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“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty -- it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”
― Mother Teresa, A Simple Path: Mother Teresa

“當今西方最大的疾病不是結核病或麻風病;是不想要的,不被愛護的和不被照顧的。我們可以用藥物治療身體疾病,但是唯一可以解決孤獨,失望和絕望的方法就是愛。世界上有很多人渴望為一片麵包而死,但還有更多人為一點愛而死。西方的貧窮是另一種貧窮-它不僅是孤獨的貧窮,也是靈性的貧窮。對愛的渴望,對上帝的渴望

“You do not write your life with words...You write it with actions. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do.”
― Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls

“你不要用文字來寫生活,而要用行動來寫。你怎麼想不重要。重要的是你怎麼做。”

“More smiling, less worrying. More compassion, less judgment. More blessed, less stressed. More love, less hate.”
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

“多的微笑,少的擔心。多的同情心,少的判斷。多祝福,少壓力。多愛少恨。”


善良無需考證

巴西著名導演沃爾特·塞勒斯正在籌備自己的新電影,一天,正為此一籌莫展的沃爾特到城市西郊辦事,在火車站前的廣場上遇到了一個十多歲的擦鞋小男孩。小男孩問道:「先生,您需要擦鞋嗎?」沃爾特低頭看了看自己腳上剛剛擦過不久的皮鞋,搖搖頭拒絕了。

就在沃爾特轉身走出十幾步之際,忽然見到那個小男孩紅著臉追上來,眼中滿是祈求:「先生,我整整一天都沒吃東西了,您能借給我幾個錢嗎?我從明天開始就多多努力擦鞋,保證一周後把錢還給您!」

沃爾特看著面前這個衣衫襤褸、面黃肌瘦的小男孩,不由的動了惻隱之心,就掏出幾枚硬幣遞到小男孩手裡。小男孩感激的道了一聲「謝謝」後,一溜煙就跑得沒影了。沃爾特搖了搖頭,因為這樣的街頭小騙子他已經見得太多了。

半個月後,忙著籌備新電影的沃爾特早已將借錢給小男孩的事忘得一乾二淨了。不料,就在他又一次經過西郊火車站時,突然看到一個瘦小的身影離的老遠就向他招手喊道:「先生,請等一等!」等到對方滿頭大汗的跑過來把幾枚硬幣交給他時,沃爾特才認出這是上次向他借錢的那個擦鞋小男孩。小男孩氣喘吁吁的說:「先生,我在這裡等您很久了,今天總算把錢還給您了!」沃爾特握著自己手裡被汗水濡濕的硬幣,心頭陡然升起一股暖流。

沃爾特不由地仔細端詳起面前的小男孩,突然,他發現這個小男孩其實很符合自己腦海中構想的主人公形象。於是,沃爾特把幾枚硬幣塞到小男孩衣兜里:「這點零錢是我誠心誠意給你的,就不用還了。」沃爾特對他神秘的一笑,又說道,「明天你到市中心的影業公司導演辦公室來找我,我會給你一個大大的驚喜。」

第二天一大早,門衛就告訴沃爾特,說外面來了一大群孩子。他詫異的出去一看,就見那個小男孩興奮的跑過來,一臉天真的說:「先生,這些孩子都是同我一樣沒有父母的流浪兒,聽說你有驚喜給我,我就把他們都帶來了,因為,我知道他們也渴望有驚喜!」

沃爾特真沒想到這樣一個窮困流浪的孩子竟會有一顆如此善良的心!既然人都帶來了,沃爾特就讓工作人員對這些孩子進行了觀察和篩選,最後,工作人員在這些孩子中,找出了幾個比小男孩更機靈,更適合出演劇本中的小主人公的人選。

但最終,沃爾特還是選擇只把小男孩留下來。他在錄用合同的免試原因一欄中只寫了這樣幾個字:你的善良,無需考核!

