October 22, 2006
Pastor's Perspective
Recently,
Sr. Katherine Ann shared this reflection with our staff. It
is an important “perspective” in thinking about
your gift to the Catholic Ministries Appeal:
One day
the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the
country with the purpose of showing his son how poor people live.
They
spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be
considered a very poor family.
On their
return from their trip, the father asked the son, “How was
the trip?”
“It was
great, Dad.”
“Did you
see how poor people live?” the father asked.
“Oh
yeah,” said the son.
“So,
tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.
The
son answered: “I saw that we have one dog and they had four.
We
have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a
creek that has no end.
We have imported lanterns in
our garden and they have the stars at night.
Our
patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.
We
have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go
beyond our sight.
We have servants who serve us, but
they serve others.
We buy our food, but they grow
theirs.
We have walls around our property to protect
us, they have friends to protect them.”
The
boy’s father was speechless.
Then his son
added, “Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we
are.”
Isn’t perspective a
wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all
gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we
don’t have.
Peace,
Fr. Chuck
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