The Experiment

1  1.   Look for something good in everybody you meet.

2  2.   Try to make everyone you meet feel better about themselves.

3  3.    Pray for everyone you meet.

4  4.   Hum a hymn all day.

5  5.   Every time you  enter a room, pray “Thank you, Jesus.”

6  6.   Read something religious today.

7  7.  Carry a cross in your pocket.

8  8.   Do something nice for someone without them knowing it.

9  9.   Fast from TV today.

1  10. Sit and meditate for awhile, today.

    11. Help someone.

1  12. Smile all day.

1  13. Pray for the dead.

1  14. Go for a walk and look for God in nature.

At the end of each of these 14 days take an assessment.  The assessment will be how other reacted and then assess how you feel.  Do this each day for two weeks.  What do you think?

Greetings and Salutations

MEK Drawing

Lectio

Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
to the church of God that is in Corinth,
to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  ( Corinthians 1: 1-3)

Studium

This is a salutation from Paul to the Christians in Corinth.  He does the usual greeting, which names the writer and the recipient, and offers good wishes.  He does more than that, however.  He proclaims his faith in Jesus.  He also gives the topic for the rest of the letter in the first chapter of Corinthians.  In fact, for the next six Sunday Masses, Paul will be addressing the ekklesia (church) in Corinth.  He has heard that the community is bickering among themselves and Paul will be addressing that problem.  This salutation is reminding the Corinthian church that they are holy people--sanctified in Christ Jesus.  The call comes from God, Himself, for those who believe in Him.  By grace, all Christians have God's love.  They must remember this and act accordingly.  Paul ends his greeting with "peace."

Sosthenes is with Paul.  Scholars believe Sosthenes was in charge of the synagogue in Corinth.  He was seized and beaten by a mob, in front of Gallio, the Roman governor, when he refused to prosecute Paul when demanded to, by the Jews.

Meditatio

This scripture is for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time.  I am reading this passage.  At first, I dismissed the verses as just a simple salutation.  But is anything in the Bible useless?  Even a simple salutation must have some lesson for the church.  So I thought doing a Lectio Divina on the verses would bring me to a greater understanding and appreciation of the text.

This greeting is a lesson in love.  Paul will be addressing the discord that has arisen in Corinth.  This is why he reminds the Corinthians that they are holy.  They have been given the grace to be followers of the One True God.  They and we should understand this and act accordingly.

Even the ending of the salutation is a lesson.  Paul wishes them "peace."  Yes, take the hint.

Oratio

Lord Jesus Christ, we believers love and desire to do Your Holy Will.  It's the how, when, and why.  In other words, it's the details in the interpretations of Your Word that causes all the problems.  Help us to not despair, argue, hate, and sin against our brothers and sisters.  Please give us the grace to keep trying and to love our neighbors and You love us.

Contemplatio

Come Lord and show us the way.

Taking the Long Way Home

Father Austin Fleming posted this on his blog, A Concord Pastor Comments.  He has the music.  This Sunday is the feast of the Epiphany.                        

Home By Another Way                                                                                                                  

Those magic men the Magi 
Some people call them wise
Or Oriental, even kings
Well anyway, those guys
They visited with Jesus
They sure enjoyed their stay
Then warned in a dream of King Herod's scheme
They went home by another way

Yes they went home by another way
Home by another way
Maybe me and you can be wise guys too
And go home by another way
We can make it another way
Safe home as they used to say
Keep a weather eye to the chart on high
And go home another way

Steer clear of royal welcomes
Avoid a big to-do
A king who would slaughter the innocents
Will not cut a deal for you
He really, really wants those presents
He'll comb your camel's fur
Until his boys announce they've found trace amounts
Of your frankincense, gold and myrrh

Time to go home by another way
Home by another way
You have to figure that God's saying play the odds
And go home by another way
We can make it another way
Safe home as they used to say
Keep a weather eye to the chart on high
And go home another way

Home is where they want you now
You can more or less assume that you'll be welcome in the end
Mustn't let King Herod haunt you so
Or fantasize his features when you're looking at a friend

Well it pleasures me to be here
And to sing this song tonight
They tell me that life is a miracle
And I figured that they're right
But Herod's always out there
He's got our cards on file
It's a lead pipe cinch, if we give an inch
Old Herod likes to take a mile

It's best to go home by another way
Home by another way
We got this far to a lucky star
But tomorrow is another day
We can make it another way
Safe home as they used to say
Keep a weather eye to the chart on high
And go home another way

-James Taylor

Snowman Tree

Yesterday, my hiking group was traipsing through the woods.  It was a beautiful day.  The temperature was only in the thirties, but we're dressed for the weather and the sun warmed us.  So there we are meandering around Holt Pond, only occasionally running into another hiker.  Imagine our surprise when we came upon this puny tree decorated with little snowmen.

