July 30. 2022

Reflection

I DON'T KNOW HOW TO PRAY

A man came to me to see a priest - to see if I could help him pray better.

He said he prayed.

He told me, "Years ago I was visiting a friend of mine - a colleague - and the man was dying. He was laying there in a hospital bed and said, "I don't know how to pray."

Silence for a second. A long second.

I then said a low sounding, "Wow."

Then this man in added, "I never forgot that moment. I  said to myself, 'I don't want this to happen to me' - so I learned how to pray."

He came to talk to me about prayer at the age of 55.  I was 65 at the time. I was a priest and he figured I would know how to pray - and how to pray better.

I listened to him tell me about his prayer - about how the Our Father and its petitions were part of his thinking life.

He talked especially about the fourth petition: "Thy will be done."

Then he asked, "How does anyone know the will of God?"

He mentioned a talk he heard on the Our Father.  The speaker said, "Millions and millions of people say 'Thy will be done' - but they have no mind in the slightest to do anything in life but their own will.

And he laughed as he said that,

He went on to say that his family says grace before meals and they go to Mass on Sundays.

But I was intrigued above all about his desire to pray/

I said, "Well, turn your desires into prayers."

Then I said, "Turn your thinking into prayer."

I added that Saint Alphonsus wanted to get people to move from thoughts into talking to God  and with God.

It was getting late, so we said we'll talk another time.

 July 30. 2022

Thought for Today

"If someone claps his hand a sound arises.  Listen to the sound of the single hand!"

Hakuin [1686-769]

Japanese monk, writer and artist; 

founder of modern Japanese Zen

 July 29, 2022

Reflection

THE WALKERS

You see them everywhere: the Walkers.

Shoes, shorts, t-shirts, vision caps - a simple uniform.

Walking while talking to a friend - a buddy - a stranger - a spouse - catching up on the latest - while exercising, moving, cardiovascular fitness.

The mall, the streets, a country road, flat preferably....

Then there are the extras: cellphone. bottled water, Gatorade, the dog, the podcasts, earplugs.  What else?

Going nowhere in a hurry - going somewhere with health in mind ....

It's obviously better than just sitting - gaining weight, with snacks, while watching a football game, or the soaps, or what have you?

Then after walking for four months or four years or four times a week - one of us knows we know a lot more that when we started walking.

It just happens....

We're older, we're wiser, we're fitter. 

We've read t-shirts on others going by; we've heard tapes; we've heard about kids in far cities or at college....

We've figured out why a daughter said what she said. We've figured out why a husband did what he did. We're figuring out why God gave us seasons.

Go figure ....

 July 29, 2022

Thought for Today

"There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have any beginning or any end.  He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it as. It was a fine compliment."

Jackson  Pollock [1912-1956]

 July 28, 2022

Reflection

THE WORDS WE SAY

The words we say involve risk.

"I love you!"

"I'm angry at you!"

"Thanks for finding my glasses."

A lady came up to me and said, "That was the best funeral Mass I ever attended. Too many times the priest rattles on with words - and he doesn't seem to mean them."

Now every at Mass from now on, I better be attentive to my words and my actions. Now at every Mass I need to make sure I mean the words I'm saying.

Now will that lady when she goes to Mass compare that moment with other moments and Masses and how they went  - and then will she make going to Masses more difficult for herself?

The words we say involve risk for both the speaker and the person spoken to.

"How are you today?"

"Is anybody sitting here?"

"Can  I join you?"

"The word became flesh and pitched his tent here with us."

Jesus Christ came among us - and then after 30 years of age or so - he began walking and talking and doing with us - and then some folks began planning to kill him.

Words ....

We pick up the Bible and begin reading at our risk.

Danger! Challenges ahead.

"Come follow me."

"Forgive 70 times 7 times."

"Go the extra mile."

"Give that shirt right off your back - especially on cold days."

"Lord, I want to see!"

"Lord, I want to listen."

"Yes!"

"No!"

Words contain risks.

 July 28. 2022

Thought for Today

" If  God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him."

Si Dieu n'existait pas. ill faudrait I'inventer."

Voltaire

 July 27, 2022

Reflection

TREES

I was driving back home from St. John Neumann Church - listening to NPR Radio.

Some guy on some program was talking about a book he did on trees.  That was the theme.

Interesting ....

I missed a good bit of the interview - but what I heard called for follow up. I would like to see the pictures he put together for his book. I'd like to reflect more on what he was saying.

He asked if trees were a central metaphor for life. He talked about the brain, rivers, cauliflowers, family trees, roots, gathering evidence, branching out, etc.

I didn't understand what he was talking about when  he said something like this: "We took a piece of plastic and zapped it with a bolt of electricity. Looking at it,  you can see in the plastic the branching out of veins from the central hit."

Rivers have branches that break off or come together in their journey to the sea.

I was immediately hit with the central image of Christianity - the cross - the tree of life ... the tree of death ....

