As happens each year, the Vatican announced on yesterday's Feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, the theme chosen by the pope for the 45th World Day of Social Communications which will be observed on June 5, 2011 (Ascension Day in much of the Catholic world although observed as the Seventh Sunday of Easter in these parts).
The theme for this year's observance:
Truth, proclamation and authenticity of life in the digital age
An English-language note released by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications explains that the theme is "to be understood as focusing on the human person who is at the heart of all communicative processes. Even in an age that is largely dominated, and at times conditioned, by new technologies, the value of personal witness remains essential.
"To approach the truth and to take on the task of sharing it", the note adds, "requires the 'guarantee' of an authenticity of life from those who work in the media, and especially from Catholic journalists; an authenticity of life that is no less required in a digital age.
"Technology, on its own, cannot establish or enhance a communicator's credibility, nor can it serve as a source of the values which guide communication. The truth must remain the firm and unchanging point of reference of new media and the digital world, opening up new horizons of information and knowledge. Ideally, it is the pursuit of truth which constitutes the fundamental objective of all those who work in the media".
How many of us, today and tomorrow, will be reciting to ourselves, "Thirty days hath September, April, June and November..."?
That little mnemonic rhyme serves us well through a whole lifetime of calendar changes!
There are many variations on the rhyme - here's the one I favor:
Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November.
All the rest have thirty-one
Except February
To which we twenty-eight assign,
'Til leap year gives us twenty-nine.
Beginning tomorrow, September 30, "texting while driving" will be illegal in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for drivers of all ages.
The new law states that no one is allowed to “use a mobile telephone, or any handheld device capable of accessing the Internet, to manually compose, send or read an electronic message while operating a motor vehicle.”
The law also bans new drivers, age 16 to 17, from using a phone or any electronic devices while driving.
The law also forbids all drivers from using a phone to read or compose e-mails or instant messages, looking at web pages, or using a phone-based GPS navigational application.
UPDATE: Today's Boston Globe reports that GPS use on smart phone is allowable, although one might be stopped for what appears to be texting and cited with a fine for driving while distracted. H/T to reader FO!
And yes: texting and any other Internet based activity while stopped at red lights or stop signs is also prohibited!
Drivers 18 and older may use a cell phone to take or make calls while driving but must always keep one hand on the steering wheel.
If the law doesn't stop you, take a look at a video I posted this summer. It's graphic and compelling and may help convince you of the wisdom of this new law.
From the weekly column, "On Second Thought," in the Sports section of the Boston Sunday Globe (9/26/10), a piece titled, A son lost, a promise to keep:
Those of us who have more than we need, and those of us with something less, are asked regularly to sign on to something. It’s very much part of the American way, all the more because of the Internet, with all of us now so easily reached, connected, offered entrance into our friends’ lives and causes, joys and sorrows.
A neighbor is walking to raise money for breast cancer and asks us to pledge maybe 5, 10, or 15 cents a mile. Our church is sending its youth group out of state for charity work, so before we leave Sunday’s service, we sign the clipboard to assure them they can count on our $25. The office, reminding us to be good citizens all, partners with the United Way and our e-mails ding with the reminder to give what we can. A fellow Red Sox fan with an ailing child at Dana-Farber mentions the Jimmy Fund and we say, “Tell me where to send the check.’’
Howard London and Barbara Spivak aren’t asking you for a penny. They want you, they need you, perhaps more than they’ve wanted or needed anything or anyone in their lives. They’d like you and your friends, your kids, your nephews, your half-cousins, your girlfriend’s boyfriend, your stepbrother’s best buddy, anyone and everyone to sign on to the short list of obligations they call “A Promise to Adam.’’ Pay nothing up front. Pay nothing ever.
Just keep in mind what happened to their son, Adam London.
