We, too, are never alone.
Even when we don't know it, our Heavenly Father is watching over us, sitting on
the stump (or bench) beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach
out to Him.
Moral of the Story: Just because you can't see God, doesn't mean He is not
there.
There was a king who wanted to discourage his four sons from
making rash judgments. At his command, the eldest son made a winter
journey to see a mango tree across the valley. When spring came, the next
oldest was sent on the same journey. Summer followed, and the king sent his
third son. After the youngest made his visit to the mango tree in the
autumn, the king called them together and asked each son to describe the tree. The first son said it looked like an ugly, old stump. The second
disagreed, describing it as lovely - large and green. The third son
declared its blossoms were as beautiful as roses. The fourth son said that they
were all wrong. To him, it was a tree filled with fruit - luscious, juicy
fruit, like pears.
"Well, each of you is right," the old king said. Seeing the
puzzled look in their eyes, the king went on to explain. "You see, each of
you saw the mango tree in a different season; thus you all correctly described
what you saw. The lesson," said the king, "is to withhold your
judgment until you have seen the tree in all its seasons." Like the mango
tree, our lives go through seasons. Some life-seasons seem barren and
unfruitful. During these times of unproductiveness and obscurity, we may
be tempted to judge our lives as failures. Family and job
responsibilities may frustrate us from reaching career and education
goals. But we must withhold judgment until we have passed through all of
life's seasons. All four seasons of a tree are necessary. The
lonely months of winter prepare it for the fruitfulness of summer.
So do not lose heart. The season of fruitfulness will come to us just as it comes to the tree. The
Scripture says, "To every thing there is a season, a time for every
purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant,
and a time to reap; ... a time to gain and a time to lose (Ecclesiastes 3:1,6)
LOVE your family and tell them. Spend time
hugging, listening, and affirming. When you give your attention, it should be
undivided.
LOOK for opportunities to find the good in your
family and make comments about the good traits in the other parent and your
children.
LISTEN to your children when they need to
express their thoughts and feelings and model expressing your thoughts in an
appropriate manner.
LAUGH with your children. A sense of humor goes
a long way in dealing with the issues of life. Play together, each day is a
gift you only get once.
LABOR diligently and with pride in what you do
and expect the same of your children.
LEARN, learn, and learn. A good motto is,
“Every day the thing to do is learn something new”. Have good books,
periodicals, and information in your home. Read to your children, and for
yourself, and instill a love of learning in them.
LEAVE TV and other media off. Have conversation
and play be the noise in your homes, interact with one another.
LIVE life to its fullest. Take pleasure in the little
things, ice-cream, the sunshine, the enthusiasm of your little ones, and the
innocence of their sleep. Have candlelight family suppers – even if it is a hamburger. Sing even if you do not carry a tune, remember to encourage dreams
and be thankful.
Use these 8 L’s of parenting as a guide to
remember what is important in life and how you can express Love with your
children every day!
There are treasures in life, but owners are few
Of money and power to buy things brand new.
Yet you can be wealthy and feel regal too,
If you will just look for the treasures in you.
These treasures in life are not hard to find
When you look in your heart, your soul, and your mind.
For when you are willing to share what's within,
Your fervent search for riches will end.
The joy and the laughter, the smile that you bring;
The heart unafraid to love and to sing;
The hand always willing to help those in need;
Ones quick to reach out, to labor and feed.
So thank you for sharing these great gifts inside;
The caring, the cheering, the hug when one cried.
Thanks for the energy, encouragement too,
And thank you for sharing the treasures in you.
I share with you today a historic photo which you may call very anachronistic and impossible to see in real life. It is of course a painting of various known people placed together in a scene that spans over 2000 years, maybe even more. You have to enlarge it as much as possible to see each person, but I’m sure you’ll be able to spot some of these characters in no particular order. They include heroes as well as villains, great leaders as well as characters we all would like to forget. Enlarge and see how many can you find.....among them, you can surely spot:
Beethoven, Mozart, Dante, Pele, Einstein, Hitler, Charlie Chaplin,
Vladimir Putin, Stalin, Lenin, Bill Clinton, Saddam Hussein, Winston Churchill,
Shakespeare, Abraham Lincoln, Mao Tze Tung, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Prince
Charles, Michael Jordan, Salvador Dali, Queen Elizabeth, Moses, Shirley Temple,
Mother Teresa, Karl Marx, Elvis Presley, Audrey Hepburn, Eisenhower, Bill Gates, Bruce
Lee, Charles DeGaul, Picasso, Napoleon, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Maggie Thatcher, Yasser Arafat, Ferdinand
Marcos, Mussolini, Pavarotti, Gandhi, Mike Tyson, and many others which I could not recognize.
It is an honor to announce that we have a new Maltese Cardinal, announced yesterday by Pope Francis. He will be the third Cardinal of the Maltese Islands throughout history. Mons. Mario Grech has been appointed as the Secretary to the Synod of Bishops, starting his role in August, and he was listed as one of 13 new Cardinals which Pope Francis will install in a consistory on November 28th. He was born February 20, 1957, in Qala, Gozo, but grew up in Kerċem. He studied at the Seminary in Gozo and was ordained on May 22, 1984. After his ordination, he went to Rome to study further Canon Law at the Lateran University, and receiving the doctorate at the St Thomas Aquinas University. He helped in various Diocesan roles, and was also for a short while the parish priest of Kerċem, until he was appointed Bishop of the Diocese of Gozo, being consecrated on January 22, 2006. All through his episcopacy, he showed strong allegiance to the Catholic teaching of the church, defending various issues that were under attack. He showed great pastoral care towards his flock, and was known for his sermons and love of vocations. On October 2, 2019, he was appointed Pro-Secretary of the Synod for Bishops, and became officially the Synod Secretary in August 2020. The first Maltese Cardinal was Mons. Fabrizio Sceberras Testaferrata (1757-1843) and the second one was Mons. Prospero Grech, OSA (24 December 1925 – 30 December 2019.) Mons Mario Grech’s parents are still alive and live in their home at Kerċem, Gozo. Ad Multos Annos, your Eminence.
Today’s Gospel reading is truly the essence of Christianity and our whole existence – to love one another and love our God, who created us. Love means sacrifice. Jesus gave us the greatest act of love when He died for us on the cross. And many still imitate Him, in stories we never read in our newspapers and websites.
Love is what Lenny Skutnik
did in January 1982 when he jumped into the frozen waters of the Potomac River
in Washington DC to save various people from a plane that had crashed in the
river.
Love is what St
Maximilian Kolbe did in a concentration camp in Auschwitz in 1944 when he
offered his life instead of another family man.
Love is what thousands of
people do with their blood donations, as well as organ donors, so that other
people can live with a new heart, a kidney, a lung, a cornea, or a simple pint
of blood.
Love is what Sonny Melton
did in Las Vegas, when he heard the shooting and covered his wife Heather with
his body, dying in the process while she survived.
Love is what one of my
former parishioners, Jessica Ellis, 20 years old, when in 2008 became a
paramedic to help the US soldiers in Iraq, and ended up being killed by the
enemy, when she could have stayed in the luxury of her home with her family.
Love is what journalists
like Daphne Caruana Galizia, the murdered Maltese journalist showed when she
gave her life when she tried to reveal irregularities and heinous actions of
some criminals and culprits.
Yes, love is possible – but
let us start with the small simple things, those we see as insignificant – and
as the Beatles used to tell us “All we need is LOVE!” True, authentic, sincere, and reciprocal. LOVE.
Most Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church,
you are the fairest fruit of God’s redeeming love; you sing of the Father’s mercy and accompany us with a mother’s love. In this time of pandemic, we come to you, our sign of sure hope and comfort. Today we renew the act
of consecration and entrustment carried out by those who have gone before us. With the love of a
Mother and Handmaid, embrace our nation which we entrust and consecrate once again to you,
together with ourselves and our families. In a special way, we commend to you those particularly in
need of your maternal care.
Mary, Health of the Sick,
sign
of health, of healing, and of divine hope for the sick, we entrust to you all
who are infected with the coronavirus.
Mary,
Mother of Consolation, who console with a mother’s
love all who turn to you, we entrust to you all those
who have lost loved ones in the pandemic.
Mary,
Help of Christians, who come to our rescue
in every trial, we entrust to your
loving protection all caregivers.
Mary,
Queen and Mother of Mercy, who embrace all those
who call upon your help in their distress, we
entrust to you all who are suffering in any way from the pandemic.
Mary,
Seat of Wisdom, who was so
wonderfully filled with the light of truth, we
entrust to you all who are working to find a cure to this pandemic.
Mary,
Mother of Good Counsel, who gave yourself
wholeheartedly to God’s plan for the renewing of all things in Christ, we
entrust to you all leaders and policymakers.
Accept with the benevolence of a Mother the act of consecration that we make today
with confidence, and help us to be your Son’s instruments for the healing and
salvation of our country and the world. Mary, Mother of the Church, you are enthroned as
queen at your Son’s right hand: we ask your intercession for the needs of our country, that every desire for
good may be blessed and strengthened, that faith may be revived and nourished, hope sustained and enlightened, charity awakened and
animated; guide us, we pray, along the path of holiness. Mary our Mother, bring everyone under
your protection and entrust everyone to your beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Certainly the Man of the 20th century, Pope Saint John Paul II 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.
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 St John XXIII.
