Posted on 04/14/2022 5:45:35 PM PDT by nickcarraway
For Catholics and other Christians who mark Lent by giving up something, this often means alcohol, sugary sweets or another item they like to nosh or quaff.
This wasn't enough for the Rev. Marc J. Roselli, who had already cut back on some favorite foods for health reasons. So the Jesuit priest made his ears, not his stomach, the focus of his Lenten sacrifice.
From Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, he won't listen to Beatles music.
"You know, you're giving up a part of yourself," Roselli said in an interview. "Chocolate is not a part of me."
Roselli, who came to Buffalo in August to join the Jesuit community at St. Michael's Church, said he wanted to sacrifice something that meant a lot to him.
For Roselli, a fan since elementary school, this means staying away from his beloved Beatles channel on SiriusXM and swiftly switching when a song from John, Paul, George and Ringo pops up on another station.
Alan Pergament: My flight cancellation was a pain, but it didn't occur to me to call a TV station to complain Mike Harrington: This didn't feel like an NHL debut. It felt like Owen Power has been here all along "So I had to turn the radio off and go to the classical music station," he said.
For Roselli, the Beatles have been part of the long, winding road of his life dating back to childhood. The Brooklyn native grew up in New Jersey.
He said the band made its signature appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" when he was 9 years old and they broke up at the end of his freshman year at Xavier High School in Manhattan.
"So, you know, they were woven into my historical narrative," Roselli said. "And I could hallmark memories on what song, what album, and all that sort of thing."
Roselli has ministered here, there and everywhere, including missions in Nigeria and Micronesia.
Soon after he was ordained – "hot off the press, so to speak" – he taught Spanish, Latin and religion at Canisius High School for five years beginning in 1986. So Buffalo wasn't a foreign concept when he was assigned here again last year.
During the Lenten season that culminates with Easter Sunday, Roselli said he tries to combine the traditional idea of sacrifice with the notion of doing something positive, as well.
"Both can be true," he said. "You can give up something. And you can also do something that is not normally a part of your routine or habit."
In the past, Roselli said, he would give up something he likes to eat, such as ice cream.
But a recent diagnosis of diabetes led him to make some changes to his diet and forced him to eat much less pasta, bread and dessert.
"So I had to give up those things for that reason. So I don't get extra, Lenten credit points," Roselli said, laughing. "Because the motivation is my health."
That's why Roselli thought more about giving up a thing that he truly enjoys.
"And another thing: I'm a Jesuit. So, we have this thing about detachments, and being attached and being detached and being indifferent," he said. "Because if we are attached to something, it could create an obstacle in the spiritual flow between God and us."
Healthy attachments are OK, Roselli said, but they can go too far.
He recalled a conversation when he was posted to Nigeria with a woman who told him that she would feel naked without her cellphone.
"It's a little alarming to hear some of the language that people use when they're talking, right?" Roselli said. "It could be a cell phone for one person. It could be the Bills for someone else."
Roselli said he doesn't believe he has an unhealthy attachment to Beatles music. But it's something he knew he would miss for the 40 days – not counting Sundays – of Lent.
Practically speaking, this meant staying away from the SiriusXM Beatles channel altogether and being on high alert for the "danger zone," as Roselli put it, of the 1960s and '70s radio stations he also regularly listens to on standard radio in the car.
If a song inadvertently pops up on one of those stations while Roselli is driving around on a day trip, will he let it be and listen to the tune for a bit?
"What, do you think I'm gonna take a little loophole there, like a lawyer?" he said. "No, it's a Beatles song, even if it's not on the Beatles channel. Yeah, I have to turn away."
He's even enough of a stickler to say their post-Beatles work as solo artists or in new bands counts, too. So no "Imagine" or "Band on the Run," either.
To fill the void, he's said he's listened to more classical music, and, to be honest, he feels fine.
"I'll tell you something: I happen to like a lot of other music. So it wasn't really as difficult as I thought it would be," Roselli said. "So I also don't get extra credits for that, because I thought I would really, like, feel it more than I do."
But what if Roselli is standing there in the middle of a store and "Come Together" comes on in the background? Would he have to get back and leave, or cover his ears until he finishes his transaction?
Roselli said this hasn't happened yet.
"Beatles is not being piped into a lot of places now," he said. "It's all this, I can't even tell you who these artists are or make out what the lyrics are saying."
But there's another wrinkle. Or, as Roselli put it, "This is a little confession."
Sometimes, when he's walking for exercise, he'll absentmindedly start singing a tune like "Yesterday."
"You have to stop yourself. You have to catch yourself," Roselli said. "'Just stop it, OK? Now sing some Dan Fogelberg or Paul Simon.'"
There have been 2 Lents in the past that I gave up Free Republic. 40 days of Lent. Now that was hard.
Must be a hard day’s night for him!
Priests have certainly changed.
“... at Xavier High School in Manhattan.”
Scalia’s alma mater. Nino would be so proud. Look, I enjoy a “Penny Lane” or an “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” as much as the next person, and I hate to be judgmental but giving up the Beatles for Lent is just about the lamest Lenten “sacrifice” I’ve ever heard of. And for a priest? Truly pathetic.
O tempora, o mores!
Without ‘a taste of honey’ ?
I thought so two. But on the plus side, he does know what Lent is.
Good. Listen to The Who
Father Roselli, darning his socks in the night when there’s nobody there....
If I was a catholic, which will never happen, but if I was, I’d give up liver and spinach.
I worked at a steel fabrication shop in the early 90s. A 60ish lady was the bookkeeper and a devout Roman Catholic; and just as devout at being a Democrat. She went to mass every morning (except for attending Saturday evening services).
My first year there, she came in one morning with what I thought was a bruise on her forehead. I didn’t say anything. After seeing it a couple of days, I pointed at the ‘bruise’ and asked if she had bumped her head. She pridefully noted that it was ashes.
I didn’t know her political stance until a summer day in 92, when she left early to drive an hour away just to watch the Clintoon campaign motorcade pass south through nearby Iowa.
The next day she gushed about being along the road and waving as the two socialists rolled by in their bus, waving back. I asked her, “I thought you were Catholic?”
She looked at me, puzzled.
I said, “They are pro-abortion”.
She didn’t say a word; just turned away and went to her office.
Maybe they should give up molesting children for Lent.
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