The End of Time

Welcome to the end of time. Well, not the end of time, actually, but the end of the liturgical year, which is, liturgically speaking, a kind of prophecy of the end of time. Not the "end," but the end of time and the beginning of eternity. Funny how in the popular imagination, so much is invested in the end of the world, the end times, the Last Day, while the Advent it ushers in is ignored. And yet that is what it is all about: the Coming!
And so this evening Advent begins: the liturgy's way of looking forward to the definitive Advent: Maranatha!

Advent 1 Prayer Service

Download this if you like. I'm posting it a few days early so you can use it to start Advent with Evening Prayer on Saturday.

Following an Advent path inspired by the Synod on the Word of God, for the First Sunday of Advent, we light the candle that signifies God's voice, and we resolve to "listen to Him."

Invitation: As Advent begins, we thank God for sending us the Word, God from God, to guide us in the truth and teach us, and we pray for the grace of a listening heart.

Reading: Mk. 9:2-7 ("This is my Beloved Son; listen to him.")

Response:
From the bright cloud comes the voice of the Father:
--This is my Beloved Son, listen to him.
My sheep hear my voice; I know them and they follow me:
--This is my Beloved Son, listen to him.

Intercessions (Respond: Come Lord Jesus)
Look with mercy on the poor, the lonely, the depressed, the neglected, and give us your gaze of compassion for them. We pray:
Open our minds to an understanding of the Scriptures through which you continue to speak words of eternal life. We pray:
John the Baptist was filled with joy at the sound of your approach; let us know the same joy of heart on hearing your word. We pray:
Fill our minds and hearts with your Gospel so we can speak your words to those who wait for you. We pray:

Our Father...
Closing prayer:
As we light this first Advent candle, Father, enlighten us with your word in the depths of our hearts. May your word be the light that directs our words, choices and priorities in the ways of peace. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

The (almost) unveiling of Sr. Anne

I am so glad that I decided not to bring any technology on this trip. (HI from New York, by the way.) Usually, I am loaded down with electronics when I travel, because I want to take advantage of opportunities to get video footage of the nuns (or book interviews with Sr. Julia), take high-quality stills of stained glass windows in fabulous churches, and bring my work projects ahead, too. But the video camera will be needed for the Theology of the Body study group (I gave Sr. Irene and Sr. Helen a crash course in ustream), I brought Dad's old Palm device to use for word processing, and decided to forego the still pics for once.
And that's a very good thing, as it turned out.
I always get apprehensive when I unload all that technology on the TSA screening belt. Can't you just see the stuff jolted just enough, or the grey bin tumbling against another bin as someone reaches over it for a carry-on, and all that expensive stuff gets turned into a jumble of broken plastic and circuitry? And for me, it's all pretty irreplaceable. (Which is what really makes me nervous, O me of little faith.)
Anyway, today I had none of that. Just a backpack and overnight bag, with my shoes, a jacket and a quart-size, zip-closure bag of toothpaste and shampoo samples in the grey bin. So I went with confidence through the security gate, holding my boarding pass up for the agent to see. And then I was escorted into one of those roped-0ff areas, far from my stuff. Pretty soon, Sr. Helena joined me in the next roped-off spot, and the agent called for a female agent to come over.
There was only one female agent at that security station, and she was busy. My stuff went trundling down the belt as other passengers came through. We waited.
Was it the voluminous skirt again? Nope. This time it was the veil (the "headpiece"). They had to do a head-pat. Sr. Helena offered to take her veil off, if that would get things moving. (She had a laptop on the line!) Nothing doing. We had to wait for the woman to come and tap us all over our heads and shoulders. And then we were free.
As I tied my shoes, I saw another woman being led to the corral. She didn't have a veil or headpiece. Or voluminous skirt (though she really shouldn't have been wearing sweat pants).
I wonder what it will be next time. (We travel home through Philadelphia in two weeks.)

Eastward bound

Sr. Helena and I are heading to New York on Friday to begin our whirlwind concert tour; back in Chicago in very fine voice (hopefully!). Please pray for safe travels for all our sisters and all those who are on the road or in the air this holiday weekend. I hope to continue blogging while we're on tour, but it won't always be possible. (We have cell phones, yes, but no web plan!)

Feast Day!

