Readings:

Revelation 7, 2-4, 9-14,  I, John, saw another angel.

Psalm 24,    Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.  

1 John  3, 1-3, See what love the Father has bestowed on us.   Instead of this reading, we will have a special poem for All Saints.

Matthew 5, 1-12,  Blessed are the poor in spirit. 

'Welcome in, Everybody,' say Victoria, Michelle, and Cathy.

Intro: 3 feasts—

                    All Saints: (or All Hallowes) those who have achieved the beatific vision according to the Catholic Church.  Plus, saints are canonized  based on miracles.

                    All Souls: those who have not achieved the beatific vision and are considered paying for their sins in purgatory.  Limbo has been abandoned by the Catholic Church and purgatory is in question.

                    Hallowe’en: the vigil of All Hallowes, a Celtic-Irish harvest, end of summer celebration. 

               A Happy Birthday Cupcake of The Week to Karen.

The Western Catholic Church:

 4 significant dates, 300, 600, 700, & 800

Year 300: during this century the early Christians, reeling from persecution, celebrated feast of All Martyrs.  This is really the foundation of the feast.

Year 600: a Pope Boniface dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to Mary & All Martyrs.  May 13 was the celebration because it was also an ancient pagan day of celebration.

Year 700:  a Pope Gregory set up in St. Peter’s Basilica a side chapel dedicated to All Saints.

Year 800: Dec. 25, Charlemagne is crowned Emperor by the Pope on the red stone in St. Peter’s.  Charlemagne, an advocate of All Saints, established it on Nov. 1, coupling it with a Harvest Feast.

Sources: Practicing Catholic by James Carroll, Catholic Encyclopedia on line, Wikipedia.

                              Happy Birthday to you, Rob.     

 The Second Reading:

SMILE BECAUSE THEY LIVED 

You can shed tears because your love is gone

Or you can smile because your love  lived.

You can close your eyes and pray that your love will come back,

Or you can open your eyes and see all that your love has left.

Your heart can be empty, because you can’t see your love

Or you can be full of the love that you have shared.

You can turn your back on tomorrow

And live in yesterday,

Or you can be happy for tomorrow

Because of yesterday.

You can remember only that your love has gone

Or you can cherish the memory and let it live on.

You can weep, and close your mind,

Be empty and turn back,

Or you can do what your love would want –

Open your eyes, smile, love and go on.

For lighting the candles, Cole, A Cupcake of The Week.  Enjoy.

All of You, Saints

This morning I would like to talk about All Saints, and, in particular, some of our saints.  I have a group, an individual, and another group.  I would like to talk about all three.  These are the old geezer priest's observations.

First of all, the group.  This is the group Rosemary and I see every Monday evening at the Farmers Branch Senior Center.  Dance night.

            Our pet gorilla, dressed in holiday attire, also says,                             "Welcome, Folks."

Last Monday Rosemary & I discovered when we arrived that Halloween was being celebrated.  And talk about celebrating.  You would have been knocked out at the costumes some of these people put together.  I had not a clue who some of them were. 

One lady struck me.  Rosemary & I were dancing when I notice her coming in at the other end of the ballroom.  She was all dressed up and was pushing what I thought was a baby pram.  So maybe she has a doll or even a puppy in there.  But no, as we got closer I discovered that it was, in fact, a walker for her. 

                                                 Our Saints.

This really touched me.  She cannot dance, but she can dress up and join the party.  I last saw her talking to all sorts of people.

There are two other people who really touch me on dance night.  One lady, Janice, is blind, and has been blind for a dozen years, but can she dance!  I have danced with her a couple of times.  I always come in and tell her I want a Janice hug.  She knows me by my voice.

                                                     Our Saints.

The other person is a guy 96 years old.  He cannot dance, but he tries.  He flew heavy bombers during the Second W.W.  A line dance is scheduled every Monday evening at about the same time, 7:30, and I can see him lined up, getting behind the beat and even getting turned around.  But he always gets out there.

These folks, living life to the fullest, are saints for me.

