mass
-1
archive,tag,tag-mass,tag-1217,stockholm-core-1.1,select-theme-ver-5.1.7,ajax_fade,page_not_loaded,wpb-js-composer js-comp-ver-6.0.3,vc_responsive
Jean A. Costa / Posts tagged "mass"
June 4, 2013 In Uncategorized

Peace Be With You

Affirmation:  I live a Christ centered life of love,
peace, joy, gratitude and compassion.
Once upon a time
an amateur golfer could purchase hole-in-one insurance.  If the golfer made a hole-in-one, he or she
would receive an all-expense paid trip to anywhere in the world.  I knew this because one of my husband’s
business associates at that time had just returned from a trip to Hawaii that
he had “won” through this program.  My
husband had a birthday coming up and I thought this would be an excellent
present for him (for us!)  I probably had
a slight attack of conscience because I mentioned it to him to make sure this
was something he’d really enjoy.  He
would not, he told me.  What he really
wanted was a new set of golf head-covers. 
That’s what I bought him.  He was
happy.  The following week my husband had
his first hole-in-one.  It did not make
him happy.  He certainly didn’t want to
call me to tell me about it.  I think if
he could have kept it from me for the rest of his life, he would have but we
lived in the tiny town of Norwich, New York and word would reach me probably
sooner than later.  As you can imagine I
was very disappointed.  I can think of
several things I might have done differently had I known he was to have this
hole-in-one after telling me not to buy him the $40.00 hole-in-one
insurance.  But, it’s always easier in
retrospect, isn’t it?  We’re always so
much wiser in retrospect, aren’t we? 
What would life be like if we were people who knew ahead of time what
was going to happen?  
I love those
sci-fi movies about people who are time travelers.  I especially like the ones where people go
back to the past.  Two of my favorites
are Back to the Future with Michael
J. Fox and Peggy Sue with Kathleen
Turner.  In both films they were able to
impart helpful knowledge to people in their past to help them improve their
lives in the future.  In Peggy Sue,
Kathleen Turner had a nerdy friend who believed her story that she was from the
future.  He wanted to know what he should
invest in.  “Panty hose,” she
suggested.  What should I invest in now
that will insure my future success?  Do I
need to be able to see the future to make those decisions?  Maybe I would be able to pick out the winning
power ball number or I could buy some sort of unknown stock, like Apple, before
it went through the ceiling.  Perhaps one
would know who not to marry or what job not to pass up.  Oh, the places one could go and the things
one could do without any concern, without any confusion. 
I have several
dear friends whose early married lives were very difficult.  One friend’s husband left her with three
children and declared bankruptcy.  Right
after he left, her house burned to the ground. 
These were only a few of the challenges she faced at that time. Her husband
then began a new relationship and a new business and she was left to figure out
how to survive.  The really good news is
she did more than survive, she thrived! 
It’s been a few decades now since all this began but recently she found
out he was dying.  She held a lot of
justified resentment towards him but she picked up the phone to talk to him and
instead of venting all her frustration and anger, she found herself thanking
him.  For what?  For her three wonderful children, for her
stamina and fortitude and for the life she now lives.  If she could have seen into the future with
all the travail she would face, she probably would have still chosen the same;
a different choice would have meant she would be a different person and she’s a
marvelous human being because of the trials she’s overcome.  She has made peace not only with her
ex-husband but with life.
In the Catholic
Mass we have one phrase that is used three times.  “Peace be with you.”  Three times the priest says, “Peace be with
you.”  No other phrase is repeated even
once but this one is repeated three times. 
Why?  Because it’s the one gift
everyone desires, peace.  When we are in
the middle of war most of the population wants it to end.  They want peace.  When we are in the throes of caring for someone
in pain, we pray for their peace.  When
someone has experienced the death of a loved one, we ask for them to have
peace.  When we or someone we know is
faced with any sort of difficulty, financial or physical, we want to see them
come to a peaceful place.  Peace.  What does it look like?  Can one find it in any situation?  Recently, an acquaintance confided that his
job might be at risk.  We reacted with
alarm.  He, on the other hand told us he
wasn’t worried.  There was nothing he
could do about it right now, so he wasn’t upset.  He was at peace.  We may not have a definitive definition for
peace but we all know when it’s missing. 
We all know when we are not at peace. 
It is one of God’s greatest gifts. 
We can claim it whenever we want.  Sometimes all it takes is a short prayer, a deep breath and a silent few moments.  Once we are at peace with ourselves, we can radiate that peace out into
the rest of the world. 
It might seem like
foreknowledge might be a better gift than peace but it doesn’t matter.  There is no such thing, no matter what the
psychic tells us.  There’s no guarantee
that we’ll ever know what the future will hold. 
But, we can find peace with whatever life has brought us.  We can let go of the disappointments, the
trials, the hurts, the not so wise choices and we can ask God to let us go
forward with the gift of peace.  We can
go forward knowing that our lives, the good, the bad and the ugly are exactly
as they are supposed to be and that with God’s gift of peace, we can rest in
all of it.  

