Unmasking

It's Mardi Gras--and by this point, almost time now to take off our masks for the 40 days of Lent. That's what Lent is, so to speak: an unmasking of the false self. St. Paul actually used much starker terms--"killing the old self" so that a "new self" can rise.
Not that we can do any of that ourselves. All we can do is attempt to cooperate with the process begun in our baptism! And for that, the Church gives us the three typical Lenten practices of fasting, prayer and works of charity.

On Twitter, I asked what people were hoping to "do for Lent" and I got some interesting responses, from "Giving up World of Warcraft" to "praying the Liturgy of the Hours." Other devout practices include "fasting from complaining," "adding Midday prayer to my praying the Liturgy of the Hours" and doing spiritual reading.
The fullest response to the question came on Facebook, from a mom:

"We have a Mercy Cross we built as a family, and the boys will hang hearts on it
for their acts of Mercy during Lent - then it will become our Victory Cross for
the Easter Season. As a family we're giving up our "eating out" and saving the
money for the poor. I'll be giving up chocolate again *sigh* I feel a bit silly
giving up the same thing every year, but it's really the only thing I have to
give up that has any real meaning... it's my one big splurge and indulgence...
:) (I'm such a choco-holic - the darker the better...) My hubby will be giving
up meat all week long (not just on Fridays), and we're adding more spiritual
reading and prayer-time to our days... This Lent I'll be reading the poetry of
St. John of the Cross and *something* by Blessed Mother Teresa (I really do have
to decide what - perhaps I should read Come Be My Light again?)... I went to the
Pauline website and ordered Salvifici Doloris by JP the Great too. :)"

What's your approach to Lent? What's your great hope for Lent this year?

the Convent Oscars

Some friends joined us for the Oscars last night; Sr. Helena has to keep up with these things, so we made a virtue out of necessity and threw a little party. The food was my doing. (The "fruit pizza" was a big hit.)

Sr. Helena provided the red carpet (here Mary demonstrates the distinctive "red carpet walk") and the ballots.

Of all the participants, it was Judy who was the most on the Academy's wavelength, greeting every announcement with a cheer that indicated she had awarded her own "Oscar" to the same winner. (Note the gleeful smile.)

Sr. Helena gives her opinion of the judges' decisions in favor of Slumdog...

How many stars for Slumdog, Sr. Helena?

Sr Helena gets Sirius

Lino Rulli is going to interview Sr. Helena today on his "Catholic Guy" program on Sirius Radio. I have no idea what time, but I do know the topic: Sr. Helena's reaction to last night's Academy Awards. (Spoiler alert! Every time "Slumdog Millionaire" won another Oscar, Sr. Helena let out an anguished "Noooooooo!")

My own reaction, non-movie person that I am, was that Hollywood was so upset over California voters passing Proposition 8 (keeping the natural definition of marriage unchanged) that they gave "Milk" as many Oscars as possible. That said, I also have to admit feeling real distress on hearing from Sean Penn that anti-Milk protesters were outside the venue: what was the point? They won the vote--that was already a very strong statement to Hollywood and to anyone else who might care to listen.

Even in such international Oscars as we witnessed last night, when it comes down to it, Hollywood really does orbit its own planet. What we saw last night was a sign that to "the Industry" California is the world.

Gearing up for Lent

Yesterday I got invited to the Facebook group "Fast Facebook for Lent." Today I was reading yesterday's Wall Street Journal, and lo and behold: a front-page article about just this phenomenon! I do a weekly "sabbath fast" from electronics, and since my mission involves communicating, I'm not inclined to make it more than a sabbath event, but people are onto something. In fact, the WSJ article quoted a few people who were right in line with Pope Benedict's World Communications Day message: social networking is wonderful, but don't let it take the place of face-to-face relationships with the people you live and work with. Of course, those "real" relationships ask more of us. We can dismiss irritating online friends with the click of a mouse. Doesn't work so well with the nag in the next cubicle.
The traditional Lenten practices are prayer, fasting and charity. Perhaps a Facebook fast can be the jumping off point for all three!
What are your ideas for this Lent in the Pauline Year?

The Other "Monologues"

I was interviewed this morning for a Catholic program in Minneapolis; while waiting to go on the air, I heard the broadcast, which included an ad for a new theater production of V-Monologues. Not G-rated (due to some pretty hard-hitting testimony about abortion), these are the "Vitae" Monologues, a pro-life production that will premier at the University of St. Thomas next weekend. It's about time someone took on the V monopoly on college campuses!

Unintended Consequences

Today's story of the Tower of Babel struck me in a different way today. I noticed the motivation for the building project: to "make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth." Talk about the "best laid plans of mice and men": as the story ended, they ended up in the precise situation they had tried to forestall! The Gospel, on the other hand, gives us a kind of reverse situation: "whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the Gospel will save it." Losing one's life (or whatever you are supremely invested in) is no way to "make a name for yourself," but Jesus challenges us to believe that this is precisely how we can secure our place in the kingdom. It's another application of the "Seek first the kingdom of God and his holiness, and everything else will be added to you."
As I reflected on this, I had to ask: how many of us believe the Creed, but not the Sermon on the Mount (which is where the rubber of faith meets the road of real life)? "This is a hard saying," because our only assurance or guarantee is the word of Jesus. (Lord, increase our faith!)

The book that launched a thousand talks (and the story behind it)

I really regret not having posted this sooner: Sister Armanda's wonderful book came out on time for the Conversion of St. Paul, and I am only now putting it on this resource page. And this was the manuscript that inspired me to do my own research and presenting on the life and legends of Paul in art! Here's the book--and the story behind it. (This post is being cloned to the PaulineSpirit.wordpress resource blog.)

For years she ran the presses, printing books by the thousands. Her practiced eye scrutinized the sheets as they glided from the rollers of offset presses the size of tractor-trailers. She had to check that the print was clear and the colors sharp and true--especially important when reproducing masterpiece art. Now Sister Armanda Santos, FSP, of Redwood City, has a new book to show for her labors, but this time, she is the author.

"Facing the Apostle: Paul's Image in Art"--a meditative look at the life of Paul through the lens of Christian art--was released, appropriately enough, during the Jubilee Year of the Apostle's birth. Sr. Armanda says that her intention was "to allow Paul's iconography to reveal something of his personality and inner life." One appreciative reviewer, Rodolfo Papa (Professor of the History of Aesthetic Theory, Pontifical Urbaniana University, Rome) commented “….This book shows in a fascinating way the real and everlasting connection between art and spirituality.”

Sister Armanda's admiration of St. Paul began long before the Pauline Jubilee was announced. It could be said that Sister really "met" Paul during her initial formation in the religious congregation of the Daughters of St. Paul, which she entered in 1971. "My favorite aspect of St. Paul is his humanness. I like to emphasize that aspect to people who feel intimidated by him." But while Paul established communities, the Daughters of St. Paul established publishing houses and book centers "to help the individual person encounter Christ," Santos explains. Sister Armanda worked the publishing house presses even as a postulant and novice, and was eventually made head of the pressroom at Pauline Books and Media, Boston, before being tapped for roles as a superior and Provincial Councilor. The ministry she kept coming back to, however, was in the Pauline book centers. "I love book center ministry. I find that it is a wonderful way to reach people in a very personal manner," Santos says. "Being in the marketplace creates a non-threatening environment for people to come in and encounter Christ in his Word by what they read, in the music, in the chapel and even in our presence."

Through the years, she collected images of the community's patron saint. "The iconography of Paul is huge," she commented, "hundreds of depictions from every era and every type of medium: icons, oil, polychrome..."

