WHAT LOVE DOES

Dear Friends,
 I am sure you all know what LOVE does for each one of us. But here I am gonna share what Fr Rex Pie shared or told us about what LOVE does for us in our Annual Retreat in the year 2009 dated 1st Sept. to 7th Sept. I am sure you will agree with me regarding what I am gonna share with you. If not try to analyse it for yourself.

WHAT LOVE  DOES

Love Accepts you wherever you are.

- Affirms your goodness and giftedness.

- Cares about you, wants to know that you are okay.

- Challenges you to be all you can be.

- Encourages you to believe in yourself.

- Is Gentle in its ways of dealing with you.

- Keeps Confidence your secrets are safe.

- Is Kind and is always for you, on your side.

- Looks for Goodness in you and finds it.

- Makes you feel Glad that you are you.

- Overlooks your Foolish vanities, human weakness. 

- Prays for your needs and your growth.

- Sees good things in you the others had never noticed.

- Shares itself with you, by self-disclosure.

- Speaks up when you need someone to defend you.

- Is Tactful even when confronting you.

- Takes Responsibility for its own behavior. 

- Tells you the truth always and honestly.

- Thinks about you and your needs.

- Is Tough or Tender depending on your needs.

- Understands yours ups and downs and allows you to face bad days.

OBEDIENCE

OBEDIENCE

1. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. In other words, true obedience spring from love, not from force.

2. The worst man in the world knows a great deal more of his duty than the best man does. It is not for want of knowledge that men go to pieces, but rather for want of obedience to the knowledge of the good they already posses.

3. He will be a poor general who has never been a lieutenant in the ranks.

4. Obedience is the pathway to freedom.

5. A horse must be broken in while he is a clot; a dog must be trained when he is young. So it is with youth. He who has never learned to submit will make himself a tyrant when he obtains power. A silver spoon has choked many a youth. - Lamentations

6. The respect one has for the rule flows naturally form the respect that one has for person who gave it. -St Augustine

7. Authority must always have behind it some value which elicits respect and reverence.

8. The real basis of obedience in the family, therefore is not the fear of punishment, just as in religion it is not the fear of hell. Rather it is based on the fact that one never wants to hurt anyone whom one loves.

9 You who are children must show obedience in the Lord to your parents; it is your duty. -St Paul to Ephesians

10. A man who has never obeyed is not the man who will know how to command. 

TOO PROUD TO ASK FOR HELP

TOO PROUD TO ASK FOR HELP

Roland the minister of Charlemagne, was in charge of the rearguard of the army when he was suddenly attacked by the Saracens. The battle raged fiercely against terrible odds. Now Roland had a horn called Olivant, which he had taken from the giant Jatmund, and its blast could be heard thirty miles away. So mighty was it that, so they said, the birds fell died when its blast rent the air.

Oliver, his friend besought Roland to blow the horn so that Charlemagne would hear and come back to help. But Roland was too proud to ask for help. One by one his men fell fighting until only he was left. Then at last, with his dying breath, he blew the horn, and Charlemagne came rushing back...but it was too late. Roland was dead... because he was too proud to ask for help. 

-William Barclay

Tonic for the Heart 1000 bottles Vol. 1

Frank Mihalic, SVD

Dear friends, pride is there in all and it is part and parcel of human nature. But are we too proud like Roland who did not want to blow the horn to ask for help. His pride was too much and that lead him to his death. Are we proud like him? We need to think about it. I am sure at times we do behave like Roland thinking I am all powerful, I know everything. Often we do not like to ask help and guidance in our day to day task. We feel that I am ok and  not in need of help and advice. 

Even when crisis creeps into our life we tend to sort it out ourselves and do not ask for help though very much needed. Like during exams we feel to proud to ask or clarify with our companions that matter we are not sure of. We feel and look down on our companions and see ourselves intelligent and we can handle it. But this attitude is not good and will not lead us too far. 

Pride is a vice and it will gradually kill us and brings our downfall. Asking help and guidance is not an attitude of a weak person, but rather of a person who is willing to learn form others. Had Roland acted upon the advice or suggestion given by his friend Oliver his many companions would have been saved and his life too .

So dear friends let our pride not be the reason for our ruin and death of humility, obedience, and sincerity. Let us seek help from our companions, superiors, and juniors and grow in our life. Let us not be too proud that we fail to ask help when we need most. Let us humble ourselves and ask for help and advice. 

