Full, Active, and Conscious Participation --- a Desert story

There once was an Christian emperor who on one Sunday came to the church for the Divine Liturgy. He was apparently praying, but his mind was really occupied with the plans for a new palace. He was considering the site he had chosen for his palace and how the palace would sit on that site and how it all would look. Later, that evening as he slept, he dreamed that he met our Lord Jesus Christ who asked him where he had been for Christ had not seen him at Liturgy. The emperor replied, "Lord, just this morning I was at the Divine Liturgy, did you not see me there." To which our Lord answered, "No, this morning you were on the hill overlooking the site for your new palace --- you were not in the liturgy."

For it is not only our bodies that must be present in the Church when we come for Eucharist, but our whole being, body, mind, heart, and will participating together in prayer that is required of us.
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There were Carnivals this week

This week's Catholic Carnival XXXVI and the Christian Carnival for this week have both been available for reading pleasure for several days now; especially follow the links on the Christian Carnival contribution by Ales Rarus about cussing. I haven't finished them all yet, but what I have read of both of the Carnivals today has been great.

The blogosphere doesn't stop for conventions --- even church music conventions --- or for funerals. Still going through the hundreds of backed-up emails. New posts soon.

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Some notices.....

First, Father John Campbell, About whom I posted a few weeks ago, has died. Eternal rest grant to him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. As of right now, the funeral is expected to be Friday evening at the Gesu.

Second, this is likely to be the last post till the holiday weekend, because the National Association of Pastoral Musicians conference has begun. I leave in less than an hour for my first of many volunteer shifts this week, I expect to be out from early to late every day this week, enjoying --- even till after midnight a couple of nights, and I also have a convention houseguest. I hope to peek in at least to police the comment boxes and download email .... so, my siblings, don't be fretting about me until after the fourth!
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Wise words on Adoration

The Veneration of the Holy of Holies, by Hans Urs von Balthazar. Tabernacles are wonderful!

via Gerard's Catholic Pages for Lovers, which I hope someone can mirror so it won't just disappear on us one night. Remember to pray for Gerard!
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Until it's replicated, it's a miracle

While I'm in final preparations for spending all next week at the National Association of Pastoral Musicians conference (my birthday present to me!) here are part one, part two, and part three of the tale of a Milwaukee miracle. There's also the promise of goodies here for those who enjoy a broadband connection.

We all prayed our knees off back in October and November for Jeanna Giese, now it is time to give thanks for the victory!
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Crosses without corpuses

quotation via Bene Diction Blogs On

When you see a poor wooden cross, alone, uncared-for, and of no value.....and without its Crucified, don't forget that that Cross is your Cross: the Cross of each day, the hidden Cross, without splendor or consolation....the Cross which is awaiting the Crucified it lacks: and that Crucified must be you. ---- St. Josemaria Escriva
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Memory Eternal

Archeparch Joseph Raya's funeral was today. Eternal rest grant to him, O Lord, and lte perpetual Light shine upon him.

Here is a memorial page for him by Madonna House. Among many other things, he was the very first priest associate of that apostolate.
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A new Catholic library site!

Here's the Crossroads Initiative Library site, put together by Dr. Marcellino d'Ambrosio, which I haven't managed to totally explore yet, but which has lots and lots of wonderful resources, including modern ones. It looks like it will become a worthy companion to the most worthy and venerable Christian Classics Ethereal Library --- just ignore the few links for herbal diet pills.

It's going to be added to the sidebar resources at the next bout of template-tampering.
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All mixed up? Help is arrived!

Ever been studying the documents of the most recent Ecumenical Council and found out that the Flannery translation and the Abbott translation don't quite match up, some EWTN talking head is definitively stating that the text means a third thing entirely, and your diocese's Council Father is a couple of decades ago reposed so he can't be asked what it really was they set out to say?

Help has arrived (at least a little bit of help)! Here's a site with the complete original and official Latin texts of all the documents, where one can figure out why the two translations are divergent and whether the talking head has any grounding for the third way.

ENJOY!
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Prayer Journals (or just plain journals)

Somebody emailed me last week, asking if I could discuss how to keep a prayer journal, and I find it's an intriguing request.

Now, folks like me just can't keep from pondering and what-if-ing and writing it down, in well-hidden or firmly locked books or binders --- after all, there's an entire industry dedicated to making books with key locks and "blank books" and ledger books with a date at the top of each page just for those folk like me who also have a little money. I was only 9 when I discovered that the little tear in my vinyl headboard cover was just right for hiding a steno book from snooping younger siblings.

[not even to mention the Blogger tool itself, for the not-so-secret writing.....]

But I'm given to understand that it isn't as easy and naturally-occurring for some others --- but it would still be handy to be able to look back over a month or a season or a year and be able to take stock of how things are coming along, or not. Maybe it's one of those things that ought to be in the not-yet-written parts II and III of the Spiritual Fitness Program, in "Advanced Beginners" or "Intermediate Spiritual Athletes." (I didn't think of it before; after all, doesn't everyone think onto paper????)

Here's a few hints I think might help. Please, fill up the comments box with more bright ideas. Those of us to which this comes naturally don't always think of things other folk might see right away.

1) Write down something every day, no matter how little, at least for the first several months. even a single sentence --- "I had the stomach flu" or "The first tomato was ripe today, and it made a good TLO sandwich." will do. This has to do with establishing a habit pattern, after two or three months of doing something every day, that something, whatever it is, becomes like second nature, seems to have something to do with human hardwiring. When I was still working, we called it "the ruts in the resilient floor tiles" that for two months after every collection move we'd all start fetching in the wrong direction, where things used to be shelved, until there was a new rut to the new location.....

2) If you are involved in a spiritual fitness program of some sort, you may want to start logging your overt acts. I got this idea from the school of diabetes. Almost more important than diet, the testing, the insulin, and the exercise routine is the paperwork --- called the "logbook" and the "diabetes diary" --- where every blood test, every shot, and every coloric food eaten is written down or graphed. A typical diabetes diary page reads something like this:


MONDAY 06 JUNE 2005

rising blood sugar: 116
insulin (R) units: 0
breakfast: 2 sl. ww toast w/pb, 8 oz skim milk, 1 apple
lunch: pork roasted with carrots, celery, onions, 2 choices potatoes
pre-dinner blood sugar: 120
Insulin (R) units: 2
dinner: lowfat cottage cheese, celery sticks, 2 granola bars
Lantus insulin 10 units @ midnight


Notice that I didn't have to get coherent or creative (though I could have if I wanted or needed) but all the facts are there that I'm going to need to find out if I'm being successful over a course of weeks or months, long after I can remember just what I had for lunch on some particular day, or that was thne weekend I was throwing up, or the day I ate out....

I'm presuming that, for those folk who aren't natural-born diarists, something similar would be possible, maybe like this ---I'll create a character for this, similar to lots of ladies in my neighborhood. (working-class woman with husband, several school-aged children, 2 1/2 jobs between her and husband, etc.)


FRIDAY 01 JULY 2005

morning offering: yes
prayers for special intentions: husband, children, Sue's safe travel, Fr. Campbell's cancer, against violence in city
Scripture read: Genesis 23-24, Matthew 9:9-13 (Mass readings)
current book/tape/lectio: Catechism 976-987 (believe in forgiveness of sins)
merciful act: yes
examen: yes. Issues: stop fantasising about stringing up supervisor! patience with children. only cussed twice today, continue work on pottymouth. Add needs of supervisor to special intentions tomorrow. Maybe take kids for tabernacle time tomorrow _before_ festival. Beware overindulgence on holiday weekend.


There's room to expand and expound, if one has a mind to, but even if not, the facts are there for review, and can check out over time one's progress; and examen things that are grave matter or that keep on coming up can be taken for some of that confessional grace.

That's as far as I've taken this; please help me out in the comment box or by email, there's two links for email in the sidebar!
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Just keeping up

It's been a somewhat wooly couple of days. Hot, sticky. Not good sleeping weather --- and not good waking-up weather either, I apparently turned off my alarm clock Sunday morning without actually waking up and missed my ride to church, waking up at 7:59 am, just in time to turn the radio to listen to where I was supposed to actually be! [Will I get drummed out of the Legion of Mary for this?....] One of my tenants had to go out in the middle of the night this weekend on a rescue mission I suspect I'd rather not know too much about.

The computer's crashed at least once a day since Friday. I'm way overdue responding to a kind blog-related email. But things are looking up.

Peapod arrived to deliver the groceries just with the first raindrops and were done and gone before the deluge and the hailstones. [Peapod is wonderful.] Tomorrow I get to go to one of my favorite strip malls for my annual haircut, which I missed last year --- have to look spiffy for my new undriver's licence picture and right now I just look shaggy. [For the Milwaukeans, I'm referring to the corner of Farwell and Brady, where there's a good Supercuts shop --- and a TYME machine, Subway, Walgreens and Osco. After the haircut, I hope to find a clamp parasol for my chair and a few other small amenities...]