After several terms in leadership, including service on a province-wide level (the network of Pauline communities across the U.S. and English-speaking Canada), Sister Santos welcomed the opportunity to pursue a Master's Degree in Theology. While stationed in Culver City, CA, she began a program at Loyola-Marymount, but transferred to the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, where she would be near enough to help care for her mother in San Leandro. (The Santos family came to the San Francisco Bay area from the Azores when Sister Armanda was eleven years old.) A stimulating course on St. Paul, and Sister's long-standing interest in the language and symbols of Christian art naturally inspired the direction her graduate studies took. She found her favorite images of Paul and began to craft a thesis around them. "I built chapters around the pictures I really liked," Santos admits. "Then I had to choose others in order to tell the whole life of Paul from beginning to end."

The life of Paul, beginning with his oft-depicted conversion, provides the framework for the entire book. Opening with a relevant Scripture passage, each of the 13 chapters is built around a single work of art, with an overall description of the piece and of the artist (when known), the circumstances of its creation and an interesting analysis of its unique details. From this, Santos offers a deep and informative reflection on one aspect of the life and teachings of the Apostle, allowing the artwork to once more illustrate Paul's thought and spirituality. A concluding prayer, composed by the author's own sister, Sister Germana Santos, FSP, allows the reader to enter into Paul's own spirit of prayer, and makes the book even more useful for group use. (An appendix also provides discussion questions.)

"Facing the Apostle" could be used as a guide in a study of Christian art (from the masterpieces of Raphael and Rembrandt to the work of anonymous iconographers) or for a course on the life and letters of Paul. The entire book is printed on high-quality paper that brings out the best in images. Its fine reproductions make "Facing the Apostle" an ideal gift book for RCIA or ordination.

Sister Santos is currently stationed in Redwood City, CA. Her community's Pauline Bookstore hosts her ongoing presentations on the language of Christian symbols.

Paperback / 144 pages / Dimensions: 6" x 9" / ISBN: 0819826839
Retail Price: $16.95
Pauline Books & Media, Boston

BYOB: Bring your own Bible (for Lent!)

According to Sr. Helena, there's only 7 shopping days 'til Ash Wednesday! So do you have your Lenten spiritual program ready? If you are here in Chicago, we are offering two Bible studies, both using Jeff Cavins' "Great Adventure" DVDs and guided by an on-site presenter (sometimes me, sometimes Sr. Helena, sometimes a seminarian).
Our Saturday class begins this Saturday (10:30-12:00); it's the "Bible overview" in eight sessions. Registration fee $20; optional workbook is another $20. (Payment not refundable after Feb. 21.0
Tuesday evenings (6:30-8:00 p.m.), starting Feb. 24 and continuing through April 28, will cover the book of Revelation (Apocalypse). Registration fee $30; optional workbook is $20. (Payment not refundable after Feb. 24.)
To register, call or visit the Pauline Chicago bookstore (312 346-4228).

Still en route

Got on the train at Newark station. As it pulled out, this cheerful conductor informed me that it was the wrong one. Not a big problem: the correct train is coming in ten minutes. . .

En route

At the gate in terminal 1-C (O hare). Giving a talk tonight at St. Paul Church in Princeton, prayers, please!

TOB A-list

We had a TOB brainstorming session today, partly in person, partly online, partly by conference call. Christopher West and Fr. Loya couldn't make it, but we did exchange ideas with:

• Vicky Thorn, founder of Project Rachel and speaker on the science that supports the Theology of the Body. Vicki will be speaking this week in Madison, WI (Feb. 19; make it if you can; free but registration required) and on the 28th of this month in Milwaukee
• Mark Wassmer from Mike Mangione and his band
• Anastasia Northrup from TOBIA and Our Father's Will Communications (your source for Fr. Loya's DVDs and other TOB conference recordings)
• Kelly and Scott from Share a CD (a low-cost CD service, so you can spread the TOB message freely)

Plus, Deacon Dan (I hope I have his name right) from Toronto, Marta from Miami, Steve from Ascension Press, and Jenny from Toronto (who got the ball rolling in the first place to have this meeting). And others, including four FSPs: Sr. Kathryn and Sr. Grace in Boston, and Sr. Helena and I from here in Chicago.
You can find most of the above on Facebook; we are using the group "Theology of the Body & HV - Free Resources" to share info on events and opportunities. Join us to stay up to date on TOB around the world!

Censorship 2.0?

A tip of the "hat" to Karen and Mary Jo for noticing a particularly creative approach to book burning (which originated in Ephesus, circa 55 A.D. as a way for Christian converts to make a clean break with their past idolatry). Actually, it's more than book burning. But libraries (not to mention used bookstores) will be the most affected by the provisions of “The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008”which went into effect, unnoticed, on Feb. 10. The focus of the Act is any object intended for use by children.
It's a liability bonanza for any lawyers or groups that can win monetary awards against any offending institution if they can prove that children have been exposed to books printed before 1985.
I kid you not.
The American Library Association is taking this very seriously. According to their website:

"...the Association of American Publishers (AAP) have tested the components of books and found that the levels of lead in children’s books were far below the future legal requirements at the full implementation of the regulations three years from now. However, the advisory opinion from the CPSC says that not only must the testing be done by one of their certified labs but that this legislation also is retroactive, and every book must be tested. This situation will become even more complicated because the CPSC has not certified any labs to administer the lead testing."

(Books are to be held to the same testing standards as toys.)
The ALA is fighting this very hard; not to have books exempted from the "safety" prescriptions, but to have libraries exempted. (After all, very few children have been known to gnaw on old library books!)

The liturgy certainly offers some appropriate thoughts for this Valentine's Day: the second reading from the Office of Readings was Bl. Isaac of Stella on charity, and in the Gospel today, Jesus tells us what is in his heart as he looks on "the great crowd without anything to eat." Jesus came to their rescue before the people even had time to get anxious about the situation. ("Your Father knows what you need before you ask; seek first his kingdom and way of holiness and everything else will be given you in addition.")

After our Wednesday Theology of the Body session, I find myself reflecting on St. Valentine. All we know about him is that he was a priest and martyr. But in the light of the Theology of the Body, the connection of this priest with romantic love makes more sense than ever. Because in the Catholic sacramental system (and even more in the Eastern Churches), the priest's role is not only that of a representative of the people before God: he represents the Divine Bridegroom before his Bride, the Church. So... St. Valentine's Day is perfectly suited to the celebration of the love that finds its full expression in marriage, and that mirrors the love of Christ and the Church.

Aggie nuns?

Our vocationists spent a week at Texas A&M for a combination of their own annual meeting and some discernment activity among the student body. Sr. Helena came back a confirmed Aggie. Evidently they are doing some things really, really right over there: daily Mass at the Catholic chapel is a standing-room-only event; there are over 20 (twenty!) Theology of the Body groups, and a generally exceptional level of active Catholicism on campus.
Here's Sr. Helena's video summation of the week.

Forbidden Fruit

Alas, today's first reading tells of the beginning of all our troubles. Every sorrow, every grief, every act of injustice, war, infidelity, deception. Some superficial types complain that God should not have put the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" in the primordial garden if he didn't want us to eat its fruit. But let's see what the story really tells us...
The first thing I noticed on re-reading the story last night was the serpent's odd phraseology: if you eat the fruit, "you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil."
Evil is the privation of good. God, the true God, does not know evil! And he wanted to spare us this "knowledge," too, because you can only know a privation by suffering it. Outside of the experience of a privation, you do not really know it; you only know "about" it. So Adam and Eve already had been like God in their knowledge of good and evil.
The serpent can only be speaking of false gods: "god" redefined. How is it that Eve, or Adam after her, did not stop short at the glaring disconnect and say, "This does not match our experience of God at all!" Instead, they entered into the fictional worldview--where we have remained ever since: a world of competition ("red in tooth and claw") and ladder-climbing and backstabbing, of "winners" and "losers".
In the Gospel, Jesus brings the surprising freshness of God's own view of reality; an innocent worldview where " 'yes' means 'yes,' and 'no' means 'no'." He undoes the privation suffered by the nameless deaf man. Too bad Adam and Eve had not earlier been deaf to the serpent's insinuations!

