Tag: Customs

Sin, Sinned, Sinning, Sinner

Sin  1.  a) the breaking of religious law or a moral principal, especially through a willful act  b) a state of habitual violation of such principals  2. any offense, misdemeanor, or fault – sinned, sinning   1. to break a religious law or moral principal; commit a sin.  2. to commit an offense or fault of any kind: do wrong.

   I don’t remember if I had used these exact words in my weekly “released-time” class at the nearest Catholic church, but I certainly got the idea right and could communicate it very well. I had to!
   I was being prepared for first Holy Communion and that meant I had to learn about Sin and sins and be ready to accuse myself to the priest at my first Confession, which of course preceded first Communion!
   (I was then six going on seven years old!)
   Naturally I had been taught about Moses and the Ten Commandments
—and all the very many and diverse ways associated with not obeying them well enough: Sin!
   My most common sins had to do with acts of disobedience to my parents or, later, things like accidentally swallowing some water when brushing my teeth on Sunday before going to Communion (breaking the Eucharistic fast).
   The sixth commandment was hard to understand, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” but, as I got a little older, I learned that it was about bad thoughts, bad desires, and bad actions, alone or with others!
   It was a tricky business trying to discover and not forget to confess all my weekly sins.
   I still remember one Saturday afternoon when I couldn’t recall any sins to tell the priest in confession.
   So, I did what the Nuns had taught me, and told the priest that I couldn’t remember any new sins to tell, but that I was heartily sorry for all my past sins.

   “You get out of here, kneel down, and pray—and then come back here and confess,” the priest roared!
   (I was so scared that I never made a confession like that again—ever!)
   This is only a childhood memory, but it is a reminder of how things were in those days—and of the sort of obsession with sin that characterized them in some, if not many, parts of the world!
   The emphasis on sin, repentance, and confession had its merits and value amid all the problems of growing up and living a good adult life, but it dominated my early formation and the understanding of God and his commandments.
   It was a tough struggle in adult years, to come to terms with what the sixth commandment was really all about. It always had seemed that somehow it was the “sexth” commandment, in practice!
   One thing is for sure, I grew up with a keen consciousness of “sin” in dozens of small ways and relatively less awareness of the forgiveness and love of God, ever a cause for joy and rejoicing!
   Deo gratias! (Thanks be to God) is somehow more important or life-giving than Confiteor Deo omnipotenti… (I confess to almighty God…), though both have their distinct place and use.
   One of the things that people marveled at in the life of Jesus was how he fraternized with sinners. He didn’t behave like them, but he treated each and every one of them with compassion, forgiveness, and love.
   We know about the sins that we sinners are all capable of and worse. Don’t let that make you forget to rejoice with Jesus over your repentances and his pardons!




10 September 2023

What Am I Supposed to Do?

You have been told, O mortal, what is good
   and what the Lord requires of you:
Only to do justice and to love goodness,
   and to walk humbly with your God.
(Micah 6:8)

This doesn’t sound right!
   I thought what God expects from me is to obey the Ten Commandments:
   1. – I am the LORD your God: you shall not have strange gods before me.
   2. – You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
   3. – Remember to keep holy the LORD’S Day.
   4. – Honor your father and your mother.
   5. – You shall not kill.
   6. – You shall not commit adultery.
   7. – You shall not steal.
   8. – You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
   9. – You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
   10. – You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.
   This is not such a hard list to follow—most religious people more or less do!
   Besides the Ten Commandments, I thought what God expects from me is to obey the “Commandments of the Church”:
   1. – Keep Sundays and Holidays of Obligation holy, by hearing Mass and resting from servile work.
   2. – Keep the days of fasting and abstinence appointed by the Church.
   3. – Go to Confession at least once a year.
   4. – Receive the Blessed Sacrament at least once a year, and that about Easter time.
   5. – Contribute to the support of our pastors.
   6. – Not to marry within certain degrees of kindred, nor to solemnize marriage at the forbidden times.
  In practice, this can be a somewhat more specific and demanding list to follow—but most “practicing Catholics” more or less do!

   The danger of having religious laws, rules, and regulations to obey is that we may treat them like civil laws, rules, and regulations—that is to say, if we can “get away” with it, we may not observe and obey them as we should.

