Thanks to John Hisle for this one:
Our Struggle in Faith - Between Knowing It Is True and Believing it!
At the heart of our faith lies the deep truth that we are unconditionally loved by God. We believe that God looks down on our lives and says: You are my beloved child, in you I take delight! We do not doubt that truth of that, we just find it impossible to believe.Some years ago, at a workshop, a woman came up to me during the break and articulated this in these words: "God loves me unconditionally. I know that's true, but I how can I make myself believe it? I simply can't!" She could have been speaking for half of the human race. We know we are loved by God, we can say the words, but how do we make ourselves believe that?Why? Why is that so difficult to believe?For many reasons, though mostly because (unless we are extraordinarily blessed) we rarely, if ever, experience unconditional love. Mostly we experience love with conditions, even from those closest to us: Our parents love us better when we do not mess up. Our teachers love us better when we behave and perform well. Our churches love us better when we do not sin. Friends love us better when are successful and not needy. The world loves us better when we are attractive. Our spouses love us better when we do not disappoint them. Mostly, in this world, we have to measure up in some way to be loved.Moreover many of us too have been wounded by supposed expressions of love that were not love at all but were instead expressions of self-serving manipulation, exploitation, or even positive abuse. Beyond even this, all of us have been cursed and shamed in our enthusiasm by the countless times someone, either through words or through a hateful or judgmental glace, in effect said to us: Who do you think you are! We wither under that and become the walking wounded, unable to believe that we are loved and loveable. So, even when we know that God loves us, how can we make ourselves believe it?At one level, we do believe it. Deep down, below our wounded parts, the child of God that still inhabits the recesses of our soul knows that it is made in God's image and likeness and is special, beautiful, and loveable. That is why we so easily become angry and enraged whenever someone violates our dignity or puts us down.
But how do we make ourselves believe that we are unconditionally loved in a way that would make us less insecure in our attitude and our actions? How do we live in a surer confidence that we are unconditionally loved so as to let that radiate in the way we treat others and ourselves?There are no easy answers. For a wounded soul, like for a wounded body, there are no magic wands for quick easy healings. Biblically, however, there is an image that, while confusing on the surface, addresses this: When God gives Joshua instructions on how to move into the Promised Land he tells him that, once there, he must "kill" everything there, all the men, women, children, and even the animals.Taken literally, this text is horrible and speaks about everything that God is not.
But this is not a literal text but an archetypal one. It is an image, a metaphor. I suspect that someone in an Alcoholics Anonymous program will more easily get its message: Killing all the inhabitants of Canaan means precisely giving away all the bottles in your liquor cabinet - the scotch, the bourbon, the wine, the cognac, the gin, the beer, the vodka, and everything else that's there. You can't take the Promised Land and still keep a few "Canaanites" on the side or you will soon lose the Promised Land.That image also tells us what we must do to enter our true self-image, the deep truth that we are unconditionally love by God. In great mythical literature we see that, usually, before the great wedding where the young prince and the young princess are to be married so as to live happily ever after, there first has to be an execution, the wicked older brothers and the wicked step-sisters have to be killed off. Why? Because they would eventually come and spoil the wedding.
Who are those wicked older brothers and wicked step-sisters? They are not different people from the young prince or princess getting married.
They are their older incarnations. They are also inside of us. They are the inner voices from our past that can, at any given moment, ruin our wedding or our self-image by dragging in our past humiliations and saying: "Who do you think you are! Do you really think that you can marry a prince or princess? Do you really think that you're loveable? We know you, we know your past, so don't delude yourself!
To actually believe that we are unconditionally loved, we first have to kill a few "Canaanites".
[It's a metaphor and he's a Priest- no need to call the FBI]
Ron Rolheiser Corpus Christi, Texas March 1, 2009.Website: www.ronrolheiser.com
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Love is an act of sedition, a revolt against reason, an uprising in the body politic, a private mutiny. -
Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of Love
There is much more to Love than not having Sex. I can manage to not have sex with 100% percent of the world and that doesn't translate into making me a more loving person. I might actually be a bit grumpier.
Anonymous
"The man's act of self-oblation, in answer to that of the woman, is for him himself an enrichment; in fact, it is here that the specific essence, as it were, of his masculinity is manifested, which, through the reality of the body and of sex, reaches the innermost depth of 'self-possession', thanks to which he is capable both to give himself and to receive the other's gift. "
Pope John Paul II. Theology of the Body.
She is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bones-
ADAM in Genesis 2:23.
...
The Greatest commandment is this: to LOVE the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and the second is like it: LOVE your neighbor as yourself.
This is the fulfillment of all the laws and the prophets.
JESUS OF NAZARETH.
Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of Love
There is much more to Love than not having Sex. I can manage to not have sex with 100% percent of the world and that doesn't translate into making me a more loving person. I might actually be a bit grumpier.
Anonymous
"The man's act of self-oblation, in answer to that of the woman, is for him himself an enrichment; in fact, it is here that the specific essence, as it were, of his masculinity is manifested, which, through the reality of the body and of sex, reaches the innermost depth of 'self-possession', thanks to which he is capable both to give himself and to receive the other's gift. "
Pope John Paul II. Theology of the Body.
She is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bones-
ADAM in Genesis 2:23.
...
The Greatest commandment is this: to LOVE the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and the second is like it: LOVE your neighbor as yourself.
This is the fulfillment of all the laws and the prophets.
JESUS OF NAZARETH.
Monday, March 09, 2009
PARIS36- stay tuned.
SEE HIM NEXT HERE:
ALLIANCE FRANCAIS in SAN FRANCISCO
Sunday, March 15th, 6:30pm.Free admission. RSVP required to EVENTS@afsf.com.
Limited seating. Light reception immediately following. Alliance Française de San Francisco / 1345 Bush St (btw Polk & Larkin) SF CA 94109/ Info 415.775.7755 ext 13 / www.afsf.com*Public parking available at Polk-Bush Garage.
The Sweet Quiet Genius of Christophe Barratier-Something in His Eyes
WHO?- A Soul You Will Want To Know
Christophe Barratier is the Writer/Producer/Director of a movie now on DVD that swept France about five years ago called "The Chorus" (in English) about a boys orphanage in france that tamed the adolescent beast through brilliant music. It is one of my very favorite all time movies in the world- of any language.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372824/
So imagine my delight at getting to say hello to the Director Christophe at the French Embassy last night.
I was privileged to get a sneak preview of his next movie- which was two years in the writing, and is alternatively equally poignant, funny, and insightful as a period piece about a part of pre-War (WWII) Paris. It is titled in English "PARIS 36".
www.Paris36movie.com
Christophe (if you don't mind me calling you by your first name) weaves a multi-stranded story line of the lives of five French main characters and their inter-relations as they thread through the focal point of a Music Hall. Filmed predominantly in Prague (because Paris has changed a lot since WWII and the scenes required authentic pre-war buildings and streets better preserved in old Prague) the film had an eternal take on love triangles, jealousy,
daily life survival struggles, deepest love of a Father for his son, and other angles of Love rarely seen in commercial films set against a charming backdrop of recreated Parisian ambiance.
The main female character (who is to France now what Keira Knightly is to Britain,http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=175903975 ) is sure to be the next female blockbusting star of Julia Roberts proportion in box office.
The acting was superb. The eye candy quality without comparison but tempered with the quiet dignity of virtue. Virtue wins in this film (she gets her man and gets to keep him) and, moreover, leads to that sort of Love one sometimes thinks is only possible in the movies.
Christophe Barratier delicately weaves the tale of the daily hardships of a culture in evolution finding itself through various movements of socialism, fascism, unionism and other isms of the day. The gentle soul (also a protagonist in The Chorus) who plays the cuckolded father of a young boy who takes up the accordion to play with a street act is the epitome of sacrificial suffering love that forges a soul whose holiness few attain.It is profound without the schmaltz and witty beyond quitch.
Christophe is developing a new genre of film in france that incorporates music thematically. France does not have a movie tradition of "musicals" such as America has developed where lines were sung, yet he manages to bring in brilliantly music thematically to express the Redemptive power of it. This comes, he explained in the Q&A after the film, from his days singing in the boys church choir as a youth.
The movie opens in April. Take your kids, your youth group, your girlfriend and your mother. This is a movie for absolutely everyone. It is a story of the triumph of Hope and the strong resiliance of the human spirit. It's at times hysterical.
As for Christophe's next movie- please come back and get me to audition for you. (Hey, a girl can dream.) I think I am in love-it's a school-girl coup de foudre.
This movie was presented as part of a larger French Cultural Festival termed Francophonie 2009 sponsored by the Embassy of France in Washington, DC (March 4-April 3) featuring La Cinematheque-a French Film Festival. See, http://www.la-maison-francais.org/ and http://www.theavalon.org/.
MERCI MILLE FOIS ROLAND!
To book an appearance of Christopher Barratier or his cast in America contact Roland Celette, Cultural Attache of the French Embassy in Washington, DC. roland.celette@diplomatie.gouv.fr,
Christophe Barratier is the Writer/Producer/Director of a movie now on DVD that swept France about five years ago called "The Chorus" (in English) about a boys orphanage in france that tamed the adolescent beast through brilliant music. It is one of my very favorite all time movies in the world- of any language.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372824/
So imagine my delight at getting to say hello to the Director Christophe at the French Embassy last night.
I was privileged to get a sneak preview of his next movie- which was two years in the writing, and is alternatively equally poignant, funny, and insightful as a period piece about a part of pre-War (WWII) Paris. It is titled in English "PARIS 36".
www.Paris36movie.com
Christophe (if you don't mind me calling you by your first name) weaves a multi-stranded story line of the lives of five French main characters and their inter-relations as they thread through the focal point of a Music Hall. Filmed predominantly in Prague (because Paris has changed a lot since WWII and the scenes required authentic pre-war buildings and streets better preserved in old Prague) the film had an eternal take on love triangles, jealousy,
daily life survival struggles, deepest love of a Father for his son, and other angles of Love rarely seen in commercial films set against a charming backdrop of recreated Parisian ambiance.
The main female character (who is to France now what Keira Knightly is to Britain,http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=175903975 ) is sure to be the next female blockbusting star of Julia Roberts proportion in box office.
The acting was superb. The eye candy quality without comparison but tempered with the quiet dignity of virtue. Virtue wins in this film (she gets her man and gets to keep him) and, moreover, leads to that sort of Love one sometimes thinks is only possible in the movies.
Christophe Barratier delicately weaves the tale of the daily hardships of a culture in evolution finding itself through various movements of socialism, fascism, unionism and other isms of the day. The gentle soul (also a protagonist in The Chorus) who plays the cuckolded father of a young boy who takes up the accordion to play with a street act is the epitome of sacrificial suffering love that forges a soul whose holiness few attain.It is profound without the schmaltz and witty beyond quitch.
Christophe is developing a new genre of film in france that incorporates music thematically. France does not have a movie tradition of "musicals" such as America has developed where lines were sung, yet he manages to bring in brilliantly music thematically to express the Redemptive power of it. This comes, he explained in the Q&A after the film, from his days singing in the boys church choir as a youth.
