nunblog

Good-Bye 2009

2009-12-31T14:42:00.000-08:00

Almost time to put a closing seal on 2009--but if T.S. Eliot was right ("in my end is my beginning"), we could still have a few hours to rework the plot of this chapter in our book of life, at least enough to make it more of a cliff-hanger than it may seem right now.

2010 awaits!

Be It Resolved...

2009-12-29T12:10:00.000-08:00

It's more than appropriate that we wrap up the "old" year and start the new during the Christmas season. After all, Jesus came to make all things new, so we might as well make our contribution, too. But New Year's Resolutions can be so...intimidating! I tend to want to fix everything in me and around me. At the same time. That leads to lists that go for pages.
Do you ever have the same problem?
Our Founder offered good advice for the resolutions a person would make at the beginning of the new "spiritual year" (during a course of spiritual exercises). Such resolutions, he said, should be "few, specific and practical." He outlined five areas that ought to be addressed in our consecrated life, and these can pretty much be adapted for any Catholic life.

Five recommended areas of focus would be:

Family
Spirituality
Intellectual life
Work/Finances
Health

Just one resolution for each point. That also ensures that you won't be running away with resolutions you have very little chance of keeping.
To remember the resolutions, you could think of the five areas as the fingers of a hand, with the thumb (the "master finger") representing the area of your life that has the most impact on all the others, and thus requires the most focus. (So if your workload is affecting your family life, prayer and health, that is where you need to focus, even though objectively your family is more important.)
Are you making New Year's Resolutions this year? Are they "new" or "renewed" resolutions? How do you plan to keep them in mind, evaluate them, and make them really bear fruit?

Prayer for Retreatants

2009-12-29T12:07:00.000-08:00

Our Boston motherhouse has welcomed a group of discerning women for the "Pauline Discipleship Week." Since we were asked to remember these women in our daily prayers, I thought I would extend the invitation to you!
Here's the prayer written for the occasion:

Jesus Master,
We pray for all who will be participating
in the Pauline Discipleship Week.
May they come to know you
as the Divine Master,
the Way, Truth and Life.
And may they come to know themselves
as your disciples. Gather them together
around you, as you drew the
first disciples to yourself in Galilee.
Send your Holy Spirit upon them,
so that they may proclaim your
Word to the world.
We pray through the intercession
of St. Paul, disciple and apostle,
whose one desire was
“that Christ may live in me.”

Remedial Religion

2009-12-29T11:41:00.000-08:00

St Peter's (Chicago Loop) is offering a lunch hour program for people who are have been away from the Church and aren't sure they really ever knew what Catholics believe, or for those who just want a refresher on the essentials. Starts Jan 28; meets Thursdays from 12:10-12:50, through spring.
Sounds like a great (and much needed) contribution to the "Catholics Come Home" initiative!
Contact Carolyn Jarosz 312 853-2376

Holy Innocents

2009-12-28T12:36:00.000-08:00

This year I am struck in two different directions by the feast of the Holy Innocents. Here in Chicago, on Christmas Eve, an elderly gentleman was shot to death while picking up food for a family party. The killer then held the man's body upright while he went through his pockets. In front of witnesses.
That old man, kissing his wife of 54 years goodbye as he ran an errand of love, is the new "holy innocent" in my book.
And the alleged killer? He's in custody, but so far, all we know about him is his name, home city, and former prison record. (He was still on probation the night of the murder.) We haven't heard anything about his background, family, education. Just his prison record. Right now, he's my new image of Herod's anonymous soldiers.
Those men had no idea, reporting in for work at the palace, that by day's end they would turn into monsters. Were they ever the same? Or was it just another crazy assignment from a king so infamously brutal that even Caesar Augustus said it was better to be Herod's pig than his son--because Herod had his sons killed as rivals, but would never eat pork.
What happened to those soldiers after that day in Bethlehem?

