TOB Tuesday: New resource for Natural Family Planning

Natural Family Planning (NFP) is an approach to responsible parenting that fully respects the sacramental meaning and integrity of marriage and the "spousal language of the body." It is completely acceptable according to Catholic principles, is known to strengthen marriages (2% divorce rate, compared to the general 50% rate), and when properly learned and practiced it allows couples an amazing amount of "control" (with all due respect to God) in spacing out births. It can also help couples recognize serious female health issues long before symptoms might otherwise be noticed. But it is hardly known even among practicing Catholics.

To respond to that situation, a team of women have created the "I Use NFP" website, a comprehensive resource for all things NFP, starting with a helpful description that highlights just how counter-cultural NFP can be (the goodness of fertility?):

Natural Family Planning (NFP) is a lifestyle choice people make for a multitude of reasons. Some people come to it for religious reasons, some people come to it so they can be a better steward to the earth, and some people come to it as a last resort in their infertility journey. Regardless of why a couple chooses natural family planning the goal is that they learn the innate goodness of a woman’s body and her natural fertility.

Though the site is expressly created by women, for women, men's voices are not entirely silenced. Be sure to get James' story on what he learned about his wife from tracking her fertility charts (a "job" many NFP husbands assume): " I never expected NFP would help me understand what is really going on with my wife."

Olympic Spirituality

The Pauline news from Olympic Village is that Sister Gregioria's nephew, Michele Frangili (already holding bronze and silver Olympic medals) took home the GOLD for Italy in Archery. His Zia can hardly contain her excitement. (He himself appears to be kissing his bow as he takes aim!)

During the Olympics, the vocabulary tends toward words like "practice", "achievement", "victory", "excellence." All of these have a place in our life. But as I reflect on it, it seems that "excellence" is the one Olympic word that has the most depth. 

According to Father Barron, in his "Catholicism" videos, freedom and excellence go hand in hand. Freedom is not formless: it "takes aim" at excellence, and is the companion of excellence. When you excel at something, it flows from you freely, even when (as in Michele's case) it involves effort. 

But that achievement, that victory, that freedom, was not automatic. Michele worked his way up from Bronze, to Silver, to Gold. It was a journey toward freedom, toward excellence. When the "rich young man" asked Jesus what to do to attain the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus pointed him toward excellence ("If you would be perfect...") by means of a journey of freedom ("go, sell what you have...and come follow me").

In today's Gospel, the mustard seed takes root and grows to its full potential: the state of being an "excellent" mustard bush, which is to say, it becomes what it is most fully meant to be. St Paul tells us that he will show us a "still more excellent way"--and then launches into his hymn about charity. Charity that is patient, kind, not envious... that isn't something forced: it is free, and because it is free, it is a sign of excellence: a sign of what the human spirit is really meant to be.

down for the count

Just when we get those wonderful Gospel parables of the sower and the weeds, matched with the matchless prophet Jeremiah, I get the migraine to end all migraines (or at least to end all blog posts). It's much better now, thank you. And I have two days left to finish up my work (sigh; nowhere near where I had hoped to be at this point in the summer), clean my room extra well (so Sr Margaret Michael can use it during the Discernment Retreat--which got so many responses they''ll be stacking the retreatants on the book cases) and finish packing for my own annual retreat, followed by a home visit and the Catholic New Media Conference, all in a row.

By the way, if you can't attend the CNMC in person (in Texas), they are offering a virtual registration. If you are interested in how the Church can better use social media to evangelize, be sure to look into that option.

Prayers are needed as well for the family of our superior. Just after her brother was diagnosed with advanced cancer, two other members of the extended family died. It is a lot for them to deal with. They are on the other side of the planet (literally: New Zealand mostly), so being that far away is extra hard for sister, who is about to make her own retreat--and celebrate her Silver Jubilee.

Update from Syrian Catholics

It's hard for us in America to imagine, but the Arab Spring (which has been dragging on for a year in Syria) offers the Christians of that country less and less hope. Christian families seem to be targeted by radicals--a fact that only gives the government more credibility in dismissing any valid calls for reform.

