Lepers

 I wish I were teaching American history because Moloka'i by Alan Brennert, would be required reading. It's not great literature, but it is a good read and very instructive. The story is about a little girl who contracts leprosy. She grows up and the story continues to her death. Through her life, we learn about how leprosy was treated and how the lepers lived. We feel her anger, her shame, her hurts, and her loves. We learn about Father Damian, Sister Mariann Cope, the doctors who ministered to lepers. We live through the depression, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the war, and life after the war.

The book itself is easy to read but difficult in that the topic is heart wrenching. Even so, everyone needs to experience Moloka'i.

Two Hours Sleep

 For some reason I couldn't sleep, last night.  I think I slept for two hours, that's all.  I started to get sleepy around 7 am, which is time to wake up.  I was just thinking of not going to Chapter, today, and stay home and take a nap, instead. Suddenly, I remembered; it's my turn to lead a program.  

What will I do?  I had forgotten all about it.  I can't bring anything to Chapter.  I didn't have time to tell them what to bring.  What to do?

Now I know why I couldn't sleep.  I had a program to put together in 6 hours.  Take out an hour and a half for Mass.  So I had to think of something in 4 hours.

I decided to use Christian Prayer.  They will have those books. In the back is Office of Reading.  I decided to do a group Lectio Divina with a reading from the back of the Office.

I got ready to go to Mass.  I was extremely surprised to see no one there.  My clock said I was an hour and a half an a half early.  I thought of continuing to drive to a different church but I already had a check written our with my parish' name on it.

I went home but in my driveway I couldn't get my key out of the ignition.  I soon realized that the car has to be in " park" !  Then I couldn't get out of my sear--I still had my seatbelt on.

But everything turned out fine.  My group lectio divina was pretty good.  

Water in the Rock

 

LECTIO:

Ex 17:3-7

In those days, in their thirst for water,
the people grumbled against Moses,
saying, “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?
Was it just to have us die here of thirst 
with our children and our livestock?”
So Moses cried out to the LORD, 
“What shall I do with this people?
a little more and they will stone me!”
The LORD answered Moses,
“Go over there in front of the people, 
along with some of the elders of Israel, 
holding in your hand, as you go, 
the staff with which you struck the river.
I will be standing there in front of you on the rock in Horeb.
Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it 
for the people to drink.”
This Moses did, in the presence of the elders of Israel.
The place was called Massah and Meribah, 
because the Israelites quarreled there
and tested the LORD, saying,
“Is the LORD in our midst or not?”

STUDIUM:

The water situation is so dire that Moses feared he would be stoned! This is similar to situations that I find dire.  There is nothing to nourish me: I find no beauty, no thought provoking words.  I am angry and ask God, where is my water?

MEDITATIO:

I wonder why the people don't turn to God, why are they always blaming Moses?  Is my first response to blame someone, rather than pray?  

ORATIO:

Lord, help me never to doubt your care for me.  If you bring me to a situation you will bring me through it.  May Your Holy Spirit be my water.

CONTEMPLATIO:

May I never question God.  If You can make a rock sprout water, why would I doubt Your power?

RESOLUTIO:

I will paint a rock with the word "Trust," on it, to remember this time when the people didn't trust God and grumbled against Him.  I will use it as a paper weight to hold down "bills."

Praying for Ukraine

 Before Mass, during Lent we are praying a Rosary for the "hot spots," in the world.  I have Ukraine.  

Today we are praying for the people of Ukraine.  The country itself has often been in the jaws of Russia, due to it’s access to water, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.  It once had the Crimean Sea but in 2014, Russia took it.  Its natural resources have also been coveted by Russia.  Ukraine has iron, gas, oil, lithium, and many others.  The agricultural resources are so renowned that Ukraine is known as the bread basket of the world.  These are some of the reasons, Russia wants Ukraine.

Ukraine has always claimed to be a separate nation.  It has its own language, even when it was annexed by Catherine the Great, as part of the Russian Empire, and then as part of the Soviet Union.  When the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine declared itself an independent entity in 1991.

The last time, Russia invaded Ukraine was in 2014, where it claimed the Donbas region.  There are many people there that desire to be Russian. This was the excuse—to defend the Russians living in Donbas. But Putin used the invasion to annex the Crimean Peninsula. Since then, war has simmered between the Donbas Russians and Ukraine.