2009-12-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas Novena, Day 9

2009-12-24T10:03:00.000-08:00

At the Easter Vigil, the Deacon sings, "This is the Night!"
We can sing the same thing today, Christmas Eve! This last moment of the Christmas Novena caps our Advent waiting. Will the angels find us "watching by night" with the shepherds?

Coming Soon

2009-12-24T09:32:00.000-08:00

In our Christmas novena, we sing an antiphon that sounds a little out of season: "With the rising of the sun, you will soon see the King of Kings and Lord of Lords coming forth from the Father, as a Bridegroom from his bridal chamber."
This is one of those images from the Psalms that is given a new and unexpected meaning by the encounter with the Gospel. It's from Psalm 19: The heavens are telling the glory of God... The psalmist imagines one day giving the message, relay style, to the next, so that as the sun rises in the east, it is eager to run out, like a champion athlete at the starting block, to get the message even further.
What a lovely image of Our Lord! He comes to us with joy and anticipation, "eager to run his course" among us, telling us (in the words of St. Irenaeus) that "the glory of God is man, fully alive and the life of man is the vision of God."

May this Christmas bring each of us a clearer vision of the glory of God, and a greater share in his life.
Blessed Christmas!

Christmas Novena, Day 8

2009-12-23T10:02:00.000-08:00

Santa Claus, the Keeper of the Christmas Mystery

2009-12-22T15:03:00.000-08:00

As time goes by, I find I'm loving old St. Nick more and more. And this year it finally dawned on me. St Nicholas was more than a generous and charitable bishop who managed to provide so creatively (and discreetly) for the needy. As a bishop, he also supported a daringly creative theological solution to the equally daring question “Who is Jesus?” That, in my opinion, is why St. Nicholas most deserves to be the de facto patron saint of Christmas.

At the time, a priest named Arius (from the theologically extravagant city of Alexandria) attempted to bring things “into line” with sober thinking about God with his approach to the big Jesus question. His attitude was summed up in the phrase “There was a time when he (Christ) was not.” In other words, Jesus Christ was not the true and co-eternal Son of God, but a kind of highly ranked creature. When some other “highly ranked” individuals (in the Roman Empire) espoused this view, Arianism spread through the Christian world, unsettling the social order to such a degree that Constantine (yes, that Constantine) called a council of the world's bishops to address the matter. The Emperor intended to take part in the council, too.

As the bishops went back and forth, studying various attempts to express the mystery of Jesus in terms that would be clear enough to grasp, while preserving the ultimate mystery, one unusual word kept coming up. It referred to the Son in the Trinity as “homoousios to Patri”: “one-in-being with the Father.”

Sound familiar?

It was highly controversial, but as the bishops kept looking at it, they agreed that introducing this non-biblical expression accomplished the task of protecting the biblical message.

We recite those words weekly, and usually without incident. But when the bishops at Nicea signed on to that newly minted Creed (perhaps based on the Palestinian baptismal creed), they had reason to fear for their lives. (Almost fifty years years later, St. Ambrose made his famous crack about the fish-mongers and butchers arguing over the divine and human natures in Christ, and they probably didn't limit their arguments to theological terminology.)

St. Nicholas of Myra held fast to the truth about Jesus. Apart from that message and the mystery it proclaims, we really have no reason to celebrate Christmas with all the gusto we reserve for the most festive moments of life. And so, for his daring role in protecting the real meaning of Christmas for us, I am happy to keep a place in my Christmas for the great St. Nick!

Christmas Novena, Day 7

2009-12-22T10:02:00.000-08:00

Christmas Novena, Day 6

2009-12-21T10:01:00.000-08:00

Tree topper

2009-12-21T08:00:00.001-08:00

A priest told my sister that a star "ought to be" atop the Christmas tree. That was news to me. We always have an angel in community.
What is your tree topper? Take the survey!

