Tag: Discernment

Uniforms, Uniformity, and Uniqueness

This is all about you (and me, too).
   If it reminds you of something very familiar, it should. After all, we’ve always said that “clothes don’t make the man” (or woman)—although we usually never stop trying.
   Lots of people use special dress or uniforms; for instance: soldiers, sailors, kings, queens, priests, nuns, judges, doctors, nurses, etcetera.
   Just because someone looks good doesn’t mean that he or she is good. And, just because two people look the same—either because of their bodies or because of their clothing—it doesn’t mean they are the same.  Similar they may be, but exactly the same, no.
   Even “identical” twins are not 100% identical—and that applies to all living beings no matter how they’re related or dressed or talk or seem.
   If you’ve ever seen a military dress parade, you know that it’s very impressive. Everyone is dressed almost the same, everyone walks in step with everyone else—they seem to be one highly trained body—but, even so, nobody is 100% the same as anybody else.
   On the battlefield, in a crisis, we don’t want every soldier marching in tune and thinking exactly the same and following the same orders in exactly the same way. Besides obedience, we also want initiative, creativity, courage, and skill.
   Do you ever stop to think that you (and I, and each of us) are fundamentally unique? In the entire history of the human race there never has been another person exactly like you, and there never will be one.
   You may have ideas or understandings or experiences that no one else has ever had. Similar, yes, but exactly the same, no!
   It’s mind-boggling to think of it, but encouraging, too. Without you, the world would be somehow diminished!

   If I really appreciate you, I should think “Thanks be to God for you”, and if I really appreciate myself, I should also think “Thanks be to God for me”!
   That we are, what we are, why we are, how we are, all of these are reasons for gratitude, thanksgiving, gladness, and joy (when we think of our creator and creation) and, conversely, sometimes reasons for regret, sadness, and shame (when we think of ourselves and our mistakes and failings).
   But, for better or for worse, there never was another person just like you and there never will be another person just like you.
   There are things that will never be done without your doing them; there are ideas that will never be explored without your exploring them; most of all, there are people that will never be helped without your helping them.
   You, and each of us, are very important to the designs of God, to the future of the world we live in together, and to the well-being of others.
   All this is not about fame. It has nothing to do with notoriety. You may never be explicitly recognized or appreciated. But, without the contribution you make, the world will never become what it could have, for better or for worse!
   It’s okay to wear the same uniform as others—it says that you are committed to the same cause, share the same values, and strive for the same purposes.
   It’s okay to march to the same drumbeat as others—so long as you never forget that you have a unique destiny and a unique set of skills and purpose, and that if you are lacking or holding back, there is no one who can ever completely replace you!


3 April 2022

Discovering England

I always associate Gilbert K. Chesterton’s great book, “Orthodoxy” with the odd but provocative sort of metaphor he used in its introductory chapter about the “English yachtsman who slightly miscalculated his course and discovered England under the impression that it was a new island in the South Seas.”
   It set the tone for the whole, following work. As Chesterton went on to say about his voyager who sailed and searched all around the world and then discovered the riches of what was right under his nose at home, “How can we contrive to be at once astonished at the world and yet at home in it?”
   The challenge of each of our lives is not really about our being at home in the world, but about our being astonished at it—or, rather, our failure to be astonished at it!
   It’s not that “familiarity breeds contempt” (Chaucer), but more that familiarity breeds indifference, taking things for granted, not marveling at the wonder, greatness, and gift of the world and our lives in it.
   If you’re tempted to puzzle over why the world situation is what it is, why there are so many problems unsolved, why things seem to be going from better to worse, try turning off the (bad) news programs and really looking at yourself in the mirror.
   Why me? What’s the expectation for me? How come there is a me? Where is my life going? How much more of it will I have? How can I pick up the broken pieces of it and continue?
   The challenge for us bedazzled viewers, listeners, readers, travelers is to stop! to stop and think! to stop and thank!
   We don’t want to be remembered as “much ado about nothing”.
   For starters, how come you exist, really? Why were you born? Where is your life going? Are you asleep at the wheel? How much longer and more will it take?

