The Feast of the Visitation

This was posted last year, but I am running it again today. Blessings of this feast to you!

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.

What a fitting end to this Marian month, we celebrate the Visitation today, when Mary “set out in haste” to see her cousin Elizabeth. The feast of the Visitation conjures up visions of two cousins, meeting and embracing. Like so many Marian stories, it is so easy to make it into something too sweet and pretty. This is one of the dangers of over-sentimentalizing something that is so deeply profound. For me, this story is at once, extraordinary, and ordinary.

In 2004, I had the good fortune to visit both Nazareth and Ein Kerem (Elizabeth’s home town). What struck me was the distance between the cities, and the terrain. This was not a simple walk from here to there; this was serious travel and not easy. Of course, we could ask, what journey of Mary’s was ever easy?

Another thing that strikes me is Mary’s eternal “yes,” her fiat, which means, “let it be done.” There is such immediacy to her responses. When I think of so many other people in the Scriptures, there is some hesitation in many, the word no comes from others. I think of Moses, Jeremiah, Jonah… and that is just the tip of the Scriptural iceberg!

Mary is clear – yes. She says yes to God when told she will bear the Christ child, she then says yes to make this journey to her cousin.

What I am also forced to consider is my own hesitation in life and often my own “no!” Mary is a model for immediacy, and Elizabeth is too. It is always about God first and then our response. That’s why we can’t make ourselves holy or “get saved.” Jesus has already done this and we simply need to open our heart to the yes, with hesitation or not, we must say yes. Mary and Elizabeth. They both respond like that. Uncomplicated. Clear. Direct. God-focused, God-centered.

Their cooperation with grace requires courage, humility, inner authority, intuition, deep faith. Very remarkable, very beautiful.

So on this day, let us remember the speed and clarity that Mary and Elizabeth have in responding to God. And let us all remember that it is about responding, not doing it ourselves.

How do we respond to God? How do we respond to one another?

********************

As you ponder that question, allow me to add this. I am always heartened to remember that the public recitation of the Magnificat was against the law in Guatemala in the 1980s. These words that I leave you with are from author Kathleen Norris‘s book, Amazing Grace:

Mary utters a song so powerful that its meaning still resonates in profound and disturbing ways. In the twentieth century Mary’s “Magnificat” became a cornerstone of liberation theology, so much so that during the 1980′s the government of Guatemala found its message so subversive that it banned its recitation in public worship.

The Magnificat reminds us that what we most value, all that gives us status – power, pride, strength and wealth – can be a barrier to receiving what God has in store for us. If we have it all, or think we can buy it all, there will be no Christmas for us. If we are full of ourselves, there will be no room for God to enter our hearts at Christmas. Mary’s prayer of praise, like many of the psalms, calls us to consider our true condition: God is God, and we are the creatures God formed out of earth. The nations are but nations, and even the power of a mighty army cannot save us. We all return to dust. And if we hope to rise in God’s new creation, where love and justice will reign triumphant, our responsibility, here and now, is to reject the temptation to employ power and force and oppression against those weaker than ourselves. We honour the Incarnation best by honouring God’s image in all people, and seeking to make this world into a place of welcome for the Prince of Peace.” (p. 113-114 in “God With Us”).

Reflection on the Eucharist – by Don Wilson

Reflection on the Eucharist – looking for that safe place? – A Reflection for REC by Don Wilson

When in doubt, You are there in Your word
When in fear, You are there in Your strength
When abandoned, You are there as love
When tempted to the darkness of despair, You are there as light
When in confusion, You are there as peace
When nothing else makes sense, You are there to show the way.

For what it was worth, I knew in my heart that I always wanted to follow the Lord. Being baptized and raised in the Dutch Reformed church, I learned many of the Christian Protestant celebrations, (Christmas and Easter etc.) but was never able to grasp the true essence of the Eucharist as expressed in liturgy, and the additional spirituality of events like Advent and Lent. These are soon followed by Christ’s Ascension, and then perhaps the greatest celebration of all… Pentecost.

