This morning I picked up and dropped off food donations. When I got home, I was happily surprised to see a few of our friends on our front porch.
One of them, who I'll call "Betty" here, asked me for a pen and paper so she could exchange contact information with someone I'll call "Jane" here. Someone I'll call "Christy" asked me for a bag so she could more easily carry the items she had just gotten for free that had been left on our front porch.
When I had gotten what they had requested, I came back out onto the porch to give them the seemingly insignificant items they wanted. First I gave a pen to Betty, along with a little pad ornately decorated with colorful flowers and sparkling designs, and told her she could keep it. Then I said to Christy something like, "And much less impressively, here is this bag."
Immediately Jane got up and came over to me. She embraced me. Right away I could tell she needed comfort. I rested my head against hers and really tried to soothe her with calm and peace as we hugged.
Before today I had already known that Jane was homeless. However, after I saw Jane today, someone told me that all of her possessions had just been stolen. She had nothing. In the context of being bereft of all she had had, she was in dire need of tenderness and kindness. She just needed someone to do merely what they were capable of doing, showing her love.
We do these things in life we don't even consider. We do little things we forget. We don't even think about them, so we wouldn't even think that they matter even if we did think about them.
Yet tiny little moments can be windows of opportunity for great love to be shown through us. If we open ourselves up to what is happening right in front of us, we can let God love others through us.
In each tiny fragment of time, we can be present to our neighbor to perform little acts of love for each other. In this vein, I have been wondering if anyone has ever written about the convergence and intersection of thought amongst "The Story of a Soul" by The Little Flower, that is Saint Therese of Lisieux, and "The Sacrament of the Present Moment" by Jean-Pierre de Caussade, and "The Cloud of Unknowing" by an anonymous medieval author.
The anonymous author of "The Cloud of Unknowing" wrote of how we are responsible for even fractions of seconds. Thus, even an instant, although it is so brief, holds much significance, since it holds the potential for great love to be expressed in it.
Saint Therese of Lisieux wrote of how she would get to Heaven along her little way of serving her neighbor through little loving actions. She saw her vocation as being one of love expressed in small gestures of love for others.
The Jesuit priest Jean-Pierre de Caussade, in his book "The Sacrament of the Present Moment," explains that we find our duty to God in the present moment. He explained that we serve God when we embrace what the present moment requires of us.
If we are attentive to what the current moment presents to us, then in every microscopic moment, we can realize immense potential to love through seemingly insignificant little acts of charity towards others. Jesus told us that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we could move mountains.* If love that is the size of a mustard seed is in our hearts, we can move mountains with this little love. The mustard seed of our little loving act may bear much fruit in the heart of the person who receives the love of God that is being shown through us. If we embrace the duty currently being presented to us, if we agree to love our neighbor** in little ways, even in fleeting instants, we can be witness to much love blooming in the hearts of others.
Each of our little loving acts can be little flowers. And from one little action of love, much love can be sown in the heart of another, just as from one little flower, much pollen can spread and germinate and bear much fruit.
We can become convinced that some actions are insignificant. How do we know this to be so? We can assume some acts have no important impact. How can we be sure this is so?
Do we think that what we do makes no difference? Maybe we think it makes no difference to us, but maybe it makes a big difference to someone else.
* Matthew 17:20; Mark 11:23
** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14
One of them, who I'll call "Betty" here, asked me for a pen and paper so she could exchange contact information with someone I'll call "Jane" here. Someone I'll call "Christy" asked me for a bag so she could more easily carry the items she had just gotten for free that had been left on our front porch.
When I had gotten what they had requested, I came back out onto the porch to give them the seemingly insignificant items they wanted. First I gave a pen to Betty, along with a little pad ornately decorated with colorful flowers and sparkling designs, and told her she could keep it. Then I said to Christy something like, "And much less impressively, here is this bag."
Immediately Jane got up and came over to me. She embraced me. Right away I could tell she needed comfort. I rested my head against hers and really tried to soothe her with calm and peace as we hugged.
Before today I had already known that Jane was homeless. However, after I saw Jane today, someone told me that all of her possessions had just been stolen. She had nothing. In the context of being bereft of all she had had, she was in dire need of tenderness and kindness. She just needed someone to do merely what they were capable of doing, showing her love.
We do these things in life we don't even consider. We do little things we forget. We don't even think about them, so we wouldn't even think that they matter even if we did think about them.
Yet tiny little moments can be windows of opportunity for great love to be shown through us. If we open ourselves up to what is happening right in front of us, we can let God love others through us.
In each tiny fragment of time, we can be present to our neighbor to perform little acts of love for each other. In this vein, I have been wondering if anyone has ever written about the convergence and intersection of thought amongst "The Story of a Soul" by The Little Flower, that is Saint Therese of Lisieux, and "The Sacrament of the Present Moment" by Jean-Pierre de Caussade, and "The Cloud of Unknowing" by an anonymous medieval author.
The anonymous author of "The Cloud of Unknowing" wrote of how we are responsible for even fractions of seconds. Thus, even an instant, although it is so brief, holds much significance, since it holds the potential for great love to be expressed in it.
Saint Therese of Lisieux wrote of how she would get to Heaven along her little way of serving her neighbor through little loving actions. She saw her vocation as being one of love expressed in small gestures of love for others.
The Jesuit priest Jean-Pierre de Caussade, in his book "The Sacrament of the Present Moment," explains that we find our duty to God in the present moment. He explained that we serve God when we embrace what the present moment requires of us.
If we are attentive to what the current moment presents to us, then in every microscopic moment, we can realize immense potential to love through seemingly insignificant little acts of charity towards others. Jesus told us that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we could move mountains.* If love that is the size of a mustard seed is in our hearts, we can move mountains with this little love. The mustard seed of our little loving act may bear much fruit in the heart of the person who receives the love of God that is being shown through us. If we embrace the duty currently being presented to us, if we agree to love our neighbor** in little ways, even in fleeting instants, we can be witness to much love blooming in the hearts of others.
Each of our little loving acts can be little flowers. And from one little action of love, much love can be sown in the heart of another, just as from one little flower, much pollen can spread and germinate and bear much fruit.
We can become convinced that some actions are insignificant. How do we know this to be so? We can assume some acts have no important impact. How can we be sure this is so?
Do we think that what we do makes no difference? Maybe we think it makes no difference to us, but maybe it makes a big difference to someone else.
* Matthew 17:20; Mark 11:23
** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14
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