Monday, 2 September 2013
Hey y'all. I suppose we are enjoying the strike. No? Sick of It? Me too. We can only pray ( I'm not planning to protest).
I came across this useful application on Googleplay ( I don't know if it's available on blackberry app store, I'll ask ) it's called Verbum. It's an app that allows you access Daily Mass Readings ( yes, your own mobile missal ), Catholic Bibles (notice the s) and several books on our faith. It is definitely a keeper.
secondly, I came across a very very useful website. It is apt on teachings of the church, it's the Year of Faith so it's a plus, I take that back, it's a Bonus because it's free of course ( I like awoof). The website address is http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/a/
Please check them out, but from time to time I would post necessary topics here for reference.
Monday, 6 May 2013
| Five things I wish I had known... about being a father ( for men) |  |  |  |
by Robert Andrews
As I have met many fathers around the country at conferences and home-school conventions, I am often reminded of my own time as a father with three children in the 1970s, 80s and early 90s.
Charles Dickens used a phrase to describe the time of the French Revolution that in many ways describes my experience as a parent – it was the “best of times and the worst of times.” Nothing in my life has given me as much fulfillment and joy as being a father to my children. I can also now see that nothing has been as difficult, even though at the time I was blissfully oblivious to most of my weaknesses and shortcomings. Only as my children have become adults have many of my own failures surfaced.
What follows are five of those “blind spots” to which I was completely unaware as a young father and that have come to light only in the past few years.
1) I did not see that loving my children is different from worshiping them
We are all in some way unconscious idolaters in our hearts. For some of us, our prevalent idol is our job, money, success, personal recognition, fame, leisure time, entertainment, sports, sex, intellectual attainment or even religious achievement or Christian ministry. These are all perfectly innocent pursuits in themselves until they come to occupy the central place in our hearts around which all else revolves – the place reserved for God alone.
I did not recognize it at the time, and I would have vehemently denied it if you had suggested it to me, but my children became my predominant idol of choice, though there were others always waiting in the wings, vying for my attention. I taught in their Christian high school and coached their basketball teams, coached all their little league teams and was always eyeball deep in all they did.
Only from the distance of more than a decade have I realized that much of the recognition, success and achievement that my involvement in their lives encouraged was for me as much as for them, because their success made me look like a successful father. “My, what well-behaved, smart, successful children Robert and Jill have. They must be wonderful parents.”
All of our idolatry is really in some way the exaltation of ourselves. I have discovered that my children had indeed, very subtly, become idols in my life. I was too busy congratulating myself for the wonderful parenting job I was doing for that thought ever to enter my mind!
2) I did not know that the goal of parenting was not to be the perfect parent or even the best parent I could possibly be, but to be a parent who is a repentant sinner
I did not know that the way to a real relationship with my children was to walk in the light with them, not by living in darkness, convincing myself that while I was not the perfect parent, I was at least in the top echelon. Oh, there were occasional flashes of lightning that illuminated the fact that I was nowhere close to a perfect parent, but after a brief time of uneasiness, I was always able to return to my comfortable darkness.
1 John 1:7 encourages us to “walk in the light,” and “walk” implies a way of life. I didn’t understand that an open, daily recognition of weakness and dependency on the Lord and not my superior parenting skills was the way to true relationship with my children. 1 John 1:7 says that “fellowship (genuine relationship) one with another” is the result.
When my sons were early teenagers, both came to me on separate occasions for help in resisting the pornography that a neighbor boy had shown them. I counseled them on the dangers of pornography, how addictive it is and how destructive it can be to their future relationship with their wives. I then prayed with them that God would give them the power to resist. I was being the perfect father, standing for righteousness, but not being a transparent, repentant one. I didn’t understand that parenting by the gospel meant walking in the light with them, confessing to them my own struggles with pornography over the years, and then praying for us both that in our weakness God would be our power. I missed a golden opportunity to strengthen my relationship with my sons.
