ALL SAINTS

  

                    Lord,

                    I don’t know

                    any of your Saints personally,

                    but I do know mine:

                              - a lady in our church

                                 who quietly and faithfully

                                 has run the soup kitchen

                                 all these years;

         

                              - a guy at work

                                who would give you

                                the shirt off his back;

                              - my mom and dad

                                who taught me how to love,

                                how to forgive

                                and how to pray;

                              - a friend who always listens

                                when things just aren’t 

                                going right,

                                and you can count on this:

                                that’s as far as it goes.

                    Oh yeah, there’s this old nun 

                    in our parish who takes care 

                    of the school library in the morning,

                    visits some people in the 
                    nursing home in the afternoon, 

                    and answers the rectory phone 

                    in the evening. 

                    She just doesn’t want to retire. 

                    Lord, I don’t know any 

                    of your Saints personally,

                    but I’m sure you know mine.

• Andrew Costello

(© Markings  Prayer for November 1995) 

ALL  SAINTS  DAY: 

TWO  QUESTIONS 

INTRODUCTION

It’s All Saints Day and I have two questions to reflect upon for this feast:

1) Who are the saints you have met -- who are saints with a small “s” -- the uncanonized saints?

2) Who are the Saints in your life -- Saints with a capital “S” -- your favorite canonized or official saints?

SAINTS WITH A SMALL “s”

Let’s begin with the uncanonized saints in our life -- the saints with the small “s” -- those people we describe as saints. “Oh she’s a real saint.” “He’s a saint.”

Who are those people? A neighbor?  An aunt? A fellow worker? A teacher? Someone you know who is just a good  person?

I think of my mom, my dad, my brother, my sister. I think of two priests I knew: Father Joe Hart and Father Joe McManus. All of these people are dead, but they were saints in my estimation.

What are the ingredients or the characteristics of a saint? What are our criteria? A quick 3 would be: 1) They are caring - giving and would do anything for you.  2) They are God centered. God is the central presence in their life - not an idea about God, but God. 3) Absence of negative stuff. The third idea would be just that. They are people who are not selfish or nasty or mean or self-centered.

SUGGESTION: COME UP WITH ONE

I would suggest that you come up with one person you know who is a saint. They can be living or dead. Talk over your results with those you know.

TONY

If I had to come up with one person I would pick a classmate of mine named Tony. He’s a saint. We always called him that and he is. He is a nice guy.

He was a civil engineer working in the streets and sewers of Philadelphia after he finished college and VMI. He was from New Jersey. He saw a notice in the vestibule of the church he went to on Sunday. “Volunteer needed to drive nuns on Sunday afternoon.” Tony loves football, but he volunteered a few times. Well one of the nuns asked him, “Did you ever think of becoming a priest?”

It got Tony thinking. He asked the nun what group  she would recommend. She said that the Redemptorists take care of the Neumann Shrine at Fifth and Girard in Philadelphia - were a good group.

Well one day he was working in the sewers and streets and he was all filled with mud and it was lunch time and he saw St. Peter’s so he dropped in right after his lunch to see if he could talk to a priest. Brother Hillary saw him and said, “Okay.” 

Hillary opened the door that led into the rectory and called down the corridor, “Some bum wants to see a priest. He probably wants a handout.”

Well, that’s exactly what Tony wanted: a handout. He wanted a piece of paper that described what the Redemptorists do.

He joined us. He was a bit older than all of us in our  class. He is a neat guy. A real gentleman. Good guy. A saint.

Near the end of his studies and right before he became a priest his hearing started to go, so they told him to learn sign language and that’s what he has been doing all his years as a priest.

For the last 50 or so years he has been doing work with the deaf in and around the Philadelphia area, Delaware and Southern NJ. Right not he's quite bent over with arthritis or something, but his spirit is young and stands tall.

SAINTS WITH A CAPITAL LETTER

And who would you pick for a favorite Saint with a capital letter, a canonized Saint.

Would it be St. Teresa of Avila who was a neat character, who had a real honest to goodness down to earth relationship with God. She could argue with God when praying. And when it came to others she was very blunt and open. She said in so many words, “Be careful of priests. There are a lot of dumb ones around.”

Would it be St. Thomas the Apostle who was famous for his doubts?

Would it be St. Peter who made lots of promises but broke them. He had a few good footprints on his tongue.

Would it be St. Augustine who kept putting off his conversion. “Lord, make me chaste, but not yet.”

