The Three Graces

Not, not those!

I think I shall always be bothered by the imprecision of Pope Francis' words, for as long as his pontificate persists. The sound bites often seem Hallmark-ish, ("Hallmawkish"?) and I think it behooves a spiritual leader to take note of common words more specific meaning within his particular "faith tradition."
(It's why I had such a visceral reaction to being asked to sing Ruth Duck's As a Fire Is Meant For Burning.... really??!?#?? NOT to "preach our creeds"?)
Yes, words mean different things in different contexts, but as a Catholic, in the context of catechesis, (which homiletics is,) you wouldn't, for instance, talk about a skanky ballet dancer as being "graceful."
So Francis' talk of the Gospels at the Chrism Mass...

"A single word - Gospel - that, even as it is spoken, becomes truth, brimming with joy and mercy. We should never attempt to separate these three graces of the Gospel: its truth, which is non-negotiable; its mercy, which is unconditional and offered to all sinners; and its joy, which is personal and open to everyone,"

...seems off to me.
Because yes, those three things are sharing in God's love, freely given (the simplest definition of Grace,) but, and pardon me for putting words in the Holy Father's mouth, but I wonder if what he really meant was a reference to the Theological Virtues, which do indeed seem to correlate with what he called "graces."
Because holding on to Truth is the essence of having Faith, our confident Hope cannot but fill us with Joy, and the granting of Mercy to others, (and ourselves!) is the highest good of Love in Action, (the way I describe Love/Charity/Christian Love to my religious education kiddos.)
And, of course, what sets the Theological Virtues apart is that they cannot be obtained by human effort, but are infused by God into a person freely given, (and in need of unwrapping, as I like to tell them.)

(Is it so wrong that on the cusp of Papa Ratz's birthday, at this, as at nearly every instance in which Francis says something that starts to make sense to me and cuae me to think in a new way, my wish is to know how his predecessor would have teased out the theme and crafted it into some all but perfect gem of theology for the blundering but trying, like me? Ah, well, if wishes were horses....)

Virtues Let Loose Do More Damage Than Vice

It is hard talking about vices and virtues, and Good and evil with children in a way that makes the Catholic Faith accessible.
(It's difficult with adults who disagree with us, too. of course, because while they object to our "irrational" absolutes, they refuse to see that they too come from a place of unquestioned and often ill-thought out principles, and I've said repeatedly that one of the silver linings in the glowering thunderclouds of our current political climate is the clear evidence that when push comes to shove very few parties or persons hold to their stated principles. Oh, they have principles -Freedom! Dignity of human life! Tolerance! Godliness! self-determination! Safety! - but the ones they use as talking points are not the ones they actually hold, when it comes to applying them to other matters than their pet causes. But that's another topic...)
With children the notion of positive and negative are often completely linear, and they struggle to comprehend how evil exists if a good God created everything, and they reject assurances that evil is not equivalent in power, that God is "All", that the demonic is not something they need to worry about if they hold fast to Him.
(And thanks in part to their age, and in part to the super-abundance of horror films, games, books and graphic novels, and mostly thanks to their society and families having left a vacuum where thought of God should be, they are fascinated by the devil. But that too is another topic.)
They need a different geometry through which to ponder God and Virtue and Goodness, Truth and Beauty, they need to see existence more multi-dimensionally,  they need to see that their is more than one direction away from the center, from home, from God; so that the nearer we draw to virtues, actual virtues themselves rather than the actions to which those virtues might prompt us, the nearer we find ourselves to God.
Because all else is Nothingness.
And they, WE need to discern the difference between abundance and excess.

“The modern world...is full of wild and wasted virtues...it is not merely the vices that are let loose...the virtues are let loose also; and the virtues wander more wildly, and the virtues do more terrible damage. The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone. Thus some scientists care for truth; and their truth is pitiless. Thus some humanitarians only care for pity; and their pity (I am sorry to say) is often untruthful.”

-- GK Chesterton

"Words and Stuff....." and Maybe, Just Maybe... Silence?

