There Is Hope

When we think things are so bad they can never improve, just a moment with our  Blue Brothers in Aleppo, Syria gives hope.  A recent letter again describes the bombings, displacements and rumors of invasion and total annihilation, yet day after day, the Blue Marists continue to provide "a drop of milk", clothing, shelter and education to the young people who come to their door.  No human explanation fully satisfies our curiosity as to how they continue, where the supplies come from, and how they maintain their optimism.  Their hope lies in faith and trust in Jesus and Mary, as with all our Marist endeavors since the beginning in 1817.  As they help refugees, so also do they pray together with Muslims, who are fasting and praying during their month of Ramadan, sharing an unlikely solidarity with members of the same religion that is oppressing them.  They are showing the world that there are Muslims who follow their faith to love God and neighbor.  We might want to condemn all Muslims, but our Blue Brothers are showing us that we cannot.  They are reminding us that Jesus came for ALL, and that we are the ones who extend that welcome and love.  In such lived faith we have hope.  This quote sums up their Hope and inspires ours. «Perhaps it will be today; perhaps it will be tomorrow that a new day will tell us yes and will open its two hands… Listen, see, I hear a step.  He will come tonight, perhaps the One whom we did not expect.  We will see Him appear». - See more at: http://www.champagnat.org/400.php?a=6&n=3651#sthash.SVeU5KM2.dpuf
Bro. Rene