Would it be St. Jerome who could be very stinging with his comments and his letters and still was a saint -- proving that a person who is quick tempered and nasty at times, still can be a saint. But I wonder if he would be canonized if he had to go through the process today.

Would it be St. Alphonsus who was scrupulous at different times in his life?

ST. CAMILLIS DE LELLIS

If I had to pick a favorite Saint with a capital “S” I would pick St. Camillis de Lellis. I’ve always liked him. It took him a long time to get going -- but when he finally did, he became a great Saint -- caring very deeply for the sick.

But he was a klutz -- taking forever for his cuts to heal body and soul.

I love the story when he visited this man who was sick and as he was leaning on the bed post, Camillis knocked the wooden top of the bed post off onto the man’s head - which gave him a gash -- making the man worse than before.

And one time saying mass he stepped on the alb, this white garment that a priest wears under the chasuble, and he fell down the stairs - causing all kinds of people to smile, knowing he was such a klutz.

We can all make it.

CONCLUSION

That’s my sermon. Two questions. Name a saint with a small “s” and a Saint with capital “S”.

Happy All Saints Day.

November 1, 2017

HOLY,  HOLY,   HOLY

Sometimes … if we become quiet,

if we stand on a beach with the ocean

rolling in - wave after wave after wave -

or if we just stand there and watch

autumn leaves parachuting to the ground -

or if we come back to that same spot in a

snow fall in late January, we  can hear

all of creation singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy,

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus”, and it’s in

moments like these we realize all is Mass,

all is Sacrament - all is Holy, Holy, Holy, 

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Heaven 

and earth are full of your glory - Hosanna in

the highest - Blessed is he - blessed is she.... 

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

GROANING  PAINS 

AND  GROWING  PAINS 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 30^th Tuesday  in  Ordinary Time is, “Groaning Pains and Growing Pains.”

I’m taking that title and that idea from today’s first reading from Romans - when Paul says, “We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and  not only that, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.”

GROWTH IS PAINFUL - IT MAKES US GROAN

Last week we were up in New Jersey for a big meeting. We had the main speakers giving us the state of where we are speeches - what we need to face - changes that we have to make - where we’ve been and where we’re headed. We are aging and getting few new guys - unlike our provinces in South America, Africa and Asia.

Some stuff in life is tough to hear - and hard to face.

As I’ve heard from the aged population of this parish, getting old can be tough - and bring about whining and groaning.

As Bernie Bernsten used to say, “Old age is not for sissies.”

Last week - and in many big meetings in the past, I discovered that I learn the most in one to one conversations.

For example, one evening - after a big meeting was over - I was having a casual conversation with a classmate. He was telling me about what happened to him in our high school minor seminary. They had them back then.

He said there were 3 years in his life - when he was 15, 16, and 17, that his legs were killing him - all the time. He had been a really short kid - but during those 3 years he stretched - he grew - till he was 6 foot 2.  There was nobody there to tell him about growing pains.  This was the first time I ever thought about physical growing pains.  I don’t remember ever going through that kind of pain - or if I did, I didn’t know what was happening.

That conversation was last Wednesday and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

It’s an obvious theme:   no pain no gain.

All growth comes with suffering and stretch.

Hunger teaches more than a full belly.

I went to a minor seminary for high school, so I never had the dating experience. Teenagers must  learn a lot of stuff - or they can learn a lot of stuff - from rejections, break ups, being dumped. I didn’t have that experience.

But we had the experience of making or not making the team or the play or the choir or what have you.  We had the experience of friends dropping out of the seminary and not deciding the life we were hoping for.

The priesthood is an automatic job. Get ordained and you’ll have work to do. So I never had the experience of job searching, interviews,  or not making a job. However,  come to think about it, my dream was Brazil and I never got that assignment.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Today’s gospel talks about A mustard seed - being planted - and like all seed, it has to be broken, stretched, and struggle through hard dirt and earth.

Today’s gospel talks about bread making. The flour and the yeast has to be mixed and mushed, crushed and kneaded together, then baked and burned to become bread.

Life - so too us.

Learning is tough work. 

Experience can be the best teacher - that is, if one learns from their experiences.

Difficult experiences - we probably should say - are the best teachers.

Learning in classrooms can be great experiences - especially if we get tough teachers. Then there is the struggle with books and study, listening and homework, mistakes and learning from our mistakes.

We can learn from comparisons - comparing one teacher with another teacher - comparing one classmate with another classmate.

We can learn a lot from the classroom called others - experiencing acceptances and rejections - experiencing that others think, see, do, want differently than us.

