BENABAB AND THE BASKET MAKERS

 

      Benabab was the King of Manapani, the kingdom of Basket Makers.

He was looking for a wife to be his queen.

      He walked about in many villages. One day, he came upon ten lovely young women.

 They were weaving baskets. They worked carefully.

Benabab examined the baskets and saw that they were well made, strong and useful for many things.

Benabab asked the young women to empty the baskets.

One by one, he invited each young woman to throw her basket in the air.

     The first young woman tossed her basket high and caught it gracefully.

The second young woman tossed her basket and caught it gracefully.

Again, Benabab smiled and thanked her.

Each young woman took her turn. Each one caught her basket gracefully, until the last young woman took her turn. Benabab had smiled and thanked each one. Each young woman was certain he was going to invite her to be his queen.

      Then, the last young woman tossed her basket into the air. She did not catch her basket. All the young women gasped.

    That basket bounced high in the air and Benabab caught it. Benabab bowed to the young woman.

“Will you be my queen?” he pleaded. 

      The young woman bowed deeply happy to be chosen by her king.

      Benabab said, “My queen was not afraid to trust me to catch her basket.

      So, we too, must trust in God to carry us when life tosses us about.



Elephant Joan

ELEPHANT JOAN of the J Family

   Elephant Joan lives on the vast plains of the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania on the African Continent.

Tanzania is a beautiful country where people respect the earth and all that is in it.

    Many beautiful animals roam the plains freely.

Elephant Joan and her sisters stroll about and show themselves to the tourists who come to see and admire them.

Some of Elephant Joan's family live far away in a zoo, where people who cannot come to Tanzania may see these giants of the Serengeti Plain.

   One day, Elephant Joan saw a tourist drop something. She wanted to help. Winding her trunk in an arc, she twisted it around and picked up the small black glistening box on the ground.

   Elephant Joan is curious. She likes to learn new things.

Holding the tiny box up to her face, she saw little pictures. 


   She gently rubbed the box with the end of her tusk.

Oh!, she gasped. “It’s alive.” She was frightened. All the little pictures were gone and she saw a  picture of something she had never seen before.

   Elephant Joan rubbed the tiny black box again. She held it with her trunk at eye level. “Oh! Oh!” she rumbled deep in her trunk. Now she was truly frightened. She held the black box with her trunk. She ran home to find her sister.

   Elephants can really run. They kind of tramp or plop or bungle along, but they can move quickly. When they are frightened this frightens the tourists because elephants are so big.

   If an elephant should step on you, you might not get up again. So, the tourists watched as Elephant Joan banged and bumped across the plain.

   Half way there, Elephant Joan met Elephant Jill, her little sister. Elephant Jill knows many things about the world and the tourists. That is because she was borrowed once for a zoo in the city. That was a year ago, and she is still bragging about all she learned.
 

   Elephant Joan stopped, Her eyes filled with tears, and she made a sad sound. “Little Sister, help, help, this little black box has stolen my face!”

Elephant Jill of the J Family

   Elephant Jill said, “Calm down, Big Sister! What is the matter?”

   “This box! Look! It has stolen my face.”

Elephant Jill took the little black box from Elephant Joan’s trunk.

   "It's only a box."  Elephant Jill said. "Tourists hold them to their ear and talk. The box did not steal your face! It took a photo of you."

   “Do I still have my own face?” Elephant Joan asked.

   “Of course, you do! You are talking to me with it.”

   Elephant Joan smiled. She was not frightened anymore. “What a wonderful day!” she said. “The tourists have taken my face. They will show it to everybody. I will be the most famous elephant in all the world!"

    Her little sister said, “Not unless you return it to the owner, silly.” 

   Elephant Joan bumbled off happily to find the owner of the little black box. Her sister shouted,  “Be careful, don’t frighten the tourists!”

 NOTICE

This blog is dedicated to stories I test for later publication.

