Today's saint could well have been described in the words of today's first reading from Job, "a man of strife and contention." Poor Jerome! His character just didn't fit what we would consider the "saintly" model. One Pope is even said to have commented (referring to Jerome's meditation on mortality, symbolized in a skull among his books), "Oh, Jerome, if it weren't for that skull, I'd un-canonize you!"
In some ways, perhaps, Jerome was born out of his time. He was by nature an anchorite, but was called (even by the Pope!) to be a teacher, spiritual director and scholar. Amazingly, the grimy ascetic, who grumbled publicly against Augustine, had a devoted group of women disciples. They must have recognized something in the crusty priest with his tomes in Hebrew and Greek (and that skull!)... And the Church, too, recognizes something in Jerome. Sanctity isn't the same thing as sweetness. Perhaps it was the case with Jerome that, as St. Gertrude later wrote about her own "crusty" superior, the Lord allowed a person of immense virtue to retain an ugly character trait as a constant call to humility.

From generation to generation

My first great-niece was born this morning: the first of a new generation in our family. I'm still waiting for pictures, other than the teeny cell-phone pics my Mom sent, which, well, don't really let me know anything other than that little Leah Claire has seen the light of day on this feast of the Archangels. (May they be her guardians and guides all her life long!)

Not for Sissies

My Aunt Shirley has been known to sigh on occasion, "Ain't nothin' good about gettin' old." Qoheleth seems to agree with her in today's first reading. In poetic language, he details the progression of decrepitude in "the evil days" of advanced years "when the almond tree blooms" (evidently, the almond is a late blooming tree?): shaky limbs ("the guardians of the house tremble"); crippling arthritis in the legs ("the strong men are bent"); loss of teeth ("the grinders are idle because they are few"); loss of eyesight ("they who look through the windows grow blind") and of hearing ("the sound of the mill is low and one waits for the chirp of a bird"); loss of appetite ("the caper berry is without effect").
Qoheleth is addressing all this to the young by way of advice: "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth." Don't wait for old age to give praise and thanks to God; don't leave God the dregs of your existence. Let God also be glorified and praised in the very joy and beauty you experience in the fullness of your strength. And then you will find a way to give God glory and praise when he will be the one unchanging good that remains to you.

More from the mailbox

More from the YouTube mailroom:

I just wanted to drop you line... to.. say... thank you for your youtube... experience
Its bringing me closer to the church once again and I want to thank you for it...

I also have a question about books, do you have any recommendations for a person discerning religious life?

first off I would like to say I enjoy ur videos very much. I recently just bought a CD from the daughters of Saint Paul at our local Catholic store, and I rely liked what I heard, I was wondering if they hade a myspace music profile, I know it sounds weird for a nun to have a myspace, but we have developed a community on myspace. I think it would also be good advertisement for the Order.

Hello sister, I send you a video on how one lives Easter in my city. My city is called Linares and lies within Andalucia, a region in southern Spain. I hope she likes. P.D.: Excuse me, my English. If the shipment of video fails, here you have the web address:

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=rdpVEJODwIQ

Catching up

I didn't realize how far behind I was in reading the messages sent to me on YouTube... This one is from "Catholic Albanian" and was sent in July:
As you may probably be able to tell after reading my screen name I am Catholic and Albanian and was wondering whether you may be able you recommend Albania to some missionaries looking to spread the word of God. Fortunately I am Catholic and have heard the Good news but there are hundreds of thousands of people in Albania who haven't. Although there is missionary work taking place in Albania it is limited and a lot more can be done to help.

Albania is a majority atheist country despite foreigners believing that the majority of Albanians are Muslim, they are in fact atheists as they do not practice their faith and follow the rules. So if possible please help increase our Catholic population from 10% to a much larger figure by recommending Albania to your missionary friends.

God bless you and keep up the great work you are doing.

What time is it?

Today we get that lovely meditation on time from Ecclesiastes: "He has made everything beautiful in its time."
How much stress comes from the inability to accept the "sacrament of the present moment"!

