“Our society permits everything, and forgives nothing.” –attributed to Francis Cardinal George by Fr. R. Simon
(Perhaps a little hyperbole, but the point is well made. For some reason, we don’t like to let go of perceived or received hurts and offenses against us, and we dislike the demands of love opting instead for the slavery of “freedom for indifference” in the social fabric of our lives.)
I ran across another article written by a woman who recently converted to the Church. An interesting expression of her experience of the humanity of the Church in the real world.
By the way, I noticed that Elizabeth Scalia over at The Anchoress (see link at lower right under Blogroll) has commented on the article on The Saints Will Save Us.
I noticed that the counter has registered 140,000 blog visits since its inception a little less than two years ago. I began this weblog back in October 2008, at the suggestion of my son. I am very pleased that all of you find your Catholic faith of enough importance to look at the postings here and occasionally leave a comment or two.
Comments are always welcomed, but know that I reserve the right to edit out any offensive vocabulary, or to refuse to approve for posting comments deemed inappropriate. So far, the comments I have refused to post have largely been spam. I really do encourage dialogue here, and look forward to your thoughts.
I stumbled on to the website www.maritalhealing.com entitled “Institute for Marital Healing, Strengthening Catholic Marriages and Families.”
It has some wonderful pages on various issues modern couples are experiencing, including good information on the whole problem of pornography and family life from a Catholic perspective.
I haven’t had time to post anything in three days. Life is busy. I was on the road yesterday and today, and have been enjoying and consumed by family gatherings and celebrations.
I and others had the good fortune of hearing an excellent homily this morning given by Deacon Kevin from the Diocese of Green Bay. His presentation style was great and his points were well-made with a simplicity that all could enjoy.
I couldn’t help but notice the contrast between Deacon Kevin’s appearance and liturgical manner and that of the presiding priest. I think Father was a bit preoccupied or something. His health was obviously not the best either despite his relative youth, so he had to lean against a kneeler as he prayed the Eucharistic Prayer.
I don’t know what it is really. Perhaps the life of a parish priest is so much more emotionally and physically draining than that of a deacon, but we married men and fathers know from first hand experience that living the life of a husband and dad can at times be quite demanding. We permanent deacons who still maintain a career in addition to our family responsibilities and our diaconal ministry in parishes or the wider community know that 14 – 18 hour days are not uncommon. What is it then, that seems to exhaust our priests?
In light of the subject matter of my last post (by the way, that story remains in the local headlines), I can’t help but wonder what we can do to better encourage and support our priests, and what they can do to maintain their physical, emotional and spiritual health.
Any thoughts from you, the readers of this weblog?
It is late for me. Saturday night after a long day and a long week. At the office, it was a week of seeing an awful lot of patients along with preparing to move to a different office after eleven years in the one from which they moved me yesterday. A week in which I saw my wife off to Spokane, Washington to see a niece’s graduation that I wish I could have attended also.
Yesterday early, I went off to a furniture store where I had purchased a very expensive box spring and mattress about three weeks ago. There is a manufacturers defect in the mattress. I hate to have to deal with defective products. I get all anxious and bothered by it, hoping the merchant and the manufacturer will stand behind there product.
Then in the morning, I and several other deacons were able to vest and attend the ordination to the priesthood of one of our transitional deacons. I then had to rush home to get here before my mother and niece showed up. Unfortunately, I didn’t get home until nearly 4 PM and they had arrived an hour earlier.
Last night and this morning, I spent with my niece. Took her to a old theater last night, which she enjoyed, then I accompanied her to St. Mary’s University this morning for new student orientation. Had fun spending one to one time with her, which rarely happens. Saw her off at 1 PM, got a little rest and then got ready to assist at Mass and preach this evening. Homily, though well prepared, went a little roughly. For some reason I was distracted. Actually, I think I was (am) tired. I am reminded that words are not adequate for a good homily; one’s whole self has to be invested. If you leave any part of you somewhere else, the homily is ineffective. So I went home and practiced my homily once again, putting my heart and soul into the words. God is in the heart and the soul, so if I speak in his name, I had better go to him there and from those places break open the Scriptures for the parish.
After Mass, I was happily met by a deacon friend, Gordon Richards who frequently comments on this blog. All the way from South Dakota. Had the privilege to say hello again to his wife, Alma, and also for the first time to their son, David. Gordon and Alma conducted my home interview during the application process for diaconate formation several years ago.
I love preaching. I love being a deacon. I love the people whom I serve. Thanks be to God for all of this!
Here is a bit of wisdom attributed to Thomas Merton by Deacon David Backes in Deacon Digest, July-August 2010
The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence. More than that, it is cooperation in violence. The frenzy of the activist….. destroys his own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of his own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.
