The Touch of theMasters Hand
If you have a cross, bear it well, and your
Salvation is assured.
'Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer thought it scarcely worth his while to waste his time on the old violin but he held it up with a smile
" what am I bidden, good folks",
he cried,
"Who'll start the bidding for me ?"
"a dollar, a dollar";
then two ! ",
"only two? two dollars and who'll make it three/ " three dollars once; three dollars twice ; going for three".
But no, from the room, far back, a gray-haired man came forward and picked up the bow ; then wiping the dust from the old violin and tightening the loose strings, he played a melody pure and sweet as carolling angel sings.
The music ceased, and the auctioneer, with a voice that was quiet and low, said:
"what am I bid for the old violin?"
and he held it up with a bow. A thousand dollars, and who'll make it two? two thousand and who'll make it three ? three thousand once, three thousand twice and going and going and gone", said he.
The people cheered but some of them cried,
"We do not quiet understand what changed its worth"
swift came the reply
"The touch of the Master's Hand".
And many a man with life out of tune , and battered and scarred with sin / is auctioned cheap to a thoughtless crowd, much like the old violin.
A "mess of pottage ", a glass of wine ; a game - and he travels on / he is going once/ and going twice / He's going and almost gone".
But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd never can quite understand the worth of a soul and the change that's wrought by THE TOUCH OF THE MASTER'S HAND.
Myra ' Brooks ' Welch
(1877 - 1959 )
Read: THE FARM BY LOUGH GUR
by
Mary Lady Carbery.
Mother Mary of the Cross, O.S.B. (Janie-Ivanka Christitch), of Tyburn Convent, London, who has died aged 76, was daughter of Serbian officer, Colonel Ljubomir Christitch. Her mother was Elizabeth O'Brien, of Loughgur, Co.Limerick, a well-known writer who wrote on behalf of the Christian people of the Balkans and on behalf of the Irish, particularly during the Black-and-Tan period. Born in Belgrade, she entered London University while in her early 2Os. She joined the Sufragette Movement of Mrs. Pankhurst and later worked on an English women's paper before entering the convent at Tyburn. She spent her religious life,with the exception of seven years in Belgium, at Tyburn.
She is survived by her sister, Anna Christitch, a theatre critic in London.
The Irish Times 1972.
Seek Heaven and you will get earth thrown in; seek earth and you will get neither. C.S. Lewis.
If you have a cross, bear it well, and your salvation is assured. (Blessed Fulton Sheen)
Pope John 23rd, told me for once and for all, that TRUTH is a PERSON. (Gabriel Fallon - Irish actor, writer and Theatre Director).
Unless we see God in others, they are not likely to see God in us. ( Randall Wallace ).
Read his latest book : The Touch.
Trappist reveals role in killer's conversion.
By Ed West.
One of the most violent murderers in the American prison system converted to Catholicism after being befriended by a priest, it emerged this week, (Jan.2O 2O12).
Clayton Fountain, who murdered five men and was deemed the 'Most Dangerous Prisoner' in America, turned to God after meeting Fr. Paul Jones.
Fr. Jones writes in his book A Different Kind of Cell: The story of a Murderer Who Became a Monk, that Fountain,who was condemned to live out his last days in a specially built steel and concrete solitary confinement cell, was transformed into a "well-educated, articulate monk".
Fountain, who died from a heart attack in 2OO4 aged 49, was born into a military family at Fort Benning, Georgia and joined the US Marine Corps before murdering his sergeant in Vietnam. He was eventually captured after a stand-off with a SWAT team but despite being transferred to increasingly high-security jails he was able to use his military training to kill three prisoners and one guard with his bare hands. So in l983 he was installed in a special cell next to the criminally insane unit of the Federal Medical Centre in Springfield, Missouri.
After a correspondence with a woman who encouraged him to pursue a 'spiritual quest', Clayton began correspondence with Fr. Jones. Eventually the warden allowed them to speak by phone and this would become a weekly event. Finally, the priest was able to visit, passing through nine guarded gates and speaking through the meal slot.
