Canticle of the Sun
by Thomas Peter Ng
This year, the Buddhist
Vesak Day coincides with
the feast day of Our Lady
of Fatima on 13 May. As
most of us may have
Buddhist friends and
relatives, I would like to
share the following with
the readers.
Occasionally,
when
sharing our Faith with
some Buddhists who are
interested in what we
believe in, we might
encounter their comment
on the 'great nature' or
the 'natural law' of
heaven
likewise
we
Catholics use to mention
the natural law of God.
Th e
Buddhists
often
mention Father Heaven
and Mother Earth. For
they believe that through
them, all things would be
regulated in their natural
or d e r .
Catholics, of course, can
accept their idea and
compare it with our
Catholic prayers, psalms
and hymns. Perhaps the
most suitable comparison
is the hymn of Canticle of
the Sun, by S. Temple. Let
us look at some lyrics
from the hymn:
1. Be praised, Most
High, Almighty Lord
…. For all eternity.
Be praised, Lord of
the creature world,
And first Sir Brother
Sun,
Who through the day
and light you give,
Reflects you, O Holy
On e .
2. Be praised through
Sister Mother Earth,
For she sustains and
guides our way,
And yields so many
fruits and grass,
And flowers to
brighten our day …..
The devoted Buddhists
who use the terms of
Father
Heaven
and
Mother Earth are actually
(unknowingly) referring
to
the
Mos t
High,
Almighty
L or d
who
creates all things and
gives lives on this planet
which is regarded by
them as Mother Earth.
When they meditate and
harmonize
themselves
with Heaven, they are
actually
keeping
themselves
in
communion with God
whom we Catholics call
Heavenly Father.
Apart from discussing
with Buddhist friends
and relatives on the
similar
teachings
of
Buddha
and
Christ,
Catholics can show them
how to sing this hymn
with CD or VCD. We also
can recommend them to
watch the film show (in
Video tape or VCD) of
Brother Sun & Sister
Moon which narrates the
life of St Francis of Assisi.
This is because some
Buddhists
give
commendation that this
FOURTH SUNDAY OF
EASTER - 11 May
A Christopher Prayer
Ignatius writes about
for Mother’s Day
work and human effort in
a letter to an aristocrat
Lord, today we thank You
named Jerome Vines,
for our mothers: the ones
whom I imagine was a
busy, hard-charging, Type who gave us life, the ones
A character who was who chose us through
a nd
the
getting upset about the adoption,
fate of his many projects. unofficial mothers who
a
strong
and
A busy man, Ignatius were
writes, “must make up his compassionate presence
our
biological
mind to do what he can, when
m
o
t
h
e
r
s
w
e
r
e
n
’
t
up to the
without afflicting himself
if he cannot do all that he task.
We remember the love
wishes. You must have
patience and not think with which they cared for
that God our Lord us when we were most
requires what man cannot vulnerable; the tears they
accomplish.”
He dried and fears they
concludes
with
this: soothed when we were
“There is no need to wear troubled; the encourageyourself out, but make a ment they offered when
competent and sufficient we had little faith in
effort, and leave the rest ourselves; the guidance
to him who can do all he they provided when we
pleases.”
felt lost; the worries they
Jim Manney endured when we were
growing up; the strength it
LOYOLA PRESS
took to hold us close, yet
A JESUIT MINISTRY
let us fly.
We pray that our
mothers who are no longer
with us are embraced by
Your love in the next life;
that
future
mothers,
expectant mothers and
new mothers experience
the joys that come from
putting a child’s needs
Let us always
ahead of their own, even
when the sacrifices seem
meet each other
challenging;
that
our
with smile, for the
mothers who are still
living experience Your
smile is the
enduring and ever-present
(N.B. The hymn of Canticle of
beginning of love.
love
through
the
the Sun can be obtained in CD
appreciation and gratitude
and in VCD Karaoke singing.)
that we, their children,
show them not just this
Sacred Space
Saint could meditate well
and was a friend to small
animals.
I still remember that in
my younger days, my
uncle gave the holy
picture of St Francis (with
small animals and birds)
to his Buddhist friends,
and eventually converted
a few of them. We
Catholics certainly can
reflect on St Francis'
prayer: “ … to be
understood
as
to
understand, to be loved
as to love; for it is in
giving
(sharing
or
reaching out) that we
receive …..”
In the
Catechism of the Catholic
Church, section 836, we
learn that: “All men are
called to this Catholic
Unity of the People of
God … all mankind,
called by God's grace to
salvation.”
The CCC teaching is
true. I personally believe
that by reaching out to
the
Buddhists
with
something
common
(including the hymn of
Canticle of the Sun), we
may create their interest
to know more about our
religion. Then, we will be
able to bring them to
participate
in
our
activities
a nd
programmes like Alpha
or RCIA.
from page 3
.

day, but throughout the a fund for needy families.
year. Amen.
It is possible to make
amends long after the fact.
Honour your mother.
Tobit 4:3 If they repent with all
their heart and soul…
Bless and protect all forgive Your people.
mothers, Heavenly Father.
1 Kings 8:48-50

