I have a friend who has a Mom who needs your prayers. She’s been ill and needs healing. I’ve been praying ever since I heard. I know how much I love my Mom who is a real prayer warrior herself. I never know how to pray except to talk to God as I understand him in simple thoughts and sometimes words. I’ll not be the judge of your efforts but only ask for your prayers for a person I’ve never met, but whom I’m sure is a great mother. Thank you in advance. Peace and all good!
April showers
Today we’re getting some white showers. Yes, a bit of snow is in the air here in the western southern tier of New York. I’m sitting next to my pellet stove enjoying the warmth it is supplying. We are having a cool day today and one is forecast for tomorrow as well. With few exceptions this has been an exceptionally warm spring and a lovely March and April. Were it not snowing I’d be mowing the our lawn. The grass has grown enough to invite its first mowing.
Today is the first day of our spring break. In a week Franklinville will be home to the Western New York Maple Festival. The festival has been on tap here since 1967 when it was started by the local JayCee chapter. Since then it has grown into a widely attended festival. When I first moved to Franklinville a bit over thirty years ago the festival featured more crafts and there was an art show, square dancing, a ham and leek dinner and more. In the past ten years the emphasis has shifted to a more general carnival. I enjoy the smell of the carnival like foods, it’s a reminder of what’s in store at county fairs and fireman’s carnivals which dot our countryside in the spring, summer and early autumn.
I’m not making a pilgrimage to the southern states this year and I kind of wish I was. Maybe that will come later in the year. In the past couple of years I’ve visited Georgia, the Carolina’s and Virginia in April. This year I’m staying home. I might take some day trips and I’m going to enjoy my time off.
I love
I’ve been thinking about love a lot lately and the people I love who have touched my life. Some are gone now. Each spring when the Veronica first appears in the lawns near our home and around the area I think of my grandmother, Caroline Watkins. I can hear her voice and feel her presence with me very strongly. I feel good and wish she were here. I know how much she loved me and how much I loved her too.
Then too I was picnicking with my wife today in Cuba, New York in what the locals call Willow Bank Park. We used to picnic there in 1983 when we were newlyweds. Now we’re a bit older but we still like picnics and tonight we were able to have one. It was romantic and lovely to be with the one I love and who has most drawn me out of myself in these last almost twenty-nine years since we first dated.
I loved my ride to Mt. Irenaeus today and my time with the Friars there. I love Fr. Bob, Br. Joe, and Br. Kevin. I love Fr. Lou and Fr. Dan even though they weren’t present today. They are family to me and so are all the other regulars like Duane, Anita, John and my other Secular Franciscan brothers and sisters. I loved to the ride I took after Mass and brunch. A ride that took me south over the mountains to Bradford, PA. I found a nice little mountain vista and pulled my car off the road for a short nap in the lovely sun.
I love our children too. Devin and Dara though both away in Buffalo and Rochester, they are never far from my heart. Today at the prayer of the faithful I asked that God would bless all those I love and all that he loves which must be the whole world. He knows them all and blesses them all.
St. Anthony
Today I was able to purchase a medal of St. Anthony of Padua for my son. Devin has developed an interest in the saint since he attributes finding his lost car keys a year ago to the intercession of St. Anthony. I had never read much about St. Anthony of Padua until the last week. He has an interesting story. My childhood saints were Patrick and Jude. I bought a St. Jude statue by mistake as a young man thinking it was St. Patrick because he wore a green robe. That’s a natural mistake for a young boy heavily influenced by St. Patrick. Patrick was also my confirmation name. Now, Devin discovers St. Anthony in his mid-twenties. I knew about St. Anthony’s intercessory activity for lost articles, but that was the limit of my knowledge of the Saint’s life.
Where to begin
This year has been busy and positive. A year ago I was thinking retirement and now, well let’s say that’s no longer part of my vocabulary. I planned none of it and have just gone where the spirit has led. We just spent a weekend in Rochester celebrating our little boy’s 26th birthday and enjoying the incredibly warm weather too. Good food and good friends too. Meeting Devin’s girl friend’s family and enjoying a special dinner with them too. Easter breakfast at Jines on Park Avenue and then a leisurely drive home through the Genesee River valley with a stop in Piffard at Abbey of the Genesee. Some quite time in the chapel and then a walk around the grounds. Time with Our Lady of the Genesee and then a quiet drive through Letchworth Park. All this topped off with a leek dinner at my wife’s parent’s home.
Today is yet another day of leisure as we reap the benefits of no snow days in our calendar this season. I’m planning a drive to St. Elizabeth’s Motherhouse in nearby Allegany and a visit to their gift shop. Looking for a medal of St. Anthony of Padua for Devin. Anthony has become Devin’s new patron. Happy Easter and Passover to everyone. Peace and all good too!
Blind guides
I read today on one of the news blogs that Glen Beck and some Republican congressman are touting that a vote on health care on Sunday is dishonoring God. It reminds me of the quote from Jesus taken from the Gospel of Mattew 23:24.
You blind guides strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.
