Monday, April 25, 2016

April 25, 2016


MISSING   PERSON 

Some folks seem to slid out back doors -
and disappear into the night - out of our
sight - sometimes for weeks at a time - and
some past people - for a lifetime. Oh…. Where
did all those folks in all those yearbooks go?

Me - I seem to slide away - in plain sight -
going down a side alley - into a pub within - or
a back porch - in the back of my mind - or I
like to take a long walk alone. Relax I’m talking
to you at times - but where have you been?


© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016
April 24, 2016


TRAVELING  COMPANIONS

When traveling alone, we travel, with
so many different voices: our fears,
concerns, worries, doubts, regrets,
what if’s, oh no’s, and I told you so’s.

When traveling with others, we travel
with so many different voices: laughter,
story telling, sharing, witnesses, and
who cares if we missed a turn or a stop?




© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

Sunday, April 24, 2016

A  SENSE  OF AWE 
AT  THE  EARTH 



INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 5th Sunday after Easter [C] is, “A Sense of Awe at the Earth.”

Last Friday - April 22nd - was Earth Day. It's something that has been  going on since 1970.

At our last staff meeting we were asked to say something for the good of the earth this Sunday - so here goes.

THREE READINGS

I read today's 3 readings with the hopes that something in the readings would be a good lead in for this theme of “Earth Day.”

Sure enough today’s second reading from the Book of Revelation is perfect. It begins, “Then I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth.”  It ends, "Behold, I make all things new."

Perfect.

The reading talks about the heavens, the sea, the earth, the city, dwellings and the human race. [Cf. Revelation 21: 1-5a]

Perfect.

Let’s work - let’s complain - let’s do our part to make everyone and everything better.

Next the reading uses the metaphor of a wedding.

We had two weddings at St. Mary’s yesterday. Seeing a bride on her wedding day: what better image of newness and new life. 

Now at a wedding nobody notices the bridegroom - except for two moments. The bride is it. He’s chopped liver. 

I've noticed that the first moment is when the bridegroom is all alone at the top of the sanctuary steps. Then the music starts: "Here comes the bride..." or what have you. All stand and turn to see the bride coming down the aisle. At that moment all the bridesmaids in the seats turn to see the bridegroom's face as his face sees his bride come down the aisle in all her beauty. 

Tears and tissues. It's an awesome moment.

The other bridegroom moment is at the reception when he is called out on the dance floor to dance with his mom.

Perfect.

Life is the moments.

AWE AND AWFUL MOMENTS

The title of my homily is, “A Sense of Awe at the Earth.”

Not all moments are the same - obviously.

Some are same old,  same old,  same old. These are the moments we are on automatic pilot and we don’t notice anything awesome.  These are mac and cheese moments.

But then there are moments that are awesome - moments that overwhelm us.

These are Lobster Thermidor or Baked Maryland Lump  Crab Cake moments - or great burritos moments - depending on your taste buds.

I saw the following in someone’s house recently. It was handwriting on the wall: “Life Is Not Measured By the Number of Breaths We Take, But By the Moments That Take Our Breath Away.”

Of course.

It’s good to sit down at the end of each day and look at the moments of that day.

You saw a little kid put a dollar in the hat of a street violinist. She creeped up carefully - looking back at her parents twice - her parents who signaled her to go on. She looked up at the musician - and put some green in his hat - looked up at his face again - and then ran back to her parents with great delight and a great smile on her face.

You stopped to smell the roses or the lilacs on a neighbor’s lawn.

You bought yourself an ice cream cone. Hey it’s good to treat oneself besides the kids to ice cream and your got yourself two scoops - rum raisin and pistachio with chocolate chips. Nobody was looking. Uuum good. Uum. Great lickings. And you even toasted yourself with the cone.

You saw an old couple holding hands as they were headed for an afternoon matinee movie.

You stopped to watch a flock of birds flying north.



It’s good to pause to look at what you saw that day on the planet - and hopefully you had some awesome moments.



I hold that if a person does this every evening - as a night prayer - you’ll  see a lot more the next day - because you have to do homework every night. I discovered this from vacations - keeping a journal - and making a report of my journey that night - on what I saw that day.

But there are also some moments that are awful - and we spot them each day as well.  

Ugh.

We saw a fight. We saw someone yelling at a kid. We saw someone dump their garbage or wrappings or coffee cup on the street.

I notice in putting this homily together the close connection between awe and awful  and awesome.

Life can be the good, the bad and the ugly.

Life can be the awe - the awful - and the awesome.

ACTION

I also began thinking about action - the action step - in life.

By declaring a day as Earth Day - the hope is to get action.

It works. 

Mother’s Day helps florists and card shops - and moms get a lot more “Thank you’s” that day compared to other days.

So too Father’s Day.

So too Qingming Day. I never heard of this till I was looking up stuff for Earth Day.



