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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

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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

+ 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.

+ Holy Saturday 2009

Saturday April 11, 2009

Waiting for the mystery to unfold.

Readings: Genesis 1:1-2:2 Genesis 22:1-18 Exodus 14:15-15:1 Isaiah 54:5-14 Isaiah 55:1-11 Baruch 3:9-15, 32-4:4 Ezekiel 36:16-17, 18-28 Romans 6:3-11 Matthew 28:1-10

Death has no power over him any more… and in that way, you too must consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus. [Romans 6:10-11]

In the old days Lent ended at noon on Holy Saturday. The ancient vigil rites were celebrated early in the morning beginning at 6:00 AM— in a near empty church—and concluded with the Vigil Mass at 8:00 AM in the presence of a very small congregation. Of course, as kids we were more interested in the noon bell that signaled the end of our ‘abstinence.’ We were less interested in the newly blessed baptismal water than in the candy that would satisfy our ‘sweet tooth.’

Waiting is not something kids do with any ease. When I told mom I couldn’t wait for the noon bell, she used to respond, “Don’t wish your life away!” I didn’t know what she meant then. I do now!

Holy Saturday is indeed a ‘vigil’—waiting time for those who how to wait and what to wait for. We wait not for candy but for the taste of new life and the sweetness of a fresh start. That’s what Resurrection is all about. We are waiting not for the resuscitation of a body but for the reawakening of the human spirit to the reality that the Jesus who died once has become the Christ who will never die again; the Christ who dwells among us and within us – ever the same, yesterday, today and forever.

Waiting is fallow time while the soil gets ready for the blade of grass to break through the crust of the earth to absorb God’s smile and wetness of God’s grace.

Waiting is for contemplatives who know how to blend mystery with reality, faith with determination, hope with courage, and charity with action.

This evening in Catholic churches throughout the world, catechumens will be baptized in the newly blessed Easter water and candidates already baptized either as Catholics or in another Christian church will complete their full initiation into the Roman Catholic Church. But all of us will renew our baptismal vows and promises to accept Christ as the one who leads us to salvation.

We would do well to find some ‘pocket time’ today to ponder the mystery of what it means to live in Christ.