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If one has no plans on Christmas day, or if one may like to try something different this year, instead of just thinking about one's own life and one's own enjoyment of this day, to turn one's thoughts to the needs of others.........
In going to help the needy on Christmas day, some thoughts from St. Paul in Scripture and from the life of St. Francis may be of benefit to ponder for a few minutes:
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St. Paul in the Book of Acts, on his way to Jerusalem
St. Paul bids a sorrowful farewell to the Ephesians, Acts xx. 35:
"I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring you ought to support the weak, and to remember the word of the Lord Jesus, how he said: It is a more blessed thing to give, rather than to receive."
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La Vida de San Francisco de Assis
St. Francis of Assisi:
“All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.”
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“A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows.”
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“Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.”
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“While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.”
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“I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, He can work through anyone.”
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A Meditation for Christmas:
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“Every day He humbles Himself just as He did when from from His heavenly throne into the Virgin's womb; every day He comes to us and lets us see Him in lowliness, when He descends from the bosom of the Father into the hands of the priest at the altar.”
And St. Francis added: “My dear and beloved Brother, the treasure of blessed poverty is so very precious and divine that we are not worthy to possess it in our vile bodies. For poverty is that heavenly virtue by which all earthy and transitory things are trodden under foot, and by which every obstacle is removed from the soul so that it may freely enter into union with the eternal Lord God. It is also the virtue which makes the soul, while still here on earth, converse with the angels in Heaven. It is she who accompanied Christ on the Cross, was buried with Christ in the Tomb, and with Christ was raised and ascended into Heaven, for even in this life she gives to souls who love her the ability to fly to Heaven, and she alone guards the armor of true humility and charity.”
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“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where these is hatred, let me sow love.”
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“Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received ― only what you have given.”
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“Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
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“The deeds you do may be the only sermon some persons will hear today.”
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“We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way.”
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“Blessed is the servant who loves his brother as much when he is sick and useless as when he is well and can be of service to him. And blessed is he who loves his brother as well when he is afar off as when he is by his side, and who would say nothing behind his back he might not, in love, say before his face.”
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“O Divine Master, grant that I may not seek to be consoled, as to console. To be understood, as to understand. To be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned. It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”
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“We should seek not so much to pray but to become prayer.”
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