Why I (Still) Like Halloween

It's All Hallows' Eve, and the most unlikely stores are decked out in orange and black, offering a peculiar assortment of the ghastly and the sweet. Never a big fan of creepiness, I still really like Halloween.  I have three basic reasons:

#1. This is a personal, non-transferrable sort of reason. Halloween is my birthday. My Mom never had

Birthday Girl, age 4,
with little sister, Mary. 

to wonder about a party theme, and trick-or-treating was part of the party fun. As a Catholic school student, I always had my birthday party on my real birthday because we didn't have school on All Saints' Day, it being a Holy Day of Obligation and all. (Consider yourself hereby reminded to go to Mass tomorrow.)

#2.  On a more general scale, you can thank Halloween for those yummy "snack sized" candy bars that nobody would have invented if not for the need to give out the good kind of treats, lest one be labeled forever as a neighbor who offers lame, off-brand candies (or, even worse, healthy treats!).

Light is meant to be shared! And the
 pumpkin on the right is still waiting!

#3. Finally, Halloween is a reminder of one of those moments when the Church's missionary wisdom recognized the "seeds of the Gospel" in a pre-Christian observance. Since the Celtic New Year involved a recognition of the continued existence of the departed (and in some cases, of an unpaid debt to one or another who had died during the year), it provided an "in" for teaching about...the Communion of Saints and our continuing relationship with the deceased.

The Church of Rome used to celebrate All Saints Day in May; as the Celts entered (and influenced!) the universal Church, the feast of All Saints was moved to coincide with the Celtic calendar. That adaptability of the Church--the deep vision of faith that recognizes where God has prepared the way in culture for the greater, transcendent revelation of the Gospel--is something we still need today as a new culture is arising because of the changes in technology. (Every time a new culture arises because of a development in technology, a new evangelization is called for!) Come to think of it, that same big-picture vision can help us respond appropriately to the inappropriate expressions of Halloween, too.


Looks like I'm not alone!
Three Reasons Christians Must Celebrate Halloween
I'm So Done With Apologizing for Halloween

 "Abusus non tollit usum," as the ancients used to say. What do you think about Halloween and the sane ways it can be observed?

Responding to Ray (part 2 on reading the Bible)

"Ray," a NunBlog reader, is returning to the faith after a longish absence. He realizes he has a lot of catching up to do--and a lot of books to read. Specifically, the 73 books of the Bible. Where to begin?

Yesterday, I looked at some of the major translations of the Bible, and the difference between Catholic and Protestant versions. Now that Ray has his Bible, he wants to actually read it. Should he start "In the beginning..." with the book of Genesis?

From a 13th Century Bible,
King David (lower image) singing
a Psalm about Christ (above).
Walters Museum of Art
Image used under the Creative
Commons License.

It would sure seem to make sense to read the Book of Books the way you read most other books, starting from Page 1. But the Bible is not like most other books. It is a collection of 73 books, written at different times, in different genres (including myth, interpreted history, poetry, prophecy, legislation and letters). As with many books--especially with well-written detective stories--what you find toward the end is what ties everything else together, and reveals the true significance of what you learned early on. And so I pass on to Ray (and to other Nunblog readers) the advice I was given when I entered the convent: Instead of opening your Bible to Genesis, start with the New Testament--with the core of the New Testament, the four Gospels.

By beginning with the fulfillment (and not with the promises), you will have insights that will help you when you do get to some of the more ancient passages--the parts of the Bible that presume a late Stone Age/Early Bronze Age lifestyle.  Instead of getting lost in the details somewhere around the book of Leviticus, you will realize that some of those primitive codes were the moral equivalent of training wheels, habituating people to a life of increasing uprightness and spirituality until the time when they would be ready to go forward on just two wheels: Love of God and love of neighbor. You'll recognize certain key figures (such as Melchizedek, Moses, Joshua, King David) as pointing ahead to Jesus himself, and other important events and customs (Noah's Ark, Passover, manna) as placeholders that would be fulfilled in the sacraments.

If you're up for daily Bible reading, I suggest starting out the easy way: with a missal or missalette (or Mass app like iMissal or iBreviary), using the Mass readings as your Scripture for the day. In three years, you will have covered the most important parts of every book of the Bible, including just about the whole New Testament. The great advantages of this approach are that you get an overall familiarity with the Word of God; you see the way the different books of the Bible work together; and you are actually in a kind of spiritual communion with the entire Catholic Church (and the Protestant churches that follow the same "Common Lectionary"). You will also be introduced to the Book of Psalms not as a book to be read, but as a prayerbook--and used as a prayerbook, since a Psalm almost always follows the first reading as our way of praying over the Word of God in the words God gave us for prayer.

No matter which approach you take, you'll discover what the early Church figured out: The New Testament lies hidden in the Old, and the meaning of the Old Testament is revealed in the New! You'll grasp the "unity" of the Bible, all centered on Jesus.


For more on reading the Bible as a Catholic:

Father Felix Just's suggestions for reading the Bible (he puts the Mass readings approach first!)

Deeper insights into the Bible and its place in the Catholic faith from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

A Pauline Predicament over the World Series

So who am I to root for this year? I spent three years in formation in Boston, but I also spent three years as a junior sister in St. Louis. Then again, I spent eleven years in Boston as a perpetually professed sister--and it is the home of our mother house. Plus, you know, "Nuns Day" at Fenway Park...

Sr Marlyn takes a selfie at Fenway Park.

You tell me:
Should I cheer along with Boston-bred Sister Marlyn Evangelina or with the sisters a mere five-hour drive down I-55 in St. Louis?

Post by Daughters of St. Paul Vocations.

Responding to Ray

As a Catholic, you've probably noticed more people willing to bring up questions or experiences involving the Catholic faith or the Church in general. Pope Francis has piqued a lot of people's interest, and his celebrity has made it socially acceptable, and even comfortable, for people to speak about religion in public. He has also prompted a number of somewhat lax Catholics to begin to work their way back toward a full Catholic life.

