Imposing beliefs and values? Yes, but who's doing the imposing?

God love Fr. Barron. He pulls the curtain from the tired narrative of Catholics "imposing their beliefs" on society and shows that in the recently confirmed Health and Human Services mandate, even while the rhetoric claims that "the Church" is imposing its values on others, the story is quite the other way around. (You get the sense from that word "mandate," don't you?) It is "liberal totalitarianism" imposing its agenda, universally and at others' expense.

If you feel bewildered by all the talk about the HHS mandate, this video would be a good place to start to get a sense of what it is and what it means:


Here is a visual summary of the statements by various Catholic bishops on the issue, courtesy of @prolixpatriot and CatholicVote

.org

Hello, Goodbye

We got the news yesterday.
Not even 24 hours after our novice, Sr Emily, made her first vows and began her life of consecration, Sr. Annette fulfilled her vows and her consecrated life. She was 55.
Reflecting on this turn of events, I almost sense a certain poignancy even in the heart of Christ as he called our sister from this life. After all, from now on not even he would hear her prayers and praise and hope coming to him from the earth, from the limits of time. He would no longer be able (as he once remarked to Teresa of Avila, when she was moaning about how long this life seemed to endure when all she wanted was to go to heaven) to live the ordinary human experience of her life: the eating and sleeping and working and conversing--all things that the Lord delights in sharing with us day by day so that it is no longer we who life (or eat or sleep or work or converse) but Jesus living in us. Once our bodies can no longer offer that hospitality to Christ, he offers us the divine hospitality of heaven.
Sr Annette kept a copy of Renoir's "The Promenade" in her infirmary room, and would nod in its direction as a sign of her hope that the Lord would come in a similar way to call her apart for himself. And so he did.

Vow Day (Passing the torch)

Today is one of those days when I most feel not being at the motherhouse: one of our novices is making her first vows, lighting the lamp she hopes to be holding when the Bridegroom comes at last. And not far from the chapel where the vow ceremony is going on, another sister has her lamp trimmed and ready, though she herself is beginning to flicker like a candle. We don't know how much longer she will be with us--at fifty-five, she would have been expected to continue keeping that lamp burning two or more decades yet. But not even death puts an end to community (or to the mission!). Before I left Boston in December, I paid a visit to the infirmary to say good bye (and to give Sister a heads-up as to all the work I would be sending her way once she arrived at her eternal destination). She knows she will be kept busy during her "eternal rest."
So it is a time of special grace for our community, this passing of the torch of consecration from one generation to the next (the novice is young enough to be a daughter to the sister who is dying!).
Please pray for both of these sisters in a very special way, as well as for their families, who are experiencing such very different feelings as, for each one, a beloved sister is taking leave so definitively.

TOB camp for teens!

So glad someone is doing this: An immersion experience for high school juniors-seniors and new grads: TOB teaching integrated with teen spirituality (and loads of fun). Even better, it's in Louisiana!

For more info: facebook.com/dumboxproductions

Bonhoeffer responds to the HHS mandate

From his essay "The Visible Community":

The limits and claims of the secular calling are fixed by our membership of the visible Church of Christ, and these limits are reached when the space which the body of Christ claims and occupies in the world for its worship, its offices and the civic life of its members clashes with the world's claim for space for its own activities. 

We shall at once know when the limit has been reached, for every member of the Church will then be obliged to make a public confession of Christ, and the world will be forced to react, either by calculated restraint or open violence. Now the Christian must suffer openly. Hitherto, since the day he had died with Christ in baptism, his suffering had been in secret. Now he is openly ejected from the secular calling and enters upon a visible participation in the passion of his Lord. Now he needs more than ever all the fellowship and brotherly help the Church can give. ... 

 

The older the world grows, the more heated becomes the conflict between Christ and Antichrist, and the more thorough the efforts of the world to get rid of the Christians. 

Until now the world had always granted them a lodging-place, by allowing them to work for their own food and clothing. But a world that has become 100% anti-Christian cannot allow them even this private sphere of work for their daily bread. The Christians are now forced to deny their Lord for every crumb of bread they need. Either they must flee from the world, or go to prison; there is no other alternative. 

When the Christian community has been deprived of its last bit of space on the earth, the end will be near.

Light from Heaven

We usually conclude our evening prayer with a reading from our "Pauline calendar" for the following day: a thought from the Founder, a listing of any foundation anniversaries on that day, and a prayer for the deceased members of the Pauline Family (we actually have the names of each person listed on their anniversary of death). The feasts of St. Paul are almost always marked by an enormous list of foundations. Even here in Chicago, the first Mass celebrated in our community chapel was held on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul in 1980. (I was here for the occasion! A few of us drove over from St. Louis to help get things in order.)

