Taking a break

I handed all the video equipment and files to Sr Tracey, so we should have something to show you in a few days. Meanwhile, I thought it would be fun to put in a few unedited clips of our week so far.... Once we had gotten at least familar with the songs, it was time to set up the mics in the studio. Techie Matt and Sr. Bridget made fast work of it.

More clips later! We have a little choir party tonight. And a new choir day tomorrow.

I give up!

After putting way too many (late) hours into editing a little video of our recording project, with my computer repeatedly stalling, I realize that it is just not going to work. I even cut the project into three parts (okay, one part got accidentally deleted) and while I can watch it in the MovieMaker program, I can't save it as a file! So I will have to hand over all the pieces, along with the original tapes and the camera to Sr Tracey to put something totally original together in her little Mac. (Suffice it to say that my six-year-old laptop almost got the boot today...)

On the plus side, Sr Margaret Charles and Sr Bernadette Mary and I went to our back hill after supper and spent a half-hour picking wild raspberries and blackberries. We got over a half-gallon of those magnificent rubies of nature. (The raspberry patch had been ruthlessly cut down and even dug up a few years ago, but the thorny bushes just popped up this year in a new spot!) So there's a little treat for breakfast... for tomorrow's great feast of St. Ignatius (a.k.a. "Iggy").

Martha, Martha

Did you ever notice that every time St. Martha appears in the Scriptures, she is on her feet? And her sister, Mary, is on her... (well, never mind).
Just because this was a dimension of Martha's character (and of her vocation as a follower of Jesus, who "came to serve and not to be served") doesn't mean that it is without risks. In Luke's Gospel we see Martha irritated and overworked while her sister sat there by Jesus. Martha tries to get Jesus on the case, but he doesn't take the bait. In John's Gospel, it is Martha who reproaches Jesus (you can almost see her with her hands on her hips) for coming too late to help Lazarus. But as a woman who knows how to get things done, she adds, "But even now, I am sure..." And when Lazarus is raised and a festive dinner is held in Jesus' honor, where do we find Martha?
The fact that it is both Luke and John who give us this same picture of Martha tells us that we are seeing a personality trait of the real woman. On her feet, up at at 'em, getting things done.
Know anybody like that? Wish them a happy feast day!

A galvanizing moment?

This week in Vietnam, two priests were beaten while with a half-million people who were protesting arrests and government violence against Catholics who have been trying to regain possession of a 120-year-old Church. It's not clear if the priests were directly beaten by police (although the Zenit report says that 30 uniformed officers looked on as a gang beset one of them--and then stormed the hospital he had been taken to, pummeled him into a coma and threw him out of a window).

Back in 1984, Polish priest Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko was savagely murdered by that country's secret police. They didn't like the way he supported the Solidarity movement. In some ways, Father Popieluszko's death became a turning point for the underground movement--and for the history of Poland. Is it Vietnam's turn?

Only time will tell.

Can't stop singing...

We did three songs today--but all that studio time has a deleterious effect on my blogging: our time is so strictly parceled out that it is a challenge to complete the day's prayers. And right now... well, let's just say I'm late for supper.

Follow the choir

I mean on Facebook.

Daughters of St. Paul Choir on Facebook

Well, you missed it...

I had already noticed the sign on the 3rd floor washing machine: "This machine is very loud. Please do not use before 6:30 a.m." This morning, someone had it running (at 6:20!!!) and that thing was roaring like a jet plane on the runway. Hearing protection would have been advisable. It was so impressive, I planned to get video footage as proof. Of course, we had other priorities today.
Later in the afternoon, when I went to fill my water bottle at the 3rd floor cooler, I smelled smoke--that burnt-to-a-crisp smell that is unique to electric motors... uh-oh. I sniffed around like a confused bloodhound, but it wasn't the water cooler. Just then one of the nurses came by (the infirmary moved to 3rd floor so its regular home can be renovated).
"You wondering about the smoke?"
I nodded.
"The washing machine. We unplugged it."
You'll just have to take my word for it. That thing was loud!