God, help us atone when

we’re in the wrong.
MONDAY, 12 May

Ss Nereus & Achilleus,
and St Pancras, martyrs
TUESDAY, 13 May (PH)
Righting a Wrong
Our Lady of Fatima
Occasionally you’ll hear Comforting Care
about a robber guiltily
returning
stolen Medical writer Karen
notes
that
merchandise. But settling Rafinski
accounts 60 years after the palliative care is often
confused with hospice
fact?
A recent news report care, even by doctors.
Both forms of care focus
notes the experience of
helping
patients
one elderly man who on
confessed to stealing from manage pain, for instance.
use
an
a Seattle department store They
team
decades ago. He paid the interdisciplinary
cash back with interest in a approach and offer various
such
as
hand-delivered envelope. services
“But if
His note read: “During the counselling.
late forties I stole some hospice care is about a
money from the cash good death, palliative care
register in the amount of is about making the most
$20-$30. I want to pay you of life with a serious
whether
the
back this money in the illness,
amount of $100 to put in disease is terminal or not,”
writes Rafinski in the
your theft account.”
Customers found the AARP bulletin.
Hospice helps people
gesture awesome and
heart-warming. The store who no longer need or
manager thinks the man’s want to treat their disease.
“conscience must have Patients with palliative
been bothering him for the care are still fighting their
condition and studies
past 60 years.”
Although
security show it makes a difference
cameras caught the man in quality of life. More
dropping off his envelope, information is available
sites
like
store personnel said they from
or
didn’t recognize him and getpalliativecare.org
weren’t inclined to pursue palliativedoctors.org.
the matter. They planned “Patients should not be
to contribute the money to afraid to ask for a
palliative
care
consultation,”
says
researcher Thomas Smith,
M.D. “It doesn’t mean
they’ll die sooner. In fact,
they might live better and
longer.”
This is my comfort in my
distress,
that
Your
promise gives me life.
Psalm 119:50
Comfort us, Lord, during
our times of need.


WEDNESDAY, 14 May
St Matthias, apostle
Dreams of Possibility
The Chief Rabbi of
England’s United Hebrew
Congregations,
Lord
Jonathan Sacks, often gets
asked for advice by college
graduates moving into a
new phase of their lives.
The first thing he tells
them is to dream. Rabbi
Sacks writes, “The least
practical activity turns out
to be the most practical,
and most often left
undone. I know people
who
spend
months
planning a holiday but
very little time planning a
life. Imagine setting out on
a journey without deciding
where you are going
to…You will never reach
your destination because
you never decided where
you want to be.”
Rabbi Sacks concludes,
“Dreams are where we
visit many lands and
landscapes
of
human
possibility and discover
the one where we feel at
home. Within my own
tradition there was Moses,
who dreamed of a land
flowing with milk and
honey, and Isaiah who
dreamed of a world at
peace. One of the greatest
speeches of the 20th
century was Martin Luther
King’s ‘I have a dream.’ If I
were
to
design
a
curriculum for happiness,
dreaming would be a
compulsory course.”
away has an Ultimate
Source.
In short, Lynn GoodmanStrauss reaches out a hand
where others might recoil
in fear. She lives the life of
a Christopher every day,
but has little time for
compliments.
Instead
she’d prefer to boil some
more eggs, then head back
to the streets and start the
routine all over again.
He leads me in right
paths.
But when you give alms,
Psalm 23:3 do not let your right
hand know what your
Guide me to make the right left hand is doing…and
choices, Holy Spirit.
your Father who sees in

secret will reward you.
Today, the dish created as
a response to criticism
tops America’s favourite
snack list. In fact, one
estimate puts U.S. annual
retail sales of potato chips
at more than $6 billion.
Sometimes our mistakes
open our eyes to better
possibilities—for us and
those around us.
active
virtue
with
behavioural consequences.
It’s not a retreat into
passivity or inactivity…
Humility gives us the
strength to let God be God
and to realize we are not
God.”
God exults not only in
our repentance, but in our
actions that give meaning
to our humble spirits. May
I am about to do a new we always be genuinely
thing; now it springs modest in the eyes of our
forth,
do
you
not Lord.
perceive it? I will make a
way in the wilderness Blessed are the meek, for
and rivers in the desert.
they will inherit the
Isaiah 43:19 earth.
Matthew 5:5
Keep me open to the
wonder
around
me, Abba, may we value our
THURSDAY, 15 May
G
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,
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ou successes without growing
The Egg Lady
honestly in Your righteous have given me.
prideful.
Three Minutes a Day