When I was in college, not practicing Catholicism and studying other religions, I was introduced to the Catholic Church by a very special person and discovered that all those other religions came up short when I compared them to Catholicism. Yet, I remained too presumptuous, perhaps too oblivious, to even think about what I was missing by not participating in the life of the Catholic Church. At times it was in the back of my mind as something that would be nice to do, but I did not make a serious effort to do it. In retrospect I suppose it could all be chalked up to my immaturity
Like many other souls, I finally had a conversion experience, when I concluded my time in RCIA, the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults. This is how one is brought into the Church. I may not have realized exactly what was happening at the time, but looking back at where I was in raising my family, and working in a very high-pressure industry, the memory that is strongest is getting up to go to Communion. I later described it as the moment Jesus grabbed hold of my heart, when I received Him in the Eucharist. Although I had not yet been to Confession and therefore should not have received Communion (unaware as I was), God in His love and mercy still used that moment. It was a point of departure to a new direction, where I would begin to pursue the love that He held out to me.

It took a little while to get there, but He kept calling my family and me, and we finally started going to church on a regular basis. Besides the obvious benefits of participating in the Mass, two other wonderful things happened: My love of history and of the Church was renewed, and my desire to learn more increased. Secondly, I was blessed to be a part of a community that really embraced their faith – and actually wanted to serve the Lord by serving each other. Sunday Mass was never really routine and was no longer something I even had an option about; it became a given. I wanted to be there to worship God in thanksgiving for the most beautiful gift of His son by receiving the gift of faith. My wife’s involvement in the faith has diminished over the years. She was raised Catholic, attending Catholic school and college; for whatever reason, she has not found what I have found in the Church.

Then came the day when my parish offered the opportunity to serve in the REC (Prison) Ministry. At first I was a bit apprehensive, but after having conferred with someone who has been at the heart of this ministry, John Koubek, I decided to take the leap of faith and prepare myself for my first REC Retreat. – And as many of you here tonight can attest, I’ve never looked back!

In this ministry I have found a relationship with all of you Jesus that I have not found anywhere else. Now, how do I express this devotion that He has inflamed in me and to which I believe He is truly calling?
As part of my vocation, I began attending REC Bible Study, here at Coxsackie and daily Mass as often as I could, and I learned from my Pastor to take better advantage of the time after receiving Jesus in communion, a most intimate time of prayer.

While I’m still far from pure of heart and single-minded in my devotion, having Christ in the Eucharist as the center of my life is my goal and a calling, and I can see more and more how that plays out in my own difficulties and growth. In the Eucharist, Jesus has become the point of reference for my faith, for “He is my rock, my fortress, my stronghold, my savior, my shield, my place of refuge” (Psalm 18:2). When I am tempted with doubts and despair, the Eucharist is my source of reasoning that leads me back to faith. When I have doubted the existence of God, I could never doubt His existence in Jesus, because I have experienced this existence in the Eucharist. I have found release, acceptance, comfort, the healing of hurts, forgiveness, and perhaps most importantly, strength in my brokenness. I felt time disappear. I have felt His presence. And when I don’t “feel” anything, I recall the life events that He planted in my memory and this recollection feeds my faith.

When I have doubted whether Christ really meant to establish such a huge institution as the Church structure is today, I remember that He is present in the Eucharist because of the church He established When I hear others complain against the authority of the Church, sometimes causing further doubt in myself, I realize that Christ gave that authority to His Church and the Church has lovingly used this authority to make Christ present in our midst, following His command to “do this in memory of me.”

When I have found it difficult in my self-centeredness to be thankful to God, I can usually feel humility welling up inside of me when I remember the gift of Christ’s sacrifice He gave and is continually giving to me. So the Eucharist has become my wellspring of gratitude. When I’m tempted to judge others and I find love difficult, I remember Jesus in the Eucharist and I ask myself, “Who am I that my Lord should come to me?” And if I let it, my heart becomes a little softer and gentler and expands with the mercy He places there.

