For the Birds

This past week I had the privilege of visiting with friends that I no long get to see on a regular basis. As always, being in their presence, whether in Athens, GA or in New Orleans, LA, brought me great peace, inspiration, and energy to live my life seeking the Spirit always.  Thank you, friends, for being marvelous blessings in my life.

Now, you may be wondering what the phrase "for the birds" has to do with my above thoughts.  Well, as you may know, the phrase "for the birds" often designates that something is insignificant, unimportant, or trivial.  I'm going to spin this phrase to mean the quite the opposite as I reflect on an experience of mine this week. Earlier this week, I went to the Audobon Zoo with a friend. Rarely do I go to the zoo, but anytime a friend who has not been there before wants to go, I welcome the opportunity. As we wandered through the different animal exhibits, we came upon the aviary. As you might expect inside this sealed off space, we found many different breeds of birds occupying the trees, branches, bushes, ponds, etc.  However, what you may not realize is that these different breeds of birds came from all different parts of the world.  The birds covered a wide spectrum of sizes and colors, too. They were magnificent to be around.  Their diversity struck me as interesting because many of these birds were out of their natural environments and living among other birds that were indigenous to completely different environments from their own. Yet, all of the birds seemed to have adapted quite well to each other and their shared home.  Upon seeing this, I reflected upon how often we, as humans, have difficulty getting along with other humans from very different environments, cultures, customs, etc. Are we not supposed to be more intelligent and rational than simple birds? Sometimes, I wonder about this.  Also, these birds not only were living in peace with one another, but they were not upset by our human presence at all. They crossed beneath our feet, flew over our heads, and sang their pleasant songs in ways that almost seemed to welcome us into their space.  How welcoming are we to others who are from "different parts of the world" than us?  Each time we see violence, poverty, injustice, hate, etc. perhaps we should think of the birds living in peace with one another sharing their space and resources so that they all may coexist beautifully. Is this not the purpose of God's creation?

So, next time you hear the phrase "that's for the birds" think about how it may be more appropriate to say "that's for the humans" instead. The Spirit was very much present with the birds in the aviary and as as a result of my being there, the Spirit was very much present with me, too.

May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.

The Spirit of the Blue Dot

I just saw this shared on Facebook, and I figured I had to pass this along. Enjoy the reflection on the power of the Spirit that pervades and continues to pervade this tiny yet marvelous piece of God's creation.

The tiny blue dot.

May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.

(W)Holy Spirit Come!

Hello everyone,

As many of you know, this past week marked the yearly occasions of Halloween and All Saints' Day. This week began with a reflection from a visiting priest that I heard last week. He shared a story with us about a girl whom he had met in his days as a missionary.  This girl, who had been sold into a life of prostitution for 14 years in Haiti, said upon her rescue that "we should not tell God how big our problems are, but rather, we should tell our problems how big God is." Now, situations like this girl's are hard for many of us to comprehend, but we can see in her saintliness a path of faith that is accessible to all of us.

As Halloween approached, I made sure to share with my students that the history of Halloween simply includes preparing ourselves to celebrate All Saints' Day. Halloween is simply an older English word for Hallow's eve (the evening before honoring all holy people). With this understanding, I turn my thoughts toward our school-wide mass on All Saints' Day. First of all, at my school, rarely do we refer to our masses as such. Rather, those Eucharistic gatherings are called "school-wide liturgies". I mention this because when we understand that the meaning of the word "liturgy" refers to the "work of the people," the celebration of our school community makes a lot more sense.  When trying to gather a total of 1300 people or so for mass, much work must come together to bring the Eucharist alive for all involved. A symphonic band, a men's chorus, acolytes, student ministers, lectors, and symbolic decorations are much of what must fall into place in order for the Eucharistic celebration to hopefully leave those in attendance feeling inspired to continue the work of the Spirit. At this particular liturgy, our celebrant, an ordained Brother of the Sacred Heart, challenged the congregation (mostly adolescent boys) to think of being holy as simply our attempt at being "whole". This simple message of always striving to be as "whole" or complete a person as can be is one that I believe the young men could relate to as they try to figure out who they are and what they are called to do. For the rest of us, this is a good reminder that being holy does not mean always doing everything right, but rather, just trying to be authentic versions of ourselves in all that we do.

How do we take a step toward being more (w)holy? One thing we can do is remember the words of the Haitian girl: don't tell God how big your problems are; tell your problems how big God is. By aiming to keep our lives in this kind of perspective, truly, we are closer to being holy authentic complete people.

May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.