Grace

Be Generous

The Echo of Life

A man and his son were walking in the forest. Suddenly, he trips and feeling a sharp pain he screams, "Ahhhhhh!" Surprised, he hears a voice coming from the mountain, "Ahhhhh!" Filled with curiosity, he screams, "Who are you?" but the only answer he receives is, "Who are you?" This makes him angry, so he screams, "You are a coward!" and the voice answers, "You are a coward!"

He looks at his father, asking, "Dad, what is going on?"

"Son," the man replies, "pay attention!" Then he screams, "I admire you!"
The voice answers, "I admire you!"

The father shouts, "You are wonderful!"
and the voice answers, "You are wonderful!"

The boy is surprised, but still can't understand what is going on.

The father explains, "People call this an 'echo' but truly it is 'life!' Life always gives you back what you give out.

Life is a mirror of your actions. If you want more love, give more love. If you want more kindness, give more kindness. If you want understanding and respect, give understanding and respect. If you want people to be patient and respectful to you, give patience and respect. This rule of nature applies to every aspect of our lives."

Life always give you back what you give out. Your life is not a coincidence, but a mirror of your own doings​.

Rocks in Your Life

A little boy was spending his Saturday morning playing in his sandbox. He had with him his box of cars and trucks, his plastic pail, and a shiny, red plastic shovel. In the process of creating roads and tunnels in the soft sand, he discovered a large rock in the middle of the sandbox. The lad dug around the rock, managing to dislodge it from the dirt. With no little bit of struggle, he pushed and nudged the rock across the sandbox by using his feet. (The boy was very small and the rock was very large.)

When the boy got the rock to the edge of the sandbox, however, he found that he couldn't roll it up and over the little wall. Determined, the little boy shoved, pushed, and pried, but every time he thought he had made some progress, the rock tipped and then fell back into the sandbox. The little boy grunted, struggled, pushed, shoved -- but his only reward was to have the rock roll back, smashing his chubby fingers. Finally he burst into tears of frustration.

All this time the boy's father watched from his living room window as the drama unfolded. At the moment the tears fell, a large shadow moved across the boy and the sandbox. It was the boy's father. Gently but firmly he said, "Son, why didn't you use all the strength that you had available?"

Defeated, the boy sobbed back, "But I did, Daddy, I did! I used all the strength that I had!"

"No, son," corrected the father kindly. "You didn't use all the strength you had. You didn't ask me."

With that the father reached down, picked up the rock, and removed it from the sandbox.

Do you have "rocks" in your life that need to be removed? Are you discovering that you don't have what it takes to lift them? There is One who is always available to us and willing to give us the strength we need. When the apostle Paul faced times of a broken spirit and sapped strength, he proclaimed to the Corinthian church,

My grace is enough for you. When you are weak, then my power is made perfect in you. ~ 2 Corinthians 12:9

1st Sunday of Lent

Every year on the first Sunday of Lent, the Gospel recounts the temptation of Jesus in the desert. Each description from St. Matthew, St. Mark and St. Luke’s gospels frames our season of Lent into forty days and sets the tone for our six-week journey with Jesus from the beginning of his ministry in Galilee to Jerusalem, the horror of the cross and the victory of resurrection. Today, the reading from St. Matthew’s gospel, Mt. 4: 1 – 11, invites us to go into the desert with Jesus and confront the conflict between the Kingdom and God and the Kingdoms of the world.

In scripture, the desert represents a place of danger, hardship and death. It also is a place where people encounter God (usually in a time of crisis). Moses led the children of Israel into the desert to escape the tyranny of Egypt. There they were tested and failed resulting in a forty-year sojourn to rediscover their relationship with God. Elijah had to escape from the vengeance of Jezebel by going into the desert and there he encountered God. John the Baptist’s entire ministry occurred in the desert. People flocked to him seeking a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And Jesus too sought baptism by John in the desert as he began his ministry. We must remember, however, that throughout his ministry Jesus was tested and confronted temptation. It didn’t just happen in the desert.

