Rousing Rambling

  Reflection on “The Joy of Being a Deacon” by John P. Flanagan Several years ago, while presenting at another parish’s Lenten retreat, I finished my talk on holiness by asking the retreatants the question, “At the end of your life, how do you hope to be remembered by others?” I shared with the retreatants that I hope to be remembered as a man of joy.  I confessed that I know that I have a long way to go to achieve that goal, but that I continue to try to live a life of joy by attempting to love others as God loves them.  Small group discussions followed.  As each table reported back to the full group, people reported wanting to be remembered for charity, love, compassion, faithfulness, generosity, and so many other positive attributes.  I thought the sharing was going extremely well, until a woman stood up and emphatically declared, “there were a lot of good answers at our table, but I don’t think any of them matter.  I don’t care ...

July 6, 2015 Rosa Parks Circle, Grand Rapids, Michigan 38 th Convention of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians Public Concert with the Cortez family   While sitting in Rosa Parks Circle, in Grand Rapids, MI, attending an outdoor concert by Jaime Cortez and family, I watched a homeless man take his place at my side with a tin container of spaghetti and another container of some other food.   Clearly, one or two of the hundreds of people in attendance at the outdoor event had given this man food to eat.   As he sat there eating the spaghetti with his hands, he seemed to be content.   He was clearly tapping his foot to the beautiful Catholic songs of the Cortez family, their Spanish rhythms and percussive beats evoking joy. Every once in a while, he’d break out into a little seated dance.   He seemed to be enjoying the spaghetti, as he pulled each handful to his mouth to eat.   I have to admit, shamefully, that I was a little grossed out wa...

Ecclesiastes 7:2 tells us that, "it is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart."  On this day after Thanksgiving, this passage speaks to my heart so profoundly.  Thanksgiving day is perhaps my favorite holiday, one that is about being grateful and being with those we love.  As always, this year I again enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving day.  There was an overabundance of food and drink, laughs, stories, sports, and family.  We ate in ways that we do not normally eat...and then continued to eat after we overate.  The wine jugs were refilled often.  No matter how many times we repeated, "I ate too much" we continued to eat some more.  Thankfully, intertwined in the moments of feasting, we paused to thank our God for all of His goodness to us.  Prior to our overeating, we stopped to give thanks, and to pray for t...