Just close your eyes and listen to the first minute or so of this video and you’ll swear you’re in a summer thunderstorm. I love it.
Archive for the ‘wow’ Category
Rain Rain Rain
July 31, 2009Pio, Something Smells!
September 23, 2008PREAMBLE: Before we even begin today’s reflections, I have something to smell you, I mean tell you. One of the coolest things about Padre Pio and the way God likes to work lies in the acclaimed “odor of sanctity” that often follows the holy ones. Yes, believe it or not, when God allows miracles to pour forth from His beloved saints, they are sometimes associated with fragrances. Therese is roses, and Padre Pio is often known by the scent of… tobacco. This to me is beyond awesome. Tobacco…. brilliant.
“For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not believe, no explanation is possible.”
Today the Church celebrates the Feast Day of one of her most beloved and most misunderstood sons… St. Pio of Pietrelcina. Born on May 25, 1887, he died on this day in 1968, and today is still affectionately known as Padre Pio.
I say he was misunderstood, but more accurately I mean missed. This is simply because so much attention was given to the miracles that Jesus let flow through his hands that many missed the simple truth of who he was; a quiet man of extreme austerity who praised, loved and served Jesus and the Church passionately his whole life.
He hated the attention the miracles brought. It’s like the image of a man pointing to food and the dog stares at the finger instead. “Look at the food, not my finger!” I think that was perhaps his greatest cross in life. People coming to him looking for some fireworks or a show, or to cut a piece of his robe as a souvenir… yes, they did. They did it to St. Francis of Assisi too. Heck, they did this to Jesus! And perhaps I should stop saying “they” – we do too.
“God, give me a sign! Prove Yourself to me!”
Well, maybe our intentions aren’t always that extreme. We just want recognition or affirmation, right? Maybe something merely tangible is all. And the funny thing is, God is quite willing at times to oblige! Wasn’t everybody flocking to Jesus for cures, and didn’t he cure many bodies? The woman with an illness of 38 years came to Jesus in a crowd of starstruck followers and she said “If I could just touch the hem of his garment, that would be enough.” And she was right, it was enough. But for Jesus, as for his followers like Padre Pio, the enough wasn’t enough until he got both body and soul, mind and heart. In a word all of us.
So why did God allow so many miracles through St. Pio’s stigmatized hands in 1950’s and 60’s? Maybe He will use anything and everything when the timing is right to get our attention? What follows is an excerpt from EWTN’s special section on St. Pio for today’s feast. Let’s celebrate the extraordinary wonders of God today, and wonder how we can become more like Him in our often ordinary daily life.
Bilocation and Odor of Sanctity
The phenomenon of bilocation is one of the most remarkable gifts attributed to Padre Pio. His appearances on various of the continents are attested by numerous eye witnesses, who either saw him or smelled the odors characteristically associated with his presence, described by some as roses and by others as tobacco. The phenomenon of odor (sometimes called the odor of sanctity) is itself well established in Padre Pio’s case. The odor was especially strong from the blood coming from his wounds. Investigation showed that he used absolutely no fragrances or anything that could produce these odors. The odors often occurred when people called upon his intercession in prayer and continue to this day. Among the most remarkable of the documented cases of bilocation was the Padre’s appearance in the air over San Giovanni Rotondo during World War II. While southern Italy remained in Nazi hands American bombers were given the job of attacking the city of San Giovanni Rotondo. However, when they appeared over the city and prepared to unload their munitions a brown-robed friar appeared before their aircraft. All attempts to release the bombs failed. In this way Padre Pio kept his promise to the citizens that their town would be spared. Later on, when an American airbase was established at Foggia a few miles away, one of the pilots of this incident visited the friary and found to his surprise the little friar he had seen in the air that day over San Giovanni. As to how Padre Pio with God’s help accomplished such feats, the closest he ever came to an explanation of bilocation was to say that it occurred “by an extension of his personality.”
– (visit here for full article)
Faith Database…. Wow.
