Find that little speck of good in every person–including yourself.
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov wrote this:
Know this: You should judge every person by his merits. Even someone who seems to be completely wicked, you must search and find that little speck of good, for in that place, he is not wicked. By this you will raise him up, and help him return to G-d. And you must also do this for yourself, finding your own good points, one after the other, and raising yourself up. This is how melodies are made, note after note.
The gospel today (about the Good Samaritan) brought the picture below to mind. It can be found on the cover of Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis’ commentary on St. Matthew’s Gospel. (See Books tab above.) 
This is how the back of the book describes this picture:
The book’s cover portrays Christ as the Good Samaritan in an illumination taken from the mid sixth-century Syrian Codex Rossanensis. The fire of God’s mercy, poured out without reserve by the Father into the Heart of his incarnate Word, impels the Son’s eager gaze earthwards. Christ Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary, the living ‘image of the invisible God’ in whom ‘the whole fullness of divinity dwells bodily’ (Colossians 1:15, 2:9), bends down his sun-like nimbus—the very splendor of his glory, inscribed with the cross of his suffering—in a full ninety-degree angle, to show the perfection of His descent among us. The eternal Lord of the ages thus moves into position to nurse with divine tenderness the green body of decaying humanity, prostrate with festering wounds: ‘Through the tender mercy of our God, the Dawn from on high has visited us, to give knowledge of salvation to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death’ (Luke 2:78f). For his part, the dazzling angel has found a new mode of praise: to stand by his Master, marveling and ministering as he holds the gold bowl of grace and compassion, awestruck at the depth of the Word’s condescension. What even angelic hands cannot touch unveiled, that Christ lavishes with open gesture upon the flesh and soul of his beloved brother, sin-wounded man.
Sometimes I just sit and meditate on how I am that green man lying in the road and try to imagine Christ standing over me pouring out His mercy–that even the angels cannot touch–upon me. Peguy says: “It was because a man lay on the road that a Samaritan picked him up. It is because we lay on the road that Christ picks us up . . .
This is a powerful Easter poem by Luci Shaw. I know it’s not the Easter season, but I think it’s at times like these–as we’re moving into the physically darker seasons of fall and winter, and sometimes simultaneously darker emotional seasons for some of us–that we need to remember that we are always an Easter people.
Open
John 20:19, 26Doubt padlocked one door and
Memory put her back to the other.
Still the damp draught seeped in, though
Fear chinked all the cracks and
Blindness boarded up the window.
In the darkness that was left
Defeat crouched, shivering,
In his cold corner.Then Jesus came
(all the doors being shut)
and stood among them.Luci Shaw
I find it comforting to know that Mary is always there as a mother for us to turn to:
And in moments of weariness, raise your eyes to Mary, the Virgin who, forgetting herself, set out ‘with haste’ for the hills to reach her elderly cousin Elizabeth who was in need of help and assistance. Let her be the inspiration of your daily dedication to duty; let her suggest to you the right words and opportune gestures at the bedside of the sick; let her comfort you in misunderstandings and failures, helping you always keep a smile on your face and a hope in your heart. (John Paul II, Rome 1979)
Which reminds me of another wonderful quote, this time from Bernard:
O you, whoever you are, who feel that in the tidal wave of this world you are nearer to being tossed about among the squalls and gales than treading on dry land, if you do not want to founder in the tempest, do not avert your eyes from the brightness of this star. When the wind of temptation blows up within you, when you strike upon the rock of temptation, gaze up at this star, call out to Mary. Whether you are being tossed about by the waves of pride or ambition or slander or jealousy, gaze up at this star, call out to Mary. When rage or greed or fleshly desires are battering the skiff of your soul, gaze up at Mary. When the immensity of your sins weighs you down and you are bewildered by the loathsomeness of your conscience, when the terrifying thought of judgment appalls you and you begin to founder in the gulf of sadness and despair, think of Mary. In dangers, in hardships, in every doubt, think of Mary, call out to Mary. Keep her in your mouth, keep her in your heart. Follow the example of her life and you will obtain the favor of her prayer. Following her, you will never go astray. Asking her help, you will never despair. Keeping her in your thoughts, you will never wander away. With your hand in hers, you will never stumble. With her protecting you, you will not be afraid. With her leading you, you will never tire. Her kindness will see you through to the end.
