On the Divine Liturgy I: I will go unto the altar of God, the God who gives joy to my youth.
Before we begin, we call ourselves to attention. My headline is from the Mass of my childhood, and was the beginning of the penitential rite in thoes days, and, though the words have changed, what we do is the same. We are called to attention, and prepare ourselves, by begging the forgiveness of our sins. We place to one side for this time all the distractions and troubles and trials in order to do this timeless work. All liturgy is the work of the faithful --- that is what the very word "liturgy" means.
Knowing our weakness and faults, but knowing also the faithfulness and the mercy of God, we draw near, both because we love and because we are commanded to do so. As our bishop or our priest ascends those three steps that separate the altar from everywhere else, to reverence the altar; as we beg each other for prayers in the Confiteor and plead for the Lord's mercy; we prepare ourselves to participate in this great offering with the entire Church in all times, and outside of time in the eternal present.
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Wednesday, October 22, 2003
"A person's a person, no matter how small..."
Could there be any doubt which Dr. Suess character I'd be?
Which Dr. Seuss character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
.
Could there be any doubt which Dr. Suess character I'd be?
Which Dr. Seuss character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
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Monday, October 20, 2003
"Prayer at the appointed hours" from the Liturgy of the Hours
Specifically, from St. Augustine's letter to Proba, in today's Office of Readings.
Let us always desire the happy life from the Lord God and always pray for it. But for this very reason we turn our mind to the task of prayer at appointed hours, since that desire grows lukewarm, so to speak, from our involvement in other concerns and occupations. We remind ourselves through the words of prayer to focus our attention on the object of our desire; otherwise, the desire that began to grow lukewarm may grow chill altogether and may be totally extinguished unless it is repeatedly stirred into flame.
Therefore, when the Apostle says: Let your petitions become known before God, this should not be taken in the sense that they are in fact becoming known to God who certainly knew them even before they were made, but that they are becoming known to us before God through submission and not before men through boasting.
Since this is the case, it is not wrong or useless to pray even for a long time when there is the opportunity. I mean when it does not keep us from performing the other good and necessary actions we are obliged to do. But even in these actions, as I have said, we must always pray with that desire. To pray for a longer time is not the same as to pray by multiplying words, as some people suppose. Lengthy talk is one thing, a prayerful disposition which lasts a long time is another. For it is even written in reference to the Lord himself that he spent the night in prayer and that he prayed at great length. Was he not giving us an example by this? In time, he prays when it is appropriate, and in eternity, he hears our prayers with the Father.
The monks in Egypt are said to offer frequent prayers, but these are very short and hurled like swift javelins. Otherwise their watchful attention, a very necessary quality for anyone at prayer, could be dulled and could disappear through protracted delays. They also clearly demonstrate through this practice that a person must not quickly divert such attention if it lasts, just as one must not allow it to be blunted if it cannot last.
Excessive talking should be kept out of prayer but that does not mean that one should not spend much time in prayer so long as a fervent attitude continues to accompany his prayer. To talk at length in prayer is to perform a necessary action with an excess of words. To spend much time in prayer is to knock with a persistent and holy fervour at the door of the one whom we beseech. This task is generally accomplished more through sighs than words, more through weeping than speech. He places our tears in his sight, and our sighs are not hidden from him, for he has established all things through his Word and does not seek human words.
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Specifically, from St. Augustine's letter to Proba, in today's Office of Readings.
Let us always desire the happy life from the Lord God and always pray for it. But for this very reason we turn our mind to the task of prayer at appointed hours, since that desire grows lukewarm, so to speak, from our involvement in other concerns and occupations. We remind ourselves through the words of prayer to focus our attention on the object of our desire; otherwise, the desire that began to grow lukewarm may grow chill altogether and may be totally extinguished unless it is repeatedly stirred into flame.
Therefore, when the Apostle says: Let your petitions become known before God, this should not be taken in the sense that they are in fact becoming known to God who certainly knew them even before they were made, but that they are becoming known to us before God through submission and not before men through boasting.
Since this is the case, it is not wrong or useless to pray even for a long time when there is the opportunity. I mean when it does not keep us from performing the other good and necessary actions we are obliged to do. But even in these actions, as I have said, we must always pray with that desire. To pray for a longer time is not the same as to pray by multiplying words, as some people suppose. Lengthy talk is one thing, a prayerful disposition which lasts a long time is another. For it is even written in reference to the Lord himself that he spent the night in prayer and that he prayed at great length. Was he not giving us an example by this? In time, he prays when it is appropriate, and in eternity, he hears our prayers with the Father.
The monks in Egypt are said to offer frequent prayers, but these are very short and hurled like swift javelins. Otherwise their watchful attention, a very necessary quality for anyone at prayer, could be dulled and could disappear through protracted delays. They also clearly demonstrate through this practice that a person must not quickly divert such attention if it lasts, just as one must not allow it to be blunted if it cannot last.
Excessive talking should be kept out of prayer but that does not mean that one should not spend much time in prayer so long as a fervent attitude continues to accompany his prayer. To talk at length in prayer is to perform a necessary action with an excess of words. To spend much time in prayer is to knock with a persistent and holy fervour at the door of the one whom we beseech. This task is generally accomplished more through sighs than words, more through weeping than speech. He places our tears in his sight, and our sighs are not hidden from him, for he has established all things through his Word and does not seek human words.
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An exhortation from Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
.....Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
.....Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
.....Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
.....Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
.....Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
.....Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
.....Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
.....Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
.
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
.....Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
.....Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
.....Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
.....Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
.....Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
.....Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
.....Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
.....Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
.
Friday, October 17, 2003
"Let nothing exist among you that may divide you; but be ye united with your bishop..."
Today is the memorial of Saint Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, who followed St. Peter as bishop in that place. He left for us seven letters, which he wrote during his journey to Rome to be martyred. This is some of what he left to us:
to the Magnesians:
I exhort you to study to do all things with a divine harmony, while your bishop presides in the place of God, and your presbyters in the place of the assembly of the apostles, along with your deacons, who are most dear to me, and are entrusted with the ministry of Jesus Christ, who was with the Father before the beginning of time, and in the end was revealed. Do ye all then, imitating the same divine conduct, pay respect to one another, and let no one look upon his neighbour after the flesh, but do ye continually love each other in Jesus Christ. Let nothing exist among you that may divide you ; but be ye united with your bishop, and those that preside over you, as a type and evidence of your immortality.
As therefore the Lord did nothing without the Father, being united to Him, neither by Himself nor by the apostles, so neither do ye anything without the bishop and presbyters. Neither endeavour that anything appear reasonable and proper to yourselves apart; but being come together into the same place, let there be one prayer, one supplication, one mind, one hope, in love and in joy undefiled. There is one Jesus Christ, than whom nothing is more excellent. Do ye therefore all run together as into one temple of God, as to one altar, as to one Jesus Christ, who came forth from one Father, and is with and has gone to one.
and to the Philadelphians:
Wherefore, as children of light and truth, flee from division and wicked doctrines; but where the shepherd is, there do ye as sheep follow. For there are many wolves that appear worthy of credit, who, by means of a pernicious pleasure, carry captive those that are running towards God; but in your unity they shall have no place.
Keep yourselves from those evil plants which Jesus Christ does not tend, because they are not the planting of the Father. Not that I have found any division among you, but exceeding purity. For as many as are of God and of Jesus Christ are also with the bishop. And as many as shall, in the exercise of repentance, return into the unity of the Church, these, too, shall belong to God, that they may live according to Jesus Christ. Do not err, my brethren. If any man follows him that makes a schism in the Church, he shall not inherit the kingdom of God. If any one walks according to a strange opinion, he agrees not with the passion [of Christ.].
Take ye heed, then, to have but one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to [show forth] the unity of His blood; one altar; as there is one bishop, along with the presbytery and deacons, my fellow-servants: that so, whatsoever ye do, ye may do it according to [the will of] God.
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Today is the memorial of Saint Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, who followed St. Peter as bishop in that place. He left for us seven letters, which he wrote during his journey to Rome to be martyred. This is some of what he left to us:
to the Magnesians:
I exhort you to study to do all things with a divine harmony, while your bishop presides in the place of God, and your presbyters in the place of the assembly of the apostles, along with your deacons, who are most dear to me, and are entrusted with the ministry of Jesus Christ, who was with the Father before the beginning of time, and in the end was revealed. Do ye all then, imitating the same divine conduct, pay respect to one another, and let no one look upon his neighbour after the flesh, but do ye continually love each other in Jesus Christ. Let nothing exist among you that may divide you ; but be ye united with your bishop, and those that preside over you, as a type and evidence of your immortality.
As therefore the Lord did nothing without the Father, being united to Him, neither by Himself nor by the apostles, so neither do ye anything without the bishop and presbyters. Neither endeavour that anything appear reasonable and proper to yourselves apart; but being come together into the same place, let there be one prayer, one supplication, one mind, one hope, in love and in joy undefiled. There is one Jesus Christ, than whom nothing is more excellent. Do ye therefore all run together as into one temple of God, as to one altar, as to one Jesus Christ, who came forth from one Father, and is with and has gone to one.
and to the Philadelphians:
Wherefore, as children of light and truth, flee from division and wicked doctrines; but where the shepherd is, there do ye as sheep follow. For there are many wolves that appear worthy of credit, who, by means of a pernicious pleasure, carry captive those that are running towards God; but in your unity they shall have no place.
Keep yourselves from those evil plants which Jesus Christ does not tend, because they are not the planting of the Father. Not that I have found any division among you, but exceeding purity. For as many as are of God and of Jesus Christ are also with the bishop. And as many as shall, in the exercise of repentance, return into the unity of the Church, these, too, shall belong to God, that they may live according to Jesus Christ. Do not err, my brethren. If any man follows him that makes a schism in the Church, he shall not inherit the kingdom of God. If any one walks according to a strange opinion, he agrees not with the passion [of Christ.].
Take ye heed, then, to have but one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to [show forth] the unity of His blood; one altar; as there is one bishop, along with the presbytery and deacons, my fellow-servants: that so, whatsoever ye do, ye may do it according to [the will of] God.
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I might be disabled, but I'm Not Dead Yet
As we do whatever we can to help Teri Schindler Schiavo in her passion, we also have to call to mind that there are more victims on the roster to follow.
Shrugging shoulders and giving up is not a viable option. Care, and fight --- even if only for your own self-interest, for "disabled" is the one "minority" that absolutely anyone can join without choice or warning.
The good people of Not Dead Yet have been fighting the fight for the right to life for disabled people for many years, and continue to do so. They filed an amici brief on Teri's behalf, and are very much involved in the vigils and protests concerning Teri. Do pay their site a visit, and, of course, keep on praying for Teri --- and more, if you're able.
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As we do whatever we can to help Teri Schindler Schiavo in her passion, we also have to call to mind that there are more victims on the roster to follow.
Shrugging shoulders and giving up is not a viable option. Care, and fight --- even if only for your own self-interest, for "disabled" is the one "minority" that absolutely anyone can join without choice or warning.
The good people of Not Dead Yet have been fighting the fight for the right to life for disabled people for many years, and continue to do so. They filed an amici brief on Teri's behalf, and are very much involved in the vigils and protests concerning Teri. Do pay their site a visit, and, of course, keep on praying for Teri --- and more, if you're able.
.
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Thursday, October 16, 2003
being reminded to be grateful
On his 25th anniversary, the Holy Father has given us another little gift: the pastoral letter Pastores gregis.
I read it today, and it instills in me gratitude for being allowed to be an adopted daughter of Milwaukee, where we have been so very blessed in our shepherds for so very many decades. Also grateful for being the beneficiary of so many wise and pious, devoted and dedicated, bishops and priests in my life. So, this evening, a special little extra remembrance
"for John Paul our Pope, for Timothy our Archbishop, for Richard and Rembert, and for all the bishops....."
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On his 25th anniversary, the Holy Father has given us another little gift: the pastoral letter Pastores gregis.
I read it today, and it instills in me gratitude for being allowed to be an adopted daughter of Milwaukee, where we have been so very blessed in our shepherds for so very many decades. Also grateful for being the beneficiary of so many wise and pious, devoted and dedicated, bishops and priests in my life. So, this evening, a special little extra remembrance
"for John Paul our Pope, for Timothy our Archbishop, for Richard and Rembert, and for all the bishops....."
.
One of the Credibly Accused, and he opened not his mouth: St. Gerard Majella
I wish to love God.
I wish always to be with God,
and to do everything for the love of God.
The center of all love for God
consists in giving ourselves entirely to God
by being in all things conformable to the divine will,
and remaining in this conformity for all eternity.
St. Gerard was a tailor, born in 1727 to a family in that trade. He was still an apprentice when his father died; he became a servant in the household of a cantankerous bishop for a while, then he went back to his hometown and opened his own tailor shop.
In 1748 he entered the Redemptorist community as a lay-brother; the founder of the community, St. Alphonsus Ligouri, received his profession in 1752. Gerard served as tailor and infirmarian in the community, and became known for great holiness and charity, and for charisms of prophesy and infused knowledge; his advice and spiritual direction was sought after even though he was not a priest.
However, disaster was coming over the horizon.
In 1754, a woman whom Gerard had helped to enter the convent washed out of the convent, and to distract attention from her failure at religious life she accused Gerard of fornication and lechery, and that he had imposed himself upon the young daughter of a gentleman who regularly gave hospitality to travelling Redemptorists, believably. When confronted with the charges, Gerard made no answer at all to them, and, the charges being credible, he was placed under every penalty short of expulsion from the community: close confinement and surveillance, no contact with the outside world, exclusion from communion..... and this went on for months and months. Finally, the accuser became gravely ill, and, believing herself to be dying, she admitted she had lied about Gerard. When St. Alphonsus asked Gerard why he had remained silent before the accusations, Gerard replied that he believed that was what was required in the face of unjust accusations; after all, Jesus did not answer Pilate, and the rule of the Redemptorists said that one was not to defend oneself from the charges of one's superior.
Not long after he was cleared of the charges, he died, of TB, in 1755 at the age of 29.
An interesting link to information on St. Gerard Majella is here
And another interesting link is here.
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I wish to love God.
I wish always to be with God,
and to do everything for the love of God.
The center of all love for God
consists in giving ourselves entirely to God
by being in all things conformable to the divine will,
and remaining in this conformity for all eternity.
St. Gerard was a tailor, born in 1727 to a family in that trade. He was still an apprentice when his father died; he became a servant in the household of a cantankerous bishop for a while, then he went back to his hometown and opened his own tailor shop.
In 1748 he entered the Redemptorist community as a lay-brother; the founder of the community, St. Alphonsus Ligouri, received his profession in 1752. Gerard served as tailor and infirmarian in the community, and became known for great holiness and charity, and for charisms of prophesy and infused knowledge; his advice and spiritual direction was sought after even though he was not a priest.
However, disaster was coming over the horizon.
In 1754, a woman whom Gerard had helped to enter the convent washed out of the convent, and to distract attention from her failure at religious life she accused Gerard of fornication and lechery, and that he had imposed himself upon the young daughter of a gentleman who regularly gave hospitality to travelling Redemptorists, believably. When confronted with the charges, Gerard made no answer at all to them, and, the charges being credible, he was placed under every penalty short of expulsion from the community: close confinement and surveillance, no contact with the outside world, exclusion from communion..... and this went on for months and months. Finally, the accuser became gravely ill, and, believing herself to be dying, she admitted she had lied about Gerard. When St. Alphonsus asked Gerard why he had remained silent before the accusations, Gerard replied that he believed that was what was required in the face of unjust accusations; after all, Jesus did not answer Pilate, and the rule of the Redemptorists said that one was not to defend oneself from the charges of one's superior.
Not long after he was cleared of the charges, he died, of TB, in 1755 at the age of 29.
An interesting link to information on St. Gerard Majella is here
And another interesting link is here.
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Tuesday, October 14, 2003
How God works in the human soul: St. Teresa of Avila and her Way of Perfection
[from chapter 16]
Returning to what I was saying, there are souls whom God knows He may gain for Himself by this means; seeing that they are completely lost, His Majesty wants to leave no stone unturned to help them; and therefore, though they are in a sad way and lacking in virtues, He gives them consolations, favours and emotions which begin to move their desires, and occasionally even brings them to a state of contemplation, though rarely and not for long at a time. And this, as I say, He does because He is testing them to see if that favour will not make them anxious to prepare themselves to enjoy it often; if it does not, may they be pardoned; pardon Thou us, Lord, for it is a dreadful thing that a soul whom Thou hast brought near to Thyself should approach any earthly thing and become attached to it.
For my own part I believe there are many souls whom God our Lord tests in this way, and few who prepare themselves to enjoy this favour. When the Lord does this and we ourselves leave nothing undone either, I think it is certain that He never ceases from giving until He has brought us to a very high degree of prayer. If we do not give ourselves to His Majesty as resolutely as He gives Himself to us, He will be doing more than enough for us if He leaves us in mental prayer and from time to time visits us as He would visit servants in His vineyard. But these others are His beloved children, whom He would never want to banish from His side; and, as they have no desire to leave Him, He never does so. He seats them at His table, and feeds them with His own food, almost taking the food from His mouth in order to give it them.
Oh, what blessed care of us is this, my daughters! How happy shall we be if by leaving these few, petty things we can arrive at so high an estate! Even if the whole world should blame you, and deafen you with its cries, what matter so long as you are in the arms of God? He is powerful enough to free you from everything; for only once did He command the world to be made and it was done; with Him, to will is to do. Do not be afraid, then, if He is pleased to speak with you, for He does this for the greater good of those who love Him. His love for those to whom He is dear is by no means so weak: He shows it in every way possible. Why, then, my sisters, do we not show Him love in so far as we can? Consider what a wonderful exchange it is if we give Him our love and receive His. Consider that He can do all things, and we can do nothing here below save as He enables us. And what is it that we do for Thee, O Lord, our Maker? We do hardly anything --- just make some poor weak resolution. And, if His Majesty is pleased that by doing a mere nothing we should win everything, let us not be so foolish as to fail to do it.
