Canayjun's vacayshun
After a brief hiatus since last May when we marked the blog private, I’m pleased to announce the MissionLog is back online available to the public. Stay tuned for more posts on homelessness. Together we can reduce homelessness in our communities.
Stay updated realtime on Twitter at http://twitter.com/canayjun
::
::
This article was posted on the Huffington Post on the annual commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr.
Today we pause to reflect and remember the legacy and teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the 82nd anniversary of his birth.
By Jennifer Sharp
Habitat for Humanity of Washington, D.C., AmeriCorps VISTA member
|
|
|
|
As a Habitat for Humanity AmeriCorps VISTA member, I typically work in the office as a communications and development associate, but on MLK day I’ll get the chance to work on our build site. The day of service will allow me to be involved in the “on-the-ground” construction and cleanup portion of D.C. Habitat’s work – something I don’t usually have exposure to at my desk. In the office I get to see the endless hours employees put into writing grants, coordinating volunteers, serving families and promoting the organization’s mission to media and funders. What I don’t get to see on a daily basis is the final outcome of this good work.
I think it will be rewarding to see the progress being made on home construction, and to see how lives can start to change for people living in Ivy City, a neighborhood in D.C. When you are sitting behind a desk, you sometimes forget the real impact you are having on someone’s life.
Each year on the third Monday in January, hundreds of thousands of people volunteer their time to causes around our nation as a way to honor Dr. King. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the celebration of MLK Day in recognition of Dr. King’s passion for service to our communities. In 1994, Congress declared MLK Day a National Day of Service. Participants are encouraged to volunteer for the day to help address some of our nation’s most pressing social issues, such as poverty, hunger and homelessness.
Habitat for Humanity of Washington, D.C., is excited to take part in the MLK National Day of Service once again this year. Currently D.C. Habitat is working on a mix of new construction and home rehabilitations in the Ivy City neighborhood. This year we will have the privilege of welcoming volunteers from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Defense, Gonzaga High School and numerous other individuals. Volunteers will work on the construction site, and after lunch they will participate in a community clean up, followed by a discussion about Dr. King.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was passionate about numerous social justice issues. A national day of service allows us to reflect back on what MLK and others have spent their lives working to achieve. Dr. King is famous for saying, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?”
Last Thursday’s Committee meeting on the Localism Bill raised more questions than it answered, writes Mark Nayler.
Many maybe asking what is faith? As we seek the definition of faith, we find it difficult to grasp the true meaning behind faith. In the dictionary the definition of “faith” is “believing that is not based on proof”, “confidence or trust in a person or thing”, “faith in others ability”.
I believe that there are two types of faith. The first one is the one that we are born with which evolves as “Intellectual faith”. Is the faith that grows with you since birth and everyone has this faith and it is one of the most used attribute in our day to day life activities. However, the second faith that exist is the “Spiritual Faith”. The definition of Spiritual Faith is “Our relationship with God and Lord and Savior Christ”, “Believing in God, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Now some may argue that they don’t believe in Spiritual Faith, but the truth is that each one of us have the ability to tap into the Spiritual Faith realm. Not everyone will tap into the Spiritual Faith realm. Christian faith is not purely based on evidence; but again many times we actually see the evidence through miracles, historical findings and testimonies.
I believe there is a time for everything in life; Christian or non Christian we will encounter in our life time a huge crisis which may lead us to tap into the Spiritual Faith realm and establish a one on one communication and relationship with God; in return establish a bridge which leads us to Christ as our Savior.
Let’s refer to one simple verse in the Holy Bible Hebrews 11:1 and it reads as follow “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”.
What is belief? Here are a few definitions:
Belief is an attribute that we are born with as well. As we grow our belief expands and builds a database in your mind archiving events, ideas and facts. Belief also allows us to apply logic, knowledge and experience to make an intellectual decision. Let’s use the example of a simple small, medium or large complex bridge. Observe the bridge closely, examine it’s design and structure. You see that the bridge is sufficiently engineered and material chosen was the best quality to withstand huge weight, weather and appealing design. Most likely you choose this bridge to go over the other side believing it will support you and others driving across the bridge. I am sure we have crossed many bridges in our lifetime…….. Now that is FAITH!
