LOCI CRITICI
USE THE FIND button under edit – to find a topic
You are interested in…
---These are not in alphabetical order although it
starts that way
Examples of topics God, cross, heaven,
sin, grace, serve, pray, prayer,
ACCEPT
A man who took great pride in his lawn found himself
with a large crop of dandelions. After trying every method to
get rid of them, he wrote the Department of Agriculture. He
enumerated all the things he had tried, and close his letter
with the question: “What shall I do now?”
In due course came the reply, “We suggest you learn
to love them.”
ACCOUNTABILITY
You cannot have secrecy and accountability at the
same time.
ACTIVE
God provides the winds, but men must raise the sails.
Augustine
ACTION - THOUGHT - SPEECH
There are three principles in a man’s being and life,
the principle of thought, the principle of speech, and the
principle of action. The origin of all conflict between me and
my fellow men is that I do not say what I mean and that I do
not do what I say.
Martin Buber THE WAY OF MAN
ACTION – REACTION – PROACTIVE
Reaction – let the weather – or the social milieu - affect and
determine how you feel
Proactive - your values are stronger than the weather
ACTION - REACTION - PEACE
When you see someone weeping in sorrow, think this.
It is not what has happened that distresses this person (for it
does not distress another) but his judgment about what
happened.
Epictetus
ACTION - PEACE - EFFORT
What action shall I perform to attain God?
If you wish to attain God, there are two things you must
know. The first is that all efforts to attain God are of no avail.
And the second?
The second is that you must act as if you did not know the
first!
ACTION - PEACE
Suppose a boat is crossing a river and another boat,
empty – is about to crash with it. Even an irritable man
would not lose his temper.
But suppose there was a man in the second boat. He
would should, yell, use bad language.
In the first case, there is no anger and in the second
there is anger.
So, if you pass through life with no attachments, like
an empty boat, no one can hurt you.
ACTION - prayer
The master wants a new shirt. The tailor says, “By God’s
will, I will have it in one week.”
A week goes by and he explains, sorry for the delay, “by the
will of God, it will be ready next week.
Same thing happens. “If God’s will, it will be ready
tomorrow.”
Finally, the master says, “how long will it take if he keeps
God out of this.”
ACTION – PRAYER
Pray to win lottery, pray, pray, pray. Finally God speaks “The least you can do is go out and buy a ticket.”
ACTION – PRAYER - effort
A man in the forest sees a fox that lost its legs. He sees a
tiger come, eat, and then leave the rest of the meat for the
fox.
Next day, God fed the fox by the same means, same tiger.
The man began to wonder at God’s greatness, and said “I too
shall rest in a corner with trust in the Lord and God will
provide all I need.”
He did this for days, and nothing happened. He was at
death’s door when he heard a voice. “O you who are in the
path of error, open your eyes to the truth. Stop imitating the
disabled fox and follow the example of the tiger.”
ACTION, FAITH, ATHEISM
To be a good Jew you do not have to believe in God.
Just do what God wants you to do.
SELF KNOWLEDGE, ACTION
How can we learn to know ourselves? Never by reflection,
but by action. Try to do your duty and you will soon find out
what you are. But what is your duty? The demands of each
day.
Goethe
ACTION,
COOPERATION
God gives every bird its food, but does not throw it into the
nest
Zambian proverb
ACTIVE - MARTHA,
Meister Eckhart takes Martha as the type of the
mature Christian. And she is worried about Mary, afraid that
Mary is wallowing in sentimental devotion instead of getting
up and maturing in the tussles of life. Christ assures Martha
that Mary is all right, she has chosen the best part, but she is
not very far advanced in it.
Martha is the model – concerned for others
ACT
Act always as if your acts were seen. He sees correctly who
sees that others see him now or will see him eventually. He
knows that walls have ears and that evil deeds will not escape
notice. Even when alone he acts as if the eyes of the whole
world were upon him. For as he knows that sooner or later all
will be known, so he considers those to be present as
witnesses who must afterwards hear of the deed…
Gracian
ACT - AGE QUOD AGIS
Feasting on a roast partridge, the sisters are scandalized.
Teresa of Avila laughs and replies:
“At prayer times, pray! At partridge time, partridge.
Teresa of Avila
ACTION
“God never appears to you in person but in action.”
Mahatma Gandhi
ACTION - PLAN
Vision is easy. Strategy is hard.
ACTION - REACTION
Experience is not what happens to a person. It is what a
person does with what happens to him or her.
Aldous Huxley
ACTION - METHOD
But we cannot spend all our time sharpening the knife: at
some point we must cut.
Rahner
ACTION - COOPERATION
Qui fecit nos sine nobis, non salvabit nos sine nobis
Augustine
ACTION, SUCCESS
Young man asks successful businessman. “May I ask you
the secret of success?”
“There is no easy or simple secret. You must be on the alert
for little things, and jump at opportunities.”
“But how can I tell the opportunities when they come?”
“You can’t, you just have to keep jumping.”
ACTION
You never become truly spiritual by sitting down and
wishing to become so. You must undertake something so
great that you cannot accomplish it unaided.
Philip Brooks.
ACTION -
thought
Think globally and act locally.
Jacques Ellul - motto
ACTION
Nothing would be done at all if a person waited till he
or she could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.
Newman
ACTION – STRATEGY
1. Buy 100 tickets to Rochester Symphony and first have a
baked mean pre-concert party
2. to see the mayor of Chicago, tie up the lavatories in
O’Hare airport as people deplane
3. Department store was weak on hiring blacks, so on a busy
Saturday, 300 blacks bus downtown and shop there. The
whites see this and leave the store.
Saul Alinsky
ACTION - deeds
“An opportunity to do good implies the positive duty to do
it.”
and thus look for opportunities in each activity
Cotton Mather
ACT deeds, commandments
“Before I die, I mean to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
I will climb to the top of Mount Sinai and read the Ten
Commandments aloud.”
Mark Twain replies: “I have a better idea. Why don’t you
stay right at home in Boston, and keep them.”
ADAPTATION - REACTION
Two women named “Hooker” write to Ann Landers. One
resentful, the other rejoicing in the name.
The second had a sense of humor, makes joke when
asked “how much do you charge?” – she says, “More than
you can afford.” She adds, the name is rarely misspelled,
and no one ever forgets it.
Same name, same reality, but two different reactions
ADDICTION, habit
A woman came to Gandhi and asked that he tell her child to
stop eating so much candy/sugar. Gandi replied, “come
back tomorrow.” When asked why, he said, “I cannot tell
another to do what I have not done. Tomorrow I will have
stopped eating too much sugar.” (or three weeks and when
asked why he did not give good advice three weeks ago…)
ADDICTION
First the man takes a drink,
Then the drink takes a drink,
Then the drink takes the man.
Japanese proverb
ADDICTION
An expatriated went to a native doctor to give up smoking
and was cured ! How did it happen?
The man told him that the “next cigarette you smoke will kill
you.”
ADDICTION
Kasparov on Bobby Fischer: “Bobby Fischer was a classic
case of someone who became mentally trapped inside the
game, a prisoner of chess who got lost in its depths and
could not find his bearings in the real world outside, a victim
of obsession.”
ADDICTION
Man gave up smoking, but turned to chewing
tobacco. But in church, I heard the Lord say to me “Worship
me with clean lips” – so I threw the cud under the seat. But
then, back on my knees, I started again. Again, Lord spoke,
so this time I threw it out and said “Yes Lord, I will” and
from that moment on, I have been a free man.
AGE, OLD AGE
Doctor says to Adenauer, ill with the flu. “I can’t do
a miracle. I can’t make you younger again.
Adenauer: “I am not asking that. I don’t want to
become young. All I want is to go on getting older.”
ADVENT
Advent prepares us not just for Christmas, but for the
whole liturgical year – for Easter and Pentecost too.
AFRICA
Ex Africa semper aliquid novi
Pliny the Elder
AGE, OLD AGE
Ask Charlie to give his best advice, on his 81st
birthday. “Not, no smoking or drinkin, not go to bed early.
NO, I tell them, keep thinking of other people. That’s always
been my rule and that’s why I am happy today.”
Novel of Flannery O’Connor
AGE, OLD AGE - activity
Interviews with persons over 100, they stress lack of
complacency. They remain actively involved in life, new
projects, new friends. They read, write and show interest in
those around them.
AGE, OLD AGE
“We don’t stop playing because we get old; we get
old because we stop playing.”
AGE - joke
Jerry Aman, in 1981 with his beard, was called “Father
Jesus.”
In 1997, after returning, with a white beard, he is now called
“Father Abraham.”
FRESH – AGE joke
The waiter brings fish to a customer, who looks, sniffs, and
begins to talk to the fish.
Waiter asks – what are you doing – why talk to the fish?
I asked where he is from – Peconic Bay; I asked how are
things in Peconic Bay. The fish answered, “How should I
know? It’s been years since I was there!”
AGE - joke
Mrs. Martin lives next to elderly Mrs. Brady. So Mrs. Martin
asks her boy Billy to run over and see how old Mrs. Brady
was.
Quickly, Billy comes back and says: “Mrs. Brady
says it is none of your business how old she is today.”
AGE - women
The wife tries some new cosmetics. She was pleased, so she
ask her husband. “Darling, sincerely, what age would you
say I am?”
“Judging from your skin, 20; your hair: 18, your figure 25.”
Wife exclaims “O you flatterer!”
Husband says “Wait a minute, I haven’t added them up yet!”
AGE – holiness - joke
Old sister, quietly prays before the statue of St. Theresa of
Lisieux – and heard to say
“If you had lived to be 87 like me, you might not be a saint
either.”
AGE – joke
First you forget names, then you forget faces, then you
forget to zip up your fly, and then you forget to unzip your
fly
Branch Rickey
AGE - advice
1. never pass by a restroom without stopping.
2. don’t trust a fart.
AGE - clever
Elderly woman gets on NYC bus, puts in fare, and is
challenged by the driver. So she waves her Reduced Fare
card.
She complains to a passenger. “I’m 80 and he wants to see
proof. That really makes my day.”
After she gets off the bus, the driver turns to the passenger
and says “I do that once in a while. It always works like
magic.”
NY Times
AGE –joke
Priest at celebration of his grade school sister who turned 60.
“Sister, you don’t look a day older than when we had you.”
Sister: “You mean I looked old then!”
AGE – forgiveness, old age
The late afternoon of our lives is often a time we are called
to forgive. If we respond to the angel of this hour and let go
of all that we are holding against anyone, the evening of our
life will be clear.
David Steindl-Rast, OSB
AGE –joke
Doc, how can I live to be 100?
Doctor: Give up eating rich food, and going out with
women.
Then I will live to be 100?
Doctor: No, but it will seem like it.
ALCOHOL - DRINK
At a temperance meeting, speaker says, if I am in charge, I
would throw all liquor bottles in the sea.
At least one of you agree.
No – I am a deep sea diver.
ALCOHOL - DRINK
Wife goes to the doctor and says, examine my husband, he
has headaches, temperature. I think it is because of the
cherries he eats.
Cherries – that is no problem. Where are the cherries?
At the bottom of the cocktail glass !
AMBIGUITY
No perfection is so absolute that some impurity doeth
not pollute.
Lucretius 1, 853
AMBITION
Czar Nicholas was about to be killed by an enemy
archer when one of his soldiers screamed, saved his life as
his horse swerved.
Czar would give the man any favor you asked, for
saving his life.
Soldier says, my sergeant is brutal, he beats me, let
me serve under another sergeant.
FOOL, says the Czar, be a sergeant yourself!
(We are like that. We pray for petty needs, but do not pray
for our redemption)
AMBITION – AMBITIOUS - joke
He is so clever and ambitious that even if he gets in a
revolving door behind you, he gets out before you.
AMBITION - PRIEST – SEMINARIAN
Saul Alinsky to seminarians before their ordination. Asked,
how can we keep our ideals, goals, and our hopes to improve
the situation.
“That’s easy. When you leave the seminary and are
ordained, make your own personal decision about whether
you want to be a bishop or a priest, and everything else will
follow.”
ANGEL – joke
A child is planting a seed, and the other child says, “if you
want them to grow, you have to pray to your GARDENING
ANGEL.”
ANGELS - GUARDIAN - PRAYER
Entering any city or town, we should call upon the angels,
archangels, saints and patrons of that city or town.We should
gree them and call on them to assist us, just as we would in
paying visits to persons. We should converse with them and
pray to them on behalf of the city or town placed in their
charge….
Peter Faber
ANGELS
Fr. Arnold Damen was elderly. Two boys came and said that
their grandma is dying. They showed him the way. He gets
there and grandma asks: “How did you know I was ill?”
“Two grandsons.”
“Oh, they died some years ago – they were Mass servers at
Holy Family parish.”
Thus now there are two statues of acolytes at that
church.
ANGER - WORDS
Never answer an angry word with an angry word. It is the
second one that produces a quarrel.
ANGER - WORDS
Reprove no one in anger, but only when your anger has
passed, and your anger will then be beneficial
Teresa of Avila
ANGER –
Jesus was angry 50% of the time
PRAYER
Pray in, not up - to the Spirit within you –
Rather than the God above, far off..
ANGER
I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe;
I told it not, my wrath did grow
Blake.
ANGER
Plato had the occasion to chastise a bad boy. But he
asked his friend Xenocrates to do it, to give the boy a sound
flogging.
“I dare not do it myself. I am too angry with him.”
ANGER
When angry, count to ten before you speak:
If very angry, count to a hundred.
Jefferson
ANIMAL - DOG
I find God through doges because dogs are full of love. They
always make you feel better when you feel down. They
make you feel special and loved. Dogs protect and guide you
and give you companionship, just like God.
Dogs are always there for you. If you take care of them,
they will take care of you. Even though dogs cannot talk,
they still love, just like God
Katie Drury
ANIMAL – COW
Happy, content, sociable, feed and move
Together, - learn from them.
APOSTOLIC - SPIRITUALITY
Because of the violent pain that I felt in one eye as a result of
the tears, this thought came to me. If I continue saying Mass,
I could lose this eye, whereas it is better to keep it.
Ignatius - Spiritual Diary
Later – a doctor has forbidden me to weep and I took that as
a command of obedience
APPEARANCE - REALITY
Things do not count for what they are, but for what they
seem. They are few who see into the depths, and they are
many who are satisfied with first appearances. It is not
sufficient even to be right, if it carry the face of being wrong
Gracian, # 99
ATHEISM
In Stalingrad -- I have searched for God in every crater, in
every destroyed house, on every corner, in every friend, in
my fox hole, and in the sky. God did not show himself, even
though my heart cried for Him. No father, there is no God.
Again I write it and know that this is terrible and that I
cannot make up for it forever. And if there should be a God,
He is only with you in the hymnals and the prayers, in the
pious sayings of the priests and pastors, and in the ringing of
the bells and the fragrance of incense, but not in Stalingrad.
ATHEISM
Volney, a French skeptic, philosopher, in storm at sea.. He
goes to a corner and starts a rosary he just borrowed. When
storm is over, he is asked. How is that you who claim to be
an atheist, have been praying?
He replies: “It is one thing to play the skeptic, and
something else again to face death.”
ATHEIST- joke
An atheist is a person who goes to a Celtic vs. Ranger
football match and doesn’t care who wins.
Atheist is one who has no visible means of support.
Dial a prayer for atheists? You call and nobody answers.
Tombstone:
Beneath this stone lies Dr. John Bigelow, an atheist
All dressed up, with no place to go.
ATHEIST
Two atheists, one gets mortally sick. The other comes to
visit and encourage – and says “Stick to it, my friend.”
But the other dying man replies - “There is nothing to stick
to!”
AUTHORITY - teach
A person cannot tell you anything about God as long as he
rules over you.
Muentzer, in Soelle, SUFFERING, p. 133
AUTHORITY - SUPERIOR - praise
Job of a good superior – “sprays the house with praise.”
Horace McKenna
AUTHORITY – POWER
Who is more powerful, a bishop or a judge?
-- Judge can do no more than say “You will be hanged.”
--A Bishop can say “You will be damned.”
Yes, true, but when a judge says you will be hanged, you are
hanged.
AWE,
WONDER
I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself
I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore,
and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother
pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great
ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
Newton
AWE
Awe is the finest portion of humankind.. In awe one feels
profoundly the immense.
Goethe
AWE – wonder
A child watching an egg hatch into a chick – sees it as
marvelous, incredible, amazed at the magic of it.
We adults don’t notice, don’t think. We have lost our sense
of wonder and contemplation.
------------BAPTISM
Francis de Sales takes a youth to font where he was baptized.
“See here is the spot that should be dearer to us than any
other – dearer than our own birthplace. For there we were
born in sin, here we were made children of God.
BAPTISM- JOKE
What is the name of the child?
Robert, Morgan, Montgomery, Afred van Hagen
Minister to assistant – “More Water Please.”
BAPTISM - joke
Priest writing the certificate tries to remember the date: “Let
me see, this is the 12th, isn’t it?”
NO, Reverend, are you out of your mind, this is only the 8th
I have had.
BAPTISM - joke
With a group of children, the minister takes one in his arms
and says: “No one can tell the future. This child may be a
businessman like Ford, a politician, a bishop, or even Pope.
Then he turns to the mother and asks the name.
MARY ANN !
BAPTISM - joke
The town liar, reprobate says he has seen the light and wants
baptism. So they put him in icy waters, all watch and
applaud. A friend asks as he comes out.
“Hey Tom, is the water cold?”
“No sir,” proclaims the prodical bravely
Friend says: “Better dunk him again, parson, he
Ain’t quit lying yet.”
BAPTISM - joke
Priest to boy ”What is your name?”
Boy - “Well, you should know. You baptized me, gave me
my name.”
BAPTISM
Rimbaud, dying, after a degrading life, as a slave trader.
His sister comes to bedside, and h asked her to send for the
priest.
“But Arthur, you have been so far away from that, your life
has been so… I don’t understand.”
Rimbau replies: “I am a victim of my own baptism.”
“I believe in hell, for I am there. It is the execution of the
catechism. I am a slave of my baptism..
Last Writings - + 1891
BAPTISM - joke
After baptism - How was it?
“OK, but don’t hang around the river too long.”
BAPTISM - JOKE
Family assembled, priest asks baby sister. “This is big day,
baptism. What is the big thing we put on your baby sister
today.”
Child answers - “Pampers.”
BAPTISM - name
Kruschchev and daughter and son-in-law meet Pope John
XXIII.
Madame, I know you have three children, and I know their
names. But I would like YOU to tell me their names,
because when a mother speaks the names of her children,
something very special happens.
Ninita, Alexei, Ivan
BAPTISM – NAME
According to St. John Chrysostom, parents get several
candles. Give each candle a name. Light all, and the child is
given the name which was attached to the candle which
burned longest
BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTY
When you have lost everything and have nothing
But two pieces of bread left in your pocket;
Sell one piece and buy a flower for the price you receive to
have some nourishment for your heart.
Italian verse
BEAUTIFUL
Arrupe in favela, after Mass, taken by huge man. Is given a
chair, sits, watches beautiful sunset. Man says: “I did not
know how to thank you for all that you have done for us, but
I thought you would like to see this sunset. It pleased you,
didn’t it?”
BEAUTIFUL
Flying a kit with my children – run around, laugh and
scream like a child – liberation - action and stillness
BEAUTY
When I am working on a problem, I never think about
beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But
when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know
it is wrong.
Buckminster Fuller
BEAUTY - NATURE, GOD
There is no little blade of grass, there is no color in this
world, that is not intended to make men rejoice.
Calvin – in a sermon
BEAUTY - SECULAR
In this secular, post-modern world, fewer go to church but
more, many go to museums, concerts. Are they searching for
God in the beautiful?
BEAUTY
When one flower blooms, it is spring everywhere.
Zen Monk
BELIEF, MIRACLE
Scientists say the universe may have begun with one subatomic particle that expanded into our universe.
Can you believe that?
BIBLE
Do not read the Bible any longer than 15 minutes at one
sitting – or you sink into ordinary reading.
Baron Von Huegel
CROSS
The church languishes today, not because it asks too
much of modern man, but because it asks too little.
It has tried to make its faith plausible and palatable
when it should have presented the high, hard way of Christ
without compromising his demand for total sacrifice of self.
Mother Teresa
CROSS
I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have
learned in my seventy-five years in this world, everything
that has truly enhanced and enlightened my experience, has
been through affliction and not through happiness.
Malcolm Muggeridge
CROSS - struggle, creativity
Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to
roll stones out of his way, but must accept the lot calmly if
they even roll a few more upon it. A strength which becomes
clearer and stronger through its experience of such obstacles
is the only strength that can conquer them. Resistance is only
a waste of strength.
Schweitzer
CROSS
Working with the poor, homeless, shelters, hospitality
“I do penance through my nose continually.”
Dorothy Day
CROSS
The sailor finally clings to the rocks which have wrecked
him.
CROSS
The death of Christ as the victory of Golgotha ?
- the cross - “Just here at the cross when Satan did his
very worst, just here, just then, God did his very, very best.
At the cross, the very worst and the very best meet.
CROSS - little things
Man walks from California to NY – asked what was
toughest ?? “What almost defeated me was the sand in my
shoes.”
CROSS –love
The cross and resurrection of Jesus say not that death
leads to life, but that love leads to life, that it is in losing
one’s life that one finds it.
CROSS - crown
Charles V – king of France - calls son. Puts crown and
sword on the table and says “Choose”.
The son picks the sword, and says by this I will win the
other.
Per Crucem ad lucem.
CROSS
Storms make oaks take deeper root
George Herbert
CROSS
The cross of Golgotha will never save thy soul
The cross in thine own heart
Alone can make thee whole.
Angelus Silesius
CROSS - community
A community does not grow unless it has at least one person
who is difficult to love (calls forth the best of others)
Jean Vanier - from his experience of 100 communities
CROSS
Pain makes man think. Thought makes man wise. Wisdom
makes life endurable.
Sakini, in Teahouse of the August Moon –
On suffering of Japanese..
CROSS
God and pray to the Lord to command some struggle to be
stirred up in you, for the soul is matured only in battles.
Abbot John the Dwarf
CROSS - growth
This is how one grows. By being defeated, decisively, by
constantly greater things. If we win over small things, the
triumph itself makes us small.
Rilke
CROSS - die
No seed ever sees the flower
Zen – compassion, die to self, for others, for the futureCROSS
A plane takes off into the wind. It needs resistance to rise
higher
CROSS - handicaps, disabled
I thank God for my handicaps, for through them I have
found myself, my work, and my God.
Helen Keller
CROSS
That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.
Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich staerker.
Nietzsche
CROSS
Take up your TOWEL daily and follow me
-footwashing = cross
CROSS - paschal mystery
The deeper the valleys, the loftier the heights that rise above
them.
The deeper the well, the higher too. For depth and height are
the same thing.
Eckhart
CROSS
There are no easy ways, no simple solutions. What comes
east is not worth a straw. It is a tragic error to assume that
the world is flat, that our direction is horizontal. The way is
always vertical; we either climb or fall. Religious existence
means struggle uphill.
A.J. Heschel
CROSS
What we do is very little, but it is like the little boy with a
few loaves and fishes. Christ took the little and increased
it… Unless the seed fall into the earth and die, there is no
harvest. And why must we see results. Our work is to sow.
Another generation will be reaping the harvest.
Dorothy Day
CROSS
On top of a Church – the Cross is God’s plus sign
(mathematics). God’s abundant love
CROSS persecution
We multiply whenever we are mown down by you. The
blood of Christians is the seed.
Semen est sanguis Christianorum
Tertullian Apology 50:13
CROSS - liberalism
A God without wrath brought men without sin into a
kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a
Christ without a cross.
H.Richard Niebuhr - the Kingdom of God in America
CROSS jok
Rabbi and a priest in a car. They see a truck coming right at
them. The rabbi makes the sign of the cross and avoids the
accident.
The priest asks: “Did you forget you are Jewish?”
Rabbi answers: “What Forget? Who had time to make a Star
of David.?”
CROSS -suffer
good from evil
A distinguished lady told her spiritual director:
“I am frivolous. I try everything, sacraments, retreat, yet I
am attached to this world. Can I be saved?”
Priest: “My dear, it looks as if your only hope lies in some
great misfortune.”
CROSS - sign
Communist China, during takeover. Priest about to start
mass in crowded chapel. A fully-armed soldier enters the
front door. All are worried. But the soldier then makes the
sign of the cross, with a smile – and the Mass begins.
True sign of a Catholic – sign of the cross
CROSS - crisis - growth
Priest ministering to AIDS victims, says 15 out of 30 started
to live when they found out they had it.
They began to live in the present, not in unreality.
AIDS is not horrible. Missing life is horrible.
“The great tragedy, trouble in life is not how much we
suffer, but how much we miss.”
Thomas Carlyle
CROSS – persecution “..the society has produced more abundant fruit in those
places where its members have suffered most.”
“Of all bad weather, what we ought to dread most is a calm,
and the greatest danger we can incur is not from having
adversaries, but from having none.”
Ignatius Loyola
CROSS – resurrection
The resurrection is not the canceling out of the cross, for
there is no other way to resurrection except through the
cross.
Resurrection is the freedom born of the cross.
CROSS
Repayment
Thou the Cross didst bear?
What bear I?
Thou the thorn didst wear?
What wear I?
Thou to death didst dare?
What dare I?
Thou for me dost care?
What care I?
Housman
CROSS - providence
When a retarded child is born, the religious question is not –
why does God permit this – but what sort of community
should we become so that mental retardation need not be a
barrier to a child’s enjoying a gratifying life.
Stanley Hauerwas
CROSS
The everlasting God has in his wisdom foreseen from
eternity the cross that he now presents to you as a gift from
his inmost heart. The cross he now sends you he has
considered with his all-knowing eyes, understood with his
divine mind, tested with his wise justice, warmed with
loving arms and weighed with his own hands to see that it be
not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for
you…..
Francis de Sales
Joke - Samaritan, preacher
What did the preacher preach about?
Child – man want from Jerusalem to Jericho, and was beaten
up. Two preachers came along, and when they saw that the
man had already been robbed, they passed by on the other
side.
Doctor – joke
Doc, it is nice of you to come all this distance to me.
That’s OK – I have another patient in this section, and so I
thought I would kill two birds with one stone.
PRAYER – JOKE
Night prayers, Bless mama, papa, Aunt Kate, and please
make St. Louis the capital of Missouri.
Why – why ask for that.
Because that is what I put down on my exam paper today.
PATRIOT -
SELFISHNESS
Patrick Henry said give me liberty or give me death.
Next generation shouts Give me liberty
Present generation shouts, Give me.
Media - Mass
The difference between listening to a radio station / or TV
and going to a church, is the same as the difference between
calling your girl on the telephone and spending an evening
with her.
Joke - tipping
Preacher on train, Pullman – not sure, so asks the porter.
“What is the average tip?”
“Two dollars,” was reply. Preacher thought this rather large,
but gave it to the porter.
The porter says - “thanks, you are the first one who ever
came up to the average.”
Work – women,
mother, marriage
Father was showing Junior the family album and comes
across picture of him and wife on wedding day.
Junior asks “was that the day Mom came to work for us?”
Age - old age
Reporter asks man who turned 100. “What do you believe is
the reason for your long life?”
“Because I was born a long time back, I guess.”
Joke – bible College class quizzed on Bible.
“With what weapon did Samson slay the Philistines?
No one answered, so the teacher coached them a little.
“What is this?” he asked, as he point to his jaw.
“The jawbone of an ass!” triumphantly exclaimed one
student.
Bible - life –
Someone said to Buddha. “the things you teach are not
found in the Scripture.”
“Then put them in there,” said Buddha.
Visitor says again:“Some of what you say contradicts
Scipture”
Buddha says, “then the scriptures need amending.”
Bible - joke
What did the pastor say to the painter who thinned the paint
which then washed away in the rainstorm?
Repaint and thin no more !
Bible Joke
The flood was over, Noah sends animals forth. Go and
multiply. But two male snakes are lazy and stay. Noah says
– I told you to go and multiply.
Response: “We are adders.”
Bible JokeIn the bible it is a miracle if the ass can speak.
Today, it is a miracle if he/she keeps his/her mouth shut.
Bible joke
Children in a church here “ Jesus receives sinners and
eateth with them.
Afterwards, girl goes up to pastor and says she was surprised
that her name is in the bible.
Pastor asks – what is your name.
Edith, she answers.
But Edith is not in the bible, he says.
But no – you just said. “Jesus receiveth sinners and EDITH
with them.”
Bible – mirror, life
Bible is like a mirror - we see, discover ourselves in it, we
do not look AT the mirror.
Use the bible not to interpret the bible but to interpret, see
life.
Is like a telescope – look through it –
Phillips Brooks
Bible –
Most people are bothered by those passages in Scripture
which they cannot understand. But as for me, I always
noticed that the passages in Scripture which trouble me are
those that I do understand.
Mark Twain
Bible –
Many reject the bible not because it contradicts itself, but
because it contradicts them.
Bible – joke
Teacher explains: “Lot had to take his wife and flee out of
the country, and he turned into a pillar of salt.
Any questions?”
Child - what happened to the flea?
Bible - David, goliath
How do we know that David was older than Goliath?
He rocked him to sleep.
Bible, Noah – joke
Noah instructs his two sons, fishing off the ark.
Easy on the bait, we only have two worms.
Bible –
How should we read the Bible? Like a
love letter. Read between the lines. Imagine the writer,
author (God) and dialogue with the author.
Read it slowly, carefully, looking for signs, intimations,
deeper meanings.
Interpret it in the best light
Bible
Te totum applica ad textum;
Rem totam applica ad te.
Hengel
Bible – strength
Pablo Casals, at age 90, with arthritis, agony in the morning
to dress and move.
He shuffles to the piano with the help of his wife. He raises
his swollen fingers and plays, and behold, a
Miracle. He straightens up, breathes better. Ends with a
flourish of music. Then gets up, has breakfast and talks
animatedly.
so too the Bible
Bible- joke
Wedding, intend text 1 Jn 4: 17-18 God is love…
Perfect love casts out fear
But instead given Jn. 4: 16-18
You are right in saying you have no husband. The one you
have now is not your husband. You have had five.
Bible - creativity
Dr. Carver, scientist, prays for wisdom – how to use peanuts
– discovers 100 + ways. At a celebration, he says he learned
these ways from an old book
Namely the bible. “The Bible tells you about God who
made the peanut. I asked God to show me what to do with
the peanut and he did.”
Bible –
N.T. = new Testament – if you add
THE new Testament – you get initials
TNT – and the bible is that
Spiritual dynamite.
Bible
Little boy in room, reading bible. So quiet, his mother asks
“what are you doing?”
“I am watching Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead.”
Yes – that is how we should read the bible.
Bible - joke I sent a bible to my son at college, told him to read
the chapters I marked. In each chapter I put a $5.
Did he read them?
I guess so. He mailed the Bible back to me and asked that
I mark more chapters ASAP
Bible - devil
“The devil can cite Scriptures for his purpose
Shakespeare, MERCHANT OF VENICE
Bible- interpretation
“We have so much to say about the Bible that we are not
prepared to hear what the bible has to say about us.”
Heschel
Bishop - joke, sex
To a Blond actress – divorcee. “a lot of people want to see
you, including a bishop who says he married you some time
ago.”
“Gee – I am practically certain I never married a bishop.”
Bishop - the poor
Know that it does not suffice to be retired, studious, a man
of prayer, if you are not open-handed in relieving the
necessities of the poor. A bishop must regard the poverty of
others as his own. You are not entitled to the name of bishop
if you act otherwise.
Gregory the Great - sept. 3
Bishop – joke
Bishop sees boys playing in mud. “What are you making?”
“A cathedral.”
“Then you need a bishop.”
“No,we don’t have enough mud/muck to make a bishop.”
Bishop – joke
Four bishops on a plane. The pilot says one engine is gone,
but still three good ones.
An Old woman asks the stewardess , “are you sure all is
OK?”
“OK – sue, we have four bishops on board.”
Old woman: “I’d rather have four motors and three bishops
rather than four bishops and three motors.”
Bishop - authority
Believe me, brothers and sisters, if what I am for you
frightens me, what I am with you reassures me. For you I am
the bishop. With you I am a Christian.
Bishop, this is the title of an office one has accepted to
discharge. Christian, that is the name of the grace one
receives. – a Dangerous title, a Salutary name.
Augustine Serm. 340.1
Books – library
In a library you pick up by osmosis, even if you do not read.
The shelves communicate. The library angel is constantly at
work.
Bread - share
There is no such thing as “my” bread. All bread is ours and
is given to me, to others through me and to me through
others. For only bread but all things necessary for sustenance
in this life are given on loan to us with others, and because
of others and for others and to others through us.
Meister Eckhart
BREAD -
beauty
Be gentle when you touch bread,
Let it not lie, uncared for, Unwanted.
So often bread is taken for granted. \
There is such beauty in bread –
Beauty of surf and soil, Beauty of patient toil.
Wind and rain have caressed it,
Christ often blessed it.
Be gentle when you touch bread.
Celtic Prayer
Work busy, time
Most of this world’s useful work is done by people who are
pressed for time, or are tired, or don’t feel well.
Douglas, Smithall Freeman
CALM - courage
In India, a man with a pet 150 pound tiger is talking. And
calmly tells his friend, “Get a rifle, put a bullet between the
eyes of the tiger, quietly.”
He does it and asks why.
The tiger had scratched the man, drew blood. The man tried
to withdraw his hand, and the tiger held him. He knew what
was coming – he had tasted blood.
Catechism
At the Gregorian, if in doubt, cite the Catechism.
Catechism
It is not an exaggeration to say that instruction in the
Catechism is the most important teaching a Christian will
ever receive throughout his life, however long or learned it
might be. This instruction should therefore carry from the
beginning the maximum of religious knowledge it is able to
bear.
Gilson, THE PHILOSOPHER AND THEOLOGY,
66
CATECHESIS - YOUTH
The master was not enthusiastic about religious education
for the young. Why?
Inoculate them when they are young and you prevent them
from catching the real thing when they grow up.
One Minute Wisdom
Catholic - joke- pope
Visitor to Boston, stops in the commons and asks a black
man. “Do you know the quickest way to get to city
hospital?”
“Yes sir – just walk up to a crowd of white folks and say “to
hell with the Pope.’”
Catholic – optimist
How are thing? (Charlie Rich)
I am a Catholic. I can’t complain.
Commentary on the book of Job, by Gregory the Great
Change
Ammon Hennacy is asked: “Do you think you can change
the world?”
“No, but I am damn sure it cant change me.”
Change - tendency - celibacy
Someone says there is a tendency in the Church for priest to
be able to marry. Change the law of celibacy.
Paul Tillich responds: “A tendency in the Church means 200
years.”
Change
You must be the change you wish to see in the world
Ghandi
Faith
It is never a question of faith or no faith. The question is – in
what or in whom do we put our faith.
Change
Right reason demands a change in what was right to
do at some earlier time, if the time or circumstance is
changed.
Therefore, when objectors say it is not right to make change,
truth answers with a shout that it is not right NOT to make a
change
Augustine, Letter 138
Change – newman
In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to
change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.
Newman
Conversion – change
You are much deceived in thinking that the cause of
our unrest and little progress in following the way of the
Lord comes from the place where you live, or your
superiors, or your brethren. This unrest comes from within
you, that is, it comes from your own lack of humility,
obedience and prayer, and finally from a want of
mortification and fervor in advancing on the way of
perfection. You could have a change in residence, of
superiors, of brethren, but if the interior man is not changed,
these other changes will do you no good. Everywhere will be
the same for you, unless you become humble, obedient,
devout, and you mortify your self-love. This is the change
you should seek and no other.
Ignatius
CHASTITY
Can be seen as a respectful attitude, reverence for
everything, not just sex
CHASTITY
A married man, lived in chastity. On his death bed, his
wife comes, puts her face near to see if he is still breathing.
He finds the strength to say “Get away, don’t tempt me. I
ain’t dead yet.”
Story from Gregory the Great
Chastity
The opposite of chastity is control
Chastity
The essence of chastity is not the suppression of lust, but the
total orientation of one’s life towards a goal.
Bonhoeffer, Letters from Prison, 163
Creativity - children
The later paintings of Picasso seem more innovative than the
earlier. How come? He says “it takes a long time to become
young.”
Picasso
Child - joke
A boy runs home, collides with a man. “Why are you
running, where to?”
“Home, so my mother can beat me?”
“Running?
“Yes, if get home now, she beats me. Or else my father
comes home later, and he will beat me.”
Child - sex
I walk in on my 8 year old watching TV – on the birth of
insects, puppies, wonders of birth.
I walk in as it shows explicit natural human birth. I wonder
if I should say anything. So I say, “isn’t that a miracle,
Duane!”
He was not aware of my presence. He turned to me, his face
full of wonder. “Yeah, but you should’ve seen the horse.”
Children - Jesus
Lessons from Jesus:
Does not assert or aggrandize self
No memory for injuries,
no room in the heart for a grudge
no previous opinion,
not ashamed to confess ignorance
can imagine –
has the key of another world.
Children – laugh
Children laugh an average of 400 times daily
Adults 15 times.
Laughter is good for muscle tone, circulation, less stress and
better sense perception
Child
To be a child of God means: to be led by the Hand of
God, to do the Will of God, not one’s own will, to place
every care and hope into the Hand of God and not to worry
about oneself or the future. On this rests the freedom and
the joy of the child of God.
Edith Stein - the Mystery of Christmas
Child – clever - strategy - compliment
Robert at a birthday party. His mother says “You didn’t ask
for a second piece of cake, I hope.”
“No, I only asked Mrs. Jones for the recipe so you could
make some cake like it – and she gave me TWO more
pieces.”
Child – wisdom - love
Child, retarded insists on part in Christmas play. OK – he is
the innkeeper, has one line. “No Room in the Inn.” - says
it twice, as Joseph begs, as Mary is pregnant.
Third Time, he hesitates, teacher thinks he has forgotten
his line. Then he says
“Come on in, you and Mary can have my room.”
Not a dry eye in the house!
------------CHILD - SEE
Child and grandpa on shore. Picks up a tiny shell. Grandpa
ask: “How you could you see such a tiny shell?
“Because I have little eyes.”
CHILD, - LOVE - CHRISTMAS - joke
Priest sees infant in crib is missing. Sees a boy with small
wheelbarrow.
“Johnny – what are you doing?”
“It’s OK Father, I told Jesus that if I got a wheelbarrow for
Christmas, he should have the first ride in it.”
CHILD Child writes - I love mommy, I love Father Bill, I love my
brother.
I ask - what about me? (Peter Schineller) Don’t you love
me?
I do, but I can’t spell your name.
Child - teacher
A drought over Israel, People pray and king calls all
together. Nothing. Calls wise men – nothing
One old man poorly dressed, prays and rains come.
King asks: “Who are you that your prayer prevails?”
“I am the teacher of little children.”
Cross
The church languishes today, not because it asks too
much of modern man, but because it asks too little.
It has tried to make its faith plausible and palatable
when it should have presented the high, hard way of Christ
without compromising his demand for total sacrifice of self
Mother Teresa
Cross - learning
I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have
learned in my seventy-five years in this world, everything
that has truly enhanced my experience, has been through
affliction and not through happiness.
Malcom Muggeridge
Cross - creativity – struggle
Anyone who propose to do good must not expect people to
roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly if
they even roll a few more upon it. A strength which becomes
clearer and stronger through its experience of such obstacles
is the only strength that can conquer them. Resistance is only
a waste of strength.
Schweitzer
Cross - penance
“I do penance through my nose continually.”
Dorothy Day - houses of hospitality
Cross - salvation
The sailor finally clings to the rocks which have wrecked
him.
Cross
In Central Africa, they speak of the death of Christ as
“the victory of Golgotha.” Why?
They show two sticks: “just here at the cross, when Satan
did his worst, just here, God did his very best. At the cross,
the very worst and the very best meet.”
Cross - little things
Man walked on foot from California to New York. He is
asked what was the greatest difficulty ?
Heat, food? Rain?
“What almost defeated me was the sand in my shoes.”
Cross - love
Jesus did not say that death leads to life, but that love leads
to life.
The cross is I - crossed out +
Cross
Storms make oaks take deeper root.
George Herbert
Cross
The Cross of Golgotha will never save thy soul.
The cross in thine own heart
Alone can make thee whole.
Angelus Silesius
Cross - community
In his experience of 100 communities, a community does not
grow unless it has at least one person who is difficult to love.
Jean Vanier
Cross - pain
wisdom
Sakini “Not easy to learn, Sometimes painful. But pain
makes man think. Thought makes man wise. Wisdom makes
life endurable.”
Teahouse of the August Moon – opening scene
Cross - desire
Go and pray to the Lord to command some struggle to be
stirred up in you, for the soul is matured only in battles.
Abbot John the Dwarf
Cross - growth
This is how one grows. By being defeated, decisively, by
constantly greater things.. If we win over small things, the
triumph itself makes us small.
Rilke
Cross - death
No seed ever sees the flower.
Zen – compassion means to die to self
For the other. For the future.
Cross opposites - paschal mystery
The deeper the valleys, the loftier the heights that rise above
them.
The deeper the well, the higher too. For depth and height are
the same thing.
Eckhart
Child – joke -
dinner
Family and guest sit down. The mother notices, and asks
here little daughter:“why did you not put a knife and fork at
Mr. White’s place?”
“I didn’t think he would need them. Daddy said he eats like
a horse.”
Children
God sends children to enlarge our hearts and make us
unselfish and full of kindly sympathies and affections.
Child – joke
Child in Church becomes restless. Mother says:
“This is God’s house, you must behave in it.”
Boy - “Can I use God’s bathroom?”
Child – love
Mother in India with 12 children and the youngest falls very
ill. Mother Teresa says “ I will take her, I will care for
her.”
Mother says: “No, this child is the greatest gift God has
given my family. All our love is showered on her. If you
take her away, life has no meaning.”
Child
Many things we need can wait. The child cannot.
Now is the time his bones are being formed, his blood is
being made, his mind is being developed. To him we cannot
say tomorrow. His name is today.
Gabriela Mistral - Chilean poet, Nobel Prize winner
Children –
Political candidate visits houses and sees two children, hand
and hand.
He asks: are you twins? No
Are you brothers? Yes
How old are you. We are five
If you are five and brothers, you must be twins.
No sir, we are triplets. Billie is inside.
Child - handicapped - city
At a hospital for mentally ill, the people greet you, smile,
welcome you.
Then you go out to the street, where people are healthy, and
you see few smiles, no talk, no community
Vanier
Child – death – joke
Teacher tells children a story about how they should dress
warm. Little boy did not, and played in the snow with his
snow sleigh, and caught pneumonia and died.
Children were silent, and then one small voice asks:
“Please miss, what happened to his sleigh?”
child - adult- creative
Get in touch with the child in us, by picnic, fishing,
flying a kite. We must free ourselves from our grown-up
selves.
The only way to be creative as an adult is to get back
in touch with the child we once were.
Child - parent
A father is walking along with his three year old child, hand
in hand. And meets a doctor friend. As they depart, the
doctor says
“He is very good to you.” To whom did he say it – child,
father, or BOTH.
Child - wisdom
The children are the wisdom of a nation –
African proverb
If you visit a village, ask the children what is the news?
They will honestly, frankly, tell you what is most important.
(tribal war? Security ?)
Child – education
Educator, Parker, gives a lecture, and is asked. “How early
can I begin the education of my child?”
“When will the child be born?”
“Born. He is already 5!”
“My goodness woman, don’t stand here talking. Hurry
home, you already lost the best five years.”
Child - kingdom
King built a beautiful city, gardens, etc. But gates were low
and narrow. Many could not pass through- too much
clothing, luggage, or head too high. But the children ran in
very easily.
Solution ? Become like children. – bend down, simpler
lives.
Child - smile
Why do we smile when we see a baby. Perhaps because we
see someone without all the defensive layers, whose smile
for us is genuine and without guile. And that baby-soul
inside us smiles wistfully in recognition.
Child – contemplation
Children do not study shoeboxes to make better boxes, but
just because they are. It is good to study things for a
purpose. But it is HOLY to study them for no purpose.
Each moment is precious not because of what it can be used
for, but simply because it is. Creation is only one use of
time. Another is appreciation.
David Wolfe - TEACHING YOUR CHILDREN ABOUT
GOD
CHILD – play
When a little boy finds an old motor on a junk heap and
brings it home to play with, take apart, his mother tells him
to throw it out. He will cry. It is his best reaction to this
affluent society. He is sane. The society is not. He
possesses because he cares. We do not.
Robert Capon
Child - adult - memory
Go and walk where you walked as a child. Along a wall.
But reach down, as if you are that child. And memories will
flood in, sounds, smells, names, teachers.
Child – joke
Five year old sits down in garage. Eight year old comes in
and says “Get your guns”
“Why”, asks the five year old.
“Because Tommy (neighbor) says he gives us just till he
counts to 100 to get out of town.”
“Oh, that’s OK. We don’t have to leave. Tommy can’t
count to 100.”
Child
Every Child
Every child should know a hill,
And the clean joy of running down its long slope
With the wind in his hair.
He should know a tree –
The comfort of its cool lap of shade,
And the supple strength of its arms
Balancing him between earth and sky
So he is the creature of both
He should know bits of singing water –
The strange mysteries of its depths,
And the long sweet grasses that border it.
Every child should know some scrap
Of uninterrupted sky, to shout against;
And have one star, dependable and bright,
For wishing on.
Edna Casler Joll
Child wonder
Know you what it is to be a child? It is to be something very
different from the man of today.
It is to have a spirit yet streaming from the waters of
baptism, it is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness, to
believe in belief. It is to be so little that the elves can reach
to whisper in your ear. It is to turn pumpkins into coaches,
and mice into horses, lowness into loftiness and nothing into
everything – for each child has his fairy godmother in his
own soul. It is to live in a nutshell and count yourself king of
infinite space; it is
To see a world in a grain of sand,
Heaven in a wild flower,
To hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.
Francis Thompson
Christianity – morality
USA soldier in South Sea. The local brings out a bible from
his hut, his most prized possession.
Soldier says – “We have outgrown that”
Local, who had been a cannibal tribe, says – “It’s a good
thing we haven’t outgrown it. If we had, you would have
been a meal as soon as we saw you.”
Christmas
Christmas is when you feel OK about being a little boy and
being poor, because so was Jesus.
Peruvian boy Maryknoll Mag
Christianity
The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It
has been found difficult and left untried.
Chesterton
Christians
Three models:
Rafts – in name only, along for the ride
Sailboats, - follow Jesus only in sunny weather –
Otherwise follow the crowd
Tugboats - follow regardless of the weather. Even go
against the wind, and when wind opposes them.
They travel slow and straight.
Christianity - humor
It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.
Chesterton
Christianity Europe is tired of Christianity
McDade
Christians
Three types
Old Faithfuls
Once in a Whilers - Up and Downers
Almost Nevers
Christmas
There are three periods in life
First believe in Santa
Second, do not believe
Third - you ARE Santa
Christmas – joke –
Sunday School class on the Christmas story - of the magi
and the shepherds. So review, teacher asks: who was the
first to know of the birth of Jesus?
Answer - MARY
Christmas -joke - confession
Rehearsal for Christmas play, and two main characters were
not showing up. Sister asks:
“Where are Mary and Joseph?”
“Sister, they are in line for confession.”
Christmas - share
“How was your Christmas, I asked a child after Mass in
Mexico?”
“Fantastico, the Best I ever had,” she answered.
“What did Santa bring you?”
“I didn’t get anything. Papa asked us to share Christmas
with people in the Old Folks Home,so we used the money to
buy them some blankets. We had a great time.”
Community- church
It is with Christians as with burning coals. If these are scattered
apart, one after the other, they are easily extinguished. But
when collected together, the fire of one preserves that of the
other, and the glowing coals often ignite others that lie near.
Opposite of manure imagery - together are a pile of shit,
apart are good fertilizer.
Church – God
Do we think of the church as a hospital? I am glad I am
healthy, and don’t need it often, but when I need it, I am glad
there is a good one around.
Church – collection – generosity
Father gives his son a nickel and a quarter. To develop
character, says, put in what you want.
After the service, he asks son, what did you do?
The boy says, “just before the collection, the preacher says the
lord loves a cheerful giver. And I knew I would be a lot more
cheerful if I gave the nickel so I did.
ChurchThe bark of Peter laughs at the winds and waves. She has the
saints as her passengers, the cross as her mast, the gospel
teachings as her sails, the angels as the rowers, and God as her
pilot.
John Chrysostom
Church The church is like a giant old oak tree.
The further away from the center you get, the more life and
vitality you see and find.
Church
- sinner
Man search for a good church to attend. He enters and hears
the preacher:
“we have left undone those things we ought to have done, and
we have done those things we ought not to have done.”
Man sits down, sighs with relief and says to himself, “Thank
goodness, I’ve found my crowd at last.”
Church - authority
If you wish to sail comfortably in the bark of Peter, keep as far
away as possible from the engine room.
Ronald Know
Church –joke
Two year old, with mother in waiting room while the sister is
in the dentist office. Mother closes her eyes.
So daughter comes up to her, shakes her, and says.
“Mommy, wake u, this is not church.”
Church – family
One key function of a family is to carry the pathologies
of the members. So too the Church is therapy, help and
support one another.
Church
It has become clear to me that man’s fundamental decision is
not made in regard to his concept of God or to the figure of
Christ, but to the Church.
Guardini to Montini
Church –
Koinonia - welcome
Kerygma - word – preach
Leitourgia - worship
Diakonia - welfare
Martyria
witness
Eucharistia –
Church – ecumenism, toleration
Too many people have enough religion to oppose and hate
others, but not enough to love them.
Church Revival
Asked, how many joined ?
Answer: None – we lost 500 !
Church – confession
On Ad Auds exam, Rahner is given a case in which
there is really no sin. Rahner absolves the penitent.
