Just a typical 4:30pm Saturday vigial mass at Bl. John XXIII parish...
video
13 August 2009
12 August 2009
11 August 2009
A New Old Image
" There are times when the old images of Christ just don't have the comforting power we need. When I was growing up I loved above all other bible stories the story of the shepherd looking for his lost sheep-I used to tell myself that story before goingt o sleep at night, replaying that pastoral picture in my head. But now as an adult there are times when I thirst for something more visceral, more violent even, to match the chaos of fear and grief.
When I went to Monicas memorial, the next day I went to mass with Lydia at their home church (I know, it's not a great picure; I took it myself, what do you expect? We can't all be John Steubler, winner of the Best of Silicon Valley for photography!!). On the tabernacle there they have the image of a mother pelican, encircled by hungry babies facing her with their mouths gaping open. The pelican has her beak pressed to her chest, and on some versions she is bleeding. This image of the mother Pelican is an ancient symbol of Christ and most especially the Eucharist; the legend goes that in times of famine the Pelican will feed her young all the food she has until she is about to starve, and then she will rip open her chest and feed them her heart so that they may live even as she dies. This image is so powerful to me- it brings me to tears every time I encounter it, which is rare. It has been all but forgotten.
Please pray for the repose of the soul of Sharon who died of cancer on Monday. Pray for the comfort of her husband and five children, pray for Sol and Kai as they face this new life without Monica. I pray that in their times of famine Chirst would feed them from his very heart that they may know his presence in their grief. "
Via Ex Nihilo
peace... peace at last...
Over the last year I have been following several blogs of people in various stages of cancer, and even corresponding with a few of them. So far there is only 1 left. Don Ritchie, who was the principal at Marin Catholic High School just passed away a few days ago. I thought this post about his last night was touching, so I've pasted it below because I can't get a live link here for some reason.
"Peace...peace at last. Don found peace last night at 1:41 am. I know the exact time, because I was putting the microwave timer on every hour to make sure I was awake to give him his medication so he did not once again become painful. The medication also eased his labored breathing. Being very fatigued, I could not set the timer for some reason, so I decided to let it go and hoped that I would awaken on my own. I returned to the couch next to his hospital bed, and listened for his breathing. Very soon, I heard him take two deep breaths and then no more. At that exact moment, the timer went off. I had asked Don to send me a sign when he passed and I knew this was it. He had told me the day before that I was not to worry, that he was going to be OK and that all he wanted was peace. What transpired next was even more incredible. My sister-in-law had brought a rosary for Don to use that belonged to her little girl, Kaylee. Kaylee had received it from our niece, Amy, who had just brought it from a pilgrimage in Spain, El Camino de Santiago. We had placed it on the side rail of his bed. Most recently, his brother Bob had placed it around Don's right wrist, saying: "We might as well pull out all of the stops." Sitting at his bedside, just after his last breath was taken, everything was still. Suddenly, I saw a movement beneath the covers. It was his right hand being lifted and placed over his heart. For me, I know that the man who has loved me and that I have loved for close to 45 years, was letting me know that he will love me for all eternity and that "all is well." Peace and our thanks, Jane...
via Girl ex Nihilo
"Peace...peace at last. Don found peace last night at 1:41 am. I know the exact time, because I was putting the microwave timer on every hour to make sure I was awake to give him his medication so he did not once again become painful. The medication also eased his labored breathing. Being very fatigued, I could not set the timer for some reason, so I decided to let it go and hoped that I would awaken on my own. I returned to the couch next to his hospital bed, and listened for his breathing. Very soon, I heard him take two deep breaths and then no more. At that exact moment, the timer went off. I had asked Don to send me a sign when he passed and I knew this was it. He had told me the day before that I was not to worry, that he was going to be OK and that all he wanted was peace. What transpired next was even more incredible. My sister-in-law had brought a rosary for Don to use that belonged to her little girl, Kaylee. Kaylee had received it from our niece, Amy, who had just brought it from a pilgrimage in Spain, El Camino de Santiago. We had placed it on the side rail of his bed. Most recently, his brother Bob had placed it around Don's right wrist, saying: "We might as well pull out all of the stops." Sitting at his bedside, just after his last breath was taken, everything was still. Suddenly, I saw a movement beneath the covers. It was his right hand being lifted and placed over his heart. For me, I know that the man who has loved me and that I have loved for close to 45 years, was letting me know that he will love me for all eternity and that "all is well." Peace and our thanks, Jane...
