Father John Corapi

June 21, 2011Neat Things I Didn't Author, Of Trials Opportunities and Gifts, Of Vice and VirtueCadyLy

Father John Corapi, Hilton Omaha Nebraska Sept. 10, 2010, a photo by Caldeira & Co. on Flickr.

It seems like everyone has a blog post about Fr. Corapi and his stunning statement released on June 17th. Emotions are running wild and people are divided into pro-Corapi and anti-Corapi camps.

Fr. Corapi had a positive influence on many people and was able to break down church teaching in a very accessible way.

But what is the take-away now? What are we learning from the events which are still unfolding? I think it is still too soon to tell and too soon to be making any predictions. However, I’m a little saddened by what I’ve heard.

Anytime any priest decides to leave the priesthood, it is a tragedy.

Anytime a person is treated unfairly by systems which are supposed to discover truth and uphold justice, it is a tragedy.

Anytime people are more concerned with the latest gossip than with displaying love and compassion for another person, it is a tragedy.

Anytime someone stops following the ways of Christ and begins to follow the way of the world, it is a tragedy.

These statements may or may not apply to the current event, I do not claim to have any particular knowledge of Fr. Corapi’s situation. Sure, I have heard things… I think everyone’s heard something at this point… But as for the truth? I don’t think I will ever know that. And that’s fine. I don’t think I particularly need to know the details.

There are people rabidly defending him and people rabidly attacking him. There are people like Al Kresta, who don’t believe that he is acting in a Christ-like manner and think that he has been indulging in self-pity. As long as the discussion remains charitable, I think it is a good thing. We can discuss actions with which we disagree and still love the person(s) who has(have) committed these actions. We should point out right and wrong, so as to help inform the consciences of others. Charity remains the one attitude we need to keep in the forefront of our minds as we enter into these discussions.

Whatever your feelings are on the subject, I think the best attitude to take is the one expressed by my blog-friend, Jen Fulwiler. She notes in her post that Fr. Corapi was very helpful in her conversion to Catholicism in teaching her the faith. However, the important part, is that the Church is bigger than any one man. And God’s Truth is always out there for us to know and embrace.

I don’t care who your priest is, how well known he is, how close you are to him or how much he has taught you of the faith. Or even how betrayed and lost you might feel if your priest leaves the priesthood or begins to behave contrary to a life of holiness or preach something other than the Gospel. What matters is that the Church has been guaranteed by the Holy Spirit. And if we know anything about God, it is that He is faithful. Even when we are not. (Or perhaps especially when we are not.)

So, at the end of the day, I can only pray that the Lord’s healing and love envelop all those who are affected by these events. No matter what the truth was, there are people significantly hurt. And they deserve our compassion and our prayers. Also, we must remain vigilant in our own faith and not allow it to be weakened by doubt or scandal. The Church is our mother and will not lead us astray, and nothing can pry us from the hands of our Father, so there is nothing to fear.

New Jersey Roadtrip!

June 14, 2011Photography, TravelCadyLy

I was asked to be Marissa’s sponsor for Confirmation, and the day had finally arrived! I took about a week off work and decided to drive out to New Jersey. I asked people about places to stop along the way, and managed to spend at least a little bit of time at each of them.

Thursday, May 19, 2011
I got off to a late start because I was giving people “just a minute more” to send me their prayers for Fr. John’s birthday project. 🙂 I didn’t actually get on the road until about 1 pm. I used my new enhanced driver’s license at the border in Sarnia for the first time and entered a foreign country (!!). It was sunny and beautiful and I quite enjoyed the Canadian countryside as I cruised along listening to Catholic talks on CD. Everything was in bloom, and the wildflowers made wide swaths of yellow, blue and purple in the green of the grass.

When I arrived in Niagara Falls, I stopped on the US side. The park entrance was gorgeous with all of the flowering trees:

Everything seemed to be in bloom and it was just gorgeous:

The path took me down to the rapids right before the Falls:

It was a lovely day, and I wished that I had some more time to spend in the park.

However, I was starting to not feel well and thought it better if I pressed on to Letchworth State Park, where I was going to stay the night. But first, I wanted to walk along the river one more time and maybe walk across that bridge up there…

This is the view from the bridge (not THE bridge, but a little bridge):

At the end of the bridge was this flowering tree. I know, it’s a lot of flower pictures, but I’m a sappy flower-loving girl like that! Deal with it! 🙂

Tulips, tulips, everywhere!

