Luab: The many faces of ‘goodness’

BEFORE I start my column, I need to print again the prayer for stillness. Such a beautiful prayer came out with stanzas interspersed that there really was no theme running through the prayer. Maybe I was too sleepy when I encoded it. A good number of my readers called me to ask about the distorted prayer and they asked for copies. Here's the correct copy.
Prayer for Stillness

God of stillness and creative action,
help us to find the space
for quietness today
that we may live creatively,
discover the inner
meaning of silence
and learn the wisdom
that heals the world.

Send peace and joy
to each quiet place
to all who are waiting and listening.
May your still small voice
be heard through Christ
in the love of the Spirit.

My main clincher to my thoughts got cut due to the postcard picture I sent. That occupied too much space. The point I didn’t want you dear readers to miss was this. The retreat house at Janda Baik was a haven of quiet, peace, serenity and tranquility and it helped us go in depth in our retreat sessions. Sometimes people are blessed to find a place like the Maranatha Retreat House. However, one does not need to go that far. You can always find a haven of your own. Just be still! Find your ‘’home’’ in the stillness you create. A loving God is always ready to move into your space and where God is—Home Is!

Today, I’m going to talk about the many faces of "goodness,’’ which still exist all over the world. I’m just picking out a few people to talk about.
Donna Lim in Singapore took time out of her busy schedule to show us around, to fetch us whenever we got lost and generally acted as a mother hen, always behind us to lend a helping hand even at odd hours.

Dominic Tan, the co-ordinator of Maranatha Retreat House in Janda Baik did not know us from Adam. We did our booking through the website.
Never in our wildest dreams did we expect such an important man to meet us himself. But Dominic Tan came to meet us. He ushered us into a café that served dinner, personally took our orders while he insisted that we just sit at our tables. Talk about service de luxe.

Finally we met a Mother Mangalam at the Pure Life Society, a spiritual sanctuary for orphans in Batu 6, Jalan Puchong, 58200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
She is the sister of Swami Satyananda, founder of the orphanage and guru of Fr. John Main. Mother Mangalam’s eyes are so full of goodness and love that when she looks at you, her look pierces into your soul that tears just came to our eyes, as we absorbed her aura of love.

She inspired us to climb the stairs of stones in order to reach the inner Communion Hall in the Temple of the Universal Spirit situated’’ on a hilltop amidst verdant foliage facing a breadth taking landscape.’’

After getting out of the Temple I went to the resting place of Swamii Satyananda behind the Temple. This inscription on the block before his resting place inspired all of us.

‘’Elimination of the ego makes the spirit return to its master the source of life.’’
All the faces of goodness we have met has all been selfless. Let us not lose hope. There are still a lot of good people.