Halloween Baby

Happy Birthday to ... me! (Here I am on my 4th birthday, with my sister Mary.)

I always did enjoy my special birthday, with its unique perks for a Catholic school girl: no school the next day! That meant I not only got to go around the neighborhood collecting candy as part of my regular birthday party, I always had a birthday party on the real day! When I was old enough, I could have what we so quaintly called a "slumber party" on my actual birthday; the next day, my friends dispersed after the Holy Day Mass.

Among the Daughters of St. Paul in this North American province, there are three Halloween Babies; happy birthday to Sr Sean in editorial, and Sr Mary Rita at the motherhouse!

Do you know any Halloween Babies?


As you prepare for little visitors this evening, here is a helpful reminder from a Chicago dad whose rambunctious son has life-threatening allergies:

Tonight a lot of creatures will visit your door. Be open-minded. The child who is grabbing more than one piece of candy might have poor fine motor skills. The child who takes forever to pick out one piece of candy might have motor planning issues. The child who does not say trick-or-treat or thank you might be shy or non-verbal. The child who looks disappointed when he sees your bowl might have an allergy. The child who isn't wearing a costume at all might have SPD (sensory processing disorder) or autism. Be nice. Be patient. It's everyone's Halloween. Happy Halloween!

TOB Tuesday and the most despised verse in the whole Bible

It's in today's first reading. You know the one. "Wives, be submissive to your husbands."

If that's all you know from the letter to the Ephesians, you will be likely to (a) skip right over the entire paragraph, (b) dismiss the letter to the Ephesians as an ancient text that is impossible to take seriously in the modern world, or even (c) shrug off the entire Bible.

Pope John Paul did his best to see that you don't fall into that temptation. He spent months' worth of his Wednesday "Theology of the Body" talks going over that famous Chapter 5, word by word.

Why? Just so we would be more respectful of the Bible, even if we found its message hard to stomach? No! Because if we would only read it, really read it, we would discover that in some ways, that part of the late Pauline letters is the crown jewel of the entire gift of Divine Revelation. Paul tells us in the very beginning of the letter that this is what is going on: "God made known to us the mystery of his will...to bring all things into one in Christ--things in heaven and things on earth." By the time you get to Chapter 5, you are prepared for the specifics. And so Paul descends from the heavenly heights and goes right to the heart of the home, and even into the most intimate recesses of the home, and begins to talk to husbands and wives about their relationship.


He didn't start there; Chapter 4 leads in (as we heard yesterday at Mass) by reminding us of the love Christ had for us: he loved us and sacrificed himself for us, the Church. So when Paul gets to the nitty-gritty stuff of family life, he has already set the stage. The model relationship is no less than the love of Christ for his Church, and the Church's response to that love.

Paul isn't telling women just to be "submissive" to any and every sort of behavior or abuse: He starts out by telling all the Christians to "be submissive to each other out of reverence for Christ." "Mutual submission" is to be a characteristic of any Christian community. And if you keep reading, you see that he says wives ought to "be submissive ... as the Church submits to Christ." The Church does not submit to abuse from Christ! The Church accepts the sacrificial love of Christ, and tries to respond to that love.  So Paul tells husbands that their love should be "as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself." The "masculine" expression of submission is not "Yes, Dear," but "This is my body, given up for you; take and eat." In the same way, the wife's love should be welcoming and receptive of that sacrifice "as the Church submits to Christ." This is Holy Communion in the heart of the home! Just as Christ and the Church are one Body, husband and wife are one flesh. And then Paul marvels, "This is a great mystery [Latin: sacramentum], and I mean this in regard to Christ and the Church."

In other words, marriage is not about the couple as much as it is a reflection of the real marriage, the real "two become one" of Christ and his people--all of us. God has fulfilled the "mystery of his will, to bring all things into one in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth." Marriage is really a heavenly reality, expressed in human terms and participated in through such human means that we think it is really utterly earthly. And so we can miss the divine invitation that the human sacrament offers.

In this week's Mass prayers, the Prayer after Communion reflects this perfectly:

May your Sacraments, O Lord, we pray,perfect in us what lies within them,that what we now celebrate in signswe may one day possess in truth.

Women (still) speaking for themselves

I really dislike posting things on these issues, but there seem to be so many misconceptions--and the timing is so critical--that I feel obliged to make at least some contribution to getting other voices heard.
 
You can also read--and sign--the open letter to President Obama and HHS Secretary Sebilius.

