Feast of the Holy Family

Happy Feast Day:

• all members of families
• the members of the Holy Family Institute
• all religious congregations under the patronage of the Holy Family

and

• to all my family, too!

The stained glass window is from St. Joseph's Church, Chicago, where we went to Mass on Christmas Day (and where I was immediately conscripted as lector!). (After Mass, while the sisters greeted the priests and people, I went around with a camera...)
The Church, originally established by German Benedictines, has just been restored to pristine "Arts and Crafts" era beauty, and it is just splendid. Unfortunately for the parish, at least for now, the majority of parishioners leave the city for Christmas, so there was a very sparse congregation. But the area is on an upswing, and more families will hopefully be moving in to fill the pews.

Upcoming talks

Are you going to be in any of these areas when I am talking about St. Paul? Here's a whole list of my scheduled talks to date (just missing the New Ulm DRE presentation, tentatively booked for March 8).

Get a Life

Today is the feast of St. John the Evangelist, and the Christmas season liturgy uses the occasion to introduce a whole series of readings from the letters of John. Today's is probably the most profoundly fabulous. It's the secret of life--only "life" is not what we assume it is. This reading sent me back to Paul's equally fabulous passage from Philippians about the self-emptying of Christ, who then received everything back (and more) in being given the name and glory of God the Father.
Turns out, life isn't something you can "get" or grasp or claim or even define for yourself. Life is what God is and how God is: self-gift to the point of emptiness, and a receptivity that awaits everything from the other. That is Trinitarian life, and if we are "in Christ" (Paul loved to say that), then we participate in this life. We, for whose sake the Second Person of the Trinity "emptied himself and took the form of a slave," participate with him in giving "glory to God the Father," glory the Father poured completely and self-emptyingly into the Son. And our life in time, here and now, is meant to mirror this Trinitarian life, because even now we are the image of God.

Still watching Stephen

At Mass, I was struck by the vivid red of the priest's vestments: the same deep red as the poinsettias. And Saul's presence at Stephen's martyrdom, too. In fact, as I walked to St. Peter's, I was remembering a phrase from the 2nd or 3rd retelling of St. Paul's conversion story (it is told 3 times in the book of Acts). As Paul is telling the story, the Lord didn't just appear to him on the road to Damascus and say, "Why are you persecuting me?" He also commented, "It is hard for you to kick against the goad."
What goad?
Could it be that one of the "goads" the Lord had sent to lead Saul into the Christian community had been precisely the "wisdom and spirit with which he [Stephen] spoke"? Was Saul resisting the faith that comes from hearing? He may have been glad to be rid of the preacher Stephen (little suspecting what else the Lord had up his sleeve).
I want to keep reflecting on this; that the Lord took his time with Saul, worked on his case, gave him several chances to respond to grace... It didn't all happen on the road to Damascus.

St. Stephen's Day

It's odd enough having the feast of a saint during the Christmas Octave (you can tell that the Christmas Octave isn't quite at the level of the Easter Octave when every last feast day, even if a solemnity, gives way to Easter); today is a martyr's feast. So right after the stars and angels of a birth, we have the bruised and bloodied death of a witness to the Resurrection. Is it another hint of the "sign of contradiction" that Christ will always be?
In this year of St. Paul, the feast of St. Stephen also draws our attention to the mystery of God's "permissive" will. There is a hint in the Acts of the Apostles that Stephen debated with the ardent Pharisee Saul, who was from the Roman province of "Syria and Cilicia" (and Stephen bested the members of a Cilician synagogue in a discussion about the Messiah and the Law). As Stephen was stoned (for blasphemy) by a lynch mob (is it a "lynch" mob if you are stoned?), Saul watched over the possessions of the murderers. (Odd that he didn't "cast a stone": was he too young to participate in the ritual punishment?) Who would have guessed that the same "Son of Man" appearing to Stephen through the open Heavens would soon enough appear to Saul, who would then more than take Stephen's place as an evangelizer?
Nothing is beyond the reach of grace!

Merry Christmas

Why Midnight Mass?

It's the only midnight Mass in the Roman Missal, and it's tonight. Some people would never miss Christmas Midnight Mass, even though it's (cough, cough) the only Mass they attend all year. But why is it precisely "midnight" Mass? (It's still the "midnight" Mass readings and prayers even if the Mass is anticipated, as ours will be tonight at Mount Carmel.) Is there something about midnight and Christmas, or is midnight just a particularly romantic hour for a religious observance?
We know about the "night" part of Christmas. Luke makes it pretty clear that Jesus was born at night: there were, after all, shepherds "abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night."
But that's not all.
The book of Wisdom, in a poetic meditation on the Exodus, proclaimed, "For when peaceful stillness compassed everything and the night in its swift course was half spent, Your all-powerful word from heaven's royal throne bounded, a fierce warrior, into the doomed land...' (Wis. 18: 14-15). So a dramatic, saving intervention of God took place when night was "half-spent" (ergo, midnight) and God's "all-powerful word" (the Word Incarnate!) descended from the royal throne.
Midnight Mass is the Church's way of saying that this passage was more than a meditation on God's action in the past history of Israel: it was a prophecy of an even more dramatic saving intervention by God through his Word.
So, whatever time your Midnight Mass is, may it be the opening of a Christmas full of Jesus!

The Song of the Angels

I was noticing how many Christmas carols and hymns assume that "heavenly hosts sing Alleluia" on Christmas.
Truth to tell, "Alleluia" is not the angelic Christmas song. According to the Gospel of Luke, the "heavenly host" was singing "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace." It's just that "alleluia" fits into a melodic line a bit more easily than such a long and complete message. (Our Founder latched onto the Christmas message and made it the whole focus of our mission, saying that the angels' song was really about what Jesus came to do, and so we are to continue the selfsame mission.)
Does that mean that "Alleluia" should be banned from Christmas? Not so! Alleluia is the Church's Easter song: when we sing it at Christmas, we are implicitly invoking the child's future resurrection from the dead. When we put it in the mouths of the heavenly hosts at Christmas, it is a kind of angelic prophecy of how the infant will bring about "Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth." It is anticipated praise, so to speak.

