Other endings

It isn’t necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice — there are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia. - Frank Zappa

In Word & Sacrament

The intermediate coming is a hidden one; in it only the elect see the Lord within their own selves, and they are saved. In his first coming our Lord came in our flesh and in our weakness; in this middle coming He comes in spirit and in power; in the final coming He will be seen in glory and majesty.
Because this coming lies between the other two, it is like a road on which we travel from the first coming to the last. In the first, Christ was our redemption; in the last, he will appear as our life; in this middle coming, he is our rest and consolation. - St. Bernard

Awakening our memory

Advent is concerned with that very connection between memory and hope which is so necessary to man. Advent’s intention is to awaken the most profound and basic emotional memory within us, namely, the memory of the God who became a child. This is a healing memory; it brings hope. The purpose of the Church’s year is continually to rehearse her great history of memories, to awaken the heart’s memory so that it can discern the star of hope.…

It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope. - Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict the XVI)

Subjects of the New Kingdom

His first coming was to fulfill his plan of love, to teach men by gentle persuasion. This time, whether men like it or not, they will be subjects of His kingdom by necessity.  - St. Cyril of Jerusalem

Getting back in the saddle - Yesterday's Quote

We ought never to forget, beloved, that we have renounced the world. We are living here now as aliens and only for a time. When the day of our homecoming puts an end to our exile, frees us from the bonds of the world, and restores us to paradise and to a kingdom, we should welcome it. What man, stationed in a foreign land, would not want to return to his own country as soon as possible? Well, we look upon paradise as our country, and a great crowd of our loved ones awaits us there, a countless throng of parents, brothers and children longs for us to join them. Assured though they are of their own salvation, they are still concerned about ours. What joy both for them and for us to see one another and embrace! O the delight of that heavenly kingdom where there is no fear of death! O the supreme and endless bliss of everlasting life!


There, is the glorious band of apostles, there the exultant assembly of prophets, there the innumerable host of martyrs, crowned for their glorious victory in combat and in death. There in triumph are the virgins who subdued their passions by the strength of continence. There the merciful are rewarded, those who fulfilled the demands of justice by providing for the poor. In obedience to the Lord’s command, they turned their earthly patrimony into heavenly treasure. - St. Cyprian, Sermon on man's mortality

Taking a break until Advent -

Good night until tomorrow, if God is willing. - Pope John Paul I
The last words Pope John Paul spoke to an aide after only serving as Pope for a month. I am going to take a break until Advent and focus on a few other things in the meanwhile.

Been too busy -

Beware the barrenness of a busy life. - Socrates
I hope to get back in the swing of things in a few days and start my regular postings.

This is the moment when almighty God calls His friends to Himself. - St. Elizabeth of Hungary

Back from Retreat - Friday's Quote

Good Friday! What a day! Christ has forgiven us everything! - Edmund Husserl
       One of the philosophers I did not get a chance to study much in college. He had profound influence on Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) and Pope John Paul.  In his final illness Husserl coverted to Catholicism.

One has to die

One has to die to know exactly what happens after death, althought Catholics have their hopes. - Alfred Hitchcock

Knowing

I know there is another life, and for that reason I am not afraid of losing this one. - Saint Noah Mawaggali

Yet another forgotten quote - Friday's

How good God is! How powerful! How beautiful! He must indeed be so beautiful, since the soul, which is but a ray of His beauty, is so lovely!  - Blessed Andre Bessette

Hail the Cross, our only hope!

I am content about everything. Ave crux, spes unica - St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross
    Here final note to her sisters before she faced her death in Auschwitz.

Yesterday's forgotten quote - St. Martin de Porres

It would be useless to ask him to come, he is already here with St. Vincent Ferrer - St. Martin de Porres
       After St. Martin received the last rites he was urged to invoke St. Dominic as he suffered in agony, his response showed his awareness even as he passed from this world.

The grave

There, now, a grave isn't anything to be worried about. Didn't you know it is only a place for old clothes? - Venerable Marie of the Incarnation
       Venerable Marie was an Ursaline missionary to Quebec who died in 1672 and worked with children in her missionary work.

All Saints

Let me go to the house of the Father - Pope John Paul II
       I thought for the month of November with the focus on All Souls and praying for the dead I would use quotes from a book I acquired over the summer. Last Words Final Thoughts of Catholic Saints & Sinners.
       Today's quote were the final words of Pope John Paul II

Happy Halloween!

Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. - Edgar Allan Poe  - The Raven.

Autumn

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. -Albert Camus

Yesterday's forgotten quote

I've a grand memory for forgetting.  -Robert Louis Stevenson

Praise be to you, Lord, for the banquet of Christ’s body and blood given us through the apostles, which refreshes us and gives us life. - Petition for Morning Prayer, Feast of Sts. Simon & Jude

The value of money

The chief value of money lies in the fact that one lives in a world in which it is overestimated. - H. L. Mencken

Thinking about the election

Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be.  - Sydney J. Harris

The darkest hour

It's always darkest before the dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it. ~Author Unknown

Yesterday's missed quote

 If it's stupid but works, it isn't stupid. -Anon.

