THE BEGINNING IS THE DOOR TO THE END -- LE DÉBUT EST LA PORTE À LA FIN

Here we are, at the end of another liturgical year.  It is November and we are living in the commemoration of those who have gone before us.  We Catholics are sure that every year we will spend a month of our lives preparing for the birth of Our Lord and Savior by reflecting on the mystery of the spiritual life for which we are all preparing.  We pray for our own understanding of this mystery by offering our own joys and sorrows to those who have already reached the rest of their existence in eternity. 

We lift up our hearts and souls to God in a search for deeper personal understanding of the Crossing, all the while asking Him to burnish those who have died and are still in the process of being purified for their entry into the final, glorious and everlasting face-to-face beatific vision.  With our soul and heart reaching out to Him, we take the opportunity to thank Him for the grace of purification, purgation if you will, so that our beloved who are in Purgatory being prepared for their entry into His Divine Presence can "graduate" as quickly as possible.

This period of our life on earth is also a moment of "Purgatory".  It is a moment when we fearlessly look death in the eye and ask God to teach us about it.  It is our opportunity to prepare ourselves spiritually for the inevitable experience.  It is a moment that the Church provides for us every single year, just one month before we get to prepare ourselves for the arrival of the One who is coming to assure us that Eternal Happiness is in fact, possible for us.  Every year, for as long as we live, we are taught by our Faith that the beginning always starts with our heart and mind focused on the end.  Not just with what regards heaven, but for anything that we do in life.  Anything that we do, we do because we desire the result.  

Therefore, let us spend this time in the company of the souls of the Communion of Saints, praying and suffering along with them.  This way, we will all share in the cleansing preparation required for the entry into Eternal Glory in the Divine Presence of God.  

Along the way, remember, there is to be no crying at my funeral.

Nous voici à la fin d'une autre année liturgique. Nous sommes déja au mois de  novembre et nous vivons la commémoration de ceux qui nous ont précédés. Nous, catholiques, sommes certains de passer a chaque année, un mois de notre vie à nous préparer à la naissance de notre Seigneur et Sauveur en réfléchissant au mystère de la vie spirituelle à laquelle nous nous préparons tous. 

Nous prions pour notre propre compréhension de ce mystère en offrant nos propres joies et peines à ceux qui ont déjà atteint le reste de leur existence dans l'éternité.

Nous élevons nos cœurs et nos âmes vers Dieu dans la recherche d'une compréhension personnelle plus profonde de la Traversée, tout en lui demandant de polir ceux qui sont morts et qui sont encore en train d'être purifiés pour leur entrée dans le monde final, glorieux et éternel. La vision béatifique, face-à-face. Avec notre âme et notre cœur, nous saisissons cette occasion pour le remercier de la grâce de purification, de purgation, si vous le souhaitez, afin que notre bien-aimé qui se trouve dans le Purgatoire soit préparé à son entrée dans a la Présence Divine aussi tôt que possible.

Cette période de notre vie sur terre est aussi un moment de "purgatoire". C'est un moment où nous regardons sans peur la mort dans les yeux et demandons à Dieu de nous apprendre ce qu'elle signifie. C'est notre opportunité de nous préparer spirituellement à l'expérience inévitable. C’est un moment que l’Église nous accorde chaque année, un mois avant que nous puissions nous préparer à l’arrivée de Celui qui vient nous assurer que le bonheur éternel est en fait possible pour nous. Chaque année, aussi longtemps que nous vivons, notre foi nous apprend que le commencement s'engage toujours avec notre cœur et notre esprit concentrés sur la fin. Pas seulement avec ce qui concerne le ciel, mais pour tout ce que nous faisons dans la vie. Tout ce que nous faisons, nous le faisons parce que nous désirons le résultat.

Par conséquent, passons ce temps en compagnie des âmes de la Communion des Saints, priant et souffrant avec elles. De cette façon, nous participerons tous à la préparation de la purification nécessaire pour entrer dans la Gloire Éternelle dans la Présence Divine.

En chemin, souvenez-vous, il n'est pas permi de verser les larmes a mes funérailles.

SUFFERING-PUNISHMENT? SACRIFICE?