The movie opens in April. Take your kids, your youth group, your girlfriend and your mother. This is a movie for absolutely everyone. It is a story of the triumph of Hope and the strong resiliance of the human spirit. It's at times hysterical.
As for Christophe's next movie- please come back and get me to audition for you. (Hey, a girl can dream.) I think I am in love-it's a school-girl coup de foudre.
This movie was presented as part of a larger French Cultural Festival termed Francophonie 2009 sponsored by the Embassy of France in Washington, DC (March 4-April 3) featuring La Cinematheque-a French Film Festival. See, http://www.la-maison-francais.org/ and http://www.theavalon.org/.
MERCI MILLE FOIS ROLAND!
To book an appearance of Christopher Barratier or his cast in America contact Roland Celette, Cultural Attache of the French Embassy in Washington, DC. roland.celette@diplomatie.gouv.fr,
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Vouching For Vouchers
Once Upon a Time in a City Not Far Away
There was a black lawyer in a top firm in Philadelphia in the mid 1980s. In the mid 1980s this was quite an accomplishment for a black lawyer to even be an Associate in a major firm in Philadelphia. He was tall, rather handsome, maybe a bit full of himself, but clearly very bright. He was a Penn Law School graduate.
At Penn Law he met and eventually married an equally or more bright law student. They practiced law in Philadelphia for a while then moved to Los Angeles. Last I saw him (which was quite some time ago) he had a thriving practice, a nice House in a georgeous part of LA and was starting a family.
The American Dream was working for him.
The key- if you asked him- was his educational foundation.
He was a kid from the inner city- someone you would have said was "at risk"; Most of the people he grew up with didn't have anything like his success. A lot of them are either still in North or West Philadelphia. Some got stuck in "the system." He wasn't from a "bougie" part of Philly- he was from hard core, lock your windows, boarded up row houseville-the part of town the police didn't even respond to calls at much and you could barely get a cab driver to go to. The place smelled of unemployment and disability checks, wired fences, undercover drugs and houses heated with open doored ovens.
So how did such a kid end up at Penn Law School then in a nice house in LA?
So how did he "escape?"
He had a free and/or highly subsidized Catholic education from first grade through High School.
For years, he took a public bus half way across town to go to school because no one in his household owned a car.
Then he got into Penn Law School. Can you imagine the elation in his entire family upon receiving his acceptance letter. I don't think either of his parents went to college.
This is just one such story in the naked city that I know about. There are millions more.
One of the things that Catholics do Amazingly well in cities is help keep kids out of trouble through elementary, jr. high and High School education. Any youth who is blessed enough to be given a "voucher" or any free benefit, assistance or scholarship to get to take advantage of a private catholic education when they otherwise could never afford one, is blessed indeed, because it sets them up for a Life wholly distinguised above and apart from the alternatives.
This is not to say that the Alternatives should not get better, or that money should not be put into the Alternatives so that we have the best education in the world- Obama is absolutely correct that if we fail in education we are doomed to fail in competition globally- so the public schools have to be improved as well with double attention paid on those schools which have suffered from discriminatory neglect in government funding/appropriation. But these are not either/or propositions. We can do all of it. The people who value, want and NEED the spiritual dimension of a Catholic education should have that choice. It can literally save their lives. Seriously.
A Catholic Education, with the spiritual dimension, is something that one should be able to choose and get help if one desires their children to go there.
One aspect of the beauty of those who choose to devote themselves to God as celibates is that they do not have their own children to devote themselves to which frees them to have very large families and treat all children like theirs, or like their extended family with special attention and devotion toward nurturing the things that feed the kids souls as well as minds. I remember a very sweet priest who referred to all the students to which he attended as a Neuman chaplain at a University as "my kids." All of them were "his kids." If you have met a really devoted educational priest you see something very special- something that people want their kids exposed to.
Many people in the country, and the world will swear that a Catholic education saved them.
They would be lost without it.
It drove out demons that would have swallowed them alive otherwise.
I can think of few sadder events from a policy perspective than eliminating this benefit for families who have come to rely on it for the intellectual and spiritual formation of their children.
There was a black lawyer in a top firm in Philadelphia in the mid 1980s. In the mid 1980s this was quite an accomplishment for a black lawyer to even be an Associate in a major firm in Philadelphia. He was tall, rather handsome, maybe a bit full of himself, but clearly very bright. He was a Penn Law School graduate.
At Penn Law he met and eventually married an equally or more bright law student. They practiced law in Philadelphia for a while then moved to Los Angeles. Last I saw him (which was quite some time ago) he had a thriving practice, a nice House in a georgeous part of LA and was starting a family.
The American Dream was working for him.
The key- if you asked him- was his educational foundation.
He was a kid from the inner city- someone you would have said was "at risk"; Most of the people he grew up with didn't have anything like his success. A lot of them are either still in North or West Philadelphia. Some got stuck in "the system." He wasn't from a "bougie" part of Philly- he was from hard core, lock your windows, boarded up row houseville-the part of town the police didn't even respond to calls at much and you could barely get a cab driver to go to. The place smelled of unemployment and disability checks, wired fences, undercover drugs and houses heated with open doored ovens.
So how did such a kid end up at Penn Law School then in a nice house in LA?
So how did he "escape?"
He had a free and/or highly subsidized Catholic education from first grade through High School.
For years, he took a public bus half way across town to go to school because no one in his household owned a car.
Then he got into Penn Law School. Can you imagine the elation in his entire family upon receiving his acceptance letter. I don't think either of his parents went to college.
This is just one such story in the naked city that I know about. There are millions more.
One of the things that Catholics do Amazingly well in cities is help keep kids out of trouble through elementary, jr. high and High School education. Any youth who is blessed enough to be given a "voucher" or any free benefit, assistance or scholarship to get to take advantage of a private catholic education when they otherwise could never afford one, is blessed indeed, because it sets them up for a Life wholly distinguised above and apart from the alternatives.
This is not to say that the Alternatives should not get better, or that money should not be put into the Alternatives so that we have the best education in the world- Obama is absolutely correct that if we fail in education we are doomed to fail in competition globally- so the public schools have to be improved as well with double attention paid on those schools which have suffered from discriminatory neglect in government funding/appropriation. But these are not either/or propositions. We can do all of it. The people who value, want and NEED the spiritual dimension of a Catholic education should have that choice. It can literally save their lives. Seriously.
A Catholic Education, with the spiritual dimension, is something that one should be able to choose and get help if one desires their children to go there.
One aspect of the beauty of those who choose to devote themselves to God as celibates is that they do not have their own children to devote themselves to which frees them to have very large families and treat all children like theirs, or like their extended family with special attention and devotion toward nurturing the things that feed the kids souls as well as minds. I remember a very sweet priest who referred to all the students to which he attended as a Neuman chaplain at a University as "my kids." All of them were "his kids." If you have met a really devoted educational priest you see something very special- something that people want their kids exposed to.
Many people in the country, and the world will swear that a Catholic education saved them.
They would be lost without it.
It drove out demons that would have swallowed them alive otherwise.
I can think of few sadder events from a policy perspective than eliminating this benefit for families who have come to rely on it for the intellectual and spiritual formation of their children.
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Friday, March 06, 2009
She Was Good Enough She Earned The Respect Of the Old Salts
RIP:
The First Woman Captain of any North American Ship
http://news.aol.com/article/first-female-ship-captain-dies/373333
Captain Kool- the first woman in North America to get her captain papers in 1939
died at age 93 on February 25.
Bless her heart. She didn't let anyone tell her she couldn't do it.
The First Woman Captain of any North American Ship
http://news.aol.com/article/first-female-ship-captain-dies/373333
Captain Kool- the first woman in North America to get her captain papers in 1939
died at age 93 on February 25.
Bless her heart. She didn't let anyone tell her she couldn't do it.
That SoJourner Guy
YES, But Will They Have Donuts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Wallis
PREACHING.
Jim Wallis, author of the New York Times best-seller, The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America, will be at the Washington National Cathedral.
On Sunday, March 15, Jim Wallis will engage in a spirited conversation with the dean of the cathedral, Samuel T. Lloyd, for the weekly dialogue series, "The Sunday Forum: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith."
They will focus on the topic of "A Pastoral Response to the Economic Crisis." The event will start at 10:10 a.m. in the cathedral nave.
Following the Sunday Forum, Jim will preach at the 11:15 a.m. Holy Eucharist.
As part of the ongoing "Celebration of American Preaching" series, Jim is among an array of distinguished preachers from various perspectives and traditions to preach at the Canterbury Pulpit.
Both events are free and open to the public.
March 15, 2009: Washington, D.C. The Sunday Forum"Pastoral Response to the Economic Crisis"Washington National Cathedral (10:10 a.m.)
Cathedral Nave
3101 Wisconsin Ave NW
Contact: Deryl Davis
Tel: (202) 537-6382mailto:537-6382DDavis@cathedral.org
March 15, 2009: Washington, D.C.
Celebration of American PreachingWashington National Cathedral (11:15 a.m.)Cathedral Nave3101 Wisconsin Ave NWContact:
Kathleen Kennan
Tel: (202) 537-6250KKeenan@cathedral.org
For more information about Jim's upcoming speaking events, please click here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Wallis
PREACHING.
Jim Wallis, author of the New York Times best-seller, The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America, will be at the Washington National Cathedral.
On Sunday, March 15, Jim Wallis will engage in a spirited conversation with the dean of the cathedral, Samuel T. Lloyd, for the weekly dialogue series, "The Sunday Forum: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith."
They will focus on the topic of "A Pastoral Response to the Economic Crisis." The event will start at 10:10 a.m. in the cathedral nave.
Following the Sunday Forum, Jim will preach at the 11:15 a.m. Holy Eucharist.
As part of the ongoing "Celebration of American Preaching" series, Jim is among an array of distinguished preachers from various perspectives and traditions to preach at the Canterbury Pulpit.
Both events are free and open to the public.
March 15, 2009: Washington, D.C. The Sunday Forum"Pastoral Response to the Economic Crisis"Washington National Cathedral (10:10 a.m.)
Cathedral Nave
3101 Wisconsin Ave NW
Contact: Deryl Davis
Tel: (202) 537-6382mailto:537-6382DDavis@cathedral.org
March 15, 2009: Washington, D.C.
Celebration of American PreachingWashington National Cathedral (11:15 a.m.)Cathedral Nave3101 Wisconsin Ave NWContact:
Kathleen Kennan
Tel: (202) 537-6250KKeenan@cathedral.org
For more information about Jim's upcoming speaking events, please click here.
Thursday, March 05, 2009
The Right To Bare Arms
This is the official Michelle Portrait headshot. The woman is stunning.
Note to every talking ditzbrain: Leave her arms alone. If you were this flablessulous, you would show them off too.
TRUTH or DARE
MEN MEN MEN - It's Raining Men Hallelujiah
I recently posted a post on the new Archdiocese of Washington, DC blog in which I made a reference to the fact that women menstruate- bleed buckets every month. This I said in my humble post makes men rather unfamiliar with what we go through and thus lessens the credibility of a male priest confessor because there are no women priests in the Catholic church. And they deleted it as "inappropriate." It's apparently an "inappropriate" bodily function according to the Archdiocese of Washington.