Now, as for singing... My favorite Christmas carol is "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" (interestingly, one of the few songs that puts the right Christmas words in the angels' mouths). What is your not-to-be-missed absolutely favorite carol?

Christmas Novena: Christmas Eve

It's Day 9 of the Novena, and the O antiphons have spelled out for us what it means: "Tomorrow I shall be."

" 'The harvest is abundant' (Mt 9:37), the divine Teacher repeats even today: Many have not met him yet and are waiting for the first proclamation of his Gospel: the enthusiasm of others, despite having received Christian formation, has waned, and they maintain only a superficial contact with the word of God; still others have fallen away from the practice of their faith and are in need of a new evangelization. Nor is there a lack of righteous persons asking essential questions on the meaning of life and death, questions to which only Christ can supply a fulfilling response. It becomes therefore indispensable for Christians on every continent to be ready to respond to whomever asks the reason for the hope that is within them (cf. 1 Pet 3:15), announcing the Word of God with joy and living the Gospel without compromise."
Pope Benedict XVI

Christmas Novena, Day 8

The Founder "guided our meditation. He spoke to us with such power that it seemed to have imprinted itself on my very soul: 'Jesus Christ is the universal King; his salvation is for all peoples. He is the Teacher and Savior of all humanity. The work of the good press [as we called it then] must aim to make the Word of God reach many people, even those who do not go to Church. We are working so that the Reign of God will be spread throughout the world.' Some time later, while we were preparing the leaflet [missalettes], he passed by and asked: 'What are you working on?' We answered, 'We are preparing the packages of "La Domenica",' And he said, 'No, you are not just making packages: you are preaching to many people'."
Sr. Assunta Bassi, fsp (one of the first FSPs; she was about 14 at the time this episode took place)

In today's liturgy, the first reading (the story of Hannah dedicating her toddler son Samuel to the Lord's service) is just a preparation for the Responsorial Psalm. In a way, it is the Responsorial which is the real first reading, deliberately mirroring the Gospel (Mary's Magnificat). And both the Response and the Gospel today are the triumphant songs of women praising God for turning the world's usual order upside down and making impossible things come about.
It's a theme that will be dear to St. Paul ("God has turned the wisdom of this world into folly"; "God chose the things that are not to confound the things that are, so that no human being might boast before God").
I have to admit that I don't usually think in those terms, or in line with this rather significant biblical message. These last days of Advent offer yet another opportunity for me to "be transformed by the renewal of my mind," so that I will "have the mind of Christ."
(Doesn't St. Paul say it so well?)

Christmas Novena, Day 7

"The current global financial crisis illustrates why it is a mistake to build a life on passing realities like money and success. We see this today in the collapse of the great banks: this money disappears; it's nothing. And so all these things we thought were real and were counting on are in fact realities of a second order. We need to change our idea of realism. The realist is someone who recognizes in the Word of God, in this reality that appears so weak, the foundation of all things."
Pope Benedict XVI

Christmas Novena, Day 6

"Let us receive Jesus well! He comes in our midst. Let us prepare well our heart, our soul, our house, our community, to receive Jesus. Let us tell him in these days: 'Come into our midst. Come. We thank you for coming from heaven to save us. Come. We want you to be happy among us."
Ven. Thecla Merlo (Co-foundress, Daughters of St. Paul)

Christmas Novena, Day 5

"The liberation of the victims of oppression and injustice must include liberation also from the subtle manipulations [by which] media are used to exert upon the very hearts and minds of people. The distortions of truth, the creation of false needs, the deceptive lure of materialistic goals as the ultimate meaning of life and human fulfillment can be fertile ground for oppression and enslavement as much as the more obvious forms of injustice. Paulines are committed to address this issue by raising the consciousness of people to the need for a critical stance against the camouflaged attacks upon their human integrity waged through the media."
Sr. Veritas Grau, fsp

Parallel lives

While not entirely parallel in their lives, Samson and John the Baptist are presented in parallel manner in their births, which we hear about in today's liturgy.
They share certain exterior characteristics: both are the subject of angelic annunciations; both are conceived by previously barren women; both are consecrated to God under the "nazirite" vow (no liquor; no haircuts).
Interiorly, too, they have a certain similarity: both experience the presence of the Spirit of God early on (John "even from his mother's womb").
And both have a similar mission: not to carry out great accomplishments for the Lord, but to "begin" something. Samson was to "begin" the deliverance of Israel from the Philistines, not bring it about. John was to "prepare" the people for the Lord's coming.

Icons of St. John the Baptist can be pretty interesting all by themselves. In classic western art, John resembles his cousin Jesus so much that the only way you can tell them apart is John's Tarzan-like attire, or the action in the painting. In Eastern icons, John looks like a hairy (and very skinny, at least generally--see the ribs?) wild man--even in Heaven!

Christmas Novena, Day 4

"What is needed it the type of witnessing that supports the message with the example of one's own dedication to an alternative, other-centered power. The more radical and counter-cultural the witnessing, the more effective it becomes. Apostles of communication do have to inculturate themselves in media culture, but paradoxically, they are also to challenge with their very lives whatever in that culture is opposed to the Gospel that they proclaim."
Fr. Silvio Sassi, SSP

Advent Wreath Service, Week 4

Here is a flyer with a little program for the fourth Sunday of Advent (although I suspect that for most of us, my community included, by the 4th week of Advent the candle service tends to the perfunctory...). (Is that the case with you?)