O Lord! All our trouble comes to us from not having our eyes fixed upon Thee. If we only looked at the way along which we are walking, we should soon arrive; but we stumble and fall a thousand times and stray from the way because, as I say, we do not set our eyes on the true Way. One would think that no one had ever trodden it before, so new is it to us. It is indeed a pity that this should sometimes happen. I mean, it hardly seems that we are Christians at all or that we have ever in our lives read about the Passion. Lord help us --- that we should be hurt about some small point of honour! And then, when someone tells us not to worry about it, we think he is no Christian. I used to laugh --- or sometimes I used to be distressed --- at the things I heard in the world, and sometimes, for my sins, in religious Orders. We refuse to be thwarted over the very smallest matter of precedence: apparently such a thing is quite intolerable. We cry out at once: "Well, I'm no saint"; I used to say that myself.
God deliver us, sisters, from saying "We are not angels", or "We are not saints", whenever we commit some imperfection. We may not be; but what a good thing it is for us to reflect that we can be if we will only try and if God gives us His hand! Do not be afraid that He will fail to do His part if we do not fail to do ours. And since we come here for no other reason, let us put our hands to the plough, as they say. Let there be nothing we know of which it would be a service to the Lord for us to do, and which, with His help, we would not venture to take in hand. I should like that kind of venturesomeness to be found in this house, as it always increases humility. We must have a holy boldness, for God helps the strong, being no respecter of persons; and He will give courage to you and to me.
.
[from chapter 16]
Returning to what I was saying, there are souls whom God knows He may gain for Himself by this means; seeing that they are completely lost, His Majesty wants to leave no stone unturned to help them; and therefore, though they are in a sad way and lacking in virtues, He gives them consolations, favours and emotions which begin to move their desires, and occasionally even brings them to a state of contemplation, though rarely and not for long at a time. And this, as I say, He does because He is testing them to see if that favour will not make them anxious to prepare themselves to enjoy it often; if it does not, may they be pardoned; pardon Thou us, Lord, for it is a dreadful thing that a soul whom Thou hast brought near to Thyself should approach any earthly thing and become attached to it.
For my own part I believe there are many souls whom God our Lord tests in this way, and few who prepare themselves to enjoy this favour. When the Lord does this and we ourselves leave nothing undone either, I think it is certain that He never ceases from giving until He has brought us to a very high degree of prayer. If we do not give ourselves to His Majesty as resolutely as He gives Himself to us, He will be doing more than enough for us if He leaves us in mental prayer and from time to time visits us as He would visit servants in His vineyard. But these others are His beloved children, whom He would never want to banish from His side; and, as they have no desire to leave Him, He never does so. He seats them at His table, and feeds them with His own food, almost taking the food from His mouth in order to give it them.
Oh, what blessed care of us is this, my daughters! How happy shall we be if by leaving these few, petty things we can arrive at so high an estate! Even if the whole world should blame you, and deafen you with its cries, what matter so long as you are in the arms of God? He is powerful enough to free you from everything; for only once did He command the world to be made and it was done; with Him, to will is to do. Do not be afraid, then, if He is pleased to speak with you, for He does this for the greater good of those who love Him. His love for those to whom He is dear is by no means so weak: He shows it in every way possible. Why, then, my sisters, do we not show Him love in so far as we can? Consider what a wonderful exchange it is if we give Him our love and receive His. Consider that He can do all things, and we can do nothing here below save as He enables us. And what is it that we do for Thee, O Lord, our Maker? We do hardly anything --- just make some poor weak resolution. And, if His Majesty is pleased that by doing a mere nothing we should win everything, let us not be so foolish as to fail to do it.
O Lord! All our trouble comes to us from not having our eyes fixed upon Thee. If we only looked at the way along which we are walking, we should soon arrive; but we stumble and fall a thousand times and stray from the way because, as I say, we do not set our eyes on the true Way. One would think that no one had ever trodden it before, so new is it to us. It is indeed a pity that this should sometimes happen. I mean, it hardly seems that we are Christians at all or that we have ever in our lives read about the Passion. Lord help us --- that we should be hurt about some small point of honour! And then, when someone tells us not to worry about it, we think he is no Christian. I used to laugh --- or sometimes I used to be distressed --- at the things I heard in the world, and sometimes, for my sins, in religious Orders. We refuse to be thwarted over the very smallest matter of precedence: apparently such a thing is quite intolerable. We cry out at once: "Well, I'm no saint"; I used to say that myself.
God deliver us, sisters, from saying "We are not angels", or "We are not saints", whenever we commit some imperfection. We may not be; but what a good thing it is for us to reflect that we can be if we will only try and if God gives us His hand! Do not be afraid that He will fail to do His part if we do not fail to do ours. And since we come here for no other reason, let us put our hands to the plough, as they say. Let there be nothing we know of which it would be a service to the Lord for us to do, and which, with His help, we would not venture to take in hand. I should like that kind of venturesomeness to be found in this house, as it always increases humility. We must have a holy boldness, for God helps the strong, being no respecter of persons; and He will give courage to you and to me.
.
Monday, October 13, 2003
from the CINJustAnn listserv this morning [via ZENIT]:
On Evangelical Poverty, interviewing Father Thomas Dubay
Q:
Since Gospel poverty is so deeply countercultural, especially in the First World, how do we open people's minds even to give it a fair hearing?
Father Dubay:
There are several problems here. One is that most people do not know what Gospel poverty means. For example, it does not mean we promote destitution. On the contrary, the Lord in the radical things he says is trying to rub out destitution --- which is why we are to share with the needy.
Another problem is that we seldom hear from the pulpit anything near to a full picture of the sparing and sharing lifestyle that is so beautiful. Christic frugality is love-filled. It is not a Spartan or Buddhist ideal.
A third problem lies in free will. Unfortunately, there are people who so cling to their pleasures and luxuries that they have decided that anything that interferes with their lifestyles is going to get little to no attention.
Q:
What, then, are Jesus, his apostles and the Church promoting?
Father Dubay:
It took me the entire book, "Happy Are You Poor," to answer this question with some adequacy. That is why it is written. The full answer is beautiful. However, let me give one simple answer, though there are many others.
It is easy for you and me to say, "Of course I love my neighbor as myself," and then turn around and treat myself far better than I treat the family next door or the pitiful slum dwellers in Haiti or Calcutta.
Consider fiery John the Baptist preparing the way for the Lord and making plain the facts of sincere repentance: "Brood of vipers ... the ax is laid to the root of the trees ... and thrown into the fire."
Understandably, the people are shaken up and ask what they should do to show conversion. His answer is plain: "If anyone has two tunics, he must share with the man who has none, and the one with something to eat must do the same." That is real love and sound logic, and any honest person should be able to see it. To live it requires radical conversion.
Q:
How can we open people's minds to what love is all about? How do we sound the wake-up call?
Father Dubay:
Feodor Dostoyevsky, perhaps the best novelist in the 19th century, wrote brilliantly about the question of God and atheism. In one spot, he put on the lips of a character the fact that if a person does not worship the real God, he will bend his knees before things created and finite. There are, he added, no atheists --- they are really idolaters.
That, of course, is true. Everyone has one or more consuming concerns. It's either the real God or money, power, pleasures, lust, pride in its various forms and so on. One or more of these latter becomes idols, as the man who rejects the only God centers his thoughts, desires, aspirations, worries and concerns on his idol. They are gods to him.
Anyone who has embraced the Trinity has little trouble understanding Gospel frugality --- the whats, whys and hows of it are explained.
Q:
Pope John Paul II has warned about mistaken ideas of freedom. How is Gospel poverty related to true freedom?
Father Dubay:
Freedom and love are probably the least understood of common words in our contemporary world. Most people assume with little thought that greater freedom implies fewer laws and restrictions. There is a kernel of truth in this idea, but it is a secondary and consequential kernel.
Freedom is most basically a power to do and to be. For example, you are free to play the violin or do bypass surgery only to the extent that you have the requisite knowledge and skills. The same is true of being free to teach a class in physics or philosophy or theology. If you have these basic powers and goods, then you should not be unduly
restricted from exercising them.
Jesus made this point clearly when he said that if we have his Word, its truth will make us free. This is why the saints, the men and women who live his message with heroic perfection, are the most free and fulfilled people on the planet. They rejoice with the Lord always, as St. Paul in Philippians 4:4 admonishes all of us.
Q:
How, then, would you relate this fundamental reality to evangelical poverty?
Father Dubay:
All the benefits I discuss in my book empower a person to become a beautiful, loving, real person. What I said about idol worship earlier is much to this point.
Avarice enslaves a man in a multitude of ways easy to imagine. Vanity about possessions is much like vanity about accomplishments and bodily beauty --- one is held in bondage to the minds of other people.
When one is freed of selfish clinging to material goods, one is then free to love neighbor in fact as well as in mere words.
Q:
What is detachment, and how is it related to freedom?
Father Dubay:
It may be easier to see the point by explaining what attachment is in the pejorative sense. A handy and accurate definition is: a clinging or desiring of the will to do something created for its own sake.
There are three elements here: It is a willed desire, not a mere feeling; it concerns something finite, not God; "for its own sake" makes a mere means into an end, that is, something of an idol.
St. Paul puts the matter positively in 1 Corinthians 10:31: "Whether you eat or drink or do anything else, do all for the glory of God." All created goodness and beauty is meant to bring others and us to the unspeakable enthrallment of the beatific vision in risen body. To willingly cling to anything merely created for its own sake reminds me of Dostoyevsky's analysis: It is either idolatry or it tends in that direction.
Q:
How do the ideas of stewardship versus total "rights" over material goods fit into this picture?
Father Dubay:
Stewardship, detachment and a loving, sparing and sharing lifestyle make a beautiful whole. Total rights over material goods sounds like human beings assuming a divine status.
Q:
What suggestions do you have for the layperson who truly wants to live the spirit of Gospel poverty, but who must meet the day-to-day demands of raising a family and paying bills?
Father Dubay:
In my book, I address this topic in Chapter 12, "Frugality in Marriage."
I have been joyously surprised to hear from sizable groups of laity in different parts of the United States who spontaneously have decided to study this book and then meet regularly to discuss how its Gospel message is to be applied specially to their state in life. That is an excellent answer to the present question.
Then, too, knowing the married saints and seeing how they responded to this question can be an immense enlightenment and encouragement.
Q:
How should the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and their aftermath open us to re-evaluate what is most important in life and to discover our wealth of potential to love?
Father Dubay:
This is a matter of deep conversion not only from mortal sin but also in giving up venial sins and going on to heroic
virtues - - to which the Gospel repeatedly calls everyone. And that, in turn, demands a deepening of prayer life, meditation leading to contemplative intimacy with the Trinity. Yes, all the way to the transforming union.
As Han Urs von Balthasar put it, "Truth is symphonic." It all fits together.
.
On Evangelical Poverty, interviewing Father Thomas Dubay
Q:
Since Gospel poverty is so deeply countercultural, especially in the First World, how do we open people's minds even to give it a fair hearing?
Father Dubay:
There are several problems here. One is that most people do not know what Gospel poverty means. For example, it does not mean we promote destitution. On the contrary, the Lord in the radical things he says is trying to rub out destitution --- which is why we are to share with the needy.
Another problem is that we seldom hear from the pulpit anything near to a full picture of the sparing and sharing lifestyle that is so beautiful. Christic frugality is love-filled. It is not a Spartan or Buddhist ideal.
A third problem lies in free will. Unfortunately, there are people who so cling to their pleasures and luxuries that they have decided that anything that interferes with their lifestyles is going to get little to no attention.
Q:
What, then, are Jesus, his apostles and the Church promoting?
Father Dubay:
It took me the entire book, "Happy Are You Poor," to answer this question with some adequacy. That is why it is written. The full answer is beautiful. However, let me give one simple answer, though there are many others.
It is easy for you and me to say, "Of course I love my neighbor as myself," and then turn around and treat myself far better than I treat the family next door or the pitiful slum dwellers in Haiti or Calcutta.
Consider fiery John the Baptist preparing the way for the Lord and making plain the facts of sincere repentance: "Brood of vipers ... the ax is laid to the root of the trees ... and thrown into the fire."
Understandably, the people are shaken up and ask what they should do to show conversion. His answer is plain: "If anyone has two tunics, he must share with the man who has none, and the one with something to eat must do the same." That is real love and sound logic, and any honest person should be able to see it. To live it requires radical conversion.
Q:
How can we open people's minds to what love is all about? How do we sound the wake-up call?
Father Dubay:
Feodor Dostoyevsky, perhaps the best novelist in the 19th century, wrote brilliantly about the question of God and atheism. In one spot, he put on the lips of a character the fact that if a person does not worship the real God, he will bend his knees before things created and finite. There are, he added, no atheists --- they are really idolaters.
That, of course, is true. Everyone has one or more consuming concerns. It's either the real God or money, power, pleasures, lust, pride in its various forms and so on. One or more of these latter becomes idols, as the man who rejects the only God centers his thoughts, desires, aspirations, worries and concerns on his idol. They are gods to him.
Anyone who has embraced the Trinity has little trouble understanding Gospel frugality --- the whats, whys and hows of it are explained.
Q:
Pope John Paul II has warned about mistaken ideas of freedom. How is Gospel poverty related to true freedom?
Father Dubay:
Freedom and love are probably the least understood of common words in our contemporary world. Most people assume with little thought that greater freedom implies fewer laws and restrictions. There is a kernel of truth in this idea, but it is a secondary and consequential kernel.
Freedom is most basically a power to do and to be. For example, you are free to play the violin or do bypass surgery only to the extent that you have the requisite knowledge and skills. The same is true of being free to teach a class in physics or philosophy or theology. If you have these basic powers and goods, then you should not be unduly
restricted from exercising them.
Jesus made this point clearly when he said that if we have his Word, its truth will make us free. This is why the saints, the men and women who live his message with heroic perfection, are the most free and fulfilled people on the planet. They rejoice with the Lord always, as St. Paul in Philippians 4:4 admonishes all of us.
Q:
How, then, would you relate this fundamental reality to evangelical poverty?
Father Dubay:
All the benefits I discuss in my book empower a person to become a beautiful, loving, real person. What I said about idol worship earlier is much to this point.
Avarice enslaves a man in a multitude of ways easy to imagine. Vanity about possessions is much like vanity about accomplishments and bodily beauty --- one is held in bondage to the minds of other people.
When one is freed of selfish clinging to material goods, one is then free to love neighbor in fact as well as in mere words.
Q:
What is detachment, and how is it related to freedom?
Father Dubay:
It may be easier to see the point by explaining what attachment is in the pejorative sense. A handy and accurate definition is: a clinging or desiring of the will to do something created for its own sake.
There are three elements here: It is a willed desire, not a mere feeling; it concerns something finite, not God; "for its own sake" makes a mere means into an end, that is, something of an idol.
St. Paul puts the matter positively in 1 Corinthians 10:31: "Whether you eat or drink or do anything else, do all for the glory of God." All created goodness and beauty is meant to bring others and us to the unspeakable enthrallment of the beatific vision in risen body. To willingly cling to anything merely created for its own sake reminds me of Dostoyevsky's analysis: It is either idolatry or it tends in that direction.
Q:
How do the ideas of stewardship versus total "rights" over material goods fit into this picture?
Father Dubay:
Stewardship, detachment and a loving, sparing and sharing lifestyle make a beautiful whole. Total rights over material goods sounds like human beings assuming a divine status.
Q:
What suggestions do you have for the layperson who truly wants to live the spirit of Gospel poverty, but who must meet the day-to-day demands of raising a family and paying bills?
Father Dubay:
In my book, I address this topic in Chapter 12, "Frugality in Marriage."
I have been joyously surprised to hear from sizable groups of laity in different parts of the United States who spontaneously have decided to study this book and then meet regularly to discuss how its Gospel message is to be applied specially to their state in life. That is an excellent answer to the present question.
Then, too, knowing the married saints and seeing how they responded to this question can be an immense enlightenment and encouragement.
Q:
How should the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and their aftermath open us to re-evaluate what is most important in life and to discover our wealth of potential to love?
Father Dubay:
This is a matter of deep conversion not only from mortal sin but also in giving up venial sins and going on to heroic
virtues - - to which the Gospel repeatedly calls everyone. And that, in turn, demands a deepening of prayer life, meditation leading to contemplative intimacy with the Trinity. Yes, all the way to the transforming union.
As Han Urs von Balthasar put it, "Truth is symphonic." It all fits together.
.
Sunday, October 12, 2003
"Sell all you have, give it to the poor, and come, follow Me"
from Ven. John Henry Newman's Parochial and Plain Sermons:
All through our life Christ is calling us. He called us first in baptism, but afterwards also; whether we obey his voice or not, he graciously calls us still. If we fall from our baptism, he calls us to repent; if we are striving to fulfil our calling, he calls us on from grace to grace, and from holiness to holiness, while life is given us. Abraham was called from his home, Peter from his nets, Matthew from his office, Elisha from his farm, Nathanael from his retreat; we are all in course of calling, on and on, from one thing to another, having no resting place, but mounting towards our eternal rest, and obeying one command only to have another put upon us. He calls us again and again, in order to justify us again and again --- and again and again, and more and more, to sanctify and glorify us.
It were well if we understood this; but we are slow to master the great truth, that Christ is, as it were, walking among us, and by his hand, or eye, or voice, bidding us follow him. We do not understand that his call is a thing which takes place now. We think it took place in the Apostles' day; but we do not believe in it, we do not look out for it in our own case. We have not eyes to see the Lord; far different from the beloved Apostle, who knew Christ even when the rest of the disciples knew him not. When he stood on the shore after his resurrection, and bade them cast the net into the sea, that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, It is the Lord.
Now what I mean is this: that they who are living religiously, have from time to time truths they did not know before, or had no need to consider, brought before them forcibly; truths which involve duties, which are in fact precepts, and claim obedience. In this and such-like ways Christ calls us now. There is nothing miraculous or extraordinary in his dealings with us. He works through our natural faculties and circumstances of life. Still what happens to us in providence is in all essential respects what his voice was to those whom he addressed when on earth: whether he commands by a visible presence, or by a voice, or by our consciences, it matters not, so that we feel it to be a command. If it is a command, it may be obeyed or disobeyed; it may be accepted as Samuel or St. Paul accepted it, or put aside after the manner of the young man who had great possessions.