                                                                     Our Saints.

Secondly, a good friend of mine, Jim Miller, whom many of you would recognize because he always joined us for Christmas Eve and Easter.   He loved the community.  Just could not get up for 9:30.

His wife, Jan, sent me a note Thursday night saying Jim wanted to see me and that he was not doing well.  We have a custom of sharing lunch every other month or so.  Because of that, I knew he was getting treatment for cancer.  He seemed pretty confident.

John, who is that masked person?  Are you not scared?

I did not get his wife’s message until late Thursday evening and waited to call her Friday after 8:00, thinking she would be up & active by then.  When I got her, she was in tears and said that Jim had just died.  He even told her he was disappointed I had not been contacted sooner so I could have visited him.

Jim, who was a proud graduate of the Naval Academy and a questioner, was a saint for me.   

                 Why, that's Leo.  Just in time to share your birthday                             cupcake, yes!  Happy Birthday.

Thirdly, I would say this group of people.  You people are saints to me.  After all, you put up with me every week, and even Rosemary.  The old geezer priest knows this stuff. 

So, how does it feel to be told you are a saint?

And who is your favorite saint?

                      The Best, Shonda, Bethany, & Ray.

Readings:  Sirach 3, 17-29; Psalm 68, God, in Your Goodness, You have made a Home for the Poor;  Hebrews 12, 18-24; Luke 14, 1-14

Introduction to the Readings

The first reading today is from the Book Sirach, which used to be better known as Ecclesiasticus.  It was written about the year 180 BCE by Jesus, son of Elcazar, son of Sira, and later translated by his grandson into Greek.

Sirach was a highly respected scribe and teacher, a person who traveled quite a bit, may even have been a diplomat to foreign courts.  Later in his life he started a school in Jerusalem where he tried to pass on to the young people the great love he had of the Scriptures combined with what he had learned from his own experiences about life. 

The book is part of the Wisdom literature and the reason for its older title, Ecclesiasticus is that in the past it was one of the most used and quoted books by the Church!   Our reading today fits well with the topic in the gospels, humility.

The second reading is from the Letter to the Hebrews.  The author is unknown, although for a long period of time it was assumed to be Paul.  But today most scholars agree that the style is too different and the Greek used is the best in the New Testament. 

The overall message of the letter is one of encouragement to hang in and not get too complacent with the faith.  Probably written late in the first century, the main theme is the priesthood and sacrifice of Jesus.  This is the letter where we come across the many references to Jesus as the High Priest. 

I sometimes wonder if this focus was due to the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem (ca. 70 C.E.) and the end of the priesthood as the Jewish people would have known it, and so to fill the void the author holds up Jesus and his sacrifice as the one true sacrifice. 

Another important theme is the pilgrimage of the people of God to the heavenly Jerusalem, and it is on this topic that our reading is taken from for today.

Homily

The theme of the readings today is humility.   From a careful reading of the gospel, I am left a little confused because it seems to me that the main point Jesus could be making is how to get more recognition by being humble.  That said, since I have nothing good to say about it, I want instead to take advantage of the fact that today we are going to be baptizing Emma and welcoming her into our community, and so would like to offer some thoughts about baptism. 

If we go right back to the earliest days of Christianity, we find baptism!  Early in Mark’s gospel Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan.  In Matthew’s gospel the apostles are instructed by Jesus just before his ascension to “go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit”.   And through out the Acts of the Apostles it becomes clear that baptism was the way to join this community. 

It was the Rite of Entry!  And all of the people who were being baptized did so after hearing the message or the teaching as Matthew puts it.  If kids were baptized, it was only because the family was joining. 

It wasn’t until the fifth century when St. Augustine stated that only the baptized could get into heaven that the focus and practice shifted.  This of course created a huge pastoral problem for those who died before being baptized.  It was only in the 12^th century that Peter Abelard came up with the notion of Limbo, for those who had died unbaptized. 

One of the consequences of all of this was that religion was taught to kids, and not to adults!!  When was the last time any of you were at a formal class or session on your faith, outside of mass?  Think about it! 

