friarmusings | the musings of a Franciscan friar

Time 2021-09-14 23:20:00

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If you would like to catch up on some recent posts, here is a place where you can easily access some posts you might have missed. I hope it helps enjoy. The opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing was one of the most visually stunning and massive choreographed movements of people I think I have ever witnessed. As a kid I used to think it was amazing that the Ohio State marching band could spell Ohio in cursive as it played during halftime. But Beijing was light years ahead in complexity of the movement of peoples from one place to another on the field. If only one person had turned the wrong way it is not hard to imagine the chaos that might have resulted. A few months ago I wrote about the same effect that plays out on the sidewalks of NYC or Tokyo during rush hour it just takes one person to disrupt the entire flow. Continue reading September 14th is the date established for a feast that recognizes the Cross as the instrument upon which our salvation was won by Jesus Christ. This feast is called in Greek Ὕψωσις τοῦ Τιμίου καὶ Ζωοποιοῦ Σταυροῦ ( Raising Aloft of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross ) and in Latin Exaltatio Sanctae Crucis. In English, the 3rd Edition of the Roman Missal restored the traditional name, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, replacing the 1972 nomenclature of the Triumph of the Cross. When the feast day falls on a Sunday (e.g. 2014 and 2025) it replaces the Sunday celebration of Ordinary Time. Continue reading In the dark days of December with the pandemic raging, we hoped for the availability of vaccinations. Vaccinations were announced, the infections seem to be retreating, we began to make plans for travel after the long discontent for our masks, restrictions, and the new normal which we hoped would not become normal at all. And then vaccinations slowed, masks were dropped, the Delta variant spread, fights broke out on airlines, governors levied fines against businesses requiring vaccines even as they claimed federal overreach, and the late summer saw an epic rise among the unvaccinated. A night show host, joking one hopes, suggested that unvaccinated people at the hospital should be a lower triage level than vaccinated people. Schools restarted, closed, went virtual, were protested for requiring and not requiring masks. Nobody likes wearing a mask. Why isn’t everyone vaccinated? What happened to personal liberty? Isn t this supposed to be over.But whatever your take on all of this, we are tired we have pandemic fatigue. Continue reading Today is the memorial for St. John Chrysostom, a bishop and doctor of the Church. He lived in the late 4th and early 5th centuries and his held as one of the Three Holy Hierarchs of the Byzantine Church along with Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus. John garnered the moniker Chrysostom (“golden tongue”) because of his oratory skills. John also be came quite popular because of his eloquence, his insights and  passion in his public speaking at the Golden Church, Antioch s cathedral. Especially popular was his insightful expositions of Bible passages and moral teaching. He emphasized charitable giving and was concerned with the spiritual and temporal needs of the poor. He spoke against abuse of wealth and personal property: Continue reading This coming Sunday is the 2th Sunday of Ordinary Time with the Gospel taken from Mark 9:30-37. In the account, Jesus tells the disciples, again, of his impending passion, death and rising from the tomb. And as we move further into the liturgical year, it should become evident that there are fewer demonstrations of power and teaching authority, although they will continue to occur, e.g., the healing of the boy with demon (Mark 9:19-29). The emphasis is ever on preparing his disciples for the time when Jesus will not be among them in an earthly form. The text for this Sunday is commonly referred to as Christ s second passion/resurrection prediction. Between the first set of prediction/instructions and our Sunday gospel we have following gospel stories from St. Mark: Continue reading There has always been ocean lore that proclaims rogue, monster waves rising 80, 90, or 100 feet high or more. Of course, these are not eye-witness accounts. Men in wooden ships don’t survive such an encounter. There was the story of the Alaskan Tlingit Indian woman who returned from berry picking to find her entire village disappeared. The debris field evidence on the shoreline indicated that the ocean had risen up and fell upon the village. The wave would have been more than 100 feet high to cause the damage. Experts of the day dismissed stories about such waves because they seemingly violated basic principles of ocean physics. Continue reading While each of the gospel writers has their own style, pace and priorities each is a masterful storyteller. Each weaves the accounts and stories into a meta-narrative that reveals something about the person of Jesus and thus is revelatory about the person of God. If your only encounter with the gospels is here on Sunday while any encounter is a good one you’re missing the whole of the narrative, missing the ebb and flow. It is like trying to understand the beauty of a quilt by staring into one patch. The one patch is beautiful, the stitching elaborate, but you miss the larger pattern, the greater beauty. Continue reading Johannes Vermeer has always been one of my favorite artists. Many of the Vermeer paintings are held in private collections and so it is not often that a Vermeer exhibit is available showcasing his works at a single location. The National Gallery of Art was able to hold one in the 1990s that I was able to attend. It was magnificent. The NY Time Weekender has a very interesting piece on the restoration work of some Vermeer paintings and what they are discovering a later hand covered up. Back in May, CNN also had an interesting piece on Vermeer. Continue reading The image above is the amazing pool where I am able to swim. I am there several days a week, most often at 5:00 am before the swim teams arrive. I also try to swim first thing Saturday mornings at 7:00 am. During this time of pandemic the facility (The Rouse Swim and Sports Center) has been sparsely used. But this morning, upon exiting the pool, the parking lot was filled to overflowing. There is more than the pool at the sports complex Continue reading

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