Another feast day celebration today: our very own Founder, Bl. James Alberione. I got so wrapped up in preparing for Thanksgiving and for my departure for the concerts, that I totally forgot what I was going to say in honor of this man of God. But that's okay, because you were probably too busy preparing for Thanksgiving to notice.

Mark your Calendars!

I got an invitation to participate in an "extended novena" lasting through the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. I didn't visit the sponsoring website, so I am not vouching for everything that may be on it, but what I found on the invitation seemed worth taking on. Here it is:

54 day "Conversion of America" Novena begins December 3rd, and ends on
January 25th, the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.

There are five specific intentions. You may specifically pray a specific
mystery for a specific intention, or simply pray the whole rosary for
all of the intentions. If possible, pray the rosary in front of the
Blessed Sacrament. The intentions are:

1. For the triumph of the Culture of Life in the United States of
America.

2. For President-elect Obama, and for all of the leaders of the United
States of America, that they will be led personally to Jesus Christ and
His truth, and that they will lead our country in a positive direction.

3. For the hearts, minds and SOULS of the American people, that they
will be turned back towards Jesus Christ and the "least of His
brethren".

4. For a renewal of the virtues of purity and self-control, especially
among our youth.

5. In reparation for the scourges of abortion, Embryonic Stem Cell
Research, euthanasia, cloning, artificial contraception, and all
manifestations of the Culture of Death, and especially in reparation for
the support and/or complacency that we as American Catholics have shown
to these evils.

So far 30464 Rosaries have been pledged.If you are doing the
Inauguration Novena or plan to do the Conversion for America Novena and
you would like to pledge your rosaries, here is the website.
http://www.rosariesforlife.com

I'm trying to prepare some simple Advent wreath services along the lines suggested by our Mother General (inspired by the Synod's Final Message). It's a bit of a challenge, because I also signed up to do the stuffing for Thursday, and meanwhile I'm trying (and trying!) to prepare a kind of visual program to match one of the songs for the concert. The program I'm using crashed almost a dozen times yesterday. It's a fabulous program, but the computer just isn't up to it, I guess. And it's a really good computer! I guess it's just time for a break. I'm almost 2/3 through, anyway... chopping celery and onions might be a good switch. (Our Founder used to say that changing work was a kind of recreation.)

Murphy's Church Law?

Just heard the worst-case sad-sack scenario story of the year...
62-year-old Chicago woman lost her job two months back. Got a notice that her apartment building was going into foreclosure. Hadn't been real strict with her church-going lately. Went to a dear friend to share the burden. Devout friend invited her to bring it all to the Lord at an all-night Vigil in the chapel at Catholic Charities.
Woman goes to the chapel. Kneels to pray by the window.
The huge, heavy-framed window in the hundred-year-old building.
The window that had just been repaired.
I guess the devil didn't want that woman having too much recourse to the Lord...

Window, frame and all, popped off the wall and onto the woman, knocking her to the floor.
Ambulance came.
Brought her to Big Name University Hospital, just blocks away.
Hospital wouldn't do x-rays because woman didn't have insurance.

Advent Approaching

That title is a bit redundant, like "the coming Coming," but with the Feast of Christ the King, we know that Advent is around the corner. Do you have your Advent wreath? Candles with any wick left? What about an Advent calendar? We have a new one this year, illustrated by our own sisters, and prettified with stay-on glitter (!). (No, the stay-on part is not guaranteed.) This isn't a large, poster-style calendar; it folds out in a little stand-up accordian. And it's a rather modest size, too, so it can fit anywhere.
Just thought you'd like to know.

St Cecilia's Day

No, not the poem! The actual day! I take any and all feast days that apply to me, and so this one, too. Happy Feast Day to all the Ceciles and Cecilys and Cecilias, and to all musicians!

The image is from the organ loft at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church. (I think the depiction is a bit more "Grecian Muse" than "Christian Martyr," but I'll take anything!)

Thanksgiving Grace

Sr. Irene had a great idea yesterday: she wants to stand at our door at rush hour and offer passers-by a smile and a leaflet with a Thanksgiving prayer. So today I dashed one off in case you'd like to print copies for your Thanksgiving table guests.