Trust in the Lord and do good.
   that you may dwell in the land and
   live secure.
Find your delight in the Lord
   who will give you your heart’s desire.
(Psalm 37:3-4)

This doesn’t sound right either!
   Do justice – love goodness – walk humbly with God – trust in the Lord – do good – find your delight in the Lord.
   This seems like a very easy business, a bit vague but easy enough to do.
   Ah, that’s the temptation—and misunderstanding—just because something sounds simple and easy doesn’t mean that it is!
   A long or short checklist of specific duties, regulations, or rules is much easier to observe and follow than a short list of complex and challenging ideals.
   When we were children, we learned how a good child should behave. When we were taught about going to confession before communion, we had a clear and easy checklist and self-accusations in mind.
   It’s not good enough for us to behave like a child all our lives. It’s not enough to “go to confession” like you were first taught as a child. “Goodness” and “trust in the Lord” are much more than something you breakdown into a sort of spiritual scorecard!
   Micah’s advice was right on—and still is easier said than done!




20 August 2023

You Can’t Get Off the Train Until It Stops!

When it comes to religion, we tend to try to blend the mentality of long, long ago with modern times; we pray with the words of long, long ago about modern things; and we even use the geography of long ago and far away when we think about and pray about the world of today and where and how we live in it.
   I guess you could say we’re behaving like “old-timers,” reluctant to shed all the customs, values, and attitudes of long ago and far away—even though they were mostly not places and events of our personal experience.
   We still read and meditate about old narrations and customs, and we try to adapt the worldview, values, and behavior of favorite characters in old stories and books.
   When we read and study the New Testament, in effect we’re learning about the life, faiths, customs, and politics of the Middle East and the Mediterranean world of about two thousand years ago!
   When we study the Old Testament, we’re dealing with local traditions and events older by far!
   Those long-ago years have come and gone, for better or for worse. We may be inspired by some aspects of this long ago past, perhaps many—but it’s not our time and place. We have to deal with our contemporary traditions and events. We have to live, love, and serve God in our days and in contemporary ways even though we treasure, esteem, and try to follow some ancient and long practiced ways of life.
   We may value every word saved and passed on to us about the people and practices of ancient times—but don’t forget that they were ancient times, not ours.
   Some things, some details, some challenges from ancient times are still with us—but many are not, and we barely understand some of them anymore even though we study hard.

   If we aspire to talk, behave, and generally act just like admirable people of ancient days did, we’re almost masquerading!
   One could say that our contemporary challenge is to distill the essence, the best of past belief and practices, and accommodate them to our contemporary culture, language, and way of thinking.
   For example, it’s wonderful to visit the Holy Land and to actually travel to some of the places we had long imagined—but the places aren’t like thousands of years ago. Out treasured historical memories are one thing, and present-day realities are another.
   Sometimes we’re bothered by too much change but living things (like you and I) live in a constant process of change, reassessment, and development.
   We have to use a lot of imagination for times past, since what was passed on to us from long ago days was only a small part and a particular remembrance of a world just as busy, and fumbling and bumbling, as ours!
   A good museum can be fascinating, interesting, stimulating, and helpful to our lives—but we shouldn’t necessarily live with or venerate every value and perspective of ancient times and peoples.
   Don’t be distracted and knocked off course by yearning for all of the past, for living means constantly changing to accommodate the past to the present. Today is different from yesterday, and today you’re no longer the person you were yesterday.
   What a good museum does is replicate some aspects of the past for present day students and learners—but it’s not about living today.
   It isn’t easy, always changing and growing, but that’s what life is about!


