tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12768226625312993742024-02-19T00:32:04.117-04:00Island EnvoyThomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.comBlogger200125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-80491162957036977892011-07-30T10:51:00.001-04:002011-07-30T10:51:16.085-04:00Moving Day!Well, today I launched the ship! For new installments, look to the prairie! <i>DEO VOLENTE EX ANIMO!</i>Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-65029332083034590452011-07-17T05:33:00.001-04:002011-07-17T05:33:26.950-04:00Joy in His Strength<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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16 July 2011, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Rededicating today this Cathedral
of the Immaculate Conception is in a sense almost as dramatic as the events we
heard about in our first reading from the Old Testament prophet Nehemiah, recounting
what happened when the forgotten/neglected book of the law was discovered by a
younger and more impressionable generation of leaders and taken out and read to
all the people. Thanks to this discovery, to good leadership and to their
openness, a people once again came to appreciate their having been chosen by
God as His very own people. They came to know of their treasured relationship
with the living God which had been rejected or neglected by their parents. You
might say that youth and good will together found their way back to obedience
to the law and thereby to the God Who had never stopped loving His people.
Please, God, that this rededication today would have a positive and
invigorating effect on the faith life of all in the diocese of St. George’s in
Grenada! </span></div>
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this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is
your strength.”</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">It has been almost 7 years since
hurricane Ivan blew through town. While 7 years might not be much to some, it
does mean that a lot of Grenada’s children and youth never experienced the
“before” of this Cathedral as compared to our joyful “after” of today. Granted,
this rebuilding or restoration after the storm can’t be compared to that
eventful day described by Nehemiah. Other than the building itself, things haven’t
fallen apart here in Grenada for lack of a church building; nobody here has
forgotten God’s law or grown up ignorant of their Catholic faith because the
Cathedral was in ruins. We can say, however, that having this house of worship,
this house of prayer back again gives to you all a special point of reference
for your life and identity as Catholic Christians, as a diocese, as a local
Church. This church can serve as a point of reference for understanding who we
are in the only world which counts: in God’s world. Thanks be to God! Thanks to
all who worked so hard! Thank you to all of the donors and benefactors who
contributed to the reconstruction!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">What indeed does it mean to be
back on Church Street and in this building? We know that the word “cathedral”
comes from the word “cathedra” which is the proper term for the bishop’s chair
here in this church. Before the Babylonian exile in the Temple at Jerusalem the
only chair or seat was the so-called “mercy seat” or propitiatory within the
Holy of Holies where once a year the high priest entered alone to sprinkle the
blood of sacrificed animals in expiation for the sins of the people. Outside
the Temple building proper, which was preserved as space for God alone,
however, there was a column where the king stood and which was a point of
reference for the people and for the king before God Almighty for Whom the
Temple was so to speak His footstool and heaven His throne.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The bishop’s chair, the cathedra,
is for us in the New Testament a unique point of reference, focusing the
people’s gaze and with authority drawing us to Christ, the Shepherd of our
souls and our Redeemer. Anywhere, not just in church, not just in this
cathedral and not just from his cathedra, your bishop can teach and through
teaching the faith which comes to us from the apostles, he can bind you as one to
the confession of St. Peter as we heard it proclaimed from Matthew’s Gospel: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“You are the Christ, the Son of the living
God!”</i> While it may be true that we don’t necessarily need the brick and
mortar or the roof over our heads for worshiping the one true God, Father, Son
and Holy Spirit, still in many ways it is so much better to have this place.
Different from the old Temple days, besides Mass times, you can come in to this
house of prayer anytime and without the mediation of the high priest, you can
place yourself directly before the mercy seat, not the footstool of the
Almighty but the Tabernacle housing the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus, True God and
True Man, here present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, Jesus, the only mediator
between God and men, Jesus perfectly present for us, whole and undivided under
the form of Bread.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“Who
do you say that I am?”</span></i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">
Jesus asked His disciples and after Peter responded with his confession of the
true faith, the Lord declared that not flesh and blood but God the Father
Himself had revealed to Peter, in the midst of the other disciples, the
presence among them of His only begotten Son. In this place and in a very
special way, we stand in continuity, we stand at one with St. Peter. Here with
all due solemnity you/we profess our faith together with the bishop. Normally,
unless we live close by, we worship in our parish churches and Father mentions
the bishop’s name along with that of the Holy Father as he prays for us the
Eucharistic Prayer. Here we see the bishop and are reminded of the Shepherd Who
sits at the right hand of the Father and will come again in glory to judge the
living and the dead.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Seeing the kind of destruction
which Ivan brought in September of 2004, no one here has any illusions about
the permanency of structures built with human hands, but our faith is not
really in the building itself. The building is a reminder of the teaching
outlined by St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .4in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“(Y)ou are fellow citizens with
the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of
the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom
the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the
Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the
Spirit.”</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This Cathedral then is a visual
aid, a constant reminder that it is we, living stones anchored on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, steadied and made secure forever by
Christ Jesus Himself, we are as one God’s Holy Temple, His dwelling place among
men.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">On my first visit to St. George’s
six years ago, the clean-up had been done, but all that was left standing
really was the tower and the apse with the Crucifix. I remember clearly that people
were still debating about the whether, the where and the how of rebuilding. There
were all kinds of considerations and priorities to be kept in mind, as everyone
agreed that the Catholic Church in Grenada should set a proper example by
meeting the urgent and basic needs of the people first and foremost. All things
come in their own good time and I assure you, I am glad you did decide, that
you rebuilt this church as a house of prayer, as your cathedral and not just as
a memorial to an older generation that long before you had sacrificed to build
on this spot. Praise God! You have your cathedral back and on Church Street!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Having this house of worship,
this house of prayer back again gives you a special point of reference as I say:
a point of reference for understanding who we are in the only world which
counts: in God’s world. Can I configure/set myself up like a computer or some
kind of super-phone as I see fit, choose for myself how I will be Catholic, about
whether Sunday Mass will be part of my life, about whether and how and which of
the Commandments I’ll obey, about the importance of the Sacrament of Penance in
my life for the worthy reception of Holy Communion? Is my will and how I see my
life necessarily God’s Will? Not hardly! That’s why Ezra the scribe read the
book of the law of Moses to the people; that is why they began to cry and had
to be encouraged to celebrate, now that they had opened their ears and their
hearts to God’s law.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“(F)or
this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is
your strength.”</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Join me today not only in
rejoicing but also in begging the Lord to forgive those, to open the ears of
those, to touch the hearts of those who stubbornly set their own rules and
prefer a natural sunset to the Dawn who visits us from on high, Christ the
Lord! Turn to the Lord with your bishop, let his chair, his cathedra in his
cathedral church remind you of the Lord Jesus here among us, who one day will
sit in judgment over us all. Be reminded always, both at Liturgy and when you
come to visit this house, not only just of the loving God Who gave the law, but
of God’s only Son, who gave His life for us upon the Cross! Buildings come and
go; they are not absolutely essential, but they can certainly inspire us and
direct us on our path to God.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">St. George’s has its Cathedral
back! Thanks be to God!</span></div>
Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-77772460719954937712011-07-09T21:12:00.001-04:002011-07-09T21:12:14.177-04:00Let the Seed come to Fruition!<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">15<sup>th</sup>
Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #595959; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 166;">Isaiah 55:10-11</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #595959; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 166;">Romans 8:18-23</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #595959; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 166;">Matthew 13:1-23</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“As the rain
and the snow come down from the heavens and do not return without watering the
earth… so the word that goes from my mouth does not return to me empty, without
carrying out my will and succeeding in what it was sent to do.”</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">… the edge of the path; … on patches of rock;
… among thorns; … on rich soil: [^] … he is without understanding; [^] … there
is no root in him; [^] … the worries of this world and the lure of riches choke
the word; [^] … he hears the word and understands it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Whenever I hear this parable I thankfully
remember my time in the Apostolic Nunciature in Berlin. The short corridor to
the chapel was decorated with original stained glass windows portraying this
parable of the Sower and the Seed and every time I passed when it was light
outside the windows offered me a reminder, let’s say an examination of
conscience in terms of my responsibility to be a hearer and an “understander”
of God’s word; even though I many times sin or fail, as Jesus says to His
disciples and to us, I am most fortunate as I am among those who understand, as
are you, for by His great gift I was granted access to the mysteries of the
Kingdom. As He tells us in today’s Gospel:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“(T)he
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are revealed to you, but they are not
revealed to them… in their case this prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled: You
will listen and listen again, but not understand, see and see again, but not
perceive. For the heart of this nation has grown coarse, their ears are dull of
hearing, and they have shut their eyes, for fear they should see with their
eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and be converted and
be healed by me.” </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This phrase reminds me of a priest up in the
U.S. who some people tout as a modern day Fulton J. Sheen. His name is Fr.
Robert Barron and he has a network TV program in Chicago, but I know him from a
powerful internet presence, especially his videos on YouTube. While he teaches
on every imaginable topic, just like Bishop Sheen back in the 1950’s, I wish to
mention his attention to the criticism of religion coming from modern day
atheists, people on the edge of the path who just don’t get it; they don’t
understand or won’t understand God’s word at all. Fr. Barron is of a mind that
we should all be trained to answer these critics who reject God and His Church.
Father would like to see a revival and not just for priests and seminarians of
the study of apologetics, which Webster’s dictionary defines, and I think
satisfactorily so for our purposes, as: “1: systematic argumentative discourse
in defense (as of a doctrine) 2: a branch of theology devoted to the defense of
the divine origin and authority of Christianity.” For those of us who know our
catechism, it is basically standing up for our faith.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Fr. Barron lives in hope of converting these
atheists and that is good, for you and for me an apologetic stance in matters
of faith and religion means putting our lamp, the lamp of faith, on the lamp
stand where it belongs, and filling our space with light. For us it is first
and foremost, as I say, lighting the lamp of truth, the truth which comes from
God, and sweeping our house clean to make it ready to receive Christ, our
Bridegroom.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">We may not always be 100% sure about
everything, but we do know and understand. In matters of faith we are not that
patch of rocks without depth. Perhaps we could be more profound, we could take
things more to heart and try better to understand, but we do know; we do
understand. In point of fact it is the worries of this world and the lure of
riches that choke the word in our lives.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Speaking of worrying, I worry an awful lot
about young people especially, as they are really too exposed to noise and
distractions today. One of the things which makes me cringe in traffic, for
example, are young people in vehicles seemingly just driving around with very
loud music blaring. Too much video and audio stimulation doesn’t deserve to be
called stimulation because its effect on us is, has to be numbing. We need to
think things through; we need to think things out and that can’t be done with
the TV always there to one side or loud music pushing everything out of our
space.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Older folk once upon a time listened to
music: way back, maybe, there was a program on the radio which received their
full attention every Sunday before dinner. I have a friend here in Trinidad who
really listens to music yet; she gives it here full attention for that hour or
whatever it is and even reads up on the artists or the composer. That is not
the kind of sound I’m talking about; that is still an active participation in
an art form and not something which just fills what might be an enriching
silence and perhaps a space for prayer.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">… the edge of the path? … on patches of rock?
