The Holy Spirit "will take from what is mine and declare it to you." Whatever that means, it has to be important, because it is repeated in the next sentence, with the explanation, "Everything that the Father has is mine."
Now, God doesn't have "possessions." God IS. So if the Holy Spirit "takes from what is mine" (as Jesus said), he is drawing from "everything that the Father has" and "declaring it" to us: revealing, offering, giving away "the life that was before the beginning" so that we can be, as St. Peter wrote, "sharers in the divine nature."

Theology of the Body

I found thirty "Theology of the Body" events listed on Facebook!

Paul in chains

Today's first reading starts with Paul and his missionary companion Silas jailed in Philippi. Luke specifies that they had not only been thrown into prison, but put in the innermost cell with their feet chained to a stake. There, Luke says, they sat "praying and singing hymns to God as the prisoners listened."
I find it interesting that Luke didn't say "as the other prisoners listened." It is as if Paul and Silas were the only free men in Philippi, chains or no chains. Today's Gospel tells us of the source of their freedom: "the ruler of this world has been condemned."

Holy, Holy, Holy?

A funny thing happened at Mass, and in some vague way, I sense there is a parable in it.
The celebrant murdered the Alleluia, and then went on to attack, I mean, "intone," the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy). The melody was somewhat familiar, so as soon as I perceived which version he was aiming at, I turned on the volume, in order to support the assembly in singing it acappella. Unfortunately, Father had changed key three times by the fourth word, and he had the mike. I kept bravely trying, wincing at the resulting chord (it was an augmented, demented--oops, diminished--something, for sure), until Father shot out the same kind of "evil eye" that my esteemed choir director has been known, on rare occasion, to send as a warning to an errant member of the group. I relinquished my effort, figured out what key he had landed on, and joined him there. All was again well.

Year of St. Paul

The official "Pauline Year" website from the Basilica of St. Paul-outside-the-walls is finally available in English!

Sr. Thecla and I had a full day at the First Communion. Our little friend was one of 150 at the parish today; another 150 children received their First Communion there last week. Given Chicago's traffic, we didn't get home until 5:30. It was when setting the ribbons in my Liturgy of the Hours that I realized we were already at the sixth Sunday of Easter! Good Heavens, that means we are in Ascension week! And just two weeks from Pentecost! I'm hoping to prepare a kind of Pentecost novena for the blog, even though I have several other things in the works. It's just too significant a day in the Church to let pass; not even the first Pentecost happened without a novena, after all.
In just a few days we also begin the month of May. I have another idea I'd like to do for May, but I really "may" have to put that one on hold until next year. (I wish these things wouldn't keep happening!) The upcoming month is more than full already: I am commmited to giving three talks on St. Paul, to singing for a wedding, preparing a video "lecture" on our Founder for a meeting of the sisters this summer, and... we have our official every-six-years visit from Mother General in May, as well.
One day at a time, as they say!

St. Mark

For today's feast, I scoured my hard drive for a symbol of the Evangelist Mark. Somehow, I came up with nothing. (Jesus, how about a little picture-taking trip to ... Venice? There are plenty of Markan lions there!) The symbols of the four Evangelists can be confusing, all the more so in Mark's case. What's with the lion? From what I have been told, the primary connection of this one of Ezekiel's "four living creatures" is with the Judean desert, the abode of jackals and, yes, lions. Mark's Gospel opens with John the Baptizer "in the wilderness." Then Jesus goes there (for forty days of fasting and prayer), and Mark specifies "he was with the wild beasts, and angels ministered to him." Wild beasts, lions... The lion was also invoked in the blessing of Jacob over his son Judah. Judah, the patriarch said, was like the offspring of a lion, and as the lion was the "king of beasts," so Judah would enjoy the kingship. Not coincidentally, Jesus was born of the tribe of...Judah.
There is also a legendary connection of Mark with a lion: the Evangelist and his father were threatened by a lioness with her young (in, where else? the Judean wilderness). Mark promised his father that Christ would save them. He prayed and the lioness dropped dead and Mark's father came to faith!
The Markan lion is usually depicted with wings, since Ezekiel's vision was of cherubim around God's throne in heaven.