13 August 2023

Wishful Thinking

“Wishful thinking is the formation of beliefs based on what might be pleasing to imagine, rather than on evidence, rationality, or reality. It is a product of resolving conflicts between belief and desire.” [cf. Wikipedia]
   It’s not an either-or thing, all one way or another. As a child we have may have believed in a lot of imagined things, but, as we grew older, we tended gradually to seek evidence and rationality for our beliefs.
   Sometimes that can even be disappointing as we realize that somethings just weren’t the way we always had fondly imagined them!
   This isn’t just about fairy tales and fictions, but even about family members and friends.
   Part of growing up and maturing involves sorting out facts from fictions and accepting that our fondest memories and dreams may never have been or are not entirely true!
   It’s not that we were lied to as children, just that we were once being entertained and, as we began to grow up, now being challenged to differentiate and sort out our beliefs from naive wishes and desires.
   All this applies to everything and everyone. Our challenge is not to overreact as we seek facts, evidence, rationality, or reality—nor to fear or deny it.
   You could say that part of growing up, of maturing is using a more scientific method of thinking. We may have been using an inadequate, uncritical, or unproven way of thinking—and we shouldn’t be afraid of reexamining and revising some of our fondest assumptions or beliefs.
   And, if it turns out that at first we got it wrong, then we “try, try again!”
   This applies to everything! Nothing is so sacred that we can’t think critically about it. Growing and maturing is not just about physical and common-place things; it’s about everything, everyone, everywhere.
  This is the way God made us and the way we need to be living our lives—and it applies to everyone, everywhere, always!

   There is nothing so important, so special, so sacrosanct that we should not examine the evidence for it, think critically about it, and even test it out as best we can.
   Does this apply to school? Sure! Does this apply to politics and law? Of course! Does this include religion and faith? Definitely!
   But we don’t know and can’t know everything, know every place, know every person!
   So, even if we think as critically as we can, examine new ideas in depth and with courage, and trust no one or nothing blindly and without careful examination, we reach our limitations.
   The solution?
   We need to trust others, we need assistance, we need to be constantly rethinking about and reexamining our thoughts, decisions, and choices.
   And, in the process, we need to share what we know, ask others to share their gifts with us, and not get tired of critical thinking, planning, testing, and deciding.
   Beware of wishful thinking, but never stop thinking, especially critically. (That doesn’t mean that you should be criticizing other people’s thoughts, words, or deeds—it mostly means that you should be very careful about yours!)
   A long, long time ago when I was a child, I knew all about Micky and Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and all the familiar Disney characters. I could hardly wait for each issue of Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories.
   Naturally I knew enough to know that they were make-believe. But, true confessions, I still enjoy visiting Disney World as often as I can—and continuing to think critically, too!


23 July 2023

Dayzziness

The number of days in a week has not always been the same. The Roman Empire, for example, used to have an eight-day week which gradually became a seven-day week during the first, second, and third Christian centuries. (As the empire gradually became more Christian, it adopted a seven-day week like the Hebrew calendar.)
   The names we use for the weekdays are derived from a variety of traditions.
   For example, the first day of the week has been known for centuries in English as the day of the Sun (following the ancient Roman tradition), although now, in contemporary Romance languages, it’s known as the day of the Lord (e.g. in Spanish, Domingo).
   (Also, in English we often refer to Sunday as the Lord’s Day, a familiar religious custom since Biblical times).
   The second day of the week is known in English as the day of the Moon. (It’s similar in other languages, too. The Latin word for moon is Luna, from which we derive, e.g., Lunes in Spanish.)
   The Roman Empire continued following this Greco-Roman tradition of naming the days of the week after planetary spheres (which were named after pagan gods). The third day of the week was named after Mars, the fourth, after Mercury (Hermes), the fifth, after Jove (Jupiter), the sixth after Venus (Aphrodite), and the seventh after Saturn (Kronos).
   Romance languages generally follow the Roman way of naming the days. Further north in Europe the Norse or Germanic tribes had different divinities and used different names for the days.
   English follows the Germanic usage for the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth weekdays which were named after Tiw (Tuesday), Woden (Wednesday), Thor (Thursday), and Frige (Friday).
   Our names for the days of the week have complicated roots!

   I guess a practical question today about all this is, “So, what?” If you like studying about where words came from and what they originally meant, it may be interesting—otherwise, probably not!
   In Abrahamic religions, the seventh day (Sabbath) is when God rested after six days of creation. It’s also the day of the week commanded by God to be observed as a holy day, a day of rest. Religious Jews strictly observe this.
   Christians, on the other hand, began to celebrate the first day of the week as their holy day, the day of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
   Curiously our modern “Weekend” celebrates the seventh and first days of the week together as days of rest and recreation, regardless of whether or not one day or the other or both are considered holy!
   Of course, way back when each day of the week was associated with a different divinity, a different god, (which varied from country to country and region from region) you might say that every day was in some way a holy day!
   In fact, something like the ancient custom of assigning the days of the week to a remembrance of a particular divinity still exists in that we designate the days of the year for the remembrance of special deeds of God or of the lives of certain holy people (saints).
   This is a huge difference in our religious beliefs and practices in that we believe in only one God whom we celebrate in different ways on different days in addition to celebrating the huge number of outstanding and faithful servants he has had over the centuries.