   We all need to remember to look at life, and the course of our own lives, with astonishment—with wonder, gladness, gratitude, and thankfulness.
   How can you look forward to an unknown tomorrow with enthusiasm and joy, if you are blind to what is right under your nose, so to speak, right now?
   That we exist at all is a wonder—and wonderful. That each time we awake to a new day is a gift—and we give thanks to God who created us and ever guides our lives.
   What do we use to measure and evaluate our lives? Possessions? Reputation? Power? Privilege? Beauty? Attractiveness? Health? Care? Concern? Generosity? Sacrifice? Humility? Sincerity? Love?
   The human condition and everlasting temptation is that no matter what we’ve done it’s never enough. Of course! We are not totally self-sufficient. We are creatures, and we must to look to our Creator for understanding, guidance, courage, and strength.
   The man who discovered England really is a good metaphor for all of us.
   All that we ever really need to know is right under our noses. What we seem to be yearning, searching, and journeying to find we’ve always had, even though we forget.
   It’s challenging enough to understand anything well, and our lives have a long history of incomplete understandings and misunderstandings. It’s normal enough, although it’s regrettable.
   Anyway, St. Augustine got it right when he said, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”


27 March 2022

Studying Life

The (Greek) root meaning of Biology is Life-Study. In other words it is the study of life and living things.
   In high school, I had a great Biology teacher. He taught us to use a microscope to study unicellular organisms.
   Amoebas were fascinating, especially their ability to move about, change their shape, and reproduce by dividing into two!
   Some of us liked the Biology class so much that we persuaded the teacher to offer us an additional elective course in Zoology, one of three traditional major branches of Biology. (The others are Botany and Microbiology.)
   Although Biology means the study of life, studying and learning about life embraces much more than Biology, Zoology, or other related sciences. In the broadest sense, every thinking living person is studying, experiencing, and learning about life all the time.
   We’re usually preoccupied by aspects of life, especially of our own lives—physical, emotional, intellectual, psychological, and spiritual to name a few.
   And, it’s a course of study that never quite ends. No matter how old or experienced we may be, we’re still studying, experiencing, and learning about life!
   Faith and religion are part of learning about life, too. They involve studying, experiencing, and learning about the universe we live in, life itself, living things, their relations, and their creator’s designs.
   Hopefully, you had the good fortune to have had good examples and teachers of faith and religion and to have learned to use religious teachings, theology, and scripture to study the meaning and purpose of life.
   Religion is more than a matter of customs, social standards, rules, and regulations that dictate and even restrict personal behavior.
   Social standards, rules, and regulations are changeable and even arbitrary. A good example of this is the ten commandments.

   For example, Exodus 20:8-10 says, Remember the sabbath day [day of rest]—keep it holy. Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God…
   Devote Jews observe this, but Christians do not. Instead their day of rest is the first day of the week, Sunday. Literally, this is disobeying one of the commandments.
   Our understandings of many things religious always have been changing: what’s right and wrong, good and bad, virtue and sin as well as our understandings of God and the will and designs of God, the purpose and destiny of life, the meaning of scripture, theology, and church teachings.
   Sometimes our changed understandings are misunderstandings; sometimes they are rediscoveries of lost or misunderstood original meanings; sometimes they are new or enhanced understandings, new insights into the will and designs of God.
   If we really are studying life and living things, then we are necessarily experiencing change, for better or for worse, and, hopefully, developing and evolving.
   All this is of the very nature of life. The simplest of living things—for instance, the amoebas, move about, change their shape, and reproduce and multiply.
   How much more complicated and complex are our lives, our understandings of our purpose, and our limited insights into the nature of God and his designs and will.
   To bewail and avoid change, always clinging to what is familiar, comfortable, and secure, is to behave like an immobile caterpillar who is reluctant to break out of its enfolding cocoon, never realizing that its ultimate destiny is to fly!