In view of Advent

We just got our seasonal letter from Mother General, a bit of spiritual wisdom for the days ahead. For us those "days ahead" are especially the feast of our Founder, Blessed James Alberione (Nov. 26) and the season of Advent. Since Sr. Antonieta took part in the recent Synod on the Word of God, she offered the marvelous suggestion of using four of the images from the Synod's "Final Message" as our Advent guide: God’s voice (Revelation), his face (Jesus Christ), his home (the Church), and his path (mission).

Let us live this time of grace together, in communion, emphasizing each Sunday these four icons as the four principal points of our journey–metaphors of the direction in which we want to move in time, space and cyberspace. For each symbol, we could light a candle to remind us of an aspect of our life and mission in the world today:

1^st Sunday: God’s voice: let us light the candle that signifies listening to him
2^nd Sunday: God’s face: let us light the candle that signifies meeting him
3^rd Sunday: God’s home: let us light the candle that signifies welcoming him
4^th Sunday: God’s path: let us light the candle that signifies our journey toward him.

And she offers this Advent prayer, from Pope Benedict:

“Come, Lord Jesus! Come into your world as only you know how to do. Come to every place marked by injustice and violence. Come to the refugee camps of Darfur, North Kivu and many other parts of the world. Come to the places dominated by drugs. Come to the rich who have forgotten you and who live for themselves alone. Come to all the places where you are unknown. Come in your own way and renew today’s world. Come also to our hearts and revitalize our way of living. Come to us so that we too might become the light of God, your presence. In this spirit we pray with St. Paul: ‘Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!’ (1 Co. 16:23). Let us pray that Christ will be truly present today in our world and renew it. Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!”

I think this is such a great idea, I hope to post these again, week by week, through Advent, and maybe find a way to create a little Advent flyer that you can download for your families.

Feast of the Presentation

This is a rather tricky feast day, frankly. The "Presentation of Mary in the Temple" comes from the ancient work, The Proto-Evangelium of James, a devout collection of stories that attempts to fill in the blanks left by the Gospel, giving us the human interest stories Matthew, Mark, Luke and John failed to provide. Like, who were Mary's parents? What's the story of her birth and childhood? What did Jesus do as a child? Things like that.
Unfortunately for the Feast of the Presentation, the sweet story of Mary's childhood in the Temple doesn't square with history. Little girls were not raised in a Temple boarding school, nor did the priests there act as matchmakers for them.
But that's not really the point of the feast, anyway.
Today's feast honors Mary as someone whose heart was completely consecrated to the service of God from the first moment of its awakening. And it foretells the presentation of the Lord, her Son, in that same Temple.
In a beautiful liturgical coincidence, today's weekday Gospel opens with the line, "Jesus entered the Temple." The Temple was not the place for buying and selling (Jesus "proceeded to drive out those who were selling"), but for the "complete gift of self" to God. And that's what today's feast of Mary is all about.

This is sort of what I've been thinking...

...only a lot less eruditely than this!

This awareness that Christians are different, and different in ways that make a very big difference, will, I expect sharply increase in the months and years ahead. For all of President-elect Obama’s wafting language about bringing us together, healing divisions, and so on and so on, if he seriously intends to follow through on his extremist abortion views, we are headed for the intensification of an American version of the Kulturkampf that Bismarck came to rue. The focus is on FOCA, the Freedom of Choice Act, that Obama says he wants to sign on his first day in office. This act would eliminate the very modest restraints and regulations established by states, provide government funding for abortions, and in its present form, require religiously sponsored hospitals and clinics to perpetrate abortions or go out of business.

(Richard John Neuhaus, "The Coming Kulturkampf")

Here's what you need to know about FOCA. Funny how in the name of "choice," the will of the American people (expressed in the passage of numerous laws protecting women and unborn children from gross exploitation) can be completely overruled with one touch of the pen. (The President-elect promised Planned Parenthood in 2007 that passing this Act would be one of his presidential priorities.)