The catholic faith as most of us have it was given at a kid level.  This might have been fine at a time when most adults were not educated beyond the 6^th grade, if even that, but today most adults have at least completed high school and a large number even college. 

Let me be clear, when I take about “faith” I am specifically referring to our personal response to God, our relationship with God.  Our acceptance of the invitation from God, to love God.  The information stuff, the doctrines, etc., are secondary.  When we were baptized as infants, someone else made that decision for us.  Today while Emma is being baptized, can we take a moment to reflect on the decision made for us, and make it for ourselves!  What does it mean in your life today, that you are baptized?

Picture 1:   Emma's welcome into the community baptism

Picture 2:   Emma's family, godparents Bobby & Tanya, parents Tom & Beth

Picture 3:   Sisters, Megan & Emely Kite.  Megan off to teach in Spain for a year.

Picture 4:  Chloe

Picture 5:  Jackie & Cathy accepting from Mike our monthly $2000 donation to the CCAC

Readings:   Terrific readings today–

Isaiah   55, 1-3,  Come, drink wine and milk.

 Psalm 145,   The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.  Also, That Line, The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love, Stanza 2.

Romans 8, 35, 37-39,  What will separate us from the love of  God?

Matthew  14, 13-21,  The feeding of the multitude.

Says Emma, "Hi, Everybody, Welcome."

Observations on the readings:

 1.  Isaiah 55: 3 beautiful invitations, come, come, come, come–4 times.  This is the very last chapter of Isaiah 2 trying to encourage the Israelites in the Babylonian period, ca. 550 B.C.

 2.  Psalm 145 & Romans 8.  That special line again, The Lord is gracious & merciful, does not get angry and is abounding in love.  

Paul is winding up Romans and is almost poetic, claiming that even cosmic events cannot separate us from God’s love.

CC, too, says, "Come on in, Folks, it's fun."

 3.  Feeding the 10 thousand.  This story is repeated in all 4 gospel stories.  In fact, it is told 6 times.

I have suggested for years that the real miracle here is that Jesus created enough trust and conviviality in the group that they shared the food that they would have most probably carried with them when they set out to listen to this man.  They knew there were no fast food places along the road. 

I saw this in East Africa.  People did not leave home without provisions stashed away.

I saw this trust and conviviality along the way in Iowa a week ago and would like to talk about it during the homily.

Amish Country. Just one of the gloriously beautiful Amish farms we saw along the Iowa roads.

It is not the destination, Folks.  It is the journey.

For over 40 years I have talked about how I see this story of the feeding of the multitude.  That the real miracle is that Jesus enabled these country people to trust each other enough to share their hidden stashes.  I really saw this in East Africa.

In light of my recent experience in Iowa, I would like to take a different slant this time.  In particular, I would suggest these folks were on a journey in their life, stopped to hear this man, and were greatly touched.  They were reminded that God is gracious and merciful, never gets angry, and is abounding in love. 

Buddy and Tori ready for anything.

Three little vignettes from Iowa.

Probably on the third day of Ragbrai (Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride across Iowa), I am riding along and see a sign for Iowa Conservation Assoc.  I stop because I know these people give out great bananas. There are probably 100 people at the concession and more than 100 across the highway at another concession. 

I am eating a banana when suddenly on my side I hear somebody playing Taps.  I think it is a pretty girl I have seen other years playing a trumpet.  Instead it is a guy.  His buddy has an American flag.  Both of them could be my age. 

Georgie ready to share her beautiful warmth with everybody.

At one point he starts playing the National Anthem.  The response was profound and electric.  Everybody stopped dead.  We all faced the man and the flag.  I was moved actually to tears, even remembering my years in East Africa when I was consoled just to see the flag blowing in front of the local American Embassy. 

After he finished and everybody returned to what they were doing, I crossed to the area where the two guys were and in a choking voice I told him how much I appreciated what he did.  He hardly even spoke a word.  Just gave me a hug.   A beautiful slice of Americana at a concession on the side of a road in Iowa.

