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Today’s Word: 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time – August 3, 2025

Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23

Psalms 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17

Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11

Luke 12:13-21

“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2/RSV – 2nd Catholic Edition). The Preacher, or in some translations “Qoheleth,” is a character in this book that is traditionally associated with Solomon, son of David, and he cries out these verses in the first chapter in today’s readings. I believe there is a theme running through today’s scriptures that is a powerful one to dive into.

That theme is VANITY! The character Qoheleth derives from the Hebrew word for assembly, “qahal.” So this is linked to someone who traditionally would speak in front of an assembly of people. The passage today is only four verses, however it is summed up later in Chapter 2. We find in verse 26 of the second chapter, all of human thought and effort is futile, Vanity, pointing out that with God comes true wisdom and joy. “For all his days are full of pain, and his work is a vexation; even in the night his mind does not rest. This is also vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 2:23/RSV – 2nd Catholic Edition). This emphasizes the point that with God comes true joy and happiness.

The Psalm reflects this idea of working and toiling away here on earth is vanity and true joy and wisdom comes from God, as it says in Verse 12, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12/RSV – 2nd Catholic Edition).

The second reading today teaches us the same thing. Saint Paul’s letter to the Colossians opens in Chapter 3 with “If then you have been raised, with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” (Colossians 3:1/RSV – 2nd Catholic Edition). He further explains to “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth,” and to “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” (Colossians 3:2, 5/RSV – 2nd Catholic Edition).

The gospel reading today reminds us to be vain or selfish. We are here to serve others, just as Jesus came to serve others. The scripture in Luke’s Gospel tells of the parable of the Rich Fool. It’s a story Jesus tells the people to be wary of covetousness, which is part of the Ten Commandments, “Thou shall not covet.” He tells one man, “Take heed and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15/RSV – 2nd Catholic Edition). In the parable, a rich man has so many crops that he ends up tearing down his barns to make bigger ones in order to store all the crops. He tells himself that he has a luxurious life now and does not bother to share his abundance with others. So the Lord God says to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (Luke 12:20/RSV – 2nd Catholic Edition). God is saying those who set up riches on earth for themselves have no riches toward God. 

So I believe we need to share and care for others when we can. Love others. Do good unto others. That is what Jesus did.

Now, I will leave you with this verse, “The Lord bless you and keep you! The Lord let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!” (Numbers 6:24-26, RSV – 2nd Catholic Edition).

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Overcoming Challenges

A lot has been going on with me in the last month and a half or so. I’ve left my job as a news anchor and I am now on unemployment. I’m not ashamed to say it. It’s reality. It happens.

Although at times, it seems kind of shameful (or perhaps another word could go here that would be more appropriate), but as I said it’s reality. It’s what happened. I guess the shameful part about it is that I’m in my 40’s and sometimes it seems I don’t have a direction to go in my life.

It’s like, “I’m 40 years old and I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.” The sad part is that I am grown up.

We all make choices in our lives. Some good, some bad. Sometimes we don’t know what that choice is until later. Maybe years later.

In an earlier blog post, I talked about how I need to set small, attainable goals in my life. (I believe that was a new year resolution last year). The thing is I didn’t. I still haven’t. Job to job, trying to make ends meet. It just didn’t cut it. That’s one reason why I left my last job. However, there are also deeper issues into why I left. I don’t want to get into real specifics but would you stay at a job where you seemed unappreciated? Ignored? Or maybe got into trouble and making it sound like it’s your fault, when you haven’t been instructed on how to do it right, or even how to do it? I held on as long as I could, but I just couldn’t take it anymore. It was causing me stress and health problems and other issues. It got to be where I didn’t really want to talk to anyone or talk about it. It’s like I just wanted to shut the world out and hide. I had to leave.

I’m feeling better now. But I am still dealing with my health, but it is better. I’m in a better frame of mind now.

It still is somewhat stressful job searching and not having a bigger paycheck, but I do feel better. Having some more “time” has had me thinking about “what I want to be when I grow up.”

Now, back to choices. I’ve recently been thinking about all the choices (well, most of the choices….okay….some of the choices) I’ve made. I won’t go into them here, but I just want to say that there are some different paths my life could’ve taken if I had made different choices.

But, I’m here now. This is the life I’ve made for myself. Only I can change it. I read a book my dad let me borrow. It’s “The Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey. He talks about taking baby steps in order to become financially wealthy. He also references that with becoming healthier. It also can be referenced to what I was wanting to do and setting small attainable goals and achieving those goals to move on to a bigger goal. I was recently rereading it (some parts of it anyway) and seeing how that makes good sense.

That leads me to what I want to do. I’ve recently started getting into the world of freelance writing. It can be a hard road, but for some it is a very rewarding lifestyle. I’ve started reading “You Are A Writer (so start acting like one)” by Jeff Goins. I can already see by taking some of the concepts about baby steps, being focused, and just start writing, it could work. And as I said, it will be a difficult road, but it is possible.

