July 2, 2019

  

FOOT   SPIRITUAL   EXERCISE

 [This takes 10  minutes - only 10 minutes.]

Have no socks on. Cross your legs so

your right foot can be easy in  hand!

Begin by massaging your right foot

with both hands for about 5 minutes.

Do your toes - separating your toes -

freely rubbing  them  - appreciating them.

Next still rubbing each toe, pick 5 places

these feet have brought you to in your life.

Next do the same with your left foot,

toes, heel, sole, ankle, all your foot.

Once more while rubbing each toe, pick

5 places these feet have brought you to.

A practice for this exercise could be to soak

both feet in warm water with Epsom Salts.

Another practice would be to read before

you do this exercise John 13: 1-20.

[Do this  for 10 minutes - only 10 minutes.]

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

July  2, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“He doesn’t know what he means, and doesn’t know he  doesn’t  know.” 

F. F. Leavis, Two Cultures? 

The Significance of C P  

Snow, Pantheon, 1963

CALMING  HANDS  EXERCISE 

[This  takes 10  minutes - only 10 minutes.] 

Sitting down - take your right hand ….

Hold it up and out and rub it

calmly with your left hand.

Feel your left thumb and fingers massaging

your right hand - thumb - and fingers - front

and back and each part  front and back.

Bending, rubbing, massaging …

Now do the same with your right hand

and fingers to your left hand.

Now after five minutes - doing both hands -

bring the palms of both hands together

in the classic form of praying hands.

With eyes closed feel the skin of both

hands touching - palm to palm - finger tips

to finger tips - calm - peace -  those palms.

[Do this  for 10 minutes - only 10 minutes.]

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019
Praying Hands: Albrecht  Durer [1471-1528]

July  1, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“Till I was 13,  I thought my name was ‘Shut  Up.’”  

Joe Namath, I Can’t 
Wait  until Tomorrow, 

Random House, 1969

June 30, 2019

HANDMADE 

  

We make steel swords and blades….

God makes blades of green grass….

We make clubs and police billy sticks …

God makes willow and oak trees ….

We make guns and howitzers ….

God creates the gentle breeze  ….

We take rocks and throw them ….

God creates Mount Everest ….

We spit words of complaint  at each other ….

God speaks the Word made flesh to us ….

We make walls to wall each other out ….

God makes paths that can lead to peace ….

Okay we make strawberry sundaes ….

And God creates volcanoes of fire ….

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

June  30, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“When they boo you,  you know they mean you.”  

George Halas  on San Francisco,  

his “favorite  booing  city,”   

recalled on his death, Oct. 31, 1983. 

June 29, 2019

 YAWN 

A  yawn, 

a universal, all languages, message, 

like a crossing guard’s hand signal 

to stop everything 

and let another’s being to catch up 

with itself and then get back to where 

it was and where it was going. 

Oh, “Hi!” and “Hello!” 

“Now what were you trying to say?” 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

June  29, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“I hope,  when I stop,  people will think that I mattered.”  

Martina Navratilova, 

International Herald Tribune, 

July 22, 1986.

WALKING  INTO

Walking into ….

Yes I do a lot of that in a lifetime. 

Front doors, side doors, glass,

opened, closed, hesitant … doors …. 

I look around: I see faces. Who’s there? 

What’s there?  Now what? I pause. 

Life …. I’ve been in a lot of places,

a lot of spaces, a lot of lives …. 

Now what? How many more doors do I enter

before I'll then end up being carried out? 

Ok, there is always the background music - while I trust  in God there is no, “That’s it!” 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

June  28, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don’t know.”  

Bertrand Russell, 

Quoted by Alan Wood, 

Bertrand Russell,  

Simon and Schuster, 1958

June 27, 2019

PERPETUAL  HELP

Now that’s quite a job description

for anyone to post: “Perpetual Help!”

To be there when one is a baby:

obviously. Every mother does that.

To be there when a couple runs

out of wine at their wedding: wonderful.

To be there when one has to carry their

cross to death on the hill called “Calvary”.

And to be doing that ever since for the

helpless, the hurting the shoeless. Amen.

 © Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

June 27, 

Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help

June  27, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“Prayer for many is like a foreign land.  When we go there, we go as tourists.  Like most tourists, we feel uncomfortable and out of place.  Like most tourists, we therefore move on before too long and go somewhere else.”  

