Monday, May 11, 2015

May 11, 2015

SKIN DEEP

Everyone is skin that
          gets touched,
          gets cut,
          gets neglected,
          gets burned,
          gets loved.

Everyone is skin that
          needs Vaseline,
          needs bandages,
          needs caring,
          needs the loving touch.

Everyone is skin that
          packages a
          and contains
          and holds
          a vast organization
          of memories,
          or nerves,
          of thoughts,
          of feelings,
          of wonderings.

Everyone is skin that
          blushes,
          and pains,
          and vibrates
          with joy,
          when one
          is accepted,
          and loved,
          and welcomed
          into the group,
          the family.

Everyone is skin that
          scars,
          and wrinkles,
          and gets old,
          and finally
          dies and
          is boxed away
          deep into
          the earth
          from which
          it was formed
          by God.

Sunday, May 10, 2015




MOM -  ENTS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Mom - Ents.”

It’s from the word “MOMENTS” - with a dash after the first three letters MOM - then the ents.

My overarching theme is that on Mother’s Day - WE  - including our moms - think about moms in general and OUR own mom in particular - or our mom - herself - thinking about her life as a mom.

KAIROS AND CHRONOS

I want to point out in this homily that there are two types of time according to the ancient Greeks. We learned this when we studied the New Testament.

They are indicated by two Greek words for time: Chronos and Kairos.

We might know “chronos” from Chronos - a brand name for a watch - or the word “chronology”.

Our St. Mary’s High School kids can make a retreat at the end of their Junior year or during their senior year called the Kairos Retreat.

Chronos means ordinary time and Kairos means special time - moments different from the everyday.

Not all days are the same. All have 24 hours - but all days are not the same. Mother’s Day is different from the Wednesday in the week after Thanksgiving or the third Thursday after Father’s Day.

Kairos moments are moments when time sort of stopped - moments where we had a choice to make key decisions where we have the opportunity to change or we experience a surprise that changes our lives.

On a Kairos Retreat the hope is that these 4 days - will be a decisive time in a kid’s life. I always remember a comment a guy made in a eulogy about a friend of his who died in his mid-forties of a sudden heart attack. The friend was standing here in this pulpit and said that Tim’s life changed wonderfully for the better because of a Kairos Retreat when they were in high school.

A KAIROS MOMENT FOR A MOM

It could be the moment when our mom heard she was going to be a mom for the first time. It could be the moment we were born and she saw for the first time who it was who was kicking her.  It could be a moment when our mom thought about her life - and she was overwhelmed with the blessing she was feeling at the moment.

Our mom could sit down at a computer or with a pad and jot down the 10 most important moments of her life - so called Kairos Moments - so called moments when she changed. She could put them on a time line.  She could rate the importance of each date - 1 being the highest moment.

EINSTEIN

When Albert Einstein was talking about the relativity of time he could be quite complex - and lots of people didn’t get it. But when he said when you’re with your boyfriend or girlfriend time can fly - but when you’re in a boring class in school  - time can drag like a snail on its tail.

My favorite saying about the relativity of time is, “How long a minute takes depends on which side of the bathroom door you’re on.”

One I made up this morning would go like this: “The relativity of time: depends upon which relative we’re with.”

SO BACK TO MOTHERS

So on Mother’s Day moms see this day different than others.

I assume the number one sentence mom’s appreciate today is a sentence of just two words: “Thank you!”

I assume the number one hope from all mothers has just three words, “Make me proud.”

I assume the 4 main places that love Mother’s Day are card shops, florists, restaurants, and gas stations. What am I missing?

EXERCISES

We were told if you hear something in a sermon or a talk or you read something in a book, use it immediately - otherwise you might forget it.

So I heard a wonderful exercise at a workshop I recently went to. A poet in Washington D.C. talked about the Elevator Exercise. You take your present age - and draw a building with that many floors.  Put an elevator in it.

Next get into the elevator - and push the button for any floor.

You might be 39 or 75, but you can get off on the 16th floor.

Get off and walk around. Look around. Where were you?  See everyone. See everything.  Jot down the surprises.

Grace Cavalieri - the poet - I think she said she was in her 80’s - said it was a great way to come up with ideas for poems.

This morning I was thinking, “What would it be like to sit down with your mom and take a lot of elevator rides with her.”

Let her walk around the 18th floor - when she was 18 or 28 with you.

Have a spiral note book or a recorder and get the details.

I did this with my dad before he died - yellow legal pad.

I did this with my mom before she died - this time with a small tape recorder.

She took me to many stops on her elevator - and this was before I had heard the elevator metaphor. I got her life on precious tape - at the age of 82. She was still working at the time. I’ve mentioned this a few times - but two weeks later she was killed in a hit and run accident on her way to church - and I have her precious voice - with laughter and tears - her life and her stories - on tape. I haven’t cried yet - which surprises me - but I have cried at other deaths.

SUGGESTION

As a closing comment or suggestion, from experience I know sitting with a mom or dad - Father’s Day is next month - get their story on all its floors.

Record it. Jot it down - watch them smile. Watch they cry.


Simply take some elevator rides with mom or dad and ask them to tell you the 10 top mom - ents or mom - events of their life.


