Farewell to 2020

Refresh us with Your fire, O Lord.

Out with the old.  In with the new.  

Except let us not forget, the old vintage is best (Luke 5:39). 

December thoughts from a friendly wordsmith

I received this email from a good friend this week.  I always anticipate his reflections this time of year.  He has entitled this year's reflection "Muddling Through", which goes along nicely with the titles of my most recent posts.  I felt it was a sign, and asked my friend if I could post this year's sharing to my blog.  He graciously conceded to my request.  



to: knox_11@yahoo.com et al

Muddling Through


Hi Folks,


As part of my annual consultation with the muses of Christmas, I have been wondering recently what I might offer by way of a seasonal message that would be appropriate to the wholly unprecedented experience this year presents to all of us.



As always, the soundtrack for my journey through December includes The Sinatra Christmas Album. The songs in this collection, both sacred and secular, and ranging from silly to solemn, feature the trademark Sinatra vocalizations and outstanding arrangements and instrumentation from the great bands which backed him up during the ‘60s and ‘70s when these recordings were made. This album has been a staple of my holiday listening for 25 years.



Among the tunes featured is “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” originally written to be performed by Judy Garland in the 1944 film, Meet Me in St. Louis. Garland’s character sings to comfort her sister who is despondent on Christmas Eve over the family’s plans to relocate to New York.



The song’s lyrics address the melancholy that sometimes infects our holiday preparations and celebrations. Despite our best efforts to be merry and festive and because we want, so desperately, for the Christmas season to offer the rich emotional blessings of comfort and joy, any feelings of separation, anxiety or disquiet can be even more acute at this time of year.



So, if ever there were a time for music to come to our aid and offer some balm for the beleaguered soul, 2020 would be it. In this year of epochal pandemic upheaval and social unrest, with all the attendant uncertainties and distancing of varying degrees and type, we need to be consoled. We need to rely on memory, to believe in the power of hope and to accept the nourishment that can be derived from the timeless connections of the heart.



Some of you may think it’s unreasonable to expect a pop song to offer the antidote for these afflictions or to furnish the necessary consolation. You may be right. A pop song is not necessarily a work of philosophical or psychological import.



And yet, the offerings of the popular culture, especially those which worm their way into our ear year after year, can offer us inspiring insights into our journey through uncertain times. In a simple way, the song’s encouragement to “let your heart be light” and its prediction that “next year all our troubles will be out of sight” do allow us to realize that moments of melancholy must pass.



Even more poignantly, the song concludes with words that speak not only to the acute separation we feel in this moment, but also offer an intimation of eternity and a hope for the more permanent reunion, on that farther shore, with those who accompany us now in the mind’s eye and in the inner recesses of our hearts.



Someday soon we all will be together,

If the fates allow.

Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow

So, have yourself a merry little Christmas now.



This year, I expect many of us feel like we are “muddling through.” We are doing the best we can. And, of course, this sentiment speaks to the larger challenge we face through all of life to avoid letting loss or separation impair our capacity to experience joy, or hinder our efforts to celebrate.



Again this Christmas, as always, we need to revel in the moments of love and friendship which present themselves to us, accepting gratefully the reaffirmation they offer to us of the very truth of our existence.



I hope Frank’s singing (link below) offers you some of the consolation it has afforded me in these recent weeks, and in years gone by.




I hope as well that you have a safe, happy and holy Christmas.



+ a friendly wordsmith


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnx7thMjYX4

Plodding (again)

SO...Advent started a couple weeks ago and I had firm faith that there would be great surprises within - a gift of faith and renewal. I'm disheartened as I see old patterns continue seemingly unabated. If there is growth it is in areas hidden from view. I continue to plod along. Not in the dark. Yet not fully in the Light.

Come, O Spirit, awaken new life in me. Save me from the endless me inside me. Turn my gaze to You!



In the meantime, from my Dad's prayer vigil...he writes the following:

The Gift
While praying the rosary this morning I had a moment...
I saw a gift being delivered. It was like an Amazon delivery. 

The one who delivered the package left it on the doorstep after knocking on the door/ringing the bell. 

I became aware of the passage from Revelation 3:20 “Behold I stand at the door and knock...” 

it was the gift of God‘s love!
The door was not answered, the gift was not received. 

The gift remained on the doorstep through all the seasons of the year 

- the blistering heat of summer soon to be covered in fallen leaves only to be buried 

under winter snow and ice. Year after year it waited. 

The package became weathered and decayed. The gift was the living Heart of Christ! 

Many, inconsequentially, passed by, not even casting a glance in His direction. 

Unbeknownst to them the scene was filled with adoration. 

Angels, saints and martyrs etc were adoring the Lord. 

A person came out from the house and kicked the package off the porch onto the muddy ground.

The place of adoration had changed. 

And now our Lady, experiencing the pain of unrequited love, 

now kneels in the mud adoring her Son, her Saviour and Lord...

“Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ...” (S Pope John Paul II). 

 

- Tom Knox, night vigil

Graves Into Gardens ft. Brandon Lake | Live | Elevation Worship

Graves into Gardens is a worship song that took a while to grow on me.  

However, the line "I'm not afraid/to show You my weakness/my failures and faults/Lord You see them all /yet You still call me friend" really hits home.  Friends, He knows it all.  He is the best of Lovers.  I don't know if you're down with watching a bunch of folks jump up and down and be expressive and stuff.  I get it.  There's a place of quiet and adoration that is lost when the camera is on.  But this song is ministering to me in the heart.  So, if you have Apple Music or the like...add it.  See if it grows on you.  

