Ohhhhhh that ending so solidified the anime adaptation in and of itself and made it very complete as a story (a little bit saddened since it doesn't feel like there might be season 2 with the way the ending changed from the the manga's plot points, at least not anytime soon until we get to some other arcs in the manga!)

Also ngl I kept re-watching some of the sign language scenes with Yuki and Itsu just because of how PRETTY the animation was for it. This anime honestly impressed me with the details in animation.

Man the anime did such a lovely job with its adaptation. I'd love to see at least an ONA or something with Yuki and Itsu and the gang giving us sign language lessons. I need to see more of them ughhhh.

I love A Sign of Affection sm y'all. This is my 10/10 anime this year.

I saw [WILLOW LANE] at a coffee shop in [BROOKLYN] today. I forgot how much [SHE] looks like [MADELYN CLINE]. They are a [TWENTY-THREE] year old [WAITRESS] who’s been in NYC for [A YEAR] now. Every time we run into each other, they are always [SPONTANEOUS AND FREE SPIRITED] but I’ve heard people say they can also be [NON-COMMITTAL AND SELF-INDULGENT]. [OUT OF THE BLUE BY KATIE PRUITT] reminds me of them every time it comes on the radio. / @villagestart​

Hello everyone! I’m Ella and I’m super excited to be part of this roleplay and introduce Willow to all of you, she’s a new muse but she’s based on an old muse of mine so I think I have her figured out or mostly lol. I’d love to plot with all of you, so please like this or hmu. If you want my discord, I’d be happy to give it to you, just ask :D

basics

NAME: ava willow lane

NICKNAME: will, lolo, pillow

GENDER: cis female

PLACE OF BIRTH: burlington, vermont

DATE OF BIRTH: september 28, 1997

AGE: twenty-three

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: bisexual

OCCUPATION: waitress

NEIGHBORHOOD: brooklyn

background

Burlington was a dream within a dream, the station next to heaven. A town in love with itself and whose residents gloated about the wooded land, creased by hills, and threaded by streams. 

The Lanes were living the typical American dream: the big house with the white picket fence, a large backyard and two perfect children. It was dreamlike.

Their kids could count themselves lucky and Willow Lane certainly did for most of her life. As the youngest daughter of a successful surgeon and a renowned psychotherapist who taught at the University of Vermont, she was taught that receiving an education was the only way to get ahead in life.

Her parents made sure to set their kids to success and while most of the kids from her street were out there playing, she was holed up in her room, reading the stacks of encyclopedia books her parents bought me for her birthday. 

As a young child, Willow was filled with a sense of wonder, and encouraged by her curious personality she wanted to learn everything.

By the time she was in the sixth grade, she was smarter than most of the kids in her class, still her parents reminded her every day that she must outrank them all. Her parents took pride in her achievements. They were quick to boast about it in public, but they remained strict in private. Anything less than gold didn’t deserve a place on the wall.

Her afternoons were always full. Whether it was ballet class, french lessons, piano lessons or soccer practice. She had no time for herself.

Then high school started and by then she was overworked. Tired of chasing perfection and only being met with a “try harder”. 

TW: DRUGS, ADDICTION, VOMIT MENTION, PANIC ATTACK: While she was still number one at her school, it was taking everything in her to keep it that way. Her parents didn’t know about those panic attacks she suffered at night or how she threw up before any competition. To them, she was handling well and she was very good at pretending but she also had a little secret. In her sophomore year, she was introduced to Adderall and she was quickly hooked. END OF TW

When she got accepted into a prestigious university, her parents didn’t hesitate to brag about how their kid would attend an Ivy League but Willow was mortified. 

Back in Burlington, she was the biggest fish in the sea but at Princeton there were students who were better and shone brighter than her. 

Maybe it was because she was suddenly cast into a whole new world that was so different from the one she grew up in. Maybe it was because she had harbored a bit of resentment towards her parents for her wasted youth. Whatever it was, by the end of her freshman year, university had swallowed her up. 

TW ALCOHOL, DRUGS, DEPRESSION She got into a bad crowd, drank herself into oblivion, partied harder than anyone, and developed a penchant for bad boys who were much older than her. All this while trying to maintain a perfect GPA. Thanks to her magic pill, she was able to function and not feel guilty about not being as perfect as her parents wanted her to be. After all, she was only trying to recover the freedom that they took from her. 

But this coping mechanism only turned to worse. The more she tried to drown her feelings in alcohol, the harder it came to bite her in the ass. It was clear as water: Willow Lane, picture perfect daughter, was depressed and had been for a while, and now it had caught up to her. 

She was fighting a battle she was slowly losing. Willow was in a constant state of helplessness, staring into the void, and completely unable to pull herself out of it. If it hadn’t been for the upbringing she had, she would have been completely fine with self-destruct. END OF TW

The summer after her freshman year, she came back home and decided to have a talk with her parents. Her parents sat across the table, and they were not celebrating the end of a successful first semester, instead, they were fuming with betrayal. 

Willow told them that she had dropped most of her classes and she explained to them how she was exhausted beyond repair. They were displeased, so disappointed that looking at them was painful. For the first time in their life, their perfect daughter had failed them.

By the end of the evening, her father was livid. Threatened her that if she didn’t take more classes and got excellent grades he would stop paying her tuition. That’s when it hit her. To her parents, she was nothing but an object, an accomplishment to brag about to her friends. That was not love, that was selfish and a wake up call.

She packed up her stuff that evening, went back to Princeton and emptied her dorm as well as she dropped out completely. 

Freedom at last. With only a few bucks in her account, she bought a random bus ticket that took her to Montreal, Canada where she stayed for a couple of weeks, while working as a waitress before she moved to a new location. For the past three years, Willow has been living off a backpack. 

She moved to New York a year ago, but she comes and goes. Whenever she gets bored or too attached to someone she escapes. 

She’s been clean for three years when it comes to Adderall, although she still drinks but only socially.

personality

Despite her strict upbringing, Willow is a free-spirit! She’s always looking for a new adventure and she wants to live her life to the fullest, she doesn’t care about rules or schedules. She lives a pretty hedonistic lifestyle, always chasing a high in life and sometimes that makes her take some reckless decisions. A naturally loving person, Willow is always there to lend a shoulder to cry on or offer to wipe off your tears, however, she does struggle with connections. If she feels a deep connection with someone she runs away as she believes that being attached to someone will tie her up to one place and as we know, Willow lives a pretty nomad life. She keeps coming back to New York because she loves the vibe but when she gets bored or overwhelmed she leaves without warning. As loving as she is, she can also be ruthless and cold, especially when feeling vulnerable. She has a sharp tongue and it’s not afraid to hurt some feelings if that means shattering the pristine image some people have of her.

headcanons

She has a rib cage tattoo that reads “Eternity bores me, I never wanted it.” It’s a quote from Sylvia Plath.

Speaks French fluently and sometimes she likes to pretend she’s a lost French tourist just for fun.

Volunteers at the animal shelter. Because she doesn’t have a set home, she can’t have a pet but she loves animals.

Never has enough battery on her phone and sometimes she sings in the subway to earn some coins because she tends to forget her wallet.

Really good friends with the homeless woman who lives down her street, she brings her food from the restaurant.

Keeps many scrapbooks from the places she’s been.

Sometimes she goes to music stores and plays the piano, one of the few activities she enjoyed as a child.

Loves reading and whenever she’s not getting in trouble or working, she’s at the library.

Wears too many rings, so don’t try to mug her.

connections

Older brother: Willow has an older brother who followed her parents’ plan. He graduated college and now has a very important job. Willow hasn’t spoken to him in three years, even if he’s tried to contact her. She just doesn’t want any ties to her old life, including her family.

“Best Friend”: I put it between quotations because she doesn’t stay in one place long enough to actually form long lasting friendships but this person is the closest to that. She adores them and actually sends them a postcard when she leaves.

Partner in crime: As stated, Willow is pretty reckless and she does a lot of stupid shit but she’s always seeking for someone to be her partner in crime and just go crazy with them.

Co-workers/Clients: She works as a waitress at a restaurant (if your character has a restaurant let me know, bc idk where she would work). 

Neighbor: She lives in a small apartment in Brooklyn with two other roommates, it’s not ideal but it’s what she has.

College friends/hook ups: Oh during her college year, she was a party girl and she made a lot of “friends” (She attended Princeton btw) and also hooked up with a lot of people (f/m/nb), most of them were older than her.

Flirtationship: She is a natural flirt and she doesn’t even try to hide it.

Unrequited: Maybe your character has a crush on her (and depending on chemistry maybe she does as well but since she moves often she tries to ignore it). It’s angsty, it’s fun, give it to me. (f/m/nb)

Hook ups: Y’all know the drill

Bad tinder date: Willow thought it would be fun to go on a tinder date and she proposed some crazy scheme and they both had to spend the night in a jail cell.

Roommates: She lives in Brooklyn with two more roommates.

29th June >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Matthew 16:13-19 for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles: ‘On this rock, I will build my church’.

Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles

Gospel (Except USA)

Matthew 16:13-19

You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said ‘the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.’

Gospel (USA)

Matthew 16:13–19

You are Peter, and I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.

When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Reflections (8)

(i) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles

If you ever get to go to Rome, you will probably visit the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican. You may be less likely to visit the Basilica of Saint Paul outside the Walls, which is a little outside the historic centre of the city. Yet, both basilicas have been places of pilgrimage because they were built over what is believed to be the tombs of Peter and Paul. In the early centuries of the church, pilgrims went to Rome, not to see the Pope, but to pray at the tombs of the early apostles and martyrs and the most important of these were the tombs of Peter and Paul. Early written tradition from the early years of the second century states that both were married in Rome during the persecution of Nero. In the first reading, Peter’s imprisonment by King Herod is a foretaste of his execution by the emperor Nero some decades later. In the second reading, Paul senses that his death is immanent and declares, ‘I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith’. Peter could have said the same. They were very different characters who didn’t always see eye to eye. According to Paul’s letter to the Galatians, they had a stand up row in the church of Antioch about whether or not pagans who came to believe in Jesus needed to submit to the Jewish rite of circumcision. Even saints have rows with one another. They had very different background. Pet was a fisherman from the relative obscurity of a town on the Sea of Galilee. Paul was a man of great learning from the university city of Tarsus. Peter’s mission was to Jews and Paul’s mission was to pagans. Yet, the Lord worked powerfully through both of them for the spread of the gospel and they were united in their love for the Lord and the church. They remind us that the Lord works through us as we are in all our uniqueness and differences, and he needs each one of us in our uniqueness and distinctiveness. The Lord does not look for uniformity but for unity in diversity.

And/Or

(ii) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles 

In many respects Peter and Paul were very different people. Peter was a fisherman from Galilee. His world was the Sea of Galilee and the hilly countryside that surrounded it. According to John’s gospel, he was from Bethsaida, a small town on the Northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. He would have had a basic education and his first language was Aramaic. Paul was from the university city of Tarsus, the capital city of the Roman province of Cilicia, on the south-east coast of what is today Turkey. He seems to have been educated to a high level. He wrote fluently in Greek. His family appear to have been well-to-do as his father was a Roman citizen. He was a zealous Pharisee, who declared himself blameless with regard to the keeping of the Jewish Law. If the two of them had met before they came to faith in Jesus, one senses that they would have had little in common. Yet, today, the church throughout the world celebrates their joint feast day. It is Jesus who brought them together. Yet, he touched their lives in very different ways. Peter heard the call of Jesus by the shore of the Sea of Galilee as he engaged in his daily work of fishing; Paul heard the call of the risen Lord somewhere in the vicinity of Damascus where he was heading on his mission of persecuting people like Peter who were proclaiming Jesus to be the Jewish Messiah. Jesus called Peter to be the rock on which his church would be built; he called Paul to be the apostle to the non-Jewish world, the pagans. Each of them gave their lives in responding to the Lord’s call; Peter was crucified; Paul was beheaded. They were both executed in Rome, a long way from Galilee and from Tarsus. Their tombs have been places of pilgrimage to this day and two of Rome’s four great Basilicas are built over their tombs, Saint Peter’s in the Vatican and Saint Paul’s outside the walls. We celebrate their joint feast today, giving thanks to God for their generous and courageous witness to their faith in the Lord. From its beginnings, the church has worked to be true to the faith of the first apostles, especially the two great apostles Peter and Paul. That is why we speak of the faith as apostolic. Today, we too try to be true to the faith as lived and articulated by those two great pillars of the church. This apostolic faith finds expression in a special way in the New Testament. We keep returning to the gospels and letters and other books that are to be found there so as to remain connected to the faith of those early preachers of the gospel. The Lord continues to speak to us through their lives and through the sacred literature that they inspired. The Lord calls out to each of us today, as he called Peter and Paul. He wants to work through us in our distinctiveness, as he worked through the very different people that were Peter and Paul. We each have a unique contribution to make to the coming of the Lord’s kingdom. In our efforts to respond to this call, Peter and Paul can continue to be our inspiration.

 And/Or

(iii) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles 

Today we celebrate the feast of two of the great pillars of the church, Peter and Paul. They came from very different backgrounds. Peter was a fisherman from rural Galilee. Paul was a learned Pharisee from the university city of Tarsus. Peter’s first language was Aramaic; Paul’s first language was Greek. Peter knew Jesus from the time of Jesus’ baptism and was with Jesus until the time of Jesus’ passion and death; Paul only ever met the risen Lord, in the vicinity of Damascus. For all their differences, they had at least one thing in common. Both of these men found themselves at odds with the Lord. Peter denied Jesus publicly three times. Paul violently persecuted the followers of Jesus, and thereby persecuted Jesus himself. Yet, their resistance to the Lord did not prevent the Lord from working powerfully through them. Peter was chosen to be the leader of the twelve, the rock on which Jesus would build his church. Paul was chosen to be the great apostle to the pagans. We know from the letter to the Galatians that Peter and Paul had a serious disagreement at one point about the direction the church should be taking. They were very different people and the Lord worked through each of them in very different ways. They were certainly united in death. Very early tradition recalls that both were executed in Rome by the emperor Nero who blamed the Christians for the fire of Rome. Today’s feast reminds us that the way the Lord works through us is unique to each one of us. The feast also reassures us that our many resistances to the Lord need not be a hindrance to the Lord working through us. Peter who denied the Lord and Paul who persecuted the Lord went on to become great servants of the Lord. Our failings do not define who we are. Paul would go on to say, ‘the Lord’s grace toward me has not been in vain’. The Lord’s grace towards us in our weakness and frailty need never be in vain if we continue to open ourselves to the workings of that grace, as Peter and Paul did.