Robert McAfee Brown, 

Introduction to John B. Coburn, 

Prayer and Personal Religion, 

Westminster, 1967

June 26, 2019

PRAYER

It can be formal with chiseled words - 

from a heavy ritual book with ribbons - 

but most prayers are screams from 

people all around the planet seeing 

a fabulous sunset or waterfall and

feeling “Wow!” or blurting out, 
"Oh my God!" or it could be a sudden

shrieked yell for “Help!”  in a car as

it’s crashing and smashing into the

car in front of it on Route 95 - or

just a  grandparent’s prayer for their

daughter’s kid heading off to college.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

June  26, 2019 

Thought for today:

“It is as impossible for man to demonstrate the  existence  of God as it would be for even  Sherlock Holmes to demonstrate the existence of Arthur Conan Doyle.”  

Frederick Buechner, 

Wishful Thinking: 

a Thelogical ABC, 

Harper and Row, 1973

June  25, 2019

A DOZEN YELLOW ROSES

I was sick and surprise,

someone sent  me

a dozen yellow roses.

Now they are sick.

The petals are starting

to crumble and fade.

But I’m getting better

Is this the way life works?

Substitution and comparison?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

June  25, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“I was a 14-year-old boy for 30 years.” 

Mickey Rooney on his  roles  in movies. 

Quoted in New York Journal American, 

April 15, 1958

June 24, 2019

DOES  EVERYONE 

Does everyone in the audience 

have a song in their body -  a tap 

in their fingers - a dance  in their toes - 

 a tear in their eyes - and a hope in their 

heart that we’re all in this together? 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

June  24, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it  is  the illusion of knowledge.” 

Daniel J Boorstein, 

Washington Post, 

January 29, 1984

June 23, 2019

BODY  AND  BLOOD

At his last meal before he died 

he rubbed his hands…. He sensed 

his blood flowing through his being - 

as he said to the world, “This is my body….
This is my blood. I’m giving my all to you.” 

At his last meal before he died 

he looked at his disciples surrounding 

him. He was asking them in prayer 

to say to the world, “This is my body….
This is my blood. I’m giving my all to you.” 

At his last meal before he died 

he closed his eyes and feeling the 

wind and the air that touched all 

the world he said, “This is my body….
This is my blood. I’m giving my all to you.” 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

June 23, 2019

Thought for today: 

“I am rather like a mosquito in a nudist camp; I know what I ought to do, but I don’t know where to begin.” 

Stephen Bayne - on becoming 

first executive of the Anglican Communion, 

Time, January 25. 1960

June 22, 2019

DEAD  BUG

I saw a dead bug

on a window sill.

It bothered me

more than a dead bug

caught in  a spider’s web

or one that hit my windshield.

I wondered, “Why?”

Maybe because

I didn’t know how

or when it died -

but those other two

deaths made more sense.

Is that the way it is

with death? Old age,

cancer, tough but

they make sense.

But to die alone like

a fly on a window sill?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

June 22, 2019

Thought for today:

“Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe  photographs.”  

Ansel Adams

June 21, 2019

AT  EVERY  SABBATH

At every Sunday service,

at every Sunday Mass,

every person present

is either

one of two persons:

the one who sits 

and watches and judges others,

or the one who sits in the back

with and needing God.

Each of us is 

either the Pharisee 

or the Tax Collector?

  

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

Cf.  Luke 18: 9-14

June 21, 2019

Thought for today: 

“A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells  you  the less you know.”  

Diane Arbus

June 20, 2019

WHY  NOT?

For every act of selfishness,

anger, hostility, the finger,

not holding the door or a

space or place for another,

why not show some love,

an act of kindness, a smile,

a song,  a gathering with

others and to enjoy this

great gift of life. Amen.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

June 20, 2019

Thought for today: 

“The camera is an instrument that teaches people to see  without a camera.” 

Dorothea Lange

June 19, 2019

GIVE  GOD  THE  GLORY 

NOT  ONESELF 

The title of my homily for this Wednesday in the  11^th  Week  in Ordinary time is, “Give God the Glory, Not Oneself.”

This will be a one minute homily.

“Give God the Glory, Not Oneself.”

