I Did It My Way or I Did It God's Way: My Morning Notes w/Fr. Larry Richards

Let’s always remind ourselves that we are a people of love.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation (i.e. confession) is not meant to be a shameful or judgmental chastisement by the priest but an experience of the love and mercy of Christ.

Although it may seem that sinful acts / behaviors are personal in nature and have no direct impact on anyone else, it’s important to recognize how seriously damaging these can be in our community. 

Any community for that matter.  

Violations of the Ten Commandments have repercussions- a ripple effect from personal to social. 

Each time we sin, we nail Christ to the cross. We participate in His death. But the whole reason Christ came into being, came into the world, is to save us from our sin. The closer we are to recognizing sin, the closer we are to Christ. The more we are filled with the Holy Spirit, the greater our awareness of sin. Therefore, every sin we confess to a priest is taken up by Christ and delivered to His cross. That is His true sacrifice. 

Stop making excuses for not going to confession. Really, just stop it. 

Let’s understand and pray about the fact that we are “...temples of the living God” (2 Cor 6:16). True integrity is living life each day reflecting on this hidden truth.


We are all called to Holiness... we should strive for Holiness. 

Drawing: Chia Yew Hang

The Examination of Conscience.

Remember, the greatest sin is our stubborn, selfish pride. 
***

Surrendering by way of an active prayer-life: Prayer is getting to know God’s will, not just simply rattling off a laundry list of our personal needs and desires. Communication in prayer is two-way. We offer, we petition, we praise, and then we LISTEN…. each and every day. We open ourselves and surrender our will to the Father (this is key – understanding also Christ’s relationship to God the Father). There are many ways we can do this – it’s about developing an active prayer life (Mark 1: 11; Matthew 16:15-25).

The importance of Eucharistic Adoration.

Psalm 46:11 (i.e.“Shut Up and Listen").

Best reference of the conference is St. John Vianney's The Glorious Duty of Man: To Pray and To Love,  from Catechetical Instructions (Catechisme sur la priere: A. Monnin, Esprit du Cure d'Ars, Paris 1899, pp. 87-89)

[My little children, reflect on these words: the Christian’s treasure is not on earth but in heaven. Our thoughts, then, ought to be directed to where our treasure is. This is the glorious duty of man: to pray and to love. If you pray and love, that is where a man’s happiness lies. 

Prayer is nothing else but union with God. When one has a heart that is pure and united with God, he is given a kind of serenity and sweetness that makes him ecstatic, a light that surrounds him with marvelous brightness. In this intimate union, God and soul are fused together like two bits of wax that no one can ever pull apart. This union of God with a tiny creature is a lovely thing. It is a happiness beyond understanding.We had become unworthy to pray, but God in his goodness allowed us to speak with him. Our prayer is incense that gives him the greatest pleasure. 

My little children, your hearts are small, but prayer stretches them and makes them capable of loving God. Through prayer we receive a foretaste of heaven and something of paradise comes down upon us. Prayer never leaves us without sweetness. It is honey that flows into the soul and makes all things sweet. When we pray properly, sorrows disappear like snow before the sun. 

Prayer also makes time pass quickly and with such great delight that one does not notice its length. Listen: Once when I was a purveyor in Bresse and most of my companions were ill, I had to make a long journey. I prayed to the good God, and, believe me, the time did not seem long. 

Some men immerse themselves as deeply in prayer as fish in water, because they give themselves as fish in water, because they give themselves totally to God. There is no division in their hearts. O, how I love these noble souls! Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Colette used to see our Lord and talk to him just as we talk to one another. 

How unlike them we are! How often we come to church with no idea of what to do or what to ask for. And yet, whenever we go to any human being, we know well enough why we go. And still worse, there are some who speak to the good God like this: “I will only say a couple of things to you, and then I will be rid of you.” I often think that when we come to adore the Lord, we would receive everything we ask for, if we would ask with living faith and with a pure heart.] 

Final thoughts:  continue to foster and sustain relationships with immediate family members. Tell them how much you love them. What truly matters in the end are the those whom we love. Please remain a people of love; but speak the truth in a loving manner. Always remember,  we are not meant to be judgmental of others...

***

Resources:

Meet Fr. Larry Richards

Be A Man

Pride

On Passing

It's often with great surprise and affectionate sadness when we hear about the passing of someone we admire.