因為他覺得:在自己面臨困境的時候,卻依然能把本屬於自己一個人的希望,無私的分享給別人的人,最值得擁有人生的驚喜!而這個小男孩就是後來巴西家喻戶曉的明星文尼西斯·狄·奧利維拉。 在沃爾特的執導下,文尼西斯在劇中成功地扮演了小男孩主人公的角色,而電影《中央車站》也大獲好評,並獲得了1999年的奧斯卡金像獎。

若干年後,已成為一家影視文化公司董事長的文尼西斯寫了一本自傳,叫《我的演藝生涯》。

在書的扉頁上面,是沃爾特的親筆題字:你的善良,無需考核。下面還有一行小字,則是他對文尼西斯的評價:「是善良,曾經讓他把機遇讓給別的孩子;同樣也是善良,讓人生的機遇不曾錯過他!」。

「欣賞一個人,始於顏值,敬於才華,合於性格,久於善良,終於人 品。
人生就是這樣,和漂亮的人在一起,會越來越美;和陽光的人在一起,心裡就不會晦暗;和快樂的人在一起,嘴角就常帶微笑;和聰明的人在一起,做事就機敏;和大方的人在一起, 處事就不小氣;和睿智的人在一起,遇事就不迷茫。
借人之智,修善自己;學最好的別人,做最好的自己!」

(English story from Washington Post, different from Chinese one, good for reading )

ONE morning in late 1996, the Brazilian director Walter Salles was waiting for a flight in Rio de Janeiro when he was approached by a 9-year-old shoeshine boy. At the time, Mr. Salles was preparing to shoot his third feature film, ''Central Station,'' the tale of an older woman and a boy who meet at Rio's train station and then strike out on a journey into the hinterlands to find the boy's father.

Fernanda Montenegro, Brazil's doyenne of stage and film, had agreed to play the woman, Dora, but Mr. Salles had still not found anyone to play Josue, the child. ''In one full year we had tested 1,500 boys,'' he said. ''I was getting desperate.''

The shoeshine boy, Vinicius de Oliveira, had other concerns, however. ''It was raining that day, and I wasn't making any money,'' he recalled, speaking through an interpreter at the Toronto Film Festival. ''I couldn't shine Walter's shoes because he was wearing sneakers, but I asked if he could lend me some money so I could eat and I would pay him back. He told me, 'I'll give you the money to buy a sandwich, but you also have to do a screen test for me.' ''

When Vinicius finally showed up for the test, he brought his friends with him, ''the entire fraternity of shoeshine boys from the airport,'' Mr. Salles said, laughing. He chose Vinicius for the role because, he said, ''I was looking for a boy who knew what the battle for survival was, but who had not lost his innocence in doing so.

''I cannot even say that I found Vinicius. It's more honest to say that he found me.''

The story of how ''Central Station'' was made, over a vast territory, with a small budget and crew and many novice collaborators, embodies the theme of the film itself: the triumph of steadfastness over adversity. Both a portrait of present day Brazil and a two-person drama, ''Central Station,'' which opened on Friday, manages to be intimate and epic, local and universal.

''One day I woke up with this idea of a film about a quest,'' said Mr. Salles, 42. ''It was the search for a father that a kid had never met, the search of an old woman for the feelings that she had lost and the search somehow for a certain country that was not the country I was living in anymore.''

Mr. Salles's work is informed by the search for identity, both on a personal and national level, a concern stemming largely from his own background. Born in Brazil to a banking family, he spent part of his childhood in France and the United States where his father was a diplomat. When he returned to Brazil, he eventually decided to become a documentary filmmaker.

This combination of an outsider's perspective and an insider's understanding has shaped Mr. Salles's work. ''I think the fact that I have been raised in several different countries has given me both a sense of continuous exile and a desire to understand my own culture,'' he said recently in New York, speaking in fluent English.

The dark-haired Mr. Salles, who has kind eyes and a ready laugh, is both warm and disarmingly modest. ''When you come from a privileged part of Brazilian society, as I do, you have to opt either to be part of that culture of indifference or to understand what the country really is,'' he said.

His movie comes at a time when Brazilian cinema is once again flourishing. After a period of forced inactivity in the early 1990's, when the Government of President Fernando Collor de Mello froze individual bank accounts and shut down the state film agency, film production has risen to approximately 40 films a year.

