Seeking Wisdom

Last night, after a full and very enriching day at the Catholic New Media Conference, my eyes were just too tired to read through the Mass texts for today. I glanced at the first reading (1 Cor), made a mental note of the ever-pertinent theme ("In God's wisdom, the world did not come to know God through wisdom") and turned off the light.
Well.
This morning I heard the Gospel. Whereas St Paul had written of the split between this world's wisdom and God's foolish wisdom of the Cross, Jesus spoke of the wise and foolish bridesmaids. It was practically an invitation to pray for the gift of Wisdom.
As the Mass continued, I reflected on that Wisdom and the shape it takes in our world. Patience is a form of wisdom, isn't it? Service is an expression of wisdom. Gratitude is a surpassing form of wisdom. It was as if the Lord was telling me that the path to Wisdom, the way to receive an outpouring of this Gift of the Holy Spirit, is to give these virtues more attention; to recognize them as occasions for a wisdom that is lived and not only an interior vision.
Funny, I think I've just realized where I can find God at work, answering my prayer for wisdom!
What about you?

Howdy!

Greetings from Texas and the Catholic New Media Conference! I had been home in New Orleans with Mom, planning all along to drive to Texas with her and my sister Jane to visit my sister Lea in Austin. It just happened that a hurricane came along at that exact time. So we didn't evacuate, exactly, but we did leave New Orleans ahead of the hurricane. So far we have no news of damage to family property (but I saw on Twitter that my mom's parish lost a tree and a breezeway--so far).
I flew from Austin to Dallas this morning and have already attended two interesting talks on the tech track. In between I am reconnecting with people I know mostly through Catholic social networking, but on the shuttle from the airport I made a new connection. Nancy is from a pro-life clinic in Austin. They not only offer pregnancy support for crisis pregnancies; they also have a regular ob-gyn practice that completely conforms with Catholic values using NaPro technology to help address the causes of infertility. I am looking forward to learning more about what they are doing so I can help get the info out there!
Sister Christina from our editorial department is also attending the CNMC, while two sisters are at the Pauline booth at the Catholic Marketing Network trade show which is also going on here (actually, CNMC and the Catholic Writers Guild are piggybackng on the Marketing Network's meeting).
At 5:30 this afternoon I will be interviewing the Catholic mommy uber-blogger, Jennifer Fulwiler so I can contribute a post to the "Support a Catholic Speaker Month" initiative. In between sessions, there is an adoration chapel in one of the meeting rooms, so I guess I'll do some networking with Jesus...

TOB Tuesday with Sr Helena, part 4

Sr Helena continues as guest speaker...from the radio show she hosted on July 13.

Trashy novels have always been "women's porn." Why? And why are more women today getting addicted to visual porn? What gives with the "50 shades" phenomenon?

After interviewing a sex addiction counselor named Bernadette (a phone connection for broadcast could not be established, no matter how hard they tried), Sr Helena sums up Bernadette's insights into how the overstimulation of women's fantasy lives gives us unrealistic expectations about our real life.

Does it matter what we do with our mind, as long as our body is not involved?

Did Jesus have anything to say about all this?

For information about healing sexual addictions through the the "Seeing One Another Rightly" program contact Bernadette at soar0135[{@}] aol [.] com

Listen now!
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News from Christians in Syria

From the Pontifical Mission Society new service, Fides: Aleppo (Agenzia Fides) -

The Metropolitan Archbishop of Aleppo, His Exc. Mgr. Jean-Clement Jeanbart's residence was broken into and looted during clashes between militiamen and loyalist troops. The Archbishop, his Vicar and some priests fled a few hours before the episode, which occurred last Thursday, and took refuge in the house of the Franciscans in Aleppo. According to Fides sources in the local Catholic community, those responsible "are unidentified groups, who want to foster a sectarian war and involve the Syrian people in a sectarian strife."

