Prayer of Saint Ignatius of Loyola

Teach us, Good Lord,

To Serve Thee as Thou deservest;

To give and not to count the cost;

To fight and not to heed the wounds;

To labor and not to ask for any reward,

save that of knowing that we do Thy will.

Through Jesus Christ Our Lord.

Amen

To my sister Susan . . . . . Happy Birthday !

Wishing you the best in life and God Bless You !

He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.”  - Luke  11:2-4

“And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find ; knock and the door will be opened to you. ” - Luke 11:9

We are really enjoying the benefits of a good weather, cooler days and nights and plants everywhere are showing a spectacular array of blooms. Here are some of the nice things we found  in the garden this morning:

Hot pink dendrobiums with two blooms. Forgive the slightly blurred photo. I guess my hands must have shook during the photo taking session.

This one is also hot pink but with stripes, and the blooms are really a lot.

These potted herbs we planted a month ago are also teeming with tiny white flowers.

Evergreen potted herbs are now ready for home use.

We love how the garden looks at this time and wish that these blooms are with us throughout the year.

Have a wonderful weekend !

This warm afternoon , I found four newly blossomed Lipstick flowers in luscious plum color. The weather must be doing great work as my plants are all bearing flowers.

And a pretty , yellow Cattleya with red lip was found inching its way out of huge, thick and waxy orchid leaves. The last time it bore flowers was two years ago, and I was thinking of “disposing” it today even though the plant which bore it looks healthy. I thought it would be better off with someone who knows more about care of orchid plants than me. The sight of the bloom changed my mind, maybe it needs more care than the other orchid plants in my garden.

St. Anne and St. Joachim are the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They spent their lives worshiping God and doing good.They had one great sorrow, however: God has not sent them any children. For years and years, Anne had begged the Lord to give her a child. She promised to consecrate the baby to him. When she was already old, God answered her prayer in a far better way than she could ever dreamed. The child  born to St. Joachim and St. Anne was the Immaculate Virgin Mary. The holiest of all women was to become the Mother of God.

- Courtesy of the Daughters of Saint Paul

This James is the brother of John the Evangelist. The two were called by Jesus as they worked with their father in a fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus had already called another pair of brothers from a similar occupation, Peter and Andrew. ” He walked along a little farther  and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and the brother of John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed Him.” (Mark 1:9-20)

James was one of the favored three who had the privelege of witnessing the transfiguration, the raising to life of the daughter of Jairus and the agony in Gethsemani.

- Courtesy of the American Catholic

For those of you who are interested in Holy Cards, you can check out this new blog. Posting will start before weekend. Anyone who would like to share their Holy Cards collection and wishes to have it posted in this blog, you may contact holycards2007@gmail.com. Contributors will be duly acknowledged in the Contributors Page.

The Fatima literature and Sacramentals I requested for my son arrived today after a wait of nearly two months. I thought, they must have accidentally deleted my email or the package could have landed in the wrong hands. If you are someone like me who lives in a non-Christian country, access to Catholic literature and sacramentals is definitely limited.  These were sent to us by the Fatima Center in New York through Ms. Linda Tackney. Thank you Linda and God bless your work in spreading the message of Our Lady at Fatima.

We took JM yesterday to the National Museum to have a look at the country’s history, arts, artifacts, architecture and archaelogical treasures. All three of us  can definitely remember things we saw during the visit, but Thai names of people, places and events are so difficult to keep in ones memory. The history of the country dates back to several thousands of years before Christ, it’s like going back in time but for my entire family, the visit was truly educational.

JM at the Museum Shop

These globes are gifts of Queen Victoria to King Rama V

JM and dad admiring the ancient swords.

A Chinese junk on exhibit.

Look mom ! It’s the Titanic ! It’s actually the barge of the King of Siam.

Reading and listening to history.

Playing with canons.

Relaxing at the rest house.