TOB

Day two of the TOB conference was another good one, but it didn't have (for me!) as much power as yesterday. Still, it can't help but make an impression. For one thing, there were mighty few grey heads in that crowd. These were Catholic (mostly) young adults, people whose entire lifespan has unfolded within a culture of ever-increasing promiscuity (along with "openness" and "tolerance" regardless of the object), and somehow the message of the Theology of the Body reached them, attracted them, won them, so that they are the most ardent promoters of Church teaching in the area of marriage and sexuality. It really is GOOD NEWS to them, and they want to evangelize.

A little insight from the weekend; maybe it's a midrash, as so much of John Paul's "original" meditations on Genesis were. One of the presenters' books had a little remark about the setting of the "felix culpa" in Eden. It was that Adam must have been right there at the conversation between Eve and the "enemy of human nature" (St. Ignatius' term). Why on earth was he so passive? He was within arm's reach, because Eve simply "gave the fruit" to her husband, and he ate it. What struck me was what a reversal this was of our natural gender complementarity. Because it is proper to the male to "bestow" and for the female to "receive" (and then conceive) within herself, but in this original sin, there was already a kind of gender-bending. Not to be too anachronistic, but when these stories were written, people were very much in touch with nature--and it very well may be that this kind of gender-bending was, in fact, intended as a way of expressing the profound disruption that sin caused, all the way to affecting masculinity and femininity in the very first persons to fully experience themselves as persons, male and female, imaging the Triune God.

Just a thought.

Theology of the Body conference

Well, reporting to you live upon my return from the first day of the 3rd Annual Theology of the Body Forum, being held at Mundelein. (I'm ba-ack.) It is fabulous! There was not a single boring presenter, and I suspect that part of that is related to the amazing kind of integration all of the presenters brought to bear on their own topic within the overall theme. No one was a narrow, tunnel-visioned type of expert in only one field: they all had background in several distinct disciplines. The most interesting of all was the Byzantine priest-artist, but the extremely theological chiropractor mom (five kids) was also spectacular, as was the first speaker, Katrina Zeno from "Women of the Third Millennium", who is an engaging speaker I can highly recommend, especially for women's groups.

The sessions were mostly being held in a chapel, so there was the added advantage of having Jesus right on hand, listening in.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

Is this fair?

Given all the scandals in the Church and the suitably harsh penalties being imposed on guity parties, why did a grammar school teacher who admitted to the same kind of behavior with a young student get only six months in jail?

 

One of the things Fr. Benedict warned about last weekend was the effort in some states to abolish the statute of limitations in cases involving abuse and the Church. He basically said that, aside from issues of justice, this is largely driven by greed. And that it is patently unjust that the statute be abolished specifically in cases related to the Church, because of the breadth of damage that would do to so many (millions of) others.

It is my understanding that civil suits cannot be brought against public institutions, school boards, principals, superintendents, etc. over abuse of children by public school teachers and staff. And there is a certain justice in that: a settlement on behalf of one victim would cause disproportionate harm to too many other children by affecting the resources available for their education. Principals, superintendents and school boards may very well be guilty of culpable negligence, but the laws recognize the need to protect children's right to an education. If the statute of limitations is revoked for cases involving the Church, then it must, in all fairness, be revoked in these cases involving public schools. And at the very least, people found or admitted guilty of abuse of children should get more than six months of jail time, no matter where the abuse was perpetrated.

More on John

I remember an insight from this liturgical day some years ago. The Gospel has that wonderful affirmation that God does not ration the gift of the Spirit. I recognized that it is we who ration our response!

John 3:16 (again!)

I know I already posted about this, but then when the priest proclaimed the Gospel at Mass, it struck me how many more Johannine key words are in the tiny passage chosen for today's Easter liturgy: darkness/light, judgment, save/condemn, come... Practically all of John's favorite words (with the exception of "remain")! That makes today's little selection a kind of pocket-sized, memorizable version of the entire Gospel of John.

Just wanted to share that.

 

Yuk

Getting into a revolving door segment right after a smoker.

