April 2, 2021

GOOD  FRIDAY

 
Is the key word, “good”?
 
We know “bad” as in,
“I’m having a bad day.”
 
Bad as in we’re judged and condemned ….
Bad as in we’re hit by spit ….
Bad as in slipping and falling ….
Bad as in we are nailed down ….
Bad as in dying on a cross ….
 
What’s a “good” day?
 
Good as in someone helping us carry our cross ….
Good as in someone nodding support to us on the way ….
Good as in someone helping us when we fall …
Good as in someone hearing our mutterings and moans ….
Good as in someone there when we are dying ….

What’s a good day?
What’s a bad day?
 

Each day is a different day –
but each day we can enter into
the mystery of carrying the giant cross of the world
and experience death and resurrection.

 

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

April 2,  2021 

Thought for the Day

“On Good Friday last year the SS found some pretext to punish 60 priests with an hour on "the tree." That is the mildest camp punishment. They tie a man's hands together behind his back, palms facing out and fingers pointing backward. Then they turn his hands inwards, tie a chain around his wrists and hoist him up by it. His own weight twists his joints and pulls them apart... Several of the priests  who were hung up last year never recovered and died. If you don't have a strong heart, you don't survive it. Many have a permanently crippled hand.”

― Jean Bernard, 

Priestlock 25487:

A Memoir of Dachau

 

 April  1,  2021

FOOT WASHING 

My feet:
skin flaking at times,
hurting and aching as well,
needing Vaseline or some
type of soothing cream.
I guess I’m getting old and dry.
I’m needing kneading with my hands –
but that’s not as easy as sit seems.
Then surprise, YOU,
walk into the room and wash my feet.
Thank YOU.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

April  1,  2021

 

Thought for Today

 

“The first days of January 1942 brought enormous amounts of snow. The reader already knows what snow meant for the clergy. But this time the torture surpassed the bounds of the endurable. At the same time the thermometer hovered between 5 and 15 degrees below zero. From morning till night we scraped, shoveled, and pushed wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of snow to the brook. The work detail consisted of more than 1,000 clergymen, forced to keep moving by SS men and Capos who kicked us and beat us with truncheons.

We had to make rounds with the wheelbarrows from the assembly square to the brook and back. Not a moment of rest was allowed, and much of the time we were forced to run.

At one point I tripped over my barrow and fell, and it took me a while to get up again. An SS man dashed over and ordered me to turn with the full load. He ran beside me, beating me constantly with a leather strap. When I got to the brook I was not allowed to dump out the heavy snow, but had to make a second complete round with it instead.

When the guard finally went off and I tried to let go of the wheelbarrow, I found that one of my hands was frozen fast to it. I had to blow on it with warm breath to get it free.”

― Jean Bernard,

Priestblock 25487:

A Memoir of Dachau

 

March  31,  2021

SPY  WEDNESDAY 

Judas could feel the feel
of the 30 silver coins
in the side pocket of his cloak.
 
Then guilt, regret, anger, resentment
and 26 other rancid feelings
rubbed against his brain.
 
Judas resented being called “Thief”
by Jesus, -  yet he knew that Jesus knew
he helped himself from the money bag.
 
He waited and waited for his moment -
to sneak away to the chief priests and ask
what would they give for him to betray Jesus.
 
They gave him 30 pieces of silver.
They gave him 30 pieces of hell –
which ripped him up inside and out.
 
When he realized what he had done,
he threw the coins back and went searching
for a rope to hang around his neck and end it all.

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

March  31,  2021

 Thought for the Day

 

“To hate fatigues.”

 

Jean Rostand

March  30,  2021

 UNFAIR

 

Do little kids feel unfair feelings
100 times more than fair feelings?
 
Do they kick their feet against their high chair
when they see the adults sitting at the big table?
 
Do they hate it when the older folks
can stay up and they have to go to bed?
 
Do they hate it when their face is washed
with the sink cloth and others use clean napkins?
 
Do folks get it when they see Les Miserables and Valjean 

goes to jail for 19 years for stealing just a loaf of bread?`
 
Did the people of Ireland make The Fields of Athenry
their national anthem because Michael is sent on a prison ship to Australia for taking some food for his kid.
 
Do we move from “Unfair” to “Fair” when we learn
to say, “Thank You” for all the blessings we receive?

  

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021