Yummy

We had a birthday/thank-you celebration for one of our great Pauline volunteers and his wife (another great Pauline volunteer; both of them are novices in the Holy Family Institute). I was the cook du jour, and my culinary endeavors turned out so delicious, I have to tell you about them.
I started last night by putting a few (frozen) sprigs of rosemary (from Mom's back yard!) into a baking pan, then sitting an enormous salmon filet on top. I surrounded it with onion and garlic, drowned the whole thing in white wine, sprinkled it with a handful of dried lemon zest (from the Spice Store in Old Town) and put it in the fridge.
Today I peeled the potatoes and cut them into one-inch cubes; nuked them in a casserole dish full of water and left them to drain while I went to the afternoon Mass.
After Mass, the salmon went in the oven at 450. I put some cloves of garlic in olive oil and heated it until the garlic started falling apart. This then went into a frying pan along with some green beans. The potatoes went into another pan with a bit of salt, a tiny dollop of canola oil and lots of wonderful fragrant dill. (I also took some rosemary essential oil and touched it to the kitchen counter, to fill the area with the scent of the principal herb I was using.)
I generally like my own cooking, but this supper surpassed my expectations. And to top it off, we had Sr. Barbara's homemade blueberry pie for dessert!

If you didn't go to Mass today, the first reading is the creation of Eve (and Adam's delight at finally finding a creature like himself) and the Gospel is Jesus' repartee with the Syro-Phoenician woman who was pleading for a miracle for her little daughter. Jesus had turned her down (!) with an appeal to his own specific mission to the people of Israel, but the woman turned his words back on him in a way that seems to have delighted Jesus. So, far from refusing her, he sent her home to see the miracle her faith had brought about.
Today's liturgical readings would have been even better (for us here!) if they had been yesterday's. That's because we had our Theology of the Body study group meeting here. You can still access the video (some technical problems--as usual!) and here are Sr. Helena's notes. Sr. Lusia attended the session--it was her first real exposure to the Theology of the Body (English isn't her first language, so Pope John Paul's weighty tome wouldn't do it), and she has been talking about it all day, marveling at the renewal it offers...
What is your experience of TOB?

Our Lady of Lourdes

Today's feast of Our Lady of Lourdes closes the 150th anniversary celebration of these marvelous apparitions. Pope John Paul also established this day for the observance of the "World Day of the Sick." It's not the "Day of Prayer for the Sick," but precisely the "Day of the Sick." This is a way of emphasizing that suffering is not only a condition from which hapless victims need to be rescued or in which they should be at least supported by our thoughtfulness: dedicating a day to the sick themselves proclaims, in the words of this year's Papal message, that "human life is beautiful and should be lived in fullness even when it is weak and shrouded by the mystery of suffering."
Even though we may not spontaneously apply the word "weak" to the Apostle, St. Paul knew about weakness and suffering. Remember that "thorn in the flesh"? No one knows what it was; all we can tell from Paul's language is that it caused him real suffering over a long period of time. And he prayed to be delivered from it! Instead, he was told, "My power is made perfect in weakness." And so Paul's paradoxical response was to "boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me, for when I am weak, then I am strong."
There are people like Paul who live their weakness in a priestly spirit, "offering it up" the way St. Therese offered her weary steps so that a missionary would be strengthened by her weakness to walk through danger to bring the Gospel to new peoples. In the encyclical on hope, Pope Benedict invites us to take up this practice again, letting our weakness (whatever form it takes) be transformed into the "sufferings of Christ for the sake of his Body, the Church."
(Other times in this blog I have mentioned the good work of the Catholic organization of people with chronic suffering; it's kind of a pen-pal support group for the mutual encouragement of this same "missionary attitude" in dealing with suffering: see www.cusan.org.)

Did you miss me?

I was in Joliet talking about St. Paul, and totally cut off from the Internet, so boy do I have a lot of catching up to do!

St. Paul's parish invited me for their "Flag" program: Families Learning About God (intergenerational catechesis). The kids were so responsive!

Everyone's Favorite Apostle

Even in this Year of St. Paul, everyone's favorite Apostle is still St. Jude. His popularity owes a great deal, at least in this country, to the Claretian Fathers and their Shrine of St. Jude, here in Chicago. Next week, in fact (Valentine's Day!), the Claretians will begin celebrating four score years of novenas to the "forgotten" Apostle, and they will be doing it in style (with a novena, of course). My friend and frequent commenter, Father Fred, tells me that the novena will be held three times a day, twice in English (2:30 and 5:30 each afternoon) and in the evening in Spanish (at 7:45, after Mass). The English preacher is the much-published Blessed Sacrament Father Paul Bernier, and the Spanish preacher is the Claretian's own Brother Manuel Benavides, who has the reputation of being an outstanding speaker. (If only I knew Spanish as well as I know Italian!)
Everything is happening at the St. Jude Shrine, located at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, 3200 East 91st St. in the far southesast side of Chicago.
Does anyone have a St. Jude story to share? The only one I have is...my brother's middle name is Jude (we always said it was because he was impossible).

Entering religious life is not without it risks. Not only do you have to leave the comfort of your home and family (as in my case) or the comfortable sense of responsibility in your career (as is more and more the case today), during formation you, of necessity, have to withhold judgment in some cases in order to learn the spirit of the community, its customs, stories, manner of interpreting events in the light of a charism that is still only incipient in you. You have to trust the superiors and formators to some degree, and your trust is based on faith: ultimately, faith in the Church which granted the congregation its recognition and approval, and in Jesus who said the "gates of hell shall not prevail."
Unfortunately, superiors don't always know what they're doing or fully live the values they proclaim. They can let you down.
Because of that, there's a verse in today's first reading that has long provoked conflicting feelings in me: "Remember your leaders who spoke the Word of God to you." I still remember how I felt at the realization that my trusted spiritual director (a longtime superior in my community), was, despite all her sincerity and good will, not a reliable guide at all. I felt unmoored, and began to question everything I had ever heard in community. The circumstances were not grave; the spiritual harm I suffered not deadly, but I was profoundly shaken.
This allows me to feel tremendous sympathy for the Legionaries of Christ and members of Regnum Christi now that the unsavory allegations against their founder are beginning to be substantiated. So far, official statements have been characterized by incredibly vague language, as though the community were hoping that a simple admission of "conduct unbecoming" would allow the whole matter to be dealt with and all traces of it swept carefully under the rug of charity. I hope that what we have seen is just a first step, while they consult with some of our wisest bishops about the best course of action to take for the greater glory of God and good of the Church. (I would recommend they seek counsel from the bishops who did not fawn over them during the founder's prosperous lifetime.) Meanwhile, there are thousands of innocent souls who "left all things" to hear "the Word of God" from a man who is now being revealed as a kind of Dorian Gray of the clerical state. Today's reading can, for now, only drive a stake further into their hearts: "Remember your leaders... consider the outcome of their lives and imitate their faith." How can they do that and still maintain peace?
But it is especially important for those betrayed members of the two communities to go back to that reading from Hebrews. They are consecrated to Jesus, not to any human being; they put their ultimate hope in Jesus, and he is completely, utterly faithful. Even if their "leaders" fail, "the Word of the Lord stands forever": "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever."