 And/Or

(iv) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles 

According to the gospel reading, what singled Peter out from the other disciples was his God-given insight into the identity of Jesus. It was because of his unique insight that Jesus gives Peter a unique role among his followers. He is to be the rock, the firm foundation, on which Jesus will build his church. Peter’s role is further spelt out by Jesus giving him the keys of the kingdom of heaven. The image of the keys suggests authority. The nature of that authority is expressed in terms of binding and loosing. This refers to a teaching authority. Peter is being entrusted with the task of authoritatively interpreting the teaching of Jesus for other members of the church. Yet, this same Peter immediately tries to deflect Jesus from taking the way of the cross, and when Jesus did take that way, Peter would deny any association with him. Jesus gives a significant role to someone who remains very flawed. If the gospel reading associates teaching with Peter, the second reading associates preaching with Paul. In that reading Paul refers to the Lord who ‘gave me power, so that through me the whole message might be preached for all the pagans to hear’. Paul was the great preacher of the gospel to the pagans throughout the Roman Empire. He preached it for the last time, in the city of Rome, where, like Peter, he was martyred for his faith in Christ. Our second reading today may well have been written from his Roman imprisonment, ‘I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith’. The image of the fight and the race suggest that ‘keeping the faith’ was a struggle for Paul; it did not come easy to him, just as keeping the faith did not come easy to Peter either. Keeping the faith does not always come easy to any of us. Paul was very aware that keeping the faith was not due primarily to his own efforts; it was the Lord who enabled him to keep the faith. As he says in this morning’s second reading, ‘the Lord stood by me and gave me power’. It is the Lord who empowers all of us to keep the faith; his faithfulness to us enables us to be faithful to him. The faithful witness of Peter and Paul speak to us ultimately of the Lord’s faithfulness to us all.

 And/Or

(v) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles 

The two saints whose feast we celebrate today were key members of the early church. Peter was the leader of the twelve. According to the gospel reading, it was to Peter that Jesus gave the keys of the kingdom of heaven, a symbol of Peter’s authoritative role in the early church. Paul never met Jesus before Jesus’ death. Whereas Jesus called Peter by the Sea of Galilee, it was the risen Lord who called Paul on his way into the city of Damascus. Whereas Jesus called Peter to be the authoritative rock on which he would build his church, the focal point of the church’s unity, the risen Lord called Paul to be the apostle to the pagans. Each of these great disciples had very different experiences of Jesus and each received a very different mission from Jesus. Yet, it is clear from today’s first reading and second reading that both Peter and Paul had one thing in common. They both suffered in the exercise of their mission. The first reading tells us that King Herod Agrippa imprisoned Peter and in the second reading Paul writes from prison to Timothy in the awareness that his life is coming to an end. Indeed, both men were executed because of their preaching of the gospel. The two basilicas of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Rome today stand over their tombs and are places of pilgrimage. The particular way the Lord calls us to follow him will be unique to each one of us. Yet, what we can all have in common is a dedication to the Lord’s way, even though it may mean the way of the cross. When Peter and Paul took this way, they both discovered the Lord was supporting and sustaining them. Peter says in the first reading, ‘The Lord has saved me from Herod’, and Paul declares in the second reading, ‘The Lord stood by me and gave me power’. When we try to be faithful to the Lord’s way, we will make the same discovery of the Lord’s sustaining presence in our lives.

 And/Or

(vi) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles 

Rome has been a place of pilgrimage since the very early years of the church. In earliest times, Christians went on pilgrimage to Rome to visit the tombs of the martyrs, in particular, the tombs of Peter and Paul. Both of these great apostles were martyred in Rome during the persecution of the church under the emperor Nero in the year 64 AD. The two basilicas of Saint Peter and of Saint Paul outside the Walls were built over their tombs. Those basilicas, especially Saint Peter’s, remain places of pilgrimage to this day. If Peter and Paul were alike in death, both martyred in Rome, they were quite unalike in life. Peter was a fisherman from Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee; Paul was a very well educated Pharisee from the university city of Tarsus. Peter was called by Jesus as he was fishing by the Sea of Galilee. Paul was called by the risen Lord as he approached Damascus in pursuit of his mission to persecute the church. Peter was to be the rock on which Jesus would build his church; he was to be the focal point of the church’s unity. Paul was commissioned to proclaim the gospel to pagans throughout the Roman Empire. Yet, for all their differences what they had in common, apart from the circumstances of their death, was their faith in the Lord, their willingness to give their lives in his service. The gospel reading gives us Peter’s great confession of faith in Jesus, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’. Paul expresses his faith in the Lord in today’s second reading, ‘I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith’. The feast of these two great followers of the Lord reminds us that our faith in the Lord can bind together people who otherwise might have little in common. Our background, gifts, personality, can all be very different, and, yet, we can be one in the Lord. Paul uses the image of the human body to express this unity in diversity of the church. We give expression to our faith, our relationship with the Lord, in a way that is unique to each of us. Uniformity is not a mark of the church. The Lord’s rich and mysterious identity can only begin to find expression in the many and varied members of his body. As we celebrate the feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, we give thanks for our own distinctive faith journey which the Lord is always calling us to take.

 And/Or

(vii) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles 

Peter, the leader of the twelve, and Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, have been remembered together on this date since ancient times. According to very ancient tradition, both were put to death for their faith in Jesus during the persecution of the church in Rome by the Emperor Nero in 64 AD. Successive generations of Christians remembered where the two leaders of the early church were buried and, when Christianity became legal under the Emperor Constantine, a basilica was built over the tomb of each of them, the Basilica of Saint Peter on the Vatican Hill and the Basilica of Saint Paul outside the Walls. Both Basilicas remain places of pilgrimage to this day. Peter and Paul had very different backgrounds. Peter was a fisherman by the Sea of Galilee in modern day Israel. Paul was a learned Pharisee from the university city of Tarsus in modern day Turkey. Peter journeyed with Jesus from the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry until the time of his passion and death; the risen Lord appeared to Peter. Paul had never met Jesus until the risen Lord appeared to him on the road to Damascus in modern day Syria. According to Paul’s letter to the Galatians the two of them met in the city of Jerusalem probably less than twenty years after the death and resurrection of Jesus and they went on to have a major disagreement in the church of Antioch about the terms on which pagans should be admitted to the church. Even great apostles and saints can disagree over matters of fundamental importance. However, what united them, their faith in and love for the Lord, was far more significant than what divided them. They were very different people and they didn’t always see eye to eye, but the Lord needed both of them. He had a very different but equally vital role for each of them to play in spreading the gospel. Today’s feast reminds us that the Lord has a role for each of us to play in his work today. Our very different backgrounds, and even our disagreements over church related matters, is not an issue for the Lord. Rather, it is our very diversity which allows the Lord to work through us in a whole variety of ways. The church is never uniform, but the Lord asks to be united in our faith in and love for the Lord, as Peter and Paul were.

 And/Or

(viii) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles

I would like to welcome you back to our first celebration of a public Mass since the middle of March. We have been through a difficult time together and hopefully we are beginning to emerge from our social isolation. Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Peter and Paul. Each of them went through their own times of confinement, of social isolation. There were each imprisoned for their preaching of the gospel. In the first reading, we heard that King Herod arrested Peter and put him in prison. Yet, according to that reading, Peter in prison was supported by the prayers of the church, ‘the church prayed to God for him unremittingly’. The Lord came to him in his imprisonment through the prayers of the faithful. The Lord came to him in an even more dramatic way through an angel who delivered him from his confinement and restored him to the community of faith. Peter declared, ‘The Lord really did sent his angel and has saved me’. Hopefully, the story of Peter reflects our own experience. When we are confined, socially isolated, the Lord does not isolate himself from us. Even when we cannot come to church, the Lord comes to us. The Lord knows nothing of social isolation. He has been with us all this time, and he remains powerfully present to all who continue to stay put in their homes for their protection. Even when we cannot receive the Eucharist, we can say in the words of today’s responsorial psalm, ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good’. This was the experience of Saint Paul as well, the other great pillar of the church. In today’s second reading, he writes from prison, fully expecting that he may not get out alive, ‘the time has come for me to be gone’. It was a very isolating experience for him. He writes in a verse omitted from our reading, ‘all deserted me’. Yet, like Peter, he experienced the Lord’s powerful presence. As he says in today’s reading, ‘the Lord stood by me and gave me power’, and he goes on, ‘the Lord will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom’. Like Peter, he experienced the Lord’s sustaining presence when he was at his weakest and most isolated. This is one of the lessons these two great preachers of the gospel can teach us today. The Lord comes to us in our times of weakness and stands by us in our moments of isolation. No matter what distressing situation we may find ourselves in, the Lord is with us to strengthen and sustain us. Even when we are cut off from those who matter most to us, we are never cut off from the Lord, because he is always true to his name of Emmanuel, ‘God with us’. That is why, in the words of today’s psalm, every moment of every day, we can ‘look towards him and be radiant’.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

Hit Music 2005

No one expected Gorillaz to be so popular and people probably has forgotten Blur. Damon Albarn doesn’t seem to care though, he puts Blur aside and takes Jamie Hewlett to China for two whole weeks which he calls it “collecting folk songs”. They’ve been to Hunan, Guizhou, and Zhejiang. Not only did they travel Chinese attractions and taste all kinds of local cuisines in every streets and alleys, but they also promoted their new album while they were traveling. What a smart way to kill two birds with one stone.

Damon

Hit: Do you always wear a big sunglasses to look cool? Damon: Oh, no, it’s the light here, my eyes are sensitive to the light.(He said, taking off his glasses. Wow, what a typical handsome European, he has charming blue eyes.) Hit: What is your main purpose in coming to China? Damon: I was invited by a friend, but also was attracted by Chinese culture. I am interested in the culture and lifestyle of Chinese ethnic minorities, and their music in particular. We are so fascinated by it. On the other hand, we are promoting the new album Demon Days in here. In the past two weeks, we’ve been to Guiyang, Phoenix City, Changsha and Yiwu. But we are leaving today. Hit: That’s a shame, four more days and it’s the traditional Chinese autumn festival. You can have some delicious mooncakes on that day.(Damon seems to be interested in food.) Damon: Oh, yes. We have had some amazing food here. I found Chinese food really worthy of its reputation. I also bought a book of how to make dumplings. Hit: What’s the inspiration of making Gorillaz? Do you have any plans on touring? Damon: Each song is a story, and mostly happened on a dark night.It’s similar to the darkness that fell upon people after the 9 / 11 incident. For touring, as I have a very good impression of China, I will talk about it with my friends. We’re planning a world tour. I promise you, there will be a Chinese date. We’ll be back. (How’s the new video going? Damon: We are sampling in Africa right now, we have three videos done, now there’s one left. ) Hit: How did you and Jamie meet? Damon: We have many mutual friends, we’ve been knowing each others for 15 years.(Is it true that you guys live in the same building? Damon: Yeah, but that was a year ago, now we are living across the street.) Hit: What makes you want to form a HIP-HOP virtual band in the first place? Damon: Well, I still want to write pop music, but I don’t want to make ordinary music which is boring. And I’m interested in the idea of replacing actual people with cartoon characters. In fact, we can not be simply defined as hip hop band, because our music is very diverse, we got inspirations from everything. Gorillaz combines elements of Rock, reggae, hip-hop and lo-fi together. Hit: Would you like to talk about Oasis? They released a new album this year and it’s doing well. You guys were fighting a lot back in the old days. Damon: Well the battle between Blur and Oasis was some kinda promotion of the Britpop, isn’t it? As for our music, we better leave it to other people to judge. Hit: I also heard that you slammed the Live 8 concert, why is that? Damon: Because I think the concert lost its purpose. Assisting Africa is a formidable and complicated thing, and there are different ways to approach that. I think the reason to hold Live 8 concert is to help more people to understand Africa’s culture and its current situation. But live 8 failed to do that. For example, I used to think that I know about China, but it wasn’t until I actually came here and really got to know what people’s lives were like in here that I had a deeper feeling for China, a feeling that was different from the past. For the past two weeks, I’ve been fascinated by what’s going on here. I think Live 8 is a failure. It’s like if half the people in China were starving right now, and we organized a concert to help them, but not one Chinese was involved in the whole project, would you call that a success? Hit: Ok, let’s talk about something that’s less heavy. What other hobbies do you have besides music? Damon: Cooking, jogging, and playing with my baby daughter. I really like to cook, especially Chinese food. I had so many delicious food in China! I also bought a bunch of cooking books and I am going to try all of them when I get back. Hit: Can you make dumplings yet? Damon: We’ve got it covered. (Damon laughs, and I remind him that he needs more practice.) Oh, all I have to do is slice up the flour, chop up the vegetables and meat, then put in some mushrooms. And don’t forget about the chilli. (Damon windmills his hands while speaking, as if to prove that he can really cook. “Yeah, he loves chili, ” Jamie adds.) Hit: What’d you like to say to so many Chinese fans? Damon：谢谢(Thank you)！（He says these two words fluently in a strong British accent, somebody’s been practising obviously.）

Jamie

Hit: Can you introduce yourself first? Jamie: Introduce myself? (Jamie looks at me blankly. “Start from ‘I am —’ Ready, go!” Damon quips.) I’m Jamie (He thought for a while before blurting out. “I’m single. I’m looking for a girlfriend. ” — I made fun of him as Damon did.) I’m happy to be in China. I am the artist of the band, so I drew all of these arts. Hit: How did you come up with the idea of using cartoon characters as the band’s public image? Jamie: Because cartoon characters are so common, everyone has seen cartoons, and their characters can be more edgy. They can do a lot of things that actual people can’t in real life, they are the exaggeration of reality. And it’s easier to show artist’s intentions with cartoons. Hit: I noticed that in your paintings, characters’ eyes are specially designed. Why is that? Jamie: Well, because when you talk to someone, you look them in the eye, and through their eyes you can see what they’re thinking. Hit: Who is your favourite Gorillaz member? Jamie: I think it’s Murdoc, who’s formed the band and also is the heart of the band. Hit: When you were creating Gorillaz, did you ever think about making the band members’ appearances match the music? Jamie: Not Exactly. You know, the band members have their own personalities and backgrounds. So it’s more like… making cartoons. (Did you make their personalities more similar to the actual band members?) No, they are nothing like the people behind all this . Hit: Did anything hilarious happen during this trip? Jamie: We have a lot of funny stories, but it’s hard to explain. We spent most of the two weeks bouncing on the bus. Hit: What kind of person Damon is in your eyes? Jamie: He’s a lovely sunny boy.