The word gets around fast.

            You can almost feel its powerful vibration.

A growing, intensified pulse of emotion that penetrates the heart so quickly one ignores the well intentioned voice mails, tweets, or causal conversations.
 

Death is like that… in its temporary vanity.

                                                Only Love remains.  

The truly under-rated and gifted Polish poet Wistlawa Szymborska (1923 – 2012) passed away this week at her Krakow home. 

Although my appreciation for her work blossomed in the last year or so, her insightful and intelligent poetry continues to be a soulful treasure chest worthy of continued exploration, even now at this critical juncture! I can only hope others will learn...

Here’s one from my earmarked anthology entitled Poems New and Collected (Harcourt,1998).
 

On Death, Without Exaggeration

Photo: AFP/Getty

It can’t take a joke,
find a star, make a bridge.
it knows nothing about weaving, mining, farming,
building ships, or baking cakes.

In our planning for tomorrow,
it has the final word,
which is always beside the point.

It can’t even get the things done
that are part of its trade;
dig, a grave,
make a coffin,
clean up after itself.

Preoccupied with killing,
it does the job awkwardly,
without system or skill.
As though each of us were its first kill.

Oh, it has its triumphs,
but look at its countless defeats,
missed blows,
and repeat attempts!

Sometimes it isn’t strong enough
to swat a fly from the air.
Many are the caterpillars
that have outcrawled it.

All those bulbs, pods,
tentacles, fins, trachea,
nuptial plumage, and winter fur
show that it has fallen behind
with its halfhearted work.

III will won’t help
and even our lending a hand with wars and coups,d’etat
is so far not enough.

Hearts beat inside eggs.
Babies’ skeletons grow.
Seeds, hard at work, sprout their first tiny pair of leaves
and sometimes even tall trees far away.

Whoever claims that it’s omnipotent
is himself living proof
that it’s not.

There’s no life
That couldn’t be immortal
if only for a moment.

Death
always arrives by that very moment too late.

In vain it tugs at the knob
of the invisible door.
As far as you’ve come
can’t be undone.

© Wislawa Szymborska, S. Baranczak & C. Cavanagh

Resources:

PBS Art Beat

Nobel Prize for Literature 1996

A Reflection on Belief and Suffering feat. Jeff Tweedy

An excerpt from the Sunken Treasure DVD -  a tour of the Pacific Northwest back in 2006...on creativity and suffering, and the boundaries between artist and fan. I believe Paul Simon has been channeling similar topics lately.

Photo: BW Trout, 2011

"There are people that love me, and that's really nice...I feel that, and it's really nice. I respect it. [However], people mis-understand that relationship quite a bit. They don't necessarily believe in me, they believe in themselves....

Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth once said, 'People pay to see people believe in themselves'. I think that's a very true statement. One of the things I really think is going on there is that... well, it's just like with people claiming that a piece of music makes them feel [a certain way]. I think that the opposite is probably true in that they have that feeling and the piece of music allows them to recognize it. I feel very flattered that people put me at the center of it. I enjoy that, it's nice. But, I think I have to be really rational about it, and remember that it's really coming from them.

The thing I bristle at is the idea that artists or musicians, or people that are creative, suffer more than anybody else. I think that is patently false. I think that everyone suffers...I think the world is kind of built on how well you cope with your suffering, how well you transcend it, move [beyond] it, and what you learn from it. I'm no different from anyone else in that regard. I just try to keep moving..."

 The new Wilco album is entitled The Whole Love on dBPM Records. Go get it today.

O Antiphon!



Theotokos - "God Bearer"

 As winter solstice reaches its final twilight, let’s not forget about the O' Antiphon prayers and chant during these last "golden nights" before the birth of the Messiah (Dec 17-23rd). In anticipation of the coming year, [we draw inspiration from the most humble love of the Theotokos, who never hesitated to do the will of God. We trust in her prayers to God for us that we might, as the years pass, become more like her.] smile 



FAN



 Wishing you a blessed Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Wisdom for the Office

Whoever advocates for employee multi-tasking as a productive means for increasing work efficiency and improving outcome effectiveness might want to re-think their management philosophy. It's neither multi...fac-et-ed or task...orientated. Note to self. Please consider this advice next time you plan to take on even more projects ------------------------------

Source



Mary In Our Day Conference

August 15^th brings a special event to the North Shore!  The College of St. Scholastica presents Mary In Our Day -The Assumption + 61:  a conference that explores the enduring significance of the Virgin Mary in today's world, including her place in the Church's life of prayer and her importance in music, literature, culture, and art.