3) I did not know that I shouldn’t compare my children with other children, either positively or negatively
In 2 Corinthianng those sins squarely and openly in his own life and then repenting! Without this step, “What you do speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you say” will be the order of the day. All children have a powerful “hypocrite-detector” that improves exponentially in effectiveness as they grow older. Comparing our children with others is foolish because it leads to self-righteousness when children are judged as superior, or discouragement and even rebellion when parents feel their children never seem to reach their standard of achievement.
How we approach our children, by law or gospel, reflects how we see our relationship with God. Since I am most generally an “older brother” from the parable of the prodigal son, my tendency is to see myself, and therefore my children, as superior. A “younger brother” will see himself and therefore his children as failures, never quite measuring up. But we are all sinners, loved by God with a love that is not in any way affected by our sin. It is seeing God’s love for us as fathers that will allow us to love our children in the same way and free us from comparing them with others.
4) I did not know that I was creating a default mode in the hearts of my children that would either help them to think the best of others or foster judgment and criticism.
When my oldest son was in college, he was the head-resident on his floor in his dorm, charged with the very loose responsibility of keeping order on the floor. On a visit to campus, I asked him about the other boys on the floor, which included a good number of rather rowdy football players. “Oh Dad, they are just a bunch of meat-heads.” His attitude of scorn and judgment struck me like a thunderbolt and I heard the Lord say to me, “He got that critical attitude straight from you!”
I am sorry to say that much of the heritage I have left with my children that they now carry with them is judgment and criticism. I have an opinion about what everyone ought to do, even when I have no responsibility in their lives, and I do not hesitate to make that opinion known. How much better to love them with a love that covers all things and does not expose sin but believes and hopes for the best in them (1 Corinthians 13).
Too bad that is not my spontaneous reaction! My default mode is to be critical and judgmental. As they were growing up my children constantly heard me be critical of others and the decisions they made, the life style they chose to live and the friends they kept.
It is not my job to even have an opinion about what others do if I have no God-given authority in their lives. They answer to their own master and not to me (Romans 14:4).
I was sharing my besetting sin of critically judging everyone I see with a friend. His reaction was, “Oh, we all do that.” My response to him was, “So, what’s your point? Do the sins of others excuse me to sin? Does ‘everyone does it’ give me a free pass?”
As we Andrews are recognizing this sin, acknowledging it and repenting, the Lord is graciously beginning to reset our default mode, even as adults. This is the only possible way for me to “Be holy, even as I am holy”—not by trying harder but by facing my sin, acknowledging it, repenting and trusting the Spirit within to change my critical heart. I know it will be a life-long process.
Have you ever recognized a besetting sin of yours reproduced in your children? What was it?
5 – I did not know that there are times to be a sympathetic listener and not an answer man who can “fix the problem”
James 1:19 says to be “swift to hear and slow to speak.” Legions are those to whom I have done just the opposite. I have had correct biblical answers to questions they really weren’t asking me, though I was convinced they should be. More often than not, they already knew the answer—they just needed me to listen, understand and then encourage them to trust the Lord for the power to do what they already knew to do. There is nothing less attractive than an answer man who is always the teacher and never the learner himself.
Just recently I fell into the trap again of giving a close friend the right answer for what he should do about a vicious personal attack by a member of his extended family, someone with whom he had grown up and who supposedly loved him. His confidence as a man was shaken. He did not need to hear initially what he should “do,” but that I loved him, as did God, Who also believed in him, was pleased with him and had him right on schedule in his spiritual growth. There would be plenty of time later to let God show him a course of action.
Interestingly enough, this family crisis is bringing my friend’s immediate family together; what the enemy meant for evil, God intended for good.
This has been my pattern over the years with my wife and children as well. Their struggles have more often than not elicited an answer as to what they should do rather than addressing the insecurity that comes from wondering whether or not their problem-solving father really cares about them as people. As the one who represents God in my family, my attitude is to be a reflection of His, and His primary concern is His relationship with me, not what I do, what I say or the theology I believe. If I understand His great love for me in spite of what I do, what I do will naturally and unconsciously change.
Conclusion
Seeing these five failures in my parenting that we have discussed over the past few weeks has surprisingly been a source of encouragement to me and a means of strengthening the relationship between my wife and me and our grown children. Grandfathers and grandmothers are still little children in God’s classroom of learning to face their sin, repent and walk by faith!
