Motherhouse Moments: Mission Day!

I would have to be obtuse indeed not to have gotten the Lord's hint that today would be a good day to reflect on the meaning of the call to evangelize. First off, it was in the Gospel: after a series of miracles in Peter's village, Jesus was being sought by "the crowds" who wanted him to stick around. "But he said to them, 'To the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God, because for this purpose I have been sent'."

Sr Ancilla Christine and Sr Kathryn James
(awaiting the blessing of the Portuguese apostolate).

At our community Mass, after the homily there was a missioning ceremony for one of the sisters who is being transferred to Rome. A second sister left for her new assignment (Miami: what a suffering!) where she will be the director of our Spanish language distribution service. (If you are a bookstore owner who wants to carry Catholic material in Spanish, this is the "clearinghouse" for imported titles.)

At breakfast, I ran into Sr Ancilla Christine, who just finished a family visit in her native Wisconsin and will be returning to Germany, where she has been stationed for going on ten years.

Padre Eduardo blesses the tiny Portuguese
"book center" as the community looks on.

In the afternoon, there was a second Mass, to which all our employees were invited--it marked the launching of the publishing house's new tag line, "Discover Hope" (which matched the first reading perfectly). After that Mass, I went down the hall to our new Portuguese-language media center (tucked away near the front entrance, all of 40 square feet). The priest in charge of the Brazilian apostolate came to bless the new service, for which our community in Brazil sent two missionary sisters. They have been in the US only since June, but have already become a vibrant part of the Brazilian Catholic scene in New England.
All in all, a day of witnessing sisters following the example of Jesus and accepting the challenge of the Gospel: " I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God, because for this purpose I have been sent."

Like a thief in the night

A story linked on Twitter this morning connects quite strikingly with Paul's image (from the first reading) about a thief in the night.
Over the past ten years, Walter Bonam's family has literally been through fire (2001) and through water (Hurricane Katrina), and since July have been facing an even greater challenge as a result of a single, paralyzing gunshot during a home invasion in July. Already a man of faith (even his job as associate director of religious education for the Archdiocese of New Orleans is a matter of faith), Bonam sees life from a new perspective from his wheelchair: "I think God allowing me to be here rather than in a box in the ground can perhaps enhance my ability to speak to certain kinds of people and have them take me seriously. I’ve just been humbled beyond belief by things."

You did it!

Nunblogger came in at the top for the Catholic New Media Awards as "Best Catholic Microblog."
Thanks for your vote!

Sneak Preview of Christmas!

Sr Helena took Sr Emmanuel's photos (all 500, it seems) and put them together with some of our music from iTunes to create a sneak preview of this year's Christmas concert, as enjoyed by the Boston audience this weekend. (Be sure to check our concert schedule on Facebook if you are in NY-NJ-VA-MA-OH.) Brush up on your Portuguese to enjoy this report on the participation of the Brazilian community who made up a large part of the audience.

Still singing!

Beginning the "dress rehearsal"

The glowsticks added a little flair...

We have to be in the studio at 3:00 this afternoon to continue our recording project--the one that was put on hold last week as we worked on our (very successful!) Christmas concert. Sr Mary Emmanuel, our community photographer, took over 500 pictures of the rehearsal and event; you can see some of the highlights on our Facebook page (you already "liked" us on FB, didn't you?).
A big contingent from Boston's Brazilian community helped fill the pews, and gave us a very responsive audience. It seems that many others would have come, if not for the threatening weather. In the end, even the weather cooperated to a degree, as the big storm didn't hit until midnight (although today our publishing house phones are down).

The concert will be aired (and, presumably, streamed) on NET* NY, the TV ministry of the diocese of Brooklyn. They will also produce a DVD, so you will have a chance to join the fun. (Bring your own glowstick.)

*NET= New Evangelization Television

Merry Christmas!

Sr Margaret Timothy and Sr Donna practice their duet for tonight's concert.

The whole community pitches in for these things.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful (actually, the New England forecast is much improved!)... but our Christmas concert plans are still on for tonight. In fact, the 10-man video crew is setting up equipment right now in our ultra-air-conditioned chapel. (It has to be extra cold in there because the audience will be wearing winter clothes in the summer heat!) We singers have to be on hand at 3:00 for a tech check (our head mikes will "feed" both to the chapel speakers, for the audience, and to the video studio truck outside, where a pro will monitor and mix the inputs individually), and a "real" dress rehearsal at 4:30 (the cameras will be running); we return for the "real" fake Christmas concert at 8:00.

