Religion & Law

Bertolt Brecht, A Bed for the Night

I hear that in New York

At the corner of 26th Street and Broadway

A man stands every evening during the winter months

And gets beds for the homeless there

By appealing to passers-by.

It won't change the world

It won't improve relations among men

It will not shorten the age of exploitation

But a few men have a bed for the night

For a night the wind is kept from them

The snow meant for them falls on the roadway.

Don't put the book down on reading this, man,

A few people have a bed for the night

For a night the wind is kept from them

The snow meant for them falls on the roadway

But it won't change the world

It won't improve relations among men

It will not shorten the age of exploitation.

Mother Teresa

"I never look at the masses as my responsibility; I look at the individual.  I can only love one person at a time--just one, one, one.  So you begin.  I began--I picked up one person.  Maybe if I hadn't picked up that one person, I wouldn't have picked up forty-two thousand....  The same thing goes for you, the same thing in your family, the same thing in your church, your community.  Just begin--one, one, one."