WHEN IN NEW ORLEANS

When in New Orleans, make sure you visit the Shrine of Blessed Francis Seelos. It's at 919 Josephine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130.

When in Fussen, Bavaria, Germany, make sure you go to the Shrine of Blessed Francis Seelos. Here is a picture of that shrine right below this paragraph.

When in Annapolis, Maryland, make sure you to the Blessed Francis Seelos Bench. It appears right below this paragraph. Many people sit with Blessed Seelos, go to confession to him, and then go inside St. Mary's Church - where Blessed Seelos prayed many, many times- when he served here in 1860's.

If you want to choose one of three places mentioned, come to Annapolis - to the Seelos Bench - it's much more welcoming than the same bench in New Orleans. Our's has no limiting bars on the sides of the bench. Our bench can fit more people. 

Your move.

GOING TO CONFESSION 

TO FATHER 

FRANCIS XAVIER SEELOS 

What would it be like to go to confession to a Saint? Would I be nervous, anxious, scared? Would a Saint see right through me – knowing more about me than I know about myself – seeing my embarrassing behaviors and hidden prejudices? But would I also come out of confession whispering, “Phew!” – having received a sacrament – having received a breath of fresh air –  having received the gift and grace that God forgives me? And in time for some sins, can I forgive myself?

What would it be like if there was a holy priest here at St. Mary’s, Annapolis, who had a great reputation as a saint – the “go to” priest for confession? What would people walking or driving down Duke of Gloucester Street think, if they saw a single line of people all the way up from the bridge over Spa Creek heading into church?

Such a priest was stationed here at St. Mary’s way back in the 1860’s. His name was Father Francis Xavier Seelos. In the literature about Father Seelos, writers keep saying lots of people wanted to go to confession to him – here at St. Mary’s, as well as in Pittsburgh, in Baltimore, Cumberland, Detroit, New Orleans, and in the many places where he preached parish missions.

As to long confession lines at St. Mary’s to get to Father Seelos, I was disappointed because I didn’t find any writer saying exactly that - especially  because I did read about  long lines of people wanting to go to confession to him in several other places where he was stationed.

Listen to what the Annals of the Baltimore Province of the Redemptorists from 1867 say about Father Seelos when he was stationed in New Orleans, his last assignment. “Here, as in all other places where he had been, he soon became a universal favorite. Germans, English, French, Creoles, negroes, mulattoes, all admired and loved F. Seelos. Though he was by no means a great proficient in English, and still less so in French, there were hundreds of highly educated Creoles and Americans who came miles, and stood for hours before his confessional, in order to have the happiness to make a general confession to him. And we all remarked that whoever went to him once, would never afterwards go to any other director. It was a common belief among the people that he could read the secrets of the heart.” (p. 317, Vol. 5)

It was at St. Philomena’s Parish in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1845-1854), that Seelos’ reputation as a great confessor began. It was his second assignment as a Redemptorist. Perhaps it was because he was stationed with a future Saint – John Neumann – whom he went to confession to – that he knew what it was like to go to confession to a saint.

Francis Xavier Seelos was a creative preacher, but it seems to me, he loved being in the wooden confession box more than the wooden pulpit. But he was not wooden. He was warm and compassionate. Being a Redemptorist, he knew our motto and vision statement, “Copiosa Apud Eum Redemptio.” With Christ there is copious or fullness of redemption.

In Father Carl Hoegerl and Alicia Von Stamwitz’s book, A Life of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, they mention a sermon by Father Seelos where he says: “I here publicly give you permission to bring it up to me in the confessional and to call me a liar, if you come to confession and don’t find me receiving you in all mildness.” In other words, you might be filled with fear and trembling, but I promise peace (p. 49) – and if you don’t experience that, yell, “Liar!”

It was great to read that, because being good confessors is supposed to be a key trait of Redemptorists. Our founder, St. Alphonsus de Liguori, not only has the honorary titles of Doctor of Prayer and Patron Saint of Moral Theologians, he also has the title of Patron Saint of Confessors. He wrote a whole book for priests on how to be a good confessor. He wanted Redemptorists to bring Christ’s redeeming love to folks – and one key way was to experience God’s forgiveness in the sacrament of reconciliation – still usually called “confession”.

So when people went to confession to Father Francis Xavier Seelos here at St. Mary’s, they were going to confession to a wonderful and warm saint.

