The Power of Grace

Posted on February 9, 2014 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.
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Gracefully graced each day of our lives.

She gracefully entered the room and graced us with her presence as she said Grace by saying that we are “full of grace.”
How many words can act as a proper noun, adverb, verb and noun?  I can’t think of any other.  Perhaps that’s what makes “grace” so flexible and fluid.  You never know in your life which way grace will act or show herself.  One of the most important religious words because of its power and influence in our lives is grace.  It is also a great American word because we get something for nothing!  (Is there anything more American?  “Wow, you mean I get a free tote bag just for stopping by your booth?  How many pens can I take with me?”)

Be that as it may, one day we just feel in a rut.  You love your job but it’s just one of those fleeting feelings that seems to overwhelm you.  Well, grace the verb is just what you need.  Call it a spiritual vitamin that enriches and renews the job that you love.  That same day you may notice something new about someone or your routine will be broken and a new challenge awaits you.

You feel competent and confident.  You’ve got life’s things pretty well figured out when along comes grace the proper noun in the person of someone who enlightens and inspires you.  (You didn’t know that was possible any longer but it happened to you and you welcome the new insights.)

A task quickly becomes a chore for you.  You’re not sure which direction to pursue to complete your project on time.  The deadline is heading toward you and you’re not ready until grace the adverb offers a quick suggestion that loosens your anxiety and turns it into creative energy.  You find that you’ve finished the project ahead of schedule.

40 years of your life passes or even 60 and that crazy transition time rattles your head and releases new questions that now baffle you.  Never asked before, you wonder where these questions come from that now fill your quiet time.  In just the nick of time you forget about the pondering questions and just sit in this in between time that we all experience at different times in our development.  Slowly by emptying ourselves of unanswered questions, we find ourselves getting filled up with new revelations, a new twist to an old way of thinking, a different perspective solving an old problem and a renewed sense of what’s important to you in life and what is just silly thoughts.  For this you can thank the giver of grace, God.  I think God loves personal development and an evolution to become even more fully the person that God created.

Flexible and fluid – grace – in whatever part of speech you may need it.

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Obsessed In Wisconsin

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.
Even named a trophy after him

Even named a trophy after him

Shopping Freedom
Twenty special days throughout the long year are ideal for shoppers who like to browse uninterrupted and without the crowds. Whether it’s clothing or grocery, the ease of shopping is made easier at least twenty times a year.  Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee’s main downtown street, can conveniently be used for bowling, if you wish to keep your swing fresh. The younger crowd can skateboard. There is no worry about traffic or even pedestrians for that matter. A rolling bush down the main drag would make for a great western movie opening.  Who would provide for such tranquility for these days? Who would think of assisting others in such a serene way?

The Vengeful God
Our God, Vince, has donated these twenty precious days to Wisconsin folks. Our God, Vince, is lessor known than the other God, except on those given days. On those days our God, Vince, seeks to destroy the enemy making the Old Testament God look like a wimp. Our God, Vince, takes no prisoners and exhibits no mercy. His followers were taught that success is only found in total annihilation.
Perhaps that is why those who adore him empty city streets and malls during those precious four hours on Sundays. The taverns and homes occupied by these cult followers are intently quiet for some duration only to loudly roar during the times when an unusually shaped object is either thrown or given to a fellow disciple.  Many of the people observing this action are at least two times larger than the other God intended them to be but what else can happen to one’s body during twenty devotional days of doing nothing.

Generations of Salvation
Unlike the other God, our God, Vince, has had many incarnate sons over the years. First, there was Bart who proved to be almost as great as his Creator so he needed to be reduced to a car salesman in some southern state.  Then there was a Zeke and a Scott, a Lynn, a David, a Randy and a Don, a Brett.
Oh, wait! Brett was favored as much as the car salesmen. Revered from every Wisconsinite’s mouth for years. No ill was ever linked with this especially gifted son of the Creator. Until, until the son decided to take half his inheritance and retire and then not retire and then retire and then not retire. Disdain entered those same mouths as quickly as the first snow falls before Thanksgiving.  After
becoming ignored and forgotten, our God, Vince, turned to the ignored and forgotten Aaron who turned out to be better than both the car salesmen and the retiring, retired guy. Salvation is ours once again in Wisconsin. The faithful, remaining son remains.