We need not fear spiritual pride in following Christ's call, if we follow it as people in earnest. Earnestness has no time to compare itself with the state of others; earnestness is simply set on doing God's will. It simply says, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth; Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Oh that we had more of this spirit! Oh that we could take that simple view of things, as to feel that the one thing which lies before us is to please God!
Let us beg and pray Him day by day to reveal Himself to our souls more fully; to quicken our senses; to give us sight and hearing, taste and touch of the world to come; so to work within us that we may sincerely say, Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and after that receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of Thee: my flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
.
from Ven. John Henry Newman's Parochial and Plain Sermons:
All through our life Christ is calling us. He called us first in baptism, but afterwards also; whether we obey his voice or not, he graciously calls us still. If we fall from our baptism, he calls us to repent; if we are striving to fulfil our calling, he calls us on from grace to grace, and from holiness to holiness, while life is given us. Abraham was called from his home, Peter from his nets, Matthew from his office, Elisha from his farm, Nathanael from his retreat; we are all in course of calling, on and on, from one thing to another, having no resting place, but mounting towards our eternal rest, and obeying one command only to have another put upon us. He calls us again and again, in order to justify us again and again --- and again and again, and more and more, to sanctify and glorify us.
It were well if we understood this; but we are slow to master the great truth, that Christ is, as it were, walking among us, and by his hand, or eye, or voice, bidding us follow him. We do not understand that his call is a thing which takes place now. We think it took place in the Apostles' day; but we do not believe in it, we do not look out for it in our own case. We have not eyes to see the Lord; far different from the beloved Apostle, who knew Christ even when the rest of the disciples knew him not. When he stood on the shore after his resurrection, and bade them cast the net into the sea, that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, It is the Lord.
Now what I mean is this: that they who are living religiously, have from time to time truths they did not know before, or had no need to consider, brought before them forcibly; truths which involve duties, which are in fact precepts, and claim obedience. In this and such-like ways Christ calls us now. There is nothing miraculous or extraordinary in his dealings with us. He works through our natural faculties and circumstances of life. Still what happens to us in providence is in all essential respects what his voice was to those whom he addressed when on earth: whether he commands by a visible presence, or by a voice, or by our consciences, it matters not, so that we feel it to be a command. If it is a command, it may be obeyed or disobeyed; it may be accepted as Samuel or St. Paul accepted it, or put aside after the manner of the young man who had great possessions.
We need not fear spiritual pride in following Christ's call, if we follow it as people in earnest. Earnestness has no time to compare itself with the state of others; earnestness is simply set on doing God's will. It simply says, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth; Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Oh that we had more of this spirit! Oh that we could take that simple view of things, as to feel that the one thing which lies before us is to please God!
Let us beg and pray Him day by day to reveal Himself to our souls more fully; to quicken our senses; to give us sight and hearing, taste and touch of the world to come; so to work within us that we may sincerely say, Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and after that receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of Thee: my flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
.
Saturday, October 11, 2003
Joao Bosco Burnier, SJ +12 October 1976
Joao Bosco Burnier was a Brazilian Jesuit of very well-to-do family, who, after long service --- faithful, diligent, obedient, but not very successful --- as a glorified file clerk in Rome, and then as vice-provincial and master of novices during the implementation of the Ecumenical Council, was assigned in the late 1960's as a pastor in Mato Grosso state, first in Cuiaba and later even deeper into the Brazilian wilderness at Diamantino, where he lived and worked as a very conventional missionary priest.
In the first week of October 1976, Father Joao attended a pastoral meeting at Santa Terezinha; he'd treated himself to an airplane ride to get there, but he would do the return trip by outrigger canoe and bus, accompanying his bishop on an episcopal visitation of the circuit.
On the afternoon of the eleventh, the bishop and Father Joao arrived in the settlement of Ribeirao Bonito. Father Joao spent his afternoon praying and pondering in the parish's little garden, then he, the bishop, and the local pastoral staff, gathered with the faithful at the river to gather the water needed for the next day's baptisms, take it to the church, and bless it. Towards the end of the service, someone came in panic with a report of two local women being tortured in the local jail, and could the bishop come and try to stop it. The bishop agreed, but did not allow any of the local pastoral staff to accompany him, for fear of reprisals after he left them. But he did allow Father Joao to go with him to the jail, since Father would leave when he did and not be an ongoing target.
At this point, I'll let Robert McAfee Brown tell the story, in Legenda Aurea style ["The Wondrous Mystery of the Efficacious Death of Father Joao", The Other Side, October 1986]:
And when, after a father resisted the taking captive of his two beloved sons by a most barbarous officer, killing the officer in self-defense, behold, the police took his sister and his daughter-in-law captive and beat them, inflicting all manner of cruel tortures upon them. And when their cries became ever louder and their pleadings more inportunate, a youth in the village, hearing their distress, went forthwith to the bishop, entreating him to intercede on their behalf. And straightway did the bishop go to the police station, taking with him the blessed Joao, a member of the Society of Jesus who pled to accompany his excellency on an errand of such justice and mercy.
So brutal were the police, who, without ceasing, were continuing to inflict cruel assaults on the women, that when Father Joao stated his intention to report the matter to the regional authorities, a soldier who was present smote him a blow on the face and shot him through the head straightway.
Father Joao made his peace with God and prepared to die. He assured those who sought in vain to assauge his wounds that he offered up his life and death for the people who had been wronged in that region and repeated several times, in recollection of his beloved Savior on the Cross, the words, Consummatum est, "it is accomplished." After three hours, he lost consciousness. The next day, he died.
Father Joao's body was taken to Diamantino, where he was buried in the village cemetery, among the people whom he loved and who loved him. But, that's not quite the end of the story. For the people of Ribeirao Bonito were extremely disturbed; if one of them had been pistolwhipped and shot, that was just the way life is, but to attack a priest of God, that was just too much to endure! So, returning to "The Wondrous Mystery....":
And the people, who until now had been fearful to speak their indignation at acts of perfidy against their kind, did now wax wondrously indignant at the death of Father Joao and were not accepting of it. And behold, at the seventh-day Mass to honor the memory of the slain priest, their indignation overflowed, and, lamenting the evil that had been their lot, they marched in great solidarity to the site of his murder and of the torture of the two women, and there they planted a cross as a memorial. Then some, no longer willing to accept their lot, shouted out their wrath. "This is not a place where justice has been done," some said. "This is not a place where justice can be done." And together they acted out their wrath, destroying with their hands and fists and shovels and axes the police station, after which they broke down the walls of the jail and freed the prisoners, responding to the mandate of the Lord to liberate the captives.
And when there was no longer stone upon stone in that place, only the cross remained --- a cross of suffering, of judgment, of triumph. [....]
And the governors of the realm did hear of these actions and the actions of divers others elsewhere. And it came to pass that they enacted laws that forbade torture. And thus it was that Father Joao's death was efficacious for the ongoing life of many others and remains so to this day.
Joao Bosco Burnier, priest, holy defender of the innocent, pray for us.
.
.
Joao Bosco Burnier was a Brazilian Jesuit of very well-to-do family, who, after long service --- faithful, diligent, obedient, but not very successful --- as a glorified file clerk in Rome, and then as vice-provincial and master of novices during the implementation of the Ecumenical Council, was assigned in the late 1960's as a pastor in Mato Grosso state, first in Cuiaba and later even deeper into the Brazilian wilderness at Diamantino, where he lived and worked as a very conventional missionary priest.
In the first week of October 1976, Father Joao attended a pastoral meeting at Santa Terezinha; he'd treated himself to an airplane ride to get there, but he would do the return trip by outrigger canoe and bus, accompanying his bishop on an episcopal visitation of the circuit.
On the afternoon of the eleventh, the bishop and Father Joao arrived in the settlement of Ribeirao Bonito. Father Joao spent his afternoon praying and pondering in the parish's little garden, then he, the bishop, and the local pastoral staff, gathered with the faithful at the river to gather the water needed for the next day's baptisms, take it to the church, and bless it. Towards the end of the service, someone came in panic with a report of two local women being tortured in the local jail, and could the bishop come and try to stop it. The bishop agreed, but did not allow any of the local pastoral staff to accompany him, for fear of reprisals after he left them. But he did allow Father Joao to go with him to the jail, since Father would leave when he did and not be an ongoing target.
At this point, I'll let Robert McAfee Brown tell the story, in Legenda Aurea style ["The Wondrous Mystery of the Efficacious Death of Father Joao", The Other Side, October 1986]:
And when, after a father resisted the taking captive of his two beloved sons by a most barbarous officer, killing the officer in self-defense, behold, the police took his sister and his daughter-in-law captive and beat them, inflicting all manner of cruel tortures upon them. And when their cries became ever louder and their pleadings more inportunate, a youth in the village, hearing their distress, went forthwith to the bishop, entreating him to intercede on their behalf. And straightway did the bishop go to the police station, taking with him the blessed Joao, a member of the Society of Jesus who pled to accompany his excellency on an errand of such justice and mercy.
So brutal were the police, who, without ceasing, were continuing to inflict cruel assaults on the women, that when Father Joao stated his intention to report the matter to the regional authorities, a soldier who was present smote him a blow on the face and shot him through the head straightway.
Father Joao made his peace with God and prepared to die. He assured those who sought in vain to assauge his wounds that he offered up his life and death for the people who had been wronged in that region and repeated several times, in recollection of his beloved Savior on the Cross, the words, Consummatum est, "it is accomplished." After three hours, he lost consciousness. The next day, he died.
Father Joao's body was taken to Diamantino, where he was buried in the village cemetery, among the people whom he loved and who loved him. But, that's not quite the end of the story. For the people of Ribeirao Bonito were extremely disturbed; if one of them had been pistolwhipped and shot, that was just the way life is, but to attack a priest of God, that was just too much to endure! So, returning to "The Wondrous Mystery....":
And the people, who until now had been fearful to speak their indignation at acts of perfidy against their kind, did now wax wondrously indignant at the death of Father Joao and were not accepting of it. And behold, at the seventh-day Mass to honor the memory of the slain priest, their indignation overflowed, and, lamenting the evil that had been their lot, they marched in great solidarity to the site of his murder and of the torture of the two women, and there they planted a cross as a memorial. Then some, no longer willing to accept their lot, shouted out their wrath. "This is not a place where justice has been done," some said. "This is not a place where justice can be done." And together they acted out their wrath, destroying with their hands and fists and shovels and axes the police station, after which they broke down the walls of the jail and freed the prisoners, responding to the mandate of the Lord to liberate the captives.
And when there was no longer stone upon stone in that place, only the cross remained --- a cross of suffering, of judgment, of triumph. [....]
And the governors of the realm did hear of these actions and the actions of divers others elsewhere. And it came to pass that they enacted laws that forbade torture. And thus it was that Father Joao's death was efficacious for the ongoing life of many others and remains so to this day.
Joao Bosco Burnier, priest, holy defender of the innocent, pray for us.
.
.
Wisdom from Bl. John XXIII's journal, on his memorial day
From the saints I must take the substance, not the accidents of their virtues. I am not St. Aloysius, nor must I seek holiness in his particular way, but according to the requirements of my own nature, my own character and the different conditions of my life. I must not be the dry, bloodless reproduction of a model, however perfect.
God desires us to follow the examples of the saints by absorbing the vital sap of their virtues and turning it into our own life-blood, adapting it to our own individual capacities and particular circumstances. If St. Aloysius had been as I am, he would have become holy in a different way.
.
From the saints I must take the substance, not the accidents of their virtues. I am not St. Aloysius, nor must I seek holiness in his particular way, but according to the requirements of my own nature, my own character and the different conditions of my life. I must not be the dry, bloodless reproduction of a model, however perfect.
God desires us to follow the examples of the saints by absorbing the vital sap of their virtues and turning it into our own life-blood, adapting it to our own individual capacities and particular circumstances. If St. Aloysius had been as I am, he would have become holy in a different way.
.
Friday, October 10, 2003
Ancestry is not destiny: St. Francis Borgia
If ancestry was destiny, we'd never have today's saint, since he suffered from extremely unfortunate ancestors. Francis was the illegitimate great-grandson of Pope Alexander of unfortunate memory. For all of Pope Alexander's many faults, he did not abandon his children, but acknowledged them and assured that they were securely placed in life, so he gave to Francis' grandfather his son the Duchy of Gandia.
So Francis grew up as a Spanish nobleman and heir. He loved learning, and received a quite creditable education, which he put to good use as a royal courtier. Eventually, he inherited the title from his father, and lived as a ordinarily upright and conventionally pious duke. He was successful in court politics, married a lady of the court, and had eight children. As Duke, he founded a university and several colleges, and imported Jesuits and Dominicans to run them.
Due to a series of personal reverses, including the death of his wife, he experienced a conversion, and became much more serious about his spiritual life, not that he was at all impious before. After concluding all of his outstanding political affairs, and seeing to the future provision of his children, he yielded his noble title to his heir and entered the Society of Jesus, where, besides growing in holiness, he eventually became the third General of the Society. Instrumental in regulating the internal functioning of the Society, he is often called the second founder of the society.
So, ancestry and genetics are not all there is; they are very minor next to the graces and mercies of God.
.
If ancestry was destiny, we'd never have today's saint, since he suffered from extremely unfortunate ancestors. Francis was the illegitimate great-grandson of Pope Alexander of unfortunate memory. For all of Pope Alexander's many faults, he did not abandon his children, but acknowledged them and assured that they were securely placed in life, so he gave to Francis' grandfather his son the Duchy of Gandia.
So Francis grew up as a Spanish nobleman and heir. He loved learning, and received a quite creditable education, which he put to good use as a royal courtier. Eventually, he inherited the title from his father, and lived as a ordinarily upright and conventionally pious duke. He was successful in court politics, married a lady of the court, and had eight children. As Duke, he founded a university and several colleges, and imported Jesuits and Dominicans to run them.
Due to a series of personal reverses, including the death of his wife, he experienced a conversion, and became much more serious about his spiritual life, not that he was at all impious before. After concluding all of his outstanding political affairs, and seeing to the future provision of his children, he yielded his noble title to his heir and entered the Society of Jesus, where, besides growing in holiness, he eventually became the third General of the Society. Instrumental in regulating the internal functioning of the Society, he is often called the second founder of the society.
So, ancestry and genetics are not all there is; they are very minor next to the graces and mercies of God.
.
Thursday, October 09, 2003
Queries for a Bloggers' Examen II: the Catechism of the Catholic Church on Blogging
In church-bureaucrat-speak, blogs are called "a medium of social communication", and paragraphs 2493-2499 are about us. So, from reading then, what questions do rise up?
2493 is definitions.
2394: Do I consider the common good when I post and publish, or only my own ego-shine? Do I tell the truth? Have I ever omitted or manipulated some of the facts to make them say what I wanted them to say? Do I keep in mind that the people I blog about have rights and human dignity?
2495: Do I truly seek to know and respect others? Do I respectfully challenge ideas, or do I attack people? Do I shout down without a hearing those whose ideas differ from my own?
2496: Do I neglect my duties in real life in order to read sites? Do I keep in mind that not everything I read in the blogosphere may be factual, and that all that may be factual may not be true? Do I discipline myself to avoid those sites that are, for whatever reason, near occasions of sin for me?
2497: Have I ever lied in my blog? Do I acknowledge and respect the distinction between reporting facts and judging individuals? Have I ever defamed anybody by my blogs? If so, have I made amends, insofar as possible?
2498, which is mostly about civil authorities: Have I ever used my blog, or anywhere else on the Net, for illegal activity (e.g., libel, slander, warez, inciting civil disorder)? Or for unethical or immoral activities, even if legal (e.g., porn, spam)?
2499, about totalitarian regimes: Am I thankful for my freedom to write and publish? Do I respect this freedom, and rightly use it, never abusing it?
.
In church-bureaucrat-speak, blogs are called "a medium of social communication", and paragraphs 2493-2499 are about us. So, from reading then, what questions do rise up?
2493 is definitions.
2394: Do I consider the common good when I post and publish, or only my own ego-shine? Do I tell the truth? Have I ever omitted or manipulated some of the facts to make them say what I wanted them to say? Do I keep in mind that the people I blog about have rights and human dignity?
2495: Do I truly seek to know and respect others? Do I respectfully challenge ideas, or do I attack people? Do I shout down without a hearing those whose ideas differ from my own?
2496: Do I neglect my duties in real life in order to read sites? Do I keep in mind that not everything I read in the blogosphere may be factual, and that all that may be factual may not be true? Do I discipline myself to avoid those sites that are, for whatever reason, near occasions of sin for me?
2497: Have I ever lied in my blog? Do I acknowledge and respect the distinction between reporting facts and judging individuals? Have I ever defamed anybody by my blogs? If so, have I made amends, insofar as possible?
2498, which is mostly about civil authorities: Have I ever used my blog, or anywhere else on the Net, for illegal activity (e.g., libel, slander, warez, inciting civil disorder)? Or for unethical or immoral activities, even if legal (e.g., porn, spam)?
2499, about totalitarian regimes: Am I thankful for my freedom to write and publish? Do I respect this freedom, and rightly use it, never abusing it?
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Wednesday, October 08, 2003
Do I take after Jonah? a query for a blogger's examen
In the past few days, Mother Church has presented Jonah for our edification. And, along with the study I've been up to to form a set of queries for blogs, it suggests one:
Do I fear changes, lest I lose my excuses to despise and the "safe" targets for my hate? Do I look with dismay on God because of His universal love and pity?
When Jonah was sent to preach to the people of Nineveh, he fled. But he did not flee because he was afraid of God; if he was afraid of God, he'd be going to Nineveh at double speed lest God zap him. He did not flee because he feared martyrdom at the hands of those foul Ninevites; he knew that the power of God and his status as stranger and guest in Nineveh would protect him.
