God bless Earth

Hello friends,
Thank you for your patience in between my posts.  I have enjoyed beginning my new teaching job, but I am still trying to find a good time each week when I can sit and write.

My post this week may be one of the more random connections to the Spirit that I feel I have ever documented.  So, this past Friday evening, I competed in a two-mile road race with some of my training buddies.  Prior to the race, as expected, a rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner was played.  The race director played the famous Whitney Houston version of our national anthem.  Personally, I am not a fan of this version, and as a result, my mind wandered for most of the recording.  My mind did, however, wander toward the idea of patriotism.  Patriotism in the United States confuses me.  I often see and hear images, symbols, slogans, etc. that attempt to link patriotism to Christianity.  When we say/sing "God Bless America," what exactly do we mean?  Are we asking God to bless this country more than other countries? Are we claiming that we have the market on God's blessings while others receive God's hand-me-downs?  Are we invoking God to be on our side rather than on the side of others?  These are inflections and connotations that I can not help but feel sometimes.  I would like to think that when we say "God bless America" we are asking God for the grace to help others around the world by using the plethora of resources at our disposal to promote the common world good rather than for just our own benefit.  I think what is important here is to remember that the Spirit of God moves where it will and that includes any and all places of the world (not just the U.S.).  So, how did all of this come from listening to one of my least favorite national anthem recordings?  I can not say.  All I know is that I now have more food for thought.

In addition to this thought provoking recording, I found myself watching the movie, The Soloist (2009), on Saturday evening.  This is a remarkable movie about mental health, homelessness, and the power of music.  In this film, a Julliard level cellist, is living on the street after going through mental anguish as a young man.  This based-on-a-true-story movie, pointed out even more to me the confusion I find in being patriotic in this country.  We have so many resources in this country that could end national hunger, decrease poverty, and promote better standards of living for most people.  However, we seem to have such a problem making these resources available to others.  Meanwhile, we say "God bless America" while often turning a blind eye to these circumstances.  Why is that?  I wish I knew the answer.  So, I guess my challenge for all of us who live here in the United States and profess faith in God, is to remember our blessings daily and truly strive to give of ourselves to our countrymen and women (and ultimately the world citizens at large).  In doing so, I pray that our efforts may one day to say God bless the United Countries of Earth.

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

An Extra "Ordinary" Piece

As I start my new obligations as a high school religion teacher, I worry that I will not have as much time to devote to my blog.  I certainly will not give up on this entirely.  However, please be patient with me in my posting.  I'll try to post something each week even if it just a simple sharing of something I found inspiring.  Please enjoy this article that I found from one of my favorite websites recently.  The article builds off of my thoughts from last week.

Relevant Magazine Article

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

Ordinary is Extraordinary

Since my last post, I have found myself thinking about my spiritual sisu a bit more.  I continue to ask myself, "How can I find my spiritual greatness?"  I find it almost humorous how timely God tends to answer questions like these.  I guess the gospel last Sunday (Luke 11: 1-13) should have given me the confidence that I would receive an answer.  The gospel did talk about asking, seeking, and knocking in order to learn from the Spirit.  So, what answer did the Spirit give my inquiry into finding spiritual greatness?  Well, the answer actually revolves around simply being ordinary.

Now, you might be asking, "Drew, how can you expect to become great from being ordinary?"  First, let's look at the word extraordinary.  If we break the word into two parts: extra and ordinary, then the simple answer is that we just need to be more ordinary in our daily goings-on.  Huh? More ordinary?  Stay with me I'm not trying to confuse anyone.  I'm simply trying to explain that greatness does not necessarily come from doing superhuman things.  Rather, it comes from our ability to do necessary everyday things well.  Here are a few examples of everyday things: being polite, saying hello to people who cross your path, picking up litter and throwing it away or recycling it, smiling, being patient while driving, listening when others speak to you, etc.  None of the above are overly difficult.  They are quite ordinary practices, and yet, how often do we neglect to do these things?  I know I neglect them on a daily basis.  One good example of a man doing ordinary things well, who has been in the news lately, is Pope Francis.  In my opinion, he should be called the "ordinary pope."  For those who have not been following him, you should do a little research into his activities lately.  He seems to epitomize being ordinary.  He has done his very best (up to this point) to shed the image of royalty and authority often associated with church hierarchy for a much more down to earth image.  He did not invent this image, though.  He is simply trying to bring the image of Jesus back to the forefront.  If we pay close enough attention to Jesus in the scriptures, we find that he was the best at being ordinary.  He seemed to do all of the little ordinary things that would benefit others in large extraordinary ways.  So, by doing the ordinary things extremely well, Jesus was extraordinary.  This is how we find our spiritual greatness.