Examiner asks - why – there was no sin, you gave absolution?
Rahner “ecclesia supplet!”
Church - child – joke
Child in church becomes impatient. Mother says Mass will soon be
over.
Seeing the red light for the tabernacle, he asks: “Do we have to
stay here until the red light turns green?”
Church - drink - joke
Minister sees Tom the village drunk and no good, and shakes and
congratulations him.
“I see you turned over a new leaf!”
“Me?”
“Yes, I saw you at church last night.”
“Oh – so that is where I ended up!”
Church - contribute
An artist is asked to contribute to a church drive.
Instead of money, he gives a picture, says it is worth $300.
Minister thanks, and says we are still $ 100. short. So the aretist
says, “OK – increase the price of the painting to $ 400.”
Church - money
I am suspicious of a church that tells you that the end is near and
then asks you to make a three year pledge for the building fund.
Church - attendance
Soldiers are marching to church, and there is only room for
one half.
“All those who don’t want to go to church – fall out.”
Many do so.
“Now, all those who did not fall out are dismissed. The rest now
march in. You need it most.”
Church – joke
Teacher: “What is a niche in a church/”
“It is just the same as an itch anywhere else, only you can’t scratch
it as well.”
Church- contribution
At home after the service, the father criticizes the sermon, daughter
thought the singing was poor, and mother criticized the organist.
But the criticism stopped when the small boy added. “It was a
good show for a nickel, dad, wasn’t it?”
Church - sinful
The behavior of St. Peter’s boat often makes me feel sick, but I do
not step off into the sea.
Church - social
In India, one goes to church to meet God, and comes back to be
and build community with friends.
In Africa, and the USA, one goes to the chuch as a social
Event, not to meet God in himself.
Church - sinful
The church, like the ark of Noah, is worth saving: not for
the sake of the unclean beasts and vermin that almost filled it, and
probably made most noise and clamour in it, but for the little
corner of rationality, that was as much distressed by the stink
within as by the tempest without.
William Walburton, Bishop of Gloucester.
Church - ecumenism - joke
Basketball star asked to fill out form, for public relations:
“Church Preference”
He fills in - “red brick”
Church – joke
Child sees the list of names on the church wall of those killed in
the service (of their country).
He asks: “was it the 9:3” or the 11:00 Service?”
Church - ecumenism - joke
Baptist bus accident, 30 are killed. They get to heaven, and St.
Peter is sympathetic – killed on their way to church, etc.
In a whisper, says, come in, your room is a third down the
hallway to your left. Walk quietly past the first room. That is for
Catholics and they think they are the only ones up here.
Church -
food- joke
Food is set out at a church potluck dinner. And the inevitable
finally happened. A potluck with nothing but baked beans.
Church Noah’s ark or the bark of Peter
I could not stand the stench inside, except that the flood outside
is worse.
Church – attendance
Rare attendee – one of the last times you came, we threw water on
you – baptism; the next time you come to church we will throw
dirt on you.
Church - parish
After a great concert, gentleman asked the minister, “When will
your church be filled like that?”
“When I get trained and disciplined men and women, like that
orchestra leader had.”
Church - shepherd
By plain analogy we’re told
Why first the church was called the fold.
Into the fold the sheep are steered,
There guarded from the wolf - and sheared.
Ambrose Bierce
Church – cross –
Minister explains it is rough to stand up and be a true Christian.
Like at work, you might lose your job if you take a tough, honest
stand. We admire Jesus rather than become disciples.
So – one objected, “if everybody felt this way and stood up, we
wouldn’t have a church, would we?”
But the question is - do we have a Church now, are we
Christian now?
Church – religion
Going into the cinema is something like going into church. A
mixture of a humility of sorts before the deception you are the
object of, and an admiration for the quality of the trap set you.
Albert Valensin, 1927
Church -
preach
“preaching without organization, I was only begetting children for
the murderer.”
“So I determined not to strike one stroke in any place where I
cannot follow the blow.”
John Wesley
Church- collection Old lady and small boy in church. As the plate comes, she fumbles,
searches in her purse.
The boy whispers: “here, you take my dime, I can hide under the
seat.”
Church - sex – joke
An attractive lady in the choir leans over, falls over the balcony,
and her dress is caught, and hanging in the air, much is revealed.
The priest shouts: “any one who dares to look will be stricken
blind.”
Tommy turns to his friend and says “I’m going to take a chance
with one eye.”
Classic – truth,
fad
If you marry the spirit of your generation, you will be a
widow in the next.
Dean Inge
Clergy – bishop - priest
Bishop travels to Europe on a ship, with another bishop as
roommate. He leaves his valuables in the ship safe, explains, he is
not so sure of his mate.
The purser says “That’s OK, your mate was here earlier and he
left his valuables here for the same reason.”
Commandments
Third grade class. “If Johnny was told not to pull the dog’s
tail, and he did it, what commandment would he be breaking.”
Boy “I don’t know the number, but it’s the one that says, “what
God has joined together, let no one pull apart.”
Committee
The fastest working committee must be small – for example, a
committee of three and two of the members are absent.
Commitment
Martin Niemoeller, visited in prison by another chaplain:
Why are you here?
Why are you NOT here? Asked Niemoeller
Commitment
Charlie Brown and Lucy watch Sallie crawl.
“How long before she walks?”
Lucy: “Good grief, what’s the hurry? Don’t rush her. She’s got all
the time in the world. Once you stand up and start to walk, you’re
committed for life.”
Community
We are monads haunted by communion.
Steiner, Real Presences, p. 140
Community - time - social
Man agrees with his friend to help build a shed. He gets there at 9
AM and waits, and doesn’t start. Why?
Because they work together.
The social value of collaboration is more important than getting
the job done.
Community
Like a ship, each part sinks if it is apart, but all floats, if
together. So our lives - good and bad – form a craft that floats and
goes somewhere.
Community- faith
John 10:26 “you do not believe because you are not sheep of my
flock.” Gives priority of community over faith/creed.
Belonging precedes proof/creed
Community before faith/creed.
Community
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the
continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a
manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death
diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore
never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.
John Donne
Community – social
It is like as if there are people in a boat, and one takes a drill and
begins to drill a hole beneath himself. His companions ask, what
are you doing? He says, what business is it of yours, am I not
drilling under myself?
It is our business
Communication
Child throwing stones, and I say “Don’t” but he continues.
I ask his sister to tell him – in vernacular –
She turns to him and shouts STOP - and he does.
Community - unity
Father calls three sons together before his death, gets a bundle of
firewood and asks them to break it and they can’t.
Then takes it apart, and they break it, one by one.
- Thus if you remain together, work together, no one can
destroy you…
Compassion - sympathy
Great spirit, grant that I may not criticize my neighbor until I have
walked a mile in his moccasins.
Indian prayer
To understand is to forgive –
Not to judge means not to condemn
Compassion – guilt
There is only one means of salvation – then to take
and make yourself responsible for all men’s sins… then you will
see that it is really so – and you are to blame for everyone and for
all things.
But throwing your own indolence and impotence on others you
will end by sharing the pride of Satan and murmuring against God.
Fr. Zossima – in Brothers Karamazov
Compassion - animals
Calf taken to slaughter, breaks away and hides under the Rabbi’s
cloak. Rabbi says “go kill it.”
But God says, “since he has no pity, let us bring suffering on him,”
so suffered for 13 years.
One day, a servant sees new kittens and begins to get rid of them.
Rabbi says “let them be; God’s mercies are over all his works,
Since he is compassionate, let us be compassionate to him.
Compassion
Dostoyevski, four years of hard labor, though innocent. He read
the gospels in prison.
He was knocked down by a beggar he did not help, but refused
to prosecute. Judge put him in jail for a month, and when he got
out, he gave money to the beggar. – and made excuses for the
beggar - plus sign..
Compassion - Samaritan Why dost Thou wound my wounds, O Thou that passest by
Handling and turning them with an unwounded eye?
The calm that cools thine eye does shipwrack mine, for o!
Unmov’d to see one wretched, is to make him so.
Richard Crashaw
Compassion – solidarity
We lepers Blessed Damien of Molokai begins his sermon new relationship
Compassion
I felt sad because I had no shoes – until I met someone who had no
feet.
India
Compensation
He who sells sand as salt, will get stone as money
Compensation
When you did a hole of wickedness, dig it shallow, for you may
be the person to fall into it.
Compassion
Accompanying Mother Teresa, I went through three phases. The
first was horror mixed with pity, the second compassion pure and
simple, and the third, reaching far beyond compassion, something
I never experience before- an awareness that these dying and
derelict men and women, these lepers with stumps instead of
hands, these unwanted children, were not pitiable, repulsive or
forlorn, but rather dear and delightful; as it might be, friends of
long standing, brothers and sisters.
Malcolm Muggeridge, SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL FOR
GOD
COMMUNICATION – compassion, love
Cardinal Arns visits parish where Irish priest, terrible linguist was.
He listens, abhors, and asks parishioner. What is he saying?
“Oh, that God loves us and we must help our neighbors.”
Cardinal: “But I can’t understand him ?
Parishioner. “Since he has come, he has set up a school, he is
building a clinic. He is a good man and he loves us. And we
understand EVERY WORD HE SAYS.”
COMPASSION
Two girls on front step, crying big tears. I ask what is wrong.
“The doll, the arm came off.” So I repair it, and give it back to the
one girl. I ask the other, what is the matter with you? Why were
you crying?
“I was helping her cry.”
Compassion - God
A person is never nearer the divine than in his or her
compassionate moments.
Mercifulness makes us equal to the gods.
Compassion - sympathy
If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find
in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all
hostility.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Compassion - nature
Rabbi walking in a field, and his student plucks a leaf. Rabbi is
shocked, and says gently: “ I have simply pluck a leaf or a blade of
grass or any living thing unless I have to.
Every part of the vegetable world is singing a song, breathing forth
a secret of the divine mystery of creation.”
From that moment on, the student understood what it means to
show compassion to all creatures.
Compassion, leadership
Moses, feeding the ship, and one runs away. Moses follows it to
the ravine, where it finds water. Moses says “ I did not know you
ran away because you were thirsty. You must be weary.” He
carries it back. Then God says: “Since you show pity in leading
back one of the flock belonging to a man, you shall lead my flock,
Israel.”
Compassion, solidarity
Girl, sees vip like Gandhi, without a shirt, and is puzzled. She
says, “I will provide you with one.”
Gandhi replies: “If you give me a shirt, then all my brothers who
go about like me will be upset and start quarrelling with me.”
She says: “I will give them all shirts – how many brothers do you
have?”
“Four hundred million,” says Gandhi, tenderly pinching her
cheeks.
Compassion
This is something we should not forget. That sick person, that
alcoholic, that thief, are my brothers and sisters. It is possible that
they find themselves abandoned on the street because no one gave
them love and understanding. You and I could be in their place if
we had not received love and understanding from other human
beings.
Mother Teresa
Compassion - criticism
Disciple comes to Mohammed and says: “Master, my six brothers
are asleep, and I alone have remained awake to worship God.”
Mohammed replied: “You had better been asleep, if your worship
of God consists of accusations against the brothers.”
Compassion
Tolstoy, in a famine, meets a beggar. He already had given all
away. He embraces the beggar and explains, “Sorry, brother, I
have nothing to give you.”
The beggar’s face lights up, and he says with tears: “But you called
me brother. That is a great gift.”
Compensation, providence
\
Preacher says to the farmer: “You have so much to be grateful for.
Providence takes care of everything. Even the birds of the air are
fed each day.”
“Yes, off of my corn,” the farmer replies.
Complain –lazy
Man at work, opens lunch box, and complains, “Meat pie again.”
Fellow worker says, “Sorry, why don’t you tell your wife to give
you something different.”
“My wife? I make these myself, I make my own lunch.”
Compromise
Civil War, a man was sympathetic to both sides, so he wore the
Confederate gray coat and the Union blue trousers.
But in battle, the Federals shot him in the coat, and the
Confederates in the trousers.
Moral: it is best not to compromise. Rather, stand up and be
counted.
Forgive It is easier to forgive an enemy than a friend.
No revenge is as complete as forgiveness.
Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them so much
Confession - joke - - enemy
Child in confession, I disobey, I have an enemy.
Priest asks: Who is that?
Child; “My best friend.”
Confession - preach
Be a lion in the pulpit and a lamb in the confessional.
Alphonsus Ligouri
Confession – joke
Young girl in confession – similar to the previous so priest asks:
Did I not give you absolution?
Child says: “No father, you just heard my girl friend. I am using
her list.”
Confession
Dominic Tang, SJ bishop, imprisoned in China for 22 years,
including 7 solitary. In the middle of solitary his door was left
open, and so also the door of another. Their eyes met. They could
not speak because of punishment.
The first man beats his breast, and Tang gives absolution.
Then Tang beats his breast and the other man gives absolution – in
total silence.
Confession A wicked woman comes, confesses all sorts of sins. She asks:
“What do you think of me, since you heard all my crimes?”
St. Francis de Sales: “I look upon you as a saint. Your past has no
existence. I weep tears of joy.”
Confession – seal
To Test the seal. Man confesses he stole corn from the priest
house – back house. He expected the priest to therefore lock the
door. But he didn’t.
Later on, the man says I stole, to test you. Then, the priest chases
him out – because it was not told in confession.
Confession – seal
To test priests, man dressed like a priest, went to confession. He
accused himself of saying mass without being a priest – to earn a
living, and he would not change.
Confessor denied him absolution.
On way out, the man asked for permission to say Mass – and the
priest said OK, since documents were good.
Then, the man said, Now I know you are good, and keep the seal.
I am Protestant, but now I want to be Catholic.
Confession - child – joke
Child, nervous, his second or third confession. He didn’t say
anything. So – priest urges, “Go ahead” - more silence. So priest
tries to prompt him by saying “Bless me Father.
Silence, and then the boy whispers: “Father, I am not the priest.”
Confession - alcohol - joke
Priest on one side, and assistant on the other, hearing confessions.
Man, who was a bootlegger, come to assistant, confesses to
breaking the law by making whiskey. Assistant doesn’t know how
serious this is, or what penance. So he goes over and asks the
parish priest. “Father, I have a bootlegger. What shall I give him?”
“Don’t give him anymore than two dollars a gallon.”
Confession - peace
General Grant visits the Pope. Pope thanks him for religious
privileges given to soldiers.
Grant wonder what was that.
But the Pope explains - you notified, and let the soldiers make
their confession.
“Yes, I did that as a military measure, because my soldiers fought
better when they felt their conscience was clear.”
CONFRONT - confrontation
1. the behavior or issue, not the person
2. never in or from anger
3. never, if the other is not open, but is closed
4. don’t ask a third party
5. avoid speculation on motives
6. don’t name call, or character assassinate
7. avoid absolutes - You always, you never..
CONSCIENCE
Little boy says – it is “something that makes you tell your
mother before your sister does.
Conscience - truth
Hindu to British administrator
“Our conscience tells us to burn our widows on the funeral pyre
of their husbands.”
Brit: “our conscience tells us to hang you if you do.”
Conscience
It is a little three cornered thing in me. When I do wrong it turns
round and hurts me. But if I keep on doing wrong, it turns so much
that the corners get worn off and it does not hurt me any more.
Confession – children - joke
Three kids on the line. First two say they disobey, forget to pray,
and they threw Tommy into the water.
The third says, he disobeys, forget to pray..
Priest asks, “what about Tommy and the water.”
“I’m Tommy.”
Confession - temptation
Child confesses, I did x,y,z, and I took food because the devil
tempted me.
Priest: “why didn’t you say no to the devil.”
Child: “I forgot.”
Conscience
Said of Dorothy Day in the NY Times – love, dedication and
service to the poor, dignity of all.
“There is no one who can have died with a clearer conscience.”
Consensus
Means “everyone agrees to say collectively what no one
believes individually.”
Abba Eban
Consolation
Consolation means we are in a creative mood
Desolation means we are in a destructive mood
Gerard W. Hughes - God of Surprises
Conversion - focus
Conversion means that instead of spending our lives looking in all
directions, we should follow one direction only.
Rahner
Conversion
1. When young – active,revolutionary – my prayer was that I get
energy to change the world
2. middle age – I had done little, Lord, give me power to change
my friends, contacts, for the better.
3. Old age - I see how foolish I have been. Lord, give me the
grace to change myself.
I should have started with that prayer.
Conversion
Therapist, doctor, dentist, minister, priest
Do you want relief, or do you want cure ?
Quick temporary change, vs. deep, lasting, perhaps painful
change.
Conversion, faith, ecumenism
Catholic chaplain visits Protestant soldier, since Protestant was on
leave.
“Father, thanks, but I am Protestant. I hope you won’t try to
change my faith.”
Father smiles and says: “No, I don’t want to change your faith. I
want your faith to change you.”
Conversion
Paul VI in Bombay sees a woman coming to greet him. He
asks “what religion are you.”
Holding her rough hand, she breaks into tears and says,
“I’m not sure now!”
Conversion
A person works in a stable.
That person has a Breakthrough.
What does he do?
He returns to work in the stable.
Conversion
The street orator says “Socialism can put a new coat on a man.”
“Jesus Christ,” cries one in the crowd, “can put a new man in the
coat – and that is better still.”
Conversion
Student asks professor: how long can I put off my decision for
Christ.
“Until the day before your death.”
Youth: “But I cannot tell when I shall die.”
“True, so decide now.”
Conversion
- strategy
You can only work with the good in people
Christian Science Monitor
Conversation - eat
For American Indians, eating has a priority over conversation at
table. Eating is primary, appreciating the food and cooking, with
quiet, thoughtful sharing, and often in silence.
Conversion
You must always remember that “hitting bottom” is the essence of
getting hold of AA
Bill Wilson
Conversion - identify -
change
Professor Wahl, at the age of 15, a simple event changed his life,
his ambition from teaching languages to philosophizing.
He was about to put on his trousers when it struck him that
the boy with trousers on could not be said to be the same person as
the boy with trousers off. This difference between the two “boys”
illustrated the concept of discontinuity or sudden change.
Conversion - kindness
A drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of vinegar, so
with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince
him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey
which catches his heart, which, say as he will, is the highroad to
his reason.
Abraham Lincoln
Love, cooperation
Mr. Moody saw a beautiful engraving, of a woman coming out of
the water and clinging with both hands to the cross of refuge.
Then, saw one even more beautiful – person coming out of water
with one arm clinging to the Cross, and the other lifting someone
else out of the waves.
Conversion,
prodigal son, love
The real change did not come when the prodigal decided to return
home, or when the father ran out to meet him, or when he prepared
a feast, or when the fatted calf was slain. The real change of heart
came about when, some days later, he saw that his father’s hair had
turned gray since he had gone away.
Local catechist in India
Conversion
On my way to preach here, I saw a man thrown violently from
his carriage, lying there, death seemed imminent. When asked if
he wanted to see a doctor, he said no, I will wait until Easter before
calling a doctor.
Those present felt he had lost his mind. So too – are you if you
delay in repenting.
Conversion - death
St. Francis Borgia, on seeing his friend, Empress Isabella , young,
in the casket, to identify it, was a terrible sight.
He reflected, how beauty and power vanish. Never again will I
serve a created being whom death can take from me. From now on,
I serve God alone.
Conversion - joke
A man lost his hat. Decided best thing to do is go to church and
steal one from the cloakroom. There he heard a sermon on the ten
commandments, and told the minister: “I came here with sin in my
heart. I was going to steal a hat, but after your sermon, I changed
my mind.”
“What made you change?”
“Well, Reverend, when you got to that part about “Thou shalt not
commit adultery,” I suddenly remembered where I left my hat.”
courage, love, wisdom
Love without courage and wisdom is sentimentality, as with the
ordinary church member. Courage without love and wisdom is
foolhardiness, as with the ordinary soldier. Wisdom without love
and courage is cowardice, as with the ordinary intellectual.
One who has love, courage and wisdom is one in a million, who
move the world, as with Jesus, Buddha, and Gandhi.
Ammon Hennacy
Courage
Mother lioness with 10 cubs, scares them, to test them, to see if
they are pussy cats or real lions. The real lions fight back.
Creative - blame
Stop blaming the Society, stop blaming the courses we had, the
training we got. Stop blaming the professors who taught us. Cease
blaming superiors who ruled us: put the blame exactly where it
should be put. Put the blame on yourself and your own continued
failure to get on the job and do it.
Ferdinand Wheeler - exhortation
Creativity – hope
The church (and society) does not so much need critics as artists.
In crises of poetry, what matters is not to denounce bad
poets or hang them, but to write beautiful poets, to reopen the
sacred sources.
Bernanos
Creativity
If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it. Blame
yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its
riches. To the creator there is no poverty and no poor indifferent
place.
Rilke
Creativity
Leibnitz found no book so bad that he could not get something out
of it.
Courage, bold
What is the task of the preacher today? Shall I answer, “faith,
hope, and love?” That sounds beautiful. But I would rather say,
“courage”. – no, even more - recklessness. What we as church
lack is not psychology or literature. We lack a holy rage.
Denmark pastor, WW II
Creativity - freedom
Men are not worried by things, but by their ideas about things.
When we meet with difficulties, become anxious or troubled, let us
not blame others, but rather ourselves, that is, our ideas about
things.
Epictetus
Creative
Be an inverse paranoid. Just imagine everyone you meet is trying
to bring happiness and love to you – and then try to do the same
for them.
Creation
For the whole physical world is a kind of book written by the
finger of God – that is created by divine power. Each particular
creature is like an image – not an image invented by some human
decision, but instituted by the divine will to reveal the invisible
things of God’s wisdom.
Hugh of St. Victor
Creation – beauty
Most beautiful – if we could choose ?
Song of a sparrow at dawn
Smell of pine trees
Lonely calling of Canada geese
White cathedral of a cumulus cloud in blue sky
Creativity
Man with good lawn, found many dandelions. He tried everything
to rid them.
Finally, he wrote to the Dept. of Agriculture, explained all he tried,
and asked – what now?
Answer came: “We suggest you learn to love them.”
Creative
Bad Times, troublesome times. This is what people say. Let our
lives be good and the times will be good, for we make our own
times. Such as we are, such are the times.
Augustine, Serm. 30. 8
Creative
You say the times are troublesome, burdensome, miserable. Live
rightly and you will change the times.
The times never hurt anyone. Those who are hurt are
human beings. Those by whom they are hurt are also human
beings. So change human beings, and the times will be changed.
Augustine Serm. 311.8
-----creativity
It isn’t your problems that are bothering you; it is the way you are
looking at them. It is all in the way you look at things.
Epictetus
Creativity
Social worker visits the husband of a battered wife. He is
violent; she is afraid. Social worker is inspired to say to husband:
“do you have a typewriter?”
WHY – he shouts –
Social worker answers: “To type out my resignation.”
All laugh, and the situation is defused and communication begins.
Creativity
Michelangelo first refused to do the wall of the Sistine
chapel. Said he could not do it. It was impossible. But told there
was no alternative, he did it – magnificently
Creativity - teacher
truth
Job applicants given a simple test.
What is 2 plus 2
Answer 4.
Next person:
What is 2 plus 2
Answer “whatever the boss says it is.” - and he gets the job.l
Creativity
At a university, after Kent State killings, radical students go on
parade next to ROTC troops, picket ROTC building.
The Colonel senses violence might come, so he goes and
serves coffee to the picketers. Tension reduces, and
communication begins.
Creativity
Psychologist is accosted by a hold up man. He asks the hold up
man for a dime, starts a hard luck story – and the bandit,
astonished, gives it to him.
George McCauley, Chicago night, elevated, sees a band of youth
approach, he is alone. So he goes up to them, says “Guys - my
second time here, is this the train that goes to south side.”
He appeals to their goodness and it works.
Creativity
If you can’t change the situation, then the key is to change your
attitude
Logotherapy- Victor Frankl
Creativity
A debate on what specific makes a Jesuit university. But
the discussion was fruitless.
Then the question was changed from what makes it distinct,
unique, to what is appropriate.
Lesson: it is better to think positive rather than over against.
Creativity –
Seven steps to a better life
1. Get up ½ hour earlier than you normally do
2. Get on your knees for some quiet time - express gratitude
3. Read something positive - Psalm, proverbs, bible
4. Go outside and look around. Breath deeply and see the beauty.
5. Get some exercise and take a quick shower.
6. Eat a good breakfast.
7. Greet everyone you see with love in your heart.
Senator Don Nickles
Creator - human
Every person has the right to feel that “because of me, the world
was created.” Talmud
Creature - find God
Every creature is full of God and a book about God.
Meister Eckhart
One should pay attention to even the smallest crawling creature,
for these too may have a valuable lesson to teach us, and even the
smallest ant may wish to communicate with a man.
Black Elk
Creature
The truly wise person kneels at the feet of all creatures.
Mechtild of Magdeburg
Creativity- optimist
Two tractors are pulling a big tire apart, to show power, to make a
TV commercial to show how strong the tire is.
Stop worrying. If the darn tire breaks, we’ll use it as an add
for tractors.
Creation – stars
Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light. I
have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.
(old astronomer to his pupil)
creation - song - beauty
The Zen master begins to speak. He starts and a bird begins to
sing. He listens and says, “the sermon has been delivered” and he
leaves.
Creation - Genesis
Boy goes to bed, leaving his room in a shambles, clothese thrown
about.
Mother says, “Good night” and chides him, saying “I
wonder who it was who did not hang up his clothes before going to
bed.”
The boy says “Adam and Eve” – and pulls the covers over
his head.
Creation - left-handed
God as left-handed.
God created the world with his left hand, because Jesus was sitting
on the right hand of the father.
Creation - technology
1844, first telegraph from Washington to Baltimore
Samuel Morse – tense and nervous
“What hath God wrought?’
see it as God’s creation, God put the energy there.
Armstrong on the moon – more man-centered.
One step – for mankind..
Creation – nature
When you paint a person looking at a mountain, the person
should be slightly bent in appropriate homage to so lordly a being;
and the mountain too should seem to be bowing slightly and with
permissive dignity towards the person.
Chinese painting advice
In the same way, when a lutist is playing out music from
his lute under the moon, he should seem to be listening to the
moon, and the moon in turn should appear to be listening to the
lute player.
Creation
If I could understand
“Flower in the crannied wall
I pluck you out of the crannies
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand
Little flower – but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God is and man is.”
Tennyson
Crime – punishment, deterrent /
And old English woodcut shows the hanging of pickpockets, and
pickpockets working the crowd.
Creation
Whoever knew but one creature, would not need to ponder
any sermon, for every creature is full of God and is a book.
Eckhart
Creation
Why many creatures? Aquinas says because the divine goodness
could not adequately be represented by one creature alone – so
what is wanting in one representation might be supplied by
another.
Creativity - action reaction
In a bus, someone knocks, bumps into you. Then you see he/she is
blind – and how your attitude changes.
Creativity
Pundit had an apple orchard, the best. Kids would sneak in and
steal. He would allow them to pluck, then rush out with gun and
threaten to shoot them.
After a few days, neighbor says to him: “why this – you have so
many more apples than you can use. Why not allow the kids to
take some.”
Pundit replies: “Yes – of course I have enough, and I want the
kids to have the apples. I know how it was when I was a boy. If I
don’t make a big scene and chase them, these kids will never come
back!”
Creative
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree
A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain,
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
Joyce Kilmer
Creation
Visitor approaches desert father Anthony, asks: “How do you
manage, deprived as you are of the consolation of books?”
Anthony: “my book is the nature of created things, and it
is always at hand when I wish to read the words of God.”
Crisis
If you don’t fight, you don’t get to know someone.
Korean proverb
Crisis
Storm at sea, woman goes to the captain, asks, “are we in
great danger?”
Captain says “Don’t worry, after all, we are in the hands of
God.”
Woman gasps, “Oh, is it as bad as that!”
Crisis –
Lord Kelvin, performs for his class an experiment that doesn’t
work – and comments.
“When you are face to face with a difficulty, you are up against a
discovery.”
Criticism
Negative people are your best gurus.
Catechism –
At the Gregorian University, if in doubt, cite the catechism.
Culture
In the 1940’s problems in schools were talking, chewing gum,
noise, running, improper cloths
In the 1980’s drugs, alcohol, pregnancy, suicide, rape, robbery,
assault
Culture
Visitor to Malawi – Tom Kane, wants to talk English, with
steward, and asks “what do you want to know about America?
The steward asks: When do you plant your corn/maize?
Culture- quality
One could almost cry out in anguish that the suffering and
sacrifices of past generations have come to this: a grown man with
a can of beer finds his chief fulfillment in a televised game
watched by thirty million others, and believes our land, free, brave,
and just.
Michael Novak
Culture
We laugh at the Chinese, for putting food on the grave – and ask,
when will it be eaten?
Chinese answers: As soon as the friend you buried last week
smells the flowers you put on his grave.
Culture - color
Black is the color of suffering
Red is the color of life
White is the color of sorrow
Christ is red, except on the cross
The white shows the sorrow in the passion
E. Mveng
Culture
When I hear the word culture, I reach for my gun/revolver.
Culture Bush woman visits relative in the city. She is shown the upstairs
toilet. She shouts – it is an abomination. Adults do not ease
themselves in the house!
Culture - ambiguity
Technologyis like a knife
1. use it to cut bread, feed people
2. use it to kill, murder
curiosity
Pandora, given a box by the gods with all evil, harmful things in it.
And is told never to open it.
Curiosity gets her, she opens it and lets out plagues, sorrows.
Curiosity
Little girl wants gifts, especially a canary. Mother buys a box and
says, don’t open it.
Little girl can’t wait, opens it, and the bird, the gift flies out.
Criticism, critical - self-critical
When you point your finger at your neighbor to blame him,
remember that you still have three fingers pointing at yourself
Education
The purpose of education is to allow you to fall in love at first
sight.
W.H. Auden see clear, understand new things…
Modernity - individualism
Modernity means to think by yourself
-
Kant
Death - dying – stages
Stages of death, forgiveness, growth – etc.
1. denial - see no need, all is OK, too busy
2. anger - be critical, react
3. bargain - give excuses
4. depression - feel self worthless, useless
5. acceptance – aware of self, reality,
aware of limits and goods.
Death –
Preacher gives a strong sermon on death, hell. “Everyone
in this parish will die.”
Little man in the front laughs. The pastor says “how can you
laugh, do you not fear death?”
Little man replies “I’m not from this parish.”
Death - world
In death the relationship we have with the world is not
abolished, but is rather for the first time completed.
Rahner
Retire - death
If you retire, you keel over.
The day of retiring is up to the Lord of us all, the great
timekeeper in the sky.
Alisdair Cooke – after 50 years of BBC
Letter from America
Death – grief
Say not in grief that she is no more,
But say in thankfulness that she was.
Re: Lady Diana
Death – dying words
I am on my way to look for the great perhaps
Je m’en vais chercher un grant peut-etre.
Rabelais –
Death –
Footsteps on the staircase
But they’re new ones.
The hand that puts fish on the saucer has changed too.
Something doesn’t start at its usual time
Something doesn’t happen as it should.
Someone was always, always here,
Then suddenly disappeared
And stubbornly stays disappeared.
Symborska - cat’s view of death
Death - suicide – life - martyr
There is only one really serious philosophical problem, and that is
suicide. Camus
There only one serious problem – that is, martyrdom. Is there
anything worth dying for ? Heschel
A Martyr is a witness to the holy in spite of evil and absurdity.
We can live the truth only if we have the power to die for it.
Death
Old man is laid out, and his widow keeps saying, “he just doesn’t
look right, he just doesn’t look natural.
The director assures her he did the best he could, she just repeats
her complaint.
Then a six year old, grandchild says “Of course he doesn’t look
natural You ain’t never seen him dead before.”
Death
Reflection on death is in fact beneficial because it
relativises all the secondary realities that we have unfortunately
absolutised, namely riches, success and power.
JP II
Death
Rabbi says “turn to God the day before you die.”
Disciples: “but does a man know on which day he will die?”
Rabbi: “just because of this, turn to God this very day, for
perhaps he must die on the morrow. Thus it will come about that
all his days will be days of turning to God.”
Death -life
How prepare for death ?
1. do now what I must do before I die
2. do now what on my deathbed I shall wish to have done.
3. do now what I cannot do on my deathbed.
St. Alphonsus Ligouri
Death
Two children talking about the death of grandma. Little one
asks, how did grandmother go to God.
Big brother says: “This way. First grandma reach up and up as
far as she could. Then God reached down and down and down.
When their hands touched, he lifted her up to heaven.”
Death education
The lasting effect of Catholic education is the lasting
consciousness of the fact and meaning of death.
From Matthew J. Fitzimons
Death – heaven, hell
Young man, in a coma, recovers. A friend asks, what it felt
like to be dead.
“Dead?, I wasn’t dead. I knew I wasn’t because my feet
were cold and I was hungry.”
“How did that make you sure?”
“Well, if I were in heaven, I would not be hungry, and if I was
in the other place, my feet would not be cold.”
Death
Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the
lamp because dawn has come.
Death – joke
Spike the gambler dies. His friends are at the wake. The preacher
says, “Spike is not dead, he only sleeps.” A voice from the back
is heard: “I bet a thousand naira that he is dead.”
Death – Jesuit – joke
A Jesuit consoling another, near death. “Don’t worry, when
you die, you will meet Jesus.”
“Yes, but I am afraid that first I will meet St. Ignatius!”
death
At a Jewish funeral, a woman in the back is sobbing. Moaning,
“chicken soup, chicken soup”
Rabbi says, “Madam, Isaac is gone, sorry, the soup cannot help
him.”
Woman - “Ah, but it can’t hurt him.”
Culture - religion
It is not the church that has failed, it is the culture which has
succeeded. It has driven spirituality out of our lives, squeezed God
out.
In Russia – interest in God.
In Britain, “What’s on the telly?”
Basil Hume
Culture – nature - technology
We have put many stages of artifice and device, of manufacture
and alteration, between ourselves and the rest of nature. The
ordinary city dweller knows nothing of the earth’s productivity..
Seedtime and harvest are nothing to him.
His “house” is an apartment in the great man-made city…
If it leaks, the fault is with a pipe, not with heaven.
Nature, as man has always known it, he knows no more.. To
most people, the ancient, obvious symbols of nature have become
literary figures, and to many these figures look very silly.
Susanne K. Langer
Death
Parishioner tells the minister that his friend died, and wants you
to officiate, be master of ceremonies at the burial.
Where is the burial?
Oh – he will be cremated.
In that case, you don’t want a master of ceremonies, you need a
toastmaster.
Death
Preacher asks his friends: “do you think Christ will come tonight/”
They all say “I think not.”
Pastor solemnly repeats – “the son of man cometh at an hour when
ye think not.”
Death – devil
Irishman, was ill, meets the priest.
Ah, I see you are well again. We thought you were a goner.
When you were near death’s door, were you not afraid to meet
your God?
NO, reverend, it was the other one I was afraid to meet.
Death, courage
Human rights worker in Panama, asked if she feared for her life
and that of her family.
“No – what I fear more is being in the presence of evil and doing
nothing. I fear that more than death.
1988, December, Newsweek
death
Bury me fee on top when I die
Why?
They say at the end of the world that everything will turn upside
down. If you bury me so, I can easily stand up at that time.
Death
Here lies my wife: here let her lie.
Now she’s at rest, and so am I.
John Dryden
Death – Jesuit
After all is said, the only thing that concern a Jesuit very much is
whether Ignatius will recognize him easily as a Jesuit when they
meet.
James J. Daly, the Jesuit in Focus
Death
Acquaviva visited Pope Innocent IX. Is shown a room with a
shrine - - which was a coffin with the likeness of the Pope in it.
I come here to make decisions – and I say “One day you will be
dead; when you lie in your coffin like this, what will you then
wish to have done? Do that now!”
I act according to decisions made here at this casket.
Death
Husband leaves money in his will for his wife to buy a stone in
his memory. So she goes out and buys a diamond.
Death
Custodian of the parish cemetery took special care of children’s
graves. Asked why, he replied: As far as the large graves are
concerned, I don’t know who are saints and who are not. But I can
be sure about the children’s graves.
Death
Ex-catholic was dying. Relatives call the priest. He refuses,
tells the priest to get out.
Priest leaves, but waits at the door. Man gets angry.
Growls, why stand there?
Priest explains: I have seen many people go to heaven, but
never saw one go to hell. I would like to stay and watch this.
As the man’s life ebbs away, - and as he thinks -- he
finally calls the priest for confession, and dies.
Death Weep if you must, parting is hell.
But life goes on, so sing as well.
Death –
Sword of Damocles - a sword hung by a thread over Damocles
head by tyrant king Dionysius who invited Damocles for banquet.
– When Damocles saw it, he fled in terror.
Death
When a man of one’s own age group dies, one should have
a feeling of one’s own going to heaven.
Africa proverb
Death You don’t die of cancer, of accident, of old age…
You die when the Lord calls your name.
Death
John Courtney Murray to Gus Weigel when Gus was ill in
1954.
“Gus, if you die on me now, I’ll never speak to you again.”
Death
On the pastor’s tombstone
Go tell the Church I’m dead
But hey need shed no tears,
For though I am dead I’m no more dead
Than they have been for years.
Death
The obituary editor gets a phone call, a man says his name
just appeared in the obit. The editor – not admitting any mistake –
calmly asks “Where are you calling from?”
Death dying words
I have been too long in this world of strife. I would be with
Jesus.
Julian of Brioude
Dedication - success
Discipline
Dedication
Determination -
Mary Onyali, track star of Nigeria
Would she continue? No – it means no French fries for four
years.
Dedication
Lady to Fritz Kreisler, after a concert
“I’d give my life to play as you do.”
He answers, “I did.”
Deeds, Sabbath
The emperor asks the Rabbi, “what gives the Sabbath meal
such aroma.”
Rabbi: “We have a spice called Sabbath, added to each
dish.”
Emperor: “Give me some.”
Rabbi: “If you observe the Sabbath, the spice works, If
you do not, it does not work.”
Democracy
Means a “more ardent and lasting love of equality than of
liberty”
deToqueville
perhaps we have tried to reverse this today
desert patience
If you wait long enough, the desert will bloom, even in the
night.
Desire - God
The master holds the head of a novice underwater and he
struggles. Why? He as gasping for air.
The master smiles.
“The day you desire God as desperately as you desired air,
you will surely find him.”
Desires
You must get rid of what you haven’t got.
- eg. Rid foolish desires and embrace your own simplicity
desire
How can you find the road which leads to the land of your
desire?
By renouncing your desires.
Desire
Ad quid venisti? Why have you come?
St. Bernard to himself on going to the cloister
Desire
It would seem that we find our desires not too strong, but
too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with
drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an
ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum
because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday
at the see. We are far too easily pleased.
CS Lewis
Desire
riches
One is rich not through one’s possessions, but through that
which one can with dignity do without.
Epictetus
Devil
If you paint the devil on a wall, he will come
German proverb
Devil
The devil made me do it.
Geraldine
Devil, evil
A picture in the Louvre of St. Michael with his foot on Satan’s
neck. - seems to say “the world is all the richer for having a
devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck.
Dialectic - tension of opposites - survival
Those who survived in concentration camps, had one
characteristic. A complexity of character or union of opposites;
serious/playful; tough/gentle; logical/intuitive; lazy/hard
working/ shy/aggressive introspective/outgoing
Thus they could adjust to any circumstances; no
compulsions, no phobias – but also care about others.
Psychologist – Al Siebert
Despair, suicide - child
Opera star, husband deserted her, penniless with four children. Ill
health. Decides to kill herself and children under a train.
Sits on the track outside Vienna, waiting. Then one daughter
cries out: “Mama, I love you. Please let us go home.” She
listened, did so, and became a famed singer.
Dialectic - tension of opposites
Do all your work as if you have 1000 years to live, and as though
you were going to die tomorrow.
Shaker - Ann Lee
Dilemma
Sheer rock of Scylla
Monster in cave who picks up sailors -and the whirlpool of Charybdis which sucks in ships.
Spiritual direction - social grace
God who might have created us directly, employs, for this work,
our parents, to whom He joins us by the tenderest ties. He could
also save us directly, but He saves us, in fact, by means of certain
souls, which have received the spiritual life before ourselves, and
which communicate it to us, because they love us.
Huvelin - and / or Van Huegel
Discern - choose - will of God
How Pope Shenouda is chosen – Coptic Pope of Alexandria
“choice of God from the altar”
Three candidates names are written, put into a sealed box
during Mass. A young boy is chosen, blindfolded, and he picks
one as all pray “Our Father”, and chant “Lord have mercy.”
Discern
I am a youth – give your servant an understanding heart to judge
your people and to distinguish right from wrong.
Solomon’s prayer 1 Kings 3:9
Discern
If decision making were a choice between alternatives, it would
come easily. Rather, decision making is the formulation and the
selection of alternatives.
Kenneth Burke
Discern
You don’t discern the obvious
Sobrino
Discern
In matters of moment we are to use a great humility and not
to think that we can find God’s will by force of examination and
subtlety of discourse; but having implored the light of the Holy
Spirit, applied our consideration to the seeking of his good
pleasure, taken the counsel of our director, and perhaps of two or
three other spiritual persons, we must resolve and determine in the
name of God, and must not afterward question our choice, but
devoutly, peacefully, and firmly keep it and pursue it.
Francis de Sales - Treatise on the Love of God
A short method to know God’s will - Treatise VIII, XIV
Discern
By frequently confronting the object of election with the
fundamental consolation, the experimental test is made whether
the two phenomena are in harmony, mutually cohere, whether the
will to the object of election under scrutiny leaves intact that pure
openness to God… and even supports and augments it or weakens
and obscures it. -- Whether the synthesis produces peace, pure
joy, or tumult and disturbance.
Rahner, Dynamic Element,.. 158
Discern
To a teacher - the Seer of Lublin: “Show me one general way to
the service of God.”
Answer: “it is impossible to tell men which way they should take.
For one way, to serve God is through learning, another through
prayer, another through fasting, and still another through eating.
Everyone should carefully observe what way his heart draws him
to, and then choose this way with all his strength.
Disciple
Mary as “the most consistent disciple in the whole Gospel
narrative.”
R. Brown
Disciple
We need not better discipline but better discipleship.
Discipline
plus sign - learn
People come to denounce some Jews who played cards late at
night.
Wise man answers: “
Do you want me to condemn them? Why me? In the name of
what? For what crime? It is a good thing to resist sleep. It is good
to concentrate. Sooner or later they will give up card playing.
What will remain is a discipline of body and mind. And then they
will place it in the service of God. Why should I condemn them?”
Divine - grace
Terram diligis? Terra eris.
Deum diligis? Quid dicam? Deus eris?
Non audio dicere ex me. Scripturas audiamus. Ego dixi: “Dii
estis et filii Altissimi omnes.”
Augustine
Doctor- poker joke
Doctor answers a phone and a colleague says, we need a fourth for
poker. Doctor says, I will be right over.
His wife asks: “Is it serious?”
Doc says: “Oh yes, there are three doctors there already.”
Doctor - joke
Man asks a boy with a degree in psychology: “Can you tell the
difference between a psychotic, a neurotic and a psychiatrist.”
Psychotic builds castles in the air
Neurotic lives in them
Psychiatrist collects the rent.
Development dogma - change
Look, Holy Father (Paul VI) ten years ago the Holy Office
forbade me to say another word about concelebration, and today
you concelebrate yourself.
Rahner to Paul VI
Pope – chuckled ever so quietly and said “there is a time to weep
and a time to laugh.”
Doubt - courage
From the cowardice that dares not face new truth
From the laziness that is contented with half truth
From the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth
Good Lord, deliver me.
Kenyan prayer
Faith – doubt
Those who believe they believe in God, but without passion in the
heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without
doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea
of God.
Unamuno
Doubt - atheist
The rabbi asked the atheist. “Solomon, why do you go every
sabbath to the synagogue, since you are an atheis?”
Solomon: “Sure, I am an atheist, but how do I know if I am
right?”
Doubt
“Rahner, do you ever have doubts about your faith?”
“Ja – faith is like mental health, sanity. One doesn’t really know
one has it, but one has to act as if one does have sanity.”
Rahner, in Chicago, saying his brother said this
= Advice to person struggling with faith: “Why don’t you try
living as if you already had faith and see what happens.”
..
Doubt – faith
Scholar losing his faith, asks rabbi what to do.
The rabbi did not engage in lengthy theological discussions, but
asked him to repeat with him, over and over again, the very first
prayer that every Jewish child learns by heart . That was all.
Rahner - go work with the poor !
Doubt
If we begin with certainties, we shall end in doubts; but if we
begin with doubts, and are patient with them, we shall end in
certainties.
Bacon - de Augmentis, Bk. 1
Doubt – agnostic, faith
A brilliant student comes to the learned rabbi and defiantly
exclaims: “I tell you the truth. I have become an agnostic. I no
longer believe in God.”
Rabbi asked: “How long have you studied the Talmud?”
“Five Years.”
The rabbi sighed – “only five years, and you have the nerve to
call yourself an agnostic!”
Sleep, dreams
“For he (God) gives to his beloved in sleep” (Ps. 127:2)
dream - vision
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the workers to gather
wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead teach them to year
for the vast and endless sea.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Drink
Irishman working in a brewery, falls in a vat and drowns. His
wife comes to collect his dripping remains, and remarks to the
foreman, “at least he died quickly.”
The foreman shakes his head. “as a matter of fact, Mary, it
wasn’t. He had to get out two or three times to go to the
bathroom.”
Drink
Two road workers, Protestant and Catholic, see a priest enter a
saloon.
Protestant says, “what a shame. He has no business there. He
should be visiting the sick.”
Then a minister enters. So the Protestant then says. “There must
be somebody pretty sick there.”
Drink
Preacher preaches against drink, and the choirmaster likes to
drink.
“If I had my way, we would take all the liquor in Dublin and pour
it in the river. All the liquor in the county,..
and in the world – and pour it in the river.
The choirmaster had enough, so says “Now shall we sing Shall we Gather at the River.””
Drink – priest
Two deacons, having a drink, see the preacher go by. One, upset,
says, I hope he didn’t see us.
Other: what difference does it make. God knows we are in here.
One - Yes, I know that, but God won’t tell my wife.
Drink
Preacher, “Be careful, drink is man’s worst enemy.”
Answer: “But the Bible says we should love our enemies.”
Drink – islam
True story
Ask a Muslim diploma – do you want beer NO
Do you want cognac NO
Do you want scotch and soda
NO SODA
Drink –
Man at a bar, one martini, but saves the two olives. Then orders a
second, and a third, and puts all the olives aside.
Bartender: don’t you like olives?
-
It’s this way. My wife told me to go out, and buy a jar of
olives.
Duty - korea
Folk tale. Woman crossing a river bed with her 10 year old
husband (a child of ten years) and her aging father in law. Flash
flood comes. She had to choose which to save.
Her solution, much admired, because it let her fulfil her
obligations: Carry the old man to dry land, leave the husband to
drown. And then plunge back into the river and drowned herself.
Concrete - write
If Aristotle had been a cook, he would have written much more or
much better.
Sor Juana of Mexico
Easter - resurrection
Orthodox, after mass, eggs are blessed, distributed so all share.
Then they greet each other, crack the eggs together. One says:
Christ is risen. The other answers: he is truly risen.
To crack the egg is to open the grave - new life.
Easter
Preacher - People today waste thousands on ornate coffins,
monuments to dead bodies. Jesus was so unconcerned about death
the he had to use a borrowed tomb.
Yes father, one replies – but he only needed it for three days.
Easter – resurrection
Upon our Savior’s Tomb wherein never man was laid
How Life and Death in Thee Agree?
Thou had’st a virgin Womb and Tomb.
A Joseph did betroth Them both.
Richard Crashaw
Easter
The world below lies desolate.
Christ is risen
The spirits of evil are fallen
Christ is risen
The angels of God are rejoicing
Christ is risen
The tombs of the dead are empty
Christ is risen indeed from the dead
The first of the sleepers
Glory and power are his forever and ever. Amen
Hippolytus of Rome
Ecology
What happens to the wolf, will happen to our people.
Ecology
After feeding 5000, they gather up the fragments
- tidiness, no waste
ecumenism
the more ecumenical a work, the more divine (retreat, prayer,
gathering)
ecumenism - joke - sex
Catholic and Protestant families on vacation, little boy and girl go
swimming, no clothes on.
The boy comes out smiling. The mother asks – was it nice?
Boy says: “at last we know the difference between catholics and
protestants.”
Missionary
Have you heard about the missionary who gave the cannibals their
first TASTE of Christianity?
Ecumenism
Get religion like a Methodist
Experience it like a Baptist
Stick to it like a Lutheran
Conciliate it like a Congregationalist
Be proud of it like an Episcopalian
Simplify it like a Jew
Pay for it like a Presbyterian
Practice it like the Salvation Army
Propagate it like the Roman Catholic
Enjoy it like an African - a black..
Ecumenism
Sermon on unity, the preacher repeats “God wants us to be ONE repeats a few times.
A little four year old girl says to her aunt: “I don’t want to
be one, I want to be five.”
Ecumenism
In WW I, a priest helps a dying Protestant boy. “But padre, I
don’t belong to your church!”
Priest: “But you belong to my God.”
Ecumenism - football- joke
Irish priest, hearing confessions, big football fan.
Players confess:
I hit an opponent in the groin - God forgive you
I hit one in the teeth
Oh, No
I stepped on his hand…
Stop, this is terrible. You disgrace the school, you
scandalize all those who watch. Who were you playing?
“Southern Methodist, Father.”
Priest - “Ah, well, boys will be boys.”
Ecumenism
Doctrinal differences among Christians lose all significance in the
gulag
Solzhenitsyn
Pagan - ecumenism
Sunday school teacher asks “Who are heathens?”
Child answers: “Heathens are people who don’t quarrel over
religion.”
Ecumenism - sex
Why don’t Baptists kiss while standing up?
It may lead to dancing.