This is the view of the bridge passing into Grand Island:

Along the drive through upstate New York, there were several areas with these windmills.

This part of the drive had the most hills warning trucks to be in low gear. I had been a little anxious about traveling this “mountainous” part of the journey because the weather report had indicated severe thunderstorms, but Thank God! the weather held out. As I got closer to Letchworth, there were fewer and fewer rest areas and cities. By the time I got to Castile, I hadn’t seen another car or another human for a couple hours. It was really disconcerting. It was also getting dark and was about 8:30 pm or so. I got to where the GPS said the park should be, and didn’t see anything. I drove down the road a little further and saw some signs for it, and finally made it to a sign that indicated for me to turn left for the park, but I promise you, there was NO place to turn left! I continued on the road, getting increasingly anxious (mostly because of the lack of people). My GPS wasn’t working, it was getting darker, I couldn’t figure out these signs (there must have been multiple park entrances), and I had 100 miles to empty. I was sure that there was a gas station within 100 miles, but I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to find it. Plus, I was still feeling sick and was looking forward to the bed in that cabin I was going to rent for the night.

After seemingly driving around in circles for 30 minutes, I finally found a park entrance. I was so relieved to see the guard shack! Pulling up to buy my park ticket and arrange for the cabin, I saw that there wasn’t anyone in the booth. Okay. Well, it’s later in the evening, they probably just pulled in to another booth further in, right? There wasn’t any barrier to the park, so I continued my way in. Didn’t see another booth. Didn’t see where the campgrounds or cabins were. Didn’t see any people. Okay, this is creepy. I passed a house on one side of the street and a little parking lot with another building on the other side of the street, but these weren’t labeled as anything, so I continued down the road. I got to the end, where it said, “Service Vehicles Only.” Obviously, this wasn’t where I was supposed to be either. I turned around and headed back. I got back to the house and the parking lot and parked next to the only car in the lot (no people, again). I resigned myself to sleeping in my car for the night. I got out of the car and took a walk around to see what was there. I followed the sound of water down this trail and found a scenic overlook. In the distance, I could see one of the waterfalls lit up:

I went back to the car and checked out the building next to the parking lot. It was a public restroom! Running water, electricity and everything! Score! 🙂 I turned in and tried to sleep. Not the most comfortable thing I’ve done, but it wasn’t that bad.

Friday, May 20, 2011
I got up pretty early and thought that I should exit the park before I got arrested for trespassing or something. The first think I did was go back down the path to the scenic overlook I had run across the night before. Sadly, it was so foggy that I couldn’t see a thing.

I cleaned up in the public restrooms, rearranged my car and started to make my way out. My phone, of course, was about dead, so I couldn’t check the GPS or anything. As I made my way back to the park entrance I had come in, I saw a sign for “Lower Falls” and decided to follow it. It ended at a (deserted) parking lot, with a trail leading to the Falls. It was wet and foggy, but quite nice.

Right off the parking lot was this cute little restroom, much more rustic than the one by the parking lot where I stayed the night:

This is the “trail”:

This was my first view of the river:

These were the stairs in the park: stone steps, wet and half covered in leaves. Just what a girl with a neuromuscular disorder needs to be climbing on when there’s not another soul around. Good thing I fancy myself a billy goat and lack a self-preservation gene! 🙂

Some even had warning signs, which was nice of them.

This is the first rocky outcropping that I happened upon and immediately scrambled atop it for a better view of the river.

Views from the rock:

On the one side of the path were signs like this:

warning us not to get too close to the edge. The forest just dropped off into the river, and there were no fences or anything to keep people safe from their own stupidity.

This is a picture of how it just drops off into nothing:

This, I thought was funny, the trail was covered in tree roots. And it was all wet and muddy and quite slippery.

What was I getting myself into?

My first view of the lower falls! And look, see how it just drops off? I could just walk right over the edge. No safety net.

There was so much spray coming from the falls that I had a hard time keeping my camera lens dry enough to take a photo.