What do you lack

People do not lack strength, they lack will. - Victor Hugo

What God wants

Therefore, if something happens that we did not pray for, we must have no doubt at all that what God wants is more expedient than what we wanted ourselves. Our great Mediator gave us an example of this. After he had said: Father, if it is possible, let this cup be taken away from me, he immediately added, Yet not what I will, but what you will, Father, so transforming the human will that was his through his taking a human nature. As a consequence, and rightly so, through the obedience of one man the many are made righteous. - St. Augustine, Letter to Proba

Your love and Your truth

I will thank you, Lord, among the peoples, among the nations I will praise you, for your love reaches to the heavens and your truth to the skies. -Psalm 57

Happy, happy, fun time!

Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination. -Mark Twain
The further I stray from sanity the happier I am.  I've heard it is a fine line between sanctity and insanity, I hope I can find one without finding the other.

Favors

People return small favors, acknowledge middling ones, and repay great ones with ingratitude.
- Proverbs for Daily Living
An interesting little book my mom gave years ago that contains quotes from all over the place. However, it doesn't credit the quotes to particular individuals or sources.

Gets you into trouble

It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so. - Mark Twain

Monday Triple Header Lincoln, Scott & Twain

And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It is the life in your years. - Abraham Lincoln
This is a phrase I use at funerals on a fairly regular basis. We too often assume that someone who lived a long life got a fair shake and those who died younger were cheated. The fair or cheated aspect of life has more to do with our response to life rather than the things that happen to us.
This quote reminds me of a similar quote by Mark Twain:
It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog. - Mark Twain
Call me odd, but I think of wolverines and shrews with this quote. Small animals that pack a punch compared to animals much larger. Both can fight off large potentially more dangerous predators and bring down prey much large than themselves.
Finally from the back of my office door:
One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum, in which men steal through existence, like sluggish waters through a marsh, without either honor or observation. -Sir Walter Scott

Trust

You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don't trust enough. -Frank H. Crane

Strange & Wonderful

To be matter of fact about the world is to blunder into fantasy -- and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful.  -Robert Anson Heinlein
I often experience the tension between an imposing modern pragmatism which makes me want to focus on the the task(s) at hand and evaluated life in terms of productivity and accomplishment and the gentle invitation to pause and appreciate the strange and wonderful world God has shared with us with no goal in mind other than gratitude.

What bothers you?

Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand. -Mark Twain

The truth will set you free

Truth is generally the best vindication against slander. -Abraham Lincoln

I'm bored. No, you are boring.

There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person. -G. K. Chesterton

Reputation

You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do. - Henry Ford

Hardly any difference

My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to the tell the truth, there's hardly any difference. - Harry S. Truman
Few politicians have better lines than President Truman. I think he was the last Democrat I really admired. I'd like to say Kennedy, but I am so tried of political dynasties like the Bush's & Clinton's that I now suffer from a retroactive disdain for previous families of political clout. At least I will spare the Adams.

What is faith?

Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light. - Helen Keller
Of course faith is more than that, but I do like many of her quotes. I find Helen Keller to be one of the more fascinating people in history. I hope to read some books on her someday.

Going against the stream

A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.  - Everlasting Man, 1925 G. K. Chesterton

Entitlement

When a milestone is conquered, the subtle erosion called entitlement begins its consuming grind. The team regards its greatness as a trait and a right. Half hearted effort becomes habit and saps a champion. - Pat Riley

Who owes who?

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. - Mark Twain

Get to "after that" at the beginning

Twenty years a child, twenty years running wild, twenty years a mature man,and after that, praying. -Irish Proverb

Mushroom Management

Keep your employees in the dark and occasionally throw crap at them. - Urban Dictionary 
While I laugh at this quote, I have seen it as a working system far too often and far too frequently.  It leaves people with an immense amount of questions and places too much trust and authority in the hands of a few.

Memorial of St. Francis

It is not fitting, when one is in God's service, to have a gloomy face or a chilling look.  -Francis of Assisi 

Bonus quote: 
Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to His beloved is that of overcoming self.

Christ Jesus came to save sinners!

You can depend on this as worthy of full acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these I myself am the worst. But on that very account I was dealt with mercifully, so that in me, as an extreme case, Jesus Christ might display all his patience, and that I might become an example to those who would later have faith in him and gain everlasting life. To the King of ages, the immortal, the invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever! Amen. - St. Paul's Letter to Timothy

Yesterday's Missed Quote - The Road

The Road goes ever on and on down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, and I must follow, if I can, pursuing it with eager feet, until it joins some larger way where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say.  -J. R. R. Tolkien

Memorial of St. Therese of Lisieux

I have a lot of distractions during prayer, but as soon as I perceive them I pray for the persons that occupy my imagination and in this way they benefit from my distractions. - St. Therese

St. Jerome Extravaganza with witty comments

Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.  -Commentary on Isaiah
This is his most famous quote and we read it in the Divine Office every year on his feast day.