Bonus

1. After Damon Albarn said his “thank you” to fans, I asked if he knew any other Chinese words, he immediately turned to Jamie, who was standing next to him, and asked, “How to say dumplings? ” And then he smiled and said, “饺子! ” which sounded way more precise than the “thank you”. 2. Damon talked a lot about the places he had visited, and he solemnly pointed to the green military rubber shoes on his feet, “Look! I bought them in PHOENIX CITY! ” Jamie, who was wearing the same shoes as Damon’s, also pointed to his feet and said, “Mine too! ” 3. Damon is apparently good at doodling, so he improvised on the magazine we brought with us… I just felt a little twitch at the corner of my mouth, I don’t know how to appreciate thta! Awkward!

for @damonalbarn​

​

-New Life -

Life has been interesting, especially my life, my father was a Roman army officer and my mother a Greek of the old religion. Since my father was in the military we moved around a lot. My mother really was very old school that she named me after the great emperor of the Roman Empire. My name is Chonstantine, well really Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus. Good thing I don’t by that long name only use it for certain things.

All my life growing up listening to stories from all of my family members about mythological creatures. My mother and her side of the family were Pagan, the stories I heard growing up came from her family. The stories pulled me in which was the reason I loved history, mythology, iconology, ancient history, and symbology.

As I got older, history became one of my favorite subjects. I became one of the students in my class to get ahead in my studies. Some of my teachers would give me tests to see how well ahead I was in my studies. I have passed them all with perfect grades, that the principle of the school I was in suggest to my parents that we move to the new world to better my education. Once we did arrive in the new world, my father was stationed in New York. My father Chonstantius and mother Helena moved us into our new home located in country areas of Caldwell. After us moving into our new home, I started junior school early then I was suppose to, I was at the age of 9. To the students in the school I was known as kid genius, I not only do I know all about history, math, science, I also can speak polyglots or multilingual. Not only can I speak them but I can also read and write in many languages fluently.

I started high school at the age of 11, all of my classes were of advanced placement classes. Into my second year of high school my counselor suggested I apply at a few history colleges, a few here in NY but also outside state. While I was finishing my last two years of high school I had started college too. When I was in my senior year of high school and the second year of college, my archeology class was offered a trip to go to Egypt to do some work and classes there. Of course I got to go to Egypt, while there studying I had learned that one of the pharaohs was a female named Cleopatra the Great. She spoke nine languages and was the only member of her dynasty who could speak Egyptian as well as her native Greek. After a month in Egypt, my fellow students and myself went to Rome, to study there. After Rome we were offered the opportunity to travel to other countries to study history, mythology and archeology. While I was in these countries, my professor had set up a gathering of the older generation who told folktales of mythology and mythological creatures that in many cultures believe in these stories. These stories are the same one that I heard growing up, when we were allowed to meet with the older generations and we all sat down to hear the storytelling I ask if I could take notes on what they were telling because I was going to write a book on their stories. To my surprise the elder said that I could as long as I gave her the credit in my book which I agreed.

From the notes I had taken, I was able to write my first book, called “The truth about Mythology” I was about 16 years old when I wrote it. The book became a big success. From the success of this book, one of my college history professor came to me and offered me an internship for the last two years of my BA. One day my professor suggested I go for my master degree in iconology and the field of symbology. I had ask what did it mean to study these fields. Iconology is a method of interpretation in cultural history and the history of the visual arts used by Aby Warburg, Erwin Panofsky and their followers that uncovers the cultural, social, and historical background of themes and subjects in the visual arts. Symbols can carry symbolic value in three primary forms: Ideological, comparative, and isomorphic. Ideological symbols such as religious and state symbols convey complex sets of beliefs and ideas.

One night as I was working late doing some research on the Ankh symbol that was link to vampire mythology. The Egpytian symbol of the ankh. It looks similar to the christan cross with the only thing different is that there is a loop at the top instead of the straight line. It is the most familiar of the Egytian symbols. It can be referred to by its Latin name, crux ansata, which translates to handle-shaped cross. Some believe that the symbol evolved from the simple knot or bow; other theories even have it being borne out of the strap from a style of sandal. Other theories are more sexual in nature. Origin theories are just that- theories. To the Egyptians, it represented a symbol of life. In their writing, it helped to make up words like “happiness” and “health.” This is significant in and of itself, but it was also much more.

Archeologists have found the symbol on vessels containing water for ceremonial purposes; with water being one of the main requirements for life, this makes sense. More significantly, it is often depicted in the hands of Egyptian deities. They carry it with them on the tops of scepters or simply in their hands. Other powerful portrayals, they are often holding an ankh to the mouth of kings or queens in order to provide them with the “breath of eternal life.” This implication connection to the concept of vampirism. It has been adopted by many covens or houses of varying beliefs. Not only is it seen as the eternal life, it provides both strong visual and symbolic reminder of the ancient connection.

This information I had was another reason I started on my other book called “Vampires do exist.” It’s more based on archeology and lore in other countries. History involves a lot of evolution. While I was doing research I uncovers something that has to do more with vampires to prove that they are real. Kemetic (ancient Egyptian) in origin, the Ankh is a symbol of eternal life, death and rebirth. It has to do with blood transfusions or something. There was some information about female births. In Kemetic lore, the Ankh started out as a literal transcription of the thoracic vertebrae of a bull. It then became a hieroglyph that was representational of the word ‘life’. In religious terms, it represented eternity and fertility.

The more research I did I found things from how the Egyptians buried their dead to what other cultures did with their dead. There was an article in the genre that could help pregnancies or artificial insemination for the vampires. Vampyres wear an Ankh to symbolize that they take in life, be it energy or blood. There was more information I had found which I used in my book and it made it another great success as well as my first one. I graduated from college getting both my Masters degree in iconology field and symbology field, also my Bachelor of Arts in history and archeology. I was 18 when I finish college and then about a year later my old professor had retired, he came to me to offer his place as the head of the history department and to also teach. My professor,even though he was retired, he continues to teach me new things. He encouraged me to get my doctorate in history more so in ancient history.

Another year has passed since I took over as a history professor and head of the department as well, I was a professor at a young age of 20 years old. Some time later, I started to offer night classes for my students either new or old students. One night, there were two females in my class who are big fans of my books; one of the females named Ehlena who is studying in the medical field. She came to me with questions on my second book, the one about vampires being real, I had side stepped most of her questions.

The following night they both come into class with a big muscle guy who had tattoos on his face near his eye and wore a leather glove that match his leather pants and jacket. After class I was questioned by the leather guy and I had also side stepped his questions which I could see he wasn't happy about that I did that. I manage to get out of my class room, with these three following close behind me to my private office. I thought I had closed the door but with the three of them stepping in the doorway stopping me from closing the door. They step in and had question me so much on my second book it had me worried. I tried to avoid their questions and I had given them very little answers till, Ehlena said that whatever information I had on the vampires might be a big help for them medically… TBC.

#NewLife #SASBDB

My Experiences, Perspective, My Why, My Vision, Point Of View On the World, And What I Believe In...

Hey guys. This is my first blog, so some of you might need a little background story.

I’m currently living in Tokyo with my wife and cat. I teach Transcendental Meditation and living a comfortable life here. It wasn’t always this way, as I’ve had to find my purpose, persevere and overcome my lack of patience…which I’m still working on.

I was born and raised in downtown Los Angeles. Some people say they’re born in a “big city” when they’re actually born in the outskirts “nearby.” I was born in the middle of LA in Korea Town. Not the best of places, but it’s where my parents started when they immigrated from Japan with only a dream and drive to succeed, and eventually raised a family with three kids, a cat and a dog. 

I never thought of myself as a minority, since I didn’t understand that there was even a majority. People were always people to me.

At home, my parents would speak Japanese. My father was from Kagoshima, Kyushu and my mother was from Osaka near Tennnoji. Luckily, I was placed in an environment where I didn’t have a lot of Japanese friends, so outside of the house, I spoke “SoCal” English. I write “SoCal” because later on, when I moved states for college, I found out the rest of America, or even the world, doesn’t speak the same laid back, “nah-man-everything’s-coo” English I spoke back in my hometown.

It also took me 25 years to realize that the Japanese I spoke at home was NOT the Japanese spoken by most people in Japan either. When I first came to Tokyo and heard formal Japanese (“keigo”), I had no clue what was being said. The clerk at the cash register would always look at me funny because I looked Japanese but couldn’t speak it fluently, which is a thing I sometimes still struggle with today. I probably come off as a Korean student who studies Japanese. These days, it seems the less I speak and just do subtle gestures combined with perfectly timed words, the more I fit right in.

Dialects are a real strange thing. I mean, can you imagine? What if you were born in an area with a specific dialect, and you moved out of your hometown only to realize that your dialect made you sound unintelligent to most people. Luckily the dialects I landed with weren’t so bad, but just a food for thought for those of you raising your children.

My parents were natural entrepreneurs. My dad owned an electronic store in Osaka, which is where he met my mother. (A really cute and funny story there that I’ll save for another blog.) It was during the economic bubble in Japan, so it was a good time to open up shop. He then sold it, followed his dreams, and flew to Los Angeles. My mother followed him to America a year later, and they eventually opened up a Japanese restaurant in Cypress, Orange County.

For all of my childhood, from preschool to high school, my parents were running their restaurant business. During my elementary school years, I’d go there after school and hang out in the back room until my mom finished work. I remember there was always a lot of customers. It was probably the fact that no one else in the area offered teriyaki bowls, sushi, udon noodles, yakisoba or chicken karaage. All I’ll say is that the food at home was ALWAYS good. :)

I admired the culture they created with their customers. Everyone seemed to know my parents by name, and even the police and fire fighters would come in and high-five me.

The only time I got in trouble for being there was when I got bored waiting and stuck my hand in a mountain of rice grains. It felt pretty amazing, but I learned never to mess with quality assurance when a customer witnessed me and my mom brought her scolding thunder.

My mother hardly speaks English, even today, and she claims you only need two things to survive in another country. A smile and “thank you.” I guess that’s why I naturally always smile and say thank you.

My parents did a pretty good job in keeping all three kids out of trouble. They kept us busy. Besides regular school, I trained in a basketball league 3-5 days a week with a weekend game. It wasn’t the league for aspiring Michael Jordan’s and Kobe Bryant’s, but the Asian one. I seriously thought I was pretty good at basketball until I met guys twice my size in Jr. High and High School that easily swatted my threes and dunked over my low defensive stance.

You know that feeling when you train every day and night, even though the lights are out at the park, trying to perfect your moves and shots for 10 years, only to find out you were living in a small bubble and there were guys with better genetics and more talent than you? It’s basically what happened to me with karate, piano, and golf as well, even though I won a lot of competitions, received awards, and featured in local newspapers…in my small bubble.

Basketball and karate brings a lot of good memories, though. It wasn’t winning the competitions and being the best that I enjoyed. It was the process of improving myself and enjoying the community.

My Jr. High and High School years were colored with hip hop, breakdancing and DJing. The Fugees, Tribe Called Quest, Tupac, Ice Cube, Rakim, KRS One, EPMD, Wu Tang, Biggie, DJ Qbert, Mix Master Mike, come to mind. It was always for fun, and my homiez always knew how to have a good time. After school, I’d swim at my friend’s pool, go snowboarding, or have bonfires at the beach. Life was good in the SoCal way.

Since my parents were also successful in network marketing as a side business, I remember being taken to large mansions with 13 rooms overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It was sitting in on meetings and events like these where I learned that business was all about building a community, and financial success was just an outcome. It seemed like the business part was only an excuse to get together because 80-90% of the conversation was about family and kids.

My dad took the family on a local trip every weekend, we had a family trip multiple times a year, and visited our relatives in Japan once a year up until I was in high school.

My parents wanted all three kids to at least be able to understand Japanese and speak to our grandparents, so on top of going to weekday school and all the extra curricular activity, we went to Japanese school on Saturdays.

Boy, did I hate it. It wasn’t that it was hard or difficult. I just really didn’t like the mentality and culture at the Japanese school. Being raised in an American culture, especially in the “sunshine” culture of LA where you’re free to express yourself, going to Japanese school felt like the cringe most people feel when they hear about what’s going on in North Korea. Rigid, so many rules, and very top-down hierarchy. Eek.

It made me appreciate the American culture even more. I excelled in American school, but never did my homework for my Japanese school. I made a ton of friends during the weekdays, but got in a fight every Saturday. It was two opposite worlds, and it was stressful. I think I took out all my aggression and frustration in sports and recreation.

Then, the next day of the week were the peaceful days at Sunday school. That’s where I gained exposure to profound questions to life. It naturally made me think deeply, and put the small things into perspective. It set the foundation, the “thesis” for the direction in my life.

College felt sudden to me. I wasn’t prepared AT ALL. My parents were immigrants, so they didn’t know what to do or how to prepare. With my so-so grades, I cruised right into San Diego State University and that’s when I found out college was about drinking and partying. There was literally a free shuttle bus that would take students from college campus to Tijuana to go party. It all felt lame to me, so my attention went inwards to search for truth and what’s real. It made me ask bigger questions and initiated my soul searching.

I ended up transferring to a private college that specialized in traditional oriental medicine. It was my first exposure to acupuncture, herbs and hippies! I was fascinated because it was a new world to me and off the beaten path. After getting certified as a therapist, I continued my soul searching while attending community college.

During that time, one book that grabbed my attention was the “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda. I visited the Self-Realization Fellowship temples, participated in some classes, and learned some meditation techniques. The Eastern traditions were drawing me closer and closer, and I became fascinated with ancient Vedic knowledge.

One day, somewhere in Pasadena, I was walking home from a rock concert featuring Yellowcard, and saw a poster for the preview of “What The Bleep Do We Know” at a local bookstore. I was fascinated by the concept of quantum physics, mind over matter, and the law of attraction. To be honest, a lot of the speakers seemed too “out there” for my taste, but a Harvard professor caught my attention - Dr. John Hagelin.