I actually was good and didn’t hike beyond the sign. I merely hiked…laterally…closer to the drop off above the falls. 🙂

Since it was the end of the trail, I had no option but to turn around and head back. This time, I took a moment to check out the other side of the path, dragging my attention away from the water (I’m such a sucker for water!).

By my first rocky outcropping there were incomplete “stairs” going down to this overlook:

The outlook itself was almost completely flooded out and very muddy, but it had some great views:

Here’s looking back at the Lower Falls:

On the far side of the overlook was another set of stairs heading down, in parallel with the river, leading to a bridge which crossed over to the other side of the park.

This bridge was pretty high off the water, which is important to remember for the next part of my story:

See, the bridge itself was flooded out, and I was not a fan of the idea of getting my shoes and socks any more wet and muddy than they already were. So, here I was… Looking at the bridge, trying to think of how I would cross it without getting wet.

Did you see that? The wall of the bridge? It’s like a ledge. About 18 inches wide. I bet I could walk on that ledge across the bridge.

I tried to get a picture from the ledge of the river. You know, to document my stupidity, right? So here I am, on an 18″ ledge, looking through a camera… 🙂 I got about 1/2 way across the bridge before I started to get scared of falling, since, despite my billy goat tendencies, I am actually afraid of heights… So, I turned around and went back.

Now, it was time to ascend back to the car and head again towards New Jersey.

But first, a stop at another overlook, right by the entrance of the park. You can see why they call this the Grand Canyon of the East. 🙂

There was another guy there, taking photos. I was so thrilled to see him, because I hadn’t seen another human in 12 hours. I asked him where the nearest gas station was, and after a while, he understood what I was asking and tried to give directions. Thank the Lord the GPS was working, despite the fog! 🙂

Here’s a video clip of the last overlook, before I left Letchworth:

This is what the drive was like: a little rain here and there, some Catholic CDs and a river alongside the road for most of the trip!

Now entering Pennsylvania!

There was not too much to see in Pennsylvania, so I pretty much blasted through. However, as I got close to New Jersey, the last exit in Pennzie, in fact, I decided that I had some time to kill and stopped by the Crayola Crayon Factory.

Completely ironically, Derek was also at the Crayola factory (but the real one, not the tourist one) for a job interview! I picked up some Dry Erase Crayons and Glass Markers and headed off again. 🙂

Now for the raison d’être! Marissa’s Confirmation! We ate dinner that Derek made for us, then got cleaned up and on the way to St. Magdalen de Pazzi Catholic Church in Flemington. All the confirmandi were dressed in red robes. There were a lot of kids being confirmed, and this was just one of two groups! 🙂 Sadly, the church asked that family members not take photographs during the liturgy, so I don’t have too many.

Here’s Marissa in the car on the way to church. Her dress was lacey; she thought it was a rather “Churchy” looking dress. 🙂

After Mass, we briefly stopped in the social hall and had our picture taken with her priest. We went to TGI Friday’s for a late night snack. There, along with expressing a desire for a disco ball for her room, Marissa said that she wanted to go to confession. Since we were planning on taking a trip to New York City in the morning, I suggested that we see if we can make confession at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. High-fives were exchanged. 🙂

Saturday, May 21, 2011
What can I say? I love trips into the city! 🙂 The crowds of people don’t bother me in the slightest. 🙂 I love all the different buildings and stores. It’s all quite beautiful. Diane got us passes on the Grayline Uptown Bus Tour, which was good, since all my previous trips have been downtown, below say, 60th street. I’ll try not to glut you with photos, but it’s rather difficult for me to not share them all! 🙂

Times Square

Diane on the tour bus!

Columbus Circle

Time-Warner

All kinds of fancy old buildings on the Upper West side! 🙂

Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine

And my favorite of this cathedral:

Union Theological Seminary

General Grant National Memorial

Brownstones in Harlem

Public Service Announcement from the City of New York:

Central Park: I wish I had more time in the city where I could wander around the park

The Seal of the City

I love the bird flying on top of this roof!

The Guggenheim Museum

This is MY kind of sidewalk! 🙂

FOOD HALL!
It was getting pretty late in the afternoon and we hadn’t eaten yet…

I love how detailed this building is!

The Irish Pub: I wish this pub were more noticable…

I still have to see this play one of these days!

Times Square, Again

Madame Tussaud’s: Our Next Stop!

