Saints, Guides, & Humor: 08-04-05

[WalksInSpirit]

Thursday Afternoon Chat: 08-04-05

"Saints, Guides, & Humor"

(01:15:12) (Blu) Heavenly Father/Mother please grant us understanding and service. Let us ever be channels of Blessing to those we meet. Teach us Thy ways oh Lord, for Thy way is perfect. In the name of Christ I pray. Amen
(01:16:40) (WalksInSpirit) Ok, today we thought we'd talk about Guides & the Saints. I have a good article to share on the subject.
(01:21:15) (WalksInSpirit) Saints are vibrations of the One
(01:21:25) (WalksInSpirit) HEAVEN HELP US: The Worrier’s Guide to the Patron Saints
(01:21:34) (WalksInSpirit) By Alice La Plante & Clare La Plante
(01:21:54) (WalksInSpirit) Have you ever lost something thing and wanted a little divine guidance to find it? Maybe it seemed too trivial or insignificant to ask God to show you where it was, but you would have liked help nonetheless? After St. Antony of Padua’s name came to me in a dream, synchronistically I was asked to review a delightful little book titled Heaven Help Us, written by two sisters raised as Catholics.
(01:22:18) (WalksInSpirit) This guidebook describes a host of heavenly helpers, including St. Antony, waiting to assist in every aspect of our lives. I discovered that he is the one to turn to when something is lost, and tested the La Plantes’ suggestion of saying “Dear St. Antony (Italian-Americans use ‘Tony, Tony’), come around. Something’s lost and can’t be found.” It works!
(01:23:35) (WalksInSpirit) Heaven Help Us is organized by types of anxiety and includes short biographies, areas of “expertise,” odd facts, intercessory prayers, curious rituals, and directions for praying the rosary. The authors add a light touch of humor throughout their book as they inform us about those spiritual beings who can help us cope with stress, guard the home and hearth, or choose a profession.
(01:24:02) (WalksInSpirit) Could there be a special being assigned to tend to just those duties? Women looking for a soulmate can pray to St. Catherine. Saint Michael the Archangel can be called upon for protection from violence of any kind. Before traveling we can use a prayer written to Mary by St. Bernard of Clairvaux that for centuries has been said by those about to embark on a journey.
(01:24:46) (WalksInSpirit) “If you have a sore throat, or problems with your thyroid, or any other illness or disease in the neck area, St. Blaise is your spiritual physician.” Why would we pray with (not to) a patron saint for a remedy? If we were not raised with these rituals we might find them superstitious or immature, but through the generations they have provided comfort to many people.
(01:24:59) (diane) (and for whom the dogs were named)
(01:25:17) (WalksInSpirit) Cool, Diane!
(01:25:18) (diane) St. Bernard, lol
(01:25:45) (WalksInSpirit) Others may have left behind the practice of calling on their divine helpers when they became adults, thinking it childish. This book reminds us that when we desire to connect with the forces of the Universe that surround, protect, and aid us in fulfilling our soul’s purpose, we claim God’s love. One way to do this is through asking for spiritual intercession in any and every aspect of our lives.
(01:26:09) (WalksInSpirit) Nothing is unimportant. Divine guidance has no limits – the limitations are our own. You might ask, Do I have to be Catholic or even Christian to appeal to the saints for help? The authors say most definitely No. The saints assist because we have a need, not because we profess a particular religious faith.
(01:26:39) (WalksInSpirit) In one of the Cayce readings we are told, “Thus as ye apply brotherly love, patience, longsuffering, gentleness – in thy dealings with thy fellow man – ye may commune with the holy saints that are as angels before the throne of God, as promised.” (3617-1) We can think of the saints as a specific aspect or vibration rate of the One, providing a vehicle for expressing our request clearly and unambiguously to the Creative Forces.
(01:27:29) (WalksInSpirit) The prayers might be likened to mantras. Each word or sound in a mantra has a unique vibrational pattern that magnetically attracts that same energy from the Universe to the chanter. This is also the case when we use an affirmation during meditation, drawing to us that same energy through the door of the pineal gland, the sixth chakra.
(01:28:03) (WalksInSpirit) Using a long-established mantra, affirmation, or prayer energizes the pattern established over centuries of use. When we call on the saints for assistance for ourselves or others, we attune to that specific current of energy. The connection is made, and we invite the results for which we prayed. The strength of this pattern allows us access to its benefits with sometimes almost instantaneous response.
