Some favorite quotes of mine

I've been going through some old journals, books, and the like. I decided to put together a collection of quotes that have meant something to me over the years. I hope you can distill some wisdom, laughter, or whatever out of them, as I did and continue to do.

No particular order, except how they came to me:

"Be not afraid!"
- Pope John Paul II

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
- Reinhold Niebuhr

"A culture is made...or destroyed...by its articulate voices."
- Ayn Rand

"Some people without brains seem to do an awful lot of talking, don't they?"
- Scarecrow, The Wizard of Oz

"Knowledge without Mileage is bullsh*t to me."
- Henry Rollins

"A person's a person, no matter how small"
- Horton the Elephant

A man who can laugh, if only at himself, is never truly miserable."
- H.L. Mencken

"Praise and bless the Lord and give thanks, and serve Him with all humilty!"
- Saint Francis of Assisi

"Some things it just don't pay to be curious about."
- Jud Crandall, Pet Sematary

"Our hearts are restless until they rest in You."
- Saint Augustine of Hippo

"Nothing beats two guitars, drums, and a bass."
- Lou Reed

"In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher."
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

"I like you just the way you are."
- Mister Rogers

"There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers."
- Saint Teresa of Avila

"We are all meant to be mothers of God, for God is always needing to be born."
- Meister Eckhart

"If I feel comfortable with what I'm doing, something's wrong."
- David Bowie

"Imagine what is would be like to look in the mirror each day and say - as God taught us - 'That's good!'"
- Sister Joan Chittister OSB

"I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least."
- Walt Whitman

"Better to suffer the pain of excommunication than to act against one's own conscience."
- Saint Thomas Aquinas

"I've never had a humble opinion; if you have an opinion, why be humble about it?"
- Joan Baez

"Bye now, and God Love You!"
- Archbishop Fulton J Sheen...and today, ME as well!

Daily Mass Readings
Jeremeiah 17:5-10
Psalm 1:1-4,6
Luke 16:19-31

Another way to pray the Divine Office

I try to say at Lauds and Vespers (Morning and Evening prayer) each day. I love joining in these Church-wide prayers; it helps me feel connected and in communion with the rest of the Church community.

As I am physically alone when I say these prayers, it sometimes gets dry saying similar daily prayers myself. On those occasions, I find it uplifting to continue to observe my prayers, but in a new way with a new context.

http://www.gratefulness.org/angels/selectHour.cfm?l=ENG



This website introduces us the the Angel of the Hours. Each of these Angels can accompany a "cyber-pilgim" through all hours of the Divine Office; Vigils, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compine. Each hour has an appropriate theme, chiming bells, and Gregorian chant. It is a welcome alternate from daily prayer recitation; the music and images set a prayerful stage.

Do check it out, and enjoy your walk with the Angels!

Peace,
Thomas

Daily Mass Readings
Jonah 3:1-10
Psalm 51:3-4,12-13,18-19
Luke 11:29-32

On Conscience - WHOSE a Good Girl????

"Conscience is a dog that does not stop us from passing, but we cannot stop from barking."
- Nicolas de Chamfort, writer (1741-1794)

When I was a kid, I knew a dog like this; she lived down the block from my grandparents. She was a little "yipper" of a Mini Schnauzer named Penny. My sister and I used to take great delight in running back and forth along the sidewalk in front of Penny's yard. Penny would run with us along the chain link fence, jumping and barking and yipping. This mutt couldn't have been more than 6 lbs., yet she thought she was a full grown Rottweiler! Patti and I would continue until we grew weary of the game, after which we'd head back down the block towards Gramma's. Penny's insistent, continuous bark would follow us and go on for at least 5 minutes after we went into the house. We'd think to ourselves, "Jeez does that mutt EVER shut up???"

I am blessed (cursed?) with a very loud and insistent conscience...just like Penny. Regardless of whether I am paying attention to it or not, paying it lip service or not, sneering at it in outright contempt or not, my conscience keeps barking. Like Penny, its bark can't can't cause me to do anything, nor can it stop me from doing anything. It WILL however, run alongside me. It will not stop howling its insistent warning until the intruder is long gone. It will certainly not allow me to ignore it. Whatever I am doing, it will wait behind its chain link fence, ever-vigilant...especially when I am not. It seems that the more annoyed I get at the racket, the more insistent it becomes. When that brand of annoyance sets in is when I really need to be paying attention - what is that dog YAPPING about??? Am I doing something I shouldn't? Most often, the answer is no. Am I setting the stage to be doing something I shouldn't? Ahhh, there's the rub - I can still reasonably rationalize at that point! My conscience is trying to warn me of danger coming up the street.

