Help me Love others..

Lord God, help me to love those
whom I find it difficult to love.
Give me a heart that reaches out
to those I would otherwise ignore.
Give me the strength not to cross
on the other side of the road
but to play the part of the Samaritan.
This will not be easy, Lord.
It is not in my nature.
We spread our love thinly
among those we can relate to
those who share our values
and those who do not threaten
our comfortable lifestyle.
It's not easy, Lord
and on our own we shall fail.
But with your help all things are possible.
You led the way
and it is your example that we look to.
You turned the values of this world upside down.
Do the same with us. Lord.
Help us live the reality of your Love.

Descubriendo el Siglo 21

Discovering 21century

Fr Tomás Del Valle-Reyes

P. O. BOX 1170

New York, NY 10018

(212) 244 4778

www.descubriendoelsiglo21.com/

Can I Borrow $25?

A man came home from work late, tired and irritated, to find his 5-year old son waiting for him at the door.

SON: 'Daddy, may I ask you a question?'

DAD: 'Yeah sure, what it is?' replied the man.

SON: 'Daddy, how much do you make an hour?'
DAD: 'That's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?' the man said angrily.
SON: 'I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?'
DAD: 'If you must know, I make $50 an hour.'
SON: 'Oh,' the little boy replied, with his head down. 'Daddy, may I please borrow $25?'

The father was furious, 'If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I don't work hard everyday for such childish frivolities.'

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door . The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boys' questions.
How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?

After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down , and started to think: Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $25.00 and he really didn't ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door.

'Are you asleep, son?' He asked.

'No daddy, I'm awake,' replied the boy.
'I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier' said the man. 
'It's been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here's the $25 you asked for.'
The little boy sat straight up, smiling. 
'Oh, thank you daddy!' he yelled. 
Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills.

The man saw that the boy already had money, started to get angry again.

The little boy slowly counted out his money, and then looked up at his father.
'Why do you want more money if you already have some?' the father grumbled.


'Because I didn't have enough, but now I do,' the little boy replied. 
'Daddy, I have $50 now. 
Can I buy an hour of your time? 
Please come home early tomorrow. 
I would like to have dinner with you.'
The father was crushed. 
He put his arms around his little son, and he begged for his forgiveness.


It's just a short reminder to all of you working so hard in life.

We should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts.
Do remember to share that $50 worth of your time with someone you love.
If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of hours. 
But the family and friends we leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives.
From my house to yours 'The light of God surrounds us. 
The love of God enfolds us.
The power of God protects us. The presence of God watches over us.
Wherever we are God is and all is well.'
**GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME.....ALL THE TIME GOD IS GOOD**

Descubriendo el Siglo 21

Discovering 21century

Fr Tomás Del Valle-Reyes

P. O. BOX 1170

New York, NY 10018

(212) 244 4778

www.descubriendoelsiglo21.com/

The Smell of Rain

A cold March wind danced around the dead of night
in Dallas as the doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing.
Still groggy from surgery, her husband David held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news.
That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency cesarean to deliver the couple's new daughter, Danae Lu Blessing.
At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound and nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature.
Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs. 
 'I don't think she's going to make it', he said, as kindly as he could.
"There's only a 10-percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one."
Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Danae would likely face if she survived.
She would never walk, she would never talk, she would probably be blind, and she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation, and on and on.
"No! No!" was all Diana could say. 
She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four.
Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away.
Through the dark hours of morning as Danae held onto life by the thinnest thread, Diana slipped in and out of sleep, growing more and more determined that their tiny daughter would live-and live to be a healthy, happy young girl.
But David, fully awake and listening to additional dire details of their daughter's chances of ever leaving the hospital alive, much less healthy, knew he must confront his wife with the inevitable. David walked in and said that we needed to talk about making funeral arrangements.
Diana remembers 'I felt so bad for him because he was doing everything, trying to include me in what was going on, but I just wouldn't listen, I couldn't listen.'
I said, "No, that is not going to happen, no way! I don't care what the doctors say; Danae is not going to die! One day she will be just fine, and she will be coming home with us!"
As if willed to live by Diana's determination, Danae clung to life hour after hour, with the help of every medical machine and marvel her miniature body could endure.
But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana.
Because Danae's under-developed nervous system was essentially 'raw,' the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort, so they couldn't even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love.
All they could do, as Danae struggled alone beneath the ultraviolet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl.
There was never a moment when Danae suddenly grew stronger.
But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there.
At last, when Danae turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time.
And two months later-though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero.
Danae went home from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted.
Today, five years later, Danae is a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life.
She shows no signs, what so ever, of any mental or physical impairment. 
Simply, she is everything a little girl can be and more-but that happy ending is far from the end of her story.
One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving, Texas, Danae was sitting in her mother's lap in the bleachers of a local ballpark where her brother Dustin's baseball team was practicing. 
As always, Danae was chattering non-stop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms across her chest, Danae asked, "Do you smell that?" Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, "Yes, it smells like rain."
Danae closed her eyes and again asked, "Do you smell that?"
Once again, her mother replied, "Yes, I think we're about to get wet, it smells like rain."
Still caught in the moment, Danae shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, "No, it smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest."
Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Danae then happily hopped down to play with the other children.
Before the rains came, her daughter's words confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along.
During those long days and nights of her first two months of her life, when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Danae on His chest and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well.
This is a True Story -- Pass it On!