Yes, Jose, not just Filipinos but MANY others

This is Holy Week.  This is the time when we will relive the passion and death of the most famous martyr of all, Jesus Christ, Only Son of the Almighty God, Creator of all.  We will relive this experience of His because both He and His Heavenly Father commanded us to do so.
His Father first, just before He was about to lead His Chosen People out of Egyt where they had been held as slaves for three plus centuries. (Exodus 12)  Then His Son, just before He was about to lead us away from the slavery of sin where we had been held for inumerable centuries.  Both gave us first the ritual and then the everlasting command, "You will do this in perpetuity/You will do this in memory of Me."

It is to be noted that neither time was an invitation to relentless comfort and easy living.  Both times we were pointed in the direction of the harsh realities of life, adversity of many kinds through which we must pass on the way toward the eternal reward. It is also to be noted that from about page 3 or 4 of  God's message to us(Genesis 3), we travel though one hardship (sacrifice) after the other.  We only have to absorb the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Naomi, Deborah, Gideon, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, Jesus, Peter, Paul, and the thousands of others who have followed them in obedience to the call from Jesus to "pick up your cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9; 23-24)

So often I hear or read words of blame aimed at God. "Why do I or anyone else have to suffer so much?  If God loves me that much, why does He make me suffer?  The answer to that is not too difficult to find.  We suffer because we are no better than He.  He, in and through His Son suffered.  He, in and through His loving, sinless creature, Mary, suffered.  If beings at that level of perfection suffered, should I expect to be any different?  No, of course not.  They suffered out of a sense of sacrifice, of pure offering as a life lesson to us all.  If we deserve it, so be it.  Make it a sacrifice no matter what.  If we don't "deserve" it, then we join Jesus and collaborate in His Passion for the eternal good of the Communion of Saints.  We must go through life side by side with the God who requires that we collaborate with Him out of obedience to His Will.  He knows and we know that our calling as His collaborators guides us through some tip-toeing through tulips and some hacking through the briars.  Like the great saints who have gone before us, let's do it and stay happy that what we do is for a divinely ordained reason.

So, when you look at what is left of me as I lay there in a pine box, don't waste your time crying because you'll know that I, like everyone else got to be there the hard way, just like everyone else.

DEFEND MY FAITH? I DON'T HAVE TO

I have arrived at a point in my life that has me thinking that people who are looking for ways to defend their faith don’t know what that attitude means.  I certainly have no need to defend my faith.  In the first place, there is no one in the world who can make a serious enough attack against my faith to make me need to defend it.  The only attack against my faith is an attack on my very life. 

My faith is not something that I have that can be taken from me.  It is not something that is separate from my being.  It is so deeply woven into me that it is not a possession, a process, a relationship or a blood type.  It is life itself.

For as long as I can remember, and, I am convinced, even before some of my memories, I have lived faith together with God the Trinity and with the Holy Mother of Jesus, begotten Son of God and birthed Son of Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit.  I was baptized nine days after birth.  Never a day of my existence did I survive outside of the presence of God thanks to the shared faith of my mother, father and the rest of the family.  I have never known another life than that of a credulous son of God.  I have nothing to defend.

I can talk about God all day and all night.  Never once will I get defensive.  Aggressive, yes.  Defensive? Never.  My life of faith is a life in community.  My life is within the Communion of Saints.  My life is within the communion of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.  It has always been thus.  I feel no need to defend this.  It cannot be taken from me except through physical death.  Nothing can threaten my faith.  Nobody can threaten my faith.  I know that because I have experienced threats to my life along the way.  Faith and I never wavered.  I have listened to overtures from several distinct types of “missionaries” who were aiming their non-Catholic wiles at me.  I didn’t need to defend my faith.  It was, and still is, my faith that sent them packing with their tails between their legs and their Bibles, still closed, under their arms.

I don’t need a Bible to talk about God and my life with and in God.  I don’t spend my time looking for the right chapter and verse for the right answer.  I proclaim my faith from the heart and soul of my being.  I live with my Bible in the comfort of our home shrine or in a corner pew in the chapel, alone with my Eucharistic God.  God is on my mind a lot and He is my life all the time. What is there to defend?  My Bible?  Not mine.  You can have it if you want.  All the pages are still nice and white.  No highlighter colors, underlines nor marginal notes.  All those things are not necessary.  I don’t have to memorize the page number, the chapter, the verse or any other material thing.  All I need is to enrich my life in and with God.  I don’t live my life in chapters and verses.  I live my life with the Person who comes to life from the pages and fills my soul with a deeper understanding of who He is.  It is He who created me, who saved me and who is sanctifying me.  I don’t have to defend my faith, it is my faith that defends me.  So I leave my Bible at home and speak from the heart and soul about my life in God.  So what’s to defend?

