Good Grief

This November my family will mark the fifth anniversary of Dad's death--and the fifth wedding anniversary for my sister Jane and her heaven-sent Jim. If you haven't been following me quite that long, it's a great story. Anyway, at Dad's wake (the morning of the wedding rehearsal), I noticed my seven-year-old niece sitting on the funeral parlor sofa, engrossed in a Harry Potter book. I felt frustrated that at a time when it is so fitting to speak of life after death, the meaning of life, the Body of Christ...there wasn't anything age appropriate for Claudia (who had lost her other grandfather a few months before).
A few months later, I was taking a 1 credit course to complete the requirements for the Certificate in Spiritual Formation at CTU. It was one of those situations where I would have taken anything they offered just to get that one last credit. As it turned out, the course was on bereavement ministry. And we had to do a project.
I turned in a sample "activity book" for a grieving child; something that would help a child process the experience of grief in the light of the Catholic faith. The professor liked the idea, so I submitted it to our publishing house. There my humble project took on dimensions far beyond what my 1-credit course equipped me for, so the editors entrusted its development to Kimberly Schuler, a school counselor, and to our own Sr. Mary Joseph Peterson (for the artwork). The result is a keepsake volume for children in primary or middle school; a kind of hybrid puzzle book,  one-year journal and catechism.
So it looks as though my experience of loss has borne fruit for others in their time of loss. Isn't that how God tends to do things?

Tree of Life

Sr Helena can't stop talking about Malick's "Tree of Life" (awarded the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival). She kept saying "It's a God movie; it's a Theology of the Body movie..." (Here's her review, and all the tweets she sent while the review was embargoed!) Fr. Robert Barron agrees that it's a God movie, big time.



Tree of Life opens in limited release today.

New Pro-Life Residence in Chicagoland!

Lack of housing and financial insecurity are two of the reasons that many women resort to abortion. And so Chicagoland's "Aid for Women" has opened "Heather's House," a residence for homeless expectant mothers that offers much more than just a safe and comfortable place to live. Women and babies will be able to stay for two years while mothers receive life and parenting classes, continue their education and get career training, too. It's the kind of program that can make a huge difference for women who feel that they have literally nowhere to go and no one to turn to.
Contribute household and baby items through Heather's House gift registries at Babies R Us (Registry #46439641) or Target (Target List ID #012399302510999)!
(Next time someone remarks that pro-lifers care more about the baby than the mother, you could invite them to contribute to Heather's House, too!)

Podcast cameos

Our latest album has been featured on several Catholic podcasts. I already linked to Pat Gohn's "About Women" podcast, but here it is again. Pat joined us in the studio last summer as we learned the music--she even recorded the process, which you can listen in on in her podcast.

This week, the original "iPadre," Father Jay Finelli posted the interview we recorded on Skype a few weeks ago. That's about 20 minutes into the program. And back home in Louisiana, "the Catholic Foodie," Jeff Young included our music in his podcast, too!

Want to listen to some music clips from the album? You'll find them here. And meanwhile, a trailer prepared by our marketing department, with a free song (Sr Fay is the soloist):

Not as the world gives

Today's Gospel is one of those Scriptures that is actually incorporated into the Order of the Mass: "Peace I leave you, my peace I give you, not as the world gives..."
As I reflected on these words, it came to me that peace isn't the only gift Jesus gives "not as the world gives." Just as Christ's peace surpasses the world's concept and experience of peace, so does his joy, his mercy, his justice, his wisdom, his power...
Do we receive it "not as the world"?

A breath of Pentecost

Just last week, as we passed the Easter season's halfway point, the Gospels shifted in time--taking us again to the Last Supper, when Jesus was preparing the apostles for his departure. Last time we read from that part of John's Gospel, it was natural to interpret that "departure" in terms of his death. Now, we can't help but hear it as referring to the Ascension (next week!). We've also started to hear intimations of Pentecost, the fruit of Jesus' dying and rising.
Don't you just love how Easter gently carries us toward Pentecost?

