GOOD STORIES
A few good stories, some humorous, some serious that turn our mind to the more important aspects of life, and help improve our value system.. Prosit.
Years ago, there was a very wealthy man who, with his devoted young son, shared a passion for art collecting. Together they traveled around the world, adding only the finest art treasures to their collection. Priceless works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet and many others adorned the walls of the family estate.
The widowed elder man looked on with satisfaction as his only child became an experienced art collector. The son's trained eye and sharp business mind caused his father to beam with pride as they dealt with art collectors around the world. As winter approached, war engulfed the nation, and the young man left to serve his country.
After only a few short weeks, his father received a telegram. His beloved son was missing in action. The art collector anxiously awaited more news, fearing he would never see his son again. Within days, his fears were confirmed, the young man had died while carrying a fellow soldier to a medic.
Distraught and lonely, the old man continued his life with anguish and sadness. The joy of art collecting, that he and his son had so enjoyed, would no longer be the same.
One winter morning a knock on the door awakened the depressed, old man. As he walked to the door, the masterpieces of art on the walls only reminded him that his son was not coming home. As he opened the door, he was greeted by a soldier with a large package in his hands. He introduced himself to the man by saying, "I was a friend of your son. I was the one he was rescuing when he died. May I come in for a few moments? I have something to show you."
As the two began to talk, the soldier told of how the man's son had told everyone of his, not to mention his father's, love of fine art. "I am an artist," said the soldier, "and I want to give you this." As the old man unwrapped the package, the paper gave way to reveal a portrait of the man's son. Though the world would never consider it the work of a genius, the painting featured the young man's face in striking detail. Overcome with emotion, the man thanked the soldier, promising to hang the picture above the fireplace. A few hours later, after the soldier had departed, the old man set about his task. True to his word, the painting went above the fireplace, pushing aside thousands of dollars worth of art. His task completed, the old man sat in his chair and spent the rest of the day gazing at the gift he had been given.
During the days and weeks that followed, the man realized that even though his son was no longer with him, the boy's life would live on because of those he had touched. Over time, he learned that his son had rescued dozens of wounded soldiers before a bullet stilled his caring heart.
As the stories of his son's gallantry continued to reach him, fatherly pride and satisfaction began to ease his grief. The painting of his son soon became the most prized possession, far eclipsing any interest in the pieces for which museums around the world clamored. He told his neighbors it was the greatest gift he had ever received.
The following spring, the old man became ill and passed away. The art world was in anticipation that with the collector's passing, and his only son dead, those paintings would be sold at auction. According to the will of the old man, all of the art works would be auctioned off on the anniversary of the day he had received the greatest gift, the picture of his son.
The day soon arrived and art collectors from around the world gathered to bid on some of the world's most spectacular paintings. Dreams would be fulfilled this day; greatness would be achieved as many would claim, 'I have the greatest collection.'
The auction began with a painting that was not on any museum's list. It was the painting of the man's son. The auctioneer asked for an opening bid but the room was silent. "Who will open the bidding with $100?," he asked. Minutes passed, and no one spoke. From the back of the room came a voice, "Who cares about that painting? It's just a picture of his son." "Let's forget about it and move on to the good stuff,' more voices echoed in agreement.
'No, we have to sell this one first," replied the auctioneer. "Now, who will take the son?' Finally, a neighbor of the old man spoke. 'Will you take ten dollars for the painting? That's all I have. I knew the boy, so I'd like to have it." 'I have ten dollars. Will anyone go higher?" called the auctioneer. After more silence, the auctioneer said, 'Going once, going twice, gone." The gavel fell.
Cheers filled the room and someone exclaimed, 'Now we can get on with it and bid on the real treasures!" The auctioneer looked at the audience and announced that the auction was over. Stunned disbelief quieted the room. Someone spoke up and asked, 'What do you mean, it's over? We didn't come here for a picture of some old guy's son. What about all of these paintings? There are millions of dollars worth of art here! I demand that you explain what is going on!"
The auctioneer replied, "It's very simple. According to the will of the father, whoever takes the son... gets it all."
Kind of puts things into perspective, doesn't it? Just as those art collectors discovered on that day, the message is still the same: The love of the Father, whose greatest joy came from his Son, who went away and gave his life rescuing others. And because of that Father's love . . . whoever takes the Son gets it all."
Author Unknown
We Often Learn the Most from our Children
Some time ago, a friend of mine punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight, and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the tree. Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy." He was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found that the box was empty. He yelled at her, "Don't you know that when you give someone a present, there's supposed to be something inside of it?" The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, "Oh, Daddy it's not empty. I blew kisses into the box. All for you, Daddy." The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged her forgiveness. My friend told me that he kept that gold box by his bed for years. Whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.
Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing , the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard,,climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his mother asked > him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, > "Nothing, I just helped him cry."
Teacher Debbie Moon's first graders were discussing a picture of a family. One little boy in the picture had a different color hair than the other family members. One child suggested that he was adopted and a little girl named Jocelynn Jay said, "I know all about adoptions because I was adopted." "What does it mean to be adopted?" asked another child."It means," said Jocelynn, "that you grew in your mommy's heart instead of her tummy."
