Remembering the People of Nepal . . .

 

A Prayer for Comfort, Safety, and Peace

Loving and merciful God,
We lift up the people of Nepal in this hour of deep sorrow, uncertainty, and hardship.

• Comfort the families who are grieving loved ones lost to the sudden flash floods and recent unrest.
• Protect those who remain in danger, and grant safety to communities displaced or frightened by chaos.
• Strengthen first responders, rescue workers, and medical personnel as they search for the missing and care for the injured in difficult terrain.
• Guide the nation’s leaders and youth with wisdom, courage, and a shared commitment to peace and healing.

Bring restoration, hope, and steady reassurance to the entire nation of Nepal.
Amen.

Rescuers carry a victim of flash flooding to safety along the Trishuli River in Nepal's Nuwakot district, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)(Niranjan Shrestha | AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

The Right Key . . .

Helen Keller with Anne Sullivan in July 1888

Dr.  Frank Mayfield was touring Tewksbury Institute when he collided with an elderly floor maid.  To cover the awkward moment he asked, "How long have you worked here?" "Almost since the place opened," the maid replied.  "What can you tell me about this place?" he asked.  "I’ll show you." She led him to the basement.  She pointed to small prison cells, their bars rusted with age.  She said, "That's where they kept Annie." "Who's Annie?" he asked.  "A young girl brought here because she was incorrigible.  Nobody could do anything with her.  She'd bite and scream and throw her food at people.  The doctors and nurses couldn't get near her.  I'd see them trying, with her spitting and scratching.  I was only a few years younger, and I used to think, 'I sure would hate to be locked up in a cage.' I wanted to help her, but if the doctors and nurses couldn't help her, what could someone like me do?  so I baked her brownies.  I walked carefully to her cage and said, 'Annie I baked brownies just for you.’  I'll put them down and then I got out of there as fast as I could.  I was afraid she might throw them at me.  But she took the brownies and ate them.  After that, she was nice to me.  Sometimes I'd talk to her.  Once, I got her laughing.  A nurse noticed and told the doctor.  They asked me if I'd help them with Annie.  I said I’d try.  So every time they wanted to see or examine her, I went into the cage and calmed her down and held her hand.  They discovered Annie was almost blind. After they worked with her a year, Perkins Institute for the Blind opened.  They helped her and she went on to study and become a teacher. 

 

Years later Annie came back to the Tewksbury to visit and asked what she might do to help.  The Director had just received a letter from a man about his daughter.  She was unruly, blind and deaf, deranged and animalistic … but He didn't want to put her in an asylum.  So he wrote to ask if we knew a teacher who would work with his daughter." That is how Annie Sullivan became the lifelong companion of Helen Keller.  Years later, when Keller received the Nobel Prize, she was asked who had the greatest impact on her life.  She said, "Annie Sullivan." But Annie said, "No Helen.  The woman with the greatest influence on both our lives was a floor maid at the Tewksbury Institute.”

 

A scrub maid, who chose to use her power of the keys

          An almost blind incorrigible

          Who chose to use her power of the keys

          And for all that unlocking

                    A world was enriched, a Nobel laureate emerged

                    And a story of dyadic love again finds incarnation.

 

---

A Song of Fall . . .

 

Fall Song

Another year gone, leaving everywhere
its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves,
the uneaten fruits crumbling damply
in the shadows, unmattering back
from the particular island
of this summer, this NOW, that now is nowhere
except underfoot, moldering
in that black subterranean castle
of unobservable mysteries – - -roots and sealed seeds
and the wanderings of water. This
I try to remember when time’s measure
painfully chafes, for instance when autumn
flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing
to stay – - – how everything lives, shifting
from one bright vision to another, forever
in these momentary pastures.
-Mary Oliver

 

Lectio Divina of Earth

 

How surely gravity’s law, strong as an ocean current, takes hold of even the strongest thing and pulls it toward the heart of the world.

Each thing – each stone, blossom, child – is held in place. Only we, in our arrogance, push out beyond what we belong to for some empty freedom.

If we surrendered to earth’s intelligence we could rise up rooted, like trees.

Instead we entangle ourselves in knots of our own making and struggle, lonely and confused.

So, like children, we begin again to learn from the things, because they are in God’s heart, they have never left God.

