Wednesday In the City

Wednesday afternoon was quite interesting. The weather was pleasant, the sky clear. It was a moment animated by a slowly building hope. At last it seemed as if winter was finally over. Each second seemed to pull the warm temperatures of spring closer. The Cathedral asked the faithful to stop by for Reconciliation.

How patiently the sign waited on the sidewalk as pedestrians walked by searching for office supplies, searching for food, searching for newspapers and magazine. Every now and then a pair of eyes would notice the sign. Some would slow down, others look up the steps.

And there were fire trucks and taxicabs speeding by. And there were people talking of health care, talking of salad, talking of confession. And there were people talking and laughing about office politics, Spring Break, pub food.

There were people protesting this and that. How wonderful it was to see the plump pink pig standing near the water fountain at the corner of the street. How amazing what a difference one plump pink pig could make as several people stopped to taking photographs and videos with their cell phones, with their cameras.

Restaurant windows were filled with individual characters, colorful and animated and yet―

This was a time of motion, of anxious activity. This was a time of looking around, thinking of times past, listening to honking horns, listening to chattering voices, listening to the soft breeze blowing gently, sporadically into some faces.

And some people take time out to sit by and observe the mid day parade.

How great it is to live in the city! How great it is to praise the Lord with all of this activity! How great it is to offer all of this to God! To offer all that eyes see, all that the ears see, all that senses feel―all these and more to God. Lucky are those who find ways to glorify the Lord while doing the ordinary things in their lives. How blessed their lives must be.

The sidewalks are filled with people, people moving, people standing, people gazing, people grazing.

There are people and signs everywhere, signs neon, signs painted, signs handwritten. At times there seems to be more signs than anyone can read and yet―

The need for hope and prayer waits at each intersection, waits within each face observed, each face not observed. The need for peace and love remains constant, remains universal.

And with all of the noise, all of the activity, all of anxiety, all of the angst there is always time to praise and glorify God. There is always time to listen for his call. There is always time to listen to his call.

Remember to praise and glorify the Lord as you walk around the city.

A Thought - Generational

We conceive, perceive, believe.

Each generation likes to promote itself as the best; everything which preceded the current generation is inferior. There is an antithesis between morality and reality, social criticism and social advancement; and it is sometimes thought that social morality flourishes by hiding prejudices while social advancement attacks the hypocrisy and other defects. These are very generalized, simplified statements which can easily be destroyed, pulled out of context, rearranged, ridiculed and forgotten. We live each day searching for an elusive vigor within ourselves, our friends, our colleagues. We live each day developing, revising, and disposing assumptions about ourselves, our friends, our colleagues, strangers. We want to believe that because we are alive today, we are the great wise sages. We understand all criticism, all human behavior, all human desire. In reality many human beings live a very narrow existence, with very narrow viewpoints. As social norms change many people accept the cultural extenuation of sin and vice; when being bad is socially acceptable making good choices becomes difficult. Which path should be followed the good open new path or the old prudish ways. Modern life is an epoch of extenuating exercises of selfishness and arrogance. Without realizing it, the souls of each person is ready to be purchased at reduced rates as each person runs around listening to and saying all types of profanity, racing from one sinister locality to another with a dizzying insanity. How easily this is called entertainment or an active social life! How great it is when both decadence and greed are socially acceptable, socially desirable. The ultimate goal of this society is how to spend our leisure time, how to obtain the ultimate pleasure, how to control life. These are assumptions which are flirting with the basic prejudices and dangers of a secular society. The aims of a secular society are immediate, very tangible, something to be touched, tasted, experienced now. That is one of the dangers of a secular society the insane search for immediacy; immediacy must be controlled, must be influenced. How easy it is to flatter one another to achieve a short term goal! How easy it is to isolate the truth in order to obtain something! How easy it is to accept all types of social falsifications. Modern life is now very interconnected, intertwined with corporate life; powerful corporations do dominate our lives and in ways sometimes subtle, and not so subtle, do influence the lives of everyone in this society. There is conscious and intentional manipulation attacking each member of this society with things to buy, candidates to vote for, animals to save, hungry children to feed and educate, birth control pills with side effects.

Christians learn about the dangers of selfishness, greed, sin. Each age the dangers increase even as society might look another direction because science says “it is okay to do this in this context.” There is no context where sin is acceptable. But without a moral compass, moral direction sin becomes inevitable.

And prayer is needed now; love is needed; hope is needed.

So many people need to be directed toward God, away from materialism, consumerism; so many people need to be asked to come home to God; so many people need to be reminded about God’s love; so many people need to be asked to become humble, loving servants of God.

Now is the time for contemplation, time for prayer.

A Struggle

Being human is a constant struggle between being critical or uncritical; each moment of our lives calls for some choice to be made, some judgement to be made; our criticism defines how we think, how we behave, how we love; as Christians we are asked to examine ourselves internally, examine our lives and how we relate to the world externally and then develop a road map to move closer to God, following the lessons and instructions from the Gospels.