The heat alone (from 108 to 130 F) is taking a toll. And then there are the kidnappings of those few men who manage to scramble outside to seek work in the city. Families are left without a breadwinner, trying to scrape up ransom while finding enough food to get through the day. Christian groups are organizing a peace movement, open to either "rebels" or "loyalists," as long as they surrender weapons.

Things in Damascus, according to an email that the Maronite Catholic archbishop managed to get out, are much worse than our media present. In part, of course, that is because journalists can hardly operate freely under civil war conditions! But if an archbishop can get the occasional email out, taking advantage of the intermittent electricity, surely a network or two can get a copy?

Eucharistic Reflection: Freebie!

20 pages of Eucharistic inspiration. That's the Eucharistic freebie of the day!

The return of shunning?

A few weeks ago the comments box of a Catholic issues blog was roiling with debate. The topic turned toward actress Katie Holmes' registering as a parishioner in what was called a "gay friendly" Catholic Church. The comments turned toward just what it means to be an "inclusive" parish. And then some commenters claimed that there should be no such thing, and no public sign of welcome of any kind. Any accommodation could be scandalous, a sign of disdain for Church teaching. Gay Catholics, they said in effect, should be shunned. (I think they forgot that even people who are not "disposed to receive Holy Communion" are not exempt from the obligation of Sunday Mass.)

Today the shoe is kind of on the other foot. A certain Christian-owned chicken chain is being targeted for shunning--and this time the politicos are joining in. Here in Chicago, an alderman made it public that he is going to veto the opening of a planned restaurant in his domain, simply on the basis of the owner's Christian convictions (our aldermen can do that here). And our mayor supports this, calling it a matter of justice. I understand the same kind of thing is happening in other cities, with the business being held hostage (with threats about licensing and zoning and the like) not because of any illegal activity or bribes or organized crime connections, but because of its owner's views. Heck, a pro-chicken movement on Facebook was deleted by the social network, presumably after someone complained about its existence.

I was praying over this today. First I was praying for the owner of the restaurant chain. But then I felt nudged to pray for the people who are doing the shunning. In both the first case and the second, what really comes across is not ardor for a noble cause but hostility,  and the attempt to simply force other people to conform to standards that, in both cases, are assumed to be beyond question. People on both sides need a change of heart.

And then maybe a good conversation. Over a chicken sandwich.

TOB Tuesday: Now Read This! (UPDATED)

A Lutheran minister discovers "Humanae Vitae" and is surprised by how prophetic it was--and how the TV lineup confirms Paul VI's predictions ("Bachelorette," anyone?). Be sure to read the comments, which can be as interesting and informative as the post.

Here's an analysis of "the tension between religious liberty and gay rights". Is the redefinition of marriage inevitable? Not light reading, to be sure, but a helpful parsing of the issues.

The Theology of the Body Institute's latest newsletter also provides some good reads, like the discovery of Church teachings on the body by a young couple for whom contraception was simply a given. When Rebecca realized the effects the pill was having on her health and looked for other options, NFP came up. "Who knew that the church taught responsible parenthood?! We didn't know that we didn't have to have as many babies as physically possible! We could space pregnancies and financial reasons could be legitimate reasons to avoid a pregnancy?! We were in shock, good shock, all the way around...When we removed the pill from our marriage we experienced a healing that we never expected or dared hope for."
Read how NFP helped Rebecca and her husband face an unexpected hurdle in their married life. And here (also from the Theology of the Body Institute) is Dr Peter Colosi's presentation of the Theology of the Body as a commentary on the 1968 Humanae Vitae.

This afternoon I learned (hat tip to the Maximus Group) that this is "National NFP Awareness Week" for Catholics:  this year’s theme is “Faithfully Yours.” NFP awareness week always coincides with the anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical, Humanae Vitae (July 25).

Over at Aggie Catholics, there's all the facts about porn use in America, in the world, by men, by women. And at HuffPost, one woman's list of things she wished she had known about porn before she got into it (plus links to all the data behind those things she wished she knew).

And for healing of porn and other sex-related forms of addiction through a method based on brain science and THEOLOGY OF THE BODY, "Reclaim" offers private, anonymous, online help.

Props to St Joseph

About two weeks ago, Sr Helena mentioned that there was going to be a payment due on the Alberione documentary film project, and that we were still $3,000 short of being able to actually make good on our commitment. But, she said, she was entrusting the matter to St Joseph and she was sure he was going to take care of it. My response was on the lines of "Woman, great is your faith."