(01:28:33) (WalksInSpirit) Imagine how many millions of times the Lord’s Prayer and the 23rd Psalm have been recited and the power that is available when we add our own prayers to all the others. During difficult times we want the assurance that we are not alone.
(01:28:58) (WalksInSpirit) We can just call on one of the saints to lift our worries and help us smile!
(01:28:58) (WalksInSpirit) Nancy L. Eubel
(01:30:17) (merri) who are some of the Saints we can call on, WIS?
(01:31:16) (Blu) Merri if you go to this page www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=89
(01:31:16) (WalksInSpirit) St. Anthony for lost things...
(01:31:36) (Blu) it gives a kind of description on what each St. does
(01:31:55) (WalksInSpirit) St. Catherine for women looking for a soulmate
(01:32:25) (Blu) Raphael has been a good healing guide for me
(01:32:28) (diane) St Rita had a hopeless drunkard for a husband
(01:32:48) (diane) showed "long sufferring"
(01:32:54) (ron) a troublesome soul
(01:33:03) (WalksInSpirit) St. Michael The Archangel for protection against violence
(01:33:34) (ron) sorrowful soul
(01:33:48) (Blu) I called on the Virgin Mary during a crisis with my little girl
(01:33:54) (Blu) that helped me a lot
(01:34:26) (merri) St. Ann answered my call for help
(01:34:35) (WalksInSpirit) St. Bernard of Clairvaux for travel
(01:34:35) (diane) St Thomas Aquinas was a doctor, prince of theologians and model of philosophers, patron of all Catholic schools
(01:34:57) (merri) ahhhh of course!
(01:35:36) (WalksInSpirit) Did you know there's a Saint for parking spaces?
(01:35:37) (Blu) Any of the Arch Angels are available
(01:35:55) (WalksInSpirit) This works, too!
(01:36:33) (merri) who is the Saint for parking spaces?
(01:36:47) (WalksInSpirit) When we enter the parking lot, I say "St. Mary, St. Ann, find us a parking space as fast as you can."
(01:37:09) (WalksInSpirit) And Bingo! there'll be one there!
(01:37:44) (diane) St. tony...lol ...helped my H. find a diamond that fell out of his ring
(01:39:03) (WalksInSpirit) I had a "saint" bring back a toolbox full of tools that were stolen from me.
(01:39:33) (diane) really, wis? which one?
(01:39:41) (merri) goodness! Had did you do that?
(01:40:00) (WalksInSpirit) :-) I say "saint" but this was just a little girl with a big heart.
(01:40:42) (WalksInSpirit) I was justa kid too, and my Dad had bought me a toolbox full of tools to keep me out of his. :-)
(01:41:49) (WalksInSpirit) And one day, I went inside the house for a few minutes and I left my tools outside. the little girl's father stole them, but I didn't know that.
(01:42:03) (WalksInSpirit) All I knew was they were gone
(01:42:28) (WalksInSpirit) So, I prayed and asked for an angel to bring my tools back to me
(01:43:20) (WalksInSpirit) And I went back outside, and the little girl came walking up through our yard carrying my toolbox. She said her father stole it and she knew it wasn't right.
(01:44:18) (WalksInSpirit) So, yeah, she was my "saint" that day. :-)
(01:44:33) (WalksInSpirit) I still have those tools, too.
(01:47:55) (WalksInSpirit) Before I forget... homework for next week...
(01:47:59) (WalksInSpirit) ;-)
(01:48:51) (WalksInSpirit) Tell what spiritual experience(s) has led you to the place you are now, and this chat room.
(01:50:12) (WalksInSpirit) I have an article on humor if yall would like me to share it?
(01:50:31) (WalksInSpirit) It was a toss up between humor and Saints. :-)
(01:50:54) (WalksInSpirit) One of the many superstitions that persist from the time of the Middle Ages is that religion must be a gloomy and a somber thing, and that spirituality is the same as sadness.
(01:51:12) (WalksInSpirit) Nothing, of course, could be farther from the truth. Yet this is the tacit belief of thousands upon thousands of people, many of whom still consider a church to be an unseemly place for a joke, and doubt if a happy man can be fully pleasing in the eyes of the Lord.
(01:52:00) (WalksInSpirit) Saints are generally considered to be the equivalent of martyrs. Religious calendars – to say nothing of works of art – generally show Christ with a face more typical of an anemic introvert who has just lost his only friend than of a dynamic, positive man of action, radiant with the confidence of his oneness with God.