Roman MIssal: Books

The new translation of the Missal going into effect at the end of November provides a perfect opportunity for getting to know the Mass better, and Catholic publishers have been more than happy to provide the resources. While there are a number of new titles specifically on what's "new" in the Missal, the books that will have the longest "shelf life" are those that simply incorporate the changes into a solid presentation of the Mass itself.


One of those books is by Dr Edward Sri of the Augustine Institute (where just last Saturday our Sr Irene received her Master's in Biblical Theology). I was given a review copy of Sri's "A Biblical Walk through the Mass: Understanding What We Say and Do in the Liturgy" (my copy came with a handy laminated folder with the new translation of the unchanging parts of the Liturgy).

At first I thought I would just zip through the book and gather some interesting bits of knowledge to add to my liturgical information collection. Simply opening the book to leaf through its pages quickly disabused me of that idea. To casually flip through Sri's book seems almost sacrilegious. I realized that this is a book that deserves to be read in calm, not only without haste, but also without an agenda. It offers a deeply contemplative "walk" through the Mass, Bible in hand, in the company of Fathers and Doctors and Saints of the Church. The Confiteor alone takes up 5 pages of the book, and the Kyrie (Lord Have Mercy) is another 5! Every so often, Sri will pause, so to speak, and go behind the biblical and liturgical texts to the mysteries they express, inviting us to renew our whole participation at Mass, and not just learn stuff about it. Although there is a great amount of "stuff" here to learn, too.

I see that Ascension Press has also prepared a program for groups (with a student workbook and leader's guide): an ideal way to help prepare people not just for "changes ahead," but for the kind of profound reform that Pope Benedict has said always coincides with a renewal of Eucharistic faith.

Doomsday alert!

I was turning onto Michigan Avenue on my way to choir practice last night when I saw a sign that should have made me turn right back home. After all, there is no need for me to practice the music for Sunday's Mass if Judgment Day is going to be Saturday.
Of course, the poor souls who wake up on Sunday morning unraptured are really going to need prayers (and a dose of Catholic eschatology).

Coming Soon

I'm not much of a movie person, but this is one I am really looking forward to, since the story it tells is so little known, and involves so much genuine heroism.

Back in Chicago

I wasn't able to post the final two retreat reports (forgive me!)...but the retreat ended yesterday and now I am back in Chicago, catching up on other things. While I was in Boston, I was able to "catch up" with the sisters, which is always fun.
Yesterday I shared a meal with Sr Mary Paula, who is the #1 sports fan among all of our American sisters. Last week, four tickets to a Red Sox game became unexpectedly available. Sister Mary Paula (I think she's around 85) stayed through the eleventh inning of that night game. She's currently following basketball, but only since the Kentucky Derby was run. (In her room, she has an autographed 8 X 10 glossy of her favorite jockey.) Remember when the Marlins won the World Series with an inexperienced team and a manager they pulled out of retirement? Sr Mary Paula wrote a congratulatory letter to the manager. You can find it in his autobiography.
Sr Mary Paula is from Youngstown, OH, and her background is Croatian. (I can still taste the marvelous traditional pastries she would make for Christmas years ago when I was stationed in Boston.) Her Croatian ancestry was also instrumental in gaining two vocations for the Daughters of St Paul: Back in the 50's, Sr Mary Paula was doing a door to door visitation of a parish in Buffalo, NY. At one home, the lady of the house didn't quite believe that the two smiling sisters at her door were really Catholic nuns (who ever heard of nuns bringing books direct to the home?), and she said something to that effect (in Croatian) to another family member. Sr Mary Paula didn't miss a beat, shifting right into her own family language to explain our mission. Two of the woman's daughters ended up as, well, Daughters! (One was my novice director. That's how I heard the story.) Sr Mary Paula also had the distinction of participating in the month of spiritual exercises preached by our Founder, Bl. James Alberione, in 1961. (I translated the sermons a couple of years ago; it was all done in Italian--in which Sr. Paula is fluent.)
Not all of our sisters have the same exterior "sparkle" as Sr Mary Paula; some have their sparkle all on the inside where God delights in it. But every so often, God lights a sparkler that we can all see, and Sr. Mary Paula is one of them for me.