Pope John Paul II and I
He’s trying to help me take the photo!

Marissa and a Rockette

Diane finding someone shorter than she!

That’s right, dude! I’m stopping your puck with my foot! Bwahahaha!

Happy Feet 4D
We are stylin’ in our shades!

Watch out!

St. Patrick’s Cathedral

Chrysler Building

Church of St. Francis of Assisi

We had dinner at a place called, I think, Lucky’s, across the street from Penn Station.

Sunday, May 22, 2011
Today was a pretty relaxed day. Diane and I caught the noon Mass at St. Magdalen’s. When we got home, we found a little kitten in the driveway. She was taken in and adopted by the family.

Throughout the night, we debated names for her.

Eventually, I think Diane settled on the name Chloe, but we will see if it sticks.

Monday, May 23, 2011
Their house is next to a farmer’s house, and they even have one cow which is theirs!

The tub is for washing the dogs. Don’t worry, there’s indoor plumbing! 🙂

Today, Marissa went to school and Derek, Diane and Garrett headed off to work. I thought this would be a great time for me to head over to Wernersville, PA to check out the gravesite of Fr. Walter Ciszek, who wrote the book “He Leadeth Me” which I recently read.

On my way out of town, I passed by St. Magdalen’s and decided to stop and take a few pictures, since it is such a pretty church:

As I was taking photos, I saw people going into the church. I asked someone and as it turns out, they were having Mass in 5 minutes! What awesome timing! 🙂

Jesuit Retreat Center at Wernersville, PA

Fr. Ciszek’s grave

I walked through the entire cemetery, praying at each grave marker. It was foggy and wet out and my shoes and jeans got soaked! 🙂 But I loved it. I then popped into the retreat center for a look around. There was a sign on the door that said, “Walk in” and so I did. 🙂

I took pictures of their artwork, too!

And their living spaces!

And their worship spaces!

Even the entrance to the retreat center was pretty, so on my way out, I parked my car in the middle of the street and took a few photos. 🙂

It took about 2 hours to get to Wernersville from Stockton, and on the way back, Diane messaged me on Facebook and let me know about some Lost Caverns. I wasn’t sure if I was going to stop by and see them, but as I came up to them on the highway and saw the signs advertising them, I decided to pull off and check it out.

It was pretty neat. This is a photo of one of the first rooms, which had been used previously for weddings. The stuff on the wall is called flowstone.

This one is an apparently rare and delicate formation where the water comes up from the rock:

It was interesting to hear stories of how the caverns had been used variously as wedding sites, dance hall, cool storage for the golf course across the street and even for stashing bootleggers’ treasures during the Prohibition!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Today’s the day I had to leave to head for home. I had packed most of my stuff the night before and left about 6 am. I drove to Rochester, NY where I met up with Bill McDonald, my godmother’s brother. He met me at the memorial park and showed me her site.

It was a beautiful area in the forest. There was a tiny waterfall and creek nearby.

We then headed into Rochester proper and had a lovely lunch. It was really nice to be able to catch up with him.

After lunch, I started on the second half of the long trip home. It was pretty uneventful. I didn’t make any random stops, really, although I did make a wrong turn and start heading toward Toronto when I was in Canada. And the thing with my GPS in Canada… It will track you and tell you the upcoming turns and things, but it will not update if you make a wrong turn! But I managed to turn around and find my way back to the correct highway without too much anxiety. It was almost too bad, because I’m sure I would have enjoyed Toronto!

And, who minds a detour when you have cool driving sunglasses like this? Until the next trip, Ciao!

St. Anastasia Book Club: The Monks of Tibhirine: Faith, Love and Terror in Algeria

May 7, 2011Book Club, Neat Things I Didn't AuthorCadyLy

We picked this book to read for April for the St. Anastasia Book Club mostly because I had just seen the movie “Of Gods and Men,” which was excellent. The book is great for giving additional information to support the movie. It spends a lot of time speaking of the political atmosphere in Algeria, of the various factions and of the religious aspect to the conflict. This made for some dry reading, but it was useful, if you were looking for a comprehensive understanding of the situation the monks were in.

