tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-301186782024-03-14T08:37:37.784-05:00The Spirit blows where it willGeorge Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.comBlogger368125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-54949562101928600782020-10-05T13:34:00.002-05:002020-10-05T13:34:54.357-05:00Pilgrimage 80<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">PILGRIMAGE 80</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">I am celebrating my 80th birthday with a pilgrimage walk reminiscent of such a walk when I was fifty. You can read about it here:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Trebuchet, Arial, sans-serif; white-space: pre;">https://gf.me/u/y2wrhw</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Trebuchet, Arial, sans-serif; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Trebuchet, Arial, sans-serif; white-space: pre;">And this is one of the sites for the walk:</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiOWKyB1d7poRWP5QLiQhv7-zt1y_HqK_-Lg_Y9gAt1nURy5L9jiAytxmU8numAuhbyZSSO0Vc3o_Hs8bE_EAZAq-LXytNP0cxzvCpudsK78EWn7vzyT6fNwtuN886Vv7eqiWO5A/s2048/Maple+Lane++Oct+1+20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1656" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiOWKyB1d7poRWP5QLiQhv7-zt1y_HqK_-Lg_Y9gAt1nURy5L9jiAytxmU8numAuhbyZSSO0Vc3o_Hs8bE_EAZAq-LXytNP0cxzvCpudsK78EWn7vzyT6fNwtuN886Vv7eqiWO5A/s320/Maple+Lane++Oct+1+20.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><p></p>George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-41282899871608182012020-08-25T07:28:00.000-05:002020-08-25T07:28:02.425-05:00From the Archives August 25, 1990<p></p><div class="WordSection1">
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: x-large;">From the Archives:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>August 25, 1990<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> While Pastor at </span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: x-large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Church of the Gesu, Philadelphia</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="color: black; font-size: x-large;">Off to getting some
exercise, I was seeking a parking site on one of the Chestnut Hill entrances to
Wissahickon Valley Park. Reaching an unfamiliar corner where I imagined
that I should make a left turn, I checked and found no opposing traffic.
But I failed to see the red light mounted on a pole to the right.
The next thing I can remember: waking up in the hospital recovering from
a concussion. While my car was totaled, thankfully there were no injuries to the people driving the
truck.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="color: black; font-size: x-large;">The nurse told me that the police
had walked me into the emergency room of Chestnut Hill Hospital and dropped me
there with a singular remark, "he was in an accident and is very
confused."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: black;">I have no recollection of those
hours of unconsciousness but I did dream during that period. One a
dream of a woman I had seen just a short time before walking in a section of
the Park where I could not find a proper parking space. And another
dream at least of the sound of the CAT scan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I came to later </span><span>at my bedside</span><span> I found Jesuit
and housemate Vince Taggart and Gesu parishioner Mary Greene, a confirmation
for me that I would be OK.</span></span></p>
</div>
<p style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTOrJEO40X_CbvxV3VLPOI59Y84kiEkHS2oYzYm9G8Jfli6oiksJd6tQmZvTU3RTwnUw0oQq7W_ftyuctvfXph_9LHYIXaLrABz9boC44xb57gKZELHtQuA3za9Ylnap676keFkA/s255/Wissahickon+Valley+Park.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="255" data-original-width="255" height="399" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTOrJEO40X_CbvxV3VLPOI59Y84kiEkHS2oYzYm9G8Jfli6oiksJd6tQmZvTU3RTwnUw0oQq7W_ftyuctvfXph_9LHYIXaLrABz9boC44xb57gKZELHtQuA3za9Ylnap676keFkA/w399-h399/Wissahickon+Valley+Park.jpg" width="399" /></a></div><span face="" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="WordSection2">
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><b><u>A Cloud of Survival</u></b></span></p></div>
<p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I
wonder now about the sound</span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">That
crashed against my skull.</span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It
did not reach my ears or mind.</span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">My
memory is null.</span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I
hear instead the water flow,</span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">A
trickle cross the stones.</span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It
heals my heart, it heals my soul,</span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It
heals my very bones.</span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The
path that slopes above the stream</span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Is
almost overgrown.</span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I
climb it as if in a dream </span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And
find I’m not alone.</span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I
overtake with tepid pace</span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Her
slow and graceful gait.</span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And
with a smile on her face</span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">She
tells me of my fate.</span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Lost
the crash, lost the groans </span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And
lost are all the sighs</span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">When
I awake I see my friends</span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">They
hold me in their eyes.</span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span> </span><br /></span><p>
<br /></p>George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-71240820285874114432020-08-22T07:54:00.000-05:002020-08-22T07:54:30.282-05:00Photogenic Tiger Swallowtail<p style="text-align: center;"><b> TIGER SWALLOWTAIL</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">We are indebted to some benefactors who planted on the edge of our property a small garden attracting and supporting the butterfly population of Eastern Pennsylvania. A number of butterflies will entertain visitors at any August visit. The photos here are of a particularly cooperative swallowtail who showed off both obverse and reverse. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRh6Em6JqMdBJ0ysD_v1joJMlLtIrkP8DC5WiICX-LCbe0iEhPoBQNCPISHW_vQV4jqZsPTyLCkU8dKS_dRSeuBoWz6wPkZduYEbpXL8Yl5HTAezoE8e2Ayo4S0mjgJ4Zj0aqOgQ/s2048/Bttrfly+Eastern+Tiger+S--tail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1461" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRh6Em6JqMdBJ0ysD_v1joJMlLtIrkP8DC5WiICX-LCbe0iEhPoBQNCPISHW_vQV4jqZsPTyLCkU8dKS_dRSeuBoWz6wPkZduYEbpXL8Yl5HTAezoE8e2Ayo4S0mjgJ4Zj0aqOgQ/s640/Bttrfly+Eastern+Tiger+S--tail.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSJoXQ_0M2a4KQyx6tQEyxqNdW3-x1Nkc7v-IOrf3LMpJefC7xU5ggjwzfN1vudcFvgj4V7a5cA8KVYXuH_NcJyoxEluQPXIxxwEUrsNjnTWyoESzVInmsKCuOmlaIQXSECuT89A/s1666/Bttrfly++swallowtail+underwear+%2528TINTED%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1173" data-original-width="1666" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSJoXQ_0M2a4KQyx6tQEyxqNdW3-x1Nkc7v-IOrf3LMpJefC7xU5ggjwzfN1vudcFvgj4V7a5cA8KVYXuH_NcJyoxEluQPXIxxwEUrsNjnTWyoESzVInmsKCuOmlaIQXSECuT89A/s640/Bttrfly++swallowtail+underwear+%2528TINTED%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Oddly the underwear is more beautiful than the outerwear!</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p>George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-45997947578241541772020-06-23T13:28:00.000-05:002020-06-23T13:28:16.499-05:00Our black friends call out "How Long, O Lord!"<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqJAxILYVh3cu_B_ENouXZloQpnbwnCK8jeJKGYP8NBjSkoY0w3BXoYSfcifWLd6V2BFB_jn0ivN-l0iMiZ-ZHVQGcfA3yQd52Voz0BieJiq8qLF4xkcdAGsOQJInq3wqIKwp7OQ/s716/philadelphia-Demo+for+G.+Floyd+and+America.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="515" data-original-width="716" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqJAxILYVh3cu_B_ENouXZloQpnbwnCK8jeJKGYP8NBjSkoY0w3BXoYSfcifWLd6V2BFB_jn0ivN-l0iMiZ-ZHVQGcfA3yQd52Voz0BieJiq8qLF4xkcdAGsOQJInq3wqIKwp7OQ/w625-h450/philadelphia-Demo+for+G.+Floyd+and+America.jpg" width="625" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 24px;"> Cries for Justice at the Philadelphia Art Museum June, 2020</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Over the past four weeks I have been feeling the terrible
weight of racism in our country, freshly renewed by recent brutality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
grew u</span><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">p in a white neighborhood in the Philly suburbs basically ignorant of the
way the country was treating our black citizens. My family was often in the city visiting
relatives, relatives who lived in white neighborhoods and I vaguely remember
conversations about where blacks might be moving. I must have been ten or twelve years old
when I first was driven on an alternate route into the city through a black
neighborhood. I saw black men and women
