Our young people

My first New York Teen Club in New Hyde Park in 1982

Oscar Wilde  (1854-1900) once said: ‘The elderly believe everything. The middle-aged suspect everything. And young people know everything !’ And the Belgian Cardinal Cardijn (1882-1967) who founded the Young Christian Workers Movement said that young people are worth than all the gold in the world. But it’s sad to see that there seems to be a conspiracy to strip these people from all their gold, steal any money from their pockets, and chase them away with the slithering snakes of drugs and other vices. They have extreme pressure to do what their friends are doing, otherwise they would be ‘left out.’ On the other hand they insist that they cannot be like puppets in the hands of the abusers. And finally Raoul Follereau (1903-1977) a French doctor who dedicated his life to exterminate leprosy, said that young people are loyal, do not deceive, are horrified by hypocrisy, who do what they have to do, and say what they have to say, honestly and without any hesitation. I lived with many of them in several parishes, and I remember their genuine spirit and selfless appreciation of all I did for them, to guide them away from danger, and direct them to the truth and beauty of life.

These are various youth groups I had in various parishes I had: Top left - St Julian's parish, Malta; Top right: John Day, Oregon; Bottom left: Rocky Point NY; Bottom right: New Hyde Park NY. (Click to enlarge)

 

St. Simon and St. Jude

GM Butteri - Mary with Sts Simon and Jude

Other than St Peter and St John, very little is known about the other apostles. But Jesus saw something good in each of them, and even though Judas Iscariot betrayed Him, all the others followed Jesus faithfully and died a martyr’s death. Today we honor two of the lesser know apostles. St. Simon was surnamed the Zealot for his rigid adherence to the Jewish law and Canaanite Law. Western tradition says that he preached in Egypt and then went to Persia with St. Jude, where both suffered martyrdom. Eastern tradition says that Simon died peacefully in Edessa. St Jude, known as Thaddeus was a brother of St James the Less and a relative of Jesus. He preached the Gospel in Mesopotamia, Syria, Judea and Libya. He is also the author of a short epistle to the churches of the East, particularly the Jewish converts, directed against the heresies of his time. It is the shortest book of the entire Bible, with just one chapter and 25 verses. St Jude suffered martyrdom in Armenia. St Jude is invoked in desperate situations because his New Testament letter stresses that the faithful should persevere in the environment of harsh and difficult situations. Therefore he is considered as the patron saint in desperate cases.

Eye Listening

A young boy was talking to his mother about his school, especially about what they did that particular day. His mother was busy preparing dinner and she would say to him occasionally ‘Yes, dear.’ He kept repeating some of the accomplishments at school, which for him were major achievements. Again her response was ‘Yes, dear, how nice.’ Final the little one pulled her skirt, and told her ‘Mama, I want you to listen to me with your eyes !’ At that time, she sat down with him and listened attentively to his accomplishments at school. It’s important for our children to listen to them not only with our ears but also with our eyes !

Drying Rivers

The Rhine and the Danube have reached historic lows, affecting shipping, agriculture and ecosystems – and raising concerns about the future of drinking water supplies. As persistent heatwaves dry up various rivers, the German government is wondering what to do about this problem. Their present priority is to make the waterways more efficient especially with dredging, although this is not a permanent solution because rivers constantly fill the channels with new sediment. Another issue is building vessels and ships with a flat bottom, so that they move better in shallow water. Cargo shipping has been jeopardized with the lack of river water, which keeps decreasing every single day. Since trucks are not allowed to travel on Sundays, the Government decided to suspend this rule, so that more cargo trucks can move to their destination 7 days a week. However, it takes 150 trucks to replace a single inland waterway vessel, and so to carry the same equivalent amount of cargo ! Critics are saying that the German government is not discussing the root cause of this problem, which is climate protection, but it keeps applying band-aids to ever-widening wounds. This problem is also prevalent in other countries who have rivers and much lack of rain, snow and moisture. 

