Tommy’s Birthday

January 28, 2014 at 4:55 am

Today is the day that Thomas Aquinas died in 1274.  Since I went to a Dominican High School, our religion classes were lessons in his teaching.  Since Grandpa was Aristotelian and often said that Thomas baptized Aristotle, he often talked about virtue and the importance of habits for a good character.  While Carmel spoke of John of the Cross and Theresa of Avila, it was also imbued with Thomistic thought.  Here are some quotes for today from him:

Grant me, O lord my God,  a mind to know you,  a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you , and a hope of finally embracing you.

To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary.  To one without faith, no explanation is possible.

The things that we love tell us what we are.

There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.

To love God is something greater than to know Him.

 

Merry Christmas! I have Tidings of Great Joy

January 26, 2014 at 10:48 am

Call it a belated Christmas message.   We did not get around to sending out Christmas cards this year.  Yes I said Christmas.  How politically incorrect.

Over here in India, people do not care about that.  They wish me Happy (Whatever the Festival Day Is) with eyes filled with great joy.  And believe me it seems like there is a festival every week here.  Recently they had a festival similar to our Thanksgiving that was based on the rice harvest.  One of the expats from Spain with whom I golf told me it was one of the few that he understood.  He also said that in his research ( his wife works and he plays golf daily, Face books  and apparently researches cultural items) that he found out that there are 60 Indian holidays.  Companies are required to provide 8 holidays for the festivals.  That does not stop our employees from taking time off for the others.

Today is Republic Day.   India has been a republic for 60 years.    A different Indian  golf mate  ( who lived in the US for years and  runs the  back office of Diebold here) shared with me that India is a modern concept borne out of the independence movement.  He said that India is similar to Europe.   Historically it is a region of hundreds of kingdoms.  The British were the first ones to consolidate the subcontinent which also included Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka.   ( I generally golf once a week despite creating an impression it is otherwise).

My favorite Jesuit this morning celebrated India’s diversity and what a great gift India is from God.  He highlighted how India is the only country in the subcontinent that has not devolved into a military dictatorship like the other countries mentioned above and the Philippines.  Unlike China, where political malcontents are jailed and human rights are nonexistent, a recent anti-corruption political reformer was swept into office as the governor of the state that includes Delhi.  Fr. Raj  focused on the variety of languages, customs and traditional dances.  He said  that India is unique by  harnessing such diversity.   ( He is always  mindful of my presence in the pews and mentioned how the US has also successfully managed diversity making a home for the Irish, Italians, Germans and more recently the Hispanics.)

He tied Republic Day backed to the readings of the day.  In particular,  Isaiah spoke of rod of the oppressor being thrown off and of those sitting in darkness seeing a great light in the land of Galilee.  He also referenced an ancient Vedic text which he said that they all would know.  He quoted a text about the spiritual journey from darkness to light.  He then stated that the constitution embodies a movement from darkness to light and how the fathers of India dreamed of establishing a classless, cooperative, free and happy society.  He then quoted Gandhi saying that it would not be a free country until a woman could walk safely through the streets at night alone.    (Rather sobering given weekly if not daily reports of women being gang raped here.)  The message was one of optimism, hope and a movement from darkness to light for all of us as followers of Jesus.

In his opening prayer and in his homily he also invoked JFK’s  “Ask not what your country do for you , but ask what you can do for your country.”    It is amazing how the Kennedy’s brief moment made such an impression.

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the Indian pride in their country.  It is pretty amazing.   A country of  1.2 billion people that definitely has it challenges but has successfully cultivated the fragile flower of democracy for 60 years.  Just feeding all these people successfully is an accomplishment.  Walking down our street you can see beautiful fruit displays for sale.

But I digress…I do have specific tidings of great joy.    This news also ties into today’s readings where Jesus told James and John to leave their boats and fishing nets.  “Follow Me.”

After Christmas, Patrick and Martin returned with us to visit Dubai and India as you will see elsewhere on my blog.  The evening before their departure we had another birthday dinner to celebrate Patrick turning 36 the next day.  At that dinner, Patrick said that he will be returning to the US after 5 years in China in August.  Not only that.  He has decided to enter Mundelein seminary outside Chicago to study to become a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago.  Kathleen and I choked up as he announced the news.

