Fenia City Cathedral

[Sendile]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Faith,



Today I would like to speak about an attribute, which is pretty important in our everyday life: Common Sense. There are many creatures, who attend the usiversity diligently to become more and more skilled, or to gain deeper knowledge. Yet, without common sense these endevours might lead to nowhere.


Please let me share a short story with you, which is about four learned and knowledgeable friends. Well, the fourth one, Subuddhi, wasn’t exactly well educated or insightful in any sense but he possessed the one quality that his intellectual friends did not: common sense.


A day arrived when three of the friends decided to go looking for jobs in distant towns and villages. They wanted monetary gain for their knowledge. After all, there was no use of being so learned in scriptures and sciences if they were not going to gain anything back from it. The three friends did not wish to take Subuddhi along because of his lack of intellect but since he was an old childhood friend, they decided to invite him too.



The four friends set out on a long journey, moving from one town to another in search of a way to earn money. While passing through a dense forest, they discovered a bunch of bones lying under a tree. They decided that a fine opportunity to display their powers had presented itself.



The first friend used his skills to assemble the bones into a skeleton. When the skeleton was ready, the second friend chanted a mantra, which lead to the formation of flesh and meat on the skeleton. It looked like a lifeless lion. Just as the third friend was about to end the show by bringing the lion back to life, the fourth friend stopped him. Subuddhi knew that once the ferocious lion was brought back to life, it wouldn’t spare them.


However, the third friend ignored his advice, made fun of him and went ahead with something that was clearly a bad idea. Subuddhi quickly climbed up a tree nearby to protect himself as the third friend began to chant, thereby bringing the lion back to life. As predicted by the fourth friend, the lion killed all three of the learned friends while Subuddhi rushed back to the village, alive.



Dear Sisters and Brothers, simple creatures who have never learnt anything are often thought lowly by those who invested much time and energy into their own education. Yet, at the end of the day, common sense is the feature, that might solve a problem, or help avoid a hard situation. Keep your common sense in every case and don't hesitate to follow, what it suggest to you.



Blessings to you all.

[Sendile]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Faith,



Our theme for today is: how to think positively, how to find the good, where everyone sees only the bad. Indeed, it's hard to answer these questions, but still, it's rather important in our lives. So let me tell you a short story about a brave and creative painter, whose example might help you find the way to this kind of attitude.



Once upon a time, there was a Kingdom. The king there only had one leg and one eye, but he was very intelligent and kind. Everyone in his kingdom lived a happy and a healthy life because of their king. One day the king was walking through the palace hallway and saw the portraits of his ancestors. He thought that one day his children will walk in the same hallway and remember all the ancestors through these portraits.


But, the king did not have his portrait painted. Due to his physical disabilities, he wasn’t sure how his painting would turn out. So he invited many famous painters from his and other kingdoms to the court. The king then announced that he wants a beautiful portrait made of himself to be placed in the palace. Any painter who can carry out this should come forward. He will be rewarded based on how the painting turns up.


All of the painters began to think that the king only has one leg and one eye. How can his picture be made very beautiful? It is not possible and if the picture does not turn out to look beautiful then the king will get angry and punish them. So one by one, all started to make excuses and politely declined to make a painting of the king.



But suddenly one painter raised his hand and said "I will make a great portrait of you which you will surely like". The king became happy hearing that and the other painters got curious. The king gave him the permission and the painter started drawing the portrait. He then filled the drawing with paints. Finally, after taking a long time, he said that the portrait was ready!



All of the courtiers and the other painters were curious and nervous thinking how the painter could make the king’s portrait great as the king was physically disabled. What if the king didn’t like the painting and gets angry? But when the painter presented the portrait, everyone in the court, including the king, left stunned.


The painter made a portrait in which the king was sitting on the horse, on the one-leg side, holding his bow and aiming the arrow with his one eye - the other being closed. The king was very pleased to see that the painter has made a great portrait by cleverly hiding the king’s disabilities. The King gave him a great reward.