The first part of the video includes the sound bite that started all the rhetoric about a "war on women" being waged, presumably, by those who are opposed to forcing employers to pay the coverage for free birth control, sterilizations and abortifacients when these violate the employers' religious principles [keep in mind that there is no minimum age for access to these "services," either]. As Mary Hallan FioRito pointed out last week, there actually were women scheduled to speak out agains the HHS mandate when Congresswoman Maloney asked "Where are the women?" (Rep. Maloney walked out of the hearing before those women's turn to speak.)

Here's an employer who is not a woman--or a big Catholic hospital or university, but who provides extremely generous healthcare benefits to his employees (whom he calls "associates"); he, too, is directly affected by the HHS mandate that was signed into effect in February.

 

 Malala Yousafzai knows of a
very different "War on Women"

(Our friends at Spirit Juice Studios (the same company Sr Helena is working with on our documentary film) produced both of the above videos.)

 Speaking of the so-called "War on Women" while at the Theology of the Body seminar I went around buttonholing my fellow participants on the subject. Here are Sara and Paul:
 
One of the other participants was from Sierra Leone; listen to what she has to say about "war" and "women":
 

Conceived in Rape

Just about the worst way of coming into the world that you can imagine. So horrible, it is a given that politicians who regularly approve restrictions on abortion allow for exceptions in case of it. But now some people are coming out of the closet. They are the ones whose life would have been at stake--the ones conceived in rape.

In each of their cases, the rape victim found support; she found a way to protect the second victim; she let an incredible good be born from a vile and violent crime.

Interesting how many of those speaking out now are, precisely, women.

Susan is one of them.



Here's Rebecca Kiessling, probably the most prominent of these people with a dramatic story to tell. She has a whole website devoted to the issue, with story after story of people whose life was, even at its very start, sacred and inviolable. Many, having been raised by adoptive parents, were pro-life; many did not learn the circumstances of their conception until later in life. (You can imagine what that did to the "rape exception" some of them had formerly wanted to allow.)

Maybe, in this week before elections, it's time to listen to them.

Community Update

Our Sister Marie James (from the Culver City, CA community) just got back from Rome, where she attended the canonization of Kateri Tekakwitha (and those others). This was especially meaningful for Sister Marie James because she belongs to the Penobscot people (that's their emblem she is holding).

And because she brought our new book on St Kateri as a gift for the Holy Father, she was able to be in the offertory procession at the Mass of Thanksgiving in St. Peter's the day after the canonization!  Sister said that there were roughly 1,000 Native Americans at the celebration, which she attended with her parents.

The new book she is holding is part of our "Encounter the Saints" series for ages 8-12. (We have a poster of the book cover in our front window right now, and it really grabs people's attention: quite a feat on Michigan Avenue!)

A less-than-welcome lesson in spirituality

All this long week and a half since my back went out, I have been on the receiving end of an uncomfortable lesson in the spiritual life. Maybe you know what it's like, too. Out of the Scripture, from an unexpected verse in the Liturgy of the Hours or a "random" something that I read, I keep finding the invitation: "Just for now, let this pain be what you do." (My mom would put it a different way: "Offer it up!")

In fact, one of the frustrations of these days has been precisely the sense of limitation. I've only been to Mass three times since this kicked in. I'm pushing it to do anything at the computer, so my various projects are on hold, except for the ones I have figured out how to carry forward in ten-minute intervals on my feet, or while flat on my back--and that doesn't work very well, to tell the truth. I had to cancel plans to offer a book display of Theology of the Body materials for tomorrow's conference on Protecting Families from Pornography because--not only can I not carry the boxes of books (someone might offer to help with that part), I can't stand for long periods of time. Not that I could manage the long drive to the Green Bay area. "Offer it up!"

God is "offering" something, too: to work more with my inability than with my abilities.

And there's the rub: I would really rather God use my talents. And why? Partly because of the sense of satisfaction that offers me--but I have to admit there's something more than just that honest and appropriate enjoyment of the exercise of a gift God must also delight in... I also want something to point to; some "trace" or record of my achievements. Something I can look back on for reassurance that my life is meaningful, or that I am making some sort of worthwhile contribution to my community. And that's just not there when God chooses to use a backache to carry out His work!

On the other hand, if God chooses to use my inability, and in fact uses it to work outsized marvels of his mercy for someone I may not meet this side of eternity, that means I will never be out of work! I will always be able to cooperate with God, and on a vaster scale than my "abilities" would ever reach.

Listen up!

Here's a link to the radio archives where you can tune in to today's broadcast (Episode 516).
About halfway through there is a really funny song--listen for it! And toward the end, a track from our album "There Can Be Miracles ." In between, well, I wasn't able to get all my prepared audio clips in (I'll use them later!), but we did cover the points the producer had proposed.