… among thorns? … on rich soil: where are you? Do a special examination of
conscience for yourself on those points! You may not have a corridor of stained
glass to remind you of the parable and for that matter neither have I for a
long time, but the parable is familiar and easy to remember in its four
distinctions; even without props we can still test ourselves for receptivity.
God’s word bears fruit in our lives to the extent that we are attentive to the
word and allow it a place deep within our hearts and for our lives. Why would
anyone reject God and in favor of what? I really cannot imagine.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I wish you a quiet Sunday with space and time
for reflection and thought. You may discover that the house of your soul needs
sweeping out as it has become cluttered for lack of attention on your part. Let
His light shine into every corner, clean well and make room for Him! Take on
your mission in the light of His word! Be light and salt for this world of
ours, which is often out of touch, without depth and totally distracted!</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI</span></i></b></div>
Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-47146078456982924282011-07-03T16:39:00.000-04:002011-07-03T16:39:46.827-04:00And Yet Believe!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVAtQnbjy2EGSywapEl6ZdPxvuRa-XcG74oTByzNC7a0mYYg9U8l7b_m7ApTHL9zHtNKxB8pbpKU39DNZAzhKET15V2EZfRmiOb_aR8Bf6C-a1VIT2laKx6mSmvYbSdbrTHzGt6vzKcFY/s1600/St+Thomas+PPRubens-thumb-400x227.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVAtQnbjy2EGSywapEl6ZdPxvuRa-XcG74oTByzNC7a0mYYg9U8l7b_m7ApTHL9zHtNKxB8pbpKU39DNZAzhKET15V2EZfRmiOb_aR8Bf6C-a1VIT2laKx6mSmvYbSdbrTHzGt6vzKcFY/s320/St+Thomas+PPRubens-thumb-400x227.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><i>St. Thomas, the Apostle, pray for us!</i></span></div>Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-69561160884979951452011-07-03T15:43:00.000-04:002011-07-03T15:43:26.144-04:00Wealth Worth Sharing<iframe frameborder="0" height="225" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/25776981?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="400"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/25776981">Monsignor Andrew Wadsworth, ICEL</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/cmaa">Church Music Association of Amer</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
They say that as Catholics, two verses are our limit. Of late I have begun to speculate as to whether that isn't a natural predilection for chanted antiphons?Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-2997982232157315272011-07-02T21:24:00.000-04:002011-07-02T21:24:57.468-04:00Meek and Victorious<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">14<sup>th</sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span style="color: #7f7f7f; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 128;">Zechariah 9:9-10<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span style="color: #7f7f7f; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 128;">Romans 8:9. 11-13<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span style="color: #7f7f7f; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 128;">Matthew 11:25-30<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .4in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">If you are of average height and weight, the claim “One Size Fits All” might be credible, but when you are little larger, like I am, especially when it comes to caps or golf hats, you know that the claim has no basis in fact. The “All” is a presumption, and in fact, without foundation. I know. Those caps never fit me. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Today’s Gospel was the very same one we just heard Friday, on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; that feast is a powerful and beautiful meditation on God’s love for us which took flesh in His Son Jesus. When that same Gospel is read on the 14<sup>th</sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, however, the focus is more on the gentleness and humility of Christ. It includes an invitation to follow Him closely. Be it clear, however, that although it is the same Gospel passage even so we are not just plopping the same hat on another head today. We’re digging deeper into the treasure trove which is Holy Scripture, into the Gospel which reflects that wealth in a very special way.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The interpretive key for the Gospel of this 14<sup>th</sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time can be found in the 1<sup>st</sup> reading, taken from the prophet Zechariah:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .4in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“See now, your king comes to you; he is victorious, he is triumphant, humble and riding on a donkey…”</span></i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Some English translations of our passage from Matthew’s Gospel use the expression “meek and humble” instead of “gentle and humble”. In either case we are reminded of the Beatitudes also from Matthew’s Gospel, where Jesus promises that the meek shall inherit the earth, the meek shall be victorious, the meek shall be the ones to conquer. This Sunday tells us who and how Jesus is and how we can be one with Him in His great victory. Go figure, as they say, when our Commander in Chief, our King, is neither a commander nor a chief, but humble.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“Rejoice heart and soul, daughter of Zion!”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">There are loads of tools out there for self-improvement. Years and years ago, the classic book title for this genre was “How to succeed in business without really trying”. Or was that a Broadway play? My Dad’s generation had an association called “Toastmasters”, which helped you improve not only your public speaking but also how you met and greeted people. Since then there have been tons of audio and video tapes produced and sold, weekend seminars advertized in airline magazines, and now everything you can imagine digitally produced to help you make yourself better, to help you succeed, however you might see that success. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I doubt however if many have any luck in selling their product who advertize according to the line “How to succeed in business without really trying”. No, I’m more impressed by the “true grit” and maniac exercise programs which promise you good looks and stamina beyond your wildest dreams if you call the number at the bottom of your screen right now; those programs demand hard work and seem more promising. Even so, and rejecting all the preachers/entertainers we see on TV who promise you friendship with God, plus a new home, a new car and a great relationship besides, it must be said and even shouted out that real life and God’s promise is so much more.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The king promised by Zechariah is more; our life as subjects or as followers of the great king is meant to be for us so much more. Yet how hard it is for us to see our lives as more than a response to a code, a set of rules or a teaching! How hard it is to imagine that Jesus Himself has invited us to share His yoke, to share His burden, to share His Cross! This week I happened to see a video from Dublin, Ireland where they stopped people randomly on the street, asked if they had been baptized Catholic (to which all said yes) and then asked them if they went to Mass on Sundays, to which question all but one said either never or hardly ever. In answer to the why don’t you go, nobody I saw came back expressing any appreciation for the fundamental message of the Gospel:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .4in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Too few people, too few young people and not only young people, seem to understand the fundamental truth of our faith that God’s Kingdom is life and love shared, now and for all eternity. We’re competing with no one of a Sunday morning; we have nothing to sell. We’re celebrating our relationship with, our being yoked to Jesus, gentle and humble in heart. The word “boring” doesn’t apply because what we do in worship is neither goal-oriented education or achieving, nor (God forbid!) is it entertainment or a pep rally. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Make your Lord’s Day restful, leisurely with space and time for reflection! Binding us under pain of mortal sin to Sunday Mass is a good thing, because at least here and at least on His Day, the Lord’s Day, we should be able to catch our breath, to find ourselves and to see Who it is we are under the yoke with, Jesus gentle and humble in heart. The slogan “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” is nothing short of perverse. Sunday, just like our daily prayers, awaken us to the only type of success or accomplishment worthy of being called success, triumph and victory.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 21px;"> Our real enemies are not the laundry basket piled high, the desk full of unanswered correspondence, the guy infected with road rage who cuts us off in his selfish hurry to get wherever he is going. No, the enemies are fallen-aways from the ranks of the Principalities and Powers. No amount of gym time, no amount of jumping and sweating prepares us for that battle. <span> </span>Our victory is an ultimate one we win yoked to Him. The victory in fact is already won and it belongs to the Lamb upon the Throne Who was slain and now lives forever!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Accept His gentle yoke!<o:p></o:p></span></div>Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-57537580074364632992011-07-02T16:54:00.000-04:002011-07-02T16:54:00.842-04:00The Children with Songs Before Him Went!<a href="http://youtu.be/0lrwBQn4Bg0">Irresistable!</a>Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-87378505731487397782011-06-30T04:48:00.000-04:002011-06-30T04:48:36.930-04:00The Three Ages of the Interior Life | Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP | Catholic Spiritual Teaching<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"Without God, the seriousness of life gets out of focus. If religion is no longer a grave matter but something to smile at, then the serious element in life must be sought elsewhere. Some place it, or pretend to place it, in science or in social activity; they devote the selves religiously to the search for scientific truth or to the establishment of justice between classes or peoples. After a while they are forced to perceive that they have ended in fearful disorder and that the relations between individuals and nations become more and more difficult, if not impossible. As St. Augustine and St. Thomas (6) have said, it is evident that the same material goods, as opposed to those of the spirit, cannot at one and the same time belong integrally to several persons. The same house, the same land, cannot simultaneously belong wholly to several men, nor the same territory to several nations. As a result, interests conflict when man feverishly makes these lesser goods his last end."</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A friend in Poland tipped me off to the availability on the www of the classnotes in English for the course which Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, taught for years at the Angelicum University in Rome (long before I was born). I hope to have time to read them during my upcoming vacation. Take a look yourself and see whether these same things aren't timeless in terms of the value in the discussion of life priorities. To my mind, this is another "grand old man" who deserves to be read and discussed by the youth of today. <a href="http://www.christianperfection.info/tta2.php#bk1">Here is page 1</a></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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</span></div>Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-45534273478870947402011-06-29T18:24:00.000-04:002011-06-29T18:24:03.414-04:00False Premises Commonly HeldMichael Foley has a succinct article at Crisis Magazine which should be widely read as it could soften some of the opposition to reforming the reformed liturgy according to the mind of the Holy Father: <a href="http://www.crisismagazine.com/2011/five-myths-about-worship-in-the-early-church">Liturgical Myths</a>Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-42539880284432731892011-06-25T18:57:00.001-04:002011-06-26T12:12:33.046-04:00Paint Yourself Into The Picture<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSpqFJrxyTn2PhCQpHlZaGPlWA4usCQ5fcwbpYclMacyyPRmadvObZvT0vWngn-yR5LlI7gi1j04R6vqKewbWyowalGUfMpp-NCcN5qACdEIBKyxiwGCu9u7cN4Opfz1xvm8RvxFFLLEQ/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSpqFJrxyTn2PhCQpHlZaGPlWA4usCQ5fcwbpYclMacyyPRmadvObZvT0vWngn-yR5LlI7gi1j04R6vqKewbWyowalGUfMpp-NCcN5qACdEIBKyxiwGCu9u7cN4Opfz1xvm8RvxFFLLEQ/s1600/images.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">13<sup>th</sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A<o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: grey; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">2 Kings 4:8-11. 14-16<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: grey; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Romans 6:3-4. 8-11<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: grey; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Matthew 10:37-42<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The passage from 2<sup>nd</sup> Kings for today says that the wealthy Shunemite woman and her husband received Elisha into their home with all of the regard due to a holy man of God and, without expecting it, were rewarded with the one thing missing in their lives, the one thing money and rank could not buy for them, offspring, a baby boy! In Matthew’s Gospel today Jesus promises a reward to all those who welcome apostles, prophets, holy men, disciples, even God’s little ones. He demands only (to use a very colloquial form of expression) that we not be clingy or self-absorbed. That’s one way to explain what Jesus was trying to teach the Twelve:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">“Anyone who prefers father or mother to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who prefers son or daughter to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me. Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Jesus demands first place in our lives: before closest kin, before our own selves. He demands that we follow in His footsteps all the way to Calvary. How many spiritual authors have filled volumes trying to explain to you and to me just what that is supposed to mean given our specific station in life! And yet, there’s something very attractive, yes, profound about explaining it with the simple command: don’t be either clingy in your relationships or self-absorbed with regard to yourself.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Why did the Shunemite woman and her husband gain the unexpected prize of a baby boy from God? Who else could have given such a reward? They won, if you will, because they went beyond themselves and their daily affairs (beyond their self-absorption?) to recognize God in their world in the person of a holy man, Elisha. Holy: that is, touched by God, belonging to God, caught up to God’s realm and communicating something of God to others for the sake of the life of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I used to think that a big part of the reason for the increased violence in our world was middle class prosperity, the increased material wealth of a larger cross section of society which made them or us targets for the envy of materially obsessed but less fortunate types disposed to resort to violence in order to increase their share of the pie, if you will. Actually, I am beginning to see that the problem of violence and greed is more than a problem in and of itself. The greater tragedy, if you will, comes with the reverse side of the same coin, namely that our inordinate attachments or obsessions whether for persons or for things render us unworthy of the company of Christ. They hold us earthbound and far from the fullness of life offered to us by our living Lord.