O-HI-O

A wonderful opportunity came up a few weeks ago, so here I am writing from the Franciscan University in Steubenville, OH (sometimes known in Catholic circles simply as "Steubie"). I'll be back in Boston on Pentecost, God willing, but in the meantime I am auditing a course in Theology of the Body with Dr Michael Waldstein, translator of the TOB talks of Pope John Paul.

Although I am one of the original fans of Theology of the Body, with my interest in the talks dating back to 1980 when the saintly pope had barely begun to deliver them, there are some big gaps in my understanding of the whole arc, especially the theological dense second section with its treatment of the sacrament of marriage and the connection with the relationship of Christ and the Church. I am very grateful to be able to focus for these three weeks on the entire series, going in depth into some of the key themes. It also gives me a chance to fill in the blanks on a TOB-related project that got its start when I wrote too much for the study guide for the video lecture series Discover Theology of the Body. Hopefully I will be able to complete a brief overview of TOB that can work as a kind of correspondence course or deeper companion to the video series. (Stay tuned.)

Besides the interesting mornings (class runs from 9:00 - 11:45 M-F), the campus setting itself has a lot to offer. Since I did not have a typical college experience, this is my first time in a college dorm situation. Not that Steubie is par for the course, I am sure: the building I am in has one wing for the men, one for the women, and a chapel with the Blessed Sacrament in between the two on the lower level. I think all their dorm buildings have chapels, and if they are like the one in this building, Jesus gets company there throughout the day. Then there's the larger campus chapel: daily Mass is held here at noon. There is always a music leader and vigorous singing. Actually, the singing is astounding (even if I don't really go for "How Great Thou Art" accompanied by solo guitar). It was also inspiring to see the Franciscan Fathers converging on the chapel last evening at sunset to make confession available for an hour. I keep wishing that the young people in my own family had had the opportunity to experience for two or three weeks this kind of intensely lived Catholic life adoration and confession and daily Mass are almost taken for granted, and where the culture supports and nourishes the expression of faith instead of suppressing (or ridiculing or misrepresenting) it.

The campus does honor to St Francis' reputation for the love of nature with its carefully tended gardens, abundant lawns and trees, Stations of the Cross set into the woods on a hillside, Lourdes grotto on the edge of the woods and to-scale Portiuncula chapel (also with the Blessed Sacrament: you find Jesus all over the place). There are immense youth events here every summer, but I can see making a retreat here, too. There is enough beauty to support a week's worth of silence.

Then there is the social dimension. For me that began when we were tipped off by an email that Dr Waldstein would be teaching the TOB course here. That notification came from a local MA student who had written an article for our Discover Hope newsletter. (She also picked me up at the airport and provided me with the linens and towels that the dorm does not offer.) At the first (mandatory) dorm meeting, I met a new friend, Pam (from Chicago!) and made the acquaintance of another Pauline: a member of the Holy Family Institute, Lisa. All three are taking the TOB class, though only Pam and Lisa are here in the dorm. It has been great having people to share TOB insights--and meals--with every day.

And the meals are good, too.

While I have been out of town, the Phantom drone has been in the "hospital" getting repairs for stress cracks. I just got notified that it is fully repaired and tested, so it should be back in Boston before I am. I need to get in some more practice air time so I will be ready and able to record a few scenes from the upcoming vow day events--unfortunately, I won't be able to get any chapel footage, for two reasons: my superior really does not trust my aviation skills indoors (with good reason) and the propellers are really, really loud. (No one would hear the vows!)

Actually, I will only have one day in Boston after Pentecost before I fly away again: to New Orleans, for some precious family time.

I have some lovely pictures to share with you, but it seems to be impossible right now to post them. Well, something to look forward to some other time!

Our Lady of Fatima and the 5 Secrets of Peace

 
Thoughts may tend toward the apocalyptic on this 100th anniversary of the first apparition of Mary at Fatima--and with good reason. The Virgin came with an urgent plea. On the one side was a dire threat; on the other, an immense promise.

The plea was threefold: Prayer (especially the Rosary), Penance (with an emphasis on reparation), and Consecration (personal and social).

The threat was apparent to anyone with a newspaper there in World War I Europe. (Not that the illiterate shepherd children had access to news from the war front.) During her visits, Mary led the children to see that the destruction of earthly war was only a shadow of a war taking place on a different plane.

The promise echoed the angels' song at Bethlehem: "If people do what I tell you, many souls will be saved and there will be peace." In fact, the three little shepherds (two of whom are now canonized saints) were prepared for Our Lady's visit by an earlier apparition: that of the "Angel of Peace" who had invited the children "pray with me."

One hundred years have passed, and the threefold message seems as valid (if not more) than ever. Not that Mary's message has changed over time. We can go back to the Gospels and find Mary's secrets of peace: personal peace, world peace. We find those secrets in Mary's example and in her words.

Mary teaches us to think before we speak: At the greeting of the Archangel Gabriel, Mary "was troubled, and pondered what this greeting meant" (Lk 1:29). Mary did not react to Gabriel's inspired words calling her "full of grace"; she was not filled with euphoria or paralyzed with dread; she did not challenge the Angel with demands for signs. Instead, she took the words in and reflected on them. We see later in the Magnificat that she interpreted Gabriel's message in the light of God's earlier promises to Abraham, reading her own life in the story of what God had been doing for his people through the ages. She began to recognize that "the great things the Almighty worked" for her were meant for Abraham and all his descendants.

