Bulletin of the Catholic Community at The Family Foundation School
Pauca Verba (a few words)
Number 15 – March 7, 2010
Today is the Third Sunday of Lent. The word Lent comes from an Old English word meaning Springtime! What are you doing these Lenten days that’s bringing about some kind of springtime in your life?
While some people at school are struggling to keep the sugar fast – it’s a good Lenten-idea to do some kind of physical fasting. As our bodies were/are involved in sinning – our arguing, fighting, nastiness, etc. – so our bodies should be involved in the penitential “I repent – I’m sorry.”
********************
One of the best Lenten-ideas is making a very thorough and heartfelt confession. Confession is good for the soul the saying goes. Confession is good for the inner man, the inner woman. In Confession I stand before God: “God, this is who I am – cleanse me, renew me, heal me.” An Examination of Conscience helps us to look inside – deeply – to discover where we have gone to the distant land – far from God – like the boy in the story Jesus told in Luke 15. But all the more, in Confession we hear the Father’s voice – the Father who stood on tip-toe, filled with a watchful merciful love, anticipating the wasted boy’s return. Check it out: Luke 15 – the lamb, the coin, the boy – it’s about us!
**********************
A Prayer to Pacify Hateful Feelings
We thank You, O Master and Lord of humankind, King of the ages and Giver of every good thing, Who destroys the wall of hatred and Who grants peace to the world. Instill in me a love for You and fear of anything that would take me from You and confirm me in love for other people. Extinguish every dispute and banish every temptation to bitterness and disagreement. For You are our Peace, and to You we send up glory: to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.
**************************
There’s a “don’t mess” – “God’s honest truth” Examination of Conscience with a blue cover available for anyone who cares to go there. Father Stephen has written it and it’s titled, “Dare you!…Double Dare You!” It doesn’t just ask questions but it’s full of teaching – and challenges that might make us squirm. It’s yours for the asking if you’ll use it. It’s based on the Ten Commandments. Do I even know them?
**************************
In the Lenten time – check this out – check this out: Matthew 23:1-12. Knowing Jesus, following Jesus, loving Jesus, claiming Jesus, means getting rid of power, prestige, titles, control over others. Who’s the greatest? Who’s first? The immigrant, the ones who are paid the least, the people at the bottom of the cultural/economic pile, the ones who are taking “too long” to die, the baby in the womb, the ones in the minority, the people who are still being called mean and dirty names, the ones we think we can do without – the people in the following news service article. Where’s your heart? With the man on the cross or with the prince of the world?
********************
Lost Limbs redefine life for thousands of Haiti quake victims
by Deborah Sontag – New York Times News Service
Port –au-Prince, Haiti
“Don’t cut off my leg!” Fabienne Jean screamed repeatedly as they carried her through the gates of the General Hospital here after the earthquake. “I’m a dancer. My leg is my livelihood. Please, don’t take my leg.”
After four days on the hospital’s cluttered grounds, lying among what she described as the “dead and living all mixed up,” Jean was wheeled into an operating tent where her crushed, infected right leg was amputated below the knee.
“It’s a sad story, Jean, 31, a slim, graceful former dancer with the Haitian National Theater, said recently, massaging her bandaged stump. “But what can I do? I can’ kill myself because of this, so I have to learn to live with it.”
More than a month after the earthquake, thousands of new amputees are facing the reality of living with disabilities in a shattered country whose terrain and culture have never been hospitable to the disabled.
Some remain in hospital tents swarming with flies; others have moved to makeshift post surgical centers. Those who healed quickly, like Jean, have been discharged to the streets where they now live. All need continuing care in a nation with no rehabilitation hospital, few physical therapists, no central prosthesis factory since the quake and a skeletal supply of crutches, canes and wheelchairs.
“The situation for newly disabled persons is very delicate,” said Michel Pean, Haiti’s Secretary of State for the Integration of the Disabled. “They urgently need not only medical care but food and a place to live. Also, we cannot forget those disabled before the disaster who, because of their handicap, are having trouble getting access to humanitarian aid.”
Rough estimates of the number of new amputees are based on information from overburdened hospitals that did not keep good records of surgeries. The Haitian government believes that 6,000 to 8,000 people have lost limbs, fingers or toes. Many thousands more suffered complicated breaks and fractures, some of which could turn into amputations if not managed well.
A Few Words