The voters' prayer

Thanks to the folks at CatholicVote.org for this!

Just a reminder that you can tune in at noon (Chicagoland, 750AM on your radio dial; online at windsofchangeshow.com) when I'll be hosting the lunch hour broadcast from St Stans.

By the way, the St. Michael bumper stickers are in! We went with a modified version of the #3 design.

Broadcasting Live

Wednesday.

Noon to 1:00 on the "Winds of Change" show at St Stan's Church.

I'll be talking with Mary Hallan FioRito, executive assistant to Francis Cardinal George, about the HHS mandate, the "war on women" and the recently published book, "Breaking Through: Catholic Women Speak Out."

Plus I'll play some music.

 You can listen live, or check back later or the archived show! And, if you would, offer a prayer, please!

Catholic Voting Guides

Today I came across two rather different versions of Catholic voting guides. One sums up the emphases given in the U.S. Bishops' document "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship"; the other was prepared by the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas.

Graphic from the Sisters of Mercy guide

The nuns get top grades for excellent presentation: the guide is formatted as a workbook. Under each topic there are several questions for you to research (and room for you to jot down your findings), facts and statistics related to the topic and supporting quotes from Scripture, Pope Benedict and Church teachings.  There are also links to further resources. It is spare and focused.

As you might expect, the Sisters of Mercy guide centers on the congregation's priorities of "mercy and justice." The treatment seems to be given in a kind of hierarchy that begins with global poverty and the environment and ends with women (issues which include human trafficking, equal pay, and assistance for expectant mothers). Or maybe it's the other way around: are women "at the end" or are they the ultimate value? Or are all six areas (poverty, earth, immigration, nonviolence, racism, women) more or less on an even plane in terms of how we should tend to vote?

The U.S. Bishops document, which is available in a "short form," relies heavily on words. As far as that goes, I think the Sisters of Mercy can "teach the teachers to teach" when it comes to a format and style that are appropriate for the culture today. The nuns clearly have something rather specific in mind (here's Question #3 under "Poverty": "What is each candidate’s tax policy including their position on raising taxes on those who earn more than $250,000 and have benefited most from the past 10 years of tax breaks?"), but they present it in a way that puts the user "in charge." The bishops remain on the level of principles. Frankly, as much as I agree with them, I'm not sure that principles "say" that much any more. 

More importantly, the Bishops offer a very different look at the hierarchy of values than the Sisters of Mercy, even though for the most part the very same values are being upheld in both sets of voter guidelines. Here are the issues the Bishops ask voters to take a special look at; the issues that have the most moral weight--and thus which weigh the most on our Catholic consciences:

• Right to Life and the Dignity of the Human Person: under this point we get the language of "intrinsic evils": "abortion, euthanasia, human cloning, and destruction of human embryos for research"; other problem areas are genocide, torture and unjust war
• Family and society
• Rights and Responsibilities (including the right to religious freedom, which the Bishops see as particularly threatened right now because of laws signed into effect this year)
• Option for the Poor and Vulnerable (including the unborn, disabled persons, and those with terminal illnesses, as well as the marginzlized)
• Dignity of Work; Rights of Workers
• "Solidarity" (an umbrella term which covers "justice, [ending] racism, [ending] human trafficking, [protecting] human rights, [seeking] peace, and [avoiding] the use of force except as a necessary last resort)
• Care for God's Creation

I think the Sisters of Mercy have a kind of pragmatic focus: if we address poverty, many of the other ills will be addressed; if we address the environment, many related problems (famine, flooding, etc) may be mitigated... The Sisters keep things lean and to the point, almost guiding the hand of the voter in the way the questions are phrased (see that example from "Poverty" above).

The Bishops start with a more philosophical consideration of the hierarchy of values, with things like "prudential judgment" and "intrinsic evils." The Bishops' concerns are more comprehensive, as well. Unfortunately for focus, that means that the Bishops' document leaves a lot more for the voter to do.

But I see something else. The Bishops' priority "list" (if we can call it that) keeps taking us back to the core value:  the human person. Only the last issue, "Care for God's Creation" (which clearly situates the environment or the Sisters of Mercy's "earth" in a faith context) is not directly concerned with people. True, the Sisters of Mercy highlight "Poverty" as a priority issue, but almost in the abstract. And whether or not the Mercy list was meant to be hierarchical, I'm not comfortable with a list of priorities that seems to put the planet on the same level as its inhabitants. 


With a week to go 'til Election Day, I wish someone would put the U.S. Bishops' guidelines into as practical and understandable a format as the Mercy nuns!