First photo with humans

This is the very first photo ever taken by a camera that shows a human being. Actually there are two humans doing a shoe-shine, seen on the bottom left, by the pavement curve. The photographer Louis Daguerre used a long exposure of 10 minutes, and so there must have been other people moving around, but these two were still for a long time, and they are shown as if standing. The place is in Paris, the Place de la Republique, although it has changed since then. The year was 1838, almost 190 years ago. Louis Daguerre was a painter and printmaker, and took this photo from his studio after he had invented the Daguerreotype method of photography.

1% of your day

Mary inviting us to pray the Rosary with her.

Gary Jansen in his book ‘One percent of your day can transform your life,’ wrote this: ‘Do you know that in a day there are 1,440 minutes ? Now 1 % of those minutes make 14 minutes and 24 seconds. Now what if you decide to dedicate that amount of time to the Lord? That’s the amount it takes to pray the rosary, often even less than that. So why don’t you promise the Lord to dedicate that amount of time to him and to Mary His Mother ? I guarantee you that your life will change forever. Mine has changed. And I cannot be happier.

Composer Franz Joseph Haydn always had a rosary with him and prayed it often. Although Martin Luther left the Catholic Church, he prayed it all his life. And Louis Pasteur was once confronted by some mischievious youth, and when they saw him with the rosary beads in his hands, they snapped it quickly from his hands and were making fun of it, and him.Thereupon Louis, quietly and ever so humbly searched in another pocket and took out another rosary beads and continued praying while the youths remained awe-struck, embarrassed and ashamed of themselves.

Praying the Rosary

One of the Rosary mosaics at Ta' Pinu church, Gozo, Malta

The Rosary is the biggest remedy of the world’s problems, bigger than any diplomatic intervention by heads of nations. (Peter Joseph Kentenich)

Whoever says the rosary daily, will never lose his way. I affirm this with my whole heart, even shedding my own blood. (St Louis de Montfort)

The rosary is the best armament against all the evil in our world. All the graces we receive from God always pass through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. (St Pio of Pietrelcina)

There will come a time when, through the praying of the Rosary, Mary will save the world. (St Dominic)

If you want peace to reign in your home, say the rosary with your family. (Pope Pius X)

The rosary is Marian in form, but Christological in heart, focusing always on the message of the Gospel. (Pope Leo XIV)

Pray the Rosary, and you will be saved (Blessed Mother to the Fatima children.)

Pope St. John Paul II

We celebrate today the liturgical feast of the Man of the 20th century, Pope Saint John Paul II. He was born Karol Wojtyla on May 18th, 1920 in Poland and became the first non-Italian Pope in almost 400 years. Also known as John Paul the Great, he reigned from October 16th, 1978 until his death on April 2nd, 2005. He was the second longest-serving Pope in modern history after Pope Pius IX who served for nearly 32 years from 1846 to 1878. As a young boy, he lost his mother at the age of 8 and his father when he was 21. He even had to work at a limestone quarry, but then started his studies at the underground seminary run by Cardinal Sapieha in Krakow. He was ordained a priest on November 1, 1946, and after further studies, he ended up teaching at the Jagiellonian University. He was made a bishop on July 4, 1958 and later became Archbishop of Krakow on June 26, 1967. He remained very staunch to his faith in Poland, even when he became a Cardinal 3 years later. His election as Pope was a big surprise as Pope John Paul I died suddenly after 33 days, and the trend was to elect Italian Popes, but the white smoke showed that a new Pope was chosen on October 16, 1978, aged 58, relatively young for a Pope.

The day Karol Wojtyla became John Paul II on Oct 16, 1978

At the balcony he waved to the thousands gathered in the Piazza and  said “the cardinals have called for a new bishop of Rome. They called him from a faraway land — far and yet always close because of our communion in faith and Christian traditions. I was afraid to accept that responsibility, yet I do so in a spirit of obedience to the Lord and total faithfulness to Mary, our most Holy Mother.” John Paul II is recognized as helping to end Communist rule in his native Poland and eventually all of Europe. John Paul II significantly improved the Catholic Church's relations with Judaism, Islam, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion. He upheld the Church's teachings against artificial contraception and the ordination of women, supported the Church's Second Vatican Council and its reform, and in general held firm to orthodox Catholic stances. He was one of the most traveled world leaders in history, visiting 129 countries during his pontificate. As part of his special emphasis on the universal call to holiness, he beatified 1,340 people and canonized 483 saints, more than the combined tally of his predecessors during the preceding five centuries. He was very much devoted to the Blessed Mother, well respected in his native Poland, especially with the famous Black Madonna, and he even chose his motto as Totus Tuus, “Totally Yours,” even with the letter M on his coat-of-arms. John Paul II's cause for canonization commenced in 2005 one month after his death with the traditional five-year waiting period waived. His successor Pope Benedict XVI beatified him on May 1st 2011 after the Congregation for the Causes of Saints attributed one miracle to him, the healing of a French nun from Parkinson's disease. A second miracle, attributed to the late pope, was approved and confirmed by Pope Francis two days later. John Paul II was canonized on 27 April 2014, alongside Pope John XXIII. 