But the reality of everyday life that ''Central Station'' depicts is harsh. In the film, Dora is a bitter woman who makes her living in Rio's Central Station, writing letters for illiterate people. She takes their money but discards the letters. One day she writes a letter for a mother and her little boy (Vinicius de Oliveira). When the mother is killed in an accident outside the station, Dora tries to sell the boy for adoption. Realizing that she has instead sold him to a sinister organization in which he may come to harm, she rescues the boy and the two set out on a bus trip to find his father.

For Mr. Salles, Dora is the epitome of modern Brazil, with its ''culture of cynicism.'' But as Dora grudgingly develops a bond with the boy ''she begins to understand that the boy's route and the boy's ordeal are comparable to her own,'' he said.

The growing friendship between these two -- more comradely than mother-son -- is, for Mr. Salles, a symbol of a Brazil where solidarity and compassion may be buried but are still present. His film is not utopian, but it celebrates the diversity both of the land and of what Mr. Salles calls the ''human geography'' that Dora and Josue encounter on their journey.

When the screenplay of ''Central Station,'' based on an idea of Mr. Salles's and written by Joao Emanuel Carneiro and Marcos Bernstein, won a prize sponsored by the Sundance Institute and the Japan Broadcasting Corporation in early 1996, it attracted the attention of Arthur Cohn, the Swiss independent producer who has won five Academy Awards (one for Vittorio De Sica's ''Garden of the Finzi-Continis'').

LIKE De Sica, Walter's approach is humanistic,'' said Mr. Cohn. ''De Sica taught me that there were four main points to making significant films. One was to cast actors who are right for the part, not just those with big names. Two was to shoot the film on authentic locations. Three was that sex, violence or special effects are not necessary unless they're intrinsic to the story.'' He smiled. ''Four was not to listen to everybody's advice, but to follow your intuition.''

With Mr. Cohn as producer, and with his principal cast finally in place Mr. Salles started the collaborative rehearsal process he had favored with his second film, ''Foreign Land'' (1995). ''It's a work almost like that of theater,'' said Ms. Montenegro, 69, in New York. ''For two months we sat around a table, reading and discussing the script.''

The long preparation allowed Mr. Salles to move quickly and to improvise once filming began in November 1996. During the filming of Ms. Montenegro's scenes in the railroad station, several passersby took her to be an actual letter-writer and asked her to write letters for them, scenes that made it into the movie. In following the journey of Dora and Josue, Mr. Salles had to move his team from Rio to remote regions of northeast Brazil, to the states of Bahia and Pernambuco. ''The transport from one place to another sometimes took three days on dirt roads,'' said Mr. Salles. ''It was like being in a circus for several weeks.''

Nor were conditions easy, due to the extreme heat and the poverty of the villages where Mr. Salles was filming. Yet the welcome that his crew received allowed the unforeseen to occur, as in a scene where Dora and Josue come upon a religious pilgrimage in full swing. Mr. Salles had the actual pilgrims recreate this candlelight vigil.

Mr. Salles is a largely self-taught filmmaker. After studying history and economics in college in Brazil, he attended only one year of film school, at the University of Southern California, before returning to Rio in 1981 to make documentaries.

His move toward feature films was gradual. In 1989, he directed ''Exposure,'' starring Peter Coyote and based on the Brazilian writer Rubem Fonseca's novel ''High Art.'' ''Foreign Land,'' about two young Brazilians bereft in Lisbon, delved into the themes of physical and spiritual voyage and of loss. ''Sometimes I am asked why I was so pessimistic in 'Foreign Land' and why I open the possibility of optimism with 'Central Station,' '' Mr. Salles said. ''But the films portray different moments of Brazilian reality.''

He paused. ''When you see films today, it seems that most of the characters endure a situation they cannot control,'' he said. ''Here I wanted to show that tough as life may be, it can be possible to transcend this initial adversity.''

That hopeful message may explain the widespread appeal of ''Central Station.'' The film has been a big success in Brazil, where it has been seen by more than a million viewers, but it also had positive audience response at the Sundance, Toronto and Berlin film festivals. ''During the screenings we held in Toronto, I saw tears rolling down people's faces,'' said Ramiro Puerta, the programmer for Latin American and Spanish films in Toronto.