This form of violence is a most subtle threat. It destroys the person, and it destroys the fabric of society.
I think if we would just slow down enough to reflect on our lives we would cease to destroy our environment, cease killing our unborn, stop hurting and abusing our family members.
We would be a more just society. A holier people.
I have not had computer access for a few days. Thus, no posts.
Spent time with extended family in Green Bay. Was talking to my sister’s father-in-law last night about the research being done on the effects of technology in the next generation’s ability to form a human community and establish “real time” empathic relationships, both at home an in the wider social context. Talked with him also about war, health care, the oil gusher down in the Gulf, and various other topics. He is a full-time veterinarian in his eighties. Delightful stuff that happens only in family gatherings.
I wish I could transcribe verbatim the quote Auxiliary Bishop Robert Morneau used this morning in his homily. I believe it was a quote from the musical South Pacific although he modified it a bit at the end of the homily. He was speaking of course about the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ which we celebrate today. It went like this: O what a mystery! Fools will “explain”. Wise men only try. Reminded me of St. Paul’s comment that the Greeks look for wisdom (explanations) but we Christians live the mystery. The mystery of the Real Presence of our Lord Jesus. And our union with him.
I hope all of you had a great weekend. Peace…..
I was at a family potluck yesterday and was able to talk with relatives I haven’t seen for a long time. My cousin handed me a copy of my great-great grandfather’s discharge papers from the U.S. Army in 1865. A mere private in Company K, 7th Regiment of the Minnesota Infantry. He enlisted six days before Christmas, 1863 for a three year stint, but only spent 18 months in uniform. Reason for discharge was “Circular from Surgeon General Office, May 4, 1865″. I suspect he may have been wounded, although there is no family history indicating this. The document is a beautiful piece of handwork, written largely by hand in splendid penmanship.
Yesterday my second oldest cousin spontaneously began talking about his experiences in Vietnam from 1965-66. Apparently, he doesn’t talk about such things usually. I listened.
My father was a veteran. My brother is a veteran. All my uncles, save one, were (are) veterans. My maternal grandfather was a WWI Navy veteran who allegedly gave President Wilson an order to throw his cigar overboard one night. I suspect the story is a true one. I know Wilson traveled on the ship on which grandpa served.
I just returned from the local cemetery where the American Legion came, as they do every year, with their honor guard for a brief, five minute salute to the dead. Taps was played. Those bugles always strike at the heart. A large group of locals showed up to pay respects.
I continue to believe that war is uncalled for, avoidable, unnecessary and a great evil. There is in all reality no need for it. I am inches from being a pacifist, but I am not yet there and may never be. I have never spoken with any combat veteran who has seen the realities of a ground battle that has ever said anything that speaks of the nobility or greatness of war. Heroic acts are done undoubtedly, but done to ensure the survival of one’s comrades. It is for family and the relationship of brothers-in-arms that battles are fought and men die.
I honor the dead. I honor their willingness to sacrifice. I judge none of them. They have lived more honorably than I would have lived had I been in their situations.
It is they whom we honor today, not the “glories” of war.
I happen to have run across an article this morning that directed me to a webpage in which is found a poem written by a WWII veteran about himself and the German soldier he killed. I found it striking. I’d like to share it with you.
Log on to: www.dcoe.health.mil/blog/article.aspx?id=1&postid=102
“Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance.” — G.K. Chesterton, The Speaker, 12-15-1900
Celibacy is a special vocation to live life without sexual intercourse and to integrate one’s sexuality completely into one’s life — into all that one does and says.
All of us are called to live an integrated life, expressing our masculinity or femininity in who we are as human persons, but so often we make the error of thinking that only priests and bishops, monks and nuns are called to celibacy. It is thought of as a “religious vocation.”
We make another error, I think, when we fail to see that all of us are called to integrate our sexuality into all we do as men or women, as masculine or feminine, when we compartmentalize our sexuality from our daily lives.
Not only are priests, bishops and religious called to celibacy but so too are single men and women. Their’s is a special vocation.
All our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters are called by God to celibacy and a healthy integration of their sexuality into their lives and relationships. God gives them a special vocation, and special graces. Do we treat them as people in that way? Do we recognize their struggle to express their masculinity or femininity in a healthy celibate way, a special struggle, a difficult one, and for so many a silent one?
As anyone knows who tries to live a chaste life — celibate or married — it is not easy. Our sexuality touches our core. To integrate it completely into who we are is a journey of faith and a journey into our minds, hearts and bodies.
Let us pray for all our brothers and sisters called to the celibate state of life. Let us pray for all of us married folk who together with them are called to holiness of life which includes a healthy regard for our sexuality and its integration into our whole lives.
I recently and unexpectedly attended to a dying man.