20 March 2022

Entropy and the Evolving Kingdom of God

Entropy originally referred to the measure in thermodynamics of how much energy is not available to do work—a sort of energy or heat loss. In a broader sense, almost metaphorically, it is about social decline and degeneration.
  It’s hard to apply this concept to living things, since in biology an almost opposite point of view dominates: evolution—that is, that living things are constantly becoming ever more complex and diverse.
   Fr. Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, scientist and theologian, made a brilliant synthesis of the findings and concepts of science and the developing insights of biblical studies and theology.
   He knitted together cosmology, biology, anthropology, and faith into a grand evolutionary vision starting with origin of the universe, through the creation of life, the emergence of humanity, divine revelations, Christ, and the contemporary world, culminating in a final union of all through Christ in God.
   Especially in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions, teachings, and contemporary faith there is a radical optimism about the universe we live in and the direction of its ongoing development.
   This is a realistic optimism, It realizes that there is a certain “entropy” in our lives, a certain sinking to the least common denominator, a kind of decline and loss. Our old words about it were error, failure, disobedience, and sin.
   But, fundamentally, it is an optimism, a point of view that sees each person, all human societies, all life, all creation as essentially good and constantly growing, progressing, developing, and evolving—in spite of occasional “entropic” deviations.
   In the words of St. Augustine, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
   That’s a great way of describing evolution!

   Okay, we’re incorrigibly optimistic, confident about evolutionary development, and yearning for an ultimate culminating future for each and all of us.
   What do we call it? The kingdom of God? The Omega Point? The Cosmic Christ? The After-Life? Heaven? Paradise” A Better Life?
   How do we describe it? A place of everlasting happiness? joy? pleasure? wealth? fulfillment? reunion with others? union with God?
   Where is it? No, it’s not up since the world’s not flat. No, it’s not down, either. It’s not a place in the usual use of the word.
   What do we really know about it? The only one who briefly returned to tell us of it and show us the way there was Jesus.
   Actually, he didn’t give us much detailed information at all, but he was pretty clear about directions to get there. He didn’t give us any road maps but he did propose a pattern of life that leads there.
   “Thy will be done…” That’s a sort of title for the detailed lifestyle that Jesus witnessed to and proposed to us.
   It’s very consonant with a vision of a developing and evolving universe, for it’s a vision of each of us as developing and evolving persons.
   St. John said it beautifully (1 John 3:1-2):

   See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.




6 March 2022

Religious Imagination

There’s a time and place for religious imagination—for “make believe”. It’s only human to embellish (that is, to beautify, to enhance) factual matters, and with long-term traditions the embellishment may get pretty elaborate.
   When the facts are few and far between, or when they are very slim and easily overlooked, it’s only human that we relate them with more and more descriptive words or imagined supplementary details.
   However, the embellishments may become so many and so elaborate as to disguise or distort the truth itself. That’s why in sworn testimony we call on God as our witness that we are telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
   Take the case of Nicholas of Myra. In the 4th century, in the Eastern Roman Empire, he was the Christian bishop of a town now known as Demre in Turkey.
   There are many traditions about him, most focused on and praising his generosity and secret gift-giving. The best known is about how he rescued three girls whose family was so poor that they had no dowry money for marriages for them by dropping small bags of gold coins through the window of their home at night.
   That’s about it. There are many embellishments in stories about his life, legends really, but very few “hard facts”. His feast is celebrated on December 6th or, in some places, December 19th.
   This is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about the origins of the Santa Claus story—but, oh so many elaborations and embellishments over the centuries, so much imagination.
   The majority of modern descriptions of St. Nicholas/Santa Claus are shaped by the famous 1823 poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, and his visits are more associated now with the birthday of Jesus than Nicholas’s own feast day.

   In any case, all this is a great illustration of the role of imagination in religious life and faith—and, in this case, the excessive role of imagination.
   It’s only human that we relate the factual matters of our religious faith with descriptive words or imagined supplementary details. But, we don’t want the embellishments to be so many or so elaborate that they disguise or distort the truth itself.
   The contemporary temptation is to hastily and carelessly discard religious traditions, customs, and teachings from centuries before as though they were purely works of imagination.
   Patience! Of course, they were embellished. We can’t communicate effectively merely by citing the judicially correct, bare-bones, root truth—and especially when we’re trying to communicate (in the best sense of the word) a mystery.
   It’s not a terrible thing to tell little kids about Santa Claus, but it would be if you swore on a Bible that it is “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God!”
   It’s not a terrible thing to teach kids standard catechism questions and answers and religious customs, but as they grow up they need to sift the root truths about matters of faith from religious imaginations that have embellished them over the years.
   When kids grow up, they don’t usually abandon their parents for telling them so many detailed embellishments about Santa Claus, but they do sort out the “hard facts” and know that there really are in this world exemplary people like St. Nicholas.


20 February 2022

Don’t Be Shellish!