Three days before Putin invaded, a year ago, he declared Donbas and Luhansk as Republics. This is what prompted NATO to impose sanctions on Russia. Since then, Putin often speaks of the ethnic ties that justify his invasion in his aim to restore Russia to national greatness.

Another motivation for Putin is religious.  Of course he might be using religion to convince some people that he is restoring the Russian Orthodox Church to be the only accepted church in Russia. Putin’s invasion is supported by the Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Kirill has called Putin’s invasion a religious miracle. Putin and Kirill consider the West and that includes Ukraine, decadent and morally reprehensible. In a country where 71% identify as Orthodox, Putin promotes himself as defender of the values of the church, and Patriarch Kirill legitimizes his geopolitical ambitions.

This afternoon, let us invoke the intercessions of the patron saints of Ukraine and Russia.  St. Olga is patron saint of Ukraine.  She is also patron of widows, defiance, and vengeance.  Yes, vengeance.  The story is that she married as a teenager and had one son.  This is the 10^th century; her husband was brutally murdered by a neighboring tribe.  She was only around twenty years old, and her son was three.  She wanted vengeance and she got it.  She wiped the tribe that killed her husband off the face of the earth.  This was before she became Christian.  Upon converting to Christianity she repented and forgave all whom she felt had wronged her.  So she is patron saint of those who want vengeance but think better of it.  Her family was converted, along with her.  That includes her grandson, Vladimir.

Her grandson, Vladimir the Great, expanded the kingdom into what is now seen as the first Russian principality, which Vladimir Putin now views as the forerunner of the imperial Russian state. Olga’s grandson is acknowledged as a saint for his role in completing the Christianization, Olga started. Is the name sake of St. Vladimir modeling him?

Russia has a few patron saints because of the many countries she has assimilated.  There’s St. Vladimir and St. Olga, St. Nicholas (our Santa), St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. Andrew, St. George, Michael the Archangel, etc. 

Let us pray through the intercession of all the saints, especially the patrons of Ukraine and Russia; we pray for peace and the laying down of weapons.  We ask for wisdom, discernment, and compassion for those in power to broker peace.   ROSARY

God's Harmony

 We live in a broken world.  We aren't in the Garden of Eden.  Sin has entered and I think of everything that is not perfectly beautiful, as sin.  A flower can be beautiful, but it can be stepped on and crushed.  But just because it has been ruined, doesn't mean that it's bad.  Weeds aren't wanted but their prevalence doesn't make it better than the beautiful flowers.  The point is that resilience, prevalence, fragility--people falling into sin--are examples of God's harmony.  

God brings beauty out of ugliness.

In creation, God makes everything good.  In redemption, God does something better.  

Ashbury Revival

 Have you heard of the Ashbury Revival?  Ashbury University is in Kentucky.  At a prayer service, the Holy Spirit lit everyone on fire.  Here is an article with videos highlighting the event.  It has lasted for days, now.  Other places are trying to call down the Holy Spirit, too.

It's like Pentecost.  

Let us pray for a new Pentecost.  The world needs it now.  

My Search for Happiness

 

My Eulogy

The difference between an obituary and a eulogy is simply that an obituary is an announcement of death with funeral details, whereas a eulogy is a speech that pays tribute to the life of the deceased.

I am writing my own eulogy so I will know before I die what will be said about me.  Also, I am taking advantage of my last opportunity to give a catechesis lesson to my religiously impaired family and friends. My life and my search for life’s meaning is something most people who think will relate.

There are various means to prove the existence of God.  St. Thomas Aquinas gives five reasons: intelligent design, nature’s example of life after death—caterpillars dying to be born into butterflies, seeds dying to be flowers and flowers spreading their seeds to become flowers, again, etc.  Our ability to reason can see that.  The same with the proof called causation—everyone and thing is because of something.  For example, our parents begot us, their parents begot them, and objects were made by someone, even the big bang had to have had a cause. The end cause we call God. Again, any thinking person can reason this.

But we can also see proof of God in our own lives because from our birth, we have been looking for Him.  We are always looking for Him; this is called happiness.  Everything we have done has been a search for happiness. 

A baby will cry until fed and comfortable—ah, happiness.  As a child we want certain things that we think will make us happy—toys, attention, love.  But it doesn’t last; it’s not permanent.  We want it again and more.