Dear Sisters and Brothers, we should always think positive of others and ignore their deficiencies. We should learn to focus on the good things instead of trying to hide weaknesses. If we think and approach positively even in a negative situation, then we will be able to solve our problems more efficiently.



Blessings to you all.

[Sendile]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Faith,



Today I would like to speak about Needs and Desires. Actually, all of us have certain desires in life. But how can we bring them in harmony with our happiness? Do these desires cotribute to our well-being, or on the contrary they rather hurdle our happiness? Or stroy goes around this topic today.



Once upon a time, there lived a King who, despite his luxurious lifestyle, was neither happy nor content. One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he worked. This fascinated the King, why was he, the Supreme Ruler of the Land, unhappy and gloomy, while a lowly servant had so much joy. The King asked the servant, “Why are you so happy?”



The man replied, “Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but my family and I don’t need too much, just a roof over our heads and warm food to fill our tummies.” The king was not satisfied with that reply. Later in the day, he sought the advice of his most trusted advisor. After hearing the King’s woes and the servant’s story, the advisor said, “Your Majesty, I believe that the servant has not been made part of The 99 Club.”



“The 99 Club? And what exactly is that?” the King inquired. The advisor replied, “Your Majesty, to truly know what The 99 Club is, place 99 Gold coins in a bag and leave it at this servant’s doorstep.” So the King ordered to do it. When the servant saw the bag, he took it into his house. When he opened the bag, he let out a great shout of joy, So many gold coins! He began to count them. After several counts, he was at last convinced that there were 99 coins. He wondered, “What could’ve happened to that last gold coin? Surely, no one would leave 99 coins!”



He looked everywhere he could, but that final coin was elusive. Finally, exhausted, he decided that he was going to have to work harder than ever to earn that gold coin and complete his collection. From that day, the servant’s life was changed. He was overworked, horribly grumpy, and castigated his family for not helping him make that 100th gold coin. He stopped singing while he worked. Witnessing this drastic transformation, the King was puzzled. When he sought his advisor’s help, the advisor said, “Your Majesty, the servant has now officially joined The 99 Club.”



He continued, “The 99 Club is a name given to those people who have enough to be happy but are never content, because they’re always yearning and striving for that extra 1 telling to themselves, “Let me get that one final thing and then I will be happy for life.”



Dear Sisters and Brothers, we can be happy, even with very little in our lives, but the minute we’re given something bigger and better, we want even more! We lose our sleep, our happiness, we hurt the people around us, all these as a price for our growing needs and desires. We must learn to maintain a balance of our need and desires to enjoy a happy life with what we already have.



Blessings to you all.

[Sendile]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Faither,



Today I would like to speak about Love and Marriage. I am sure many of you have already found the one, whom you would like to marry. Some of you might have already married him or her. But how can we actually choose our life-long partner? Here is a short story about this topic.



A student asked a teacher, “Why often people marry a different person then they fell in love with?” The teacher said, “in order to answer your question, go to the wheat field and choose the best wheat and come back. But the rule is that you can go through them only once and cannot turn back to pick.” The student went to the field, went through the first row, he saw one big wheat which he instantly liked, but he wonders that maybe there is a bigger one further. Then he saw another bigger one, but again he thought that maybe there is an even bigger one waiting for him.



Later, when he finished more than half of the wheat field, he started to realize that the wheat is not as big as the ones he let go off, he started to realize that he had missed the best one in the search of a bigger. So, he ended up going back to the teacher with an empty hand because he just wasn’t able to forgive himself for letting go of the best wheat and described what happened. The teacher told him, “You kept looking for a better one while letting go of the best one and later when you realize that you have missed that, you can’t go back. This is the mistake often made by people who fell in love and lost the best person they could have in their life”.



So, the student said, “Does that mean, one should never fall in love?” The Teacher replied, “No Dear, Anyone can fall in love if they find a suitable person. But, once you truly fall in love, you must never let go of that person due to your anger, ego or comparisons with others”.



