Mission Month

October is the month of the Holy Rosary and the month of missions, with Mission Sunday falling on October 22 this year. Coincidentally (!), that is also the feast day of Blessed Timothy Giaccardo, a contemporary missionary if there ever was one, since he was one of the first members of the Pauline Family.

The whole point of the Church is mission, so that is something entrusted to each and every one, and not just people who are involved in some "official" or particularly visible capacity. Now, more than ever, we need to be people in mission: people who know what God has done for us and who are not afraid to talk about it. But, as St.Paul says, "always let your speech be flavored with salt." What does that salt of mission taste like?

We Pray to the Lord

I have a little confession to make. When it comes to spontaneous intercessions at Mass, I get really nervous! At the local parish, there are a good number of "regulars" who have their usual intentions, and to try to offer a prayer without crashing into another person's intention is a bit like trying to "get in" and jump rope while your friends have the thing turning. (Come to think of it, I was always one of those who hesitated to just run in and start jumping, too.) Anyway, today I dove in to offer a special prayer "For Catholic media professionals, especially Karen who will be meeting with decision-makers in Hollywood about a new show." I did crash into another person's prayer. And it might only be my imagination, but I thought the "Lord, Hear our Prayer!" was especially strong.

Strollin' on the River

This afternoon I slipped out of Dad's room while he and Mom rested, and took a walk along the levee. (The hospital is located just outside the levee, a bit west of downtown.) The muddy Mississippi was amazingly blue today, although I could only see it in little bits, since the trees that grow along the banks are as thick as the jungle, except where a clearing was made.
There is a wide expanse of grass that you can see in the foreground. That is about twelve or more feet below the pathway along the levee's crown, and probably helped keep this part of the city safe from the worst flooding. (You don't see many FEMA trailers in this neighborhood, though there was one outside a small Pentecostal church on River Road.)

Dad update

I'm still in New Orleans, where I have been spending the greater part of each day in Dad's hospital room. Today was a little different: after Mass and my Hour of Adoration, I went to Dad's office to try to locate a box of family files to help make the arrangements for my uncle's funeral. I thought I was looking for a folder, but instead it was a big file box marked in Dad's handwriting, "In caso de muerte." (Dad gets a charge out of keeping up the Spanish he learned in high school.) Dad seems a bit better today, and we had the grace of a long visit with a priest friend who prayed with us and anointed both Mom and Dad. I was there, and so were two of my sisters and my future brother-in-law, so it was a real family experience around the Church's healing ministry. I am learning a lot from all this.

Uncle Buddy

My Uncle Buddy, 82, was found dead at home today by two loving nieces who had come to pick him up for a doctor's appointment. Uncle Bud was one of the two old coots in the family who refused to evacuate before or after Katrina. He was a menace on the roads, having once found himself on the far side of the lake without knowing how he got there. He went to daily Mass, but seems to have suffered profound scruples that kept him from ever receiving Communion. Now we pray that he enjoy profound Communion with the Lord he sought so confusedly.

Milingering Bishops

Excommunicate Archbishop Milingo, the same one who took up with a Unification Church bride some years back, repented and then recanted, is back in the news after attempting the episcopal ordination of four renegade priests. Now they're all excommunicate (by reason of the action itself, not any pronouncement by Church leaders). While I don't understand why the episcopal ordinations would be invalid, I did notice a little something beyond strange in the Zenit news report about the matter.

It seems that this is not the first time these four have been "ordained" bishops. In fact, they seem to have gone through at least one other episcopal ordination, maybe more. So we are witnessing not just an act of schism, but a publicity stunt.

 

Power and Authority

The Gospel for today is one that I easily shortchange. I tend to sum it up as: Jesus gives the Twelve power and authority and they go out and preach and cure people.

Today I noticed how complex the little narrative really is. And since the power to cure people is something that especially interests me right now, I guess I paid a bit more attention.

First, the Gospel attributes four verbs to Jesus:

    He summons the Twelve.

    He gives them power and authority.

    He instructs them ("commands" them might be more accurate).

    He sends them.

As for the Twelve? They "go"; they "preach" and they "cure."

But what about this "power and authority"? Aside from the interesting fact that these two terms are used at the end of Matthew's Gospel right before the "Great Commission," where Jesus says, "All power and all authority in Heaven and on earth have been given to me," Luke in today's Gospel creates a parallel structure that tells us something:

    He gave them power and authority over demons and to heal diseases.

