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SERIOUS WISDOM FROM FAMOUS PEOPLE #1

 

 

 

 

THE TRUTH ABOUT MAKING "RESOLUTIONS"

 

YOUR SUCCESS IN WHATEVER YOU SET OUT TO ACCOMPLISH DEPENDS ON YOUR SELF-DISCIPLINE, NOT MERELY YOUR GOAL SETTING.

 

YOU CAN SET ALL THE GOALS IN THE WORLD YOU WANT AND YOU WILL FAIL, IF YOU CANNOT CONTROL YOURSELF LONG ENOUGH TO IMPLEMENT THEM.

 

PRACTICE SELF-CONTROL AND YOU WILL SUCCEED. 

JUST DO IT!

ST. VALENTINE'S DAY

 

VALENTINE'S DAY 2022

If You're Lucky 

VALENTINE'S DAY 2022

If You're Not Lucky

VALENTINE'S DAY 2022

If You're Still Looking

I've been looking all over for you!

WHERE DID ALL THIS LOVE STUFF COME FROM ANYWAY? 

 

ROOTED BESIDE A FLOWING STREAM, WE SHALL THRIVE

The First Reading For This Sunday 

Thus says the LORD:

Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings,

who seeks his strength in flesh,

whose heart turns away from the LORD.

He is like a barren bush in the desert

that enjoys no change of season,

but stands in a lava waste,

a salt and empty earth.

Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,

whose hope is the LORD.

He is like a tree planted beside the waters

that stretches out its roots to the stream:

it fears not the heat when it comes;

its leaves stay green;

in the year of drought it shows no distress,

but still bears fruit.

Jeremiah 17:5-8

THIS IS ONE OF THE VISIONS I HAVE FOR MYSELF

AND

ONE OF MY VERY FAVORITE SCRIPTURE PASSAGES

Laptop computers, palm pilots, Backberries, I Pods, MP3 Players, cell phones, digital cameras, DVD players: these are a few of the many technological gadgets that are now available for the taking. Personally, I am a bit technologically challenged. I say “a bit” because I do have a computer, a cell phone with a camera, an Apple Watch and a GPS. One of my best discoveries, one of the most useful gadget of all, next to my computer, is my portable Magellan Road Mate 700 Global Positioning System - my GPS! 

Before I retired, part of my job, as the Director of the “Institute for Priests and Presbyterates” over at Saint Meinrad, was to travel to many of the dioceses served by Saint Meinrad School of Theology. I flew to some, but I drove to many. One of the things that worried me, when I started that job, was driving around those strange cities, by myself, while trying to read a map. Thanks to my portable Magellan RoadMate 700 Global Positioning System, all I had to do was plug it into my cigarette lighter, turn it on, wait a minute or two till it connected to a series of twelve satellites, punch in an address and it displayed the route and verbally directed me right to the door. Even if I made a wrong turn, it immediately told me and directed me back to where I needed to turn to begin with. 

It has occurred to me, more than once, that a GPS is amazingly analogous to our lives as a disciples of Jesus.  A disciple regularly “logs on” to Jesus through prayer to receive direction and clarity in staying on the right track in living his or her life. As Isaiah, the prophet, put it: “A voice shall sound in ear, should you turn this way or that saying, “This is the way. Walk it in!””

I have been preaching for almost 53 years: Sundays, Holydays, Funerals, Weddings, Retreats, Parish Missions and Priest Convocations. That’s a lot of preaching. So far, I have not run out of things to preach about.  I know it sounds a bit overly pious, maybe even corny, but I never begin a homily without reminding myself that  the God who called me to this task stands ready to help me. When I am “connected” to him, so to speak, ideas seem to flow freely, sometimes faster than I can write them down.  Preparing to preach is never magic, but I often feel as if I am being helped and guided. 

Whenever I get lost and lose my way, like I did several years ago during the worst days of the clergy abuse scandal, I find that I need to put myself in the presence of God so as to get some direction and clarity. At the beginning of that awful year 2004, I took some time off and went to a beach house by myself for a whole month, to be with God, to get some clarity. It worked. I got my direction. I got my clarity. I got back on my path and went from one of the worst year of priesthood, to one of the best. 