Like Jesus we confront temptation. We don’t have to go into the desert to do it. Temptation comes into our lives every day. What the forty days of Lent provide us with is time and space for spiritual growth and renewal. It is a retreat in the midst of life. Lent invites us to slow down, to evaluate our relationship with God, to identify and then turn away from the things that separate us from God (selfishness, greed, materialism, desire for power) and to rebuild our relationship with God.

God our Father,

in the desert your Son Jesus struggled forty days

with the demands of his mission,

and he overcame all temptations.

In these forty days of Lent

convert us; turn our hearts

to the peace of your forgiveness,

the light of your love,

your concern for people.

Let us find the life and the joy

which Jesus brings us,

and dispose us to share it with others.

We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. 

Amen.

I Said Nothing

In Germany they first came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me -
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

~ Martin Niemöller

Measuring

We are each so much more than what some reduce to measuring.

Our society places great emphasis on how well each person is doing. It makes us judgmental and competitive. As children we may have thought that our real value was measured by the grades we got in school or the scores of our soccer games or baseball games. As grown-ups we continue measuring our worth by things like the size of our wages, the model of the car we drive.

We can't stop the measuring, but we are in a faith that helps us step outside this system. We seek to know and do the will of our Lord and Savior, which is beyond the limitations of such measurements. Submitting our own will to our Lord releases us from the competition and the judgments in these games of measurement. Our loyalties are to values like honesty, respect, peace, and wholeness. Today, let us remember that our value isn't measured on a human-made scale.

This Too Shall Pass

Being Human

Overcoming denial means intentionally and fully knowing oneself as a human being - warts and all.

• Being human means that you aren't everything you want to be - or everything you think you are - good or bad.
• Being human means that your thinking is sometimes irrational. It also means that everyday you have thoughts you would not like to have shared with people around you.
• Being human means that you live in a body which might not be perfect and sometimes has pain and is getting... older and probably is not in the same shape as what you see on TV and movies.
• Being human means you might not always have the kind of attitude you'd like to have.
• Being human means that you have those messy human feelings you wish would go away. Having feelings means that you sometimes make decisions based on feelings which aren't always in your best interest and sometimes hurt you and hurt people you love.
• Being human means that you can't do it alone - you need support.
• Being human also means that you are a child of Creation. A Loving God formed you and loves you as you are.
• Being human means that you are a spiritual being living in a physical body.
• Being human means that you are BOTH good and bad, BOTH saint and sinner, BOTH loving and selfish. Being human means that you have BOTH pain and pleasure.
• Being human means that you have needs that you can't always meet.
• Being human means that you are NOT in control.

Being human isn’t all negative. We are each gifted with mind and heart and wonderful senses to enjoy the world and to serve one another. We are all gifted and talented in tremendous ways – unique to us in a world filled with wonder. We each have many strengths in addition to any flaws we may have. We are made for great joy. God gave us a world filled with beauty and with pleasure. Being a Spiritual Person doesn’t mean we avoid all pleasure. But that we accept it with grateful hearts.

7th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today’s readings for the 7th Sunday in Ordinary time Year A, give us three very confronting directives. In Reading 1 from Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18, God tells Moses, “Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: “Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God am holy.” Then in 1 Corinthians 3:16 -23, St Paul tells the Christians in Corinth and us not to deceive ourselves about our worldly wisdom because ultimately it is worthless. St Paul admonishes us not to boast about ourselves because in the hierarchy of the Kingdom “there is one God from whom all things are and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are and though whom we exist” (1 Cor 8:6). Finally in today’s Gospel, Matthew 5:38-48, Jesus tells his disciples and us to “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  These are our challenges: holiness, humility and perfection.