Had a disturbing conversation, someone noticed I had traipsed through the nave with a gaggle of children in tow recently, asked me about it -
I told her, yes, it was partially to point out art and items of interest, and explain the liturgical and catechetical purpose of some of the architecture, but mostly to model behavior; cover my head in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, genuflect when necessary, maintain a reverent silence...
They don't know how to behave, do they....? she commiserated.
And I replied, how could they, most adults don't, the noise level before and after Mass, joking and trading recipes, and making golf plans -
But you must remember, it's a social event, too!
When other people are trying to pray?
But some people, that may be the only time they get out all week...
Now, understand,  our climate, weather and architecture are such that there is an embarrassment of riches for places to chat in comfort.
And I'm not an ogre - I am not condemning the wheelchair bound man who it takes two friends to get in to weekday Mass, or the senile and deaf-as-a-post babushka who shouts to ask, whadja say? at every squeak and sound.
And truth be told, the disabled man isn't among the offenders, he's impeccable - it's the Pick-a-little ladies who are heading to a meeting across the parking lot who are going to see each other all day but must start their kaffee klatsch konvo in the pew, and the wealthy retirees who want to make sure everyone hears their travel brag...
No, the simple fact is, many do not behave with reverence before and after the Liturgy, because the so often Liturgy itself transpires with precious little reverence, much less silence.
Fr Douglas Martis had a wonderful piece in Adoremus a few months ago about silence, different kinds, different dimensions. You should read the whole thing, (his words on the word, "mystery" are something I used in class,) but this descriptive phrase is a keeper -

"Invitation not Interdiction"

Again, something about which to talk with my gaggle of kids on Sunday, (in the classroom, not the nave.)
Silence as gift, not punishment. "A feature, not a bug," as the techie types say.
However -
I question his implication that speed and quiet reverence are a zero sum game, and to this end, (that of striking down such a notion,) I'd like to offer the neologism,

Breverence

Frankly, having assisted at more than one Liturgy conducted by Fr Martis, I would say it is a virtue he himself already posesses.
And finally, wihtout getting into the, "Was Shakespeare a Catholic or not?" fracas, a quote from Much Ado always pops into my mind when Silence in the Liturgy is the subject-

Silence is the perfectest herald of joy- I were but little happy if I could say how much.

"Holy" Cards

I am next thing to a hoarder, never can bear to give anything away if I think I might want it later, never can bear to throw anything away if I think someone else might have use of it, and if the right person or charity does not occur to me at the moment - well, there that item will sit. And sit. And sit.
That old faux shearling coat, that I hope never again to be cold enough to wear? It would make a swell pillow.
I hate vertical blinds, took them down immediately - but don't the long cream colored strips look like candles? Add yellow construction paper flames and let each child in Sunday school write the names of people they would like to remember in prayer during the month of All Souls,
I can't throw out scrap metal, I know there are people around who will take it,

I understand there are people who buy expensive garments they've never worn, or replace electronics with newer, faster devices - but then find that they can't bear to pitch that for which they spent so much money. But that's never been my problem - I spend very little on clothes, (I won't even go to the thrift store usually except on sale days,) and technology keeps its place in our household until it completely gives up the ghost, (sometimes after spending a long time on life-support.)

But I do find it difficult to divest myself of books and scores and scripts -- and all those photocopies.
Not so much for what they cost in monetary terms, but in effort. Out of print chant books, and reference works that were the result of hours combing, first, of used book stores, and old libraries, and later the internet - so many hard won volumes or articles or scores are freely available online now.
But I'm getting a bit better at that.

Which leaves us with the matter of holy objects.
I have disintegrating and dilapidated Latin prayerbooks, French antiphonals, a Polish Missal, broken Rosaries, crucifixes rescued from bins at Goodwill, a stack of "pew cards" for the new Holy Week changes, (when did that happen? that's right, before any of us were born.)

I will have a bonfire at some point, soon, I will.

But there are other things that whoever is stuck with clearing out my house will have to find and sort and dispose of, (don't worry, I'll do my best to make certain it won't be the hired henchman of some atheist nephew.)

I am fascinated by the Holy Cards.
They are such a a part of my family and religious history.
I see cards reminding me to offer prayers for the soul of someone I never knew, never met, dead before I was born, who lived half a world away in some cases - I think that's beautiful.
The changing styles fascinate me as well - the mawkish Edwardian lithos of the Virgin Mary no worse nor better than the saccharine pastel-colored saints and angels from between "the" wars.
And both are a damned blessed sight better than the garish '70s asymmetry of graphic artists in thrall to the concept of negative space, or the Kincaidesque landscapes with carefully worded "spiritual" messages, guaranteed not to offend adherents of any religion, or even of none at all.