A Global Positioning System is just a symbolic, if not too simple, way to explain our connection to the helping and guiding presence of God in our lives. The ancients had other ways of describing this same helping and guiding presence of God. They compared it to being like  a tree planted near running water and a house built on rock. Unlike a tree planted in a desert, a tree planted near running water stays green, no matter how severe the drought, because it is connected by its roots to a constant supply of fresh water. Unlike a house built on sand, a house built on rock never has to worry about storms because it is solidly anchored. These readings contain the truth of this simple message, a message that can be very helpful to many of you listening to me today.

Whether you are graduating from the school, whether you are married, retired, a parent, own your own business or run for office; the best way to live is to build your house on solid rock and plant yourself by running water so that, by having depth, you can survive all of life’s storms and droughts- not only survive, but thrive as a healthy, whole human person, created in the image and likeness of God. The glory of God is man or woman fully alive.

When I worked at Saint Meinrad, we tried to form future priests in four areas: human growth, intellectual growth, professional growth and spiritual growth. These four pillars of personal growth are useful for everybody.  You, too, are called to honor God by continually growing as a human being, by continuing to use your mind, by becoming more and more competent at what you do and, yes, by being tapped into God’s strength and by being anchored to him.  

Organized religion is taking its punches these days, but organized religion is just an earthenware jar that holds a great treasure. Don’t be so put off by the earthenware jar that you miss the great treasure that it holds. The institutional church will always be in need of reform, but look beyond its imperfect structure to the community of believers that it holds together. Find a community of faith and stay connected, so that you can feed others and be fed by them. The church is more than just a flawed institution, it is the very Body of Christ acting in our world through us. Come back to it when you lose your way, when you get lost. It’s a tough world out there. Be like a tree planted near running water. Be like a house built on rock!  If you do that, you won’t have to worry about droughts and storms. You can stand tall, even on the worst days, because you are tapped into an invisible means of support like tree planted beside a flowing stream!     

 

Origins of "I Shall Not Be Moved"

Though there is no evidence of "I Shall Not Be Moved" in the hymnals and songbooks of the nineteenth century, some scholars believe that it began as an African American spiritual prior to emancipation. The song features hallmarks of the antebellum spiritual, including call-and-response lyrics, strong rhythms, and ease with which it can be sung and remembered. Earlier European-based psalms set melodies to Bible verses in their entirety. Spirituals interspersed words and phrases from scripture with personal reflections and ideas.

The following Bible verses provide the foundation for the text:

Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
— Jeremiah 17:8–9

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
— Psalm 1:3

Whether “I Shall Not Be Moved” originated in the context of slavery or at a later time, it is clearly rooted in the musical traditions of the spiritual. Some sources attribute the song to composer Alfred Henry Ackley. His 1906 songbook Hymns for His Praise No. 2 included the title “As a Tree Beside the Water.” The song references the same Bible passages and includes the words “I shall not be moved” but differs significantly in melody and lyric.

Edward Boatner

The earliest known publication of “I Shall Not Be Moved” in its common form is from Edward Boatner’s 1927 book Spirituals Triumphant Old and New. Boatner was a composer and educator who arranged many spirituals for choir and vocal soloists. His arrangement of the song, with the following lyrics, became standard in many churches:

chorus:
I shall not, I shall not be moved
I shall not, I shall not be moved
Just like a tree that's planted by the waters
I shall not be moved

verses:
Glory Hallelujah, I shall not be moved
Anchored in Jehovah, I shall not be moved
Just like a tree that's planted by the waters
I shall not be moved

In His love abiding, I shall not be moved
And in Him confiding, I shall not be moved
Just like a tree that's planted by the waters
I shall not be moved

Though all hell assail me, I shall not be moved
Jesus will not fail me, I shall not be moved.
Just like a tree that's planted by the waters
I shall not be moved

Though the tempest rages, I shall not be moved
On the Rock of Ages, I shall not be moved
Just like a tree that's planted by the waters
I shall not be moved

Even in its purely religious form, many different sets of lyrics exist. Other common verses include:

Jesus is my Savior, I shall not be moved
In His love and favor, I shall not be moved
Just like a tree that's planted by the waters. I shall not be moved

I'm on my way to Heaven, I shall not be moved
I'm on my way to Heaven, I shall not be moved
Just like a tree that's planted by the waters. I shall not be moved

If I trust Him ever, I shall not be moved
He will fail me never, I shall not be moved
Just like a tree that's planted by the waters. I shall not be moved.

On His word I'm feeding, I shall not be moved
He's the One that's leading, I shall not be moved
Just like a tree that's planted by the waters. I shall not be moved.