Golf’s Redemption

Posted on April 15, 2019 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

TigerWoodsOct2011Do you blame your guardian angel for not guarding you enough? Or, in the case of golf, is it your caddie? Or do you just throw your clubs (religion) away? Do you cheat – there’s always an excuse in both sports and in life. Do you whine? (It’s the priest’s fault, not mine.)

What if, as Thomas Friedman writes in The New York Times, you say two words to your guardian angel, I mean caddie: “Watch this. And then they pull off a remarkable shot that winds through the trees, over the hill and past the sand trap, avoids the pond on the left and lands right in the middle of the putting green.” Tiger Woods’ 11th hole.

Religion and golf. I don’t follow sports but any movie about sports, I never miss. “The Legend of Beggar Vance,” “41,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Hoosiers.” I’ve seen them all more than once. Now there’s “Draft Day” with Kevin Costner, a wonderful movie.

Religion calls for a union of “body, mind and spirt,” a worthy, fitting tribute from the created to the Creator. Augusta’s “perilous 16th hole, where he launched his ball on the perfect arc over the water, softly curbing right to left with the terrain and then landing the precise two-foot-diameter circle so that it would then roll 20 feet down the slope and stop 15 inches below the hole.” Golf’s union is “geography, geometry, physics, and psychology all working together in perfect unison.”

Speaking of union, Presidents Trump and Obama finally found agreement, both twittered Tiger with admiration. “One small step for mankind,” anyone?

From early success to a growing arrogance to snobby hubris to forced humiliation (is there any other kind?), to multiple back surgeries, philanderer (what a nice word for a stupid gigolo), divorce, DUI, addiction to painkillers, spine fusion and redemption at 43 years old. (Midlife changes people!)

Finally, life’s circle. His dad hugs him after his last victory and Sunday Tiger, the dad, hugged his two children complete with a green sportcoat for each weekday.

“Body, mind and spirit” is the Church’s recipe for not a win but for honoring  our Creator. And, it’s a good idea to have a birdie in your back pocket on judgment day. Just in case.

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Palm Sunday

Posted on April 14, 2019 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

Palm_sunday-2013-wallpaperOur holiest of days next week is like the unholiest of a family’s yearly obligatory, optional dinner gathering.  It’s obligatory because it’s family, it’s optional but they’ll talk about you if you don’t show up. (“And, bring a casserole to pass!”) Let the drama begin.

There’s the talkative aunt, thrice married and now dating. There’s that prodigal son with his now, new fourth investment venture that “Can’t miss”. There’s the quiet mother preparing supper and listening to the stories of others, no one asking her about hers. In the corner of the living room is the baffled college-age daughter, excellent grades, but wondering whether to remain a Catholic or not. Dad’s seated in his favorite chair watching all the excitement around him. Jokes are told that have been told every year. Conversations rise louder in equal proportion to the alcohol. Dad’s tired from his day’s work but happy to, again, gather them all together. Children are running around the house wondering why all those old folks are interrupting their supper. Mom told them that it’s a special night, once a year, every year.

Once a year we gather together all the characters that make up our dramatic Christian drama. We think there’s a central character, Jesus Christ. Yet, he’s surrounded next week by all kinds of sorts. There’s that guy running to the ER with a missing ear. Those folks around the fire asking Peter to declare a faith he has yet to own. Then there’s that guy with clean hands ignoring responsibility and setting Anthony Quinn free. And, how about that unbelieving guy with a sword at the end of our story who becomes a believer? Of course, our drama would not be complete without the guy who proudly accepts thirty pieces when he could have easily gotten fifty. (Lacking in belief and poor in business.) Like those jokes from relatives, we hear words we only hear once a year – Kidron valley, scabbard, Caiaphas, praetoriam, tethered, Stone Pavement, and the worst of all, but the most beautiful is: “Golgatha.”

It’s family. During our lives, we can be all the characters in our Christian drama. When we finally come to our humble and worthy senses, then we can all turn to Golgatha, that place of transformation. That place when we finally connect and unite our earthly lives to our heavenly life in God. That’s family…and that’s a meal worth celebrating.

