September 20, 2018

Thought for today: 

“The  best  creed  we can have is charity towards the creeds of others.”  

Josh Billings [1818-1885]

EVIL

Is anything evil?

How about arsenic or cancer?

How about gossip or a lie?

How about suicide or murder?

How about a nasty comment?

How about plagiarism?

How about a stab in the back?

How about envy or jealousy?

How about toxic waste in the water?

How about genocide?

How about using or abusing others?

How about not listening?

Is anything evil?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

September 19, 2018 

Thought for today: 

“Don’t let your ego  get too close to your position, so that  if your position gets shot down, your  ego doesn’t go with it.” 

Colin Powell

THE OPTICS OF POETRY

The optometrist, the ophthalmologist,

the optician, the  optimist and the poet,

put all those letters in front of us -  

and we tell them what we see and

what is better than what we saw

just before that. “What do you see?”

The poet shows us so many things

we’re missing: lovers kissing in the

corner; the dead flowers at the

cemetery; the driver who screams

when nobody will let them out

into the flow of traffic - then they

do the same to someone else

trying to get out of their driveway.

“Lord, help me to see what I’m

not seeing - what I’m missing.”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

September 18, 2018 

Thought for today: 

“If  the only  prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘Thank you’  that would suffice.” 

Meister Eckhart [c. 1260 - c. 1328]

IS  CORINTH

ON  YOUR BUCKET  LIST?

The title of my reflection for this 24 Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “Is Corinth, Greece On Your Bucket List?”

It was on mine and on a 2011 cruise to the Mediterranean Sea - we visited, Spain, Italy, Southern France, Turkey, Greece and the Greek Isles. When it came for a bus ride down from our boat near Athens only two of us signed up for Athens to Corinth - 48 miles away.

So on October 6, 2011 we went to Corinth. I looked it up last night in my journal notes.

It wasn’t what I expected. I  thought it would be a sea port town  - and we would be near docks. I was waiting to see some rough city spots. On the waterfront ….

Athens is around 665,000 people today and 200,000 in the time of St. Paul. Corinth is about 58,000 people today and many more people in the time of St. Paul. The  number I could find for Corinth’s population count in Paul’s time was 90,000 - but I also saw listed that it had 500,000 slaves.  I also noticed that Corinth had 1000 Sacred Prostitutes. It had lots of temples - with ceremonies to ask all the gods for help.

In Paul’s time Corinth was big time rich time. it was much richer and more cosmopolitan than Athens. It had location, location, location.  Lots of trade went through Corinth.

So when we saw Corinth we   saw  temples, a museum, rocks, lots of rocks, and lots of ruins.

We saw the Corinth Canal. Besides the old city, with all its digs and ruins, this was the thing to see. It’s only 4 miles long and it’s very narrow - so only smaller boats can make the trip that cuts about 450 miles off a trip.

The idea of a canal was always there  - but it always had problems. Nero was there with shovel in hand in the 60’s. It didn’t work. They had lots of Jewish slaves working on it - it didn’t happen. Boats would unload their stuff and that would be moved along roads to the other sea. And boats were put on rolling wheel kinds of wooded gadgets and pulled from one sea to the other sea and then reloaded.

It wasn’t finished till 1892. Small boats, small ferries, go through it for the bragging rights of doing it and to check it off on bucket lists.

I wanted to see it because Corinth is a major place in the New Testament - other than the gospels.  It’s featured in Acts. It’s mentioned in various Pauline Letters - not just 1^st and 2^nd Corinthians. A few letters were written there.

I’ve always been wondering why Paul didn’t make it in Athens - but he made it in Corinth. He tried Athens, but he failed.

Corinth had the sea lanes - lots of Jews and lots of  Romans and lots of stories and stuff to get Christianity off the ground and out into our world.

Remember all this is before Matthew, Luke and John - with Mark beginning to come into play.

CATECHISTS AND CATECHISMS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is “Catechists and Catechisms.”

Today is the feast of St. Robert Bellarmine, the Patron Saint of Catechists and Catechisms.”

What are your thoughts on Catechisms - Catechists - Religious Education Programs - Learning our Faith as Christians and Catholics?

We’re adults mainly at this 12:10 Mass - so this morning I asked myself what are my thoughts about Catechisms and Catechists - as adults.

Translation: how did I learn the teachings of my faith and what did I learn?

