At Considerable Cost

Last night, I watched a beautiful documentary on PBS, Defiant Requiem .   It is the true story of a 1944 performance of Verdi's beautiful Requiem Mass in Terezín, a Nazi concentration camp.   The performance was arranged by inmate and conductor, Rafael Schächter.   It was performed by a chorus of his fellow prisoners, many of whom would be shipped out to face death following the performance. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-apuzzo/voices-raised-in-resistan_b_3029488.html?utm_hp_ref=entertainment The link above is for a great article by Jason Apuzzo, of The Huffington Post. "Know before whom you stand."  A wall of the secret synagogue at Terezin. There's not much to add to Apuzzo's article, other than: 1. My favorite quote, amongst many: Survivor Edgar Krasa says of the Requiem , "It was a prayer that overcame hunger ... you were there [singing] in that cellar and you were a different person." Another survivor who sang in th...

This was posted on my Facebook news feed this morning by Johnnette Benkovic .   A much needed reminder: " if you want to love, you must be willing to be vulnerable. ...if you extend your hand often enough in a gesture of love, someone will drive a nail through it. If you love others, you may be deceived, betrayed, abandoned. If you love Christ, you must walk the difficult road to Calvary. But you will begin to see yourself borne by powers that are beyond you. ...Love inspired by the virtue of charity is one of the most potent forces in the world." -- Father Benedict Groeschel Then, I thought of the poem, Anyway , which was supposed to have hung on Mother Teresa's wall.   It has been attributed to Dr. Kent Keith.   It hung on the wall of my classroom and I re-visit it from time to time when I need to be reminded to do it "anyway." People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accus...

 On Valentine's Day, I found myself thinking about real love, or charity, as described in scripture: Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endu res all things. Love never fails.  1Corinthians 13:4-7 People hurried around me and the familiar sounds of a rail station were muffled in the distance.   Above the noise of the hand dryer before me, I found myself suddenly overcome with thoughts of someone who had hurt my family a great deal .   The first time I sat and told a priest our story in regards to this person, he was shocked.   I remember him telling me that what had been done to us was such that I should not count on forgetting after forgiving....