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">“Anyone who prefers father or mother to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who prefers son or daughter to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me. Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I’m not sure which comes first in a two-year-old’s language acquisitions: Mine! Or No!... Though our vocabulary may grow and our manners become more polished, some of us ultimately don’t get much beyond staking out our own territory, asserting ourselves or fending off others including God and His will for us. Indeed, the two great commandments of love of God and love of neighbor are one, two sides of the same coin. My self-absorption or possessiveness effectively leave me out of life’s running both in this life and for eternity. I cannot set myself up in life to win; I need to lose myself in order to find life and enjoy life with the other in God.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">So much church art of the Middle Ages and other periods as well, particularly paintings, include portraits of the wealthy benefactors who paid for the artwork. Sometimes they are clearly part of the scene; sometimes they are painted smaller and kneeling in the foreground. In a sense, they could be showing off, but in another sense, they are going beyond their daily affairs to welcome the holy and put themselves in the picture so to speak with the saints at the foot of the Cross. You don’t give out big money for a painting like that without recognizing the holy in life.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">You and I need to do something similar, without painting ourselves into a painting on the wall of a church, really without letting our right hand know what the left one is doing. We need to welcome all into our lives as if they were Christ. The breadth and height and depth of our charity, focused on Christ, will be the measure with which we are measured back.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I am sure at this point if I nudged people on a whole series of inordinate attachments and obsessions, I’d get back either the bloodshot stare of rage or the pallid face of desperation concerning a whole series of moral imperatives which people today won’t face in their lives; those crosses they ignore or refuse to take up with Christ. The problem, in good part at least, is self-absorption; it’s clinging to someone or something and missing the visit of the holy man Elisha, who just might leave that gift of God behind, which not only bends stubborn hearts and wills, melts the frozen and warms the chill, but leaves in its train, perhaps not a baby boy, but what he signifies in terms of life and hope far beyond the gusto or you name it which I can grasp for myself on my one time go around.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Ask the Lord this Sunday to open your grasp or grabbing hands and help you to extend your arms in welcome to whomever, be it an apostle, a prophet, a holy man, a true disciple of the Lord or even just one of God’s little ones. For not expecting the gift in return, we can be ever so much more blessed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-46723934873540934412011-06-24T13:28:00.000-04:002011-06-24T13:28:34.942-04:00From My Mother's Womb<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://cgfa.acropolisinc.com/raphael/raphae24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://cgfa.acropolisinc.com/raphael/raphae24.jpg" width="215" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><i>St. John the Baptist, pray for us!</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today's solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist got me thinking quite intensely about the notion or nature of vocations, which we firmly believe do come from God and not from personal whim. That is to say, God calls a man to priesthood, just like God called St. John to prepare the way of the Lord and from the first moment of his existence, from his mother Elizabeth's womb. I've come to the conclusion that this "spiel" about so-called mature vocations to priesthood and religious life as being somehow better is not only folly but perhaps should be attributed to the evil one. God required no previous life experience of St. John before singling him out as the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets. He doesn't require a series of adventures from a man as a prerequisite for admission to seminary.<br />
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Have you ever heard a witness from someone who came late to the priesthood who did not confess resisting or denying God's call, unless of course hardship at home stood in the way? By sending away younger people who present themselves as called by God, I feel we are stifling the Spirit. Let there be no mistake about it: over the last 20 years and more, bishops, pastors and seminary rectors have been sending young men away. How often over these same years have parents succeeded in dampening the hopes and aspirations of a son as well?<br />
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As odd-ball as those two first paragraphs of this reflection may sound and not wanting to be less than thankful to all those men who finally gave in or rebelled and accepted the grace bestowed upon them by God and became His priests, I want to insist that we need to do more to take younger people seriously and provide them with the opportunity of responding, proportionate to their age and maturity, to a call we must show that we too believe indeed comes from God.<br />
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St. Luke's Gospel for today's solemnity recounting the events on the day of John's circumcision seems to me to be incontrovertible evidence in this regard of how the world should react to God's subtle signs:<br />
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<i>"All their neighbours were filled with awe and the whole affair was talked about throughout the hill country of Judaea. All those who heard of it treasured it in their hearts. 'What will this child turn out to be?' they wondered. And indeed the hand of the Lord was with him. The child grew up and his spirit matured. And he lived out in the wilderness until the day he appeared openly to Israel."</i><br />
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John's parents knew the difference between the finger of God and childish caprice; so should we. At this traditional time of year for priestly ordinations and anniversaries of ordination (35 for me this year!) the generally small or no numbers in many places cause pain but, with all due respect, not enough for hardened hearts to soften and creative minds to seek ways appropriate to our day and time to allow once again boys, yet boys, to speak an ADSUM at age 18 certainly, but perhaps even better at age 14! Maybe the Latin schools of the great monasteries and cathedral chapters should be reopened?<br />
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Forgive me for not having a pat answer to the vocation crisis! Our world has grown terribly chaotic and too many distractions compete for young hearts and minds. We grown-ups, however, cannot just stand idly by as if we were victims. We witness both cautious and bold "No's!" on the part of fellow Christians to other invasions into our rightful space as God's chosen ones. Shouldn't we also give respect to our children as they do the equivalent of what John did as he leapt for joy at the presence of his Lord, both of them still under their mothers' hearts? Elizabeth was voice for her son and for her doubting husband Zechariah. Let us help with a serious "Here am I Lord! I come to do Your Will!" for those the Lord has chosen from the womb today to feed and shepherd His flock.<br />
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The Birthday of St. John the Baptist has me worried about us who seem to be stifling the Spirit and depriving our people of the Bread of Heaven and the life-giving Word of God!</div>Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-63225441258872873992011-06-22T21:45:00.000-04:002011-06-22T21:45:26.606-04:00Bone pastor, panis vere,<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">The Body and Blood of Christ</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-size: large;">Solemnity (Year A)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The account of Moses and the People of God in the desert, taken from our first reading for Mass today from the book of Deuteronomy, struck me in a special way this year.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Normally when we think about Corpus Christi the Procession comes to mind, our carrying Christ into our cities, towns and villages. It is our witness to our faith in Him truly present under signs of bread and wine, Jesus present, our Risen Savior present, the Son of God present, the Word made Flesh present, not symbolically but really present, Jesus, His True Body, His True Blood, not the dead Christ but the Living One: Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. Bread of Angels is He; our Food and our Stay is He.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Normally we Catholics are busy today reclaiming the highways and byways for God in the Person of Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament. We are blessing right and left and rightly so. We do so with joy and to the extent we are able in many places around the world with great solemnity and even pageantry, like in Orvieto not far from Rome or in some of the other places in Italy where they decorate in beautiful designs made out of different colored flower petals the path the priest will walk carrying Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Historically we can say that the Solemnity of Corpus Christi really took off at the time of St. Thomas Aquinas (just over 700 years ago), Aquinas who composed the Divine Office and the great hymns for this feast. Since that time especially, Corpus Christi has been a saving antidote for all kinds of doubts and hesitations about the reality of this great mystery of our faith. It has calmed fears, restored joy, and vanquished those doubts in matters of faith which have crept into the lives of individual Christians, into the lives somethimes even of priests.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Normally, as I say, we are carrying Him, Jesus in the Eucharist, we are praising and proclaiming Him in the streets, we are worshipping Him, the One and Only, the One True God, Jesus Christ. But this year, as I say, Deuteronomy reminds us as well, at least it reminded me, that first and foremost we are celebrating God's action; it is not just we carrying and proclaiming. Moses says "Remember how the Lord your God led you... he fed you... to make you understand... that man lives on everything that comes from the mouth of the Lord." Manna, bread from heaven, not what your fathers ate in the desert, but as Jesus says in the Gospel: "I am the living bread which has come down from heaven."</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I think Trinidad is especially fortunate to have Corpus Christi both as a Holy Day and a National Holiday. While this day should be a reminder and reinforcement of a genuinely healthy Catholic pride in possessing such a great gift as Jesus truly present on our altars and in our tabernacles, let us also be mindful today in a very special way that it is Jesus Himself Who feeds and carries us all our days.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>"As I (Jesus says in St. John's Gospel), who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me. This is the bread come down from heaven; not like the bread our ancestors ate: they are dead, but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever."</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>Bone pastor, panis vere,</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>Iesu, nostri miserere:</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>Tu nos pasce, nos tuere,</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>Tu nos bona fac videre</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>in terra viventium.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>Tu qui cuncta scis et vales,</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>qui nos pascis hic mortales:</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>tuos ibi commensales,</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>coheredes et sodales</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>fac sanctorum civium.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>Amen. Alleluia.</i></span></div>Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-63595435278662718102011-06-18T21:20:00.000-04:002011-06-18T21:20:23.055-04:00Monsters Under The Bed?<div align="center" style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #af0000; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity<o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">(Year A)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span style="color: grey; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 128;">Exodus 34:4-6; 8-9<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span style="color: grey; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 128;">2 Cor. 13:11-13<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span style="color: grey; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 128;">John 3:16-18<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“And Moses bowed down to the ground at once and worshipped, ‘If I have indeed won your favour, Lord,’ he said ‘let my Lord come with us, I beg. True, they are a headstrong people, but forgive us our faults and our sins, and adopt us as your heritage.’”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Once again and very thankfully, Trinity Sunday has snuck up on me and wrapped me in its loving embrace, clarifying certain ideas and, yes, calming certain of my fears. This happens because Trinity Sunday always leads me back to the third great Roman Catholic Symbol of Faith or Creed, the one popularly referred to as the <b>“Athanasian Creed”</b> or by its <i>incipit</i> in Latin as <b><i>“Quicumque vult”</i></b>. Up until 40 years ago, everyone in the Church obliged to pray the full Divine Office recited this creed each Sunday. Its words in Latin were as familiar as those of either the Nicene-Constantinopolitan (our Creed for Sunday Mass) or the Apostles Creed (recited usually with the Holy Rosary).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span> </span>These are the opening words of the Athanasian Creed:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>“WHOEVER wishes to be saved must, above all, keep the Catholic faith. For unless a person keeps this faith whole and entire, he will undoubtedly be lost forever. This is what the Catholic faith teaches: we worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity." <span style="color: black;"> </span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Trinity Sunday is meant to remind us of Who God is both in Himself and Who He is, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Lord, for us.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This week at supper with friends, somebody at table offered one of those compliments or observations that you don’t really know if it truly is a compliment or if they are not posing a question or expressing doubt. Anyway, somebody mentioned this so-called “Pew Survey” from last April which claims that 92% of the people in the United States say they believe in God. Having said this, the person added some sort of word of admiration. “Wet blanket” or damper that I am, I offered my own rather negative perspective on the thing by saying that many of those people, who say they believe in God, have no experience of being part of His people or His heritage, to use the expression from the Book of Exodus; many, many of those among them who would claim to be Christian were and are un-churched and un-baptized. In point of fact, often among those nominally Christian, it could well be said that they are no more than practical atheists with a genuine fear, almost horror of all we are familiar with as Church. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Trinity Sunday is here to proclaim that belief unto life everlasting is not a generic thing; it is informed with knowledge of the Godhead, of God’s Will and of our salvation in Christ. Our faith has a specific content and as I say, Thanks be to God, it is here in a rather unique way that the third big creed comes to the rescue with clarity of ideas and proper distinctions:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px;"><i>“WHOEVER wishes to be saved must, above all, keep the Catholic faith. For unless a person keeps this faith whole and entire, he will undoubtedly be lost forever. This is what the Catholic faith teaches: we worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity." </i></span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px;"><i><span style="color: black;"> </span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">We see the devastating consequences resulting from that part of the purported 92% which is uncommitted and impersonal (un-churched and un-baptized) in their relationship with God. Sadly, their claim to belief in God rings terribly hollow when we look at how it plays out in the lives of our civil leadership almost anywhere in the Western World. Expediency and compromise keep under wraps the truth about God and His will for us human beings, who are the crown of His creation, we who are made in His Image and Likeness. The failure to embrace God as He is One in Three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, keeps their governance or leadership in society from having the consequences it should: in terms of respect for human life born and not yet born; in terms of respect for the family and marriage. The Ten Commandments are not even recognized and obeyed. How can they be if there isn’t any real recognition of the One Who gave the two stone tablets to Moses?</span></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I started by saying that Trinity Sunday, leading me back to the Athanasian Creed, calmed certain fears. One day this past week in the newspaper cartoon Calvin & Hobbes, little Calvin shouts out in the darkness and asks how many monsters there were under his bed and the shout comes back from down below “only one”, but as Calvin & Hobbes are preparing to defend themselves with a baseball bat against that only one, the whole sneaky crowd of monsters under the bed starts fighting with each other and Calvin & Hobbes flee under the blankets calling for mommy. The relativism in society today and the consequences it has for our lives and for the truth tends to trouble me like the monsters under the bed. Thank God for Trinity Sunday!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">There is a YouTube Channel attributed to somebody named Alex Jones, who has web sites called Infowar.com or Prisonplanet. In his videos he is always denouncing a global conspiracy by the international banking cartels to provoke WW III and take over whatever is left when the nuclear cloud subsides. Some people can dismiss that sort of talk as disinformation, but knowing how things work in our world, seeing the harm done in recent times to the world economy by unscrupulous speculation, it is hard to entirely discount such conspiracy theories and sleep peacefully. Thank God for Trinity Sunday!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">My invitation to you this Sunday would be to embrace our Trinitarian faith in all its fullness and truth. The beauty of the Athanasian Creed is that it posits that faith in no uncertain terms, which is, of course, as it should be. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The readings today are all very reassuring. St. Paul describes our God as the “God of love and peace”. In the Gospel, Jesus tells Nicodemus of God’s love in giving up His only Son for all of us. The judgment, Jesus says, come not from God condemning but from someone’s refusing to believe in God’s Son Whom He sent into the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“No one who believes in him will be condemned; but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already, because he has refused to believe in the name of God’s only Son.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Thanks be to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for Trinity Sunday and for the Athanasian Creed!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-81918779900017232602011-06-14T17:32:00.000-04:002011-06-14T17:32:50.916-04:00Freedom: Law and Lost Innocence<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-size: large;"><i>Saint Aloysius, pray for us!</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://saints.sqpn.com/wp-content/gallery/saint-aloysius-gonzaga/saint-aloysius-gonzaga-00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://saints.sqpn.com/wp-content/gallery/saint-aloysius-gonzaga/saint-aloysius-gonzaga-00.jpg" width="223" /></a></div><br />
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The other evening at a reception, a good friend who is a language teacher shared with me her puzzlement over a discussion of a magazine article on priestly celibacy which had recently taken place in her advanced language class. While some were indifferent the bulk of the group, mostly practicing Catholics, men and women, some 18 or 19 years of age, others 25 to 35 and married, thought that a priest should be allowed to choose. They could distinguish between monastic life as a chaste or celibate experience and secular priesthood, which they thought should be open to marriage. My teacher friend, an older person who knows her faith, sensed a certain disconnect in their attitude but did not know how to respond to it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was clear to us both that their stance did not stem from some sort of chauvinistic attitude about marriage being the best of all possible lifestyles. Rather it seemed simply a rebellion against structure or rules. Somehow the notion that the priestly vocation also for secular priests was by its very nature as lived out in the Church celibate made no impression on them and they just seemed to want to balk at what they found <i>a priori</i> to be an imposition.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">At the same reception an older gentleman, non Catholic but thoroughly immersed and versed in our world, asked me if when I retired I could just go sailing and leave everything I had known as a priest and bishop behind. He was respectful but somewhat puzzled when I spoke about priesthood as my life from which I could no more retire than a man could retire from being a husband.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Upon further reflection, both conversations bring home to me the dilemma of living in a society without respect for traditional limitations, without either taboos or laws (poor Lady Gaga!). Once upon a time certain things just were not done and people were all the freer for having fewer options to consider. Not so many years ago I can remember being at table with a German bishop who said very clearly that the tragedy of life for young men in the professional and banking world of Frankfurt-am-Main was that the taboos had been lost which had kept their fathers from falling in love with the man at the next desk. Life was much harder now and filled with much more suffering as a young man had no rules to help him sort through feelings which were no more enduring today than they had been a generation or two ago. My bishop deplored a world which unrealistically offered too many choices.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In terms of priesthood, if the secular priest's lifestyle were not put in question but seen as a package, the call from God to priesthood as something naturally celibate and austere, life in the Church would also be easier and especially for priests. In fact, I'm beginning to see that the tendency to want to prefer accepting only older and experienced men as candidates for the seminary is not only an illusion or perhaps a perversion of how things ought to be. It puts undo pressure on everyone involved.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Granted, the 14 year old who went to the minor seminary in former times may not have been able to understand much about life but he certainly was able to know essentially what it meant to be a priest. Why shouldn't the same be patently clear to today's 14 year olds? Then and now that young man will have sorted more things out by 18 years of age and when he decides for celibacy with ordination to the transitional diaconate at age 25 it will be the most natural thing in the world, a giant step, yes, but oh so full of promise for what will be the realization of his life's goal already at age 26. Doesn't everyone have a right essentially to realize the dream of a lifetime before he reaches 30 years of age? I am not singing the refrain "Life was simpler back in the good old days". I'm just saying there are no particular advantages to be gained from reading a book while standing on your head. Life must be simpler than what many folks make it out to be.<br />
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It may be objected that the world has changed and nobody at age 18 makes life choices any more. The point is that an 18 year old today has choices which his father maybe didn't have at 18-25. If you get my drift, I guess I think it is unfair of the "first world" to explain away the more numerous priestly vocations of the "third world" by chalking it up to social promotion. It would be better to stand in the "third world" and express regret over the additional complications which have made life for "first worlders" so miserable.<br />
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Next week, on June 21, is the memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, religious, who is celebrated for the sacrifice of his youth in the service of the sick and poor and remembered for his yearning for the courts of Heaven. His joy in single-hearted commitment to the Lord left his elders even somewhat perplexed. What was rare in his own day might be thought even rarer now. Rarer, perhaps, but as thoughtful friends in the priesthood in contact with life in the parishes up north tell me, there is already a typecast of the first home-schooled men to reach ordination to the priesthood and it is wonderfully positive and refreshing. The home-schoolers now being ordained priests after theology studies in good seminaries at home or abroad are marked by a Gonzagan transparency and youthful enthusiasm. Realizing the dream of a lifetime at age 26 is evidently possible.<br />
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Scriptural imagery describing the glowing young bridegroom never denies that he must keep working at his relationship with the love of his life, until death do them part. The combat, spiritual combat, associated with the life of the priest will go on until the Lord calls him home, but I really and truly think that too many folk spend too much time trying to make life harder than it is.<br />
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Besides praying for vocations and encouraging those who come forth, I think we have to correct our world perception and make it once again possible for a little boy to know, love and serve the God Who made him. Priesthood is certainly a sublime aspiration, especially when a 14 year old can know just what that is supposed to mean.<br />
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</div>Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-45678104531459508902011-06-11T21:13:00.000-04:002011-06-11T21:13:53.974-04:00Jesus is Lord<table border="0" cellpadding="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffcc; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; width: 616px;"><tbody>
<tr style="height: 96.65pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="height: 96.65pt; padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 459.0pt;" valign="top" width="612"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #c0504d; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Pentecost Sunday (Year A)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Acts 2:1-11<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">1 Cor. 12:3-7. 12-13<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">John 20:19-23</span></i><span style="color: grey; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="margin-left: 46.55pt; width: 505px;"><tbody>
<tr style="height: 78.3pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="height: 78.3pt; padding: 7.5pt 7.5pt 7.5pt 7.5pt; width: 160.35pt;" valign="top" width="214"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #660000;">Sine tuo numine,<br />
nihil est in homine,<br />
nihil est innoxium.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div></td> <td style="height: 78.3pt; padding: 7.5pt 7.5pt 7.5pt 7.5pt; width: 213.7pt;" valign="top" width="285"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #660000;">If thou take thy grace away,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #660000;">Nothing pure in man will stay;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #660000;">All his good is turned to ill.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 14.55pt; margin-right: .2pt; margin-top: 0in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #660000;">(Without Thy Godhead nothing can,<br />
have any price or worth in man,<br />
nothing can harmless be.)</span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table></div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 33.3pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ unless he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Maybe I need to preface anything I say today with a sort of a little confession. For some strange reason my whole novena for Pentecost this year has been haunted by thoughts about language, communication and comprehensibility.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Although this year’s “Pew Survey” published a couple months back up in the United States is probably not the real reason for that concern on my part about communicating, a rather outspoken Jesuit’s commentary on this survey and a few tired old remarks about what poor preachers Catholic priests are have churned up a lot of people even here locally, as can be evidenced by Fr. Henry Charles’ articles last week and again this week in the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Catholic News</i></b>. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Let it be granted, and left at that, that our experience of Church today certainly represents a contrast to the account in the 2<sup>nd</sup> chapter of the Acts of the Apostles as we just heard it read. Our lives are neither as exciting nor do they show the results the Apostles did on that Pentecost long ago.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak foreign languages as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech. …’How does it happen that each of us hears them in his own native language? …we hear them preaching in our own language about the marvels of God.’” <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Pentecost is a day for us to wonder and to give thanks to God for this explosion of life, this incomparable demonstration of God’s power which took place as the Church came to birth and streamed out of that Upper Room where the Apostles had been gathered in prayer with Mary the Mother of the Lord. Pentecost seals that same sending out which Jesus effected, risen from the dead, in that same Upper </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 21px;">Room on Easter Sunday evening, as He breathed on them and said:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.”</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Pentecost is optimal communication not first and foremost because of some sort of miracle of simultaneous translation and benefitting not only different people from all around the Mediterranean basin. No, Pentecost gets across what today seems to be an uncommon message <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“…about the marvels of God”</i>. Be it stated that the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">marvels of God</i> are not cosmic events taking place in our upper or lower stratosphere. The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">marvels of God</i> are all the ways He touches our lives not theoretically, theologically or cosmically, but directly, personally. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">As the Gospel says it and Jesus meant it to be, no doubt God’s greatest marvel is the power of the keys which He entrusted to priests, to His Church on this day:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Pentecost Day was, yes, once upon a time, but the gift of the Spirit it announces and illustrates is for now. This is what St. Paul tells the Corinthians and us, namely about the gift of the Spirit, that which is varied, is always, and is always the same God, Who is working in all of us. A marvel indeed!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ unless he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">When we were small children, my two sisters and I used to do our school homework sitting at the kitchen table together. How old were we? Well, because we were all three there and all had homework that meant we had to have been 8, 9, and 11 years old. Anyway! A lady down the block with two children, the younger being a boy my age (11), asked my mother if she could send her Tommy over to do his homework with us, benefitting from the good example of the three of us at the kitchen table. Tommy wasn’t doing all that great in school. After one evening, my two younger sisters begged Mom not to let Tommy come back again as he was a distraction to them, wiggling, grinning and his head swiveling from one side to another.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">For whatever reason, Tommy didn’t get it and probably never did. He’s like a lot of our world, even of our church going world. The forgiveness of sins, Love incarnate nailed to a Tree for us, none of it gets certain folk to stop fidgeting. Perhaps that was the real miracle of communication in Jerusalem that day, the noise of the powerful wind from heaven coming from that Upper Room gathered that crowd and they listened as these Spirit-filled men spoke about the marvels of God. I can be as polished, as clever and talented as could be, but it is the Holy Spirit Who touches hearts and lives; it is the Holy Spirit Who transforms. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Saturday morning in Arouca I was at the celebration of Pentecost which the Holy Ghost Fathers hold annually on the Vigil and use to commemorate all of the jubilees of their men. This year there was one 60 years of priestly ordination and one 60 years of religious vows, two 50 years of priesthood and one 50 years of religious profession! Father Anthony de Verteuil preached and spoke of the various ministries he and his fellow jubilarians had carried out as priests over all these many, many years. As he described each ministry singly, whether it was hearing confessions or celebrating Mass or teaching, he would pause and then say: “Thank you, Holy Spirit!”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ unless he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Our world and all its fidgety Tommies needs to know Jesus and His Church, needs to know Jesus as Lord, needs to know what is really great or marvelous about life as we realize day in and day out the real reason for which we were created, made for God and Him alone, not fidgety but restless as St. Augustine said until our hearts rest in Him.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">When we pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit we pray for a very special gift of comprehension or communication. It goes well beyond statistics or forms to a real and loving interpersonal exchange with God Himself. Please grant us this, O Lord, we pray. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Light immortal, light divine,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Visit thou these hearts of thine,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">And our inmost being fill:<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">If thou take thy grace away,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Nothing pure in man will stay;<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">All his good is turned to ill.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div>Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-9022356023479273212011-06-05T10:42:00.000-04:002011-06-05T10:42:49.435-04:00Siren Songs?<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">I have to admit I was a bit taken aback by the "In Depth Analysis" of 16 May, offered by Dr. Jeffrey Mirus, president of CatholicCulture.org, admonishing people not to be mean-spirited and quarrelsome over liturgy. His point is well taken, but not in the context or terms he chose to couch his plea. The fifth point was the corker for me: "</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">5. Recognize that we are all unworthy of even the ugliest Mass." In principle it may be true but in context it sounds like not only a capitulation to liturgical abuse but an utter failure to take the Holy Father seriously when he speaks about a rupture with the tradition (not to mention what the Pope says about the role of beauty in worship and life).</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">In a sense, I would prefer most anything to an analysis like that of Dr. Mirus. You could say, that there is something less lethal about a brutal refusal to face other folk's concern about the present state of not only parish liturgy and the scandal it represents especially for young people in their search for the Lord of their life. The president of CatholicCulture.org does not seem to understand the suffering of many over the last four decades, nor the role "ugly, uglier, and ugliest" has played in driving people away from the Church.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Too much of what we face in terms of opposition to the reform of the reformed liturgy might be compared to a "siren song". Even if you don't know the classics, Odysseus or Ulysses, you might have encountered the extraterrestrial counterpart of an ancient Greek or Roman siren in an old episode of Star Trek, where wicked aliens attempt to imprison Capt. K. masquerading as beautiful earth-women!</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">In my case, I have an otherwise fairly reasonable elderly woman who will not forgive me for going <i>ad Orientem</i> or as she lisps, turning my back on her. La La Land may be tempting for some, but I think we owe each other all sorts of encouragement for the task which is at hand of reconfiguring Catholic Culture (and not just the .org) such that worship is for the Lord and we really are about the business for which God created us and not just whiling away the hours to the strum of somebody's guitar or the beat of their drum.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Here's hoping that Dr. Mirus will have the time and the input to be able to appreciate what is really at stake and how urgent the business of reform is!</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
</span></span></div>Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-67037762445684123262011-06-04T21:18:00.000-04:002011-06-04T21:18:34.653-04:00Restoring the Kingdom to Whom?<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px; line-height: 21px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The Ascension of the Lord (Year A)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #7f7f7f; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 128;">Acts 1:1-11<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #7f7f7f; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 128;">Ephesians 1:17-23<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #7f7f7f; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 128;">Matthew 28:16-20<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">What is the meaning or significance of Christ’s victory over sin and death? What did the Easter Season mean for the Apostles: those 40 days between His Resurrection and His Ascension to God’s Right Hand? What is it that shines forth in the very intimate experiences reserved for His Apostles in His repeated appearances and teaching over those 40 days since His Resurrection and, now as Jesus is taken from their sight, as He commissions them to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth? What is it that the Ascension of the Lord crowns or confirms?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The liturgy for today says it very simply in the words: “where He has gone we hope to follow.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">However, the lessons the Risen Christ taught them during these 40 days were not all that evident to the Apostles, as we can see from the readings today, both from the Acts of the Apostles and from Matthew’s Gospel:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“Lord, has the time come? Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“When they saw him they fell down before him, though some hesitated.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">It is St. Paul in today’s 2<sup>nd</sup> Reading from his letter to the Ephesians who explains to us what the Apostles only learned on Pentecost Sunday with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Basically, today explains the greatness, the profundity, the length and breadth, the height and depth of what is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. We come to see things clearly. In terms of time and history we leave behind us B.C. (all of history from the dawn of Creation, all that which went before the coming of God’s Anointed, His Christ) and we enter into God’s Kingdom, now firmly established in the person of Jesus (Anno Domini, A.D., in the year of our Lord, as good Christian folk used to start off when they were writing something).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“He has put all things under his feet, and made him as the ruler of everything, the head of the Church; which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">And a lot of us, just like the Apostles before Pentecost say: “And…?” Taking our Christianity for granted as we do, we wonder about what makes us different or, God forbid, better by reason of our baptism into Christ than anyone else. “Where He has gone we hope to follow.” How can we, how dare we say that we are bound to Him, to Jesus, and consequently to God’s Chosen One, His Only One:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“He has put all things under his feet, and made him as the ruler of everything, the head of the Church; which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Paul is right in praying for us, because the implications of this, of the mystery of the Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord, aren’t all that easy to grasp:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit and how infinitely great is the power that he has exercised for us believers.”</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord celebrates Christ’s victory and our hope to share in the same forever with Him in Heaven. It is indeed an absolute sort of thing, not necessarily moving us to scorn this life, but certainly inspiring a hope which goes beyond the ordinary.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">These days I’m listening to CDs from a basic course in Ukrainian and reading a couple of books on the history and customs of that great country, which will soon be my home. According to the one book, buffet food or finger food at receptions is not that popular. Ukrainians, if the book is correct, still seem to believe that the best time comes from sitting around the table and eating and drinking together. The scene the author describes reminds me of a scene from a country home in one of Dostoyevsky’s books, where the young man is for all practical purposes smothered in food, drink, and the warmth of this country home. He likes it, I think, but finds too much what the elderly couple would judge as just right and truly living.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“Where He has gone we hope to follow.” Or as we read elsewhere: “here we have no lasting dwelling place.” Our world today is generally far from Dostoyevsky’s lovely little couple in the country; people tend to be lean and, sadly too, often mean. Food and drink, society and song is not necessarily the antidote for the typical type of alienation from which our Western world suffers. The great cultures of India and China or Japan, for that matter, don’t necessarily provide. Our hope can and must ultimately be found elsewhere or, should I say, beyond elsewhere and forever.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I think it is right that our lives be happy and that we have a certain measure of contentment which we share with everyone else. Maybe our world’s practical atheists don’t miss God, but if they were to encounter Him in our shared joy and in our hope to know His sacrificial love and live with Him forever beyond the grave, I firmly believe that much else would fall by the wayside and they might take us by the sleeve and beg us to lead them to the Lord.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">We affirm with St. Paul, that God the Father: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“(He) has put all things under his feet, and made him as the ruler of everything, the head of the Church; which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Let your Sunday meditation carry your thoughts, beyond common friends, good times and even generous service to neighbor, to Him and where we hope to follow! His is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit and how infinitely great is the power that he has exercised for us believers.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-42630809425893884732011-06-02T10:52:00.000-04:002011-06-02T10:52:38.017-04:00Right, but not Politically CorrectI'd like to call your attention to a "young man's" analysis of the Life Teen experience. My guess is that there will be those who protest with comments which boil down to "How could you?" <a href="http://www.chantcafe.com/2011/06/why-praise-and-worship-music-is-praise.html">Fr. Christopher Smith on P&W</a><br />
<br />
Father poses the question about the role of worship in our lives. He points most effectively to the urgency of reforming the reformed liturgy and healing the rupture. Liturgy, our work as God's people, has to be restored to its place as the jewel in the crown of an all-pervading Catholic culture, open to the world, open to life, open first and foremost to the God Who loves us, Who made us and saved us in Christ.<br />
<br />
Liking P&W, feeling at home with P&W, not knowing anything but P&W is narrowing and ultimately an illusion.<br />
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Thank you, Father Smith!Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-59044682310584432552011-05-28T21:54:00.000-04:002011-05-28T21:54:37.237-04:00It's not really about music!<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This week at THE CHANT CAFE' Jeffrey A. Tucker posted two contrasting pieces. One was a news item he picked up from "Catholic Culture" and I quote:</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">The music director of the Chicago Symphony has thrown his support behind the drive by Pope Benedict XVI to revive the tradition of sacred music.</span></i></div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">''The Pope is right when he says it is necessary to bring our great musical heritage back into churches,'' said Ricardo Muti. The Italian conductor said that the revival in church music “cannot happen outside the great traditional path of the past, of Gregorian chants and sacred polyphonic choral music.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">Muti said that he has no objection to the composition of new sacred music, but resents the use of pop tunes. “When I go to church and I hear four strums of a guitar or choruses of senseless, insipid words, I think it's an insult,” he said. Offering mediocre music, when the Church boasts a priceless treasury of compositions, shows “a lack of respect for people’s intelligence,” he said."</span></span></i><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">While on the one hand nobody is going to take on the maestro, I can't help but think of my Dad's summary description of all classical music (we are back in the 1950's before music appreciation classes in school and before "Saturday Evening with the Boston Pops"). Dad called it "long hair music". Ricardo wouldn't carry much weight with the "teaming masses" I am afraid.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The other post from Jeffrey was a 40:35 minute video and a link to the Life Teen homepage with a transcript of the same video:</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"Fr. Robert Schreiner, priest for the Diocese of Crookston, shares the role of music within the Liturgy."</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Father Robert makes the case for anything short of a kazoo in liturgical music if it gets the kids to Mass on a Sunday night. He has impressive credentials and can sing Latin too.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Muti has my vote, however, because he understands the sublimity which should characterize Divine Worship, music or no music. Father Robert loses out as far as I am concerned because he misses the point on the role of liturgy in the life of the Church. He like many today aspire to the ecclesiological position in terms of the role of Sunday church-going in the life of a christian also held by my dear departed Methodist grandmother. Church-going is the priority and no matter whom you can afford or find as preacher at the little white country church two miles east and a half mile south of the farm, that is where you are meant to be. For a while it was Methodist and then, without skipping a beat, it was Congregationalist.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;">Granted, besides kazoos, grandma would have excluded everything, even Father's choices, outside of the beloved old hymnal, but that is not the point. The point is that the Sunday evening Life Teen experience like most of what happens on Saturday evening or Sunday morning in our parishes misses the point of how we are Catholic. If I can only hold them for an hour a week, plus liturgy </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;">committee preparation time and rehearsals, I've lost. Catholicism is a way of life, a culture. My hour of power has to be entertaining if that is all there is, if there is no life of prayer appropriate to the person's age and station in life. A little aside which I think reinforces my argument would be that guitars and drums don't serve much to get people to confession regularly.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"> When do you graduate from Sunday evening just for them and into what?</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;">I can remember riding in the car with my driver here in Trinidad and stopping at a light and being blasted by the popular music from the car in the next lane. The music was loud and straight out of Bollywood. I asked my driver what he thought of such music and his response was: "It's their music". Muti would be nonplussed by such an observation and rightly so; it says nothing of the value, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;">aesthetic</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"> or otherwise, of the piece.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;">Can bouncy also be sacred? That's not really the point unless we're talking about that </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;">little white country church two miles east and a half mile south of the farm. Father Schreiner is missing the point if he thinks the issue is musicological. Young people balk at going to church not for aesthetic reasons, not because the social pressure of the farming community has fallen away, but because what they are exposed to anytime in most parishes whether it be Saturday or Sunday is an imposition perpetrated by Father and his liturgy committee. We need to restore the culture and make of the Mass a sacred and safe place to encounter the same loving Lord to Whom I address my mealtime prayers, my morning offering and bedtime prayers. I manage those without a beat and probably if I am any kind of a thinking youth would also like to manage my Sundays that way with the Lord I know from my prayers.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;">Last summer I met a young man who recounted his vocational story to me and how through an encounter with perpetual adoration as part of a parish retreat he also discovered the Lord of his life. It's not really about music!</span></div>Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-17715121830165899612011-05-28T20:48:00.000-04:002011-05-28T20:48:49.511-04:00Church, yes, Church<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year A)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #595959; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 166;">Acts 8:5-8, 14-17<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #595959; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 166;">I Peter 3:15-18<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #595959; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 166;">John 14:15-21<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Depending where you live in the Catholic world you will either celebrate the Ascension of the Lord on this coming Thursday or as is our case here in the Archdiocese of Port of Spain on next Sunday. The Easter candle is burning lower and the Easter Season is getting away from us. We’ll be back to green as our Sunday color even before we know it!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This Sunday is an Acts of the Apostles meditation meant to cast light on our acts as Church today. It is a reflection caught up, if you will, in the great mysteries of this Easter Season: of the Lord’s Resurrection, of His Ascension to the Right Hand of the Father, of His Sending the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, on Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. Let it be a challenge or incentive to you and me to live as immediately, as intensely as Philip, Peter and John what it means to be loved by Christ, loved by God the Father and thereby empowered to announce Jesus first to family, to friends and associates, but ultimately to all the world. When we lit the candle at the Easter Vigil we sang three times “Christ, our Light! Thanks be to God!” Those words have implications for the way we live our faith day in and day out.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The Opening Prayer for Mass today went:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“Ever-living God, help us to celebrate our joy in the resurrection of the Lord and to express in our lives the love we celebrate.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The passage from Acts today attributes the conversions to the faith in a Samaritan town to the signs and wonders worked by Philip. The people responded to his acts of power in Jesus’ Name. Hearing of their accepting Baptism the apostles in Jerusalem sent Peter and John down to confirm them by laying hands on them and thereby pouring forth upon them the Holy Spirit. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This kind of thing should always be happening in the Church. It doesn’t happen often enough today and I am sure it doesn’t simply because we have lost heart. We don’t really get it. Today’s 2<sup>nd</sup> Reading from St. Peter just kind of washes over us or if we were seriously to think that it was being addressed to us we’d probably deny it and make as if that could not be, even physically turning around and looking for that other person behind us to whom the words must have really been addressed:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“Reverence the Lord Christ in your hearts, and always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">When was the last time someone asked you the reason for your hope? Is it really our world that is all that indifferent? Are we that culturally out of sink that people treat us as antiquated or eccentric, not bothering even to disagree with us because we present no challenge to them anyway?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The readings of these Easter days from the Gospel of John repeat again and again the words which open today’s Gospel:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“If you love me you will keep my commandments.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The way folks pick and choose about obeying the Commandments, about living their faith fully and seriously might be interpreted as an indication that our love has grown cold, that we really don’t love the Lord as we ought.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Today, with the Lord’s Ascension and Pentecost imminent, the words of John quoting Jesus continue:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 37.8pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you for ever, that Spirit of truth whom the world can never receive since it neither sees nor knows him; but you know him, because he is with you, he is in you.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">At the book store this week a kind of nice, but funny older man, standing on the edge of my conversation with one of the managers kept interrupting with pieces of his own view of what being a good Trini Catholic is all about. I know you are familiar with it. It’s a light-hearted sort of thing: you make fun of absolutes and everybody tries to be good together, because we shouldn’t be divided… It’s mediocrity; it’s my stubborn willfulness not wanting to bend to anybody’s rule. This is not the alternative to being sour; embracing truth and witnessing to it in our world is not something we do with either a fat lip or a pout. Nobody wants to be or wants you to be pugnacious, but isn’t there such a thing as a false peace or an essential and unacceptable compromise of the faith? Is the reason for my hope really no different than anybody else’s? I can only invite you to think about this.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This Sunday’s readings point us elsewhere and offer food for the reflection which should fill our Sunday rest. Take the time to go back to the 2<sup>nd</sup> Reading in the course of your Sunday, if you will! See if it doesn’t invite you to embrace conflict, contrast, persecution, suffering for doing right, for the sake of the truth, just as your Lord and Savior did! <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">We learned at home as children that we couldn’t always be everyone’s friend, that sometimes we had to stand up for principle. If we didn’t we were lost and could never have true friends, we were told. I fear that as adults we have forgotten that lesson; we’ve also missed out thereby on enjoying the only community of life and love which ultimately counts:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“If you love me you will keep my commandments.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Remember that Opening Prayer for Mass today:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“Ever-living God, help us to celebrate our joy in the resurrection of the Lord and to express in our lives the love we celebrate.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-47710865471899176382011-05-21T20:39:00.000-04:002011-05-21T20:39:58.103-04:00Even Greater Works<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21px; line-height: 24px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year A)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #595959; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 166;">Acts 6:1-7<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #595959; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 166;">1 Peter 2:4-9<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #595959; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 166;">John 14:1-12</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Somebody I read recently in the paper, writing social commentary, stated as if it were something self-evident that believing folk today are more apt to expect miracles to happen in answer to their prayers. It could be, but it is begging the question to say that is what Jesus meant in today’s Gospel by the words:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I tell you most solemnly, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, he will perform even greater works, because I am going to the Father.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">If you claim this passage as the proof text which can make you a wonder-worker if your faith is strong enough, I would say that is what is commonly called “prosperity gospel” (faith healing, power of positive thinking, self-determination through prayer of petition); it isn’t Catholic faith, the faith which comes to us from the Apostles.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">If the works Jesus is referring to are not first and foremost His miracles, then what works is He talking about? What are those same works of His which we believing in Him can expect to do? If He is not thinking of the works of turning water to wine, multiplying loaves and fishes, strengthening withered limbs, opening the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, raising the dead, then what? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">We appeal to the authority of the Church and the combination of readings set together for our reflection and edification this Sunday. Note how we are reminded in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles that these believing men, the apostles, ordained the first seven deacons to assure that the poor Greek speaking widows were as well cared for as the Hebrew speaking ones were in the daily distribution of food. The matter was obviously important enough to merit mention in this book dedicated to recounting the beginnings of the spread of our faith. There is a whole Christian tradition which would say that everyone knows (and the deacons prove it) that the works Jesus is talking about are His and the Church’s works of charity. Christianity is fundamentally a moral message and belief inspires to virtuous living they say. Guess again!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">A little earlier in this same Gospel of John (in Chapter 6) we read:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“’What must we do if we are to do the works that God wants?’ Jesus gave them this answer, ‘This is working for God: you must believe in the one he has sent.’”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Clenching our fists, squinting our eyes and shouting “Sweet Jesus, heal!” like good old Oral Roberts is probably easier than what is asked of us and so is the good old protestant tradition of using Christianity to make good citizens. But in point of fact, the true teaching is another; it is not an easy one. It is more than clear that here we are caught up in the frustration of the apostles in today’s Gospel, reflected by both Thomas and Philip, as they miss the point of what Jesus means by even greater works:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Thomas said, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus said: ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.’”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">These words of Jesus are a worth Sunday’s meditation; they need to be pondered. St. Peter says:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“That means that for you who are believers, it is precious; but for unbelievers, the stone rejected by the builders has proved to be the keystone, a stone to stumble over, a rock to bring men down. They stumble over it because they do not believe in the word; it was the fate in store for them.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">During the Easter season in the official texts of the Church’s liturgy we sing over and over of Jesus, the Risen One, the stone rejected by the builders which has become the cornerstone or keystone. Our victory is in His victory over sin and death. The work He does is His Father’s and our work is believing, believing in Jesus; if we don’t embrace Him in faith He becomes the stumbling block.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">While much could be said, I will say only one thing. Good folk in the world everywhere (Canada, Cancun, Calcutta, Canberra, everywhere), good people everywhere are all good more or less in the same way: they are good family people, they are honest, they work hard to earn a living and they respect the rights of others. None of those works, not even folding our hands or bowing our heads in prayer, distinguish us from each other. The work is believing, believing in Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I wish you a profitable Sunday to grapple with that thought. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I tell you most solemnly, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, he will perform even greater works, because I am going to the Father.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-73633241593632096652011-05-15T12:05:00.000-04:002011-05-15T12:05:48.814-04:00A Supportive Vocations Promotion Environment<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;"><br />