“How do they end up marrying someone other than they loved?” the student asked. The teacher said, “in order to answer your question, go to the corn field and choose the biggest corn and come back. But the rule is same as before, you can go through them only once and cannot turn back to pick.” The student went to the corn field, this time he was careful to not to repeat the previous mistake. When he reached to the middle of the field, he picked one medium corn that he felt satisfied with and went back to the teacher. He described how he made a choice. The teacher told him, “This time you didn’t came empty handed. You looked for one that is just nice, and you had put your faith that this is the best one you can get. This is how one makes a choice for marriage.”



The student stood confused. The teacher asked, “What is bothering you now?” The student replied, “I am wondering which would have been better, marrying a person you love or loving the person you marry”. The teacher replied, “It’s a very easy answer, only if you are willing to admit it to yourself”.



Dear Sisters and Brothers, life is like a basket of fruits. Either you have to make a choice of eating the fruit you love or be content with something that is healthy! Choose wisely else you may have to spend your life wondering, what if.. As long as you stay true to yourself and honest, you can’t go wrong with any of these two choices.



Blessings to you all.

[Sendile]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Faith,



Today I would like to speak about Disregard. I am sure many of you have already faced situations, when your accomplishments were not appreciated - on the contrary, they were rather told off. Let me share a story with you about this topic.



Once there was a boy who lived with his family on a farm. They had a beautiful dog who would go down to the pond for hours every day in the spring and summer with the boy to practice retrieving various items. The boy wanted to prepare his dog for any scenario that may come up during duck season because he wanted his dog to be the best hunting dog in the whole county.


The boy and his dog had vigorous training sessions every day until the dog was so obedient, he wouldn’t do anything unless he was told to do so by the boy.


As duck season rolled in with the fall and winter months, the boy and his dog were eager to be at their regular spot down at the pond near their house. Only a few minutes passed before the two heard the first group of ducks flying overhead. The boy slowly raised his gun and shot three times before killing a duck, which landed in the center of the pond.


When the boy signaled his dog to retrieve the duck, the dog charged through the duck blind and bushes toward the pond. However, instead of swimming in the water like he had practiced so many times, the dog walked on the water’s surface, retrieved the duck, and returned it to the boy.


The boy was astonished. His dog had an amazing ability to walk on water–it was like magic. The boy knew no one would ever believe this amazing thing that he had just witnessed. He had to get someone else down there to see this incredible phenomenon.


The boy went to a nearby farmer’s house and asked if he would hunt with him the next morning. The neighbor agreed, and met up with the boy the following morning at his regular spot by the pond.


The pair patiently waited for a group of ducks to fly overhead, and soon enough, they heard them coming. The boy told the neighbor to go ahead and take a shot, which the neighbor did, killing one duck. Just as the day before, the boy signaled to his dog to fetch the duck. Miraculously, the dog walked on the water again to retrieve the duck.


The boy was bursting with pride and could hardly contain himself when he asked his neighbor, “Did you see that? What do you think?!”


The neighbor responded, “I wasn’t going to say anything, but your dog doesn’t even know how to swim.”


The boy sat in disbelief as his neighbor pointed out a potential flaw of the dog rather than recognizing the fact that what he had just done was a miracle.



Dear Sisters and Brothers, some creatures often downplay others’ abilities or achievements because they’re unable to accomplish the same thing. Don’t let this bring you down. Just move on and keep working on improving yourselves. Maintaining a positive mindset is a key part of being successful.


Furthermore, be conscious of instances in which you may be tempted to not give credit where it is deserved. Pointing out other people’s shortcomings does not make you a superior person.



Blessigs to you all.

[Sendile]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Faith,



Today I would like to speak about a mistake which we are all prone to make sometimes: Overthinking. You have surely been in situations when everything seemed to be so clear and easy first. Then somehow they turned out to be compliated - in fact, the more you were pondering on the situation, the more difficult it became.

