The children were having a fun day at the beach : riding the waves, building sand castles, playing frisbee with the family canine.

In the distance, an old woman appeared. Her tangle of gray hair fluttered in the wind; her clothes hung on her like a bundle of tattered rags; her constant, indecipherable muttering buzzed above the sound of the surf as she bent down every now and then to pick up God-knows-what from the sand and then stuffs whatever-it-is into her shopping bag. The old woman approached, the parents instinctively moved toward their children, quietly instructing them to stay away from the strange woman on the beach. As she passed by, the old woman smiled at the family -- but the smile was not returned.

After they left the beach, the father asked some of the local folks about the "spooky" old lady who had intruded on their day.

"Oh, that's Maggie," he was told, "She's a kind old soul. Every morning and afternoon she walks the beach picking up bits of glass and sharp stones and shells so children won't cut their feet."

To often we gauge people according to our own very dubious standards of what and who is good. The externals of dress, speech and pedigree fail to take into account the true measure of an individual's worth : the love that is rooted in the human heart. Christ calls us to look beyond labels and seek out and lift up the holiness and goodness that reside in every person who is, like each one of us, a child of God.

"And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Taken from : The Catholic Community of St. John Baptist de la Salle weekly bulletin