July rains drenched the flower beds and our Leland Cypress looks as if it has grown another two feet.It's HUGE!
The picture shows our little tree when it was planted eight years ago.
The tree, as we see it today, will be shown later.
Six foot tall weeds greet me as I try to maintain the garden after week-long dumps of rain.
Oh well.
It's still a beauty to behold.
Lush green greets us daily as corn grows high in the fields.
Soybeans, potatoes and whatever else is out there, perhaps growing a bit too fast?
I'm not a farmer but this might just be too much of a good thing after June's drought.
The sun peaks out for a moment today.
YES!
It's going to be a good month.
A different month.
Instead of writing daily, as I so miserably failed to do last month, I'm simply going to forward a daily quote from my browsing.
Longer Blog notes, provided infrequently, have been moved to my other blog site, lingerlongerwithgail.blogspot.com
August 1, 2018
“Oh, the comfort - the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person - having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away.”
August 2
"We can't have full knowledge all at once. We must start by believing; then afterwards we may be led on to master the evidence for ourselves.” Thomas AquinasAugust 3
TODAY IS THE OLDEST YOU'VE EVER BEEN; YET THE YOUNGEST YOU'LL EVER BE, SO ENJOY THIS DAY WHILE IT LASTSAugust 4
"Imagine yourself as a living house.
God comes in to rebuild that house.
At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised.
But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense.
What on earth is He up to?
The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards.
You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage but He is building a palace.
He intends to come and live in it Himself."
God comes in to rebuild that house.
At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised.
But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense.
What on earth is He up to?
The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards.
You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage but He is building a palace.
He intends to come and live in it Himself."
— C. S. Lewis, p. 205 Mere Christianity
Teresa of Avila
August 6
"We must improve our prayer and, flowing from that, our charity toward others.
It can be difficult to pray when we don’t know how, but we can help ourselves through the use of silence.
Souls of prayer are souls of great silence.
This silence takes a lot of sacrifice, but if we really want to pray, we must be ready to take that step now.
Without this first step toward silence, we will not be able to reach our goal, which is union with God.”
Teresa of Calcutta, p. 42 Thirsting for God
It can be difficult to pray when we don’t know how, but we can help ourselves through the use of silence.
Souls of prayer are souls of great silence.
This silence takes a lot of sacrifice, but if we really want to pray, we must be ready to take that step now. Without this first step toward silence, we will not be able to reach our goal, which is union with God.”
Teresa of Calcutta, p. 42 Thirsting for God
August 7 “Everything that we read in the sacred books shines and glitters even in the outer shell; but the marrow is sweeter.
8-8 “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” Thomas Aquinas
8-9 “Fortitude is the disposition of soul which enables us to despise all inconveniences and the loss of things not in our power.” Augustine
8-10 Those in the order of St. Francis of Assisi wore a rope around their waist with three knots in it; each knot would denote poverty, chastity, and obedience.
8-11 “One difference between Christ and other men is this: They do not choose when to be born, but He, the Lord and maker of history, chose His time, His birthplace His mother.” Thomas Aquinas
8-12 “She opens her mouth with wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.” Proverbs 31:26
8-13 “The Lord manifests Himself to those who stop for some time in peace and humility of heart.
If you look in murky and turbulent waters, you cannot see the reflection of your face.
If you want to see the face of Christ, stop and collect your thoughts in silence, and close the door of your soul to the noise of external things.” Anthony of Padua
8-14 “Know this: just as the wood of the ark saved the
just from drowning, so too, by the mystery of His wooden Cross, does Christ, the Church’s God and King, save us from drowning in the sea of this world.
In the symbol of a thing made of wood He gave human beings a foreshadowing of both the judgment to come and the salvation of the just.” Augustine, p.137 Augustine Day by Day
8-16 “Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you.” Thomas Aquinas
8-15 “It is the duty of every man to uphold the dignity of every woman.” Pope Pius John Paul II
8-16 “Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you.” Thomas Aquinas
8-17 “Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him and if they were to allow his grace to mold them
accordingly.” Ignatius of Loyola
8-18 Jesus said, “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in Me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5
8-19 “Abiding” in Christ. The Latin, “maneo,” means “to remain” or “to stay” or “to endure.” “This divine Connection, this conformity to God’s love, this
participation in the Divine Life of God is the very power of the Holy Spirit and is referred to as being in a state of grace.”
8-20 “Enemy-occupied territory - that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.” C.S. Lewis
8-21 Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
8-22 The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Edmund Burke
8-23 “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.” Therese of Lisieux
8-24 “A friend is more to be longed for than the light; I speak of a genuine one.
And wonder not: for it were better for us that the sun should be extinguished, than that we should be deprived of friends; better to live in darkness, than to be without friends.” John Chrysostom
8-25 “Do not just be a channel for grace, but a reservoir, an overflowing reservoir.
No sooner has a channel received grace than it pours it out.
A reservoir waits to be filled up and then offers grace to those who come to draw from its superabundance.” Bernadette
8-26 “It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that
we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes.” Thomas Aquinas
8-27 “Joy is a net of love by which we catch souls.” Mother Teresa
[Each time we come down the hill near our home we see the Kryder cow next to the old tile silo and we smile. JOY is enjoying a little whimsy in our daily lives.]
8-28 “I never found anyone so religious and devout as not to have sometimes a subtraction of grace, or feel a diminution of fervor. No saint was ever so highly rapt and illuminated as not to be tempted sooner or later. For he is not worthy of the high contemplation of God who has not, for God’s sake, been exercised with some tribulation.” — Thomas à Kempis, p. 65 Imitation of Christ
8-29 “Hope has two beautiful daughters: their names are anger and courage.
Anger that things are the way they are and courage to make them the way they ought to be.” A popular saying
8-30 “For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:78-31 “Visit many good books but live in the Bible.” CH Spurgeon
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