May God keep you safe always,
Johnny Rodriguez
Fr. Robert A. Macdonald, C.Ss.R. wrote of a life altering, and life elongating, event.1
He was suffering from pneumonia when a nun came into his hospital room and asked him, “Father, have you great faith in the Mother of God, especially in Her Immaculate Heart? If so, you can be cured.” The nun explained that she had been operated on due to cancer but was thought incurable. She “prayed to Our Lady of the Green Scapular” and was healed and gave Fr. Macdonald a scapular. He followed her advice and was also cured.
There was once another man who was sick and dying, Hezekiah the King of Judah. We find this king in 2nd Kings ch. 20 where Hezekiah prayed to God weeping and saying, “remember now how I have walked before You in truth and with a sincere heart, and have done good in Your sight.”
God sent the prophet Isaiah to speak to Hezekiah and inform him that God would heal him, add fifteen years to his life and would deliver the land of Judah from the king of Assyria.
What a blessed event—or was it?
Note that ch. 20 begins by stating, “…the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, so says the LORD, set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.” But Hezekiah did not do this; he seemed to want something more. The LORD thus, grants him another fifteen years of life which would seem a blessing, except when we find what those years brought about.
Berodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah. For he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick. And Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them all the house of his precious things, the silver and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion which Hezekiah did not show them.
The end result of these actions is that Isaiah the prophet states,
the days come when all that is in your house, and which your fathers have laid up in store until today, shall be carried into Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD.
In 2nd Kings ch. 21 we learn of King Hezekiah’s son Manasseh who began to reign at the age of twelve. Notice that he would have begun his reign once his father Hezekiah died. Manasseh was twelve at the time, meaning that he was born three years into the fifteen years that the LORD had afforded to Hezekiah.
What sort of king was Manasseh?
he did the evil in the sight of Jehovah, after the abominations of the heathen whom Jehovah cast out before the sons of Israel. For he built up again the high places which his father Hezekiah had destroyed. And he reared up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel did. And he worshiped all the host of heaven, and served them…
And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times and used fortune-tellers. And he dealt with familiar spirits and wizards. He worked much wickedness in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke Him to anger. And he set a graven image of the Asherah…
[And] seduced them to do more evil than the nations ever did…Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, doing more wickedly than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols…And also Manasseh shed very much innocent blood.
This tragic story ends not here but continues when his son Amon began to reign and did evil in the sight of the LORD “as his father Manasseh did.”
I note this record of scripture to make a point: a long life is not necessarily a better life. Such would appear to be the case of Fr. Robert A. Macdonald. But why make such a statement about a person who no doubt has done much of what some people would call good with his life?
What did Hezekiah do with his prolonged life? We are not told many specifics but rather outcomes. We may perhaps speculate that he did not purpose to serve the LORD wholeheartedly and glorify His name in his nation nor in his family. Perhaps we may further speculate this due to the fact that we find his showing off his material goods to foreigners.
We find that his young son instantly falls into idolatry, and takes the nation with him. It is very likely that a godly family would have given Manasseh the godly heritage by which to rule Judah. Also, it would seem that a godly nation would have remained loyal to the LORD and not followed the king into abominable practices.
In any regard, Robert A. Macdonald, though certainly much less powerful than a King of Judah, may have a hand in causing much abomination. You see, he begins his story by stating, “This is my only way of trying to spread a true and tender love of Her Immaculate Heart and of paying my debt to her.” While we might have expected him to spread love of God and paying a debt to Him yet, Fr. Robert A. Macdonald appears to be more interested in the Mary of Roman Catholic myth and her mystical amulets than in Jesus Christ and the worship and thanksgiving that pertains to God alone.
As for paying a debt, perhaps there is only one way,
What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD (Psalm 116:12-14).
Fr. Robert A. Macdonald wrote,
I speak of an unpayable debt to Her Immaculate Heart. Since then I have done everything possible to foster this devotion. To my great joy and amazement, those to whom I have spoken of the Green Scapular have become more zealous that I. Never have I seen the equal of the faith and confidence of these new apostles of Mary.
There is a lot to comment on and so I will respond succinctly. Even if, and that is a big if, even if Mary had interceded by means of a mystical amulet, ultimately, all thanks are due to God, “always giving thanks for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20).
Fr. Robert A. Macdonald has spent his prolonged years doing everything possible to foster devotion to Our Lady of the green scapular. This is actually in keeping with orthodox Roman Catholicism and yet, note the difference between the teaching of the Catholic church, on the one hand, and the Bible, on the other:
Catechism of the Catholic Church #971, “The Church’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship.”
