C . R.I. – E.V.H. n5

Part 2 

If someone want to translate the french texts he or she will be welcome.

Regardez en vous

Il était une fois une personne qui oublia qu’elle avait mis un billet de 50€ dans un livre. Elle transportait ce livre en permanence avec elle. Un jour, elle eut besoinde 50€, elle demanda alors à un ami de les lui prêter. Son ami accepta volontiers mais avant de lui donner l’argent il lui demanda de voir le livre qu’elle transportait toujours avec elle et, lorsque cet ami ouvrit le livre, le billet de 50€ tomba par terre. Cette personne fut de ce fait, bien heureuse car ainsi, elle n’eut pas besoin d’emprunter cette somme à son ami.

De même, aujourd’hui, l’homme est à la recherche de Dieu, mais c’est uniquement en cherchant en lui qu’il peut retrouver et comprendre son unité avec Dieu.

C’est seulement lorsque vous rechercherez en profondeur, que vous pourrez réaliser que Dieu est en vous et également à l’extérieur.

GOD'S   BOXES

I have in my hands two boxes which God gave me to hold.

He said: ‘Put all your sorrows in the Black and all your joys in the Gold.’
I heeded His words, and in the two boxes both my joys and sorrows I stored. But though the Gold box became heavier each day…. the Black one was as light as before.
With curiosity, I opened the Black I wanted to find out why…….and I saw, in the base of the box, a hole through which my sorrows had fallen out.

I showed the hole to God, and mused aloud: ‘I wonder where my sorrows could be.’
He smiled a gentle smile at me: ‘My child, they're all here with me.’
I asked, ‘God, why give me the boxes, why the Gold, and the Black with the hole?’

‘My child, the Gold is for you to count your blessings,
the Black is for you to let go.’

Karmic consequences

The phenomenal world is like a hotel to which you have come to experience the consequences of your actions in the past. The body is a room in the hotel in which you have corne to undergo the karmic consequences.

When you are born, you are not born with garlands and necklaces. You have no pearls or diamonds. You have no golden ornaments. But around your neck hangs the garland of your past karma. And when you die you do not take anything with you except the consequences of your good and evil actions. You are always decked with the invisible garland of your inexorable karma which pursues and burdens you.

  La nature avec tout ses êtres vivants est le manteau de Dieu.
Celui qui ne la traite pas avec respect, qui la maltraite, voire qui la détruit, commet un grand sacrilège.

I did not do this for you...
God is here working through me to give you hope.

I am a mother of three and have recently completed my college degree. The last class I had to take was Sociology. The teacher was absolutely inspiring with the qualities that I wish every human being had been graced with. Her last project of the term was called "Smile".

The class was asked to go out and smile at three people and document their reaction. I am a very friendly person and always smile at everyone and say, hello anyway.....so, I thought, this would be a piece of cake literally.

Soon after we were assigned the project, my husband, youngest son, and I went out to McDonalds, one crisp March morning. It was just our way of sharing special play time with our son. We were standing in line, waiting to be served, when all of a sudden everyone around us began to back away, and then even my husband did. I did not move an inch...an overwhelming feeling of panic welled up inside of me as I turned to see why they had moved.

As I turned around I smelled a horrible "dirty body" smell... and there standing behind me were two poor homeless men. As I looked down at the short gentleman, close to me, he was "smiling"..his beautiful sky blue eyes: were full of God's Light as he searched for acceptance. He said, "Good day" as he counted the few coins he had been clutching. The second man fumbled with his hands as he stood behind his friend. I realized the second man was mentally deficient and the blue eyed gentle man was his salvation. I held my tears......as I stood there with them.
The young lady at the counter asked him what they wanted. He said: "Coffee is all Miss" because that was all they could afford (to sit in the restaurant and warm up, they had to buy something... they just wanted to be warm). Then I really felt it...the compulsion was so great I almost reached out and embraced the little man with the blue eyes. That is when I noticed all eyes in the restaurant were set on me...judging my every action. I smiled and asked the young lady behind the counter to give me two more breakfast meals on a separate tray. I then walked around the corner to the table that the men had chosen as a resting spot. I put the tray on the table and laid my hand on the blue eyed gentleman's cold hand. He looked up at me, with tears in his eyes, and said: "Thank you."

I leaned over, began to pat his hand and said, "I did not do this for you...God is here working through me to give you hope." I started to cry as I walked away to join my husband and son. When I sat down my husband smiled at me and said, "That is why God gave you to me honey.... to give me hope." We held hands for a moment and at that time we knew that only because of the Grace were we able to give.