Especially if you are a high schooler, Adam’s grief-stricken parents would like you to think of Adam as your “BFFL’’ whenever you are in a car. Adam is no longer here to share your love and friendship, his life brought to an end in an instant, at 9:46 p.m. on Aug. 23, the fatal consequence of his speeding a car down a wet, winding, hilly Newton street on his way to a party. The crash site was about one mile from his home. The party he never made it to was only one more mile away...
After the jump, Globe columnist Kevin Dupont's piece goes far beyond what you might expect of such a story.
Most compelling for me is Adam's parents' willingness to speak with such honesty from hearts breaking with grief: a gift to all who hear their plea to "keep a promise to Adam." We learn from tragedy in proportion to our capacity to face it honestly.
When such tragedies occur, it's common for memorial "shrines" to be fashioned of candles, notes, stuffed animals and flowers at the site of the accident. How much more powerful and lasting are the words of Adam's parents inviting young people to draw from their son's death a pledge for safe and responsible driving.
Please read the story and pass it on to any and all who might benefit from it, especially young people.
And please follow this link to the site where you can join others in keeping A Promise to Adam.
This coming Sunday is the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, bringing us ever closer to the 34th and last Sunday of this liturgical season and Solemnity of Christ the King on November 21 - and then, Advent!
But... back to the day at hand.
There's just no better way to prepare for Sunday Mass than to read, ponder and pray over the scriptures we'll hear proclaimed there. You'll find this Sunday's readings here, along with commentary on them. If you'll be in the company of younger worshipers, you'll find hints for helping them prepare to hear the Lord's Word here.
This Sunday's first lesson is a lament from the book of the prophet Habakkuk. Writing at a desperate time of faithlessness and political peril, the prophet doesn't hold back on giving God his two cents on how he things the Lord is running things! The passage also includes a response from the Lord, promising that the vision of hope still has its time.
The usual thematic resonance between first reading and the gospel isn't easy to discern here. From Luke we have the parable of the mustard seed (and the mulberry tree!). In addition, Jesus speaks to his disciples about the kind of service he demands and expects of those who follow him.
This is definitely a week when prior familiarity with the scriptures will enhance your potential for understanding them on Sunday morning!
What used to be called "Boston Catholic TV" is now "The CatholicTV Network."
"The CatholicTV Network" is working to expand its "carriage" -- and that's not a search for a larger baby stroller! It's an effort to increase the number of television providers everywhere who "carry" CatholicTV.
You can be part of this expansion by following this link and signing in your support of CatholicTV, wherever you live, to help CatholicTV go everywhere!
NCR Online posts an excellent report from Haiti by documentary filmmaker Gerard Thomas Straub. Our post-earth quake focus on Haiti has blurred as the months have passed but the reality faced by this poorest nation in the hemisphere grinds on with intense pain.
I am a documentary filmmaker and I’ve filmed in slums like this all over the world -- this was my fourth trip to Haiti in the last eight months -- but to live in one is another story, a horror story laced with rodents, roaches, ants and mosquitoes. Life without running water and electricity is exhausting. The stench of human waste and rotting garbage is inescapable. Violence and corruption are commonplace. The slum where I stayed for two full weeks is in an area known as Girardo-ville. Access to the heart of the slum is limited to one unpaved road that is almost impassable. The difficult physical journey out of the slum is symbolic of the even more difficult journey out of hopelessness in a city where death and disease linger everywhere in the toxic air.
...
In the end, it seems, poverty is more than a lack of food and work. Poverty is a force that destroys the unity of the human family by dividing us into camps of those who have and those who don’t have. And between the rich and the poor, there is an impenetrable wall that separates us. That scandalous wall must come down.
That second paragraph brings me back to yesterday's gospel story of the rich man and Lazarus. I'll bet that Amos, the prophet of yesterday's first scripture, would have had something to say about this...
Should this post move you to reach out to those in need in Haiti, I confidently recommend the Saint Boniface Haiti Foundationas an organization through which your generosity will be put to good use for the health and welfare of those who are suffering.
When our teenage parishioners and their adult chaperons
return from serving the poor at soup kitchens in Boston and Lawrence,
the two comments they most often make are these:
“I feel like the poor people we met gave more to us, did more for us,
than we did for them…”
and
“I want to go back again….”
