Today's readings: March 2, 2009
Reading One: Lv 19:1-2, 11-18 ;
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 19:8, 9, 10, 15 ;
Gospel : Mt 25:31-46 ;
go to this page (for all three sections listed above on one page)
And here's an audio file; & reflections (video)
UPDATE: I added some new pics, links in the last paragraph. Here's a mobile video which was taken a little later, (less than half vs. the best times, but it will give you an idea).
Today was a fun and restful day, with as usual in my day to day life - never a dull moment. I will get to today's excitement in a bit, but first let me tell you about what happened yesterday. WOW - something I have never seen before, so many cardinals it was just other worldly. For the last seven or eight years, I have been very dutiful in keeping my bird feeders filled, and during this time of year it can really be quite interesting as different breeds come and go, the gold finches change colors and all the birds are hungry as can be and having lots of babies. I guess if you do this for a bunch of years it might not be so odd, but I still found it startling to see 35+ cardinals in a small crepe myrtle. It looked like a Christmas tree it was so lit up with the bright red males, and also all the funny looking adolescent males, in various stages of molting always make me smile because they can be so goofy looking.
The sight of all those cardinals made me remember a time about 25 years ago when I lived in Charlotte and would go home each day for lunch to enjoy an inexpensive meal and water my flowers. At the time, I had orchids all over the house as this was the passion of the moment. How many you ask? Lots and lots - I have always been one to go overboard on things I enjoyed, and at the time, I was in the orchid of the month club. And though I had no special longing for these flowers, I mist them (sorry, I couldn't resist). It was early spring, so I spent some time giving a little bit of water to the baby plants I had started from seeds. Well, one day a cardinal flew down from the telephone wire and into a dense holly bush and started singing like crazy. I had been watering some plants around it and the water was gently dripping in the interior of this old holly. And though it is hard to believe, this little male cardinal was just thrilled to get a gentle shower. Ok... no big deal, but it came the next day, and the next day, and every day after that each and every day all summer. It knew I came home at noon, and it was ready for its bath. I had a bunch of friends who tried to "call me out" on it, but I said, come home with me and I will show you. The most common response was that it was so weird, and also liked to add, that I was somehow weird too. But there were a few who shared my joy about the daily bath. I thought it was really neat, and one those little things where you have no choice but to say deep in your heart - God is so wonderful. It really made my lunch amazing.
I had mentioned to Msgr. when we went to see Slumdog Millionaire that I had this expression I made up - called "slumdog moments", which were those times in your life, where you knew God was watching out for you. For some reason, I asked out of the blue, asked him if he knew who Cardinal Strich was, as there was a small school on Santa Monica Blvd in Milwaukee where I had three of those slumdog moments in my life. He told me a little bit about the man, and I shared a few of the wild stories I had while on the property. At the time, we called the place - the nun factory because I think it was a religious school for sisters, but in all honesty I never had any idea what went on there.
When I was a wee lad of fifteen, maybe sixteen - me and Bobby J decided that we would learn what it felt like to get a little tipsy on alcohol. Being totally clueless on how we might go about doing this, we drank over 2/3 a bottle of J&B scotch, chasing down Scotch Whiskey chugs with some hawaiian punch. We soon consecrated the building with such violent projectile vomiting, it was more like sandblasting than throwing up. My 2nd Cardinal Strich related "slumdog moment" was on my 16th birthday, when I got in a car accident on my first day of driving. I was backing out a parking place near a Village Hardware in my mom's monster tank station wagon, the Pontiac Laguna - a massive beast known for its special tailgate option, which could open or close in 3 different ways. On the side like a door, with the window and bottom together, or the traditional way, with the window disappearing into the door and then opening out flat, AND it could even disappear under the the car and get completely out of the way. So what does this have to with Lent and being a Catholic? I have no idea, it's Sunday so I am resting, but I do remember Era Parseghian did the commercials on TV, and he was the coach of Notre Dame, so there is an Our Lady tie-in. Back to the accident, as I backed up, I just grazed the car next to and slammed on the brakes. But my foot slipped off the break and onto the accelerator, and in a flash the to cars had locked the steel bumpers and we were rocking like James Brown, though I did not feel good. Folks piled out of the stores to see what was going on and the guy who owned the Dodge Dart I hit was less than pleased. His name was John Stewart and he just happened to be the head of food services for Cardinal Strich. Then, he tried to rip off my dad, and came back with an estimate of close to $2000 repairs, which at the time was absurd. (a new car could be had for way less than $5k). My dad was livid, and was no longer mad at me at all. In fact, he was glad I hit the guys car. He got an estimate from Pinky's on North Avenue on the low rent side of town for about $89, and made a check out to Pinky for the repair so the guy had to take it there.
My third Cardinal Strich experience was on New Years Eve, just after midnight. They had a super winding entrance to keep cars from going to fast, which we often used as a speed racer course, seeing how fast we could do the turns, and it was easy to screech the tires. Well, just after midnight in a car full of high school teenagers I decided to go for greatness, and ended up breaking the front axle of my brothers BT, which is the pet name we had for the old car. I believe BT initially stood for Brown Torino, but it will always be remembered as the Brown Turd, since it was, shall we say - less than a cream puff. Times were different, the cops came, asked if we were ok, we called our parents and went home - yes, smelling like we had a few brewskis. I have no idea what other planet I was on that night, but I do not remember getting into trouble. My brother was a little annoyed, but he had insurance and got a decent check for a car that was clunker anyway.
I hadn't thought of these things for a long long time, but the cardinals in the tree yesterday was really quite a sight, and as I reflected on the Cardinal Strich memories, I couldn't help but think that God was with me on those crazy days of being a fool, and how his gentle and loving hand kept me from getting seriously injured myself, or worse, hurting someone else by my foolishness.
UPDATES: I just added some new pictures. Here's a bunch of pictures of the construction of our new church at St. Mark taken this morning in the freshly fallen snow, some pictures of the cardinals in the crepe myrtle (and also one of Cardinal Samuel Stritch) and a link to Cardinal Stritch Milwaukee, the place we used to call the nun factory as kids, not knowing any better. Oddly enough, I was chatting with Msgr. Bellow after mass, and sharing some of these "slumdog moments", and he asked (as a joke I think), maybe you were supposed to be a Cardinal. I laughed, and said, that the Catholic Church would never allow me into the priestly club. To which he replied with a wide smile, "Well there was St. Augustine. And I laughed really hard, and told him, "you're not going to believe this, but Cardinal Stritch is on Santa Monica Blvd. (this is hilarious if you know the background. St. Monica was Augustine's mother, and she prayed constantly for her wayward son to convert to Catholicism... so the irony of him bringing it up is quite comical). I also added some pictures of old charlie the dog, and his feline buddy, Mr. T Puma. Also a few assorted new pictures I neglected to include in the previous post.
