October 2nd, 2018

BEGETS AND BEGOTS

Anger begets anger,

Nasty begets nasty,

Cursing begets cursing,

Screaming begets screaming,

Unforgiving begets unforgiving,

Rock throwing begets throwing rocks,

Killing begets killing,

An eye for an eye begets blindness….

Begets beget be-gotchas.

Kindness begets kindness,

Love begets love,

Caring begets caring,

Generosity begets generosity,

Giving begets giving,

Tenderness begets tenderness,

Courage begets courage,

Good example begets seeing good example,

Begets beget becoming greater.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

October 2, 2018 

Thought for today:


“The three great elemental sounds in nature are the sound of rain, the sound of wind in a primeval wood, and the sound of outer ocean on a beach."

Henry Beston  [1888 - 1968]

A  FEW  THOUGHTS  ABOUT 

SAINT  THERESE  LISIEUX

INTRODUCTION

Here are a few thoughts about St. Therese Lisieux [1873-1897] - also known as St. Therese of the Child Jesus.

As you know St. Theresa of Lisieux is a well known Saint in the Catholic Church.

A question: why.

I don’t know about you, but every year at this time, I wonder what it is that makes this saint so well known. I wonder if I had more answers to the question: what intrigues, or what impresses, or what gets us wondering about her. 

Here are a few possible answers to why she is so popular  - or why she impresses people.

SHE DIED AT 24 OF TB

Die young and you’ll have a lot of people at your funeral.

I counted 74 cars at my brother’s funeral. He was just 51.  I’ve noticed - having done many funerals - that many people show up at the funerals of young people.

I remember Fred Fisher’s funeral during my first assignment at Most Holy Redeemer, 3^rd Street, New York City.  He was in his 90’s.  I think he had put money down for 2 days for his wake. That must have been years earlier, because only 4 people showed up for his wake: 2 nuns and 2 priests. Myself and John Radley were the priests who concelebrated his funeral. The 2 nuns shopped for him and cleaned his apartment every week. That was it.

St. Therese of Lisieux was young when she died - and many have learned about her after her death as well.

When I read about her death by TB or consumption, I think of all the young people who died too, too early.  I think about my dad’s two sisters: both nuns who  both died early of consumption. I don’t know who and how many people were at their funeral at such a young age.

Sister Matthias died at the age of 28 or 29 in Portland Maine.  I went to her grave a few times. Her dates on the stone are: 1884 - 1913. Her sister died as well - same sickness. She had not become a full nun. I have her dates somewhere - around the same age.  Their sister, Sister Mary Patrick lived and worked as a nun for over 50 years  in that motherhouse for the Sisters of Mercy in Portland, Maine.

Dying so young can leave deep impressions.

ST. THERESE  SIMPLIFIED LIFE

Another message from her life that might have made her famous was her message of simplicity.

Do everything with love. It’s as simple as that.

Keep it simple - especially the little stuff.

She laughed and kept it light - knowing the heavy message of simply doing all with love.

THIRD, WRITE YOUR LIFE

People in her convent knew she had it - so she was asked to write her life and that life was published and made her famous.

Each of us can ask: Do I have it? Is my story worth writing? Is my story worth hearing?

She had it: the secret of life. As already indicated, it’s love.

The gospel story of the rich young man tells it all. He goes to Jesus and asks, “What should I do?”  Answer: it’s written in the Law. Love the lord our god with heart, soul, strength and love your neighbor as yourself.”

She did that. The rich young man said he did that. But what else? Want more, sell all and come follow me. Therese did that. He didn’t.

Read her life. It’s entitled, The Story of a Soul.

Write your life. Give it a title. Talk to Jesus in prayer about it.

See what she came up with.

I love it that others didn’t think some of her stuff was holy enough and cut it out. Some of that stuff has been restored. Read Ida Gorres book, The Hidden Self and you can hear about that.

Read biographies and autobiographies and you’ll think of your life.

CONCLUSION

Why did she became so popular?

I think that’s 2 things one can do: keep it simple and write your life.

As to dying young, no.

Ooops - as a postscript - let me mention something I noticed while doing some homework for this homily.

I once said in a sermon that I predict women will be priests some day. It got some lady ticked off, because Pope John Paul II had said, “No way!” And he was the pope and is now a saint.

