Catholic Faith Corner

Living in the Light
of Jesus Christ

Sea of Galilee at Sunrise

Catholic Faith Corner

Living in the Light
of Jesus Christ

Autumn Leaves, A Spectacular Show

Photo by Sister Barbara Soplata

Each fall we are treated to glorious sights as leaves die in flames of glory. This is another ingenious gift from our artistic Creator, one that mirrors God’s beauty. As I scan landscapes rich with gold, red, yellow, and orange trees, I can exclaim with poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, “O world, I cannot hold thee close enough!” This is the season for leaf peepers. Once when I was a speaker in Vermont, at the peak of nature’s fall displays, no hotel room was vacant! I had to stay at someone’s home on Lake Champlain.

Religious Significance of Fall

Gerard Manley Hopkins’s poem “Spring and Fall,” begins, “Margaret, are you grieving / Over Goldengrove unleaving?” It ends “It is Margaret you mourn for.” The dying of leaves reminds us that we too face mortality. Our fate is connected to two trees. Saint Irenaeus said, “As through a tree we were made debtors to God, so through a tree we receive cancellation of our debt.” The tempting tree in Eden gave way to the saving tree on Calvary.

My Leaf Education

I was introduced to the many varieties of leaves when we were to collect them for a high school biology class project. My mom knew I didn’t have the star-shaped sweet gum leaf. When she spotted one, to pluck it, she had my dad stop the car at the side of the road and she climbed onto it!

I carefully placed each leaf on white tagboard, traced around it, leaving a narrow border and cut it out. Then I swathed the sample in plastic wrap. My leaf album earned an A+. Linnaeus would be proud. Later, as a teacher, I used some of those preserved leaves to decorate bulletin boards.

Note:  There are three basic kinds of leaves, simple (a single undivided leaf), compound (a leaf divided into leaflets attached at the stem either in a row or radiating from one point), and needlelike.

Trees

Who is not familiar with Joyce Kilmer’s poem “Trees”? To refresh your memory, here it is:

Someone drew these lessons from trees: Stand tall and proud, go out on a limb, remember your roots, drink plenty of water, be content with your natural beauty, and don’t forget to enjoy the view!

A lesson from the stately redwood trees: How do these enormous trees that stretch into the sky remain standing? Their roots are intertwined. Through this mingling of roots, they also share water and nutrients. They teach us the value of cooperation and mutual support.

Besides providing us with beautiful scenery, nuts, oxygen, and shade, trees help us to play. Did you ever build a treehouse, swing from vines, climb a tree, picnic under a tree, or hide your face against a tree trunk, counting to a hundred for a game of hide-and-seek?

Soon we will be moving evergreen trees into our houses and decorating them as Christmas trees that add enjoyment and beauty to the celebration of this feast.

• What is your favorite kind of tree?

• Was a certain tree special to you growing up? Is one special now?

One of my favorite melodies is “Autumn Leaves.” Here is a version with lyrics sung with Nat King Cole’s velvety voice.

Bees, Hives, and Honey

A beekeeper recently gave me a jar of honey. I can see why honey is called liquid gold. It’s beautiful as it streams down from a spoon, and it wonderfully satisfies my sweet tooth. This gift made me curious about bees, so I googled them. Today I share with you some things I learned.

  1. There are more than 20,000 species of bees.
  2. A hive can hold 20,000 drones.
  3. Worker bees are all female, but only the queen bee can mate and reproduce.
  4. Female honeybees have baskets on their hind legs to collect pollen.
  5. Only the female worker bees have stingers, so they protect the hive, not the drones.
  6. Bees have five eyes: two large ones and three small ones in between them.
  7. A queen honeybee can lay over 2,000 eggs in a day.
  8. After mating with the queen, the drone dies.
  9. Bees have combs on their forelimbs to clean their antennae.
  10. Bees sleep when they are tired.
  11. Bees can only sting once and then die; wasps can sting many times.
  12. When a hive divides, the new queen and followers “swarm” and look for a home.