One of those coming-back Catholics is a guy I will call "Ray." Ray knows that his understanding of Catholic teachings is a little, shall we say, vague. But he wants to start doing something about that, and he wants to begin in a very good place: the Bible.

I would like to start reading the Bible - what are your recommendations on a version - there are sooo many different ones?  I downloaded an app to my tablet (free app, of course) and it has so many different versions - I am not sure which I should use.  Once I settle on that - where is the best place to begin?  I am not sure if reading from Genesis on is the right way to go.

Photo credit:pasotraspaso Foter (CC BY)

So, the Bible.

Since there are two questions here: which translation would be best and where (how!) to begin. I'll just deal with translations in this first post.

My personal preference in terms of translation is the New American Bible. This is a clear, basic English translation--in fact, it is the same one you hear at Mass in the United States. For me, reading and hearing the same version is a big help toward recognizing Scripture and even memorizing the most important sections. I also like that the recent revisions make this translation much closer to the original Hebrew and Greek that Jesus and the Apostles would have been familiar with. The abbreviation most often used for the New American Bible is NABRE (New American Bible, Revised Edition). You can get the NAB for your i-device on iTunes for $1.99; not free, but not bad. (I haven't used this app, so I can't really recommend it; you can get a highly rated NAB app for $7.99 that might work more smoothly.)

Another major Catholic translation that is unlikely to be on a free app is the Jerusalem Bible, also updated as the New Jerusalem Bible. This is used for the Mass in Canada  [see comment below]. It was translated from the Hebrew and Greek, and then confronted with a high-level French translation. An interesting tidbit about the Jerusalem Bible: "Lord of the Rings" author JRR Tolkein was on the editorial committee!

Your app may not feature these translations because of copyright issues. The closest thing to the NABRE among the commonly used Protestant translations is the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (RSVCE). There is also a "New" Revised Standard Version, which has some unfortunate concessions to political correctness. I use it sometimes for convenience (I have a teeny little New Testament for travel and it is NRSV), but because I am familiar enough with the text to know where they are fudging on the words. I don't recommend the Good News (also called "Today's English Version") because the language is so casual (it is a paraphrase more than a translation), but that's just me. For someone on their first go-through of the Bible, it may hit the spot.

Is my insistence on using a Catholic translation a bit narrow-minded? Actually, you may already know that Catholic Bibles include quite a bit more (very interesting!) material than the typical Protestant edition. These books (Sirach, Tobit, Wisdom, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Baruch--along with amplified versions of Daniel and Esther) are called "deuterocanonicals" because they were recognized as Scripture a little later than books like Psalms or Isaiah. (We're not talking 313 AD late, but more like 100 BC-90 AD late). Some Protestant Bibles will include them, along with other ancient writings, in a section called "apocrypha," where they are indistinguishable from books that have no biblical status at all. (So I think it is better for a Catholic to stick with a Bible that makes it very clear which books are accepted as divinely inspired!) 

Catholic Bibles are also required to have explanatory footnotes: a real help to grasping what a passage means, which other passages it is connected to, and what place it has in connection to the whole of Catholic teaching.

I'll be back again with some thoughts on how to get started--and where! Meanwhile, here are some free resources for Catholic Scripture study (a few places to start):

Scott Hahn's (free!) self-guided Scripture study courses: you have to register first, but access is free. Take your pic of introductory overviews or detailed studies of themes or books. (Hahn's story is interesting; he became a Catholic because he recognized that the Mass was the Bible in action!) 

Understanding the Scriptures podcast: 30 (free!) audio lessons on the Bible, prepared as an accompaniment for a textbook, but you don't need to have the text to benefit from the lessons. You can get this on iTunes, as well. 

Catholic Education Resource Center is a good overall Catholic questions/answers site. I have this link set to a search for all the bible-related questions.

Italy Photo of the Week

From my last day in Rome. Click to see in detail.

This is a fragment of a Christian funeral monument. I didn't get the whole inscription (not that it would have helped much!); the really interesting thing to me is the "orans,"the person praying with outstretched hands--like Moses in last Sunday's first reading. (You do remember that, don't you?) Go to Mass on any given Sunday and you are sure to see the orans: When the priest says, "Let us pray," up go the arms, just like in old times.

This little sample of early Christian life (and death) is one of many fragments installed in the outdoor portico area of Santa Maria in Trastervere, the splendid Church where the lights went off moments after our arrival.

Family spotlight

You'll have to forgive me for highlighting a member of my extended family, but I just found out that my cousin, John Lawrence, a curator of the Historic New Orleans Collection, was honored by the Arts Council of New Orleans for his work in photography...



John Lawrence - Arts Council's 2013 Community Arts Awards from Arts New Orleans on Vimeo.

Good to be HOME!

Rollin' down the river... 

 I got into Chicago about 2 hours ago; unpacked (mostly: lots of books need to find some shelf space!); catching up here... Yesterday was a great mix of networking, great food in Boston's North End, and a walking workshop on photography and video tips for bloggers. We also enjoyed one of the "Duck Tours" on the Charles River (and the streets of Boston), and I got a turn at the captain's wheel!

 I didn't want to wait too long before sharing one of the high points of the weekend in Boston: it was the keynote presentation by Msgr. (ahem!) Paul Tighe from the Vatican's "Pontifical Council for Social Communications."


The PCCS has been very daring of late, plowing ahead into the new forms of media technologies, giving them a try to see which ones can help advance the Gospel. Msgr. Tighe (with his delightful Irish accent) also made what I think is an extremely important point: people "look" to the Vatican to make all the statements, but his office is trying to provide the ordinary Catholic on Facebook or Twitter (or blogs!) with material that they can post, comment on, link to, use freely. It is the lay people who have the most influence in this sphere, and there are a billion of them.

Please watch this wonderful, enlightening and entertaining presentation and tell me what struck you as the most pertinent--or the most surprising of Msgr. Tighe's contributions:

Italy Picture of the Week

It's the market in Rome's Campo dei Fiori! You'd expect to find flowers in the "Field of Flowers" (it is historically a flower market), but the real life in this hidden-away piazza is in the vegetables. (In the mood for eggplant? Sorry; that may be on the sign in the front, but it didn't make it to the photo! How about some fennel instead?)