Sometimes I find myself in despair over the suffering in this world. It does make me wonder how Christ could choose to be present in it the way He is How He could choose to be present in a Church whose members, like me, sometimes do ungodly things? Then I remember how He chose to become incarnate (invested in bodily nature or human form) in our broken world in the first place. How in human flesh He delivered Himself into the hands of sinful men, and He still does so. I think of how He was treated when He walked the earth, and how He still loved us and promised to remain with us always, “even until the end of time”…. and so He has remained in the Eucharist. Because His divine love is greater and stronger than any suffering, He inspires the certain hope that there is meaning in all of this and that it will lead us to joy on the other side.

And finally, If I may, let me close with this thought: “While Christ is present to us in many different ways, His presence in the Eucharist is unique and is unmatched this side of heaven. As we all celebrate Mass this weekend let us search to find the comfort, acceptance, nourishment and, again, strength in our brokenness. And always know that we are in a safe place and never alone.”

God Bless!!

Writing and other matters

Hello faithful friends and readers! I have not been around much lately and I am sorry. If you want an update, come on over to my personal blog, which can be found here. If not, we will see you soon with new posts!

 

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow – by Peter Avvento

Peter Avvento spoke about this challenging and often volatile topic last week. We had many impassioned comments and remarks, including some from yours truly. It was a great evening however.  Please read his re-cap here, and consider joining us on Monday evening for the final night of this series, which will be an open mic session.

 

“Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”

Challenges Facing the Catholic Church

Series 4

“How can the Church ensure that the scandal of sexual abuse will become a thing of the past?”

There is probably no reason to believe that abuse will ever entirely disappear. So we continue to ask ourselves, “Where were the seeds of this abuse?” During the 1950s if not before, the American Catholic Church and others suffered from its own successes as a certain intellectual complacency set in. Large numbers of priests, seminarians and religious men and women served the needs of a growing church made up mostly of passive, blue collar lay Catholics. The social hierarchy of the clerical/lay church was taken for granted and the career structure of the clerical state itself was firmly in place.

But what we must look at beyond the possible seeds is the role that self deception played and continues to play in this tragedy. In the first place, most of those people who became abusers surely did not set out to find a career in which they could flourish as predators. But since far too many abusers preyed on young people over a lifetime it often gave the impression and indeed the reality of collusion on the part of clerical authority.

Putting aside the classic profile of pedophiles and serial predators, abusive priests also have to be seen as victims – victims of a clerical system that failed to select and prepare its seminarians appropriately or to provide young clergy with adequate and effective support systems for a lifetime of celibate commitment. Celibacy, for far too many of these men, was a refuge from their own sexuality and not a way of expressing it. Emerging from the seminary in their early 20’s these newly ordained priests were thrown into parish life and often, because of their youth, were assigned to responsibilities with the young people of the parish. Suddenly their selfhood as sexual beings was something that they had to come to grips with and it is a miracle that most negotiated the transition successfully!

Today a good deal of the anger is directed not only toward the individual abuser but also toward a system in which fellow priests turned their backs on what they knew was going on in bedrooms or on weekend retreats while even more anger today is directed toward the bishops because of their “cover up” and failure to protect innocent lives. A strong sense of anger and disgust is directed toward those bishops who preferred to defend the “institutional integrity” of the Church. It is safe to say that the laity expected and continues to expect more from its bishops. Measures have been put in place but severe damage to the credibility of our Church has already taken place. Only under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and under the leadership of people of courage can we start rebuilding what has been torn down.

Random Moments of Grace – The Blog Tour

As I told you on Thursday, I don’t really feel like writing. *sigh* I’ll get there, when I get there. Reading however, that’s another story. And reading I have been doing – so let me tell you about it right now.