Being over seventy is like being engaged in a war. All our friends are going or gone and we survive amongst the dead and the dying as on a battlefield.  St. Jerome  has many comments like this. Sobering picture of reality. I am not sure of the origin of this quote, I found it on another site.

Good, better, best. Never let it rest. 'Til your good is better and your better is best.
Such a positive motivational statement is rare among St. Jerome's quotes. He usually comes across as something of a grouch. I suspect that his perfectionism made him more miserable than happy, however he is the saint and I am not.  So what do I know? In his later years he was involved in a letter dispute with a younger man by the name of St. Augustine.

The friendship that can cease has never been real.
A rather sad note for St. Jerome, who was often prone to offense and seems to have left Rome under duress. I suspect he lost a number of friends throughout life. While this statement may indeed be true, there is very little consolation in this kind of truth. I guess it is warning not to call people friends prematurely. Real friends are a profound blessing.

Freedom

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John G. Riefenbaker

Virtue and vice

The whole truth is generally the ally of virtue; a half-truth is always the ally of some vice. - Chesterton

Co-patron of the Archdiocese: St. Vincent de Paul

It is our duty to prefer the service of the poor to everything else and to offer such service as quickly as possible. If a needy person requires medicine or other help during prayer time, do whatever has to be done with peace of mind. Offer the deed to God as your prayer. Do not become upset or feel guilty because you interrupted your prayer to serve the poor. God is not neglected if you leave him for such service. One of God’s works is merely interrupted so that another can be carried out. So when you leave prayer to serve some poor person, remember that this very service is performed for God. - St. Vincent de Paul

Prepare for the struggle

So prepare yourselves for the struggle, serve the Lord in fear and truth. Put aside empty talk and popular errors; your faith must be in Him who raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and gave Him a share in His own glory and a seat at His right hand. To Him everything was made subject in heaven and on earth; all things obey Him, who will come as judge of the living and the dead. All who refuse to believe in Him must answer to God for the blood of His Son. - St. Polycarp, Letter to the Ephesians

Getting old

The pride of youth is in strength and beauty, the pride of old age is in discretion. -Democritus

Progress and reflection

Men invent new ideals because they dare not attempt old ideals. They look forward with enthusiasm, because they are afraid to look back. - What's Wrong With The World, 1910 G. K. Chesterton

Daring to do the right

It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong. -Abraham Lincoln

Overstaying one's welcome

No guest is so welcome in a friend's house that he will not become a nuisance after three days.
-Titus Maccius Plautus

Feast of St. Matthew

On hearing Christ’s voice, we open the door to receive Him, as it were, when we freely assent to His promptings and when we give ourselves over to doing what must be done. Christ, since He dwells in the hearts of His chosen ones through the grace of His love, enters so that He might eat with us and we with Him. He ever refreshes us by the light of His presence insofar as we progress in our devotion to and longing for the things of heaven. He himself is delighted by such a pleasing banquet. - Saint Venerable Bede
  Taken from this morning's Office of Readings and St. Venerable Bede reflection on Jesus dining with St. Matthew and other public sinners.

More than machines

If men do not keep on speaking terms with children, they cease to be men, and become merely machines for eating and earning money.  -John Updike

The cost of prosperity

Prosperity knits a man to the world. He thinks he's 'finding his place in it,' while really it is finding its place in him. -Clive Staples Lewis

Taking applications

It takes a village to raise an idiot. -William Dukane
     I can't help but think of Hillary Clinton when I read this quote.

A difficult truth

God foretold hardship upon hardship in this world until the end of time. And you want the Christian to be exempt from these troubles? Precisely because he is a Christian, he is destined to suffer more in this world.
- St. Augustine

From our Day of Recollection

Anyone who loves God in the depths of his heart has already been loved by God. In fact, the measure of a man's love for God depends on how deeply aware he is of God's love for him. - Treatise on Spiritual Perfection, St. Diadochus of Photice

Bonus quote: The most effective response

Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.
-Mark Twain
       I guess there are a number of ways to interpret this one, but I cannot help but think how laughter disarms people of pretense.  I also think that there are few things that bring us back to ourselves like laughter. Life is not easy, laughter reminds us of the good, the unexpected and the humorous. While there are no records of Jesus ever laughing, knowing the company He kept He must have laughed more than we realize.

The cost of indifference

The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.  -Plato
       Something to be mindful of as this cycle of elections approaches.

Liberals & Conservatives

Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains. - Winston Churchill
       I remember hearing this statement many years ago. I think I had just emerged with my flirtation with liberalism for all of 2 years at Kirksville. I think the main appeal of liberalism to the young is the perception that liberalism is all about personal license. I am free to do what I want as long as no one gets hurt.  Of course getting hurt is usually qualified as aggressive assault just short of murder. Other than that, ANYTHING GOES!
       Conservatives on the other hand tend to value personal responsibility, personal accountability, and the realization that life comes with many limits. The discernment of such limits consumes much energy and time for any conservative minded individual engaged in life.  We don't like the "ought" of life, but what ought I to do is a constant question, exploring the consequences, trying to imagine the extent of the impact is at the heart of  any serious discernment of choices and actions.  Well I am sure I could ramble on this one much longer, but it is early and I am hungry.

