Fr. Michael Sliney, LC
“Bend the branch while it is young.” Amish proverb
When I was in 2nd grade, my dad bought a small Birch tree that was badly bent. I helped him tie a rope to it and attach it to a stake in the ground. Each year, he would move the stake to make it bend a little more and eventually, it became a straight tree…a symbol of what he did with me in my childhood formation days!
“From the death of each day’s hope another hope sprung up to live tomorrow.” Charles Dickens
“Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.” St. Teresa of Avila
Let’s take advantage of this home-bound and summer period to crush our self-absorption and truly focus on creative acts of kindness with those whom we live!
Every flower must grow through dirt.
—Proverb The beautification of our souls depend on the amount of purification that we lovingly embrace in our lives…
“Do you really believe what you are proclaiming? Do you live what you believe? Do you really preach what you live? The witness of life has become more than ever an essential condition for real effectiveness in preaching.” Pope St. Paul VI
St. John Paul II walked the walk and his fire and love for Christ came out in his preaching and in his daily life…he was first a witness, then a Saint!
“It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.” St. Mother Teresa
“It is because I think so much of warm and sensitive hearts, that I would spare them from being wounded.” Charles Dickens
“A silent look of affection and regard when all other eyes are turned coldly away—the consciousness that we possess the sympathy and affection of one being when all others have deserted us—is a hold, a stay, a comfort, in the deepest affliction, which no wealth could purchase, or power bestow.” Charles Dickens
—Bill Parcells, Head Coach, New York Giants (1983-90), New England Patriots (1993-96)
—Bum Phillips Head Coach, Houston Oilers (1975-80), New Orleans Saints (1981-85)
