TWINS

Francis and Seelos were twins - a boy and a girl twin - which is very, very different  - than if your twin is the same sex as you.

They were mom and dad’s only kids and they were thrilled when they found out they are were pregnant and they were going to have twins.

They were born - October 5^th  - the feast of Blessed Francis Seelos - so the parents said, “We prayed to Blessed Francis Seelos to have a baby - and surprise we ended up having twins. So when we were thinking of names, we said, ‘Francis or Frank  will work for the boy - and why not Seelos for the girl?’ Seelos - now that’s an interesting name for a girl - but we’ll make it work.”

Grandparents were even more trilled - not with the names at first - but that they would be twins in the family. The last time that happened was 5 generations back - and those twins were two girls in Italy - Sicily - back in the late 1800’s.

At the baptism of the twins, Francis and Seelos, the Italian great grandmother on the mom’s side was asked to give a blessing right at the end of the baptism. They helped her up into the sanctuary - where the baptismal font was.

Everyone became very quiet.

The great grandmother - Mama Mama Maria - as everyone called her - paused and then said out loud, “It’s an old Sicilian Custom for the oldest family member living to give a blessing to the newest family member.”

“Today I want to give a blessing to our new twins: Francis and Cecilia….”

“Mama Mama Maria her name is Seelos!”

“Oh, okay continued Mama Mama Maria.”

She put her old wrinkled arthritic hand on Francis’s head and said, “Francis may you be a peacemaker all your life.”

Then she moved her hand onto Seelos’ little head. She saw how beautiful Seelos’ eyes were - so she said, “Seelos may see amazing things in your lifetime. May you have a great sense of amazement!”

It was an amazing moment. Mom and dad cried. Francis and Seelos’ grandparents on both sides were crying. And Mama Mama Maria gave each kid - each twin - a beautiful kiss on the top of their heads - with great gusto and sound. “Uuuuuummmm! Ahhhh!

All clapped.

Twenty five years later at the party after the baptism of Seelos first baby - with Francis as the godfather - the twin’s mom made a speech.

“Remember when Francis and Seelos were baptized …. Remember when Mama Mama Maria - Lord have mercy on her - wow do we miss her…. but she had a great life. Remember when she gave that wonderful blessing on our twins - that Francis be a peacemaker and Seelos have a sense of amazement at everything she saw.

“Wow did that come true.

“Seelos you have always seen what most of us miss. How other kids love to lick their ice cream cones - especially chocolate chocolate chip and butter almond cones. How people who get a new car - like to just sit there for a while before they start it up the first few times - just to smell the beauty of new car smell…. How Snuggles our dog - Lord have mercy on him - loved to go into the ocean when we went to the beach in the summer - and shake off the salt sea water on the rest of us back on the blanket…. How you love to stay outside before we go into the house at night and look for the stars or slivers of the moon…. How you love all types of mustards and every kind of tree - including mulberry trees. How you have become a pediatrician - a baby doctor because you love babies - and now you have one of your own….

“Mama Mama Maria - your grandmother - put a great blessing on you at your baptism. Seelos - maybe your name should have been See-lots.

“And Frank - Francis - Mama Mama Maria - called it right for you as well. We have always seen how you were a peacemaker - especially when kids were fighting in the playground. And when a kid was being bullied you stood up for that kid. Thank God you’re 6 foot 3, 235 pounds, that certainly helped. You have always been so good to old people - visiting Mama Mama Maria in the nursing home before she died and your other grandparents - so many times. And good thing you have a great sense of humor like Blessed Francis Seelos.”

At that, Seelos, the new mom, not of twins, asked her grandmother to come up to the front. “We forgot to ask you to give a blessing to our your new granddaughter - so keeping the old Sicilian tradition - could you give our baby - the newest member of the family - a special blessing from the oldest member of the family.

She paused.

She hesitated.

Then she said - putting her hand on the head of 6 week old baby, “Teresa, may you have a sweet life - with plenty of sweetness and smarts and everyday will be a surprise - in the same spirit as you amazing mom, Seelos.

OOO+OOO

[This was a story for our Kids with their parents Mass - at 8 AM - at Marian Hall, today, October 2, 2016. This coming Wednesday - October 5^th - is the feast of the Redemptorist Blessed Francis Seelos. With that in mind and St. Francis Assisi - which would have been Seelos’ day - dying October 4, 1872 in New Orleans of Yellow Fever, I made up this story. I like to see St. Francis of Assisi as an instrument of God’s peace and Blessed Francis Seelos  as a man of peace - a smile - a great sense of humor. I spotted the images of mustard seed, mulberry tree and the ocean in today’s gospel, Luke 17: 5-10 - for this 27 Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C]

[Picture on top - from the Internet - by Abby Bischoff]

October 2, 2016

STEPS

Did you ever watch kids

when they come to steps?

Some take them on no matter now

high the mountain seems to be.

Some hesitate. Some sit down

in frustration. Some scream.

Some look around for someone

to pick them up and bring them

up to the top of the steps.

Are steps a personality test on

how this kid is going to take on life?

Are we getting a glimpse on whether

this one will enter a 12 Step program

for whatever or whether they will

spend their lives blaming others or

just sit there at the bottom of the steps?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

October 1, 2016

MY LIFE

My life is in little boxes,

in bottom drawers.

OK - the other stuff that

everyone sees is my

car and my house,

my family and my friends,

my hair and my skin,

my clothes and my

theories and my comments.

But the real stuff is in the

little boxes - that I empty out

onto my bed from time to time
and wonder about my moments.

That’s the real stuff.

Wouldn't you like to know?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

SPOOL OF THREAD

The spool of thread fell….

