WHERE HAVE I BEEN?

Where have I been?   Here, all the time.  I have to admit that I have had a dip in my drive.  All my life I have had highs and lows, and lately I have had a low.   

Part of the reason, I think is that I have spent some significant time with doctors.  They are not very warm and fuzzy characters as most of you might know.  The most interesting element of my opinion of them is that the older I get, the cloudier their behavior seems to get.  Besides, the older I get the more conscious I become about the length of my wick.  The candle is still bright, but the floor is getting closer to the top.  But, thank God, the flame is still bright.

Talking about God.  I've been talking a lot to Him lately.  He has a way of inserting Himself into my thought process, mostly when my head is comfortably nestled in my nightime pillow.  It is at this time too that Mama Mary sits quietly by and inserts a spirit of calm and comfort into the "conversation."  I see her eyes peering into mine, although mine are shut.  I kid you not!

Here I am after a CT Scan, with contrast.  That included some weid chemicalsmin my veins.  I was supposed to  have a hot flash after the filling of te vein with this poison, but nothing happened.  Maybe I'm a tin soldier or something. 

Here is the anticipated path I'm looking at for the next 5 months:

a. Bi-lateral of drainage tubes in my kidneys, Nov 6

b. Chemo therapy for at least 4 months.

c. Excision of the cancerous growth connecting my bladder and my prostate.

Ya gotta admit, ain't never a dull moment in this Covid-19 World!  All of this just before the month when we connect to the dearly departed.  

THE "BIG 'C' " -- CANCER or COVID ?

"Live every day to its fullest.    After all, you only die once!"

Hey, have you ever been told by your doctor that you have cancer?  It's a fairly strange feeling.  I and you have been told by any number of relatives, friends and relatives that they have Cancer.  I had an uncle who was an "original" as we used to say in my youth because that is not usually a compliment in our vernacular.  But...he was a very interesting character.  A collector of hand guns and coins...and a connoisseur of both.  

One Saturday, at a picnic in our back yard, uncle Phil, that was his name, in his deepest, most serious voice announced that he had been told that he had the "Big C."  I knew that this was serious but I couldn't fathom why he had not just said "cancer."  It just went over my young head and flew by my early adolescent self and I turned to devouring frankforters.  He lived quite a long time after that.  He did die from cancer, but at my age I did not follow the case.

For those of you who knew Phil, his youngest child (Tony), is sitting in a Veteran's home waiting for the sunset.

Since then I have had to eliminate frankforters and hamburgers from my diet.  But Cancer?  Yeah, I'm looking into it.  I hope it doesn'r exacebate my gouty toes!  I have come quite familiar with the news.  A lot of it comes to me over the Internet, e.g. "I won't be writing much anymore, I've been told that I have stage 4 cancer."  Thank you.  Most often I come to know about it when suddenly the emails stop.  I give it a week or so...Hmmm, "lemme see."  Yup, no answer,  RIP.

So now, after all that, I have to say that I have a cancer that is very rare.  Hey, if you're going to have something, it might as well drive you to the science sources, right?  The doctors are scrambling to figure out what to do about it.  I don't blame them, neither do I.  I have to say that it is not very pleasant to talk about it because it is one of those X-Rated attacks that make life very interesting but less pleasant than it was before.  So far it is still more interesting than challenging for me.  Plus, there is good news about it all ... The discomforts and inconveniences, pain and such are minimal (so far) and  --  the doc is a man.

Covid-19?  That's the 21st century big "C" but I'm leaving it for someone else.  I prefer to look forward to being bald (Chemo, you know) than needing a machine to breathe.  I think that I can handle more face to wash better than needing a machine to breathe.  

I'll keep you up-to-date.  

JOBS? YEAH I'VE HAD A FEW

 

That's the one, way on your right.