A swarm of bees

Bees in History

  1. Beekeeping has been practiced at least since the times of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece.
  2. In Egyptian mythology, bees grew from the tears of the sun god Ra when they landed on the desert sand.
  3. The honeybee was the royal symbol for pharaohs from 3000 BC and 350 BC.
  4. As a baby, Zeus was fed milk and honey.
  5. A custom was to “tell the bees” when someone died. After Queen Elizabeth II died, the royal beekeeper informed the bees of Buckingham Palace and Clarence House. He explained, “You knock on each hive and say, ‘The mistress is dead, but don’t you go. Your master will be a good master to you.’ “

Catholic Symbolism

Bees became a symbol for Our Lady because of their diligence and good work. They also symbolized her virginity because the worker bees don’t reproduce.

Providentially, World Bee Day is May 20. May is Mary’s month.

Because honey is sweet, it became a symbol for St. Ambrose and St. Bernard of Clairvaux, whose words were as sweet as honey.

According to a legend, during the conclave for Pope Urban VIII, a swarm of bees flew into the Vatican seen as a divine sign. He made the bee his personal emblem.

The Paschal Candle and other candles used in the liturgy must be at least 51% beeswax. This is because wax produced by the honeybee is considered the sweetest and purist, the most appropriate for symbolizing the humanity of Jesus.

(My mother would use only beeswax when she decorated Easter eggs.)

Hexagonal cells in a honeycomb are made from wax secreted and chewed by the bees. The cells are for storing honey and for baby bees to develop.

Why “Busy as a Bee”?

Bees in a hive do the same task all day long. Worker bees my fly maybe ten miles a day as they gather pollen and nectar and bring it to the hive over and over. A bee can visit more than two million flowers to gather enough nectar to make one pound of honey.

My Sad Encounter with Bees

My dad hung a tire from the large tree on our land in the country so we kids could swing. This swing was not always fun. One afternoon it was like the Trojan Horse. We were taking turns being pushed on the swing, blissfully unaware of the ruckus this would cause. Our joy ended abruptly. My brother, who was four or five, stood screaming with his fist clenched. When he uncurled it, inside lay a black and yellow bee.

Suddenly, all of us were yelling, jumping, running around the yard, and rolling on the ground as if performing a wild dance. My father rolled up newspaper and began swatting us with it. Little did we know that the tire was suspended over an underground nest of bees. They viewed our stamping back and forth on it as an attack. As we pushed each other on the swing, the bees had stealthily crawled up inside our pant legs and then stung.

We swiftly packed up and went home. Dad was stung next to his eye. I suffered the most wounds—six of them. We won the battle of the bees though, with the help of an ally. Mike, an elderly neighbor, poured kerosene into the nest and burned them out.

Warning:  Do not kill bees. We need them to pollinate and so provide our fruit, vegetables, and nuts!

The video below contains more interesting information about bees. Although it is meant for children, it is worthwhile for adults too.

What has been your experience with bees?

Sky Views: God’s Masterpiece

The other night the northern United States was treated to a rare Aurora Borealis performance. I looked out about 10:00 p.m., but the sky was black. The next day Facebook was jam-packed with photos that luckier people had taken of the gorgeous sky scenes, like this one by Ingrid Kanics:

I was jealous. So was someone else who posted this humorous picture:

To console myself, I reflected on other magnificent sights in the sky that I had witnessed. No, I didn’t see the meteor showers this year, but years ago I counted 86 meteors in the Leonid shower over South Euclid. Three times as I flew, I spotted a pilot’s halo or pilot’s glory. This is a miniature shadow of the plane riding over the clouds and encircled by a rainbow. I learned the name for this phenomenon while reading a novel in which the heroine saw one.

I’ve seen lovely plain rainbows, even double ones.

From my third-floor balcony, I see breathtaking sunrises . . .

and sunsets both at home

and from my sister’s Florida condo.

This year I was able to watch the solar eclipse from our courtyard.

I also see slivers of moons, half moons, and full moons.

Then there are the brilliant stars…

Several varieties of clouds enchant us, like cirrus, stratus, and cumulus. Puffy white clouds are beautiful.

Threatening clouds are awesome too.

Sometimes sunlight breaks through clouds in a glorious way. Still, Vincent van Gogh said, “I never tire of the blue sky.”

The skies above are thrilling to behold. No wonder people conceived of heaven being “up there.” If God made our temporary home so wonderful and entertaining, imagine the astounding sights that await us in our eternal home!

Here is a version of “For the Beauty of the Earth” with a different melody than the one I’m familiar with. It is accompanied by lovely photos. Click and enjoy!

https://youtu.be/xlBkpAm3fhw?si=XSsbecTOl3S50lib

• What marvelous skies have you been privileged to see?