Bonus Quote: Exaltation of the Holy Cross

May I never boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! Through it, the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. It means nothing whether one is circumcised or not. All that matters is that one is created anew. Peace and mercy on all who follow this rule of life, and on the Israel of God.
- St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians
       Everyday may we set before our attention the Cross of Jesus Christ and draws wisdom and inspiration from the revelation of love and truth that the Cross is. May it become for us the measure with which all of our thoughts, words and actions are compared. Just the thought of that makes me realize how little I love and how much more conversion is needed if I really want my life changed by the truth. Paul reminds us in another letter that only three things will remain; faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love. When asked what is love, we can say simply and humbly: "Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the Savior of the world, Come let us adore Him."

The sucker

If you're playing a poker game and you look around the table and can't tell who the sucker is, it's you.
- Paul Newman

Fences

Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up. -G. K. Chesterton

The three hardest task - Bonus Sydney J. Harris quote

The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, "I was wrong".  - Sydney J. Harris

Appearing at a classroom near you

Nobody can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own. - Sydney J. Harris

Be dull

Conform and be dull. -J. Frank Dobie
       While it might be surprising coming from a Catholic Priest, conforming is dull and the greatest pressure to conform is from society. Many want to ascribe conforming to the Church, but the invitation from Christ is simple, Follow Me. No one acknowledges our individuality like God, no one recognizes and celebrates the uniqueness of our personhood like God. However, our function on which we place much of our value is easily replaceable.

Aggressive stupidity

There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.
 -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Irony

My mother never saw the irony of calling me a sonofabitch. - Jack Nicholson

Happy Birthday Mary!

Holy Mary, Mother of God, Mother of the Church, Model of Faith, I come before you today to ask your intercession on my behalf that I may more completely imitate your Son, Jesus Christ, in all that I say and do this day. You welcomed Him into your life and dedicated yourself in love and service to Him. Inspired by your example of holiness may I surrender myself to the will of the Father this day. May the Holy Spirit fill me so that I will bring forth the presence of your Son by the way I live my life. May your example of humility lead me to deeper trust and confidence that God’s providence is unfolding in my life. Dear Mother, pray for me that my yes to God will be as trusting as your fiat. You are the perfect disciple, pray that I am true to my calling as a Christian. - Tom Miller
       Just a little prayer I wrote during my deacon year in 1992.  It has become part of my morning offering from time to time. I try to maintain an active devotion to the Blessed Mother, St. John the Baptist, St. John Chrysostom and St. Gregory the Great. I consider them my patrons as I entered into priesthood. They are the friends who inspire with their love for Jesus and their lives of holiness.

Celebrate the beauty

All you who love the Lord, sing His praises, celebrate the beauty of His Holiness. - Divine Office

The Mysterious

The most beautiful thing to experience is the mysterious. It is the true source of life, art and science. -Michael Talbot

Perseverance

Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance. -Samuel Johnson
Every time I think an experience is more than I can handle, perseverance always help me take the next step. It is the one virtue along with patience that God wants to grant to us in abundance. Too often we pray for deliverance and immediacy rather than realize the opportunity for perseverance and patience that life and God is providing to us.

Yesterday's missed quote - Taking time

Time cools, time clarifies no mood can be maintained quite unaltered through the course of hours. -Mark Twain 
Taking time to think things over rather than acting on imuplse can make a profound difference.

Feast of St. Gregory the Great

The Holy Bible is like a mirror before our mind’s eye. In it we see our inner face. From the Scriptures we can learn our spiritual deformities and beauties. And there too we discover the progress we are making and how far we are from perfection. - St. Gregory the Great
       As  much as we look in mirrors, looking into Scriptures would be more revealing and help us look the way we should want, as men & women of faith and virtue.

The proof of love is in the works. -St. Gregory the Great
       We should all fear the fact that is far easier to talk of love, to muse on love and think of love rather than act on love. While our works may not save us, they certainly have the power to damn us. All we are hoping to do is make a meager return to the Lord. In some way to grow in love so that we might one day behold His glory without the terror & dread that sin will create if it abides in us.

On a personal note, Happy Birthday Dad!  A big 84 if you were still with us.

The Walken speaks

Life, at best, is completely unpredictable.  -Christopher Walken
       Amen.

Appearing on a burlap banner near you.

(Think of one's self as a teakettle) Though up to it's neck in hot water, It continues to sing.  -Unknown
    I still have vivid memories of all the burlap and felt banners that used to be part of my home life in the 1970s and part of church life too. Statements like this quote were often on them. While I generally found them to be somewhat goofy and a bit nauseating, some did contain glimmers of truth. I wouldn't call this one of my favorite quotes, but I do like the imagery and the perspective it provides. Now where are my platform shoes?