Personally, I wasn’t as interested in that part so much as the lives of the monks themselves. While the majority of the attention seemed to be on Christian, the elected prior, each of the monks was revealed in the book. By the end, you really knew them: their personalities, likes, struggles, and a little bit of what Tibhirine and the Islamic community around them meant to them.

Throughout the book were passages which are worthy of copying down and praying with. The lives of these monks teach us so much about community, love, living the faith, dealing with people with different viewpoints with love, and courage.

The book was well-written in that it showed these men as real people: not paragons of virtue, but men with strengths and faults. I think it is precisely in the accurateness of their presentation that we can come to identify with them and learn from them. They did not present an unattainable ideal, but a very human response to the world around them. An excerpt written by Paul, one of the monks, states this beautifully, “A monk is simply a sinner who joins a community of sinners who are confident in God’s mercy and who strive to recognize their weaknesses in the presence of their brothers.”

Below, I’ll quote some of the passages I found particularly inspiring. I’m sorry that I don’t have page numbers for you, as I read the e-book, but if you have the Amazon Kindle version, I’ll cite the location code.

Christian obedience required intelligence and discernment; it could not be simply mechanical. It was never permitted a Christian to commit an evil act, even if commanded to do so by a superior. (1252-55)

How important is this for us to remember, especially as Catholics whose liturgies, with minor deviations, follow a certain formula. It is easy for our participation in Mass, and even our prayers and devotions, to become rote and mechanical — lacking in true feeling and the engagement of our spirit. How necessary is it that we focus and really pay attention to what it is that we are doing.

Old and New Testament…. It’s like a set of teeth. You need the uppers and the lowers or you can’t chew. We can never be content to read a text in isolation, but only within the total context…which is the only hope for understanding the word of God. We need to search for the truth that comes from living, from meeting people, and from love—truths that bring us forward, not those that just titillate the intellect.” (1770-71)

They believed that preaching, education, social work, and good example were the best medicine, the way of da’wa. Da’wa stimulates and promotes regeneration from within by instructing Islamic morality, respect for Islam, and good behavior. (2014-15)

Christian understood perfectly well the importance of the violence in the psalms. He called them a cry that says, “God be just, so I don’t take justice into my own hands. I know I can’t be just when I am angry.” The psalms reminded him of the violence in himself, something he believed was at the core of every person. Nevertheless, Christian thought it was insensitive to be singing psalms of violence when violence was increasing all around them. (2078)

God’s law is not an à la carte menu from which to choose the easy bits, or the agreeable portions. All of it must be consumed, chewed over, and digested. The Koran has a literal meaning and an inner meaning. True understanding, the Prophet said, comes only from grasping both. (2368-70)

With the help of divine inspiration, a scholar of the law will discover the harmony that exists between the ambiguous and the clear. And this will serve to strengthen his faith further. For it is only through study, reflection, and prayer of the heart that one can attain knowledge of God and His unity. (2444-60)

I love this: “prayer of the heart.” It has been pointed out to me that studying faith without having faith yourself is merely “religious studies.” If you truly want to be a theologian, you must live the faith. Mind, body and soul. There is no disunity in the Body of Christ.

My favorite:
“Let’s talk about the cross,” the Sufi said.
“Which one?” I asked him.
“The cross of Jesus, obviously.”
“Yes, but which? When you look at the cross, you see an image of Jesus—but how many crosses do you see?”
“Perhaps three, certainly two,” the Sufi replied, thinking a bit.
“There is one in front and one behind.”
“Which comes from God?” I asked him.
“The one in front,” he said.
“Which comes from men?”
“The one behind.”
“Which is the oldest?”
“The one in front…. God had to create the first one before man could make the second one.”
“What is the meaning of the cross in front, of the man with his arms extended?”
“When I extend my arms, he said, “its for embracing, for loving.”
“And the other?” I asked.
“The other cross is an instrument of hatred, for disfiguring love.”
“My Sufi friend had said, “Perhaps three.” This third cross—isn’t it perhaps he and I and this common effort we are making to loosen ourselves from the cross of evil and sin behind, so we can bind ourselves to the cross of love in front? Isn’t this just what is happening when a Jew, Yitzhak Rabin and a Muslim, Yasir Arafat, yesterday committed themselves by their revolutionary handshake to renounce finally the sword and to plow together in peace the hard soil they share? Isn’t that gesture, the struggle of moving from hatred toward love, a third cross?” (2497)

This was just beautiful. I don’t think I’ll be able to look at a crucifix in quite the same way again. I don’t think that this in any way should lessen our reverence for the cross [thinking of the way we kiss the wood of the cross during Good Friday devotions], but rather be thankful for it. God was there for us all along, with His arms outstretched, waiting for us to walk into the embrace which was being freely offered to us. However, we were unable to see His posture of love until the cross brought this into relief. It is because of the cross that we are able to see the love of God.

