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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.

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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.

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Daily Scripture

+ 22nd Week in Ordinary Time

Be wise but don’t be a ‘wise guy!’

Readings: I Corinthians 3:18-21 Psalm 24:1-4, 5-6 Luke 5:1-11

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God, for it is written: “God catches the wise in their own ruses,” and again: “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise that are vain.”

Wisdom (Sophia) is a feminine attribute of God. True wisdom is rooted in deep faith and an abiding confidence in God’s abiding presence in all of creation and in the depth of our being. Wisdom comes from study, prayer and from the daily effort to live in God’s grace with Jesus as our mentor. Reason without faith leads to rationalization of our wants and desires. Reason combined with faith moves us to contemplation and moves us to probe and ponder the greatest mysteries of life that exceed the power of the human intellect to explicate or explain. That’s why poets, artists and composers are enable us to comprehend the qualities of God in nature, in the human body and in the qualities of a life lived in union with ultimate truth and beauty.

So we need to go to our prayer chair for at least twenty minutes at the beginning and end of every day. We need to walk among the trees and along the sea. We need to listen to music that stirs the soul and sing songs that touch the heart.

Only then can we be thoughtful people of measured speech and positive deeds.

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.