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Volume 35, #8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 2020 |
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![inspiration, motivation, Apple Seeds, [Apple]](AppleSeeds-1c.jpg)
![inspiration, motivation, Apple Seeds, [Apple]](AppleSeeds-2c.jpg)
Plant these "seeds" well and water often. Enjoy!
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A Morning Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Guidewords
"God grant that I may live upon this earth
And face the tasks which every morning brings
And never lose the glory and the worth
Of humble service and the simple things."
Desire to Learn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Milton,
Areopagitica"Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making."
Be Your Best . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Steve Gilbert,
winyourday@gmail.com"Today, rather than perfection, strive to simply be the best you can be at this moment. Enjoy imperfection because it means there’s room for learning and growing and that’s where the real good stuff in life happens."
Overcome Our Fears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
THE CHRISTOPHERS, 11/’79, "The Challenge of Loving""It is in doing that we overcome our fears and worry. There is nothing very special about putting love into the little things of life. In caring about the persons around us, we prepare ourselves for greater challenges."
Stewardship for the Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . U.N. Environment Programme
"The responsibility belongs to each of us. We can no longer make our decisions in isolation of the larger whole. Our planet is a closed system, and we are all inheritors of our past actions. We must each assess the consequences of our daily decisions, our purchases, our use of natural resources, our methods of waste disposal.…Stewardship and reverence for all life need to be in the forefront of our thinking. The whole system and its future must be considered if life on this planet is to survive and prosper."
Our Great Hope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Calvin Coolidge
"Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil; our great hope lies in developing what is good."
Risk of Listening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fr. John Castelot
"People have an uncanny faculty of hearing but not really listening. Words go in one ear and out the other, especially when they present a challenge.
Because of pride or stubbornness or for some other reason, people refuse to really listen to each other. Disputes go unresolved, misunderstandings deepen, chances for peace and happiness and love are lost.
If it seems risky to listen with care, there is an equal risk on the other side. By not listening, people risk missing the very words which hold the key to true greatness, self-fulfillment and happiness."
Wind of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fenèlon
"The wind of God is always blowing,
but you must hoist your sail."
Extending Ourselves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Carmody, The Progressive Pilgrim
"Existential meaning occurs when we are going beyond ourselves, transcending ourselves. What is missing when we complain of being in a rut is precisely this sense of extending ourselves. To be happy we must be appropriating new experiences and thereby expanding our core."
On Great Sacrifice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thomas Merton
"Nothing which is worth doing is ever done without great sacrifice. Every dream in its unfolding has difficult times, times when those who work with it are discouraged, when it seems as though those who were committed to it have lost the vision."
Prayer for Generosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . St. Ignatius of Loyola
"Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
to give and not count the cost;
to fight and not heed the wounds;
to toil and not seek for rest;
to labor and not ask for reward,
except to know that I am doing your will."
Visions and Dreams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anonymous
"Cherish your visions and your dreams
as they are the children of your soul,
the blueprints of your ultimate achievement."
Prophets of a Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Cardinal Dearden, former Archbishop of Detroit
"We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that fact. This enables us to do something and to do it very, very, well. We may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a stop along the way, an opportunity for grace to enter in and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the Master Builder and the workers. We are the workers, not Master Builders…ministers, not Messiahs. We are prophets of a future that is not our own."
The Spoken Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Arab proverb
"While the word is yet unspoken,
you are master of it;
when once it is spoken,
it is master of you."
Our Lives Are Linked . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frederick Buechner,
The Hungering Dark, 1969The remarkable Presbyterian preacher/novelist Frederick Buechner compared humanity to an enormous spider web: "if you touch it anywhere, you set the whole thing trembling.…As we move around this world and as we act with kindness, perhaps, or with indifference, or with hostility, toward the people we meet, we too are setting the great spider web a-tremble. The life that I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place and time my touch will be felt. Our lives are linked. No man is an island."
Courage to Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anonymous
In his book, The Yoke of Christ, Elton Trueblood quotes a letter from a school girl who probes the depth of her soul. She writes, "I’ve been thinking much of this year about the importance of caring, of the passion of life. I’ve often realized that it takes courage to care.
"Caring is dangerous. It leaves you open to hurt, to looking like a fool. And perhaps it’s because they have been hurt so often that people are afraid to care. You cannot die if you are not alive. But then who would rather be a stone?
"I’ve found many places in my own life where I keep a secret store of indifference as a sort of self-protection."
That’s a penetrating insight — a secret store of indifference. It takes courage to care greatly.
Ready Volunteers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fr. Brian Cavanaugh, TOR
Fr. Patrick Briscoe, OP, "Read how this parish is responding to Coronavirus: Inspiring!", Mar 13, 2020, ALETEIA.
I read online in the March 13 edition of Aleteia that at St. Joseph’s Church in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, members of the
parish’s Young Professionals group came forward and offered their services to the pastor. Should any elderly or at-risk parishioner need an errand run or supplies purchased from the grocery, they get in touch via phone or email with the pastor. The pastor then contacts one of the "ready" volunteers. This allows at-risk parishioners to continue to maintain their quarantine.
"We need charity most when things are dire," says Fr. Boniface. "Without charity, caring for the sick is cold, institutional procedure. This is a parish, not a social club. We care for those in need".
Think about how you can form your own neighborhood group to check in with your neighbors by phone, or leaving a note on their door with your phone number so they can call you.
Take responsibility for your local community, especially the elderly who may be uncertain of going to the store for errands. Talk to your pastor about setting up a similar system like they did at St. Joseph’s.
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Graphics used with permission from ChurchArt Online. They are not to be copied or downloaded.