We are not church goers but we are believers. That day showed me the pure Light of God's sweet love. I returned to college, on th e last evening of class, with this story in hand. I turned in "my project" and the instructor read it....then she looked up at me and said, "Can I share this?" I slowly nodded as she got the attention of the class. She began to read and that is when I knew that we as human beings (part of God) share this need to heal.

In my own way I had touched the people at Mc Donalds, my husband, son, instructor, and every soul that shared the classroom on the last night I spent as a college student. I graduated with one of the biggest lessons I would ever learn... unconditional acceptance..... after all ....we are here to learn!

    Life is a pilgrimage to God. The road lies before you; but unless you take the first step forward and move further on, how can you reach your destination? Start with courage, faith, joy and steadiness. You are bound to succeed. The mind and the intellect are the two bullocks tied to the cart of the inner man. The bullocks are not used to the road of Truth, Righteousness, Peace and Love and so they drag the cart along the road familiar to them, namely, falsehood, injustice, worry and hatred. You have to train them to take the better road so that they may not bring disaster upon themselves, the cart or the passengers travelling in it. 

FOOT PRINTS ON SAND

One night , I had a dream ,

I was walking along the beach with god, and Across the skies flashed scenes from my life.
In each scene, I noticed a set of footprints in the sand and to my surprise , I noticed that many times along the path of my life, there were only one set of  footprints.

And i noticed that those were the saddest and loneliest part of my life.
I asked god about it:" god you said that once i decided to follow you , you would walk me all the way. But i notice that during the saddest and troublesome parts of my life , there are only one set of footprints ...

I don’t understand why you left my side when i needed you most ...”

God said: " My precious child , I never left you , during that time of sadness , When you can see only one set of foot prints ... I was carrying you ..."

You must have watched a bird sitting on a branch that is swaying in the wind. It is unafraid, because it places more confidence in its wings than on the branch. It knows that at any moment, it can take to its wings and leave that uncertain perch. The branch is the world and the wings are the grace of the Lord. Rely upon the grace of the Lord and you will not come to any harm. But, if you trust world and rely entirely upon the

A perfect example of non-violence…

Dr. Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and founder of the M.K.Gandhi Institute for Non-violence, in his June 9 lecture at the University of Puerto Rico, shared the following story as an example of “Non-Violence in parenting”.

"I was 16 years old and living with my parents at the institute my grandfather had founded 18 miles outside of Durban, South Africa, in the middle of the sugar plantations. We were deep in the country and had no neighbours, so my two sisters and I would always look forward to going to town to visit friends or go to the movies.

One day, my father asked me to drive him to town for an all-day conference, and I jumped at the chance. Since I was going to town, my mother gave me a list of groceries she needed and, since I had all day in town, my father ask me to take care of several pending chores, such as getting the car serviced. When I dropped my father off that morning, he said, 'I will meet you here at 5:00 p.m., and we will go home together.'

After hurriedly completing my chores, I went straight to the nearest movie theatre. I got so grossed in a John Wayne double-feature that I forgot the time. It was 5:30 before I remembered. By the time I ran to the garage and got the car and hurried to where my father was waiting
for me, it was almost 6:00.
He anxiously asked me, 'Why were you late?' I was so ashamed of
telling him I was watching a John Wayne western movie that I said:
“The car wasn't ready, so I had to wait.” not realizing that he had already called the garage. When he caught me in the lie, he said: “There is something wrong in the way I brought you up that didn't give you the confidence to tell me the truth. In order to figure out where I went wrong with you, I'm going to walk home 18 miles and think about it.'

So, dressed in his suit and dress shoes, he began to walk home in the dark on mostly unpaved, unlit roads. I couldn't leave him, so for five-and-a-half hours I drove behind him, watching my father go through this agony for a stupid lie that I uttered.

I decided then and there that I was never going to lie again. I often think about that episode and wonder, if he had punished me the way we punish our children, whether I would have learned a lesson at all. I don't think so. I would have suffered the punishment and gone on doing the same thing. But this single non-violent action was so powerful that it is still as if it happened yesterday.

That is the power of non-violence."

Here is a touching incident…

A man came home from work late again, tired and irritated, to find his 5 year old son waiting for him at the door.

"Daddy, may I ask you a question? "Yeah, what is it?" replied the man.
"Daddy, how much money do you make an hour?"