Ecumenism
Pope John XXIII embraces Krushchev’s sin in law and says
“do you mind if this old man gives you a blessing for your
children.”
Ecumenism
There will be no union of Catholics and Protestants until
through the common ministry of Jesus Christ, the former repent of
the sin of Peter and the latter of the sin of Luther, until Protestants
acknowledge Thomas Aquinas as one of their fathers, the
Inquisition as their own sin and Ignatius Loyola as one of their
own Reformers, until Catholics have canonized Luther and
Calvin, done repentance for Protestant nationalism, and
appropriated Schleiermacher and Barth as their theologians.
Niebuhr in 1941
Ecumenism
Big football game, Christians vs. Muslims. Jesus is in the
crowd.
Christians score – and Jesus cheers
Muslims score - Jesus cheer
Someone asks him: Who are you rooting for?
Jesus answers: Neither side, I’m just enjoying the game.
Ecumenism
Motto of Ecumenical institute in Ireland
Floreat ut pereat
May it flourish so it can perish
Ecumenism - church
Tourist says to tourguide. “you should be proud of this town, with
so many churches. Surely the people here must love the Lord.”
Guide: “They may love the Lord, but they sure as hell can’t get
along with one another.”
Ecumenism
A man in Northern Ireland, on the street, and a man
approaches with a gun: “Are you Catholic or Protestant?”
The man thinks quickly and says “I am a Jew.”
The robber says: “Boy, I am the luckiest Arab in Ireland this
night – give me your money.”
Ecumenism - backslider
Preacher sees an old man fishing – finally sees him catch one.
“What kind of fish is that?”
“They call this a Baptist fish.”
“Why”
The old man throws it back and says – it spoils very fast after it is
taken out of the water.”
Ecumenism
New Protestant pastor in town, dresses like a priest. – collar.
Three Catholic boys see him and tip hat. “Good evening Father.”
One of the boys turns to the others and says
“Father ? He’s no father. He’s got three kids.”
Ecumenism
Are you Presbyterian?
No, I am of a different abomination.
Ecumenism:
money
A man asks the priest to say Mass for his dog.
Priest replies that we don’t do trhat.
Man adds, “I would think of a million dollar stipend as a
donation.”
Priest: “Oh, sure, I will. Why didn’t you tell me that the dog was
Catholic.”
Ecumenism
An inter-faith meeting –
A place where a Jewish rabbi, who does not believe in the divinity
of Christ, and a Protestant minister, who doubts it, get together
with a Catholic priest, who agrees to forget it for the evening.
Fr. Leonard Feeney
Ecumenism, eucharist - real presence
An Anglican chaplain suggested a common tabernacle for the
Blessed Sacrament. Jesuit Algy, (John Shearburn) replies; “First
rule of the army, old man, never mix blanks (duds) with live
ammo.”
Ecumenism
Sam, sick, calls for a priest on a snow, cold, bitter night.
His wife says, “you must have fever, you mean send for the
rabbi!”
I mean the priest
Are you crazy?
NO, No, why disturb the rabbi on a night like this
Education – learning – child
If a child insists on clutching live coals, let him. When he gets
burnt you won’t have to encourage them to throw them away.
Education
If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
Derek Bok
Education –
Two types: one teaches you how to make a living,
Another teaches you how to live.
Education - sports
Football player, dull, needed special exam in chemistry. Teacher
said “I let him pass if he answered 50% of the questions correctly.
I asked him two questions.
First was what color is blue vitriol? He said pink, so he was
wrong.
The second was: How do you make sulphuric acid? He said “I
don’t know.” And that was correct, so I passed him.
Effort
Priest complains to John Vianney that his zeal brought no fruits:
Vianney replies:
Have you prayed to God, Have you wept? Have you cried out in
pain, have you sighed, have you also used fasting, going without
proper sleep, and sleeping on the bare floor? Until you have done
these things, do not imagine that you have made every effort.
See – effort
Lou Little, coach at Georgetown, sees one lad walk hand in hand
with his dad on campus. Boy’s mother calls and says the boy’s
dad died. Please tell my boy. Three days later, the boy returns –
starts against rival Fordham, and played great, inspired.
Coach asks, how come you played so well.
Boy says - me and dad walked hand in hand. He was blind, few
knew that. I like to think that today was the first time he ever saw
me play.
Effort
Duns Scotus sees a farmer cursing, and says stop –or you
will go to hell. Farmer replies “If God says I go to hell, I go. No
prayers change that.
Scotus says. Why plough this field? If God says you have a good
crop, you have it, or else not ???
Effort
Liszt says that if he stopped playing the piano for one day, HE
noticed it. If for two days, HIS WIFE noticed it. If for three days,
EVERYONE noticed it.
Effort
Mayor Daley to priest assigned to a new parish, who was nervous.
Why don’t you do what I do? Do your best and then the
hell with them.
Enemy – friend
Child in confession.. “I have one enemy.”
Priest - who
Child – “he’s my friend.”
Enemy - wisdom
A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his
friends.
Gracian
Enlightenment - see
Before you study Zen, mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers.
While you study, mountains are no longer mountains, rivers are
no longer rivers
When you obtain enlightenment, mountains are again mountains
and rivers again rivers
Enthusiasm - forgiveness
Psalm 51 says a Psalm of David after he had gone into
Bathsheba. How explain that?
David returned to God and said his psalm with the same passion
with which he had gone to Bathsheba – that is why God forgave
him in the instant.
Pecca fortiter, sed crede fortius
Envy Envy is the one deadly sin which no one readily confesses.
“few are able to suppress in themselves a secret satisfaction at
the misfortune of their friends.”
La Rochefoucauld
Envy
Evil spirits try to defeat a holy man – by doubts, pride, passions but all fail. He remains holy.
Satan then says – let me try. So he goes to the holy man and says,
“have you heard the good news? Your brother holy man has been
made bishop of Alexandria.”
That got him - envy swept through him like a tidal wave.
Eucharist - real presence - holy
A couple move their wedding party into the church because of
rain. The pastor is worried and angry.
The people say – “Jesus celebrated with song and joy at Cana
wedding.”
Priest: “I know he did. But he didn’t have the Blessed Sacrament
nearby.”
Eucharist
Tarcisius - 13 year old martyr, takes communion to
Christians in prison, is accosted by pagans, and rather than fight,
he protects the Blessed Sacrament and dies.
Eucharist - devotion
Sister practices with the choir and says. “Father (pastor) likes our
singing so much, he wants us to sing for Forty Hours. Isn’t that
wonderful?”
Girl: “Sister, we can’ sing THAT long.”
Eucharist St. Philip Neri saw a man who left always right after
communion. So he had two servers with candles accompany him
home. – shame him - gets attention and questions.
The man asks Philip – why this ?
Philip; “It is to pay proper respect to Our Lord, whom you are
carrying away with you. You seem to neglect to adore him.”
Eucharist - memory
Italian made excellent wine. At annual family gathering, they
have a bottle. – compliment the man. He died leaving many
bottles.
Now each time we gather for celebrations, we continue to share
dad’s wine. - We remember the good times, we experience his
presence still with us.
Eucharist presence,
If they told me that Jesus was in the house next to mine, I would
not go to see Him since I already have Him with me in the
tabernacle and he visits me daily in Holy Communion. I do not
have greater faith in the eyes of my face than in those of my faith.
The eyes of the body can be deceived, but not those of faith.
St. Theresa (Avila?)
Eucharist and justice
I have ceased to say Mass in order to practice love for people in
temporal, economic and social spheres. When the people have
nothing against me, when they have carried out the revolution,
then I will return to offering Mass, God willing. I think that in
this way I follow Christ’s injunction. “leave your gift at the altar,
first go and be reconciled to your brothers and sisters.”
Camilo Torres
Eucharist
Thomas More never misses Mass. While at Mass, the messenger
of King says, come now.
Thomas answers; be patient. I must pay respects to a Sovereign
of greater power and authority than the King. So I remain at the
audience of heaven until the Mass is over.
Eucharist
Emperor Napoleon I, at height of fame is asked of the happiest
day of his life. He answers, not a day of brilliant victory, but day
of lst communion - then I was brought closest to my God
---------
Eucharist - retreat
A retreat had common prayer at night, before the Blessed Sacrament.
A hindu holy man nearby could sense this – good vibrations
deMello
eucharist – frequent
Thomas More
Daily Mass and Daily communion. Why?
Why not do business, work?
Your reasons for wanting me to stay away
from Holy Communion are precisely the ones which cause me to
go so often. My distractions are great, but it is by Holy
Communion that I recall myself. Many times a day I am tempted
to sin – it is through Communion I overcome. I have many
weighty affairs to manage, and I have need of light and strength
to do so well. It is in my Communion that I find all this.
Eucharist - joke
Businessman goes to the Pope, new idea, use pasta for eucharist.
I’ll give you 5 million lira – 50? 500?
Pope confers with Secretary of State, Institute of Religious
works.
Overheard - “when does our contract with Wonder Bread run
out?”
Eucharist
real presence
Father gives crucifix to daughter and asks: ‘tell me the
difference between the figure of Christ on the cross and the host
which we get in communion.
Answer: when I look at the figure on the cross, I see Jesus and
he is not there. When I look at the host, I do not see Jesus but he
is there.
Eucharist
The eucharist commits us to the poor
Catech. Of Cath. Church 1397
recognize Christ in the poorest
eucharist
do you honor the body of Christ? Do not despise him when
he is naked. Do not honor him here in the church building, only to
neglect him outside, when he is suffering from cold and
nakedness. For he who said ‘This is my body’ is the same who
said ‘You saw me – a hungry man and you did not give me to eat.’
Of what use is it to load the Table of Christ?
Feed the hungry and then come to decorate the Table. You
are making a golden chalice and you do not give a cup of cold
water? The Temple of your afflicted brother’s body is more
precious than this temple (the church). The Body of Christ
becomes for you an altar. It is more holy than the altar of stone on
which you celebrate the holy Sacrifice. You are able to
contemplate the altar everywhere, in the street and in the open
square.
John Chrysostom
Eucharist
Is to adored, yes, but also imitated – the way of Jesus
Eucharist
The proper effect of the Eucharist is the transformation of
man into God.
Aquinas - (double transformation)
Eucharist
The most important part of the Mass? The dismissal. The
purpose of the Eucharist is strength as we go forth to witness, to
build the kingdom.
“font of strength”
eucharist
CCC – results, effects
1. union with JC
2 Separates us from sin
3. unites us with the church – people
4 commits us to the poor
5. helps overcome divisions
PPF
Eucharist
Why frequent communion ?
Two classes of persons should communicate frequently: the
perfect to persevere in perfection, and the imperfect to attain
perfection. The strong, not to become weak, and the weak to
become strong. The sick to be cured, and the healthy to prevent
sickness.
St. Francis de Sales
Eucharist - sin – forgive
“Eucharist strengthens our charity and this living charity
wipes away venial sins.” CCC 1394.
Cleanses us from past sins and preserves us from future sins.
1393
Eucharist
We should rise from this holy table like lions, breathing fire,
striking terror into the devils
John Chrysostom
Eucharist
The Eucharist becomes the school of active love for the
neighbor.
JP II
“school of charity, justice and peace for renewing the world in
Christ.”
Educates us to love.
Eucharist - peace
“Eucharistic praxis is the Christian alternative to war.”
James Mackey
(also to ecological disaster ??)
witness – evangelization
The Christian is not to stand in the world and witness to Christ,
but to stand in Christ and witness to the world.
Dr. A.J. Gordon
Evangelization
Patrick Henry in his will:
I have disposed of all my property to my family. There is one
thing more I wish I could give them, and that is the Christian
religion. If they have that, and I had not given them one shilling,
they would be rich; and if they have not this, and I had given them
all this world, they would be poor.
Evil
Mala, mali, malo, mala contulit omnia mundo
All the evil in the world was brought into it by an apple.
Evil
Whatever we call evil is somebody crying out for help.
Rilke
Evil
The devil is always an angel who pretends to be god.
Evil is not the absence of good but the corruption of good,
and is parasitic on the good.
Reinhold Niebuhr
Attitude – mind over matter
The mind is its own place, and in itself can make heaven of Hell,
or a hell of heaven.
John Milton
Roles – children – joke
Children ready for ballet. Run up to stage manager and ask
“where are the toilets?” He asks: “Are you boys or girls.” They
answer: “Neither, we are squirrels.”
Renunciation
When prostitutes come to me, they talk about God. When priests
come, they want to talk about sex.”
De Mello –
What we renounce enthralls us
Talent, music, creativity
Itzhak Perlman - how do we become like you?
“three things. One, God gave me talent. Two, I have this Strad
violin. Three, I have beautiful music of Beethoven.
I try to put them all together and get out of the way.”
Psychology
Retarded child – make something from clay. Teacher ask:
What are you playing with. MANURE – what are you making.
A TEACHER.
- Suspects trouble, so sends child to Principal
MANURE - making a principal.
Suspects trouble- sends to psychologist.
Clever man, says to boy – I know what you have MANURE –
AND KNOW what you are making - a psychologist! Boy says,
“Wrong” - why?
NOT ENOUGH MANURE!
De Mello
AFFIRMATION - GOOD
Bad child, sent to Fr. Flanagan. Child fears that they will say that
they love him – which he doesn’t want to hear.
Fr. Flanagan says - Hello, this is Jim and Bill. They will show
you around, all must pitch in.
Boy was converted - He saw in Fr. Flanagan’s eyes not “I love
you” but YOU ARE GOOD.
Death - love –
The most common deathbed regrets related to neglected
relationships, not unfinished business.
Buddha asked: What is it like to be enlightened?
“Before enlightenment, I was depressed. After enlightenment, I
continue to be depressed - but with a difference – I don’t identify
with my depression.
Change - violence
Violence does not lead to lasting change. Only love and
understanding can.
Travel, culture
Little of England know, who only England know.
Kipling
Persuasion
argue
If people around you will not hear you, fall down before them and
beg their forgiveness, for in truth you are to blame.
Dostoyevsky
Priest Sister tells kids about priests. – representative of Jesus, etc.
Child asks. “Do priests go to the bathroom?”
Sister: “Yes, but not as often as other people.”
Attitude
The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that
human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can
change the outer aspects of their lives
William James
Reaction – action
Life is 10 % things that happen to you and 90% how you react to
that 10%.
Judge, learn
Be a perceiver, not a judger. – in interactions, rough ones,
offensive ones - ask “what is this person teaching me?”
Anger, hurt, can thus give way to compassion, etc.
Jesus
Be born in us incarnate love. Take our flesh and blood and give us
your humanity; take our eyes and give us your vision; take our
minds and give us your pure thought; take our feet and set them in
your path; take our hands and fold them in your prayer. Take our
hearts and give them your will to love.
Caryll Houselander
Generosity - action
Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways
you can, in all the places you can, in all the times you can, to all
the people you can, as long as ever you can.
John Wesley’s Rule
Dress
Someone asks Fr. Kolvenbach: why do you always wear black,
black cassock?
Answer: “So you can dress the way you do.” – Not in clerics!
Truth, happiness
An act or word that makes you happy is better than the truth?
Joy, cheerful
The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer
Somebody else up.
Mark Twain
Action – little deeds
I long to accomplish great and noble tasks, but it is my
Chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great
and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty
shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes
of each honest person
Helen Keller
Examen
Ignatius asked a father, how often did he examine his conscience
that day?
Seven Times !
Ignatius answered, even though the day was not far advanced
“Seven times? So Few?”
Examine
At bedtime, share one good thing and one bad thing of the day –
with spouse, with children. Show care, and lead them into trust in
the night.
Example
Some strangers were to meet Lord Shaftesbury at the train
station. How find him?
“When you see a tall man getting off the train and helping
someone, that is Lord S.
Sure enough - tall man with suitcase helps old lady with three
bundles. Off the train.
Fail, fall
Notice the difference when a man says “I have failed three times”
- vs. “I am a failure.”
Faith, baptism
No one is born a Catholic. We are all converts
Cardinal Cushing
Faith, Africa
Senghor said: “Faith here in Africa is as essential to the soul as is
bread, rice, or honey to the body. Africa’s gift to humankind is the
ability to perceive the supernatural as something really natural.”
Faith, reality
The village priest was distracted by children noisly praying. So he
shouts out – “There’s a terrible monster down at the river. Hurry,
you see him breathing fire.”
Soon the whole village heard and rushed to the river. The priest
saw this and joined – a four mile trek. As he trekked he thought
to himself. “It is true that I invented the story. Still, you can never
tell.”
Faith, stars
We can never sneer at the stars. Their sublime grandeur evokes
unhesitating, unflinching awe. Standing between earth and sky, we
are silenced by the sight.
Awareness of God does not come by degrees… It comes, when
drifting in the wilderness, having gone astray, we suddenly behold
the immutable polar star.
Heschel
Faith idol
It is never a question of faith or no faith. The question is – in what
or whom do we put our faith.
Faith, fear
The greatest enemy of faith is not doubt, the greatest enemy is
fear.
Richard Rohr
Faithful
Catholic worker friend: “I have never asked myself if I was being
effective, but only if I was being faithful.”
Faithful
When they asked Mother Theresa how to measure the success of
her work.
Puzzled, then she answers: “I don’t remember that the Lord ever
spoke of success. He spoke only of one’s faithfulness in loving.
That is the only success that counts.”
Faith, leap
A bird beginning to fly, child to swim or walk.
Nothing to hold onto, at last they are free, leap into the dark.
Faith, God, providence
Rabbi walking with disciples, he bends down and picks up
a speck of sand, looks at it, and puts it back when he found it.
“He who does not believe that god wants this bit of sand to lie in
this particular place, does not believe at all.
Faith, trust, leap
When Moses threw the wand into the Red Sea, the sea, quite
contrary to the expected miracle, did not divide itself. Not until the
first Jew had jumped into the sea did the promised miracle happen
and the waves recede.
Jewish legend
Faith, light, church
A chapel in England, and at the end of each pew is a candlestick.
Each family comes and lights a candle, the only light. If many
come, it is bright, if few, it is dark. Each must do his part.
Faithful, salvation
Old man, prays at river Ganges. A scorpion floats by and
gets entangled in a tree roots. Frantic. Old man helps, and the
scorpion bites – several times, pain, swollen hand.
Visitor sees this and says “stupid old man. You may kill
yourself for that ungrateful scorpion.”
Man answers, calmly: “Friend, because it is the nature of the
scorpion to sting, why should I give up my own nature to save?”
Faith
anchor
Sailor in Gloucester, ill, dying. He says goodbye to
friends, one by one. He awakens, and one asks him: How are you
now? He answers with his dying, final words “My faith is in
Jesus. My anchor holds.” = Hebr. 6:19
faith, miracle
at Lourdes, an Italian lady, convert, writes: “to find the faith again
is more important than to get back one’s sight.”
Faith, seeing
Freddie, in My Fair Lady - “I have often walked, on the streets
before, but the pavement always…
Love changes all
Faithful virtue
Misunderstood, abandoned even by her own husband, she had
buried six children, but had not lost her natural readiness to help;
regarded as strange by her sisters and sisters-in- law, a laughable
person, who was stupid enough to work for others without reward,
she had at the end of her life save no possessions. A dirty white
goat, a lame cat, rubber plants…
We had all lived alongside her and none of us understood that
she was that righteous person without whom, as the proverb says,
no village can live… and no city,, and not our whole country.
Solzhenitsyn- Matriona’s farm
Faith, knowledge
Vicar explains the difference between faith and knowledge in
sermon
“in the front row is Mr Smith, his wife and three kids.
She knows they are her children. – that is knowledge
He believces that they are his children, - that’s faith.
Faith - poor
A student asks Rahner for books to read to regain his faith.
Rahner says, rather – “go out and join a group of Christians who
help the poor.”
Fallibility –
Even a monkey sometimes falls from a tree
Japanese proverb
Family
It takes a whole village to raise a child
African proverb
Fast –
“how can you gain fear of God if your belly is full of cheese and
jars of salted fish.”
Desert Wisdom
Fast, lent
Simon Weil died of starvation in 1943 - in solidarity with Jewish
compatriots in camps - she wanted to eat the same as they ate.
Fast and charity
Day of atonement, Jews fast, pray for 24 hours.
Rabbi feels that the Messiah is near, through his fast and prayers.
He makes one more effort, but realizes that a jew in the synagogue
will faint from more fasting, and possibly die. So – he ends
prayers, declares end of fast, and abandons his effort to bring
about the coming of the Messiah.
Fear - images
We live up to others’ images – enslaved to what they think and
say
Eg. I say, your shirt is nice, - you are happy
I say, your sermon was poor- you fall apart
Fear, heaven
Woman in 14th century, streets of Strasbourg – with a pail of water
in one hand and a blazing torch in the other. Why?
I’m going to put out hell fire with the pail of water, and with the
torch I will burn up heaven. So then men will stop pretending to
love God - when they really are only fearing hell or desire to
enjoy the joy of heaven.
Fear, addiction
Man smoking, goes to Native Doctor. /Doctor says, the next
cigarette you smoke will kill you. This works
Fear, love
“Do not fear God in the least, for he does not want to do
you harm; but love God greatly, because he wants to do you
great good.”
Frances de Sales
Fear, calm
In India, a man with pet 150 pound tiger is talking. He quietly tells
his friend, get the rifle and put a bullet between the eye of the
tiger, quietly.
He does this. Why?
The tiger had scratched, broken skin, drew blood. And the man
knew that when he tried to withdraw his hand, the tiger held him.
He knew what was coming if he moved.
Fear
“Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is
fear itself, namely unreasoning terror which paralyses needed
efforts to convert retreat into advance.
FDR
Fear, trust
“God will give us all the strength we need to resist in all times of
ditress. But he never gives it in advance, lest we rely on ourselves
and not on him alone.”
Bonhoeffer
Fear,
past
Why does the past look so beautiful to many people?
Because fear has been extracted from it.
Thomas Carlyle
Fear
Those who love to be feared, fear to be loved; they themselves are
of all people the most abject; some fear them, but they fear every
one.
j.p. camus =- the spirit of St. Francis de Sales
fear
Rabbi finds bracelet of empress. She says, if returned in 30 days,
OK, if after 30, it is found, the person will be killed.
Rabbi finds it – and returns it to her on the 31st day.
She asks why:
He says: so that you should not say I returned it because I was
afraid of you. I returned it because I fear God.
She says: Praised be the God of the Jews.
Fear
eucharist, communion
Maisie Ward’s daughter was naughty, so Maisie says:
“If you won’t be good, I don’t think you can make your first
communion.”
Daughter: “I’ll be a great deal gooder if you let me make it.”
Fear – paralysis
The king had a huge diamond, so big that jewelers refused
to cut it, out of fear.
But a young upstart had no fear, did it,
Free
He who has placed himself in God’s hands stands free visà-vis men. He is entirely at his ease with them, because he has
granted them the right to judge.
Dag Hammarskjold, markings
Free will –
Farmer curses a blue streak. Duns Scotus hears this and warns
him – this leads to hell. Farmer says God already knows if saved
or damned, so no difference if I curse or not.
Scotus says - don’t bother to till the soil, because God knows if
you will or will not have a good crop – no matter how hard you
work !
Thus the farmer saw the absurdity of his position
Freedom, poverty
Give gifts away as fast as you get them - don’t cling to anything.
Freedom for
What shall we do with our freedom?
Mandela to post colonial Africans
Freedom
We have nothing of our own but our will. It is the only
thing which God has so placed in our power that we can make an
offering of it.
St. John Vianney
Freedom
A German novice tempted to leave. After other approaches,
Ignatius asks him to wait 4 days – and no obligation to keep rules
– do what wants. The novice with this gentle treatment and
freedom was so dumbfounded that he remained. - he found out
what he really wanted.
Ribadeneira
Freedom
Abolition of slavery in West Indies would be at sunrise, August 1,
1838 - so the slaves the night before go up mountain and watch,
wait. When sin is glimpsed, they cry out – “We are free, we are
free.” –shouts
Freedom
Salus Animarum, suprema lex
In canon law
Free
Flecte quod est rigidum
Flex, bend, what is rigid
Freedom, education
Teacher had no discipline problem - said
“Welcome to Sunshine Valley - you make up the rules, post them,
and you enforce them.”
And it works!
Free
When an archer is shooting for nothing, he has all his skill.
If he shoots for a brass buckle, he is already nervous. If he shoots
for a prize of gold, he goes blind or sees two targets, he is out of
his mind.
His skill has not changed. But the prize divides him. He cares,
he thinks more of winning than of shooting, and the need to win
drains him of power.
Taoist Master - Chuang Tzu
Free, human respect
Master was impervious to what people thought of him. How
get this inner freedom?
He laughs and explains:
Till I was 20, I did not care what people thought of me
After 20, I worried endlessly
After 50, I realized that they hardly ever thought of me at all.
Freedom
One could see that he has within him, his own base of
support and that he is above either praise or blame
Said of Goethe
Freedom
Four freedoms - speech/expression, worship, from want,
From fear
Freedom:
Poem:
Fetters by Louis Ginsberg
Only in fetters
Is liberty:
Without its banks,
Could a river be?
Freedom
There are two freedoms: the false, where one is free to do what he
likes, and the true, where he is free to do what he ought.
Charles Kingsley
Freedom The function of freedom is to free somebody else
Freedom - liberal, jesus
In Holland, floods, so parish must work on Sunday. Priest calls
council to decide
1. worship – let God save us
or 2. pastor says – Jesus broke the Sabbath, it is for man
Old man says “I have always been troubled pastor, something I
never said before, I have always had the feeling that Jesus was just
a bit of a liberal.”
Freedom, dogma,
Graham Green, the Living Room - priest says “I’d like to help
you, but whenever I start to say something, the catechism gets in
the way.”
Friend
How to win friends and influence people. Dale Carnegie
1.You can make more friends in two months by becoming
genuinely interested in other people than you can in two years of
trying to get other people interested in you.
2. Do things for other people.
Friend
A friend id one to whom we may pour out the contents of our
hearts, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands
will sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of
kindness blow the rest away.
Arabian definition
Friend
Friendship doubles the good and divides the bad
Gracian, sj
Freedom
Abba Macarius, give me a word by which I can be saved.
Go to the cemetery – abuse the dead – he goes, throws stones, etc.
Did they say anything NO
Go tomorrow and praise them - goes, calls them holy,etc.
Did they answer? No
- so if you wish to be saved you must do the same, and become
like a dead man – take no account of the scorn or men or their
praises – then you can be saved.
Friend, share
For a priest in peru, a small boy shines shoes for $$ but so small,
he really can’t. Other, bigger boy comes – does it.
Priest says OK – I give you 50 – 50
Big boy says no – give him all WhY/
He is my friend
Friend
US priest, leaving Korea at airport – at customs is asked, when
are you returning. He says never,- new assignment.
You must be sad to leave – Yes - 11 years here and so many
friends.
Customs man, not busy – closes the booth - - says, come, and
takes a carry on – and says, I’ll wait until your plane leaves. I’ll
represent your friends.
Fundamental
Fundamentalism offers the false of hope of faith without
ambiguity- a profound fear of thinking..
Gaps - lonely
People are lonely because they built walls instead of bridges
Give, share
Gandhi, at a train door, his sandal slips off – irretrievable. So he
pushes off the other sandal
“the one who finds the sandal will now have a pair.”
Generosity
The ideal giving is when the giver doesn’t know to whom
he is giving, and when the receiver doesn’t know from whom he is
receiving.
Saying of the Rabbis
Give, generosity
Teacher: “Remember, it is more blessed to give than to
receive.”
Pupil: “Yes my father says that is his motto in his
business.
Teacher – wonderful, what is that business
Pupil: He is a boxer, a prize fighter.
Generosity
Two mites, two drops (yet all her house and land)
Falls from a steady heart, though trembling hand.
The other’s wanton wealth foams high and brave,
The other cast away, she only gave.
Richard Crashaw
Generosity
Poor woman goes to priest with big $$ for the missions
Priest says – too much, that is not necessary
She insists, I shall be happier when I think of the poor families I
help.
Priest asks – what is your name, so put in bulletin?
Don’t mind that, God knows – just send the $$
Generosity
Beggar comes to rabbi, and rabbi has no change. So gives a ring
that was on the table, belonging to his wife. She complains – how
could you -- that was diamond ring!
Rabbi runs out – chases beggar – says - friend, listen, that is
valuable, don’t let the jeweler cheat you, don’t sell it for too little.
Generosity
Rabbi helps people. Man tries to sell big turkey to his wife but
she says no – is too expensive.
Later, she sees a man that the rabbi helps goes and buys it.
She complains: see –
Rabbi says – That shows that he wants a good turkey for the
Sabbath. Now that I know that, I must raise the amount I give him
every month.
Give, collection, sinners, preach
Wife says to the parson, her husband, who is dejected as he leaves
church.
Don’t call anybody sinners until AFTER the collection
Generosity
Poor woman comes to Archbishop in france –
He is told she is 70
In need? Yes
Give her 25 francs
Secretary says – that is too much, and besides, she is Jewish
OH _ give her 50, and thank her for honoring me with her visit.
Generosity, love
US Army officer visits leper hospital - sees US sister.
How can you do that, I wouldn’t do that for $1000.
No – nor would I do it for $10,000. But showing the cross of her
rosary - I would do it for him.
Generosity - unselfish
Teacher: unselfishness means going without something you need,
doing it voluntarily… Can you give me an example?
Johnny – Yes- sometimes I go without a bath when I need one.
Generosity – cheerful
Beggar comes for meal to farmer. Wife brings food, but looks
stern, ungracious.
As he eats, his eyes fill with tears? Wife asks, why?
He says - the most appetizing ingredient was missing – a pleasant
look and a kind word.
Generosity
The Lord loves a cheerful giver, but he also accepts from a
grouch.
Generosity – give
Two friends – one a new convert, is asked
If you had a 100 sheep, would you give 50 for the Lord’s Work?
Yes
Would you do the same if you had a 100 horses?
Yes
If you had two pigs, would you give one of them to the Lord?
NO – and you have no right to ask me, for you know that I do
have two pigs.
Give, god, talents
God gives no gift, in order that anyone should have the gift and
rest content with it. Rather, all the gifts that he has given, in
heaven and on earth, were given in view of his single purpose, to
give ONE gift, which is himself. With all these other gifts he
wants to prepare us now for the gift which is himself.
Eckhart - Talks of Instruction
Give
Many things I have tried to grasp, and have lost. That which I
have placed in God’s hands, I still have.
Luther
Gift – kairos
Mendelssohn visits cathedral – hears organist, and asks if he can
play. Organist says no, I don’t know you. Eventually is
persuaded., M. plays and all are amazed,
Organist asks, who are you - M –
And says “to think that an old fool like me nearly forbade M. to
play upon my organ.
Gift
Man says, I give you my widows’ mite – but in reality he was
worth 70,000. and he gives very little – she gave all
- danger in trying to shelter behind the widow’s mite !
gift, talent
What good work must I do, that is acceptable to God?
Hospitality for Abraham,
David to rule, etc.
What about me?
“Search for the deepest inclination of your heart, and follow it.”
deMello one minute wisdom
give - intention
Cheap parishioner accidentally drops $5. in basket when he meant
$1.
And says ‘ “Oh well, I will get credit in heaven.”
Usher says, “No you won’t, you get credit for $1. and no more.”
Give 8 steps of ladder of giving
1.to give reluctantly, the gift of the hand, but not of the heart
2.to give cheerfully, but not in proportion to the need
3.to give cheerfully and proportionately, but not until solicited
4.to give cheerfully, proportionately and unsolicited, but to put the
gift into the poor man’s hand, thus creating shame
5.to give in such a way that the distressed may know their
benefactor, without being known to him.
6. to know the objects of our bounty, but remain unknown to them
7.to give so that the benefactor may not know those whom he has
relieved, and they shall not know him.
8.to prevent poverty by teaching a trade, setting a man up in
business or in some other way preventing the need of charity. –
This is the highest.
Maimonides
Give
Preacher appeals for funds - to bring up gifts. Little lame girl
brings up ring – from her finger. An usher asks her to see the
pastor afterwards. She does – he says, no need for you – it was
beautiful, but we have enough…
Little girl says - “I didn’t give that ring to you.”
(to God, not to man)
gifts, talents, strength
a deer comes to drink, sees his reflection. He admires his antlers,
and thought legs skinny and weak. Hunters approach, so he runs His swift legs saved his life until his beautiful antlers got caught
and he was captured.
Moral: many do not know their strengths and weaknesses
Gift, work, pelagian
When God sends opportunities, he does not for all that,
wake up the sleeper.
Senegalese proverb
Gift, opportunity
Instead of everything as a problem, see and say everthing is a
gift.
Mother Teresa
Gift – talent, art
Art is a collaboration between God and the artist and the less the
artist does, the better. Andre Gide
Gift
Henri Nouwen buys a hat for handicapped youth, Raymond.
Raymond yells, I don’t need your silly hat.
He really wanted friendship, relationship, not a thing
Give
Rabbi gave his last money to a man of ill repute and was
criticized by his disciples. He answered: Shall I be more finicky
than God, who gave it to me?
Give – generosity
God looks not to what I HAVE, but to what I have given.
It is not what I give that makes me suffer, but what I hold back
What I spent, I had: what I saved, I lost. What I gave, I have.
(on tombstone)
Give – share
Bus , with old man holding a bunch of fresh flowers. A Young
girl sees and eyes these flowers. Man as he gets off, says “ I see
you like these flowers – here – I think my wife would like for you
to have them. I”ll tell here I gave them to you.”
He gets off, and the girl sees the old man walk through the gate
of a small cemetery.
Give - respect
To give rich toys to poor kids is good but you might hurt
the relationship between the child and his poor parents.
Better to give the toys to parents, and they give to the kids.
Give
Give not only from your abundance, but from your substance.
JP II – Yankee stadium
Give
Father and boy. Says, give this 50 cents to the blind man
over there. He does so and comes back. Father says “Didn’t you
tip your cap to him?”
Son: “He is blind.”
Father: Go back, tip your cap, maybe he can see, maybe he is a
fake.
Give
Father to develop character in his son, gives him a nickel and
quarter. Says put what you like into the collection.
Later, asks his son what he gave. Boy says: “Just before the
collection, the preacher said that the Lord loves a cheerful give.
And I knew I would be a lot more cheerful if I gave the nickel, so
I did.”
give
God does not regard what is given, but out of how much
love it is given.
Deus non respicit quantum, sed ex quanto.
St. Gregory
Give
A Bum stops a wealthy man, ask $$ - and the man gives a
dime.
Thank you.
Man says “That’s fine. It always gives me pleasure to help those
in need.”
Beggaar - “In that case, why not give 50 cents and have a really
good time for yourself.”
Goal, purpose
Boys see who can make the straightest track across a snow field.
One was perfect. How?
I kepy my eyes fixed on the goal, while you others looked down at
your feet.”
Goal - man
Catechism class: what is the chief end of man?
Reply: the end what’s got the head on.
God, trinity
Augustine, sees child on shore, taking water from ocean
and pouring into a hole.
Asks: what are you doing.
I will empty the sea into the hole I made
That’s impossible, ocean is too large.
Child replies: it is easier to do that that for you to understand the
Trinity
Augustine bows and adores God –Glory be
God, mystery
Si comprehendis, non est Deus.
Augustine - if you comprehend it, it is not God.
God, openness
Be prepared at all times for the gift of God, and be
Ready always for new ones.
For God is a thousand times more ready to give than we are to
receive.
God
Gale Sayers - Chicago football wore a gold medal “I am third.”
– title of his book.
The Lord is first, my friends are second and I am third.
God – friend
My God is a friendly God, but ain’t that friendly.
J. Gustafson
God – love –
God says that the lowest of the low is dearer to me, God, than
your only son is to you.
God – Trinity
A Jew near the church, is knocked don by hit and run. Priest
hurries out- prepares to give last rites.
“Do you believe in God, Father, Son and spirit..
Old man cries out: I’m dying and he asks me riddles.
God, presence
Man is going to steal corn from neighbor’s field, takes his son as
a lookout.
He sees no one, so starts.
Son says “Father you haven’t looked one way yet.!
What?
You forgot to look up –
His conscience wins and he goes home
God, presence
A Monk on a donkey asks “where is my donkey”
They laugh and say- “Ridiculous, you are riding on him.”
Monk says; “No more ridiculous that humans who go looking for
God.”
God
God nourishes everything from the horned buffalo to nits,
disdaining no creature – for if he disdained creatures due to their
insignificance, they could not endure for even a moment. Rather
he gazes and emanates compassion upon them all. So should you
be good to all creatures, disdaining none. The Kabbalah
God, neighbor, prayer
If you are praying and a poor person asks for water, go. The God
who you find is more sure than the God whom you leave.
Ruysbroeck
God - superstition
Three-quarters or more of all that man says and thinks of God in
his worship and his prayer is infected with hypocrisy and
superstition, childishness, convention, and routine repetition
Cited in deLubac, Discovery of God
God, love
We pick and choose who to love and how much.
God loves each fully!
God, presence
You will eventually find God, whether you want to or not.
= Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit.
Jung had these words on his stone lintel
God, presence
If you wish to know the Divine, feel the wind on your face
and the warm sun on your hand.
Buddha
God – emmanuel
The best of all is, God is with us.
Death bed words of John Wesley – and in Westminster
Abbey
Also - I look upon all the world as my parish.
God, Christ, presence
In the gospel of Thomas, the risen Christ speaks:
I am the light which is above all things. I am the universe. The
universe parted from me and returned to me. Cut open a piece of
firewood and I am there within. Raise up a stone and I am
underneath it.
God – presence people
I sought to hear the voice of God,
And climbed the highest steeple.
But God declared, “Go down again –
I dwell among the people.”
Louis Newman
God, presence
How Know God?
= a small boy with a kite so high, he can barely see it, but he
knows it is there, - because he feels the pull of it.
God - presence
in all
And this our life, exempt from public haunts, Finds tongues in
trees, books in running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in
everything.
Shakespeare, As You Like It
God - spirit
The Holy Ghost, spirit in the bible is always gentle, love. Not
wrath – that is God the Father!
God – friend
The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a
friend.
Exodus 33:11
God - face.
See
I will take away my hand and you shall see my back, but my face
shall not be seen.
Exodus 33: 22-3
God, compassion
You may call God love: you may call God goodness; but
the best name for God is compassion
Eckhart
God in all - taste
When a person tastes something, he should perceive with his
understanding that the good within food and drink is nothing other
than God himself, from whom all pleasures derive.
God in all
Know that even when you are in the kitchen, our Lord moves
amidst the pots and pans
Teresa of avila
God, presence
God’s center is everywhere, his circumference nowhere.
Bonaventure
God – friend
Imagine a man exiled, expelled, no friends in his new place.
Along comes a stranger, who has no friends. They meet, become
good friends:
This is true of God and man – they are two strangers who try to
become friends.
God – creator
Newton made a replica of solar system - friend, an unbeliever,
asks, who made it ? Newton says NO One
God God is not confined to time and space
Insight which Joe Sittler got one day
God - creator –
Mother asks child, why do you say that God made the world with
his left hand?
Because the bible says Jesus sat on the right hand of the father.
God - presence
We are the seed ofGod. A pear seed grows into a pear tree, a
hazel into a hazel tree. A seed of God into God.
Eckhart
God is the needle and we the thread that follow
God is the thumb without which we cannot tie a knot.
God – atheist
Brazilian, feminist, atheist, Marxist – her mother dying – Helder
camara come – prays,
Woman says - it is a nice church, nice mass, but I can’t
believe inGod
Camara answers: “don’t worry, God believes in you.”
God - ecumenism
Worlds fair of religions - fierce competition
Jewish stall – God is all compassionate, Jews the chosen people,
no others so chosen
Moslem - God all merciful, Mohammed is the only prophet,
salvation comes from listening to the prophet
Christianity – God is love, no salvation outside the Church
Someone asks a friend - what do you think of God?
He is bigoted, fanatical, and cruel.
God - idol
An idol is near and far; God is far and near
An idol in one’s house, but it doesn’t answer, and so is far
God is far away in heaven yet near, and he answers prayer.
God
Hadrian asks Rabbi – I want to see your God.
That is impossible
Show me !
Rabbi takes him out- says, look at the sun.
I cant
If you cant look at the sun, a servant of the Holy One,
How shall you look at the Holy One himself
God Not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but the god of
Abraham, the god of Isaac, and the God of Jacob
Because he reveals himself a new, not the same for all three
God belief, faith
It is not necessary to know something about God in order really
to believe in him. Many true believers know how to talk to God
but not about him.
Buber
God present
They ask the holy man- help us to find God
No one can help you there
Why Not?
For the same reason that no one can help the fish to find the ocean.
One minute wisdom
God, mercy
Naïve and pious, Rabbe repeated every night before sleep.
“I revoke my rights on all I possess. Whatever belongs to me is no
longer mine. In this way, no matter what thieves may carry away,
they will not have violated the law.
God – patient
Teresa of Avila complains about a troublesome abbess
“God, if I had my way, she wouldn’t be superior any longer.”
God responds - If I had my way, she wouldn’t be either.
God - religion, media
Reading the newspaper may be the most religious act most of us
do each day. It may bring us into contact with more people than
any other activity.
God - world
Omnis mundi creatura
Quasi liber et picture
Nobis est et speculum
Every created thing is for us a book, a picture, and a mirror.
Alan of Lille
God - presence
Bible says that God asks Adam “Where are you?” Stupid,
because God knows all.?
But God asks that of each of us, too –
God presence
Child gathers berries with his father, one hand on father, one on
the berries
So we walk through the world. One with God – never leave his
hand.
De Sales
God- fear
A man who has never tried to flee God has never experience the
God who is really God.
(for there is no reason to flee a God who is the perfect picture of
everything that is good in man. Why try to escape from someone
who serves us so well)
Tillich, Shaking the Foundations
God
Russian inspector interviews farmer, in a system that is failing.
“I’ve grown so many potatoes that pile almost reaches to God.
Don’t say that - someone might report you - there is no God in
Russian – you know that.
True – and there aint any potatoes either.
God
The sticker GOD IS ON MY SIDE –should be
I HOPE I AM ON GOD’S SIDE.
God
God does not have a why
Deus non habet quare
Eckhart
God I Am - that is enough –
Does not say, I am light, guide, tower
Rather - gives us a blank Are you weak – I am strong
Are you in trouble, I am comfort
, etc…
God –
We say the sun is red, bright, dim, but really is the same,
unchanging
So God is unchanging, but our vision of God is not unchanging…
De Sales
God - weak
God helps those who can’t help themselves
God - sinner sin
God is closer to sinners than to saints ! How?
God holds each person by string, when you sin, you cut the string,
but God ties it up again, and thus brings you closer..
God - life, woman
From all eternity God lies on a maternity bed giving birth.
The essence of God is birthing.
God – persuasion
Plato’s revolutionary insight - the divine element (God) works if
persuasive rather than coercive.
God – fear
Storm, thunder, etc. girl afraid, mom says OK, God is near,
don’t be afraid.
Yes moma, I know God is near, but when so much lightning and
thunder, I want someone near who has skin on him.
God -- find,
It is not when I am
going to meet him, but when I am just turning away and leaving
him alone, that I discover that God is.
I say, God, I am not sure that is the name. but you know what I
mean
Letter of Thoreau
God - life
As the sunflower turns to the sun, so we should turn to God
Heliotropic
God, woman, love
True image of God today?
Black, inner city grandmother,
Woman cooking tortillas in refugee camp
Mother of the disappeared in Argentina
 compassion, tears for their children
God, light
God is like the light which is imperceptible owing to the intensity
of its luminosity. Its brilliance is best discerned through its
privation - i.e. darkness
God - work, cooperation
Morse, working on telegraph – “I prayed for more light.”
So, he feels he didn’t deserve the honors given him - “it was all
through God’s help” I am grateful God chose to reveal this to
me..
Thus the first message “what hath God wrought.”
God
presence
Tyrannical king – wants to destroy peoples belief in God
Asks his advisors - where can I hide this God, so people can’t
find him.
1. beyond the furthest star - No, they will fly there and find
him.
2. on the ocean floor? - No, they might get there some day.
3. Rather hide him in the everyday lives of the people, and no
one will ever find Him there.
God
Teacher walking with boy, passes the boy’s house - asks, where
is your room.? There is mine, there is mommy and daddy’s, that
room with the little window is God’s.
How?
Every morning, daddy knocks at the door and says, “My God,
are you still in there?”
God, find
God will return to us when we shall be willing to let him in – into
our banks and factories, into our congress and clubs, into our
courts and investigating committees, into our homes and theaters.
For God is everywhere or nowhere, the Father of all or none,
concerned about everything or nothing. ..
We reflect either the image of (God”s) presence or that of a best
Heschel
God in all - Jesuit
For Jesuits, it is never a question of choosing either God or the
world, rather it is always God IN the world, laboring to bring it
to perfection so that world comes finally, to be fully IN God
CG 34, mission and culture, # 7
God - distant - human life
As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods:
They kill us for their sport.
King Lear IV,1. Earl of Gloucester, after his eyes put out
God
God is not nice. God is not an uncle. God is an earthquake
Jewish master
God – name
The Shona - names for God
Chipindikure - The one who turns things upside down
(transforms, revolution)
God
I never experience the reality of God without the reality of the
world, or the reality of the world without the reality of God.
Bonhoeffer
God – presence
Rabbi’s child used to wander into the woods. So rabbi asks him why?
“I go there to find God.”
“That is good, you are searching for God. But don’t you know
that God is everywhere, is the same everywhere.
“Yes, I know, but I am not.”
God – presence
Whoever really and truly has God… has God everywhere,
in the street and in company with everyone, just as much as in
church, or in solitary places or in one’s own cell.
\
Eckhart
God
Almighty God, the Great Thumb we cannot evade to tie any
knot, the Roaring Thunder that splits mighty trees, the all-seeing
lord on high who sees even the footprints of an antelope on a
rock mass here on earth –
You are the cornerstone of peace.
God – nature, creation
Philosopher asks St. Anthony.
How can you be so enthusiastic, if you have no books?
My book is the nature of created things. When I want to read the
Word of God, it is usually right in front of me.
Golf
A clean ball is a happy ball
Quoties non quomodo
Bottom line is not how, but how many strokes
Golf
Three golfers annoyed because of slow play. Complain. The pro
explains they are blind players… be patient.
1. Dominican – wonderful, how they overcome obstacles
2. Franciscan – poor persons, how they suffer
3. Jesuit. Can’t you pass a rule that they play only at night.
Golf
Player, in despair, said to caddy.
“I’m going to end it all, dive into that pond and drown.”
Caddy: “No you won’t, you can’t keep your head down long
enough.”
Golf
President Ford - a good day on the course, an eagle, a birdie, and
a moose and an elk.
Ike –Eisenhower. Asked if playing is any different after leaving
the Presidency.
“Yes, I lose more now.”
Heaven
All who want to go to heave, raise your hands.
One little boy does not ! Why?
I can’t, my mother told me to come straight home.
Heaven –
Cat dies, mother consoles her daughter “Remember, Fluffy is in
heaven with God.”
Girl says “what in the world does God want with a dead cat?”
Heaven –
Jewish school All who want to go to heaven, raise your hand!
All except one boy, Melvin.
Don’t you want to go to heaven?
“No – I heard my father say that business has gone to hell and I
want to go there.”
Golf Friend asks, “On your holidays, did you visit the Holy Land?
“We sure did. My husband would not leave until he played St.
Andrews – Royal Ancient course – the home of Golf.
Golf
Playing golf is like raising children. You keep thinking you will
do better next time.
Golf
Bob Hope: “When I play golf with Gerry Ford, we make it a
foursome: He, me, a paramedic and a faith healer.”
Golf
Give me golf clubs, fresh air, and a beautiful partner, and
you can keep my golf clubs and the fresh air.
Jack Benny
Golf is a good walk spoiled.
Mark Twain
Why do you tee the ball up so high – Nicklaus is asked.
“Through years of experience, I have found that air offers less
resistance than dirt.”
Golf –death
Golfing clergyman beaten badly by parishioner who was much
older – is disgruntled.
Cheer up, the old man says - - remember, you win at the finish,
You’ll probably be burying me some day.
Yes, the clergyman admits, but even then, it will be YOUR hole.
Golf
Golfer plays with his wife, which was rare. Blocked by a barn
door, she holds the door, he hits, kills her.
Six months later, with friends, the same situation. A partner
holds the door. The golfer remembers - No, we won’t try it that
way. This happened six months ago and ended up getting a
double bogey on the hole.
golf minister and priest play - minister frustrated, says, I will try
praying at the next tee. But he misses the ball completely. So,he
threw his club as far as he could, and said he lost his faith in
prayer.
Priest says – My friend, we Catholics have learned that prayer
works only if you keep your head down.”
Golf - fish
Sunday – two men feel guilty playing golf and playing poorly.
I suppose we should have gone to church.
Heck no – says the other, I couldn’t have gone anyway. My wife
is sick in bed.
Golf
Three golfers hit into a deep ravine
One decides to try to play out
Finally a ball appears on the green.
How many strokes, they ask
Two -But we heard four
Two of them were echoes.
Golf
3 priests in slacks - and a 4th, hustler joins them.
Priest says – we are good.
So – they bet, steep wager
Hustler wins big
In the locker room, the hustler realizes the three were priests, feels
guilty – offers to return the $$
No – priest says, a bet is a bet.
I feel funny hustling priests – what can I do?
Do you have parents, one priest asks.
Yes I do, the hustler answers
Bring them here and I’ll marry them (you bastard!)
Golf
Funeral procession goes along near the 8th tee.
Golfer about to hit, stops, takes off his cap and bows his head.
Then he puts back and hits into the middle of the fairway.
Partner says - that funeral procession didn’t interfere with your
concentration!
Golfer says, “It wasn’t easy, after all, we were married for 25
years.”
Golf
I didn’t see you in church. I hear you played golf.
