Manny being Manny - somewhere else!

Image: USA Today

Check the Manny Poll at the top of the sidebar!

Manny Ramirez is headed to Hollywood.

The Red Sox finally parted ways with their disgruntled slugger, sending him to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a startling, three-team trade Thursday that brought Jason Bay to Boston, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press.

Pittsburgh gave up Bay and wound up with four young players, the person said on condition of anonymity because no official announcement had been made.

According to Baseball Prospectus, the Dodgers also get $7 million from the Red Sox. The Pirates get prospects Andy LaRoche, Bryan Morris from Los Angeles, and Craig Hansen and Brandon Moss from Boston.

Return to NBCSports.com for more on this story.

Ignatius on vain and worldly images

IHS is a Christogram based on the first three letters of "Jesus" in Greek (Ίησους, Latinized IHSOVS); featured in the seal of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).

I hadn't planned on devoting this much posting to Ignatius but my work on my first post has led me in several directions, all of them fruitful.

This text is the second lesson in the Office of Readings from the Liturgy of the Hours for July 31. I believe there's a lot to offer here for a culture so absorbed by words and images that are "worldly" in ways I doubt Ignatius could have imagined. We read here that Ignatius had several different "attractions" in his reading. We certainly know attractions in our own choices around words and images and for some, the attractions become addictions.

Ignatius' thoughts here on discerning how these attractions shape our lives and spirituality are as relevant today as in his own time. As the writer here, Luis Gonzalez de Camara, notes, the experiences Ignatius related to him served as illustrations for the saint's spiritual exercises and the discernment of spirits.

Ignatius was passionately fond of reading worldly books of fiction and tales of knight-errantry. When he felt he was getting better, he asked for some of these books to pass the time. But no book of that sort could be found in the house; instead they gave him a life of Christ and a collection of the lives of saints written in Spanish.

By constantly reading these books he began to be attracted to what he found narrated there. Sometimes in the midst of his reading he would reflect on what he had read. Yet at other times he would dwell on many of the things which he had been accustomed to dwell on previously. But at this point our Lord came to his assistance, insuring that these thoughts were followed by others which arose from his current reading.

While reading the life of Christ our Lord or the lives of the saints, he would reflect and reason with himself: “What if I should do what Saint Francis or Saint Dominic did?” In this way he let his mind dwell on many thoughts; they lasted a while until other things took their place. Then those vain and worldly images would come into his mind and remain a long time. This sequence of thoughts persisted with him for a long time.

But there was a difference. When Ignatius reflected on worldly thoughts, he felt intense pleasure; but when he gave them up out of weariness, he felt dry and depressed. Yet when he thought of living the rigorous sort of life he knew the saints had lived, he not only experienced pleasure when he actually thought about it, but even after he dismissed these thoughts, he still experienced great joy. Yet he did not pay attention to this, nor did he appreciate it until one day, in a moment of insight, he began to marvel at the difference. Then he understood his experience: thoughts of one kind left him sad, the others full of joy. And this was the first time he applied a process of reasoning to his religious experience. Later on, when he began to formulate his spiritual exercises, he used this experience as an illustration to explain the doctrine he taught his disciples on the discernment of spirits.

-From the Life of Saint Ignatius as told to Luis Gonzalez de Camara

-ConcordPastor

Praying on St. Ignatius Day...

St. Ignatius of Loyola by Meljohn Tatel

I've spent some time today praying with this text from the previous post:

The First Principle and Foundation
St. Ignatius begins his Spiritual Exercises with The First Principle and Foundation.

The Goal of our life is to live with God forever.
God, who loves us, gave us life.
Our own response of love allows God's life
to flow into us without limit.

All the things in this world are gifts from God,
presented to us so that we can know God more easily
and make a return of love more readily.
As a result, we appreciate and use all these gifts of God
insofar as they help us to develop as loving persons.
But if any of these gifts become the center of our lives,
they displace God
and so hinder our growth toward our goal.

In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance
before all of these created gifts
insofar as we have a choice
and are not bound by some obligation.
We should not fix our desires on health or sickness,
wealth or poverty, success or failure,
a long life or a short one.
For everything has the potential of calling forth in us
a deeper response to our life in God.

Our only desire and our one choice should be this:
I want and I choose what better leads
to God's deepening his life in me.
(Saint Ignatius, paraphrased by David Fleming, S.J.)

This text is aptly titled a "first principle" and a "foundation" of Christian spirituality. What Ignatius writes here calls us to name God as the source, the center, the support, the reason and the goal of our existence. He tells us that while many gifts may help us grow closer to God, the absence of any gifts does not supplant God as the intended center of our being.

