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« March 2009 | Main | May 2009 »
GLENDON REFUSES MEDAL
Mary Ann Glendon--former Ambassador to the Vatican--has turned down the Laetare Medal to be bestowed on her at the same time the President will be speaking at Notre Dame's Commencement. For her great letter of rejection and Fr. Jenkins response check out American Papist Blog here.
Ambassador Glendon--a great profile in courage.
BISHOP D'ARCY: A CLEAR, CONCISE, PIERCING LETTER TO FR. JENKINS OF NOTRE DAME
Just in case Fr. Jenkins, President of Notre Dame, doesn't get it, Bishop D'arcy has released a letter to him that clarifies erroneous positions taken by Notre Dame in order to justify its invitation to President Obama. Read the great letter here.
above picture is the Sinsinawa Dominican Retreat Center and Motherhouse, Sinsinawa, WI.
Recently, Cardinal Levada announced that there would be a doctrinal investigation of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). It will be headed by Bishop Blair of Toledo. There was concern voiced because of many of the annual addresses given to the conference at their meetings seemed not quite orthodox. Lest you think this is a witch hunt, take a peek at what Sr. Laurie Brink, a Sinsinawa Dominican said at the 2007 Annual Address to the LCWR:
The dynamic option for Religious Life, which I am calling, Sojourning, is much more difficult to discuss, since it involves moving beyond the Church, even beyond Jesus. A sojourning congregation is no longer ecclesiastical. It has grown beyond the bounds of institutional religion. Its search for the Holy may have begun rooted in Jesus as the Christ, but deep reflection, study and prayer have opened it up to the spirit of the Holy in all of creation. Religious titles, institutional limitations, ecclesiastical authorities no longer fit this congregation, which in most respects is Post-Christian.
When religious communities embraced the spirit of renewal in the 1970s, they took seriously that the world was no longer the enemy, that a sense of ecumenism required encountering the holy “other,” and that the God of Jesus might well be the God of Moses and the God of Mohammed. The works of Thomas Merton encouraged an exploration of the nexus between Eastern and Western religious practices. The emergence of the women’s movement with is concomitant critique of religion invited women everywhere to use a hermeneutical lens of suspicion when reading the androcentric Scriptures and the texts of the Tradition. With a new lens, women also began to see the divine within nature, the value and importance of the cosmos, and that the emerging new cosmology encouraged their spirituality and fed their souls.
As one sister described it, “I was rooted in the story of Jesus, and it remains at my core, but I’ve also moved beyond Jesus.”
DO THE TALKING HEADS IN DHS REALLY HATE THE PRO-LIFE MOVEMENT SO MUCH?
Several days ago, Janet Napolitano, the head of Homeland Security, released a report on threats from right wing extremists. This caused headlines because in the document, Homeland Security talked about the supposed threat from returning veterans who have access to guns, battle plans, and have combat experience. Justly so, the report was condemned for this, as if all vets were dangerous, and Napolitano was forced to issue a rather half hearted apology. But what most folks don't know is that pro-lifers were singled out as well. As if those who hold the sanctity of life were like radical islamists--a clear and present danger.
Some have opined that right wing groups do cause terrorism at times. True, but so do well-meaning liberal, left-leaning causes. One needs only think of the eco-terrorists in there "Green" cause, or those for illegal immigration who are willing to do violence in their twisted idea of justice.
It is just amazing how bigoted this report is. Read it here if you have Adobe reader. It's really rather stunning. I'm not usually a glass half empty kind of guy, but this report even has me seeing black helicopters in the sky. Not really, but it does send a chill up my spine. Dark times are coming I think. What say you?