16 July 2023

Independence

On July 4, 1776 the Second Continental Congress enacted “The Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America”, known since then as “The Declaration of Independence”:
   When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation….
   This first paragraph of the declaration officially launched a process of political separation, of revolt, of the thirteen British New World colonies from the rule of the King of Great Britain and his kingdom.
   Was it reasonable? Was it justified? Was it, so to speak, legal and law abiding? The answer, of course, depended on which system and body of law one was following.
   Clearly, from a British point of view, it was a matter of rebellion. On the other hand, it was celebrated and defended by the colonists (as The Declaration of Independence went on to say) as a matter of rights, justice, and liberty.   The key word and concept of the declaration of the colonists was Independence, and it remains, still, as a key concept and value in the contemporary American mind and practice.
   “It’s a free country, aint it?” was and still is a classic defensive comeback from someone in the U.S. who feels that they’re being pushed around, accused of a crime, or being disparaged or treated unjustly.
   But, does independence mean I can say or do anything, whatever I choose? Don’t I have any responsibility for the consequences of what I say, promote, endorse, or do?

   “Independence” means free from the influence, control, or determination of another or others, not depending on them.
   Isn’t that, so to speak, exactly the way God made us, each of us? Isn’t that exactly what the story of the creation in Genesis teaches?
   No!
   Genesis is about how God made each and all of us and about how, even from the beginning, we have failed to live up to our creator’s plans and instructions.
   Pure, total independence—devoid of any responsibility whatsoever for others—goes against our nature, our maker’s design, and all we hold dear.
   In the words of the Pledge of Allegiance, we aspire to be “One Nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.”
   This is a goal, a work in progress, a challenge that drives us, a value that we esteem—but, being the limited and weak creatures that we are, we have to keep working at it all the time and not forgetting it. (Remember the remedy for failing: “If you don’t succeed, then try, try again!”)
   Like the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance, the U.S. National Anthem also articulates a high ideal for the country, describing it as “the Land of the free and the home of the brave.”
   Is it really the land of the free? Does every U.S. citizen consider himself/herself totally free and brave? Again, it voices a goal for the future, a work in progress, but not necessarily the current state of affairs.
   It’s the U.S. aspirations that have made it so attractive to people from many lands. The U.S. and each of us still struggle to achieve our goals—it’s a work in progress; it’s come a long way but still has a long way to go!

2 July 2023

Translation Involves More Than Words

Translation usually implies the rendering from one language into another of something written or spoken. Fair enough!
   But, something written or spoken centuries ago—in the same language—can mean something entirely different today.
   For example, “varlet” could refer to an attendant; a youth serving as a knight’s page; a scoundrel; or a knave—depending on when and where the word was used.
   Another example: “bitch” could refer to the female of the dog, wolf, fox, etc.; a woman, especially a bad tempered, malicious, or promiscuous woman; a course term of contempt or hostility; anything especially unpleasant or difficult; or a complaint—also depending on when and where the word was used.
   Still another example: “damn” could refer to condemn as guilty; to condemn to an unhappy fate; to condemn to endless punishment; to condemn as bad, inferior, etc. (often used in the imperative as a curse); to criticize adversely; to cause the ruin of or make fail; to swear at by saying “damn”; to express anger, annoyance, disappointment, etc.—also depending on when and where the word was used.
   Reading the Bible has some challenges of this nature also. First, because the translation we are using may have words that used to be in common usage and may sound odd or perplexing to us today.
   Also, because the mentality of the particular author—for the Bible is a collection of writings by many inspired authors over a period of many centuries—may be somewhat foreign to ours or concern matters, places, and people that we do not understand or accept.
   That’s why there is always a need for new translations of the same ancient texts, since the meaning of our words is constantly changing as well as our worldview.

