A Time To Have Fun

I was remarking to my bride, Ruthie, that it probably has been about 3 years since I really had some fun. With all the surgeries of 2011, recovery throughout 2012, and then Ruthie’s health difficulties in 2013, we just haven’t had much time to relax and have some fun. The old adage, “all work and no play make Johnny a dull boy,” comes to mind.

 

I recall a conversation I had with my longtime physican, Dr Burkland, following the birth of my 4^th child, Beth. Ruthie had just given birth to the 11lb Beth (gestational diabetes in case you were wondering) that morning, and  Dr Burkland paid an evening visit to the hospital to check up on Ruthie and our new born Beth. Dr Burkland received some of his education from the Jesuits, so is known to philosophize while examining a person. He had just viewed the film, “The Big Chill.” He began to expound on the false expectations that people have about life. I paraphrase the gist of what he said then, “ Every moment in life can’t always be high, wonderful moments. There are long valleys in life in which there are tough times, mundane times, and times of crisis. The high, wonderful moments are like the hills or mountains that appear from time to time at the end of these long valleys. These high times help to sustain us during the long times in the valley.  What I find so exasperating in the film is the expectation of all these characters that life was going to be a string of high, wonderful events. It just isn’t that way.”

 

Dr Burkland was absolutely correct. We all would like to have those high, wonderful moments throughout life. The danger that would be present in such a situation is that we probably would not appreciate them or maybe even recognize them as high and wonderful. Many years ago, I was visiting a man who had married his high school sweetheart. Their marriage was long and happy. He had built their home. They had wonderful kids. With the exception of those times she gave birth, they had never been in a hospital and had experienced great health throughout all their lives. When they both reached their 80’s, they began to experience some deteriorating health problems. During one visit he said, “Why is God punishing me so much? Why is God tormenting me?” I asked him in what way he thought God was being cruel to him. His answer was basically about the current health problems he and his wife were experiencing. I then pointed out that while the present was becoming difficult for the both of them, they had over 80 years in which God blessed them with good health, a wonderful marriage, a great family, a good income, in which they have very little want. I concluded that rather than punishing them, God had for the most part blessed them abundantly throughout life. He just couldn’t see the blessings and his remaining years were ones in which he slipped into bitterness, cursing God.

 

We can’t always have fun, and life at times can be so incredibly overwhelming, and seemingly goes on for long stretches. However, every now and again, it is nice to get a break from the valleys in life. Perhaps in the end, it is important to be able to recognize  and to be aware of those “good” times, those “fun” times we do have, even if they are only for a day, or for a few hours.

I think the writer of Ecclesiastes recognized all this when he wrote:

“There is an appointed time for everything,

and a time for every affair under the heavens.

A time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.

A time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to tear down, and a time to build.

A time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance.

A time to scatter stones,                                     

and a time to gather them;

a time to embrace,                                              

and a time to be far from embraces.

A time to seek, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away.

A time to rend, and a time to sew;

a time to be silent, and a time to speak.

A time to love, and a time to hate;

a time of war, and a time of peace.

He has made everything appropriate to its time,

and has put the timeless into their hearts,

without men's ever discovering,                        

from beginning to end,

the work which God has done.” (Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8, 11, NAB)

And when life gets to be too hard … a time to have a snowball fight!

A Winter Wonderland Psalm by Ed Hayes

This very cold, very prolonged Winter is not only something that is making life difficult here in Minnesota, but is having an adverse effect on people throughout a great deal of the United States. When I got into my car this morning I can truthfully say that my transmission doth whineth greatly about the bitter cold, as does my joints. In Ed Hayes beautiful volume of prayers, Prayers For A Planetary Pilgrim, is this wonderful psalm he composed. I hope that it helps, at the very least, make the cold a bit more tolerable for those suffering from this bitter cold weather, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. One last note, let us keep in prayer all those who are homeless in this bitter cold and assist as best as we can, the human services that reach to these folks.

A WINTER WONDERLAND PSALM

The ancient psalmist plucked his strings and sang a sentence sprung from you: "Be still and know that I am God"

Be still, my soul, like a winter landscape which is wrapped in the white prayer shawl of silent snow fringed with icy threads.

Sit still, 0 my body, like an icy pond frozen at attention, at rest yet alert

Be still, my gypsy mind, from your whirling like a perpetual gyroscope, constantly restless, ever on the move.