Also, keep me in prayer. Remember, a few months ago I mentioned how I would like to spend my upcoming birthday? Well, it might just be possible after all; I've applied to volunteer at the National Pastoral Musicians conference, and the rules say that if you volunteer, you can also listen in on the events that day, so I really hope they accept me. I'll happily do clerical labor, pass out leaflets, or whatever to be able to listen in of some of the sessions on the schedule!
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On Reconciliation within the Church

Please, my brothers and sisters, place yourself in a prayerful attitude of mind and heart, and then read this exhortation. Pope Paul VI wrote it in 1974, but we still need it, because we are still insisting on dismembering our Church.

There is only one Catholic Church, which is not "progressive" or "conservative" or "reactionary" or "liberal" or "Am-" or any other adjective. There is only The Catholic Church, where the bishop is, which Christ has promised forever to protect.

We have no right to tear it apart. We have no right to drive away our sisters and brothers. We only endanger ourselves if we insist on going away from the Church and those same sisters and brothers, out into the howling wilderness.

So read, and pray, and stop using divisive adjectives to tear apart our Church.
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the Fire of the Holy Spirit and the power of good example: another Desert Christian story

from John Moschus' book, The Spiritual Meadow, #69

Sophronius and I went to the same Abba Palladios with this request, "Of your charity, tell us, father, where you came from, and how it came about that you embraced the monastic life." He was from Thessalonica, he said, and then he told us this: "In my home country, about three stades beyond the city wall, there was a recluse, a native of Mesopotamia, whose name was David. He was a man of outstanding virtue, merciful and continent. He spent about twenty years in his place of confinement. Now at this time, because of the barbarians, the walls of the city were patrolled at night by soldiers. One night those who were on guard duty at that stretch of the city walls nearest to where the elder's place of confinement was located, saw fire pouring from the windows of the recluse's cell. The soldiers thought the barbarians must have set the elder's cell on fire, but when they went out in the morning, to their amazement, they found the elder unharmed and his cell unburned. Again the following night they saw fire, the same way as before, in the elder's cell --- and this went on for a long time. The occurrence became known to all the city and throughout the countryside. Many people would come and keep vigil on the wall all night long in order to see the fire, which continued to appear until the elder died.
As this phenomenon did not merely appear once or twice but was often seen, I said to myself, "If God so glorifies his servants in this world, how much more so in the world to come when He shines upon their faces like the sun? This, my family, is why I embraced the monastic life."
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It's Tuesday

so it's Catholic Carnival time again. It is open for patrons at DeoOmnisGloria.
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The Lessons of this Blog's Beginnings

Today is Memorial Day. One of the days when we remember those who have gone before us, and especially those who have been killed or wounded defending, or believing they were defending, us and our nation.

It is also May 30th. Three years ago today, the virtual Anchor Hold was born, out of the internecine warfare that mars the face of our holy Church.

Only about ten days before, two of my dearest listserv acquaintances, Mark Shea from the REBORN listserv, and the late Gerard Serafin of FreeCatholic and a few other places (Gerard pray for us!) had written to the lists about their shiny new blogs, and I went over to give them an ogle. On May 23rd, one of my grad-school classmates delivered a nasty retirement present to my retiring archbishop, and the early long Dormition Fast of 2002 began, and the Catholic portions of the internet seemed to explode, often with statements that appeared to have little correspondence with reality. There was so much that needed said, by someone who actually belonged to this local church, so, less than two weeks after I read my first blog, I was writing my own. I didn't know how to bold or italic or make a link that actually worked, so the first few days were painfully and embarrassingly plain. My first-day posts were an introduction, a reply to Sean of Nota Bene about what had happened here, and a prayer request for our archbishop.

There are ten lessons, truths of faith and life, that were learned, or powerfully reinforced, in the first few turbulent months of this site, which will remain true no matter what the current troubles are or who might be the current pariah. Or even if the current pariah should come to be me. The site's anniversary is an excellent time to review them:

1) The details of our long-ago-confessed and long-ago-absolved sins and stupidities are the business only of God. They are most definitely not the business of those who would turn them into cudgels.

2) The details of the sins of other people are none of my business; I've enough troubles with my own.

3) Sins and stupidities do not negate goodness, wisdom, love, or generosity.

4) The Accuser of the Brethren can have no foothold among us if we refuse to play his foul game. We must not accuse others, only ourselves. We cannot defend ourselves, even justly, by accusing anybody else of anything; not if we seek to live truly submitted lives.

5) The Church has wisely declared that the Lord can and does use imperfect instruments to build his Kingdom, and that the sacraments are not dependent on the perfection of their ministers. If we insist on having only perfect bishops who have only perfect priests, we will have neither bishops nor priests; for all of us have sinned, every single one of us has done spectacularly stupid things, and even the strongest and most faithful of us come equipped with two clay feet.

6) Where the bishop is, there is the Catholic Church, which the Lord has promised to protect and sustain, and there is no other place where one can be certain of that.

7) When chaos is breaking out all over and the world is spinning and shaking, one reaches deep down inside, down to the foundations of the soul, and finds one of those things that are known to be true and will not change, and one clings tightly to that until the chaos subsides. Two of those unchanging true things are "God made me to know Him, and to love Him, and to serve Him, and to be happy with Him forever and ever in Heaven" and "God is all-good and deserving of all my love."

8) I have sinned and have done some incredibly dumb things; I have no right to ridicule anybody, ever.

9) The judgment I judge is the judgment I will be judged by; the forgiveness I offer will be the forgiveness I receive. So how dare I even think of stringent judgment or withholding my forgiveness?

and 10) from the public chapter of faults, the last formal teaching, of my gentle and devoted retired archbishop, who was the designated pariah when this site was birthed three years ago: 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.
But I am also aware much self-pity and pride remain. I must leave that pride behind. Each day I will try to leave room for God to enter into my life more and more. 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.
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the alphabet meme

via Steven of Flos Carmeli:

A is for Age - old enough to remember the "dialogue Mass" and the very first postCounciliar liturgy change, which happened in my parish the Sunday following my First Communion. [a month shy of 49]

B is for Booze - even my best friends think I'm teetotal! A very rare (once or twice a year) glass of wine. Hot lemonade or limeade with a shot of dark Bacardi rum, medicinally when the stuffed sinuses are just too much to bear anymore.

C is for Career - "Anchor Hold Dweller" (also, retired library clerk)

D is for Dad’s name - Mick, but the birth certificate says Lawrence.

E is for Essential items to bring to a party - lots of cold beverages

F is for Favorite song at the moment - "All My Hope" Dave Brubeck

G is for Golf? - yes to watch, no to play

H is for Hometown - Akron, Ohio

I is for Instrument you [used to] play - Recorder, Transverse Flute, Piccolo.

J is for Jam or Jelly you like - Blueberry Simply Fruit

K is for Kids - None

L is for Living arrangement - two stories & basement, 4 bedrooms, one bathroom, three tenants. Lots of books. A couple of millipedes that run around after midnight to remind me it's time to go to bed. Two magnificently productive rhubarb plants, neighborhood birds, feral cats, and overeducated squirrels who have learned how to rip window screens.....

M is for Mom’s name - Mary, but the birth certificate says Janet.

N is for Names of best friends - Peter, two Dennises, Terri, Marie-Aimee, two Jeffreys, Gina

O is for overnight hospital stays - too many!

P is for Phobias - fear of becoming a burden

Q is for Quote you like - "Every family should have a room where Christ is welcome in the person of the hungry and thirsty stranger." St. John Chrysostom.

R is for Relationship that lasted longest - Other than siblings, Gina, who I met in the cafeteria line in college back in 1975 --- I made a sick joke about how they ought to hand out plenary indulgences for eating what they were serving that day.....

S is for Siblings - three brothers and four sisters, all younger.

T is for Television? - EWTN, CNN, the C-Spans. current Guilty Pleasures are Alton Brown's Good Eats, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, What Not to Wear, and Overhaulin'

U is for Unique trait - Propensity to give commands to inanimate objects

V if for Vegetable you love - brussels sprouts

W is for Worst trait - Too detached from what others think, Over-reclusive

X - is for XRays you’ve had - teeth, chest, knees, ankle

Y is for Yummy food you make - Braised Beef Shank, 10-minute Vegetarian Vegetable Soup, Splendad Rhubarb Crisp, Sugar-free Key Limeade (Steven, that's bottled Key Lime juice! which is cheaper than RealLime, I don't know why!)

