Psalm 94:9 (God hears us)

* Welcome God every morning before work by taking ~5 min to read this Living In Faith Exchange (LIFE) Group devotion (life-devotions.blogspot.com), which has snippets from Living Faith (livingfaith.com).

Shall He who shaped the ear not hear? Psalm 94:9

Living Faith snippets: "Since we're so adept at not hearing, it's natural we suspect God of not hearing. God not only hears everything, but He is the hearing itself (He shaped the ear). I suspect His answer, or His silence, His way of hearing and His way of speaking, shapes us, too. We may not know what we're being shaped into, and the shaping is painful at times or perplexing. But we can help one another, and we have prayer as our ally- two of life's most beautiful realities. God leads us to one another, and to Himself." by Mary Marrocco

Pat nuggets:

* Liz Curry shared: "The US Army Band and Chorus welcomed Pope Benedict at the White House Rose Garden ceremony on 15 April. The song is the Battle Hymn of The Republic." http://www.greatdanepromilitary.com/Battle%20Hymn/index.htm

* Ross Paulick shared: "This site gives a paragraph a day on the [daily Bible] readings [linked below signature block]." http://www.daily-meditations.org/index2.html

ProLife news: http://www.lifenews.com/.

Feast Day (Our Lady of Mount Carmel): "The charism, or spiritual focus, of the Carmelite Order is contemplative prayer. The Order is considered by the Church to be under the special protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary and thus has a strong Marian devotion. As in most of the orders dating to medieval times, the First Order is the friars (who are active/contemplative), the Second Order is the nuns (who are cloistered) and the Third Order consists of laypeople who continue to live in the world, and can be married, but participate in the charism of the order by liturgical prayers, apostolates (ministries), and contemplative prayer." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmelites

Our Prayers: Abortion, our enemies/our troops, natural disasters, depression/despair, prisoners, Vicki M. (her cancer treatment), Joe C. (11 yr old Devantae paralyzed), Kay C. (friend Nancy Wheeler cancer treatment), Kathy-jo P. (friend Maria has terminal brain cancer and needs a hospice)

Faith quote: "Freedom is not an opting out. It is an opting in- a participation in Being itself. Hence authentic freedom can never be attained by turning away from God. Such a choice would ultimately disregard the very truth we need in order to understand ourselves." Pope Benedict (Apr visit to USA)

Through Christ Our Lord,

Pat
Phil 4:13

* Today's Bible readings at www.usccb.org/nab/today.shtml.
* Prayer: Prayer connects us with God's will & His miracles, thereby changing us & helping others. Wayne Watson lyrics, “When God's people pray, there is hope reborn, there is sin forgiven, and miracles you can't explain await!” "If you pray that God will move a mountain and He doesn’t, assume Christ wants you to climb it instead & see Him."
* Defend the unborn: 'Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death; don’t stand back and let them die' (Prov 24:11). 'Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you' (Jer 1:5). 'It is a great poverty that a child must die that you might live as you wish' Blessed Mother Teresa. Click for Prayer to End Abortion.
* Evangelization: Let's make room for non-believers (be a friend, make a friend, lead friend to Christ) and perpetual re-evangelization of self and those near us, by way of daily prayer (relationship) and following Christ's example of selfless love, mercy, and service.
Let's joyfully live out the Good News and gladly tell others about it (Mark 16:15)!