August 20, 2022

Reflection

PRO-LIFE

You're pro-life if you pinch yourself for being here - grateful to be alive - and you're having the time of your life - and you hope it's for everyone.

You're pro-life if you're amazed at a tiny, tiny page bug - one you see in an old book - as you watch this tiny, tiny dot, this moving period, move quickly on a page - and you hope nobody will destroy it.  

You're pro-life if  you take time to visit folks in a nursing  home.

You're pro-life if you see through political manipulation to get votes using the abortion issue in these glossy flyers and TV ads and you sense that the creators of these ads really don't do anything about the murder of children in the womb.

You're pro-life if you are concerned about the children of the world - here there, and everywhere - those abused, those getting inferior education, those being sheltered from other kids, illegal kids, etc.

You're pro-life if you delight in people able to migrate to new places in order to make a living -  to survive and to thrive.

You're pro-life if you go crazy with people who are for abortion - but scream about clubbing baby seals to death for their skins, or other other animals for their fur.

You're pro-life if you go crazy at what seems a contradiction:  people screaming for a healthier environment for all of us - but they are for killing babies in the inner environment of a mom's womb.

You're pro-life if you're for the safety of people - trying to do one's part to remove the causes of war and robbery and rape.

You're pro-life if you are against capital punishment - while knowing it's being done unfairly.

You're pro-life if you realize - and this I believe is the  most controversial plank in my platform - you're against war - unless its the only way to stop people from killing innocent life. 

August 20, 2022

Thought for Today

"You will find something more in woods than in books.  Tree and stones will   teach you that which you can learn from masters,"

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

 August 19, 2022

Reflection

MESS

Mess happens.

We knock over a glass of milk.  We drop the box of Christmas bulbs. We leave the vegetables in the trunk of the car.

Mess happens.

We sin. We make mistakes. We say the wrong thing. We do the wrong thing. We promise, but we can't deliver.

Mess happens.

We don't have time to clean the garage or the cellar or the dishes and things pile up.

Mess happens.

Pat Livingston has a wonderful book entitled, "Bless This Mess."

Jesus jumped right into mess. He gets put in a buzz saw of a situation when they drag a woman to him. men want to stone to death because they catch her in adultery. He tells the story about a father of two sons - two sons who are very different. He runs into ten men with leprosy. He falls three times on his way to  his execution at Calvary.

Mess happens and Jesus can be found in the mess and mass of humanity.

It's called, "The Incarnation."

It's called "Christmas" - Christ being born in a messy stable - not the Inn Place.

It's called, "The Christian life."

It's called, "Humility."

It's called being made by God out of the mud of the earth and returning to the earth  30, 60, 82 years later.

It's called "War? and "The rumors of war.'

It's called, "The Evening News,"

"It's called, "The stuff or story."

Mess happens.

August 19, 2022

Thought for Today 

"The human heart  likes a little disorder in its geometry."

Louis de Bernieres [1954- ]

Captain Corelli's Mandolin [1994]. ch. 26

August 18, 2022

Reflection

DOES ANYONE CARE 

WHAT I HAVE TO SAY?

We've all sat at meetings - we've all been in discussions - and we've listened to what others have had to say.

It happens one out of ten times when someone looks at us and says, "Do you have anything you want to say?"

If people have been drinking  - or if egos are running around the room - saying, "Hey look at me!" - then the odds are 100 to 1 that I'll be asked that question.

Sometimes we have nothing to say. We're not sure about an issue - or we need to talk to someone else about that issue.

Or we need to do a lot more listening.

Or we have to figure out the most important questions - especially ones that are not being asked.

Or we don't care.

If  we do care and we have ideas, sometimes we do speak up - or off to the side after the meeting.

And sometimes we don't speak up until someone asks.

I am often surprised to be the recipient of ideas from someone about what was going on - but afterwards.

I say to myself, "Why didn't they bring that up?" or "Oh my God they see the big picture - the whole story - and the rest of us were just scattered - talking in ten different directions at once."