Obsessed
What word is stronger than “obsession” to describe those who isolate themselves in taverns (now called “Sports Bars”) and living rooms with televisions the size of their beds? “Consuming passion” would be a positive expression, can’t use that one. “Addiction” is overused so let’s just stick with obsession.
Those of us who have a life are truly grateful for these shopping and eating days. These days are not a lot over the course of a year’s time but during these times great comfort is found in knowing that the obsessed are all safely in one place.

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Friday Night TV, 1966

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.
6:30-10:00 p.m.

6:30-10:00 p.m.

Friday nights over forty years ago is as crystal clear as if it were today. Piano

lessons right after school with the nuns. Many bruised knuckles, but I guessed I deserved them. I had to walk downtown for the lessons. My grandmother lived only two blocks away.

The evening was saved by watching color television with her. (The first that I had ever seen.) It was a real treat. A sandwich to eat and a Friday night of television to devour.

6:30 was “Wild, Wild West,” the theme music still haunts me. 7:30 was “Hogan’s Heroes,” just fun. 8:00 was “Gomer Pyle,” still haven’t matched his acting voice with his singing voice. 8:30 was “Mr. Roberts,” this was a thirty minute break for me; don’t know why I didn’t care for that show. The highlight of the evening was last, “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” an engaging drama that I’m sure I’d now laugh at compared to today’s programs.

Then I would make the long walk back home.

Silly? Yes. Enduring? Absolutely. My grandmother? Accommodating with her color television.

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Milwaukee’s “Friday Fish Fry”

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.
St. Sebastian, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

St. Sebastian, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Around 4:15 p.m. on a Friday afternoon the commotion begins.  All the grade school children have already assembled wearing their bright T-Shirts that announce the evening’s event.  The cooking (or more correctly frying) began hours earlier as these oldsters leave work early for their monthly, volunteer duty at a local Catholic church.

Beaming, smiling faces surround the grade school cafeteria where the lunch tables and chairs are lined up and were designed for those under seven-years-old instead of the crowd that is about to flow in tonight.

Everybody knows their job except me.  The kids are all prepped and ready to go thanks to the volunteering adults who govern the swapping of children throughout the event to keep them fresh.  The cashier sits at the entrance with a real cash register along with two other volunteers who escort the folks to their tiny tables and chairs.  By day, the hostess is probably an executive at a public relations firm but tonight her job is to welcome, escort and make sure the visitors are all satisfied.

I’m told that my job is very important but it’s difficult to feel significant looking at a cart.  Each item on the cart is explained to me and all involves pouring.  The tease-dessert selections on the bottom shelve is as savvy as the clothing store with its discounts upon entrance.  (I’m told that most buy from the dessert station in the back but some will purchase from me as well.  This proves true.)

Some already know, some needed time to remember, others didn’t care while others were scared to acknowledge that I was a priest.  I didn’t care because tonight my job was this cart.  (If you fail at carting what else is there?)

The excitement of the volunteers is slowly matched by the approaching patrons on this cold Friday night.  They know they have many fish fry choices in Milwaukee but St. Sebastians stands out after 34 years.  Every detail is attended to by these newbie eyes.  Signs clearly marked, favorable beer of the month as well as others is offered and table numbers to remember who’s who.  My job is half the room although I chose the wrong half at the start.  (Can volunteers claim turfdom?)

As the crowd grows, my responsibilities increase.  How much water can one table consume?  How much skim milk can this old man drink?  My task this evening is not to answer these piercing questions but merely to keep pouring.  I overhear conversations that I wish to participate in but cannot.  I see people I recognize from Sundays’ pews but cannot stop because the pouring must continue.  (Ever have a tiny grade school kid tell a priest that table 18 is still waiting for their milk?  I’m glad I have a day job.)

Smoking breaks were few. (I’m looking to unionize with the cart guy from the other half of the room.)
6:00-6:30 p.m. was the busiest with all these people willing to trug through February’s weather for some highly-fried and disproportionately-carbohydrated menu (but a great salad bar) that completes Milwaukee’s Friday night ritual.

My back begins to hurt from the bending and pouring but 7:30 p.m. is surely coming, so I keep telling myself.  Meanwhile, the beaming smiles and friendly faces from these people I give communion to keeps working until my end-time which is when I meet a face that I see in church each week.  (There’s even more to this?)  This is the “clean-up” guy who joins others to spend two more hours cleaning up after I leave.  (I thought preparing a three minute sermon was tough…)

The still-beaming hostess thanks me for making people smile that evening.  I guess I made them smile.  She tells me that this carbohydrate-laden meal is available for me as well.  I take her up on her offer, return home and smile at the work that I normally do not do but truly enjoyed.

