The real Schindler's list...

According to the LA Times, Leon Leyson died this past Saturday at the age of 83. Mr. Leyson was the youngest Jew saved from persecution during WWII by German industrialist Oskar Schindler. At the time he was chosen, he was an emaciated 13 year old who had to stand on a box to reach the machinery in the Krakow factory where he and his family were sheltered by Schindler.

Mr. Leyson was reluctant to speak about his experiences mainly because “he didn't think anybody was interested...” but also because having been given a second chance he just wanted to get on with life. He never let the Holocaust define him. He did not want to give his children a legacy of fear but of freedom.

After viewing the movie “Schindler's List”, Mr. Leyson said it felt like an out-of-body experience. “Because those little kids who were running away from the Nazi's, and hiding in attic crawl spaces, that was me and my friends.” His only criticism of the film was that he felt it “over-emphasized” Schindler's imperfections. The film did not show enough of the the businessman's “basic human decency”. By sheltering those that he did, he put everything on the line...”even to treat us as human beings was against the law”. Mr. Leyson did work 12 hour shifts like an adult but because he was so weak, Schindler doubled his rations and even took him off the line when it affected his eyesight. He added Leyson's siblings and his mother to his list to keep them together.

Mr. Leyson saw him again when Schindler made a trip to L.A in 1974 (just before he died). Leyson joined a group of survivors who wanted to meet the man that they regarded as a savior at the airport. Even after all the decades, when Mr. Leyson started to introduce himself, he found it wasn't necessary. “I know who you are,” Schindler said to the middle aged man before him, “you're Little Leyson”.

Most movies are meant purely for entertainment but from time to time they can remind us of people and events that should not be forgotten.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-leon-leyson-20130114,0,3835673.story

June 6th

Relic revealed

Whether you believe in "Holy Relics" or not, most of us do have a fascination with the "what if it is real"?
German Christians will be given the opportunity to view the "Holy Robe", that Christ supposedly wore before being crucified.
Over the next four weeks, around a million German Christians will be travelling to Trier to admire the "Heiliger Rock", or the Holy Robe: one of the most important relics in German Christendom, that Jesus supposedly wore before being crucified. Stephan Ackermann, the Bishop of Trier – Karl Marx’s home city – has decided that the robe will be put on display for the eighteenth time in its history, until 13 May.

According to legend, Helena – the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine – brought the seamless garment to Germany, while the first documentary evidence to mention the relic’s presence in Trier dates back to 1196.  According to different versions of the story, she either bequeathed it or sent it to the city of Trier, where Constantine had lived for some years before becoming emperor.

What is different about this time is that Protestants will be undertaking the pilgrimage to view the Holy Robe. Whether you believe in it or not, I would see it, given the opportunity.

Inhumanity

Earlier today, as I was preparing for our Youth Bible Study tomorrow night, I was reading Chapter 5 in Adam Hamilton's "24 Hours that Changed the World". He says:

"I have been to the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC on several occasions. I have taken each of my daughters there to see the photos, the video footage, and the exhibits documenting the atrocities that occurred under Hitler's "final solution". The museum is a testament to the gross inhumanity of the Nazis; but it is also a witness to the complicity of millions of ordinary people in Europe who refused to resist this evil, including many leaders of the church. Even the United States, ultimately playing a key role in the defeat of Hitler, refused to receive larger numbers of Jewish immigrants from Europe at a time when the Nazis were implementing the "final solution". The Holocaust is an indictment not only upon the Nazis, but upon the entire human race.


My daughters and I walked in silence after our visits, deeply moved, disturbed, and convicted by what we had seen. That is the aim of the Holocaust Museum: to affect visitors so deeply that they leave committed to the proposition that this should never happen again."

 I was unable to stop thinking about the words I had read...was I supposed to post the words that were haunting me? Was I supposed to elaborate upon them? It was while these questions were making me uneasy that I saw this quote by Maya Angelou:

"History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again."

I knew then that I was supposed to post Rev. Hamilton's words...and Ms. Angelou's words...but after reading them, you need none of my own. Just chew on these for a while.

It is Jewish tradition to leave a pebble on the headstone whenever you visit a grave. It is an act of remembrance...

