Visitation

Today's Feast of the Visitation was a favorite of Bl. James Alberione. He saw it as the "defining" feastday of Mary, showcasing her essential mission throughout time: to bring Jesus to a waiting world.
The feastday itself is not limited to Mary's "arrival" at the house of Zechariah and Elizabeth: it is the feast of her entire stay with them, a time when blessings radiated from the unborn Christ and the Holy Spirit caused somersaults of joy in his precursor, leading his mother to prophesy and Mary to "proclaim the greatness of the Lord" for all generations.
Some fruits we could gather from today's celebration might be:

• to recognize and confess the hidden presence of the Lord in our life
• to give ourselves, like Mary, to God's praise
• to renew our commitment to evangelization, according to the possibilities offered in our daily life.

TOB

Just in time for next week's Theology of the Body online study group session, the Pontifical Council for the Laity has launched a new website with resources on the role of women, with the goal of fostering an intelligent and informed international conversation.
So read up! And mark your calendars for next Wednesday's live video TOB session, 7:30 Eastern Time. If you're in Chicago, come join us in person at 6:30!

World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests

Here's the prayer proposed by the Vatican for the day:

Lord Jesus, present in the Most Blessed Sacrament,
and living perpetually among us through Your Priests,
grant that the words of Your Priests may be only Your words,
that their gestures be only Your gestures,
and that their lives be a true reflection of Your life.

Grant that they may be men who speak to God on behalf of His people,
and speak to His people of God.
Grant that they be courageous in service,
serving the Church as she asks to be served.

Grant that they may be men who witness to eternity in our time,
travelling on the paths of history in Your steps,
and doing good for all.

Grant that they may be faithful to their commitments,
zealous in their vocation and mission,
clear mirrors of their own identity,
and living the joy of the gift they have received.

We pray that Your Holy Mother, Mary,
present throughout Your life,
may be ever present in the life of Your Priests. Amen

But now I see

You really have to love Bartimaeus, the irrepressible blind beggar in today's Gospel story. Nobody could shush him up. "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!" Over and over and over, until Jesus himself took notice. But Jesus didn't call Bartimaeus over: he gave the order to others, "Call him." And when Bartimaeus did come, the cloak of his old life cast aside like something he would no longer need, Jesus asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?"
Wasn't it obvious?
It must have been important to Jesus that Bartimaeus be allowed to speak for himself (something the man clearly had no problem with!).
I love that even though Jesus used the language of a servant with the beggar ("What do you want me to do for you?"), Bartimaeus did not give Jesus a command like "Give me my eyesight" or "Fix my eyes." He just said, "I want to see."
"By their fruits you shall know them." Bartimaeus got his sight--and how! He "began to follow Jesus on the way." Blessed are the eyes that see what you see, Bartimaeus!

This is GOOD news?

Today's readings pretty much sum up the paradox that we call the "good news." In the Gospel, Jesus is saying (among other things), "the Son of Man [Jesus himself] ... will be condemned to death, handed over, mocked, spit on, scourged and killed." And "whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant...and the slave of all."
It's not only in the Gospel of Mark that we find this sort of language: John saves it for the Last Supper, when Jesus acts the part of a slave, washing the disciples' feet while explicitly emphasizing that he is doing this as their "Master and Lord." And St. Paul, too, consistently referred to himself with terms like "servant" and "slave."
I strongly suspect that the disciples (whether of Jesus, John or Paul) did not especially like where all this talk was going. It's the opposite of our expectations--as today's Gospel also makes clear: "Rulers among the Gentiles lord it over them and make their position felt." That's exactly what James and John were looking for when they asked for places at Jesus' right and left in the kingdom. They got what they were asking, even though they didn't know what they were really asking for.
All that Jesus was doing was to undo the primordial sin and every sin since then, all originating in the will to a misbegotten form of greatness.

the works

Well, I dropped Mother General and her translator off at the airport (after a weekend that saw me working hard to revive my Italian!), and now I am working on...deadlines! But today's readings from the Mass have such an interesting connection, I couldn't resist sharing it.
In both, we hear the voice of Peter. The first reading is from the First Letter of Peter. It's advice for a beleaguered Christian community (or, more likely, a little chain of communities). Among other things, Peter encourages them "set your hopes completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ."
In the Gospel, Peter is asking what he can hope for after leaving "everything" to follow Jesus.
In both instances, then, there is the sense of risking everything for the sake of Jesus: putting all one's hopes on the person of Jesus himself, so that if it were possible for Jesus to fail, the person would truly have nothing, nothing, nothing. I was reminded of venerable old Simeon from the Gospel of Luke: he hoped for nothing but "the consolation of Israel," and had been promised that he would not die before seeing the Messiah. That's why he could recognize the 40-day old Jesus as "the light of revelation to the nations." I can just imagine Peter, too, at the end of his long life, saying his "Nunc dimittis": "Now, Lord, you can dismiss your servant in peace; you have fulfilled your word."

