Have you done your homework?

Image from Edmonton Cursillo Movement


If you haven't already, you still have time to read over the scriptures for this coming Sunday, the 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Take some time now to read and pray over the readings and some background material to help you understand them.

Got kids? Then help them find a children's view of this Sunday's scriptures and assist them in preparing to hear the Word at Mass this weekend.


-ConcordPastor

Priest

Priests at the Chrism Mass, Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston:
Photo from Cardinal Sean's Blog

What is a priest? Who is a priest? How does he pray? How often does he pray? Is the life of a priest a lonely life? a happy life? What does he long for? How much is he like everyone else? How much is he unlike everyone else? What makes him different? What makes him the same? What does he believe? Does he believe everything the Church teaches? Does he believe everything he says? What does he question? Is he closer to God than others? Does God pay special attention to a priest's prayer? What are his sins? What are his struggles? Whom does a priest go to for help?

I have my own answers to these questions. And you probably have yours. I wonder how similar they are - and how different...

Much of what we think and believe about the ministry of priests is shaped by our childhood experience of them - and what we were taught to think about priests. Perhaps some day someone will write a doctoral dissertation on the different understandings of priesthood held by those who grew up prior to Vatican Council II and those who never knew the pre-Conciliar Church.

Both the Council's recognition of the people of God as constitutive of Church and ministry and the reform of the liturgy contributed to rethinking and reshaping our understanding of the life and work of priests and how they function as servants of God's people and how they work with them and for them in the faith community.

This significant change in understanding happened nearly "overnight." I was born (1947) into a Church culture dangerously close to deifying the person of the priest, a culture in which abuse of children could and did occur -- and a culture in which abuse could be and was denied and shielded so tragically, in nearly every place in the Church. Vatican Council II opened (1962) while I was in high school. My seminary training (1965-1973) was colored by the early days of post-Conciliar ecclesial life. By the time I was ordained (1973) the liturgy was celebrated in the vernacular, lay ministers of the Eucharist were increasingly common and a popular liturgical song included the refrain, Priestly people, kingly people, holy people, God's chosen people: sing praise to the Lord!

When I was in high school we had Mass in the auditorium on the first Friday of each month. Just introduced at that time was the practice of having people present the gifts of bread and wine as the altar was prepared for the Eucharistic Prayer. A table at the back of the auditorium was dressed in a white cloth and on it were small cruets of bread and wine (we were not yet receiving Communion under both kinds) and a variety of ciboria, gold plated vessels containing hosts to be consecrated at that Mass. One of the Sisters stood at the table making sure that a white purificator or napkin was wrapped around the base of each ciborium lest our unconsecrated fingers touch the vessels in which the unconsecrated hosts would be consecrated. Within a decade lay men and women (and high school students!) were assisting the priest in giving Communion (under both kinds) and everyone was touching the vessels.

I paint that picture for you to remind you of a time when there were things that priests did, places in the church where he went, prayers he said, things he touched - that ONLY a priest was allowed to do, go, say and touch. Then, almost overnight, much of what had been reserved to priests was shared with the laity - not everything - but much of it. Most folks will acknowledge that a priest has something to do with things sacred. But what happens when things so sacred that only a priest could touch them become things placed in the hands of all believers?

Certainly the story and scandal of the sexual abuse of children by priests has shaken to the core our understanding of who priests are. Who we thought them to be, what we trusted them to be: so much of what we took to be a surety about priests has become a large and troubling question mark.

With this post I begin a series of reflections based on the italicized questions above, at the top. I invite you to add your questions to mine (in the combox) and I'll try to include them and respond to them. My hope is that both younger and older readers will add some questions and comments along the way.

Next post in this series: What is a priest?

-ConcordPastor

A little visit(or) from Colorado

Photo by R.H.

This past week my grand-nephew, Austin, visited his grand-uncle, ConcordPastor. He was quite well behaved during the liturgy but took to a little goatee pulling afterwards!


-ConcordPastor

It's all in the way you carry it...

