Readings from Fr. John Furniss

[Shin]

I love the great question and wonder how many people actually do think about it. And what they do think when they do.

Fr. Furniss certainly puts wealth in its place.

[Therese]

I'm a tiny part of the manual labor. 

 

[odhiambo]

"Time is money", so the saying goes.
I am reminded of a college mate who was overheard talking to herself in her room. She reportedly said: "money is so important, the day I get my money....!" followed by some corresponding exclamation  
Fr. Furniss is so right. So many of us are so busy running after money, we neglect God and we neglect our famillies.
We need to stop and reflect where it is all leading us.

[Shin]

'Time is money' you're reminding me of another phrase odhiambo!

'Killing time'. It makes me how on occasion people do things to 'kill time', and how I've done so.

Now I'm shaking my head thinking about it.

[Shin]

CHAPTER IX.
DID GOD CREATE US TO EAT AND DRINK AND ENJOY OURSELVES?

MANY people think that the great thing in this life is to eat and drink and enjoy themselves. "Their God is their belly; their end is destruction." Phil. iii. There was once a man who spoke thus to himself. Luke xii.: "My soul," he said, "we have much goods laud up for many years, let us eat and drink and enjoy ourselves." When it was night, Almighty God came to that man and said to him: You fool, you fool, because you thought that you were made to eat and drink and enjoy yourself -- you fool, because you did not know what you were created for -- you fool, this night you will die! and those goods which you have laid up for many years, whose shall they be? Luke xii. The number of fools is infinite; Eccus. i. Then God did not create you to get money. He did not create you to eat and drink and enjoy yourself. Then why did God create you? Why did he give you a body and soul? Why did he put you in this world? What was it for? What are you for? You know very well what other things are for. Your hat you know is for your head; your shoes for your feet; a spade to dig with; a spoon to drink with. No child is so ignorant as to drink with a spade and dig with a spoon. You know what other things are for. Thus what are you for yourself? Why did God create you? This great question shall now be answered.

[odhiambo]

'Time is money' you're reminding me of another phrase odhiambo!

'Killing time'. It makes me how on occasion people do things to 'kill time', and how I've done so.

Now I'm shaking my head thinking about it.

I did kill time too and now I wonder whether I will ever have enough time to read and really understand the Bible

[odhiambo]

DID GOD CREATE US TO EAT AND DRINK AND ENJOY OURSELVES?

I recall reading in the newspaper, not very long ago about a man who beat his wife silly because the portion of the one kilo of meat he had bought for the family dinner was reportedly too little.
And again a mother who burned the hands of her seven year old son to teach him a lesson for reportedly eating fish meant for the whole family.
There are indeed people who behave as if they live to eat rather than eat to live.
Lord have mercy on us all.

[Shin]

CHAPTER X.

THE ANSWER TO THE GREAT QUESTION.

THERE is a little book. You have seen this book sometime in your life. Perhaps it is long since you saw it, and you no longer remember it. The book is called, the Catechism. One of the first questions in the Catechism is this. Who made you? The answer to this question is: God made me. Then comes the next question: Why did God make you? The answer: God made me to know him, and love him, and serve him in this life, and to be happy with him forever in the next life. Behold, then, the answer to the great question: God made you to serve him. This is the one great thing you have to do while you live, "the one thing necessary," Luke x., to serve God! To serve God with your body -- to serve God with your eyes, with your tongue, with your hands, with your feet -- to serve God with your soul -- to serve God by day and by night, in the light and in the dark -- to serve God with every breath that you breathe -- to serve God in holiness and justice before Him all your days, Luc. i., till you breathe out your last breath! A fish is made to swim, a bird to fly; but you are made to serve God. The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve, Matt. v. To serve God, St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi says, is to be a king. If you serve God, you will be happy for ever in Heaven; if you will not serve God, you will burn for ever in Hell.