A few days later, a Pauline cooperator called. He was feeling drawn toward helping with the film project. What did we need? And so one cooperator began to put the call out. Then some friends on Facebook got involved. Especially Ashley Collins here in Chicago.  He started creating those quirky messages that people love to share. He meant to do only one.

Well, I don't know if it was Flannery or the beer guy, but by this morning we had the where-with-all to make our payment on time (with a little left to start working toward the next installment!).
So, props to St. Joseph for truly coming through, and kudos to Sr Helena, whose faith just may teach me something.

Street Chanties

When my Dad was a boy, he said, people used to push carts through the streets, calling out their wares like a scene out of "Oliver." "Fresh watermelon!" "Rag man, Rag man." "Get yer tomatoes."

Something similar happens nowadays in downtown Chicago. First there is the rhythm of the coins shaking in a paper cup: shoop-ashoop-ashoop-shoop. On the next corner, a man is selling the local "help the homeless" newspaper: "Streeeeeeeeet-wise!"  Every half-hour, the "Kings of Michigan Avenue" begin their acrobatic and wise-cracking routine, which includes synchronized shouting. (Every half hour.) And over by St. Peter's there's a lady who sells candy, inviting sales with a remarkable alto melody: "World's Finest Choc'la-aate, how're you doin' today?" This is the musical line she chants it in.

With the weather as hot as it has been, there's a new chant in the neighborhood: "Ice cold water, one dollar, ice cold." Sadly, though, the World's Finest Chocolate lady had to change her lyrics (and her melody). "Somebody he'p me, how're you doin' today?" (shoop-ashoop-ashoop-shoop).

I suppose it's just too hot for the chocolate.

There's something about today's Gospel that is particularly timely as we shake our heads over another unpredictable mass murder.  During the week, we heard Jesus praise the Father for revealing heaven's mysteries to the nobodies of the world; he claimed that "no one knows the Son but the Father"; that he, the Son, is "meek and humble of heart" and at the same time "Lord of the Sabbath." And because of that, certain religious elites are conspiring to put him to death.

And so he withdraws.

Jesus was not spoiling for a fight; he was not eager for a showdown.

That's mighty hard. (He really is meek and humble of heart!)

When I read the Gospel today, I had to give extra space to that description of the "Suffering Servant" from Isaiah (quoted by Matthew): Here is God, introducing his Son (whom "no one but the Father knows"). Atrocities like the theater shooting can make all of us want to pull out whatever weapons we have, even though most of us are not facing a crazed killer at the moment. (If you are, for heaven's sake, stop reading this blog and run for cover! And take your cell phone with you!) But we can have our own low-grade enemies, and the headlines may stir up those antipathies.

Maybe occasions like this provide us with an invitation to be reconciled in some way; to "withdraw" from our contribution of hostility or resentment; to "withdraw" the weapons we tend to rely on; to neither "contend or cry out," but to place the situation and the relationship back in God's hands, so that Isaiah's words can be applied just as much to us: "Behold, my servant whom I have chosen; my beloved in whom I delight."

Freud's Last Session

It seems that any time I'm going to Chicago's Mercury Theater, it is for a two-person play based on something by C.S. Lewis. Last time, it was ""The Screwtape Letters." This week is was "Freud's Last Session": a what-if conversation between a young professor Lewis and a dying Sigmund Freud just as World War II breaks out. (It seems that there was an unidentified Oxford professor who had paid a visit to Freud's London address.)

It was refreshing to hear some real arguments on questions that mattered to both of those worthies--and to us today. The existence of God; the meaning of suffering; the futility of war; the need for a "Theology of the Body" (Karol Wojtyla, who would answer that call, was experiencing the Nazi invasion of Poland). Actors Mike Nussbaum (spectacular as Freud) and Coburn Goss (a genial and confident Lewis) demonstrate the lost art of respectful, passionate disagreement.

While there were times when I felt the eighty minutes weighing a bit, at other moments, I wished there was a pause button so we in the audience could engage in our own respectful, passionate discussion of the urgent topics raised. The set, charmingly crowded with books, antiquities and period furniture, played its own important part. (The radio, of course, was almost a third character, making contributions throughout).

