It was snowy and 30 degree outside. I looked at the sky; blue peeked out sometimes. In Rocky River Metropark, I started running. Not many people were around; it was quiet and peaceful. Sun gloriously shined upon me. I ran like a deer, swiftly moving through snow and ice water, roughly breathing with white smokes. […]
Touch Me (6th Ordinary)
Friday is sacred to me because it is the time I visit the Parma Hospital and sometimes the Seasons of Life Hospice. I simply walk into a room and say hello to the patients and pray for them. Some seem very happy to see a priest; some scared; some indifferent. But I sense they all are in need, need of cure and healing. The patients are somehow lepers who often feel isolated, hopeless not only physically but mentally as well. Human nature tends to move away from the sick because of fear of contagion. The sick are the outsider, the unclean, as Leviticus said, shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp.
One day I got a call from home when I was in the college. On the other line was my mom. Her voice was trembling and scared, saying my father had a massive stroke; she didn’t know what to do. I ran to the house, grabbed the unconscious up, and took a taxi to the hospital. The doctor asked us to go to the bigger hospital; the ambulance took us to the emergency. With mom, I stayed in ICU all day long. It seemed to happen like a blink and I saw my father hooked up with all kinds of machines. I went to the chapel where I prayed, asking God to save my father, and promised to do whatever he asked me to do. One day after, my father woke into life and a long recovery process began. And I reflected on what I prayed and signed up for the organ donation: my eyes, lungs, heart, skin, kidneys, and intestines to be transmitted to those in need in case of brain death or fatal accidents.
Boston Marathon Training Schedule 2
Boston Marathon Training 2 For Sub-Three Week/Dates Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun 1: Jan.26-Fe.1 Rest 6M pace 3M easy 5M tempo 3M easy 3 hill, 1 down 1:20, 3/1 2: Feb. 2-8 Rest 7M pace 4M easy 7M tempo 4M easy 4*800, 400 14M easy 3: Feb. 9-15 Rest 7M easy 4M easy […]
Success (5th Ordinary)
I was exhausted, literally worn out after teaching in the synagogue all day long. In fact, I do enjoy teaching and engaging with people, but I do also need to be in quiet and peace. So when I pursued to find some rest at Peter’s house, my disciples brought his mother-in-law to me because she was sick with a fever. I grasped her hand and raised her up to restore her wholeness and the fever left her and she waited on us.
It was too short to relax before the crowds brought all who were ill in the whole town at the door. I knew they anxiously waited for sunset not to break the law on the Sabbath. How could I avoid or reject my sheep lost and hurt? I had to strengthen my weak knee and sharpen my mind before I diagnosed individual sickness and cured them. It was not an easy task to cure so many needy people, controlling the unclean spirits not to speak of me because ironically they knew me first. The time went so fast; I would spend the whole night if my disciples didn’t ask people to come back tomorrow. In the middle of the night, I found myself so tired and drained that couldn’t go to asleep. So I rose very early before dawn, left and went off to a deserted place to pray. Not long after, the disciples hunted for me and on finding me, said, “Everyone is looking for you.”
Everyone is looking for me…Here I want to say something to discuss with you.
Have you found why you are here? In other words, what is your life purpose? If you pursue to be wealthy, famous, reputable and successful, that would be fine. Certainly in your personal definition of success all your activities and behaviors stem from and return to that core word and value: success. Many say I had no desire to be successful. They are wrong. I wanted more than anything to be successful. It was what drove me. I had such a yearning for it that I was willing to give up everything to get it. It was my food, my delight, my pleasure and my reason for being. I sought it as my compass, my light, my ladder, my altar and my final prayer. And frankly I defined my success before I began.
Gran Torino: more than all the tiny things you’ve left behind!
Walt is a veteran of the Korean War who isolates himself from any social relationship even from his children. He grumbles all the time, insisting to stay in the same house where the neighborhood has significantly changed. He is not likeable and restless, not being able to do with others and himself. The confusion and conflict may result from the American wound: his soul was deeply hollowed in the war; his lifelong career working in the Ford assembly line has become meaningless as his first son is flourishing in his sales for Japanese cars. Only one thing he holds on is a Gran Torino made by Ford in 1973.
There are several people who challenge the worldview of Walt. A young priest whom Walt calls “An overeducated 27-year-old virgin who held the hands of superstitious old women and promised them eternity,” is continuously showing up, asking Walt, “What is life and death?” And Sue a pleasant girl next door dares to become a friend of him. And her brother Tao who once tried to steal the Gran Torino because of the gang was gradually recognized and accepted by Walt. Although Walt couldn’t find peace in his health, children, and inner heart, the needy neighbor has slowly come into his world.