A GOOD LIFE

Quote for Today - July 30, 2011

"You define a good flight by negatives: you didn't get hijacked, you didn't crash, you didn't throw up, you weren't late, you weren't nauseated by the food. So you are grateful."

Paul Theroux, The Old Patagonian Express, Houghton Mifflin, 1979

P.S. Having read that, a question: "Now - how would you describe your life again?"

ICE  CREAM 

Quote for Today - July 29, 2011

"My tongue is smiling."

Abigail Trillin, aged 4 - on finishing a dish of chocolate ice cream, quoted by her father, Calvin Trillin, in Alice, Let's Eat, Random House 1978

OUR OLDEST MEMORIES

Quote for Today - July 28, 2011

"Most of our oldest memories are the product of repeated rehearsal and reconstruction."

Ulric Neisser, cognitivie psychologist, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, quoted by Sharon Begley, "Memory," Newsweek, September 29, 1986

Sorry!

Get that and you got glimmerings of how the Sacred Scriptures were put together and how people pull together their meaning and story.

KITCHEN  TABLE

 Quote for Today - July 27, 2011

"He sits at the kitchen table, which is the only authentic way to touch down at home in Queens."


Francis X Clines, On a man's return home from prolonged hospitalization, NewYork Times, June 16, 1979

SACRED PLACES

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Sacred Places!”

Objectively one can say: all places are the same. Or, “Any place is as good as any other place!”

Subjectively: “It all depends!” On a hot day we might rather be in the Poconos - but I’ve lived there for 7 years - and these kinds of days could be hot. Rome, Italy is different than Rome, New York, which is different from Rome, Georgia.

Or as Rick (Humphrey Bogart) - - said to Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) - - in Casablanca, “We’ll always have Paris.”

The title of my homily is, “Sacred Places!”

Where are your sacred places? Where are your places where you can be one with God and one with yourself? Where are the places where you are at peace?

A favorite chair…. a corner with a window looking out to a street or a back yard …. a walk alone or with a friend …. a garden .... a church …. the Eucharistic chapel …. the beach early in the morning while on vacation…. the sky late at night when all is dark - when all seems still …. morning Mass …. a bench at Quiet Water’s Park or the Naval Academy …. the cellar …. a back porch …. a gazebo …. early morning kitchen table - coffee …. a rosary or a Bible or a prayer book in hand….

Where are your sacred places?

TODAY’S FIRST READING

Today’s first reading [Exodus 33: 7-11, 34: 5-9, 28] when it talks about tent and meeting places, gives us a thread that will wind its way through both the Jewish and Christian scriptures.

In the Jewish scriptures there is the quest for a temple. The descendents of Abraham see all these other religions with their holy buildings and all they have is a tent - and the wilderness.

Eventually, Solomon will build the big temple in Jerusalem.

There is evidence of various holy places and shrines before that: Bethel, Shechem, Shiloh, Nob.

Moses begins with a tent - a meeting tent.

But he also went into the wilderness - as well as on mountains.

Jesus did likewise.

HOLY PLACES

Where are your holy places? Where are your sacred places?

Today, July 26, is the feast of St. Anne. We know that lots of people find going to a novena or a shrine - especially on a feast day - discover new life, new spiritual life, in a new way. I know of the big shrine at St. Anne de Beupre - which will be packed today. I also know of the St. Anne novena and shrine at St. Anne’s Scranton, Pa. And I preached the St. Anne novena in Erie Pa. two times.

Father Joe Krastel talked yesterday at this Mass about the big holy place of St. James in Spain - Santiago de Compostela - which millions have visited down through the year.

Novenas, missions, retreats have helped a lot of people get into God’s place, space and face, down through the years. Where are your holy places?

KEY - CONCLUSION

The key would be to enjoy the visit. The key would be is presence. The key would be prayer: prayer of gratitude, prayer of need, prayer of awe. The key for us here in this sacred place is to welcome God and each other. Amen.

SUBJECTIVE:

SUBJECT TO 

MY BAGGAGE

Quote for Today - July 26,  2011

"Show me a man who claims he is objective and I'll show you a man with illusions."

Henry R. Luce, Quoted in The New York Times, March 1, 1967

EARTHEN VESSELS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Earthen Vessels.”

It’s from the first sentence in today’s first reading on this feast of St. James: “Brothers and sisters: We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.”

Earthen vessels…. is an image that made its way into song - as well as into the consciousness of Christians down through the centuries.

WE KNOW BOTTLES AND BOXES AND BAGS

We know about bottles and boxes and bags.

We store and shop. We box and save. We shop and bag.

We have wallets and pocketbooks, shopping bags and storage bens.

When throwing away plastic bottles or a I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter plastic bucket, I’ve often had the thought, “Wouldn’t someone 1000 or 2000 years ago love to have these containers. It would have made life so much sweeter and so much easier for them?”

In the meanwhile they are tosses or saved as recyclable - but I think they are crushed first.

ST. PAUL

Well, Paul is saying a lot here in his “earthen vessel” message.

Boxes and pocketbooks, bottles and bags, might look nice, but it’s what’s inside that counts.

The human body holds the treasure called Jesus - but the human body will be broken and broken up from time to time - and finally will give way to death and burial.

Jesus and the human person in Christ - is the treasure within us.

Some think he’s preaching humility to those who think they have great bodies - or to the clergy who think their vestments and titles are what makes us important.

St. Alphonsus would say, “Read my book priests and bishops! It’s called, ‘Preparation for Death.’”

So it’s not the cover of the Bible or the condition of the Bible or the book or the speaker, but the words inside that are dying to become us - become our flesh.

POUR PRAYER

I wrote a poor prayer for a conclusion for this homily. The prayer is called, “Pour Prayer.”

                                 POUR PRAYER

                   Pour yourself into me today, Lord.
                   Pour yourself into me, today, Lord.
                   Fill me with yourself today, Lord.
                   Fill me with yourself today, Lord,
                   because I’m an empty earthen vessel.

                   Bring me to others today, Lord.
                   Bring me to others today, Lord.
                   Others who feel like they are
                   empty vessels or those who are
                   too filled with themselves, Lord.

                   Empty me of myself, Lord.
                   Empty me of myself, Lord.
                   Fill me with yourself, Lord.
                   Fill me with yourself, Lord,
                   so I can pour yourself out to others.