October 13, 2022

Reflections

MARY

The other day a lady was talking to me about this blog.

She said she liked the things I said about Mary the best.

There's a message there.

However, I couldn't recall anything I said about Mary.

Honestly....

Various people who come here to church in Annapolis, Maryland, come on Wednesday - because that's the day we have some special novena prayers to Mary.  We honor her here under the title of OLPH - Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Wednesday is the traditional day for Mary in the Philippines - Brazil - and India. Growing up in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Brooklyn. New York I saw this all through my childhood. When I went to the seminary I heard about the same thing happening on Wednesdays in Mission Church in Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts.

There's a message here.

Question: what does Mary touch in the human heart?

For starters I'd have to say, "Momma".

I would have to remember every time I stood there seeing a mother with a child in her arms. Whenever I would say, "Hi" to the kid - if I was a total stranger - the child would turn their face from mine and bury it in their mother's embrace.

There's a message here.

I would have to say that everyone has a deep desire to always want to return to their mother's womb.

Isn't that why we say in the ancient Mary prayer, the Hail Mary, "blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus"?

We all want down deep: peace and security.

I don't get it when Protestants protest about how Catholics honor the Mother of Jesus.

I've heard people say, "We're making her God."

Nope.

I think the complaint should be against the dogma about Mary being called, "The Mother of God"  - Theotokos - in Greek.

That decree from Ephesus is an ancient decree - way before the Protestant Reformation.

I suggest that Protestants should at least honor Mary as the Mother of Jesus - the Jesus you honor and love.

In the meanwhile - go to Ephesus - delve into the fight over the title of Mary as Mother of God.

Then people might grasp and understand, Part 2, of the Hail Mary prayer: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen."

In the meanwhile, if you don't accept the title of Mary as  Mother of God, grab a rosary and say, Part 1 of the Hail Mary prayer: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus."

October 13, 2022

Thought to Ponder

"He that knows little often repeats it."

 October 12, 2022

Reflection

IS  IT  WORTH  IT?

I was wondering if the question, "Is it worth it?" - is a good question to ask?

Is it the bottom line question in much of our decision making?

I don't remember ever asking that question specifically - in any of my decisions.

Yet, come to think about it, it's a good question.  It's worth thinking about whether something is worth doing.

It's a value question.

It's an energy question.

It's a use of one's time question. 

Is it worth getting out of bed this morning.

Is it worth marrying this person?

Is it worth it to become and then stay a priest.

Is it worth it?

The words "cost" and "time" and "life" appear in the background of this background question.

I'll have to re-read Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book, The Cost of Discipleship once again.

Dietrich could have stayed in England a returned to Germany - but he must have decided it was worth it.

Jesus made promises or reward to those who would leave all to follow him. He must have been aware of the question, "Is it worth it?"

Did Jesus have to make the decision in the first place -  whether to become human and whether to follow the way to Jerusalem?

In the garden,  was he asking the question, "Is is worth it?"

At the end of our life, seeing everything, hopefully we'll say,  "It was worth it."

Isn't that "Yes" the secret of happiness?"

October 12, 2022

Thought to ponder

"Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God,"

Robert Pierce [1914-1978]

 October 11, 2022

Reflections

HEART  BEATS

How many heart beats will I have?

Who's counting?

It's an amazing organ - this gift in the chest - in the center of the human body,

Thank You, God! Thank You.

Thank you, mom and dad.  Thank you.

Thank you car drivers, who didn't cause and accident, that could have killed me - by stopping this heart of mine.

I'm 67.  I guess I could add up the number of heart beats a person has on an average day and then multiply that number by 67 and then by 365 and come up with a good number.

Wow!

Life!

That's my  beating heart.

What about the blinks of a lifetime? What about the words I've spoken, the steps I've taken, the meals I've eaten, the times I've fallen asleep?

A lifetime.

Heart beats seem to be the most central. 

Yet the brain can fail - my eyes could go - so too my hearing.

Yet the heart beating still seems the most central activity.

But what about breath?

I  guess I can't forget interconnections.

For starters I still want more heart beats.

 October 11,  2022

Thought to Ponder

"American life storms about us daily,  and is slow to find a tongue."

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Letters and Social Aims

 October 10, 2022

Reflections

TRANSFIGURATION

To see God - another - gold - glass - time - life - a meal - in a new way - a new vision - a new view - wow - amazing - making tomorrow - different from today.

Transfiguration - I never thought of that before.

I never heard you speak or see or hear or sing - like this before.

Wow.

I never knew this mountain was here.

I never knew I could climb into this new view - but Christ you took me into this new view - a new scene - a new plateau.

Would I've able to understand the metaphor if I hadn't climbed the reality - having climbed a real mountain.

So thank you God for my younger days - days I climbed mountains in New Hampshire and Colorado with friends.

Jesus must have done what I have done - getting away - escaping - with friends - getting away from it all.

Go figure.

Do we have to go somewhere else - before we can figure out the right here - right now?

Transfiguration.

I like both parts of that word - the "trans" and the "figuring".

When was the last time I saw Jesus in a new light?

Go figure.

When was my last transfiguration moment?

Go figure

When was the last time I saw myself - and my life - and all life -  in a new light?

Go figure.