What's at work here is a radical acceptance of life including "the things we can change and the things we cannot change." I allude here to the Serenity Prayer because Ignatius' first principle reminds me of it. Let me quote that prayer for you in its more complete form:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
taking, as he did, this sinful world as it is
not as I would have it;
trusting that he will make all things right
if I surrender to his will;
that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with him
forever in the next.
(Commonly attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr)

The radical nature of the Serenity Prayer is its acceptance of what cannot be changed in our lives and of hardship as the way to peace.

Taken together, these two texts pose a mighty challenge to our culture and our notion that each of us is entitled to happiness as we understand it, on our own terms. The problem is that what we define as personal happiness is very often fixed on desires which may, although in themselves very good, distract us from what should be our one desire and choice: deepening our relationship with God.

Those of us old enough to remember will recall from the Baltimore Catechism this Q&A whose simplicity resonates with both texts above:

Q: Why did God make me?
A: God made me to know him, to love him,
and to serve him in this world,
and to be happy with him for ever in heaven.

All of this gives me pause... and reason to reflect on: how we understand God in our lives; how we approach God; what we mean by "happiness;" and what we pray for...

I'd be interested in hearing your response...

Note: In the image at the top of the post, the letters inscribed in the book are the first letters of the Latin phrase, Ad maiorem Dei gloriam, which translates, For the greater glory of God.

-ConcordPastor

Praying on the Feast of Saint Ignatius

July 31 is the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits).





The lyrics of John Foley's song in the video and the following two prayers are attributed to Saint Ignatius.  

Anima Christi

Soul of Christ, sanctify me
Body of Christ, save me
Water from the side of Christ, wash me
Passion of Christ, strengthen me
Good Jesus, hear me
Within the wounds, shelter me
From turning away, keep me
From the evil one, protect me
At the hour of my death, call me
Into your presence lead me
to praise you with all your saints
Forever and ever
Amen. 


Prayer for Generosity

Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to ask for reward,
save that of knowing that I do your will. 


The First Principle and Foundation

St. Ignatius begins his Spiritual Exercises with The First Principle and Foundation. The following is a paraphrase of Ignatius by David L. Fleming, S.J.

The Goal of our life is to live with God forever.
God, who loves us, gave us life.
Our own response of love allows God's life
to flow into us without limit.

All the things in this world are gifts from God,
presented to us so that we can know God more easily
and make a return of love more readily.
As a result, we appreciate and use all these gifts of God
insofar as they help us to develop as loving persons.
But if any of these gifts become the center of our lives,
they displace God
and so hinder our growth toward our goal.

In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance
before all of these created gifts insofar as we have a choice
and are not bound by some obligation.
We should not fix our desires on health or sickness,
wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one.
For everything has the potential of calling forth in us
a deeper response to our life in God.

Our only desire and our one choice should be this:
I want and I choose what better leads
to God's deepening his life in me.


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Word for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

This grouping is at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Kitchener, Ontario

Update: I'm surprised that no one noticed and pointed out that the scene above illustrates an element found only in John's account of the multiplication but not in Matthew's, the text for this weekend! Of note: this miracle of Jesus is the only one reported by all four evangelists.

Time to look ahead and pick up the scriptures for this coming Sunday. As always, you're only a click away from those texts and background material on them.

Got kids? Maybe a little preview of the scriptures will help them participate more fully in this Sunday's worship. (Try it - it might work!)

Take a look at the child offering his basket of five loaves and two fish to Jesus. No one, neither the little boy nor the disciples nor the crowd had any idea of what Jesus would do with so little for so many (5,000 families!).

Does your basket seem small? Do you sometimes think its contents aren't worth much? Might you spend a few moments wondering what unknown good Jesus might accomplish with even the little you have to offer? Might you ponder how much good Jesus has already accomplished with what your basket holds?

-ConcordPastor

Saint Ignatius, pray for us!

Take, Lord, receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, my entire will: all I have and possess. You have given all to me; now I return it. All is yours now; dispose of it wholly according to your will. Your love and your grace are enough for me. (St. Ignatius)

July 31, is the feast of St. Ignatius. Below, excerpts from an article by Jesuit Bill Barry whose books on the spiritual life and spiritual direction are among the best. (Complete article available to subscribers in America, 7/21/08.) Those familiar with the elements of Ignatian spirituality will recognize them at work in this fine essay while those who have never heard of Ignatian spirituality will be subtly introduced to some of its methodology in these words.

A Friend in God
To draw close to the holy, pay attention to ordinary experience…

by William A. Barry, SJ

In the course of helping people to relate personally with God as a psychologist and spiritual director, I have become convinced that God wants our friendship. As St. Ignatius Loyola wrote in the Spiritual Exercises, the creator communicates directly with the creature and the creature with the creator. You might wonder: “What does this mean for me? I’m not making the Spiritual Exercises. In fact, I don’t pray very often.” I believe, however, that God wants a personal relationship with you along with every other member of creation. God does not discriminate in this desire, wanting friendship only with certain special people. God wants everyone’s friendship. And that means that God is communicating personally with you and wants you to respond in kind.

