When I was a kid, we all gathered around the television on Sunday nights and watch “The Wonderful World of Disney“. Every now and then, Walt Disney would introduce a show or pitch a product.
There was something magic about those nights.
Walt Disney’s ideas were all so new. His love for his product undeniable. If there was a new technology, Walt presented it on screen — humbly giving all the credit to the men and women who helped bring that new tech to life.
On Easter Sunday, I couldn’t help but to reflect on those days while my family gathered around the flat screen to watch the premiere of “The Chosen” Season Two.
Before the show began, the series creator, Dallas Jenkins appeared and talked the his show — just like Walt.
The greatest connection between the two, however, was how the nation came together to watch something wholesome that they created, with a sense of unity.
I wonder if Walt has been looking down at Dallas from the Heavens at all this? If so, I’m sure he smiles every time he hears the slogan Get used to different, thinking “Why didn’t I come up with that?”
This Tuesday, April 13, Season Two: Episode 2 will be released. If I had one thing I would change about “The Chosen” it would be that Dallas premiere new episodes and continue bring people together on Sunday nights — just like Walt … and just like Christ intended.
The Chosencreator Dallas Jenkins changed the filmmaking world with the online series about Jesus and its $11 million ground-breaking crowd-funding campaign. “Get used to different” has become the series mantra.
One thing I like about being a Catholic Christian is the fact that it is radically different. Just like Wynton Marsalis’s stylish attire made him radically different in a world of Jazz.
Traditions are important in Catholicism. Change is rare. So rare, we still this consider the Novus OrdoMissaenew — and its our Liturgy for over 50 years! In today’s fast-pace, ever-changing world where gratification comes in nanoseconds, that’s radically, radically different! Amen, amen?
“Get permission to republish this in the bulletin,” I wrote. “Might be a good Lenten devotional?”
That just might have been my biggest understatement of the year. This would be a great Lenten devotional!
With Lent just around the corner, I didn’t ask for permission to republish this. “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa,” to quote the legendary Jimmy Buffet.
As a preemptive penance, I’m asking everyone who reads this blog post to Pay It Forward! and click on the author, Alice Camille‘s personal webpage and/or the link to her original article, and #share it!
“Our world needs them,” Alice Camille wrote about 5 healing mysteries to the rosary. “You or I might pray them. Heaven will hear them. It doesn’t matter if Rome never knows about them.”
Well, let’s pray that Rome learns about them.
COVID has wounded us in so many ways. The world needs healing. So does our nation, and many of our friends and family members need to heal from the effects, small and large, of COVID.
Lent is around the corner. Let’s come together as One Body and pray the Rosary for healing!
So here’s Alice Camille‘s five healing mysteries of the rosary.
Get used to different!
The first healing mystery:
Jesus restores the outcast to community
“Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?” (Luke 17:17)
They were lumped together as “unclean.” Nobody knows what afflictions they suffered. These lepers couldn’t be touched, were thrust from home and family, and were forced to live apart. Whatever infected them couldn’t have been worse than this awful isolation, as we know intimately.
Jesus, heal us from this pandemic. Restore our community to health and wholeness. May we remain grateful for the privilege of human gathering.
The second healing mystery:
Jesus rewards the woman of courage
“Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” (Matt. 9:22)
She wasn’t supposed to be out in public, touching a man’s clothes, or cause a stir that would embarrass her family. But the hemorrhaging woman had suffered too much for too long to behave by social norms that didn’t serve her and couldn’t save her. She trusted Jesus. Good for her!
Jesus, bless the courageous ones who won’t sit quietly by and suffer without taking their destiny in their own hands.
The third healing mystery:
Jesus frees the imperiled child
“Lord, have mercy on my son, for . . . he suffers terribly.” (Matt. 17:15)
This poor child fell often into fire and into water. He reminds us of all our children now suffering the effects of conditions they did nothing to cause and are powerless to change.
For all the ways in which the world’s children suffer—hunger, domestic abuse, impaired learning conditions, depression, anxiety, shame— Lord, rescue our children and restore their hope.
The fourth healing mystery:
Jesus heals the person suffering mental distress
“But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’ ” (Mark 1:25)
Demons haunt us all. But some, like this man who cried out to Jesus, are especially burdened. People who are emotionally fragile, or whose mental health was already compromised, suffer exceptionally from the pandemic conditions of stress, upheaval, and isolation.
Lord, we ask you to keep our vulnerable loved ones in your special care. Hold them in the palm of your hand and let them feel your constant protection.
The fifth healing mystery:
Jesus heals the Earth’s abundance
“So they cast [the net], and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish.” (John 21:6)
Behind the realities of pandemic looms the greater danger of a world enduring the cumulative effects of exploitation, greed, indifference, and ignorance. Climate change is changing the rules of our future survival.
Merciful Lord, this creation is your first and best gift to us. Give us the wisdom and the will to transform our global commitment to the planet that is our home.
This article also appears in the January issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 86, No. 1, page 47-49). Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
As a writer, James has been featured on The Inside Success Show, Bob Salter (CBS Radio), Mike Siegel, Mancow, and more.
Beyond writing, James worked with At-Risk youth in Southern California for over six years. His contributions to the classroom — featured on local television and in the LA Daily News and the Los Angeles Times’ Burbank Leader — earned him the honors of “Teacher of the Year”. James was also twice honored by a CASDA Scholar as the teacher who had the greatest influenced that student. As an educator, James also appeared twice on America Live with Megyn Kelly.
Today, James lives in New York where he continues to teach — and write. Besides his books, you can follow his musing on this blog Corporation You.
Corporation YOU 