John Janaro's Blog, page 218

Springs of Living Water

I can't let this weekend pass without any reference to the wonder of Lourdes, the tender care of the Lord's Mother for the sick and suffering who call upon her intercession, and for that spectacular humble girl of France who in the year 1858 was given the courage to be a prophet before all the world.

Bernadette Soubirous was willing to be regarded as a fool, then to be misunderstood, ridiculed, and to bear physical pain and the soul's aching thirst for God so that she might participate in a great sign for our own times of the Springs of Living Water.

Christina Grimmie Opened New Paths in Music and Media

It is the tenth day of February.

One of the most important reasons why we measure this mysterious thing called "time" is to mark our connection with the past, especially the moments in the past that still shape our experience and awareness of the present. We mark time because it helps us to remember.

Christina Grimmie was murdered eight months ago, on the tenth of June in the year of 2016, by a deranged man who approached her at an open meet-and-greet after her concert in Orlando, Florida and fired four bullets into her head and chest at point blank range. The 22 year old singer/songwriter/musician had opened her arms wide to welcome this man who witnesses say looked troubled, nervous, and perhaps shy. She chose to approach the stranger in the same way she had approached so many others in her brief but stunning career, with love.

The most amazing thing about Christina Grimmie was this love. But it was not the only amazing thing about her.

There was her amazing voice, her amazing skill on the piano keyboard, her songs, and all the effort she put into a significant collection of original music that we have not yet heard. Apparently Christina did an enormous amount of work recording original songs during the last four months of her life. Her family, manager, and fellow musicians are working on bringing together these songs and releasing them according to her own intentions. That means new songs by Christina Grimmie are still coming out. A new single called Invisible will debut on all the media platforms on February 14.

Perhaps she might yet receive the recognition she should have been given during her life. Everyone in the music industry has acknowledged her gigantic talent, even if they didn't know how to "package" her for the vast attention that music celebrities command. Undoubtedly Christina Grimmie's significance as an artist will continue to unfold into the future. Maybe it remains for those who come after us to appreciate the magnitude of what she has accomplished.

When I first wrote about Christina last summer, a few weeks after her death, I put a lot of emphasis on her foundational and formative influence for this new kind of media-thing called "YouTube." I've experienced a lot of YouTube videos. I think that YouTube (and audiovisual multimedia streaming in general) is the most radical social media platform of the present time, far more significant in the long run for human interaction than Facebook or Twitter.

But until fairly recently, YouTube just seemed to me to be another place for watching videos, or making videos for other people to watch. It seemed like an expanded version of the "television-vcr-dvd-videocam-thing." In a certain sense it is. In another sense, however, it has a creative dynamic and a reach all its own. I am still struggling to understand this dynamic, but I have learned a lot from Christina Grimmie. She shaped concrete works of performance art that were (indeed they still are) powerful expressions and communications of herself as a person. It's not surprising that she really touched (and continues to touch) people all over the world.

There is more to this phenomenon than mere human art, and I have written in other places about her faith and her special charism. But I don't want to neglect the artistic dimension forged by her tremendous human energy, her great humanity. It's not something you see by just watching one of her videos. Indeed, it was something she herself developed over time, something that finally intersected with her live performances and her remarkable interaction with her followers and supporters.

Christina took new paths as an artist, crafting new kinds of "artifacts" which have their own beauty because they are invested with the beauty of her own person and shaped to express that beauty. At the heart of all of this, of course, is music. Her videos remain to show us how personal music really is. This is even more striking and moving in light of the fact that she has completed her task in this world and has herself passed beyond our markings of time and into the Mystery that originates and fulfills everything.

Here we have one facet of the continuing resonance of the gift she has given us, a gift of humanity and music.

I wonder whether perhaps fifty years from now she will be regarded in a way analogous to how we view another pioneer from fifty years ago, another musician who died tragically at the age of 22 but not before making a permanent impact on the whole realm of electronic ensemble music (i.e. "rock 'n roll"). The plane crash tragedy of 1959 was only part of the reason why Buddy Holly became a legend. He was also a real pioneer, one of the first to really grasp the fact that what he was playing was more than just a guitar with an amplifier attached to it. It was an electric guitar. It was a new kind of thing.