Christmas Novena, Day 3

"How many times do you ask yourself the great question: where is humanity heading; how is it moving; toward what goal is it aiming as it continually renews itself on the face of the earth? Humanity is like a gret river flowing into eternity. Will it be saved?"
Bl. James Alberione
"The specific identiy and therefore the mission of the Daughters of St. Paul is precisely to insert themselves within the technological world of communication and probe its conscience with Christ's own questions regarding the ultimate meaning and values of life."
Fr. Silvio Sassi. SSP (Superior General of the Society of St. Paul and successor of Bl. Alberione)

A Question of Interpretation

The absolutely biggest question facing us when we take a Bible in our hands is the question of interpretation. But it's also the biggest question facing us in life! How do we make sense of the things that happen to us and to others throughout life? An interesting tidbit I found (in an article from Biblical Archaeology Review) demonstrated that our ancestors in faith expected the Bible to help them interpret life. One Jewish approach to Scripture was to bring life to the Bible, matching a text to the current situation, and letting the text in its fuller setting speak to the matter at hand. The interpretation, set in writing, was called a "pesher" (interpretation). It left the biblical language in place, not replacing generic names or images with the specifics of the current situation. That way, the pesher could continue to guide people in understanding how to respond to live in a way that respects the Word and presence of God.
Pope John Paul II used this approach as Bishop of Krakow: he wrote about it in his book Gift and Mystery.
Today's O antiphon calls upon Eternal Wisdom to guide us in the way of "holy prudence." What is prudence, after all, but practical wisdom? And what better way to be guided than learning to read our own lives in the light of the Bible?

Sr Helena: in the Top Ten!

Catholic mom-blogger Lisa Hendey has our very own Sr. Helena Raphael Burns in the #2 spot of the Ten Most Fascinating Catholics of 2008--right after Pope Benedict XVI himself!
Who would be on your top ten list?

Better late than never!

This TV report dates to late October; I only got the link now! It's about the possible miracle (being attributed to our Founder's intercession). (Someone should have given the poor reporter an Italian pronunciation guide!)

O

It's the shortest, but most expressive word in the Bible, and starting today it characterizes the liturgy. Every one of the seven days leading up to Christmas Eve features an O Antiphon: it appears in the Liturgy of the Hours as an antiphon and at Mass as the Alleluia Verse. The translations in the liturgy are pretty truncated, however, so you don't get the full sense of how much Scripture is packed into each of these invocations of the coming Lord.
Today's fuller antiphon goes something like this: O Eternal Wisdom, proceeding from out of the mouth of the Most High, who reaches from end to end and orders all things mightily and sweetly, come now to direct us in the way of holy prudence.
Part of the reasons these antiphons appear today is that the Advent liturgy shifts into high gear on December 17. Suddenly, we move from "generic Advent" to "intense and immediate preparation." Look at the readings for Mass: we have gone from general prophecies of a great figure, of peace, of consolation to today's "countdown to the King" in the form of Jacob's prophecy of kingship for Judah and Matthew's genealogy, tracing the bloodline of the kingship to David and then to Jesus Christ.
From now on, every day of Advent will show us the step-by-step fulfillment of the prophecies: the annunciation to Joseph; the announcement of John the Baptist's birth; the annunciation to Mary; the Visitation; the birth of the Baptist. (Isn't the Liturgy amazing?)

Christmas Novena, Day 2

Today the O Antiphons begin! See my 2006 post about this secret Christmas code.
Now, for the Novena, we start with a mission-oriented thought, this time from our Founder:
"A good part of today's world suffers from a shortage of bread. There is a far greater shortage of the spiritual bread brought by Jesus. 'I am the Bread of Life,' he said. Countless people live completely unaware of their destiny. They have no other thought than the present. Yet in a short time, death brings them to eternity. There are few to prepare them with this bread. 'There is no one to break it for them.' They die of hunger without understanding their hunger. Jesus is Bread-Truth. The apostle of the media of communication is another Jesus Christ who echoes and amplifies to people of every age and place what Jesus preached and taught on earth."
Bl. James Alberione

Sr. Julie Answers the Mystery Question: What to give nuns?

God bless Sr. Julie for tackling, straight-on, the question in the back of your minds right now: What on earth is an appropriate gift (Christmas, birthday, whatever) for a nun?

Christmas Novena, Day 1

Time for everybody's favorite novena! Last year (and the year before), I resolved to redo this video novena, and every year greater priorities prevent me from seeing that through. So I offer you the now-venerable sung novena for the third year in a row.

This is the novena we've sung in community since I entered; it is an adaptation of a 17th century version from northern Italy. This year we are adding some mission-oriented readings; when I get a copy I will add them here.

Christmas giving

Mom is giving chickens and goats this year as Christmas gifts. Of course, the recipients won't see so much as a feather: the chickens and goats are going to needy families through Heifer International. It's a wonderful way to help a family provide food, work and an economic leg-up, and so much more meaningful as a Christmas gift than giving new stuff to people who already have lots.
Today I also got a request from "The Women's Centers" of greater Chicagoland. Now there's an opportunity for some profoundly meaningful Christmas giving: a donation to this organization, or to the equally worthy "Aid for Women" or any number of similar groups is a way to honor the Lord's coming among us as a needy, helpless infant by providing women in crisis pregnancy situations with the medical and practical resources they need. Many of these crisis pregnancy centers host Christmas parties for mothers and children; call to see what supplies they are low on, or what special items they may need. You could also send a donation to places like St. Fidelis, where homeless mothers and their babies find shelter and resources to get a new start.
Whether it's chickens and goats or baby wipes and blankets, Christmas giving can be more meaningful than ever.

