who made it?

Sir Isaac Newton had a friend who, like himself, was a great scientist; but he was an infidel, while Newton was a devout believer, and they often locked horns over this question, though their mutual interest in science drew them together. Newton had a skilled mechanic make him a replica of our solar system in miniature. In the center was a large gilded ball representing the sun, and revolving around this were smaller balls fixed on the ends of varying lengths, representing Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, in their proper order. These balls were also geared together by cogs and belts as to move in perfect harmony by turning the crank. One day, as Newton sat reading in his study with his mechanism on a large table near him, his infidel friend stopped in. He was scientist enough to recognize at a glance what was before him. Stepping up to it he turned the crank slowly, and with undistinguished admiration watched the heavenly bodies all move in the relative speed in their orbits. Standing off a few feet, he exclaimed, “My! What an exquisite thing this: Who made it?”

Without looking up from his book, Newton answered, “Nobody!” Quickly turning to Newton the infidel said, “Evidently you did not hear my question. I asked who made this thing?” Looking up now, Newton solemnly assured him that nobody made it, but the aggregation of matter he so much admired, had just happened to assume the form it was in. But the astonished infidel replied with some heat, “You must think I’m a fool! Of course somebody made it, and he is a genius, and I’d like to know who he is.”

Laying his book aside, Newton arose and laid a hand on his friend’s shoulder and said: “This thing is but a puny imitation of a much grander system whose laws you know, and I am not able to convince you that this mere toy is without a designer and maker: yet you profess to believe that the great original from which the design is taken has come into being without a designer or maker! Now tell me by what sort of reasoning do you reach such incongruous conclusion?” The infidel was at once convinced and became a firm believer that “Yahweh is God”.
Bk33.24

a one-sided game..

One day in school Sister Monica asked the children to write a composition on jealousy, and Gerry, a fifth grader, wrote this one:

“Jealousy is mine because I make it myself. I pick out some guy and go feelin’ jealous. Last year I picked Ricky Herrin to be jealous on. I just jelled and jelled on him because he made the first team and I didn’t. Boy! I jealoused him all year. Every time he made a touchdown and me sittin’ on the bench, I added another layer of jealousy to my growing stack. Finally, I decided that I hated Ricky. Boy! How I hated him all over the place!”

“Funny thing about the whole thing was that was that every time Ricky would speak to me when we met, and then when I barely nodded he just kept right on speaking. He even got me out of a nasty mess with the principal one day. I found out that Rick did not know that I was jelling on him, and then one day I says to myself: ‘What the heck! This guy doesn’t even know I’m sore at him. I’m forgetting the whole thing. I’m the only one that’s feeling bad about this mess.”

“Ricky and I are good buddies now, and I think that jealousy is a one-sided game. It’s like eating green apples, it doesn’t bother anybody but yourself, and you get an awful stomach-ache from it.” (Treasury of Catechism Stories)
Bk35.25

by the book

My doctor had recommended surgery and referred me to a specialist.

Arriving early for my appointment, I found the door unlocked and the young surgeon, deeply engrossed in reading, behind the receptionist’s desk. When he didn’t hear me come in, I cleared my throat.

Startled, he closed the book, which I recognized as the Bible. “Does reading the Bible help you before or after an operation?” I asked. My fears were dispelled by his soft one-word answer: “During.” – Saint Luke’s Messenger
Bk36.33

Lenin Reflects..

Perhaps no man ever worked so hard at what he thought was the salvation of a nation as Lenin did. Yet, during a lucid conversation in his last illness he confessed to a former classmate and confidant:

“I have deluded myself. Without doubt, it was, I suppose, necessary to free the oppressed masses. However, our methods resulted in other oppressions and gruesome massacres. You know I am deathly ill; and in my most awful nightmare, I feel myself drowning in an ocean of blood formed by countless victims. To save Russia, what we needed (but it is too late now) was ten men like Francis of Assisi. Ten like him, and we would have saved Russia.” Lenin at the end of his life, 1924
Bk32.24

jottings

When a little girl was told that her favourite aunt had missed the plane with which she was coming to visit her family, she was at the point of tears. And when her mother told her not to grieve because her aunt was coming the next day at the same time, she sobbed “but then she will miss the plane again.”
Bk23.10