I found he was a faculty member of a little known college in the middle of Iowa, called Maharishi University of Management (MUM). I searched for their website, and felt goosebumps. My gut feeling was telling me to go, so I convinced my dad to visit with me and I ended up becoming a student within a few months.

MUM was in a small town located in Fairfield, Iowa. The first reaction from my older sister, Jenny, was “Why are you going to Ohio?” It made me laugh, but I honestly didn’t have a rational, logical reasoning. I just had an intuition.

At MUM, I learned Transcendental Meditation, meditated twice a day with thousands of students, professors and people from many different countries. It was the world I started to glimpse at the oriental medicine school, but multiplied by a thousand.

Fairfield is a town of 10,000 people, where the majority of residents are health conscious artists, entrepreneurs and business owners. Those 5 years taught me what was possible on a community level if enough people agreed to a common lifestyle. My perspective of the world went from a dark, violent world, to a stress-free, peace-loving one.

I majored in Environmental Science, and minored in Vedic Science. Then, my last year was focused on mathematics and physics. I ended up being the assistant for Dr. John Hagelin’s first-year physics course, which was a crash course on fundamental physics and quantum physics.

I then found an opportunity to go to the Maharishi European Research University (MERU) in Vlodrop, Holland. Let me tell you, the feeling of the place made it seem like it was a different world. The closest thing I can relate it to is the Jedi counsel in Star Wars. Yoda was like the TM founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and the Jedi masters were like the many leaders from various countries. Some were from countries I probably wouldn’t be able to point out on a map even if my life depended on it. Kyrgyzstan, Brunei, or Malta anyone? MERU was like an extension of Fairfield, but more organized with a bit more of a corporate feeling to it. Kind of like a miniature United Nations, but without all the greed and corruption. After all, it was the headquarters for the global TM organization.

I was at MERU when Maharishi passed away, and suddenly flew over to India to attend the grand ceremony. Yes, India. Who would have ever thought I would end up in India? It was a major culture shock. My heart and mind were not prepared for the trip. I stayed close with a few friends I made at MERU who became some of my most cherished friends even today.

We backpacked it through rickshaws and cows, hopping on trains, and spending the night at one-star hotels. There’s a reason why people who have gone to India bond instantly. It’s because they’ve experienced something most people have never seen. A few places we visited: New Delhi, Allahabad, Varanasi, Rishikesh, Himalayan villages and a random city in Jabalpur, where we visited palm leaf astrologists, called Brighu Pandits.

After 90 days of travel, spiritual growth, and stomach problems, we said farewell and some of us flew to Phuket, Thailand. It seemed like paradise with coconuts, durian and white sand beaches.

Life took a 360 turn around after my trip, though, when I got back home to my parents place. I was 25, and received a phone call to be invited to help with educational conferences in Japan for the summer. The only reason I was invited was because I graduated from MUM, was Japanese, and made a connection at MERU. I helped set up conferences in Hiroshima, Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo, which had some really high profile people.

Remember how I didn’t enjoy my Japanese school? It was basically the same situation, but worse. Go figure! I was too independent minded. I spoke when I wasn’t supposed to. Everything was backwards for me, and I must have upset a lot of “seniors” because I disturbed their way of doing things.

During the storm of cultural clash, I somehow met my wife, Yoko. There were three times in my life when I had a gut feeling of assurance. The first time was finding MUM. The second time was becoming an instructor of TM. The third was finding my wife. I’ve heard when the emotion and intellect integrate, there is a knowingness. It’s called intuition. It’s what I’ve based my life decisions on, and it hasn’t seemed to fail me. (Knock on wood)

From that moment on, my life was spun around, and I ended up marrying Yoko in less than a year of knowing each other. I began living in Japan without any plans or preparation, and really struggled to make ends meet at first. While gaining practical experience in life, such as paying the bills, working, and building a comfortable home, I simultaneously began to meet a lot of clairvoyants and clairaudients. The “SoCal” part of me would say “get-outta-here” but it’s just a normal day for me now. I don’t know why or how I meet them, but it’s just a reoccurring pattern. Must be some kind of pattern in nature.

Being in Japan, for me, has been a process of integrating my heart and mind, the left and right brain. I’ve been to high-end business seminars and personal development seminars. I’ve taught English for GABA, and rated with 5-stars at their Shinagawa office. I worked for a moving company, organic market, a farm, and as an international salesperson for a prototype car manufacturer. I don’t know what happened to all the samurais in Japan, but I think many of their offsprings work in the auto industry now. There’s a reason why Japan makes some of the best cars and technology in the world. There is a culture of being very organized, systematic and detail oriented.

After overworking, nearly breaking my back and having internal breakdowns from losing the "American” part of me, my wife and I had an intuition to become certified TM instructors and we both took a leap of faith. It was five and a half months of intensive meditation, training and bliss.

When Yoko and I graduated, we were ready to take on the world. We felt refreshed, filled with optimism and enthusiasm. Out of the group of teachers who graduated with us, we were the first to open our TM center in Akasaka. From a national average of 3 to 5 clients per month, we had 30 to 50 people sign up starting the first month. We already had a network of friends and clients who trusted us, and we used all our previous experience and knowledge about business to really make it a success. We soon became the most successful instructors in Japan, and became one of the highest performing teachers in the world.

No one grows with easy growth. All successful entrepreneurs experience a “punch in the face” that made them evolve and improve. I’ve experienced a fair share of my own, which had to do with a cloud of jealousy that overshadowed the blue sky above us and someone decided to close our center and take us off the map. It was one of those Japanese ninja tactics. I never received a clear answer as to what happened, but I can guess why. It’s one of those things in life you couldn’t do anything about, and it wasn’t worth fighting about. I decided to suck it up and move on.

We eventually managed to establish an independent TM organization in Japan with the approval from the international organization, and opened up our new TM center in Shinjuku, Japan, which is our current location. In the first 3 years, thousands of people have come through our doors.

We focused on nurturing our community, and created a wealth of loyal friends who referred their friends and family. We even had the privilege to teach an entire company with a hundred fifty employees. We have regular weekend retreat courses in Izu, and regular advanced lectures and courses around Japan. It may not be a place that everyone would be attracted to, but it seems fit for those people who like a positive, young and successful atmosphere, which is the way I like it.

The most difficult thing for me was learning patience to manage a company. Everything was new to me, and I had to learn about administration, finances, marketing, and sales, which I had no idea how to do. I only knew in my gut the direction I needed to take the company, but the process was very slow. It was the grind.

The only way to keep myself from giving up was cultivating my gratitude. The top things you need in creating a successful business is purpose, perseverance and patience. Without it, you’ll end up wanting to take shortcuts that eventually bite you back somewhere down the road.

I’ve been lucky with moments that seemed to be too good to be true. Call it serendipity or synchronicity, but when we were in the deep with our company, something or someone always seemed to come around to bring us back to where we needed to be. It’s like an invisible hand. I believe when you genuinely want to do good for others, and you’re doing your best to make it happen, the opportunity for luck to come into your life increases. I’ve been lucky many times in my life.

At the end of the day, no matter how hard the grind is, it comes down to joy and laughter. My wife thinks I’m the comedian, but she cracks me up multiple times a day. Laughter helps to keep things in perspective and makes the process so much more enjoyable. There are 99 million things to be worried and frustrated about everyday, but there’s always at least 1 thing you can find to laugh about. When I find it hard to find that one thing, it’s usually because I’m in the deep end of being too serious. I like to take a moment to smile at how intensely focused I am. Taking one step back, seeing the big picture, and just appreciating and finding the humor in every situation always helped me get through the darkest hours.

When you cultivate joy and laughter, it radiates and it’s what people are naturally attracted to. Everyone knows life isn’t easy, and if you don’t know, you probably still live with your parents or got a lucky break. When you radiate this joy, people want to be a part of it, and want to share it with others. We’ve been lucky to have a flow of referrals from our dedicated community only through word of mouth.

I have learned that in business your pipeline is your lifeblood and it always needs to be full. You have to constantly create awareness in prospective clients, provide enough information so they can do their own research and become interested, make an offer, deliver a good quality product or service, and follow up. You always need to have the energy flowing in your business. Otherwise, you’re not flowing. You’re not moving. That causes the wheels to stop turning and your company comes to a hault. Keeping your eyes on the whole process while focusing on the details takes some practice.

If done right, you can eventually create 500 true fans. It’s all you really need to create a success business and a comfortable life. For example, if you have 500 people who trust you, and like you and your services, they’re ready to be a part of your events, courses, and activities. Let’s say those 500 people purchase your $30 product or service. That’s $15,000. For most people, that’s a comfortable monthly income. For most businesses, that’s not all that difficult to achieve.

You start to create a culture where people gain value through the community and being together. Just how an organism is made of many microorganism, or how the galaxy is made of many stars and solar systems, your company becomes sustainable with 500 true fans.

Currently, I feel I’m getting ready to move on to another level in life beyond teaching TM and managing a TM center. After teaching hundreds of people and seeing the change in their life, I’m now drawn to helping others build a business that is fueled by their passion and purpose.

I need to do me. I have to keep following my intuition and joy. So I’ve created the Cosmic Entrepreneur program to help people build a mind body startup with 500 true fans. This can be beneficial for people just getting started or business owners who want to learn a more “zen” way of doing things. There really is no need to become a millionaire to live a good life. I’ve done a million and a half, and I can tell you it doesn’t really change anything other than the fact that you can buy more things. You still have to work on you, and I’m sure your wife will happily remind you of that.

Becoming wealthy isn’t a bad thing. However, it’s the unsatisfied small ego that wants to continuously grab a hold of millions and millions of dollars that you can’t even manage. It causes an imbalance of what you desire and what you actually need. This causes strain. All you need is to create a sustainable ecosystem in your business, so that you can enjoy the process called life. A business is always to support your lifestyle, not the other way around.

With the ever-changing field of marketing, online platforms, and social media, etc., it’s effecting the global economy and the large corporations. The media agencies on Wall Street are definitely feeling it.

I believe more and more people will want to become independent. There will be a growing number of house wives who start a home business and create their own independent income. More 14 year olds will become YouTubers and eBay flippers, rather than becoming hamburger flippers. Experienced professionals will become freelancers or contract workers, rather than caging themselves in a corporate environment. There is already a growing number of entrepreneurs and business owners, which only creates more opportunity for investors, angels, and philanthropists.

My intuition also tells me more and more people will want more balance between their happiness, health, and wealth. More people will want less B.S., such as these self-help gurus who don’t have real solution, talent or life experiences. People will steer away from these “make money fast” gurus who have never owned a real business. Those who took shortcuts may do well in the short term, but in the next 5, 10 or 20 years, the market will separate the authentic from the phony.

People will need to stop chasing an unreachable dream and become comfortable with who they really are, not what the media tells them to become. People will naturally enjoy more down time, family time, and being a part of a community. Technology, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and e-sports will change the way we use time, socialize and make purchases.

To be happy and comfortable, you don’t need to be a millionaire, be famous, or live each day to extremes as if it was the last day of your life. We just need to be ourselves, and less influenced by what others think of us. The next 5 or 10 years are going to challenge every one of us to find our purpose, perseverance, and patience.

Do you.

I’ve been in this business for about a decade now. I’ve met a lot of gooneys and some of the most amazing individuals. I’ve had my highs, and I’ve had my lows. I’m fascinated by it. I’m growing fast. I’m learning fast. I’m still a student of this stuff, but I have a service to offer for those of you getting started or want to take things to the next level.

I’m starting a series of talks called “Mind Body Startup with 500 True Fans.” It’s an integration of my new venture Cosmic Entrepreneur and TM Japan.

There is a process I created called Be-Do-Thrive. Be, meaning going within and getting to know yourself. Do, meaning finding a suitable business model that suits your lifestyle. Thrive, meaning utilizing the latest platforms to reach and nuture your 500 fans as quickly as possible. Topics include mind-body health, self-branding, building 500 true fans, latest marketing strategies through social media, and how meditation can help you in the process.

I hold lectures in Tokyo, which include a brief overview, a networking session to meet other participants, some demos, Q&A, and a mini-private session for those interested.

I also offer private sessions, live events and webinars, regular blog posts, videos, and share information on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Line, and Instagram. If you are interested, feel free to connect with me or email [email protected]

I wish you happiness, health and wealth, and most of all, I hope you enjoy the process of becoming more you.

Stay tuned to get the latest updates and insider’s tips.