Where two or more Daughters of St. Paul are gathered, there am I in the midst of them...with a video camera.
Here you see (or will see, once YouTube finishes the process) what happened when I asked sisters "What are you reading right now?" and "What's your favorite book?" (Most of them waxed eloquent about what they were reading at the moment.)

So what are YOU reading right now?

Something New Under the Sun

Today's first reading is that gloomy assessment of human life from the "gatherer of the community," Qoheleth: the one who sighed "Nothing is new under the sun." But the Gospel is a flat-out contradiction of that! Jesus brought something so new that no one could fit him into any of the usual categories. Was he Elijah? John the Baptist? Some ancient unknown prophet come again? Even Herod seemed to realize that something new was up, "and he kept trying to see him."

Mark your calendar! It's your chance to learn how to pray the Liturgy of the Hours: how to find your page; when to pray what; how to use all those ribbons!

A couple of years ago, Father Bob Sprott, ofm, wrote about his experience as a confessor: he was hearing more and more men confessing indulging in Internet porn. Other priests confirmed that this is a growing problem, and that many of the men who admit to using Internet porn seem unwilling to really break it off. Maybe a movie like this will help them. Sony is taking a risk on a movie produced by a Baptist organization, so the first weekend's income will be closely monitored. This might be a good weekend to go to the movies...

Faith in Reason

I meant to blog about it a few days ago, but the trip to Davenport didn't leave me too much time for Internet access... There was an interesting column in the WSJ the other day. About the faith of atheists. (Yes, you read that right.)
I had read something months ago about the inverse relationship between conventional religious belief and credence in superstition, astrology and the like. This was something along the same lines. ("31% of people who never worship expressed strong belief in [the occult and paranormal], only 8% of people who attend a house of worship more than once a week [do].") But to me, the most interesting info was this: "Ten percent of atheists pray at least weekly and 12% believe in heaven."

The book display and St. Paul talk in Davenport went well. The parish there, St. Paul's, is celebrating its centenary this year. Sadly, the parish and school was vandalized a few weeks ago: the first-floor windows of one of the school buildings are are boarded up, and the church's exterior light fixtures and a stained glass window were also broken. One of the local religious communities, the Sisters of Humility, held a prayer service there (and a simultaneous one at their motherhouse for the sisters who were too infirm to come): it's something they do now wherever there has been an act of violence in the area. Sr. Laura and I stayed with these sisters and were really impressed with their continued engagement in mission, even when so many of the sisters are really quite elderly. There was a real spirit of ministry in their house; just this weekend they took on a new service, running a shelter that another organization was pulling away from.
My USB hub died last week and I picked up a cheap replacement at Office Depot. This replacement was so cheap it didn't even come with a power cord! I got it anyway, because I thought my old power adapter would fit (same output), but no. So now I have two non-functioning USB hubs, and lots of USB devices. (Maybe I can find the right adapter in a closet somewhere, or in the basement computer graveyard.) (Any other ideas?) I had another tech problem in Davenport--rather, in the car trip there. Before leaving, I remembered to bring some AAA batteries with me for the many gadgets I use. If only I had realized that the pack of batteries were the rechargeable kind. (No recharger among the gadgets.) Then, setting up the projector for my talk, I couldn't get the wireless mouse to communicate dependably with the computer. I strained to pull the computer as close to the lecturn as possible, but the monitor cable didn't allow it to come close enough. Then the pastor raided his technology closet and came out with a twenty-foot 7-pin cable that solved the problem. (Note to self: find twenty-foot, 7-pin cable for future talks.)

It's lovely outside; maybe I will take a Rosary walk by the lake before heading to Mass.