Why discernment has to take so long

It's no secret that one of the challenges in religious life in recent decades has been the "vocation crisis." In one way, it's not so much a lack of vocations (God doesn't stop calling men and women to a life of special consecration and mission) as it is a crisis of correspondence. But you could also say it is a crisis of discernment.

Thankfully, among Catholic young adults, "discernment" is the spiritual buzzword du jour. It is becoming a recognizable aspect of Catholic spiritual development. "I'm in discernment," someone will say, and the proper response is encouragement and prayer.

But discernment is a two-way street. Not only does a young person (or in some cases not-so-young) need to discern their particular call from God, the communities that work with them also have to exercise great discernment before allowing a person to enter candidacy or postulancy (much less novitiate or first vows). When someone is attracted to religious life, or to a ministry, or to a particular community, the process of discernment can seem to plod along at a purgatorial pace. (I heard once that on a vocational chatroom, one complaint was, "It's really hard to get into the Daughters"!)

At times, though, you'll hear of a young person entering a community after a discernment of only three to six months. Those stories give me the willies. The young person may be clear about their vocational desires, but has the community itself made a discernment? Or do they expect all that to come after the person has left "home, brothers, sisters and property"?

A tragic item in the news this week highlights this responsibility. When I first saw a hint of it on Twitter yesterday, I immediately replied to the reporter that such a thing just didn't ring true; religious communities have safeguards in place! We practice discernment! But after a bit (the reporter was good enough to engage me in conversation), I had to face the facts. Clearly, for whatever reason, the sisters failed in vocational discernment.  The particular case, extreme as it is, involved deceit (or at least dissembling) on the part of the prospective candidate; but somehow the community did not really know the candidate.

I am praying very much for the community involved; for their sisters who had been in vocational contact with the young woman; for the postulants and formation directress forced into an experience so foreign to every expectation. All this, because of a lack of true discernment. Perhaps it was from an excess of enthusiasm; perhaps a bit of impatience; cultural differences may have played a huge role.

But I am not giving up on vocational discernment! In fact, if you know a young woman who could possibly find her fullest joy in a life of consecration and mission, please encourage her to "enter a discernment process"; and maybe you could forward our vocational e-zine!

Ola!

Today our Pauline Webathon Novena is "hosted" by Sister Maria Ruth, the voice of our Spanish radio ministry "Radio Paulinas." Sister Ruth's programs (daily spots, inspirational "drops of optimism," and a Sunday program on the Gospel) are aired worldwide--there is even a station in Sweden putting Sister Ruth on the air for the benefit of Latin American immigrants. Here in the United States, where Spanish airtime is getting more and more expensive as corporations wake up to the power of the Hispanic market, Sister Ruth's programs are broadcast on several Catholic networks, including Radio Maria.

Even though Sister Ruth message reaches millions of people around the world every week, this is not a self-supporting ministry. Immigrant workers in Scandinavia, elderly shut-ins in Miami, dishwashers in New Jersey and men in county jails aren't able to contribute the approximately $20,000 per year it takes to reach those who are poor in heavenly wisdom. Spanish Radio is one more work our community has been trying to sustain, diverting tight-stretched resources that would otherwise be going toward much-needed repairs and equipment. Time and again, our superiors have had to ask if the time had come to simply give up: after twenty years of unremunerated service, can't we say we've done all we could? And it seems that every time a decision like that seems inevitable, a letter comes from one more struggling soul, testifying to the good that "Jesus in My Daily Life" has accomplished in one more corner of the world.

Be sure to visit the Webathon page (and share it on all your social networks!) for today's prayers and witness stories.

Here's a video I did with Sister Maria Ruth some years back:

Arriccia in the News!

So it just came out that Pope Francis is upending another Vatican tradition. He booked a retreat house for the annual Lenten retreat, instead of just holding everything at the Vatican. And the retreat house he chose is very familiar to me, indeed--and at this point, also to you: it is the Divine Master Retreat House founded by Blessed James Alberione!

I wonder if he'll take pictures of the
sunsets over Lake Albano.

Publishing and the New Evangelization

Last Thursday here at the motherhouse, we had a blessing of the offices of several of the publishing house departments that had, for years, been making do with classroom space in our former high school (enrollment limited to girls who wanted to be nuns). Anyway, before the blessing service, our provincial superior gave such a wonderful talk about the mission of publishing and the new evangelization, I just had to share it with you! The timing is right, too, during the Pauline "Webathon Novena" which began yesterday. And so...

What the Publishing House Means
Sr Leonora Wilson, FSP Provincial Superior, Daughters of St Paul

For Father Alberione, The Publishing House is comparable to a church, where the Word of God is preached to a vast audience, in response to the mandate of Jesus, “Go, and preach the Gospel to all peoples.”

“Like oral preaching, the publishing apostolate propagates the word of God. It multiplies it over and over again, making it accessible everywhere, even there where the spoken word by itself might not penetrate...” It’s how God worked, in giving us the Scriptures. Quoting an author of his time, Alberione says of the media in general: “Good or bad, deceitful or truthful, dishonest or virtuous, the media is, in a free country, all-powerful. It creates public opinion and customs; if good, it strengthens the family and the school, if bad it destroys them; it can bring down governments or put them in place; it lays claim to peace and war.”

The specific aim of the publishing apostolate is the glory of God and the salvation of people’s souls. It’s the same purpose Jesus Christ had in becoming man.

The sole ideal of the publishing apostle is to have God reign in people’s lives – “thy Kingdom come.” It’s aim is to stir up faith, if necessary, to instill it; to encourage and strengthen people in living God’s will; to inspire everyone to love God and neighbor.