(01:52:49) (WalksInSpirit) Hymns and oratorios assure us that Jesus was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” and overlook completely that he was also a man who was a welcome guest at weddings and who preached a religion of abundance and freedom.
(01:53:25) (WalksInSpirit) “I have come,” He said, “that you may have life, and life more abundant! You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free!” Though crucifixion was a part of the drama of His life, there was within him the consciousness of both abundance and freedom.
(01:53:53) (WalksInSpirit) And where there is a truly spiritual sense of abundance and freedom there is also joyousness and a sense of humor; for both spirituality and humor are possible only where there is detachment from the tyranny of matter.
(01:54:36) (WalksInSpirit) It is very interesting to find in the Cayce readings repeated insistence on the value and importance of humor. Many times people of an over-serious cast of mind are told to cultivate a sense of humor – to read the comic page, to read and remember funny stories, to try to see the ridiculous in every situation.
(01:55:51) (WalksInSpirit) A person suffering from a “bad psycho-neurosis” asked in a reading how he could overcome his fear. He was told: “By seeing the ridiculous and yet the funny side of every experience.
(01:56:07) (WalksInSpirit) Knowing and believing in whom ye have trusted, in the Lord; for without that consciousness of the indwelling, little may ever be accomplished.” (5302-1) Here, as elsewhere, humor and spirituality are placed side by side – spoken of in the same paragraph, if not in the same breath.
(01:57:00) (WalksInSpirit) Three persons who had a tendency to take life too seriously were given the same advice:
(01:57:17) (WalksInSpirit) “Cultivate the ability to see the ridiculous, and to retain the ability to laugh. For, know – only in those that God hath favored is there the ability to laugh, even when clouds of doubt arise, or when every form of disturbance arises.
(01:57:30) (WalksInSpirit) For, remember, the Master smiled – and laughed oft – even on the way to Gethsemane.” (2984-1)
(01:59:03) (merri) did you know laughter releases a hormone?
(01:59:22) (WalksInSpirit) Cool, Merri! I didn't know that!
(01:59:24) (diane) i think so
(01:59:25) (merri) I forget the name but it is a relaxer
(02:08:30) (WalksInSpirit) I have some funnies, if yall want to hear 'em?
(02:08:57) (WalksInSpirit) These are good
(02:09:03) (WalksInSpirit) IDIOTS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD:
(02:09:03) (WalksInSpirit) > I live in a semi-rural area. We recently had a new neighbor call the local township administrative office to request the removal of the `Deer Crossing' sign on our road.
(02:09:16) (WalksInSpirit) The reason: "too many deer were being hit by cars" and he didn't want them to cross there anymore. This one was from Kingman, KS.
(02:09:56) (WalksInSpirit) IDIOTS IN FOOD SERVICE:
(02:09:56) (WalksInSpirit) > My daughter went to a local Taco Bell and ordered a taco. She asked the person behind the counter for "minimal lettuce." He said he was sorry, but they only had iceberg. And he was a Kansas City chef!
(02:10:36) (WalksInSpirit) IDIOT SIGHTING: I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airport employee asked, "Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?
(02:10:56) (WalksInSpirit) To which I replied, "If it was without my knowledge, how would I know? He smiled knowingly and nodded, "That's why we ask." Happened in Birmingham, Ala.
(02:11:57) (WalksInSpirit) IDIOT SIGHTING: The stoplight on the corner buzzes when its safe to cross the street. I was crossing with an intellectually challenged coworker of mine when she asked if I knew what the buzzer was for.
(02:12:13) (WalksInSpirit) I explained that it signals blind people when the light is red. Appalled, she responded, "What on earth are blind people doing driving?!" She was a probation officer in Wichita, KS
(02:13:01) (WalksInSpirit) IDIOT SIGHTING: I work with an individual who plugged her power strip back into itself and for the life of her couldn't understand why her system would not turn on. A deputy with the Dallas County Sheriffs Office no less.
(02:13:59) (WalksInSpirit) IDIOT SIGHTING: When my husband and I arrived at an automobile
(02:13:59) (WalksInSpirit) > dealership to pick up our car, we were told the keys had been locked in it. We went to the service department and found a mechanic working feverishly to unlock the drivers side door.
(02:14:14) (WalksInSpirit) As I watched from the passenger side, I instinctively tried the door handle and discovered that it was unlocked. "Hey," I announced to the technician, "its open!" To which he replied, "I know - I already got that side." This was at the Ford dealership in Canton, Mississippi!