The Feast of the Conversion is always a good reminder of how God can surprise us with a greater truth than we had been cherishing, and call us back to the right path when we thought we were already on it. Paul's conversion was that kind. Not a change-of-religion conversion, but a the-religion-you-believe-in-is-bigger-than-you-think conversion; even though at first there was the intellectual component to it, the information that "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," the real point of that meeting on the road to Damascus was to win Paul's heart. As zealous as he was for "the Law," his ardor became love for a person, Jesus, and for every other person whom he now would see as a "brother for whom Christ died."

That conversion is probably the most urgent grace to ask for every member of the Church in these very challenging times.

Silence!

Every year, one of the Vatican's "World Day" observances comes and goes without making much of a stir. I suspect that is mostly a matter of timing, since the observance usually falls around the same time as graduations, Memorial Day and the beginning of summer vacation. This year, it may pass by even more quietly. That is because this year's theme for "World Communications Day" is precisely silence.

For years, the theme has been announced on the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron of journalists (even though the event is generally held a week before Pentecost) to accommodate print journalists, especially for monthly publications. Now media cycles are so short, we get the news in January and have to burrow through our files to find it again in May! I suppose it would be better if we began to keep the message a little more in mind all the way through...

Here's the counterintuitive message about the vital place of silence in the mystery of communication:

2012
Silence and Word: path of evangelization.

The extraordinarily varied nature of the contribution of modern communications to society highlights the need for a value which, on first consideration, might seem to stand in contra-distinction to it. Silence, in fact, is the central theme for the next World Communications Day Message: Silence and Word: path of evangelization.

In the thought of Pope Benedict XVI, silence is not presented simply as an antidote to the constant and unstoppable flow of information that characterizes society today but rather as a factor that is necessary for its integration. Silence, precisely because it favors habits of discernment and reflection, can in fact be seen primarily as a means of welcoming the word. We ought not to think in terms of a dualism, but of the complementary nature of two elements which when they are held in balance serve to enrich the value of communication and which make it a key factor that can serve the new evangelization.

It is clearly the desire of the Holy Father to associate the theme of the next World Communications Day with the celebration of the forthcoming Synod of Bishops which will have as its own theme: The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith.

The News You Won't See (updated)

So today is the March for Life in Washington. Probably the evening news will feature a small group of counter-protesters while behind them a massive crowd will continue moving through the street, all but ignored. That's the usual way it goes. Of course, there will be a handful of real loonies with their bizarre or hateful slogans who might be singled out of the crowd to represent the whole.
Outside of Washington, where the pro-lifers are doing the extreme penance of facing the elements, all Catholics are called to make this a day of prayer and of penance: prayer that every human life will be reverenced and protected, and penance for the violations of human life through abortion, neglect, abuse, euthanasia, and every other way the worth of each and every person is violated, ignored or threatened. I think all this is harder than it seems because society has become so fixated on the individual in isolation that we hesitate to get involved in another person's need or offer them alternatives when they are making a serious decision of any kind. We can pull back, thinking "Who am I to butt in like this?" or we might be honestly aware that getting involved means getting committed, and we're just not ready or able to carry through.
Here in Chicago, Father Joe at Assumption wrote a helpful presentation about what it means to be pro-life.  One thing he mentioned that I'd like to underline is that here in the US there are more than 2300 pro-life "safe houses" where women can find a place to life, social services,  parenthood and job training during pregnancy and in the first months after their child's birth. I read a few months ago that the leading cause of death among pregnant women is murder: does that mean that pregnant women "need" access to abortion, or that they need help in dealing with unhealthy relationships and domestic violence? Contrary to the slogans about women "needing" abortion when they are homeless or facing a health-challenged child, what those women (and their partners) need is a helping hand. More safe houses and services are needed, but it is contrary to truth (and an injustice in itself) to say that pro-lifers only care about the child, but dismiss the mother.
There is still more to be done; no reason for anyone to sit at home, satisfied that that carrying a sign in a march is sufficient to save a life. Today the Archdiocese of New York announced the formation of a new support network for parents whose unborn babies have been diagnosed with severe health problems. Women considering adoption need particular support for the difficulties they will face along that heroic route.
But even more than these last-minute issues when a woman's life and choices have already led her into the area of an unexpected and unprovided-for pregnancy, we need to redouble our efforts in helping men and women appreciate the unique gifts of marriage and why the intimate expression of love that leads to new life deserves to be limited to that lifelong relationship of mutual self-gift. The Church takes a lot of hits over her insistence that the marriage of one man and one woman is not just the only ideal situation for raising children, it is the most protective of women (this is borne out by many independent studies).
We could probably all start to contribute to this change of values by developing a spirituality that recognizes and appreciates having "enough" even when "enough" is not "everything that would be convenient or appealing."

Here's a picture of what you didn't see:

One Lent, One Book?

I know it feels like you just picked the last Christmas tree needles from your carpet, but with Ash Wednesday one month from yesterday, it really is time to look ahead to Lent. That anticipated preparation can help ensure that the season will be a time of transformation, and not just sporadic acts of self-discipline. Lent is not just for sacrifices, of course. It is ideal for that all-round spiritual growth that comes from spending quality time in spiritual reading, which Dorothy Day called "the oil that keeps the lamps burning."

You might consider choosing one really significant book for the whole of Lent, or take the challenge of a more intense spiritual program of a book a week. (The latter sounds almost too much, but it depends on the books you choose; if you have trouble concentrating, it may actually be the more do-able!)
So, what would I recommend?

For "One Lent/One Book," you want something with real substance, something that has the power to hold your attention on several levels at once; the kind of book that you can ruminate on. My "go to" book of this sort is Hans Urs von Balthasar's amazing "Heart of the World." It's an extended meditation on the Paschal Mystery (and so eminently suitable for Lent and for the Easter Octave and beyond). The translation is sheer poetry, but above all it is the perspective that is so awe-inspiring. The point of view seems to switch between divine omniscience and an utterly, brutally honest human take that makes the awefulness of sin that much plainer. It's a book you will never want to put down; even more, you will never want to lose track of the insights it gave you.

Now, if you didn't read it last year, Pope Benedict's "Jesus of Nazareth" (vol. 2 on Holy Week and Easter) is always an option if you are up for some seriously reflective reading; on the more conversational side (something you can take in with your morning coffee), Fr. Barron's "Catholicism" would be a good way to brush up on your overall Catholic awareness. (I'd recommend this one especially if you didn't get much in the way of solid Catholic instruction growing up.)

Back in the patristic era, Lent was not just a time of preparation for Baptism; it was also a season of public penance for those whose sins had cut them off in an external way from the life of the Church. If we get ashes ourselves, it is because those public sinners accepted being marked with ashes as an outward sign that they were committed to renewing their lives: instead of just marking out the "public" sinners, the Church eventually offered everyone that sense of "solidarity." After all (as von Balthasar pointed out in "Heart of the World"), "if there is a communion of saints, there is also a communion of sinners." So Lent can be an occasion to get to know the Church better in its members. I always appreciate a good biography. If you do, too, you might choose a biography of a convert to the faith (I'm thinking maybe Dorothy Day or Abby Johnson), or one who made the essential Lenten journey from tepidity to discipleship (even someone like Teresa of Avila). Whom else might be a good Lenten companion?


You could also go with the book I am currently reading (ever so slowly), about which I have written before. I am now on page 10. This little book, under 90 pages, may yet last me through the whole of Lent. It's that packed. Lots to reflect on and apply to life here, with great potential for spiritual transformation. And isn't that one of the goals of Lent?


And then there's the old standby approach: a book of daily reflections for the season. Here's one I contributed to (try a sample).  Each day's reflection is matched to one verse of the Gospel for the day, so you are praying in sync with the whole Church. That's sure in the spirit of Lent, when the "elect" are preparing to be brought fully in sync with the Church's life and prayer! (Come to think of it, that would make this a great pre-baptismal gift for an adult in RCIA!) You can also go with something pocket-sized, ideal for commuters (or for those who just don't have the time available for a 15-minute meditation).

Those are my suggestions for One Lent, One Book. What about your ideas for a (lighter) book a week for the six and a half weeks between Ash Wednesday and Good Friday?

Minority Report: Catholics in Society (updated)