The following photos shows him as a baby with his parents, with some children as a priest in Poland, with a statue of St Paul in Malta in 1990, and again in my hometown St Julian's, Malta in 1990.

Emilia Wojtyla

Emilia with baby Karol, a future Pope

The mother of St John Paul II was a truly remarkable woman. Emilia Kaczorowska was born in 1884 and died in 1929 and she was of a distant Lithuanian heritage. Her husband Karol Wojtyla Sr. was born in 1879 and died in 1941 and he was an ethnic Pole. They had three children, Edmund Antoni, Olga Maria and Karol Jozef. Olga died as a baby and so young Karol does not remember her at all, as he was born after she died. Emilia, who was a schoolteacher, died from a heart attack and kidney failure in 1929, whn young Karol Wojtyła was eight years old.  But Karol and Edmund were very close, even though there were 13 years between them. Nicknamed Mundek, Edmund worked as a physician and died of scarlet fever. Emilia was a seamstress but worked mainly as a teacher. After her daughter Olga died, doctors told her to abort her third pregnancy because there was a danger both for her and her baby. But she refused, and Karol Jr was born, a future Pope. After he was born, Emilia told the midwife to open all the windows so that her baby could hear the music coming from the nearby church, especially she wanted him to hear a hymn to the Blessed Mother. Karol became a Pope in 1978 and died in 2005, eventually canonized as a saint of the Catholic church, whose feast day is tomorrow.

Some church statistics

These are some interesting church statistics issued recently by the Vatican. The total number of priests rose from 406,996 to 407,421, representing an increase of 425 compared with the previous year. Africa recorded the largest increase with 1,676 more priests, followed by Asia with 1,065. The Americas also reversed the previous yearʼs downward trend, adding 199 priests. In contrast, Europe lost 2,483 priests over the course of the year, while Oceania recorded a decrease of 32. The overall increase is attributed to the growth in the number of diocesan priests, which reached 279,238, an increase of 496 compared with the previous count. Meanwhile, the number of religious order priests fell by 71, standing at 128,183.

Statistics further indicated that the global Catholic population reached 1,422,144,000 as of June 30, 2024, an increase of 16.69 million over the previous year. Based on these figures, Catholics represent 17.8% of the worldʼs population. Africa saw the largest growth in the number of Catholics, with an increase of 7.58 million, followed by the Americas, with a rise of nearly 7 million. Asia added 968,000, Europe 911,000, and Oceania 239,000. While the number of priests is rising, the number of seminarians is decreasing. The number of major seminarians stood at 103,604 worldwide, a decrease of 2,891 from the previous year.

Globally, the Church administers 75,448 kindergartens with over 7.4 million pupils; 103,666 primary schools attended by more than 36.3 million students; and 51,810 secondary schools with over 20.3 million students. Joining them are nearly 2.7 million students in higher education centers and more than 4 million in university institutions affiliated with the Catholic Church. In its healthcare and social assistance work, the Church manages 101,110 facilities worldwide. These include 5,397 hospitals, 13,646 dispensaries, 16,263 homes for the elderly, the chronically ill, and people with disabilities, 8,138 orphanages, 10,624 marriage counseling centers, and 3,194 social education or rehabilitation centers.

