Transformation

Transformation
Originally uploaded by mike52ad

Soon the beauty of autumn will be replaced with the stark white and grays of winter. Cold winds will blow and people will hunker down inside their warm shelters. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years will pass and the whites and grays will become even starker as the Christmas decoration tarnish in the harsh winds of winter. But then, one day, a shoot will poke its tender head from the freshly thawed ground and once again green will appear on the landscape but only after the delicate colors of Spring have arrived. Let us resolve to endure the coming winter with the joy of a people whose God loves them very much indeed. He loves us so much that he sent his only begotten Son to die for us and he rose from the dead after enduring three days in the grave, his winter.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Autumn Sky

Autumn Sky
Originally uploaded by mike52ad

I am starting to believe that life is nothing more then a series of disappointments held together by a thin golden cord of hope that things will get better. I am holding on to the cord but is seems to be slipping through my fingers. There is no safe place for me anymore, there is no one that I can count on to be always be with me and for me. I might as well start a one man band.

Religious Fervor

Religious Fervor
Originally uploaded by mike52ad

Back in the mid 1970's (August 1976 to be exact) I entered the Third Order of St. Francis in Loretto PA. I was 24 years old and the world was at my disposal. I fell madly in love with St. Francis of Asissi and was bound and determined to serve God as a Franciscan Friar.

This is a picture of me mugging for the camera. The crucifix I am holding in my hand today is in my living room, it was a gift to me from Brother Ambrose. The cord from my hibit hangs from it. I hope to be buried with both of these artifacts. I was the sacristan and from what I can see, it looks like I was just getting ready to set up the priest's vestments for Mass.

God has been very good to me over the years, if a bit mysterious. I have been blessed with feeling Him with me all of my life, never have I known a moment without Him. I was angry with Him when I left the monastery, but I got over it and He loved me all through the years of my bitterness. I thank Him now for all of the things He has done for me, for all the people he has led me to and for all of the circumstances that have brightened and or changed my life over the years.

Transformation

Transformation
Originally uploaded by mike52ad

For the last week in the Chicago area we have had nothing but rain. This afternoon blue sky appeared and my wife and I went off to the woods to see the last of the fall colors. The transformation of the trees is comforting in a way. True, soon all of the leaves will be on the ground, returning nourisment to the forest floor and before long, the colors of autumn will give way to the whites and grays of winter. Nature will sleep confident in springs arrival. So it is for us. Soon, and believe me the years fly by, we will approach our own autumn, our own sunset. When we breathe our last, we will drop the natural body and our spirit will stand before God. We will choose at that moment, based on how we lived our life, weather we will be reborn in the glory of heaven or choose to be away from God for all eternity. We will put off the old and take on the new. Winter is just the prelude to spring.

Sunlight Through Stained Glass

Sunlight Through Stained Glass
Originally uploaded by mike52ad

Today was the Rite of Entrance for our RCIA candidates. It was a cool morning with a bright blue sky and a brightly shining sun. The sun was coming through the stained glass windows on the east side of the church and they made a beautiful display as the colors hit the floor.

Dearest Jesus,
I pray that these precious candidates hear your voice in each of the sessions we have over the next seven months. May their eyes be open to your word, their ears open to your voice, their hands ready to take on their work and their hearts ready to prepare a place for you.

For myself Lord, I thank you for forgiving me of my many sins. I promise to try hard, with your grace, to sin no more. Thank you Gentle Merciful Jesus for the love you have shown me. Let my actions reflect your mercy. Amen.

Dad and Mortgage

Dad and Mortgage
Originally uploaded by mike52ad

Here we have a picture of Dad looking at the mortgage payment book. He is standing in the kitchen at 2832 W 40th Place in Chicago. Everything about this kitchen says "dad." He made the cabinets you see out of knotty pine. The tile on the walls were laid by him. The sink was installed by him and my Uncle John. Not too long after this picture was taken he built a cabinet that stood against the wall right where he was standing. The tile on the floor, the green masonite ceiling, quite stylish at the time was all installed by him. The lights (which I was never too fond of) were flourescent built ins that he installed. He got them from an office building that was being demolished. You could pay twenty five dollars and take whatevery you wanted out of it.

Dad was an simple man. He had a hard time expressing emotion. But he cared for his family and did his best to make sure we were comfortable. I sure do miss him. He died in February 2008. 2008 was quite a year. I lost him, my wife's car died and in the same week that happened I got laid off of my job. My dad worked at one place for over twenty years, was appreciated and received a pension. Things were different then. God bless you Dad, an ordinary, simple man who found great joy in working with your hands either using the saw and hammer or in your garden where you grew one pound tomatoes and radishes you had to take a chain saw to to eat. I miss you...