Z is for Zodiac sign - Cancer
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Another crazy quiz ---- Me, a Hedonist????

via the Ragemonkeys:

You scored as Divine Command. Your life is directed by Divine Command: Your god and religion give you meaning and direction. “Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.” --King James Version of the Bible “Even as a tree has a single trunk but many branches and leaves, there is one religion--human religion--but any number of faiths.” --Mahatma Gandhi More info at Arocoun's Wikipedia User Page... Divine Command 95% Hedonism 85% Existentialism 80% Utilitarianism 70% Justice (Fairness) 55% Kantianism 45% Apathy 15% Strong Egoism 10% Nihilism 0% What philosophy do you follow? (v1.03) created with QuizFarm.com

Splendad Rhubarb Crisp

I tried it today, and it actually worked! [Now, eldest younger brother Tom, do not faint!] adapted from the Two Sleepy Mommies' full-cane-goodness version with a hint in time from Alicia of Fructus Ventris, here is:

Splendad Rhubarb Crisp

Preheat oven to 375 drgrees
Take one stick of butter out to soften (1/4 lb or 1/2 cup)

For the filling:

5-6 cups washed and sliced rhubarb
1 cup Splenda granular --- the kind that measures 1/1 with sugar, not the packets!
2 Tablespoons white flour

Slice rhubarb. Mix Splenda and flour and toss them around in bowl with rhubarb peices. Put mixture in a suitable sized baking dish or pan --- I used a 3-quart Pyrex casserole dish. Make it kind of even.

for crisp topping [twice as much as the Mommies' version because I like crunchy stuff):

1 stick (1/4 lb or 1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1 cup minus 2 tablespoons Splenda granular
1/3 cup white flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and/or ginger and/or nutmeg --- I used just cinnamon
2 tablespoons dark molasses
1 cup "old-fashioned" rolled oats

Smash the butter in a bowl to make sure it's gotten soft. Mix the Splenda, flour, and spice(s), add to the butter, and blend until there are no more huge lumps of butter. Add the molasses and blend well. Add the oatmeal and stir well. [If you like to add other crunchies like chopped nuts to your topping, add them before the oats; always add oats last so they don't get too smashed] Spread this mixture evenly over the chopped rhubarb mixture in the baking dish.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes, until the rhubarb is cooked and bubbly and the oatmeal topping is browned and crisp.

Enjoy without guilt! 1/8 of the dish=1 carbohydrate choice. The whole dish is only 8 carb choices!
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A special parish prayer

Father John Campbell, who has been an associate pastor at the Gesu (the other parish I belong to) from forever, and who is my goddaughter's confessor, has been fighting cancer of the tongue for several months now. We've been remembering him in prayer individually, and now the parish has a prayer-in-common to beg the Lord for him. Please, if you feel so moved, please join us ....

Prayer for Father John Campbell, S.J.

Good and gracious God, ever-loving and ever-present,
we humbly approach You with an urgent petition for our friend,
Father John Campbell of the Society of Jesus,
who is seriously ill with cancer.

The parish community of Gesu,
which Father John has served faithfully for almost 25 years,
begs that he be healed in body, mind, and spirit.

Bless Father John with Your sustaining love.
Ease his pain. Grant him peace, courage, strength, and hope.
May Your love and Your grace be enough for him this day.

We ask that You bless his mother, Mary; his brother, Don;
his brother Jesuits, and his many friends near and far.
Keep safe in the glory of Your loving embrace
all who are experiencing the Cross of Your Son, Jesus.

Through the intercession of Saint Ignatius of Loyola,
Jesuit Father Pedro Arrupe, Pope John Paul II,
and all the holy women and men from Gesu who are with You,
please return Father John to us, if it be Your holy will.

We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
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Three fine new priests!

Three fine new priests could use your prayers. Fathers Peter Berger, Michael Lightner, and Norberto Sandoval were ordained today for our archdiocese, witnessed by a joyous full cathedral. The entire local Church, gathered with the bishop at the altar of the Lord.

Those of my readers who have never been to an ordination, find out when the ordinations will be in your diocese, and go! Then remember the newly-ordained particularly in prayer, that they may persevere and may be true fathers to the faithful.
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A fast update --- no, I haven't died

The other Milwaukee Catholic-blogger, Terrence, just sent me an email the full text of which was:

When you don't blog for five days, people worry that you're not well

OK, I haven't been the most inspired writer this month. And I'm too tempted (and succumb) to reading all my email and everybody else's blog before working on my own. Be that as may:

I did make it to the Pallium Lecture on Thursday. Fr. Richard John Neuhaus was as glorious as he has always been. I'm old enough to remember him from the days when the great prolife issues were napalm, MAD, and involuntary sterilization; when dinosaurs roamed the earth. I couldn't keep up with notetaking and still have two whole pages of notes, leaving two pages in the back of the worship booklet for notes on the upcomind June 2 speaker. The Powers that Be say they are trying to reschedule the cancelled first speaker --- Cardinal George had a really lame excuse about having to go to Rome [grin, groan].

Today was the monthly go-get-bled day, they got their tube of blood on the first poke, the hospital cafeteria had wonderful turnip greens, I wonder what it was they put in them besides the turnip tops. When I got home, I stayed outside for a while, harvested about two pounds of rhubarb (this is the earliest I've had harvestable rhubarb the whole 15 years I've lived here). Anyone having access to sugar-free or sugar-radically-reduced rhubarb recipes are strongly urged to post them, or links to them, in the comments. I think rhubarb sauce will work with splenda and apples, but I can't figure out a flavorful sub to try for the brown sugar in crisp topping......

My tenant Dennis and one of the neighbor boys were playing a basketball-related game called horse using the hoop that my across-the-street neighbor convinced me to let him mount in my front yard two weeks ago. It was uproariously fun to watch; I think this is the best idea that Jeff-the-lawyer has had in all the years we've both lived here. Much, much better that hollering at him over the ways he parks his cars (a volatile issue on a street only 13 feet wide without sidewalks or setbacks or driveways).

Sporadically working on the "ad altare dei" post; might have it ready for posting by the weekend.
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It's like herding cats

.... shepherding the intellectual lives of theologians and philosophers. But it has to be done. Free enough to be joyous and productive (catching lots of mice, teaching lots of students, leaping out the hayloft window, following the fascinating new concept.....) and controlled enough to stay safe (not get lost off the farm or hit by a car, not wandering off into heresy or getting mauled by other creatures on and about the place....). And the way this has been done, at least for the last few generations, is by arranging a good-cop/bad-cop team to ride herd on them all. Now Pope Benedict, before he became Pope, had the job of bad-cop to Pope John Paul's good-cop in keeping the theologians and philosophers productive and safe. Now Benedict is the pope, and has the good-cop job as part and parcel of the Petrine ministry --- but who was going to take over his own old job as bad-cop?

Now we know. The Powers that Be announced this morning that Archbishop William Levada, who has been honing his cat-herding skills among the feral felines of San Francisco, has been appointed Prefect of the CDF. May the Lord's blessing be with him in his new job. Theologians are a little less wild than San Franciscans, but also less predictable.
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Silly Political Quiz

You scored as Socialist. Green 75% Socialist 75% Anarchism 75% Democrat 58% Communism 58% Republican 33% Fascism 8% Nazi 0% What Political Party Do Your Beliefs Put You In? created with QuizFarm.com

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[via the House of Homiletic Hash]
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False Revelations, and bad TV too

From SojoNet, an excellent commentary on some of the more blatant idiocies of the new television series "Revelations". I'm hoping it dies a quick death, but considering our culture's chronic Biblical illiteracy and the willingness to believe absolutely everything --- after all, there are people outthere who think that the DaVinci Code is factual --- I can't count on that.
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"Ad apsidum" and "Versus populum" are both looking in the wrong direction

I've been working the past few days on a historical post with this title which isn't finished yet, but this morning I wrote a reply for one of the listservs that deserves this title too. In the listserv "VaticanII-Doc" we are studying Sacrosanctam Concilium, the document on the Liturgy, and we're in the paragraphs about church art and architecture. K. asked:

At 10:28 AM 5/9/2005, you wrote:
>Has anyone else on this list other than
>myself been in the newly designed
>Cathedral in Milwaukee as done by Rembert
>Weakland? I attended Mass there
>before the changes and I have visited
>since the changes but have not
>attended a liturgy since the changes.
>It seems the new way the priest's
>back would be to some of the people.
>But I do like it in a lot of ways
>(but not the priest's back to the people).


I'm a Cathedral parishioner and attend Mass there nearly every Sunday. I used to attend the Cathedral back in the 1970s and 1980's before I became disabled, then stopped because, before the rehab work, it was nearly impossible to get into. Also had structural problems and bad art problems from a hurried depression-WWII rebuilding after a fire with a lot of Mussolini-era church-supply stuff, and a bad refurbishing in the mid-70's that blocked off the stained glass and painted the interior in 26 somewhat garish colors gotten from the stained glass windows that couldn't be seen any more......