The show runs in Chicago through September 2; still time enough for church groups, discussion groups and book clubs to schedule it in.
As they should.

*Tickets are kind of pricey, but on Wednesdays, Seniors get $10 off main floor seats.

Now you see it...

I added visuals to the recording of Monday's radio broadcast on "Food and Faith":

Eucharistic Witness: Ven. Laszlo Strattman

For Dr. Laszlo Battyhany Strattman and his wife, the Countess Maria Teresa Coreth, their home was their castle--no, really: it was a castle in their native Hungary. Shortly after the birth of their first child (there would be thirteen more), Dr. Strattman asked special permission of the bishop to reserve the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel. From then on, the family's day began with morning Mass in the chapel.

Pope St. Pius X, soon enough, began encouraging more frequent communion and welcoming children to First Communion, so that the family's routine included not only receiving Holy Communion, but making their thanksgiving together, too, guided by the father. (He would spontaneously offer a reflection on the day's liturgy, on the saint of the day, and then assign each child a special practice for the day.) Father and sons also took their assigned turns as servers.

From his own room, Dr. Strattman could look through the window and see the Tabernacle. "At any moment whatever I can speak with Jesus, even at night," he commented. He often made visits to the Blessed Sacrament, especially before going into surgery. Dr. Strattman was an enthusiastic participant in the Chicago Eucharistic Congress of 1926, for which he was the official representative of Hungary; he was also a member of the Permanent Committee for World Eucharistic Congresses.

Just as Laszlo recognized Jesus in the Eucharist, he recognized him in the suffering and the needy. His medical practice was strictly focused on the poor. At his own expense, he built several hospitals. He even paid the wages of those who worked in them. Eventually, he turned one wing of the family's castle into a hospital.

Dr. Strattman saw himself in the role of Simon of Cyrene, helping the suffering Jesus in the person of the poor to carry the cross. He himself underwent the suffering of the Cross during an extended illness, uniting himself with Christ Crucified in that suffering and finally in his death at Vienna in 1931.



Video of images from the Chicago Eucharistic Congress:

The Eucharistic Congress - Chicago 1926 from Chicago History Museum on Vimeo.

Coming soon

...a review of the "C.S. Lewis meets Sigmund Freud" play (Freud's Last Session) is now running (through September 2) in Chicago. In a word: excellent! Another two-man masterpiece at the Mercury Theater here in Chicago. Ideal for church discussion groups. Except you might want to put the actors on pause every ten minutes to discuss the topics as they flow by...

TOB Tuesday: Confessions of a 26-year-old Virgin

And it looks like she has a genuinely TOB understanding of marriage, too:

"...Chastity shifts a person's focus from self to others, from what a potential husband could do for me to what he and I could do together — what we, as a unit, could contribute to the world. It is less about whether sex with him will be awkward at first and more about whether it would be a good thing for our future kids to grow up and turn into one of us.
"For us [Catholics], sex serves two purposes: procreation and unity. We don't believe we're supposed to decide to unite because sex is pleasurable, but to create a pleasurable sexual relationship with the person to whom we are permanently united."

Read the rest here!

On the Air!

Today brought my first-ever experience to host a radio show; you can listen to Episode #443. I'm listening to the archived show now. It's only a little embarrassing! (The few times I forgot to do the "intro" or "outro" for the sponsor message...the BIG time I forgot to turn the microphones off during the message!) The theme was "Food and Faith," following the "Taste of Chicago."

Hosting the show gave me the chance to share some music from albums I have worked on. I also shared a recipe from Pinterest (!) and mentioned one of our children's books, "Now You're Cooking," that combines short stories with kid-friendly recipes.

Special thanks to Jeff Young, the Catholic Foodie, for making himself available as a call-in guest: knowing he was going to be there kept me calm and confident--even if he got cut off unexpectedly five minutes before the wrap-up.

At the Taste: back for seconds

I had the opportunity to get a second helping at the Taste of Chicago, and this time Sister Hortencia (of our Spanish outreach team) came with me. Our tickets came courtesy of some book center visitors who gave us their leftovers. So I introduced Sr Hortencia to the marvels of deep dish, spinach stuffed crust pizza, while I myself counted out ten precious tickets at the "Chef du Jour" booth, where Chicago star chef Stephanie Izzard had created the gourmet specialty: grilled broccoli with smoked blue cheese sauce and "spiced crispies" (rice cereal toasted with spice).

