God in all things

A disciple and his teacher were walking through the forest. The disciple was disturbed by the fact that his mind was in constant unrest.

He asked his teacher: “Why most people’s minds are restless, and only a few possess a calm mind? What can one do to still the mind?”

The teacher looked at the disciple, smiled and said: “I will tell you a story. An elephant was standing and picking leaves from a tree. A small fly came, flying and buzzing near his ear. The elephant waved it away with his long ears. Then the fly came again, and the elephant waved it away once more”.

This was repeated several times. Then the elephant asked the fly: “Why are you so restless and noisy? Why can’t you stay for a while in one place?”

The fly answered: “I am attracted to whatever I see, hear or smell. My five senses pull me constantly in all directions and I cannot resist them. What is your secret? How can you stay so calm and still?”

The elephant stopped eating and said: “My five senses do not rule my attention. Whatever I do, I get immersed in it. Now that I am eating, I am completely immersed in eating. In this way I can enjoy my food and chew it better. I rule and control my attention, and not the other way around.”

Upon hearing these words, the disciple’s eyes opened wide and a smile appeared on his face. He looked at his teacher and said: “I understand! If my five senses are in control of my mind and attention, then my mind is in constant unrest. If I am in charge of my five senses and attention, then my mind becomes calm”.

“Yes, that’s right”, answered the teacher,” The mind is restless and goes wherever the attention is. Control your attention, and you control your mind.

God Bless You

Fr Eugene Lobo SJ

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My most touching Mother’s Day gift still graces my jewelry box forty years later. I keep it to remind me of all things love is and how much neglect it will endure. When my son gave it to me I was working full time, and “swimming hard” to keep up with church activities, school activities and sports, my civic interests, housework and family meals. “I am woman, hear me roar,” was more reality than a line from a song! I was over worked, over stretched, over stressed and just plain grouchy. It didn’t help that he was a handful to raise. He wasn’t mean or malicious, but he was active, bright and very curious. Trouble just seemed to find him and it seemed most of what came out of my mouth was fussing at him for having done or not done something. I hugged him often and I told him I loved him every day as he left for school, but those words were very few compared to the nagging and exasperated ones I uttered. My constant prayer was, “Lord, just get us through this day with a minimum of trouble and criticism.” I kept him on a very short leash because I never knew what he would think to do next.

One Saturday when he was nine, he wanted to go “garage sale-ing”. I took him to a couple but he insisted I wait in the car. It was hot and I had things to do. I soon informed him I didn’t have time for this nonsense, as he wasn’t buying anything. I kept asking him what he was looking for and he kept answering he couldn’t tell me. Because “I was the mama” and could, I refused to go to any other sales; he looked crestfallen but didn’t argue.

Later, I discovered he and his bike were gone. I was livid. When he came home, I sent him straight to his room for the evening not asking where he had gone or why. I just yelled at him to go to his room and stay there.

The next day was Mother’s Day. I am an early riser, 5 a.m. being my usual awaking time. He knew I would head for my rocking chair and my Bible. Lying on top of my Bible were two tops off milk jugs pushed together to form a round “box” of sorts with a ribbon wrapped around it. He had taken an ice pick (I had yelled him at earlier in the week when I found it in his room) and poked a design in one of the tops. Attached to the “box” was a handmade gift card that read is his childish scrawl, “These diamonds are for my mother.”

He had left the yard to continue his garage sale hunt for rhinestone jewelry, which he thought were diamonds. Having found an old pair of earrings that had some of the stones missing, he pried the stones out of the settings and into his homemade gift box.

Oh what a lesson on love - on loving the unlovable me! I didn’t get my Bible read that morning. I cried too hard. I earnestly prayed for forgiveness for my harsh words and actions and for help to be a better mother. And those “diamonds” have helped me to remember all these years what is really important in life.

God Bless  You

Fr Eugene Lobo SJ

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The night fell heavy in the heights of the mountains and the man could not see anything. All was black. Zero visibility, and the moon and the stars were covered by the clouds. As he was climbing only a few feet away from the top of the mountain, he slipped and fell in to the air, falling at great speed. He could only see black spots as he went down, and the terrible sensation of being sucked by gravity.

He kept falling. and in the moments of great fear, it came to his mind all the good and bad episodes of his life. He was thinking now about how close death was getting, when all of a sudden he felt the rope tied to his waist pull him very hard. His body was hanging in the air.

Only the rope was holding him and in that moment of stillness he had no other choice other to scream: “Help me God”.

All of a sudden a deep voice coming from the sky answered, “What do you want me to do?”

“Save me God”.

“Do you really think I can save you?”

“Of course I believe you can.”

“Then cut the rope tied to your waist.”