The way it works now, the bulk of the congregational seating is on the west side of the altar, slightly curved, and there is facing-style seating on the east side of the altar, between the altar and the ambo. The schola canticorum is beyond the ambo in the far east end. Tabernacle in a large domed side chapel that was the baptistry back when, over the crypts.

People who choose to sit in the facing seats are behind the priest when he is at the altar, but not behind the ambo not the presider's seats --- which are immediately north and south of the altar against pillars. (south is the cathedra, north the regular presider's seat). At the "high state" occasions, like ordinations, chrism mass, etc, the facing seats east of the altar (between altar and ambo) are where the concelebrants sit, like a presbyterium. And, for extra-small celebrations just slightly too large for the day chapel, all the congregation are encouraged to sit on the east, and father celebrates facing that way. The size and shape of what is defined as "sanctuary" is extremely flexible, and is defined by candles, etc. when it needs to be larger or smaller, besides the three very traditional altar steps.

There is no impression of being "turned the back to" no matter where one might sit --- because the church is so oriented toward the altar --- ad altare dei. Nobody is being stared at, nobody is having back turned toward them, but all are facing and beholding the altar, the center of life. This is reinforced by the corona and crucifix which guides the drifting attention back and directly to the altar. Although there are seven or eight new shrine spaces that have not yet been filled, it does not feel empty at all since the stained glass was uncovered and cleaned --- 13 huge windows of the apostles and St. Paul --- and I don't think it will be cluttered-looking after the shrine spaces are filled, partly because they are actual alcoves, spaces, and partly because the corona and crucifix will guide the attention back to the altar.

The ad apsidum pushers and the versus populum fans are all looking in the wrong direction!

karen marie
"from the anchor hold" http://kmknapp.blogspot.com/
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The Schoenstatt community's probably happy

because one of their own is the Pope's right-hand woman. I'll bet this won't be nearly as controversial as it was back when Pius XII's #1 collaborator was female!

hat tip to Father Jim of Dappled Things.
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Lord, come live in me, come stay with me

Today is Ascension Thursday, and the first day of the great Pentecost Novena, the first novena. Here's an appropriate prayer for this time of prayer, from St. Symeon the New Theologian (who was new back in the 900's):

Come, O true light!
Come, O eternal life!
Come, O hidden mystery!
Come, O indescribable treasure!
Come, O ineffable thing!
Come, O inconceivable person!
Come, O endless delight!
Come, O unsetting light!
Come, O true and fervent expectation
of all those who will be saved!
Come, O rising of those who lie down!
Come, O resurrection of the dead!
Come, O powerful one,
who always creates and re-creates and transforms
by your will alone!
Come, O invisible and totally intangible and untouchable!
Come, O you who always remain immobile and at each moment move all,
and come to us, who lie in hades, you who are above all heavens.
Come, O desirable and legendary name,
which is completely impossible for us
to express what you are or to know your nature.
Come, O eternal joy!
Come, O unwithering wreath!
Come, O purple of the great king our God!
Come, O crystalline cincture,
studded with precious stones!
Come, O inaccessible sandal!
Come, O royal robe and truly imperial right hand!
Come, you whom my wretched soul has desired and does desire!
Come, you who alone go to the lonely
for as you see I am lonely!
Come, you who have separated me from everything
and made me solitary in this world!
Come, you who have become yourself desire in me,
who have made me desire you, the absolutely inaccessible one!
Come, O my breath and life!
Come, O consolation of my humble soul!
Come, O my joy, my glory, and my endless delight!
I thank you that you have become one spirit with me,
without confusion, without mutation,
without transformation, you the God of all;
and that you have become everything for me,
inexpressible and perfectly gratuitous nourishment,
which ever flows to the lips of my soul
and gushes out into the fountain of my heart,
dazzling garment which burns the demons,
purification which bathes me with these imperishable and holy tears,
that your presence brings to those whom you visit.
I give you thanks that for me you have become unsetting light
and non-declining sun;
for you who fill the universe with your glory
have nowhere to hide yourself.
No, you have never hidden yourself from anyone
but we are the ones who always hide from you,
by refusing to go to you;
but then, where would you hide,
you who nowhere find the place of your repose?
Why would you hide,
you who do not turn away from a single creature,
who do not reject a single one?
Today, then, O Master, come pitch your tent with me;
until the end, make your home
and live continually, inseparably within me,
your slave, O most-kind one,
that I also may find myself again in you,
at my departure from this world
and after my departure may I reign with you,
O God who are above everything.
O Master, stay and do not leave me alone,
so that my enemies, arriving unexpectedly,
they who are always seeking to devour my soul,
may find you living within me and that they may take flight,
in defeat, powerless against me,
seeing you, O more powerful than everything,
installed interiorly in the home of my poor soul.
Yea, O Master, just as you remembered me,
when I was in the world
and, in the midst of my ignorance,
you chose me and separated me from this world
and set me before your glorious face,
so now keep me interiorly, by your dwelling within me,
forever upright, resolute;
that by perpetually seeing you,
I, the corpse, may live;
that by possessing you,
I, the beggar, may always be rich, richer than kings;
that by eating you and by drinking you,
by putting you on at each moment,
I go from delight to delight in inexpressible blessings;
for it is You, who are all good and
all glory and all delight and it is to you,
holy, consubstantial, and life-creating Trinity
that the glory belongs,
you whom all faithful venerate, confess, adore, and serve
in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

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Hankering for purges, eh?

There's been a lot of blather on various of the listservs, fora, and comboxes about why it's taking so long for the purges to start. After all, we've had a new pope for two weeks already! I have trouble understanding these kind of things even though I've lived in one of the Church's favorite battlegrounds all of my adult life. A particularly nasty sample was in my mail this morning. He writes, about a particular metropolitan archbishop who has not been accused or convicted of anything:

he needs to be removed, defrocked, and indicted, convicted, and imprisoned for multiple crimes. ....God can judge him from there.

Why? If anyone has evidence of wrongdoing, it is that one's duty, not option, to present it to the district attorney and to the nuncio. Until it's public, it doesn't belong on a listserv or in a combox. If there's no evidence, this kind of talk never belongs. Even the least favorite metropolitan is a successor to the apostles, anointed to teach and to rule, and is a priest forever, at whose hands we receive the Holy Eucharist, and should receive respect and honor for this cause alone --- no matter how least favorite.

With this kind of talk in circulation, it's another reminder to pray especially for the poor unfortunates among us who have to wear the purple and the red beanies, which are a great burden and, in these days, make one an open target besides. One's own, yes, but all of the others also, and especially the ones not particularly loved or admired.
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Scandalous Mercy

Those of you who have been around a while know that the background mission of this anchor hold dweller is to "pray for the City and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee". And, as a part of that, I followed the saga of Father Eleazar Perez, the pastor of St. Adalbert Parish just down the street from the little anchor hold, earlier this year. Here he is:



after committing one of those scandalous acts of mercy common to the followers of Christ. The hardest, most countercultural, most scandalous teaching of the Church is that we must forgive. All those so-called "pelvic issues" don't even come close!
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Yet another yummy link

Here's this morning's inauguration homily. [in English, of course]
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Some of our responsibilities toward our bishops

While we're sitting up all night tonight watching Benedict XVI get installed, a little reminder that it's not just the Pope and the bishops who have responsibilities toward us, but we also have responsibilities toward them. They need us! A reminder of some of those responsibilities, from Peter Maurin's "Easy Essays":

Bishop-shy

1. The Holy Father
appoints a man
named a Bishop
to a seat -- a cathedra.

2. From that seat -- cathedra
the Bishop
teaches the truth
to all men
so the truth
may make them free.

3. But some people
are Bishop-shy.

4. They are Bishop-shy
because they are
hungry, shivering, or sleepy.

5. They must be
fed, clothed, and sheltered
before they will consent
to come to listen
to Christ's Bishop.

6. To feed, clothe, and shelter them
at a personal sacrifice
is to participate
in the Bishop's apostolate.

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Where God Is

one translation of a very, very traditional hymn [that I received 6 years ago from our beloved Gerard Serafin ---memory eternal!]

Gathered together in the love of Christ
Let us rejoice in him, exultantly,
Let us adore and fear the living God,
Loving each other in our love of him,
Where there is true love, there is God.

The loveless heart abides in darkness still,
The shadowy walls of death around him stand.
In daytime we, the loving ones, shall walk
In sushine, as becomes the sons of light.
Where there is true love, there is God.

The clear voice of the Lord rings in our ears
Saying, when two or three together come
For his name's sake, there will he ever be
With them, according to his spoken word.
Where there is true love, there is God.

