The Catholic Parish of
Saint John Henry Newman

 Covering most of East Leeds

And The First Shall Be Last.

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Some years ago, a man called Dan Mazur was leading his team of climbers up one of the worlds most difficult and hazardous peaks, Mount Everest. He had tried this climb on several occasions, but had never managed to reach the peak, usually because of bad weather. On this occasion the conditions were ideal for finally reaching the summit, but two hours from the top, they stumbled upon Lincoln Hall, a climber who had collapsed the day before, on his way down. Alone and hallucinating, he had no equipment and was suffering from frostbite and dehydration. (They later learned that Hall’s team leader had given him up for dead and had notified his wife.) Without hesitation, they gave Hall their oxygen, food and water and radioed for assistance, by the time the mountain rescue team arrived; reaching the summit was now out of the question. They had sacrificed years of planning, weeks of climbing and their lifelong dream, all to save an unknown climber in distress.

Not surprisingly, Dan Mazur went on to help build schools and hospitals in parts of Nepal without roads, electricity, phones and running water. Yes! a truly remarkable man. Would you give up your dream to save another person? Strangely enough, there are many ordinary people who do it every day: Parents who turn promotion at work, because it would mean moving the whole family to another location and disrupt their children’s education. Then there are many round the clock carers who sacrifice so much, because their loved ones depend on them all the time.

Yes, there are many more selfless and caring people that you might imagine by reading your daily newspaper.

Jesus said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must put himself last.”

“We must all try to learn from the mistakes of others, as sometimes
we don’t live long enough to make them all ourselves.”



Published Fri 29th Jul 2016 20:35:23
Last Modified on Fri 29th Jul 2016 20:35:23

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