October 21, 2018
Thought for today:
“Women prefer to talk in twos, while men prefer to talk in threes.”
G.K. Chesterton [1874-1936]
Is that comment true?
Sunday, October 21, 2018
Saturday, October 20, 2018
October 20, 2018
ILLUSION
The self-centeredness of illusion and disillusion
sometimes dominate my mind. It takes time
for me to realize you didn’t say what I thought
you said. I didn’t see what you were seeing
and saying - I was
too wrapped up in my own
seeings and hearings, thinkings and feelings.
© Andy Costello, Reflections
2018
Friday, October 19, 2018
October 19. 2018
BOXES
Looking out my car window
I spotted four boxes, 1,2,3,4,
then I noticed about six more
boxes, 5,6,7,8,9,10 boxes ….
They were in trucks, on dollies,
being delivered, being carried,
being wheeled on sidewalks,
tan colored cardboard boxes.
Boxes - the mystery of wondering
what’s inside - what’s hidden -
sort of like the mystery of people -
walking up and down the streets.
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018
Thursday, October 18, 2018
October 18, 2018
FEAR
Sometimes you see it in their eyes ….
Sometimes it’s on their face ….
Sometimes it’s on a leash as they walk down the street ....
Sometimes it’s over their right shoulder as they twitch ....
Sometimes it’s on their finger tips as they bite their
nails ....
Sometimes it’s in their fingers as they say their worry beads ....
Sometimes it’s in their breathing as they lock the door ....
Sometimes it’s in the pulpit or the pub ….
Sometimes God screams, “Stop making me fear!”
© Andy Costello, Reflections
2018
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
October 17, 2018
OCTOBER
Intriguing interesting month ….
It’s either Spring or Fall ….
buds appearing or leaves dying -
death and resurrection
depending which hemisphere
we’re in, cool but not too hot,
warm but not too cold….
It’s in between time and season -
time before the slow of Winter
or the slow of Summer.
October! Check your calendar.
Everyone makes October
the month to meet and to do.
© Andy Costello, Reflections
2018
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
ST. GERARD:
PATRON SAINT OF?
INTRODUCTION
Today - October 16 - is the feast day of St. Gerard
Majella - a Redemptorist brother from way back in the time of Saint Alphonsus.
For a homily my thoughts and my title would be, “St.
Gerard: Patron Saint of?
Let me give 5 possible patron saint “of-fers” for St.
Gerard.
First of all: he’s
already known as the patron saint of mothers
- or those wanting babies. This
is a total surprise - a young celibate Religious Brother - named the Patron
Saint of Mothers. Yet, in Italy especially - but also in Redemptorist Parishes all around the world,
this title became a push - because he was prayed to for a
woman having trouble in child birth and she and the baby survived.
Second of all: he’s the patron saint of those who are
bullied. Peers, fellow workers, a bishop, and several others really bullied
him. One bishop he went to work for had
the reputation of hiring workers who only last 3 days. St. Gerard last three
years.
Third: he’s the patron saint of being
underestimated. He was rejected by the
Capuchins - and then rejected by the Redemptorists - after asking to join them
after they preached a mission in his town. He ran after them. When he caught up
with them he nagged a Redemptorist
priest to give him a try out as a brother and wow did he surprise everyone.
Fourth: he’s the patron saint of those falsely accused
and he kept his mouth shut - till the girl who accused him of messing with this
other girl wrote a letter to St.
Alphonsus saying she lied.
Fifth and last he’s the patron saint of those dying
young. He died at 29.
CONCLUSION
Let me end this short sermon this way: if I was named a
saint after my death, what would I be the Patron Saint of?
Monday, October 15, 2018
Sunday, October 14, 2018
WISDOM BE ATTENTIVE
INTRODUCTION
One of my favorite sayings is, “Wisdom! Be Attentive.”
So that’s the title of
my homily for this 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B.
“Wisdom Be Attentive.”
Since this is October, the Month of the Holy Rosary, last
week I preached on the Rosary and I repeated a message I like to repeat.
“Rosary Beads aren’t just for Hail Mary’s anymore.”
And every time I say that, different people say to me -
afterwards - “I never heard that and I’ve tried that, ‘Thanks.’”
And I say things like -
you can say, “Thanks” - 59 times on a rosary beads - the number of beads
on a rosary - and that will take only 2 minutes
- more or less. You can say that any time. Or you can use it as a night prayer for the day. Or you can
just take a decade of the rosary and
come up with 10 moments from the day - or
from your life - or what have you -
moments that you are grateful for.