The Solstice and the Sun

2009-12-21T07:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday's Chicago Tribune weather page said that the winter solstice arrives at 11:47 this morning. Which brings to mind the heartwarming holiday message to be found at the Illinois State Capitol, courtesy of the "Freedom from Religion Foundation":

At this season of the Winter Solstice, may reason prevail.
There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell.
There is only our natural world.
Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.

Can't you just feel the “Peace on earth, Good Will toward men”?

Seriously, it is tantalizingly easy to focus on the Grinchy tone of these reasonable people. Maybe the message is intended to provoke a sharp response that will only prove how hardhearted and intellectually enslaved believers are. I do wonder, though, about a group that claims to be marking the Winter Solstice, but describes their observance through a series of negations. It must be hard to get excited about the Solstice in a culture with electricity.

One thing they're right about though: Light really is the “reason for the season.” The one whose birthday we celebrate on December 25 claimed to be “the Light of the World” (Jn 8:12). New Testament writers were piling on the solar imagery way before there was any thought of establishing a liturgical date for the birth of the Light of the World, much less baptizing the Winter Solstice or the Roman Saturnalia.

Not that the early Christians were shy about making the connection with the Sol Invictus (the “unconquered sun”)--and that, early on: "O, how wonderfully did Providence act that on that day on which that Sun was born . . . Christ should be born." (St. Cyprian †253). The Christmas-Solstice conjunction dates far earlier than our earliest liturgical calendar reference to December 25 (circa 336) would have us believe.

But was the Solstice the origin of the date of Christmas? That's an open question.

The ancient world endowed dates with a mystical significance. For example, it was believed that the “perfect” span of life began and ended on the same date. It is just possible that the starting point for calculating the date of the Lord's birth was the date of his death. And that we can determine with relative precision, since it took place over the feast of Passover. Hippolytus of Rome (170-236) connects the Passover date of 14 Nisan with March 25 of the Roman calendar. Tertullian (160-225) tells us that it was “the eighth day before the Kalends of April.” A liturgical calendar from the year 243 notes that same day, March 25, as the day of the Annunciation to Mary, and hence, of the conception of Jesus: his coming to be in the flesh (appropriately enough, nine months before Christmas). This date was, in turn, considered to be the anniversary of the fourth day of creation. (Significantly, the day God created the sun.)

By the fourth century, the Syrian deacon-poet Ephrem was drawing on a well-established tradition when he sang, “In December, when the seed is hidden in the earth, there sprouted forth from the Womb the Ear of Life.... In March when the lambs bleat in the wilderness, into the Womb the Paschal Lamb entered!” (Hymn III on the Nativity); “The Sun rendered worship, doing Him homage by his Magi;--in his worshippers he worshipped Him” (Hymn XIV).

But this world won't believe that Jesus is its light unless his disciples themselves shine enough to brighten the world around them. To the extent that we fail, our pagan contemporaries are right to try to celebrate whatever sources of light they can find. And, as long as they do, our mission as believers is spelled out for us, because we are not yet mirroring Christ to the world; He has yet to be fully born in us.

So go ahead and celebrate the Solstice: we'll join you. We'll even bring the hot cocoa. Because anything in nature that can be celebrated can (and will and probably already is) celebrated with a Christian twist. We can find Jesus everywhere, because “all things came to be in him” (Jn 1:3).

But would you mind not being so Grinchy about our Christ-Mass?

This post was prepared for the Chicago Tribune's blog, "The Seeker." If it gets posted there, please comment on the Trib site. Thanks!

Christmas Novena, Day 5

2009-12-20T09:57:00.000-08:00

It's funny, but by Day 5, a lot of people drop out of the Christmas Novena. At least that is what my YouTube stats indicate! Day 1 has (as of this writing) 3,580 hits; Day 2 has had an accumulated 2,048... but the Day 5 video has had in its entire history only 292 views! This year it doesn't help that Day 5 is on a Sunday. At least being the 4th Sunday of Advent, the Advent candle will help promote the prayer that the Novena is intended to do: an intensified prayer of longing. "Come, Lord Jesus!"