Mary's purification

Today is celebrated as Candlemas and is a day of purification, renewal and hope. It is on this day, exactly 40 days after Christmas that we remember Mary's obedience to the Mosaic law. She presented herself at the Temple as commanded:
Leviticus 12:2-8

Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: If a woman having received seed shall bear a man child, she shall be unclean seven days, according to the days of separation of her flowers. And on the eighth day the infant shall be circumcised: But she shall remain three and thirty days in the blood of her purification. She shall touch no holy thing: neither shall she enter into the sanctuary, until the days of her purification, be fulfilled. But if she shall bear a maid child, she shall be unclean two weeks, according to the custom of her monthly courses, and she shall remain in the blood of her purification sixty-six days.
And when the days of her purification are expired, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, a lamb of a year old for a holocaust, and a young pigeon or a turtle for sin, and shall deliver them to the priest: Who shall offer them before the Lord, and shall pray for her, and so she shall be cleansed from the issue of her blood. This is the law for her that beareth a man child or a maid child.
And if her hand find not sufficiency, and she is not able to offer a lamb, she shall take two turtles, or two young pigeons, one for a holocaust, and another for sin: and the priest shall pray for her, and so she shall be cleansed.

And also from the New Testament:

Luke 2:22-24
And after the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they carried him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord: As it is written in the law of the Lord: Every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord: And to offer a sacrifice, according as it is written in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.

This is the day they meet Anna and Simeon and hear the prophesy (also from Luke 2):
"And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him; and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is destined to be the rise and the fall of many in Israel, and a sign that is spoken against (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed.”

Msgr. Charles Pope has written an article called "A Dramatic Moment That Almost Everyone Missed":

The ascent to Jerusalem is a steep one. The mountains surround Jerusalem and the City sits up at a higher altitude than the area around it. As the ancient Jews made the climb they sang the psalms of ascent: Psalms 120-134. As Joseph and Mary ascended they too sang the words that instilled joy: I Lift up mine eye to the mountains from whence cometh my help (121)…..I rejoiced when they said to me let us go up to the House of the Lord (122)…..To you O Lord I have lifted my eyes (123)….Like Mount Zion are those who trust in the Lord (125)….Out of the depths I call unto you O Lord! (130)…..Let us enter God’s dwelling, let us worship at the Lord’s footstool. Arise O Lord and enter your dwelling place, You and the Ark of your strength! (132)….Come and bless the Lord, You who stand in the House of the Lord Lift your hands to the Sanctuary and bless the Lord. The Lord bless you from Zion (134).

Singing these songs, Mary carried Jesus. The climb was even more difficult carrying a newborn babe. But the burden was sweet. A final ascent up the stairs to the Temple Mount. Likely they entered on the southern side through the Huldah gates. Going up the steep stairs, through the tunnel in the walls and emerging on to the bright Temple platform above.

God had returned to His Temple. He, and the Ark who carried him, were found. Mary the Ark, carrying  Jesus in her arms. Jesus, very God, true God from True God. Yes, God and the Ark had been found and God was once again present among His people on the Temple Mount. Scripture says:

And the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his Temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? (Mal 3:1-2)

Healing and Tribute

Dona Nobis Pacem (translates: Give us Peace)



Take care to notice the birds flying around in the lights...fitting tribute, don't you think?

Today we remember...

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Although this is not the most famous excerpt from his "I have a Dream" speech...it is perhaps my most favorite part...

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

for it speaks to all who are persecuted as second class citizens...

But did you also know that today is Benjamin Franklin's' birthday...perhaps it is an "odd" pairing but then again...

For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.

Each, in their own way, contributed to making America...sometimes I feel we would do well to have one or both of them with us today.

President's response...

No, the President didn't respond to my post about the Arizona tragedy. But he did respond to the tragedy...and might I say, his words should be taken to heart...although I did not hear it live, the text is available online and is a good read...

"...What we can't do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on one another"...
"As we discuss these issues, let each of us do so with a good dose of humility. Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let us use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves of all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together."

Bravo Mr. President!

In Memory of 9/11

Be Thou My Vision
~ Irish Hymn, c. 8th century
~ Translated by Mary E. Bryne, 1880-1931
~ Versified by Eleanor H. Hull, 1860-1935
Stanza 1:
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Be all else but naught to me, save that Thou art.
Be Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Both waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Stanza 2:
Be Thou my Wisdom, Be Thou my true Word;
Be Thou ever with me and I with Thee, Lord;
Be Thou my great Father, and I Thy true son;
Oh Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
Stanza 3:
Be Thou my breastplate, my Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my whole Armour, Be Thou my true might;
Be Thou my soul’s Shelter, Be Thou my strong Tower:
O Raise Thou me heavenward, Great Power of my power.
Stanza 4:
Riches I need not, nor man’s empty praise,
Be Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Be Thou and Thou only, the first in my heart,
O High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.
Stanza 5:
High King of Heaven, O Heaven's bright Sun!
O grant me it's joys, after victory's is won!
Great Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

Goodbye Mr. Linkletter

While I watched most of his programs as re-runs, I loved him from the first...what a wonderful man. Read more here.