As a direct result of reading, today I will write, as the blog tour for Random MOMents of Grace (from Loyola Press),by Ginny Kubitz Moyer stops here, which I am very excited about!

When I discovered Ginny’s blog, Random Acts of Momness, I was hooked, and I’ve been a near daily visitor for a couple of years now. She’s smart, she’s funny, she’s very insightful, and I think what I love best is how she reveals such small-s-sacrament moments of grace with such beauty and ease.

Anyway, let me offer this very short review… I loved the book. Rather than tell you why I loved it, I simply recommend it very highly. If you read this book, or take a look at Ginny’s blog, you will understand. While the blog, and the book flow forth from Ginny’s Catholic motherhood, I can promise you, neither the blog nor the book exclude anyone. So don’t let that keep you from this treasure.

I would like you to know Ginny a bit better, so take a look right here…
You describe parenting as the “ultimate spiritual workout.” What are some “training tips” that you might offer expectant moms about to begin this journey?

Most pregnancy books give you lots of advice about what to expect, post-baby. They tell you that your body will change, your sleep patterns will change, your love life will change – but they don’t tell you that your spiritual life will change, too. Those changes can be challenging (less time for prayer/meditation, noisy plastic toys constantly underfoot), and yet parenting has deepened my faith life in ways I could not have anticipated. Since having kids, I understand the love of God better than ever before. I’ve gained an entirely new appreciation for what it means to be part of a community. Formerly fuzzy concepts like grace are much more concrete to me now.

Any time we leave our comfort zones, we grow. Motherhood is all about leaving one’s comfort zones. It puts you into situations that are not exactly enjoyable (being stuck overnight in the airport with a nine-month-old baby is not anyone’s idea of a good time – don’t ask me how I know this), but it also brings you moments of astonishing joy and beauty. I’m not sure you can prepare for all this, exactly; you can only embrace it. And so I’d tell an expectant mother that she’s in for a wild ride … but a transformative one.

In a chapter called “The Good and The Bad,” you write beautifully about how both exist in our lives. Do you typically feel aware of the necessity of both as you live through those moments? (I can’t help but think of the short span between Matthew telling you that he loves you, and his journey to the time out place that almost immediately followed, as I ask this.)

In any bad moment of life as a parent (the stomach flu, the tantrum, the cross-country-flight-with-rambunctious-kids) I think we all just want to get past it as quickly as possible. But at the end of the day, when I think back over the day’s experiences, I can often see that the bad moments fit into a larger narrative, so to speak. I can see how they are a part of life as a mom, but they are not the sum total of my parenting experiences. That makes them easier to accept, somehow.

I think this is why an evening’s moment of reflection is so useful. When we step back and look at the day, we can see not just the icky parts, but also the moments of grace that were present. And the more you identify these moments of grace after the fact, the more it trains you to become aware of them in real time, as they are happening. I can’t do that all the time, but I am getting better.

Maintaining a life of faith that includes attendance at church is one of the most difficult things for young families to do. What would you say to a mom of young kids who would love to be able to live that way, but feels too time and stress challenged to do so?

I’d say just pack up the kids and go, and let yourself be open to whatever you are able to absorb of the service, even if it doesn’t feel like much. Honestly, it’s hard to recall the last time I could focus on the entire Gospel. The moment the priest starts the homily, one of the boys invariably has to use the potty; it’s like a Pavlovian response. But even when I miss what feels like ninety percent of the service, it’s not a wasted experience. Certain words or phrases will leap out at me, even while trying to contain two squirrelly kids, and sometimes that word or phrase is just what I need.

Also, as a Catholic, I love the fact that even when I am utterly distracted by the boys and miss the readings and the Gospel and the homily and the creed, I still have the Eucharist. Walking down that aisle and tasting the body of Christ is a moment of total, pure involvement. That action breaks through all the distraction and focuses me on the relationship that is the very heart of my faith. Because of that, every Mass – even the ones where the kids are so active that I wonder why I came in the first place – is utterly worth it.

