These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.

THURSDAY, WEEK XXV, ORDINARY TIME

Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,
vanity of vanities!  All things are vanity!
(Eccl 1:2)

One of the strangest books in the Bible is the Book of Ecclesiastes. It reminds me of that marvelous scene from Moonstruck (1987), when Rose, Loretta’s mother (played by Olympia Dukakis), tells her cheating husband, Cosmo (played by Vincent Gardenia):

Rose: I just want you to know no matter what you do, you're gonna die, just like everybody else.
Cosmo Castorini: Thank you, Rose.

And as the writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes reasons: It’s better to be a live dog, than a dead lion (Eccl 9:4). And the book concludes as it begins:

Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,
    all things are vanity!
(Eccl 12:8)