Where do I spend my life in God?  In the Communion of Saints as defined by the Catholic Church.  That includes getting familiar with God and with His friends the angels, the saints in heaven and suffering souls of purgatory and the militant priests, prophets and kings living in time on earth.  I get to know a lot about Him every day.  Every day we talk is enriching for me.  Every day we spend together even without talking much is still a good and enriching day.  Do I have to defend that?

On a good day I get to spend some time with Him at His special abode.  I get to celebrate the Sacrifice of our Salvation in His memory.  I don’t get to enjoy that grace every day because of my work schedule.  However, some two or three days a week I can find time to offer the Divine Sacrifice side by side with the Lamb of God and in the presence of His Chosen People gathered around the altar of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.  It is a profound experience at every instance.  It is a dynamic, grace-filled moment being together with God among his living saints; with God through His Sacred Word and with God in the Divine presence of the Eucharist.  The shared faith of the gathering of the righteous around the altar doesn’t need any defending because it is the protection of the faithful not the weakness. 

I don’t have to defend my faith.  I certainly don’t have to use a disfigured Bible to help me defend it.  My faith is my life.  You have permission to attack my faith to your heart’s content.  Have at it.  I don’t need to defend my faith, God does it for me. 

That’s why there will be no need for you to cry at my funeral.

COMMUNION OF SAINTS - COMMUNION DES SAINTS - COMUNIO DE LOS SANTOS

It is the beginning of the end of the year.  It is the month during which we thank God for giving us the grace of faith in the Communion of Saints.  Yes, it is the month of the dearly departed.  It is the month when we remember that the universal call to perfection includes the call to make of our death a holy moment.  It is the month when we, as Catholics, saints in the making, live in the contemplation of this challenge.
A famous existentialist, Jean-Paul Sartre said, "Death is a continuation of my life without me..."
If you don't believe it, think of the loved ones that you have "lost."  Aren't they still alive?  Don't you still profit from their example?  If you had the privilege to accompany them during their last moments, aren't you convinced that their whole life as you knew it was defined by how they died?  That's only the visible part.  If  we can see that, imagine what we can't see.
I have accompanied many people to the grave.  I have even been able to make some of them smile on the way out of the time dimension. I pray for all the people who have gone before me, even if they died at a younger age then I have presently attained.  Why not?  If they do not need my prayer any more because they are already in God's personal presence, they can nudge Him with their left elbow (I believe that all MY loved ones are at His right!) and remind Him to take care of me so that I can join them someday.
Yes, brothers and sisters, November is a great Catholic Month.  It is very Human and Very Divine at the same time.  I will do my best to accompany you on your way through life with some more daring thoughts about life and death in the coming days and weeks.  Keep in mind, NO CRYING AT MY FUNERAL.

C'est le début de la fin de l'année.  C'est le mois au cours duquel nous remercions Dieu de nous avoir donne la grâce de la foi dans la communion des saints.  Oui, c'est le mois de nos chers defunts.  C'est le mois où nous nous souvenons que l'appel universel à la perfection comprend l'appel à faire de notre mort un moment sacré.  C'est le mois où nous, en tant que catholiques, des saints en plein développement, vivons dans la contemplation de ce défi. 

Un existentialiste célèbre, Jean-Paul Sartre a dit: «La mort est la continuation de ma vie sans moi ..."

Si vous ne le croyez pas, pensez aux proches que vous avez "perdus".  Ne sont-ils pas encore en vie?  N'est-il pas vrai que vous bénéficiez toujours de leur exemple?  Si vous aviez le privilège de les accompagner lors de leurs derniers moments, n'êtes-vous pas convaincus que durant toute leur vie vous saviez qu'elle était définie par la façon dont ils sont morts?  Et ce n'est la que la partie visible.  Si nous pouvons constater cela, imaginez-vous ce que nous ne pouvons pas voir.