“Have you ever looked back over a month and felt more than a little disheartened over the failures and mistakes–the blots on the page you had meant to keep so white?” (Amy Carmichael)
Another gem from Amy Carmichael–she’s always such a witness to hope for me:
Isaiah 52.12 The God of Israel will be your rear guard.
Have you ever looked back over a month and felt more than a little disheartened over the failures and mistakes–the blots on the page you had meant to keep so white?
There is a most beautiful and tender meaning in the words “rear guard” which again and again has comforted me. It may be new to some of you. It means to gather. The Revised Version margin has, to gather you up. An army as it goes forth into new territory needs a Vanguard to protect the van [Note: a van is the foremost or front division of an army], and a Rearguard to protect the rear, so our glorious God use us these two words in speaking of His loving work to us-ward. The Lord will go before us. Our Vanguard is the Lord. And the Lord God of Israel will be our Rearguard–following after, not only to defend us, should the enemy attack in the rear, as he often does, but to gather us up if we flag and are wary because of the way. And if He gathers us up, He gathers up also the things we have dropped, our poor fallen resolutions, mistakes, everything, and deals with them Himself. There is eternal love and tenderness in these dear words, “The Lord God of Israel shall gather you up.” Not only that, The glory of the Lord shall be your Rear guard (Is. 58.8).
So, as we travel on into another month we need not fear, Eternal Love is our Vanguard, the glory of Eternal Love is our Rearguard. The everlasting Arms of Everlasting Love shall gather us up.
Someone said to me a few years ago: “We don’t choose our favorite saints; they choose us.” I feel just that way about St. Thérèse of Lisieux. She’s been a good friend for a long time. I’ll let her speak for herself:
Perfection seems easy to reach. I realize that it is sufficient to recognize one’s own nothingness and to abandon oneself as a child in the arms of God. (LT 226)
The poorer you are the more Jesus will love you. He will go far, very far, in search of you, if at times you wander off a little. (LT 211)
Keep in mind the method used to make copper objects shine. You smear them all over with mud, with things that make them dirty and dull; after this operation, they will shine again like gold. Okay! Temptations are like this mud for the soul: they serve for nothing less than to make the virtues which are opposed to these same temptations to shine forth. (CRM 51)
Love knows how to draw profit from everything: from the good and from the bad that is found in us. (LT 142)
O, Mary, if I were Queen of Heaven, and you were Thérèse, I would wish to be Thérèse so that you could be Queen of Heaven.
More quotes from St. Thérèse can be found here.
Someone shared something with me after the talk the other night that I thought you would all benefit from. For those of you who weren’t
there, one of the points I made towards the end of the talk was that in order for lights to shine brightly, it needs to be dark around us. In order for our lights to shine brightly in this world, the world needs to get darker. In order to illustrate this point, I held up a little lit clay lamp and asked someone to turn off the lights. After the lights came back on, a number of people remarked that the light was reflected brightly in my glasses. I, of course, was not at all aware of that fact. This woman who came up to me afterwards pointed out that all too often that is the case with each of us. We are reflecting the hope of Christ, and we’re not aware of it at all. So have hope. You may feel like you’re in the darkness, but if you’re in Christ, you will reflect His light. You may not see it, but others will.
It was wonderful to see so many of you last night at the first meeting of Witnesses to Hope. As promised, you can find the recording of the talk under the tab above: “Talks/Witnesses to Hope”. And here are some of the quotes from the talks. Please, if any of you didn’t get to comment last night, feel free to leave one here. We’d all love to hear from you! (Don’t worry if it doesn’t show up immediately–I have to approve any new contributors.)