Untouchables

Today's first reading is a comparison of two revelations of God: the first is the revelation of God on Mount Sinai, replete with thunderbolts and earthquakes and all manner of very convincing evidence that God is taking the proceedings quite seriously. So seriously, in fact, that no one, not even a goat, could so much as touch the mountain. The whole thing was too much for the people, who all begged God to find a more subtle form of communication.
So God did. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews wants to remind us (or maybe convince us) that we have drawn near a new mountain, a new Jerusalem, a city where angels are gathered in festival, and the covenant blood of Jesus. Abel's blood had called out to God from the soil where it had been spilled by his brother; his blood called for vengeance. Jesus' blood calls out to the Father from the Cross, not in a wordless plea for vengeance, but in the eloquent prayer, "Father, forgive them."
It's still an "untouchable" situation; we can only access it now through faith. And in the Gospel, Jesus has the fledgling apostles go out on an initial mission, "preaching repentance." Maybe today would be a good day to reflect on the gift of faith, and to thank the Lord that even without the blazing mountain and trumpet blast, we have been given the grace to know him in this life.

I was surprised by the number of people at the 5:00 Mass at St. Peter's this evening. Usually, Wednesday evenings are rather sparsely attended. I was being edified by the increase in devotion when it hit me: these must be Holy Name Cathedral's daily Mass people, exiled (again) from the edifice--this time because of fire.
Sr. Irene Regina was on her way to the 6:00 a.m. Mass at the Cathedral when a woman in uniform stopped her. Sr. Irene thought there was some mistake, so she said, "I'm just going to Church." "There ain't no Church today," came the reply. Not until she had crossed the street on her way home did Sr. Irene look up and see the Cathedral roof in flames. This is a Cathedral that had been closed for eight months last year while the ceiling was repaired. This time it's the roof, and serious water damage to the sanctuary. I'm praying for the poor pastor who has to face such a nightmare.
God be praised, in both cases, no one was hurt, although the firefighters did suffer quite a bit from the cold.

Meanwhile, across the ocean...while the firefighters were sending streams of icy water to the roof of Holy Name, the Holy Father was speaking to the usual Wednesday crowds about St. Paul. In highlighting the Apostle's spiritual heritage, he noted the number of religious communities that have sprung up under Paul's patronage, and specifically mentioned the Paulist Fathers ("The Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle") and the "many-faceted Pauline Family founded by Blessed James Alberione."

Sister Mary Oscars?

Sr. Rose writes about a visit to Sony Studios: will she appear on the silver screen on Oscar night?

I was interviewed briefly for the "Our Catholic Life" podcast; if you listen closely, you'll hear the instrumental base for one of the songs in our latest album, "In Paradisum." The version of "O Sanctissima" is from last year's release, "Catholic Favorites, vol. 1."

Candlemas

For the popular culture, today is Groundhog Day (he popped back, at least here in Chicago: uh oh), but on the liturgical calendar, the day is called Candlemas, or the Presentation of the Lord. It's the 40th day of Christmas, the day when a woman's first son would be "redeemed" from God by means of a sacrifice at the Temple. Of course, in the Presentation of the Lord, something else entirely is happening. Instead of the firstborn son being replaced by a pair of turtledoves, he himself is the ransom for many, although the sacrifice will not be completed for thirty-plus years. The readings for today add another dimension: the Lord is coming to his Temple. "But who may abide the day of his coming?" In the first reading, the Lord is coming like a blazing fire to purify the people like so much gold and silver. It's more an image of the second coming than of this day, when the Lord comes, yes, but in diapers in the arms of his mother.

The "candles" of the day are inspired by the Gospel. Simeon recognizes the infant as "a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people, Israel."

When I was reviewing the liturgical readings for today, the Responsorial Psalm caught my attention. First of all, it's from the book of Psalms, but from the Gospel of Luke. But it's a "psalm" in style, and often enough used as a response to the first reading. That wasn't what struck me. It was that two of the words in the Gospel were changed. The "psalm" says, "he promised of old that he would save us from our sins." But the Gospel says he would save us from our enemies. (It's in the Greek, too; I checked.) Then, a verse or two later, in a parallel structure, the "psalm" reads "to set us free from the bonds of our enemies." But the Gospel says from the hands of our enemies.
I wondered if this was actually in the original lectionary, but I doubt it; the Italian readings for today have "enemies" and "hands." So I think the translator or typesetter was on autopilot. But how did that get past the Bishop's Committee on the Liturgy?

Ad alert

After reading "Buy-ology," I am especially alert to issues around advertising, and they seem to be popping up all over the place.
Yesterday, I picked Sr. Barbara up at the airport (YAY! She finally arrived to join our Chicago community!); I didn't take the car, though. She wanted an introduction to public transit in the Windy City, so I took the el. On one platform, I noticed that the billboard was a single word (HOWDY), with the "O" replaced by the Pepsi logo. Only nothing on the billboard said "Pepsi." And I realized that the Obama campaign logo bore a striking resemblance to that of Pepsi. (So striking, in fact, it's surprising there wasn't a suit for trademark infringement--but Pepsi may have reasoned that it wasn't going to hurt them one bit to have a copycat logo plastered across America.) On the way back, as we waited on the platform to change trains, I saw that the whole platform was decked in these Pepsi billboards, all featuring enormous words with a prominent logo in place of the letter "O." It was so over the top a case of riding on Obama's coattails, one of the billboards was the word HOPE!
Then yesterday's paper indicated that a Super Bowl commercial (if you're not into football, that's all the Super Bowl is about) was rejected for "sexual content." (According to Martin Lindstrom, some ad campaigns deliberately push the envelope on this, because the controversy is even more effective in promoting their image than the ad itself would be!) Anyway, I learned today that it was an "animal rights" ad from the people at Peta.
And today I heard of another rejected Super Bowl ad. Only this one you've seen already. On this blog!

Buy-ology: Caveat emptor!

Sr. Helena loaned me a copy of "Buy-ology" by Martin Lindstrom. You've heard about the psychology of advertising, right? Well this is a book about the physiology of advertising: specifically, about the way our brains process and respond to advertising, logos, brands, subliminal advertising (you thought they didn't do that?), and so on.
I bookmarked several places, one of which intrigued me in a very particular way. Lindstrom got a group of cloistered Carmelites to submit to his brain MRI tests, so he could track the parts of the brain that are most active in religious experience and other forms of relationship. (Brain activity uses lots of oxygen, so they can trace the iron-rich, oxygen-bearing red blood cells as they race to the areas that are most engaged.) He also did similar MRIs with another group of ordinary consumers. Lindstrom wasn't looking for the so-called "God gene" or even God-lobe. He was looking for which parts of the brain are active when we are "connecting" to a brand or product.
And he found it.When the Carmelite sisters were recalling a particularly intense and meaningful religious experience, and when the ordinary consumers (a relatively devout group of them, in fact) were presented with sacred images, their brains lit up in the same zone. No real surprise there.
But when the devout consumers were presented with images of high-end items like iPhones and Ferraris, their brain activity shot up in the very same region. (Other respectable, internationally known brands with less prestige did not provoke the same reaction.)
This seems more than just interesting to me. I found myself relating this to the vow of poverty, and seeing the vow in a new and remarkable light. How astute the earliest anchorites and monastics were in making poverty a linchpin of their spiritual lives! It is almost as if they intuited that their worship would be compromised not merely in an external way, by the "distraction" of worldly goods, but in some profoundly human way, unless they lived in radical poverty.
And isn't there some connection with the whole temptation to idolatry? After all, people can be very "faithful" when it comes to brand loyalty. They manifest "devotion" by wearing the designer's name or label on their very heart.
The book is interesting and engagingly written; it may even bear in a direct way on how we evangelize. But for now, I'm struck by this revelation of what material goods, the really "good" stuff, means for us. We can deceive ourselves in many ways, but our brain activity is telling us the unvarnished truth. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Related to Pope Benedict's theme for the World Day of Social Communication, here is a bit on social networking.
What would you add, based on your experience of social networking in the Catholic community?

