While rants are fine at times helping us vent or address important issues, ranting can also be a sign of an angry person. I know that I was once an angry young man and maybe that anger is still part of my persona. I have always said I do not want to grow into an angry old man. I have encounter too many angry old men and it isn't pretty or life giving! So I have decided that as I make my way into this new phase of my life that rather than ranting all the time I will try to change my modus operandi and look at the lighter or the brighter side of life.
During the ten years that I was retreat director at the Passionist Spiritual Center in the Bronx I wrote a reflection for the Center newsletter entitled, Sacred River Musings. I would reflect on certain spiritual issues that I thought might be important or helpful to our retreatants through the image of the Great Hudson River that I had the pleasure and gift of encountering each day in the Center's back yard. For me the Great River spoke to faith, our relationship with God and the journey of life.
I had the unique gift of the Great Hudson River as my inspiration for almost 15 years because before I was director of the Spiritual Center I lived on the property as an itinerant preacher. Waking up each morning and seeing the Great River flow by in all the seasons of the year was truly a grace in my life. Sitting on the roof in late evening or in the midst of s star filled summer's night would often provoke the utterance, "It doesn't get any better than this!" Yet in all my love for and musings about the Great Hudson River, it was not the first or only river to have an impact on my life - for you see rivers and their life giving spirits have always been part of my life.
From the first moments of my life living in a small little town called, Port Vue, rivers began to etch their sacred spirits on my soul. There were four rivers that influenced my early life, the Youghiogheny, Monongahela, Allegheny and the Ohio.
Now just learning how to spell the first two was the initial challenge of my early life. The "Yough" as it is often called flows north out of West Maryland through West Virginia finally making its way into Pennsylvania were its final destination is the Monongahela River in the town of McKeesport which Port Vue overlooks, thus the name Port Vue, they do things simply sometimes in western Pennsylvania! Youghiogheny is from a Native American word meaning "in a roundabout course" or "stream flowing in a contrary direction." Both of those translations provide an insight into my life here on earth. So you might say my beginnings as a human being were inspired by the Native American name for the river I often looked at from my grade school classroom window or playground. It was a river I often walked over as I made my way to the movies, shopping or to take swimming lessons at the YMCA. It along with the Monongahela fueled my imagination about the mystery of life beyond my little world of Port Vue.
The Monongahela River on the other hand played an essential role in my travels between Port Vue and the Big City, Pittsburgh. Not that I travel on it but along it. You see Port Vue is about 15 miles south of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela so anytime we visited the rest of the family we usually drove along the "Mon." You could catch a glimpse of it as we drove across bridges or when there were breaks between the buildings of the continues steel mills we past along the river or when the road rose along the many hills we encountered on the journey that put us above the mills that painted its banks. Monongahela is another Native American word meaning "falling banks." Much like the "Yough" the "Mon" flows north out of West Virginia along the Allegheny Plateau to Pittsburgh where it meets the Allegheny and forms the Ohio River. Over the centuries the powerful waters of the "Mon" especially in the spring had forged a fragile river valley. The "Mon" might have even been the first river my eyes encountered after birth, since I was born in Mercy Hospital which sits on the rock bluffs of Pittsburgh overlooking the Monongahela. Perhaps my mother's room was one with a view!
Two simple rivers not great in terms of their significance like the Hudson or Mississippi, yet in my early childhood they were busy with barge traffic that kept the steel mills alive and inhabitants of the towns along them happy. These two rivers along with the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers forged my identify at an early age. I was proud to be from the city of bridges and rivers. They were the life blood of the region and the country for that matter. You needed to acknowledge them and cross them no matter which direction you went. They were the arteries of life for Port Vuers, McKeesporters, Pittsburghers and many others and this was who I was.
Rivers you see, at least from my perspective, are visual realities of God's ever present Spirit in life. They remind us of us that God's presence is now, not just yesterday or tomorrow but now! Rivers remind us of those moments when God is either ever present or in a galaxy far, far away. Rivers remind us in winter, spring, summer and fall that God is in the here and now and if we do not pay attention we will miss God passing by. Rivers remind us of God's overwhelming beauty, power and enery that can be encountered in each moment of our life. They remind us of those “Now” moments when God is passing by sometimes with great force and fury and other times in the simple whispering sound of stillness. Rivers remind us of the unrelenting Mystery of God that is right before our eyes, always moving, always new and never the same!
In the days, weeks, months and years to come I will share with you the rivers of my life. So stop back often and find out where, when and how God's presence touched and continues to touch my life! Join me for some Sacred River Musings of a Preacher on the Run!
Peace in Christ's Passion...Fr. Paul
