Weekly Prayer
We say a prayer of thanksgiving as we start the new year for Agnes.
Agnes died this week at 103, just shy of her 104th birthday. Her son, Raphael, said of Agnes, “I grew up knowing my mother was Wonder Woman. She ran a household, taught music, helped us with our homework, and cooked meals so tasty that they neighbors’ kids wanted to stay for dinner. Oh, and in her spare time she was an international and local celebrity who trained and coached athletes at the Olympic games. No biggie.”
Agnes played the cello, but she was known for her gymnastics. She began at age 4. She was known as the “Queen of Gymnastics” at age 16 and hoped to participate in the Olympics. She did, but it was 13 years later.
Helen was born in Hungary. She had Jewish heritage. The queen of gymnastics was barred from participating in Olympics in 1940 because her Jewish heritage. Instead, her family was able to get her papers so she could pass as a Christian maid in Sweden. Her father and other family members died in Auschwitz.
After the war, she trained and qualified for the 1948 London Olympics, but a ligament injury would sideline Helen. Finally at 31, she participated in the Helsinki Summer Olympics where she won 4 medals, one was a silver. Four years later, less than a month after Hungary lost in anti-Soviet uprising against the USSR, Helen would win 6 more Olympic medals at the 1956 Brisbane Summer Olympics. She stayed in Brisbane for safety until she emigrated to Israel in 1957.
There she is remembered as creating the Israeli gymnastics program. She took Israeli teams to the Olympics, including the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Good fortune had her away from the Olympic Village at the time of 1972 terrorist attack and massacre of Israeli athletes.
She said her favorite medal was her first, which she got in the floor exercise. She loved the floor exercise because she could do what she wanted and that she could be herself.
Her advice to other athletes was not to concentrate on winning but do what you love with love. She said, “You’ve got to love life and always look at the good side.”
Agnes could still do the splits in her 90s. She is tied for the most medals of any Hungarian Olympian.
She said she did gymnastics not to win but to see the world. Agnes’ other record was being the oldest person ever to be an Olympian.
We say a prayer of gratitude for Agnes, her music, her parenting, her athletic prowess, her determination, her inspiration, and her love and joy of life. Thank you, Agnes, for a well-lived life and a reminder to persevere, live fully, help others, and find joy.
We say a prayer of thanks for another great humanitarian who died this week, former President Jimmy Carter. We say a prayer of thanks for the music of Wayne, who died this week. He and his brothers—Alan, Jay, Merrill, and Donny—became famous in the 1970s. Wayne was a guitarist for the Osmond Brothers, the first to die at age 73. Wayne had survived a brain tumor, gone deaf, and a stroke, before a second more severe stroke took his life this week.
Today, Sunday, January 5th, we acknowledge and give thanks the lives and gifts of Jeanne Dixon known for predicting the future, dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey, actor Robert Duvall, actress Diane Keaton, former vice-president Walter Mondale, award winning Japanese filmmaker and animator Hayao Moyazaki (“Spirited”), the original TV Nancy Drew, Pamela Sue Martin, singer and celebrity Marilyn Manson, actor Bradley Cooper, and dance and TV icon, Carrie Ann Inaba, all of who were born today.
Alvin Ailey said of creativity, “The creative process is not controlled by a switch you can simply turn on or off; it’s with you the whole time.”
We honor and say a prayer of gratitude for the lives of George Washington Carver and Saint John Neumann, both of whom died on January 5th.
George Washington Carver, born George Carver and born a slave, has no recorded date of birth. In college, he was often mixed up with another George Carver, so he added Washington as his middle name to distinguish himself. The renowned scientist would later develop over 300 uses for peanuts, and one can only wonder how much his science would enhance the life of peanut farmer, Jimmy Carter.
John Neumann was born in Bohemia, now the Czech Republic, would emigrate to the United States, and become the only American man to achieve sainthood. Neumann was known for his work in Catholic education and creating the first Catholic diocese school system. He also was known for riding his horse to rural places and offering mass on people’s dining tables. At 5’ 2 ½” inches tall, it took a while for him to learn to ride a horse, but eventually he did and became fast friends with Geraldine whom he rode throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.
