Samaritan's Purse

This Christmas we did something very gratifying. We filled shoe boxes with toys and candy for children. They were given to Samaritan's Purse through my mother's church. It was so wonderful when yesterday we received a mailing showing pics of the children and their boxes. Nearly 8 million were collected and distributed. 4.9 million were collected in the U.S. If you want to find out more or give to another project besides Operation Christmas Child you can check out this great organization (run by Billy Graham's son) at http://www.samaritanspurse.org/.

Forgiveness

An almost magical enabler and facilitator of dialogue ... is the simple request: "Will you forgive me?" The beginning of most human rifts that sabotage love and dialogue is what I call a "wounded spirit." ... We can then easily be trapped in a getting-even game, a back and forth contest. When this begins, the lines of communication are down, the relationship is bleeding, and their is great need of healing....
What I am suggesting here is that most ailing relationships can be restored to health almost miraculously by this simple but sincere request: "Will you forgive me?" In asking the question, I am not assuming all blame. I am not deciding who was right and who was wrong. I am simple asking you to take me back into your love from which I have been separated. The acknowledged need for forgiveness is the most effective means of restoration for wounded spirits. No relationship should go for very long without it.

Quiet Moments With John Powell, S. J.

God Is Love

God's very nature is to love. Just as every being acts always and only according to its nature, so God always and only loves....
An analogy or comparison may help. It is the nature of the sun to give warmth and light. Now you and I can stand under the sun and feel its warmth to make us warm. We can allow its light to fill our senses and surroundings with light. However, we can also separate ourselves from the sun, in partial ways or even completely. We can put a sun umbrella, a parasol, over our heads, or we can lock ourselves in a dark dungeon where the sun cannot possibly reach us. Whatever we do, whether we stand in the sun or separate ourselves from it, we know that the sun itself does not change. The sun does not go out....
Just so, God is love. Because we are free, we can separate ourselves from God's love. We can leave God.... But God, like the sun in our comparison, does not cease to love because we have left.... In a real sense, we can refuse the love of God but we can never lose the love of God.
Quiet Moments With John Powell, S. J.