talking on street corners and sitting on stoops and children playing in the
streets. The housing looked deficient
compared to the white city neighborhoods that I had visited and the children
lacked the broad yards and open streets, parks and fields where I and my
siblings played with our friends. The environment looked stressed. Did I alread</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">y know that God loved these kids
on this street as much as God loved me and my city relatives?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">For the last fifty years I have been given the grace of
knowing wonderful black men and women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
first assisted in an interracial project when as a deacon preparing for Jesuit priesthood in 1971 and since
was blessed with ministry in a black parish and school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But now still I am struck dumb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, yes the neighborhoods I saw in the
1950s were deficient and they remain deficient through the years since.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I was able to meet people who lived in</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> these
neighborhoods, to worship with them, to visit in their homes and to enjoy
baptisms and weddings and even many faith-filled funerals.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">I learned more about community, about
reconciliation, about family and faith, about humor and solidarity, much more
than I could have anticipated.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">But suffering, and
very often raw and bitter suffering, visited every household.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">At best Christ shares the victory of the
paschal mystery in so many of these households.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">But at worst the strain of economic struggle, the stress of poor health,
and the lack of promising futures offered to the young</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">fray and fracture the edges of even the
strongest of families.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">During the first days of June when</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> I realized that Philly’s
neighborhoods were in turmoil because of the terrible ugliness of the death of
George Floyd and so many others, I felt sorrow for all the extraordinary men and women I knew
in these neighborhoods who worked years and years to foster health and integrity, pastors
who built senior and home-ownership housing, churches that sponsored investment
clubs to support small business, and leaders and teachers</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> refreshing schools and making
them as good as any in the suburbs.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">With
this sorrow, I came to realize, too, that the recurring violence against black
men and women simply ignited a reaction fitting to its brutality.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie6gDEhyphenhyphenpA7qMgA2XprW8bFBj1k-uUElQcwYiPn3RhWG24i61KBrOUzja-9_scVcWf928VXMRGMkK8auXZreKDPNnCHTGtJxCd6uZs8ZHVukw1gjUuh8EnScrQ-J-M62M1ziH2EA/s171/Floyd+Photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="123" data-original-width="171" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie6gDEhyphenhyphenpA7qMgA2XprW8bFBj1k-uUElQcwYiPn3RhWG24i61KBrOUzja-9_scVcWf928VXMRGMkK8auXZreKDPNnCHTGtJxCd6uZs8ZHVukw1gjUuh8EnScrQ-J-M62M1ziH2EA/w268-h193/Floyd+Photo.jpg" width="268" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Now when a tired calmness has returned to these
neighborhoods, these institutions and men and women of soul are still in place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I find hope in knowing that they will stay in place and stand up. They and
their like will raise their voices and use this moment to strengthen their
institutions with added classrooms, added health centers, added housing, added
ways of reconciling with those responsible for just law enforcement.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">A black brother Jesuit, Fr. Mario Powell, president of Brooklyn
Jesuit Prep, points to Psalm 13 as the cry of black Americans: “How long, O
Lord, will my enemy triumph over me?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
asks us all to come close to the suffering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“…until you jump up on the cross
with black Americans, there can be no Easter for America.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><br />George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-78602951447920164792020-05-13T18:58:00.000-05:002020-05-13T18:58:47.655-05:00Pictures of a Maturing Spring<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcY_WmMTwxesuqO5xyfaOsILXXkA_fViYf_ClDr6zy-CgK7tqWIdUsKNfY3b2u6ssBkfBUJJ3leiI8y45GFhwJpgTYhhOOmca9kAOWjXG4qaERiD_emKF2nMi0EY2o4inIBmKtSQ/s1600/dogwood+daze++May7+%252720.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1352" data-original-width="1600" height="337" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcY_WmMTwxesuqO5xyfaOsILXXkA_fViYf_ClDr6zy-CgK7tqWIdUsKNfY3b2u6ssBkfBUJJ3leiI8y45GFhwJpgTYhhOOmca9kAOWjXG4qaERiD_emKF2nMi0EY2o4inIBmKtSQ/s400/dogwood+daze++May7+%252720.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-78969525594022332032020-05-13T18:50:00.000-05:002020-05-13T18:50:33.725-05:00A Day in the Life<div style="text-align: center;">
May 12, 2020: The 52nd day of sheltering</div>
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Outside my window at 5 AM: The Morning Stars: Moon, Jupiter and even Saturn and maybe Mars</div>
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And the Sunset at about 8 PM</div>
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<br />George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-63404345396242657052020-05-03T07:24:00.000-05:002020-05-03T07:24:23.964-05:00Jesus and the Time of Pandemic<div style="text-align: center;">
JESUS IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"OH FREEDOM"</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">ART OF DR. DAVID DRISKELL, </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">(1931-2020) </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">VICTIM OF COVID-19 </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">AFRICAN-AMERICAN ARTIST AND FACULTY MEMBER AT </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“There are truths that
can be discovered only through suffering or from the critical vantage point of
extreme situations.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Ignacio
Martin-Baro, S.J., martyr at the UCA, El Salvador, 1989</span><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The voracious presence of COVID-19 stuns the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We who
believe that God always helps us in our works of love are numb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can God allow this destructive virus?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, truly, to make it worse such extreme situations
present themselves often. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We remind
ourselves of our struggle to learn what God teaches us in the Shoah, in our history of slavery or in
frequent natural disasters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These situations take place in the world our
God creates and each challenges our understanding.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">We want our God to exercise what we think of as control over His creation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And when He
does not do what we think best, we experience sorrow and distrust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In our confusion there is nowhere to go but
to turn to the suffering Jesus who speaks to his Father and to us from his
cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Jesus will not save himself and call on a
display of his Father’s power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Within
this question he trusts in the promise of resurrected life.<span style="text-transform: uppercase;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Crises of every kind cause us to echo Christ’s words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We look at Him carrying out his love for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He teaches
us sinners the kind of life to which His Father’s creation calls us. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
react and He must endure the price of our stubborn refusal to hear him. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if
we listen we come to know a God of love who will not force Himself on us or put
us under a spell of power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather this
God creates a world where we in turn, without coercion but freely and with hope, can
imitate His love for us and return it in our love for others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">God calls us in this age of the pandemic to acknowledge our
shared dignity as His family and extend ourselves in care for one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We give God thanks and praise that so many
are answering that call. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-55048405732510837942020-04-25T18:19:00.002-05:002020-04-25T18:19:42.063-05:00COVID 19? No problem for Geese<br />