There was a moment of silence and the man decided to hold on to the rope with all his strength. The rescue team tells that the next day a climber was found dead and frozen. His body was hanging from a rope. His hands were holding the rope tight and he was only 1 foot away from the ground.

God Bless You

Fr Eugene Lobo SJ

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The Window

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.

Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window. The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man couldn’t hear the band - he could see it in his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Days and weeks passed.

One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths, only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away. As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.

Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed. It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window. The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.

She said, “Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.” 

God Bless You

Fr Eugene Lobo SJ

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“Do you like my dress?” she asked of a passing stranger.  “My mommy made it just for me.” She said with a tear in her eye.

“Well, I think it’s very pretty, so tell me little one, why are you crying?”

With a quiver in her voice the little girl answered.  “After Mommy made me this dress, she had to go away.”

“Well, now,” said the lady, “with a little girl like you waiting for her, I’m sure she’ll be right back.”

“No ma’am, you don’t understand,” said the child through her tears,  “my Daddy said that she’s up in heaven now with Grandfather.”

 Finally the woman realized what the child meant, and why she was crying. Kneeling down she gently cradled the child in her arms and together they cried for the mommy that was gone.

Then suddenly the little girl did something that the woman thought was a bit strange. She stopped crying, stepped back from the woman and began to sing. She sang so softly that it was almost a whisper. It was the sweetest sound the woman had ever heard, almost like the song of a very small bird. After the child stopped singing she explained to the lady, “My mommy used to sing that song to me before she went away, and she made me promise to sing it whenever I started crying and it would make me stop.” “See,” she exclaimed, “it did, and now my eyes are dry!”

 As the woman turned to go, the little girl grabbed her sleeve, “Lady, can you stay just a minute? I want to show you something.”

 “Of course,” she answered, “what do you want me to see?”

Pointing to a spot on her dress, she said, “Right here is where my Mommy kissed my dress, and here,” pointing to another spot, “and here is another kiss, and here, and here,”  “Mommy said that she put all those kisses on my dress so that  I would have her kisses for every boo-boo that made me cry.”

Then the lady realized that she wasn’t just looking at a dress, no, she was looking at a Mother… Who knew that she was going away and would not be there to kiss away the hurts that she knew her daughter would get. So she took all the love she had for her beautiful little girl and put them into this dress that her child now so proudly wore.

She no longer saw a little girl in a simple dress. She saw a child wrapped…in her Mother’s love.

Happy Mother’s Day.

God Bless You

Fr Eugene Lobo S J

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A small chinchilla was walking through a forest of wood scraps when a little bird started singing nearby. He craned his little neck to see who was making this beautiful music, but the bird was nowhere to be seen.

He ran up onto a boulder, his little heart pounding so hard that he almost couldn’t hear the beautiful music anymore.Where was that darn bird?!

Just then he felt the delicate touch of a feather brush his cheek, so he whirled around in that direction only to find… nothing. The music was getting louder now and the air was obviously being swished around by what must have been wings.

The aggravated chinchilla gave an emphatic sigh as he plopped down onto his rock. As he gave one last glance around, he sat up with a start as his eyes finally made contact with the bird! Ah ha! There she is!

He moved slowly over to the bird so as not to scare her away, and peered into her beady little eyes.“Why have you been hiding from me, Miss Canary?” His mouth opened in rage. “Hey, stop copying me! Would you please stop mimicking every word and move I make?!”

Now he was right up in her face; forget about being polite. “What’s the big idea?!”

His nose was right up to hers. “I have half a mind to pluck every fea… TAP!!” went the mirror against his beak as he passed out in fright. 

God Bless You

Fr Eugene Lobo SJ

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Long ago there lived a young man in Istanbul, Turkey. Because he was poor, he had only a single room, sparsely furnished with a few books and a small cot for a bed. One night the young man had a dream — a vision, really.  In it, he saw himself walking on a street in what he came to realize was the city of Cairo in Egypt, a place he had never been. He could clearly see the name of the street and the houses that lined the road.  In the vision, he walked up to one particular house, noting the address. He entered into a tiled courtyard and then into the main house. An open door drew him to a particular room within the house. In this room sat an old man surrounded by treasures beyond anything the young man had ever imagined.

Diamonds, emeralds, and rubies were piled high in pyramid shapes. Gold and silver bars lined the walls. Exquisite carpets and artifacts from around the world lay at his feet. The young man stared at the treasures and then at the old man in amazement, for in that moment he somehow knew that these treasures belonged to himself. He didn’t know how he knew (it was a vision, after all), but he was certain that all of it was rightfully his.

The young man bolted awake from the dream. So confident was he in its veracity that he set off that same day on the long journey from Istanbul to Cairo in order to claim his treasure. In those days, travel was slow and the young man, being poor, had to work along the way to pay for food and lodging. After several months, he eventually arrived in Cairo. Upon making the inquiries he found the very street he had seen in his dream.