Jubilee Day

Quite a nice day for our community's Jubilee Day: not only is the weather great, but it is the feast of St. James the Apostle--one of those first twelve called by name to follow Jesus more closely. And, incidentally, our Founder's patron saint. The Jubilee Mass is scheduled for 10:30. That gives us plenty of time to complete the preparations. (Didn't Sr Linda Salvatore do a great job on the flowers? It took her 15 hours.) I stuck to services that required less talent, but every few minutes, I put down the tablecloth or napkin or plate I was setting in order to get a shot of the community pitching in to make everything "picture perfect" for the sisters.

As an aside, we are celebrating a total of 320 years of consecrated life today! (We observe our Jubilee from the day of vows, not the day of entrance.) Of these, 70 (can you believe it?) are the life of Sr Mary Nazarene, who was in the first group of Americans to make their vows as Daughters of St. Paul.

Thank you, Sisters! Thank you, Lord!

Our first look

We got our music today--the first album is Marian hymns.

Are you praying for us?

FX

Retreat involves a lot of "unlearning." That may even be the greatest task of the retreat: unlearning (or beginning the process of unlearning) things about God, prayer, service.... which may be propositionally true as far as it goes--but not true enough. Just as the revelation on Sinai was a true theophany--even though it was so far surpassed in Jesus that the old categories just couldn't hold.
The real challenge of post-retreat unlearning comes because of the tendency I have (don't know about anyone else!) to stick with the descriptions, goals or value systems that exonerate me the most; that put me in the best possible situation; that are the most likely to leave me untroubled (and unchanged)--although I have also found myself clinging to the most radical possible description or definition of prayer, or poverty, or community life--the one that expresses a perfection I cannot even pretend to (effectively leaving me just as unchanged, although this time a bit depressed).
Today's liturgy offers just the message. In the first reading, we have the great revelation on Sinai. This passage wins the Oscar for "Best Special Effects" in the Bible: the towering mountain, wreathed in heavy smoke; the trembling earth; thunder and lightning and the eerie blast of a trumpet. It works so well it has become the stereotypical image of any divine intervention. (Just check the comics section of your newspaper.) Then we get the Gospel, and Jesus telling nice little stories that nobody seems to understand. When his disciples question him about it, he tells them that they "have been given knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven." Sinai is kind of like retreat time: carefully choreographed to get your attention and keep you focused. But when you leave the mountain, a new and deeper revelation is waiting for you--if you have ears to hear.

Retreated

Our retreat ended last night with a festive supper. (Sr Laura Rosemarie was the retreat cook; I'd like to annoint her as "the Next Food Network Star" for the consistently creative and delicious meals she prepared for us all week long.) Up until yesterday the weather was perfect; we didn't even have to use the air conditioning once. (Good thing, because one of the units burned out in an electrical failure. Plus, it keeps the bills down!) Yesterday it rained all day. Kind of continued this morning, too. But we're inside anyway, cleaning the place up for this weekend's big festivities for the Jubilee celebrations of our sisters: Sr Mary Nazarene's 60th anniversary, four Golden Jubilarians and two Silver (Sr Helena and Sr Kathryn). Lots of relatives coming.
I hope we can manage to distinguish between the relatives and the uninvited throngs who have been trooping through our yard all week. The place is really peaceful--until nightfall. And then come the denizens of the dark. Not the "ghosts" of this allegedly haunted retreat house, but the thrill-seekers who trespass here on a regular basis. Thursday night, while I was sitting under a reading lamp with a book, two groups passed under the open window of my room, chattering away obliviously in that remarkable Boston accent. The first group even brought a toddler along! ("No, Tommy, don't touch that. Here, do you want a cookie?") Most of these "tourists" just walk around and leave, but others can't resist marking the territory. This has been going on for a long time. We only now returned a lovely statue of Our Lady to the pedastal from which she was thrown some twenty years ago. (We kept the empty pedastal in place all those years.) A solar-powered light was positioned in front of the statue. Within days, the lamp was destroyed, the battery stolen and the solar cell defaced. I'm just waiting for the Blessed Mother to go down again. The Lourdes' grotto was the scene of another incident, and I'm told that the crucifix has also been desecrated. I hope they get poison ivy.
Maybe I need to make another retreat!!

