This was a woman clearly accustomed to the finer things of life. Her coat was new.. She looked like she had never missed a meal in her life.

His first thought was that she wanted to make fun of him, like so many others had done before.. “Leave me alone,” he growled….

To his amazement, the woman continued standing.

She was smiling — her even white teeth displayed in dazzling rows. “Are you hungry?” she asked.

“No,” he answered sarcastically. “I’ve just come from dining with the president. Now go away.”

The woman’s smile became even broader. Suddenly the man felt a gentle hand under his arm.

“What are you doing, lady?” the man asked angrily. “I said to leave me alone.

Just then a policeman came up. “Is there any problem, ma’am?” he asked..

“No problem here, officer,” the woman answered. “I’m just trying to get this man to his feet. Will you help me?”

The officer scratched his head. “That’s old Jack. He’s been a fixture around here for a couple of years. What do you want with him?”

“See that cafeteria over there?” she asked. “I’m going to get him something to eat and get him out of the cold for awhile.”

“Are you crazy, lady?” the homeless man resisted. “I don’t want to go in there!” Then he felt strong hands grab his other arm and lift him up. “Let me go, officer. I didn’t do anything.”

” This is a good deal for you, Jack” the officer answered. “Don’t blow it.”

Finally, and with some difficulty, the woman and the police officer got Jack into the cafeteria and sat him at a table in a remote corner. It was the middle of the morning, so most of the breakfast crowd had already left and the lunch bunch had not yet arrived…

The manager strode across the cafeteria and stood by his table. “What’s going on here, officer?” he asked. “What is all this, is this man in trouble?”

“This lady brought this man in here to be fed,” the policeman answered.

“Not in here!” the manager replied angrily. “Having a person like that here is bad for business..”

Old Jack smiled a toothless grin. “See, lady. I told you so. Now if you’ll let me go. I didn’t want to come here in the first place.”

The woman turned to the cafeteria manager and smiled.. “Sir, are you familiar with Eddy and Associates, the banking firm down the street?”

“Of course I am,” the manager answered impatiently. “They hold their weekly meetings in one of my banquet rooms.”

“And do you make a goodly amount of money providing food at these weekly meetings?”

“What business is that of yours?”

I, sir, am Penelope Eddy, president and CEO of the company.”

“Oh.”

The woman smiled again. “I thought that might make a difference.” She glanced at the cop who was busy stifling a giggle. “Would you like to join us in a cup of coffee and a meal, officer?”

“No thanks, ma’am,” the officer replied. “I’m on duty.”

“Then, perhaps, a cup of coffee to go?”

“Yes, mam. That would be very nice.”

The cafeteria manager turned on his heel, “I’ll get your coffee for you right away, officer.”

The officer watched him walk away. “You certainly put him in his place,” he said.

“That was not my intent. Believe it or not, I have a reason for all this.”

She sat down at the table across from her amazed dinner guest. She stared at him intently.. “Jack, do you remember me?”

Old Jack searched her face with his old, rheumy eyes. “I think so — I mean you do look familiar.”

“I’m a little older perhaps,” she said. “Maybe I’ve even filled out more than in my younger days when you worked here, and I came through that very door, cold and hungry.”

“Ma’am?” the officer said questioningly. He couldn’t believe that such a magnificently turned out woman could ever have been hungry.

“I was just out of college,” the woman began. “I had come to the city looking for a job, but I couldn’t find anything. Finally I was down to my last few cents and had been kicked out of my apartment. I walked the streets for days. It was February and I was cold and nearly starving. I saw this place and walked in on the off chance that I could get something to eat.”

Jack lit up with a smile. “Now I remember,” he said.. “I was behind the serving counter. You came up and asked me if you could work for something to eat. I said that it was against company policy.”

“I know,” the woman continued. “Then you made me the biggest roast beef sandwich that I had ever seen, gave me a cup of coffee, and told me to go over to a corner table and enjoy it. I was afraid that you would get into trouble… Then, when I looked over and saw you put the price of my food in the cash register, I knew then that everything would be all right.”

“So you started your own business?” Old Jack said.

“I got a job that very afternoon. I worked my way up. Eventually I started my own business that, with the help of God, prospered.” She opened her purse and pulled out a business card.. “When you are finished here, I want you to pay a visit to a Mr. Lyons…He’s the personnel director of my company. I’ll go talk to him now and I’m certain he’ll find something for you to do around the office.” She smiled. “I think he might even find the funds to give you a little advance so that you can buy some clothes and get a place to live until you get on your feet… If you ever need anything, my door is always opened to you.”

There were tears in the old man’s eyes. “How can I ever thank you?” he said.

“Don’t thank me,” the woman answered. “To God goes the glory. Thank Jesus… He led me to you.”

Outside the cafeteria, the officer and the woman paused at the entrance before going their separate ways….

“Thank you for all your help, officer,” she said.

“On the contrary, Ms. Eddy,” he answered. “Thank you. I saw a miracle today, something that I will never forget. And..And thank you for the coffee.”

If you have missed knowing me, you have missed nothing.

If you have missed some of my emails, you might have missed a laugh..

But, if you have missed knowing my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, you have missed everything in the world.