I actually got an email from the Archdiocese of Washington, DC Director of Communications telling me that it was an "inappropriate reference to a bodily function."
If you don't believe me you can email the Archdiocese Director of Communications, Ms. Gibbs at Gibbss@adw.org.
Not Kidding. All male priests. All male priests not married to any women. They think menstruation is an "inappropriate" reference in a blog. So I will write it here again;
MENSTRUATION. (Not a dirty word, we see our blood every month.)
Why the H would anyone go to "confession" to someone who thinks that menstruation is an 'inappropriate reference.'
Here's a newsflash fellows: WOMEN BLEED. We have hormones you only see on TV.
Here's another newsflash- your mother probably menstruated before she got pregnant with you.
This, I would argue, actually makes us closer existentially to Christ- because we bleed. We know what it is like to bleed outside our control. It comes whether we do anything or not. We don't have to cause or let injury occur to ourselves. We are wholly innocent and bloodshed arrives monthly. Monthly.
Here is another Rock-Your-World shocker. The Mother Mary, the blessed Virgin, is not made of Marble. She menstruated. Every month she was not pregnant.
Shocking!!! Send the Censor!!!
And in another post in the same blog they reference the fact that the church stands strong on its teachings which are the same now and forever concerning moral issues like "women's roles" which they lumped together in the same sentence as "sex before marriage."
OYE.
What else can you say .
OYE.
I just have to remind the Archdiocese, and it's woman Communications Director that March is
National Women's Month. May is the Month of Mary in the Church. In America March is National Women's Month. Here are a few facts you might want to chew on.
Ever hear about
THE 19th AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION
This is the one that gave us the right to vote. In 1776 the Declaration of "Independence" was signed. in 1920 women got the right to vote.
It's hard for me to digest or fathom this because my grandmother of blessed memory may she rest in peace, was 20 years old when this happened.
Prior to that no woman held any public office of any kind. There were no women Secretaries of State, no women Ambassadors, no women in the Senate, no women in Congress, no women Secretaries of anything but the typing pool.
Some traditions that are rooted in Justice, Truth, Goodness and the American Way are great and should endure. Some "traditions" are just crap and need rethinking or completely debunking and reforming. The fact that a reference to the fact that women - half the population or better- BLEED EVERY MONTH offends anyone at the Archdiocese is crap. I make no apologies for being controversial. I live in the 21st Century.
This Month of Women- think about it. It's a deeper issue.
postscript: as I think more about this. Do you realize that there were women who organized themselves to fight against the 19th Amendment. Hard to believe now, but there were actually women who rallied, and organized and fundraised and fought (hard) to preserve the status quo ---to keep women barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen (not that I have anything against the kitchen-i am a Gianna/Rachel Ray fan foodie and want a really big one! and I want to be as pregnant as possible as many times as possible) and from having any political influence whatsoever. There were women who didn't want to be empowered, who didn't want equality- who liked it just the way it was because it worked just fine for them. Why rock the boat? Seems almost immoral. For over a hundred years the economy was built on this division of labor and worked well enough.
There are women today in the church who satisfy themselves with the perverse sort of co-dependent sick relations with priests because they don't know any better and think that it is normal and even in a perverse way "holy". There are those who think challenging the status quo are enemies of the Cross instead of deeper disciples of Christ. There are those who think challenging the status quo is a mark of pride out of control rather than looking at the log in their own eye.
And there are those who against the persecution of the entrenched interests of the status quo will continue to challenge it no matter the persecutions; because this is our Cross. And in 90 years, we hope, we may have made a difference. We may not make it to the promised land, but our battle is not in vain, because the word of God never is sent in vain. The Church is deeply sexist. It is deeply mysogynist. It is an offense against God for every offense unfairly and unjustly waged against women. And it will Change. Because Jesus still sits at the right hand of God the Father and he still rules heaven and earth. There will be a tally of all the petty indignities, abuses and insults. There will be an accounting. And the sheep will not be shocked at who are the goats, while the goats will be stunned spinning self-defensively at and in their goathood refusing to believe it and futilely demanding a recount. Because Jesus loves women. Really LOVES women. Wash my feet with your hair Love. Lavish your perfume all over me Love. Let me heal your 12 year MENSTRUAL hemmhorage Love, let me excise your 7 demons Love, let me see your face first when I rise from the dead at the door of my tomb because you are the First Face i need to see on earth LOVE. Jesus really LOVES women.
I recently posted a post on the new Archdiocese of Washington, DC blog in which I made a reference to the fact that women menstruate- bleed buckets every month. This I said in my humble post makes men rather unfamiliar with what we go through and thus lessens the credibility of a male priest confessor because there are no women priests in the Catholic church. And they deleted it as "inappropriate." It's apparently an "inappropriate" bodily function according to the Archdiocese of Washington.
I actually got an email from the Archdiocese of Washington, DC Director of Communications telling me that it was an "inappropriate reference to a bodily function."
If you don't believe me you can email the Archdiocese Director of Communications, Ms. Gibbs at Gibbss@adw.org.
Not Kidding. All male priests. All male priests not married to any women. They think menstruation is an "inappropriate" reference in a blog. So I will write it here again;
MENSTRUATION. (Not a dirty word, we see our blood every month.)
Why the H would anyone go to "confession" to someone who thinks that menstruation is an 'inappropriate reference.'
Here's a newsflash fellows: WOMEN BLEED. We have hormones you only see on TV.
Here's another newsflash- your mother probably menstruated before she got pregnant with you.
This, I would argue, actually makes us closer existentially to Christ- because we bleed. We know what it is like to bleed outside our control. It comes whether we do anything or not. We don't have to cause or let injury occur to ourselves. We are wholly innocent and bloodshed arrives monthly. Monthly.
Here is another Rock-Your-World shocker. The Mother Mary, the blessed Virgin, is not made of Marble. She menstruated. Every month she was not pregnant.
Shocking!!! Send the Censor!!!
And in another post in the same blog they reference the fact that the church stands strong on its teachings which are the same now and forever concerning moral issues like "women's roles" which they lumped together in the same sentence as "sex before marriage."
OYE.
What else can you say .
OYE.
I just have to remind the Archdiocese, and it's woman Communications Director that March is
National Women's Month. May is the Month of Mary in the Church. In America March is National Women's Month. Here are a few facts you might want to chew on.
Ever hear about
THE 19th AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION
This is the one that gave us the right to vote. In 1776 the Declaration of "Independence" was signed. in 1920 women got the right to vote.
It's hard for me to digest or fathom this because my grandmother of blessed memory may she rest in peace, was 20 years old when this happened.
Prior to that no woman held any public office of any kind. There were no women Secretaries of State, no women Ambassadors, no women in the Senate, no women in Congress, no women Secretaries of anything but the typing pool.
Some traditions that are rooted in Justice, Truth, Goodness and the American Way are great and should endure. Some "traditions" are just crap and need rethinking or completely debunking and reforming. The fact that a reference to the fact that women - half the population or better- BLEED EVERY MONTH offends anyone at the Archdiocese is crap. I make no apologies for being controversial. I live in the 21st Century.
This Month of Women- think about it. It's a deeper issue.
postscript: as I think more about this. Do you realize that there were women who organized themselves to fight against the 19th Amendment. Hard to believe now, but there were actually women who rallied, and organized and fundraised and fought (hard) to preserve the status quo ---to keep women barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen (not that I have anything against the kitchen-i am a Gianna/Rachel Ray fan foodie and want a really big one! and I want to be as pregnant as possible as many times as possible) and from having any political influence whatsoever. There were women who didn't want to be empowered, who didn't want equality- who liked it just the way it was because it worked just fine for them. Why rock the boat? Seems almost immoral. For over a hundred years the economy was built on this division of labor and worked well enough.
There are women today in the church who satisfy themselves with the perverse sort of co-dependent sick relations with priests because they don't know any better and think that it is normal and even in a perverse way "holy". There are those who think challenging the status quo are enemies of the Cross instead of deeper disciples of Christ. There are those who think challenging the status quo is a mark of pride out of control rather than looking at the log in their own eye.
And there are those who against the persecution of the entrenched interests of the status quo will continue to challenge it no matter the persecutions; because this is our Cross. And in 90 years, we hope, we may have made a difference. We may not make it to the promised land, but our battle is not in vain, because the word of God never is sent in vain. The Church is deeply sexist. It is deeply mysogynist. It is an offense against God for every offense unfairly and unjustly waged against women. And it will Change. Because Jesus still sits at the right hand of God the Father and he still rules heaven and earth. There will be a tally of all the petty indignities, abuses and insults. There will be an accounting. And the sheep will not be shocked at who are the goats, while the goats will be stunned spinning self-defensively at and in their goathood refusing to believe it and futilely demanding a recount. Because Jesus loves women. Really LOVES women. Wash my feet with your hair Love. Lavish your perfume all over me Love. Let me heal your 12 year MENSTRUAL hemmhorage Love, let me excise your 7 demons Love, let me see your face first when I rise from the dead at the door of my tomb because you are the First Face i need to see on earth LOVE. Jesus really LOVES women.
Aging Like A Fine Wine, Better With Age
You Sing It Sister (or mother); Well I'll be-This old girl can't stop Praising the Lord. (Hi Stan)
Michelle ma belle-Feeding the Sheep
MICHELLE OBAMA serves up breakfast to homeless folks at MIRIAM'S KITCHEN in the basement of Western Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC.
Proving she looks as good in sleeves, Michelle mingles with the clientelle, who are basically homeless- seriously homeless. They come from shelters and off that patch of by the river under the bridge. You know they appreciated her smile- she made their year (or lifetime! how often does the guy sleeping under the bridge get served breakfast by the First Lady!!.) Hope she makes a habit of it- they come back every day. (It sort of sucks to be hungry.)
Miriam's serves over 200 homeless men and women every single day. They serve only healthy meals that you would possibly get in a diner. Volunteers get to the kitchen between 5:30am and 6:00 am. to prepare fresh food every day. On Wednesday they do a lunch crowd and volunteers from Saint Stephen Martyr, a Catholic church down the street make a pile of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to help (that's ecumenicism for you folks). Miriam's has a big fundraiser every year called "BOWLS OF COMPASSION." More on this later. You should come. http://www.capwoodturners.org/2009CalltoArtistsbrochure.pdf May 14, 2009- put it on your calendar.
The White House donated the Fruit Salad today! How Cool is our First Family !!
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/03/05/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4846217.shtml
Pat Leahy Gets To The Bottom Of --You Can Help Him.
YEAH PAT LEAHY!
Let's Get To The Bottom Of It.
Please support Senator Pat Leahy's call for a BUSH TRUTH COMMISSION
Here's Pat:
I have proposed the idea of a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate abuses during the Bush-Cheney Administration -- so they never happen again. These abuses may include the use of torture, warrantless wiretapping, extraordinary rendition, and executive override of laws.Please sign this online petition, urging Congress to consider establishing a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate the Bush-Cheney Administration's abuses.
......
We agree fully with the sentiments expressed below. If you do too, please print this page and send it to your Senator with your name signed to it.
God Bless America-- and YOU!