So, take your palm and wave them away in the parking lot. Next week we get to gather together again that biblical family for a renewing adventure – but it is no longer their adventure in faith; theirs’  is done, but it is ours, our very own faith adventure; within this exact time and within this very place.

(walking away, I return to say,) Oh, I almost forgot. Don’t forget the name Mary Magdalene…next Sunday, she gets dessert first.

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Precision vs. Emotion?

Posted on April 10, 2019 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

clipart-music-notes-music-notes-clip-art“Oil and Water.” Can’t happen. Opposites don’t attract. Like-minded people are just that.
Wait! What if it’s the precision of music and the emotions of the heart? Oil and Water? Forget about it.

“Sussudio,” Phil Collins…”Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da,” Beatles
“Na Na Hay, Hey Goodbye,” Steam
“Hot Diggity (dog biggity boom),” Perry Como

Monophony, heterophony, polyphony, homophony

“Splish, Splash, I Was Taking A Bath,” Bobbie Darin…”Chim Chim Cher-ee,” Dick Van Dyke
“Supercalifragilisticexplialidocious,” Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke
“Heebie Jeebies,” Louis Armstrong…”Sh-Boom,” Crew Cuts

“Emotion is often entertained with mood, temperament, personality, disposition and motivation.” Wikipedia
Oil is filled with precision, accuracy, perfectly fitted together. Water is fluid, constantly changing, and unpredictable.

“You’re the Reason Our Kids Are So Ugly,” Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn
“Thank God and Greyhound (She’s Gone),” Roy Clark…”If You Don’t Believe I Love You, Just Ask My Wife,” Gary P. Nunn…”All I Want From You (Is Away),” Loretta Lynn

“In the early 20th century, Tin Pan Alley songs and Broadway musical songs were often in AABA 32 bar forms, in which the A sections repeated the same eight bar melody and the B section provide a contrasting melody and/or harmony for 8 bars. From the 1960’s onward, Western pop and rock songs are often verse-chorus form, which is based around a sequence of verse and chorus sections, with new lyrics for most verses and repeating lyrics for the choruses.” Wikipedia

Sectional, Strophic, Binary Ternary, Rando, Variational, Developmental Forms

“In-A-Gadda_Da-Vida,” Iron Butterfly…”Chika Boom,” Guy Mitchell
“La La – Means I Love You,” The Delfonics
“Mama, Look at Bubu,” Harry Belafonte…”Oh, Oh Child,” Five Stairsteps

Cognitive – evaluation of events and objects that can either be rigidly held for years, totally ignored and just passing through the mind.
Bodily – physiological experience of the precise structure and rigidity of musical composition.
Action – “motivational for the preparation and direction of motor responses.” Wikipedia (Again, an unpredictable response to a predictable construction.)
Expression – emotional states are almost always accompanied by facial or vocal expression. (As in singing in the shower.)
Feelings – the subjective experience (you), stimulated by an objective/subjective composition (the composer).

If the Phone Doesn’t Ring, It’s Me, Jimmy Buffett…How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I’ve Been A Liar All My Life,” Fred Astaire, Jane Powell

“The conclusion or outro of a song is a way of ending or completing the song. It signals to the listeners that the song is nearing its close. By using an outro, the songwriter signals that the song is, in fact, nearing its end. This gives the listens a good sense of a closure. For DJ’s, the outro is a signal that they need to be ready to mix in their next song.” Wikipedia

Finally, there’s that silly, nonsensical “Symphony No. 9” in D minor by a minor composer, Ludwig van Beethoven; something about joy.

Emotion: Joy, Precision: Structure = Total Enjoyment

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“Living the Mystery”

Posted on April 7, 2019 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he bent down and wrote on the ground. And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him. Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She replied, “No one, sir.” (Gospel of St. John)

Jesus-and-woman(whispering) I have a secret to tell you. “Publisher Clearing House” gave me their winning numbers. If you have a pen handy, you may wish to…

If anyone begins a sentence saying, “I have a secret to tell you,” please kindly smile and quickly walk away. If you tell a secret then it is no longer a secret. And I love it when they end by telling you, “Please don’t tell anyone.” When they just did.

Secret is our word but the churchy word is “mystery.” I even say it every time I have Mass, “The mystery of our faith.”