The Rosary, a Lifeline

Mary
Times Mary told us to pray the Rosary

October is known as the month of the Rosary, no doubt because October 7 is the feast of the Holy Rosary. The feast originated with the Battle of Lepanto when, against all odds, Christians overcame the Muslim forces attacking Europe—accredited to Christians praying the rosary. (Hmm. What would happen if all Catholics prayed the Rosary to vanquish terrorist groups?)

The rosary is associated with Catholics as much as the Mass is. It hangs in our cars, and our hands hold it in the coffin. Martin Luther, a former Catholic, did away with many Catholic things, but not the rosary. He prayed it every day until he died. The composer Hadyn prayed it whenever he got composer’s block. It was Pope St. John Paul II’s favorite prayer. After 9/11, he encouraged praying it for peace.

When the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in Fatima, Portugal, she, too, advised us to pray the rosary for peace. To those who think that after the reforms of Vatican II, the rosary is something to be thrown out the window, think again!

The Rosary is a highly scriptural prayer. We pray two ways during the rosary: We say the traditional formula prayers, which are rooted in the Bible (Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be), but at the same time we ponder the mysteries of Jesus, one mystery per decade (set of ten beads). I tell children that this takes practice, like mastering patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time. The repetitions of the Hail Marys is like soothing background music to our thoughts. (So soothing that the rosary can function as a remedy for sleepless nights, more effective than counting sheep, the Calm app, or lavender oil).

The Rosary is known as a Marian prayer because we primarily honor our Blessed Mother by praying fifty-three Hail Marys. The Rosary has been compared to a garland of roses we present to her.

I also ask the children how they feel when someone says something nice about their mother. Then I comment that likewise Jesus is pleased when we praise his mother. We Sisters of Notre Dame (Our Lady) pray the Rosary every day.

Rosaries can be beautiful crystal ones or homemade ones. There are also single decade rosaries. I have one of these made from crushed rose petals. Some people pray on ten-beaded bracelets or rings. Lacking any of these, we can always pray on our hands, which conveniently have ten fingers!

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Windsor, OH

The largest rosary is at a shrine in Windsor, Ohio. It is made of foot-high lamps near the tallest statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is 50-feet high.

Variations: You can make up your own mysteries, such as the miracle mysteries or the parable mysteries. You can also stay mindful of the mystery by inserting in the Hail Marys words that refer to it. For example, for the Annunciation you might pray, “Hail Mary, full of grace, to whom the Angel Gabriel came, the Lord . . .”

You can also meditate on mysteries from your own life!

In case you need a refresher on how to pray the Rosary, here is a simple diagram.

By the way, the rosary developed over the years. The legend that Mary personally handed one to St. Dominic began because the Dominicans were chief promoters of the rosary.

Here is one of the sites where you can pray the rosary along with others: https://www.comepraytherosary.org/

• What rosary has special meaning for you?

• When has praying the rosary been a comfort or joy for you?

My Story: Humor Helping Pain

God’s Funny Bone

Did you ever laugh so heartily that tears trickled down your cheeks and you were gasping for breath? What a gift! Animals spend their lives eating, pooping, mating, and sleeping, a rather boring existence. Humans do those things too, but a sense of humor adds spice to their life. Now, because we are made in God’s image, according to Logic 101, the almighty One must have one too. And indeed he does.

Picture God at the dawn of time, sitting at the drawing board gleefully designing a giraffe, a hippopotamus, a platypus, a kangaroo, and a two-year-old human. This is the One, too, who invented sex to propagate species.

The Bible reveals God’s flair for comedy. Didn’t he make Abraham’s old wife Sarah pregnant when her womb had retired? Eavesdropping the day this was predicted, Sarah cackled at the ridiculousness. Her son is named Isaac, which means laughter.

Then there was the time the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant from the Israelites and placed it across from their god Dagon, a statue. The next morning, Dagon had keeled over and lay face down. Take that, false god! Unwilling to admit defeat, the Philistines propped him up. But the next day not only was Dagon prostrate again, but his arms were lopped off!

Let’s not forget the day a boy named David clad simply in shepherd’s garb and armed only with a staff and slingshot faced a heavily armored, javelin-carrying giant. No Israelite soldier had the courage to accept Goliath’s challenge to fight him. The lad, however, dispatched the intimidating enemy with a single well-aimed stone. How droll! But the Philistines weren’t laughing.

