"No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care." - a friend to Fr. A. Juguilon, OSC 

You may be the brightest and most knowledgeable person in your field, in your workplace, or in your home.  People may turn to you for advice and help.  You may be able to recite every statistic from the latest baseball game, or document every step in a complex procedure. 

But do you care?  Do you show people that you care?  Is your concern for others genuine and more noticeable than the actions you take or the words you speak? 

O Lord of Mercy, help me to be like the Good Samaritan and show people I care.  Amen.

"You may be the only gospel another person reads." - a familiar saying 

Have you read a good book lately?  Did you tell another person about the good book you read?  Did you hear about the good book that someone else read? 

Novels, short stories, science fiction, essays, biographies, romance, history.  There are all kinds of books to read, from every genre and from every age. 

But YOU may be the "book" that another person reads.  You are the character, you are the story: the way you live and work and speak and love. 

Are you a good read? 

Father, write your story on the pages of my life so that others may see Your gospel through me.  Amen. 


Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
   The flying cloud, the frosty light:
   The year is dying in the night; 
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. 
 
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
   Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
   The year is going, let him go; 
Ring out the false, ring in the true. 
 
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
   For those that here we see no more;
   Ring out the feud of rich and poor, 
Ring in redress to all mankind. 
 
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
   And ancient forms of party strife;
   Ring in the nobler modes of life, 
With sweeter manners, purer laws. 
 
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
   The faithless coldness of the times;
   Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes 
But ring the fuller minstrel in. 
 
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
   The civic slander and the spite;
   Ring in the love of truth and right, 
Ring in the common love of good. 
 
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
   Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
   Ring out the thousand wars of old, 
Ring in the thousand years of peace. 
 
Ring in the valiant man and free,
   The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
   Ring out the darkness of the land, 
Ring in the Christ that is to be. 
 
--Alfred Lord Tennyson - 1809-1892