Resources:

St. Scholastica: Renewed interest growing in Mary's role in faith life, depiction in art

The Benedictines Sisters St. Scholastica Monastery

Pray for us, O’ Queen Assumed into Heaven, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ,

Amen.

(1Thessalonians 4:14)


by HarborStar

The True Secret Behind Writing Music for Film or… Silence and Meaning

It seems that in today’s world of film more and more filmmakers try to force emotional drama on the viewer. Rather than taking the time to collaborate with the set crew or develop plot transitions with tension and beautiful cinematography, one usually gets spoon-fed a series of over-baked, wimpy snippets of music that completely shatter the purpose of a film’s meaning. Don’t these people ever consider working with other artists involved in the production?  If you’re tired of constantly having your film experience ruined by loud, inappropriate, or out of place music you’re not alone. Here’s an insightful excerpt from Polish composer Zbigniew Priesner on the creative relationship between music and film. It’s taken from the companion disc to the film The Double Life of Veronique (1991).

[“We must always keep in mind that the truly creative work of a film involves each of us creating the film while knowing that in the end there is a director, and even more importantly, a story. We contribute what we feel we should give of ourselves to [a] film. This would seem obvious, but nowadays it’s really not. Nobody talks about this today. When I try to speak about meaning with directors and producers, they really don’t get it. A composer writes music for a film, and in my opinion, it’s the function and role of the composer to add something the audience doesn’t see: the atmosphere of the film. It’s very metaphysical…

When I write music… I take into consideration not why to have music and where it goes, but why I should write it and what purpose it serves. Should it be some kind of narrative or anticipation? Or should it reveal something we don’t generally see but can feel?

There are twenty-two minutes of music in The Double Life of Veronique. There was mainly silence throughout, but this silence echoed loudly. Music introduced us to the mood, and silence was a respite from it. The silence meant more than the music. Today, in movies where music plays from start to finish, you never notice any variation. If there’s a short-break you think, ‘thank God, a breather.’ And then, it starts up again!

Directors and producers have no faith in their films. They don’t believe the story is strong enough to be told using music as one of the various means of artistic expression, as art, not just as a kind of wallpaper…[Film Director Krzysztof  ] Kieslowski used to say, ‘For what’s different to seem different, there has to be a difference.’ ]

Resources:

• Listen to the music of Zbigniew Preisner

Worthy Summer Presentations



Variable Density Thinning Finland, MN



As Minnesota's rural economies struggle during the economic downturn, communities look to maximize their resources. The state's abundant forests present both opportunities and challenges, and hard decisions need to be made to ensure productivity and environmental legacy. A Co-production of TPT and the Charles K. Blandin Foundation.

Watch Forests and Minnesota's Rural Economy





Yellow Birch Regen Finland, MN

 The world’s religions are seriously engaging in work to address ecological and social concerns related to climate change. How are faith communities responding to climate concerns, and what do their ethical and moral perspectives add to scientific approaches to climate change? This webinar will provide information about:

- History, trends, and tensions in faith community response to climate change

- Religious teachings and moral imperatives about climate change and environmental stewardship

- Engaged projects within faith communities as examples of response in action

Watch Religion, Environmental Ethics, and Climate Change





 

 

 

White Pine Germinants After Fire Deer River, MN



The Shutdown Back Page... or How to Pick Up the Pieces of My Broken Heart

Perhaps its a memory, perhaps it's a dream. Here goes my MN State Government shutdown... in twenty bullets:

• Spent many hours preparing for the shutdown prior to July 1st including the forced cancellation of three regional, interdisciplinary and interagency ecological forestry field workshops. Dozens of hours wasted preparing for these. Forecast gloomy, overcast. Clenched fist.

• Despite being laid-off, went on planned vacation to Canada. Left during the sweltering evening heat of the Forth of July. Missed the fireworks. Hairball.. are you serious? Even less adventurous at the border crossing much to our surprise. Happy Trails!

• Enjoyed nature/biking, the BEST international music festival in North America, and the wonderful Manitoba culture. Voted best people once again in 2011!