Retreat Report: Poor in Spirit

Coming down the home stretch in the retreat I am offering our senior sisters. Today's theme was "The Penitent Heart is Poor in Spirit." My notes are rather sketchy, but they do include this very salient quote from Bonhoeffer:

“Anxiety for food and clothing is clearly not the same thing as anxiety for the kingdom of God, however much we should like to persuade ourselves that when we're working for families and concerning ourselves with bread and houses we are thereby building the kingdom, as though the kingdom could be realized only through our worldly cares. The kingdom of God and his righteousness are sharply distinguished from the gifts of the world.... Before we start taking thought for life, our food and clothing, our work and families, we must seek the righteousness of Christ.... Again we have here either a crushing burden, which holds out no hope for the poor and wretched, or else it is the quintessence of the Gospel, which brings the promise of freedom and perfect joy. Jesus does not tell us what we ought to do but cannot; he tells us what god has given us and promises still to give. If Christ has been given us, if we are all called to his discipleship, we're given all things, literally all things. He will see to it that they are added on to us” (D.B. commenting on Mt 7).

Retreat Report: the "Convicted" Heart

In a retreat meditation from 1935 (#158-164a), our Founder stressed the “penitence” of the Sacrament of Penance, not the confession (accusation). He uses the example of the woman at Simon's house, whom he identifies with Mary Magdalen. He connects “sorrow for sin” (dolore) with two Gospel lines about penance: “If you do not repent (pentirete) and do penitence, you will not enter the kingdom (Lk 13:5) and “Do penance, repent” (he then restates it, “pull out evil by the roots: sradicarlo”); cf. Lk 3:8-9. Then he commented that we tend to put too much stress on the confession of sin: repentance ("sorrow/dolore for sin") is a “heavenly gift.” We have to pray for it, and have much hope, based on Jesus having died for us.

About two or three years ago, my community in Chicago was treated to tickets to a stage production of “The Screwtape Letters,” based on the book by C.S. Lewis. The whole work was reproduced by just two actors—and one of them didn't even have any lines! As we left the theater and headed toward the L train after the performance, we heard footsteps. A man strode past us with a real spring in his step. He had been at the theater too. Just as he passed us, he turned and declared, with arms outstretched, “I feel convicted!” He was beaming. That's a great example of what St. Paul called "godly repentance."  The bracing energy of truth strips away our threadbare compromises, but doesn't leave us bereft and bedraggled, humbled to the dust forever. Quite the contrary. In godly repentance, we suddenly recognize a greater good than the one we had been trying to preserve or protect. There is a dying here, as a bigger truth than we were ready to suspect strips away the compromises that we have grown so used to. And there is a resurrection here, too: in that very same instant, we discover that the greater good is already ours: a vibrant and trustworthy new life.

 “Christian conversion requires a fundamental reappraisal of oneself as a sinner, and hence an acceptance of others, even in their weakness, and this is the basis for true Christian community. When this reappraisal has not happened, the Christian community becomes an idea, separate from the members who make it up; they are rejected as stupid, confused, ignorant or sinful if they do not share the same ideal as oneself" (David Bird, echoing comments made decades earlier by Dietrich Bonhoeffer).

“ God loves every one of us with a depth and intensity that we can hardly begin to imagine. And he knows us intimately, he knows all our strengths and all our faults. Because he loves us so much, he wants to purify us of our faults and build up our virtues so that we can have life in abundance. When he challenges us because something in our lives is displeasing to him, he is not rejecting us, but he is asking us to change and become more perfect. That is what he asked of Saint Paul on the road to Damascus. God rejects no one. And the Church rejects no one. Yet in his great love, God challenges all of us to change and to become more perfect" (Benedict XVI to the young people in Malta).

So the “convicted” heart is willing to change. 

