Learning to be more gentle

hi all,

I was listening to EWTN earlier today and Mother Angelica was telling a story about St. Phillip Neri that I find so funny and so appropriate that I thought I shared with you.

St. Phillip in the early days was very cranky. He recognized that so he went in front of the blessed sacrament and pray so that he is more gentle. He prayed and he prayed, he asked God to help him to be more gentle. He knelt there and pray for over 3 hours. After which, he felt that he is more gentle. When he left the church, he ran into a brother that did something that he did not like, he started yelling and admonished the brother. A little while later, he ran into another brother priest and again he got upset and admonished him too. When recognized that he was no longer gentle, he went back to the sacrament and blame God. "God I asked you to be gentle and You let me loose control." God basically reply to him that "I hear your prayer that you want to be more gentle so I am giving you more opportunities to practice to be more gentle."

As parents, I find myself like St. Phillips on many occasions. When my mind is pre-occupied with work or with other things and my children came to me to ask for something, I often blew up, then blame God for allowing me to blew up. Like St. Phillips, I often pray to be more gentle with my children and other and felt that I am gentle enough just to loose it again, then again blaming God for my failure. I need to recognize, to be aware that the moment that I am upset with my children and/or other are actually God's answering my prayer by providing me with opportunity to practice to be more gentle.

Lord, continue to send your grace upon me to help me recognize that each moment of my days, you are with me and you are continually re-creating me.

A.M.D.G.
Kha'nh