God’s act of creation is not a past event, because the divine is not subject to time. Creation is ongoing, never ending, ever present. God’s desire for friendship is therefore always at work. What this means is that you can communicate with God, but you need to pay attention to pick up the signals.

Sometimes when we hear the term “religious experience” we think of something esoteric, even odd, something only experienced by holy people. But if it is true that God is communicating with each one of us at every moment of our existence, then any human experience can have a religious dimension. Ignatian spirituality speaks of finding God in all things, because God is present and active throughout the universe. All that is needed is to pay attention and to discern in the welter of dimensions of any experience what is of God from what is not of God.

What do I mean by the “welter of dimensions” of experience? All of our experiences are influenced by our mood at the moment, by our expectations, by our upbringing, by the nature of the things we encounter, even by our digestive system. Thus there are physiological, psychological, sociological and cultural dimensions to any experience. Of course, we are not always aware of each of these dimensions. We need to focus our attention in order to become aware of the effect of our mood on our experience of a sunset, for example.

If you want to engage in a friendship with God, you need to take time to become more aware of what is happening within you as you go through your day. The Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote: “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.” At every moment you are in the presence of God. So you must seek to take a contemplative stance toward the world. Pay attention to what you encounter in your ordinary life, and you will experience God’s presence.

Attending to and Savoring Experience

In my work as a spiritual director I try to help people attend to their experience: to notice what happens when they see the ocean, listen to a Gospel story, watch a baby crawl, read the newspaper or listen to television news. Then I encourage them to talk with a friend about what they notice or to reflect on this during spiritual direction. The contemplative stance is something like what the Ignatian examination of consciousness seeks to foster: a way of noticing what has happened during the day in order to discover God’s presence and how we responded to it.

Helping people to adopt a contemplative outlook is one of the challenges of spiritual direction. It is not easy to pay attention to something outside the self, to really see, feel, smell and touch a tree, for example (Oh, it’s just another oak). Or to pay attention to a Gospel text (Oh yes, the prodigal son). Or to pay attention to what a friend is actually saying to you. We have so many preconceived notions, so many cares and concerns that we do not really pay attention to the other, whether the other is a person, a thing, an event, a text of Scripture or God. Just think of what happens when someone tells you about his knee operation. Most likely the first thing you think of is your own knee operation or your mother’s, and you talk about that. The other person has no time to discuss his or her experience.

…

Many of us want to beat understanding out of our experience before really paying attention to what exactly happened. We have to be patient with ourselves. Sometimes it is difficult to believe that my experience is worth paying attention to; it often seems so banal. You may feel the same way. Yet our ordinary experience is where we encounter God.

What kind of experience am I talking about? Well, after a day of work and dinner with your family, you sit down to watch the evening news on television. Pictures of an automobile accident flash on the screen, and the announcer says that four teenagers died in that crash. Your son is out with his friends. “Could it be Tim?” you wonder but then are relieved to hear that the accident occurred in another city. Suppose you paid attention to this experience. You might become aware of how much you love your son, even if you are often annoyed by his antics. “God, how I would miss him if he were to die in a senseless accident.” Reflecting on this simple experience gives you something to talk over with God, namely how much you love your son and how much you are afraid for him. Perhaps in this ordinary moment you are being invited to share with God your feelings about your son and to listen to what God feels for your son and for you.

Here is an example from the detective novel Original Sin, by P. D. James. Kate Mishkin, a Scotland Yard detective and agnostic, is in her apartment overlooking the Thames:

Standing now between the glitter of the water and the high, delicate blue of the sky, she felt an extraordinary impulse which had visited her before and which she thought must be as close as she could ever get to a religious experience. She was possessed by a need, almost physical in its intensity, to pray, to praise, to say thank you, without knowing to whom, to shout with a joy that was deeper than the joy she felt in her own physical well-being and achievements or even in the beauty of the physical world.

These two examples illustrate how paying attention to the ordinary events in our lives can help us to develop a friendship with God. Kate Mishkin feels a great sense of well-being coupled with a desire to say thank you. The religious dimension of her experience lies close to the surface. If Kate took her experience seriously, she might discover that she has been touched by God. In the first example, the religious dimension came later, when the father reflected on his emotions and sought to communicate with God about his love for his son.

Finding God in the Everyday

Early on in my work as a spiritual director … I discovered that the most important thing I could do as a spiritual director, and possibly in most of my ministry, was to listen to the other person. By doing so, I was allowing the person to take his or her experience seriously as a sacred place where God was present. When people tell me of the times they encounter God, the room becomes a holy place. Often enough the person re-experiences God’s presence by simply recounting those holy moments, and I feel that presence too.