Whenever I sit in a confessional at St. Mary’s, I think about all the Redemptorist priests who heard confessions here in Annapolis for the past 150 years. I say to myself: Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos heard confessions in this very church – well not in these boxes – but in this church. I read in Robert L. Worden’s book which just came out, “St. Mary’s Church in Annapolis, Maryland: A Sesquicentennial History, 1853-2003” (pp. 125-126) that the present confessionals were constructed in 1914. Henry Robert, our sacristan, took me outside the church and pointed out how the outside walls of our church on the prayer garden side or the street side protrude where the present confessionals are.

Sometimes when I see people lined up to go to confession, I reflect about how going to confession has helped me all through my life. I begin by thinking about going to confession as a kid in the Redemptorist Parish of OLPH, Brooklyn.  I’d tell the usual kid stuff – “distobeying”, lying, stealing, fighting with my brother – and at times probably made up some stuff to make it sound good. In time, I didn’t have to make things up – graduating to sins of pride and laziness, etc.

I also remember what happened one Saturday afternoon when I was a kid. It was back in the 1950’s, when Catholics went to confession a lot more than today. Every Saturday eight confession boxes were in operation in our big parish. That afternoon every priest had a line except for one confession box. The light was on – meaning there was a priest in there - but nobody was going to him. I didn’t know why, but I guess I had a kid’s intuition: don’t go near the lion’s den. Then a man came into church – stood in the back for a moment – measured the lines – and perhaps because he was in a rush – headed for the confession box that had no line. Wrong move. Suddenly, everyone in the church smiled as well as being shocked, because they heard quite clearly the priest in the “forbidden box” yelling at the guy who thought he was making a great move.

“Woo! Uh oh! O no!” And I must have said to myself, “If I ever become a priest, I’ll never do that.” It was the same thing I said about a grouch on our block. We’d be playing stickball on the street. There weren’t that many cars back then – hey it was just after World War II and New York City had great public transportation – so our street was not that busy. The black macadam street was our “Field of Dreams”. Sewer covers in the center of the street were home plate and second base; two trees were first and third base. It was great, until a ball went into the grouch’s front yard. That was a “No! No!” The rule was: don’t get caught by the grouch trying to retrieve a Spalding – that wonderful red bouncy ball every kid loved in the 1950’s. And when the grouch grouched, I’m sure everyone said, “When I grow up, I won’t yell at kids who hit a ball into my yard.”

Was Francis Xavier Seelos yelled at – or did he hear the stories every priest hears about someone leaving the Catholic Church because some priest yelled at them? I don’t know, but I do know, he loved hearing confessions.

In fact, when he was semi-conscious, dying of yellow fever in New Orleans at the age of 48, he thought the Redemptorist priests and brothers around his bed were there to go to confession, and he would start with the confession prayers.

Confession is good for the soul. The sacrament or reconciliation is a great gift. It’s a chance to name our sins, to confess them, and hopefully in time to get beyond them.

Fritz Kunkel once described the purpose of confession as: “To bring to light the unknown, the unconscious darkness, and the underdeveloped creativity of our deeper layers.” Certainly people who receive the sacrament of reconciliation down through the years have had this experience. It begins with the call and need for confession – the call to sit and pray in a church for a while, and then to stand on line with other sinners – to articulate one’s sins – the roots of which are deep – and often need a lifetime of weeding from the garden of our soul.

Jesus was off on helping people discover forgiveness and healing. And he tells us to forgive seventy times seven times. He also said, “Let him without sin cast the first stone.”

Hopefully, all of us have had wonderful experiences in the sacrament of confession – experiencing Christ and his forgiveness seventy times seven times – and if any of us have experienced some rock throwing from a priest, that we can forgive him and get beyond that horror.

Everyone knows the priests here at St. Mary’s are not saints. Hopefully everyone who goes to confession here will taste a bit of the joy and “Good News” people who went confession to Father Francis Xavier Seelos experienced. He’s has not been canonized a Saint yet, but he is half-way there, being beatified on April 9, 2000. Hopefully the priests here, keep moving forward one step at a time – as a result of the example the long line of great Redemptorists who have gone before them.