More from IRL

I found my notes from Fr. Benedict's talk on Friday. Here are some other qualities of "liminality":

• "outsider" status (being "different")
• informality with each other

Regarding the aspect of "uniform dress"  (which was in the list I posted a few days ago), Father explained that the clothing is not a matter of "sacrality," but is part of the "role" the liminal person or group fills in society, whatever the society. A uniform signifies a gatekeeping role: responsibility for other people in some area of life. It denotes a "public person." I have certainly experienced that. It can also be very stressful, because people may have expectations of you based on their interpretation of the habit--like our street people who think I'm good for a handout.

 

Another really interesting comment Fr. Benedict made concerned the aspect of informality. He pointed out that some US congregations adopted Victorian manners which compromised this and diminished their liminality in some way. They conformed too much to the modes and expectations of the greater society, and it affected their own internal relationships. That seems especially pertinent, somehow. I guess it shows how non-religious accretions can enter into our lives and eventually be assumed as if they were part and parcel of the faith package--when they were really just a matter of respectability (which liminal groups, by nature, tend not to have!).

Hello Boston

Boston resident Deborah Elizabeth Finn came up with the idea of brightening Boston with a few smiles. She was hoping 50 people would commit to "bestow pleasantness on strangers" in Beantown. Already the goal has been reached (but exceeded by only 13 good-natured souls). I think it should be quadrupled! Are you game?

John 3:16

It's here again: baseball's favorite Bible citation. Amazing how many times in the Church's liturgy we are given this striking passage: "This is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him might have eternal life." Love. Gave. Son. Believe. Life. They're all John's key words.

I find I tend to understand each of those words in too small a manner, and I miss the marvel in it all.

San Marco

Today's feast of St. Mark reminded me of a legend that is depicted in them mosaics in the famous Basilica in Venice. Mark's relics were being spirited (if that is indeed an appropriate word!) out of whichever predominantly Islamic country they had been in for centuries--maybe Egypt. But to keep the "translation" (as the transport of things like relics and holy houses) from being discovered by the Moslems and confiscated (or to keep the translators from being killed), the casket was hidden under baskets of freshly slaughtered pork! The mosaic depicts men in turbans holding their noses as they pull the covers from a small boat.

I guess that's not very politically correct, but it sure was comical, especially since the mosaics are in typical Byzantine style, so hieratic!

Mark is a good reminder that you can be a bit of a loser at first, and still do great things for the Gospel. (Mark is often identified with the young man in his Gospel who ran away naked when Jesus was arrested; he also abandoned Paul and Barnabas on an apostolic journey and went home to Jerusalem. But then... wrote a Gospel and died a martyr.) What about you?

Code-breakers

I created a list of books that respond to the false "facts" in The Da Vinci Code. Hopefully, you can click here to view the pdf file. If you would like to order the books, print the file and fill it out. (Sorry, but I don't have the possibility--yet--of offering online ordering, but if you do it the old-fashioned way, I'll certainly have the consolation of thinking that I'm doing some good here!) You could also distribute copies of the printed form in order to help alert others to these resources. I highly recommend the little flyer--just a quarter! You could leave it in waiting rooms and other public places (the Laundromat Apostolate).

Furthermore...

I am still on the IRL. There was a very pleasant atmosphere (fraternal, as Fr. Benedict would say), but a few things rather troubled me. For example, among the display tables and vocation exhibits was a promotional display for a Tridentine Mass assocation. Now, the Mass is the Mass, and while the Tridentine Rite is not my cup of tea at all, that's not the issue. What I found a bit unnerving was that a display like this, at an "Institute on Religious Life" conference, seems to infer some kind of association between religious life lived in a somewhat traditional (bad word: let's say "essential") way and the (as their literature put it) "old Latin Mass." There's a connection being proposed that is not correct, as if the way we were living our religious life had more to do with a warm and valid nostalgia for the past, and was not a contemporary response to the call of Jesus. As a religious, I really dislike having my lifestyle identified as something from an idealized or longed for past! And I get really nervous with associations of this type, because it seems to say that religious life itself belongs to the past!
I was also unnerved (that happens a lot, actually--me getting unnerved) to hear that one of the groups that was present, a kind of secular institute, was planning a public and very visible presence around theaters for the opening of the "code" movie. Their rationale is that if people only realized how hurtful the movie's premise is to sincere believers, they wouldn't be so hard-hearted as to buy a ticket.
Frankly, there is a time for innocence and naivete, and there is a time to be "as prudent as serpents." I like Barbara Nicolosi's proposal, and I am trying to publicize it far and wide, that everyone should get to the movies on May 19--but the movie to see is "Over the Hedge." That kind of peaceful protest could impact box office returns for the first weekend of release of both films, and send a very clear, unavoidably direct message.
So I was troubled by that naivete which could play so easily into the hands of the commercial movie interests. Especially since this organization tends to make use of symbols that dovetail with the exotic "symbology" in the code book. It would almost look as if the studio had paid these guys (it's a male group) to draw attention to the film! Poor things, but still: get real, gentlemen!
So the IRL was a bit of a mixed bag. The highlight was Fr. Benedict, and the second delight was at being among so many consecrated persons.

