October 3,  2020

COVID  19 MASKS -
THE SECRET

 
Masks work – but in the USA – in October 2020 -
only about 50 % of the people wear masks.
 
So is there a secret to get more
people in the USA to wear masks?
 
Of course,  there is!  It’s messages.
Put messages on the masks. 
 
With masks people don’t see our smiles,
but they can see message on masks.
 
Messages on t-shirts and hats
get people talking. “Great t-shirt!”
 
Politicians, Christians, Advertisers –
get your message out in public!
 
Give out free masks with your messages
on them.  People are walking billboards.
 
For example: “If you can read this, it’s
because I’m wearing a mask to protect you!”
 
“I’m wearing this mask. because I don’t
 like to floss or  buy mouthwash.”
 
“Love the Lord with your whole heart, mind, soul
and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.”
 

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

 October 3, 2020

 

 

Thought for Today

 

 “Poetry  is the opening and closing of a door,  leaving those who look through to guess about what is seen during a moment.”

 

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)

Atlantic Monthly, March 1923,

Poetry  Considered

 October  2,  2020

BRAIN WAVES

 
I just took
a long,  long walk
down an empty beach
along miles and miles
of silent sand
as  thoughts and memories
came rolling in and out
like the waves
along that beach.
 
Some were soft.
Some were loud
crashing waves
against the shore of my life.
I just took
a long,  long talk
down an empty beach
for miles and miles
and miles....

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

October 2, 2020

 

Thought for Today

“A writer is essentially a man who does not resign himself to loneliness.”

 

Fraincois Mauriac: 

Dieu et Mammon,  1929

Painting: Study of Man

at Writing Table, 1st Half

of 20th Century 

 

 October  1,  2020

 SOMETIMES, YOU JUST  KNOW
 
The wind
twisted a leaf
and I knew ….
 
The sun
sent a ray
and I knew ….
 
The temperature
warmed up
and I knew ….
 
The temptation
stalked me
and I forgot.
 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

October 1, 2020

 

Thought for Today

 

 “Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.”

 

John Singer Sargent

Portrait of General

SirJohn Monash

by John Singer Sargent

 

SAINTS: WARTS AND ALL

 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Saints: Warts and All.”

I was wondering if you have heard the expression: “warts and all”.

A wart is a hardened raised bit of skin or tiny lump.  The dictionary describes it as something that is unpleasant and unattractive.

The saying “warts and all”  means we all have our imperfections – our negative stuff – our weaknesses or what have you.

This is me with a pimple or a wart on my nose. Will you still love me?

SAINTS LIVES A CENTURY AGO
 
I was brought up with the idea you only wrote about a Saint’s virtues.

You didn’t mention their warts or negatives.

Then after 1950 or sometime there people wrote about saints and their weaknesses and their warts – as well as their wonderful qualities.

I heard that Padre Pio could make some hurting comments to some people.
I like it that saints are real – not that they make mistakes – but that they can make mistakes and still become saints.

I think a lot of people liked it when they read that Mother Teresa had struggles with darkness and faith. Don’t we all at times? Don’t we all?

I worked with a Redemptorist who told Mother Teresa off a few times – for being too strict and unbending at times.

To me that makes her real.

I liked reading Ida Gorres book on St. Therese, the Little Flower. The book was called The Hidden Face.  Ida Gorres  saw a photograph of St. Therese in a full religious habit and the picture was rejected. When Ida Gorres saw that picture and the pictures her convent wanted – and compared them, she wanted to see who the person in the photograph really was.

So she did the research and in her book, The Hidden Face, we get to know Therese Martin a lot more.  Therese had to deal with personality differences. She found out her sister Pauline cut some stuff out of her sister’s autobiography and also made some insertions. That made Therese and her sisters more real to me.
There weren’t major dishonest changes – but they helped me know Therese better. Her feast is tomorrow.

TODAY’S FEAST
 
Today’s feast is that of  Saint Jerome.