From now I announce new things to you,
   hidden events you never knew.
Now, not from old, they are created,
   Before today you did not hear of them,
   so that you cannot claim, “I have known them.”
You never heard, you never knew,
   they never reached your ears beforehand.
                    (Isaiah 48:6b-8a)

   Jeweled eggs created by the firm of Fabergé from the days of the Russian Empire are sold today for tens of thousands of dollars. They’re not real eggs, of course, merely egg shaped.
   Real eggs are fragile, and their shells are meant to be breakable (though they sometimes are hardboiled and decorated for Easter). It’s amazing how long something as fragile as an egg shell remains intact.
   Shells are simply the first stage in the development of a new little bird (or platypus!)—and they have to be broken if new life is to emerge.
   Figuratively speaking, growth and development always involve a sort of breaking and loss of what once was—and even very necessary in its time—so that life may go on and flourish.
   We may love and cherish a particular stage of our life, but inevitably we need to move on—even though the change may involve a shattering and leaving behind of what was  loved and prized.
   The joy—and pain—of living involves change, gradual or sudden, minor or major, and particular stages of our lives and of the world we live in can’t be frozen or preserved permanently. (Embalming is only for the dead!)
   Sometimes we yearn for an imagined past, imagined, because often memories tend to be somewhat selective and edited; we may emphasize the pleasurable and satisfying parts of the past, overlooking or minimizing what was unpleasant or painful.

   The few verses from Isaiah (quoted initially) allude to the wonderful, unfamiliar, novel things that God has in store for us.
   When we appeal to God, ask for help, pray, we are inviting divine intervention—change! And, often God’s responses regarding our personal or family lives or the whole world are initially disturbing to us and even upsetting—because of their newness.
   For the little bird or platypus to live, to grow and develop, they must break through the fragile shell that encases them. And, this is a metaphor for each of us and for all the world we live in.
   It’s hard to yearn for the unknown, since what we do not know and have not experienced can be frightening prospects—but that’s life!
   Some changes in our lives are desired and yet, even so, disturbing. like graduations, marriage, and moving to a new place or getting a new job.
   Some events in our lives come upon us gradually and subtly; other can be so sudden and unforeseen that our instinctive reaction is to reject them and recoil—even though, later, we may come to appreciate, celebrate, and thank God for them.
   Beware of a life of faith, for it invites and welcomes divine intervention. And when God acts in our lives and in our world, our first reaction often is to try to avoid the changes God’s intervention demands.
   A life of faith requires strength and courage, a willingness to let go even of our favorite things, a repeated plunging into the unknown or even undesired.
   Life and faith involve constantly breaking out of shells, letting go, and entrusting ourselves to God whose love ever guides us.


16 January 2022

Inactive, Dormant, Dead

…it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at hand. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.     (Romans 13:11-12)

   Sleep. It is a strange thing we do for more or less one-third of every day of our lives. It involves the suspension of voluntary bodily functions and of consciousness. It also is a vital necessity; without this resting, we die.
   Sleep also has metaphorical meanings. When we’re careless or not alert we seem to be allowing our vigilance or attentiveness to lie dormant. We also use the word to describe lying in death.
   In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul is sort of switching meanings of the word. He consider the living of our present lives as being asleep (night) and death as an awakening to the fulness of life (day).
   Further, still using this metaphor, he urges us to truly wake up—to cast off the lingering remnants of our night’s dreams and get dressed with the armor of light, ready to live the new, great day.
   It’s beautiful imagery. But, it’s not merely imagery, it’s the confidence, in faith, of our real destiny, of God’s ultimate plan for our lives.
   St. Paul is not giving a technical, scientific explanation of a kind of metamorphosis. But he is asserting what he believes to be a certain fact.
   It’s a familiar process, in a way. We know many things for certain, even if we have hardly any idea at all of how to explain them. We trust the knowledge, integrity, and truthfulness of others all the time.
   Some would relegate faith to the category of wishful thinking, imagination, or impossible dreams, but it, too, relies on the knowledge, integrity, and veracity of others.

   When St. Paul says, “the night is advanced; the day is at hand,” he’s talking about the end of our present, limited stage of life and about our future one, when we wake up to the fulness of life God has in store for us.
   Look, if you know you’re leaving very early tomorrow morning for a wonderful vacation, you’ll certainly try to have your bags packed today before you go to sleep and the clothes you’re going to wear tomorrow selected and ready.
   Shouldn’t we do the same when we remember that “our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed”?
   Why is it that we are so illogical about the awaking from the sleep that St. Paul is talking about? Any day could be our last day before we die—that is, any day could be the last day we are asleep until we awaken to the wonder of what God has in store for us.
   So, so to speak, always have your plans made, your bags packed, your travel documents in order, and everything in readiness for a great departure as soon as you wake up!
   If all you worry about and plan for are details of things you want or feel you need to do tomorrow that you couldn’t complete today, you’re actually just rolling over and asking to be left alone to sleep some more—and missing out on all that could have been, if only you had remembered what the really new day was offering.
    We know not the day nor the hour, but the end of the night (of our present lives) always may be sooner than we expect or have planned for. That’s why our best course of action is to do the best we can every day of our lives, and treat every day of our lives as though it were the last.


9 January 2022

Sing Alleluia!

Let us sing alleluia here on earth, while we still live in anxiety, so that we may sing it one day in heaven in full security…
   Even here amidst trials and tribulations let us, let all, sing alleluia. “God is faithful”, says holy Scripture, “and he will not allow you to be tried beyond your strength”, So let us sing alleluia, even here on earth…
   O the happiness of the heavenly alleluia, sung in security, in fear of no adversity! We shall have no enemies in heaven, we shall never lose a friend. God’s praises are sung both there and here, but here they are sung in anxiety, there, in security; here they are sung by those destined to die, there, by those destined to live for ever; here they are sung in hope, there, in hope’s fulfillment; here they are sung by wayfarers, there, by those living in their own country…
   You should sing as wayfarers do—sing, but continue your journey. Do not be lazy, but sing to make your journey more enjoyable. Sing, but keep going. What do I mean by keep going? Keep on making progress. This progress, however, must be in virtue,…true faith and right living…
(Saint Augustine)

   (“Alleluia” or “hallelujah” comes from the same Hebrew word meaning literally “Praise Yahweh”—i.e., “Praise God” or “Praise the Lord.”)
   Maybe here and now is not entirely a matter of anxiety, trials, and tribulations. but it may not be much to sing about! But, that’s the whole point. What is difficult to bear, to endure, is helped by the prospects of things getting better, of great expectations.
   We’re not stuck in the mud, imprisoned in in helplessness, doomed to a life of emptiness, meaninglessness, hopelessness, grief, and pain.

   We’re en route, we’re on our way to a promised land. We’re strengthened by our anticipations. We struggle on in hope.
   No matter what, we sing in our hearts—we sing alleluia! We thank and praise God because we trust that he will not let us be tried beyond our strength, we trust that God has a destination for us to hope for, we endure as we journey to the promised land.
   How can I sing with so many anxieties, trials, adversities, insecurities, difficulties, and even enemies? That’s the whole point!
   You may sing, praise God, with thanksgiving for life and so many present good things—but the greatest joy and gladness lies in the trust that you have a wonderful future and that, slowly but surely, no matter what, you are on your way there.
   The great temptation of hopelessness is well described by Shakespeare in Hamlet’s famous soliloquy:

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;…
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;…

   Alas, poor Hamlet—you never learned to sing alleluia.


2 January 2022

Preaching the Gospel

What is it, exactly, that a priest or deacon does or should be doing at Mass after the reading of the Gospel?
   Traditionally, we call it “preaching”, meaning  1. the act or practice of a person who preaches.  2. the art of delivering sermons.  3. a sermon.
   But this is kind of circular, since “sermon” is defined as  1. a discourse for the purpose of religious instruction or exhortation, especially one based on a text of Scripture and delivered by a member of the clergy as part of a religious service.  2. Any serious speech, discourse, or exhortation, especially on a moral issue.  3. a long, tedious speech.
   Religious instruction implies “teaching”, usually defined as 1. to impart knowledge of or skill in; give instruction in.  2. To impart knowledge or skill to; give instruction to.
   I suppose that there often is an element of teaching in what is communicated after the Gospel, but Mass shouldn’t be the main place and time  for teaching religion or scripture. However, stimulating reflection about the meaning and implications of well-known religious teachings may be useful or appropriate.
   Exhortation is  1. the act or process of exhorting.  2. An utterance, discourse, or address conveying urgent advice or recommendations. Advising or recommending a course of action to someone makes sense and may be helpful, so long as it avoids becoming doctrinaire, partisan, or divisive.
   Years ago, in seminary days, we had a minor course in public speaking and homiletics. It had some excellent advice about how to communicate effectively and to organize a sermon or address.
   I still remember what one of our (lay) professors called “The Magic Formula”. It consisted of four key components: Ho Hum, Why Bring That Up, For Instance, and So What.

   Ho Hum: you need to capture the attention of your listeners, usually by something unexpected but interesting.
   Why Bring That Up: you need to establish a personal connection between your listeners and the topic at hand, illustrating why it is important for them.
   For Instance: practical examples, appropriate to the situation of your listeners, are needed to stimulate remembrance of what they already may know and/or critical thinking about it.
   So What: the reason for having a sermon or homily is motivation—to motivate the listeners to choose and implement a course of action, to do something, or to change their behavior.
   I must confess, after all these years, that this simple plan is still a personal checklist for me. Each of these four elements seems vital to a successful and effective sermon.
   But, there’s more to preaching than a formula at play; the real “magic” is the Holy Spirit influencing the life, action, and words of both the speaker and the listeners.
   There’s an odd word you could use to describe this: “ventriloquism”. Usually that’s defined as the art or practice of speaking with little or no lip movement, in such a manner that the voice does not appear to come from the speaker but from another source, as from a wooden dummy.
   In preaching, a sort of ventriloquism happens. But, it’s not the preacher who is the ventriloquist—the preacher is the wooden dummy! The words that come from the preacher’s mouth often are inspired by God and touch the mind and hearts of all those who listen—including the mind and heart of the preacher himself/herself!


5 December 2021

Bucket List

To “kick the bucket” is a sort of slang expression in English for dying. Whatever its origin, it was popularized by the 2007 film, “The Bucket List”, meaning a list of things you want to do before you die.
   One way or another, we all may have one, whether we identify it as such or not. That is to say, we all tend to have unfulfilled desires, wishes, hope, and plans that we end up deferring for consideration “tomorrow”.
   (Like Scarlet O’Hara in last scene of the famous movie, “Gone With the Wind”.)
   We also have a very good word to describe this kind of behavior—“procrastination”. And, sometimes, recognizing that we’re doing it, we resolve to change—and then often we procrastinate again!
   The moral seems to be, do not put off until “tomorrow” what you can do today, even if what you can do today is no more than a first step in long or continuing process.
   (Remember the Chinese proverb, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”)
   Logically, since we fundamentally have absolutely no certitude whatsoever about the length of our lives, we should not put off until “tomorrow” whatever we consider vitally important today.
   That’s why having a bucket list is a pretty good idea. Forget about fantasies, dreams, and wishful thinking, but figure out the undone things that you really want to do and should be doing.
   If they are possible and important, put them on your bucket list—which should be arranged in priority order—and then resolve to begin to implement it.
   Never mind how formidable, how challenging, how demanding your undone thing may be. With the help of God all things are possible.
   (As the Beatles used to sing; “Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends”)

   Obviously, and maybe likely, your list may prove to be longer than your life. No matter. That’s why it’s in priority order.
   All you can do is to do as much you possibly can. You’re not omnipotent, you can’t fix everything, you can’t erase the past—and you can’t control the future, either.
   Trust in and be grateful for the help of God and the little help of your friends. Also, since you’re not superman/superwoman, be at peace with your limited successes and failures. Do your best, and God will do the rest.
   Your bucket list may, so to speak, range from the sublime to the ridiculous. That’s okay, after all it’s your bucket list—and no one else is exactly like you, nor will there ever be another person exactly like you!
   But, getting your bucket list in priority order is very important. After all, in the scheme of things, e.g., is climbing Mt. Everest more important than being reconciled with your estranged relative? Never mind that, for you, climbing Mt. Everest may be easier!
   Maybe you won’t live long enough to accomplish it, but the moment you add it to your list truly as a top priority you have taken your first step towards accomplishing it.
   Don’t leave any of the weighty, really important things off your list or give them a low priority on it.
   If you’re not sure, think of it this way: If today was the last day of your life, what undone thing would you like to accomplish, no matter how difficult, no matter how unlikely it may be that you could achieve it.
   Making the decision is what counts!


28 November 2021