Quant a moi, j'ai accompagné plusieures personnes à la tombe.  J'ai même pu faire sourire certains d'entre eux sur le seuil de leur sortie de la dimension temporelle. Je prie pour tous les gens qui sont passés avant moi, même s'ils sont morts à un âge plus jeune que j'ai actuellement atteint.  Pourquoi pas?  Si elles n'ont pas besoin de ma prière parce qu'elles sont déjà dans la présence personnelle de Dieu, ils peuvent lui donner un petit coup du coude gauche (je crois que tous mes proches sont à sa droite!) pour lui rappeler de prendre soin de moi pour que je puisse les rejoindre un jour.

Oui, frères et sœurs, novembre est un mois catholique majestueux.  Il est très humain et très divin en même temps.  Je ferai de mon mieux pour vous accompagner sur votre chemin à travers la vie du mois de novembre avec des pensées un peu audacieuses quant a la vie et la mort dans les jours et semaines à venir.  Remarquez bien, PAS DE LARMES A MES FUNERAILLES.

Es el principio del fin del año.  Es el mes en el cual damos gracias a Dios por darnos la gracia de la fe en la Comunión de los Santos.  Sí, es el mes de los difuntos.  Es el mes cuando recordamos que la llamada universal a la perfección incluye la llamada a hacer de nuestra muerte un momento sagrado.  Es el mes en que nosotros, como católicos, santos en camino verso el paraiso, vivimos en la contemplación de este desafío. 

Un famoso existencialista, Jean-Paul Sartre dijo: "La muerte es la continuación de mi vida sin mí ..."

Si usted no lo cree, piensa en los seres queridos que se han "perdido".  ¿No son todavía vivos?  ¿No es verdadero que aún en este momento se beneficia de su ejemplo?  Si usted tuvo el privilegio de acompañarlos en sus últimos momentos, no está convencido de que toda su vida como usted la conocía fue definida por la manera en que se murieron?  Eso es sólo la parte visible.  Si podemos ver eso, imaginase lo que no podemos constatar.

He acompañado a muchas personas a la tumba.  Incluso he sido capaz de hacer que algunos de ellos sonria en la salida de la dimensión temporal. Rezo por todas las personas que han pasado antes de mi, incluso si morían a una edad más joven que yo he alcanzado actualmente.  ¿Por qué no?  Si no ocupan mi oracion porque ya están en la presencia personal de Dios, pueden empujarlo gentilmente con el codo izquierdo (creo que todos mis seres queridos están en su derecho!) para que El  recordará de cuidarse de mí para que yo pueda unirme a ellos.

Sí, hermanos y hermanas, Noviembre es un gran mes Católico.  Es muy humano y muy divino, al mismo tiempo.  Yo haré todo lo posible para que lo acompañe en su camino durante la vida con algunas ideas más atrevidas sobre la vida y la muerte en los próximos días y semanas.  Tenga en cuenta, NO SE LLORA EN MI FUNERAL.

SUFFERING -- AN OPEN LETTER -- A CALL TO SACRIFICE

To my dear brothers and sisters, branches of the Great Dion/Bachand tree that God planted in Zenon Park and is now flowering in many corners of the world.
It is a moment of reality for all of us of our generation, the grandchildren of Eugene "Big Red" and Ora.
This is an open letter to you all, and I write it in full conciousness of my God given gift as the first born of our generation.  I hope that I don't offend you in the following paragraphs.  It is not my intention to offend anyone but to support, encourage, enlighten, comfort, accompany and stand quietly by in my own state of awe, respect and meditation at the plan of God as it unfolds before us along the path to eternal glory.