Jesus Christ offers to his followers, a foundation of love and hope. This foundation is fortunate for all believers who have sympathy for themselves, their neighbors, their community, their country, their world. These believers learn how to do the beneficial thing, to say the honest courageous thing, to contemplate the loving faithful thing: that is the beginning of a Christian life. Learning how to balance the public and private components of a life with Christian ideals, Christian believes provide an opportunity for a close relationship with God, better relationships with others. Each Christian receives this opportunity at Baptism, it is renewed each time we freely attend Mass, each time we freely acknowledge that we believe in and love God. For Christians there is no public face; we believe, we love God. For Christians there is no private face; God sees and knows all.

By simply trying to love our neighbors we are being radical. By simply trying to obey the commandments we are being radical. Our simple actions can open us to all types of criticism from friends, work colleagues, family members. Jesus Christ taught us how to overcome this criticism. It is not always easy to do. We must remember that we love God; that we want to be humble, loving servants. We must pray. We must be silent. We must be patient. We will learn when it safe for us to walk through the angry mob.

Christ did not offer assumptions, suppositions; he offered a peaceful, just, loving thought and sensibility. The philosophical questions of his preaching and his action challenged the dogma and customs of his time. He followed his course, did the things that he had to do. As Catholics we are called to live our lives with a direct connection to Christ, with a direct experience of Christ through the Liturgy of the Eucharist. As Catholics we are called to commemorate the life of Jesus Christ when we attend Mass and also by all the choices that we make in our lives.

Being Christian requires activity, not rhetorical ingenuity. Christian lives involve the formulation of faith, hope, love from their abstract dictionary meanings into something alive, personal, vibrant leading us toward God. We live in a time of mass communication, mass confusion; the truth is often somewhere else; the secular world promotes the idea of the truth but then quickly debunks it, questions it, searches for some reason not to accept it. The validity of our faith, of our religion often is attacked within the media; this occurrence is sad—and yet expected.

Our appreciation and love for God is ongoing with prayer, almsgiving, fasting and other activities of humility, charity, and obedience. How others view this remains beyond our control! Our behavior must remain true to God’s teaching.

Looking for a Definition

An impure thought is simply any thought that becomes an obstacle to out individual relationships with God; more basically, they are bad thoughts. They can flash in our minds for an instant when some does something that we do not like. When we hear profanity, they can flash in our minds. Some movies can create these thoughts. It is sometimes difficult to escape impure thoughts; the secular world use impure images to encourage us to buy products.

We live in an era dominated by impurity. It is in our television shows, movies, books, magazine covers, newspaper headlines. We can not escape it. There is so much impurity attacking our sensibilities that it is sometimes difficult to analyze what is impure.

My initial approach was too analytical; it searched for an internal movement. I wanted my impure thoughts to be active. I wanted to believe that an impure thought made me jealous. I was looking in the wrong place. I wanted a cause and reaction.

Impure thoughts had to be the band leader for all sin and vice.

Impure thoughts are simply there. They provoke responses. There is a little dollop of objective reasoning associated with impure thoughts. Our mind has to process the information and make a judgment.

Modern life provides us with many detours and diversions to living good Catholic lives. As a Catholic I am surprised at the number of contraception commercials on television. Within each message along with all of the potentially dangerous or harmful side effects is a subtle message to live in a manner that is not in keeping with Church teaching.

Sexual imagery is used to sell everything. It is so pervasive that is benignly accepted. With the Madison Avenue advertising world, everyone is secular, everyone has a price, everything needs to be replaced. Our consumerism creates a world of impurity; it permeates so many levels. This impurity is beyond simply bad; it constantly attacks our morals, attacks our goodness.

This impurity is rotting our society. Deciding between good and bad becomes more difficult each day because of the proliferation of impure images used to promote all types of concrete products and ideas within our society. We can turn off the television, avoid the movies; but the problem is still there.

How sad it is that there is no public morality anymore. Each day we exist within a conflicted, dirty society; everything is for sale in our society — including access to our souls. Constant exposure to these images, wears us down, confuses us.

Lucky are those who believe in God and who understand the danger of impure images used within a consumerist free economy. Lucky are those who are able to live with limited access to these image. Lucky are those who pray to God and ask for strength.

How to Respond to God's Call

Like many educated people, Priests talk to themselves. Maybe it occurs because of Aristotle or Saint Augustine or Saint Benedict or Pope Pius. Priests are human beings, who like to learn, who like to teach, who live to serve, who live to love.

I sometimes wonder about all the lessons from the Gospels, all the teachings of social justice and fairness, if this crazy noisy world is able and ready to understand the responsibility that all human beings possess to live just lives of peace.

But whether we learn to love our neighbors as we love ourselves from listening to the Gospels and homilies, or from fresh devotion of Him Whom we have arrogantly abandoned, or from careful observation and careful imitation of His faithful followers, it properly presents a definite relationship with God. For it is Jesus Christ by his Passion who does provide both an example and definition of love to Whom we ought to be especially grateful and humble before as our undeniable exemplar; to Him we diligently, patiently direct our free will as our way to follow him. As Christians we must accept that throughout our lives that different types of temptation and sin will cause us to abandon God; our lives will filled with prayers of hope, prayers of forgiveness, prayers praising him, prayers professing our love in him. Blessed is the Christian whose life and actions reflect a natural, loving belief and faith in God.