New Life: Behind the Truth Part 1

Written by @HistoriamProfes

https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sr0l6s

Life has been interesting, especially my life, my father was a Roman army officer and my mother a Greek of the old religion. Since my father was in the military we moved around a lot. My mother really was very old school that she named me after the great emperor of the Roman Empire. My name is Chonstantine, well really Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus. Good thing I don’t by that long name only use it for certain things. All my life growing up listening to stories from all of my family members about mythological creatures. My mother and her side of the family were Pagan, the stories I heard growing up came from her family. The stories pulled me in which was the reason I loved history, mythology, iconology, ancient history, and symbology. As I got older, history became one of my favorite subjects. I became one of the students in my class to get ahead in my studies. Some of my teachers would give me tests to see how well ahead I was in my studies. I have passed them all with perfect grades, that the principle of the school I was in suggest to my parents that we move to the new world to better my education. Once we did arrive in the new world, my father was stationed in New York. My father Chonstantius and mother Helena moved us into our new home located in country areas of Caldwell. After us moving into our new home, I started junior school early then I was suppose to, I was at the age of 9. To the students in the school I was known as kid genius, I not only do I know all about history, math, science, I also can speak polyglots or multilingual. Not only can I speak them but I can also read and write in many languages fluently. I started high school at the age of 11, all of my classes were of advanced placement classes. Into my second year of high school my counselor suggested I apply at a few history colleges, a few here in NY but also outside state. While I was finishing my last two years of high school I had started college too. When I was in my senior year of high school and the second year of college, my archeology class was offered a trip to go to Egypt to do some work and classes there. Of course I got to go to Egypt, while there studying I had learned that one of the pharaohs was a female named Cleopatra the Great. She spoke nine languages and was the only member of her dynasty who could speak Egyptian as well as her native Greek. After a month in Egypt, my fellow students and myself went to Rome, to study there. After Rome we were offered the opportunity to travel to other countries to study history, mythology and archeology. While I was in these countries, my professor had set up a gathering of the older generation who told folktales of mythology and mythological creatures that in many cultures believe in these stories. These stories are the same one that I heard growing up, when we were allowed to meet with the older generations and we all sat down to hear the storytelling I ask if I could take notes on what they were telling because I was going to write a book on their stories. To my surprise the elder said that I could as long as I gave her the credit in my book which I agreed. From the notes I had taken, I was able to write my first book, called “The truth about Mythology” I was about 16 years old when I wrote it. The book became a big success. From the success of this book, one of my college history professor came to me and offered me an internship for the last two years of my BA. One day my professor suggested I go for my master degree in iconology and the field of symbology. I had ask what did it mean to study these fields. Iconology is a method of interpretation in cultural history and the history of the visual arts used by Aby Warburg, Erwin Panofsky and their followers that uncovers the cultural, social, and historical background of themes and subjects in the visual arts. Symbols can carry symbolic value in three primary forms: Ideological, comparative, and isomorphic. Ideological symbols such as religious and state symbols convey complex sets of beliefs and ideas. One night as I was working late doing some research on the Ankh symbol that was link to vampire mythology. The Egpytian symbol of the ankh. It looks similar to the christan cross with the only thing different is that there is a loop at the top instead of the straight line. It is the most familiar of the Egytian symbols. It can be referred to by its Latin name, crux ansata, which translates to handle-shaped cross. Some believe that the symbol evolved from the simple knot or bow; other theories even have it being borne out of the strap from a style of sandal. Other theories are more sexual in nature. Origin theories are just that- theories. To the Egyptians, it represented a symbol of life. In their writing, it helped to make up words like “happiness” and “health.” This is significant in and of itself, but it was also much more. Archeologists have found the symbol on vessels containing water for ceremonial purposes; with water being one of the main requirements for life, this makes sense. More significantly, it is often depicted in the hands of Egyptian deities. They carry it with them on the tops of scepters or simply in their hands. Other powerful portrayals, they are often holding an ankh to the mouth of kings or queens in order to provide them with the “breath of eternal life.” This implication connection to the concept of vampirism. It has been adopted by many covens or houses of varying beliefs. Not only is it seen as the eternal life, it provides both strong visual and symbolic reminder of the ancient connection. This information I had was another reason I started on my other book called “Vampires do exist.” It’s more based on archeology and lore in other countries. History involves a lot of evolution. While I was doing research I uncovers something that has to do more with vampires to prove that they are real. Kemetic (ancient Egyptian) in origin, the Ankh is a symbol of eternal life, death and rebirth. It has to do with blood transfusions or something. There was some information about female births. In Kemetic lore, the Ankh started out as a literal transcription of the thoracic vertebrae of a bull. It then became a hieroglyph that was representational of the word ‘life’. In religious terms, it represented eternity and fertility. The more research I did I found things from how the Egyptians buried their dead to what other cultures did with their dead. There was an article in the genre that could help pregnancies or artificial insemination for the vampires. Vampyres wear an Ankh to symbolize that they take in life, be it energy or blood. There was more information I had found which I used in my book and it made it another great success as well as my first one. I graduated from college getting both my Masters degree in iconology field and symbology field, also my Bachelor of Arts in history and archeology. I was 18 when I finish college and then about a year later my old professor had retired, he came to me to offer his place as the head of the history department and to also teach. My professor, even though he was retired, he continues to teach me new things. He encouraged me to get my doctorate in history more so in ancient history. Another year has passed since I took over as a history professor and head of the department as well, I was a professor at a young age of 20 years old. Some time later, I started to offer night classes for my students either new or old students. One night, there were two females in my class who are big fans of my books; one of the females named Ehlena who is studying in the medical field. She came to me with questions on my second book, the one about vampires being real, I had side stepped most of her questions. The following night they both come into class with a big muscle guy who had tattoos on his face near his eye and wore a leather glove that match his leather pants and jacket. After class I was questioned by the leather guy and I had also side stepped his questions which I could see he wasn't happy about that I did that. I manage to get out of my class room, with these three following close behind me to my private office. I thought I had closed the door but with the three of them stepping in the doorway stopping me from closing the door. They step in and had question me so much on my second book it had me worried. I tried to avoid their questions and I had given them very little answers till, Ehlena said that whatever information I had on the vampires might be a big help for them medically… TBC.

29th June >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Matthew 16:13-19 for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul: ‘On this rock I will build my church’. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul Gospel (Europe, Africa, New Zealand, Australia & Canada) Matthew 16:13-19 You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said ‘the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.’ Gospel (USA) Matthew 16:13–19 You are Peter, and I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Reflections (4) (i) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul Rome has been a place of pilgrimage since the very early years of the church. In earliest times, Christians went on pilgrimage to Rome to visit the tombs of the martyrs, in particular, the tombs of Peter and Paul. Both of these great apostles were martyred in Rome during the persecution of the church under the emperor Nero in the year 64 AD. The two basilicas of Saint Peter and of Saint Paul outside the Walls were built over their tombs. Those basilicas, especially Saint Peter’s, remain places of pilgrimage to this day. If Peter and Paul were alike in death, both martyred in Rome, they were quite unalike in life. Peter was a fisherman from Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee; Paul was a very well educated Pharisee from the university city of Tarsus. Peter was called by Jesus as he was fishing by the Sea of Galilee. Paul was called by the risen Lord as he approached Damascus in pursuit of his mission to persecute the church. Peter was to be the rock on which Jesus would build his church; he was to be the focal point of the church’s unity. Paul was commissioned to proclaim the gospel to pagans throughout the Roman Empire. Yet, for all their differences what they had in common, apart from the circumstances of their death, was their faith in the Lord, their willingness to give their lives in his service. The gospel reading gives us Peter’s great confession of faith in Jesus, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’. Paul expresses his faith in the Lord in today’s second reading, ‘I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith’. The feast of these two great followers of the Lord reminds us that our faith in the Lord can bind together people who otherwise might have little in common. Our background, gifts, personality, can all be very different, and, yet, we can be one in the Lord. Paul uses the image of the human body to express this unity in diversity of the church. We give expression to our faith, our relationship with the Lord, in a way that is unique to each of us. Uniformity is not a mark of the church. The Lord’s rich and mysterious identity can only begin to find expression in the many and varied members of his body. As we celebrate the feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, we give thanks for our own distinctive faith journey which the Lord is always calling us to take. And/Or (ii) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul In many respects Peter and Paul were very different people. Peter was a fisherman from Galilee. His world was the Sea of Galilee and the hilly countryside that surrounded it. According to John’s gospel, he was from Bethsaida, a small town on the Northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. He would have had a basic education and his first language was Aramaic. Paul was from the university city of Tarsus, the capital city of the Roman province of Cilicia, on the south-east coast of what is today Turkey. He seems to have been educated to a high level. He wrote fluently in Greek. His family appear to have been well-to-do as his father was a Roman citizen. He was a zealous Pharisee, who declared himself blameless with regard to the keeping of the Jewish Law. If the two of them had met before they came to faith in Jesus, one senses that they would have had little in common. Yet, today, the church throughout the world celebrates their joint feast day. It is Jesus who brought them together. Yet, he touched their lives in very different ways. Peter heard the call of Jesus by the shore of the Sea of Galilee as he engaged in his daily work of fishing; Paul heard the call of the risen Lord somewhere in the vicinity of Damascus where he was heading on his mission of persecuting people like Peter who were proclaiming Jesus to be the Jewish Messiah. Jesus called Peter to be the rock on which his church would be built; he called Paul to be the apostle to the non-Jewish world, the pagans. Each of them gave their lives in responding to the Lord’s call; Peter was crucified; Paul was beheaded. They were both executed in Rome, a long way from Galilee and from Tarsus. Their tombs have been places of pilgrimage to this day and two of Rome’s four great Basilicas are built over their tombs, Saint Peter’s in the Vatican and Saint Paul’s outside the walls. We celebrate their joint feast today, giving thanks to God for their generous and courageous witness to their faith in the Lord. From its beginnings, the church has worked to be true to the faith of the first apostles, especially the two great apostles Peter and Paul. That is why we speak of the faith as apostolic. Today, we too try to be true to the faith as lived and articulated by those two great pillars of the church. This apostolic faith finds expression in a special way in the New Testament. We keep returning to the gospels and letters and other books that are to be found there so as to remain connected to the faith of those early preachers of the gospel. The Lord continues to speak to us through their lives and through the sacred literature that they inspired. The Lord calls out to each of us today, as he called Peter and Paul. He wants to work through us in our distinctiveness, as he worked through the very different people that were Peter and Paul. We each have a unique contribution to make to the coming of the Lord’s kingdom. In our efforts to respond to this call, Peter and Paul can continue to be our inspiration. And/Or (iii) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul Today we celebrate the feast of two of the great pillars of the church, Peter and Paul. They came from very different backgrounds. Peter was a fisherman from rural Galilee. Paul was a learned Pharisee from the university city of Tarsus. Peter’s first language was Aramaic; Paul’s first language was Greek. Peter knew Jesus from the time of Jesus’ baptism and was with Jesus until the time of Jesus’ passion and death; Paul only ever met the risen Lord, in the vicinity of Damascus. For all their differences, they had at least one thing in common. Both of these men found themselves at odds with the Lord. Peter denied Jesus publicly three times. Paul violently persecuted the followers of Jesus, and thereby persecuted Jesus himself. Yet, their resistance to the Lord did not prevent the Lord from working powerfully through them. Peter was chosen to be the leader of the twelve, the rock on which Jesus would build his church. Paul was chosen to be the great apostle to the pagans. We know from the letter to the Galatians that Peter and Paul had a serious disagreement at one point about the direction the church should be taking. They were very different people and the Lord worked through each of them in very different ways. They were certainly united in death. Very early tradition recalls that both were executed in Rome by the emperor Nero who blamed the Christians for the fire of Rome. Today’s feast reminds us that the way the Lord works through us is unique to each one of us. The feast also reassures us that our many resistances to the Lord need not be a hindrance to the Lord working through us. Peter who denied the Lord and Paul who persecuted the Lord went on to become great servants of the Lord. Our failings do not define who we are. Paul would go on to say, ‘the Lord’s grace toward me has not been in vain’. The Lord’s grace towards us in our weakness and frailty need never be in vain if we continue to open ourselves to the workings of that grace, as Peter and Paul did. And/Or (iv) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul According to the gospel reading, what singled Peter out from the other disciples was his God-given insight into the identity of Jesus. It was because of his unique insight that Jesus gives Peter a unique role among his followers. He is to be the rock, the firm foundation, on which Jesus will build his church. Peter’s role is further spelt out by Jesus giving him the keys of the kingdom of heaven. The image of the keys suggests authority. The nature of that authority is expressed in terms of binding and loosing. This rerers to a teaching authority. Peter is being entrusted with the task of authoritatively interpreting the teaching of Jesus for other members of the church. Yet, this same Peter immediately tries to deflect Jesus from taking the way of the cross, and when Jesus did take that way, Peter would deny any association with him. Jesus gives a significant role to someone who remains very flawed. If the gospel reading associates teaching with Peter, the second reading associates preaching with Paul. In that reading Paul refers to the Lord who ‘gave me power, so that through me the whole message might be preached for all the pagans to hear’. Paul was the great preacher of the gospel to the pagans throughout the Roman Empire. He preached it for the last time further west, in the city of Rome, where, like Peter, he was martyred for his faith in Christ. Our second reading today may well have been written from his Roman imprisonment, ‘I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith’. The image of the fight and the race suggest that ‘keeping the faith’ was a struggle for Paul; it did not come easy to him, just as keeping the faith did not come easy to Peter either. Keeping the faith does not always come easy to any of us. Paul was very aware that keeping the faith was not due primarily to his own efforts; it was the Lord who enabled him to keep the faith. As he says in this morning’s second reading, ‘the Lord stood by me and gave me power’. It is the Lord who empowers all of us to keep the faith; his faithfulness to us enables us to be faithful to him. The faithful witness of Peter and Paul speak to us ultimately of the Lord’s faithfulness to us all. Fr. Martin Hogan, Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin, D03 AO62, Ireland. Email: [email protected] or [email protected] Parish Website: www.stjohnsclontarf.ie Please join us via our webcam. Twitter: @SJtBClontarfRC. Facebook: St John the Baptist RC Parish, Clontarf. Tumblr: Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin.

Accents, Language and Race: 5 People on Why They Code-Switch

http://fashion-trendin.com/accents-language-and-race-5-people-on-why-they-code-switch/

Accents, Language and Race: 5 People on Why They Code-Switch

The first time I actively noticed someone code-switch I was about 10. I told my mom (who is white) that she put on an accent around my dad’s relatives (who are black) at Christmas. “Please stop,” I said in the car one day. When you’re 10, everything is embarrassing, but I think there was something about that particular brand of code-switching that stuck out to me. It seemed so inauthentic, an attempt to belong in a way that just came off as awkward. So often when we talk about code-switching, we talk about a certain group shifting to meet the expectations of a dominant culture. I think watching that in reverse was what caused me to notice it, even though I had been code-switching for most of my life.

There’s the linguistic-focused dictionary definition of code-switching — “the practice of alternating between two or more languages or varieties of language in conversation” — and then there’s the more colloquial one that centers around changing one’s behavior, conversation topics and dress when around different groups of people. There’s a podcast, a Key & Peele sketch and a million memes about code-switching, and for Duality Month at Man Repeller, I wanted to hear from some other real-life, self-proclaimed code-switchers about their experiences. Below, five women talk about the hows and whys of their personal code-switching and how it feels to move between languages and identities.

Rachita Vasan, 24

I grew up not feeling at home in my own skin, feeling too Indian for Americans and too American for Indians. You internalize those judgements and value systems, not realizing that in doing so, you’re setting yourself up to fail because you consider yourself to be an inherent contradiction.

But you can’t sharpen a knife without a whetstone — as hard as my childhood was in a lot of ways, I credit it with so much of who I am today. Constantly having to reevaluate your audience and context can take a lot out of you when the entire world is trying to tell you who you’re supposed to be. So I developed a really strong internal radar for what felt authentic and honest to me — time spent understanding other people was also time spent nurturing my intuition and sense of self. Especially as an only child, I didn’t have anyone Indian-American to really model behavior off of other than myself, so I got really good at observing and learning from the people around me, even if they weren’t “hybrids” like I was.