Retreat Report: halfway point!

There's a quality to the penitent heart that calls for some definition of terms. Starting with one of those words that, sadly, has been lost in our culture except in jokes and ironic comments.

What are the meanings of the word "virgin"?

It can mean pristine, original, new, beginning, nave, inexperienced...

But when you speak of human beings, the surrounding culture doesn't know of virginity in any other sense than the strictly biological. Unless you are speaking of extra-virgin olive oil. In some ways, many times, our culture treats virginity as a negation (it refers to something a person hasn't done) and yet at the same time as something you can lose. As something with a definite before and after. Certainly not something that can be shared in a life-long mutual gift.

Pope John Paul gives virginity a kind of unexpected twist. He sees it not as a matter of before/after, but as a totality of a person's gift of self. Think of a virginal couple on their wedding night: their marital embrace is a sharing of virginity that will extend throughout their lives together. The fullness of personal giving and of the intersubjective communion of persons. Not something you lose, but a point of communion. Something that speaks of the absolute and "eternal spousal meaning of the glorified body". Existence for an Other. I do not find my meaning in myself, but in a gift of self to that other to whom I belong.

There's a wholeness to the way the penitent heart clings (tenete) to the Lord, to become one spirit with him. A wholeness of its availability that is an image of the wholeness of the receptivity and availability of the 2^nd person of the Trinity, ever at the Father's side,receiving all that the Father gives and is (God does not ration his gift of the Spirit).

Bl. Alberione wrote: “Ah, if only we reflected that, in us, the Father is eternally begetting the Son; in us the Son is eternally begotten and in us the Father and Son breathe forth the Holy Spirit...” In us: our communion with this reality of the indwelling Trinity is what makes the penitent heart a virginal heart because we, too, are continually being brought into existence by a creative act of God.

“At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. It is, so to speak, His name written in us, as our poverty, as our indigence, as our dependence, as our sonship, It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody and if we could see it we would see these billion points of light coning together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely (Merton).

It is our ongoing creation; our being-made here and now, and according to Robert Barron, conversion is a new creation. So the penitent heart is a heart springing fresh-made from the creative hands of God at what Merton (citing Massignon, who got it from a medieval Sufi) called the “virgin point.”

There Can Be Miracles: behind the scenes

Podcaster Pat Gohn ("Among Women") joined us last summer as we recorded our newly released "There Can Be Miracles." She released her podcast episode just as we released the album! Listen in!

Retreat Report: the Receptive Heart

Here's a tidbit from Day 3 of the retreat on the theme "The Penitent Heart" (or, the heart in continual conversion):

“Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

The context of this Gospel call to penitence is the presence of the Kingdom of heaven: this comes first; this is the motivation and condition and the context within which repentance is something positive, a statement of “How Great Thou Art.” “This is the time of fulfillment”: this is central; this is what matters most. So the penitent heart is a response to a fullness that is present and beginning to open up before your eyes. This is not a call to repent in view of oneself, or in a kind of void.

Repentance is the response to an overwhelming presence, perceived and received in humble gratitude, like Isaiah in the Temple (“Woe is me!”) or that catch of fish by Simon's crew. “Leave me, Lord: I'm a sinful man.” The answer: Do not be afraid. So “when they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.” The penitent heart is not in the “leave me,” but here in the “following him,” the living out of the response. Just “leave me, I'm a sinner,” is a dead end, not a path of life.

“It is I; do not be afraid.” The penitent heart starts with the recognition of God's nearness: “penitence” is not a prerequisite or condition for drawing near to God, but a response to God's initiative. (No one comes to me unless the Father draws him.) God loved us first; the penitent heart is responding to that prior love. And the heart “treasures all those [signs of love] and ponders them”:

“It occurred to me that I should write not just memoirs—it sounds pompous—a sort of report, testimony about how generously, throughout my whole life, God gave me gifts; about the ray of light which I almost always felt and saw” (Schmemann, page 318).