The other day I was talking to my son, the first of the two.  He has been out of work for a couple months now and is job hunting and considering his options going forward.  Since then I have been thinking of the ways that I have found to earn my keep, or even just my privilege to come home day after day with an idea of where I would be and what I would do on the morrow. 

Starting in the Summer vacation after grade 6, (1949) this my gainful effort biography:

1. Washing floors for aged ladies (3).  First ever engagement.              

2. Opening up a clogged sluice ditch for an auto body shop owner.      

3. Week-end shoeshiner                                                                          

4. Two summers on tobacco farms.                                                       

5. Worked for a construction company. (Under the table)                      

6. Worked in a comic book printing company. (Parts of 4 years 'til 1958)

Preparation for ministerial career and service in the ministry.  Then, in 1977, I left the active ministry and started to live in the "real world."

7. Short stint in start-up placement agency.                                            

8. Human resources career begins. (1977)  I had some hiccups:   

Fired x 2    --   Lay-off, Co-Failed  x2

So:   

a:  Interior painter, some employment, some contract                            

b: Telephone answering service operator                                                

c:  Amway practitioner                                                                            

d:  Melaleuca practitioner                                                                        

e:  Lecturer in Church supported Theology                                            

f:   Many stints (5) as a security guard                                                    

g:  Airport shuttle van driver (4 times)                                                    

h:  Medical transport (non-emergency) transport van driver

I can't let you go without mentioning the several years that I spent as a pilgrimage organizer, mostly to the Holy Land and occasionally to the site of the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to two cowherds in the French Alps at La Salette.

With a past like that, I don't deserve any tears at my funeral.

BILLION - YES, THAT'S A "B"

 2,650,838,400 ON MARCH 6, 2021  (But hey, whose counting?)

Heart beats inside Paul Dion's body, not counting what happened in the warmth of the womb. I used 60 as the average beats per minute.  

I think that it is time to blow the whistle and call a miracle.  The kind of miracle that surrounds us every moment of every day.  These miracles are omnipresent and matchless in their steadfastness.  

Every now and then we think of them when we sense that they have developed a change in rythm.  It is at that moment that we begin to pay attention.  It is at that moment that we turn to the universe and realize that we are not alone among the miracles.  It is at that moment when our imagination runs beyond the confines of daily routine.  It is then that we turn to the wonder of creation.  Let's visit a time or two when I and the Voice from the Kitchen looked at one another and asked, "Is that possible?"

The time when we "rescued" a disheveled and shivering cat in a corner of our patio.  Neither one of us is a dedicated lover of animals, but we do respect them.  This cat was visibly in need of help.  As we stood there wondering what to do, we saw the neighbor and he saw the cat.  "Hey, Sunny, whatcha doin' here?"  One problem solved.  The question arose, "How old is Sunny?"  20.  Yes, 20.  That's a miracle.  At an average pulse rate of 150 @ minute, Sunny is way older than I am.                                                                                                    x x x x x x x x x x x 

I was driving for an enterprise that had a small fleet of vans to transport people to the dialysis treatment center.  One of my regular passengers was a rather aged Cherokee.  That's important because she was proud of it and she was spiritually immersed in her religious and cultural roots.  Friday, 5:00 AM, I accept her in her wheelchair upon the hand-off of her son.  She greets me as usual and then adds, "This is the last time."  I respond, "God be praised."

I drove her to the dialysis parlor, dropped her off and attended to her after the treatment.  Just as we were leaving the treatment location, she repeated her farewell, "This is the last time."  I again responded, "God be praised."  I dropped her off in the care of her son and left.  One hour later her son called to tell me that she had died.  It is worth noting that her legal name was "Morning Sun."

Now, I am not the only one with these experiences of this nature.  I hope that this short relation will awaken you to an appreciation of similar miracles that have come home to you.  While you're at it remind yourself not to cry at my funeral.

CREATION - DAY SIX - HUMANS -- DAY 7 -- "zzzz"-- DAY 8 , WORK-- DAY 9-- Oh, Oh!