Endlessly you rove on a nomadic quest, roaming the roads of my Egoland, visiting its likes and dislikes, a Disneyland of distorted discriminations. Ceaselessly you visit its sacred shrines of self-righteous beliefs and its numerous forts of fears.

Be still, my being, so that, like Lewis Carroll's Alice, you may, with grace, find the tiny, hidden doorway that leads to Wonderland.

Be still so that you can discover slowly, day by day, that God and you are one, to know in that Wonder-of-Wonderlands who you really are.

 

Edward Hays. Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim: A Personal Manual for Prayer and Ritual (Kindle Locations 1135-1140). Kindle Edition.

Bulletin Article for Feb 1 and Feb 2, 2014

On this Feast of the Presentation, Mary and Joseph, honoring their religious tradition, bring their baby to the Temple in Jerusalem. They encounter two very wise and elderly people there, Simeon and Anna, whose wisdom amaze and give Mary and Joseph much upon which to reflect about their infant son. In the persons of Simeon and Anna God is fully present. How well do we honor the elderly in our families and in our midst? In the free market mentality of American society, there are some who view our elderly as unproductive freeloaders who contribute nothing to the Gross National Product and are a drain on the economy and society. The cynicism of the free market regards them as nothing more than a commodity, that can be bought and sold, rather than value them as Temples of the Holy Spirit in whom God resides.

 It is true that as we age, we begin to grieve the growing frailness of our bodies and perhaps the lack of sharpness in thinking we once possessed. We can either bitterly flail out at these losses, or we can use these losses to grow into grace, as Fr Henri Nouwen once wrote. As our independence and self-reliance begins to wane, we have the opportunity to fall deeper into the embrace of the God who loves and created us. As our eyesight dims, our eyes are able to focus more sharply on God. We are able to transform from the state of just getting “old” to becoming “ancianos” (Spanish for ancient and wise ones).

This is what the Gospel challenges us today; to see within those who are elderly and within ourselves as we age, the growing “light” of God’s wisdom and grace. It is this Light of God to which we pay great reverence and honor. May we be able to say with Simeon toward the end of our lives, “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples.”

Homily for the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, 2014

HOMILY FOR THE 3^RD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A, 2014

If I were to ask you the question, “to whom do you belong,” how would you answer? I think we would all answer that question differently, wouldn’t we? When I was a kid, my answer would have been that I belonged to my parents. As I grew older into adolescence and growing more independent, the answer changed to, “I belong to no one but myself.” As Ruthie and I dated, then got engaged and then married, my answer was “I belong to Ruth.”

If I asked you to sit down with a pencil and paper and begin to list all the people and organizations to whom you belong, I’m sure that it would be quite a list, wouldn’t it? For those of us who are older, we might find that the list we made out when we were younger has dwindled over the passing of the years. We have experienced the passing of the age as one by one, our parents, and relatives, our friends, have passed away, their names scratched off our list. Some of the groups and organizations to which we may have belonged have changed so greatly that we may no longer feel a part of them anymore, or have gotten smaller, or disbanded altogether. Our list gets shorter and shorter. My grandparents, most of my uncles and aunts, my dad, my sister have died.  Within my diaconal ordination class I have lost 6 classmates to death, and I came very close to joining that number 2 years ago. Right now another 6 of my classmates are suffering debilitating illnesses from cancer, stroke, heart disease and dimentia. When I was a kid, my dad’s company transferred him from Chicago to St Paul a number of times. Of all the parishes I felt most at home in during those days of moving, the one I felt most at home was St Andrew’s in St. Paul. However, with the mergers that occurred in 2011, St Andrews, along with our own St Benedict, and St Joseph, were among the many whose doors were closed forever. As this list gets shorter and shorter, we begin to experience the loss of our dearest loved ones and friends, our spouses, even our children. All of these people and places and things to whom we feel a belonging will eventually pass away, however, there is one to whom we belong who will never pass away, to whom we will always belong, and that is Jesus Christ. When we made our list, did we remember to include his name?

Who do you belong to?  is the important question that St Paul is posing to the Corinthian community today. This ancient Christian community was a very divided community. It was so divided that the rivalries developed within the community began to tear it apart and to threaten the very validity of the sacraments. St Paul goes so far to tell them later in this letter, that the lack of love within the community was so great that the Mass they celebrated was invalid. The animosity that was ripping this community apart was murdering the Body of Christ. So to begin to chip away at this division, St Paul asks them, “to whom do you belong? Is it Apollos, or Cephas, or me?” He challenges them, “Was I crucified for you? Were you baptized in my name?” He emphasizes to them at the beginning of this letter and throughout the letter that the only one to whom they belong is Jesus Christ.