So who cares about my prediction. If this ever happens I’ll be long dead. But - not to upset you - and ruin my homily - by making a wrong statement, I still think that the sun has billions of years to go - and the church is only 2000 years old - so for someone to say that the church won’t go that way in the next billion years, seems far fetched.  Women only got the vote in the last century. Margaret Thatcher was head of England, so women priests, I won’t fight over it.  However - here’s the however I spotted when reading up on St. Therese of Lisieux. Surprise St. Therese once said she had a desire to be a priest. Her reasons were for holy reasons. My reasons are several - all for the good of the church and the people of God. One reason would be curiosity, I’d love to see the outfits and the changes and surprises that would happen.

I always remember a mass in some church where the altar cloth on the main altar had 4 red thread markers for the 4 corners - to get it right. Well I saw this lady in the benches with a face. Something was bothering her. I followed her stare and sure enough the altar cloth was off balance - even though it had the 4 red thread markers.  So after Mass I asked her what she seemed bothered about. It was the altar cloth. 

Are women better than men in keeping cloths and stuff straight. I know I’m a slob - and don’t notice details. But I do know some very neat priests!

Time will tell!

October 1, 2018

NEAR  THE  END

Near the end of the movie,

                       the meal,

                       the affair,

                       the marriage,

                       the book,

                       the trip,

                       the conversation,

                       one’s life ….

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

October 1, 2018 

Thought for today: 

"One of the best ways to make yourself happy in the present is to recall happy times from the past. Photos are a great memory-prompt, and because we tend to take photos of happy occasions, they weight our memories to the good.” 

Gretchen Rubin

Picture: Double Exposure
of our immediate family
at Bliss Park.
Obviously, I am the favorite.

PURSUED  BY  GRACE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Pursued by Grace.”

I was doing what many people in the United States was doing on this past Thursday: listening to the hearings of Doctor Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

I was driving up to Doylestown, Pennsylvania to see my sister Mary for the day - my day off. It’s a 3 hour drive and I heard everything in those hearings  up to 12:30 and then re-caps in the evening on my way back to Annapolis.

I am a bit nervous - in what I say from the pulpit - because it might trigger stuff that sounds political.  I’m not trying to be political in an example I want to use that I heard the other day.  I’m well aware of different takes on all of this.  I am aware of the  divisions in our country - that gets some people to say, “Let’s not talk about this - especially at the dinner table.”

Yet I was taught in preaching that it can be helpful if one uses current examples and what’s happening all around us when preaching.

THE  COMMENT  THAT  HIT  ME

Senator Amy Klobuchar was asking Judge Kavanaugh about the effects of drinking and she mentioned that  her dad - was an alcoholic - and a member of  AA big time.  She used the phrase - “pursued by grace”.  She said, her dad was pursued by grace.

That triggered thoughts in me. I even said to myself - while driving - “What a great title and thought for a homily?” 

Pursued by grace.

When I got back I looked it up and found out that her dad wrote a whole book with that title: “Pursued by Grace: A Newspaperman’s  Own Story of Spiritual Recovery.”

QUESTION: DOES THAT TRIGGER ANY THOUGHTS FOR YOU?

Have you ever felt the pursuit of God for you?

Have you ever pursued God? Of  course…. You’re here at Mass.

Better way to put this: name the moments - name the memories - when we had deep thoughts and experiences of Grace and God that hit us

There are two directions for all of  this: God searching for us and our searching for God.

It goes both ways.

We’re using the Gospel of Mark this year, but in thinking about this, the gospel stories in Luke 15 - right there in the middle of the gospel of Luke - hit me. It has  3 stories.

The first and second story is about God in search of us: pursued by grace.

The third story is the story of God waiting for us to start pursuing Him.

The first story is about a shepherd in search of a  lost sheep. The second story is the story about a woman looking for a lost coin. The third story is the story of a Father waiting for his lost son to come home.

There they are: two experiences we have all had - searching and being searched for - being found.

Picture yourself as a sheep wrapped around the neck of God. I’ve had that experience in prayer. It got me crying tears of joy.  Imagine the stinky underneath - underbelly of a sheep around God’s neck. Thank You, God.  Thank You God, for finding me - stinky me.