"That's none of your business! What makes you ask such a thing?" the man said angrily.
"I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?" pleaded the boy.
"If you must know, I make $­­­­­­­­­­­­­20.00 an hour."

"Oh," the little boy replied, head bowed. Looking up, he said, "Daddy, may I borrow $­­­­­­­­­­­­­10.00 please?"

The father was furious. "If the only reason you wanted to know how much money I make is just so you can borrow some to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. I work long, hard hours everyday and don't have time for such childish games."

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door.

The man sat down and started to get even madder about the little boy's questioning. After an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think he may have been a little hard on his son. And he really didn't ask for money very often. The man went to the little boy's room and opened the door.

"I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier," said the man. "It's been a long day and I took my aggravation out on you. Here's that $­­­­­­­­­­­­­10.00 you asked for."

The little boy sat straight up, beaming. "Oh, thank you daddy!" he yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow, he pulled out some more crumpled up bills and counted them. The man, seeing the boy already had money, started to get angry again.

"Why did you want more money if you already had some?" the father grumbled.

"Because I didn't have enough, but now I do," the little boy replied. "Daddy, I have $­­­­­­­­­­­­­20.00 now. Can I buy an hour of your time?"

If this touched you, well… think about it. And do something now so that YOUR child never asks this to you!

  The role of parents is important specially the role of Mothers, since the character of the child, the future citizen, is entirely in the hands of the parents. One thing parents ought to realize is that they cannot plan and calculate their child’s future by having their own ambitions and imposing it on the child.
The first thing to be developed in the child is self confidence and free thinking, and of course, faith in God. In the moulding of character, no books, no personality development programs, no disciplinary action will help. The one and only instrument is LOVE. Let the child feel loved, feel wanted, let him realize that he has someone to fall back on, someone to open out his fears, share his joys, and above all, someone who has TIME for him. This is what is lacking in families today.

The only time spent together is in front of the blaring T.V. Parents MUST find time for their children, not to read out lessons, not to advice them on honesty and sacrifice… but just to be with them, listen to them, and give them the feeling that ‘someone cares’.A child brought up with Love does not have to be taught honesty, sacrifice or kindness.

  Every human being is a spark of the Divine. Hence, there should be no ill-will towards anyone.

STORMS IN LIFE

A little girl walked daily to and from school.

Though the weather that morning was questionable and clouds were forming, she made her daily trek to the elementary school. As the afternoon progressed, the winds whipped up, along with thunder and lightning.

The mother of the little girl felt concerned that her daughter would be frightened as she walked home from school, and she herself feared that the electrical storm might harm her child. Following the roar of thunder, lightning, like a flaming sword, would cut through the sky.

Full of concern, the mother quickly got into her car and drove along the route to her child's school. As she did so, she saw her little girl walking along, but at each flash of lightning, the child would stop, look and smile. Another and another were to follow quickly, each with the little girl stopping, looking at the streak of light and smiling.

Finally, the mother called her over to the car and asked, 'Dearest.....what are you doing? The child answered, 'Oh Mum look.....God loves me sooo... much! He just keeps on clicking pictures of me!'
Oh God! help me to trust You as much as this little one, especially when the storms of life crash around me.

May God Bless you today, whatever storm you are facing!!

Pense toujours que tout ce qui t’arrive, te revient, t’advient, est ce qui est le mieux pour toi, et que c’est ton devoir de découvrir dans quelle mesure.

That afternoon

This beautiful story was written by a doctor  who worked in Africa.

One night I had worked hard to help a mother in the labor ward; but in  spite of all we could do, she died, leaving us  with a tiny, premature baby  and a crying two-year-old daughter. We would have difficulty keeping the  baby alive, as we had no incubator (we had no  electricity to run an  incubator)? We also had no special feeding facilities.

Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts. One student midwife went for the box we had for such babies and the cotton wool that the baby would be wrapped  in.

Another went to stoke up the fire and fill a  hot water bottle. She came
back shortly in distress to tell me that in  filling the bottle, it had
burst (rubber perishes easily in tropical  climates).
"And it is our last hot water bottle!" she  exclaimed.

As in the West, it  is no good crying over spilled milk, so in  Central Africa it might be  considered no good crying over burst water  bottles. They do not grow on  trees, and there are no drugstores down forest pathways.

"All right" I said: "put the baby as near the  fire as you safely can, and
sleep between the baby and the door to keep it  free from drafts. Your job  is to keep the baby warm."

The following noon, as I did most days, I went  to have prayers with any of  the orphanage children who chose to gather  with me. I gave the youngsters various suggestions of things to pray about and told them about the tiny  baby. I explained our problem about keeping  the baby warm enough,  mentioning the hot water bottle, and that the  baby could so easily die if  it got chills. I also told them of the  two-year-old sister, crying because her mother had died.

During prayer time, one ten-year-old girl,  Ruth, prayed with the usual
 blunt conciseness of our African children.

 "Please, God" she prayed, "Send us a hot water bottle today. It'll be no good tomorrow, God, as the baby  will be dead, so please send it this afternoon."

While I gasped inwardly at the audacity of the  prayer, she added, "And
while You are about it, would You please send  a dolly for the little girl
so she'll know You really love her?"

As often with children's prayers, I was put on  the spot. Could I honestly say: "Amen"?
just did not believe that God  could do this. Oh, yes, I  know that He can do everything; the Bible says  so. But there are limits, aren't there? The only way God could answer  this particular prayer would be by sending me a parcel from the homeland.
I had been in Africa for  almost four years at that time, and I had never, ever, received a parcel  from home.
Anyway, if anyone did send me a parcel, who  would put in a hot water bottle? I lived on the equator!

Halfway through the afternoon, while I was  teaching in the nurses' training school, a message was sent that there was a  car at my front door. By the  time I reached home, the car had gone, but there on the veranda was a large 22-pound parcel. I felt tears pricking  my eyes. I could not open the parcel alone, so I sent for the orphanage  children. Together we pulled off  the string, carefully undoing each knot. We  folded the paper, taking care not to tear it unduly. Excitement was mounting.

Some thirty or forty pairs of eyes were focused on the large cardboard box.
From the top, I lifted out brightly-coloured,  knitted jerseys. Eyes sparkled as I gave them out. Then there were  the knitted bandages for the leprosy patients, and the children looked a  little bored. Then came a box of mixed raisins and sultanas - that would make a batch of buns for the weekend.

Then, as I put my hand in again, I felt the.....could it really be? I grasped it and pulled it out. Yes, a brand  new, rubber hot water bottle.
I cried. I had not asked God to send it; I had not truly believed that He could.
Ruth was in the front row of the children.  She rushed forward, crying out:  "If God has sent the bottle, He must have sent the dolly, too!"

Rummaging down to the bottom of the box, she  pulled out the small, beautifully-dressed dolly. Her eyes shone! She had never doubted!
Looking up at me, she asked: "Can I go over with you and give this dolly to that little girl, so she'll know that God really loves her?"

Of course, I replied!
That parcel had been on the way for five whole  months, packed up by my former Sunday school class, whose leader had heard and obeyed God's prompting to send a hot water bottle, even to the equator. And one of the girls had put in a dolly for an African child - five months before, in answer to the believing prayer of a ten-year-old to bring it "that afternoon."

"Before they call, I will answer." (Isaiah 65:24)

When you receive this, say the prayer. That's all you have to do.
No strings attached. Just send it on to whomever you want - but do send it on.
Prayer is one of the best free gifts we  receive. There is no cost, but a lot of rewards. Let's continue praying for one another.

Ô, Bien-aimé de mon âme.

*** Ô, Bien-aimé de mon âme, pense à travers moi, que mes pensées soient Tes pensées.

*** Ô, Bien-aimé de mon âme, ressens à travers moi, c’est si difficile de ressentir les vrais besoins des autres, quand ils sont si différents des nôtres.

*** Ô, Bien-aimé de mon âme, parle à travers moi, que mes paroles soient, ce que les autres ont besoin d’entendre.

*** Ô, Bien-aimé de mon âme, vois à travers moi, que mes yeux voient dans tout ce qui existe le reflet de Ta présence.

*** Ô, Bien-aimé de mon âme, agis à travers moi, que mon corps, soit l’instrument pour accomplir ce que Tu attends de moi.

*** Ô, Bien-aimé de mon âme, aime à travers moi, que j’apprenne à m’aimer et à aimer les autres comme Toi Tu nous aimes ; d’un Amour Inconditionnel, Universel qui donne et n’attend rien en retour.

*** Ô, Bien-aimé de mon âme, respire à travers moi, que je sois en union avec l’Univers, et conduis-moi de l’irréel au Réel, de l’obscurité vers la Lumière, de la mort vers l’Immortalité et, que règne la Paix dans tous les mondes.