I hereby join Senator Patrick Leahy's call for the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission, to investigate the Bush-Cheney Administration's constitutional abuses so we make sure they never happen again. These abuses may include the use of torture, warrantless wiretapping, extraordinary rendition, and executive override of laws.A truth and reconciliation commission should be tasked with seeking answers so that we can develop a shared understanding of the failures of the recent past. Rather than vengeance, we need a fair-minded pursuit of what actually happened. The best way to move forward is getting to the truth and finding out what happened -- so we can make sure it does not happen again.
Signed by:___________________________________________
[optional] STATE_____________________________________
...or click here and fill it out on line....
http://ga3.org/campaign/btcpetition?source=btc_dem2
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
The Catholic Information Center- (when ignorance is no excuse)
If you are looking for something to read this Lent I highly recommend this. It's brilliant.You can get it at the Catholic Information Center in DC.
http://www.cicdc.org/
http://www.catholiccompany.com/catholic-books/1003442/Conversation-God-Vol-2-Lent-Eastertide/
New Salesian YouTube Channel
Soliciting your Videos!!
Want a more global presence- submit your video to the Salesian YouTube Channel..
http://www.youtube.com/ANSchannel
Want a more global presence- submit your video to the Salesian YouTube Channel..
http://www.youtube.com/ANSchannel
The Regnum Schmegnums
"They seem more upset that the man loved a woman and fathered a daughter than the long rumored intimate contact with boys. I would be relieved- he's a man. Who knows what love he had with the woman- it's the institution old as marriage created by God himself built into our biology. It probably was a marriage. You might as well be mad at him that he had the dexterous coordination to hit the gas pedal while steering a car at the same time. Get over it!"
DREAM! Who Did You Think Was In Kenya?
http://www.amm.org/
http://dream.santegidio.org/x__homep.asp?Curlang=EN
Please help support our Missions in Kenya and around the world.
Back to the start of this page
Return to The Miraculous Medal Association Home Page
email: ammfather@amm.org
http://dream.santegidio.org/x__homep.asp?Curlang=EN
Here is a recent report we received from Father Ron Ramson, C.M., who is serving in Kenya—
Father Jim Swift, our provincial superior of the Midwest Province, just completed a visit to the Kenya mission. He visited the three Vincentian priests who are currently teaching at Christ the King Seminary (the diocesan seminary) in Nyeri. He has also visited DePaul Centre, as well as the four Vincentian priests serving in Holy Cross Parish in Thigio, and the Daughters of Charity who serve the poor in the region.
Father Swift, Father Barry Moriarty, and I toured the new Dream (Drug Resource Enhancement against Aids and Malnutrition) Project. It is a first-class operation set up by the Daughters of Charity and the Rome based Community of Sant’Egidio {http://www.santegidio.org/index.php?&idLng=1064&res=1}to provide care for HIV and AIDS patients in Africa.
The Daughters of Charity provide personnel, their experience in health care, and the trust of people they serve. In collaboration with the doctors and technical staff from Sant’Egidio, the Sisters provide assurance that the resources of the program directly reach the poorest of the poor. It is close to its official opening, they are just waiting for a few more pieces of equipment.
We again are planning to have our Emmaus Program for the continuing formation and education of diocesan priests in mid-May at the Carmelites’ Retreat House. The focus of the sessions will be “small Christian communities” and “parish administration.” We expect to have around 35 priests in attendance, and hope to open the program to all the priests in Kenya this fall.
We still need PRAYER. Please have everyone pray for peace in Kenya. We are still very worried about the political situation here.
Please keep praying for those who lost their lives in the fighting and bloodshed that wracked the Kenyan cities, slums, and countryside in the past months. Also, remember in your prayers those who lost their loved ones, their homes, businesses, and others whose lives were torn apart by the rioting and violence.The very poor are still suffering. So please continue to support us as we carry on our ministry to the poor in the name of Saint Vincent de Paul.
Father Jim Swift, our provincial superior of the Midwest Province, just completed a visit to the Kenya mission. He visited the three Vincentian priests who are currently teaching at Christ the King Seminary (the diocesan seminary) in Nyeri. He has also visited DePaul Centre, as well as the four Vincentian priests serving in Holy Cross Parish in Thigio, and the Daughters of Charity who serve the poor in the region.
Father Swift, Father Barry Moriarty, and I toured the new Dream (Drug Resource Enhancement against Aids and Malnutrition) Project. It is a first-class operation set up by the Daughters of Charity and the Rome based Community of Sant’Egidio {http://www.santegidio.org/index.php?&idLng=1064&res=1}to provide care for HIV and AIDS patients in Africa.
The Daughters of Charity provide personnel, their experience in health care, and the trust of people they serve. In collaboration with the doctors and technical staff from Sant’Egidio, the Sisters provide assurance that the resources of the program directly reach the poorest of the poor. It is close to its official opening, they are just waiting for a few more pieces of equipment.
We again are planning to have our Emmaus Program for the continuing formation and education of diocesan priests in mid-May at the Carmelites’ Retreat House. The focus of the sessions will be “small Christian communities” and “parish administration.” We expect to have around 35 priests in attendance, and hope to open the program to all the priests in Kenya this fall.
We still need PRAYER. Please have everyone pray for peace in Kenya. We are still very worried about the political situation here.
Please keep praying for those who lost their lives in the fighting and bloodshed that wracked the Kenyan cities, slums, and countryside in the past months. Also, remember in your prayers those who lost their loved ones, their homes, businesses, and others whose lives were torn apart by the rioting and violence.The very poor are still suffering. So please continue to support us as we carry on our ministry to the poor in the name of Saint Vincent de Paul.
Please help support our Missions in Kenya and around the world.
Back to the start of this page
Return to The Miraculous Medal Association Home Page
email: ammfather@amm.org
Saint Vincent de Paul--he is buried at the convent on Rue du Bac in Paris.
Someone To Watch
HAROLD FORD will appear on "Hardball with Chris Matthews" today on MSNBC at 5:00 pm EST, 4:00 pm CST to discuss the political news of the week.** Check your local listings for MSNBC channel
It's OK, She's With Me.
The Book of Life
Whenever I go to an event or lecture around town there is usually a list of people sitting on a table at the door. When you come, they check to see if your name is on the list. If it is there, they tick off your name and you get to enter. If you are not on the list there could be a problem.
If the host shows up and you actually know the host, he can solve the problem by just saying "It's OK, She's With Me." Phew.
Someone sent you an email and invited you. You signed up. Your name is on the list. You were pre-approved apparently. You had to respond. You had to say, Yes. I want to go there.
Jesus pre-approves your invitation to join him. He came that none should perish but that all should have eternal life. He loved you before you even figured out who he was. If you accept this invitation, your name is in his book of Life. You enter.
If the authorities at the door see Jesus and he says "It's OK, She's with me" you are in.
No more questions. They don't need to know your net worth, your litany of past transgressions, your arguments against the organization in past. If you are cool with Jesus, you are in.
It's OK. He's with me.
Whenever I go to an event or lecture around town there is usually a list of people sitting on a table at the door. When you come, they check to see if your name is on the list. If it is there, they tick off your name and you get to enter. If you are not on the list there could be a problem.
If the host shows up and you actually know the host, he can solve the problem by just saying "It's OK, She's With Me." Phew.
Someone sent you an email and invited you. You signed up. Your name is on the list. You were pre-approved apparently. You had to respond. You had to say, Yes. I want to go there.
Jesus pre-approves your invitation to join him. He came that none should perish but that all should have eternal life. He loved you before you even figured out who he was. If you accept this invitation, your name is in his book of Life. You enter.
If the authorities at the door see Jesus and he says "It's OK, She's with me" you are in.
No more questions. They don't need to know your net worth, your litany of past transgressions, your arguments against the organization in past. If you are cool with Jesus, you are in.
It's OK. He's with me.
BECAUSE OF JESUS: FORTY YEARS, FORTY DAYS, FORTY NIGHTS
A Lenten Reflection.
Moses' journey through the desert took 40 years. It took 40 years to lead a nation from slavery and oppression to deliverance through a wilderness desert. Moses himself hid in the desert of the Midians for 40 years when fleeing Egypt from his crime of the manslaughter of an Egyptian who was abusing his fellow Jew before hearing the call of God. Forty (40) seems to be a significant coming of age number. Some mysteries of the Talmud were not taught until a man reached the age of 40.
Jesus spent 40 days in the desert wilderness under scorching sun and harsh windblown nights
while his soul was tempted by the devil before the final Act of his Redemption drama mystery.
That is why we spend this 40 days before Easter in Penance, Prayer and almsgiving to empty ourselves and purify our souls for the Easter drama mystery of redemption and eternal life in the hereafter through the saving Grace of Jesus' atonement. He didn't have to do it for us- Grace, it means an undeserved unmerited gift. God could have wiped us off the planet with another flood. But he keeps his covenantal promises and said he wouldn't do this again. So he had to send his son to save us.
This is our 40 days from slavery and oppression to deliverance from ourselves; deliverance from the sins that cripple our souls, the selfishness, the depravities, the self-righteousness, the self-promotion and attention seeking ego-driven power -tripping self -aggrandizement that alienates us from real Love and those sins that drag our souls into the nether-abyss of despair and joylessness. Sin is just another word for being fatally off-track of God's best for you according to his purposes. It's fatal because you can't escape the death of it. The wages of sin are still and always will be death. That is why we need a deliverer. A new Moses.
Sin creates a separation from a just God. Man's sin evicted him from Paradise which is a metaphor for a joyfilled blissful life in the fold of the eternal love of God.
This Lent is the exercise of the purgation of the spiritual winter fat that slothfully drags us to despondency so we can joyfully dance into Spring with all the Hope that the Easter drama mystery promises.
This pre-Easter Season it would be wise, we are told, to spiritually prepare in acts of penancy, serious prayer,and purgational sacrificial giving. Great Spiritual Sages of many faiths advise that the best kind of giving is giving away that which we want the most as acts of detachment from any earthly things creating idolotrous bondages. And it would be wise to
undergo this journey together with a nation of fellow souls seeking deliverance from the oppressions of all that binds them. There is strength in numbers for the journey. That is the purpose of church.
Some demons can't be driven out any other way than with prayer. Some greed can't be driven out any other way than sacrificial giving of that which we covet most. After all, there are no luggage racks on top of hearses and you have never seen one pulling a U-Haul. You can't take any of it with you.
There is a promising young Preacher who told a congregation comprised in part of a visiting Jewish Day School at St. Stephen Martyr Church in DC last Sunday named Br. John Chrysostom
(after Saint John Chrysostom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Chrysostom) that the Lenten
penetential purgations and deprivations serve a deeper purpose of chipping off all spiritual soul scaring matter that distorts the image of God that we are. The goal is to recover and stay true to the Image of God that we are all created in- so that we can do the work of God with the Heart of God on earth, instead of spin in our own devices and distractions. We all have a divine purpose. It is in our DNA which is made after the image of God by God.
This is a promising young inspired Preacher (technically the Dominicans don't call them preachers until they have paid more dues, but he is now a preacher because the young Man preaches) .