Where were these two guys when we voted for war? Where was their phony moral outrage when wars were started? Repeatedly in the Bible we are admonished to care for the less fortunate. I’m personally a fan of single payer health care and unfortunately that won’t pass in Congress because too many of our lawmakers are owned lock, stock and barrel by the insurance cartels, but at least this bill provides a measure of relief to the uninsured and those who are targeted by unscrupulous insurers. This bill is far from perfect but at least its a start.
Good-bye to an old friend
On Saturday morning on my way into Hilbert College for the morning class I’ve been taking on weekends, I called my friend Brother Kevin to see how we was and he told me he couldn’t speak at that time as they were taking Fr. Dan Hurley, OFM to the hospital. He wasn’t feeling well. I sensed that this might be more serious but tweeted to those who follow me on Facebook and Twitter to pray for Fr. Dan. When I got out of class at 1:00pm there was a message from Kevin and I knew in my heart that it wasn’t going to be good news. Kevin’s tearful message gave me the news that Fr. Dan Hurley had been called home. He died in emergency surgery.
Here was a man who lived and well for more than ninety years. A Franciscan Friar since soon after he graduated from St. Bonaventure College (now University) in 1940. Ordained to the priesthood in 1945 and ministering to all of us and our parents too for all these years. Memories have flooded and ebbed in the past several days as I have joined friars and laymen to recall Dan Hurley’s impact on our lives.
I only met him ten years ago when I started attending Masses regularly at Mt. Irenaeus. In that time I came to enjoy his wit, wisdom and keen insights on life. Fr. Dan and his memory will live on in my life. He was an angelic cherub who always brightened my day. My only regret is that I didn’t tell him how much I loved him on Sunday, March 7 when I last saw him. Wednesday of this week the members of the area community will get a chance to say goodbye at St. Bonaventure University and on Thursday there will be a Funeral Mass offered at the University Chapel at St. Bonaventure. I’m pretty sure that seating will be gone and it will be a standing room only event for a man who touched the lives of so many. I think he’s probably in heaven eating a bowl of ice cream or maybe a slice of his famous blueberry pie. I’m very grateful that I got to know him.
The birds
This morning when I first arrived at Mt. Irenaeus I did not see any of my feathered friends and thought that perhaps since I was running a bit late that they had already made their way further up the trail toward the chapel. However, after stopping at the House of Peace to leave off my gift of eggs, orange juice and fresh cheese curd, I emerged from the house to see these little fellows in the bushes near the trail. I greeted them and held out my hand and soon one then another began to land in my hand spend a few seconds and then off to the bushes and trees again. They repeated this cycle for many minutes and had I not begun to walk towards the chapel I’m sure they would have blessed me with their presence even longer.
The chapel was full this morning. Ten students from nearby Houghton College were guests as were a small group of Secular Franciscans, the resident Friar community and some other visitors from the surrounding countryside. Today was one of those lovely sunny days that remind us that spring is coming. I’m grateful for the birds as they remind me that we are all one. We are all made by the same creator and he loves each of us and we are surrounded by his love and we need to share that love with each other.
Alumni game
Today we followed our son Devin over to the campus of State University of New York College at Fredonia for the annual men’s basketball alumni game. The annual get together of coaches, parents, players and a few fans was enjoyable. It’s fun to watch our son’s compete and to renew acquaintances with parents and coaches who had such an influential role in our son’s life. As I watched Devin warm up for the game tears came to my eyes as I watched him 3 pointer after 3 pointer in the pregame warm-ups. Little did I realize that he would hit consecutive treys in the game, play a solid floor game and then can the winner for his mates to win 68-65 in the event. I’d have been happy too if the score were tied as it was at the end of regulation last year. It’s great just to see these young men in action again. Soon we’ll celebrate the fourth anniversary of Devin’s college graduation. Wow! Where did the time go? Here’s a link to the Youtube video of the game I captured with my Flip Camera.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFSw-3AFMY0]
Stillness
It’s 8:36 am and the only sound in our kitchen is the electronic tick of the clock. Tick-tocks came from pendulums, but they are no longer needed to power an electronic clock, but the sound is an assurance that the clock is running. That’s the only answer I can think of this morning. Other than that noise and the tinnitus in my ears the house is still. I’m writing these words on a MacBook Pro which is connected to the internet and someone somewhere today might read them. I’m connected but unconnected too in an increasingly connected world.
Yesterday a fellow educator wrote about the need for quiet and stillness and especially for his children and I could not agree more. There is a point of over stimulation. That’s part of why I don’t watch the news. I don’t want to be programmed to think a certain way. I’m not Republican nor am I a Democrat. I’m fiercely independent. You can’t put me in a box, I’m bigger than that. I refuse to be a yes/no dualistic thinker. Life is way more complex than that. I’m neither liberal nor conservative. I’m me and I’m created in the image and likeness of my creator and I think you are too. I used to have these words above my desk until I removed them last year, but the thought is still in my heart and it’s borrowed from one of the greatest men to ever live, Robert Holbrook Smith.
“Perpetual quietness of heart. It is to have no trouble. It is never to be fretted or vexed, irritable or sore; to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me.
“It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised, it is to have a blessed home in myself where I can go in and shut the door and pray to my Father in secret and be at peace, as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around and about is seeming trouble. “