Image: American Physical Therapy Association


HEAVY

That time
I thought I could not
go any closer to grief
without dying

I went closer,
and I did not die.
Surely God
had His hand in this,

as well as friends.
Still, I was bent,
and my laughter,
as the poet said,

was nowhere to be found.
Then said my friend Daniel
(brave even among lions),
"It's not the weight you carry

but how you carry it -
books, bricks, grief -
it's all in the way
you embrace it, balance it, carry it

when you cannot, and would not,
put it down."
So I went practicing.
Have you noticed?

Have you heard
the laughter
that comes, now and again,
out of my startled mouth?

How I linger
to admire, admire, admire
the things of this world
that are kind, and maybe

also troubled -
roses in the wind,
the sea geese on the steep waves,
a love
to which there is no reply?


-Mary Oliver in the collection, Thirst

Word for the Weekend: Singing in the Rain!

It's raining as I write this on Wednesday afternoon so I thought I'd call on Gene Kelly to remind me that all the singing and dancing doesn't need to wait for sunny days - even in early June!

Rain figured importantly in last week's gospel and the weather calls for rain in this Sunday's first scripture as well. Last week's rain was a threatening storm, this week the precipitation is both a longed for spring rain to give the earth a good soaking - and a passing morning dew, a sign of how easily our zeal can evaporate.

What kind of rain is falling in your life? How do you thirst for the life-giving rain of God's presence? Where do you turn when clouds of stormy weather darken your horizon?

It's Wednesday and time to post the scriptures for this coming Sunday, the 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Take some time now to read and pray over the readings and some background material to help you understand them.

Got kids? Then help them find a children's view of this Sunday's scriptures and assist them in preparing to hear the Word at Mass this weekend.

P.S. If you'd like to see another version of Singing in the Rain -- on ice -- see Kurt Browning's rendition on skates! This program had to be shot in short bits because the 'rain' kept melting the ice.


-ConcordPastor

Turnabout: fair play?

Roman Collar: Image from Wikipedia

Ten Reasons Why Men Should Not Be Ordained to the Ministry

10. A man’s place is in the army.

9. The pastoral duties of men who have children might distract them from the responsibility of being a parent.

8. The physique of men indicates that they are more suited to such tasks as chopping down trees and wrestling mountain lions. It would be “unnatural” for them to do ministerial tasks.

7. Man was created before woman, obviously as a prototype. Thus, the man represents an experiment rather than the crowning achievement of creation.

6. Men are too emotional to be priests or pastors. Their conduct at football and basketball games demonstrates this.

5. Some men are handsome, and this will distract women worshipers.

4. Pastors need to nurture their congregations. But this is not a traditional male role. Throughout history, women have been recognized as not only more skilled than men at nurturing, but also more fervently attracted to it. This makes them the obvious choice for ordination.

3. Men are prone to violence. No really masculine man wants to settle disputes except by fighting about them. Thus they would be poor role models as well as dangerously unstable in positions of leadership.

2. The New Testament tells us that Jesus was betrayed by a man. This man's lack of faith reminds us of the subordinated position that all men should take.

1. Men can still be involved in church activities, even without being ordained. They can sweep sidewalks, repair the church roof, and perhaps even lead the music at church on Father’s Day. By confining themselves to such traditional male roles, they can still be vitally important in the life of the church.

h/t to Serving Bread

Welcome to the table of immense respect!

Bishop's crozier and miter: Image from the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, University of Notre Dame

Rocco has two interesting posts up: one on a young priest, Oscar Cantú, about to be ordained a bishop in San Antonio and the other on Cardinal Godfried Daneels who, at 75, has just submitted his letter to the pope asking to retire as the Archbishop of Melechen-Brussel and thus primate of Belgium.

Cantú is the first bishop to be ordained who was born after Vatican Council II. Daneels was a co-author of the first document to come from Vatican II: the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (1963) which inaugurated decades of liturgical reform and renewal. The San Antonio Express News has this to report on the bishop-elect:

"When he becomes a bishop, Cantú will have his own coat of arms, a tradition for those becoming bishops. At its center Cantú chose to have a table. For him it represented the church altar and the family dining table. He described to his congregation how his parents presided over the table with eight kids and their friends. Somehow, there was enough food, and guests were always welcome.

“From my mother I learned to roll with the punches,” he said. “To have the confidence that God would provide.” From his father he learned the importance of honesty. "When we try to fool others, we simply fool ourselves,” he said.