Lightning flashed that Good Friday.

Christianity branched out into the world.

Genesis begins with a tree. Take and eat.

Artists are influenced by artists. They form schools. They branch out - and on and on and on ....

Go back the other way and you go back to God.

God is a tree.

God is the great tree of life.

So maybe those who make fun of people who are concerned about trees and climate, should stop the mock. Maybe those who mock others as tree hugers - don't get metaphors.

Maybe everyone should go into the woods and study roots and branches.

Maybe everyone should sit under a tree like Sir Issac Newton.

Maybe everyone should sit on a swing and watch the world fly by.

July 27, 2022

Thought for Today 

"The poet is the priest of the invisible."

Wallace Stevens

Adagia (1957)

July 26, 2022

Reflection

AT HOME AND AT WAR:

MILITARY  MARRIAGES

I was listening to National Public Radio while driving home yesterday.

Someone was giving a report on the impact of the way in Iraq on a community in Kentucky.

Tomorrow they said they would talk about the war's impact on local business.

But today they talked on the impact of war on marriage.

How many feel, "Is it worth it to come home - get romantic - only to have to leave and head back to war again?"

How many feel, "Is it worth it to go through all the fears I felt when I wondered if you 'd make it home again - or whether you'd be killed and I'd be all alone. I didn't like it standing there waving goodbye the last time - knowing this might be the last time I'd ever see you?"

How many feel, "Is it worth it, to be the equivalent of being a single mom or dad with you gone away again?"

How many feel. "Is it worth it to have to deal with a different person each time you come home?"

How many say, "Is it worth it to be in a foreign country - driving down roads that might explode at the next curve?"

How many think about their kids? What about not having them there  - to drive them to the game - or the doctor - or to McDonalds?

What about the loneliness in the alone?

When will this end? Will I come home with the news I might be deployed again - and soon?

What do I do with mixed and twisted emotions - to be here and feel needed here - while at the same time I wish I was there - because I'm needed there as well?

Home front - or war front?

 July 26, 2022

Thought for Today

"You know more than you think you do."

Benjamin Spock

Common Sense Book

 of Body and Child Care (1946)    

[Later Baby and Child Care] opening words

 July 25, 2022

Reflection

THE CELL PHONE GUY/GAL

The cellphone gal - you see her everywhere.

You're with her and then she disappears - not dramatically - but you see her stand - reach into her pocket - take out a tiny phone - listen for a moment - and you watch her face as she's heading towards the far room.

You think he's at the meal - or the meeting - but as you're with him enough - you realize  he's really at another meeting - and the real person he's with is on a cellphone - in a far room.

The cellphone guy - you see him everywhere.

The smokers outside the building - at least have their fellow smokers - puffing and talking and making gestures - outside the building.

But the cellphone guys and gals seem to be alone,

Yet sometimes I wonder whether the cellphone guy or gal is with another. Or maybe they are waiting for another and this one just happened to call in this in between moment.

I don't know.

As I drive down the interstate - I look over to the car that's passing me. There she is - there he is - the cellphone gal - the cellphone guy.

We are all doing a lot of talking - but is anyone really listening to the other? 

Are we all waiting for the next call?

What did we do  before cellphones?

How did we miss each other in the past?

Maybe someday we'll all have a good conversation about all this - in person - or maybe that's what the cellphone guy or gal is talking about.

 July 25, 2022

Thought for Today

"A suicide kills two people, Maggie, that's what it's for!"

Arthur Miller,

After the Fall 

(1964)  Act 2

 July 24, 2022

Reflection

SELF-DESTRUCTION

There is the obvious: death.

But that's down the line. Hopefully.... 

Like most people I'd like to get my three sides and ten - like the obituaries reports - and then some more I hope.

I'm now 82 ....

Then there is the self-destructive stuff....

Not enough sleep

Not enough exercise.

Poor eating and drinking habits.

Life can have the drag of days at times - because I stayed up too late watching an old movie or Forensic Files on TV.

And the day still has work to do - calls to make - people to see - mail to answer.

Tomorrow....

Can I will myself another five years - especially quality years?

But what about my tendency to self-destruct - not with booze - not with food - but with sloppiness. procrastination, and the urge not to sleep?

Maybe those who say sleep is a slow death are right. Sleep is a letting go - not knowing what one's dreams are - not knowing if I will wake - not knowing what's happening elsewhere.

Maybe those who say we do destructive things because for some strange reason we think they will bring more life - or we think the message is: they can bring us beyond the border of where we are now.

Maybe life is many maybe's - many mysteries - many letting go's.

Maybe it's the Abraham-Isaac scene over and over again and again. Maybe I have to climb the mountain - bind myself - be willing to accept death - only to have God set me free - for another day - for a fuller life.

I don't know.

 July 24, 2022

Thought for Today

"Fortissimo at last."

Gustav Mahler

On seeing Niagara Falls