FRIDAY, November 6 (William Temple)

You all know a Mrs. Smith--the person who is always around when you complain and has more troubles than you. When I whined it was 115 degrees in the desert she said, "That's nothing. It was 125 degrees here last week." When I returned from Antarctica and reported temperatures of minus 62 degrees she replied, "It was colder here last winter." Sometimes you just don't have the energy for the Mrs. Smiths of the world.

But mine was cleverer than most. Every time she dismissed my complaints--or topped them--she was offering me something to eat: cookies, pie, a glass of milk or cup of coffee.
One day I asked about her old photos of a young sailor in one frame and a newly married couple in another. "That's Fred," she said. "We were married in June. He was killed in the Pacific before Christmas."

"I am so sorry," I muttered. "You must have been so very alone all this time."

"Not at all," she said. "I have my pictures and my memories. And all you complainers, of course. That keeps me busy. And I have God."

Jesus said to the disciples, "You give them something to eat." Are you feeding--or starving--the ones God has entrusted to you?

PRAY for the Diocese of Uruguay (South America)

Ps 69:1-23(24-30)31-38 * 73; Ezra 7:27-28, 8:21-36; Rev 15:1-8