Dear Folks -
Little Johnny asked his mother, "Is it true that we are here to help
others?" His mother assured him that this was indeed the purpose of
life. He thought about this for a moment and then asked, "Then, why
are the others here?"
The fact of the matter is that often the world seems divided between
those who have and those who don't, between the powerful and the
powerless. In approaching the Christmas event this year I've been
raising before you in my talks two questions: What are we waiting for?
And, how shall we wait?"
Most of the time most of us are shielded from the dreadful conditions
of those on this planet who suffer from extreme poverty. We seldom
bring into our consciousness the fact that we live in a world where
three billion people live on less than two dollars a day. All of them
live in less than sanitary conditions. One billion of them have no
sanitary drinking water to drink at all. One statistic I found said
that a child dies every 15 seconds from lack of water to drink. We
have no idea what this is like.
Surely, one of the ways we are to wait must address this or whatever
claims we can make to be loving and compassionate people are hollow.
Saint Francis is alleged to have said, "Preach the Gospel always and,
if necessary, use words."
This week in Ordinary Life I want to talk about going beyond words in
how we are to wait. I've asked some of our class members who have been
directly involved in "doing" to join me. I hope you will as well. I
look forward to seeing and being with you this week in Ordinary Life.
Much love,
Bill Kerley