As confirmed to Fides by the Franciscan Fr. George Abu Khazen, OFM, Apostolic Pro-Vicar of the Latin Catholic community, who welcomed the greek-Catholic confreres, "Archbishop Jeanbart expressed great concern and dismay over the incident, and he repeated, shaken, in a single word : Why? ". Then he left for Lebanon, where he still stands. In the following days, when the military regained control of the situation, the Mgr. Je  Vicar was able to return to his see, noting that the doors had been forced and there were different objects missing (such as a computer and projector). Fr. George explains that in past days there was a battle in the old city of Aleppo, and the fighting reached Fahrat Square, where all the archbishoprics are. In addition to the greek Catholic (Melkite), also the Maronite Catholic was damaged.

Some militants also broke into the Byzantine Christian museum "Maarrat Nahman", damaging some artifacts and icons. According to Fr. George, a solution to the conflict "cannot still be seen, because none of the protagonists in the field, national and international, put pressure to start real dialogue."

Speaking to Fides, another member of the local hierarchy, who requested anonymity for security reasons, warns: "With the intervention, well established, of jihadist groups, there is an attempt to foment hatred and sectarian conflict. There is an increasing number of Wahhabi and Salafi Islamist militias, from Chechnya, Pakistan, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Tunisia, Arabia, Libya: these groups have the sole purpose of bringing chaos, destruction, atrocities, and to paralyze social life. The Syrian civilian population is victim. But will not fall into this trap. " (PA) (Agenzia Fides 27/08/2012)

Eye contact

It's an amazing phenomenon to me. A glance, and suddenly you realize that one person in the crowd sees you. Not another humanoid shape, but really sees you. Eye contact. Sometimes get that eye contact feeling of recognition even with your back turned. Once I had an especially unusual experience of being on the receiving end of a steady gaze; it may have been similar to Nathaniel's moment under the fig tree.

It was on my first and only mission trip in an exotic locale. Two of us Daughters of St. Paul wwere conducting book fairs in the Virgin Islands. We had arrived on St Croix by sea plane, coasting in over waters so still and clear you could see the grains of sand below. The sisters at a local convent let us  use their guest rooms, while a borrowed van served as our staging area. We had just enough time for our Hour of Adoration, but the sisters weren't around to show us to the chapel--we found it all the same. A broad, bright space with kneelers around an altar, but no tabernacle. Disappointed, I recollected myself all the same in order to read the Bible.

Which is what I was doing when I felt a gaze coming from just over to my right a bit. It was so persistent as to be almost physical. I followed the sensation. Nothing in that direction but a large ceramic planter with greens trailing from the turrets. But I couldn't shake that feeling.

I followed the "gaze" again to its seeming source. It was the castle! On a hunch, I turned to my fellow sister. "I think I know where the Blessed Sacrament is." She gave a quizzical look as I walked over to the planter and examined it a bit. There was no door or anything like that to say it could be a Tabernacle. So I just picked the whole thing up! There, "in" the castle, was a golden ciborium. My senses had not deceived me at all!

"Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree!"

I don't get many fig tree moments like that one in the Virgin Islands. Maybe I'm just running around too much to notice that someone can't take his eyes off me.

While I've been home with Mom this week, I have yet to find a parish that does not pray the "Prayer to St Michael" after Mass. Right up front, the prayer speaks of "battle" (one that we ourselves are engaged in!) and the "malice and snares of the devil." Father Barron gives a common-sense theological summary of just what the prayer presumes (along with a "side order" of AntiChrist).

Eucharistic Reflection

Since Thursday is the Church's weekly "reminder" of the Gift of the Eucharist, here is a little something for you to share on Facebook (more inspirational images are yours for free on the Pauline website):

 

"In the Eucharist: Light, nourishment, victory over evil!"

(Bl. James Alberione)

Here Comes the Bride

Seems to me that today's Mass readings work better together if you read them backwards from the way they are proclaimed in the Liturgy, starting with the Gospel which sets the stage: "The Kingdom of Heaven may be likened to a King who gave a wedding feast for his Son..."

The whole of creation is that feast, meant for the Son, providing not just the food, but the Bride. And yet, as the Gospel continues, the invited guests were curiously uninterested--and even hostile to the invitation-bearing royal messengers! And so the guest list was expanded until anyone and everyone was in that great hall. Here the parable sounds suspiciously like the one about the weeds and the wheat, or the dragnet that hauls in all manner of things that have to be sorted out. And that sorting will be done by the King Himself, using His own criteria.

