ORIGAMI  MUSEUM

It was on a side street ….

It wasn’t in my plans ….

But it started to rain,

so I dropped into

an origami museum ….

It was a gigantic bird cage ….

I was caught - enfolded -

with 1000 birds of every size

and color, in sight, in flight,

cranes, sparrows, birds everywhere ….

I walked around…. I was

hearing Jesus’  words folded

in all the corners of my life:

“Look at the birds of the air -

here, there and everywhere….

Just behold them…. Paper works ....

Don’t unfold them …. Paper works ....

Just see them. Just let them

delight you and then fly

back out into the rain ….

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

September 20, 2018

Thought for today: 

“The  best  creed  we can have is charity towards the creeds of others.”  

Josh Billings [1818-1885]

EVIL

Is anything evil?

How about arsenic or cancer?

How about gossip or a lie?

How about suicide or murder?

How about a nasty comment?

How about plagiarism?

How about a stab in the back?

How about envy or jealousy?

How about toxic waste in the water?

How about genocide?

How about using or abusing others?

How about not listening?

Is anything evil?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

September 19, 2018 

Thought for today: 

“Don’t let your ego  get too close to your position, so that  if your position gets shot down, your  ego doesn’t go with it.” 

Colin Powell

THE OPTICS OF POETRY

The optometrist, the ophthalmologist,

the optician, the  optimist and the poet,

put all those letters in front of us -  

and we tell them what we see and

what is better than what we saw

just before that. “What do you see?”

The poet shows us so many things

we’re missing: lovers kissing in the

corner; the dead flowers at the

cemetery; the driver who screams

when nobody will let them out

into the flow of traffic - then they

do the same to someone else

trying to get out of their driveway.

“Lord, help me to see what I’m

not seeing - what I’m missing.”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

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]

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 1^st and 2^nd 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.