Have a Wonderful Day. May God Bless You Always and don’t forget that when you “cast your bread upon the waters,” you never know how it will be returned to you..

God is so big He can cover the whole world with his Love and so small He can curl up inside your heart..

When God leads you to the edge of the cliff, trust Him fully and let go.

Only 1 of 2 things will happen, either He’ll catch you when you fall, or He’ll teach you how to fly!

The power of one sentence!

God is going to shift things around for you today and let things work in your favor.

God closes doors no man can open & God opens doors no man can close..

Have a blessed day and remember to be a blessing…
LIVE WELL, LOVE MUCH, LAUGH OFTEN

Author Unknown

By Father Hugh Barbour Aid to the Church in Need
Here is surely the most common question anyone ever asked about life. The answer to this question is both deep and demanding. Our Lord Himself, experiencing the most complete abandonment in His human feelings cried out “My God, my God why have You abandoned me?”
What is this deepest meaning of suffering?
A testimony of persecution
The psalms which the church prays daily from morning to night all around the world repeatedly ask this question in various ways, and indeed it was from psalm 22 that the Savior was praying the words just quoted to express the depth of His painful passion. It is true that suffering is the result of sin, but it is very important for us to see suffering in its deepest meaning if we are not to get a wrong impression of God’s work in the world. What is this deepest meaning of suffering?
Surely it is not that an angry God inflicts vengeance on His poor, feeble creatures just to spite them. We see that this cannot be the case since we know that sinless persons, Our Lord and His Blessed Mother suffered more than anyone else ever did. The suffering person may feel as though God were angry with him or her, but the suffering endured is really coming from God’s goodness and love. How so?
Our Lord commanded us to love Him with our whole heart…
Quite simply, whenever the human heart clings to one good in preference to another, this means that the heart is separated, divided from the good it rejected in order to hold on to the good it chose. This division, this separation is painful even when we are choosing something we desire, for it means being separated from the things we have not chosen. Sometimes these things are still making a claim on our hearts, and the awareness we are giving them up makes us suffer. Thus when we choose to sin, the choice causes suffering in us because God still draws us to Himself.
When we choose God, then we experience the loss of the sinful things we desired before and they still call to us to take them back. Our Lord commanded us to love Him with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and eventually that “whole” means that we have to accept willingly the loss of any other things which our heart, mind, and soul may have desired: possessions, bodily health, relationships, and even life itself in order to be with the Lord, to love Him absolutely.
He directs our lives like the mysteries of the Rosary…
The root of suffering is thus nothing less than love, Divine Love, staking a claim on our hearts. That is why the saints suffered so much, because their love for God was so pure and intense. This kind of love purifies from sin and makes up for sin and so it can cause suffering even in the sinless. The happy truth about this “separating” quality of God’s love, is that it leads to the perfect happiness of heaven, when, after the trials of this earthly life “God will be all in all.” The apostle Paul tells us “Eye has not seen, nor has ear heard what God has prepared for those who love Him” and he goes on to say about Christ’s sufferings “He for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame.”
In the end, the fruit of suffering is found in the joy of possessing perfectly in the life to come the God whom we have loved in this world. In the meantime, though, Our Lord does not usually let us be overwhelmed with sorrows, He directs our lives like the mysteries of the Rosary, through joys and sorrows to the bright light of heavenly glory. Let us persevere then, and pray for our fellow Christian strugglers throughout the world, and accept both the consequences of our sins and the consequences of our love for God by taking up our cross daily and following Him.

by Debbie Heydrick and Lisa Robertson

At times I’m filled with longing;
Your face I’d love to see,
To feel your warmth, to hear your voice,
to have you here with me.

But God has a plan; He created you
and numbered all your days.
May he hold you in His loving arms
and surround me with His grace.

With the hope of reunion in Heaven one day,
I entrust you in His care.
Cherished memories of you live on in my heart.
Your life is a gift we share.
by Debbie Heydrick

Not just the lesson in a book or how the rivers
flow, but how to choose the proper path
wherever they may go.

To understand eternal truth and know the right
from wrong and gather all the beauty of a
flower and a song.

For if I help the world to grow in wisdom and grace
then I shall feel that I have won and I have filled
my place.

And so I ask your guidance, God
that I may do my part for character and confidence
and happiness of heart.

Amen.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
He looked back at the footprints in the sand. He
noticed that many times along the path of his life
there was only one set of footprints. He also
noticed that it happened at the very lowest and
saddest times of his life.

This really bothered him and he questioned the
LORD about it. “LORD, you said that once I
decided to follow you, you’d walk with me all the
way. But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life, there is only one set
of footprints; I don’t understand why when I
needed you most you would leave me.”

The LORD replied, “My precious, precious child,
I love you and I would never leave you. During
your times of trial and suffering, when you see
only one set of footprints, it was then that I
carried you.”

I didn’t ask for wealth or fame
(I knew you wouldn’t mind).
I asked him to send treasures
Of a far more lasting kind!

I asked that he be near you
At the start of each new day;
To grant you health and blessings
And friends to share your way!

I asked for happiness for you
In all things great and small.
But it was for his loving care
I prayed the most of all!