He fled because he feared that the Ninevites, whom he despised, would repent at his words. He wanted Nineveh destroyed. And he knew God. He knew that if the Ninevites repented, that God would relent, and (oh, the very thought!) refuse to destroy them.
Even after all of Jonah's tribulations, after he preached to Nineveh, and they repent, and the Lord relents, this is how he prays, in his deep blue funk:
Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry that God did not carry out the evil he threatened against Nineveh. He prayed, "I beseech you, LORD, is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I fled at first to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, rich in clemency, loathe to punish. And now, LORD, please take my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live."
Do I, at times, behave like Jonah? Do I ever despise or regret the love and mercy of God? Do I believe that anybody, any group, ought to be beyond the grace and mercies of God?
.
.
In the past few days, Mother Church has presented Jonah for our edification. And, along with the study I've been up to to form a set of queries for blogs, it suggests one:
Do I fear changes, lest I lose my excuses to despise and the "safe" targets for my hate? Do I look with dismay on God because of His universal love and pity?
When Jonah was sent to preach to the people of Nineveh, he fled. But he did not flee because he was afraid of God; if he was afraid of God, he'd be going to Nineveh at double speed lest God zap him. He did not flee because he feared martyrdom at the hands of those foul Ninevites; he knew that the power of God and his status as stranger and guest in Nineveh would protect him.
He fled because he feared that the Ninevites, whom he despised, would repent at his words. He wanted Nineveh destroyed. And he knew God. He knew that if the Ninevites repented, that God would relent, and (oh, the very thought!) refuse to destroy them.
Even after all of Jonah's tribulations, after he preached to Nineveh, and they repent, and the Lord relents, this is how he prays, in his deep blue funk:
Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry that God did not carry out the evil he threatened against Nineveh. He prayed, "I beseech you, LORD, is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I fled at first to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, rich in clemency, loathe to punish. And now, LORD, please take my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live."
Do I, at times, behave like Jonah? Do I ever despise or regret the love and mercy of God? Do I believe that anybody, any group, ought to be beyond the grace and mercies of God?
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Tuesday, October 07, 2003
Please pray for my dear parish...
.....for the long rumored fecal matter has very publicly hit the revolving oscillator this evening.
Ever since there was still snow on the ground this spring the word's been being passed around; bad news is just around the corner; the parish is gonna lose thousands of dollars we don't have; etc., etc., and so forth. The only thing to do was shrug and pray. Well, now we know what we've been praying about.
An embezzler on the parish staff stole over a third of a million dollars from this thriving, active, building-rich but cash-poor parish over years, before being discovered, fired, and reported to the police in March. Tonight, it led the night news.
So please join us in continuing to pray for the Church of the Gesu.
And also in giving thanks that this is all it was (not a new chapter in the national Situation!)
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.....for the long rumored fecal matter has very publicly hit the revolving oscillator this evening.
Ever since there was still snow on the ground this spring the word's been being passed around; bad news is just around the corner; the parish is gonna lose thousands of dollars we don't have; etc., etc., and so forth. The only thing to do was shrug and pray. Well, now we know what we've been praying about.
An embezzler on the parish staff stole over a third of a million dollars from this thriving, active, building-rich but cash-poor parish over years, before being discovered, fired, and reported to the police in March. Tonight, it led the night news.
So please join us in continuing to pray for the Church of the Gesu.
And also in giving thanks that this is all it was (not a new chapter in the national Situation!)
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Saturday, October 04, 2003
from St. Francis' Letter to All the Faithful
It was through his archangel, Saint Gabriel, that the Father above made known to the holy and glorious Virgin Mary that the worthy, holy and glorious Word of the Father would come from heaven and take from her womb the real flesh of our human frailty. Though he was wealthy beyond reckoning, he still willingly chose to be poor with his blessed mother. And shortly before his passion he celebrated the Passover with his disciples. Then he prayed to his Father saying: Father, if it be possible, let this cup be taken from me.
Nevertheless, he reposed his will in the will of his Father. The Father willed that his blessed and glorious Son, whom he gave to us and who was born for us, should through his own blood offer himself as a sacrificial victim on the altar of the cross. This was to be done not for himself through whom all things were made, but for our sins. It was intended to leave us an example of how to follow in his footsteps. And he desires all of us to be saved through him, and to receive him with pure heart and chaste body.
O how happy and blessed are those who love the Lord and do as the Lord himself said in the gospel: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and your whole soul, and your neighbor as yourself. Therefore, let us love God and adore him with pure heart and mind. This is his particular desire when he says: True worshipers adore the Father in spirit and truth. For all who adore him must do so in the spirit of truth. Let us also direct to him our praises and prayers saying: Our Father, who art in heaven, since we must always pray and never grow slack.
Furthermore, let us produce worthy fruits of penance. Let us also love our neighbors as ourselves. Let us have charity and humility. Let us give alms because these cleanse our souls from the stains of sin. Men lose all the material things they leave behind them in this world, but they carry with them the reward of their charity and the alms they give. For these they will receive from the Lord the reward and recompense they deserve.
We must not be wise and prudent according to the flesh. Rather we must be simple, humble and pure. We should never desire to be over others. Instead, we ought to be servants who are submissive to every human being for God's sake. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on all who live in this way and persevere in it to the end. He will permanently dwell in them. They will be the Father's children who do his work. They are the spouses, brothers and mothers of our Lord Jesus Christ.
.
.
It was through his archangel, Saint Gabriel, that the Father above made known to the holy and glorious Virgin Mary that the worthy, holy and glorious Word of the Father would come from heaven and take from her womb the real flesh of our human frailty. Though he was wealthy beyond reckoning, he still willingly chose to be poor with his blessed mother. And shortly before his passion he celebrated the Passover with his disciples. Then he prayed to his Father saying: Father, if it be possible, let this cup be taken from me.
Nevertheless, he reposed his will in the will of his Father. The Father willed that his blessed and glorious Son, whom he gave to us and who was born for us, should through his own blood offer himself as a sacrificial victim on the altar of the cross. This was to be done not for himself through whom all things were made, but for our sins. It was intended to leave us an example of how to follow in his footsteps. And he desires all of us to be saved through him, and to receive him with pure heart and chaste body.
O how happy and blessed are those who love the Lord and do as the Lord himself said in the gospel: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and your whole soul, and your neighbor as yourself. Therefore, let us love God and adore him with pure heart and mind. This is his particular desire when he says: True worshipers adore the Father in spirit and truth. For all who adore him must do so in the spirit of truth. Let us also direct to him our praises and prayers saying: Our Father, who art in heaven, since we must always pray and never grow slack.
Furthermore, let us produce worthy fruits of penance. Let us also love our neighbors as ourselves. Let us have charity and humility. Let us give alms because these cleanse our souls from the stains of sin. Men lose all the material things they leave behind them in this world, but they carry with them the reward of their charity and the alms they give. For these they will receive from the Lord the reward and recompense they deserve.
We must not be wise and prudent according to the flesh. Rather we must be simple, humble and pure. We should never desire to be over others. Instead, we ought to be servants who are submissive to every human being for God's sake. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on all who live in this way and persevere in it to the end. He will permanently dwell in them. They will be the Father's children who do his work. They are the spouses, brothers and mothers of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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another bishop's blogging!
I usually don't bother posting about changes to my blogroll, but this one deserves special comment.
Ever since I learned how to have a blogroll, +Seraphim's Live Journal has had a place on it, and it was my impression that +Seraphim was the only bishop who blogged. Today, thanks in part to Mark Shea, I've found another bishop blogger --- +Robert, bishop of Baker. His site, The Heart and Mind of Bishop Vasa, is voluminous and wonderful, and now has its place, along with +Seraphim's, in the blogroll. Go, give his site a look-see; I believe you will not regret it. You might pay +Seraphim a visit while you're at it, he's great also.
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I usually don't bother posting about changes to my blogroll, but this one deserves special comment.
Ever since I learned how to have a blogroll, +Seraphim's Live Journal has had a place on it, and it was my impression that +Seraphim was the only bishop who blogged. Today, thanks in part to Mark Shea, I've found another bishop blogger --- +Robert, bishop of Baker. His site, The Heart and Mind of Bishop Vasa, is voluminous and wonderful, and now has its place, along with +Seraphim's, in the blogroll. Go, give his site a look-see; I believe you will not regret it. You might pay +Seraphim a visit while you're at it, he's great also.
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Friday, October 03, 2003
Transitus night
This night, many years ago, was the night that our brother Francis was Called to his Father.
It had been seen coming for a long time, Francis was never very strong, and he'd been ill and frail ever since he had come back from the Crusades with that eye disease. And, a few years before, he had become totally conformed to his Lord --- the holy brother Leo the priest had witnessed it --- and his suffering was extreme. But now the time had actually arrived.
Earlier in the day, Francis had asked one of his brothers to go, just as fast as he could, to Rome, and bring back to him the third lady in his life, after Lady Poverty and the Lady Clare, Jacopa Frangipani di Settesoli, and if she could please bring with her some fabric for his shroud and a batch of those almond cookies it would be such a goodness. [All the brothers were entirely hooked on Jacopa's almond cookies.] But before the brother could even leave the place, Jacopa and her entourage rode up; she said she'd had a vision to come. She even had with her the new shroud, everything necessary to prepare the body for burial, and even a triple batch of those almond cookies. A few of the brothers were upset about Jacopa's arrival, and wouldn't let her into the place; after all, she was a girl, and there were rules. But Francis told them to lighten up and let Brother Jacopa in.
Francis asked his brothers to take him out of bed and lay him on the ground. He took some bread, broke it and shared it with them each, then asked that Jesus' words at the Last Supper [John 14-17] be read for him. The community then sang the Canticle of the Creatures that Francis had composed, and then prayed some psalms. Francis died during Psalm 142, his last words were, "Bring my soul out of prison, and I shall praise Your name."
Thus did our brother Francis pass from this life to the life true and eternal; may he pray for us, that we may also be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
.
.
This night, many years ago, was the night that our brother Francis was Called to his Father.
It had been seen coming for a long time, Francis was never very strong, and he'd been ill and frail ever since he had come back from the Crusades with that eye disease. And, a few years before, he had become totally conformed to his Lord --- the holy brother Leo the priest had witnessed it --- and his suffering was extreme. But now the time had actually arrived.
Earlier in the day, Francis had asked one of his brothers to go, just as fast as he could, to Rome, and bring back to him the third lady in his life, after Lady Poverty and the Lady Clare, Jacopa Frangipani di Settesoli, and if she could please bring with her some fabric for his shroud and a batch of those almond cookies it would be such a goodness. [All the brothers were entirely hooked on Jacopa's almond cookies.] But before the brother could even leave the place, Jacopa and her entourage rode up; she said she'd had a vision to come. She even had with her the new shroud, everything necessary to prepare the body for burial, and even a triple batch of those almond cookies. A few of the brothers were upset about Jacopa's arrival, and wouldn't let her into the place; after all, she was a girl, and there were rules. But Francis told them to lighten up and let Brother Jacopa in.
Francis asked his brothers to take him out of bed and lay him on the ground. He took some bread, broke it and shared it with them each, then asked that Jesus' words at the Last Supper [John 14-17] be read for him. The community then sang the Canticle of the Creatures that Francis had composed, and then prayed some psalms. Francis died during Psalm 142, his last words were, "Bring my soul out of prison, and I shall praise Your name."
Thus did our brother Francis pass from this life to the life true and eternal; may he pray for us, that we may also be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
.
.
Wednesday, October 01, 2003
"I shall appear before You with empty hands"
Today is the celebration of St. Therese of Lisieux, doctor of the Church.
It took me much too long to discover her; I fell victim to the 1950's tendency to soak saints in sugar syrup and candy coating, and when I first read her, I couldn't find her. And she's a saint least needing that dreck --- she's a Victorian teenager. Like raisins and dates and figs, she's plenty sweet enough naturally. Fortunately, when I became older, I gave her another chance, encouraged by the clear respect given her teaching by my now-retired archbishop, and with the help of new, uncandied translations, have come to appreciate her insights also.
The prime presumption: There are ways to God for the great and the strong and the mighty; there must also be ways for the small and the weak and the frail. And, with the help of God, she give the Church a "Little Way" to great holiness.
She prays:
In the evening of this life, I shall appear before You with empty hands, for I do not ask You, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is stained in Your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in Your own Justice and to receive from Your Love the eternal possession of Yourself. I want no other Throne, no other Crown but You, my Beloved!
That wise archbishop comments:
She [St. Therese] once wrote that she wanted to go to God empty-handed. I think I know now personally what she meant by that phrase. I have learned how frail my own human nature is, how in need of God's loving embrace I am. Empty-handed for me now means a willingness to accept my humanity totally, just as Christ accepted that same human nature out of love. But for me it also means to be fully receptive to whatever God wants to place in those hands, to be ready with empty hands to receive new life.
By St. Therese, from today's Office of Readings:
Since my longing for martyrdom was powerful and unsettling, I turned to the epistles of St. Paul in the hope of finally finding an answer. By chance the 12th and 13th chapters of the 1st epistle to the Corinthians caught my attention, and in the first section I read that not everyone can be an apostle, prophet or teacher, that the Church is composed of a variety of members, and that the eye cannot be the hand. Even with such an answer revealed before me, I was not satisfied and did not find peace.
I persevered in the reading and did not let my mind wander until I found this encouraging theme: Set your desires on the greater gifts. And I will show you the way which surpasses all others. For the Apostle insists that the greater gifts are nothing at all without love and that this same love is surely the best path leading directly to God. At length I had found peace of mind.
When I had looked upon the mystical body of the Church, I recognised myself in none of the members which St. Paul described, and what is more, I desired to distinguish myself more favourably within the whole body. Love appeared to me to be the hinge for my vocation. Indeed I knew that the Church had a body composed of various members, but in this body the necessary and more noble member was not lacking; I knew that the Church had a heart and that such a heart appeared to be aflame with love. I knew that one love drove the members of the Church to action, that if this love were extinguished, the apostles would have proclaimed the Gospel no longer, the martyrs would have shed their blood no more. I saw and realised that love sets off the bounds of all vocations, that love is everything, that this same love embraces every time and every place. In one word, that love is everlasting.
Then, nearly ecstatic with the supreme joy in my soul, I proclaimed: O Jesus, my love, at last I have found my calling: my call is love. Certainly I have found my place in the Church, and You gave me that very place, my God. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, and thus I will be all things, as my desire finds its direction.
.
Today is the celebration of St. Therese of Lisieux, doctor of the Church.
It took me much too long to discover her; I fell victim to the 1950's tendency to soak saints in sugar syrup and candy coating, and when I first read her, I couldn't find her. And she's a saint least needing that dreck --- she's a Victorian teenager. Like raisins and dates and figs, she's plenty sweet enough naturally. Fortunately, when I became older, I gave her another chance, encouraged by the clear respect given her teaching by my now-retired archbishop, and with the help of new, uncandied translations, have come to appreciate her insights also.
The prime presumption: There are ways to God for the great and the strong and the mighty; there must also be ways for the small and the weak and the frail. And, with the help of God, she give the Church a "Little Way" to great holiness.
She prays:
In the evening of this life, I shall appear before You with empty hands, for I do not ask You, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is stained in Your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in Your own Justice and to receive from Your Love the eternal possession of Yourself. I want no other Throne, no other Crown but You, my Beloved!
That wise archbishop comments:
She [St. Therese] once wrote that she wanted to go to God empty-handed. I think I know now personally what she meant by that phrase. I have learned how frail my own human nature is, how in need of God's loving embrace I am. Empty-handed for me now means a willingness to accept my humanity totally, just as Christ accepted that same human nature out of love. But for me it also means to be fully receptive to whatever God wants to place in those hands, to be ready with empty hands to receive new life.
By St. Therese, from today's Office of Readings:
Since my longing for martyrdom was powerful and unsettling, I turned to the epistles of St. Paul in the hope of finally finding an answer. By chance the 12th and 13th chapters of the 1st epistle to the Corinthians caught my attention, and in the first section I read that not everyone can be an apostle, prophet or teacher, that the Church is composed of a variety of members, and that the eye cannot be the hand. Even with such an answer revealed before me, I was not satisfied and did not find peace.
I persevered in the reading and did not let my mind wander until I found this encouraging theme: Set your desires on the greater gifts. And I will show you the way which surpasses all others. For the Apostle insists that the greater gifts are nothing at all without love and that this same love is surely the best path leading directly to God. At length I had found peace of mind.
When I had looked upon the mystical body of the Church, I recognised myself in none of the members which St. Paul described, and what is more, I desired to distinguish myself more favourably within the whole body. Love appeared to me to be the hinge for my vocation. Indeed I knew that the Church had a body composed of various members, but in this body the necessary and more noble member was not lacking; I knew that the Church had a heart and that such a heart appeared to be aflame with love. I knew that one love drove the members of the Church to action, that if this love were extinguished, the apostles would have proclaimed the Gospel no longer, the martyrs would have shed their blood no more. I saw and realised that love sets off the bounds of all vocations, that love is everything, that this same love embraces every time and every place. In one word, that love is everlasting.
Then, nearly ecstatic with the supreme joy in my soul, I proclaimed: O Jesus, my love, at last I have found my calling: my call is love. Certainly I have found my place in the Church, and You gave me that very place, my God. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, and thus I will be all things, as my desire finds its direction.
.
Tuesday, September 30, 2003
What do you call your Liturgy of Hours book?
Sunday morning I was parked at the bottom of the steps of the chapel of reservation, finishing up Morning Prayer, when an ordained joy-addict acquaintance of mine walked up to me, with an impish grin on his face. He's good at impish grins. And he pointed to my LofH book, and said, "You know, we call that the missus, what do you call it?" I didn't quite catch on, looked puzzled, said "Huh?" He repeated, "Us priests call that book the Mrs. because it's always with us; so what do you call yours?" I smiled and kind of shrugged, I never did call it anything but the LofH book. All I could say was, "I never heard that one before...." [I've always been accused of being a little slow on the uptake, and a bit dense about things that are supposed to be funny; ask my sibs!]
