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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.

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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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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

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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

+ 4th Week in Lent

Shoot the messenger!

Readings: Wisdom 2:1, 12-22 Psalm 34:17-23 John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30

The godless say to themselves, with their misguided reasoning: “Let us lie in wait for the virtuous man, since he annoys us and opposes our way of life.” [Wisdom 2:1]

It is not unusual for good people to get under our skin. Put another way, it isn’t easy to live with a saint! Whenever I make that observation in a homily, I always get a smile from the congregation. From the side of my eye, I might even see a wife or husband poke each other.

The reason for our ‘resentment’ is that good people appear to be too good to be true and they probably are. So, in our egalitarian drive to equalize or balance the relationship, we search for their area of vulnerability – their fault line, as it were, to prove that we are not so bad after all.

I have observed more than once that things are rarely as bad as we sometimes make them appear. On the other hand, things are rarely as good as we make them appear. We are all prone to exaggeration in both directions.

Jesus, however, was the exception that proves the rule and that’s why they wanted to do away with them. The author of the Book of Wisdom was ahead of his time and had unwittingly put his figure on the pulse of the critics of Jesus long before Jesus appeared on the scene.

Even to this day, we are still tempted to do away with people who are too good to be true because “they get under our skin.” No, we don’t kill them but we isolate them and / or dismiss then as irrelevant.

We see this once again as the clergy sex abuse scandal reaches global proportions. Notice the attempt on the part of high church MEN to explain away any responsibility for a possible cover-up. In the United States, it was the anti-Catholic press and the sexual revolution that was indicted by Rome as the cause of the scandal. Shoot the messenger!

Jesus was an itinerant preacher sent to bring goodness to this world. He was ‘Godness’ in human form. His vocation became our vocation through baptism. So I suppose it is our call to be ‘too good to be true’ too.

There can be no healing, peace and reconciliation until there is justice. There can be no justice until there is truth. And there will be no truth until there is full accountability from top to botton. Period.

Feast of Mary Mother of God

Thursday January 1, 2009

Where do we go from here?

Readings: Numbers 6:22-27 Psalm 67 Galatians 4:4-7 Luke 2:16-21

May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you! May God bless us, and may all the ends of the earth reverence God! [Psalm 67:5-6]

At the ‘sign of peace’ at Mass, I invite the congregation to “extend to one another and to the world through one another, some sign of peace and blessing.” I don’t recall what occasioned that phraseology but I believe it makes a great deal of sense. Our weekly or daily participation at Eucharist is a privilege that is not just for our own spiritual wellbeing. We participate in order to be sent forth. The word “Mass” is rooted in the old Latin words sending forth the congregants back into the world: “Ite, missa est.” Go, be sent…”

On this first day of 2009, we honor Mary as the Mother of God. Strange title, for sure. How can Mary be the Mother of the infinite God who exists from all eternity? It is a title based on theological reasoning that if Mary was the mother of Jesus and Jesus was the Son of God, Mary must also be the Mother of God.

Why not honor Joseph as ‘foster father of God?’ After all, it was through Joseph that Jesus was born “in the line of David.”

And if Paul’s letter to the Galatians be theologically sound, then as ‘coheirs’ with Christ, we must also be sons and daughters of God. Awesome thought, isn’t it?

But today is also New Years Day and the readings are also appropriate for new beginnings. I like new beginnings because they provide an opportunity to put the past to rest.

Today I will clean my refrigerator and dispose of ‘junk foods’ that have accumulated over the holidays, scan the closets, bookshelves and storage areas of my apartment and dispose of items that have outlived their usefulness. It’s a therapeutic exercise, to be sure but with spiritual ramifications.

Would that we could scan the globe and cast away words of hate, weapons of war and engage one another—person-to-person, nation-to-nation, religion-to-religion—in a dialogue that would lead to a new truth that all might accept. God is truth!