North American Martrys

The North American Martyrs, also known as the Canadian Martyrs, were eight French Jesuit missionaries who worked among the Huron Indians, and who were martyred in the 17th century in Canada and Upstate New York, all martyred between 1642 and 1649. The Martyrs are St. Jean de Brébeuf, St. Noël Chabanel, St. Antoine Daniel, St. Charles Garnier, St. René Goupil, St. Isaac Jogues, St. Jean de Lalande and St. Gabriel Lalemant. They all laid the foundation of the Catholic religion in the North East, just as Blessed Junipero Serra did in the North West of the USA.
They were each killed during the wars between the Huron and Iroquois. They had converted many of the Hurons, but the Huron considered them to be evil men who brought death and disease wherever they traveled. The Iroquois considered them legitimate targets as the missionaries were nominally allies of the Huron, and they had often helped organize resistance to Iroquois invasions. Isaac Jogues and his assistant, Rene Goupil, besides being beaten to the ground and assailed several times with knotted sticks and fists, had their hair, beards and nails torn off and their forefingers bitten through. What grieved them far more, was the cruelty practiced on their Christian converts. The first of all the martyrs to suffer death was Rene Goupil, who was tomahawked on September 29, 1642, for having made the Sign of the Cross on the brow of some children. This Rene Goupil was a remarkable man. He had tried hard to be a Jesuit and had even entered the Novitiate, but his health forced him to give up the attempt. He then studied surgery and found his way to Canada, where he offered his services to the missionaries. These martyrs were canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1930. The Martyrs' Shrine church is in Midland, Ontario, the site of their missionary work among the Huron, and the National Shrine of the North American Martyrs is in Auriesville, New York, along the Mohawk River.

Maturity

Maturity is:

The ability to stick with a job until it’s finished.

The ability to do a job without being supervised.

The ability to carry money without spending it.

And the ability to bear an injustice without wanting to get even.

 

Signs you have matured:

1.      You’d rather stay home than be everywhere.

2.      You enjoy your own company more than before.

3.      Birthdays feel less exciting and more reflective.

4.      You’ve become quieter and more observant.

5.      Not everything deserves your energy anymore.

6.      You think more about necessities than desires.

7.      You’re more careful about who you trust.

8.      You spend time reflecting before you fall asleep.

9.      You think more about your future than about your past.

10.  You avoid drama and focus on building a better life.

Luminescence at St. Patrick’s Cathedral

Stepping through the massive bronze doors of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City has long offered the Catholic faithful a sanctuary of quiet reverence. Rising majestically above Fifth Avenue, the 19th-century Neo-Gothic landmark — with its intricate white marble, soaring vaulted ceilings, and twin spires reaching more than 330 feet — stands as a sacred testament to faith, heritage and architectural splendor. Now, “America’s Parish Church” is preparing to illuminate that majesty like never before, while simultaneously supporting a vital effort to preserve its historic musical voice. The global immersive phenomenon LUMINESCENCE is debuting its latest site-specific installation inside the sacred space, pairing cutting-edge 360-degree video projection mapping with symphonic sound. Because St. Patrick’s is an active house of worship and a cherished historic landmark, adapting the show required an exceptionally reverent and collaborative approach. 

Through LUMINESCENCE, we can now experience the presence of God and embrace the beauty of light, sacred music and the remarkable story of the spiritual legacy of the Cathedral. Regardless of the format, every guest contributes to ensuring the Cathedral’s majestic Kilgen organs continue to sound for generations to come. The massive organs date back to the early 1900s, with the dedication taking place in 1928. The largest of these instruments — the Gallery Organ — is home to more than 7,500 pipes. LUMINESCENCE is an invitation to look up, and around, at the beauty and the majesty around us that we often miss. The photos seen here show various churches and how the projection looks like with a variety of lights beamed at the entire body of the church.

Praying for Bend, Oregon

The scene outside the school, as parents wait and pray.

I never thought I would ever had to write this post. But unfortunately it happened even in a place I called home just a few years ago. My last parish in Bend, Oregon went through a horrific experience which is actually the 52nd school shooting in the USA just this year.  A 16 year-old teenager from Bend entered the Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend and killed 3 children, aged 5, 8 and 11 as well as a teacher, while injuring seriously another young child and another teacher. This was the 52nd school shooting this year, and it hits home when it happens in your own neighborhood which was always safe, as people support each other and are proud of their ever growing town, now with over 100,000 residents, including many of my friends. We thank God that a parent was in the school corridor and followed the shooter and killed him, otherwise who knows how many other children would have been shot! Let us remember especially those heartbroken parents who were probably planning Halloween costumes, Thanksgiving treats and Christmas presents for their children, but who have to prepare instead for a funeral for innocent precious children. A truly sad day for Oregon and Bend in particular.