Over the past week, I have found one avenue where I can practice being more ordinary than usual.  That avenue is in my friendship to others.  I have two friends that have gone through stress and sadness within this same week.  One friend, in the midst of taking the bar exam, had to face the reality that he had to put down his dog that had been suffering from prostate cancer.  The other friend, while on an annual vacation with his buddies of around fifteen years, lost one of those friends in a drowning accident.  Since, I have come to find out that the first friend actually knew the man who drowned, too.  Goodness.  What was I to do?  Naturally, I wanted to grieve with and for my friends, but would that be enough?  I wanted to do something extraordinary for them.  However, the more I thought about the extraordinary, the more I wasted time not doing anything.  In the end, my simple yet ordinary offering of prayers, support, and availability was exactly what these guys needed.  So, as we go forward in our lives, let us make a commitment to simply being the best kind of ordinary we can be and in doing so, we will become extraordinary.

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

A Spirit of Sisu

Last year around this time, I posted about my experience as a camp counselor at the Gulf States Distance Running Camp in St. Benedict, LA.  Well, I would like to once again share some of my thoughts from this tiring yet motivating week.

I had the opportunity last week to give a talk to the camp about "Why I Choose to Run."  After much thought and reflection, I chose to revolve my talk around a word from the Finnish language that I have come to embrace: sisu.  From what I have come to know about sisu, it is a word that attempts to describe the spirit within humans being that encompasses guts, determination, "never give up" attitudes, and the like.  However, sisu represents these things and so much more.  It is more of a state of drive and perseverance that can only come from within a person.

In my talk I tried to challenge the athletes that in order to achieve greatness in their lives, they would need to find a sisu in their lives that is authentic to themselves.  Upon deeper reflection, I realized that sisu is probably that which the Spirit of God tries to instill in us as we face persecution, doubt, criticism, hatred, sadness, death, etc., in our lives.  The grit, determination, and toughness of sisu when viewed through a lens of the Spirit should always take the form of unceasing forgiveness, persistent kindness, and unwavering non-violence.  

I hope we can all find the sisu within us needed to make ourselves and others great human beings.

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

A Lesson on Diversity

Diversity: a state of variety among persons, places, and things.

When I was in high school, some students and faculty started a club called the Welcoming Diversity Club.  The purpose of this club was to reach out to all members of the student body in an effort to bridge any cultural gaps between groups of students.   This club focused on creating an organization full of people from different races, backgrounds, cultures, etc.  Groups like the Welcoming Diversity Club are great opportunities for us to remember that we live in a world full of people that cover the spectrum in terms of skin color, eye color, hair color, height, weight, language, eating habits, drinking habits, recreational practices, religions, socioeconomic status, and on goes the list.  

My point for mentioning this is that while I live in a country that seems to pride itself on its diversity, and while I profess a faith and claim a church that is supposed to accept all people regardless of life circumstances and cultural backgrounds, I can't help but look around myself and notice a whole lot of the same thing.  This "same thing" in my case is primarily an all-white, middle class society.  While this is not bad in an of itself by any means, I sometimes find myself wondering where I might find a larger Spirit of diversity.  Before reading further, take a minute to think about a normal week for you.  Is there a majority of people who look, act, and dress a certain way?  Is there a clear minority of people who look, act, and dress a certain way?  How does this make you feel?  Ok, now you can keep reading.

Well, last week, I found one such place that may be the best source of social diversity I have ever seen: the Department of Motor Vehicles.  I made this trip to the DMV in order to get new license plates for my car.  In the four hours that I had to wait to accomplish my task for the day, I had quite a bit of time to take in my surroundings.  What I saw (other than an inefficient way of doing business) were a couple hundred people ranging in all of the diversity criteria mentioned in the first paragraph.  Some folks kept to themselves (as I did) while others made conversation with each other to pass the time.  These interactions were encouraging to see, I must say.  However, as I continued to gaze upon this extremely diverse crowd, my intrigue turned more toward dismay.  I realized how unfortunate it is that it takes a place like the DMV and the necessity for people to have ID's, Driver's Licenses, and vehicle registrations to gather people together from all walks of life.  Shouldn't my church be a place where I see this diversity?  How about my neighborhood or local grocery store?  I mean, sure there are exceptions to this situation, but on the whole, in my daily goings-on, I see way more people that look like me than not.  Why is this?  Why in the year 2013 is much of our society still divided according to class and culture rather than united in spite of those things?  If God created all of us with equal love, then why is there seemingly so much lack of inclusion among different social/cultural groups?

I wish I had the answers to these questions.  However, I do not.  All I have is all that any of us can have and that is a heart of love and compassion for our fellow humans.  I am very thankful that Pope Francis seems to be encouraging all people regardless of their belief systems to care for God's creation and one another.  If we can honestly try to extend ourselves outside of our comfort zones and diversify our lives to include others not like ourselves, then we will make some headway.  I'd like to think that this headway will look a lot better than the scene at the DMV.  Haha.  I guess this just goes to show that even the local DMV, while both dismal and frustrating, is not above the ability of the Spirit to work in our lives and teach us something about the joy that comes from the love that God has for all people.