Does it make sense to you that openly
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May 2013: Month of the Our Lady
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
| 1 St. Marculf |
2 St. Athanasius |
3 St. James the Lesser |
4 St. Florian |
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6 Bl. Edward Jones |
7 St. Rose Venerini |
8 St. Peter of Tarantaise |
9 Ascension Day [holy day of obligation] St. Pachomius |
10 St. Solange |
11 St. Ignatius of Laconi |
| 12 |
13 St. John the Silent |
14 St. Matthias |
15 St. Dymphna |
16 St. Simon Stock |
17 St. Paschal Baylon |
18 St. Pope John I |
| 19 |
20 St. Bernardine of Siena |
21 St. Eugene de Mazenod |
22 St. Rita |
23 St. John Baptist Rossi |
24 St. David I of Scotland |
25 St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi |
| 26 |
27 St. Augustine of Canterbury |
28 Bl. Margaret Pole |
29 St. Maximinus of Trier |
30 Corpus Christi St. Joan of Arc |
31 St. Mechtildis |
Thursday, 11 April 2013
April 2013: Month of the Holy Eucharist
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St. Julie Billiart |
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FRIDAY HOMILY: The 5,000 Fed - Miracle on the Mountain
What do you have?
The Feeding of the 5,000 appears in each of the Gospels. Jesus had sent the Twelve on their first missionary journey and upon their return began to relate all the wonderful things that had happened. About the same time John the Baptist was beheaded. Certainly, this seemed like a good occasion for a quiet retreat to be built up spiritually and get rested for the remaining opportunities for ministry.
(Catholic Online) - Miracles always involve the impossible - otherwise they wouldn't be miracles! Impossible, however is a relative term. What may be an insurmountable obstacle to one person may well be within the realm of capability of another.
For a young father, simply having a drawer full of batteries may be all that is required to be a miracle worker in the eyes of his three year-old whose toy stopped working. The little boy's face was full of wonder when the lights and siren of his miniature fire engine were working once again.
A doctor, skilled in the medical arts, may seem like a miracle worker to a patient who is desperately trying to find relief from an ailment. "Oh, that doctor is a miracle worker!" she exclaimed.
Then there are the supernatural miracles - the ones where it requires divine intervention to bring about the solution. This is the kind we are dealing with in today's gospel.
Here, in John 6:1-15, we have the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000. Feeding that many people without adequate resources is quite a challenge, but the task increases in difficulty when you factor in that this is only the number of men, with the women and children an additional number!
The Feeding of the 5,000 appears in each of the Gospels. Jesus had sent the Twelve on their first missionary journey and upon their return began to relate all the wonderful things that had happened. About the same time John the Baptist was beheaded. Certainly, this seemed like a good occasion for a quiet retreat to be built up spiritually and get rested for the remaining opportunities for ministry.
Unfortunately, the people followed Jesus and the twelve as they crossed the Sea of Galilee and went up into the hills. As Matthew records, "there was a great throng and he had compassion on them." (Mt. 14:14)
In addition to the inconvenience - their time of retreat was ruined - the apostolic company had another problem. How are they going to take care of all these people, who obviously came without make any plans themselves on how or where they would eat?
As the time grew late, the disciples came to Jesus regarding the dilemma, suggesting that Jesus dismiss the crowd so they can go and take care of themselves. He, however, has other plans.
The Lord Likes to Begin Where We Are
"You give them something to eat." This imposing statement from Mark's account must have seriously rattled the disciples. In fact, Philip's estimate, in responding to Jesus question about buy enough bread, indicated that it would take about two-thirds of a year's wages to accomplish the work.
Often the Lord wants to show us that many of the problems we face are too big for us to handle. At the same time, he wants us to offer whatever resources we might have as a part of the solution.
Andrew, for example, responded to the same question from a different viewpoint. "There's a boy here with five barley loaves and two small fish." He must have thought that at least we can get started with what they had.
Many years ago I remember seeing a sign on the wall of a small business in our community that read, "We've been doing so much with so little for so long, that we are now able to do almost anything for nothing."