Or you can pick 10 regrets or 59 “Sorry” moments from
your life or simply say, “Glory to you,
O God.” Or “Help!” or “Wonderful” or
“Peace” or “Praise!”
And if this method of prayer works for you - that is - in
any way you make it personal for you - give rosaries to your kids or others and
tell them your discovery of different ways you use your rosary beads.
This works - if
you make it work.
It works for me - you can make it 10 or 59 - fingerings
of a rosary beads in your pocket - and it’s ecumenical - or you can use Muslim
worry beads or a string of pearls or whatever.
WISDOM BE ATTENTIVE
I was at a lot of Eastern Rite Catholic Masses -
especially when I lived in Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania - at a Retreat House there.
And before they read the scriptures at Mass - holding up the Scriptures, the
reader says or chants, “Wisdom! Be Attentive.”
And somewhere along the line I made that one of the
prayers I say on my rosary. It takes 3 to 5 minutes for the 59 beads - or less
than a minute for one decade of the rosary - to say: “Wisdom Be Attentive.”
Eastern Rite Catholics use a knotted string - or rope type
black rosary -called “chotkis” for prayer. It goes back to the 300 AD -
especially with the Desert Fathers. They would often say the Jesus Prayer:
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner” with chotkis - as a
counting device.
Some credit St. Anthony of the Desert [251-356] and Saint Pachomius [292-348] for this practice.
Wisdom Be Attentive!
In the Western Church - France, Italy etc. there is
evidence of types of rosaries in the 9th as well as the 13th
centuries and afterwards.
In this homily, I’m simply suggesting using a rosary in
hand as a reminder and a statement: “I
am now going to pray.” Muslims use a
prayer rug as well as beads as a prayer reminder.
I’m saying it’s a neat prayer method reminder. Find your rosary - you have them in your
house - somewhere - or you already know exactly where it is - in your pocket -
in a prayer dish on your bureau - or next to your bed or on the mirror of your
car.
Take and use.
Or continue to use it as a rosary and say the regular
Hail Mary’s.
I’m also stressing using your rosary and a wisdom
reminder. Wisdom be Attentive - you’ll see a lot of wisdom all around you.
ANOTHER PRACTICE: STREET WISDOM - STREET SMARTS
Last night I typed into the Google Search Box the word,
“Wisdom” which is the theme for today’s readings.
I found some fascinating stuff on wisdom.
One was Street Wisdom or street smarts.
There are group of people who get together for 3 hours at
a time and they walk down a street and just see what they see. They tune in to
the street.
Then they tell each other what they saw or what questions
came up.
And people report things like families, couples holding
hands, marriage, food, what they are hungering for, God, thoughtfulness, the
rush hour, traffic, money, and on and on and on.
Doing this they reported to each other wisdom.
They came up with their questions.
Is this a better thing to do than to walk with a radio or
iPhone on with ear buds?
Whatever.
Wisdom be attentive.
MISTER MELVIN
Or before coming to Mass - or at Mass you can walk
through the readings - as they are being read or beforehand or during the homily
or whenever.
Just walk through them and ask yourself what questions
come up or what thoughts do they trigger - like walking down or up the street.
For example a lady after the 11 AM mass asked me, “In the
first reading why does the author prefer wisdom to prudence? Why?”
I answered, “They just do - like preferring chocolate
chip cookies to oatmeal raison cookies.”
When I listened to today’s first reading and today’s
second reading I thought of Mister Melvin.
It was summer and I was spending a week with my brother
and his wife and family at Chincoteague Beach in Virginia - and we went
clamming and then my brother bought this clam knife and he was showing it to Mister
Melvin who was in the house next door - a native Chincoteagian. He said to my
brother, “You’re crazy to have bought
this knife. You just take a clam and smash the sucker on the sidewalk and then
with a fork you pick out the meat.”
I thought of that wisdom when I read today’s readings.
The first reading is to pray for wisdom. The second
reading says you take out a knife and pry open the scriptures and pull out the
wisdom. There’s meat in there.
Or you pry open today’s gospel. The gospel has the wisdom
today to not get overloaded with money or not get stuck on money - but get
stuck on Christ.
That triggered a memory of a short movie I saw once of a
man going down a street with 2 suitcases, a back pack and a leather briefcase
and he came to the right address and it was a doorway and he couldn’t fit in -
with his 2 suitcases - so he gave up and kept walking down the street.