A Question of Authority

When "they" put together the new lectionary (book of Mass readings), the idea was that for Sundays and special liturgical seasons, the first reading (generally from the Old Testament) would have some sort of connection to the Gospel. Ordinarily, the regular daily Mass readings (outside of Advent, Lent and Easter) do not have this; the first reading runs in its own cycle, taking passages more or less in order from the chosen books, which also go more or less in order.
Advent, as I said, is one of the exceptions: the daily Mass readings are as carefully put together as the typical Sunday readings in Ordinary Time (not that homilists are always that clear on just what connection the formulators ever saw between some of the readings!). At any rate, I have really been enjoying the Advent readings and the way they connect, day after day. Until today. Today's readings seem so dissimilar that it would almost seem to be a weekday in good old, unmatched Ordinary Time. About the only connection that immediately comes to mind between the prophecy of Balaam, son of Beor (found in the book of Numbers) and the Gospel for the day is that Jesus is the ultimate fulfilment of Balaam's prophetic message. That's pretty slim pickings for a meditation (never mind a homily!). But I did find a bit of a hint in the Gospel. It's a matter of authority.
In the Gospel, Jesus' preaching is interrupted by a rather rude question: Who gave you the right to teach? Jesus refuses to give an answer, since the questioners were so little interested in real answers that they couldn't answer his challenge: Where did John the Baptist get his right to baptize? (On the grounds that if they said, "From God," they were open to a charge of disbelief and if they said, "From mere human beings," they would cause a riot, the questioners demurred: "We don't know.")
Balaam, Son of Beor, however, doesn't hesitate a bit in saying where he gets his authority. He prefaces his prophetic blessing with this twice-repeated self-identification: "The one who sees what the Most High sees and knows what the Almighty knows." Not that his message was accepted by those who sent for him. They rejected the unwanted message (of Israel's blessing) and the unerring prophet. His authority wasn't the issue in the end.

You have to read the whole story of Balaam (Numbers 22-24, all three chapters). Poor, noble Balaam ended up being considered a false prophet, but he was what he said he was "one whose eye is true, who sees what the Most High sees and knows what the Almighty knows."

ibelievetoo.org

The nation's atheists seem to be holding massive PR campaigns this year. I heard about the decorated sign (with a snarky message) posted near the nativity scene in Springfield, IL, and the American Humanist Association has underwritten bus ads in the Washington DC area. So one pro-active Catholic in northern Virginia started her own campaign. Find out more!

Sunflowers in the Snow

Here's another picture (of another sister--there are four of them!) from the snow in New Orleans this week. Her neighbor took the photo. Doesn't that poor sunflower look like it is going through the worst day of its life?

Advent Wreath Service: Week 3

Here's the Advent wreath service for Gaudete Sunday (already?!).

Free!

I suppose it's only fitting for a Pauline... that "free" should be among my favorite words.

When I was in fourth grade, I treasured a white, business-card sized paper printed with filigree 'round the edges and the bold inscription: FREE TICKET. On the reverse, in italics, it continued, "It's not good for anything, it's just FREE." I thought that little piece of paper was hysterically funny. Goodness knows how much entertainment I got out of showing it to people, waiting for them to laugh, too, but...relatively few others thought it was anyway near as funny as I did. Nonetheless, "free" remains high on my list.

It is especially fun for me here in Chicago, where marketing agencies test or promote new products, giving them away by the thousands "on every street corner." Today I was handed a cup of microwave stuffing (just add water and microwave!) on the way to Mass. Naturally, on the way back I took the same streets so I could pick up some more.

After all, it was FREE.

And tonight, there is another FREE treat in store for me and one other person (depending on who returns my call): one of our priest friends provided two FREE tickets to the Chicago Symphony!

There's a reason I like that word so much!

Advent 3

Here's a very (very) brief Powerpoint "something" for the Third Week of Advent, courtesy of our Sr. Sergia Ballini and the Generalate of the Daughters of St. Paul. My "candle service" will be coming later.

New bioethics document

Kind of meaningful to have a document on the dignity of the human person issued during Advent, don't you think?

Home again, Home again

Sr. Helena and I made it back to Chicago today--the plane (Southwest) even landed 15 minutes early! Naturally, there's a whole backlog of mail and work and putting-away to do now...
I learned that the TOB class on Wednesday ended up like a silent movie, despite the help (of Mark Northrup, I presume). Somehow, the mic wasn't working. (I'll try to figure that problem out before the next class--because I'll be in New Orleans that week!)
We came home to a whole new look in the book center: while we were away (yesterday, in fact), new book units were delivered and installed. I'll get some "before" and "after" pictures up asap (after I, um, catch up on the other things). Downstairs, our First Friday movie night was postponed until tonight, for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. They're watching--what else?--Guadalupe. (That is the best Juan Diego!) But I am heading now to chapel for some face time with Jesus. Tomorrow I hope to prepare and post an Advent wreath service for the 3rd Week of Advent (can you believe it?).

Tech trouble

Sr Bridget is getting advice by phone to solve a big problem: our wireless mic system is picking up a radio station!

Set up

Here we go getting ready for the final concert...

Snow falling amid. . .

Palm trees? that's my sister (in New Orleans). i got several emails and pics from home today.

Today at Mass, the phrase "heaven and earth are full of your glory" really struck me. Especially the "and earth" part. "The kindness and love of God our Savior has appeared." (I love that reading from Christmas day.) That's the focal point of Christmas, in a way: the glory of God filling the earth; becoming one with the earth in human nature. Heaven and earth are always full of God's glory, but I rarely notice it or give thanks and praise for it. I get too absorbed by the non-glorious things, the falling-short, the missteps. And the glory of God is there, filling the earth all along.

TOB tonight

While Sr. Helena and I are in Philadelphia (concert at Villanova tonight), the sisters home in Chicago will be hosting the monthly Theology of the Body online study group with Fr. Loya. I gave them a run-through on the equipment and set-up before I left (and a refresher by phone last night), but this is the first time the sisters will be handling the technical part of this great program, so pray for them. And join them (if all works out well, God willing!) at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time (6:30 in Chicago) on http://www.ustream.tv/channel/theology-of-the-body

Comfort ye

Today's first reading complements the feast day magnificently. Juan Diego was sent with a message of comfort, and even though the flowers of Guadalupe have wilted the word of the message is as meaningful as ever.