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MOM AND DAD SHELTERED TOGETHER FOR FOUR WEEKS!</div>
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THEN THEIR OFFSPRING APPEARED ALREADY PREPARED TO SWIM!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijzl2qy-fvythcp3DaQUrAs830Oulac4HBjzq0hxOiyKQIux-zLX08qFLchqV7ahg4EHhzlQX1cqLfZHJP_fmCk8MknWOZJ-YRqgjjPTUZ3tXhwWMfxA7Wuz-MdTUgCgQ2GGGLPg/s1600/Goslings+%252720+Ap+24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijzl2qy-fvythcp3DaQUrAs830Oulac4HBjzq0hxOiyKQIux-zLX08qFLchqV7ahg4EHhzlQX1cqLfZHJP_fmCk8MknWOZJ-YRqgjjPTUZ3tXhwWMfxA7Wuz-MdTUgCgQ2GGGLPg/s400/Goslings+%252720+Ap+24.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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WATCH AS AN EVIL VIDEOGRAPHER BREAKS UP A RELAXED FAMILY GATHERING:<br />
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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q44Iwn5GHJvFC8ZuywBOHMHdGGqPdeUk/view?usp=sharing<br />
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George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-38320666323411840582020-03-31T07:02:00.001-05:002020-03-31T10:05:34.339-05:00Goose and Gander Back Again<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">GOOSE AND GANDER</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">While we shelter on the property, the goose and gander find shelter in our pond for their most important role in life. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">They're back again for the fourth Spring in a row and they are nesting in exactly the same spot! They even seem to remember who we are and do not get distressed when we approach the nest! They will bring forth their young in about a week.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">May we also profit in some way from our need to </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">"stay-at-home".</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">"Here's lookin' at ya."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFw17tbUbBKTe1suDh01FrXULuUKG67Ty7JCeRROoErbRcQlQX3vfThFym0YWhOjEqyshKu60NGoJBJi3gfEHWpoC6g4_zqPyUvx9DXEvzaWvAjM2N6Pz8L-Om14SYUUBxuWHkxw/s1600/Goose+Nesting+w+Gander+Mar+30%252C+%252720.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1600" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFw17tbUbBKTe1suDh01FrXULuUKG67Ty7JCeRROoErbRcQlQX3vfThFym0YWhOjEqyshKu60NGoJBJi3gfEHWpoC6g4_zqPyUvx9DXEvzaWvAjM2N6Pz8L-Om14SYUUBxuWHkxw/s640/Goose+Nesting+w+Gander+Mar+30%252C+%252720.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div>
George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-11072110294713326642020-03-23T07:02:00.000-05:002020-03-23T07:02:14.391-05:00Covid 19, Time for Hope<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0IiuMaBfA9t68yJqL73L4BaJfBizGJUJuaUywJ31TWga5ql5X4YfqQpagG5qALXnS0EG-0P3FTUmH4ZB4yxt4HhfoTyaGzSfIDW0ku8hXCXHzr3rNh9Cmv8LQZhr-3RolMHXKZQ/s1600/blossoming+fruit+tree+Mar+22+%252720.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1453" data-original-width="1113" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0IiuMaBfA9t68yJqL73L4BaJfBizGJUJuaUywJ31TWga5ql5X4YfqQpagG5qALXnS0EG-0P3FTUmH4ZB4yxt4HhfoTyaGzSfIDW0ku8hXCXHzr3rNh9Cmv8LQZhr-3RolMHXKZQ/s400/blossoming+fruit+tree+Mar+22+%252720.jpg" width="306" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">A blossoming "fruit" tree on our grounds. One of the first days of summer provided perfect sun and sky as background.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Even while we mourn the deaths of thousands whose lives are
taken by COVID 19, at the same time these very deaths are moving medical
professionals to search for a long-term fix that will end this pandemic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So many of us are living today because of
so-called miracle drugs and vaccines that owe their existence to skillful and
committed scientists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I benefited
myself from penicillin, a drug that first became available only in the years
that I needed it to cure my rheumatic fever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Had I been born and contracted the disease just twenty years earlier, I
may not have lived past my eighth birthday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
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<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">With this experience I am naturally optimistic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our optimism, however, is often
challenged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The predictions of
treatments that will save the lives of cancer patients have often been too
optimistic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the nature of this new
virus may be such that it will always be ahead of our ability to control
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That being said, we have proven our
ability to control other such viruses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">But my optimism also has its source in hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a Christian I understand the scriptural
record of Jesus’ healings as a revelation of God’s hopes for humanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think of the revelation in this way:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God
understood that we ourselves, created in God’s image, had the ability to better
care for one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If Jesus knew
nothing about medical science, he shared with his heavenly Father in this hope-filled
understanding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He shared the Father’s confidence that in
imitating his own love for us we would develop new talents for compassion and
care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The committed and curious health care workers and scientists among
us are the saints who have practiced this compassion with all of their energy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are doing Christ’s work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God alone knows how it will all play
out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But our efforts at compassion and
care can only enhance the plan that God has for us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-13447381823944182652020-03-16T19:37:00.002-05:002020-03-31T09:57:50.094-05:00 90 minutes before sunrise March 16<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A Clear Morning!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOFVzBcgPq-dXeQQVD1kO0tDeam3P_7gM0Br2jUE394xbIldvtwToSOtjy8v4B08JiY9Hciapuas9kbsxJBH5mCWRBoFVQNBSAdcxEFgIUDYhAQQlezgWDW26VLOLtSySCT_1s8g/s1600/Planets+Mar+16+%252790++5+45+am.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="1600" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOFVzBcgPq-dXeQQVD1kO0tDeam3P_7gM0Br2jUE394xbIldvtwToSOtjy8v4B08JiY9Hciapuas9kbsxJBH5mCWRBoFVQNBSAdcxEFgIUDYhAQQlezgWDW26VLOLtSySCT_1s8g/s640/Planets+Mar+16+%252790++5+45+am.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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And the planets are still making their presence known six days later, no sheltering in place for them. in fact Mars has moved down and past Jupiter while Saturn keeps its distance.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDPpiFjYP79FmyNqLvgdb4J7ZDXIoxEUZNj8vGla9Nt5cB6E1EahPG2mVqzkid-qCMgcdcpGB25qJUgukxnWMNylCA8aUGWSZ7M1JS2jc1FvVm6ElI3kHZOoVaaC2EQMuanHeNqw/s1600/Saturn.+Mars+and+Jupiter+%2528l+to+r%2529+Mar+22++%252720+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="747" data-original-width="1089" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDPpiFjYP79FmyNqLvgdb4J7ZDXIoxEUZNj8vGla9Nt5cB6E1EahPG2mVqzkid-qCMgcdcpGB25qJUgukxnWMNylCA8aUGWSZ7M1JS2jc1FvVm6ElI3kHZOoVaaC2EQMuanHeNqw/s320/Saturn.+Mars+and+Jupiter+%2528l+to+r%2529+Mar+22++%252720+%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-6554153836231059732020-03-01T19:31:00.000-05:002020-03-14T07:54:37.439-05:00The End of Winter<div style="text-align: center;">
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Winter Finally Coming to an End<br />
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Two Dull Rainy Months! January and February of 2020!<br />
