The Bulletin of the Catholic Community at The Family Foundation School
Pauca Verba (a few words)
Number 13 – February 21, 2010
Dear Friend,
How are you? I just had to send a note to tell you how much I care about you.
I saw you yesterday as you were talking with your friends. I waited all day hoping you would want to talk with me too. I gave you a sunset to close your day and a cool breeze to rest you – and I waited. You never came. It hurt me, but I still love you because I am your friend.
I saw you sleeping last night and longed to touch your brow, so I spilled moonlight upon your face. Again I waited, wanting to rush down so we could talk. I have so many gifts for you! You awoke and rushed off to school. My tears were in the rain.
If you would only listen to me! I love you! I try to tell you in blue skies and in the quiet green grass. I whisper it in leaves on the trees and breathe it in colors of flowers, shout it to you in mountain streams, give the birds love songs to sing. I clothe you with warm sunshine and perfume the air with nature’s scents. My love for you is deeper than the ocean and bigger than the biggest need in your heart!
Ask me! Talk with me! Please don’t forget me. I have so much to share with you! I won’t hassle you any further. It is YOUR decision. I have chosen you, and I will wait.
I love you. Your friend,
Jesus
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The result of sloth is faint-heartedness. It is the state of despondency which all spiritual Fathers considered the greatest danger for the soul. Despondency is the impossibility for man to see anything good or positive; it is the reduction of everything to negativism and pessimism. It is truly a demonic power in us because the Devil is fundamentally a liar. He lies to man about God and about the world; he fills life with darkness and negation. Despondency is the suicide of the soul because when man is possessed by it he is absolutely unable to see the light and to desire it.
The Bible is the world’s BEST SELLER. Every second 20 copies are sold. That’s over 1,500,000 copies each day. In the days of the atheistic Soviet Union between 1920 and 1928, 15 million bibles were sold. No other book can compare with it.
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We might call the bible one BIG BOOK made up of many smaller books. Do you know that the bible is composed by many different authors, written in different places and times, yet it hangs together? It has been translated into 377 different languages.
We hang on every word that comes across the Internet. We hang on every word that’s passed along as gossip. We hang on every word that’s put into print no matter how foul or vile the message. And yet while more copies of the bible are sold each year than are sold the previous year at the same time there seems to be increasing numbers of people who dismiss the bible as just made up. We can’t predict what’s going to happen one minute from now, yet the bible’s prophets predict the future boldly.
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A fundamental bible message is that human beings can be dramatically caught up in the things of God. Why are so many of us here so resistant to this? There are bibles all over this place. It’s Lent! Why don’t we pick up our bibles – start by reading one of the gospels from beginning to end!
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If you have taken on the Sugar Fast a reminder that a gift will be sent to Smile Train to repair a baby’s mouth. NO: candy, white/brown sugar, sugared cereal, sugared juice, jelly, cake, pie, ice cream, hot chocolate, cookies, substitute sugar. Don’t draw any attention to yourself – no one needs to know. Be very low key in declining any sugar offered to you. If anyone messes with you or makes fun of you if he/she knows you are doing the fast – simply ask them to either join you or be more supportive. Drink more water, eat more fruit. You may use honey. Breakfast juice is fine. Don’t worry about the corn syrup in condiments. How will I ever manage marijuana and cocaine if I can’t handle NO SUGAR! The fast is a sign of my personal emptiness before God.
During Lent, while fasting from sugar I might also fast from: COMPLAINING, CRITICIZING, CONDEMNING. The Three C’s.
At the start of Lent – who do I need to forgive? Whose forgiveness do I need to ask for?
