Friday, October 1, 2010

Little Things

I love this quote from my Patron Saint, Therese of Lisieux, whose feast we celebrate today:
"Pick up a pin for the love of God, and you may save a soul."
How right, how wise! We may not be called to do great things,but we can do the little, everyday tasks for the love of God, and then how great, how valuable those little tasks become.
No work is menial if it is done for the love of God.

Jolly Book

In Pollyanna Grows Up, by Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna goes to Boston and meets a boy named Jamie. Jamie is in a wheelchair, and has a book he calls his "Jolly Book".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"But you haven't told me yet about-the Jolly Book," prompted Pollyanna, after a minute.
The boy stirred and laughed shamefacedly.
" Well, you see, it ain't much, after all, except to me. You wouldn't see much in it. I started it a year ago. I was feelin' 'specially bad that day. Nothin' was right. For a while I grumped it out, just thinkin'; and then I picked tip one of father's books and tried to read. And the first thing I see was this: I learned it afterwards, so I can say it now.

   'Pleasures lie thickest where no pleasures seem;
    There's not a leaf that falls upon the ground
    But holds some joy, of silence or of sound."

"Well, I was mad. I wished I could put the guy that wrote that in my place, and see what kind of joy
he'd find in my 'leaves.' I was so mad I made up my mind I'd prove he didn't know what he was talkin' about, so I begun to hunt for 'em-the joys in my 'leaves,' you know. I took a little old empty notebook that Jerry had given me, and I said to myself that I'd write 'em down. Everythin' that had anythin' about it that I liked I'd put down in the book. Then I'd just show how many ' joys' I had."
" Yes, yes! " cried Pollyanna, absorbedly, as the boy paused for breath.
" Well, I didn't expect to get many, but-do you know?-I got a lot. There was somethin' about 'most everythin' that I liked a little, so in it had to go. The very first one was the book itself-that I'd got it, you know, to write in. Then somebody give me a flower in a pot, and Jerry found a dandy book in the subway. After that it was really fun to hunt 'em out-I'd find 'em in such queer places, sometimes. Then one day Jerry got hold of the little notebook, and found out what 'twas. Then he give it its name-the Jolly Book. And-and that's all."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pollyanna, of course, is delighted.
I've been thinking about getting a blank journal and keeping a book like that; writing
down all the good things that happen, all the little and not-so-little blessings, and
then sharing at least some of them in this blog.
One more thing: Thank God for books in the public domain that I can quote from at length
without having to be concerned about copyright infringements!








Encouraging news about EWTN's Fr. Anthony

Fr. Anthony hopes to be back on the air in the near future.  Oh, HOW I'm praying for that to happen! https://franciscanmissionaries.c...