Getting out of Boston

Sister Sean at the wheel, but will the traffic let us get to Mass Pike?

Unfreedom of Speech in NY Bill #826

Tuesday, December 9th, the NY City Council will take a full vote on the so-called "Clinic Access Bill" #826. I first learned about this bill while in New York last week. According to the Brooklyn Tablet, "The bill was designed by NYC Council President Christine Quinn and members of NARAL, Planned Parenthood and the NY Civil Liberties Union." What they are seeking is to allow anyone--regardless of special interest--to level a charge of harassment against another individual in matters concerning abortion clinics, without the refinement of evidence. (Honestly! The bill provides for the possibility of an accusation to be made on the basis of the accused's unstated "intention"!)

This from the Brooklyn Tablet:

Msgr. Reilly said that the members of the Council, after they heard their testimony, said “that they respected and admired the great work that we do, and that this amendment would not affect the Helpers. But the problem is that this will allow somebody without evidence to make an accusation against a sidewalk counselor. The biggest thing is that this is not necessary, because we aren’t breaking the law. If the law is being broken, then yes, increase the penalties. But we are not breaking the law.”
In a statement by Quinn, she said that the legislation “will ease the burden of proof
currently required in order to prosecute harassers.” The current local law requires prosecutors to “prove that a defendant intended to prevent someone from obtaining or assisting in reproductive health services.” Under this bill, proof of such intent would no longer be required for prosecution. Additionally, either a clinic or a patient will be able to file a harassment complaint. Currently, only an individual’s complaints about such behavior can be prosecuted.
“This would strip away the freedom of speech person-to-person at NYC abortion clinics,
prevent literature handouts, and personal communication, and strip away key First Amendment rights from people who want to offer help to women in crisis pregnancy,” Slattery said.
In an e-mail sent by both Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio and Cardinal Edward Egan to parishioners in their respective dioceses, it stated that “this bill will lead to unfair prosecutions of ordinary citizens who wish to express their free speech rights, and will be subject to criminal and civil penalties merely because some influential groups consider their speech to be unwelcome. Ultimately, the Clinic Access Bill is unfair to women, who have a right to information before they make the decision on whether or not to have an abortion.”
The NYC Council will hold a second public hearing before the law is voted on, which could come on Dec. 9. Pro-life advocates are encouraging everyone to contact their City Council members and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who supports the new legislation, to express opposition to the bill. To find the name of your City Council representative, go to http://council.nyc.gov and click on Council Members. You can also e-mail Mayor Bloomberg at http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html.

Advent in Person

I was reflecting today that the Immaculate Conception is the only historical "day of creation" that is celebrated liturgically. We celebrate the act of creation--and new creation--on Easter, it seems to me, but Mary is the only creature whose coming to be gets an annual commemoration. (No, the Incarnation of the Word doesn't count!)
It's supremely appropriate that this feast day always falls in Advent: Mary is Advent in person: readiness, attentiveness, responsiveness. All the qualities of Advent are Marian qualities. In Mary, creation itself was open and available for the Incarnation.

I had really been looking forward to our concert this evening at the Marian shrine of La Salette in Attleboro. Again, it was so supremely appropriate to celebrate with music at Mary's shrine on her feast day. But we'll have to wait until next year: a huge power outage has Attleboro in a cold, dark, freeze today. The Shrine's famous "Festival of Lights" isn't glowing, either. So the choir is taking a holiday on this holy day...an opportunity for me to make a bit of a retreat day (and to fix my hem, which decided to let go of its last bits of thread this morning)...

This way to Boston

Concert tonight!

Two

Two moving carousels, all eight reindeer (animated), a giant St Nick and moving figures.

But wait! there's more!

Too bad you can't hear the music, too.

82nd St

Three houses in a row with great lights. . .

Still on 82nd St

A whole Nutcracker scene

82nd St

They must have a block-wide contest!

Sancta Hilaritas

Earlier this week we got a complaint (one) about the simple choreography that accompanies our music. I rather suspect that the caller never heard about Sancta Hilaritas. No, not Saint Hilary, or even Saint Hilarious, but Holy Fun, characteristic of St Philip Neri's ministry and of the lives of many, many saints.
It's one of the ancient secrets of convent life, but the Daughters of St. Paul bring it to you live on stage: the community recreation that generally takes place among sisters, in the confines of the cloister. (You've heard of St. Teresa of Avila and her dancing, right?)
One person this week had a problem with that. They missed out on all the fun. Are they also missing out on some of the holiness?

Here's the local coverage of last night's concert (the biggest Christmas event on Staten Island)... The newspaper featured a picture on the front page, and three large pictures on the inside page with the full article. The highlight for us (and possibly for the Monsignor in the article) was when the venerable pastor of St. Peter's Parish came up and played the conga drums for a calypso-style song. Turns out that in his pre-clerical days, James Dorney played drums on the road with Desi Arnaz. (We're going back a while, now.)
We have another concert tonight; this one is at St. Athanasius Parish in Brooklyn. They were our best audience last year, and some of the people from last night's event said they were coming tonight, too. (Many people, Msgr. Dorney among them, said that it was our best concert ever.)
There's still another week to go: our final concert is next Thursday in Philadelphia.

Mile--make that "mike" check

Mile check for the big concert tonight!

Advent 2 Wreath Service

Here's a service for the Second Week of Advent. (Again, it's inspired by the Final Message of the Synod, as suggested by our Mother General, who attended the Synod.)