Thanks to God every day for Wendy.

Later that same day, I am riding along again when I hear from the edge of the road at a concession, pop, pop, pop.  It is the sound of the Amish pie & ice cream concession. Yippee.  I had been looking for them.  We are in beautiful Amish country, especially during the last two days. 

The concession is on the right side of the highway and I am on the left.  It was too dangerous to stop with so many bikers, so I missed them that third day.  However, the last four days I stopped every day.  I even got to know their names and they would say when they saw me, “Here he is again.”  Their rhubarb-strawberry pie, their blueberry pie, and their churned on the spot vanilla ice cream were from another planet. Another experience of consoling Americana on the edge of the road.

Cupcakes of The Week for Harper's parents' 9th anniversary, Dawson, Cindy for herself and for her dad , Curtis at 85, and Linda and Hue.

Finally, there was the Marines’ chin-up bar.  We had pass through towns and overnight towns.  In the overnight town there was always a big expo with vendors of all types, lots of food, and the Marines’ chin-up bar.

I would see a cheering crowd and an amazing number of people who would step up and do pull-ups.  I saw a young maybe Philippino do 34 pull-ups.   Everybody was cheering him on, counting each pull-up. 

Offertory, Donna, Carol, David, Dawson, and Dana.

For me the most touching was a young girl, maybe 7 years old, shy and maybe Hispanic with olive skin and pretty black hair in a pony tail.  I don’t think she and her family were bikers, maybe residents.   I watched that little girl do 14 pull-ups.  I went over and told her what a marvel she was and that I could hardly do 1 pull-up.  Another touching slice of Americana right there in a little town in northern Iowa. 

As much as I was moved by the hospitality of the people who hosted us in the overnight towns, I was even more appreciative of the slices of Americana I witnessed all along the ride.  I was constantly being shown that the Lord is gracious and merciful, never gets angry, and is abounding in love.

An ecstatic two cupcake Cindy, one for her birthday last week and one for Curtis, her dad, at 85.

It is not just the destination, Folks.  It is the ride.

How is your ride?

Readings:

Isaiah 55, 1-5, All you who are thirsty, come to the water.  (Ever wonder why I love Isaiah so much!!)

Psalm 145,  The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.           

Romans  8, 35, 37- 39,  What will separate us from the love of Christ?

Matthew 14, 13-21,   They all ate and were satisfied and they picked up the fragments left over.  (Terrifically positive readings this Sunday!  Wow!)

Thanks to the Team

Music,  Ben & Shonda

Readers,    Mary Jane & John, & Buddy, the candle blesser

Gospel & Homily,  Deacon Mike & Stack

Eucharistic Prayer A & B, Stack & John Cade

The Magic Zoom makers, Mike & Richard, Ben & Hue (welcome Hue!)

Final Blessing, Rosemary

The Best Music, Ben & Shonda.

Please Remember these special people:

For our Bill & his family, Patty, Bobby & Lisa, Melinda, Amy & Bret;  For Becky's dad just discovered with the virus;  For Cindy recuperating from a procedure some weeks ago;    For Carrie Bieda's son;   For Esparzas, Frank & Mary,  For all the medical personnel struggling to treat the tsunami of sick people, in particular, locally, Cindy's staff at Presby, Dallas, and at Frisco Presby, the mother of Harper and Betsy, Kendle, working in labor & delivery;   For Joe Hogan with cancer;  For Loretta's aunt Alicia;    For Sydney;  & For Sir Charlie & Jan;  Shonda's mom & Cody & Ben & all of Shonda's dear family;   for Michelle;

John Schanot reads Romans today.

For Jackie's mom;  For a friend, a neighbor, & a doctor, Karen, with brain cancer; For Rick Turner searching for a kidney donor, Type O neg; For Meredith, cancer free;    For Hue;  For John O'Donnell;    For Dee, and for her daughter, Lisa; For John Schanot's continued health;  For Anthony & Sabrina;    For a young man who is suffering from depression;  John Cade's mother in law, Kalliopi Piskiouli and Lambrini;  for Virginia Mattingly.