But not without hope!

That's where the first reading fits in so well, turning what could be a very gloomy picture ("cast him into the outer darkness where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth") into a hopeful one. Ezekiel says that all this "sorting out" is really God reversing the profanation of His Name by His careless, sinful people. He will restore them to the Great Hall; He will cleanse them of their impurities and idols; He will even give them new hearts and put His own Spirit in them! "You will be my people, and I will be your God."

Let the wedding song begin!

Meditating on the readings

Today's Mass readings can be read together under so many different angles, I don't know which one to focus on.

There's the "political-economic" lens in which Ezekiel's concern for the weakest of Israel's "sheep" corresponds to the vineyard-owner's generosity toward the workers hired late in the day.

There's the "leadership lessons from the Bible" approach (similar to the above, but focusing more on the movers and shakers).

There's the "where do I fit in?" angle: am I a shepherd? an exploited, vulnerable sheep? a vineyard worker who dances for joy at receiving a full day's pay, or a tired, sweaty worker who feels cheated by that same wage?

If anything, today's parable of the eleventh hour workers demonstrates what St. John said so clearly: Jesus knows the human heart all too well. Maybe the challenge for me today is not to be embarrassed at being known so intimately by one who is still, in all things, my Good Shepherd.

Today's readings play off each other in an interesting way, almost as if the Gospel were commenting on the first reading instead of continuing yesterday's story of the rich young man. In the Old Testament reading, Ezekiel sends a vivid warning to the King of seafaring Tyre. His ships have certainly come in. Tyre is prosperous, and the king assumes all the credit for it. He must be a god! No, says the prophet in the name of the real God. Then comes a harsh call to repentance in the form of a prediction of a violent death at the hands of barbarians.

In the Gospel, Jesus sums it up by saying how hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Layering his comment with a thick coat of semitic hyperbole, he adds, "harder than a camel passing through the eye of a needle." (The suggestion that the "needle's eye" was a particularly unappealing city gate is more and more a discarded notion; this expression is just a typical humorous overstatement.)

Peter hears all this and has a question (one which, truth to tell, is probably on most of the disciples' minds): What about me? "We have given up everything to follow you.What will there be for us?"

He must have missed the context: entering the Kingdom of Heaven. What is the "Kingdom" of Heaven if not the presence of the King? And if someone has given up everything to "follow Jesus," what else does he want? I can almost see Jesus rolling his eyes. Peter, the Kingdom of heaven is yours! Enter into the joy of your Lord! Is there any more to be had?

TOB Tuesday with Sr Helena, part 3

Sr Helena continues as guest speaker...from the radio show she hosted on July 13. Here is part 3, now with guest Christina d'Alessio from The Catholic F-Word.com who talks about how she got into "Theology of the Body Feminism."

What does the Catholic Church teach about responsible parenthood? What is the "new feminism"?

Listen now!
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 Books suggested:

TOB Tuesday Special Edition: The most painful challenge?

A few weeks ago in our Chicago bookstore, I approached a woman to see if she was finding what she needed. She held up the booklet she had been flipping through. It was for Catholics facing infertility. I checked our computer system, and there were only two other titles in the database--neither of them in stock. That's because one of those books hadn't been published yet.

It's available now for that young couple, and for many other heartbroken Catholics. This is a spiritual resource for couples, with stories of other couples'  struggles and experiences (including attempts at in vitro fertilization and other artificial methods of "skirting" but not healing infertility), suggestions for praying together, and information about the science behind NaPro-TECHNOLOGY, an approach to infertility that is consistent with the Theology of the Body and Church teachings on human life and the integrity of the couple's intimate life. 

This is an important book, not just because of the hope it can offer suffering couples, but because NaPro is an example of great news that nobody knows. How many Catholic couples end up alienating themselves from the Church because they turned in desperation to assisted reproduction techniques? Nobody told them that NaPro has as much success as the more aggressive approaches, but without the compromises (or side effects). So get this news out there, especially in younger circles! (This Pinterest link may help.)