That kind of experience is key to understanding what Jesus is saying
in this story about the rich man and Lazarus.
If you haven’t had that experience of being served
by the ones you went to serve,
then you might not get this story at all.
Lying at the rich man’s door was a poor man named Lazarus…
At the door… at the front door…
Imagine a homeless man setting up camp at our front door,
a man with some kind of skin disease…
Would we invite him in to dinner?
Would we put together some food and bring it out to him?
Would we sit on the front steps and eat with him?
Would we give him some cash to go buy some food?
Would we offer to take him to a place for the homeless?
Would we call the police, hoping they’d do something with him?
Or would we ignore him - hoping he’d go away,
or at least go next door?
What would we do?
We can't come to understand the message of this parable
without considering the distance between us and the poor:
or better put,
we need to consider the distance we keep between the poor and us.
That was the rich man’s problem:
Lazarus was right at his front door
but the wealthy man didn’t tend to his needs.
The man’s sin isn’t being wealthy -
his sin is not caring for the poor man at his door.
Only a small part of this story takes place at the rich man’s door -
most of it takes place in the after life.
But there, again, the story is about keeping distance.
It’s about a great chasm between the suffering and the comfortable.
But here the table has been turned:
it’s the rich man who’s left on the doorstep of suffering,
while the poor man is finally at peace.
Each time the rich man closed the door on Lazarus,
he widened the chasm between them
until there was no way to bridge the gap.
Each time the rich man failed to feed Lazarus
he denied himself the taste of joy that comes
from sharing what one has with those who have less.
(It's that "taste of joy"
that makes our young people want to go back
to serve the poor again.)
Each time the rich man made sure of his own ease
and his family’s comfort
he became less and less aware of the suffering of others,
less and less inclined to reach out to others -
even to someone at his own front door.
In something of the same way, we who live in the suburbs
run the risk of losing sight of the poor
who are distanced from our front doors by miles of invisible fences
that keep them away from us, and us away from them.
The stark scene with which Jesus ends his story here
isn’t meant to frighten us - it’s meant to teach and invite us.
The story invites us to open the doors
that keep us from meeting and caring for those who are “outside”
the circle of our own comfort.
Jesus isn’t calling us to feel guilty or become do-gooders:
both would be lessons too easy to learn.
He’s teaching us what our parishioners learn at soup kitchens:
that, indeed, the poor have something more to offer us
than we have to offer them.
He’s inviting us to discover the peace that comes
from sharing what we have with those who have so much less.
He’s inviting us to develop a hunger for feeding others.
He’s inviting us to close the gap that separates us from those in need
before the gap becomes a chasm our selfishness can’t bridge.
Nary a one of us here deserves a seat at this altar,
the table of the riches of Christ, prepared as a banquet for us,
where the one whom we should serve - serves us -
and nourishes us to serve one another.
In our Communion at this table, Jesus closes the great chasm
between the human and the divine and becomes one with us.
Pray that we become what we receive:
that we learn to serve in the needs of others
the one who came to serve each of us.
Don't know about you, but I find much consolation and much to ponder in these words:
"We are living in an era where people believe in Christ, but not in his Church. They want the king, but not the kingdom; they want to believe without belonging; they want the faith, but not the faithful. But for the committed Catholic, the answer to that is, 'no can do.' Jesus and the Church are one."
-- Archbishop Timothy Dolan
Dolan was speaking at an Annual Prayer Breakfast in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. For the rest of the story, check here.
The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Rome: The Tablet
The Tablet is a British Catholic weekly journal. It leans far enough to the left to cause those who lean far enough to the right to claim that the publication isn't Catholic in any way, shape or form. I'll not try to settle that dispute here. I only draw your attention to it to provide context for your reading its Rome correspondent's (Robert Mickens) report on the recent papal trip to the UK.
