gatorcast from paul smith

I found this drawing by Evan from a few years ago. I thought it was appropriate for Valentine’s Day.

What is Love? Love is Nice. .. by Evan

At yesterday’s Mass the following was the second reading. These words have been very special to me for a long time. As I listened I was transfixed by both the reader who is a friend and the message that Jesus was sending me through Paul.

After Mass I spoke to my friend, the reader, and expressed how deeply I was moved by his reading. He then told me the following story:

He said…

“At the earlier Mass I was there helping out and was not a reader. As Mass started I noticed an elderly couple leave right after Mass started and because the husband seemed in distress, I followed them outside the sanctuary. As I started to ask them if they were OK, I noticed that the husband soiled himself. And then the wife pulls me aside and explains that her husband had Alzheimer’s and that he did this every day. She then said she needed some help but was otherwise OK.
[at this point my friend starts to tear up and his voices cracks and says..] I have heard this reading many times and I was never particularly fond of it and that it was always used in weddings and such. But, shortly before this Mass started the scheduled reader did not show and it was then I knew I had to read this today. So this elderly couple in their late 70’s and the Love that they showed was the reason I was up there today and I will never read it the same way again.”

I know life is messy. I know things always don’t apear as they really are. But I do know that the Love that Paul speaks of and the Love that this couple shares is definately all around us.

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 72

1 Cor 12:31—13:13 or 13:4-13
Brothers and sisters:
Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.
But I shall show you a still more excellent way.

If I speak in human and angelic tongues,
but do not have love,
I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
And if I have the gift of prophecy,
and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge;
if I have all faith so as to move mountains,
but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own,
and if I hand my body over so that I may boast,
but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind.
It is not jealous, it is not pompous,
It is not inflated, it is not rude,
it does not seek its own interests,
it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing
but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.

If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing;
if tongues, they will cease;
if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.
For we know partially and we prophesy partially,
but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
When I was a child, I used to talk as a child,
think as a child, reason as a child;
when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror,
but then face to face.
At present I know partially;
then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.
So faith, hope, love remain, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.

this poem was sent to me today…

I Am in Need of Music

I am in need of music that would flow
Over my fretful, feeling fingertips,
Over my bitter-tainted, trembling lips,
With melody, deep, clear, and liquid-slow.
Oh, for the healing swaying, old and low,
Of some song sung to rest the tired dead,
A song to fall like water on my head,
And over quivering limbs, dream flushed to glow!
There is a magic made by melody:
A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool
Heart, that sinks through fading colors deep
To the subaqueous stillness of the sea,
And floats forever in a moon-green pool,
Held in the arms of rhythm and of sleep.

Elizabeth Bishop