May  17,  2020 

6  FEET  AWAY 

Heck …. I’ve been staying 

60 feet away from some people – 

even when they are only 6 inches away. 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

May 17, 2020

Thought  for  Today 

“Jazz is playin’ from the heart.  you don’t lie.” 

William Geary (Bunk) Johnson.

Quoted Nat Shapiro,

Encyclopedia of Quotations About Music

May 16, 2020

Thought  for  Today

“We take what we want and God sends the bill.”

Dr. Rhodes  Boyston, MP,

Daily Telegraph,

February 20, 1979

Take  this comment

to you thought bank!

May 16, 2020

THE  SONGS  OF SONDHEIM

“The  ache of isolation”; “Agony”;

“Take Me to the World”; “Follies”;

“I’m losing my mind”; “Passion”;

“What More Do I Need?”; Company”;

“It Takes Two”;  “Marry Me a Little”;

“No One Is Alone”.  Ever happen to you?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

These are words taken from a 

newspaper review  

“For Sondheim’s 90^th,

the  Ache of Isolation, N.Y Times,
Arts, April 28, 2020. Pages C1, C6.

May  15, 2020

OOOOH!  AHHHH!   WOW!

A hawk – was practicing – some new moves.

I don’t think any other bird for miles around

was paying attention – and these were new

moves – new moves – and nobody was noticing. 

If he was a Blue Angel, mind you, there would

have been “Oooh’s” and ‘Ah’s” and “Wow’s!

from the crowds below. Ever happen to you?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

May 15, 2020

Thought for Today

 “Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me.”

Alice Walker

Agree or disagree?
Now that we're not

in church, bring this

quote up for discussion.

CEMETERY  MOMENT

 [Sort of a poem, sort of a story,  sort of a homily for today's feast of Saint Matthias]

One spring morning, a lone figure came

walking up a cemetery path – looking like -

he was looking for - a grave – obviously.

About 30 or 40 yards away – under a tree

were two women,  also visiting their dead –

looking to see where the stranger was heading

The two women had never seen him here

before. The stranger was looking around,

but finally found the grave he was looking for.

The stranger – it was me – was at an almost

empty cemetery in Portland, Maine. I sat

down on the  green grass – at that grave.

Time ticked on – till the two women walked

over to talk to the stranger. “Family? Friend?

We’ve never seen anyone visit this spot before?”

I said, “She’s my dad’s sister. I visited here -

maybe 30 years ago – and finally got back.

I’m on a cruise and our ship is in the harbor.”

One woman read out loud the name and

the numbers on the grey granite tombstone.

“Sister M Matthias Costello 1884 – 1913.”

I said, “She died long before I was born. I

never knew her. I don’t know anything about

her – other than she died of TB at 29.”

Silence …. Then I added, “She was like

Saint Matthias.  All we know is he chose

Christ and Christ chose him. That’s it.”

I told the two women my dad’s two sisters

are buried here – also nuns – and together

we found their graves – and his brother as well.

Then they took me to their husband’s graves,

who had died recently,  We said some prayers.

Then they took me  down to the harbor and my boat.

May  14,   2020

MY  CEMETERY

It’s not a fenced in green – filled

with grey granite gravestones,  

or green Styrofoam discarded 

wreathes and dead flowers.

It’s this mahogany wooden box –

filled with hundreds of memorial cards.

And instead of walking among the stones,

I let my fingers - my mind and my prayers -  

do the walking through the cards and the 

lives of the people I have known and met.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

May  14,  2020

May 14,  2020

Thought for today:

"Everyone, deep down within, 

carries a small cemetery of 

those  he  has  loved." 

Romain  Rolland

May  13,   2020

CURVE

Up ahead, the road sign

said, “CURVE AHEAD”.

They usually do, don’t they?

Okay I saw several roads

when I lived in Ohio  that

kept straight forever and ever.

But back east it was always

something – another road –

an old building – a curve.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

May  13, 2020

Thought  for  Today

“Distrust  all  in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.”  

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche [1844-1900]

May  12,  2020

ST.  PANCRAS  LONDON

Today, May 12th, is the feast of Saint Pancras.

Talk to enough people and you find out folks

have places they hope to visit before they die. 

Mine was St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

Reason: when we were practicing public speaking

there was one exercise that began: “Finding myself

before St. Paul’s, I went in. I mounted to the dome ….”

This was all before I got to St. Pancras in London.