But I then had all morning to ponder on that, for after Mass was the archdiocesan planning meeting, then the Open Door Cafe, where I'm the Sunday sack supper lady. "Would you like a sack supper, sir?" "You're welcome, take care." and so on.
What would I call the Liturgy of Hours book, if not that?
It's the concrete block. Friends and the Transit Plus drivers grab my purse to help out, then say, "What do you got in there, a concrete block?" or, maybe, "a load of bricks?" No bricks, no concrete block, just the LofH book with Magnificat and the baggie of icon prints in the blue vinyl zipper case.
It's the orientation board. In certain large dwelling places, there's a display to help those that live there keep track of things, that states such things as "Today is Tuesday. September 30, 2003. It is Autumn. It is cloudy." The LofH does the same thing for my spiritual life. "Today is Tuesday. It is the twenty-sixth week of Ordinary Time. It is the memorial day for St. Jerome."
Maybe most, it's the tether. It keeps me linked to the whole Church, and assures that I don't wander too far afield. Twenty-first century anchor holds don't have the amenity of a window right into the church as the ones of the past did, so when the weather or my health degrades I get housebound and even Sunday Mass isn't possible; yet, with that precious Liturgy of Hours book, I can still, even in the depth of a Wisconsin winter, even on my worst days. pray together with the whole Church assembled, according to Her desire. With the LofH book, I have a discipline of prayer that isn't dependent on whether or not I'm particularly inspired and that works against any tendency to center my prayer life on my own woes and wishes.
Or, since I hug and kiss it, is it my teddy bear?
My readers, feel free to add your tuppence in the comment box; maybe you have some other names to propose.....
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.
Sunday morning I was parked at the bottom of the steps of the chapel of reservation, finishing up Morning Prayer, when an ordained joy-addict acquaintance of mine walked up to me, with an impish grin on his face. He's good at impish grins. And he pointed to my LofH book, and said, "You know, we call that the missus, what do you call it?" I didn't quite catch on, looked puzzled, said "Huh?" He repeated, "Us priests call that book the Mrs. because it's always with us; so what do you call yours?" I smiled and kind of shrugged, I never did call it anything but the LofH book. All I could say was, "I never heard that one before...." [I've always been accused of being a little slow on the uptake, and a bit dense about things that are supposed to be funny; ask my sibs!]
But I then had all morning to ponder on that, for after Mass was the archdiocesan planning meeting, then the Open Door Cafe, where I'm the Sunday sack supper lady. "Would you like a sack supper, sir?" "You're welcome, take care." and so on.
What would I call the Liturgy of Hours book, if not that?
It's the concrete block. Friends and the Transit Plus drivers grab my purse to help out, then say, "What do you got in there, a concrete block?" or, maybe, "a load of bricks?" No bricks, no concrete block, just the LofH book with Magnificat and the baggie of icon prints in the blue vinyl zipper case.
It's the orientation board. In certain large dwelling places, there's a display to help those that live there keep track of things, that states such things as "Today is Tuesday. September 30, 2003. It is Autumn. It is cloudy." The LofH does the same thing for my spiritual life. "Today is Tuesday. It is the twenty-sixth week of Ordinary Time. It is the memorial day for St. Jerome."
Maybe most, it's the tether. It keeps me linked to the whole Church, and assures that I don't wander too far afield. Twenty-first century anchor holds don't have the amenity of a window right into the church as the ones of the past did, so when the weather or my health degrades I get housebound and even Sunday Mass isn't possible; yet, with that precious Liturgy of Hours book, I can still, even in the depth of a Wisconsin winter, even on my worst days. pray together with the whole Church assembled, according to Her desire. With the LofH book, I have a discipline of prayer that isn't dependent on whether or not I'm particularly inspired and that works against any tendency to center my prayer life on my own woes and wishes.
Or, since I hug and kiss it, is it my teddy bear?
My readers, feel free to add your tuppence in the comment box; maybe you have some other names to propose.....
.
.
Monday, September 29, 2003
from one of the listservs I frequent:
a prayer for humility and integrity
Lord God, You know what I am.
Give me the courage to face the truth about myself,
to recognize my failures,
to know my inadequacies,
to understand my weaknesses.
Keep me from pride and deceit.
Do not permit me to make my life counterfeit
or to hide behind some cheap pretense.
In the crucified Christ let me see
the depth of my sin,
the grossness of my selfishness,
and the judgment of death I deserve.
In the risen Christ let me see
the new life You give me by Your grace,
experiencing the deliverance from my old self
and the freedom to live for You.
With the mind of Christ ruling me,
let me be honest with You,
with myself,
and with all men.
In the name of Christ I pray. Amen.
.
a prayer for humility and integrity
Lord God, You know what I am.
Give me the courage to face the truth about myself,
to recognize my failures,
to know my inadequacies,
to understand my weaknesses.
Keep me from pride and deceit.
Do not permit me to make my life counterfeit
or to hide behind some cheap pretense.
In the crucified Christ let me see
the depth of my sin,
the grossness of my selfishness,
and the judgment of death I deserve.
In the risen Christ let me see
the new life You give me by Your grace,
experiencing the deliverance from my old self
and the freedom to live for You.
With the mind of Christ ruling me,
let me be honest with You,
with myself,
and with all men.
In the name of Christ I pray. Amen.
.
Saturday, September 27, 2003
for the visitors from the Mark Shea comment box:
the three priests' profiles had the series title "Those Special Priests".
you'll find Monsignor Michael Murphy on 4 June 2003,
Father (name withheld from Mark's box) on 5 June,
ans Dom Sebastian Moore osb on June 6.
Just go to June's archives and scroll down ---- the new blogger permalinks have too many digits for reliable transcription by me!
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.
the three priests' profiles had the series title "Those Special Priests".
you'll find Monsignor Michael Murphy on 4 June 2003,
Father (name withheld from Mark's box) on 5 June,
ans Dom Sebastian Moore osb on June 6.
Just go to June's archives and scroll down ---- the new blogger permalinks have too many digits for reliable transcription by me!
.
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Thursday, September 25, 2003
Another story from the desert
A certain young man stumbled, but he repented so much so that, after hearing just one sermon, Divine Grace visited him, and he left the world to become a monk. He built a hut in the desert and wept for his sins every day with great pain. He could not be comforted in any way at all.
One night Jesus appeared to him while he was sleeping, surrounded by heavenly light. He drew near to the young man.
"What's the matter? Why do you weep with such pain?" He asked in His sweet voice.
"I weep, Lord, because I have fallen," said the sinner in despair.
"Get up then."
"I cannot do it alone, Lord."
The King of Love then stretched out his hand and helped him get up. However, the young man still did not stop crying.
"Why are you crying now?"
"I'm in pain, my dear Christ, because I have saddened you. I wasted the richness of Your gifts in wantoness."
Then the Master Who so loves man put His hand lovingly on the young man's head and said, "Since you are in so much pain on my account I am no longer saddened by that which has passed."
The young man looked up in order to thank his Saviour, but He was no longer there. In the place where He had stood an enormous cross of light had formed. Redeemed of his sins he bowed down before it.
With gratitude in his soul, after that vision, he returned to the city and became a fervent preacher of repentance and thus led many more people to Christ.
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A certain young man stumbled, but he repented so much so that, after hearing just one sermon, Divine Grace visited him, and he left the world to become a monk. He built a hut in the desert and wept for his sins every day with great pain. He could not be comforted in any way at all.
One night Jesus appeared to him while he was sleeping, surrounded by heavenly light. He drew near to the young man.
"What's the matter? Why do you weep with such pain?" He asked in His sweet voice.
"I weep, Lord, because I have fallen," said the sinner in despair.
"Get up then."
"I cannot do it alone, Lord."
The King of Love then stretched out his hand and helped him get up. However, the young man still did not stop crying.
"Why are you crying now?"
"I'm in pain, my dear Christ, because I have saddened you. I wasted the richness of Your gifts in wantoness."
Then the Master Who so loves man put His hand lovingly on the young man's head and said, "Since you are in so much pain on my account I am no longer saddened by that which has passed."
The young man looked up in order to thank his Saviour, but He was no longer there. In the place where He had stood an enormous cross of light had formed. Redeemed of his sins he bowed down before it.
With gratitude in his soul, after that vision, he returned to the city and became a fervent preacher of repentance and thus led many more people to Christ.
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Tuesday, September 23, 2003
Fifty ways your bishop can screw up......
It's that time of the year again, when Holy Mother Church makes us read St. Augustine's "On Pastors", which may as well be titled "Fifty ways to condemn your bishop". All last week, and all this week, also. At least it's not so bad as making it through this period of the Office of Readings last year!
Yet, where, might I ask, is "On Parishioners"? or, maybe, "On the Putative Faithful"? We screw up as followers, students, and sheep just as much, if not more, than the pastors and the bishops flub being leaders, teachers, and shepherds. And, plenty of the ways _they_ fail are directly related to _our_ refusals and misdoing and sheer stubbornness.
If I cultivate a teachable spirit, and hold out my hand to be taken and led, it is no surprise when I am taught and sheltered and led. If, on the other hand, I sit like a bump on a log and fight when anyone tries to pick me up, should I be very surprised when my caretaker succumbs to discouragement and gives up?
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It's that time of the year again, when Holy Mother Church makes us read St. Augustine's "On Pastors", which may as well be titled "Fifty ways to condemn your bishop". All last week, and all this week, also. At least it's not so bad as making it through this period of the Office of Readings last year!
Yet, where, might I ask, is "On Parishioners"? or, maybe, "On the Putative Faithful"? We screw up as followers, students, and sheep just as much, if not more, than the pastors and the bishops flub being leaders, teachers, and shepherds. And, plenty of the ways _they_ fail are directly related to _our_ refusals and misdoing and sheer stubbornness.
If I cultivate a teachable spirit, and hold out my hand to be taken and led, it is no surprise when I am taught and sheltered and led. If, on the other hand, I sit like a bump on a log and fight when anyone tries to pick me up, should I be very surprised when my caretaker succumbs to discouragement and gives up?
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Saturday, September 20, 2003
Note, please, the addition to the sidebar
If you need to buy Catholic books or devotional items, click on the new link for the Catholic Company. If you click there and buy things, they'll pay me a commission. I'm hoping to earn enough to donate to the Conference on Fully Catholic Living, so I can help pay for our speakers, who are very expensive (but who earn every penny). Social Security is o.k. for living, but not for donating too!
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If you need to buy Catholic books or devotional items, click on the new link for the Catholic Company. If you click there and buy things, they'll pay me a commission. I'm hoping to earn enough to donate to the Conference on Fully Catholic Living, so I can help pay for our speakers, who are very expensive (but who earn every penny). Social Security is o.k. for living, but not for donating too!
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The dangers of talking about good priests.....
Mark Shea has solicited stories about the truly good priests of our lives. But I don't think I'd better, I might not survive. Even though I could name a couple dozen.
Half of them are Jesuits. To be expected --- I studied Theology in a Jesuit University, and I belong to a parish specializing in Ignatian spirituality, pastored by Jesuits. But we're all aware of the general attitude in the Catholic blogosphere, and especially among comment-box denizens, about the Society of Jesus.
Of those who aren't Jesuits, four are bishops, a group not much more favored than Jesuits. One of those bishops has suffered major public embarrassment.
Two have been living in the lay state for decades.
Another was suspended from ministry following the Dallas bishops' conference, having been repentant, rescued, and restored decades before, before he rescued me.
Maybe this shouldn't be so strange, for a dweller in an anchor hold at a bridge named for a devoted and courageous priest of God with a very, shall we say, interesting, life?
At the Groppi Unity Bridge......Father Groppi's bridge.
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Mark Shea has solicited stories about the truly good priests of our lives. But I don't think I'd better, I might not survive. Even though I could name a couple dozen.
Half of them are Jesuits. To be expected --- I studied Theology in a Jesuit University, and I belong to a parish specializing in Ignatian spirituality, pastored by Jesuits. But we're all aware of the general attitude in the Catholic blogosphere, and especially among comment-box denizens, about the Society of Jesus.
Of those who aren't Jesuits, four are bishops, a group not much more favored than Jesuits. One of those bishops has suffered major public embarrassment.
Two have been living in the lay state for decades.
Another was suspended from ministry following the Dallas bishops' conference, having been repentant, rescued, and restored decades before, before he rescued me.
Maybe this shouldn't be so strange, for a dweller in an anchor hold at a bridge named for a devoted and courageous priest of God with a very, shall we say, interesting, life?
At the Groppi Unity Bridge......Father Groppi's bridge.
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Thursday, September 18, 2003
Saint Ephrem sings:
I fall in adoration at your feet, Lord!
I thank you, God of goodness;
God of holiness, I invoke you,
on my knees, in your sight.
For me, an unworthy sinner,
you have willed to undergo the death of the cross,
setting me free from the bonds of evil.
What shall I offer in return for your generosity?
Glory to you, friend of men!
Glory to you, most merciful!
Glory to you, most patient!
Glory to you who forgive sin!
Glory to you who have come to save us!
Glory to you who have been made man in the womb of a Virgin!
Glory to you who have been bound!
Glory to you who have been scourged!
Glory to you who have been derided!
Glory to you who have been nailed to the cross!
Glory to you, laid in a sepulcher, but risen again!
Glory to you who have preached the Gospel to men and have been believed!
Glory to you who have ascended to heaven!
Glory to you, seated at the right hand of the Father
and who will return with him, in majesty, among the angels,
to judge those who have disregarded your passion!
The powers of heaven will be shaken;
all the angels and archangels,
the cherubim and seraphim
will appear in fear and trembling before Your glory;
the foundations of the earth will quake
and all that has life will cry out before Your majesty.
In that hour let your hand draw me beneath Your wings,
and save me from the terrible fire,
from the gnashing of teeth,
from the outer darkness and from despair without end.
That I may sing to Your glory:
Glory to Him who through His merciful goodness
has designed to redeem this sinner.
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I fall in adoration at your feet, Lord!
I thank you, God of goodness;
God of holiness, I invoke you,
on my knees, in your sight.
For me, an unworthy sinner,
you have willed to undergo the death of the cross,
setting me free from the bonds of evil.
What shall I offer in return for your generosity?
Glory to you, friend of men!
Glory to you, most merciful!
Glory to you, most patient!
Glory to you who forgive sin!
Glory to you who have come to save us!
Glory to you who have been made man in the womb of a Virgin!
Glory to you who have been bound!
Glory to you who have been scourged!
Glory to you who have been derided!
Glory to you who have been nailed to the cross!
Glory to you, laid in a sepulcher, but risen again!
Glory to you who have preached the Gospel to men and have been believed!
Glory to you who have ascended to heaven!
Glory to you, seated at the right hand of the Father
and who will return with him, in majesty, among the angels,
to judge those who have disregarded your passion!
The powers of heaven will be shaken;
all the angels and archangels,
the cherubim and seraphim
will appear in fear and trembling before Your glory;
the foundations of the earth will quake
and all that has life will cry out before Your majesty.
In that hour let your hand draw me beneath Your wings,
and save me from the terrible fire,
from the gnashing of teeth,
from the outer darkness and from despair without end.
That I may sing to Your glory:
Glory to Him who through His merciful goodness
has designed to redeem this sinner.
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Tuesday, September 16, 2003
From the CinJustAnn listserv: Meetings and bishops and scurrying about.......
a bit of wisdom from Robert Waldrop this morning in the email box. He's the keeper of the Catholic Social Teachings website in the sidebar, and the founder of the CW house in Oklahoma City. He isn't always very politic, but he's reliably thoughtful.
Well, the liberals had their meeting with the leaders of the US bishops, and now the conservatives have had their meeting. ....... I would have liked to have been a fly on that wall. Anyway, I wonder if those of us who are Catholic Workers, agrarians, distributists, etc. should ask for a meeting. What would we say to the bishops?
In any event, I salute Peggy Noonan for telling the bishops they should ask the cleaning maids at the Hilton Hotel across the street where they lived, and then go live in such a neighborhood. She's right. Our bishops need a good dose of holy and evangleical poverty. It can cure a lot of spiritual ills.
Upon second thought, I don't think I would be in favor of a meeting between the bishops and Catholic Workers and agrarians and etc. it would require people to travel to Washington DC from all over the country, and that is a waste of time and energy.
Maybe this sounds a bit luddite but I think there is entirely too much running hither and yon in the Catholic Church in America these days. The bishops are always running off to Washington, or to Rome, or to meetings in other places. Collegiality is a fine thing, but it seems to me they are so busy being collegial that they forget their primary spiritual and canonical duty is to their own diocese. If the dioceses of the US were healthy, then the Church in America would be healthy. If the Church in America is having problems, and it is, that can only mean there are big problems in the dioceses. If we want the church to get better, then the dioceses need to get better.
So maybe once again its the Little Way that we need to embrace. Perhaps our leaders should stop flying all over the world all of the time being such big and important leaders and spend more time at home being pastors.
Maybe they (and we) could also stop worrying quite so much about what the great and important bureaucrats of our Church, who are not the Ordinaries of anywhere, think about us, and just go about living the Gospel right where we are put?
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a bit of wisdom from Robert Waldrop this morning in the email box. He's the keeper of the Catholic Social Teachings website in the sidebar, and the founder of the CW house in Oklahoma City. He isn't always very politic, but he's reliably thoughtful.
Well, the liberals had their meeting with the leaders of the US bishops, and now the conservatives have had their meeting. ....... I would have liked to have been a fly on that wall. Anyway, I wonder if those of us who are Catholic Workers, agrarians, distributists, etc. should ask for a meeting. What would we say to the bishops?
In any event, I salute Peggy Noonan for telling the bishops they should ask the cleaning maids at the Hilton Hotel across the street where they lived, and then go live in such a neighborhood. She's right. Our bishops need a good dose of holy and evangleical poverty. It can cure a lot of spiritual ills.
Upon second thought, I don't think I would be in favor of a meeting between the bishops and Catholic Workers and agrarians and etc. it would require people to travel to Washington DC from all over the country, and that is a waste of time and energy.