From that measly beginning, our Lord was able to feed the entire company and have twelve baskets of fragments left over.
In the economy of the kingdom, this is how it always seems to begin. When Moses was facing the daunting task of leading the children of Israel, God asked him a question. "What do you have in your hand?" God took that rod as unique point of contact with the power of God manifesting on the earth. As Scripture later declared that the Rod of Moses had become the Rod of God.
One thing needs to be said about God's intervention, it cannot be reduced to a mere formula. For example, if we had ten loaves and four fish, would we be able to feed 10,000 people?
This becomes clear in another feeding account where Jesus feeds 4,000. Here he uses seven loaves and a few (more than two) fish. Obviously, it is not about proportion but God's intervention!
In one of his Angelus messages from last July, Pope Benedict stated, The miracle was not worked from nothing, but from a first modest sharing of what a simple lad had brought with him. Jesus does not ask us for what we do not have.
Rather, he makes us see that if each person offers the little he has the miracle can always be repeated: God is capable of multiplying our small acts of love and making us share in his gift.
Fr. Fernandez, in his great series In Conversation with God, writes, [Our Lord] does not wish us to remain without doing anything if the instruments which we have at our disposal are insufficient or even scarce. Jesus asks us for faith, obedience, daring and always to do whatever we can; not to omit using any human means ...
that is available to us and at the same time to count on him, conscious that our possibilities will always be very small.
Don't wait until we have all the human means, don't wait till all difficulties disappear. On the supernatural plane there is always fruit: Our Lord sees that; He blesses our efforts and He multiplies them.
When we see God's working in our lives at various points, we can easily proclaim with St. Paul his great doxology from Ephesians, Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Eph. 3:20, 21)
Great Works Begin with Thanksgiving
This miraculous feeding has always been seen by the Church Fathers as an image of the Eucharist. Using a familiar formula for Jewish tradition, there is the breaking of the bread and the giving of thanks. The Greek work for "thanksgiving" is eucharisteo, where we get our word "Eucharist."
In this great miracle of feeding, as in the Last Supper and, in fact, every Jewish prayer of blessing over food, thanksgiving precedes the meal.
Giving thanks is something that I learned as a child. Whenever someone would give me a treat or a gift, my parents would always remind me, "Now, be sure to say 'thank you!" And I would.
Unfortunately, we can easily get to the point where we are only thankful when things go well. We hold our thanks for a goody or gift.
In the economy of the Kingdom of God, thanksgiving is the platform upon which we base our actions. We begin with thanks, knowing that he is able to do that "exceeding abundant" work we proclaimed from Ephesians.
St. Paul told the Thessalonians, to Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. (I Thess. 5:16-18)
When we are facing our challenges, this is the time to offer thanksgiving, recognizing that the Lord is our source for what we are about to encounter. We can't operate on conditional thanksgiving.
The feeding of the 5,000 was more than a dinner miracle to impress the gathering. It provided a connection to God's provision of Israel during their wilderness wandering with Moses. I opened the door for Jesus to move the discussion beyond manna to the Messiah and his present ministry as the bread of life.
In addition, Jesus is giving each of us an invitation to live a life of multiplication, taking what we have and trusting ourselves to Him. This begins with offering to God what we have and then give him thanks for what he is about to do.
In May of 1982, Blessed John Paul II appeared at Murrayfield Rugby Stadium in Edinburgh, Scotland to address the 40,000 youth that had gathered to greet him. His challenge that day, was built on this great miracle of our Lord.
Saint Andrew gave Jesus all there was available, and Jesus miraculously fed those five thousand people and still had something left over. It is exactly the same with your lives.
Left alone to face the difficult challenges of life today, you feel conscious of your inadequacy and afraid of what the future may hold for you. But what I say to you is this: place your lives in the hands of Jesus. He will accept you, and bless you, and he will make such use of your lives as will be beyond your greatest expectations!
In other words: surrender yourselves, like so many loaves and fishes, into the all-powerful, sustaining hands of God and you will find yourselves transformed with "newness of life", with fullness of life.
