FRANCIS   XAVIER   SEELOS

October 5, 2017

PRAYER FOR 

A SENSE OF HUMOR

Lord,

I can’t read hearts, but I can read faces.

Too many holy holies   - seem so severe  - so sad - so sour - when it comes to religion.  

Lord,

what happened to them - that this happened

to them? Give me two shakers: one marked

“forgiveness” -  the other marked “humor”.

And Lord,

let me shake the hell out of them and tickle

them with a sense of humor, so that they too

will bring forgiveness and laughter to our world.

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

October 5, 2017

Feast of Blessed Francis Seelos
1819-1867

  Worn Seelos Bench 
in St. Mary's Garden,
Annapolis, Maryland

Seelos  Shrine 
in New Orleans

BLESSED  FRANCIS X.  SEELOS

Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos

is the one to pray to and with

for a sense of humor. 

Sit with him on his bench in St. 

Mary's Garden in Annapolis, Maryland

or his shrine in New Orleans.

Sit with him, go to confession

to him, and you'll laugh with

his easy penance requirements.

And before you leave, let him tell you

a joke - laugh at life - and head home

having sat with the big easy.

(c)  Andy Costello, Thought for the Day.

St. Mary's Assumption Church,
New Orleans, Louisiana

Seelos House
in Fussen,
Bavaria, Germany

"REBUILD MY CHURCH!"

Francis heard that whisper

in the wind that blew into

his ears - and at first he

thought it meant a building.

God keeps breathing that

command into our minds:

“Rebuild my people. Renew my

church - my world - day by day.”

October 4, 2017

THE WOLF

Everyone of us has a wolf within.

It howls. It growls. It's hungry.

I want what I want when I want it.
I want what I want today and every day

Everyone of us has a wolf within.

Okay some enlarge it, calling it,

"the elephant in the room" or small

it - calling it "the snake in the grass".

Everyone of us has a St. Francis within.

It's us with courage. It's us when we are

our best self - an instrument of peace.

It's us when we are fair with each other.  

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

PEACE   PRAYER 

OF 

ST.  FRANCIS 

IN 

SONG 

October 4, 2017

FEAST OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

PEACE PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS

Lord,

make me an instrument of Your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O, Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love;

For it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.