Three Kings

Not "those" three kings, though. The configuration of the readings and today's saint give us three kings to think about. The first king is Pharaoh from the first chapter of Exodus. He was the "new king who knew not Joseph" and set to enslave the people of Israel. The second king is the saint of the day, St. Henry, the "Holy Roman Emperor." And the third king? That would be God, to whom be "the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever." Amen? Amen!

"I am with you"

Today's first reading includes two of the Bible's most frequently repeated messages: "Do not be afraid" and "I am with you." (Not coincidentally, these phrases also appear in all of our Pauline chapels.) You wouldn't think that Jacob, who had successfully wrestled with an angel, and whose new name, Israel, means "the man who fought with God," would be afraid to leave his rough life as a sheep herder and go to Egypt where his own son was second only to Pharoah. What exactly was he afraid of? I wonder if he was afraid "to go to Egypt" because it mean leaving the Promised Land. Egypt was a land of many (and very strange) gods: how would Jacob's family and descendants remain faithful to the God of their fathers, who--so it seemed--was back in Canaan?
And so God reveals something new to Jacob in that second amazing dream (remember the first dream with the ladder?): "I will go with you." God is not bound to any piece of land, not even to the high mountain in the heights of Moriah where Abraham had been put to the test and realized "on the mountain, the Lord will see." God had committed himself to this people, wherever they went, whatever circumstances they found themselves in. "I will go with you."

Interesting note: The Gospel of Matthew begins with God saying pretty much the same thing to Joseph (significantly enough, in a dream): "Do not be afraid..." and the child Jesus will be "Emmanuel, a name which means 'God is with us'." And the ending of the Gospel? The Easter message, "Do not be afraid" and the "Great Commission": "Go into the whole world...I am with you always."

Blog Awards

I'm a few days late getting this out, but here's a list of some great Catholic reading, courtesy of the Catholic New Media Awards (an informal voting for favorite blogs and podcasts). Going through the list, I found several blogs that were new to me and that feature some remarkable writing.

I especially recommend "Conversion Diary" (the "conversion" started some years ago, and the writer is firmly Catholic, but our conversion is to be ongoing, is it not?). Blogging mom Jennifer writes very reflective posts, but they're always salted with reality--and she draws a cadre of equally insightful commenters. This is a blog for you to promote with abandon!

Joseph's story

Talk about being at the right place at the right time! But it sure didn't seem like that for Joseph (he of the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) fo the first however many years of his ordeal. Only later (I think we'll hear it in tomorrow's liturgy) was he able to recognize that the faithful God of his father, Israel (just yesterday we heard of Jacob's name-changing struggle with the Angel), had been with him all along, guiding things so providentially that in saving the family of Jacob, God was also saving "the whole world." (Egypt being the bread-basket of the ancient world, when there was a famine in Egypt, everyone went hungry.)
I'm utterly impressed with Joseph's faith, which will be revealed when we hear him tell his (now repentant) brothers, "You meant it for harm, but God meant it for good. It was God who sent me ahead of you." In the treachery of the older brothers, God was even more active, "making all things work together for good." St Paul counted on this in his own ministry. I am especially fond of his letter to the Philippians, written from imprisonment: "The circumstances of my present life are helping, not hindering, the spread of the Gospel... Whether it is for false motives or sincere ones, Christ is being proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. And I shall continue to rejoice!"
It can be so easy for me to read my life in key of human decisions (or indecisions), bad timing, "circumstances," all horizontal cause-and-effect type things. The story of Joseph and the story of Paul warn me not to discount the possibility that God really is acting within and through (not just in spite of!) whatever touches my life.

More about Maria

Yesterday's feast engendered more than a few posts, tweets and comments across the web about the saint of the day. Here's one writer who finds inspiration in Maria's story--so much so that she is giving away two copies of a DVD on the saint's life. But there is also a meek protest in the comments from a person who, having suffered sexual abuse, almost sees Maria's martyrdom as a reproach. Are survivors of rape, abuse or violence at fault? Does Maria's canonization mean that every woman faced with rape is obliged to fight to the death? "Better off dead"? Is that what the Church is insinuating every year on July 6?

Um, no.