For starters it’s one of the oldest places of worship

In England – going back perhaps the 4^th century.

Then I saw the red brick St. Pancras Train Station

and International Hotel. Different folks wanted it torndown – that is till John Betjeman, the poet, screamed.

Then I checked out the history of the church there. It’s

the place of dozens of parishes, churches going up and

churches going down – built and rebuilt - through the ages.

Then I read about the cemetery there – the names

associated with that place: for example the burial

place of Johann Christian Bach – the 18^th son of Bach.

It's also the burial place - listen to this - of Ben Franklin's
illegitimate son - as well as the place where Percy Bysshe
Shelley planned his elopement with Mary at his mom's grave.

Then there’s mention of Dickens mentioning it in
The Tale of Two Cities - the Beatles promoting, 
"Hey Jude" and on and on and on and on.

So check it out: put St. Pancras on your list of must see -
especially the train station - and by the way, St. Pancras
- is a by the way - a 14 year old kid killed for his faith.

 © Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

May 12, 2020

Thought  for  Today 

“You  take  delight not in a city's seven or  seventy wonders, but in the answer it gives to a question of  yours.”

Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

MAY  11,  2020

RAINBOW AT SAN  ALFONSO

5:30 PM 

May 11, 2020

F.  A.  Q.

Does everyone have a favorite question?

Yes or no?

What’s yours?

Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?

How come?

Who are you?

How much does it cost?

What do you do for a living?

Do you hurt?

Are you crazy?

Whatcha doing?

What time is it?

What are you thinking about – like right now?

What are you reading lately?

How good are you at listening on a scale of 1 to 10?

What’s the best thing you have ever done?

Do you volunteer?

What was your best moment so far in life?

Do you believe in God?

How much time do you have?

Is God asking you any questions?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

May  11, 2020

Thought   for  Today

Meryl Streep said, “My son is a musician.  When he was 21 and we were in the middle  of Thanksgiving dinner – 16  people sitting  around the table – he said, ‘You know the greatest regret of my life?’   

"And I thought, ‘Oh God, it’s when I didn’t go to his school play or when I fell short in some way.’ 

"And he said, ‘That you never gave me music lessons.’ 

"And I said, ‘I gave  you piano lessons. You had piano lessons for two years!’  

"He had forgotten.

“Michelle said, ‘He just thought he was a musical genius.’”

Meryl Streep said, “He thought that he picked up a guitar at 15 and learned      everything himself -  which he did.   But he had forgotten about the music he learned – but at the time he just wanted to play baseball. I made him play the piano.”

  Meryl Streep

May 10, 2020

MOTHER’S  DAY

It’s Mother’s Day. 

My mom is long gone – 

April 7, 1987 – killed in

a hit and run accident – age 82 -

while walking to church –

6^th Ave and 59^th -  Brooklyn N.Y.

It’s Mother’s Day.

I have this sweet memory –

from around 8 years old of age -

handing my mom - a MOM coffee cup -
which I bought for 10 cents at Kresge's.
No -  I didn’t accidentally fall and break it.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

May  10,  2020

Thought  for  Mother's  Day 

 “When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. / You are connected to your child and to all those who touch your lives. / A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.”  

Sophia Loren

INTERESTING  JOBS

Toll collector on a bridge 

at midnight during the 

Coronavirus 19 pandemic. 

Banana seller or a 

Mercedes car dealer. 

in a Banana Republic. 

Being a priest 

when all the churches 

are closed. 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

May   9,  2020

Thought  for  Today 

Liverpool: “The god-forsaken city,  with a  climate  so evil that no self-respecting singer would ever set foot in it!   It is a catarrhal place that has been the cause through the centuries of the nasal  Liverpool accent.”  

Sir Thomas Beecham, 

Quoted by Harold Atkins and Archie Newman,  

Beecham Stories.  Isn’t Liverpool the place 

where the Beatles began in 1960 – 
so did Sir Thomas 

say this before or after them?  
Thomas Beecham  [1879-1961]

also said, “Composers should write tunes that 

chauffeurs and errand boys can whistle.” 

DUCT  TAPE  MOOD

The mood was silver grey – 

grey clouds on a rainy day - 

like unwanted dimes and nickels 

in a dish – on my bureau - like 

duct tape holding together the 

vinyl on an old family foot stool. 

I’m feeling lazy and ordinary. 

This coronavirus is depressing. 