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

n
a
m
e
.
She’s known as “The Egg
THE CHRISTOPHERS





Lady,” but her reach goes

SATURDAY, 17 May
far beyond a carton of
FRIDAY, 16 May
The Strength in Humility
eggs. Lynn Goodmanearn to live and
Strauss earned that name The Potato Chip’s
m
o
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e
in the Spirit, then
From a worldly, selfbecause each morning at Beginnings
t
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is no danger of
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7:30 she stands at a day
g
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Springs, New York, one quality, often portrayed as
boiled eggs.
GALATIANS 5: 16-17
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That’s just for starters.
She also has coffee and fries to the kitchen, sense of excessive selfHERE & NOW
tortillas for those who complaining they were too worth. Yet, according to
teaching,
the Living in the Spirit
want them, and then she thick. The chef, George Church
gets to the business at Crum, mildly insulted, quality of being truly
HENRY J.M. NOUWEN
hand: running Mary House, decided to go to the other humble points Christians
sending
out towards a more selfless,
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Belovedness
There she’s a whirlwind a hit, and the “Saratoga “First, humility directs us
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about
our identity is that we are
and hands out clothes. She baskets of his chips on more
never forgets a prayer, every table. Before a new relationships with others God’s children, the
sons
and
either, assuring her clients century dawned, Crum’s and with God and less an beloved
of
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that everything she gives chips would become an attitude about ourselves. daughters
Father.
item for sale at grocery Second, humility is an heavenly
Jesus’ life reveals to us
stores.
Matthew 6:3,4
L
this mysterious truth.
After
Jesus
was
baptized in the Jordan
by John, as he was
coming up out of the
water, he saw the
heavens torn apart and
the Spirit, like a dove,
descending on him.
And a voice came from
heaven: “You are my
Son, the Beloved; my
favour rests on you”
(Mark 1: 10-11). This
is the decisive moment
of Jesus’ life. His true
identity is declared to
him. He is the Beloved
of God.
As “the
Beloved” he is being
sent into the world so
that through him all
people will discover
and claim their own
belovedness.
But the same Spirit
who
descended
on
Jesus and affirmed his
identity as the Beloved
Son of God also drove
him into the desert to
be tested by Satan.
Satan asked him to
prove his belovedness
by changing stones to
bread,
by
throwing
himself
from
the
temple tower to be
carried by angels, and
by
accepting
the
kingdoms of the world.
But
Jesus
resisted
these temptations of
success,
popularity,
and power by claiming
strongly for himself his
true identity.
Jesus
didn’t have to prove to
the world that he was
worthy of love.
He
already
was
the
“Beloved,” and
this
Belovedness
allowed
him to live free from
the
manipulative
games of the world,
always faithful to the
voice that had spoken
to him at the Jordan.
Jesus’ whole life was a
life of obedience, of
attentive listening to
the One who called him
the
Beloved.
Everything that Jesus
said or did came forth
from
that
m ost
intimate
spiritual
communion.
Jesus’
revealed to us that we
sinful, broken human
beings are invited to
that same communion
that Jesus lived, that
we are the beloved sons
and daughters of God
just as he is the
Beloved Son, that we
are sent into the world
to
proclaim
the
belovedness
of
all
people as he was and
that we will finally
escape the destructive
powers of death as he
did.
STORIES
TO MAKE YOU
THINK
Peace of mind
Once
Buddha was walking
from one town to another
town with a few of his
followers. This was in the
initial days. While they were
travelling, they happened to
pass a lake. They stopped
there and Buddha told one of
his disciples, “ I am thirsty.
Do get me some water from
that lake there.”
The disciple walked up to the
lake. When he reached it, he
noticed that some people
were washing clothes in the
water and, right at that
moment, a bullock cart started
crossing through the lake. As
a result, the water became
very muddy, very turbid. The
disciple thought, “ How can I
give this muddy water to
Buddha to drink!” So he
came back and told Buddha,
‘The water in there is very
muddy. I don’t think it is fit to
drink.’”
After about half an hour,
again Buddha asked the
same disciple to go back to
the lake and get him some
water to drink. The disciple
obediently went back to the
lake. This time he found that
the lake had absolutely clear
water in it. The mud had
settled down and the water
above it looked fit to be had.
So he collected some water in
a pot and brought it to
Buddha.
Buddha looked at the water,
and then he looked up at the
disciple and said, “ ’See
what you did to make the
water clean. You let it be ...
and the mud settled down on
its own – and you got clear
water... Your mind is also like
that. When it is disturbed, just
let it be. Give it a little time. It
will settle down on its own.
You don’t have to put in any
effort to calm it down. It will
happen. It is effortless.’
What did Buddha emphasize
here? He said, ‘It is
effortless.’” Having 'peace
of mind' is not a strenuous
job; it is an effortless process.
When there is peace inside
you, that peace permeates to
the outside. It spreads around
you and in the environment,
such that people around start
feeling that peace and grace.
Sacred Space
Work as if
Everything
Depends on God
There’s
an old saying
that we should “pray as if
everything depends on
God; work as if everything
depends on you.” It’s been
attributed to Ignatius
(though
there’s
no
evidence that he said it),
and many think it
captures the Ignatian
spirit: turning it all over
to God in prayer and then
working tirelessly and
urgently to do God’s
work. I prefer to reverse
it: “Pray as if everything
depends on you; work as
if everything depends on
God.” This means that
prayer has to be urgent:
God has to do something
dramatic if everything
depends on me. It also
puts our work in the right
perspective: if it depends
on God, we can let it go.
We can work hard but
leave the outcome up to
him. If God is in charge
we can tolerate mixed
results
an d
endure
failure.
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