The video team was happy to see that the concert is more on the lines of a "show" than of a traditional choral concert. Think "Glee" without the costumes (or the subtext!). This kind of entertainment is really not as inconsistent with religious life as it may seem to people "outside": it's quite along the lines of the community recreations we had in novitiate. On feast days, a group of sisters would put on little (or sometimes elaborate) skits for the larger community. When I was a novice, there were several groups putting on these skits (the postulants offered one, then the novices and then the juniors--the more senior members made up the audience for all three). We still recall the highlights (some of those skits were masterpieces of wry humor!). The difference now is that we have a "real" audience, and the whole community is involved in one way or another. Sr Mary Lea has been preparing cookie trays; Sr Linda, Sr Marlene and Sr Edward Marie decorated chapel (not an easy matter, finding Christmas trees in August); other sisters are coordinating the parking, greeting, and other logistical issues. (All I have to do is show up for the practice on time.)

Senior Moments at the Motherhouse, Part 2

Last week's Jubilee celebration is still on my mind, even though all of the guests are gone, and only a few hardy flowers remain from the huge arrangements that filled the chapel and refectory (dining room).

One of the Diamond Jubilarians, Sr Mary Paula, is noted throughout the province for her epic poems, usually set to the rhythm and rhyme pattern of "The Ballad of the Green Beret."

At breakfast the morning of the celebration, Sr Mary Paula sighed that she had not written a poem for the feast, and didn't see how it would be possible to get one ready. I took the hint.

In chapel before supper, I brought the matter to Jesus. "We need to write a poem for Sr Mary Paula and Sr Louise. It has to be to 'The Ballad of the Green Beret.' And supper is in 15 minutes."
I found one of the print-outs of the special Jubilee morning prayers in the pews: paper--a good start. Then I started writing, every so often asking Jesus for a rhyming word. I was able to sing the completed work at supper. Sr Mary Paula was so delighted, she kept asking me for a copy  (even though the only one I had was on the back of the morning prayer handout). Well, it's typed up now, so you can share it, too. Sing it yourself, to the tune of "The Ballad of the Green Beret"--except for the one verse in italics, which goes to a more pious melody (the name of which I do not know, but it is an old Latin hymn tune).

Blessings on your 60^th Jubilee!

Sixty years of Pauline Life

Years of mission, joys and strife.

How could anyone be bored

In the service of the Lord?

Hearing Primo Maestro's* voice

Surely made your hearts rejoice

as he urged fidelity

to the life that you would lead.

Adoration by the hour

Is your constant source of power,

Font of grace that won't run dry,

but still increases, by and by.

In the spirit of St. Paul,

You, dear sisters, gave your all

to spread God's kingdom everywhere

through the Gospel you did share.

So, dear Sisters, on this date

as we join to celebrate,

God's great generosity,

may he bless both you and me.

*"Primo Maestro" may sound like a brand of spaghetti sauce, but it means "first master/ first teacher" (as in "first violin": not in order of time, but in order of precedence). It was the title given to the Founder by the bishop who approved "St Pauls," and was modeled on the Dominican title  "Master General."  Our Diamond Jubilarians met the Founder (and went to confession to him) on several occasions.

Senior Moments at the Motherhouse

I've been at the motherhouse almost two weeks now; time to have shared many a meal with the senior sisters here. One of them is Sr Mary Timothy, who was the first or second Daughter of St. Paul I knew by name. Although she grew up in Italy, her parents had been born in Louisiana. Their parents brought them back to Italy before World War II, and they married and raised their children in Sicily. Once the war was over, they came back to the States, where two of the girls became Daughters of St. Paul. (At one time or other, each of them was stationed for a good while in Louisiana, although by then the family had settled in New York.)
The other day Sr Mary Timothy was telling us about some of her experiences from the early years of the Daughters of St. Paul in the United States. At the time, our brother community was nearby, and the sisters were assigned either to making books and doing parish visitations, or to domestic services for the priests and brothers*.  (There are actually lots of stories from the sisters who ran the kitchens during those years!) Sr Mary Timothy remembered when she was a girl in Sicily, how her mother tried to teach her own to iron men's shirts. Nothing doing. "I'm going to be a nun. I don't need to know that." Well, wouldn't it happen that one day, she was assigned to the domestic services team. The sister in charge sent this sister to the kitchen to peel potatoes, that sister to the sweeping and mopping...and Sr Mary Timothy to the laundry--to iron shirts!
I asked her if she ever told her mother. "Never did," she said.

