A delightful experience.
A priest who is about 70 years old was celebrating Mass in a small chapel of his religious community. At the end of the Mass one of his brothers in the community mentioned that it was his birthday. A sister in the chapel started singing Happy Birthday and we all joined in.
| You should have seen the boyish look of surprise, merriment, and gratitude on that old priest’s face! |  |
 | I had this thought about it. No matter how eternity minded we are and should be in old age, there is something about a song that evokes our childhood that is important. |
 | I am reading a book about Bartholome de las Casas, the Hispanic missionary who upheld the dignity and rights of the native population in Central America in the early days of Columbus’ discoveries. It was terrible how they were treated like slaves. |
 | A wonderful fact I didn’t know is that when Columbus brought the first tiny groups of Indians to Spain, they were to be given as slaves to prominent noblemen. But Isabella, the Queen was horrified about that idea and said she would have anyone who gave them as slaves with death. Instead they were ordered to send the Indians back to Hispaniola on the next boat. |
I was at the Hartford Cathedral for an ordination to the priesthood. Many came ¾ of an hour early to be sure to get seats and the noise of happily chatting family and friends was high in volume. But then the organist started practicing the opening Bach organ music. It felt as if the beauty of music galloped over the cacophony of human voices.
I am always obsessing over the issue of what to do with my time of even older age. One morning I woke up with the thought: To prepare for heaven you must change from “do and push” to “receive and respond.” Very Marian!
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In her latter years Ronda has resigned herself to the realization that her youthful assurance that she would eventually ascend into heaven was a lofty assumption that could not be expedited by her continued reliance on rigorous rehearsal.
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