A Thought for the Week
June 29, 2009
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time [July 5, 2009]
During my active days in ministry, I spent a lot of years teaching both in college and high school. I’ve always loved teaching and consider it a privilege to help form the minds of young people who show so much promise and trust in you. I hope that I have never discouraged young students from searching for wisdom on their own. It is one of the greatest gifts one can give to another, this gift of insight that often comes with great effort and sometimes heartache as well.
The hardest task of all for me in my teaching career was grading papers. My confreres often said that I was a “softie” on grades and that giving a failing grade was sometimes the best thing you could do for a student. How should we explain that?
Continue reading "Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time [July 5, 2009]"
Posted by Cindy Lentine at 02:52 PM.
June 27, 2009
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time [June 28, 2009]
Will you excuse me once again if I begin this reflection by referring to one of my favorite novels and the novel’s author? The author is Nikos Kazanzakis, a Greek Christian. One of the novels he wrote is titled, Zorba the Greek. It’s a story about a man of unbridled enthusiasm who claimed many careers, some successful, but more of them total disasters.
When we meet Zorba, he is sitting on a Mediterranean beach somewhere with a wealthy English friend. They are watching the breakers strike the shore drinking good rich, red Greek wine and smoking foul-smelling cigars. The essence of their conversation is centered on the collapse of a trestle that had only recently been built to carry coal from a local mountain to the port of Perea. Alas, after only a few weeks of use, the trestle collapsed, the wealthy Englishman lost his money and here they now sit on some rocks overlooking the Mediterranean, wondering whether there would ever be a project like this again. The Englishman has doubts; he’s out of money. Zorba, however has grandiose plans to open the mine once again. He lifts his wine glass to the mountain and breaks into song: “To the mountain” he sings. And then, in a rather self-appreciative mood he leans toward his friend and says: “You know, my friend, a man like me should live for ever.” Such a great line! It could only come from a man with a Mediterranean soul.
Continue reading "Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time [June 28, 2009]"
Posted by Cindy Lentine at 03:04 PM.
June 16, 2009
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time [June 21, 2009]
The big attraction on the History Channel last year was The Most Dangerous Catch, the story of crab fishermen launching out of Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians and onto the Bering Sea and the North Pacific. The series went on for months. Actually, it showed me in one segment blessing the fleet! Imagine that. Whether my blessing did, in fact, save anyone from danger I do not know. I do know, however, that ships and their crews do go down every year.
Nonetheless, I always did this task with much joy because it proved to those brave souls that we prayed to our God and their’ for their safety because of the heavy tasks they took on to provide seafood for people around the world.
Continue reading "Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time [June 21, 2009]"
Posted by Cindy Lentine at 11:45 AM.
June 09, 2009
The Body and Blood of Christ [June 14, 2009]
My boyhood home lay in the lovely Souris river valley of North Dakota. Ducks and geese were in great abundance during the summer mating season.
Among the waterfowl a few pelicans could also be seen, searching for fish in the marshes or flying low and slow over the water. Even as a little boy, I knew what pelicans looked like.
What puzzled me, however, was a large ceramic plaque of a pelican attached to the communion rail of our church of St. Henry.
Continue reading "The Body and Blood of Christ [June 14, 2009]"
Posted by Cindy Lentine at 09:24 AM.
June 04, 2009
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity [June 7, 2009]
It has been said and I believe it to be true that the most difficult Sunday of the year to find a substitute preacher is…you guessed it, Trinity Sunday. Another favorite saying is that you will hear more heresies preached on Trinity Sunday than on any other time of the year. And lastly the most devastating thing one can do on Trinity Sunday is to reduce the great mystery of the Godhead to the level of senseless metaphors
My dear friend Father John Schuneman, of sacred memory, had the habit of explaining the Trinity to his high school students by bringing a stick of Italian sausage to class and cutting it in three pieces. I’m sure you all can catch the implications of the One in Three in that metaphor.
Continue reading "Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity [June 7, 2009]"
Posted by Cindy Lentine at 02:30 PM.