For your Facebook page, here's a link right to the Pauline webstore:
http://store.pauline.org/English/Books/tabid/126/ProductID/3872/List/0/Default.aspx?SortField=ProductName,ProductName

Treasure hunt

Today's saint and today's readings: another one of those remarkably divine coincidences. Exekiel sets us up for it with his experience of losing "by a sudden blow" the "delight of his eyes," his beloved wife. Being a prophet, you see, wasn't just a matter of relaying messages like some sort of human telegraph; the prophet underwent the message--as if sharing God's own experience--and that was how he prophesied. So Ezekiel, the exiled Jewish priest, had to bury his dear departed without even expressing his grief with the usual signs, as a way of telling the community of exiles that while they went about their everyday business in Babylon, the Temple of Jerusalem (the "stronghold of their pride, the delight of their eyes") was being desecrated. They had lost their earthly treasure. Would the Lord God be enough?

In the Gospel, a certain young man comes to Jesus, full of enthusiasm. "What do I need to do in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?" Interestingly, Jesus doesn't give him a "to do" list: he gives him a "don't do" list, and it's very familiar (You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal..."). The only positive commands in the whole list are "honor your father and mother" and "love your neighbor as yourself," and those are just as familiar as the "shalt nots"! But then Jesus adds an option: "If you wish to be perfect..." And it's all about the Kingdom of Heaven.

And so we come to today's saint, the "mellifluous Doctor," St Bernard of Clairvaux. The story goes that young Bernard's brothers came to him in a group. "We're leaving home, Bernard. You get to inherit everything. We're off to the monastery. Have a good life."

Bernard was indignant. "What?! You are choosing Heaven and leave me the earth?!"

And in short order, the already-influential adolescent rounded up some twenty friends. All together, they went, sold all that they had and gave it to the poor (securing their treasure in Heaven) and showed up at the monastery door to follow Jesus.

Unlike the "rich young man" of the Gospel, Bernard accepted the challenge and changed history! Now it's our turn.

Jubilee Day

In June, I wrote about "vow season." Well, for us Paulines the weekends near August 20 are "Jubilee season." (August 20, the Feast of St Bernard, is the anniversary of the founding of the Pauline Family.)
This year we had ten jubilarians: 2 Diamond Jubilarians at 60 years of vowed life, 3 Silver Jubilarians at 50, and 5 Silver Jubilarians, one of whom also happens to be my local superior. It was actually because of Sr. Lusia's jubilee that I have stayed on in Boston so many days after our "encounter" ended. That and because Sr Noel (another Silver girl) had requested that I sing the "Ave Maria" after Communion at the Jubilee Mass.
Since our Jubilarians represent so many parts of the world, I attempted to create a map indicating where they were from and where they are now stationed. It is a difficult task without access to my usual programs! So far, after much travail, I have nothing to show you. I can see it on my screen, but can't figure out how to turn it into an image I can post. So... envision a world map. Put two red arrows over Italy. One on the part of South America that is sticking out of the upper right side (Brazil). Over in Asia, put one on the patch of islands north of western Australia, on about the same latitude as India (the Philippines), and one in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but south of Hawaii (Samoa). Over the U.S. point an arrow at St. Louis, one just north in Wisconsin farmland, one due east in Ohio, and then move to New England: one arrow goes directly on Boston, and the other north to Vermont. From the four corners of the earth: that's our Jubilee group!
It's easier to create a map of where they are missioned now. Instead of red arrows, let's use green. Point them to Boston (three), Philadelphia, Chicago (!!!!), two over St. Louis. Then move beyond the 48 states. One arrow goes as far west as you can imagine, all the way to Honolulu! One arrow goes toward our northern neighbors, to Toronto. And yet another goes across the Atlantic and lands in Germany.
In other words, this year, we've covered the globe.
Alberione would be so proud.

Tara transformed into a Cathedral

Gone With the Wind Heir Leaves Estate To Archdiocese of Atlanta
Read all about it!

Eucharistic Reflection

Over the past two weeks, one thing that a priest said (I can't remember if it was in a homily or in a conference!) really struck me. It seems that years ago, every sacristy had a kind of sign that the priest would see as he left for the altar:

Priest of God,

Say* this Mass as if it were your first Mass.