St Teresa of Avila

St Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

A great Carmelite mystic and nun, today we celebrate the feast of St Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church, author of Way of Perfection, Interior Castle and Meditations on the Canticle. A great reformer of the Carmelite Order, she was born in 1515 and died in 1582. This is a famous quote of this great saint:

May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received,
and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing you are a child of God.
Let this presence settle into your bones,
and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.
It is there for each and every one of us.

Christ has no body now but yours
No hands, no feet on earth but yours
Yours are the eyes through which He looks Compassion on this world
Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good,
Yours are the hands with which He blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands; Yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes; You are His body.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours

Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away: God never changes.
Patience obtains all things
Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices.

Praying for Pope Leo

The entire world unites in prayer for the well-being of Pope Leo XIV as we hear that doctors removed part of his right lung during a 90-minute operation on Tuesday after finding a cancerous growth. The Pope woke up normally after the operation and is back in his room on the 10th floor of Rome's Gemelli hospital. When he recovered, he asked for dinner. To ensure the procedure was radical, the lower lobe of the right lung was removed, since the operation confirmed the diagnosis of a pulmonary adenocarcinoma, as suspected from the pre-operative tests. The Holy Father was in the operating room for about 3 hours, and the duration of the operation itself was around 90 minutes. The surgery consisted mainly in removing a nodule from his lung that was successful and there were no complications. If there was any sign that the cancer had spread further, a Vatican source said further tests were being carried out. The Vatican has historically been very secretive about the health of popes, but began to be more transparent during the illness of Leo's predecessor Francis, an Argentine who freely discussed his ailments. Ahead of the surgery, the Vatican said the Pope's recovery time was expected to be about a week. His audiences have been cancelled until October 20. Chicago-born Leo, the first US pope, is sporty and believed to generally be in good health. He is scheduled to travel to South America from November 6-17 to visit Uruguay, Argentina and Peru where he was a missionary for several years. It was not immediately clear what would happen if the pope was forced into a longer recovery. We continue to pray for his full recovery and a quiet, peaceful convalescence.

The miracle of the sun

This is a description of what happened during the last apparition of the Blessed Mother at Fatima. The people who braved the terrible rainstorm which struck Fatima on October 13, 1917 had gone there because of the promise of a miracle - they knew that something exceptional was going to happen. The previous July, Our Lady had told the three Fatima children that she would perform a miracle in October.

At noon, Our Lady appeared to the children, and after repeating her requests for the daily rosary, and promising that World War I would soon end, she said to them plaintively and sadly: “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended.” Then, while the three children, Jacinta, Francisco and Lucia saw visions of the Holy Family, the crowd of at least 70,000 people were mesmerized as the Miracle of the Sun unfolded. What happened was so incredible that even non-believers couldn’t deny it, as this report, which appeared in the secular Lisbon paper O Dia, indicates: “The silver sun … was seen to whirl and turn in the circle of broken clouds. A cry went up from every mouth and the people fell on their knees on the muddy ground. … The light turned a beautiful blue as if it had come through the stained-glass windows of a cathedral and spread itself over the people who knelt with outstretched hands. The blue faded slowly and then the light seemed to pass through yellow glass. … People wept and prayed with uncovered heads in the presence of the miracle they had awaited. The seconds seemed like hours, so vivid were they.”

José Almeida Garrett, a young lawyer, reported that “The sun’s disc did not remain immobile. This was not the sparkling of a heavenly body for it spun round on itself in a mad whirl. Then, suddenly, one heard a clamor, a cry of anguish breaking from all the people. The sun, whirling wildly, seemed to loosen itself from the firmament and advance threateningly upon the earth as if to crush us with its huge and fiery weight.”
Eyewitnesses to the miracle said that the sun danced in the sky, the color of the whole landscape changed successively, and the sun seemed to come down towards them, so that many of the crowd thought it was the end of the world. Something else that suggests that the miracle was genuine is that the people at the Cova felt the heat of the sun as it approached them. Their clothes and the ground – which had been soaked by the torrential rain – were dry at the end of the miracle.
Fatima, and the Miracle of the Sun in particular, are great “signs of the times” that have been given to the Church and the world by God through the Blessed Virgin.