[martin]

That brings to mind the first great commandment; to love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
To love God with the soul through prayer and reception of the sacraments;
To love God with the mind through contemplation and study of holy literature,
and with all ones strength through manual labor and mortification of the body.

I don't have references but I got this once as an aid in examination of conscience with a view to eradicating recurring sins by spotting the weak areas in my love of God.

The second great commandment -Love your neighbor as yourself- can sometimes become a substitute for the first (as in, if I just do good to my neighbor all will be well) but can we really love our neighbor if we neglect the love of God?
We are commanded to love God above our very selves but commanded to love our neighbor in a lesser way (as ourselves). Love our neighbor for the sake of our love for God.

Getting things the right way round and putting God first is an important lesson I'm learning and I don't have unlimited time to get it right but one must start somewhere 
Ah... Thanks be to God for the saints who help us. 

[Shin]

It's such a necessary lesson  Martin.. Everything for the sake of God.. !

[Shin]

CHAPTER XI.

TO SERVE GOD -- WHAT IS IT?

A CHILD says: I would be very glad to serve God, but I do not know how to serve God. What does that mean -- to serve God? Listen, my child, and I will tell you what it is to serve God.

To commit no sin against the commandments of God -- that is to serve God; for thou, O God, hast commanded thy commandments to be kept most diligently; Ps. cxviii. Not to consult fortune-tellers, for the Lord abhorreth these things; Deut. xviii. Not to tempt the Lord thy God by despair or presumption; Matt. iv. Not to behave ill to what is holy; for every man that approacheth sinfully to what is holy shall perish before the Lord; Levit. xxii. Not to blaspheme the name of God, for his name is holy and terrible; Ps. cx. Not to curse your neighbor: Bless, and curse not; Rom. xiv. Not to swear either by the name of God or by any of his creatures, but let your speech be yea, yea, and no, no; Matt. v. Not to refuse to your parents love, honor, and obedience: He that honoreth his father shall be a comfort to his mother; Eccus. iii. And you, parents, bring up your children in the discipline and correction of the Lord; Ephes. vi. Not to keep spite in your heart, nor to render to any man evil for evil, nor to revenge yourself; but, if thy enemy be hungry, give him to eat; if he be thirsty, give him to drink; Rom. xii. Not to scandalize or ruin any soul for which Christ died -- For woe to that man by whom scandal cometh; Matt. xviii. Nor yet to follow bad example; but be even as Tobias, who, when all went to adore the golden calves, he alone fled the company of all; Tob. i. Not to get drunk -- For drunkards shall not obtain the kingdom of heaven; Gal. v. To do no immodest thing -- "Put away evil from thy flesh;" Eccus. xi. "With all watchfulness keep thy heart;" Prov. iv. "Turn away thy eyes that they behold not vanity;" Ps. cxviii. "Make a covenant with thy eyes not to think of what is evil;" Job xxxi. "Hedge in thy ears with thorns that they hear not a wicked tongue, and make doors and bars to thy own mouth;" Eccus. xxviii. Not to go into bad company -- "Go not into the way of ruin;" Eccus xxii. "Flee from it, and save your life;" Jer. xiviii. Not to steal -- "Thou shalt not steal;" Exod. xx. "Goods unjustly gotten shall not profit thee;" Eccus. v. Not to detract, or calumniate, or slander, or backbite your neighbor -- "Speak evil of no man;" Tit. iii. "The tongue is an unquiet evil, full of deadly poison;" James iii. Not to tell lies -- "Speak ye the truth every man with his neighbor;" Ephes. iv. Not to commit any of these sins IS -- to serve God. To keep the commandments of the Church, and not to break the abstinence or the fast -- that is to serve God. "For he who will not hear the Church is as a heathen and publican;" Matt. xviii. To say your morning and night prayers -- to go to Mass on Sundays -- to go every month to the Sacrament -- to do all, whatsoever you do, in word or in work, for the glory of God; Col. iii. Bring to the Lord glory and honor, Ps. xxviii,; and be not as the heathens, who, when they knew God, have not glorified him as God, and, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools; wherefore God gave them up to a reprobate sense; Rom. i.

You shall know now what it is to serve God. "Do this, and thou shalt live," Luke x. Do you want to know what it is to serve God? See that servant -- she is in place, in a situation, in the service of her mistress. She takes care, first of all, never to do any thing which she knows will displease her mistress. From the morning till night she does the will of her mistress. Whatever her mistress bids her to do she does it. Does her mistress bid her to go to the market -- she goes to the market. Does her mistress bid her to stop at home -- she stops at home. Does her mistress bid her to get the food ready for the household -- she gets it read. Does her mistress bid her to wash or sew -- she washes or sews. Even as the centurion said to Jesus Christ: "I say to this one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it;" Matt. viii. That servant, moreover, watches carefully to see that nobody does any harm to the goods of her mistress. Why does that servant work so hard in the service of her mistress? In order to get a small monthly wage. Do you work as hard in the service of God as that servant in the service of her mistress, and you will not get a small monthly wage, but an everlasting reward in the Kingdom of Heaven -- life everlasting; Matt. xix.

[Shin]

"but let your speech be yea, yea, and no, no;"

How complicated and ambiguous are the moral instructions we are told these days!

Not to behave ill to what is holy; for every man that approacheth sinfully to what is holy shall perish before the Lord; Levit. xxii.

A dreadful indictment for all...

Not to commit any of these sins IS -- to serve God.

Many memorable statements..

[Therese]

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
To love God with the soul through prayer and reception of the sacraments;
To love God with the mind through contemplation and study of holy literature,
and with all ones strength through manual labor and mortification of the body.

Yes!  This is how we are to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.  I will remember this passage.

[Shin]

CHAPTER XII.

DO PEOPLE SERVE GOD.

1. GOD has created men to serve him. Do they serve him? Look at the world. See the little children. How many are there of them, seven or eight years of age, never going to Mass on Sundays? How many, ten or twelve years of age, who never went to Confession? See that child, it never says its morning prayers, and seldom its night prayers. On Monday morning it is sent to school with its school wages. It stops away from school, and steals the school wages. Watch it when it is at home; you will see it putting its hand into its mother's pocket, and stealing the pennies. It is sent to the shop, and gets too much money in change, and this it steals. What does the child do with the money it steals? Does it give it to the poor? No such thing; it spends the money in buying taffy and sweet things. The child is sent on an errand; it begins to cry, or it says, "I shan't go, I won't go." Would you believe that this child has a habit of telling lies? The child is corrected by its mother; it gets sulky, or it gives back answers, or it looks cross. The child has run out of the house. Where is it? They seek it, and find it playing about the streets with naughty companions. Is this serving God?

Now, let us go to persons from the age of ten or twelve to the age of twenty. A great many of them are working in the factories and mills. Do they serve God? See that factory boy. I will tell you his history. He left school when he was about nine years of age; he was then a half-timer. Now he is older, about eighteen, in full work. What is his life? It is a week-day morning. He sleeps till it is time to go to the factory; he sets off to the factory in a hurry, without one word of prayer to God, who has preserved him during the night. Now, he is coming into the factory. Does he offer his work to God? or does he pray to God to take care of him, or say a Hail Mary lest he should be catched by some rope or strap, and lose one of his limbs, or, perhaps, even his life? No he never thinks of it. At the first trifle which vexes him, he says some scandalous curse. Does he watch over his eyes or his thoughts for fear of temptation? No; but you will hear from his mouth continually bad, shameful words, such as St. Paul forbids to be even named amongst Christians. But there is something worse than this. He does in the factory wicked actions, and he has been known, when he left the factory, to lie in wait in the streets -- what for? To ruin souls for which Christ died. He comes home to his meals, perhaps they are not ready; again you will hear him cursing in his impatience. In the evening you will not find him at home. Where is he? In the dancing-house, or he is keeping company out of the sight of his parents. It is Saturday evening. He has received his wages. He keeps back part of them. What does he do with the money? Look at him; he is walking through the street which leads to the public house, or the whiskey-shop. Sunday morning has come. The last Mass is over at the chapel. The factory boy is still in bed. At last he is risen, and had his breakfast, and sets off. Where does he go to? is it to the chapel to pray? No, he sets off to join some idle company, and he spends in gambling, in pitch-and-toss, what he stole of his wages, while his little brothers and sisters have no shoes on their feet, and are crying for bread. Is he found at the Sunday School? Go there, and you will see that his place is empty. It is Sunday evening.