I learn more from a sermon that flops in my opinion - than one that is soft and sweet.

I like to write - and I’ve had more rejection slips than acceptance letters.

Writing is the hard work of rewriting - improving the text - learning from rejections.

CONCLUSION

So that’s my homily thought. Growth comes with groaning. Come to think about it, didn’t Jesus say all this much better than what I just said in John 16:21, “A woman in childbirth suffers, because her time has come; but when she has given birth to her child she forgets the suffering in her joy that a child has been born into the world.” 

October 31, 2017

3 ACT PLAY

On my God, I think I’m in the beginning

of the 3^rd act in a  3 act play. I think ….

I know some of my  lines. I know the

other actors. I think I know the plot.

However, I still don’t know what the

ending is going to be like. Oh my God….

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

ON 

CARRYING  BAGGAGE 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 30th Monday in Ordinary Time is, "On Carrying Baggage."

What are we carrying when we come to church or come to anywhere? What does our baggage weigh?  What does our baggage look like?

TODAY’S GOSPEL

In today’s gospel, here is a woman who is carrying a spirit for 18 years and it’s wearing her down. It drains her strength. She can’t stand tall. It's bending her in half.

Jesus sees her when he's in a synagogue teaching on a sabbath. Jesus calls her and puts his hand on her and heals her. She stands tall and thanks God.

Can we see ourselves as this woman?

What are we carrying? Is there anything we’re carrying that’s wearing us down? Is there anything we need to dump? Is there anything we need to let go of? Is there any stuff we’re carrying 18 days, 18 months, 18 years?

Coming to church is a good time to assess what we’re carrying and to weigh it all. Is there anything we need to dump? Let it go.

GREEN MONSTER

A bunch of years back, I went to Ireland and France with my two sisters and my brother-in-law. Well, my sister Peggy had this large green luggage bad.  It was like a big green golf bag. In it,  she had 10 pairs of shoes, 10 slacks, 10 this and 10 then. It was heavy -- very heavy -- and guess who had to carry it? The men.  Well, we dubbed it “The Green Monster.”

CLAIRE LAMAROUX

A bunch of years ago I heard a talk by a Claire Lamoroux. She said that everyone arrives everywhere with their baggage. Some have 10 or 20 suitcases; some travel much lighter.

I'm asking over and over again in this homilyl, How much are we carrying on our journey through life?

MAN WITH THE BAGGAGE

I once saw on television a Sunday morning rendition of the Sermon on the Mount. When it came to the part about “Enter by the narrow door” they showed a scene where a man is walking down the street with a back pack and a suitcase in each hand and another bag around his waist.

He stops at a door. The doorway was narrow. The door was only slightly open. He couldn’t fit in with all his stuff. He didn't place it on the ground. He shrugged his shoulders, came out of the doorway and continued walking down the street - bags in hand.

Then a small boy ran down the street and  ran right into that house through the narrow doorway.

In the background, you could hear, “Enter by the narrow way.”

CONCLUSION

Coming to church is a good time to see what baggage I'm carrying - and what I need to let go of. 

18 YEARS: 

A  MEDITATION 

[Read the Gospel story for today's Mass: Luke 13: 10-17]

This is a simple meditation that I wrote this morning - instead of a homily for this 30th Monday in Ordinary Time.

Begin by breathing.  Become aware of your breathing. Breathe in through your nose. Hold it. Then  breathe out through your lips. Hold the emptiness - all the way down to your tight tummy.  Breathe in. Hold your breath - tight chest.  Breathe out. Hold the emptiness.

Next: close your eyes. [Pause]

Become silent. [Pause]

Hear the silence. [Pause]

Eyes still closed…. [Pause]

Sitting there  - be aware of your back and your bones. [Pause]

Straighten up - feel your butt on the bench - and your back up straight - up against the back of your bench. [Pause]

Keep breathing in [hold it] - breathing out. [Pause]

Eyes still closed - picture Jesus standing behind you - putting his hands on your shoulders. Relax. [Pause]

Next hear Jesus asking you: “What are you holding on to … what’s weighing you down …. Is there something on your back - in your being - something that happened to you - something you did or said - 18 months or 18 years ago - or a long time ago?” [Pause]

Then hear Jesus  says to you, “Let me take this sin, this situation, this experience, this memory,  this other person - off your back - and don’t let it weigh you down - keep you down -  hold you down - any longer.” [Pause]

“Let me be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of your world. Amen.”