Fr Mike's Notes

 ... a small, intimate theatre in Chicago.  It seats about 25 people or so.  A neat space. Last night, I went to see their latest production.  OMG.  Not only was the acting great, the story seemed all too familiar.  I felt like someone had been spying on my own life and put it on stage.  It may not have been a perfect representation of me, but I can tell you, it was pretty scary just how close it was. A gentleman lives with the guilt of his friend's death following a car crash.  He was the medical power of attorney.  After getting word that there was nothing more the doctors could do to make his friend better, he had to be the person to "make the call" to unplug the machines that were monitoring his friend.  Just listening to the gentleman's description of that anguished moment of listening to the blipping of the monitors slowing down to almost nothing and then the final <beeeeeeeeeeeep>.  It's a gut-wrenching thing to witness...

 Human Way back in my early days of priesthood, my pastor would give the priests of the house themes for each week to preach around.   We were not all giving the same homily, but at least we were in the same ballpark.   It was a real criticism of preachers because one priest would focus on one part of the readings while others would find something completely different to preach about.   I would hear just how people felt confused because we were SO different – in our words, our energy, our approach, and sometimes even ecclesiologies (views of the Church, whether more conservative, moderate, or liberal).   Yet, in the same conversations, someone else would say they liked our variety of views.   I’m SO confused! No, not really.   In essence, our variety of views stems from our very cell structure of our bodies.   More and more, I hear about just how unique we are physically, from our genetics to the cells to our thumbprints – absolutely and unequ...

 Last week was quite a strange time.  I had a lot of new things come up -- a new haircut, new glasses, and a new CPAP machine.  As I mentioned in my recent blog, night 1 was pretty spectacular as my machine display was almost a full 9 hours.  From there it has been sporadic as to the number of hours of sleep.  Last Saturday night into Sunday morning, the display in the morning said I got about 4 hours.  However, it was about 4am when I rolled over to find my mask off my face and under my hand.  Now, I could possibly see how my hand would take the mask off without consciously knowing I did it, but what was eerie was that the hose was also unplugged from the mask itself.  I don't remember doing ANY of it.  I know that when I moved into this rectory, I was told that my room was haunted, but it was weird. Otherwise, the machine has been helpful.  Last night I had about 7.5 hours and only twice had moments when the apnea overtook my machine....

 ...are already using CPAP machines for sleeping.  Used mine for the first time last night.  It was difficult to actually fall asleep because the machine kept stopping (my fault for not being sure at piece was fitted properly).  Once I fixed the machine, I must have done ok.  It eventually woke me up as my humidity container had gone empty, but that was almost NINE hours later.  In other words, it must have been worth the original hassle.  I ALMOST wish I would have done it before my best friend died.  It might have eased some tensions we carried and sometimes joked about.   Invariably when we would go on vacation, we would save money and have one room.  Well one vacation that didn't work with my snoring.  He stormed out of the room about midnight, went to the front desk and got his own room.  C'est la vie! If those are the results I could be getting regularly, I may not need to take as many naps.  Sometimes I get ver...

 Several years ago, before I was even thinking about writing a book, I had taken a short stint in poetry.  It was more of a freestyle verse, but I think it still counts.  Anyhow, one of the works I wrote was on our fragile human material -- what we are made of.  The Latin word for land or soil is "humus."  From the beginning of human beings in the Book of Genesis, we are told that God created man from the soil and blew into him the breath of life.  What about that which we need to even make what we might consider to be a molding?  How did God come up with the shape and size and features that He thought we should have or what we would need?  " Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. "   He took the rich, moist soil and carefully made the first one as if He were looking in a mirror.  That is what we mean by our "being made in his image and likeness."  Ok, maybe it wasn't a mirror image, but the same features were given....

 We all are seeing just how crazy people can be over the years, but there is so much craziness now that it's bordering on insanity. If there is one thing I've learned over the last few years is that no matter how much we want to say that we are safe and protected in our country, it certainly doesn't feel like it.  I've talked in the past about how human beings are going through a de-evolutionary process.  Some have already reached Neanderthal stage.  That is how rapidly it is happening.  Someone is bound to get to a point of truly trying to literally reinvent the wheel. Yet there are also many conspiracy theorists who believe that what has been happening around us and around the world is staged -- choreographed for the world to make us believe in something that isn't real.  Please don't listen to them.  The wars in Ukraine, Russia, and the Middle East, and, the wildfires, plane crashes, people committing suicide, and so many other events that are extra...