As the film opens around the world, Mr. Salles's own life these days resembles a road movie. But even in the wake of ''Central Station's'' success, he has no plans to relocate from Rio -- where he lives in a forested area outside the city with his six large dogs -- or to change his thematic pursuits.

With Daniela Thomas, a co-director of ''Foreign Land,'' Mr. Salles has written and directed a short feature called ''Midnight,'' and he will work again with Arthur Cohn on two films still being written.

Embarking on these projects, Mr. Salles seems to want to explore further the need for connection -- whether between individuals or between peoples -- that ''Central Station'' embraces. '' 'Central Station' is much more about brotherhood than it is about a specific country,'' he said. ''Even as an artist, you need to know that what you do is part of a larger whole. You need to be part of a dialogue.'' He smiled. ''In Brazil, we have this expression: 'One bird alone does not announce the spring.' ''

玫瑰聖母節原為「勝利之母節」,慶祝聖母玫瑰經的勝利和威力。這個節日最早出現在西班牙,一五七一年在抗擊異教徒入侵的戰爭進入決戰時刻,教友熱誠誦念玫瑰經,十月七日,基督徒軍隊在助班多大獲全勝,教宗比約五世將此勝利之日定為「勝利之母節」,教宗格列高利(額我略)十三世改為「玫瑰節」。一七一八年奧王子歐根(Eugen)又在貝爾格萊德大勝土耳其侵略軍,教宗克萊孟十一世明令普世教會慶祝此節日。教宗比約十世將此節日調回原來的十月七日。一九六O年修訂此規時,將慶節名稱改為「玫瑰聖母節」,梵二新訂教會年曆時定為紀念日。

彌撒經文主要目的在使信友藉聖母的助佑,特別默想基督一生的事跡,在今世能伴同耶穌分擔祂的苦難,來世也能分享祂的喜樂和光榮。福音天使報喜的奇蹟是玫瑰經的開始。從此,聖母與耶穌一生同甘共苦,輔助救贖工程。念玫瑰經就是要我們追隨耶穌的一生,同聖母一樣,努力參與耶穌的救贖工程。

玫瑰經的起源機械地計算所念經文的遍數的作法,由來已久。古埃及人朝拜太陽神時就曾用過。六世紀開始伊斯蘭教徒指切著串珠禱告阿拉真主,而五世紀時我們的聖女彼利日達就用彩色石子,來計算她所念的《天主經》。

教會初期,神職人員和教友都還是承襲古教的傳統,禱告時的經文就是一百五十篇《聖詠》,普通教友不懂聖詠的含義,只能階段地跟著念《天主經》,後來逐漸加入了《聖母經》,但只有前半段,即加俾爾天神的讚頌和聖婦依撒伯爾的賀詞:「女人中你最光榮,你懷的孩子也最光榮。」四三一年六月廿二日,一百五十多位主教在小亞細亞的厄弗所舉行的大公會議上,宣布了基督信友久已遵奉的瑪利亞為天主之母的光輝榮銜和崇高地位。那個晚上,厄弗所的人們萬眾歡騰,高舉火炬,舉行盛大遊行,高呼:「天主聖母瑪利亞!」《聖母經》從而增加了新的內容。後來在歐洲大地瘟疫橫行,死傷慘重的嚴重時刻,教會領導的祈禱完成了《聖母經》的後半段:「天主聖母瑪利亞,求你現在和我們臨終時,為我們罪人祈求天主!阿們。」

於是,教友們比照神職班誦念的一百五十首《聖詠》,念一百五十遍《聖母經》,中間加念《天主經》和《聖三光榮誦》,這樣編成花環、花冠,獻給聖母瑪利亞。

聖母最早授意念玫瑰經的是聖多明我和加大利納。當時法、意、西三國,邪說盛行,異端惑眾,敗壞風化,聖母命他念由《聖母經》組成的「串經」,很快勸化了異端。當時聖多明我用的念珠由一百六十九個珠子組成,含十五瑞玫瑰經。為了簡便,現在我們用的念珠是多明我念珠的三分之一,五十九個珠子組成,念法一樣。這樣看來,玫瑰經在基督徒的祈禱生活中由來已久,源遠流長,它聖化了我們的生活,成全了我們的德行,挽救了我們的急難。

聖母的顯現

一八五四年教宗欽定聖母無染原罪後四年,一八五八年,聖母在露德前後顯現共十八次,給一個農家十四歲的女孩伯爾納德,每次她都手持念珠在手,和她的小朋友一起誦念,鄭重地向世界宣示玫瑰經的可貴。從那時,露德出現了許多神蹟,尤其是治療方面的。重大疾病的治癒都經過世界上不同信仰和無信仰的高級醫療專家的反覆驗證,絕非人力所致,顯然是神蹟。心靈方面的治療也是驚人的。六十年後的一九一七年五月十三日,第一次世界大戰的第三年,已經犧牲了八十萬軍民的嚴重關頭,普世教會舉行盛大祈禱,祈求世界早日和平的第八天,聖母瑪利亞在葡萄牙里斯本首都市區外六十里的花地瑪的小鎮上,顯現給三個孩子,聖母手上也提著一串明亮的念珠。她溫柔地說:「不要害怕!我是從天上來的,不會傷害你們。我要你們一連六個月的十三日到這裡來。我會告訴你們我是誰。」路濟亞驚呼道:「妳從天上來!」聖母說:「是的,你們要念玫瑰經,而且要用心念。」這樣聖母從聖母月到玫瑰月,共顯現了六次。

至聖玫瑰之后

花地瑪聖母在十月十三日最後這一次顯現中,大約十萬人在場。路濟亞受到治安當局的授意,向顯現者提出如下的問題:「妳是誰?妳要我做甚麼?」

聖母答道:「我是玫瑰之后,我來告訴世人,回頭改過,趕快為他們的罪過做補贖求寬赦,不要再得罪上主天主了!因為他們得罪上主天主太多了!他們一定要好好念玫瑰經。」教宗派出調查團進行調查,一九三O年做出了調查報告,認為顯現是「值得相信」的。聖教會制定了對花地瑪聖母的敬禮,宣布聖母為「至聖玫瑰之后」。修建了花地瑪聖母大殿,朝聖者絡繹不絕,有增無減,神蹟不斷發生。

聖母還囑咐:「在每端玫瑰經後加念:吾主耶穌,請寬恕我們的罪過,救我們於永火之中,求你把眾人的靈魂,特別是那些需要你憐憫的靈魂,領到天國裡去。」

綜上所述,明白顯示,天主之母瑪利亞多麼喜歡玫瑰經。玫瑰經可以使我們得寵、得助、得赦、得勝、得救!何不熱心誦念玫瑰經!

怎樣念玫瑰經

玫瑰經是隨時隨地可以誦念的經文,乘車、旅行、散步、室內、室外、堂內、聖體前都可,而且個人、家庭、集體、千萬人的聚會都可以誦念。

誦念開始,先親苦像,表示敬愛,然後握苦像畫十字聖號;念信經,表示堅信聖教道理,念《天主經》和三遍《聖母經》讚美、感謝天主聖三:「天主聖父全能,升你到崇尊之位天主聖子全知,充滿你絕聖之靈魂,天主聖神全善,充滿你絕聖之靈魂……」求天主聖三增加我們的信、望、愛三德,從而形成玫瑰經美妙的前奏,以下就開始正式的五端玫瑰經。念法大家都知道。默想耶穌和聖母生平的喜樂、哀痛和榮耀的全部奧跡。星期一、六默想歡喜奧跡,星期四默想光明奧跡,星期二、五默想痛苦奧跡,星期三、日默想榮福奧跡。在默想中讚美感謝耶穌和聖母對我們的愛,同時結合自己的實際,在生活中以實際行動,還報耶穌和聖母的愛,發展這個愛,宣傳這個愛。

用心念玫瑰經

我們一定記得聖母在花地瑪不僅要我們念玫瑰經,而且要好好地用心念!就是要我們全心神進入耶穌和聖母降生救贖我們的生活實際,深入體會,觸動我們的情感,感化我們的意志,促進我們的行動,以耶穌和聖母為楷模,為福音作證。

同時也不能忽略《天主經》和《聖母經》這兩端我們教會最美妙、最神聖的詞章,那無可比擬的力量,一世紀又一世紀在信友中念唱頌揚,具有回天之力,我們要敬重誦念和默想!

