My Bapism

 Today is the anniversary of my Baptism into the Catholic Church in 1943.  I was little less than a month old.  We had babies baptized soon after their birth back then.  I remember nothing of course.  A priest, friend of the family was my godfather, Bernard Corrigan.  So I guess I had a leg up on becoming a priest from the git go.  I was a very good Catholic altar boy, and then a normal neurotic teenage Catholic, which, back then skirted mediocrity.  I did think about becoming a priest as a boy and teenager. Then the world, the flesh and the devil took over.  I became a bad Catholic, but did seem to have this now and again, off and on, desire for quiet meditation, or just sitting still in a church or park.  But grace is everywhere and I seem to have stumbled into being a priest of some use to others on my better days and moments.  My baptism keeps plugging me into grace.  I like being the kind of Catholic I am, though some think it is heresy or bad practice.  I live in the post-modern world and find it fascinating.  I look forward to what time gifts me as I trudge the road of happy destiny.  

Great Love

 We are still in the Easter Season.  I am reminded that when Jesus rose from the dead, as Christians believe, he still had his wounds from his crucifixion.  We Christians believe that he died for love of us, and that where there is great love, there is great suffering.  So many people feel that their life would be complete if they fell in love and had someone to love.  If only I had a girlfriend or boyfriend the young might think.  Or the not so young.  But what Christianity tries to teach is that if you really love maturely, then there will be suffering.  For a lot of people, “in love” when they suffer they think the love is over or gone bad.  And they move on.  I did that.  I think that I just did not want to pay the price of growing up.  I wanted resurrection but without a cross.  

Connections

 Meditation, the silence and solitude of it, is not simply to make one a  less crazy person.  This would be too individualistic.  It is to inform your occupation and profession.  That is, even unemployed, retired, living in leisure, you are part of a greater world in your daily occupations.  When I get in my car or go out on an errand or just for a walk, I am entering a world larger than myself.  How do I respond to someone else in that world?  Ignore them?  Compete with them for mutual services such as queue lines for purchase of something?  How do I see other people?  As other and an obstacle to my getting what I want as quickly and conveniently as possible?  Do I compete with workers or cooperate?  Even on-line computer work can have an inclusive attitude toward others in cyberspace.  I think that meditation can help to keep the focus from being only on “ME.”

Beyond Self

 One way to get beyond the self and into the world of the common good, is to bypass the greater good.  Why?  Well, the greater good might be greater for a few people, but not for everyone.  In the world of consumption, production, investment and distribution, the greater good is for whom?  Often for those who have plenty of good already, and at the expense of the many who are still lacking.  When making decisions do you seek the advice of others who might be affected by your singular want or what you think is right?  Or are you open to the common good, the group conscience?  You need go no further than the business meeting of a group of sober ex-drunks to see the example of the common good rather than the greater good.  Greater is too often for the individual and not for the group or society.  

The Painter

 My sister is a painter.  She even belongs to a League of Painters.  They paint pictures, not houses.  But you cannot just want to paint.  Nothing happens with simply wanting.  She has talent, but talent does not paint.  It is in the category of potential.  She has to have a certain life-style.  Like what?  Like a space for painting in her house.  Then she has to buy the materials and set them in the space.  Then she has to consciously choose a life that gives her time to paint.  That is a lot of work before she even puts pencil to paper for an outline.  Then she has to practice just like a pianist does on the piano.  Sometimes it may be boring or a mess or going nowhere, but the painter does not give up.  Inspiration comes to those who set their life for it.  So how much effort, time, lifestyle and money do you put into your goals?  And are they for the good of others?

Up For Sale

 Yesterday, in the local Aspen newspaper, the front page story was that our monastery in Old Snowmass was up for sale.  The asking price is $150 million.  The monastery has 3600 acres of ranch and buildings.  It is in expensive Pitkin County.  So now that it is official, in the news, people are really sad, or curious enough to finally come up the seven miles from the highway to see the place.  As a Trappist monastery, it will be no more.  But as a ranch and a place for retreat and quiet, a spiritual center, if you will, I believe it will go on.  The new owners will be much better marketers and advertisers than the Trappists ever were.  The Trappists have not made any effort to let anyone know they are here since they stopped selling eggs decades ago in the local stores.  They don’t even wear their habits when they go anywhere.  The In Crowd, the ones who come here regularly, will miss individual Trappists with whom they have made friends, and the atmosphere of “Catholic” whatever that might mean to them.  Most of these people are pretty old, like their Trappist friends, and it is time to move on.  God is in charge and God has a plan.  Believe in Resurrection, that is change, on a radical scale.  If you want the same old, same old, you are looking only at the past.  

Goal-Changing

 One way you know that your life is going in the wrong direction, is that you change your goals to meet your life.  Maybe you had lofty goals, but then your life behavior went downhill, into self-destruction.  But you don’t want to admit this, because of pride, fear, ego-inflation, so you simply change your goals, you downsize your future so that you don’t have to change your destructive behavior.  People in recovery have been there and done that.  Their lives were filled with loss so they simply changed their goals.  Those losses were not all that important.  But anyone can suffer this goal-changing behavior.  So ask yourself, if you changed your goals, why?  And if you are honest enough, you might get a second opinion from someone who might know of your situation. Don’t try to live life alone.