New American Saints!

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, pray for us!

Saint Marianne Cope, pray for us!

In case you were wondering why

The Archdiocese of St. Louis put out a 16-second video explaining the problem Catholics have with the federal government's insistence that our Church-run institutions that (rightly) provide medical insurance for their employees pay for contraceptives and sterilizations (or pay a crippling fine of $1000 per day per employee).



Naturally, this is a crucial issue facing, not just Catholics, but all people of faith in the upcoming election.

The definition of nobility

I was introduced to today's saints in eighth grade. Our parochial school had Catholic textbooks, and there was a poem in our English book about St. Isaac Jogues (seen in the cassock in this stained glass window from a Massachusetts parish). The man in secular clothes is his fellow martyr, Rene Goupil, who wasn't even officially a Jesuit until rather late in the game, when it was obvious that he was going to die a martyr, having been faithful to the Jesuit mission "unto death." Jogues was the one who, having already suffered tortures that left his hands mangled and mutilated, had been rescued by the Dutch (no friends of the papist preachers) and brought home to Europe, only to beg permission to return to the missions. (Probably not what I would have done.)

These men were living in Huron longhouses (not tipis) just 100 years after St. Ignatius' death but kept a tradition started in Ignatius' own lifetime: sending detailed reports (known, then and now, as the "Jesuit Relations" from their Latin title) back to the Superior General about the work of the missions, the life of the Jesuit community, and the well-being of each member. This weekend, we will see the extraordinary fruits of some of those reports when the Mohawk-Algonquin convert Kateri Tekakwitha is canonized as the first Native American saint. The link above will send you to the "Relations" from the North American missions ("New France").


Up in Canada, the Jesuits had a whole Christian village going. I treasure the memory of a day spent at "Ste-Marie-among-the-Huron," reconstructed on the original site (and the original location of St. Jean Brebeuf's grave). In all, eight saints are honored as the "North American martyrs."

But there are others who would undermine the heroism of these noble men. Just yesterday I edited the Wikipedia article for two "factoids" that seem to have been entirely invented by the person who wrote them: claims that "the tortures [suffered by the martyrs--who, after all, died from them] were exaggerated"in order to impress potential donors back in Europe, or that the Huron weren't really that engaged with the missionaries (no, they just let them live in the longhouses and move with them to their summer and winter camps), and the Iroquois attacked because they were so mad that the Huron didn't follow their advice to steer clear of all Europeans. (After almost 400 years, where did this new information come from?) One assertion (removed by another alert user) suggested that the smallpox virus was part of a deliberate plot, though perhaps not by the Jesuits (but then again, who knows?).

The Jesuit martyrs were not canonized because only they died in a particularly brutal way while preaching the Gospel. They are models because of their heroic love of God. These were men of commitment and passion. Here's a sample of that holy passion, from the spiritual journal of St. Jean Brebeuf (who seems to have suffered the most protracted martyrdom of the whole group):

For two days now I have experienced a great desire to be a martyr and to endure all the torments the martyrs suffered.... I vow to you, Jesus my Savior, that as far as I have the strength I will never fail to accept the grace of martyrdom, if some day you in your infinite mercy should offer it to me, your most unworthy servant.... On receiving the blow of death, I shall accept it from your hands with the fullest delight and joy of spirit.... My God, it grieves me greatly that you are not known, that in this savage wilderness all have not been converted to you, that sin has not been driven from it.

Another way of looking at the Beatific Vision

Can I admit it? I can almost agree with people who say they are afraid Heaven is boring. After all, you have to be pretty advanced in the spiritual life to think that a "Beatific Vision" is going to keep you interested for more than a day or two. Maybe that is why Pope John Paul's offhand reference (in the Theology of the Body) struck me so intensely last night as I read it.

Pope John Paul envisions the life of Heaven as a reciprocal "gift of self" in which we finally experience and fully participate in what it means to be the "image and likeness of God." God, the Trinity (complete and eternal gift of self already) makes that full and compete gift of self to us all along; in Heaven, all the barriers to our responsive gift of self will be done away with, and God's gift to us, still full and complete, will finally receive an answer.

Heaven is not a passive gaze at an inert (but glorious) Deity; it is a spousal reality "foretold" here an now in the mystery of our being "the image of God, male and female."

Documentary progress

Sister Helena, in between all her talks and book exhibits, has been meeting with Rob and the Spirit Juice team to get the Alberione film into its final shape. That has meant a lot of painful cuts to the narration (but I think my part is still in). 

Me, getting some makeup before my interview.
On location  in Italy (Seminary of Alba, where
Alberione was both student and professor).

