September 18, 2018
Thought for today:
“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘Thank you’ that would suffice.”
Meister Eckhart [c. 1260 - c. 1328]
Tuesday, September 18, 2018
IS CORINTH
ON YOUR
BUCKET LIST?
The title of my reflection for this 24 Tuesday in
Ordinary Time is, “Is Corinth, Greece On Your Bucket List?”
It was on mine and on a 2011 cruise to the Mediterranean
Sea - we visited, Spain, Italy, Southern France, Turkey, Greece and the Greek
Isles. When it came for a bus ride down from our boat near Athens only two of
us signed up for Athens to Corinth - 48 miles away.
So on October 6, 2011 we went to Corinth. I looked it up
last night in my journal notes.
It wasn’t what I expected. I thought it would be a sea port town - and we would be near docks. I was waiting
to see some rough city spots. On the waterfront ….
Athens is around 665,000 people today and 200,000 in the
time of St. Paul. Corinth is about 58,000 people today and many more people in
the time of St. Paul. The number I could
find for Corinth’s population count in Paul’s time was 90,000 - but I also saw
listed that it had 500,000 slaves. I
also noticed that Corinth had 1000 Sacred Prostitutes. It had lots of temples -
with ceremonies to ask all the gods for help.
In Paul’s time Corinth was big time rich time. it was
much richer and more cosmopolitan than Athens. It had location, location,
location. Lots of trade went through
Corinth.
So when we saw Corinth we saw temples, a museum, rocks, lots of rocks, and
lots of ruins.
We saw the Corinth Canal. Besides the old city, with all
its digs and ruins, this was the thing to see. It’s only 4 miles long and it’s
very narrow - so only smaller boats can make the trip that cuts about 450 miles
off a trip.
The idea of a canal was always there - but it always had problems. Nero was there
with shovel in hand in the 60’s. It didn’t work. They had lots of Jewish slaves
working on it - it didn’t happen. Boats would unload their stuff and that would
be moved along roads to the other sea. And boats were put on rolling wheel
kinds of wooded gadgets and pulled from one sea to the other sea and then
reloaded.
It wasn’t finished till 1892. Small boats, small ferries,
go through it for the bragging rights of doing it and to check it off on bucket
lists.
I wanted to see it because Corinth is a major place in
the New Testament - other than the gospels.
It’s featured in Acts. It’s mentioned in various Pauline Letters - not
just 1st and 2nd Corinthians. A few letters were written
there.
I’ve always been wondering why Paul didn’t make it in
Athens - but he made it in Corinth. He tried Athens, but he failed.
Corinth had the sea lanes - lots of Jews and lots of Romans and lots of stories and stuff to get
Christianity off the ground and out into our world.
Remember all this is before Matthew, Luke and John - with
Mark beginning to come into play.
Monday, September 17, 2018
CATECHISTS AND CATECHISMS
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is “Catechists and Catechisms.”
Today is the feast of St. Robert Bellarmine, the Patron
Saint of Catechists and Catechisms.”
What are your thoughts on Catechisms - Catechists - Religious
Education Programs - Learning our Faith as Christians and Catholics?
We’re adults mainly at this 12:10 Mass - so this morning
I asked myself what are my thoughts about Catechisms and Catechists - as adults.
Translation: how did I learn the teachings of my faith
and what did I learn?
FIRST APPROACH: USE
GOOGLE
A great adult approach - if you use the internet - is to use
Google for a Catechism Review.
Use Google or any search engine on a computer program.
They usually have that nice clean empty box - in which you can type in a word -
and come up with 100 hits - more or less - and they do that in seconds.
You can type in words like “catechist” or “catechism”.
That will give you lots of leads for other words to type into Google - and
you’ll be learning - by dabbling. Browse.
I typed in “St. Robert Bellarmine”. Instantly I had a life of Robert Bellarmine.
It gave me his dates [1542 - 1621]. I saw where he was born: Montepulciano, Italy, where he lived and
worked and where he died: Rome, Italy. I got background. I got facts. It brought me to questions about faith and
science. It gave me his struggles with Galileo as well as Giordano Bruno. Both were put on trial. Galileo
wasn’t; Bruno was burnt to death.
Check it out on your computer.
So Point # 1 would be to dabble on your computer about
this and that - when it comes to our Catholic Faith and about catechisms and
catechists.
Then you can make a folder and download articles about
catechism and catechists or any topic you wish.
NUMBER #2: A REVIEW OF YOUR CATECHISMS AND YOUR
FAITH
Next make a review of your catechism history
I’m 78 and received my catechism lessons from the
Baltimore Catechism and Catholic school - way back when.
Some of you would be converts and might have received
Catechism from Protestant churches etc.
Some of you went to Catholic Religious Education. We
called it CCD.
What were catechisms like in 1950; what were catechisms like in 1990.
The Baltimore Catechism was a paper back with Questions
and Answers. The next generation had drawings and pictures and images - topics
and chapters.
NUMBER #3” - MY PERSONAL HISTORY OF LEARNING TO BE
A CATECHIST.
I learned my Catholic faith in Catholic schools.
In the seminary we had a 1 year course on catechetic. It
was in our 1st year of theology - the year after we finished
college. During that year we went to local parishes near Kingston, New York and
taught catechism.
The idea was to put into practice what we were learning
from a text book in the seminary.
I have not one idea from that text book - but I have
memories of my first experience teaching little kids on Wednesday afternoons in
Presentation Church, Port Ewen, New York - right overlooking the Hudson River.
My class - maybe 3rd graders was in the choir
loft of the church. Jack Sherlock’s
class was right below us in the body of the church. That’s not a good idea for sound and sight.
My only memory from that year in the choir loft in
Presentation church was standing there teaching little kids and I begin to
notice they are all laughing and looking to their left - my right facing them.
A kid has a broom in his hand and he is reaching out with the broom and pushing
a hanging church light or chandelier back and forth and kids in the choir loft
and the kids down below are watching him and the lamp swinging. It could have
crashed into the choir loft or hit another lamp.
I quickly ran over and stopped him. That’s all I remember
from my first attempt at being a catechist.
After we finished the seminary, we had 4 months in
Annapolis. It was a transition time before our assignments. A Father Joe D’Acetis brought in speakers on
different topics.
We had a Sister Janann - who gave us a week of talks on
teaching kids.
I remember she brought in leaves and sticks, plants and
toys, and went from the known to the unknown. We were to feel water and see
green leaves and autumn leaves.
She was excellent. We learned the use of everyday stuff
as props.
Through the years I’ve heard priests and specialists
complain about how horrible religious ed was for a good 30 years of time. They
said there was a need for a new catechism.
For adults we got the big catechism from John Paul II’s
time.
In the meanwhile Sadlier and other religious ed books and
publications started to come up with
more content driven material.
In the early 1970’s I went for a Master’s Degree in
theology - I have 3 of them. This one was at Princeton Theological Seminary.
I took a course in religious ed and it was one of the
most difficult courses I ever took. Every Monday morning we had to have a book
report on one book. I was working big time in a retreat house so that was very difficult, but I finished that
course - with a C. the only C I got -
all the rest were A’s. I learned the
most at that C course.
Each week about 15 of us would discuss a different
approach to catechetic: sociology, theology, education theory, anthropology, biblical,
etc. etc. etc.
Then there were a couple of thousand classrooms I visited
on parish missions, parish work, etc. etc. etc.
I learned by time and practice.
CONCLUSION
That’s enough. I just ask you to consider your sources of
learning your faith.
The readings at Mass, Homilies, Parish Missions, Catholic
Magazines and on and on certainly helped you.
More.
Sunday, September 16, 2018
SCULPTURES
Coming down the front steps with you -
after 3 hours together in a museum -
everything on the street seemed
to be - at least
to me - a sculpture:
a traffic cop, taxis, trees, buses,
bikes, kids with yo yo’s, adults with
dogs on a leash, and then you told
me what you were going to do
tomorrow as well as on the weekend.
And it hit me - then and there - you
weren’t with me for the last 3 hours.
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018
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