Starting Small

2009-12-19T14:01:00.001-08:00

As if one Baby wasn't enough for Christmas, today's liturgy presents us with two more. According to one of the Bible's favorite story lines, these are babies who, under the usual circumstances, should never have been born. In both cases, "the woman" (in the first story, the poor lady never even gets a name) is called "barren." (Given the rudimentary understanding of biology in those days, it was assumed that any failure to conceive had to be on the woman's side.) In the Gospel, as if to up the ante, the couple is said to be "advanced in years."
Then comes the Angel of the Lord, announcing new life: "It's a boy!"
Both babies, Samson and John, are themselves "announcements" that God is beginning a surprising new intervention for his people's rescue.
The One whose coming we are preparing to celebrate (in anticipation of his definitive coming) told us, "Unless you accept the Kingdom of God like a little child, you will not enter into it." God likes to start small.
Zechariah, whose angelic visitation couldn't possibly have been more dramatic (in the Temple of Jerusalem, at the Hour of Incense, with the crowd of people praying outside) held back his belief. He couldn't say a "be it done" (doesn't that make him the truly "barren" one in today's liturgy?). But even Zechariah would eventually see, and then like the women, proclaim the great deeds of God.

Christmas Novena, Day 4

2009-12-19T09:20:00.000-08:00

Christmas Novena, Day 3

2009-12-18T09:55:00.000-08:00

Novena, Day 2

2009-12-17T09:42:00.000-08:00

Today we begin the Messianic prophecies, connected with their fulfillment in Jesus. The first prophecy is (appropriately enough) from the first book of the Bible: Genesis. It is the so-called "Blessing of Jacob" of his son Judah. Jacob, who himself was never really big on the rights of the first-born (remember Esau, his older brother?), does not assign his own first-born son first place, but singles out son #4, Judah, for praise. (Judah's name even means "praise.") This reading is the source of the title "Lion of the Tribe of Judah" which is assigned to Jesus in the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. The Lion is also a King, and will be King of the World ("The scepter shall never depart from Judah...while he receives the homage of the nations").
Scholars say that the first books of the Bible, though having ancient roots, were set in writing and edited during the reign of King Solomon, the glory days of Israel. For the people of that time, "Judah" "King" and "Lion" were so many code-words for "David." And the Gospel picks up on that. King David's name and role become the key for unlocking the mysteries of the genealogy of Jesus. And the Alleluia verse is another way of acclaiming God's unfathomable Wisdom, working all these strands together into one unified plan of universal salvation.

Saints go marching...

2009-12-16T13:50:00.001-08:00

Got this from my friend (and fellow New Orleanian) Father Fred. I'm not a big football fan, but I may end up watching the Super Bowl this year (and not just for the commercials!)!
And the song is a lot of fun, even if it may need updating.

Christmas Countdown

2009-12-16T12:41:00.000-08:00

In one way, it begins today (with the Christmas novena); liturgically, the Christmas countdown starts tomorrow. (I suppose the liturgy just counts novenas differently.) Beginning December 17, the Church brings out Advent's "big guns": at Mass, we'll start to hear the most dramatic Messianic prophecies, linked with matching passages from the Gospels (mostly the "infancy narratives" of Matthew and Luke). The Liturgy of the Hours shifts, too. No more generic Advent antiphons and Scripture verses, but carefully set texts that (in some cases) have been prayed on that date for over a thousand years. Foremost of these are the "O Antiphons," a liturgical acrostic that, by Christmas Eve, will have spelled out (in Latin, of course) the cryptic message "Ero cras" ("Tomorrow I shall be").
It's a blessing to have a somewhat full Advent season so that the fourth candle on the wreath gets a bit exercised, too, don't you think?