Not true – and I have the fish to prove it.
Good news, easter
Boy and sister, 7 and 4 – bring up offertory gifts – all dressed up.
Girl gives gifts and says – I’ve got a new pair of shoes on.
like Easter - good news must be told, shared
good
Bonum ex integra causa, malum ex singularibus defectibus.
A concurrence of all things is necessary for virtue. Whereas for a
vice, the failure of one is sufficient
Rodriguez, vol. 2, p 130
Good
Bumper sticker: LIVE SO THAT THE PREACHER WILL
NOT HAVE TO LIE AT YOUR FUNERAL
Grace - cooperating, sin
An aged man, explaining his conversion –
I did my part and God did his. I did the sinning and God did the
saving.
Grace-
Drowning boy struggling in water. Mother watches. Man goes out
to help, but waits, watches. Mother impatient, eventually he
saves the boy. Mom says why so slow?
“As long as he struggles, I could not, both of us would have
drowned., when he was weak, then I was strong.
Grace
Famous organist gives concert, and small boy pumps the organ.
The lad looks around and says – ‘we are doing fine, aren’t we?”
Organist says, what do you mean WE?
Minute later, the organ stops - boy smiles and says, now you
know who I mean by WE
Grace, - cooperate- freedom
God’s grace is the wind, offered to all. It fills our sails and we can
say no. But can also flow with it - it moves us to the good.
Francis de Sales
Grace – effort
See the birds of the air.. Yes, the Lord feeds them, but they also
have to work, search, make effort.
Grace
Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there
is a void to receive it, and it is grace itself which makes this void
Simone Weil
Grace – power of God
Retreat master, travel with mother Teresa - and ask, what would
you do if giving a retreat - 4 words – LET JESUS DO IT.
- eg. - exposition, silence, scripture… holy hour
grace quality- church
The transformation of existing parishes into BCC – presupposes
that the parish priest has the right and courage to ‘neglect’ baptized
Christians in his parish – and concentrate more on those who are
ready or can make themselves ready to share in sustaining it.
Rahner
Grace – trust
In the land of the spirit, you cannot walk by the light of someone
else’s lamp. – You want to borrow mine?
I would rather teach you how to make your own.
Grace - cooperate
Racer goes slow, then faster - because he prays: “Lord you pick
them up, and I’ll put them down.”
Man caught up in a tree, and bear below: Lord if you can’t help
me, and least don’t help that bear.”
Grace – share
Dave Meggett, NY football star, scores TV and takes ball
and gives it to handicapped boy in wheelchair –
With his parents - joy – national TV
Grace- coop
Genius ?? a pianist was called a genius – and he said, “for 37
years, I practice 12 hours a day, and now they call me a genius.
Grace – effort
If God let you hit a home run last time up, then who struck you out
the time before that.
Sparky Anderson, bb manager
Grace – gift
A sneeze - - you can’t try to sneeze, can’t bring it about
It happens
Grace – effort
Priest and parishioner watch a fight. See one fighter make sign of
cross before the bell. \
“See that – will that help him father?”
Yes – it will – if he knows how to fight.
grace – coop
I used to ask God to help me
Then I asked if I might help God
I now ask him to do his work through me.
Greed, poverty, freedom
Socrates, frugal, no shows, yet loved to visit the
marketplace. Why?
I love to go there, to discover how many things I am perfectly
happy without.
Greed –
If one man eats all the honey, he suffers for it.
Greed, money
Goose – lays golden eggs - so he kills it to find gold and thus
ends..
Greed Dog with meat, looks into the water, thought he saw even larger
piece – drops what he had and loses all
Grief
Woman loses her child – comes to master for comfort
He listens…
Says softly. I cannot wipe away your tears, I can only teach you
how to make them holy.
Grief
Three levels of mourning
With tears – lowest
With silence, higher
With a song- that is the highest
Heschel, Hasidic teaching
Grow - Christmas
Three stages in life
Believe in santa
Don’t believe in santa
You ARE santa
Grow, patience
When a tree falls, it makes a great noise
When a forest is growing, nobody hears anything.
Chinese
Grow
17 places in the gospels where the apostles are slow to understand
- Jesus gave difficult truth and called for radical conversion
grow
Confederate soldier – in pocket, dead
I asked for health that I might do greater things,
I was given infirmity that I might do better things
I asked for riches, that I might be happy,
I was given poverty that I might be wise
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men,
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.
I got nothing I asked for
But everything I hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered ,
I am among all men most richly blessed.
Habits
How habits cling to us - - they have us more than we have them.
Not, he has a bad habit. But –a bad habit has him
Handicapped
High school girl – encouraged by teacher, speaks not a single
word for 3 days - sees what it feels like to be mute, speechless
snickered at, called a dummy,
her conclusion – I’m so happy and grateful to be able to speak.
Happiness
One man – accident, lost leg, shuts self off – no visitors, recluse
Other – same accident – or worse- paralyzed, wheel chair, but he
chats, laughs, gets around
--one can find peace and joy in almost any situation.
Happiness
Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us
examine how happy they are who already possess it.
Francois de la rochefoucauld
Happiness
Big lady visits orphanage, tells Sister, “I feel sorry for you,
sleep on floor on mat.. I can’t sleep unless mattress and clean
linen.
Sister replies: I pity you. I can sleep well without all that.
Happiness – complain
Tourist complains about the heat.
Response: “your complaining will not bring down the heat. I t will
only make you feel more uncomfortable..”
Happiness
Is like a butterfly. The more you chase it, and chase it directly,
the more it will always just elude you. But if you sit down and
quietly turn your attention to other things, then it comes and softly
sits on your shoulder.
Happiness
In this world when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the
object of pursuit and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never
attained.
N. Hawthorne
Happiness, duty
When we are not too anxious about happiness and
unhappiness, but devote ourselves to the strict and unsparing
performance of duty, then happiness comes of itself.
Humboldt
Happiness, wealth
Husband: I’m going to work hard, and someday we will be rich.
Wife: we are already rich, for we have each others. Someday
perhaps we will have money.
Hate, love
Black, anti-apartheid priest says - I have one great fear, that one
day when they turn to loving, they will find that we are turned to
hating.
Health
The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while
nature cures the disease.
Voltaire
Heal
Menninger and team – at mental hospital. The doctor
doesn’t cure by specific treatment. You cure by atmosphere,
attitude, sympathetic understanding on the part of everyone in the
hospital.
The real secret is love
Heal –
African group travels far to a mission hospital - but the same
medicine was available at public hospital nearby. WHY? “the
medicines may be the same, but the hands are different.”
Health, heal
Success in health care does not mean that the patient is
physically cured, but means every patient gets the feeling that he
or she is cared about.
Heal, Lourdes
Some people see a one legged veteran - he overhears them say
“is that fellow going to ask our Lady to give him his leg back?”
He turns and says, “Certainly not. I am going to ask Our Lady to
help me live without it.”
Hear, heal
TVshow, a woman hears her own voice, sounds, for the first
time - amidst gadgets, machines, she jumps for joy!
Hell, atheist
Girl and atheist on train. She reads the Bible
Do you believe adam and eve, cain and abel YES
Do you belived Jonah and the whale - YES
How can you prove it?
Ask Jonah when you get to heaven.
But what if he is not there.
AH- says the girl, then YOU ask him (in hell)
Hell, law
Hell is the place where there is nothing but law and due process is
meticulously observed.
Hell – sisters
Baseball game, two sisters jump up and block the way with their
big habits.
Fan shouts – down in front, and adds, why don’t these sisters keep
the hell out of here.
Sister turns and bows and says
Why don’t you go to hell- there are no sisters there!
Hell, preach
Hot summer day, no fans working
Preacher says - it is hot here, hot at home, will be hot tonight and
tomorrow
But one place is hotter – namely hell- keep out of it, \in the
name of the Father, etc…
Best sermon
Hero - heroism
One can only win medal of honor by forgetting one’s own glory
and working for something beyond, exterior.
Heroism is the state of a man who pursues an objective with
regard to which he himself no longer counts.
Nitezsche.
Holy – things
Make sign of cross over computer,- talk to it as friend,
Thank it when you turn it off – perhaps give it a name
MAKE HOLY - real challenge
Edward Hays
Holiness
- wisdom/holiness consists in doing the next thing you have to
do, doing it with your whole heart, and finding delight in
doing it.
Eckhart
Holiness
Who is the holy person? The one who is aware of
others’suffering
Spiritual life is merely ordinary life lived with God at its center.
Holiness holy Young novices look holy but are not
Young scholastics do not look holy and are not
Young priests do not look holy but are
Old priests look holy and are.
Holiness
What is holiness?
Do good to those who hurt you.
And what if I can’t do that?
Then get away from them and keep your mouth shut
Desert wisdom
Holiness - joy, smile
True holiness consists in doing God’s will with a smile.
Mother Teresa
Holy - profane
Sign in sacristy in Calabar, for altar servers:
“REMEMBER, ALL YOU TOUCH USED IN WORSHIP
OF God is holy.”
But this could, should also be used of kitchen and farm
instruments.!
Holiness - place,
This long house was and is our first church. Sacred. Long House
and Catholic teachers run parallel
We come into the long house to change our way of life, to give
ourselves to the Spirit. If you believe deep down, your Song will
come to you. The Song will sing you. Our work in the Long
House brings the best out of us.
Native American
Holiness
Man brags, I am holy – he wears white robe, no alcohol, beats
his body into submission.
Guru sees a horse going to drink – says
There is one who wears while, never drinks alcohol, and who is
sometimes beaten by his master.
Who is the holy one?
Woman, home
Tombstone from husband about his wife – settler..
She touched the soil of Virginia with her little foot and the
wilderness became a home.
The roof under which a good woman dwells is as holy as a church.
Home
A fugitive is one running from home
A vagabond is one who has no home
A stranger is one away from home
A Pilgrim is on his way home.
Honesty
New policeman stops a driver for violation.
Driver was a high ranking officer in police dept.
And says – remember, when your name comes up for promotion, I
may be the one to approve it.
Officer replies – as he writes the ticket - “when it comes to that,
sir, please remember that you have at least one honest policement
in your employ.”
Honesty
Rabbi sees youth smoking pipe – (forbidden) on sabbath
Have you forgotten it is Sabbath NO
Do you not know the law – no smoke: I KNOW IT
Rabbi turns to God - do you hear this? True, he violates your
commandments, but you must admit, nobody can coerce him into
telling a lie!
Honest
Peasant sells butter to baker - 5 pounds a day, and gets back 5
pounds of bread
One day the baker sees it is ½ pound short.
Farmer explains: not my fault, I have no scale, I just balance
your bread and my butter. If the butter is short, it is because your
bread was only 4 ½ pounds worth!
Baker is caught and ashamed - the measure you measure…
Honesty – reward
Two travelers find leather purse, with silver coins – and see a boy
crying.
Why? Lost purse – money for mother..
To test him, the traveler shows him his own silk purse with gold
coins in it. Boy says no – that is not mine. Mine was leather, with
silver coins. The traveler because of his honesty gives him the
leather one and gives him a gold coin too.
Honesty – corruption
Algren on Chicago – in what other city can you be so sure that a
judge will keep his world for $500. What’s so crooked about that!
Hope, change, conversion
Black preacher
We aint what we want to be
We aint what we gonna be
We aint what we ought to be
But thank God, we aint what we was.
Hope - heaven
Father draws up son’s marriage contract, and says the marriage
will take place on certain day in home village.
The rabbi tears it to shreds.
This is what you write: the marriage will take place in the New
Jerusalem, but if the Messiah has not yet come, then it will be
performed on ___ day in ______
Hope - joke
Crazy old, eccentric king, calls in rabbi. Says, before I die, I ask
you to teach my pet monkey how to talk – and you have one
year. Or else I chop off your head.
Rabbi bargains and gets five years.
Rabbi tells his congregation and they cry out- what will you do.
Don’t worry. In five years, I could die, the king could di, the
monkey could die – and besides in 5 years maybe I can teach the
monkey how to talk.
Hope, prophet
We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We
are prophets of a future not our own,.
Oscar Romero
Hope
Expectation is what is likely to happen
Hope is the knowledge that God can always bring good out of
evil, light out of darkness.
Hope - sin
To be truly human is to be conscious of human weakness
but confident that it can be overcome
Guardini
Hope - patience
Abraham entertained old man - who did not pray, said he
worshipped fire. Angry, he threw him out of the tent into the
night.
God appears and asks, where is the stranger…
I threw him out because he did not worship You.
God says – I suffered him for 75 years while he dishonored me,
could you not endure him for one night!
Abraham ran and out brought him back
Hope, love,
Mexico earthquake, and nine year old boy rescued after nine days
– his father never gave up.
Babies found after seven days…
Hope, grief
Husband dies, and mother grieves and goes every day to he
cemetery. Spends less time with children, less at home.
Finally at a petrol station, the attendant notes this and says
“Mary, we know where your husband is.”
Do not cling, go forth. Live in his spirit.
Hope
Favorite words of Elie Wiesel
“and yet”
-similar to the tombstone of Bill Ward –
“nevertheless”
hope
Anne Frank –
It is really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals because
they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them,
because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really
good at heart…
(in spite of all she sees - “I must uphold my ideals…”
hope, eternal life
Woman on boat, in big storm, to visit her daughter. She stays very
calm, passengers pray, she prays.
Some ask her – how so calm?
It is this way. I had two daughters. One died and went home to
heaven. The other I am going to visit now. In the storm, I
wondered which I might visit first - and I was unconcerned as to
which.
Hope - doctor – joke
Doctor decides to tell the patient the truth – you are very sick, near
to death
Is there anyone you would like to see
He moans - yes, Another doctor!
Hospitality
O God, make the door of this house wide enough to receive all
who need human love and fellowship; narrow enough to shut out
all envy, pride, and strife.
Make its threshold smooth enough to be no stumbling block to
children, but rugged and strong enough to turn back the tempter’s
power. God, make the door of this house the gateway to your
eternal kingdom
.
St. Stephens church in London
grief, child, compassion
elderly neighbor loses wife, alone in ears. Four year old
neighbor goes visits in his yard, sits. Mother calls him,thinking
he is bothering the old man, and asks
“What do you say to Mr. Jones?”
“I don’t say anything. I just helped him cry.”
Hospitality
Is a form of worship
The Talmud
Hospitality
Catholic Worker tradition - “Christroom”
Guest room for the poor
Hospitality, home, guest
Government official comes to visit the Rabbi. The rabbi stands, both stand for some time.
The official then asks - why does the rabbi not invite me to sit?
Rabbi answers: From the moment you entered my house it
became your house and you became the master here. It is not for
me to ask you to sit down. Quite the contrary.
Hospitality - dream
Priest in Bangladesh, girl comes by – says, “I saw you in my
dream? - you had come to our home and we were feeding you a
good meal.”
Priest thinks - Bengalis not only are hospitable, but even dream
about offering hospitality.
Human – man
Gloria enim Dei, vivens homo. Vita autem hominis, visio Dei
Iranaeus - Adv. Her. Iv, 20.7
Human
stages
Four ages of man
He with body waged a fight, but body won; it walks upright
Then he struggled with the heart. Innocence and peace depart
Then he struggled with the mind; His proud heart he left behind.
Now his wars on God begin, at stroke of midnight God shall win.
w.b. yeats
human - stages
At ten a child, at twenty wild
At thirty tame if ever
At forty wise, at fifty rich
At sixty good or never.
As foolish as monkeys till twenty or more
As bold as lions till forty and four
As cunning as foxes till three score and ten,
Then they become asses or something – not men.
Human humanity
Man, awaken, know the dignity of your nature. Remember you
were made in God’s own image.
Expergiscere, o homo, et dignitatem tuae cognosce naturae.
Recordare te factum ad imaginem Dei
St. Leo the Great, in Nativitate Domini
Sermo 7.2 PL 54, 267-8
Humility
Humility makes for an empty space so God can come and fill it
– and his glory be seen.
Hospitality
Chile - the house is small but the heart is large
Mi casa es su casa.
Human
In some special way every person completes the universe.
If he does not play his part, he injures the pattern of all existence.
Rabbi
Humanity
Pope John XXIII – about to meet Jackie Kennedy, asks his aide,
-how do I address her.
You can say Madame President or Madame.
OK- but when she enters, he spontaneously opened his arms
smiled, and exclaimed “Ah, Jacqueline.”
Human
Need three qualities –
Humanity, humor, humility
Basil Hume
Humanism - cross
Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto
Terence
Non est ad astrra mollis e terris via
Per aspera ad astra
Pathemata = mathemata
Sufferings are teachers
Humility
Jimmy Durante says all of us has schnozzolas – and are ridiculous
in one way or another - face, mind, habits..
If we admit this instead of defend selves, then we laugh and the
world laughs with us.
Humility
Student says to master – you make me feel like two cents.
Then I am a failure> You are supposed to feel like nothing.
Jesus
Is honey in the mouth, music in the ear, a shout of gladness in
the heart.
St. Bernard
Humility
Hermit says to St. Sosoes, desert father – “I always place myself
in the presence of God.”
He responds: “It would be much better to put yourself below
every creature.”
Where humility is, there is charity
St. Augustine
Humility
Paul Kennedy, famed tertian instructor – asked if he has any final,
further words, refdlection on the whole exercise, tertianship, etc.
“Well, as long as we remember we’re all fakes
Jesuits - discipline
In former times we were like troops in a division. Now we must
act like guerillas – more freedom, but also more self-discipline.
Paul Kennedy
Humility
The third degree of humility is not only to eat “crap” but to like it.
Humility
We say that God no longer speaks to us. Rather, nowadays, there
is no longer anyone who can bow low enough.
Humility
John the Baptist – he must increase.
=If people praise, admire you, be careful. It should be Jesus you
point to, not yourself.
Humility
What is the Buddha? A dried shit-stick (in place of toilet paper)
What is our true self? We are a bag of manure
Humility
That low, sweet root from which all heavenly virtues shoot.
Thomas more
Humility
Man comes to master, seeking truth.
Master asks: If you seek truth, there is one thing you need.
Man says - Yes – an overwhelming passion, desire for it ?
No – holy man says - “you need an unremitting readiness to admit
you may be wrong.”
Humility
Say “I am an ass, a fool” and you will be happier, free.
We too often cover up, live in pretense.,.
Humility
I’m Nobody
I’m nobody, who are you?
Are you nobody too?
Then there’s a pair of us
Don’t tell – they’d banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody
How public – like a frog –
To tell your name a livelong June
To an admiring bog.
Emily Dickinson
Humility
Is just walking in the truth.
Teresa of avila
Humility
President Hoover tells of little boy who asked for three
autographs. Impressed, Hoover asks:
Why three?
Boy responds, it takes two of yours to get one of Babe Ruth’s
Humility
Clement Hofbauer, Vienna - sets up orphanage for orphans, seeks
$$ in a restaurant. Three card players, annoyed - one spits in his
face.
Hofbauer wipes it away and says - that’s for me, what about the
orphans.
--
ideals
are like stars, you will not succeed in touching them with your
hands. But like seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose
them as your guides, and following them you will reach your
destiny.
Carl Schurz
ideals
find your roots and then fly
Chinese proverb
Ideals - compromise, Jesuit
When all else fails, lower your standards
Dem’s my principles. If you don’t like them, I’ll change them.
Dickens
The mark of a good Jesuit – he knows when to lower his ideals.
McCormack
Identity
Orphaned tiger cub grows up with goats – sounds like a goat.
King tiger approaches and the goats run away, cub beats like a
goat.
Tiger realizes cub thinks he is a goat – takes him to water, to see
himself, to see he is a tiger. But no result.
Then gets piece of meat - cub resists, but then tastes it, and his
blood is warmed by it – and he lifts his head and gives a mighty
roar!
Idols –
Market - commerce
Theater - philosophy
Tribe - group
Den - individual
Bacon
Idols
What is sacrificing to idols ? seems unthinkable ?
Rabbi – when a devout righteous man sits and would like to eat a
little more, but refrains because of what people might think – that
is sacrificing to idols.
Idols-
Find out each man’s thumbscrew
All are idolaters, Skill consists in knowing these idols , know
another persons motives.., their ruling passion, - and you got
him..
Baltasar Gracian
Idols
Pope in Chile - to youth - 1987
Do you reject the idol of wealth - slow, but then YES
Power
yes
Sex
NO
Image –
Making sense means making metaphors, searching for the right
image
For Dan Berrigan
Imagination, creativity
Discovery – it is a sudden illumination, almost a rapture. Later, to
be sure, intelligence analyse and experiments confirms or
invalidates the intuition. But initially there is a great leap forward
of the imagination.
Einstein
Imagination – vision
Too often and too easily we talk about needing conversion of will.
What we really need is expansion of the imagination.
Ricoeur
We too often and too quickly think of a will that submits and not
enough of an imagination that opens itself
Ricoeur - Towards a Hermeneutic of the idea of revelation., in
Mudge, essays on bibl. Interpret. 117
Imagination – knowledge
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Einstein
Imagination - images - jesus
Jesus Christ never used arguments - he used metaphors
Jorge Luis Borges
Imagination – emotion
Two blind men in Central park
1 – sign - Help the blind –gets little attention
2 - sign –“It is springtime,, and I am blind.” He gets $$$
imitation -
truth
a visitor wants to become a disciple.
The master says – you may live with me, but don’t become my
follower!
Whom shall I follow?
No One. The day you follow someone, you cease to follow Truth.
Imitate
Master says;
Your eyes are closed. The day you open your eyes, you will see
there is nothing you can learn from me or from anyone.
What is a master for, therefore?
To make you see the uselessness of having one.
Imitate
Ignatius on sickbed – reads about Dominic and Francis:
What if I should do what they did? They did it and I have to do it.
Imitate - disciple
Master on deathbed, 3 weeks in a coma , opens eyes, and sees
favorite disciple.
You never left my bedside?
NO – I cannot because you are the light of my life.
Master sighs - “Have I so dazzled you, my son, that you refuse to
see the light in you!”
Imitate
Rabbi succeeds his father – the disciples see that he does things
differently - so they ask
He responds: “I do just as my father did. He did not imitate and I
do not imitate.”
Indifference, detachment
You cannot enjoy anything until you have learned to be detached
from it. It is not the drunkard who enjoys wine, or the glutton who
enjoys food, or the sensualist who enjoys love.
Bede Griffiths
Individual
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps
it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him keep step to
music which he hears, however measured or far away.
Thoreau
Injustice.
In the face of suffering, one has no right to turn away, not to see.
In the face of injustice, one may not look the other way. When
someone suffers, and it is not you, he comes first. His very
suffering gives him priority.
Elie Wiesel
Intolerance- religion
Religious belief is notorious for encouraging a sense of “us”
against “them”.
J. Pelican
Injustice
Chile classroom – boy very sad, teacher asks why – ‘My father
repairs watches - two police came in – questioned him, and
punched, beat him and I couldn’t do anything.”
Class listens in silence - one child sobbs Teacher asks – what is wrong - the sobbing child does not answer
but boy in front does “His father is a policeman.”
Jesus
Famed preacher says, the older I become the more I realize if
you can lead people to a personal relationship with the Lord, then
whatever issues they fact, they can work out. (Reid)
Jesus - joke - home
Prayer before meals, “Come jesus, be our guest.”
Boys says no – I don’t want Jesus to be our guest
Mother, horrified, asks why
Because a guest is one who comes sometimes, and I want jesus to
be here all the time.
Jesus, presence, eucharist
In holy communion we have Christ under the appearance of bread.
In our work we find him under the a;pearance of flesh and blood –
it is the same Christ.
Mother teresa
Jesus –
Atheist couple with one child – fight, and dad shoots the mom
in front of 5 year old, then shoots himself.
Girl goes to foster home - teacher talks about and holds up a
picture of Jesus. And says, who is this?
Little child says - “I do, that’s the man who was holding me the
night my parents died.”
Jesus – baptism
The baptism of Jesus was not a case of him being sanctified by the
water he was baptized in. It was rather a case of him sanctifying
the water and with it, all other waters in the whole world, thereby
giving them the power to sanctify us.
St. Proclus of Constantinople
Jesus – presence
Christ is the unseen Head of this house
The unseen guest at every meal
The silent listener of every conversation
Jesus
We become what our conception of JC is – in the degree of
the truth of our conception of him – our minds grow broader,
deeper and warmer, our hearts grow wiser and kind, our humor
deeper and more tender…
Our senses become more sensitive, our sympathies stronger..
Our minds are more radiant with the burning light, and the light is
the life of Christ
Caryll houselander
Jesus - joke
Bishops visit the Holy Land – sea of Galilee want to take a boat
ride. How much? $30. !!
No wonder Jesus walked on the water.
Jesus, love
Who among the great men is love – not only admired, respected,
- not Plato or Caesar or mohammed – but only Jesus.
Jesuit - Jesuitical
He who rejects the opportunity of using worldly patronage
for religious purpose has clearly not learned to direct all things
towards one goal: the greater glory of God.
MI ii,48 –
Ignatius to Polanco
Jesuit education
The Gregorian is a tree, in the shade of which the birds of
all nations gather.
Cardinal Bisleti, c. 1940
Jesuit community
I don’t think we are a family, and I think Hugo Rahner was
right; a Jesuit house is not a home. I suspect Ignatius saw a Jesuit
house as a barracks in wartime. .. Or a locker between halves. Or
the smokefilled room where the new day is being decided.
Giles milhaven
Jesuit – joke
Ignatius set up the Society of Jesus as light cavalry. Borgia turned
us into infantry. Aquaviva put us into barracks. Roothaan
cancelled all leave. Ledochowski set up a concentration camp,
and Arrupe said “Break ranks.”
Michael Campbell-Johnson et al.
Jesuits
Ed Cuffe and Tim Healy, Poughkeepsie, cold beer, hot night –
after solving the world’s problems agree that “the most interesting
enterprise on the face of the earth is the church, and its livliest
corner was the religious order we both shared.
Jesuit - joke
Jesuit cuts a cake very unevenly, takes larger slice and gives
smaller to Dominican.
Dominican says – if that were me cutting, I would have taken
the smaller piece.”
Jesuit says - “well, what’s bothering you. You’ve god the smaller
piece.”
Jewish - joke
How take a census in Israel?
Roll a nickel, shekel down the street.
Jewish – mother – joke ingratitude\\\
Grandma takes her grandson to the beach - She falls asleep. She
sees her boy dragged into the ocean. Nobody there. She prays creator – save my child, and I will be righteous.
Indeed, the boy is swept up and saved. She sees he is OK,
breathing, but looks around with a scowl. She points to heaven –
“But he had a hat!”
Jewish joke
Two garment men in a restaurant.
Did you hear about Sidney? His place burned down.
Ah yes, he is a good man, he is a nice fellow, he deserves it.
Jewish, catholic joke
A catholic girl falls in love with a jewish boy, and converts him.
Unfortunately, she overdid it and he decided to become a priest.
Jewish – joke
Rabbi runs his car into Fr. Murphys. Jumps out – sorry father, are
you OK ?
OK, but a bit shaken, Fr. Replies
Rabbi says – have a sip of whiskey – calm you. – its my fault,
have another.
Murphy says - what about you – wont you have some
Rabbi - “What, with the police arriving already?”
Jewish joke
Clancy and Greenberg brag
One of my ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence
One of mine signed the ten commandments!
Jewish – hero, joke
Priest offers 25 cents to boy who tell him who was the greatest
man in history.
Italian says – Columbus
American says, Washington
Jewish boy says St. Patrick
Priest says – you win, but why St. Patrick?
“Deep down in my heart, I knew it was Moses, but business is
business.”
Jonah
Is the only prophet that jesus identifies himself with, and the only
one he refers to by name.
The most profoundly NT book of the OT.
Joy –
Elijah often appears to this rabbi. Rabbi is in marketplace, and
asks “is anyone here who has a share in the world to come?
Elijah says NO - but then, a man passes by and he says yes - that man.
Rabbi asks: who are you, what is your occupation?
I am a jester, when we see men depressed, we cheer them up.
Joy
I could not be interested in any man’s religion if his knowledge of
God did not bring him more joy, did not brighten his life, did not
make him want to carry this joy to every dark corner of the
world… if god is anything, he must be joy.,
Comedian Joe E. Brown
Joy
When grace enters, there is no choice, man must dance.
Auden
Joy
In the future, a man will have to give an account concerning
everything in which his eye delighted, but the enjoyment of which
he nevertheless denied himself.
Joy
Joy is distinctly Christian. It is the reverse of happiness.
Happiness is the result of what happens that is agreeable.
Joy springs from deep down inside, and never runs dry.
Joy - sad
Being sad in Jesus’ presence is an existential impossibility; his
disciples do not fast.
Schillebeeckx
Joy From silly devotions and from sour-faced saints, good lord,
deliver us.
Teresa of Avila
Joy good news, share
Girl 5 years old, on bike, stranger, stops me – smiles, Look, I can
ride a bike..
Joy
Why aren’t you dancing with joy at this very moment is the only
relevant spiritual question - Sufi wise man
Or - suicide is the only real philosophical question
Camus?
Joy
Haydn – always cheerful, why?
I write according to the thoughts I feel. When I think upon God,
my heart is so full of joy that the notes dance and leap, as it were,
from my pen.
Joy
Give us, o give us the man who sings at his work! ..
He will do more in the same time – he will do it better – he will
persevere longer.. One is scarcely sensible of fatigue whilst he
marches to music…
Carlyle
Joy
Ignatius and companions – at Montmartre, Paris, take lst vows and
then picnic August 1, 1534.
Rush out to the sunshine, play prisoners game, sing, climb,
Run to the top of the mountain like children
- and this becomes annual for a few years !
joy – peace
Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor
Ben Franklin
Joy – laugh
If you are not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don’t want to go
there.
Luther
Joy – sad
The opposite of joy is not suffering but sadness, because the poor
suffer, but they are not sad.
Gutierrez
Joy – laugh
Laughter has always brought me out of unhappy situations.
Even in the darkest moment, you usually can find something to
laugh about, if you try hard enough.
If I can make people laugh, then I have served my purpose for
God.
Red Skelton
Joy, laugh
The clown is a poet in action – shows us how to laugh at
ourselves, because his own laughter was born of tears. Clown has
confronted sorrow and suffering and pain and transformed them
into compassion. Clowns are healers, and the world has never
needed them more than it does now.
Joy
Lord, as I stumble through this life, help me to created more
laughter than tears, dispense more happiness than gloom, spread
more cheer than despair..
Never let me forget that my total effort is to cheer people, make
them happy and forget at least for a moment all the unpleasant
things in their lives. And Lord, in my final moment, may I hear
you whisper: “When you made My people smile, you made Me
smile.”
Joy
There is no little blade of grass, there is no color in this world that
is not intended to make men rejoice.
Calvin
Joy
Be an inverse paranoid. Just imagine everyone you meet is trying
to bring happiness and joy to you – and then try to do the same
for them.
Judge
plus sign
If you see a poor man in rages, say “he observes poverty better
than I do”
If you see a rich well dressed man – say maybe he wears a hair
shirt, and dresses so, to avoid vainglory.
St. Francis of Assisi
Judgment - faithful
Lights go out in government house – blackout- some say – it is
the last day – and want to go home
Chairman speaks: either it is judgment or not. No need to go
home. If it is judgment, I want to be found doing my duty. Bring
in the candles.
Judgment
Rabbi on deathbed, laments how little he has done.- fears
judgment ?? but then he reflects:
“When I appear before the Almighty, I will not be asked, why
were you not Moses, but I will be asked, why were you not
Zushya.”
Judgment
Schillebeeckx sees God privately, in ten minutes, comes out and
gets three years of purgatory
Kung - 20 minutes, 6 years of purgatory.
Ratzinger – one whole hour! -- God comes out and says I got 10
years.
Judgment, Jesuit, mercy
A Jesuit when very ill says - “When I die, I don’t want to be
judged by Jesus Christ. I want to be judged by Fr. Vic Yanitelli.”
Judge
Do not judge. If you live chastely, do not judge the one who lusts.
For if you do, you disobey the law. The one who said DO NOT
LUST, also said, DO NOT JUDGE.
Judgment - examination
An exam is easier if we know the questions, or have sample
questions beforehand.
Last Judgment – we know the questions. Matt. 25,
10 commandments, beatitudes.
Judgment - preach – joke
Preacher drones on about judgment, hell fire, death, weeping and
gnashing of teeth.
He is interrupted by an irrevent member who demands: “Parson,
what about us that got no teeth.” Preacher without hesitation,
looks at him and says “Brother, teeth will be provided.”
Judgment - Christian
If they put you on trial, and accuse you of being a
Christian, will they acquit you for lack of evidence?
Judgment, joke
Preacher at wake calls for witnessing about the life, virtues of the
deceased. Silence, Silence comes.
Some say bad and critical things.
Preacher says, Can’t anybody say anything good about John.?
Eventuually one speaks up: “His brothers were worse, he was not
as bad as his brothers.”
Justice, ideal
I must live by a justice I will never see
Marge Tuite
Justice
Ask Arrupe: Why so much emphasis on social justice today?
Answer: Because we know more today !
Justice, charity
If you give a man a fish
He will have a single meal
If you teach him how to fish
He will eat all his life.
Kuan-Tzu
Justice - God, love
Never say that God is just. If God were just, you would be in hell.
Rely only on God’s injustice, which is mercy, love, and
forgiveness.
St. Isaac the Syrian
Justice, charity
He who lends is greater than he who gives alms, and he who
provides capital for a useful enterprise is greatest of all.
Jewish wisdom
Judgment, punish
Tantalus, son of Zeus, killed his own son.
They punish him by putting a pool in Hades, but when you wish
to drink you can’t reach it, it disappears.
And fruit trees nearby, but he could not reach them.
-- hungry in the midst of plenty
justice - teachers
The learned will shine like the brilliance of the firmament, and
those who train many in the ways of justice will sparkle like the
stars for all eternity.
Dan 12.3
Justice
Thoreau, at the 1845 Mexican War – protests the war and refuses
to pay taxes which helped return slaves to the South. He is put in
prison. Emerson visits.
Why are you in jail?
Why are you outside!
Judgment
Seeing strangers on the road, even if they are soldiers, we
should not allow ourselves to have any suspicions against them.
Our thought should be that they are good people, and we should
pray for their good …
Thus we will rid ourselves of fear, rash judgments, etc. and if
anything untoward does befall us, we should take it as coming not
from man but from God. For nothing can happen to us apart from
His will…
Peter Favre
Justice - 3 fish - small, medium large, about to bit the smaller
Small fish There is no justice in the world
Medium fish There is some justice in the world
Big fish – the world is just.
Justice –
Mother Pollard, black protester, uneducated, poor, walks for
weeks, protest, and is asked if she is tired.
“My feets is tired by my soul is rested.”
Justice, charity
They tell me I must not offer fishes but roads, so men can
fish themselves. Ah – my God – many times they do not have the
strength to hold the rods. Giving them fishes I help them to
recover the strength for the fishing of tomorrow.
Mother teresa
Justice
A catholic worker - “when they come for the innocent without
crossing over your body, cursed be your religion and your life.”
Justice, racism, creativity
A young black to support self and wife, works in filling station.
Some customers object, want whites only.
Woman talks to owner - how many will you lose if you
keep him?
Twenty
Suppose I get you twenty two new, will you keep him?
Surely.
and she gets 25 new customers. justice – business
To give money to the poor is to enable the poor to buy
To enable the poor to buy is to improve the market.
.. is to help business…
is to reduce unemployment..
is to reduce crime
is to reduce taxation.
So why not give to the poor, for business’sake, for humanity’s
sake, for God’s sake.
Peter Maurin
Justice, mission, judgment
We will go before God to be judged. God will ask “Where
are your wounds?”
We will say, we have none.
God will ask: “Was there nothing worth fighting for?”
Alan Boesak, south Africa
Laity
St. Pius X to cardinals – what is most necessary for salvation of
society?
Build schools -no
Churches – no
\recruit priest - no
Most necessary is to have in each parish a group of enlightened
laymen, virtuous, resolute, and true apostles.
Laity
A housewife who does her work is no further away from God
than the priest in the pulpit –
Luther
Laugh laughter
1/5 intervals, same for everyone - - can’t laugh faster or slower
-is contagious, freeing, good, - do it often
practice - he, ha ho, ha, ha, ha
cf. Handel - “and laughter ho, ho, ho…
laughter
children laugh an average of 400 times a day while adults only
15 times a day.
Laughter leads to relaxation, less stress, - improves muscle
tone and circulation
20 seconds of guffaw = five minutes of rowing.
Law, canon law
Canon law is like a chamber pot. Keep it out of the way. But if
you use it, use it fast.
Life- lessons, learn
Rabbi is found playing checkers – students are surprised and
shocked –
He then tells them the three rules 1. never make two moves at same time
2. only move forward
3. when you reach the last row, you can go wherever you like.
Life, learn
Rabbi says learn from everything – even what humans have
created
Train?
That because of one second, one can miss everything
Telegraph? Every word is counted and charged
Telephone? What we say here is heard over there.
Grace, laity
Schillebeeckx joins Dominicans, and boasts in a lettere – we pray
from 3-4 AM etc.
Dad writes back - mother and I got up 3-4 times a night to calm
the baby - that is a bit less romantic than your night office – and
we had 14 children.
Leadership
As for the best leaders, the people do not know their
existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next,
the people fear, the next, the people hate.
When the best leader’s work is done, the people say “we did it
ourselves.”
Lao-Tzu
Leadership
Why God chose Moses? Once, he was with sheep, and a lamb
ran off. Moses pursued it, - caught it at a stream. Moses said,
sorry, I didn’t know you were thirsty. – he carries the lamb back
God says: “At last I found the person I have been searching for. I
will make Moses the shepherd of my people.
Leader
Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead
Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow
Walk beside me, and be my friend.
Camus
Leader – joke
The advantage of being the lead dog in Alaska in a team of
dogs?
The view always changes.
Lead
If you wish to be obeyed, you must appear not to be giving
orders.
Leader
Management is doing things right
Leadership is doing the right things.
Leadership - joke
Being a principal or college president is like breaking wind.
Hold on as long as you can, and then let go fast.
Rahner
Lie - joke
Pious minister walks, sees boys around a dog. Asks, what doing?
Whoever tells the biggest lie, gets the dog.
Oh My, he says - “when I was a little boy like you, I never told a
lie.”
- Here – one of the boys says – you win the dog
Life – hope
Father had syphilis, mother had TB, lst child blind,2nd died,
rd
3 deaf, 4th TB - the fifth?
Was Beethoven
Life everyday
Do not forget that the value and interest of life is not so much to
do with conspicuous things, .. as to do with ordinary things and the
perception of their enormous value.
Teilhard
Life - age
Ask the old master, how old ? he says 4 years
“My soul was concealed from God for 70 years, now for 4 years I
have vision of God.
Life - suicide
Arthur Rubenstein, when age 20, depressed, attempts suicide,
jumps, but the noose, an old gown, breaks.
He laughs, cries, and walks down the street, and then falls in love
with life.
Life, creative
Half the joy of life is in little things taken on the run. Let us run if
we must, even the sands do that – but let us keep our hearts young
and our eyes open that nothing worth our while shall escape us.
Life – solitude
I went into the woods to confront the essential facts of life, lest I
come to die I should discover that I had not lived.
Thoreau, 2 years at Walden Pond
Life
What is worse than being 24 and dying of cancer is being
50 and having no values or ideals. Thinking that sex or money or
alcohol are the big things in life.
Life
It takes three things to attain a sense of significant being.
God, a soul, and a moment – and all three are always here.
Heschel
Life – providence
Meditation on the chance which brought my father and mother
together is even more salutary than meditation on death.
Why
am I here….
Simon Weil – quoted by Paul VI
Light creativity
Man visits El Greco, lovely day out, and he is in dark room
Come out ?
Not now, it would disturb the light that is shining within me.
Light
A Catholic must be not only a torchbearer, but an
incendiary.
Leon Bloy
Light
Students complain about evils in the world, darkness. Rabbi says,
take a broom and sweep out darkness from the cellar. Doesn’t
work
Take a stick and drive out evil - doesn’t work.
Then “let each of you meet the challenge of darkness by lighting
a candle – and go to the cellar and the darkness flees.
Light
Rabbi asks – how can you tell when night ends and day begins?
- when you see an animal and can tell it is a dog or goat?
- No
When?
It is when you can look on the face of another and see he or she is
your brother or sister. Because if you cannot see this, it is still
night.
Tales of the Hasidim.
Life – death
Dan Lord hears he has cancer – incurable. His reaction
Feeling of relief – I got facts, I can finish unfinished business. I
find life became very precious, more awareness. So – the end
was a new beginning of a new more abundant life.
Life - abortion
Monkeys give birth every two years. Mother gives birth to still
born – carries it for one full week – eventually the keepers had to
separate it… - instinct for life.
Life, art
Final advice of Heschel for youths- Above all, let them
remember to build a life as if it were a work of art.
Game, life, responsibility
Kasparov – should teach chess in every school – teaches
discipline, logic, focus – and responsibility. You make the
decision and accept the consequences.
Light, love
Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that
Hatred cannot drive out hatred. Only love can do that
M.L. King jr.
Light jesus
JC is the light
Mary is the Lamp
John Baptism is the lampstand…
Light
King asks, what is the light of man – answers ?
1. the sun- but when sun sets, what
2. moon, stars, but they disappear
3. fire - no – it goes out
answer - when sun sets, stars gone, fire out, all external sources
failed, then in darkness shines the light of the soul
light- Christian
becoming one is like being a pumpkin
God brings you in, washes you, cuts off the top, takes out the
yucky stuff – removes seeds of greed, hatred, etc.
Then carves a new smiling face and puts his light inside of you to
shine for all to see.
Light
There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light
of one small candle.
We put light in dark places - that is our mission as christians
Light
Lamplighters go about putting on lamps
From a distance, you see only the torch, the lamps, the trail of
lights.
That is how Christians ought to live.- you know they passed
through by the trail of lights they left behind
Life - recipe
Goethe - nine requisites for contented living.
Health enough to make work a pleasure
Wealth enough to support your needs
Strength enough to battle with difficulties and overcome
Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake them
Patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished
Charity enough to see some good in your neighbor
Love enough to move you to be useful to others
Faith enough to make real the things of God
Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future
Limits
Old woman selling rug. How much 100 rupees, she says, no less.
100? That is so fine, best I have seen, why ask only 100?
Old woman says in pain, because until now I never knew there
were any numbers above 100.
Sufi tale
Listen joke
Old man stops to buy hearing aid.
$25,000 down to $ 1.50
why so high -? It translates, latest electronics, etc.
what about $ 1.50.
It is a button on a string.
How does it work
It doesn’t. but if you put the button in your ear and the string in
your pocket, you’d be surprised how loud people will talk.
Listen
Three frogs on a fence, and one decides to jump down. How many
left
Two
Or all three jumps if one jump?
NO _ all three are left, because he only DECIDED to jump.
Listen
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Hamlet I,3
Listen
Remember that you have two ears and one mouth. Try to use them
accordingly
Listen
The most useful person in the world is a listener to whom you can
pour out your heart.
= person of sympathy…
listen
preacher starts, and mighty earthquake begins. One, then another.
Preacher says “God is now speaking, it is time for us to be silent.
Listen
Teach in abundance, but listen even more; teach with creativity
and skill, but learn with humble hearts and sensitivity.
Listen trick
Say fast six times
“silk, silk, silk…
Then ask - what does a cow drink
MILK - no water !
Listen, openness
No poem (or gospel story) will give up its secret to a reader who
thinks it a potential deceiver, and is determined not to be taken in.
We must risk being taken in, if we are to get anything.
Listen
When anything important is brewing, you call the community
together and listen for the spirit. And you allow the youngest least
experienced members to speak first, so they wont be overwhelmed
by all the experts
3rd chapter of rule of benedict – as in Weakland
listen – talk
do not talk about yourself, - you will either praise – which is
vanity - or blame, which is small-minded
gracian
liturgy
routine breeds not contempt but attention
(familiarity)
Heschel
liturgy
Mass longer than 20 minutes smacks of modernism
Hinfey + belloc ?
Loneliness
You visit an old peoples home in England, and no one smiles.
Why?
They are waiting for someone to visit
- the poverty of having no one come to visit
Mother Teresa
Love neighbor, god
We cannot know whether we love God, although there may be
strong reasons for thinking so. But there can be no doubt about
whether we love our neighbor or not.
Teresa of Avila
Love God, neighbor
I look to myself, and find nothing
I look to Christ, and find nothing
I look to my neighbor and I find Christ, myself, and my God.
Graffiti - D. Soelle
God - eucharist
Priest at Mass with the Body of Christ - reverence.
So Mother Teresa – when you touch the poor today, you will be
touching the body of Christ – give them the same love and
tenderness
God, world
If you know how to see your brother or sister, you will see the
face of God.
African proverb
Love neighbor
Rabbi asks disciples: Which path do you see before you, when
you awaken.
Disciple: the path of the love of God and of love of neighbor.
And which do you take first?
Disciple. No answer
Rabbi - the first path you are to take is that of love of neighbor.
Love God – neighbor
You love God as much as the one you love the least.
D. Day
Love neighbor – joke
Golden rule in Catechism class - Remember, we are here to help
others.
Child asks: Then what are the others here for?
Love –
The best thing to give your enemy is forgiveness
To an opponent, tolerance
To a friend, your heart
To your child, good example
To yourself – respect
To all – charity
Francis balfour
Love
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain.
If I can ease one life the aching
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain. E. Dickinson
Love –
Do all the good you can
By all the means you can
In all the ways you can
In all the places you can
At all the times you can
To all the people you can
As long as ever you can - john wesley
Love – neighbor
On our journey, we must live where Christ is in need. He is needy
in his followers, for he himself has no needs.
Augustine, Ser. 236.3
Love of God, neighbor
Man comes to rabbi - they say you give drug that are effective.
Give me one that I attain the fear of God.
I don’t have one for that, but I can give you one for the love of
God
Great – much better It is the love of one’s neighbor, answered the rabbi.
Love enemy
If two men claim your help, and one is your enemy, help him first.
Talmud
Love
The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.
Chesterton
Love
Love, and he will come near. Love, and he will dwell with you.
Ama et propinqabit, Ama et habitabit.
Serm. 21, 1-4 (3) Augustine
Love
The rabbi disappeared each Sabbath eve. People thought he met
the Almighty. So they followed him. Rabbi in disguise, would
visit, serve, help a paralyzed Gentile, cook for him…
The spy reports. He was not with the Almighty in heaven, he
went even higher!
Charity, love
“Well brothers, when shall we begin to do good.”
Frequent question of Philip Neri
Love, hate
Do you love God - Yes
Do you hate the devil - NO - said the Rabbi, my love of God
leaves me no time, no leisure to hate.
Love, brother
Man parks nice car. Boy comes up and admires, asks
Where did you get it
My brother gave it to me
Little boy begins, “I wish” - man thinks he wishes he had a new
car.
But continues, I wish I could be a brother like your brother. I
have a crippled brother who cannot get out. I would buy him a car
like this.
Love
Hindu woman converts – her husband persecutes her for this.
Missionary asks her. When he persecutes you, what do you do?
I cook his food better, I answer mildly, etc..
I try to show him that when I became a Christian, I became a
better wife and mother.
Love
For newborn babies who are frail, weak– “this baby is to be loved
every three hours.” And it works
Love, self-love
Narcissus – handsome, looked into a pool of water and fell in love
with his own reflection. So intense was his self-love that he could
not eat or sleep and soon died.
Love – share
St. Theresa, ill, asks for an orange. But instead of eating it, sends
them to the poor who were sick.
WhY/ I feel more pleasure in giving them to the poor than if I
kept them for myself. When I see them helped, I am full of joy.
God – love
Bishop asks children for confirmation – “by what sign will others
know you are catholic? (hoping for the sign of the cross)
No answer. So bishop makes sign of cross – and asks again.
Child answers- love - bishop was taken back, but realizes
she gave the correct answer.
Share, love
Boy selling papers – is asked, where you live? Small room, with
JIM, who is cripple, can’t work.
You would be better without him ?
NO - I would have nobody to go home to – and I wouldn’t want
to work with nobody to divide with – would you?
God, love, neighbor
Sometimes it is necessary, if I may express it, to leave God
in Himself in order to find God in our neighbor, for the Lord says,
“I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.
Ignatius
Love
Christopher Reeve, paralyzed. His wife Dana comes into the
room. We make eye contact. I mouth first words – “Maybe we
should let me go.” She cried, and said words that saved my life.
“You’re still you. And I love you.”
Love, serve
Traveler, lost, crosses mountain, cold, if he falls asleep he will
die. But he stumbles on another man, he helps, rubs frozen limbs,
and in helping the other, he gets warmth and energy - and he
saves both lives.
Love
Aged Christian dying – says three friends visited
1. faith - goodbye, you helped me, now I go where faith is lost in
sight.
2. hope – goodbye – you helped me in trouble, I need you no
more
3. love – you link me with God and neighbor. You gladden my
journey, I take you with me to the city of God where love is
perfected.
Love
Old man sees a youth picking up starfish and throwing them back
into the ocean – saving their life.
WHY ? millions of starfish
Do you make any difference
Youth takes one starfish, throws it to safety and says
- it makes a difference to this one
love enemy
Father divides estate - but keeps diamond and will give it to one
who does most noble deed in next year
1. took care of property for a stranger – gave it back OK
2. I saw a child fall into river and rescued it.
3. I saw my enemy asleep on top of mountain. I could have thrown
him down, but instead woke and warned him.
YOU win
Love enemy - forgive
Ammon Hennacy, in solitary confinement, unjustified, for six
months – reads sermon on the mount
In my heart after six months, I could love everybody but not the
warden. But if I did not, then the sermon on the mount meant
nothing.
- he was never in prison, I must not blame him, I must love
him..
love - home, mother
cooking is just another form of love
love neighbor is the person God gives me. I do not choose.