As a deacon, my role is to bring Viaticum, to arrange for a priest to hear the person’s confession and to anoint him, and then to be present in person and in prayer.
It is a privilege to be present during the last hours of someone’s life and to offer a prayer and a blessing. Most of us don’t want to think about that phase of life. We feel ill-prepared for it. We fear it. It is though a time of privilege, a time when a person becomes very much alone with himself and his God, yet needs the presence of the Church and the immediate family.
I am amazed at the power of the Eucharist in times like this. The peace that our Lord in his Eucharistic presence brings to a believer. How we who are ordained also become Christ in a different way.
Something sacred is seen in a good death. I thank God I could witness it last week, and be Jesus the Servant for this man one last time.
I want to thank The Ironic Catholic for this quote from Bishop Fulton J. Sheen.
“There are not over 100 people that hate the Catholic Church, there are millions however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church – which is of course, quite a different thing.”
See original post at: www.ironiccatholic.com
One of the things that has amazed me since ordination is how much more frequently people approach me and speak of their faith or lack thereof. These are people who often have no idea that I am a deacon, or that I believe. Perhaps some of my brother deacons can shed some light on this.
I recall my initial screening interview with the Diaconate Advisory Committee, and one of the questions put to me was how my secular occupation (clinical social work) would change after ordination. I was stumped for a moment, not having given that much thought, but I recall my response, “I will probably continue to treat my patients in the same way I have always tried to treat them, but there will be something different about me after ordination that I hope will be evident to them.”
I think they approved of that answer, even though it was unrehearsed, and spoken in the moment.
I think I was right in my prediction.
The change is grace, and its effects upon those with whom I come in contact. God has got a hold on me in a new way, and he works through me now in a way different from before, in spite of my shortcomings. Somehow, old obstacles are removed; his grace is at work.
I saw it today in the face of an elderly man who told me he recognized that God had unexpectedly sent me into his life. All I did was bless him and give him the Eucharist. (By the way, this was after my day job. I was serving him as a recognized deacon of his parish.)
I saw it yesterday in the story of a patient who spontaneously talked about her struggle with faith even though she only knew me as her therapist, nothing more.
I saw it in the face of an agitated man unable to speak or open his eyes because of a stroke, and who was probably near-deaf. All I did was give him a tiny bit of the Eucharist, touch his arm, and gave him a blessing. He calmed down. He didn’t seem afraid for a few minutes.
This is God stuff. This is the grace of Holy Orders, Baptism and the Eucharist at work. My job is to get out of the way, and make myself available…… disposed.
As of the moment, I am in third place in the 2010 Cannon Ball Awards for Catholic bloggers in the category of “Best Under Appreciated Catholic Blog.”
I appreciate your support. This is a fun competition meant, I believe, to be light-hearted and to raise awareness of good Catholic blogs that are out there.
Polls are open for another couple of days only. PLEASE VOTE for this blog. I will need another 100 votes in just a couple of days…… get your family and friends to look at this blog and to vote.
Log on to: http://www.thecrescat.blogspot.com and click on the 2010 Cannon Ball Awards icon on the upper right. Scroll down to the category “Best Underappreciated Blog” and click on the bullet next to Catholic Faith and Reflections. Then click “vote” at the bottom of that category.
Blessings on all of you!
The following is a paraphrase of a central comment made last night to our confirmation candidates by Bishop John Quinn of Winona, Minnesota during his homily. It is a good one for all of us to remember.
“The world likes to throw you bad pitches to get you to swing at them. If you do, you will only strike out. Don’t swing. God will throw you good pitches. Swing at them.”
I’d like to hear what is on the minds of the readers of this weblog. Leave a comment as to what you might find of importance in our faith lives and Church. Perhaps we can start a conversation.
“Once abolish the God, and the government becomes the God.” — G. K. Chesterton, 1933
If you are a priest who is discouraged by the crisis in the Church regarding the abuse children and the Church’s response to this inexcusable crime, take a look at what Archbishop John R. Quinn, retired bishop of San Francisco said at the National Federation of Priests Councils in Houston, Texas on April 13.
www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=12258
I think married deacons are in a prophetic position in regard to all of this. We potentially can act as agents of healing here, and understanding. On one hand, we are clergy and we have direct experience with our brothers in Holy Orders that the laity simply do not have. We have the ability to have compassion for them. But almost all of us are also fathers to children. We deeply understand that our children come first. Within the ranks of clergy, we are better situated than others in most situations to have instinctual, raw compassion for child victims and a natural sense to protect. We can advocate for all children from a vantage point that out celebate brothers cannot.
Compassion for priests and bishops is sorely needed. Compassion for our children is obligatory, primal, and cannot be compromised under any circumstances. Those who are complicit in exposing our children to sexual trauma deserve our forgiveness but our children deserve justice.