It’s seeping into the seams 

of my life – making me feel like 

I can’t keep myself all together. 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

DYING  TO  FIND  OUT

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 4^th Friday after Easter is,  “Dying to Find  Out.”

Obviously, being in this pandemic, we are wondering about death – and staying alive.

Obviously, we can learn from past pandemics – or we better learn.

However,  there are good reasons  to bury our head in the sand – because pandemics are scary history. Moreover, talking about burying our heads in the sand – denial - and in our hands – prayer and tears – we are conscious of those who have to deal with the death of loved ones – without much benefit of church and ceremony.

We are thinking and hearing about those caring for the sick – feeding the jobless – the stuck – the nurses and doctors and attendants – the paramedics – the volunteers – the researchers.

HISTORY

Is it worth typing into the search box on our computers, the word, “Pandemics?”

I did.  It’s worth it.

There has been cholera, small pox, and the Bubonic plague.

The numbers are tough to look at: 200 million – 1347 – 200 million.

The Asian Flu – 1957 – 2 waves – 1.1 million

AIDS  - 35 million.

Native Americans – 16 and 17 centuries – 56 million

Black death 1350, 1/3 of World’s Population

And many more pandemics – the one’s that crossed the seas and traveled all the roads of our planet.

QUESTIONS: WHAT ARE OUR QUESTIONS?

What are our questions?

What have we learned?

Quarantine, isolation, works. I see that in all the Google answers.

Research: In one plague in London, one doctor did the research and figured out one water pump was the problem. Shut it down and that reduced the plague in London big time.

How does – how will Coronavirus 19 – effect our thinking – our theology?

Thank you John Collins for asking us what we’re thinking and feeling?

Today’s first reading  - this 4^th Friday after Easter talks – Acts of the Apostles 13: 26-33 – talks about what some members of the Early Church were thinking and talking about in the city of Antioch.  They talked about Jesus’ being put to death by Pilate. They talked about resurrection – and that we – now including Paul – are to proclaim good news.

So we Redemptorists are asking: how can we bring Good News – how can we bring Christ to a world – dealing with this pan – demonized by death – plague?

Today’s gospel – John 14: 1-6  - this gospel about the dwelling places of heaven -  is one of the 3 top gospels chosen for funerals. 

How and what is it going to look like – when we have funerals for Tony Russo, John Gauchi and so many others?

Years ago – someone said F.X. Durwell – opened up Christian thinking – Catholic thinking about the hereafter – moving us beyond Good Friday – and Lent ending on Holy Saturday morning – to the Easter Vigil – Holy Saturday Evening.  Alleluia! Christ has died. Christ is Risen. Alleluia.

Then this person – added – I forget who it was – said, “Is there someone out there who is going to do for the Ascension – what Durwell did for Easter?”

Today’s gospel uses the word “WAY” – three times.  Is there someone who will talk about – imagine about – write about – social media about -  the WAY beyond death – what those dwelling places in the beyond will be like.

I wonder about how Cremation is – and will be – changing and developing our thinking about the hereafter.

How it triggers thoughts about the ascension of Christ – not just back to earth – but forward to eternity – especially pondering the proclamation in the creed, “I believe in the  resurrection of the body. Amen. Alleluia.

More. 

I guess we have to die to find out – but that has never stopped us from thinking ahead – beyond death –way beyond death -  thanks to Christ.

May  8,  2020

Thought for Today

“You carry heaven and hell with you.”

Sri  Ramana Maharshi

May 7, 2020

APPLE  GREEN

Not the color for a nursing home wall

or a kid’s room – but the perfect color

for some cut slices of apple green apples

on a warm afternoon – with some

expensive cheese – close friends in

their forties – jokingly 6 feet apart -

and we really haven’t actually seen

each other for about 3 months now.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

May 7, 2020

Thought  for Today 

 “Always  see  a fellow’s weak point in his wife.”  

James Joyce 

in Ulysses, 1922.  

Well, then where 

do you look if he’s 

a priest?

May 6, 2020

PEOPLE  SITTING  ON  STAIRS

As we all know, there are plenty

of places for sitting: on rocks,

on the grass, in malls, couches,

booths, boxes, and piano stools.

But the best – of course – is on

stairs – where others can spot

and see us from all angles – views – 

and nobody is in a power position.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

The stairs at St. Paul's in London.

May  6, 2020

Thought  for  Today

“The real history does not get written, because it is not in people’s brains but in their nerves and vitals.” 

A.   N. Whitehead,

Dialogues, 1953