Seriously: broccoli? At a street festival? No wonder the staff at the extra-large gourmet booth were twiddling their thumbs.

And yet...It was fabulous. Just a little hard to eat while walking around. I tried balancing the paper plate while I speared a jumbo broccoli stalk and nibbled it like those kids in the ranch dressing commercial. Easier said than done. And not too many other people were walking around taking big bites of broc. (They didn't know what they were missing.)

In other news:
Today is the last-ever feast of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, the Mohawk-Algonquin maiden who wanted to found her own convent so she could be a nun, but had to settle for a simple vow of chastity, the only consecrated woman among all the native peoples of North America when she died at 23. This October, Kateri will be canonized, and we'll have the first Native American saint!

Monday I will be hosting a local Catholic radio show for the noon broadcast. When I accepted the task, I thought I would be co-hosting, sharing the mic and bantering with someone more experienced than I. Nope. It will be yours truly on the air for an hour. I am happy to be having Jeff Young, the Catholic Foodie (and my fellow New Orleanian) as a call in guest for a segment of the show on Food and Faith (which happens to be the focus of Jeff's podcast), and will be bringing some music along, too, to showcase the Daughters of St. Paul choir. Prayers needed! Listen in live, or check later for the archived show.

Back to School: Helping Chicago's needy kids

If you're in the Chicago area, a back to school program for needy kids is looking for children's backpacks, pre-loaded with supplies like loose leaf paper, spiral notebooks, pencils, pens, erasers, glue, highlighters, crayons, rulers, pencil cases. All the fun stuff, you know. Drop them off with Helen the receptionits at the Cardinal Meyer center (by July 20!): 3525 S. Lake Park Ave., Chicago. IL. 60653.

Making a new friend

An African sister was just one pew ahead of me at Mass yesterday at the Cathedral. I saw that she wore the lanyard and name badge of a conventioneer--the lanyard proclaimed "THE YEAR OF THE GIRL 2012." After Mass I asked if she had a few minutes to tell me what she was involved with. Turns out, Sister Hilda is a member of a diocesan congregation in Zimbabwe, and she is in town as a chaperone for a group of "Girl Guides" (yes, they are still around!) for an international conference of girls' scouting organizations. Evidently the Girl Guides and the Girl Scouts dominate the occasion. Ordinarily, Sister Hilda is teaching 2nd grade in her community's school (they also run a high school, an orphanage and a hospital, about 42 km from the nation's capital of Harare). But for now she is engaged in some sort of effort on the international level to have girls recognized as human beings. Sister asked where she and her girls could get cell phones to use--so this evening I will meet Sr Hilda again at Mass, and we will head down to Radio Shack to see what fits the bill. I figure it is part of my ministry as a Daughter of St. Paul to serve not only as an agent of direct evangelization, but as a technology advisor to people in ministry!

As we walked together back to the Marriot where all this is happening, we were met at a corner by some tourists who had also been at Mass: two moms and their kids, ages 12 down. The youngest, a boy of seven, was jumping with joy that he had been able to visit and receive Jesus. In fact, the group had only been to the Cathedral to make a short visit to the Blessed Sacrament, but stayed for the whole Mass. Even more interestingly, they not only know our sisters in St. Louis (where they are from), one of the moms said she has two or three copies of my book for children's adoration! All in all, it made for a pleasant evening, and one--I hope--with a long future.

Eucharistic Reflection

Cardinal George is our "guest blogger" for today's Thursday reflection on the Eucharist. He makes a great point (courtesy of Pope Benedict) about the way Adoration carries the Mass over into our lives not just in prayer, but in service. (Read his whole column here.)