+

[I wrote this a few years back and it was put in Moorings - but not in my blog as far as I can tell. Love and prayers, Andy Costello, October 5, 2015] 

October 5, 2015

BLESSED  FRANCIS  SEELOS  PRAYER

Lord, like Francis Seelos, place me

in places today, where I can bring

a good word from Jesus Christ,

some humor, some forgiveness,
mercy, mercy, mercy, some 

support and lots and lots of love.

That should do it. Thank You, Lord.

October 5 - Feast of

Blessed Francis Seelos

Redemptorist priest

and bringer of

God’s Good News

© Andy Costello,

Reflections 2015

October 4, 2015

ONE  PERSON 

There are over 6 billion people on this planet,

yet one person can show the rest of us how

just one person can make a mighty difference.

Pope Francis did just that last week in his visit

to Cuba and the states. In his day St. Francis

of Assisi did just that to his people in his own

style. I can do that every day with my presence.
However there is a catch - as on the beach at
Galilee - we have to be instruments of his peace. Where there is hatred, we have to 
sow love, injury pardon, doubt faith, despair hope, darkness light, sadness joy. Do these,
sow these, and we'll all have a great day. Amen.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

TASTE  DEATH 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time is, “Taste Death.”

Today’s 3 readings have a lot to talk about - and think about - like marriage, and divorce and children: family. I’d like to reflect on a tiny comment in today’s second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews - which we were taught was probably a homily - and a very long one at that.

The comment was “taste death” - which I made the title of this homily.

Taste death. That’s a November theme more than a today theme - November when the leaves have died - but not without a flair of bright red colors before they fall to the ground and crumble. November is All Souls Day and a time to remember our dead. Not October…. However, I spotted those 2 words that hit me last night as I began working on this homily: “Taste Death.”

Here is the comment in context: “Brothers and sisters: He ‘for a little while’ was made ‘lower than the angels,’ that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”

The author is saying that God for a little while - became lower than the angels. Then in Christ Jesus God became one of us - human - and God tasted death for everyone and like every one of us.

                                                               Rembrandt

I don’t know about you - but that means a lot to me - that God knows - not only what it is like to be human - but that God knows - what it means - to taste death.

WHO’S ON YOUR LIST

At some point - at various points in our lives - we taste death.

Our own - when we have an operation coming up - as well as those around us.

Whose death have you tasted?  What death cards are tucked into the edge of pictures in your bedroom?  Does anyone have a prayer book - that has grown fat with the years - with death cards from wakes and funerals we attended?

Is anyone here like the man I met in a parish in a small town in Ohio? He said his wife had died 6 years and 234 days ago - and he was still counting.

Evidently, he never forgot his wife. I have never forgot that comment. I’ve often wondered what that love story was about.

When we’re young - death is not in the picture - death is not in the front windshield of our car - or our rear view mirror - even after there is a story about neighborhood teenagers who were killed in a car accident.

These deaths in Oregon will not have their impact on other college kids - like they’ll have on college presidents and some teachers.

I was never a soldier - sailor - marine - or air force person. So I don’t know what it means to see war or training for war or have been in battle or bombing or what have you. Yet  - like everyone - I feel the horror of those who die  while trying to immigrate to a safer place for family stability and a decent life.

So that comment from our Second Reading triggered the question what’s it like to taste death.

FIRST DEATH

Poets talk about first kiss, first mystery, first death.

For me it was Jimmy Hennessey in our grammar school class - probably around the fourth grade.  I remember the silence and the sadness - wearing our school uniforms on a long line to Jimmy’s front parlor to see him in a casket  but it didn’t hit me like it hit his family - especially his parents.

When my nephew Michael died suddenly of cancer when he was 15 - and his parents only had 4 days’ notice - it was then I looked back to what Jimmy Hennessey’s parents must have gone through.

With death there is a lot of looking back - and looking back for a long time.

Then there are all these other thoughts and feelings that hit us.

Regrets - the missed opportunities - sometimes the hurts… buried with the buried person. We’ve all heard in sermons - sometimes with guilt - Paul Tsongas’  comment: “No one on his deathbed ever said, "I wish I had spent more time on my business." New York Times, Jan. 14, 1987

I’ve read that the first death we experience is the key one - after that - the first death enters into how we experience the second death - and on and on and on. I sense that is true at times - and not true at times. It’s an all depends.

I sense that there is a lot of Deja vie when it comes to a viewing in a funeral parlor.

My first real experience was my dad’s death - when I was 29. I discovered the great gratitude I felt that as priest I could do my father’s funeral - and help my mom and our family.