“If it should happen one day, and that could be tomorrow, that I am a victim of the terrorism which seems now to be engulfing all the foreigners living in Algeria, I would like my community, my church, and my family to remember that I gave my life for God and this country.” (2533-37)

When Christian read about Attia in the Algerian press, he decided to become his intercessor. “I felt I was my brother’s keeper, even of the brother in front of me that night. As his keeper, I should be able to find in him more than that which he had become.” At a retreat in Algiers, Christian gave three reasons to justify his intervention before the final judge: “He didn’t slit our throats; he came outside when I asked him and then didn’t return for Luc even when he was wounded; thirdly, he excused himself when I told him he was disturbing our celebration of the birth of the Prince of Peace.” (2785-91)

What a way to love one’s enemies! In this, Christian isn’t even “loving one’s enemy,” but truly seeing that enemy as not an enemy at all, but a brother.

Christian understood this difficulty with forgiveness. He and Christophe thought much alike. Yet he was upset when he was told by the wali that the bodies of some of the terrorists had been dragged by Jeeps through the streets of Medea. The wali defended the exhibition of the bodies. The terrorists were “filthy beasts.” Christian reproached him. With that kind of thinking, he said, the cycle of violence would never be broken. The wali’s remark was a wound that went to the heart of Christian’s faith. All men are created in God’s image. God is present in all his children, including killers. It is never too late for his children to come home, to become infants of God. Without gratuitous love, the bloody engine of reciprocal murder would never stop. (2791-92)

Without a belief in God’s presence in all his creatures, no matter how dim the spark might seem, men lose their humanity. (2815)

Amen! Just see what is happening in our culture with its widespread secularization.

“What holds us here is not our Christian values, but the relationship to Christ,” (2823-24)

You pulled me out of the grave in order to live by You, with You, and in You. You, Your care, Your anxiety, Your agony—that is now ours.” (2825-26)

“The concept of total war is not Islam. Islam says you can kill only those who threaten you. You never kill women, children, or religious people unless they are themselves in combat.” (3044-46)

I think we need to keep this in mind. There are a lot of people who are quick to demonize all Muslims for the transgressions of a few, who may not be living out the Islamic faith as it is meant to be lived. They cause scandal by their actions. As Catholics, we are far too often guilty of this ourselves. There are many times where our example, our lives, are not consonant with the teachings of the Church and we too give scandal and give a bad impression of what it means to be a Catholic.

“Men never do evil as thoroughly or as joyfully as when they do it in the name of God.” (3511-12, quoting Thomas Merton)

Pride, rearing its ugly head.

How far does one go to save his skin without running the risk of losing his soul? (3536-37)

Would that this passage stay with me during all the times of trial in my life.

when I recognize my weakness, I can accept that of others, and see a way for me to imitate Christ. (3667-68)

Merton’s famous description of monks: “trees that exist in obscure silence, but by their presence purify the air.” (3861-97)

