Breakfast at McDonald's

This is a moving story that I recently received as an attachment in the e-mail.  It was written anonymously, but it is worth publishing for its inspiring content.  I can relate to the author's conversion experience. Sometimes we need to be more open to God's spirit prompting us to be compassionate towards other people to experience the joy that comes back to us when "we touch and are touched by the holy!" Blessings!

I am a mother of three (ages 14, 12, 3) and have recently completed my college degree.The last class I had to take was Sociology.The teacher was absolutely inspiri ng with the qualities that I wish every human being had been graced with. Her last project of the term was called, "Smile." The class was asked to go out and smile at three people and document their reactions.

I am a very friendly person and always smile at everyone and say hello anyway. So, I thought this would be a piece of cake, literally.

Soon after we were assigned the project, my husband, youngest son, and I went out to McDonald's one crisp March morning. It was just our way of sharing special playtime with our son.We were standing in line, waiting to be served, when all of a sudden everyone around us began to back away, and then even my husband did. I did not move an inch... an overwhelming feeling of panic welled up inside of me as I turned to see why they had moved.

As I turned around I smelled a horrible "dirty body" smell, and there standing behind me were two poor homeless men. As I looked down at the s hort gentleman, close to me, he was "smiling." His beautiful sky blue eyes were full of God's Light as he searched for acceptance.He said, "Good day" as he counted the few coins he had been clutching. The second man fumbled with his hands as he stood behind his friend. I realized the second man was mentally challenged and the blue-eyed gentleman was his salvation.I held my tears as I stood there with them.

The young lady at the counter asked him what they wanted. He said, "Coffee is all Miss" because that was all they could afford. (If they wanted to sit in the restaurant and warm up, they had to buy something. He just wanted to be warm).

Then I really felt it - the compulsion was so great I almost r eached out and embraced the little man with the blue eyes. That is when I noticed all eyes in the restaurant were set on me, judging my every action. I smiled and asked the young lady behind the counter to give me two more breakfast meals on a separate tray.I then walked around the corner to the table that the men had chosen as a resting spot. I put the tray on the table and laid my hand on the blue-eyed gentleman's cold hand.

He looked up at me, with tears in his eyes, and said, "Thank you." I leaned over, began to pat his hand and said, "I did not do this for you. God is here working through me to give you hope."
I started to cry as I walked away to join my husband and son. When I sat down my husband smiled at me and said, "That is why God gave you to me, Honey, to give me hope." We held hands for a moment and at that time, we knew that only because of the Grace that we had been given were we able to give.
We are not church go ers, but we are believers.That day showed me the pure Light of God's sweet love.

I returned to college, on the last evening of class, with this story in hand.I turned in "my project" and the instructor read it. Then she looked up at me and said, "Can I share this?"I slowly nodded as she got the attention of the class.She began to read and that is when I knew that we as human beings and being part of God share this need to heal people and to be healed.In my own way I had touched the people at McDonald's, my son, instructor, and every soul that shared the classroom on the last night I spent as a college student.

I graduated with one of the biggest lessons I would ever learn: UNCONDITIONAL ACCEPTANCE.
Much love and compassion is sent to each and every person who may read this and learn how to LOVE PEOPLE AND USE THINGS - NOT LOVE THINGS AND USE PEOPLE.

"Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.

Ministry Appropriating Issues on Responses to Life and Vocations: RECOMMENDED RELIGIOUS WEBSITES

RECOMMENDED RELIGIOUS WEBSITES: Helpful internet annotated resources for those who are discerning their vocational calling! Hope this would be a good start for you. I started the list when I was revising the content of the Alexian Brothers Congregational Website in 2007 and was working as the Assistant Vocation Director of Vocations for the American Province of the Alexian Brothers.

Irish archbishop repents for clergy sex abuse at service | National Catholic Reporter

Irish archbishop repents for clergy sex abuse at service National Catholic Reporter What an unprecedented humble gesture to follow! Real healing can start to happen when all the involved parties, i.e., victims, perpetrators, including the Church hierarchy, can come together in prayer to ask God to intervene in what may not seem to be humanly possible to happen in the healing process of the people who are involved in sexual abuse issues.

Think Positive! How to Modify Your Negative Thoughts

Think Positive! How to Modify Your Negative Thoughts  Negativism is ingrained in everybody's mind -it is universal in its application. It came from the insanely moralistic and judgmental world  that we live in. It may have come to us through own family, our friends, or the society and the church we belong to.  This inner critic comes from the expectation that we have to be perfect or we have to conform to the expectation of others. 

