From the Chaplaincy

Dignity and Grace Restored

This week the school captains are addressing their fellow students about dignity.

I love this story about Santos, who finally learnt to read. At 34, the mother of four who never attended school was starting out on a new life. Her husband left her to raise her children alone. In 1984, civil war swept through her region of Latin America. Her corn crop was destroyed, and her life and the lives of her children were in danger.

Santos was obliged to move to a refugee camp, and to accept grants of money and food from relief agencies. It was a miserable life in the camp. She felt that she was "losing my dignity.'' The worst part, she says, was "putting out my hand'' to receive food.

One day she heard about a community bank being organized in a town next to the camp. She went to a meeting and that night, along with 40 others, received her first loan ever - $40. With $35 she bought a tiny shack for herself and her children to live in. She used the remaining $5 to buy vegetables for resale in a local market. She earned a profit of $2.40 a day, out of which she saved 40 cents a day toward repayment of her six-month loan.

She was charged 3 percent interest per month. She repaid the $40, plus $7.20 interest, thus becoming eligible to receive a second loan of $48. With this Santos has bought a pig and chickens. She made a profit of $30 when she sold the pig at Christmas. Her children started attending school, and she enrolled in a literacy class. (Taken from the CS Monitor 30 Sept 1987)

If each individual fully recognises their spiritual dignity and purpose, if they listened for God's message of grandeur for them, there would be no outcasts, no sin, disease, or loss of dignity. Happiness and harmony alone would reign.

Matthew puts it "When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves... Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you." Matthew 5:46, 48 

When we respond with grace and trust any lost dignity can be restored.

Mary Baker Eddy writes "What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds." Science and Health P4

The Chaplaincy Team