There are but few of us who have had the challenge to accompany a loved one through long periods of suffering through the deterioration of health.  The great majority of us have experienced the slap of sudden death snapping our hearts into a dark hole of emptiness.  Some of us even pray for that same manner of departure for ourselves.  I for one pray for that every day.  I, more than most of you, have accompanied many people to their grave.  I, more than most of you, have accompanied families and friends through the throes of watching loved ones spend what seemed to be endless time on the threshold between here and there.  I have talked, preached and written much about death and dying.  Very, very little of it to you.
Well, enjoy it, this is it. :-)

For those of you who don't know, I will tell you that I have lasted for 77.25 years so far.  That sounds like George Carlin, doesn't it.  Since this is the first time that I have been this old, I can't tell you if I feel my age or not.  I can tell you that I know very well how I felt at 35.  I also can tell you how I felt at 74.  At 35 I was still kicking ass no matter how tall the adversary was.  At 74 I spent 3 months in a wheel chair.  Which is good because then no one could kick my ass.  As it stands now, I can get kicked again but the only kicking I can do is with a sharp pencil.  So now you know.

At the present, I have been visiting people whom I know who are really sick.  I also got the news about David Dion, son of Alcide and Betty and the oldest brother of Deanna, who happens to be the first born of Al and Betty. David is one sweet guy and there he is, not really old according to 21st century standards, but really sick.  Veronica his wife has been sick and seems to be a little better now.  Then, down goes ol' David.  So that got me to thinking about us Dions and the way we get to the Pearly Gates.  I didn't look it up, but here's what I found off the top of my head:
Long sufferers:
Grace Dion married to DeGray
Jeanine Dion, my sister
Ora Dion, old age
Edward Dion, Alzheimer's, younger brother to Grace
Don Dion, the "Baby of the family"
"Hadjr" DeGray, still here, but suffering

Quick exits:
Cecile Dion, complications after childbirth
Ray Dion, here today and gone today
Norma Dion, ditto
Al Dion, ditto
Elna DeGray, Murphy, Grace's daughter, here today and gone today
Melina Dion, my mother, ditto
Harley DeGray, ditto, Elna's father

Unknown:
Normand Dion

Either way, someone suffers and so I just had to see what I had written about suffering in comparison with what I had written about death.
What I came up with was this, mainly:
http://nocryingatmyfuneral.blogspot.com/2012/02/value-of-suffering.html

I looked for that after I had written this to my sister Emélie (I always put the accent when I'm serious).  Now, I write it to you.

"Thank you for the update.  I appreciate the news.  We continue to accompany him (David) and the family in our prayers.  I pray that as a family we can hear the voice of God with hearts of loving unity during moments that can carry a lot of contradiction.

"Suffering is not just physical.  At times like this it becomes clear to us that suffering is also an emotional community reality.  It is at times like this when we either appreciate the truth that the suffering of Jesus, the Innocent one, is shared in the suffering of His human family, saints or sinners.  When His suffering visits us that is the moment when we know that He meant it when He told us to pick up our cross and follow Him.  (Matthew, 16;24) It is in moments of great suffering that we know that suffering is not a punishment for our weaknesses.  It is an honor given to those whom God judges to have the courage to share in the Sacrifice of Jesus.  It is a glorification of our faith that God uses to pair us with His only Son so that His suffering, lived by us, is our part in the Divine Sacrifice that He offered for the salvation of all.  After all, the suffering is not ours to own.  Like everything else, it is His.  It is  given to us to share for the eternal good of His people, in whom we are all included.  I pray that we all have the Grace to walk to Calvary, heads and hearts held high filled with the courage to be able to say to those who weep, "Do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children." (Luke 23;28)

My personal prayer is that each and every one of us, God's children all, can accept our responsibility in the act of eternal salvation, not only our own but that of all God's family, from the closest to Him to the farthest from Him.  At no time during our lives are we so involved in the work of God as when He calls upon us to suffer as His Son did, not for ourselves, but for the Communion of Saints.

I offer one final thought.  Some of the sharpest, crushing, stretching, grinding and wringing suffering that we may be called upon to share with God will come at a time when we know, or think, that we are still far from death's door.  When I thought I was going to die, suffering was assuaged by the thought that the end wasn't that far away.  It was then that I thought of my sister Jeanine and my God-mother Grace who suffered for years.  I thought of my father's chronic pain and the fact that he knew that it was not a life-threatening condition.  I thought of many widows I have known who had to face life with young children and had no gainful source of income.  

I presently think of people I know who have psychoses and/or neuroses to live with.  In their calm and lucid moments, these souls have plenty of suffering, wondering if they will ever get to be "normal."  I think of the mothers who kept offspring that came to them as a result of a violent act against them; I think of the families who have semi-formed children as a result of taking Thalidomide and I often think about a couple of very special families who are well known to and admired by me and the lives that lead.  

