A Hymn to God for the Missionary We Know!

A friend in Montreal sent us a message that Henri Boulad, S.J. has just celebrated his birthday...We looked up references and found that Fr. Boulad, a professor of theology and a scholar who continues to lecture and write, was born in August 1931. But late is better than never to congratulate our dear friend of his 83rd birthday anniversary...

Here is a little hymn of thanksgiving to God for the missionary we know,

How Can I Thank You?  How beautiful is your gift to us...For among us in Egypt, you raised a man that challenged the dark powers with his voice and pen...
How Can I Thank You?  How beautiful is your gift to us...For over 50 years, we have been blessed by your servant's missionary work in Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, France, Hungary, Belgium, Germany, and many other countries including Canada my own, and the U.S.
How Can I Thank You?  How beautiful is your gift to us...He is made of steel (as in his last name: Boulad=Foulaz), yet very understanding to the needs of humanity in his projects and the humanization of a savage world.
How Can I Thank You?  How beautiful is your gift to us...It did not bother him that his family was forced out of Syria in 1860 because of persecution...He loves his persecutors. He critiques the injustice of men, yet, celebrates their being Your children - children of God.
How Can I Thank You?  How beautiful is your gift to us...He earned advanced degrees in multiple disciplines, yet he speaks with the tender voice of a child, and gives retreats to ordinary people.
How Can I Thank You?  How beautiful is your gift to us...He is the student of mystics and saints such as Ignatius of Loyola and Jean Vianney of Ars.
How Can I Thank You?  How beautiful is your gift to us...He is the open mind that learned from Teilhard de Chardin, Henri de Lubac, and Karl Rahner - Teaches as they taught and follows Vatican II.
You know his name: Henri Boulad.
Keep him O Lord of all and send him to us in Canada. May Your Name be glorified in the rest of his life, and beyond this life, when I hope he joins the Virgin Mary, angels and saints in your everlasting heaven.

Hymn to a mother

Today an old mother is having a surgery because she fell and broke her leg.Tomorrow another old mother who I know and love is having a knee replacement surgery. These ladies suffered to raise their children and have been blessed to see them grow, prosper and, in many cases, see grandchildren.

As it happened with another old lady I loved, many of those beautiful ladies do not wish to live longer. They think they are a burden to their kids or they may think that they have no more role in society especially in the West where Euthanasia is being contemplated by doctors and politicians. My beloved mother, who had a stroke some 15 years ago, was hospitalized for 4 years in a semi-comatose condition. Against doctors advice to end her life quickly, my brothers and I kept her until her life ended naturally and God called her.

Life is more important than death. Those mothers, says St. Basil the Great, delivered children that are dear to, and are images of, Christ as the Virgin Mother delivered Jesus Christ our Lord and God. How can we thank God for them? Today I had confession and received holy communion for this beautiful soul, the old mother I know, who will have surgery tomorrow. So too, all of us may wish to think of those mothers dear to everyone of us and remember them in our prayers. Without them we would not be here...Let us recall them to life; for God is the joy of eternal life!
Let us sing to our mothers, whether they are still with us in this material world or have gone in the presence of God, this hymn: For the beauty of the earth (which, metaphorically speaking, is our mother)...A hymn to Mary Mother of God:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGt4-KyFwe4