Unknown, undecided, unresolved, unsettled, unsure, unascertained. Sound like your life? Here’s some more, “riddle, enigma, conundrum.” And, if you’re into mystery stories, “Whodunit?”

“Why am I still alive?” asks the eighty-nine old as though “Father” has the answer. “What’s my major?” ponders the twenty-year old after a parental investment of over $180,000 in tuition.

Jesus writes not once but twice in the sand of the adulterous woman with how many outstretched arms tightly holding their-soon-to-released stones.

There are many guesses about what Jesus wrote if you look online but none are answers. That’s what makes it so beautiful and so full of faith. I don’t care what Jesus wrote back then. He wrote it for them. If it was about forgiveness then it’s still a message for me as well but it remains unknown; or that churchy word, “mystery.”

As Lent draws to a close, try to define what the words “faith” and “trust” mean to you. If you can even half-heartedly answer them then you have immersed yourself into this wonderful world of mystery.

“Living the mystery, not solving it”

My new answer when people ask me, “How are you doing?” is to say, “I’ll tell you tomorrow.” Because tomorrow I’ll know more about the yesterday that I lived. That’s living the mystery, not solving it.

Your son is arrested for drugs and your daughter changes religion. The immediate question you ask both of them is, “Why?” Wrong question. Always, through your conversations uncover the “Who” question. “Who are you?” It sounds psychological, and it is, but it is also the full of the faith stuff. It is the most asked question of Jesus and he never answered them. His life is a mystery to be unfolded as much as the bread and wine we take today that becomes Him, so we may be a little more like him.

Asking ourselves the “Why” question is the most convenient question due to its laziness. It’s an endless circular cycle of blaming everything and everyone other than…who? The “Who” question simply asks in any immediate situation, “Who are you?” “Who have you become” and “Who do you wish to become?” I think that’s called creation and recreation – and examined during every Lent of our lives.

Faith and trust. Two bold words that lead us deeper into the mystery of our lives. Always understanding a little more closely our lives and the life in God. The “Who” of our lives is absolutely a personal journey but it is each time honored and celebrated as family, as a community of faith. Who transforms the bread and wine into the Body of Christ? We all do. My hand is not a magic wand. It is the feeble, struggling and sometime successful efforts of our collective faith and trust that empowers me to give you the Bread of Life.

The “Why” and “Who” thing should be reversed. When you unearth your “Who,” you may receive glimpses of your “Why;” of what you’ve done to life and what life’s done to you. I deliberately used the verb “unearth” because this is spiritual stuff, folks. It is each of us and it is always more than us.

What did Jesus write in the sand? Great question for trivia games but very lame for living our lives. What does Jesus write in the sandbox of your life? How can Jesus stop you from asking about the “Why’s” and lay bare before you the “Who’s” of who we each are. Now we’re talking and sincerely living mystery.

(Whispering) Now, if you have your pens ready the winning numbers are…but don’t tell anyone.

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“God’s Crazy Love,” formerly “Prodigal Son”

Posted on March 31, 2019 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

Jesus takes out his violin and does a “Henny Youngman” impression to strongly convey to us the crazy love that God has for us. I know you’re not supposed to laugh during a gospel reading but there are plenty of opportunities. All the parentheses are laugh tracks.

Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons.
What! No Mom, Divorced, Deceased?
The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’
There is no share for the youngest since all the property legally goes to the eldest.
So he divided his property between them.
Dad’s first loving mistake, or is it?
“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country
Two miles away, just to be safe.
and there squandered his wealth in wild living.
Never defined, but don’t forget this part.
After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country,
A politican of either stripe.
and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.
Pigs!
He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
Pigs! Jewish! Together? (Pause for laughter.) And, he’s still waiting to be waited on.
When he came to his senses,
Hunger has a way of doing that.
he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!
It’s only been two days…but still.
I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’
“Practice makes perfect.” Practice your speech again and again. Now try it in front of a mirror no matter how unconvincing you are.
So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
Dad doesn’t wait for him to complete his contrived speech. Was he truly sorry?
“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
Well, okay, he got part of it out, but still.
“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf
“And no pig!”
and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
Dad ignores hearing about his “wild living” and its unknown details and does what only a Loving God and insightful dad would do.
“Meanwhile,
Here’s the cool part of the story, that I love.
the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.
A  Donna Summer mix with a bit of Mariah Cariah.
So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in.
These two kids only move when necessary.
So his father went out and pleaded with him.
Dad, again, initiates the contact.
But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.
If he, indeed, has any friends!
But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes
Stop reading! “Prostitutes!” Who said anything about the ‘ladies of the night’ in this story? Where’s his mind?
comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
Dad’s thinking, “Yada, yada, yada…you boys sure like to talk about yourselves a lot. Just get it out and let’s move on.”
“‘My son,’
You dumb turkey.
the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.
Minus half!
But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