Franciscan priest and author Richard Rohr has said that faith has to be “caught and not taught.” How do you think that a life of faith is transmitted to the next generation?

Well, I’m a teacher by trade, so I can’t not teach my kids. ☺ But I do think that so much of faith is about the example you see around you, in your own family. If someone asked your child, “Does your mom like being Catholic?” (or Presbyterian, or Jewish, or Mormon, or whatever), what would your child say? And if you think your child might not be able to answer “yes,” what can you do to change that? I think this is a very useful question to ponder.

You love to garden; how is gardening a mirror of grace in your journey as a mother, a writer, a woman of faith?

Gardening is so elemental, isn’t it? – it’s about connecting with what is most basic and important in life. In our technology-driven world, I think this is more necessary than ever. I remember one summer afternoon when I was feeling foggy and edgy from being online too much. I stopped and went outside and began to deadhead the lavender bushes, and it was like instant renewal. It was fabulous.

Also, gardening is not something that most of us instinctively know how to do. There’s a learning curve of figuring out which plants can’t do well in the shade, how much watering is enough, etc. Often, we can’t do it without the advice of someone who is more experienced than we are (in my case, my garden-loving mom and grandma.)

If you ask me, that makes it a pretty good metaphor for parenting. Maybe some women take their first baby home from the hospital and feel totally confident about their new role. I was petrified. Enter my mom, who was a lifesaver during those first few confusing and exhausting weeks.

And gardening is all about nurturing new life, helping it flourish, and making the world more beautiful by your efforts. When you stop to think about it, parenting is, too. They both require creativity, faith, and perseverance … and they show us that grace is all around us, if we take a moment to look for it.

Ginny is a very talented and truly wonderful person, so I am glad that you got to know her a little. Her words really come from the heart. That to me makes this book a very special one.

If my words and that endorsement still have not influenced you, then our last stop is the excerpt.You just click on that little PDF file below and you will get a real treat – Mom does always come back after a nap and a snack, that is for certain!

random-moments-22-28

I hope that you have enjoyed what you’ve heard about here, whether or not, you don’t always feel like you “fit” into the category. Like any good journey of faith, in the end, all are truly and beautifully welcome. Love and grace are present for all if we find them in life all around us, as Ginny has so richly done in this book.

And there is nothing random about that!

The Silence

Hi, your faithful editor Fran here! I have been a little quiet lately. If you want to have a look, I did say something about my not saying something, over at my personal blog. There is a great link to another blog, which is what prompted me to speak up in the first place. Come on over if you wish!

 

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow – Challenges Facing the Catholic Church, Part 2 – by Peter Avvento

Peter Avvento offers us a snapshot of the session that he offered this past Monday. Please join us for future sessions, April 29, May 6, and May 13 as we discuss the challenges faced by the Roman Catholic Church, in the context of our rich history. We begin at 7pm in the Social Hall at St Edward the Confessor; all are welcome, admission is free, but a free will offering is always gratefully accepted. 

Madre Pascalina Lehnert, who served as Pope Pius XII housekeeper and later as secretary. She served from 1917-1958, and was considered a most powerful woman.

Challenges Facing the Catholic Church
Series 2

“How does the Church need to change in order to allow for the full participation of women?”

Critics of the Roman Catholic Church often contend that we are a sexist institution. If we are honest we have to admit that there is some truth here. While women certainly constitute considerably more than half the church-going population and while they dominate the entire field of lay ministry, they simply do not have remotely proportional representation in leadership roles on the parish, diocesan or international levels.

Why is this case? It is not that the Church restricts ordained ministry to men, but rather, it is that the Church assigns all leadership roles to the ranks of the ordained, who just happen to be men. It is not self-evident that the charism of leadership is intrinsically connected to that of pastoral ministry, but….as long as our church is organized on the assumption that this connection is real then women n cannot take their appropriate places in church leadership.