QUOTES

1. Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at something worth doing. - Theodore Roosevelt

2. Everyone has a will to win but very few have the will to prepare to win. - Vince Lombardi

3. The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be OUR doubts of today. - Franklin D. Roosevelt

4. While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior. 

- Henry C. Link

5. You have a choice in life. You can either pay the price of discipline or regret. - Tim Connor

6. Great minds have purposes, other have wishes. 

-Washington Irving

7. Good things come to those who wait but only those things left by those who hustle. -Abraham Lincoln

8. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook which eventually leads to success. -Brain Adams

9. Work as though you may live for ever, and live as though you may die today. -St. Edmund of Canterbury

10. Reading gives us some place to go when we have to stay where we are. - Mason Cooley

SMILES

SMILES

A smile costs nothing but gives much. It enriches those who receive, without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that s/he can get along without it and none is so poor that s/he cannot be made rich by it. 

A smile creates happiness in the home, fosters good will in business and is the counter sign of friendship. It brings rest to the weary, cheer to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and it is nature's best antidote for trouble.

Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen; for it is something that is of no value to anyone unless it is given away from within. 

Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has none to give. 

-Frederick William Faber

Tonic for the heart in 1000 bottles

Vol. 1 -Frank Mihalic, SVD

Dear friends have ever come across a person who did not smile at you when you gave a beautiful smile of yours? Just recollect your experiences in a mall, market, grocery or other places whom did you approach, was it a person with a smile who welcomed you are a person with a angry face? I am sure you went to the person who had a smile on his or her face. The latest trend in the business field is that they train sales girls and boys to attract customers with their smiles. So smile plays a great role in business life. So does it in one's life. A child, youth, old aged person loves to approach a person who gives a smile and is cheerful. You might have noticed in your communities, parish, offices that many do not approach a person with gloomy and angry face. 

So let's not be a person of that sort. Let's give a smile to all we meet because our smile can bring life and hope in other person's life. Remember a smile brings back a smile to you. It reflects back the same effect you cause to a person when you give it to him or her. So let's spread joy and peace with our smiles. 

- Smile and you will get dimples otherwise you will get wrinkles.

QUOTES

QUOTES

1. What a man thinks of himself: that is what determines, or rather indicates his fate.

-Henry David Thoreau

2. Associate yourself with people of good quality if you esteem your reputation, for it is better to be alone than to be in bad company. 

-George Washington

3. It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself. 

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

4. Egotism is the anesthetic that deadens that pain of stupidity. 

-Knute Rockne

5. Jealousy is ...a tiger that tears not only its prey but also its own raging heart. 

-Michael Beer

6. He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run..

-Nietzsche

7. Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and wrong. Because some time in our lives we would have been all of these ourselves. 

-Lloyd Shearer, 1986

8. Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength. 

-Eric Hoffer

9. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit. 

-Aristotle

10. Our thoughts lead to actions, actions lead to habits, and habits form character. 

QUOTES

Sea of Galilee and Dead Sea

Sea of Galilee and Dead Sea

I am sure you might have heard the old comparison between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Anyway both the seas have the same source that is River Jordan. 

Galilee is a lake full of life and people around are happy and lots of vegetation is found along the bank of Sea Galilee. It is because it takes in water but also gives it out. 
In contrast nothing lives in the Dead Sea, because with no outflow, the sea remains stagnated. It only receives and does not give out.

Dear friends which sea would like to become? Do you want to be the Sea of Galilee, who not only receives but is willing to share one's talents and resources with others. Remember happiness consists in giving than in receiving. Or do you want be a Dead Sea who only receives and is unwilling to share one's time, thoughts and ideas with others. If so you will be stagnated.


Now let's try to analyze our own lives and see which sea do I represent. Am I Sea of Galilee or Dead Sea? If Dead Sea let's start sharing our talents and time with others.


I am sure you might have come across people who represents either of the Seas in your community, class, offices, schools, clubs and other areas. Whom did you liked most and with whom did you mingled around? I am sure you liked the person who was always ready to give a helping hand and whose presence brought joy, laughter and smiles on the faces of many. 


Even Jesus represents the Sea of Galilee. He was always bringing joy and peace among the people. He gave Himself totally and served  people till His death. He told that He came not to be served but to serve. So which Sea do  you like to be? If Sea of Galilee start sharing your time, resources, ideas and joy with people around you. Give out to others what you have and outflow rather than remaining stagnated and lifeless.


-Let us serve the Lord in gladness.
-It is giving that I receive. 

THE GECKO

THE GECKO 

(You yourself are the problem)

A student with great interest in an enthusiasm for the Third World came to India and soon suffered a cultural shock. Suddenly everything annoyed him: the climate, the food, the living conditions, the strange mysterious faces around him. But what really made him lose his temper was actually a trifle. They assigned a room to him and moving in, he examined every nook and cranny, only to find to his disgust that he was sharing it with a thick, fat ugly lizard.