    He sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to cure the sick.

"Power and authority over demons" is related to the "proclaiming the Kingdom of God" in a way similar to how the "power and authority to heal diseases" is related to "curing the sick."  So that "proclaiming the Kingdom of God" means exercising power and authority over the "principalities and powers" of darkness.

We need some of that.

St. Vincent de Paul

Today's saint corresponds so well to the day's Gospel you'd think it had been planned that way. Vincent de Paul's name practically equals "charity" to the needy and the sick. Here in New Orleans, the Daughters of Charity (the women's Order he founded with St. Louise de Marillac) ran Charity Hospital for about 100 years. Perhaps if they had still been in charge, it would not have been reduced to the condition it was in by the time Katrina rolled into town. The sisters also ran the leper colony at Carville. A member of my extended family is a Daughter of Charity, though now she is on the receiving end of ministry to the sick. When we were kids, we loved standing next to Sister Laboure at Mardi Gras. People on the floats would practically pour trinkets into her sack, and she would bring these back to Carville for a Mardi Gras party with the lepers.

Another thing about today's saint that is seldom mentioned: Vincent de Paul was enslaved for a time to a Moslem master. Before that experience, he was a somewhat self-centered priest without much thought to ministry as self-giving. So you could say that to some degree his mission of mercy was prepared for by his own experience as a slave.

And today's Gospel? I think I'll write about that in a separate post. (This is getting too long!)

Saints Marchin'

I know people out there were shaking their heads (while their eyes were glued to Monday Night Football), asking how New Orleans could possibly give so much importance to a football game--or to a stadium that had been the scene of such horrific suffering 13 months ago.

Local columnist Chris Rose explains it a lot better than I...

The Cardinal's Blog

This may be a first: I just learned that Boston's Cardinal O'Malley is keeping a blog! He's writing in a very personal style, very conversational. A blog to watch!

TOB

Among the "Theology of the Body" titles we released this year is one for young people, "God's Plan for You." Our Sunday Visitor gave it a nice review. I had an opportunity to expound a bit on the subject myself when a teenaged nephew (one of the Texans in the family) accompanied me and Mom to the hospital so that Mom could spend another sleepless night on the sofa in Dad's room. As the two of us drove home, chatting about this and that, Logan managed to ask a pointed question about Church teaching . The amazing thing is that this 15-year-old actually enjoyed the twenty minute lesson on the Theology of the Body that ensued!

Mary Page

The University of Dayton's Marian Studies Institute has just released "The Mary Page," a comprehensive Marian web site with some search features that I haven't yet explored, but will confidently promote anyway. This would be well listed among key Catholic sites on any blog. I'll do it soon, myself...

The Devil's Tail

We used to joke when a book we were publishing encountered some big technical problems along the way that the devil was getting his tail into the machinery because he didn't want the book getting into people's hands. It was always a little sign for us that a book was especially important for the cause of evangelization. Well, guess what? We have a really significant book coming out--sooner or later. As soon as the machinery starts running properly again...

letting the light shine

Today's Gospel message was that no one lights a lamp in order to hide it. That goes so well with what I have been reading, courtesy of my Dad's newly-shelved library: Thomas Merton's "The Seven Storey Mountain."

While I have read essays and the like by Merton, and even read his Wartime Journals (again, courtesy of Dad's library, some years back), I must admit to my shame that I have never read Seven Storey Mountain. And now I really regret that. It really does seem like the perfect book for an unbeliever or a fallen-away-into-the-predominating-culture Catholic. (I can think of a few of those.) And for a lifelong Catholic, it is a helpful reminder about noticing the lights that God has lit and continues to light along the way. He does not put them in hiding places, and he does not want me to tuck them away, either.

Let your light shine.

 

And, giving glory where glory is due, our prayers continue to strengthen Dad's morale. He is a bit better today, though we will find out tomorrow if the infection is still present. Thanks for continuing your prayers.

Freeloading?

I have been enjoying the convenience of updating my blog by using my AOL e-mail account, as I am doing right now. But lately, I have been irritated to notice that such blog posts now feature what is basically an unpaid advertisement for AOL. Since we pay for AOL service, I do not think that we should be carrying advertising on every e-mail we send.

Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon?

Back to Benedict

For John Allen's comments (http://ncrcafe.org/node/471) this week..