As he set foot upon it, everything seemed completely familiar. The houses were exactly as he had seen them in his vision. And sure enough, the house that in the dream had contained the old man and his treasure was precisely where the young man expected it to be. Knowing his way, he entered into the tiled courtyard and then into the room of treasures where he planned to make his claim.

There sat the old man, but there were no jewels, no gold or silver, no carpets or artifacts. The young man, undeterred by the absence of the treasures recounted his vision to the old man and concluded by saying, “Since everything else in my vision has been accurate, I assume that the riches are hidden here somewhere. Please hand them over to me.”

The old man was silent for some time, looking intently at the young man, his eyes glistening. After a while, he spoke. “It’s strange,” he said. “I, too, had a dream. I dreamed of a young man in Istanbul who looked exactly like you.”

Yes, go on,” implored the young man, certain that this information would lead to his treasure.

The old man proceeded to describe the street on which the young man lived in Istanbul. He described the young man’s mother and father, his siblings, his friends at work, and the books on the wall of his simple room.

“In my vision,” said the old man, “the greatest treasure, more precious than all the shiny rocks and metals of the world, was there on a small cot in that room.” The young man suddently realized what the old man meant. He bowed to the wise man, and taking his leave, returned home to Istanbul where he lived out his quiet days. 

God Bless you

Fr Eugene Lobo SJ

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A farmer’s daughter duty was to carry fresh milk to customers in various villages had, one of whom was a priest. To reach his house, the milkmaid had to cross a good-sized stream. People crossed it by a sort of ferry raft, for a small fee.

One day the priest, who performed worship daily with the offering to God of fresh milk, finding it arrived very late, scolded the poor woman. “What can I do?” she said, “I start out early from my house, but I have to wait a long time for the boatman to come.”

Then the priest said (pretending to be serious), “What! People have even walked across the ocean by repeating the name of God, and you can’t cross this little river?” This milkmaid took him very seriously. From then on she brought the priest’s milk punctually every morning. He became curious about it and asked her how it was that she was never late anymore.

“I cross the river repeating the name of the Lord,” she replied, “just as you told me to do, without waiting for the ferry.” The priest didn’t believe her, and asked, “Can you show me this, how you cross the river on foot?” So they went together to the water and the milkmaid began to walk over it. Looking back, the woman saw that the priest had started to follow her and was floundering in the water.

“Sir!” she cried, “You are uttering the name of God, yet all the while you are holding up your clothes from getting wet. That is not trusting in God!”

God Bless You

Fr Eugene Lobo SJ

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There was a mother crab and her little ones, living happily on an island. One day the mother crab thought: however much I try, I can’t walk straight. At least I must teach my little ones to walk straight. They should learn to walk straight with their heads high before all other creatures. 

So the mother gathered her little ones on the beach, put them in a straight line and started the lessons in straight walking.

“Like all other creatures you too must learn to walk straight so that you don’t have to be ashamed of yourselves before them. Learn to walk straight with you heads high”, she told the little ones. And she started walking ahead of them. “Come, follow me”, she told the little ones.

“I can’t walk straight….I am tired” complained one after a while.

“I can’t hold my head high…” said another.

“Mom, you are walking side-wise. Why don’t you walk straight and show us how to do that?” asked the youngest one.

Yes, they are right. I must try to walk straight before I teach them to do that, the mother said to herself. May be I am asking for too much from them, may be the impossible.  May be one day they will realise the need for it themselves and start doing that.  I must allow them to grow….at their own pace…..

And the crabs continue to walk side-wise even today…said the Master.

Those who have ears, let them hear, he added. But they will not, lest they understand and be converted.”

God Bless YOu

Fr Eugene Lobo SJ

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 In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, “Do you know what I just heard about your friend?”

“Hold on a minute,” Socrates replied. “Before telling me anything, I’d like you to pass a little test. It’s called the Triple Filter Test.”  “Triple filter?”

 “That’s right,” Socrates continued. “Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you’re going to say. That’s why I call it the triple filter test.”  “The first filter is TRUTH. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?”

“No,” the man said, “actually I just heard about it and…”  

‘All right,” said Socrates. “So you don’t really know if it’s true or not. Now let’s try the second filter, the filter of GOODNESS. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?”  

“No, on the contrary…”  

“So,” Socrates continued, “you want to tell me something bad about him, but you’re not certain it’s true. You may still pass the test though, because there’s one filter left: the filter of USEFULNESS. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?”

 “No, not really.”

 “Well,” concluded Socrates, “if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?”

  God Bless You

Fr Eugene Lobo SJ

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