We must, while we are gathered here as one,
Be on our guard against divided minds.
When malice falls away and quarrels cease,
Then will the Christ be truly in our midst.
Where there is true love, there is God.

Love joins together all who are afar
As discord severs those who should be one.
We must unite in heart and thought and mind
Lest we who are together fall apart.
Where there is true love, there is God.

Love is the sum of goodness, greatest gift,
On which the ten Commandments all depend.
Through love the old and new laws are fulfilled,
A love-filled heart reaches the highest heaven.
Where there is true love, there is God.

Love represented in the ancient law
Was clothed in vivid scarlet, double-dyed.
This love continues in a double law
That as our God is love, so loved is man.
Where there is true love, there is God.

Let us then love our God with our whole mind,
Hold nothing greater than our love of him,
And, in this, love our neighbour as ourselves,
And our worst enemy for Jesus' sake.
Where there is true love, there is God.

He who will strive to keep this double law
Of charity with loving, humble mind,
Shall truly live in Christ who, driving out
Sin of the blackest dye, will live in him.
Where there is true love, there is God.

Narrow and steep the path that leads above,
Broad and downhill the road that leads to hell;
Brotherly love leads to eternal life,
But sinful discord leads to endless woe.
Where there is true love, there is God.

Let us with single heart beseech our God
To grant in mercy peace throughout our days;
To faith and hope may he add works of love,
That we may join his company on high.
Where there is true love, there is God.

Let us sing "Glory to the eternal King!"
Pray for the lives of those who rule us now,
So that for many years we may rejoice
With those for love of whom we gather here.
Where there is true love, there is God.
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I've already said this a dozen times

and I've even blogged this particular citation before, but I believe it's quite fit to repeat, from an encyclical of Pope Benedict the 15th ---

It is, moreover, Our will that Catholics should abstain from certain appellations which have recently been brought into use to distinguish one group of Catholics from another. They are to be avoided not only as 'profane novelties of words,' out of harmony with both truth and justice, but also because they give rise to great trouble and confusion among Catholics. Such is the nature of Catholicism that it does not admit of more or less, but must be held as a whole or as a whole rejected: 'This is the Catholic faith, which unless a man believe faithfully and firmly; he cannot be saved' (Athanas. Creed). There is no need of adding any qualifying terms to the profession of Catholicism: it is quite enough for each one to proclaim 'Christian is my name and Catholic my surname,' only let him endeavour to be in reality what he calls himself

[Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum 24]
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Another view of our father, Benedict XVI

courtesy of somebody on the cathworker list who forwarded this, a different perspective on the new pope, from Sr. Joan Chittister, osb, the author of the best little book of rosary meditations I've seen (and a bit of a lightning rod around St. Blog's, just as my father the archbishop-emeritus is....)

Is it possible for a disciplinarian of the church to become its universal pastor? Answer: God willing.

And therein lies my hope.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI is said to have taken the name 'Benedict' to indicate that the model of his papacy would be the great Patron of Europe, Benedict of Nursia. If that's really the case, I can't think of anything more hopeful for the church.

As a Benedictine, I state my case for hope in any leader who sees Benedict of Nursia as the measure of his leadership.

The Rule of Benedict, a document now over 1500 years old and the basis for the lifestyle of monastics around the world, is based on four major concepts that are totally incompatible with authoritarianism or suppression of the human spirit.

Listening is at the center of this Rule for those who live in community. "Listen... with the ear of the heart," its Prologue counsels. Listen, in other words, not so much for what is canonically right but for what is spiritually true, for what speaks to the deepest part of the human being. Listening to the Word of God, to the tradition, to one another, to the circumstances of life becomes the cornerstone of spiritual growth. It is questions, not answers, that guide this life.

Humility, the second major concept of Benedictine monasticism, requires that each of us come to realize how limited is our own understanding of the universe. It demands that we let God be God. It's not for any of us, Benedict teaches, abbot or monk, to think we can bend the world to our own designs. After precisely defining the mode of community prayer in twelve separate chapters, Benedict ends the chapters dealing with the most important aspect of monastic life by saying, "If any brother knows a better way, let him arrange things differently." We cannot look to the Rule of Benedict to legitimate authoritarianism in the name of God.

Community, the third dimension of Benedictine spirituality, brings us to realize how bright and good and essential to our own growth is everyone else around us. We learn from the community. We serve the community. Benedict is clear: "Whenever weighty matters are to be discussed," the Rule requires, "let the abbot call the community together and, starting with the youngest, ask each their advice." No thought suppression here. No smothering of fresh thought here. The abbot does not come to the community with answers. The abbot comes with questions and finds his answers there.

Hospitality, the fourth dimension of Benedictine spirituality, takes everyone in. No one is excluded from the Christian community. No one is too bad, too poor, too useless, too unimportant to be part of the community. "Let the Guest be treated as Christ," the Rule says. Treating one another as Christ becomes the norm.

Finally, St. Benedict had a sister, St. Scholastica, whom he treated as an equal. They came together yearly 'to speak of holy things together.' She learned from him, yes, but he learned from her as well and her monastery was independent of his. In Benedictinism lies a holy model of male-female relationships and the authority of women.

Each of us has a piece of the truth, Benedict shows us; no one has all the truth. We need to learn from one another.

Believe me, if this pope really takes Benedict of Nursia for a model, this will be a very healthy church.
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Who, me?

I have no idea how it happened, but I've been nominated for Milwaukee's Blog of the Week. Welcome to all who come here from MKE Magazine.
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Eucharist, Communion, and Solidarity: another sample

with a tip of the beret to a listserv buddy on Liturgy-l, here's another sample of what we may expect from our new pope, Benedict XVI. This is from a lecture he gave at a Campania bishops' conference meeting in June of 2002:


Transubstantiation

What is happening in these words?

In the first place we are confronted by the word "transubstantion". The bread becomes the body, his body. The bread of the earth becomes the bread of God, the "manna" of heaven, with which God nourishes men not only in their earthly life but also in the prospect of the resurrection --- which prepares for the resurrection, or rather, already makes it begin. The Lord, who would have been able to transform stones into bread, who was able to raise up from rocks the sons of Abraham, wishes to transform the bread into a body, his body. Is this possible? How can it happen?


Body given, Blood poured out

We cannot avoid the questions that the people posed in the synagogue of Capernaum. He is there before his disciples, with his body; how can he say over the bread: this is my body? It is important to pay close attention to what the Lord really said. He does not say only: "This is my body", but: "This is my body, which is given up for you". It can become gift, because it is given. By means of the act of giving it becomes "capable of communicating", has transformed itself into a gift. We may observe the same thing in the words over the cup. Christ does not say simply: "This is my blood", but, "This is my blood, which is shed for you". Because it is shed, inasmuch as it is shed, it can be given.


Real transformation of violence into an act of love

But now a new question emerges: what do "it is given" and "it is shed" mean? In truth, Jesus is killed; he is nailed to a cross and dies amid torment. His blood is poured out, first in the Garden of Olives due to his interior suffering for his mission, then in the flagellation, the crowning with thorns, the crucifixion, and after his death in the piercing of his Heart. What occurs is above all an act of violence, of hatred, torture and destruction.

At this point we run into a second, more profound level of transformation: he transforms, from within, the act of violent men against him into an act of giving on behalf of these men --- into an act of love. This is dramatically recognizable in the scene of the Garden of Olives. What he teaches in the Sermon on the Mount, he now does: he does not offer violence against violence, as he might have done, but puts an end to violence by transforming it into love. The act of killing, of death, is changed into an act of love; violence is defeated by love. This is the fundamental transformation upon which all the rest is based. It is the true transformation which the world needs and which alone can redeem the world. Since Christ in an act of love has transformed and defeated violence from within, death itself is transformed: love is stronger than death. It remains forever.


Transformation of death into life

And so in this transformation is contained the broader transformation of death into resurrection, of the dead body into the risen body. If the first man was a living being, as St Paul says, the new Adam, Christ, will become by this spiritual event the giver of life (I Cor 15:45). The risen one is gift, is spirit who gives his life, "communicates", indeed, is communication. This means that there is no farewell here to material existence; rather, in this way material existence achieves its goal: without the actual event of death (with its interior transcendence) all this complex transformation of material things would not be possible. And so in the transformation of the resurrection all the fullness of Christ continues to subsist, but now transformed in this way; now being a body and the gift of self are no longer mutually exclusive, but are implicit in each other.

Before going on, let us first seek to sum this up once more in order to understand this whole complex reality. At the moment of the Last Supper, Jesus has already anticipated the event of Calvary. He accepts the death on the cross and with his acceptance transforms the act of violence into an act of giving, of self-giving poured forth, "Even if I am to be poured out as a libation on the sacrificial offering of your faith", St Paul says on the basis of this and in regard to his own
imminent martyrdom in Philippians 2:17. At the Last Supper the cross is already present, accepted and transformed by Jesus.