A four year old was at the pediatrician for a check up. As the doctor looked down her ears with an otoscope, he asked, "Do you think I'll find Big Bird in here?" The little girl stayed silent. Next, the doctor took a tongue depressor and looked down her throat. He asked, "Do you think I'll find the Cookie Monster down there?" Again, the little girl was silent. Then the doctor put a stethoscope to her chest. As helistened to her heart beat, he asked, "Do you think I'll hear Barney in there?" Oh, no!" the little girl replied. "Jesus is in my heart. Barney's on my underpants."
As I was driving home from work one day, I stopped to watch a local Little League baseball game that was being played in a park near my home. As I sat down behind the bench on the first-baseline, I asked one of the boys what the score was. "We're behind 14 to nothing," he answered with a smile. "Really," I said. "I have to say you don't look very discouraged." "Discouraged?" the boy asked with a puzzled look on his face. "Why should we be discouraged? We haven't been up to bat yet.
An Eye Witness Account from New York City, on a cold day in December...
.A little boy about 1 0 years old was standing before a shoe store on Broadway, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering with cold. A lady approached the boy and said, "My little fellow, why are you looking so earnestly in that window?" "I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes," was the boys reply. The lady took him by the hand and went into the store, and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel he quickly brought them to her. She took the little fellow to the back part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet and dried them with a towel. By this time the clerk had returned with the socks. Placing a pair upon the boy's feet, she purchased him a pair of shoes, and tying up the remaining pairs of socks, gave them to him. She patted him on the head and said, "No doubt, my little fellow, you feel more comfortable now?" As she turned to go, the astonished lad caught her by the and looking up in her face, with tears in his eyes, asked the question with these words ..."Are you God's Wife?
Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein....
Whatever you do to the least of your brothers.......
In one of his fmal sermons before his passion and death, Jesus makes it clear that those who give food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty are also nourishing him. For he says, "Whatever you did for one of these least brothers (and sisters) of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40).
This refrain of famine and hunger reverberates to an ear-splitting level in our own time. For example, a recent report in the newsletter of CARE describes our current world conditions in these fearsome facts:
· In sub-Saharan Africa 215 million people lack adequate access to food and, if current trends continue, that number will increase by 50 Million in the next 12 years.
· Worldwide, approximately 841 million people-three times the total population of the United States-are chronically undernourished.
· There are about 158 million undernourished children under the age of five-more than the entire population of Russia-living in the developing world.
· A child suffering from malnutrition in the developing world is six tikes more likely to die than a child suffering from similar problems in the industrialized world.
To these sobering statistics can be added those presented by the Medical Mssion Sisters in one of their periodic reports: "Even in the United States, the richest country in the world, 29% of all boys and girls are hungry or at risk of hunger. In actual numbers that means that nearly 14 million children, . . . some in our own neighborhood, . . . went to bed hungry within the next few days.
Then an almost incredible comment is added: "The shame of all this is that none of this suffering has to be, Food experts have confirmed that there is enough food produced throughout the world to feed 120% of our population. What is lacking is the global, political will to ensure that it is shared by all."
On this day when we are so forcefully reminded of our tremendous privilege to be fed the very flesh and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we are challenged never to forget those millions who have little or nothing to eat day after day.
Whenever we give thanks again for the real food and the real drink with which our host Jesus nourishes us at the bountiful banquet of the Mass, we cannot ignore the critical needs of all those for whom famine, hunger and malnourishment seem to be an inescapable fact of life.
Whenever we recall and renew the compassion Jesus felt for those who had gone hungry for just three days-not every day! -we must hear again and again his conunand to his disciples: "Give them some food yourselves!"
Whenever we renew our faith in the fantastic Food we are so fortunate to receive at Holy Mass, we need to recall and act on these practical words of St. James in his letter:
"What good is it if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can that faith save you? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, keep warrn and eat well!' but do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (2:14-17).
Before this week is over may our faith in the Eucharist our belief that Jesus has fed us with his very own flesh and blood, may our faith inspire and engage each one of us to do whatever we can and all we can to give food to the hungry. For what we do to feed the hungry we do to and for this same loving, caring, feeding Jesus who has so wonderfully satisfied our spiritual hunger.
I just had to write to tell you how much I love and care for you. Yesterday, I saw you walking and laughing with your friends; I hoped that soon you’d want ME to walk along with you too. So, I painted you a sunset to close your day and whispered a cool breeze to refresh you. I waited-you never called-I just kept on loving you.
As I watched you fall asleep last night, I wanted so much to touch you. I spilled moon light onto your face- trickling down your cheeks as so many tears have. You didn’t even think of ME, I wanted so much to comfort you. The next day I exploded a brilliant sunrise into glorious morning for you. But you woke up late and rushed off to work - you didn’t even notice. MY sky became cloudy, MY tears were rain.
I love you! Oh, if you’d only listen! I really love! I try to say it in the quiet of the green meadow, and in the blue sky. The wind whispers MY love throughout the treetops and spills it into the vibrant colors of all the flowers. I shout it to you in the thunder of the great waterfalls and compose love songs for birds to sing for you. I warm you with the clothing of MY sunshine and perfume the air with nature’s sweet scent. MY love for you is deeper that any ocean and greater in your heart. If you’ d only realize how I care! MY Father sends HIS love. I want you to meet HIM - HE cares too. Father’s are just that way. So, please call an ME soon. No matter how long it takes, I’ll wait-because I Love you!
Your Friend,JESUS