gift of recollection of seeing God working in their lives. I get impatient with myself for calling out to God when my own efforts are failing, not necessarily first thing. I struggle and struggle, then finally, heave a final sigh and let God take the heavy end. Why does it take me so long? Today, let's thank God for the strength and energy we are given when we call in God's cavalry...and let's try to call God in sooner rather than later! Love, heidi

Twelve bags full...

"So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with the fragments from five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat."

John 6:13

Whenever I hear this reading, as I did Sunday, I think of the leftovers. Probably because I heard a homily one time about "Why so many leftovers?" The priest pointed out that wouldn't it be a more perfect miracle if there was JUST enough food for everyone? What was the point of the twelve baskets of leftovers? The answer was simple and stuck with me these many years later. God is extravagant. God is over-indulgent. God wants to show love to us over-abundantly. It was pointed out to us Sunday that the number twelve was significant to the Jewish people, meaning complete, fulfilled. But, numbers, meh! I was and still am fascinated by the over-indulgence of God. And I observed how I experience it. We went to the Boise Saturday market and it was so completely huge and vast for me. My head was spinning with all the amazing things people were selling on the magnificent summer morning. The people were so fun to watch that I tripped and stumbled over anything on the ground because I was so overwhelmed by watching the people. It was such a vast feast for me to watch I felt overstimulated! It was SO much! It was twelve full baskets of leftovers, to be sure...and then some. In our lives God is constantly over-indulging us with love and goodness! Let's get out there and revel in it today! Love, heidi