Daily Meditation for October 24, 2024

One day, a young woman named Alice was walking with her friend, Mary, and they met a person, Carol, whose face was badly disfigured from a fire. Mary, not having encountered anyone so badly disfigured, was afraid and began to run away. Alice called her to come back. Alice introduced Mary to Carol. In visiting with Carol, they heard that she had been in a bad accident when the car burned, and she could not get out fast enough. The pain she suffered was nearly unendurable. She had spent weeks in the hospital, had several skin grafts, and her face continued to be disfigured.

After Mary had heard Carol’s story and realized the terrible pain she still suffers from people who are insensitive to her situation, she knew she could never again respond so negatively to anyone handicapped but would rather greet them kindly and ask God to bless them.

By Ruth Anne Schneider, OSB