This was fun!

Thanks to Barb in Nebraska for pointing out this interesting device for Twitter afficionados.

In the mind of God

I realized today that sometimes when I am reading the day's Scriptures, if they include an obscure reference to another book of the Bible, I just read and keep going. I rarely give the cited passage any extra attention, unless it is one of those particularly striking passages from Isaiah.
Well, today there was just a little something in the reading from Acts that caught my notice (interestingly, it was not from Isaiah, but from Amos). In the passage from Acts, St. James was addressing the Jerusalem community, gathered with the leaders of the early Church to consider what to do about all the Gentiles who were coming to faith in Jesus. James reminded them that the prophet had written, "so that the rest of humanity may seek out the Lord, even all the Gentiles on whom my name is invoked....says the Lord."
And I marveled that someone, somewhere, had "invoked the name of the Lord" upon my ancestors and me, calling down the blessing that we who were "no people" would be able then to "call on the name of the Lord," the very name that had been "called down" upon us in an anonymous blessing.

We're still talking here in community about last night's Theology of the Body session. About 16 people joined the 18 or so here through the Internet. Father Loya covered the first three or so of John Paul's talks, the very first ones that broached the idea of a "theology of the body." I think some of the Internet participants, especially the young men, were trying to fit what John Paul was saying into the classical models they were more familiar with. You could see them there, in the chat room text box, kind of grappling with the wrong things, concepts that are too abstract or romantic or just particular to one state in life rather than another to allow the Theology of the Body to have its real impact. Ultimately, it seems to me (as someone who has been profoundly influenced by the Theology of the Body!) that the core concepts of the male-female relationship as the image of God come down to "gift" and "receptivity." These are lived and expressed differently by men and by women, but unless both live these "virtues," the image of God risks compromise and even the distortion of violence.
We meet again May 14 at the same URL; if you'd like to join us, read John Paul's first 7 or so talks by then! (We're using the critical edition of the talks: Man and Woman He Created Them.)

Vine and branches

Today's Gospel takes us back to the Last Supper.
I find it rather consoling that it is the "fruitful" branches that get pruned.
I'm going to try to keep that in mind next time I see the Lord with his pruning gear in hand...

TOB tonight

You'd think I was excited about this new venture; I even dreamed about setting up the computer and camera in our conference room for tonight's first-ever, live streaming of the Theology of the Body study. Meet us online at 6:30 Central Time!

Theology of the Body

Just right to coincide with tomorrow's Internet "webcast" of the Theology of the Body study group (tomorrow 6:30 central time), here are some more TOB-connected events:

1. Fr. Thomas Loya's new internet radio program: "A Body of Truth." It is a no-holds-bar treatment of contemporary issues using the principles of the Theology of the Body. The program accepts call-ins and emails.

2. A men's retreat aimed at helping men move beyond lust and pornography. The retreat is called, "The Gift of the Interior Gaze." May 16-17, 2008 at Annunciation Church, 14610 Will-Cook Rd. in Homer Glen, IL. Directed by Fr. Thomas J. Loya and the Tabor Life Institute. For information call 708-645-0762 or email: taborlife@earthlink.net

Awaiting Atlanta

I just got permission to attend the "Catholic New Media Celebration" in Atlanta this June. While I'm there, I was hoping to stay a few extra days, perhaps giving my "Life and Legends of Paul in Art" talk in view of the Pauline Year (which opens a week after the media event). If you are in the Atlanta region and can think of a parish or group that might be interested in a multi-media presentation on Paul, get in touch with me!