Maybe this sounds a bit luddite but I think there is entirely too much running hither and yon in the Catholic Church in America these days. The bishops are always running off to Washington, or to Rome, or to meetings in other places. Collegiality is a fine thing, but it seems to me they are so busy being collegial that they forget their primary spiritual and canonical duty is to their own diocese. If the dioceses of the US were healthy, then the Church in America would be healthy. If the Church in America is having problems, and it is, that can only mean there are big problems in the dioceses. If we want the church to get better, then the dioceses need to get better.
So maybe once again its the Little Way that we need to embrace. Perhaps our leaders should stop flying all over the world all of the time being such big and important leaders and spend more time at home being pastors.
Maybe they (and we) could also stop worrying quite so much about what the great and important bureaucrats of our Church, who are not the Ordinaries of anywhere, think about us, and just go about living the Gospel right where we are put?
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Remember Who creates and sustains our ecosystem
Tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday are the autumn Ember Days. At the turn of each season, we turn specially to the Lord with fasting and prayer, because we know that there is only One who can create a tomato, or a green bean, or an ear of sweet corn. And it is not Archer Daniels Midland, nor Nabisco, noe General Foods. We are entirely dependent on the proper timing and amounts of sunshine and rain and snow cover, good polinating insects at the right time and lack of hungry destructive insects at the other times, and we are utterly vulnerable to the tornado and the hurricane and the earth tremor, and over these we have very little control, if any. [Just ask that right now of the people who wait with trepidation for Isabel!] Only their creator and ours can control and shape the weather's often-chaotic patterns.
And so we plead with Him, the Creator of the heavens and the earth.
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Tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday are the autumn Ember Days. At the turn of each season, we turn specially to the Lord with fasting and prayer, because we know that there is only One who can create a tomato, or a green bean, or an ear of sweet corn. And it is not Archer Daniels Midland, nor Nabisco, noe General Foods. We are entirely dependent on the proper timing and amounts of sunshine and rain and snow cover, good polinating insects at the right time and lack of hungry destructive insects at the other times, and we are utterly vulnerable to the tornado and the hurricane and the earth tremor, and over these we have very little control, if any. [Just ask that right now of the people who wait with trepidation for Isabel!] Only their creator and ours can control and shape the weather's often-chaotic patterns.
And so we plead with Him, the Creator of the heavens and the earth.
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Sunday, September 14, 2003
Facing our true selves: the seraph serpent and the Cross of Jesus
Remember a few days ago, on St. Gregory's Day, when I wrote of contrition and the symptoms of the Fall?
The very first symptom of the Fall was the desire to hide from God. And from each other. And, even, from ourselves. Hiding from God is just futile and frustrating. Hiding from others and from ourselves, however, is death-dealing. Secrets bind and kill. Delusions make one stupid. Both are what makes up the wide and downhill superhighway to despair.
Today's Mass readings show to us the antidote to this mess.
We have to face, straight-on, exactly what we've done, precisely what our besetting problem is.
In the journey out of Egypt to the Land of Promise, the people suffered an invasion of poisonous seraph serpents, and many were bitten and died. The way of healing prescribed by the Lord was to look upon the image of a seraph serpent. Those who would look upon the bronze serpent, who could admit, "I have been bitten by the serpent", would be healed. Those who would not look, those who feared or panicked or denied that the serpent was their problem, would die.
In the same way, we must look at the cross of Jesus. We _must_ look. In fact, the cross of Jesus must be our only glory. But, what do we see when we raise our eyes to the crucifix above the altar, or finger the cross that dangles from the rosary? Our Lord and Messiah, Our true King and only true Love, is put to a torturous death, and submits to it freely, that we may be redeemed. And that death, the death of a true Innocent, is at my hands, is at our hands. I am a betrayer, an abandoner, a coward and denier, a crucifier. And the Crucified forgives me, and redeems me, and raises me up. All that is required is to gaze upon His cross, and to know and say, "This is what I have done to my Lord of Glory. He deserves all my love and I have given Him this." At that, the Lord will conquer death in me, and tear down the gates of the netherworld in me, and heal me, and, on that Day, call me to Himself. But if I refuse to look upon the cross, and deny that I had anything to do with that, and try to say that it's all Pontius Pilate's problem, then I will die, as surely as my fathers and mothers died in that desert when the seraph serpents came, and as sure as, before that, Adam and Eve took death for their inheritance.
Look upon the Cross, on which is hung Salvation Himself, and we will be healed and live!
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Remember a few days ago, on St. Gregory's Day, when I wrote of contrition and the symptoms of the Fall?
The very first symptom of the Fall was the desire to hide from God. And from each other. And, even, from ourselves. Hiding from God is just futile and frustrating. Hiding from others and from ourselves, however, is death-dealing. Secrets bind and kill. Delusions make one stupid. Both are what makes up the wide and downhill superhighway to despair.
Today's Mass readings show to us the antidote to this mess.
We have to face, straight-on, exactly what we've done, precisely what our besetting problem is.
In the journey out of Egypt to the Land of Promise, the people suffered an invasion of poisonous seraph serpents, and many were bitten and died. The way of healing prescribed by the Lord was to look upon the image of a seraph serpent. Those who would look upon the bronze serpent, who could admit, "I have been bitten by the serpent", would be healed. Those who would not look, those who feared or panicked or denied that the serpent was their problem, would die.
In the same way, we must look at the cross of Jesus. We _must_ look. In fact, the cross of Jesus must be our only glory. But, what do we see when we raise our eyes to the crucifix above the altar, or finger the cross that dangles from the rosary? Our Lord and Messiah, Our true King and only true Love, is put to a torturous death, and submits to it freely, that we may be redeemed. And that death, the death of a true Innocent, is at my hands, is at our hands. I am a betrayer, an abandoner, a coward and denier, a crucifier. And the Crucified forgives me, and redeems me, and raises me up. All that is required is to gaze upon His cross, and to know and say, "This is what I have done to my Lord of Glory. He deserves all my love and I have given Him this." At that, the Lord will conquer death in me, and tear down the gates of the netherworld in me, and heal me, and, on that Day, call me to Himself. But if I refuse to look upon the cross, and deny that I had anything to do with that, and try to say that it's all Pontius Pilate's problem, then I will die, as surely as my fathers and mothers died in that desert when the seraph serpents came, and as sure as, before that, Adam and Eve took death for their inheritance.
Look upon the Cross, on which is hung Salvation Himself, and we will be healed and live!
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Saturday, September 13, 2003
The Triumph of the Cross
Behold, behold, the wood of the cross,
on which is hung our Salvation;
O come, let us adore! (Liturgy of Good Friday)
We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You,
for by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world.
O my Lord, Messiah and (truly!) King,
You have been lifted up, and have triumphed.
You Yourself mend our lives, and draw us to Yourself,
and make Yourself our greatest yearning, greatest gift.
We who lifted You up from the earth ---
not far,
not nearly to the sky, let alone the heavens ---
intending only evil; or not intending at all, "just following orders,"
just another execution in a busy day
It was for us that You took everything we gave,
that You offered Yourself, unresisting,
(and You, our Messiah and Lord, are God;
You had the power to save Yourself)
so that when we had done our very worst
Your forgiveness and Your triumph would rescue us,
very thankful and truly humble.
We know what we have done.
We know of what we are capable.
We look upon Your cross
and our sin remains before us,
we cannot ignore the truth of ourselves.
We deny You.
We are cowards and run away from You.
We drag You all over the city, from courtroom to courtroom.
For You, our King, we weave a crown of thornbush to force upon Your head.
We beat You. We mock You. We parade You through the streets.
We disdignify You, stripping You of everything.
And, clothed only in welts and bruises and Your own blood,
we nail You to a cross to torture You to death.
Our sin is always before us,
and yet,
and yet,
so also is Your mercy,
so also Your forgiveness,
so also Your great offering.
And, in time's fullness,
the sign of Jonah ---
even Death itself is conquered, vanquished;
so we might proceed from life to Life true and eternal,
Life that knows no end.
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Behold, behold, the wood of the cross,
on which is hung our Salvation;
O come, let us adore! (Liturgy of Good Friday)
We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You,
for by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world.
O my Lord, Messiah and (truly!) King,
You have been lifted up, and have triumphed.
You Yourself mend our lives, and draw us to Yourself,
and make Yourself our greatest yearning, greatest gift.
We who lifted You up from the earth ---
not far,
not nearly to the sky, let alone the heavens ---
intending only evil; or not intending at all, "just following orders,"
just another execution in a busy day
It was for us that You took everything we gave,
that You offered Yourself, unresisting,
(and You, our Messiah and Lord, are God;
You had the power to save Yourself)
so that when we had done our very worst
Your forgiveness and Your triumph would rescue us,
very thankful and truly humble.
We know what we have done.
We know of what we are capable.
We look upon Your cross
and our sin remains before us,
we cannot ignore the truth of ourselves.
We deny You.
We are cowards and run away from You.
We drag You all over the city, from courtroom to courtroom.
For You, our King, we weave a crown of thornbush to force upon Your head.
We beat You. We mock You. We parade You through the streets.
We disdignify You, stripping You of everything.
And, clothed only in welts and bruises and Your own blood,
we nail You to a cross to torture You to death.
Our sin is always before us,
and yet,
and yet,
so also is Your mercy,
so also Your forgiveness,
so also Your great offering.
And, in time's fullness,
the sign of Jonah ---
even Death itself is conquered, vanquished;
so we might proceed from life to Life true and eternal,
Life that knows no end.
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Oh, My Lord, from the oratorio "Canticle of the Plains", by Rich Mullins, Mitch McVicker, and Beaker.
When I think that the world would rise to condemn You,
Oh, my Lord; oh, my Lord.
Well it makes me cry.
You know it makes me tremble.
Oh, my Lord; oh, my Lord;
Oh my Jesus, sweet lamb of God.
You emptied Yourself and became just like us.
Then You set aside Your glory
and You took up that cross.
Through the crowd, through the cursing soldiers,
oh, my Lord; oh, my Lord.
You fell to the ground with the cross upon Your shoulders.
Oh, my Lord; oh, my Lord;
oh, my Jesus; oh, Man of sorrows.
When You saw Your mother standing there upon that road,
did You feel the pain of the sword that would soon pierce her soul?
Oh, my Lord; yes, oh, my Lord.
Oh, my Lord; yes, oh, my Lord. .....
Well a man was made to help carry that weight,
and a woman was moved to wipe the blood from Your face.
And then You fell again,
and You're taking more than a man could take.
You said, "Sisters, sisters, don't you weep for me."
Oh, my Lord; oh, my Lord.
And then once again fell down to Your knees.
Oh, my Lord; oh, my Lord;
oh, my Jesus, God's only one.
Well, they stripped off Your clothes,
then they cast their lots.
Oooh, they stretched out Your arms
and nailed Your hands to that cross.
See a broken heart --- it's what made You die.
Oh, my Lord; oh, my Lord.
And the blood and the water flowed out from Your side.
Oh, my Lord; oh, my Lord;
oh, my Jesus, Giver of Grace.
You know, gentle hands they took You down
and laid You in that grave scene.
No one believed You'd be back in three short days.
Oh, my Lord; oh, my Lord.
Oh, my Lord; oh, my Lord. .....yes.
[copyright 1996, Kid Brothers of St. Frank]
When I think that the world would rise to condemn You,
Oh, my Lord; oh, my Lord.
Well it makes me cry.
You know it makes me tremble.
Oh, my Lord; oh, my Lord;
Oh my Jesus, sweet lamb of God.
You emptied Yourself and became just like us.
Then You set aside Your glory
and You took up that cross.
Through the crowd, through the cursing soldiers,
oh, my Lord; oh, my Lord.
You fell to the ground with the cross upon Your shoulders.
Oh, my Lord; oh, my Lord;
oh, my Jesus; oh, Man of sorrows.
When You saw Your mother standing there upon that road,
did You feel the pain of the sword that would soon pierce her soul?
Oh, my Lord; yes, oh, my Lord.
Oh, my Lord; yes, oh, my Lord. .....
Well a man was made to help carry that weight,
and a woman was moved to wipe the blood from Your face.
And then You fell again,
and You're taking more than a man could take.
You said, "Sisters, sisters, don't you weep for me."
Oh, my Lord; oh, my Lord.
And then once again fell down to Your knees.
Oh, my Lord; oh, my Lord;
oh, my Jesus, God's only one.
Well, they stripped off Your clothes,
then they cast their lots.
Oooh, they stretched out Your arms
and nailed Your hands to that cross.
See a broken heart --- it's what made You die.
Oh, my Lord; oh, my Lord.
And the blood and the water flowed out from Your side.
Oh, my Lord; oh, my Lord;
oh, my Jesus, Giver of Grace.
You know, gentle hands they took You down
and laid You in that grave scene.
No one believed You'd be back in three short days.
Oh, my Lord; oh, my Lord.
Oh, my Lord; oh, my Lord. .....yes.
[copyright 1996, Kid Brothers of St. Frank]
Some wise words from St. John Chrysostom, whose memorial is today. He was the patriarch of Constantinople in his day, and called the Golden Mouth because he was.
Do you fast?
Give me proof of it by your works.
If you see someone who is poor, take pity on that person.
If you see a friend being honored, do not be envious.
Do not let only your mouth fast, but also the eyes, and the feet, and the hands and all the member of our bodies.
Let the hands fast, by being free of avarice.
Let the feet fast, by ceasing to run after sin.
Let the eyes fast, by disciplining them not to glare at that which is sinful.
Let the ears by not listening to evil talk and gossip.
Let the mouth fast from foul words and unjust criticism.
For what good is it if we abstain from birds and fishes,
but bite and devour our brothers and sisters?
and:
Be ashamed when you sin, don't be ashamed when you repent. Sin is the wound, repentance is the medicine. Sin is followed by shame; repentance is followed by boldness. Satan has overturned this order and given boldness to sin and shame to repentance.
and:
There would be no need for sermons, if our lives were shining; there would be no need for words, if we bore witness with our deeds. There would be no pagans, if we were true Christians.
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Do you fast?
Give me proof of it by your works.
If you see someone who is poor, take pity on that person.
If you see a friend being honored, do not be envious.
Do not let only your mouth fast, but also the eyes, and the feet, and the hands and all the member of our bodies.
Let the hands fast, by being free of avarice.
Let the feet fast, by ceasing to run after sin.
Let the eyes fast, by disciplining them not to glare at that which is sinful.
Let the ears by not listening to evil talk and gossip.
Let the mouth fast from foul words and unjust criticism.
For what good is it if we abstain from birds and fishes,
but bite and devour our brothers and sisters?
and:
Be ashamed when you sin, don't be ashamed when you repent. Sin is the wound, repentance is the medicine. Sin is followed by shame; repentance is followed by boldness. Satan has overturned this order and given boldness to sin and shame to repentance.
and:
There would be no need for sermons, if our lives were shining; there would be no need for words, if we bore witness with our deeds. There would be no pagans, if we were true Christians.
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Friday, September 12, 2003
On torture by tongue and mental murder
Have any of the rest of you ever noticed that there are near occasions of sin in the virtual neighborhoods of St. Blog's, just like in our real-world neighborhoods? That the virtual world actions in Bloggsville can plop one into real-world contrition?
Ooh, I've been there. Repeatedly. For me, it's running into the professionally outraged and the veteran faction fighters. I'm extra sensitive to them, living in a real city that's been a favorite battlefield for them all my adult life. I read or hear the ongoing tongue torture, the detraction and rash judgment and harsh judgment and gloating, that goes on, and I get steamed, and start pondering how many different ways I could string up the Professionally Outraged Faction-Fighting Idiot of the Day --- and attempted murder is no less a sin for only going on inside my head. I catch myself, and cease and desist --- until the next vicious backbiting or stupid tittillating slanderous tidbit comes by.
I've found three ways of attack to fight this one:
First, avoid the near occasions. There are some sites in the Catholic internet world, and some Catholic blogs, that specialize in tongue torture. Since I have no business with or interest in professional outrage, and it's so bad for me, then why even go to Spiritus Christi, or CWN, or Diocese Report, or MagFidel, or Novus Ordo Watch.......Let strong people like Mark Shea and Bill Cork and Father Rob and Shawn McElhinney wear the blue helmets and deal with the armed idiot fringes.
Second, wait before doing. Don't grab the bait so often planted in Mark's and Amy's comment boxes. Go away. Do something else. Come back in a few hours. Whatever it was might not need refuting any more. And, if it still does need refuting, the things it's important to stand up for, can only be better stood up for by the cultivation of peace and patience.
Third, redirect my mind. An urge to string someone up by their toes is a sign that they belong on my God-Bless list. I can't hang, draw, and quarter Diogenes or Podles while I'm pleading before God for their good, or gag and strangle Padovano or Joe d'H while begging grace for them. Keep the mind busy with good, and it'll have no space for mischief.
Lord, keep me mindful....
CCC #2303: Deliberate hatred is contrary to charity. Hatred of the neighbor is a sin when one deliberately desires him grave harm. "But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven."
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Have any of the rest of you ever noticed that there are near occasions of sin in the virtual neighborhoods of St. Blog's, just like in our real-world neighborhoods? That the virtual world actions in Bloggsville can plop one into real-world contrition?
Ooh, I've been there. Repeatedly. For me, it's running into the professionally outraged and the veteran faction fighters. I'm extra sensitive to them, living in a real city that's been a favorite battlefield for them all my adult life. I read or hear the ongoing tongue torture, the detraction and rash judgment and harsh judgment and gloating, that goes on, and I get steamed, and start pondering how many different ways I could string up the Professionally Outraged Faction-Fighting Idiot of the Day --- and attempted murder is no less a sin for only going on inside my head. I catch myself, and cease and desist --- until the next vicious backbiting or stupid tittillating slanderous tidbit comes by.
I've found three ways of attack to fight this one:
First, avoid the near occasions. There are some sites in the Catholic internet world, and some Catholic blogs, that specialize in tongue torture. Since I have no business with or interest in professional outrage, and it's so bad for me, then why even go to Spiritus Christi, or CWN, or Diocese Report, or MagFidel, or Novus Ordo Watch.......Let strong people like Mark Shea and Bill Cork and Father Rob and Shawn McElhinney wear the blue helmets and deal with the armed idiot fringes.