There is a true story of an elderly nun who was at the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s. She was very distraught not so much that the illness was going to rob her of her memory, and her sense of self. She confessed to her spiritual director that the anguish she felt was that she was going to forget who Jesus was. Her spiritual director, a very wise woman, told her not to worry, because even if she were to forget who Jesus was, Jesus would never forget her. When Jesus is the first and foremost one to whom we belong, we have nothing to fear.

As St Paul was facing his own execution, he writes his last letter to the Roman community to reassure them that they have nothing to fear. He tells them:

If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own Son
but handed him over for us all,
how will he not also give us everything else along with him?
Who will bring a charge against God's chosen ones?
It is God who acquits us.
Who will condemn?
It is Christ Jesus who died, rather, was raised,
who also is at the right hand of God,
who indeed intercedes for us.
What will separate us from the love of Christ?
Will anguish, or distress, or persecution,
or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?
No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things,
nor future things, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
will be able to separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This relationship of belonging started at the time of our baptism. We were signed on the forehead by our parents, our godparents, and the priest or deacon with the sign of the cross. This indelible mark that we carry on our foreheads claims us for Christ. St Cyril of Jerusalem once wrote, “Let us not be ashamed of the Cross of Christ, but even if someone else conceals it, do you carry its mark publicly on your forehead, so that the demons, seeing the royal sign, trembling, may fly far away. … On the cross, Jesus triumphed over them; and so, when they see it, they remember the crucified: they fear Him Who crushed the heads of demons.” At the moment of our baptism we were united into the Body of Jesus Christ. It is Jesus to whom we belong. 

On this 3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, when Jesus begins to call Peter and Andrew, James and John, Matthew, Thaddeus, Judas Iscariot, James the lesser, Thomas, Bartholomew, Philip, and Simon the Zealot as his disciples, we remember that we belong to that number as disciples of Jesus, too. As St Paul will tell the Corinthians, it just not enough to be baptized. We have to embody the love and live the love that Jesus had for us. That is how we carry on the ministry of the first 12 disciples, and, that is how we proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to people everywhere. The 2^nd memorial acclamation at Mass is taken from this letter of St Paul to the Corinthians, and says it all. “When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your death Lord Jesus until you come again in glory.” In other words, we who belong to Jesus, who have been called as disciples of Jesus, must love God and others as Jesus did, even to the point of dying, until it is no longer necessary when Jesus returns in glory.

Embracing the Seamless Garment of Life

 

 

Do you remember the Bible story of King Solomon hearing the dispute of two women purporting to be the mother of the same baby? By the order of King Solomon that the child be split down the middle into 2 parts with a part given to each of the women, the real mother of the baby was revealed and the dispute resolved.  The issue of Life has not been as easily resolved in our nation, and has torn and polarized people as bitterly as the two women in the story above.

In this day of political sound bytes, we have two political philosophies/parties that present choices to us. One philosophy maintains that life only begins at birth, and once that life is born, we must support that life by whatever means available to us. The other philosophy believes that life begins prior to birth, but doesn’t see the importance  to support that life once it is born. Even more simplistically, is it better for a child to be killed prior to birth, or to suffer a long lingering death following birth because there is no political will to support that life?

The moral teaching of the Catholic Church tells us that neither political philosophy is morally acceptable.  Infanticide is infanticide, whether a child is killed by abortion before birth or dies from the effects of poverty and society’s neglect after birth.  Abortion kills more than the child, it attacks and destroys the souls of the abortive parent(s). Sadly, I know of one instance, where the guilt in having aborted her baby was so great that the mother ended up taking her own life. When a life is killed, you cannot undo the act of killing.

On the other hand, to neglect the life of the child that has been born is very much akin to the unrepentant Scrooge in Dicken’s Christmas Carol, when he expresses his resentment that his tax money is going to support the poor. Far better, reasons Scrooge, that the poor die and decrease the surplus population of the nation. This position is to totally disobey the Great Commandment of Jesus to love God with all your heart, mind, and soul and to love your neighbor as yourself.