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Friday Night and All Alone

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.
alone4

“Alone or by yourself?”

The worst night of week.  After a week’s worth of work I deserve a night off and out.  Didn’t happen.  Many Friday nights, I was convinced that everyone in the world was having more fun that I presently was having.

Is there a difference between being “alone” and “by yourself?”  Yes.  If you’re alone than other people  are not with you; however to be by yourself means that you are content.  How old must you be to stop waiting for the phone to ring or the letter to arrive?  “Being alone” (how many sad, sappy songs are written about this stage?)  “By yourself?”  Not one song that I can think of.  Why?  Because we love to project ourselves into crowds, no matter our personality.

There’s an admonition that no one should die alone.  I wonder how someone cannot but die alone.  If everyone in the room with the dying person should die; I suspect the room would quietly but quickly empty.  How can you not die alone?  We die alone.  Holding someone’s hand doesn’t count although it makes the future bereaved feel better.   As an appendage, the hand naturally loses feeling as death draws near, so holding hands looks good if you’re Bette Midler in “Beaches” but does not really count in real life.

We don’t teach self-contentment to our children.  They play so well as children and then suddenly are thrust into groups and remain there.  (I wonder if it can even be taught but rather only learned through years of living.)

To be “alone” sounds terrible and should happen to no one.  To be “by yourself” is a trained treat and a gift that hopefully the years bring.

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Who Are Those People In The Pews?

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.
laity_3177c1_web

Where the Church lives and breathes

Who comprises this varied group of people that the Catholic Church calls the “laity.”  I’ve never cared for that name because it sounds so ordinary, “the laity.”  “The laity” believes that…

We hear so often in sound bites that, “the American people believe that…”  I think that they are talking about someone else because I often don’t agree with what’s been said.  So, who is this vague group of people that gather in the pews on Sundays or those who claim to be Catholic but sleep in every Sunday morning?

The laity is:
A.) Those waiting for the next papal encyclical to add to the list of encyclicals that they haven’t read?
B.)  Those patiently waiting for the sermon to end so they can get to the good part, getting communion?
C.) Those who get goose bumps ever time the word “pope” is mentioned?
D.) Those “sheepish” people Jesus talked about who are whisked away with a good feeling; compliant and faithful followers?
E.)  Those who “hook, line and sinker” the Church’s every word?
F.) Those who are a discriminating, thoughtful, discerning, sensitive, cultivated, aesthetic and introspective group of people?

When I get up there on a Sunday to lead “the laity” in prayer,” I am thinking, hoping and looking at the “F” group.

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Carry On

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.
Carrying and Being Carried

Carrying and Being Carried

I learned that the Biblical verb “I believe” means “to let someone be carried along by another.”   (Sounds like entitlement to me…)  As usual, the Bible speaks anti-American truths. (So much for “One nation, under God.”)

The connotation of “carrying someone” culturally sounds burdening but spiritually and practically we are all carried throughout our lives.  We want to care and to be cared for but often are limited by fears or doubts.

We are carried when we are young and we are carried again in our senior years.  Life’s activities has a way of diminishing as we slowly diminish.  Culturally we wince at such a notion.  As our parents became our children, so too do we become someone’s children once again, one day.  Children, in the sense of needing to be, well, “carried.”

Becoming a disciple of Jesus calls us to be “carried.”  We are now influenced and affected by him.  There are no more convenient excuses to hold out.  To turn away is only to fall because we will lose the one carrying us.

Culturally, we may wish to remain as independent and self reliant as possible.  How much of that is an illusion, is up to us.

Spiritually, to be “carried” denotes the best of humanity.  Parents, caring and sacrificing for their children, know this message well.  An anxiety-ridden person is partnered with those in Haiti and other struggling countries.  Someone depressed or lonely can find solace in others who experience the same feeling.  We can be “carried” in different ways with people we may never know but with whom we understand.

Things that also can “carry” us can be memories, a hopeful future, a job well done, an argument settled, a friendship renewed, a renewed feeling about a continuing affliction.  We are “carried” and cared for.  We “carry” and care for.

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Life’s Three Gifts

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.
Life's Tasks

Life’s Tasks

We would all agree that life is complicated; sometimes self-imposed, other times from other people.  Much of life’s complication is our lack of preserving the three most important elements in our lives.  We need to be reminded of them, to clutch and to value them.

