PAUSE  TO  SEE

June 8, 2012  Quote for Today

"Won't you come into the garden?
I would like my roses to see you."

Richard Brinsley Sheridan


Action Step: try to spot one flower each day till next November 8 - pause to study it - smell it - praise it - touch it - praise God for it..

CENSORSHIP

June  7,  2012 Quote for Today

"After his retirement from the University of Chicago, Robert Maynard Hutchins was asked by an acquaintance if communism was still being taught at the university. 'Yes,' replied Hutchins, 'and cancer at the medical school.'"



page 295 in The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes, Clifton Fadiman, General Editor

PERCEPTION

June 6,  2012  Quote for Today

"When you change 
the way you look at things,
the things you look at change."

Wayne Dyer

Oh!Oh!Oh!Oh!

Questions:

Have you ever been wrong?  Explain.

Have you ever thought someone was wrong and they were right and you were wrong? Explain.

Have you ever looked at someone for years and then you looked at them in a new way - as the above saying goes - and surprise - they looked different? Explain.

Has the following ever been true for you? There are 6 people in a marriage: the he, he thinks he is; the he, she thinks he is; the he, he really is; the she, she thinks she is; the she, he thinks she is; the she, she really is. Explain.

And then people change ..... So maybe there are 12 people in a marriage .................

AN ATTITUDE  OF GRATITUDE

I don’t know when or where I first heard the phrase, “an attitude of gratitude.” It was from somewhere, perhaps from someone on an audio cassette tape. Or maybe it was on a bumper sticker. Wherever, whenever, however, I don’t remember. Well, it was catchy and it caught me.

I look at my life and see all the gifts and graces that I have received: family, friends, health, fun, faith, and a whole photo album of great memories stored somewhere in the back room of my mind. I’ve been blessed and at times I say, “Thank you, God!”

Yet, I step back in this month that features Thanksgiving and I wonder: Do I have an attitude of gratitude? Do I take the time to really appreciate all the gifts that God and so many others have given me? I’m always rushing. And it seems to me that I’m must be missing so much in this rush of trying not to miss anything.

I think of Chesterton’s short poem, his short night prayer called, “Evening”:

          “Here dies another day

           during which I have had

           eyes, ears, hands,

           and the great world round me;

           and with tomorrow begins another.

           Why am I allowed two?”

Two? O my God, I’ll be 52 this month and that means I’ve had almost 19,000 days of life so far.

So my prayer this Thanksgiving will be: “Thank you, God.” And then I’ll add a prayer of sorrow: “Oh my God, I’m sorry for being so unconscious on so many days.”

When I step back now to think about it, so many days seem blank - a blur. They disappeared - without any memories and any proof that I was anywhere or I did anything of service for anyone that day.

So now I better add a further prayer, “Lord, I’m not ready to make an account of my stewardship. I need more time: time to wake up, time to shape up. So Lord, please give me more time. In fact, what I would really love to have is 20 more years of days.” (Cf. Luke 16:2; Luke 13:6-9.)

And then I laugh, because I know that if I make it till I’m  72 - the year will be 2011 - I’ll probably be asking once again for even more days of life.

WIGGLING MY TOES

I think of a 77 year old man I met somewhere in my travels. He taught me a great morning prayer, “I wake up. I just lay there for a moment and then I wiggle my toes. If they move, then I say, `Thank you, Lord, for one more day of life.’”

Isn’t that a great attitude? As I think back about him, I would certainly classify him as someone with an attitude of gratitude. Two years after I met him, his wife died. A year latter he married again. He is still living and still very much alive, wiggling his toes each morning and walking around each day, bringing joy to people that he meets. I would not mind having breakfast with him every morning. He seemed like the type of person who would be quite alive from the first moment of each new day.

ON BEING A MORNING PERSON

Yes, I like morning people. I am one myself. I get up every morning at 6:30 and have the luxury of being able to walk a half-mile to the Hudson River - all downhill. I walk to the water’s edge, bend down and put my hand in the water. It’s  quite a Holy Water font. I then make the sign of the cross and having learned from the old man who wiggles his toes each morning, I  too thank the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit for the gift of another day.

Then facing the east, I stretch out my arms and say out loud, “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.”

Then I climb back uphill and arrive home with a mile walk under my toes - and ready for a nice refreshing shower.

Isn’t that a great way of beginning a new day? However, once snow arrives, I have to change my pattern. Most winter mornings I stay indoors. Fortunately, I live in a big building with four sets of stairs and four floors. So I have come up with a neat routine of climbing one set of stairs to the fourth floor, walking the length of the building and going down another set of stairs to the basement, walking the length of the building and going up to the top again. I do that five times. Let me tell you, it’s much tougher than a walk to the river. And it has produced a different morning prayer - sometimes said with grunts. Naturally, I long for the spring and the great outdoors and a morning walk to the river.