Right then a little kid with no stuff comes running that
street and goes right into that house with ease.
It’s the same as a camel being unable to get through the
eye of the needle.
Wisdom be attentive.
WHEN TURNING ON THE INTERNET
I next saw on Google a blog piece on wisdom be attentive
from a Deacon Harold from Portland Oregon….
“On a flight from Minneapolis to Portland earlier this year,
I sat next to an airline pilot who was making his way home to Alaska. We
struck-up a conversation and, after the usual pleasantries and small talk,
began talking about our families. We spent a lot of time discussing the
joys and tribulations of marriage and family life. Since my wife Colleen
and I are entering the teenage years with our oldest daughter, I was
particularly interested in hearing about any challenges he and his wife faced
with their daughter when she was in high school.
My new friend smiled and related the following story.
“Thankfully, we only had one incident during her freshman year in high
school. She called us after school one Friday and asked permission to
stay at a friend’s house for the night. We trusted our daughter and we
knew the girl she would be staying with and her parents, so my wife and I
consented to her request.
“Later that evening, we realized that we never made
arrangements to pick her up, so I called the parents of the friend she was
staying with. The dad on the other line sounded surprised and said that
my daughter wasn’t there and, in fact, that his daughter asked permission to
stay at our house for the night! I was very disappointed and knew exactly
what was going on: there was a party somewhere and both girls were at it.
“Taking advantage of social networking, it didn’t take me
long to find the party house. I drove there and waited on the sidewalk
near the walkway leading to the front door. I stopped someone going into
the party and asked them to tell my daughter to come outside. Less than a
minute later, she poked her head out the door and saw me standing there.
With a look of shock, surprise and fear on her face, she slowly came over to
me. I said to her, ‘You have two minutes to say goodbye to your friends,
get your coat, and come back outside. If you are not here in two minutes,
I’m coming in after you.’
“Two minutes later, my daughter was out of the house and in
the car. I didn’t say a word to her the entire drive home. When we
arrived at the house, I told her to go to her room and that I would be there in
a minute. After debriefing my wife, I went to speak with my
daughter. I spoke to her in a calm and measured tone, not in anger, but
with all seriousness. I told her how much I loved her and what upset me
more than anything was not my worrying about her doing drugs or having sex or
drinking alcohol (which I knew she wouldn’t do), but that she violated my trust
in her by lying to me and her mother. It felt like she stabbed me in the heart.
When I told her that, she cried and hugged me, said she was sorry and told
me that she would never do anything to destroy my trust in her again. And
you know what … she kept her promise!”
There’s wisdom talking to each other. There’s wisdom
comparing notes.
CONCLUSION
There is tons of wisdom all around us. Just be attentive.
So today I’m saying, a good morning prayer is to take a rosary and
wear it out with short prayers like, “Wisdom
be Attentive.”
Saturday, October 13, 2018
October 13, 2018
CHOOSE YOUR COLOR
Isn’t it great
when you can choose your color?
Red, green, blue
better your red, green or your blue.
Sometimes we can’t.
It’s the color of the team.
Or we like the school
and this is the school’s color.
Or you’re the bridesmaid
and this is her color of choice.
Or you’re dead - and your
daughter always got what she wanted.
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018
Friday, October 12, 2018
CONCIERGE
She didn’t want a husband or a friend,
but she didn’t know this back - then -
when - they got married.
It took a long time, but what
she really wanted
was a concierge -
a go-fer - come to think about it -
that’s what her dad was to her mom -
come to think about it, her grandpa
actually was: a concierge
and
they weren’t even French.
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018
Sue Dytri
Thursday, October 11, 2018
October 11, 2018
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Two things we all need to do:
read and write our autobiography.
We’re playing our inner recording
of the story of our life - most of the time.
At some time we ought to write it down.
Computers are wonderful for just this.
Then cut and paste - gather and date -
the stories of our life - chapter by chapter.
Stories beget stories, memories beget
memories, people come back to life.
If one has siblings, it’s great to share
memories an our autobiography grows.
Tell me the story of your life.
tell me the title of your life.
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
October 10, 2018
PSALM 194
Praise the Lord,
clap your hands - clap, clap, clap. [CLAP 3 X]
For our eyes that we may see
into the eyes of those around us.