   The understanding of the universe and the world we live in was very different in most Biblical days from the way it is now.
   We face a similar situation when we read, reflect, and pray using the Divine Office (the Breviary). We’re reading Biblical selections and reflections by ancient scholars and saints over a period of more than two thousand years. The meaning of words may have changed and evolved over the centuries as well as rules, regulations, laws, customs, and traditions.
   Some people are somewhat offended by what they consider to be annoying changes in translations and in rules, regulations, laws, customs, and traditions. But, for better or worse, there’s no escaping it. We always face a challenge of translation and adaptation, tiresome though it may be.
   The answer is not to criticize, condemn, and correct all changes but to adopt and understand the best and necessary of them.
   We each continually grow and develop—and so does the world we live in as well as everyone in it.
   It’s not just the Bible and the Breviary that constantly need updating and improved translations and interpretations—it’s everything, everywhere, and everyone.
   It’s okay to get tired of change and be reluctant to constantly modify and update your life—but, it’s not good to become a critic and opponent of all change.
   Each of us transitions from childhood to teenage to young adulthood and beyond—sometimes making mistakes and having regrets as our lives move on.
   Living involves constantly reacting to changes and challenges!



25 June 2023

Friends in High Places

To have friends in high places means that you know people in senior positions that are able and willing to use their influence on your behalf, that you know important people who can help you get what you want.
   Another way of describing it is to have a “patron” (which is related to the Latin word for father, “pater”).
   A dictionary definition of “patron” is 1. a person empowered with the granting of an English church benefice. 2. a patron saint. 3. a person corresponding in some respects to a father; protector; benefactor. 4. a person, usually a wealthy and influential one, who sponsors and supports some person, activity, institution, etc. 5. a regular customer, as of a store. 6. In ancient Rome, a person who had freed his slave but still retained a certain paternal control over him.
  In the days when people believed in many gods, most had a sort of “patron god” (somewhat like our notion of the later concept of patron saint).
   You can see this in the earlier books of the Bible with their dozens of references to personal and family gods (e.g., the god of Abraham, the god of Isaac, the god of Jacob) and later to tribal and national gods (e.g., the god of the Hebrews, the god of Israel).
   We still have a vestige of this way of thinking when we speak of different religions today as though each are worshiping their own, and a different, god.
   It’s okay to espouse different customs, religious traditions, forms of governance, and language, but we must not forget that we’re fundamentally referencing the one and the same (and the only) God!
   For example, Muslim or not, any believer can praise God in Arabic, saying “Allahu Akbar” (God is great)—and it’s the same God. And Catholic or not, any believer can thank God in Latin, saying “Deo gratias” (Thanks be to God)—the same God.

   In the words of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s beautiful sonnet, all believers should be able to say to God, “How much do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”
   If you aspire to have a friend in high places, remember it’s not something exclusive, just for you. There will be a great crowd of others like you. Surprised you may be, but don’t begrudge them the reward they are receiving. Nothing of their gain has any impact on or diminishes yours.
   The metaphor Jesus used for all this was that of the shepherd and his sheep:

   . . . I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.
   I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
   This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.
   This command I have received from my Father. (John 10:14-18)

   Thanks be to God that, notwithstanding all our fumbling and bumbling, our failings and fallings, the love and mercy of God overrides them all.
   In spite of all of our limitations and imperfections and misunderstandings, we’re all still fortunate to have a friend in high places, in the highest of places, in the realm of God.




18 June 2023

Powerful Symbols

A symbol is a mark, sign, or word(s) that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing something entirely different—an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different concepts and experiences. Symbols are needed for effective communication and are used to convey ideas and beliefs. [adopted from Wikipedia]
   Take, for example, the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
   The pledge, the commitment, is to the Republic—symbolized by the flag. That means that any lack of respect to the flag is construed as a lack of respect to the republic itself. Of course, the flag is just a colorful, cloth construct—but it is treated with the respect and reverence due to what it stands for and represents.
   The Jewish Passover ritual meal uses several symbols—for example, the bitter herbs that symbolized the bondage of the Jewish people in Egypt.
   The last supper of Jesus with his disciples the night before his death was a Passover meal to which he added some additional symbols and meanings—the wine and the broken bread symbolizing his crucifixion and death.
   His followers were challenged to remember and understand these symbols and to celebrate this ritual in the future—what we know as the Divine Liturgy, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
   As the centuries passed, some of the great Christian thinkers and philosophers began to consider whether the words of consecration of the Mass could be and should be taken very literally.

