But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people’s lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities. Even your nationality sets you apart. The great majority of you belong to the world’s only remaining superpower. The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders. That is your privilege, and your burden.
If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.
an excerpt from J. K. Rowling's commencement speech before the harvard graduates
Collectively, humanity is unceasingly and increasingly violent with its own kind.
Allowing people to go hungry is a form of violence.
Placing life-saving drugs and the finest medical care out of reach of millions is a form of violence.
Underpaying laborers while taking huge front office profits is a form of violence.
Mistreating, underpaying, denying promotions to, and mutilating females is a form of violence.
Racial prejudice is a form of violence.
Child abuse, child labor, child slavery, child prostitution, child trafficking, and child soldiering is a form of violence.
The death penalty is a form of violence.
Denying civil rights to people because of their sexual preference or their religion or their ethnicity is a form of violence.
Creating and maintaining a worldwide society in which exploitation, oppression, and injustice are commonplace is a form of violence.
Ignoring suffering is as much a form of violence as inducing it.
In 2004 humanity watched 50,000 people die and over 1.5 million forced from their homes during ethnic fighting in the Darfur region of
That is the mark of an extraordinarily primitive society, too timid, too weak, too stultified, or, worse yet, too self-involved to be able to put a quick stop even to genocide.
Attention must be paid.
In our world today an estimated 250 million children are working. Of these, more than 50 million between the ages of 5 and 11 are engaged in intolerable forms of labor. (The Progress of Nations 2000, Copyright: The United Nations Children's Fund,
At any one time more than 300,000 children under 18, girls and boys, are fighting as soldiers with government armed forces and armed opposition groups in more than 30 countries worldwide, according to the Global Report on Child Soldiers (2001) published by the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. While most child soldiers are aged between 15 and 18, the youngest age recorded in this report is seven.
For nearly two-thirds of the world’s people, life is a daily struggle. For half of that number, it’s a struggle for survival. Does anybody care?
Why do these conditions exist, do you think? Do you think it might have anything to do with the fact that we don’t see each other on this earth as members of the same family? Do you think it may be because we imagine that we are separate from each other?
For whatever the reason, the fact is that the world has not put into place a system for sharing the abundance of the earth that works for everyone, but only for those who meet certain criteria of skin color or gender or religion or ethnicity.
The U.N. reports that donor countries allocate an average of just one-quarter of one percent (0.25%) of their total gross national product to development assistance for poorer nations. Does anybody care?
And what is the stingiest developed nation in the world in terms of the proportion of total wealth that it donates? The
Can this be possible? Yes. It’s possible and it’s true.
Now you might say, hey, wait a minute, the
The question as to why some people come into this world with physical challenges is addressed in Conversations with God. We do not know the agenda of the soul, but the admonition is not to judge, nor call it wrong, but simply to see it as a blessed experience in the life of that soul.
It is the purpose of life to bring us all every experience that the human adventure allows. The up and down of it, the left and right of it, the male and female of it, the here and there of it. The soul will not rest until it has had the sum and substance of the human experience, the totality of its possibilities. Perhaps it is for this reason that in some lifetimes souls enter a body that is what you have called “handicapped.”
You ask about frustration, and I tell you that all frustration within the human experience finds its origin in fear. I grant you that frustration is a very mild form of fear, yet it is fear nonetheless. The one who comes from love and only from love never experiences frustration. Frustration is, of course, a fear that what we are doing cannot be continued; that we will run out of energy; that it is all “just too much;” that we have reached the end of the line. Frustration is our announcement to ourselves that we need to move back into love in order to find our “center” once again.
You say that in your moments of frustration there is neither love nor fear present, just a loss of energy; in other words, you are simply tired. “Tired” is not a condition which is known in the presence of love. Lovers who are deeply in love have been known to stay up day and night for long periods of time, simply being with each other. It is when love changes to fear that energy rapidly drains, leaving the system of the human body.
Don’t berate yourself about this, or beat yourself up. It is a normal human experience and not something to be ashamed of. In your moments of frustration, simply notice that you are frustrated, do whatever it takes to move through that experience in a way which benefits and serves you, and then go on with your life without self recrimination.
Of course you are frustrated. There is much to be done, there is a great deal of challenge in the doing of it, and most people would be frustrated. Don’t look too deeply into this. There is no “mystery” here. There is only what is obvious. And it is all perfectly all right.