Contemplata tradere

Today's feast of (my cousin*) St. Thomas Aquinas brings to mind the Dominican ideal "Contemplata tradere aliis" (to hand on to others what one has contemplated). That sounds like something very high flown indeed, but we do this all the time: "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." For better or for worse, that's the whole nature of pop culture; that's what is happening at water coolers across the nation. "Contemplata tradere aliis." The whole question is what are we contemplating? What are our minds and imaginations set on?

St. Paul gives us some advice in this regard: Let the Word of Christ dwell in you in all its richness. And then? Contemplata tradere aliis!




*Really! Third cousin (thirty-three times removed. Genealogy is good for something; bragging rights, at least!)

The will of God

All three of today's Scripture passages (first reading, psalm and Gospel) center on the "will of God." I have found that we Catholics often invoke "the will of God" when dealing with tragedy. It is an act of faith; a way we reaffirm that we are not at the mercy of impersonal fate, but that Providence is still making all things work out for good, even when that good is not at all apparent. But today's readings are not about the will of God in that vein. They are about God's overall plan for us. And that plan is that we, creatures of earth, be consecrated "through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ" and become "brother and sister and mother" to him. This is the "will of God" and everything, Paul tells us, works together for this greatest of all goods. So when we invoke the "will of God" to cope with harsh realities are we selling God a bit short?

Back in 1918, our Founder had a young disciple named Maggiorino (pronounced MAH-jo-Ree-no). This fervent boy had a spiritual "motto" which the Founder loved: "Make a little progress every day." Well, Maggiorino made a lot of spiritual progress, since he died (of the Spanish flu? I don't remember the cause) when he was fourteen, and his cause for beatification awaits only a miracle. He's "Venerable" Maggiorino.
Anyway, "a little progress" is what I made today on my upcoming talk for St. Paul's parish in Joliet. I'll be doing a whole-family program on St. Paul. I have never done a whole-family presentation in my life, so I'm feeling almost as intimidated over this as I am over the Saturday retreat in Saint Paul, MN, where I will be following Peter Kreeft as a series speaker. (It's all good for making "a little progress" in humility and trust!)

The Ultimate Conversion

Today's liturgical feast is unusual in two particular ways:
It is the only conversion the liturgy recognizes at all with a special feast day
and
This year, Paul's 2000th birthday, the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul can be celebrated on a Sunday, superseding even the regular Sunday readings and prayers. (Now that is unusual.)

In the talks I have been giving for the Pauline Year, I took special inspiration from Sr. Armanda's wonderful book on Paul in art. It led me to create a collection of my own, and to reflect on the ways the artistic depictions of St. Paul reflect the Church's understanding of his role, his teachings, his place in our lives as an example--not simply a biblical author whose identity happens to be known to us. And we do know more about St. Paul than we do about any other biblical author, and even (humanly speaking, of course) about Jesus. We have so many sources to draw from! For no other biblical author do we have so many first-person writings; in the Acts of the Apostles, Luke gives us a carefully reconstructed story of Paul's call and his missionary life (and many of the details are corroborated in the Letters, making Acts a pretty reliable resource). There are non-biblical references to Paul, too, even in the first fifty years after his death. And there are the wonderful Christian works of fiction that build on the basic story of St. Paul, hinting at the way the Apostle was thought of, and the ways his Letters were interpreted, in the first two centuries of Christianity. All in all, Paul is one of the best-known figures of the ancient world. But none of that would have come about except for the event that we celebrate in today's liturgy.
There are two aspects of that event we take for granted, but that Paul himself might not recognize.
For one, we call it the "conversion" of St. Paul. Paul himself didn't use that word. He thought of his Damascus Road experience as a "revelation of the Son of God"; as an appearance of the Risen Jesus (kind of a delayed Easter appearance); as a prophetic call from God. But all of that added up to a conversion: from driven persecutor to fervent Apostle of Jesus; from a "blasphemer and man of violence" to a man "as gentle as any nursing mother with her little ones"; from someone who could boast of his meticulous religious practices to one who would henceforth boast only of "Jesus Christ and him Crucified."

And then there is the horse. Great works of art depicting the conversion of St. Paul almost always include a dramatic rendering of the horse from which "Saul fell to the ground, blinded." The trouble is, the Bible says nothing about a horse. Instead, the image of the horse speaks to us: in the Bible, you only find horses in a context of warfare. Astride a horse, en route to Damascus "to arrest and imprison any he might find there, man or woman, living according to the new way," Saul is the image of a man at war. The presence of a horse emphasizes the violence of Saul's zeal. This is heightened even more when the artist clothes Saul in a soldier's uniform. These traditional features of artwork for the Conversion of St. Paul have led many people to assume that Paul had been a soldier, whereas more likely he was a synagogue teacher, bested in argument against the deacon Stephen. (Luke tells us that Stephen "engaged in debates with members of the synagogues...from Cilicia," where Saul's native Tarsus is located, and that no one could match the "wisdom and spirit" of Stephen's words.)
And then there are the words of Christ, words that so haunted Paul the rest of his life that they became the basis for his theology: "Why are you persecuting me?" In harassing, arresting and imprisoning Christians, Saul was doing violence to the very Body of Christ. And so while John would write of the vine and branches, and Peter of the Temple of living stones, to speak of our intimate union with God and one another, Paul is the one who gives us the language of the Body of Christ, made up of many parts, but each part forming one person--the same one who appeared to him on the road to Damascus and claimed him as his own.
That's why we celebrate this feast on a Sunday this year.

Vatican's Media Day Message

January 24 (feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron of the Catholic press) is the day the Vatican usually announces the them and releases an official message for the "World Day of Social Communication," which falls on the 7th Sunday of Easter.
This year, the Holy See sent out TWO messages.
The first message was the inauguration of a Vatican channel on YouTube. The content is from the official Vatican TV center.
The second message was the usual long text on the theme, which for 2009 is on social networking.
Here's the rest of the story, from the Vatican Information Service:

http://www.youtube.com/vatican

NEW NEWS CHANNEL ON THE HOLY FATHER

VATICAN CITY, 23 JAN 2009 (VIS) - This morning in the Holy See Press Office, the Message for the 43rd World Day of Social Communications was presented. The theme this year is: "New Technologies, New Relationships: Promoting a culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship".

Participating in today's press conference were Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli and Msgr. Paul Tighe, respectively president and secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications; Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., director of Vatican Radio, of the Vatican Television Centre (CTV) and of the Holy See Press Office, and Henrique de Castro, Managing Director of Media Solutions for Google.

In his remarks Archbishop Celli underlined the fact that this year's Message represents "a real watershed" because, he said, "the theme itself guides us along the path of novelty, not only by focusing on new technologies but by exploring their effects. It does so by addressing the 'digital generation', thus appealing directly to the young".

"The cordial tone is the first distinctive feature of a Message which provides ... ample evidence of an open and positive attitude, even defining the new technologies as 'truly a gift to humanity'. ... The Message also accentuates the values that distinguish such an environment, in the first place that of friendship and of the networks of relationships that new technologies have now made possible".

"Yet the range of benefits is even greater and also spreads into the sphere of family relationships (families can eliminate differences more easily), and into that of study and even of scientific research which cannot but draw advantage from the continuous breaking down of barriers" by people working together while geographically distant from one another.

"Truly, we are facing a new world", the archbishop concluded. A world "to be explored not by opening our eyes in amazement before new technological advances, but by opening our hearts and giving room to hope in the face of the great possibilities for the common good opening before us. This is even more important if we consider that the Message also examines certain dangers, associated not just with media distortion but with inequality in the uses to which the media may be put. One is reminded of that 'digital divide' which cannot but be a cause for concern, precisely because the new technologies must be considered as primary resources for human development and promotion".