Once you have paid enough attention to your experience and savored it, then you can begin to ask questions, to try to make sense of it. What is of God in this experience? What is not? … Experiences that make you more alive, more caring, more loving are probably from God; those that make you more self-centered, more worried, more anxious are probably not. God is always trying to draw us into a relationship of friendship that will make us more like God, that is, more like the human beings we are created to be.

- William A. Barry, S.J., a spiritual director and writer, is co-director of the tertianship program of the Jesuits’ New England Province. His latest book, A Friendship Like No Other, has just been published by Loyola Press.

The image at the top of this post appears on several sites but in no place is the artist's name given. If any readers know whose work this is, please send me the artist's name - thank you!
- ConcordPastor

Martha, Martha!

Kitchen scene with Christ in the house of Martha and Mary by Velazquez
(Click on image for larger, detailed version)

The church calendar names July 29 as the feast of Saint Martha. The family of Martha, Mary and Lazarus of Bethany was certainly dear to Jesus which explains the prominence of its members in the scriptures. Below are the three texts of the gospel which recount the close relationship Jesus had with this family.

The painting above is my favorite image of the well-known, "Martha, Martha..." story in which Mary sits at Jesus' feet while Martha is busy in the kitchen. For a variety of other images of Jesus and this family, take a look at this collection edited by Elizabeth Fletcher, who comments:

Martha's face is clearly unhappy. She has been left with the preparation of a meal, while her sister Mary sits entranced at the feet of their honored guest, Jesus. There is a second figure in the foreground, not mentioned in the gospel story.

This painting is given an air of ambiguity by the figure standing behind Martha. Who is she, and what is she meant to represent? Is she pointing towards Mary in the next room, and feeding Martha's resentment at the unfair load of work she has to carry? Or is she pointing to Jesus, telling Mary that she too should be listening, instead of wasting these precious moments in the kitchen? Velázquez was a court painter who was paid to make his courtly subjects appear impassive - a detached demeanor was de rigueur for royalty. On the other hand, he could show emotion in a biblical subject's face. But what emotion is this girl showing? And what is the old woman saying?

Martha, Mary and Lazarus in the gospels

Jesus entered a village
where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.
She had a sister named Mary
who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.
Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said,
“Lord, do you not care
that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?
Tell her to help me.”
The Lord said to her in reply,
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.
There is need of only one thing.
Mary has chosen the better part
and it will not be taken from her.”
(Luke 10:38-42)


Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary
to comfort them about their brother [Lazarus, who had died].
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went to meet him;
but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus,
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
God will give you.”
Jesus said to her,
“Your brother will rise.”
Martha said to him,
“I know he will rise,
in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus told her,
“I am the resurrection and the life;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,
and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world.”
(John 11:19-27)

Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany,
where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served,
while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.
Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil
made from genuine aromatic nard
and anointed the feet of Jesus
and dried them with her hair;
the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
Then Judas the Iscariot, one (of) his disciples,
and the one who would betray him, said,
"Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days' wages
and given to the poor?"
He said this not because he cared about the poor
but because he was a thief and held the money bag
and used to steal the contributions.
So Jesus said, "Leave her alone.
Let her keep this for the day of my burial.
You always have the poor with you,
but you do not always have me."
(John 12:1-8)

-ConcordPastor

Gaudeamus!

In the great blogosphere, 50,000 hits is a relatively small number - but it's far beyond anything I dreamed of just over a year ago when I began this work on July 18, 2007.

Of course, "This toast's for YOU!" - faithful readers who return here time after time - and also to those who stop by for a look and move on.

All are welcome!

-ConcordPastor

Monday Morning Offering - 5

Image: George Mendoza

Good morning, good God!

I wonder how many times you hear that greeting?
How many folks begin the day, the week,
by trying to get your ear, your attention, your help?

I don't understand
but I believe
that you hear every single one of us
as clearly as an infant hears
a mother's heart
when pressed against her breast...

Hear me, my God, this morning
and let me hear the beat of your heart
and in my steps through this day
and this new week ahead of me.

Wait! Did I say ahead of me?
I meant the new week ahead of us -
you and me -
because I want you with me, Lord,
every step of the way on every day,
leading me, guiding me,
walking by my side,
your hand on my shoulder,
your strength before and behind me,
a shield protecting me
in my worries and my fears...

I've asked you, begged you, Lord,
for so many things and,
as you know,
I'm still waiting on some of those things...

still waiting...

but whether I ask you or not,
one gift you never keep from me
is your presence:
night and day, asleep or awake,
you are with me...

You are by my side
when I love my neighbor
and you are by my side
when I hurt my neighbor,
my spouse, my child, my parent,
my colleague, my client,
my friend, myself
and you...

It's so easy to forget you are there, Lord,
so easy to forget that in every person
who crosses my path this day,
you cross my path...
in every one who needs my help today,
you need my help...
in all who wait this week for me
to be honest, fair and just,
you wait for the same from me...
in all who hope I will be
understanding, patient and gentle,
your heart expects no less of me...