More on writers

Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. -Flannery O'Connor

Heads or Tails?

Nature gave men two ends -- one to sit on, and one to think with. Ever since then man's success or failure has been dependent on the one he used most. -Robert Albert Bloch

Truer words were never said

He must increase, I must decrease. - St. John the Baptist

Feast of St. Augustine

You are Christ,
my Holy Father,
my Tender God,
my Great King,
my Good Shepherd,
my Only Master,
my Best Helper,
my Most Beautiful and my Beloved,
my Living Bread,
my Priest Forever,
my Leader to my Country,
my True Light,
my Holy Sweetness,
my Straight Way,
my Excellent Wisdom,
my Pure Simplicity,
my Peaceful Harmony,
my Entire Protection,
my Good Portion,
my Everlasting Salvation.


Christ Jesus, Sweet Lord,
why have I ever loved,
why in my whole life
have I ever desired anything except You,
Jesus my God?
Where was I when I was not in spirit with You?
Now, from this time forth,
do you, all my desires, grow hot,
and flow out upon the Lord Jesus:
run... you have been tardy until now;
hasten where you are going;
seek Whom you are seeking.


O, Jesus may he who loves You
not be an anathema;
may he who loves You
not be filled with bitterness.

O, Sweet Jesus,
may every good feeling that is fitted for Your praise,
love You, delight in You, adore You!
God of my heart,
and my Portion, Christ Jesus,
may my heart faint away in spirit,
and may You be my Life within me!
May the live coal of Your Love
grow hot within my spirit
and break forth into a perfect fire;
may it burn incessantly on the altar of my heart;
may it glow in my innermost being;
may it blaze in hidden recesses of my soul;
and in the days of my consummation
may I be found consummated with You!

Amen.  - St. Augustine

Bonus quote: 100th Birthday of Mother Teresa

When I am hungry give me someone that I can feed, and when I am thirsty show me someone who needs a drink.  And when I am cold give me someone to keep warm. And when I grieve give me someone to console. And when my cross grows too heavy and its weight I cannot bear,  when I need someone to hold me and it seems that no one’s there lighten up my heavy load, give me someone who deserves  to be loved, just as I do, give me someone that I can serve.  When I need some time, let me sit with someone for a while.And when my heart is heavy let me find someone to make smile. And when I’m humble give me someone that I can praise. And when I need to be looked after, show me someone that I can raise. And when I need some understanding, show me someone who needs mine. When I think of myself only, draw my thoughts to those who are kind. When I’m so poor give me someone who’s in need  and when my eyes are blind to what is holy,  let me see the Christ in the eyes of each one whom I feed.  -Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Levity

Moderate strength is shown in violence, supreme strength is shown in levity. - The Man Who was Thursday, 1908  G. K. Chesterton
       I don't know about the truth of this quote, but I certainly hope in it. There is rarely something so terrible that one cannot find the good in it, rarely something so sorrowful than one can not bring levity to the situation. I do what I can to bring levity, humor and general goofiness to much of what I do.  Life is so serious, I want to season it with humor, temper it with laughter, and find the ironic and absurd in the moments that unfold before us.

Thanks, but no thanks

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. - Thomas Jefferson

Feast of St. Louis

       If the Lord has permitted you to bear some trial, bear it willingly and with gratitude, considering that it has happened for your good and that perhaps you well deserved it. If the Lord bestows upon you any kind of prosperity, thank Him humbly and see that you become no worse for it, either through vain pride or anything else, because you ought not to oppose or offend Him in the matter of His gifts.
 - St. Louis King of France

Bonus quote

"We cannot fight credibly against other social and moral evils, including poverty and violence, while we tolerate mass killings by abortion."  - Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Make ready

Make ready for the Christ whose smile like lightning sets free the song of everlasting glory that now sleeps in your paper flesh like dynamite!
- Thomas Merton
    I received that little message on a Christmas card a number of years ago and liked it so much it has remained on my bedroom mirror ever since. I like Thomas Merton, but have always been a bit hesitant because so many on the liberal side of the Church went gaga over him in the 70's and 80's. His earlier writing are rock solid, but I am not so certain about his later writings. My hunch is that he was swept along with the false enthusiasms that so dominated the western world in the 1960's. In all fairness, had I grown up in the 50's there is a fair chance that I may have been swept along in that societal adolescence that typifies the 1960's and and early 70's. When we are young I think many of us long for a life without consequence because of a misunderstanding of personal freedom, as we get older I think we realize that a life without consequence is hardly worthy living and incapable of any measure of achievement or contributing to the greater good of humanity.