Plodding. Then Advent comes along...

So is it true that there is water in the desert?  I hope so.  Advent is a season of hope.  New hope.  More on that in posts to come.  Stay tuned.  

- Aaron

Bronx Priest Throws it Down with style for the Diocese of Saint John

This past Friday, May 29th at 10:30 a.m. I interviewed one of the most unique Catholics I've come across in my travels, Fr. Stan Fortuna. Fr. Stan is a founding member of the Franciscans of the Renewal in the Bronx, New York. The year I graduated high school, my Dad and Jim Burnham piled a bunch of Saint Johners into my blue Club Wagon 15 passenger van. We drove across the country to a youth conference taking place in Ohio at Franciscan University of Steubenville. The conference theme was, "Out of the Jungle and into the Life in the Holy Spirit" - I think the title was a riff on AC/DC's song 'Welcome to the Jungle'. In any case, we were treated to a weekend with several hundred other young people hosted by the rapping Franciscan Fr. Stan Fortuna. He was lively, outside-the-box, off-the-cuff and eminently quotable. He was straight outta the Bronx and had the attitude to match. He was authentically himself which was at once refreshing, surprising, and entertaining. Yet for all his fun, he made Jesus the unabashed center of all his presentations - even Church teaching on chastity. He had a message -he had an attitude - and it was hard to ignore. It certainly wasn't boring!


Fast forward twenty years and now I am a Catholic priest. I'm asked to interview Fr. Stan on a Zoom call for the group called Saints in Training. I'm like 'Ok' and I'm thinking, "This shouldn't be hard, Fr. Stan is one of the most spontaneous people on earth - so that means I don't have to prepare...so no sweat!" (I didn't start to panic until the night before!) I was nervous, but when Father Stan mentioned ice cream in his opening remarks I was like, "Thank you Jesus, that is confirmation!" Once I heard that my eyebrows shot up in the air and I was like, "Ok! Game on!" I was able to ask him about his love of ice cream then about more serious questions as the interview went on, and I think it went very well. Fr. Stan is unashamed of Jesus - that's one of the things that makes him really unique. He seems to have a fire within that is wild and yet contained. With his unconventional style and deep love of Catholic doctrine and the saints - Father Stan is certainly a sign and contradiction. He sees love as being the gift at the heart of the Church, the Mass and the adventure of sanctity, the pursuit of holiness - its about love. We hear that kind of thing regularly but it seems vapid most of the time. The call to love comes across differently with Fr. Stan. Perhaps that's because he's not trying to live at the center of his life - he's given that place to Someone else. He's given his heart to Someone else. Fr. Stan Fortuna claims that this has made all the difference. Who am I to argue with a New Yorker from the Bronx? 

- Father Aaron Knox

Mother's Day a la ZOOM

My brother Liam joined us on our Mother's day ZOOM call from his pad in Halifax.  He is as full of life as ever and looking trim.  

My brother Caleb (St. Stephen) pictured here rocking a do-rag and an Irish shirt with headphones...typical Caleb.  He's been learning how to bake bread recently.  He says it's adding to his waistline!  Hey Caleb, you got a long way to go before your waistline catches up with mine.  :(

Caleb Andrew Knox with
Ollie our Silky Terrier

Dad and Mom joined in the ZOOM call from their home in St. Stephen.  Ollie is asleep between them.  They are holding strong in the midst of all this.  Both are still working at the special care home with the disabled.  I'm not sure where they get the energy - except that it comes largely from their faith.  They are like, "Steady as she goes!" and get through it all somehow.  

ZOOM on Mother's day was the first time we all spoke together at the same time since the virus.  No telling how long that will be the norm, with borders closed between our provinces. 

So, what did we discuss?  Nothing too serious.  It was good to just be together. 

And, considering Mom's battle with cancer several years ago, we all feel blessed to have her with us.  

She's the glue.

Mothered

What is it to be mothered?  
To be mothered is to be held in the soul, to be caressed gently with the touch of the soul.  Being mothered changes you.  Being mothered softens the heart.  Being mothered brings peace.  

Cathy Knox, a.k.a. Mom, a.k.a. Momma Bear...thank you for supporting, loving, laughing and listening.  

Happy (belated) Mother's day!  Flowers?  ...maybe next year!

Is it just me...?

I'm prepared to go downstairs and have lunch when I'm struck by feelings of futility.  The run of the mill, the everyday, the routine...when do I break through and find my true self?  Peace that surpasses a troubled heart and mind, come find me. 

Give me courage to face my trials.

Saints in Training

Tomorrow I will speak with young families (virtually) on a Zoom call for a Facebook group called Saints in Training I will be sharing with them a little bit about Saint John Marie Vianney, patron saint of parish priests.  The age range birth to grade six.  That will require some thinking on my feet.  Saint John Marie Vianney, pray for us!

*P.S. the session went really, really well.  I got good feedback from several parents.  This was a blast and certainly a contender for highlight of the week.

Drink the Fire of God

Saint Catherine of Siena
drinking the Sacred Blood
from the side of Christ. 

O Sweet Fire!  

Fire of God come and enliven hearts.  

Lord we need You!  

Good Friday

And my face will hit the floor at the beginning of this holy celebration.  All else will be forgot.  And I will enter in to the sacred sufferings of Jesus, the holy passion of Christ. In the midst of a world in turmoil and a mind on fire - teetering with exhaustion - there I will find my peace. Dressed in red, kneeling beside the Cross of my Friend, there I will contemplate His wounds.