Taken for a ride

Coming into the convent yesterday, Sr. Tracey got taken for a ride. Literally. An unusually large lizard jumped onto her habit, looking for free transportation. And that's what he/she got! Sr. Tracey yelped a bit, brushing the creature off of her habit and... somewhere into the house.
We still don't know where it is.

Angels of the Lord, Bless the Lord

Today is the feast of the Archangels Michael, Raphael and Gabriel (and the feast day of our many sisters with variations of those names). People frequently ask us for a book about St. Michael, as if he were the kind of saint who could have a biography. That's the thing about angels. They are a different order of creature. As Gabriel said to Zechariah, "I am Gabriel who stand before God." What a life!
The Responsorial Psalm is one of my favorites, perhaps because I am a singer: "In the sight of the angels, I will sing your praise." Of the three, it is Gabriel who has the most special role in the Pauline Family because Gabriel is the patron of audio-visual media, being himself the "media" God chose to communicate the message and invitation of the Incarnation. Vatican Radio used to have an antenna that was also a "statue" of St. Gabriel, but I think they do everything by satelite now. I couldn't find an online image of the antenna. This morning we said our Founder's prayer to St. Gabriel for all those who work in audio/video communications. Fittingly enough, it begins by invoking Gabriel's role in the Annunciation. After all, angels are first and formost messengers.

Who is Jesus?

Today we have that wonderful encouragement from Haggai and then Luke's version of Jesus' famous question "Who do you say that I am?" As we know, the first question was about the "talk of the town": who do the people say I am? And the answers came from superficial awareness of the extraordinary things Jesus was doing. Then Jesus brought the question home. I imagined it much in terms of people in a special relationship. At a certain point, one or the other is going to ask (or at least wonder): Where is this relationship going? Who am I for you?
Jesus is waiting to hear the answer.

6:40 pm: I thought this had been posted this morning, but I must have just hit "save draft" instead. Better late than never! Now I will be meeting with a small group of cooperators in our mission to share a bit of Bl.James' spirituality. Tomorrow is Coffeehouse at Paulinas Miami--a new experience for me.

Verizon in hotseat

The NYT says that Verizon is coming under fire for refusing a business arrangement with Naral-ProChoice America. Seems Naral wants to create a subscriber list for text messages, and Verizon is turning them down (even though this is a revenue source for cell service providers) because Naral's message is "unsavory."
Them's fightin' words!
Eventually, Verizon will probably lose this one, but it is nice to see a business turning down potential profit. The NYT article, however, pointed out that these text messages are a very vibrant communications model that ideologically conservative groups and movements do not seem to make use of. Perhaps their overall demographic is skewed older? That should give us pause...

The Bible on Procrastination

Do you put off onerous or overwhelming projects? Carry out tons of tiny "things to do" rather than tackle the one thing you really need to do? Today's first reading is for you, my friend and fellow procrastinator! I'll bet you didn't know that the prophet Haggai had a message for us, but it's there.
Haggai was actually preaching to the governor and religious leaders of the people in post-exile Jerusalem. The Jews had been forced out of their land and into "Babylon" (yes, Iraq), and when Persia (that is, Iran) conquered Babylon, the new Kings decided to let the Jews go home. They even assigned tax revenues to help rebuild the famous Temple! That is what the delay was about, although it doesn’t actually get clear until tomorrow.
Today Haggai just exhorts the leaders to get to work so that God might "find pleasure" in the house and receive his due glory there. Actually, Haggai says, "Your own homes are rebuilt, right down to the paneled walls, and it still 'isn't time to rebuild the Temple'?!" But tomorrow the whole truth comes out. The new Temple will never measure up to Solomon's. The people are disheartened. Why put all that effort into something that will turn out so embarrassingly puny and plain? And tomorrow we will hear God's wonderful promise: puny and plain it may be, but "greater will be the future glory of this house than before, and in this house I will give you peace."
Sort of makes you want to start working. Almost.

