Four Tops: "Reach Out (I'll Be There)"

As this blessed week draws to a close, I offer this version of The Four Tops presenting"Reach Out (I'll Be There)":

 

Thank You, Lord

Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of quiet moments in the midst of hectic days.

Doing Small Things with Great Love

Sharon Eubank spent nearly 30 years doing humanitarian work around the world, but it all started with socks. Yes, socks. A seemingly inconsequential item changed her perspective about the ways that we can serve others, and she has now shared what she learned in the informative and motivational Christopher Award-winning book Doing Small Things with Great Love: How Everyday Humanitarians are Changing the World.

During a Christopher Closeup interview, Sharon recalled a moment in the 1990s when she found her mother knitting bright red socks. When she asked her why she was doing that, her mother responded that there was an airlift taking donations to Sarajevo to help the people suffering there during the Yugoslavian War. Sharon thought to herself, "Is that the best we can do? Have women in middle America knitting socks for all the things that those people needed?"“

"Then a couple of years later," Sharon continued, “I read a story in The New York Times about a woman who was in Sarajevo. Her building had been bombed. She was living in the basement, and the pipes had broken so everything was freezing, frozen ice. She said a Red Cross truck pulled up into the yard, and they distributed brand new wool socks. She said she put her filthy feet into those socks and pulled them up, and she felt so grateful for whoever had provided them. Of course, the bigger issues still remained: the war was still going, the bombs were still falling. But for that moment, that woman, that was what she needed. It made a difference. . . . I recognized that rather than just focusing on 'I can only do the big things; the small things don't matter,' it's the right thing that comes at the right time for the right reason that makes humanitarian aid valuable"

The simplicity of that idea guided Sharon's humanitarian work and, decades later, led her to write Doing Small Things with Great Love, the title of which is derived from Saint Mother Teresa's famous quote, "We can't all do great things, but we can all do small things with great love."

Sharon explained, "The emphasis isn't on the thing that you're doing. It's on the way that you do it. . . . .[Mother Teresa] worked with some of the hardest, lowest-caste people in India. As they were dying, she brought them into her place. She washed their feet. She removed the filth of the street. She tucked them into clean sheets. She held their hands while they were dying. And she looked in their eyes and said, 'You are worthy of this. God loves you. I'm an instrument of His love.' . . . Even though they were small things, ordinary things, that made all the difference. . . . So I wanted to highlight, you don't have to worry that what you're doing is small because if you do it with great compassion, it becomes something divine."

The dignity of the human person is a recurring theme throughout the book, and Sharon commends faith leaders like Pope Leo, "who talks a lot about the dignity of each person, the respectful treatment, the humane solutions that must be part of how we tackle difficult things. . . . In my experience over 30 years, people don't change unless they completely feel like you respect them and you love them. Once they feel that, your partnership explodes. And it isn't the thing that we're giving them - it's not the food; it's not the medical care. It's that respect that they crave in their difficult situations that we can give the most."

This essay is a recent "Light One Candle" column by Tony Rossi, Director of Communications, The Christophers; it is one of a series of weekly columns that deal with a variety of topics and current events.

Background information:

The Christophers

Reflection Starter

"Sometimes a broken road leads to the best destination." - from The Christmas Parade movie

Mary Duff and Daniel O'Donnell: "Whispering Hope"

As we continue to live this week, I offer this version of Mary Duff and Daniel O'Donnell presenting "Whispering Hope":

 

Anniversary Blessings, Nicki and Justin!!!

Anniversary greetings to niece Nicole Rioux and her husband Justin, whose wedding anniversary is today!!! May this day, and each day of the upcoming year, be filled with the Lord's choicest blessings!!!

Thank You, Lord

Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of opportunities to offer acts of kindness.

Daniel Esparza on Improving Mental Health via Acts of Kindness

"There comes a point - usually sometime in your 40s, sometimes earlier, sometimes later — when the body stops being forgiving. The diet that worked at 30 stops working. Sleep becomes a discipline rather than a default. Exercise moves from optional to necessary. Most people accept this without much argument. The body's needs are visible and undeniable, and our current culture has enough language for them. . . ."

In a recent commentary, writer/scholar Daniel Esparza reflected on how body and mind and spirit are one thing, and what damages one damages all ("Neglecting your mental health is not virtue or strength. It is poor stewardship of the person God made.") and on how acts of kindness toward others proved more effective than cognitive-behavioral exercises in one study: "people who focused on someone else’s problems improved more than those who focused on their own."

To access Mr. Esparza's complete post, please visit: 

Aleteia: Daniel Esparza: Have you been neglecting half of your health? (28 JUL 26)

Reflection Starter from Samuel Johnson

"What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence." - Samuel Johnson

"The God of All Grace"

As we continue our Sunday celebration, I offer this version of "The God of All Grace" by Ricky Manalo, CSP:

 

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today the Church celebrates the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The assigned readings for the Mass during the day are 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12; Romans 8:28-30;and Matthew 13:44-52. The Responsorial Psalm is from Psalm 119 (Psalm 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-130).

For one version of the Responsorial Psalm set to music, please visit:

YouTube: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Psalm 119 - Lord I Love Your Commands [YEAR A]

The Gospel reading is as follows:

Jesus said to his disciples: "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind.  When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

"Do you understand all these things?" They answered, "Yes." And he replied, "Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old." 

Reflections related to these readings:

Community in Mission: Give Me Jesus - A Sermon for the 17th Sunday of the Year (25 JUL 26) 

Benedictine College: This Sunday, Only Those Who Search Will Find the Prize (23 JUL 26)

Word on Fire: What Life Is All About (Cycle A * Ordinary Time * 17th Week)

The Pilot: Echoes: Scott Hahn: Treasures of the kingdom (24 JUL 26)

Thank You, Lord

Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of community summer fairs.