August 4, 2017

HOLY COMMUNION

You have to take bread,

you have to get bread,

before you get Holy Communion.

You have to break bread,

you have to share bread,

before you get Holy Communion.

You have to eat with each other,

you have to digest each other,

before you get Holy Communion.

You have to be grateful,
really mean your "Thank you's",
before you get Holy Communion.

You have to experience a Mass of
words and everyday sacrifices,
before you experience Holy Communion.

You have to marry one another,

you have to become one with each other,

before you get Holy Communion.

You have to break up with another,

you have to excommunicate another,

before you understand Holy Communion.

You have to leave your gift at the altar,

go and forgive each other,

before you get Holy Communion.

You have to give yourself to each other,
in Holy Communion with each other,
before you become the Body of Christ,

Amen.

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

MOUNTAIN

Sometimes mountains,

sometimes deserts,

sometimes oceans,

sometimes walls,

sometimes swamps,

sometimes others,

sometimes ourselves.

What are we to face today?  

August 3, 2017

AUGUST

August doesn’t carry much glitter

or glamour. It’s a so, so month.

For kids there’s the suspicion - the

sense - that it’s back to school soon -

with moms buying school supplies

and clothes for the upcoming school year.

It’s hot and humid. Lawns are dry - hard -

and dust flies when they are mowed.

Latino laborers are in the fields -

digging and picking up potatoes.

Then there’s the evenings - beer

and wine - and voices can be heard

from invisible people on porches

or lawns or stoops or steps.

They don’t have enough of

those cool breezes that could

make moments on dark porches

or comfortable coves or inlets,

much more memorable. April and

October, November and December,

now they have the possibility of a

lot more pizzazz and a lot more push.

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

August 2, 2017

DIFFERENCES

Differences, distinctions,

comparisons, contrasts,

red, green, blue, orange,

black, white, yellow,

seeing differences help us

to see what we’re seeing….

female, male, young, old,

but sometimes we forget

those are only labels on the

package. Remove the

packaging and find out,

"Who and what’s inside?"

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

"Look at the birds of the air...."  Matthew 6:26

SOME REDEMPTORIST STUFF

Father Jack Kingsbury
- former pastor of St. Mary's Annapolis, Maryland
put together this video on Redemptorists in North America.