Don't wait until we have all the human means, don't wait till all difficulties disappear. On the supernatural plane there is always fruit: Our Lord sees that; He blesses our efforts and He multiplies them.
When we see God's working in our lives at various points, we can easily proclaim with St. Paul his great doxology from Ephesians, Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Eph. 3:20, 21)
Great Works Begin with Thanksgiving
This miraculous feeding has always been seen by the Church Fathers as an image of the Eucharist. Using a familiar formula for Jewish tradition, there is the breaking of the bread and the giving of thanks. The Greek work for "thanksgiving" is eucharisteo, where we get our word "Eucharist."
In this great miracle of feeding, as in the Last Supper and, in fact, every Jewish prayer of blessing over food, thanksgiving precedes the meal.
Giving thanks is something that I learned as a child. Whenever someone would give me a treat or a gift, my parents would always remind me, "Now, be sure to say 'thank you!" And I would.
Unfortunately, we can easily get to the point where we are only thankful when things go well. We hold our thanks for a goody or gift.
In the economy of the Kingdom of God, thanksgiving is the platform upon which we base our actions. We begin with thanks, knowing that he is able to do that "exceeding abundant" work we proclaimed from Ephesians.
St. Paul told the Thessalonians, to Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. (I Thess. 5:16-18)
When we are facing our challenges, this is the time to offer thanksgiving, recognizing that the Lord is our source for what we are about to encounter. We can't operate on conditional thanksgiving.
The feeding of the 5,000 was more than a dinner miracle to impress the gathering. It provided a connection to God's provision of Israel during their wilderness wandering with Moses. I opened the door for Jesus to move the discussion beyond manna to the Messiah and his present ministry as the bread of life.
In addition, Jesus is giving each of us an invitation to live a life of multiplication, taking what we have and trusting ourselves to Him. This begins with offering to God what we have and then give him thanks for what he is about to do.
In May of 1982, Blessed John Paul II appeared at Murrayfield Rugby Stadium in Edinburgh, Scotland to address the 40,000 youth that had gathered to greet him. His challenge that day, was built on this great miracle of our Lord.
Saint Andrew gave Jesus all there was available, and Jesus miraculously fed those five thousand people and still had something left over. It is exactly the same with your lives.
Left alone to face the difficult challenges of life today, you feel conscious of your inadequacy and afraid of what the future may hold for you. But what I say to you is this: place your lives in the hands of Jesus. He will accept you, and bless you, and he will make such use of your lives as will be beyond your greatest expectations!
In other words: surrender yourselves, like so many loaves and fishes, into the all-powerful, sustaining hands of God and you will find yourselves transformed with "newness of life", with fullness of life.
culled from Catholic Online
by Father Randy Sly, the Associate Editor of Catholic Online and a priest with the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, established by the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, through the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus. He is currently the chaplain of the St. John Fisher Ordinariate Community, a priest in residence at Our Lady of Hope Catholic Church and Director of Pro-Life Activities for the Ordinariate. He is a popular speaker for parishes, apostolates and organizations.
Pope Francis on What the Resurrection Means for our Daily Lives
Dear Brothers and Sisters, good day!
In the last Catechesis we have focused on the event of the Resurrection of Jesus, in which women have played a special role. Today I would like to reflect on its meaning for salvation. What does the Resurrection mean for our lives? And why, without it, is our faith in vain? Our faith is based on the death and resurrection of Christ, just like a house built on foundations: if they give in, the whole house collapses.
On the Cross, Jesus offered himself taking sins upon himself our and going down into the abyss of death, and in the Resurrection he defeats them, he removes them and opens up to us the path to be reborn to a new life. St. Peter expresses it briefly at the beginning of his First Letter, as we have heard: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you"(1:3-4).
The Apostle tells us that the Resurrection of Jesus is something new: we are freed from the slavery of sin and become children of God, that we are born to a new life. When does this happen to us? In the Sacrament of Baptism. In ancient times, it was normally received through immersion. Those to be baptized immersed themselves in the large pool within the Baptistery, leaving their clothes, and the bishop or the priest would pour water over their head three times, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Then the baptized would emerge from the pool and put on a new vestment, a white one: they were born to a new life, immersing themselves in the death and resurrection of Christ. They had become children of God. I
In the Letter to the Romans Saint Paul writes: you " For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, "Abba, Father! '"(Rom. 8:15). It is the Holy Spirit that we received in baptism that teaches us, leads us to say to God, "Father." Or rather, Abba Father. This is our God, He is a father to us.