I’ve been reading the encyclical ‘Fratelli Tutti’ by Pope Francis, and there is so much to digest in it. As a whole, it indicates the way to build a better, more just, and peaceful world, with the contribution of all. A few days after signing it, the Pope spoke to the representatives of the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (Cash Bank of Deposits and Loans) where he said that the economic impact of the coronavirus requires a generous and ethical response on the part of governments, policy and decision-makers, and businesses. The emphasis is on Governments to ensure that economic wealth is fairly distributed. Last week it was reported that the world’s few billionaires increased their wealth by 27 % at the height of the coronavirus between April and July, while many millions of people around the world lost their income and managed to get by only thanks to government schemes. The wealth of a billionaire is such that even if one were to live for the next 1000 years, it would be impossible to spend it all. It is therefore unacceptable from a moral perspective that the few continue to accumulate their riches while the many lose even the little they have. Let us pray that no more people will suffer, both in their health as well as their financial stability.
There is one
word that does not show up in my personal dictionary. That is definitely
‘procrastination.’ Being late for something is a big mortal sin for me. On the other hand, I am obsessed with
being on time, and finishing a project on time. Don’t call me obsessive or a
punctuality freak. It’s just that I always like to be on time and help those
who ask me for any assistance, right away. Of course, such a person expects
everyone to be on time, and any procrastinator in his vicinity tends to
irritate him. But I assure you that I’m not that extreme type of a person, but
I respect and appreciate punctuality and promptness. I like to check my watch
with Big Ben of the BBC, especially when starting Mass. If anyone asks me
for an article, you are assured that you have it within 24 hours. If anyone
asks me for a reference letter, you are guaranteed to have it in your in-box
within a few hours. I am pretty fast in responding to e-mails, and honestly get
annoyed when friends do not reciprocate, but I show patience because I
understand they may be busy with other priorities. When I place my post in my
blog, I do my utmost that it will be soon after 9:01 am, Malta time, so that in
the USA (on the west coast), it will show the same date, since they are 9 hours
after us. And anyone who asks me for a photo or some kind of reference about a
book, a religion question, or other information, I go right away to the source
and have it ready within a few hours. I am not saying I am perfect, but where
punctuality and respect are concerned, I do my very best to oblige with
consideration, politeness, and simple courtesy.
Dear Jesus, as I carve my pumpkin, help me pray this prayer:
Open my mind so I can learn about You (cut the top of the pumpkin)
Take all my sins away and forgive the wrong that I do (clean out the
inside, yucky stuff means serious sins, every seed means every “No” we said)
Open my eyes so that I can see Your love for me (carve two hearts for the
two eyes)
I’m sorry for the times I’ve turned up my nose at what you’ve given to me.
(cut a nose in the shape of a cross)
Open my ears so Your word I will hear. (cut ears shaped like a Bible –
square)
Open my mouth to tell others You’re near. (cut the mouth in the shape of a fish)
Jane Goodall is well-known for her interest in chimpanzees, having spent decades living with them and studying their behavior. She tells the story of how she started in her interest in wildlife and the life of chimps. As a young child, she used to bring in her bed earthworms and earth with bugs of all kinds. Instead of scolding her, her patient mother gently told her to take the earthworms and bugs back to their natural habitat where they can continue living. As a four-year-old she once spent four hours in a henhouse, waiting silently to see where the egg comes out. Her family searched all over for her and even called the police. She finally came out of the henhouse beaming with joy and excitement, and they all had to sit down and listen to Jane explain excitedly the wonder of that moment when the egg fell to the ground from the chicken’s behind. Jane Goodall would spend 60 years of her life living at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, for her studies about the social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees. She claims that in 1900 there were an estimated 1 million chimpanzees living in the world. Today there are about 340,000. As a child, as an alternative to a teddy bear, Goodall's father gave her a stuffed chimpanzee named Jubilee. Goodall has said her fondness for this figure started her early love of animals, commenting, "My mother's friends were horrified by this toy, thinking it would frighten me and give me nightmares." On the contrary, it opened up for her a fascinating world of study and intense observation as a primatologist and anthropologist. Today, Jubilee still sits on Goodall's dresser in London.
One of the most impressive styles of architecture is
Gothic. We marvel when we see those tall spires, arched hallways, flying
buttresses, the incorporated glass windows, and the intricate sculpture at the
doors and other strategic places in the facade of the building. I have seen
quite a few of them in England especially, and I love particularly the series of
saints sculpted at the main entrance to the Gothic Cathedral. This particular
photo was taken somewhere in England, most probably in London. It features a
few prelates or saints, mostly of British descent, like St. Edward the Confessor,
St. Thomas More, St. John Fisher, St.
Augustine of Canterbury and others. One can admire the craftsmanship in carving
these elaborate statues, and the detail in their vestments and clothing. This
is a feature that is found in many churches as the people enter through the main door, being welcomed by saints and prelates who have lived holy lives in
the past centuries.