This first and fundamental transformation draws to itself all the others --- the mortal body is transformed into the resurrected body: it is "the spirit which gives life".


Transformation of bread and wine

On the basis of this the third transformation becomes possible: the gifts of bread and wine, that are the gifts of creation and at the same time fruit of human labour and the "transformation" of the creation, are transformed so that in them the Lord himself who gives himself becomes present, in his gift of self-giving. His gift, himself --- since he is gift. The act of self giving is not something from him, but it is himself.

And on this basis the prospect opens onto two further transformations, that are essential to the Eucharist, from the instant of its institution: the transformed bread, the transformed wine.

Through them the Lord himself gives himself as spirit that gives life, to transform us men, so that we become one bread with him and then one body with him. The transformation of the gifts, which is only the continuation of the fundamental transformations of the cross and of the resurrection, is not the final point, but in its turn only a beginning.
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A Sample of what we can Expect

via HughHewitt.com, here's the text of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's last public teaching as cardinal --- the homily at the Mass of the Holy Spirit going into the conclave.

At this hour of great responsibility, we hear with special consideration what the Lord says to us in his own words. From the three readings I would like to examine just a few passages which concern us directly at this time.

The first reading gives us a prophetic depiction of the person of the Messiah - a depiction which takes all its meaning from the moment Jesus reads the text in the synagogue in Nazareth, when he says: "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing" (Lk 4,21). At the core of the prophetic text we find a word which seems contradictory, at least at first sight. The Messiah, speaking of himself, says that he was sent "To announce a year of favor from the Lord and a day of vindication by our God" (Is 61,2). We hear with joy the news of a year of favor: divine mercy puts a limit on evil - the Holy Father told us. Jesus Christ is divine mercy in person: encountering Christ means encountering the mercy of God. Christ's mandate has become our mandate through priestly anointing. We are called to proclaim - not only with our words, but with our lives, and through the valuable signs of the sacraments, the "year of favor from the Lord." But what does the prophet Isaiah mean when he announces the "day of vindication by our God"? In Nazareth, Jesus did not pronounce these words in his reading of the prophet's text - Jesus concluded by announcing the year of favor. Was this, perhaps, the reason for the scandal which took place after his sermon? We do not know. In any case, the Lord gave a genuine commentary on these words by being put to death on the cross. Saint Peter says: "He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross" (1 Pe 2,24). And Saint Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians: "Christ ransomed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, 'Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree,' that the blessing of Abraham might be extended to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." (Gal 3, 13s).

The mercy of Christ is not a cheap grace; it does not presume a trivialization of evil. Christ carries in his body and on his soul all the weight of evil, and all its destructive force. He burns and transforms evil through suffering, in the fire of his suffering love. The day of vindication and the year of favor meet in the paschal mystery, in Christ died and risen. This is the vindication of God: he himself, in the person of the Son, suffers for us. The more we are touched by the mercy of the Lord, the more we draw closer in solidarity with his suffering - and become willing to bear in our flesh "what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ" (Col 1, 24).

In the second reading, the letter to the Ephesians, we see basically three aspects: first, the ministries and charisms in the Church, as gifts of the Lord risen and ascended into heaven. Then there is the maturing of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, as a condition and essence of unity in the body of Christ. Finally, there is the common participation in the growth of the body of Christ - of the transformation of the world into communion with the Lord.

Let us dwell on only two points. The first is the journey towards "the maturity of Christ" as it is said in the Italian text, simplifying it a bit. More precisely, according to the Greek text, we should speak of the "measure of the fullness of Christ," to which we are called to reach in order to be true adults in the faith. We should not remain infants in faith, in a state of minority. And what does it mean to be an infant in faith? Saint Paul answers: it means "tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery" (Eph 4, 14). This description is very relevant today!

How many winds of doctrine we have known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking... The small boat of thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves - thrown from one extreme to the other: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism, and so forth. Every day new sects are created and what Saint Paul says about human trickery comes true, with cunning which tries to draw those into error (cf Eph 4, 14). Having a clear faith, based on the Creed of the Church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism. Whereas, relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and "swept along by every wind of teaching," looks like the only attitude (acceptable) to today's standards. We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires.

However, we have a different goal: the Son of God, true man. He is the measure of true humanism. Being an "Adult" means having a faith which does not follow the waves of today's fashions or the latest novelties. A faith which is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ is adult and mature. It is this friendship which opens us up to all that is good and gives us the knowledge to judge true from false, and deceit from truth. We must become mature in this adult faith; we must guide the flock of Christ to this faith. And it is this faith - only faith - which creates unity and takes form in love. On this theme, Saint Paul offers us some beautiful words - in contrast to the continual ups and downs of those were are like infants, tossed about by the waves: (he says) make truth in love, as the basic formula of Christian existence. In Christ, truth and love coincide. To the extent that we draw near to Christ, in our own life, truth and love merge. Love without truth would be blind; truth without love would be like "a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal" (1 Cor 13,1).

Looking now at the richness of the Gospel reading, I would like to make only two small observations. The Lord addresses to us these wonderful words: "I no longer call you slaves...I have called you friends" (Jn 15,15). So many times we feel like, and it is true, that we are only useless servants. (cf Lk 17,10). And despite this, the Lord calls us friends, he makes us his friends, he gives us his friendship. The Lord defines friendship in a dual way. There are no secrets among friends: Christ tells us all everything he hears from the Father; he gives us his full trust, and with that, also knowledge. He reveals his face and his heart to us. He shows us his tenderness for us, his passionate love that goes to the madness of the cross. He entrusts us, he gives us power to speak in his name: "this is my body...," "I forgive you...." He entrusts us with his body, the Church. He entrusts our weak minds and our weak hands with his truth - the mystery of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; the mystery of God who "so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son" (Jn 3, 16). He made us his friends - and how do we respond?

The second element with which Jesus defines friendship is the communion of wills. For the Romans "Idem velle - idem nolle," (same desires, same dislikes) was also the definition of friendship. "You are my friends if you do what I command you." (Jn 15, 14). Friendship with Christ coincides with what is said in the third request of the Our Father: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". At the hour in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus transformed our rebellious human will in a will shaped and united to the divine will. He suffered the whole experience of our autonomy - and precisely bringing our will into the hands of God, he have us true freedom: "Not my will, but your will be done." In this communion of wills our redemption takes place: being friends of Jesus to become friends of God. How much more we love Jesus, how much more we know him, how much more our true freedom grows as well as our joy in being redeemed. Thank you, Jesus, for your friendship!

The other element of the Gospel to which I would like to refer is the teaching of Jesus on bearing fruit: "I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain" (Jn 15, 16). It is here that is expressed the dynamic existence of the Christian, the apostle: I chose you to go and bear fruit...." We must be inspired by a holy restlessness: restlessness to bring to everyone the gift of faith, of friendship with Christ. In truth, the love and friendship of God was given to us so that it would also be shared with others. We have received the faith to give it to others - we are priests meant to serve others. And we must bring a fruit that will remain. All people want to leave a mark which lasts. But what remains? Money does not. Buildings do not, nor books. After a certain amount of time, whether long or short, all these things disappear. The only thing which remains forever is the human soul, the human person created by God for eternity. The fruit which remains then is that which we have sowed in human souls - love, knowledge, a gesture capable of touching the heart, words which open the soul to joy in the Lord. Let us then go to the Lord and pray to him, so that he may help us bear fruit which remains. Only in this way will the earth be changed from a valley of tears to a garden of God.

In conclusion, returning again to the letter to the Ephesians, which says with words from Psalm 68 that Christ, ascending into heaven, "gave gifts to men" (Eph 4,8). The victor offers gifts. And these gifts are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Our ministry is a gift of Christ to humankind, to build up his body - the new world. We live out our ministry in this way, as a gift of Christ to humanity! But at this time, above all, we pray with insistence to the Lord, so that after the great gift of Pope John Paul II, he again gives us a pastor according to his own heart, a pastor who guides us to knowledge in Christ, to his love and to true joy. Amen.

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Saint Benedict Joseph, pray for your namesake!

We have a pope, and really fast --- faster than I could post about the waiting and the hoping. He'll need all our prayers, and I think he will surprise us. For the last 23 years or so he's had the very important but pretty thankless job of the Pope's "bad cop", the "Grand Inquisitor". But before then he was a brilliant and in some ways innovative theologian and philosopher, and that won't have gone away. I think we're in for wonderful things. As we now pray "for our Holy Father, Benedict,...." let his namesake St. Benedict Joseph, the homeless pilgrim of Rome, and all the angels and saints, and all of us, pray for him. They don't call the room where they dress the new Pope "the Room of Tears" without cause!
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Some of the facts of life

of living in a real city, in the real world. This hotel with its 300 building code violations is only a block and a half from my little anchor hold. A friend of mine getting evicted from elsewhere (not enough hours of work to pay the rent....) asked there last week, so I know definitely that they charge $75 per night there. [minor discount by the week. At that rate the elusive owners can afford to keep it up, if'n they cared to, but they don't.] One of the unconscionable things that happen in real-life city neighborhoods.