He will be making another appearance this Wednesday evening at Saint Stephen Martyr at 7:00 pm (you are invited, just call the church, http://www.ststephenmartyrdc.org/) lecturing on what Paul thought of the "real presence." This is a Catholic doctrine adopted by some protestant congregations as well such as Anglicans/Episcopalians and Lutherans that the body and blood of Jesus is not merely symbolic but actually transubstantiated in essential physical property under the appearance only of bread and wine (see, John 6; http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/john/john6.htm).
And why should it matter if we can't know for sure. (Some say they know for sure, some say it is unknowable and an act of Faith to believe, some say it's just those catholics getting spooky again.) This is the doctrine that Jesus himself said
would trip up folks and cause many to walk away from him. At the time he first popped this on his following crowds they said- that one is a hard one to swallow- we don't buy it.
Even today, the larger "church" universal struggles with whether the people who don't buy it, really just don't get it. (The Catholic church thinks they just don't get it, the Presbyterian World things it is just idolotrous crap and probably spin factored by some bad mistranslation at root.)
Why should it matter? If in fact that is the case, it is the most radical reality of the modern world.
I need to repeat that:
If in fact that is the case, it is the most radical reality of the modern world.
If in fact Jesus himself, in his "broken body" actually pierces the four dimensional earthly reality of existence to provide himself, his very atonement sacrificial body which serves as the sacrificial forgiveness of all our sins, to us to eat as the new manna that is our spiritual food for survival in the desert of the world into eternal life then it is clear that he is telling us that (a) we
need him-Jesus- can't live without him, to deliver us into and transition into and survive into the spiritual eternal world (b) we are all priests and (c) there is nothing more important than telling everyone on earth about this reality and bringing them into the Life that it represents and entails.
The Jews marching for 40 years into the desert from slavery to deliverance and freedom needed Manna to live. They would have died without it. This wasn't something that naturally grew in the desert. It came directly from the hand of God from the heavens. God himself fed his people in the desert. God himself still does. It is the Eucharist.
Jesus is the sacrificial lamb- God spared Abraham the anguish of sacrificing Isaac his only son and provided himself the lamb for the sacrifice- this prefigured Jesus. Jesus on the cross is the sacrificial lamb on the altar. That is why you will often see images of lambs in stained glass windows in churchs and carved in altars.
When a Jewish Priest sacrificed a lamb, it had to be pure, without blemish, and Jesus was a sinless man born of a Virgin not of fornication but of the Holy Spirit itself. Jesus was the son of God. When a Jewish Priest sacrificed a lamb he ate of it.
Jesus took the bread at the table of the last supper and he broke it and said the blessing. He said "This is my body which will be broken for you, for the forgiveness of sins" and he told them to eat it. This made us all priests. He thus annointed all of us. All of us. The Priesthood of all believers. We all partake of his atoning sacrifice. A Royal Priesthood. A Race of Believers. A Remnant of Saved by the Sacrifice. The ONLY acceptable one in our age.
If this is true, there is nothing more important than ushering people into belief into and partaking of this communion meal. This is why Catholics believe that the Eucharist is the "source and summit" of the faith; not because they worship the manna not the Creator of it, but because
this is more than manna--this is the for all time atonement sacrifice for the sins of all who just believe it- the only acceptable Sacrifice to God, because he himself provided the ultimate Lamb,
so that we would be, through his broken body and blood, brought to the Love of God forever. It is the only acceptable sacrifice that expiates, does away with the sin that separates us from the Love of God. so now, nothing, neither heights nor depths, principalities powers, angels nor demons can separate us from the love of God. Because of Jesus.
You owe it to yourself to be still with God this Lent and listen to him, and to his beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased.
You owe it to yourself to try to really get what Easter really means beyond the cultural couchings of colored eggs, chocolate bunnies and potted lillies.
Easter means God loves you so much in an unbelievably radical way. It means he keeps his promises even when it kills him. It means he is dying to love you. And it means he saved you,
and all he asks is that you look him in the face as he is hanging there on that cross and say that you believe him.
Moses' journey through the desert took 40 years. It took 40 years to lead a nation from slavery and oppression to deliverance through a wilderness desert. Moses himself hid in the desert of the Midians for 40 years when fleeing Egypt from his crime of the manslaughter of an Egyptian who was abusing his fellow Jew before hearing the call of God. Forty (40) seems to be a significant coming of age number. Some mysteries of the Talmud were not taught until a man reached the age of 40.
Jesus spent 40 days in the desert wilderness under scorching sun and harsh windblown nights
while his soul was tempted by the devil before the final Act of his Redemption drama mystery.
That is why we spend this 40 days before Easter in Penance, Prayer and almsgiving to empty ourselves and purify our souls for the Easter drama mystery of redemption and eternal life in the hereafter through the saving Grace of Jesus' atonement. He didn't have to do it for us- Grace, it means an undeserved unmerited gift. God could have wiped us off the planet with another flood. But he keeps his covenantal promises and said he wouldn't do this again. So he had to send his son to save us.
This is our 40 days from slavery and oppression to deliverance from ourselves; deliverance from the sins that cripple our souls, the selfishness, the depravities, the self-righteousness, the self-promotion and attention seeking ego-driven power -tripping self -aggrandizement that alienates us from real Love and those sins that drag our souls into the nether-abyss of despair and joylessness. Sin is just another word for being fatally off-track of God's best for you according to his purposes. It's fatal because you can't escape the death of it. The wages of sin are still and always will be death. That is why we need a deliverer. A new Moses.
Sin creates a separation from a just God. Man's sin evicted him from Paradise which is a metaphor for a joyfilled blissful life in the fold of the eternal love of God.
This Lent is the exercise of the purgation of the spiritual winter fat that slothfully drags us to despondency so we can joyfully dance into Spring with all the Hope that the Easter drama mystery promises.
This pre-Easter Season it would be wise, we are told, to spiritually prepare in acts of penancy, serious prayer,and purgational sacrificial giving. Great Spiritual Sages of many faiths advise that the best kind of giving is giving away that which we want the most as acts of detachment from any earthly things creating idolotrous bondages. And it would be wise to
undergo this journey together with a nation of fellow souls seeking deliverance from the oppressions of all that binds them. There is strength in numbers for the journey. That is the purpose of church.
Some demons can't be driven out any other way than with prayer. Some greed can't be driven out any other way than sacrificial giving of that which we covet most. After all, there are no luggage racks on top of hearses and you have never seen one pulling a U-Haul. You can't take any of it with you.
There is a promising young Preacher who told a congregation comprised in part of a visiting Jewish Day School at St. Stephen Martyr Church in DC last Sunday named Br. John Chrysostom
(after Saint John Chrysostom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Chrysostom) that the Lenten
penetential purgations and deprivations serve a deeper purpose of chipping off all spiritual soul scaring matter that distorts the image of God that we are. The goal is to recover and stay true to the Image of God that we are all created in- so that we can do the work of God with the Heart of God on earth, instead of spin in our own devices and distractions. We all have a divine purpose. It is in our DNA which is made after the image of God by God.
This is a promising young inspired Preacher (technically the Dominicans don't call them preachers until they have paid more dues, but he is now a preacher because the young Man preaches) .
He will be making another appearance this Wednesday evening at Saint Stephen Martyr at 7:00 pm (you are invited, just call the church, http://www.ststephenmartyrdc.org/) lecturing on what Paul thought of the "real presence." This is a Catholic doctrine adopted by some protestant congregations as well such as Anglicans/Episcopalians and Lutherans that the body and blood of Jesus is not merely symbolic but actually transubstantiated in essential physical property under the appearance only of bread and wine (see, John 6; http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/john/john6.htm).
And why should it matter if we can't know for sure. (Some say they know for sure, some say it is unknowable and an act of Faith to believe, some say it's just those catholics getting spooky again.) This is the doctrine that Jesus himself said
would trip up folks and cause many to walk away from him. At the time he first popped this on his following crowds they said- that one is a hard one to swallow- we don't buy it.
Even today, the larger "church" universal struggles with whether the people who don't buy it, really just don't get it. (The Catholic church thinks they just don't get it, the Presbyterian World things it is just idolotrous crap and probably spin factored by some bad mistranslation at root.)
Why should it matter? If in fact that is the case, it is the most radical reality of the modern world.
I need to repeat that:
If in fact that is the case, it is the most radical reality of the modern world.
If in fact Jesus himself, in his "broken body" actually pierces the four dimensional earthly reality of existence to provide himself, his very atonement sacrificial body which serves as the sacrificial forgiveness of all our sins, to us to eat as the new manna that is our spiritual food for survival in the desert of the world into eternal life then it is clear that he is telling us that (a) we
need him-Jesus- can't live without him, to deliver us into and transition into and survive into the spiritual eternal world (b) we are all priests and (c) there is nothing more important than telling everyone on earth about this reality and bringing them into the Life that it represents and entails.
The Jews marching for 40 years into the desert from slavery to deliverance and freedom needed Manna to live. They would have died without it. This wasn't something that naturally grew in the desert. It came directly from the hand of God from the heavens. God himself fed his people in the desert. God himself still does. It is the Eucharist.
Jesus is the sacrificial lamb- God spared Abraham the anguish of sacrificing Isaac his only son and provided himself the lamb for the sacrifice- this prefigured Jesus. Jesus on the cross is the sacrificial lamb on the altar. That is why you will often see images of lambs in stained glass windows in churchs and carved in altars.
When a Jewish Priest sacrificed a lamb, it had to be pure, without blemish, and Jesus was a sinless man born of a Virgin not of fornication but of the Holy Spirit itself. Jesus was the son of God. When a Jewish Priest sacrificed a lamb he ate of it.
Jesus took the bread at the table of the last supper and he broke it and said the blessing. He said "This is my body which will be broken for you, for the forgiveness of sins" and he told them to eat it. This made us all priests. He thus annointed all of us. All of us. The Priesthood of all believers. We all partake of his atoning sacrifice. A Royal Priesthood. A Race of Believers. A Remnant of Saved by the Sacrifice. The ONLY acceptable one in our age.
If this is true, there is nothing more important than ushering people into belief into and partaking of this communion meal. This is why Catholics believe that the Eucharist is the "source and summit" of the faith; not because they worship the manna not the Creator of it, but because
this is more than manna--this is the for all time atonement sacrifice for the sins of all who just believe it- the only acceptable Sacrifice to God, because he himself provided the ultimate Lamb,
so that we would be, through his broken body and blood, brought to the Love of God forever. It is the only acceptable sacrifice that expiates, does away with the sin that separates us from the Love of God. so now, nothing, neither heights nor depths, principalities powers, angels nor demons can separate us from the love of God. Because of Jesus.
You owe it to yourself to be still with God this Lent and listen to him, and to his beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased.
You owe it to yourself to try to really get what Easter really means beyond the cultural couchings of colored eggs, chocolate bunnies and potted lillies.
Easter means God loves you so much in an unbelievably radical way. It means he keeps his promises even when it kills him. It means he is dying to love you. And it means he saved you,
and all he asks is that you look him in the face as he is hanging there on that cross and say that you believe him.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Does God Tweet?
Tweet This
My apologies for anyone tweeting me on twitter to whom I am not responding, which would be any and all of you tweeting me. It's not that I am technologically adverse, and actually I signed up on a lark (forgive the pun.) But I don't have that comfort level on twitter that allows me to let anyone track my every move. It strikes me as cyber-stalking on steroids. Neither do I particularly need to know from "legalbeagle007" that he just left the men's room at the theatre where he forgot to wipe himself. (names changed to protect the ignorant.) This sort of detail it seems to me should not be reserved for the eternally recoverable hard-drives of crackberries which must be produced under federal rules 27-30.
