Happy Hearts Day!

To My Friends Who Are………..SINGLE

Love is like a butterfly. The more you chase it, the more it eludes you. But

if you just let it fly, it will come to you when you least expect it. Love can

make you happy but often it hurts, but love’s only special when you give it

to someone who is really worth it. So take your time and choose the best.

To My Friends Who Are…………NOT SO SINGLE

Love isn’t about becoming somebody else’s ‘perfect person.’ It’s about

finding someone who helps you become the best person you can be.

To My Friends Who Are the…………PLAYBOY/GIRL TYPE

Never say ‘I love you’ if you don’t care. Never talk about feelings if they

aren’t there. Never touch a life if you mean to break a heart. Never look

in the eye when all you do is lie. The cruelest thing a guy can do to a girl is

to let her fall in love when he doesn’t intend to catch her fall and it works

both ways…

To My Friends Who Are…………MARRIED

Love is not about ‘it’s your fault’, but ‘I’m sorry.’ Not ‘where are you’,

but ‘I’m right here.’ Not ‘how could you’, but ‘I understand.’ Not ‘I

wish you were’, but ‘I’m thankful you are.’

To My Friends Who Are…………ENGAGED

The true measure of compatibility is not the years spent together but how

good you are for each other.

To My Friends Who Are…………HEARTBROKEN

Heartbreaks last as long as you want and cut as deep as you allow them to

go. The challenge is not how to survive heartbreaks but to learn from them.

To My Friends Who Are…………NAIVE

How to be in love: Fall but don’t stumble, be consistent but not too

persistent, share and never be unfair, understand and try not to demand,

and get hurt but never keep the pain.

To My Friends Who Are…………POSSESSIVE

It breaks your heart to see the one you love happy with someone else but

it’s more painful to know that the one you love is unhappy with you.

To My Friends Who Are…………AFRAID TO CONFESS

Love hurts when you break up with someone. It hurts even more when

someone breaks up with you. But love hurts the most when the person you

love has no idea how you feel.

To My Friends Who Are…………STILL HOLDING ON

A sad thing about life is when you meet someone and fall in love, only to

find out in the end that it was never meant to be and that you have wasted years on someone who wasn’t worth it.

TO ALL MY FRIENDS…….

My wish for you is a man/woman whose love is honest, strong, mature,

never-changing, uplifting, protective, encouraging, rewarding and unselfish.

Happy Hearts Day!

To My Friends Who Are………..SINGLE

Love is like a butterfly. The more you chase it, the more it eludes you. But

if you just let it fly, it will come to you when you least expect it. Love can

make you happy but often it hurts, but love’s only special when you give it

to someone who is really worth it. So take your time and choose the best.

To My Friends Who Are…………NOT SO SINGLE

Love isn’t about becoming somebody else’s ‘perfect person.’ It’s about

finding someone who helps you become the best person you can be.

To My Friends Who Are the…………PLAYBOY/GIRL TYPE

Never say ‘I love you’ if you don’t care. Never talk about feelings if they

aren’t there. Never touch a life if you mean to break a heart. Never look

in the eye when all you do is lie. The cruelest thing a guy can do to a girl is

to let her fall in love when he doesn’t intend to catch her fall and it works

both ways…

To My Friends Who Are…………MARRIED

Love is not about ‘it’s your fault’, but ‘I’m sorry.’ Not ‘where are you’,

but ‘I’m right here.’ Not ‘how could you’, but ‘I understand.’ Not ‘I

wish you were’, but ‘I’m thankful you are.’

To My Friends Who Are…………ENGAGED

The true measure of compatibility is not the years spent together but how

good you are for each other.

To My Friends Who Are…………HEARTBROKEN

Heartbreaks last as long as you want and cut as deep as you allow them to

go. The challenge is not how to survive heartbreaks but to learn from them.

To My Friends Who Are…………NAIVE

How to be in love: Fall but don’t stumble, be consistent but not too

persistent, share and never be unfair, understand and try not to demand,

and get hurt but never keep the pain.

To My Friends Who Are…………POSSESSIVE

It breaks your heart to see the one you love happy with someone else but

it’s more painful to know that the one you love is unhappy with you.

To My Friends Who Are…………AFRAID TO CONFESS

Love hurts when you break up with someone. It hurts even more when

someone breaks up with you. But love hurts the most when the person you

love has no idea how you feel.

To My Friends Who Are…………STILL HOLDING ON

A sad thing about life is when you meet someone and fall in love, only to

find out in the end that it was never meant to be and that you have wasted years on someone who wasn’t worth it.

TO ALL MY FRIENDS…….

My wish for you is a man/woman whose love is honest, strong, mature,

never-changing, uplifting, protective, encouraging, rewarding and unselfish.

Happy Hearts Day!

Cleansing of the Temple

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts He found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken. (John 2: 13-22)

Greed Breeds Dishonesty

Jesus said, “I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you may be welcomed into eternal dwellings. The person who is faithful in small matters is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed Him. So He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God.” (Luke 16: 9-15)

The Children of Light

Jesus told His disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Prepare a full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.’ The steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’ So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. The steward told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’ Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ ‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’ The master commended the dishonest steward because he had acted shrewdly. For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own kind than are the children of light.” (Luke 16: 1-8)

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around Jesus to hear Him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15: 1-10)

The Example of St. Charles Borromeo

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them He said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters–yes, even his own life–he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14: 25-33)

The Parable of the Banquet

When one of those at the table with Him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ ‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’ ” (Luke 14: 15-24)

Dividing the Sheep from the Goats

(Jesus said), “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit upon His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46)

A Place of Honor

Jesus was invited to a dinner at the house of a leading Pharisee, and they observed Him carefully…. When He noticed how they chose the places of honor at the table, He told a parable to those who were invited, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:1,7-11)

When Silence is not Golden

On one occasion Jesus was invited to the house of one of the leading Pharisees to dine on the Sabbath. The people there were watching Him closely. Just then, in front of Him, there was a man who had dropsy. And Jesus asked the lawyers and Pharisees, ‘Is it lawful to cure people on the Sabbath, or not?’ But they were silent. So Jesus took the sick man and healed him, and then sent him away. Then He said to them, ‘If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a Sabbath day?’ But they were unable to answer His question. (Luke 14: 1-6)