It made us smile and wonder.  Who would do this?  Wouldn't you like to meet whomever?

Poverty is a Sin

Dr. Farmer and Father Gutierrez

In the Company of the Poor edited by Michael Griffin and Jennie Weiss Block is an interview book.  The editors are talking to Dr. Paul Farmer and Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez.

Dr. Farmer is a medical anthropologist and physician who teaches at Harvard Medical School.  He is the Chairman of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine.  He spends a good deal of time ministering to the needy in Haiti.  He is also a co-founder of Partners in Health, an international non-profit organization that provides health care services to desperately poor people.  Dr. Farmer is also the UN Deputy Special Envoy for Haiti.

Father Gutierrez is a Dominican friar, who is best known as a proponent of liberation theology.  Even though he is in his 80's he still teaches at Notre Dame.  He has written numerous books on theology and the poor.  In fact, Father Gutierrez's ideas are the foundation for Partners in Health.

Both men refer to Bartolome de las Casas as a spiritual role model.  Las Casas, in the sixteenth century, noticed that the Indians were dying before their time.  They were being exploited by the rich and powerful upper class.  Gutierrez, also a Dominican friar like las Casas, saw a connection to the poor of today.  They also die before their time, due to sickness and lack of nutrition and medical care. Poverty is a challenge to theology.  Father Gutierrez insists that poverty is not only a social challenge, it must be a theological problem.  One must feed the stomach before the mind can be fed.  One must be healthy to feel God's presence.

Father Bruno Cadore, O.P., the Master of the Order of Preachers wrote the Forward to the book.  In it, he states that Gutierrez developed his proposals for a liberation theology in the course of a human, pastoral struggle with the structural poverty affecting so many people in the cities of South America.  Farmer was faced with the scandal of inequality in health care...  I will point out that the Master knows what he talks about since he is a priest like Father Gutierrez, plus, he is also a physician like Dr. Farmer.

Poverty is an evil, that exemplifies a rejection of God's good will.  Both men work to fight this evil.  This book helped me understand what the phrase "a preferential option for the poor" meant.  I also learned what liberation theology involves.  It also helps that our current pope, Pope Francis comes from the part of the world where Dr. Farmer and Father Gutierrez work.  I see and understand Pope Francis better, now.  It is a good book and I'm happy to have read it.

A Story of Forgiveness

While driving my granddaughter to school, we were listening to a Bible audio tape.  We heard the story of Naaman being cured of leprosy (2 Kings: 5: 1-15)  The narrator told the story to give an example of "forgiveness."  I was surprised.  I had always thought of the Naaman story being a story of "faith in God".  But now I am corrected.

How is it a story of "forgiveness?"

2 Kings 5: 2, tells us that a little girl was captured from Israel and brought to Syria and made to be a servant.  She certainly didn't go happily.  Imagine the circumstances of how a little girl could have been captured and taken from her home.

How would you feel?

Well, she didn't feel that way.  She forgave her captives.  How?  Why? is not point.  She did.

We know this because she tries to help her master.  She tells him about a prophet that could help cure Naaman's leprosy.  The story tells how it comes about in 2 Kings: 5 3-15.

And Naaman is cured because that servant girl forgave him for what he had done to her in 2 Kings 5:2.

Transubstantiation Exercise | Ave Maria Press

Transubstantiation Exercise | Ave Maria Press

This weekend we're teaching adults about the Eucharist. This Lesson Plan by Ave Maria Press is the most useful.

I do believe in the True Presence. So did everyone else, up until John Calvin. Even Martin Luther believed in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharistic Host.

Think about it. Can't God do anything? Doesn't Jesus say "...unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you..." (John 6:54-58) Then believe it!