God's Green Earth

This year, plastic bags are out, out, out. Even illegal in some places, but definitely out of favor. Even at PBM. Not entirely for environmental reasons (we really can't afford the good quality ones we had been stocking for several years), but it's all for the best. Even better, we recently added cloth shopping bags to our inventory, the lightweight scrunchable kind you can get for one environmentally conscious dollar. And ours even come with a nice Papal quote about care for creation. I would include a picture of them, but we ran out, just in time for Earth Day.
I guess that's actually a good thing, but I hope we get some more in soon!

Making a difference

I just learned of an interesting event scheduled for May 3: the idea is to create waves of prayer totaling a million rosaries for the protection of unborn human life. But not just through a generic promise! Instead, the program asks that the rosaries be prayed in rotation. We here in the Central Time zone are asked to pray a rosary sometime between 8 and 9 in the morning on May 3. It's a good thing to pray a rosary any time, but to join with others on the first Saturday of May (Mary's month) for such a critical intention and in a concerted way is an even better thing. And you can "register" your promise as a way of confirming your good will and giving moral support to others. (So far, there are 6,000 registered participants, so there's quite a ways to go to reach the goal!)

Pope Benedict's Last Day

The Holy Father is going to be mighty glad to reboard "Shepherd 1" tomorrow evening after an intense week here. I'm just glad I'll be able to join the Yankee Stadium Mass by TV! His talks all week have been rich, deserving of repeated review and reflection, and his private sessions with abuse victims as well as with the Jewish leaders at the JP2 Cultural Center prove that this trip was not crafted as a series of spectacles, but was really a pastoral visit. I hope it will go far in healing relationships and allowing for a new reality to begin to grow.
What aspect of the Pope's visit made the strongest impression on you?
What aspect of his message do you find yourself reflecting on the most?

Asking anything

The Gospel for Sunday will sound particularly familiar to daily Mass-goers. That's because we heard it on Friday (first part) and Saturday (second part). In the first part, Jesus affirms, very solemnly, that he is "the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me." (Notice that he uses the verb "comes": that's a hint that he sees that movement from the Father's perspective.) In the second half of the passage, Jesus goes on to affirm, "whoever sees me, sees the Father."
And then he says those perplexing words, "if you ask the Father anything in my name, I will do it, so that the Father will be glorified in the Son."
St. Theresa capitalized on that promise as part of her "little way" of confidence. but I suspect many of us, with less complete confidence (and almost certainly less personal holiness) wonder why the many things we ask the Father in the name of Jesus don't seem to happen at all. Does Jesus, like Popeye, mean what he says, and says what he means? Is it really just too good to be true? Or does St. James have it right when he says that "we ask and do not obtain because we ask amiss"?
We surely don't "ask amiss" when we plead for healing, or pray for a loved one in danger or on a wrong path in life. Perhaps we could tweak our prayer a little, though, by trying to bring our desires more and more into conformity with Jesus' ultimate goal, as stated in the Gospel, "that the Father will be glorified in the Son"--or, as it says in the Sermon on the Mount, "see first God's kingdom and holiness," so that "all other things will be given in addition."

The papal visit is bringing our sisters in New York and even Boston a little extra (and much-needed) publicity.

Yesterday's post seems to have been swallowed up in cyberspace. Oh, well! In it, I attempted to draw your attention to the Twitter posts ("tweets") of Patti Hanley, who is in the Press Corps for the Papal Visit. The tweets let you follow the events minute-by-minute.
Today's Gospel is particularly appropriate: "After Jesus washed their feet, he said, '...No slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it...whoever receives the one I send receives me'."
Even though in the lectionary, the words "after Jesus washed their feet" are in parenthesis, as if just to situate the "real" lesson, I think the preface is critical. Only after we, like Jesus, have "taken the form of a servant" can the rest of the passage apply to us as followers of Jesus--and even more in the case of those called to leadership in the Church. Pope, bishop, priest, sister, baptized disciple: only after we have washed the feet of those among us are we credible messengers of the one who sends us.