Healthy men

All men have an instinct for conflict at least, all healthy men. -Hilaire Belloc
     Who doesn't like a good argument?  However, in the time that has passed since Belloc made this statement I think residents of the West Society have gotten increasingly thin-skinned and increasingly incapable of making amends once the conflict is past.  Our age of disconnect seems to permit wounds to fester, resentments to remain and conflicts to reignite with even greater potential.  That is certainly not the ideal we have from Christ. I often wonder how much my own difficulties in  forgiving will hamper or even prevent my redemption.

More Chesterton

The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people. - G. K. Chesterton

Chesterton #1

"An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered." - On Running After Ones Hat, All Things Considered, 1908 G. K. Chesterton
       Chesterton is a wealth of great quotes on faith, culture and the human condition.  I am sure I will be putting more of his quotes up with the passing of time.
Bonus quote from Orthodoxy:
"Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around." - Orthodoxy, 1908

The writer

A writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the need to communicate. Behind the need to communicate is the need to share. Behind the need to share is the need to be understood. The writer wants to be understood much more than he wants to be respected or praised or even loved. And that perhaps, is what makes him different from others. -Leo C. Rosten

A Father's Prayer

       Father, I thank you for the gift of my family for whom I now pray and upon whom I now ask you  to shower your blessings. With St. Joseph as my guide, may I always be ready  to spend my life for them.
       Bless my wife whom you have given to me as my spouse, sharing in your wondrous work of creation. May I see her as my equal  and treat her with the love of Christ for his Church. May Mary be her guide  and help her to find your peace and your grace.
       Bless my children with Your life and presence. May the example of Your Son  be the foundation upon which their lives are built, that the Gospel may always be their hope and support.
       I ask you, Father, to protect and bless my family. Watch over it so that in the strength of Your love its members may enjoy prosperity, possess the gift of your peace and, as the Church alive in this home, always bear witness to your glory in the world.  Amen.

The joy and risk of forgetting

A lot of people mistake a short memory for a clear conscience. -Doug Larson
    I think this really applies to Confession.  Poor, shallow and rushed examinations of conscience often prevent the Sacrament and Our Lord from doing the real work of conversion. The truth will only set us free when we are willing to face the truth about ourselves.  That is humbling news, but profoundly freeing news.

Sorrow & laughter

Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter. -Friedrich Nietzsche
     What is most obvious in this quote is Nietzsche's self-congratulatory style.  He was not lacking in pride, however he did make some bold comments in philosophy that have to be addressed.  His presentation of the completely autonomous "super-man" rings truer on the world stage than we realize. It's not just something the Nazi's embraced and enshrined, it's a poisonous mindset that can effect anyone with power.  However with this quote, he does reveal the deep connection between sorrow and laughter. We do suffer deeply, and life is anything but easy.  However, life is also something so mysteriously wonderful that it's difficult not to laugh when we know that there is One who is over life and all it's experiences.  Even more paradoxical, this One has entered into the human experience and made our suffering His own, and gives us the ability to tap into His joy even in the darkest of life's situations.

Liberty & the frog

The Statue of Liberty is not that monument's name. It is Liberty Enlightening the World. -Deane Jordan
    Having just watched a documentary on Thomas Jefferson this weekend, I think he would be rolling over in his grave repeatedly at how our country has developed. Liberty has taken a beating at the hands of an ever expanding Federal Government. I don't remember the exact words, but it goes something like drop a frog in boiling water it reacts and jumps out.  Slowly raise the temperature on the water and the frog dies without ever leaving it.

The Truth will set you free

If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth - only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair. -Clive Staples Lewis

Meaningful matters

Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.
 -Joshua J. Marine
       One of the things the students would frequently ask me is if being a priest is fun. I would usually answer them that I enjoy being one most of the time, but it isn't always fun.  As a priest I do many things that are not fun, but usually meaningful.  And at the end of the day I have more thankfulness in my heart for meaningful experiences than for fun ones. However, I frequently make boring experiences more fun for myself by my warped sense of humor or my goofy responses.  I am sure one day the men with nets will catch up to me and haul me into the asylum.

Rule of Acquisition #208

Sometimes the only thing more dangerous than a question is an answer. -  Ferengi Rule of Acquisition # 208
       I always enjoyed the Ferengi, and really enjoyed Quark on Deep Space 9.  Their rules of acquisition are a source of fun quotes.

A day late and a dollar short - Yesterday's quote

When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to discover they are not it. -Bernard Bailey

Yesterday's missed quote - Memorial of St. Claire

       Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,  Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy;        O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;  to be understood as to understand;  to be loved as to love.  For it is in giving that we receive;  it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;  and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. - The prayer of St. Francis
       This is one of the prayers I say on pretty much a daily basis, I wish I did a better job living it.