Pope Francis put out a document today - on the 1600 anniversary of the death of St. Jerome. It's called, "Scripturae Sacrae Affectus" - "Devotion to Sacred Scripture" [September 30, 2020.] The pope urges us to read the scriptures as Jerome did.

Here's a painting by Caravaggio of Jerome:

Now Jerome has always been known as a character.
In his letters we find out that those who had his stuff – letters – and comments – and experiences and meetings with him – were not scared to save what they saved – and tell others about him.

Jerome had his struggles with lust and impatience. He told it as it is.

You get him “warts and all”.

He made comments about women and their make-up. He criticized priests for their only concern being their clothes.

He had some close women friends and he had to deal with gossip and calumny about his relationships – especially with Paula.

He had quite a life – traveling everywhere – doing everything.

At one time there he  was secretary to Pope Damasus in Rome for three years – but as soon as Pope Damasus died in 384 – many people wanted him out of Rome  because of his sharp tongue and sandpaper personality.

CONCLUSION
 
Would he be made a saint today – warts and all? Hypothetical question.  We’ll never know.  Yet, Jerome certainly  made life interesting.  

 

ALL  THE  WORLDS  A  STAGE

 
As Shakespeare put it,

in As You Like It, 

Act II, Scene VII, 
“All the worlds a stage ….”
And it’s good to stop
every once and a while
and see all those people
who have called us to
greatness – that 4^th grade
art teacher who got us
to discover we could paint,
or that high school coach
who saw we were playing
the wrong position or that
comedy club which helped
us see we are funny or
that granny who helped us
see we had wisdom within
for life and for love for more. 
 

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

September 30, 2020

 

Thought for Today

 “You have heard of Murphy’s Law.  I follow Morton’s Law – taking everything with a grain of salt.”

 

 Someone

 

JESUS  IS  THE  LADDER

 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Jesus Is the Ladder.”

The ladder is an image  at the end of today’s gospel  for this  feast of the 3 Archangels: Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.

Jesus in this Gospel reading from  the first chapter of John tells Nathanael – who represents us – and any true child of Israel  – who is listening and who is hoping -  that Jesus is the ladder ascending and descending from the heavens. [Cf. John 1:   ]

It’s Jacob’s Ladder revisited.

Be a dreamer. 

Don’t forget to dream.

JOHN CLIMACUS

We all are very familiar with steps and ladders.

I’m sure we’ve all seen from time to time a painting of a ladder from earth to heaven – with monks climbing upwards – with Jesus at the top receiving them.  

John Climacus – a Greek – Eastern Rite – spiritual writer took the image of the ladder and wrote The Ladder of Divine Ascent.

It’s a classic – as popular in Eastern Spirituality – as Thomas A Kempis’ book,  The Imitation of Christ, was in the West.

It has 30 rungs  - with 30 steps – on how to get to heaven – on Jesus the Ladder.

We’re all aware of the step image for spirituality: whether it’s 12 step, 3 step, 8 step, 6 steps.

The Eastern Church has the image of the 30 steps – from earth to heaven – with all kinds of action not only on the steps – but from down below. Monks are holding onto monks – helping them up the ladder – with devils down below and off to the side shooting arrows and throwing spears at the monks.

Then there are angels in the upper left hand corner praying and cheering the monks onwards and upwards.

The painting is an ikon.

It’s a graphic picturing of the good guys climbing and hanging onto the good guys and guides and avoid the bad angels and temptations – and all that can drag us off the ladder.

One can find many presentations on The Ladder of Divine Ascent on line. Just type "The Ladder of Divine Ascent" into your YouTube search engine.

TODAY’S READINGS

I read up last night about the angels.

Angels have quite a history.  They are in all the major religions.

They are much more than those chubby faced tiny baby angels – on banners – the ones whose cheeks you want to pull.

There  are good and bad angels out there – and some traditions believe  each of us has a good angel and a bad angel within.