BEFORE--check out the IHS, clearly visible above the university's logo
AFTER--now it's gone JESUIT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY VEILS REFERENCE TO JESUS TO MAKE PRESIDENT HAPPY
Honest to God--wouldn't you think the higherups in Catholic education would have learned their lesson from Notre Shame? You can read the whole story here and here , but suffice it to say that Jesuit Georgetown University was told by the White House that it must veil all university insignia. The name of Jesus (for that is what IHS stands for) was hidden. So ashamed were University officials that the monogram for Christ, and a specifically Jesuit one at that, could not be seen for fear of offended the President whose views on morality are inimical to Catholic belief. When did they take out the spines of modern Jesuits? Wait--what's that sound? Oh yeah, just the bones of St. Ignatius Loyola rolling over in his grave at what his soldiers of Christ for the 21st century are doing. How pathetic. In all seriousness, the liberal or progressive wing of Catholicism needs to look at how much they are willing to jetison, how far they are willing to bend, how complicit with the modern world they wish to be before the label Catholic will no longer stick.
*****UPDATE: GEORGETOWN DID NOT COVER UP THE NAME OF JESUS WHEN LAURA BUSH SPOKE THERE IN 2006. READ MORE ABOUT IT HERE .
EASTER SUNDAY 2009 "IN THIS FATEFUL HOUR, I PLACE ALL HEAVEN WITH ITS POWER..." I. The Difference Between Easter And Christmas
A. Whenever we celebrate Christmas, we feel all warm and peaceful. It is a time for family and friends. No so Easter. If Christmas is a gentle reminder to the world that the Prince of Peace has come, Easter is a slap in the face to a world that thinks it can live without God. Full of light and fire, Hallelujahs and Hosannas, Easter shouts to all Creation: He’s alive and well; the Savior reigns.
B. Even our liturgy says this strongly. Last night, we lit the Easter fire, outside in the darkness, to tell people that He Is Risen! Let me tell you where the origin of that Easter fire comes from. It will be a story particularly important to our parishes.
II. Patrick And the Easter Fire A. Patrick had been a slave in Ireland as a young man, but escaped. Despite his slavery, he always loved the Irish and one night in a dream he saw a vast woodland and voices were calling for him amidst the trees: "Come to us, O holy Patrick, come to us and walk among us." That is how he knew he had to go back and try to win that land for Christ. So he found himself ordained and made a Bishop and given the task of converting the Irish.
B. Patrick sailed the fierce seas and landed on the rugged shores of Ireland with the Cross of Christ in his hand and the Gospel of Jesus in his mouth. He told of Christ's love and the light he brings to our hearts. Many believed, and the Druids, those witches and warlocks who ran the pagan religion of that land, grew afraid. They remembered he ancient prophecy, and whispered it among themselves:
When comes the one from the raging sea, Who gathers the people from shore to shore, Who builds an altar in the light of the sun, Then shall the Druids be no more. C. That is what they said. Those followers of the dark powers threatened Patrick's life and plotted on how they could destroy him. Now, Patrick knew that if he was to convert the island, he first had to convert the leaders. What if he could convert the High King himself? At Tara, the seat of the High King, there was going to be a rare assembly of all the kings of the land, including the High King himself. Patrick said, "I will go to Tara; I will go and with the help of Christ change the hearts of the rulers."
D. And so it happened. Patrick journeyed long and far, and came at last to a hill not far from the Hill of Tara; Patrick arrived on Holy Saturday night, on Easter Eve. The saint prepared to celebrate Easter. Now, he knew that Easter was the most important holy day for Christians and it would be the best time to catch the High King’s attention, but how to do it? He came up with a spectacular idea–an Easter fire, and big one at that. And so the saint and his companions gathered huge amounts of wood and lit the first Easter fire--a huge bonfire which, as everyone knows today, stands for Christ our Light. It blazed into the night sky.
Continue reading "A CELTIC HOLY WEEK--2009--BLESSED EASTER TO ONE AND ALL!!" »
GOOD FRIDAY TENEBRAE MEDITATION 2009
I saw God die today,
Said the centurion walking home.
He spoke to anyone who would listen.
I saw God die today.
The Jews did not hear him,
A Roman, they stayed far away,
No one but Mother Mary heard him,
I saw God die today.
What do you mean?
What do you mean? In anguish she cried out.
You believe in many gods,
What’s different about this one you’ve seen?
Lifting up his helmeted head,
He said again, I saw God die today.
You stood by my side, she whispered,
And watched my Son die today.
Did you see what I saw? Said he.