*This sort of arrangement seems to be quite traditional (the Cathedral parish in Chicago is served by a Mexican community called the "Oblate Sisters of Jesus the Priest"), but the very idea always rankled me. In the Pauline Family, the Sisters of the Divine Master have (as a kind of "adjunct" to their liturgical apostolate) a specific expression of service to the priesthood, which can include domestic work. But still. One of the brothers, though, shed new light on the matter when he said, after the Divine Master sisters were no longer a part of the picture of their large community, "We really miss the formative character of that feminine presence." In other words, the important thing wasn't having consecrated women doing maid service; it was that the service provided an opportunity for the sisters to accomplish a subtle but important ministry of spiritual formation so that the men's community could benefit from the feminine genius, rather than be left with an exclusively male perspective.
I can appreciate the sisters' contribution much more now, but ... don't ask me to iron those shirts!

Is World Youth Day a Waste of Time?

I was pretty surprised to see a post on Twitter suggesting that "World Youth Day brings out the worst in people." It linked to a blog post on US Catholic about hostility that the Madrid World Youth Day events aroused in some people. Even some priests complained that these massive biennial gatherings siphon off too many resources with only vague benefits. WYD, in other words, should at least try to be about doing social justice projects, especially since so many of the young people are affluent enough to actually attend an international gathering.
There is plenty of merit in the suggestion that WYD include, perhaps in a more formal way, a concrete service tie-in. As it is, many of the groups who attend do organize around service projects in the host country, or (as one Jesuit commenter on the US Catholic site mentioned) as a lead-up. He wrote: "From France and Africa to Spain and Portugal, more than 3000 Magis pilgrims have been feeding the poor, comforting the elderly, building housing for the homeless, working with people of other faiths, and walking thousands of combined kilometers in preparation for World Youth Day. Magis is but one group among hundreds that sees the gathering in Madrid not as a singular event, but as the culmination of a pilgrimage towards a common celebration of faith." It seems to me that for the Denver WYD there was also a well-planned service component for those who arrived early. (And Denver WYD kick-started a new flowering of vocations to the priesthood and religious life in the US, too: so the service continues!)
To insist, as some seem to be doing, that WYD is not really valid unless it has an immediate contribution to make in terms of the works of mercy seems to me a kind of materialism. WYD is less a "vacation" than a form of retreat. Pope Benedict was the wise retreat master, encouraging the retreatants to return to their "everyday life" with something new: a greater openness to God's will in their lives; a sense of discernment with regard to their vocation; a commitment to frequent prayer and adoration. No form of Christian service can be sustained without those qualities, anyway: it will either cease to be Christian or cease its service.
Fortunately, the young people, all 1.5 million of them, seemed to get that. Let's pray that the Pope's words and the experience of World Youth Day 2011 will begin a new Pentecost for all who took part!

Also on World Youth Day Madrid:
World Youth Day: the big picture *
Avatar of secularism faces blow-back for pro-papal line
Pope's Press Conference en route to Madrid
Pope speaks of how WYD responds to young people's best desires


* Thanks to Ashley Collins for posting this on Google+ yesterday.

And the Cordero Award goes to...

Last year at the Catholic New Media Celebration, one of the best speakers of the weekend was Catholic TV's Father Robert Reed. Fr. Reed has done a fantastic job of shepherding Boston's archdiocesan TV apostolate, already over 50 years old, into the new media era. He fits the definition of a Catholic “who has striven to uplift the human spirit and to recognize the dignity of the person in or through media,” which happens to be our definition of a person who merits the “Cordero Award.”

Cordero isn't just Spanish for "lamb" (as in "Cordero di Dios" in the Mass); it was the last name of our Mother Paula, a missionary from Italy who helped establish the Daughters of St. Paul in America (and other places, too!). Although Mother Paula did not have much formal education (she only went to the village school in her hometown in the Alpine foothills), she made enormous sacrifices to see to it that our first American sisters were equipped with the background they would need to bring our publishing apostolate forward. At a time when most sisters didn't even complete college level studies, Mother Paula Cordero was sending the Daughters for Master's Degrees. And so the Cordero Award is the highlight of a fundraiser for our education fund.