This is what the things can teach us; to fall, patiently to trust our heaviness.

Even a bird has to do that before she can fly.

                                                                                      

   --Rainer Maria Rilke

 

For Pondering:

• Where and when do you experience yourself rooted in the Earth?
• Where in your life do you sense that you are in need of grounding?
• How in your life do you honor the changes, movements, and subtle shifts of the seasons?
• What have you learned from your experiences in life that are in “God’s heart”?
• Have you ever had to learn from “falling” and trust in your own “heaviness” of life’s challenges and gifts?  

      Photos courtesy of S. Doris Klein, CSA

The Face of Magnanimity . . .

 

A Glass of Milk . . . 

Paid in Full  

 

One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school, found he had only one thin dime left, and he was hungry. He decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door.

Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry so brought him a large glass of milk.

He drank it slowly, and then asked, “How much do I owe you?”

“You don’t owe me anything,” she replied. “Mother has taught us never to accept pay for a kindness.”

He said, “Then I thank you from my heart.”

As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but his faith in God and humankind was strong also. He had been ready to give up and quit.

Years later that young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease.

Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Immediately he rose and went down the hall of the hospital to her room.

Dressed in his doctor’s gown he went in to see her. He recognized her at once. He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. From that day he gave special attention to the case.

After a long struggle, the battle was won. Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, and then wrote something on the edge and the bill was sent to her room.

She feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally she looked, and something caught her attention on the side of the bill. She began to read the following words:

“Paid in full with one glass of milk.

Signed, Dr. Howard Kelly.”

Author Unknown

The Practice of Being:

 

            Artist: Johannes Vermeer: Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

The Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time 2026 

August 30, 2026

www.johnpredmoresj.com | predmore.blogspot.com

Jeremiah 20:1-9; Psalm 63; Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 16:21-27

 

 

These are difficult words by Jesus for us to hear and to understand. Peter took exception to them when he tried to protect Jesus, so it is natural for us to resist what these words mean. The Cross means pain, suffering, and death before it can lead to glory. We naturally avoid pain and conflict, even minor engagements because it disrupts the peace and comfort that we rely upon. The Cross shakes the foundation of the world, and we must be ready for momentous change.

 

We are given crosses individually and we are asked to engage them and to follow Jesus. We therefore pray for courage because these are painful situations. We are asked to follow Jesus and adopt his way of life. Notice that Jesus does not ask us to adore him or to honor him or to worship him. He asks us to follow him and to worship God, the Father, the Parent, the Creator. Jesus calls us into friendship and into a community of believers who are striving to live in right relationship with neighbor.

 

What does it mean to be with Jesus? The focus shifts from what you do for him to getting to know the person himself. It is about developing a deeper relationship, increasing intimacy, and learning to be attentively present. This is what we want to happen in prayer. So, doing devotions is much less important that having a dialogue in prayer with Jesus. He does not really focus much on devotions. He wants you to come sit with him and come to know him. Think more about abiding presence that you can do in your backyard, on your patio, walking along the seashore, or your favorite place of relaxation. Give yourself over to those places and events where Jesus is present to you. 

 

It may be time to think about Jesus as an interested friend who wants to know something about your life. We therefore share our honest emotions, thoughts, and desires with him. It means that we approach God less as a master to obey and more like someone who wants to know the nuances of your daily life. Jesus wants to be immersed in your world. Sometimes, you do not even have to talk. You can sit there and waste time with one another. You simply want to be with the One who wants to be with you. 

 

By simply relaxing in the presence of Jesus, we develop an awareness of how the Holy Spirit is guiding us through everyday moments, like invitations, prompts, musings, and it can be at work, through conversations, through the words of another person, as well as quiet times. The Spirit wants to show us how distinctly and uniquely Jesus relates to us. We know the Spirit is present when we begin to have a metanoia, a time when our attitudes are transformed, when a word is softened, when our consciousness is expanded. The Spirit works from the inside out and we can notice remarkable changes over time. The power of being with, of listening, of simply attending is the future of the church, the future of our lives. Being with allows us to receive the wisdom of God with grace. 

 

In heaven, in God’s reign, there are no problems to fix. We simply learn to be with each other. On earth, we have to practice being with each other. What if we lived today as if we are already in God’s presence? 

 

A soothing for your spirit . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjOioWTVAl4