The F.U.N. Quotient... treat yourself to 7 mins of smiles

Smile. It's a Friday.

Need more? Go here.  (It is a 7 minute video.)

You just might smile the rest of the day. Or the weekend.

It Makes Me Think...

Count not thyself better than others, lest perchance thou appear worse in the sight of God, who knoweth what is in man. Be not proud of thy good works, for God's judgments are of another sort than the judgments of man, and what pleaseth man is ofttimes displeasing to Him. If thou hast any good, believe that others have more, and so thou mayest preserve thy humility. It is no harm to thee if thou place thyself below all others; but it is great harm if thou place thyself above even one. Peace is ever with the humble man, but in the heart of the proud there is envy and continual wrath.

Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, Chapter 7

It Makes Me Think...

Anger is the worst fault. It's the heart of the devil. The angry person gnaws away every virtuous grain and devours everything that's germinating.

Anger is a stubborn thief. It gnashes its teeth at people because of their worth gifts from God. It steals whatever it can snatch.

Anger starts controversy wherever it can.  Anger is a dragon burning everything up wherever it goes. In anger, wisdom is unwise, patience strains with impatience, and temperance rushes around without moderation.

Anger is the bitterness vomiting out of the goodness and sweetness in God's teachings.  Its the murderer dividing body and soul and not allowing them to be together.  It's also a hard, immovable rock because it grinds away every good and honest thing.  When anger overcomes someone, it overcomes them with great madness, thinking neither about earthly things now about heavenly things while it shatters another person who was made in God's image.

Anger attracts great torments to itself.

Avoid this sin if you want to live in God. Avoid it so you don't wound your soul seriously.  Repent while you can.

---Hildegard of Bingen, The Book of the Rewards of Life, as found in Incandescence by Carmen Butcher

It Makes Me Think...

The more severely the person puts himself down, the more likely he is to judge another critically. As the saying goes, misery loves company.

The correction here is simple: The individual has to learn to accept himself more realistically, with his good as well as his bad points, with his strengths and weaknesses, his abilities and limitations. Then, to the degree that he can realistically accept himself, to that degree he can genuinely accept others. If he is too severe in judging his own faults, his neighbor won't stand a chance!

-----Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR, Walk Humbly With Your God