The yes of Our Lady does not end on Good Friday with the Great Cry and the yielding of the spirit. . . . The faith and love of Our Lady last into Holy Saturday. The dead body of the Son of God lies in the tomb, while His soul descends into Sheol, the Limbo of the Fathers. Jesus goes down into the hideous kingdom of death to proclaim the power of the Cross and the coming victory of the Resurrection and to open Heaven’s gates to Adam and Eve and all the souls of the just. The Apostles, hopeless and forlorn, know none of this ‘as yet.’ St. John tells us, ‘they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead’ (Jn 20:9). In all Israel, is there no faith in Jesus? On this silent Saturday, this terrible Shabbat, while the Jews’ true Messiah sleeps the sleep of death, who burns the lights of hope? Is there no loyal remnant? There is, and its name is Mary. In the fortitude of faith, she keeps the Sabbath candles alight for her Son. That is why Saturday, the sacred day of her physical brethren, is Our Lady’s weekly festival. On the first Holy Saturday, in the person of Mary of Nazareth, Israel now an unblemished bride, faces her hardest trial and through the fortitude of the Holy Spirit, is triumphant. (Fr. John Saward, The Beauty of Holiness and the Holiness of Beauty, p. 142)
Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things, on the condition that you believer much more in his love for you than in your own weakness. (Fr. Joseph Langford, Mother Teresa’s Secret Fire, p. 145)
How important can one small, unspectacular life be? Consider this: the good that each of us can accomplish even with limited resources and restricted reach, not even a Mother Teresa could achieve. No one else on the planet, and no one else in history, possesses the same network of acquaintances and the same combination of talents and gifts as each one of us does—as you do. (ibid., p. 72)
Hope does not come from what I do, but from the awareness that there is Someone who loves me with this everlasting love, who calls me into being every instant, having pity on my nothingness. (Fr. Julian Carrón, quoted in Magnificat)
It always amazes me how God orchestrates these kinds of things: a reading that probably went to press months ago destined to be read by me today.
Tonight is the inaugural meeting of Witnesses to Hope, so you can imagine my surprise as I read the meditation for today’s Mass found in Magnificat and found these words by Mother Elvira Petrozzi:
Yes, Love generates love, and today there is an immense need of persons able to generate hope in Love . . . [She goes on to describe their work with the poor and destitute.] Daily we live an experience of hope that gives life to those from whom life has been stolen. Because of this, we belive that in the darkest night it is possible to find light again. Even in the darkest sadness, joy can be rekindled. Even in the bitterest loneliness, a friend’s love can pierce a hardened heart. Yes, we want to be witnesses of this hope.We want to announce to this world that the secret of rebirth is to open our hearts to that marvelous Father who waits for each of us as His most precious child. (emphasis added)
It always amazes me how God orchestrates these kinds of things: a reading that probably went to press months ago destined to be read by me today.
A beautiful poem on beauty by one of our sisters, Sr. Stacy Whitfield:
Beauty
I love your wild extravagance,
mountain flower and autumn leaves
Endowed with lovely lavishness,
making much of what none sees.
Yet surely you would not adorn
with greater glory grassy hills
Than sons and daughters made for joy
and destined for more beauty still.
Oh give me hope to lift my soul
to beauties that yet lie unseen,
That wait beyond the shimm’ring veil,
awaiting Dawn’s eternity.
The wondrous views of heaven’s scope
from which earth’s grand reflection springs,
The beauty that is fairer still
than all your earthly artistry.
Oh give me faith and love to long
to see all beauty’s heavenly source,
From which all loveliness is flowing,
river-like upon its course.
The fullness of all beauty there
on which to gaze to soul’s delight,
A heart all pure, a form all fair,
the fountainhead of love, of light.
I shall abide in blissful rest,
loving Love and Beauty seeing,
Taking in your loveliness
with opened eyes, with transformed being.
©Sr. Stacy Whitfield (revised February 3, 1991)
Witnesses to Hope 