Home Sweet Home

2009-12-15T18:15:00.000-08:00

Granted, I have been "home" almost all through these weeks of travel, because most of the time we stayed in Pauline convents, and since Thursday I have been at the home of them all, our motherhouse in Boston. Still. There's nothing like sleeping in your own bed (my back is so grateful for that). But there's more to it than that. As I opened the Liturgy of the Hours, I felt grateful not to be using just a borrowed copy, but the one that has all my favorite psalms marked with my own annotations. My prayerbook, not a "chapel copy," but the one that has people's names listed on the pages of the prayers proper to their needs. (Like Clayton, my cousin's son, and Ted, my sister's father-in-law, on the page with the Prayer to the Holy Spirit for Good Health.)
Although I am spending today playing the perennial game of catch-up, it was good to be back to a somewhat familiar schedule, too.
And there are Christmas cookies and gifts of fresh fruit and nuts in the refectory, too.
It's good to be home.

Christmas Novena, Day 1 (Dec. 16)

2009-12-15T15:13:00.000-08:00

This is the third Christmas I am posting this simple video novena. Every year I make the resolution to do something a bit nicer... Next year!

A Question of Authority

2009-12-14T06:12:00.001-08:00

Today's Advent readings ask us to do some critical thinking: what is the real foundation of our convictions? Or, as the Pharisees challenged Jesus, "On what authority do you do (or teach, or proclaim) the things you do?"
I've been noticing lately (and this may be an American thing) that people ultimately trust their gut more than any other authority, even when it comes to things that are fairly distant from the gut's usual areas of expertise. Over the weekend, USA Today reported that 20% of Catholics believe in reincarnation. Not resurrection: reincarnation.
On what authority?
Not the teaching authority referred to in the Gospels: "All authority in heaven and on earth have been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations..." That authority tells us that "it is given to human beings to die once, and after that be judged"; that Jesus is the "firstborn of the dead," and that our destiny is to "be conformed to the pattern of his glorious body" when he comes again at the end of time. (That is the "Advent" we are really celebrating this time of year!)
Those 20% of self-identified Catholics rely more on the authority of their own personal gut. Which means that there are as many authoritative guts as there are people with strongly held personal convictions. Which means, ultimately, that for them, at least, there is no actual authority outside of themselves.
Needless to say, reincarnation is only one example of guts trumping theology, tradition and the united testimony of the Churches of East and West.

After this two week tour, which took us to eight cities in seven states, I am more convinced than ever that God gave the Church real authority, and that many, many Catholics stand in serious need of conversion to that authority. It makes no sense to claim to be a Catholic but reserve to oneself all judgment about matters of faith and morals (or even of Church order, like those protest groups that are occupying closed parish churches and advertising for a disobedient priest to pastor them, as if sacraments celebrated apart from the communion of the bishop were genuine expressions of Catholic life). Clearly, they don't know what it means to be Catholic, no matter what their gut may tell them.
Sometimes the authority of the Church seems very much like Balaam's donkey, braying loudly and resisting the clear direction set by the "rulers of this age." What if, like the prophet's donkey, she sees something that guts alone cannot discern?

TV shoot

2009-12-11T11:00:00.000-08:00

So today we were at Catholic TV. They have a fabulous set-up in a former convent. The convent chapel still serves as a real chapel as well as the set for the TV Mass. The basement level has several large studios and a control room that had us all, well, drooling. We crammed ourselves onto narrow risers to record a half-hour Christmas program for the network (which will be re-christened "ChristmasTV" for the 72 hours of nonstop Christmas programming). It was a great morning, even though I think we all would have appreciated a little more sleep...

Now we are heading to Attleboro, MA. Two years in a row, our concerts at the La Salette Shrine had to be canceled at the last minute: one year because of a blizzard, and the next year because of a power failure. We're hoping that the third time will truly be the charm!

Did you visit the Tribune site to comment on the bubble zone article? Especially if you have had experiences like those of the Chicago team, your testimony could be helpful.