Carrie Underwood and Vince Gill

Father Stan

Following is a letter written by Father Stan in 2005. It is being shared with you courtesy of Bud and Frances Jetty. As you read it, you will hear Father Stan's beautiful voice in your mind's "ear" speaking as he did to all of us on occasion.

 

October 23, 2005

My letters to you are very personal ones. They come out of our many years of togetherness. With each other we can talk any way we want. We have shared so many things that nothing, now, is “strange” for either of us. I’ve been blessed knowing hundreds of wonderful people, and now at my age I wish that I could talk to all of them again.

It’s too bad that many of them don’t have the technology of computers. I wish that I could communicate with them – but you do it for me! Do it for me especially, when you are talking to young people. They need to know that “somewhere” there is someone who knows them and loves them dearly.

They need to have good story tellers and good examples. The only examples that I can find are those that are personal. But, as I said, if I tell a personal story you know that you are part of it, too.

Our Grandparents and Parents were wonderful in instructing us kids, when we were growing up. My mother told me about my grandpa who often brought home from work men that he found stranded near the rail yards. (It was just after the second World War, and there were lots a lots of crippled men, homeless, sitting on the rails, ready to hop a train to “somewhere else”.)

My mother, one morning sent me downtown with a dollar to get a loaf of bread, a pound of potatoes and a quarter pound of butter. I was on my way back. There on the sidewalk was a man with one leg cut off, or torn off by a shell. The other leg lay twisted under him. He had a tin cup in his hand, hoping for an alms. To me he looked terribly, terribly pitiful. I just had to give him something.

I saw in the little purse the change from the dollar my mother had given me. There were some pennies, a dime, a nickel and a quarter. Pennies? I would never give that poor man those pennies. The dime looked too small. The nickel looked not nearly enough. I gave him the quarter.

He seemed to come alive. “My boy! You are so kind.” He reached up with both hands to bless me. And, of all things, he kissed my little-boy fingers. I knew I had done something good.

In a kind of daze I came home and into the kitchen, and I lay down the groceries. Mother asked for the purse. She found only a dime, a nickel and some pennies. “What happened, son?”

I told her about the crippled old soldier.

She swept me up. She wrapped her arms around me and held tight. She was crying. “My boy we will all be blessed by what you did. Think of it. We are poor, but God will feed us. That dollar was the last one that we have, unless Daddy gets paid something tonight. The quarter is a lot of money. Even, if we have only boiled potatoes and bread and butter that’s OK for now. But, Honey, think of our babies, too. We have to think of them.”

What my mother did was a big lesson for me all my life. “We have to take care of them.” Around me, around us, are needy people. They are not poor in money, maybe, but poor in how they are hurting inside. Look how they are crippled.

Everyone of us was called by Jesus to do only one thing – to take care of people. That ‘s why we are Catholic or Christian. And sometimes we don’t do what we were made for.

Mohatma Gandhi, the great Peacemaker and friend of the hopeless, was once asked, “Has Christianity failed?” “Oh, no,” he said. “It has not failed. It has just never been tried.”.

Let’s me and you TRY it.

I’ve been a priest over sixty years. I’ve seen a lot of people who had lots and lots of comforts. They were Catholic or Christian, too. But, when poor people needed them, they made sure, first, that they didn’t loose their comforts or their leisure,. They claimed to be followers, imitators, of Jesus, but they made darn sure that they were never in danger of discomfort. They “took care of THEIR souls, their comfort,” first.

As I watched men, or heard, men like that, I found that they really didn’t believe in Jesus. They didn’t believe that He had already taken care of them and that their business was to take care of their neighbor.

Do I sound angry? I am angry. I am sick and tired of the Judases who still crowd around with cash in hand, the coin of betrayal.

Little fellows with little souls, making sure of their own advantages.

You believe in Jesus. You believe that He meant it, when he told us to be bold in the spending of ourselves. You’ve been doing it all your lives. Bold, not timid and whimpering at the sweat and tears you had to shed.

A great man said – and you can repeat it – “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.” He did all things. Nothing was too big for him to try.

If we are bold, we will not make a new world, but, for hurting people we will make a New Heaven.

That’s what I’d like to see.

So I pray daily for usl We won’t chicken out.

We do need each other – and some little instruction manuals. For Benedictines there are only two books, or instruction manuals, that make any difference. They make ALL THE DIFFERENCE!!!

One book is the Gospel. The other is the Rule of Benedict . Just two small items.

I’ll write about them next month.

Think of the first Monday in November, November 7^th. I will be praying and fasting for all of us.

fr. stan

Prayers by Bud Jetty

CLICK HERE. Here's an amazing bit of technology showing something that you might never see in person, and you would never be alone in the room anyway. It is always very crowded and of course you can't see Michelangelo's artwork close up as you can here. This is especially spectacular if you have a large high-definition screen! The Sistine Chapel: Virtually view every part of Michaelangelo's masterpiece. Just click and drag your arrow in the direction of the part you wish to see. In the lower left, click on the plus (+) to move closer, on the minus (-) to move away. Or Scroll to move in closer. MOVE THE ARROW AND YOU WILL SEE EVERY PART OF THE CHAPEL. This virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel is incredible. Apparently done by Villanova at the request of the Vatican ....