August 2,  2022

Reflection

ANNIVERSARY

Today is the 41st anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood: June 20, 1965.

Nobody said, "Happy Anniversary!"

Yet I did say that to the other guys.  All of us were ordained in June.

Nobody responded, "And with you too."

Last year - 2005 - we did celebrate our 40th anniversary as a class.  We - not all - got together at San Alfonso Retreat House, Long Branch, New Jersey - those who stayed and those who left.

Tonight I'll e-mail as many as the other guys  in the class as I have e-mail addresses.

"Happy Anniversary!"

If one is married, one can say to the other, "Happy Anniversary!"

I was thinking of those who have died: "In a way I'm like those who have lost a spouse."

What's it like for those who have left the priesthood? Is it like being divorced? Do they erase dates from their interior calendar - hanging on the wall of their minds?

I see now how I get a reaction at the time  I say at the final blessing at Mass, "May God bless all those celebrating birthdays and anniversaries on this day."

That catches a puzzled look at times.

I should do that more,

Happy Anniversary.

We never know what happened to folks this day in the past.

How many years do we have left?

To You, Lord, I want to say, "Thanks for 41 years today and for all the people we got to meet so far. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks."

That's my anniversary prayer today.

 August 2, 2022

Thought for Today

"A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil can throw at a man."

William Hazlitt [1778-1839]

Sketches and Essays (1839) Nicknames 

August 1, 2022

Reflection 

PHOTOGRAPHS

Now with digital and phone cameras there are a lot more amateur photographers.

Will the pictures last?

Will they go the way of e-mail letters?

At a 90th Birthday party yesterday people were looking at photographs - especially of grandma from long ago.

One granddaughter - aged 20 or so had pen in hand - and a xeroxed copy of a photo from the 1930's.  She was asking, "Who's who?" Then she jotted down the name of a person and something above each person.

Photographs ....

They are captured scenes of flying time - like scenes out the window of a moving bus window....

Cement memories - these are photographs - of stopped time.

I went to see an exhibit of Anselm Adams photographs at the Michenor Museum in Doylestown, PA. I stopped to watch a video - that was ongoing all day long. In it Anselm is explaining his techniques - along with  the history of some of his famous photographs.

Photographs ....

What ever happened to a photo I took of Jesus - hands open - holding the rising sun coming up out of the ocean?

Why do I love a photo I have of my dad at 25 or so?

Why do I have a few shoe boxes of photos under my bed.

Photographs.

Trying to hold onto youth - good times - the past - the moment .... There we are in a beautiful place - and we know we have to leave - so we see people taking pictures  in National Parks - or at fountains - the ocean - mountains - lakes.

Yet we know time is moving ahead.  One's body clock - one's heart - one's skin - one's legs - one's lungs -  and all the rest of me has a time limit.

Ugh. That kills me.

Freeze - the frame of the present - is not lasting.

 August 1, 2022

Thought for Today

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."

Albert Einstein

Science, Philosophy and Religion:

A Symposium (1941) ch. 13

 July 31, 2022

Homily

 July 31, 2022

Reflection

YOU HAVE NO IDEA

We were driving  to the funeral of an old nun. We were an interesting mix: three priests and a cook.

As we drove along, the cook, a gal named Maria, said at least dozen times, "You have no idea."

One of the priests - stationed in the rectory where Maria worked - started to kid her about her constant comment, "You have no idea."

I didn't work at that parish - nor did I know Maria - who she was and what she was like - but I began saying inwardly, "I have no idea who she was."

Did Jesus ever say that about his disciples and those he met?

Do married folks think that of their spouse at times?

Do moviegoers have any idea of what went on to make a movie?

Do they ever even think of that question?

I have no idea who the person in the movie ticket booth is.

Same for the toll collector on the Bay Bridge. I don't have E-PASS yet - so I have a 10 second transaction - and say, "Have a good day."

If we talked another 2 seconds - the driver behind us - will get reckless and restless.

I think that because I wonder about what I feel and others feel.

Can we communicate our thoughts and feelings?

I hope so.

Yet there is a whole lifetime of ideas behind every idea.

Every car ride connects us with other car rides.

Every conversation connects us with every other conversation.

No wonder some people say, "You have no idea."

 July 31, 2022

Thought for Today

"Everything will pass, and the world will perish but the Ninth  Symphony will remain."

Michael Bakunin [1814-1876]

Russian revolutionary and anarchist

of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

in Edmund Wilson To the Finland Station [1940]