The heart is flexible, in motion, not calcified, hardened, stiff, impenetrable—which would make it invulnerable and impervious. Instead, the penitent heart is a feminine heart: receptive and responsive. So the penitent heart is a pure heart: “Purity of heart proceeds not only from what we avoid, but from what we receive: the poverty of spirit which leads us to turn to God; the meekness that is a deep-seated strength...” (Bransfield, interview with Zenit about his book The Human Person: According to John Paul II).

Retreat Report: A Grateful Heart

In case you missed last summer's "retreat reports" (don't worry; I'm not on retreat--I'm preaching it), I'll see if I can keep you in the loop with the daily meditation themes. Even though it's the same content as last year.
Today is officially day 2 of the retreat, but day 1 is more of an initiation into the retreat frame of mind. Today is when I really started talking about the subject, drawn from the divine message our Founder wanted written in every Pauline chapel in the world: "Do not be afraid; I am with you. From here [tabernacle] I want to enlighten. Live with a penitent heart." (Read about it here.)
The "fear not; I am with you" shows up all over the place in the bible, as does the theme of light. But the "penitent heart" phrase is a bit challenging--though it is very enlightening when you look at it through the bible's many calls to repentance. Our Founder's original expression was in Latin, "cor poenitens tenete," and it has been translated many ways: "be sorry for sin"; "live in continual conversion" or "have a penitent heart." But that "tenete" always gets lost in the translation, which is odd, because "tenete" means "keep" or "hold fast"!
What I decided to do is focus on the qualities of the penitent heart, and do that in some sort of order. Since everything starts from grace, the first quality of the penitent heart is gratitude. The penitent heart is stirred to love by the recognition of what good has been done "for me". The examen itself starts with thanksgiving—otherwise, instead of responsiveness, everything is reduced to dry duty, almost a mathematical transaction. Robert Roberts (Spiritual Emotions, p 144) wrote: “You get what you pay for and you earn what you get" is not a Christian worldview. “the obstacles to Christian gratitude are human resistances to acknowledge our dependence on God, and the failure to appreciate the gifts he gives us and the beauty of relationship with him.”

And Russian Orthodox liturgist Alexander Schmemann blew me away with this insight: “The Church convicts sin through her thanksgiving. Through which she recognizes the vital lessons of evil, the source of sin as unthankfulness, as man's falling away from the 'hymning, blessing, praising, giving thanks and worshiping' through which he lives—for man, and in him all creation, knows God and has communion with him. Not giving thanks is the root and the driving force of ... pride …. The spiritual essence of pride, properly distinguishable only in the spiritual effort of 'discernment of spirits,' lies precisely in the fact that, as opposed to all other causes ascribed to the fall, it alone is not from below but from above: It is not from perfection, but from completion, not from deficiency but from an overabundance of gifts, and not from weakness but from power. In other words, it comes not from some unexplainable 'evil' of an unknown origin, but from the enticement and temptation of the divine 'very good' of creation in man. Pride is opposed to thanksgiving precisely as unthanksgiving because it arose from the same causes as thanksgiving. It is another, opposite answer to the same gift; it is temptation by the same gift.” (Eucharist, page 187).

St Ignatius (and many other saints with him) even said we should give grateful praise to God for our good desires! We ought not ignore them, or assume they originate in our own hearts. Good desires are a form of grace for which we owe due thanks. Not a perfunctory "thanks" of politeness ("thank you, Lord. And now to the real business at hand...") but heartfelt and amazed thanks: "the Almighty has done great things for me! He, the Almighty! for me!"

On the road

I'm traveling a bit this weekend; today I am in St. Paul for the First Saturday retreat at the Cathedral. Instead of returning to Chicago, I'm heading for Boston tonight. Tomorrow our senior sisters begin their annual retreat, and I'm the preacher. So that's a week in Boston. Just happens to coincide with a visit from Mother General (and the appointment of our new provincial leadership; prayers needed!).
With all that going on, I thought I'd just share this video with you that sums up a good bit of my activity. (It was prepared to go along with the release of our album, "There Can Be Miracles.")

