michal's musings

Matthew 25:35-40   ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me   something  to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me   something  to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;   naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’   “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You   something  to drink?   And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?   ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’   “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine,   even  the least   of them,  you did it to Me.’ This is the fragment of the Scripture that has been challenging me for a long time.  I have been a priest for seven years.  And only in the last year I started to interact with the people who live on the streets.  I just didn’t want to deal with them.  It was

This summer was a powerful time for me.  I spent some time in Miami working with the people who are poor together with the Brothers of St. John of God.  They are great group of people. I learned so much from them. So, what did I learn from them? -           They are brothers and not clerics so they relate to people as brothers.  To all they are brothers.  Yes, some of them are priests but this is not that important.  What important to them is that all the others are their “spiritual siblings.” This is something I like very much.  Even though people call me Father but in reality I am their brother.  This is something I need to remind myself when I see people who need my help. -           All people are dignified and they need to be respected. We all are children of God. There are some differences between us but this same dignity. We are human beings – the crown of evolution. I decided that I would not turn away my head from anybody. I will look at them and at least smile.  This

During the Pride Parade in Jerusalem a religious Jew attacked innocent people… This was something so evil that a religious person was able to stabbed six people. He stabbed them because he thought that LGBTQ is evil. It is hard to accept that religious people can couse harm to other believing that they are doing something good and make some Higher Power (God) happy. The actions of this man were totally evil because of his thinking. I am asking myself: Is religion evil? I don't think religion is evil. Only religious people’s actions can be evil. Nothing in this world is evil by nature. We make things evil by misunderstanding and abusing them. Homophobia is an evil concept.  No one should be discriminating. We know that religions have been a source of homophobia. This is evil. If there is God; God is God of all: straight and LGBTQ people. He/She/It created all of us.  There should be no evil thoughts, feelings, desires and behavior between people. Any source of evil is evil.

Elderly people can teach us how to be a very patient person. They live in the present time. Sometimes, people who live with them cannot expect anything from them that comes from elderly people's past or even from their future. This can be a great psychological and spiritual experience. Why working with elderly can be a psychological and spiritual experience? For God everything is in the present time. There is no future or past. I help with my grandpa right now. He is over 93 years old. Sometimes I have to tell him who I am. How often do we desire to forget about who we are?  It is not always easy to accept who we are.  I am ok with this experience. It makes me a better person. It helps me psychologically and spiritually to live in the present moment and to enjoy what I can experience at that moment. The psychological help from this experience is that my expectations from people are very low. I try not to have any expectations from my grandpa. I know he is my grandpa but he

My grandpa is over 93 years old. For his age he is still very independent. However, at the same time his is no longer as independent as he used to be.  His way of thinking is no longer clear and his memory is not good. His ability to be critical is no longer as strong and good as it was in the past. It would be very easy to suggest him to do or believe or say something than it was ever possible in the past.   Working with my grandpa I know that he is at the moment of his life where he is no longer able to make a decision about end of his life issues. However, I do not think it would be something difficult for us to suggest him that a euthanasia is something he should consider for himself.  In this case a euthanasia can be a source of great abuse. Sometimes, I think that people who are in any form of pain (physical, emotional or spiritual) or old age can not make any longer any independent decisions about end of their life.   However, one can make a statement that our decisio