via Girl ex Nihilo
are you happy
“Perhaps the reason we so often experience happiness only in hindsight, and that chasing it is such a fool’s errand, is that happiness isn’t a goal in itself but is only an aftereffect. It’s the consequence of having lived in the way that we’re supposed to — by which I don’t mean ethically correctly so much as just consciously, fully engaged in the business of living. In this respect it resembles averted vision, a phenomena familiar to backyard astronomers whereby, in order to pick out a very faint star, you have to let your gaze drift casually to the space just next to it; if you look directly at it, it vanishes. And it’s also true, come to think of it, that the only stars we ever see are not the “real” stars, those cataclysms taking place in the present, but always only the light of the untouchable past." Tim Kreider, Averted Vision
miracle
“If you ask me, when something extraordinary shows up in your life in the middle of the night, you give it a name and make it the best home you can." -- Barbara Kingsolver, High Tide In Tuscon
Unforgivable
Q: What is the unforgivable sin?— B
A: There are many sins recounted in the Hebrew Bible but none are ever called unforgivable sins. Sometimes the punishment for sinning is death, but repentance is always possible before punishment.
In the Christian Scriptures, there are three verses that take up the subject of unforgivable sin. In the Book of Matthew (12: 31-32), we read, “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. And whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age, or in the age to come.”
The same idea that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is unforgivable is found in Luke 12:10 and Mark 3:29.
What constitutes such blasphemy is not so clear, but generally the idea is that rejecting God and God’s good news for salvation is the most radical and thorough rejection a person can make, and thus it separates the blasphemer most profoundly from the community of faith. This is not so much a punishment for the sinner as it is a fact about the sinner’s willful rejection of God’s grace.
If I were to translate this sentiment about unforgivable sin into my own life list, I’d probably include the following sins as fundamental, although the concept of unforgivability from a forgiving God is not sensible to me and one that I cannot accept into my own faith life. I believe that God can forgive all sins provided the sinner is truly contrite. Here’s my list of unforgivable sins:
• Murder, torture and abuse of any human being, but particularly the murder, torture and abuse of children and animals. These are more than unforgivable; they are incomprehensible. These violate the most basic dignity of the human person and deny God in our broken world.
As for lower-level unforgivable sins, I would include:
• Losing hope. Tomorrow may not be better than today, but when you stop hoping that tomorrow will be better than today, you are lost.
• Believing that you deserve everything you have. The beginning of a prayer life is understanding that we’ve been given more than we deserve, that we really need to thank God for the extra blessings.
• Believing that your burdens exceed your blessings. Every day we awaken to life, our blessings are greater than our burdens. Spending all your time thinking about what God has taken from you blinds you to the overwhelming abundance of what God has given to you.
• Believing you are worthless. Being made in the image of God is two blessings. The first blessing is being made in God’s image. The second blessing is knowing that you are made in God’s image. If you don’t know this, you must learn it, before you start believing the worst things hateful people say about you.
• Not caring about the big questions: Why do bad things happen to good people? Is there a purpose to life? What happens after I die? All these are eternal mysteries, not mere problems, and they deserve our time and prayerful attention. Just thinking about them ennobles, confirms and transforms us.
• Never understanding the difference between wisdom and intelligence. Being smart is knowing what is. Being wise is knowing what matters. Wisdom takes years of living. By my calculation, there are enough smart people in the world but not enough good people.
• Admiring famous people, not good people. The world is filled with amazing good people who are making the world better, or at least helping to keep it from getting worse. The good ones ought to be the celebrities, but the world doesn’t work that way yet.
• Thinking that children are a nuisance. Children can be noisy or smelly, but they’re never a nuisance. Robert Frost said that a baby is God’s opinion that life should go on. We should have the same opinion as God.
• Keeping score. Remembering every insult and every betrayal and every time some other person did not properly respect us is a waste of time and almost always leads to a sour disposition.
There are other unforgivable sins, but these will do for now.
By Rabbi Marc Gellman
A: There are many sins recounted in the Hebrew Bible but none are ever called unforgivable sins. Sometimes the punishment for sinning is death, but repentance is always possible before punishment.
In the Christian Scriptures, there are three verses that take up the subject of unforgivable sin. In the Book of Matthew (12: 31-32), we read, “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. And whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age, or in the age to come.”