Behavior Modification starts with our own awareness of our negative energies and from our genuine desire to change in our thought processes. The above artilce helps us to have some positive framework to help us overcome our negativies.  But this is not a quick fix! Modifying our negative thoughts entails a lot of conversions and healing from the woundedness that we inherited in our broken world. It may involve learning how to love and forgive, ourselves and others in the process!

Malacañang to delegate ruling on Marcos burial - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Malacañang to delegate ruling on Marcos burial - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos This move indicates the great leadership and professionalism by Pres. Benigno Aquino III in addressing the most recent call by the former dictator's family to bury Marcos' frozen remains at the "Libingan ng mga Bayani," the final resting place for Philippine military heroes. The Aquino family has grieved for years for not getting justice for the assassination of their patriarch Ninoy Aquino, Marcos' strongest opponent during Marcos' militaristic rule. Pres. Benigno Aquino III, should not waste this opportunity to lose again their much deserved justice.

Definitely, this nagging issue of insisting on Marcos' frozen remains being brought to the "Libingan ng mga Bayani," even for the acceptable reason of giving Marcos the honorary burial for being a war veteran and commander of Staff, is a politically driven move by the Marcos family. Nice try, however.  But this Filipino's simplistic "forgive and forget" strategy invoked by the Marcos' camp this case should not be entertained.

Why? Generally, Filipinos forgive easily!  This is a disinctive driven-character that has been ingrained in the Filipino consciousness by the Spaniards that held the Filipinos captive for 300 years.  Consequently, Filipinos tend to have a "short memory."  However, globalization has made us pause and think about what we don't know.  Have the Filipinos really forgotten, or we just have been conditioned to forget, for example, a nagging question like, "What ever happened to the stashed Switzerland money deposits that were supposed to be returned to the Philippine Government?" This is just one of the eye-opening questions should wake us from our deep slumber.  It is in this connection that I will convince the readers that this particular presidential move by Benigno Aquino III, should deserve our undivided attention and our overwhelming support. 

I personally believe that an unconditional approval of the Marcos' family's request to bury the former dictator in the "Libingan ng mga Bayani" would be a final assault to the remaining honor and dignity of the Filipinos!  I am convinced that Filipinos should wake up and should be the "the conscience" of the majority.   We have become an accessories to the crimes commited against us over the years of our colonial years.   We have to claim the reality that silence or non-action, especially in the midst of abuses and atrocities, are collusions to what is morally evil! Therefore, this Marcos' ploy, should not just appeal to the Filipinos' ingrained deep sense of compassion and sense of moral obligation to love God and neighbor. This is a double edged sword.

We do not have to be a "martyr,"  in in the distorted traditional interpretation that our colonized ancestors have taught us to "love our enemies and forgive those who persecute us."  In today's more balanced perspective of forgiveness, the "forgiver" should not be coerced nor tricked to forgive the "transgressor."  Rather, the "forgiver" in their "process of healing" should have an intact sense of personal honor, justice and integrity in the end.

I  believe therefore, that if ever an objective and independent group would be created and would a make the decision to allow Marcos to be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani, both done as an act of charity and as a symbolic act of unity, this group's decision should have strong qualifications!  That is to say, that the decision should primarily take into serious consideration, not only the crimes that Marcos commited against the Aquino family, to the Filipinos and to humanity, but should also highlight the nobility and the peaceful accomplishment of justice by the "People Power" in EDSA in 1986.  Further, this independent body's decision should require a deep respect for the the Filipinos sense of decency, for genuine respect for the oppressed majority, and for strong advocacy for peace and justice for all.

Recently, it took the Egyptians eighteen days to topple a thirty year rule of dictatiorship in Egypt under President Mubarak. But we do not know when would the Egyptian people recover and heal. Today after the 25 years of the  1986 People Power that toppled Marcos' long years of dictatorship, the Filipinos can still continue be a strong presence in their witness against autocratic rule in the world. We have a voice and we can shout that "we can forgive but we should not forget" these evils  that dictatorship brings to humanity.

In short, I believe that the future resolution should not be as simple as allowing the former dictator to have a spot in the sacred ground of the "Libingan ng mga Bayani." I suggest that there should be a need to have a "holocaust memorial," an inscribed letter on the wall to remind the world about what happened during Marcos' dictatorial regime.  Just as there would detractors to deny the reality of the Holocaust, there would be the Marcos' followers who would erase the evil that the former dictator commited from the minds of the Filipino people. Filipinos, therefore, should find a way to make sure that the rest of the future generation will remember the evil of dictatorship and that this particular kind of evil should not be ever reapeated again, in whatever form, against the Filipinos nor against any other nation in the world.