I know I have to come out of the dark ages and learn how to be as adept at this as GEN Next, but I prefer to keep the space between logging on and off something sacredly private--where I am left to my thoughts and the friends I actually know rather than the anonymous multitudes. I also miss the formality of a nice phone call and that polite request to call back if busy. IMing on the fly just seems kind of too personal for people using pseudonyms and acronyms. How do I know you are not a ticked off x-blind date or frivolous suit process server? So please forgive me for not bulletin board posting my every step and trip. There are some places I have to go that you just cannot go with me.
God, however does have an IM bulletin board to which he will usually respond eventually if tweeted. He never sleeps. You don't even need a blackberry- it's called prayer. Throw up a (!!!!) for emergencies and it might get more immediate attention. "HELP" usually works well. You can telepathically post to his IM bulletin board and he instantaneously receives it. He may not answer you right away, or he may answer you in a way you don't at the time appreciate or get- but he hears you. You can tick off God bad enough sometimes by serious sin, so he won't be inclined to answer always unless you admit it and straighten out your act. It's not true that Love means never having to say you are sorry. If you mess up- say you are sorry, so God can tweet you back or send you an IM.
On that note, I will give you twitter tweeters a peak at my schedule tomorrow; I shall be hiding in a convent/monestary of sorts for the Lenten Day of Recollection with the John Carroll Society and the Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement to learn how to say "Sorry." There will be no electronic reception of any kind. It's a silent retreat. We shall practice IMing God telepathically.
If you can give me a good marketing or other reason why twitter is a good idea feel free to comment below. I have an open mind.
on another random note: HOW BOUT THEM STEELERS!!!! (had to get that out)
My apologies for anyone tweeting me on twitter to whom I am not responding, which would be any and all of you tweeting me. It's not that I am technologically adverse, and actually I signed up on a lark (forgive the pun.) But I don't have that comfort level on twitter that allows me to let anyone track my every move. It strikes me as cyber-stalking on steroids. Neither do I particularly need to know from "legalbeagle007" that he just left the men's room at the theatre where he forgot to wipe himself. (names changed to protect the ignorant.) This sort of detail it seems to me should not be reserved for the eternally recoverable hard-drives of crackberries which must be produced under federal rules 27-30.
I know I have to come out of the dark ages and learn how to be as adept at this as GEN Next, but I prefer to keep the space between logging on and off something sacredly private--where I am left to my thoughts and the friends I actually know rather than the anonymous multitudes. I also miss the formality of a nice phone call and that polite request to call back if busy. IMing on the fly just seems kind of too personal for people using pseudonyms and acronyms. How do I know you are not a ticked off x-blind date or frivolous suit process server? So please forgive me for not bulletin board posting my every step and trip. There are some places I have to go that you just cannot go with me.
God, however does have an IM bulletin board to which he will usually respond eventually if tweeted. He never sleeps. You don't even need a blackberry- it's called prayer. Throw up a (!!!!) for emergencies and it might get more immediate attention. "HELP" usually works well. You can telepathically post to his IM bulletin board and he instantaneously receives it. He may not answer you right away, or he may answer you in a way you don't at the time appreciate or get- but he hears you. You can tick off God bad enough sometimes by serious sin, so he won't be inclined to answer always unless you admit it and straighten out your act. It's not true that Love means never having to say you are sorry. If you mess up- say you are sorry, so God can tweet you back or send you an IM.
On that note, I will give you twitter tweeters a peak at my schedule tomorrow; I shall be hiding in a convent/monestary of sorts for the Lenten Day of Recollection with the John Carroll Society and the Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement to learn how to say "Sorry." There will be no electronic reception of any kind. It's a silent retreat. We shall practice IMing God telepathically.
If you can give me a good marketing or other reason why twitter is a good idea feel free to comment below. I have an open mind.
on another random note: HOW BOUT THEM STEELERS!!!! (had to get that out)
Mortaring the Cracks: Charities Around Washington, DC- so Folks don't fall through.
Lenten Works- great places to support.
I became a little alarmed when I heard about the Charitable Non-Deduction Proposed- only because I know how badly some of the really necessary good works need donations to survive and do their work. How many people who now give wouldn't if it were not a tax deduction? Did your mother tell you to always write a check instead of giving cash so you would have a record?
So I decided to start this little series on "MORTARING THE CRACKS- SO FOLKS DON'T FALL THROUGH." As the Spirit moves, I will highlight charitable programs around the District that you may not know about. Feel free to write me at HaveMercyOnUs-at- aol.com (replace the -at- with the @ if you are not a spammer to let me know of any others you want to highlight and I will post them here)
Tonight's feature is about a little known transitional program for young near homeless or actually homeless women who are either pregnant or with small children who for whatever reason find themselves without resources, sometimes court adjudicated into the program or otherwise in need of gracious kind secure philanthropy.
A packed crowd ate tonight a simple "lenten meal" of tomato soup and dinner rolls in a basement conference room at Saint Matthews Cathedral and listened to a presentation on this place:
SAINT ANNE'S INFANT AND MATERNITY HOME.
http://www.stanns.org/
Saint Anne's was originally founded by Mother Anne Seaton's order, the Daughters of Charity (Mother Anne Seaton is the first American born Saint who is buried in Emmitsburg, Maryland-just fifteen minutes from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania who sent her sisters all over the East Coast in the 19th century to start schools and orphanages) as an orphanage in 1860 for orphans, with an emphasis soon on taking care of all the fatherless created by the Civil War. It sits on the border of DC and Maryland in Hyattsville, Maryland. It's original Charter was signed by Abraham Lincoln. From its inception it took in all races of women and their children who were transitioning to greater self-sufficiency.
In an average year it now cares for 325 teenage women and their infants. It has a fully credited High School on the premesis. Now it runs four programs; a Children's Residential Program, the Teen Mother-Baby Program, Faith House and the Community Child Care Program.
The environment is loving, nurturing and affirming. Just what these women need.
If there were more programs like this, and more people knew about them, there certainly would be a lot less abortions.
You can go and schedule a visit and tour of the place (maybe even meet some of the women.)
This is one of those charities that would likely suffer if the charitable tax deduction were eliminated unless they were provided substitute funding.
Half their funding comes from grants, and the other half -about $3 Milion it takes to run the facility and pay salaries and feed everyone- comes from private donations.
Think About It-now go get your checkbook.
I know I repeated the word "orphans" a lot here- and that is because the fatherless are the new orphans. True Justice and religion, we are told repeatedly in scripture is this: to take care of the orphan, the widow and keep oneself unstained from the world.
Taking Care of Orphans.....and what's in your wallet?
I became a little alarmed when I heard about the Charitable Non-Deduction Proposed- only because I know how badly some of the really necessary good works need donations to survive and do their work. How many people who now give wouldn't if it were not a tax deduction? Did your mother tell you to always write a check instead of giving cash so you would have a record?
So I decided to start this little series on "MORTARING THE CRACKS- SO FOLKS DON'T FALL THROUGH." As the Spirit moves, I will highlight charitable programs around the District that you may not know about. Feel free to write me at HaveMercyOnUs-at- aol.com (replace the -at- with the @ if you are not a spammer to let me know of any others you want to highlight and I will post them here)
Tonight's feature is about a little known transitional program for young near homeless or actually homeless women who are either pregnant or with small children who for whatever reason find themselves without resources, sometimes court adjudicated into the program or otherwise in need of gracious kind secure philanthropy.
A packed crowd ate tonight a simple "lenten meal" of tomato soup and dinner rolls in a basement conference room at Saint Matthews Cathedral and listened to a presentation on this place:
SAINT ANNE'S INFANT AND MATERNITY HOME.
http://www.stanns.org/
Saint Anne's was originally founded by Mother Anne Seaton's order, the Daughters of Charity (Mother Anne Seaton is the first American born Saint who is buried in Emmitsburg, Maryland-just fifteen minutes from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania who sent her sisters all over the East Coast in the 19th century to start schools and orphanages) as an orphanage in 1860 for orphans, with an emphasis soon on taking care of all the fatherless created by the Civil War. It sits on the border of DC and Maryland in Hyattsville, Maryland. It's original Charter was signed by Abraham Lincoln. From its inception it took in all races of women and their children who were transitioning to greater self-sufficiency.
In an average year it now cares for 325 teenage women and their infants. It has a fully credited High School on the premesis. Now it runs four programs; a Children's Residential Program, the Teen Mother-Baby Program, Faith House and the Community Child Care Program.
The environment is loving, nurturing and affirming. Just what these women need.
If there were more programs like this, and more people knew about them, there certainly would be a lot less abortions.
You can go and schedule a visit and tour of the place (maybe even meet some of the women.)
This is one of those charities that would likely suffer if the charitable tax deduction were eliminated unless they were provided substitute funding.
Half their funding comes from grants, and the other half -about $3 Milion it takes to run the facility and pay salaries and feed everyone- comes from private donations.
Think About It-now go get your checkbook.
I know I repeated the word "orphans" a lot here- and that is because the fatherless are the new orphans. True Justice and religion, we are told repeatedly in scripture is this: to take care of the orphan, the widow and keep oneself unstained from the world.
Taking Care of Orphans.....and what's in your wallet?
I need a Moment-There is Another Hole In The World
Or A Few Months.
Some friends come and go in and out of your life with ease and you barely notice. Then some stay sometimes in the background and you take their perpetual existence for granted. If you don't see them this week, you will catch them later. Some go and you find yourself constantly remembering little things they did or said.
Some pass on and it stops you dead in your tracks whispering to them without opening your mouth. Joe was all of that at times over more than a decade.
I keep remembering Joe Clark. Pathetically, I only learned of his passing after his funeral. That's my fault for being out of touch and not keeping my old friends up to date on my current email address.
The entire country is in mortgage melt-down, banks are looking at forms of nationalization,
the entire tax code looks like its getting rewriten, guys named things like Madoff are making off with people's retirements, and Joe Clark will no more be behind the
table serving pizza at the 5:30 Cafe at Holy Trinity Sunday evenings, like he was for the last, oh-20 or so years.
Joe Clark was a humble guy- he was a eucharistic minister, he was an ever present helper in time of need, he was someone whose voice was a blessed assurance of everything's going to be just fine, because next Sunday night, he would still be serving Pizza behind the table at the 5:30 Cafe at Holy Trinity. And for a decade or more every Halloween the party was at Joe's house. He came to and hosted bible study home groups. He was a regular feature at the Young Adult Community (YAC) Jesuit retreats up at Bellarmine where he of few words always found the wiser most comforting ones. Rumor has it he actually started the YAC group but hardly anyone around now is old enough to remember back that far.
You wouldn't know unless you talked to him and pryed it out of him that he held a PHD and did some cutting edge avant resesarch in using underwater whale sound sonar to help the Navy. You wouldn't know he was worth a mini-fortune from inherited real estate and had a bunch of properties in the DC area he was developing into Bed and Breakfasts on top of his government job. He didn't dress the part. He was just Joe.