Since not everyone comes to God in the same way and all have their individual needs, Alberione wanted us to learn from the "publisher apostle" par excellence, Saint Paul, the art of “being all things to all people,” acquiring that flexibility of adaptation that lets us meet people where they are and in keeping with their intellectual, moral,  and religious circumstances. How can we do this? Blessed Alberione himself answers: “The publishing apostle will find no great difficulty in this if he discovers the secret of Saint Paul’s adaptability, which is love: 'in omnibus caritas!'” This needs to be the driving force behind everything we do, whether it be our writing, our digital productions, our radio programs, even our accounting, our budgeting and our marketing; we need to be able to say “It was love that moved me.” “The charity of Christ impels us.”

Love of God and of our fellow human being makes God the hub of the publishing apostolate. Inundated with this love, endowed with the right intention, strengthened by prayer, and steeped in Scripture, the apostle will be able to take up editorial, marketing, accounting or any other task, confident that her work, like the Holy Scriptures themselves, will succeed in being light, guide and support for people.
So as we tour the refurbished apostolate rooms and Father Mozer blesses them, we ask you to join us in saying a prayer for the sisters and employees who work there and for the editions that are created there – that everything may be for the glory of God and be truth, way and life for the people whose lives they will touch.

Thank you and God bless you.

Hypothetically speaking

Yesterday's contributions
came to $4000!

I don't really know why, but the "Webathon Novena" fundraiser going on this week (and into next) doesn't get into many specifics about the needs of our publishing ministry. Perhaps it was a deliberate (and maybe even idealistic) choice to focus on the overall goal of communicating the Gospel: inviting people to share our mission on a broad scale, while offering them a chance to focus that cooperation on one or another "departments." (Today, for example, the music/audio division is "hosting" the Webathon; donors might want to especially underline that aspect if their life was touched by music.)

Do not close this door! The community
cars will be trapped inside!

In reality, our needs are many and specific, but some are a bit overwhelming. Anyone who has ever counted the days until the next paycheck knows what this is like. What would it do to a fundraising effort to say ("hypothetically") that for years now, the sisters  lose thousands of dollars a month because of an obsolete computer system--and the only way to stop the hemorrhaging is to put in a new, up-to-date (and way more efficient) program that costs less than we are losing but requires an up-front payment (hypothetically, $30,000) that is completely out of reach? Or that two overhead doors (one can accommodate trucks) have been broken for months, and will stay that way until a couple of thousand dollars can be found to repair or replace them? What about a photograph of the moldy walls in one of the sound studio isolation booths? Just keep the door closed! Nobody has even tried to calculate the cost of replacing the drywall--much less of addressing the problem that caused the mold in the first place.

I would think that such concrete examples ("hypothetical" as they may be!) are important for a fundraiser. As it is, we don't have a lot of experience in fundraising, given our "bootstrap" tradition, so maybe our Webathon is reflecting that. In that same Pauline tradition, though, we have a prayer in which we tell the Lord that, while we'll do what we can, we expect all the effectiveness to come from him. "For our part, we promise and commit ourselves to seeking…only and always your glory and peace to all people. On your part, we trust that you will give us a good spirit, grace, knowledge and the 'means for doing good'" (the "media" and the ways to use them). That is my prayer today, too.

About our Webathon

Today (Feast of St Teresa of Avila--widely published author and doctor of the Church!), my community opened a nine-day "webathon." Kind of like the telethons you see on PBS, but marginally less entertaining (unless you really like listening to nuns!). This is our first-ever novena of prayer, mission and fundraising, so it is a little awkward right now.

We have traditionally made every effort to follow St Paul in supporting ourselves and our works  with our very own hands, asking special help only for particular projects (like the Theology of the Body classes* and the vocation video--both still in development). Meanwhile, though, instead of being supported by our work, we were using up the community's resources to sustain everything: not exactly a long-term possibility. So the sisters at the motherhouse (where I am for another week) decided to get creative. The goal is the most ambitious we have ever attempted, but we have sisters here still trying to work on twenty-year-old computers under crumbling ceilings. If we reach the goal, equipment can be updated, walls and ceilings repaired, and (best still) new projects taken on that will offer the Gospel clothed in image, ink and bits. (The mismatched furnishings will remain, but might receive a coat of paint.)

Every day of the webathon novena will be "hosted" by a sister representing a different aspect of our publishing ministry. (Today's hostess is Sr Donna, recently appointed "Editorial Manager" of the whole shebang.) Prayers and "mission moments" will be posted throughout the day, and (this is a fundraiser!) there is the  opportunity for a donation. (Feel free to share the prayer links with your friends from the Country Club!)

Start with today's prayer to begin the workday!



*The DVD series is being edited in the video department here in Boston.

There you are!

Pope Francis certainly assisted me in my blog ministry lately! Here's a peek at where NunBlog was accessed: Russia, Finland, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Tajikistan--even the Vatican! There's hardly anyplace missing. "Go out to all the world," indeed!

Click on the map to go to the details page.
You'll get a bigger image, too.

Italy Picture of the Week

Every time I saw a depiction of the Annunciation, my camera came out (except for a couple of places where the "no photos" sign was really obvious). It's part of my ongoing side ministry of promoting the praying of the Angelus, morning, noon and evening. After all, one reason the Muslim community is so clear about its identity and core beliefs is that they stop five times a day to remember what matters most to them. And we?

This "Italy Picture of the Week" is from an outside portico wall at Santa Maria in Trastevere (Rome). Like many of the Annunciation scenes I saw this trip, it shows God the Father actively involved in sending His Son to dwell among us:

The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary;
and she conceived of the Holy Spirit.

oops.

It's rather different being at the motherhouse. For one thing, the room I am using doesn't have Internet access--and even cell phone reception is pretty spotty on this side of the building. (The room does have a jack labeled "modem" but unless you are a certain age, you don't even know what a modem is!) I have to remember to carry the computer to a wifi zone (or ethernet jack!) in order to do anything beyond Twitter or email. Hence the blog silence. As it is, I am typing this up in the guest room and hope I will remember to transport the computer downstairs to actually post it. And the Mass readings have been, well, spectacular; there is so much to share in them, when I see my computer on the desk at night, I really feel that lack of easy access.

