There are no Leftovers

Presence is what we are all starving for. Real presence! We are too busy to be present, too blind to see the nourishment and salvation in the crumbs of life, the experience of each moment. Yet the secret of life is this: There are no leftovers! There is nothing -- no thing, no person, no experience, no thought, no joy or pain -- that cannot be harvested and used for nourishment on our journey to God. ~Macrina Wiederkehr

I find this so encouraging - God does incorporate it all for good.....Hallelujah!

Dudley Do Right

"Saying yes to reality -
to the things
we cannot change -
is like choosing to
turn around and
sit in the saddle
in the direction
the horse is going."

David Richo

Holy Cross Day

"Bishop William Wiedrich tells a wonderful story of a conductor who, while directing a large group of percussionists, raised his arms & signaled a huge corps of timpanists to sound their instruments. The din lasted a moment, then he raised his hands again & waved them to silence. Addressing the percussionists, he reminded them of a principle they had obviously overlooked: 'The music,' he said, 'is in the drum, not in the mallet. One does not beat the music into the drum; one coaxes the music out of the drum.' Then, taking a mallet, he struck the drum & gently let the mallet rise off the skin, as if the mallet were pulling sound from the kettle. The resulting sound was musical, full & resonant.

The cross is like the music of the timpani; it is not something one puts on, but rather something that is coaxed out of us. The wearing of the cross is not an accessory to life, but rather the embrace of life itself. Indeed, Christians do not wear the cross as an emblem of exclusitvity or a talisman of spirituality; Christians bear the cross within, in the daily embrace of all that it means to be human. To be a Christian is not to take the cross upon onself, but rather to have the fullness of life coaxed out of oneself. For life was not imposed upon Jesus. Life was not beaten into Jesus; nor is life beaten into us. The life is in him, and he is in us even as the music in in the drum."

Sam Portaro, "Brightest & Best", p. 163-4

Picture - Holy Cross - San Clemente, Rome
(Detail of Apse mosaic, 12th Century)

Spiritual Direction

This poem came from my dear Celtic Christianity instructor, Tom Cashman. It was written by Carol K. Everson, who dedicated it to Lin Cashman, her Spiritual Director. If you are curious as to what can occur in a Spiritual Direction session, then this is for you...

Spiritual Direction

She traces the sign of the cross
with oil on my forehead.
She blesses me in the name
of all the God names that we share,
a triple trinity born of past analogies,
metaphors, and hard-won truths.

Then she listens,
deeply, completely, thoroughly,
as I ramble on about the things
that God has done and shown
and not done and hidden,
saying things I didn't know I knew
about things I didn't know mattered.

She asks a a question: "What is God trying to tell you?"

Yet again, I have forgotten to ask the obvious.
And the simple questions are the hardest to answer.
I glance at the small altar with the picture of Jesus.
I look out the window at a varied thrush
drinking from a terracotta bowl.
What is God trying to tell me?

She waits as silence spreads ever outward
engulfing the whole world.

Absentmindedly, I wipe my brow,
surprised to feel the fragrant oil-slick.
Now I know!
God is trying to tell me that,
even if I never know the answer,
even if I never remember to ask the question,

I am blessed.

Carol K. Everson

3 Poultry Stories

It's good to be home! I had a lovely time at my daughter's in Snohomish....my granddaughter Rita can now say "gamm"....close enough! I taught her Pat-a-Cake and how to march with her drum....very important concepts that can only be taught effectively by a grandmother...

The last 3 times I've visited Roshane there has been a poultry story to report. During the first visit a couple of months ago, I saw a duck nestled between the dogs as I stepped out onto the back porch. I had never seen a duck there before. As far as I knew they owned 2 horses, 2 dogs, 2 pigs, and several hens and a rooster but no duck. I asked Roshane what that was all about. She sighed and told me that it had recently flown into the yard and has never left. The duck spends its days following the Lab and the Boxer around. Odd...

The second poultry incident occurred while we were preparing for dinner on my next visit. Jeremy was cooking crab in a pot out in the yard & Rita was running around in the summer sun. Suddenly we heard her yell and Jeremy realized that the rooster was attacking her. Thinking she had somehow fallen on the rooster he didn't think too much of it. Rita was fine. After bringing the cooked crab inside we heard a scream - Rita was being repeatedly pecked by the rooster (he is no longer allowed to roam the yard. I've heard they can be downright nasty.) Rita is almost two and he had never bothered her before this attack! Very Odd...

And this time I came face to face with a hen. I arrived in the early evening and made several trips to the car to bring in my "stuff". The second time out the front door I stopped and saw what you see in the picture. There was a chicken perched on the porch. I called to my daughter to come and look and she said, "Oh, she lives there." Huh? I looked forward to her explanation so here goes...

Several weeks ago this particular chicken had a harrowing encounter with their dogs. They like to "play" with the chickens which escape their henhouse and it never ends well. But this hen survived. However, when she returned to the hen house the other hens wanted nothing to do with her and started pecking at her so she took up residence on the front porch. She passes her afternoons and evenings on the porch railing. And yep, she's spending the rest of her time with the dogs and the duck. They have seemingly accepted her as one of their own! Very, very Odd!

9/11

Lord, take me where You want me to go,

let me meet who You want me to meet,

tell me what You want me to say,

and keep me out of Your way.

Fr. Mychal Judge, OFMChaplain,NYFD

First official recorded victim 9/11 attack

HT to E. Keaton

nation vs. congregation

"Women are not allowed to become clergy in many conservative religious groups. Is it hypocritical to think that a woman can lead a nation and not a congregation?" HT to E.Keaton