How can we change the situation? One approach is to find a way moving forward to an ordained ministry that includes women as equal partners with men. The other approach is to distinguish between leadership and the pastoral ministry of the ordained. Both approaches involve radical changes in the Church and neither is seriously being considered at the highest levels of Church leadership at this time. But that does not mean that change cannot occur. As painful as it might sound, within the Church we do not measure change and/or development in years or even decades. Rather we measure in terms of centuries and eons.

The Vatican is not setting out to put women down, although some say that it seems that way. We also have to realize that those many members of the Church, laity and clergy alike, who believe that it is time for a change, are not trying to destroy the institution, but rather, are trying to save it from itself. It is also incumbent on everyone with some skin in the game to be neither overly protective of a clericalist status quo nor simply to transpose the “rights language” of the secular feminist debate into the ecclesial arena.

Both sides in the debate have to place the issue in the context of the ecclesial tradition. Those who desire to ordain women cannot just “thumb their nose” at the fact that this has never been a practice of the Church. And those who oppose it cannot simply say so in the name of unchanging tradition. Tradition is important and sometimes it is normative ecclesial memory, but tradition is a constant process of development, a living stream of change.

So where does the Holy Spirit come into the picture? The Holy Spirit guides the Church into all truth and does so through the teaching authority of the popes and bishops as well as in the practice of the whole People of God – lay and clergy alike. But what are we to make of the activity of the Spirit when there is a serious issue over which the Church is divided? In such a time it is tempting to simply say that the Holy Spirit can never be at war with itself and so one side is right and the other must back down. It would be wiser to consider the possibility that the work of the Spirit may be invested in the discernment process that will result from good debate and out of which the truth that the Spirit guarantees will eventually emerge.

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow – Challenges Facing the Catholic Church by Peter Avvento

Peter Avvento offered part 1 of this series on Monday night. If you missed part 1, don’t let that keep you from attending any of the other sessions. This was a great evening, with the promise of more to follow. There are no easy answers, but Peter offers us excellent questions to explore, and the possibility of paths to follow. All are welcome, so please join us! And please share this with friends and on social media.

“Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”
Challenges Facing the Catholic Church

A Crisis of Faith or a Crisis of Culture?

If you stop and talk with your everyday Catholic I am sure that you will hear them bemoan the fact that we are experiencing a crisis of faith of epic proportions. Evidence of this crisis can be found in the decline in Mass attendance, the challenges to authority, the loss of respect for the institution due to the sex abuse scandals, the decline in priestly vocations, the seemingly rampant secularism that colors the mind and heart of our young people. But is this truly a crisis of faith or is it not a crisis of culture?

We are all products of our cultural environment as well as shapers and architects of that culture. In order to understand what this crisis is about we need to look at three key cultural moments in the life of American Catholicism: culture of need, culture of compliance and culture of demand.

Culture of need – points to our earliest historical memory of being a Catholic in this country. The immigrant experience was one that can be described as a “search for acceptance”. The church provided the safe harbor for our grandparents and great-grandparents. In a country that believed or claim to believe in freedom of religion our Catholic ancestors were shunned, ridiculed and persecuted. They sought refuge in their parish community, typically constituted along ethnic lines – the Polish parish, the Italian parish, the Irish parish and so on, especially in the urban capitals of our country. Our ancestors flocked to the church for acceptance, community and enjoyment. The Church met that need.

Culture of compliance – this next evolution can best be summarized by the phrase, “Pray, pay, obey” and reached its apex in the 1950s as churches and seminaries were full, money was in the bank and everything proceeded like clockwork. This cultural epoch was not about individual choice and commitment. Rather, one could “hide in the weeds” of being born into the Catholic community. One learned the answers in the catechism and without even appropriating the core message, tried to live by a code of decency. This culture was based on a merit system whereby one could “earn” salvation through obedience and compliance.

