Jan 15 John Calabites

Jack and Thom
Good morning, I love you

Some of us find our vocation young. E.g., your uncle wanted to be a pilot since before I can remember. Me, every year when we came to New York City for Christmas I had a different answer to the annual question – what do you want to be when you grow up. I still don’t have the same answer year after year: month to month. I recommend your uncle’s strategy. The life of a successful ant not the whirl wind of a grasshopper’s existence.

January 15

John Calabites d. 450

John Calabites was born in Constantinople to a wealthy family. You were born in Nashville to parents doing pretty well on one man’s income. Three squares and a roof over our head, as Grandpa often said.

John Calabites became a hermit at the age of twelve. I can’t imagine. At twelve I was in the seventh grade. As much as I wanted to live my own life and would have been willing to live all by myself in a small hut, I couldn’t fathom living on my own in the wild, especially in the Maine woods.

After six years John Calabites returned to his family’s estate as a beggar. They did not recognize him. It is probably a good thing that you’re not recognized by your family when you return after six years on your own. First, of course, you have to do the six years on your own. It will change you. You will become the man of your independent efforts. A new person. If you live like John Calabites did for those six years, pursuing union with God, you will return a better man. You may be a stranger to your family but you will be received like the holy beggar who came to John Calabites’ family’s estate.

The family of the estate gave John Calabites a calybe, a small hut, to live in. This tells us as much about the family in which John Calabites grew up in as it does about John Calabites himself. Do you want to be known for a family who will receive a stranger, a beggar onto their estate, provide him with a hut to live in, give him the leeway to pursue his vocation? Pray for us that we might be such parents.

John Calabites became famous for his prayers and penances. A person in a small hut became famous for his prayers and his penances. To be even noticed by passersby would have been remarkable. But when he was discovered, people took note. Do passersby notice you? What do they see? About what do they remark? Your prayers? Will your children see enough of your praying to say you are famous to them for your prayers? Will your family know enough about your penances to say you are famous to them for your penances? If not, then I suggest you ratchet it up a little.

John Calabites resided in the little hut on his family’s estate until his death when his identity was at last revealed to his mother. What does this say about his mother? She did not recognize the holy beggar as her son. She did not recognize the prayerful man as her son. She did not recognize the man of penance as her son. [You see, the gestalt training I got draws me to all the personae in a scene.] Do you avoid your faith, your vocation, your Church, the will of God, your pursuit of prayer and penance because you are afraid your mother will not recognize you?

Do you remember that the name John means Gift of God? It does. You are. You both are! Deo Gratias.

I love you,
Dad
101128, 1542