January 13, 2023
Quote for the Day
"When they call you articulate, that's another way of saying 'He talks good for a black guy.'"
Ice-T [1958-}
In Independent, December 30, 1995
"Interview of the Year"
Friday, January 13, 2023
January 13, 2023
DOES EVERYBODY
HAVE A SONG WITHIN THEM?
Does
everybody have a song within them?
Do
they? I don't know - but I wonder, "Did
I
try to sing some song I heard as a little kid
and someone
shushed me into silence?"
I've
heard someone in our family say more
than
once, "Nobody in our family can sing."
So
when nobody's listening and I'm all alone,
I
like to sing a song or two that I like. Who
knows?
Maybe one of these days, there I am
getting
up to sing and nobody knows I can't.
© Reflections,
Andy Costello
Thursday, January 12, 2023
January 12, 2023
PLEASE
LEARN
TO LAUGH
Spiritual teachers teach their disciples:
“Learn to watch, to listen, to wait.”
“Learn to start, to finish, but mainly
to be steady and ongoing in the long
mornings and afternoons of things.”
But why don’t I hear them saying:
“Please learn to laugh! Laugh!"
It's okay, if you haven't learned
from living enough life yet or if
you haven’t made enough mistakes
or said enough dumb things yet ....
It's okay. Life is more than this life.
© Reflections,
Andy Costello
HAVE YOU EVER GOTTEN
AN “Oh no!”?
The title of my homily is, “Have You Ever Gotten an “Oh
no!”
Years ago when I was stationed in Ohio, I got an,”Oh no!”
Have you ever gotten an “Oh no!”
Sometimes they hurt.
I went to a skin doctor – a dermatologist – who found some
pre-cancerous stuff on my forehead. I had
to put this skin stuff – white cream from out of a tube - on my forehead for a month. Then after the month was up I had to put
another type of cream – stuff that will heal the mess – for a second month.
Then “Presto!” I’d be handsome again.
He suggested January when I would not be on the road preaching. He said this because in two weeks my face
looked like peperoni pizza. I asked not to preach – but I could hear
confessions – in the dark.
It was back around 1998 when people used the confession
boxes almost always.
I was happy that people wouldn’t see my face – that is –
till this lady came in – and sat in a chair facing me. You could go to confession either way.
Well her head was down and I had my head in my hands. Then at
the end, when it came time to make the sign of the cross and give her
absolution, she saw my face as is – all red – all bloody – like a pizza as I
said.
I didn’t know what to do, but I put out my hand to shake
her hand and to say, “Go in peace.” She
didn’t know what to do either, so she shook my hand in return. That’s when I got the “Oh no!”
Then she took her hand as
she was standing up, She rubbed her hand on her backside – and got out
of there.
I said nothing. It
didn’t seem to be the time or the place to explain.
Then I said to myself, “So this is what people with leprosy
must have felt like at times.”
Then I inwardly added, “I got a sermon here. I got a sermon
here.”
___________________________________________________________
GOSPEL READING: FOR 1ST THURSDAY IN ORDINARY
TIME: MARK 1 40-45
Wednesday, January 11, 2023
January 11, 2023
THE BIG IRON GATE
I drove past the big iron gate
at least 500 times. Today was
different. I was walking.
Nobody was around so I
walked up to the big black
iron bars. Locked. I looked
in and saw the big house at
the end of tan cement driveway.
It had big black doors as well.
My guess was inside there were
lots of black locked doors – more.
“Not my world” I said to myself,
turned away, and kept walking
back into my world – where doors
were red or white – with a worn
welcome mat at the front door.
© Reflections,
Andy Costello
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