Second-hand cares worse

than second-hand clothes

A teacher once worked for fishes and loaves

Forget not in the life of beggars

To be kind before being generous

Keep then before you His great end, when

He walks behind you and comes back again

Uncommon good begets uncommon grace

Seeing Christ within the strangers face

Some fled abused; others fought for country

Or health issues imposed found them wanting

Their cries aren’t limited to rich men’s greed

Nor shelter in a cardboard box for sleep

Their souls are contained in higher places

Hopes go beyond evil, shunning faces

Wrongs done to the least is done unto Him

Selfish, self-swindlers have no love within

Entertain strangers; angels do not sleep

Every thought and word out of mouths proceed

Lying on feathers traded for stone

Tests are in everything and everyone

Who with heart can judge His silent presence??

And gain the summit of at last in Heaven??

If any man will learn failure to teach

Master to discern or failure to reach

Indulgent ingratitude a crying sin

Intimated at once to do you in

Sound and sterling, trouble and sorrow

God to ennoble repayment tomorrow

All things that breathe benevolence or hate

Independent men give and take no aid

Christ said the poor would always be among us

The thoughtless are worse off than the homeless

Blessings abundant for the widow’s mite

She found more favor than greed contrite

Hunger is not abated by food alone

But by heeding Him who sits on the throne

Vice takes her stay; temples enshrine her

But virtue was made by the Designer

Copyright © 2008 by Olga Mancuso