Our season opener Christmas Concert went very well last night. The only glitch was that our audio equipment overloaded the circuits in the parish auditorium (an amazing number of parishes here have a fully equipped combination gym-auditorium, complete with stage lights, backdrops, etc). So every five minutes or so, the stage lights would darken. And when it was time for Sr. Bridget to play "O Holy Night" on the electric keyboard, nothing happened. So I did it a capella. Which was actually quite a nice effect.
This morning, all the singers slept in, so we shared a late and very enjoyable breakfast, going back over some of the special things that happened in the concert. I made part of my meditation, using the day's readings. Isaiah had foretold that "the Lord of Hosts will provide for all peoples... all nations..." and today we honor St. Francis Xavier, who was so effective in bringing the nourishment and consolation of the Gospel to the world. That sense of "all": all peoples, all nations, the "whole earth" is a dominant theme in Isaiah, and it is epitomized in Francis, who died at the gates of China, trying to reach one more nation, one more people.
Well, tonight we hope to bring that same message and consolation to the ends of the earth, even to the far corners of... Brooklyn!

Gifts of the Spirit

Today's liturgy has so many beautiful points in it, it is hard to focus on just one or two: I keep wanting to develop each strand! But limitation is built into life in time, and so I had to let one (major) aspect guide my prayer today. (I do love how the Advent readings clearly mirror each other, don't you? At least that helped unify things!)
The first reading is Isaiah's prophecy of the "peaceable kingdom" where the wolf lies down with the lamb and so on. But before that poetic description of a universe in harmony with itself because it is in harmony with God (as "filled with knowledge of the Lord as the sea is with water"), Isaiah mentioned the little shoot coming from the seemingly dead trunk of Jesse's family tree. "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him... [and all the Gifts of the Spirit: wisdom, knowledge, counsel, strength...] and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord." This is what is precisely mirrored in the Gospel: "Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, 'Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, to you I offer praise...' "
In Jesus, the earth was filled with knowledge of the Lord and erupted in praise that could hardly be expressed in human words; all we get is a simple hint of what it means for Jesus to be "rejoicing in the Holy Spirit," who (according to Paul) prays within us with inexpressible utterances. God is delighted that we should delight in him: "Take your delight in the Lord and he will give you your heart's desire." Delight and desire are Advent gifts, gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Coming and Going

Here it is, the first of December and the first weekday of Advent, and the liturgy is full of coming and going. Our Advent hymns all seem to be pleas, calling God to "come to us": O Come, O Come, Emmanuel; Come Thou Long Expected Jesus; Savior of the Nations Come... But the readings for today have a totally different angle. The "come" first appears in Isaiah's magnificent prophecy. The "many peoples" of the earth are encouraging one another, "Come, let us climb the Lord's mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob..." It is a proposal, a call for companionship on a pilgrimage to God. And it means "going" from what was before, as we find in the Responsorial Psalm (which is truly a response to the first reading's invitation): "I rejoiced when they said to me, 'Let us go to God's house'."
But there is another "coming" in the Gospel, and it demonstrates what the Catechism says: that "God goes in search of man." When the centurion (representative of Isaiah's "many peoples") approaches Jesus to tell of his suffering servant, Jesus responds with an offer and a promise: "I will come and cure him."
All these comings and goings, both on the part of the "many nations" and on the part of God in Jesus, are the heart of Advent.

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.

St. Paul!

My articles for the Catholic New World are beginning to appear on the newspaper's website. The articles are based on my talks for the Pauline Year, which were themselves inspired by Sr. Armanda's soon-to-be-published book, "Facing the Apostle Paul," a study in Paul's thought as seen through the lens of art. In fact, in my articles I credit Sr. Armanda's insights--but I think the credit got left out of the online version. So consider this my tip of the hat (veil?) to Sr. Armanda for her great work. I'm really looking forward to her book release!

Christmas Concert Series

New blog!

I'm not ending Nunblog; I'm adding a blog for our Theology of the Body online study group to make it easier to share the TOB message with everyone. You'll find the archived classes with Fr. Loya, Sr. Helena's notes (when she is available to take them) and (when I can find them) the chat box conversations, too. There is a short list of TOB resources (more to come) and the poster you can download.
And a donation box if you're so inclined!
Let me know your book recommendations, and also any glitches that I need to fix.

Don't look back

That's the message of today's Gospel as we get toward the end of the liturgical year. It's a kind of scary Gospel (as in, "this is good news?"), but it reflects other parts of the Gospel: for example, when Jesus told his would-be followers to "let the dead bury their dead" and that "the one who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is unfit for the Kingdom of God." "Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it" is a paradox that all four Gospel accounts (even John!) repeat.
This morning, all of this came together for me in the person of (who else?) Paul. On the road to Damascus, when "the Son of Man was revealed" to him (or "in" him, as he wrote to the Galatians), all "the things I once considered gain, I have reappraised as loss in the light of the surpassing knowledge of my Lord, Jesus Christ." "I give no thought to my own life, but I am racing to grasp the prize if possible, since I have been grasped by Christ Jesus."

Home again, Home again

I'm back in Chicago, lost in catching up on all the things that have been piling up here and on line for me. It does reassure me, though: sometimes I feel that I'm just not doing very much. When I go away for a few days and find a mountain to climb, it tells me that I probably am actually doing more than I realize day by day!
I got a few more phone calls and emails from parishes and organizations hoping to line up talks for the year of St. Paul. I'm trying to accept as many of these as humanly possible. The main talks are already written, after all, so the more the merrier. And Sr. Julia in New Orleans booked me for a talk in my hometown in January (a wonderfully apostolic excuse to get out of Chicago in the middle of winter, even if for only a few days).
Oh, and I just remembered another commitment I made: to work with Sr. Irene Regina to prepare a visual program to go along with one of the songs for our Christmas Concerts... That had totally slipped my mind. As has the location of the document Jack Weber signed, giving me permission to use his photos.
Maybe I really should just call it a day!