As my mom said,  “Deep down don’t you know that it is right?”  Indeed.   Mark Ricketts said “God has touched his heart.”

As the hart in the desert pants for water, may we share Patrick’s thirst for God and see rivers of water break out in the desert.  Keep him in your prayers as he responds to God’s call to leave all and Follow Jesus.

 

 

Blessed Teresa’s Meditations for People of All Faiths

January 26, 2014 at 10:43 am

Past couple of days after mom and I do yoga,  I come back and do the Jesuit Examen:

Review the  prior day and what made me sad, glad, mad. How do I find God and understand myself in relationship to God by feeling those emotions?

Spend a few minutes heightening awareness of how I am in the moment and being grateful.

I conclude with a couple of readings.  One from the Courage to Change and some Mother Theresa quotes from Everything starts with Prayer.  I think the Bikram yoga helps me be clear headed and alert for this exercise and helps the readings resonate more.  Mother Theresa’s quotes are so rich that you can read them every day and get more out of the same ones.  Today I was touched by the following:

1)In most modern rooms you see an electrical light that can be turned on by a switch.  But, if there is no connection with the main power house, then there can be no light.  Faith and prayer is the connection with God, and when that is there, there is service.

Since I have also been working through the 12 steps, this quote connected for me with respect to the 4th step where a searching  and fearless moral inventory is made of one’s self.  We need to flip the switch of prayer that God’s light may illuminate the darkness in our interior of those places we are afraid to go.    What are we afraid to bring to the light of God’s mercy?

2)  You may be exhausted with work, you may even kill yourself, but unless your work is interwoven with love, it is useless.  To work without love is slavery.

How often I am too busy or rushed to pay attention to people and what they are saying.  I will  not hear God if I am not listening.  Need to slow done.  Do less.  Not be so busy.  Love and reverence those with whom I work.

3)  People throughout the world may look different or have a different religion, education or position, but they are all the same.  They are people to be loved.  They are all hungry for love.

4) Everything starts from prayer.  Without asking God for love, we cannot possess love and still less are we able to give it to others.  Just as people today are speaking so much about the poor but they do not know the poor, we too cannot talk so much about prayer and yet not know how to pray.

Not sure I ever asked God for love.  I did today.  I ask God to make me aware of how God surrounds us in love and comes to us in love through so many people, events of our day.  Cannot give love if we do not have love.  Love the sentence about people talking about the poor without knowing the poor.  Aren’t we all experts on the subject?!  I certainly do not know the poor. Yet her point is tied to prayer.  We must learn to pray.

5) We have to possess before we can give.  He who has the mission of giving to others must grow first in the knowledge  of God.  She must be full of that knowledge.

6)Love to be true has to begin with God in prayer. If we pray we will be able to love and if we love, we will be able to serve.

7)Whatever religion we are, we must pray together.  Children need to learn to pray and they need to have their parents pray with them.

I regret not praying with you all more.

Home Sweet Home

January 12, 2014 at 2:23 pm

Kathleen and I and our two boys recently toured a few cities in India.  In addition to Hyderabad, we toured Goa, Delhi and Calcutta.  The highlight of the trip was unexpectedly in Calcutta.  I was not sure that we would be able to visit the foundation of Mother Theresa’s work.  I was afraid that “tourists” would get in the way of the work of the sisters.  As it turned out,  the Missionaries of Charity have opened up their home to embrace the curious and the faithful.   We walked a half block down a narrow alley to find the entrance to her home.  After passing through a large vestibule, you are in a sheltered courtyard  that is surrounded by  balconies.  The courtyard is surrounded by modest 2 or 3 story buildings that have housed 200 sisters.  Sisters undergo formation here before they go out to carry out the mission of the order.   This courtyard is where the sisters would gather while Mother Theresa would speak from the balcony to them.

