Saturday, May 22, 2010

Happy Pentecost!

Did I ever tell you that Pentecost is one of my favorite holy days? It ranks right behind Easter in terms of my attachment to it. I have this thing about the Holy Spirit. I suppose the intellectuality of the Spirit appeals to me. The Spirit represents wisdom to me. It is one gift of the Spirit I have always coveted—if you can covet such things.

We used to warn each other not to ask for patience, because then God would give us trials in which to display such a gift. Tongues—I used to think that that would be a cool thing to have. Later I realized that through the opportunity to read scripture at Mass, as Isaiah said, the Lord indeed has given me a well trained tongue, that I might speak to the weary a word that will rouse them.

A friend of mine used to wear a button on his cap that bore the legend PBPGIFWMY, that is, Please Be Patient. God Isn’t Finished With Me Yet. I have lately been reminded that this growing in the Spirit is a process that goes on for your whole life.

In the belief that I can’t do it alone, I am exploring a new Men’s Bible Study and prayer group that is being formed in my parish. I used to belong to a small group of four or five men who met in each other’s houses, but it has been many years since I’ve done anything like that. Pete is still in the parish, but Emerick has passed on, Joe moved away.

I still remember Emerick’s simple question: what is grace? Sure that I could find the answer, I scoured scripture for instances of grace in an effort to arrive at a definition. I presented my findings to him at a later meeting. He responded, not with satisfaction at my answer but with another question—something like, “What else?” That stopped me cold. I obviously never recovered, since I still talk about it.

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Sometimes you can't catch a break

I took Friday off to go to the dentist, and decided to get the chest xray that my doctor wanted. So anyway I was in the backyard when our neighbor Aleta called across the yard, “Are you busy?” “What do you need” I asked.

Now for those of you who don’t know Aleta, she is a very nice lady who has been our neighbor for thirty years. She worked as a legal secretary before she retired. She was divorced long before we met her, and several of her kids still live in the area.

She came over and we stood in the driveway while she told me, “I got troubles” and started to cry. She said she had just been diagnosed with breast cancer--and she's 85. She is always in her garden all summer, cutting her grass, weeding—she said, “I’m still going out to buy plants” as if she weren’t going to be around to see them produce vegetables in her garden. Kathy called her later and we reassured her that she was in our prayers.