FIRST APPROACH: USE  GOOGLE

A great adult approach - if you use the internet - is to use Google for a Catechism Review.

Use Google or any search engine on a computer program. They usually have that nice clean empty box - in which you can type in a word - and come up with 100 hits - more or less - and they do that in seconds.

You can type in words like “catechist” or “catechism”. That will give you lots of leads for other words to type into Google - and you’ll be learning - by dabbling. Browse.

I typed in “St. Robert Bellarmine”.  Instantly I had a life of Robert Bellarmine. It gave me his dates [1542 - 1621]. I saw where he was born:  Montepulciano, Italy, where he lived and worked and where he died: Rome, Italy. I got background. I got facts.  It brought me to questions about faith and science. It gave me his struggles with Galileo as well as Giordano Bruno. Both were put on trial. Galileo wasn’t; Bruno was burnt to  death.

Check it out on your computer.

So Point # 1 would be to dabble on your computer about this and that - when it comes to our Catholic Faith and about catechisms and catechists.

Then you can make a folder and download articles about catechism and catechists or any topic you wish.

NUMBER #2: A REVIEW OF YOUR CATECHISMS AND YOUR FAITH

Next make a review of your catechism history

I’m 78 and received my catechism lessons from the Baltimore Catechism and Catholic school - way back when.

Some of you would be converts and might have received Catechism from Protestant churches etc.

Some of you went to Catholic Religious Education. We called it CCD.

What were catechisms like in 1950;  what were catechisms like in 1990.

The Baltimore Catechism was a paper back with Questions and Answers. The next generation had drawings and pictures and images - topics and chapters.

NUMBER #3” - MY PERSONAL HISTORY OF LEARNING TO BE A CATECHIST.

I learned my Catholic faith in Catholic schools.

In the seminary we had a 1 year course on catechetic. It was in our 1^st year of theology - the year after we finished college. During that year we went to local parishes near Kingston, New York and taught catechism.

The idea was to put into practice what we were learning from a text book in the seminary.

I have not one idea from that text book - but I have memories of my first experience teaching little kids on Wednesday afternoons in Presentation Church, Port Ewen, New York - right overlooking the Hudson River.

My class - maybe 3^rd graders was in the choir loft of the church.  Jack Sherlock’s class was right below us in the body of the church.  That’s not a good idea for sound and sight.

My only memory from that year in the choir loft in Presentation church was standing there teaching little kids and I begin to notice they are all laughing and looking to their left - my right facing them. A kid has a broom in his hand and he is reaching out with the broom and pushing a hanging church light or chandelier back and forth and kids in the choir loft and the kids down below are watching him and the lamp swinging. It could have crashed into the choir loft or hit another lamp.

I quickly ran over and stopped him. That’s all I remember from my first attempt at being a catechist.

After we finished the seminary, we had 4 months in Annapolis. It was a transition time before our assignments.  A Father Joe D’Acetis brought in speakers on different topics.

We had a Sister Janann - who gave us a week of talks on teaching kids.

I remember she brought in leaves and sticks, plants and toys, and went from the known to the unknown. We were to feel water and see green leaves and autumn leaves.

She was excellent. We learned the use of everyday stuff as props.

Through the years I’ve heard priests and specialists complain about how horrible religious ed was for a good 30 years of time. They said there was a need for a new catechism.

For adults we got the big catechism from John Paul II’s time.

In the meanwhile Sadlier and other religious ed books and publications started to come up with  more content  driven material.

In the early 1970’s I went for a Master’s Degree in theology - I have 3 of them. This one was at Princeton Theological Seminary.

I took a course in religious ed and it was one of the most difficult courses I ever took. Every Monday morning we had to have a book report on one book. I was working big time in a retreat house so that   was very difficult, but I finished that course  - with a C. the only C I got - all the rest     were A’s. I learned the most at that C course.

Each week about 15 of us would discuss a different approach to catechetic: sociology, theology, education theory, anthropology, biblical, etc. etc. etc.

Then there were a couple of thousand classrooms I visited on parish missions, parish work, etc. etc. etc.

I learned by time and practice.

CONCLUSION

That’s enough. I just ask you to consider your sources of learning your faith.

The readings at Mass, Homilies, Parish Missions, Catholic Magazines and on and on certainly helped you.

More.