February 22, 2015

WHAT’S MY JOB IN LIFE

If I were a bird,

I’d want to be a hawk

or an eagle and have

all the other birds

scared of me.

If I were a bird,

I’d want to be

a nightingale

or any singing bird

bringing music

to  the neighborhood.

If I were a bird,

I’d want to be an owl,

being wise enough

to know all there is

to know in all the

neighborhood.

If I were a bird,

I’d want to be

a bluebird or a

cardinal or a

canary bringing

a bit of color to

someone who

sees life in only

black and white.

If I were a bird

I’d want to be

a bird who travels

thousands and

thousands of miles

knowing there is

much more to see.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

February 21, 2015

SNOW CAN BE SO SNEAKY.

SNOW CAN BE SO TRICKY.

So beautiful, so soft,

snow slowly sliding down

the air outside my window.

Snow…. So silent, so unlike

rain – which fills the air

with a  dozen different  sounds.

Snow …. so sneaky, so tricky,

black ice – piling up – along

the street. Oops. Another accident.

Lord, let me arrive as rain….

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2015

February 20, 2015

RAIN

Rain,

the wash of rain,

perfect at times,

but sometimes

rain can drain

even the optimist

amongst us.

Yet it washes

sidewalks, cleans

buildings, provides

hope to the hopeless,

and tells all of us,

there is new life coming.

Hey, without water,

we wouldn’t be here.

Without water, we

wouldn’t exist. Without

water we couldn’t pray,

Without water, we wouldn’t

yell out to you our God,

“I thirst.” And you wouldn’t

have had been able to say,

“If anyone thirsts, let them

come to me!”

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2014

40  DAYS  TO  A MORE 

POWERFUL  YOU 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Friday after Ash Wednesday is, “40 days to a More Powerful You.”

When I was a kid my brother came upon a book, “Thirty days to a More Powerful Vocabulary.”

For about the next 30 days, we would see him in a real different mode.

He we would open his new word’s book every morning and start using a strange new word all day long. The word I liked the most was, “ses – qui – pe – dalion”.

It means a person who uses long words.

To break this word down from the Latin, it means “a foot and a half long”. Sesqui means “one and a half”; “ped” means “foot”.

It got us to grab the dictionary and try to stump him with a big word.

Looking back now 60 years later, the only word I remember him using  was that word, “ses – qui – pe – dalion”.

LENT

Lent is 40 days to practice some virtue or religious practice.

You know the only saying, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall: answer – practice, practice, practice.

We were taught the old Latin saying from Ovid:” Gutta cavat lapidem – non vi sed saepe  cadendo.” Drop, by drop, but not by force, the rock gets a hole in it.”

So basketball players, practice the same shot over and over and over again.

So in Lent, we practice every day something like fasting, or praying, or reading. That’s what those little books – with spiritual reading for every day of Lent is about.

So today’s first reading and gospel get at fasting.

One will lose weight from fasting of food – and if it’s well done, one becomes more disciplined.

And Isaiah 58 – today’s first reading – tells us what kind of fasting to do: being nicer to others. Not being on everyone’s case. Being more thoughtful. Less gossip. Less fighting.

Do this stuff – day by day by day – one becomes thinner in ego and unhealthy pride.

Do this stuff to be seen – one becomes fatter and   fatter with self-centeredness.

CONCLUSION

And doing all this inwardly – one notices in oneself – breakthroughs in being a more powerful spiritual person. Amen.

February 19, 2015

GREAT ANSWER EVERY TIME

“Enjoying life.”

Why do those two words

usually bring a step back response

when someone asks,

“How’s it going?’ or

“What are you doing?”

“Enjoying life!”

Actually tasting the taste of an orange

or the spaghetti sauce or the raspberry

sherbet or the coffee bean in the coffee.

Actually praying the words and picturing

an enemy or a person who annoys us– 
when we pray, “Forgive us

our trespasses as we forgive those

who trespass against us?”

Stopping to ask a kid his favorite game

or her favorite song or favorite flavor

of ice cream?

“Enjoying life.”

You can bet, I am. How about you?

“Enjoying life.”

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2015

DISAPPEARING  ACT 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Disappearing Act.”

Today is Ash Wednesday.

Ashes are put on our forehead and sometime before tomorrow morning they will have disappeared.

Today’s first reading and Gospel tell us about doing acts of penance – and religious deeds – but not to do them to be seen.

So we do this public act of penance on Ash Wednesday – but now for the rest of Lent – we are called to do what we do for penance privately – pray, fast, give alms, make sacrifices for others – but not to be seen.

TWO PRAYERS

There are two different prayers or formulas the person giving us ashes can say.

The first is, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”

The second is: “Remember you are dust and into dust you shall return.”

I prefer the second – the older formula – the almost 2000 year old formula.”

“Remember you are dust and into dust you shall return.”

Remembering that, recalling that, every day for 40 days – not a bad idea – to help us grow in spirituality – to give us a growth spurt in the spirit.

It brings us back to our origins.

Suggestion: take your rosary and say that formula on all 59 beads – thinking about what we’re saying. It takes no more than 2 minutes a day.

GENESIS 2:7 AND 3:19

In the most primitive parts of the book of Genesis – the first book of the Bible,  we have these 2 texts – that in the beginning God formed us out of the earth, the dust, the soil, the mud - Genesis 2:7. That was how we began our Genesis in our mother’s womb. In Genesis 3:19 – the message is about our ending – the other side of our life.  Someday we’ll be going back into the earth – into the dust  from which we came.

Question: What to think and pray about during Lent?

Answer: See reality. See that we are a disappearing act.

Brand new socks age. Socks get holes in them. I made sure the two socks I’m wearing today – have holes in them. They are slowly disappearing.

Skin wrinkles. We age.  We are disappearing acts. I see mine happening at the age of 75 on the inside part of my arms – right below my elbows.

The song ends. The movie ends. The piece of pie has that last bite. The banana, the pear, the apple ages. It browns. It’s tossed or we eat it and it becomes it.

Human beings are disappearing acts.

Does anyone know whom their great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, ancestors in the year 1015 were or in the year 15?

We die. We disappear. But is that it? Is this are there is?

That is the question. Everyone consciously or unconsciously asks that question all their lives – at a health scare, another’s death, or what have you.

This is the major question, wondering, worry, we are challenged to look at during these 40 days of Lent.

Come Good Friday – Christ  - God – is killed – on the cross.

Lent ends with Easter – Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again to take us to himself – into heaven, into the whole human race – who have gone before us.

CONCLUSION

Yes we are disappearing acts – but the reappearance of Christ after his death – is our ticket to ride forever.  At some point we’ll all be forgotten – unless we’re another Rembrandt or Michelangelo or Elvis Presley – we’ll have disappeared from history and anyone knowing we were here – but we believe in the reappearance after our disappearance.

We can’t make that happen – only Christ – only God – can do that.

There’s centerpiece of our existence and we’re called to reflect up this every year in this season of Lent. Amen.

February 18, 2015

SELF TEST # 9

Which of the following is more me?

Lost and Found?

Light and Darkness?

Sheep and Goat?

Prodigal Son and Complaining perfect son?

Sin and Grace?

Good Thief vs. Bad Thief on the Cross?

Good Tree vs. Bad Tree?

Wheat vs. Weeds?

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2015