Stewardship Wiki

For those who attend my talk, I have prepared a wiki with links to various resources and the possibility for further conversation. My regular visitors are certainly more than welcome to explore it, too! You'll have to register with wik.is in order to participate fully, but anyone can visit. Go to http://evangelii.wik.is

Greetings from Miami

I got in this afternoon and was met at the airport by a member of the Stewardship Council's Board. That was a saving grace in an airport that has grown exponentially since my last visit to Miami somewhere between 15-20 years ago! I was settled into a comfortable room in a first class hotel, and am finalizing my presentation for tomorrow morning. I am counting on your prayers (thanks)--and on the reminder in today's homily by Archbishop Favalora on the theme of Providence.

On the road again

All year, just about, I have been preparing in one way or other for the talk I am to give in Miami on Wednesday morning. Now I am packing (well, now I am moving toward packing), while my talk and its accessories (slides, music, video clips) are still in the wrong format on a computer I can't take with me. Wednesday afternoon I plan to feel very, very good.
Meanwhile, I keep trying to deliver this over to Jesus so that it is more his talk than mine. Your prayers are appreciated!

HFI report

It was a long, long trip from Chicago to the other side of Ohio, and my guest room at "St. Paul's Monastery" had no Internet access! (Not that I really had time for it...) I ran a book exhibit during the Holy Family Institute's retreat Triduum, led an Hour of Adoration on Saturday and gave a short, pretty impromptu talk on the Founder. In return, I met 275 committed Catholics of all ages. Eight people (including three couples) were admitted into the novitiate, another couple of dozen renewed their vows (both the marriage kind and the evangelical counsels kind--the married couples make their profession of the evangelical counsels in the plural!) and I missed seeing the perpetual profession of still others because we had to return to Chicago before midnight.
Dozens of precious kids kept things lively, while some students from Steubenville ran a youth track.
It was impressive, inspiring and encouraging: all these people who want to "follow Christ more closely" in their married life, and live the Pauline charism.
I hope we'll be able to do more, especially from here in Chicago, for the Pauline Family in the midwest.

On the Road

In a little while, I'll be picking up our steadfast volunteers, Bill and Madeleine, and heading off to Ohio for the Triduum retreat of the Holy Family Institute. Members are married persons consecrated with the three vows, just like members of religious orders. This retreat will include the entrance into novitiate of some of the postulants and, I believe, perpetual profession of vows by others. Since we have the same Founder, I'll be giving a talk on our shared spirituality and guiding an Hour of Adoration.
Pray for our safety on the road!

The Missionary Book

Today's feast of the Korean Martyrs always reminds me of the story of the evangelization of Korea, the mission without a missionary. The Church in Korea was founded by a book. Or, rather, by a group of philosophers (in the truest sense of the word, "lovers of wisdom"). Looking to China for that wisdom, they came upon a book about Christianity, written in Chinese. In that book, they heard the word of God, and they acted on it, sending one of their number to China to learn more. Within a generation, Korean Christians were being martyred for that.

Happy Birthday in Heaven

Today is Dad's first birthday in heaven. Last year, we "celebrated" his birthday in the hospital room, and the nurse brought in a tiny cake. And the year before that, the family was in Katrina exile, so Dad's birthday party was in the house my brother's in-laws put at my family's disposition, and his cake was a low-sugar banana cream pie. Now he can "feast on the riches of God's own delights." I hope he remembers to brush a few crumbs from the Heavenly Banquet table down to us.

Vindication

Today's first reading and Gospel both speak of vindication--and in both cases, ultimately, it is Christ who is vindicated. In Paul's letter, he is evidently citing a poem or hymn about Christ as "manifested in the flesh, but vindicated in the spirit." The contrast between "flesh" and "spirit" hint that there is a contrast between the "manifestation" and the "vindication," too. There was nothing manifestly "spiritual" about Jesus' human nature--and this the Gospel makes perfectly clear. He was dismissed, even ridiculed, for being a normal, sociable person who enjoyed a good time as much as the next person. (Of course, his ascetical cousin John was dismissed and ridiculed for living like a hermit and fasting all the time.) In answer to those contradictory criticisms, Jesus remarked that "wisdom will be vindicated by her works." The wisdom at work in both John in his fasting and Jesus in his feasting was vindicated fully in the resurrection. Then Christ was "vindicated in the Spirit."

New faces on the street

Over the past week, I have seen new faces along the streets of Chicago. New street people, I mean. I think I have noticed between 6 and ten new people, and these poor souls seem to be much worse off than the "regulars" whose faces are so familiar. Their clothes are uniformly filthy, and their faces frighteningly lost. Most of our street people manifest a certain amount of personality. They are "street smart" and quick to make or attempt a hustle. But the new folks on the block are quiet, confused and passive.
I don't know what has happened lately, but I suspect that these people had been squatting in buildings long vacated and condemned which have--this week--given way to the first stages of gentrification. It would be worth the Tribune's while to investigate.

Cardinal's Cause Opened

The sisters who worked with Cardinal Francis Van Thuan in publishing his various books were right to be impressed by his holiness. Today, the 5th anniversary of his death, his beatification process was opened in Rome.
Here's what the Pope had to say to the group who met for this occasion:

"Cardinal Van Thuân was a man of hope; he lived hope and spread it among everyone he met. It was because of this spiritual energy that he resisted all his physical and moral difficulties. Hope sustained him as a bishop when he was isolated for 13 years from his diocesan community; hope helped him to see beyond the absurdity of the events that happened to him -- he was never put on trial during his long imprisonment -- a providential plan of God. The news of his sickness, a tumor, which led to his death, reached him almost at the same time as his elevation to cardinal by John Paul II, who held him in great esteem and affection. Cardinal Van Thuân loved to repeat that the Christian is a man of hour, of the now, beginning from the present moment to welcome and live with Christ's love."

What I did last summer

Here it is! In between working on my talk for next week's stewardship conference in Miami, I pulled together footage from our recording session. (Sorry: no idea yet when the actual CD will be available, but you can at least get a few notes' worth of it here.)

Our Lady of Sorrows

Today is a day of sorrows not just in the liturgy, but in particular for our Sisters in San Antonio. Years of redevelopment in the neighborhood of our book center have been good for the city, but bad for us. A whole new project has begun recently, progressively choking off access to our beautiful center, just across the park from San Fernando Cathedral. We can't support ourselves at that location with all that going on, so today will be the last day we are open for a while. A team of sisters will stay on while going to the exhibits we have already committed to. They will also try to gather information and insights to help us see the path we need to take for an effective mission in a state where we have had an active presence for 53 years. Please pray for the community and for our many wonderful friends in San Antonio.

Mother General, part 2

God bless Sr. Antonieta Bruscato for accepting a second six-year term as our Superior General. She says she tried to pray that God would do her will, but it seems he did not. You are welcome to visit the website Forum and leave a message and promise of prayers...

Triumph of the Cross

The theme for this morning's Office of Readings (the earliest "hour" in the Divine Office) is, unusually enough for a day associated with the Cross, loud, long praise. That's because this is the feast of the triumph or exaltation of the Cross. It is the feast of Paul's "boasting" of the Cross. It's the feast of the victory already won on our behalf. It's Easter in September.
Today is also the day in which Pope Benedict's Motu Proprio on the Tridentine Mass goes into effect worldwide. In some areas, this is a much-anticipated day. Here in Chicago, I don't think that's quite the case, because the Tridentine Mass has been well established, especially at St. John Cantius parish, but also with the "Institute of Christ the Sovereign High Priest" (what a name!) who took over St. Gelasius Church when the Archdiocese had decided to let it go. (Too many bills, not enough parishioners.) (But once the Latin Liturgy came, it drew people from the metro area and not just the not-yet-gentrified neighborhood.) Anyway, in some places, today has a bit of extra meaning, so may they enjoy the grace fully.
And prayers for my reader who wrote in with a special intention.

St. Expedite

We used to call St. Expedite the patron of our publishing house shipping department, but it seems that the geeks have claimed him now...

Mother Teresa...on Comedy Central?

Michelle at LoyolaPress alerted me that Fr. James Martin (author of My Life with the Saints) was "interviewed" on The Colbert Report on Comedy Central. It's worth watching for some amusing edification...

And the Virgin's name was Mary

There's an old hymn that's running through my mind right now, "Mary! How sweetly falls that word." Today is the feast of the "Holy Name of Mary"--a feast day that was dropped from the universal calendar for forty years, but recently restored. In my family, of the five daughters, one is named Mary, and two have Mary as their middle name. (The other two of us got Anne/Ann.) So, happy name day to Mary Kay, Jane Mary and Nell Mary.

We knew it all along

My brother has just been named one of the "Best Lawyers in America" for appellate law. Congratulations, Thomas More!
(Yes, that's his real name!)

Today was a day for prayer. As we prayed for the dead, I couldn't help but pray for the souls of the terrorists. How deceived they were to think that God's Kingdom (in any form) could be established by means of destruction! Sadly, it is a pretty easy deception to fall into. I figure that if we pray for their eternal rest, presuming that their ignorance and depths of self-deception were also their salvation, they could become intercessors for peace. As the Bible asks, "Is anything to wonderful for God to do?"

Today's Gospel is another confrontation scene over Jesus' inappropriate working of miracles. This time, it is a set-up with a pitiful man whose right hand is weak and probably paralyzed. The Gospel says it is "dried up"; "withered." There may be more to this than meets the reader's eye. The Psalmist, mourning in exile far from the Holy City, declares before God, "If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand wither!" And here, in Jesus' sight, is a man to whom this very thing has happened. Is it a hint that the Pharisees and other guardians of devotion have "forgotten Jerusalem," the "Lord's footstool", the "place where God's glory dwells"? (As it would later be said, "The Glory of God is man fully alive"--and what Jesus did in today's miracle of healing is bring that man back to life, restoring the Glory of God.)

Wicked, part 2: Beyond Good and Evil

Instead of "good" and "evil," I think the categories would be better phrased as "wicked" and "wonderful." These terms leave all the ambiguity that is in the human heart and that the story of Wicked utterly depended upon. Come to think of it, it is also very Pauline (a la Romans 7)...

Wicked: Wow

Karen treated me royally today. Lunch in Millennium Park and tickets for Wicked make for one very fine Saturday in Chicago. Add to that conversation with a friend one has not seen in person for over a year, and that is a fabulous Saturday in Chicago.
I had read reviews of the musical, but had no idea how stupendous it actually was. The story line is satisfying in itself, but there was an unexpected depth to it. (No wonder Karen has seen it five times!) And the music was wonderful. (In 2005, our "nun choir" had the privilege of working with the composer/songwriter, Steven Schwarz, when we recorded some vocals he wrote for the movie "Noel." We keep hoping he'll do more "holy" music and think of us again!) Usually, I don't know right away if I really liked a production or not; things take time to percolate. This got five stars from me before the first hour was up.
And the story of "good and evil" was so suited for today, Mary's Nativity Day. Because in Wicked, the one who was good wasn't so very good through and through--at least not until she had been through a kind of spiritual journey. And the one called "Wicked"? Well, I don't want to give away the story! Let's just say with the Irish, "There's so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, it hardly behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us!"