The same idea that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is unforgivable is found in Luke 12:10 and Mark 3:29.
What constitutes such blasphemy is not so clear, but generally the idea is that rejecting God and God’s good news for salvation is the most radical and thorough rejection a person can make, and thus it separates the blasphemer most profoundly from the community of faith. This is not so much a punishment for the sinner as it is a fact about the sinner’s willful rejection of God’s grace.
If I were to translate this sentiment about unforgivable sin into my own life list, I’d probably include the following sins as fundamental, although the concept of unforgivability from a forgiving God is not sensible to me and one that I cannot accept into my own faith life. I believe that God can forgive all sins provided the sinner is truly contrite. Here’s my list of unforgivable sins:
• Murder, torture and abuse of any human being, but particularly the murder, torture and abuse of children and animals. These are more than unforgivable; they are incomprehensible. These violate the most basic dignity of the human person and deny God in our broken world.
As for lower-level unforgivable sins, I would include:
• Losing hope. Tomorrow may not be better than today, but when you stop hoping that tomorrow will be better than today, you are lost.
• Believing that you deserve everything you have. The beginning of a prayer life is understanding that we’ve been given more than we deserve, that we really need to thank God for the extra blessings.
• Believing that your burdens exceed your blessings. Every day we awaken to life, our blessings are greater than our burdens. Spending all your time thinking about what God has taken from you blinds you to the overwhelming abundance of what God has given to you.
• Believing you are worthless. Being made in the image of God is two blessings. The first blessing is being made in God’s image. The second blessing is knowing that you are made in God’s image. If you don’t know this, you must learn it, before you start believing the worst things hateful people say about you.
• Not caring about the big questions: Why do bad things happen to good people? Is there a purpose to life? What happens after I die? All these are eternal mysteries, not mere problems, and they deserve our time and prayerful attention. Just thinking about them ennobles, confirms and transforms us.
• Never understanding the difference between wisdom and intelligence. Being smart is knowing what is. Being wise is knowing what matters. Wisdom takes years of living. By my calculation, there are enough smart people in the world but not enough good people.
• Admiring famous people, not good people. The world is filled with amazing good people who are making the world better, or at least helping to keep it from getting worse. The good ones ought to be the celebrities, but the world doesn’t work that way yet.
• Thinking that children are a nuisance. Children can be noisy or smelly, but they’re never a nuisance. Robert Frost said that a baby is God’s opinion that life should go on. We should have the same opinion as God.
• Keeping score. Remembering every insult and every betrayal and every time some other person did not properly respect us is a waste of time and almost always leads to a sour disposition.
There are other unforgivable sins, but these will do for now.
By Rabbi Marc Gellman
09 August 2009
pray always
Prayer is an exercise of love and it would be incorrect to think that if there is no time for solitude, there is no prayer at all. For the very reason that prayer is based especially on love and springs from it, it is possible to prolong it beyond the time devoted exclusively to it.
Though it is not possible to be always thinking of God, partly because our mind gets tired, or because our many occupations demand full attention, still it is always possible for the heart to love and to desire God, and this can, and must, exist even in the performance of duties which absorb our intellect; in fact, such an orientation can be intensified by the desire to accomplish every action for the love of God, to please him, and give him glory.
"The reason for prayer" according to St. Thomas Aquinas, "is a desire moved by charity. . . And this desire with us must be continuous, either in act, or at least potentially. . . We can say that one prays continuously by reason of the continuity of his desire".
Divine Intimacy
Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD
Though it is not possible to be always thinking of God, partly because our mind gets tired, or because our many occupations demand full attention, still it is always possible for the heart to love and to desire God, and this can, and must, exist even in the performance of duties which absorb our intellect; in fact, such an orientation can be intensified by the desire to accomplish every action for the love of God, to please him, and give him glory.
"The reason for prayer" according to St. Thomas Aquinas, "is a desire moved by charity. . . And this desire with us must be continuous, either in act, or at least potentially. . . We can say that one prays continuously by reason of the continuity of his desire".
Divine Intimacy
Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD
06 August 2009
05 August 2009
slow and steady
The weakest living creature, by concentrating his powers on a single object, can accomplish something. The strongest, by dispensing his over many, may fail to accomplish anything. The drop, by continually falling, bores its passage through the hardest rock. The hasty torrent rushes over it with hideous uproar, and leaves no trace behind. -Thomas Carlyle
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