Maybe he never conceived of the whole matter abstractly, but he perceived it in an artistic way, he used it differently, to make new sounds. Musically, Buddy Holly opened up a new world. Electronic music has continued down so many new paths from the trail that he blazed 50 years ago. That's why Buddy Holly is a legend.

Fifty years from now, audiovisual streaming technology with be unimaginably rich in ways of communication and artistic expression. And everyone involved in it will know the legendary Christina Grimmie. They will be grateful to her.

Living Signs of Hope

Saint Josephine Bakhita: A Slave Who Became Free

On this feast day of Saint Josephine Bakhita, I thought I would reprint my Great Conversion Story published in MAGNIFICAT in the September 2014 issue.


  Great Conversion Stories    Saint Josephine Bakhita

Pope Francis: "Each Life is Sacred!"

Pope Francis's post on Instagram today:

Agatha Still Lives!

February 5 is observed on the liturgical calendars of Eastern and Western churches as the feast of Saint Agatha of Catania (who was tortured and martyred c. 250). She was another courageous young woman who gave her life for Jesus Christ.

Her heroic sacrifice, her total gift of herself to Jesus, has been celebrated since ancient times. She is one of the patron saints of Sicily. Since Sicily was at that time a Greek island, Agatha is an important figure in the Eastern tradition. On this day, the Byzantine liturgy honors her with many beautiful prayers such as this one:

You were a fragrant flower of virginity and an undefiled bride of the Lifegiver; you desired the Source of all good and excelled in martyrdom. O glorious Agatha, intercede by your holy prayers for those who lovingly honor your contest.

Agatha and countless others who followed her example of courage down through the ages bring to mind the words of Saint Paul: "I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ,...to know him and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death" (Philippians 3:8,10).

Even today, Catania celebrates Saint Agatha with a three day festival, including a procession of her remains through the city streets accompanied by crowds of hundreds of thousands of people. It is one of the largest "religious festivals" in the world.

What ancient personage has such a vital connection to real people today? This is not a celebration for Julius Caesar or some great philosopher or politician or king or movie star from the past. This is the celebration of a teenage girl who gave her life for Jesus Christ nearly 1,800 years ago!




Today, Saint Agatha is still remembered and honored with love by countless people, and she is a friend to their hearts. Real people have had real relationships with this person through the ages. They have looked to her example, confided in her, asked for her help. This is not superstition. This is the reality of the Church, the communion of saints.

This communion of persons with God and with one another in Jesus Christ cannot be broken by the power and the violence of the world. They couldn't destroy it in the year 250. Long after the powers that raged against her have been forgotten, Agatha still lives! They can't destroy it in 2017. They will never destroy it.

Violence is only for a time. Love never ends.

The Presentation of the Lord

"Forty days have passed since we celebrated
the joyful feast of the Nativity of the Lord.
Today is the blessed day
when Jesus was presented in the Temple by Mary and Joseph.
Outwardly he was fulfilling the Law,
but in reality he was coming to meet his believing people.
Prompted by the Holy Spirit,
Simeon and Anna came to the Temple.
Enlightened by the same Spirit,
they recognized the Lord
and confessed him with exultation.
So let us also, gathered together by the Holy Spirit,
proceed to the house of God to encounter Christ.
There we shall find him
and recognize him in the breaking of the bread,
until he comes again, revealed in glory."

~from the "Introduction" for the procession and the blessing of candles on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.
Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (a.k.a. Beato Angelico), Presentation, San Marco, Florence

Woodpecker VIDEO and Other Fun Scenes from January

I'm rounding off January 2017 with some of the month's most interesting pictures...along with a special fun treat . From my place in the Valley, it was warmer than usual with very little snow at all, though there was a fair bit of clouds and wet, rainy weather.

Last week, this pileated woodpecker was knocking its way through the neighborhood. This was some big bird! Not a particularly patient photographic subject, but I got a few good ones:

We Need a "Revolution of the Heart"

It would be an understatement to say that many people have politics on their mind these days. The past week or so have seen various provocative gestures in the political arena, particularly here in the United States. We Christians have lots of ardent concerns about these issues, we often disagree on particular points, and-- like everyone else --we're not always sure we even know what's going on.

