Silence: wound or healing?

Often when I'm reading, I come across a sentence or phrase that stops me short. What does that mean? How can I process the idea? If it were a signpost on the road, how would it direct me on my journey?

Thought for the Day: We All Need Beauty, and Don't Need to go Far to Find It!

 Remember Dorothy at the end of the Wizard of Oz: 

We don't need to go far from home to find incredible beauty with ample reason to praise God. If you can't find God in your home, your yard, and your neighborhood, you probably won't find Him anywhere.

The Stripping Begins: From Christmas to Ordinary Time and Looking Forward to Lent

I always decorate the house for Christmas over weeks, not days. The stripping as the season nears the end also takes time. My first action this week was to gather up all the displayed Christmas cards, put a few of my favorites in a card album, and add the rest to my craft bin.

 Today I'm returning the dining room table to ordinary time. I love my Christmas placemats, but the twelve days they depict ended with Epiphany, so they are washed off and ready to go back in the Christmas drawer until next year. The fancy Christmas balls never go on the tree because of all the pins that tend to fall out. They add to the beauty of the table, but it's time to collect all the pins and bangles they've dropped, put them back on, and gently wrap and return them to their home in the tin until next year. The rich looking table cloth will come off next. I made it from a bolt of material a friend gave me after she had a chair reupholstered. I will spot clean it unless it needs a trip to the dry cleaners. And then the plain wood of the table will once again be relatively bare. All of this takes on a metaphorical meaning for me. The return to relative bareness reminds me that we should strip and bare our souls every time we enter the confessional.

Sometimes Truth Comes to Us Via Poetry, Art, and Music

I love this painting by Luc-Olivier Merson, (1879). If I ever get to Boston I'll make a point of going to see it at the Museum of Fine Arts. Great art inspires not only the mind but the heart, revealing important truths. Sometimes truth doesn't come through argument or profound reasoning, but through poetry, art, and music.

Another Fun Tradition for the Season -- Building Candy Houses

Everyone has traditions that they repeat again and again over the years. One of ours is decorating graham cracker houses. We usually do it during the Christmas season, but if we miss it we can play catch up on Valentine's Day or have a Christmas in July event. One of our granddaughters is a tremendous artist and her houses are always exquisite. She's grown up now, but still enjoys the project when she's around for it.

Want to Rebel? Go to Church!

How do you rebel in a culture that encourages every kind of evil and insanity on the planet? When tattoos and body piercing and weird haircuts and colors are the rage, when perversion is accepted and even honored as "pride" -- well...how do you rebel against that kind of freak show society? 

Wisdom from St. Francis de Sales who would make a great Lenten companion

Yesterday was St. Francis de Sales' feast day. What a great saint! I'm often a day late and a dollar short, so I was reading about St. Francis this morning. He is one of my favorite saints and I often quote from his wise sayings. You no doubt have heard that you can catch more flies with a spoonful of honey than with a barrel of vinegar. St. Francis actually said more that 100 barrels of vinegar. No slouch he for emphasizing reality!

I often quote him because of his great help as a spiritual director, so let me offer a second of his many inspiring bits of wisdom in my own words.

First:

Those who commit scandal commit spiritual murder. Those who allow scandal to damage their faith, commit spiritual suicide.

The Case Against Pope Francis

Suppose we were in a courtroom to discuss the murder of Jesus. Who would be in the dock? Judas? Caiphas? Annas? The members of the Sanhedrin who engaged in the illegal trial of the King of Kings? All the members of the crowd screaming, "Crucify Him!"? Pontius Pilate?

Interesting questions, don't you agree?

Evangelii Gaudium: Chapter V

I'm finally on the home stretch of the pope's encyclical on evangelization and I love the title of Chapter V: Spirit-Filled Evangelizers! They are the ones "fearlessly open to the working of the Holy Spirit." Does that describe you? Does zeal for God's house consume you? The pope exhorts us to this zeal imitating the christian saints of every age who risked all to proclaim the Lord of Life! How can we have this spirit? --through a personal encounter with Christ:

The primary reason for evangelizing is the love of Jesus which we have received, the experience of salvation which urges us to ever greater love of him. What kind of love would not feel the need to speak of the beloved, to point him out, to make him known? If we do not feel an intense desire to share this love, we need to pray insistently that he will once more touch our hearts. We need to implore his grace daily, asking him to open our cold hearts and shake up our lukewarm and superficial existence.

And how do we "shake up" our lives and become zealous for the Lord?

Christmas is Nigh: We're Singing the O Antiphons!

