Introductory stories and prayers:
Christ May Be Closer
Than You Know
Martin, the Cobbler,
is Leo Tolstoy's story about a lonely shoemaker who is promised in a dream that
Christ will come to visit his shop. The next day Martin rises early, gets his
shop ready, prepares a meal and waits. The only one who showed up in the morning
was an old beggar who came by and asked for rest. Martin gave him a room he had
prepared for his divine guest. The only one to show up in the afternoon was an
old lady with a heavy load of wood. She was hungry and asks for food. He gave
her the food he had prepared for his divine guest. As evening came, a lost boy
wandered by. Martin took him home, afraid all the while he would miss the
Christ. That night in his prayers he asks the Lord, "Where were You? I
waited all day for You."
The Lord said to Martin:
"Three times I came to
your friendly door,
Three times my shadow was on your floor.
I was a beggar with bruised feet.
I was the woman you gave to eat.
I was the homeless child on the street."
Watch out! Christ may be closer than you can imagine.
J. Howard Olds, adapted from Leo Tolstoy's Where Love Is, God Is, Faith Breaks,
www.Sermons.com
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A
basic ingredient in the attainment of freedom: adversity
that brings awareness. A traveller lost in the desert despaired of ever finding water. He struggled up one
hilltop, then another and another in the hope of sighting a stream
somewhere. He kept looking
in every direction with no success.
As
he staggered onwards his foot caught on a dry bush and he stumbled to the ground. That’s where he laid, with no energy even to rise, no desire
to struggle any more, no hope of surviving this ordeal.
As he lay there, helpless
and dejected, he suddenly became aware of the silence of
the
desert. On all sides a majestic stillness reigned, undisturbed by the
slightest sound. Suddenly he raised his head. He had heard something. Something so faint
that only the sharpest ear and the deepest silence
would lead to its
detection: the sound of running water.
Heartened by the hope that the sound aroused in him, he rose and kept moving
till he arrived at a stream
of fresh, cool water.
(Prayer of the Frog, Tony De Mello, sj)
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From the poem entitled, “Silent Steps” by Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore:
Have you not heard his silent steps?
He comes, comes, ever comes.
Every moment and every age,
every day and every night he comes, comes, ever comes.
Many a song have I sung in many a mood of mind,
but all their notes have always proclaimed,
`He comes, comes, ever comes.’
In the fragrant days of sunny April through the forest path he comes,
comes, ever comes.
In the rainy gloom of July nights on the thundering chariot of clouds
he comes, comes, ever comes.
In sorrow after sorrow it is his steps that press upon my heart,
and it is the golden touch of his feet that makes my joy to shine (Gitanjali, XLV).