On location in Italy (October, 2010).

Our hope is to have a kind of first draft (called a "rough cut") by the Conversion of St. Paul (Jan 25). We didn't plan it that way, but it is delightful to think that the film about a man of faith will be completed in the Year of Faith, and well in advance of the 1914 centenary of the founding of the Pauline Family!

In case you were wondering how you can make a real difference in bringing the documentary film "Media Apostle"into existence, an anonymous donor has just made an offer you... (you know the rest).

If between now until November 26 (the Feast of Blessed James Alberione, the subject of the film) we receive $10,000, an anonymous donor will match that, dollar for dollar. That means that by Alberione's feast day, the film will have received all the support it needs for that "rough cut."

So watch the trailer again, share it on your blog and Facebook wall, and encourage your friends to help "Media Apostle" reach the silver screen on time!

First thing first

Another amazing configuration of readings for Mass today (I mean the weekday readings, not the special Gospel for today's mind-bogglingly noble saint).

Paul, the former Pharisee, has to help the Galatians recognize that the religious laws he himself so carefully observed and promoted (and which they found strangely attractive) are not an "end" in themselves: they were enacted to keep a lid on all sorts of anti-social activities (which he then goes on to list for our convenience, but you can find in any day's headlines).  What Paul (and Jesus in today's Gospel) tell us to focus on are not mere observances, but a kind of docility to the action of the Holy Spirit, so that our lives manifest the Spirit's presence in virtues that are beyond human achievements (and which no law can mandate--or repress!): charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness...


Both readings seem to look at the two ends of a perennial pendulum: on the one end, minute, legalistic observance that idolizes rules and regulations; on the other, unrestrained passion--"the lust that is idolatry" (according to Paul, in another letter). In the center, "judgment and the love of God" which upholds both the law and human freedom; a fullness characterized by the abundant "fruits of the Spirit."

Not what I had in mind...

One of the risks I took in going for the week of TOB was that my back wouldn't be able to withstand so much class time. I thought I had dodged a bullet, but it came for me yesterday. Please pray that my recovery will proceed apace, for the sake of the commitments I made to my community for these next two weeks. As it is, I am unable to get to Mass at all...
thanks.

Home again, Home again!

I have a long wait in the Philadelphia airport for my long trip back to Chicago (via St. Louis????). But here at Gate E13 there is a magnificent view of downtown in a kind of frame of bright clouds; I have the ease of a Southwest Airlines "stand-up" computer table to use, plus my communications technology (and a Kindle), so I have a chance to begin to catch up on a few things after almost a week away.

Already the "processing" of the TOB experience has begun, thanks in part to a project I was engaged in between the sessions. I had brought a voice recorder to get some interviews from my fellow participants, in case I had another opportunity to host a radio show. Guess what? There in my mail box was a message asking me to ... host a radio show on October 24. I had a few technical issues with the recorder (not the least was failing batteries--and all the spares I had brought seemed to be just as weak as the old one), but I did get a few "TOB voices" on issues around Theology of the Body and the rhetoric of the "war on women." One of the most distinctive voices came from a young woman who runs an orphanage in Sierra Leone. When I get back to my office, I will be busily putting those interviews together in a usable form--I hope!

Among the insights I got from the presentations by Christopher West was the not-exactly-news that people are all, always, looking for love. Peter Kreeft speaks of this in terms of the "God-shaped hole" in the human heart. It's a search that testifies to our ultimate destination, but we keep expecting proxies to meet that need. Some people, West said, become "addicts" whose lives are consumed by the search for the next "hit" whether it is in the form of serial relationships or some less-than-human filler. Theirs is the path of idolatry: putting a human being or an earthly good (like pleasure or achievement) in God's place. But not even in the best of all marriages can the spouses really complete one another to that degree!

Others try the "stoic" route and simply try to repress the desires of the heart, the way the "iconoclasts" of old went around trying to destroy the icons of Jesus and the saints that were supposed to be windows into eternity. For the stoics, there's no place to go anyway.  Until this afternoon, I had kind of pegged myself as the "stoic" type. After all, my hero in 4th grade was Mr. Spock from Star Trek, the half-man, half-Vulcan who didn't have any pesky feelings complicating his life! Nope. I just have a kind of subtle "addiction" that I pursue with all the doggedness of our more aggressive panhandlers back in Chicago.

Only the "mystics" get it right. They aren't afraid of intense desires, knowing that these are a message system from God telling us that life on earth is lived in the tension of the "already" and the "not yet" of communion with God: already lived now in the sacramental language of the body, in view of the full experience of what it means to be the image of God (which is too big a reality for any place but heaven).