Yes, you all, suffering is not easy, but it is also not intolerable to those who know where it comes from and where it leads.  We all have our sheltering olive tree in the Garden of Gethsemane.  We can hug that special tree and talk to God from there and thank Him for trusting us with the hardest of His missions - that of the Suffering Servant.

Yes, I pray that we all have the grace to live this calling with noble, faith driven courage.  

Me, 

From my High Horse ...

Used to be a pulpit ... 

I had to run the course

When the pain really hit.

I learned a lot then

From the Book of Life.

I thought that I knew 

Enough to get by.

I was shaken and taught

that my "enough" was aught

and that all I had to get by

was call to God to come nigh

since on my own

I was wracked to the bone

from inside and out

from the left to the right

I had nothing but gout

and no strength to fight.

It was then that I grew

Into the insight of WHY.

In me then was the Passion of Christ.

He and I had a long talk.

I learned then how light is my cross

Since the road that I walk

With Him as we talk,

Doesn't point to a loss.

And please, at my funeral there is no crying allowed!

WHY WE NEED PARENTS

This is a fairly long meditative reaction to a heartfelt email message that reached me today.  I decided not to send the typical short, sentimental, straight from the heart response because I did not have one.  What I had then, some eight hours ago, and still have now is what follows.  I am bold enough to place it on this blog, under this title because what I have in my heart and my brain belongs here, as far as I am concerned.  Join me, if you will.

Parents are something that we all have.  Some for a shorter time than others.  Some for a very long time.  The majority of us live with our parents for about 18 to 25 years before the separation takes place.  Some of us never get the experience of a long term separation from our parents.  
Some of us appreciate the presence and the dynamism of the relationship between us and them.  We get to try out behaviors on them and either rejoice or suffer from the consequences.  The house is a laboratory of sorts where we get socialized, spiritualized, characterized and several other "izes" that we all know about from experience.  All these things make life with our parents a rich experience...for the most part.
Parents too enjoy life in this laboratory.  They know that from about age 25 through age 55 or so, they will share their entire beings with from about 1 to 12 children, depending on religious, cultural, economical and other elements.  They also know one other thing.  The children that they bring into the world may grow old, but they will never cease to be "my little boy" or "my little girl."  That is perhaps the most difficult pill for most children to swallow.  For some, however, it turns out to be the salvation that they need to have happy and comfortable lives.  That brings me to Laurie.

Laurie is a 40 plus year old lady who still lives with her mother and father.  I know them fairly well.  I also respect them more than they have come to know.  Papa and Mama have answered the special call from God to be special parents to a special needs child.  They have accepted their vocation and the relationship that they have with Laurie deserves a higher adjective that just special...It is sacramental.  It is covenantal.  It defines the meaning of marriage and parenthood for the communion of saints who see it.  This is a family who lives in a Cathedral of Love under the wings of the Angels and in the presence of the Spirit.  
Every now and then the Blue Light Special Prayer signal goes out from the family and along with it comes the report of the last visit that was played out at Massachusetts General Hospital with regards to the physical health of the Special Laurie.  It's usually not too good.  We all hear it, say our prayers, assure Papa and Mama that we join them in heart and soul and life goes on.  It goes on for Laurie too, despite the fact that some of the news is scientifically devastating.  Papa has told me several times that the doctors still don't know how this wonderfully patient and happy person can continue to be so contented with life.  Indeed, they even wonder how she can continue living at the level of energy and health that she does.
WE know.  We know something that the doctors are not allowed to enter into the equation.  Laurie's head primary care doctor is none less than God Himself.  She, Papa and Mama talk to God every single day.  She, Papa and Mama sit and listen to what God has to tell them, every single day.  No wonder that when she walks away from a long review session with the army of doctors who know her and study her and strive to understand what keeps her going and how they can help her to continue, she must just sit there and wonder "What now?"  