Second, wait before doing. Don't grab the bait so often planted in Mark's and Amy's comment boxes. Go away. Do something else. Come back in a few hours. Whatever it was might not need refuting any more. And, if it still does need refuting, the things it's important to stand up for, can only be better stood up for by the cultivation of peace and patience.
Third, redirect my mind. An urge to string someone up by their toes is a sign that they belong on my God-Bless list. I can't hang, draw, and quarter Diogenes or Podles while I'm pleading before God for their good, or gag and strangle Padovano or Joe d'H while begging grace for them. Keep the mind busy with good, and it'll have no space for mischief.
Lord, keep me mindful....
CCC #2303: Deliberate hatred is contrary to charity. Hatred of the neighbor is a sin when one deliberately desires him grave harm. "But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven."
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Prayer in distress and disaster, attributed to the Orthodox saint Raphael, bishop of Brooklyn.
O LORD, who alone art rich in mercies. Who through the compassions of Thy goodness dost hearken to the petitions of us sinners, Thy unworthy servants. Who ordainest and providest for our needs according to what is appropriate. Who through the wisdom of Thy care dost guide our lives, and seekest to save us in every way possible. Thou chastisest and
healest all in goodness and in love, so that Thy creatures, the work of Thy hands, may not be destroyed but rather, we may return to that pristine beauty, to that original dignity which we had lost through our insistent
ignorance and the ancient deceits of the devil. Thou hast provided for us many ways to repent and return from that transgression which resulted in our fall.
Thou, O LORD Almighty, look now upon us sinners, and hearken unto the voices of our petitions, for the multitude of our iniquities has robbed us from any boldness and made us incapable of approaching Thee for forgiveness of our sins. But since Thou art a lover of mankind, compassionate, abundant in mercies, long-suffering, unhateful, and rich in goodness, we therefore dare to approach Thee through these Divine Virtues and dare to lift up our hands and cry out unto Thee, rejoicing and saying:
We have sinned, O LORD, we have sinned and have forgotten Thy commandments. We have walked after our own evil thoughts and acted against our high calling, and we have become a reproach against Thy Beloved One. We too, the priests, have fallen away along with Thy flock, all of us have fallen short and become stained, and there is not anyone who is righteous, not any. We have shut the doors of Thy compassion, Thy love toward mankind, and Thy long-suffering, O our God, because of the evil acts we have committed. Thou alone art good, and we are sinners. Thou art long-suffering, and we are worthy of the strikes upon us. Because of Thy goodness, even though we have transgressed through our own ignorance, we have been justly chastised for our transgressions.
Thou, O LORD, art to be feared; who then shalt resist Thee? The mountains
shake from Thy presence. Who canst resist Thy Mighty Hand? If the heavens were to shut, who canst open them? If the waters have spread apart, who can gather them?
In Thine eyes, O LORD, it is very simple to impoverish and to enrich. Thou killest and Thou givest Life. Thou strikest and Thou healest. And whatever Thou willest Thou doest. It has been the confession of those of old that Thou wast angered and we have sinned. It is time O LORD to confess the truth. We have sinned and Thou wast angered. We have become a reproach to our neighbors. Thou hast turned Thy face from us and we have become weak. We beseech Thee to calm us to the end because of our sins. Do not chastise others through the strikes that are falling upon us. Make us, instead, to learn from the punishment of other nations upon us. The nations that do not know Thee, and the kingdoms that did not submit to Thee.
But as for us, Thy people, and the staff of Thy goodness, so that we may not be mocked at, and hated by the people who dwell upon the earth; because Thy mercy is indescribable, and Thy love for mankind is immeasurable, and the richness of Thy goodness is uncontainable. Since we are confident of these, we beseech Thee and supplicate Thee, bending the knees of our hearts, and saying:
Stop O LORD Thy angry strikes upon us, as you have stopped it of old upon Thy people during the reign of David. Even though our repentance is unlike theirs, since Thou art good, calm Thy anger upon us. Grant health to the sick, strength to the weak, and preserve the healthy and the strong. Deliver Thy people from every disease, from every infirmity, and deliver us all from the dangers of these disasters. Heal us, O LORD, from this illness, be it physical or spiritual, and protect us by Thy almighty hand so that we may not be harmed by the evil destruction falling down upon us. In truth, Thy anger hast covered us all, and we have all been affected by this distress. Even though we have not all turned from our evil, yet Thou, O LORD, hast delivered us from our evil minds. Grant us, O LORD, to please Thee in every good work.
Through the intercessions of Thine all-holy, immaculate, most blessed and glorious Lady Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary; and the supplications of Bodiless Powers of Heaven that art ever present before the face of God, and all the Saints. For Thou art the fountain of mercies, and the source of compassion; and to Thee we send up glory together with Thy Father who hast no beginning, and Thy holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, always now and ever, and unto ages of ages.
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O LORD, who alone art rich in mercies. Who through the compassions of Thy goodness dost hearken to the petitions of us sinners, Thy unworthy servants. Who ordainest and providest for our needs according to what is appropriate. Who through the wisdom of Thy care dost guide our lives, and seekest to save us in every way possible. Thou chastisest and
healest all in goodness and in love, so that Thy creatures, the work of Thy hands, may not be destroyed but rather, we may return to that pristine beauty, to that original dignity which we had lost through our insistent
ignorance and the ancient deceits of the devil. Thou hast provided for us many ways to repent and return from that transgression which resulted in our fall.
Thou, O LORD Almighty, look now upon us sinners, and hearken unto the voices of our petitions, for the multitude of our iniquities has robbed us from any boldness and made us incapable of approaching Thee for forgiveness of our sins. But since Thou art a lover of mankind, compassionate, abundant in mercies, long-suffering, unhateful, and rich in goodness, we therefore dare to approach Thee through these Divine Virtues and dare to lift up our hands and cry out unto Thee, rejoicing and saying:
We have sinned, O LORD, we have sinned and have forgotten Thy commandments. We have walked after our own evil thoughts and acted against our high calling, and we have become a reproach against Thy Beloved One. We too, the priests, have fallen away along with Thy flock, all of us have fallen short and become stained, and there is not anyone who is righteous, not any. We have shut the doors of Thy compassion, Thy love toward mankind, and Thy long-suffering, O our God, because of the evil acts we have committed. Thou alone art good, and we are sinners. Thou art long-suffering, and we are worthy of the strikes upon us. Because of Thy goodness, even though we have transgressed through our own ignorance, we have been justly chastised for our transgressions.
Thou, O LORD, art to be feared; who then shalt resist Thee? The mountains
shake from Thy presence. Who canst resist Thy Mighty Hand? If the heavens were to shut, who canst open them? If the waters have spread apart, who can gather them?
In Thine eyes, O LORD, it is very simple to impoverish and to enrich. Thou killest and Thou givest Life. Thou strikest and Thou healest. And whatever Thou willest Thou doest. It has been the confession of those of old that Thou wast angered and we have sinned. It is time O LORD to confess the truth. We have sinned and Thou wast angered. We have become a reproach to our neighbors. Thou hast turned Thy face from us and we have become weak. We beseech Thee to calm us to the end because of our sins. Do not chastise others through the strikes that are falling upon us. Make us, instead, to learn from the punishment of other nations upon us. The nations that do not know Thee, and the kingdoms that did not submit to Thee.
But as for us, Thy people, and the staff of Thy goodness, so that we may not be mocked at, and hated by the people who dwell upon the earth; because Thy mercy is indescribable, and Thy love for mankind is immeasurable, and the richness of Thy goodness is uncontainable. Since we are confident of these, we beseech Thee and supplicate Thee, bending the knees of our hearts, and saying:
Stop O LORD Thy angry strikes upon us, as you have stopped it of old upon Thy people during the reign of David. Even though our repentance is unlike theirs, since Thou art good, calm Thy anger upon us. Grant health to the sick, strength to the weak, and preserve the healthy and the strong. Deliver Thy people from every disease, from every infirmity, and deliver us all from the dangers of these disasters. Heal us, O LORD, from this illness, be it physical or spiritual, and protect us by Thy almighty hand so that we may not be harmed by the evil destruction falling down upon us. In truth, Thy anger hast covered us all, and we have all been affected by this distress. Even though we have not all turned from our evil, yet Thou, O LORD, hast delivered us from our evil minds. Grant us, O LORD, to please Thee in every good work.
Through the intercessions of Thine all-holy, immaculate, most blessed and glorious Lady Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary; and the supplications of Bodiless Powers of Heaven that art ever present before the face of God, and all the Saints. For Thou art the fountain of mercies, and the source of compassion; and to Thee we send up glory together with Thy Father who hast no beginning, and Thy holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, always now and ever, and unto ages of ages.
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Tuesday, September 09, 2003
Passion Bearers
Today we have a notable company of saints, who share one thing: They stayed where the Lord had put them, at the risk of their lives, for the love of the Lord's people. In the Christian East, saints of this kind are known as passion bearers; in the West, we have trouble with the words --- this issue came up during the canonization process of both St. Edith Stein and of St. Maximilian Kolbe.
I'll let Gerard, Narwen, and company tell the story of St. Peter Claver, who offered his entire life to the slaves in the markets of Cartagena; and I'll leave Father Alexander Men to the usual Orthodox commentators, and I'll go to that often useful Anglican work, the Book of Lesser Feasts, to tell the story of 38 people, both Episcopalian and Catholic, who gave their lives unto death in 1878. They are known as "St. Constance and her companions, the martyrs of Memphis."
Memphis, in 1878, was a thriving city of approximately 46,000 souls. That summer, there was an onslaught of yellow fever making its way up the Mississippi River, starting early in the summer in New Orleans, and proceeding north, decimating cities as it went, but the population hoped that the illness would burn itself out before getting as far north as them. That hope (wishful thought?) was futile; in mid-August, it was apparent that the yellow fever had arrived.
Now in that time very little was known about yellow fever, but it was known that inland and high and dry places were safe, and about 25,000 of the more well-to-do residents of the city fled to other high and dry places, seeking to outrun the disease (not all were successful), leaving behind about 21,000 people who were too infirm or too poor to leave, or already ill. Most of the Protestant clergy went with the refugees. But the Episcopalian and the Catholic parish priests, and the sisters of the three religious communities then in Memphis, though they had the ability to leave also, chose to stay and serve, knowing the danger. At the height of the epidemic, over 90% of the population was ill and mortality rates were extreme. The three communities of sisters were the Anglican Society of St. Mary, and the Catholic communities the Sisters of Charity of Bethlehem Academy and the Nashville Dominicans. Not only did the sisters stay, but they sent for help from their houses in other places, and reinforcements came to Memphis, the city of death.
On this day, September 9th, the first of the sisters died, Constance, the sister superior of the Society of St. Mary. By the time the epidemic ended, 38 sisters and parochial clergy, both Anglican and Catholic, had died nursing the ill and comforting the dying, and the surviving population of Memphis, from 46,000, was 800.
The Catholic Diocese of Memphis is running a series on this great epidemic, part two of ten is here (I haven't found part one or later parts yet....)
The collect for Constance and her companions, passion bearers, the "Martyrs of Memphis", from the Book of Lesser Feasts and Fasts:
We give thee thanks and praise, O God of compassion, for the heroic witness of Constance and her companions, who, in a time of plague and pestilence, were steadfast in their care for the sick and the dying, and loved not their own lives, even unto death. Inspire in us a like love and commitment to those in need, following the example of our Savior Jesus Christ; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever.
Amen
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Today we have a notable company of saints, who share one thing: They stayed where the Lord had put them, at the risk of their lives, for the love of the Lord's people. In the Christian East, saints of this kind are known as passion bearers; in the West, we have trouble with the words --- this issue came up during the canonization process of both St. Edith Stein and of St. Maximilian Kolbe.
I'll let Gerard, Narwen, and company tell the story of St. Peter Claver, who offered his entire life to the slaves in the markets of Cartagena; and I'll leave Father Alexander Men to the usual Orthodox commentators, and I'll go to that often useful Anglican work, the Book of Lesser Feasts, to tell the story of 38 people, both Episcopalian and Catholic, who gave their lives unto death in 1878. They are known as "St. Constance and her companions, the martyrs of Memphis."
Memphis, in 1878, was a thriving city of approximately 46,000 souls. That summer, there was an onslaught of yellow fever making its way up the Mississippi River, starting early in the summer in New Orleans, and proceeding north, decimating cities as it went, but the population hoped that the illness would burn itself out before getting as far north as them. That hope (wishful thought?) was futile; in mid-August, it was apparent that the yellow fever had arrived.
Now in that time very little was known about yellow fever, but it was known that inland and high and dry places were safe, and about 25,000 of the more well-to-do residents of the city fled to other high and dry places, seeking to outrun the disease (not all were successful), leaving behind about 21,000 people who were too infirm or too poor to leave, or already ill. Most of the Protestant clergy went with the refugees. But the Episcopalian and the Catholic parish priests, and the sisters of the three religious communities then in Memphis, though they had the ability to leave also, chose to stay and serve, knowing the danger. At the height of the epidemic, over 90% of the population was ill and mortality rates were extreme. The three communities of sisters were the Anglican Society of St. Mary, and the Catholic communities the Sisters of Charity of Bethlehem Academy and the Nashville Dominicans. Not only did the sisters stay, but they sent for help from their houses in other places, and reinforcements came to Memphis, the city of death.
On this day, September 9th, the first of the sisters died, Constance, the sister superior of the Society of St. Mary. By the time the epidemic ended, 38 sisters and parochial clergy, both Anglican and Catholic, had died nursing the ill and comforting the dying, and the surviving population of Memphis, from 46,000, was 800.
The Catholic Diocese of Memphis is running a series on this great epidemic, part two of ten is here (I haven't found part one or later parts yet....)
The collect for Constance and her companions, passion bearers, the "Martyrs of Memphis", from the Book of Lesser Feasts and Fasts:
We give thee thanks and praise, O God of compassion, for the heroic witness of Constance and her companions, who, in a time of plague and pestilence, were steadfast in their care for the sick and the dying, and loved not their own lives, even unto death. Inspire in us a like love and commitment to those in need, following the example of our Savior Jesus Christ; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever.
Amen
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Saturday, September 06, 2003
23rd Sunday Ordinary Time (B)
From Isaiah 35:
Say to the ones whose hearts are frightened:
be strong, fear not!
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,
then will the ears of the deaf be cleared,
then the tongue of the mute will sing.
In the gospel, Jesus heals a deaf man
and he hears and speaks.
Then Jesus, after giving him voice,
bids him keep silence,
but he cannot comply.
The more that silence is enjoined,
the more the blessed gentleman proclaims the wonder.
Now that the Resurrection has come,
our Lord and Love is no longer enjoining silence;
but he still opens minds and hearts,
eyes and ears and lips.
We beg for this every time the Gospel is proclaimed.
Lord be in my mind,
Lord be on my lips,
Lord be in my heart;
that I may worthily hear,
that I may worthily know,
that I may worthily proclaim
Your holy gospel.
As I claim my mind for Christ.
As I claim my lips for Christ.
As I claim my heart for Christ.
That we may know him.
That we may proclaim His wonders.
That we may love Him beyond all others,
He the All-good, the Ever-faithful.
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From Isaiah 35:
Say to the ones whose hearts are frightened:
be strong, fear not!
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,
then will the ears of the deaf be cleared,
then the tongue of the mute will sing.
In the gospel, Jesus heals a deaf man
and he hears and speaks.
Then Jesus, after giving him voice,
bids him keep silence,
but he cannot comply.
The more that silence is enjoined,
the more the blessed gentleman proclaims the wonder.
Now that the Resurrection has come,
our Lord and Love is no longer enjoining silence;
but he still opens minds and hearts,
eyes and ears and lips.
We beg for this every time the Gospel is proclaimed.
Lord be in my mind,
Lord be on my lips,
Lord be in my heart;
that I may worthily hear,
that I may worthily know,
that I may worthily proclaim
Your holy gospel.
As I claim my mind for Christ.
As I claim my lips for Christ.
As I claim my heart for Christ.
That we may know him.
That we may proclaim His wonders.
That we may love Him beyond all others,
He the All-good, the Ever-faithful.
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Friday, September 05, 2003
Teresa, who saw through Jesus' disguises
On this day in 1997, Teresa of Calcutta, who had been Sister Agnes of the Loretto Sisters, died. Many years before, drawn by God, she gave up her place of comfort, her habit, and her name, to live, love, and serve among the poorest of God's poor. She called herself Teresa, "for the little one, not the great one", put on a plain cotton sari such as any poor woman might find in the market, and looked for where she might serve. She began with a grade school under an awning at a wide spot of sidewalk. And it grew.
Father Ronald Knox once said: I am not advocating world-movements or public meetings... my appeal is rather to the individual conscience than to the public ear; my hope is rather to see the emergence of a Saint, than that of an organisation......
There is no harm in besieging heaven for the canonization of such and such holy persons now dead. But should we not do well to vary these petitions of ours by asking for more Saints to canonize?
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On this day in 1997, Teresa of Calcutta, who had been Sister Agnes of the Loretto Sisters, died. Many years before, drawn by God, she gave up her place of comfort, her habit, and her name, to live, love, and serve among the poorest of God's poor. She called herself Teresa, "for the little one, not the great one", put on a plain cotton sari such as any poor woman might find in the market, and looked for where she might serve. She began with a grade school under an awning at a wide spot of sidewalk. And it grew.
Father Ronald Knox once said: I am not advocating world-movements or public meetings... my appeal is rather to the individual conscience than to the public ear; my hope is rather to see the emergence of a Saint, than that of an organisation......
There is no harm in besieging heaven for the canonization of such and such holy persons now dead. But should we not do well to vary these petitions of ours by asking for more Saints to canonize?
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That letter, the media, and the blogosphere: more reason to pray for our priests
A couple of weeks ago, almost two hundred of the priests of my diocese signed a letter asking the powers-that-be in our Church to consider the possibility of ordaining certain tested and mature married men to the priesthood, to allow all the faithful to be served in all those ways that only a priest can serve.