Also in history this week, we say a prayer for the New Year and resolutions kept and not kept. Resolutions trace back to Ancient Babylonia where the start of the year there saw resolutions of returning farm equipment to their owners. It would follow through the centuries. In the Middle Ages, where knights would resolve to be chivalrous by placing their hand on a peacock to pledge allegiance to their knightly values. Eighty years ago, it was reported that the most common resolution was to improve one’s disposition and be more understanding and to control one’s temper. Today’s leading resolution to lose weight and get organized barely made the top 10 eighty years ago.
We also honor and remember what has happened before.
Today marks the 12th day of Christmas celebrated by many religious traditions. Tomorrow is Epiphany.
On this day in 1914, Henry Ford cut his employees’ work day from 9 to 8 hours and more than doubled their wages, believing he would sell more cars. In 1920 he became the first automobile maker to sell one million cars.
Published on this day in 1886 was Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde.
But perhaps as we celebrate imagination in literature, we should celebrate Alexander Dumas, author of “The Three Musketeers.” The dreamer of winning sword duels, actually only ever one sword fight. This happened on this day when his opponent tripped over a tree root, fell backwards and surrendered. Dumas was lucky that it happened as his own belt buckle had broken and his own pants had fallen down. Still, Dumas would dream of great winning scenes that became great literature.
Also, just 18 years ago, scientists believed they had discovered the solar system’s 10th planet, which became known as Eris. Yet a year later, Eris joined Pluto, in becoming a dwarf planet. Originally believed to be larger than Pluto, the two dwarf planets have one moon and eccentric orbits. Eris is slightly smaller and orbits the sun every 559 years. It gets almost as close as Neptune at its closest distance to the sun. At its most distant is is 2 ½ times further out than Pluto. Like Pluto, Eris has one moon. Its name is Dysnomia.
We give thanks today for the 100th anniversary of the first female governor to take office. Nellie Taylor Ross became Wyoming’s first governor in 1925.
We should note that in the week that the 119th Congress is seated, no House of Representative Committees will be chaired by women. The new House of Representatives has 295 Protestants, 150 Catholics, 9 Mormons, 6 Orthodox Christians, 1 Messianic Jew, 22 Jewish representatives, 3 Buddhists, 4 Hindus, 3 Unitarian Universalists. 1 Humanist, 3 Unaffiliated, and 21 people who refused to answer.
We also pray for the people of South Korea, where there impeached president is barricaded at his residence protected by some 200 soldiers and security officers.
Also, this week, we pray for those who had to clean up 3000 pounds of confetti in New York City beginning on January 1st.
Canadian Ryan Donais made news this week for his work to house homeless in Ontario. Ryan has created modular homes attached to bicycles. The homes have a bed, electricity, heat, running water, as well as smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. The homes, attached to bikes, are mobile and can legally travel in Toronto’s bike lanes. We say a prayer of thanks for Ryan’s work.
And a grateful prayer for recipients of the Presidents’ Citizens Medal. These include Liz Cheney, Bennie Thompson, Louis Lorenzo Redding the first Black attorney in Delaware whose fight for desegregation there was a precedent for the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954, and equal marriage attorneys Mary Bonauto and Evan Wolfson. Also honored was Frank Butler whose innovation of the tourniquet in the war saved many lives during and after the war.
The work of Bono, Bill Nye, Michael J. Fox, Denzel Washington, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jane Goodall, Jose Andres, Governor George Romney, Tim Gill, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Anna Wintour was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
We give thanks for their work to better humanity.
And finally, we honor the predictions made 100 years ago for the future of the world. H.G. Wells predicted a new world order in 2025 that would be run by a confederation of rich people and not countries. Wells predicted there would only be three countries, the United States of America, China, and the United States of Europe. And Gettysburg seminary professor predicted everyone would have a pocket size communicator that allowed people to talk and not have to be in the same room. He also predicted a substitute for sleep would be found and most scientific predictors of the day said people would live to 150. Apparently, no one at the time asked Jeanne Dixon.
We pray for a world that still exists in 100 years and people are thriving and where lessons of a Hungarian gymnast of finding joy in what we do, where perseverance still rewards, and where everyone does the floor routine where they get to be themselves and still lead a life where they help others.
In this week that was, and on this January 5th, we give thanks for lives well lived, what they have taught us, and examples they have set. For those in pain, we pray for healing and peace. For everyone, we pray for hope, a good horse, and a place to be warm and live with joy, creativity, and love.