Day 42 – 2 hours, day 43 2 hours      428.5 to go

Friday was again about forgiveness and penance.  The second reading in the OOR was by a Saint I had never heard of, St. Aelred, wrote of Christ’s model of brotherly love.  It was about love of our enemies.  It was about how Jesus prayed for those who slaughtered and killed Him; “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”  Here is the Son of God, who is in the rapture of dying for the sins of mankind pausing to remember those who beat Him, mocked Him, crowned Him with thorns, and then nailed Him to a cross.  OUR GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD, HE REIGNS FROM HEAVEN ABOVE, WITH WISDOM POWER AND LOVE, OUR GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD!  Here is a line by St. Aelred at the end of this reading.  “If one wishes to resist the promptings of his sinful nature he must enlarge the whole horizon of his love to contemplate the loving gentleness of the humanity of the Lord….But if he wishes to prevent this fire of divine love from growing cold because of injures received, let him keep the eyes of his soul always fixed on the serene patience of his beloved Lord and Savior.” – Look like it’s time for all of us to get over some of the stuff that happened to us during our childhood and maybe even get some professional or at least some spiritual help and assistance to cope and deal with our dysfunctions!!!!!!!

I also took a great opportunity to pray with a group of guys I was conducting safety training for on Friday.  The company I was working for is owned by devout Christians and I have started a tradition of starting our annual class with a prayer of thanks.  The “boys” who work for this company on the most part, have little or no faith and I have used this opportunity to thank God for keeping all of them safe.  This year we had two accidents that resulted in very minor injuries but could have been fatal.  I took about 10 minutes in the beginning of the class to talk about how God looks after all of us and intercedes, in one case by sending an additional angel to assist a guardian angel with catching one of the guys as he fell from 15 feet from a roof.  I pray that what I said will be recalled at times and that they may be led to a closer relationship with God.

On Saturday, I had another wonderful occasion to pray in a way I encourage all of you to do the next time it presents itself.  My daughter called me around noon as I was returning from a job in New Haven and was desperate about how sick she has been and how she had not slept in two days due to her illness.  I first convinced her, in my special Daddy way, to call in sick for work.  I then changed my plans for the day & went to take her to a walk-in clinic.  I called her mother and “suggested” that she get involved with helping our little girl and at first she did not take the bait.  After I got her some meds and got her home, I called her mother again to give her an update.  I stayed with my daughter until I left to attend a retreat gathering and called her mother again, who now took the bait and went over to spend some quality time with Kate in her time of suffering.  Before I left, I laid hands on her and prayed for healing and peace.  I encourage all of you to, once in a while; to do the same for your children.  Let God direct your words, place your hands on their heads, and ask for God’s grace to fill them with what they need.  It will honor them and honor your God.

My chaplets were for the people of Haiti and my rosary on Friday was for vocations & yesterday was for my children.

Peace