Rocco's post on Daneels is based on Robert Mickens' interview with the cardinal in the current issue of the British journal The Tablet. Consider Daneels' words:

"From time to time they say that I see things as too rosy, but I think we have to give credit to the good that is happening," he says. "I have always had an immense respect for every feeling and every thought of every human being I have ever met," he tells me. Keeping an "open mind" and being "very hopeful" comes from a belief that "fundamentally the human being is a good being."

Amazing words from a sitting cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church: "immense respect for every feeling and every thought of every human being..." Can there be, should there be any other starting point for any minister of the gospel? Was this not how Jesus approached the men and women in his life? Was Jesus seeing things as 'too rosy" when he approached people and spoke to them right where they were, in their own circumstances? loving them when they'd been marginalized by others? accepting them after they'd been spurned and rejected? dining with them even when he knew their hearts' selfish motives? laying down his life for all: for every human being?

My experience teaches me over and over again that the hearts of others are most open to what my ministry might offer them when I approach without prejudice, without judgment every human being with their every feeling and every thought with immense respect.

These two bishops, young and old, give me hope from different vantage points. Those who know my preaching and how virtually all my homilies conclude will understand how much I appreciate a bishop choosing a table as part of his coat of arms: Cantú "gets" the importance, the centrality of the table ministry of Jesus! And Cardinal Daneels knows how to invite guests to the table of the the gospel: by showing their every thought and feeling immense respect.

If the elder bishop must retire, I thank God that someone like this younger man is coming along...

-ConcordPastor

On poetry, preaching - and praying...

"...it could be weeds in a vacant lot..." Image by P. M. Eckle

It has taken me 61 years to realize that I need to read poetry.

In the first draft of this post I wrote, "...that I need to read more poetry" but that would suggest that I was already reading some poetry and that would not be true.

Late last summer in search of something for this blog I picked a dusty Poetry of Robert Frost of my shelf. I started reading and found it a mostly pleasant and rewarding experience - all except for the poems (the longer ones) I found confusing. The Frost poems I've posted here have all been favorably received.

Then a friend gave me a copy of a poem by William Stafford and that led me to Amazon online and Borders in real time, finding much more of Stafford's work and wondering how I had never known this man's name before now. (Here are the Stafford poems I've posted.)

On a recent stroll through Barnes and Noble I came across Mary Oliver's work. Again, I was embarrassed not to have known the name of this wonderful writer named in 2007 by the New York Times Book Review as "far and away, this country's best selling poet" - which means I should probably be reading the NYTBR more often, too!

Now I have books of poems by Frost, Stafford and Oliver at my writing desk and I pick them up at odd moments to page through and stop when titles and opening lines make me pause. It strikes me that preachers should be readers of poetry. That's not to say that homilies should be poetic (nor to say that they shouldn't) but the preacher is a wordsmith for the faith and poets have something to offer us for our craft that no one else can teach.

Poets cherish and understand words - they love them. They know how to massage their meaning and meter, relaxing them to a composed beauty others had not yet found in them. A poet holds words as if they were jewels and turns them slowly in the light until they refract meaning and color that play differently on all who read them.

In their own way, preachers are meant to do just the same with the words of scripture. And that's why preachers should read more poetry.

Bookstores have shelves, rows and sections of poetry, much of which I don't like or find difficult to understand and at 61 I need to work with what I can grasp in a relatively short time! I understand Mary Oliver's poetry and hope you will appreciate the simple beauty of her words here.

PRAYING

It doesn't have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don't try
to make them elaborate, this isn't
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

-Mary Oliver, in the collection, Thirst



-ConcordPastor

Word for the Week: Tefillin!

A college student wears the tefillin: image by Chabad at USC

The new Word for the Week gives us Moses' reference to a tefillin or a phylactery. These small leather boxes are worn on the forehead or strapped to one's arm. Inside are small compartments in which are placed pieces of parchment with important verses from the Torah. This custom keeps the heart of the Law close to the one who wears the tefillin.

It's not unusual for Christians to wear a Cross or Crucifix or religious medal around the neck. But suppose Christians practiced the custom of wearing a tefillin. What verses of scripture would you place in the small leather container to keep "on your mind" or by your side?