The Holy Spirit produces in us this new status as children of God, and this is the greatest gift we receive from the Paschal Mystery of Jesus. And God treats us as His children, He understands us, forgives us, embraces us, loves us even when we make mistakes . In the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah said that even though a mother may forget her child, God never, ever forgets us (cf. 49:15). And this is a beautiful thing, beautiful!
The Holy Spirit produces in us this new status as children of God, and this is the greatest gift we receive from the Paschal Mystery of Jesus. And God treats us as His children, He understands us, forgives us, embraces us, loves us even when we make mistakes . In the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah said that even though a mother may forget her child, God never, ever forgets us (cf. 49:15). And this is a beautiful thing, beautiful!
However, this filial relationship with God is not like a treasure to be kept in a corner of our lives. It must grow, it must be nourished every day by hearing the Word of God, prayer, participation in the sacraments, especially the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist and charity. We can live as children! We can live as children! And this is our dignity. So let us behave as true children! This means that each day we must let Christ transform us and make us like Him; it means trying to live as Christians, trying to follow him, even if we see our limitations and our weaknesses.
The temptation to put God to one side, to put ourselves at the center is ever-present and the experience of sin wounds our Christian life, our being children of God. This is why we must have the courage of faith, we must resist being led to the mentality that tells us: "There is no need for God, He is not that important for you". It is the exact opposite: only by behaving as children of God, without being discouraged by our falls, can we feel loved by Him, our life will be new, inspired by serenity and joy. God is our strength! God is our hope!
Dear brothers and sisters, we must first must firmly have this hope and we must be visible, clear, brilliant signs of hope in world. The Risen Lord is the hope that never fails, that does not disappoint (cf. Rom 5:5). God's hope never disappoints!. How many times in our life do our hopes vanish, how many times do the expectations that we carry in our heart not come true! The hope of Christians is strong, safe and sound in this land, where God has called us to walk, and is open to eternity, because it is founded on God, who is always faithful.
We should never forget this; God is always faithful! God is always faithful! Be risen with Christ through Baptism, with the gift of faith, to an imperishable inheritance, leads us to increasingly search for the things of God, to think of Him more, to pray more. Christianity is not simply a matter of following commandments; it is about living a new life, being in Christ, thinking and acting like Christ, and being transformed by the love of Christ, it is allowing Him take possession of our lives and change them, transform them, to free them from the darkness of evil and sin.
Dear brothers and sisters, to those who ask us our reasons for the hope that is in us (cf. 1 Pt 3:15), let us point to the Risen Christ. Let us point to Him with the proclamation of the Word, but especially with our resurrected life. Let us show the joy of being children of God, the freedom he gives us to live in Christ, who is true freedom, freedom from the slavery of evil, sin and death! In looking to our heavenly home, we will also have a new light and strength in our commitment and in our daily efforts. It is a precious service that we give to our world, which is often no longer able to lift its gaze upwards, it no longer seems able to lift its gaze towards God.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Facebook and me, wonderful me
Christian author Joshua Harris was among the many who have joined Facebook. But he left one week later. His abrupt departure was prompted by a number of things, but one reason in particular sparked the most discussion on his blog (www.joshharris.com). For all of us who remain on Facebook, this thought is worth keeping in mind:
“How do I put this? I found that [Facebook] encouraged me to think about me even more than I already do – which is admittedly already quite a bit. Does that make any sense? Without any help from the Internet I'm inclined to give way too much time to evaluating myself, thinking about myself and wondering what other people think of me. If that egocentrism is a little flame, than Facebook for me is a gasoline feeding the fire. I need to grow in self-forgetfulness. I need to worry more about what God is thinking of me. I need to be preoccupied with what He's written in his word, not what somebody just wrote on my ‘wall.’”
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