Home Improvement

Dad isn't home, but there has been an improvement: he had a fairly restful night and today said he "almost feels half human." This is happening on my brother's birthday. When asked what he wanted, he said, "The only thing I want is for this old man here to get better." Happy Birthday, Harold!
It is not only Harold's birthday, it is the old feast of St. Thecla (noted woman disciple of Paul, according to a third century "novel" entitled "The Acts of Paul and Thecla") and the current feast of St. Pio of Pieltrelcina, Padre Pio. On this day in 1968, I came home from school to be met at the door by my mother. Her face looked stricken, and she mournfully told us, "Padre Pio died." My response to that was a perfectly mystified, "Who is Padre Pio?"
This morning's Mass was celebrated by a priest who had been a Capuchin in the 60's, and who had spent a few days in community with Padre Pio in the friary. He devoted the whole homily to Padre Pio stories, and concluded by saying that what Padre Pio did, really, was live in communion with the sufferings of Jesus, and that is something every person can do in life. In fact, yesterday Dad had mentioned that he was trying to offer his sufferings up, but "It's very hard to do that!" God be praised, it is the will that counts here.
Thanks to all for the continuing prayers and encouragement.

The Shadow of Death

My sister is coming in from Texas this morning with her three kids. (Their Dad's on active duty with the Navy at a certain location very much in the news.) It will be nice to have a seven year old around: that middle age range is missing from my New Orleans nieces and nephews. I have to say, though, that one of the most precious memories I will have is of my 15-year-old nephew tracing the sign of the cross on his grandpa's forehead before leaving after a visit. (Jesuit boy, God bless him.)

We still don't know which way things are going to go for Dad, and that makes for pretty interesting dynamics in a big family like ours. We acknowledge to each other through little references, or with a quick, darting gaze after a reference, that he may not recover, but we also want to keep hoping that the antibiotics will win the day, or at least buy some. We were actually encouraged by the gloomy news one doctor gave: that when people get this kind of infection, they have at most a year before (to put it in Dad's words) going to that great courtroom in the sky. At the same time, we are all constantly on the verge of tears and already grieving and telling stories (at least Dad can help with that part--I learned yesterday that he failed trigonometry three times at Jesuit High, and the teacher, an old German Jesuit, didn't know what to do with him). Plus, being half Irish, we have a kind of ironic humor about the most difficult possibilities. (Even Mom, who is mostly French, has that!)

Well, you see the sorts of prayers we need. Say a special one for the three Texas grandchildren, ages 15, 9 and 7. Katrina pre-empted their usual Christmas visit (no house to stay in) and they didn't come in this summer in view of coming for Jane's wedding. So they haven't seen Dad in a year and a half, and he has lost about 50 pounds since then. It may be quite traumatic for them.

Dad update

Prayers are still needed (to go along with the antibiotics). My sister is coming in from Texas, so all of us will be together with Mom and Dad.

Thank you so much.

martyrdom's fire

There's a line in a hymn to St. Patrick about "martyrdom's fire," and I can't help but think of it rather often these days. Even more now that I read about the three Indonesian Catholics who were executed on specious charges of fomenting a riot (!). And, of course, today's feast of St. Matthew fits right in there, too.

Being right now pretty much tied up with family matters, I have not kept up too much with how the fallout from Pope Benedict's talk is continuing. I noted that a Vatican spokeperson remarked on how widespread the reaction was even though the Pope's talk had not been translated into the languages of the countries where he was being burned in effigy and so forth.

That leads me to formulating...

 

Anne's First Rule of Reaction: "No person whosoever is permitted to respond in any way whatsoever to any presumed provocation whatever before actually informing himself or herself of the matter in its original context."

1. Verbal statements rule out any other than verbal responses.
2. Those who indulge in irrational hyperbole shall be respectfully ignored by communications media that serve the public interest.
3. Those who choose to respond with force or weapons exclude themselves by the very fact from public discourse.

Anne's Second Rule of Reaction is: "The validity of any verbal or written public response to any verbal or written public statement (whether spoken or written) shall depend directly upon the responder's having attentively read or listened to the entire prior presentation."

 

Anne's Third Rule of Reaction is: "The validity of any verbal or written public response to any verbal or written public statement (whether spoken or written) shall have weight and merit mention in the media in direct proportion to the number of the following criteria that it meets:

1. The original public statement has been read (or heard) in full and in context.
2. The original public statement has been read (or heard) in full several times. (Increased number of times correlates to increased validity of response.)
3. The original public statement has been read (or heard) in the original language.
4. The original public statement has been read (or heard), and all quoted sources have also been read in full and in context.
5. The original public statement has been read (or heard), and all quoted sources have also been read in full, in context, and in the original language(s).

