Choose Joy

Joy is only a thought away. I choose joy.

As I look back on my life, I may notice how my spirits have ebbed and flowed. I may remember days of deep sadness and days overflowing with laughter. There have been periods of optimism and passion, and times of sorrow.

Awareness of my emotions creates an opening for change. As I connect with the Holy Spirit, I feel peace, love and happiness flow through me. I notice that when I change my thoughts, my emotions change. When I am feeling sadness, fear or anxiety, I remember that the choice is mine to keep my mind and heart attuned to the Holy Spirit. My every thought, word and action is an expression of the Spirit within.

I choose joy right here and right now.

I Am Your Friend

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In our readings today, we hear three prophetic voices: Ezekiel, Paul and Jesus. Prophets have an enormous responsibility. It is their job to proclaim God’s message and to bring people who have strayed back to God. Prophets are God’s PR people. Unfortunately, for most of the prophets, the people who were on the receiving end of God’s messages did not appreciate what God had to say. Of course, God did not make it easy for the prophets; he sent them to people who were “hard of face and obstinate of heart” (Ezekiel 2:4).

Not only were the people obstinate, they were the family, neighbors, friends and community members of the prophets. They knew the prophets as ordinary people who did ordinary things. Therefore, the people were not inclined to take Ezekiel, Paul or Jesus very seriously. Publilius Syrus, a writer in the 1st century BC coined the phrase “familiarity breeds contempt.” And contempt is exactly what the prophets experienced among their own people. In today’s gospel from Mark 6:1-6, Jesus observed, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.” Worse than contempt, prophets often were subjected to ridicule, rejection, abuse and death at the hands of the very people they were trying to save.

By our baptism, each one of us shares “in the priesthood of Christ, in his prophetic and royal mission” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1268). We are called to be prophets. We are commissioned to proclaim God’s message to our families, neighbors, and friends and in our communities. We also run the risk of humiliation, ridicule, rejection and abuse. Being a prophetic voice in today’s culture takes courage. The good news is that we are not alone. In our second reading today, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Jesus tells Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness."

God, our Father, your Son, your Word, 

came among us as one of our own flesh and blood. 

Help us to welcome him always and to listen to what he tells us, 

even when his Word upsets and disturbs us, for it is a Word of life and grace. 

Give us the courage to pass on his Word to one another, 

that it may liberate us all and lead us to you as your one people. 

We ask this through Christ our Lord. 

Amen

Independence Day

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival, with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore. You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration and support and defend these States. Yet, through all the gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory.

~John Adams, letter to wife Abigail, 1776 July 3, Philadelphia

The most patriotic man, ladies and gentlemen, is sometimes the man who goes in the direction that he thinks right even when he sees half the world against him. It is the dictate of patriotism to sacrifice yourself if you think that that is the path of honor and of duty. Do not blame others if they do not agree with you. Do not die with bitterness in your heart because you did not convince the rest of the world, but die happy because you believe that you tried to serve your country by not selling your soul. Those were grim days, the days of 1776. Those gentlemen did not attach their names to the Declaration of Independence on this table expecting a holiday on the next day, and that 4th of July was not itself a holiday. They attached their signatures to that significant document knowing that if they failed it was certain that every one of them would hang for the failure. They were committing treason in the interest of the liberty of 3,000,000 people in America. All the rest of the world was against them and smiled with cynical incredulity at the audacious undertaking. Do you think that if they could see this great Nation now they would regret anything that they then did to draw the gaze of a hostile world upon them? Every idea must be started by somebody, and it is a lonely thing to start anything. Yet if it is in you, you must start it if you have a man's blood in you and if you love the country that you profess to be working for.

