Thoughts (A Few Words for Wednesday)

I love this photograph of Fr. Abram J. Ryan. Maybe it's his hair, or perhaps it's his stare. He has that look about him that says "I don't care who you are, here comes the goods." Last summer I shared his Song of the Mystic, and his background information, in this space. There's a connection between him and me because (for a time) he was the pastor of the parish where I attend daily Mass. I bet he was a great preacher too.

For Thoughts On Being a Christian by the "Chinese Chesterton"

  

All wisdom is from the Lord God, and hath been always with him, and is before all time. —Sirach 1:1

I came across the following thoughts in my friend John C.H. Wu's book The Interior Carmel: The Threefold Way of Love. Author Frank Sheed called John, a Benedictine Oblate, "the Chinese Chesterton." The following selection may help you understand why.

Around the World in 3 Minutes: Move, Learn, Eat

One of my favorite lines from scripture concerns "the earth and its fullness." As a Catholic Christian, you should know that this broad, nay, "catholic" expression describing the world and its wonders is to be lived and experienced with joy by us all.

To Renew My Inmost Being and Put on the New Man

Have you noticed how tough life is? It's hard enough to make it on your own, but try living the Christian life fully and the delusion that doing so is easy should have already crashed down upon you like a Summer thunder storm. That is, if you are giving it your all.

Stuff I Heard This Weekend (Music for Mondays)

Yep, you read that title right. There is nothing more to this post, and nothing less. Some of these songs I heard in the house, or on the road. None of them were from an i-Pod or anything like that. Usually, I prefer to have music arrive to my ears by chance. Call me crazy. Oh, and this post is so long, I'm publishing it on Sunday night. Call it the Early Edition.

For Thoughts on Our Adversary by Fray Francisco de Osuna

No, this isn't about Uncle Sam, patriotism, or anything like that. This is part two of a series on the work of on-going personal conversion that I started yesterday. Milk drinkers beware, because meat and potatoes are coming your way.  Bring your knives and forks and spoons. Napkins are optional.

For the Work of On-Going Personal Conversion (Part I)

I've written in the past about the deleterious side effects of cults of personality. If I wasn't clear before, let me rectify the situation and say that I believe in the only cult of personality that really matters. It is the same one that all of the saints point us towards: the Person of Jesus Christ.

A Thought For This Holiday Weekend

As he was dying, Abba Benjamin said to his sons: If you observe the following, you can be saved, “Be joyful at all times, pray without ceasing, and give thanks for all things.”

For A Few Thoughts On Memorial Day

Last year I wrote a Memorial Day post titled To Remember the Fallen. I shared a personal story with you about a few of my brother Marines and asked you to share your prayers with us for those you wanted to remember as well.

Posts like that are hard to write, and I did not relish a repeat performance come this year. So I put it off and decided to watch a movie instead. But, as the old saying goes, you can run, but you can't hide.

For Faith in Action: East Coast Fraternity Exercises 2011

What a difference a year makes. Last May, the leader of our fledgling School of Community invited me to stop by the annual spiritual retreat of the East Coast participants of Communion and Liberation. So I drove up for lunch at a conference center in Florham Park, NJ to meet Webster Bull, the man who started this blog and who introduced me to Communion and Liberation. I didn't know much about CL, and visited its East Coast Fraternity Exercises with a mix of suspicion and enthusiasm. On a personal note, I also was in the midst of retraining myself for a career teaching special-education students.

Musings After Seeing the Movie "Bridesmaids"

My husband invited me on a date tonight - dinner at our favorite diner, followed by a movie. The movie he had in mind was Bridesmaids, a comedy Universal Pictures released on Friday. My husband warned me it's rated R, because he knew I likely would become uncomfortable with at least some aspect of the movie. And I was.

I also laughed so hard at some of the over-the-top gross-out humor in the movie that I was crying. And some of the events in the movie tugged at my heart. The movie also provoked me to question how best to live in a world that doesn't always reflect my beliefs.