"Never before, perhaps, has a Message been so powerful but also so challenging".

For his part Msgr. Tighe highlighted how the Message "celebrates the capacity of the new technologies to foster and support good and healthy relationships and various forms of solidarity. It appeals to friendship as a motive to ensure that the new digital world is truly accessible to all. It finds in friendship a shared reference point with all of humanity that grounds the appeal of the Message to promote a culture where there is respect for all and where all are invited to search for truth in dialogue".

Fr. Lombardi announced the creation of a new Vatican channel on YouTube, through which various forms of video news will be available concerning the activities of the Pope and events in the Vatican. The site will be updated with one or two news pieces each day, none longer than two minutes, he said. For the moment, the languages available are English, Spanish, German and Italian.

The web page of the new channel, he explained, contains various links via which the visitor can find more information and documentation on the Pope, the Vatican and the Catholic Church. The main links connect to the multi-lingual web pages of CTV and Vatican Radio, to the Vatican and to the new site of Vatican City State. "Of particular importance", said Fr. Lombardi, "is the link to H2O News which transmits other video news items on the life of the Church in the world".

He went on: "Further links under the main video give access to other Vatican news sources: in each linguistic sub-channel is a link to the web page of Vatican Radio in that language, to the web page of the Holy See Press Office Bulletin (with complete texts in original language), and to that language's edition of the 'Osservatore Romano' newspaper".

In the light of the possibility offered by YouTube to exchange information, establish relationships, etc., "we will consider how best to administer this 'global' flow of comments and replies", said the Holy See Press Office Director.

"The Pope", he concluded, "was personally informed of our project, and gave his approval with his usual courtesy and graciousness. For us this is a great encouragement".

OP/SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS DAY/... VIS 090123 (780)

Catholics and Yoga

I've noticed a debate going on in one of the online groups I subscribe to. It boils down to: is yoga a legitimate practice for Catholics, or is it irredeemably associated with pagan and even diabolical practices? Can believers in Christ use yoga's postures and movements, maybe even "converting" them to relate to Christian themes, or are they irretrievably linked to demonic spirits? I heard a personality on Catholic radio opine the latter so vigorously that I was taken aback. It makes me wonder if we as Catholics have lost our sensibilities in such matters.
The early Church had no trouble recognizing that things which arose in different cultures, even when tainted with superstition, could be "baptized." The Church of Rome even moved the date of the feast of All Saints from May to November, to coincide with the Celtic New Year, which had more than overtones of superstition involving pacifying the spirits of the dead. The feast of Christmas "claimed" the Roman feast of the Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun. It is a basically Catholic attitude to assume that what arises from human culture is more likely to be essentially good than essentially depraved, much less demonic. To look at things from a vantage point of anxiety about their innate depravity is an approach more inspired by Calvinism than Catholicism.
And yet so many Catholics, particularly in the United States, are taking on this Calvinist-style presumption. I suspect it largely is a result of being in the United States, with its strongly Protestant roots. Our culture did not spring from Catholicism! It may also be that many very active Catholic apologists and others spent years within the Protestant churches, and are unconsciously bringing some of that heritage into their Catholic lives (along with so much that is eminently helpful, particularly in terms of familiarity with biblical prayer).

Any thoughts?

Today's Gospel seems straightforward enough: the call of the Twelve Apostles. But there is something about the way Mark wrote it that piqued my interest. For example, there is a kind of back and forth between "he" (Jesus) and "they" (the Twelve):
Action: He summoned; they came
Purpose: that they might be with him; that he might send them forth
That "purpose" for which he "made" the Twelve is one, unified purpose, not two things in succession. They are not to go forth after having been with him: they are to be with him and be sent forth at the same time! Clearly, this is pointing us toward Pentecost, when the indwelling Spirit will make that seeming contradiction a total reality. There is also that beautiful line in the book of Revelation: They will follow the Lamb wherever he goes. This is to "be with him" and to be sent by him at the same time, "to preach and to have authority."

Latin CD released!!!!

Here it is!
And I'm so pleased with the cover, too!

I haven't seen (or heard) the finished product yet, but it appeared on the PBM website, which is a very good sign that it has actually been released and is on its way to our stores (and as many other Catholic bookstores who have had the foresight and wisdom to pre-order it). The web page has little clips of some of the songs, so you can get a taste of the style. As I may have mentioned, it is something along the lines of "Enya meets Gregorian chant" (in Church, of course).



What's inside: Vexilla Regis Prodeunt ∙ Ave Regina Caelorum/Ave Maris Stella ∙ Salve Regina ∙ Adoro Te, Devote ∙ Tantum Ergo, Sacramentum ∙ Ave Verum Corpus Natum ∙ Ubi Caritas ∙ Te Joseph ∙ In Paradisum

President Obama's Invitation

Sheila Liaugminas points out that our new President has already implemented some changes, starting with the White House web site. It would be well for all of us to take full advantage of the invitation to review and comment on "non-emergency" legislation proposals within the five days that those proposals will be posted for all to see. Add Sheila's blog and the White House site to your list of favorites, and be sure to check them both often.

The power of life

After I posted that wonderful video (Life: Imagine the Potential), I see that many people on Facebook are changing their profile pictures to a pro-life declaration. Maybe that is what led me to notice the theme in today's readings about "the power of life."
It first comes out in the letter to the Hebrews. Speaking of Jesus' eternal priesthood, the letter says that this isn't an inherited status (as it was for the Levitical priests), but is his "by the power of a life that cannot be destroyed."
We see this life in the Gospel. It is a kind of a "smackdown" situation in which the gauntlet is a human being whose life is compromised: a man with a "withered hand." Those who positioned the man in Jesus' line of vision did so as a provocation. "They wanted to see if Jesus would cure on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him." You can almost feel the wrath of God flash across Jesus' face at seeing a needy human being used as a trap.
Jesus accepts the challenge. Whereas elsewhere in Mark's Gospel, Jesus would draw the needy person aside, heal him privately and send him off with an order of silence, here Jesus heals in full view of the assembly. His word of teaching makes clear that he is doing God's work, and that it is the power of God, the power of a life that cannot be destroyed, at work in him. Amazingly, his enemies are even more determined to have him destroyed.
St. Paul would see this as a Gospel of power being made perfect in weakness. First, the weakness of the injured or ill man; later, the weakness of Christ Crucified; now, our own weakness in following Jesus and making his presence in the world manifest.
But despite all that weakness, we are dealing with "the power of a life that cannot be destroyed." The resurrection will be the ultimate smackdown: Jesus has already won the victory.

...so help me God

Is it just my imagination, or is God winking at us today through the liturgy's first reading?
The letter to the Hebrews exhorts its readers "to demonstrate ... eagerness for the fulfillment of hope," and reminds them about the meaning of an oath: "Men swear by something greater than themselves; for them an oath serves as a guarantee and puts an end to all argument." Impressively, the letter hints that God is the model not just of making an oath ("he swore by himself"), but of keeping it.
As citizens, we can't expect our new President to keep his promises on his own (and there are a few promises I hope he forgets entirely!). On this historic Inauguaration Day, we can draw from yesterday's reading to recognize that "no man takes this honor [or this burden] on himself"; that would be crazy! So what is your prayer on this Inauguration Day?

patches

Today's Gospel has a number of images in it: the wedding guests (before, during and after the groom is present), wineskins (old and new) and clothing (with or without patches). Through all these images, Jesus is emphasizing that he and his message cannot be evaluated on the basis of past models like the prophets of old or even the very recent John the Baptist. This is something new, something incredibly and qualitiatively different that can only be recognized and received whole and entire.
This Gospel reminds me of the experience of some of the saints, like St Francis of Assisi, St Ignatius Loyola or St Teresa of Avila. The saints could not be satisfied with patching an old cloak or re-using wineskins that would have been fine for the same old same old. They made such a profound response to God, and expressed that response in ways that were so radical, so much more intense than what people had come to see as "normal" that these saints were themselves thought to be suspect in their orthodoxy! (St. Paul had said that "the spiritual person can be judged by no one": who would have the criteria by which to judge lives guided by the Holy Spirit?)
I'm praying for that kind of vision of the centrality of Jesus in my own life: isn't that what he is asking for in using the image of the Bridegroom?

Novena to St. Paul

Today begins the novena for the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. In our communities, we usually sing the hymn "Pressi Malorum" (in English) as our novena, but I don't know where to find the music for you. Here is a link to the words in Latin--and English, if you scroll down.
On Sunday, we join with other Christians in the week of prayer for Christian unity--this year marks the centenary of that initiative.
Both novena and week of prayer culminate in the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, which, contrary to general liturgical norms, can be celebrated on a Sunday during this Pauline Jubilee Year.

Today's Gospel (from Mark) starts out with a dramatic cure: a leper approaches Jesus, falls to his knees and makes the strking act of faith, "If you will it, you can cure me." And Jesus does will it. With a word and a touch, Jesus heals the leper. And then gives him the impossible command: "Tell no one."
Not only is the healed man totally incapable of obeying, he is amazingly effective in proclaiming what Jesus did for him. Read the passage (Mark 1:40-45). That leper must have been one of Malcom Gladstone's "salesmen" (see "The Tipping Point"): a real networker, he "began to publicize the whole matter"; "he spread the report abroad so that...people kept coming to Jesus from everywhere." (An unintended result of this successful proclamation was that other lepers were unable to approach Jesus as discreetly as he had...)
Would that we today were as effective in drawing people to Jesus! Maybe we would be, if we could be more in touch, on a daily basis, with what Jesus is constantly doing for us. We would say, as the leper must have, and as the Apostles did after the Resurrection, "Surely we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."

backstory

As I was reading today's Gospel (last night), somehow the part about Simon's mother-in-law struck me. I had always taken the lady a bit for granted. She was in the house, sick, Jesus cured her, etc. Suddenly I found myself saying, "Now wait a minute: in that culture, the daughter (Simon's wife) would have left her family and been taken into Simon's paternal house. What was the wife's mother doing in Simon's home?" So I started imagining the backstory to today's Gospel. Was the mother-in-law just visiting and got sick? I prefer to imagine that she was a widow, and Simon's wife was her only child. In those days, such a woman would have been the most unfortunate member of society. With no sons, and her daughter married off to another family, she would have been utterly bereft. Her being in Simon's house would then be a measure of Simon's great-heartedness.
We never actually hear about Simon's wife in the Gospels; Paul will mention Cephas (Peter) as traveling throughout the Christian world with "a wife, a sister" as his companion, and later fictionalized accounts will also speak of a disabled young daughter, Petra. But the Gospels only show us Simon, and his brother Andrew--and his mother-in-law.

Good Reads

If you didn't read Sr. Helena's notes from last week's meeting of young adults with Cardinal George, do yourself a favor.
And be sure to notice the three (really four, so far) books His Eminence recommends to all Catholics! For now, you can get them here: book 1, book 2a, book 2b, and book 3 (plus the biography of your own patron saint).

Prompt Succor: A Correction

On January 8, I commented that here in New Orleans the anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans is popularly known as the "Feast of Our Lady of Prompt Succor," but that this was only a popular, not a proper, designation.
Turns out it is the Feast of Our Lady of Prompt Succor after all, and not only: at the national shrine it is a Solemnity, as big a feast as you can get.
I stand corrected!

Vocation Awareness Week

In case you didn't hear about it yesterday, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (the day of Our Lord's own vocational "confirmation") opened Vocation Awareness Week. Mom and I went to St. Anne's yesterday, and the whole assembly prayed a vocation prayer after Communion. I thought it was pretty ingenious that the parish pasted clear plastic holders in all the hymnals so that the prayer card could be kept there and presumably changed as various seasons introduce new prayer intentions.
Today's first-day-of-Ordinary-Time Gospel is also a "vocational" Gospel: the call of Peter and Andrew, James and John. What is impressive is that in Mark's telling, Jesus doesn't really call these men to "do" something: he called them to "follow" him. To keep their eyes on him. To live for him.
In the book of Revelation, John wrote of those who "follow the Lamb wherever he goes." Is that what Mark is saying, too?

Happy landings

This has to be New Orleans.

Night Prayer

From Facebook, Brian Craig writes:

I'm happy to announce that I will be launching Night Prayer 2.0 ... beginning Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 11:30 PM ET and running every Sunday through Friday at that same time. The web address will be the same as the one for Catholic Radio 2.0: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/CommanderCraig.

Night Prayer, or Compline, will be taken from the Church's "official prayer", the Liturgy of the Hours.... The prayer allows us to examine our consciences, praise God, and ask Him to watch over us as we sleep. It concludes with a Marian antiphon that invokes the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

What will make Night Prayer 2.0 different from other versions of Compline on Vatican Radio or other podcasts is that YOU will have the opportunity to call and be part of the group of up to five people who will lead the prayer. Or else you can simply join us online for the live stream and pray with us. In this small way, I wish to build an online community, a community of prayer and at prayer.

...but will it fly?

merton and my dad

I got this interesting link from my brother. Evidently, they're cataloging every bit of correspondence Merton ever wrote. I wish we could easily access Dad's letters to him. The family still has the original of Merton's response, which I remember Dad showing me. As a child, I was impressed that a man whose books lined our family room shelves was writing to Dad on a manual typewriter! Dad once commented to me that he couldn't always follow him, but he knew that Merton was still worth reading!
Dad also corresponded, on a longer basis, with Father Raymond (born Joseph Flanagan), quite a different writer in his style and approach. We had a full shelf of Father Raymond's books at home, too.

Bookshelf

Here's a book whose publication I have been quite excited about, ever since I read it in manuscript form over a year ago. I'm so glad it came out in time for the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul during the Pauline Year.

"Facing the Apostle" was also the inspiration for my series of talks on St. Paul. In this lovely book (printed on glossy paper), Sr. Armanda Santos of our Redwood City community investigates the life, letters and spirituality of St. Paul through the lens of Christian art through the ages. She has wonderful insights into the work of Caravaggio, for example, in his two renderings of the Conversion of St. Paul. It's a wonderful look at our Catholic art heritage and how it expresses the message of the Bible. I think this would also be a spectacular gift for anyone who is being welcomed into the Catholic Church during this Year of St. Paul.


Another book is a bit unseasonal (for now), but since I contributed to it, it belongs in my blog. Lenten Grace offers a daily meditation for Lent, approaching the day's Gospel in a "lectio divina" style that is not simply a reflection, but a progressive deepening of one core thought or message, summing everything up in a short phrase that can be prayed easily throughout the day. (I only provided two of the meditations, truth to tell.) A companion Advent volume is in the editorial department now; I contributed two or three meditations for that one, too.

Finally, this wasn't on my bookshelf, but in an MP3 player: How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization. I really enjoyed this work. It is a kind of historical apologetics, and one that is very needed today when so many of us Catholics naively repeat the extremely damning assumptions of so many of our contemporaries, according to which Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular, has had a very negative influence over science, technology, medicine, human rights and general knowledge and well-being. I was even astonished to learn that in certain areas, even in very ordinary fields of science, it was Catholic doctrine that made some discoveries possible! The teachings of the Church in areas of creation and redemption freed scientists (read: monks) to investigate things that the ancients had never inquired into: the worldview of the ancients was too constricting, and they had been incapable of even knowing that there were mysteries of nature they could truly examine and then use as the basis of inventions. Then when you get to the areas of international law and human rights... wow.

God willing, if the snowstorm doesn't change my plans, I hope to arrive in New Orleans. After I defrost (!), maybe I'll be able to get Sr. Julia talking about some more good reads for the new year!

Our Lady of Help-in-a-Hurry

If you ask a New Orleanian what day today is, you'll probably hear something along the lines of, "It's the feast of Our Lady of Prompt Succor." I don't believe it appears on the official liturgical calendar, but everyone from Mr. Hebert (pronounced, of course, "A Bear") at the poorboy place to the Archbishop calls January 8 our Lady's "feastday" in New Orleans.
Actually, it's the anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans. But that victory over the British (the last battle of the War of 1812, fought when a peace treaty had already been signed in those days before technological communications) and the sparing of the city of New Orleans were attributed to the prayers of the people gathered with the Ursuline Sisters to Our Lady of Prompt Succor. Under that title, Mary became the patroness of New Orleans.
January 8 used to be a state holiday in Louisiana; now it's only the popular devotion to Our Lady of Prompt Succor that keeps alive the memory of the date's significance.
Attending Ursuline Academy, which houses the Shrine and statue of Our Lady, we learned the invocation to Mary as part of our school prayers. And so it is fitting to pray today, as I was taught so long ago,
"Our Lady of Prompt Succor, hasten to help us!"

King Cake Season

My sister Lea Ann kicked off King Cake Season yesterday with a homemade King Cake. (I myself would never attempt such a thing!)
The "season" (exists only in New Orleans) stretches from January 6 to Mardi Gras.
I'm heading to New Orleans on Saturday--good timing, wouldn't you say?
(If you're in the area, I'm giving my "Life and Legends of Paul in Art" talk at the Pauline Bookstore next Thursday evening.)

harpagmos

Weird word, I know. Greek. Not even the Scripture scholars know how to translate it. It shows up in Paul's famous canticle of the humbled and exalted Christ.
Here in the State of Illinois our political circumstances can shed light on what St. Paul was talking about.
You may have heard that less than a month ago our Governor was arrested for attempting to auction off President-Elect Obama's seat in the US Senate. In a brazen and brilliant move, the Governor (who is still in office, though talk of impeachment floats in and out of the news) appointed a bland but incredibly self-assured wanna-be to Obama's old seat. And that appointee was not ashamed, even under those circumstances, to snatch the opportunity for his own advancement. (This is a man who has already built a towering monument for himself, listing his various political offices with room to engrave just one more...) Now there is a game of chicken going on in the hallowed halls of the U.S. Capitol, where the appointee insists on taking the empty Illinois seat, unaware of what a pitifully ridiculous figure he is in that grasping ambition.

Jesus, Paul said, "did not deem equality with God a thing to be 'grasped at', but emptied himself...and became obedient even to death on a cross."
We still may not be able to translate "harpagmos," but here in Illinois, we can see it in action. And that makes St. Paul just a little clearer.

Chicago knows. . .

There are TWELVE days of Christmas!

Just opened Blogger to see that my post from Saturday was never actually posted. How did that happen? Oh, well!
Today's Gospel has so many dimensions to it, I hardly know where to focus. We have Jesus getting the grim news of John's arrest by Herod; Jesus deciding to move far away from the trouble zone; Jesus leaving Nazareth for good and moving to Capernaum (was that also to spare his mother the risk of being hounded by Herod's minions, should they come looking for him?); Jesus beginning to preach; Jesus going all around Galilee, "preaching...teaching...curing."
It all comes down to the beginning of Jesus' own public ministry.
And today we are to be continuing that ministry of preaching that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. But how?
The easy way out would be to simply repeat the words we have been given. Sometimes you see this in pious media productions: the best they can do is repeat or reproduce the words of Scripture. Personally, I find this very helpful for prayer (those movies, "Jesus" or "The Gospel of John" are solid Scripture), but I suspect it is less than helpful as a form of missionary proclamation. It just presumes too much of the hearer. The missionary dilemma is how to proclaim the Gospel to people who do not have a common cultural basis for understanding it in its original terms.
What did Paul do? He received the message of the Gospel, took it in, lived it, and "translated" it for the Gentiles, who (as he wrote to the Romans) were not expecting it and did not have the prophetic Scriptures to go by; Gentiles who had no prior conception of God's salvation and revelation. Paul could certainly demonstrate (after the fact) that Jesus' birth, suffering, death and resurrection amply fulfilled the Scriptures, but the amazing thing is that he received this Gospel into his own life with such depth that he could proclaim it to people who had no prior preparation, and to whom the Scriptures of Israel would have remained a closed book even if they had read it. Paul became the translation of God's action, and the bridge allowing the Gentiles access to a Word of God that would have remained unintelligible to them if he had insisted on preaching it in the terms with which he himself had first heard it.
In the Year of St. Paul, this the challenge we ourselves face. For the sake of the Gospel, we are invited to be Paul living today.

Epiphany House Blessing

Tomorrow is the traditional date of Ephiphany (the Twelfth of the Twelve Days of Christmas); it's also the day for a charmingly traditional house blessing. You need a piece of chalk for this.
At the point of the prayer with the "+", write the initials of the Three Kings in between the numerals of the New Year: 20+C+M+B+09 over the front door of your house. That would be "Caspar, Melchior, Balthasar 2009", not some strange algebraic formula!

Blessed are you Lord, God of all Creation: You bless us with your gift of chalk. Today, with a shining star you guided three strangers to your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. In love, the Holy Family welcomed them as guests.
Through the intercession of Saints Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, grant that we who bless + our homes with this chalk may be filled with kindness toward one another and with hospitality to all those we welcome in the name of your Beloved Son, who comes among us to announce a year of favor, a year of grace, and who is Lord for ever and ever. Amen.

(That "announcing a year of favor" is a hint of the proclamation for the feast of Epiphany: a long chant in which the date of Easter--and from it, all the other feasts of the year--is announced.)

I remember hearing that one East Coast pastor sadly commented that it seemed as if all the leading men in his parish were addicted to Internet porn. Fr. Sprott at St. Peter's offers a confessor's inside look at Internet porn addiction, calling such men to take the New Year as an opportunity to come clean, really clean. This article should probably be shared far and wide ... It sounds as if a great many of these addicts are in profound denial about this. Let's really pray for them, and especially for those who are closest to the inbreaking of grace.

New calendar, fresh hopes for 2009

That's the great thing about New Year's: the new calendar opens out before you like an open road, or like a fresh canvas. It's all potential.
The Lord has invited me to focus on praise in a special way during 2009. No matter how 2009 turns out for me, humanly speaking, the Lord will still be worthy of all praise. Life isn't long enough for all the praise God deserves from us anyway!
The Psalms are a great school of praise. Today's responsorial is still Psalm 98 (we hear it all through the Christmas season). The verses for today read like the Magnificat in many ways, and would sound perfectly from Mary's lips: "Sing (I can do that!) to the Lord a new song." Why? "For he has done wondrous deeds; has won the victory with his right hand; made known his salvation; revealed his justice; remembered his kindness and faithfulness."
Look at all those verbs: the attention is all on what God has done, from five different angles. This is a lesson for me not to be satisfied with coming up with just one expression of praise, as if a single phrase could tell the whole story. The psalmist is telling me to find fuller and richer and more encompassing ways to express admiration for what God has done. Isn't this also the height of missionary activity? "I will proclaim the goodness of your name" (Ps. 55): missionary life is not a matter of "imposing" one's belief system on victims of cultural or religious oppression, but the proclamation of the sheer goodness we have come to know through the things he has done. It's "praise reaching beyond heaven and earth" (Ps. 48).

Flanagan Partners

New law firm in New Orleans: my two brothers! (No lawyer jokes, please!)