And so ends one of the greatest stories of God’s limitless wisdom, forgiveness and hope coupled with our foolish and whimsical self-imposed errors. God’s undying love, like a father’s devotion, far outweighs our thoughtless and dopey sins. Cue the rock group, “Queen’s” song, “Crazy Little Called Love.”

Jesus tells us a joke about a a serious matter. The last joke is the title of this parable. “The Prodigal Son” for centuries has been mis-titled. The son is not the subject, he’s a character as we all are in this life’s journey. God is the star and author of this parable. It ought to be rightly titled, “God Crazy Love for All of Us.”

Are we able to laugh all the way to God’s forgiveness and reunion?

index Enjoy Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”

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Lent: Sin or Hope? It’s Both?

Posted on March 24, 2019 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

keeping-a-holy-lentFinally, we can stop singing, “Oh, the weather outside is frightful” and begin singing the old Lesley Gore song, “Sunshine, lollipops, rainbows and everything…”

I guess it’s planned that way – begin Lent in darkness and concludes with rays of light. Sin/Hope, the two staples of all of our lives. I always feel sorry for those folks who live in Arizona or Florida. Lent begins and ends attending Mass wearing shorts and golf shoes. Midwest folks know the transition because we can both feel it in our bones and in our souls. Weather is full of awe for us as is our faith. But it’s not rules and regulations that gathers us each week but the wonder that is found in the Trinity and the Blessed Mother.

Confession and contrition is not the braunschweiger sandwich we ate that Friday in Lent, but it’s the twenty-one-year-old who says, “Been that, done that,” or “Same old, same old.” That apathy applies to eighty-one years old as well.

A burning bush that does not burn out. Its flame continues because it did not originate or end with us. I have a friend who needs a gas valve to ignite his family’s fireplace on a cold or damp night. It sounds trite, but God’s given us this marvelous gift of life to be breathed and shared with others. I remember an Alexian Village resident who told me that he’s lost more friends than he has now. His fire is slowly extinguishes. There is no fruit growing on his tree. I’d love to hear a confession, not about that braunschweiger sandwich but admitting that someone’s lost their path in life. The awe of God escapes them, for whatever reason. Isn’t that the expression, “Burned out?” A priest friend told me about that expression, “He may want to light the candle first in order for it to go out.” Awe surrounds us each day which can only connect us to the awe of God. The cowboy who shyly says to his girlfriend with his legs twitching each other, “Aw, shucks Mame.” That’s the awe of God. That’s a burning bush burning brightly that nothing in this life ever can water down.

It’s the awe of a cancer patient who loves and lives life as best she can. She dies at forty-two but writes a book, published posthumously to her two young daughters whom she will never see graduate from grade school, get married or to hug her grandchildren. That’s awe. She uses one of my favorite words, “juxtaposition.” It’s between the two supposed absolutes in this conflicted life of ours (which really isn’t that conflicted). “Two things placed closely together with contrasting effect,” says the dictionary. You want a definition of God’s awe? Here are hers.

To her daughters she wrote, “You will understand that nothing lasts forever, no pain, or joy. You will understand that joy cannot exist without sadness. Relief cannot exist without pain. Compassion cannot exist without cruelty. Courage cannot exist without fear. Hope cannot exist without despair. Wisdom cannot exist without suffering. Gratitude cannot exist without desperation. Paradoxes abound in this life. The living is an exercise in navigating within them.”

