Giving and Receiving

Giving and Receiving

Everyone is familiar with the saying "it is better to give than receive," but few understand the meaning behind this powerful principle.

Why is it better to give than it is to receive? The more you give, the more you receive. Success and living life abundantly are rewards granted to unconditional givers.

An unconditional giver is someone who gives from the heart because they want to, not because they have to, or because they feel obligated to do so.

When people think of giving they often think money. You do not have to give money to be an unconditional giver.

When you give of your time, energy, resources, knowledge, skills, and/or talents, with no strings attached, you instantaneously set the Law of Giving and Receiving in motion. You become a magnet, attracting success and abundance.

The universal Law of Giving and Receiving is both spiritual and scientific.

The Spiritual basis of The Law of Giving and Receiving:

Whatever you sow (meaning whatever you plant, disseminate, scatter, disperse, or put out), you will also reap (meaning you will also receive, gain, harvest, accumulate, or get back). -Galatians 6:7

The Scientific basis of The Law of Giving and Receiving:

For every action (meaning for everything you do, every act, effort, or transaction), there will always be an equal or even opposite reaction (meaning there will be consequences and/or repercussions). -Isaac Newton's Law of Motion.

-Marenda Hughes Taylor

The Inner Self

If we are to live according to our true selves, we must first do some exploring to discover who we are.

Knowledge of how to find your inner self doesn't come all at once, nor does it come overnight. Most of us will never completely understand our inner selves.

The first thing you want to do is get into a relaxed state of mind. If you know a particular relaxation or meditation technique that works for you, use that to quiet your mind.

Once you are relaxed, bring your awareness to a certain part of your body and affirm to yourself that you are connecting with your inner self. I like to focus on the center of my chest because that seems to be an area where I have a lot of sensitivity, particularly when I feel excitement or distress.

Knowing how to find your inner self will play a great role in how you interact in your relationships with others and is a very important undertaking before you attempt to form a lasting relationship.

It is only through understanding your inner self that you can begin to deal with your issues, remedy past mistakes and learn how to feel good about your "self." As you work to develop the correct mindset on how to feel good about your self image, then how to find your inner self becomes easier.

Music

The Pope refer to "the spiritual value of the art of music which, in a special way, is called to infuse hope into the human soul, marked and sometimes injured by its earthly condition.

There is a profound and mysterious relationship between music and hope, between song and eternal life", he said. "It is no coincidence that Christian tradition shows the spirits of the blessed as they sing in chorus, captivated and enraptured by the beauty of God. But true art, like prayer, is not foreign to everyday reality, rather it calls us to 'irrigate' that reality, to make it sprout that it may bring forth fruits of goodness and peace.

Love and Fear

You were exposed to either the belief that you are separate from all other people and things in this universe or that you are one with all that exists in this universe.

These are the two belief systems that exist in our world today. These two belief systems come to the human experience via our thoughts, just as everything that has ever happened or ever will happen has come to us. All thoughts that come into our arena of thinking are based on one of two emotions. The two emotions from which all thoughts come to us are either love or fear. All thoughts that go through our heads are either love-based thoughts or fear-based thoughts.

Remember, love is the core of what God is. God is love. God is life. God, love and life are interchangeable. The process of life is the process of God experiencing love. If we all lived in the realm of the absolute, the only thoughts we would ever have would be thoughts of love because love is all there is in the realm of the absolute.

But we live in the relative physical world, so in order to know love as an experience we must also come to know the polar opposite of love, which is fear. Fear exists so that we can know and experience love.

Practicing Presence

Often, when our mind takes over, our ego has taken control, the ego likes to criticize us, telling us what we should or shouldn't do. This can distort one's reality and we can quite easily wind ourselves up over nothing.

Practicing presence is vital for a peaceful existence. When you are concentrating only on the present moment you are more able to act as an observer to your ego and decide not to pay attention to it, thus not taking your mind so seriously.

Worrying about the past or the future is futile because it doesn't exist, only the present moment exists, and when we realize this we can rid ourselves of a great deal of worry over things that are not real. If all there is is the now, then we realize that we really have nothing to worry about, because the beauty of the present and everything around us at that moment takes over, and we can free our mind from suffering. And because presence makes us more aware of our surroundings, we begin to appreciate nature more and experience joy in simple, everyday things, so that we no longer need to look to the future for pleasure.