Hello to one and all.I want to take the liberty to reflect with you on the spiritual dimension of Labor Day.  It is one of our oldest federal legal holidays.  (1894)
I dare to bring you back to the very first pages of the Holy Bible where the roots of Jewish and Christian faith find a basic teaching about work and labor.
Genesis :  Chapter 1; verse 21, etc:  God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female He created them.  28 God blessed them and God said to them: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.  Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that crawl on the earth.  29 God also said: See, I give you every seed-bearing plant on all the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food;  30 and to all the wild animals, all the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the earth, I give all the green plants for food. And so it happened. [6th day]
Chapter 2:

1   Thus the heavens and the earth and all their array were completed.  On the seventh day God completed the work he had been doing; he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had undertaken.  3 God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work he had done in creation.

Why am I proposing these thoughts to you this day?  Because it is Labor Day, the one day in each year when the people of the United States celebrate the efforts that hard working men and women make to keep the country happy, healthy, wealthy and wise.

To see a historical overview of this poster

click on the link below:

https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/rosie-the-riveter

We believers in the Word of God as found in the Bible, here in the first pages of Genesis, rest our faith in the command of God to take dominion over all that He has given us.  It is no secret that this command entails work, lots of work.  It also means that the reward is not just for the direct "worker" but for the benefit of all of creation - Labor.  The flourishment of all creation for all creatures depends on the concerted effort of every descendant of Adam and Eve. 

The concept of "Labor" is a rather challenging one and would require more than the +/- 300 words here.  That aside, since the name of the holiday is "Labor" and not "Work" it falls upon us to reflect a bit on the meaning that is carried in the concept of "Labor."  

"Labor" is, in fact, a generic term.  Think of it this way: The final cost of any commodity or service is determined by the entirety of the human efforts it takes to bring it to tangible reality.  The distinct human efforts that go into the final product to give it its final value, are "Work."

In Genesis 3: 

     The LORD God made for the man and his wife garments of skin, with which he clothed them.

22 Then the LORD God said: See! The man has become like one of us, knowing good and  evil!  Now, what if he also reaches out his hand to take fruit from the tree of life, and eats of it and lives forever?  23 The LORD God therefore banished him from the  garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he had been taken.  24  He expelled the man, stationing the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword east of the garden of Eden,  to guard the way to the tree of life.

It is to be noted that it is the "work" of the human that is being targeted while the finished product that results from it is the sum of the "labor" that redounds to the human's benefit.

Our Labor Day then, is as much a time for faith-filled reflection as it is of human thanksgiving for the fruits of human efforts, personal as well as communitarian.

Therefore, I implore all of you to thank our Loving Creator for endowing us with the gifts that we use to make human life better thanks to the gift of creative understanding with which He endows us, not just here in North America but across the globe.

As you mull this over, don't forget that it's against Dion's first commandment,

"No Crying at my Funeral."

VIRTUE RULES FROM THE CENTER

 

This discussion from three years back came to my mind the other night as I lay on my pillow wondering how long it would take before Morphea would take me to her bosom for the night.  You see a graphic view of my friend's position (left) as compared to mine (right).  It is clear, I think, that both concepts of virtuous living are valid and both lead to the ultimate prize, Eternal Happiness before the Face of God.

The reality of the striving for perfection has two distinct facets: one is visibly practiced in the "real world" of daily human interaction on "Main Street" and the other is a dedicated striving for the deepest possible personal relationship with God by leading a life of contemplation in a monastic cell, away from the demands of worldly life.  Both are valid and moral forms of human behavior and both lead to heaven.  Both can and do invite the rash judgment of onlookers that the practitioners of these lifestyles are "crazy."

Then there is the way to heaven that states that "virtue flourishes in the center."  This position is the one that comes from the ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle.  His position was christianized by the great Catholic theologian, Thomas Aquinas.  