To the right is a room that has Blessed Theresa’s tomb.  It is an elevated structure.  To its right as you enter are two or three rows of benches upon which 4-6 sisters sit calmly and serenely in contemplation.  To the tombs left is a large kneeler.  As I sat on one of the benches, I watched as sisters would enter, kneel down and lay their heads affectionately  on Theresa’s tomb for a few minutes.  It is a beautiful room suffused with a gentle light.  On her tomb, at each corner are vases with beautiful flowers.  In between the flowers is Mary.  She has one hand extended down in blessing that happens to be pointing to Theresa in the tomb. I think that she is pointing to Theresa for our benefit.  “Look at her and her life.  She heard and understood me when I said ‘Do whatever He tells you to do.’ “

Theresa never wanted any attention.  She asked that all her letters to her various spiritual counselors and bishops be burned since she feared that people “…will think more of me—less of Jesus.”  Of course, Theresa like Mary is always pointing or holding out Jesus to us.   Just like all statues of Mary, the one on Theresa’s tomb has Mary holding Jesus.  Jesus is a little child of two or three years of age.  Excitement is all over his face.  He looks like a child excited and happy to see his favorite aunt or uncle, friend or adult playmate as his arms are outstretched toward us.  He is on the edge of falling out of Mary’s arms with the trust and expectation that we will catch him.   I was reminded of this statue when I later read from one of her letters:   “Every Sunday I visit the poor in Calcutta’s slums…Last time about twenty little ones were eagerly expecting their “Ma.”  When they saw me, they ran to meet me, even skipping on one foot.”  She was visiting a “para” where twelve families live in a group of houses.  Every family has one room with a ceiling so low that you cannot stand upright. “It was very painful for me, but at the same time I was very happy when I saw that they are happy because I visit them.  Finally, the mother said to me: ‘Oh, Ma, come again!   Your smile brought sun into this house!’”

Sitting in this little chapel with her sisters was so easy.  It felt like home.

Yet it was deeply emotional.  While serenity, calm and peace dominated, I felt almost a grief-like emotion as well.  God touches deeply here.

I am not sure if Theresa would appreciate this comment since it will be about her, but it felt like this sweet, smiling, loving lady  was there for us.

Of course as Catholics, we believe in the communion of saints and that we are surrounded by them as we worship our God in spirit and truth.

Later again, I read:  “ If I ever become a Saint—I will surely be one of ‘darkness.’  I will continually be absent from heaven—to light the light of those in darkness on earth.”   Much like her personal patron saint, St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower, who said that she would spend her time in heaven doing good on earth.

The four of us had our darkness lightened by Blessed Theresa that day as our spirits and restless hearts found some rest and our home in God.

 

( There are 4 posts about Kolkata.  One of them is redundant and reflects ineptness with posting)

 

Home Sweet Home

January 12, 2014 at 1:20 pm

In the same room as the tomb of Blessed Mother Theresa, there is an altar at which the Eucharist is celebrated each day at 6 am.    The words “ I thirst” are prominently displayed.

Out in the courtyard, two sisters asked Patrick and Martin to help them carry some books for them to a car.  They smiled later as Kathleen told me.

In the courtyard, one could hear sisters praying the Rosary .

There is another room off the courtyard that is dedicated to her life.  It shows pictures and letters that she wrote.  The letters are in English which she learned as a nun.  There was also a bulletin board that had many of her quotes and next to those were 20-30 quotes of Pope Francis.

There is also a  staircase of ten or fewer steps that leads up from the courtyard to the room in which Blessed Theresa slept and worked.  It is a cell.  It has room for her narrow bed.  On the wall to the right of her bed is a crown of thorns.  The sisters who surrounded her at her death said that she looked at the crown as she was born into life after life.  She deeply identified with the passion of Christ.

She shared a sense of the Lord’s pain, suffering and abandonment on the cross.  Indeed, doesn’t  the cross capture the finitude of our human existence and limitations of the human condition?    Don’t we all share in Jesus’ fear, panic or  Agony in the Garden when we face death and have to accept life and death on terms that we cannot control?    I know that it scares the hell out of me.

Therese of Lisieux talks of the path of living an ordinary, humble, hidden life for God.   This path was the path that Mother desired.  She wanted to keep hidden her trial of identifying with and knowing Jesus’ sense of abandonment and suffering on the cross. A dark night of the soul.   She came to embrace it like St Paul:  “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church.”    As she wrote to her sisters:  “ My dear children—without our suffering, our work would just be social work, very good and helpful, but it would not be the work of Jesus Christ, not part of the redemption—Jesus wanted to help us by sharing our life, our loneliness, our agony and death…and has carried it in the darkest night, Only by being one with us…”  The paschal mystery is hard to grasp and understand  and evidently much more challenging to live.