Joe helped out a client of mine once. She lost her job and I literally made a federal case out of it, filing a federal suit in Northern Virginia with another attorney friend to help get her job back and her back on her feet. Joe provided a home for her and her high school age son and let her live there serving essentially as a supervisor on the touch ups to the construction, and let her stay and manage the B&B until her son graduated from high school. Who would do that? Joe- a regular mensch.
Joe was that dying breed of gentlemen- the guys who picked up the check when hanging out with a lady because that's just what guys did. He always acted concerned, like he really was.
Joe would be the last person to tell you that he was a "Saint." His cancer could make him as cranky as the next guy, but he quitely waged this noble fight for over a decade in and out of remission and wasn't one to complain. Recently he went with his buddy Anthony to Lourdes with the Knights of Malta in their annual May Pilgrimmage. One hopes that while he apparently wasn't miraculously cured forever of his cancer, we all have to go and this helped him make his peace with the world and his maker at age 70. His was a life, if ever there was one, deserving of the moniker "Well Done Good and Faithful Servant." Let me tell you, Joe was a first class, A-grade, call the Pontifical Inquisition SAINT.
He didn't have his own family- the entire church was his family, especially those associated with the YACs at Holy Trinity. Please pray with me for his extended church family who is hit hard by this loss because he was one of those rare anchoring rocks that keeps one grounded and full of faith just watching him. There is another hole in the world.
I hope he forgives me for missing his funeral- and I fully expect to ask him personally in heaven.
In the meantime, if you want to help out with the charities that were close to his heart here in DC please consider helping out these ones found on his Washington Post obit/death notice:
Dr. Joseph A. Clark
CLARK Dr. JOSEPH A. CLARK On February 18, 2009 DR. JOSEPH A. CLARK of Arlington, VA. He is survived by cousins, Elizabeth Clark Thomas, Ellen Clark Pittsley, George Alexander and other close friends. Visitation will be held Friday, February 20, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Arlington Funeral Home, 3901 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA, and on Saturday, February 21, at 10 a.m. until time of Mass of Christian Burial at 11 a.m. at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 3513 N Street N.W., Washington, DC.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to Christ House (homeless ministry in DC) http://www.christhouse.org/ , 1717 Columbia Rd., NW, Washington, DC 20009, Cornerstone Community, 1720 Ontario Rd. NW, Washington, DC 20009, or Joseph's House, http://www.josephshouse.org/ (AIDS Hospice primarily) 1730 Lanier St., NW, Washington, DC 20009. Arrangements by Arlington Funeral Home.
Some friends come and go in and out of your life with ease and you barely notice. Then some stay sometimes in the background and you take their perpetual existence for granted. If you don't see them this week, you will catch them later. Some go and you find yourself constantly remembering little things they did or said.
Some pass on and it stops you dead in your tracks whispering to them without opening your mouth. Joe was all of that at times over more than a decade.
I keep remembering Joe Clark. Pathetically, I only learned of his passing after his funeral. That's my fault for being out of touch and not keeping my old friends up to date on my current email address.
The entire country is in mortgage melt-down, banks are looking at forms of nationalization,
the entire tax code looks like its getting rewriten, guys named things like Madoff are making off with people's retirements, and Joe Clark will no more be behind the
table serving pizza at the 5:30 Cafe at Holy Trinity Sunday evenings, like he was for the last, oh-20 or so years.
Joe Clark was a humble guy- he was a eucharistic minister, he was an ever present helper in time of need, he was someone whose voice was a blessed assurance of everything's going to be just fine, because next Sunday night, he would still be serving Pizza behind the table at the 5:30 Cafe at Holy Trinity. And for a decade or more every Halloween the party was at Joe's house. He came to and hosted bible study home groups. He was a regular feature at the Young Adult Community (YAC) Jesuit retreats up at Bellarmine where he of few words always found the wiser most comforting ones. Rumor has it he actually started the YAC group but hardly anyone around now is old enough to remember back that far.
You wouldn't know unless you talked to him and pryed it out of him that he held a PHD and did some cutting edge avant resesarch in using underwater whale sound sonar to help the Navy. You wouldn't know he was worth a mini-fortune from inherited real estate and had a bunch of properties in the DC area he was developing into Bed and Breakfasts on top of his government job. He didn't dress the part. He was just Joe.
Joe helped out a client of mine once. She lost her job and I literally made a federal case out of it, filing a federal suit in Northern Virginia with another attorney friend to help get her job back and her back on her feet. Joe provided a home for her and her high school age son and let her live there serving essentially as a supervisor on the touch ups to the construction, and let her stay and manage the B&B until her son graduated from high school. Who would do that? Joe- a regular mensch.
Joe was that dying breed of gentlemen- the guys who picked up the check when hanging out with a lady because that's just what guys did. He always acted concerned, like he really was.
Joe would be the last person to tell you that he was a "Saint." His cancer could make him as cranky as the next guy, but he quitely waged this noble fight for over a decade in and out of remission and wasn't one to complain. Recently he went with his buddy Anthony to Lourdes with the Knights of Malta in their annual May Pilgrimmage. One hopes that while he apparently wasn't miraculously cured forever of his cancer, we all have to go and this helped him make his peace with the world and his maker at age 70. His was a life, if ever there was one, deserving of the moniker "Well Done Good and Faithful Servant." Let me tell you, Joe was a first class, A-grade, call the Pontifical Inquisition SAINT.
He didn't have his own family- the entire church was his family, especially those associated with the YACs at Holy Trinity. Please pray with me for his extended church family who is hit hard by this loss because he was one of those rare anchoring rocks that keeps one grounded and full of faith just watching him. There is another hole in the world.
I hope he forgives me for missing his funeral- and I fully expect to ask him personally in heaven.
In the meantime, if you want to help out with the charities that were close to his heart here in DC please consider helping out these ones found on his Washington Post obit/death notice:
Dr. Joseph A. Clark
CLARK Dr. JOSEPH A. CLARK On February 18, 2009 DR. JOSEPH A. CLARK of Arlington, VA. He is survived by cousins, Elizabeth Clark Thomas, Ellen Clark Pittsley, George Alexander and other close friends. Visitation will be held Friday, February 20, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Arlington Funeral Home, 3901 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA, and on Saturday, February 21, at 10 a.m. until time of Mass of Christian Burial at 11 a.m. at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 3513 N Street N.W., Washington, DC.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to Christ House (homeless ministry in DC) http://www.christhouse.org/ , 1717 Columbia Rd., NW, Washington, DC 20009, Cornerstone Community, 1720 Ontario Rd. NW, Washington, DC 20009, or Joseph's House, http://www.josephshouse.org/ (AIDS Hospice primarily) 1730 Lanier St., NW, Washington, DC 20009. Arrangements by Arlington Funeral Home.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
The State of the Heart
This week we begin the Season of Lent.
In his chapter on Salesian Spirituality from volume 2 of the book Compendium of Spirituality, Jozef Strus writes: "Christian humanism is the basis of Salesian optimism. The Salesian recognizes the existence of original sin and also the weakness of fallen human beings, but never forgets the possibility of grace. The Salesian insists, in fact, on the need to work in order to obtain it. The equilibrium of Salesian asceticism lies in fostering one's growth in accordance with the plan of God instead of torturing the body..." (p. 200)Whatever we might be planning to do without (or do) or to give up (or give) for Lent, our mortification should be less a function of how we can discipline our bodies and more a function of how God can transform our hearts.(Rev)
Michael S. Murray, OSFS
Director
De Sales Spirituality Center
"Practical Paths to Holiness"
www.oblates.org/spirituality
In his chapter on Salesian Spirituality from volume 2 of the book Compendium of Spirituality, Jozef Strus writes: "Christian humanism is the basis of Salesian optimism. The Salesian recognizes the existence of original sin and also the weakness of fallen human beings, but never forgets the possibility of grace. The Salesian insists, in fact, on the need to work in order to obtain it. The equilibrium of Salesian asceticism lies in fostering one's growth in accordance with the plan of God instead of torturing the body..." (p. 200)Whatever we might be planning to do without (or do) or to give up (or give) for Lent, our mortification should be less a function of how we can discipline our bodies and more a function of how God can transform our hearts.(Rev)
Michael S. Murray, OSFS
Director
De Sales Spirituality Center
"Practical Paths to Holiness"
www.oblates.org/spirituality
Monday, February 23, 2009
Radically Abounding Grace
Far As The Curse Is Found
Where are you? What fine mess have you gotten yourself into Lucy? What rut are you stuck in? What bitterness are you nurturing? What prison of your own making have you squatted oppressed in for far too long?
The Grace of God- it's such an overused slogan it sounds cliche-- but what does it really mean?
It means that -seriously- nothing you have done, no problem or mess you have created, no evil or sin or hurt you caused is bad enough to supercede Jesus' sacrificial atonment for it on the Cross- God's love is bigger, all encompassing it. His love wraps itself around and swallows it and remembers it no more. This is the source of our great HOPE. HOPE- it's not just a town in Arkansas. It's rooted in the Cross.
The Cross- Because you can't save yourself.
God's Love for you did though- And no man has any greater Love than that.
Probably the most passionate Sermon I heard preached on the Radical Abounding Grace
is from a fellow named Joseph Prince.
Check him out.
www.JOSEPHPRINCE.com
I recommend that between now and Easter every church show his DVD on Grace, Catholic, Protestant or anything inbetween.
Where are you? What fine mess have you gotten yourself into Lucy? What rut are you stuck in? What bitterness are you nurturing? What prison of your own making have you squatted oppressed in for far too long?
The Grace of God- it's such an overused slogan it sounds cliche-- but what does it really mean?
It means that -seriously- nothing you have done, no problem or mess you have created, no evil or sin or hurt you caused is bad enough to supercede Jesus' sacrificial atonment for it on the Cross- God's love is bigger, all encompassing it. His love wraps itself around and swallows it and remembers it no more. This is the source of our great HOPE. HOPE- it's not just a town in Arkansas. It's rooted in the Cross.
The Cross- Because you can't save yourself.
God's Love for you did though- And no man has any greater Love than that.
Probably the most passionate Sermon I heard preached on the Radical Abounding Grace
is from a fellow named Joseph Prince.
Check him out.
www.JOSEPHPRINCE.com
I recommend that between now and Easter every church show his DVD on Grace, Catholic, Protestant or anything inbetween.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
WHAT THE HELL?
No Other Word To Describe It.
Anyone who has a legislative role regarding the Infant Born Alive Act or Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) or anything similar by another name MUST watch this movie: 22WEEKS. --Especially if you are a Democratic Staffer. It's been a while since I literally screamed at a movie.
http://www.22weeksthemovie.com/
It is a Docudrama (meaning based on a very true story- meaning it happens in America)
It only played briefly in town, but is available on DVD. It is mandatory watching for all Hill Staffers.
Seriously folks. You owe it to yourself to try to see all sides of the issue.
This clarifies why half the country or more thinks that the public cultural climate currently politically accepted regarding the permissive environment for abortions (late term or otherwise) is the closest thing to a left turn into Hell that they will travel only kicking, screaming or praying the Rosary before a picture of the Divine Mercy, God help us all.