Throughout the next week, I'd like to challenge you to be extra cognizant of the people around whom you find yourself in every situation.  Do you notice a trend?  Reflect on this for a while and see what the Spirit has to tell you about things.  

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

Who Am I?

Just when I was having some difficulty finding the time and the topic to devote to my blog, the weekend came along with a question that turned out to be a good one for reflection.  Over the past few days, I have experienced the following: a new teacher orientation, the wedding of a long-time friend, an evening movie, and today's gospel.  All of these experiences reflect the question "Who am I?"

At my new teacher orientation, I learned a little bit about the teaching mission of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart.  This mission revolves around educating students "beyond methodology" which challenges teachers to always strive to educate students both in and out of the classroom spiritually, academically, socially, etc.  This orientation made me realize that to be a good teacher I must confidently know who I am before I can expect to challenge young men to answer "Who am I?" for themselves.

At the wedding on Friday, I watched my very good friend marry her husband.  The celebration of their marriage reminded me that in order for people to unite with each other in this way, they must know who they are as individuals first.  Once they did this, then their "Who am I?" becomes a more inspiring and encouraging "Who are we?"  I know they will continue to define their identity as a couple for many years to come.

Last night, as I relaxed at home, I put on Les Miserables, which you may remember is a wonderful story of redemption and forgiveness.  One of the songs in the musical is called "Who am I".  In this song, the main character, Jean Valjean, must embrace his true identity as a forgiven sinner before he can honestly move forward with his life to be who God created him to be: a beloved son.

While this "Who am I?" question was on my mind this morning, the gospel from this Sunday's mass from Luke 9:18-24 really brought light to this question for me.  In the gospel, Jesus asks the disciples who people say that he is and then asks Peter who Peter says Jesus is.  This taught me that sometimes the way people see me might not be the way that I see me and vice versa.  However, if I am honest with myself about my earnestness to reflect the beliefs I have in God, I believe others will see that in me (even though I will continue to struggle with that as we all do).

Next time God asks us who we think God is, how are we going to respond?  Will we talk the talk about God by using great adjectives like the disciples or will we walk the walk by claiming our relationship with God as Peter did?  I know that if we commit ourselves to getting to know God, then as a result we will know "who we are" that much more.

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

Spirit of Brotherhood

Hello everyone,
This past week or so since my last post has certainly been exciting and tiring at the same time.  As you may recall, my last post, "The Spiritual Toolbox," addressed how our experiences equip us with the tools we need to do good for ourselves and others as we move forward through life.  Well, in the last week as I began settling back into my hometown of New Orleans, I've already had to use some of my tools to begin my new work as a teacher and coach at Brother Martin High School.  However, I'm sure I'll have more to talk about on this topic in the coming weeks.  What I would like to talk a little bit about is the homecoming experience I had this past weekend.

On Saturday of this past week, I had my 10-year high school reunion.  I graduated from Brother Martin High School with two hundred eighty-eight other guys in 2003.  While I did not plan on this reunion being a piece of my coming home celebration, it certainly was a pleasant and timely addition.  When I arrived at the reunion, I quickly felt myself transported back in time ten years as I saw the men with whom I graduated and heard their voices recounting stories from our days as Crusaders walking the halls of Brother Martin.  Though many of us had not seen each other in years (not counting our connections on popular social media sites), we seemed to settle right back in to the camaraderie that we had developed in the past (albeit a slightly more mature bunch).  I think what allowed me to enjoy our celebration this much more was the fact that though we have grown up according to the "real world's" standards and may still have differences in views and opinions, we still held a connection that only we could understand as classmates.  Amid all of the changes we may have gone through as individuals over that last ten years, we, as a collective unit, still seemed to have the "fire in our eyes" as one teacher told us during our senior year.  I know that this feeling of unity and pride stems from the larger mission that our school represents.

Our high school is run by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart (a religious community of men in the tradition of the Catholic Church).  The charism or identity of the brothers is one that is committed to the education and formation of young people.  As a result of their mission and ministry towards us, we, the members of the class of 2003 can say we are better men for having had the privilege of their influence in our lives.  I know that as we go forward we will continue to succeed and fail in all our endeavors, but we will always have a brotherly connection with each other that I pray will always provide us with a sense of faith, hope, and love for the journey ahead.  I am extremely proud to be a graduate of Brother Martin High School, and I am excited to be able to help carry on the mission of the brothers this year as I begin my time as a member of the faculty.

As we say at Brother Martin:
Ametur Cor Jesu: Love be the heart of Jesus

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