++++++oooooo++++++ooooo++++++


PAINTING ON TOP:

"Climbing Mother" by Brian Kershishik










May 10, 2015



MOM

I didn’t know whom they were talking about
when I heard someone call you “Maura” or
was it “Maura Donn." In Gaelic that’s
“Mary the Brown Haired One” in contrast
with your best friend “Maura Rua” - whom we
knew as “Mary Red”? - the one with the
red hair. I did hear some calling you “Maina”
now and then. Come to think about all this,
I didn’t know what daddy called you. I think 
it was “Mary” and she called you “Mike.” 
To us, growing up, you were always “Mom”…. Wonderfully pronounced, “Mom.” You were always there “Mom.” Thanks, I’ve seen  them, yet, sorry mom, I was never tempted to get 
a “Mom” tattoo of you - the ones with the heart
and the arrow right through the middle of the heart. But what happened to that cup I saved up 10 cents to buy - the one with the mom on it - the one you used for tea all through the years?



© Andy Costello  Reflections 2015

Saturday, May 9, 2015

May 9, 2015


HUNGERS AND THIRSTS

To be
To be born
To walk
To be held
To be taught
To be understood.

For food
For family
For caring
For trust
For satisfaction
For friendship
For recognition.

To share
To serve
To be asked
To think
To speak
To be noticed
To be heard.

For dreams
For justice
For peace
For laughter
For music
For meaning
For the Kingdom of God.

To risk
To love
To go beyond the valley
To climb the hill
To die
To rise

To embrace the Father.

Friday, May 8, 2015

May 8, 2015

THE OLD NEWSPAPER

All of us are newspaper reporters,
          telling our story,
          selling our story,
          trying to catch
          the other’s eye,
          reporting to others
          that we’ve been to Europe and Hawaii,
          that we have three grandchildren,
          that we have a cousin in California
          with a $750,000 home,
          and therefore please read
          that I’m okay,
          that I’m not a failure.

And sometimes when we begin
          to really trust another reader,
          we begin to report our failures,
          our sad stories,
          about our kids who dropped out,
          about divorces and drinking
          in the family,
          and how it all makes us feel so small.

And all of us know
          what it feels like
          to be misread,
          or what’s worse,
          to be rejected,
          to have someone
          just look at our headlines
          and then be thrown onto a pile,
          or to be used to wrap the garbage
          or for cat litter.

And all of us are part of every robbery and rape,
          and all those stories
          in Dear Abby or Dear Ann,
          stories of wives being used,
          and husbands being rejected,
          and teen-agers being sent to bed’
          right in the middle of their
          favorite TV show,
          story after story on insensitivity.

And all of us know the feeling
          of being used as paper
          to line the bottom drawer,
          hoping that someday,
          somebody will pick us up and say,
          “Hey, look at this old paper.
          Let’s see what it has to say.”


© Andy Costello Reflections, 2015

Thursday, May 7, 2015

May 7, 2015

WAITING ROOM

Sitting here in this hospital waiting room ….
It’s a recovery room for the family - for friends sitting here in a vinyl chair - which is getting harder by the hour. Each time the door opens - all faces look up. Everyone is waiting - waiting for good news: How the operation went? 
How she did. Is she OK for now. Finally 
after 4 hours comes Good News. Now what? And now comes the real waiting - the future -
and then some more waiting in this vast 
waiting room - called earth, called life.


© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2015


WAITING ROOM 
[Version 2]

Sitting here in this hospital waiting room -
just down the corridor from an operation
recovery room - a room for the family -
many families - many people - waiting.

Sitting here on a vinyl seat getting harder
by the hour. Each time the door opened,
all faces looked up - looking, wondering if
this was the doctor who would bring news.

Sitting here waiting for Good News - how
she/ he was, how the operation went, Finally….
It must be tough being a doctor - a nurse -
especially when the patient is not good.

Sitting here in the car, watching her/ him
out the front windshield - heading for the car -
wondering about the nexts - more waiting -
in this waiting room called earth, called life.




May 6, 2015


VISION CENTER

All of us are looking and searching
          for a vision center,
          for the answer
          to the question
          of the meaning of our lives.

So we go to temples,
          universities,
          psychiatrists,
          astrologers,
          book stores,
          buying fads,
          trying movements,
          looking for answers
          to our quest,
          looking for the Way,
          the Truth and the Life.

Some of us think the center is
          Washington, Moscow or Beijing,
          Mecca, Rome or Jerusalem,
          Paris, Hollywood or New York City,
          always searching
          for the center of life,
          fashion, style, money,
          politics, power, dance,
          forgetting that the veil
          of the temple
          has been cut in two,
          forgetting that the kingdom
          of God is within.

Some of us stop along the highway
          at those buildings marked,
          “Adult Books and Movies,”
          “For Mature Audiences Only,”
          and only years later
          come out wondering
          what maturity
          and being an adult
          is all about.

All of us then are tiny ships
          making for harbors
          in the night,
          leaving at dawn and
          launching out into the deep,
          lowering our nets
          for a catch,
          for the Center.

All of us keep looking.
          Wise men and women,
          following the star,
          journeying towards

          the Center of the Universe.