P.S.  Because of Sandy’s career we have not only traveled to Hawaii, we have traveled the world.  We really didn’t need that hole-in-one insurance.  

March 24, 2013 In Uncategorized

Seeking a Better Life

For four nights
during the week before Holy Week, Father Jim Sichko from Texas spoke to over
1000 people in my church of St. Michael the Archangel in Cary, NC.  We have a very large parish, over 16,000
people. The church has daily mass, Saturday evening mass and five masses every
Sunday.  Our services are blessed with
the gift of an amazing music minister, Wayne Cushner and a very dedicated group
of choir members.  I love going to mass. I’ve
gone my whole life and I love the ritual. 
I find it comforting.  I am also
grateful for the gift of the Eucharist. 
I’ve seen my church’s faults and I’ve chosen to stay and work at change
from the inside out. I’m blessed to feel this way. I know not everyone can
understand. I am one of the lucky ones. I was born into this faith in which I
feel so at home.  

Mass is an
obligation for Catholics.  We are told
that if we miss Mass without a legitimate reason, we have sinned.  Father Sichko began his introduction to the
parishioners by telling them they were welcome to leave if they were at the
Mass because of obligation and not because they wanted to attend.  I’m not sure if he had the church’s blessing
on that direction but I understood what he was saying; don’t show up without an
attitude of gratitude, embrace the gift, embrace the mystery.

How many times in
our lives have we simply shown up physically to some event but didn’t commit
emotionally?  What we invest in our
experience is directly proportional to what we receive from it.  How about school for an example to which we
can all relate?  Everyone knows the
amount of time and effort one puts into their education directly affects what
one learns.  Yes it is easier for some
than for others but that isn’t the point. 
If we aren’t fully invested in the process we miss out regardless of
whether or not the learning comes easily. 
We may not only miss out on how much and what we learn from the classes
but from our teachers, peers and the environment.

Catholic Mass is
not an entertainment form.  Regardless of
the music or the priest’s personality, it is a very traditional ritual.  We stand, sit, and kneel, over and over.  I’ve heard it called “Catholic
aerobics.” The readings change and the hymns are different weekly but the
words are always the same.  I can go to
Mass anywhere in the world, and I have, and regardless of the language, I know
most of what the priest is saying.  I
tell you this because I understand how other, more contemporary fun services
can attract people.  I can understand why
some people come to mass out of obligation and not out of want and it is
obvious when a church is filled with people who really would like to be
somewhere else.  Many won’t be singing,
they vie for seats in the back of the church; they don’t bother to say the
prayers and they leave as soon as Communion is distributed.  I understand why Father Sichko gave
permission to those unappreciative Catholics to leave. 

The people
attending the mission were there because they wanted to be.  How could I tell?  People came early.  A half hour before the mission began, the
church was almost full.  Everyone sang,
they were still singing after Father Sichko had walked out of the service.  It was an awesome sound.  I stopped singing for a short time to just
listen.  It was like the Mormon
Tabernacle Choir!  All those people
singing a joyful sound.  Why, I wondered
did so many people choose to spend four evenings here in this church?  What was of such value that they made an
effort to attend?  Certainly, this is not
the first event of its type.

