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IT'S THE RESISTANCE OF LIFE THAT CHALLENGES US EVERY DAY AND PROVIDES 'LIFTING POWER'

Some thoughts:

Do you lack peace in your life?

We must make peace -- usher it into our beings -- not wait for it.

Find fascination in the small things. This will bring joy (and tranquility).

Your desires define you. Find the big in the small.

What are your desires? List them. Analyze them. Discern them. They tell a lot about who you really are.

What is it that you gravitate towards? What excites you?

Do you allow yourself to go after the desires of your heart, your spirit, your soul -- or the desires as defined by others?

Don't force yourself into someone else's mold. You are who you are.

Thoughts for this day. But more:

The greatest strength moves slowly. Glaciers, or tectonic plates, take years to move a few feet (or even inches). But in that gradual movement is the Force of God.

Burst your bonds asunder. True freedom comes with not worrying about what anyone but God thinks of you. He is your only judge. Fear not venturing out.

As for bursting bonds, and patience, and gradual force:

A priest pointed out the other day that many years ago at Amherst College, researchers experimented with a squash seed that had been planted in rich, fertile soil. Eventually the seed produced a squash as big as a soccer ball, he says. Then the researchers placed a steel band around the squash. Attached to the band was a device for measuring pressure.

The squash continued to grow and to stretch the steel band, until it reached a "lifting power" of five hundred pounds. "Within two months the lifting power went up to 1,500 pounds. A month later it was 2,000 pounds. It was not until the lifting power had reached an incredible 5,000 pounds that the rind broke.

"When the squash was opened, the researchers discovered that it had built up a whole network of tough fibers against the pressure that was binding its growth. Moreover, the roots supporting the squash had reached out [vastly] in every direction searching for more and more nourishment to strengthen the fibers."

The squash weighed fifty pounds and had a rind that was three-inches thick. The mighty squash was knotted and scarred by this Herculean effort. But it was so much stronger. The point: life is a test. It always will challenge us, to the last breath. Afterward, there is eternity! In that light, what is too difficult?

We have trials. We have headwinds. We all have resistance, especially with anything new. The devil throws wrenches at you. Each time you succeed, he tosses in discouragement, a drop of poison. He works through the bitterness (and haughtiness) of others. But with resistance, we grow. Like a plane, a headwind provides lift. We move upwards.

Life is an exciting challenge to the very end; we all want every day to go perfectly; all our days; they never will; that is something reserved for Heaven.

Noted this holy priest, "The God Who made us, the very Source of our lives, is offering us the lifting power that transforms sickness into health, despair into hope, death into life."

Mary Undoer of Knots plus The Holy Cloak novena, $7.25

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