A book of prayers to the Holy Face of Jesus

 A Clean Slate! What Will You Write On Your Page Today? A Curse? A Blessing?A clean slate. As the new year approaches and we put 2016 behind us, we start to look ahead at a new beginning, getting mentally and physically prepared to wipe the slate clean, start over toward developing among other things, a better version of ourselves.  This is a time of reflection and then goal setting and for building momentum to make some fundamental changes. Reflection – However you determine to reflect back on this past year, the one thing we can likely all agree on is it was strange!  We experienced things we never did before and most would likely not wish to experience again. Hate was another term that comes to mind. We witnessed more hate-filled comments and actions that I can ever recall. Let’s change it and Start over with A Clean Slate! Goal setting for a clean slate – How do we turn the tide on these experiences and make it something better?  Let’s Flip this hate and fear into love and peace. 3 Things to Start–Meditation and Prayer! – We need to remove fear and find that inner peace!  Developing a daily process of meditation and prayer can help us find that inner peace, bond with it and talk to God! He listens!Smile – Make a habit to smile.  It’s contagious and you will feel better! Fight the urge to judge – There is only one who has the right to judge and fortunately for all of us, He is the greatest forgiver of all.  So fight the urge to judge! Building Momentum – Success comes in bunches and we need to create a foundation of good habits.  21 days of repetition creates a habit.  Consciously do the above things for 21 days and see how you feel and watch what happens to your relationships and your outlook on the world! Don’t wait for the New Year to start the process!  Why not start the new year with the good habits already formed! The Season of Advent is about to begin, so a Great Time to Prepare for a New Beginning!

All Together Now!Memorable and Engaging. Why I go to an organized worship service! People often tell me that they feel no need to go to an organized mass or worship service to pray!  The argument, they say, is that we can pray anywhere.  In fact, they can get out in nature and pray, as an example, and pray in solitude with God!  I hear from them that mass is full of the hypocrites that come to church, only to be seen, then go out into the world and resort back to their own flawed and contentious ways. My response is that you can listen to music anywhere you have an iPod or radio but it’s a much more memorable and engaging experience when you get free tickets to go to a rock concert of your favorite artist–especially when they are giving away CDs and a hat! There is just no comparison to the communal impact when everyone is in harmonious resolve and connected to the music and the message and there is a spiritual union between the artist and the crowd!While I applaud anyone who sings along to the iPod or Radio on their own and has that one on one experience, that “rock concert” experience can’t be replicated any other way! And if you get there early, you can even get a front-row seat!!

Life happened while you were away. While you are staring at the TV watching your favorite nighttime soap and the commercials about how 4 out every 3 doctors prefer this new pill the creates more symptoms than it cures, Life is happening out there and it’s slipping away. Of course, no one knows how long we have on this earth,  but no gets out of here alive either, so don’t waste what precious little time and resources, on mundane things, glued to your TV or your IPAD!  Make something or Make something happen, that adds a layer of vitality and soul to God’s creation that is You!So, when you finish that video game after dying nine deaths to get to the circle of superiority it tells you few have ever seen, what did you really accomplish other than great thumb dexterity, and a bladder that is ready to burst, because you couldn’t stop till you got to the next level? Instead of text messaging your buddy on the other end of the couch, how about a conversation about something meaningful, like real human interaction and growth in wisdom and soul? In the end, life happens to everybody, and it ends when it ends for everybody, so why waste it observing from the sidelines!  Do something right now to make you a better you, make others a better them, or make a point to be engaged in meaningful activities that accomplish both!​

 Information Buffet–All You Can Eat! It is said that hundreds of millions of pieces of debris from prior space rocket and shuttle launches are floating around in space outside our atmosphere.  That’s a lot of clutter floating around out there!  So it is with the Information Age we live in.  Information is coming at us in waves and we can get answers to almost anything in an instant.  Yet how much of that information is valid and how much is really important is a whole different story.  Surely, we live in an age where the value of information has been reduced to zero but where the value of insight is priceless!  Consider that perhaps there are forces out there that are sending so much information at us to take up the space between our ears, so much noise and clutter being thrown at us and that it’s not to help us know more, but perhaps to make us forget!  Yes, to forget.  And to forget the things which are really important—the things we need to stay rooted.  We forget the experience wealth generated by blood and sweat of our ancestors–the spiritual wealth which has been handed down from generation to generation and to keep us grounded–to keep us rooted.  With so much informational junk consuming our time, our energy and our thoughts, how much space is left for…love…for family…for God!  Another dilemna we face with waves of informational space junk flying at us is that our listening skills get overwhelmed and we tend to tune out, get easily bored and distracted when we should be actively listening.  The only way to get around this is to carve out time to spend in the matters which mean the most.Try making a practice of shutting off your cell phone, the radio, and the television during dinner and have some good dialog with your spouse and kids, actively listening to the sweet sound of family harmony which should never get lost in space!  Try making some quiet time to talk to God and actively listening to the sweet sound of silence when no words are said but communication is clear!  Experience an untouchable presence and wisdom beyond the stars!  No clutter…no debris!   Just pure love and adoration!!  

On October, 8, 1871, “the Peshtigo Fire” occurred and is still considered the worst fire in U.S. history.  1.2M acres were destroyed in Northeast Wisconsin and Wisconsin’s Door County Peninsula.  Because it occurred at the same time as the Great Chicago Fire, it has been known as “the Forgotten Fire.” But its effects cannot be forgotten.  Estimates are that up to 1,500 people died during that fire and the severity of the firestorm included fire tornadoes, 120 m.p.h .winds and 1,200 degree heat. There are documented stories of people jumping in the creeks and rivers and boiling to death and houses and buildings exploding from the extreme temperatures and winds. What is little known until recently is that in the small village of Champion, Wisconsin in the Door County Peninsula, is that exactly 12 years earlier, the Blessed Mother appeared to a 28 year old Belgian woman, Adele Brise, and instructed her to teach the local immigrants about God. Adele became a nun and built a school and a church at the apparition site.  This church is Our Lady of Good Help.   As the firestorm made its way towards the Door County Peninsula, 200 people came to Our Lady of Good Help and prayed fervently for safety.  Those people, the school, the church and the 5 acre parcel it stood on were the only things spared. Our Lady of Good Help is the only U.S. Marian apparition site sanctioned in Rome by the Papacy as being miraculous and was given that status in 2010!  The Blessed Mother says that with enough prayer we can suspend the laws of nature.  The miraculous event that occurred in a small village in Door County Wisconsin is proof positive of that.  Many more miracles have since occurred to people coming their in prayer.  Prayer that suspends the laws of nature!