Holy Thursday is one of my favorite days and nights in the church year. It always has been. It’s kind of celebration at the end of Lent. In the last eight years it’s become tradition for me to be at Mt. Irenaeus for supper with friends and then the Liturgy of the Lord’s Supper in the chapel. Because of my schedule this week I didn’t think I was going to make it but it all worked out. I had to drive 150 miles round trip to meet with representatives of Dell Computer and then climb into my own car to drive the thirty or so miles to the Mountain. Continue reading “Presence”
Giving it away
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
“It is better to give than to receive..,” but that’s not how most of us live. We live as though it were better to get than to give. I know I’m guilty of it myself. It’s a proven fact though that giving actually results in better health for the giver. Among other things I’m a technology consultant. I recommend solutions for people and businesses. I try to give a lot of what I do to others. I believe that it will come back to me in blessings and it does.
There is an old adage that in order to keep what you have, you have to give it away. It has to do with powerful forces in the universe. Some call it karma. Call it what you will but it works and if you want happiness, then give it away. If you want wealth, give it away. If you want peace, give it. May God, Allah, Yahweh, the Great Spirit, Buddha, Krishna or whomever or whatever you hold sacred move you to give what you have. We need that more than ever right now.
Prelude
This morning I drove toward Mt. Irenaeus in with a hint of snow in the air and a pall of overcast. It didn’t look like an idyllic Palm Sunday. Our liturgy began in the library under Holy Peace Chapel. Fr. Dan Riley, OFM blessed the palms and invited us to process outside, along the path and up the steps to the chapel. As we walked we sang, “oh Sacred Head surrounded by crown of piercing thorns, oh bleeding head so wounded, reviled and put to scorn…” It’s a song I remember well from my youth. The words of the song are ascribed to Bernard of Clairvaux. That information was new to me but the symbolism was not lost as I am a frequent visitor to Trappist Abbeys. Continue reading “Prelude”
St. Drogo
Last week in Tempe, AZ I learned that St. Drogo is the patron saint of coffee and coffee houses. I’m indebted to Fr. John and the parishioners of Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Tempe for this information. I took a cell phone picture of St. Drogo which is posted on the wall of one of the meeting rooms at Holy Spirit. Parishioners gather nearly everyday after daily Mass for coffee and fellowship.
Third Jesus
A couple of days ago I spied a title at Changing Hands bookstore that invited me to pick it up. On the bookshelf was a book written by Deepak Chopra. It’s title, “The Third Jesus,” really captivated me. I read a few paragraphs and put it down. Yesterday, while visiting the Franciscan Renewal Center in Scottsdale I saw the book again. This time it was in the center’s bookstore. After I got back to my sisters home, I mentioned to my hosts that wanted to return to Changing Hands and get the book. Little did I know that later in the afternoon, my Mom would drive over to the store and pick it up for me. Continue reading “Third Jesus”
Bucket list
A couple of weeks ago I saw the movie Bucket List with my wife and daughter. It’s a great theme and it got me to thinking of some things I’d like to do before I can’t do them anymore. In April I’m planning a trip to Albany, Ga. and Plains, Ga. I was stationed in Albany, Ga. at the Naval Air Station in 1973 and early 1974. I worked at the base dispensary as a US Navy Corpsman. I haven’t been back in 30 years. The last time I was at the dispensary was in May of 1977 when I was on reserve duty. Albany was a lovely place. It was hotter than hell in the summer with high humidity. I lived in air conditioned quarters and the dispensary had air conditioning, but in between it was very muggy. I worked in labor and delivery and the newborn nursery. I’ve often thought over the years of the children and mothers I cared for. I’ve thought too of the doctors, corpsmen and nurses I worked with. I wish it were possible to see them once again.
I also want to visit Plains, Ga. and the Maranatha Baptist Church where President Jimmy Carter worships. I was in Plains once and that was in 1977 when Mr. Carter was President. I remember there was big peanut in the middle of the road, at least that is my memory of it. I’ve read most of President Carters books and even contributed to his foundation occasionally. He’s my favorite President. Jimmy Carter doesn’t just talk about Christianity, he lives it.
Insanity defined
A popular definition of insanity is repeating the same destructive behavior over and over again expecting different results. Front page news in today’s Olean Times Herald revealed that President Bush is proposing an economic stimulus package that includes $150 billion in tax cuts. Presidents since Ronald Reagan have been proposing that “trickle down economics” will stimulate economies. We’ve had so much trickling down here in the United States that we should be in a state of over stimulation by now.
If I were president or even in Congress I’d propose abolishing the Department of Defense, which is more akin to it’s original name, The War Department. The only thing we’re defending in this country anymore is the military industrial complex. We the people are not going to gain anything from this or any tax cut proposed by this or any other president. Cutting taxes will not slow the rate of growth in arms and armaments, but it will hurt the poor. It will also not help the economy in general. It will help some corporations but it really won’t stimulate Main Street.
America and Americans will continue to languish in a recession that the president or at least his advisers won’t own up to. Our moral bankruptcy in this country is not in Hollywood, but instead in Washington and state houses around the country that repeat this tired rhetoric of trickle down economics. Dr. King nailed it over forty years ago when he said.
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
More true today than ever
Excerpts from a speech given at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in April of 1967, by one of the greatest prophets of my time. This man is a saint in my book, though he has never been officially recognized as one. Martin’s words ring as true today as they did then. Thank God for Martin Luther King. Peace and all good to you.
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Remembering Martin
We’ll soon celebrate Dr. King’s birthday. In the years since his death and especially since his birthday became a national holiday there has been a collective effort by government and the media to sanitize Martin’s message. This quote came from an article in this week’s National Catholic Reporter by Fr. John Dear and it’s attributed to Martin Luther King. This is the Dr. King I remember in the 1960s, a prophetic voice of non-violence.
“After we get there,” he said, “we’ll call the peace movement in, and try to close down the Pentagon. I don’t know what Jesus had as his demands other than ‘Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.’ My demand is ‘Repent, America.’ We live in a sick, neurotic nation, but this campaign is based upon hope. Hope,” he concluded, “is the final refusal to give up.”–Martin Luther King
WWJD?
Viewing Roots again in its entirety reminded me once again of the fallacy of our alleged Judeo-Christian roots. From 1619 until sometime in the 19th century before the end of our own Civil War twenty-million Africans were brought to the Americas for slave trade. Add to that fact the millions of Native American people who were murdered as the American colonies and later the United States expanded west. Religion was actually used to defend the institution of slavery and manifest destiny. We have a long legacy, perhaps the greatest in the history of the world, of genocide and atrocity.