Take today's selections, for instance: in the first reading, people are wondering what good it is to be devout. After all, God makes the sun shine on good and bad alike; in fact, it seems like the unscrupulous are better off! What benefit is there in being particularly religious? (God says, "Wait and see...") In the Gospel, Jesus doesn't address the question directly, but encourages perseverance in prayer with a little parable of an insistent neighbor and the wonderful exhortation: Ask and you shall receive; seek and you shall find; knock (like that neighbor!) and the door will open up before you: Wait and see!

But it can be wearisome to "wait and see" when our
need is pressing upon us here and now. That's where the Gospel leads us further on. "What father among you would give his son a scorpion when he asks for an egg? Or a snake when he asks for a fish? As wicked as you are (!), you know how to give your children what is good..."

I'm thinking here of de Caussade's concept of "the sacrament of the present moment." Like any of the other sacraments, it doesn't exactly seem to fit the bill: the Eucharistic species, for example: sure, it is bread of a very particular sort, but it doesn't meet my definition of a "supper," cup or no cup. And yet it surpasses every definition. It's a matter of recognition--and a recognition that is founded on awareness of the goodness and infinite creativity of God. So, too, the present moment. It can bring an unsuspected good--because even if I am suffering through it, I can discover communion with the One who drank the cup of suffering to the dredges for me. The present moment becomes transubstantiated: no longer merely my pain; it is his-in-me. And how much more in the ordinary, undramatic things of life.

More wisdom from Teresa "the Big Flower" of Avila.

I remember a passage from Teresa of Avila, where she was bemoaning her long life on earth. She (like Paul) longed to "dissolve and be with Christ." And the Lord said to her, "That's all well and good. But then I will no longer be able to share these little things with you: to eat in/with you and rest in/with you and converse in and through you." The most forgettable moments of life--these, too, were revealed as communion with God; the overflowing of the gift of the Holy Spirit: "How much more will your Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask! Wait and see!"

Rules for Reading Pope Francis: Rule #5

Reading (and rereading!) the recent interviews Pope Francis gave (one to a fellow Jesuit; another to an atheist journalist), I have had to come up with a set of guidelines to make sure I "get" what the Pope is saying, without letting my own presuppositions (or the way I would say things) distract me. First, I have to get used to the fact that the Pope is going to be speaking off the cuff (Rule #1); that he isn't necessarily speaking to me (Rule #2); that the newspaper headlines are interpretations and fail to communicate the whole point (Rule #3); and that the Pope's message is, far from diluting the content of the faith, challenging my puny faith to acknowledge how much greater the Truth is than I usually give it credit for (Rule #4).

But is there a rule for putting it all together?

Sure there is, and it is the one your mother taught you: Always say "Thank you."

Until the media get tired of Francis (or disillusioned with him) his comments will create openings for the ordinary Catholic to speak about the faith, or about Catholic life, in settings where that would never have been possible without my "forcing the matter." If you have been shy about one on one evangelization, Pope Francis has gotten people interested enough that anyone known to be Catholic is assumed to be a reliable fount of information. If he speaks about the saints, you can mention them now and again, too. If he mentions the need for Catholics to be involved in politics, you have a ready answer to those who would reproach me for bringing your religious convictions into the voting booth (or being active in the political process).

Francis is leading the way, not as a classroom teacher, but as a shepherd who "walks ahead of his sheep, and the sheep follow him." I get the feeling he is deliberately acting "non-pontifical," not to diminish his office as Successor of Peter, but to carry it out in such a way that we, too, carry out our role of being leaven in society. Jesus did the same: "I have given you an example, that as I have done, you also must do."

So what do you say?

Thank you.

Rules for Reading Pope Francis: Rule #4

Following Pope Francis when he goes "off message" or puts aside his prepared notes for a homily or talk reminds me a bit of getting into one of those "Moonwalk Bounce Houses" that people rent for kids parties. UP is still up and DOWN is still down, but they feel different. As a grown-up (and one with a problem back, at that!), I don't find that fun at all. I find it kind of scary.

And that leads me to the 4th "rule" for reading Pope Francis: Don't be afraid. Pope Francis is asking us for more faith--not less.

The Pope may not always use the formulae I'm familiar with, and he may apply the key teachings of the Church in ways that I haven't always thought of, but I'm catching on that what he is saying is more, not less, than what I'm more used to hearing.

Remember what he said to Eugenio Scalfari in the "La Repubblica" interview last week? "There is no 'Catholic god'... there is God." That made some Catholics bounce-house nervous. "Did we miss an important memo? What about the Trinity? Is he 'leveling' the real differences between Catholic understanding and all other religions?"

Far from leveling Catholicism, Francis is giving us a glimpse of what our faith really means: he is heightening the expression of our faith!

This God we believe in as Catholics is not a "Catholic god": There is only One: "He is the LORD and there is no other" and "he rules from end to end and orders all things mightily" while not even a sparrow falls to the ground, or a hair gets brushed off your head that he isn't aware of. This one, holy, infinite God who "delights in the children of men" and "who understands all they do"; "who searches hearts"; who "welcomes sinners and eats with them," is not bound by the means he has given us for meeting him, St Thomas says, not even when those means are the Church and the sacraments.

God is bending over backwards to  reach people even beyond the explicit (and, in the case of the Eucharist, unsurpassable) "usual means" he has given us for meeting him. The Shepherd will do whatever it takes to draw the stray sheep closer to home.

Doesn't that vast vision, hinted at so simply in Francis' words, challenge your faith? It does mine! God doesn't issue a "report card" for good attendance at Mass; He gives us himself. The horizons are so big, I am reminded of what a tin, fragile frame I am using to keep my vision of God in. I'm invited to a new level of faith. And the first step (so it seems throughout the Bible) is "do not be afraid!"



On a related note, here's a great Pope Francis quote found by Suzanne at The Catholic Breadbox: "Relativism is, oddly, absolutist and totalitarian. It does not allow anyone to stray from its own relativism. Basically, it means ‘shut up’ or ‘don't meddle.’"