Be kind to yourself, and good. And bless you for your service to the soul of your daughter/son, who could not have picked a better Mom/Dad.
Must human beings have male parts in order to be eligible to serve God as a member of the upper administration of His Church? Or, to put it more directly, can women be bishops? What does God want? And why?
Of course, the Catholic Church has had a prohibition against female priests since the beginning, as we all know, whereas the Anglican Church a number of years ago lifted its similar ban. Then that rogue British church also announced that it was accepting openly gay men as bishops. All of this pretty much scandalized the Catholic Church heirarchy, but for the most part it looked the other way and spoke openly of reconciliation and closer workings between the two churches.
But now the Anglicans appear to have done too far. The Vatican issued a formal statement on Tuesday saying it "regrets" a decision by the Church of England's governing body, taken the day before, to allow the ordination of women as bishops.
A report on the controversy from CNN says that "the move by the Anglican Church's General Synod 'is a rift to the apostolic tradition' of ordaining only men as bishops, the Vatican said in a statement, and is another obstacle to reconciliation between Anglicans and Roman Catholics."
"This decision will have consequences on the dialogue which had brought good fruits," the Vatican statement said, according to the CNN report.
The General Synod of the Church of England passed a resolution Monday night that allows women to become bishops. The CNN report said that it acted "over the objections of traditionalists who argued that Jesus only wanted men in leadership positions."
Is it God's requirement that each of His servants in the clergy (or, at least, in the upper reaches of that clergy) have a penis? What if they have a vagina? Can people with that kind of physical construction nevertheless serve God in such authoritative capacities?
CNN says that "Some traditionalists have threatened to abandon the Anglican Church for the Roman Catholic Church if women become bishops. Several hundred Anglican priests made that move when women were first ordained 16 years ago."
Apparently, some folks feel very strongly about this.
"The theological debate over women bishops has centered over the question 'What would Jesus do?' The traditionalists argued that bishops must be men, as were Jesus and his apostles," the CNN report said.
"Christina Rees, with the pro-women lobby Women and the Church, described what was at stake as 'an acceptance by the Church of England of women on equal terms as men in the ordained ministries'," the CNN report went on.
The Vatican apparently finds that a novel concept. Too novel, in fact. Woman are not to be treated or accepted on equal terms with men in the ordained ministries, according to official Catholicism. Why? Because, presumably, this is not what God wants.
All of this raises the question: What kind of a God do we have, anyway?
Why is God so dead set against having women lead His people as members of His clergy? Or, to ask an even bigger question, Who says that God is a 'He'?
Was it men who told us that God is a man? Was it men who told us that only men could serve as priests and bishops?
Help us here. Please...and I mean this sincerely...enlighten us. What DOES God want? With regard to who shall send and bring God's message to the world, what DOES God want?
Is it okay to be gay? It is okay to be female?
Somebody help me here. i really want to understand.Does God ever deliberately "lead us into temptation"? If not, why would we ask God not to? Why would we pray to God that way in the Lord's Prayer?
Question: Dear Neale: I am a senior citizen (75) and have thoroughly enjoyed the CWG books. Most, if not all, Christian Churches say the Lord's Prayer. I said it for years without much thought, but in recent years "Lead us not into temptation" has bothered me. Why would God "lead us" into temptation? And, is the "Lord's Prayer" really the Lord's prayer? Clyde, Bridgeport, NY.
Neale's Response: Dear Clyde, Interesting questions. The answer is that God would not lead us into temptation. We are not praying to God to stop doing bad things to us...like leading us into temptation. I believe that the thrust of the line, the gist of the line, from the prayer is: "God, please don't let us be led into temptation."
Granted, it is not worded that way, but I believe most people understand it to mean that, and I think Jesus' followers understood it to mean that as well, if, indeed, it was translated correctly to begin with.
As to your second question, I think it is a very good prayer. And every prayer is "the Lord's prayer," because every prayer is a communication with God, and there is no wrong way to do that. So all prayers are the Lord's!
A statement from Conversations with God that will change your life is the almost off-handed comment in the dialogue that everything you think, say and do is a prayer. Praying is not something we do at certain times, like when we are on our knees in church, or holding hands at the dinner table. It is something we are doing always.
Let me repeat that.
We are always praying.