Awareness Exercises

Walking up and down the stairs in your house or place of work, pay close attention to every step, every movement...even your breathing. Be totally present.

• When you wash your hands, pay attention to all the sensory perceptions associated with the activity: the sound and feel of the water, the movement of your hands, the scent of the soap and so on.

• When you get into your car, after you close the door, pause for a few seconds and observe the flow of your breath. Become aware of a silent but powerful sense of presence.

When you feel your mind taking over, remember to return to paying attention to your breath. Breathing deeply in through your nose and out through your mouth will always return you to the present. We can become present simply by becoming more aware of our breath.

These are some exercises that Eckhart Tolle talks about in his "Awareness Exercises"

Prayer

Pray as I pray

"You are an inspiration to others to Pray........."

May you be Blessed

Soul-Soothing Inspirational Movies - Virtual Therapy for the Soul

Love and Justice

Love is the ultimate norm for every action.

Love is what animates true justice and brings peace.

Nations need laws that are increasingly suited

to the needs of social and international life,

but above all, they need men and women

who order their own personal lives based on

the rule of love.

This order is justice,

and only in this order do laws have value.

Eight Reasons to Seek Good Everywhere

1. When you seek the good everywhere, you find it. Seeing how much good there is -- everywhere -- supports you in trusting God or a benevolent Universe.

2. When you look for the good outside of yourself, you can gain an amazing understanding of the people and situations that ebb and flow around you. Deep understanding is a foundation for inner peace.

3. When you look for the good within yourself, you deepen your awareness, your acceptance and your authenticity. Knowing the goodness in the core of your being strengthens your foundation of inner peace.

4. When you look for the good in yourself, you are affirming life and honoring the divine essence within yourself and every other living being. Honoring the spark of divinity in all of us connects you spontaneously with inner peace.

5. When you look for the good, quite often a warm glow of peace may fill you. Recognizing goodness naturally evokes your inner peace.

6. When you see the good and share your positive viewpoint, you start to change others' perspectives and to alter situations for the better. You become an angel to yourself and those around you, and your inner peace overflows naturally and abundantly.

7. When you look for the good, you begin to notice more positive feelings such as unconditional love overflowing in your awareness. This loving compassion for yourself and others naturally expands your inner peace.

8. When you look for and find the good in situation after situation over time, you will quite likely find that your practical life merges naturally with your spiritual life, and daily activities are in a very peaceful flow that mirrors your inner peace.

Jesus Image Found in Tree Log

A Bensalem, Pa., furniture maker says he's found a holy item and he's been taking care of it religiously. Craig O'Connor has a block of wood that he chopped from a pine tree. On it, is an image of a Jesus-like figure with its arms outstretched. The tree rings form a kind of halo around the figure's head.

"I was just covered in goose bumps," said O'Connor as he reminisced about his find. He had been helping out a friend, chopping trees in Burlington County nearly a year ago when he came upon the image. O'Connor said it looked like "Jesus ascending to heaven. Take me, that’s what it looks like to me. It's a natural stain, a natural sap stain."

By counting the tree rings, O'Connor believes the tree was at least 40-50 years old.

Life of Resurrection

In the life of Jesus, after his resurrection, we see him bringing peace, joy, consolation to many different people.

Death and violence and injustice did not kill Jesus and he does his work now in a different way. We are part of his risen life, and the way he works in the world today is through us. Whenever we look after the lonely or the down and out, try to make life’s conditions better for people who are in any way deprived, then we are sharing in the work of the resurrection.

The call of the resurrection to is to spread faith and justice in our world: faith in Jesus as the word and love if God, and the justice of God, seen in the words and life of Jesus, the risen Lord.

A Messenger of God


This is the ‘Mustard tree’ Jesus speaks of in the Gospel on which the birds can depend on.
  • He is Fr. Bobby Jose, on whom many depend on spiritually
  • He speaks, inspired by God.
  • He is a prophet, ‘Messenger of God’.
  • He speaks in words
  • He speaks more in deeds
  • His message is in ‘Shalom TV’