Dear Friend,

How would you like to spend 2 years making phone calls to people who aren't home? Sound absurd? According to one-time management study, that's how much time the average person spends trying to return calls to people who never seem to be in. Not only that, we spend 6 months waiting for the traffic light to turn green, and another 8 months reading junk mail.

Dear Friend,

Pope John Paul I states that a problem with educating young people in the church stems from a failure to understand how young people learn. He claimed that adults learn in the following pattern:

Dear Friend,

Let me offer a few thoughts from a bishop friend of mine in Ireland about how to cultivate a sense of humor:

1. Catch yourself in some amusing inconsistency and then laugh at yourself. This is the foundation of a healthy sense of humor.

Dear Friend,

The Gospel (Mk 6:30-34) tells us that the apostles gather around Jesus after returning from their mission. They tell Him what they have accomplished. He then says to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” (v. 31). However, the people understand where they are headed and, when they get off the boat, Jesus finds the crowd waiting for Him. He feels compassion for them, and He begins to teach (cf. v. 34).

Dear Friend,

In Jerusalem, there is a Holocaust Museum dedicated to the memory of the millions of Jews who were killed by the Nazis in World War II. Going through the museum is a very depressing experience because you see these horrible pictures and read the accounts of the ghettos and the concentration camps. But in the midst of all the dark tales of suffering, there is one amazing story of how God can transform horror into hope.

Dear Friend,

Sin demands to have a person be alone. It withdraws the individual from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him or her, and the more deeply the person becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is the isolation.

Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light. In the darkness of the unexpressed, it poisons the whole being of a person.

Dear Friend,

A man named Peter inherited a huge land grant, but the will provided that he could choose land in either Chile or Brazil. He chose Brazil. Unhappily, if he had chosen Chile, he would have received his inheritance in land on which they had recently discovered uranium, gold, and silver. But he chose Brazil.

Dear Friend,

Here is a little simple meditation. It is about "Taters".

Some people are very bossy and like to tell others what to do, but don’t want to soil their own hands. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians. They are called "Dick Taters".

Some people never seem motivated to participate, but are just content to watch while others do the work. They are called "Speck Taters".

Dear Friend,

Imagine, if you will, that you work for a company whose president found it necessary to travel out of the country and spend an extended period of time abroad.

Dear Friend,

A pastor in Dublin once formed a mutual encouragement group at a time of stress in his large urban parish.

The members subscribed to a simple formula applied before speaking of any person or subject that was perhaps controversial.

Dear Friend,

Of all the classical Spiritual Disciplines, Christian Stewardship of Time, Talent, and Treasure is the most conductive to the growth of humility.

When we set out on a consciously chosen course of action that accents the good of others and is for the most part a hidden work, a deep change occurs in our interior spirit.

Dear Friend,

In 1 Samuel 17, we have the thrilling story of David, the modest shepherd boy who slew Goliath, the arrogant giant of Gath. The drama of that event so occupies our attention that the spiritual lessons contained in the more minute details may escape our notice.

Dear Friend,

Let me offer you some thoughts about "Mountain-Moving Faith And Dedication."

A small Catholic parish in the foothills of the Great Smokies built a new church on a piece of land willed to them by a church member. Ten days before the new church was to open, the local building inspector informed the pastor that the parking lot was inadequate for the size of the building.