San Fran

Quite a few months ago, we closed our San Francisco center and convent, hoping to move into a new location a little bit sooner than this... but now our book center in Redwood City is up and running! If you are in the Bay area, please drop by: 2640 Broadway (off El Camino Real), Redwood City (five minute walk from the CalTrain Redwood City stop). (And tell them you heard about it on Nunblog!)

IRL

I'm going to post a few pictures soon, but in the meantime wanted to jot down a few notes for everyone but Lauren (who was present). The best part, I thought, was Fr. Groeschel's talk on Friday, even though that ended up occasioning some embarrassment. (The talk was on the general schedule, which failed to note that an extra registration fee was required. Sr. Susan and I were enjoying the talk, but gradually the realization dawned that we were crashing a kind of auxiliary event.)

Fr. Groeschel (he actually prefers to be called "Father Benedict") spoke on "liminality" in religious life and in other off-the-mainstream lifestyles, whether they be radical earth types or Buddhist monks, and he listed the common characteristics of these groups. Among them (my notes are downstairs in my backpack) are things like shared possessions, fraternity (i.e., equality of members), simplicity of life and relationships, common dress, and a shared spirit of prayer or (in the case of non-religious liminal groups) a shared sense of the transcendent. He also commented that these groups are NEVER part of the "establishment": it is contrary to their nature! And I suppose it would therefore be harmful to their identity as well. This was especially interesting. Fr. Benedict was treating this really from a sociological standpoint, since it is a sociological phenomenon and is not unique to those seeking to live the Gospel. Society needs people on the margins: it needs a "fringe," but it also needs an established center.
Do you find this interesting and provocative, too?
Okay, and here are a few pictures.

Institute on Religious Life

Institute on Religious Life

Sr Susan and I are at Mundelein for the weekend--Fr. Groeschel gave a stimulating talk this morning.

Random Meme

My friend Karen "tagged" me with a meme--six random things about me...

Well,

• I'm a Halloween baby.
• When I was a teenager (okay, I admit it, I did this as a nun, too), I would sometimes use the phone dial tone as a kind of pedal point and sing melodies around it.
• If I had a different chromosomal makeup, my community initials would be "SJ" (but you probably knew that already).*
• Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #3 (in G m) was the piece of classical music that first captured me. 

Two to go...

• My desk, office, room and space in the community room are usually a pitiful mess.
• I have the misfortune of being a "shy extrovert." (Maybe you knew that, too.)

Okay, that's six.

So I tag Sr. Lorraine, Lisa, Lauren--I don't know too many more people to tag!

 

* The highest backhanded compliment I ever received was from a spiritual director in Boston who told me, "It's a good thing you're a woman, because if you were a man you'd be a Jesuit and I'd hate you!"

Emmaus

Today's Gospel of the Journey to Emmaus is one of the most charming of the Easter Gospels. You know, the two disheartened disciples, leaving Jerusalem the very day Jesus had himself left the tomb behind empty, and then the encounter on the road where Jesus (still unrecognized) explains the Scriptures, then goes in "to stay" with them, breaks the bread and vanishes.

That word "stay" piqued my interest. It is really a Johannine word, and rather rare in Luke. I even checked in a Greek on-line reference: Luke uses the word "stay" (also translated "abide" or "remain") only four times (and three of those are in the infancy narratives), while John uses it eighteen times.

Luke says that Jesus "went in to stay with them." He never says he "left." He went in to stay and to remain with the disciples, to be recognized in the breaking of the bread.

Congratulations, Nell!