Native Americans had sort of the same idea with the good and the bad dog within us all.  Woof. Woof.  It’s the one we feed that is the one who dominates our spirit.

An obvious message is to rely upon the good angels to guide us.

Today’s feast will stress calling upon Michael to fight off the devil’s temptations. Michael is power. He is featured often with a sword ready to slay our demons and our dragons.  Gabriel is around as one who will give us messages – lights – insights -  annunciations and Raphael is with us for healing.

We Redemptorists know the OLPH picture and all its details.  So today we’re aware of Michael and Gabriel in the OLPH picture.  Another way of making the stations of the cross – is to sit under this ikon here – and contemplate the two angels with the instruments of Jesus’ passion and death on the cross.

We Redemptorists are also familiar with a town in Italy – with the name, “Scala”. 

Scala means steps or ladder. It’s on the Amalfi Coast. One can take a winding road up the mountain to Scala which is half way up.  Or there are various stone steps. I took one of the sets of steps – that has 2000 steps. And I tripped and sprained my ankle. In the middle ages there were many churches up there – but now the main church is San Lorenzo. And on the floor of St. Lorenzo church there is an image of a ladder with a lion climbing it. It’s the symbol for the village of Scala.

CONCLUSION

Once more the title of my homily is, “Jesus Is the Ladder.”

It’s the feast of 3 Archangels: Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.

One of the main things I heard and read about angels is not to make them God. They are helpers – guides – messengers – and as we see in the scriptures – but God is God – and Jesus is the Ladder to the heavens – and angels help us to find the ladder to God the Father and help us climb to God.

They are a means – not the end.

It seems that people forget this – and rely only on Mary, angels, saints, and forget it’s the Persons of the Trinity who are our destiny and our end.

September   29,   2020

SEED

I purchased.

I planted

I watered.

I watched.

I waited.

I watered.

I checked.

I hoped.

I watered.

I waited.

I learned.

I harvested.

I shared.

We  ate.

 

September 29, 2020

 

Thought for Today

 

“The one who toots their horn the loudest is the one who is in the fog.”

 

Someone

 September 28,  2020

LISTENING

 

I wasn’t listening.

I wasn’t hearing

what you were saying.

I didn’t realize this

till I heard you say,

“You’re not listening.”

 

Those words hit me

like rocks. It was then

I realized I wasn’t

listening to you

because you weren’t

listening to me.

 

It was then I asked,

“How many times

do we spend our

lives playing,

“Payback!”

“It’s payback time.”

 

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

 

September 28, 2020

 

Thought for Today

 

“But what Vatican II also made possible were the subsequent Bishops’ conferences, such as Medellin, Columbia in 1968,where the theology of liberation was openly articulated and embraced.  I don’t know when I first heard the words ‘preferential option for the poor,’  but it must have been close to that time.  The church in Latin America was flowering in its base communities and imagining a confraternity close to that known by the earliest Christians.  I read Gustavo Gutierrez a few years later, but it wasn’t till 1978 when I first went to El Salvador, that I experienced the other, living church.  In the intervening years, I had drifted away from my Catholic practice.  I was, as they say of us, fallen, ‘a fallen away Catholic.’  The campesino Catholics of El Salvador brought me back.”

 

Carolyn Forche in 

A Conversation with Carolyn Forche, 

in Image, A Journal of the Arts and Religion, 

Summer 2003, Number 39, page 55

September 27, 2020

 

“COME  BACK  HERE”

 

I’m sitting in this big empty church.
It’s around 2 in the afternoon.
In comes in a grandfather and it's
my guess, with his grandson.
 
The little kid runs away – right up
to the front of the church. The old
man yells, “Come here! Come
back here! Come here…. Here ….”
 
The kid looks around the front of the
church and then slowly works his
way back to the back of the church
and kneels down next to his Pop Pop.
 
I’m watching the whole moment.
I'm slowly realizing this is funny.
God are you telling me something?
Are you saying: "Come back here and pray"?
 

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020