Roman Missal: Dismissed!

Did you ever notice that there's no closing prayer at Mass? There's a prayer after Communion, then a blessing and then just a simple dismissal. But listen to that prayer after Communion! It's impressive how the prayers relate what we are doing in the liturgy with the Second Coming, the “ultimate gathering of the assembly on the eighth day” for worship. Being sent out on the first day of the week, we are expected to return on the eighth day, bringing just a bit more of the world back with us to God.

The wonderful thing is that we are not sent out on mission until we have been strengthened by the Eucharist, until our communion with the Lord has been strengthened, so that it will be Jesus living in us, drawing people to himself. If we are living stones, we must be built into the living temple of the body of Christ; otherwise, we may as well be in a rock pile.

"The Son is convinced that, even without being visible, he can go on working and place a part of his work in the hands of believers without thereby jeopardizing it" (Von Speyr, Ephesians, page 167). "Christ has no body now but yours" and that body must be built up continuously; this is what the Lord has entrusted to us: his Eucharistic body in the Mass, and his Body the Church, through mission.

And in case we've been letting all that slip past us at the time of the blessing, Pope Benedict gave us some new words for the dismissal. These are the newest part of the Roman Missal, coming as a fruit of the Synod on the Eucharist.

We began the Mass with the Sign of the Cross, which we get right from the Gospel, Matthew 28, the “Great Commission.” We end the Mass with a dismissal that takes its inspiration from that same passage: Go and make disciples of all nations. Here are the several options for the dismissal (in bold), along with my reflections on them.

“Go forth, the Mass is ended.” Go forth! Saying simply "go" seems to put the empahsis on the place we are leaving, and on the act of departing. But when we hear "go forth," we are being told much more than "you can leave now": we are being thrust out of those doors with a sense of direction and a job to do. It's the opposite of “closure”!

“Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord” But isn't that imposing our belief system on others? Shouldn't we mind our own business, or wait for people to seek us out with their explicitly religious questions?

Remember the Gospel parable of the treasure buried in a field? The person who made the discovery covered it up again, and then Jesus says, "out of joy," went and sold everything to buy the field. When we announce the Gospel, we are not inviting people to misery, but to joy. Pope Benedict wrote “Truly, nothing is more beautiful than to know Christ and to make him known to others” (Sac. Car. 84). Do we believe this?

“Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life”: the mission of the church cannot be limited to the strictly spiritual plane (what would that mean for us who are embodied spirits?); the mission of the church has to relate to the mundane. Where? In real life, with the individual gifts and vocation that are ours: if teaching, by teaching, if exhorting, by encouraging; if in works of charity, through works of charity; as St. Paul said. This is where our lay ministry really begins, consecrating the world of family life, of work, of community. Cardinal : "It seems obvious in our time that the world stands in desperate need of being transformed by the message of the gospel." “Transubstantiating” society. That's why the Church insists that priests not go into public office; that would be taking over the specifically lay role.

“Go in peace.” Where are we going? Ultimately, not out of the doors back into what we consider real life; we are going out to meet the Lord, who is coming.  We said it in the Holy holy holy: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. " That's in the present tense! The Lord is coming like the bridegroom in the parable: "The bridegroom is here; go out to meet him" not as bridesmaids, but as the bride: what a difference!

We go in peace, and we fully expect that, within eight days, we will meet the Lord again—either in his definitive coming or when we return, to assemble as the Church, on Sunday.

Roman Missal: The Whole Wide World

I've been impressed lately with the way the new missal translation reinforces a sense of the presence and involvement of all creation in the liturgy--and of creation as God's ongoing work. Here are a few outstanding examples:

EP1 (Roman Canon): “Through Christ our Lord, through whom you continue to create all these good things, O Lord; you make them holy, fill them with life, bless them and bestow them upon us.”

EP 3: “all you have created rightly gives you praise, for through your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, by the power and working of the Holy Spirit, you give life to all things and make them holy, and you never cease to gather a people to yourself...”; "We hope to enjoy forever the fullness of your glory through Christ our Lord, through whom you bestow on the world all that is good.”