• Ate vegan salads, burgers, and burritos. Lost 5 pounds.

• Witnessed the reunited Jayhawks w/Mark Olson and Karen Grotberg. Lamented the poor sound quality and lack of song selections from the 1997-2003 era. What? I know! Appreciated hearing Wichita (opener), Two Hearts, Red's Song, Black-Eyed Susan, and Lights. Still no Pray for Me however. New album to be released in September.

• Kept BW Trout on his toes most mornings with a bike ride/swim.  Talkin punk rock blues with the kids, goofy nitrous sounds, NOFX? What about Fugazi  ya hammerheads.Where's the official photos?

• Prairie Heat. Mini-Break. Big Rock Beverage.

• Didn't get Kristen's phone number, email, or facebook address. What was I thinking? Did agree to read and watch Guy Maddin's, "My Winnipeg" though.

• Camped and consulted with Red Green. Basking in the glow of the nightly paper birch fire.

• Jeff Tweedy closes with an intimate acoustic set of Wilco and solo selections. Impressive. Many folks missed it.

• Still no budget deal. Questioned at the US Border about my employment. Agents very surprised that MN DNR not working. Huh? Hopeful that agreement will be worked out. It's now ten days. Thinking about the Rut’s and Black Flag. Planning on contributing to the Staging the Future Capital Campaign and to membership with KAXE once again.

• Rear brakes went out on the SUV. Beginning to deplete the savings account. Worried about finances. No job to be found. Bills to pay.

• Had dinner with parents and cousins in Duluth but missed nephew's baseball tournament. Have to conserve on fuel. Applied for un-enjoyment insurance. First time in twenty years.

• Blessed Kateri Tekawitha Day. Much needed adoration and prayer time w/Jesus and Mary.

•  Depressed...gained 5 pounds. Haven't sold the cabin yet. Getting desperate. Avoiding foreclosure a must.

• Read several books including the gripping adventure "Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey: The River of Doubt" by Candice Millard. Here’s a sample,

"Compounding the misery wrought by the rain was an overarching sense of isolation and uncertainty, a feeling that was magnified by strange noises that shattered the forest's silence and set the men's nerve on edge. That afternoon, as Roosevelt and the men in dugout paddled quitely down the river, a long, deep shriek suddenly ripped through the jungle. It was the roar of a howler monkey, one of the loudest cries of any animal on earth. The sound, which can be heard from three miles away, is formed when the monkey  forces air through its large, hollow hyoid bone, which sits between its lower jaw and the voice box and anchors the tongue. The result is a deep, resonating howl that vibrates through the forest with strange, inhuman intensity and echoes so pervasively that its location can be nearly impossible to identify.

Worse even than the noises they could recognize were those that none of them could explain. These strange sounds, which disappeared as quickly as they came and were a mystery even to those who knew the rain forest best, had made a strong impression on the British naturalist Henry Walter Bates fifty years earlier. 'Often, even in the still hours of midday, a sudden crash will be heard resounding afar through the wilderness, as some great bough or entire tree falls to the ground,' the naturalist wrote. 'There are, besides many sounds which it is impossible to account for. I found the natives generally as much at a loss in this respect as myself. Sometimes a sound is heard like the clang of an iron bar against a hard, hollow tree, or a piercing cry rends the air; these are not repeated, and the succeeding silence tends to heighten the unpleasant impression which they make on the mind." pgs 156-157.

                                                                           It’s really unfortunate what happened to Kermit.

• Went on a few bike rides along the North Shore. HOT! Parks Closed. Contemplate, reflect. Need a new plan for my life. Resurrect the Backwater-Spotlight?

• Day 18… hints of a “lights-on” budget agreement. I’m skeptical. I tell myself, “avoid Jerry Springer, avoid Jerry Springer”, etc. Worried more about MN families and the poor. My situation pales in comparison to those who really are suffering due to this ungrateful impasse. Quickly remind myself how my local property taxes went from $150 to $590. That’s fair…. right?

• Day 19… Got my work start-up call. How to pick up the pieces? How to salvage a summer field season? Feeling helpless about all aspects of my work.



 • I'll raise you a twenty...

The Divine Mercy Image

"There is nothing more man needs than Divine Mercy - that love which is benevolent, which is compassionate, which raises man above his weakness to the infinite heights to the holiness of God."

- Blessed Pope John Paul II -