Picture yourself as a lost coin. Biblical commentators think it’s one of the precious wedding coins women in the middle east sew to their best party garment - and this woman lost one coin - and would not let go till she found it. Picture God as the woman embracing that found coin - or ring - of what have you - anything that is precious - us in the warmth of God’s hand.

I assume searching and finding, pursuing and being pursued, is part of  the marriage story of all of you who are married.

Who chased whom?

I like the saying, “A man chases a woman till she catches him.”

I love the love story of my mom and dad.  I’ve thought about it a lot. I like to ask couples where and how they met and what happened next. I assume you have all asked your parents their story.

My father liked the look of my mother when they were teenagers in Ballynahown, County Galway, Ireland. I talked to my father’s brother once when I was in Ireland. My Uncle Cole told me that my dad would hide up on a hill and watched my mother down in the field below near their houses. Her friends knew he was up there. She knew he was up there. He didn’t know they all knew he was up there.

My father’s brother, Cole and my mother’s sister, Brigid, got married and lived all their life in Galway, Ireland. My mother and father, came to America separately. My dad wrote love letters from New York to my mother in Boston for 10 years  asking her to marry him. His last letter said, “If you don’t marry me, I am going to become an Irish Christian Brother.”

I’ve told this story before - but I love it, because - if she didn’t finally say, “Yes” - I wouldn’t be here. Moreover, if they didn’t have that 4^th child, I wouldn’t be here either.

Surprise! I didn’t find out till this year, that there was to be a number 5 child, but my mom slipped and fell and had an early on miscarriage. What else don’t I know?  Family history is very important history.

When I heard about that miscarriage,  I said, “Bummer, I can no longer say the youngest in every family is the best, because they quit when they finally got one right.”

Lost  and found - pursuing and being pursued - discovering and being discovered….

Human pursuits. That’s my first thought when I hear the phrase, “Pursued by grace.”

Grace  pursuits - God pursuits … the theme of this homily.

So first of all, I think of those 3 stories by Luke.

Next, I think of the titles of two books by Abraham Joshua Heschel: Man’s Quest for God, 1954 and God in Search of Man, 1955.

Next, I think of Francis Thompson, the British poet, who wrote the famous poem, The Hound of Heaven. He the addict, with a hundred problems, pictured God as a Hound, picking up his scent and chasing, pursuing him. Look that poem up. Make it part of your spirituality.

I think of Saint Augustine who both sought God and ran from God and he tells it all in his tell all book, The Confessions of Saint Augustine.  I hope that too is part of your spirituality.

Listen to these words and thoughts from Augustine: “You called, You cried, You shattered my deafness, You sparkled, You blazed, You drove away my blindness, You shed Your fragrance, and I drew in my breath, and I pant for You.”

That’s God pursuing us.

“Here’s another famous quote from Augustine: “You have created us for Yourself, and our heart cannot be stilled until it finds rest in You.”

Here are the words of his famous conversion moment in a garden, “I was weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when I heard the voice of children from a neighboring house chanting, “Take up and read; take up and read.” I could not remember ever having heard the like, so checking the torrent of my tears, I arose, interpreting it to be no other than a command from God to open the book and read the first chapter I should find. Eagerly then I returned to the place where I had laid the volume of the apostle. I seized, opened, and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: “Not in revelry and drunkenness, not in licentiousness and lewdness, not is strife and envy; but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” No further would I read, nor did I need to. For instantly at the end of this sentence, it seemed as if a light of serenity infused into my heart and all the darkness of doubt vanished away.”

CONCLUSION

Today's readings bring out that the Holy Spirit, the Wind of God, blows into our lives in many different ways.  Feel the breeze of God.  Breath God into our lives.

I don’t know how this national story will turn 
out - but it will be part of our history.  It has blown into our bodies - into our mind -in ways we're not used to it yet. 

And it will have its impact on us for the rest of our lives.

I didn’t read Jim Klobuchar’s book: Pursued by Grace: A Newspaperman’s Own Story of Spiritual Recovery. I’ll look for it - because of that short comment by his daughter, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. I have always suggested to folks to read biographies and autobiographies, memoirs and diaries, and write and talk to each other about each other’s lives.

Now I have an added question: Looking at your story, how were you pursued by grace, how were you pursued by God?