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But a Hint of Spring on Leap Day<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpU1dp0IEGPeNBoZ2y3Q_QQSxBpyhIh5hOl-g4mHeVjSAkDDMizM_2mA_JbTxPkmdU_scKiuXoOjA0N5LxXM8iEi7SObfOz0o_1RpGwgArBpa9M4iBnYpUX5BaZXVh-pq0ufV_1w/s1600/crocus+mar+9++%252790.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1144" data-original-width="1600" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpU1dp0IEGPeNBoZ2y3Q_QQSxBpyhIh5hOl-g4mHeVjSAkDDMizM_2mA_JbTxPkmdU_scKiuXoOjA0N5LxXM8iEi7SObfOz0o_1RpGwgArBpa9M4iBnYpUX5BaZXVh-pq0ufV_1w/s200/crocus+mar+9++%252790.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWf4QqkbpZrCD9Zc5fZUEDujXQkG37X-sKV75Dx4fEoLlldoToUmXDsI8DURkMNGA-uO3W3_NAn1iKwebqpuDcZOcx8HRyUgnDd6aGdsCiB-imoLLNN8DgkBvLUZQVdRqBpqjMow/s1600/crocus+mar+9++%252790+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWf4QqkbpZrCD9Zc5fZUEDujXQkG37X-sKV75Dx4fEoLlldoToUmXDsI8DURkMNGA-uO3W3_NAn1iKwebqpuDcZOcx8HRyUgnDd6aGdsCiB-imoLLNN8DgkBvLUZQVdRqBpqjMow/s200/crocus+mar+9++%252790+%25281%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMr8zY3dGBDI5HSShW2tL7QocMYAFwJkiLRWsHTT4QRnfDl5DYWJsLff7O8XWkaBpfRFhA1ybzS1FX8Y0fR0vKOynvnTCa6-J8-JfOQfeacQsHswKBNkU7VOs97eFbcv_YfbzU8w/s1600/The+End+of+February+2020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMr8zY3dGBDI5HSShW2tL7QocMYAFwJkiLRWsHTT4QRnfDl5DYWJsLff7O8XWkaBpfRFhA1ybzS1FX8Y0fR0vKOynvnTCa6-J8-JfOQfeacQsHswKBNkU7VOs97eFbcv_YfbzU8w/s320/The+End+of+February+2020.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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These buds almost hidden in the dead leaves near the East Cloister<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzSRHR7ihf20W705AN2EVGy6WJ4OyLXwToTvgONv7GAlh2OPKN8X8TOzRypXjgijrJP7oIi-sSAHCKDLrKsIUKUkrfmB_IQJLxrG1qfdl-4CkN9jHDneWU7uHk_uPC4CVxtRTt7Q/s1600/crocus++Mar+10+%252790.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1188" data-original-width="1600" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzSRHR7ihf20W705AN2EVGy6WJ4OyLXwToTvgONv7GAlh2OPKN8X8TOzRypXjgijrJP7oIi-sSAHCKDLrKsIUKUkrfmB_IQJLxrG1qfdl-4CkN9jHDneWU7uHk_uPC4CVxtRTt7Q/s320/crocus++Mar+10+%252790.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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But the Morning Skies through February Featured Jupiter and Mars<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj705lSzCkRF0jd5aF3658L1nx54393tLlKwam13Cs6ymgT9q-O8WlenMdp7DeP29Te3smfAuA6FzsxGF8B4CwfBD43Wv1jYFyyb107jL3aFG9L-i8VAUyQcqIND16TIHjf6THiZg/s1600/Jupiter+and+Mars++2+23+20++half+after+5+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1349" data-original-width="1600" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj705lSzCkRF0jd5aF3658L1nx54393tLlKwam13Cs6ymgT9q-O8WlenMdp7DeP29Te3smfAuA6FzsxGF8B4CwfBD43Wv1jYFyyb107jL3aFG9L-i8VAUyQcqIND16TIHjf6THiZg/s400/Jupiter+and+Mars++2+23+20++half+after+5+%25281%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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And here with the Moon Between Them (Mars in the upper right hand corner!)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizd3KZOrFARwc1UdJc5PJFs-Dgv9DFP0Afj-dl6pDmMOYuTxEGdzhtFW10HYxj5fNz4_iinH7rMI_ZTfFZ0s5u3ujAymY3i-SAkurVdep6WwBdb-rjkpxfa8XkN6akWFExZNOQIw/s1600/Moon%252C+Jupiter+and+Maybe+Mars++2+19+20+%2526+20+after+six+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1076" data-original-width="1600" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizd3KZOrFARwc1UdJc5PJFs-Dgv9DFP0Afj-dl6pDmMOYuTxEGdzhtFW10HYxj5fNz4_iinH7rMI_ZTfFZ0s5u3ujAymY3i-SAkurVdep6WwBdb-rjkpxfa8XkN6akWFExZNOQIw/s640/Moon%252C+Jupiter+and+Maybe+Mars++2+19+20+%2526+20+after+six+%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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And below on Mar 14, at 6:20 AM they appear much close to one another. Saturn is also nearby but I will be lucky if I can get it to show in my phone camera.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi56Jmq-LG24Vf0w3yI9lGgAbbnSWRIDdgh-jLmNBhdrjNM8nJWzCmMXDolPlqB7oh9an-TsbBCoRlcYRfm5-J7Q2I5X4z2Pqza4AkG6tyOif1JeJBHeYYMGmwHj1oBeYuk5yFHbw/s1600/Jupiter+and+Mars+Mar+14+%252720++6+20+AM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1110" data-original-width="1600" height="441" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi56Jmq-LG24Vf0w3yI9lGgAbbnSWRIDdgh-jLmNBhdrjNM8nJWzCmMXDolPlqB7oh9an-TsbBCoRlcYRfm5-J7Q2I5X4z2Pqza4AkG6tyOif1JeJBHeYYMGmwHj1oBeYuk5yFHbw/s640/Jupiter+and+Mars+Mar+14+%252720++6+20+AM.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-74339333131596576132020-01-25T08:38:00.000-05:002020-01-25T08:38:31.989-05:00Legal Protection of the Unborn<br />
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<b><span style="color: #008061; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-variant: small-caps;">January
22</span><span style="color: #008061; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="ReadingTitle"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="CP_JUMP_3683"></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of
Unborn Children</span></b><b><span style="color: #008061; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-variant: small-caps;"> </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 26.6667px; font-variant-caps: small-caps;">Sunrise on January 23</span></span></div>
<b><span style="color: #008061; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><o:p></o:p></span></b><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: dotted gray .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; padding: 0in;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpj7d2obmSN5QKk4mJGmrVDuHhdkCjttY3wnmeDsBF2GpMJ7Fy49WDMR7hHZLyGra8EX-RqShJ4KQ-ZfYte0tTkYPZfJxSMweLVoz73cLRmpCePn8jB2GMus91s_Xuih5ejI3s1g/s1600/Sunrise+Jan+23+2020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="803" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpj7d2obmSN5QKk4mJGmrVDuHhdkCjttY3wnmeDsBF2GpMJ7Fy49WDMR7hHZLyGra8EX-RqShJ4KQ-ZfYte0tTkYPZfJxSMweLVoz73cLRmpCePn8jB2GMus91s_Xuih5ejI3s1g/s400/Sunrise+Jan+23+2020.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Gospel and Preaching Text for January 22</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Gospel<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><a href="http://cms.usccb.org/bible/matthew/18:1"><b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #008061; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: .9pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; text-underline: none;">MT 18:1-5, 10, 12-14</span></b></a><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The disciples approached Jesus and said,</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?"</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and
said,</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like
children,</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Whoever becomes humble like this child</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And whoever receives one child such as this in my name
receives me.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"See that you do not despise one of these little
ones,</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">for I say to you that their angels in heaven</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What is your opinion?</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and go in search of the stray?</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more
over it</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly
Father</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">that one of these little ones be lost."</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The period of time after Roe vs. Wade
corresponds roughly with my own years as a priest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was ordained in June of 1972 and the
decision regarding Roe that invalidated state laws prohibiting abortion was
handed down in January of 1973.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Through
the last 47 years I have followed the debate and spoken frequently about the
need to protect life from conception to natural death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are blessed to have in every Catholic
community men and women who have found ways to assist women who identify
pregnancy as a dilemma for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I believe that the developing embryo is
a human being from the moment of conception.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If I have any doubt I am persuaded by the need to grant this organism
the benefit of the doubt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This blanket
belief is consistent with our universal belief in the human dignity of the
child after birth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe that the organism
before birth bears the exact essence of the child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I take notice, too, of Pope Francis’s
pertinent remarks in his encyclical on the environment, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Laudato Si</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here he points
to the need for a consistent posture toward life protecting both the developing
fetus and the threatened biosphere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“….Concern
for the protection of nature is… incompatible with the justification of
abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other
vulnerable beings, (even earth itself, this my own addition) ….if we fail to
protect a human embryo?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If personal and
social sensitivity towards the acceptance of the new life is lost, then other
forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(120)</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In any case the laws prohibiting
abortions in the USA were unevenly enforced over the years before Roe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even today I believe the weakened laws
protecting the fetus from certain procedures or at certain periods of gestation
are unevenly enforced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The difficulty of enforcement has always been one
hesitation arguing against absolute and universal abortion laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But we should note that abortion is
not the only moral problem that demands prudent law and its careful
implementation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Especially in modern
times, for example, war cries out for laws to guarantee the protection of
non-combatants and for the enforcement of these laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For this reason there are very detailed, absolute
and universal laws protecting non-combatants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These laws have international support and they speak well of our