I will continue to look for some other work as well. But I feel that I can use this “free time” to become focused and get some writing done. In fact, I am going to begin a novel based on a screenplay I wrote that did not go anywhere. It was a screenplay I wrote in my second master’s program that I have put down, worked on, put down, worked on…and put down. I’ve decided to try turning it into a novel.

So taking those baby steps, all the planning is done…now it is time to write.

I will leave you with this. If anyone ever has to encounter obstacles and think that it is too much to overcome. Just remember you can ask for help and to take baby steps. Those steps can lead you up the mountain.

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Excitement is Exciting….When you get the call….

So the topic today is “excitement.” Well, this is my first post to this daily prompt feed. And this is only my second post after a long hiatus. I posted a short blog last night about the possibility of a new Terminator film. I can say that I’m not really excited about that since I didn’t particularly care for the last two film in the series.

But I digress. Excitement. What is it? If you look in a dictionary, it could say something like this: “a feeling of great enthusiasm and eagerness.” I agree. It’s a strong feeling towards something that makes one feel…well…excited. One thing happened to me a couple of months ago. This was the initial feeling.

It was July 18, 2013…a Thursday….afternoon. I received a phone call and was offered a job as an adjunct instructor for one of the extended campuses of the community college close to my area. I spoke with the woman on the phone for a good fifteen or twenty minutes and talked about my background….personal, education, and teaching experience. After I spoke with her, I felt an uplifting enthusiasm I have not felt in quite some time. I could preface this by saying that I have been basically unemployed for a while and this was very good news. So yes, I was excited! This was also good news because I decided to go into the world of education after thinking about it off and on for the past several years.

I began an online teaching program through the university I previously graduated from several years ago with my bachelors and masters degrees. I was going for secondary speech and theatre education, since those areas comprised my educational background. I was doing well up until this past summer. Shortly after I began the program last fall, I quit my place of employment to pursue the program full time. Well, I also quit for other reasons but that could be another post for another time. Anyway, over the summer I realized I needed to return to work full time after poor results of my interviews for teaching positions this school year. I went on several but was unable to secure a position anywhere. I think it was mostly because of my lack of teaching experience, and the only experience I had was the occasional substituting I did for the public schools here in my hometown. And, as the fall was coming closer I didn’t think I was going to be able to complete the program because of having to return to work, and at the time I didn’t know what I was going to be doing. So I had to drop my classes I had for the summer and fall and withdraw from the program.

And now, here I am. I received that call about two months ago and I am teaching now…at the college level. It’s a whole new experience and I’m still getting used to it. I only have ten students in my class…so that’s a plus. Not too big, not too small. We’re getting ready to start the fourth week of the semester this week and it is a work in progress for me getting used to it and figuring out my lesson plans. Some of the excitement has disappeared, but I am still happy that I’m here. The pay may not be much, but it’s something, and it is a step in the door that could lead to other possibilities.

I am very thankful for that day in July and that one phone call.

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Reminiscing

So last night I was going through all of my poems that I have written over the years, and I came across some other writings that I had almost forgotten about. I will get to that in a minute.

It took me a while to go through all of the poems as I had close to 150. What saddens me though is that I couldn’t find one of them. I had a list that I made and then continued to add to that list as I wrote a new poem. I had typed most of the poems (some of them were even on old typing paper using a typewriter). So, as I was going through all of the pages and journals that I had, checking off the poems, I couldn’t find one of my earlier poems. I think the total came to 143 (minus the poem I couldn’t find). However, I did come across another poem that I did not have on the list, so the total is back up to 143. It was the last poem I wrote…around 2005. I haven’t said this in years, but I used to say that some day I would like to write a book of poetry. I would just compile all the poems, put them in an order, and try to make a decent manuscript of poetry. I think I am more tempted and getting more motivated to do that now that I have my poetry. I might even be able to make a couple of books. I’ll see how it goes.

I’ll come back to the other writings I came across. In one of my theatre classes while finishing my undergraduate program, we had to keep a journal. In that journal I also wrote some poems and few other things during the semester. After the semester ended, I decided to keep going with the journal and continued writing poems and other thoughts and ideas. Well I came across those and there was also actually a couple of items that could possibly make short stories as well. I mean, I’ve written some short screenplays so why not some short stories.

I guess the point to all of this was that if you’re a writer, hold on to what you write. It could be cause for something else in the future. Unless, of course, it is just plain awful and a disgrace to the literary world to have it out there, then by all means discard it like yesterday’s trash. But if it has some potential, even a kernel of literary goodness, then keep it…file it away, put it within reach, because you never know where that next literary spark will come from.

Happy writing!

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Life

I’m still getting used to this and going through some of life’s pitfalls. Before today, I was experiencing circumstances that were not pleasant. I’m still overcoming some of them but something else has turned around. I was thinking how times in life one has things planned and a course of action to navigate through this crazy world. Then BAM! Something drives you off course and all that is left is to wonder how you got to that point. As you pick up the pieces, put things back together, and begin to get back on course, BAM! Something happens and a positive light comes around and it slowly starts coming back together. So I guess the point to this little bit of prose is that if we, as people, sit back and do nothing…nothing will change. We must go and make change happen, and eventually an opportunity will arise.