Love, death
Dead men Walking - Sr. Helen Prejean
Says to man about to be executed. “Look at me, so when you die,
the last thing you will see is the face of one that loves you.”
Love, Christ
Ignatius gives the best to the poor and takes the worst. Asked
why?
Would you do otherwise if JC were to hold out his hand to you?
Would you have the courage to give him the worst, - would you
not press him to accept the best.
Love, worship
Eve of day of Atonement, people assemble, wait. One woman
runs back home, because she left her child alone.
Goes back to see if it is awake.
Behold, there is the rabbi with the child in arms. He heard it
crying and played, sung, until it fell asleep.
Love of enemy
Bishop Theas of Lourdes, founder of Pax Christi – assists
refugees, is imprisoned.
Members of the resistance ask for day of prayer and he preaches
on love of enemy – shocks them!
Why that? “I cannot preach anything else to you but what he said
– love your enemies, not more, not less.”
Love neighbor
Rabbi, absorbed in mystical prayer, hears knock at window –
drunk wants a bed
Rabbi, first angry, then reflects
What business does he have to come to me?
What business does he have in God’s world? If God gets along
with him, how can I reject him – so he gives him a bed.
Love neighbor
It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual
than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses.
Dag Hammarskjold
Love enemy
If an enemy were to put out my right eye, I would want to smile at
him with the left; and if he put out both eyes, I would still have a
heart to love him.
Frances de Sales
Love enemy - understand
If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find
in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all
hostility.
Longfellow
Love neighbor - religion
The question of bread for myself is a material question; but the
question of bread for my neighbor, for everybody, is a spiritual
and religious question.
Berdyaev
Love
An act of love that succeeds is as good as an act of love that
fails, for love is measured by its fullness, not its reception.
Douglas Steere.
Love, covet,desire
Two holy men, never quarrel, say let us have one, like everybody
else.
So they put a brick between them, and
I will say it is mine, you say it is yours.
The first says – “It is mine.” And the other says OK – its yours take it.
They were unable to fight.
Love,
almsgiving
Titus, good and generous emperor, in the evening looked back on
the day - if he had not given anything in alms, he would say
“diem perdidi,” - I lost a day.
Love
Africa mother, whole day in sun, selling groudnuts – makes small
money.
Goes home, child asks for $$ for exercise book for school –
mother readily gives itThe child does not realize the patience, love that went into that.
Love
To turn all we possess into the channel of universal love
becomes the business of our lives.
John Woolman
Love
Gogh - the best way to know God is to love many things.
Love What have I done for Christ or / or equals
What have I done for my neighbor.
Love
Friend visits, and admires family. Oh, I would give my life to
have two such children.
Mother replies - “That’s exactly what it costs.”
Love
Not till the sun refuses you, do I refuse you.
Walt Whitman
Love
Peanuts: my life is a drag, I feel low
So think positive, count your blessings.
I could count on one finger - I never had anything and never will,
no breaks – what should I be thankful for?
Well for one thing, you have a little brother – me, who loves you.
She weeps - and he says - every now and then I say the right
thing.
Love, generous
King, whose wife angered, provoked him. So he goes and buys
finest ornament, gold.
Now, if he does that, what would he have bought if she had
obeyed his will?
So it is with God and Israel !
Love - meaning
I love groundnuts - sweets (love to get and eat)
I love my child or aged parent (give)
Love - mercy, unconditional
Love those who disobey you. Don’t ask more of them than the
Lord does. Love them exactly as they are, and don’t ask them to
be better Christians first.
Let there be no single brother, who, however much he may sin,
goes away without first looking into your eyes and finding there
mercy. And if he does not look for mercy, offer it to him anyway.
St. Francis to a superior
Love
See everything, overlook much, and correct little.
Pope John XXIII
Love
Kevin Burke, in Central America – floods, falls into ditch, invited
into a home, woman with several children - washes his feet, puts
on alcohol to prevent infections - chases the kids out, so he takes
off pants and she washes them.
And she was a prostitute – and the kids from different men
Love – stranger
Treat everyone you meet just like you would if you just had your
breath taken away by the most beautiful person in the world – as
though you were heading head over heals in love…
Love - universal
Israelis rejoice after the Red Sea crossing
God is in a corner weeping “My children did not make it through.”
Love – obligation
The question is not will happen to me if I stop to help the man in
the ditch, but what happens to HIM and ME – if I do not stop.
Lincoln – not what happens to me if I free the slaves, but what
happens to the nation if I do not.
Love
Love your neighbor but don’t pull down the hedge
(good fences make good neighbors)
law, love
Obedience keeps the rules, but love knows when to break them.
The Master warns against tyranny of the law
Love
Christ did not think of himself,
Did not please himself
Rom. 15:2-3
Love
Hindu walks into home for the dying – and sees Mother Teresa
at work… - her voice, eyes, face, etc. – love
Man says: “I entered here an empty man, without God, without
peace. I leave here full of the presence of God whom I met in the
love of that sister for the dying man…
Love
In Japan, a boy goes to church to steal nails. The priest catches
him, but helps and gives him some.
Boy comes back and says, “I want to be like you.”
Eventually becomes a Catholic, a priest and a bishop.
Love - neighbor
Christ is at once above and below; above in himself, below in his
people. Fear Christ above and recognize him below.
Here he is poor, with and in the poor. There he is rich, with and in
God.
Have Christ above bestowing his bounty.
Recognize him here in his need.
Augustine Serm. 123.44
Love - golden rule
Buddhism: hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find
hurtful
Hinduism do naught unto others which would cause you pain if
done to you
Islam: No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother
that which he desires for himself
Judaism: What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man.
Christianity Whatsoever you wish that men would do to you, do
so to them. That is the law and the prophets.
Mt. 7:12
Love - tragedy
Bangladesh: She lives in a hut, refugee camp, every day, in rags,
comes to the camp chairman, asks for food for her three children.
Every day, he refuses.
He explains: “she no longer has any children to feed. She had
three, but they died, of lack of food. Since then, she is insane.”
Wall Street Journal - Nov. 27, 1974
Love - jesus
Two sisters live in different cities. Come together to home.
One had become a Christian. The other says – “I don’t know what
causes it, but you are a great deal easier to live with than you used
to be.”
When Jesus comes, it should make a difference.
Praise, love
Woman loves her husband but mentions – My husband
always praises me to other people – I hear this from friends. But I
miss something, because he never gets around to say these things
to me, to my face.
Love –
Boy was tempted to take cherries from tree which his father
forbad him to touch. Friend says, “don’t be afraid, you father is
too kind to hurt you.”
“Ah – that is the very reason why I would not touch them; for
though my father would not hurt me, yet I should hurt him by my
disobedience.”
Love – animals
Man threw bread out the window each day. Birds came. One
day, no bread. They wait, chirp, restless - and attracted a
neighbor - they check the room, and the man was unconscious smoke, charcoal.. stove. He was rescued – thanks to the birds.
Love - mother, animal
Herd of elephants, no food. A young one starving, they nudged it,
lift it, then leave. The mother leaves too, but then returns… we
don’t know what happened, probably died, but instinct for life.
Love self –
You first loved me so that I might love you. By loving you, I love
myself and thus I am wisely able also to love my neighbor as
myself
Aug. Comm. On Ps. 118 (27) 5-8
Charity, love
For modes of faith let graceless Zealots fight;
He can’t be wrong whose life is in the right;
In faith and hope the world will disagree,
But all mankind’s concern is charity.
All must be false that thwart this one great end;
And all of God that bless mankind, or men,
Man, like the generous vine, supported lives:
The strength he gains is from the embrace he gives.
Love,cost, selfless
If the patient whose wounds you are washing did not meet you
with gratitude, but worried you with his whims, without valuing or
remarking your charitable services, began abusing you and rudely
commanding you, and complaining to the superior authorities of
you – what then?
Would you persevere in your love or not? And do you know, I
came with horror to the conclusion that, if anything could
dissipate my love for humanity, it would be ingratitude. In short, I
am a hired servant. I expect my payment at once… that is praise
and repayment of love with love.
Dostoeyvsky - Brothers Karamazov, vol. 1, ch. 4
Love share
Dead Sea is dead because it has no outlet, the lowest point on
earth, dries up rather than gives, shares.
Love share
Hae-Wuk, given nice blanket by aunt – visits a poor friend and
gives always that blanket. The joy, peace that came led him to his
vocation, religious life, Jesuit.
Love
Commandment: Jews show respect and honor to their parents.
Love is too difficult!
Love
Thief in his old age was starving. A rich man sent him food. Both
die. Trial of rich man in heaven sends him to purgatory. But as
he is about to enter, decision is changed, - he goes to heaven.
Why? The thief whom he had aided on earth had stolen the list of
the rich man’s iniquities.
Love neighbor
I have ascended to heaven, but I still remain on earth. Here I sit at
the right hand of the Father, but there I still hunger, thirst and am a
stranger.
Aug. Sermon on 1 Jn 10,9
Love – action
If someone loves you, he comes to your home.
Love
Some day, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides
and gravity, we shall harness the energies of Love.
Then for the second time in the history of the world, man will
have discovered fire.
Teilhard
Love Telescopic philanthropy - in a Bleak House by Dickens
- neglect own family and get preoccupied with problems of
Africa…
Dorothy Day
- must do both – take care of self, home, and reach out.
Love
Child playing, runs to mother, kisses, whispers, “I love you.”
Mother asks - why do you love me?
Child - because you loved me when I was too little to love you
back.
Love
I see a child, hungry, shivering on the street – I get angry and
say to God – why do you permit this, Why don’t you do
something
God said nothing, but later says –
I certainly did something, I made you.
Law, love
I shall conduct myself as a father, and not as a policeman.
John XXIII arrives in Venice as archbishop, speaks to his priests.
Love neighbor
I’m just now finding out what it means to love the lord. It ain’t
all in the singing and the shouting. It ain’t all in the reading of the
bible. It ain’t even – in running all over everybody trying to get to
heaven. To love the Lord is to love his children, all of them –
everyone! To suffer with them and rejoice with them and never
count the cost.
In James Baldwin, play, the Amen Corner
Love - God
Ask children:
Does God love you - YES
Does God love you when you are good - YES
Does God love you when you are bad !! Yes, no..
Rom. 5:6-8 special love for the sinner
Lost Sheep
Love – prayer
If you are praying and a poor person asks for water, go. The God
whom you find is more sure than the God whom you leave.
Ruysbroeck
Love enemy
I love God only in as much as, insofar as I love my worst
enemy.
Love
Love and do what you will - dilige et quod vis fac.
Love – enemy
When Jesus tells us to love our enemies, he gives,along with the
command, the love itself.
Corrie ten Boom
Love neighbor
Christianity, Christology leads to “being hostage to the needs of
the other.”
Love neighbor
In my world there are no strangers, just brothers and sisters.
Some of them I have not yet met.
Elderly black woman
Love – atheist
Father complains to Rabbi that his son has forsaken God.
What shall I do?
“Love him more than ever.”
Love
On the Sabbath a man should always walk with an easy and
leisurely gait; but to do a good act, one should always run, even on
Sabbath.
Love - parent
His son is a big baseball fan. So his dad takes him to games, cost,
time, etc.
Friend asks: do you like baseball that much?
No - but I like my son that much.
Love - respect, boundless
Rabbi walking with his son “Go, give this penny to the blind
beggar.”
Son does it, returns, and rabbi asks: “Why didn’t you tip your
hat?”
He’s blind, he couldn’t see me.
How do you know he is not an imposter, Go back and tip your
hat.
Love, kindness
There are 10 strong things. Iron is strong, but fire melts it. Fire is
strong, but water quenches it. Water is strong, but the clouds
evaporate it. Clouds are strong, but the wind drives them away.
Man is strong, but fears cast him down. Fear is strong, but sleep
overcomes it. Sleep is strong, yet death is stronger. But loving
kindness survives death.
Talmud
Love, courage, wisdom
Love without courage and wisdom is sentimentality, as with the
ordinary church member; courage without love and wisdom is
foolhardiness, as with the ordinary soldier. Wisdom without love
and courage is cowardice, as with the ordinary intellectual.
Therefore one with love, courage and wisdom is one in a million,
who changes the world, as with Jesus, Buddha, and Gandhi.
Ammon Hennacy
Magic,miracle
Religion =serve God
Magic = manipulate God
Fraser - Golden Bough
Marriage - joke
After a wedding, the Mother asks boy, how many men can a
woman marry
Boy - 16. The preacher said - 4 better, 4 words, 4 richer, 4
poorer
Human – man
You yourself are even another little world and hav e within
you the sun and the moon and also the stars.
Origen
Human – man
Three key questions
Who am I; where do I come from. Where am I going
Norrie Clarke’ challenge
Marriage – promise
Mrs. Anthrobus in Thornton Wilder, THE SKIN OF OUR
TEETH.
I didn’t marry you because you were perfect. I didn’t even
marry you because I loved you. I married you because you gave
me a promise… that promise made up for your faults. And the
promise I gave you made up for mine. Two imperfect people got
married, and it was the promise that made the marriage.
Marriage
Sister asks: what did Jesus say about marriage?
Small child - Father forgive them, for they know not what they
do.
Marriage – joke - team work
Couple on honeymoon, rent a bicycle built for two. After 20
minutes, Jim says, this is tough.
Kate shouts - what I don’t like is the way these foot rests keep
moving up and down.
Marriage
Quaker wedding. No words, no music. Families gather, sit
in silence until communal feeling of consensus and affirmation is
achieved. Then they rise and the couple is married, and all sign
the book.
Marriage - joke A young couple comes to missionary to be married. He was
never married. She lost three husbands. The first died of food
poisoning, mushrooms. The second died the same way. So,
suspicious, the priest asks about the third.
He died from head injuries.
An auto accident, hunting ??
No - he wouldn’t eat his mushrooms.
Marriage
Defined as the contemplation of the love ofGod in and through
the form of another human being.
Marriage – joke
Harry, dying, with his wife Ethel - looks back.
When we were married, I walked down a step and fell, and you
helped.
When business collapsed, you there, kept it going
When house burned down, you there, keep it going.
When sick
When dying -… you by my side.
ETHEL, you are bad luck.
Marriage
Farmer’s wife tells the druggist. Be sure to label the bottles
which is for the horse and which for my husband.
I don’t want anything to happen to that horse before spring
plowing.
Marriage – joke
Man runs down the street - I’m divorced, I’m divorced
How did you get it from that battleax?
Ah – she once said, when a man walks on the moon, I’ll give you
a divorce.
Marriage –joke
Couple, about to wed, go for instructions. Priest ask: Who was
the first man!
She says – what – How can I answer that while my future husband
is here listening.
Marriage – joke
Husband: If I had to do it all over again, do you know whom I
would marry?
Wife: No, whom?
Husband: You
Wife “That’s what you think!”
Marriage –
Girls exclaims during wedding - Mommy, has the lady changed
her mind?
Why?
She went up the aisle with one man and came back down with
another
Marriage - joke
Tombstone a widow puts on her husband’s tomb
REST IN PEACE UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN.
MARRIAGE – LOVE
Newly married couple - what shall we do to make our love
endure?
The master replies: “love the same things together.”
Marriage
Is an order in which the profession must be made before the
novitiate.
Marriage
Couple lilght the Unity candle - husband and wife light one
larger candle.
Young man, visitor is asked – what does it mean?
Could it mean, no more old flames !
Marriage Man married 75 years – the secret?
Frequent separation and growing loss of hearing !
Marriage – polygamy
Missionary to man with five wives. “You are violating God’s law.
You must go and tell four of them they can no longer consider you
their husband.
Man says - “I’ll wait here, - you go and tell them.”
Marriage
Bishop questions kids for confirmation
What is matrimony? That is a place where souls suffer for a time
on account of their sins.
No - the priest says – that is purgatory.
Bishop says- “Let her alone. She may be right. What do you and
I know about marriage.”
Marriage
Minister says to woman - sorry, your man is drunk, come back
later.
Woman: but he wont come to get married when he is sober.
love – share
Two brothers share a field and a mill. So every night divide the
grain they had ground. One was alone, unmarried, the other had
large family.
Single brother – I have only lone - so each night he took some
grain to his brothers granary.
Married says - I have children to provide for me – what will he do
when old? ? so he secretly takes some to brother. – both find
their grain mysteriously replenished each morning.
Then one day they met halfway and realized what was going
on.- they embraced each other in love.
God saw this – a holy place - and there shall I build my temple.
Greatness, magnanimity
Bernard Loomer
By size I mean the stature of a person’s soul, the range and depth
of his or her love, capacity for relationships. I mean the volume
of life you can take into your being and still maintain your
integrity and individuality, the intensity and variety of outlook you
can entertain… the strength of your spirit to encourage others to
become freer in the development of their diversity and
uniqueness.. I mean the power to sustain more complex and
enriching tensions…
Martyr - prudence
Bonhoeffer, in restaurant. They say Hitler has taken over – all
stand up and toast, including Bonhoeffer. His companions
complain. Are you toasting a tyrant?
Bonhoeffer replies. If I am going to die, it will be for a better
reason than for not drinking a toast.
Martyr
the oftener we are mowed down by you, the larger grow
our numbers. The blood of Christians is seed.
Semen est sanguis Christianorum
Tertullian
Martyr
Two monks threatened by Henry VIII- tied into sacks, thrown
into the Thames. They reply:
OK, we are going to the kingdom of heaven. Whether by land or
by water is of little consequence.
Martyr
El Salvador - after anniversary mass for Romero
I asked a woman if she wasn’t afraid of persecution for
remembering Romero. She looked up- and replied Padre, Jesus
did not die of natural causes either.
Mary –
Oberammergau passion play- Judas, with regrets, goes back to the
priests and they laugh him off. He thinks of suicide.
To whom shall I go – all is lost.
A little child says – Mommy, why doesn’t he go to our Lady.
Mass - child
Child in church is restless, mother says, this is God’s house, you
must behave.
Child - can I use God’s bathroom.Mass – child
Child impatient, mother says mass will soon be over.
He sees the red tabernacle light and asks
Do we have to stay here until the red light turns green?
Materialism - fear of god
Ask the Abba - how can I acquire the fear of God?
How can we acquire the fear of God when our belly is full of
cheese and preserved foods?
Mary
Protestant minister at orphanage- leads prayers. Boy begins the
Hail Mary - preacher says NO – stop.
We don’t want to hear about her.
Then boy goes on to Apostles creed
Conceived of the Holy Ghost born of __! He stops, looks up at
minister and says “what should I do now, here she comes again!”
Mary - apparition - joke
Next parish priest tries to talk about Our Lady of Bayside –
appearing - thinks the apparitions are false, with justification.
Nothing works, they still go there, believe.
Then he says – “do you think Mary would appear at parish of St.
Robert Bellarmine, when Our Lady of Peace is nearby?
This argument got them to be more critical, skeptical.
Cheat, injustice
Boss gives architect $$ to build expensive house, for his years of
service, but architect cuts corners, cheats.
Then to his surprise, he is given the house -!
hell
MeetingsIn heaven, no meetings
In purgatory –long meetings 3 days a week
In hell – just one unending meeting
Memory
God gave us a memory so that we may have roses in
December
Memory
We return to old watering holes for more than water. – friends
and dreams are there to meet you.
African proverb
Memory – golden past
Gen. 6;4 erant gigantes in diebus illis
There were giants in those days
Memory
Chesterton on train – conductor comes, cant find ticket. Says, I
presume you have it, I will come back
To punch it later.
Chesterton says, the trouble is, I don’t know where I am going. It
is on the ticket.
Mercy – forgive - presumption
Perugini, the painter, dying – refuses confession – he wants to see
what happens to those who die unconfessed,
“My profession is to paint, and God’s is to forgive. I trust he is as
good at his as I am at mine.”
Mercy
Boy in court for stealing a watermelon. Guilty. Judge asks,
anything to say.
Boy says – Judge, have you ever stolen a watermelon.
Silence – and the judge says, no cross examination – the case is
dismissed.
Mercy, gentle
It will be easier to give account for having been too gentle than
too severe. Is not God love, the Son a lamb, and the Holy Spirit a
dove.
Francis de Sales
Mercy
You catch more flies with a spoonful of sugar/honey than a 100
barrels of vinegar
Francis de Sales
Mercy
Gettysburg, Union soldier wounded. General Lee – enemy
passes by – and the soldier shouts – Long live the Union. Lee
stops, looks with a sad expression and says, “My son, I hope you
will soon be well.”
A defeated general, yet compassion,
Method
Woman flat tire, man stops, helps, and he says, watch me, he
teaches and congratulates her - now she can do it alone the next
time.
Method – atheism
Methodology is a modern form of atheism.
Miracle, cana
The Conscious water saw its Lord, and blushed.
Richard Crashaw
Miracle
Coincidence is a minor miracle for which God prefers to remain
anonymous.
Miracle
Old lady has huge bottle going through Irish customs.
Man asks – what is that
Tis Lourdes water I am taking home.
He tries some, and sputters - Lady, that’s not Lourdes, that;s lst
class French Brandy
Good Lord, it’s a miracle, she says.
Mission
When an angel says, do not fear, be not afraid - you’d better
start worrying. A big assignment is on the way
Elie Wiesel
Missionary- joke
Have you heard about the missionary who gave the cannibals
their first taste of Christianity?
Missions
Rich man did not approve of foreign missions - Usher
approaches on Sunday- he says no – I never give to missions.
Usher says – then take something out – this collection is for the
heathens.
Mission
Dinner for Dr. Grenfell – famous missionary.
Lady asks –is it true that you are a missionary?
He replies - is it true, madam, that you are not?
Mission –
What would you do if you became pastor of a small, almost dying
parish.
First thing is preach a sermon on, and take up a collection for the
missions.
Mission
God who joins us in community, separates us for his service.
Xavier
Mission
Better to send missionaries to Japan than to Alaska.
To win one new man of tomorrow is better than keep two men of
yesterday.. the latter will be saved… God’s grace is infinite, but
the Church’s resources are very finite.
Mission
Gospel consumers - Chty as an insurance, membership as
security or safeguard
Vs. gospel creators - witnesses, signs, proclaimers
Mission Pious old woman complains, that minister never visits.
He explains - I am too busy trying to save the unsaved than to
spend much time with the saints. When we get to heaven, I will
drop in, and stay for a thousand years.
Community- mission
I am convinced that communal life can flourish only if it exists
for an aim outside itself. Community is viable if it is the
outgrowth of a deep involvement in a purpose which is other than,
or above, that of being community.
Bruno Bettelheim
Mission – vocation - dream
Key moment of history, God in a dream says – a man of
Macedonia says to Paul, come and help us - Acts. 16, 9-10.
Paul goes west rather than east!
Mission -
Lainez tells Ribadeneira that in same room, asleep, with Xavier,
Xavier would wake up - “Jesus, how exhausted I am. I dreamed
that I was carrying an Indian on my shoulders, and he weighed so
much that I couldn’t bear him.
Mission
Albert Schweitzer – why Africa?
1. Parable of dives and lazarus
2. he read a mission magazine, saw an appeal –and went
mission
Christian life is like riding a bicycle. If you do not go on you go
off.
Mission
Be fishers of men – don’t sit and wait, in rectory, on the shore,
but go out.
Mission
I thought I was in the world to go to church, but now I see that
I am in the church to go to the world
Ministry
Parish staff makes a point to go to every wake and funeral, and
this has great effect, even if the deceased was not a great
Catholic.
Leads others to get involved in the parish.
Ministry, parish
Priest assigned to parish, inexperienced, seeks advice of black
minister. Should I study books, Rules, canon law?
“They won’t work. You gotta do what Jesus did. Get a group of
twelve and start.”
Modernity
Missionary in the jungle, sees tribesmen come after him with
spears, arrows. He has to think fast. A plane flies over, he says
“see that bird, if you hurt me, that bird will hurt you.”
Chief looks up and says, that’s no bird, that’s a Boeing 747.
Modernity
We are all being ‘abducted’ from our ancient mythical
wellspring and moorings by forces we no longer control and do
not fully comprehend.
Journalist Jim Sleeper
Modern
Time and space died yesterday. We’re living already in the
Absolute, for we have created eternal, omnipresent speed
Marinetti’s manifesto of futurism.
Money, devil
Gambler offers $ 1000 for homeless project. A church elder
objects - it’s the devil’s money.
Pastor responds;; the devil had it long enough. Now let’s see
what God can do with it.
Money
Do not lay up money for your son. If he is any good, he can
make his own money. And if he is not any good, he will lose it.
Russian proverb
Money - Wesley
Preacher talks about money
Get all you can
people say AMEN great
Save all you can
Amen, great
But the third point - Give all you can –
Farmer turns to his wife - now he spoiled it all!
Money
60-70% of the stories of Jesus involve money and material needs.
Money –collection
Man fails to hear there will be 3 collections
Gives 10 cents for church, 10 for school, 10 for missions
And then says - “what are they going to do next? Search us?
Money
Preacher
Lord help us to trust you with our souls - AMEN
Lord, help us to trust you with our bodies = AMEN
Lord, help us to trust you with our money
Scattered and hesitant AMEN
Moral - golden rule
Platinum rule - Do unto others as God does unto you.
Moral law
Morality, like art, consists of drawing a line somewhere
Chesterton
Morality
Do only what you can offer to God
Vianney to his parishioners.
Moral Lincoln quoting a wise old man.
When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad.
That’s my religion
Morality
If God believed in today’s permissiveness, he would have given
us 10 suggestions, not commandments
Moral- conscience
Man’s first duty is not to follow his conscience, but to enlighten
it.
Moral
What will destroy us
Politics without principle
Pleasure without conscience
Wealth without work
Knowledge without character
Business without morality
Science without humanity
Worship without sacrifice.
Gandhi
Morality
Alinksy - you start with self-interest, but … soon come to the
point where his self-interest is the fact that he is his brother’s
keeper.
- link pragmatism and morality
music - gift
Fritz Kreisler
I was born with music in my system. It was a gift from God. I
didn’t acquire it.
..music is too sacred to be sold, and the outrageous prices charged
by musical celebrities today are truly a crime against society
I never look upon the money I earn as my own. It is public money.
It is only a fund entrusted to me for proper disbursement.
Music
The man that hath no music in himself
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils…
Merchant of Venice
Music, creation
God created the world, then asked the angels what they thought of
it.
They said, one thing is lacking – the sound of praise to the creator
so God created Music and it was heard in the whisper of the wind,
and in the song of the birds, and to man also was given the gift of
song.
Music, sing,
Old brother in the Curia, when told he was disrupting the
community singing by being ouot of harmony and temp, replied:
I don’t sing for the community, I sing for God.
\
music
music is…. the first and highest means man has to get him out of
his self, and to be concerned for others, for the world and find
God.
John XXIII
Music
Ancieta in Brazil asked again and again for musicians to be sent as
missionaries – with enough of them, we could convert all Brazil.
Mystery
Gus Devenny – 50 years a priest
When entered, mother asked, do you know what you are doing.
YES
When vows YES
When ordained YES
If she asked me now, I am not so sure..
Mystery of life, priesthood.
Mystery
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, that are
dreamt of in your philosophy.
Hamlet Act I, Sc. 5
Mysticism
Mysticism begins in mist and ends in schism
Quip of Newman
Name - truth
If you want to change society, the first thing is to call things by
their real name.
Confucious
Name
Jewish boy goes to school – his mom says, my boy,my baby, be
good, button up, my baby, come right home.
He comes home – mom asks, you like school my baby –
What did you learn?
I learned that my name is Irving.
Nationality – culture
Englishman, French, Russian
Discuss nationality of Adam and Eve
Were English because only gentleman would share his last apple
with a woman
Were French - who else could seduce a woman so easily
Were Russian - who else could walk stark naked, feed on one
apple between the two of them, and think they are in Paradise.
Nature –
Bird flies from England to Boston, 14 days, finds its way home
Or Arctic tern, travels 22,000 miles each year.
------------nature, law of
Naturalm expellas forca, tamen usque recurret.
Though you dive out nature with a pitchfork, yet will she always
return.
----neighbor - presence of God
next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, the neighbor is the holiest
object presented to your sense.
c.s. lewis
--------obedience
Mother tells boy to sit – he refuses – finally, she pushes, plops
him down
Fuming, the boy says, I may be sitting down on the outside, but I
am standing on the inside.
---------
obedience
Called from Spain to Rome by Ignatius, he has fever, and some
warn that the journey would be fatal. He replies: “It is necessary
to obey but not to live.” He dies soon after getting to rome.
--------omission, action
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good
men do NOTHING.
Edmund Burke
-------openness
we are born with clenched fists, but we must all die with open
hands.
-------opportuniy- funeral
funeral of a wealthy man - stranger joins and weeps, wails.
Someone asks, are you a relative, you must be close to the
deceased. Why are you crying.
Because I am not close to the deceased
---------------optimist
Every leaf that falls uncovers for us a bit more of the sky.
------------------------optimist, pessimist
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist
sees the opportunity in every difficulty
Churchill
-------------------\
optimist
Hippie gets on a bus with one shoe
Woman says – sorry, you lost one.
No – I found one!
----------optimist
to the answer whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer
that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are
optimistic.
Albert Schweitzer
-----------optimist
working on the farm, the wise man had a thorn penetrated his
foot.
Dear God – thank you so much. What a blessing I was not
wearing my new shoes.
----------optimist
only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.
Or - Japanese HaikuMy house burned down last night, now I can see the moon.
----------optimist
one who falls off the Empire state building and as he passes the
75th floor yells- I’m still all right.
----------optimist
70% of successful people are good finders – find good in
selves, others, in all – affirm others…
--------optimist weather
there is no such thing as bad weather. All weather is good
because it is God’s
Theresa of Avila
---------optimist
teacher: this is the 5th time this week that I have to punish you.
What have you to say?
Thank God its Friday.
-----optimist
twins, one is optimist and one pessimist.
Parents bring to Psychologist to even them out.
He says give them separate gifts on next birthday – best possible
for the pessimist and the words to optimist.
1. pessimist gets computer – says, I don’t like the color, it will
break, I know another boy who got a big toy car!
2. optimist. Is given a box of manure. He throws it in the air and
laughs – and says. “You can’t fool me, where this is this so much
manure, there’s gotta be a pony too.
-------------------optimist
old man fishing, waiting. Boy comes up and asks, “how many
have you caught.”
“Well son, If I catch this one I’m after, and two more, I will
have three.”
------optimist
they tell the rabbi that one of the congregation, aged 74, decided
to become Christian.
Rabbi raises eyes to heaven. “How Loyola are your people Lord.
Imagine, for 74 years that man held fast.”
-----------organization- social
Civil rights is a movement, and a movement without
organization is nothing more than a bowel movement.
Alinsky
------------parent
good parents give their children roots and wings.
Roots to know where home is, wings to fly away and exercise
what has been taught them.
Jonas salk
----------honor parents
what is commandment - Honor they father and mother.
Teacher asks – give example
Boy says, I showed a stranger the way over the mountain, and I,
barefoot boy, cut my foot. He gave me money, and I went
home and gave it to my mom because she had no shoes
either.
-------patience
most auto honking is a display of bad manners, impatience
- so a study of cars in Philadelphia
------------
patience
man in a great hurry to catch train. Horse is slow, man gets
nervous.
Says to the driver. Hit that horse in a place he will feel.
Take it easy, says the driver. I’ve hit everywhere it hurts except
the most and I am saving that for the big hill.
-----------patience
Good seed is known at the harvest
African Proverb
---------patience
Peter Claver at Prayer:
How does a donkey behave? If it is
slandered, it keeps silent. If not fed, it
keeps silent. .. It never complains because
it has a donkey’s patience, however much
beaten or ill-used. That is how the servant
of God must behave. I stand before you
Lord, like a donkey.
----------
Peace
Peace comes not directly, but by
doing God’s will,
By conformity with God’s will.
-------------peace
e la sua volontade e nostra pace.
In his will is our peace
Dante, paradise, III, 85
(greatest line in all poetry,
according to
matthew Arnold)
----------
peace
the mind is its own place and in
itself
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of
heaven.
Milton
----------peace
So when the shoe fits, the foot is
forgotten.
When the belt fits, the belly is
forgotten.
When the heart is right, “For” and
“against” are forgotten
------------peace
God is always present in peace.
St. Peter Chrysologus
-------------peace- courage
John Chrysostom – threatened by
emperor
Banishment? - the world is my
father’s house, you cannot
banish me.
Death? My life is hid with Christ in
God
Take away money? My treasure is
in heaven, my heart is there.
Take away friends? - I have a
friend in heaven, from whom
you cannot separate me.
---------peace, humor
Lord, grant me a heart that knows
nothing of boredom, of weeping and
of sighing. Let me not be overly
concerned with the bothersome
thing I call “myself”
. Lord give me a sense of humor and
I will find happiness in life and
profit for others.
Thomas more
---------peace
man had big financial and family
troubles, - yet calm, peaceful. How
come?
I used my eyes in the right way –
first I look up to heaven and
remember my main job is to get
there. Then I look to the ground and
realize what a small piece of earth I
will occupy when I am dead and
buried, and third, I look at other
persons who are much worse off
than me.
These three looks root out every
desire to complain.
---------peace
Thou shalt know him when he
comes
Not by any din of drums
Nor the vantage of his airs
Nor by anything he wears
Neither by the crown nor his gown.
For his presence known shall be
By the Holy Harmony
That his coming makes in thee.
Unknown 15th century
--------peace
ask Helen Keller blind, if one wish
granted, what would it be?
Most expect her to say sight – but
she says
“I would wish for world peace.”
---------peace –
mountain in Africa held by rough
tribe. Troops try to cross, and were
stopped. A priest gets through.
Soldiers ask him how?
You went as men of war, I went as
a man of peace.
----------
peace
age 19, youth lost father, three
relatives, and close friend - he goes
to mass – sits off to the side.
Angry,
at the sign of peace, two elderly
women hobble over to him. Takes
forever. Yet their greeting was warm
and caring - In the moment it took
for them to come, I decided to rejoin
the living.
--peace, poor
JPII- if you want peace, reach out
to the poor.
-----peace - hunger
Every gun that is made, every
warship launched, every rocket fired
signifies in the final sense, a theft
from those who hunger and are not
fed, those who are cold and not
clothed.
DD Eisehower, 1953
--------peace St. Teresa’s bookmark transl
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Let nothing disturb thee,
Nothing affright thee
All things are passing;
God never changeth;
Patient endurance
Attains to all things:
Who God possesseth
In nothing is wanting;
Alone God sufficeth.
---------peace, repent
Da Vinci, working on the Last
Supper, had an argument with friend
– threatened him, etc. Goes back to
paint the face of Jesus but could not.
He realized the trouble was his need
to repent – and he did so…
--------peace, family, marriage
When our love was strong, we
could sleep on a bed no wider than a
sword’s edge; now that our love is
not strong, a bed of sixty ells is too
small for us.
Jewish wisdom
-------peace, harmony
The world is like an orchestra. God
is the conductor. If all turns to God
for direction, there is harmony. If
we turn away, there is confusion and
strife.
Madame Galli-Curci
------------persons - imitate
Words may melt us, deeds inflame
us, but persons influence us.
Newman
---------persons –
a plane carrying 30,000 letters to
soldiers crashed – and they sent
divers 40 feet down to recover the
letters - why?
Soldiers cope better with food
shortages than with mail shortages
--------Person
Gold Meir meets Anwar Sadat –
tense, and she brings a gift for his
grandchild and that breaks the ice.
--------persons
agnosce o Christiane, dignitatem
tuam.
Recognize, acknowledge, o
Christian, your dignity
St. Leo and Aquinas
------time
elderly African to a bishop in Africa.
“You have nice watches, but no
time.”
-------persons
to get to the core of God at his
greatest, one must first get to the
core of himself at the least, for no
one can know God who has not first
known himself. Go to the depths of
the soul, the secret place of the Most
High, to the roots, to the heights; for
all that God can do is focused there.
Eckhart
---------persecution, prophet
Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed were
branded as rebels, heretics by their
contemporaries.
Master explains: nobody can be
said to have attained the pinnacle of
truth until a thousand sincere people
have denounced him for blasphemy.
--------play - child
child asks John Vianney, must I
learn my lesson or can I go out to
play.
“Play, my child, it is the privilege
of your age.”
-------pleasure –
old man fishing, a boy sees that
he has no bait.
Grandpa – how fish without bait?
He smiles and says. “Sometimes its
not the fish that I am after, it’s the
fishing.”
---------poet
Sir, I admit your general rule,
That every poet is a fool,
But you yourself may serve to show
it,
That every fool is not a poet.
Alexander Pope
--------poverty – religious life
Vanier in India, talks at a beautiful
novitiate – across the street is a
terrible slum
How could a novice read the gospels
and stay on this side of the street?
one wonders, on which side of the
road Jesus lives
Followers of Jesus
----------poverty
God examined all the good
qualities in the world, but found no
quality so good for Israel as poverty,
for through poverty they fear the
Lord… For if they have no bread to
eat, no raiment to wear, no oil for
anointing, they then seek the Lord of
mercy, and they find Him.
Tan.
---------poverty
Mother teresa and her sisters never accepts an invitation to eat
out, because it might give the
impression that we accept payment
for what we do.
---------poverty
The monk’s garment should be
such that he could throw it out of his
cell for three days and no one would
take it.
Abba Pambo
----------poor – charity
Mother Teresa, - told she is not
really helping solve the problems,
she is spoiling the poor by charity !
“Thank God there is one
congregation which is spoiling the
poor. Everybody else is spoiling the
rich!”
---------poor, option for
in play Monsieur Vincent - he
speaks
“The street will be long and
unfriendly, the stairs steep and the
poor often ungrateful. You will soon
find charity a heavy burden, Jeanne,
heavier than the jug of soup or the
full basket. But you will still be
pleasant and smile. Distributing
soup and bread is not everything.
The rich can do that. You are the
little servant of the poor and the
daughter of Charity, always smiling
and good tempered. They are your
masters and you will find them
terribly exacting masters.
So the more unattractive and dirty
they are, the more rude and unfair
they are, the more you must lavish
your love upon them. It is only by
feeling your love that the poor will
forgive your gifts of bread.”
-----poverty, dependence, riches
How easy it is for a poor man to
depend on God. What else has he to
depend on? How hard is it for a rich
man to depend on God! All his
possessions call out to him: depend
on us!
Rabbi
------------poverty – community
Where the members of a
community have more than enough,
and no real necessities, there
fraternity is difficult, almost
impossible. More than basic
principles, itg is the experience of
life that opens up the wells of
fraternity. Poverty creates needs,
and needs open brothers to one
another.
Ignatio Larranaga, life of St.
Francis
---------poor, luxuries
Most of the luxuries, and many of
the so called comforts of life, are not
only not indispensable, but positive
hindrances to the elevation of
mankind. With respect to luxuries
and comforts, the wisest have ever
lived a more simple and meager life
than the poor..
Thoreau - in Walden
------poverty, justice
LaGuardia, at a police court, they
bring in an old man, charged with
stealing a loaf of bread. His family
was starving.
LaGuardia - I have to punish you. –
so, a fine of ten dollars – and here,
he gives him the $10. to pay, and
now, I remit the fine. Then - he
passes his hat around the court and
fines everybody there 50 cents each
for living in a town where a man has
to steal bread in order to eat.
-----poor – option for
St. Francis realized that the people
of God cannot be changed until the
outcasts are restored to its body (the
church) – and so his first decision
was to go out and live among the
lepers
Umberto Eco
--------------poor – option for
The moral test of government is
how it treats those who are in the
dawn of life, the children; those who
are in the twilight of life, the aged;
and those who are in the shadows of
life, the sick, the needy, and the
handicapped.
Hubert Humphrey – quoted
by Tip O’Neill
------------------poverty- the poor - cooperation
The poor cannot sleep because he
is hungry. The rich cannot also
sleep because the poor is awake.
Both the rich and the poor must
jointly find a solution to the sleeping
problem.
---------poverty
there is nothing harder than
poverty. It is the hardest of all
afflictions of the world.
All afflictions in one pan (scale of
justice) and poverty in the others,
and the scale of poverty would fall.
Jewish tradition
--------poverty –
poverty is not a virtue. It is rather,
the underside of a virtue. It is not a
good, but the absence of good. It is
removal of baggage which is
holding us at the border when we are
going to our heavenly home, to God.
Dorothy Day
----poverty - attachment, possess
Brother comes and asks st. Francis
if he can have the Psalm book, sung
by all.
“If you get this book, you will want
another, thicker, and when you get
all, you will sit at the lecture table
and say to your brother, “Come
here, bring me my book.”
------poverty, pilgrim
Wealthy merchant travels miles to
see wise Rabbi. He enters a bare
room – only a table and chair.
Where are all your possessions?
Fine furniture?
Rabbi asks: “Where are your
possessions”
Merchant answers - Mine? I did
not bring them. I am just passing
through – just here to visit.”
Rabbi - “So am I.”
----------poor –
better to call them the
impoverished - because usually it is
done to them – they are victims…
--------poor - labels
When I give food to the poor, they
call me a saint; when I ask why the
poor have no food, they call me a
Communist.
Dom Helder Camara
------poor
Jesus begins and ends with the
love for the poor and the weak Luke 4 and Matthew 25
----poor, rich
Rich Lazarus richer in those Gems,
thy Tears
Then Dives in the Robes he wears;
He scorns them now, but o they’ll
suit full well
With th’ Purple he must wear in
Hell.
Richard Crashaw
----------
poor, option for
Recall the face of the poorest and
most helpless man you may have
seen and ask if the step you
contemplate is going to be of
assistance to him. Will he be able to
gain something from it?
Gandhi talisman
-------poor, heaven
poor man gets to heavens gate same
time as a rich Lord. Peter lets the
rich in, shuts the door.
The poor man hears music, dancing,
great reception. Peter comes back
and lets the poor man in- - nice
greeting but no big celebration.
Asks why – it seems the same here
as on earth – favor the rich.
Peter says no: we like you, rejoice
with you. Poor fellows get in here
every day. A rich man doesn’t get in
more than once in a 100 years - so
we really had to celebrate.
Grimm fairy tale
--------poor, prophet
the poor are always prophetic. As
true prophets, they always point out,
they reveal God’s design.
Thus listen to, stay near them.
They bring us back to the essential.
Vanier
-----poor
“What about the poor?” constant
question of Horace McKenna, half
asleep during meetings!
---------poor
Carefully examine yourself and see
how you stand in relation to the
poor. Look at yourself, not at what
you possess.
Augustine
Comm. On Ps.
103.7
God examines the rich and poor not
according to their lands and houses,
but according to the riches of their
hearts.
Comm.. on Ps. 48.3
--------poor - widow’s mite
police put tickets on windows near
bus stop. Expired flag goes up.
Executive says – “he will get it.”
Others agree.
Then an elderly woman, in tattered
coat, hobbles over to the fancy
sports car. Puts a coin in the meter.
She comes back to the bus stop,
and we all allow her to enter first.
--------poor
downward mobility
The poor and the weak have
revealed to me the great secret of
Jesus. If you wish to follow him you
must not try to climb the ladder of
success and power, becoming more
and more important. Instead, you
must walk down the ladder, to meet
and walk with people who are
broken and in pain. The light is
there, shining in the darkness, in the
darkness of their poverty.
Vanier
--------pope
Dick comes home with black eye.
Mother asks: what happened.
Oh, I said something I should not
have said about the Ppe
But Dick – didn’t; you know that
Johnny was catholic.
That’s the problem. I knew Johnny
was a catholic. I just didn’t know
that the Pope was.
----------pope
John XXIII gets letter from boy - “I
am undecided, I want to be a
policeman or a pope? What do you
think.
Pope writes: Bruno, learn how to
be a policeman. That cannot be
improvised. Anybody can be pope.
The proof of this is that I have
become one. If you are in Rome,
come to see me…
----------pope
At Easter, John outruns Peter.
This happens regularly. Many
saints were in advance of the popes
in their day.
--------pope
Gets to NY takes a taxi and wants
to drive it. Man says OK and sits in
the back. Speeding, cop stops the
pope. Calls his boss and asks if he
should give a ticket.
Says, he is a real big man, big man,
in the back seat – so big that the has
the Pope as his driver.
-------pope - drink
Irish banquet – give a toast to the
Papacy - But such enthusiasm, reckless, loyalty… They shout,
“Not to the papacy, but we’ll drink
to all the Popes, one by one.”
----------art, potential
Michaelangelo and a block of
granite
It is not useless, but valuable to
me. There is an angel imprisoned
and I must set it free !
------power, persuasion
You can get more with a kind
word and a gun that you can with a
kind word alone.
Al Capone
------power
We live by the golden rule - those
who have the gold make the rules.
---potential
Charlie Brown looks at his hand “I like my hand, they seem to have a
lot of character. They may someday
accomplish great things, do
marvelous works, build mighty
bridges, write soul-searching novels,
change the course of destiny
ah - they’ve god jelly on them.
---------water – power
drops of water into a crack in a
rock turns to ice and split the rock
water turned into steam, drives
pistons of the most powerful engine.
----power - taboo
boy at mission school was told he
should not eat plaintain or food out
of a pot where plantain was cooked.
One day,his fellow students tell him
he ate fish from a pot in which were
remains of plaintain. He was
immediately seized with a cramp
and died a few hours later.
Schweitzer, African
Notebook
------praise –
priest meets parishioner and 5 year
old. She is jumping rope and the
priest claps, praises her. Then talks.
A few minutes later, she comes
back, sad, dragging her rope.
Mommy, she lamented, I can do it,
but I need lots of clapping.
-----pray, trouble
if your soul is troubled, go to
church, kneel and pray
if it is still troubled, go find the
priest confessor, sit at his feet and
open your soul to him
if your soul still remains troubled,
withdraw to your cell, lie down on
your mattress, and sleep.
De Lubac
----------prayer, life
Hindu guru says “prayer and
worship are lower forms of contact
with God.
Student asks – what is higher?
Life – says the guru.
-------prayer
critic sees old lady saying the
Rosary and says, you waste your
time, the Lord does not need your
prayers.
I know that, she replied, but I need
him
----------prayer – distraction
You want to know if a particular
rabbi is genuine. Go and ask his
advice. Ask if he knows a way to
chase impure thoughts from your
mind. If he says yes, you know he is
a fake.
Wiesel
---------prayer
little girl at end of bible meeting.
One person advises her to read the
bible, another, to pray.
Worried, she goes home and says “O Lord, I cannot read, I cannot
pray, so take me as I am.”
---------prayer
two drunks, ex-catholics reminisce. They recall the nuns,
kneeling, Mass, etc.
One says - I’ll bet you cant recite
the Lords Prayer.
The other begins - “Now I lay me
down to sleep.”
One says - “By Gosh, he got it
right!”
---------prayer, gift, grace
How does one improve prayer?
How does an apple ripen? It just
sits in the sun.
We too must wait for God, we must
be awake.
Merton
-------prayer, sleep
One method for falling asleep is
counting sheep.
Perhaps the shepherd wants to talk
to you – so why not talk to the
shepherd rather than count his
sheep.
----------prayer - revenge
what you do in revenge against
one who hurt you
will appear in your heart at once
when you pray.
Desert Wisdom
----------prayer, study
Student asks the scholar: Why do
you study so slow and pray so fast?
Because when I pray, I am talking
to God: when I study, God is talking
to me.
-------prayer - Eucharist
Xavier - sometimes I go to sleep,
but Jesus loves his friends, asleep or
awake.
Marshal Foch - I keep in touch with
headquarters.
----------prayer, presence
little girl leaving church is asked.
What were you doing,
praying –
what were you praying for?
Nothing, I was just loving Jesus
-------prayer, distraction
St. Benedict, riding a horse, meets a
peasant, who notes that Benedict has
it easy. He has a horse and he prays.
Benedict says it is not easy. And “I
will give you my horse if you can
say the Our Father without
distraction.”
The man starts, then stops and
asks: can I have the bridle too?
------------prayer - distraction – prophet
How tell the true holy man from the
false?
Ask him what to do to prevent
thoughts from straying when
praying.
If he thinks he can, gives you
advise, you know he is not true or
honest.
----------prayer
The fruit of silence is prayer
The fruit of prayer is faith
The fruit of faith is love
The fruit of love is service
The fruit of service is peace
Mother Teresa – (her business
card)
---------prayer – magic
Prayer is asking God for the power
to do his will
Magic is asking God to do your will.
------prayer – work
Prayer is not a substitute for work;
it is a desperate effort to work
further and to be efficient beyond
the range of one’s powers. It is not
the lazy who are most inclined to
prayer. Those pray most who care
most, and who, having worked hard,
find it intolerable to be defeated.
Santayana
--------prayer
Prayer is placing of the mind in
the heart, where we listen attentively
to the divine stirrings within us.
Teresa of Avila
------pray
It is not enough to say prayers, one
must be prayer.
One should not offer what one has,
but what one is.
Paul Evdokimov
------prayer
Lord, I am your bicycle. My tires
are flat. Pump me up with hour Holy
Spirit and ride me.
African prayer
--------prayer, prayers
If saying your prayers is an
obstacle to prayer, cut it out. Let
Jesus pray. Thank God Jesus is
praying. Forget yourself. Enter the
prayer of Jesus. Let him pray in you.
Merton
--------prayer lie, truth
O Lord, please let me catch a fish
so big that even I will not have to lie
when speaking of it afterwards.
--------prayer - action
I am so busy now that I find that if I
did not spend 2-3 hours each day in
prayer, I could not get through the
day.
Luther
--prayer
Boy crossing a shaky bridge on a
dark night. His mother tells him to
pray if he is in danger, so he says
“God is good, and the devil ain’t so
bad either.”
----------prayer – petition
Good St. Anthony please come
round. Something’s lost and can’t
be found.
------pray
I asked mother Teresa how to live
out my vocation as a priest. She
said: “spend one hour a day in
adoration of your Lord, and never do
anything you know is wrong, and
you will be all right.
Henri Nouwen
----prayer - honesty
Retired Jesuit in the infirmary
chapel, lies on the bench, and says
aloud “O God, my back (ass)
hurts.”
---------
prayer
someone asks the rabbi – pray for
me; things are going badly, I need
help.
Rabbi answers harshly: Are you
too sick to say your own prayers.
I don’t know how.
What, you don’t know? That is your
true problem” – and the rabbi
dismissed the man.
--------prayer - action
Pope John, gets out of his car to
walk, near the Vatican. Priest runs
up and says, please pray for the
paralyzed wife of a friend.
Pope says we can do more, so gets
back in the car and visits, chats,
prays with the family
-----prayer, contemplation
Pele, before a game, would lie on
his back, cover his eyes, replay
happy memories of childhood, eg.
Playing football on the beach,
scoring a great goal - 30 minutes
of quiet time.
-------listen
Man working in saw mill loses a
valuable watch near pile of
sawdust. Search for hours, no
luck. Go for lunch. Little boy
finds it. How? I lay down in the
sawdust and heard it ticking.
----------prayer
farmer comes to rabbi and asks
rabbi to pray for favor.
Rabbi says – why me? Let me
teach you how to pray, then you
do not have to come to me any
more!
---------
pray
to pray is to pay attention to
something or someone other
than oneself. Whenever a man so
concentrates his attention – on a
landscape, a poem, a geometrical
problems, an idol, or the True
God- that he completely forgets
his own ego and desires – he is
praying.
w.h. auden
----------pray
The true motivation of prayer is
not the sense of being at home in
the universe, but rather the sense
of not being at home in the
universe
(evil, suffering)
God himself is not at home in the
universe – his will is defied, his
kingship is denied. God is in
exile. To pray means to bring
God back into the world.
Heschel
-----prayer – power of
Holy man stops at childless couple.
Father says pray for us, ask God
to give us a child. Holy man
goes to temple and prays, but the
Lord tells him it is not in their
destiny to have a child.
Five years later, he comes by and
they have 2 lovely children.
The father explains that a holy man
came by and prayed.
The holy man goes back to the
temple shouts - You said no –
and they have two!
The Lord hears this and laughs says, that must be the doing of a
saint. Saints have the power to
change destiny!
-------prayer - distractions
many people complain of
distractions. They do not realize
that those distractions may come
from God.. From the Holy Spirit.
They bring us back to everyday
reality when we are trying to
find holiness outside of daily
life…
Distractions are more often than not
God’s invitations to us -.
Donders
------prayer - honesty
If God bores you, tell him so.
(Fenelon)
Peter deVries, Blood of the Lamb man goes to church on way to
hospital to see his daughter
dying of leukemia. Brings
birthday cake. At the hospital,
she has died. He returns to
church and throws the cake at
the crucifix and finds release.
--------prayer, charity
Monks go to the abbot and say,
when we see brothers dozing
during divine office, should we
pinch them?
Abbot: Actually, if I saw a brother
sleeping, I would put his head on
my knees and let him rest.
Desert wisdom
-------------------prayer
Gandhi could go for days without
food, but not a single minute
without prayer.
-----------prayer - meals
Farmer in café bows, says grace.
Teenagers taunt him, and say ,
farmer, does everyone do that
where you live?
He says, no son, the pigs do not!
----------prayer – meals
Teacher on grace before meals, asks
child. What is the first thing your
father says when he comes to
table.
“Easy on the butter kids, it’s forty
cents a pound!
----------prayer – faith
congregation comes together to
pray for rain, and the preacher
challenges them. You do have
much faith – where are your
umbrellas!
----------prayer – honesty
Teresa falls off donkey into mud.
She looks up and says “If this is
how you treat your friends, no
wonder you have so many
enemies.”
-----------prayer, trust
Fisherman’s prayer
O God, thy sea is so great
And my boat is so small.
--------------prayer - Pharisee
Two went to pray? Oh, rather say
One went to brag, the other to preay
One stands up close and treads on
high
Where the other dares not send his
eye;
One nearer to God’s altar trod,
The other to the Altar’s God.
Crashaw
--------prayer
is like a beam thrown from a
flashlight before us into the
darkness. It is in this light that
we who grope, stumble and
climb, discover where we stand,
what surrounds us, and the
course we should choose.
Heschel
---------prayer –
where we are honest where we
rid false ideologies,
see clearly
Pieris
-----------prayer
poor man, lost in woods without
his prayer book, prays
“God, I am stupid, I forget my book
I have a poor memory. You
know all prayers. So I will just
recite the letters of the alphabet,
and you put them together in the
right way.”
And the almighty regarded that
prayer, because of its sincerity,
more worthy than all others he
heard that day.
---------prayer
Shoemaker works for poor
customers who have only one
pair, so works through the night
and delivers in early morning.
When does he say morning prayer?
– every once in a while he raises
his hammer and sighs “woe is
me, I have not prayed yet.” that sigh is worth more than
prayer.
--------prayer – petition
cranky old woman was not invited
to a picnic. They realize this and
so a little boy asks her to join.
“It’s too late now, she says, I
already prayed for rain.
-----prayer, action
Two women visit elderly friend, ill.
They get ready to leave and say
we will keep you in our prayers.
The sick lady replies: “Just
wash the dishes in the kitchen. I
can do my own praying.”
-----prayer
The key to the art of prayer is the
prayer of petition
Calveras..
---prayer – petition
wealthy farmer prays that the
needs of the poor be supplied.
A boy says - Mister, I wish I had
your corn.
Why – what would you do with it?
I would answer your prayer, the
petition you just made.
-------prayer
six year old tosses his show under
the bed when he goes to bed.
Mother sees this and asks why?
Teacher said if we have to kneel
down in the morning by the bed
to look for a shoe, we will
remember to stay down on our
knees and pray.
---------prayer - doubt
I want to blaspheme, and I cant
quite manage it. I go up against
(God), I shake my fist, I froth
with rage, but it’s still a way of
telling him that He’s there, that
he exists…
Denial itself is an offering to his
grandeur
Wiesel – THE TOWN
BEYOND THE WALL.
Supreme insult is to ignore !
---------pray two monks like to smoke.
Gregory asks abbot. Is it OK to
smoke while I am praying
NO - do 40 days penance.
Alexander goes, comes out
smiling. The Abbot
congratulated me. I asked
whether it was all right to pray
while I was smoking.
--------pray
Chaplain for the Senate – is
asked, do you pray for the
senators.
NO - I look at the senators and
pray for the nation!
---------prayer, action
It was his greatest consolation to
gaze upon the heavens and the
stars, which he often did, and for
long stretches at a time, because
when doing so, he felt within
himself a powerful urge to be
serving our Lord.
St. Ignatius autobiography
--------prayer - where
true prayer realizes all ground is
holy. Priest learns best to pray
on the Boston commons, amidst
people. He meets God there.
So too, the NYC subway.
-----prayer – hell
In hell, one prays better than in
paradise.
Rabbi
--------
prayer
do our prayers sometimes go
wrong because we insist on
trying to talk to God when God
wants to talk to us.
We must be empty –
receptive…
------------prayer, friend
A man has a helper, protector. He
goes to him once, twice. He is
received. The third time, the
helper will not see him. The
fourth time he turns away from
him. But God is not thus:
whenever we worry him, he
receives you.
------prayer –
Woman begs the rabbi to pray for
her, she wants a child. Rabbi
explains that his mother was
unhappy for the same reason.
Then she meet the holy man and
gave him a cape, and I was born
the following year.
The woman says, Thanks, I will do
as you mother did, and bring you
a beautiful cape.
The rabbi smiled - “No, that
won’t help you. You see, my
mother didn’t know this story.”
------prayer action
If someone comes to you asking
for help, do not say “Trust in
God, God will help.” Act as if
there were no God, and no one
to help except you.
Jewish story
------prayer – works, action
The purpose of prayer is good
works, good works, good works.
Teresa of
Avila
------pray
Every time you pray you enter
the cave of a lion. Do not count
on a safe exit. Be slow to pray.
Be sure to pray. But do not pray
frivolously. Do not trivialize
God.
William McNamara
----prayer
Some coaches pray for wisdom –
and victory. I pray for 275
pound tackles.
---prayer petition
Teacher asks girl – do you say
your prayers every night?
No.
Why?
Some nights I don’t want anything.
---------prayer and action
Girl prays: Bless mommy, daddy,
brother, and don’t let little Billy
shoot any more birds with
slingshot.
She rises from prayer and says,
“Now I know he wont shoot any
more.
Mom says, what makes you so
sure?
Girl says, “Because I threw his
slingshot into the river before I
came to bed.
------prayer
Priest asks kid - do you say
prayer before meals in your
house.
“We don’t have to father, my
mother is a good cook.”
-------prayer
Basically there are only prayers.
Whether one paints or mows,
already in the movement of the
tools, the prayerfulness unfolds.
Rilke
--------prayer - repent
Pardon, O gracious Jesus, what
we have been, with your holy
discipline correct what we are.
Order by your providence what we
shall be: and in the end, crown
your own gifts. Amen.
--------prayer –petition
Boy at Christmas asks God for
x,y, train, etc. but were not
given.
Mom says, you were disappointed.
God didn’t answer your prayer
for the train?
Boy replies: “What do you mean,
he did, God said NO.”
----prayer, petition
When I was young, I thought that
prayer could be – should be –
only in thankfulness and
adoration. A prayer of
supplication (petition) seemed to
be something unworthy.
Afterwards, I changed my opinion
completely. Today, I ask very
much.
JP II
----prayer
To pray does not mean to think
about God in contrast to thinking
about other things, or to spend
time with God in stead of
spending time with other people.
Rather it means to think and live
in the presence of God.
Nouwen
-----------prayer
is an invitation to God to intervene
in our lives, to let his will prevail
in our affairs.
Heschel
-------prayer –
3 Latin words on why prayer is
not effective
mali - we are bad
male we pray poorly
mala we pray for bad, the wrong
things
---------prayer
Pray as you can, and do not try
to pray as you can’t.
Dom John Chapman,
OSB
------prayer
In performing traditional
prayers, we continue a
conversation with God which
was begun by our ancestors
centuries ago.
-----prayer
a filter through which we learn, if
we listen hard enough, to see our
world aright and anew.
Joan Chittister
----prayer
a space in which to become truly
human
david Jenkins.
----------prayer -
minister asks Arthur to lead a
prayer, for the first time.
After 10 minutes, he is still
talking/praying. People are
restless and one shouts AMEN.
Arthur looks up, says, Thanks that’s the word I have been
trying to think of since I started.
---prayer - words
Moses with arms raised, held up
Exod. 17: 8-13
Jesus raised his eyes, feel on
face, knelt.
---------prayer - petition
Native American rain dance is
an expression of their trust that
rainfall will always come. It is
not a ritual to beg for rain, but to
thank God who makes rain.
---------prayer
enlarges your heart and makes it
capable of loving God.
John Vianney
--prayer
To pray is to change. Prayer is
the central avenue God uses to
transform us.
Richard Foster
---------------prayer - Jesus
He prays for us as our priest. He
prays in us as our head. Let us
then recognize both our voice in
his, and his voice in ours.
We pray then to him, through him,
in him, and we speak along with
him and he along with us.
St.Aug. Ps. 85,1 Wedn.
Of 5th week of Lent – office
---------
prayer, works, action
The best prayer, which is most
pleasing to God, is that which
brings improvement, showing
itself in good works, and not in
the enjoyment which serves only
our own satisfaction.
Teresa of Avila
----------prayer – action
To clasp hands in prayer is the
beginning of an uprising against
the disorder of the world.
Barth
“Danger, people at prayer.”
-----prayer – contemplation
Sister asks Teresa of Avila: How
can I become a contemplative?
Say the Our Father, but take an
hour to say it.
------prayer
You don’t know how to pray? Put
yourself in the presence of God,
and as soon as you have said
“Lord, I don’t know how to
pray!” you can be sure you’ve
already begun.
-prayer petition
Johnny’s voice rises as he shouts,
Dear God, I want a train, a gun,
and a walkie-talkie for
Christmas
Little brother says, Don’t shout,
God is not deaf!
Johnny: I know God is not deaf, but
Grandma is.
Young boy prays in a low voice, so
his mother says, I cant hear you.
He replies: I wasn’t talking to you
anyway.
--------
preach
the test of a preacher is that the
congregation goes away saying
not what a lovely sermon, but “I
will do something.”
Francis deSales
-preach
Guest preacher asks, how long
should I preach?
President replies: No limit on how
long, but I tell you there is a
tradition here that most souls are
saved during the first 20
minutes.
--------preach
Moody is warned that here the
people often leave early, in
middle of a sermon.
So – he starts, and says, the first
half of the sermon is addressed
to sinners, and the second half to
saints. All stayed!
----preacher
New preacher, vicar asks: “Are
people subject to colds here?
Many coughed during my
sermon.
Old vicar - Coughs? They aint
coughs. They are time signals.
-------preacher
Baby cries during sermon, so
mother starts to take her out.
Preacher says - - it is OK, it is
not disturbing me.
Mother replies: Maybe not, but you
are disturbing him.
-------preacher
rules for preaching
if a man cant strike oil in 10 minutes
he should stop boring.
Be bright, be brief, be gone.
---------preacher
unpopular preacher announces he
is called to another Church. “The
same Lord who called me to you
is calling me away.”
A moment of silence, and then they
start to sing:
“What a friend we have in Jesus.”
-----preacher –
Hot day, he goes on and on. He
pauses and asks “what more can
I say?”
Voice shouts out AMEN
-------preach
how to get attention? He starts
“To hell with the Catholic
Church!- then pauses and says So say her enemies!
--------preach
priest preaches with bandaid on
face. After long sermon, man
asks – what happened.
He explains, while shaving, I was
thinking about my sermon and
cut my face.
Next time, father, think about your
face and cut the sermon.
-----------preach
How can I get crowds to attend my
services? Man asks John
Wesley.
“Get on fire and people will come
out to see you burn.”
--preach
preach the gospel at all times. If
necessary, on occasion use
words.
Francis of Assisi
-------preach
when my son decided to give up
on the church he said, “Father,
that man, the preacher is saying
all the right things
but he isn’t saying them to
anybody. He doesn’t know
where I am and it would never
occur to him to ask.
John V. Taylor
-------preach
young preacher complains that
nobody is affected by his
preaching. Famous preacher
says, you don’t expect people to
be changed EVERY time you
preach, do you?
Why of course not!
Famous preacher - That’s your
problem.
-------preach
Preach as a dying man to dying
men.
John Wesley
----------preach
Preach in order to pray. Preach in
order to inspire others to pray.
The test of a true sermon is that
it can be converted to prayer.
Heschel
-------preach - speaker
Advice on what to do when a
speaker goes too long. Just pass
them a little note saying your fly
is open..
------preach
instead of trying to practice what
I preach, why not try to preach
only what I practice.
-----
preach –
Native American hears sermon –
without much spiritual food, but
loud.
His comment: High wind, big
thunder, no rain.
------preach, teach
What must I do to teach John
Latin?
First, must know John, second. I
must know Latin.
Frank Sheed
------------creation
The flood is over, Noah sends
forth – go and multiply, sees two
snakes who are lazy. “I told you
to go and multiply.”
Sorry sir, we can’t, we are
ADDERS
----preacher
3 kids brag
- mine writes lines, poems, gets
$10.
-mine writes dots, lines, songfs gets $25.
-mine writes a sermon, reads it and
it takes four men to bring in the
money.
-------preacher
Old man snores in second row.
Preacher says to his grandchild –
wake him up.
Child says - you put him to sleep,
you wake him up.
-----preach, speech
Why is an after dinner speech like
a steer’s horns
There is a point here and a point
there, and a lot of bull
inbetween.
----preach
Barth – lst sermon at Safenwil
“I am not speaking of God because
I am a pastor. I am a pastor
because I MUST speak to you of
God.
---Preach
Good st. Paul and Vincent Peale
Are men of wholly different steel
Yet both of holy calling.
St. Paul is most appealing
And Peale is most appalling.
------preach
little boy falls asleep in church –
wakes up and asks his dad.
The preacher, has he finished?
Dad: “He’s finished, but he isn’t
stopped yet.”
----preacher
old man asleep every Sunday, so
preacher tells small boy. I give
you a nickel – keep him awake.
It works for three weeks, and
then the man sleeps again.
Preacher asks: how come?
The old man gives me a dime not
to disturb him.
-------preacher
Boy says to preacher – When I
grow up I will give you some
money.
Thanks, but why?
My dad says you are one of the
poorest preachers we have ever
had.
--------preach
If I could give only one more
sermon, I would want to talk
about things that are immediate
and ordinary – go home and be
good to your wife, treat your
children with respect, do a good
job at whatever you have been
given to do.
----preach
Preacher kneels before entering
the pulpit. Girl asks daddy – why
So God will help him preach a better
sermon.
Girl: Well why doesn’t God help
him?
------------preachMaisie Ward with heckler on the
problem of evil who says, if
God made the world he could
have done better, etc… I could
make a better world myself.
Maisie - OK – just begin with
something small – to establish
confidence, would you mind
making just one rabbit here and
now.
----------preach
after 5 minutes, the heart achesrestless
after 10 minutes, the soul aches
after 14 minutes the tail is restless
---------preach, speaker
Al Smith speaks and a heckler
shouts “Tell em what’s on your
mind, Al, it wont take long.
Al points to the man and says,
“Stand up, pardner, and I’ll tell
em what’s on both our minds. It
wont take any longer.
---------preacher
old woman, grand aunt of George
McMahon tells him, that was a
good sermon, even a moron
could have understood it.
----preacher
big show, at revival meetings,
small boy is hidden at the roof
with a dove. Preacher shouts,
come Holy Ghost come. Nothing
happens. Again, nothing
happens.
Boy calls down. A cat done eat the
holy Ghost, should I throw
down the cat.?
--------preacher –
gets into a long sermon. Almost
two hours. When Brother Smith
gets up to leave. The preacher
calls - Where are you going.
To get a haircut.
Why didn’t you get one before you
came here?
I didn’t need one then.
---------preacher
pastor sees woman and says, I was
sorry to see your husband leave
in the middle of my sermon.
Was anything wrong?
No – nothing serious, the poor
man has a habit of walking in his
sleep.
-------preacher
nervous,he shuffles paper, looks
at audience and says “Where to
begin?”
someone shouts - “As close to the
end as possible.”
--------preach
missionary preaching “you must
love your fellow men.” The
people respond, Moolagumbi!
White and black must learn to
cooperate. Moolagumbi
Missionary tells the chief how well
it went.
Chief says - I am glad, but be
careful as you walk home, and
pass my cattle, that you do not
step into the Moolagumbi.
--------preach
length of sermon? Like a
woman’s skirt. Short enough to
make it interesting, and long
enough to cover the essentials.
---preach
Prepare as if there were no such
person as the Holy Spirit, and
preach as if there was no one
BUT the Holy Spirit.
-------preach
The bishop was a lousy preacher
and only four showed up. He
asks the pastor – “did you tell
the people I was coming?
No, but if I do find out who did, I
will beat him.
--------prejudice
You cant change a man’s mind
when his income depends upon
his maintaining his opinions.
Mark Twain, quoted by
Alinsky
=whose bread I eat, his song I sing.
(German proverb)
----------prejudice
If one man says the entire village
is bad, then you know it is the
man himself who is bad.
---------prejudice
The only man who behaves
sensibly is my tailor. He takes
my measure anew every time he
sees me, while all the rest go on
with their old measurements, and
expect me to fit them.
g.b.shaw
-------prejudice
If my eye is to discern color, it
must itself be free from color
Eckhart
---prejudice
A great many people think they
are thinking when they are only
rearranging their prejudices.
William James
---------presence – God
“We must put God in our lives.”
Master: No – he is already there.
Our business is to see and
recognize him.
-------presence, god
God be in my head, and in my
understanding
God be in my eyes, and in my
looking
God be in my mouth, and in my
speaking
God be in my heart, and in my
thinking
God be at my end, and at my
departing.
16th century primer
--------present
Son of bootleggers is accosted
by tax officer.
Where’s pa – up at the still
Where’s ma up at the still
I’ll give you $5. if you take me
there.
All right, give me the $5.
I’ll give it when we get back, says
the officer.
No sir, give it now, you ain’t
coming back
----present, peace, content
two persons sit quietly. And they
do not long at this moment to be
older, or younger, nor born in
any other nation, time, or place.
They are content where they are,
talking or not-talking.
---------presence, God
Imagine two children playing
hide and seek. One hides but the
other does not look for him.
God is hiding and man is not
seeking. Imagine God’s distress.
--------pride, talent
New cantor. What a beautiful,
singing voice, no?
The other scoffs. If I had his voice,
I’d sing just as good.
----pride
Englishman boasts: “I was born,
I live, remain, and I will die an
Englishman.”
Irish - “Man, ain’t you got no
ambition?”
--------pride – humility
Ferd Wheeler, asked by the bishop
to visit a convent, check into
one sister who is said to be
saintly.
He knocks, and asks, “are you the
one who is supposed to be holy.
She says yes.
He turns away, goes back to the
bishop - and says I saw and
heard enough.
------pride, sin
Asked how to avoid sin, the wise
man replies: “Were you to avoid
all sin, I fear you would fall into
a still greater sin, that of pride.”
----------pride
Abba is with his brother and
they see a dragon. They run
away. The brother asks: are you
afraid?
No, but it is good to run away. Or I
would not have escaped from the
spirit of pride/vainglory.
--------pride
I am more afraid of my good
deeds that please me than of my
bad deeds that repel me.
I have but one request. May I
never use my reason against the
truth.
I prefer the wicked man who
knows he is wicked to the just
man who knows he is just.
-------pride
Rabbi, cantor, and cleaner in the
synagogue
Rabbi – beats breast, “I am nothing,
I am a sinner, nothing.”
Cantor- Same
Cleaner - same
Then the rabbi to the cantor: “Look
at who thinks he is nothing.”
----priest, servant
priest as man with a stole and towel
- twin symbols of service
Horace McKENNA
----------PRAISE
THE JOB OF THE SUPERIOR IS TO
SPRAY PRAISE AROUND THE
COMMUNITY
Horace McKenna
-------priest
Ignorance in priests is more to be
feared than sin… knowledge in
priests is the 8th sacrament of the
ecclesiastical hierarchy.
St. Francis de Sales, in
Hughes, Vol III, 222
--------priesthood of all
Congar says he learned of the
priesthood of all when his
mother taught him the Morning
Offering/
-------priest
Abie, jewish boy - what do you do
when you grow up? Mother is
anxious, so neighbor suggests
Put a $dollar bill, whiskey, and bible
on table. See what he takes. If
dollar, he a businessman, if
whiskey, he a lawyer or
politician. If bible, he a rabbi.
Mom watches, he takes all three! She comes out – My God, he is
going to be a Catholic priest!
-------priest - Franciscan
cannibal complained of indigestion
after eating Franciscan
missionary.
How did you cook him?
I boiled him!
That’s your mistake. Never boil
Franciscans. They are friars.
---------priest,
minister eats at home of family.
And they serve green beans.
Child sees this and says, Look
Daddy, he took some beans.
And you said he didn’t know
beans.
-------priest
misses plane, goes to nearby
rectory – asks to stay over. Says
- here is my celebret. Priest
says, no need to show that.
Will you have a drink? No
What about a cigar? No
Maybe I better look at those
credentials.
-------priests
the clergy are as alike as peas…
It is the old story again: once we
had wooden chalices and golden
priests, now we have golden
chalices and wooden priest.
Emerson
--------priest - money
how do priests handle the
collection – what for God and
what for the pastor?
1. simply 1/2/ ½
2. I throw it from the pews to the
altar, what gets near the altar is
gods, what is in the pews is
mine.
3. I throw it up in the air. What
God wants he keeps, what falls
down is mine.
-------priest – conversion
Alec Guinness, plays a priest in a
play, and tired, goes home in
clerics. A boy comes up to him,
“Father, I am lost, can you take
me home?”
He does – and this leads him to
inquire into the RCC - moved
by the trust of that boy in the
priest.
------priest
Sister teaches the sacraments –
asks, what is Holy Orders –
Answer - when a bishop or
priest tells you to do something
--------sacraments - women
Seven sacraments for men, six for
women.
---------priest
goes to doctor, expensive, but not
too holy a doctor.Worried about
the bill, he talks to the doctor..
Doctor says, you think I am good
doctore, and I hear you are a
good preacher.
Here’s the deal. I do all I can to
keep you out of heaven, and you
do all you can to keep me out of
hell – and it will not cost either
of us a cent.
----------priest
boy asks, how come the minister
gets 4 week vacation and you get
only two
dad says - if he is good, he needs a
good vacation. If he not good,
the congregation needs a good
vacation.
-------priest
pouring rain, man falls in gutter,
dying
man comes up, asks. What is your
name?
Seamus O’Reilly – and I am dying
Shall I fetch a priest?
No, get the rabbi!
But O’Reilly, you must be Catholic.
Why a rabbi?
I wouldn’t bring a priest out on a
night like this.
---------priest, preacher
cop hands priest a ticket. Priest
pleads, “I’m only a poor
preacher.”
Cop - Yes, I know that, I have heard
you preach.
-------priest
new priest, new car, speeds. Cop
stops.
“But officer, I am Father Fox.
I don’t care if you are mother goose,
I am giving you a ticket.
-------priest
Asks why the priest in the story of
the Good Samaritan passed by?
Child – because the man had
already been robbed.
------principle
If you don’t stand for something,
you will fall for anything
------prison
for prisoner’s week p;risoner
artist does a crucifixon where the
center is not JC but one of the
thieves, with a woman and two
children at the foot of his cross
---------prophet
How tell the true from false?
There is no way. If there were a
way, if we had a gauge we could
slip over the head and say he is
true or false, there would be no
human dilemma and life would
have no meaning. – it would not
be worth living.
Yet it is terribly important that we
know the difference.
Heschel
----prophet
Student on oral exam at seminary,
weak student, is asked to name
the major prophets. He pleads
humility- who am I – a student,
to decide who is major and
minor.
The exam ended with that
magnificent display of
ignorance.
------prophet
if you are to do the work of a
prophet, you need not a scepter,
but a hoe.
Bernard of clairvaux
--------prophet - see
to see clearly is poetry, prophecy
and religion all in one.
John Ruskin
-------prophet
astrologer foretold death of lover of
King. And she died.
King angry, thought he caused it.
Threatens to kill the astrologer,
but says, - tell men, what your
fate will be.
Astrologer, suspecting danger, says
I see that I will die three days
before your Majesty dies.
So the king fears, believes him, and
protects him.
---------
prophet
The worst thing about being
married to a prophet, besides
washing his sackcloth, is that
you can never throw him a
surprise party.
---------prophet
Hitler asks the astrologer, on what
day will I die.
You will die on a Jewish holiday.
Which one?
I don’t know.
You must know – tell me
I don’t know, because any day you
die will be a Jewish holiday.
-------prophet
a man who feels fiercely that God
has thrust a burden on his soul.
God is raging in the prophet’s words
Heschel
-------providence
Two men about to cross a river.
See crocodiles looking at them.
“Don’t be afraid, one says, God
is merciful and good.”
Yes, I know that, but what if God
suddenly chooses right now to
be good to the crocodiles.
Wiesel
-------prayer, providence
Small town with three protestant
churches and one saloon. The 3
churches try to get rid of the
saloon through a joint prayer
service.
Storm comes up, lightning hits
and the saloon is destroyed.
The insurance company says they
will not pay because it is an act
of God.
So, the saloon owner sues the
churches, parishioners for
conspiring with God to destroy
the saloon.
The people say it is not their fault.
The judge hears both sides and
says: Here is the plaintiff, an
atheist, who maintains he
believes in the power of prayer.
On the other side, we have
church members who deny the
power of prayer.
------------providence
A monkey up a tree hurled a
cocoanut at the head of the Sufi.
He drank the milk, ate the
meat/flesh, and made a bowl
from the shell.
Good from evil
----------providence
man leaves new bike unlocked at
market, forgets it, goes back the
next day and it is still there.
So, he goes with gratitude to the
temple to thank god – and when
he leaves the temple, he sees
that the bike is stolen.
---providence
All shall be well, all shall be well.
You shall see it yourself, that all
manner of things shall be well.
Julian of Norwich
--------providence
man shouts for joy – his horse ran
away, the buggy was destroyed,
the man was unhurt. – thank
God for his providence.
Other man says – every day – I
travel that rocky road, and have
had no accident - - thank God
for ordinary, everyday
providence.
------providence
friend says to Lincoln – I hope
the Lord is on our side.
Lincoln replies. I know the Lord is
on the side of the right. My
prayer is that I and this nation be
on the Lord’s side.
---------prudence
Preacher teaching his child ethics,
the evil of fighting.
Son, if a boy slaps you on the cheek,
what would you do?
Child: “How big is that boy?”
----------punish, justice
man is sentenced to death, and says
to the judge. It is very hard and
rough to hang a poor man for
stealing a horse.
Judge replies: you are hanged, not
for stealing a horse, but that
horses might not be stolen.
---------question
it is better to have an approximate
answer to the right question than
a precise answer to the wrong
question.
----question
Judge a man by his questions
rather than by his answers.
Voltaire
-------question
Nobel prize winner, Isidor Rabi
why a scientist?
Explains, every day, after school, his
mother would ask him not what
he had learned, but “Did you
ask a good question”? Good
questions made me become a
scientist.
------problem, question
the way we see the problem is
the problem
the significant problems we face
cannot be solved at the same
level of thinking we were at
when we created them.
Einstein
------questions
Edison was asked how he knew so
much?
“By telling others that I didn’t
know, and I wanted to know.”
-----------question - prayer
Man raises himself toward God
by the questions he asks God.
(wiesel)
Why do you pray? I pray to the
God within me that he will give
me the strength to ask him the
right questions.
---------question, community
We can build a community out
of seekers of truth, but not out of
possessors of truth.
William Sloane Coffin
----------question
Be patient toward all that is
unresolved in your heart.
Try to love the questions
themselves…
Do no seek the answers which
cannot be given, because you
would not be able to live with
them.
And the point is to live everything,
live the questions now. Perhaps
you will then, gradually, without
noticing it, live along some
distant day into the answers.
Rilke
---questions
Questions are the piety, the prayer
of human thought
Heidegger, according to Steiner
----read, book
If the book we are reading does not
wake us , as with a fist
hammering on our skull, why
then do we read it?
What we must have are those
books which come upon us like
ill-fortune, and distress us
deeply, like the death of one we
love better than ourselves, like
suicide. A book must be an iceaxe to break the sea frozen
inside us.
Kafka
-------------
read, think
Read little and never read when you can
reflect.
The source of knowledge is not in books.
It is in reality and in our thought.
Sertillanges
Not what a writer says, but what is, is of
importance.
-------realism
the best is impossible but the worst never
happens.
--------reality, appearance
Things count for what they seem, not
for what they are. It is not enough to
be right, if right seem false and ill.
Gracian
---------reason, logic
We are controlled by feelings, not
logic, though we think the opposite.
Reason just supplies the arguments to
justify our behavior.
-------redemption - suffer
Russia – just sultan wishes to rid
corruption, and bribery. Whoever is
convicted must be given 50 blows of
the whip in the sight of all.
The first one caught was his mother. He
struggled for three days – then, with
his mother, he gave orders that he
himself be stripped and whipped. He
took the punishment and then told the
people.
“Go home, the law is satisfied. The blood
of the sultan makes up for this crime.”
And from that day, bribery was never
heard again.
----redemption
Christians “would have to sing better
songs to make me believe in their
redeemer. His disciples would have to
look more redeemed.”
Nietzsche, Thus Spake - II,4,
-------redemption –
we trapped in a cave, or mine, or a fire,
and can’t escape.
God comes in person, endangers his self,
and takes our place, rescues us from
certain death.
----love, religion
Let those who are searching for God
visit the prison before going to the
temple;
Let them visit the hospital before going to
church
Let them feed the hungry before reading
the bible.
-----------religion
It is a great mistake to think that God
is chiefly interested in religion.
William Temple
------------religion
Religion is the sigh of the oppressed
creature, the sentiment of a heartless
world, and the soul of soulless
conditions. It is the opium of the
people. The abolition of religion as the
illusory happiness of men, is a demand
for their real happiness.
Marx in his critique of Hegel…
--------religion
The question is not why do men revolt,
but why they do not! Most live nasty,
brutish, short lives…
Possible answer? It is religion that
makes tolerable the intolerable.
------------------religion, intolerance
We have just enough religion to make
us hate, but not enough to make us
love one another
Jonathan swift
---------religion
should be our steering wheel, not our
spare tire.
-------reverence
bow to the world, to nature, to a room
– thank it for its hospitality
to bow – a sign of awakening, attention,
appreciating the moment
Zen
--------resurrection
The gospels do not explain the
resurrection. The resurrection explains
the gospels.
-----rest-
Jesus says come and rest – not stay
forever, not stop, not a fortress..
--------RESPONSIBILITY
King invites subjects to banquet, each
should bring wine and they will pour it
into big vat.
Each says - mine will be lost, so I bring
water..
And that’s what they were served.
---------RELIGION
rabbi and soapmaker walk and talk.
Soapmaker says – what good is
religion – look at all the wars, trouble,
misery – in spite of religion.
They walk, and the rabbi sees a childin the
gutter, playing, filthy. Asks: what
good is soap, with all the soap in the
world, that child is still filthy. Is soap
effective?
Soapmaker. But Rabbi, soap cant do any
good unless it is used.
Rabbi - True – so with religion. It must be
applied and used.
---------RELIGION
In a mosque, someone prays “There is
one God and Mohammed is his
prophet.”
Someone shouts, “He is not.”
Amid the many faces, they see a small
yellow face, a Chinese.
The imam straightens up and smiles:
“there seems to be a little Confucian
(confusion) here.”
------------RELIGION
The 21st century will be either religious
or non-existent.
Malraux
----------RESULTS, FRUITS
I have been growing lately to feel that a
great mistake of my past life… is an
impatience of results.
- an American characteristic.. Results
should not be too voluntarily aimed
at.. they will come... after work…
I think the work as a mere occupation
ought to be the primary interest with
us.
William James
----------RELATIVISM
In a forest, man sees a clearing ahead,
and a hunter emerges. He runs, says –
thanks – I have been lost for two days.
The other man says, why thanks? I am
lost for 4 days.
-------------REALITY, SIGN,
We focus on finger pointing at the
moon rather than the moon
we end up sucking it – (guitton)
----SABBATH
If the Jewish people would observe the
Sabbath properly just once, the son of
David, the Messiah would come,
because it is equal to all the
commandments in importance.
----RICHES
the church can no longer say “silver and
gold I have none.” Thus can it also no
longer say “In the name of Jesus of
Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
-------RICHES DESIRE
Businessman asks how spirituality can
help him, a man of the world.
Master: it will help you to have more!
How?
By teaching you to desire less.
-------SACRIFICE
in a Vietnam orphanage, mortar shell
hits. They need blood for transfusion
for one orphan.
Doctor – American – asks for volunteers.
No one. Eventually one boy - After it
was over, the boy begins to cry. Later
on, they find out why. The boy – and
others, understood that by giving his
own blood, he would die.
-----------DREAM, DESIRES
Ignatius recuperating at Loyola Castle,
sees the emblem in the chapel
Pour quoy non- painting of the
Annunciation
This leads him to conversion, to follow
dominic and Francis
-------------SAINT, HOPE
Ammon Hennacy friend of Dorothy Daywrote a book of his heroes,
A friend asked - why did you forget D.
Day?
No – she ain’t dead yet, and she may
still blow it, and chicken out.
------------SALVATION
Mexico city – earthquake
Man survives 4 days, no food
Children 12 days
One woman 24 days.
----SALVATION
choir returning from concert in plane,
have fears, and the pilot says we must
circle, fix landing gear.
They eventually land – and
spontaneous, full voice, sing the
Allelluia chorus – sing it as those who
were saved,
--------SALVATION
big church service. Mary gets separated
from mom. They announce, if little
girl Mary is lost, come forward. No
one responds.
At the end, mother waits, eventually Mary
comes out – mother is happy. Asks,
didn’t you hear the announcement.
Yes - It could not have meant me,
because I knew were I was.
----------------SEARCH
Everyone has three cravings –
1. makes him a pilgrim - the search for a
better hom.
2. the heart – for a perfect mate, which
makes man a lover
3. for purity and perfection – which makes
one a saint.
Evelyn Underhill
--------------SEARCH
It is not for you to stalk the vision…
the vision is stalking you.
Native American
--------SEARCH
God offers your mind the choice
between truth and repose. You cannot
have both.
If you love repose, you follow the first,
never challenge, and shut the door of
truth.
If truth- you submit to inconvenience of
suspense and imperfect opinion…
emerson
---------------SEE, BLIND
Old man, faithful Christian – loses his
sight. Doctor says – you will never see
again.
Then the next person I shall see will be
Jesus Christ.
-----------SEE, BLIND
two young men on a bus. One with his
eyes closed. Other asks, why?
I can’t bear to see women standing.
--------SEE, LIGHT
daughter comes home at night, her mother
on the porch.
Let’s have a talk.OK Daughter tries to
put on the light. Mother says - No,
leave the light off, I can see you better
in the dark.
---------SEE, CHILD
teacher – what is the color of apples red, green, yellow gold – and one boy says
white!
Teacher says no – but the boy insists,
And says look inside, go deeper !
---------SEE
University invocation by a master who
gives short prayers
Libraries and laboratories, halls and
learned lectures, all shall be of no avail
if the wise heart and seeing eye are
absent.
------LOVE, COMMANDMENTS
preacher shouts- “Believe in the Lord JC
and you will be saved.
Someone challenges - “If you would enter
into life, keep the commandments –
that’s a full time job.
-----------------SELFLESS
we need a new song - I did it THY way
(not my way)
-----SERVE –
Schweitzer refused to go to Harvard for an
honorary degree, his work was too
important. But two years later went to
Colorado to give a lecture. WhY/
The money, donation for his mission was
greater, more important than an
honorary degree.
---------SERVE
when you challenge youth to be men and
women for others, do they respond by
asking WHY should we - or How
can we.
----------SILENCE, COMMUINITY
To be silent alone is one thing. But I
have come to love being silent
together. To give up words as
community is to attempt to go to the
depths together.
Macrina Wiederkehr, OSB
-------SILENCE
Jung advises a patient to take an hour a
day for silence. So the man went to
his study, turned on music, and read.
Jung sees he has not improved –
comments. You have not been in
silence and solitude. You have spent
your time with musicians and aiuthors.
Why are you not willing to spend one
hour each day with the self you inflict
on others the rest of the day.
----------SILENCE
Bumble bee, noisy, buzzing until finds
honey, the silent, concentration
-----SICKNESS, ILLNESS
As long as he visits you with illness,
accept it from his hand as a very
precious gift from the wisest and most
affectionate of fathers and physicians.
Letter of Ignatius
--------SICKNESS
Difference between a psychotic and a
neurotic.
Psychotic thinks 2 and 2 =5
Neurotic knows that 2 and 2 are 4 but he
just can’t stand it.
---------HOSPITAL, SICK
Clinics or hospitals are like shrines
where people participate in the paschal
mystery
JP II - world day for the sick 2001are
privileged places for the new
evangelization, make the gospel of
hope heard…
-------SICKNESS, DEATH
What say to a person near death?
Compassion, assurance? Rather, tell
them that in his death, a part of you
dies and goes with him. Wherever he
goes, he will not be alone.
Krishnamurti
---------SICKINESS
Life looks different from the angle of
the horizontal.
David Livingstone.
------------SHARE, CHILD
teacher asks 7 year old, if somebody gives
you chocolate bar, would you share it
with your brother?
Boy asks: which brother, my big or little
brother?
--------SHARE
Hindu family, no food for 8 days,
Mother Teresa brings some - mother
divides in half, and goes to neighbor they are also hungry - muslims next
door.
---------SHARE
Old man in spare time plants fig trees,
mangoes at edge of village. They tell
him – you will die,you will never get
fruit.
“I spent happy hours under fig trees, and
eating fruit, trees planted by others.
Now I will make sure that others can
have that enjoyment.
-----------SHARE
Tolstoy meets a beggar, and had
nothing to give. In pity, he embraces
the beggar and apologizes, nothing to
give to you my brother.
Beggar lights up, tears and says, you
called me brother, that is a great gift
-----SHARE
Man in need asks Franklin for $25. He
gives it under condition that when he
no longer needs it, he should find
another worthy person and give it to
him with the same stipulation.
----SHARE
neighbor sees Lincoln’s two sons in
tears. What is wrong?
Lincoln says, “what is wrong with the
world. I have three walnuts and each
boy wants two.”
-------SEX
Girl confesses to a priest. I slept with
Jimmy on Monday, Tim on
Tuesday….
Priest – for penance: go home, squeeze a
lemon and drink it.
Will this purge me of my sin?
No, but it will take the smile off your face.
-------SEX
Girl, topless about to enter the church.
The vicar says, no you can’t.
Girl protests, I have a divine right.
Vicar agrees, and adds, you have a divine
left too, but you can’t enter - (Or you can’t enter because you don’t
have your head covered.)
------SERVE
When a father helps a son, both smile.
When a son must help his father, both
cry.
--------SERVE
If you live alone, whose feet will you
wash? Compared with whom will
you be the last of all if you remain a
solitary..
St. Basil
----------SERVE
John XXIII asks - Purpose of life – they
respond: to know, love, serve God and
be happy in next.
He says OK But we must also help others
to know, love and serve God.
---------SACRAMENTS
Teacher: how many are there
All say seven except little Sue.
She says there are no more, My aunt
received the last sacraments last week.
-------SACRAMENT
man at track down to his last $2. he
sees a priest blessing a horse in the
next race. He bets $2. the horse
comes in last.
Goes up to the priest and complains:
You blessed that horse??
Son, I didn’t bless him. I gave him the
last rites.
-------SACRAMENT, SIGN
I kiss my child not only because I love
it, I kiss it in order to love it.
A religious picture not only
expresses my faith, it is a help to my
faith’s awakening.
Baron von Hugel
-------SACRIFICE
too long a sacrifice can make a stone of
the heart
W.B. Yeats
------DISCOURAGEMENT, SAD
Devil one day sold his tools, malice,
jealousy, pride.
But one very high priced tool - what is
that. Discouragement. It is my most
valuable tool, he explains. With it I
can open many hearts, since so few
people know that it belongs to me.
---------
SALVATION, MOTIVE
Angel walks down the street with a torch
in one hand and a pail of water in the
other.
Why?
With the torch I am going to burn down
the mansions of heaven, and with the
water, I am going to put out the fires
of hell. Then we shall see who really
loves God !
-----------------SEE, TRANSFIGURATION
Some of the church fathers held that at
the Transfiguration it was the disciples
who changed, not Christ. Their
perception grew sharper, they beheld
Christ as he truly is.
----------SEE
two men look out from prison bars,
one saw mud and one saw stars.
---------SERVICE, GENEROSITY
As you look back on life, you find
that the moments that stand out are the
moments when you have done things
for others.
-------SERVE, ,KING
Rabbi exclaims: there are two
possibilities;
Either God is king of the world and I am
not doing enough to serve him; or he
is not and then it is my fault.
--------SERVE
make a rule - never, if possible, lie
down at night without being able to
say: I have made one human being a
little wiser or a little happier or a little
better this day.
-------SERVE
What does not belong to service,
belongs to robbery
Luther
---------SERVE
morning prayer
Lord Jesus, I would appreciate it if you
would bring me someone today whom
I can serve. (help)
------------SHARE
it is only for your love alone that
the poor will forgive you the bread you
give them.
Vincent de Paul
--------SICKNESS - action, reaction
I am not made or unmade by the things
which happen to me, but by my
reaction to them.
John of the cross
The action is in the reaction = alinsky
-------------SILENCE
words should not break silence, but
continue it.
(true communication does not interrupt
silence)
--SILENCE TALK
country store in Vermont, men sit
around stove, idling, silent. Visitor is
surprised - asks, is it against the law
to talk?
No – a native replies, but around here a
man doesn’t speak until he is sure he
can improve on the silence.
-----SIMPLICITY, POVERTY
priest visits archbishop of Philadelphia
in his small house and notes, you
should see the splendid residence we
have in Chicago for our archbishop.
Local priest responds: and you should see
the splendid archbishop we have in
Philadelphia for our residence.
----------SIMPLICITY
“Seek simplicity and distrust it.”
Whitehead
----------SIN
homo incurvatus in se
Luther on romans,
Man curved in, turned in upon himself
--------SIN, FORGIVENESS
I believe in the forgiveness of sins… In
the brief hour of our death, we shall
still have nothing else to say.
Barth---------SIN, SINNER
St. francis says he the greatest sinner.
How? Why?
If God blessed others with such mercy as
me, I am sure they would love, serve
him better than I. If God abandons me,
I would be worse than others.
-----SIN, REPENT
man goes to rabbi and says, I wish to
repent, but I don’t know what to do.
And to sin, you knew what to do?
Yes, but that was easy. First I sinned, then
I knew.
Exactly. Now do the same the other way
around. Start by repenting; you’ll
know later.
---------SIN
the tailor is slow in making trousers and
man complains – why so slow, already
six weeks. It took God only six days
to create the universe.
Yes, and look at the shape it is in now!
----------SIN, DEVIL
You must imagine the evil spirit as a
thug hovering over you with a raised
hatchet, ready to chop off your head.
What if I can’t imagine it?
That’s a sure sign that he has already
chopped it off.
--------SIN
sins of omission are sins we ought to have
committed but didn’t.
What must one do before receiving
forgiveness of sins?
Sin!
------SIN, FAITH
Pecca fortiter sed fortius fide et
Gaudium in Christo
Crede fortius.
Luther
Sin boldly, but believe more boldly.
---------SIN, TALENT
We usually resist handing over to God
our extremes – the self at its most
noble and the self at its most mean.
----------SIN
Is like the goat on a rope that winds
around a tree, tighter, shorter, and less
freedom
----------SIN PROVIDENCE
sin is used by God in your favor
sin is the misuse of powers given us by
God for doing good
Basil the Great
--------SIN
We must do something about the status
quo
What is that? It is latin for the mess we
are in
-------SIN
the priest expels a sinner from the
church, and the good abbot goes out
with him, saying, I too am a sinner.
------
SIN PROVIDENCE
I should look upon every sin I have
committed as a favour of God….
Makes clear my essential
imperfection…- which must be
revealed to me… - in order that I may
know the truth
Simone Weil
-------------SIN ERROR small but with big effects
ship was wrecked because small bit of
steel at the compass had made it go
wrong…
piece of sand in a clock - stops it..
------------SIN, FAILURE
Baseball teaches how to deal with
failure - 1 out of 4 is OK
And baseball considers errors to be
part of the game, part of its rigorous
truth.
Francis Vincent, commissioner
---------SHARE
there is no such thing as “my” bread
all bread is ours and is given to me, to
others through me and to me through
others.
For not only bread but all things necessary
for sustenance in this life are given on
loan to us with others and because of
others and for others and to others
through us.
---------SIN
priest to old man – you don’t go to
church, you don’t even know who
made you.
This little boy knows who made youGod.
Aren’t you ashamed.
Old man replies: He was made just the
other day. It’s a long time since I was
made.
-------------SINNER
SAINT
better a sinner who knows he is a sinner
than a saint who knows he is a saint
Jewish proverb
--------sin - omission
Boy asks religion teacher. Can a boy be
punished for something he did not do?
NO- of course not.
Good, I haven’t done my homework.
-----------sin jesus
Jesus Christ is a luxury for me unless I
am in touch with my need, sin,
brokenness.
------sin, trust
Father, into thy hands I give the heart
Which left thee but to learn how good
thou art
George MacDonald
--------sin
The nearer a man draws to God, the
more one sees himself a sinner. =
Isaiah - 6,5.
------sin
how can you tell if a sin we have
committed has been pardoned?
True rabbi - we can tell by the fact that
we no longer commit that sin.
----------sin, sinful church
man looking for good church - and
enters one and hears the preacher:
“We have left undone the things we
ought to have done. We have done
those things which we ought not to
have done.”
The man drops in a seat and sighs with
relief: Thank Goodness, I’ve found
my crowd at last.
-----------sin, temptation
to avoid sin is easy. Imagine you are on
your deathbed - or lying in your
grave.
----------sin, grace
Pastor rejoices with old man over the
conversion of a relative who joined the
church after years of riotous living.
The old man asks if the newcomers sins
will be forgiven.
Pastor says – Yes indeed, the greater the
sinner, the greater the saint.
Old Parishioner says - I wish I had
known that 50 years ago.
---------sin
We only confess our little faults to
persuade people that we have no large
ones
La Rochefoucauld
--------sin
Quarry the granite rock with razors, or
moor the vessel with a thread of silk;
then may you hope with such keen and
delicate instruments as human
knowledge and human reason, to
contend against those giants, the
passion and the pride of man.
Newman - Idea of a University
---------sin, world
Durer painting of Adam and Eve –
about to eat the forbidden fruit, and at
their feet a cat waits, poised to pounce
upon an unsuspecting mouse.
Human sin unleases animal
violence
------------sin, evil
the world is more imperiled by those
who tolerate evil than by those who
engage in it.
Einstein
----------Sin
From bribing thee with alms to excuse
some sin more burdensome, Good
Lord, deliver us.
John Donne
------sin grace –
you can have as radical a doctrine of sin
as you wish, as long as your doctrine
of grace is equally radical
David Tracy - seeing this in The
Brothers Karamazov
-----------sin, devil
If my demons fly away, my angels
will too
Rilke
---------sin
paradox, that sin, which is a negative
word, actually implies an affirmation
of faith – acknowledging that God
exists, acknowledging a gap between
how things are what God wants them
to be.
------sin, love
boy whose parents died in accident,
lives in fear, that they think he did
something wrong to cause it..
then, the aunt embraces him, and says
- OK – you are our child
and he finally feels accepted as a son.