Have you ever read the Declaration of Independence? If you have, you will know that it is not a Fourth of July oration. The Declaration of Independence was a document preliminary to war. It was a vital piece of practical business, not a piece of rhetoric; and if you will pass beyond those preliminary passages which we are accustomed to quote about the rights of men and read into the heart of the document you will see that it is very express and detailed, that it consists of a series of definite specifications concerning actual public business of the day. Not the business of our day, for the matter with which it deals is past, but the business of that first revolution by which the Nation was set up, the business of 1776. Its general statements, its general declarations can not mean anything to us unless we append to it a similar specific body of particulars as to what we consider the essential business of our own day. Liberty does not consist, my fellow citizens, in mere general declarations of the rights of man. It consists in the translation of those declarations into definite action. Therefore... reading its business-like sentences, we ought to ask ourselves what there is in it for us. There is nothing in it for us unless we can translate it into the terms of our own conditions and of our own lives.... The task to which we have constantly to readdress ourselves is the task of proving that we are worthy of the men who drew this great declaration and know what they would have done in our circumstances. Patriotism consists in some very practical things—practical in that they belong to the life of every day, that they wear no extraordinary distinction about them, that they are connected with commonplace duty.

~Woodrow Wilson, Presidential Address at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1914 July 4

"So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring."

~Martin Luther King Jr.

Happy Birthday, America!

Don't Change to Please Others

It’s easy to feel uncared for when people aren’t able to communicate and connect with you in the way you need. And it’s so hard not to internalize that silence as a reflection on your worth. But the truth is that the way other people operate is not about you. Most people are so caught up in their own responsibilities, struggles, and anxiety that the thought of asking someone else how they’re doing doesn’t even cross their mind. They aren’t inherently bad or uncaring — they’re just busy and self-focused. And that’s okay. It’s not evidence of some fundamental failing on your part. It doesn’t make you unlovable or invisible. It just means that those people aren’t very good at looking beyond their own world.

But the fact that you are — that despite the darkness you feel, you have the ability to share your love and light with others — is a strength. Your work isn’t to change who you are; it’s to find people who are able to give you the connection you need. Because despite what you feel, you are not too much. You are not too sensitive or too needy. You are thoughtful and empathetic. You are compassionate and kind. And with or without anyone’s acknowledgment or affection, you are enough​.

Rain

A little girl had been shopping with her Mom in a store. She must have been 6-years-old, this beautiful red-haired, freckle-faced image of innocence. It was pouring outside. The kind of rain that gushes over the top of rain gutters, so much in a hurry to hit the earth it has no time to flow down the spout. We all stood there under the awning and just inside the door of the Walmart.

We waited, some patiently, others irritated because nature messed up their hurried day. I am always mesmerized by rainfall. I got lost in the sound and sight of the heavens washing away the dirt and dust of the world. Memories of running, splashing so carefree as a child came pouring in as a welcome reprieve from the worries of my day.

The little voice was so sweet as it broke the hypnotic trance we were all caught in: “Mom, let's run through the rain.” she said.

“What?” Mom asked.

“Let's run through the rain!” she repeated.

“No, honey. We'll wait until it slows down a bit.” Mom replied.

This young child waited about another minute and repeated: “Mom, let's run through the rain."

“We'll get soaked if we do." Mom said.

“No, we won't, Mom. That's not what you said this morning.” the young girl said as she tugged at her Mom's arm.

“This morning? When did I say we could run through the rain and not get wet?”

“Don't you remember? When you were talking to Daddy about his cancer, you said, 'If God can get us through this, he can get us through anything!' ”

The entire crowd stopped dead silent. I swear you couldn't hear anything but the rain. We all stood silently. No one came or left in the next few minutes.

Mom paused and thought for a moment about what she would say.

Now some would laugh it off and scold her for being silly. Some might even ignore what was said. But this was a moment of affirmation in a young child's life. A time when innocent trust can be nurtured so that it will bloom into faith.

“Honey, you are absolutely right. Let's run through the rain. If God lets us get wet, well maybe we just needed washing.” Mom said.

Then off they ran. We all stood watching, smiling and laughing as they darted past the cars and, yes, through the puddles. They held their shopping bags over their heads. They got soaked. But they were followed by a few who screamed and laughed like children all the way to their cars.

And yes, I did. I ran. I got wet. I needed washing.

Positive

Keep your thoughts positive
because your thoughts become your words.

Keep your words positive 

because your words become your behaviors.

Keep your behaviors positive 

because your behaviors become your habits.

Keep your habits positive 

because your habits become your values.

Keep your values positive 

because your values become your destiny.