This is an extremely serious mental health issue for women.
The view that abortions help women or somehow liberates them from the psychological damage resulting from their awareness of their torturing their offspring unto death under the misnomer of a clinical "procedure" is beyond perverse and sickening. It is the definition of Hell on Earth.
You owe it to yourself to not vote on anything having to do with abortion legislation -OR SIGNING IT- until you have seen this movie.
Anyone who has a legislative role regarding the Infant Born Alive Act or Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) or anything similar by another name MUST watch this movie: 22WEEKS. --Especially if you are a Democratic Staffer. It's been a while since I literally screamed at a movie.
http://www.22weeksthemovie.com/
It is a Docudrama (meaning based on a very true story- meaning it happens in America)
It only played briefly in town, but is available on DVD. It is mandatory watching for all Hill Staffers.
Seriously folks. You owe it to yourself to try to see all sides of the issue.
This clarifies why half the country or more thinks that the public cultural climate currently politically accepted regarding the permissive environment for abortions (late term or otherwise) is the closest thing to a left turn into Hell that they will travel only kicking, screaming or praying the Rosary before a picture of the Divine Mercy, God help us all.
This is an extremely serious mental health issue for women.
The view that abortions help women or somehow liberates them from the psychological damage resulting from their awareness of their torturing their offspring unto death under the misnomer of a clinical "procedure" is beyond perverse and sickening. It is the definition of Hell on Earth.
You owe it to yourself to not vote on anything having to do with abortion legislation -OR SIGNING IT- until you have seen this movie.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The Priests
GOT TALENT
http://www.thepriests.com/
SINGING IS PRAYING TWICE--Get the Irish Priests' new CD-
http://www.h2onews.org/_page_videoview.php?id_news=1553&lang=en
http://www.thepriests.com/
SINGING IS PRAYING TWICE--Get the Irish Priests' new CD-
http://www.h2onews.org/_page_videoview.php?id_news=1553&lang=en
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
You Are Invited!
COME TO OSCAR NIGHT!!
More fun than a human being should be allowed to have. Time to kick up a little Red Carpet and dance the light fantastic. Not for the squeemish. Nerds turn to instant GlamFabulous faster than Cinderella's pumpkin turns carriage this night.
John Hanshaw- the coolest indie film guy in DC is hosting an Oscar Night at the Goethe Institute in DC (near chinatown)- click here and sign up:
http://www.dcfilminstitute.org/INVITE/main.php?uid=9nhu9c9h96bf85n7537s
John Hanshaw- the coolest indie film guy in DC is hosting an Oscar Night at the Goethe Institute in DC (near chinatown)- click here and sign up:
http://www.dcfilminstitute.org/INVITE/main.php?uid=9nhu9c9h96bf85n7537s
Tivo It
Educate Yourself - Can't Hurt
"It's not a political issue, it's a moral one"
The very Right Rev. Msgr. Peter Vaghi, Pastor of Little Flower Church in Bethesda)
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09021701.html
Whether you Agree or Not with the Politics- It's Worth Watching the "Priests For Life":
Fr. Frank Pavone and Janet Morana will be on the EWTN Live Show on Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at 8pm ET. The live show will repeat on Thursday, February 26 at 1am and 9am and Sunday, March 1 at 4am (all times Eastern).
You can watch on the internet at http://www.ewtn.com/. Be part of the Live Show by calling in at 1-800-221-9460 on Wednesday night, February 25. You can even CLICK on the brown EWTN logo to the right on this blog.
Hear us on EWTN radio on Catholic Connection with Teresa Tomeo. Fr. Frank Pavone is her guest every Wednesday at 9:30am ET and Janet Morana is her guest every Friday at 9:10am ET. For radio station information and to listen to the live show on the internet, go to http://www.avemariaradio.net/.
Defending Life: Watch on EWTN every Friday at 10pm ET and Saturday at 2:30am ET. Listen on EWTN radio every Friday at 1am ET, Saturday at 6:30pm ET and Sunday at 5am ET. For more information or to listen online go to http://www.ewtn.com/.
February 20-22: A Powerful Witness. A piece of history comes alive as Martin Luther King, Jr's sister-in-law reflects on the civil rights movement and the rights of children in the womb.
February 27-March 1: Principles of Pro-Life Action: Education. Fr. Frank explores pro-life educational principles. Education is one of the pillars of the Church's pro-life activity, as outlined in the US Bishops' Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities (2001).
Gospel of Life: The shows air on "Angel One" Channel 101 on Sky Angel IPTV and channel 262 on Dish Network every Wednesday at 11:30pm. It also airs on Catholic Familyland (http://www.familyland.tv/) - Sunday at 1am, Monday at 9am, Wednesday at 3:30am and Thursday at 11:30 pm. (All Times Eastern). Listen to Gospel of Life episodes online at http://www.gospeloflife.com/.
Week of February 15: Conversation with the Descendents of Dred Scott and Booker T. Washington. Guests: Gloria Jackson and Lynn Jackson
Week of February 22: Living History. Guests: Gloria Jackson, Lynn Jackson and Alveda King, Niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"It's not a political issue, it's a moral one"
The very Right Rev. Msgr. Peter Vaghi, Pastor of Little Flower Church in Bethesda)
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09021701.html
Whether you Agree or Not with the Politics- It's Worth Watching the "Priests For Life":
Fr. Frank Pavone and Janet Morana will be on the EWTN Live Show on Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at 8pm ET. The live show will repeat on Thursday, February 26 at 1am and 9am and Sunday, March 1 at 4am (all times Eastern).
You can watch on the internet at http://www.ewtn.com/. Be part of the Live Show by calling in at 1-800-221-9460 on Wednesday night, February 25. You can even CLICK on the brown EWTN logo to the right on this blog.
Hear us on EWTN radio on Catholic Connection with Teresa Tomeo. Fr. Frank Pavone is her guest every Wednesday at 9:30am ET and Janet Morana is her guest every Friday at 9:10am ET. For radio station information and to listen to the live show on the internet, go to http://www.avemariaradio.net/.
Defending Life: Watch on EWTN every Friday at 10pm ET and Saturday at 2:30am ET. Listen on EWTN radio every Friday at 1am ET, Saturday at 6:30pm ET and Sunday at 5am ET. For more information or to listen online go to http://www.ewtn.com/.
February 20-22: A Powerful Witness. A piece of history comes alive as Martin Luther King, Jr's sister-in-law reflects on the civil rights movement and the rights of children in the womb.
February 27-March 1: Principles of Pro-Life Action: Education. Fr. Frank explores pro-life educational principles. Education is one of the pillars of the Church's pro-life activity, as outlined in the US Bishops' Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities (2001).
Gospel of Life: The shows air on "Angel One" Channel 101 on Sky Angel IPTV and channel 262 on Dish Network every Wednesday at 11:30pm. It also airs on Catholic Familyland (http://www.familyland.tv/) - Sunday at 1am, Monday at 9am, Wednesday at 3:30am and Thursday at 11:30 pm. (All Times Eastern). Listen to Gospel of Life episodes online at http://www.gospeloflife.com/.
Week of February 15: Conversation with the Descendents of Dred Scott and Booker T. Washington. Guests: Gloria Jackson and Lynn Jackson
Week of February 22: Living History. Guests: Gloria Jackson, Lynn Jackson and Alveda King, Niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Your life a set of notes and chords
some melodious some unheard
some like spaces in a line
of a harp's sweetest chime.
One alone a note so lonely
when together a harmony so holy
I can't stop listening to your melody
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlQETMZFYX8&feature=related
Un Pedigree- Don't Miss this at the French Embassy-La Maison De France-Vive La France!
La Maison Française is proud to present in Washington, DC two exclusive performances and a U.S. première of "A Pedigree", with one of France’s most revered actors - Edouard Baer. This acclaimed work by Patrick Modiano, a French literary master, received extraordinary praise in France while at the famous Théâtre de l’atelier during its 2007-2008 season (sold out with standing room only for 6 months!!!). This performance at La Maison Française will be in French with English surtitles.
“Edouard Baer gives a performance that is all at once sober, emotional and true. Both light and potent, he brings to life the muted pains of childhood.” LE JOURNAL DU DIMANCHE
“Here, surrounded by a respected audience, with this story, both unique and universal, Edouard Baer finds his truth again.” LE FIGARO
What: Patrick Modiano’s Un Pedigree staring Edouard Baer
Where: La Maison Française at the Embassy of France, 4101 Reservoir Rd, NW
When: February 20 & 21 at 8:00pm
Ticket Price: $25
Purchase Info: http://www.houseoffrancedc.org/
or 202-944-6091
RECEPTION FOLLOWS ALL PERFORMANCES- MERCI A ROLAND
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Details
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Un Pedigree:
Mixing autobiography and fiction, Modiano’s Un Pedigree is a coming of age story set in France between World War II and 1966, masterfully chronicling his early years and family “pedigree”. Born to a Flemish mother and a Jewish father, who met during the German occupation of Paris, Modiano relates his tangled and difficult family history alongside the history of a nation in upheaval.
Patrick Modiano:
Modiano published his first novel, La place de l’Etoile, in 1968. He was the recipient of the Prix Goncourt, an annual award for best and most imaginative prose work, for his 1978 book, Rue des boutiques obscures. Modiano is also the recipient of the Grand Prix National des Lettres for his body of work in 1997. Born in Boulogne Billancourt, France, Patrick Modiano spent his school years in both Annecy and in Paris.
Edouard Baer (pictured above):
Edouard Baer, a well regarded writer, director, producer and actor, attended the prestigious ‘Florent’ academy for drama. He received the Molière Award, France’s highest theatre honor, for his performance in Cravate Club. Baer made his film debut in 1994 with La Folie douce and in 2000 stared in La Bostella, a film he wrote, directed and produced. For the past three years Baer has co-directed Le Grand Mezze at Théâtre du Rond-Point in Paris.
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Facebook users: become a "Fan" of La Maison Française
Details
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Un Pedigree:
Mixing autobiography and fiction, Modiano’s Un Pedigree is a coming of age story set in France between World War II and 1966, masterfully chronicling his early years and family “pedigree”. Born to a Flemish mother and a Jewish father, who met during the German occupation of Paris, Modiano relates his tangled and difficult family history alongside the history of a nation in upheaval.
Patrick Modiano:
Modiano published his first novel, La place de l’Etoile, in 1968. He was the recipient of the Prix Goncourt, an annual award for best and most imaginative prose work, for his 1978 book, Rue des boutiques obscures. Modiano is also the recipient of the Grand Prix National des Lettres for his body of work in 1997. Born in Boulogne Billancourt, France, Patrick Modiano spent his school years in both Annecy and in Paris.
Edouard Baer (pictured above):
Edouard Baer, a well regarded writer, director, producer and actor, attended the prestigious ‘Florent’ academy for drama. He received the Molière Award, France’s highest theatre honor, for his performance in Cravate Club. Baer made his film debut in 1994 with La Folie douce and in 2000 stared in La Bostella, a film he wrote, directed and produced. For the past three years Baer has co-directed Le Grand Mezze at Théâtre du Rond-Point in Paris.
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Facebook users: become a "Fan" of La Maison Française
Sunday, February 15, 2009
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