Nothing announces the nearness of the Messiah like the O Antiphons. Part of the Church's Liturgy of the Hours for hundreds of years, these beautiful psalms announce the imminence of our salvation from sin and death. Today, December 17, we sing, "O Wisdom." And what is the beginning of wisdom? Fear of the Lord, not in the sense of quivering terror, but recognizing the awe inspiring "fear" of God whose very name causes us to fall on our knees.

 "Who is Like Unto God?" Michael the archangel shouts as he thrusts Satan and his minions out of heaven into the everlasting fires. This first antiphon reminds me of the increasing light overcoming the darkness of sin and death.

Note some of the antiphons in the version of O Come Emmanuel below. Here are the seven O Antiphons.

• O Come, O Wisdom
• O Come, O Lord
• O Come, O Root of Jesse
• O Come, O Key of David
• O Come, O Rising Dawn
• O Come, O King of Gentiles
• O Come, O Emmanuel

Read more here.

Magnificat Covers: Beautiful Art for Meditation

One of my favorite things about the Magnificat prayer book is the lovely religious art both on the cover and the art article in the back. This month the cover is particularly lovely; Can't We Dream by Pierre-Marie Dumont. Art provides such fruit for meditation. And this painting is truly an invitation to dream and meditate on the Holy Family in Nazareth and on motherhood which seems especially appropriate as we approach Mothers Day.

Consider how moms create memories for their children and share their dreams for the future. Mary stands on the bottom step looking back which I think of as remembering the past, the strong heritage of family. "Remember, Jesus, that you are descended from kings and warriors. You are a king and will fight the enemy like David to save your people."

Behind her the steps climb up. Is that the temple of Jerusalem in the background? Do the steps climb up to Jesus' ministry climaxing in Jerusalem? Do they prefigure the climb up Calvary Hill? Perhaps, but at this moment captured by the artist, they are shrouded in a misty light clouding the future. Each step will have its own challenges; they will not be climbed all at once.  And Mother Mary will be there at each stage of the journey with her Son, the model for all moms who never stop accompanying their children and grandchildren on the adventure of life.

If you are fortunate enough to have your mom still with you, why don't you call her today and tell her you love her! Why wait until Sunday? She may die from the shock, but she'll appreciate it for sure! And to all you mothers out there, Happy Mothers' Day a few days early.

Get Off to a Good Start

Pray Advent Well.  Did you know that the first candle lit on the Advent wreath represents Bethlehem? I never knew that until I read the article I've just hotlinked. How will that knowledge affect my prayers this first week? I won't know until I reflect on it, but it seems to me a lovely focus.

And don't start playing the Christmas music too soon; you could miss the beautiful humns of Advent.

Making Memories and Giving Thanks

Four of our five children and their families will be joining us for Thanksgiving. Three will be staying with us. That means six adults and thirteen children sleeping over for several days and ten adults and fifteen children for Thanksgiving dinner. Whew! But what a joyful anticipation! As a Catholic grandma I have two goals -- creating memories and reminding everybody Who needs to be thanked for all the blessings we enjoy.

Since out-of-towners are arriving on Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm hoping for good weather so we can have a bonfire Wednesday night with hot dogs, s'mores, and a rosary of thanksgiving (or at least a few decades). Wednesday the men plan to play golf and I'm searching for craft ideas for the children. I think a thanksgiving jar would be great but when do we read the entries? Perhaps Thanksgiving night as a bedtime prayer activity. How I wish we could all sit around the same table together for the feast, but even with all the leaves in the table our max squeeze is 16 which leaves another eight (and a high chair) in the mix. So we will be in two rooms. The kids will love having their own table and I expect the adults won't mind having some grown-up conversation -- one more thing for which to be thankful. We are so blessed to have a house big enough to host everyone, something we deliberately thought about when we retired to the country and

Ireland is Catholic...but for How Long?

Worrying trends in Ireland paint a picture of a country whose strong Catholic tradition is eroding. I'm not surprised. I visited Ireland for two weeks in 1991 with my mother and a friend. Everywhere we went we saw signs that Ireland was in trouble. American television saturated the tube. Conversing with locals, we found many expressing the desire for liberalizing divorce. Homosexuality was being promoted in the press. Moral relativism was clearly on the rise.