2nd Corinthians 11:3 “My fear is that, just as the serpent seduced Eve by his cunning, your thoughts may be corrupted and you may fall away from your sincere and complete devotion to Christ.”
Catholicism teaches devotion to Mary but the Bible teaches that devotion to anyone except Jesus is satanic manipulation.
Imagine what the real Mary must think (if she even knows what is going on here and now—and in her name), that she is appointing to her, “apostles of Mary.” The only apostles found in the Bible are those of Jesus.
Fr. Robert A. Macdonald offers the obligatory token in stating,
The particular power of this Scapular is that of conversion, to bring Her Son into the hearts of men. The prayer, and this can be said in favor of another, is: “Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.”
I stated token because anyone who is familiar with the hyper-Marian devotion movement knows, proclamations saturated with unbiblical praise of Mary always contain a token nod to Jesus (as if to make it all kosher see my essay To Jesus through Mary).
This tokenism is born out further by the fact that no sooner are we told that the scapular is meant to turn people towards Jesus (whose name is not one uttered in Fr. Robert A. Macdonald’s story) than we are told that the prayer associated with the scapular is to be prayed to Mary so that she might intercede for us at the time of our death (or that of another).
A few problems with this as well.
Firstly, in the whole of the Bible there are only two kinds of prayer: 1) prayer to the one and only living God and 2) prayer to false gods—there is nothing else.
Secondly, the example of Jesus, at His death, calling out to God the Father, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46).
We also have the example of Stephen who died by stoning while he, “was calling on God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59).
As for turning to Mary for intercession, I comment extensively on that issue in my essay Intercessor? Mediator? Advocate?
Fr. Robert A. Macdonald could be utilizing his remaining years glorifying Jesus Christ, spreading devotion to Him, asking Him to intercede, and seeking His comfort at the time of death. Instead, he is spreading false teachings about a false Mary, teachings that may accord with Roman Catholicism, but certainly do not accord with the Holy Word of God.
I wish no ill health upon Fr. Robert A. Macdonald but pray that the LORD would redeem the time.
<!–
–>
I cry, but you do not see
I shake you, but you do not feel
I scream, but you do not hear
I cannot reach you
No matter what I do
And so I scream inside
Wake up!
Wake up from your dream world!
Can’t you see all the suffering?
Our world is a mess!
One person cannot solve it
Not with money or even deeds
We’re all sinking together!
Wake up!
It’s getting late!
There’s a world outside you
Don’t you see it?
Try
To feel it
To see
We’re all connected
Our fate lies
In our hands
WAKE UP!!!!
Most people would like to change the world in one way or another. The only way to enact change on a large scale one must start with their own selves and start a chain reaction.To change the world we live in is really to change the opinions and beliefs of those who live in it. How can one person get everyone to change their opinions and beliefs? Well One person is all it takes to start a chain reaction of change, look at the 60’s in America how just a few spawned the hippie movement. Look how cults form under the ideas of one person and grow to become large communities such as Waco Texas and the Jim Jones following. Though these may be negative examples of change , they prove that just one or a few can influence the many.
In a Technological information age as ours the power of one voice can influence a world of people in just seconds if not minutes. Television, Radio and internet are great tools to educate and get your message out to the public. Through these mediums you can either influence others for the good or the bad. Even with such great tools at ones fingertips you must be a leader and be one who leads by example to get others to acknowledge your ideas and philosophy. So start the change in yourself, show others the results and live by your philosophies / beliefs. As the old saying goes the proof is in the pudding, if you cant live by what you preach no one will believe or accept your ideals.
I mean would you follow a man who preaches love and peace while he murders people in the name of his philosophy or religion? Or would you stay at a church where its preacher who breaks every commandment while proclaiming he is either pure or innocent? I wouldn’t follow or believe in either of them, if you can not live by your beliefs and try to follow the rules of your philosophy then why should anyone else. This of course is not saying any preacher or leader will never fall or fail at times for we are all human and prone to make mistakes. With ones actions and freewill is a price we all must pay. The price is responsibility of our own actions and or choices we make. Even the words we speak are our responsibility, for if you mislead someone to their harm or to their disgrace you are responsible for that harm or disgrace.
So one person could start a change in the world and the world could change by the actions and words of one person. One person can change themselves and by doing so influence the change in others around them.
Enough of my Babble and Ramble Thoughts.
Peace and Wisdom be the Prize you seek
Raymond Barbier.
Sometimes I get caught up in my little fish bowl of a universe and forget there are countless other little fish bowls out there that make up the ocean of life. It is so easy to focus only on your little world and be unaware of all the things that surround you. We are all like little boats floating in a vast sea of time all connected by the common thread of life. We see ourselves as individual and separate from the other boats floating around us, but we are all connected and effect each other in many various ways. Every action we take can effect the world around us along with the people in it.
This is the main reasons most religions try to teach compassion, Love, charity and understanding. For if we learn to live by those principles we will effect others in a positive way. Also if you treat someone with respect and show them compassion it is more than likely they too will treat others including yourself with the same. Of course there are exceptions to the rule and may be those who will never have or show compassion for themselves or others. Those people will never find any happiness or peace in their lifetime. Even to those type of people you should be understanding and be compassionate for that person could have been you at one time in your life.
I try to look at lost souls like that in the sense that I could have as easily been as cold or hard hearted as they are if the circumstances of my life would have been different. So in a way I look at them in the sense that there is a little of that type of person in me. Accepting them and showing compassion towards such people also teaches me to have compassion on myself and forgiveness for my own short comings.
The world look so small and simple when you keep focused on nothing but your own little fish bowl. If you look outside your little universe you will see that it is quite a large world we all interact with. It also makes one realize their fish bowl is just a illusion and that we are all part of something amazingly vast and extraordinary. The only limits we have personally and spiritually are the one we have created and or imposed upon ourselves.
Well Enough of My Rambling For Now
Peace and Truth Be your Guiding light.
Ray Barbier
In this modern world of ours we can travel across the world in a few hours, Cure many diseases and buy something from almost any corner of the world via the internet. With such scientific and technological breakthroughs we still have people who are starving and those who are without a place to call home. So much wealth is held by so few and so many impoverished. Seems even though mankind has came along way in many aspects we still are far from being the world we are meant to become. Between greed and apathy so much suffering is allowed to exist in a world that has plenty to go around. Even though all the major religions teach us to be charitable to others it seems either most of us ignore that fact or limit it to those of our own religion and or country. Charity is supposed to be unbound and unlimited, with no limitations on who and where. Compassion, the fuel behind charity is not conditional nor selective.
Below are Verses from some of the Major religions that teach us of charity
Christian Bible
But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind – Luke 14:13
Blessed is he that considerth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. – Psalm 41:1, 2
Koran
Those who believe, and do deeds of righteousness, and establish regular prayers and regular charity, will have their reward with their Lord: on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve." (The Noble Quran, 2:277)
Torah (Old Testament)
Deut. 15:7 "If there will be a poor man among you… you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand toward your poor brother; you shall open your hand to him and shall give him enough for his needs
Lev. 25:35 "If your brother becomes poor… you shall support him, stranger or settler, and he shall live with you.
Hindu Scriptures
Rg Veda:
II, 28, 9 – Varuna Sukta: The name of God in itself symbolizes the twofold virtuous implication, – of always giving out help and never accepting help. In fact Varuna sukta is full of such frets, strands or reeds of that divine melody.
The Upanishads:
Ishavasya Upanishad, 1: "Everyone is only a trustee or custodian for the wealth lying with oneself (from God); he cannot enjoy all of it".
Taittiriya Upanishat I, 21: "Thou shalt give away whether you have faith in it (of any reward) or not" When you give, do that with humility (without superior feeling), even when you don’t trust, do give away!
Taittiriya Upanishat III, 3, x: Like in a well the more you fetch, more water oozes . . the more you give the more you get. This generosity is mandatory to every individual. Hurry to promise or pledge to help. It is one thing – glorious and divine – to strive for getting an occasion for that.
Just a few examples of religious views on Charity, This shows that no matter what religion you follow you are taught to be charitable. Greed, selfishness and apathy are the main enemies of a charitable heart. The greatest prize of charity is the result of your good deed. To see a hungry person have a full belly and a see a homeless person finally have a home is a grand thing to witness.
To be compassionate and charitable are not only personal choices one can make, they are the core of what it means to be truly human. Even one penny can add up with others to make a difference in some unfortunate persons life.
Well Wnough of my Babbling for now
Peace and Love to All
Raymond Barbier
RSS Feed
Barbier Family Blog 