Rousing Rambling

Originally written 07/13/2015 “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.   Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.   Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen”   I have probably prayed the Hail Mary thousands of times in my life.   Sometimes my prayer is done like a Marian marathon runner…hurrying to get through the prayers of the rosary so that I can do something else. In hindsight, most of the time that I am rushing through my prayers, I am doing so to free myself to do something else; go to bed, get a bite to eat, waste time on the Internet, or any other meaningless task.   However, lately I have been graced to pray a bit more deliberately.   Almost a year ago, 93 year old “Nana” fell and broke her hip.   She was admitted to the hospital where she had emergency surgery.   While recovering from the hip surgery, the symptoms of congestive heart fa...

Originally written 07/09/2015 Oh Lord, how beautiful to me is your presence. In the morning, you bless the earth with dew, life-giving water in our midst. In the day, your sun shines upon us, warming us as your love enfolds us. In the evening, the stars and moon guide our ways, just as your love for us in times of darkness. In the night, the calm comforts us to rest in you, and the promise of a new day gives us hope.   You make your presence known in the gentle breeze, the crisp air, the beautiful colors that you have painted on Earth's great palette. In the rolling stream, I hear your whisper. In the sounds of your birds and creatures, I hear your song...music for our souls. In the crashing waves of the ocean, I see your power. In the claps of thunder, I hear your might. In the grandeur of the mountains, I adore your magnificent creation. The trees reach to you and worship with outstretched arms. The scent of the forest is full of your...

Originally written 07/19/2015 7:22 p.m. Take Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. Thou hast given all to me. To Thee, O lord, I return it. All is Thine, dispose of it wholly according to Thy will. Give me Thy love and thy grace, for this is sufficient for me." St. Ignatius of Loyola The prayer of surrender and trust is never more real to me than when I walk through the halls of Marian Manor. Every day I see the same faces of the beautiful residents who make up this special family. I try to make an effort to calm myself down, and mindfully greet each resident as I pass by them. Sometimes, there are so many residents sitting in the great hall that my "hellos" are more generalized and less personal. But when I am able to truly experience the presence of each resident, I feel the presence of Christ, and the essence of this profound prayer, the Suscipe Domine, that Saint Ignatius h...

“ Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘ Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ‘ For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me. ’ “ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘ Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? ‘ And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? ‘ When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You? ’ “ The King will answer and say to them, ‘ Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me. ’ Nursing is an amazing profession. When I watch a nurse do his or her job well, I immediately am drawn into this passage. Spending ti...

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...

This weekend I drove over 8 hours north to Quebec City to say goodbye to a dear cousin of mine. To get there, we drove through the beautiful White Mountains of New Hampshire. The scenery was magnificent, and it was as if we were looking at a beautiful palette of perfect colors, heights, and textures. We saw farms and ski resorts, high peaks and low valleys; and in the midst of the grandeur of the mountains, I reminded myself just how small I am in this world.  Reminding myself that it's not me that is the center of the universe, but that I live for the Center of the universe is a meditative practice that I should engage in more frequently. One of my favorite Christian songs is "Redeemer" as sung by Nicole Mullen. Immediately sensing my small self among mighty mountains, I recalled the Redeemer lyrics, "Who taught the sun where to stand in the morning? and Who told the ocean you can only come this far? and Who showed the moon where to hide '...

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...