Descubriendo el Siglo 21

Discovering 21century

Fr Tomás Del Valle-Reyes

P. O. BOX 1170

New York, NY 10018

(212) 244 4778

www.descubriendoelsiglo21.com/

“Thank God for your blessings”

If you think you have huge tension, look at them...

If you think your job is tough, how about him?

If you think your salary is low, how about her?

If you think you don't have many friends, ask yourself if you have one sincere friend...as... this Dog..

You think, study is a burden, how about her?

When you feel like giving up, think of this man..

If you think you suffer in life, do you suffer as much as he does?

If you complain about your transport system, how about them?

If your society is unfair to you, how about her?

Always 'be positive'...... No Matter What…

Descubriendo el Siglo 21

Discovering 21century

Fr Tomás Del Valle-Reyes

P. O. BOX 1170

New York, NY 10018

(212) 244 4778

www.descubriendoelsiglo21.com/

Prayer on Easter

Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us a little child one of us, flesh and blood to share in our humanityFor God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life

Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as carpenterand yet in whose creative hands a world was fashionedFor God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life

Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as fishermanand yet pointed to a harvest that was yet to come For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life

Bless are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as teacher and opened eyes to truths that only the poor could understand For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life

Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as healer and opened hearts to the reality of wholeness
For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life

Bless are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as prophet, priest and king and yet humbled himself to take our place upon the cross For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life

Bless are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as servant revealed to us the extent of his Father's love for human kind For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life

Bless are you, Lord Jesus, who rose from the ignominy of a sinner's death to the triumph of a Savior’s resurrection For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son for the sake of mean you and other sinners too God so loved the world Bless are you Lord Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer
From the beginning you knew the final outcome watched as the jigsaw pieces were slotted into place saw the significance of every moment. 
As your body was anointed with oil at the table of Simon the Leper the picture was becoming clearer not only in your eyes but to an unknown woman and one of your closest friends.
Judas sensed that this was his moment sacrificing trust that had been so freely given on the altar of selfish gain for his fifteen allotted minutes of fame and thirty pieces of silver The woman recognized the moment.
She gave generously unselfishly a costly gift, freely offered. 
A fragrant sacrifice of perfume and love remembered forever in your heart.
And as Judas slipped away unnoticed your disciples saw none of this failed to see the significance of the moment.
Two sacrifices, one of trust and one of love.
But you noticed, Lord as you notice each day our sacrificial offering and betrayal.

Descubriendo el Siglo 21

Discovering 21century

Fr Tomás Del Valle-Reyes

P. O. BOX 1170

New York, NY 10018

(212) 244 4778

www.descubriendoelsiglo21.com/

The World is Mine

The World is Mine Today, upon a bus, 
I saw a very beautiful woman.
And wished I were as beautiful.
When suddenly she rose to leave,
I saw her hobble down the aisle.
She had one leg and wore a crutch.
But as she passed, she passed a smile.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.
I have two legs; the world is mine.
I stopped to buy some candy.
The lad who sold it had such charm.
I talked with him, he seemed so glad.
If I were late, it'd do no harm.
And as I left, he said to me, "I thank you, you've been so kind. It's nice to talk with folks like you.
You see," he said, "I'm blind."
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.
I have two eyes; the world is mine.
Later while walking down the street, 
I saw a child I knew.
He stood and watched the others play, but he did not know what to do.
I stopped a moment and then I said, "Why don't you join them dear?"
He looked ahead without a word.
I forgot, he couldn't hear.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine. I have two ears; the world is mine.
With feet to take me where I'd go.
With eyes to see the sunset's glow. 
With ears to hear what I'd know. Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.
I've been blessed indeed, the world is mine.
Author Unknown

Descubriendo el Siglo 21

Discovering 21century

Fr Tomás Del Valle-Reyes

P. O. BOX 1170

New York, NY 10018

(212) 244 4778

www.descubriendoelsiglo21.com/