Did you miss me? I'm still in Philadelphia. I had the full Philadelphia food experience: scrapple for breakfast yesterday and a cheesesteak sandwich for supper this evening. I was expecting something on the lines of a hot roast beef poor boy with cheese. What it turned out to be was a cross between a poor boy and a meatball sandwich with cheese (no French bread, of course): the roast beef is served with pizza sauce, cheese (American, provolone or Cheez Whiz) and cooked onions. Tomorrow, God willing, I return to Chicago, the land of the hot dog ("with all seven condiments"). Not that I expect Chicago hot dogs on the convent menu, you understand.
It has been a great week, sharing St. Paul with the Church of Philadelphia, and sharing Pauline life with our local community. We have a great team of Pauline Cooperators here, especially the dear Jack and Sophie Weber. I'll be writing soon about their prison ministry and support group for families and the art show they recently put on with inmate's remarkable art.

I guess I'm not alone in this...

In this week after the presidential election, I have heard more than one Catholic ask happened to American Catholics with regard to the one issue of this election that Catholics overwhelmingly chose to ignore (but on which the president-elect has made pretty clear he intends to act radically). Today I followed a series of links and found an October post by a Catholic Chicagoan affirming something that, to date, I haven't heard anyone else (but myself!) put in pretty much the same words:

Only by perpetuating abortion as an issue can the Republicans hold captive a block of voters who find this practice abhorrent. Certainly, some Republicans sincerely believe abortion is a crime, have done all they can to combat this evil, and do not court popularity with callous disregard to the sanctity of life. But the party as a whole has been calculating and manipulating the Pro-Life voter. By perpetuating the notion that this issue is in play, the Republicans have held Pro-Life votes captive for thirty years.

Just last week, I had made a similar comment on my friend Karen's blog:

In this year's election, besides the general disregard of Church teaching across the board (which has become the norm for over a generation now), we had high profile Catholics making a case for the wider arc of life issues--and I think there was something else at work, too, as Catholics entered the voting booths this week. Even the most active Catholics may have come to the conclusion that the Republican Party was using the issue of abortion as a kind of carrot to keep stringing pro-life groups along, year after year, election after election, as they voted for Republican candidates in the hope of seeing right-to-life laws passed and justices appointed. Perhaps this year many just came to the conclusion that the Republican Party was not going to ever permit any definitive resolution of an issue that was so good at keeping the flock. Right to life victories may have been used like the bone that gets thrown to the hound every so often to keep it content with its leash.
Perhaps (and this is pro-life heresy, of sorts) we have focused too much on laws while the culture itself ran away from us. Now we have a patchwork of laws--and they have saved lives, to be sure--but what has the impact been on culture? What makes more of a difference in people's day to day decisions: the pertinent laws or the system of assumptions, priorities and values that make up the culture? If an Obama administration wipes away every legislative protection from unborn human life, do we start from scratch to rebuild the same structure? Perhaps this has just shown us which direction not to take: not to focus so intently on the political, but to give new impetus to the personal.
And to really get the message of the Theology of the Body out there in every possible way.

I had a wonderful time at the Catholic Life Conference in Radnor, PA. I gave my "Life and Legends of Paul" talk twice this afternoon. I was assigned to the school chapel (Archbishop John Carroll High), and the screen they provided was so tiny, I ended up projecting the images onto the brick wall. Only a few details were lost. (Sorry about that, Caravaggio.) My talk was inspired by reading Sr. Armanda's Master's thesis. She studied about eight or so images of Paul to treat of the theology reflected in the art. I am happy to say that her work is heading for the presses with a tentative release date of Jan. 25. You'll see it here as soon as it's available. I highly recommend it.

Meanwhile, here in Philadelphia, we'll be making our November retreat day tomorrow. Usually it's on the first Sunday of the month, but last week we were all involved with the Cooperators' Conference. Sr. Mary Lea's talk for the Cooperators makes a nice retreat reflection, so I offer it here: you can make your own Pauline day of recollection!

Free video streaming by Ustream

Beginning to look a lot like...

...the winter holiday shopping season, of course! (The tree is going up in Daley Plaza.)

TSA, here I come!

My last encounter with the TSA (coming home from Philadelphia on Monday) presented me with a new reason for traveling by train. 

As I was approaching the first security desk, passport and boarding pass in hand, some friendly passengers behind me asked me if I had to remove my veil for the security screening. Not yet, thankfully. (I didn't know that baseball hats have to go through the X-ray machine.) I dutifully took the camcorder out of its case, placed it in the grey bin along with my jacket and shoes, put my backpack on the belt and waited my turn at the screening gate. The agent signaled and I went through, returning his nod, and then I moved toward the belt to pick up my things. 

Not so fast.

A female TSA agent was at my side, walking me toward the roped-off zone back by the X-ray gate. I had a choice: she could pat me down right there, or escort me somewhere off stage. The reason? My "voluminous skirt." This does not bode well for all the winter travel on my calendar. Winter wear tends to, you know, amplify the "volume" one is already blessed with.

Tomorrow morning I'm going back to Philly. (I left my suitcase there so I can travel light.) My only question at this point is...does this habit make me look voluminous?

The link is from the "Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute." I've never heard of the organization, but their board of directors includes a member of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace... 

According to C-FAM and other organizations involved in life issues, "On December 10th, radical pro-abortion groups will present petitions asking the UN General Assembly to make abortion a universally recognized human right." The Petition is an attempt to head this off at the pass by submitting an overwhelming number of signed petitions affirming the right to life of all persons from conception to natural death, and the right of parents to educate their children and choose the kind of training they wish their children to have. 

In seeking to verify the content of the C-FAM message, I also found this (from Speroforum.com): "...the Office for the High Commissioner on Human Rights, which is responsible for overseeing treaty compliance committees, released the concluding observations of the most recent sessions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Committee and Human Rights Committee (HRC). Both committees used the July sessions to pressure countries appearing before them to liberalize abortion laws, even though no UN human rights treaty mentions abortion." (One of the nations being pressured in this regard is Ireland.) 