It unraveled as it rolled

across the wooden floor.

My fingers still held the

lead of the thread - that

I was trying to put through

the eye of the needle.

That’s when the spool

slipped out of my hands.

I laughed. Spiders - leaves -

skin - do their repairs

without incident every time.

Me? I’m unraveling and

slipping as I walk across

wooden floors with holes

in my socks from now on.

 © Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

September 29, 2016

WHICH  QUESTION  IS THE 

TOUGHEST  QUESTION  

FOR ME TO ANSWER? 

Blessings?

Wow moments?

Mistakes I made?

Feel guilty about?

Ashamed of?

Regrets?

If I could do ____ all over again?

Things I’m proud of?
Shocks?
Surprises?

Successes?

Failures?
Moments that gave me a life insight?
Turning points in my life?

What others are saying about me?

What I’m saying about myself?

If you only knew the following about me …?

Lies I’ve told?

Exaggerations about something I did?

Moments I felt best about myself?

Someone I can really talk to?

Deaths?

God moments?

Atheistic moments?

Deep gratitude moments?

Moments I felt cherished?

Greatest moment of my life so far?

Moments I felt lied to?

Dumped?

Saved by?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016
Statue on top: The Thinker by
Auguste Rodin [1840-1917]
At first the statue was entitled,
"The Poet."  It was Dante
looking down into the
circles of hell.

P.S.  If you want to make this a self-test, get a piece of paper or use the computer and put a 3 before every one of these questions.  E.g., “3 moments I felt best about myself?” or “3 God moments?” or “3 biggest regrets”.  If you do that, this will be Self-Test # 26 on my blog.

WHAT HOLDS US BACK?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 26^th Wednesday in OT  is, “What Holds Us Back?”

Today’s gospel  - [Luke 9: 57-62]  - triggers that thought - that question - especially . But Job also had a lot on his back to weigh him down - and hold him back. [Cf. Job 9: 1-12, 14-16.]

So a few thoughts on the question, “What Holds Us Back?”

I suspect this homily is more for procrastinators like me - compared to those who get a lot done every day.

FURTHER QUESTION

The next question should be: from what?  Holds us back from what?

Answers: from being a better Christian, wife, husband, grandmother, grandfather, son, daughter, brother, sister, listener, giver, worker.

What’s holding us back from being better?

I sense that’s like a sign above every work desk: “What’s holding you back?”

CANDIDATES - EXCUSES - EXCUSES

I don’t know about you, but time and laziness hold me back from doing all that I would like to do in life.

Once I hit 75, I find myself repeating Clint Eastwood’s line from the Dirty Harry movie, Magnum Force, when Harry Callahan says, “A man has to know his limitations.”

So for starters, laziness and limitations hold me back.

So to, too many pulls in too many ways - and then an inner voice says, “Baloney! You’re just too lazy.”

No? Yes?  But at times I have a lot to do. Don’t we all?

MAKING LISTS

So we make our lists.

Sometimes we write them out.

Most of the time the things we are putting off are like a dripping faucet - drip, drip, drip. Get moving. You know what you’re supposed to do, do, do, do.

At other times they are like a bulldog growling at our feet. “You gotta, gotta, gotta….” 

So life has a lot of gotta, gotta, gotta’s. Life has lots of do, do, do, do. You gotta do this.

Listen to self. We’re a broken record. Listen!

“I still haven’t called the doctor. I still haven’t written that Thank You note. I still haven’t paid that bill. I still haven’t cleaned that closet. I still haven’t gotten rid of that stack of magazines. You’ll never read them. I still haven’t given my so and so a call. It’s at least two months now - and the anniversary of her husband’s death has come and gone.”

TALK ABOUT GETTING DONE

When I listen to Job in The Book of Job,  I pick up that he realizes God does an awful lot.

That’s different from what I hear many people saying. Too many people are daily complainers about what God does not do? Job sees God keeping this vast universe going.

Let me do back to today’s first reading from the Book of Job.   We hear Job realizing God’s in charge of the sun and the stars. Job writes,

He alone stretches out the heavens
and treads upon the crests of the sea.
He made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the constellations of the south;
He does great things past finding out,
marvelous things beyond reckoning.

And yet we still scream down deep  to this busy God of ours - especially when things are going wrong in our life. “God, what are you doing? Where are you when I need you?”

We all have our list  of what God should be doing.

Does God have a list for us - on what we’re supposed to be doing?

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Today’s gospel has Jesus calling people but they have excuses: “I gotta bury my father.”   “I have to go back home and do some things there first.”

Jesus says, put your hand to the plow and stop looking back.

Put your hands to the plow and stop looking sideways.

CONCLUSION: THE BIGGEST COMPLAINT

Let me close with what I think is the biggest thing that holds us back.

It’s comparing ourselves to others.

It’s when we spend too much inner time - inner complaining we do about others not doing their part.

I don’t but I want to say to complainers. Let me walk around inside you for 20 minutes and I’ll tell you to stop your complaining about others - and do what you are being called to do.

September 28, 2016

WOODEN

Admiring a wooden floor, a baseball

bat, a wooden table, a wooden statue -

touching the grain - the cut of wood -

mahogany, maple - oak - realizing this

was in the forest - in the rain - in the

sun - in the dark quiet,  unnoticed -

sacred - one of many - seeing the

forest and not the trees - but now -

this floor, this chair, this table, this

wood - has found a home - a place

to shine, wax eloquent - but do we

wonder if it misses - feels bad - has

survival syndrome - because all that

other wood it was neighbor to has

been burnt, rotted, or ended up as a

pallate in a factory or a cross on a hill.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016