-------sin, forgive
Abba – at the moment when a man
goes astray – and if he says “I have
sinned,” the sin ceases immediately.
---sin, original
man says he cannot swallow the
doctrine of original sin.
Pastor replies - No need to swallow it. It
is already inside you.
------sin, omission
man brags that he has never told a lie.
Other person asks: But have you spoken
the truth when silence was safe.
-------sin - social
We are accomplices to that which
leaves us indifferent.
(holocaust)
---------------social sin
six months in South Africa, and I could
find not one white person who
privately agreed with apartheid.
Public vs. private morality pressure..
----------sin, social, history of
The conclusion, most abhorrent to the
modern mood is that the possibilities
of evil grow with the possibilities of
good, and that human history is
therefore not so much a chronicle of
the progressive victory of the good
over evil, of cosmos over chaos, as the
story of an ever increasing cosmos,
creating ever increasing possibilities of
chaos.
r. Niebuhr, Interpretation of
Christian Ethics, 92
-------------------------sin, truth
girl comes to confession, says she fears
the sin of vanity
WhY?
Because when I look in the mirror, I
think how beautiful I am.
Don’t fear, the priest says, that isn’t a sin,
its only a mistake.
---------
sin, good, ambiguity
preacher asks kids - If all the good
people were white and the bad were
black, what color would you be?
Girl answers - I’d be streaky.
------------sin
they say best men are moulded out of
faults.,
Measure for Measure – v.1
----------------------sin - evil
Day of atonement, - no eat or drink.
Rabbi x visits Rabbi Y, who was sick.
Complains, I am thirsty.
X says – If you are sick you may drink.
Returns later, and asks Y - how is your
thirst?
Y explains: the moment you permitted me
to drink, my thirst disappeared.
-------sin, pride
Girl is asked difference between pride
and vanity.
Pride means “I don’t think much of you.”
Vanity – means “What do you think of
me?”
---------sin
Everything in the world has in it holy
sparks, even trees and stones.
These are in all man does, even in his sins.
When he repents for sins he raises
these sparks back to their source in
higher spiritual levels.
---------sin
man at fork in road – two signs
one way to modern church
other road to psychiatrist
doctor sees him coming, bent over and
says to the priest.
Either he thinks he’s sinned, and you can
have him, or he cant bring himself to
sin and he’s mine.
--------sister - nun
door of doctor’s office opens and nun
comes out. Angry, steelfaced, slams
the door.
Man sees doctor and asks – what did you
do to disturb her so much?
I told her she was pregnant
What – why that - you know it couldn’t
be true.
Yes, I knew it wasn’t true, but it certainly
cured her hiccups.
-------sister, nun – virgin
Archbishop visits mother house. Nun
shows paintings on walls- Virgin of
Lourdes, virgin of Fatima, virgin of
Guadalupe.
Next one, he asks, what virgin is that?
The nun explained. That’s not a
virgin, That’s our Reverend Mother.
--------sister, words
men construct hospital wing, use foul
language, and sisters get complaints.
Foreman speaks to sister and says – sorry,
but my boys call a spade a spade.
O no they don’t they call it a goddam
shovel.
----------------sisters
dining car, two men want to shock sister,
so one says, I am going home to my
parents wedding. The other adds, my
parents thought of marrying, but it was
too expensive.
Sister asks - would one of you bastards
pass the salt.
----sloth
an oppressive sorrow that so weighs
upon a man’s mind that he wants not
to exercise any virtue.
Not just idleness, but dejection,
heaviness of mind, sluggishness,
Desirelessness
--smile
smile at each other, your wife, children it doesn’t matter who it is.
That will help you to grow in greater love
for each other
Mother Teresa
----------joy, smile
How be cheerful? Sit up cheerfully, act
and speak as if cheerfulness were
already there. - act from our better
feeling
William james
--------------solitude
All men’s miseries derive from not
being able to sit quiet in a room alone.
Paschal
--------solitude, wisdom
There is no shortcut, no patent tramroad to wisdom; after all the centuries
of invention, the soul’s path lies
through the thorny wilderness, which
must still be trodden in solitude, with
bleeding feet, with sobs for help, as it
was trodden by those of old times.
George eliot
--------solitude
language has created the world
LONELINESS to express the palin of
being alone, and the world
SOLITUDE to express the glory of
being alone.
Tillich
-------solitude, desert
The really great figures of history all
had to pass through the solitude of the
desert in order to find a new answer to
the basic questions which man faces
there. Only he who can face the desert
can speak.
Eg.
Delp,
Mandela
-----------------------sorrow, sympathy
Woman lost her only son. Wise man
tells her, I will give you back your son
if you bring me mustard seed from a
home which has never had any sorrow.
She searches, and finds no one who
has not lost a loved one.
How selfish I have been in my
grief. Sorrow is common to all.
--------social
executions in Russia - people
rounded up, killed. But also the need
to feel linked – so many of the victims
requested a chance to say good bye,
and because there was no one else,
they embraced their executioners.
------sorrow, contrition
father gives three lambs to three
children. Wolves steal the lambs.
Three reactions
I weep because my father will punish me
I week because he will punish me and will
be deeply grieved
I weep because he will be grieved and I
would rather be punished than cause
him pain.
= steps from servile fear to perfect
contrition
------spirituality- prayer
is the discernment of ideologies - a way
to see clearly, critically
--------spirituality
too often some of the new age people
are seeking a soft world, which their
affluence allows them to purchase,
while turning their attention from the
harsh realities of a world that needs
healing and repair.
Berrigan
------Spirit – discern
Paul – “now you see me on my way to
Jerusalem, IN CAPTIVITY TO THE
SPIRIT (Acts 20:22)
Prisoner of the Spirit, bound by the
Spirit, compelled by the Spirit
------------spiritual life
three stages of development
carnal - trees seen as trees, mountains as
mountains
spiritual – trees no longer trees, see more
deeply
divine - enlightenment - trees become
trees again.
----------spirituality - apostolic
Bonaventure says that St. Francis had
the gift of tears, and wept so much, the
doctor warned him he would become
blind.
He said OK
Ignatius – in similar situation, stopped
praying so much lest he ruin his eye
sight.
-----------spirituality
is what we do with the fire inside of us
– how we channel our energy, eros, for
good or evil.
-------spirituality
the more you are interested in the
Incarnation, the more you must be
concerned about drains. - decent
conditions to live in…
-------spirituality
Sit in your cave, and the cave will
teach you everything
St. Anthony of Egypt
--------spirituality – piety, liberal
the trouble is that the pious are not
liberal and the liberal are not pious.
Kasemann
------sports
coach, player and president of the
college meet. Answer one question
and you can play. President asks –
what is 6 +6. Players says 12. Coach
says – “ah, give him another chance.
He only missed by two.”
--------stages of life
at twenty, the will rules
at thirty, the intellect
at forty, the judgement
--------stages of life
every seven years, the disposition
changes –
after the first seven comes reason,
at twenty, man is a peacock
at thirty, a lion
at forty, a camel
at fifty, a serpent
at sixty a dog
at seventy an ape
at eighty, nothing at all.
gracian
-------Steal
Difference between a church bell and a
pickpocket.
One peals from the steeple and the other
steals from the people.
--------stories
Stop, you can’t leave what I’m telling
a story. Stories are what you are going
to remember from this class/lecture.
Bettelheim as a student is about
to walk out..
---------stories
listen attentively, and above all
remember that true stories are meant to
be transmitted. To keep them to
oneself is to betray them.
Elie Wiesel, quoting his grandfather,
a great story teller
-------strategy, little
I am done with great things and big
things, great institutions and big
success, and I am for those tiny
invisible molecular moral forces that
work from individual to individual,
creeping through the crannies of the
world like so many rootlets, or like the
capillary oozing of water, yet which, if
you give them time, will rend the
hardest monuments of man’s pride.
William James
------------suffering – beauty
Paradise is beautiful, but Gethsemane
is even more beautiful
Van Gogh
--------success
Success is not one of the names of
God
--------suffer
Tell priests not to talk of suffering.
They don’t know what they are talking
about. They don’t know what it is.
Archbishop Veuillot, dying of
cancer, age 55
-------suffer
If we could hang all our sorrows on
pegs and were allowed to choose those
we liked best, every one of us would
take back his own, for all the rest
would seem even more difficult to
bear.
Rabbi Nahum
---------
spiritual - god in all
They criticize a Russian spiritual
director for spending so much time
advising an old peasant woman about
care of her turkeys.
He answers: not at all, her whole life is in
those turkeys.
-------spiritual
Dharma is cleaning a toilet
--------spirituality
Sunday religion is like an old clock
(wound up on Sunday) that is OK on
Sunday but gradually gets worse,
wears down.
---------suffer
Prisoner, in prison uniform in
handcuffs, goes to see coffin of his
mother who was slain. Father, an
alcoholic is not there. A younger
brother, in tears, wipes the tears of the
brother in handcuffs.
What future ? what a past!
--------------suffer,
Man with a terrible disease complains
to his rabbi hat his suffering interferes
with his learning and praying.
Rabbi responds: “How do you know,
friend, which is more pleasing to God
– your studying or your suffering?”
----suffer
Man struggles along the street,
moaning, groaning, limping.
One asks – What is wrong?
These shoes are killing me
Why wear them?
Business is bad, I owe hundreds, car
smashed, my wife nags me. I come
home after a fruitless days work, I
look at bills and I could kill myself.
But when I take off my shoes, I have such
a great feeling, it’s the only thing that
makes life worth living.
------------suffering – hidden God
God is with us – like a father teaching
a child to walk - moves about- and
without warning, risks letting the child
stumble and fall.
So with us – God restrains his power to
enlighten us so that we may receive,
step by step, the revelation of what lies
beyond one’s limits.
-------------suffer, paschal mystery
Yesterday I hung on the cross with
Christ; Today I am glorified with him.
Yesterday I was dying with him, today
I am brought to life with him.
Yesterday – buried with him, today I
rise with him.
Let us become like Christ since Christ
became like us. Let us become gods
for him because he became man for us.
Gregory of Nyssa
---------strategy
If you give a man a fish, he will eat
once
If you teach a man to fish, he will eat for
the rest of his life
If you are thinking a year ahead, sow seed
If you are thinking ten years ahead, plant a
tree
If one hundred, educate the people
By sowing seed, you will harvest once
By planting a tree you will harvest tenfold.
By educating the people, you will harvest
one hundredfold.
========
suffer - compassion
We should love and feel compassion
for those who oppose us, rather than
abhor and despise them.
For they harm themselves and do us good.
They adorn us with crowns of
everlasting glory while they invite
God’s anger against themselves.
St. Anthony Zaccaria.
------------------suffer, evil, God
After hearing stories of the Holocaust,
we fell silent. An old man then spoke a
medieval parable.
In some village in Poland was a small
synagogue. One night, the rabbi
entered and saw God sitting in a dark
corner. He cried out “God, what you
doing here?” God answered neither in
thunder nor out of a whirlwind, but
with a small voice. “I am tired, Rabbi,
I am tired unto death.”
--------------Suffer
God, I do not aspire to comprehend
you or your creation, nor to understand
pain or suffering. I aspire only to
relieve the pain and suffering of
others…
St. Francis of Assisi.
------------suffer - Africa
I saw a man lying on the ground,
almost buried in the sand and ants
running all over him – a victim of
sleeping sickness – abandoned. As I
helped him, I could see through the
door of the hut the bright blue waters
of the bay, green trees, almost magic
beauty… setting sun.
To be shown in a single glance such a
paradise and such helpless, hopeless
misery was overwhelming – but it was
a symbol of the condition of Africa.
A. Schweitzer
---------Spirituality
There are many who live in the
mountains and behave as if they were
in the town, and they are wasting their
time. It is possible to be a solitary in
one’s own mind while living in the
crowd, and it is possible for one who is
a solitary to live in the crowd of his
own thoughts.
Amma Syncletica
-----------suffer, God
brilliant son killed in accident - father
complains to minister, where was God
when my son was killed.
Reply: “God was just where he was
when his own son was killed.”
-----suffer, providence
newscaster, “Cancer was the worst
thing and the best thing that happened
to me. Enriched my life, made me
wiser, happier. Even if I try to
prevent, avoid it again, I am glad I had
it.”
-------suffer
Jesus didn’t die to save us from
suffering – he died to teach us how to
suffer
Mev Puleo, died of cancer, age
27, student of theology
-----------suffer
God did not say you will not be
trouble, travailed, distressed. But he
did say you will not be overcome.
Juliana of Norwich
---------suffer, gift
When a man suffers, he ought not to
say that is bad. Nothing God imposes
on man is bad.
It is OK to say, it is bitter. For among
medicines, there are some that are
made with bitter herbs.
-------Sunday - threat
Preacher scolds - “Do you know
where little boys go who fish on
Sunday?”
“Yes, we all go down to Smiley’s creek,
under the bridge.”
---------Jesuit, superior - judgment
The superior passes by a few scholastics
One says – here he comes again –
checking up on us
Other says - there he goes right by us,
doesn’t give a hoot about how we are
doing.
-------Surrender
God does not ask anything else of you
except that you let yourself god, and
let God be God in you.
--------sympathy
Fr. Damian of Molokai - pours boiling
water , spills on foot, and has no
sensation, and realizes he has leprosy.
Next Sunday at Mass, he smiles “This
morning, instead of addressing you as
my dear brothers, I shall simply say
My dear fellow lepers.”
-------sympathy
Julius Nyerere dressed like a poor
man, went for food hand out, saw the
cruelty, favoritism, corruption of what
should be free, - and then did
something about it.
-------sympathy, understand
wife of british in India gets angry at
servant, late, did not sweep. Tears
into the servant. He answers: “sorry,
my little girl died last night and we
had to bury her.”
Suddenly, he became a person, a
thou, not just a sweeper.
------sympathy – grief
we can forget those with whom we
have laughed, but we can never forget
those with whom we have
cried/mourned, wept.
Kahlil Gibran
--------sympathy
old man lost his wife, lives alone,
despondent. Little neighbor, 4 year
old goes, sits with him in backyard.
Mom thinks he may be bothering the man.
Asks, what did you say to Mr. Jones.
I didn’t say anything. I just helped him
cry.
--------sympathy
Daniel Webster visits his daughter,
who was doing. She looks up and says
– Father, why are you out in the cold
without a coat.
Webster reflects - she is dying, yet she
thinks of me, my good.
This is just what Jesus did. He thought of
others all his life.
---------talent, genius
boy asks Mozart how to write
symphony. Mozart says you are
young, begin with a song.
Boy insists – “you wrote a symphony
when you were ten!”
Yes – said Mozart, but I didn’t have to ask
how!
--------talent errors, mistakes
Honus Wagner led the league in errors,
but was also Most Valuable Player !
How ? he goes after everything – he
makes more errors, but also more put
outs.
-------------talent, sin
By what men fall, by that they rise
------talent, handicap
Gladys in college, blind - and then
one day the electricity was out – and
she became the leader - came into her
own that night.
--------teacher
what we need more than anything else
is not textbooks but textpeople. It is
the personality of the teacher which is
the text that the pupils read. The text
that they will never forget.
Heschel
------teach, catechism
Rich and noble woman visits Pius X.
Gets a blessing and asks what can I do
for the Church?
She expects a huge assignments, and he
says- to go and teach catechism to
children!
-----teacher
Old teacher always bowed to the class
before he began
Why?
Because you never know what one of the
students may turn out to be
----teacher - holiness
Mark VanDoren: when he took hold of
the doorknob of his classroom to enter
for a lecture, he always paused. It was
holy ground – a holy opportunity
--------teacher
four seniors turn up late. Give a big
story about a flat tire. Teacher says
OK – but you must make up for the
test you missed.
So – take seats apart – and get out pens –
and one question.
Which tire was flat?
-------teacher
Rabbi reviews story of Samson for
kids. And ask, what did Samson use
for his victory over the Philistines?
Silence - so teacher helps by pointing to
his jaw.
Student bursts out - I know, the jawbone
of an ass.
----------teach
Teaching should be such that what is
offered is perceived as a valuable gift
and not as hard duty.
Einstein
-----------teacher
A teacher who can arouse a feeling for
one single good action, for one single
good poem, accomplishes more than
he who fills our memory with rows
upon rows of natural objects, classified
with name and form.
Goethe
-------teach - words
Jesus not only speaks wise, beautiful
words, but also draws beautiful words
out of others - eg. – the syrophoenician woman
-----------teach, study
Student is not like a sponge, but a shark;
the teacher’s job is to bloody the
waters.
John Giles Milhaven
---teach
Do not suppose that any human is the
teacher of another. We can admonish
by the sound of our voice. But unless
there is one who teaches on the inside,
the sound we make is futile.
Augustine, Sermon on 1 Jn
3:12
--------teach – questions
in France, if there are questions, the
students keep silent. A question is an
admission that they do not understand
and need to do more work.
In America, studies are more reactive, not
afraid to challenge the teacher.
Jean-Luc Marion
----------teach- St. Joseph
Fr. Mass knew everything there was to
know about Joseph. The only thing he
didn’t know is that nobody else cared.
---------teach
An American can tell you when he agrees
and is quiet when he disagrees.
An Israeli keeps quiet if he agrees and
you hear him loud and clear if he
disagrees.
I want you to be Israelis
------teacher
if a student/child happens to show that
he knows some fact about astronomy,
or plants or birds, that interests him
and you, hush all the classes and
encourage him to tell it so that all may
hear. Then you have made your school
room like the world.
If the boy stops you in your speech,
cries out that you are wrong and sets
you right, hug him !
Emerson
---------technology
When the wheel was discovered, one
farmer did not rejoice because he
feared he might develop a mechanical
heart through contact with the gadget.
Chinese story
----------technology
a mechanic in the presence of his
machine must say with satisfaction “it
is new, it is mine.” But he must add
with still greater satisfaction, “ I have
discovered more than I have invented.
This has been for man an unexpected
meeting with God.”
If in the past, nature was the intermediary
between Him and the human mind,
why should not the work of
teachnology be the intermediary today.
Pope Paul VI
-----------television
Television is the first truly democratic
culture – the first culture available to
everybody and entirely governed by
what the people want. The most
terrifying thing is what people do
want.
Clive Barnes
-------temptation
a heavy smoker reads in a magazine
about the bad effects of smoking. So
he says he gave up reading magazines.
-----------temptation
When you are tempted, do not fall
immediately to prayer. First utter some
angry words against the one who
afflicts you. The reason for this is
found in the fact that your soul cannot
pray purely when it is under the
influence of various thoughts. By first
speaking out in anger against them you
confound and bring to nothing the
devices of the enemy. To be sure this
is the usual effect of anger even upon
more worthy thoughts.
Evagrius, Praktikos
--------temptation
for three years, Vincent de Paul suffers
temptations against faith, creed.
These left him when he resolved to
spend his life serving the poor.
--------
temptation
child sees a wolf, is in danger, runs
immediately to parent, calls for help
-------thanks, gratitude
master is given $ 2. million – and the
giver looks for gratitude, gets none,
and is disappointed.
Master says- you, the giver should be
grateful.
(vs. hooks attached to our generosity)
---------gratitude
if the only prayer you say in your
whole life is THANK YOU – that
would suffice
Eckhart
-----------thanks
Grace before meals
Some people have food but no
appetite, others have appetite but no
food. I have both. Praise and thank
the Lord.
---------theology
I did not learn my theology all at once,
but I had to search deeper for it, where
my temptations took me.
Weimar TR 1, 352.
A man becomes a theologian by living,
by dying, and by being damned, not by
understanding, reading and speculating
Weimar WA 5, 163.28
Creatio, meditation, tentatio faciunt
theologum.
luther
---theologywhen theologians meet, should hang a
sign – danger, theologians at work.
-------------------thanks
man comes home from work, finds his
house in a shambles, Beds not made,
kitchen sink filled, clothes scattered.
No dinner. Asks his wife: what
happened?
Nothing, she replies. You always wonder
what I do all day long. Well, take a
look. Today I didn’t do it, today I did
nothing.
---------thank
motto of famous family – Montefiore think and thank – and in medieval
language, thankfulness means
thinkfulness.
----gratitude, thank
Gratitude brought me into the Church
and that gratitude grows, and the first
word my heart will utter when I face
my God is “Thanks.”
Dorothy Day
She wants on her tombstone - Deo
Gratias
THANKS
-------thanks
Thou hast given so much to me
Give me one thing more – a grateful heart,
Not thankful when it pleaseth me,
As if Thy blessings had spare days,
But such a heart whose pulse may be
Thy praise.
George Herbert
----------gratitude
Among all evils and sins imaginable,
ingratitude is the most abominable in
the sight of our Creator and Lord as
well as in the sight of all his creatures
who are capable of enjoying his divine
and everlasting glory. Ingratitude is
the total disregard for the benefits,
graces, and gifts received, and is the
cause, beginning, and origin of all sins
and misfortunes.
Ignatius of Loyola
--------gratitude
When eating a fruit, think of the
person who planted the tree
-------thank
Child gets gift from uncle, and instead
of thanks, runs to tell parents how
great his uncle is. Parents say, go back
and thank. But actually the child was
correct. As in the bible, true thanks is
to praise the on who gives, namely
God.
-----------theology
flat tire theology - the spirit, the air is
gone out of it.
It might well have an accident, and it
is not going anywhere
Plattfusstheologie
--------theology
On his death bed, Schleiermacher
wished communion, but the doctor
would only allow bread and water, no
wine.
Barth comments – a fitting end for one
who had diluted the Christian faith.
--------theology
students seem to realize that studying
about God without a felt sense of God
as Companion, Consoler and
Challenger approximates studying the
beauty and glory of the tides without
diving in to relish the waves.
Virginia finn
--------theology
Cobb Hall, University of Chicago
Divinity School, 10 angels look down,
bible in hand, long hair, robes, halo,
as we students rigorously and critically
de-mythologize the Scriptures and
tradition
------theology
the purpose of theology is threefold:
to refute errors, to teach sound morals,
and to contemplate truth
Thomas, on Sentences I, Prol. 1,5.
----------theology – suffer
All true theology begins in pain
D. Soelle
------theology
a theologian is one who has mastered
theology- one who can say how many
opinions there are on every point, what
authors have taken which, and which
is the best – who can discriminate
exactly between proposition and
proposition, argument and argument,
who can pronounce which are safe,
which allowable, which dangerous –
who can trace the history of doctrines
in successive centuries, and apply the
principles of former times to the
conditions of the present.
Newman, letter to Sister Maria Pia
-------theology - easter
Each year at Easter I watched Christ’s
resurrection. We gathered around the
tomb for a week – we beat on the
ground to make it open, and behold –
it crumbled – Christ sprang from the
earth, smiled at us, and waved a white
banner.
But one year I didn’t see him – that
was when a great theologian, a
university grad – got in the pulpit and
explained to us the resurrection for
hours. He explained so much our
heads began to swim. Yes, that year
the stone didn’t crumble and no one
saw the resurrection.
Kazantsakis - St.
Francis
--------theology
the angels laugh at old Karl. They
laugh because he tries to grasp the
truth about God in a book of
Dogmatics. They laugh at the fact that
volume follows volume and each is
thicker than the previous one. As they
laugh, they say to one another: “Look.
Here he comes now with his little
pushcart full of volumes of the
dogmatics.” And they laugh about the
men who write so much about Karl
Barth instead of writing about the
things he is trying to write about.
Truly, the angels laugh.
Barth on Barth
-------theology
humanist basically looks back – best
of the past, memory and intelligence
scientist looks forward – creativity , the
new
Science will progress but humanism?
We will never surpass Mozart,
Beethove, Shakespeare. They are
heights, nonprogressive.
George
Steiner
-------think
God guard me from those thoughts
men think in the mind alone. He that
sings a lasting song, thinks in a
marrow bone.
w.b. yeats
--------think –
4th grade teacher “now Johnny, can
you tell me exactly why you think
Beethovens’s 5th Symphony stinks.
-------time
is the God-given opportunity to learn
to love
wainwright
-------time, eternity
wife of Thomas More tries to persuade
him to take the Oath of Supremacy.
Thomas ask: How much longer do you
think I shall live?
Wife - a good twenty years!
Thomas: Twenty years? And for the sake
of 20 years comfort in this life you
would have me throw away a
happiness in the next life that would
last forever, and face the prospect of a
life of endless misery. Surely that
would be a very bad bargain.
--------time, spirit
local people carry baggage, after a few
days, they sit down, lethargy, refuse to
budge. Then two days later start
again. Why?
They explain: we had gotten ahead of our
spirit. We had to stay there until the
spirit caught up with us.
----time
Jewish man with God, God explains
size of universe, galaxies, sun is like
a grain of sand, millions of light
years, one day is like a thousand year.
So the man says – if it is so large, how
about giving me some gold, just a
little.
God replies - OK - just wait a second
(million years)
------toleration
critics ask the Jewish wise men – If
God does not approve idolatry, why
does he not simply abolish it?
People make gods of the sun, moon, stars,
so should God destroy the world
because there are some fools around?
Eventually the fools will have to
render an account.
-----------toleration
Tolerance implies no lack of
commitment to one’s own beliefs.
Rather it condemns the oppression or
persecution of others.
-----wisdom
Don’t be in any hurry to build a new
gym. That way you lose your alibi,
excuse.
Basketball coach
------clean - transform, sacred
The simplest, most direct method of
creating sacredness into everyday
surroundings is cleaning. – purity,
orderliness, balance, renewal.
Neglected objects and corners receive
love and attention. Things begin to
shine - without spending a penny on
redesign, the room is transformed…
----tree, cross,
SYMBOL
My faith is all a doubtful thing,
Wove on a doubtful loom –
Until their comes, each showery spring,
A cherry tree in bloom
And Christ who died upon a tree
That death had stricken bare
Comes beautifully back to me
In blossoms, everywhere.
David Morton
------tree - growth
on a big occasion, plant a tree or shrub
– and keep a
note of this..
-------tree
touch your hand, hold on to an old
tree, -- it relieves distress,
degeneration, and recharges energyor go into a forest.
When you talk to an old oak tree, which
knows more than you will ever see its not craziness, its just the nobility
you respect.
Autobiography of Ms. Jane
Pittman
------trust
best preacher is a little robin – who
eats crumbs I put on window, every
day- trusts me – and then hops to a
tree and sings, praises God
------trust –
parents complain that their son abandons
religion, is a freethinker
Master says: don’t worry – if he is really
thinking, then the MIGHTY WIND is
bound to arise that will carry him to
the place where he belongs.
---------trust
priest nervous about preaching – how
overcome it?
Advisor says- “you trust in God, I trust
in myself, that works better.”
God is in you, in your depths ?? !!
--------trust, God
man falls off a cliff, ½ way down
grabs a branch, calls for help.
Voice says, I am God - OK – let go of
the branch…
Man looks up and down, and pleads – “Is
there anyone else up there?”
--------trust
sheep finds a hole in fence and
wanders away. Eventually the
shepherd rescues him and carries him
back to the fold.
In spite of everyone’s urgings, the
shepherd refused to nail up the hole in
the fence.
-------------trust, church
Pope John XXIII had difficult to get to
sleep on the day he called the Council.
Then heard: Giovanni, why don’t you
sleep? Is it the Pope or the Holy Spirit
who governs the Church? It’s the
Holy Spirit- so go to sleep.
-------trust,
man visits guru and says, I don’t bother
to tie up, lock up my camel. I trust
God.
Guru - go back and lock it up. God
doesn’t have time to do what you
should do.
---------trust
Therefore I will trust him. Whatever,
wherever I am, I can never be thrown
away. If I am in sickness, my sickness
may serve him; in perplexity, my
perplexity may serve him; if I am in
sorrow, my sorrow may serve him. He
does nothing in vain. He knows what
he is about.
-------------trust
Theresa of Avila started building a
church with 2 pennies. Some one
complained, worried:
She replied, 2 pennies and Theresa
are nothing.
2 pennies and God are everything.
----------trust
Building the San Francisco bridge, - lst
part, no safety devices and 23 fell to
death. Then, install great and costly
safety net. Saved lives and men
worked 15 % faster, relieved from the
fear of falling.
So we can be assured of God’s
love..
------trust
Prison warden sends lifer to city to buy
machine for the prison.
He returns, full account – and the
warden asks, why didn’t you escape?
I don’t know, I guess it was because
you trusted me.
-----------wisdom
Uncle comes and gives nephew $$ to buy
something.
He holds out two coins - - a bright new
quarter, and a dirty looking old $5.
gold piece.
Boy is puzzled - so he turns to his
mother and says – mother, you choose
for me!
---------trust,
old woman has cataract fixed. Doctor
removes the bandage, and asks her to
wave hand it she can see. – no
response.. Doctor thinks she can, but
she is quiet. He asks, why don’t’ you
respond – wave hand or speak?
She replies: “you performed the
operation. So you must know whether
I can see and how I see!”
---think, truth
they ask the master, is it true that this
young disciple knows as much as they
say he does?
Master- to tell the truth, he reads so much
I do not see how he could ever find
time to know anything.
-------------sympathy, understand
woman in train, with baby crying. Man
is annoyed, says keep that child quiet.
Woman responds. It is not mine, I am
doing my best.
Where is the mother?
In her coffin in the baggage car up ahead.
Man fills with tears and carries the
baby….
----------
unity
3 sons quarrel, Father says, gather
sticks, tie them together, now try to
break them.
Take them apart, they break.
“As long as you are united, you are
strong. If separate, you are undone.”
----unity – creation
The butterfly effect. If a butterfly is
hurt, the effect is felt in galaxies
thousands of light years away…
--------------vice, prejudices
The preacher was against murder,
shootin craps, etc. and old woman was
saying, amen, amen
They he spoke against snuff - and she
exclaimed. Darn he’s stopped
preachin and gone to meddlin.
----------victory
winning isn’t everything, it’s the only
thing.
Red Sanders - Vanderbilt football
coach
Lombardi – “Winning is not everything.
But making the effort to win is.”
----------------violence
breeds only temporary victories; by
creating more social problems than it
solves, it never brings permanent
peace.
m.l. king
--------violence
recourse to force is always and in
every way a failure
the man who strikes first admits that
his ideas have given out.
Chinese proverb
---------violence
Violence is always a failure
to
respect God’s image and likeness in
our neighbor, in every human person,
without exception.
John Paul II
-------vision
Obstacles are those frightful things
you see when you take your eyes of
your goal.
Henry Ford
-----vision, courage
a woman, about to climb a high
mountain on pilgrimage- and the inn
keeper says – you will never make it,
bad weather, slippery.
She responds: it is simple. My heart has
been there for years. It is only now
taking my body there.
----------vision
Give us clear vision that we may know
where to stand and what to stand for,
because unless we stand for
something, we shall fall for anything
Minister peter marshall
---------vocation
Irish grandmother; So, you join the
Jesuits rather than work.
-----vocation - religion
The minister announces that he had a
call to go to another parish.
They ask, how much salary will you
make.
$500. he says.
That’s fine, I don’t blame you for leaving,
but don’t you think you should be
more exact, that’s not a call (as in
poker) that’s a raise.
-------vocation
Rabbi is asked: how is the desire to be
a rabbi different from other desires?
Before one attains the desire to
become a rabbi, he must break himself
of every other desire.
--------vocation
It seems to me it is the right thing for a
director to discourage people who
think they have a vocation. If it is real,
it will vanquish all obstacles, and will
stand out, not as a mere invitation, but
as a categorical imperative.
Abbot chapman
----------vocation
success is simply a matter of choosing
the right profession
Al McGuire - basketball
coach
--------Vocation
Walter Burghardt to his father “I want
to be a Jesuit.”
Father: “If that’s what you want, then
be a good one.”
-------vocation
Parents want to see what their son will
be, so put 1000 Naira, bible, and beer
on the table and watch. If he takes
bible – preacher, if naira, banker, if
beer, drunkard.
Alas, he takes all three - - Aha - a
politician
(or a Catholic priest)
---------vocation
Show me one way to the service of
God!
Master replies; there is no one way. –
One serves God through learning,
another through prayer, another
through fasting, or eating. Everyone
should carefully observe what way his
heart draws him to, and then choose
this way with all his heart.
------
handicapped,
Cardinal Cushing visits handicapped. Asks
the children “do you know why we are
all here?”
Boy answers: “Because we are not all
there.”
The Cardinal agrees: we are all on the
way, no one has arrived fully.
----weakness
Achilles - mother dipped him in
charmed water as a child, so he would
never be wounded. But she held him
by the heal and that was untouched by
the water - there he was wounded, his
Achilles heal.
----------welcome, hospitality,
The classic sign of our acceptance of
God’s mystery is welcoming and
making room for the stranger, the
other, the surprising, the unlooked for
and unwanted.
-------will of God – peace, devil
The devil always tries to convince us
that we would be better in a place
where we are not.
Xavier
--------will of God – weather
traveler to old shepherd - what sort of
weather will it be today.
Shepherd – whatever weather I like
How can that be?
Because it will be what God pleases and
what pleases God I like.
-----Will of God, handicapped
Vanier on TV show is asked how a
severely handicapped girl felt about
her situation.
He says, let her speak – so she types out
her response: “I wouldn’t have it any
other way.”
-------
will of God
often appears as a pill, a bromide, a pain
killer, to be taken when things get
rough
------wisdom
a person should never be ashamed to
say he has been in the wrong, which is
but saying in other words that he is
wiser today than he was yesterday.
Pope
--------wisdom, wealth
Wise man, under a tree, and a villager
comes up – demands, the Stone, the
stone. What stone?
I was told in a dream to go to man under a
tree, ask for a stone that would make
me rich.
Holy man searches bag, gets stone, gives
it to the visitor, saying I found it.
Alas – a huge diamond, largest in the
world.
He goes away, rich happy. But that night
he couldn’t sleep. Next day, early,
goes back, gives back the diamond and
says
Give me the wealth and wisdom and
freedom that makes it possible for you
to give away that diamond so easily.
-----wisdom
Great Rabbi lay dying. Students line
up receive his last words. From the
most brilliant who was first to the last.
Brilliant asks: “What is the meaning of
life?”
Rabbi groans – life is like a cup of tea. –
and they pass this word back until it
gets to the weakest. He asks “what
does the rabbi mean, life is a cup of
tea?
The word is passed back to the most
brilliant.. who asks “What do you
mean?
Rabbi shrugs - OK then, so maybe life is
not like a cup of tea.
---------------wisdom - education
learning is got by reading books or
listening to lectures.
Wisdom is gained by reading the book
that is you – and that is not easy, for
every day brings a new edition of the
book.
---------wisdom
tends to grow in proportion to one’s
awareness of one’s ignorance. That
is, when you come to see you are not
as wise today as you thought you were
yesterday, you are wiser today.
---------wisdom
Emerson gives a book of Plato to a
simple farmer, and asks, did you enjoy
it?
Yes – this Plato has a lot of my ideas!
-------wisdom – knowledge, writing
Writing gets harder for me every year.
.. the problem is that everything you’re
saying connects with more and more,
and you can’t cut it off. Few people
know how much you have to know in
order to know how little you know.
-----witness, courage, speech
Father Michael Lapsley, Anglican
priest deported from South Africa,
working in Harare, opens a package,
letter bomb, destroys both hands and
one eye
“They took my hands and my eye;
but they left me my most powerful
weapon, my tongue. And with my
tongue I will continue to denounce
apartheid until the day I die.”
---------witness,
question
Speak little and only when asked. But
so live that your life becomes a
question
Rede wenig und nur wenn du gefragst
wirst, aber lebe so, dass man dich
fragt.
-------witness, law
Monk asks advice from Master Monk:
some brothers come to live with me,
should I give them orders, give them a
rule of life.
No - but they want some.
No – be an example to them, but not a
lawgiver.
------------witness
We will let their lives speak
Quaker proverb
--witness
Man lives 6 miles from church,
complained to the pastor of the
distance.
“Never mind, remember every Sunday
you have the privilege of preaching a
sermon six miles long to all the
residents and people you pass.”
----witness
Sir Christopher Wren - architect of St.
Pauls - 35 years in building - buried
there – and it says
Si monumentum requires,
circumspice.
If you are seeking a memorial stone,
look around
----wisdom
He that knows not and knows not that
he knows not
Is a fool – shun him
He that knows not and knows that he
knows not
Is simple – teach him
He that knows and knows not that he
knows
Is asleep – wake him
He that knows and knows that he
knows
Is a wise man – follow him
Arab proverb
---------wisdom
Famous rabbi, logician, could answer
any question.
So to test how he could think even if tired
or tipsy—they gave him wine. They
carried him to a cemetery and see what
he says when he awakens:
“If I am living, then what am I doing here:
if I am dead, why do I want to go to
the bathroom.”
----woman
Whatever you say against women,
they are better creatures than men, for
men were made of clay, but woman
was made of man
Jonathan Swift
-------woman - marriage
a Mormon argued against Mark Twain,
in favor of polygamy.
And asks for a SS passage against it.
Twain replies - that’s easy “no man can
serve two masters.”
--------woman – bible
The Bible and Church have been the
greatest stumbling blocks in the way
of woman’s emancipation.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
-------woman, liberation
In North Africa, a visitor notes that
women walk ahead of their wives. He
congratulates the chief on this progress
in liberation.
Yes, the chief says, there are still so
many unexploded land mines in the
sand
------woman liberation –
minister complains to his wife that
washing dishes is not a man’s job.
Wife retorts
in the Bible - “I will wipe Jerusalem as
a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and
turning it upside down.”
2 Kings 21,:13
------woman – atheist
Old Brit Anglican, annoyed at the church
of England, admitting women priests
and bishops
The daughter says – Dad, you haven’t
been to church for 10 years, you said
you were an atheist.
Yes, but I’m an Anglican atheist.
-------words
When the other fellow acts that way he’s ugly
When you do it,
it’s nerves
When he is set
obstinate
You firmness
Doesn’t like your friends he’s
prejudiced
You don’t like his - you show good
judgment
When he tries to accommodate, he’s
polishing the apple
When you do it, it is tact
When he takes time - he is dead slow
When you take ages, you are deliberate
When he picks flaws - he is cranky
When you do, you are discriminating-----------words
Be careful with words, they are
dangerous. Be wary of them. They
beget either demons or angels
Wiesel, Legends of our
time, 31
--------words
President Truman in a speech at the
Garden Club says “good manure is
needed for flowers.
Woman says to his wife Bess, could he
not say fertilizer?
She replies: heavens no, it took me 25
years to get him to say manure.
--------wisdom, fool
Fool goes to the rabbi and says, I know
I am a fool, but I don’t know what to
do about it. Please advise me.
Rabbi says, if you know you are a fool,
then you surely are not a fool.
Man complains: but why does everybody
say I am a fool.
Rabbi thinks and says - if you yourself
don’t understand that you’re a fool, but
only listen to what people say, the you
surely are a fool.
------words
Webster, of dictionary fame, His wife enters the house and sees
Webster embracing the maid
Mr.Webster she says, I am surprised.
He reproves her: No my love, you are
amazed, it is we who are surprised.
-------wisdom
poor man finds a wallet with $90. in it,
and name, address, reward of $10.
He goes to the house and the man says Aha – you already took the $10.
reward.
Man swears, NO.
Man says, it was $100.
No, he swears again.
So they go to wise rabbi and appeal.
He takes the wallet and gives it to the poor
man. And says to the rich man, I take
you at your word. You said the wallet
contained $100. but this man says it
had $90. so it can’t be yours. We
must wait until someone finds a wallet
with $100.
---wisdom
older and younger get into a fight. Go
to court; old man says, he is my
nephew, I am responsible for him, so I
hit him.
The youth says he is lying,he is not my
uncle. And that he tore my clothes
Solution from the judge
To the old man – go out and buy clothes
for the boy.
-if he is your nephew, then you must
take care of him.
If he is not, then it is your
punishment.
--------words
an order comes to curb drinking
so one writes the order:
Soldiers are forbidden to enter places
where liquor is sold after 10 PM
General rewrites it:
Soldiers are permitted to enter places
where liquor is sold until 10 PM
------word of God - lector
A tv newcaster is called by the priest
on Thursday to be lector in church on
Sunday.
He replies: What- only four days to
prepare!
-------word
reporter asks Martha Graham, what
does your dance mean?
Darling, if I could tell you, I would not
have danced it.
= ask Louis Armstrong a definition of
Jazz?
If you have to ask, you will never know.
If you got it, you don’t need a definition.
If you haven’t got it, no definition is
going to help
--------words - beauty
10 most beautiful - dawn,hush, lullaby,
murmuring, tranquil, mist
luminous, chimes, golden, melody.
---------words
woman was a gossiper, finds fault in
others, slanders. St. Philip tells her –
for penance get a chicken and scatter
the feathers as you walk home. Then
come to see me tomorrow
she does this. He says, now pick up every
one of the feathers.
Why that is impossible! The wind has
blown them everywhere.
So he says – yes, that is how it is with talk,
it is impossible to call back
--------words
correction in a paper. The recipe for
chicken salad should call for 2, not 21
jalapeno peppers. Sorry
---------words
John Madden to Oakland football team
before the Superbowl.
I never knew what it meant, but I told
the players: don’t worry about the
horse being blind, just load the wagon.
---------words
waitress asks: are you fond of lobster
salad?
No, I am not fond of it, but I am grateful
to it.
-------word, alcohol
priest warns people about dangers of
drink
If you put a worm in water, it is healthy,
if in whiskey, it dies.
So one parishioner says, that was great.
You showed us that if drink plenty of
whiskey, we will not suffer from
worms.
-------work
Jesuit brother, John Soto – a tailor,
very good worker and prayerful.
When dying, asked for a needle – and
said, this is the key that will open the
gates of heaven for me.
-----work - incarnation
I can more easily see our Lord
sweeping the streets of London than
issuing edicts from its cathedral.
----work
Because of the Incarnation, it is a good
and holy thing to clean drains.
------work
It is not only prayer that gives God
glory but work. Smiting on an anvil,
sawing a beam, whitewashing a wall,
driving horses, sweeping, scouring,
everything gives God some glory if
being in his grace you do it as your
duty. To go to communion worthily
gives God great glory, but to take food
in thankfulness and temperance gives
God glory too. To life up the hands in
prayer gives God glory, but a man
with a dung fork in his hand, a woman
with a slop pail, give him glory too,
He is so great that all things give him
glory if you mean they should. So
then, my brethren, live.
G.M. Hopkins
-------work – vocation
If two angels were sent down from
heaven,one to conduct an empire and
the other to sweep a street, they would
feel no inclination to change
employments.
John Newton
----------work Ask a street cleaner, - what is the most
important work in the entire universe?
Why cleaning this street !
----------work
He who does not teach his son a trade,
teaches him to steal.
Jewish proverb
---------work
poor man came every few months to
clean our windows. One day my
mother called to watch him. “do you
know what he is doing?
Washing windows !
He is putting his two sons and daughter
through university.
-------work
all the saints were busy people. To them
a hammer and saw, a pick and shovel,
a typewriter, a broom a dust pan, a
wash rag, were as sacred as the chalice
and ciborium on the altar. St. Benedict
laid down the rule that the monk in
charge of the tools should take care of
them as he would the sacred vessels of
the altar. Why? Because their tools
were the instruments with which his
followers gave glory to God.
-------work
work is love made visible.
Kahlil Gibran
--------work
Mommy, don’t you ever get tired
of doing the dishes.
I’m no doing the dishes, I am building a
home.
----------
work – artist
A man who works with his hands is a
laborer. A man who works with his
hands and his brain is a craftsman; a
man who works with his hands and his
brains and his heart is an artist.
Louis Nizer
-------work
One maintenance worker meticulously
scoured, polished the cockpit of each
kamikaze pilot he tended. He said it
was the pilot’s coffin and it should be
spotless.
One pilot about to take off,
complemented, thanked the worker. It
meant very much for the pilot. The
workers eyes filled with tears and he
ran along with one hand on the wing
tip as the plane taxied for its final take
off.
-------work - home
over the kitchen sink – sign - Divine
service conducted here three times a
day,
---worry
Man had his way of handling worries.
He would worry only on Wednesday.
If a worry came another day, he would
write it down and put it in a box.
Then, he opened the box on
Wednesday, but – alas – most of the
things that disturbed him were already
settled.
-------worry
An angel met a man carrying a big
sack, and asked what was in it.
My worries, said the man.
But the angel opens it, and it is empty.
Yet the man said he had two worries yesterday, which he now saw was past,
and tomorrow, which had not yet
arrived.
The angel told him he needed no sack, so
the man gladly threw it away.
-----------writing
Each morning, when about to write,
Joseph Conrad threw himself on the
floor, wept bitter tears because of the
dread of writing.
--------work, vocation
Note that the apostles were always
busy when Jesus called them - fishing,
customs, mending nets.
God never visits the idle or
unserviceable life.
-------work
Stone cutters attitude to work
1. I am dressing, cutting this cornerstone (work-thing)
2/ I am earning a living
3. – flings arms out - I am building a
cathedral
------------work
old man wants sons to learn a trade- he
was a vinegrower. Tells them to find
all that is in my vineyard - and they
think he means a hidden treasure. So
they shovel and pick. They find no
treasure, but the ground was prepared
for vines which produced good grapes
and made them rich.
-------work - cooperation
boy trying to move big stone and cant.
His father watches, and asks, - are you
using all your strength.
Yes –
No - you haven’t asked me to help you.
------work – effort I find that the harder I work, the more
luck I seem to have.
Jefferson
--------work
Circus elephant dies - three men sit
glum. Clown says “I know the
elephant is a big loss, but why do you
take it so bad?
We have to dig the grave.
-----work
You should not say of a shoemaker
that he makes shoes, but that he keeps
people (Christians) shod.
--------work – talent
Mechanic fixes a car by turning one
small screw. He charges $10.
What – so much for one little screw?
How do you itemize it.
$50 cents for turning the screw, and
9.50 for knowing which screw to turn.
------work - child
Teacher assigns – what would you do
if you had a million dollars/
All write – except Willy
Why?
Willy sits back in chair, and says, “this is
exactly what I would do if I had a
million dollars,”
-------work, luck
Luck is a by-product of busting your
fanny.
The harder I work, the luckier I get
------worship
We come into the Long House to
change our way of life, to give
ourselves to the Spirit. If you believe
deep down, your Song will come to
you. The Son will sing you. Our work
in the Long House brings the best out
of us.
-------worship, service, mission
Sitting at a quiet Quaker service, a
new visitor asks:
When does the service begin?
When the worship ends.
----------worship
Boy asks dad – why go to synagogue
if you don’t believe in God.
Dad- Jews go for different reasons. My
friend Garfinkle goes to talk to God,
and I go to talk to Garfinkle.
-------write
T.S. Eliot is supposed to have said
“the purpose of literature is to turn
blood into ink.”
-------write - passion
Frost came into the class and asked if
anything they had written they would
stand by passionately. Nobody
responded- so he took the papers and
threw them in the basket and left the
room.
-----write
the best way to learn to write is to
write letters because a letter is a
message from someone to somebody
about something.
According to Dan Lord
----------writing
Rejection slip for a Chinese magazine
Your article is too good. It would
stand out, and make others look weak.
-----golf - fanatic
man comes home after long day of
golf. Wife says- Johnny just came in
(son) and sayd he caddied for you all
day!
Dad: Is that so, somehow I thought the
caddy seemed mighty familiar.
--------zeal
what does it mean to be a follower of
Jesus?
I am like a dry stick, of little value, yet
when set on fire, I give light, warmth
and peace.
Compesino in Bolivia
----------zeal, fire
man goes to master – says, I pray, fast,
meditate, I live in peace, I purify my
thoughts. What else can I do?
Master raises hands to heaven. His fingers
became like ten lamps of fire, and he
said - “If you will, you can become all
flame.”
----zeal
Loyola castle - painting of the
Annunciation
Pour quoy non - leads to
Ignatius’
Conversion
----suffer
The most important question you dare
ask a person - what are you going
through.
----------Joke providence
Farmer complains of bad weather.
Minister says, you have much to be
thankful for. Providence takes care.
Even the birds of the air are fed each
day
Yes - off of my corn
---joke penance confession
lumber yard worker tells priest he stole
a lot of material. Desiring to give a
suitable penance. The priest asks, did
you ever make a novena?
Penitent replies - no, but if you got the
plans, I got the lumber.
----joke - toast
As you slide down the banister of
life, may the splinters never face the
wrong way.
------joke,
man goes into come in 1980 and
awakens in 2005
calls stockbroker - Exxon - now worth 5
million, IBM now worth 4 million
I’m Rich, I’m rich.
Telephone operator interrupts - your
three minutes are pu. Deposit 1
million.
----joke, sympathy
The beer was awful and the man
complained to the tavern owner.
What are you complaining about. You
only got a pint, I have 10 barrels of
that awful stuff.
----joke
have you heard about the Irish man
who had two wooden legs – his house
went on fire and he was burnt to the
ground.
--------joke
Texan in Israel driving, is thirsty.
Gets glass of water from old jew talk,
How large is your property 60 by
150 feet
Well, Texan boasts, I have a big ranch. I
get in the car at 9 AM and drive –
don’t get to the other end until 6 PM
Jew - I once owned a car like that.
------joke
Wealthy man tells the steward that the
towel did not seem clean.
Steward says it was cleaned
No - it smells like dead fish.
Well the steward says - - perhaps you
used it previously
-joke
New York in the desert – sees a man
with a swim suit - asks
Where’s the ocean?
800 miles
Boy, what a beach!
--------clever
end a sentence with prepositions is bad ?
at this point in our conversation – that
book “why did you bring that book
here to read to me from out of up for.
William Carroll, sj
-------joke, humility
Famous coach Don Shula goes to
movie theater in small town with his
family. When he enters, the small
group applauds. Don asks “how did
your recognize me?”
They reply - we didn’t – but the
manager said that unless 4 more
people show up, there would not be a
movie
----------joke
store window with nothing in it but a
clock. Goes in to get his watch fixed.