September 3, 2008
I just learned about this fantastic new resource through Catholic Exchange. I would have scratched it right up, but the Mac version isn’t out until next month. Check out the video intro on the website here.
- 2000 Years of Christian History
- 10 Bible Translations
- 88 Council Documents from all 21 Ecumenical Councils
- 400 Early Church writings
- 165 writings from the Doctors of the Church
- 74 books from John Henry Newman
- 112 books from GK Chesterton
- 1300 Papal writings/encyclicals
- The Old Catholic Encyclopedia (1200 entries and 5000 images)
- Many classics including Gibbons’ “Faith of our Fathers,” Thomas a Kempis’ “Imitation of Christ” and John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body”
- 1000 Bible Art Images
- Over 100 Bible Maps
- Illustrated Church history
- Search Catechism and Code of Canon Law
- Some of the Over 1500 Featured Writings Classics Apologia (Newman)
- St. Thomas Aquinas (The Summa)
- St. Augustine’s Confessions
- Irenaeus’ Against Heresies
- St. John Chrysostom’s Commentaries
- and more!
What Amazes You?
August 20, 2008
So we closed off our vacation in NY last week with Holy Mass and the traditional Byrons Family Blowout Breakfast at Benny’s Mexican-American Diner (you can have salsa with pancakes).
I love Byrons Family Blowout Breakfasts (hereafter named BFBBs). Basically, they involve the peaceful takeover of small eateries by the Byrons boys, girls, babies, big and tall uncles and wonderfully affirmative aunts…. and Grandma and Grandpa B. You need (and we often exceed) at least a dozen souls for an official BFBB. Tables are pieced together like Tetris blocks, wait staff quail, menus get flipped and decorated with classy drawings, and the cooks run out of eggs real quick.
This Sunday, Taylor Man (my 13 year old nephew with a rapier wit) was perusing the comics section in between his pancakes and Pepsi when I noticed the “Zits” column. I took it home with me and here it is above, thanks to the power of our HP scanner. If you click on the image it will become muy grande (which is Benny’s for really big).
(The other image in this post is Trogdor, The Burninator, who needs no introduction, expertly drawn and labeled on the back of a placemat by SB and TG, respectively).
If you’re a consistent reader of this blog, you can see why the above comic caught my attention. A teenager is dragged across the globe and shown some of the great wonders of the world, and he simply sighs, moans, groans, or slumps through it all. It takes a trip to the cell phone boutique kiosk thing at the local mall to rekindle his sense of wonder.
As they say at Benny’s…. “aye ya yai!” *
Now I get tantalized by technology and geeked out by gigabytes myself, as you may well know. And my daily walk can be a slippery slope into “technolatry” if I’m not careful. These days, it’s become hard to imagine life without Mr. Google, or cell phones, or the 150 billion e-mails we “MUST READ AND NOT DELETE!” that zip out every day across the planet (and that is an accurate number)… but the question remains, what truly amazes us? Takes our breath away? Reminds us of our place in the Great Chain of Being? What wows you? And let’s keep our examples unplugged.
Here are a few of mine:
– the iridescent shine on the backs of Japanese Beetles
– feeling the rush of wind and not knowing exactly how it forms and how it found me
– getting caught in heavy rain when hiking up north through balsam firs and pine trees. Rain splattering, dripping, dropping all around us, and the scent of the wet woods was intoxicating
– incense hanging in a church and how it can conjure up so many things and so many feelings. It’s a SMELL!
– a baby’s fingernails
– reciprocated love
“Faced with the sacredness of life and of the human person, and before the marvels of the universe, wonder is the only appropriate attitude.”
– Pope John Paul II
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* I’m not sure if they ever really say that at Benny’s.
Walking the Walk
July 31, 2008
I was driving down the road the other day, and it was one of those off the beaten path kind of roads mind you, when I noticed a group of young people walking down a non-existent shoulder, carrying a crucifix and a Papal Flag. This merited investigation. This is not something I’m accustomed to seeing on the back roads of Delaware County, PA.
