The 2019 East Coast Spiritual Journey continues…
Beautiful mass this morning presided over by His Eminence, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York! Wonderful readings, gospel, & sermon on this Good Shepherd’s Sunday, Mother’s Day, & 4th Sunday of Easter! Alleluia! We now turn to the Gentiles… The Lamb will shepherd them, and lead them to springs of life-giving water… I give my sheep eternal life. There was persecution of Christians beginning with Jesus which continues to this day and is “vicious and worse than Roman times.” Our Good Shepherd Jesus will protect us; it is a Biblical Mandate! Religious minorities, like the Jews, are also being persecuted right here in America. Our Church is our Sanctuary; we are the salt & light to the world. Our allegiance is beyond this world, not to the powers of the world which are threatened by this perspective. Let us turn immediately to Jesus & Our Mother Mary for their Spiritual Love! John 10:27-30: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.” (Andy Reistetter; Facebook Post with 30 Pics; Sunday, 5-12-19)
Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms out there; especially Meera, my son Tim’s wife & Mama to Precious Baby Xavier, my first grandson! Giving birth has to be the most beautiful thing in life (from an observant father’s perspective)… wow, to give life and deliver a human being into this world or adopt a child and love them as they were your own child… Happy Mother’s Day to my dear Mom & my dear God Mother Peggy above in Heaven, Mary the beautiful mother of my two sons, and my adopted mother Sarita!
Courage was the topic of this month’s 
The first speaker of the morning, after Tammie McClafferty’s welcome and prayer, was Torren a junior in high school who attended LifeWork last year. An impressive young lady who defined courage as the ability to do something that frightens you. Her world view is that a Lack of potential is due to a lack of courage. Overcoming fear of failure, changing subconscious human habits were evident as she overcame the fear of coming to speak to us this morning. She gave an eloquent speech, well-scripted though with little reference to notes. We all stood up afterwards to applaud this spirited youth who undoubtedly will go on to win the Raines Beauty Pageant at school this year!
We met our Table Host Phil and had short discussions throughout the morning on the homework readings from Acts, Abraham Lincoln: The Spiritual Growth of a Public Man by Elton Trueblood, and Lifeworks’ Insights on Courage: The Jesus Journey. Like any college course or opportunity for growth there is needed preparation. The readings were insightful and gave a true perspective of how important courage is not only ourselves but our families, community, nation, and the world! 
Pam, speaking on ‘Jesus & Courage,’ shared four stories from her lifetime that required courage through Jesus—standing up for students and encapsulating and protecting classroom budgeting in the St. Johns School District despite huge tourism funding shortfalls in the early 1990s—founding 
Mac shared a challenging spiritual dilemma concerning himself, his company, his family, and his community and how to muster up the courage to speak out on an issue fundamental to Jesus. These bible verses were referenced in this case study:
The last speaker for the day was the national keynote speaker Chuck Bengochea who has had both immense corporate success (The Original Honeybaked Ham Company of Georgia), heart-wrenching corporate failure (Family Christian stores), and redemptive community outreach as a Founding Member of CityServe International.
Tammie ended the morning with reference to the movie the ‘Greatest Showman,’ playing the song “This is Me,” and a prayer that we could all have courage and not be afraid of being different and use our voice and create community in the name of Jesus Christ whether at work, home or play!
I will be the first to admit that the outrage and anger of Americans killing Americans in America in so many massacres is somehow less than it should be in me. Maybe it is a sign of age where one realizes that they cannot totally fix everything that is wrong with the world, let along what needs to be improved within oneself. Maybe it is a sign of simple denial, rationalization, and justification of things just to survive and continue to go on and function in one’s life.
The American Civic Association Mass Killing happened ten years ago in my hometown of Binghamton, New York. Thirteen innocent people were senselessly killed. One of them, Bobbie King, a mother of thirteen, I knew in high school. She was a bright light in my life, always smiling, always energetic to engage and help others. The Kings (not all 15 of them) came to my graduation party on the other side of town. They were good people who knew good people with no assumptions or exceptions made. Bobbie’s husband was a doctor who helped people. The King children are their legacy and a gift, as their parents were, to America!
Parveen Ali from Pakistan, Almir Olimpio Alves from Brazil, Maria Sonia Bernard & Marc Henry Bernard from Haiti, Li Guo, from China, Lan Ho from Vietnam, Layla Khalil from Iraq, Roberta (Bobbie) King, the English language teacher, from Binghamton, Jiang Ling from China, Hong Xiu “Amy” Mao Marsland from China, Dolores Yigal from the Philippines, Hai Hong Zhong from China, and Ukrainian Maria Zobniw from nearby Town of Dickinson—thirteen precious, innocent, and loving souls. Their Free Spirits now fly high above their Memorial at the corner of Clinton & Front Streets in Binghamton just down the street from the American Civic Association whose motto is “Because Freedom Can’t Protect Itself.”
I came across a great quote for the 2005 book “The Approach; A New Leadership Presence WE Desperately need in Corporate America Today.” It was from the Scottish historian Alexander Tyler and is dated around 1787 near the beginning of the Industrial Revolution were the bondage of coal workers was being questioned:
I believe the greatest years of Binghamton & the Triple Cities and all of America are ahead of us!
The valleys of the Chenango River and the Susquehanna River are the historic backbone and namesake of the Triple Cities area—once proudly known as ‘The Valley of Opportunity.’
Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful Lenten 4th Sunday Mass at Our Lady Star of the Sea this morning! Starting off with the Welcome & Greeting first thing, this worship really hit home for the Lenten Season and my Whole Season of Life! Celebrating the Sacred Mysteries; bring us to Everlasting Life with our proud devotion and Hebrew faith. Maybe it is me, post month-long Spiritual Journey to Israel & Palestine, but it seems Jesus as a Jew is as prevalent these days as Jesus’ 3-year ministry to launch Christianity. Probably just me…
Luke 15:17-24: “But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”’ So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.”
Luke 15:28-32: “But he became angry and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began pleading with him. But he answered and said to his father, ‘Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.’”
2 Corinthians 5:17-21: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