Man says, I don’t fix watches, I am a
mohel, moy;l
The one who does circumcision.
But why a clock?
S0 – what would you put in the window?
--------joke, Eden
Story of Adam and Eve – and teacher
tells kids to draw a pix
Fred – a car with one man in front and
two in back
He explains: God driving Adam and Eve
out of the garden
------joke – child
lst day of school – Milton comes
home, greets mother
what did you learn
to write
wow – good boy what did you write?
How should I know, I can’t read.
-------joke, clever
Voltaire in England 1727- anti-French
sentiment, they shout Kill him, kill
him.
He replies; Englishmen, you want to kill
me because I am French. Is it not
enough punishment that I am not an
Englishman.
Crowd cheers, lets him off safely.
------clever, language
two jews bet $5. as plane approaches
Hawaii – argue on how to pronounce it
- Hawaii or Havai.
Get of plane, rush to first native - he
says Havai.
The one takes the money, gloats. Gives
coin to the native
Native replies - you’re velcome.
-------wit, clever
to perceive it makes one an eagle. To
produce it, an angel.
What beauty is for the eyes and
harmony is for the ears, wit is for the
intellect.
---joke - church
Minister was asked to tell Joe- with his
serious heart condition that he wone $
1 million.
So he calmly asks – Joe, what would you
do if you inherited $ 1 million
Well, I would give half to the Church!
The minister fell over dead
---------joke, alcohol
sermon against drinking – the
choirmaster likes to drink
“If I had my way, we would take all the
liquor in Dublin and pour it in the
river. All in the state, all in the
world…
Choirmaster had enough – and so
exclaims “now shall we sing SHALL WE GATHER AT THE
RIVER.
-------joke, alcohol
Two deacons are having a drink and
the preacher goes by.
One is upset “I hope he didn’t see us.”
Other explains: “What difference does it
make, God knows we
Are in here.”
Yes, but God will not tell my wife that I
am here.
-------clever, joke
actor just published his
autobiography, and a pretty dumb
blond remarks: “I saw your new book.
Who wrote it for you?”
Actor replies: “I am glad you enjoyed
it, who read it to you?”
--------clever joke
Two men traveling in a bus. Thieves
rush in - hold up
One turns to the other, pulls out wallet.
Here is the $50. I owe you.
---------clever joke
Junior hangs out at local grocery store they tease him, he is simple.
So – they offer him a choice between a
big nickel and a small dime – and he
takes the nickel - it is bigger.
The owner asks - these boys are teasing
you. Do you grab the nickel because it
is bigger?
No - If I took the dime, they would quit
doing it!
-------joke,
Paddy sees his wife without clothing
before the mirror.
She says: the doctor said I have good long
arms, well formed chest, and a good
flat stomach.
He asks: did he say anything about a big
fat ass?
She says: No, he didn’t mention your
name at all.
-------spirit, discern
There is that near you which will guide
you. O wait for it, and be sure that ye
keep to it.
Isaac Penington - quaker
--joke, fear
Small danger on a ship - the captain
says to his steward. Get my red shirt,
if I am injured, I don’t want to see
blood, but fight on.
Later, danger intensifies - surrounded by
three ships, he says to the steward:
Better get my brown trousers.
--------joke, devil
Old woman very poor - next to her, a
atheist, mocker
She prays so loud he hears – that she has
no bread.
He says, I will trick her – so he puts bread
at her door, knocks and runs away.
She shouts - thank you Lord.
He comes back - You silly woman. You
think God answered your prayer, I
brought that bread!
She continues – praise the Lord, he
always helps me, even if he has to use
the devil to answer my prayers.
----strange
Emperor Menelik II – established
Ethiopia. He ate a few pages of the
Bible to restore his health. After a
stroke, he ate the entire book of Kings
- and died of a bowel obstruction
--joke, future
If you want to make the gods laugh,
tell them your future plans.
--------joke - doctor
Paddy had operation, three friends
come by to cheer him up. They tell of
one operation where doctor left a
sponge in the patient.
Other tells when they left scissors and
had to cut again.
Just then the doctor sticks his head in the
door and asks:
Has anybody seen my Hat? Paddy
faints.
-------joke - Ratzinger
old lady goes to cathedral in Munich- I
want to see Ratzinger.
Answer: No, he is not here, he went to
Rome.
Same thing three days in a row
Finally the priest says – I told you he is no
longer here.
I know, she says, I just like to hear you
say it.
-----joke, funeral
6 jazz pall bearers for jazz musician.
Wife asks one of them - can you tie a
bowtie on the deceased?
He hesitates - cant you use a clip on?
Wife replies; no, he wouldn’t be caught
dead with a clip on.
-----joke, death
Cajun boy comes running into the house.
Mamma, pappa done hung himself in
the garage
Yes – he repeats, he done hung himself
Momma says - did you cut him down?
Boy – hell no, he aint dead yet.
------------joke, death, wife
Paddy and family walk to the cemetery
with body of his wife. A pallbearer
trips, casket falls, opens, and lo – she
comes back – it was a deep coma.
Five years later, she dies again. As the
pallbearers approach the spot where
she dropped and came back – he
shouts – “For God’s sake, watch the
steps.”
-------joke - words
Why no headline - “Psychic wins
lottery.”
Why doctors call what they do
“practice”
Why click on START to stop windows 98
Why is an invester called a broker
Who tastes dog food that has a “new and
improved flavor”
------joke
cowboy buys horse from minister. It
needs religious words
eg. To start, you say Praise the Lord. To
stop, you say Amen.
- one day, the horse goes real fast, he
says WHOA – no result. They are
heading for a cliff. Cowboy
remembers, and shouts Amen. Horse
stops at edge of cliff, breathes a sign of
relief and looks up and says Praise the
Lord.
-------joke, tithe generous
All those in my church tithe - they give
10% of what they OUGHT to be
giving.
--------joke - engineers
Two engineer and one says. “Where
did you get such a nice bike?”
Other says – I was walking along, and a
beautiful woman rode up on this bike.
She threw the bike to the ground, took
off all her clothese, and said “Take
what you want!”
Engineer says Good choice, the
clothes probably would not have fit.
------joke, - intellectual
Intellectual is one who can listen to the
William Tell Overture without
thinking of the Lone Ranger
-----joke – engineer
To the pessimist, the glass is half full
Optimist
half empty
To the enginner, the glass is twice as
big as it needs to be.
---------joke –
seminarian complains about cold, place
for retreat is too cold.
Rector says OK – but sometimes we send
men to Canada and north Europe, cold
weather…for studies, so I will keep
this in mind.
Seminarian drops his complaint - I will go
for the cold place retreat
-----joke - Franciscan
Cannibal complained of indigestion after
eating a Franciscan missionary.
How did you cook him
I boiled him
That’s the trouble, never boil Franciscans,
they are FRIARS
-----joke - steal
Customer puts $5 on bar, staggers
away. Paddy the tender puts it in
pocket. Sees the boss glaring at him.
Paddy explains “Would you believe it – he
leaves a $5. tip and doesn’t pay for the
drink.
-------joke
knock, knock - who’s there?
Aach –
Aach who?
God bless you.
-----joke - drive
Lot’s wife looked back and turned into a
pillar of salt.
My wife looked back and turned into a
telephone pole.
------joke – dog
man takes new hunting dog out – shoots
duck that falls into the lake. Dog
walks over water, gets returns with
duck
Hard to believe – so he goes with friend –
wants to see if it is true, so says
nothing, but each time, dog walks on
water.
Finally, he asks friend – did you see
anything unusual?
Yes, come to think of it,- your dog can’t
swim.
-----------joke - senior
Senior citizen dance, Sid loses wallet
containing $600. He announces, I lost
wallet with $600. – and I will give $50
to the man who finds it.
Voice from the back says, “I’ll give
$75.
-joke
it wont be long now as the rabbi
circumcised the little boy
------------joke- ecumen
Paisely goes to heaven, sees the pope, and
leaves, says he prefers hell.
Three weeks later - knock on gate of
heaven. It is Satan, let me in, this
Paisely is too much
----joke - stars
Paddy, gets job at observatory – sees the
professor looking through a large
telescope. Just then a shooting star
goes by.
Paddy exclaims: Man alive, you’re a fine
shot!
-------joke, funeral
we can remember George as a
convicted counterfeiter or an an
unselfish and generous individual who
paid off the church debt.
----joke - church contribut
Pastor – we have good news and bad
Good – we have reached the goal in
pledges for the new church
Bad - they are still in your pocket.
--------joke - cath. Church
Catholic has heart attack, calls for priest.
Old man comes forth –I am not a
priest, but I live next to the Church.
Every night I hear them pray, so
maybe I can help. Old man kneels
down and says solemnly O 72, B-5
G51
-------joke – Christmas
how old is baby jesus this year?
Child says “Four – four advent
candles.”
-----joke – Christmas
Excuses for not going to church - too
much hugging or not enough
hugging,etc.. so I don’t go any more
I went once, but I didn’t recognize the
place without the poinsettias.
----joke
Store was robbed, and man gets
sympathy. He says, it could have been
worse.
How?
Well, the day of the robbery, I marked
down everything 20%
------joke – sex
Gynecologist – elderly couple come
and ask him to witness, help them with
their technique. He says fine. They
pay $20 and come back, next week
and again.. after six times, Doc says
you are fine, why come back?
Well – this is covered by medicare and
$20 visit is cheaper than a motel.
-------joke
Walk a mile in a man’s shoes before
you criticize. Yes – then if he gets
angry, you’re a mile away and he is
barefoot.
-------joke
cannibals are proud of their table
manners. They take the missionaries
with a grain of salt.
----joke
missionary says – “you know nothing
of religion?
Cannibal. Well we got a taste of it
when the last\
Missionary was here.
-------joke - fast
missionary pays surprise visit to elder
who he baptized. It was Friday, and
priest notes he is going to eat meat on
Friday
Man answers - when you baptize me, you
ask me to give up Indian name and
become Peter. Well, before I put the
deer in the pot, I place water on his
head and I name him fish.
-----joke
a loser is a stowaway on a Kamikaze
plane.
-----joke
show me a man with both feet on the
ground and I’ll show you a man who
cant put his pants on
---joke
your seat cushion can be used as a
flotation, folks, if we are crashing.
Man responds: if we are crashing, my
seat cushion gonna be used for
something else (toilet)
---joke - money
gambler offers $5000. for homeless
project and an elder objects. Says it is
the devil’s money
pastor answers: the devil had it long
enough. Now let’s see what God can
do with it.
-------joke
How many narcissists does it take to
change a light bulb?
One. Just hold the bulb while the world
revolves around you.
-------joke – money
Man tells his pastor he got religion.
Great – now you lay aside sin
Yes
And now you are going to pay up all your
debts, and to the church too?
Wait a minute, parson, you aint talking
religion now, now you’re talking
business.
-------joke –prayer
Visitor to college asks what does the
chaplain do?
He gets up in the chapel every morning,
looks over the student body and prays
fervently for the college
---joke, priest, rabbi
Rabbi runs into Fr. Murphy’s car – jumps
out- sorry, are you all right?
OK – but shaken
Have some whiskey
OK
Rabbi suggest have another, its my fault
Murphy asks – are you have one?
Rabbi – what, with the police already
arriving?
-------joke
there is only one difference between
you and a jackass.
A jackass wears a hat.
What do you mean? I wear a hat!
Then there is no difference.
------clever, joke
man condemned to death by hanging –
but in show of mercy, he can select the
tree on which he would be suspended.
He selects a twig 8 inches high. I am in
no hurry. I can wait.
--------joke, work
Mrs. Reilly, I am afraid your husband
will never work again, says the doctor
sadly.
Wife: I’ll go in and tell him. That will
cheer him up.
-------hope
children on shore, building castle.
Wave comes, destroys it, but they do
not cry – they just build another
--------joke
man was a poor speller - why not buy
a dictionary.
What good. If I can’t spell I cant find
them. And if I can spell, I don’t need
the dictionary.
---------joke, marriage, example
school children shouting, making noise.
Mother asks, what are you quarreling
about?
Child says - we are not quarreling, we are
just playing mommy and daddy.
--------hypocrites - church
on a bus, Fr. Reilly hears from excatholic - boasts, I don’t go to church.
Too many hypocrites there.
Priest retorts - don’t let that keep you
away. There is always room for one
more.
------joke 1954 world series, don liddle comes
relief for Giants, Vic Wertz hits huge
460 foot drive, Willie Mays makes a
great catch. Taken out, Liddle at the
dugout says “Well, I got my man.”
----joke
G.B. Shaw to Churchill – two tickets for
new play which opens Thursday.
“Bring a friend if you have one.”
Churchill to Shaw: Sorry, I can’t attend
the opening. I will come to the second
performance if there is one.
-------joke
man on plane sees he is to sit next to a
bishop. Asks for a change.
Why? It is an honor to sit next to a bishop
Yes, but I cant use half of the words I
know.
--------joke
American in WAC army in Europe. she has to sneeze on busy street. Very
loud. The cop nearby shouts
Gesundheit. She rushes over to the
cop, thanks him – exclaims: Thank
goodness there is someone around here
who speaks English.
---------joke – freedom
American and Russian argue about
freedom
In America, we are free to say or do what
we please. I can walk up the president
of the USA and call him stupid, and
nothing will happen to me.
Russian replies – same is true in Russia. I
can walk up to our leader and say the
American president is stupid, and not
fear anything.
---joke
visitor sees much discontent in East
Germany, but finally finds a man who
likes his job. He says, no matter what
others tell you about the communists, I
would rather work for them then for
anybody else.
The visitor is happy to find such a man –
and ask – what is your job.
I am a gravedigger.
--------joke - pressure
pressure is when you look at a
cheerleader and don’t notice her body.
Al McGuire
You don’t know what pressure is until
you play for five bucks with only two
in your pocket.
Lee Trevino
--joke
two motorists on a bridge too narrow
for two cars to pass – impasse
one shouts - I never back up for an idiot.
Other replies as he shifts into reverse - I
always do.,
---joke
that was quite a wind storm, wasn’t it?
Sure was, our hen had her back to the
wind and she laid the same egg five
times.
---joke – joy
man in misery goes to a shrink
doctor advises him – you need cheering
up. go and see the great clown
Grimaldi
Ah that’s the trouble, I am Grimaldi
-----joke –
four political protestors, men on
hunger fast in Panama
- sanctuary
at the nunciature. Padilla tells them
get food at night when no one sees.
They do this – after two weeks - “please
give us something other than rice and
chicken.
-------joke
Berra to waitress. “cut the pizza into four
rater than8 slices, I don’t think I can
eat eight.
Dizzy Dean – after hit on the head. “The
doctors x rayed my head and found
nothing.
Berra on Toots Shor;s restaurant. “Its so
crowded, nobody goes there anymore.
------joke, culture
Italian soldier being tortured.
Eventually released, he is asked – why
didn’t you talk, to avoid the torture.
How could I talk, my hands were tied.
--------joke
Franciscan and Dominican come to
small, swollen stream. Domican ask
Franciscan to carry him - with his new
white habit vs. dirty brown one. But
half way over, getting tired, the
Franciscan asks - “do you have any
money?” Yes – a few pesos. So he
drops him into the water. We have a
strict rule that we are not allowed to
carry money.
-------joke- friend
He hangs around like a fart in a phone
booth.
---joke
man complains to police – 4 brothers
in one room, 4 monkeys, 3dogs, 5
snakes - and no air. You must do
something.
Officer says – why not open the window?
What – and lose all my pigeons!
---------------joke – nuimbers
2 men drinking - one explains
coincidences - other day was 7th of
month, my daughter’s 7th birthday,
party for 7 friends, train to work was
777
So went to race track – in seventh race, 7
horses, I bet on # 7 to win.
Did he win?
Nope – he came in 7th.
-----------joke
Political meeting, debate, and a man
was shot. Visitor asks why?>
He made a motion that was out of
order.
What ! you shoot a man for motion out
of order
Well – the motion was towards the gun
in his pocket
-------joke- death, money
Father gives 3 sons 50,000 naira each –
says, use it for business, and when I
die, return it to me. Put it in my coffin.
doctor - engineer and businessman
the
first two put the 50,000 cash naira in
the coffin
The businessman comes up, takes out the
100,000 cash, and writes a check for
150,000 and leaves it in the coffin!
-------joke fame, death
Rich but ignorant lady invites
Paderewski to give a private concert.
She comments, that was lovely, who
composed it.
He says Beethoven.
Ah yes, she says, is he composing now?
No madam, he is decomposing.
--------joke
Why are the O’Connors learning
French?
They adopted a French baby and they
want to be able to understand it when
it starts talking.
------joke - ego
Big joker and talker at dinner, holds up
fork and asks “Is this pig?”
Someone replies – “to which end of the
fork do you refer>”
joke
Waiter: tea or coffe
One - I will have tea
Second - me too, and be sure the glass
is clean
Waiter returns: two teas, - which one
asked for the clean glass?
------joke, clever
Jewish man about to jump in ocean,
suicide
Jewish policeman try to dissuade him how can you…
I don’t want to live
If you jump, I must jump in after you and
I cant swim and I \
Have four children. Do you want that
on your conscience
No
So be a good Jew, go home, do a good
deed, in the privacy and comfort of
your home – go hang yourself.
------joke three thugs attack Slattery. Fierce
struggle. Finally they get him down
and take 55 cents from pocket.
One thug asks - why did you put up such
a fight for 55 cents.
Oh – I thought you were after the $50 in
my socks.
--------joke, death
What do you have in that lovely vase
on the mantel
My husbands ashes
Oh – I didn’t know he died
Dead? Who is dead? He is just too lazy
to look for an ashtray
---joke
Isidore dies, leave insurance policy
worth $50,000. to everyone’s surprise
Did this console his widow?
No – she cries, all life, he worked night
and day, we lived as poor as mice, and
just when God decides to drop a
fortune in our lap, he drops dead.
--------joke, marriage
man worried – says, I don’t know what
to do with my wife.She is asking for
$50 again.
What does she do with all that money?
I couldn’t tell you - I never give it to her
-------joke prodigal son
Class on prodigal son, teacher asks,
who was sorry that the prodigal son
returned
Child answers the fattened calf
------joke, clever
Boy is caught writing “May God
punish the principal..
Asks why – he thinks, says, I had not
finished, I was really writing,
May God punish the principal’s enemies.
----joke, sex
Teacher asked her students to use the
word fascinate in a sentence.
Mary. We went to the zoo. It was
fascinating. (close)
Sally. I went to the zoo – I was fascinated.
(close)
Johnny raises hand – he has bad language.
Teacher says he cant do much with
fascinate, so OK
Johnny – “My sister has a sweater with 10
buttons.
Good, go on
But her boobs are so bit, she can only
fasten eight.
----------joke, charityu
businessman goes by beggar, and
drops 10 cents in box.
And he never took any shoelaces.
One day, the beggar touches him. He
expects the beggar to ask why he never
takes shoelaces. Why I just put in a
dime?
No - - says the beggar. I just wanted to
tell you that the price of shoelaces is
going up to fifteen cents next week.
-----joke, clever
Girl goes up to pianist after concern
and asks for autograph.
My dear, he says, my hands are very tired
from playing.
My hands are tired too – from clapping.
She got her autograph.
------joke
Tramp takes a dump in the park, and lo
and behold, two cops nearby. So he
covers it with a hat. They inquire. He
explains that he caught a rare bird.
He will go and get a cage, and asks the
police to guard the hat.
After one hour, they decide to catch it.
The policeman lifts the cover of hat,
grabs it Good Lord, I busted every bone of its
little body.
---joke – doctor, clever
Patient goes to doctor for first visit.
Doctor asks, who did you see before me?
The village druggist.
What foolish advice did that idiot give
you.
He told me to come and see you!
---joke - marriage
Wife and husband quarrel. She tries to
make up, gives her husband two nice
ties for Christmas. Next day, to please
his wife, the husband wears one. She
complains, -What – So you don’t like
the other one.!
---------joke – clever
Boy, not bright, annoys the
blacksmith. So the smithie holds out a
red hot iron to the boy –
The boy says, if you give me half dollar,
I’ll lick it.
Smith holds out the coin, to get ride of the
boy
The boy takes the coin and licks it – puts it
in his pocket and walks away.
------joke, - teacher
This is the 5th time this week I am
punishing you. What do you have to
say>\\
Thank God it’s Friday.
-----joke, fight, child
Johnny comes home from school, face
bruised.
Mother says, you have been fighting.
Didn’t I tell you to count up to 50
before you fight.
Yes, but Billy’s mom told him to count
up to 25. Before I could get to 50, he
attacked and hit me.
----love
The big day in your spiritual life will
come not when you believe hat you
love God, but when you realize how
much God loves you.
Novice director to deMello
-------God – love
There is nothing you can do to make
God love you less. There is nothing
you can do to make God love you
more.
Desmond Tutu
----------love, neighbor
I sought my soul but my soul I could not
see
I sought my God but my God eluded me.
I sought my brother, and I found all three.
William Blake
------kairos – active
Successful businessman gives speech,
repeats, “jum, jump at the opportunity.
So someone asks - How do you
recognize the opportunity?
You don’t, you just keep on jumping,
and one day you will find you got it.
---------time, kairos
Look to this day! For it is life, the
very life of life.
…Yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow
is only a vision.
But today well lived makes every
yesterday a dream of happiness and
tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well,
therefore to this day.
Sanskrit
------joke, hell - husband
Spiritualist communicates with the dead
husband.
Wife – Are you happy where you are dear
Yes
Are you happier when you were here with
me?
Yes indeed I am
Heaven must be wonderful
Maybe it is, but I am not there
-----kindness
We must be more kind than just.
Kindness alone reconciles
Chrysostom
---kindness
When I was young, I admired clever
people.
Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
Heschel
----kindness, gentle
you catch more flies with honey than
with a barrel of vinegar
------wisdom, knowledge
What did you discover at the great
rabbi’s school?
I discovered that God exists. He is Lord of
the whole world.
But everybody knows that !
No, they say it everywhere, but at his
school they know it.
----knowledge
Rabbi and disciple, cross the meadow.
Disciple says, if only we could
understand the cackling of the geese,
and the lowing of the cattle.
Rabbi says: when you get to the core
of understanding what you yourself
are, you will understand the language
of all creatures.
-------know - alcohol
Man complains - I am cursed, my boy
doesn’t know how to drink and he
doesn’t know how to play cards.
Why is that a curse – that’s a blessing.
Why complain?
Because he does drink and he does
play cards.
------joke – heaven
Taxi driver and priest die – get to gates
of heaven.
Taxi driver gets in quick. Priest has to
wait.
St. Peter explains: Father, when you were
preaching, everyone fell asleep. But
when the taxi driver was driving,
everyone was praying and watching
out for the hour.
-----heaven, hell - serve
hell = banquet, great food, but people
cant feed themselves because spoon
is longer than their arm,
heaven – same food – people happy
and well fed because they help, feed
one another.
-----heaven good deeds
Wealthy man gets to heaven and gets
small hut. St. Peter says that his
servant has a big mansion.’
Why? It’s the best we could do with the
material you sent ahead while you
were alive. We can only build here on
the foundation you prepare while on
earth.
--hell – fear
Man says I am 70 and have never seen
a place as hell – don’t believe it.
Grandpa - have you ever been dead
yet.
----heaven, joke
Adam and eve were Russians - why?
They didn’t have a house to live in,
didn’t have any clothes, only had one
apple and they called it Paradise.
---heaven rest
When and if God lets me into heaven,
I think I will go off in a corner for a
half hour or so and cry, because the
strain will be off and the work will be
done, and I haven’t been unfaithful or
disloyal
Horace McKenna – a few
days before he died
-------hell –
stingy miser getsto heaven. And is
asked. What did you do to merit
heaven.
He replies - 1 naira to the red Cross, 1 to
build church, 1 to flood relief.
Is that all –
Yes
Well here are your three naira – take
them and go to hell.
------repent, sorrow
What is repentance? Child says - it is
being sorry enough to stop doing it.
------forgive – prodigal
Every parent is at some time the father
of the unreturned prodigal, with
nothing to do but keep his house open
to hope.
John Ciardi
--------forgive
Doing an injury puts you below your
enemy. Revenging one makes but even
with him. Forgiving him sets you
above him.
Ben Franklin
------forgive
The town called “I will never forgive
you” never grows big
---kindness
John Bosco – ruffians insult him - so
he says,you are thirsty and buys them
soda
They accept, sit down, listen - become
good friendsHe wins them by kindness,
forgiveness.
--------forgive - plus sign
If you cannot excuse the deed, excuse
the intention
St. Bernard
Say it was forgetful, ignorance, etc.
----forgive –
if you want to see the brave, look at
those who can forgive.
If you want to see the heroic, look at those
who can love in return for hatred.
Bhagavad Gita
---------forgive
If you do not forgive a crime, you
commit a crime.
Africa
-----forgive
How shall I forgive others???
If you never condemned them, you would
never need to forgive.
-------forgive
he that cannot forgive others, breaks
the bridge over which he himself must
pass if he would ever reach heaven.
For everyone has need to be forgiven
george Herbert
--------forgiveness, sin
Sister gives a long talk, on sin,
forgiveness. Then asks little Mary,
what do we have to do before we ask
the Lord to forgive us.
Sin – she replied.
--------reconcile, forgive
Obando y Bravo to Fernando
Cardenal
Uses the Sandinista slogan
Unconditional in struggle
Generous in victory
---freedom
Chrysostom before the emperor –
threatened with exile
You cannot banish me, for the world is my
Father’s house
I will kill youl
You cannot – for my life is hid with Christ
in God
I will take your treasures
You cannot - they are in heaven
I will drive you away so you have no
friends
You cannot – I have a friend in heaven
who said I will never forsake you.
------freedom
is not doing what you like, but being
free to do what you ought to do.
------forgiveness
is not an occasional act. It is a
permanent attitude.
M.L. King
--forgive
forgive your enemies, but never forget
their names
kennedy
---learn
everything that happens to you is your
teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at
the feet of your life and be taught.
= action is in the reaction
-learn, wisdom
I came to the master not to listen to his
discourses, not to learn from his
wisdom. I came to watch him tie his
shoelaces.
-------insight, discover
Archimedes, how to test the purity of
gold –
Eureka, I have found it
Motto of the state of California
---cross, persecution
We multiply whenever we are mown
down by you. The blood of Christians
is seed.
Semen est sanguis Christianorum
Tertullian. Apology 50:13
-----critical
when you point your finger at your
neighbor to blame him, remember that
you still have three fingers pointing at
yourself.
------culture - progress
1940 – problems in public schools
were gum, noise, running, improper
clothes
1980- drugs, alcohol, pregnancy,
suicide, rape, assault.
-----------culture
tom Kane, in Malawi – with boy wants
to learn English - get to know about
America - his first question. When do
you plant your corn.
-------cross
take up your towel daily and follow
me
foot wash – stole and towel
= priest
---------cross
I thank God for my handicaps, for through
them, I have found myself, my work,
and my God.
Helen keller.
------cross, jewish
Rabbi and priest in a car, - truck comes
right at them. Rabbi makes sign of
cross and they avoid the accident.
Priest asks – did you forget you are a
Jewish rabbi.
What forget? Who had time to make a
Star of David.
---------cross
The church languishes today not
because it asks too much of modern
man, but because it asks too little.
It has tried to make the faith plausible
and palatable when it should have
presented the high, hard way of Christ
without compromising his demand for
total sacrifice of self.
Mother Teresa
----------cross, suffering
I can say with complete truthfulness
that everything I have learned in my
seventy-five years in this world,
everything that has truly enhanced and
enlightened my experience, has been
through affliction and not through
happiness.
Malcolm Muggeridge
---------------forgiveness.
Does God forgive a sinner? If a coat is
torn, do you throw it away. So God
shows mercy
Desert wisdom
---------------love, death
At the moment of death, we will not be
judged according to the number of
good deeds, or diplomas, but by the
love we have put into our work.
Mother teresa
-----------peace, injustice
if you love peace, then hate injustice,
hate tyranny, hate greed, but hate these
things inside yourself, not in another.
Gandhi
---------Wisdom, clever
Teacher returns to class and finds all
kids in profound silence.Surprised, she
asks why?
Miss, you told us one day that if you
ever left the class and came back and
found all of us sitting perfectly silent,
you would drop dead.
-------wisdom, clever
Wisest person who ever lived – they
come to test him.
They bring a bird in their hand and ask, is
the bird dead or alive.
If they say dead, they release
If he says alive, they crush and kill it
- but the wise man answers: the answer
to that question lies in your hands.
----------truth – judgment
On the day of judgment, God will ask
if I was just, and I shall say no. If I
was charitable, and I shall say no. If I
devoted my life to study – or prayer,
and I shall say no
Then the judge will smile and say
Friend, you speak the truth. And for
this alone you may enter paradise.
---------peace, attitude, creativity
If your daily life seems poor, do not
blame it. Blame yourself, tell yourself
that you are not poet enough to call
forth its riches; for to the creator there
is no poverty and no poor indifferent
place
Rilke ?
-------creative
Leibnitz found no book so bad that he
could not get something out of it.
--------joy, love
Characteristic virtue – activity of the
Christian is love
Characteristic emotion, attitude,
feeling is, should be joy.
-----ecumenism
Christians vs. Muslims in big football
game
\Jesus is there - Christians score and Jesus
cheers
Muslims score and Jesus cheers
They ask – who are you for?
Neither side, I am just enjoying the
game.
----------------unity
Jesus the teacher was tall enough to
see over the fences or walls that divide
the human race into compartments.
--------crisis, kairos
Kelvin, scientist, in class, his
experiment fails to come off – he says,
“when you are face to face with a
difficulty, you are up against a
discovery.”
---------crisis
storm at sea, woman goes to captain
for reassurance
Don’t worry madam – we are in the hands
of God
Is it as bad as that!
-------
crisis
If you don’t fight, you don’t get to
know someone
Korean
--------criticism
negative people are your best gurus
---------heaven, hope
Like anybody, I would like to live a
long life. Longevity has its place. But
I’m not concerned about that now. I
just want to do God’s will. And He
willed me to go up to the mountain.
And I have looked over, and I’ve seen
the Promised Land. I may not get
there with you, but I want you to know
tonight that we as a people will get to
the Promised Land. So I am happy
tonight. I am not worried about
anything. I am not fearing any man.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the
coming of the Lord.
Night before he is
killed – M.L. King
---heaven
African group does not say of the dead
- they died, or they have departed rather they have arrived.
-----cross - crisis
priest ministering to AIDS- says 15 of
30 started to live when they found out
they had it.
They live in the present, reality
rather than unreality.
Aids is not terrible, but missing life is.
The great tragedy, the trouble in
life is not how much we suffer, but
how much we miss.
Thomas Carlyle.
------cross
Charles V of france calls his son and
puts a crown and sword before him –
says choose.
Son says – the sword, by this I will win
the other
Per crucem ad lucem.
--------AMBIGUIY CULTURE
technology is like a knife
use it to cut bread, feed people
use it to kill, murder life
-----CURIOSITY
Pandora is given a box by the gods
with all evil, harmful things in it. And
is told never to open it.
But curiosity gets here and she lets out
the plagues, sorrows
-----FORGIVE
Children quarreling. Go to bed, and a big
thunder storm comes.
Mother visits – they are not in bed.
We are in the closet, forgiving each
other.
--------FORGIVE
If I see my brother commit sin, is it
right to conceal it?at the very moment
when we hide our brother’s fault, God
hides our own; at the moment we
reveal our brother’s fault, God reveals
ours too.
-------forgive - freedom
Two former concentration camp
inmates Have you forgiven the Nazis?
No – I am still consumed with hatred for
them.
In that case, they still have you in prison.
----------forgive
image of the prodigal son returning,
and in the distance, the shadow of the
father and the son have already met
duerer ??
------forgiveness
Man steals car of Horace McKenna.
It is discovered in West Virginia. He
goes with another priest to there,
refuses to press charges. Says, Who
knows what his problems are, and
what pressure he was under.
He takes the thief back to DC in the car,
and the thief even criticizes the car and
Horace too.
------learn, student, teacher
Much Torah have I learned from my
teachers, more from my colleagues,
but most of all from my students.
-----------CROSS GROWH
this is how one grows. By being
defeated, decisively, by constantly
greater things. If we win over small
things, the triumph itself makes us
small.
Rilke
----------FORGIVENESS
Korean pastor works with lepers, and
communists kill his two sons. He
seeks out the killer in jail and takes
and raises him as his own son –
(killing the boy will not get his son
back) – eventually the boy enters
seminary and works in leper colony.
-----FORGIVE, LOVE
O Lord, remember not only the men and
women of goodwill. But also those of
ill will. But do not only remember the
suffering they have inflicted on us,
remember the fruits we bought, thanks
to this suffering. Our comradeship, our
loyalty, our humility, the courage, the
generosity, the greatness of heart
which has grown out of all this. And
when they come to judgement, let all
the fruits that we have borne be their
forgiveness. Amen, Amen, Amen
Paper near body of dead child at
Ravenbruck
-----------forgive
girl dressed in white, with flowers.
Small boy threw dirt at her. Instead of
anger, she smiles, and threw the flower
at the boy. He was surprised and
shamed - like God, return good for
evil.
-------forget
3 boys hide self on Sabbath in barn to
smoke. They are discovered. One
says, I deserve no punishment, I
forgot it is Sabbath. Other says, I
forgot that smoking on the Sabbath is
forbidden. Third – I too forgot. What
did you forget?
I forgot to lock the door of the barn.
-----LEARN
Darryl Stingley football injury,
paralyzed. Life is better now than
before. This is a rebirth Life is bigger
than being a good athlete.
-------LEARN
Edison tried 2000 materials for
filament for light bulb.
Assistant said we are a failure, learned
nothing.
Edison replied. We have learned much,
learned 2000 elements which do not
work.
-------FORGIVE
girl good for a week ask for a favor.
Mom says, I know you were good this
week, but you were not so good last
week.
Girl says – Oh – you are not like God.
When he forgives, he doesn’t keep
throwing it up afterward.
------TEACH, LEARN
bright young student – his rabbi kisses
him on the forehead because the
student helped him solve a big
problem
But the student reacts – what I need is a
rabbi who tears the flesh from my
bones, not one who kisses me - and he
left that rabbi to find another teacher.
-----LEARN
10 cardinal rules
three from a child, seven from a thief
infant, how to laugh, how to cry and how
to keep constantly busy
from a thief?
What you do, do secretely,
What you cant get today you can get
tomorrow
Loyola to ones accomplices
Ready to sacrifice self for ones desires
Once you have the desired object, he loses
interest
Not afraid of hardship
Nothing on earth can make him change
trades.
---LEARN, TEACHER
I am merely a Catholic priest who has
the unusual opportunity to meet
thousands of modern boys and girls ,
young men and women, to keep up
correspondence with hundred of them
at a time, to talk to them on easy and
friendly terms, and to listen to them
under the most favorable
circumstances. They have been my
teachers.
Dan Lord, S.J.
------
LEARN
crossing the ocean in a small boat or a
large ship – one brings you together,
forces you to take views, positions,
the other is blasé.
----time, gift
Yesterday is the past, tomorrow is the
future. But today is a gift. That is why
it is called the present/---------------time, patience
General returns from mid east with
seedling of a fine olive tree.
He tells gardener of how he enjoyed olives
like this. Gardener says it will 75 years
before it bears fruit.
So – do not wait till after lunch to plant
it.
------cross
on steeple of churches - is God’s plus
sign – sign of abundant love
-----FORGIVENESS
John XXIII visits prison – preaches on
mercy, a murderer asks- Does what
you say about mercy hold even for
me?
John, no words, simply put his arms
around the man
-------CROSS, RESURRECTION
resurrection is not the canceling out of
the cross. For there is no other way to
resurrection except through the cross.
Resurrection is the freedom born of
the cross.
---------CROSS
Housman – Repayment
Thou the cross didst bear
What bear I
Thou the thorn didst wear
What wear I
Thou to death didst dare
What dare I
Thou for me dost care
What care I
--------heaven, death, life
the first thing people say after death is
“why was I so serious?
Sioux Indian saying
--------heaven, hell
Governor Al Smith, up early to go to
Mass. Someone kids him, says, you
know Al, when you die, you will look
funny if there is no hell.
Not half as funny as you will if there is a
hell.
--------heaven, eternal life
bishop recovers from illness, and an
agnostic visits.
Says to bishop – thanks for receiving me,
when you accept no other visitors.
Bishop says I am confident that I will see
my other friends in the next world.,
This may be my last chance of seeing
you.
-----heaven, vocation
preacher at graduation what plans for future?
Law school, marriage, money, travel,
family…
That is all?
Your plans are too small. 75 years? They
must be big enough to include God
and eternity.
---CROSS
what we do is very little, but it is like the
little boy with the few loaves and
fishes. Christ took that little and
increased it. He will do the rest. Hat
we do is so little we may seem to be
constantly failing. But so did he fail.
He met with apparent failure on the
Cross. But unless the see fall into the
earth and die, there is no harvest. And
why must we see results? Our work is
to sow. Another generation will be
reaping the harvest.
D. Day------------HELL, HEAVEN
George meet the vicar and asks about his
friends: And what about Mr. Jones,
have you seen him?
Vicar shakes his head – I shall never see
him again? Mr. Jones has gone to
heaven.
--------CROSS
Go and pray to the Lord to command
some struggle to be stirred up in you,
for the soul is matured only in battles.
Abbot John the Dwarf
------suffer - growth
Happy experiencesd make life
delightful
Painful experiences lead to growth
deMello
---cross
The Everlasting God has in his
wisdom foreseen from eternity the
cross that he now presents to you as a
gift from his inmost heart. The cross
he now sends you he has considered
with his all-knowing eyes, understood
wih his divine mind, tested with his
wise justice, warmed with loving arms
and weight with his own hand to see
that it be not one inch too large and not
one ounce too heavy for you. He has
blessed it with his holy name, anointed
it with his grace, perfumed it with his
consolation, taken one last glance at
you and your courage and then sent it
to you from heaven, a special greeting
from God to you, an alms of the allmerciful love of God
Frances de sales
---------CROSS
Oberammergau – the Christ - visitor
wants picture of himself and the cross
– tries to lift it- it us too heavy. He
asks the actor why this – why not a
hollow one.
“If the cross were not heavy, I could not
play the part.”
------JOKE, HEAVEN
Bishop Sheen in city, asks boy- the
way to city hall?
They start. Boy asks, who are you- why
go to city hall
Bishop explains – I give a talk there on
how to get to heaven
Come on – you don’t even know the way
to city hall
----------CROSS, OPPOSITION,
PERSECUTION
If you get a new idea , insight,
conviction, expect people not to clear
pebbles but to throw huge stones,
boulders on your path to test you
Schweitzer
--------CULTURE, RELIGION
It is not the church that has failed, it is
the culture which has succeeded. It has
driven spiritualityout of our lives,
squeezed God out.
in Russia – people talk about, hunger for
God, after communism
in Britain - its is what is on the telly.
Basil hume
-------CULTURE
Bush woman visits relatives in the
city- is shown the toilet upstairs. She
shouts – its an abomination. Adults do
not ease themselves in the house
---CULTURE
missionary in Africa brings pix for
sermons. One on hell – the people
laugh- he is furious – why laugh – this
is serious, hell !
they say - don’t you see Father, all the
people in hell are white!
-------CULTURE, QUALITY OF LIFE
One could almost cry out in
anguish that the suffering and
sacrifices of past generations have
come to this: a grown man with a can
of beer finds his chief fulfillment in a
televised game watched by thirty
million others, and believes our land,
free, brave and just.
Michael Novak
--------CROSS
two paths, one smooth and ends in
thorns
other thorny, but becomes smooth
so us - the wicked have prosperity
but then fall.
The righteous suffer torment but then
rejoice.
-------LEISURE
We do not know a nation until we
know its pleasures of life, just as we
do not know a man until we know how
he spends his leisure. It is when a man
ceases to do the things he has to do,
and does the things he likes to do, that
the character is revealed.
----------LEARN
We learn nothing rightly until we learn
the symbolical character of life. Day
creeps after day, each full of facts,
dull, strange, despised things, that we
cannot enough despise – call heavy,
prosaid, and desert. The time we seek
to kil; the attention it is elegant to
divert from things around us. And
presently the aroused intellect finds
gold and gems in one of these scorned
facts – then finds that the day of facts
is a rock of diamonds, that a fact is an
Epiphany of God.
We have our theory oflife, our
religion, our philosophy; and the event
of each moment, the shower, the
steamboat disaster, the passing of a
beautiful face, the apoplexy of our
neighbor, are all tests to try our theory,
the approximate result we call truth,
and reveal its defects.
Emerson on
education
-----forgiveness, reconciliation
Tanzania - one who wrongs another,
seeks reconciliation by carrying a tuft
of spcial grass to that person – if
serious, then brings a child as well as
the grass.
These are symbols of new life, new
beginning
-----------work, alcohol
Pastor strict, asks farmer if he smokes,
drinks, curses
Well – once in a while.
Pastor says I myself do not
Yes, pastor, but you don’t farm either.
----------CLEVER, SINNER
a sinner who wanted to atone came to
the rabbi to ask what penance he
should do.
He was ashamed to confess all his sins,
and yet had to disclose them,
otherwise the rabbi could not give him
proper atonement.
So he said that one of his friends had done
such and such, but was too ashamed to
come, and told him to go in his stead..
Rabbi looked with a smile into the man’s
face and said “Your friend is a fool.
He could easily have come to me
himself and pretended to represent
someone who was ashamed to come in
his own person.
---------UNDERSTAND, FORGIVE
Condemnation is easier than
investigation. If we take time to
investigate why people act as they do,
we would find that such action in the
light of the circumstances is quite
understandable and totally forgivable
and even completely reasonable and
just as it should be.
------VOCATION, WRITE
Nobody can counsel and help you,
nobody. There is only one single way.
Go into yourself: search for the reason
that bids you write, find out whether it
is spreading out its roots in the deepest
places of your heart, acknowledge to
yourself whether you would have to
die if it were denied you to write. This
above all – ask yourself in the stillest
hour of your night, MUST I write?
Delve into yourself for a deep answer.
And if this should be affirmative, if
you may meet this earnest question
with a strong and simple I MUST,
then build your life according to this
necessity; your life, even into its most
indifferent and slightest hour must be a
sign of this urge and a testimony to it.
Rilke – Letters to a Young
Poet
--------TRUST, SUFFER
M.L. King – gets phone threat while in
bed – couldn’t sleep, filled with fear,
takes his problem to God – prays aloud
I am taking a stand for what is right. Now
I am afraid. People look to me. If I am
weak, they will falter. I am at the end
of my power, I cannot face it alone.
Then – a sudden presence, experience of
the divine – and hear God say “stand
up for justice, truth, God will be at
your side forever,” and calm, strength
come.
---------silence, prayer
the most comprehensive formula for
human culture which I know was
given by an old peasant, who on his
death bed, obtained from his only son
this one promise: to sit every day for
half an hour, ALONE in the best room.
---------silence
Let us labor for an inward stillness –
an inward stillness and an inward
healing; That perfect silence where
the lips and heart are still, and we no
longer entertain our own imperfect
thought and vain opinion, but God
alone speaks in us and we wait in
singleness of heart, that we may know
his will, and in silence of our spirit,
that we may do his will and do that
only.
H.W. Longfellow
-------silence
The present state of the world and the
whole of life is diseased. If I were a
doctor and were asked for my advice, I
should reply.
Create silence. Bring men to silence.
The word of God cannot be heard in
the noisy world of today. And even if
it were blaxoned forth with all the
panoply of noise so that it could be
heard in the midst of all the other
noise, then it would no longer be the
word of God. Therefore, create
silence.
Kierkegaard
-------SERVICE
God has created me to do him some
definite service. He has committed
some work to me which he has not
committed to another. I have my
mission – I never may know it in this
life, but I shall be told it in the next
Newman
--------SEE
The greatest thing the human soul ever
does in this world is to see something
and tell what it saw in a plain way.
Hundreds of people can talk for one
who can think, but thousands can think
for one who can see. To see clearly is
poesy and prophecy and religion in
one.
Ruskin
----------SAINTS, LIGHT
child in cathedral, sun through the
stained glass windows
who are those people.
Mother says- saints
Now I know what saints are. They are
people who let the light shine through.
--------SACRIFICE, SUFFER, CROSS
two workers for justice, against
apartheid - when I get to the great
Judge, he will say- “where are your
scars?” and If I have none, he will
ask
Were there no causes worthy of
getting scars, none worth fighting for.
SELFLESS, SELF-CENTERED
We need a new hymn, “ I did it THY
way.”
JOKE, BIBLE
How did the fish in the book of Jonah
obey the divine law?
Jonah was a stranger and the fish took
him in.
Reverence for life
Schweitzer: 7 years old, with friend,
catapult, goes to shoot birds. Birds
singing beautifully in tree. His friend
aims, I do the same. At that moment,
the church bells ring. It was a voice
from heaven. I shooed the birds away
and I fled home. Ever since, I recall
when bells ring out - thou shalt not
kill.
PROVIDENCE
Imitate little children, who with one
hand hold fast to their father, and with
the other, gather strawberries along the
hedges… above all, never leave God’s
hand…
Frances de Sales
PROVIDENCE
St. Felix of Nola - escaping from
enemies, goes into a cave/formed by a
ruined wall. Immediately a spider
spins a web. His pursuers see the web
– think it was there for some time, and
go away.
When God helps us, a spider’s web
becomes a protecting wall.
PROVIDENCE
Rabbi travels with an ass, a rooster, and a
lamp. Stops at a village, but driven
out, goes to a forest. He says “All that
God does is done well.”
Lights lamp under the tree, to read the
Bible, but wind blows out.Later
animals come and chase away rooster.
Thieves come and steal the ass. But he
says “all that God does is done well.”
Then returns to the village – learns that
enemy soldiers came killed everybody.
They also went through forest and if
they had seen light, would have killed
him. Or if rooster had crowed or ass
had brayed, he would have been killed.
How did he respond: “ All that God
does is done well.”
JESUIT JOKE SMOKING
Dominican asks the pope – can he
smoke while he prays. NO, of course
not.
Jesuit asks: can I pray while I am
smoking.
YES of course
----------PRESENCE OF GOD
He prays for us as our priest. He prays in
us as our head. Let us then recognize
both our voice in his, and his voice in
ours.
We pray then to him, through him, in him
and we speak along with him and he
along with us.
Aug. Ps. 85.1
PRAY AND WORK
Priest and rabbi at boxing match
One fighter makes the sign of the cross
Rabbi asks – what does that mean?
Priest: not a darn thing if he can’t fight.
MINISTRY, SOLIDARITY
Casy, preacher in Grapes of Wrath
Needs new way to preach – says
I got to go where the folks is goin. I’ll
work in the fiels and maybe I’ll be
happy.
And you aint gonna preach - and aint
gonna baptize?
I gonna be near to the folks, gonn try to
teach em nothing. Gonn try to learn,
learn why the folks walks in the grass,
gonna hear em sing, eat with em and
learn. All that is holy, all that is what I
didn’t understand. All them things is
the good things.
Ma said AMEN
SORROW, song, mourn
There are three ascending levels of how
one mourns
With tears is the lowest
With silence, that is higher
And with a song, that is the highest
SERVE
Ignatius: Master Lainez, if God were to
say to you. If you want to die at once, I
will give you eternal glory. But if you
choose to live, I do not guarantee you
the gift of final perseverance. If you
thought that by remaining on earth,
you would be able to achieve some
great thing, what would your choice
be?
Lainez: to die at once, so that I would be
sure.
Ignatius. For my part I wouln’t. If I
thought that by continuing to live I
could accomplish some great work for
God, I would beg him to leave me on
earth till I had done it. I would turn my
eyes to him and not toward myself. I
would take no account of my danger or
my security
July 1541. Ribadeneira, Life of
Ignatius
---------COOPERATE, COMMUNITY
Ship – each part sinks if apart, but all floats
- so our lives, - good and bad form a craft
- that floats and goes somewhere.
CREATIVE, VOCATION
If a man does not keep pace with his companions,
Perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let
Him step to the music he hears, however measured
Or far away. Thoreau
BIBLE
Bible is like a telescope – look through
Phillips brooks
TOLERATION, UNITY
Jesus – teacher, was tall enough to see over the
fences that divide the human race into compartments.
PREJUDICE, THINK
A great many people think they are thinking when they are
only rearranging their prejudices
William james
FREEDOM
There are two freedoms – the false where one is free to do
what he likes, and the true where he is free to do what he
ought
Charles kingsley
CHILDREN
God sends children to enlarge our hearts, to make us
unselfish and full of kindly sympathies and affections
LONELY, COMMUNITY
People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges
NEIGHBOR
Neighbor is the man god gives me – I do not choose
SERVICE
As you look back on life, you find that the moments that
stand out are the moments when you have done things for
others.
JOY, SMILE, CHEERFUL
How be cheerful ? sit up cheerfully, act and speak as if
cheerfulness were already there.. – act from our
Better feeling (eg. Bravery)
William james
FREEDOM
Four freedoms
Speech and expression
Worship
From want
From fear Roosevelt
PEACE,
WILL OF GOD
Greatest line in all poetry –
In your will is our peace
Matthew Arnold
SILENCE, SOLITUDE
All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quiet in a
room alone. Paschal
RELIGION
Religion should be our steering wheel, not our spare tire
Suffer, persecution, roots
Storms make oaks take deeper root.
George Herbert
INCARNATION
I can more easily see our Lord sweeping the streets of
London than issuing edicts from its cathedral.
PRAYER - WORK
Prayer is not a substitute for work; it is a desperate effort to
work further and to be efficient beyond the range of one’s
powers. It is not the lazy who are most inclined to prayer.
Those pray most who care most, and who, having worked
hard, find it intolerable to be defeated.
George Santayana