Rules for Reading Pope Francis: Rule #3

So the Pope is making headlines. In these days of 140-character posts, a headline may be all some people read. What about you, the ordinary, Mass-attending (right off the bat that makes you not exactly ordinary) Catholic? If you are going to read the next interview with Pope Francis, what rule do you need to keep in mind, aside from Rule #1 (Get Used to It) and Rule #2 (Accept that He's not Speaking to You)?

I give you, Rule #3: Don't stop at the headline.

In fact, don't even dwell on the headline. Headlines are interpretations even when they include a direct quote. Case in point: Last Tuesday's release of the Pope's conversation with Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari. The Italian headline declared: "This is how I will change the Church" (the English translation was more modest: "The Church will change").

Crest of Pope Paul V (St Peter's Basilica)

What was behind the headline? Did the Pope really express a detailed program for how he "will" change the Church? Not really. In speaking of the Roman Curia, the Vatican offices that are at the service of his worldwide ministry, the Pope remarked that too often the goal is "Vatican-centered" rather than "person-centered": "It sees and deal with the interests of the Vatican, which are still, for the most part temporal interests. This Vatican-centric view neglects the world around us. I do not share this view and I’ll do everything I can to change it.*" That "it" is a self-focused institutional vision that Francis sees at play in certain offices of the Vatican--not the Church herself.

But there is a kind of change the Holy Father alluded to (without using the word "change"): "The Church is or should go back to being a community of God’s people, and priests, pastors and bishops who have the care of souls are at the service of the people of God. That is the Church."

But who wants to read a headline like that?







*This amended translation comes from the blog "In Caelo."

Francis: the Saint and the Pope

"Francis, rebuild my Church." Words that changed the world.

St Francis
Detail of an altarpiece from the
Walters Museum of Art
(used under Creative Commons License).

Today's feast of St. Francis is especially significant, since Pope Francis has chosen to spend this first "Name Day" with his eight Cardinal-collaborators in Assisi (a city he has never visited before). "This," he said about his associates, "is the beginning of a Church with an organization that is not just top-down, but also horizontal."

With the upcoming [today? this weekend?] release of his encyclical on poverty and the interview published earlier this week, the Holy Father is, as it were, setting up a classroom. We might find the key to his lesson in his words to the unbelieving journalist, Eugenio Scalfari about his patron:

St. "Francis wanted a mendicant [dependent on alms] order and a traveling one. Missionaries who wanted to meet, listen, talk, help, to spread faith and love. Especially love. And he dreamed of a poor Church that would take care of others, which would receive material aid and use it to support others, with no concern for itself. 800 years have passed and times have changed a lot, but the ideal of a missionary, poor Church is still more than valid. That is still the Church that Jesus and his disciples preached about."

Sr Helena, the Hockey Nun

Well, Canada figured it out right away: the Hockey Nun got "traded" from the (Stanley-Cup-Holding) Blackhawks to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

5 Rules for Reading Pope Francis: Rule #2

Since we can expect Pope Francis to continue reaching out to unbelievers, even when they control significant media channels (see Rule #1), it would be good for us day-to-day Catholics to acquire a kind of spiritual discipline when it comes to finding the Pope in the morning headlines.

Rule #2 might just be the hardest for us to swallow, but it may also be the most helpful: Accept that he isn't speaking to you.

No, he's not. Really. When the Pope is on his cell phone, or in his office meeting a journalist for an informal interview, he is speaking to the person he is with at the moment. You are listening in.

Pope Francis is a confessor to Pope Benedict's professor. Francis is a one-on-one communicator. Even when he is zipping through those incredible crowds in St. Peter's Square, he is making eye contact with people one at a time. All the more, then, when he is in a conversation and the tape recorder is rolling, we need to know who the Pope is with. Everything the Pope says is going to be for or in response to that individual. Know whom he's speaking with and you already have the most important interpretive key for everything else.

5 Rules for Reading Pope Francis: Rule #1

It's all still so new: a Pope who calls people from his own cell phone; off-the-cuff interviews (during which he makes sure his guest has coffee--or water, as the case may be); the mad scramble afterwards to get to the heart of the message. After yesterday's marathon, I think we need to establish some ground rules.

Here's Rule #1: Get used to it.

Right now things feel a bit like that little pirogue I paddled off in one fine summer morning when I was a postulant home for a family visit. I pulled away from the shore to make my meditation in the gently rocking vessel. But by the time my meditation was complete, the lake was starting to roil, and I was not entirely confident that I could actually control the thing and get back to our campsite. That meditation time I enjoyed on the calm waters corresponds to the gentle pontificate of Pope Benedict. With Francis, instead, we have someone who plunges into the water yelling, "Cannonball!"

The interview published in yesterday's "La Repubblica" wasn't the first headline-generating papal interview (even Benedict pulled one of his own a few years back: remember the "condom" headlines?). It certainly won't be the last: Francis promised La Repubblica's Scalfari a follow-up conversation on women in the Church.

The waves are stirred; everyone takes notice. What are you going to do now? Smack the irrepressible pontiff upside the head with an oar so you can continue your quiet meditation, or accept the invitation to jump in with him?

I know what I'm going to do.

"CANNONBALL!!!!!!!!!"

The Lord bless these comings and these goings...

It's not hard to imagine that after almost three months away, I would find some changes in Chicago. It's just that ... there are some real changes going on right now! Sister Helena is officially transferred to Toronto, but she has so many commitments in Chicagoland, she is already back (and packing more books and a/v equipment for the trip back). We'll see her again in a few weeks.

Sister Edward Marie arrived on Monday. This is her first "little house" in twenty years. She had been stationed at the motherhouse, serving for the most part in the publishing house business office. To celebrate, Sister Frances put her interior design skills to work--not only repainting Sister Helena's old rooms with Sister Edward's favorite colors (including an "accent wall") but adding some spiffy bookshelves and an Ikea dresser. (Sister Helena had a system of boxes that is not really transferrable.)

