Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from You.”

Pivotal suggestions or admonitions made to me over the decades may be thought-provoking for you. Most of them were made once only and, one hopes, with lasting impact.

The first of them, however, was made often, going back to my childhood. It came from my mother. My behavior brought it out of her enough times that you hope it had some lasting effect. By way of reproach she repeated a saying seemingly of Irish provenance: “Smile and the whole world smiles with you; cry and you cry alone.” As she used it on me, pout or complain could be substituted for cry.

The second shows some continuity with the first. A confrère in seminary with me, several years younger, in some exasperation threw this at me one day: “Quit the complaining.” It touched a nerve and, no matter how poorly I may have followed the injunction, it has remained an ideal.

The athletic director in this University gave me this next one shortly after I became University chaplain. Though I had been ordained about four years I was still terrified of public speaking. After one Sunday Mass where I had preached, he caught me and said: “Slow down; we can’t understand you.” I was attacking my fear of public speaking by rushing the homily to get it over with! After that I began to record my homilies as I practiced them and made a great effort to slow down.

As chaplain in the pre-electronic age I published a weekly newsletter. A revered English professor told me: “Shorter items get more attention; people are put off by long paragraphs and don’t read them.” This I have been very conscious of and, I hope, to your benefit.

Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”

Reply to Fr. Don at: DTalafous@csbsju.edu

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