聖路易格力諾說:「只要你天天誦念玫瑰經,保你不會失靈魂,為了證明這真理,我願流血保證。」

有位太太請了一位油漆匠到家裡粉刷牆壁,


油漆匠走進門,看到她的丈夫雙目失明,頓時流露出憐憫的目光;

可是男主人卻非常開朗樂觀,所以油漆匠在這家工作的幾天裡,他們談得很投契,油漆匠也從來沒有提及男主人的生理缺憾。

油漆匠粉刷完牆壁,取出賬單遞給那位太太,那位太太接過來一看,發現比談妥的價錢打了一個很大的折扣。

她不解地問油漆匠:「你為甚麼少算了這麼多?」

油漆匠回答:「跟你先生在一起覺得很快樂,他使我覺得自己的境況還不算最壞,所以減去一部分,算是我對他的一點謝意,【因為他讓我把工作看得不會太苦!】

油漆匠對她丈夫的推崇,使這位太太流下了眼淚,

因為,這位慷慨的油漆匠只有一隻手!

【人生可能無法改變,但人生觀可以改變】

【環境雖然無法改變,但心境可以改變】

雖然無法調整環境來完全適應自己的生活,

【但可以調整態度來適應環境,而態度就會決定命運!】

【知足的人看到的都是窮苦人家的苦】

【不知足的人看到都是富貴人家的樂】

【最大的幸福不是得到,而是感謝】

【最好的財富不是金錢,而是健康】

【最多的自由不是擁有,而是放下!】

朋友,其實我們真的很幸福,

能多給予別人一些,自己也能得到更多的快樂;

我們可能無法為這個世界做什麼偉大的事情,

但是【我們可以帶著偉大的愛,多做很多小事!】

一個人在一片森林裡,看見了一個蝴蝶的蟲繭,於是他就坐在邊等看蝴蝶怎麼破繭而出,幾個小時之後,蟲繭上出現了一個小洞,蝴蝶拚命努力地掙扎著要從這小洞裡出來,可是掙扎很久都出不來,然後所有的掙扎都停止,蟲繭里沒有了任何的動靜。

這個人看到這裡,決定要幫幫這個蝴蝶,於是他用刀把蟲繭里破開了,讓蝴蝶可以很輕易地出來,誰知道,他看到這蝴蝶卻有著肥大的身體,小小的翅膀,根本不能飛。這人想繼續看看,蝴蝶是不是可以慢慢地身體變小,翅膀慢慢變大,可以飛起來,可惜他期盼的事情沒有發生。這隻蝴蝶永遠只能帶著小小的翅膀,用肥胖的身體在地上爬行,無法飛翔了。

 

這人以為他為蝴蝶破繭而出做了件好事,可惜他不知道自然規律,蝴蝶想要從繭里掙脫出來,這時有一個好聽的名字叫「羽化」,剛羽化的蝴蝶掙扎穿過繭洞,對身體拚命進行擠壓,身體內的液體就會送到翅膀內,撐開皺皺翅膀,使它變大變強壯,蝴蝶就可以展翅高飛了。

只有從內打破才是新生,不管是蝴蝶破繭而出,還是小雞破殼而出,都只有靠它們自己經歷痛苦的掙扎。而從外打破的不是被淘汰了就是變成了食物。

造物主其實也是公平的,雖然現在人們用各種科技的手段讓現實承受的痛苦少一些,孩子出生不再通過產道的擠壓,而是通過人為幫助他們降生,但依然改變不過不經歷風雨,就無法見到彩虹的事實。

 

你可以期待在成長的路上有貴人相助,但如果他象那個好心人一樣,幫你把困難全都踢開了,你也就變成了那隻無法飛翔,只能爬著走的蝴蝶了。

所有的苦難都是破繭而出必經的過程,一步都少不得。