EP 4 (which recounts the whole history of salvation): With the Angels... “we, too, confess your name in exultation, giving voice to every creature under heaven as we sing, Holy, Holy, Holy...” (currently “in the name of every creature...”); “...grant, O merciful Father, that we may enter into a heavenly inheritance with the Bl. Virgin Mary, Mother of God... there, with the whole of creation, freed from the corruption of sin and death, may we glorify you through Christ our Lord.” (Paul's “all creation awaits the revelation of the sons of God...”).

There are two passages I'd especially like to highlight:

In Eucharistic Prayer 3, the priest currently prays “so that from East to West a perfect sacrifice may be offered...” That sounds like a geographical reference, but with only two of the compass points, so much so that many priests feel they have to add "from North to South" in order to make things right. The new translation says “from the rising of the sun to its setting”: This isn't a geographic reference so much as it means “from sunup to sundown": “nonstop.” It is from the first chapter of the prophet Malachi where God says that “from the rising...to the setting of the sun, great is my name among the Gentiles, and they will offer a pure sacrifice to my name.” So this one line is a fantastic example not only of the way creation is evoked in the liturgy, but of how the liturgy itself, in citing Scripture, interprets the very Scriptures that it incorporates. The Eucharistic Prayer is not simply using a Bible quote to express itself, it is actually saying, "Today,  in this very action, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing: This offering, and your priestly participation in it, is what Malachi was prophesying."

In Eucharistic Prayer 4, we currently hear that “Jesus took the cup filled with wine.” It will now be “filled with the fruit of the vine."

The new translation is not only less prosaic, it is more “environmentally conscious”: our attention is drawn not to the human product “wine,” but to the presence of God's original creation with overtones about the Promised Land, and the abundant blessings that bring us joy and give fullness to life: creation, redemption and covenant. The created world itself is made more manifest to us, and when we receive the gifts “back” after they have become the body and blood of Christ, we get a stronger message about the future transformation of the whole universe. So there is a cosmic level that just isn't expressed as richly when we hear the word “wine.”

The heightened "visibility" of creation is another reason I am so looking forward to the new Roman Missal.

Roman Missal: Confessions

There's one thing about the new translation of the Missal we'll be getting in Advent that may make us a bit uncomfortable. It's the way we'll be "confessing" at Mass. The new translation makes those bold, public declarations of personal responsibility so...emphatic.
In the penitential rite, we will continue to "Confess to Almighty God, and to you my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned..." but then we'll affirm it three times!
The Creed is another confessional moment: a bold, public declaration in which we take responsibility for our faith. Here, the translation really gets personal. Instead of a general, group-style act of faith, we will be getting a more baptismal formula: from "we believe" to "I believe." And we'll repeat that "I believe" for a total of four times! Since we pray the Creed after having heard four Scripture readings, we're being led to not only claim the faith of the Bible as our own, but to stake our lives and our identity on it.
In one way, the Creed is to the proclamation of the Gospel what Communion is to the great Eucharistic prayer of praise: it's where "I" make what has been done in my name my own. And just as the Creed is then followed by our priestly prayers of intercession, Communion is followed by our being sent on mission, so that others will one day join us in our confession.

Dying by the sword

Rejoicing in the streets. Gestures of triumph. Chanting and wordless cries of jubilation. Last night around the White House? Yes. And ten years ago, in the Middle East when the twin towers fell.
We decried it then as unseemly and out of place.
It still is, even though the man who died yesterday with a bullet to the head had so much innocent blood on his hands.
The Vatican spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, put it very well: "In the face of a man's death, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious responsibilities of each person before God and before men, and hopes and works so that every event may be the occasion for the further growth of peace and not of hatred."
That is our mission now, if we choose to accept it.

Here's a great reflection that draws on our Catholic tradition (and "traditions") in helping us take on a truly Christian response to the current situation.