Recently I found out that when my dad was a young man - single - in New York City he had to take a train out to Pittsburgh to get his brother - also single - who had died in a construction accident. He had to take the body in a casket to Portland Maine for a burial where his 2 younger sisters were buried - both of whom were nuns - who died of TB. I wish I had known these stories better so that I could have talked with my dad while he was still alive. I would have said, “What was all that like? What were your feelings?

Maybe that sentence in today’s second reading hit me because I had a tough funeral right here in this church at 9 AM yesterday morning.

As priests we experience death big time. Father Flynn and Father Krastel spend all kinds of time with the sick and the dying at the hospital. How does that affect them - and us. What about those who do hospice and work and life with cancer patients.

I assume the key is not to become cold to death - but personal, real - and like the God text I mentioned in our Second Reading: never to forget what it’s like to taste death.

Families taste death - and friends of the family feel it as well.

It is our call to help each other when death hits home.  I don’t know how many wakes and funerals I’ve met folks who simply said, “We’re neighbors.”

THEN THERE IS THE METAPHOR OF DEATH

Then there are all those deadly experiences called “Life”.

Families taste the metaphor of death - divorce, silence, screaming, hurt.

It’s hard to bury our feelings - especially resentments and bitterness.

Today in Rome the Synod on the family begins. It has been in discussions for two years now and they will spend close to  3 weeks on all kinds of topics - divorce, wonderful families, broken families, remarriage, communion - helping people trying to pick up the pieces and start again.

We are people of faith - believing and hoping in life - after death.

How as church and society can we help people rise from a marriage that died and people have been burnt - for all kinds of reasons - sin, stupidity, selfishness, immaturity - or just simply, “I wasn’t thinking at that time in my life. Or we tried and tried, but it just didn’t work.”

At the opening Mass at that synod on the family in Rome today, I assume they will have today’s readings - and the preacher will talk about divorce and marriage from today’s first and third readings.

I assume nobody will preach on death - but that’s what hit me.

You heard today’s readings. What hit you.

 You witnessed the Pope just coming to our country. What did his visit say to you?  I thought it was a huge moment of grace for us Catholics - and I hope you are encouraging any family members who have dropped out, “Come home. You’ll be welcomed.”

CONCLUSION

I hope all of us these next 3 weeks will have our own family synod and we will do all we can to avoid what kills family life - and put into practice what gives life to our relationships and our families.

Of course we taste death at times. Taste resurrection and new life as well.

October 3, 2015

LONG SHADOW

There’s an old Irish proverb

that says, “All sins cast long

shadows.” Whoever said that

knew how mistakes, betrayals,

saying the wrong thing about

one’s sister or brother leaves

an itch or a twitch when a

reminder pops up or appears

on our radar screen. What does

it take for us to open up to Jesus’ 

forgiveness and mercy when he 

knocks on our door and for us to

discover, “All is forgiven seventy

times seven times seven times”?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

IT’S  A  WONDERFUL LIFE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this October 2^nd, Feast of the Guardian Angels is, “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

It’s the title of the wonderful 1946 movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

It’s on TV every Christmas for at least the last 50 years. And I've often heard high school kids like you say, "I love that movie! It's part of Christmas in our house every Christmas."

It’s a wonderful life.

It's listed as one of the top 100 movies of all time. I've seen it listed as #11.

Hopefully every one of us says at least once a month, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone of us went home today and said to our parents, “It’s a Wonderful Life!”  and then added, “Thank you.”

Wouldn’t it be great if everyone of us said to one of our teachers, “It’s a wonderful life. Thank you for  being part of it.”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every one of us said before we went to bed every night, “It was a wonderful day God. Thank you.”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone of us said every morning as we woke up, “It’s another day God, wonderful, thank you.”

As you know - the movie, “It’s A Wonderful Life” is on TV every Christmas season - at least 10 times. It’s the story of a very generous guy named George Bailey - who works in Bailey Brothers Building and Loan. George helps all kinds of people and is loved by the whole town - except for Mr. Potter.

In every story there always seems to be an antagonist - someone who goes against the protagonist - the good gal or guy.

George’s Uncle Billy brings $8,000 to the bank to deposit it. He’s distracted - thinks he deposits it - but doesn’t. Leaves the money there in the bank and Mr. Potter the bad guy finds it - but hides it - and George is in trouble.