Praise the Lord,
clap your hands - clap, clap, clap. [CLAP 3 X]
For our mouths that we may praise
the wonderful people who surround us.
Praise the Lord,
clap your hands - clap, clap, clap. [CLAP 3 X]
For our feet that
we may always
greet with peace those around us.
Praise the Lord,
clap your hands - clap, clap, clap. [CLAP 3 X]
For our hands that we may give
our gifts to those who need us.
Praise the Lord,
clap your hands - clap, clap, clap. [CLAP 3 X]
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
TWO BY TWO
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 27 Tuesday in Ordinary
Time is, “Two By Two.”
As you know numbers are interesting.
Ponder this: A different dynamic takes place in a car
when there’s two people on a trip together compared to three or four people.
TODAY’S READINGS
Today’s readings trigger thoughts or wonderings about numbers - especially about
two’s.
The Gospel has the story of Martha and Mary.
The reading from Galatians has one of various Peter-Paul
stories.
Peter is certainly very different than Paul.
One was a fisherman - and probably his only education was
learning how to fish and mend nets and
Paul was a tentmaker - who probably had lots of rabbinical education and
learning.
Martha and Mary clearly have very different personalities
as well.
Peter and Paul had some serious differences - especially
in reaching out to Gentiles. Their struggle was an early church struggle.
LOOKING AT OUR OWN LIFE
Looking at our own life what have been the two by two relationships?
life.
Looking at our life who have been the buddies … close
friends …. Who was our best man or maid of honor at our wedding and why?
Looking at our family - who were we closest too and is there
a brother or a sister we never got close to? These are the family questions that are more important than just
the numbers.
What’s it like to be in a family of two brothers and two sisters?
I have wonderings about favorites in families. I even ask
about that - but often get, “I have no favorites.”
There are all kinds of literature and family therapy
dynamics when it comes to who’s who in one’s family.
At our convocation last week in New Jersey, one night
there was the option to watch a movie called, “Wonder.” In this story there was the older teenage
girl - Via - who struggled with not being
noticed or getting any attention from
her mom. She saw that once her brother - Augie - was born - a boy with serious
facial issues - that needed lots of plastic surgery - her mom’s whole
life scenario was caring for their son.
What thoughts do only children have? What’s it like to be
the only boy with three of four sisters.
What’s it like to be a twin?
BACK TO THE BIBLE
The title of my homily is “Two by Two”.
As you know that comes from the Noah’s Ark story.
There are lots of other two by two combos in the Bible:
Cain and Abel is certainly a significant story.
Isaac and Rebecca had twins and she felt them fighting in
her womb. Great story telling. The twins: Esau and Jacob were very different.
Jacob has twelve sons -
I won’t go there - that’s a whole different story.
Joseph gets to Egypt and time moves on and then there are
the 2 brothers Moses and Aaron.
More family dynamics.
Jesus liked to have brothers in his stories.
Everyone knows his story about a man had 2 sons. One
becomes prodigal and hits bottom in a far country and comes home. He rehearses
his speech that he’s willing to just becoming a servant. I need food. I need a
place. The father welcomes him home - but the older brother has no welcome home
in his heart or mind and won’t forgive his brother.
Then there is the story about the brother who says to his
dad when asked to do a job - “Yes, no problem, I’ll do it” - and then he
doesn’t do it. The other brother says, “No way”
and then has second thoughts and does what his father wants.
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily is, “Two by Two.”
I suggested thinking about our own family dynamics and
figure out what you learned in your family setting. Has it been a good learning
experience?
Hopefully, brothers and sisters live long enough to end up seeing each often enough to compare
thoughts about one’s family. Sometimes they become the best of friends and help
each other figure out what mom and dad were like and what it was like growing
up.
Can’t you picture Martha and Mary - and maybe Lazarus - sitting
around in their old age - talking about their idiosyncrasies and funny stuff
about their mannerisms and how Jesus played his favorites. Can you picture Mary
serving Martha and saying jokingly, “You have chosen the best part”?
October 9, 2018
PSALM 173
Praise the Lord for water.
Rain from the sky,
mist, dew, bottled water.
Sprinklers, sinks, faucets,
cold restaurant glasses of water.
Lakes, rivers, reservoirs,
harbors, piers, bridges over water.
Home, playground, for eels, sharks
whales, salmon, and billions more.
Home, playground, for eels, sharks
whales, salmon, and billions more.
Praise the Lord for water, for the
oceans that make up most the earth.
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018
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