adapted from Sister Helen Prejean's book with the same title. It's actually one of my favorite movies of all times. I salute Sister Helen Prejean for her efforts to abolish the death penalty in America. You probably know that Sister Helen is from New Orleans. She's currently in Baton Rouge as reported by The Gainesville Sun:
Hurricane Katrina forced Sister Helen Prejean and about 60 other nuns to flee their New Orleans Mother House last week and relocate indefinitely to Baton Rouge.
But the catastrophe had an effect on something else to which the woman who has come to be known as "the Death-Penalty Nun" has devoted her life.
"Katrina put a moratorium on the death penalty in Louisiana for at least three years," Prejean, 66, said before her talk Wednesday night at Holy Faith Catholic Church in Gainesville.
She said court buildings in New Orleans were so badly damaged that judges, among other things, won't be reviewing death-penalty cases anytime soon. In effect, Katrina partly did in a day what Prejean has been working more than 20 years to accomplish - abolish the death penalty in the United States.
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I haven't read the book yet. But, I intend to read it. I believe in her message, and I hope she succeeds in convincing our politicians to abolish the death penalty. book, I came across the story of "Order of Friar Servants of Mary".
Before the Servites ever existed as an official religious Order, seven prosperous men came together in the city of Florence, Italy. As a reflection of the penitential spirit of the times, it had been the custom of these men to meet regularly as members of a religious society established in honor of Mary, the Mother of God. Eventually, the seven left their comfortable homes, put aside their finery and went to live together in a ramshackle building. The holiness and penitential lifestyle of the seven quickly attracted visitors and others who wished to join them in their newly found joy of fraternal living for the sake of the Gospel. The entire group moved to more peaceful surroundings, and established a hermitage on the summit of a nearby mountain, Monte Senario, sometimes known as the "sounding mountain."
Coming to be known as the "Friar Servants of Mary," others joined the first seven on Monte Senario, and as the group continued to grow, the seeds of the new religious Order took root. The Friar Servants of Mary were approved as a religious Order by the bishop of Florence sometime between the years 1240 and 1247. In the year 1304, the Order of Friar Servants of Mary received definitive approval as a religious Order in the Church by the Holy See.
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writes:
While the Servites acknowledge their need to serve by their very name, we are all called to be servants. We are placed on earth, not to amass wealth and prestige, but to care for and minister to our fellow human beings. Although most of us wouldn't want to leave our homes and families to join a religious community as the founders of Servites did, we can always find ways to serve others in our everyday lives. Even when it's as simple as thanking the clerk checking out our groceries or holding open the door for someone with a package, we can always find a way to serve.
To my surprise, I discovered The Pope wrote a poem about my people, the Chaldeans:
Ur in the land of the Chaldeans
There was a time when people
continually wandered.
surrounded by herds, they went where abundance beckoned:
where the earth, like a fertile mother,
could feed the flocks,
where people pitched their tents and began to dwell.
Today, why do we seek out this place
in the land of Chaldeans,
which Abram, the son of Terach,
left behind with other nomads like himself?
Perhaps he asked: Why must I leave this place?
Why do I have to abandon Ur or the Chaldeas?
Is this what he was thinking?
Did he feel the sadness of the break?
Did he look back?
We do not know. All that we know is that he heard a Voice, which told him: GO!
Abram chose to follow the Voice.
The Voice said: You will be the father of many nations.
Your offspring will be numerous as the sand on the seashore.
How could the promise be fulfilled, thought Abram,
since nature has denied me the gift of fatherhood?
My wife, whom I have loved from the days of my youth, gave me no son. It pains us both.
But the Voice kept saying: You will become a father,
you will become the father of many nations.
Your offspring will be numerous as the sand of seashore.
of a sign on the wall of the children's home in Calcutta that reads:
Take time to think
Take time to pray
Take time to laugh
It is the source of power
It is the greatest power on Earth
It is the music of the soul
Take time to play
Take time to love and be loved
Take time to give
It is the secret perpetual youth
It is God's given privilage
It is too short a day to be selfish
Take time to read
Take time to be friendly
Take time to work
It is the fountain of wisdom
It is the road to happiness
It is the price of success
Take time to do charity
It is the key to heaven
