December   15,  2021 

Thought for the Day

“Feelings are everywhere – be gentle.”

 

J. Masai

 December 14, 2021

WHAT LASTS 

Rings and things ….
Scars and screams ….
Hawthorn tree furniture ….
Some marriages ….
Some mistakes ….
Getting into college ….
Those who have gone before us ….
That sermon in 1979 ….
Jesus – Alpha and Omega….
 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

December   14,  2021

 

 

 

Thought for the Day

 

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature,  he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”

 

John Muir

 December 13, 2021

SOME  SONGS

 

Some songs are the seeds
beneath the snow that burst
open in the springtime – songs
that resurrect the soul – especially
when it has died to death
in a winter of hurt – especially
when love has forgotten
how to dance, how to chance
a new bud of love – an ache
once more in the heart.
Spring!
Always hope for the return
of the Rose!

Hope!

 

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

 December  13,  2021 

Thought for the Day

 

“After thirty, a body has a mind of its own.”

 

Bette Midler

 

DO

The title of my homily for this Third Sunday in Advent is, “Do.”

 

It’s a basic word we learn very early on.

 

It’s only 2 letters in English.

 

As in, "Do the dishes."

 

Or, "Do your homework."

 

Add a letter to the word "do" and you have a dog.

 

Add two letters and you have a door.

 

Kids start off learning - by learning the alphabet.

 

Then they learn sight words and phonics.

 

Sight words are just basic words you just have to learn. You can’t picture them or break them in half or into parts like you can do in phonics.

 

Sight words are words like AND or DO or YOU or PLAY or ONE. 

 

Kindergarten kids get a list of 100 or so of them or they have them on flash cands and you just have to memorize them.  You take a word like AND and you ask a kid to look at a page and find the word AND. Spot it. Sight it. "Ooooooooh!"

 

So – DO -  the title of my homily is a sight word.  It appears 6 times in today’s gospel: Luke 3: 10-18.  Another sight word in today’s gospel is “THE” which appears 9 times and “AND”  appears only 6 times.

 

That’s how we learn. That’s how kids learn. Slow and steady.

 

To be Christians  - to follow Christ – we just do basic things each day: share you coat – share your food – don’t overtax others – don’t extort -  don’t falsely accuse others – be satisfied with your salary – give good news.

 

Do – "poieo" in Greek – as in, "Do this in memory of me." Now, that’s life.

 December 12, 2021

AWAKENED

 

If Coca Cola and chocolate keep me awake –
why not guilt and the insensitivity I ought to
be feeling  from the comments I make about
those who  aren’t at the party or the  meeting?
 
Magazines, newspaper columns, art, movies,
TV documentaries, sermons, speeches
should be out there challenging us to wake up
and see the things we need to change.

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021