Download Readiongs Week 8-2

Birthdays:  Linda Beavers, Eric Wittek, Lynda Fleming 60, Souls Harbor's birth (Brent wants a cupcake), born 1956 (64 years ago!)

Anniversary: Mike & Judy, 56th

Brian Bambaneck & Kendall, 15th (parents of  Harper & Betsy)   

Today Mary Jane reads from Isaiah.

John's Homily, In Memory of Bill

Matthew has presented to us this morning one of my favorite Bible stories.  The point is usually made that Jesus just multiplied the bread.  As I’ve said all the times I have spoken on this little vignette over the years, my read is that Jesus created such a spirit among the people that they shared what they had with each other.  That was the miracle of sharing.  

 I saw this in Tanzania the ten years I lived there.  I would be riding my motorcycle down a hot, dusty road, & come across a half a dozen Tanzanian women waiting for a country bus.  They all wore robes from their heads to their sandals.  Under those robes they had food.  And they did not reveal a crumb. 

The brain trust.

What did Jesus do?  He created a spirit of trust and invited them to share.  Imagine you are there.  You are provident and conceal your rations.  Suddenly, after having a good meeting with these people, Jesus takes a  loaf of bread, breaks it, takes a piece, and passes it to you.  In the spirit of sharing, you take a piece of the bread and you put some of your bread into the basket. 

Can’t you see Bill Hammond doing this!  It is September and Bill is standing up here inviting us all to help with the Love for Kids special picnic day at the Circle K Farm in Flower Mound one Saturday in October.   20-30-40 members of our community would show up every year.

The Brain Trust?

Initially I found it difficult to spend Saturday morning at the picnic because I used Saturday to get my ideas sorted out for our Sunday Masses.  Little did I need those ideas because I came home and devoted all my homily time to how I was touched by the kids, by our community, and by Bill for touching my heart again.

Because of Bill & Bona Responds, Bill and I spent a week in Galveston helping to clean up after the hurricane.   Bill frequently relayed opportunities to community members to join him and other Bona Responds kids in tornado clean up.  Bill got us into these sharing events and we were incredibly richer.

Hey, Mike, we got audio this morning.  Hooray!  In fact, if you missed it the first time, it even repeats.

The second event that showed me how special Bill was came with our early September 8-9 day back packing trips to Yosemite.  8-9 campers loaded up and came along.  Bill was one camper & hiker that I knew I could rely on to help me out if someone was having trouble with the altitude or weight of a back pack.  We had 8 dinners & deserts, like freeze dried peach cobbler,  which Rose Banzhaf prepared & freeze dried.  This meant 1 bear canister for each camper. We ate well and we had to tote all that up the trail.  Bill always generously offered to help out with the load, especially the pint of Jack Daniel we all carried for the evening feast. 

Sacra Couer, Paris

The third way that Bill touched me was the famous Hotter ‘N Hell Bike Ride out of Wichita Falls, the last week end of August, yes, usually the hottest week end  of the calendar.  The year was probably 2011.  

So along comes Bill inviting me to ride.  Trouble was, I was a runner, not a biker.   No problem.  He had everything I needed, Helmet, shorts, shirt, and even a bike (which I discovered later was Bobby’s bike).   I must have hesitated, to say the least.  But you know how hard it was to turn Bill down. 

Chain Bridge, Budapest

So I agree and ride up with Bill to Wichita Falls.  We camp out on the college campus.  There are thousands of these crazy people. We get up in the dark about 5:00.  Bill wants to leave before the huge crowd takes off all together.  I get into these clothes in the dim light of the parking lot.  We take off.  It does not take long for Bill & his buddies to speed off down the road.  I trail along. Yes, I did finish but Bill never let me forget that I spent the first 20 miles with my bike pants on backward. 

Sunset, At Sea

Thank you, Bill, for blessing my life and the lives of so many.  You have been and still are a very special gift.

Using John Lewis' Blessing,  So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers & sisters, and let the spirit of peace & the power of everlasting love be your guide.  