When you code-switch, you get really fucking good at understanding the power of words

The practice of putting myself in other people’s shoes to delve into their state of mind is one that became critical to almost every skillset I’m proud of today, especially writing. When you code-switch, you get really fucking good at understanding the power of words, how to get people to take you seriously, how to override their lizard brains shouting stereotypes and misconceptions in the background of your conversation. I have an endless fascination with the nuances in language and communication because as far as I’m concerned, I am a nuance.

There’s a tension in code-switching, you know? But there’s also an energy and a power in that tension; eventually, I learned that being from two cultures didn’t have to mean I was excluded from both. It meant that, once I grew enough to feel secure about who I was and who I wanted to be, I could be greedy with my identity — I could have everything I wanted, I could be unpredictable, I could have all of the above instead of a, b or c. I might look like I’m caught between two cultures, but I am exactly who I am and where I belong. That hyphen in Indian-American could have been a shackle, but I turned it into a bridge.

Victoria

My brain subconsciously goes back and forth from thinking in Spanish to English. If I’m thinking in English, I’ll blurt something out in Spanish and vice-versa. I often find myself accidentally describing things using Spanish slang and being unable to explain to English speakers what exactly this slang word means.

Sometimes certain topics and emotions bring out the Spanish or English in me. It’s interesting because when I’m talking about love, joy and all things sweet, I tend to speak in Spanish. When I’m angry or annoyed or anything of that sort, I tend to speak in English. I think that has to do with how romantic Spanish sounds compared to harsh English.

Overall, it’s a blessing and a curse, but I consider it a huge part of my identity now.

Leslie Bartley, 26

I learned to code-switch from an early age. I watched as my mom, and our lineage of Kentucky women, find out that if we wanted access to jobs, mobility and respect, we better scrub our tongues clean and recognize that how we talk to our family is NOT how we talk in public. Put your shoes on and hang your banjoes up; it’s school time.

“I heard your accent. Thank god I got rid of mine years ago.”

A hellish CEO I met recently in an elevator in Bangkok asked me where I was from after a gregarious introduction from my end. After telling him Kentucky, he responded, “I heard your accent. Thank god I got rid of mine years ago.”

To create balance in spaces I own or feel responsible for, I draw on tropes of Southern women of yore, caricatures of my matriarchs who don’t sell used cars like my actual mom, but had the whole day to focus on buttermilk biscuits and receiving the boys for supper. If I want to make guests, new folks or students of mine comfortable, I’ll greet them with a plucky “Hay y’all,” clasp onto their forearms and ensure them that “I got you baby!” As I’m pushing into my late twenties, I’m starting to recognize the patterns of when I use my Kentucky accent outside of familial spaces, and every time it’s to create warmth.

Olha Kurenda, 18

As a native Ukrainian, I speak a whopping five languages: Russian, English, German, Polish and Ukrainian (naturally). In my country, code-switching is very common, since so many people speak both Russian and Ukrainian every day without realizing that they have changed languages.

I love code-switching with my mom. She doesn’t speak English and German fluently, so hearing her pick up the words I use when talking to my English friends, sometimes without knowing the meaning of them, is hilarious. All the languages I speak have allowed me to learn words which do not exist in other languages. German pick-up lines are amazing; you can compliment someone by telling them, “You look hot as a rat.” In Ukrainian, you can call someone a breadcrumb and they would feel flattered. In general, code-switching allows me to know so many idioms, and using them in other languages can be a lot of fun!

Code-switching really spices up my speech and makes people slightly confused. But sometimes you have to confuse people, right?

Jean Hall, 33

Code-switching is as much a part of growing up black as double-dutch and hot combs; you would be hard-pressed to find an educated black person who hasn’t mastered the art. I grew up in a predominantly white suburb of Washington, D.C., and commuted an hour each day to attend an all-black, African-centered private school in northwest D.C. I was labeled the “white girl” immediately. Not only did I live in white west bumfuck, but my mother is from Connecticut and my father is from New Jersey … I lacked that particular D.C. drawl, the one that pronounces crayon as crown, and so I “talked white,” too.

In kindergarten, I learned to minimize the parts of me that my black inner-city peers referred to as white. At school, it was “crown”; at home, it was “crayon” or my mother would pop me for talking [like that].” I spent kindergarten through high school switching between the codes of the streets and the codes of my mama’s house. In high school, I had more freedom and thus more access to the hood. My street code was solid, I dated boys who sold drugs, I had an adopted big brother from a hood that claimed me, I danced on speakers at go-gos (dangerous dance parties that usually ended with gunshots), I was all set! Then came college, where the hood persona became a bit less necessary. My mother was thrilled when she realized my D.C. accent was slowly fading away.

I learned that my underlying hood edge gave me a kind of cachet

I moved to New York after college, to Bed-Stuy, to be exact (not today’s Bed-Stuy, but the Bed-Stuy of 10 years ago when you could still get your purse snatched). I finally lived in the hood, and my years of practice served me well. If the little hoodlums came at me sideways on Nostrand Avenue, I knew exactly what to say to shut them all the way up. But at work as a visual merchandiser for Louis Vuitton, a different code was expected, and my education and upbringing prepared me to switch easily. I’d read the right books, visited the right countries, wore the right brands and pronounced them properly. While working in fashion — like magazine fashion, not retail — I learned that my underlying hood edge gave me a kind of cachet. I would find the white people I worked with picking up my slang that had now morphed into a weird amalgamation of Atlanta, D.C., New York and California hood.

Let’s fast forward 11 years … I’m 33, and Bed-Stuy isn’t the hood anymore. I’ve done enough soul-searching to know and love who I am: I’m a little bit country, a little rock and roll and even a little Soul II Soul. I’m educated, confident, well dressed and well travelled, but I prefer bodega coffee to espresso, consider “chicken and mumbo sauce with a jumbo mix” a delicacy and I am exactly the same everywhere I go.

Illustration by Emily Zirimis.

29th June >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on 

Matthew 16:13-19 for The Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles: ‘You are Peter’

    or on

Matthew 8:18-22 for Monday, Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time.

Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles

Gospel (Europe, Africa, New Zealand, Australia & Canada)

Matthew 16:13-19

You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said ‘the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.’

Gospel (USA)

Matthew 16:13–19

You are Peter, and I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.

When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Reflections (4)

(i) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

I would like to welcome you back to our first celebration of a public Mass since the middle of March. We have been through a difficult time together and hopefully we are beginning to emerge from our social isolation. Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Peter and Paul. Each of them went through their own times of confinement, of social isolation. There were each imprisoned for their preaching of the gospel. In the first reading, we heard that King Herod arrested Peter and put him in prison. Yet, according to that reading, Peter in prison was supported by the prayers of the church, ‘the church prayed to God for him unremittingly’. The Lord came to him in his imprisonment through the prayers of the faithful. The Lord came to him in an even more dramatic way through an angel who delivered him from his confinement and restored him to the community of faith. Peter declared, ‘The Lord really did sent his angel and has saved me’. Hopefully, the story of Peter reflects our own experience. When we are confined, socially isolated, the Lord does not isolate himself from us. Even when we cannot come to church, the Lord comes to us. The Lord knows nothing of social isolation. He has been with us all this time, and he remains powerfully present to all who continue to stay put in their homes for their protection. Even when we cannot receive the Eucharist, we can say in the words of today’s responsorial psalm, ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good’. This was the experience of Saint Paul as well, the other great pillar of the church. In today’s second reading, he writes from prison, fully expecting that he may not get out alive, ‘the time has come for me to be gone’. It was a very isolating experience for him. He writes in a verse omitted from our reading, ‘all deserted me’. Yet, like Peter, he experienced the Lord’s powerful presence. As he says in today’s reading, ‘the Lord stood by me and gave me power’, and he goes on, ‘the Lord will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom’. Like Peter, he experienced the Lord’s sustaining presence when he was at his weakest and most isolated. This is one of the lessons these two great preachers of the gospel can teach us today. The Lord comes to us in our times of weakness and stands by us in our moments of isolation. No matter what distressing situation we may find ourselves in, the Lord is with us to strengthen and sustain us. Even when we are cut off from those who matter most to us, we are never cut off from the Lord, because he is always true to his name of Emmanuel, ‘God with us’. That is why, in the words of today’s psalm, every moment of every day, we can ‘look towards him and be radiant’.

And/Or

(ii) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

In many respects Peter and Paul were very different people. Peter was a fisherman from Galilee. His world was the Sea of Galilee and the hilly countryside that surrounded it. According to John’s gospel, he was from Bethsaida, a small town on the Northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. He would have had a basic education and his first language was Aramaic. Paul was from the university city of Tarsus, the capital city of the Roman province of Cilicia, on the south-east coast of what is today Turkey. He seems to have been educated to a high level. He wrote fluently in Greek. His family appear to have been well-to-do as his father was a Roman citizen. He was a zealous Pharisee, who declared himself blameless with regard to the keeping of the Jewish Law. If the two of them had met before they came to faith in Jesus, one senses that they would have had little in common. Yet, today, the church throughout the world celebrates their joint feast day. It is Jesus who brought them together. Yet, he touched their lives in very different ways. Peter heard the call of Jesus by the shore of the Sea of Galilee as he engaged in his daily work of fishing; Paul heard the call of the risen Lord somewhere in the vicinity of Damascus where he was heading on his mission of persecuting people like Peter who were proclaiming Jesus to be the Jewish Messiah. Jesus called Peter to be the rock on which his church would be built; he called Paul to be the apostle to the non-Jewish world, the pagans. Each of them gave their lives in responding to the Lord’s call; Peter was crucified; Paul was beheaded. They were both executed in Rome, a long way from Galilee and from Tarsus. Their tombs have been places of pilgrimage to this day and two of Rome’s four great Basilicas are built over their tombs, Saint Peter’s in the Vatican and Saint Paul’s outside the walls. We celebrate their joint feast today, giving thanks to God for their generous and courageous witness to their faith in the Lord. From its beginnings, the church has worked to be true to the faith of the first apostles, especially the two great apostles Peter and Paul. That is why we speak of the faith as apostolic. Today, we too try to be true to the faith as lived and articulated by those two great pillars of the church. This apostolic faith finds expression in a special way in the New Testament. We keep returning to the gospels and letters and other books that are to be found there so as to remain connected to the faith of those early preachers of the gospel. The Lord continues to speak to us through their lives and through the sacred literature that they inspired. The Lord calls out to each of us today, as he called Peter and Paul. He wants to work through us in our distinctiveness, as he worked through the very different people that were Peter and Paul. We each have a unique contribution to make to the coming of the Lord’s kingdom. In our efforts to respond to this call, Peter and Paul can continue to be our inspiration.

 And/Or

(iii) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

Today we celebrate the feast of two of the great pillars of the church, Peter and Paul. They came from very different backgrounds. Peter was a fisherman from rural Galilee. Paul was a learned Pharisee from the university city of Tarsus. Peter’s first language was Aramaic; Paul’s first language was Greek. Peter knew Jesus from the time of Jesus’ baptism and was with Jesus until the time of Jesus’ passion and death; Paul only ever met the risen Lord, in the vicinity of Damascus. For all their differences, they had at least one thing in common. Both of these men found themselves at odds with the Lord. Peter denied Jesus publicly three times. Paul violently persecuted the followers of Jesus, and thereby persecuted Jesus himself. Yet, their resistance to the Lord did not prevent the Lord from working powerfully through them. Peter was chosen to be the leader of the twelve, the rock on which Jesus would build his church. Paul was chosen to be the great apostle to the pagans. We know from the letter to the Galatians that Peter and Paul had a serious disagreement at one point about the direction the church should be taking. They were very different people and the Lord worked through each of them in very different ways. They were certainly united in death. Very early tradition recalls that both were executed in Rome by the emperor Nero who blamed the Christians for the fire of Rome. Today’s feast reminds us that the way the Lord works through us is unique to each one of us. The feast also reassures us that our many resistances to the Lord need not be a hindrance to the Lord working through us. Peter who denied the Lord and Paul who persecuted the Lord went on to become great servants of the Lord. Our failings do not define who we are. Paul would go on to say, ‘the Lord’s grace toward me has not been in vain’. The Lord’s grace towards us in our weakness and frailty need never be in vain if we continue to open ourselves to the workings of that grace, as Peter and Paul did.

 And/Or

(iv) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

According to the gospel reading, what singled Peter out from the other disciples was his God-given insight into the identity of Jesus. It was because of his unique insight that Jesus gives Peter a unique role among his followers. He is to be the rock, the firm foundation, on which Jesus will build his church. Peter’s role is further spelt out by Jesus giving him the keys of the kingdom of heaven. The image of the keys suggests authority. The nature of that authority is expressed in terms of binding and loosing. This rerers to a teaching authority. Peter is being entrusted with the task of authoritatively interpreting the teaching of Jesus for other members of the church. Yet, this same Peter immediately tries to deflect Jesus from taking the way of the cross, and when Jesus did take that way, Peter would deny any association with him. Jesus gives a significant role to someone who remains very flawed. If the gospel reading associates teaching with Peter, the second reading associates preaching with Paul. In that reading Paul refers to the Lord who ‘gave me power, so that through me the whole message might be preached for all the pagans to hear’. Paul was the great preacher of the gospel to the pagans throughout the Roman Empire. He preached it for the last time further west, in the city of Rome, where, like Peter, he was martyred for his faith in Christ. Our second reading today may well have been written from his Roman imprisonment, ‘I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith’. The image of the fight and the race suggest that ‘keeping the faith’ was a struggle for Paul; it did not come easy to him, just as keeping the faith did not come easy to Peter either. Keeping the faith does not always come easy to any of us. Paul was very aware that keeping the faith was not due primarily to his own efforts; it was the Lord who enabled him to keep the faith. As he says in this morning’s second reading, ‘the Lord stood by me and gave me power’. It is the Lord who empowers all of us to keep the faith; his faithfulness to us enables us to be faithful to him. The faithful witness of Peter and Paul speak to us ultimately of the Lord’s faithfulness to us all.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Monday, Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Europe, Africa, New Zealand, Australia & Canada)

Matthew 8:18-22

The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head

When Jesus saw the great crowds all about him he gave orders to leave for the other side. One of the scribes then came up and said to him, ‘Master, I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’

Another man, one of his disciples, said to him, ‘Sir, let me go and bury my father first.’ But Jesus replied, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their dead.’