The Preface for the Mass of Martyrs says to God, "You choose the weak and make them strong in bearing witness to you." Faced with Alexander Serenelli's proposition, she forthrightly told him that what he was asking was gravely sinful and that he was risking his immortal soul. Where did a fatherless pre-teen find the courage (never mind the clear-headedness) to give an answer like that to a man with a knife in his hand? That's a sign of God making the weak strong in bearing witness. The important thing in Maria Goretti's story is not that she died, but that she bore witness to the truth--even when that truth was unwelcome. The fact that she did die under those circumstances made that act of witness unmistakeable and definitive. The manner of her death put a kind of "seal" on her last acts.

Maria's witness wasn't confined to catechetical truth-telling. In the hospital, before giving her Viaticum (two months after her First Communion), the priest asked Maria if she forgave Alexander (in her delerium, she had been repeating, "Poor, miserable Alexander! You will go to hell!"). She answered yes, "for the love of Jesus," and even added that she wanted him to be in heaven with her. That generosity is another sign of God making the weak strong in bearing witness--this time, witness to the scope of Christian charity. (That there was more going on here than an overdose of Neopolitan piety was proven later by Serenelli's conversion in prison.)

The Church honors martyrs ("witnesses") because they bring the truth of the Gospel into bold relief. There are some lives that manifest the power of God in a striking way. Maria's witness gives us a clue about what the grace of God can look like under her very particular circumstances. When we recognize and acknowledge and acclaim that power, we are making an act of hope that God's grace will also be powerful in us.

Homework from the Pope

The Holy Father's long-promised social encyclical was released today (though signed last week and dated on the Feast of Sts Peter and Paul). It's not terribly long, as recent encyclicals go--45 pages (plus 9 pages of footnotes!), so you don't have a good excuse not to read it. The document was expected months ago, but Pope Benedict reeled it back in so he could address the social issues raised by the collapse of the markets. This being a social encyclical, the Pope doesn't write so much about money as about people. In glancing over the document as it is going to my printer, I see that he also addresses the social aspects of technology (#69), media(#73) and bioethics (#74).

Never read an encyclical before? Here are some road markers:

The title: "Caritas in Veritate" (Charity in truth): the first words of the text itself serve as the Latin title. Another form of the title can be found in the...
Introduction: "On integral human development in charity and truth." The themes of charity and truth are coming to us in both the title and the introduction. This is already a powerful message.
Addressees: "To the bishops, priests and deacons, men and women religious, the lay faithful and all people of good will." The Holy Father is directing his message not just to the leaders in the Church--or even just to its members--but to anyone, anywhere, who has "good will." This means we can expect him, while drawing on the tradition, teachings and documents of the Church, to present his thought in a way that can be understood by people of different faiths and of no faith. He is trying to speak to as wide an audience as possible.
The first sentence: Right from the beginning, the Pope refers to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This document is not just a detatched sociological analysis, but a way of bringing faith to bear on the current social order.

Ready to tackle it now?

Queen of the Night

A proud papa sent me this link from the talent show at this weekend's Taste of Chicago. I really never expected to hear Mozart sung in German by a diminutive Hispanic... And it was just too cute not to share!

Bettter late than...

My whole schedule got turned upside down today--and being the day after a long holiday weekend didn't help. I love holidays, but you know how much they can confuse your inner work cycle! Plus, I will be leaving for my retreat and a two-week recording session on Saturday (Boston, here I come!), so I am trying like mad to finish odds and ends before packing. (Ain't gonna happen, I know.) And to top it all off, a fire ant bite I succumbed to in San Antonio seems to have just re-ignited (on the sole of my foot), so I am trying to take care of that. And still visit my one friend who is still (after a month) in the hospital.
In other words, I forgot all about blogging.
But I did want to just put a note down about today's saint. Maria Goretti, not even twelve years old, was woman enough to refuse the lewd demands of a teen porn addict, and Christian enough to try to convince him that what he wanted to do was damnable. Alexander's passion of lust turned, as it so often does, into rage against the girl, and he expressed his fury with the blade of a knife. That's where there is a poignant connection with today's Gospel for Monday in Ordinary Time where Jesus, called to the bedside of another twelve-year-old, speaks to her the words he surely spoke to Maria in calling her to heaven, "Little girl, I say to you, arise."
A good day (even if a bit late in that day) to pray for young people who so blithely accept the offerings of our sex-crazed culture.