Is City of Dallas giving us a little hint?  

Cindy Cramer:

John has been in touch with Cindy Cramer’s son and daughter.  Cindy has healed from the heart surgery. 

She is presently in Encompass Health Rehab Hospital, 3351 Waterview Parkway, Richardson, TX 75080, Room 110.  Cindy needs physical therapy to learn to walk again due to Guillain-Barre.

She is not allowed any visitors but would LOVE to receive some cards and notes.  Also, since she is on the  first floor you can window visit.  The windows are numbered with the room numbers, so you should be able to find #110.  Also you can make her a home-made dinner and deliver it to the front desk! She is currently on a special diet due to her blood thinner which requires that she not go crazy on Vitamin K. It's not that she can't have any at all; she just shouldn't have large amounts. Check out the Mayo Clinic's list of foods to avoid. If you include any of those items mixed into a casserole or something, be sure to include a note with how much is in there.

She’s very busy between three meals a day, and physical therapy twice a day at times that change daily, scheduling your visit may be a challenge. Rather than set a particular time for all window visits, it will probably be easiest if you just sign up for a day, and then contact her about when would be a good time to come by. Here is the signup sheet if you want to do that.

Readings: We are celebrating All Saints, but using the readings for Sunday, Sirach 35, 12-18; Psalm 145, I will praise Your Name forever, My King and My God (my favorite line in the psalm; can you spot it?); 2 Thessalonians 1, 11-2, 2; Luke 10, 9-14 (Good Ole Zacheus ).

We actually had two poems read this morning for All Saints.  Watch for them in the Friday blog. 

Psalm 145:

 See if you can pick it out.  My favorite line in perhaps all of scripture. 

Fr. Jack Deeves, S.J. at 82

 A week ago Thursday I attended a celebration of the life of Fr. Jack Deeves at St. Rita’s.  Jack was a Jesuit companion all my 50 plus years as a Jesuit.  He was 82.  He had received a heart transplant in ‘89, and lived with it for 21 years, close to if not a record.  He was one of the good old Jesuits. 

 I want to tell you about him this morning and use as a template the story of Zacheus and my favorite line from scripture.  Could you spot it?  My version: “The Lord is gracious and merciful, never gets angry and is abounding in love.”  Psalm 145, verse 8.  Could this not be the answer to our big question?

Unlike our friend Zacheus, Jack was not short in stature.  Probably 6’2” or more, you could see him above the crowd smiling and greeting all the people gathering around him. 

 Like Zacheus, who was agile enough to climb trees, Jack was a good athlete.  In my early Jesuit days I did not like to face him when he was pitching for the other side. 

 Like Zacheus he was what the psalm calls ‘gracious.’  I would say he was a gracious hospitable extrovert.  For many of the years I spent at Jesuit with him he was the father minister, the priest in charge of the kitchen, supplies, and the well being of the men in the house.  I cannot count the number of years he played the role of Santa Clause at our annual Christmas party. 

 I took Jack out to lunch about a year ago at Kel’s Kitchen down at Forest & the Tollway, a Jesuit staff hangout.  As we go in, half a dozen or ten people all know Jack and stop him to chat.  Jack graciously spent time with all of them, smiling and asking them about their families & lives.  I thought he was never going to make it to our table.

 Like Zacheus and certainly like God who the psalm writer says never gets angry, Jack never lost his amiable disposition and enthusiasm for people and life.  Only if one of us Jesuits to be buggers would slightly intimate that Ursuline, the institution he loved last & most, we would intimate that Ursuline was slightly less than Jesuit.  To the rescue Jack would come. 

 I can remember when I was in my 5^th, 6^th and 7^th years of study in Mobile we used to go to a 2 week summer camp on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay, a place I loved, because I loved the outdoors, the water, the sun, water skiing, and outdoor sports like 2 person volley ball.  Jack was the father superior for us maybe 50 guys living in a two storey, screened in pavilion.  Big open dormitory on the second floor.  Jack made life heavenly for us, even though some guys were not into the outdoor life.  We had no a/c.  He even had time to play with the neighbor kids from houses along the shore.  I developed some close friends among those neighbors. 

