A Thought for the Week
January 30, 2012
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time [February 5, 2012]
I have occasionally heard Christian friends of mine say: “You know, I have just about given up reading the bible.” “How come?” I say. “Well some parts of it are so earthy, so trashy, so sexy, so worldly, so ordinary. I thought the Bible was meant to help people think spiritual thoughts, lift up their hearts to the sacred.” Indeed, I imagine many people, good Christians, may skip over at least some sections of the Bible for that very reason. They have a sense that if the Bible is about God, it should give us a higher sense of spirit, holiness, whatever it is that is characteristic of God.
Admittedly, I do not have the final answer to those disappointing situations but, for my own part, I approach the question like this. Yes, the Bible is about God, but not entirely about God. Realistically, it is about God and us, we humans, the human race of whatever race, color and nationality or religious persuasion we may happen to fall. Given that assumption, we might well expect to read many events, many stories, and pieces of history that are not particularly spiritual and uplifting. The story of humanity is a mixed message: we are not totally good nor totally bad. The beauty of the Hebrew Scriptures, however, is that they describe the human condition just the way it is: the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. If human life were perfect, the Bible would not make for very interesting or inspirational reading
Continue reading "Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time [February 5, 2012]"
Posted by Cindy Lentine at 02:35 PM.
January 25, 2012
Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time [January 29, 2012]
I am sure there is a custom in most families to review occasionally the colorful characters in their ancestral history.
I must confess to one very jolly, roly-poly uncle in my family history who has always fascinated me: Uncle Bert as we knew him. A photo in an old album portrays him standing near a fancy new Buick. He is dressed for his “business:” Suit, nicely pressed, sporting a flat-topped straw hat that many dandy men wore in those times.
Uncle Bert was a man who did not fit the “agricultural mold” of our family. Rather he was a man of the road, a salesman and purveyor of schemes. Never rich, he nonetheless, enjoyed his lifestyle. What he was best known for was the “ability” to tell fortunes for a small fee. I’m sure this career did not last long inasmuch as many of his predictions and other schemes often came to naught as a hoax. Nonetheless, he was a happy man, working daily at his “career.” He thought of himself as something as a “prophet.” The title gave the semblance of weight and credibility to his “trade,” but my sense is that eventually he did not have a great fortune to leave to his heirs.
Continue reading "Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time [January 29, 2012]"
Posted by Cindy Lentine at 01:56 PM.
January 17, 2012
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time [January 22, 2012]
I am quite sure that, as I look back on my life’s history, I could say that I missed a lot of opportunities to do something or avoid something that could have made all the difference in the remainder of my life. Life is a great mystery, of course, and lots of things can go wrong, lots of mistakes are possible. We seldom have enough sight or insight to know whether we have made correct decisions. So, no matter what, we blunder on the best we can, never knowing what could have been. Perhaps it is fortunate that we do not know what we missed.
Nonetheless, there are instances in our lives that are critical, moments when we do have sufficient time to decide well about our future. The decision to continue our education, for instance, is critical, so too the decision to marry and have children or not to marry, yes even the opportunity to accept a position in another part of the country and move far from friends and relatives.
Continue reading "Third Sunday in Ordinary Time [January 22, 2012]"
Posted by Cindy Lentine at 03:53 PM.
January 11, 2012
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time [January 15, 2012]
It often seems to me as I survey my past life that I have had very little to do with my future. Perhaps that is true of all of us. We seem to fall into professions that often turn out to be a vocation, or a vocation that turns out to be a profession.
Very few of us, however, find our profession or our vocation all alone. Someone, at some point in our life, entered into that passage and invited us to look at life again, perhaps in a completely different manner. In some sense then our futures are made for us.
I can remember at least two instances in my life when someone made all the difference in my future. One happened to be the mother of a girl whom I was dating in high school, a wise lady who helped me see my way through an infatuation!
The second person was a chaplain-colonel in the U.S. Army who took me under his wing and steered me to a seminary at the University of Notre Dame; the rest is history!
Continue reading "Second Sunday in Ordinary Time [January 15, 2012]"
Posted by Cindy Lentine at 09:47 AM.
January 03, 2012
Epiphany of the Lord [Janurary 8, 2012]
One of the great marvels of modern life is the pace at which news of the world spreads. One can access a piece of information that occurs at a remote place in the world in a matter of seconds. News reporters are stationed in places I have never heard of. If I want to know what is happening at the Vatican, I can click on Vatican Information Service, and “boom,” I will know within seconds what the pope and the Roman Curia are “up to.” Some months ago the pope himself was given an I Pad and wrote a message to the world on Twitter. (Can you imagine that?) There was a time when, if the pope wanted to send an encyclical to bishops around the world, some messenger would have to travel by foot, mule, and horse or eventually by boat to circulate the letter. (Sorry, I forgot about the pony express!).
At the time of the Twitter incident, the pope made an off hand remark that modern communication is a new and blessed way to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ; the “New Evangelization,” he called it.
Continue reading "Epiphany of the Lord [Janurary 8, 2012]"
Posted by Cindy Lentine at 10:33 AM.
Mary the Mother of God [January 1, 2012]
I am quite certain that if you were chosen to help celebrate the one-hundredth birthday of your mother, you would go out of your way to do something really beautiful: if you had poetic leanings, you would write a panegyric. If you were a musician or a good singer, you would compose a piece of music that celebrated your other’s life, her holiness and accomplishments. If you had any skill at story telling and humor, you would insert some anecdotes that would delight all the relatives and friends who had gathered for the festive day. Some of those narratives might even be a bit apocryphal (fictional) but everyone in the gathering would know the meaning and context and would delight in hearing them once again. All of these things would be accomplished with great joy because your mother and her memory were precious to you, days never to be forgotten.
Continue reading "Mary the Mother of God [January 1, 2012]"
Posted by Cindy Lentine at 10:29 AM.