You are there, with me,
in good times and in bad,
in sickness and in health,
in joy and in sorrow
whether I welcome or wince at your presence,
you are by my side...

Let me hear, clearly, Lord,
the beat of your loving heart:
let it pace my day and keep me attuned
to the quiet ways you whisper
your presence, your word, your counsel
to keep me on the path of your truth...

Make and keep me ever mindful
that you are at my side,
that not a breath or step of mine
escapes your notice,
that you guard me as the apple of your eye...

Good and gracious God,
shepherd my steps and my days
into a week where you wait
at every turn to show me the way...

Amen.

(At the top of the sidebar, you'll find a beautiful recording of Psalm 23 with John Rutter conducting the Cambridge Singers. This beloved psalm sings of the shepherd who is ever present to his flock, always guarding and guiding their way...)

-ConcordPastor

A wise and understanding heart

Homily for Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
1 Kings 3:5, 7-12 Romans 8:28-30 Matthew 13:44-46

I think we all might be envious of King Solomon
and the opportunity that was his when the Lord told him,
“Ask for what you want and I’ll give it to you.”

Suppose the Lord came to you in a dream
and said the same thing…

For what would you ask?
What comes first to your mind?
What’s at the top of your “wish list?”

It seems the Lord’s offer had one string attached to it:
he tells Solomon,
“Because you asked for what you did,
and not for some other things,
I will give you what you asked for.”
So there may have been things
for which Solomon might have prayed
but which the Lord would not have granted…

What came to your mind
when I asked what you might ask for?

Do you suppose what you thought of might be a “match”
on the Lord’s list of requests to grant?

We ask for many things in prayer,
and more often than not the things we pray for
are very good things indeed -
but the Lord does not send us all the good things we pray for
even if our request seems what we think to be
just what God would want to grant us.

Solomon asked for a wise and understanding heart:
not so much a “thing” but more a way to discern, to discern:
what’s right from what’s wrong,
what’s true from what’s false,
what’s just from what’s not,
what’s real from what’s fantasy.

That desire to discern with a wise and understanding heart
is the wisdom at work in the two parables in the gospel.

First there’s the image of the treasure hunter
who, upon finding what she’s been looking for,
is willing to let go of everything else she owns
for the joy of having what she has found.

Then there’s the merchant in search of fine pearls.
At last he comes upon the finest pearl he’s ever seen
and surrenders everything he has for it,
believing this one pearl to be more valuable
than anything else he might possibly possess.

How about us?

What treasure are you looking for in your life?

What treasure are you working hard for in your life?

What treasure do you spend your life saving up for?

In what treasure do we invest ourselves,
our time, our resources?
The treasure we work for, whatever it might be:
can it fulfill our hearts' deepest longing?

What “pearl,” would be so valuable to our hearts’ desires
that we might surrender all we have to possess it?
or half of what we have, or a quarter
or even 10% of what we already have – often in abundance?
Or do we hold on to and even hoard temporary treasure
at the expense of treasure that is priceless?

Perhaps these scriptures are less
about getting what I want or wish for
and more about discerning, searching for what God wants for me:
searching for the treasure God has planted in the fields of my life;
for the pearl of great price, for which God hopes
I might surrender much less valuable things in my life.

We can be sure of this:
God desires our happiness
and seeks to heal and reconcile the pain and burdens
that keep us from peace of mind and heart.
But in seeking that happiness
most of us have to do a lot of digging
before finding the buried treasure,
and most of us sort through a lot of costume jewelry
before discovering the pearl of great price.

Is any treasure greater, any pearl more valuable
than the gift of faith which helps me to believe and trust in God
when times are most difficult?

For each of us there is a treasure to be found,
a pearl to be discovered.

What we need is a share of the wisdom of Solomon
to pray, not for the fulfillment of fantasies and wishes
but rather for the treasure, the pearl God has in store for each of us.
It’s in such wise prayer, as St. Paul wrote, that
all things do work together for the good, for those who love God.

We are about to break open the treasure of the Eucharist
and to pour out the Lord’s wisdom by the cupful.

Pray with me that the sacrament of this table,
for which Christ gave away everything he had – for us -
that the sacrament of his sacrifice
will nourish wise and understanding hearts in us all.


-ConcordPastor

Word for the Week of July 27

Pearl of Great Price, by Joy Stained Glass Studio

I've posted the Word for the Week on the sidebar and it consists of the shorter form of this Sunday's gospel (17th Sunday in Ordinary Time - A). If you click on the scripture reference on the sidebar you'll find the longer form of the text. Here's the gospel text, but be sure to refer to the three scriptures for Sunday.

Jesus said to his disciples:
“The kingdom of heaven
is like a treasure buried in a field,
which a person finds and hides again,
and out of joy goes and sells all that he has
and buys that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven
is like a merchant searching for fine pearls.
When he finds a pearl of great price,
he goes and sells all that he has and buys it."

