February 23, 2018

Black  History  Month Thought for today: 

“In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.” 

Toni Morrison

February 22, 2018

THE  FLOWER 

The flower - praise went to its petals ….

Don’t get proud now. It could happen

to you if you heard from a hundred

people: “Smells beautiful….” “Such

beautiful color ....  Such perfect skin ….”

“Thank you for this perfect flower.

Two weeks later. It drooped. It faded. 

Happens to flowers every time.

She saw her arms wrinkle. He saw

his muscles sag. Poets in a nursing

home - across the street from a high

school - get these thoughts every day.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

February 22,  2018 

Black History Month Thought for today: 

“I had no idea that history was being made. I was just tired of giving up.”  

Rosa Parks

February 21, 2018

Black History Month Thought for today

            

"Miracles happen all the time. We're here, aren't we?" 

Marilyn Nelson (African-American poet, translator and children's book author).

February 21, 2018

I  WOULDN’T

I wouldn’t want to be you ….

I wouldn’t trade places with you ….

I wouldn’t drive like you drive ….

I wouldn’t talk like you talk …..

I wouldn’t hold my fork like you hold yours ….

I wouldn’t hurt people like you hurt people ….

I wouldn’t want to be self-centered 

like you seem to be …..

You’re kidding, right?

Well, all I can say is this,

“If  you were like me,

you wouldn’t be saying

what  you’re saying about me ….”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

ACCEPTANCE

Why can I accept the last

seat in the last row of the

theater or our parish church?

Why can I accept “The End”

at the end of the movie or

the song I love so much?

Why can I accept the standing

up as we leave the restaurant

after a great meal together?

Why can’t I turn back to the car

after we buried you in the brown

grave mouth that swallowed you up?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

PRAYING IN THE RAIN

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is,  “Praying In The Rain.”

Hopefully, all of us have seen the movie, “Singing In The Rain.”

There’s Gene Kelly dancing and singing on the street - on the sidewalk - going up and down the curb - swinging his umbrella -filled with joy and song.

And the rain kept falling - the singer kept singing - the dancer kept dancing.

TODAY’S FIRST READING

Today’s first reading - pictures rain and snow coming down from the heavens - watering the earth - making it fertile and fruitful. Then Isaiah pictures a farmer sowing seed, then he pictures the wheat that rises and then becomes bread - then he pictures people eating that bread.

We just had a lot of rain - did you take the time to lookout  the window be amazed at the rain? When was the last time you stood with your face to the rain and let your tongue lick the rain - or is that only summer rain or only when I become like  a little child?  I sometimes wonder if Isaiah or Jesus stuck their tongue out into the rain. However, it doesn’t rain that often I Jerusalem.

We just had some snow on Saturday. I didn’t have the 4:30 Saturday Mass - but I had confessions.  It was snowing on my way out here to St. John Neuman’s at 3:30. I walked out of the confession - out into the lobby and two women were sitting there on that smidge of a couch - and seeing the snow outside covering everthing in the hour I was in the confession I said, “Wow look at that snow” and one said, “But isn’t it beautiful?”

I stopped and really looked out the big windows and said, “Wow you’re right. It is beautiful.”

Then Isaiah the prophet says what the rain and the snow is like: it’s like God’s word falling down from the heavens.  Then I Isaiah says, “It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”

Hearing the word of God - letting it fall down on my ears - and enter my ears, can be a powerful experience.

Hear the word of the Lord.

And by the way, can you see words flying around this church - going into the micrphones and coming out the speakers.  Can you see them falling like rain and snow?

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Today’s Gospel talks about praying - that it not be babble. It’s not many words that are only a show.

Today’s Gospel is a chance to talk to God our Father - to praise him - to pray to do his will on earth as it is in heaven - to ask for daily bread - to ask for forgiveness and to forgive in return - to get help in temptations.

Today’s Gospel is a plea to be able to pray.

So I entitled my homily, “Praying in the Rain.”

When it rains and when it snows - to go outside and let it hit our face, our tongues, our ears and our hands.

To pray that the words we hear at Mass enter our ears, our minds, our lives - that these words will become part of us - that we can become fertile ass the breadd of life - the bread of life - that that bread become Jesus.

CONCLUSION

Let it rain. Let it snow. Let the sun shine. Let the earth grow. Let the green return: leaves, grass, flowers and the fields.  Let’s long to see the leaves and the grass and the flowers dancing in the breath.

Let all bring all into communion with God - into the great dance - the [perichoresis] - the Trinity - unified together - our God.