Pope Francis I has embraced fully and presents to us a teaching of the Church known as a “Seamless Garment of Life.” To be Pro-life is to be inclusive and supportive of all life from conception to the natural end of life. To be Pro-life calls us to take an imperative stance against a culture of death that threatens not only human life but all created life. To be Pro-life is to be able to hear the breath of the Holy Spirit in all living creatures and to honor the presence of God in all of creation. This calls us to a conversion of heart, mind, and soul to support all that is life-giving and to reject all that is not life-giving.

Creating laws that restrict abortion, euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, the pollution and destruction of God’s Creation, can help shape society but are not enough. The conversion of hearts, minds, and souls is not something enacted by law; it must be chosen by each and every individual. As the utter failure of Prohibition taught us, morality cannot be forced upon a people. Abortion and the destructive effects of abortion will not end just because legislation forbids it. As what happened with Prohibition, abortion will be driven underground, with the lives of babies and the abortive parent(s) continuing to be destroyed.

The tremendous support of the Knights of Columbus for Rachel’s Vineyard, our own local support for the ultrasound mobile, and other Pro-life outreach to pregnant women is extremely important in this important call to conversion. For people to reach out in love and support to others, goes further to touch the hearts, the minds and the souls of people than all the laws a legislature can create. In short, to be Pro-life is to be Pro-love embracing Life in all of its incarnations.

Bulletin Article for January 26, 2014

Have you ever tried to wander around your house in the dark? Navigating any room in the dark is difficult. We tend to stumble through places we easily get around in the daylight, stubbing our toes on furniture we can’t see, stepping on those pesky Legos the children forgot to pick up, tripping over things we normally would just walk over. My wife, Ruthie, works full-time nights as a nurse, a sacrifice she has made for our family over the past 30 years. We purposely keep our bedroom dark so that she might have a half a chance to sleep during the day. On those nights she has off, when I get up in early in the morning, I generally just turn on a penlight that hangs on the knob of my bedside table so that it gives me enough light for to get dressed by, but will not disturb the sleep Ruthie really needs. It is amazing how such a little light can be of such great help. We live in a world filled with darkness. Violence, abuse, poverty, hunger, illness, underemployment and unemployment are just some of the things many people navigate in life, and has plagued humanity for eons. We hear in the psalm, “the Lord is my light and my salvation, of whom should I be afraid.” Like that little penlight in my bedroom, the light of Christ is there to help us penetrate the darkness of our world. To live by Christ’s light is to choose a life in which the darkness can never overwhelm us, in which we can overcome despair. When we live in Christ’s light, we, in turn, can be a source of light to others, and joining with one another as Christ’s light bearers, turn this world of darkness into a world of light.

Homily for the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

HOMILY FOR THE 2^ND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A, 2014

Greetings are important. How we are greeted and welcomed by others often defines our relationship to them, doesn’t it? Greetings are doorways into which people can enter into a deeper relationship.  In today’s scriptures we hear 3 greetings. The first is one that God makes to the prophet, Isaiah. “The LORD said to me: You are my servant, Israel, through whom I show my glory.” Then, we hear that beautiful greeting that Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” And, lastly, we hear the greeting of John the Baptist, who introduces Jesus to his followers. “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Each and every greeting carries with it a Divine blessing.

In each and every greeting we make, we have the same opportunity, as we hear in the readings today, to bestow a blessing from God to others not only in words but in our tone of voice, our facial expression, and our body language. Our greetings to others are gateways into which we and others are led to a deeper relationship with God. I would like to talk about three greetings that had a huge impact on my life.

In the summer of 2004, I was in my 20^th year of ministry at St Hubert in Chanhassen. In my 20 years serving that parish, it had grown from a small town parish of 450 households to become a rich, suburban mega-parish of over 3200 households. I had served in the parish as an educator, a director of liturgy and music, and as a director of pastoral ministry. The one reality of church work is as the needs of a parish grow, so do the items in your job description. After so many years in one place, I felt real comfortable, and I was at a point in which I thought I would be at St Hubert to the time I retired from ministry. Right around the 4^th of July, I received a call, a greeting from the Archbishop’s office congratulating me on my new appointment as parish life administrator of an inner city South Minneapolis parish. Now, that was a greeting that was totally unexpected by me.

