just-a-thought-7

Each of us is capable of doing some healing,
because we have eyes that can see,
ears that can hear,
tongues that can speak,
hands that can touch,
and above all a heart that can love.
Lord, make us instruments of your healing power.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness joy.

Disturb us, O Lord,
when we are too well pleased with ourselves;
when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little;
when we have arrived safely
because we sailed too close to the shore.
Stir us, O Lord, to dare more boldly,
to venture more seas, where storms shall show your mastery,
where losing sight of land we shall find the stars.
In the name of Him who pushed back the horizons
of our hopes and invited the brave to follow Him.

To do the work of Christ is really quite simple.
It means to be faithful in little things,
for to be faithful in little things is a big thing.
It means to do one’s task, no matter how humble,
not only thoroughly, but joyfully.
It means to make oneself available,
yet never to seek the limelight.
It means to make oneself useful,
without seeking to push oneself.
It means to carry one’s own burden, without,
as far as possible, becoming a burden on others.
In a word, it means to be at one’s post,
helpful and faithful, loyal and constant.
Lord, make me an instrument
for the building of your kingdom.

Lord, look upon us and take pity on us,
for at times we too are like sheep.
Save us from a blind following of the Lord.
Help us to listen to your voice,
to trust you and to follow you,
even if it means leaving the crowd
and walking a lonely path.
Lead us from fear to trust, from error to truth,
from hate to love, from war to peace,
from despair to hope, and from death to life.
Amen.

God provided a mysterious food called manna
for the Israelites during their time in the desert.
However, they were told not to stockpile the manna,
but to gather only what they needed for one day.
Jesus told his disciples not to worry about tomorrow.
He said, When you pray to your heavenly Father,
you are to say, "Give us this day our daily bread".
No matter how difficult life may be,
for those who trust in God
and who live a day at a time,
the manna falls every day.

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfil it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.

Do not say all you know,
for he who says all he knows
often says more than he knows.

Do not say all you hear,
for he who tells all he hears
often tells more than he hears.

Do not spend all you have,
for he who spends all he has
often spends more than he has.

Do not covet all you see,
for he who covets all he sees
often wants more than he sees.

Christ be near at either hand,
Christ behind, before me stand.
Christ with me where e’er I go,
Christ around, above, below.
Christ be in my heart and mind,
Christ within my soul enshrined.
Christ control my wayward heart,
Christ abide and ne’er depart.
Christ my life and only way,
Christ my lantern night and day.
Christ be my unchanging friend,
Guide and Shepherd to the end.

The best thing to give:
to your enemy is forgiveness;
to an opponent, tolerance;
to a friend, your heart;
to your child, a good example;
to a father, deference;
to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you;
to yourself, respect;
to all people, charity.

Today pollution has become a big issue,
and rightly so.
People want clean water, clean air and clean food.
But we should be even more concerned
about the most dangerous pollution of all, namely evil.
Pride, anger, hate, lust, greed, envy…
all these are dangerous pollutants.
So what must we do?
We must purify the source; the heart is the source.
It is the well-spring from which
all our thoughts, words and deeds flow.
If the heart is clean, all that flows from it will be clean.
Blessed are the clean of heart: they shall see God.

The gift of hearing is a precious gift.
But it is only with the heart that we can hear rightly
the cry of a needy person may reach our ears
but unless it reaches the heart
we will not feel the person’s pain
and it is unlikely that we will respond.
And the gift of speech is a precious gift.
But again it is only with the heart that we can speak rightly.
For our words to ring true, they must come from the heart.
If they come only from the lips,
They will have a hollow sound and will have little effect.
They will be like a wind that ruffles the surface of the water
but leaves the depths untouched.
But words that come from the heart, enter the heart.

A watch may have a gold chain,
but if it doesn’t tell the time it is useless.
A fruit tree may be teeming with blossoms,
but if it doesn’t produce fruit it is useless.
A lamp may be studded with diamonds,
but if it doesn’t give light it is worthless.
And a faith that doesn’t result in good works is dead.
The fruit of prayer is faith.
The fruit of faith is love.
The fruit of love is service.
And the fruit of service is peace.

For each of us life is a journey.
Birth is the beginning of this journey,
and death is not the end but the destination.
It is a journey that takes us from youth to age,
from innocence to awareness,
from foolishness to wisdom,
from weakness to strength and often back again,
from loneliness to friendship,
from pain to compassion,
from fear to faith,
from defeat to victory and from victory to defeat,
until, looking backward or ahead,
we see that victory does not lie at some high point along the way,
but in having made the journey, stage by stage.

Jesus warned those who would lead the little ones astray,
but he blessed those who care for them.
One of the most touching things about children is their openness.
But this same openness leaves them extremely vulnerable.
They may not say much but they feel everything.
They are like crocuses which appear in February
frail, delicate, beautiful creatures –
innocents abroad in an unpredictable climate.
If they are embraced by the sun,
they will bloom to their full potential.
But if they are assailed by hail,
they will die a premature death.
Love is to a child what sunshine is to a flower.