The link to the Tablet's page brings you to a links for photos and the texts of all the speeches/homilies given by the pope during his visit.
And don't miss the Tablet's editorial on the same topic.
Mickens' view from the press pool of Benedict's against-all-predictions successful trip is a lesson for US readers who may have already forgotten the warm welcome Peter's successor received when visiting on this side of the pond in April 2008.
Two items are worth noting here:
1) The thousands upon thousands who lined the streets and filled churches and parks for an opportunity to glimpse, hear and sing and pray with the pope were not hordes of mindless Catholics who agree with everything the Church teaches or the pope says. Rather, they were Christians, and others of all stripes, who turned out to meet this remarkable man who is more than himself: he is a man whose identity is mysteriously and historically linked to a man named Peter, a follower of Christ Jesus.
2) Among us who are brothers and sisters in Christ, no disappointment or disagreement gives us license to despise the other. No matter how woefully we may grieve one another, we are yet called to love one another as Christ has loved us. In just this way did Christ love Peter who, in the hour of need, cowardly denied and abandoned him.
What Peter's successor accomplished in just a few days will take years to parse and understand. Some of what he did is summed up in his farewell remarks to the Prime Minister (below) but only a reading of his words will begin to reveal the importance of the trip this one man made:
During my time with you, I have been able to meet representatives of the many communities, cultures, languages and religions that make up British society. The very diversity of modern Britain is a challenge to its Government and people, but it also represents a great opportunity to further intercultural and interreligious dialogue for the enrichment of the entire community.
In these days, I was grateful for the opportunity to meet Her Majesty The Queen, as well as yourself and other political leaders, and to be able to discuss matters of common interest, both at home and abroad. I was particularly honoured to be invited to address both Houses of Parliament in the historic precincts of Westminster Hall. I sincerely hope that these occasions will contribute to confirming and strengthening the excellent relations between the Holy See and the United Kingdom, especially in cooperation for international development, in care for the natural environment, and in the building of a civil society with a renewed sense of shared values and common purpose.
It was also my pleasure to visit His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of the Church of England, and later to pray with them and our fellow Christians in the evocative surroundings of Westminster Abbey, a place which speaks so eloquently of our shared traditions and culture. As Britain is home to so many religious traditions, I was grateful to have the opportunity to meet their representatives and to share some thoughts with them about the contribution that the religions can offer to the development of a healthy pluralistic society.
Naturally, my visit was directed in a special way to the Catholics of the United Kingdom. I treasure the time spent with the bishops, clergy, religious and laity, and with teachers, pupils and older people. It was especially moving to celebrate with them, here in Birmingham, the beatification of a great son of England, Cardinal John Henry Newman. With his vast legacy of scholarly and spiritual writings, I am certain that he still has much to teach us about Christian living and witness amid the challenges of today’s world, challenges which he foresaw with such remarkable clarity.
As I take my leave of you, let me assure you once again of my good wishes and prayers for the peace and prosperity of Great Britain. Thank you very much and God bless you all!
Image by Chris Higham at Christian Art(Click for larger version!)
The image above is a stark portrayal of this coming Sunday's gospel. If you've not yet taken a look at the scriptures for Sunday's' prayer, see if you can recognize the gospel passage from this illustration. The readings for September 26th and commentary on them can be found here.
To:DRE's, Catechists, Teachers, RCIA Teams, Youth Ministers, Bible Study leaders, Pastors and Parish Staffs From:ConcordPastor Re: Teaching scripture
The academic year is about to begin. There's soooo much scripture to teach - and so little time in which to teach it!
Let's face it: you can only do so much in one year and yet you want to include so much more.
Well, the comedy duo of Barats and Bereta have done us all a great service with their video, Bible in A Minute! With this video you can cover the entire bible every time your class or group meets!
And here's a handout for your class:
Bible In A Minute
Earth made, Adam, Eve Cain kills Abel, has to leave Boring genealogy Great flood, olive leaf
Tower Babel, Abraham Sodom and Gomorrah, and Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses Ten commands, promised land
Judges, David, Solomon Sent away to Babylon Job, then a bunch of psalms Proverbs and the Song of Songs
Major prophets, lion’s den Minor prophets, Bethlehem Gold and myrrh and frankincense Satan and Samaritan
Choose disciples, other cheek Walk on water, thousands eat Lazarus, fig tree Last supper, Gethsemane
Blood money, third denial Pontius Pilate, public trial Forty lashes, to the tree Why have you forsaken me?
Third day, empty tomb Reappears, five wounds Acts of the Apostles next Epistles and Apocalypse!
Enjoy!
(And for the record: I am not suggesting this video be used with children!)
Bas-relief of the story of the rich man and Lazarus: Abbaye St. Pierre deMoissac(Two dogs lick Lazarus' wounds; the rich man dines to the right. On the left sits Abraham with Lazarus in his bosom. Click for larger version.)
Detail from bas-relief above Looking ahead to the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, we're faced with very strong scripture texts that stand as judgment on our lives and our lifestyles. You'll find the hard sayings of this Sunday's readings here along with commentary on them. Escorting children to Mass this weekend? Check here for hints on helping children prepare to the the Word of the Lord.
The first lesson, from the prophet Amos, gets right to the point: "Woe to you who are complacent, stretched out comfortably on your sofas, eating well, listening to music, having a few drinks and dousing yourself in expensive perfumes, lotions and after-shave! Your good times are about to end and after that..."
The gospel, from Luke, is the familiar and riveting story of the rich man and the beggar, Lazarus, who begged for scraps from the man's table. If that's not enough to stir your memory of this tale then either you're not familiar with the gospels or your in denial! What becomes of Lazarus and the rich man in eternity is enough to make most of us squirm in discomfort.
The second lesson is another passage from Paul's first letter to Timothy. The tone is more positive here, as Paul instructs Timothy to "compete well for the faith, to keep the Lord's word without stain or reproach, to lay hold of the life to which we have been called." Strong language here but more challenging than judgmental.
There's really no wriggling out of the bare truth of these scriptures. Follow the links, read the texts and be prepared to hear them at the Lord's table where we, sinners, are fed the richest banquet possible.
Click on the illustrations above for a larger versions. Notice the condition of Lazarus' skin... Who do you suppose is the figure hovering over him? Lazarus is almost directly beneath the rich man's table: how close are the poor to our tables?
It's the season for apple-picking, a treat New Englanders might take for granted. Apple picking comes at summer's end, as fall begins and nature prepares for her great winter sleep.
Children of all ages love to pick, collect and take home the apples for baking and cooking and just plain good eating. Of course, there are shadows of meaning in this season that the truly young might miss as the days grow short.
Robert Frost, poet laureate of New England, wrote of the mysteries of this season. His words follow below and you can listen to Frost reading this poem here. After Apple Picking
My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, let down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.
Since July, Lord,
I've been watching the vine you've been growing
just outside my second floor window,
just over the roof of my garage...
It's a plain vine, in several strands:
it traces across my window screen,
edging from one side to the other
and on sunny afternoons
casts a leafy pattern on my window sill...
So tiny the tendrils, Lord, threading the mesh,
tacking the vine to the screen:
holding and holding on...
I remember times, Lord, when tendrils of trust
reached, stretched and threaded my life
to the hope that you were there
when I could not see you,
to the conviction that you would catch me
when I was in free fall,
to the promise that you would lead me,
when I did not know the way...
Tendrils of trust, Lord:
sometimes a word, often a prayer,
the help of a friend, the grace of Communion,
the breath of your Spirit, the words of a song,
the rhyme of a poem, the light of your Word...
Tiny tendrils reaching, stretching, threading,
meshing my life to yours,
helping me hold on,
helping me trust that you're holding me...
This morning I offer you, Lord,
the gift of the vine you're growing
outside my second floor window,
just over the roof of my garage...
Let the pattern of its leafy beauty dance
across my window sill
and across my day...