In his homily for the feast of Corpus Christi this year, Pope Benedict XVI pointed out that, after Vatican Council II “it was very important to recognize the centrality of the (Eucharistic) celebration, in which the Lord convokes his people, gathers them around the twofold table of the Word and the Bread of Life, nourishes them and unites them to himself ...in the offering of the Sacrifice.” The pope went on to say that the importance placed on the celebration of the Eucharist should not be to the detriment of adoration, “an act of faith and prayer addressed to the Lord Jesus, really present in the Sacrament of the altar … Concentrating the whole relationship with the Eucharistic Jesus only at the moment of Holy Mass risks removing his presence from the rest of time and existential space. And thus, perceived less is the sense of the constant presence of Jesus in our midst and with us, a concrete, close presence among our homes, as ‘beating Heart’ of the city, of the country, of the territory with its various expressions and activities. The Sacrament of the Charity of Christ must permeate the whole of daily life.”

Prayer before the Blessed Sacrament in silence marked by contemplation prepares us to celebrate the Eucharist well and with greater affectivity. Genuflecting before the tabernacle where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved deepens our faith in Christ’s real presence among his people. When religious rituals disappear, life becomes barren and caught up in activities that seal the soul against God’s presence and still the heart to the cry of the poor.

 

 

Just a taste...

Today was the start of the trimmed-down "Taste of Chicago," the summer event that I look forward to most--and often miss. This year it is trimmed down indeed. No free samples of toothpaste or hot sauce. No collard green egg rolls on the menu. And when I attempted to get a little fix of Korean bulgogi at the "pop up" restaurant (one day only), they were out and wouldn't have more for another 40 minutes. There was, however, a chance for a free sample ice cream, if you filled out a release form and surrendered some of your dignity by letting them take a picture...

Speaking of pictures, I took one myself of an ardent preacher with an urgent message. Considering that today's Gospel was Jesus sending the Twelve to proclaim "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," the cheerful man in the "Trust Jesus" T-shirt was certainly in sync with the liturgy, even if I felt a bit embarrassed to be seen near his sign. (Surprisingly many people assume that Catholics believe the things that even the fringiest street preacher proclaims in the name of the Bible, and I didn't want to inadvertently confirm the interpretation!)

Since there was no bulgogi and no collard green egg rolls, I still have a few precious tickets left for another adventure at the Taste. I wonder what I'll find next time?

TOB Tuesday: Resources Galore!

There are more TOB-friendly resources available online all the time.  I discovered two more last week:

"Leaven" is a non-profit organization for the practical living of the Theology of the Body. Their website features a multiplicity of approaches in making it possible and practical for people to know and adopt a TOB "spirituality" in their married lives, from testimonies and facts to financial aid (for example, to cover a sterilization reversal or fertility care or post-abortion counseling or even Christmas presents for the kids). I am personally blown away that there is such a resource for people who are drawn to the ideals of TOB, but face some very real hurdles. The mission of "The Leaven for Humanae Vitae" gets a permanent place on my special prayer list (and, I hope, on yours).

Here's a young-adult site that offers support for living a pure life that is consistent with the values of the Theology of the Body! Includes testimonials, videos and punchy graphics, all spot-on for the young adult audience. They are getting overwhelmed with traffic, so if you can't get them just yet, try again in a few days.

Clay pots

Yesterday a friend treated me not just to lunch at a Greek restaurant, but to a 90-minute pottery class! I had really been looking forward to the experience at the potter's wheel (fond memories from summer camp years...), and I came away with a fresh appreciation of Jeremiah 18:4:

"Whenever the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands, 

the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him." 

My first batch of clay was coming along magnificently. Until my fingernail ripped clear through the wall of the up-and-coming pot and destroyed the thing.

Take two (new lump of clay) was off to a slow start, but progressed to about the midway point, when it suddenly began warping between my hands. The whole top ripped off the bottom, putting an end to that project. I tried to do as the potter, shaping it into something else, but once the shape-shifting started, I lost the touch.

Take three (new lump of clay) didn't seem to get "centered" at all. The pottery shop personnel began hovering near my wheel at this point, placing my hands just so and coaxing the clay into cooperation. As soon as we were left unguarded (the clay and I), the pot slid right off the wheel and into oblivion.

Now you have to understand, each participant started off with three lumps of clay. At this point, I needed them to come up with some fresh clay--because part of the "contract" for the class was that you WILL get a finished pot out of the class.