At first blush this position can appear to be wishy-washy; neither here nor there.  Actually, upon closer examination it becomes clear that this behavior system is as difficult to achieve as the search for perfection of one position or another.  When we consider the demands of community life it is easy to find the difficulties encountered in every day interactions with fellow humans, all of whom have their behavior systems.  Every moment of every day we are required to make progress in our personal life as we help others to do the same in theirs.  It is in these encounters that we seek to carry the message of Christ to the world.  This message has to take on various tints and shades.  

This can be illustrated in the shades of life seen in the missionary activity of Peter and Paul.  Peter sought the center in his message to the Romans while Paul honed his message to fit the population of the Synagogue.  In the end, they both died for what they believed in.

Finally, I hope that we all have the courage to have absolute conviction of our life style while walking the Way of the Cross.  Martyrdom is not always quick, but it is always worth it.

Remember, no crying at my funeral.

WHO MOVED?

There are some events that present themselves and can't go without comment.  This is one of them.  It marks the fact that my brother, Denis, (Note the French orthography) has written a book and more than that, it is on the bookshelves.  It is a deeply spiritual invitation to one and all to assess the moment in the life of the reader and, following the assessment, resolve to follow the inspiration that resulted.

I present you with the introduction that is on the website, 

"When a person drops out of the protective hands of God and begins to feel distant from Him, that person might ask, "Who moved?" It certainly isn't God.

'One night, as the author thought about that, he was kept awake as the Holy Spirit kept showing him one scripture passage after another about individuals, even entire generations, who fell out of God's grace, repented, and eventually returned to His loving embrace. The author shares his own personal experience with the intent of inspiring others to depend on and trust in God's grace as this process repeats itself throughout a lifetime.

'Dion hopes this little book will fill you with hope and trust in the Lord's abundant grace. Even when deep in despair, he believes we can always turn to God, for He never moves away and never abandons us!"

May God bless us all.  

These are difficult times, times when it is not safe to mover away from God.  These are times when it is so much better to take off whatever mask we wear before God and show Him our soul just as He made it and maintains it.  It's true that he knows us anyway.  Let it be true that we don't think that we are fooling Him behind a mask.

No matter what, don't cry at this guy's funeral.

MASS ON THE GRASS

This the Sunday when the Gospel is the story of the farmer who sows good seed and gets attacked by his enemy who comes along and sows fennel tares on top of the good stuff.  Today, God fought back.  We, in San Diego had Mass on the Grass.

One consoling part was that not a soul was carrying a bag of tares.

Next consoling part was that the two babies in attendance made their opinions known, but without an echo chamber, all anyone did was  to smile.

Next consoling part was that the "early morning cloud" phenomenon of San Diego was a comfort assuring element for the hour (9:00 - 10:00) and the post Mass fraternal exchange of peaceful support. 

Next consoling part was that the two young people who participated in the complete Eucharist for the first time have something to retell for the rest of their lives.

Finally, Belle and I want to assure you that these are trying times.

Remember that the 400 years in Egypt were trying times too.

Remember that the Roman occupation was a time of misery.

Remember that Leprosy was a mark of opprobrium for centuries.

Remember the times when Polio claimed lives

Remember that HIV/AIDS remains a mark of approbrium.

Remember the times when our country had "Bozos" in charge.

Remember the times when the USA was respected around the world.

Let me suggest that we all must stay close to God...How?

Patience is the answer:

The servants of the householder came to him and said,
‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?
Where have the weeds come from?’
He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’
His servants said to him,
‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds
you might uproot the wheat along with them.
Let them grow together until harvest;
then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters,
“First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning;
but gather the wheat into my barn.”

Patience is the virtue that brings us to the point of solution.
Hey, maybe "Mass on the Grass" is the direction that will bring us to the harvest.

I forgot to implore you all not to cry at my funeral.  Given that, I must say that some of the feedback that I have from you shows me that there was no need for the reminder.

