August 6, 2022

Reflection

CONTROL

She said she was getting better with trying to control things - people - everything and everyone.

Change came with having a baby. "I gave up when I realized he is not an adult. He's going to eat  the way he's going to eat. Sometime it's food. Sometimes food becomes a toy to play with. Sometimes food is face cream, shampoo or stuff to throw."

I asked her what it was like to be married and why she married him. I quoted an old quote I once read and that I had mentioned to my niece Margie. "A man marries a woman; a woman marries a project."

Then I added, "When I told that to my niece, she kicked me."

Then realizing what she did, she said, "Sorry!"

I pondered the whole theme or issue of control: Traffic control. God control. Other control. Weather control. Air conditioner control. Babies in church control. Who has the clicker at TV control. Times people show u for meals. When the phone rings control.

I thought about the prayer, "Thy will be done."

I thought about Self Take Personality Tests - and how they show how different people can be.

She brought up the "power" word.

We talked about power and control.

We talked about bending - letting things go - letting things slide - letting go - having a relaxed grip.

How do teachers do it?

How do nurses do it?

How do attendants on airplanes do it?

How do parents do it?

How does God do it? God remains quiet. God learned how to let go a long time ago.

Me? Someday.  We'll see.

 August 6, 2022

Thought for Today

"Through the Thou a person becomes I."

Martin Buber,

I and Thou (1923)

August 5, 2022

Reflection 

MAIN STREET

Main Street: how come it so often becomes the main street?

Did they know that when they named it that?

Was it named that the first day - or was it gradual - and it named itself?

I've been to many small town - and so many had a Main Street.

I like it when they have some sidewalk restaurants. They are great places to watch people walk by.

I love walking or driving up Main Street in the early morning when street cleaners are cleaning up - when store keepers are opening up - when walkers and joggers are waking or jogging by - when folks are walking their dogs.

Life after the night before ....

A new day....

Breakfast - lunch - or supper....

Boutiques - Bodegas - Baskin Robbins....

Looking at life, I guess, we have a main street - so many side streets -   back alleys - and cuts - quick ones across town.

Main Street ....

Didn't Babbitt - or someone with a name like that - have a book named that?

I'm sure it's the name of a newspaper or magazine or shoppers guide.

Main Street ....

And the Word became flesh and walked up our main streets....

 August 5, 2022

Thought for Today

"Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church                  where a wedding has been,                                                Lives in a dream.                                                                Waits at the window, wearing the face                                  that she keeps in a jar by the door,                                      Who is it for? All the lonely people,                                    where do they all come from?"

John Lennon and Paul McCartney

Eleanor Rigby (1966 Song)

 August 4, 2022

Reflection

50TH  ANNIVERSARY

Everything was gold.

Little gold 50's were sprinkled on every round table.

Her shoes were gold. Her dress was gold. The hall was draped in gold.

It was a golden moment - 50 years of marriage.

I got into a seat where I could see it all - the pictures - the children - the golden  grandchildren - the friends - lots of friends.

Their marriage worked.

They said they worked at it.

Six children: three girls, three boys.

Johnny, the oldest, gave a toast  from a small stage. It had humor. It had seriousness. The  sound that hit me was: not everyone makes it to 50.

People die. Divorce. Or just give up and separate.

This couple made it.

I sensed gratitude - thanks - grabbing the spotlight on their faces and in their eyes. Sober simple gratitude as they talked together near the end to all 100+ present.

At a wedding a newly married couple work the room together.  At their 50th this couple worked the room separately - and this made sense doing it this way. 

You have to know them. You have to have been there.

There was so much to share - so many connections and re-connections - so many stories to tell the other in small connecting groups.

50th Golden Gathering - so much to be thankful for.

Thank You, God - so much to share on Monday morning....

 August 4, 2022

Thought for Today

"Music is spiritual. The music business is not."

Van Morrison, 

Irish singer,

songwriter,

and musician.

 August 3, 2022

Reflection

PLANE  FLIGHT #1488

It was a long flight from Phoenix to Baltimore. I had gotten on Southwest #1488. We left from John Wayne Airport, Orange County, California. We headed to Phoenix.  We then picked up passengers for Baltimore.

The front bathroom was broken - from Phoenix to Baltimore.  Someone threw something down into the toilet - perhaps diapers - on the short flight from Los Angeles to Phoenix.

The maintenance crew couldn't fix it.

Other than that, oops, someone spilled something onto the food trays. As a result of this second mishap, they didn't serve water, soda, beer, and cheese on this flight. No peanuts either.

It was a chance to look out the windows and see the southwest on Southwest.

All was dry. However, I didn't see the areas where fires were raging. It has been a long drought in Arizona and Sidona. Every news program in California had highlighted the fires.

I bought a Los Angeles Times.  It was only $1.50. Not bad. It's tricky opening and turning  pages on an airplane - especially with a person in the seat next to me - especially from John Wayne to Phoenix.

So I  had a chance to read the Times A1 to the last page.

I also had a chance to look at America - from the plane windows.

I also has a chance to look at my upcoming weekend - flying out on a Friday from a NIH - a National Institute of Health meeting in California - finishing up Phase I of the Clinical Trial for Convergence Insufficiency that I was part of.