Both Moses and Jesus provide some very specific directions on how we can achieve holiness and perfection. Leviticus 19 provides a fairly extensive code of conduct. However, there is a big difference between what Moses said and what Jesus meant. Leviticus is directed to the whole Israelite community. The code of conduct is about how Israelites are supposed to treat other Israelites. There are two verses, 33-34, that give advice on how to treat aliens (everyone else in the world). Jesus also gives us a code of conduct, the Sermon on the Mount that includes the Beatitudes and the verses in Matthew 5 that we hear today. Jesus gives us a broader perspective. Not only are we to treat our family and friends kindly, Jesus tells us we must love our enemies and pray for the people who hurt us. We must turn the other cheek, give away the coat off our back and go that extra mile for anyone and everyone.

What does this mean in practical terms? We need to understand what Jesus meant by love. When Jesus says love your enemy, he does not mean we are to fall in love with them or have warm fuzzy feelings for them. He means we are to wish/pray for their well-being. We are supposed to respond to them with kindness, compassion and goodwill. So, when that person recklessly cuts in front of you on the expressway, rather than get angry or curse them, say a little prayer that they make it to their destination safely. If someone spreads malicious gossip about you, pray that they may become caring people. And don’t forget to pray that God will help you to become the loving, caring, compassionate person you want to become because you want to be part of God’s Kingdom. Who knows, with prayer and practice we may all become the holy, humble and perfect people Jesus expects us to be. And striving to become holy, humble and perfect people can be our perfect Lenten exercise over the next six weeks.

God our Father,

in your Son Jesus Christ

you have shown us your tenderness

and accepted us, sinful people,

as your sons and daughters.

Share your heart with us,

help us be merciful and understanding people,

that we may learn from the way you have treated us

to accept everyone without conditions,

to forgive and forget all hurts,

so that we become more like you.

We ask you this through Christ our Lord.

Amen

Law of the Garbage Truck

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us.

My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly.

So I asked, "Why did you just do that? That guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!"

This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, "The Law of the Garbage Truck."

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage -- frustration, anger, disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don't.

Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it.

Change Your Perspective

“Every time I get worried about something I say my prayers more.” ~ Jim Burns

Whether we grew up in religious families or not, most of us seek help from some Greater Power when we're faced with terrifying situations. Often it's at an unconscious level that we ask for extra help. But the fact that we do elicit strength from some source comforts us, and this enables us to walk through the experience that appears so daunting.

We never outgrow the need for strength and comfort. That's good news. It's too awesome to think that we need to know all now, to understand how every detail of living should unfold. It's quite enough to limit our focus on the details of the next twenty-four hours.

Let's be vigilant about our search for guidance and comfort. And let's not forget that we have to listen for the response. If our minds are filled with worrying, there will be no space for the answers to enter.

Praying for solutions or comfort or just a moment of peace will change my perspective today. When my perspective changes, so do my experiences.

Life Lessons Learned from Noah's Ark

1. Don't miss the boat.
2. Remember that we are all in the same boat.
3. Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark.
4. Stay fit. When you're 600 years old someone may ask you to do something really big.
5. Don't listen to critics, just get on with the job that needs to be done.
6. Build your future on high ground.
7. For safety's sake travel in pairs.
8. Take care of your animals as if they were the last ones on earth.
9. If you have to start over, have a friend by your side.
10. No matter the storm, when you are with God there's always a rainbow waiting.

Grateful

A thousand eyes, but none with correct vision.  ~ Isacher Hurwitz

William Shakespeare referred to envy as the "green sickness." There are only losers in the game of envy. When we envy someone else, we have judged ourselves and found something lacking.

Lack of self-love is the soil in which envy grows. Envious people are never satisfied. Self-pity is never sitting far from envy. We feel sorry for ourselves for what we don't have. Self-pity is like a swamp, the longer we stand in the muck, the more we stink.

Concentrating on what we do have is the perfect antidote for envy. Every one of us has our own special gifts and talents. We find these by looking at ourselves instead of looking at others. By becoming grateful for what we have, we can rejoice in ourselves.