Even day-laborers and disabled folk need to sleep indoors ..... with heat in the cold season and door locks that work, and without great numbers of four-legged and six-legged non-paying subtenants.
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If it's Wednesday, it must be Carnival Time

and the 65th Christian Carnival is now available for viewing at Another Think. Enjoy climbing on the great pile of great gifts!
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And we recognised Him

[sorry this is so tardy --- for some reason my computer and browser have not been playing well with others the past few days. For the same reason, the St. Justin quotation will be from a different translation than that used in the LofH books, since the LofH sites have already cleared Sunday....]

In this Sunday's gospel reading, two people were walking home from Jerusalem. Faces down, distraught, disillusioned, in mourning. (The easterners say that this was St. Cloepas and somebody. Maybe his wife? We know from the gospels that she was one of the disciples from early on, and was at the crucifixion.) Somebody else walking the same direction met them on the road. Somebody they knew very well indeed. They walked with this fellow-traveller and conversed all afternoon and did not recognise Him.

Did they even really see Him? Mourning and dejection don't do a whole lot for one's perceptiveness, I know this from experience. The text says their faces were lowered and their eyes downcast. But they did the right thing and the only societally proper thing, and offered their fellow-traveller hospitality in their home, since it was too late in the afternoon to make it to the next town before dark. And when they sat down to supper, the unknown one took the bread, said the blessing, broke the bread and gave it to them [you may want to check in Luke and Acts when Luke uses these terms instead of "they ate" or "they were fed"......] and they recognised them in the breaking of the bread. For the first time all afternoon, they actually saw Him. And He left them, disappeared from their sight. (and, only a few minutes later, walked through the locked door of a certain upper room not far from His mom's apartment in Jerusalem; oh, the wonders of a glorified resurrection body!)

We also, even to this very day and onward to the end of the age, have troubles seeing Him sometimes, though He is among us, yet we recognise Him in the breaking of the bread. Every time we celebrate the Eucharist and partake of the one Body of Christ, and of the one cup of blessing of the Blood of Christ, we become what we receive, and we recognise Him.

Back in the 100s, St. Justin wrote about how the Christians celebrated the Holy Eucharist, and he describes the same six movements in which we have celebrated the Holy Eucharistic Liturgy in every generation continuously until now, making the one death and the one resurrection of our Lord and Messiah continually now for us. Recall that it is the evil child who says "the Lord delivered our ancestors from Egypt" --- only them back then, not us --- and the good and wise children who proclaim "I have been brought out of the house of bondage".

Here are St. Justin's words, which were the appointed reading for this past Sunday's Office of Readings:

And this food is called among us the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, said, "This do ye in remembrance of Me, this is My body;" and that, after the same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, "This is My blood;" and gave it to them alone. Which the wicked devils have imitated in the mysteries of Mithras, commanding the same thing to be done. For, that bread and a cup of water are placed with certain incantations in the mystic rites of one who is being initiated, you either know or can learn.

And we afterwards continually remind each other of these things. And the wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together; and for all things wherewith we are supplied, we bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration.

[First Apology, chapters 66-67]

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Archbishop Romero and all the American new martyrs, pray for us!

Here is an open letter from one bishop to his martyred brother bishop, via SojoNet. Triduum, then Bright Week, and Annunciation, and the mourning for the Holy Father, has delayed many remembrances. March 24th, Holy Thursday, was also the 25th anniversary of the martyrdom of Archbishop Romero of San Salvador.
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We are all sedevacantists now

and there's an emptiness.

When I was at Mass yesterday morning, and we came to the part of the Eucharistic Prayer when we commemorate those who serve us in the Church --- and there was no commemoration of the Pope, because there isn't one. [But there was prayer for our holy father, John Paul, who has passed from this life.....] When the parts come in the Liturgy of Hours when we pray for the Pope, and I have to remember to skip that line. Standing in line to sign the parish condolence book. Today is a solemnity, one that should be obligatory, but starting tomorrow there's the Office for the dead. And soon we pray for the Conclave, that they exercise wisdom and listen for the guidance of the Holy Spirit to give to us another servant to exercise Peter's ministry among us.

Pray. Remember. Do the deeds of mercy. John Paul II has passed from this life to life true and everlasting, do not dishonor his name.
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This is the Holy Father's final illness

and he knows it. Pray for his peaceable and holy death.

The giveaway in the news reports: the report by all sources that he was informed of the gravity of his condition --- heart attack and kidney shutdown because of septic shock --- and he chose to stay home and not go back to the hospital.

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Bigotry can be fatal

from the Harvard Crimson Online, an excellent commentary on fatal bigotry against the disabled.

Today, Michael Schaivo gets a judge to let him kill his inconvenient wife. Soon, it may be open season on all us inconvenient disabled people. Don't shrug it off because you are able-bodied and agile-minded, for disabled is the one minority group any one can join at any time.
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Christ is risen!

He is truly risen!

Yes He is
We have seen Him

I thought He was the gardener at first, but then He called me by name and I recognised Him

When I went to anoint the body God's messenger told me He'd meet us in Galilee

The two of us talked Scripture with Him on the road, and when we stopped for supper we recognised Him in the breaking of the bread

The bunch of us had locked ourselves in, we didn't want to get arrested, and He came right in to see us

It was definitely Him we recognised Him we know His voice the wounds are still there and He lives He really does

He met us at the lakeshore and cooked us breakfast after our long night fishing

We know His voice the wounds are there it's definitely Him and He lives!

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This is the night..... [Paschal Proclamation]

Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing choirs of angels!
Exult, all creation around God's throne!
Jesus Christ, our King is risen!
Sound the trumpet of salvation!

Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor,
radiant in the brightness of your King!
Christ has conquered! Glory fills you!
Darkness vanishes for ever!

Rejoice, O Mother Church! Exult in glory!
The risen Savior shines upon you!
Let this place resound with joy,
echoing the mighty song of all God's people!

My dearest friends,
standing with me in this holy light,
join me in asking God for mercy,
that he may give his unworthy minister
grace to sing his Easter praises.

V. The Lord be with you.
R. And also with you.
V. Lift up your hearts.
R. We lift them up to the Lord.
V. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
R. It is right to give him thanks and praise.

It is truly right that with full hearts and minds and voices
we should praise the unseen God, the all-powerful Father,
and his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
For Christ has ransomed us with his blood,
and paid for us the price of Adam's sin to our eternal Father!

This is our passover feast,
When Christ, the true Lamb, is slain,
whose blood consecrates the homes of all believers.

This is the night,
when first you saved our fathers:
you freed the people of Israel from their slav'ry,
and led them dry-shod through the sea.

This is the night,
when the pillar of fire destroyed the darkness of sin.

This is night,
when Christians everywhere,
washed clean of sin and freed from all defilement,
are restored to grace and grow together in holiness.

This is the night,
when Jesus broke the chains of death
and rose triumphant from the grave.

What good would life have been to us,
had Christ not come as our Redeemer?

Father, how wonderful your care for us!
How boundless your merciful love!
To ransom a slave you gave away your Son.

O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam,
which gained for us so great a Redeemer!

Most blessed of all nights,
chosen by God to see Christ rising from the dead!

Of this night scripture says:
“The night will be as clear as day:
it will become my light, my joy.”

The power of this holy night dispels all evil,
washes guilt away, restores lost innocence,
brings mourners joy;
it casts out hatred, brings us peace,
and humbles earthly pride.

Night truly blessed,
when heaven is wedded to earth
and we are reconciled to God!

Therefore, heavenly Father, in the joy of this night,
receive our evening sacrifice of praise,
your Church's solemn offering.

Accept this Easter candle,
a flame divided but undimmed,
a pillar of fire that glows to the honor of God.

Let it mingle with the lights of heaven
and continue bravely burning
to dispel the darkness of this night!

May the Morning Star which never sets
find this flame still burning:
Christ, that Morning Star,
who came back from the dead,
and shed his peaceful light on all mankind,
your Son, who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

R. Amen.

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God .... is dead???

To all human appearances this day, hope has been crushed, the light extinguished, darkness is triumphant. But, this is only an appearance.

There is one who has guarded the light with her whole life, who knows that even this cannot be the end, and continues to guard and cherish the light in her heart as she always has. She waits, and gathers in the crushed and hopeless disciples and encourages them to wait with her and not despair; and so they wait.



