Care - excellent quote

"Don't tell me you're serving the Buddha or Christ in their Temples and Tabernacles, if you cannot show them devotion in the slums, the ghettos & the streets. We cannot encounter Jesus in the Sacraments, or Buddha in Pure Light, if we turn our eyes away from Buddha/Jesus in the bodies and souls of the sick, the hungry,...... the homeless & the marginalised. Prayer begins with a servant's heart... and a servant SERVES!"

John Francis - a wonderful hero & example for our new year

"As we walk upon the road we meet ourselves. And at the end, perhaps we'll find that there are no sides to take, no ememies of state, no arguments against the other. There's only death that waits. But on this tiny planet, and in this precious moment, we have the chance to live in peace together. If only we could take a walk." ~John Francis

an interview with john francis about his years of walking and silence, in honor of the earth:
http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2005/05/10/hertsgaard-francis/

His nonprofit organization: PlanetWalk

"If you spend even a fraction of the time that you waste, in finding your own faults, you would have become a great saint by this time. Why do you care for the faults of others? Purify yourself first. Improve yourself first. Reform yourself first. Wash the impurities of your own mind. He who applies himself diligently to his spiritual practices cannot find even a single second to look into the affairs of others."

-Swami Sivananda

AN INSTRUMENT OF THY PEACE/Swami Chidananda in the West

When the sick, the aged, or the dying are abandoned in loneliness, we will stand up and proclaim that they are worthy of love, care, and respect. — Pope John Paul II explaining the Christian response to the suffering of others, Washington, DC (October 7, 1979)

09.19.08 - Beauty

We have 1000s of lepers here. They are so great, so beautiful in their disfigurement!
In Calcutta, we have a Christmas party for them every year. Once I went to them and I
told them that what they have is the gift of God, that God has a very special love for them,
that they are very dear to Him, that what they have is not a sin. One old man who was
completely disfigured tried to come nearer to me, and he said, "Please repeat that once
more. It did me good. I have always heard that nobody loves us. It is wonderful to know
that God loves us. Please say that again!"

-Mother Teresa