This parish in South Minneapolis was one that did not have a pastor. The problem the Archbishop had, was there was no priest willing to be assigned to that parish as a pastor. By appointing me parish life administrator of this parish, the Archbishop was, in fact, making me the pastor of this pastorless parish.  At my ordination, I, as do all deacons and priests, made a promise to obey the bishop and all his successors. This promise of obedience is very significant and powerful. When we do this, we kneel before the Archbishop, fold our hands together in the gesture of prayer and then the Archbishop places his hands over our hands. Just as I take the vows I made in marriage to Ruth seriously so too, do I take this promise of obedience to my bishop and his successors. The Archbishop wanted me there and, in spite of how comfortable and at home I may have been at St Hubert, I didn’t have a legitimate reason to disobey what he wanted. So, I packed up my stuff at St Hubert, loaded up my car, and began ministry to this South Minneapolis parish.

All the time I had been doing parish ministry, I had been working in parishes that had little to no diversity. Living in New Prague in which there is little to no diversity, and having worked in a very white, affluent suburban parish, I found myself introduced to a parish made up of many people of diverse color and cultures. Needless to say, my senses were on overload and my comfort level stretched.

On my first day of ministry at the church, I was warmly greeted by a man, who was a black Muslim, who helped me bring the stuff from my car into my office. Feeling overwhelmed by the new parish setting and the burden of responsibility that was now mine, I sat down at my desk and found a note on the desk written by a former pastor, Fr. Ed Flahavan. The note said this, “Warm congratulations and God’s best blessings, Bob, on your new ministry at St Stephen’s. It is a unique, lovely and harsh place filled with people at the margins of society, civil and ecclesiastical. It is, therefore, very close to the circumstances to where Jesus did his earthly ministry. I wish you all the best of God’s blessing in it. Ed Flahavan. I found that the feelings of overwhelment that I had, lessened by these two greetings I received.

St Stephen’s is  located on the corner of Franklin Ave and Clinton Ave. It is a stone’s throw from the freeway and about 3 blocks from downtown Minneapolis. It was a parish known for its service and outreach to the homeless. It had a homeless shelter on the lower level of the rectory that slept 44 homeless men each night. The first location of Loaves and Fishes, that serves free hot meals 5 nights a week to the poor, was located on the lower level of St Stephen’s school.

The parish had a large community of developmentally disabled adults, a large gay and lesbian community, ex nuns, ex priests, ex-convicts, street people, disenfranchised  Catholics of all sorts of shapes and sizes and economic means, Lutherans, Methodists, Quakers, Jews, and so on. The parish also had a substantial Latino community. The way I came to think of St Stephen’s was that it was the Last Gas Station of faith for many Catholics on their way out of the Church, a re-entry place for Catholics who had been away from the Church for many years, and a haven for people of many different life styles and religious traditions. It was truly what Ed Flahavan said it was, a parish that was made up primarily of the marginalized of the church and society and a unique, lovely and harsh place. The way parishioners described the parish was that it was a big circus tent under which everyone was welcome.

I once asked one of my staff members why people were so attracted to St Stephen’s. She said that  many people, especially street people, because of the way they looked, or smelled, or acted, were shunned, reviled, feared, unwelcomed, and  kicked out everywhere else by respectable society. At St. Stephen’s they knew that not only were they welcomed and accepted, but even more importantly, everyone knew them and greeted them by name. Everyone knew their name. At St. Stephen’s the dignity and the humanity that had been taken from them in life was restored to them. One unique feature of the parish, not normally found in most parishes was two outhouses, similar to what you see at a construction site, in the parking lot of the school so that the homeless had a place to go to the bathroom with dignity and privacy and not be forced to urinate or defecate in public.

Was St Stephen’s a perfect parish? No, being as marginalized and diverse as it was, there were many challenges civilly and especially ecclesiastically. At the end of the last liturgy on Sunday night as I drove home, I often thought, “I think we’re still Catholic.” Every parish has its issues and St Stephen’s was no different. It took the Archbishop 3 years to find a priest willing to be a pastor at St Stephen’s, but during those 3 years I listened, I observed, I learned from the very broken people to whom I ministered, how to welcome, how to greet, and to make present Christ in the midst of a very diverse and broken humanity.