In other words, which words of scripture help you to build your house on the rock Jesus mentions in today's gospel? What scripture verses provide you with strength and shelter? Maybe a psalm? (Think of the psalm refrains we sing at Mass, the ones you might sing on the way home or later in the week...) Perhaps a parable? an incident in Christ's life? a teaching of Jesus?

What words would you carry in your tefillin?

-ConcordPastor

Homily for Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God...

Homily for 9th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Deuteronomy 11:18, 26-28, 32
Romans 3:21-25, 28
Matthew 7:21-27

As you know,
preachers of the Word have been in the news quite a bit lately.
You’ve got the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, once Senator Obama’s pastor,
whose take on things American didn’t sit as well with most people
as they did with some in his own congregation.
Then you’ve got the Rev. John Hagee, an endorser of Senator McCain,
who professes love for Israel on the one hand
but has curious theological ideas about Jews on the other.
(Not to mention his curious theological view of Catholics!)
Most recently, Fr. Michael Pfleger, a Catholic priest,
has entered the political arena by preaching last weekend
at (where else?) Rev. Wright’s former church
and coming down hard in his critique of Senator Clinton.
who, at this point, I’m sure,
is thanking God that she has no outspoken preachers on her side.

What grabs my attention here
is not so much the crazy, offensive things
that the Reverends Wright, Hagee and Pfleger have preached
but rather what a lightning rod each has become
in the presidential campaign.

The response of the candidates, the media, and the American public
indicates clearly that even when a preacher is a nut case,
what he says has impact on believers and non-believers alike.

Why is this so?

On a local level, it amazes me week after week,
that in this techno-savvy world of ours,
a world of sound bytes and flashing, changing images,
assaulting our senses at every turn,
millions of people around the globe,
and about a thousand in our parish,
pause every weekend and pay attention
to what a preacher says on a Sabbath morning,
pretty much sitting still for 10 or 15 minutes or more
listening to one person speaking about texts
that are between two and three thousand years old.

These ancient texts hold a place
not only in our corporate religious memory,
not only in this ritual moment,
but in our hearts and minds as well.

And why is this so?

Because somewhere deep within us
we believe that the words inside these big red books are, indeed,
“the Word of the Lord”
and therefore eminently worthy of our attention.

Frightening and humbling for me is the thought that
you trust me to break open these words, like bread for the soul,
week after week,
that we might be nourished by the Spirit within them,
the Spirit we believe to be as fresh in these words today
as in the days thousands of years ago
when they were first prayed, pondered, preached
and at some point put to print.

Isn’t this what you come to this place each week to hear?

I wonder…

What word DO you hope to hear proclaimed, sung and preached
on a Sunday morning?

Let me take a guess…

You come to hear a word of life, not of death…
You come to hear a word of blessing, not a curse…
You come to hear a word of mercy, not judgment…

You come to hear a word that gives you
- answers to difficult dilemmas
- consolation in hard times
- a challenge when you need one;

a word of
- prayer
- peace
- and pardon;

a word of
- hope
- help
- and healing;

a word of
- wisdom
- truth
- and counsel.

You come to hear a word you can build your life on,
a word as solid as the rock in the gospel image today.

You want a word to keep you from building your life
on sandy ground.

You seek a word to keep the heart’s home sheltered
from the storms of daily life.

Or perhaps you need a word to help you rebuild
after a stormy time has passed.

You want to hear a word that speaks to your heart,
a word that makes sense to your mind,
a word that makes a difference in how you live your life.

You want to hear a word that nourishes the core of your humanity
and touches you with a spark of divinity.

If such is the word you’ve come to hear
then you have come to the right place
because all of the above and more
are what the scriptures offer us
and a homily is meant to share with us.

But we must be attentive to the word proclaimed by the lectors,
sung by the cantors, preached by priest and deacon.

That means we have to pay attention, focus, listen and hunger
for what the Word might offer us.

The Word we break open here
tells the good things the Lord has done for us
and what the Lord promises us.
It’s the message of the Word
that gives us reason to approach the altar
of thanksgiving and praise.

The Word of scripture and the words of the homily
open our hearts
to receive the Word made flesh
in the Body and Blood of the Word
in the bread and cup of the Eucharist.

May God who speaks the Word that nourishes us
feed us with the Word who saves us.


-ConcordPastor