Today, for instance, the long email from Mama explained that Laurie's lung function is diminishing in efficiency.  Of course, Laurie being Laurie, she throws them a curve and proves to them that her breathing is perfectly fine.  Hmmm.  I don't know the whole story, but there's something mysteriously similar to this going on with her kidneys too.  Not to fret, brothers and sisters, energetic life goes on.  But wait, what does the scientific team say about this situation with the lungs?  Let's check it out, according to Mama's version.
"Start Laurie on a drug called rapamycin..."  Not good.  Bad experience with this drug in the past.
"Get Laurie into an on-going trial for a new drug..." Not good.  What if she falls into the "placebo group?"  Hmmm.  Good question.
"Wait and see."  Yep.  Very scientific exercise.
Well, frankly, they don't call doctors practitioners for nothing.  They are professionals at practicing.  When they want a real answer, they ask your parents.  In this case, as in many others, that is the perfect place for the answer to lie.  Laurie, Papa and Mama went straight to God and to God's friends.  There's the one who knows.  He is the one who manages Laurie's kidneys.  He's also the one who keeps her breathing normally with diminishing lung capacity.  He's not willing to let her go.  He's got far too many important things for her to do.  Papa and Mama can attest to that.  Laurie can too.  Me too, but I'll die before I write some of the suggestions that I have.  Oh, I can write this one:  Laurie and her parents are going to cure everyone from wanting to cry at my funeral.  They're going to do it with the good example of what it means to be a Job family.  Or to be the family whose oil never runs out because they are caring for the prophet.  

By the way, no one ever said that this is easy.  No one ever said that being a child of God is easy.  God demands that we collaborate with Him to get things done.  So, Laurie, Papa and Mama live in a tight knit spiritually alert community collaborating with God in the job of keeping Laurie and themselves energetic in His presence.  Without God in that house, who knows what it would look like?  Two seventy year old parents with a 45 year old child and no God?  Don't even try to imagine it.  
Brothers and sisters, that's why we need parents.  That's why our children need parents, no matter how old they are.  
Remember why I put these thoughts here under this title: there is to be no crying at my funeral.  Why?  Because God has taken it easy on me for all these years.  He lets me be a grouch and get away with it.  What more can I ask for?  Don't cry for Papa and Mama of Laurie because when their job is done, God will take care of them.  Don't cry for Laurie because she is the sign of God's presence in our midst.  Let us honor her with our prayers so that she will never waver in her resolve to be a saint in God's eyes and ours.  Not just for her good, but for ours as well.  We ask this through Jesus, our Savior who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever.

COMMUNION OF SAINTS --- BRINGING GOD TO AURORA, COLORADO

This is not child's play

Communion of Saints -- Reach out

Today we were reminded of the meaning of the Communion of Saints.  Even the president of the United States tried in his own strained way to bring it into the sober remarks he made early in the morning to a crowd expecting to hear a campaign speech.  He mentioned that the families of the victims out the shooting in the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado will not have the opportunity to hug them tightly tonight.  We, on the other hand will be able to put an extra little ooomph into our hugs of one another today.  He also said, and I paraphrase, that in these hugs to one another today we should somehow be aware that the victims and survivors of the monstrously immoral act in Colorado need us to be by them and need us to be ready to help them as a nation.

No, it's not the Communion of Saints, but for a secular leader in a secular nation, that's all we get.  Now it is up to us to take the "Nation" concept and run with it.  We have the spiritual tradition to support us in our conviction that all of us are one "Nation, under God..,"  We are told that from the first pages of the Bible when God is forming His nation through the miraculous birth of Isaac.  We are told that when we consider the miraculous escape of God's people from Egypt. We are told that when we see Jesus reaching out to everyone, Greeks, Syrophoenicians, Romans, Gadarenes, Samaritans, Tax collectors and centurions, Pharisees and Sadducees and yes, even lepers and adulteresses.

God knows His creatures.  God knows us all.  He knows the Good Guys and the Bad Guys.  Yes, He does know them and bringing them into the fold is a constant work in progress.  If it is good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for us.  He did not promise us an easy life.  He told us that to follow Him is to suffer the way He did.  Just as He suffered at the hands [and the mouths and minds] of His very own people, as well as from the strangers, so do we.  We reach out when we turn the spiritual energy of Divine Love toward the victims rather than the energy of vengeance.  In a case like the one that confronts us this weekend, it is not difficult to find victims.  This act was so monstrous and so calamitous that there are many victims of it across the world, even here among us.  Yes, even we are, to some degree, victims of this ambush by Lucifer and his gang.