This year, the US bishops are taking turns (region by region) to visit the Pope. This is more than just a coffee clatch with guys in skullcaps: the bishops bring detailed reports (to the Holy Father and to the various Vatican offices) with statistics about the general population in their diocesan area, the Catholic population, numbers of parishes, priests, baptisms, Catholic weddings, etc. They share with the Holy Father their biggest concerns, their plans, their reasons for hope. While the local bishop is presenting his perspective, though, the Pope is hearing that in the context of the picture given him by bishops from very different territories. This allows the Pope to get a sense, from the ground up, of the whole Catholic picture around the world.
So when the Pope reflects back, in his talks to the bishops (as well as in those messages "to the city and the world" on Christmas and Easter), he is able to give more of the "big picture" than any one bishop or bishops' conference could come up with.
Just yesterday, in speaking with the bishops from the mid-Atlantic region, the Pope told them that, in view of the serious threats to religious freedom in the United States, the pastoral priority had to be on lay Catholics' being better instructed in the faith and in its implications for society, and empowered to witness to it in the public square.
The challenge here is for Catholics to "come out of the closet" of limiting their religious expression to a matter of where they go to worship on Sunday. It means being unafraid and unintimidated by accusations that they are "forcing their beliefs" on others.  In one sense, our democratic traditions tend to pressure minorities to surrender before the power of numbers, but even a minority has the right to proclaim what it holds as unfailingly true. And even though Catholics are a substantial percentage of the US population (as are fallen-away or alienated Catholics), it can be hard to recognize them in a society with such homogenizing tendencies as our consumer culture.
How can ordinary Catholics begin to awaken to the need to bring society into conformity with the whole truth about the human person?

Read the Pope's full talk here. 

Afternoon update:
In case you thought this was "yesterday's news," today's brings us back to the Health and Human Services mandate that requires employers to provide full medical insurance coverage for contraception, sterilizations and other morally repugnant services. This mandate acknowledges only the slimmest "religious exemption," one which basically only covers parish-level ministry personnel. The White House has offered Catholic institutions a generous extension of one year to get with the program. Cardinal-designate Dolan summed up the administration's position: "In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences."
Here's the rest of the story; here's the official statement from the US Bishops (confirming the Pope's observation yesterday of "grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism "); here's Cardinal-designate Dolan speaking as head of the US bishops:

Archbishop Timothy Dolan on HHS Conscience Regulation from Rocco Palmo on Vimeo.

Jesus without Religion?

The social media phenomena of the week has been a YouTube by an ardent, but poorly instructed (and biblically illiterate) young adult fundamentalist. His rap video, which is technically superb, hit such a nerve that it has been viewed almost 20,000,000 times, hitting the top of even YouTube's charts. But his belief that an individual can have a complete relationship with Jesus while avoiding the limitations and commitment of a "religion" (especially since many of his negative references to "religion" are clearly directed to the Catholic Church) led to a proliferation of rebuttals, usually in rap form, some of them also very well done.
Here's an example, put out by Spirit Juice Studios, the Chicago team that is working on our documentary project:

Naturally, it would be great if you could "like" or "+1" this video to give it higher relief, and help the fuller picture of Jesus and religion get some attention!

The Land of the Lost (Comments)

Well, I made the mistake of attempting to clean up the spammy comments in my folder here on Blogger while battling a headache. What happened was that I deleted the actual, published and most valid comments of the past month or two, instead of the several dozen "unmoderated comments" I intended to tackle.
Please don't take it personally, unless you are that spammer!

Praying with the Psalms

Maybe it's because we still have Christmas decorations up in the convent (Sr Helena got this great idea about following the Polish tradition and keeping them up until Feb. 2*), but as I have been reflecting on the daily readings, it is still with the image of the child Jesus in my mind.
That led me to a particularly beautiful appreciation of a Psalm I never really appreciated much before. Psalm 89 is David recounting the Lord's promise of a dynasty. (Some contemporary scholars say that the Psalm was a way the later kings had of enforcing their political decisions: "Hey, it was the Lord who said 'I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm'.") But there is a line in Psalm 89 in which God himself imagines David's future, glorious descendant praying, "You are my Father, my God, the rock, my Savior." That verse was part of the Responsorial Psalm on Tuesday, and since then, I just keep going back to it, "witnessing" the first time the child Jesus heard those words from the Scripture and realized that they precisely expressed his own inner life, "listening" to him saying them that first time and repeating them throughout his life, even to Gethsemane.
Can you imagine "the joy before the angels of God" when those inspired words first rose up to heaven from the Incarnate Word? What blessings have we on earth received because Jesus spoke those words of his ancestor David, and what blessings do we unleash when we make those confident words of prayer and praise our own?
You are my Father, my God, the rock, my Savior!



*Thanks be to God, she decided yesterday that the 2nd Week in Ordinary Time is good enough, so we are dismantling things bit by bit now!

What's wrong with SOPA? Should Catholics care?

You've seen the headlines, and probably wondered first off what SOPA meant and then once you found out it referred to a proposed law (the "Stop Online Piracy Act") wondered who could possibly object to such a goal. I found a helpful interpretation, from the standpoint of a Church musician who helps maintain a site devoted to Gregorian Chant (emphasis added):

The proposed legislation... would effectively end free information flows on the web. The sharing of content has been the key to the renaissance of sacred music in our time. ...
....There are always deep pockets ready to make a claim of ownership, whether true or not and however ambiguous the claims*. The legal tangles and possible penalties alone would have been enough to keep the entire [chant] library off line.

As an example (though not specifically about the Internet), I remember reading about a little T-shirt shop in New Orleans whose owner created a design reading "WHO DAT?" when the Saints were headed to the Super Bowl. She got a big scary "cease and desist" letter from the NFL, claiming ownership of the phrase (which my 80+ year old mother remembers as a cheer from high school sports when she was a student). No T-shirt shop owner is going to succeed in fighting the NFL. The woman took a loss on the shirts she had created. The NFL won, even though they had no real right to the phrase in question.

That's what SOPA wants to extend to the Internet. I can imagine my own blog being run through a series of algorithms that would reveal that 96% of my expressions are really not original, and that there is a copyright owner out there somewhere who said it first... leading up to a big, fat "Cease and Desist" order on Nunblog. Scary.

SOPA and its Senate twin, PIPA (Protect IP Act) seem to be ham-fisted approaches to protecting intellectual property. It's a noble goal (hey, my community runs a publishing house!), but there is too much not to like about the way that goal would be achieved. Jeffrey Tucker's point (quoted above) convinces me that the same behemoth organizations that crafted the bills would be given the virtual run of the Internet, since they are the only ones who have the funding to pursue any and every potential infraction and pretty much stifling open communication.

Let's find a better way to stop Internet piracy.

"Chopped": Convent Edition

Every so often, Sr Frances and I meet in the living room to watch some TV. We're pretty different in our tastes, but one show we enjoy sharing is the Food Network's "Restaurant Impossible," where Chef Robert Irvine tears apart a failing restaurant and with the help of a designer and a contractor (and the restaurant staff) turns it around in 48 hours. I enjoy the critique of the menu and creation of new menu items; Sr Frances focuses on the design aspects.
Another Food Network show I enjoy is "Chopped," where chefs tackle successive baskets of "mystery ingredients" that they have to prepare into a cohesive menu. I wonder if they got the idea from the convent kitchen experience, where the cook has to create a family meal from an assortment of mismatched ingredients, with  no one ingredient in sufficient quantity to serve as the foundation. Happens all the time. Cans without labels, vegetables that were on clearance because of their wilted or spotted or overripe state, not quite enough chicken to go around, an assortment of pasta shapes... I would like to see the Food Network chefs work with that!  (Even better: with each chef getting a different set of such mystery ingredients!)
Naturally, it's not just convents that face this particular food challenge. Families do, too. And for soup kitchens that offer meals to the down and out, it's just the way things operate.
What was your most creative approach to a mystery ingredient?
Did you ever hit on a solution that worked so well you made it a regular part of your menu?

Happy Birthday, Your Eminence

Today is Cardinal George's birthday. And not just any birthday, but a really big one. And not just big because he turns 75 today, but because that makes this the long-awaited day when he can tender his letter of resignation to the Pope. Cardinal George has already said several times that the Pope doesn't usually let a Cardinal retire that easily, but one gets the distinct impression that His Eminence hopes that just maybe he won't have to wait too long before welcoming a successor here in Chicago. As it is, George is the first Chicago archbishop to even reach retirement age, and this despite serious health problems (like the bladder cancer he underwent surgery for five years ago).
What would a retired Cardinal do? Well, this Cardinal gave me a hint when he greeted me at a meeting of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council about two months ago. Cardinal George (a teacher at heart) expressed the dream of coming to our center a couple of times a week, just to be available to answer people's questions about the faith. ("We're going to hold you to that, Your Eminence," I told him.) So, yes, over here we are kind of hoping that the Pope will let Cardinal George "follow his dreams" sooner rather than later.

Getting past the headlines

"Pope says gay marriage threatens humanity!"
Did the headlines over the past week leave you, as a Catholic, wondering how to respond to questions (or perhaps upraised eyebrows)--or at least wondering what was going on? Here's an astute commentary that I am just copying in full from Zenit.org:

Putting Words in the Pope's Mouth
Where Was the Real 'News' in the Speech to the Diplomatic Corps?

By Father John Flynn

ROME, JAN. 12, 2012 (Zenit.org).- On reading the Jan. 9 Reuters report titled: "Gay marriage a threat to humanity's future: Pope," readers could be excused for thinking that Benedict XVI had made a major speech on the issue of same-sex "marriage."