On the 2^nd Sunday of Ordinary time, Jesus’ earthly ministry begins. Jesus’ ministry begins with a greeting to all whom God had created, a greeting from God made present and embodied in his beloved Son, Jesus. Jesus in healing the broken hearts, broken bodies, and broken souls of humanity showed us how much God loves us, and by dying out of love for us, and then, rising from the dead, restored to us the dignity and the humanity we lost in the sin of Adam and Eve. When his earthly ministry was completed, he ascended to God, but before doing so passed on to you and to me the ministry of greeting everyone in God’s name and introducing all to the love of God. It is of this ministry entrusted to us that we remember on this 2^nd Sunday of Ordinary Time. A ministry so beautifully summed up in this hymn that David Hass wrote years ago (sing At Evening).

AT EVENING (text by Fred Pratt Green, melody by David Haas, © 1985 GIA Publications, Inc)

Now it is evening: Lights of the city,
bid us remember Christ is our Light.
Many are lonely, who will be neighbor?
Where there is caring, Christ is our Light.
 
Now it is evening: Little ones sleeping,
Bid us remember Christ is our Peace.
Some are neglected, Who will be neighbor?
Where there is caring Christ is our Peace.

Now it is evening: Food on the table,
Bids us remember Christ is our Life.
Many are hungry, Who will be neighbor?
Where there is sharing Christ is our Life.

Now it is evening: Here in our meeting,
 May we remember Christ is our Friend.
Some may be strangers, Who will be neighbor?
Where there’s a  welcome Christ is our Friend.

Bulletin article for January 19, 2014

The ministry of a permanent deacon can often require a deacon to wear a number of different hats in Church ministry. The ministry of some deacons can be quite specialized, working with specific groups like the developmentally disabled, the homeless, the unemployed, Habitat for Humanity to list a few. There are deacons who minister as hospital chaplains, counselors, and educators. There are deacons that direct the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults), prepare parishioners for the sacraments from baptism to matrimony, and are catechists in Faith Formation. Some deacons serve as parish administrators. We all assist in the liturgical life of a parish from officiating at baptisms, weddings, and funerals, to assisting at Mass, proclaiming the Gospel, preaching, and distributing Holy Communion, visiting the sick, and attending those dying. Over my 19 years as a deacon I have done much of what is listed above and then some. However, the one ministry I cannot fulfill is that of being a Regional Associate Pastor. The one person who has excelled at this is Fr Dave Barrett. Fr Dave is as eager as we are for his return to active ministry. The best way for this to happen is to write those on the independent ministerial commission. A short note describing what Fr Dave’s ministry means to you is all that is necessary. You do not need great writing skills. Sincerity, a pen and paper is all that is required. Please direct your notes to Mr. John Selvig, Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis, 226 Summit Ave, St Paul, MN 55102-2197. I believe the return of Fr Dave to active ministry is worth the cost of a little time, an envelope and a postal stamp, don’t you? This is one “writing assignment” I think we all won’t have any complaints doing.

"From the Lips of Babes and Children" a setting of Psalm 8 I wrote for my daughter, Beth.

"I Will Sing Of God's Salvation" a hymn I wrote for my mom and dad a while ago.

"Incarnation" a hymn written for the diaconate community of St Paul and Minneapolis

"As A Mother To Her Child" a song adapted from the letter of St Francis of Assisi to Brother Leo

"Through Jesus" a hymn I composed for my son, Andy

"My God, My God" a setting of Psalm 22

Bulletin article for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

For the majority of us, baptism was not something we chose for ourselves. Rather, our parents chose it for us shortly after we were born. At the time of my baptism, Latin was the language used for the ritual, and it was just as well, for within the old ritual of baptism, the priest actually performed an exorcism on the baby being baptized. Imagine how freaked out parents would have been had they understood that the priest was exorcising the devil out of their little baby. While the ritual has evolved and the language changed, the one thing that has not changed is the promise the parents make to raise their children to love God with all their heart, soul, and strength, and to love their neighbor as themselves. I remember when Ruthie and I were asked whether we clearly understood what this meant at the baptism of our first child, we answered a very confident and resounding, “Yes!” By the time our fourth child was born, we answered the same question with a humble, “huh-huh.” At the time he was baptized in the Jordan, Jesus opened a gateway to heaven for those who choose it, but it requires us to live a life in which God matters the most and to love our neighbor as ourselves. This not for the weak of heart for it flies in the face of human experience in which others place themselves first before God and others. As Norm, on the TV Comedy, Cheers, once explained, “It’s a dog eat dog world, and I am wearing milk bone underwear.” St Paul writes that while baptism frees us from this sub-human curse of Original Sin, the tendency remains and we must choose to live out our love for God and neighbor daily in our lives.