John Henry Newman: Oxford don, soon to be Blessed

Perhaps the single most influential convert to Catholicism since Augustine, the great Cardinal Newman will be beatified some time next spring. I'm not sure how long it's been since the last time anon-martyred Brit was beatified. Then again, Cardinal Newman may tell us that he suffered enough in his journey of faith to be counted among the white-robed army of martyrs.

Our Sr. Mary Emmanuel must really be rejoicing today. She's one of those "Newman mavens" who has read his books and meditated on his sermons for so many years that she serves us all as an informal in-house encyclopedia not only on the man and his writings, but on writings about him. She even seems to feel with him some of the trials he experienced in his lifetime, for example, his strained relationship with the pious, hymn-writing Father Faber. And since composer Edward Elgar (he of "Pomp and Circumstance") set Newman's poem "The Dream of Gerontius" to music, Elgar also benefits from Sr Emmanuel's particular sympathy.

Do you have a favorite work of Newman's that you refer to on a somewhat frequent basis? Have you read any biographies? Share with us!

"under" God

The first reading I heard at the Independence Day Mass at St. Peter's was from James--about the difference between true wisdom which comes from above, and the snarky, self-satisfied wisdom of this world. And today is (on the liturgical calendar, anyway) the feast of "doubting" Thomas, better known for his striking declaration of faith, "My Lord and My God." Funny day to get a targeted message on Twitter linked to a blog post insulting my faith. It is precisely this flippant atheism that Fr. Barron dismantles in a terrific video commentary that's well worth your seven minutes to take in. After all, the 4th of July is all about freedom, and it is the truth that frees us with the only genuine freedom there is.

With two friends in the hospital, I spent more time there (two different hospitals) than I did in chapel today. Good thing Jesus said what he did about "you did it for me"! I promised Fr. Fred (going on week three--or is it four?--at Northwestern) that I'd visit again tomorrow and bring him a treat from the Taste of Chicago. Being from New Orleans, he'd really appreciate that. I'm going with the wonderful "panna cotta with cherry balsamic and crystalized almond slices" from the gourmet booth. But that's because the spicy "collard green egg rolls" won't make it up that Mag Mile and still be hot enough to enjoy.
Our schedule is going to be weird because St. Peter's will have only a 10:00 Mass tomorrow (and no Mass on Saturday morning or noon at all!). The book center will close at 3:00 (and stay closed through Saturday--which reminds me, I have to fix our phone message!!). In the evening, some of us will be going out to see the fabulous fireworks on the lakefront--us and a million other people. (For readers outside of the Chicago area, that is not an exaggeration; that's the crowd estimate.)
Meanwhile, Sr Helena, alerted by (of all people!) Steven Colbert on his ironic newscast, pointed me to a New York Times piece by Nicholas Kristof. It seems that endocrine specialists are beginning to sound an alarm about the effect that hormones in the water supply are causing in newborn boys.In his article, Kristof writes: "nothing is more terrifying than reading The Journal of Pediatric Urology" for the details of these effects (some of which are "antiandrogenic"). (It ain't about the frogs anymore.) (You can see the clip of Colbert putting Kristof's feet to the fire on Sr Helena's blog.) Surely this is an aspect of environmental safety that "right" and "left" can be united in taking a stand about?

Adios

The readings today sure have a lot of departures in them. Hagar departs with little Ishmael (whose only offense, besides being inconveniently born, was playing with his half-brother); the demons depart from the two possessed men; and Jesus departs from the Gadarene territory after his healings wreck the local economy and nobody really wants to see what might happen the next time he shows his mercy.

The readings in this Genesis cycle are a bi-ennial liturgical turn-off for me because Sarah comes across as so ugly, hateful even. This is especially clear in the case of Ishmael, who was sent away from his father because of the rather insane jealousy of Sarah. In trying to work through this, I found some interesting insights in the online Jewish Women's Archive; evidently one Jewish tradition sees that Sarah's jealousy, which leads to the dismissal of Hagar and her son from Abraham's home, turned out for Hagar's good, because she (much less her son) would never be able to flourish around Sarah. Plus, God takes the opportunity to offer Hagar his own word of promise about the boy.

Even though the circumstances are none too pretty, grace comes to the fore.