Today let me be grateful for what I have.

"Our Best Days" by Nancy Hull-Mast

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Life is full of choices. We make a multitude of choices every day. Some might be small and insignificant. Others might be huge, life changing decisions. No matter how big or small, choices challenge us. The challenge is to make the right choice. In today’s first reading, Sirach 15:15-20, the author gives us a lesson about free will and making wise decisions. He admonishes us not to blame others for our bad choices, “Say not: ‘It was God’s doing that I fell away’…. Say not, ‘it was he who set me astray’” (Sir 15:11-12). God made us subject to our own “free choice.” Since the time of Adam and Eve people have been responsible for their own decisions. However, we are accountable to God for all our decisions.

Of course, we do not have to make our decisions in a vacuum. We have tools to help us. God gave us the Ten Commandments to guide us in our relationship with God and with the people around us. We have laws: international laws, national laws, state laws, and local laws. Also, we have social and cultural mores to help keep us in line. The people of Israel during the time of Jesus had the Ten Commandments; Mosaic Law; Scriptural Law (the Law of the Prophets); Scribal Law and Roman Law. They had legal professionals, Scribes who worked out the rules and regulations based on their reading of scripture and Pharisees who separated themselves from ordinary life just so they could observe all the rules and regulations cooked up by the Scribes. Scribal Law was so onerous that it defined the simplest acts of living. For example, Scribal Law determined what people could eat, how it was cooked, and how it was to be eaten. Scribal Law determined what clothing people wore and how they “did” their hair. Jesus had major issues with the practice of Scribal Law because it focused on the mundane and trivial and not on the guiding principles that were the foundation of the law (the spirit of the law).

In Matthew 22:36-40 Jesus defined the Spirit of the Law when asked by a Pharisee, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” St. Augustine summed it up this way in one of his homilies, “Love, and do what thou wilt…. Let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good.”

If all our decisions and choices were made in the context of considering our love of God and our love of neighbor imagine what a different place our world would be. It would reflect the Kingdom of Heaven. Our challenge this week is to try it. Try asking yourself, does this choice or decision reflect my love of God and my love of neighbor? If the answer is yes then welcome to the Kingdom. If the answer is no, you might want to reconsider what you are doing.

Lord God, loving Father,

in your Son Jesus you have shown us

how we should seek and fulfil your loving will.

Dispose us to respond to your love

from the depth of our heart

and to be faithful to you in all we do.

Help us be respectful of one another

and attentive to the needs of people,

even when they remain indifferent and thankless,

that we may help to ban evil from this world

and bring to it your love and mercy.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

The Clown's Prayer

Lord, as I stumble through this life, help me create more laughter than tears, dispense more happiness that gloom, spread more cheer than despair.

Never let me grow so big that I fail to see the wonder in the eyes of a child, or the twinkle in the eyes of the aged. Never let me forget that I am a clown, that my work is to cheer people up, make them happy, and make them laugh, make them forget momentarily all the unpleasant things in their lives.

Never let me acquire financial success to the point where I will discontinue calling upon my Creator in the hour of need, or acknowledging and thanking Him in the hour of plenty.

And in my final moment, may I hear you whisper: "When you make MY people smile, you made ME smile.

Mud Puddles and Dandelions

Big Mud Puddles And Sunny Yellow Dandelions

Author Unknown

When I look at a patch of dandelions, I see a bunch of weeds that are going to take over my yard.

- My kids see flowers for Mom and blowing white fluff you can wish on.

When I look at an old drunk and he smiles at me, I see a smelly, dirty person who probably wants money and I look away.

- My kids see someone smiling at them and they smile back.

When I hear music I love, I know I can't carry a tune and don't have much rhythm so I sit self-consciously and listen.

- My kids feel the beat and move to it. They sing out the words. If they don't know them, they make up their own.

When I feel wind on my face, I brace myself against it. I feel it messing up my hair and pulling me back when I walk.

