FR531


Twilight Zone
No, I am not talking about that show presented by Rod Serling from roughly 1968 to 2003, but I'd like to talk about that time in man or woman's life when things become slower and slower. In about two weeks I will be 70, and I must admit I feel a lot less focused than 35 years ago! Duh! Well, it's not that bad, yet. I used to be able to sit at the computer and knock out a teaching, reflection, essay, or just a couple of thoughts, usually about our Lord, about the finer points in life, and now I find that I cannot do that so easily anymore. Also, I've written a ton of articles on this website far in excess of what I had planned to do. I have 530 articles under "Franciscan Reflections" and tons of other articles, principally written by me with the help of the Holy Spirit (I did the typing! He did the thinking!). There are 2,613 'html' files in this website, that means text files for the most part and I have no recollection what it is all about. Many a times when I look at this website and it says "F. Schaeffer" underneath, I have no recollection ever having written it in the first place. That's the Twilight Zone, as far as I'm concerned. How many times can one say "God, I love You" - 530 times and counting. Hopefully many more times, for this is something we say every day in prayer. Do we just mouth the words or is there some substance behind these thoughts? If we merely have oatmeal between our ears, then maybe we cannot expect great things, but Our Lord has endowed us with a fine intelligence apparatus, the brain.... so let us use this instrument for which it was intended. You don't, however, need a high IQ to know you love God. He takes care of all that. God gives us just enough to be able to express that love He would like us to tell Him about. We don't know, I mean each of us, what is in the mind of someone else. Just because someone appears simple doesn't mean he/she is incapable of regarding God in a most auspicious manner. Look at the saints ... some of them weren't great learned people... but when they died, wonderful, sensitive, beautiful writing was found about their love of God. I've known religious friars or monks, who were very simple people but they had a view of God's love and a spirituality that made me look up and listen to them. Same for women, too ... nuns, sisters, and yes, lay people, too. Today we celebrate the feastday of a man, a Franciscan-Conventual friar, Fr. Maximillian Kolbe, known to many. He founded the "Militia Immaculata," a (now) world-wide and very large group of Catholics who have dedicated their lives to Mary Immaculate, the mother of God. It was Maximillian who gave his life for a stranger, in a Concentration Camp, so that the stranger might see his children again. Giving oneself for another is a very fine thing to do. That's the ultimate expression of God's Will, and what Jesus did for us. He gave us His life so that we might live and be with Him forever in paradise! And, tomorrow, the 15th of August, this year on a Sunday, is the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary. This is the oldest feast day of Our Lady. Although no one is sure when this feast was begun, we know about the Tomb of Mary, which is close to Mount Zion, where early Christians lived. Since memory of Jesus was nearly obliterated for the 200 years after His death, we know the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built in 336. For a time, the "Memory of Mary" was marked only in Palestine, but later it was extended by the emperor to all churches in the East and in the seventh century, it began to be celebrated in Rome under the title of the "Falling Asleep" ("Dormitio") of the Mother of God. That "Memory of Mary" became the Feast of the Assumption. It wasn't until 1950, however, in the Apostolic Constitution <Munificentissimus Deus>, that Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Assumption of Mary a dogma of the Catholic Church in these words: "The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heaven." Praise God! As long as we continue to pray that Our Lady, assumed sinless, in body and soul into heaven, will protect us when it is our turn to pass from this world to the next, and keep us onto the path of righteousness until then, we have nothing to fear. It is alright to feel a little twinge of the "Twilight Zone" now and then, and to be a little slower than we used to be, as long as we keep in mind that Jesus gives us all we need and we are under the protection of His and our Mother, Mary! Peace! Fred Schaeffer, SFO August 14, 2010, #531 Return to Menu

No, I am not talking about that show presented by Rod Serling from roughly 1968 to 2003, but I'd like to talk about that time in man or woman's life when things become slower and slower. In about two weeks I will be 70, and I must admit I feel a lot less focused than 35 years ago! Duh! Well, it's not that bad, yet.

I used to be able to sit at the computer and knock out a teaching, reflection, essay, or just a couple of thoughts, usually about our Lord, about the finer points in life, and now I find that I cannot do that so easily anymore. Also, I've written a ton of articles on this website far in excess of what I had planned to do. I have 530 articles under "Franciscan Reflections" and tons of other articles, principally written by me with the help of the Holy Spirit (I did the typing! He did the thinking!). There are 2,613 'html' files in this website, that means text files for the most part and I have no recollection what it is all about. Many a times when I look at this website and it says "F. Schaeffer" underneath, I have no recollection ever having written it in the first place. That's the Twilight Zone, as far as I'm concerned.

How many times can one say "God, I love You" - 530 times and counting. Hopefully many more times, for this is something we say every day in prayer. Do we just mouth the words or is there some substance behind these thoughts? If we merely have oatmeal between our ears, then maybe we cannot expect great things, but Our Lord has endowed us with a fine intelligence apparatus, the brain.... so let us use this instrument for which it was intended. You don't, however, need a high IQ to know you love God. He takes care of all that.

God gives us just enough to be able to express that love He would like us to tell Him about. We don't know, I mean each of us, what is in the mind of someone else. Just because someone appears simple doesn't mean he/she is incapable of regarding God in a most auspicious manner. Look at the saints ... some of them weren't great learned people... but when they died, wonderful, sensitive, beautiful writing was found about their love of God. I've known religious friars or monks, who were very simple people but they had a view of God's love and a spirituality that made me look up and listen to them. Same for women, too ... nuns, sisters, and yes, lay people, too.

Today we celebrate the feastday of a man, a Franciscan-Conventual friar, Fr. Maximillian Kolbe, known to many. He founded the "Militia Immaculata," a (now) world-wide and very large group of Catholics who have dedicated their lives to Mary Immaculate, the mother of God. It was Maximillian who gave his life for a stranger, in a Concentration Camp, so that the stranger might see his children again. Giving oneself for another is a very fine thing to do. That's the ultimate expression of God's Will, and what Jesus did for us. He gave us His life so that we might live and be with Him forever in paradise!

And, tomorrow, the 15th of August, this year on a Sunday, is the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary. This is the oldest feast day of Our Lady. Although no one is sure when this feast was begun, we know about the Tomb of Mary, which is close to Mount Zion, where early Christians lived. Since memory of Jesus was nearly obliterated for the 200 years after His death, we know the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built in 336. For a time, the "Memory of Mary" was marked only in Palestine, but later it was extended by the emperor to all churches in the East and in the seventh century, it began to be celebrated in Rome under the title of the "Falling Asleep" ("Dormitio") of the Mother of God. That "Memory of Mary" became the Feast of the Assumption.

It wasn't until 1950, however, in the Apostolic Constitution <Munificentissimus Deus>, that Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Assumption of Mary a dogma of the Catholic Church in these words: "The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heaven."

Praise God!

As long as we continue to pray that Our Lady, assumed sinless, in body and soul into heaven, will protect us when it is our turn to pass from this world to the next, and keep us onto the path of righteousness until then, we have nothing to fear. It is alright to feel a little twinge of the "Twilight Zone" now and then, and to be a little slower than we used to be, as long as we keep in mind that Jesus gives us all we need and we are under the protection of His and our Mother, Mary!

Peace!

Fred Schaeffer, SFO
August 14, 2010, #531

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