Outside of her room, there was a picture of her on the day that she died.  She was flanked on either side by a young couple who had requested to have their picture taken with her.  Later that day, she complained of difficulty breathing.  A doctor and priest were called.    Then the power failed.  We experience power outages all the time.  As Patrick and Martin were packing to go home the power failed 3 times. Fortunately the backup for our complex kicked in and they had light by which to pack.  However I counseled them to avoid the elevator lest they miss their plane.   For Theresa, the backup lines also failed which had never occurred before.  The breathing machine could not be started  and she was born into eternal life.   Yet she continues to minister to us.  On her tomb in the ubiquitous yellow and orange marigolds of her adopted country India was spelled   “Love until it hurts”. As one of  my friends, who may wish to remain hidden, prays each morning,  “ May we love as she loved.”

 

Loving like Mother Theresa

January 12, 2014 at 1:18 pm

In the same room as the tomb of Blessed Mother Theresa, there is an altar at which the Eucharist is celebrated each day at 6 am.    The words “ I thirst” are prominently displayed.

Out in the courtyard, two sisters asked Patrick and Martin to help them carry some books for them to a car.  They smiled later as Kathleen told me.

In the courtyard, one could hear sisters praying the Rosary .

There is another room off the courtyard that is dedicated to her life.  It shows pictures and letters that she wrote.  The letters are in English which she learned as a nun.  There was also a bulletin board that had many of her quotes and next to those were 20-30 quotes of Pope Francis.

There is also a  staircase of ten or fewer steps that leads up from the courtyard to the room in which Blessed Theresa slept and worked.  It is a cell.  It has room for her narrow bed.  On the wall to the right of her bed is a crown of thorns.  The sisters who surrounded her at her death said that she looked at the crown as she was born into life after life.  She deeply identified with the passion of Christ.

She shared a sense of the Lord’s pain, suffering and abandonment on the cross.  Indeed, doesn’t  the cross capture the finitude of our human existence and limitations of the human condition?    Don’t we all share in Jesus’ fear, panic or  Agony in the Garden when we face death and have to accept life and death on terms that we cannot control?    I know that it scares the hell out of me.

Therese of Lisieux talks of the path of living an ordinary, humble, hidden life for God.   This path was the path that Mother desired.  She wanted to keep hidden her trial of identifying with and knowing Jesus’ sense of abandonment and suffering on the cross. A dark night of the soul.   She came to embrace it like St Paul:  “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church.”    As she wrote to her sisters:  “ My dear children—without our suffering, our work would just be social work, very good and helpful, but it would not be the work of Jesus Christ, not part of the redemption—Jesus wanted to help us by sharing our life, our loneliness, our agony and death…and has carried it in the darkest night, Only by being one with us…”  The paschal mystery is hard to grasp and understand  and evidently much more challenging to live.

Outside of her room, there was a picture of her on the day that she died.  She was flanked on either side by a young couple who had requested to have their picture taken with her.  Later that day, she complained of difficulty breathing.  A doctor and priest were called.    Then the power failed.  We experience power outages all the time.  As Patrick and Martin were packing to go home the power failed 3 times. Fortunately the backup for our complex kicked in and they had light by which to pack.  However I counseled them to avoid the elevator lest they miss their plane.   For Theresa, the backup lines also failed which had never occurred before.  The breathing machine could not be started  and she was born into eternal life.   Yet she continues to minister to us.  On her tomb in the ubiquitous yellow and orange marigolds of her adopted country, India.  They spelled   “Love until it hurts.”  As one of  my friends, who may wish to remain hidden, prays each morning,  “ May we love as she loved.”