The image above is a beautiful stained glass window at the Rolling Hills Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village, Kansas. The window is the work of Joy Stained Glass Studio in Oak Grove, Missouri. The window is titled, Pearl of Great Price. (Click on the image for a larger version!)

If you scroll down you'll find several other posts on this weekend's scriptures and after the last Mass on Sunday I'll post my homily on these texts.

-ConcordPastor

Pearls of wisdom

Pearl of Great Price, image by RobinJoe61


Searching for wisdom?
Looking to invest in something of great value?
Willing to dig for it?

What are they walking for?

Image by Vagabondish

NOTE: Kiwi Nomad who visits this blog has just returned from the journey described here! Go to Kiwi Nomad's Wanderings for her reports and a link to a new blog she has under construction. Welcome home, Kiwi!

(Related to the post on St. James on his feast day, July 25.)

In the past decade, hundreds of thousands from around the world have descended on Northern Spain to trek hundreds of miles on the Camino de Santiago. What is it about this 1000-year-old pilgrimage route that attracts them?

The modern-day pilgrim who struggles across Spain to the shrine of the Apostle James faces one more challenge in a church office that gives out an official certificate to those who complete the journey on foot or bicycle. A clerk asks: Was the reason for the trip spiritual?

For many of those who hike or bike the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage trail all the rage during the Middle Ages and catapulting in popularity in recent years, it’s not an easy question. In walking a segment of the route in June and another chunk five years ago, I found that the reasons people had for undertaking the trip were often mixed. In more than a few cases, the spiritual aspect of the long trek grows on them unexpectedly. It did for me, too, even though the religious nature of the journey was an attraction from the start.

Many set out for the physical challenge, or even for an inexpensive vacation staying at pilgrims’ hostels, or refugios, for three to six euros a night. But I noticed something else: Quite a few were at some crossroad in life. Some had lost jobs or loved ones. Others were graduating from college, or entering graduate school. They may not have put it in religious terms, but they were looking for something...

Read the rest of this report by Camino pilgrim, Paul Moses at Busted Halo, an online magazine of spirituality for people in their 20's and 30's (or older!).

All in the Family

Whole Holy Family is a contemporary piece by Bro. Michael McGrath depicting Anne and Joachim, Mary and Joseph and the Christ Child.

NOTE: Now that my blog is just over a year old, it will offer me, occasionally, the opportunity to repeat a previous post. Here are two posts (combined) from the first weeks of this blog.

On the liturgical calendar for July 26 is the feast of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne: parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, grandparents of Jesus and St. Joseph's in-laws. That's right: Jesus had grandparents and Joachim and Anne are fitting patron saints for our own grandfathers and grandmothers. (And I'm sure they wouldn't mind filling in as patron saints of in-laws, too!) The scriptures tell us nothing of Mary's parents but legend and tradition assign them the names this day celebrates.

It was in the womb of her mother, Anne, that Mary was immaculately conceived. Although many Catholics are confused on this point, the Immaculate Conception refers to Mary's conception in Anne's womb, not Jesus' conception in Mary's womb.

I have a particular affection for St. Anne for several reasons. When I was a child, my parents brought my sister and me to the shrine of St. Anne de Beaupre, just outside of Quebec city in Canada. My first assignment after ordination (1973) was to St. Ann Parish in the Wollaston section of Quincy. The people of there warmly welcomed a newly ordained priest who made plenty of mistakes in his first years in ministry! After five years in Wollaston, I went to study and work at the University of Notre Dame, returning in 1978 to begin nine years of campus ministry at Northeastern University and Emerson College at St. Ann University Parish in the Back Bay.

Having been assigned to two parishes under the patronage of St. Anne, interrupted by four years at the University named for Anne and Joachim's daughter, Our Lady, I was not surprised to be assigned in 1991 to St. Joseph Parish in Medway, named after Mary's husband, son-in-law to Anne and Joachim!

From there I was assigned to another parish under Mary's watchful care, Our Lady Help of Christians, and then to Holy Family, a parish named after Mary, Joseph and Jesus! No small coincidence: St. Bernard Church is named for a saint who had a particular devotion to Mary and to whom is attributed the beautiful prayer, the Memorare:

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary,
that never was it known
that anyone who fled to your protection,
implored your help, or sought your intercession
was left unaided.
Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto you,
O Virgin of virgins, my mother;
to you do I come, before you I stand,
sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate,
despise not my petitions,
but in your mercy hear and answer me. Amen.

The Holy Kinship by Geertgen tot Sint
(PLEASE click on the image for a larger, clearer version and its detail!)

Part of the enjoyment of blogging is searching out artwork to illustrate the posts. It wasn't easy to choose which piece to use for the post on St. Anne and St. Joachim but I decided that Bro. McGrath's Whole Holy Family was just right. The runner up was a late 15th century oil painting (on the left) by Geertgen tot Sint, entitled The Holy Kinship.