TOB Tuesday: TOB in the Flesh!

Usually I have to get my TOB Tuesday material from other sources. This time I am writing to you straight from the Theology of the Body Institute, where I am one of around 70 participants in the weeklong immersion program. We're an intersting collection: 5 or so priests, 2 sisters (both happen to  be Daughters of St. Paul--the other one is Sr Tracey), married couples, engaged couples, singles, widowed and divorced. We're from several countries, too: a rather large contingent from Canada, one young woman  from Africa (Sierra Leone, I think), another two from England.  I hope as the week continues to be able to interview some of the participants to hear their "TOB story" and share it with you, but I think they might be intimidated if I come to them right off the bat with a microphone (I'm thinking ahead to my nex stint as a radio host, as well).

The presenter this week is Christopher West, who really ought to be credited with making Theology of the Body at least something of a household word in Catholic circles. Day One was mostly introductory background: the general approach of John Paul II as he uses the biblical image of marriage to interpret, well, the whole biblical message; the way our modern and postmodern cultures have veered on their own trajectory so that we habitually misread what the Bible says about the body; the Catholic mystical tradition that offers its own remedy to our era's very sad state of confusion in all of the above.

Please pray that these sessions (6 hours a day!) will help me to acquire a more "global" understanding of Theology of the Body, which until now I have only been able to sip through a narrow straw, reading articles or listening to mp3 talks.  There goes the bell! If you don't hear from me tomorrow, you know why!

Year of Faith Free Resources

The Year of Faith begins this Thursday! Pope Benedict has six outcomes in mind for this extended time of reflection that coincides with the 50th anniversary of Vatican Council II. All in all, these goals come together in renewing the Church's evangelizing witness. But it starts with each and every member of the Church growing in "authentic conversion" and in "knowledge of the faith." For that, there are several free tools available, and since they are all online, you're not too late for any of them!

Read the Catechism of the Catholic Church this year! It's easier than you think: Just submit your e-mail address to get a daily reading that guarantees you covering the whole CCC in the Year of Faith! If you'd rather read the Catechism the old-fashioned way, order a copy online (or come and see us downtown). Looking for the Catechism Lite? The YOUCAT is a great option!

Sign up for "So Great a Faith," a Year of Faith resource that comes to you via e-mail every other week, looking at issues that challenge Catholics in living the faith today.

For the family, sign up for the "J-Club Year of Faith" monthly newsletter with activities for kids as well as reflections for parents and religion teachers.


Two Year of Faith opportunities for teens:

Teens can share some of their experiences in the life of faith--and possibly find them being published in an upcoming book! If they have served on a mission, performed service for the community, or volunteered their time, talent or treasure according to their gifts, Pauline Books & Media is accepting written reflections by teens on experiences of mission, service, and evangelization; in their local parish/school/community, in other places throughout the US, abroad, and even online.editorial@paulinemedia.com for more information and submission forms; deadline for submissions is October 31!

Teens in the Archdiocese of Chicago can also submit entries in the Digital Disciples Video Contest. Cash prizes for the best 2-minute video by teens, for teens, on the importance of Sunday Mass. Deadline is January 10.

A Little Hint of Heaven

That's what today's Mass readings suggest to me: a clue about the life we are meant to live in Heaven.

There's a first stage of that revelation in the reading from the conclusion of the book of Job. After all his anguish and loss, Job "meets" God, surrenders to His mysterious providence, and enjoys the rewards. For the people of the time, sheep numbering in the tens of thousands (not to mention the six thousand camels, thousand yoke of oxen and thousand she-asses) was a deliriously enthralling prospect. Add to that seven sons ("perfect!") and three lovely daughters, and Job could be considered the most blessed man ever to live.

But wait, there's more! Because God didn't make us to find all our happiness is sheep and camels, or even in our most beloved family members. God made us for an even more perfect happiness, and that is what we see in the Gospel for today.

There are three words that the first reading and the Gospel have in common today, and they are words that could sum up the whole Bible: blessed, eye, see. Job said to God, "I had heard of you by word of mouth, but now my eye has seen you." And the story continues, "Thus the Lord blessed the latter days of Job..." In the Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see...." Whereas for Job,  blessing and the vision are two distinct things (Job has seen the Lord, and the Lord blesses him with abundant sheep and camels),  in the Gospel, the blessing is in the vision itself. "No one knows who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him."