Let every tendril of my faith and hope
meet and mesh with the reach of your arms
holding me when I need to hold on,
embracing me when I need to be held...
Help me meet the reach of those
whose paths cross mine today:
help me stretch and thread my life with theirs
that in you we might all be one...
Amen.
(For an archive of previousMonday Morning Offerings, checkhereor click on the coffee cup at the top of the sidebar...)
Homily for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Scriptures for today's liturgy)
Audio for homily
“For the children of this world are more prudent than are the children of light,”said Jesus.
(And just to make sure we’re on the same page here: that crafty steward is a “child of the world” while Jesus is speaking to us as “children of light.” Jesus is speaking to US as the children of light!)
“More prudent...”
Can you remember the last time you were prudent? - the last time you made the prudent choice, not the foolish one? - the last time you spoke the prudent word, not the rash response? - the last time you did the prudent thing or kept a prudent silence?
If you’re like me, it might be easier to remember the last time you were im-prudent.
To be prudent is to be: “capable of exercising sound judgment in practical matters...” Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Making good choices in practical affairs? But then why do we tend instead, and so often, to be rash and impulsive rather than prudent?
The word “prudent” comes from two Latin words: pro - videre which means “to see before,” that is, “look ahead,” , to be prepared, to be ready.
By contrast, rash and impulsive actions spring from the moment and by definition fail to look ahead, fail to take in the larger picture.
Prudence, taking the long view, can apply to many life situations: to business decisions, picking a college, choosing a spouse, - or betting on horse races!
That’s not the Lord’s agenda here.
But why does he encourage us to consider the example of this dishonest steward who cooks his boss’s books to feather his own nest when he sees the jig is up?
Jesus advises us in this way because the dishonest steward took in the larger picture, saw what was before him, and provided for himself what he knew he would need: a place for him to live after he’d been fired.
Jesus isn’t counseling us here to indulge in creative bookkeeping. He’s advising us on the business of the heart, the business of the soul, and urging us to be as purposeful and determined, as wily and crafty as that steward in looking ahead and planning for the day when all the things we usually count on will no longer be ours.
Many of us do that by financial planning and planning where we’ll live when we retire. We decide who will serve as a health-care proxy for us and who’ll be the executor of our will.
That’s taking care of the business side of things.
But the Lord is asking how we’re planning for our spiritual legacy and where we’ll be living after we’ve done our dying. He calls us to be purposeful, determined, even wily and crafty in diligently planning for what each of us will face at life’s end. And that’s much more than preparing a document to be opened in a lawyer’s office at the time of our death. That means preparing and living our lives now with the long view, looking ahead, prudently choosing to serve one master, the Lord of our hearts.
The master of the house we hope to live in forever calls us even this morning to a taste and a sip of the banquet prepared for those who prudently spend their lives looking to come home to him for eternity.
As we come to his table, let us pray that in light of his sacrifice no sacrifice demanded by prudence will be too large for us to make. (In the audio, this homily concluded with reference to the baptism of a child, Charlotte Mary, being celebrated at Mass.)
Last week I published a short post titled, And so it is September. I subsequently used it as the introduction for a longer piece which appeared in the town's weekly, The Concord Journal. Local faith leaders rotate authorship of a column titled, Voices of Faith, and this week was my turn.
Taking a walk in September
The weather's been turning my head and heart from grieving summer's end, teasing me to an affair with an autumn not yet quite here.
This season between seasons sidles up, takes my hand and walks me from a warm summer's sun to shorter days, a cooler clime: time to ready a soul for fall's hues and hints of winter.
I take this walk each year when all paths lead to the place where summer is no longer and winter's arms beckon an embrace.
I've walked this way so many times and so have you: looking, hoping for, finding spring's promise to courage us down the road.
I don’t walk that road alone and I hope you, too, have company on this annual trek. The first pages of Genesis remind that it’s not good for us to be alone and I walk every day with God whose company never fails.
