POSITIVE  THINKING 

Quote of the Day: March 21,  2012




"If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right."


Mary Kay Ash, New York Times, October 20, 1985

AWARENESS

Quote of the Day: March 20,  2010


“There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity.”


Douglas MacArthur [1880-1964], in Courtney Whitney, MacArthur: His Rendezvous with History, 1955

Photo on top is a picture of the General Douglas MacArthur memorial statues at Red Beach, Palo, Leyte, Philippines. The statues are about 10 feet tall - placed there to commemorate the Oct. 20, 1944 moment that MacArthur returned. It's called MacArthur Park - but during the presidential term of Ferdinand Marcos, it was called Imelda Park - especially because the First Lady, Imelda Marcos, developed the memorial and was from this province. After they left the Philippines it went back to the original name "MacArthur Park".

FATHERHOOD

March 19, 2010

Quote of the Day:

"Father: one whose daughter marries a man vastly her inferior mentally, but then gives birth to unbelievably brilliant grandchildren.”

Anonymous

RELIGIOUS

AWAKENING

Quote of the Day:   March 18, 2010


"A religious awakening which does not awaken the sleeper to love has roused him in vain."


Jessamyn West, The Quaker Reader, 1962

INNER  LIFE

Quote of the Day:   March 17, 2010


"May you sense around you the secret Elsewhere
Where the presences that have left you dwell."

Irish blessing from John O'Donohue, Benedictus, A Book of Blessings, 2007, page 62

MARRIAGE: MOTIVES

Quote of the Day:  March 16, 2010


"Why did you two ever get married?"

"Ah, I don't know. It was raining, and we were in Pittsburgh."



Movie dialogue in "The Bride Walks Out," [1936] between Barbara Stanwych and Helen Broderick


Questions:

Why did you get married?

What would you consider the 3 top reasons why people marry?

What would be the 3 top reasons people stay married?

Have your motives about being married changed through the years?

IT

INTRODUCTION

Last night as I reflected on today’s readings for this Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Lent, it hit me to go the way of a poetic reflection instead of a homily. I do this at times when I feel homilied out. So this is called, “It”. It is not too long.

IT

He struggled with it
for 38 years.
He tried everything,
but nothing took it away.
It bothered him.
It drove him crazy.
Every time he fell,
it made him feel worse.
It kept him from
looking other people in the eye.
It humbled him.
It hunched him over a bit.

Oh, there were times
when he felt he was overcoming it.
But then when he fell again,
he would hear a voice from the past –
a message from what the preachers

who used to say about it,
“Pride comes before the fall.”

It made him give up.
“Oh it," he would say,
"It! I guess it's me –
and it's me for the rest of my life.”

But no, wrong, surprise.
Changes, healings, happen
sometimes only after

one hits the bottom of it.

It got him half way up.
It got him to his knees.
It got him to go to church.
It got him to confess to himself, to God,
“Bless me Father for I have sinned….”
It got him to talk to someone about it.
It got him to realize it was desire,
the hungering desire at the bottom
of every human being.
It got him to realize God is the
deepest desire at the bottom
of every human being.

It got him to Christ.

Christ, whom he saw

as a main break,
Christ, Living Water,

Christ, bursting open with water
flowing – streaming –
rivering all over him,

soaking him totally.
It gave him the feeling
of being washed clean –
in a pool of clear water –
in a bath of love.

He felt healed.

It had gone away – at least
for a day – then he felt
it was away for a week –
then a month, then a year.

He was dealing with it a day at a time.

It made him feel stronger.
It gave him understanding of others.
It got him to stop blaming others.
It got him to drop rocks.
It got him to feel loved
and to return that love.

It got him to stand up
and walk straight – tall
all the days of the rest of his life.

Christ was no longer an it.