After my mom left to return home, my friend and I continued on to Medjugorje with an Irish pilgrimage group. When we expressed our concerns about what we saw in Ireland ("You're about 15 years behind us," we said, so you better start fighting now!"), they pooh-poohed us. But within a year or so of returning to the states, an Irish court allowed a teenager to seek an abortion in England. At the time leaving the country to secure abortion was against Irish law. Today, about 7000 women a year seek abortions outside the country where it is still illegal except to save the life of the mother. But the pressure on Ireland continues and the sex abuse crisis didn't help things any. Sin has consequences and when the shepherds are vicious they damage the faith of the weak. The Church needs reform from the top down and the bottom up -- not just in Ireland, but everywhere.

One of the things that impressed my friend and me most about Ireland was the number of children. Everywhere we went we saw bright-faced kids. I photographed many and particularly remember seeing two teenagers on a lunch break in their school uniforms of white blouses and navy blue skirts. One was red-haired and freckled; the other looked like Snow White with black hair and a pale complexion. I asked permission to snap their picture and it remains one of my favorite photos from the trip. But, like every other country in the west, Ireland's children are an endangered species. The birthrate plummeted during the 90s and continues to be below replacement level. (See report on Ireland's children here.) Those teens we saw are close to 40 now and their own families probably look a lot different than the ones they grew up in.

Pray for the family. When I was in elementary school, our social studies books showed the family as the basic building block of the community. The neighborhood, town, state, and nation are only as strong as their families and the family is under assault everywhere. Please join me in praying for Ireland, the land where my grandfather was born. Any decline in the faith there feels like a personal loss to me and to the Church in the U.S. where so many Irish missionaries have served. St. Patrick, pray for Ireland and for us.

Faithful Catholic Subculture Needs to Evangelize

Russell Shaw is warning faithful Catholics not to withdraw from the culture but to participate in the "new evangelization." He sees signs of the orthodox pulling out with a "ghetto" mentality. Don't do it, Catholics, he warns. And I shout a loud AMEN! We need to engage the culture. The pro-life movement shows how. Take the battle to the market place even if we're ultimately driven to the catacombs. But the ghetto? Never! Here's a selection from Shaw's piece:

In recent years, however, a reaction has set in. Disgusted with the secular culture, growing numbers of individuals and families, both Catholic and non-Catholic, have begun taking steps to withdraw from what they judge to be a morally destructive environment.   

Some home-school their children to avoid the sex education imposed in schools. Some have given up on television and take great pains to police internet use. Still others have made the radical move of quitting big cities and their suburbs in favor of smaller,  more tradition-minded and culturally homogeneous communities making fewer assaults on their eyes, ears, and morals. (Thomas Monaghan’s Ave Maria, Florida is a high-profile prototype of this.)   Meanwhile, the infrastructure of a new Catholic subculture has begun to emerge. It can be seen in a handful of proudly orthodox Catholic colleges and universities, media ventures like the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) and rapidly expanding Catholic radio stations, a growing number of websites and periodicals and a few publishing houses, and organizations and movements dedicated to promoting Catholic spirituality—especially, a spirituality of the laity. In other cases, older Catholic institutions and programs have begun taking steps to reaffirm their Catholic idenity. Often, these things happen with encouragement from a new generation of bishops and priests who have gotten the message and taken it to heart.   This is all to the good—up to a point. But note that when I speak of the desirability of a new Catholic subculture, I do not mean a self-regarding, inward-looking ghetto. Unfortunately, signs of such a thing already can be glimpsed here and there. They seem likely to spread if steps are not taken to discourage that from happening.   Here is where the new evangelization comes in. It provides rationale and  motivation for Catholics to set their sights on something far better than a Catholic ghetto—the creation of a new, dynamic American Catholic subculture specifically designed to be a source of creative energy for preaching the gospel far and wide, with particular attention to former Catholics and nominal Catholics who are teetering on the brink.   This is asking a great deal—a subculture able to nurture and sustain a strong sense of Catholic identity without turning in on itself. Can it be done? No one really knows because up to now it hasn’t been attempted. Evangelization is the key. Meanwhile, one thing does seem certain: If it cannot be done, or if no attempt is made to do it, the situation of the Catholic Church in the United States is likely to become increasingly troubled in the years ahead.  

Who's Influenced Your Life?

Do you ever think about the people who have influenced your life even though you've never met? Our family and friends impact us in obvious ways. But what about others: our ancestors, the authors of the books we read, the postman, the truck drivers who deliver the food we buy to the store?

Today I was thinking about the authors of the books I love. These are authors who write books that you read twice. They make you think; they entertain you, they enrich your life. While I was thinking about it, I made a list of some of my favorite writers (linked on the right). But I failed to add one special author -- Myles Connolly who wrote one of my favorite books of all time -- Mr. Blue.