sensitivity to human dignity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But again
these laws are nearly impossible to enforce despite ongoing efforts in an
International Criminal Court.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sadly war-time
violence against civilians overwhelms the desire to punish such violence and
the desire to eliminate it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But no
reasonable government or civic body questions the nature of the laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And their enactment unites communities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the case of abortion the
widespread belief that the developing embryo and fetus should not be granted
human status creates a lack of unity around the need for protection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Approval in the USA of absolute laws
protecting the fetus like those protecting non-combatants faces a very steep
up-hill battle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There are, for example, over 350,000
medical abortions a year in our country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even should laws prohibit them, the nation lacks substantially the
enforcement and judicial systems required to enforce such a law. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Controlling the drugs used will be almost
impossible and offers no solution. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Adding
to this enforcement burden the vast majority of the women and medical
professionals involved in these medical abortions deny that these procedures in
the first ten weeks of pregnancy are the taking of human life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any consistent effort to enforce a law
against this practice will lead to a fractured human community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
could say “so bit it” but laws prohibiting medical abortions are very unlikely
to be enacted and less likely to be enforced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Protection for the unborn facing medical
abortions will be better served by devoting our resources to education about
the nature of the fetus and to providing services to pregnant women who are
contemplating abortion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in all
cases, whether our laws are perfect or imperfect applications of natural law, we
can rely on God’s justice and mercy having the last word.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Of course, 60 to 65% of abortions are
not medical abortions and there is a need to decide on some level of protection
for these unborn, protection that is prudent and that our human community can
administer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such protection must include continued and expanded
outreach to support and encourage pregnant women. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I welcome the wisdom of our two new Justices
on the Supreme Court.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope that they
can aid the court to broaden the level of protection.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We join in prayers for the unborn,
for pregnant women no matter their intentions and for medical professionals and
bioethicists who dedicate themselves to protect life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-63947530701857204982020-01-19T11:31:00.000-05:002020-01-19T11:31:05.953-05:00Go West Young Man (and Woman) !<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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AM JAN 9, 2020 Vapor Trails GO WEST YOUNG MAN (and WOMAN)</div>
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Three trails getting an edge on the morning, all going west! But at least we will have warm sun right here in the East.</div>
<br />George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-44287395266361261022020-01-08T19:05:00.000-05:002020-01-08T19:05:11.407-05:00First photogenic snow of the season Jan 6, 2020<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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JANUARY 8, 2020</div>
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FIRST PHOTOGENIC SNOW OF THE SEASON</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgB6-h7YoW_3QHEdv0p36X6H3vTWRAbH9Y3AUW7quWZfAcrQYV1EqPm3XeqeWvN2MwnC4I2iX1gapm5YIk0FgEy0iXC8awbyvRXzCXuBDmq3sj5Gbw4_ohFzi4ZzgMplT0YSl6nQ/s1600/Jan+8+2020++%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="993" data-original-width="1600" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgB6-h7YoW_3QHEdv0p36X6H3vTWRAbH9Y3AUW7quWZfAcrQYV1EqPm3XeqeWvN2MwnC4I2iX1gapm5YIk0FgEy0iXC8awbyvRXzCXuBDmq3sj5Gbw4_ohFzi4ZzgMplT0YSl6nQ/s640/Jan+8+2020++%25282%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAkSndshOGHns7hCbWyEAS6V2xWpYWWhXehbyU5efgPnzqQMeOFDB9ramohB_cnrPD8Pm7JyMF2xfG0WxXFobw7_fxzmVrW7XVqRubcbpthVyQHnJgxRB9LA2GKFY2O3st5BUouQ/s1600/Jan+8+2020++%25283%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1600" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAkSndshOGHns7hCbWyEAS6V2xWpYWWhXehbyU5efgPnzqQMeOFDB9ramohB_cnrPD8Pm7JyMF2xfG0WxXFobw7_fxzmVrW7XVqRubcbpthVyQHnJgxRB9LA2GKFY2O3st5BUouQ/s640/Jan+8+2020++%25283%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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THE WEST WIND WHIPS THE SNOW OFF THE TREES</div>
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<br />George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-19439810807170452862019-12-24T13:15:00.001-05:002019-12-24T14:06:33.570-05:00What about Joseph?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdn_xBxhdqqQqUP6jb0OrFvXLRa7QanNXexVyfr_13gS6074nBXo303VG8V1C5jmTMgOzCB3ygOMckBMqEXP5y9Ye5vaU7CH8g59LigAVD2D-T7_G9mCiy9WyXIYghvvU9-tbcMQ/s1600/Sleeping+St.+Joseph+Pillow+Plain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="247" data-original-width="320" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdn_xBxhdqqQqUP6jb0OrFvXLRa7QanNXexVyfr_13gS6074nBXo303VG8V1C5jmTMgOzCB3ygOMckBMqEXP5y9Ye5vaU7CH8g59LigAVD2D-T7_G9mCiy9WyXIYghvvU9-tbcMQ/s400/Sleeping+St.+Joseph+Pillow+Plain.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">THE SLEEPING JOSEPH, DREAMING OF HIS MISSION</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Today about Joseph, the steady and quiet Joseph.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A dream moves Joseph to take care of Mary and
become the legal father of her child Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He is told quite distinctly in the dream that this child is to save the
Jewish people from their sins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Pope
Francis keeps in his own bedroom a statue of St. Joseph reclining in sleep as a
reminder that the Spirit of God sometimes speaks with us in the quiet solitude
of our rest or our prayer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">I
dream every night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once in a dream a
few years ago, Pope John Paul ll appeared to my mother and me in her kitchen
and we were supposed to provide him with breakfast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were totally unprepared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(To be clear, no other recognized saint ever
appeared to me in a dream.)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9vYIjFCR7lws2f0E83KomHqEwUjisRCPNwDTL_BHN2_hNP2do9bU8_24GOcabVdCr9WyNo-tw5MWN7R1R5Z8wf5s181CAe02mQ-7vQUzelLezOVGhdSlwRJi4xgH6lurwZTyafw/s1600/Nativity++Brady+%252351+Middle.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9vYIjFCR7lws2f0E83KomHqEwUjisRCPNwDTL_BHN2_hNP2do9bU8_24GOcabVdCr9WyNo-tw5MWN7R1R5Z8wf5s181CAe02mQ-7vQUzelLezOVGhdSlwRJi4xgH6lurwZTyafw/s640/Nativity++Brady+%252351+Middle.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: x-small;">IN THIS MULTI-MEDIA ON BROWN PAPER, JOSEPH IS SCRATCHING HIS HEAD IN WONDER!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: x-small;">(From the Brady Collection at Wernersville, artist unknown, Dated likely in the 1920's)</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Notably
Matthew depicts Joseph as silent even when he is not asleep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has none of his own lines in this drama
of Jesus’ birth and growth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He comes on
stage and does his duty fully and generously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But we never hear him say a single word.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In fact after the young family settles in Nazareth, there is only a
brief mention of him, years later, when the townspeople refer to Jesus as the
carpenter’s son.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">But
think of the possibilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus’
Mother Mary is the one who finally voices the possible and asks Jesus to do the
extraordinary at the Wedding Feast of Cana where she pushes the adult Jesus to
change the water into wine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">But
what was Joseph thinking all those years before in his carpenter shop?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Typically a son like Jesus would have helped
in the shop and would have been a student at a school in the town
synagogue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Joseph kept it a secret