He became aggressive, "I refuse to live with that creature." So he tried to catch the intruder in a half a dozen ways, but to no avail. Finally, the lizard hid behind a cupboard. The guest was too proud to ask someone's help. But then in the middle of all this senseless commotion, he suddenly got the bright idea of making friends with the lizard. It was not easy at first.

But now the first thing he does when he enters his room, is too look for his lizard. Soon he even gave him a name. In a short time it  became almost a conversation partner. And he also began to note the good qualities that the lizard had. For one thing it controlled the mosquitoes population in the room.

After a while, this enthusiast began to realise that his problem did not come form his environment but form within himself. 

-Willi Hoffsuemmer

Tonic for the Heart in 1000 bottles 

Vol. 1 

Frank Mihalic, SVD

Dear friends the above story can be an eye-opener to many of us. I am sure many of us do behave like the man who forget to see the problem within himself but blamed the environment. This story can be very well applicable to our community life, our class, offices, schools and colleges. We may want to have the ambient which is of our like and when it is not so we try to find problem with the environment and others.

We begin to find differences with other people and try to avoid them. Like the man in the story we try to get rid of the lizards from our groups and communities who does not fit into our ideas and ideals. Then those people try to hid form us and feel uncomfortable with us. At times we are to proud to introspect ourselves and we demean others. 

But there is another point to be noticed. The person in the story tried to relate with the lizard gradually and became so intimate that he began to learn the good qualities of that lizard. He appreciated the good thing it was doing. Now is the point we need to reflect on. Have we ever tried out to get acquainted with those person's whom we have seen as a lizard or have we ever tried to get accommodated with the new environment? I am sure there are many such lizards of whom we are not aware of. We are not aware of their talents and qualities that they posses. In fact the problem in not able to relate and get along with some of those lizards in our community and other place is not the problem of theirs but the problem is within us our attitude, pride, and ego. 

So dear friends let's get rid of the problems that is within us and let's  appreciate and relate with all in an equal way.Let out inner problem not be a tool of problem in our communities, offices and working places. So let us be aware of the Gecko and appreciate where ever we are and with whom we live with, because we learn many things form them. Let's learn that we ourselves are the problem.

MAKING PEOPLE PRAY

MAKING PEOPLE PRAY

A bus driver and a priest died at the same time. Although the driver was sent directly to heaven, the priest's case was apparently harder to decide. 

"I don't mind that you sent a bus driver to heaven," the priest was heard complaining. "But after all, I was a priest. So why should I be kept waiting?"

He was answered thus from on high, "Father, when you were preaching, everyone was falling asleep. But when the bus driver was driving, everyone was praying."

Saturday Evening Post 

Tonic for the Heart in 1000 bottles Vol. 1

Frank Mihalic, SVD

Dear friends the above story make look funny but there is a point to be pondered upon. As Christians we are supposed to be people of prayer, enabling others to pray well through our life style.  

I am sure many of us are preparing for priesthood and religious life. 

So let's ask ourselves, "Will I be helping people to pray or will I not? What ways will I use to help them pray? Will the congregation pray and listen to God's word when I will be preach to them?"

QUOTES

QUOTES

1. Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it as someone else; you are the one who gets burned. -THE BUDDHA


2. Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere. -CHINESE PROVERB


3. Every day may not be good but there's something good in every day.


4. To love with the purpose of being loved is human, but to love with the purpose of loving is worthy of the angles. -ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE


5. Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret. - AMBROSE BIERCE


6. Do not desire to be other than you are but desire to be very well what you are. -ST. FRANCIS DE SALES


7. When you meet someone you judge them by their clothes; when you leave them you judge them by their hearts. -RUSSIAN PROVERB


8.We come to love not by finding a perfect person but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly. 
  -SAM KEEN (To Love and Be Loved)


9. I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot d everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. -EDWARD EVERETT HALE


10. It's never too late, in fiction or in life, to revise. -NANCY THAYER, MORNING(Scribner)

QUOTES

QUOTES

THE UNWILLING GUITAR

THE UNWILLING GUITAR

When I was doing my novitiate this particular story was told in the goodnight about a Guitar who was unwilling to be tuned and polished. As I was learning guitar I was taken up by this story and it has a huge impact in my life.  So I would like to share it with you because we are in one way or the other in a formation whether as a religious or as a lay people. So here I begin... 


Once upon a time there were 5 new brand Guitars. They were well tuned and were of the top brand. Their cost was high and were beautiful in their appearances. They were bought and taken by the popular band and they did sound great whenever they were being played. Everyday the guitarist cleaned, polished and tuned them before the practice or before the performance. This tuning was done daily and the guitars found it really difficult to bear it up. Anyway they had to allow the guitarist to do so in order to sound well and to be famous among the audience. 