I got a call today from my sister Mary, letting me know that our youngest sister, Nell, was honored today for her work on behalf of abused children in Louisiana. (Nell is a social worker.) Basically, she was named "Outstanding Community Services Worker of the Year" by the Court Appointed Special Advocates group in Jefferson Parish ("county"). I'm surprised I didn't learn about this from Mom (or from Nell!) when I talked to them on Easter... You can "read all about it" in the Times-Picayune, that Pulitzer-winning little paper that could.

Picayune Pulitzer

Gotta say I'm proud of my hometown paper getting two Pulitzers for its ongoing and in-depth coverage of Katrina while the storm was flooding their headquarters and the homes of its staff. In October, the Columbia Review of Journalism had done a fabulous article on the Times-Picayune, noting that although it was a small paper it had one of the highest readership percentages of any local paper. This year, the Pulitzer committee had to waive its exclusion of on-line publishing, since the storm had left the region's papers with no possibility of printing. For three days, the Picayune published on-line, and within the week they were distributing hard copy.

Hurray!

God and the Girl

By all accounts, the A&E "reality" show following four young men in their discernment about the priesthood is "must see TV" for Catholics. Two segments ran last night and another two are scheduled for tonight. (I understand the whole thing will be repeated at the end of the week, but check A&E for that.) Sr. Helena, our resident media scholar, says that A&E really deserves kudos for allowing people of faith to represent themselves, without the network reworking their words or intentions according to its own agenda. According to Sr. Helena, this is something you can expect from A&E--so it might be good for "ye watchers and ye holy ones" out there to send the network a few words of appreciation.

Easter: death and taxes

This year the two "certainties" of life coincided at Easter, with the Paschal Triduum falling right at income tax time. And today's Gospel (from Matthew), with the risen Jesus appearing before the two Marys and telling them "Do not be afraid" seems to have a particularly appropos message:

• "Do not be afraid" even if the certainties of the old order have been overthrown.
• "Do not be afraid" even though you no longer know what you can count on, what you can rely on, what you can base your plans and prospects on.
• "Do not be afraid" even though, with death no longer ultimate, you surely cannot look to the civic order to give you peace and security.

Now the only security is in Jesus himself.

My Secret Recipe

This is MY work of art: ham with a special tangerine-cranberry glaze. Too bad the colors just don't show up in the photo. And all this was accomplished at 6:00 a.m. Not that I intended to be up and about the kitchen so early, but we had a scare at 4:30 with LOUD banging on the roof. Called 911 and kept vigil while the officers went upstairs (our rooms are right beneath the roof, and we can hear everything up there). They said it was just a really windy morning (night) in the Windy City. But then who can get back to sleep after something like that?

Now that the adventure is over, and I am on the second floor where roof banging cannot be heard, I will take my missal and my coffee to the living room for some quiet time with Jesus. May his deep Easter blessing be yours!

Decor, view 2

Another view of Sr. Helena's work.

Decor

Sr. Helena was in charge of decorating the refectory (dining room). She goes all out.

The Lamb's High Feast

Couldn't resist a little pun. Sr. Susan did the convent lamb cake this year (her first one ever!). Does anyone else out there have this tradition? (It was unknown to me until I entered the convent.)

When we came home from the Easter Vigil (at Mt Carmel, where the music was fabulous, if a choir member is allowed to say so), we were going to have lamb cake and cocoa, but our houseguests were already in bed (!), so we settled for cocoa and a chat.

Holy Week

I will be focusing on prayer and community in order to better enter into the Sacred Triduum (we are, after all, on the last day of Lent), so I won't be blogging for a few days (unless something extraordinary comes up). Please pray over my Dad's endoscopy tomorrow. And may I recommend a reading (or re-reading, as the case may be) of Benedict XVI's encyclical "God is Love" for these days when God "so loved the world that he gave his only Son."

Blessings for this holy Triduum!