 Finally, as the psalm writer says about God, Jack was dear.  He was loving.  He loved people and he poured out his spirit loving them, at Kel’s Kitchen, at Jesuit, at Ursuline, as cheer leader moderator for years, and at so many football games and school events. 

 I know Jack was hurting because of my departure, but he was one of the guys I could always call up or go by Ursuline to find him.  I would ask how he was and how the other guys were.  He would even go out to eat with me.

Jack was not short of stature physically or spirit-wise.  He was, moreover,gracious and merciful, never got angry and was dear, abounding in love.

 Who is the Jack Deeves in your life?

 Picture 1:   Beginning of Mass for All Saints

 Picture 2:   Memorial for Our Beloved

 Picture 3:    More of the Memorial

 Picture 4:    Our Father

 Picture & Obituary from the Dallas Morning News, October 17:            

Readings:

Isaiah 49, 14-15,  I will never forget you.   

 Psalm 62,  Rest in God alone, my soul.

 1 Corinthians 4, 1-5,   Then everyone will receive praise from God.

 Matthew 6, 24-34,    Do not worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will take care of itself.

"Happy Mardi Gras, Everybody," say Cathy and Harper.

Isaiah observations and reminders—

Who, This is 2^nd Isaiah.

When, This is during the Captivity in Babylon, ca. 555 before Christ. 

Subject, The writer, the prophet, is trying to lift the spirits of his fellow slaves.  He gives them exquisite news, using God’s words, “I will never forget you.”  A short but touching cameo of consolation and hope. 

And from Kevin, "Welcome in, Folks."

Have a Happy Lent

I admit that Lent is my least favorite seasons of the year, mostly because of the emphasis on penance I encountered as a kid and during my early years as a Jesuit.  We did penance in those days.  I don’t think it was spiritually and psychologically healthy. 

Therefore, I would like to talk about how to have a Happy Lent.  A no dread zone.  And, I would add, a belief that God cares not a whit for us doing all sorts of penance.   

Tori, too, says, "Hi, Everybody."

Consequently, I have two points based on being people fully alive.  The first point focuses on self nurture and has two suggestions.

First, treat yourself each week of Lent.  Like take a special day off, go out to eat, like join us at Romeos or Juliettes, have some ice cream, and go for a drive (if possible with the traffic congestion).  In fact, because we have not had a day off since Thanksgiving, Rosemary, I, and Aviana are going to visit her sister in Hilton Head for a week. 

Hi, Vivian.  It is so nice to have you with us this morning.

Secondly, spend some quiet time in contemplation, especially with a focus on gratitude.  I just read about a guy who survived the Burma death camps.  He said he was never a prisoner, meaning he always focused on what he was grateful for whatever torment was going on around him.

The second half of this you will maybe hate me for bringing up.  But, here I go, exercise.  I want to keep you people alive, fully alive until you are ready to check out.  This really involves only 2-3 hours per week, 30 minutes a day for six days.  There are two types of exercise, cardio and strength. 

The Candle Man of The Week, Cole, at work. 

Cardio involves walking, riding a bike, and running.  A 30 minute walk around the neighborhood has amazingly positive effects. 

I can certainly vouch for how good I feel after I have done a spin class at the Jewish Community Center in the morning.  I do this Monday through Friday and it is marvelous.

Delivery day is here,  TODAY.   Do we have a doctor in the house?  
 

Strength is for muscle and bone, and involves things like yoga, Tai Chi, and weights.  It also includes doing things like gardening (even mowing the grass?), taking the stairs, walking from the outer edge of the parking lot, dancing, and house work (like vacuuming).

The goal in all of this is to be fully alive and happy until we arrive home. 

Offertory team, John & Connie, Scott & Lily

So, how are you going to have a Happy Lent?

Good article on exercise,  Download EXERCISE FOR LENT 2-

Bethany, when is my new play mate coming to visit me?