Am I talking about spiritual elements just because I’m a priest?  They are indeed spiritual.  They are the beans, the golden egg and the harp.  That’s right, “Jack and the Beanstalk” is a biblical story not found in the Bible.  This aged-old fable becomes the fiber and muscle of our endeavors and of our lives.

It is believing in the power of transformation that takes on a shape and form in our lives.  And then believing and accepting that, allowing ourselves these three wishes.

The Magic Bean:  We can only trade in life what we have to trade; in other words you need to have something before you can give or trade it away.  If you have nothing to trade then you must rob or take from others.  The magic beans are given to Jack to build his life.  From those magic beans comes a beanstalk that is as high as the sky  (“The sky’s the limit!”).

The American bishops today remind me of those people who have nothing to trade because they have no beanstalk of their own.  They rely on the Catholic Church’s “beanstalk” to become their own beanstalk.  It doesn’t work that way.  An institution cannot replace an individual’s personal homework.

It is only authentic if you find and claim it for yourself.  You cannot climb someone else’s beanstalk. (Bishop/Church, husband/wife).  You can only climb your own.

This magic bean creates a stalk for us.  Bear in mind that throughout our lives there will always be those people who want to cut down our stalk, or reshape it into an image similar to their own, or just simply ignore it (as though our stalk doesn’t matter).  But it is our stalk created from our magic beans that created it and it is ours to value and possess for a lifetime.

From this stalk, we are able to grasp the other two wishes.

The Harp:  It represents the creative and energetic powers within us.  If anyone dwindles them, then a slow death or depression occurs.  We simply cannot live without that energy that propels us out of bed in the morning, throughout our day and into our relationships.  It is the harp that is full of its music that harmonizes us to each other.  It is a gift that represents our uniqueness and person hood in this world.

The Golden Egg: It represents the context from which our life is lived; marriage, priesthood, city employee, teacher, whatever place we allow ourselves to be placed.

It’s interesting to note that the harp and egg are both stolen in our biblical fable.  They are not freely distributed, they are not handed to you on a platter or inside a cereal box, (and no government can give you what you don’t already possess), they are not provided in life’s scheme, they are not a given.

By being stolen, we are choosing them for ourselves and then making them our own.  We are claiming that they rightfully belong to us and we transform them to be an integral part of our lives.  (Wasn’t “salvation” stolen for us by the sacrifice of Jesus?)

From these gifts we carve out our position and hold that position in life, with all of our lives.  Interestingly, do you remember how the magic beans are obtained?  From the cow that was sold.  The cow that gives milk (mother!).  We need to sell our mothers (become independent) in order to become persons with magic powers.  We slowly become persons who can transform this cruel and divided world with our magic beans, harps and eggs.

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The “Golden Years”

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.
imagessss

The Christian fully lives the day…

Just because you’ve consumed oxygen for ninety years does not make you a sage or mentor.  It can mean that you’ve taken up space and have lived a long life.

Human years are measured in a chronological fashion, one after another; one more birthday cake with one more candle on it. The Christian years are measured in experiences and the abiding virtues of faith, hope and charity.

Evolving into seclusion and indifference and a paranoid cynicism is hardly Christian stuff.  Revolving around Christ through all experiences and growing deeper into his love brings about a truly “golden years” person.  Possessing strong and strident opinions does not make you smart but dialoguing and working together gets the job done.

An eight year old with leukemia can appropriate a perspective and wisdom that can be lost on a World War II veteran.  The maturity of human years may not be present but the Christian years that influence this young person can attain a true sense of peace and hope.

Ask anyone what enduring feeling he/she would aspire to receive in life.  The answer, no matter the words, would amount to peace and hope; an inner peace and a hope that this life was worth it.  The trick is that hope and peace are not received but acknowledged.  These virtues live within us waiting for arousal, sustenance to sustain themselves and the open air to be freely experienced.

Healthcare uses the acronym ADL to summarize what needs to get someone through the day.  “Activities of Daily Living” include the ability to dress yourself, feed yourself and sufficiently function.  Those are the ADL’s of human living.  The ADL’s of Christian living is the ability to forgive as often as possible, both yourself and whoever offends you; to gain a perspective that can lift you from any difficult moment to a level where patience and level thinking takes over.  The human is functional, the Christian is the poet; the human gets you through the day, the Christian fully lives the day; the human lives a long life, the Christian lives a life through others, in and for Christ.