 

Any other codicils to add before Anne's Rules of Reaction are promulgated?

en route

I'm in New Orleans, on my way to a morning Mass and then the hospital. It's Dad's 78th birthday. Please pray for all of us.

Urgent prayer request

My dad is being admitted to the hospital today with unbearable abdominal pain, probably peritonitis. He started feeling awful about two weeks ago, but it came and went, and each time it "went" it took more out of him until it got to this point. Your prayers are appreciated.

closet meme

Karen tagged me with a "closet meme." But I don't have a closet! (Actually, Karen went through her whole house, but I am only taking this as a closet meme and only tagging Sr. Lorraine, Lauren and Lisa with that).  I do have book shelves, however, and a clothes cabinet, and a nightstand that is mostly a book cabinet.

 

Among the items on the shelves, aside from lots and lots of books (now including my Dad's old "Raccolta" which I found among the boxed books rescued from Katrina), I have...

• a statue of Our Lady of Montserrat with
• a first-class relic of St. Ignatius at her feet, next to
• my great-great-grandmother's wooden crucifix, near a
• statue of St. Paul and
• an audio speaker (the other one is on the other side of my bed).

 

Holy War

Well, it continues. According to the AP article on AOL:

The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups that includes al-Qaida in Iraq, issued a statement on a Web forum about the pope's remarks last week on Islam. The authenticity of the statement could not be immediately independently verified.

"You infidels and despotic, we will continue our jihad (holy war) and never stop until God avails us to chop your necks and raise the fluttering banner of monotheism when God's rule is established governing all people and nations," the statement said.

The group said Muslims will be victorious and addressed the pope as "the worshipper of the cross" saying "you and the West are doomed as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere ... We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose head tax, then the only thing acceptable is a conversion (to Islam) or (killed by) the sword."

Islam forbids drinking alcohol and requires non-Muslims to pay a head tax to safeguard their lives if conquered by Muslims. They are exempt if they convert to Islam.

The statement said that the Quran tells Muslims in many occasions that "jihad continues and should never stop until dooms day where this religion ends victorious."

But even this raw confirmation of everything Michael Paleologus said in the fourteenth century does not represent the "whole truth" of the matter, but only the mediated truth that comes to us through journalism. We don't have any statements by other groups, official or non-official, in part perhaps because more rational groups realized from the get-go that the Pope was not making an offensive statement, but was establishing an historical context within a broader topic.

While we wait for the news services to cover the public statements of more rational organizations, maybe we could begin to ponder the possibility of (dare we say it?) martyrdom--even though the word itself has been desecrated. Yesterday's Gospel remains valid for all time: "If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me."

Benedict's answer

I was quite surprised that Pope Benedict made a personal plea to mollify those who took umbrage at his now controversial Regensburg address. The violent reactions in different parts of the world--firebombing (non-Catholic) churches, killing a nun in Somalia (though the community is careful to avoid seeing the murder as payback for the Pope's words), shooting Christians in Palestine--all these are a frightening indication that reason and tolerance are a bit of a stretch for certain offended parties. I don't want to go so far as to say that the violence corroborates the worst interpretations of the Papal message, but it does kind of look that way.

And what was the point of the Pope's message? According to Benedict himself, "the true meaning of my address...was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with great mutual respect." That offer and invitation holds good for any who wish to take it up.

I also have a question: If a thousand-year-old quotation from a scholarly address is all that most of the people in the world know about what Pope Benedict said in Germany, is that an indication that the news media bear a great part of the responsibility for the irrational outbursts of violence? If reporting on the talk had focused on the big picture, and not made headlines of the words of Michael Paleologus (aptly named, at this point: old word!), would we be seeing these outbreaks of violence and calls for the death of the Pope? I think the media ought to be called to a higher accountability than the Pope in this case.

