"Men of Galilee, why are you looking skyward?"

We had a dear elderly neighbor who used to drop by our patio, wine glass in hand and linger for a visit.

As advanced age does, it affected her memory, and often at the conclusion of her visit, she would ask:

"Now was I comng or going?"

The same question might be asked of Jesus today where in most dioceses, Ascension Thursday is transferred to this Sunday.

"Jesus, are you coming or going?"

And his answer could well be:

"Both!"

Remember, he promised in last week's readings:

"I will not leave you orphans!"

 So at each eucharist, we can pray:

"Send down your Spirit upon us like the dewfall,

so that these gifts become for us the body and blood of Christ."

And thus Jesus remains among us through the activity of the Holy Spirit.

MEMORIAL DAY, May 29, 2017

In the carnage of World War I,

old men in funny looking hats sent young men to the trenches to be slaghtered.

And so we remember.

Recently I also read the lives of John Foster Dulles and his CIA brother Alan Dulles. Alan and his CIA was responsible for toppling the democraticaly elected president of Iran and installing the Shah.

The Dulles brothers could also be held complicit in the events leading to the Viet Nam War, where again old men sent yong men into the jungles to die.

One thing these brothers had in common was a self righteous attitude that America always knew what was right. And that whatever was good for American business interests had to be right.

And if blood had to be spilled, so be it.

And so we should remember.

I remember Jmmie Stolinski coming home in a coffin from Vie Nam and burying him from his home parish, St. Adalbert.

And so I remember him and all the rest. 

 And so we pray:

Lest we forget:

the follies of old men in comfortable chairs

plotting the deployment of our youth.

Deliver us from arrogance and hubris.

May we always remember so many lives cut short.

Help us to remember.

Help us to remember.

Amen