Clayton was baptised in April I992, still shackled, and began a PhD after gaining a degree.
Fr. Jones wrote on the Huffington Post website: "I was pulled in, in spite of myself, into the vortex of Clayton's unfolding drama - functioning first as his unintended spiritual director , gradually becoming a companion and eventually a friend in his unbelievable spiritual pilgrimage".
He also said that Clayton's redemption was a powerful argument against capital punishment, because it showed anyone can be redeemed.
Mother Theresa's Prayer.
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Hear the Lord say again and again, to you and to your loved ones, living and dead :
"No matter what you have done, I love you for your own sake. I know you through and through. I know everything about you. I have followed you through the years and I have always loved you.
" I tell you again that I love you, not for what you have or haven't done. I love you for you, for the beauty and dignity my Father gave you by creating you in his own image.
"I cherish you more than you can imagine, to the point of dying on a cross for you. That is how precious you are to me".
You really enter upon the way of faith only when you renounce mere human reasoning and mere human feeling. If you would understand and see as God does, you must be willing to die to the merely human.
In order to help your brother towards faith, don't waste your time with logical subtleties and arguments; rather love your brother and pray for him. It is not a question of persuading him, but of communicating to him the Word of God, through the personal witness of your own life.
FR. MICHEL QUOIST.
When trying to urge someone to walk the narrow path, we must never give up. (Fr. Regis Scanlon).
God is
THE GOD OF THE IMPOSSIBLE.
O Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds, and whose breath gives life to the world, hear me.
I come to you as one of your many children. I am small and weak ; I need your strength and your wisdom. Make. my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset. Make my hands respect the things you have made, and my ears sharp to hear your voice. Make me wise so that I shall know the things you have taught your children, the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock. Make me strong so that I may not be superior to other people, but be able to fight my greatest enemy, which is myself. Make me ever ready to come to you with straight eyes , so that when life fades as the fading sunset, my spirit may come to you without shame.
Disturb us, O Lord,
When we are too well pleased with ourselves,
when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little;
when we have arrived safely
because we sailed too close to the shore.
Stir us, O Lord, to dare more boldly,
to venture more seas, where storms will show your mastery,
where losing sight of land we shall find the stars.
In the name of Him who pushed back the horizons of our hopes
and invited the brave to follow Him. Amen.
For a vibrantly happy and meaningful life, begin each day with
THE LORD'S PRAYER.
1. Be Still. God is here. He is the source of all Truth and Love. Take time to realize His presence. He speaks when we listen and hears when we pray.
2. Be grateful. For what am I especially thanking this morning? Name over some of God's gifts.
3. Where have I failed from God's point of view to measure up to Christ's Standards of absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness, absolute love and failed to do God's will? Accept God's FORGIVENESS and release in Christ. Surrender myself to Him . Claim the Holy Spirit to dwell in me. Get up and go on in His strength.
4. Bible Study. Meditate on today's Bible reading. Relate it to God's plan for the world and your part in it.
"If anyone loves Me, he will obey my Word".
5. LISTEN TO GOD. What new responsibilities for people and situations does God want me to take today?. Make notes of things He wants me to do, persons to see, letters to type (such as what I am typing now for you), people to pray for (such I am also doing for you right now). Live transparently. Obey fearlessly throughout this day.
"Courage I have overcome the world"
6. Get into action with others today. Tell each other what God has been telling you as He directs, thus together remaking your home, community, nation and the world.
"Thy Kingdom Come"
A form of daily prayer created by Drs. Kenneth and Frances McAll for their students in China in 1941.
'He plucked a stone from the mud and placed it in the wall'.
(Saint Patrick)
Le Mor Gra
Slan go foill
agus beannacht De lib.
Anita Kilbride-Jones,
Saint Paul's Bay
Malta
