Friday, April 24, 2020

April 24, 2020


2020 
THE  YEAR  THAT  WASN'T 

20 years from now, will this year
have a name: “The Year that Wasn’t”
or, “The Year When Everything Changed”
or, “2020 Hindsight” or “2020: Out of Sight”
or “We Never Knew When It Would End?”

It might be the year we missed out on
Easter, Spring, Mother’s  Day, Father’s
Day, March Madness, the Baseball
Season, Graduations, Weddings, Wakes
and Funerals: the ending of it all.

But down deeper there are wonderings and
there are questions. Will we have a new fix
on faith and family and on ourselves?  Will
folks get back to church or will all be asking,
“God where the heck  were You in 2020?”



© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020




April   24,   2020


Thought  for  Today

 “It’s more difficult to read than Dante in the  original -  even if you don’t  know  Italian!”  


Tom Phillips, 
on Dorothy L, Sayer’s 
translation of Dante, 
BBC Radio 3,  
November 1993

Cute comment: but 
to be fair I need to
know Italian, to have
read Dante in Italian
along with Sayer's
translation.  I probably
won't get to doing this,
but it's a cute comment.
I hope Dorothy didn't
read this.

Thursday, April 23, 2020

April  23,  2020




I  WAS  IN  PRISON 
AND  YOU  VISITED  ME

Did you ever wonder why Jesus said,
“I was in prison and you visited me”?

Jesus was in jail – just that one night,
and it was only part of a night.

Did he think about John the Baptist
when he was jailed  for speaking out?

Did he tighten his jaw when he walked
by a jail or a  criminal  on a cross?

Did you ever wonder why Jesus said,
“I was in prison and you visited me”?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020
Here are 2 videos - of 2 singers,
 Johnny Cash and B.B. King visiting prisons.


April  23,  2020




Thought  for  Shakespeare's April 1564 Birthday


"Go to your brow: 
knock there, 
and ask your heart 
what it doth know?"

His baptism 
is recorded:
April 26, 1564

Wednesday, April 22, 2020


April 22, 2020


EARTH  DAY

It’s a dangerous place out there.
It’s also a beautiful place as well.

Tiger lillies and tiger sharks as
well as lurking 4 legged tigers.

There’s Everest and El Capitan,
earth quakes and land slides…..

There’s soft gentle breezes
And hurricanes and tornados.

There’s coal and oil and diamonds,
gold and uranium and poisons – uh oh!

There’s herbs and medicines and
now this sneaky one: Coronavirus 19.

There’s you and me, with minds to
“Go figure!” and eyes to, “Go see!”



© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020


April  22,  2929 - Earth Day


Thought for the Day

“I have the world's largest collection of seashells. I keep it on all the beaches of the world ... perhaps you've seen it.”



 Steven Wright 


Tuesday, April 21, 2020


SAINT  ANSELM


INTRODUCTION


Today – April 21 – is the feast of Saint Anselm.

I don’t know about you – but sometimes I notice guys preaching or saying something about a saint on their feast day.

And in doing so – it’s more a sermon – because they don’t preach on the readings of the day.

I assume they do this because they like the “Saint of the Day” – or because they want to know more about a saint – and what better way in getting to know a saint – as to preach something about her or him.

And sometimes if the readings don’t grab me enough – and it’s a saint’s day – I might during a weekday – say something about the saint of the day.

There are usually short biographies in the Breviary.

Today I choose to make a few comments about Anselm – because both readings for today – run into very similar readings from these other weekday readings – we’ve had lately.

I also must have said to myself somewhere along the line, “Check our Saint Anselm – because that was a parish down there on 82nd Street in Bay Ridge Brooklyn – 356 – 82nd Street”   when we were growing up.

There was OLPH on 60th Street, Our Lady of Angels on 73rd Street and 4th Avenue, St. Anselm’s on 82nd and then St. Patrick’s  on 97th Street

SO SOMETHNG ABOUT SAINT ANSELM

So here are some comments about Saint Anselm.

He died this day – April 21st, 1109 – about 76 years of  age – having been born down in Lombardy area of Northern Italy – back in 1033.

Today – Milan is the capital the Lombardy Region – and is one of the hardest hit with the Corona, Virus.

I read a bunch of things last night about  St. Anselm.

I didn’t spot anything about his mother.

His dad might have been a different kind of a cat.  Anselm thought about joining a local monastery – at 15 – but an abbot blocked that being fearful of Anselm’s father.

At 18 or so he went north and wandered around what is now France for a few years.

Research about this period in his life might provide some interesting stuff for college kids and young adult talks.

At some point he wants to join a monastery – and thinks about Cluny and Bec and others.

A couple of commentaries about Anselm said he hesitated about Bec because Lanfranc was there and he was the big star.

He chooses Lanfranc and Bec and in a few short years he’s made prior and then abbot – and there are complaints because he’s too young.

It sounds like he becomes quite a preacher and a writer.

Lanfranc is made Archbishop of Cantebury – and William the King wants the riches of the Britiish monasteries and does just that after a few years – especially when Lanfranc dies and Anselm is made archbishop of Cantebury.

Anselm has to dance a tricky dance because of William’s wanting church money and property.

I have to reread Eamon Duffey’s book, The Stripping of the Altars – about the English Church in1400 to 1580. I’m sure it says something about this earlier period of time – when Anselm was Archbishop of Cantebury.

ANSELM’S THEOLOGY

History would be more interesting to me than Anselm’s theology.

There is a long article about his writings on line from Stanford University.

I’m not the thinking type – so I’m more interested in history.

Anselm is famous for his comments about the ontological proof for the existence of God.

God, according to Anselm is the best we can imagine, the greatest desire we can have – and hopefully that keeps on getting better. That we have that desire in us tells us something about God.

Anselm is famous for his stress on faith coming before understanding. In Latin he would say,  Ffides quaerens intellectum 

Anselm’s famous line is I believe in order to understand – not the other way around.

I assume people in life  have to make acts of faith in God and others and in time learn to undertstand them.  That’s how I would tackle that.

QUOTES:

There are about 25 quotes from Anselm on line. The one that got the most thinking about for me was this one: “A single Mass offered for oneself during life may be worth more than a thousand celebrated for the same intention after death.”

ENOUGH:

So that’s a few comments about St. Anselm – a fine Italian boy who did well. Amen,

He becomes a Doctor of the Church.