In the Introduction to Legends of St. Anne, Mother of the Virgin Mary, editor Sherry Reames offers some interesting background:

“Although the canonical books of the New Testament never mention the parents of the Virgin Mary, traditions about her family, childhood, education, and eventual betrothal to Joseph developed very early in the history of the church. The oldest and most influential account of this kind is the apocryphal gospel called the Protevangelium of James (which) fell under a cloud in the fourth and fifth centuries when it was accused of "absurdities" by St. Jerome and condemned as untrustworthy by Popes Damasus, Innocent I, and Gelasius. Jerome's most explicit complaint was that it explained the brothers of Jesus… as Joseph's sons by an earlier marriage. In the interpretation preferred by Jerome and the Western Church, the so-called brothers are interpreted as cousins of Jesus, sons of Mary's sisters, thus allowing both Joseph and Mary to be envisioned as lifelong virgins...

“Anne was initially just a minor character in the legend derived from the Protevangelium. But her role was capable of great significance because of what it could imply about the Virgin Mary and about the workings of God in this world. Christians were obviously curious from the start about when and why God had selected Mary for her unique position as the mother of the Redeemer. The legend attempts to answer such questions by borrowing from Biblical stories about other long-awaited children, including Isaac, Samson, John the Baptist, and especially Samuel; thus Mary becomes both a child of destiny, heralded before birth as a chosen instrument in the redemption of God's people, and a sign of God's favor toward her parents, a virtuous couple who had long been barren...

“Anne also played a useful role for medieval commentators on the Bible when they attempted to explain the extended family of Jesus. As mentioned earlier, Jerome had argued successfully that the "brothers" mentioned in the Gospels were Jesus’ cousins, sons of Mary's sisters. Biblical commentators in the early medieval West went on to identify those sisters with two other Mary’s mentioned in the Gospels, to take Anne as the mother of all three, and to explain the names of her second and third daughters by creating the theory of the trinubium, or three marriages of Anne. According to the trinubium, Joachim must have died soon after the birth of the Virgin Mary, so that Anne could marry a second husband named Cleophas, by whom she bore Mary Cleophas, and (after Cleophas's death) a third husband named Salome, by whom she bore Mary Salome. From these three daughters, the theory continued, came Jesus and all six "brothers" or cousins named in the Gospels. James the lesser or younger, Joseph or Joses, Simon, and Jude were explained as the sons of Mary Cleophas, who had married Alpheus; James the Greater and John the Evangelist, as the sons of Mary Salome, who had married Zebedee. Thus Anne became the grandmother of some of the most prominent apostles, as well as Jesus himself.

“The trinubium theory was condemned in the twelfth century and later by a number of theologians, who felt that multiple marriages and additional children were incompatible with the purity and holiness that must have characterized the Virgin's mother, and some Biblical scholars rejected it on the grounds that it depended on misinterpretations of particular names and details...”

Although rejected, the trinubium made its presence felt in art - and that brings us back to The Holy Kinship. This work plays out the theory of Anne's three marriages, depicting Anne on the left with a book in her lap and beside her are Mary and the Christ child. On the right are Elizabeth and her son, John the Baptist and in the background are various of Anne's apocryphal spouses and their children - all gathered together in church. Or, as I look it, this painting offers a 15th century version not unlike the scene at our Sunday 9:30 Mass!

-ConcordPastor

Where did the rain go? Answer revealed!

Image by Mindscapes

A reader asked in a combox if the rain we've been having might be the result of global warming.

Not so! This rain has not been due to algorephic atmospheric conditions.

Another reader has emailed me a link to the real answer to how rainy days come and go - and I'm pleased to share that with you. (H/T to TH)


-ConcordPastor

What would you give for this pearl?

Photo of pearl in oyster shell by Kelli

Make sure you take a look at this Sunday's readings before coming to Mass. One of the best ways to prepare for Mass is to read over the scriptures for the liturgy, ponder them, pray over them, wonder what you might preach about them!

Take a look at the scriptures and some background material to help you - and to find out why there's a pearl on the half-shell up above!


-ConcordPastor

He didn't know what he was asking for...

St. James the Greater by El Greco

Today the Church celebrates the feast of Saint James, one of the 12 apostles.

"This James is the brother of John the Evangelist. The two were called by Jesus as they worked with their father in a fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus had already called another pair of brothers from a similar occupation: Peter and Andrew. 'He walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him' (Mark 1:19-20).

"James was one of the favored three who had the privilege of witnessing the Transfiguration, the raising to life of the daughter of Jairus and the agony in Gethsemani.