While Mini Schnauzers are considered fantastic watch dogs, they cannot STOP most danger; they can't fight off most intruders. However, they make their masters aware. They make their masters listen and pay attention, whether they want to or not. I guess that's what any good conscience is supposed to do. Whatever the case, I need to give my conscience a good belly-rub and throw her a Scooby-snack more often. She's always trying to keep me out of trouble.

Free will is a beautiful (if not loud) gift from God.

Pax,
Thomas

Daily Mass Readings
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Psalm 1:1-4,6
Luke 9:22-25

Looking past Mardi Gras...

So, I've been thinking. How am I going to "be" this Lent?

Last year's Lent for me, consisted of a number of grand pronouncements, followed by false starts and rationalizations. I did facilitate a prayer group for my parish, but admittedly, that was more to convince myself of the promising parish leader I was becoming. I did not embrace the spirit of fasting and abstinence, was sporadic in my prayer, more sporadic in Mass attendance, did a lot of loafing in front of the computer and TV, and I certainly didn't do anything for the poor.

So...how am I going to be?

I was thinking of trying to be an example this year, the example I'm always touting. If I am not embracing in my life what I profess to believe in, what's the point, really? There's a lot in my life that needs changing; my laziness around the house. My wasting of time on the TV and the Internet. Not engaging in personal prayer unless it is late at night and I'm alone, as if I am embarrassed by it. Not making Sunday Mass an absolute priority. Not spending quality time with my wife and my children. In other words, if I am not living my faith where it counts the most - in my own home, with my own family - what's the point, really? If I am not giving what I receive at Mass with my Church community, with the Franciscans, with the Hibernians, with the Knights, what the heck am I doing, really.

So here's how I am going to be this Lent, with the help of God's grace:

- Be faithful to the standard fasting and abstinence requirements. GO FURTHER...try fasting, not just abstention, each Lenten Friday
- Severely curtail TV and Facebook time. Fill that time with housework, quality time with my family, reading, writing, and prayer
- Join the Lenten Mission at my parish...as a participant instead of a facilitator to keep my considerable ego in check.
- Create a Lenten "sacred space" to use for daily prayer
- Make time for the following: Daily Lauds and Vespers, daily Rosary, at least one Stations of the Cross meditation, and at least one additional Mass per week.
- Attend Holy Triduum services
- Remember the poor in prayer and action.

We need to go beyond the idea of simply "giving something up" for Lent. This penitential season is an invitation to grow in our understanding of God's love for us and our solidarity with the poor, with the rich, and everyone in between. Certainly, giving up something or things that we don't need is a good start. However, if we are not proactive in its stead, if we are not filling that "hole" with something good and worthwhile, we are left with nothing but a hole, ripe for us to grumble about.

Peace & All Good,
Thomas

Daily Mass Readings
James 1:12-18
Psalm 94:12-15,18-19
Mark 8:14-21

Meeting of the minds and souls

It's been awhile since I have been able to write. Thankfully, our busy season is starting to wind down and I am nicely recovering from a long hard bout of bronchitis; I will be able to hit the blog a bit more often as Lent arrives.

For the second month in a row, I've not been able to get to my Franciscan fraternity meeting. Last month I was laid up with the aforementioned bronchitis, and tonight's meeting was canceled because of the forthcoming snow. I've not been together with my spiritual brothers and sisters since the beginning of Advent, and I really miss them. We're supposed to have a day of prayer at the Friary this Saturday, but our host and spiritual director, Bro. Ed, is recovering from a minor stroke, so he's touch and go for the time being.

God does always have an answer for our needs, however.

This Friday I am getting together with 2 dear friends from high school, both of whom I have discovered are "kindred souls". All 3 of us come from different spiritual paths, yet we all seem - I don't know - excited by the possibility and hope that belief in the Divine can bring. We've been shooting emails and messages back and forth for the last few months and have finally nailed down Friday as an opportunity to "solve the problems of the Universe".

I'm really looking forward to it!

Pax,
Thomas

Daily Mass Readings
James 1:1-11
Psalm 119:67,68,71,72,75,76
Mark 8:11-13

Thoughts on The Screwtape Letters

"You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one-the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."
— C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

I've just recently re-read C.S. Lewis' excellent Screwtape Letters - a "correspondence" between two demons regarding a man's soul the junior "tempter" Wormwood is tasked with obtaining. Screwtape, the senior demon and Wormwood's uncle, helps Wormwood navigate his "Patient" through all manner of temptation and sin -from pride, lust, sloth, and so on. The above quote has always chilled me somewhat; Screwtape is explaining to his nephew not to attempt to extract "spectacular" sins and evil from his patient. "Cards" may not be flashy, but eventually the mundane will get the job done. Indeed, going too overboard may alert the patient to the tempter's presence.