Listen closely to the readings at Mass this Sunday.  The Communion of Saints is the key spiritual concept.  Let us soak it in.  Once we understand that, then we will understand the spirituality of the author of this blog, "No Crying at My Funeral."  Let's not forget to Love, not to resent.   Love through the hurt so that we can take on a share of the hurt of the afflicted families.  Love will bring us life and life to the suffering families.  Vengeance and resentment will only suck God's life out of our being.  It would be a sad state of affairs to thus weaken the vigor of the Communion of Saints.


Paul Dion, STL, ParishWorld.net Theology Editor
Lay Associate Community, La Salette Missionaries

REMEMBERING  ≠  NOSTALGIC REMINISCING 

REMEMBERING  =  STAYING JOINED TO THE COMMUNITY 

For the last couple of weeks, I have been reflecting on the true meaning of remembering.  Then, the other day I was struck by the fine weather and so I opened fully all four windows of the auto I was driving and just enjoyed myself driving around like I used to when I was  17.  It was then that I got to thinking about a lot of related things.  Things like when I first drove around in a new “hardtop convertible”  I am sure that there are some of you who remember  the introduction of these cars.  I think it had to be in the ‘50’s somewhere.  Late 50’s maybe.  I’ll Google it and get the right date for you.  [Late 50’s is good enough for what I mean.]  I am quite sure that it was about the time when the “unibody” concept of building cars was being introduced to the industry.  Anyway, that’s one of the things that ran through my mind.  One of the others was the way that we have shut ourselves into the interior of our vehicles, not allowing ourselves to “communicate" with the environment.  We don’t feel the vibrancy of the rushing air; we have no feel for the ambient noise caused by traffic; we can’t even cuss one another out any more;  no more trash talk to the bum from the other side of town who snagged the cute blonde cheer-leader before you got to her; and what ever happened to “slide-over-baby” bench seats? 

The interesting thing about all this is that I was not just running these things through my mind, I was actually living them as the air ran into and through my “open-air” ride.  I wasn’t just reminiscing, I was uniting myself with the reality that I and others had lived before today.  I was re-membering.  I was back in community with the realities, mechanical, environmental, social, emotional and communitarian.  Yes, I was in a specific community again.  Not just yearning for myself, but sharing the spirituality of the experiences in a mystical way with the other humans who had lived the same truths and who are presently still aware of them at some level. 

I am not very fond of playing word tricks with myself and with other people, but lately the “member” part  of “remembering” is making sense to me.  It is bringing me into an understanding of the human community of which we are all members.  It is also bringing me into a deeper understanding of the community not only of the living but of the unity that continues between us, the living and those who have died and “gone on” before us.  The nature of this remembering is familiar to Catholics who designate the month of November as the month of the “Dearly Departed.”  In the Catholic world, the soul is eternal and it is perfectly singular, never to be repeated in its individuality.  This is what is meant by the word “ineffable.”   Therefore, a part of Catholic life is the continuation of a spiritual connection between all members of the human community.   That is why Catholics continue to intercede for and in fact, in some instances, ask for intercessory prayers from the individuals who have died but who remain members of the “Communion of Saints,” the community of all souls. 

Catholics get this conviction from the Israelites and the Hebrews who had, and still have, a powerful belief in the “member” part of remember.  The Passover celebration is all remembering. The prayers are full of remembering.  The Psalms are pregnant with remembering.  The Gospels are constantly reminding us of the forebears of Jesus.  We are never allowed to forget that this is the son of David.  We are not even allowed to forget the Passover.  Every time we celebrate the Eucharist we are told, “Do this in memory of me.” 

None of this is very far from our everyday lives.  No matter whom we are.  No matter what our roots are.  No matter what our spiritual convictions are.  Without a deep appreciation for remembering, we are incomplete.  What normal human being goes through life without remembering birthdays, wedding days, death anniversaries of mother, father, siblings, graduation anniversaries, major surgeries???  The list goes on.  Remembering is our connection with human beings.  It is the glue of our unity as a race.  It is also the fundamentally solid and deepest reason why not a single one of you should even dare to cry at my funeral.