144 theologians confront hierarchy | National Catholic Reporter

144 theologians confront hierarchy National Catholic Reporter Almost one third of the Catholic theologians, including signatories from Germany, Switzerland and Austria have expressed that "in our roles as theology professors, we can no longer remain silent." They clamored for the  many needs for reform in the Church hierarchy, among those are the demands for more democracy in the Catholic Church, the specific responses to the 2010 crisis and the consequential diminishing credibility of the church and the exit of many catholics from the Catholic Church not so recently. In their open letter, they expressed that "we feel we have something to contribute to a new beginning." Among these protesters are the prominent Catholic religious scholars such as Peter Hünermann and Dietmar Mieth, both of the Catholic Theological Faculty of Tübingen University, Germany, and younger scholars such as Judith Könemann from the Rhineland university city of Münster.

Energy Boosters

Feeling down? Maybe sensing that your life is at a stand still and/or stagnating? Maybe frustrated and need to have a new and life giving perspective and outlook in life? Here are some the helpful suggestions that may be useful for us to deepen our sense of awareness and appreciation of the God-given abundance of life that is all around us.  http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/galleries/12energyboosters.html 

Or, sometimes these dryness are the just right moments for us to just stop running away or to just refrain from fixing our dryness  Maybe there is the wisdom in having to face head on this spiritual deadness and to acknowledge what this dryness is all about and what is it is teaching us. Sometimes, it is through these dry moments that the grace of God can break in through us and breathe new life in these dead areas of our lives! May be we just to acknowledge these dry moments, just like praying for our the "dry bones" in Ezekiel 37, and ask God to breathe his Spirit so we can be made whole again. Blessings!

A digital examination of conscience? | National Catholic Reporter

A digital examination of conscience? National Catholic Reporter Check this out, the #25 among top seller in Apple's iTunes App Store! Allegedly developed by a couple of priest, approved by a bishop and approved by Vatican. The Reason? Probably, to revive the Sacrament of Confession or to assist us all in recognizing our need for forgiveness and hopelfully, in helping us to forgive others? Only $1.99.

Ministry Appropriating Issues on Responses to Life and Vocations: Can the pope legislate 'reverence'? | National Catholic Reporter

Ministry Appropriating Issues on Responses to Life and Vocations: Can the pope legislate 'reverence'? National Catholic Reporter

Can the pope legislate 'reverence'? | National Catholic Reporter

Can the pope legislate 'reverence'? National Catholic Reporter - Some truth can be seen differently when viewed from different angles of the prism.  This article streches our consciousness of the what might be the undelying political currents of liturgical reforms as viewed from another angle. Also, the article helps me develop and practice a healthy and sound ratinal thinking. I personally could personally worship better when the liturgical service involves my whole being, that is, when a worship includes my very human, unique and individual socio-cultural consciousness, which is at my very core.

Ministry Appropriating Issues on Responses to Life and Vocations: Living on a Prayer

Ministry Appropriating Issues on Responses to Life and Vocations: Living on a Prayer

Living on a Prayer

Living on a Prayer - A powerful write up of Aron Ralston's life recaptured by "Inspiration by God." This article showed how his tragic yet courageous experience in Utah can spark hope in us all, particularly to those who are experiencing dark nights in our lives. While "canyoning" in the rockies of Utah, Aron was trapped and pinned down for four days, by a boulder of rock that fell on him. For five days and five nights, he was alone, helpless and almost desperate and was crying out for help. Until, a sudden surge of spirit dawned upon him that made him do the unthinkable - to cut his arm so that he can free himself and live. He claimed that it was God who spoke to him and sustained him but it was the combination of his faith and free will that saved him. Amazing life story. Aron's strong character and his refusal to be in despair, I believe, arose from his being grounded on God in his sufferings. 

Aron's remarkable testimony reminds me of Dawana Markova's inspirational poem, which has become my "mantra" during my own trying times.  -  

  "I Will Not Die An Unlived Life"

        "I will not live an unlived life, I will not live in fear, of falling or catching fire.

         I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open to me,

         to make me less afraid, more accessible;

         to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise.

         I choose to risk my significance to live 

so that which came to me as a seed,

         goes to the next as blossom,

         and that which come to me as blossom, 

goes on as a fruit."

May we, in our personal lives, not only befriend our own pains, trials and tribulations and like Aron, may we come out stronger and blessed in the process of embracing them. May we also, in return, continue to be a source of grace and blessings to others, especially to those around us.