So please consider signing the petition, doing a little something toward promoting the culture of life.

You can also download a pdf file of the petition (presumably to distribute it widely) and mail it in.

New Concert Scheduled!

We just accepted the invitation from the La Salette Shrine in Attleboro, MA to sing on December 8 (7:00 pm). They have a marvelous Christmas lights tradition at this Marian shrine, and I suspect that for many people, Mary's feast day is just the time to visit. If you're anywhere in the area, I hope you'll make it, too!

O Happy Fault!

I spent most of yesterday afternoon struggling to put some video up on the Pauline Spirit ustream channel. Originally, I had hoped to post all of the weekend's conferences so that our sisters, cooperators, vowed laity and women in discernment could benefit from it. Well, the video posted just fine, but there was no audio. Correction: there was audio, but it was from me making noises in my office. Typing sounds, paper noises, throat clearing, maybe even (horrors!) a phone call or a shout down the hall for someone. I put up pitiful requests for help on Plurk and Twitter, and many good souls tried to come to my aid from as far away as the Netherlands (thanks, Inge!). Alas.
I downloaded a recommended program (SoundFlower) and tried that. Then, hanging my aching head in defeat, I left the stream flowing online and went off to Mass. I was not two blocks away when *bingo* I knew just what I needed to do. Not only that, the audio problems I was having with this pre-recorded video revealed the solution to the complaints our Theology of the Body study group people had been saying for the past several video sessions: that they could hear me just fine, but that Fr. Loya's voice was "far away," despite the clip-on mike.
I had the wrong "audio source" indicated. All this time, months and months now, I neglected to change the default from "built-in mic" to "DV audio" (or, in the case of pre-recorded content--admittedly a much more complicated situation--using the newly installed SoundFlower channels).
Such are the ways of Providence that our Theology of the Body online study group will now have enhanced audio because I had such migraine-inducing trouble yesterday trying to do something else.

Speaking of TOB, our monthly study group will meet here as usual on the second Wednesday of the month with Fr. Loya (yes, next Wednesday at 6:30 Chicago time, 7:30 New York time), but the online session will stream later, most likely on FRIDAY. There is no message that is more life-giving than the Theology of the Body: do your friends a favor and invite them to watch the streaming video class with you. Get a group together to listen and discuss the most unlikely good news our culture could ever here! (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/theology-of-the-body -- in the archives, you can identify the TOB classes because the clips all feature Fr. Loya; the other clips are from the Pauline Spirit channel).

As for the videos I posted yesterday, you will find them at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/pauline-spirit and click on the video clips to the upper left of the archive box. I'm posting more today, God willing! (Sr. Mary Lea's talk on St. Paul was outstanding.)

There's something about today's Gospel that I keep avoiding... My excuse is that I am distracted by the denouement of the long campaign we have been through. But I suspect that it is the meat of the Gospel that I am really avoiding. In a way, the Gospel matches the first reading quite well--something that doesn't happen too often in the weekday cycles. Jesus is saying to the "great crowds" that they must turn their backs on every precious thing, life included, to really be his followers. He calls for full surrender; otherwise, we are starting a project that is doomed to incompletion. All or nothing.
And St. Paul is giving the example of someone who did just that. Even more, Paul testifies to the joy he feels at the prospect of his life being "poured out like a libation."
In a way, Ignatius' "suscipe" prayer expresses Paul's heart: Take, Lord, receive, all..I have and possess. Give me only your love and your grace. That is enough for me.

The scene and sounds outside

It's after midnight in Chicago. I was trying to sleep, but the roar of the crowds passing by our front door just made it impossible. So I gave up and leaned out of the window with a video camera. It was something like the 4th of July after the fireworks, a scene that never fails to remind me of our Founder's words, "Where and toward what is humanity moving?"
I also have to admit I wonder where and how those sudden waves of screaming originate. People will be walking happily by and then all of a sudden, the throng erupts in shouting, cheering, whistling, chanting. A group just passed by with drums or buckets, tapping out a rhythm for all to chant with.
See if this works to give you some idea.

Tonight's lineup

The Liturgy speaks to Election Day

Here's a great thought, right from today's Responsorial Psalm:

"Dominion is the Lord's

and he rules the nations."

Posting from Ground Zero of the Obama Campaign,

Chicago's Michigan Avenue,

Sr. Anne

What a wonderful weekend with the Pauline Cooperators in New Jersey! Fr. Antonio da Silva provided some breathtakingly deep insights into our spirituality--while attempting to keep translating, I did manage to capture a few things for myself--and Sr. Mary Lea from our Culver City (CA) community gave a deceptively insightful presentation, wrapped in her understated, humorous style. I got most of Sr. Lea's talk on video and hope to put it on ustream. I also got Fr. da Silva's talk (with my running translation from his Italian) on video--but since no one was doing any camera work (I put it on a table, hit "record" and went to my post at the mike), I have no idea if the video will be usable. Hopefully the audio will, though. (He gave some interesting information on the Pauline sainthood candidates, too. Being the postulator general, he knows something about that.)
Speaking of Pauline sainthood, the cure that Fr. da Silva was investigating got written up in the Delaware newspaper. Rae Stabosz (the healed child's grandmother) was with Fr. da Silva all week, and with us all weekend. While I was there, I got another prayer request, this time from New Orleans, for a toddler named Ashton. We prayed for his full healing through Bl. James Alberione's intercession, and I'm bringing home some medals for Ashton and his family. Please join us in prayer.
I'll be back in Chicago for just a few days, and then returning to Philadelphia, where I am at the moment, to give some talks on St. Paul. (Anybody in Philly reading this?)