Sister Gemma was transferred from Korea to the United States, and is stationed now in Chicago. She has been working among the Korean communities in the States for about 8, maybe 10 years, but is now officially a part of our province. She's taking time to perfect her English skills, and hopes to do some theology studies after many, many years as a missionary (including 8 years in Pakistan). Sister Gemma brings with her a world-class, turbo-charged rice cooker with multiple settings, and a sweet voice that makes cheerful announcements in Korean. I am presuming the announcements are about the rice and not world news, but Korean technology is so advanced, this may actually be a multi-platform device.

Sister Frances started back to school today, working toward her degree in Construction and Interior Design at the Art Institute. We have plenty for her to do with those skills (besides painting tiny rooms in complementary colors): her first big project will hopefully involve the expansion of our bookstore chapel!

Rendering of the
project around the
corner (73 E Lake).

Sister Lusia spent two months in Samoa, visiting and consoling her mother after the unexpected deaths in the family. She was supposed to be enjoying her time in the islands, but when people realized she knew how to drive, she ended up getting a lot of requests for chauffeuring services and spent more time in the car than on the beach.

And I just got back, too--but not for long. On Saturday I head back to Boston for three more weeks (including the Catholic New Media Conference!). That means I'll only be in Chicago for a month before I ... hit the road again for the Christmas concert series (are you near any of this year's locations?).

Meanwhile, the building is shaking again (construction next door and around the corner), and for the first time in a long time, the chapel is full!

Pope Francis and a very challenging message

This is my second post on the Pope's second interview. I was just going to keep commenting on the first one, but that could get wearisome. Not to mention hard to read. And criss-crossy with other people's comments. So here goes. I'm sorry if this comes off as preachy; I have seen so much anxiety and so many misinterpretations of the Pope's remarks that I am a bit concerned to respond to the ones that seem to be the most widespread.

I'm not going to dismiss the questions and say that the whole interview was badly translated; it's mostly reliable. In some places (really, I only noticed two so far), where the Pope is using philosophical/theological language, the translator found herself on shaky ground and her usual approach simply didn't convey the meaning. That still leaves us with a very challenging message from Pope Francis, and some Catholics are feeling pretty shaky about what it all means.

Is he serious that "The most serious of the evils that afflict the world these days are youth unemployment and the loneliness of the old"? (Yes, that's pretty much what the Italian says, too, though "solitude in which the elderly are left" is a bit stronger than just "loneliness.")  Apparently, this is his pastoral assessment of things.

But this is the same Pope Francis who--just a week ago--in a much more formal setting, declared: "A widespread utilitarian mentality, the 'throwaway culture', which now enslaves the hearts and minds of many, has a very high cost: it requires the elimination of human beings, especially if they are physically or socially weaker."  So we are challenged to read his informal, conversational words (about unemployment and the loneliness of the old) in the light of his earlier, very thorough and passionate pronouncement.

That broader reading we are called to do is not easy. And the secular media won't make it any easier, because we have to go looking for the things the mainstream is not interested in covering. Like papal addresses given to Catholic Medical Associations. ("Ho, hum," the headline-writers say, "Nothing exciting in this one.")

Is the Pope, by highlighting the immediate pastoral problems of unemployment, hopelessness and alienation, diminishing the importance of life issues? Or is he hinting at one of the reasons we have such a disrespect for unborn human life in the first place: unemployment (including inadequate housing, unlikely prospects for meeting one's own basic needs) that feeds hopelessness, and contributes to a self-focused life that has no time for the weak, whether unborn, newborn, or aged? In fact, as the Pope continued his thought, you can see that he finds that people who give up hope of finding work also give up the hope of forming a family. I have heard people defend abortion because the parents "can't afford a child" right now (or maybe ever). Pope Francis spent time getting to know the poor of Argentina. How many times did he hear the confession of a woman who aborted her child because the father was out of work and could not provide for them? He probably has a much clearer picture of things on the ground than most middle-class Catholics. I'm going to trust his take, because I know how limited my awareness of human suffering is.

What about his seeming dismissal of Church leaders as self-seeking narcissists? "Heads of the Church have often been narcissists, flattered and thrilled by their courtiers. The court is the leprosy of the papacy." Is that an accusation? Is the Pope being judgmental? I think he offering a generalization (that could surely be verified at numerous points throughout Church history), and maybe also sending a signal flare out to anyone who still cherishes ambitious dreams of worldly influence in a Church setting under a Franciscan pontificate. My own experience of working at the Vatican (during the Jubilee Year) brought me in touch with one or two persons who may have been lightly infected with this form of leprosy. (It was not edifying.)

Pope Francis, as I suggested in one of my comments to the first post, seems to be deliberately "making a mess," as he urged the young Catholics of the world to do while in Brazil. He is rocking the boat so that all hands will show up on deck and not leave everything up to the captain--a peculiar temptation of Catholics. Francis is not giving us that luxury.

If we are going to each take our oar and row, perhaps the most important thing we can do right now is

learn to follow the captain's signals. He has already given us the interpretive key: everything he says is "just what you find in the Catechism".  The founder of his Jesuit Order, who knew from experience what it meant to have one's teachings held suspect, teaches that we are obliged (under pain of sin!) to make an effort to interpret what we hear or read from another member of the Church in the most orthodox manner possible. Further, St Ignatius of Loyola says, if we fail to come up with an orthodox interpretation, we are to assume that the fault lies with us. Ignatius had more than once been denounced to the Inquisition--over his Spiritual Exercises, one of the treasures of Catholic spirituality. I wouldn't have wanted to be one of the guardians of orthodoxy who denounced a saint to the Inquisition, but it did happen. To me, these episodes in Ignatius' life (and his insistent teaching later in life) are an invitation to trust more in the Holy Spirit than in my own way of figuring things out. I need to go beyond the usual way things are said, the typical contexts, and listen to what Pope Francis really means.

Again, the mainstream media will not make things easy. The headlines will take the Pope's most banal comment and make it seem like a radical departure from every Tradition the Church has ever known. That means that each one of us is challenged here to go behind the text, to find the basic Catholic teaching the Pope's words presume, to deepen our own understanding of how those teachings are being applied, and then to "go and do likewise," taking our Catholic faith places we did not know it could go.