But as the days passed by one of the guitars did not like the guitarist much due to the tuning process. It was very painful and tough for it to bear. It's whole body was being rubbed and polished. So this guitar decided to escape from this tuning business. So one day as the great occasion  came for the guitarist to perform in front of the huge crowd this guitar decided to hid itself before the tuning session began. 


As usual the guitarist came to tune the guitars but to his astonishment he could not find one of the guitars.He frantically searched for it but  could not find it. Anyway he tuned the four guitars and went. No sooner the guitarist left the place the hidden guitar came out of it's hiding place and jumped around merrily and began to mock the other guitars telling and showing their expressions when they were tuned. Anyway it was very happy. But when the time came for the performance the guitarist came and picked up the guitars and strummed it, all sounded great except the one which hid itself from the tuning session. So the guitarist left that guitar in the corner of the room and walked away with the other four. They sounded great and all people applauded for them. Again and again those four guitars were strummed and people asked for one more. When the performance was over these four guitars came back to the room with joy and happiness. They were appreciating each other for their show, whereas the left out guitar was feeling miserable. He had nothing to say except to regret his mistake of not allowing itself to be tuned though it was painful and tough. 

Dear friends this story seems simple and funny but it has got a great lesson. As humans no one likes to be corrected and no one likes to go through a difficult and painful process. Even I do not like to be corrected every now and then and so are you. But the lesson we get from the above story is that one has to humble oneself in order to learn something. There is joy after every birth pang. There is success after every failure, and every bitter and painful experience carries a lesson that we need to learn.


So let's ask ourselves today, do we behave like that guitar who was unwilling to be tuned? Do we escape the painful and tough experiences in our life? If so, we will also be left like that guitar in that miserable condition. 


Let's be open to the corrections and piece of advice that we get form our Superiors, parents, friends and juniors.Remember friends, in order to have a beautiful rose blooming in your garden we need to prune it and  if we want to get good harvest we need to prune and cut the unnecessary elements form the plant, then only we will get good harvest. So it is in our lives we need to be pruned and corrected so that we may also bear good and abundance food. 


-He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 
(Jn 15:2)

PROVERBS

PROVERBS

1. Four things on earth are small, 

yet they are exceedingly wise;

the ANTS are a people without strength,

yet they provide their food in the summer; 

the BADGERS are a people without power,

yet they make their homes in rocks;

the LOCUST have no king, 

yet all of them march in rank;

the LIZARD can be grasped in the hand,

yet it is found in kings' places.  (30:24-28)

2. If you have been foolish, 

exalting yourself, or if you have been devising evil, 

put your hand on your mouth.

For as pressing milk produces curds,

and pressing the nose produces blood,

so pressing anger produces strife. (30:32-33)

3. Give strong drink to one who is perishing, 

and wine to those in bitter distress;

let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.

Speak out for those who cannot speak, 

for the rights of all the destitute.

Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. (31:6-9)

4. Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,

but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

Give her a share in the fruit of her hands, 

and let her works praise her in the city gates. (31:30-31)

5. If your enemies are hungry, give them bread to eat, 

and if they are thirsty, give them water to drink;

for you will heap coals of fire on their heads

and the Lord will reward you. (25:21-22)

6. With patience a ruler may be persuaded, 

and a soft tongue can break bones. 

If you have found honey, eat only enough for you,

or else, having too much, you will vomit it. (25:15-16)

7. Under three things the earth trembles; 

under four it cannot bear up:

a SLAVE when he becomes king

and a FOOL when glutted with food; 

an UNLOVED woman when she gets a husband, 

and a MAID when she succeeds her mistress. (30:21-23)

How to make the best use of TIME?

How to make the best use of TIME?



Take time to think, it is the source of power.

Take time to work, it is the price of success.

Take time to play, it is the secret of being ever young.

Take time to read, it is the foundation of knowledge.

Take time to be freindly, it is the road to happiness.

Take time to love and be loved, it is the privilege of God.

Take time to laugh, it is the music of the sour.

Take time to pray, it helps to live in Christ and be led by His spirit.

Dear freinds, let's just reflect and see if we are taking time to do the above things. I am sure we hardly give time for such kind of deeds or actions. But Christ was always there giving time for all. He took time to be with His Father in His prayer. He took time to be freindly even to the sinners, He gave time to love and to laugh with the ordinary people of His time. So as leaders and would be leaders in any field we need to take time for such things and must make best use of the time given to us. remember time and tide waits for none.