How do you begin your day? Wiggle your toes? Cup of coffee? A long shower? A long walk? Running? Prayers? Exercises? Turning on the radio to get any late breaking news from around the world? Reading the paper?

Various people have told me that they pray best in the morning with a cup of coffee - sitting alone at the kitchen table with their bible or prayer book or sitting in a favorite chair near a window.

What’s your morning attitude? Is it an attitude of gratitude for the gift of one more day of life? How do you begin your day? Do you have a personal morning prayer? Be original. Be creative. Surprise yourself and surprise God with your own words, your own chant, your own gestures, your own recital of gratitude for the gift of a each brand new day of life.

AM NOT A MORNING PERSON

Or maybe you’re not a morning person. Maybe your best friend in the morning is a snooze alarm. 10 more minutes. Just give me 10 more minutes. And then it’s rush or crawl, but almost unconsciously, trying to get to where you got to get, but reluctantly, every morning.

Living in a community with 15 other people, I get a good chance to see all kinds of different personality types and how they react to the morning. Some avoid breakfast with others like the plague. I usually arrive with six of seven others after common morning prayers. I sense that some people see where we morning people sit and then they sit as far away as possible. Their face seems to be saying, “Oh my God, shut him up. Where is there a dark corner where I can sit and eat quietly?”

I used to be harsh in my judgment of people who claimed that they do not function till after 10:30 A.M.. Hopefully, I’m getting to be a kinder and gentler person in my old age.

Yet, I still think that “non-morning persons” are missing out on some of the best hours of the day. I go by the old sayings: “The morning hours have their hands filled with  gold.” “It’s the early bird that catches the worm.”

I think people who constantly burn their candle on both ends are crazy, but I too was young once. A young friend of mine, Mary Jo, used to go dancing every night. Every morning on her way to work she used to stop in for a cup of coffee in the place where I worked. After hearing her tales from the night before, usually getting home on weekday nights around 1:00 A.M., I’d say, “Mary Jo, how did you get out of the bed this morning?” And she would always answer, “Slowly.”

Thinking about it, I’m not really fair on “non-morning people”. I don’t allow people to be different, to have different biological clocks than me. I’m self-centered. I block out that on most afternoons I bottom out after lunch till about 2:00 o’clock. And then I really don’t get energized till about 2:30. I’m a morning and a night person and not an early afternoon person. I’m made for Italy or Spain where they have the smart idea of a good siesta every afternoon.

MAKE MY ATTITUDE

What makes your day? What makes an attitude?

I sense that one’s attitude makes all the difference in the world whether one is happy or sad, positive or negative, energized or drained. Going to bed at 9:00 P.M or 1:00 A.M. might make a difference, but I think it’s deeper than that.

Some people use the word “attitude” in the negative sense only. I think that the word “attitude” means one’s basic outlook or way of looking at life. The dictionary says that attitude means just that: one’s way of thinking, the way I lean, my basic tendency, my inclination.

We know each other. We know our each other’s inclinations and ways of thinking. We know the kind of atmosphere that different people bring into whatever room enter. We know that people are like the weather. Some people have a sunny, bright blue disposition and some people are like dull, moody rainy days. When you are with Jane, you feel that everything is bright and upbeat; when you are with Joan, you feel like you are under a cloud and that she is dark and damp inside. She seems to be dwelling in her cellar instead of relaxing on her back porch.

But that’s other people. I would think that the reader of a magazine article is called upon to look at oneself. Do I incline to be negative or positive? Am I an optimist or a pessimist? What’s my weather report about myself? What kind of a person am I: warm and sunny, or cold, frigid, and stormy? Am I a cool breeze or am I full of hot air? Am I grateful or ungrateful?

GRATITUDE: ALL IS GIFT

I would think that a person who has an attitude of gratitude is someone who sees that all is gift. Well, not all the time, but most of the time. We all have our tides. We have our seasons. We have our winters of discontent. But in general, I would think that a person who has an attitude of gratitude is someone who would see life in a certain way.

So I sat back and began to jot down a description of a grateful person. The result is the following Thanksgiving shopping list before the Christmas rush.

A grateful person is someone whose basic weather pattern would be: all is gift, all is from God.

A grateful person is someone who enjoys games with friends, likes to win, but doesn’t come apart if they lose at bridge or “Uno” or chess or “Trivia Pursuit”.