Feast of St. Lawrence

"This side’s done, turn me over and have a bite."  "Assum est, inquit, versa et manduca." - I knew the first part of the quote, had not heard the have a bite ending.  The Church with Her odd sense of humor and perspective made St. Lawrence the  patron saint of comedians, butchers and roasters.  Here is a link with some interesting facts on St. Lawrence:
http://blog.beliefnet.com/deaconsbench/2010/08/st-lawrence-guardian-of-the-churchs-treasures.html

Reputation vs Character

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.  -John Wooden

Harry S. Truman

I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell. -Harry S Truman

Rekindling the flame

Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light. -Albert Schweitzer

Fuel for the debate

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."   -Theodore Roosevelt

      For the most part I share these sentiments. I am not opposed to learning second languages, like Spanish, but I am a firm believer that we should possess one common civic language.  Other languages are learned with two goals in mind, communicating with those who speak a different language (NO DUH!) and assimilating those who do into the United States with a better understanding of English.  If second language issues were not challenge enough, the use of Internet verbiage is polluting the language as well. We all naively hoped that the increased use of keyboards would make us better typists.  LOL! It has opened new doors to laziness and expediency which is a strange pairing in Internet useage.

Our dilemma

Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better. - Sydney J. Harris
       Two for today, since I was a distracted slacker yesterday.  I could ramble on about this quote for a long time.  My experiences over the last few years make me realize just how true this statement is for the vast majority of us. I am sure I fall into this way of thinking more than I realize.

Transformation

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly. -Margaret Fuller
       Forgot to put up a quote yesterday, too many distractions and a bit too much tension on the personal side of life. While the transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly is wondrous, most of us don't experience anything nearly that dramatic. It is a much slower process, and at times the transformation is barely discernible. While I would hope that it would keep us humble, I fear that most find it boring. The Church latched on to this imagery early on in trying to help us grasp what the Resurrection would be like. Death and Resurrection are the most profound changes we will face in life.

Growing in wisdom

Deliberate with caution, but act with decision and yield with graciousness, or oppose with firmness.
-Charles Caleb Colton

Bonus Quote - The men who quell the storm and ride the thunder.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Shame on the man of cultivated taste who permits refinement to develop into fastidiousness that unfits him for doing the rough work of a workaday world. Among the free peoples who govern themselves there is but a small field of usefulness open for the men of cloistered life who shrink from contact with their fellows. Still less room is there for those who deride of slight what is done by those who actually bear the brunt of the day; nor yet for those others who always profess that they would like to take action, if only the conditions of life were not exactly what they actually are. The man who does nothing cuts the same sordid figure in the pages of history, whether he be a cynic, or fop, or voluptuary. There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of great and generous emotion, of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, of the men who quell the storm and ride the thunder.
-President Theodore Roosevelt, "The Man In The Arena"  Speech at the Sorbonne.  Paris, France  April 23, 1910

Something silly for Monday

If you go through a lot of hammers each month, I don't think it necessarily means you're a hard worker. It may just mean that you have a lot to learn about proper hammer maintenance.
-Jack Handey Deep Thoughts

More on optimism

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties. -Harry S Truman

Living with hope

No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit. -Hellen Keller

More than just math

Rest satisfied with doing well, and leave others to talk of you as they please. -Pythagorus
       I think I first heard of Pythagorus in 7th grade when we started learning more advanced math.

Free Speech

Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.
-Benjamin Franklin
       There is a lot to say on this one, but one of the most disturbing trends in the last twenty years is the ever growing right not to be offended.  If you are involved in public discourse, there is no way to avoid disagreement or attacks on your beliefs. Some of those attacks may even become personal.  I'll have to write more on this later, but the ever growing percentage of us who are thin-skinned and seemingly fragile will not make for a happy nation when there is a surplus of lawyers and an abundance of media mongers.

Too easy

If your attack is going too well, you have walked into an ambush. - Infantry Journal
       I laughed to first time I read this, but really do believe in it's essential truth. No combat against a competent enemy should ever be easy.

The real me

There used to be a real me, but I had it surgically removed. -Peter Sellers

Office Quote #4 (On the back of my door)

Remember what Bilbo used to say: It's dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't mind your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.
 -Sam Gamgee, Lord of the Rings
    Just watched the movie again last night and enjoyed this familiar quote. The books and the movies by Peter Jackson have remained among my favorites for years.  I was so pumped about the movie when it was released I couldn't get to sleep the evening I first saw LOTR- Fellowship of the Ring.

The Adventure

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.
- Hellen Keller
        At some point in my life, I want to do some more reading and understanding of Hellen Keller's life. Her process of enlightenment when understanding took place is always fascinating. Maybe some day. . .

Learning

You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother. - Albert Einstien
       If we really want others to understand, the burden lies upon us to communicate what we want to share.

Ancient Oxymoronica

To show resentment at a reproach is to acknowledge that one may have deserved it. - Tacitus, in Annals
       I should remember this next time I am too easily offended by the words of another when they are voicing their criticism or disapproval. One of the greatest offenses to the Ancients is pride, and Christianity agreed with those sentiments in the ancient world. While we are too easily snagged by sins of the body like gluttony, sloth and lust, it is pride that drives the most profound wedge between God and man. While pride may be the worst and proverbial mother of all sins, any sin we commit and fail to repent of is one we get to keep forever. That's bad news, the Good News is the mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ who has been offered for our sins and is risen for our Redemption.