I have another blog where I offer information on 
my author visits by SKYPE

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A Saiset Time Out

A Saiset Time Out

- No! That's my airplane!
- But it’s my turn!
Peter and Marisa were fighting again.
Dad said, "Stop that, if you want dessert for supper."
Peter raced to Grandfather's room. Marisa ran after him with the plane.
"Gramps," Peter said, "Girls are awful. They don't play right."
Marisa said, "Don't believe him, Gramps. He always wants to be first."
Gramps said, "That reminds me of Chin and his sister. When I was an engineer in Taiwan, they had a quarrel.”
Peter and Marisa forgot their fight.
They always knew when Gramps had a story to tell.
Gramps said, "Just like you, Chin and his sister had a quarrel."
Peter said, "Gramps, you knew a person named Chin."
Gramps said, "Yes, that was his last name. We called him Chin. Chin and his sister were angry with one another. They belonged to an aboriginal people who migrated from New Guinea to Taiwan a long time ago.”
"Abbbor.., abbbor.. what’s abbbor . . .," Peter asked.
"Aboriginal. The first people who live in a place," Gramps said.
Peter opened the big atlas Gramps kept on his table.
Marisa said, "Let me see. Let me see, too."
Peter found the map of New Guinea. Then he found Taiwan.
"Where were you in Taiwan, Gramps," he asked?
"Right here in these mountains. I got sent up there to fix the water supply."
"And did Chin and his sister have a big fight, or did they just fight with words," Marisa asked?
Gramps said, "Oh, they were so angry, they weren't speaking to each other. And they belonged to the Saiset Tribe. Saisets like peace. So, the elders told them to take their rice bowls and go up to the mountain top."

Peter said, "They had to climb a mountain because they had a fight?"
Marisa said, "Sometimes Mom sends us to our room, but so far she hasn't made us climb a mountain."
Peter said, "And she doesn’t like us to take food to our room."
Marisa said, "What did they do on the mountain, Gramps, try to push one another over?"
Gramps said, "No, no. The Saisets really know how to make peace. They took their bowls of rice and they went up there to talk to God. They call God, the Grandfather of Heaven."
"And what did God tell them," Marisa said.
"According to their custom, they had to stand there silently. In their hearts, they told God all about their quarrel."
Peter said, "Oh, I know, that's like when Mom says, we have to have a time out."
Marisa said to Peter, "You always make a mad face. You don't talk to God."
Gramps went on, "After they told God all about their quarrel, they stayed there and listened to God. Then, together, they tossed their rice into the air. When the rice mixed, they were at peace, because they had talked to God and God had listened to them. They could come down from the mountain, and live in peace."
"Gramps," Marisa said. "If Peter and I toss rice in the air to make up, Mom won’t like it."
"I think you're right, Marisa. Rice is very precious to the Saisets. You would need to use something you really want."
"Marisa  always wants what I have," Peter said.
"That's it," Marisa said.
"What's it," Peter asked?
"We can toss your plane into the air," Marisa said.

"Okay, I'll toss it and you wait for the landing, then you toss it back to me."

Gramps said, "You're forgetting the important part.”
Peter folded his hands and bowed his head. Marisa did the same. They talked to God.
Marisa and Peter thanked Gramps for the story.
Then the plane flew out of Gramps' room and into the living room.
It flew over Dad’s newspaper.
Marisa whispered, "Maybe we better fly it in your room.”
"Yeah," Peter said. "I wonder what's for dessert."
                               _________________

The Immaculate Conception of Mary

Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary
December 8

                                            Wikipedia Commons

We remember the Feast of The Immaculate Conception on December Eighth.  We pray and sing:

Oh Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you.

The Immaculate Conception of  Mary is the national feast of the United States of America. 
The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is located in
Washington DC

The Feast of The Immaculate Conception is also the patronal feast day of Spain, Korea, Portugal, Brazil, the Philippines, and Nicaragua. 
 This feast is celebrated in many special ways throughout the Catholic World.

The Virgin They Could Not Move

By Charlie29 Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Attribution not legally required.

Nicaraguans call this feast that of The Most Pure One. 
La Purísima.

       In 1562, Pedro Alonso Sanchez de Cepeda y Ahumada*, the brother of St. Teresa of Avila, was sailing to Peru. His sister had given him a lovely statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. During the long ocean voyage the ship endured many storms. Those on board prayed to the Virgin.  One storm occurred off the coast of Nicaragua.  Pedro  decided to land there.  The port was hot and humid.  Pedro and his men traveled on to a nearby settlement, El Viejo.

     They carried the statue with them. When Pedro got to the village, he asked the Franciscan missionary to place it in the church for safekeeping. The people there came to pray before the statue. They were happy to have such a lovely image of Mary.