A grateful person is someone who loves zoos and cartoons, salad and desert, birds and flowers by name, and the great variety of people one can see on the New York Subway or in Toronto or in Disneyland.

A grateful person is someone who stops to notice the scarlet, deep red or maroon color of cranberry sauce and the fascinating yellow rows of corn on the cob before they eat it.

A grateful person is someone who loves real mashed potatoes and turkey and cries tears of joy on Thanksgiving when they see that night on television many homeless people also getting a great Thanksgiving dinner because of volunteers. And they realize that they too are being called to volunteer.

A grateful person is someone who hasn’t got an over abundance of “have to’s” in their life.

A grateful person is someone who doesn’t see in general, but sees specifics. They don’t see dogs and trees and humans. They see this fluffy dog named “Polly” or that Japanese maple tree, the one off to the side on the front lawn of the local library, and this old lady next to them in church who is wheezing and they ask her how’s she doing at the sign of peace.

A grateful person is someone who can still enjoy ice cream as much as their grandchildren, when they take them out for a day at the mall or the park.

A grateful person is someone whose who isn’t a griper, a sniper, a nitpicker, a taker, a bumper, a sneak, a back stabber, an alligator, or a pit bull.

A grateful person is someone who enjoys the rye bread and doesn’t sit there whispering inwardly, “I should have  taken the pumpernickel.”

A grateful person is someone who wakes up every morning or sometime in the day, wiggles their toes, and thanks God for the gift of this new day of life with its many specific wonders.

Thank you for listening. Happy Thanksgiving.

Andy Costello, CSSR

U.S. Catholic,

November 1991

7 WAYS TO
GROW  OLD GRACEFULLY

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 9^th Tuesday in Ordinary Time  is, “7 Ways to Grow Old Gracefully." Sub-title: “Becoming more and more graceful as we get older is tricky business!”

There’s a phrase in today’s first reading from Second Peter 3: 18 that intrigued me. The letter says, “But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.” I want to concentrate on part one of that hope: growing in grace and then conclude by asking Jesus in prayer for help with this. This issue triggers good stuff for prayer.

“Lord, teach me how to grow old gracefully.”

Isn’t that a prayer and a hope for everyone who hits 70 or is it 65 or 60?  Is there an actual date when we are declared “old!”

To me the how  would be the key thing to get a handle on. How does one grow old gracefully? Tell me some practical tricks to do just that?

So last night I came up with my first draft 7 tricks or 7 ways to grow old gracefully

7  WAYS TO GROW OLD GRACEFULLY

1) Be grateful:  Be thankful for every day of life that comes to us.

Years ago when I had a column in U.S. Catholic*, I wrote in one column about an old man I met down south. He was around 77 years of age. He would certainly be someone who was graceful and gracious.  He would be someone who had an impact on my life - from just one home visit. He told me that he saw that the secret of life was to keep his eyes closed when he woke up in the morning. Then he would wiggle his toes. If they wiggled, he knew he was alive. If he was alive, he would thank the Lord for one more day of life.

From him I learned to wiggle my toes and be grateful for every new day of life. I wiggle my toes during boring meetings - at Mass all the time - and any time I want to thank God for the gift of life. Try it! Are you wiggling?

2) Stop Complaining: Enough with the complaining about getting older. Don’t we all run into complainers - gripers - pessimists - people who keep on telling us about their arches and aches and arthritis?

They complain that they were given a false hope that the Golden Years were going to perfect. They are disappointed, so they keep looking for an audience to deliver their “bad news” that this is not true.  If you’re a complainer about the Golden Years being the Rust Years or what have you, and if you want to be gracious, turn off the complaining tape and enjoy being alive. Avoid the attitude of the author of Psalm 90 some of which we heard today in the Psalm Response part of the readings:

Seventy is the sum of our years,

or eighty, if we are strong,

And most of them are fruitless toil,

for they pass quickly and we drift away.

Don’t drift away! Buy maps. Get a good compass or GPS and buy good walking shoes or a boat. Then move it. Shake it. And laugh along the way.

3) Listen to people. Find a common interest. Better find out by spending time with them - who they are, where they’ve been, what their hopes were and now are. Discover the magic of interview. Discover the magic of what people have learned from their experiences. Enough of you; more of them. Listen. Listen. Listen.

4) Avoid the energy drainers! Avoid those who ruin cocktail parties, picnics, cookouts, coffee breaks, and dinners - those who have an agenda 24/7 about church, religion, politics, others. Enough already. There’s a time for this and there’s a time for that, but not all the time - especially now that election years take a year and a half at least. And if you're an energy drainer, go to a plastic surgeon and have your buttons removed and have balance buttons implanted into your mind.

