Society's Lepers

You'll have to forgive my missing a few postings, here and there.  I'm kind of in "vacation mode;" although I'm not on vacation. I guess it's the hot weather; that's as good an excuse as any.

OK.  I'm lazy.

But I've been thinking of what to post ever since Monday's Sunday Mass.  See my "cloistered brothers" can't get a priest on Sunday.  Hence, their Sunday Mass is Monday.  And I am blessed to attend two Sunday Masses.

Father Jack Sullivan

7:30 AM Mass on Sunday, the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time at my parish, found me reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians. Not many were awake enough to hear me tell them to open their wallets and give.  And they didn't even wake up to listen to Father Jack  tell them about Jarius' daughter coming back from the dead.  So it's a good thing he skipped over the part about the woman with the hemorrhage.  That story didn't fit into his excellent homily.

Our God is not God of the dead.  He created us to live forever.  Don't forget that fact.  This life is temporary.

Although, I don't think there's a woman alive who doesn't think of the hemorrhaging woman, once a month.  So about half of the population (women) know this story.

Msgr. Peter Conley

And it's exactly this story, that Msgr. Conley focused on, in his homily.  You see, back in the day (Jesus' time), blood meant disgustingly unclean.  When a woman was menstruating, she kept herself separate from the rest of society because she was dirty.  And this poor woman was bleeding for twelve years!  Think suffering, emotionally distraught from isolation and rejection.  No wonder the poor woman snuck up on Jesus to touch Him.  If people knew, they would have pushed her out of the crowd.  She probably thought Jesus was going to reject her also.

Isn't this exactly how my "cloistered brothers" feel?  They, like the hemorrhaging woman are considered the "lepers" in society--rejected and isolated from society.  Msgr. Conley hit a home run with this homily.  I as a female identified, and my "cloistered brothers" as inmates in a prison, identified.

But what does Jesus tell this "leper" from society?  "Your faith has saved you."

Thank you, Jesus.

Advent is Waiting

Msgr. Peter Conley

Msgr. Peter reminisced about "waiting."  When he was a boy of eleven years, he loved his father most.  His father was the head of the family and always insisted upon the family eating supper together.  One day there was a blizzard.  He had no school.  It snowed all day.

Dinner time came and his father wasn't home yet.  The family waited half an hour.  They waited an hour.  No one voiced what they were thinking.

Peter worried that something had happened to his father.  After a couple of hours, he told his mother that he was going to wait at the bus stop.  His mother didn't stop him.  So Peter bundled up to walk in the snow and trudged out.  He walked up the side street.  He walked up the main street, crossed the railroad tracks, climbed the little hill, and stood at the bridge.

There were two busses his father could take.  One would stop at the bridge, and then cross over the bridge.  The other would stop at the bridge, and continue on straight.  Peter waited.  He saw bus headlights down the road.  He waited.  He watched the bus slowly, ever so slowly make its way to the bridge.  One person got off.

Peter held his breath.  He couldn't make out the face.  But the person that got off the bus was a man.  Then the man pulled down his hat, and Peter recognized his father's mannerisms and let out a sigh of relief.

That's waiting.  Advent is waiting for Christ to come.

Conditional Baptism

Before Mass tonight, Msgr. Peter Conley performed a Conditional Baptism.  Cardinal O'Malley is coming soon to confirm the confirmandi and they're getting ready.  One confirmandi wasn't sure that he was ever baptised.  Jose doesn't remember any talk or pictures about it, and his family is estranged from him, so he can't ask them.

In Jose's case, when there is reasonable doubt that a baptism has ever occurred, the sacrament is administered conditionally.  Baptism can only be done once; that's why it's important for the priest to say "if you are not baptised..."

Since this was done in front of my "cloistered brothers," their answers were quite loud.

Msgr. Conley: Do you reject Satan?

Cloistered Brothers: I do.

Msgr. Conley: And all his works?

Cloistered Brothers: I do.

Msgr. Conley: Do you reject sin, so as to live in the freedom of God's children?

Cloistered Brothers: I do.

Msgr. Conley: Do you reject the glamor of evil, and refuse to be mastered by sin?

Cloistered Brothers: I do.

Msgr. Conley: Do you reject Satan, father of sin and prince of darkness?

Cloistered Brothers: I do.

I, myself shouted "I do!"  If anyone rejects Satan, we certainly do!

And Jose chose the patron saint's name of Anthony.  

Readville, MA

Hubby is always talking about Readville.  He comes from there.  When I married him we lived there--for about 8 years.  I liked it.  I particularly enjoyed that I lived in Boston, and could take advantage of all that Boston offered; yet I was outside of it.  Readville is the name for a section of Hyde Park, and Hyde Park is a section of Boston.

Anybody who lives, or comes from Readville, does not say they're from Boston, or even Hyde Park.  Oh no!  As Thomas Aquinas says, "Distinctions are important."  You are from Readville.  And proud of it!

Now I live in the suburbs.  But when I do take the train to Boston, I always gaze wistfully out the train window at Readville, and reminisce about the many times I heard those trains go by and listen to the train whistles.

All this came to mind tonight.  I was at Mass.  The celebrant was the Rev. Msgr. Peter Conley, from St. Jude's Parish in Norfolk, MA.  Msgr. Peter told a story from his youth.  He comes from Readville, too.  He told of learning the Lord's Prayer.  He thought "Lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from evil."   was   "Lead us not into temptation,  and deliver us from Readville."

City boys have a peculiar sense of humor.