Christian then described the five pillars of behavior that must be practiced daily to have peace. He began with patience. Saint Benedict had explained its importance: Inside the monastic enclosure, persevering in their calling until death, monks participate through their patience in the sufferings of Christ.” “There is no word for martyr in the Trappist constitution,” Christian elaborated, “nor reference to a bloody death. There is only the demand for patience and endurance in living each day.” After the Christmas visit by the montagnards, Cardinal Duval had counseled Christian with one word—la Constance—“perseverance.” Poverty was the second pillar. “The future belongs to God, not to us. Man does not have the imagination of God, so when we think of the future, we think of it as being like the past.” To want to imagine the future is only wishful thinking. Christian reminded his listeners that, in the Old Testament, God provided the Israelites with manna each day. But if they tried to gather more than they needed, storing it up for the next day, they found that it spoiled. “The future is like a tunnel. You can’t see anything inside, and only a fool would expect it to look the same upon exiting as upon entering it. When it comes to recruiting for our monastery today, we have no one to approach in Algeria. And among the people, whom are we going to ask? We must simply let the Spirit do its work and fish for souls. That is what I call poverty—to have need only for that which You have always given me.” Christian’s third pillar was presence. God is in all his children, and when one kills another, one kills the image of God. In every human being, there is something eternal, something more than a homicidal act. “This is why I cannot kill myself,” Christian recalled the words of the Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, whom he admired. “Morality entered the world by the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ The first words a person’s face says to another is, respect me. Killing can take different forms, as all who live in a community know. A contemptuous attitude, a wounding word, phrases that assassinate are other ways to kill.” Christian reminded his audience of John’s words: He who hates his brother is a murderer. “Each person must ask, ‘Have I eradicated all forms of hatred from my heart?’ We cannot live in this country today, wishing for peace, if we don’t go to this extreme of removing hatred from ourselves…and no one can say he has done this. “When I approach my neighbor, I also become his guardian, which means to become his hostage. Justice begins with the other. Take the case of Sayah Attia. I was not only the guardian of my brothers in the monastery but his guardian, too, of this man who stood opposite me and who should have been able to discover within himself something more than what he had become. I think this happened in some small measure, to the degree that he gave way that night, or made an effort to understand me. People say these types are disgusting animals, they are not human, and that you can’t deal with them. I say that if we talk like that, there will never be peace.” Prayer is the fourth pillar. “Do we pray enough for one another, for all people without any limits?” Christian asked. “Saint Paul wrote in Romans, In trying times, persevere in prayer…. We could not keep going if we did not pray and, in our prayers, seek to rid ourselves of the spirit of violence, prejudice, and rejection within us. After the episode with Attia, I wanted to pray for him. What should I pray to God? ‘Kill him?’ No, but I could pray, ‘Disarm him.’ But then I asked myself, Do I have the right to ask God to disarm him if I don’t begin by asking, ‘Disarm me, disarm my brothers.’ That was my prayer each day.” Finally, he spoke of that all-important word, forgiveness. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. We must dig into ourselves to follow the path of forgiveness…to rid ourselves of the tendency to want to choose one side or the other, to give a prize for good and evil—yes, we monks have this instinct, too. So we called the terrorists the “brothers of the mountain” and the army “the brothers of the plain.” The terms are useful for talking on the phone, but it was also a way of maintaining an open, fraternal spirit toward all sides. Coincidentally, Forgiveness is the first name for God in the Muslim litany of ninety-nine names for the divine—Ar Rahman. And the last is Patience—Es Sabur. But God is also poverty, God is presence, and God is prayer. This is the peace that God gives us. It is not as the world gives it.” (4140-42)

On Sunday, May 26, forty thousand churches throughout France tolled their bells for the monks. It was the first time since Pope John Paul I died in 1978 that such a countrywide commemoration had occurred. (4400-4401)

The caskets were placed beside their respective graves. Each one had been dug by people from the village, who had swept the dirt and tidied up the area in preparation for receiving their babas. (4401)

This is a photo of the graves of the kidnapped and murdered monks.

End of Lent Examen

April 18, 2011Reflections on PaulCadyLy

Wadowice Confessional, a photo by sacerdotal on Flickr.

How perfect is this?! We are at the end of Lent and about to enter into the Triduum. Holy Week. It’s a great time to do an examination of conscience, review what I have done over the course of Lent, and to make that final trip to the confessional.

How appropriate that we are reading 2 Timothy in class? It reads just like an examination of conscience in 2 Tim 3:

People will be…

Self-centered — Ugh. Check.
Lovers of money — No…. But does “haters of bills” count?
Proud — maybe?
Haughty — I don’t think so….
Abusive — Not that I know of, but I haven’t been around any marshmallow Peeps recently….
Disobedient to their parents — well, my parents haven’t asked anything of me recently….
Ungrateful — Ooooh. This could be painful if they count the things I tend to take for granted….
Irreligious — hmmm….
Callous — Not typically
Implacable — No
Slanderous — I don’t think so.
Licentious — Depends on which definition of Webster’s you are looking at. We’ll put that down as a “maybe”….
Brutal — oh, yes, vicious even! LOL! Okay, that’s probably a “no.”
Hating what is good — Noooo….
Traitors — no….
Reckless — Check. *sigh*
Conceited — But I *am* awesome! Oh…wait….
Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God — Eeep!