 

Beheading Goats and more Kolkata

January 12, 2014 at 12:57 pm

Calcutta (Kolkata) is a bit of an assault on the senses.  As soon as you walk out of the hotel, you are in a crowded marketplace with vendors yelling loudly.  Shoppers are dawdling which makes it difficult to get wherever you want to go.   I walked with my hand in my pocket and a firm grip on my wallet and rupees.    We rode in a taxicab that had a hole in its floor and a front seat that was unhinged and slid back and forth.  There are a lot of people who are far from making ends meet.  Poor poor beggars who do not have the energy to get aggressive.  Old old  feeble men or women sitting with a little beggars bowl in front of them waiting for someone to drop some coins into them.  They look vacantly.  These are the poorest of the poor Mother Theresa sought to serve.

This city was the capital from which  the British ruled  for 300 years of their 350 year Raj.  They left their mark more through the infrastructure than architecture.  Broad streets.  Beautiful Parks.  Railways.

The British are not recalled fondly here.  Instead we heard how 2 or 3 million people starved during WWII as the British diverted food to its military operations in SE Asia.

The city has been overwhelmed at times by refugees from West Pakistan in the late 40’s and then Bangladesh in the 70’s.  The state and local government has been governed by Marxists for 30 years up until a few years ago.  Some of course blame them for Calcutta not keeping pace with other cities in India.  They did hold a political rally which effectively shut down the central city one of the afternoons that we were there.  Apparently such rallies are commonplace.  Kathleen and Patrick became frustrated sightseers as they sat in traffic not moving for 2 or 3 hours.   It was a bit surreal to see all the red hammer and sickle flags of the Communist Party.  On a similar note, there are also Maoist guerrillas in some states in India.  Recently one of the Maoist leaders to turned himself into the authorities for the political assassinations that he planned.  The local papers think that may be indication of the decline of that movement.

One can see how the city has been overwhelmed by the refugees and general migration of the poor when you go to Kalighat.  Kalighat is a location about an hour from Mother Theresa’s residence where her hospice is located.   Kali is a prominent goddess among the thousands if not hundreds of thousands of Hindu gods.  The city of Calcutta is named after her.

Mother Theresa’s hospice is directly next door to one of the holiest Hindu temples that is devoted to Kali.  The hospice is a former Dharamsala or resting place for pilgrims that was given to Mother by a Hindu.  Patrick, Kathleen and I stepped inside the front door.  We were immediately in a room of 45 cots.  Each  had a man sleeping covered in a colorful blanket.  There was not an empty cot.   A couple of the guys seemed more homeless than dying.  One of them kept playing peek a boo with folks walking past and saying good bye to smiling volunteers or sisters who walked past us to go out the front door. There was sign immediately in front of us that indicated that there were 45 men and 45 women residents and 1 person had died up to that point this day.  Martin elected to stay outside.  He was a bit concerned about two homeless perhaps dead people lying still under blankets.

We then went next door to a Hindu temple dedicated to Kali.   It was jamming.  January is a popular month for the wife of Shiva. She is an angry goddess and we could see the long stains of blood where beheaded goats had been dragged across the cobblestones to the butchers’ quarters.   Patrick and Martin watched a goat get beheaded while Kathleen and I stood some distance apart transported back in time 3000 years.

Later upon returning to Hyderabad, it was so apparent how our home city is doing so much better.  People are dressed well.  There is much less poverty.  It feels positively suburban!  Sort of.  Kathleen commented that if I were based in Calcutta, she would have left for the US after 2 days.

 

Dubai’s Adolescent Swagger: Hope for the Future?

January 5, 2014 at 4:20 pm

As a kid when I walked through the cavernous train stations in Chicago, my dad would tell me that the railroads wanted to display their wealth and economic power by means of the tremendous vaulted ceilings of the  lobbies where we would by a ticket, wait for a train, or simply pass through on our way to a platform.   Similarly the emerging economies of places like China and the UAE have claimed their place on the global stage through the magnificence of their airports.  From the first time I transferred at the Dubai airport on my way to India, the 5-10 story waterfall grabbed my attention.  The airport has the feel of a luxury hotel that is spacious and does not care about wasting space that could be generating revenue by collecting room rents.  As a result, I thought Dubai could be an interesting place to visit. Kathleen, Patrick, Martin and I just spent a few days in Dubai and found it to be a world class city  with the same population of Columbus.  It feels like a Western city.  We went to Wendys and Starbucks and almost stopped at a Coldstone Creamery.  Dubai possesses  an unbelievable collection of real estate that includes:

the world’s tallest building which looks like the Sears Towers on a diet,

the world’s largest mall  which hosts 6 million visitors a month and has a huge indoor aquarium yet feels smaller than the Mall of America,