I had brought some in to the last Sunday school class, curious if these children had encountered such things - I loved them when I was little, to be given something so grown-up, so jewel like, (the print shop at the Rosary Shrine was special,) that so connected me to history, (which, as far as I could imagine, stretched back months and months!)
One of them was an emblem of my very first memory - the dead body of an elderly man lying peacefully in a big box, in a charming little stone house attached to our church. Ah, that must have been the wake of this priest.
Another was for an aunt I remember very well, but strangely couldn't remember dying -I realize now it was because my Mother was in the hospital at the time being delivered of a younger sibling of mine, of course that would have occupied all my attention.

I am well aware that the devotions, the sacramentals, the little, (even from time to time kitschy,) uniquely Catholic practices and items are no all that important in and of themselves - but properly understood, I believe we should think of them as "gateways" to the Sacraments and to an entire right conception of the Faith - to its breadth and its homeyness and corporeality and personalizability, ('zat a word?) to its diversity and mystery and, yes, fun, and perhaps most especially, to our praiseworhty individuality within our praiseworthy interconnectedness.
They are all part of the "Catholic identity" that so many fear our failure to transmit.

Well, some, perhaps most of the 10 year olds knew what they were, one actually owned some, and every single child was fascinated with the very idea. and wanted to have them.
Some had a vague idea of to whom the face on my most recent acquisition belonged.
So we made our own Holy Cards. I gave them a number of psalm verse and prayers as suggestions, and they chose one, unanimously.

O Lord God of hosts! let Your face shine on us, that we may be saved!

(Oh, and this really threw me for a loop - if we had time and supplies for a second card, (after they each made one from themselves and we made 2 dozen for "the kids in juvie," as they like to say,)?

I love that "glory" prayer at the beginning of Mass, can we do that?.... and they all agreed.

Ohm and I believe I may have discovered the secret to engaging them - lamination.
(Dollar Tree, a true dollar store? five sets of the sheets, enough for ten or even 15 cards depending on size and shape. Bookmarks, maybe.)

Yes, laminating is an adventure.
I'm going to use that knowledge next year for enchanting the learning of a chant, and perhaps for memorizing the Works of Mercy, or an Act of Contrition, or the Latin and Greek names of the parts of the Ordinary.

One last thing, I loved this from the memorial card from an uncle who died when I was a young, from St Ephrem (a patron saint of mine.)

I call for the prayers of all those who have known me, of all those who have loved me.

(Isn't that better than, "do not weep for me, I'm in a better place and I'll see you at the other end of the rainbow? I know which one I would rather people read as they cart me off to the boneyard.)

Receiving the Sacraments, the Way We Live Now

Be courageous, go to Confession!

So urges Pope Francis.
God bless him, he has made commendation of this sacrament a centerpiece of his pontificate, God prosper his work.

In preparing a class on the "Sacraments of Healing" it suddenly hit me - not only has the Church of most of my lifetime, at least in this country, taken rather different tacks with the two sacraments that are most available and one would think would be those by which each of us is blessed most frequently with an outpouring of God's grace...

It has likewise turned the practice of the 2 sacraments of healing on its ear!

I have long laughed at the inconsistency of the .... what, "progressive"? not really, but whatever... of the Catholic establishment in its demands, (that amount to bullying,) regarding frequent reception of the Eucharist, (especially under both species,) and its simultaneous denigration of the sacrament of Reconciliation.
Yes, I said "denigration," and I meant it.
The "box" is disparaged, priests chase penitents away for wasting the priest's time with petty sins, catechists have discouraged inculcating reception of the sacrament by making much of the fact that canon law does not absolutely "require" it prior to a child's first Communion, the condtion of Confession for gaining Indulgences elicits the same kind of contempt indulgenced practices themselves do, the specification of "mortal" is always now highlighted in the precept of the Church dealing with the sacrament of penance, (if, indeed, anyone is so backward or ill-bred as to mention the Precepts of the Church).....
It seems never to have occurred to them that what makes confession of mortal sin terrifying is that by deprecating and making difficult if not downright unavailable the confession of venial sin, (who is going to make the effort to receive "by appointment" for "hitting my brother"?) confession itself has been turned into a daunting "emergency procedure."
The prospect is as horrifying as a root canal - how can someone who has never brushed his teeth be less than sick at the thought?
Or perhaps that was the intention? to eliminate confession entirely?
Guilt and shame are baaaaaad.
Do away with them by neutering the concept of sin, of there being anything for which one should feel guilty.

But as our beloved Holy Father has said, "“It’s healthy to have a bit of shame… It does us good because it makes us more humble.”

But strangely, at the same time as the practice of confession has been frittered away to nothingness, reception of the sacrament of the Sick is growing by leaps and bounds!
Some parishes offer it at every single Mass on a weekend, two or even three times a year, and everyone is encouraged to partake, Getting a scratchy feeling, might be a cold coming on, sign me up!