Everything we think is a prayer. Everything we say is a prayer. Everything we do is a prayer. The prob¬lem is, we just don't know it. We think we are praying only when we are actually, consciously engaging in the activity we call "prayer." But here is a great secret. God calls everything prayer.
How can this be so? Why is it the way it is?
CWG says that we are all creative beings, made in the image and likeness of God. Since God is the creator, so, too, are we. God has given us tools of creation, and they are three: thought, word and deed.
What you think, you create. What you say, you produce. What you do, you call forth more of. This is perhaps the most important single remembrance in Conversations with God. We've all heard this before, so it is certainly nothing new. But the way it is explained in CWG brings it home with new emphasis.
What the dialogue is telling us is that there is no time when the creation machine is "off." The process of creation goes on forever, and there is no time when it is not engaged. Think of God as a great big Xerox machine. Whatever you put in is duplicated. And you are never not putting something in.
That's the key. That's the real revelation. There is no time when you are not creating. There is no time when you are not praying. If "prayer" is the message you are sending to God, you are praying every minute of the day, for your message to God is your life, lived. And that message, that prayer, will be sent back to you, just as you send it out. God doesn't make any changes. God sends back to you, enlarged and multiplied, what you send God. Isn't that incredible?
Well, it is if you're sending "good stuff," and it's not if you're sending "bad stuff." So stop sending bad stuff! Rid yourself of your negative thoughts, speak not again a single negative word, and don't do, ever, that which you do not wish done to you. For what you do unto others will be done unto you--you can count on it.
So from now on, don't imagine that you are limiting your praying to those few moments during the day or week when you actually intend to talk to God. Notice that your whole life is a conversation with God. If that doesn't change the thoughts you allow yourself to entertain, the words you allow to escape from your lips, and the things you allow yourself to do, nothing will.
Yet if you do change these things, you will find that your entire life will have changed, for the very prayers you have sent out will have produced the answers for which you have waited.
| found this article while searching for some info re Kalibo. But all the blessings will start to pour in now that more and more people are informed about what happened. slowly, Kalibonhons will rise from this.... |
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| by Carmela Fonbuena |
| Thursday, 26 June 2008 |
| It’s been five days since Typhoon Frank ravaged the town of "So far we haven’t received relief assistance. The municipal government does not have the money to buy the people’s needs," Kalibo Mayor Raymar Rebaldo told abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak when we called him to verify the reports. "There’s no food. There’s no water," said resident Ursula Equiña. "Stores are closed because they were damaged by the typhoon." One supermarket opened today but Equiña said people are "panic buying." The lines are long and not all people can go inside the store to buy what they need, she said. "They have to fight with the others to go inside." Equiña had to go to another town to buy her family’s supply. The mayor said there’s a shortage of potable water because the local water district cannot operate. The generator is submerged up to now. Not all areas have water pumps. The mayor of neighboring town of Because of limited supply, the prices of all commodities have gone up. A ganta (2.4 kilos) of commercial rice, which sold at P65 to P70 before the typhoon, now sells at P120 to P150. Fortunately, the National Food Authority loaned the municipal government several sacks of rice. Rebaldo said these have been distributed to the poorest residents of the different barangays. But the supply will not last very long. "These are all on loan. We don’t have money in the municipal government," Rebaldo said. The flashflood also killed most of the livestock of the town. "In one barangay, 200 cows drowned," the mayor said. Many pigs, chicken and carabaos also died during the typhoon, he said. Water reached a low of 8 feet to a high of 12 feet in the entire town. The waters are gone now but mud is up to one foot high. Kalibo is the catch basin of Aklan. (Aklan means river in English.) "We have rice but we don’t have viand," Rebaldo said. Abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak received a report that residents are afraid that the meat sold in the market are double-dead. Prices of fish—which come from Aklan is a province of western Visayas, the worst hit by Typhoon Frank. The neighboring town of The National Disaster Coordinating Council has since Monday flown C-130 planes to deliver relief goods to the region. Apparently, Kalibo was not able to get a share. Vice President Noli De Castro visited Kalibo today but he was not able to meet with Rebaldo. "The coordinator [of De Castro’s trip] told me to meet the Vice President Noli De Castro at the airport, but I cannot leave the municipal hall because people are already fighting over food and water supply," he told abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak. (abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak) |