    When the weather improved, Pedro packed up the statue and went to his ship. The people accompanied the statue as it was carried there. They did not like to see it go, but Pedro had to get to Peru.  After the people had said their last prayers before the statue, he set sail.

As soon as Don Pedro reached the deep of the ocean, he met another storm and was forced to return to the port. 

When the people saw this, they insisted that the Virgin did not want her statue to leave them.  Don Pedro seeing how much the people wanted the statue to stay with them, decided to make a gift of it to them.

Then, he sailed on safely to Peru. They people placed it in their village and today, five hundred years later, the statue is still in Nicaragua in the  cathedral of El Viejo 

On this feast, Nicaraguans honor Mary with songs, prayers, processions, and firecrackers.  In the city of León , they call their celebrations, “La Griteria” which literally means 
The Shouting.

They have a lovely custom at this time. Families make shrines to Mary. Everyone, all the children, the neighbors come to pray and sing and celebrate their love of the Mother of God.  Families offer sweets and drinks and gifts to those who visit the shrine.  They share what they have as long as it lasts.

        In the city of Leon and in other towns, too, they greet one another saying, “Who is the cause of so much joy?”  
 (“Quien es la causa de tanta alegría?”)

     Nicaraguans, like Catholics the world over 

love Mary, the Mother of God.

 *Some accounts say it was Lorenzo, not Pedro, but Pedro seems more likely to be the one.

Good King Wenceslaus

GOOD KING WENCESLAUS

Good King Wencelaus was a kind and generous nobleman in Bohemia more than a thousand years ago.  He went out of his way to help the poor people on his lands. He was so good that people felt happy just to see him. They came to believe that just being near him was a blessing.

On the day after Christmas, the feast of St. Stephen, Good King Wenceslaus looked out his window.  He saw  a poor servant walking home in a blizzard.

Good King Wenceslaus called a servant and asked him to gather food and firewood. The  King wanted to go to the poor man’s house to help him. He wanted the poor man to have food and a warm house.

Good King Wenceslaus set out in the snow.  The servant walked behind him.  When the servant felt the cold and it was hard to walk in the blizzard.  He said, “Good King, I cannot go on.” If the servant turned back alone, he would get lost in the blizzard.

Good King Wencelaus encouraged him saying, “I will make the path. Try stepping in my footsteps.”

As he walked in the footsteps of Good King Wenceslaus, the servant felt warm again. Together, the King and the servant trudged on through the blizzard. Later, the servant told everyone about how even in a blizzard, he felt warm near Good King Wencelaus.

That is why a famous Christmas Carol begins with the words, “Good King Wenceslaus, on the feast of Stephen, . . ”

The lyrics were written by  John Mason Neale, but the tune was found in an ancient Finnish Hymn Book.

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Mel Who?

Mel Who?

Year of Faith

God loves us!  God loves us!   God loves us!

Mel Who?

Jane came home singing “God loves us!”

As usual, she looked for her little brother to tell him all about her Religion Class.

“Billy, today I learned about Melchisedeck.”

“Mel Who?” Billy had a puzzled look on his face, but Jane went right on.

“Not  Mel, Melchisedeck. He was in his tent and ,”

“Was he camping?” Billy asked.

“No, he was a king, the King of Salem. Salem means peace.  He was the King of Peace in the Jewish Scriptures,  the Old Testament, before Jesus came.

“ And Billy, he was a priest, too. And he had some visitors and he offered them bread and wine.”

Billy still looked puzzled. Jane went on.

“Billy, that happened thousands of years ago. It was God preparing us for Jesus. Melchisedeck was a priest, and a king, and he offered bread and wine.”

Billy looked at Jane, but he did not understand.

Jane said, “Mr James said that helps us understand Jesus and it must have helped the Apostles.  Melchisedeck was somebody important in history. When Jesus offered bread and wine at the Last Supper, maybe the Apostles remembered Melchisdeck had done that too.

Billy said, “ So what has that got to do with First Holy Communion?

Jane said, “Billy, Melchisedeck was like an advance notice of Jesus. Jesus is also a priest, and a king, and he offered bread and wine at the Last Supper, the night before he died.

“Next week we are going to learn more about the Last Supper.”

Billy said, “Push me on the my swing again.”