On September 18, at a Sunday afternoon high tea, Fr. Reed will receive that honor here at the motherhouse. If you're in the Boston area, you might want to come for the benefit event; if you're not a New Englander, but benefit from Catholic TV's internet offerings (and they are plenty), you can sponsor a place setting—or a table! (Contact Sr Christine for the details.)

Jubilee Day

I'm not sure it was exactly planned this way, but our annual Jubilee celebration is falling right in the middle of our recording project: just on time to ensure a full choir (and small orchestra) for the big Mass. The house is full, full, full: it's even hard to find a spot at table in a refectory (dining room) that usually seems too big for the community's needs. It's not just the choir members who are here: a number of sisters who finished their retreat last week stayed on to help out with preparations and to join the celebration. And, taking advantage of that fact, there's also been some moving around of old equipment from earlier forms of apostolate. (Do you know anyone looking for pious movies in 16 and 35mm format?) 

August 20 is a special day anyway, since on this day in 1914, Bl. James welcomed the very first students to the newly-founded “Little Worker Printing School” (which later took on the name “St Paul's”). Since the anniversary of the founding of the Pauline Family falls on a Saturday this year, I suppose it was a natural choice for the Jubilees of seven of our sisters. Four of them mark their Silver Jubilee, but we also have one Golden Jubilarian and (get this) two Diamond Jubilarians.

All together, they are quite a group:

One of the Diamond Jubilarians played a significant part in the vocational journey of the Golden Jubilarian: she and another sister were doing house to house visitations in Buffalo, NY, when they first met the family (from which the Daughters of St. Paul welcomed two sisters--the other one celebrated her Golden Jubilee a few years ago). Two of the Jubilarians (one Silver, one Golden) work together in the editorial department here in Boston. One of the Silver Jubilarians came in from the missions where she has been helping to begin our ministry in a new nation under extremely challenging circumstances. Another (Silver) knows that her sister, a Daughter of St. Paul who would have marked her 35th anniversary of vows, will be joining us from Heaven, just six months after her arrival in the celestial city.  

As much as we love our Sisters and rejoice in their combined 270 years of fidelity, a Jubilee is really more about what God has done: for the Sisters, for the community and for the people reached and touched through years of service and prayer. Jubilee Day is always a reminder to renew the gift of self made in response to God's call. God is the one whose grace actually keeps us in that response!

What my week was like

Pretty much, it was this. Only all day. (With essential breaks for snacks, lunch, prayer...)
We'll be taking a break from recording next week in order to prepare for the TV taping (by NET TV of Brooklyn) of our Christmas Concert. The taping is next Saturday (8:30 pm) in our chapel. There's still room for you in our audience! Just contact Sr Nancy for details! (snancy [[at]] paulinemedia [[dot com]])

The Missals are Coming!

One thing I especially appreciate about being at the motherhouse for an extended period of time is that it allows me to catch up on some of the publishing house news that never quite makes it to the official channels of information. For instance, yesterday I was at the supper table with Sr Susan James, who works in our Order Entry/Customer Service department. She commented in an offhand way that they have been fielding a lot of orders for the new Sunday and Daily missals (that Sr Linda is still laboring over in the paginating/proofreading room ). I took advantage of the opportunity to get a little info that I can pass on to you:

• Our publishing house is only able to sell direct to “dealers” (i.e. bookstores) because of royalty issues. “Regular people” will be able to order it from our webstore and from our own bookstores, though. So the orders Sr. Susan has been taking are only from bookstores. (If you patronize a local Catholic or Christian bookstore—and I certainly hope you do—ask them if they've ordered the St Paul Missals yet.)
• Going back to the name of our original personal-sized missal, the new edition will be called the “St Paul Missal. And instead of having Sunday and Weekday editions as with the Vatican II Missals, we will have both Sunday and Daily versions, and the “daily” means really daily, not only weekdays. (It's a technicality to us non-liturgists, but if you put “weekday” in the title of a missal, you are not allowed to include solemnities!)
• The prices are fabulous. The Daily missal will sell for only $45.95 (less than $1 per week!) for the “leatherflex” (the only binding available from Pauline).

Here's a sneak peak:

And in the meantime, you can sign up to get a special message when the missals are available for individual purchase.