Media Studies

This just in from Sr. Rose (Culver City, CA):
Pauline Center for Media Studies will begin the Master Teacher & Specialization Certificate Courses in Media Literacy (Media Mindfulness) on September 23, 2006. Classes will begin on September 23^rd and then on the third Saturday of each month through June, from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Department of Catholic Schools and the Office of Religious Education will recognize the certificate for continuing education of teachers and catechists and for recertification. The Diocese of San Diego will recognize the specialization certificate for automatic recertification of catechists. The Tidings (Los Angeles Archdiocesan paper) carried an article explaining the course a few weeks ago; complete information and a registration form can be found on the Pauline website.

Register today!

Toronto

So, my talk in Toronto.

I had a genuinely interested, if compact, audience: about ten lay people (roughly half of whom are Pauline Cooperators) and seven Sisters of the Divine Master (the second women's congregation founded by Blessed James Alberione). There is a wonderful conference hall below our Dufferin Street book center, well equipped for multi-media. (The sisters host a monthly movie discussion group with an average of 25 participants.) Needless to say, the Pauline audience was very responsive, even though my notes are still a bit "rough" and out of order (to my way of thinking). It's a start, at any rate.

One of the main themes I presented was on the message our Founder received from the Eucharistic Jesus: "Live with a penitent heart." I have been thinking about this line for a year or so, because it has been problematic. For one thing, the translation from the original Latin (God speaks Latin; you knew that, of course) has been anywhere from "be sorry for sin" to "living in continual conversion." (The Latin is "Cor poenitens tenete.") Translating it as "be sorry for sin" can make it seem like a call to perpetual contrition. But besides not being spiritually healthy, that doesn't match our Founder's typical approach, which is a "twofold story" that puts the focus on God's action, and only secondarily on ours. Besides, "repent" (metanoite in Greek) is the first word out of Jesus' mouth in the Gospel of Mark, putting this message in line with the original Gospel, and also with St. Paul's exhortation, "Be transformed by the renewal of your minds"--in both expressions, the root word is "mind." So the Latin "hold fast to a penitent heart" may well mean just what St. Paul says to the Romans about the renewal of your mind.

Anyway, that was one of the points I developed in my talk, and hope to continue to investigate and process as the year goes on. We'll see!

Oh, Chicago!

My flight got in ten minutes early. That was good, because I noticed in the United Airlines magazine that their "travel photo contest" deadline for entries is midnight tonight, and I actually have a photo that deserves at least a look. From St. Ignatius' birthplace. The raw, 15th century Moorish brick of the upper floors of the family tower with the smooth marble Basilica from the 17th century in the background. So I got home, turned on the computer, printed the photo, and then... spent a half-hour trying to find a Post Office in downtown Chicago that was open after 6:00. Unsuccessful with the ones in the Loop, I went home, wondering if maybe it just wasn't God's will that I enter this contest--after all, what are my chances anyway, realistically? And isn't the hope of winning a pair of plane tickets (always helpful for a financially strapped community!) just putting too much hope in earthly things? Well, I decided, if Sr. Helena and Sr. Susan took the community van to the book exhibit in Cincinnati, that would be my indication to stop trying. Ha! The van was available. So off I went to the larger downtown Post Office (Ft. Dearborn). There was even a parking spot! But the hours were clearly posted: closes 6:00 Friday. Darn. But there it was in small type: Self-Service Available Until 7:00!

It only cost $1.59 to speed my photo to the judges, even if all they do is look at it and say (as the green-jacketed "passenger assistants" in the Madrid airport), "Hmph! You are in ze wrong place!"

Because if there's a chance that the photos will get some positive attention, it would be an opening for United Airlines to tell a VERY interesting story.

Luke's beatitudes

Today's first reading (Paul's "advice about virgins" "in view of the present time of distress") and the Gospel (Luke's hard-hitting version of the beatitudes) really go well together. Both readings are about the "here and now" of living in faith. There is an urgency that determines just how one should respond to events and opportunities: it matters! The Lukan beatitudes are particularly unsettling, because they are clearly not analogies of any kind. Jesus means what he says: "Blessed are you who are poor now"--and then a few moments later, "Woe to you who are rich now." I rather suspect that we are hearing some "ipsissima verba" in this Gospel text: some of the selfsame words Jesus spoke.

Truly, "this is a hard saying."

rainy day courtesy

A soaking rain this morning at 8:00. Umbrellas up everywhere: huge half-dome type umbrellas, little dinky folding ones, broken ones, elegant ones. And underneath? A very courteous bunch of people, ready to tilt their umbrella to the outside as they pass someone else, or raise it high or low. It was like watching something choreographed.

Oh, Canada!

Tomorrow we pray for "angels on wings" as I go to Toronto, still working away on my talk. I am not planning to bring my computer, but I will make a CD of just about anything I have ever written on the Founder, to make sure that I will have appropriate material for whomever the audience turns out to be.

I did get some new insights from preparing this material, and that is always exciting. I just wish they had been a bit amplified... as in two hours' worth of new insights! Well, there's always tomorrow! Pentecost was no trouble for the Holy Spirit, right?

 

9-11 intercessions

After my post, I went to Mass and found myself with long lists of prayer intentions related to the anniversary of the deadly attacks of five years past. Those murderous acts are only part of a web of death and violence that begets more and more of the same, forming almost an anti-culture in itself. The deaths in Iraq alone since our nation's offensive are many times over the number of deaths of September 11, 2001. At this point, even the number of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq is close to the number of deaths in the Twin Towers; add the Iraqi police death toll and you've more than equaled the 9-11 deaths. This is not exactly the path of peace.

Anyway, I thought it would be good to share some of the prayer intentions I lifted up:

 

For the young person who is--at this moment--close to succumbing to the temptation of terrorism...

For the victims of violence who are consumed with anger or vengeance...

For those who are in danger of hardening their consciences against immoral choices...

For those who support the networks of terrorism or of untrammelled corporate greed...

For those detained on suspicion of terrorism...

For military personnel tempted to ruthlessness...

For the souls of those who died as "collateral damage" in war zones...

For the souls of those who died perpetrating acts of violence (in the hope that they had a brief, shining moment of repentance)...

For the souls of those who died as victims of government-sponsored violence...

For the souls of those who died as victims of genocide...

For current victims of genocidal policies...

For young people without hope...

For young people surrounded by violence...

For children who are orphaned by violence...

For those whose grief leads them to self-destruction...

For those whom God is calling to a more active mission of evangelization...

For an increased commitment to the corporal works of mercy...

For the courage to witness in word and deed to our faith in Jesus Christ...

For the grace to repent of our own habitual blindness...

For the grace of having priorities in line with the Gospel...

For the grace to recognize and respect the living image of God in every person He has created...

 

 

 

Anniversary Prayers

The pouring rain today couldn't have been more of a contrast with the magnificent weather five years ago. It was such a splendid morning, but once we witnessed the blasphemy of terrorism, and people began pouring from the buildings here in Chicago and the city was deserted, there was no one outside to enjoy the perfect weather and the blue, blue sky. We kept our door open so that people could come into the chapel to pray, but no one was around. So we prayed, not knowing if the Sears Tower or the Aon building (one block away) was going to come down next.

We still need to pray, of course. In a particular way, I think we need to pray in reparation for the sin of terrorism, and to pray for the conversion of all those who use violence of any kind to attain political or economic goals.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Sr Susan's day

(It's really tomorrow, but she sure liked the 4-chocolate cake!.)

John Paul's last days

It's a chance to relive
those days of grace
during Holy Week and Easter of 2005: The long-awaited book by Pope John Paul's closest confidants is ready for release! The title is "Let me Go to the Father's House," but the subtitle really says it all: "John Paul II's Strength in Weakness." This is something we can all count on: "When I am weak, then I am strong" because "the power of Christ rests upon me," as St. Paul was the first to acknowledge.

From what I hear, there are already plenty of pre-release orders, so order your copy soon or you may end up having to wait for the second printing!

Sr. Fay's Samoan Idol

And news from the Samoan home front from Sr. Fay:

Just a word of thanks to those of who participated the voting poll for my brother Bronze during the Star Search competition especially the finals that took place last Friday. My brother, Bronze, won the competition! If you would like to listen to the song he sang and to see some of the pictures from the competition click on www.samoalive/starsearch.asx  Time: 11:05 you will hear Bronze. Thank you again!  Take care and have a nice day to you all.  God bless!  A proud sister (smiles)...