When I was in Philadelphia I mentioned our wonderful Cooperators, Jack and Sophie, and their group, "Mary, Mother of Captives," a Pennsylvania support group for the families of people who are doing time. Clearly, any family is traumatized when a loved one is sentenced to prison. And not all families have the resources to visit the prison on a regular basis. Imprisonment can lead to family breakup. Imprisonment of a parent is a known factor increasing the likelihood that a child will also one day be an offender. So MMOC serves as an informal prison ministry, too. They coordinate a penpal program (no pun intended?) and even sponsor an annual inmate art sale: inmates are invited to submit their art projects, which are then displayed and offered for sale. The inmates receive the proceeds from the sale--although a few of them donate the proceeds to Mary, Mother of Captives.
Not all inmates have access to artistic media. Some do: they even specify the kind of paper, the types of pencils or pastels used, etc. But others can only use white office paper and #2 pencils.
As I mentioned in my earlier post, I was astonished at the quality of some of the works of art carried out behind the prison walls. Jack told me that one inmate, in a rather notorious prison in the Deep South, always features hummingbirds and flowers in his delicately painted submissions. Another prisoner, who worked for years "as a horseman," did the image of horse and rider you see here. Still another submitted his work with a message about his daughter, being raised by her grandparents after her mother died of an overdose.
Sophie told me of doing a presentation in a parish about their organization. The pastor gave them time after the homily to explain the group's goals and activities. And then he returned to the pulpit to add that his own brother was in prison. I remember assisting a deacon in one of our bookstores. He picked out a selection of spiritual reading and then gave us his son's address at a correctional facility. The US currently has more people in prison than any other nation on earth. In some places, Catholic prison ministries are actively obstructed; one inmate I know of converted to Catholicism in prison, and was then transferred to another prison where there is no access to the sacraments. (That doesn't stop him from giving other prospective converts instructions in the faith, using donated books.)
The submissions to the MMOC Art Show that behind those bars and walls there are thousands of souls who cannot hide from their need for redemption.

How to get a holy card from the Pope

I haven't done this for a while, and maybe Pope Benedict doesn't have the same protocol as John Paul did, but it's worth a try!
If you send the Pope a Christmas card and greeting, you will get back a letter from the Secretariat of State with a Christmas holy card. A great way to increase your collection of Christmas art for contemplation and edification.
Address it:

His Holiness
Pope Benedict XVI
Vatican City State
Europe

A letter from the past...

Funny the things that pop up, seemingly out of nowhere. A while back, Mom sent me some old mail she found in a corner of the house. Probably all the moving and shifting of stuff during the Katrina refurbishing brought it to the surface. And among the envelopes were two letters addressed to me by then pre-postulant Julie Darrenkamp. (Even then, she had the appropriately nun-like penmanship that I have never mastered.)

That was in 1975.

Postage was 10 cents. (Now my keyboard doesn't even have a key for the cent sign.)

Peter and Paul

Today is another one of those oddest of feasts, the feast of the Dedication of a Church. Only in this case, it is two churches. Two really important churches: St. Peter's Basilica and the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside-the-Walls. The feast has its origin in the transfer of the Apostles' remains from a temporary resting place on the Appian Way to their own shrines near their places of martyrdom.
Even though history hints that Peter died in 64 AD and Paul in 67, tradition insists on keeping the two Apostles practically joined at the hip in their last imprisonment and death. There is a whole genre of artistic depictions of Peter and Paul (side by side, or in matched sets), and another sub-genre of their last good-bye and kiss of peace as they were led off (on the same day, tradition says) to death. (The image here is on a plaque on the Ostian Way, a site which claims to be the very place the Apostles were separated.)
One interesting tidbit: look at any of these typical depictions of Peter and Paul and imagine Jesus standing between them. You'll almost always find that Peter is at Jesus' right and Paul at his left. So much for James and John's request "See to it that we are placed one at your right and one at your left in your Kingdom." Jesus said that this was "reserved to those the Father has chosen."
Peter and Paul.

Does your parish have a matched set of Peter and Paul? Where is it located? Is Peter on Jesus' right?

Nigerian style scams on FB

I've gotten a few rather strange Facebook messages recently--presumably coming from friends, but with outside links to, let us call them "unhealthy" websites. Now there is a new variety: appeals from a friend outside the country, who desperately needs you to wire money directly to a certain bank account.
Makes me suspect that some of the fun applications on FB are really very, very creative Trojan Horses that allow the third party to make use of your profile name to hoodwink your whole list of friends.
So now I am going to go and uninstall all those applications.
No more pokes, gifts, plants...
And if you get a desperate money wiring request from me, well, now you know.
But donations are always appreciated!!!

More about Screwtape

Here's the Catholic New World's review of the stage production of C.S. Lewis' brilliant "The Screwtape Letters." As I wrote a few weeks ago, we were treated to tickets and found the performance equal to Lewis' work.