As these sunlit days now lengthen, how can you hit a home run with our Lenten journey? How can you respond to this great faith of ours in your thoughts, words and especially in your deeds? Let’s slide into home plate and encounter ever more deeply the love God has for us and the awe that draws us to God. As Billy Joel rightly sang, “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” but it is definitely our job to keep that God-created fire burning.

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Lent: “Those Who Help Form Us”

Posted on March 17, 2019 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

“Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray. While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.” Luke 9

Giovanni_Gerolamo_Savoldo_005Jesus had his. Moses and Elijah. Who are yours standing on your left and right? In glorious splendor, Jesus shows off two of them to his other friends.

But hold it! His glorious “show off” is two dead guys and showing them to his living friends. Isn’t that kinda rude? If I were Peter, I would have said, “Hey, what about me? I’m still here!”

Jesus models for us that the distance is pretty short between living and dead. That separation was made shorter through the giving of his life.

It’s those significant people in our lives that we remember this Second Sunday of Lent. I say significant because it’s not only the ones we love, but it’s also those we tried to like. And, it’s often events and folks who mislead us which makes us more aware of ourselves and those we trust. My high school counselor told me that I shouldn’t go to college because of my grades, but join the Air Force. What if I had listened to him instead of other trusted friends who laughed along with me at that silly prospect. If Jesus were on a talk show today, he’d say about his mom, “She was the strength I needed to proclaim this Kingdom of God.” Of his dad, he’d say, “I admire the quietness of his deliberations, made clearer through his dreams or when more information was gathered.”

There are deceased voices, and there are living bodies who help form the person that each of us became or is becoming. If given ill-advice, it then becomes fodder to rethink or confirm your decision. If it’s a throw-away-nicety, then you consider that as well. I know my tie didn’t match my shirt this morning, but she told me how good I looked. (Nice try.) I hope your deceased mother still talks to you. Her advice remains worthy of your attention, years after her passing. A friend of many years gives you caution about your behavior. You listen to him and learn that it paid off.

Who is beside you on your mountain? Who guides and mentors you either from the grave or the tavern? Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of those two on the mountain who are the fulfillment of those who influenced them. That’s why he appears with the past and shows himself to the future with his friends. Peter needed to be Christ-like as each of us needs to learn and relearn. That’s the closeness between living and deceased.

Who’s alongside you on your mountain? I had all week to think of mine, so please take a moment and let your heart identify who your people are or were. Naming both the good ones, the indifferent ones, and the troubling ones.

(pause)

The best quote from the movie, “Jerry Maguire” is when Tom Cruise says to Renee Zellweger, “You complete me.”

(Since it was also St. Patrick’s Day, an Irish Blessing. However, an Irish Blessing is always preceded with an Irish joke.)

“McQuillan walked into a bar and ordered martini after martini, each time removing the olives and placing them in a jar. When the jar was filled with olives and all the drinks consumed, he started to leave. ‘S’cuse me,’ said a customer, who was puzzled over what McQuillan had done. ‘What was that all about?’ ‘Nothing,’ he replied, ‘Me wife sent me out for a jar of olives.'”

“Wishing you a rainbow
For sunlight after showers—
Miles and miles of Irish smiles
For golden happy hours—
Shamrocks at your doorway
For luck and laughter too,
And a host of friends that never ends
Each day your whole life through!”

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A Book of Peace in the Midst of Chaos

Posted on March 17, 2019 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

10Gottlieb1-articleLargeI don’t easily recommend books but this one is a winner. Her prologue begins, “I am grateful and deeply honored that you are here. Which means that if you are here, then I am not. But it’s okay.” Julie had Stage 4 colon cancer and passed away in her mid-forties.

My last two years have been difficult for me and she has helped me to make sense of it.

Page 8. To her two young daughters, she writes, “You will understand that nothing lasts forever, no pain, or joy. You will understand that joy cannot exist without sadness. Relief cannot exist without pain. Compassion cannot exist without cruelty. Courage cannot exist without fear. Hope cannot exist with despair. Wisdom cannot exist without suffering. Gratitude cannot exist without desperation. Paradoxes abound in this life. Living is an exercise in navigating within them.” t_500x300

A gift for yourself or a friend having a difficult time in any way.
“The Unwinding of the Miracle,” Julie Yip-Williams.