What can we do? Our particular responsibilities will vary depending on our proximity to the issues, our capabilities, our state of life with its demands, and various other factors.

In any case, we can't bury our heads in the sand and try to ignore the problems in our society.

Christian life is in the fullest sense human life, and therefore it is invested in the drama of human beings living together in community. It is important for Christians to take interest in politics. Depending on circumstances, possibilities, and needs, Christians are urged by their faith itself to get involved in political engagements, discussions, promotion of or opposition to policies and proposed legislation, rallies and protests, and movements for social reform.

Christians should be especially attentive to protecting and fostering the dignity of every human person, especially the poorest and most vulnerable in society. We should also be peacemakers, always seeking ways to prevent violence and encourage dialogue.

Even when it is necessary to stand firm for the truth and fight against certain political positions or attitudes, we must at the same time present our witness to the truth in love, seeking to understand others, listening to their opinions and concerns, and working to establish alternative possibilities for people in crisis situations.

We Christians know that concrete issues are interrelated because they are rooted in the basic features of the human drama and the human vocation. We must therefore attend to the broader context of the complex social problems that generate violence and the unjust structures of violence that become deeply rooted in culture and social consensus.

All of this emphasizes our responsibility to work for the good and to fight against evil in our society. We must work in a way that is balanced and prudent, just and courageous. It can be very intense, because as Christians we have a passion for humanity.

But it must be the work of love.

We must not allow ourselves to be "carried away" in a loss of focus or a kind of rage that robs our efforts of their constructive possibilities and descends into belligerence, manipulation, or cynical criticism. In these urgent affairs, it is all too easy to forget our faith, to forget love, to forget the foundation of our identity as Christians, to forget the One to whom we belong and the scope of the mission He has entrusted to us.

That is why I want to continue to reflect upon the essential role of prayer and sacrifice in our practice of politics. If we think these distinct realms have little to do with one another existentially, it is because we have a tendency to divide our real life into compartments and put boundaries around the awareness of our faith. It is always helpful, therefore, to remember the central importance of prayer and sacrifice in the Christian life as a whole.

Prayer and sacrifice are at the heart of who we are and everything we do.

It is understandable how politics today can appear all-absorbing. We live in tumultuous times. But as Christians we must always remember that what defines our life is our relationship with Jesus Christ and our eternal destiny which is to dwell with God. We must live this relationship first and above all: this relationship of love which, because it attains God Himself, encompasses the real depth of our relations with one another as brothers and sisters.

Our relationship with God in Jesus Christ has its own "language" -- prayer. And it grows by being conformed to the measure of Christ's love, which takes us beyond ourselves and leads us to surrender ourselves and all the circumstances of our lives to God. Thus we become gift, we become "outpouring of love beyond our own measure," we become "like God," we are "made holy" through this self-abandonment that we call sacrifice.

Prayer and sacrifice are at the core of our Christian existence. Here we begin to experience the peace that the world cannot give us, the peace of Jesus Christ which grounds us and gives us hope. Precisely because of this, they are also supremely practical for our vocation in this world. They open us up to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. When this happens, we begin to take up our engagement with reality in a new way, according to the dynamic of self-giving love, of service, of the mercy that generates a more human environment, a real human community.

It begins with the heart, with my heart and with your heart. In the words of Dorothy Day:

"The greatest challenge is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us. When we begin to take the lowest place, to wash the feet of others, to love our brothers with that burning love, that passion, which led to the cross, then we can truly say, 'Now I have begun.'"

Six Years of Blogging and I Still Haven't "Give[n] Up"!

The Never Give Up blog is six years old.

I floated the idea in January of 2011 with friends and social media connections about starting a little personal blog. I thought, among other things, that it might be useful for the promotion of my (then still fairly new) book  Never Give Up: My Life and God's Mercy  (which is still a good read, and you can order it HERE).

Six years later, the blog is much, much longer than the book (which had a terrific editor, whereas here we basically shoot from the hip). But it continues to be a worthwhile project, at least for me (it is, as I have remarked before, my writing "workshop"). It's also interesting for a few other folks too, from time to time, I would like to think. (?)

I really should compile some "greatest hits" and work them up into a book.

Here is the first blog post, six years ago. The quotation is still one of my favorites: