August 1, 2020

VERBS   OF  SAINT  ALPHONSUS

Consider, contemplate, choose,

turn,  return, desire, call, wish,

ask, seek, knock,  pray, remain,

realize, react, reflect, experience,

love, delight, approach, understand,

write, read, imprint, inflame, see,

feed, free, give, carry, belong,

go,  do, complete, learn, open,

carry, appreciate,  give, persevere, 

converse, forgive, thank, agree,

serve, speak, realize, wish, allow,

permit, pray, consider, thank,

acquire, detach, perceive, pray,

dedicate, permit, promise,  pierce.

 © Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

August  1,  2020

Thought  for  Today

“The  human  heart  is, 

so  to  speak,  

the  paradise  of  God.” 

Alphonsus  de  Liguori

Feast  August  1.

July 31, 2020

AT TIMES

DURING THE HIDDEN YEARS

At times he looked around

the carpenter shop. His eyes

and his thoughts stopped at

hammers, saws and pliers ….

Oh! To be as simple as they are

or to be like a chair or a door

or like that empty cross he saw

on the main road into town

yesterday – that coarse cross –

that that held a screaming man  

who  died during the night before.

He wondered if the prophets within

him were saying you’ll have your

turn or sneak out now and go down

the road with your pliers in hand

and unnail this man and set

him free – but there were those two

soldiers guarding and taunting him.

Then – at times - in the market

place he saw life as wheat and

fish hooks - nets and needles –

or he would slip into the synagogue

and if there was nobody there he

would walk up front and unroll

a scroll of Isaiah or Jeremiah and

run his fingers over the words –

until they entered his flesh - 

but what really refreshed him

were walks into the hills or down

to the waters of Galilee where

he learned from the birds of the air

and the grapes on the vine and

the house of the father waiting for

his son to come home as he wondered

when it was his time to leave home

and finally head for far countries.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

July  31, 2020

Thought  for  Today

“Many are the instruments through which the  soul seeks utterance:  form and color of paint or clay;  hewn stone; strings plucked or hammered; breath  blown through reed or brass; chords vibrating in a human throat; and earliest of all primeval instruments – the whole human body itself.” 

Peggy Baum Gerry,

contemporary American

teacher and analyst

July 30, 2020

FULL  OF  GRACE

I'm not.  Yet with what I got -
can I make this moment -
any better for you?

Forgetting self - thinking 
of you. Now that's being 
graceful. How about you - too?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

July  30,  2020 

Thought for Today

“Yes God! Yes God! Yes, yes and always yes.”

Nicolas de Cusa

 [1401-1464]

German mystic

July   29,   2020

MARTHA’S  RED  CHAIR 

The red vinyl of her kitchen chair 

is as brand new as the day Mary 

and her brother Lazarus bought it 

for her. They called it “Martha’s 

Kitchen” – because after all - she 

was always in it – cooking up a 

storm for them and special guests 

like Jesus. Maybe when she dies 

someone will sit on it – and Mary 

will finally say, “Hey, you can’t 

sit there. That’s Martha’s chair.” 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020 
Feast of St. Martha - July  29