Culture of demand – emerged as part of the post Vatican II experience and the rude awakening to individual freedom that was heralded in the 1960s. Now we began to be educated consumers who demanded excellence – excellent preaching, excellent music, and excellent liturgical celebration. If we did not get what we wanted to moved to where we could find it. No longer were we bound b y geographical confines. We “shopped” for what we wanted and needed. This continues to be our situation today. We want to be fed and we will move inside and outside of our denomination to find happiness and peace.

A patron of science, silence and faith

This post was published on my personal blog, There Will Be Bread, on Wednesday.

Today marks the death of one of my heroes of the faith – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ. Although known today, he died in near obscurity, as he was largely silenced for his work during his life. Today is the anniversary of his death.

When I work with teenagers for confirmation preparation, they often tell me that science is the challenge between them, or one of the challenges, a belief in God. That is when I play the Teilhard de Chardin card, because when I tell them that he was a paleontologist, they are often surprised.

When I work with myself, at times frustrated with Church, I play the Teilhard de Chardin card for myself. He was silenced, I remind myself – and he was doing really important work. I am reminded of something I once read that said that turning up the oven does not result in a cake baked more quickly. Would Teilhard de Chardin be the giant that he is today, if not for the timing of how his work became known to the world?

Yes skeptics, I hear you thinking that this is a huge rationalization on my part. Maybe, but maybe not. Over 50 now, I have become more aware of how my own timing ins not usually in the best interest of anyone but me. And at this point in my life, I have lost most of the interest in the supremacy of my own timing and interest. (Note: most of…)

Yesterday I had a good cry born out of frustration over a church related matter. Today I am still upset, but tempered by this as-yet-uncanonized patron saint of mine.

I love the words along with the picture above. It is good science, but it is great theology, great eucharistic theology. Such things are not incompatible – they never were, and they never will be.

God is very patient with us, may we be so patient with one another – and with our selves. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, pray for us!

Postscript: I have one final paper due for school; it is to be delivered at a colloquium on Saturday. Needless to say, I have not completed it, so it seems unlikely that any blogging will come from between now and then. Since I have to go out of town for said colloquium, it is unlikely that I will post anything else before Monday. I graduate, one month from today!

Easter Season Reflection – April 3, 2013

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In today’s Gospel, we hear the familiar story of the road to Emmaus. In this story, two disciples, leave Jerusalem full of disappointment over Jesus’ death. They encounter a stranger, who turns out to be… well either you know, or you don’t, and if you don’t this would be a spoiler. Go ahead, read the passage, it is right here. This may be familiar, but let me tell you, every year I hear about the road to Emmaus, or read it, I feel such excitement. Sort of like my heart burning within me, but in a good way, not an antacid way!

This story always reminds me of the many ways and times that I have unexpectedly encountered Jesus. No, regrettably I do not always realize that it is Jesus I am speaking with, but somehow my heart starts to burn within. And this has happened with every sort of person, which gratefully, IMHO anyway, is a gift. Jesus has the potential to be in all of us, especially in the most unlikely places.

What are some of your “Emmaus” moments, when your heart was burning within you and then you realized that you had just spent time with Jesus? I hope that some of you will take the time to share your experiences in the comments.

One place where I have trod that road to Emmaus, has been graduate school. During the summer of 2008, I began a conversation with Katherine Hanley, CSJ, PhD, known to most of us as Sister Kitty, about studying at the Albany extension of St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry. A few short weeks later, I walked into my first class, and my heart has been burning within me ever since. Tonight I will walk into the final session of my last class, heart burning, of course!

Burning hearts aside, it should not be a surprise that I love this Gospel, especially if you read the last line.

Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

There will be bread, and in this way, we come to know Christ, always. (My personal blog is called, There Will Be Bread.)

Please share your own Emmaus moments in the comments!