St Carlo Acutis

This is the first time we’re celebrating the liturgical feast of St. Carlo Acutis, who was born on May 3, 1991 in London but grew up in Italy. He was devoted to the Eucharist from a very young age, even though his parents were not very religious. He was able to create a website about Eucharistic miracles, and even produced large posters, to be taken around the world as exhibits in parish churches, halls and schools. In October 2006, he developed leukaemia and was quickly hospitalized, and died on October 12, 2006. He was a normal teenager, loving Pokemon, video-games, but also was very caring towards the poor and homeless he encountered while walking to school or around his neighborhood.  Acutis, dubbed "the cyber-apostle of the Eucharist", was born in London to Italian parents, and moved to Milan with them as a young boy. Carlo was religious from a young age, despite his mother saying his family had rarely attended church. When he wasn't writing computer programs or playing football, he created a website to catalogue Eucharistic miracles and took care of websites for some local Catholic organizations. While still in elementary school, Acutis taught himself to code using a university computer science textbook and then learned how to edit videos and create animation. Carlo used the internet in service of the Gospel, to reach as many people as possible. He was known in his neighborhood for his kindness to those living on society's peripheries. With his savings, he bought sleeping bags for homeless people and in the evening he brought them hot drinks. He also volunteered at a soup kitchen in Milan. When he died, at the funeral, the church was full of poor people. Everyone else wondered what they were doing there. Well, Carlo used to help them in secret. The family knew about it, because his mother would go with him, since he was only 15 years old. He would give them sleeping bags and food, which is why they wanted to attend the funeral. Carlo is buried close to St Francis in Assisi, in a glass sarcophagus, wearing jeans and a polo shirt with sneakers. He was canonized along with another Italian youth, St. PierGiorgio Frassati on September 7, 2025.

2 Unborn talking

In a mother's womb, there were two babies. One turned to the other and asked: "Do you believe in life after delivery?" The second replied: "Of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later."

"Nonsense!" said the first. "There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be anyway?" The second said: "I don't know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat with our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can't understand right now."

The first replied: "That's absurd! Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies us with nourishment and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short—life after delivery is logically impossible."

The second baby insisted: "Well, I think there is something, and maybe it's different from what it is here. Maybe we won't need this physical cord anymore."

The first answered: "Nonsense. And besides, if there is life, why has no one ever returned from there? Delivery is the end of life, and after delivery, there is nothing but darkness, silence, and oblivion. It leads nowhere."

"Well, I don't know," said the second, "but we will certainly meet our Mother, and she will take care of us."

The first scoffed: "Mother? Do you actually believe in a Mother? That's ridiculous. If Mother exists, where is she now?"

The second whispered: "She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We live in her. Without her, this world of ours would not exist and could not exist."

The first replied: "Well, I can't see her, so it's only logical that she doesn't exist."

To which the second answered: "Sometimes, when you are in silence and you truly pay attention, you can feel her presence, and you can hear her loving voice calling to us from above.”

Planning for eternity

                              

Many people feel they’re indestructible. They think they have some superior power over life, and will never leave this earth. Their priorities are certainly not the things that will ever get them to heaven: money, power, superiority, disdain towards others, pride and arrogance. These kind of people should spend some quality time in 3 particular places, to realize their vulnerability, and how thankful they should be towards God, instead of disrespecting him with their behavior. These 3 places are:

1.       A hospital – there every human being spends time desiring his health back as it was before, not taking it for granted.

2.      A prison – there every human being spends his time desiring the liberty and freedom he had but which he squandered through bad behavior.

3.      A cemetery – there they realize that whatever we owned, whatever we did, will soon be forgotten, and all is finished.

Friends, let us take care of our souls , which will survive throughout eternity, unlike our bodies which will be gone soon after we pass away in death .