San Gennaro

Today is the feast of San Gennaro (or St. Januarius, as he is known outside of Naples!). This bishop and martyr is best known, I suspect, for the phenomenon of Italian festivals in his honor--um, no, I mean, for the phenomenon of the liquification of his blood.
It was a custom in the early church to preserve the spilled blood of the martyrs in a vial--St. Praxedes (see the Vermeer at left) met her death while carrying out this work of devotion. Well, from at least the 1300's, an ancient dried mass of dark brown preserved in a glass reliquary, turns rich red, bubbles and flows as the vial is tilted back and forth in a ceremony by the Archbishop of Naples. Sometimes this happens quickly; other times, it takes days. Since in the Neopolitan mind the failure of the blood to liquify hints at impending disaster (Mt. Vesuvius is visible from the city!), any delay in the annual miracle can inspire thousands of people to repentance. The confessionals of Naples suddenly become very popular...
The fact that the relic appeared only in the 14th century has, of course, raised questions in the past hundred years. The blood of San Gennaro has not been subjected to any high-tech testing (like electron spectroscopy) to verify that it actually is human blood. And researchers have managed to use local minerals, including one only found in volcanic soils, to develop a substance that has the same properties--solid when resting, liquifying after gentle motion. So, who knows what is really going on there in Naples? For centuries, though, people have had a graphic reminder that, long ago, a bishop did die for his faith, giving his life for his flock.

In today's Gospel, Simon the Pharisee may not have had any big ticket items on his debit sheet with God, but Jesus listed his omissions one by one, all adding up to a kind of contempt--or at the very least, indifference toward Jesus. (Kind of reminds me of the accusation hurled (!) in the book of Revelation toward the tepid.) And he looked with more than indifference toward the woman at Jesus' feet. Now she was someone Paul could relate to--and in a way, he does "relate" in the first reading. It's the scene of the "woman who was a sinner" washing Jesus' feet with her tears. Jesus says that this woman, because she was forgiven much, showed great love. St. Paul could, and did, say the same thing in his own regard: "I was a blasphemer and a persecutor and arrogant, but I have been treated mercifully...and the grace of God has been given me in overflowing measure...and this grace has not been fruitless in me. The love of Christ controls us with the conviction that because one died for all, all died..."

In today's Gospel, we can almost see Jesus shaking his head over the "people of this generation." They were using themselves as the standard of upright, balanced living, and according to that scale, John the Baptist failed by excess and Jesus failed by falling short of expectations! Since the crowd itself represented the norm, they could not notice that John and Jesus were both, in their own way, expressing a life that had God as the center. In a word, they were living in love. And in the first reading, Paul is showing the Corinthians what a life centered in love looks like. Love, like wisdom, is vindicated by its "children."

Welcome Wagon

Please add your comments to welcome Sr. Irene Regina to our Chicago community. Sr. Irene is from the St. Louis area, and has most recently been stationed in our New York community. We're excited to introduce her to this dynamic city and all the missionary possibilities it offers. In fact, she will have hardly set her suitcase down when she'll go on the road with Sr. Helena to attend the Holy Family Institute annual Triduum in Canfield, OH. (Sr. Laura and I will also be on the road, but in the opposite direction, for a parish book fair and St. Paul talk in Davenport.)
Sr. Irene is "famous" in our communities as being the only Daughter of St. Paul (so far) to have attended college on a basketball scholarship. (With her phys. ed. background, she might be the one to help us all keep any resolutions we might have made in the way of health and exercise...)

Mater Dolorosa

Today's feast of Our Lady of Sorrows reminds me of an episode from high school (Latin I class). My friend Liz (who took Spanish) was writing about a funeral at Mater Dolorosa Church, and she wanted me to translate that name for her. All I had to go by was the glossary in my Latin I textbook, which had such interesting terms as "Cocam-Colam" and "Picus-nicus" (no, I am not kidding), but no "dolorosa." So Liz suggested it meant "of the roses." I didn't think so, but what did I know? So I just said, "well, maybe."
When Liz got her corrected paper back, she was quite ticked off with me. "Dolorosa" has nothing to do with "roses." Instead, it is about "dolor," suffering. Mater Dolorosa is not "Our Lady of the Roses," but "Mother of Sorrows." (And still a very lovely church in New Orleans, too.)