To read the secular press, you'd have thunk that our priests were the vanguard of some sort of glorious revolution. But, not so; the Church already ordains some few married men, who serve with as much holiness and distinction as their single brothers do.
In some of the noisier neighborhoods of the Catholic blogosphere, one could get the impression that there'd been a threat to the faith, a proposal to descend into the depths of depravity. Even shouts of "Suspend them all! What _could_ that bishop mean, keeping them all?" But there's not even a hint of depravity, or even self-interest --- unless getting, a decade or so from now, to serve only one parish at a time instead of circuit-riding, is considered inappropriate self-interest. If the Journal-Sentinel and Relevant Radio are to be believed, even the Archbishop is getting in on the act, ordering the priests to work on other things as if they had not already been doing so for decades already. I doubt that the J-S and Relevant have their nuances straight; J-S looks for exciting stories and ratings, and Relevant could well be indulging wishful thinking. There are many many words by +Timothy in yesterday's Catholic Herald about this, and not a hint of that kind of condemnation, though he obviously disagrees.
We are a Eucharistic people. For all Catholics, the Blessed Sacrament grounds and centers our lives. Yet even now, in this urban area where half the population is Catholic, there are parishes that do not have daily Mass, because our priests cannot bilocate and should not trinate (church-speak for celebrating Mass three times in one day).
There are many things that parish volunteers or lay ecclesial servants can do, but there are things that only a priest can do. We need a priest if we are going to have Eucharist, we need a priest to reconcile us when we have strayed, to anoint us when we are ill, to give us wise counsel when we are in crisis, to pray in vigil with us when we are Called and bring us Viaticum, food for the journey.
Our priests have been working very hard to encourage young men to consider whether they might be called to the holy priesthood, and some have listened, heard, and answered. Yet they work with great opposition from our society and culture. Parents are so desirous and eager to see their children become financially successful, which a parish priest never will be. Parents pine for grandchildren and descendants, and are half-hearted, even when they try not to be, about supporting their son who is choosing a way that precludes ever having those longed-for grandchildren, a side-effect of these day's much smaller families. And, our society is in thrall to the abysmal false trinity of money, sex, and power, rather than in submission to the true Triune God. Even our faithful Catholic people have difficulty renouncing the pomps and works of that fake trinity with strength and consistency.
But we still need priests now, yesterday, asap, stat, soon and very soon. Without the sacraments, can we ever keep the strength we most especially need in these days?
All of us who have bothered to look know that our Lord does not always give the gifts and call to priesthood and the gifts and call to singleness to Him as a matched pair. Not all the men he calls to be priests are young and single. Some have holy wives and children. Some are widowed. Some have learned many lessons in the unforgiving school of experience and have the scars to prove it, and yet have found and kept the faith. Also, not all men who are called to singleness to the Lord are also called to ordination; if the tradition can be trusted, very few are. The abbas and ammas of the desert always warned young men in monastic life to flee women and bishops, lest they fall into fornication or ordination!
Until we again have enough priests, what can we do? Just what our bishops and our priests have been encouraging us to do for all these years. Pray for our priests, for their strength and courage. Pray that the Lord call many men, and that they hear and answer. We can have larger families, and not be so concerned about our childrens' financial success or about our future grandchildren, so our spirits are free to give our sons to the Lord's service. We should do ourselves, as parish volunteers or professional eccelsial lay servants, those things that we can do, so the priests we do have are freed to do those things that only a priest can do, and those things for which priests, by their charism of office, are more well-fitted to do. There's no reason for the priest to do the banking, or the plumbing repairs, or the landscaping, or the parish hall scheduling; we layfolk can do that, so the priest can hear confessions, visit the sick and the elders and the prisoners, counsel the troubled in their trials, pray beside the dying, and do all the other things we cannot, but only he can.
And, the curial powers might think and pray about that uncomfortable request, also.
May they pray for us:
Mary, Mother of the Church and Mother of all priests.
Zachary, holy priest of God, and his beloved Elizabeth.
Peter, the Rock, who honored his mother-in-law.
Patrick, apostle to Ireland, son of a priest, grandson of a bishop.
Poor Father Alexis Toth, rejected by Bishop Ireland for being a widower.
Eddie Doherty, holy husband, holy priest, and the venerable Catherine his presbytera.
And all the holy saints in heaven who see us struggle in this world.
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.
A couple of weeks ago, almost two hundred of the priests of my diocese signed a letter asking the powers-that-be in our Church to consider the possibility of ordaining certain tested and mature married men to the priesthood, to allow all the faithful to be served in all those ways that only a priest can serve.
To read the secular press, you'd have thunk that our priests were the vanguard of some sort of glorious revolution. But, not so; the Church already ordains some few married men, who serve with as much holiness and distinction as their single brothers do.
In some of the noisier neighborhoods of the Catholic blogosphere, one could get the impression that there'd been a threat to the faith, a proposal to descend into the depths of depravity. Even shouts of "Suspend them all! What _could_ that bishop mean, keeping them all?" But there's not even a hint of depravity, or even self-interest --- unless getting, a decade or so from now, to serve only one parish at a time instead of circuit-riding, is considered inappropriate self-interest. If the Journal-Sentinel and Relevant Radio are to be believed, even the Archbishop is getting in on the act, ordering the priests to work on other things as if they had not already been doing so for decades already. I doubt that the J-S and Relevant have their nuances straight; J-S looks for exciting stories and ratings, and Relevant could well be indulging wishful thinking. There are many many words by +Timothy in yesterday's Catholic Herald about this, and not a hint of that kind of condemnation, though he obviously disagrees.
We are a Eucharistic people. For all Catholics, the Blessed Sacrament grounds and centers our lives. Yet even now, in this urban area where half the population is Catholic, there are parishes that do not have daily Mass, because our priests cannot bilocate and should not trinate (church-speak for celebrating Mass three times in one day).
There are many things that parish volunteers or lay ecclesial servants can do, but there are things that only a priest can do. We need a priest if we are going to have Eucharist, we need a priest to reconcile us when we have strayed, to anoint us when we are ill, to give us wise counsel when we are in crisis, to pray in vigil with us when we are Called and bring us Viaticum, food for the journey.
Our priests have been working very hard to encourage young men to consider whether they might be called to the holy priesthood, and some have listened, heard, and answered. Yet they work with great opposition from our society and culture. Parents are so desirous and eager to see their children become financially successful, which a parish priest never will be. Parents pine for grandchildren and descendants, and are half-hearted, even when they try not to be, about supporting their son who is choosing a way that precludes ever having those longed-for grandchildren, a side-effect of these day's much smaller families. And, our society is in thrall to the abysmal false trinity of money, sex, and power, rather than in submission to the true Triune God. Even our faithful Catholic people have difficulty renouncing the pomps and works of that fake trinity with strength and consistency.
But we still need priests now, yesterday, asap, stat, soon and very soon. Without the sacraments, can we ever keep the strength we most especially need in these days?
All of us who have bothered to look know that our Lord does not always give the gifts and call to priesthood and the gifts and call to singleness to Him as a matched pair. Not all the men he calls to be priests are young and single. Some have holy wives and children. Some are widowed. Some have learned many lessons in the unforgiving school of experience and have the scars to prove it, and yet have found and kept the faith. Also, not all men who are called to singleness to the Lord are also called to ordination; if the tradition can be trusted, very few are. The abbas and ammas of the desert always warned young men in monastic life to flee women and bishops, lest they fall into fornication or ordination!
Until we again have enough priests, what can we do? Just what our bishops and our priests have been encouraging us to do for all these years. Pray for our priests, for their strength and courage. Pray that the Lord call many men, and that they hear and answer. We can have larger families, and not be so concerned about our childrens' financial success or about our future grandchildren, so our spirits are free to give our sons to the Lord's service. We should do ourselves, as parish volunteers or professional eccelsial lay servants, those things that we can do, so the priests we do have are freed to do those things that only a priest can do, and those things for which priests, by their charism of office, are more well-fitted to do. There's no reason for the priest to do the banking, or the plumbing repairs, or the landscaping, or the parish hall scheduling; we layfolk can do that, so the priest can hear confessions, visit the sick and the elders and the prisoners, counsel the troubled in their trials, pray beside the dying, and do all the other things we cannot, but only he can.
And, the curial powers might think and pray about that uncomfortable request, also.
May they pray for us:
Mary, Mother of the Church and Mother of all priests.
Zachary, holy priest of God, and his beloved Elizabeth.
Peter, the Rock, who honored his mother-in-law.
Patrick, apostle to Ireland, son of a priest, grandson of a bishop.
Poor Father Alexis Toth, rejected by Bishop Ireland for being a widower.
Eddie Doherty, holy husband, holy priest, and the venerable Catherine his presbytera.
And all the holy saints in heaven who see us struggle in this world.
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Wednesday, September 03, 2003
On not living up to one's own standards
In today's Office of Readings, today's saint, from the most illustrious pulpit in all Christendom, states exactly where he stands:
How hard it is for me to say this, for by these very words I denounce myself. I cannot preach with any competence, and yet insofar as I do succeed, still I myself do not live my life according to my own preaching. I do not deny my responsibility; I recognize that I am slothful and negligent, but perhaps the acknowledgement of my fault will win me pardon from my just judge.
but yet he has hope:
Truly the all-powerful Creator and Redeemer of mankind can give me in spite of my weaknesses a higher life and effective speech; because I love him, I do not spare myself in speaking of him.
Another wise and holy bishop wrote, in words meant to be seen by only one other person in the whole world, but now belonging to us all:
During the last months I have come to know how strained I was, tense, pensive, without much joy. I couldn't pray at all. I just did not seem to be honest with God. I felt I was fleeing from Him, from facing Him. I know what the trouble was: I was letting your conscience take over for me and I couldn't live with it. I felt like the world's worst hypocrite. .....I was at a crossroads -- and I knew I had to get the courage to decide. There is no other way for me to live....... I failed you, I failed myself. I failed as a friend, I failed as priest. .....I did nothing but cry and try to pray....... I begged for forgiveness for having failed you and for the grace of standing up again and trying to be -- not a bishop -- just a Christian.
And we do not have to be holy and wise bishops to know that we do not always live up to our own standards. I definitely know that in my own life. One of my fellow Catholic bloggers has even named his blog "I see the right way and approve of it, then do the opposite".
And yet, there is hope for us. And it begins with conviction and contrition. I name myself hypocrite, so Jesus doesn't have to. I, the shy and timid, and highly embarrassed, do my best to be bold and confident as I place all my failures in Jesus' all-loving and all-merciful heart.
What were the first symptoms that the fall had happened? First, Adam and Eve tried to hide from God, then they blamed someone else. But I am redeemed, born into a new life, and should have nothing to do with either one of these. [The hiding from God part just plain isn't possible, in any case!]
So every time I find myself a failure in following my own standards, I have to not hide from God, and not hide from myself, and say with honesty and humility and confidence: I have sinned through my own fault. For:
Ultimately I understand that the humanity God so loved and sought to redeem, including my own humanity, will be transformed by His loving embrace and grace.
as that wise and holy bishop said to the Church he gave up that friendship to serve with a single heart. It is as true of me as it is of him, and it is true for every one of us.
So let us not refuse to say: I, supposed Christian, hypocrite! And may I never flee the grace of God that answers, Welcome home!
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In today's Office of Readings, today's saint, from the most illustrious pulpit in all Christendom, states exactly where he stands:
How hard it is for me to say this, for by these very words I denounce myself. I cannot preach with any competence, and yet insofar as I do succeed, still I myself do not live my life according to my own preaching. I do not deny my responsibility; I recognize that I am slothful and negligent, but perhaps the acknowledgement of my fault will win me pardon from my just judge.
but yet he has hope:
Truly the all-powerful Creator and Redeemer of mankind can give me in spite of my weaknesses a higher life and effective speech; because I love him, I do not spare myself in speaking of him.
Another wise and holy bishop wrote, in words meant to be seen by only one other person in the whole world, but now belonging to us all:
During the last months I have come to know how strained I was, tense, pensive, without much joy. I couldn't pray at all. I just did not seem to be honest with God. I felt I was fleeing from Him, from facing Him. I know what the trouble was: I was letting your conscience take over for me and I couldn't live with it. I felt like the world's worst hypocrite. .....I was at a crossroads -- and I knew I had to get the courage to decide. There is no other way for me to live....... I failed you, I failed myself. I failed as a friend, I failed as priest. .....I did nothing but cry and try to pray....... I begged for forgiveness for having failed you and for the grace of standing up again and trying to be -- not a bishop -- just a Christian.
And we do not have to be holy and wise bishops to know that we do not always live up to our own standards. I definitely know that in my own life. One of my fellow Catholic bloggers has even named his blog "I see the right way and approve of it, then do the opposite".
And yet, there is hope for us. And it begins with conviction and contrition. I name myself hypocrite, so Jesus doesn't have to. I, the shy and timid, and highly embarrassed, do my best to be bold and confident as I place all my failures in Jesus' all-loving and all-merciful heart.
What were the first symptoms that the fall had happened? First, Adam and Eve tried to hide from God, then they blamed someone else. But I am redeemed, born into a new life, and should have nothing to do with either one of these. [The hiding from God part just plain isn't possible, in any case!]
So every time I find myself a failure in following my own standards, I have to not hide from God, and not hide from myself, and say with honesty and humility and confidence: I have sinned through my own fault. For:
Ultimately I understand that the humanity God so loved and sought to redeem, including my own humanity, will be transformed by His loving embrace and grace.
as that wise and holy bishop said to the Church he gave up that friendship to serve with a single heart. It is as true of me as it is of him, and it is true for every one of us.
So let us not refuse to say: I, supposed Christian, hypocrite! And may I never flee the grace of God that answers, Welcome home!
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Tuesday, September 02, 2003
Back when the French had their Revolution, they really had a Revolution!
On this day in 1792, 191 bishops and priests were massacred in Paris, most of them at the Carmelite Church on the Rue de Rennes.
For, when the French had their revolution, they didn't just get rid of their king and start a new government, like we tell our children that we did. They didn't even just grab the heads of the previous government and string them up (or chop their heads off), like new governments have done to old governments pretty much ever since there have been governments, and like we saw in Romania not too long ago. No, they had a Terror, and a good old fashioned kneel-down-and-kiss-the foot-of-Lady-Liberty-or-else persecution.
"No church or priest of France, and no French citizen, may, under any circumstances or on any pretext whatsoever, acknowledge the authority of an ordinary, bishop or archbishop, whose see is established under the name of a foreign power," their new law said. This was enforced by compelling all clerics to make a public oath of submission to the new government, and renounce all obedience to "foreign powers." The penalty for refusal was deportation, deprivation of citizenship, and lifelong exile. All but four of the bishops of France and the vast majority of the priests refused the oath; a large group of them were detained at the Carmelite Church, awaiting deportation to one or another of France's prison colonies.
A rumor flashed through Paris that a foreign invasion was immanent, and riotous mobs sprung up, attacking the jails and prisons, looking for priests and bishops that they could lynch. After all, priests and bishops were such lovers of "foreign powers". The rioters soon arrived at the Carmelite Church; the first person they encountered after they barged in was Jean de Lau, the archbishop of Arles; when the rioters realized he was an archbishop, they hacked him to death right then and there. But then they decided to make the killings more fun and dramatic. They set up a "court" to have mock trials for their victims, then took them out to the garden courtyard for "executions".
The prisoners were called for interrogations and "trials" two by two, and it took many hours, but the revolutionaries did not tire of their new sport. Late in the evening, among the last few prisoners, the turn of the bishop of Beauvais came; he was a paraplegic invalid. The bishop called from his pallet, "Gentlemen, I am at your disposal. I am ready to die, but I cannot walk. Would a few of you be so kind as to carry me where you wish me to go?"
And so were born to eternal life Jean-Francois Burte, Severin Giralt, Jean de Lau, and their 188 companions, bishops and priests, martyrs.
.
.
On this day in 1792, 191 bishops and priests were massacred in Paris, most of them at the Carmelite Church on the Rue de Rennes.
For, when the French had their revolution, they didn't just get rid of their king and start a new government, like we tell our children that we did. They didn't even just grab the heads of the previous government and string them up (or chop their heads off), like new governments have done to old governments pretty much ever since there have been governments, and like we saw in Romania not too long ago. No, they had a Terror, and a good old fashioned kneel-down-and-kiss-the foot-of-Lady-Liberty-or-else persecution.
"No church or priest of France, and no French citizen, may, under any circumstances or on any pretext whatsoever, acknowledge the authority of an ordinary, bishop or archbishop, whose see is established under the name of a foreign power," their new law said. This was enforced by compelling all clerics to make a public oath of submission to the new government, and renounce all obedience to "foreign powers." The penalty for refusal was deportation, deprivation of citizenship, and lifelong exile. All but four of the bishops of France and the vast majority of the priests refused the oath; a large group of them were detained at the Carmelite Church, awaiting deportation to one or another of France's prison colonies.
A rumor flashed through Paris that a foreign invasion was immanent, and riotous mobs sprung up, attacking the jails and prisons, looking for priests and bishops that they could lynch. After all, priests and bishops were such lovers of "foreign powers". The rioters soon arrived at the Carmelite Church; the first person they encountered after they barged in was Jean de Lau, the archbishop of Arles; when the rioters realized he was an archbishop, they hacked him to death right then and there. But then they decided to make the killings more fun and dramatic. They set up a "court" to have mock trials for their victims, then took them out to the garden courtyard for "executions".
The prisoners were called for interrogations and "trials" two by two, and it took many hours, but the revolutionaries did not tire of their new sport. Late in the evening, among the last few prisoners, the turn of the bishop of Beauvais came; he was a paraplegic invalid. The bishop called from his pallet, "Gentlemen, I am at your disposal. I am ready to die, but I cannot walk. Would a few of you be so kind as to carry me where you wish me to go?"
And so were born to eternal life Jean-Francois Burte, Severin Giralt, Jean de Lau, and their 188 companions, bishops and priests, martyrs.
.
.
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