Africa Day

May 25 is Africa Day, commemorating the establishment of the Organization for African Unity. One of the General Councilors who was with us this week spent over 20 years in East Africa (mostly Kenya, but also some time in Uganda and Nigeria), and she was updating us on this travailed "Continent of Hope" (as Pope John Paul called it). Evidently, things are still quite unsettled in Kenya, not so much in Nairobi as in the villages.
All in all, a good day to pray for the people of Africa and for all those who work for them and with them.

Welcoming the Kingdom

Today's Gospel is the oft-cited "let the little children come to me." I was struck by the likewise oft-cited "whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it." Usually, homilies focus on what it means to be "like a child," but I found myself more interested in the word "accept." What does it mean to "accept" the Kingdom of God? What does it mean to "enter" the Kingdom of God? It seems that by accepting the Kingdom, receiving it, taking it in, we enter in--we are taken into the Kingdom. It is sort of like receiving the Eucharist: we receive the Eucharist, taking the Host into ourselves, but it is we who are assimilated to the Eucharistic Christ, and not the other way around. Interestingly, Jesus in the Gospel says that this is related to being "like a child," whereas Augustine portrays the Eucharistic Christ as saying, "I am the food of grown men."

I'll be back

Canon Law calls for an official visitation of religious communities on a regular basis. This is to help renew the members in spirituality and in the mission, to communicate priorities on a more personal basis, and to allow the major superiors (those on the national and international levels) to get to know the concrete situations in which the sisters are living and the people they are serving.

So that's what we're involved in this week. It doesn't leave much time for blogging, twittering, or even taking those wonderful walks in the park! 

Please keep us in prayer. I'll be back...when I can!

Taking wing

Today's Psalm expresses a deep human intuition and at the same time, a loss and frustration: "If only I had the wings of a dove, I would fly away and be at rest." It is as if deep down, we knew that we were supposed to have wings; we were supposed to fly: Where are our wings? 

It's easy enough to want wings to just "fly away and be at rest far away" as the Psalm says, but this is not mere escapism. The Psalmist isn't just flying away; this is a flying "towards": "I would wait for him who saves me."

Him-who-saves-me might as well be another name for Jesus. And today's feast of St. Bernardine of Siena is in its own way a feast of the Name of Jesus. Wherever Bernardine (15th century Franciscan, not a Jesuit, despite his devotion to the Holy Name!) would preach, people would create signs and paint frescoes with the abbreviation IHS (the Greek of J-E-S). And Bernardine would preach the "only name under heaven by which we are saved."

That custom of plastering the city with Jesus monograms also makes Bernardine the patron of advertisers...

CSI: Convent

Sr. Laura remembered that as our Saturday afternoon thief was strolling toward the exit, he suddenly jerked with surprise, made a little "huh?" sound and then shrugged. He must have seen our security cameras. They saw him, too. Here he is making his way through the book center. The whole process took less than 15 minutes.

Here at Pauline, we are praying for the conversion of the man who made his way into our convent and walked away with the proceeds of a bookfair. Talk about stress! That was Saturday, shortly after my St. Paul talk. On one level, a lot of things went wrong on Saturday: not only the theft, but also the recording of my talk--somehow the setting was changed on the recorder, and there was no pick-up from the microphone I had so carefully clipped on. Something else distressing happened, too, which I am glad not to remember. All in all it was one of those days for which today's Gospel prayer is just perfect (and I am using my rosary beads to repeat it over and over): Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!

Erin and Ronnie

Congratulations to the newlyweds! So far, all I have is this cell-phone picture from last night... I hope more are coming!

