SUCH CONFETTI
On October 24th, Oddwalk will celebrate it’s 10 year anniversary. Starting today, and running through October 23rd, we’ll post (to Facebook and Twitter) our favorite blog posts from the past ten years. On the anniversary itself, we’ll post something special to the blog, Facebook, and Twitter. You won’t want to miss out!
Super Sam
Hello everyone. Shannon here. As many of you already know by now, our buddy Super Sam Santhuff passed away this past Friday, September 19th. You may remember Sam from this blog post from this past May:
http://oddwalkministries.com/oddblog/2014/05/11/super-sam-his-light/
This morning, on a Facebook page dedicated to Sam, I shared the following reflection, which Orin has encouraged me to share here:
Yesterday, my wife Erin and I were given the great privilege of singing this song at Super Sam’s funeral. Thanks so much to Matt (Dad) and Cassie (Mom) for this amazing opportunity. It was truly an honor.
In the weeks following Cassie’s post in March revealing that Sam’s cancer had returned, I, like the rest of you, was trying to focus my prayer. I, of course, believe in a God who works miracles, but I also knew where this road could lead. To be grounded, but believe that, with God, anything is possible, is always a weird place to be. This lead me to seek guidance in scripture, and in particular, the first part of the Gospel of John, which was speaking of Jesus, the Word. Three things jumped out at me. 1. Jesus was, is, and always will be. 2. None of the life around us came to be without Jesus. 3. The Light (Jesus) shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. This was the confidence in faith that I was looking for. I was reminded that no matter where Sam’s journey led, Jesus would be present through it all. While I, of course, prayed fervently for Sam’s complete healing, I knew that no darkness, no suffering, no death could ever extinguish the light of Jesus. This is where the song came from. I was not looking to write a tribute to Sam. I was looking for a way to pray about and for Sam.
Sam reflected (and continues to reflect) God’s light for all of us. Even in his death, Sam is proving that no darkness can ever shut out God’s light. Look at what he has inspired! Look how many lives he touched! Look at how a little boy who exuded goodness was able to capture the hearts of so many! Could we not do the same? Many of us carry with us attitudes of cynicism, anger, mistrust, polarization, and selfishness. Sam carried none of those. Sam carried God’s light, not his own, which is what drew us so closely to him. Imagine the impact we could have on our communities and the rest of the world if we chose to do the same.
Here is the song, as posted on Soundcloud:
http://soundcloud.com/oddwalk/his-light
We’re a little late this time, but it was Shannon’s turn again! Click here to read his reflection for this past Sunday.
Apparently, while we had our head turned or something, our website had (at least since we started tracking these things) our 50,000th visit! Hooray! As near as Orin can tell, it was someone in California checking out the lyrics to our song from the NCCYM comedy event a few years ago, May God Bless and Keep You (Far Away From Me). We’re also over 100,000 page views, which is noteworthy.
Thanks, Oddwalkia, for the support over the years and into the future!
Hello everyone, and thanks for visiting Oddwalk’s “Super Sam” page. As part of his full-time parish position, Oddwalk founding member, Shannon Cerneka, serves St. Peter School in Fulton, MO as a music teacher. One of Shannon’s kindergarten students, a little boy named Sam is currently battling a very rare and very aggressive childhood cancer called…
Shannon’s turn again at Any Given Sunday – take a read!
First, check out the Sunday readings here!
“The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want…” This line, from Psalm 23, is one of the most recognizable lines in all of scripture. I know I’ve heard it most often when someone is worried or afraid and is in need of a few words of comfort. What does it mean, though? What does it mean for us? For you?
Let’s break down the line, “The Lord is my shepherd”, word by word. If you were to say, “The LORD is my shepherd”, you would be making a pretty definitive (and very powerful) statement about how your life is ordered. Letting ANYONE else tell you what to do is hard. Giving your life over to a God you believe in through faith, but cannot always see in a conventional way, can be very difficult. It might even make you look a bit crazy to those who do not know the Lord. That is, however, what our Lord requires. Remember what Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me…” Jesus said that right after calling Peter ‘Satan’ for questioning that Jesus’ life would end by being killed at the hands of the chief priests and elders. Peter, no doubt, feared that his own life could end the same way. This is the same Peter, though, who in our first reading today was able to stand up and publicly say: “Let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” No longer was Peter afraid of where discipleship with Jesus might lead him. Through faith, and filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter could confidently state who Jesus was and is. Jesus is Lord. The LORD is my shepherd. Can you say the same thing?
Next, if you were to say, “The Lord is MY shepherd”, you are making this faith VERY personal. In the Gospel today, Jesus says things like: “…and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out…” and “…the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice…” This suggests a shepherd (God) who is interested in being very close to His sheep (us). That is very Good News. And God has done God’s part in all of this, affording us all the opportunity to be extremely close to Him through the sacraments, through prayer, doing service in God’s name, and even through devotionals like adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Are you doing your part to grow closer to God? Are you taking advantage of these opportunities, or are you making God do all the work?