Say this Mass as if it were your last Mass.

Say this Mass as if it were only Mass.

What if we could only go to Mass (or only receive Communion) once in our life? Imagine the preparation we would put into it! The focus! There would probably be a religious order or two with the sole mission of guiding retreats for people who were about to go to their only Mass. There would be an intense follow-up, too. For the rest of your life, you would go back in prayer to that one most sacred moment of encounter with Jesus.

Or what if you could only, in all your life, make one Eucharistic Holy Hour? How would you prepare for it? How would you actually make it?

Sometimes I find myself dreading the hour of adoration. I'm tired, or unfocused, or just plain ornery. It can be easier to bury myself in work (make that, "activity") than in silence with the Word of God. But...what if this hour were my very first hour with the Lord? What if it were to be my very last? What if it were the only hour I would spend in this life with the Eucharistic Jesus?




*The language of the times was that the priest would "say" the Mass, and the faithful would "hear" it.

Change of plans!

Our community encounter ended yesterday, but we spent most of today cleaning the retreat house in anticipation of the next big gathering--not of our Sisters, but of the relatives and friends of our Jubilarians, who are beginning to arrive for Saturday's big celebration. I'm staying on in Boston because the superior of our Chicago community is among the Jubilarians (silver), so I will represent the Sisters and friends of the Windy City.

That turned out to be providential.

Our Junior sisters (those in temporary vows) are having their encounter now, and one of the principal presenters had to cancel today. I'll be filling in for four of the hours she was to have spoken on St. Paul. Which means...I have to hope I stored some of my talks and notes on St Paul somewhere on line and get to work putting them into shape for a very different audience!

No doubt there will also be a choir practice or two before the Jubilee, as well. I'd better start doing those vocal exercises!

TOB Tuesday with Sr Helena, part 2

Sr Helena continues as guest speaker...from the radio show she hosted on July 13.

Here is part 2, covering the women's liberation movement of the sixties: what was right, what went wrong, what never changed despite it all. Special guest is Jenn Giroux (registered nurse and mother of nine) on women's health. "Never in the history of ... the world has such a huge bloc of healthy patients been put on a medicine which is actually causing them further harm. Of 100 women with cancer today 31 have breast cancer, 6 have uterine cancer and 3 have ovarian cancer." (Not to mention the increase of strokes and heart attacks in young people.)

Who profits from this?

Listen now!
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God gets the Gold

Did you notice all the Olympic medals God got this year?

Three of his victories stand out: the smiling Gabby Douglas gave "glory to God"; Irish boxer Katie Taylor praised God and thanked Jesus for her victory, pointing to the heavens as the judge held her right arm up to indicate her win. And then Ethiopian long-distance runner Meseret Defar drew an icon-imprinted cloth from her running bra and held the Virgin and Child out for all to see. 

Critics complain that gestures like these are a kind of arrogance; that the claim that God helped me win this race includes the presumption that God made the others lose.

I see it a bit differently.

I think it's amazing that anyone would have the presence of mind, in a euphoric Olympic gold moment, to offer praise to God ("whom no one has ever seen or can see"). It tells me that these women turn to God all the time. They don't just pull God out on cue in the highlights of life: they bring God into the picture habitually. I am convinced that had any one of these women lost the competition, they still would have found a reason to give glory to God. It's just that no one else would be listening, or have a camera in their face to record it.

Gold medal swimmer Missy Franklin (USA), before her Olympic moment, said in an interview: "God is always there for me. I talk with Him before, during and after practice and competitions...I pray to Him for guidance. I thank Him for this talent He has given me and promise to be a positive role model for young."

St Paul told us that whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, "do all for the glory of God." During the Summer Games, three women showed the world how you do that. You refer everything to God: as Gabby tweeted, quoting the Psalms: "Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things He does for me."

Just a mustard seed

Today's Gospel call for "faith the size of a mustard seed" matches well with both the first reading ("the just one shall live by faith") and today's saint, the great St. Clare, the first Franciscan woman.

