Saturday, August 1, 2020

August 1, 2020


VERBS   OF  SAINT  ALPHONSUS


Consider, contemplate, choose,
turn,  return, desire, call, wish,
ask, seek, knock,  pray, remain,
realize, react, reflect, experience,
love, delight, approach, understand,
write, read, imprint, inflame, see,
feed, free, give, carry, belong,
go,  do, complete, learn, open,
carry, appreciate,  give, persevere, 
converse, forgive, thank, agree,
serve, speak, realize, wish, allow,
permit, pray, consider, thank,
acquire, detach, perceive, pray,
dedicate, permit, promise,  pierce.


 © Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

August  1,  2020


Thought  for  Today

“The  human  heart  is, 
so  to  speak,  
the  paradise  of  God.” 

Alphonsus  de  Liguori

Feast  August  1.

Friday, July 31, 2020

July 31, 2020




AT TIMES
DURING THE HIDDEN YEARS


At times he looked around
the carpenter shop. His eyes
and his thoughts stopped at
hammers, saws and pliers ….
Oh! To be as simple as they are
or to be like a chair or a door
or like that empty cross he saw
on the main road into town
yesterday – that coarse cross –
that that held a screaming man  
who  died during the night before.
He wondered if the prophets within
him were saying you’ll have your
turn or sneak out now and go down
the road with your pliers in hand
and unnail this man and set
him free – but there were those two
soldiers guarding and taunting him.

Then – at times - in the market
place he saw life as wheat and
fish hooks - nets and needles –
or he would slip into the synagogue
and if there was nobody there he
would walk up front and unroll
a scroll of Isaiah or Jeremiah and
run his fingers over the words –
until they entered his flesh - 
but what really refreshed him
were walks into the hills or down
to the waters of Galilee where
he learned from the birds of the air
and the grapes on the vine and
the house of the father waiting for
his son to come home as he wondered
when it was his time to leave home
and finally head for far countries.




© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

July  31, 2020



Thought  for  Today

“Many are the instruments through which the  soul seeks utterance:  form and color of paint or clay;  hewn stone; strings plucked or hammered; breath  blown through reed or brass; chords vibrating in a human throat; and earliest of all primeval instruments – the whole human body itself.” 


Peggy Baum Gerry,
contemporary American
teacher and analyst

Thursday, July 30, 2020


July 30, 2020




FULL  OF  GRACE

I'm not.  Yet with what I got -
can I make this moment -
any better for you?

Forgetting self - thinking 
of you. Now that's being 
graceful. How about you - too?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020



July  30,  2020 

Thought for Today



“Yes God! Yes God! Yes, yes and always yes.”

Nicolas de Cusa
 [1401-1464]
German mystic





Wednesday, July 29, 2020


July   29,   2020

MARTHA’S  RED  CHAIR 

The red vinyl of her kitchen chair 
is as brand new as the day Mary 
and her brother Lazarus bought it 
for her. They called it “Martha’s 
Kitchen” – because after all - she 
was always in it – cooking up a 
storm for them and special guests 
like Jesus. Maybe when she dies 
someone will sit on it – and Mary 
will finally say, “Hey, you can’t 
sit there. That’s Martha’s chair.” 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020 
Feast of St. Martha - July  29