So, it was with me.  I was born in a family with a bother, Ronnie, who was 22 years older than I, a sister, Virginia, who was 18 years older and another sister, Bette, who is 10 years older.   I am a war baby, a baby boomer.  Daddy came home from WWII and his babies were all grown up.  He wanted another baby.  I always thought that I was the only one who was really wanted in the family.  My siblings just happened along, but I was planned, wished, and hoped for.  I grew up feeling very special and loved.  I was everyone’s favorite. 

Did you notice that I said I was “planned, wished, and hoped for”?  I didn’t say “prayed for”?  That’s because my family never prayed.  We weren’t religious. My dad never went to church.  My mother went to Mass every Sunday because we brought Grandma there.  That was the extent of our religious involvement.  No one ever talked about religious subjects.  We had no Bibles in the house.  We didn’t pray grace at meals.  In fact, when a religious program was on TV, like Bishop Fulton Sheen, we turned the channel to watch a variety show—Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, someone like that.

So, why did my dad who never gave God a thought name me Faith?  He said it was because he didn’t want me to believe in anything, except myself.  

I guess I showed him.

One of my earliest memories is hitting a baseball out of the park.  This was before I went to school.  The kids in my neighborhood played softball a lot and everyone wanted me on their team.  I was a happy kid.  I thought happiness was winning games.  Of course, one doesn’t always win.  But when you do, you want more.  Winning as happiness doesn’t last.

Getting good marks in school made me happy but it didn’t last, either.  I remember thinking that getting into high school would bring me happiness.  I was very happy to get into a private, all girl high school.  There were only 36 in my graduating class.  I was an honor student and played softball and basketball.  As a teenager, I intuited that good grades weren’t happiness.  But once I got into college, then I could relax and be happy.

Relax!  At one time in college, I had three part time jobs.  College life was too busy to spend any time reflecting on the meaning of life.  I just wanted to finish and get a job, then I could relax and be happy. 

My first job was teaching.  I found out that working wasn’t happiness.  I told myself, work is called work because if it were fun, it would be called play. Then, I thought if I got married, I will be happy.  And I did meet my future husband while teaching in Medway, MA.  We were both teaching on the same team. 

After a few years, we didn’t feel completely happy.  We were happy, but we wanted more.  We thought having children would bring more happiness.  We wanted children but they didn’t come; I had a fertility problem. That was treated and we had a daughter we named Cheryl.  She made us happy, and we wanted another to make us happier.  I still had the fertility problem.  But again, we had success and Karen was born.  We were happy and felt our family and life was complete.  Surprise, we were blessed with one more baby, a son we named Mark. 

Now with three active children, we were too busy to reflect upon whether we were happy or not.  In retrospect, of course we were happy.  My fondest memories are happy ones-vacations, Christmases, holidays. But happiness is not forever after.  Children grow up.  The house is empty.  I do remember sometimes during those busy times of a growing family, thinking if I were alone, I’d be happy, but now that the children were all grown and on their own, where was the happiness.

Think of this dynamic.  Does everyone search for happiness?  Win at games, get into high school, have a boy or girl friend, get into college, get a job, get married, have children, become retired…is it all a search for happiness?

Where is “happy ever after”?  Is that only in fairy tales? All the happiness I ever had never lasted.  St. Augustine is right, “our hearts are restless until we find God.”

In fact, the very dissatisfaction we all experience suggests the existence of something else out there—someone else.  Dare I name it—God, Himself1

The happiness we always feel is just a taste--a tease. Our intellects are never satisfied with our limited knowledge—our will is never satisfied with gratifying experiences.  We always want more.  We ARE made for more. We have an infinite desire to search for what gives genuine peace, satisfaction and happiness.  Our intellect and will keeps us from settling for anything less than the full grandeur of paradise.  This world is not our home.  We are made for God.  Our hearts long for divine perfection.  Faith’s life was a foretaste of her heavenly home.

Come Holy Spirit

 How do I lead a session with no books, no paper, or pencils?  That's the task I have before me.  I'm leading my chapter next Sunday.  Remember these guys are "cloistered" so I can't text them or even telephone anyone to say, "Bring paper and pen."  

They do have Christian Prayer books.  Maybe we can use them.  

Pray to the Holy Spirit for me, to give me some ideas.

The Narrow Path or the Wide Road?

 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

by Robert Frost  What do you choose?  Note that the road has no footprints.  Roads are easier than paths and this road looks interesting. Yet a path in the woods is well traveled.  You choose.