Wormwood eventually lost his charge to the Enemy (God)...turns out it wasn't even close. Screwtape assures his nephew that he will receive the fate the patient was to endure.

Screwtape seems to embody the idea that the greatest trick that the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he does not exist. While Wormwood longs for catastrophic evil, Screwtape prefers subtle cunning, distraction and confusion...keeping our eyes off the prize JUST long enough to lose it. Screwtape's method chills me far more than hiss nephew's. What comforts me at the end of the book is Screwtape's consternation of not knowing what "the Enemy" is doing:

"If we could only find out what He is really up to...I am almost in despair. All that sustains me is the conviction that our Realism, our rejection of all silly nonsense and claptrap MUST win in the end!"

Here's to silly nonsense and claptrap.

Seriously, regardless of your faith, The Screwtape Letters is a quick, intelligent, and at times hilarious read. For those of the Christian persuasion, this tome will make you think, perhaps re-think your ideas on the nature of Hell and evil, particularly apt as we approach the penitential season of Lent.

Peace,
Thomas

Daily Mass Readings
2 Samuel:2,9-17
Psalm 32:1-2,5-7
Mark 6:1-6

Embracing the Wolf

Thanks to Sharon Callahan for the retelling of this tale:

Perhaps the most famous story of St. Francis is when he tamed the wolf that was terrorizing the people of Gubbio. While Francis was staying in that town he learned of a wolf so ravenous that it was not only killing and eating animals, but people, too. The people took up arms and went after it, but those who encountered the wolf were killed. The villagers became afraid to leave the city walls.

Francis took pity on the people and the wolf as well and decided to go out and meet the wolf. He was desperately warned by the people, but he insisted that God would take care of him. A brave friar and several peasants accompanied Francis outside the city gate. But soon the peasants became terrified and said they would go no farther.

Francis and his companion began to walk on. Suddenly the wolf, jaws wide open, charged out of the woods at the couple. Francis made the Sign of the Cross toward the wolf who immediately slowed down and closed its mouth. Then Francis called out to the wolf: “Come to me, Brother Wolf. I wish you no harm.” At that moment the wolf lowered its head and lay down at St. Francis’ feet, meek as a lamb.

St. Francis explained to the wolf that he had been terrorizing the people, killing not only other animals, but humans as well. “Brother Wolf,” said Francis, “I want to make peace between you and the people of Gubbio. They will harm you no more and you must no longer harm them. All past wrongs are to be forgiven.”

The wolf showed its assent by moving its body and nodding its head. Then to the absolute surprise of the gathering crowd, Francis asked the wolf to make a pledge. As St. Francis extended his hand to receive the pledge, so the wolf extended its front paw and placed it into the saint’s hand. Then Francis invited the wolf to follow him into town to make a peace pact with the townspeople. The wolf meekly followed St. Francis.

By the time they got to the town square, everyone was there to witness the miracle. Then he offered the townspeople peace, on behalf of the wolf. The townspeople promised in a loud voice to feed the wolf. Then Francis asked the wolf if he would live in peace under those terms. He bowed his head and twisted his body in a way that convinced everyone he accepted the pact. Then once again the wolf placed its paw in Francis’ hand as a sign of the pact.

From that day on the people kept the pact they had made. The wolf lived for two years among the townspeople, going from door to door for food. It hurt no one and no one hurt it. Even the dogs did not bark at it. When the wolf finally died of old age, the people of Gubbio were sad. The wolf’s peaceful ways had been a living reminder to them of the wonders, patience, virtues and holiness of St. Francis. It had been a living symbol of the power and providence of the living God

http://www.anaflora.com/articles/saints-sages/saint-1.html

I love the story of St. Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio. It reminds me that I need to embrace and love all of myself, even those parts I consider unsavory, savage or dark. Everyone has their Wolf-selves. It is part of who we are, and the lesson Brother Francis teaches us here is not to hate or try to rip out and kill this part of ourselves as the townspeople of Gubbio initially wished to do with their wolf (with disastrous results); it is to accept it, come to terms with it, and live in peace with it. A lesson I still must learn - and I thank you, Little Brother Francis for continuing to teach me.

Peace and a Blessed New Year,
Thomas

Daily Mass Readings
1 John 5:14-21
Psalm 149:1-6a,9b
John 3:22-30