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Liturgy
This link will keep 'parishioners-at-large' in touch with current creative liturgy sources and resources that respect a variety of 'traditions' within the Church.

COMMONWEAL Magazine
A 'lay' Catholic weekly publication with an accent on an intelligent analysis and commentary on curent issues, trends and concerns of interest to Catholics.

National Catholic Reporter
A national Catholic lay newspaper covering events not usually covered or presented with a clerical bias in the local diocesan press or but of concern and interest to Catholics.

Survivos' Network for those Abused by Priests or Religious
A National Network of self-help support groups for people abused by clergy or religious.

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Vital information about the disclosure of sexual abuse and related issues affecting Catholics in the pew and the manner in which Bishops continue to exempt themselves from accountability

Voice of the Faithful
A 'movement' of lay Catholics 'inspired' by the abuse scandal calling for greater accountability of bishops to 'Catholics in the Pew.'

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Daily Scripture

+ Fourth Week of Lent

I am in the heart of God.

Readings: Jeremiah 11:18, 12:19-20 Psalm 7:2-3, 9-12 John 7:40-53

Let us destroy the tree in its vigor; let us cut him off from the land of the living so that his name will be spoken no more. [Jeremiah 12:19]

So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees who asked them, “Why did you not bring him in?” The guards answered, ”Never before has anyone spoken like this man.” [John 7:45-46]

Could it be that we don’t get answers because we don’t ask the right questions? I think we spend a great deal of time, perhaps a great portion of our lives in denial about who we are and who we are to become.

I may not ask the right questions because I’m afraid of the answers. I fear the darkness but hide in the darkness in order to avoid the light. Denial becomes a way of life but in reality it is the path to death.

This is a paradox, however, because unless we willingly succumb to the dark night of the soul, we cannot find the light of God’s truth.

Jesus was not exempt from this process that peaked in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before he died.

True spiritual freedom is not something that we pursue but something to which we succumb by letting go and letting God. Those who were truly liberated in Christ were not those who simply understood his words but those who were absorbed into his life so that with Paul they could say, “I live no longer I, but Christ lives in me.” Or to put it another way, “Say not that God is in my heart but that I am in the heart of God.”

Feast of the Assumption

Friday August 15, 2008

She made it; so can we!

It’s a happy coincidence this is the patronal feast for our parish. It is also significant because Mary seems to be attracting the attention of many Catholics from the left and from the right. I suppose that puts Mary right in the center of the parish and in the center of the Church where she ought to be.

The feast is not about the technology of her passage into heaven but about the completion of her mission on this earth. From the very first moment of her conception it was her destiny to partner with God and to live with God forever. Her acceptance of that call to mother the Christ and to adopt humanity as a spiritual mother was her unique vocation. She embraced her calling without hesitation or equivocation. To the Angel Gabriel, she replied, “Let it be done to me according to your word.”

Mary’s destiny is our destiny too. Although never as exalted as her call, we too were destined from the very first moment of our conception to become partners with God—to allow the seed of God’s Word to take root in our hearts in Christ. In that sense, we all ‘mother’ Christ into our world through our words and deeds. That’s what discipleship is all about. In another sense, as spiritual daughters and sons of Mary, we became in baptism, adopted sons and daughters of God, sisters and brothers of Christ. Of course this is a spiritual reality that is solidly based on traditional Catholic theology. It is our destiny to live with God in Christ forever.

This is not to suggest in any way that we are worthy of the call or that we will ever be able to achieve our destiny on our own. In truth life is a precious gift. Nothing we can achieve on our own is accomplished without grace. We are no different from Mary in this regard.

The other insight that came to me as I reflected on the feast is the fact that as Christians, we are totally absorbed—mind, body and spirit—into the life of Christ. We are spiritual but not spiritualists. The Olympics amply demonstrate for me the magnificent blend of body and spirit. Even the opening ceremonies that exalted the human body could not detract from the subtle spiritual context of the event even in a city that does not recognize its life in God. In fact, the human body exalts the soul of God as much as it does humanity. Mary’s response to her cousin Elizabeth in the ‘Magnificat’ celebrates the enfleshment of the divine Spirit: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my Spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

In the light of current events at home and abroad and in the face of attempts to distort or destroy what God has created as good, we do well to celebrate the gift of our humanity and the beauty of human life. As Christians we are challenged to give witness to human potential as empowered by divine grace. It’s a good combination and brings to mind once more the sentiments of the Late Cardinal Bernardin in his now classic pastoral letter on life, “The Seamless Garment.”

In his deep respect for human life, he challenged not only Catholics in his own Archdiocese of Chicago, but believers everywhere to put an end to the culture of death that stifles human hope and accept instead the empowering gift of God’s enobling spirit which energizes human potential for good.

As partners with God, children of Mary, brothers and sisters in Christ, we are committed to life in all its forms—in the womb and on death row; the quality of life in ghettoes and back streets of our cities or in poverty pockets in Appalachia; on the battle front among warring nations and in the care of the environment and ecosystems that constitute our legacy to our children and grandchildren.

The greatest testimony we can give to one another and to our world it the testimony of a life lived in complete harmony with the human spirit at one with God.