Our next Shawl meeting is Tuesday, October 12, at 7 pm, in the activity building, room 109.  Come join us in fellowship as we continue creating and preparing shawls for those in need.

To recap our last meeting we used a verse from, 2 Timothy 1:6, "Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you."  Did you happen to hear that verse repeated in last Sunday's readings?  I sat there and thought about each of you and how God has called you all to be members of this fabulous multi-generational group, working together to bring comfort to others.  As I said at the meeting last month, I believe God is "stirring up" His gifts in each of us involved.  I feel this stirring permeate the deepest part of my soul as I see the shawls lying before us each month in the center of the table.  All these shawls imbue our Spiritual gifts.  A few of you even emailed me and told me that the wooden spoons in your kitchens have taken on a whole new meaning.  For those of you that were not able to attend the meeting, we used a wooden spoon; the sort you can find in every kitchen, as a visual aid.  We encouraged all those present, whenever they saw a wooden spoon, that they would be reminded of how Paul urges us to "stir up" our Spiritual gifts.  We are not to forget these gifts or let them gather dust on the shelves of our hearts.  God has given each of us good gifts and He wants us to encourage others with them.  We left you all with a fun phrase that a few of you mentioned later, kept "stirring in your head"!  The phrase, "STIR IT up, sister!

Now, for those that were not present at the meeting and you are reading this and wondering, just how foolish do these shawl people get?  Let me remind you that St. Francis of Assisi truly understood the good sense and wisdom of foolishness, declaring, "The Lord said to me that he desired me to be a new sort of simpleton."  (Clissold, The Wisdom of St. Francis p.72)  St. Francis calls us to be passionate, to have zealous celebrations and divine foolishness for our Lord.  To live with a spirit of madness, a spirit of being on fire for our Lord.  Scripturally speaking, you'll find God in the fire of the burning bush of Moses, in the festive dance of Miriam after crossing the Red Sea...So enraptured were the Apostles after Pentecost that their hearers thought that they were drunk! You can look to the lives of the saints, as well, for this divine madness and fire.  What about Jesus--to those who had no heart to understand--the hard-nosed realists of his time, plotted against him for what they considered to be his outrageous behavior.  I pray that we'll all know God's wisdom hidden in the little ones in our midst and in the simple innocence within everyone's heart.   I say, Lord, grant us all "Divine Madness"!  :-D

Now, that being said, I hope I didn't scare anyone off and that you will join us--bringing along with you, your shawls-in-progress and your own sense of "Divine Madness".  God's grace abounds!  The work of your hands is simply incredible!  A gift from God to those in need.  Thank you!

"...Prosper the work of our hands for us!  Prosper the work of our hands!" Psalms 90:17

Pax,
Tish

PS  Thought you all might find this fun...I just now sat down to do the Mass readings for Monday.  I had to laugh out loud when I discovered that today is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi!  Many of you may have already known that, but I didn't.  My 16 year old daughter is having a bit of fun laughing at my slowness...she is standing here reminding me that yesterday was the blessing of the animals at Seton...usually done near the feast day of St. Francis!  Guess I didn't put it all together! Yet, I still find the whole concept of this letter to be, "Divine Madness" and Spirit lead, since I didn't have a clue before I wrote all this about St. Francis!  See, God works in the littlest of things!  Even thru His slowest vessels!  :-D  Gotta
love it!

God Bless!