   We still venerate and study the brilliant ideas and explanations of St. Thomas Aquinas, utilizing the Aristotelian concepts of substance and accident.
   However sometimes so much attention was given to his detailed reflections concerning the Eucharist and the real presence that its symbolic aspect, rooted in the Passover ritual was overlooked and forgotten.
   [In the reformation era, a scornful mockery of this aspect of Thomistic theology was called Hocus-Pocus, referring to the words of consecration in the Latin Mass: “Hoc est enim corpus meum” (This is my body)].
   It helps to remember the symbolisms of the Passover meal and the symbolisms that Jesus invoked at the Last Supper. They shouldn’t be overlooked because of our religious heritage or our esteem for Aquinas.
   The consecration of the Tridentine Mass is:
   “Who the day before He suffered took bread into His holy and venerable hands, and with His eyes lifted up heaven, unto Thee, God, His almighty Father, giving thanks to Thee, He blessed, broke and gave it to his disciples, saying: Take and eat ye all of this, for this is My Body.
   “In like manner, after He had supped, taking also this excellent chalice into His holy and venerable hands, and giving thanks to Thee, He blessed and gave it to His disciples, saying: Take and drink ye all of this, for this is the Chalice of My Blood, of the new and eternal testament: the mystery of faith: which shall be shed for you and for many unto the remission of sins.
   “As often as you do these things, ye shall do them in in remembrance of Me.”
   Remember! Respect and reverence!


11 June 2023

Inundation

Inundation can be defined as flooded or overwhelmed by a great volume of something.
   In our contemporary society we are increasingly inundated by the sheer volume of options and choices that are available to us and the sheer volume of information that we are challenged to digest and respond to.
   I remember, as a kid, that New York City radio station WINS used to tout, “Give us ten minutes and we’ll give you the world.” (referring, that is, to the latest news). They prided themselves on digesting all the significant daily news into a few minutes, which were repeated hourly all day long.
   Now, we have television stations that spend all day long giving us the daily news. WINS’s problem was digesting the news into ten minutes; the problem that modern television news station have is how to find enough news or how to spin out the news long enough to fill out the entire day!
   The more is definitely not the merrier!
   This is just one way that our contemporary society overwhelms us, overwhelms us by giving us too much information or by not allowing us to have time to digest and reflect upon the information we already have.
   Another common example: the shopping mall. In the old days, you simply went to the nearby store to quickly purchase something; now you go to a huge complex, often very beautiful, highlighting and selling almost anything imaginable. You never have enough money to buy all the things that inevitably capture your attention and attract you.
   How about eating? entertainment? movies? ballgames? fashionable styles?
   There are so many things overwhelming us, inundating us, every day of our modern lives—and, you know what it does? It’s like the indigestion that comes from eating too much and too fast.

   We become not only sated but satiated. We are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of our daily experiences—and as a result we’re learning less, profiting less, and fatigued and enervated.
   The same thing applies to the spiritual aspect of our lives: too many books that are recommended to us, too many sermons and advices that we hear, too many models and behaviors that we are urged to imitate or to condemn!
   Do you recall or did you ever hear the Latin expression, “Quid ad aeternitatem?” It more or less means, “What does it matter in the light of eternity?”
   We rarely, if ever, ask ourselves a question like that. We rarely, if ever, get off the endless merry-go-round of our lives. You know what happens after a while? We forget how to get off! As the merry-go-round ride is non-stop, the so many courses in the daily meal of our lives are killing us! We’re hearing and seeing so many things that we’re becoming deaf and blind!
   Is there any hope for the future? Of course!
   What to do, how to do it? It’s easy!
   Stop!
   Stop the rat race! Stop the merry-go-round! Stop trying to keep up with it all! Stop trying to digest it all!
   Don’t forget the great wisdom you probably learned once upon a time, a question and answer from the catechism:
   Q. “Why did God make you?”
   A. “He made to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and be happy with Him forever in the next.”
   Take it easy! No hurry! You have forever!




21 May 2023