The article was a report on the Pope's annual speech to the Holy See's diplomatic corps. He did indeed mention marriage, in the context of speaking about his World Day of Peace message, which had the theme of educating young people in justice and peace. It is in the family setting that these values are best taught, he said. A family, he mentioned, that is based on the marriage of a man and a woman.

That was it about marriage and he merely reiterated traditional Catholic teaching. By inference it could be seen as not approving same-sex marriage, but also single parenthood and cohabitation.

Moreover, the whole section on the family, including a reference to the European Union decision to prohibit the patenting of human embryonic stem cells, took up only 174 words of a speech which was 2,778 words long.

In its commentary on the Reuters article the very apt title of the Get Religion Web site's analysis was: "Gay marriage a threat to journalism's future."

It shouldn't really be news for a Vatican reporter to see that the Pope follows the Gospel teaching of Jesus that marriage is the joining of a man and a woman, the Get Religion commentary noted. It also pointed out that the second part of the article went way off tangent, talking about New York's Archbishop Timothy Dolan's support of Catholic teaching on marriage.

As Andrew Brown observed in his Guardian newspaper blog, the Pope also talked about important issues relating to the economy and ecology in his speech. So, why no report on these topics?

Brown commented that: "He did say that 'policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself.' But there was no suggestion that gay marriage was the most important of these and he didn't mention it at all, whereas he did take up several other sexual issues."

Brown also said that the Pope is the most important European figure to be talking about the economic crisis in terms of insisting on instilling an ethical core into the economy. But it seems that is not news.

It is worth keeping this incident in mind when the next media articles come out about supposedly controversial statements by the Pope on matters of the family and sexual morality. Instead of believing what they said he said, it is always better to go and read what he actually did say.


-----

In case you didn't read the linked posts, the Get Religion one includes the Pope's shocking (shocking!) and striking statement that inspired all the headlines:

Blessed John Paul II stated that “the path of peace is at the same time the path of the young”, inasmuch as young people embody “the youth of the nations and societies, the youth of every family and of all humanity”. Young people thus impel us to take seriously their demand for truth, justice and peace. For this reason, I chose them as the subject of my annual World Day of Peace Message, entitled Educating Young People in Justice and Peace. Education is a crucial theme for every generation, for it determines the healthy development of each person and the future of all society. It thus represents a task of primary importance in this difficult and demanding time. In addition to a clear goal, that of leading young people to a full knowledge of reality and thus of truth, education needs settings. Among these, pride of place goes to the family, based on the marriage of a man and a woman. This is not a simple social convention, but rather the fundamental cell of every society. Consequently, policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself. The family unit is fundamental for the educational process and for the development both of individuals and States; hence there is a need for policies which promote the family and aid social cohesion and dialogue. It is in the family that we become open to the world and to life and, as I pointed out during my visit to Croatia, “openness to life is a sign of openness to the future”. In this context of openness to life, I note with satisfaction the recent sentence of the Court of Justice of the European Union forbidding patenting processes relative to human embryonic stem cells, as well as the resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe condemning prenatal selection on the basis of sex.

Teachable moments

A cheerful woman came in our book center the other day, looking for the Spanish-language hymnal, "Flor y Canto." She didn't want the complete version (with the musical notation): "For a second language person like me, it's very hard to follow the lyrics that way." Although we couldn't provide her with a fresh copy of the hymnal (all we had was the singer's edition, with those confounding notes!), I gave her some hints on reattaching the hard cover to the now-paperback book.
Turns out that this woman, whose background is a typical Chicago Czech and Polish, saw the new, Spanish speaking arrivals in her neighborhood as bringing her an opportunity for enrichment. When the local grocery store put up bi-lingual shelf signs, she set herself to learn a new language. Milk: leche; oranges: naranjas; bread: pan.
Then she took it another step. "I figured that when my parents' and grandparents' generation came to Chicago from Poland and Bohemia, they learned English through the Church. So when my parish started having Mass in Spanish, I figured I could learn Spanish through the Church." She's been going to the Spanish Mass for so long, her hymnal fell out of its binding from overuse!
Blessed Alberione used to talk a lot about a virtue he called "studiosita." The Dominicans call it by its Latin name, "studiositas." Even if he took the name from the Order of Preachers, Alberione didn't really follow the Dominican definition to the letter. For him "studiosita" was the commitment to "learn from everything." That's what impressed me about our visitor this week. She could have taken any number of attitudes about the changes in her neighborhood. She chose the approach of "studiosita": as she said when she turned toward the door, "You never stop learning. You can always learn something new."

Is that what's going on downstairs?

Best watched in full screen!


(If the video doesn't work on my blog, just use this link to view it on YouTube.)

