This story was shared with me recently:
A lady asked a farmer: “How much do you sell your eggs for?” The old vendor replies “50 cents an egg, madam.” The lady says, “I’ll take 6 eggs for $2.50 or I’m leaving.” The old salesman replies, “Buy them at the price you want, Madam. This is a good start for me because I haven’t sold a single egg today and I need this to live.” She bought her eggs at a bargain price and left with the feeling that she had won.
She got into her fancy car and went to a fancy restaurant with her friend. She and her friend ordered what they wanted. They ate a little and left a lot of what they had asked for. They paid the bill, which was $150. The ladies gave $200 and told the fancy restaurant owner to keep the change as a tip…
This story might seem quite normal to the owner of the fancy restaurant, but very unfair to the egg seller…The questions it raises are: Why do we always need to show that we have power when we buy from the needy? Why are we generous to those who don’t even need our generosity?
I once read this somewhere, that a father used to buy goods from poor people at high prices, even though he didn’t need the things. Sometimes he paid more for them. I was amazed. One day his son asked him “Why are you doing this Dad?” His father replied: “It’s charity wrapped in dignity, son.”
Each one of us can do better. God gave us the power.
Blessings.
Fr. John
BLESSING OF THE ANIMALS
Saturday, September 23, 2023 Noon
At the statue of Our Lady across from St. Francis Church (303 Bunker Hill Street)
SEASON OF CREATION
September 1 through October 4 is the SEASON OF CREATION – a time to reflect more deeply on the call to ecological conversion,
both personal and communal.
Let’s reflect on these words from Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’: (LS 217 – 219) – “The ecological crisis is a summons to a profound interior conversion needed to bring about lasting change…Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s magnificent handwork is essential to a life of virtue…it is not an optional or secondary aspect of our Christian commitment. It entails a loving awareness that we are not disconnected from the rest of creation but joined in a splendid universal communion.”
And on these words from Thomas Berry’s The Great Work: “The universe story is our Sacred Story…We will recover our sense of wonder and our sense of the sacred only if we appreciate the universe beyond ourselves as a revelatory experience of the Creator. The Great Work now is to carry out the transition from a period of human devastation of the Earth to a period when humans would be present to the Earth in a mutually beneficial manner…
The Great Work is the work of all people. No one is exempt.”