Unimportance

 I have the gift of unimportance.  No one seeks me out.  When Covid passes, I suspect it will be about the same.  I feel sorry for gurus and such people as Jesus of Nazareth.  In the Gospels, people are coming from far and wide to seek Jesus to cure them of sickness and hear him talk.  He is crushed by the crowds and has little time for himself.  I have the best of both worlds.  People say they miss me, but that does not mean they would come up here to the monastery to seek me.  They might like to see me, say hello, but in the orbit of their own everyday lives.  So be glad if you are nothing special.  God still loves you and certainly in my religion has gone way out of the divine way to let me know I am loved.  Or maybe that is the divine way.  Celebrate your gifts and talents, but don’t let pride make a drama of your life, that no one seeks you out.  Loneliness is not an absence of people.  It is feeling isolated among people.  

Save Or Destroy

Jesus of Nazareth asked, "Is it better to save life rather than to destroy it?" Faced with this question we often think of physical death and killing.  But I realize that I must fave this question each day.  How?  I can destroy someone by making a judgment about them to their face and then treating them as less than worthy of respect and attention.  A harsh word, ignoring them, asking them why they do what I consider a bad thing, and so on.  It would be easy for me to love perfect people, but I must love the people around me, and I don't always choose who they are.  If a person is having a bad day or does mess up, I can respond in a loving way rather than in a harsh fashion or reprimand or dismissal.  I try to keep this in mind when a negative energy spontaneously arises in me.  Wait.  Pause.  Let Love have a chance to get out front and then respond.  

The Steps

 Each day, early on, I must take certain steps in order for the wheels not to come off my life as I roll along.  I call it a spiritual practice.  Even my stretching, yoga is part of the steps I take in order to stay balanced in body and heart, the inner and the outer.  What might happen if I avoid all these steps?  Well, a certain discomfort will arise and build.  I will feel out of sorts, disconnected with myself, and then with the world around me.  Then soon enough, my next step might be my last.  So I tend to stay vigilant.  It is good to know your demons.  They are cunning.  Alone, I will not do well against them hiding wherever they are.  So my spiritual practice is to stay in touch with what someone called “Ultimate Reality.”  Sounds pretty powerful, so that is why I seek its help each day, early on.  

Walsh Family Players

 Years ago when I first became a priest, I was assigned to a parish in Houston, Texas.  There I met the Walsh family with their seven kids.  The children and sometimes included the parents would put on skits to entertain the adult at some social gathering.  Terry, the eldest daughter, took charge.  She directed the show.  I so remember my 25th anniversary as a priest, I went back to Houston and they put on a skit about me.  They nailed me, every flaw, idiosyncrasy, habit, and stuff I had done in their experience of my ministry and preaching and my visits to their home.  My point?  Children get us.  They may not say much at times, but they are watching and see all our habits, the good, the bad and the ugly.  But like the Walsh Family Players, children don’t judge us.  They know they are loved.  That is what they want, to be loved, feel safe, and cared for.  So parents, teachers, don’t so much worry about how you look or what mistakes you might make or silly stuff you try to hide from children.  They see.  They know.  Just love on them.  But what do I know.  I am just a single priest.  

An Impression

 A Mom once told me that her children were talking one day and out of the blue they mentioned a sermon I had given at the school mass.  The sermon was about a year and a half before their conversation.  I had done some tap dancing in church to make a point about growth in prayer.  Ok, yes, I can get weird.  But I can tap dance so why not use it.  My hope, and belief, is that children remember stories and visuals.  But I am never sure as they don’t come running up and say I did good for them.  Pastors, on the other hand, might be appalled.  None of them are clamoring for me to preach in their parishes.  So I am what you might call “unsuccessful” with the powers that be.  But back to their children talking so many months after  my tap dancing.  They still remembered and wanted more of me. They got the point of the tap dancing.  So I have great success with children, the powerless in my church.  As for the powerful, not so much.  So do what you do well, because then you will be most of service.  “Singin’ in the rain.”  Who did that famous movie dance? Who was the actress that made her movie debut at 18 in that same movie?  Quiz time my children!

The Umbrella

 I think of spiritual practices such as prayer, being of service, compassion, quiet times of silence and solitude, as like an umbrella.  The umbrella does not control the rain, but it does keep us dry, keeps the rain from soaking through our clothes and making for a really unpleasant experience.  The spiritual life does not keep outside things from happening.  It is not magic, nor a form of control.  But it does help to keep the misery that might be going on around me from making us equally as miserable.  Just because I am with unhappy people and try to be of some service to their misery, does not mean that I must be equally miserable.  You may feel their pain but there is something within you, some power, that allows you to see the light whereas they see only the darkness.  

Meaning

 Would you rather die old or young?  Sooner rather than later?  Most of us would say we would rather live a long life.  But I heard it said, “I would rather die young with a life crammed with meaning than old with a life without meaning.”  Well there you have it.  Instead of trying to hang on longer why not ask if you can cram more meaning into your life?  Does my life have meaning?  On my better days, when it is not all about me, I think it does have meaning.  Like what?  The lives I touch are better for it because of the way I am in their presence.  Now I admit I don’t touch many lives.  I live in a monastery with a few monks.  And I have a couple of blog readers.  I teach to a few on Zoom.  It is not the number of people whose life I touch or with whom I cross paths.  It is what happens when we do touch.  Judgment or acceptance?  If only one person reads this blog I want it to help that one person today to be a better person.  It is not the many things we do, but how we do them in connection with others.  Daily life is filled with significance.  Did anyone read this?