It turns out that these five young people were college students on a special kind of pilgrimage, walking (get this) from MAINE to Washington, D.C. They are known as Missionaries of the Eucharist and their goal is to take the Theology of the Body to the streets! Yes… it’s amazing.
Here’s the mission statement from their website:
“This summer a group of Catholic young men and women will be walking from Maine to Washington DC trying to build a culture of life and love. Their mission? To proclaim the beauty of the Catholic faith, through the lens of the Theology of the Body, with their words, hearts, and bodies.“
So I quickly parked the car and walked a little stretch of the road with them. We exchanged some Catholic small talk, discovering that we were six degrees from Christopher West, and I mentioned that I would post a little blurb of a blog about them…. so here it is! Please check out their wonderful website and spread the word about this awesome and inspiring mission!
The Missionaries of the Eucharist website…
We walk throughout the day to be a witness of love. We are grounded in prayer-we pray with our lips, our hearts, and our bodies. In walking an average of twenty-five miles per day, we offer our fatigue as a gift of love to Christ and the people we meet. Our walking is both sacrifice and prayer.
World Youth Day Stats
July 17, 2008
Some pretty neat stats on what’s going down Down Under:
SYDNEY, Australia, JULY 16, 2008 (Zenit.org) – Some 225,000 youth are participating in World Youth Day, which began Tuesday and will end Sunday with a closing Mass that could gather a half million people.The organizers report that 125,000 of the young pilgrims are from countries other than Australia; another 100,000 are from the host nation. The event is the biggest and most multinational ever held on Australian soil, even more so than the 2000 Olympics. (wow. my emphasis)
The United States is the foreign country that sent the most pilgrims, with 15,000. Youth Day organizers have provided these statistics as well: An estimated 8,000 volunteers are assisting with the activities. Some 2,000 priests and 500 bishops and cardinals are present; 500 chasubles were made for the prelates and a stole for each of the priests. One million hosts for Holy Communion were made and 120 bottles of wine will be used for the opening and closing Masses. Pilgrims will eat 3.5 million meals and 232,000 candles will be used during the event. About 100,000 young people are sleeping in 400 schools and parishes and 10,000 in Sydney Olympic Park. About 100 actors are involved with the Stations of the Cross performance. Australia has approximately 5.12 million Catholics in 1,363 parishes. This is approximately 26% of the population. It has 28 territorial dioceses, four dioceses of Eastern Catholic Churches and one military diocese. The greater Sydney region, with its four dioceses, has about 1.5 million Catholics. The Archdiocese of Sydney has almost 600,000 of those in some 141 parishes with 480 priests. There have been three previous papal visits to Australia. In 1970, Pope Paul VI went; in 1986, Pope John Paul II; and in 1995, the Polish Pontiff went again, beatifying Mary MacKillop.
www.zenit.org
Nerd Alert – iPhone Update 2.0!
June 10, 2008
I know…. I know. It’s beyond cool.
Learn more here.
“With the iPhone 2.0 Software Update, your iPhone will do even more. Extend its capabilities with innovative applications you download directly from the new App Store. Get push email, calendar, and contacts from your Microsoft Exchange server at work. And use great new features in Mail, Contacts, and other applications. Free in the next update.“
Did they say free?
A Carpet for the King
May 25, 2008
There are only two parishes in the country, that I know of, that have this tradition. (If anyone has seen it elsewhere, please drop a comment!)
For the Feast of Corpus Christi here at St. Francis Church in Franklin, NC, a Eucharistic procession will be led over a stretch of”sawdust carpets” – beautiful images from the Sacred Heart to the Holy Family laid out in dyed sawdust onto chalked grids as big as cars. What an amazing process. Families have been plugging away all afternoon and in just under an hour Fr. Matthew will lead us in Evening Prayer, then into the procession. Only the priest with the Blessed Sacrament raised high can walk over these works of art. A carpet for the King Who has become our very food; the Bread of Eternal Life.