Jephthah's mistake

Horrible readings today, the kind of things that militant atheists like to point to in order to discredit the whole of Scripture: from Judges, a case of child sacrifice in fulfilment of a rash vow, and in the Gospel, the erstwhile wedding guest who gets thrown out of the party for what would seem a trivial reason. Not the easiest things to use for one's morning meditation!
While both readings provide plenty of outrageous behavior, from Jephthah's sacrilegious offering to the murderous rejection of the King's wedding invitation on the part of the invited guests, there is one example of perfectly appropriate behavior: Jephthah's unnamed daughter with her tamborines. The girl who came out of the house playing her tamborines and dancing for her father's victory would not have shown up at the King's wedding banquet without a wedding garment.
The rest of the folks in the today's liturgy, Jephthah included, seem to have absorbed false values from the surrounding culture. Jephthah was imitating the religious behavior of his enemies (for whom child sacrifice was the epitome of piety) while some of the invited wedding guests are absorbed in their money-making, and the rest degenerated into a violent mob--both behaviors our daily papers testify to!
The Responsorial Psalm suggests the best attitude to take: "Here am I, Lord, I come to do your will." And what is that will? St Paul tells us: that we should be "clothed in Christ"!

Choir Cam

We're back in the studio. Join our silent stream (due to bandwidth and copyright restrictions):

Streaming by Ustream

St Paul and the Assumption

One of the stickiest issues related to today's Solemnity of the Assumption is the ecumenical conflict over the dogma itself. Bible Christians just don't see where we got this, since it is not directly testified to in the Scriptures, their only source of doctrine. Surely, if Mary had been taken into heaven before the Apostles' eyes, as the legend says, that would have made it into the Bible! Can you imagine St. Paul not testifying to something like that?

Given that today's second reading is from St. Paul, it would seem to be a weak point (if the upper-case T Tradition were not so unanimous in what it tells us about the end of Mary's earthly life). But this morning two very different thoughts came to me.

For one, the (lower-case t) tradition says that Mary lived into her early 70's. That means that she would have still been alive during most of Paul's ministry. He couldn't very well be expected to write about a fact that hadn't happened yet. That same tradition also suggests that Mary's death and Assumption took place not that long before Paul wrote the letter to the Romans. This letter contains Paul's most highly developed thought about Christian hope, and the implications of Christ's resurrection for all of us.

I mean, his very earliest letters, 1 Thessalonians, for example, use standard apocalyptic language and express Christian hope in a really rudimentary way—correct but undeveloped, and vague enough that a 2^nd Thessalonians was necessary. By the time we get to Romans, Paul is saying that Christ's resurrection set the “pattern,” and everyone who is conformed to his death will share in the likeness of his resurrection. This is the very meaning of the Assumption.

Is it too outlandish to suggest that Mary's actual, historical Assumption (or, as the Eastern Churches call it, “Dormition”) was a further gift of Divine Revelation in which the Holy Spirit (cf. Jn 16:12-14) taught the Apostles that the Risen Christ really was meant to be the “firstfruits” of the Resurrection, the “firstborn” of many brothers and sisters, and not a unique example of God's power and grace?

What if those very passages in Romans and 1 Corinthians 15 where Paul spells out the implications of the Resurrection of Christ were the fruit of Paul's meditative reflection on the “experience” of Mary's unexpectedly anticipated entrance into full glory with her Son?

It is really inspiring to me today to imagine that as Paul wrote those hope-filled passages in Romans 6-8, he was reflecting on what God had done not only for his divine Son (the one who, being in the nature of God, did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at), but also for the one who was his first and best handmaid.  

Vote for me!

My Twitter feed was nominated as one of the "Best Catholic Microblogs" for the "Catholic New Media Awards," an annual online kudo-creator whereby readers and appreciators of Catholic blogs and podcasts jockey to give their favorites modest bragging rights.

So, um, yes, you can go to their site and vote for the nunblogger. (It does involve registering on the site and getting a password and all that, but you'll do it for me, won't you, Mom?)

70 X 7

For the longest time, I thought Peter's question about forgiving even as often as seven times meant that he was thinking of seven distinct offenses. Lately, though, I am hearing his question--and recognizing the need for Jesus' answer--in terms of forgiving the same person over and over for the same offense: every time the effects of that action or omission impact me. And, of course, Jesus' parable of the unmerciful servant is really just an image of what he says in the Sermon on the Mount: "The measure you measure with will be measured back to you."