Books and Today's Saint

Yes, Therese of Lisieux was a media apostle, even if she didn't quite set out to be that kind of missionary. The young Doctor of the Church died two years after the invention of cinema, so she didn't even have a chance to really learn about any media aside from print. And yet here she is, patron of the missions, and therefore one of the patrons of the media apostolate. So it is fitting to feature just a few of the many books her life has inspired: biographies, yes, but also one title with selections from  her writings (a good book to share with someone who is suffering), and a pair of books on her spirituality. (Most of these are available in e-book formats so you can start reading them right away.)

Biography:
Story of a Soul: the book that started it all, in the Carmelite translation
For young readers: St Therese of Lisieux, the Way of Love

The Little Way:
Comfort in Hardship: Wisdom from St. Therese: How do I hold on to faith when my heart hurts so much?
My Vocation is Love: St Therese' Way to Total Trust (a classic on the Little Way)
Holy Daring: The Fearless Trust of St. Therese of Lisieux (Take a look inside!)

Francis: Interview #2 UPDATED with CORRECTION

Two interviews in barely two weeks! Francis is taking every opportunity to engage in conversation. Here is the interview he granted Eugenio Scalfari, an Italian journalist, in the same setting as the three day interview with his fellow Jesuit, Antonio Spadaro. I find it amusing that the Pope, who makes good use of his own cell phone, called to offer Scalfari an appointment, but had to wait to be "put through" to the journalist by the newspaper man's nervous secretary.

There are things in that conversation that will raise questions; I've only scanned the interview and found two eyebrow-raisers. A bit of research into the Italian original showed me that both are translation issues [really only one]. And serious ones, to my mind. (What? Did they use Google Translate?) So I am going to just hurry to post the differences between the English as published, and my own rather literal Italian.

If "everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them," is the Pope saying that there is no such thing as objective truth, or objective right or wrong?

This is where it is really, really helpful to know Italian: "Ciascuno di noi ha una sua visione del Bene e anche del Male. Noi dobbiamo incitarlo a procedere verso quello che lui pensa sia il Bene" is more literally (and helpfully?) translated as "Each one of us has his/her own vision of the Good or even of Evil. We must encourage him/her to move toward that which he/she sees as the Good." The Pope is not leveling the difference between truth and untruth, right and wrong: he is saying that we all have a duty to encourage people to pursue the Good, knowing that the true Good will not fail to manifest himself, even if "through a glass darkly." 

CORRECTION: Really, I must apologize right now, even though it is getting late (8:25 Central Time). The Pope made his point about conscience twice. The sentences I cited in Italian, believing these to be the original and only text, came first; these are accurately translated, even if the philosophical uppercase (Good and Evil) in the Italian was lost in the first sentence. The phrase about choosing "to follow the good and fight evil" as one conceives these was the Pope's follow-up statement. Again, rendered accurately enough. In these sentences, the fault was with my own all too rapid reading which conflated the two. 

What the Pope is doing is expressing the fully Catholic conviction of the primacy of conscience. Our challenge, he then explains, is "to identify the material and immaterial needs of people and try to meet them." At times, maybe a lot of times, this means not stopping at the words people use to express their needs, but perceiving the deeper, but unexpressed need. The woman who "needs" an abortion probably really needs a faithful husband; a supportive community; any number of material and immaterial goods. Her uninformed conscience might not take her that far; as Catholics we owe it to her to help her move toward the genuine stability and security she "sees as the Good." 

Me, tearing my hair out at the unreliable translation.

Here's another whopper: This next passage really does contain a translation error:
"The Son of God became incarnate in the souls of men to instill the feeling of brotherhood." Um, the Son of God did not become incarnate in souls. He became incarnate in human nature, in his own human flesh and blood. The Italian is " Il Figlio di Dio si è incarnato per infondere nell’anima degli uomini il sentimento della fratellanza": "The Son of God became incarnate to infuse into the soul of men [could say "the human soul"] the feeling of brotherhood."

Take the rest of the interview with a grain of salt--and with the Catechism at hand, knowing--as Pope Francis told Father Spadaro-- that he is a "son of the Church" and that everything he says should be interpreted in the light of Church teachings. I am sure that other commenters will be providing more of a blow-by-blow, but I wanted to get this out fast.

Read Italian? Here's the original.




Other links:

Interview of Pope Francis by Antonio Spadaro, SJ (updated translation from America Magazine)

Pope Francis School of Life (newsletter)

Related books, media:
Light of Faith (Pope Francis' first encyclical)

10 Things Pope Francis Wants You to Know (booklet by John Allen)

Jorge from Argentina: The Story of Pope Francis for Children

O Jerusalem!

Jesus' exclamation seems to come naturally on reading the Liturgy of the Word for today's Mass (unless you use the special readings for St Therese). In the first reading, the prophet Zechariah regales the bewildered, poverty-stricken returnees in Jerusalem with a vision of a future for their ruined city. "Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem.... ten men of every nationality, speaking different tongues, shall take hold, yes, take hold of every Jew by the edge of his garment and say, 'Let us go with you'."

That impossible vision began to be fulfilled in the Gospel reading for the day: Jesus, accompanied by the Twelve and preceded by messengers, "turned his face toward Jerusalem." (The Greek is so much more telling than the English "resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem.") And ever since that day, "many peoples and strong nations" have undertaken the same journey.



Every person who has ever encountered God owes it to the rest of humanity to witness to Him by turning his or her face toward Jerusalem.

But what if Zechariah's Jew, the blessed descendant of Abraham and inheritor of the promises, was not "turned toward Jerusalem"? Where would those eager Gentiles be led? And what of those Catholics who are living a compromised faith? When people come to them and say, "You're a Catholic. Help me understand what your Church, what your Pope says about....?" What "city" are they showing these hopeful inquirers? The dwelling-place of God or just another ruined city?

Isn't this what makes Therese so significant? We read her story and we want to take hold of the edge of her Carmelite mantle and say, "Let us go with you!" And she obligingly shows us her roadmap--a trustworthy "little way" for the faint of heart.