Every April 4  to April 6, in China, it’s Qingming Day - a time everyone heads for the cemetery where their parents or grandparents are buried and they sweep and clean up the graves. Neat.

They also bring flowers and burn paper money and incense at their graves.

Neat - for the flowers. I wonder about the smoke - and the stuff left on the cemetery grounds.

So too because of Earth Day - schools and churches and organizations and cities do stuff to sweep up the mess. They plant trees. They challenge us to not dump on Mother Earth. Let’s clean up the air and clean up the water.

I noticed in a story in the New York Times the other day about a parish in Brooklyn. They marched to the Gowanus Canal and prayed over the water and poured holy water onto it. It’s still a mess. It was close to the last stop on the subway before we got to Coney Island as a kid. We’d go over a small bridge and we kids would hold our noses as we did and yell out, “Perfume Bay.”  I guess it’s still a mess.  Some day - someday. The first step is awareness and then action.

This year’s theme for Earth Day is not to waste food - not to dump food - and awareness of the amount of food that is just dumped into landfills - has gone down.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “A Sense of Awe at the Earth.”

I talked about the reality that there are moments when we see things happening on our earth that take our breath away.

I remember my first trip into Mexico - going over the border in a car in Nogales Arizona into Nogales Mexico - and as we went down the highway I began to realize in 5 minutes the value of emissions control here in the United States. Cough. Cough. Cough.

We have seen smoking going down in our lifetime. Cough. Cough. Cough.

For the sake of transparency my dad died of emphysema - not because of smoking however  - but from what they called “White lung”.  He worked with flour at Nabisco in New York and New Jersey.

Awareness hopefully leads to action

So where can make the earth more beautiful today  - this week - in this life.

Last Sunday I suggested picking up at least one piece of trash - paper - what have you - each day.

And be awesome for each other - each day - and when another is awesome - give them an awesome “Atta girl” or “Atta boy” or “Atta earth.”



And “Ooops!”  it’s Spring - and awesome beauty surrounds us - so make sure you see all around and give God at least one good, "Atta God" each day. Now that's a great Atta Prayer.

Saturday, April 23, 2016

April 23, 2016


SHAKESPEARE! 
TODAY IS THE
400th ANNIVERSARY
OF HIS DEATH

William Shakespeare - dates - were from April 23, 1564 to April 23, 1616.



“What’s in a name…?”

“I’ll note you in my book of memory.”

“He’s sudden if a thing comes into his head.”

“An honest tale speeds best being plainly told.”

“There is something in the wind.”

“How long a time lies in one little word.”

“Play out the play.”

“All the world’s a stage ….”

“The play’s the thing/ Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.”

“The web of our life is a mingled yarn, good and ill together.”

“Let me tell the world.”

“There is a history in all men’s lives.”

“We are in God’s hand.”

“Bait the hook well: this fish will bite.”

“Everyone can master a grief but he that has it.”

“Brevity is the soul of wit.”

“I have bought / Golden opinions from all sorts of people.”

“Come, give us a taste of your quality.”

“To be or not to be: that is the question.”

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

“Lord, what fools these mortals be.”

“A politician … one that could circumvent God.”

“Words pay no debts.”

“Good counselors lack no clients.”

“Necessity’s sharp pinch.”

“Pray you now, forgive and forget.”

“The wheel is come full circle: I am here.”

“My salad days / When I was green in judgment.”

“Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.”

“You pay a great deal too dear for what’s given freely.”

“Let us not burden our remembrances / With a heaviness that’s gone.”





© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016



Is this a first?  I spotted with today's newspapers - April 23, 2017 - the above picture on page 13 of the Target Ad  18 page Input Insert.  Is this a first?  How about that!  Nice going Target!



A First

Friday, April 22, 2016

April 22, 2016



JUST SAY SOMETHING

Just say something to the person right
there with you: while holding the door, 
on the plane, on the short elevator ride -
even if it's only to the second floor.

"Hi!" "Beautiful day." "How's it going?"

"Welcome home!" "Where have you been?"

Hey! You never know what a word -
just a greeting - or an eye shake and
a head nod - might mean - to the person 
in the car right next to you at the red light. 

Just say something. Eye to eye something.

At the end of a day, at the end of a life - 
all those words might have taken flesh - 
and both of you might have met Jesus 
Christ in each other's life: at a well, 
on a road, at a table, on another's cross -
and both of you experienced Easter Joy.


© Andy Costello Reflections, 2016

Thursday, April 21, 2016

April 21, 2016



AMAZING  GRACE

Sun sliding down the sky into the west -
into the water.... The end of another day. Thank You God. Thank You God.

The dark of land - low lying 
mountains - holding the bay  in her arms. Thank
You God. Thank You God.

The glistening tablecloth of water

covering the top of the in-between. 
Thank You God. Thank You God.

The slow gradual of dark night bringing

peace and grace and sleep to my soul.
Thank You, God.  Thank You, God.


© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016