As I prayed over this Gospel today, I found myself remembering what Immaculee Ilibagiza said in her brief remarks after the film we saw two weeks ago, and which she elaborated even more on during a conversation at the post-screening reception. During those long weeks in hiding, slowly starving to death with seven other women as machete-bearing hordes clamored for their lives, Immaculee prayed rosary after rosary. But when she came to the "Our Father" bead, she skipped the words "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." She just couldn't forgive, so she didn't want that unforgiveness recoiling back on her through her own words! Eventually, she had the grace to realize that what she was doing was "editing" the message of Jesus. So she began to pray to be able to forgive. And her meditation on the Rosary mystery of the Crucifixion eventually allowed her to hear Jesus' own words: "Father, forgive them; they know not what they do."

Grace gave Immaculee God's perspective on sin and evil: the perpetrators do not really know what they are doing--even when they "know" exactly what they are doing--because they do not see it in the vast "cosmic" perspective beyond space and time. They do not know who it is they are harming (themselves even more than their victims) and they do not see the vastness of the world which remains completely within God's providence. Sharing God's "vision" of the people who had murdered her family and sought her own life, Immaculee said, she had a more objective awareness; she really saw them, and really saw that in the murderous frenzy that was deliberately stoked and encouraged by the government's use of the media, people truly "knew not" what they were doing. And she became able to forgive people who were in such a pitiful state.

So today I prayed with Jesus (and with Immaculee) for those whose actions or omissions have harmed me, and in some cases continue to work against my flourishing. And, truth to tell, I have to admit that many others are probably praying the same way, forgiving me 70 X 7 times.

Busy week

I thought that once we got off retreat I'd be able to post on a fairly consistent basis, but it's not turning out that way. We are still at the retreat house, with daily updating classes that keep us pinned to our chairs pretty much all day, with a few (short) breaks, plus time for meals and prayer. I barely had time to tweet my daily Liturgy haiku!
We just finished two days with one of our Brazilian sisters who is a professor of communications; tomorrow we begin two days on Canon Law with a sister from another congregation. Then Saturday we will hear a succession of sisters from the various departments of the publishing house tell us what is going on (and what is coming out!). I can tell you that our website is undergoing daily changes in view of a total transformation; you can visit it now, but the links won't all work, so you might find it a bit frustrating until the job is complete. They had to allow the incompletely updated version to go live, though, for various reasons. I'm looking forward to getting up to speed in the other areas.
Then on Sunday we go the motherhouse: our next recording project begins Monday morning. We hope to have the "choir cam" in the isolation booth so you can watch us at work!
Meanwhile, I'll see you when I see you!

Abundance

Today's saint is such a significant figure in the life of the Church, he is one of the very few saints whose feast is an actual "Feast" day (in liturgical terms) with the Gloria and special readings. And those readings are quite meaningful.

St. Lawrence may be best known for his ironic sense of humor, and the first reading highlights that in a way: it's the part of Paul's 2nd letter to the Corinthians that features his well-coined phrase about being a "cheerful giver." Lawrence not only gave his life for the faith; he was the deacon in charge of giving the Sunday collection of money and goods to the poor of Rome. (He enraged the Roman official who ordered him to deliver the Church's wealth by presenting himself with a group of orphans, widows and cripples: "You asked to see the Church's treasure? Here it is!"

In Paul's letter, the Corinthians were being encouraged on their part to donate to a collection for the poor of Jerusalem, and Paul reassured them that God would not be outdone in generosity: "God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that you have everything you need, and even more for good works."

This "theology of abundance" is the Christian answer to the Malthusian fears that are the basis for so many wrong-headed approaches to human problems (as referred to in Monday's post). Naturally, I find myself challenging Paul: if God can provide so abundantly, why are people starving to death--today--in Somalia? (I suppose Paul would remind me that in cases like this, it's not that the earth fails to produce enough food, it's that people fail in letting it reach the needy, or letting the needy reach it.) 

If we really believed that "God is able to make every grace abundant," I suspect there would be less temptation to greed, to stockpiling, but also less of that temptation that Jesus teasingly described as "the Gentiles of this world running around and asking, 'What are we to eat? What are we to drink? What are we to wear?" We would know that the God who provides for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field could be counted on so firmly that we could confidently share "our daily bread," the way St. Lawrence did. Maybe there would be fewer places like Somalia.

Picture that!

Here's a picture of me, walking down a country road in the evening sunlight. Kind of looks like an arrow with two shafts, doesn't it? Can you think of a caption for it?

Here's another picture I took; this time in the retreat house living room (which the directors and staff used as a dining room during our silent meals). What is wrong with this picture (besides the obvious fact that the AC was poorly substituted by a box fan)?
I will post what struck me after I see your comments!