Because Christ Is Still Living Among Us

What follows is from Giovanni Papini's introduction to his Life of Christ. Published in 1921, you would think that these words were written just yesterday. John C.H. Wu tipped me off to this book and I found a used copy of it on Alibris.

It's 408 pages long and is filled with great passages. Written in his native Italian, it was translated in 1923 by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. Papini had been an ardent atheist, anarchist and was one of the literary giants of Italy. 

Because Christ Waits Patiently

I've been told that the proper term for "re-runs" these days is, Classics. I'm not saying this (originally posted in July, 2010) is a classic. But as it mentions modernities take on Christmas and Easter, it might bear another look on this Holy Thursday...

I saw this posted yesterday somewhere: "Forget Christmas or Easter. Independence Day is the most important holiday of the year and will have a greater impact on world history as it serves to remind people for millenia that nations are ruled by the consent of the governed." My first thought? This person is delusional. My second thought? I need to pray for them.

Because Christ Sacrificed Himself So That We May Live

-Feast of St. Alphege 

Here we are on Tuesday of what we call Holy Week. During this week, way back in the year 33 AD, the forces of human justice, lobbied aggressively by the interested parties of the Pharisees and Sadducees, convinced the Roman procurator, Pontius Pilate, to sentence Jesus to death on a cross. And though the whole mess was a tragic setup, it was all done officially and lawfully.

Because Christ Didn't Say "Take Up Your Palms And Follow Me"

—Feast of Palm Sunday 

Before I was a Catholic, I never really gave a lot of thought to Palm Sunday. This morning we awoke to glorious sunshine, with nary a cloud in the sky. The previous few days had been cloudy, cool, and wet. But a day like today is how I always picture Palm Sunday in my mind's eye.

Because Sometimes, We Sacrifice

Recently, my husband and I have felt saddened by the powerful sense we have monumentally wasted our time on an endeavor that we had hoped would build up the body of Christ. We don't have a lot of treasure to offer the Church, but we have some talent and we found the time. Instead, our efforts seem to have not borne fruit.

Because of Jacob's Well

One beautiful aspect of Catholicism is how the Gospel readings repeat themselves, year after year. This means I have a chance to contemplate them anew.

Last night at Mass, the homilist mentioned an aspect of the encounter between Christ and the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well that I never had considered: She was at the well in the middle of the day. Imagine walking from town in the blazing Middle Eastern sun at noon. Why did she do this? What does this say about the rest of us?

For Stuff My Abba Macarius Says

—Feast of St. Ludger 

I've mentioned in the past that my patron is St. Macarius the Great. He was a Desert Father who lived between the years 300 - 390 AD. He went into the desert when he was thirty years old, became a priest when he was 40 years old, was accused of adultery, and when he was proved innocent, he fled and headed to a place in the Egyptian desert called Scetis.

I probably went right by Scetis once or twice and never even knew it when I took a trip up to the battlefield at El Alamein when I was stationed in Cairo.

Because Mary Said "May It Be Done to Me"

Today is the Solemnity of the Annunciation of Our Lord. Before I was a Catholic, I wouldn't have even known what that all means. Just another one of those big ol' words linked to Jesus's mom that everyone knew Catholics worshiped.

Mary, schmerry, I thought, God can do anything. If Mary would have said no, big damn deal.

Sort of like asking a girl to dance at a party and you get rejected."Sorry God, looks like she said No. Let me buy you a beer to help you put the flames out." Next candidate please. There's a lot of fish in the sea.

Because Jesus is the Unjust Steward

This first ran back in September, 2010 during the Feast of Our Lady of La Salette. I think it deserves another look...

—Feast of Our Lady of La Salette

Today I heard the best explanation of the parable of the "Unjust Steward" that I have ever heard. Or maybe it is the parable of the "Shrewd Manager." Either way, thanks to the homily of my pastor today,  I think I may finally understand this parable.

The title of this post gives it away. Jesus, Our Lord and Savior is the unjust steward, the shrewd manager. How else to find favor in the hearts of us all than to write off or write down our debts completely? How else could this steward's master find favor with him, unless Our Lord is the steward and God is the rich man? Let's look at the passage from today's gospel reading.