70 other malls one of which contains a ski slope,

the largest  collection of tallest buildings in the world which I am not sure have sufficient occupancy to pay the financing but innovatively apply the symmetry and aesthetic beauty of Islamic architecture,

a human-made island that is in the form of a palm tree and contains an Atlantis property,

another human-made island that was supposed to mirror the world’s global map.  The earth and sand was dredged for the island, but nothing was developed vertically because of the financial crisis of 2008.

Dubai appears to have recovered from the financial crash.  There are cranes everywhere.  It was also  just announced on November 27 that their last minute entry to host Expo 2020 was approved.   They celebrated New Year’s eve last night with the largest fireworks display to ever occur.  It will be listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Dubai leveraged its oil wealth into an economy that may be based on tourism, financial services, and retail in the future.  Oil was discovered in the 60’s and it is projected that it may run out in another 20 years.   This town was literally a historic backwater trading post.  It was a town of 50,000 on a creek that flows into the Persian Gulf as recently as 1960.   Iran is a stone’s throw across the Gulf.   It has now become the shopping capital of the Middle East and has been recognized as the best place to live in the Middle East.  It is a popular tourist destination.  The newspaper indicated that it hotels have almost 90 % occupancy with the bulk of the tourists coming from India, the UK and Germany. The weather is beautiful now.  Reminds me of Florida with no humidity, Arizona, or SoCal.

The real estate development has been led by a company called Emaar.  Its chairperson is a senior advisor to the Prime Minister of UAE.  This company also developed Boulder Hills where I play golf in Hyderabad.  The course is great, but the promised 5 star hotel and residential community have not been completed.  There are 5 unfinished residential towers for which  some of my golf mates have lost their deposits.  The whole project is tied up in the court system.  Apparently some of the local government officials undervalued the land, received plots of land and in general have abused the public trust.  But I digress…

We never met anyone in Dubai from Dubai.  Apparently the citizens of Dubai receive a lump sum payment from the government when they marry and a monthly pension thereafter.  What will happen when the oil money runs out?  Reminds me of Caesar’s quote about the key to retaining power is to keep the people happy by providing bread and circuses.

The work force is primarily from South Asia and comes from Pakistan, India, the Philippines.  All but one of our cabbies was from Pakistan. They were all extremely friendly.   Given the challenges that we have as a country with Pakistan,  I would never have anticipated their warmth. One of them talked about what an artificial environment Dubai is and how he misses the natural environment of Pakistan.

While it may seem like a  very different topic, we did visit a mosque in Dubai which also was consistent with the Western feel of Dubai.  The mosque had a basic program pitched directly to Western tourists.   The experience did challenge a few of my perceptions or stereotypes.   The 2 female presenters discussed the culture of Islam in a way that would be accessible to Westerners with repeated emphasis that the followers of Islam are peaceful despite what is happening on the world stage.   After questions, one of the presenters  addressed one of the elephants in the room.  She  flat out stated that the suicide bombers and other violent so called representatives of Islam will go to hell.    They are a perversion of Islam.   She may be right, but  I question whether a loving and merciful God will condemn misguided people who are acting out of ignorance when they believe that they are serving the Almighty.

Yet, would not we all like to hear Islamic leaders condemn publically the fundamentalists?  Is there a lack of condemnation because it is a religion of individuals with no sense of boundaries, authority or recognized leadership?    The female presenter did state in response to a question from a Catholic who wondered if a unified structure of the expression of their faith existed.  She responded that they do not believe in a hierarchy.  All Muslims are all equal before God and live individually before God.  Reminds me of Christianity in the US where Protestantism has fractured into innumerable denominations  or “non-denominations” based on any charismatic leader’s  reading of the New Testament.

It is encouraging to see a Middle Eastern city such as Dubai seek to integrate capitalism or Western influences  within their faith tradition or culture.  Hopefully, it is sustainable and provides a hopeful path into the future.