Just like the donkey that carried the Blessed Mother to Bethlehem, and the horse Bucephalus that carried Alexander the Great, as well as the 4 white stallion horses that carried Ben Hur on his famous chariot race against Messala, the horse that once carried me, is no more. Named Sugar, the mare was 30 years old, and she was 15 when I rode her at the Clark’s Quarterhorse Ranch, owned by Jim and Colleen Clark of Mount Vernon, Oregon. Sugar was of course very gentle, as she was chosen from among around 100 horses they owned back in 2005, to carry me for a brief stroll on their property.
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. 
A woman boarded the plane and looked for her seat
number. Shuffling her hand luggage along, she found it right away and discovered
that a black man was seated next to her. She would never sit next to him, and
quickly called the stewardess and complained, while demanding a different seat.
‘I can never sit for 7 hours next to him’ she insisted, as the quiet man
listened to everything, as he looked outside the window. The stewardess told
her that the plane was full, but she would try to find a different seat for her. She returned
within 3 minutes and apologized once again for the inconvenience, and proceeded
to say “Madam, we only have one seat in Business Class, and we don’t usually
give an upgrade from the Economy Class travelers, but the pilot said he would
make an exception in this one case.” So the annoyed woman started pushing herself
towards the front of the plane, but the stewardess stopped her in the aisle. Then
she addressed the black man, “Sir, the pilot thought it won’t be fitting and
respectful that this woman would sit next to someone like you. So may I ask you
to pick up your hand-luggage and follow me as I have a Business Class seat for
you.” The woman passenger was flabbergasted at this, and took her humble seat
as the passengers started to applaud the nice gesture of the stewardess and the
pilot. And the quiet man enjoyed a relaxed flight, stretching his legs in an
unexpected Business Class seat.
Today is the anniversary of the big miracle of Fatima. Three children had a vision of a Lady on May 13, 1917, and she appeared to them on a few other occasions. The last apparition took place on October 13 where thousands of people were present, seeing the sun dance and other miraculous happenings. At first, the children were apprehended by police, questioned, and threatened. But everyone could see for themselves that what they saw was true, an apparition that was later approved by the Vatican. The children were Jacinta and Francisco Marto, brother and sister, who died soon afterwards. The third girl Lucia dos Santos survived and died recently while living as a Carmelite nun in a convent in Portugal. As early as July 1917, it was claimed that the Virgin Mary had promised a miracle for the last of her apparitions on October 13, so that all would believe. What happened then became known as the "Miracle of the Sun". A huge crowd, variously estimated between 30,000 and 100,000, including newspaper reporters and photographers, gathered at the Cova da Iria. According to accounts, after a period of rain, the dark clouds broke and the Sun appeared as an opaque, spinning disc in the sky. It was said to be significantly duller than normal, and to cast multicolored lights across the landscape, the people, and the surrounding clouds. The Sun was then reported to have careened towards the earth before zig-zagging back to its normal position. Witnesses reported that their previously wet clothes became "suddenly and completely dry, as well as the wet and muddy ground that had been previously soaked because of the rain that had been falling." After a canonical inquiry, the visions of Fátima were officially declared "worthy of belief" in October 1930.
Florence Nightingale
(1820-1910), the foundress of modern nursing, once said that everything that is
worth something in our life, was given to us for free – our brain, our soul,
our body, our hopes, our intelligence, our love for our family, our
friends, our country. But truly, how grateful are we to all this? Sometimes you
find people who, besides ignoring their blessings, complain about what they
don’t have! So try to remember what you have instead of lamenting on what
you don’t own. An elderly blind woman once told the priest who visited her for
communion, ‘Father, I am grateful to God that even though I cannot see, at least
I can hear. Because, even though blindness cut me off from material things, the
fact that I can hear, at least I know I am surrounded by friends, and I can
always talk with them.’
A
British-born Italian teenager who dedicated his short life to spreading the
faith online and helping the poor was beatified yesterday in a ceremony in
Assisi. That leaves him just one miracle away from becoming the world's first
millennial saint. Internet and computer-mad youngster Carlo Acutis, who died of
leukemia in 2006 aged 15, was placed on the path to sainthood after the
Vatican ruled he had miraculously saved another boy's life in 2013, a Brazilian
boy suffering from a rare pancreatic disease. Acutis, dubbed "the
cyberapostle 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
catalog 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 margins. 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. The Assisi bishop said
that a soup kitchen for the poor would be opened in Acutis's honor. 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. Should Acutis later be credited with the second
miracle necessary for sainthood, supporters have suggested he could become the
Patron Saint of the internet -- though there already is one, 7th-century
scholar St. Isidore de Seville.