that his son was destined to save his people from their sins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joseph accepted patiently the role he was
given.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The father in heaven asked him
to live an ordinary life with an extraordinary son.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He did
not use this relationship to boost his own standing in the community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He must have been happy to have his son
recognized as a good student and a young man with excellent social skills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he himself stays in the background.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no evidence that Joseph even lives
to see their son as a recognized religious leader.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">I think of Joseph as a patron saint of shall-we-say ordinary
fatherhood <u>if we can even think of fatherhood as ordinary</u>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He protected his wife and child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He accepted the gift of his wife and loved
her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He taught his child the skills
that he knew, even the social skills at which Jesus excelled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And his patient love helped to build a world
best defined by his son, the gift of God with us.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-37250306076199499582019-12-19T20:20:00.000-05:002019-12-20T13:23:32.573-05:00What place Mary in our saving Hope?<br />
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">What place Mary in our saving Hope?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaGaFQBiFVPvLkh8LBggh91kRGWltql1Ln_YzuSSkmgo77yE3vdreSO9smdFh5ZLbIekJIAUgAguIMgrGT66XmVE_4xkWG4VZmpw6QHFv_-isAo3r6UoqFrfooUrblmRc1MnhGTg/s1600/Nativity++Brady+%252351+Middle.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaGaFQBiFVPvLkh8LBggh91kRGWltql1Ln_YzuSSkmgo77yE3vdreSO9smdFh5ZLbIekJIAUgAguIMgrGT66XmVE_4xkWG4VZmpw6QHFv_-isAo3r6UoqFrfooUrblmRc1MnhGTg/s400/Nativity++Brady+%252351+Middle.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Nativity image from the Brady art collection at the Jesuit Center in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Wernersville. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It fits the season of Advent to pepper the daily readings and
feasts during these four weeks before Christmas with references to the Mother
of God, Mary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we celebrate in this
season both the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and that of the Feast of Our
Lady of Guadalupe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a memory of
popular devotion to Mary, I recall celebrating Mass at the Shrine
of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, built where it is said that the Mother
of God appeared to an Aztec native, Juan Diego.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even as we celebrated Mass on the main altar at an early hour young couples approached prayerfully at a side
altar to present their new-born children before the same image of Our Lady that
Juan is said to have found imprinted on his cloak.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">There is such an outpouring of affection among the faithful
for Mary that Protestants sometimes accuse us of worshiping her or praying
only to her as if she were the Incarnate God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">We know that we do not worship her but look to her as a saint
in heaven, indeed as a disciple of her Son, a mother who can help us grow in
the graces of discipleship ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Our love for her, however, does raise the question about why indeed she
herself could not have come to us as the Second Person of the Blessed
Trinity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I ask God why Mary
is not our Incarnate God instead of Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>God in Three Persons could certainly have arranged for that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And any child that Mary, as our Incarnate
God and Savior, might have conceived could have been born to be a disciple to
her rather than the other way around.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">We cannot question the
freedom of God to arrange our salvation in any way God desires.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know that the Second Person of the
Trinity comes as Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This has been
revealed to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are, indeed, some
cultural reasons why God might come to us as a man instead of a woman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of them, I conjecture, is that women were
far less likely to be crucified in the Roman Empire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And God in the crucifixion of Jesus wanted
us to know the greatness of divine love for us. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus
showed us such great love by subjecting himself to the worst possible
humiliation and suffering that the so-called civilized world has devised: Crucifixion.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Mary as the Incarnate God could have suffered the same fate
but women were almost always protected from crucifixion. We have in the history of lynchings in the
United States something similar. The victims of lynchings were sometimes women but this was exceptional. Crucifixions and lynchings,
public shows of power, are used to humiliate, intimidate and eliminate
opposition and they typically fall on men.
Women within the cultures that tolerate crucifixion and lynching suffer
humiliations and abuse in other ways and Mary suffered at the foot of Jesus’
cross to represent them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">God chose to come as the man Jesus to take on this
responsibility of sharing the worst effects of human sin that any one of us
could suffer, humiliations and abuse of any kind. Jesus wanted
all of us and especially all those who suffered like pain and humiliation to be
strengthened by the fact that God chose to suffer in the same way. The sufferings of Jesus and the pierced heart
of the Mother of God are 100% sufficient to strengthen and comfort men and
women who have suffered atrocities of all kinds.</span> <span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It is with this man Jesus and his Mother that we will
be saved from our darkness. So we
celebrate in this season the beginning of our salvation in the birth of the
Child and in the generous willingness of His Mother to follow him in hope. They become our hope even as the world
rejects them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">2019 Christmas Card by Sr. Mary Bur, IHM, one of an annual series!</span></div>
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George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-59468339625470850442019-11-25T15:33:00.001-05:002019-11-25T15:33:44.092-05:00November photos<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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NOVEMBER PHOTOS</div>
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Sunrise, November 7</div>
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States of Red and Blue</div>
George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-60654258099267301082019-11-02T07:35:00.000-05:002019-11-08T16:36:11.182-05:00Leisure and "Seeing"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk_NAJR8bES18HIUMgHTUtZuHQM0M0ZwRo4rYKIz9Z_fbOfQV_5BJpc4vUbRocQckgwL1pBMZ5qHSGCM3xD8TrjHrfDYwLvh4dWqNc5L9yg0w54BF9HrgktryJTECjdTUBdSx2PQ/s1600/Volunteer+in+the+cracks+of+the+east+cloister++Oct+%252719.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk_NAJR8bES18HIUMgHTUtZuHQM0M0ZwRo4rYKIz9Z_fbOfQV_5BJpc4vUbRocQckgwL1pBMZ5qHSGCM3xD8TrjHrfDYwLvh4dWqNc5L9yg0w54BF9HrgktryJTECjdTUBdSx2PQ/s400/Volunteer+in+the+cracks+of+the+east+cloister++Oct+%252719.jpg" width="250" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;"><b>We see this volunteer finding a crack in the stone cloister walk!</b></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Short reflections on
Leisure and “Seeing”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>from <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Josef Pieper’s <i>Only
the Lover Sings: Art and Contemplation.</i><br />
</span></b><span style="color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Pieper
argues that avoiding idolization of labor today cannot be achieved except by an
objection based on some ultimate truth about human nature (which is therefore
to be taken as of lasting relevance, he assumes). He notes how there are still
vague notions about the seventh day of the week being special and about
holidays and quitting time (in Germany), but that we are ignorant of how the
accumulated wisdom of our Western cultural and existential tradition “as
expressed, say, by Plato, and Aristotle, or the great teachers of Christianity”
viewed leisure.<br />
<br />
<b>“The most important element in this teaching declares: the ultimate
fulfillment, the absolutely meaningful activity, the most perfect expression of
being alive, the deepest satisfaction, and the fullest achievement of human
existence must needs happen in an instance of beholding, namely in the
contemplating awareness of the world’s ultimate and intrinsic foundations.”</b> P.
