Pain

The free rice banner on my sidebar is a link to free rice. I received this in a newsletter that the Dominican Laity receives via email. This one is pretty cool because it's like a game. Only it's a word one. Each correct word you choose you earn 20 grains of rice. Some words are quite easy and some not, it was fun to do. Good for learning new words. A person can pile up bunches of rice to feed the hungry this way. Now that I think of it, why not click on those sites to feed the hungry when visiting other blogs and they have a banner that says click to feed the hungry, such as the one over at teresa_anawim2's, To Love and to Pray blog. It doesn't hurt to do it especially when it' right there and it's for a very good cause. If we have time to read, we have time to click and feed the hungry and also learn with it too. Make those blog visits meaningful.

On a different note, this morning was a late start but a good day anyway. At the Chapel yesterday while I was praying, a person came in with their wife and kids, I heard them but didn't see them as I was in the first seat. I recognized the voice as one of the guys from work. So this morning he said he didn't recognize me in there with my hood over my head. Well anyway, we began to talk about his going there, and how so very many don't. It's sad in a way, because he mentioned that many we work with and others who don't, live on a day to day basis. They struggle each day. Some because of illness, others because of their addictions. One thing I have discovered working as a temp, it's a different world. I went through one to get a quick job, but some of these people have major problems. They are all very smart people, but they have drug addictions, alcohol problems, some have some other issues that I have no clue of. This morning when Andres was talking to me and we both knew that Jesus saves, but for many they don't even know him to go to him to help them.

This morning I even found myself hurting a bit, yet even the boss had said others hurt too. For me this was the first time I hurt and said anything, and I realized more than anything that my pain is nothing when others suffer a different type of pain. I thought about these co-workers during Lent in a different way and began to pray for them as I work. I actually had started that when I was doing the Lourdes Novena. But now I understood how truly important it is to pray for them and to help bring God to them. They are in so much need. But what put them there in the first place? And what will it take to bring them back to life. I thanked my boss, he didn't know why and I didn't explain. Sometimes it takes another person to open our eyes to pain and suffering others go through, because they won't say it. And no one knows the darkness they endure while smiling and joking. Now I begin to understand how people can often wear masks to cover what they don't want others to see.