I’ve never
attended a traveling preacher’s event. 
Even living here in the heart of the Bible Belt, I’ve never gone to hear
Billy Graham speak or Joel Osteen who regularly visits our area.  My only revival experience is from watching
the movie Elmer Gantry with Burt Lancaster a “hundred” years
ago.  I would hope that’s not a good
representation.  From the little I
remember he was not a very upright person. 
But, I can understand how one can get caught up in the experience.  I guess it is like the Super Bowl of
faith.  It’s exciting, all these people
gathered in one place with a similar outlook, rooting for the same team.  My question is why are they here?  What is everyone looking for?  What do they hope to gain? People seem to be
seeking something most of us cannot seem to find alone.

 

My mother was a
great fan of Robert Schuler and the Crystal Cathedral.  Thousands of people attended his services and
millions watched every Sunday.  Joel
Osteen is very popular now.  His church is
a former basketball stadium and holds over 18,000 people.  It is full every week and millions more watch
his service from home.  You don’t have to
look to the media for popular preachers or venues.  Here in Cary alone we have other churches
that attract large throngs of people each week. 
It’s the same throughout the rest of the country.  They represent every denomination:
Protestant, Mormon, Jewish, Non-denominational, Muslim, etc.  Why? 
Why are people coming together? 
Is it simply for community or are they looking for something else?  And, why do they continue to return week
after week, year after year?  Why did
over 1000 people come to St. Michael the Archangel every night for four nights
the week before Holy Week?   Was it
because it was free?  Maybe they had
nothing better to do?  No, I believe it
was because we are all looking for something beyond ourselves, beyond our
understanding, beyond our wildest imagination. 
We are looking for that which will complete us.  We are looking for God. 

People came
hoping.  They were hoping they would hear
something that would inspire them to lead richer, fuller lives.  They wanted to know more about their faith
with the hope that that would lead them to lives of more value.  They wanted to know what knowledge their
faith has gathered over the last 2000 years that would bless them and their
loved ones today and in the future.  Did
they get that?  Did they enrich their
lives and their faith?  Father Sichko had
a very direct message, a simple one but not an easy one.  He told us to “live the
gospel.”  Have you read the
gospels?  Have you read the words of
Jesus Christ?  His lessons are very
clear; care for the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the suffering of this
world.  Love at all costs, all the
time.  Don’t be attached to your material
possessions and trust that God is always here to care for you.  Simple, but challenging mandates.  Father Sichko repeated these directives.  He was able to weave them around some very
entertaining stories, some very humbling stories and at the end of the fourth
night, he received a standing ovation. 
His message seemed to reach everyone there.  It was a very inspirational experience.  The energy in the church was palpable.  It was exciting! I knew I was in a holy place
with others who chose to be there.  No
one I believed was there because of an obligation but solely because they
wanted to be there. 

One of my newer
affirmations is “I read something inspirational every night and
motivational every morning.”  For
the four nights of Father’s presentation I was inspired.  Listening to him was even better than doing
my reading.  It was the difference
between looking at a photo of a bowl of my favorite ice cream and actually
being able to eat it.  I came looking for
a way to enrich my life and to add to the blessings of my family and friends
and perhaps some part of the world and I found it.  I found it in Father’s reminder to “go
live the gospel.”  I know I’ll need
reminding.  I’m sure to find a reminder
in my daily evening reading of the New Testament.  That, along with Father Sichko’s lessons will
sustain me, I hope for quite a while to come. 
I only wish, and hope that some of those non-appreciative Catholics did
show up on a night or two and they too were inspired, inspired to the point
where they find themselves wanting to come to mass, not just showing up because
they think they need to in order to escape the everlasting fires of hell but
because something magical happened, something mystical and the veil that had
hidden the blessings of their faith from them was pulled back and they can
finally see the beauty, the gift of the Mass and especially of the
Eucharist.