Let me share you a story about this situation.



There was once a very wise man living in ancient times. He was elderly and educated and held knowledge and books to the highest regard.

One day while on a walk, he realized that his shoes were really starting to wear out. Because he spent a lot of time walking on a daily basis, he knew he had to find the best shoes to support and protect his feet. But, back then, this wasn’t such an easy task.

The man didn’t want to make things worse by purchasing the wrong shoes and having inadequate protection, which would lead to injuries and the inability to leave his home and walk to find new books to read.

The man gathered all of the books he could that were written by only those that he admired the most to search for the answer to his question, “What do I do if my shoes have fallen apart?”

He read through several books for many hours before finding out that he had no choice but to go buy a new pair of shoes. He then spent a lot of time reading about how to know if a pair of shoes fits properly. Once he was satisfied with the answers he found, he was proud of himself for doing the research and he felt confident in his ability to buy a high-quality replacement for his old shoes. He figured if he hadn’t done his research, he probably would have gone barefoot for the rest of his life, as he had no one to tell him how to fix his shoes.

Following the books’ instructions, the man took a stick and measured his foot with it. He then went to the market and finally came upon a pair of shoes that he liked. However, he realized he had left the stick back at home, which was far away from the shop.

By the time the man returned to the market, the shop was closed. And, by that point, his shoes were completely split, so he had to return home barefoot.

The next morning, he walked back to the market with bare feet, but the shoes that he had chosen the day before had been sold. The wise man explained what had happened to the shopkeeper, who reacted with a sense of surprise, asking, “Why didn’t you buy the shoes yesterday?”

The wise man replied, “Because I forgot the stick that I had used to measure my feet back home. And anyone who knows anything about shoes knows that you have to have the correct measurements of your feet before you can buy shoes. I didn’t want to buy the wrong size, and I was following the normal instructions.”

Even more confused, the shopkeeper asked, “But your foot was with you, why didn’t you just try the shoes on?”

The wise man was equally confused in return and responded, “All the books say shoes must be bought with the exact same measurements of the shoes you already own.”

Laughing, the shop owner replied “Oh, no! You don’t need the advice from books to buy shoes. You just need to have your feet, some money, and some common sense to not complicate things.”



Dear Sisters and Brothers, sometimes you need to take action without overthinking things. Knowledge often comes in handy, but in some circumstances, if you lack experience or common sense, your knowledge will only get you so far. In fact, it could make things seem a lot more complicated than they actually are.

If you’re facing an issue, don’t forget to use your reasoning skills in addition to anything you’ve learned in a formal learning environment.



Blessings to you all.

[Sendile]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Faith,



Today I would like to speak about Hedgehogs. Why have I chosen this as a topic of my present sermon? Because there are so many things we can learn from these small animals. Just let's take a look at their behaviour towards each other.



There was a winter, which was the coldest winter ever. Many animals died because of the cold.



The hedgehogs, realizing the situation, decided to group together to keep warm. This way they covered and protected themselves, but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions.



After a while, they decided to distance themselves one from the other and they began to die, alone and frozen. So, they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth.



Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. They learned to live with the little wounds caused by the close relationship with their companions in order to receive the heat that came from the others. This way they were able to survive.



Dear Sisters and Brothers, the best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people, but when each individual learns to live with the imperfections of others and can admire the other person's good qualities.



Blessings to you all.

[Sendile]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Faith,



Today I would like to speak about jealousy and envy. Endeed, these are two attributes that can often poison our lives. But why are they so dangerous? Here is a short story about this topic.



Once a Guru called all his disciples and said, “Bring a bag of potatoes with you when you all come to the course tomorrow but remember that each potato you bring should be labelled with the name of the person whom you envy. Disciples who envy many people must bring just as many potatoes with them.”



Next day all disciples came with potatoes in their bags. Some brought less, some brought more.