We’ve all seen the following while watching a baseball, football or basketball game. An athlete makes a great catch or play and raises his or her index finger to the sky - to give God the Glory.

This the message that Jesus is giving in today’s gospel - Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-18

“Give God the Glory, Not Oneself.”

I am trying to remember a scene from a novel about a Boston politician.  He went to Mass every Sunday. He would come down the main aisle - always one minute late - genuflect up front - near the 3^rd of 4^th row - reach into his pocket -  for his rosary - which would fall onto the floor - to the notice of everyone.

He wasn’t doing all this for God’s glory - but for himself.

“Give God the Glory, Not Oneself.”

That’s what Jesus is getting at in today’s gospel and we get that message.

47 seconds. Thanks for listening.

June 19, 2019

QUESTIONS?

Does Jesus prefer questions?

The gospels are loaded with them:

Where do you stay?

But who do you say, I am?

Who is my mother

and who are my brothers?

Do you love me?

What were you arguing about?

Which of the two sons did his Father’s will?

Does Jesus prefers questions?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

June 19, 2019

Thought for today:

“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life  by  holding it still.” 

Dorothea Lange

June 18, 2019

CONSCIOUS

I was in a nursing home

21 days before I realized

that Tim - this other guy  -

was just staring - yet  he

was conscious of everything -

but he couldn’t talk. He

couldn’t communicate.

It was then I realized

he was all eyes - totally

aware and I missed out

on 21 days of life with him,

but today things changed.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

June 18, 2019

Thought for today: 

“Even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.” 

Aeschylus.  

Quoted by David Brooks 

in an New York Times, op. ed. article, 

“Harvard’s False Path to Wisdom,” 

page A. 21, Tuesday June 18, 2019

June 17, 2019

CAN   DO

Can can -

that ought to be our tune -

not can’t can’t!

For life ….

For all people ….

For the little people,

for the old people,

for all people….

To bring the best out

of each other ….

To clap for each other

To rejoice in what each

of us can do.

Surprise!   Can! Can!

  

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

June 17, 2019

Thought for today: 

“Moral formation is not like learning math. It’s more cumulative; it’s inverse.  In a sin-drenched world it’s precisely through the sin and ensuing repentance that moral formation happens.  That’s why we try not to judge people by what they did in their worst moment, but by how they respond to their worse moment.  That’s why we are forgiving of 15-year-olds, because they haven’t disgraced themselves enough to have earned maturity.”  

David Brooks, 

New York Times, 

June 18, 2019, 

“Harvard’s False Path to Wisdom,” 

A. 21, Tuesday, June 18, 2019

June 16,  2019

IN  THE  OTHER  CHAIR

If you could sit down

with one other person

on an afternoon porch

who would that person be?

Well, it all depends on what

we were going to talk about -

what the topic of conversation

was going to be - if I had a choice.

For happiness it would be _______.

For relationships it would be  ­­­­­­­____ .

For an ideal job it would be  _____ .

For religion it would be  _________.         

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

June 16, 2019

Thought for today: 

“Concealment makes the soul a swamp; confession is how you drain it.”  

Charles M.  Blow,

 in a New York Times, op. ed. piece, 

“It Got Better. That’s my testimony.” 

Page A. 19, June 17, 2019.

June 15, 2019

RINGS  AND  THINGS

Wow!  There are lots of rings and things.

Pins and pendants;

Postcards on refrigerators;

Held with magnets from Bermuda;

Flags and bumper stickers;

Death memorial cards;

Wedding favors;

10,000 photos on iPhones;

Ball point pens borrowed from hotels;

Souvenirs from 1,000 places.

Wow! There are lots of rings and things.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

June 15, 2019

Thought for today: 


“Because you cannot see God, God is everywhere.”  

Yasunari Kawabata, 

Quoted by Susan Cheever, 

Home before Dark,

Houghton Mifflin, 1984

June 14, 2019

DID YOU EVER NOTICE?

Did you ever notice that every

silent piano just sitting there

seems to be whispering,

“Touch me!” “Play me!”

Did you ever notice that every

silent human being just sitting there

seems to be saying,

“Ask me!” “Call on me?”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

June 14, 2019

Thought for today:  

“Departing guests leave The Word and grab the words.”  

William Safire, 

On Preference for Dictionaries 

over Bibles,  New York Times, 

April 12, 1987