Body of Christ

At Mass today (there was the usual "St. Anthony Tuesday" crowd), hearing the refrain "Body of Christ" over and over led me to reflect that this week in, in a most particular way, a week of focus on the Body of Christ: his own human body, subjected to so much, and his Mystical Body, the Church--with thousands of catechumens making their final preparations for Baptism. And that, in turn, led me to think about the upcoming "Da Vinci Code" movie. In a way, that, too, claims to be about the body of Christ, even if its adherents are willing to accept something less than the Eucharist/Church Body, and opt simply for a physical descendency. It is a measure of how culturally unaware people are that they believe it would have even occurred to the first generation of Jesus' followers to "cover up" what was and is the most expected, normal, unexceptional pattern for a person's life (marriage and children) and concoct the actual story we have in the Gospels, in which (I am not making this up) there are intimations that Jesus' celibate lifestyle set him up for ridicule as a "eunuch." Who would have made up that kind of hero in the year 33 A.D.?

No, the truth is really what you learned in second grade (hopefully!). Jesus did not leave us his progeny, he left us himself in the Eucharist and in the Church.

spare change?

Unfortunately, it's one of the sounds you can get used to really quickly in Chicago: the rattle of coins in a paper cup and the chant, "Spare change?" The other day I even saw someone taking a picture of one of our neighborhood's regulars. And then there are the ones that aren't "regular" at all--really clean-cut, young guys, sitting cross-legged on the sidewalk with a sign or paper cup. I get the weird sensation that we passers-by are participants in a social experiment and will soon show up on somebody's term paper. That suspicion was somewhat reinforced when I was coming home from Mass. I saw a young man, cross-legged and hunched over--but he was looking at the LCD screen of a digital camera. He must have heard my steps, because quickly the camera went in a case and a coffee cup was produced. "Spare change?" he said with a hint of sheepishness.

I almost chuckled, but you never know.

Long Live the King!

I don't normally blog on Sunday, but today's experience cried out to be noted. Right on our corner, at Lake and Michigan, stood a Jewish family, women and girls in long skirts, one boy about thirteen in Hassidic suit and hat, with thin tassels hanging below his suit coat. Behind them was a folding table on which were some plain white boxes and piles of flyers. A little girl held the box out as she asked passers by if they were Jewish, but the flyers went to everyone. Three cars lined up on Lake Street, with yellow flags on their antennae. The flags featured a crown and some Hebrew letters. On the car hood or door was a poster of a Hassidic man and the words, "Long Live the King!"
I couldn't help but marvel. For all I know, the Hebrew pronunciation for that "Long Live" may very well be the selfsame "Hosanna!" we sang today, Palm Sunday, to the Son of King David, Jesus. And here were these missionary Jews, spreading the message of their beloved holy leader and (I presume) encouraging their fellow Jews to observe this week's Passover. (I love it when Passover coincides so perfectly with our liturgy!)
It made me wonder how many Christians are out there today, in one way or another, publicly professing their confidence in Jesus and encouraging the lukewarm to celebrate the Paschal Mystery.

Theology of the Body

I am truly sorry to be so late in posting this information, but...

The 3rd National Forum on the Theology of the Body will be held April 28-29 at St. Mary of the Lake (Mundelein, IL). The theme is "Education and Evangelization through the Theology of the Body" and topics include "Teaching the Theology of the Body to all Ages" and "Explaining the Theology of the Body to Family and Friends," plus one that should be particularly interesting in an ecumenical sense, "Evangelicals and the Theology of the Body." Other issues to be treated are homosexuality, infertility, health, fatherhood, pornography.

If you can manage to get there, I am sure it will be worth the effort. So many people get their "knowledge" of Church teaching from the major media, and those outlets are not exactly reliable when it comes to issues surrounding human sexuality, so please use your blog and other avenues of communication to let others know about this!

Liturgy

This morning I was anticipating all the spectacular liturgies of the coming week, beginning tomorrow morning with Palm Sunday. For people who only go to Mass on Christmas and Easter, the Holy Week liturgies would probably be the longest, most penitential and inexplicable services imaginable. An interminable Sunday Mass. And if you don't even go to Sunday Mass, that is interminable indeed. So how do you present these remarkable liturgies to someone who doesn't "do" liturgy, basically, at all?

I don't know if this would help or not, but it occurred to me that the liturgy itself is a form of contemplation-made-manifest. It is revealing something that is at the same time within, above and beyond our normal experience, but it only has access (externally speaking) to the things that are part and parcel of our normal experience: time, movement, words, music. So what does the liturgy do? It unfolds in time, but not in our usual frenetic pace, and not with the goal of "getting something done" or out of the way, but with the leisurely pace of something that is done for its own sake. It uses movement, but these are the movements of a ballet, not the efficient movements of a factory. It uses words, but even the words are not everyday speech, intended to get a message across, but the language of admiration, love and thanksgiving, and they are addressed to someone we can only perceive with the eyes of faith. And the music... well, it certainly isn't what you generally hear in the elevator or on the radio! All together, time, movements, words and music are taken up as a visible form of contemplation in an action that is, essentially, totally beyond us, since the real action is that of the "totus Christus" (the "whole Christ") in his Mystical Body.

How would you speak of the liturgy, especially in this most exceptional liturgical week?

The End Draws Near

No, not "the" end, just the last pages of the first run-through translation (painfully literal) of the humongous book I have been trying to render in English for two years. I have six pages to go (plus a million footnotes) to have been through the book once completely. I did hand edits for 35 chapters, and will have 7 more chapters to do first edits on, but still, to reach the end of the book is such a relief I want to celebrate (even on a Friday in Lent). The project has been kind of overwhelming, and it still will be for some time to come, but today (God willing!) I will reach that landmark, that long-awaited page 471, which signifies that I have been through the entire book. It is, in a way, the half-way mark (well, the 40% mark, but that doesn't sound as good). So rejoice with me!

 

Gumbo

Gumbo

There's not much left, but it's even better the next day.

the taste of death

That's a creepy sounding title, but it's right out of today's Gospel: "If anyone keeps my word, he shall never see death." And the same phrase of Jesus was taken up again as a challenge by those who asked him, in effect, "What do you mean? How can you be so important that anyone who keeps your word will never taste death?"

It must have been an expression, because it shows up in Matthew (around chapter 16) and also in the letter to the Hebrews which (significantly enough) says that it was JESUS who "tasted death" for the sake of us all.

That's enough for a meditation right there.

But my concordance-brain was in gear this morning, and it moved on to the phrases surrounding "keeping my word," leading me eventually to John 14--where the one who loves Jesus will keep his word, and the Father will love that person, and "we" (Father and Son) will come to him and make our dwelling with him. John's prologue also states "in him (the Word) was life, life for the light of human beings." No wonder we can "never taste death" if we "keep his word"!

Truth that sets free

Today's Gospel contains one of the more frequently quoted sayings of Jesus--found often in contexts where I am sure the authors would be surprised to realize they were quoting Jesus--"the truth will set you free."

Every once in a while when I read Scripture my mind gets going on its "concordance" mode, bringing on phrase after phrase with some kind of connection to the original passage, usually based on some key word. Today was one of those days. At first, I merely noticed that "the truth will set you free" appears a few sentences before "if the Son frees you, then you will truly be free." Oh, "the Son" = "the Truth" (as in "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life"). Then that led me to Paul: "you were called to freedom" and "for freedom Christ set us free" (Gal. 5). And then Galatians led to Romans, "you are the slaves of the one you obey, whether of sin (which leads to death) or of obedience (which leads to righteousness)."  For Paul, of course, "obedience" is always "obedience to the truth" and it is the opposite of slavery, so obedience (to truth)=freedom, so "the truth will set you free."

Then I really got going and pulled out a Greek New Testament. That's when it struck me that our Founder was really on to something when he connected our Pauline spirituality with passages in the Gospel of John (especially the "Way, Truth and Life" part). Today's Gospel (Jn. 8: 31-42) is one of those places where John demonstrates an essential affinity with Paul. This Gospel is, in fact, a "Way, Truth and Life" passage with strong Pauline flavor in the language. Some of Paul's favorite words and themes are here: free, sin, Abraham--even "works."

For Paul, being set free is a matter of being "co-crucified" with Christ, where John expresses it as "being freed by the Son" and so being "really" (Greek: ontos) free.

What's for supper?

What's for supper?

Chicken gumbo. (Hope I don't 'roux' the menu!)

Spring Cleaning

Natural light is such an important commodity downtown. Even if you have a window (as I do), your access to light is probably going to be stymied by a nearby building (as mine is). Even more, when you live downtown in a big city, right on one of that big city's major thoroughfares, it can be pretty hard to look through the window anyway. Amazing how the dirt and exhaust travel four stories up to cling to our tiny windows. Rain does nothing to wash this mess away: it only serves as glue! And even pigeon feathers find a way of holding on in the strongest winds.