As I reflect on that mustard seed, a spice I have also used whole in cooking (watch out when sauteeing: they explode!), I am starting to think of the seed less as my faith in a little package as perhaps the amount of space needed in the garden of my soul for that seed to take root. In other words, blending the parable of the Sower and the various kinds of soil with today's image. All it takes, Jesus hints is this much room (and here he pinches his thumb and index finger as if holding a single tiny mustard seed) and you can let God's word take root in you. From there on, it's all a matter of God's power.

He even complains that the disciples were unable to work the miracle that day (the cure of the epileptic or "moonstruck" boy) because they had so little faith. I don't see too many miracles on that order happening around me, to tell you the truth. Is Jesus looking at us and shaking his head over our puny, maybe compromised faith? What mountain does he want to see us move? (Given the settled question today over the picture of the coming Presidential election, I see mountains enough!) Can we make just "this much room" for the Word of God to take over in our life; hand over just a mustard seed's worth of ourselves and let him begin to truly be our Lord?

Off retreat, but on...encounter

Our summer program isn't complete just because our retreat is made. Either before or after the spiritual exercises we usually have four or five days of community updating, which we just call "Encounter." The theme can be a hodgepodge of issues, or maybe just one: community, vows, mission, theology, spirituality, Pauline charism, St Paul's writings... This year's Encounter focuses around our mission, specifically the call to the "New Evangelization." 

It started yesterday with a kind of "show and tell" visit to the motherhouse. Several of the departments in the publishing house gave us presentations on their current and upcoming projects. (Actually, I am pretty excited about two projects that just came out--I'll write about them separately--and about one that is waiting in the wings and needs just a bit more prayer....one I proposed several years ago!) 

Perhaps my favorite part of the open house was an unscheduled visit to a new "department" which goes by the name of "mini-media department." I just call it the senior sisters' workshop. This is where CD jackets get fitted into the jewel box, and the CD popped in place before going to the shrink-wrap machine. It's where the rosaries and rosary bracelets are made for our book centers and our First Communion sets, while the sisters pray the rosary out loud together. It's where Sr Lorenzina is filling a Christmas order for her plastic canvas creations, and where Sr Susan Helen (when she's not helping in the Dedham book store) can be found slipping matching tassles onto bookmarks. (Kind of makes me wonder if I should take up a useful craft now, so that I will find employment in the workshop in my golden years!) Pictures coming soon!

 

TOB Tuesday: Sr Helena

I'm finishing up my retreat today, but TOB Tuesday must go on! (Thank Heavens these things can be pre-scheduled!) While I am out of town these next four TOB Tuesdays I will let Sr Helena be the guest speaker...from the radio show she hosted on July 13.

 Here is part 1, introducing the topic of TOB and women, and interviewing "Christine" about the vision that the original "hippies" had of women--and what happened to it.

Listen now!
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Treasure in a field; see you in a week

Today's Gospel couldn't be more appropriate. Jesus compares the Kingdom of heaven to a buried treasure, discovered by a happy passer-by. The natural response to a find like that is to "go, sell all you have" and buy it (words we find Jesus using more than once). Interestingly, Jesus never says that the new owner goes and digs up the treasure. But it's his, all his.

Even if he never retrieves the treasure, or sells it off bit by bit, things are very different for the new owner of that very special field. I have a sneaking suspicion that he would  never sell the treasure: what would he use the proceeds for? A different treasure? The treasure is a good in itself: it is to be enjoyed, contemplated, celebrated.

What sort of treasure that is depends on the person and the circumstances. Naturally, if we're talking "Kingdom of God," we mean God himself. But there are little earthly treasures that serve as sacraments of that divine treasure. And they can be just as hidden as the mysterious presence of God. Think of your spouse: you recognize treasures of grace and goodness in this special person that may very well be hidden from every other pair of eyes but yours. Mothers famously see goodness in their children, even when those children are convicted of horrific crimes. Are the mothers wrong? Or is there really a buried treasure that is all but out of reach?

Tonight our annual retreat begins. You could say that it is that time once a year that I go to my field and dig up my buried treasure, dust it off, contemplate it in a new light and recommit to it.

I hope to be back on line in a week. In the meantime, you are in my prayers, along with all your special needs, hopes and intentions. But for today, I invite you to look at your own buried treasure, "rejoicing at the find."