Houseguests

This weekend we are offering  hospitality to three visitors from Great Britain: a Servite sister and two consecrated Servite women (one of whom is the head of their Secular Institute). The sister is quite a conversationalist. Turns out she is the granddaughter of the first President of the Russian Duma. (She is praying she will be able to visit Moscow for this, the centenary year of the first Duma. Please say a little prayer to St. Paul for this intention.) Her father disappeared sometime in the Soviet years, and the family has no idea when, where or how he died or where he is buried. (They recently wrote a formal letter requesting the opportunity to look into any records there might be in his regard.)  She has memories of her early childhood in the Orthodox Church: being taught the Our Father in the old Slavonic language by the son of the priest (in hiding; everyone was afraid); being lifted up in her mother's arms to receive the Eucharist; later in Paris, her grandmother taking a lighted taper away from the Easter service, waiting at the Metro with her lit candle... Her mother was not allowed to leave Russia, so "Olga" and her sister left for France in the charge of their grandmother. But when she reached school age, she had to go to a state boarding school. Since there was no Orthodox Church in the area of Calais, where the school was, her there were a number of Catholic Churches and one Protestant "temple," as it was called there. Grandma was happy that they believed in God, and left the matter of where up to the kids. The girl, not knowing one from the other, simply said "Catholic." And so it was. Well, the Lord drew that little soul, and when she made her first Communion in the Catholic Church at age twelve (this is a pretty old lady we're talking about), she felt the attraction to go to daily Mass--which she did, until the school realized that one of their pupils was wandering off alone every morning!

Since the group had come in from a London flight, we sent them off to bed now (1:20 in the morning for them!), but we are all looking forward to hearing more from Sr. Olga, the French-speaking Russian nun from England!

Hound of Heaven

I had an unusual experience today, and it has left me asking the Lord if there is a message he wants to get across. I rather suspect so.

This afternoon, I brought my work to the lakefront to get in some of the lovely, still summery day. On my way back, just as I approached the corner of Randolph and Michigan, I noticed a young man with a white cane on the edge of the park, tapping around in a wide arc as if lost. "Are you trying to go somewhere?" I asked. "Yes, I am trying to cross Randolph and then Michigan." "Me, too." Remembering what my friend Sr. Sheila told me about assisting a disabled person, I extended my bent arm, and he lightly touched my elbow and off we went. But when we got to the other corner, as I left, I saw that he had gotten turned around again and was facing north on Michigan. Back I went. "Are you where you want to be, or are you just getting your bearings?" I told him he was on the west side of Michigan, facing north, but he still didn't have a sense of where he needed to go, so I took him by the shoulders and spun him around to face due west on Randolph. I sure hope he got where he was going, because I was by then feeling rather embarrassed at having been so "direct" in my approach. (It is part of being an extremely task-oriented person.)

Well, a little over an hour later, at Mass, there was a blind woman in the front pew. When the Extraordinary Minister of Communion did not come to the usual station by the side aisle (where I and the blind woman were heading), I asked if she would like some assistance. "Yes!" she said with vigor, taking my arm. So arm in arm we went to Communion, and arm and arm we went back. I put her hand on the pew and she patted my arm "thanks." And then I realized that twice in one afternoon, I had assisted (or tried to assist!) blind people on their way.

Chicago  has lots of cane-tapping pedestrians. They generally walk with assurance, rarely seeming to want or need anything in the way of direction or assistance. But today, in the space of two hours, I had come across two people who needed and wanted assistance, and I was the one who happened to be there at that point.

Since this was right after Communion, I could ask the Lord directly if there was a message in this. Was there a meaning I was supposed to "get"? A mission? Or was it just an interesting factoid?

The words of the prophet Isaiah came to mind: "I will lead the blind on their journey. By paths unknown I will guide them. I will turn darkness into light before them and make crooked ways straight."

I love that passage; it's marked with a Post-It in my Liturgy of the Hours. And now I suspect it is also a message. The Hound of Heaven has become a Guide Dog.

 

HB, BVM!

Nine months after the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, we have the Feast (and it's technically that, a "Feast") of the birth of Mary. So Happy Birthday, Blessed Mother! The first reading is fabulous, the heart of the letter to the Romans: "those whom God foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that the son might be the firstborn of many." (That also happens to be the meaning of my blogspot address!)

Writer's block

Okay, technically, it's not writer's block. It's writer's paralysis. Writer's dread. Writer's deep procrastination...

I will be giving a talk in Toronto next week on the spirituality of the Pauline Family, something you'd think I'd be deeply familiar with after thirty-one years. I even attended a year-long, graduate-level course on it! No matter. It's still a very scary thing to attempt to organize content into a new synthesis for a new group of people, hoping all the while that you'll get some amazing flash of insight somewhere along the way so that you'll have something to say that you haven't said so many times before it feels like cheating.