Am I missing something?

One of my friends seems to be on the "dire warnings of doom" e-mail list. Lately, she has been expressing preoccupations with the upcoming Presidential election. Everything from "Obama is Satan" to "McCain won't last long in the White House: what kind of President would Palin be?" to "Armageddon is coming, really!" Not to dismiss the possibility of Armageddon (it seems to already be in full swing in some parts of the globe), the general thrust of my friend's response to whatever it is that has affected her is worry and fear that the end is near.
So am I missing some critical information?
Jesus himself had some pretty scary language about how bad things would be right before the end. Did he mean for us to live in terror or anxiety? Not if St. Paul is to be believed--and he thought the end was right around the corner in his day! Instead, Paul told us to "long" for the coming of the Lord and to "hasten" it with prayer and upright living. It would be silly not to think that there would be some risk, even spiritual risk, if a time of universal crisis should break over us. (If Christians were being led off to torture or death for professing their faith, I picture myself--apart from the special grace of the Holy Spirit, hesitantly raising my hand about waist-high to admit my belief while hoping the gesture wouldn't be noticed.) But Jesus told us not to imagine these things: "sufficient to the day are the troubles thereof." St. Paul expected us to "love the Lord's coming." "The Lord is near! Rejoice!"
But I'm still wondering: am I missing something?

A speck in my eye

Today's Gospel features the comical image of the concerned person "helping" a neighbor get a speck out of his eye while oblivious to the beam in his own. St. Paul, in the first reading, recognizes the risk: "I drive my body and train it, lest, having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified." He knows that "if a blind person guides another blind person, they will both fall into a pit" (Gospel). Paul wants to "be like his teacher" (Gospel) in taking "the form of a slave" (Paul) "to save at least some" (first reading). This is what it means for Paul "to have a share in the Gospel" (first reading).

And Sr. Lorraine has drawn my attention to another situation in which we (by which I mean, my community's publishing house) are being told we have a speck in our eye... How typical of St. Paul to stir up controversy even long after he has entered into the full sharing of the Gospel! (As Sr. Lorraine says, "Get your banned books here!")

9/11 and the most unlikely Gospel

There are four Gospels: four accounts of our Lord's life, teachings, death and resurrection. And in the pattern of readings for the daily Mass, these Gospels are distributed across the whole year. There had to be something, then, in Divine Providence that every so often, like today, the Gospel passage assigned to the universal calendar speaks with a clarity that tells us that this Word of the Lord is very much intended for us, in real life, here and now.
What is the Gospel for this Thursday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time, which in 2008 happens to fall on the anniversary of a dreadful and deadly attack? "Love your enemies."
If we were able to vote off Gospel passages like so many contestants in a reality show, this one would probably rank right next to Jesus' teachings about divorce. It's something most of us might wish just weren't there. Especially in the face of enormous evil, of real, sworn enemies. Things as big as 9/11 can make us dismiss the whole teaching as impossible, even on a small, personal level.
That's where the first reading proves us wrong. Because in a way, St. Paul is telling the Corinthians about loving their enemies.
The situation was quite different, of course. In a culture where any meat served at meals or sold in the market had probably been part of an animal sacrifice to a pagan god, could Christians eat meat without participating in idolatry? The more sophisticated members of the Church felt free to enjoy any food whatever, but some of the brethren were scandalized. So the weak were imposing on the strong. We tend to think of an enemy as stronger in some way--at least as strong enough to do us harm. Paradoxically, in Corinth, it was the weak who had become the "enemy." And Paul said submitting to the chafing limits they imposed on one's freedom of menu was loving one's enemy. It was a way of protecting the soul of "one for whom Christ died" (Paul's new definition of "neighbor"). Paul doesn't say it, but it is clear that he expects the "weak" of Corinth to love their enemies by refusing to judge them.
"Be merciful as the Heavenly Father," for "while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son." For Paul, this is everything.