The New York Times book review

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Temptation, Sunday in Lent

Posted on March 10, 2019 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

temptationTemptation. Cue the old Perry Como song to get its meaning. Side note, I think Perry’s the least likely person to sing that song. Frank, yes. But “Wholesome-Married-Once-Perry?” Number 68-married-years for Perry and four wives for that saloon singer. (Mia Farrow! Two years! You’ve got to be kidding!) If you’re under 50, you can find Perry’s song on YouTube. But if you’re under 50, you may wish to first find out who Perry Como is.

The song begins, “You came, I was alone…” No community, few trusted friends as though the saloon guy was singing his selfish, self-centered signature song “My Way” like he’s “king of the hill.” Oh, wait. That’s in another Frank song, and sung twice in once verse. The “Temptation” song continues, “I should have known, you were temptation!” Of course, you should have known. That’s why we study world history, examine our consciences before and during each Mass and celebrate God’s mercy when receiving communion.

The song resumes, “You smiled, luring me on, my heart was gone, and you were temptation!” You know, we can honor our souls, but we feel our hearts. The union of these two – spiritual and temporal – is the combination of fidelity and being found worthy.

The song’s final verse, “Here is my heart! Take it and say, that we’ll never part! I’m just a slave, only a slave, to you!” You give up because you’ve given in. We don’t have those smart remarks Jesus gives to the devil. Ours is a faith trying to daily balance the soul and the heart – things spiritual and things of this life.

Unlike me, all of you will be tempted each day. You can call it remnants of original sin or the human condition. But daily you will see a dress that looks better than yours, you may consider harm to someone (not death but at least needing an ER visit), or regretfully harming yourself in whatever way. I don’t need to bore you with a list because we all live that list. I like those lyrics because we have these thoughts and the devil cleverly holds out his arm as if to stop us by saying, “No, no, don’t think or do that” which defines the word “lure” while luring us in to disunite our sacred soul from the foolishness of our heart.

When it comes to sin and feeling regret, I like to say, “It’s what we do with it that matters. “Actions speak louder” and we know the rest of the quote. Our silly, passing thoughts only become dangerous in our harboring them, making them more than a bubble in a cartoon strip.

The three’s of Jesus is ours, every day. The scene is a desert of loneliness with the heart fighting for the soul’s cooperation. Power, denial of God. The devil’s task is destroying the soul to win the heart. Much like a baseball player having a good streak, Jesus knocks off each one to left field.

This Lent, use that smirk that you use at an annoying driver or lousy restaurant service. It’s not an either/or when it comes to sin. It’s all about the smirk. A smirk that tells evil and your heart that this is not healthy, enriching or compassionate to either someone, yourself or both of us. Smirk. You know how to do it. You lower the edges of your lips and dismiss breaking apart what God assembled, our hearts and souls.

I suspect that Perry must have smirked a lot in his life. I don’t think Frank smirk at all.

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A Spiritual Number

Posted on March 6, 2019 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

seven-1181077_640There are seven days in a week and as many Catholic sacraments. Along with seven seas is the Seventh Day Adventists, as many colors in a rainbow, or notes in a musical scale, or phases of the moon, or bodily organs, or an adjective for heaven and the same amount for those Deadly Sins. There are also seven ways to leave you lover (Sorry Paul, forget the other 43!). Snow White had the same amount of helpers and the Brewers take a “stretch” at this number when it ought to be fifth.

Best of all is the “Gifts of the Holy Spirit.” Guess how many there are. Another season of Lent begins today. For our 2019 version, pick one of them for your spiritual enrichment. Think and pray about what the gift means for these long weeks. On Holy Saturday night, please smile to yourself that this Lent was a deliberate effort to strengthen your faith, to strengthen your relationship with God and your neighbor (which is really redundant.) Then on Holy Saturday night, I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours first. There’s little work on your part. This isn’t like a resolution with a beginning or ending. The virtue does the work for you. That’s what makes it a gift – to be opened, enjoyed and cherished.

I’ll save you a trip to Wikipedia. The Gifts are wisdom, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, understanding, piety and fear of the Lord. Define them according to your present time in life and watch what happens. Happy Lenting! (It’s not a word but I like it, anyway.)

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