But God is not my only companion along the way. I move from season to season in the company of parishioners, friends and family. So many and so strong are these ties that even when by myself I don’t think of myself as alone - and that is a great blessing.
Driving through Concord last week, I noticed on my right a group of eight high school students walking down the street, animated by what I’d guess was conversation about the first days of school and the beginning of a new academic year. Their mood was clearly happy, upbeat and, perhaps most importantly, mutually shared.
Then the traffic slowed, giving me a moment to look to my left where one lone teen made his way in the same easterly direction as the group across the street.
I wondered if the group noticed the loner. I had little doubt that the loner noticed the group even though he kept his eyes trained directly ahead. Loners, you see, are experts at appearing oblivious to the exclusion they inhabit. I know. It’s been a long time now, but this same expertise was once mine.
It doesn’t matter so much that there are many possible reasons for the street-wide separation I observed. Whether we’re in our teens or our eighties, we all have and maintain our self-preserving reasons for being “apart from” rather than “together with.” What does matter is that separation and exclusion can so easily wound, deeply, regardless of why we tolerate the distances between ourselves and others.
Wounds, of course, can heal but they often leave scars. Even decades later, a heart can bear the scars of being the one left out. Those scars might no longer bring pain but they are sensitive to scenes like the one I’m describing here.
In a perfect world, no one would be excluded and all would be welcomed to a place among the many. In a perfect world, no one would need to walk on the lonely side of the street. Such a world may be beyond the reach of any one or even all of us but each of us can reach out, invite in and welcome to our circle those whose path is wide with room and wanting for company.
Since the dawn of creation it’s been true: it’s not good for us to be alone. From childhood to elderhood, we long for companions on our journey.
As we walk with God through these September days, in this season between seasons, let’s look across whatever streets we travel and see who might welcome our company as we courage one another down the road.
This weekend's scriptures will test the mettle of all preachers! Be prepared to hear the Word to be proclaimed. This Sunday's scriptures and commentary on them -as well as hits for helping children prepare to hear the Word- can be found right here.
What do you think? Would Jesus advise us to imitate the self-serving deed of a crook? See the gospel before you answer!
When the pope goes traveling, he does a lot more than ride through streets, waving to cheering onlookers from the popemobile. In addition to being there, the most important thing the pope does on his trips is to speak and to preach, sometimes in the context of the liturgy and prayer services, and sometimes in less ecclesial venues.
His talks and homilies from his current UK trip are available in many places online, as nearby as our friend Rocco at Whispers. This trip is a state visit rather than a pastoral visit. Here's an excerpt from his address to civil leaders in Westminster Hall today:
The central question at issue, then, is this: where is the ethical foundation for political choices to be found? The Catholic tradition maintains that the objective norms governing right action are accessible to reason, prescinding from the content of revelation. According to this understanding, the role of religion in political debate is not so much to supply these norms, as if they could not be known by non-believers – still less to propose concrete political solutions, which would lie altogether outside the competence of religion – but rather to help purify and shed light upon the application of reason to the discovery of objective moral principles. This "corrective" role of religion vis-Ã -vis reason is not always welcomed, though, partly because distorted forms of religion, such as sectarianism and fundamentalism, can be seen to create serious social problems themselves. And in their turn, these distortions of religion arise when insufficient attention is given to the purifying and structuring role of reason within religion. It is a two-way process. Without the corrective supplied by religion, though, reason too can fall prey to distortions, as when it is manipulated by ideology, or applied in a partial way that fails to take full account of the dignity of the human person. Such misuse of reason, after all, was what gave rise to the slave trade in the first place and to many other social evils, not least the totalitarian ideologies of the twentieth century. This is why I would suggest that the world of reason and the world of faith – the world of secular rationality and the world of religious belief – need one another and should not be afraid to enter into a profound and ongoing dialogue, for the good of our civilization.