That’s the movie. George realizes when he can’t come up with the money and people in town will go down - so he wants to commit suicide. He wishes he never existed.

ANGELS

In the meanwhile an angel appears.

Angels don't have bodies - yet we picture them - with robes and wings and angelic smiles.

Angels are messengers.  You might have heard about a question philosophers used to ask in the middle ages, "How many angels can sit on the head of a pin?"

If angels are messengers - we can say that there are millions and millions and millions of messages flying around us right here, right now in this church. Cell phone messages, iPhone messages, radio messages, millions and millions of messages are flying around our pin heads all day long - and we can hear some of them if we have a receiver.

Some messages - hopefully most messages are angelic, wonderful, encouraging, but there are also demonic, gossipy, evil, ugly messages as well.

I'm sure you've heard in religion class there are good angels and bad devils. They fly around whispering messages into our consciousness.

Listen to the good voices. Chose good choices.  

Today is the feast of our Guardian Angel or Guarding Messenger. 

I would like to describe our Guardian Angel as the whisper, the voice, to see life as wonderful and make it wonderful for those around us. 

In the movie, It's a Wonderful Life, it’s Clarence - an angel - who is sent to save George - and he does - showing George all that would have happened if didn’t exist.

Without ruining the movie any further -  but I will ruin it at the end of this homily. I take that back, you can't ruin this movie. Well George discovers he is loved - that he is necessary and that “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

It’s a wonderful life.

BAROMETER

I like to use the image of the barometer. It tells us the weather - what’s going on in the atmosphere.

I like to ask folks to come up with a barometer for their marriage, for their job, for their life.

I think the statement, “It’s a Wonderful Life” is a great barometer.

Kids like to write words on their hands. It could be the name of the person they love or an answer for a test.

I think the statement, “It’s a wonderful life.” It should be written on our hand and if someone asks us the secret of life, cheat, and read the answer on our hand and say, “It’s a wonderful life.”

Clarence taught George Bailey that message.

There are people out there who say every other day, “It’s a horrible life.”

I was reading the papers this morning to see if they have come up with the motive of this guy who killed those folks in Oregon at a community college. I’m willing to bet that he walked around thinking, “It’s a horrible life.”

BEING WONDERFUL

I would like to say that the call of life is to be wonderful and how do you do that?  Answer: make life wonderful for those around us.

How do you become wonderful: each day see all the wonders that surround us.

When someone sees us, do they say, “I want to sit with that person at lunch.”  “I want to be next to that person at a game.”

I want people who come to my funeral to say, “Andy was a wonderful person - a wonderful priest.”

I hope every teacher here has that as their goal, “I want to be a wonderful teacher.”

Does any teacher want to be a loser - a disaster? Of course not.

Well, to a wonderful teacher, student, person, priest, principal, you have to do what Jesus kept stressing: be welcoming, understanding, serving, giving, forgiving, caring to and for others.

A WONDERFUL GUY

I did a funeral yesterday of a wonderful guy. His funeral ceremony - and the eulogies - spelled and yelled that out loud and clear.

About a month ago his wife asked me to go see him with her in a nursing home. He was basically shut down - from a rare form of Parkinson’s disease.

On the way to the nursing home, I asked how they met. I love that question. Well, his wife told me that she was on a date with this other guy and she spotted Jerry.

She said to herself, “What a wonderful guy!” and she asked him if he could go on a date with her. Being a wonderful guy he asked the former boyfriend if he could. The guy said, “Yes.”

In the drive to and from the nursing home she told how wonderful a husband he was for 50 years this year. She told me that he did great things in his life in the Aerospace Industry - developing materials for going deep out into space and coming back home. She told me how much she wanted to see him at the nursing home as much as possible - because she loved him so much. 

No she didn't sing the song, "Wonderful Guy" but those were her sentiments.

CONCLUSION

A barometer of a wonderful person is to be a person that others want  - in their life - at their table - in their conversations - on their teams.

Remember the movie, My Cousin Vinny. Vinny is a disaster as a lawyer for his nephew. He falls asleep in the courtroom. He can’t figure out what to do. But surprise, he comes around and becomes so great, that his nephew’s friend dumps his lawyer and says pointing to Vinny in the court room, “I want him.”

Be so wonderful that people say of us, “I want him.”

Who doesn't want to be with wonderful people?