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<div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER<br />
FOR THE 48th WORLD DAY<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
OF PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS</span></i></b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">15 MAY 2011 FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER<o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Theme:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>"Proposing Vocations in the Local Church"</i></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><i><br />
</i></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 21px;">Let the closing paragraph of the Holy Father’s message for today stand for all and serve as an introduction to my reflection on vocations promotion and the difficulties we face: </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 21px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 21px;"><i>"The ability to foster vocations is a hallmark of the vitality of a local Church. With trust and perseverance let us invoke the aid of the Virgin Mary, that by the example of her own acceptance of God's saving plan and her powerful intercession, every community will be more and more open to saying "yes" to the Lord who is constantly calling new laborers to his harvest."</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 21px;">One of the topics I addressed briefly a week ago at the annual plenary assembly of the Bishops of the Antilles was vocations promotion and discernment. I did so while keeping in mind some words borrowed from the Holy Father’s homily of 5 February 2011, for the ordination of 5 bishops. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px; line-height: 21px;"><i>"Precisely in this hour... the Lord makes us understand that we cannot send workers to the harvest on our own, that it is not a question of management, of our own organizational capacity. Only God can send workers into his field. But he wants to send us to this work through the doors of our prayers. Thus this moment of thanksgiving for the realization of a sending on mission is, in a special way, also the moment of prayer: Lord, send laborers into your harvest! Open hearts to the one you have sent! Do not allow our supplication to be in vain!"</i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px; line-height: 21px;"><i><br />
</i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px; line-height: 21px;">In a word, before we go on, be assured that nobody is more convinced than I am that prayer takes precedence over any vocations promotion program based on human ingenuity.</span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px; line-height: 21px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That said, let me say that so much of our faith in the Lord, in His power to save and to see to it that on their earthly pilgrimage His people are fed with the Eucharist, so much reassurance does not necessarily calm the fears or relieve the anguish over the lack of vocations facing many bishops who shepherd the flock in Christ’s stead. This faith in Christ the Good Shepherd may not even appear that comforting in the minds of many thoughtful and faithful lay people who are deprived of Sunday Mass for lack of a priest or who see their priests aging and no one coming up in the ranks to replace them. For our region in particular, the major seminary which recently closed (even if officially so only for three years for building repairs and the renewal of the seminarian population) stares back at us, perhaps even reproves us with an indiscriminate and less than salutary demand to correct what we are doing wrong and open the doors once again. The theme of the Holy Father’s message for today, “Proposing Vocations in the Local Church”, is not only a pertinent one but ends up being a confrontational challenge. With all that is going on in the world around us, one can feel almost if not truly helpless.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Readings for Holy Mass on Good Shepherd Sunday (Year A) come to the rescue with a couple thoughts we need to hold onto in the face of hard times.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I am the gate. Anyone who enters through me will be safe; he will go freely in and out and be sure of finding pasture.” (John 10:9)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">While the terminology “horizontal and vertical” hardly renders the idea, it must be said that the horizontal or relational character of our Church experience today stifles our prayer because it places us often enough really outside the sheepfold. We can truly be out of touch with the supernatural, with the Divine. When the Holy Father invites us to enter through “the door of prayer” I think he is speaking about something vertical or supernatural, or if the spatial analogy disturbs, then, let us say, truly God-centered, truly focused on Jesus. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“I am the gate.” </i>Jesus says. He is the focus and too much of what we say and do looks to our neighbor or to our personal interests rather than to the Shepherd Who never leaves His flock untended. You could say that faith is lacking to the extent that we are not unlike Israel in the desert, impatient for Moses’ failure to return immediately from Mount Sinai and abandoning ourselves to crafting idols as a substitute for the Living God in Whom we should be placing our trust.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Invariably, when people are driving me around in the car (certainly in Jamaica and often on other islands) and we have to slow down or stop for sheep or goats on the road, people point out to me how much smarter goats are than sheep. I have heard this ten times if not two. My hosts always claim that goats seem to be able “to think on their feet” as the human expression goes. They are street savvy and manage road traffic, whereas sheep just plain follow or freeze. Needless to say, this predilection for goats here in the islands does not seem to be scriptural. You might say that part of the message of the final judgment scene from Matthew’s Gospel rests in understanding why the sheep are the ones invited into the Kingdom and the goats banished. Dependence upon God is not our immediate inclination; like goats we tend toward either self-reliance or despair.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The smarter of our two dogs, the one that receives all of the accolades, is the one that won’t stay put in the yard but is forever climbing out of the fence and chasing around the neighborhood all night with yelping and barking packs of strays, shredding ours and the neighbors’ trash bags in a search for morsels more tasty than the dog chow or chicken and rice the sisters so lovingly provide. Is the hound really smarter for being so “proactive”? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What is the kind of prayer that serves as an antidote to our restless distraction? While there are no sure-fire recipes or magic formulas, are we knocking on the right door, the real door of prayer? Do we seek to pass through the sheep gate Who is Christ or are we pretending to jump in and out like some nimble goat or my smarty dog? You might say then that our panic in the field of vocations promotion stems from our bold reliance on our personal skills and resilience. Some (let’s charge them with “progressive” posturing!) would say that if we can’t make it work according to the traditional norm then we’d better improvise. That doesn’t sound very scriptural either. Could it be that we’ve strayed too far? Could it be that we need the Shepherd to pick us up and carry us back to the fold?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The choice of the 2<sup>nd</sup> Reading for this Sunday is an important one for my reflection:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“The merit, in the sight of God, is in bearing punishment patiently when you are punished after doing your duty. This, in fact, is what you were called to do, because Christ suffered for you and left an example for you to follow the way he took. He had not done anything wrong, and there had been no perjury in his mouth. He was insulted and did not retaliate with insults; when he was tortured he made no threats but he put is trust in the righteous judge. He was bearing our faults in his own body on the cross, so that we might die to our faults and live for holiness; through his wounds you have been healed. You had gone astray like sheep but now you have come back to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.” (1 Peter 2:20/25)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Almost ingenuously I’d like to say that our salvation and vocations will bloom or burgeon as a result of our docility, as a result of our “heads down” following the Shepherd. If we could get people back into the sheepfold through the gate, we would stand a chance of them hearing the Shepherd’s voice and following Him out to verdant pastures.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I would hope that no one gives in to despair on this 48<sup>th</sup> World Day of Prayer for Vocations. I would also hope that nobody succumbs to the temptation to being rather street savvy in a goat-like fashion, jumping in and out of the fold at will. I would hope and pray that if we are not in the fold that we (especially our young people) would allow ourselves to be scooped up and carried back by the Shepherd. May we not abandon the faith of our fathers but rather entrust ourselves to Jesus, meek and humble of heart!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“You had gone astray like sheep but now you have come back to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.”</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-65373506826092509422011-05-11T15:01:00.000-04:002011-05-13T16:27:56.146-04:00“Continuity” over and against “Rupture and Abuse”<div style="line-height: 19.2pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The address of Pope Benedict XVI, from 6 May 2011, to members of the St. Anselm Liturgical Institute, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its foundation got my attention as it did that of many others. It started me on a reflection which ranges a bit farther afield but which I gladly share and hope that it elicits a constructive thought or two from those who read it.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 19.2pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 19.2pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The quotation from that talk which drew the most attention would have to be these words of the Holy Father, where referring to events following upon the conciliar reform he says:</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 19.2pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></i></span></div><div style="line-height: 19.2pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">“Unfortunately, perhaps, also for us pastors and experts, the liturgy was taken more as an object to be reformed than as a subject capable of renewing Christian life, in that ‘a very close and organic bond exists between the renewal of the Liturgy and the renewal of the whole life of the Church.’ The Church takes from the liturgy the strength for life."</span></i></span></div><div style="line-height: 19.2pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Holy Father added most significantly:</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></i></span></div><div style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">“The liturgy, summit to which the action of the Church tends and at the same time source from which her virtue springs, … thus becomes the great educator in the primacy of faith and of grace.” </span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To state that "The liturgy (is) the great educator in the primacy of faith and of grace" puts us at odds with all who would tinker with something as big as life, namely liturgy. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There is a direct correlation between the willfulness of a lot of folk’s approach to life and the way they see liturgy. If once again liturgy were, as it should be, out of bounds and linked to tradition as it had been practically for most of the Church’s history, there would probably be more awareness of who we are in God’s world. Maybe there would be fewer abortions, fewer in vitro fertilizations and less plastic surgery, with no talk of euthanasia or assisted suicide. To the extent that improvisation rules the day in liturgy it is not hard to see why we pretend in life as well to have to answer to no one when it comes to life issues; we become practical atheists or agnostics simply for the casual or inattentive way we behave in church (Please excuse all of the logical leaps in this brief paragraph!).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></u></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Were liturgy “…a subject capable of renewing Christian life…” restored to its pedestal and could it regain its historical moorings then life would be better as well. Respect for life, awe before the human person could more easily be recovered or established, because the arbitrary in life as posture would simply give way to our absolute accountability to the One Who sits upon the Throne.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">With each passing day I become more aware that the fundamental difficulty or misunderstanding marking people’s very different attitudes toward Divine Worship has no small amount to do with what we understand by those words from Sacrosanctum Concilium “summit” and “source”. If you’ll permit me to play with the word a bit, understanding the role of Liturgy in renewing the whole life of the Church depends on our understanding what a “summit” is. It is a high point and the substantive of those two words is not high but point. The source and summit cannot be the dwelling place or experiential platform of our lives but rather the anchor for our lives or that momentary but unforgettable climax in the day to day or week to week. God does not will us to be “church mice”, if you will, but calls us out of the world to refresh and renew us and then to send us back again.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In a sense it’s as simple as the distinction between traditional or classic Catholic worship described as chanting and Reformation worship reduced to hymn singing. Chanting antiphons in particular is shorter and integrally bound to the ordinary of the Mass by reason of the texts involved which work as modifiers or specifiers and not carriers of the action. Genuine Catholic hymns are few and mostly were used to embellish popular devotion and processions. Our tradition is that of the chanted verse and the great silence. The high point or summit and source is just that and not a continuum. Progress in electronics is evident where recharging batteries or energy cells takes less time and you go farther on a charge. St. Peter was just simply reeling when in his confusion he volunteered to set up tents on the mount of Transfiguration; Jesus quickly got the three of them back down to the plain and to work casting out demons.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The noble simplicity desired by the Fathers of the Council needs to be recaptured for liturgy and instilled in the lives of God’s People. “<span style="color: black;">The Church takes from the liturgy the strength for life."<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I too am looking forward to the publication of this coming Friday’s official refresher to Summorum Pontificum. The joyous and unhindered celebration of the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite is the welcome and needed challenge to caprice and improvisation (there is something of the two-edged sword in that statement). May we all be aided and encouraged in our quest to be nourished by God in and through the great mysteries the Only Begotten Son has entrusted to His Church! No longer church mice nor theater troupes, but heirs of the Kingdom!