"Two incidents in the Gospels describe the temperament of this man and his brother. St. Matthew tells that their mother came (Mark says it was the brothers themselves) to ask that they have the seats of honor (one on the right, one on the left of Jesus) in the kingdom. 'Jesus said in reply, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?" They said to him, "We can"' (Matthew 20:22). Jesus then told them they would indeed drink the cup and share his baptism of pain and death, but that sitting at his right hand or left was not his to give—it 'is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father' (Matthew 20:23b). It remained to be seen how long it would take to realize the implications of their confident 'We can!'"

For more on Saint James and the cup from which he finally drank, visit Saint of the Day for the rest of this article.

The heavens' tears

Image by Wallpapers

There seems, here in Concord, to be no end to the rain...

When the skies drench us, it's not always easy but it's helpful to wonder at how lush, green and fruitful grow the garden, the yard and the woods once bathed in the heavens' tears...



-ConcordPastor

Word for the Weekend of July 26-27

Dream of Solomon by Luca Giordano (Click on image for larger, clearer version!)

It's time to think of looking over this coming Sunday's scriptures and preparing to hear the Word of the Lord.

Sunday's texts and background materials will bring you to Solomon's dreams, Paul's deep trust in God and Matthew's recounting of three parables, each beginning, "The kingdom of heaven is like..."

Got kids? Take a look here and help your children prepare for prayer on the Lord's Day, too.

Here's a teaser to draw you into the Word for this coming weekend:

In the first lesson, the Lord comes to Solomon in a dream and says,

"Ask something of me and I will give it to you."

What did Solomon ask for? Did he receive it? What would you ask for? Or, in term of this Sunday's gospel, what buried treasure do you seek? what is your pearl of great price?

-ConcordPastor

Reflection on a rainy black rooftop

Image by DeliberatelyRandomThoughts


But not yet August

It's 3:30 in the afternoon
of a day past the middle of July,
but not yet August,
and dark as one might find
nearer nine at night on a summer's eve

and it's pouring rain...

(what else might it pour
and why do we say it's pouring rain?)

Some confluence of angles above
my bedroom window
channels the pouring (rain)
in a steady gush

and a roof below my window
spreads a thin black gloss:
puddles studded by rain drops
darting the dark mirror

For just a moment I wonder why
this (pouring) rain, this gushing
natural downspout soaks what ought
to be a beautiful summer day -
but just for a moment -

for the storm will pass, the pouring pause
the gush subside, the black mirror wait
to show the light of what no doubt
will best the storm and bring again
the sun the summer loves to pour on us
before the fall and winter pass again
and spring give hint of an afternoon
of another day past the middle of July,
but not yet August...


-ConcordPastor

GardenSnob agrees: wheat will survive weeds!

Image by GardenSnob

Here's another image of weeds among the wheat! (Click on image for a larger version of the wheat and the weeds!)

GardenSnob is a new blog: a review of gardening books, photos, tools and ideas. This blog is the work of a fine friend on a small farm who also worships in ConcordPastor's parish. I recommend it for both the garden obsessed and for folks like myself who neither plant nor weed nor harvest but who find such reading really interesting. (I'm no gourmet cook, either, but I love to watch cooking shows!)

See what GardenSnob has to say about wheat and weeds and be sure to take a peek at three residents of GardenSnob's place: Sweet, Sour and Spicy, and here they are having lunch!

I'm adding GardenSnob to the links section of the sidebar for easy reference.


-ConcordPastor

First Apostle of the Resurrection!

Mary Magdalene Announces the Resurrection to the Apostles: image by Sr. Mary Charles; Image below is from Monastery Icons (click on images for larger versions)

Today, July 22, is the Memorial of Saint Mary Magdalene.

The Saint of the Day connection in the links section on the sidebar will give you a brief overview of this feast on the liturgical calendar.

Because Mary is the name of several significant women in the gospel accounts of Jesus' life, there has been some confusion around just who Mary of Magdala was - and wasn't! For an interesting summary of these questions - and a resolution to the dispute - take a look at this article from Catholic News Service.

The icon above depicts Mary Magdalene announcing the Resurrection of Jesus to the apostles who were huddled in fear following the crucifixion. Mary Magdalene was the first to meet the Risen Jesus and the first to announce this joyful news to others. She is sometimes called the First Apostle of the Resurrection.

The vial in Mary's hand may be for the spices she brought to Jesus' tomb to anoint his body; and in her other hand - a red egg! The story was told that Mary went to Rome to preach the Risen Christ to Tiberius Caesar. During her audience she held up an egg to explain the Resurrection. Caesar laughed, telling her that one had as much chance of resurrection as the egg in her hand turning red. Whereupon, the egg turned red! Some credit this story as the source for why eggs are colored at Easter.

Father,
your Son first entrusted to Mary Magdalene
the joyful news of his resurrection.
By her prayers and example
may we proclaim Christ as our living Lord
and one day see him in glory,
for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
(Opening Prayer for the Memorial of Mary Magdalene)

-ConcordPastor