The cost of non-discipleship

You know those "helpful" little summaries you often find at the beginning of a Bible passage? "The Question of Baptism"; "Bread of Life Discourse" and so on? Well, the Gospel today usually appears in Bibles with a header inspired by Bonhoeffer: "The Cost of Discipleship." And it is that: "If you want to be my disciple, take up your cross." But the passage could just as easily be headed "The Cost of non-discipleship." After all, "the one who seeks his life will lose it.... what profit does anyone show who gains the whole world but loses his own life?" It's a good commentary on yesterday's harsh "Get behind me, Satan!" directed to Peter: Follow me! 

Yesterday's Lost Post: Knock-knock

Today's Gospel reminded me in an odd way of the typical knock-knock joke. "Knock, Knock. Who's there?" It seems to resolve with the first answer: "Tennis." But that first answer is incomplete or even misleading. "Tennis Who?" "Tennessee!"

Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say I am?" And then, "what about you?" 

When we hear Peter answer for the disciples that Jesus is "the Christ of God," you would think the story would end there. But Jesus, in effect, tells them that they've only gotten half-way. "The Son of Man is going to be handed over and killed..."

Today people are rather free in giving their opinions about who Jesus is. Ancient holy man. Jewish peasant who didn't mean for any of this history-changing stuff to happen. Prophet. Myth. Bohddisatva, even. It's just as challenging now as it was 2,000 years ago to accept the folly of the cross, and to accept what being "the Christ" really means, because (as Peter intuited when he tried to talk that folly out of Jesus) it means accepting our own "share in the sufferings of Christ and the glory to be revealed" (1 Peter 

Attention, migraine sufferers!

You've ingested Imitrex. You've tested Topamax. You've relied on Relpax.
These prescription medicines usually do mitigate your migraines, but they have scary side effects, and cost, on average, $20 a pop.
Have I got a cure for you.
At the first sign of a migraine, go to your nearest Chipotle restaurant. Order a steak burrito with everything on it. Eat at least half of that enormous burrito.
Placebo or no placebo, the $5.95 burrito beats the $20 pill just about every time.
And it tastes better, too.

In lieu of grateful accolades, you may send me Chipotle gift cards.

Going places

Today is the anniversary of my Confirmation. Appropriately enough, it is also the feast of St. Matthias, the fill-in apostle who was added to the "Eleven" after the Resurrection of Jesus. The Gospel for the feast day is that beautiful Last Supper passage, "You did not choose me, I chose you..." But that same Gospel passage seems to present us with mutually exclusive directions. On the one hand, the mystical, contemplative, "Remain." And on the other, "GO and bear fruit that will last."
So what do we do: stay or go?
The clue is in one tiny word: "in." "Remain in my love." If we remain/abide/dwell (all possible translations of John's Greek) IN Christ's love, we can come and go and at the same time, never leave our true home! And for the mission of evangelization, it is vital that we "remain" all the time, because "apart from me you can do nothing."
Today's Gospel tells us that if we see a contradiction between contemplation and mission, we don't really understand either one.

TOB tonight!

Our Theology of the Body study group meets tonight: in Chicago, if you're here, and streaming online if you're not. Discussion starts at 6:30 Central Time; Father Thomas Loya will give a presentation at 7:00 (again, Central Time!!!).
Read Sr. Helena's notes from last month, especially if you didn't have time to read Pope John Paul's original... (Man and Woman He Created Them, just the talks, not the intro, up to page 178.)

(Slightly) Belated Kudos

Yesterday's Tribune offered an enthusiastic review of the concert Friday night by the William Ferris Chorale at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church. As the reviewer noted, "Small musical organizations depend on a charismatic and creative guide." And in just three years (and seven years after the sudden death of the Chorale's founder), "conductor Paul French['s] ...guidance has paid off handsomely."
Hearty congratulations, Paul and Chorale (and you, too, "Gary").

New Faces on the Street

After almost seven years in Chicago, I know who the "regulars" with their paper cups held out for spare change. But lately I have seen some new people--people so new that they don't even know about the paper cup approach. One is a forty-something man, an almost burly type, pushing a little boy in a cheap stroller and almost whispering, "Can you help out a little bit?" Then there is the woman on a corner. She still has an ID badge hanging around her neck. "A little help, please?" And on another corner, a man in one of those industrial-type electric scooters. This one does have a paper cup, but it is held between two toes. He can't reach high enough to shake it in anyone's face, so he just sits there with his outstretched left leg, and the paper cup dangling from his foot.
These are only a few of the people who had been making it, just barely, until now. Even if the newspapers didn't tell me that there was something unfortunate going on in people's lives across the nation, my daily walk to St. Peter's would have made it perfectly clear.