- My kids close their eyes, spread their arms and fly with it, until they fall to the ground laughing.

When I pray, I say thee and thou and grant me this, give me that.

- My kids say, 'Hi God! Thanks for my toys and my friends. Please keep the bad dreams away tonight. Sorry, I don't want to go to Heaven yet. I would miss my Mommy and Daddy.'

When I see a mud puddle I step around it. I see muddy shoes and dirty carpets.

- My kids sit in it. They see dams to build, rivers to cross, and worms to play with.

I wonder if we are given kids to teach or to learn from? No wonder God loves the little children!

Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.

I wish you Big Mud Puddles and Sunny Yellow Dandelions!

Wonderfully Made!

In a tiny book written in German and entitled "Wunder der Schöpfung" (Miracle of Nature) the author writes: "friend, your body is made up of 100 trillion cells. If you attempted to count them, taking a second to count each cell, it would take you three million years. This would not be an easy task because the cells are so tiny; each having an average diameter of 10 micrometers (one micrometer is equivalent to one millionth of a meter or 1/1000 of a millimeter). Yet each of these cells has a definite function in the entire organism: for the construction of the eyes and ears, of the teeth and fingernails, of the brain and hormones... Friend, who made this marvelous body of yours?

In contemplation of God's marvelous work of our beings and the beings of other living creatures, we can only exclaim with Psalm 139:13-14 "You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother's womb. I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works!"

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

There is an ancient fairy tale about a king with several daughters who asks each of them how much they love him. The youngest daughter answers that she loves him as much as salt because salt is indispensable. The king is insulted by her answer because salt is the “cheapest and commonest thing that comes to table” and everyone, even poor people have salt. He decides that she does not love him enough and so he banishes her from his kingdom. Later, when she has become the queen of another country (this is a fairy tale); she has the opportunity to host her father at a banquet. She serves her father a meal prepared without any salt which he cannot eat. She then confronts him with his cruelty and he begs her forgiveness because he now recognizes the value of salt. And they all lived happily ever after. By the way, this story is one of the inspirations for Shakespeare’s play, King Lear, which does not have such a happy ending.

Today’s gospel, Matthew 5:13-16, encourages us to look beyond the superficiality of our secular world, and be salt of the earth and light of the world. How ordinary! Salt is so common and yet so essential. Today, as in the time of Jesus salt is used for flavoring, preserving and healing. Our Christianity should flavor our lives and the lives of those around us like salt flavors food.

We take light for granted. The sun rises and sets without any effort on our part. And when we need more light we simply flick a switch and light happens. However, this isn’t the kind of light Jesus is talking about. In John 9:5 Jesus tells us that he is “the light of the world.” We cannot simply ignite our own light at will like flicking a light switch. Our light must shine from within. Our light should radiate the light of Christ working in our lives.

In today’s first reading, Isaiah 58:7-10, the prophet tells us how to become salt and light for our world. “Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.” This is a huge challenge. Let our prayer today ask Jesus to kindle His light in us so that our light will rise in the darkness.

O God of justice,

you have called your Church

to be the salt of the earth

and the light for the world.

Let the light of your own justice

shine in our lives,

so that we can do good works

and give you praise and glory.

We make our prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God for ever and ever.

AMEN.

What's in Your Cup

You're holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into you, making you spill your coffee everywhere. Why did you spill your coffee? You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup. Had there been tea in your cup, you would have spilled tea.

The point is whatever is inside the cup, is what will spill out. Therefore, when life comes along and shakes you (which will happen), whatever is inside you will come out. It’s easy to fake it, until you get rattled.

So, we have to ask ourselves, “What’s in my cup?” When life gets tough, what spills out? Joy, gratefulness, peace and humility? Or does anger, bitterness, harsh words and reactions come out? You choose!

Today, let’s work towards filling our cups with gratitude, forgiveness, joy, words of affirmation, kindness, gentleness and love for others.