22. He asks the question what constitutes here and now an activity that is
meaningful in itself, in contrast to an activity that is meaningful for what it
produces, and he answers that it is whenever in contemplation we touch, however
remotely, the core of all things. As Matthew Arnold once wrote, “The touch of
truth is the touch of life.”<br />
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He says that in feast days (he glancingly mentions the Sabbath) man has traditionally expressed his
being in harmony and awareness of being surrounded by such fundamental
realities, in non-ordinary ways.<br />
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He says, indeed, that wherever there is lacking the attitude of heart and mind
recognizing and seeking to live in harmony with this fundamental truth of human
nature (“even if beheld through a veil of tears”), all endeavors to organize
relaxation techniques turn hectic and, indeed, become an “outright desperate,
form of work”. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> See me Seeing you! </span><span style="color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: x-small;">Artist: Eileen Martin</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjPGANqu9j5zLuejWyRwcC0BkfKeZ8N-HqnJ5sOFqWXZ5B3dFO11gMKRKilJrNP2WCe-L3UOmZLjUXJ58jz2dWGhNfvwM9M0JWUzDHWPV1f-E59EddH0ZVoOqm-YvbMr9qAeWaGw/s1600/See+me+Seeing+you.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjPGANqu9j5zLuejWyRwcC0BkfKeZ8N-HqnJ5sOFqWXZ5B3dFO11gMKRKilJrNP2WCe-L3UOmZLjUXJ58jz2dWGhNfvwM9M0JWUzDHWPV1f-E59EddH0ZVoOqm-YvbMr9qAeWaGw/s320/See+me+Seeing+you.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span><br />
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In the second essay, “Learning How To See Again”, Pieper asks the excellent
question “How can we be saved from becoming a totally passive consumer of
mass-produced goods and a subservient follower beholden to every slogan the
managers may proclaim? The question really is: How can man preserve and
safeguard the foundation of his spiritual dimension and an uncorrupted
relationship to reality? He suggests that more and more we tend to see with
less detailed grasp, to hear with less detail (in contrast for example to the
Indians) and to remember with less capacity.....(These weaknesses are related to
the commercial and corrupting images with which materialism has flooded the
world.)……<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">He says that fasting and abstention from the “noise” is a
valuable first step but hardly sufficient<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">.
“A better and more immediately effective remedy is this: to be active oneself
in artistic creation, producing shapes and forms for the eye to see.<br />
</b><br />
Nobody (for example) has to observe and study the visible mystery of the human
face more than the one who sets out to sculpt in a tangible medium. And this
holds true not only for the manually formed medium.”<br />
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(From a blogger posting as “Infinite Resources”)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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We see how the blue sky highlights this red tree entering the winter.</div>
George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-51663636426741841302019-10-23T18:18:00.000-05:002019-11-02T07:33:16.578-05:00Indian Summer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
October 21, 2019 A beautiful day in our neighborhood.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoQpo6IJhw1-1YD6BG_cNzby1f_0IIG6iod3UA83SPe4YoEcFQfArb3NoCfO6utehOsEjTPzSuz1r8c1QPfr_sigphuXlq3RCv7WEcnJ_udAhFeSX_9HlI4jyjqm6IvvCHLrUf_w/s1600/Autumn+Indian+Summer+%252719.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1092" data-original-width="1600" height="436" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoQpo6IJhw1-1YD6BG_cNzby1f_0IIG6iod3UA83SPe4YoEcFQfArb3NoCfO6utehOsEjTPzSuz1r8c1QPfr_sigphuXlq3RCv7WEcnJ_udAhFeSX_9HlI4jyjqm6IvvCHLrUf_w/s640/Autumn+Indian+Summer+%252719.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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And at our pond, this aged turtle takes the sun!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNVvxg5Aro8xDS_P77oR66rNyyOiadi2b-sv2witx2TEfT9rxcJPe6WZrvzfQemJwEyXfOwumBKSZUfQfWa5tYEl6pT5QlbUWj0HMcos21pKpo1DMUaQ-UJvTgGJBQ-_0UI_WYTw/s1600/Turtle+at+Goupil+Oc+21+%252719.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="893" data-original-width="1600" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNVvxg5Aro8xDS_P77oR66rNyyOiadi2b-sv2witx2TEfT9rxcJPe6WZrvzfQemJwEyXfOwumBKSZUfQfWa5tYEl6pT5QlbUWj0HMcos21pKpo1DMUaQ-UJvTgGJBQ-_0UI_WYTw/s640/Turtle+at+Goupil+Oc+21+%252719.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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And a hawk, probably the red-tailed, puffs out his chest. The hawk would not pass muster with the Audubon Magazine photo editor (but I did see this hawk!).</div>
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George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-52575997727058029462019-08-27T18:57:00.000-05:002019-08-30T10:28:26.619-05:00Summer 2019: Miraculous Marigolds<div style="text-align: center;">
Miraculous Marigolds</div>
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Among my Christmas presents seven months ago was a small envelope from my brother and sister-in-law, Tony and Peggy. They sent me and my siblings, too, each some seeds from a marigold plant that miraculously appeared in their 2018 summer yard. I decided to get my hands dirty and here is a record of their gift....miraculous I would say. Thousands of more seeds.</div>
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April 7</div>
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April 20</div>
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May 25</div>
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May 25</div>
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June 21</div>
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July 1</div>
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July 31</div>
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August </div>
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George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-86094892854949841732019-08-27T18:41:00.003-05:002019-09-02T16:02:14.629-05:00Summer 2019: the Butterfly Garden<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"> I have let the summer go be without a single post. Fortunately there were plenty of things for me to note personally. But for this record just a few photos. ( If I can find a paragraph or two of an interesting sermon I will post it! ) </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Friends of the Spiritual Center who are naturalists with a keen interest in butterflies and their habitats have found our property to be an ideal site for a garden attractive and helpful to monarchs and other butterflies. Since an early summer installation, the flowering plants in the garden, including milkweed have flourished. And the butterflies were quick to find this stopping place.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">These butterflies (called Red-Spotted Purples) were sunning themselves not in the garden but along a park walk not far away!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The more prolific flying creatures on the property are the spotted lantern flies. Thousands of them appeared on a set of young maples. Fortunately our pest control company dealt with them. But the pests are keeping that company busy!</span></div>
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George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-36622353977732310582019-06-01T09:02:00.001-05:002019-06-04T15:18:22.496-05:00Tom Prior receives Alumnus Award from Saint Joseph's Prep<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"> Tom Prior receives Prep alumnus award in May 2019 at the annual gathering of the Golden Agers, men graduated more than fifty years ago. Tom is pictured here with Fr. John Swope, S.J., president, and Kevin Ryan, Director of Alumni</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Homily for "Golden Agers" at St. Joseph's Prep<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>MAY
31, 2019<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>VISITATION FEAST<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 22.0pt;">Very often fiction and poetry writers
have a particular image or event that they choose as the center of their
story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I recently read a novel in
which the ending is very startling and upsetting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems totally improbable sitting there by
itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is at the end of the novel and the
author, I believe, first of all imagined this startling event before he knew
anything about the characters and their stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So he wrote the story to prepare the reader
to accept the senselessness of the startling act, all along hinting at what that
act might be without giving the ending away. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 22.0pt;">I bring this up because on this feast
day designated by the Church, the Feast of the Visitation of Mary to her cousin
Elizabeth, both of them pregnant, we experience the evangelist Luke doing
something of the same thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luke and
the earliest Christian community already know the story of the lives of the two
children who will be born to these women, John the Baptist and Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In particular the Spirit inspired the first
Christian community to help it understand that Jesus is risen from the
dead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the community experienced this
conviction in the most Jewish of ways as an experience of Jesus returning to
them in his risen body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He encourages them with his greetings of peace
and his commission to let the world know of God’s compassion and mercy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 22.0pt;">Luke’s gospel writing about Jesus’
life and the life of his cousin John records events looking back from the
viewpoint of Jesus’ resurrection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus Luke adds world-shattering language to the
greetings and prayers that Jesus’ Mother Mary and cousin Elizabeth exchange
when they meet each other to share their hopes for their children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mary is a young <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jewish girl without any special pedigree but
she speaks the poetry of gratitude and excitement indicating even in the first
months of pregnancy that she already recognizes the salvific nature of the life
of her child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mary can only hint at
what happens at </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 22.0pt;">the end of the Jesus’ life, the
particulars still unknown to her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
she has faith in the recognition of her blessedness. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 22.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She magnifies the Lord and her spirit leapt
for joy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She hints, too, at her child’s
role in the fulfillment of God’s promises to the Jewish people: “He has come to
the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy.”</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 22.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 22.0pt;">You can see where we can go with
this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here we are at an age when we are
coming to the end of our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
today have come together and remember with gratitude our experiences at St.
