Just about everything from little league baseball to the executive branch of the government is organized. There is a bureaucracy in almost every endeavor whether it is small or large. There is no question we need organization and order. We need all of those qualities that enable an organization to produce. One thing that is overlooked in all of these organizational agendas is that each one has an obligation to do something personally for our Church and for our country and to leave both better than they were found.

There is no doubt about the impact of one person like a Mother Teresa and what she did for the people of Calcutta. There is no doubt about the work of the Little Flower who stayed in the convent walls of Carmel praying for missionaries and was eventually appointed patron saint of the foreign missions. There is no doubt about the single handed work done by Father Damian taking care of the leper people in the far distant land of Molokai. Our Church and our country have been revolutionized by single individuals who started with an idea. That idea took root and that one idea radically transformed both Church and the country in which we live.

There is an unusual book out called Heroic Leadership. The author singles out certain members of the Jesuit order who at that time were unorganized, had no money and just one idea that they developed. The author was trying to show how many of these individuals created organizations that eventually have benefited all of us. The power of one idea, the power of one person pursuing that idea has been proven over and over in history. The readers of this column might think that their ideas do not matter. They do. The readers of this column might say those other people had a chain of circumstances that helped their ideas become reality and beneficial to society. Not true in many cases. They labored to bring their ideas into society. They worked harder than anyone else to implement the ideas they had. Because of their ideas and their work ethic, our Church and our country have become better places in which to worship and live.

So to the reader when you think of all the work that has to be done in the Church and in our society, don't ever let that idea you have become so deeply imbedded in your mind that it never surfaces. There are countless examples throughout history from the time of George Washington down to our latest President who has one idea and follows it. They help the Church, they help our country. You, too, can do the same.