Jesus as Comedian

When God came to Earth, he didn’t leave his sense of humor behind. The gospel writers didn’t record times when Jesus laughed, grinned, or even smiled, but it doesn’t take a psychologist to realize he must have, especially on certain occasions.

Surely at the wedding in Cana, Jesus had to struggle not to burst out laughing at the servants’ open-mouthed faces when they discovered wine in the water jars. And how could he help but smile when his fishermen friends took his advice and hauled in enough fish to almost sink their boats?

Like any captivating speaker, Jesus infused his preaching with humor. Visualize a camel trying to squeeze through the eye of a needle—especially a two-humped camel. Picture (or feel) a log in your eye.

Imagine Pharisees straining out a gnat from water but gulping down a camel. In Aramaic camel is gamal and gnat is galma. So Jesus stooped to making a pun, the lowest form of humor!

Note that first-century lamps were oil lamps with flames shooting out, and beds were low. When Jesus referred to a lamp put under a bed, aware that the lamp would ignite the bed, the audience must have laughed. These rural people also must have roared at the silly farmer who strewed precious seed on paths, rocks, and thorn bushes. And the idea that seeds would produce a hundredfold was outrageous.

Jesus was not above playing a prank either. He sent Peter the apostle, a fisherman, to fish in order to catch the payment for both their temple taxes.

My Sore Toe

God sometimes orchestrates events in our life that are downright funny. In my case, humor came into play when I was in pain from a toe, the fourth one on my left foot. A friend called it my “ring toe.”

Ever since learning “This Little Piggy Went to Market” as a toddler, I didn’t pay much attention to my toes. That is, unless a callous, corn, or blister appeared. Mostly, I took these ten strange digits for granted—until with every step, a searing pain shot through my foot. When I visited California, a walking tour was like an ordeal by fire.

Back home, I turned myself in to a podiatrist. Dr. W. said that X-rays revealed extra bones all through my foot. (Ah, that’s why I weigh more than I should, I mused.) The good doctor surmised that a bone in that sore toe had shifted. He proposed removing that bone.

That afternoon, our head nurse said I needed a second opinion, so I drove 45 miles to see another doctor. After examining the X-rays, this doctor, while holding my foot as one would hold someone’s hand, said, “This is a funky foot. Can I keep your X-rays?” Then he said that I might as well have the surgery.

Coincidentally, the day those two men were caring for my poor foot happened to be Holy Thursday, when we commemorate Jesus washing the apostles’ dirty feet!  I had missed my community’s special Last Supper prayer service with different kinds of bread. But now I could hope to walk without wincing.

The Operation

Lying on my back in the surgery room without my clothes, I felt uncomfortable, like I was trapped in a strange dream. The nurses were chatting away as they prepared the doctors’ instruments. One of them glanced over at me and said, “Sister, we don’t often have a patient who can talk. Would you tell us a story?” How bizarre, I thought.

Because I had been writing a preschool program, the story of Harlequin sat on the top of my mind. So, I told the nurses this sweet Italian tale about a little boy whose family was too poor to provide a costume to wear to the town’s carnival. Each of his friends brought the boy’s mother a scrap from making their costumes. She sewed them together, creating a stunning multi-hued costume with a diamond motif. The little boy was thrilled, not only because his costume was the best at the festival but because he was clothed in the love of his friends.

Doctor W. and his partner entered the room, and the surgery began. As the doctors worked, I asked, “Are you finding anything?” My doctor quipped, “We just took out a beer bottle cap.”

Occasionally, I felt a gentle pressure on my lower leg, which was very soothing. When I mentioned this, my doctor said, “That’s Dr. B’s stomach whenever he leans over.”

Afterward Sister Mary Roman, the nurse at the college where I lived, was there to take me home. She said first I should eat breakfast in my hospital bed—after all, we had paid for it. Sister had recently fallen and broken her arm, so she wore a cast. I had been fitted for a wooden shoe. When we arrived at our parking lot, it was raining. Under a large, black umbrella we held onto each other, two wounded women. Quite a sight! Laughing, I hobbled along as fast as I could, happy the operation was behind me.

Thanks to God, a little humor had turned a frightening event into a pleasant experience. And, yes, the surgery was a success.

• What comical things have happened to you?

When have you been able to spot the humor in a difficult situation?

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