And who might that be? The very ones standing there before him, with their reports of healing miracles, and raisings from the dead, and demons cast out. Looking at them, Jesus sees the Father's eternal plan beginning to take shape on the earth. And Jesus "at that very moment" himself "rejoices in the Holy Spirit" and begins to praise the Father right out loud for hiding the secrets of Heaven from the sophisticates of the world, and revealing them to the childlike. Jesus rejoices that their names were written in heaven, while they, dumbfounded, witnessed what Jesus' inner life was from all eternity (and what theirs--and ours--is promised to be): a rejoicing in the Holy Spirit that issues forth in praise of the Heavenly Father.

It's all summed up so neatly in the final verse of today's Responsorial Psalm:

The revelation of your words sheds light,

giving understanding to the simple.

Imponderables

Granted, it's a little late for my blog post about the day's Mass readings, but tomorrow's readings really do offer a kind of "part 2" to each of them, so consider this a prologue of sorts...

What came to my mind as I read the text from Job for today (God narrating the marvels of the universe to Job) was a book I read years ago. It was called "Imponderables," and was one of those "answers to head-scratching questions" books. The author included a call for more head-scratchers for a future volume (and I actually had one that got in the new book, so I was sent a free copy!). In the reading God was, in effect, asking Job one head-scratcher after another: all those "mighty deeds" that unfold day after day in creation, so that we can forget how marvelous they are. And Job repents of whatever lack of faith his challenge to God had represented.

Which is just what seems to have happened in Capernaum and Bethsaida in Jesus' day. Where God treats Job in a rather bemused way, Jesus really lets those two favored cities have it. Why? Because they had witnessed his mighty deeds, but refused to respond in repentance.

Tomorrow we get the flip side of each story: instead of obstinance or just obtuseness, there is thanksgiving. Job admits, "My own eyes have seen you," and Jesus tells his disciples that that's the case for them, too: "Blest are the eyes that see what you see!"

What step do I need to take so that my eyes will be open to God's "imponderables" as they play out in my life?

Here is the book with my formerly
(in the days before the Internet)
unanswerable question about why there is
a tiny Niagara Falls picture on
Nabisco Shredded Wheat boxes.

Your vote counts (at least for this...)

St Michael #1 (grey background)

St Michael #2 (blue and gold background)

St Michael #3 (mostly blue background, with white text)

My mom liked my bumper sticker idea so much, she is proposing to actually go ahead and get one made. I like the idea myself, but don't feel comfortable using the Walters Art Museum image of St. Michael, because of licensing questions.

So I found a picture I took of a window of St. Michael from Milan (I think) and tried to work with that. What do you think? Will that St Michael make the cut? Which design ought to go to print? Or should I get back to the drawing board?

Use the survey link to cast your vote, and use the comments box to give other opinions. Like, how many bumper stickers do you want???

When the Gospel seems a bit...much

More ironic Catholicism at CatholicMemes.com

This bit of irony came to mind today when I was reflecting on the Gospel. It's one of those "Jesus didn't really say that, did he?" passages: " Let the dead bury their dead. You go and proclaim the Kingdom of God!" Isn't Jesus supposed to be unfailingly tender and compassionate? Why does he sound so harsh, so cold?

Well, we can't get away from it. It's right in the Gospel of Luke. Right in the middle of a set of three would-be disciples of Jesus. One volunteered to follow Jesus, but Jesus didn't take him up on it. "The Son of Man has no place to rest his head," he observed. A life like that can grow old fast. But then there was the second person. Jesus called him: "Follow me." This one did not "get up at once, leave all things and follow Jesus." He asked for a bit of time, to go and bury his father. (No indication that the father was, in fact, dead at the time.) That's why Jesus responded as He did. It is as if He were saying, "Let go! There is a new creation breaking in on the whole world! The old things don't matter anymore! Get a move on!"

St Paul did a whole theology in this vein: the same stark language about death--only this time, applied to, of all things, the Mosaic Covenant. Compared with the New Testament in Christ's blood, the former Covenant and all its glory was just "carved in letters on stone," "a ministry of death," a "tutor until Christ came" bringing surpassing (and unending) glory (see 2 Cor 3 and Gal 3).

Now, Paul says, we see dimly "as in a mirror." When the face-to-face vision is offered us, it's time to let go of the fond images of the past, and go forward to where all is new.

TOB Tuesday: African Voices

By the bounty of Twitter, I was led to this post featuring an open letter to Melinda Gates by a Nigerian woman in the biomedical field. You may have heard that Gates plans to pump $4.6 billion in birth control into Africa to "liberate" the women of that continent. "I see this $4.6 billion [in birth control] buying us misery. I see it buying us unfaithful husbands. I see it buying us streets devoid of the innocent chatter of children. I see it buying us disease and untimely death."

