Prayers by the Lake…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

You pour Your holy oil into the stars, O Holy Spirit, and out of senseless conflagrations You make vigil lamps before the Glory of Heaven. Pour Yourself into my soul also, and out of a passionate conflagration make a vigil lamp before the heavens.

You stroll through fields of flowers without being heard, and You sprinkle the flowers with Your grace, so that the blood of the earth may not look through, but the beauty of God. Sprinkle the field of my soul with Your grace also, so that it may not be said that the field of my soul sprouted from the blood of the earth, but that it is adorned with the beauty of God.

You mingle with every heap of ashes and pour in life. Pour life into the ashes of my body also, so that I may live and glorify Your works.

You tame the fire and wind, and out of demons of fury You make servants of the Most High. Tame my pride and make me a servant of the Most High. You are kind to the animals in the woods. Show kindness to me also, who am animalized by ignorance.

You fertilize every seed of life. You hover in every womb. You sit in the egg of a bird’s nest and masterfully form a new miracle of life. Fertilize, I beseech You, the invisible seed of goodness within me also, and keep watch over it until it reaches maturity.

O Awesome and Almighty Spirit, by Your presence You turn a den of thieves into a haven of Heaven, and a terrifying universe into a temple of God. Descend into me also, I beseech You, and turn a handful of ashes into what You know how to do and can.

A Childhood Hymn…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice,
And it told Thy love to me;
But I long to rise in the arms of faith
And be closer drawn to Thee.

Refrain

Draw me nearer, nearer blessèd Lord,
To the cross where Thou hast died.
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessèd Lord,
To Thy precious, bleeding side.

Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord,
By the power of grace divine;
Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope,
And my will be lost in Thine.

O the pure delight of a single hour
That before Thy throne I spend,
When I kneel in prayer, and with Thee, my God
I commune as friend with friend!

There are depths of love that I cannot know
Till I cross the narrow sea;
There are heights of joy that I may not reach
Till I rest in peace with Thee.

What bothers me the most…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

about people trying to predict Christ’s return is that something which for Christians is a marvelous, holy, sacred moment yet to come is being made into joke fodder in the popular culture because of people who try to get their 15 minutes of fame at the expense of this important part of our Faith. Christ’s return is a marvelous and awesome thing and I can see where non Christians might not understand or even poke fun of it but when people claiming to be Christians desecrate it with their inane predictions it just makes me shake my head.

If you are under 40…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

you have to realize something. The way you’ve learned about the world, whether in school, or through the media, or in the discourse of public culture has largely been shaped by the most selfish and self centered generation of human beings ever to breathe air, the Baby Boomers.

Coddled as the children of parents tired of depression and war your teachers, your politicians, your clergy, the cop down the street and the person who writes for TV drank deeply from the well of self centeredness and in turn stained everything they touched with the same. The hippies are now in charge and this is what they have taught you.

There is nothing right or wrong beyond your feelings. Your feelings are the only evidence you need to decipher reality. Evidence is irrelevant, tradition is meaningless, only the moment and your thoughts at the time matter. There is no truth beyond your perception.

The ultimate goal in life is freedom which is defined not as the freedom to act responsibly but rather the elimination of all restraints real or imagined. To be free means that you can do what you want, when you want, and how you want, with the only caveat being that you try not to hurt others in the process. Discipline is repression. Expression of any and all urges, emotions, thoughts, or actions is a social good.

You are the judge and jury of your own world. There is no “our” there is only “me” and people who are like “me”. What the larger world may think is irrelevant as long as “I” think it’s okay. The mantra, “You can’t judge me…”

Now you may wonder why everything seems to be coming apart at the seams these days. The economy is dismal. The culture is crude and getting worse. There are hundreds of tears in the social fabric. Our leaders are emotional and spiritual children. We are in the process of de-evolving into barbarians. Hardly anyone notices because all they live for is the next mobile device, the next “hook up”, or the next party.

Well all those things that you see, the unease that you may feel, the angst at how you are to survive in this brave new world are all because two generations, the teachers and the taught, are trying to live a philosophy of life that is simply unworkable in the real world. The free love, free drugs, free experiences, and free economy of the 60’s didn’t work even in the 60’s, just ask Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, but the illusion has remained, clung to by a group of people who have ridden it to power, economically exploited it, and left all of you with the STD’s, the addictions, and the bill.

Ever notice who has all the money these days? Ever notice the folks who protested the war but now have no problem sending you into the fight? Ever thought about the people who told you that “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with” still can’t admit they were wrong even when people die for practicing what they preach? Isn’t it strange that people who campaigned for free speech are the same ones telling you what can and cannot say, what you can and cannot eat, and how you must think about the world or the success they dangle in front of you will be taken away?

And what’s worse is that long after these people, and I’m on the tail end of the Baby Boom myself, die you will be stuck with the mess. You get the scraps. You get the illness. You and your children and probably their’s as well. You’ve been served, royally, and the only hope is that a few will wake up from this terrible dream, enough to keep the world in some sort of liveable condition.

Turn off your TV, unplug yourself from the electronic nipple, get a life and maybe you will be saved.

The utility man…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

was in the neighborhood yesterday, sounding out the gas lines and marking the lawns with paint and flags. The trees are coming back.

This past winter marked a decimation of the trees on my block. The emerald ash borer had arrived and rather than wait until the plague spread the trees came down and their stumps ground down to the level of the grass. I understand, but still there is something somber about a fallen tree and the place where it stood begins to look like a smile with some of the teeth punched out.

Among the charms of living in an older city are the trees, some of whom pre-date the neighborhood and a lucky few that preceded even the people. Without them a city is just a human zoo covered with boxes, no shade, no green, no nature to break up the monotony until the horizon. When the trees disappear a little of what a place “home” goes with them. Our block was starting to look like a new suburb, houses without character, buildings without shade from the remorseless sun.

Yet the utility man was here, sounding out gas lines and painting lawns so the planters could dig without fear. New trees are coming, maples probably as they seem to be the only ones without an insect of some sort trying to destroy them. There will be noise and then there will be silence as the small trees reach for the sun and begin their life above, beyond, and still in the place where they were planted. Houses and people will go, but the trees watch over generations, sentinels of time, and free of disease or calamity will care for our children’s children.

Nature has moments…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

of beauty, for sure, but there is an underlying cruelness to it all that most of us simply wish away like the whole thing is a Disney film.

No lion would actually allow a baboon to touch its cub. The “wondrous circle of life” we hear about each time a gazelle is downed by a cheetah is not so wondrous to the prey. If there are three goldfish in a bowl and one dies the other two get to eat. Without the ability to make shelters and organize ourselves we would be in the same boat ourselves.

That’s the facts.

It’s good to care for the earth. It’s good to see the moments of beauty that are all around us, the remnants of the Creator’s intent. Yet its good to be wise as well and not forget that hawks still eat rabbits, your sweet pet can turn into a snarling ball of fur, and humans, the apex of it all, kill for no reason in particular.

I'm watching a program…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

on TV called “Hogs Gone Wild.”

The premise is rather simple; people, and sometimes dogs, tracking down feral hogs. Apparently there are places in the US where domestic hogs have become feral and can do significant damage. They’re smart. They’re hungry. They can be dangerous. These aren’t the happy little pigs on old McDonald’s farm.

Living in the city I have little idea what I’d do if my small piece of land were to become home to a wild pig. Thankfully, though, they’re quite edible and I suppose I could have them over for dinner presuming I could catch them. Regardless, the show is fascinating in its own way, a hunting show where the people may be the prey if they’re not careful.