Mr. Blue came to life in 1928 and was not an immediate sensation as Connolly writes in the introduction to a later edition. Somehow, he never died and has been in constant print ever since. I first heard of Mr. Blue in high school -- from Sr. Joanna. She read Mr. Blue's scenario for a movie about the end of the world. It captivated me although it took me another ten years to recall his name and go searching for his book. I just ordered ten copies to share with my book club and others. Mr. Blue is a philosopher with the heart of a child. The Lord could have had Mr. Blue in mind when he said "Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven."

Do yourself a favor in 2012 and meet Mr. Blue. If you know him already, invite him back for a visit. He's an unobtrusive guest. His story takes up fewer than 115 pages. But he's a friend I can never quite forget and am always glad to meet again.

Got Hope? No? Check out this blog!

Despite all the bad news, I find myself filled with hope these days. Why? Because generations X and Y (the birth ages my kids fall into) are picking up the sword of the spirit, the word of God and fighting for the faith. Here's one delightful example, a blog started by my daughter-in-law Martina and a group of her Catholic Facebook Friends. The blog, Catholic Sistas, has numerous contributors, most Catholic mothers of young families.

They understand social media and are using it to spread the good news. They know how to network for good. They remind me of all the communities St. Paul wrote to wrapped up in one and joined electronically. Their blog covers all things Catholic. You find women celebrating big families and some mourning over infertility and child loss. They share serious issues and just for fun stuff. Some home school, some are working moms. They ask for prayer and they offer perspectives on faith issues. And they do it all with such style. The blog only started a few weeks ago and already they have had 5600 visitors, many leaving comments. What a wonderful support group these ladies are for each other and for women in the Church. They reflect the dignity of women Pope John Paul II talked about in his encyclical.

 

I am so proud of all my children who have unique gifts and talents that they use so well. And I'm proud of my younger, much younger, "sistas" in the Lord who I know will touch many minds and hearts through their on-line friendships.

 

Do yourself a favor and go mingle with the sistas awhile. It will renew your hope and lighten your heart.

St. Martha's Feast Day and a Prayer for Busy Homemakers

Thinking about St. Martha today reminded me of a poem that hung in my kitchen in Alexandria for years. (Now where did that go? Lost in the move?) It's called The Kitchen Prayer and I loved it so much I memorized it. St. Martha, I post it here today in your honor, since I too "must have Martha's hands" especially when my grandchildren are visiting. Help us make heavenly chocolate chip cookies!

The Kitchen Prayer

by Klara Munkres

Thought for the Day from Archbishop Chaput

"Pick up your cross and follow me."

"The world urgently needs a re-awakening of the Church in our actions and in our public and private witness...We need really to believe what we say we believe. Then we need to prove it by the witness of our lives. We need to be so convinced of the truths of the Creed that we are on fire to live by these truths, to love by these truths, and to defend these truths, even to the point of our own discomforts and suffering. We are ambassadors of the living God to a world that is on the verge of forgetting him. Our work is to make God real; to be the face of his love; to propose once more to the men and women of our day, the dialogue of salvation...The form of the Church, and the form of every Christian life, is the form of the cross. Our lives must become a liturgy, a self offering that embodies the love of God and the renewal of the world... Let us preach Jesus Christ with all the energy of our lives. And let us support each other -whatever the cost- so that when we make our accounting to the Lord, we will be numbered among the faithful and courageous, and not the cowardly or the evasive, or those who compromised until there was nothing left of their convictions; or those who were silent when they should have spoken the right word at the right time."

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, Head of the Archdiocese of Denver, Colorado

I Love My Magnificat

The world is going to hell in a handcart...or maybe, in today's technological age when things are bigger and faster, a jumbo jet. It's more and more evident that the "primrose path of dalliance" (aka, the road to perdition) is wide and "many there are who find it." The narrow path, on the other hand, is less well travelled like the way of the Cross. It's rocky and not very welcoming for those looking for an easy road. Well, what else is new? Such has been the story since the fall of Adam and Eve, the murder of Abel, the depravity of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all the sad tales of sin and horror since then that find men seeking forbidden pleasures and spurning sacrifice.

But it's imporant to remember that the bad news is only part of the story. Despite all the evil in the world there is goodness...and truth and beauty. And often that reminder comes to me from the daily reading in my Magnificat. On Monday when I read the Meditation for the Day I knew I had to share its inspiring and hopeful message written by Dom Anscar Vonier, O.S.B. (+ 1906) who was abbot of Buckfast Abbey in Devon England. Here's what the Abbot wrote that gives me such hope and such joy at being a Catholic: