Feast of Pentecost

 One of the  popular plays of  William Shakespeare   is "The Merchant of Veniece." Antonio, a successful merchant of Venice got into trouble because of his generosity. His friend Bassanio  requested him  to lend  him some money. Antonio agreed, but, as all of his assets were tied up at sea they went to Shylock, a Jewish moneylender. Shylock agreed to lend them 3000 ducats, but only if

Feast of Ascension of Jesus

There is an interesting Zen story.

Two monks were washing their bowls in the river when they noticed a scorpion that was drowning. One monk immediately scooped it up and set it upon the bank. In the process he was stung. He went back to washing his bowl and again the scorpion fell in. The monk saved the scorpion and was again stung. The other monk asked him, "Friend, why do you continue to save the scorpion when you know its nature is

6th Sunday in Easter Time

Acts 10: 25-26, 34-35, 44-48 ;  1 Jn 4: 7-10 ;  Jn 15: 9-17

In 1941, the German Army began to round up Jewish people in Lithuania. Thousands of Jews were murdered. But one German soldier objected to their murder. He was Sergeant Anton Schmid. Through his assistance, the lives of at least 250 Jews were spared. He managed to hide them, find food, and supply them with forged papers. Schmid himself was arrested in early

5th Sunday of Easter

 Acts 9: 26-31 ;  1 Jn 3: 18-24 ;  Jn 15: 1-8

The Nightingale and the Rose" by Oscar Wilde is  a touching short story. The first character  is a boy. This boy is sad because a girl promised to dance with him on condition that he brought her red roses, but he did not find any red rose; there were white roses and yellow roses.

A Nightingale understood the feeling of the Student.   started to fly until she saw a Rose-tree. She told