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The Catholic Football Mass

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.
The Catholic's Football

The Catholic’s Football

“This is an important day for Father.  He’s been faltering the past few weeks and the faithful are wondering if he has want it takes.”

“You’re right, Bob, I’ve seen him rise and fall all in one Mass.  He has only 60 minutes to accomplish what needs to be done.  If he can do it in 56 then all the better for this weathered priest now in his 32nd year of entertaining parishioners.”

“That’s a good point.  How many years can a priest expect to be strong and relevant?  He’s defied the averages.  He’s given 302 sermons with an approval rating of only 43%.  That’s not good if you want to make it higher in Church ranks.  Most others have moved on to easier positions but Father seems to not know when to stop.  We’ll have the complete Mass right here for you in just a moment.”

(Toyota, Insurance, Drugs and Dating commercials)

 “There’s Father now rounding the corner.  Oh no!  He missed the small child smiling at him in favor of the big donor at last week’s Auction.  Wow.  What a big mistake.  
He’s heading now toward the end of the aisle to begin the Mass procession.  He looks nervous.
Father needs a big sermon today to carry the day.  Last week it was all about himself and what’s he’s involved in.  It took him 10 minutes until he made a possible Gospel point.  He really needs to get that done this week in 2 minutes or less.”

“That’s right on, Bob.  Father knows what the stakes are but it doesn’t seem to shake him.  He just seems oblivious to everything and everyone around him.”

“That’s called ‘focus,’ Ed.  Father’s got focus.”

“I thought that’s called ‘absent,’ Bob but o.k.  The Mass is about to begin.”

“There’s the Opening Hymn and Father starts the long walk toward the altar.  He’s been known to do either a conservative kneel or a liberal bow.  Which will it be today Ed?”

“Well, with his extended stomach and weight problem I think he doesn’t have much of a choice.  I think he’ll do a liberal bow but with a conservative’s heart; if they even have one.  And…Wow! It’s a bow.  This is going to be a great Mass.  More after these important messages.

(Viagra, BMW, Joseph A. Banks and Medical advertisements)

“Welcome back fans.  For those of you just joining us, which is most of the people in the congregation, Father began Mass and did everything he’s supposed to do.  No funny business.  No clever asides that would draw them closer to the Mass and to each other.”

“You’re right Ed.  We want to get the distinctions very clear between Father and those people out there in the stands, I mean the pews.  Father’s done a good job at the beginning here of telling them where they are and where he is.  He’s off to a great start and time will only tell us if he can pull it off.
The First Reading is being recited and Father…oh no!  His head dropped as though he’s asleep.  What happened?  Instant replays shows the same thing again only in slow motion.  Isn’t technology great?
What is Father thinking?  He’s not paying attention to the reading that no one can understand because the lector is racing through the words?”
 
“What is Father thinking?  Stay tuned.”

(Acid Reflex, More Viagra, TV Shows, Unimportant 10:00 Breaking News announcements)

 “I don’t know about you Ed but that head dropping has got to be a new low.  
You’re right.  At least look like you’re listening to a reading that you’ve read all week in preparation for this occasion.”

“Okay Bob.  Here’s the Gospel reading.  This is Father’s big chance to make the balance sheet for this troubling parish.”
 
“The Gospel’s done and Father walks toward the people.  There’s silence throughout the church as Father begins to speak.  More after these important messages.”

(Viagra, Laxatives, Useless Medical Information commercials)

 “We’re back with Father at the beginning of his sermon during a very important Mass after coming after several weeks of weak sermons.”

“That’s right Bob.  Wow!  He did it again!  He began by repeating the Gospel that we all just heard.
Why does he do that Bob?”

“I think he does that Ed because it kills time and shows that Father’s listened to the Gospel that he just read.  And it also show that he’s smart.”

“Really?  You really think that?”

“No.  Gosh, Ed, it’s been 15 minutes and I’m not sure what Father’s trying to say.  Folks picked up their bulletins after three minutes and several I’ve noticed are now counting the Stations of the Cross to make sure that there’s 14 of them.  All the ushers have thrown down flags.”
 
“It’s unfortunate, Bob because Father had nothing to lose going into today’s Mass and he ended up doing what’s he’s done since the beginning.  How about some more commercials to fill the time until the Mass is over.”
 
“Sounds good to me Ed.”

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