Example Teaches, Not Books

Example Teaches, Not Books

The authorities is a part of China decided to introduce football as one of their sports. So they bought rule books, drilled the teachers in them, and told them to go out and teach the subject.

The boys memorized the rules, the teachers gave lectures and even drew diagrams on the blackboard. Then there were written tests and almost everyone failed. They were discouraged. 

Then a young sports man form Europe visited the place immediately made out why their efforts had been in vain.

"Good heavens," the visitor exclaimed, "you'll never learn to play football form books. You've got to learn by playing..."

So he bought a football, took the boys out onto the field and within a couple of hours taught them more than they had learned in the last six weeks from books."

Msgr. Arthur Tonne

Tonic for the Heart in 1000 bottles Vol. 1

-Frank Michalic , SVD

Dear friends, at times we do act like the Chinese authorities who tried to teach football only by following the rules and books. We try to go by the rules but it is not only through books and rules we learn things but through our daily experiences. I remember as a child I  learnt to keep away from the fire after having touched it. I am sure you too learned the same way.

We at times are so worried about the rules and regulations that we forget to perceive that our examples are the best method of teaching our students as well as our companions. This is the basic point Msgr. Arthur Tonne is giving us in his story "Example teaches, not books."

Even Jesus Christ taught His disciples more by His examples than by  teaching through the Torah. So friends lets try to teaches others through our examples than through books. 

GOSSIPING

One day someone ran up to the wise man Socrates and whispered, "Socrates, listen to this bit of gossip about your friend."

"Wait!" quickly answered Socrates. "Have you first passed it through the three sieves?" 

"What three sieves?"

"Yes,, my friend, three sieves. Now let's see whether what you want to tell me passed through them. The first is truth. Are you sure that what you are going to say is the truth?"

"Well," stuttered the man, "actually I heard the story secondhand."

"Hmmm,"answered the wise man. "Well, let's go on and see whether it can pass through the second sieve. Is what you are going to say, kind?"

"Not exactly," said the informer. "In fact it's the opposite."

"So that takes care of that. Now tell me:is it necessary?"

"Hardly."

"Well, if what you want to tell me is neither true nor kind nor necessary, skip it."

From Tonic for the Heart Vol 2

Dear friends, how do we act in our day to day life? Are we like Socrates or like the other person who is eager to gossip about others? This story gives us a good lesson, do we need to gossip or is it necessary to listen to others gossiping about their friends? 

I am sure all of us do enjoy and take part in gossiping about the third person but let's try to imitate Socrates and his theory of three sieves. Is the gossip true, kind and necessary? Let's try to remind ourselves next time someone who comes to gossip and when we gossip the three sieves of Socrates. Let's stop gossiping.

ECCLESIASTES

1.Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. (1:2)

2. Better is a handful with quite than two handfuls with toil, and a chasing after wind. (4:6)

3. Better is a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king, who will no longer take advice. (4:13)

4. A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death, than the day of birth. (7:1)

5. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. (7:4)

6.It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools. (7:5)

7.Do not be quick to anger for anger lodges in the bosom of fools. (7:9)

8.The heart of the wise inclines to the right but the heart of a fool to the left. (10:2)

9. Even when fools walk on the road, they lack sense, and show to everyone that they are fools. (10:3)

10. Banish anxiety form your mind and put away pain from your body: for youth and the dawn of life are vanity. (11:10)

FAILURES THAT MADE GOOD

FAILURES THAT MADE GOOD

Napoleon failed as an essay writer, Shakespeare as a wool merchant, Lincoln as a storekeeper, Grant as a tanner - but none of them gave up. They moved into other fields, tried other things for which they were better suited, with the results we all know. 

- Christopher Notes

Tonic for the Heart in 1000 bottles, Vol. 1

by Frank Mihalic, SVD

Dear friends how do we take our failures? Do we look for other things as the above mentioned persons did or do we just brood over our failures and give up hope and label ourselves 'failures'? We need to move on with failures as someone rightly said, "Failures are the pillars of life". It is through these experiences we learn in life. So let's ask ourselves when ever we fail to do something, 'What have I learned from this failure?'

CHANGED RESIDENCE

This story is told about a pastor of a small congregation. He kept a meticulous register of all his parishioners. So convinced was he of life after death, and of the promises of Jesus about eternal life, that whenever a parishioner died, he did not delete the name from the register. He simply wrote after the person’s name, “changed residence. Gone to live elsewhere!”

Those belonging to us who have died have not gone away. They have simply gone ahead.

There is the womb of life, and the fullness of life. It’s only when a person has reached that third state that s/he has become what s/he was created to be….