Religion, in other words, is not a problem for legislators to solve, but a vital contributor to the national conversation. In this light, I cannot but voice my concern at the increasing marginalization of religion, particularly of Christianity, that is taking place in some quarters, even in nations which place a great emphasis on tolerance. There are those who would advocate that the voice of religion be silenced, or at least relegated to the purely private sphere. There are those who argue that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none. And there are those who argue – paradoxically with the intention of eliminating discrimination – that Christians in public roles should be required at times to act against their conscience. These are worrying signs of a failure to appreciate not only the rights of believers to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, but also the legitimate role of religion in the public square. I would invite all of you, therefore, within your respective spheres of influence, to seek ways of promoting and encouraging dialogue between faith and reason at every level of national life.
Heavenly Father, we give honor and praise to your name. All power is from you and we thank you for the gift of your son, Jesus Christ, and for his sacrifice for us on Calvary.
We humbly ask you to be with your servant, Pope Benedict, as he travels to the United Kingdom. Grant him strength, endurance, and the power of the Holy Spirit to reach the many people who will come to see him, as well as watch and hear him around the world.
Lord, we ask for you to be with the many people who will see Pope Benedict in Scotland and England, as well as those who will follow this trip but won't be there in person. These children of yours come with hungry hearts and souls that seek rest in a turbulent, often confusing world. May they find the peace, strength, comfort and protection for their own journeys, and then empower them to share their gifts in their own parishes and churches, adding to the blessings from this Papal trip.
For those who do not believe in you, we also pray. May they come to know that there is a Savior, A Father, who loves them, died for them and accepts them as His very own. May these souls find you as they seek the truth.
We pray for unity for Christ's Church, that all Christians will unite in the truth and the saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in Jesus' name that we pray, Amen.
Over the last couple of days this line has been popping up on FaceBook and I'm pleased to share it here:
God understands our prayers even when we can't find the words to say them...
The images above speak silently, eloquently of our prayer at different times... Those hands tell a heart's disposition, a heart's prayer... Even when our mouths fail to find the words we want to pray... God understands our prayers even when we can't find the words to say them...
September 15 is the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. When Mary and Joseph presented the infant Jesus in the temple, an old man, Simeon, told Mary: Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted
and you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.Tradition holds that seven sorrows pierced Mary's heart in the course of her life with her Son: 1) Simeon's prophecy in the temple (Luke 2:34) 2) the Holy Family's flight into Egypt (Matthew 2:13) 3) Joseph and Mary losing the young Jesus for three days (Luke 2:43) 4) Mary meeting Jesus as he carried his Cross (Luke 23:26) 5) Mary standing at the foot of the Cross (John 19:25) 6) Jesus being taken down from the cross and placed in Mary's arms (Matthew 27:57) 7: the burial of Jesus in the tomb (John 19:40)
Early last evening we had some weather in these parts.
A storm passed through and left just at the last light of day, leaving behind some beautiful color in the darkening sky over West Concord's rooftops.
How amazing is the unexpected beauty born of a storm's dark clouds...
Praise the LORD from the heavens; give praise in the heights. Praise him, all you angels; give praise, all you hosts. Praise him, sun and moon; give praise, all shining stars. Praise him, highest heavens, you waters above the heavens. Let them all praise the LORD'S name; for the LORD commanded and they were created, assigned them duties forever, gave them tasks that will never change... -Psalm 148
Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Preface for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks.
You decreed that we should be saved through the wood of the cross. The tree of our defeat became our tree of victory; where life was lost, there life has been restored through Christ our Lord...
God of Glory, the Cross shines as a sign of obedience to your will and a symbol of your love for the world. Bless us who find salvation in the cross of Christ; may we always recognize his glory in the weak, suffering and condemned of the world. We ask this through Christ, crucified and exalted, who is Lord forever and ever.
Click on the bible above for links to Sunday's readings and for some commentary on them.
Homily: MAY 24
A prayer for when you're worried, anxious, afraid...
Help for Haiti
Reach out to the people of Haiti with health care, education and community development through Health Equity International (formerly known as the St. Boniface Haiti Foundation).
