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Volume 38, #5 Plant these "seeds" well and water often. Enjoy!
A Prayer for the New Year . . . . . Fr. Brian Cavanaugh, TOR
An Education . . . . . . . . . . . Ralph Waldo Emerson"The things taught in colleges and schools are not an education, but the means of an education." Today is Unique . . . . . . . Charles Swindoll, The Quest of Character, p. 191"Today is unique! It has never occurred before and it will never be repeated. At midnight it will end, quietly, suddenly, totally. Forever. But the hours between now and then are opportunities with eternal possibilities." Human Life . . . . . . . . . Thomas Jefferson"The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government." Commandments of Success . . . . . Og Mandino, The Greatest Success In The World9: Thou Must Never Forget That It Is Always Later Than You Think. Abide always with the thought that you will not live forever. Such is the irony of life that this knowledge, alone, will enable you to taste the sweetness of each day instead of bemoaning the darkness of your nights. Many are so afraid to die that they never live. Remember that it is always later than you think. Fasten this warning deep in your mind, not for sorrow’s sake but to remind yourself that today may be all you have." Strength to Love . . . . . . Rev, Martin Luther King, Jr. "…[W]e have cultivated a mass mind and have moved
from the extreme of rugged individualism to the even
Teach Students . . . . . . Alice Stone Ilchman"Teach students to be constructive troublemakers. That is, informed, self-aware citizens who have the instinct to question, to address complexity and to work for their beliefs." Imagination – Humor . . . . . . Francis Bacon"Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is." Pray as Jesus Did . . . . . . . CHRISTOPHER NEWS NOTES, #286"All of Jesus’ thoughts, words and actions were directed to God. He sought to do the will of His Father in everything. This is what prayer is: turning one’s mind and heart toward a loving Father, trusting in His mercy and depending on His help. Formal words are useful and sometimes necessary, but prayer does not begin in a book; it begins in the heart." Words & Deeds . . . . . . Baltasar Gracian, The Art of Worldly Wisdom, #202 Words and deeds make a perfect man. "Speak what is very good, do what is very honorable. The first shows a perfect head, the second a perfect heart, and both arise in a superior spirit. Words are the shadows of deeds.…it is easy to speak and difficult to act. Deeds are the substance of life, and wise sayings the adornment…Actions are the fruit of prudent reflection. Words are wise, deeds are mighty." Exaggerate . . . . . . . . Honore De Balzac"We exaggerate misfortune and happiness alike. We are never either so wretched or so happy as we say we are." Look Fear in the Face . . . . . . . Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do." Build a Team . . . . . . . . . . Vince Lombardi"Build for your team a feeling of oneness, of dependence upon one another and of strength to be derived from unity." "A Year of Time" . . . . . . . Steven B. Cloud, PULPIT HELPS, Vol. 14, # 2Though even thinking on the subject of time may prove discomforting, it is not a bad idea — especially at the beginning of a new year.
The gift of time is not ours alone. It is given equally to each person. Rich and poor, educated and ignorant, strong and weak — every man, woman and child has the same twenty-four hours every day. Another important thing about time is that you cannot stop it. There is no way to slow it down, turn it off, or adjust it. Time marches on. And you cannot bring back time. Once it is gone, it is gone. Yesterday is lost forever. If yesterday is lost, tomorrow is uncertain. We may look ahead at a full year’s block of time, but we really have no guarantee that we will experience any of it. Obviously, time is one of our most precious possessions. We can waste it. We can worry over it. We can spend it on ourselves. Or, as good stewards, we can invest it in the kingdom of God. The new year is full of time. As the seconds tick away, will you be tossing time out the window, or will you make every minute count? Prepare Everyday . . . . . . . . . Mike Iuzzolino"Prepare everyday of your life to be the best that you can be, and that’s all that will ever matter in life. Everything else will take care of itself." Awareness . . . . . . . . .Anthony De Mello, SJ, p. 4-5"Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don’t know it are asleep. They are born asleep, they live asleep,…they die in their sleep without ever waking up. Francis Stroud said, [De Mello’s] ‘work was all about waking people up to the reality of their greatness.…proclaiming the message of awareness, seeing the light we are to ourselves and to others, recognizing we are better than we know.’" Map Makers & Dragons . . . . . . Roger Von Oech, A Kick In The Seat Of The Pants"Centuries ago, when map makers ran out of the known world before they ran out of parchment, they would sketch a dragon at the edge of the scroll. This was a sign to the explorer that he would be entering unknown territory at his own risk. Unfortunately, some explorers took this symbol literally and were afraid to push on to new worlds. Other more adventuresome explorers saw the dragon as a sign of opportunity, a door to new territory."
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"Grant
us, O Lord:
greater extreme of rugged
collectivism. We are not makers of history; we are made by history. Longfellow
said, ‘In this world a man must either be anvil or hammer,’ meaning that he is
either a molder of society or is molded by society. Who doubts that today most
men are anvils and are shaped by the patterns of the majority? Or to change the
figure, most people, and Christians in particular, are thermometers that record
or register the temperature of majority opinion, not thermostats that transform
and regulate the temperature of society."
As we look into 2023 we look at a block of time. We
see 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes, 31,536,000
seconds. And all is a gift from God. We have done nothing to deserve it, earn
it, or purchased it. Like the air we breathe, time comes to us as a part of
life.