Now working in England, Obianuju Ekeocha (age 32) points out that the African women she knows and among whom she grew up, do not look on childbearing in the same way that the billionaire American does. "Unlike what we see in the developed Western world, there is actually very high compliance with Pope Paul VI's 'Humanae Vitae.' " There is a natural, societal appreciation for the language of the body (that the cosmopolitan North had to learn from Pope John Paul II).

There is a healthy acknowledgment, too, that their villages do not have the medical infrastructure that widespread access to contraceptive chemicals and devices presume: "...Where Europe and America have their well-oiled health care system, a woman in Africa with a contraception-induced blood clot does not have access to 911 or an ambulance or a paramedic. No, she dies."

Then there's the environmental impact: "....as $4.6 billion worth of drugs, IUDs and condoms get used, they will need safe disposal. Can someone please show us how and where will that be? On our farm lands where we get all our food? In our streams and rivers from whence comes our drinking water?"

Ekeocha doesn't just tell Gates (and the rest of the wealthy western world) where she has failed to think things through; she suggests ways that the allocated billions could respond to the needs of African women and children, beginning with prenatal and pediatric care, and continuing through food and education programs and support for women-run microbusiness and for already functioning organizations that deal with issues of domestic violence, sex trafficking and forced marriage.

Ekeocha's letter (and a follow-up email to the blogger who posted it) shed real light on the issues behind one very confused Catholic woman's efforts to use her incredible wealth on behalf of others.

St Therese, Model of the Vatican II Catholic

We're at a marvelous confluence of faith moments at the start of this October. The feast of St. Therese is always one of those, since she is one of the most popular saints of all time (keeping pace even with St. Francis of Assisi, who had an 800-year head start, and whose feast is later this week). But what I'm really thinking of is:

• yesterday's magnificent first reading about the descent of the Spirit of the Lord on the 70 "elders" in the desert and Moses' ardent cry, "If only all the people of the Lord would be prophets! If only the Lord would bestow His Spirit on them all!"
• the Synod of Bishops (which begins on Sunday) on the theme of the New Evangelization
• the 50th anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II on October 11
• the opening of the Year of Faith (October 11 2012-November 24, 2013)
• the canonization of Kateri Tekakwitha, the consecrated virgin of the first evangelization of the Americas

It seems to me that all these themes are very well depicted in the young woman we call the "Little Flower."


Adapted from Celine's painting at
the Shrine of the Little FLower in Darien IL.

Despite the pieties of her time (something she couldn't escape), Therese had a discerning appreciation for what was essential: being a child of God and making all of life a response of love--even when that love consisted of a dry, tasteless faith. It was in the great spiritual trial she suffered toward the end of her life (so much like her later namesake in Calcutta) that Therese gave our post-modern generation a real model of faith. She found herself in a mysterious communion with the modern era's first secularists. The sense of God's presence had vanished; it was no more than a memory and a vague hope for eternity. A dark doubt penetrated her mind and heart. And she was wracked with pain so great she admitted that a person with no faith at all would have very easily ended it all with an overdose of the medicines that were being kept too near the sickbed.

She turned it all into a priestly offering, united with the sacrifice of Jesus. She knew that nothing in her life would go to waste; she gave it all, freely. If those bereft of hope needed a companion on their dark way to Jesus, she would be that companion, even if it meant sharing the pain of that darkness.

Here is a young laywoman (yes, Sisters are laity) who lived her baptismal calling in that priestly spirit Vatican II would remind the rest of the People of God about a hundred years later. She didn't expect priests to carry the burden of the Church alone. Much has been made of the fact that she herself ardently desired the ordained priesthood (I believe she even remarked once that it was a gift of God's mercy that she was dying before reaching the minimum age of ordination), but since that route was closed to her (as it is to very many people who may feel the same desire), she supported the ministry of those who were ordained, and who may have needed the extra spiritual "assist" in order to live that calling effectively.

As co-patron saint of the Catholic missions (with Francis Xavier!), Therese embodies the Vatican II document "Ad Gentes." As a woman religious who declared herself to be "love in the heart of the Church," she embodies "Perfectae Caritatis." As a Doctor of the Church, she teaches us how to live the Scriptures in the sense of "Dei Verbum" (even though she never had a Bible of her own). As a sister and companion to the people of the first secularized European society, she demonstrates what "Gaudium et Spes" meant when it called all of us to live our faith "in the modern world." 

I could go on, but you get the picture. Would that all the servants of the Lord were such prophets! Would that the Lord might similarly bestow His Spirit on them all!