Now the Guru told his disciples "In the next seven days everyone of you should keep these potato bags that you brought with. Wherever you go, eating, drinking, sleeping, walking, whatever you do, these potato bags should always be with you.”



The disciples didn’t understand anything but they knew they had to follow the Guru’s command.



After three or four days, the potatoes started to rot and the disciples started to get disturbed by smell of the rotten vegetables. But somehow they could spend seven days with those potatoes.



After the seventh day all went back to the Guru with the bags. One of them said, “Guru ji, why did you asked us to keep these potatoes with us? They started rotting and smelling, it was difficult to keep them with us every minute.”



Guru ji smiled and answered “When you started to feel the burden of these potatoes in just seven days, then think how much burden will be on your mind when you envy other people.



This jealously puts unnecessary burden on your mind and rot you mind with negative thoughts just like these potatoes. So you should remove these wrong feelings from your mind.



If you can not love anyone then at least don’t hate. This will keep your mind clean and light.”



Hearing this all disciples threw jealousy out of their hearts along with the bags of potatoes.



Dear Sisters and Brothers, don't forget the moral of the story. Don't let jealousy and envy poison your mind, don't let them put too much extra burden on your life. Just turn to your fellow creatures with fondness and you will find calmness and satisfaction in life.



Blessings to you all.

[Sendile]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Faith,



Today I would like to preach about Friendship. What is the essence of freindship? What is the very core of it? Let me tell you a short story about it.



Once two friends were walking through the forest. They knew that anything dangerous can happen to them at any time in the forest. So they promised each other that they would remain united in any case of danger.



Suddenly, they saw a large bear approaching them. One of the friends climbed up immediately on a nearby tree not minding the slightest, what the other one was doing. But the other one did not know how to climb. So being led by his common sense, he lay down on the ground breathless, pretending to be a dead man.



The bear came near the man lying on the ground. It smelt in his ears, and slowly left the place, as bears do not touch dead creatures.Now the friend on the tree came down and asked his friend on the ground, “Friend, what did the bear whisper into your ears?” The other friend replied, “The bear advised me not to believe a false friend.”



Dear Sisters and Brothers, we all know the saying: "A friend in need is a friend indeed." Stick with your friends always, even when trouble is coming. This way you can always rely on their help in a reverse situation, too.



Blessings to you all.

[Sendile]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Faith,



Today I would like to speak about success. I am sure many of you are quite ambitious in your chosen path or profession. Still, sometimes you might feel others are standing in the way of success hurdling you to achieve it.



Well, here is a short story about this topic.



There was once a company whose leader was very strict and often disciplined the workers for their mistakes or perceived lack of progress. One day, as the employees came into work, they saw a sign on the door that read, “Yesterday, the person who has been holding you back from succeeding in this company passed away. Please gather for a funeral service in the assembly room.”



While the employees were saddened for the family of the leader, they were also intrigued at the prospect of being able to now move up within the company and become more successful.”



Upon entering the assembly room, many employees were surprised to see the leader was, in fact, present. They wondered among themselves, “If it wasn’t him who was holding us back from being successful, who was it? Who has died?”



One by one, the employees approached the coffin, and upon looking inside, each was quite surprised. They didn’t understand what they saw.



In the coffin, there was simply a mirror. So when each employee looked in to find out who had been “holding them back from being successful” everyone saw themselves. Next to the mirror, there was a sign that read:



The only person who is able to limit your growth is you. You are the only person who can influence your success. Your life changes when you break through your limiting beliefs and realize that you’re in control of your life. The most influential relationship you can have is the relationship you have with yourself. Now you know who has been holding you back from living up to your true potential. Are you going to keep allowing that person to hold you back?



Dear Sisters and Brothers, you can’t blame anyone else if you’re not living up to your potential. You can’t let other people get you down about mistakes you make or their negative perception of your efforts.You have to take personal responsibility for your work–both the good and the bad–and be proactive about making any necessary adjustments.



Blessings to you all.