He took his cross upon his back
Blood of God spilling along the pathways,
Flowing down that tree at Calvary.
You saw God die today, said the Mother Mild
Yes said the soldier, eyes flashing wild.
My son, my son, she cried, my child.
You are his mother, he said, with a ghost of a smile.
We saw God die today, they said,
As the heavens opened, and the winds roared,
The torrents fell and the earth broke forth,
Mourning the one who was dead.
The weeping woman, the wondering Roman
heard the earth sighing, the very sea crying,
Over the death of God, over the death of a man
Now in the tomb, his body lying.
I saw God die today, said the centurion,
And now my gods are gone,
The One on the Cross cannot stay dead,
For the true God lives forever on.
Yes, said the mother, touching the one,
The man in charge of the murder of her Son.
And he held her there for a moment long,
Till hope was born, and grief was done.
erb (Good Friday 2009)
GOOD FRIDAY 2009
I. A Passion for the Passion
A. Our parish is strong in its Irish origins, and many of my words these past two weeks reflect a Celtic view of the last days of Jesus Christ. A focus on the characters, on what Mary herself was feeling, on the centurion, on Judas–as if we ourselves walked among this panoply of players unseen but aware of their every word and emotion.
B. I do this because one of the things our forebears give us is a sense of immediacy to these events; in other words, we are there and we feel what the characters feel.
C. Another thing our forebears give us is a passionate understanding of what the Cross means for us, and what it means for the King, Jesus Himself, what the Irish call the Great Hero, did for us as he died his terrible death on the tree at Calvary.
D. It’s good for us to remember this way of our ancestors because we sometimes forget why we come to church and what the Eucharist means; namely, that it is our chance to participate in the death and resurrection of Jesus–to actually experience our own salvation.
II. Allowing the Passion to Speak to Us
A. The Irish had a custom of "Welcoming Prayers", said at various times in the Latin liturgy. At the end of the Consecration of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, the congregation would shout a prayer of welcome to Jesus who had come to be with them. Here is one of the most beautiful:
A hundred thousand welcomes to You, Body of the Lord,
You, Son of her the Virgin, the brightest, most adorned,
Your death in such fashion
On the tree of the passion
Has saved Eve’s race and put sin to death.
I am a poor sinner to You appealing,
Reward me not as my sins may be;
O Jesus Christ I deserve Your anger
But turn again and show grace to me.
Jesus who bought us,
Jesus who taught us,
Jesus of the united Prayer [i.e. the rosary],
Do not forget us
Now and in the hour of death.
O crucified Jesus, do not leave us,
You poured Your blood for us, O forgive us,
May the Grace of the Spirit for ever be with us,
And whatever we ask may the Son of God give us.
B. A Passion for the Passion–that’s what these simple people who had no theology but just first hand experience of God felt in their bones as they received the Lord. Here’s what they instinctively knew:
1. They loved the Lord and were ecstatic that he was present to them in the Eucharist.
2. They knew what he did: saved the world from sin and given us life.
3. They felt the need to be redeemed–they knew they were also responsible for the death of Christ insofar as they were sinners.
4. They were not consumed with guilt but with love and trust that Jesus would stay with them in their sorrows and at the moment of death and bring them forgiveness and eternal life.
C. We’ve heard the Passion–does it touch us as it did the hearts of Irish peasants so long ago? Do we feel the need to shout out our thanks to Jesus for redeeming us? Do we long for the Eucharist so that Jesus will fill our hearts with the great forgiveness he won for us on the Cross? That’s what Good Friday is asking of us.
D. When Jesus cried out from the Cross, "It is finished," he meant that his battle with evil was concluded; redemption had been won; and now mercy was available for all who wished.
E. Do you wish mercy? Do you want forgiveness? Do you want the loving Christ to carry you through life's trials and sorrows? Then look at the Cross on which hung the Savior of the World. Come to the Tree, the Tree at Calvary, and touch the wood that bore our salvation. Son of mary, Son of God, Jesus our Friend and our Brother, Lord of Lords, and Hero of the Univers, touch us now with love, lift us from our grief, holdus in your pierced heart--let your mercy fill us with your peace.
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