(More of these incredible works of art are being uploaded to the “My Mac Web Gallery” link in the links section to the right. Once you’re there, click on the North Carolina album)
Drinking Deeply
April 8, 2008
On this past Divine Mercy Sunday, sitting in the little church of the Assumption in Maybrook, New York with my wife Rebecca and her parents, two of the eight brothers and sisters, and a mob of nieces and nephews all around us, I got zapped. It was right at the line in the reading from 1 Corinthians 2….
“Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him.”
I looked around at the little munchkins that call me Uncle Bill. I thought of my morning talks with my father-in-law on everything from philosophy to movies to the Faith. I thought of the tremendous love that flows from the Tabernacle, streams down from the Altar and breathes out from from the woman whose hand I held even tighter as this awareness and this awakening came toppling over me like a waterfall.
“Do you want a tissue?” Rebecca asked as the Gospel reading began.
“Heck no,” I smiled.
I wanted to feel this a bit longer. It’s not every day God gives you the salty taste of joy. In charismatic circles it’s called the “gift of tears.” I remember an old Irish Christian Brother who once told me, “Let the tears speak, Willy, let the tears speak.”
I squeezed Rebecca’s hand even tighter. How did I get here? What led me to become a part of this new family? Where was this torrent of love and emotion coming from? I just showed up at Church, part of the ritual of a Sunday. Who knew I’d get zapped?
“Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him.”
In this Cosmic Dance, I find my steps directed here, now. What lies ahead lies in His Heart, what lies behind (and what a long and winding road it seems to me now) lies in His Mercy… His Divine Mercy. So why fear? Why complain? Why do anything but drink deeply from the font of grace in the sacrament of this present moment? God will provide, prepare, and put in our path the things we need, just as we need them.
As I sat there after Communion, in that Divine Bear Hug of He and I in the Eucharist, I thought of that Divine Mercy that has always been so near, ever since the heartaches and the sadness and the longings of my youth. He it was Who moved behind the curtain of my days, shone behind the star I watched outside my window, whispered behind the curtain of great paintings and great writings, from Van Morrison to Vermeer, cathedrals and the cornfields of Northampton. The Divine Mercy is God’s own Heart, glowing, breathing, beating with Warm Love behind this earthly veil of flesh and bone, earth and sky, houses, hills, and the people I have come to know in this walk.
In all of this that lies behind and before me I pray…. Jesus, I trust in You.
Man Attacked by Flowers Survives, Barely
April 5, 2008
Thursday night, Rebecca and I made a visit to our local parish church for a little adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. We both recognized that we need to do this more often; to pour out our troubles to the Lord, just as a Hannah did in the Temple so long ago. Funny how I deliberated before we made the decision to just do it. There was the Freshmen retreat to plan, grading, a plane ticket to order for next Saturday, grading, the bug in my podcast that I can’t seem to fix, (but I still love you iTunes!) and there was some grading.
In the end we just went to Him, and of course, it was awesome. And that’s all He wanted… for us to go, in the midst of our busyness or “tiredness” at the end of a long day; to come to Him when we are weary and heavy-burdened. And guess what… He gave us rest. For just a few minutes, we did nothing but BE with Him, and pray.
One of things I love about the Easter Season is the INSANE amount of flowers that explode into the sanctuaries of churches all over the world after the Resurrection of Christ. The world may hate us and persecute us just as Jesus predicted, but I know that, secretly, at least the florists love us. (I wonder if they intentionally look for shop space next to Catholic churches? They could survive just on lily and poinsettia sales!)
As we knelt down to unpack our hearts before the One Who knows them best, an odoriferous wave of delight poured over us. It was crazy. There were flowers under the altar, over the altar, popping out of the pulpit, pouring out of the pews, climbing up the choir loft… and all of them screaming with pistils and petals waving “Watch out world! He is RISEN!”
So we just drank it in, sniffed it up, basked in the pungent scent of New Life in the Garden of the Resurrection…. and there we prayed for Life… life to the full. We can’t wait for kids. CAN’T WAIT. And it brings to mind a line from Blessed Mother Teresa: “Saying there are too many children in the world is like saying there are too many flowers.”
In our hearts, as in our church this Easter season, there can never be enough flowers.
The Heart of Things 