Mother of God, Light in all darkness,
intercede for us.
Be a companion to us,
and bring to our confusion and darkness
the Light you bore,
the Light you guard and cherish.
Although we do not yet see light,
do not let us fall into the abyss,
and assure us that there is still light
until such time as the Light shall return.

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And He was buried

After Jesus died, two very well-placed followers, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, got permission to take Jesus' body away, nd hurried to the execution site with the minimal requirements for burial.



Sunset, and Sabbath, was approaching too quickly, so they hurriedly prepared the body and put it in a borrowed tomb (was it Joseph's own?) that happened to be nearby. The womenfolk resolved to return right after Sabbath to do a more complete and respectful anointing .....
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"If I be lifted up, I will draw all to Myself."

We did lift Him up --- not far, not nearly to the skies, let alone the heavens. Dispossessed of everything, we crucified Him.



"I raised you to the height of majesty, but you have raised me high on a cross. My people, what have I done to you? How have I offended you? Answer me!"
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"So, You are a king!"

We marched Him all over town --- to the High Priest's, to Pilate's palace, to Herod, back to Pilate. We beat Him, then we have our fun by giving Him a robe and a crown and a sceptre. When that wasn't diverting enough, we banged Him on His crown with His sceptre.



"My people, what have I done to you? How have I offended you? Answer me!"
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In the grove of olive trees

Could the disciples watch and pray even one hour? No, they were exhausted and fell asleep. Then Judas arrived, with company.



And he betrayed Jesus, pointing Him out to the guards by kissing Him.
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Images for Triduum --- the Lord's Last Supper

And they went to a certain upper room (that happened to be not very far from Jesus' mother's apartment), and there they shared the Passover meal together, and inconceivably more.



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It's all about anointings, and commitments

Last night I was at that grand annual family reunion called the Chrism Mass. [As usual, I'm kind of glad the fire marshall doesn't show up, he'd have a conniption!] A goodly representation of absolutely everybody was there --- bishops, priests, deacons, religious and secular layfolk of all ages and descriptions, renewing our commitments in the Church and witnessing the blessings and consecrations of the holy anointing oils our Church will use in the upcoming year. The Cathedral, when it is 935++ standing-room-only full of the faithful, is itself an icon of the Church, the Body of Christ united, from the first notes of the prelude (which was "O Sifuno Mungu") through the last chord of the recessional and beyond. A fabulous way to start the holy week.

I'm not quite completely well yet, but since the Lord delivered me from getting locked up in hospital for Triduum, I'm definitely not going to miss it. Transit Plus even got me a ride home after Vigil on Saturday night, which they couldn't do last year. I do hope we're finished by 11:30, since it's embarrassing to have the transit driver fetch me out before dismissal, which has happenned a time or three!
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Another open public manifestation of Real Presence

from the Wisconsin State Journal's coverage of the destruction of St. Raphael Cathedral:

....He [Bishop Robert Morlino] also was moved by Madison firefighters' rescue of the cathedral's ceboriums holding the Holy Sacrament, wafers already consecrated as Jesus Christ's body.

"The firefighters had to cut their way through," Morlino said. "They went in there and brought it out with great reverence. . . . In a symbolic way, that illustrates the caring of Madison."

And here's the photo of the firefighters returning the ciboria to the Cathedral rector:



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The doc has let me come home ---for now

Surprising even me --- I've learned to be a pessimist about such things --- the doctor let me come home this afternoon. Of course, after taking culture swabs, writing scripts for two antibiotics (that the pharmacy says will be ready at 5:30), issuing detailed cleansing and bandaging instructions(ever tried to keep a bandage around a thigh?), and having the lab take a half-dozen tubes of blood.

So I'm not going to be locked up for Holy Week ---- Hip, Hip, Hooray!
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Oh, No! More Baleful Symptoms

Here we go again! Over the weekend I started having baleful symptoms --- specifically, serous fluid leakage --- from the site of that recently healed MRSA infection. I called the doctor just as soon as his office opened this morning, and got an appointment in the outpatient clinic tomorrow morning. I'm hoping to have caught this early enough to be allowed to come home...... but I'm only putting my odds at 50-50. If I get kept, one of my sibs will post it in the comment box. If I'm allowed to come home, I'll post myself rejoicing!
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If this is Wednesday, there must be Carnival!

The sixtieth Christian Carnival is open during construction at Belief Seeking Understanding. I took advantage of the last clear day we're going to have for a while to get some outdoor aerobic exercise by pushing myself to the grocery store for somewhat-overdue shopping, so I'm only just now getting to start reading it --- but it's always really good. I have a contribution in it: How Tabernacles Are Wonderful.
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Part Two: How Tabernacles Are Wonderful

written about happenings on Trinity Sunday, 2003 at Cathedral Parish of Milwaukee, but it happens every Sunday morning still, and other times and places also, including where you are.

We gather in the holy Presence: the time before the 8 a.m. Eucharist

Transit Plus was very early. It's not even seven yet.
I sit outside the doors, tell the driver he doesn't have to stay.
The doors should be open already, they will be soon.
I pound a couple of times, then open my hands to pray.

Very soon, only minutes,
and Roger the Sacristan appears with the keys, unlocks, and lets me in.
Just inside the doors, I greet Mater Ecclesiae.
She steps forward faithfully, right off her pedestal,
following her Son, her Lord, her Redemption.
But now is not the time to linger. He calls, He draws.

I keep moving, pause to bow to His altar,
where His one offering is made always present for us.
But I don't linger there either, not right now.
There's time later for His altar. He calls, He draws.
Also time later for His ambo, where the Word's words are proclaimed.
I caress it as I pass it. He calls, He draws.

I keep moving, until I arrive.
I lock my wheels at the bottom of the steps.
Before me, in the space at the top of the few steps,
is His Tabernacle, where He deigns to dwell.
Not now as a pillar of cloud, not as a pillar of fire,
but as food for our journey;
the food is He Himself.
I am, finally, where I belong.

I bow before the Mystery, and stay bowed awhile.
When I rise up, I smile at Blessed John
who looks over my left shoulder.
I take off the padded pushing gloves,
unzip the Liturgy of Hours book,
and open my hands.
"O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will proclaim Your praise."

About halfway through the second psalm of Readings
there's a hand on my right shoulder.
I look up and grin. It's our burden-bearer,
the one who has to wear the purple beanie.
We exchange a few words and a blessing,
he goes up the steps and settles in the right-hand corner.
(His Liturgy of Hours book doesn't have a zipper.)
The Presence calls him, the Presence draws him.

Smile at the Presence, take a deep breath,
and return to the psalms.
Others come and go.
Some I notice, some I don't.
Some I recognize, some not.
He calls them and draws them also.

During the first Morning Prayer psalm
the lady who sells nutrition supplements arrives,
taps me on the shoulder.
I assure her "I'm recovering nicely, thank you,"
then she goes up the steps and settles in the left-hand corner.
(Her Bible has gold edges.)
My surgeon's here somewhere also;
I never see him, but he sees me.
He talks about this place when he examines the incision.
They are called, they are drawn.

So many come.
Some settle in, like Nutrition-Supplement-Seller and Burden-Bearer and me.
Some just stop for a few minutes, kneeling on the prie-dieus or even on the steps.
They all are called, they all are drawn.

Soon, it will be the time for the ambo and for the altar.
"May the Lord bless us, deliver us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life.
Let us praise the Lord and give Him thanks."
Kiss the Hours book, close it and zip it back up.
Bow again a while, then unlock my wheels and proceed.
Soon, we find our places under the corona,
around the altar of the Lord.
One family in Him, all called, all drawn,
to this place which is home to Him and home to us.
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Tabernacles Are Wonderful

Does anyone else her remember the catechetical ditty that began, "Every thing I pass by Church I stop to make a visit....."?

Or the story of the peasant gent who taught St. Jean Vianney the depths of adoration --- "I look at Him and He looks at me"?

Ever since Bishop Lynch of St Petersberg [FL] published this defense of proper Eucharistic Adoration, Holy Hours with Benediction, and Forty Hours Devotion in the summer of 2000, the cry keeps going up that "Bishop Lynch banned Eucharistic Adoration" when he did and does no such thing. He only enforces the Holy Church's own rules and guidelines concerning Perpetual Exposition, a different thing altogether.

I'm coming more and more to see that Bishop Lynch has acted rightly and with wisdom in this case. The idea that one can only adore if there is exposition is a perverse idea that has to be stopped. Tabernacles and "visits" are wonderful. An hour or two's exposition with Holy Hour prayers or Liturgy of the Hours and Benediction is glorious. A respectful, devout, and unrushed Communion Procession is only the minimum we owe to the Lord and the other members of His Body. None of these must be lost to a fixation on monstrances!

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