Furthermore…

Music Director to meeting of parish leaders:

“I vetoed that exuberant Praise & Worship music. Too many of our people have arthritic joints!”

Hail Mary, full of grace                                                             I’m an angel here from Heaven.

The Lord is with thee                                                               God so loves you, virgin Mary.

Blessed art thou among women                                              You’re the purest lady ever born.

And blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, Jesus.                        Divinity, Jesus, chose life within you.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,                                                      Holy Mary, Our Mother and God’s,

Pray for us, sinners                                                                    Be our defeat of of sorrow

Now, and at the hour of our death,                                           From birth through death and forever,

Amen.                             Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Â Â  And ever amen.

One stray dog to other:

” I never go by the Catholic church to beg. I don’t feel fed there!”

Yesterday one of the ladies in our group reported that her doctor from India told her that Hinduism is not a religion. I had heard that Buddhism is not a religion, in the sense of belief  in a supernatural realm, but had never heard this of Hinduism.  Another in the group wondered if the doctor was thinking in a manner similar to Gandhi, who has been quoted as saying “Oh, I don’t reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It’s just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Perhaps the doctor was indicating that the Hindus he knows and the present Hindu establishment don’t resemble anything he considers “religious,” in the sense of being concerned with transcendant awareness and qualities, such as reverence, piety, love for people, or developing a higher consciousness.

One dateless teengage girl complaining to other:

“Yes, I realize God loves me, but He loves everybody. What’s romantic about that?”

I learned the ‘Come, Holy Spirit’ prayer at an early age, and I don’t think the lines ‘Send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created/ And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth’ ever had a clear meaning to me, beyond something on the order of ’God, have Your Spirit do some wonderful things for us.’

A meaning new to me occurred to me just a day or two ago. Maybe it’s not the right way to interpret the lines, but to me it’s an improvement on the vague grasp I had on them previously.It goes something like ‘The Spirit can enable us to see things in the light of how they relate to God. When we see things (including “the face of the earth”) that way, they are renewed into an eternal significance, becoming arrows or signposts pointing to God, because the Spirit gives us love for and consciousness of God.’

Worker in church office answering phone, to colleague:

“It’s that crank again, the one who always asks for Debbie Toribus Nobis!”

They remodeled our church recently and took away the statue of the Blessed Mother that was always up front, and built a side altar for her a further back in the church. She isn’t visible to all the people all the time anymore, especially to people who sit up front. Also, they somewhere found a different statue than what we had. The new one, with a kind of a metallic finish, somewhat artistically portrays her as a young woman in a loose gown and natch, young women in loose gowns’ breasts are pretty evident. In addition, the posture of the statue conveys a sort of sensitivity and introspection, as though she is inspired and conscious of her special favor from God. It contrasts with most statues which show Our Lady looking out at us and mankind, almost making visible our belief that she is always generously bestowing grace on us.  Not everyone seems to like the statue.  I like it though.

Doctors’ convention, someone in the group has collapsed,  man at the microphone is pleading:

“Is there a priest in the house?”  

I had an interesting conversation this morning. After Mass I stopped into the church office to let them know that the plumbing in the men’s room had stopped up. The lady at the desk was greatly appreciative of being notified, and then asked me if I could carry a message to one of the leaders of the Legion of Mary,  a person known to both of us.

She reminded me of how, at a rosary meeting a few days before, she had let us know that our prayers for her sister seemed to have been heard, because the sister recovered from the health crisis. Now, she explained, her other sister, for whom she had also been praying, had just been examined, and there was found no trace of the cancer which had been believed to be within her. Luckily, I ran into the Legion of Mary guy shortly after, and passed along the good news to him.

The lady further spoke a bit of her fondness for saying the rosary while driving, and we talked a little about different ways of keeping track of the numbers of prayers and  rosary decades in the driving situation, with all its distractions and demands on a person’s attention.

Going away, I felt so blessed to have had such a conversation, instead of the usual Clinton/Obama riddling, the approach of income tax day, or the weather we’ve been having.  Or, as is the case in so many encounters today, no conversation at all!