I brought all my determination and focus to take four. The little "tuna can" shaped goal of the first stage of working the clay. The dual thumb action creating the well of the pot and then opening it up (a little wider than I planned); the two handed "lift" to draw the walls upward. The strange lump on the edge that threatened to ruin this try, too, until it was excised by a wire-wielding instructor. And then some finishing with a wet sponge and a sharp-edged curve of wood. And yellow "slip" (which is paint/clay) all around the outside.

In two weeks, I will get a call to pick up my glazed, fired yellow clay pot.

"Whenever the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands, 

the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him."

Surprising find online

What every little Catholic girl needs: a fully equipped Daughter of St. Paul magnetic paper doll, complete with Bible, Rosary, iPad... (and a sweater for the cold weather.)

Virgin Martyrs

Today is the feast of St Maria Goretti, the 20th century saint who personified the ancient ideal of the virgin martyr, and inspired at least two other young Italian women who were later beatified as martyrs.

I recently read a book on that subject (I was running a book display at a conference, and the fish weren't biting, giving me plenty of time for personal updating...). What is great about this book by Father Michael Fuller is the way it provides a contemporary reading of the old pious stories, even in their most fanciful expressions.

I was especially impressed with the story of St Lucy (Santa Lucia of the song). When this Christian girl is threatened with what amounts to gang rape unless she surrenders her faith (with the presumption that the forced deflowering will render her Christian virginity null and void), she cheekily replies that her virginity is under the control of her will alone; that force itself is null and void before the power of her freedom, whatever the outcome of her trial on the physical level. Put in its ancient context, that is a remarkable view of a young woman's personal autonomy!

Of course, for Maria Goretti (and those later Italian martyrs), the option was not "give up your faith" but simply "give in to me." Maria's murderer had been attempting her seduction for some time, and finally tired of her rebuffs. But all three martyrs were "martyred" because they stood firm in a choice for something good.

And we need their example more than ever today, when virginity is something young people are ashamed of and pornography is being recrafted to engage and addict women. (Need a few examples? Here--be sure to read the comments, here and here. And for lagniappe, something else that corresponds to today's saint's story.) Hmmm. What is it about feminine purity that the enemy of human nature hates it so much?



Afternoon update: Here's a reflection on Maria and her message by Cristina Barba, courtesy of the Theology of the Body Institute.

Heat Wave

Thunder is crashing outside, which may mean a break in the 100+ degree weather we've had in Chicago over the past week (with a few 90°exceptions). The heat brought with it a vision I haven't been able to escape from.

Most of our street people, savvy survivors that they are, have been taking full advantage of the roasting temperature to wheedle some extra "spare change" from wilted tourists. But yesterday I passed one woman who wasn't playing the game. She wasn't on a well-trafficked corner. She didn't even have a paper cup to shake. She just sat in the shade of an office building, dressed in layer upon layer of colorless clothing, one hand on a wire cart overflowing what I presume were her most treasured possessions. She was an older woman, someone I had not seen downtown before, and her face was a picture of sorrow and resignation.

I still wish I had had something, above all a bottle of ice water, to give her, just to make sure she lasted the day.

Eucharistic Witness: Pier Giorgio Frassati

Yesterday was the anniversary of death--and the feast day--of Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati. This attractive young Italian first came on my radar as Rome was gearing up for the Jubilee Year. I was working part-time for the Jubilee website, and walking from our Generalate to Santa Susanna Church every Sunday (to sing in English!). Eventually, a banner appeared at the Basilica of San Lorenzo, announcing the "patrons" of the Jubilee. Pier Giorgio was there as the patron of young adults. Near his image were the words, "Man of the Beatitudes," Pope John Paul's characterization of the skier an acquaintance had described as "an avalanche of life".

Born in northern Italy at the dawn of the 20th century, Pier Giorgio was the son of a prominent and well-to-do couple in many ways representative of the secularized society that would come to full flower in that century. His father was an agnostic newspaperman (the paper he founded is still an important voice in Italian jouranlism); his mother was more devoted to her art than to the Catholic faith she still formally observed. Pier Giorgio, on the other hand, manifested an early fascination with the things of God. Young as he was, he developed a habit of personal prayer, and his favorites stories came from the Gospels. At age 13, enrolled in a private school run by the Jesuits, he found a way to receive Communion daily--getting around his mother's distaste for this fanatical exaggeration at a time when monthly Communion was the hallmark of the fervent. Daily Mass and Communion marked the rest of his life.

For Pier Giorgio, it wasn't enough simply to go to daily Mass, or even to help serve the Mass. Although he regularly gave away his allowance for the needs of Turin's desperately poor, he put aside enough to buy a daily missal so he could reflect on the Scripture readings outside of Mass. But Pier Giorgio was not a church mouse! Popular and athletic, he could draw a crowd. And sometimes he drew them...to church, even when they were heading for the slopes.

Daily Mass and his faith in the Real Presence also drew Pier Giorgio to Eucharistic adoration, especially during the quiet hours of the night. Occasionally, he would ask permission of a religious community to keep vigil through the night in the monastery chapel. A real people person, Pier Giorgio was active in the St Vincent de Paul Society and the vibrant Catholic Action movement, but also in the Eucharistic Crusade (begun just a few years earlier at the International Eucharistic Conference in Lourdes, France), the Association of the Most Blessed Sacrament, the Eucharistic League and the Apostleship of Prayer.

From his Eucharistic visits, he made other visits. "Jesus visits me every day in Holy Communion. I give him thanks in the best way I can, by visiting the poor; even if the house is dirty, you still draw near to Christ." Decades after St. John Bosco's work among the street urchins of Turin, there were still plenty of slums in that industrialized city in the mostly rural Piedmont. Many of the poor had left their villages and moved to Turin in hopes of finding work, resulting in the overcrowded conditions that make for poor sanitation. It may have been in the filth Pier Giorgio described that the twenty-four year old picked up the meningitis-like virus that ended his life in a matter of days, yet even on his deathbed he was concerned about two families in particular, and tried to make sure their needs would be taken care of.

A high-school companion said of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati: "Every time I saw him approach the altar to receive Communion, it came instinctively to me to hope that I, too, might some day be able to come to such purity of soul, so as to be able to receive the Sacrament with the same enthusiasm and intensity."

Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati has been named one of the five patrons of the 2013 World Youth Day in Rio.

Read more about this Eucharistic witness!

Vows Season, Part 2

Yesterday I wrote about vow anniversaries and so on. Today I have pictures from "vow day" around the Daughters of St. Paul world (and I do mean world). Here are a few of them:

East Africa

Madagascar

Philippines

Czech Republic

India

U.S.A. Final vows of Sr. An Mei (smothering in leis) in Hawaii.
Next weekend: Sr Marlyn in Boston!

As our Founder would say, "Now, pray the Lord of the harvest to send good laborers into his vineyard!"

TOB Tuesday: What they're saying about the big book

Not that this is summer reading. (At over 1,000 pages, the next two years' worth of reading would be more like it.) But you can read what people have been saying about the big TOB book, the one that started it all on review sites like Amazon.com and Goodreads.

If you have an e-reader of any sort, you can get it right now, and for around half the price of the print edition. That is a Google link, for your computer or Android tablet or phone.  Click here for Kindle--also about half price; the iPod/iPad version is a little more costly, but still less than print. And way more portable.

Vows Season

For the Daughters of St. Paul, the days surrounding the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul and our own congregational feast of St. Paul (by himself) is "vows season." In fact, today is the 34th anniversary of my own first vows. (I have a photo of that momentous event somewhere around here, but can't find it. Why didn't I name the jpg "vows"?)

Friday was our Sr. Yvonne's Silver Jubilee (which will be celebrated officially in Boston in August, and informally by us in September when the whole community is back together after retreats). On Saturday (our Feast of St. Paul), Sr An Mei made her perpetual vows, surrounded by family and friends. Next week in East Boston, Sr Marlyn will do the same (with a few more sisters than were able to gather in Hawaii for Sr. An Mei!).

And then there are those who are hoping to some day make their vows. Among these are young women who would love to make the first step in that direction, but have student loans in the way. (No, you can't even enter the convent with a debt.) This is a pretty common problem now, and the approaches to solving it can be pretty creative.

We're also actively involved in helping young women discern a call to vowed life. Sr. Helena would be most grateful if you would share this poster far and wide, on your Facebook pages, parish bulletin boards and bulletins (real and virtual) and in person to young women you think might have a religious vocation: