Conversions come in small packages

Conversion of St Paul; from Santa Maria in Traspontina (Rome)
(I adjusted the image; the fresco is on a curved ceiling)

Today's Feast of the Conversion of St Paul just may be responsible in some small way for an erroneous notion that can have big ramifications in a person's spiritual life. I mean, of course, the idea that "conversion" is a great, once-and-for-all spiritual experience--to be revisited often in memory and in prayer (we certainly find that in Paul), but never to be repeated.

Whoo, boy, is that all wrong!

Damascus Road notwithstanding, if our spiritual life is at all functioning, conversion should be a daily experience. Blessed James Alberione was on solid ground when he recommended that we take three moments each day to take stock of how our relationship with God was unfolding in the particular circumstances of that day, making a kind of "course correction" if necessary.

First thing in the morning, conversion takes the form of a quick glance ahead: where am I likely to be challenged when it comes to serving God today? "Lord, what would you have me do--in the hours of this day?" In the Hour of Adoration, a more thorough 24-hour review helps us recognize the movements of grace and the welcome they received (or not... and why); thanksgiving forms an especially important dimension of this form of conversion. And at night, an overview and a prayer means that even if during the day I took a detour, I can realign my will with God's.

This ongoing conversion is punctuated (and assisted) by frequent confession--but then, it also makes frequent confession somewhat easier, too! Each celebration of the sacrament can be another Damascus Road moment in which we let ourselves be met by the Lord, and place ourselves wholeheartedly (and once more) at his service: "Lord, what would you have me do?"

Year of Faith Resources (more!)

I just got back from the second session of a monthly downtown Scripture program organized by Chicago attorney Linda Weaver. (The first session was so successful that Linda got a grateful phone call from the Cardinal!) This evening's program was on the Gospel of Mark, with a presentation by the most enthusiastic Scripture scholar you ever will meet, Father James McIlhone. I filled my handout sheet with notes in all the blank space and even in between the lines of type on the page.

If you're in the Chicago area, it behooves you to schedule in a monthly trip to the Loop for this ongoing series that combines networking, nibbles and solid food for reflection. All the more since the December 11 presenter (on the Gospel of Matthew) will be Father Donald Senior,  a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. As the date gets closer, you'll find the details and registration info here. (I was delighted to learn that one of the people who attended this evening learned about it from my radio broadcast on Friday!)

If you can't make it to Chicago, you can still follow an online program by Father McIlhone; in fact, you can follow more than one. I suggest his current series, "The Biblical Roots of the Mass," which just started in October. (It is the Archdiocesan "Year of Sunday Mass," which when you think about it, is another way of saying "Year of Faith.") Once you catch up on the first talks, you can just keep up as the nine-part series continues.  (He also offers a program on the Gospel of Luke and one on the Gospel of Mark--of which we got the tantalizing one-hour summary this evening.)

What other helpful online adult faith resources have you found worth recommending?

Chicago's saint

Stained glass window of Mother Cabrini
From St Josaphat Basilica, Milwaukee.

Today is the feast of Chicago's very own Mother Cabrini. Her story, from over 100 years ago, can seem a bit outdated, but it is more relevant than ever in our current American Catholic situation. Why? Because in the mid-1800's (just as today), a great percentage of Catholics in America were immigrants or the children of immigrants, and they were not exactly the darlings of the populace. Prejudice was acceptable when it had to do with recognized undesirables like Indians, Jews and Catholics ("Irish need not apply" for jobs in Boston). Even worse was the situation of those who came to the US from non-English speaking countries like Italy. From the "open door" policy that let in most of our ancestors without any restriction, quota systems were put in place to keep the numbers down from unfavored nations. (Those quotas still have a prominent place in US immigration law!)

It was the Pope himself who recognized the need for special pastoral concern for immigrants in the Americas, and who personally commissioned St. Frances Cabrini as a "missionary" to the Catholic immigrants, rather than to the unbaptized in China (where she had intended to go).

We need the spirit of Mother Cabrini perhaps more than ever today in this U.S. Catholic community which will only survive (demographically speaking) because of Hispanic immigrants--and even then, only if we help them to keep the faith: something which may involve, as it did in Mother Cabrini's time, offering material and social support to keep their families intact, and support for their spiritual life in the language those families speak. It would seem a no-brainer, except for something I heard Sunday at the Bishops/Bloggers meeting: Uber-blogger Rocco Palmo (who has more connections to the Vatican than most bishops) commented that he never gets such vitriolic comments and e-mail as when he posts in Spanish for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Accusations of being "un-American"; of being a "bad American" can only come from Catholics who prioritize their citizenship over their faith, or who practice the faith as a particular kind of ornament on their patriotism. They seem not to realize that the Catholic Church in the U.S. will be again a Church of immigrant families, or it will not exist at all within a generation, and they have forgotten what Paul said about the Body of Christ: that there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, Parthian, Sythian, slave or free, but all are one in Christ Jesus.

St. Frances Cabrini, pray for us and for the Catholic Church in the United States, your adopted homeland!

Sr Helena and "Imagine Sisters"

In case you missed the broadcast last week, our very own Sister Helena Burns and seminarian Dan Rogers were on EWTN's "Life on the Rock" Thursday, talking about the "Imagine Sisters" movement. Dan is one of the "founders" of this social media vocational promotion fellowship. Since the broadcast, they've gotten hundreds and hundreds of new Facebook "likes" and one lucky individual even won a copy of Sister Helena's book (which is ideal for discerners)!

I watched it live, and live-tweeted about it, too. Other than the terrible make-up job on Sr Helena ("Malibu Barbie meets Sister Act"), I am bursting with pride over how well she did. Hopefully, that's not the last time Sister Helena will be called to Irondale, AL

Back from Baltimore!

I just got back from Chicago after spending the weekend with our sisters in Alexandria, VA. They graciously provided a car for me to get to Baltimore. (Little did I realize that entailed getting past the thousands of purple-clad fans who were streaming to the stadium!)  I went to take part in a conversation between bishops and bloggers, and many of the leading lights of Catholic blogdom were present.

The meeting was a prelude to the bishop's semi-annual meeting (which begins today, and which you can follow live on EWTN), and was meant to give the bishops a chance to get the first results of a study they had commissioned on Catholics and social media, and to meet with some enthusiastic, informed and dedicated Catholics who are involved in social media as Catholics, and to allow those same enthusiastic, informed and dedicated Catholics to meet the bishops.

Here's an interesting fact from the study: 31% of Catholics who use social media wish their pastor or bishop would blog. (Are you one of those? What kind of content would you actually follow, read and share?)

Here's another interesting bit of info: The two most trusted sources of information on church matters are (in this order) parish bulletins and diocesan newspapers. Even though print is losing "market share" to digital media every day, it still carries more weight, even with young adults. You know what else carries weight with young adults? Word of mouth. (I am guessing text messages and other personal digital messages are in that category, but I haven't read that part of the study yet.)

I think the most beautiful thing I heard all day was in answer to Brandon Vogt's question (the bishops had their "Questions for Bloggers" session, and then the bloggers had their "Questions for Bishops"). Vogt's question to the bishops was "What is it you fear the most about social media?" And a response came from someone on the USCCB staff (I was in the back and couldn't always understand who was speaking). Anyway, that person said, "The bishops want to respond to every single communication, and they can't figure out how to do that in a timely manner, so they get overwhelmed." I was moved by that: that the bishops want to be engaged with the people, but--as one bishop commented--it won't just be people in their diocese who respond to their blog posts or tweets. (That would be overwhelming.)

I was also reminded by bishops in rural areas that their parishes and parishioners don't have the high speed Internet access that seems so ubiquitous. Nope. In parts of Missouri (never mind Alaska!), the parishes don't even want images sent with email: it takes too long to download.

The whole meeting was live tweeted (although that got off to a rocky start when the hotel wifi kept fading away; the USCCB had to set up its own router!); the idea was that we would live tweet, and our tweets would be scrolling in real time on the smaller screen you can see in the front of the room. (I stayed in the back because my own back is still acting up and I kept squirming.) Finally, the USCCB set up its own router and we were on our way!

You can follow the action by going to twitter.com/search/%23bspblog  (as I type this, their assembly is in fully swing, and Bishop Sample of Marquette MI is live tweeting, using #usccb12 !) In fact, here you can follow my growing list of Catholic bishops on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nunblogger/catholic-bishops

Or you can read the Catholic News Service write-up (which even mentions yours truly): http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1204754.htm