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-75633474649044895982011-05-05T20:17:00.000-04:002011-05-05T20:17:52.981-04:00That I May See Life!<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Mass of Thanksgiving<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">5 May 2011, 10<sup>th</sup> Anniversary <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">of the Installation of His Grace <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Most Reverend Edward Gilbert <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">as Archbishop of Port of Spain<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Thursday of the 2<sup>nd</sup> Week of Easter<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Acts 5:27-33<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">John 3:31-36<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Already on Easter Monday I heard a rumor going around that this Mass would probably be the last big function for His Grace before his retirement… Who said that? As awkward as that sounds, the news kind of reassured me because I took it as a sign of confidence in the informative process to seek candidates for his successor. To all of you who possess such confidence: God bless you and keep praying! Really, I think the reason the Vicar General called to invite the Nuncio to preach at this 10<sup>th</sup> anniversary Mass of Thanksgiving was so as not to put the Archbishop on the spot over what to say on a landmark anniversary (10 years) or concerning how he himself judges these past years he has served as your bishop. Whether that is what we should be doing beyond simply being thankful for a moment together on this 5<sup>th</sup> of May and whether I am qualified for the task, I cannot say, but don’t forget: as an interested party I’ve been present here in the country for more than six of these years! <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The last verse of the Gospel from St. John which we just heard proclaimed goes as follows:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“The Father loves the Son and has entrusted everything to him. Anyone who believes in the Son has eternal life, but anyone who refuses to believe in the Son will never see life: the anger of God stays on him.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">According to the Gospel, Faith or Belief is that which makes the difference between whether you and I will “see life” or not, to use St. John’s words. What does that mean in the life and ministry of a bishop? How does a bishop make sure that he will “see life”, that is, the only important life, eternal life? You may have always hoped it so and, believe it or not, in point of fact it is indeed so: faith is the heart of the matter, faith and not simply good intentions will be our judgment when some day, sooner perhaps for some, we stand before the Throne of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What does it mean to believe in the Son of God? What is Christian faith really? We know that faith or belief works out differently depending on your walk in life. A married woman or a married man gives evidence of being a believer within the context of that vocation to marriage and family life, by the grace of their special sacrament, Holy Matrimony. A religious sister or brother must live out the charism, the founding intuition of the institute of the consecrated life in which he or she has taken vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Children even at a very tender age are capable of believing in the Son of God and, as a result, have special duties within their state in life as well. How does a bishop make sure that he will “see life”? How does he give evidence of Faith or Belief? How does he live out his calling? St. Augustine trembled a lot about the responsibility which was his as a bishop and hence his famous saying “with you I am a Christian and for you I am a bishop”. It is that “for you” part which can rightly get us bishops into a cold sweat. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When we read in the Acts of the Apostles about Peter and his companions standing before the Sanhedrin, we might have the impression that there was something foreign about the relationship between the apostles and the Sanhedrin, as if the chief priests, the elders and the scribes hadn’t always been a trusted almost intimate part of the lives of Jesus and His closest followers. If we thought more about that closeness or familiarity between them perhaps we would be even more shocked by the betrayal, the opposition, and all the calculating which went on for their part. Jesus, Peter and his companions were judged and condemned by people who dealt with them day in and day out. The “with” and “for” which St. Augustine talks about is very real: a successor of the apostles cannot ever really be foreign to the Church entrusted to his care; the estrangement comes from those who sit in judgment, whether they be elders or scribes. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What then is this faith in the Son of God and where does it lead us? What might we say is the principal defect of the faith life of people today, and I mean anywhere in the world not just here in the islands? What is it that bishops as watchdogs and as shepherds must take to heart, must face, must stand up against such that we can make our own the words of the priestly prayer of Jesus from Chapter 17 of John’s Gospel:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent....” (Jn. 17:3) <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Bishops are ministers of word and sacrament; they are called by Christ to teach, to govern and to sanctify, but their work is first and foremost teaching. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent....” (Jn. 17:3) <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We as bishops (and this is what made St. Augustine tremble), we have the particular responsibility as successors of the Apostles to make known to the world entrusted to our care Jesus, the only true God. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You know, I don’t think there is anything more important for any of us in our lives (no matter what our calling) than bringing others to know Jesus. Before the Throne of God, mothers and fathers, you are not going to be judged for failing to keep your children in the latest clothing styles or cell phones, no, you’ll simply be asked why you failed to bring them to know and love Jesus. You’ll have to explain why your partner in marriage, the love of your life, did not come to know the loving and compassionate Christ better through you. Members of teaching and preaching orders of men and women will no doubt be asked whether they fought hard enough to keep a hand in the schools, even with decreasing numbers and advancing age, whether they did all in their power to inspire youth. And bishops… well, St. Paul wrote in his 2<sup>nd</sup> letter to Timothy about how that was supposed to go:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .4in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. …always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” (2 Tim 4:1-2;5)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Your Grace, I’m the last one who is going to pretend to take the Lord’s Throne and judge you before the final trumpet sounds. Even so, I wish to invite all who can hear me to join me in thanking God for ten years of good shepherding. Many have seen the Hand of God at work in the synodal process which has busied the archdiocese for most of these ten years; many, many have been nourished by your teaching and call-in programs each Thursday on TV; although I missed you at a lot of social events planned by civil authorities, I am thankful that you privileged confirmation celebrations and parish visitations, contact with the people especially in liturgy.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent....” (Jn. 17:3) <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We as bishops (and this is what made St. Augustine tremble), we have the particular responsibility as successors of the Apostles to make known to the world entrusted to our care Jesus, the only true God. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Maybe the reason for the rumor about this being the last big celebration before your birthday takes into account the fact that there are no ordinations to the diaconate or priesthood foreseen in 2011. I cannot say that fact should be laid at anyone’s door. Port of Spain has always benefitted from the wealth and generosity of priestly vocations from elsewhere. As the region’s largest English speaking diocese, however, and the mother church for the south and east as well, it is time to expect more, to hope for more. Three men are supposed to be entering the seminary next semester. May they be followed by at least three more each year for forever and a day. Let the mother church of the Antilles begin to care for itself and return the debt of generosity it owes, you owe, by sending workers elsewhere into the harvest as well!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 33.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent....” (Jn. 17:3) <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276822662531299374.post-32825094061824023732011-04-25T18:07:00.000-04:002011-04-25T18:07:40.329-04:00If That’s All There Is…<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Who is not being fed?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I noticed a couple of nice articles about all the people being received into the Church this Easter and a couple of other articles talking about the fact that those joining are less than those who are turning their backs on the faith. Part of this equation, at least in the secular press, is always to presume that these folks must be going elsewhere because they are “not being fed” and that the blame lies with poor preaching by Catholic priests. Although the math might be right, everything else in the equation is gratuitous. People have always drifted away from faith; most haven’t or don’t find “more faith” elsewhere. We should not be taken in by such general or unspecific criticism; lessons in public speaking for Father are not the answer.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The expression “fallen away” still is the most descriptive and generally applicable term to describe those who have dropped or been dropped from the parish lists. Most people drift off because they were never really part of the life of the Church. Some people just go away sad like the rich young man in the Gospel who wasn’t expecting Jesus’ invitation to come and follow Him. Invariably if people go elsewhere it is because they seek something more accommodating: perhaps the annulment didn’t come quickly enough or whatever (think of poor “Father Oprah” down in Florida). Poor preaching can’t really be the reason as it is nothing new in the Catholic Church. Despite our need to do better in getting the message across that cannot really be to blame. Besides, special effects do not a sermon make: some of the best homilies I have ever heard came from holy men who had never come close to kissing the Blarney Stone. The loss of the sublimity of Catholic worship is certainly more of a factor for people’s disenchantment and which must be coupled with the loss of the supporting culture. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I really think that the supporting culture plays an inestimable role in holding people; that sense of belonging cannot be underestimated. Let’s say 50 years ago, if you ran into the descendants of an immigrant family from southern Italy in the U.S. then they probably were not Catholic. Something happened on that Atlantic crossing or thereafter as they settled in their new country. This was one of the reasons Pope Leo XIII was so insistent on St. Frances Cabrini taking up her apostolate in the U.S. Someone had to receive these people in their new land and help them make a home here, a home like they’d had on the Mediterranean. Too often in the States they didn’t find the village culture of Puglia or Sicily and could not insert themselves into the Irish or German parishes in the big cities. They fell through the cracks, if you will.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In our day, the cultural factor plays out very clearly with Mexican immigrants. I remember learning from some Mexican sisters working in the States in a parish visitation program that those coming from Mexico who had been educated in their faith could more easily be incorporated into parishes up north. Those coming from parts of Mexico where they had not experienced much beyond baptism, felt no ties to Catholicism at all and could be attracted to any church where they spoke Spanish. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Years ago people said you could tell a Catholic church by the vestibule: no coat racks. Our cultural experience and our sense of belonging was not meant to be exhausted in “church-going”. As an older lady friend of mine explained it, she was so grateful as a little girl to be Catholic and not Anglican, because her Anglican friends ended up spending the whole of Sunday morning in church, hymn singing. Our cultural experience was different and it involved fasting, abstinence, processions, pilgrimages, lots of devotions and more depending on where in the world you came from. What we shared in common was an exquisitely sober, understated Sunday Mass, which never lasted more than an hour (for fear the parking lot wouldn’t be emptied out in time for the next Mass!). It was for all of the folk in the pews their time before the Throne of God. Silence and order entered into a life which might otherwise be hectic and noisy; here there was no pressure and no surprises. No one foisted himself or herself on anyone. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Sunday Mass was the cornerstone of a cultural complex which included altar society, sodalities, Knights of Columbus, Holy Name Society, Legion of Mary, St. Vincent de Paul and the parish school, just to get started. The Sign of the Cross and meal prayers effectively set us apart from everyone else. We belonged; we knew who we were as Catholics; we were sustained by a whole way of life, by a culture.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>People who cannot comprehend the attraction of younger people to solemn liturgy, Gregorian Chant, polyphony and all things classically sacred, well, I wonder whether they are really in touch with themselves. The popularity of Adoration Chapels, as I have said before, should come as no surprise. People truly do hunger for sacred space; people really do want to watch and adore; people really do want to sit or kneel silently in His Presence. Most folks’ weeks are too full of stimulation: ear buds, big screen and 3D? Adherence to rubrics (a tip of the biretta to Fr. Z. of “Say the Black; do the Red!”) would really help immensely. Sunday worship must be restored to God and withdrawn from the realm of anyone’s discretion. The marquee out front with the theme for Sunday is not our style. Silence and a spirit of prayer must return to our churches.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The point being, that in a genuinely Catholic culture it has always been the para-liturgical out in the square (like a Holy Week in Sevilla or most anywhere in Latin America) which has satisfied folks' needs for expression. Churches themselves must be safe havens without all that which characterizes folk expression and celebration.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A decade or more ago Catholic people were seeking out Byzantine Liturgy in their thirst for the Living God, in their desire to be fed (which had nothing to do with preaching). In our day, especially in some of the big cities but also in monasteries far from the rush of the maddening crowd, beautiful Extraordinary Form liturgy and nobly reformed celebrations of the Ordinary Form draw people and inspire requests for reclaiming our parish churches for beauty and order. I hope and pray that no more time will be lost in casting out the old yeast so that people might once again and universally be fed with the unleavened bread of liturgy in spirit and in truth.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Thomas Gullicksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13640680485289909046noreply@blogger.com0