Where is the factory girl? Is she at chapel? No; she is walking the dark streets, or on a lonesome road; keeping company, without the knowledge of her parents, or against their will, or against her own conscience. There is another factory boy. He lives no longer with his father and mother; he left them. He got 10s. a week. One night he came home late, for which his father scolded him. The boy said to himself: I will not be scolded by my father any more. So he went away from his father, and took lodgings for himself. So it is with many factory boys and girls; and so it is with many boys and girls who work in shops, or at the docks, or in the fields, or who polish shoes, or carry baskets. There are other children to whom God gives the blessings of a good education in a house where they hear Mass every day, and can go often to the Sacraments, where they do not meet with the temptations which come upon the children of the poor; where they are trained to good habits by the discipline of wise rules for their conduct. God has given these advantages for this, and this only -- that they may learn to serve Him. To whom much is given, of him much will be required; Luke xii. Yet, what is the fruit of these advantages in some of those who possess them? That boy who, in his youth, is indifferent about Mass, and careless about the Sacraments, is it wonderful if, in his manhood, he gives scandal by an irreligious life? If, in a house where it is almost impossible to meet with bad company, he sought the company of those who gave the least edification, are you surprised if, when he is gone into the world, he is to be found in the company of those whose ways are evil, and who ruin him?

[Shin]

2. It is bad company which most frequently draws people from the service of God. "Evil communications corrupt good manners;" 1 Cor. xv. Bad company is an evil thing in childhood, although it is commonly a worse thing in youth. You shall hear the history of a little girl who went into bad company, mentioned by St. Alphonsus. This little girl lived in a certain town, and went every day to learn her lessons at the Convent school, taught by the nuns. One morning, after breakfast, she took the little bag in which she carried her books, opened the street door, and set off to the Convent school. She was going along the street which leads to the Convent, when it happened that a wicked boy met her. He stopped her and said: Little girl, where are you going? The girl answered: I am going to the Convent school. But, said the boy, look what a fine day it is, how brightly the sun shines! You had better come along with me, and we will go and play in the fields. Nobody will know any thing about it. Very well, said the little foolish little girl, I will go along with you, and we will play in the fields. Now she has got into bad company! They set off, walked out of the town, and went into the fields. They stayed in the fields all the morning. In the middle of that morning they did a very wicked thing -- they committed a mortal sin. It is not said what the mortal sin was. They knew that it was a mortal sin, and that they deserved to go to Hell for it. The morning was over. They went back to the town. The boy went away. The little girl never saw him any more. She went home. The child did not tell its parents where it had been, nor what it had been doing. She sat down and ate her dinner as usual. In the evening the little girl felt very poorly, and was put to bed. Next morning, she was much worse. It happened that a woman, one of the neighbors, came into the house. As soon as the woman had seen the child, she said to the mother: "For God's sake, send directly for the priest, your child is dying." One of the brothers was sent off in haste to call the priest. When the boy came to the priest's house, he found the priest was not at home; he had gone a long way off to see somebody else who was sick, and so the priest was not able to come before the poor child died.