St Mary's Stairs

St Mary's Stairs
Originally uploaded by mike52ad

It is hard to believe that I have been around 56 years and next month I begin my 57th year. I've seen alot in my life, it has been a long hard climb. My life has been filled with disappointments. Let me share just a couple. My best friend when I was growing up pushed me into a pond in the middle of winter, I went under the ice. I could have been killed. He thought it was great fun. After high school another person I trusted and called a friend, someone who I got a job for and hung out with tried to stick me with his car payments. There were other disappointments, harsh set backs that I cannot even begin to explain how they happened. Still I climbed the stairs, putting one foot in front of the other. I could not see the end of the journey then and I really cannot see it now. All through it I was called upon to be strong. I grit my teeth and kept moving. I did not let anyone see the hurts and scars that filled my soul. Last year I experienced being laid off from a company where I worked hard and was turning my team into a great team. But hard my hard work and my loyalty meant nothing. I was shown the door. One of the people, a supposed friend. showed her true colors. She owed me some money and now of course, she returns no emails to me. My wife was hurt deeply by the lay off. She does not smile or laugh as much as before and she carries around with her the seeds of depression that I am afraid may take root and flourish. I have to be strong, for her. But I confess, I am tired to the bones of being strong. For once I would like someone to be strong for me, to tell me things will be okay, even if they have no idea how to turn that sentence into reality. I guess that this will not happen. I will need to be strong. Harken to the words of Jacob Goodpasture of Spoon River

"WHEN Fort Sumter fell and the war came
I cried out in bitterness of soul:
“O glorious republic now no more!”
When they buried my soldier son
To the call of trumpets and the sound of drums
My heart broke beneath the weight
Of eighty years, and I cried:
“Oh, son who died in a cause unjust!
In the strife of Freedom slain!”
And I crept here under the grass.
And now from the battlements of time, behold:
Thrice thirty million souls being bound together
In the love of larger truth,
Rapt in the expectation of the birth
Of a new Beauty,
Sprung from Brotherhood and Wisdom.
I with eyes of spirit see the Transfiguration
Before you see it.
But ye infinite brood of golden eagles nesting ever higher,
Wheeling ever higher, the sun-light wooing
Of lofty places of Thought,
Forgive the blindness of the departed owl. "

Jacob, I understand now why you crept under the grass, you were tired, life's problems and disappointments piled up and up. I ask what you ask to all who read this; Forgive the blindness of the departed owl.

I am not despondent just tired.

St Francis of Assisi - Feast Day

St Francis of Assisi - Feast Day
Originally uploaded by mike52ad

St. Francis is thought to have loved animals, and he did, but not because they were animals, but because they were created by God. Above all things he loved Jesus and his whole life he attempted to imitate His holy example. Near the end of Francis's time on earth he went off to a deserted place to pray. While he was there he was visited by a Seraphim, a angel that burns with love for God and he was given the Stigmata, that is the wounds of Jesus, the Crucified One, and thus, Francis was granted what he always wanted, he was one body and soul with Jesus. Two things show the kind of man Francis was. First, early in his conversion at San Damiono, he heard the instruction to rebuild the church for it was in ruin. He immediately began to rebuild the chapel, using money taken from his father. His father was furious, not so much because of the money, for Francis in his youth had wasted much larger sums than this, but because his son, once the prince of partiers, was becomming a laughing stock. He went to Francis and demanded the money back. In the presence of the bishop Francis cast off everything that belonged to his father including his clothing and returning the money told his father that from now on God was his father. The bishop covered his nakedness with his own robes. Francis found some peasant robes and began to wear them instead of the finery he was used to. He was mocked and scorned by the people that used to party with him but he kept faith with Jesus and began his lifelong task to rebuild the church, not out of brick and mortar so much but by infusing it with an example for the ages. The second incident came at the very end of his time on earth when after all of his labors and sacrifices he told his band of rag tag followers, "Brothers, let us begin now, for until now we have done nothing.

My prayer for all of those who carry Francis in their hearts, that they too become intruments of peace, that they take care to understand others and that they try to imitate the poverty of Francis, who was imitating Christ, by not being owned by the things of this world.

Remeber too that Francis even embraced death as a gift from God. Can we see beyond our selfish misery to see the Glory of God around us?

Feast of St. Francis, October 4, 2009

Jesus is the ONLY thing I want to invest In!

Jesus is the ONLY thing I want to invest In!
Originally uploaded by mike52ad

When all is said and done, Jesus is the only thing we can invest in that will last. May Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar be adored everywhere. Jesus I believe. Please have mercy on those that do not believe. Amen

I am a Roman Catholic and as such have available to me the greatest treasure in the world, the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, triumphant in the form of bread and wine. No denomination can be as blessed as the Catholic Church becaue she alone has remained faithful to the words of Christ at the Last Supper. We do this in memory of Him. If you want to dispute the fact that the bread IS the body and blood of Christ, then you will need to explain away all of the book of John in the Gospels, taking special care to remove Chapter 6.