I also had a chance to look at my life - at the age of 66 - a priest - a human being - a person who doesn't stop to think enough.

I like to step back  - and fly somewhere - because then when I arrive home - I have a different perspective.

In the meanwhile I still wondered, "Who blocked up the toilet  on this plane? Who was that person?  If they didn't know they did it, they might do it again."

 August 3, 2022

Thought for Today

"Late on the third day, at the very moment when, at sunset, we were making our way through a herd of hippopotamuses, there flashed upon my mind, unforeseen and unsought, the phrase, 'Reverence for Life'."

 August 2,  2022

Reflection

ANNIVERSARY

Today is the 41st anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood: June 20, 1965.

Nobody said, "Happy Anniversary!"

Yet I did say that to the other guys.  All of us were ordained in June.

Nobody responded, "And with you too."

Last year - 2005 - we did celebrate our 40th anniversary as a class.  We - not all - got together at San Alfonso Retreat House, Long Branch, New Jersey - those who stayed and those who left.

Tonight I'll e-mail as many as the other guys  in the class as I have e-mail addresses.

"Happy Anniversary!"

If one is married, one can say to the other, "Happy Anniversary!"

I was thinking of those who have died: "In a way I'm like those who have lost a spouse."

What's it like for those who have left the priesthood? Is it like being divorced? Do they erase dates from their interior calendar - hanging on the wall of their minds?

I see now how I get a reaction at the time  I say at the final blessing at Mass, "May God bless all those celebrating birthdays and anniversaries on this day."

That catches a puzzled look at times.

I should do that more,

Happy Anniversary.

We never know what happened to folks this day in the past.

How many years do we have left?

To You, Lord, I want to say, "Thanks for 41 years today and for all the people we got to meet so far. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks."

That's my anniversary prayer today.

 August 2, 2022

Thought for Today

"A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil can throw at a man."

William Hazlitt [1778-1839]

Sketches and Essays (1839) Nicknames 

August 1, 2022

Reflection 

PHOTOGRAPHS

Now with digital and phone cameras there are a lot more amateur photographers.

Will the pictures last?

Will they go the way of e-mail letters?

At a 90th Birthday party yesterday people were looking at photographs - especially of grandma from long ago.

One granddaughter - aged 20 or so had pen in hand - and a xeroxed copy of a photo from the 1930's.  She was asking, "Who's who?" Then she jotted down the name of a person and something above each person.

Photographs ....

They are captured scenes of flying time - like scenes out the window of a moving bus window....

Cement memories - these are photographs - of stopped time.

I went to see an exhibit of Anselm Adams photographs at the Michenor Museum in Doylestown, PA. I stopped to watch a video - that was ongoing all day long. In it Anselm is explaining his techniques - along with  the history of some of his famous photographs.

Photographs ....

What ever happened to a photo I took of Jesus - hands open - holding the rising sun coming up out of the ocean?

Why do I love a photo I have of my dad at 25 or so?

Why do I have a few shoe boxes of photos under my bed.

Photographs.

Trying to hold onto youth - good times - the past - the moment .... There we are in a beautiful place - and we know we have to leave - so we see people taking pictures  in National Parks - or at fountains - the ocean - mountains - lakes.

Yet we know time is moving ahead.  One's body clock - one's heart - one's skin - one's legs - one's lungs -  and all the rest of me has a time limit.

Ugh. That kills me.

Freeze - the frame of the present - is not lasting.

 August 1, 2022

Thought for Today

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."

Albert Einstein

Science, Philosophy and Religion:

A Symposium (1941) ch. 13

 July 31, 2022

Homily

 July 31, 2022

Reflection

YOU HAVE NO IDEA

We were driving  to the funeral of an old nun. We were an interesting mix: three priests and a cook.

As we drove along, the cook, a gal named Maria, said at least dozen times, "You have no idea."

One of the priests - stationed in the rectory where Maria worked - started to kid her about her constant comment, "You have no idea."

I didn't work at that parish - nor did I know Maria - who she was and what she was like - but I began saying inwardly, "I have no idea who she was."

Did Jesus ever say that about his disciples and those he met?

Do married folks think that of their spouse at times?

Do moviegoers have any idea of what went on to make a movie?

Do they ever even think of that question?

I have no idea who the person in the movie ticket booth is.

Same for the toll collector on the Bay Bridge. I don't have E-PASS yet - so I have a 10 second transaction - and say, "Have a good day."

If we talked another 2 seconds - the driver behind us - will get reckless and restless.

I think that because I wonder about what I feel and others feel.

Can we communicate our thoughts and feelings?

I hope so.

Yet there is a whole lifetime of ideas behind every idea.

Every car ride connects us with other car rides.

Every conversation connects us with every other conversation.

No wonder some people say, "You have no idea."

 July 31, 2022

Thought for Today

"Everything will pass, and the world will perish but the Ninth  Symphony will remain."

Michael Bakunin [1814-1876]

Russian revolutionary and anarchist

of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

in Edmund Wilson To the Finland Station [1940]