The most mysterious mystery

Today's Feast (and it's a huge one) can be a real puzzler: Why would Jesus be baptized? Of course, John the Baptist  had pretty much the same question, and all he was told was to "give in for now." In retrospect (thanks to the writings of those brilliant and holy men we call the Fathers of the Church), we can recognize what was going on--especially when we look at this mystery in the light of the Christmas Season that it is always connected to.
It's pretty much what Paul wrote about, using a different image: "Though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not deem equality with God something to be clung to, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave..." (cf. Phil. 2).
That self-emptying was why angelic choirs had to be sent to sing "Glory to God in the Highest" over a stable where a nondescript baby boy was sleeping. That self-emptying sent the Magi to their knees before a toddler, after they had first gone to a royal palace looking for someone so significant that his birth made its mark in the heavens. And that self-emptying was at play when Jesus stepped into the Jordan,  one more Galilean in a crowd of sinners who genuinely wanted to receive the Kingdom of Heaven like little children.
Because Jesus "emptied himself" to share everything that is ours as human beings (everything that is truly human), he becomes the access point for us to share everything that is God's. The "marvelous exchange" the Fathers of the Church wrote about really works both ways.
And so the feast of the Baptism of the Lord is a day for us follow Jesus into that River Jordan, not to grovel in our sinful state before John, but to allow Jesus to share the things that make up our daily life. To let our schedule, our commitments, our priorities, our moments of respite be lived in him. This is what he emptied himself for: to take the form of...us!

On Friday, the Vatican released its guidelines for the "Year of Faith" that will open in October. One of the high points I think has spectacular potential is the hoped-for universal day for all Christians the world over to "reaffirm their faith in Christ." This is intended to be an ecumenical celebration, so not just another day for us Catholics to renew our baptismal covenant as we do on Easter, but a day for Christians of every stripe, the world over, to recommit to Jesus every part of their life. (In some parts of the world, of course, it is against the law to commit every part of your life to Christ. I think these are probably the places where we would find the greatest Christian witnesses today.) Anyway, I am delighted by the prospect of a mass, ecumenical profession of faith in Jesus, and I hope to do all I can in my own limited scope to facilitate it.

The Hour and the Glory

Sometimes the Liturgy can really be confusing. Like today. Here we are, well into the Christmas season (most people, it seems, have all their decorations neatly stored in color-coordinated boxes in their attics by now); the feast of Epiphany will be celebrated tomorrow, bringing the Nativity tableau to completion, and the Gospel of the day is...the wedding at Cana?!
And yet the wedding at Cana has long been connected with the Feast of the Epiphany in the mind of the Church. Gold, frankincense and myrrh? Those are the wedding gifts! If the Church seems to be amazinly preoccupied with issues related to marriage, this is because the whole Bible, the whole of Divine Revelation, is about the marriage of God and humanity. Jesus is that wedding of the two in one person (and so the connection of Cana with the season that celebrates the Incarnation), but we are all called to enter into this intimate communion with God. The Church is called both "body of Christ" and "bride of Christ," and heaven (and the Mass) the "wedding feast of the Lamb" for a reason.
Also connected with Epiphany is next week's feast of the Baptism of the Lord, when the heavens were torn open so that God's voice could be heard declaring Jesus his own beloved Son (revealing him to be the channel of communication between heaven and earth; the doorway into the Paradise that had been shut since that sad day in Eden).
All three events in Jesus' life were moments when, to use the words of today's Gospel, "he revealed his glory," and those present surrendered to him in faith.

Following the Star

Illustration by Kate Flanagan, age 7.

In honor of today's Feast of the Epiphany (which we will celebrate liturgically on Sunday), I wish I could say I was making a King Cake. Alas, I have not found a recipe that is easy enough for a non-baker like me. Good thing there is a whole "King Cake Season" (through Mardi Gras)!

An interview with Cardinal-designate Dolan

This just in from the Vatican (announced on the traditional Feast of the Epiphany): new Cardinals include two Americans. Here's this morning's msnbc interview with one of them...

From msnbc.com

O Say, can you see?

Not long ago, one of the most famous women in entertainment walked down a crowded street in a cosmopolitan city and no one gave her so much as a glance. In fact, people seemed to assiduously avoid making any kind of eye contact with her. For all practical purposes, Meryl Streep was invisible.

The Gospel of John makes much ado about seeing. John the Baptist sees Jesus by the river and points him out. Jesus sees two of John's disciples following him and asks what they are looking for (it's a "seeing" verb in the English translation; the Greek is more like "seeking"). When the two ask where Jesus is staying, he just says, "Come and see." Later, Andrew brings his brother Simon over, and Jesus gazes at him before rebaptizing him Peter. Of course, we all know the rest of the story. The apostles lives were changed that day, because of what (and how) they saw.