Reflections (4)

(i) Monday, Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Just before that this morning’s passage from Matthew’s gospel, Jesus had healed Simon Peter’s mother-in-law and had cured many more who were sick. This generated great excitement and this morning’s gospel begins with the scene of ‘great crowds all about him’. It was in that context that a Jewish scribe, come up to Jesus and declared that he would follow Jesus wherever he went. Who wouldn’t want to be a follower of someone who healed the sick in such great numbers and who generated such excitement? We can almost sense the enthusiasm of the scribe in the way he addressed Jesus. In his response to this well-meaning scribe, Jesus was very honest and direct, ‘the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head’. It is as if Jesus was saying to him, ‘it won’t always be like this. There are troubling times ahead. The way of the cross lies ahead’. Jesus was aware that many who started to follow him with great enthusiasm in good times would fall away from him in bad times. In our own lives too there are times when all seems well, and there are other times when everything seems to be falling apart. The Lord looks to us to have as much enthusiasm for him in the dark times as in the good times. Like the promise the couple make to each other on the day of the marriage, he looks to us to give ourselves to him and all he stands for, ‘for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, all the days of our lives’. In other words, he asks us to be faithful, regardless of the circumstances of our lives, knowing that he will be faithful to us.

 And/Or

(ii) Monday, Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

In this morning’s gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus is very clear about the demands involved in following him and becoming his disciple. He declares to a scribe who wants to become a disciple that following him will often mean having no place to call home, having nowhere to lay one’s head. To someone who is already a disciple Jesus declares that following him takes priority over even the most sacred of family duties such as burying one’s father. The demands that Jesus highlights in our gospel reading are particular to the circumstances of Jesus’ own public ministry. Yet, it remains the case that following Jesus, living as his disciple, will always make demands on us, regardless of the circumstances of our lives. The call of the gospel is not easy. The particular path that Jesus puts before us is hugely challenging. It will always stretch us. We only have to think of the message of the Sermon on the Mount. It is when we are most aware of the challenge of the gospel that we need to hear most clearly that other aspect of the gospel message, the promise of the Lord’s help for those who take his path. At one point in Matthew’s gospels, the disciples ask, ‘Who can be saved?’ to which Jesus replies, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible’. Only with God’s help can we take the path that Jesus calls us to take.

 And/Or

(iii) Monday, Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

The scribe who approaches Jesus at the beginning of this morning’s gospel reading speaks in a way that suggests that he has a generosity of spirit and the best of intentions, ‘Master, I will follow you wherever you go’. In response, Jesus tempers his enthusiasm with the reality of what lies ahead for him if he becomes a disciple, ‘the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head’. He will be following someone who is always on the move, without a real home to call his own. Sometimes our generosity of spirit and our enthusiasm can come up against the harsher realities of life and in response we can become less generous and less enthusiastic. Jesus’ closest disciples seemed full of enthusiasm when they left their nets by the Sea of Galilee to follow him, but when the cross came into view for Jesus and for them, they fell away. It is not always easy to retain our idealism, our enthusiasm, our generosity of spirit over the long haul, especially when the cross comes our way in one shape or form. It is then that we realize that our own enthusiasm and generosity of spirit is not enough. We need the Lord to be our strength when we lose heart, our inspiration when we are tempted to settle for less, and our refuge when we come face to face with the storms of life. We can only be faithful to our following of the Lord if we allow the Lord at the same time to be our resource, our food for the journey. That is what he wants to be. He does not ask us to go it alone but to rely on him every step of the way.

 And/Or

(iv) Monday, Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

When people show enthusiasm for some project we are involved in, we would normally welcome their enthusiasm and give them every encouragement. This would be especially true if there was a general lack of enthusiasm for what we were doing or, even, a great deal of opposition towards it. In the gospel reading this morning, Jesus encounters a man who shows great enthusiasm towards Jesus and all he stands for. He comes up to Jesus and says to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go’. In monetary terms it is the equivalent of giving Jesus a blank cheque! Yet, rather than respond to this man’s enthusiasm with an equal display of enthusiasm, Jesus almost seems to pour cold water on his enthusiasm. He reminds this potential disciple that the person he is so enthusiastic to follow will often find himself with nowhere to lay his head. If that is true of Jesus, it will also be true of anyone who would follow him. Jesus is suggesting that the man’s enthusiasm needs to be tempered with a good dose of reality. As disciples of the Lord today, we need both something of this man’s enthusiasm and something of Jesus’ somber realism. We may be fortunate to have a place to lay our head, but following Jesus remains a challenging path. Taking the way that Jesus calls us to take will involve a readiness to deny ourselves in the service of the Lord and his people, a willingness to empty ourselves so that others can be filled. Our enthusiasm for the Lord and our recognition that following him will not be easy are two contrasting poles that we need to keep holding in tension.

Fr. Martin Hogan, Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin, D03 AO62, Ireland.

Email: [email protected] or  [email protected]

Parish Website: www.stjohnsclontarf.ie  Please join us via our webcam.

Twitter: @SJtBClontarfRC.

Facebook: St John the Baptist RC Parish, Clontarf.

Tumblr: Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin.

29th June >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Matthew 16:13-19 for The Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul: ‘On this rock I will build my church’.

Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

Gospel (Europe, Africa, New Zealand, Australia & Canada)

Matthew 16:13-19

You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said ‘the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.’

Gospel (USA)

Matthew 16:13–19

You are Peter, and I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.

When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Reflections (4)

(i) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

Peter, the leader of the twelve, and Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, have been remembered together on this date since ancient times. According to very ancient tradition, both were put to death for their faith in Jesus during the persecution of the church in Rome by the Emperor Nero in 64 AD. Successive generations of Christians remembered where the two leaders of the early church were buried and, when Christianity became legal under the Emperor Constantine, a basilica was built over the tomb of each of them, the Basilica of Saint Peter on the Vatican Hill and the Basilica of Saint Paul outside the Walls. Both Basilicas remain places of pilgrimage to this day. Peter and Paul had very different backgrounds. Peter was a fisherman by the Sea of Galilee in modern day Israel. Paul was a learned Pharisee from the university city of Tarsus in modern day Turkey. Peter journeyed with Jesus from the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry until the time of his passion and death; the risen Lord appeared to Peter. Paul had never met Jesus until the risen Lord appeared to him on the road to Damascus in modern day Syria. According to Paul’s letter to the Galatians the two of them met in the city of Jerusalem probably less than twenty years after the death and resurrection of Jesus and they went on to have a major disagreement in the church of Antioch about the terms on which pagans should be admitted to the church. Even great apostles and saints can disagree over matters of fundamental importance. However, what united them, their faith in and love for the Lord, was far more significant than what divided them. They were very different people and they didn’t always see eye to eye, but the Lord needed both of them. He had a very different but equally vital role for each of them to play in spreading the gospel. Today’s feast reminds us that the Lord has a role for each of us to play in his work today. Our very different backgrounds, and even our disagreements over church related matters, is not an issue for the Lord. Rather, it is our very diversity which allows the Lord to work through us in a whole variety of ways. The church is never uniform, but the Lord asks to be united in our faith in and love for the Lord, as Peter and Paul were.

And/Or

(ii) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

In many respects Peter and Paul were very different people. Peter was a fisherman from Galilee. His world was the Sea of Galilee and the hilly countryside that surrounded it. According to John’s gospel, he was from Bethsaida, a small town on the Northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. He would have had a basic education and his first language was Aramaic. Paul was from the university city of Tarsus, the capital city of the Roman province of Cilicia, on the south-east coast of what is today Turkey. He seems to have been educated to a high level. He wrote fluently in Greek. His family appear to have been well-to-do as his father was a Roman citizen. He was a zealous Pharisee, who declared himself blameless with regard to the keeping of the Jewish Law. If the two of them had met before they came to faith in Jesus, one senses that they would have had little in common. Yet, today, the church throughout the world celebrates their joint feast day. It is Jesus who brought them together. Yet, he touched their lives in very different ways. Peter heard the call of Jesus by the shore of the Sea of Galilee as he engaged in his daily work of fishing; Paul heard the call of the risen Lord somewhere in the vicinity of Damascus where he was heading on his mission of persecuting people like Peter who were proclaiming Jesus to be the Jewish Messiah. Jesus called Peter to be the rock on which his church would be built; he called Paul to be the apostle to the non-Jewish world, the pagans. Each of them gave their lives in responding to the Lord’s call; Peter was crucified; Paul was beheaded. They were both executed in Rome, a long way from Galilee and from Tarsus. Their tombs have been places of pilgrimage to this day and two of Rome’s four great Basilicas are built over their tombs, Saint Peter’s in the Vatican and Saint Paul’s outside the walls. We celebrate their joint feast today, giving thanks to God for their generous and courageous witness to their faith in the Lord. From its beginnings, the church has worked to be true to the faith of the first apostles, especially the two great apostles Peter and Paul. That is why we speak of the faith as apostolic. Today, we too try to be true to the faith as lived and articulated by those two great pillars of the church. This apostolic faith finds expression in a special way in the New Testament. We keep returning to the gospels and letters and other books that are to be found there so as to remain connected to the faith of those early preachers of the gospel. The Lord continues to speak to us through their lives and through the sacred literature that they inspired. The Lord calls out to each of us today, as he called Peter and Paul. He wants to work through us in our distinctiveness, as he worked through the very different people that were Peter and Paul. We each have a unique contribution to make to the coming of the Lord’s kingdom. In our efforts to respond to this call, Peter and Paul can continue to be our inspiration.

 And/Or

(iii) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

Today we celebrate the feast of two of the great pillars of the church, Peter and Paul. They came from very different backgrounds. Peter was a fisherman from rural Galilee. Paul was a learned Pharisee from the university city of Tarsus. Peter’s first language was Aramaic; Paul’s first language was Greek. Peter knew Jesus from the time of Jesus’ baptism and was with Jesus until the time of Jesus’ passion and death; Paul only ever met the risen Lord, in the vicinity of Damascus. For all their differences, they had at least one thing in common. Both of these men found themselves at odds with the Lord. Peter denied Jesus publicly three times. Paul violently persecuted the followers of Jesus, and thereby persecuted Jesus himself. Yet, their resistance to the Lord did not prevent the Lord from working powerfully through them. Peter was chosen to be the leader of the twelve, the rock on which Jesus would build his church. Paul was chosen to be the great apostle to the pagans. We know from the letter to the Galatians that Peter and Paul had a serious disagreement at one point about the direction the church should be taking. They were very different people and the Lord worked through each of them in very different ways. They were certainly united in death. Very early tradition recalls that both were executed in Rome by the emperor Nero who blamed the Christians for the fire of Rome. Today’s feast reminds us that the way the Lord works through us is unique to each one of us. The feast also reassures us that our many resistances to the Lord need not be a hindrance to the Lord working through us. Peter who denied the Lord and Paul who persecuted the Lord went on to become great servants of the Lord. Our failings do not define who we are. Paul would go on to say, ‘the Lord’s grace toward me has not been in vain’. The Lord’s grace towards us in our weakness and frailty need never be in vain if we continue to open ourselves to the workings of that grace, as Peter and Paul did.

 And/Or

(iv) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

According to the gospel reading, what singled Peter out from the other disciples was his God-given insight into the identity of Jesus. It was because of his unique insight that Jesus gives Peter a unique role among his followers. He is to be the rock, the firm foundation, on which Jesus will build his church. Peter’s role is further spelt out by Jesus giving him the keys of the kingdom of heaven. The image of the keys suggests authority. The nature of that authority is expressed in terms of binding and loosing. This rerers to a teaching authority. Peter is being entrusted with the task of authoritatively interpreting the teaching of Jesus for other members of the church. Yet, this same Peter immediately tries to deflect Jesus from taking the way of the cross, and when Jesus did take that way, Peter would deny any association with him. Jesus gives a significant role to someone who remains very flawed. If the gospel reading associates teaching with Peter, the second reading associates preaching with Paul. In that reading Paul refers to the Lord who ‘gave me power, so that through me the whole message might be preached for all the pagans to hear’. Paul was the great preacher of the gospel to the pagans throughout the Roman Empire. He preached it for the last time further west, in the city of Rome, where, like Peter, he was martyred for his faith in Christ. Our second reading today may well have been written from his Roman imprisonment, ‘I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith’. The image of the fight and the race suggest that ‘keeping the faith’ was a struggle for Paul; it did not come easy to him, just as keeping the faith did not come easy to Peter either. Keeping the faith does not always come easy to any of us. Paul was very aware that keeping the faith was not due primarily to his own efforts; it was the Lord who enabled him to keep the faith. As he says in this morning’s second reading, ‘the Lord stood by me and gave me power’. It is the Lord who empowers all of us to keep the faith; his faithfulness to us enables us to be faithful to him. The faithful witness of Peter and Paul speak to us ultimately of the Lord’s faithfulness to us all.

Fr. Martin Hogan, Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin, D03 AO62, Ireland.

Email: [email protected] or  [email protected]

Parish Website: www.stjohnsclontarf.ie  Please join us via our webcam.

Twitter: @SJtBClontarfRC.

Facebook: St John the Baptist RC Parish, Clontarf.

Tumblr: Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin.

29th June >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflection on Matthew 16:13-19 for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles: ‘On this rock I will build my Church’.

Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul Gospel (Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Canada & Southern Africa) Matthew 16:13-19 You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said ‘the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.’ Gospel (USA) Matthew 16:13–19 You are Peter, and I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Reflections (4) (i) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul The two saints whose feast we celebrate today were key members of the early church. Peter was the leader of the twelve. According to the gospel reading, it was to Peter that Jesus gave the keys of the kingdom of heaven, a symbol of Peter’s authoritative role in the early church. Paul never met Jesus before Jesus’ death. Whereas Jesus called Peter by the Sea of Galilee, it was the risen Lord who called Paul on his way into the city of Damascus. Whereas Jesus called Peter to be the authoritative rock on which he would build his church, the focal point of the church’s unity, the risen Lord called Paul to be the apostle to the pagans. Each of these great disciples had very different experiences of Jesus and each received a very different mission from Jesus. Yet, it is clear from today’s first reading and second reading that both Peter and Paul had one thing in common. They both suffered in the exercise of their mission. The first reading tells us that King Herod Agrippa imprisoned Peter and in the second reading Paul writes from prison to Timothy in the awareness that his life is coming to an end. Indeed, both men were executed because of their preaching of the gospel. The two basilicas of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Rome today stand over their tombs and are places of pilgrimage. The particular way the Lord calls us to follow him will be unique to each one of us. Yet, what we can all have in common is a dedication to the Lord’s way, even though it may mean the way of the cross. When Peter and Paul took this way, they both discovered the Lord was supporting and sustaining them. Peter says in the first reading, ‘The Lord has saved me from Herod’, and Paul declares in the second reading, ‘The Lord stood by me and gave me power’. When we try to be faithful to the Lord’s way, we will make the same discovery of the Lord’s sustaining presence in our lives. And/Or (ii) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul In many respects Peter and Paul were very different people. Peter was a fisherman from Galilee. His world was the Sea of Galilee and the hilly countryside that surrounded it. According to John’s gospel, he was from Bethsaida, a small town on the Northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. He would have had a basic education and his first language was Aramaic. Paul was from the university city of Tarsus, the capital city of the Roman province of Cilicia, on the south-east coast of what is today Turkey. He seems to have been educated to a high level. He wrote fluently in Greek. His family appear to have been well-to-do as his father was a Roman citizen. He was a zealous Pharisee, who declared himself blameless with regard to the keeping of the Jewish Law. If the two of them had met before they came to faith in Jesus, one senses that they would have had little in common. Yet, today, the church throughout the world celebrates their joint feast day. It is Jesus who brought them together. Yet, he touched their lives in very different ways. Peter heard the call of Jesus by the shore of the Sea of Galilee as he engaged in his daily work of fishing; Paul heard the call of the risen Lord somewhere in the vicinity of Damascus where he was heading on his mission of persecuting people like Peter who were proclaiming Jesus to be the Jewish Messiah. Jesus called Peter to be the rock on which his church would be built; he called Paul to be the apostle to the non-Jewish world, the pagans. Each of them gave their lives in responding to the Lord’s call; Peter was crucified; Paul was beheaded. They were both executed in Rome, a long way from Galilee and from Tarsus. Their tombs have been places of pilgrimage to this day and two of Rome’s four great Basilicas are built over their tombs, Saint Peter’s in the Vatican and Saint Paul’s outside the walls. We celebrate their joint feast today, giving thanks to God for their generous and courageous witness to their faith in the Lord. From its beginnings, the church has worked to be true to the faith of the first apostles, especially the two great apostles Peter and Paul. That is why we speak of the faith as apostolic. Today, we too try to be true to the faith as lived and articulated by those two great pillars of the church. This apostolic faith finds expression in a special way in the New Testament. We keep returning to the gospels and letters and other books that are to be found there so as to remain connected to the faith of those early preachers of the gospel. The Lord continues to speak to us through their lives and through the sacred literature that they inspired. The Lord calls out to each of us today, as he called Peter and Paul. He wants to work through us in our distinctiveness, as he worked through the very different people that were Peter and Paul. We each have a unique contribution to make to the coming of the Lord’s kingdom. In our efforts to respond to this call, Peter and Paul can continue to be our inspiration. And/Or (iii) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul Today we celebrate the feast of two of the great pillars of the church, Peter and Paul. They came from very different backgrounds. Peter was a fisherman from rural Galilee. Paul was a learned Pharisee from the university city of Tarsus. Peter’s first language was Aramaic; Paul’s first language was Greek. Peter knew Jesus from the time of Jesus’ baptism and was with Jesus until the time of Jesus’ passion and death; Paul only ever met the risen Lord, in the vicinity of Damascus. For all their differences, they had at least one thing in common. Both of these men found themselves at odds with the Lord. Peter denied Jesus publicly three times. Paul violently persecuted the followers of Jesus, and thereby persecuted Jesus himself. Yet, their resistance to the Lord did not prevent the Lord from working powerfully through them. Peter was chosen to be the leader of the twelve, the rock on which Jesus would build his church. Paul was chosen to be the great apostle to the pagans. We know from the letter to the Galatians that Peter and Paul had a serious disagreement at one point about the direction the church should be taking. They were very different people and the Lord worked through each of them in very different ways. They were certainly united in death. Very early tradition recalls that both were executed in Rome by the emperor Nero who blamed the Christians for the fire of Rome. Today’s feast reminds us that the way the Lord works through us is unique to each one of us. The feast also reassures us that our many resistances to the Lord need not be a hindrance to the Lord working through us. Peter who denied the Lord and Paul who persecuted the Lord went on to become great servants of the Lord. Our failings do not define who we are. Paul would go on to say, ‘the Lord’s grace toward me has not been in vain’. The Lord’s grace towards us in our weakness and frailty need never be in vain if we continue to open ourselves to the workings of that grace, as Peter and Paul did. And/Or (iv) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul According to the gospel reading, what singled Peter out from the other disciples was his God-given insight into the identity of Jesus. It was because of his unique insight that Jesus gives Peter a unique role among his followers. He is to be the rock, the firm foundation, on which Jesus will build his church. Peter’s role is further spelt out by Jesus giving him the keys of the kingdom of heaven. The image of the keys suggests authority. The nature of that authority is expressed in terms of binding and loosing. This rerers to a teaching authority. Peter is being entrusted with the task of authoritatively interpreting the teaching of Jesus for other members of the church. Yet, this same Peter immediately tries to deflect Jesus from taking the way of the cross, and when Jesus did take that way, Peter would deny any association with him. Jesus gives a significant role to someone who remains very flawed. If the gospel reading associates teaching with Peter, the second reading associates preaching with Paul. In that reading Paul refers to the Lord who ‘gave me power, so that through me the whole message might be preached for all the pagans to hear’. Paul was the great preacher of the gospel to the pagans throughout the Roman Empire. He preached it for the last time further west, in the city of Rome, where, like Peter, he was martyred for his faith in Christ. Our second reading today may well have been written from his Roman imprisonment, ‘I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith’. The image of the fight and the race suggest that ‘keeping the faith’ was a struggle for Paul; it did not come easy to him, just as keeping the faith did not come easy to Peter either. Keeping the faith does not always come easy to any of us. Paul was very aware that keeping the faith was not due primarily to his own efforts; it was the Lord who enabled him to keep the faith. As he says in this morning’s second reading, ‘the Lord stood by me and gave me power’. It is the Lord who empowers all of us to keep the faith; his faithfulness to us enables us to be faithful to him. The faithful witness of Peter and Paul speak to us ultimately of the Lord’s faithfulness to us all. Fr. Martin Hogan, Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin, D03 AO62, Ireland. Parish Website: www.stjohnsclontarf.ieJoinus via our webcam. Twitter: @SJtBClontarfRC. Facebook: St John the Baptist RC Parish, Clontarf. Tumblr: Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin.

29th June >> Fr. Martin's Gospel Reflection on Matthew 16:13-19 for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles: ‘On this rock I will build my Church’.

Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

Gospel (Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Canada & Southern Africa)

Matthew 16:13-19

You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said ‘the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.’

Gospel (USA)

Matthew 16:13–19

You are Peter, and I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.

When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Reflections (4)

(i) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

The two saints whose feast we celebrate today were key members of the early church. Peter was the leader of the twelve. According to the gospel reading, it was to Peter that Jesus gave the keys of the kingdom of heaven, a symbol of Peter’s authoritative role in the early church. Paul never met Jesus before Jesus’ death. Whereas Jesus called Peter by the Sea of Galilee, it was the risen Lord who called Paul on his way into the city of Damascus. Whereas Jesus called Peter to be the authoritative rock on which he would build his church, the focal point of the church’s unity, the risen Lord called Paul to be the apostle to the pagans. Each of these great disciples had very different experiences of Jesus and each received a very different mission from Jesus. Yet, it is clear from today’s first reading and second reading that both Peter and Paul had one thing in common. They both suffered in the exercise of their mission. The first reading tells us that King Herod Agrippa imprisoned Peter and in the second reading Paul writes from prison to Timothy in the awareness that his life is coming to an end. Indeed, both men were executed because of their preaching of the gospel. The two basilicas of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Rome today stand over their tombs and are places of pilgrimage. The particular way the Lord calls us to follow him will be unique to each one of us. Yet, what we can all have in common is a dedication to the Lord’s way, even though it may mean the way of the cross. When Peter and Paul took this way, they both discovered the Lord was supporting and sustaining them. Peter says in the first reading, ‘The Lord has saved me from Herod’, and Paul declares in the second reading, ‘The Lord stood by me and gave me power’. When we try to be faithful to the Lord’s way, we will make the same discovery of the Lord’s sustaining presence in our lives.

And/Or

(ii) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

In many respects Peter and Paul were very different people. Peter was a fisherman from Galilee. His world was the Sea of Galilee and the hilly countryside that surrounded it. According to John’s gospel, he was from Bethsaida, a small town on the Northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. He would have had a basic education and his first language was Aramaic. Paul was from the university city of Tarsus, the capital city of the Roman province of Cilicia, on the south-east coast of what is today Turkey. He seems to have been educated to a high level. He wrote fluently in Greek. His family appear to have been well-to-do as his father was a Roman citizen. He was a zealous Pharisee, who declared himself blameless with regard to the keeping of the Jewish Law. If the two of them had met before they came to faith in Jesus, one senses that they would have had little in common. Yet, today, the church throughout the world celebrates their joint feast day. It is Jesus who brought them together. Yet, he touched their lives in very different ways. Peter heard the call of Jesus by the shore of the Sea of Galilee as he engaged in his daily work of fishing; Paul heard the call of the risen Lord somewhere in the vicinity of Damascus where he was heading on his mission of persecuting people like Peter who were proclaiming Jesus to be the Jewish Messiah. Jesus called Peter to be the rock on which his church would be built; he called Paul to be the apostle to the non-Jewish world, the pagans. Each of them gave their lives in responding to the Lord’s call; Peter was crucified; Paul was beheaded. They were both executed in Rome, a long way from Galilee and from Tarsus. Their tombs have been places of pilgrimage to this day and two of Rome’s four great Basilicas are built over their tombs, Saint Peter’s in the Vatican and Saint Paul’s outside the walls. We celebrate their joint feast today, giving thanks to God for their generous and courageous witness to their faith in the Lord. From its beginnings, the church has worked to be true to the faith of the first apostles, especially the two great apostles Peter and Paul. That is why we speak of the faith as apostolic. Today, we too try to be true to the faith as lived and articulated by those two great pillars of the church. This apostolic faith finds expression in a special way in the New Testament. We keep returning to the gospels and letters and other books that are to be found there so as to remain connected to the faith of those early preachers of the gospel. The Lord continues to speak to us through their lives and through the sacred literature that they inspired. The Lord calls out to each of us today, as he called Peter and Paul. He wants to work through us in our distinctiveness, as he worked through the very different people that were Peter and Paul. We each have a unique contribution to make to the coming of the Lord’s kingdom. In our efforts to respond to this call, Peter and Paul can continue to be our inspiration.

And/Or

(iii) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

Today we celebrate the feast of two of the great pillars of the church, Peter and Paul. They came from very different backgrounds. Peter was a fisherman from rural Galilee. Paul was a learned Pharisee from the university city of Tarsus. Peter’s first language was Aramaic; Paul’s first language was Greek. Peter knew Jesus from the time of Jesus’ baptism and was with Jesus until the time of Jesus’ passion and death; Paul only ever met the risen Lord, in the vicinity of Damascus. For all their differences, they had at least one thing in common. Both of these men found themselves at odds with the Lord. Peter denied Jesus publicly three times. Paul violently persecuted the followers of Jesus, and thereby persecuted Jesus himself. Yet, their resistance to the Lord did not prevent the Lord from working powerfully through them. Peter was chosen to be the leader of the twelve, the rock on which Jesus would build his church. Paul was chosen to be the great apostle to the pagans. We know from the letter to the Galatians that Peter and Paul had a serious disagreement at one point about the direction the church should be taking. They were very different people and the Lord worked through each of them in very different ways. They were certainly united in death. Very early tradition recalls that both were executed in Rome by the emperor Nero who blamed the Christians for the fire of Rome. Today’s feast reminds us that the way the Lord works through us is unique to each one of us. The feast also reassures us that our many resistances to the Lord need not be a hindrance to the Lord working through us. Peter who denied the Lord and Paul who persecuted the Lord went on to become great servants of the Lord. Our failings do not define who we are. Paul would go on to say, ‘the Lord’s grace toward me has not been in vain’. The Lord’s grace towards us in our weakness and frailty need never be in vain if we continue to open ourselves to the workings of that grace, as Peter and Paul did.

And/Or

(iv) Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

According to the gospel reading, what singled Peter out from the other disciples was his God-given insight into the identity of Jesus. It was because of his unique insight that Jesus gives Peter a unique role among his followers. He is to be the rock, the firm foundation, on which Jesus will build his church. Peter’s role is further spelt out by Jesus giving him the keys of the kingdom of heaven. The image of the keys suggests authority. The nature of that authority is expressed in terms of binding and loosing. This rerers to a teaching authority. Peter is being entrusted with the task of authoritatively interpreting the teaching of Jesus for other members of the church. Yet, this same Peter immediately tries to deflect Jesus from taking the way of the cross, and when Jesus did take that way, Peter would deny any association with him. Jesus gives a significant role to someone who remains very flawed. If the gospel reading associates teaching with Peter, the second reading associates preaching with Paul. In that reading Paul refers to the Lord who ‘gave me power, so that through me the whole message might be preached for all the pagans to hear’. Paul was the great preacher of the gospel to the pagans throughout the Roman Empire. He preached it for the last time further west, in the city of Rome, where, like Peter, he was martyred for his faith in Christ. Our second reading today may well have been written from his Roman imprisonment, ‘I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith’. The image of the fight and the race suggest that ‘keeping the faith’ was a struggle for Paul; it did not come easy to him, just as keeping the faith did not come easy to Peter either. Keeping the faith does not always come easy to any of us. Paul was very aware that keeping the faith was not due primarily to his own efforts; it was the Lord who enabled him to keep the faith. As he says in this morning’s second reading, ‘the Lord stood by me and gave me power’. It is the Lord who empowers all of us to keep the faith; his faithfulness to us enables us to be faithful to him. The faithful witness of Peter and Paul speak to us ultimately of the Lord’s faithfulness to us all.

Fr. Martin Hogan, Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin, D03 AO62, Ireland.

Parish Website: www.stjohnsclontarf.ieJoinus via our webcam.

Twitter: @SJtBClontarfRC.

Facebook: St John the Baptist RC Parish, Clontarf.

Tumblr: Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin.