Illustrations for Sermons

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“Think! Think! Think!”

She was hurt over the lack of trust and the “behind the back” comments made by her co-worker. Was the one who brought it to her attention even truly her friend? Her fingers flew over the keyboard with words of defense, explanations and justifications of her own actions. She fought back the tears! She had worked so hard in this place!
As her anger and hurt subsided she talked it over with a friend. Her sense of Injustice was real. She did need to address the rumors. Thankfully she had not pressed “send” on her original email. Together with her friend she explored her options. She truly wanted to respond in a way that would honor her Lord and not simply react only to throw more fuel on the fire.

Inspiring Christian Stories - Link

http://www.heavensinspirations.com/inspiring-stories.html

Catholic Humour - Stories Link

Several Stories that could be used for homilies can be found under these links:

http://www.catholic-pages.com/grabbag/

http://www.javacasa.com/humor/sermon.htm

http://www.poddys.com/jokes/religiousjokes.htm

A fleeing Taliban terrorist - It's only a joke!!!

A fleeing Taliban terrorist, desperate for water, was plodding through the Afghan desert when he saw something far off in the distance.

 

Hoping to find water, he hurried toward the mirage, only to find a  very frail little old Jewish man standing at a small makeshift display rack - selling ties.

The Taliban terrorist asked, "Do you have water?"

The Greedy Cloud - Story

Once upon a time lived a cloud – that was grown up over a very beautiful country. One day, she saw another much bigger cloud and she felt so much envy, than the cloud decided that in order to get bigger and grow more, her water would never abandon her, and will never start raining again.

Indeed, the cloud grew up, while his country was getting dried. First, rivers dried up, then people, animals, plants, and finally, the whole country became a desert. The cloud did not care much, but she also did not realize that by being over a desert there was no place where she could obtain new water to keep growing. So slowly, the cloud began to lose size, and was unable to do anything to stop it .

Monkey Business

Once upon a time in a village, a man announced to
the villagers that he would buy monkeys for Rs 10. The
villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around,
went out to the forest and started catching
them..

The stranger in ppt

Father and Son - Story

LOVE OF A SON...

An old man, staying in a small south Indian town came to visit his son in Mumbai recently. The son in his early thirties is a successful businessman living with his wife and son. The father, having spent most of his life at his birthplace, hardly understands Hindi English, Marathi. But he doesn’t care. ‘I have come here to spend a few days with my son and his family. I don’t have... to go out and socialize with the city people,’ he said.
But the son is very excited about his father’s rare visit to Bombay. He wants to make the best of it. He and his wife want to show him around the city. And yes, the son enjoys those evening hours too, when he and his father go out and sit in a good bar, sipping their favourite drink.
Last week he told his father ‘Let’s go to a five star hotel’s bar tonight’. It was a beautiful evening. Talking about everything under the sun they had a few drinks. As usual they were offered some salad, peanuts, wafers etc. as accompaniments with their drinks. The old man being almost toothless was not much interested in eating. But that day when they got up to leave, he simply took a handful of chana (roasted grams) and stuffed it in the fold of his dhoti. He might have thought > about munching on them, sitting in the car.

Anthony De Mello Essays - 4

 

Wisdom from Anthony de Mello

LOSING THE RAT RACE 31 Lets get back to that marvelous sentence in the gospel about losing oneself in order to find oneself. One finds it in most religious literature and in all religious and spiritual and mystical literature. How does one lose oneself? Did you ever try to lose something? That's right, the harder you try, the harder it gets. It's when you're not trying that you lose things. You lose something when you're not aware. Well, how does one die to oneself? We're talking about death now, we're not talking about suicide. We're not told to kill the self, but to die. Causing pain to the self, causing suffering to the self would be self-defeating. It would be counterproductive. You're never so full of yourself as when you're in pain.

Anthony De Mello Essays -3

Wisdom from Anthony de Mello

AWARENESS AND CONTACT WITH REALITY 21 To watch everything inside of you and outside, and when there is something happening to you, to see it as if it were happening to someone else, with no comment, no judgment, no attitude, no interference, no attempt to change, only to understand. As you do this, you'll begin to realize that increasingly you are disidentifying from "me".

Anthony De Mello Essays-2

On Waking UP
01

Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don't know it, are asleep. They're born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. You know, all mystics - Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion - are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well. Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be sure. But, tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare.

Anthony De Mello - Essays - 1

Wisdom from Anthony de Mello

ON WAKING UP  01

Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don't know it, are asleep. They're born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. You know, all mystics - Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion - are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well. Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be sure. But, tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare.

The Old Man and His Son - A Story with a Lesson

A short story with a lesson

 

An old man, staying in a small south Indian town came to visit his son in Mumbai recently. The son in his early thirties is a successful businessman living with his wife and son. The father, having spent most of his life at his birthplace, hardly understands Hindi English, Marathi. But he doesn’t care. ‘I have come here to spend a few days with my son and his family. I don’t have to go out and socialize with the city people,’ he said.
But the son is very excited about his father’s rare visit to Bombay. He wants to make the best of it. He and his wife want to show him around the city. And yes, the son enjoys those evening hours too, when he and his father go out and sit in a good bar, sipping their favourite drink.
Last week he told his father ‘Let’s go to a five star hotel’s bar tonight’. It was a beautiful evening. Talking about everything under the sun they had a few drinks. As usual they were offered some salad, peanuts, wafers etc. as accompaniments with their drinks. The old man being almost toothless was not much interested in eating. But that day when they got up to leave, he simply took a handful of chana (roasted grams) and stuffed it in the fold of his dhoti. He might have thought > about munching on them, sitting in the car.

De Mello-Prayer of the Frog

19132982 Anthony de Mello the Prayer of the Frog

Potato Story

The Stinking Potatoes

A kindergarten teacher has decided to let her class play a game.
The teacher told each child in the class to bring along a plastic bag containing a few potatoes.

The Boy and the Lightning.

One rainy day, a mother went to pick up her son from school thinking he'll fear the lightning.

On the way she found him  smiling at the sky for every strike of lightning..She asked him why.

He smiled and said,

"God's taking my picture, I have to look good."

Life's simple..Its all about the way with which we approach it

4 Wives - A King's Story

FACTS OF LIFE, BITTER BUT TRUE Once upon a time... There was a rich King who had 4 wives. s He loved the 4th wife the most and adorned her with rich robes and treated her to the finest of delicacies. He gave her nothing but the best. He also loved the 3rd wife very much and was always showing her off to neighboring kingdoms. However, he feared that one day she would leave him for another.

Real-Life Humor - Collection

Real-Life Humor

 I had not been preaching long at a rather "staid and proper" congregation when a fellow I did not recognize came forward at the invitation. Upon questioning, I found that Earnest Ray was from "up in the hills" and he had come to church that morning to be baptized. Not only that, but he brought all of his friends and relatives with him. He said he wanted his relative to baptize him.

Sermon Humor - Collection

Sermon Humor

When my daughter was about three I took her to bed and asked what she would like to pray about. Promptly she answered: "onions." We prayed about onions and the next morning I asked why she wanted to pray about onions. "Because you said in your sermon that we should pray for things we dont like."