Naturally, today I spent more time moving books on the shelves than moving the pen across the paper. I mean, and it's true, the bookshelves are horribly messy and distracting, and I had no where to put the New Orleans cookbooks Mom gave me unless I moved some books.

Meanwhile, we're one day closer to that talk.

Psalm 33

Gotta admit: Psalm 33 is one of my favorites, a psalm I can pray with almost any time. And this week it has made a number of appearances in the Liturgy. Today a line struck me that has simply been a kind of "throwaway" line heretofore: "for in Him our hearts rejoice; we trust in His holy name." The connection between joy and trust seems to be what did it.

What Psalms do you find especially consonant with your heart?

Must have been the prayers.

Must have been the prayers.

Brewers 9, Dodgers 0.

Out to the Ballgame

Sr. Susan and I are in Milwaukee being treated to dinner and a Brewers game by the parents of our one sister from hereabouts. Great seats, right behind home plate. Go, Brewers!

(Hank Aaron.)

labor and leisure

Our Labor Day picnic got rained out, so we had hot dogs and potato salad around the community table, followed by the definitely non-picnic like espresso (courtesy of Sr. M. Thecla). The weather is guaranteeing that today will be a "labor" day for me, but at Mass I was reflecting on the correlation between labor and leisure.

Some leisure activities, perhaps the best ones, are also forms of work. I mean, if you putter in a garden as a hobby, planning, planting, weeding, harvesting: well, there are many people who do that as a job. The material activity is the same, whether you are doing it for pleasure or for pay.

The Philosopher's adage is "we work that we may have leisure," but then what is leisure? If it is not in some way a humanly upbuilding form of recreation (note the word!), is it even good for us? Do we need to be more reflective, more discriminating in our leisure activity?

I am not saying, goodness knows, that people who work themselves to the bone are doing wrong to take advantage of the opportunity to simply crash or veg out. Quite the opposite! I suspect that the need to crash shows that something in that person's life is not humane. They may be forced into an unhealthy work pattern by extreme poverty, family need, etc. so that even their leisure is not really creative, restoring time, but simply a brief moment to recuperate, so that the inhumane process can continue. But that can hardly be God's plan for us.

 

micro, indeed!

Sr. Margaret Charles, knowing my heartfelt desire of more than thirty years' duration to work in video format (still aiming to, of course, with the footage I got in Spain), sent me something about the microcinema scene: indy producers, rather eclectic (okay, weird) story lines, etc. But one of the first images showed these people with actual equipment! How micro is that? I want to see them doing things on my level: with a donated camera (thanks again, donor! you know who you are) and the free movie maker program in Windows XP...

powerlessness

After spending "Katrina week" in New Orleans, unpacking Mom and Dad's books while the TV shows brought back so many horrific memories, reading the news items in the local paper and more recently in magazines like St. Anthony Messenger and America, and hearing the TV news with Houston's crime problem (easily linked with the influx of homeless evacuees), I found myself feeling sick with powerlessness. Naturally, problems that are too big for the government are also too big for me to solve, though some possible avenues seem to be utterly neglected. The Lord has given me many things to address that are within my scope, and saving New Orleans is not one of them. But I can pray! And I can also ask Jesus to share with me his own way of coping with human powerlessness, something he took on in his Incarnation, as Mark's gospel makes quite clear. What were Jesus' thought patterns when he found himself facing things he could not change without invoking divine power? What, really, were his human-divine convictions? His attitude? His interior dispositions? May he conform me interiorly to himself precisely here.

catching up

Going through some of the back issues of magazines I missed while in New Orleans and on retreat, I came upon the July 31 issue of America. The cover picture looked familiar... Could it be? I looked inside for a photo credit that confirmed my suspicion: it was a detail of the facade of the Church at Montserrat!

homecoming

As Jesus said, those who follow him will have a hundred times as many homes, sisters, etc.

I returned home to Chicago from home (New Orleans) yesterday and found that my sisters here had thoughtfully put aside for me each week's food section from the Chicago Tribune! In fact, when I arrived, I went to get something to drink and looked over Wednesday's paper in search of my favorite weekly section, and was mystified by its absence! When I went to my room, I found a little stack, 6 weeks' worth, waiting for me.

Also waiting for me, of course, is a 6 week backlog of mail and follow-up. I am trying not to panic, but to address things one at a time, while simultaneously preparing for my talk in Toronto in two weeks' time...

Prayers needed all around!