5) Discover the magic of manners. Politeness works. Losing and winning in cards or Bingo - and being graceful either way is a skill. Say, "Congratulations" and “Please” and “Thank you” - and “Sorry!” Hold doors. Look people in the eye. Ask people for their unwritten autobiography - without being mechanical or obnoxious or seemingly all questions. This last skill is tricky.

6) Have projects. Have projects - plans - goals. Learn how to play the piano at home or the tuba in some kind of place other than your home. Don’t just sit around - like seals on the rocks at the Baltimore Aquarium. Write poetry or a novel or short stories or your autobiography. Redo your stamp collection - but with a grandkid this time. Study coins - Jesus did. Join a book club. Travel to Harper’s Ferry or Quite Water’s Park or the Smithsonian or volunteer, volunteer, volunteer.

7) Bring all this to prayer. No rock throwing at my 7 tricks. Come up with your own 7 secrets, ways, methods, tricks to grow old gracefully. Bring them to prayer. Talk to Jesus about your day. Compare your tricks with others and then learn the trick of  putting  them into practice.  

OOOOOO

* I put this article or column - "An Attitude of Gratitude" -  that I wrote for U.S. Catholic way back in November 1991, in my blog as a separate piece.

VIDEO  GAMES

June 5,  2012   Quote for Today

"The Hyperaddictive,
Time-Sucking,
Relationship-Busting,
Mind-Crushing
Power and Allure 
of Silly Digital Games"

On the front cover of The New York Times Magazine for April 8, 2012 - referring to an article in the magazine entitled, "Just One More Game", by Sam Anderson, pages 28-33, to 54-55.

Questions: how much time do you spend per week on your gadgets? Does the title of this newpaper exercise.

PROMISES

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 9^th Monday in Ordinary Time is, “Promises.”

As I’ve listened to sermons by Evangelical Christian preachers, I’ve heard them preach about “Promises.” While listening, I remember thinking to myself, “That's interesting. Promises has not been part of my tradition.”

I've noticed that the key stress is on the promises in the Bible. The centrality of a promise is in the Word of God - as found in the Bible. Basically, I hear the preacher saying or singing, “How do I know? The Bible tells me so. “How do I know Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. That's the Promise I go by.

I know “Promises” is a theme in the scriptures. What I'm saying here is that I am not conscious that it’s part of my way of thinking. It might be, but I don’t sense it. Or maybe I use other words. And maybe I need to look at it.

How about you? Does the theme of “Promises” resonate with you?

TODAY’S FIRST READING

There it is in today’s first reading - and it is a linchpin type of message - holding key things together.

Second Peter 1: 4 says, “… he has bestowed on us precious and very great promises.”

And the promises are very great: sharing in the divine nature; and escaping from the corruption which is in the world.

Isn’t that why we’re here? We want those two promises: to share in God’s nature and not to be lead into temptation

Second Peter also says: we have to do our part. We have to make an effort to supplement our faith with virtue, knowledge, self control, endurance, devotion, mutual affection and love.

Compared to what Peter says here, I sense that Paul would stress the God side of promise more than our side of the promise. God keeps promising - even though we might not do enough on our part to be gifted with what God wants to give us.

PROMISES - TODAY'S GOSPEL

Let me get back to promises. I don’t know if I have ever preached on this theme of promises.

Looking at today’s gospel - Mark 12: 1-12, we have this parable of the Vineyard. Then we hear that Jesus can be the rock of our life - our security. We can hold onto that rock in time of trouble and struggle. Some don’t. Some people throw Jesus out of their life, out of their vineyard. I sense that most just ignore or forget or drop out of a relationship with Jesus.

Next, I took some time to think about this image of the rock or better the cornerstone of one’s life.  How strong is our life? What is the foundation of our life? Remember the promise Jesus makes at the end of his Sermon on the Mount. He stresses that if we build our house on rock - he, Christ, will be our foundation or bedrock?

The theme of Promises is right there.

When we drive across the Bay Bridge we trust that it’s legs will hold us up. Trust and promise are like two legs of a table and a bridge and a chair. The builder and the manufacturer give us a promise that they will work - that they will hold.

Thinking further about the word "promise" and images of what we trust in - what our bedrocks are, I thought about marriages and friendships and relationships. In marriage we publicly make promises to each other. In friendships and relationships we assume promises that we won’t betray each other or break secrets or talk behind the other’s back - that we'll be there for each other.


CONCLUSION

So there it is: promises.  They are the bedrocks of our life - our security.

God gives - makes - announces - his promises. 


Hopefully, we will make a mutual promise to God. This is what a covenant with another means - what a covenant with God.  Amen.