Now you will hear how this child, who went into bad company, died. Already the paleness of death was on the child's face. Death was coming on it fast. It might be about a quarter of an hour before it died. The mother was standing at the window, looking out anxiously to see was the priest coming. Suddenly the mother heard the little child scream. She ran to the bedside, and found the child sitting up in the bed. My poor child, said the mother, what is the matter, why did you scream? The little girl lifted up her finger and pointed to one side of the bed, and said: Look there, mother, do you not see them? No, said the mother, I do not see any thing. Then the child pointed again and said: "There mother, there they are, the black people, they are standing close to me." Again the child screamed. Then the mother said: My poor child, do not mind the black people; the priest will soon come, and he will send the black people away. Then the mother gently laid the little child's head down on the pillow. Be quiet, my dear child, she said, all will be right when the priest comes. The mother went back to the window to watch for the priest. She had been there only a few minutes when there was another most frightful scream. The mother ran quickly to the bed-side. It was frightful to see the poor thing. She was sitting up as before, but she did not look into her mother's face any more. Her eyes, which seemed like two fireballs, were fixed fast on something she was looking at near the bed-side. The mother laid her hand on the forehead of the child. She could feel the blood beating against it in the inside. Still the child did not look at its mother. It neither stirred nor spoke. The mother knew not what to think, she remained silent.  Suddenly the little child turned its head round, and looking up into its mother's face screamed out: "Oh, mother! the black people have come back again; they are -- they speak to me -- they tell me that they are the devils, that that they are come to fetch my poor soul to Hell!" As soon as the little girl had said these words, she fell back on her pillow. Her mother looked at her -- she was dead, and the devils had carried her soul to Hell to burn there for ever and ever!

Understand how this was. God had created this child to serve him, and the child knew that it ought to serve God. Then there came a moment in the life of that child. In that moment, the devil brought a temptation to lead the child away from the service of God. Then the child thought to itself: Shall I go on serving God, or shall I consent to this temptation and serve God no longer? I know that this is a mortal sin, and that if I consent to it, I shall deserve to go to Hell for it. Then the child knowingly and willingly consented to the temptation. Therefore the devils came when the child was dying and took the soul to Hell. Poor child, you died without confession, you died without contrition; you were frightened when the devils came to you; but that was not enough; you ought to have been sorry for your sin. If, with a sincere heart, you had said when you were dying, "Oh, my God! I am very sorry that I have sinned against thee, because thou art so good, and I will not sin again," then God would have forgiven your sin, although the priest could not come to you. But you died without contrition, and therefore you must burn forever in Hell! Poor child, we would pray for you, if by praying we could get you out of Hell. But the time for praying for you is passed -- you are fixed forever in Hell because you would not serve God.

Poor little child, we can almost hear your voice. Yes, we hear you crying out to the other little children who are still living in the world: "Ah! little children," you say, "you who are still alive in this world, take warning from me; remember my sad example. Keep out of bad company, for it is bad company which takes people away from the service of God, and makes them come into Hell."

Farewell then, poor little child, farewell! We shall only see you once more at the day of judgement, and after that we shall never see you again. Great God, have mercy on the souls of the poor children! Remember that they often sin through ignorance, and scarce know any better. Forget not that Jesus died also for the little children. Then be very merciful and kind to these poor creatures; and, at least in their dying moments, put into their hearts sorrow, and an act of contrition for their sins, which may save their souls.

My dear child, serve God while yet you are a little child, and then God will not forsake you when you grow old.

There was a man who was a servant of the King of England. He was a good and faithful servant of the king, his master. He served him in health and in sickness, by day and by night, for many long years. When that servant became old, and his hair was gray, the king sent him away from his service. Then the old man's heart was broken, because the king had forsaken him in his old age. He went to lie down on his bed and die. When he was dying he said: "If I had served God as I have served my king, he would not have forsaken me in my gray hairs." Be wise, then, my child, and serve the great and good God who never forsakes those who serve him.

[Shin]

How important it is for those who are dying to have perfect contrition..

How important it is for children to be kept out of bad company..

How important it is to be afraid of sin. . .