I do get a lift when someone asks me, "What do you think?"

If they just ask, it's good for my ego - even if I say, "No. I'm still thinking abut all this."

It jars or jams my morale when I am not asked - especially if it would have been nice if I was.

So I wonder if  round table are better than rectangular tables.

Are small groups better than one big  group.

Are group circles better than question and answer periods in long big halls. 

Is it better to go for a walk with someone after a meeting - or to chat with someone at a coffee break? 

Is it better to meet and mix with strangers than those we always talk with? Are three's better than two's?

Is it not too smart to always be just with myself all my life?

 

 August 18, 2022

Thought for Today

"You are uneasy; you never sailed with me before, I see."

Andrew Jackson [1767-1845]

in James Parton, Life of Jackson

[1860] vol 3, ch. 35

 August 17, 2022

Reflection

DEATH

Everyone from time to time faces death.

Deaths trigger thoughts and feelings about death.

Death gets us to ask the question: "Is there life after death?"

Then the question: "If there is, what is it like after death?"

Death gets us to question our life.

Death brings up further questions: "Is there an accounting?" "Is there a judgment?"

The wife in the movie, Moonstruck, asks several people in the movie, "Why do husbands have affairs?"

She gets several answers.  The answer that jumps out of the movie screen is, "Death!"

People get scared of death.

Is that true?

I'm 66 and I'd like 10 more years - and if I make it to 76, will I want 10 more years? I wonder what my thought patterns on death will be like in 10 years.

When people ask about people who are moving towards death - people who are bedridden - or have dementia - the question of quality of life comes up.

I think of a couple - who live on my sister's street - in Pennsylvania.  It's noticeable how they walk together each morning - how extraordinary their marriage has been - she much younger than he is.

What is an extraordinary life?

Obituaries in the newspapers just give a bare minimum of statistics and data and dates.

Isn't it the unofficial obituaries that really count?

Much more important  - I would think - it's  the question and quality of life - right now - and up till now.

[It's now August 17, 2022 - and as stated in this piece - I wrote this back when I was 66.  I'm now 82 going on 83.  I was never in a hospital since my birth. - that is, till I needed a triple  bypass - on my heart three years ago - and then two years later a TAVR operation on my heart.  In those who moments I was blessed to have faced death finally. It's coming.]

 August 17, 2022

Thought for Today

"So the church has become a spetacle of marvelous beauty, overwhelming to those who see it, but to those who know it by hearsay altogether incredible.  For it soars on high to match the sky, and as if surging up from amongst the other buildings it stands on high and looks down on the remainder of the city."

Procopius [AD c. 499-565]

Byzantian administrator and historian

of the church of the Hagia Sophia

 August 16, 2022

Reflection

THE GREATEST SIN

Every once and a while I notice some writer saying, "The greatest sin is ...."

Unfortunately, I forget to write down what that writer said.

If I did, I'd have a collection by now.

I spotted another one last week, but in the rush of work, I didn't jot it down.

My favorite is: "The greatest sin is our inability to accept the otherness of the other person."

Is it?

Wouldn't it be enlightening to walk into a waiting room - or a meditation room - and there on the wall were 16 or 20 framed sayings, "The greatest sin is ...."

Wouldn't it be neat to have in a church a side room with exactly that - with some wooden benches for people to sit and ponder - and pray - on the words on the walls in that room?

I don't know who the author is of the I like the best so far. 

"The greatest sin is our inability to accept the otherness of the other person."

I know I've seen several so far in my life.

Let me try a few of my own I can come up with right now - to get me to be more alert - in spotting them as I go through the rest of my life?

The greatest sin is laziness - leaving Lazarus - hungry at my doorstep.

The greatest sin is greed - grabbing pension funds - hoarding - holding onto what could help another.

The greatest sin is not facing our own sins - but only spotting others sins - and then throwing "tch - tch - tch" stones at them.