Youth is not a time of life, it is state of mind.
Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years;
people grow old only by deserting their ideals.
Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair,
these are the long, long years that bow the head
and turn the growing spirit back to dust.
You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt;
as young as your hope, as old as your despair.
So long as your heart receives messages of beauty,
cheer, courage, grandeur and power
from the earth from man, from the infinite,
so long are you young.
When the heart is covered with the snows of pessimism
and the ice of cynicism,
then I am grown old indeed,
and may you, Lord, have mercy on my soul.

General Douglas MacArthur

Jesus saw that the rich young man had great potential,
so he invited him to enter the world of sharing.
But he wasn’t up to it – riches got in the way.
As he went away a sadness descended on him,
the sadness that descends on us
when we choose to live for ourselves.
Even though Jesus was sad to see him go,
nevertheless, he let him go.
There’s no point in forcing people to make sacrifices.
If you take things from people, they are impoverished
but if you can get them to give them up, they are enriched.
People are essentially good,
but this goodness has to be awakened and called forth,
if they are to enter the kingdom of love.

James and John were two opportunists.
Their one aim was to rise in the ranks.
To achieve their end, they did not hesitate to beg.
They did not mind how much envy and resentment
they aroused in their companions.
Their aim was to scramble up the career ladder.
But at what price to themselves?
If in the course of their rise to the top,
people lose themselves, their own souls,
whatever they do or achieve will be worthless.
Power hardens the human heart,
A hard-hearted person is incapable of love.
It is by giving that we receive,
and it is by serving that we grow in love.

Remember that you have only one soul;
that you have only one death to die;
that you have only one life to live,
which is short and has to be lived by you alone;
and that there is only one glory, which is eternal.
If you do this, there will be many things
about which you care nothing.

St. Teresa of Avila.

If only the heart was right we could give so much more.
Lord, open our hearts when they are closed,
soften them when they are hard,
warm them when they are cold,
brighten them when they are dark,
fill them when they are empty,
calm them when they are troubled,
cleanse them when they are sullied,
heal them when they are wounded,
and mend them when they are broken,
so that we, your disciples, may bear the fruits of love.

Amen

You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
There are those who give little of the much which they have,
And they give it for recognition,
And their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.
And there are those who have little, and give it all.
These are the believers in life and the bounty of life,
And their coffer is never empty.
Through the hands of such as these God speaks,
And from behind their eyes he smiles upon the earth.

Kahlil Gibran

Preserve me God, I take refuge in you.
My happiness lies in you alone.
You are my portion and my cup,
you yourself are my prize.
I keep you ever in my sight,
even at night you direct my heart.
With you at my right hand, I shall stand firm.
And so my heart rejoices, my soul is glad.
For you will not leave my soul among the dead,
nor let your beloved know decay.
You will show me the path of life,
the fullness of joy in your presence,
at your right hand, happiness for ever.

(from Psalm 15)

Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”
Jesus does not rule as earthly kings rule.
He has no palace, no throne, no crown, no army.
Yet we give him an allegiance and a loyalty
which we would not give to any other person
or institution on earth.
Alone and unarmed he stood before Pilate.
Pilate had thousands of soldiers to call upon.
Jesus had no soldier to call upon.
Yet Jesus was incomparably the greater of the two.
Jesus is the hope of the human race.
He rules, not by force, but by love.
Lord Jesus, may your kingdom come,
and may you remember me on that day.

The hill flowers fade,
but will bloom again next year.
But we never get back our youth.
Life is a fragile gift which we enjoy only briefly;
our life is like the warming of oneself in the sun.
We live in a flash of light; before we know it,
evening comes and night falls.
But the very fleetingness of life
makes it all the more precious.
Lord, may your gentle and sure light
guide us on the unfolding road,
so that we may walk with confidence
towards the light that never fades
and the life that never ends

The voice of John the Baptist was a lonely voice
which many of his contemporaries ignored.
There are many lonely voices in our world.
Somewhere at this moment a child is crying –
crying for love or maybe simply for bread.
Somewhere a young person is crying –
crying for a listening ear or an understanding heart.
Somewhere an old person is crying –
crying for a visit or a word from his/her children.
There are thousands of unheard cries in our world,
coming from the victims of injustice and neglect.
Lord, help us to listen to these voices.
Above all, help us to listen to your voice,
whispering to us in the wilderness of our hearts,
telling us that we are loved by you,
and that we are to love one another.

There is a clear note of joy in today’s liturgy.
Joy is a blend of laughter and tears.
It consists in having a love affair with life.
It is having a heart aglow with warmth
for all one’s companions on the road of life.
It is looking for the happiness that comes in small packages,
knowing that big packages are few and far between.
It is making the most of the present,
enjoying what is at hand right now.
Joy is love bubbling over into life.
And it can coexist with pain.
Joy is the flag we fly when Christ, the Prince of Peace,
Has taken up residence in our hearts.

Lord Jesus, come into our weakness.
Come into our fears.
Come into our anxieties.
Come into our failures.
Come into our divisions.
Come into our grieving.
Come into our loneliness.
Come into our darkness.
Come into our doubting.
Come into our despair.
Come into our poverty of heart.
Come into our searching.
Come into our joys and hopes.
Come into our dying.
Come, Lord Jesus, come.

Your children are not your children,
They come through you but not from you.
And though they are with you,
yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
for they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backwards nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.