Joseph’s Prep over fifty years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like
Luke knows Jesus, we know about our lives and we can look back at our high
school years from this vantage point today and put into our seventeen year old
mouth some language related to the successes and failures, joys and sorrows,
hopes and dreams in all our experiences up until today. These
words will certainly have something to do with the characteristics that were
taught to us, even imposed on us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 22.0pt;">I look back now and I try to remember
or paraphrase the words of my seventeen-year-old mouth or even rewrite them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t recall magnifying the Lord and
leaping for joy the way Luke expresses Mary’s youthful excitement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Well, we did celebrate when we beat Roman! The football team paved the way for others since then. </span>And the Jesuits taught us to be confident
that there are good choices ahead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
they insisted that we develop the desire for the good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 22.0pt;">Like a good fiction writer now
enjoying a return to a place of high school formation and now reflecting on all
that has happened over fifty and more years, I encourage each of you to find
that sentence or two that you might have voiced when seventeen that foreshadows
the positive feelings of returning here this day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 22.0pt;">I can hear some of our sentences. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“That son-of-a-gun is trying to teach me a
lesson…well he can just go fly a kite--(my language is controlled here!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Or, “I know I need to get up in front of everybody and give a speech but
I think I am going to lose my breakfast.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Or, “I’m working my butt off; what makes you think I can do better?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or “I’m tired of working on muscle memory;
I just want to go out and play.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We spoke such sentences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we can rewrite them now realizing that they
penetrated our characters without breaking our spirits and we grew with them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 22.0pt;">Those Jesuits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They challenged us and opened new paths for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was the work of God calling us to
lives filled with love and the deeds of love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And the best thing about today is not so much us but that this work of building
character continues right here day-in and day-out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And over the last 50 years some 10,000 men have been
added to our number.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Loving, religious,
intellectually competent, open to growth and committed to doing justice.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-71111684898887441332019-05-27T14:27:00.000-05:002019-05-27T14:27:11.685-05:00Prayer for Courage<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe4UzOmTk4J5chsbleVK1eWozfeJmLXF_yojNJVVSS8kZGOiRoiYdCl9cfpKehjXNxE34vmWIuoP6s8K16-SLLwtZX67fIPytVeTpfNGpbuuJ_Aoc5h6O3zEBhvmFaGMmnD2qZZg/s1600/Courage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="564" data-original-width="553" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe4UzOmTk4J5chsbleVK1eWozfeJmLXF_yojNJVVSS8kZGOiRoiYdCl9cfpKehjXNxE34vmWIuoP6s8K16-SLLwtZX67fIPytVeTpfNGpbuuJ_Aoc5h6O3zEBhvmFaGMmnD2qZZg/s320/Courage.jpg" width="313" /></a></div>
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And allowing others to do the same!</div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Prayer for
Courage May 2, 2019 <o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Good God, your creation speaks to us directly about your own
courage. You, while knowing the risks,
created us human beings in freedom. We
humans so often are not like loving children who make their parents proud. And
yet your courage in creating us as free persons allows the very possibility of
heroic courage among us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">We learn about courage
from </span><span style="font-size: 24px;">your son Jesus Christ and from </span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">your prophetic men and women down to our own day.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Their courage is like your courage.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">They assert what is right and
just.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">They are not impulsive but
carefully discern what must be done.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">They
will not let the possibilities of failure stand in the way of difficult
missions.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Your life, good God, is also humble in that you offer <u>even
to us</u> all that is good in order to raise us up to you who are not only
exalted but one who shares your strength with us. Help us be like you, God, who is courageous
enough to give yourself away to us so that we might share in your life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So,
God, we pray for the ability to act with your practical courage. Protect us from the dangers of pride. Help us read the signs of the times and discern
with others what is your good. Help us
on our journey of life to be like you and take the risk of giving away our own
strengths and opportunities in order to build up others and give them a greater
share in the good you have shared with us</span>George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30118678.post-91620524016340573912019-05-12T12:07:00.001-05:002019-05-16T13:28:06.408-05:00Gesu School Philadelphia 25 Years<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">GESU SCHOOL 1993-2018</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">On May 9, 2019 500 people gathered at a reception and dinner to give thanks for the mission of Gesu School's first 25 years. It was reborn in 1993 when its supporting congregation closed its doors. It had been a parish school since about 1875. We took the occasion to give a much-deserved honor to Win Churchill who chaired the first independent board and rallied the help of scores of benefactors, thus enabling the school not only to survive but also to flourish.</span></div>
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<b><u><span style="color: #111c24; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Prayer of Thanks for
Twenty-Five Years<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="color: #111c24; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">“Blessed
are you, Lord Our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who has granted a mission to Gesu
School, sustained it’s staff and faculty, its children and their families, and invited
us here to celebrate this occasion, Gesu School now 25 Years as a school reborn
after its supporting congregation closed its doors in 1993.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #111c24; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">How
can we thank you for every day of these 25 years?!! Every
day people like Immaculate Heart Sister Ellen and Jesuit Father Neil bring to
Gesu’s children and their families their love and skillful experience. But these years started in uncertainty. A school would have died without the neighborhood
grandparents and parents who encouraged us to trust in the Spirit. It would have died without the love, the hope and the energy of
our honoree this evening, Win Churchill.
Blessed are we to know him and blessed are we to experience his personal
encouragement, his creative energy and his support down to this day. Blessed are all those persons, many with us
tonight, from both Christian and Jewish faith traditions who joined with Win to
sustain the life of Gesu School.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #111c24; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Whenever
we at Gesu thank Your Spirit, O God, we praise you for revealing to us the
sacredness of Gesu’s children. While we take pride in offering a comprehensive,
innovative education, the children inspire us in their joyful desire to
transcend every form of poverty. We <u>learn
</u>from them as they respond to ignorance and prejudice with child-like wisdom
and welcoming. We<u> learn</u> from
them as they share with one another and with us a legacy primarily of their African-American
spiritual and personal resources.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #111c24; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Now
on this occasion, O God, bless our companionship and our breaking of bread
together as one community. Finally, we
ask you, Lord, to bless us and teach us as we serve all those in need. May God’s Spirit continue to lead us to mend
our broken world. I ask us all now to
repeat after me these two words.
Alleluia, Amen<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="color: #111c24; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;"><u>GESU SPIRIT MEDAL WINNER!</u></span></span></div>
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Fr. Neil Ver'Schneider with some of Gesu's students.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCC0JPBHqZZ4V6Cj6-9YI-D0LwGWQv2g0gybIbRadPITjccCwP8TQDlqatJyDcE00FdZdoGr6KVm8KljrOojtfjRmVEnRw4kqYgSl1My-y6QmDDfKFAWvs0moVcjttESTjeq4V7Q/s1600/P6090329.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCC0JPBHqZZ4V6Cj6-9YI-D0LwGWQv2g0gybIbRadPITjccCwP8TQDlqatJyDcE00FdZdoGr6KVm8KljrOojtfjRmVEnRw4kqYgSl1My-y6QmDDfKFAWvs0moVcjttESTjeq4V7Q/s400/P6090329.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />George Bur, SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981798315809856264noreply@blogger.com1