We have a contract with a window-washer, and we have to beg for him to come. This is so crucial in the winter months, when every photon counts, but winter is too cold. So we had something on the order of six months of window grime today when voila'  the Window Washer Cometh. It was not particularly good timing, but on a day when the sun is bright and a few extra photons are finding their way past the buildings to brighten our dark abode, no inconvenience is to be measured.

And so here I write, my shades open (I was keeping them closed because the dirty windows were just too distressing), the light attempting to make it in. Spring is really coming!

People to pray for

Whatever the form of outreach we do, inevitably we come home with more people to pray for. This weekend at Our Lady of the Woods was no exception. Please join me in praying for:

• the Irish grandmother whose precious little ones are not being brought up in any faith (with two uncles in the priesthood, no less)
• the woman who was looking for something "racy" (the word she used was "smut") to read at night, and who declared herself to be "completely pro-choice" (I don't know why she was at Mass with such attitudes, but at least she is in a place where grace has some chance of finding her!)
• the couple whose grandchildren are being raised Lutheran, and who weren't sure what book they could give them without offending the parents
• the young mother who was looking for something that would honestly explain Church teaching on marriage and contraception (she chose Kimberly Hahn's "Live-giving Love").

Of course, the newspapers are full of more people and needs to pray over, in case you run out of intentions...

Judgment

Today's two readings present scenes of judgment and condemnation, and then release. In both, the one judged and condemned is a woman. In the Old Testament story of Susanna, the woman is innocent. In the Gospel story, she is caught in flagrante delictu. In the Old Testament story, the false accusers themselves finally end up judged and condemned, and that is where the parallels end. Because in the Gospel, the accusers walk away. If only they had stayed! Then they would have found that they had not been condemned either. That is what struck me in my meditation: Jesus' question to the woman caught in adultery: "Has no one condemned you?" "No one." Yet her accusers, in departing after Jesus' magisterial, "Let the one without sin cast the first stone," had condemned themselves, and so were not there to hear Jesus ask each one of them if, in fact, they had been condemned by anyone. They would have learned that "God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him."

So much of religion in today's many caricatures seems caught up in condemnation. And yet St. Paul, too, was very clear--and I used the lovely aria "If God be for us" from Handel's Messiah in my meditation, too--God is about salvation and redemption. Condemnation is something we do.

Book Recommendation

I was able to peruse a new book on discernment while at the Our Lady of the Woods parish book fair this weekend. It's by Mark Rupnik, SJ, the artist John Paul II picked to design the Vatican's Redemptoris Mater chapel (breathtaking). I'll probably write more about the book later, but for now I just want to tell you that it's on my list of books I need to spend time on. It's that valuable. And one of the sisters who worked on the translation and editing said that this one book could do a great deal to unmask Satan's ploys. Need I say more?

A second look at the tomato in your Big Mac

As I left St. Peter's noon Mass today, I heard music, drumming and chanting. It turned out to be a well-planned protest march with about 200 members. Most carried signs shaped like Golden Arches with a "no" slash through them. I had read about this: the farm workers who pick tomatoes for huge fast-food companies are asking to be paid one cent more per pound for the tomatoes they pick. Considering the back-breaking labor involved, and the generally horrific working conditions migrants face, this is a step in the right direction.

I mentioned my encounter to Sr. Margaret (the provincial), who commented that when she was stationed in Ohio in the 80's, she used to spend weeks on the road doing mission trips, visiting migrant camps. There were 300 migrant camps in Ohio alone. Sometimes the workers were worse off than slaves. Sometimes they were just poor, hard-working people (families, too) living in tents and shacks, but with evenings to gather and watch the movies the sisters brought, and choose little prayer books and things. Sr. Margaret said that the sisters used to pick strawberries along with the workers when they got to a camp while people were still working. (It was generally night-time mission work, given the circumstances.) I hadn't even known that.

So, anyway, bottom line is, your Big Mac is worth an extra cent for the people who brought you that juicy tomato.

earworm

Would you believe... "Ring around the Rosie" ? (It started when I noticed that my freshly-laundered white turtleneck had incredibly icky cuffs.)

The current issue of Reader's Digest refers to the phenomenon, but they call it "cranial jukebox" or (for the condition itself) "radiohead."