The quote that sparked burnings

Christianity will go. It will go. It will vanish and shrink. We are more popular than Jesus now. I don't know which will go first - rock and roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary.- John Lennon
       Back in the "good old days" when Americans would riot like Muslims without killing people and burning down their homes or destroying their places of worship that quote sparked an outrage.  It did however highlight a growing disconnect that entertainers have with our country.  Their imagined importance and exaggerated sense of self is so common these days that I can barely tolerate listening to any interviews or watch any award ceremonies without feeling ill.  Yes, I am a curmudgeon.
       However, John Lennon was correct about the disciples of Jesus being thick and ordinary. It is one of the best things about our faith. Jesus is the Lord of all, no elitism should exist among His disciples.

It's not about convenience

Once you have entered completely into the depths of Jesus, and have a taste of His powerful love, then you will not care about your own convenience or inconvenience. Rather you will rejoice all the more in insults and injuries, for the love of Jesus makes a man scorn his own needs. -Imitation of Christ
I still have a long way to go before I will even come close to living in this manner. I pray each day that such powerful words and realities will take root in my life and bear fruit in my actions.

Winning the lottery

Fortune does not change men; it unmasks them. 
-Suzanne Necker
Perhaps it is really a blessing that God does not answer all those prayers to win the lottery so that we can do so much good with it. Few things create greater illusions and distortions in our life than wealth, especially wealth that we did not really earn.  Nothing wrong with wealth, in fact a real humanitarian can do untold good like Bill Gates, but wealth's aura of independence will more often than not reveal one's real attitude about God, neighbor and self.

Military quotes #1

Those who turn their swords into ploughshares will be governed by those who don't. -Benjamin Franklin
       This has been a hard one to verify. It is more often than not attributed to Franklin, but it is not certain. The quote I found that is similar by Franklin is "Those who beat their swords into ploughshares will till the soil for those who don't."  Either way it is a quote that will strike a note with anyone familiar with the Bible.  The common passage of scripture is the desire for peace, turning swords into ploughshares when the presence, desire or threat of war is no longer.  As a Christian, I know that day is not going to happen in this world. It will only happen in the Kingdom. Until then, I am a firm believer in peace through power.  No I am  not a warmonger, but the world is full of people who are, and people who will use their power or strength to victimize the weak. The charge of the strong is to protect the weak, to stop the aggressor and to prevent any future threats. Ponder this:  God is the only true and just pacifist because His power is absolute.

The back of my office door

You can tell how big a person is by what it takes to discourage him. - Unknown
I found this quote during a very difficult time in ministry and it was a constant reminder to keep my focus. While I cannot always be gushing with gratitude, I do try to keep things in perspective.

Office Quote #3

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. - Dr. Seuss
While there are many things to miss in not being married and having children as a priest, reading Dr. Seuss to any of my potential children is a big one. So many of my favorite childhood books were Dr. Seuss and it was only later in life that I realized what a genius he was in making reading and language so much fun.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Some of my favorite quotes are from this wonderful woman of faith. Mother Teresa & Pope John Paul II did so much to re-evangelize the Church and proclaim Christ to the world.

More on self-awareness

I count him braver who conquers his desires than him who conquers his enemies for the hardest victory is the victory over self. -Aristotle
       Conquering or converting, most of us recognize that our starting desires are rarely virtuous. I suppose there are some who nature and grace made wonderful human being from the beginning, but most of us have to form our lives through a process of discipline, self-discipline and continued personal and integrated formation. The wonderful thing about being Catholic is that we have a whole sacrament given to us by Christ which recognizes just how difficult it is to conquer our desires. If anyone believes and hopes for our conversion, it is Jesus Christ.

Office quote #2

Ninety percent of the world's woe comes from people not knowing themselves, their abilities, their frailties, and even their real virtues. Most of us go almost all the way through life as complete strangers to ourselves. - Sydney J. Harris
       The promise of Christ is to come to know ourselves through Him.  It is a challenging act of forgetting self and then discovering self as we commit our lives to Him and to His Gospel. I think one of the challanges in following Christ is not to follow Him so that we can know ourselves better.  While that reality and result are true, we don't follow Christ because of what we hope to gain in self-discovery or actualization, we follow Him because we profess Him as Lord.

On reading

There's no thief like a bad book. - Italian Proverb
       Who hasn't found this proverb to be true.  At least as I get older I tend to recognize bad books before I have wasted too much time on them.

Scripture Quotes #1

Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! Your kindness should be known to all.  The Lord is near. Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, make your request known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  - St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians
       One of my favorite passages from the New Testament, it is on the flip side of my ordination card. My prayer is that I can live up to the desires and intentions expressed by St. Paul.

Quotes from my Office: #1

No Day is wasted on which you laugh.
       For the longest time I did not know who said this, but it seems to be a variation on a quote by Nicolas de Chamfort. His quote reads as follows: The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed.  Either way, I like to laugh and it has been in my office since my appointment to Epiphany.