MY FIRST CHRISTMASES

How many "first Christmases" have you had?  Count them and you'll be surprised how many of these occasions qualify as your first time.  I was thinking about it over this past week.  Don't ask me why.  After all, It's only July.  I don't have an explanation, just descriptions.  Even some of the dates may be erroneous, but they will all be in the ballpark - like 315' down the left field line in Fenway. See, I remember that.  Do you remember how high the wall is?  (If you don't remember, look it up😊)

1. First Christmas at Midnight Mass.- 1945.  Some of you will remember that it was only the French and the Polish communities who had permission to celebrate Mass at midnight for Christmas.  At the Immaculate Conception church children were not allowed at Midnight Mass because they would take seats way from adults. This was not a foolish policy.  There were only three churches in the entire city with Midnight Mass.  It required a paid ticket to be admitted. OK, tell me that my being there was not a big deal.  OK, I confess:  a) I had a connection; b) I had to stand in line to buy the tickets; c) My connection gave me my dollar needed to get the extra ticket; I was already 12 years old.

It was such a big deal because it was Midnight Mass I even got to wear regular cut trousers and a quasi adult shirt for the occasion.  It was such a big deal because I wasn't sent to bed at the regular bedtime and allowed to stay up all night.  All I had to do was to help prepare the post-Mass Christmas party that always took place at our house. 

I think that this is the occasion of my social puberty line because that same week my parents trusted me to go help my maternal grandmother and her coterie of elders to prepare the all-day New Years Day event at her apartment.  That too turned into a "tradition" in my life until the #2 first Christmas intruded on me.

2.First Christmas away from home. (1958)

3.First Christmas in a foreign country (Rome, Italy, 1961)

4.First Christmas in a foreign mission (San Mateo, Isabela, Philippines - (1967)

5.First Christmas with a wife and not much else (San Diego, CA - 1977)

6. First Christmas with a wife, a son at the breast, another in the womb and a secular job (1978)

7. First "Early Christmas" in Bethlehem (Yes, that Bethlehem!) (12/8/2009)

BE CAREFUL ABOUT WHAT YOU THROW OUT

Today is the commenmoration of Sts. Peter and Paul.  The Holy Scriptures that are read on this day relate the story of Peter being released from prison by the angel of God.  Today, Pope Francis told the assembly in St. Peter's Square that Peter did not become a  hero becuse he escaped, but because he remained bound to the story of Salvation that he lived in the presence of God.  Paul also had experiences of capture and release, sone in the Promised Land and some in other places.  He, like Peter is revered not because he was smart enough to escape, but because he never ceased carrying the Story of Salvation to the People of God.

                                           Pope Francis and I are the same age

Interestingly enough, Pope Francis took this opportunity to make this exhortation to the world:

Pope Francis encouraged people to cherish the time they have with elderly family members, during Monday’s Angelus prayer in Saint Peter’s Square.

 The pope told the crowd not to toss out older family members like “waste material.” Rather, he said to “make a gift of one’s life.”

 “And this applies to everyone, to parents towards their children and children towards their elderly parents.”

 He said many elderly people are “abandoned by their families as if they were waste material.  This is a drama of our times: the solitude of the elderly, when children and grandchildren do not make their lives a gift for the elderly.”

This isn't the first time the pope has pushed for better treatment of the elderly. He did so in a 2015 general audience address.

In his address, he called a society that doesn’t help and reach out to its elderly “perverse.”

 “In a civilization in which there is no place for the elderly or they are discarded because they create problems,” Francis said, “this society carries the virus of death.”

 He said young people should not be taught to ignore the old “as if it were a disease to be avoided.”

 Pope Francis also pointed to what scholars call “the century of aging,” where there are more elderly people than children.

 “This imbalance challenges us,” he said, adding that the old are seen as a “burden, as dead weight.”