Finally, if you were to say, “The Lord is my SHEPHERD”, you are stating without a doubt that you recognize God as your leader/guide and know that your role is to be part of the flock. It can be very difficult to see ourselves this way. After all, God created us unique and special, right? Right, but all of us have in common the urge to sin, the need for God and others, a shared mortality, etc. Recognizing that we are part of a community with God at the head, a community that leans on one another in good times and bad, can help us to be free of this need to live our lives on our own and for ourselves. Let God be your shepherd and be free! As Jesus says in today’s Gospel: “…I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” Let God tell you what that ‘life’ is supposed to be about. Then you can say with confidence, “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want”.
Here’s Orin’s most recent contribution to the great resource Any Given Sunday:
Click here to view the readings from the USCCB
Perfection – raise your hand if you’ve ever gotten a 100 on a quiz. I have; but I also recall a time when I saw that grade on the top of a test or a paper, and knew, really, that I could have done better. I didn’t answer a question fully, I misspelled something, the teacher overlooked an obvious error, rushing to get everything graded. Raise your hand if you’ve ever planned a party to perfection – right down to the last detail, only to have the guest of honor arrive early, or the cake fall to the floor, or some other disaster occur. Truth be told, we often strive for perfection but rarely ever achieve it.
Yet that is what Jesus asks of His disciples in this Sunday’s Gospel: “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Whoa. Be perfect like God the Father is perfect? Talk about an unattainable goal. It’s nearly unreasonable, this challenge placed before us. For mere earthlings, humans with the stain of sin, it sounds impossible, at least while we are still living on Earth. We know though, that Jesus never calls us to things we can’t attain somehow, someday. You’ve heard maybe that God doesn’t call the gifted, He gifts the called. In what ways can we work, with God’s help, toward this perfection God asks for?
Well, take a look at the first reading, where God asks the Israelites to “be holy” because God is holy. A definition I like for the word holy is to be “whole” – that is, to be complete. Especially within our faith lives and journeys, our goal is that wholeness, that unity and oneness with God. The Lord tells Moses how he should instruct the Israelites on that same journey: to not keep hatred for one another, to not pursue revenge, and to love all. The Psalm continues the teaching – the Lord is kind and merciful, and so should we be. The word mercy sums up this journey, doesn’t it? Be merciful to those around you in need. Be merciful to those around you who harm and persecute you. Be merciful to yourself when you fall short of the life God asks of each of us. In fact, when Luke writes this same teaching in his Gospel, he doesn’t use the word perfect, he uses – you guessed it – the word merciful instead. Paul’s epistle to the Corinthians adds the layer of humility, and in fact reverence, for what God has created in you, the human being. No one belongs to Paul, or Apollos, or to Cephas: all belong to the Lord. And it is in belonging to the Lord, on a journey to holiness, with mercy toward one another and toward ourselves, and aware of the mercy the Lord has shown on each of us, that we ultimately can be perfect, just as our heavenly Father is perfect.
At NCYC last month, Oddwalk had a couple conversations (in person, on Twitter) about the appropriateness of the young lay leaders of prayer, and specifically their vesting in albs and leading a communal blessing by signing themselves (as directed in many places in the Book of Blessings).
It could be that the folks we had conversations with (one adult, one youth) weren’t the only ones to have concerns. The NFCYM has posted a wonderful resource explaining the catechetical, pastoral, and legal reasons that what we experienced at NCYC was exactly what was needed for that time and place.
A couple quotes to draw attention to:
The question and answer of proper liturgical vesture involves both clear instruction from the Church and mistaken notions from many of its members simultaneously. Frankly, it is a wrongful notion to describe a lay person leading a formal prayer service in an alb as “looking and acting like a priest.” In fact, at NCYC, the youth presiders were looking and acting exactly as they should: like a lay person leading prayer.
Again, in brief, a catechesis of liturgical vesture is one that begins not with the difference of ministry or station, but on the common community shared by all in the dignity of their baptism. There is no ordination without baptism (and all the sacraments of initiation: Confirmation and Eucharist, too). There is no “priestly vestment” that does not begin first with the garment of Christian faith laity and ordained alike the alb with which we are all “clothed in Christ.”
As a ministry especially concerned with justice and specifically the joy we can find in our having been created by God and given a Christian dignity that is indelible, we are so pleased with how the NFCYM has addressed the concerns – as too we are pleased that there are interested people, especially youth, willing to make their voice heard about matters important to them. Please take some time to read the whole document!
Edit, 12/7/14 – new link to article: http://www.ncyc.info/2013/logistics/leaders/alb.htm