Faith and the foreigners

Retreat ended last evening; today we women formerly known as retreatants have become the housekeeping crew. We are all over the place scrubbing, sweeping, polishing and washingr not just to keep the place in good order for our next week of community updating, but because by Saturday the retreat house will be filled with relatives in town for our sisters' Jubilee celebration. (Just to reassure you that I am not dawdling over a keyboard while everyone else is laboring, my duty is in the laundry room, where the last load of sheets and towels is now in the dryer, all others having been duly folded and put away.) (Besides, it's time for a break!)\

I was catching up on some Catholic news, blogs, etc. earlier, and found a typically insightful post from Jennifer Fulwiler. She is answering the accusation that Catholics, with their positive view of big families, are threatening the fragile balance of the environment. After all, there are only so many resources to go around, and if you have too many babies, you are going to eat up more than your fair, replacement-level share of the goods of the earth. Her reflection (and the other blogs she cites, which I highly recommend you visit) coincided thematically with a talk I was listening to as I folded the above-mentioned sheets and towels. In the presentation from the Theology of the Body congress, Dr. John Crosby explains what is meant by "personalism" (which is so vital to the thought of Pope John Paul II and the theology of the body). He also cites Blessed John Henry Newman's contributions in that area. But I am not putting all this down for your philosophical enjoyment: it also connects strongly with a theme that came barrelling out at me from today's readings, and it has very real-world implications.

For starters, I could ask, "What are your convictions about immigration?" And I wouldn't be surprised to hear expressions of concern, anxiety, sorrow and also a few words of indignation, distaste, fear, severity... you know, the stuff we hear in political speeches on the topic. The Responsorial Psalm even speaks about border security! ("He has granted peace in your borders..." Ps. 147.) But the first reading hints at the source of that peace: not from the absence of immigrants and aliens, but from the way God ordered that they be treated. Moses tells the Isrealites that they must imitate God who "befriends the alien, feeding and clothing him."
I can already hear howls of protest over this, but we can't get away from it: it's an explicit command from God. Might the Gospel moderate this "Old Testament" rule the way it did other matters?

In the Gospel, Peter is approached for his share of the fee that all observant Jews contributed to the upkeep of the Temple. The collectors can't resist a little dig at the impecunious Master, Jesus: "Does not your teacher pay the Temple tax?" Peter sputters an automatic reassurance that the Master neglects none of his responsibilities to society and then turns away in haste. Back in the house, Jesus doesn't let the matter rest. He hints that, as the Son of God, he is exempt from a tax that logically should be paid by outsiders. And yet he doesn't take a hard line! Instead, he sends Peter, the fisherman, out to fish: Peter's everyday work became the means of a miracle of providence that paid not only Peter's Temple tax, but Jesus' as well.

If I had been Jesus, I probably would have made a public case for my rights, demonstrating mv case insistently, repeatedly and unanswerably. I might have even been tempted to ratchet up the rhetoric and resort to depersonalizing terms and figures of speech to refer to those who would deny, question or disregard my right, characterizing them by their accent, language, cuisine, modes of transport, or simply tainting them by association with others. There would have been no concession from me! Jesus, though, sees his position of privilege as a reason to make concessions generously.

Catholics should be tortured by the questions today's first reading raises. Those who wholeheartedly and aggressively embrace a hard ligne that gives priority to human and political values are absolutizing the political at the expense of divine revelation.

And yet most people I know who do this very thing would never consider treating an actual immigrant the way they might speak about "immigrants" in the abstract. That's where the "personalism" comes in. Faced with a real live person who has made incredible sacrifices for his or her family, all they would see is the weary face of a father or mother, son or daughter: a person we are not allowed to sacrifice to any other good (or any other "god"). In Newman's words, "He has a depth within him unfathomable." And that's a beautiful thing, a kind of acknowledgement of the Incarnation and the mystery of the Body of Christ.

Obviously, I don't have a solution to a situation that has been brewing for decades (and that our current economic crisis seems to be solving in its own unfortunate way), but is there a way for us as believers to let God establish the values by which we approach this and every other social question? Can we let faith (and people of faith who are actively attempting to bring about workable solutions) challenge us on the practical level to balance the rights and expectations and even the demands of citizenship with the call to imitate God in dealing with others? Otherwise..."do not the Gentiles of this world do the same?"