Older generations used to be more revered for their wisdom and age, out of respect for the ties that bound them to their family and community. Both Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have called elderly people a blessing for society.  Caring for them is as much an act of love as it is a repayment of a debt for all they have given and shared.  To honor them is a high calling, and to answer it is... Read more

Seventy-one-year-old Father Tadeusz Koncewicz, a priest from Poland, was visiting his friend, parish priest Father Krzysztof Bugno, in Titusville, Florida, when they decided to find relief from the heat by going for a swim at a nearby beach.  After wading into the water, Father Koncewicz got pulled further out into the ocean by strong waves that knocked him around. Father Bugno and another man were finally able to drag Father Koncewicz to shore, but he had stopped breathing and was... Read more

It was late afternoon when 92-year-old Pauline Jacobi finished shopping at the Dyerburg, Tennessee, Wal-mart.  As she sat in her car ready to drive home, a stranger opened the passenger door and got in.  “Give me your money,” he demanded.  She told him no, so he threatened to kill her. “Then the good Lord took over,” Jacobi told the Dyersburg State Gazette.  “I said, ‘If you kill me, I’m going straight to heaven.  If you kill me, you’re going to... Read more

Paul Cézanne never knew that he would some day be considered the father of modern painting.  Because of his great love for his work, he never thought of recognition.  He struggled for 35 years, living in oblivion at Aix in France, giving away masterpieces to indifferent neighbors. One day, a discerning Paris art dealer happened upon his canvases and, gathering several of them, presented the first Cézanne exhibit.  The greats of the art world were stunned.  Here, indeed, was a... Read more

Did you ever consider that reading about some of the noble and heroic people featured in Three Minutes a Day stories could make you a better person?  Well, according to a recent  study by the University of British Columbia, that may be the case. As reported in The Canadian Press, the study’s lead author, Karl Aquino, found there was a “direct link between a person’s exposure to media accounts of extraordinary virtue and their yearning to change the world…These things... Read more

After her newborn son was diagnosed with congenital heart disease, Alexis Spellen felt helpless. Sadly, her son didn’t survive.  The nurses who assisted her during this time, however, changed her life—and her career path. Their compassion and support fueled her desire to become a nurse herself. Eighteen years later, Spellen is a nurse consultant in New York City’s Washington Heights, helping create long-term care plans for seniors. She works with patients and their families, making sure they are well-informed about... Read more

In Holman Hunt’s painting, The Light of the World, Jesus is shown in a garden at midnight, holding a lantern in His left hand.  With His right hand, He is knocking on a heavily paneled door. When the painting was unveiled, a critic remarked to the painter, “Mr. Hunt, the work is unfinished.  There is no handle on the door.” Hunt answered, “That is the door to the human heart.  It can only be opened from the inside.” God doesn’t... Read more

A mother and child stand on a street corner, waiting for the light to change. “Now you have to wait until you see the traffic light turn red, and the other sign showing you the person walking,” the mother says, adding, “Don’t forget to look both ways, just to be sure.” The child stands for a moment, even with all the lights in place, and after a check to her left and right. “What’s the matter?” asks her mother. “Well,... Read more

One summer day on a busy parkway in Columbus, Georgia, Michael Perry, 26, risked his own life to save driver Christopher Sanders, 27. Sanders was at the wheel of his Jeep when he had a seizure and subsequently blacked out.  He had started having seizures 10 years earlier, but never while driving.  His vehicle slowed and drifted dangerously on the parkway as traffic whizzed by. Perry saw the erratic Jeep, sized up the situation, pulled his own car over and... Read more

The youngsters in chef Didi Emmons’ free Take Back the Kitchen program are anything but disadvantaged, at least nutritionally.  “I’ve seen firsthand that poverty and obesity often go hand in hand, and I wanted to teach the kids some life skills,” Chef Emmons told a reporter.  She shares her skills at the Haley House Bakery Café in one of Boston’s poorest neighborhoods. One 18-year-old admitted, “Before I met Didi, I didn’t like healthy food at all.  But the stuff we... Read more