All those people in London that day saw Meryl Streep, but that's as far as it went. If they had returned her gaze, what then? Maybe nothing; maybe an invitation to high tea on the set of The Iron Lady. The first step in any relationship has to be seeing past your own nose. (Funny how challenging that can be sometimes!)

Starting over

One great thing about starting a new year is that feeling of getting a fresh start. This is the secular equivalent, you might say, of that call to conversion we hear at every Mass: the moment to acknowledge our sins and so prepare ourselves to praise God. Our publishing house just released a new book on this very theme. Well, technically it's on the Ignatian practice of the "examen," but I am finding it quite helpful in clearing up some of my own misconceptions about conversion in the spiritual life. I'm only on chapter 1, so I can't give you a very good summary of the book (sorry about that).

I am looking forward to seeing how this book can help me take advantage of the moments of recollection built into my day to keep up with all that God is doing in my life. It may be a little like following someone on Twitter: the more you keep up with their tweets, the more of a sense you have of who this person is and how he or she responds to life as a whole. The examen helps us follow God's tweets in our life, helping us develop a continuing awareness of God's presence, yes, but also of God's "take" on the things that we encounter through the day.

Just from the one chapter I am still reading, I get an image of this life of communion with God through the day's ups and downs as one of rowing a boat with Jesus. As we row together, I begin to sense how he responds to the waves; where he braces one foot against the floor of the pirogue to keep moving ahead against the winds, or how he leans in when we go through someone else's wake. I am learning the maritime "rules," not as regulations, but as an absorbed wisdom. By accepting that wisdom, I will live a communion with God that is not contrived or superficial, but really "life." I think that it is this communion that is the real point and goal of the examen. (At least, that's my motivation for making it a spiritual practice!)

Prayer for the New Year

(From the new Missal,  optional Mass "at the Beginning of the Civil Year")

O God, who are without beginning or end,
the source of all creation,
grant us so to live this new year,
whose beginning we dedicate to you,
that we may abound in good things
and be resplendent with works of holiness.

A Christmas surprise!

I got a package this weekend; addressed to me, but with no other indication on the outside other than "Royal Post" and the torn corner of the envelope, showing that it contained a book. The surprise turned out to be "Travelling Light: a Book of Days" by Irish blogger and poet Ann Murray.
Ann's poetic reflections always kind of awe me, prosaic prose writer that I am. And now she has taken advantage of the opportunities that the new media offer to compile her work into the sort of format that one can carry into an adoration chapel without raising too many eyebrows, or leave near the desk for a daily bit of inspiration to share with others. Ann's poetry often has a Marian cast to it, and this shows up in the book as well. I think it would be a lovely gift for someone coming into the Catholic Church--just a daily book of Catholic spirituality as it is lived and reflected in "real life."
I'm going to, as we say in the convent, "take a presumed permission" and copy here Ann's poem for the New Year (posted today on her blog); it's a great sample of what you'll find 365 examples of in her book:

New Year Poem

Some speak of lives
Long or short-lived
But in truth
The time that is ours
That promised to us
Stretches to infinity

Let us be busy then -
Let no window refuse
The Light of Christ
May His goodness
Illuminate
Penetrate
Every pane, every corner
Until the soul of the house
Like crystal shines
In the light of the sun
And the walls of the house
Are but veils
Lifting to new horizons.

Thank you, Ann, for the gift of your poetry--and for the book!

Speaking about the Missal...

With the new translation already in effect for a month (and the daily Mass crowd growing more confident by the day in their responses), I expect to field a few questions when I am helping out in the book center, or otherwise engaged in "Church" stuff. At Starbucks, not so much. But there I was, waiting for a peppermint mocha (courtesy of the gift card my brother had sent) when the barista asked me my reactions to the changes in the Mass. (He didn't have to repeat the question.)

Here's a shot of the work in progress on the (world's first?) greenscreen
sewing room. We don't have any projects in mind for it, but when we do,
it will be available; all we have to do is switch out the equipment!

Then a few days ago I made a run to Home Depot. The young man in the paint department wondered why I was asking for Pantone shade 354C. I mentioned that we were going to convert one wall in our sewing room into a greenscreen for video backgrounds. "Cool! What sort of videos?" I mentioned the liturgy videos we did--sans greenscreen--and right away the conversation moved into the changes in the Mass. Another spontaneous "Roman Missal" catechesis.

I wonder where the next one will be: the grocery? The frame shop I hope to get to this afternoon?