Dr. Seuss

 

Bring Your Umbrella

One summer, a drought threatened the crop in a small town. On a hot and dry Sunday, the old parish priest told his congregation, "There isn't anything that will save us except to pray for rain. Go home, pray, believe, and come back next Sunday ready to thank God for sending rain."

The people did as they were told and returned to church the following Sunday. But as soon as the old priest saw them, he was furious.

"We can't worship today. You do not yet believe," he said.

"But," they protested, "we prayed, and we do believe."

"Believe?" he responded. "Then where are your umbrellas?"

The story applies to all of us. There are those people who leave their umbrellas at home. Throughout their lives, they are merely hoping their wishes and prayers will bear fruit, but they expect little.

Others expect their dreams and desires to come to pass. It is as if they journey through life always prepared for something to happen.

Today, how will you approach that which you are yearning for? Will you expect your prayers and work to bring about hoped-for results?

Will you bring your umbrella?

I Found the Answer in My Room

When I woke up this morning, I asked myself, 

"What is life about?"

I found the answer in my room.

The fan said, "Be cool."
The roof said, "Aim high."
The window said, "See the world!"
The clock said, "Every minute is precious."
The mirror said, "Reflect before you act."
The calendar said, "Be up to date."
The door said, "Push hard for your goals."
The floor said, "Kneel down and pray."

He Already Knows

A priest was teaching his weekly Bible class, and he asked the members how they'd introduce themselves to the Lord when they got to heaven. The first one said, “Lord, I'm Joan. I was married for 47 years, I raised three wonderful children, and I always baked the cupcakes for school. That's who I am.”

Another said, “Lord, I'm George. I was the biggest contractor in the county Almost all of my buildings were good and I tried to watch out for the little guys. That's who I am.”

And another said, “I'm Harry. I was the school janitor all my life. Kept the place real clean, and was never mean to the kids either. That's who I am, Lord.”

And so it went till finally it was the turn of the oldest man in the group. He spoke very softly: “I won't need to introduce myself,” he said . “The Lord already knows who I am."

Mistakes

A humorous story has it that a newly appointed young clergyman was contacted by a local funeral director to hold a graveside service at a small country cemetery in mid-western USA. There was to be no funeral, just a graveside service, because the deceased had no family and had outlived her friends.

The young pastor started early to the cemetery, but soon became lost. After making several wrong turns, he finally arrived a half-hour late. The hearse was nowhere in sight and cemetery workers were relaxing under a nearby tree, eating their lunch.

The pastor went to the open grave and found that the vault lid was already in place. He took out a prayer book and read a few paragraphs. As he returned to his car, he overheard one of the workers say, “Maybe we’d better tell him it’s a septic tank.”

Why is it we make our biggest mistakes in public? And some people can’t avoid it. Former hockey goalie Jacques Plante wonders, “How would you like a job where, if you made a mistake, a big, red light goes on and 18,000 people boo?”

But we should never give up our right to be wrong. Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment. It is your right to be wrong. “No (one) ever became great or good except through many and great mistakes,” said William E. Gladstone. Great mistakes are opportunities for great learning. And great learning makes for great living.

Now, that’s something I can get into. I don’t need to be a great person, just one who believes that his life is worth living well. And if that means I need to make some magnificent mistakes along the way, I’ll take that on as part of the price to pay.

You and I have a right to be wrong. And if we are to move toward great living, we might even have a duty to make great mistakes. Sometimes we can laugh them off. Certainly we can learn from them. And always, let’s just make sure the next mistake is one we haven’t made before.

Thy Will

As the day goes on, we can pause where situations must be met and decisions made, and renew the simple request: Thy will, not mine, be done.

Just saying it over and over will often enable us to clear a channel choked up with anger, fear, frustration, or misunderstanding, and permit us to return to the surest help of all – our search for God’s will, not our own, in the moment of stress.​

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s gospel, Matthew 4: 12 – 23, St Matthew describes the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. In these few verses, Matthew links Jesus’ ministry to Old Testament prophecy by stating that Jesus is the fulfilment of Isiah’s vision of a new king who drives away darkness and despair brining light, joy and rejoicing. Matthew reminds us that Jesus came to preach. And finally, the message Jesus proclaimed was "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Throughout his ministry, Jesus, called on the people of Israel to repent. St. Matthew used the Greek word, metanoia, defined in the Merriam Webster Dictionary as “a transformative change of heart; especially: a spiritual conversion.” Jesus challenged his listeners and he challenges us to change our way of thinking, to change our behavior, to change our hearts and to change our lives so that we can be good citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.

After he started preaching, Jesus began identifying his partners in ministry. In today’s gospel, he called Andrew and Simon and James and John. They all dropped whatever they were doing and followed him. St Matthew tells us in Chapter 5 of his gospel that we “are the light of the world” (14). Just as Jesus called Peter and Andrew and James and John, he calls us. The Good News is that we, the spiritual heirs of Saints Peter, Andrew, James, and John, can share this light with hundreds of people every day in so many ways. The even better news is that there is much, much more we can do to transform the world about us. It was, after all, Jesus who promised we will do greater works than he did; “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12). We are all called to be apostles of light.

  

God our Father,

your Son invites us, gently but insistently,

to follow him as faithful disciples.

Open our minds to his light,

make us respond to his love

and entrust our whole being to him.

May his kingdom grow in each of us

and in the whole world, that he may lead us in hope

to the joy you have prepared for us in your home.

We ask you this through Christ our Lord.

Amen