Villa la Paz Newsletter September 2014

Mission: the special duty or function for which someone is sent as a messenger or representative; the special task or purpose for which a person is apparently destined in life; calling
Webster’s New World Dictionary
Third College Edition

So many terrible things happen every day that we start wondering whether the few things we do ourselves make any sense. When people are starving only a few thousand miles away, when wars are raging close to our borders, when countless people in our own cities have no homes to live in, our own activities look futile. Such considerations can paralyze and depress us. Here the word call becomes important. We are not called to save the world, solve all problems, and help all people. But we each have our own unique call, in our families, in our work, in our world. We have to keep asking God to help us see clearly what our call is and to give us the strength to live out that call with trust. Then we will discover that our faithfulness to a small task is the most healing response to the illnesses of our time.
Henri Nouwen Society
Reflection for March 10, 2007

We in the church have to look around rather than up, look around to the sufferings and the struggles of people and nature. When we do look up it’s got to be with a plea that our hearts can be more attentive to the needs of others. God has empowered us. We can’t let God take the bum rap for why things aren’t done.
Father John Rausch
American Glenmary priest

God still loves the world and He sends you and me to be His love and His compassion to the poor.
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

It is daunting to realize that each of us has been given a mission, that we have been empowered by God to streets, clean public bathrooms, all of which, if done for the wellbeing of others, carry equal dignity. Each of us is a tiny tile in the grand mosaic of God’s creation and has a part to play, a mission, to ensure that the entire mosaic is complete. Without our contribution, as menial as we may think it is, God’s creation would be incomplete

How would we know that we are completing the mission to which God has enjoined us? We will know if we are at peace with ourselves and our situation in life. We will experience an inner peace that confirms we are doing God’s will. If that inner peace is lacking we are not doing what we were created for. We may not always be happy with our lot in life but feeling God’s peace is more important that happiness.

God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have a mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons; He has not created me for naught. I shall do good. I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments. Therefore I will trust him.
Blessed John Henry Newman

All the good that you will do will come not from you but from the fact that you have allowed yourself, in the obedience of faith, to be used by God’s love. Think of this more and gradually you will be free from the need to prove yourself, and you can be more open to the power that will work through you without your knowing it.
Thomas Merton

Here is a test to find out if your mission on earth is finished: if you’re alive, it isn’t.
Richard Bach

The children on these pages have also been given a mission, that of being a beacon of God’s unconditional love since children love unconditionally. They also teach us trust, hope and an indomitable will to triumph over our disabilities. They teach us patience and fortitude in suffering and provide us with a means to enter into their suffering and heal with them. They are gifts that enable us to forget our own needs and minister to another. In ministering to them we see the face of God and glimpse into heaven.

Thank you for supporting this mission. We love you and wish you God’s peace.