A Wrinkle in Time (and Eternity)

When I was in grade school, Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time" was one of the books I tended to read repeatedly (not unlike "Sprockets, the Little Robot"). At the time, there was a lot of doubt about the book, which was the Harry Potter of its day. People suspected that L'Engle (who spent years as librarian and writer-in-residence at New York's Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine) had crafted a clever tale to secretly induct children in some form of witchery or other. Those fears probably came from their inability to put L'Engle's work in a familiar category. Was it science fiction, with all that quantum physics talk? Was it fantasy, with its amazing creatures? Was it mythology--a child's version of the Aenead? In a way, it was all three.
L'Engle really wrote more for grown-ups than for children. The last book of hers I read (loaned to me by Tammy Perlmutter) was Walking on Water: Reflections on Life and Art, a very grown-up book indeed.
And now L'Engle has crossed the Wrinkle from time into eternity.
May she rest in peace.

Here is the NY Times article.

New, New, New!

Today's Gospel was the one about the wineskins, old and new. The priest explained that new wine is still fermenting--like those "friendship bread" starters that were the rage some years ago. You had to keep transferring a bit of the gooey mass into another zipper bag because it kept growing. Forget to do it, and you had a gooey explosion all over the kitchen! So, new zipper bags for bread starter, new wineskins for new wine.
But, as Jesus poignantly commented, "No one who has been drinking old wine wants new. He says, 'The old is good.' " Trying the new wine of the Gospel is a bit of a risk!

Awe and trembling

Today's Gospel starts off with Jesus getting into a boat to preach to the crowds who had been practically pushing him into the lake. As a kind of "thank you" to the boat owner (a certain Simon, son of John, of Capernaum), Jesus directs him into the deep and tells him to lower the nets. A huge catch of fish at the wrong time of day overwhelms Simon. He goes down on his knees: "Leave me Lord, I am a sinful man."
St. Ignatius says that, if it is to be spiritually helpful, the examen of conscience needs to start with recognition of God's works and a spirit of thanksgiving. There is no shortcut to repentance: it has to start with awe and wonder at the "great things the Lord has done for me."

May I direct your attention...

...to today's Responsorial Psalm. It is one of those that is easily skipped over. In fact, I think this is one of its only appearances in the Liturgy! There are only two verses used in today's Liturgy of the Word, and the second is quite a promise to make to God: "I will thank you always for what you have done, and I will proclaim the goodness of your name before all your faithful."
Puts gratitude in first place, and lets mission flow from there.

Panic Inducing

St. Paul, in today's first reading, had to address panic, not at the disco, but in Thessalonica. His evangelizing of that area had been cut short, so he had been unable to stay there and model Christian living for those people, just converted from the old Greek and Roman gods. Some expected the Lord to come so soon that they could just retire in ease, while others were startled by any and every whisper about the end of time. Paul took care of the first group with his "no work, no eat" policy. With the second, he reminded them not to pay attention to rumors and unauthentic letters claiming to foretell the future.
Even now there are many prophets scaring the daylights out of the devout with talk of chastisement and doom. Paul reminds us, too, the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. That doesn't mean we should keep vigil by our doors and windows; it means to live in the Lord's presence all the time!

A Most Unusual Weekend

Sr. Susan, Sr. Thecla and I spent most of Labor Day Weekend at Notre Dame (that's me in the hat). It was the first time any of us had visited this impressive campus (much less attended a season opening game), and we agreed it was a splendid surprise the Lord had given us: a little bitty part of the Gospel "hundredfold." Today we were much less adventurous, staying home all day, each of us catching up on various projects and waiting for Sr. Helena to come home from her August adventures, which ranged from making her annual retreat, to visiting her mother, to participating in a Theology of the Body workshop.
This week, I am looking forward to seeing two friends from out of state: Deacon (soon-to-be-Father) Fred Sahuc, CMF is in town for the profession of a new Claretian, and Karen Hall is in town following a Jesuit trail in view of her work on a new TV series with a Jesuit protagonist. In between all the socializing, I really have to make some progress on the talk I am to give to a rather large and impressive gathering in Miami toward the end of the month. Your prayers are needed and appreciated!