Mary teaches us to say fiat: be it done to me. Mary's actual words of surrender are given only once in the Gospels, but reading between the lines we can find several occasions when she must have repeated them; moments when God's plan was anything but obvious. "This child is...a sign of contradiction, and your own soul will be pierced with a sword," she heard in the Temple on the day of Jesus' presentation. Fiat to an unknown future of pain. "Why did you search for me?" the twelve-year-old asked after his unexpected absence. "I had to be about my Father's matters." Fiat to a mysterious and exalted sense of mission. "Jesus left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea..." Fiat to an empty house, a silent carpenter shop. All the way to Calvary, when the prophesied contradiction tore into her son's flesh and into her heart. Fiat: Into your hands I commend my spirit. Mary did not insist on knowing ahead of time just what she was saying "yes" to, but she knew to whom she was saying "yes" and that "he who made the promise is worthy of trust."

Mary teaches us to give priority to thanks and praise. After her "fiat," the next words we have from Mary's lips are "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord...the Almighty has done great things for me." Mary's eyes were on the Lord and what he was accomplishing, and her first response is like a hint of the life of Heaven, where thanks and praise will be unending, will be, in fact, our greatest joy. Mary invites us to begin now to live that heavenly life by establishing our prayer on a foundation of gratitude and wonder.

Mary teaches us to treasure God's action in our life. After finding Jesus in the Temple, as the Holy Family returned to Nazareth, Mary "treasured all these things" and (as seen at the Annunciation) "pondered" them. She lived her life as in an ongoing relationship with God, who was present not only in his Incarnate Son, but who was active and involved in every aspect of her life. Later, perhaps during those days in the Cenacle with the apostles and the few dozen disciples of the Lord, she opened her interior treasure chest to share with the early Church what she had experienced and learned in thirty-three years of life as Jesus' closest disciple.

Mary teaches us to point others to Jesus. "Do whatever he tells you." Mary's words at Cana highlight the relationship between her own Divine Son and each one of us. She points us toward Jesus and invites us to draw others toward him in a winning, unforced manner. Here we are back full circle, but now "fiat" becomes a sharing of what was begun when we first began to "hear the Word of God and keep it."  The children of Fatima offer a splendid example of this in the way they followed the directives of the Angel and then of Our Lady, first practicing themselves what they were being told, and then ardently communicating the same directives to others, even to the whole world, inviting us even today to "do whatever she tells us."

Which of Mary's lessons from the Gospel or from Fatima do you most need to take to heart?

100 Years Ago at Fatima: Looking toward next week's centenary

This Thursday we begin the novena for the 100th anniversary of Our Lady's appearances at Fatima. The Blessed Virgin chose three illiterate shepherd children to deliver her message to the world. "If people listen to my words, there will be peace." Did those children even realize that there was a war ("the Great War") going on? Mary predicted that if her message was disregarded, there would be many martyrs, war would spread, and the Holy Father would have much to suffer.

It doesn't take much to look at the 20th century (and the first decade and a half of the 21st) to suspect that Mary's plea for penance and prayer did not receive the response she had intended. But with confidence in Mary's motherly love, we can still hope that now, in these final days leading up to the centenary of her visits, we may yet return to God with our whole heart and see the promised triumph of the Immaculate Heart.

Here are some books and resources that can help you receive, live and spread Mary's message of repentance, prayer and peace, which is, after all, the heart of the Gospel her Son came to establish:


The Fatima story:

A straightforward telling for general readership.	Picture book for little ones.
Novelized biography for young readers.
Movies:
The classic film.  Documentary on the children of Fatima.

Documentary with testimonials from Mary's shrines in the Americas.

Documentary pilgrimage around the world.

Prayer:

Practical Rosary guide.

Novena booklet with brief history. 

Mary, by any other name...

We got an interesting query today after sending out the first installment of "A Minute a Day for the Month of May." A reader wondered if the Daughters of St Paul were really Catholic, since the daily message referred to Our Lady as "Mary" and not "the Blessed Virgin Mary." I was surprised, because as a lifelong Catholic I have always understood the name "Mary" to refer first of all to Our Lady, and only when that was patently not the case (for example, when my younger sister Mary was involved) anyone else by the name.

Have you ever found yourself noticing that someone phrased something in an unexpected way and wondering if everything was on the up-and-up? I have. And especially in Catholic circles in the  70's and 80's changes of phraseology sometimes did mean that the speaker or writer was attempting to reinterpret (or even replace) a concept that he or she didn't quite approve of. Maybe that was the writer's experience, too.

Thankfully, there is nothing like that going on with us (or with me since I prepared the series!).

In each "Minute a Day for the Month of May," Our Lady is most frequently called by her name, and by a few titles: Queen of Apostles, Mother of the Good Shepherd, Our Lady of the Rosary, Our Lady of Fatima. It is not necessary to always speak of Our Lady in a comprehensive way. We can call out to her in many ways, because she is our mother. 

Most of the reflections for the month of May are drawn from the writings of our Founder, Blessed James Alberione. He refers to Our Lady most often by name or as "Queen of Apostles." Blessed James was one of the Blessed Mother's great devotees of the 20th century, and perhaps ranks with the greatest Marian devotees of all time, so we can be confident in following his example.

If you signed up for our daily May message, I hope you will find the reflections, prayers, music and art inspiring, even if they do not always refer to the Blessed Mother in the way that you yourself usually do. Thankfully, our Mother Mary knows the sound of her children's voices in whatever way we call upon her!