 “We are used to discarding people, we want to remove our growing fear of weakness and vulnerability; but in doing so we increase the elderly’s anguish over being barely tolerated and abandoned.”

 “God wants to help us grow in the gift; only in this way do we become great,” he said. “We grow if we give ourselves to others.”

I must admit that I have heard similar sentiments expressed time and again across the many decades of my life.  We grow old but the topic of the relationship between old and young is ever fresh.

TRUTH TO EVERYONE - FROM START TO FINISH

June 24 - John the Baptist

I don't know about you, but one of my first degree heroes who live between the covers of the Holy Bible is John the Baptist.  He is the picture of what it looks like to have the ramrod strength of the convictions that you form along the road of life.  

It doesn't take long to study all that there is to absorb about this powerful prophet.  By the time the Gospels spill out into the mid first year of  Jesus' ministry,  this tough precursor of the Son of God has shown the world what lays in wait of the truly honest son of God.  I often wonder if the martyrdom of John the Baptist ever served as a warning to the apostles.  We do believe that eleven of them were martyred.  

Think of this.  So many of the heroes of the story of Salvation find their lives ended at the hands of the non-believers.  It is a serious topic of reflection presented to us:  What is the price of honesty?  What is the price of truth?  What is the price of Faith?  We all know the answer.  How often do we consider the state of our readiness to confront the ultimate question at the final instant?  

There are two key passages of the Sacred Scripture that are essential to my personal preparation for the final instant:

Psalm 15:  "Who can live in your tent Lord?

                  "Who can dwell on your Holy Mountain?"  

       I dare you to read the answer without swallowing hard.

Luke 3; 10 - 14 - 

                   "10 “What should we do then?” the crowd asked.

11 John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”

12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”

13 “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.

14 Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”

He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”

       Both of these exhortations challenge us way before Jesus throws down the gauntlet of Matthew 22; 34 - 40

34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

As we consider these truths at this moment of our history we must ask ourselves what point of the honesty line do we occupy.  We must ask ourselves how much inner strength that we have to proclaim the truth to those who need to see it and hear it.  

May God bless us all with the courage that is needed to deserve to live with Him for all eternity.

PHYSICALLY SEPARATE, SPIRITUALLY UNITED

“STAY DISTANT PHYSICALLY;

STAY CONNECTED SPIRITUALLY."

Andrew Cuomo, Governor

New York State

March 23, 2020

This is the way we have been brought up in the culture if the northeastern corner of

the United States. The exhortation of the Governor of New York is not a new way of

being for us. When I heard it on Monday morning, March 23, it brought me to the

scenes in Luke's Gospel about the story of the Annunciation. How could I not think

of the Joseph and Mary situation? How could I not wonder what happened after

Joseph's dream? How could I not wonder about their family life through the years?

How could I avoid reflecting on the many physical separations that I now experience

after so many years of life? How could I avoid the flood of spiritual connections that

fill my soul and nourish my conversations with Our Lord and His Mother every night

in the moment between pulling the covers over myself and the embrace of sister sleep?

We of the northeastern corner of the United States are not "chatty" by nature. We go

about our lives quietly and privately, all the while accepting that our social contract is

that when the neighbor is in need, that moment of need is our moment of need as well.

We grow up appreciating the truth that a quiet, almost silent neighbor is a good

neighbor. We grow up physically "distant" while maintaining a "spiritual" connection.

That is also why we have a deep appreciation for the Angel Gabriel's comforting words,

"Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found Grace before the Lord."

(Luke 1, 30) By his demeanor the angel gave proof that Mary had a significant

spiritual connection with God. Put it all together and the miracle of the spiritual

connection beween us and God, is also a reality that strengthens our spiritual

connection with one another.

When we think of this in connection with the miracle of La Salette it opens our soul

to a deepeer undertanding of the opening words of the Beautiful Lady's greeting,

"Come near, my children, do not be afraid. I have come to tell you great news."

Happy Annunciation.