I think if we really pray with this passage, there is much which will convict us. Or me. You guys are probably all fine and stuff.

What time’s Confession??

Be Quiet, Woman!

April 14, 2011Reflections on PaulCadyLy

SHH_by_cookiemonstah, a photo by 旺小福 on Flickr.

Ah, and now to deal with the text which caused all the controversy in class! 🙂

“A woman must receive instruction silently and under complete control. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man. She must be quiet,” (1 Timothy 2:11-12).

I will have to come back to this posting after the end of Holy Week and Easter and the semester to properly do justice to this topic, as I believe that it is an important one (and I have a lot to say!!!).

I’d like to note just a few things about this.

— This in no way means that women are inferior to men, nor should it be taken that way to justify the oppression of women.

— I think this speaks more to the innate differences between men and women and how we react to different situations/projects.

— I think the juxtaposition of this passage, after speaking of the duties of men and before speaking about the qualifications of ministers has significant influence over how we are to interpret this.

— What’s so bad about obedience anyway? Jesus was obedient unto the cross.

— How come every time people speak of women being obedient, someone has to counter with Eve and the apple, blame, and sexual assault? And what does it mean that these topics are continually re-presented?

As Catholics, Can We Pray for God’s Forgiveness for the Sins of Others?

April 12, 2011Bible Study, Of Vice and Virtue, Penance, Pope John Paul II, Prayer/Prayer Requests, Question of the DayCadyLy

Here’s the question: The acknowledgement of the sins of his ancestors and asking for forgiveness for those sins constitute a large portion of Nehemiah’s prayer in Neh 1:4-11. During the 2000 Jubilee Year celebrations, Pope John Paul II asked God’s forgiveness for sins committed by Catholics over the last two millennia. In your opinion, is it ever possible for a later generation to ask forgiveness for the sins committed by earlier generations? In what ways can that be redemptive and healing?

My answer: I would imagine that if Pope John Paul II saw that asking God’s mercy and forgiveness for sins of the past was a worthwhile endeavor, I wouldn’t have any reason to think that this might not be efficacious. For individuals who have passed, we can merit indulgences and perhaps ease their way through Purgatory. I think we are probably more connected than we think — as the body of Christ — and if the sin of one can affect all, perhaps the repentance of one can also be universally applicable. Even in my own body, if it is my hand which sins, it is still my tongue which confesses. This can be redemptive in ways we do not fully understand. But if Jesus took upon Himself all of our sins, and if we are to conform ourselves to Him, perhaps there is not only something known as redemptive suffering, but also redemptive repentance. I think it can be healing precisely in the fact that it underlines our unity in Christ and encourages us in our love of neighbor. Our neighbors are not just those who are temporally proximal to us, but all people in all times.

Spiritual Motherhood

April 7, 2011Reflections on PaulCadyLy

St. Therese of Lisieux - dscn0441 by CadyLy

St. Therese of Lisieux – dscn0441, a photo by CadyLy on Flickr.

This has been on a sticky note in my office for years now, “I, then, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,” (Ephesians 4:1).

I always pair this in my mind with James 5:16, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.

Since I have been given this vocation to pray for my priest, I find it necessary to be extra-aware of the sins that I commit and to go to Reconciliation often. I mean, believe me, I am concerned about my own salvation, but more importantly, I have been gifted with this person to help support in prayer and I want to support him in the best possible way. No one wants to meagerly provide for her children; she wants to provide them with all the good things in the world! So, if being a holier person, if having a closer relationship with God, means that my prayers could be more powerful, more efficacious, than I will seek towards that.

Not that I think that my prayer is what is efficacious in this. It’s not like prayer is like putting a quarter in the vending machine, and when enough quarters have been inserted you get the snack or the prize. Not at all. It is entirely God’s doing. His free gift. Yet, He allows for our participation. And it is this aspect which I wish to maximize.

So, it is for the sake of my priest that I try to live in a manner worthy of the call which I have received, so that my prayers may be powerful before Jesus on his behalf.

St. Thérèse, pray for us!