Observing the simplicity of the Liturgy of the Eucharist—and that not only the spoken prayers, but even the unspoken prayers—implies that some type of basic compassion or love be shown towards all human beings, this word 'love' might attract some secular cynical ambiguity when defined by others who might not believe in God like we do; however we can assert with absolute confidence that love is necessary when we worship God. Love, then, will not limit our relationship to God; but encourage and inspire each of us to embrace our neighbors also.

But it is only by learning to freely share our "love" without desiring any reciprocal action that we will discover and/or recover our personal humanity; it is a lesson of sacrifice and suffering and forgiveness. There is a moment when we publicly accept our unworthiness and request forgiveness. A Christian life requires reconciliation.

Love, in Ecclesiastical terms, seems to direct each Christian, away from the individual, physical, and earthly self, toward goodness and God. This love does not seek to possess; it only seeks to serve.

Further, humility accompanies this love. Humility directs our actions toward service. Our lives must contain service for God and for our neighbors. As Christians we have a natural relationship and concern for social justice and fairness for all our neighbors. Humility with our neighbors can lead us to beautiful spiritual awakenings.

Lastly, faith in God and love of God and neighbor can lead us to salvation. Allow yourself a moment to relax and to pray in your local parish church. Allow yourself time for a religious retreat. Allow yourself to listen for God’s voice. Always make time for to listen for God’s call.

And then learn how to respond to God’s call.

We Pray at Twilight

We live in a era that emphasizes leisure. We are sinners. Sibylline talking heads reinterpret the Bill of Rights. Byzantine parrots joke about how complicated our lives become as each new technological advance allows us to stay connected with each other. We murmur communication to ourselves in barely audible tones. We are trying to improve our lives.

Our lives still contain mistakes, failure, sin; modern society has removed public morality from the public’s conscience. Every behavior is accepted, every behavior is expected. Many people live moments of great compromise and confusion behind faded brocade curtains of sin and vice.

We live within great metropolises with malignant friends leading us into subterranean antechambers, crumbling and dark; our subways offer a glimpse of purgatory, a noisy chaotic moment when we must depend upon prayer, our own and our neighbors. Flattering acquaintances present florid complements to the bad weather, our bad natures revolving in the revolving doors, revolving with jealousy, revolving with avarice, revolving and revolving.

There were prayers to say on Sunday, hymns to sing on Sunday, and ideas and ideals to reflect upon, to incorporate into our lives. We listened on those poetic Sunday mornings to lessons about goodness, about morals; and we decided which restaurant we would be best for our brunch party.

Urban life beckons us with unending choices and sweet popular possibilities preserved within television commercials and glossy magazine advertisements present unending promises of happiness, fulfillment. Ironically we live with an era of typographical and grammatical errors.

The secular color of the moment remains an aggrieved gray, mourning, weeping like a discarded courtesan demanding the attention and courtesies from a younger yesterday. The sound of this discontent does not disturb us as it tries to attack our hearts and souls.

There are prayers before and after Communion for us to listen to, for us to think about. Being Christian is sometimes like being a travelling salesman moving from room to room, searching for leads, laying foundations for future sales. Being Christian is always examining ourselves, always trying to apply the Gospel teachings to our lives.

Sibylline coffee cups with enticing whipped cream wait to protest social justice, wait to lead you astray with words of discouragement, words of discontent.

But the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist are beautiful yet ancient; they both offer and gently encourage love. We are asked to look within the unopened rooms within our hearts to find and release all of our love. Sharing our love will improve our lives.

There is always talk of murder and mayhem. Euthanasia, contraception, abortion have become accepted as natural modern living rights with slogans, supporters, and advertising campaigns confusing and/or losing the issue of the value of each life.

The hateful, profanity covered lyrics from some popular songs attack the pedestrians with machine gun like intensity from behind tinted glass. The faces on the street are lost, disillusioned, desperate and so much denim and so many people simply moving between eutectic points, freezing or melting, sinning and regretting. . . . We pray at twilight.

Serendipity

Once upon a time a long, long time ago I went to a Catholic grade school. Between the semesters there was one special week that I used to look forward to each year. This one week was called Serendipity. It was a time when most classes were not held; it was a time of art classes, craft classes. We made pottery, papier mâché puppets, papier collé posters. It was a respite. It was a time of great enthusiasm.

As an adult the liturgy of the Eucharist provides my life with a sense of serendipity each time I attend Mass and hear the prayers recited by the priest.

As an adult I do feel unworthy, weak because of some of my thoughts and actions. I am always asking God for forgiveness.

The liturgy of the Eucharist reminds me of God’s sacrifice, of Christ’s suffering for all of us.

With a contrite heart I pray for love and mercy for everybody.