The greatest sin is coldness - lack of compassion - lack of concern - lack of anger at injustice and cruelty - and then peeing on those below us - on the ladder of life.

The greatest sin is a lack of gratitude and appreciation towards those who made us who we are today: God, parents, family, teachers, church, synagogues, mosques, temples, schools, friends, grandparents, wisdom figures, etc.

The greatest sin is not laughing, not crying, not clapping, not communicating, with those next to us on the bus, the train, the plane, the benches of life.

A smaller sin would be not reflecting upon all of this.

 August 16, 2022

Thought for Today

"Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God."

Martin Luther [1483-1546]

Large Catechism [1529]

The First Commandment

 August 15,  2022

Reflection

THE ALTAR

By turning the Mass around, by turning the priest around, by turning the altar around, the altar becomes much more prominent.

Yet, it has taken me time - standing there - to understand its mystery and its moments.

Where does one begin?

I don't know.

Was it smoke rising upwards - when we humans were burning sacrifices - to The Power Behind Everything? 

Was it place?

Did certain places have the grab? Were humans looking for the perfect pace or a good place to sacrifice an animal - to let go - and let GOD do God stuff for them. If they made the sacrifice on stones, did those stones become the same place  to take and eat the meat of sacrifice in communion?

Did the place where all this takes place become sacred? Or did folks keep searching for the "right" place for all this to take place?

I would think stones - rocks - were the first altars - and the only altar. Somehow stone does it.

When did wood enter into the mix, like when the Christian Last Supper was celebrated on wood? Was it at a table?

As a kid, as an altar boy, I heard the Latin sentence and I understood it at the time,

"Introibo ad altare Dei,  ad Deum qui laetificat juventutum mei." 

"I will go to the altar of God, to the God, who gives joy to my youth,"

I hope and pray at 66  and 66 plus - when l return to the altar of God - I will return with the joy of my youth. 

In the meanwhile calls for sacrifices are made.

Joy is an after taste.

Joy is a result.

Joy is the echo of God within us - as someone said.

So I do feel joy as I come to the altar each day - the joy of  my youth.

I knew as a kid, I unconsciously did not want to be a grouchy old man.

I'm not.

I celebrate with joy at the altar each day - and I hope that joy like smoke will always rise up to You, O Lord.

 August 15, 2022

Thought for Today

"I know two kinds of audiences only  -                                     one coughing and one not coughing."

Artur Schnabel [1882-1951]

Austrian-born pianist

My Life and Music (1961)

pt 2, ch. 10

August 14, 2022

Reflection

THE PAUSE THAT IMPRESSES

Coca Cola or Pepsi or some beverage had an ad that stressed, "The pause that refreshes...."

Take a break - a Coke or a tea or coffee break ....

Stop at the water fountain and get refreshed....

I don't pause enough as priest when I celebrate Mass....

I know - when I don't have an altar server - I like to pause before climbing the steps - before entering the sanctuary.

I don't know if anyone notices that pause. I do.

I like to stop before entering the sacred sanctuary - the sacred space - hence the steps - hence the altar - hence the pause.

I like to pause for a moment at a wedding ceremony - just before the couple pronounce their vows to each other. I ask the bride and groom to pause and pray for all of us - married and single - as we pray with and for them.

Pauses can impress.

The public speaker who pauses - should pause - realizing she or he's in the presence of people - sacred people.

The pause before the curtain opens in a play - after the lights have gone down  - when the crowd becomes silent - is a tell. The actors  take a deep breath.  Everyone knows the moment: "Let the play begin."

Pause.

I don't pause enough.

Maybe God is pausing - and only speaks - after a long pause.

"And the word became flesh and is dwelling among us."

Implications ....  Sound .... Pause .... Listen ....

 August 14, 2022

Thought for Today

"Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back, and instead of bleeding, he sings."

Ed Gardiner

in Duffy's Tavern

US radio program in the 1940's