I literally know a normally healthy, walking around, living-her-life adult who has received the Sacrament of the Sick far more times than she has been to Confession.

How did this happen?

Do you think Francis can change how things are?

"And then Oedipus and Jocasta, assured by their supporters on social media that '#LoveWins', decided...."

In the great time suck that is Those Interwebs, ostensibly searching for some information about children and catechetics on the super highway, I found myself on a bypass about the irrationality and inconsistency of the current tv and movie rating system, and then went up a dead-end about the size of Cinderella's, (AKA Lilly James',) waist, pulled in to a private driveway and noticed something tantalizing about how to nip in the waist of an oversized button up shirt, had to back up to the intersection where I saw a criticism of children's literature that was not protective of the environment/blended families/the Other among us, and decided to go brew a cup, no, a mug, stadium cup of almond tea.

But while sipping, the thought came that there is a great misapprehension of the purpose of the fairy tale.

We get modern takes, and reboots and re-writes, and outright bannings of fables that fail to impart information in the manner of a user's manual.
We want Common Core nuts and bolts to help make us better worker bees instead of the grandeur and deeper truths of myth, shrunk to childsize for little hands, and pureed for mouths not yet containging any permanent teeth.
Cinderella isn't about women needing men to take care of them but about spousal and familial love being a greater goal and a rarer prize than almost any other in this life, finer than extravagant clothes and grand houses, (and certainly than inherited wealth, or servants to boss about.)

Have we done this with, (more than the occasional movie, such as the nit-wit Troy, and all stories from the Bible, on which there is open season) do we do this to creation tales, and to myth, as well?

Is there a volume of Greek and Roman Myths that functions as an apologia for Jocasta's incest and assures us that no, Time doesn't devour his children? where Narcissus has a learning experience, falls in and, rescued by followers who learn of his plight via Instagram, resolves to limit himself to only a few selfies a day? Does Atalanta not just scoop up the golden fruit but speed past Melanion just the same, magnanimously allow him to live and go off with her best gal pal to a life of lesbian bliss?

4 Big Mistakes in Catechesis?

Interesting, thoughtful piece from the never-less-than-worth-your-time Mons. Charles Pope.

One of the great struggles in the Church today is effectively catechizing God’s people. In a world so full of error, distortion, and half-truths, this has never been more necessary. I was asked recently to present my thoughts on this topic at a conference. I did so from the perspective not only of a pastor but also of one who grew up at the end of the era of the “old Church” and through the cultural revolution of late 1960s. Today’s post is the first part of my presentation at the conference; I’ll be posting the remainder over the next several days.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest.
The four "failed models" he presents are use of a "professional [ha!] class" of catechist, the priority on teaching children, the "perfunctory" nature of much of the catechesis, ("rote" learning comes in for it,) and that "the premise was authority, not truth itself."
As I said, really looking forward to the rest, but I take issue with a bit of it.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record I feel we can get nowhere unless we take a "Both/And" approach to virtually every question facing the Church.
Yes, learning should be a lifelong progress, but children must be the priority.
Look at secular life - it is more important to teach a 6 year old to read than to insure that voters keep abreast of current affairs, if for no other reason than that the second is impossible if the first is not accomplished.
No great building occurs without a foundation.
And is the emphasis on a "professional class" of catechist something of recent development? From households in 1st c. Jerusalem to villages cropping up in the environs of a medieval monastery to Don Bosco  instructing street children, was the actual instruction ever thought of as the task of the Domestic Church, (admittedly, Bosco may not have been the best example, his charges had no families.)

And, just my opinion, the greatest tragedy of religious education, no -- make that simply education, period, in my lifetime, is the neglect of the magnificent tool that is the child's memory. (Not going to whine again, and bore you with the story of why I don't know my times tables.)

And Truth, yes, but Arguments from Authority are not worthless - the problem is a failure to establish that anyone or anything has any authority, apart from Our Fearless Leader, Lord Relativism. (Not a benevolent dictator.)

But very much looking forward to new instalments.

You Go, Monsignor Pope!!!!!

"Disordered Affections" and the Politics of Victimhood and What's Wrong With Me?

So far as I have been able to determine, no nearby church, (we are a one-car household in an area with minimal public transportation, so "nearby" is not a commendation to be dismissed lightly,) is offering special Adoration for the "23 Hours of Mercy," or even confession at any other than the regular times.
So during Mass this morning, I was considering engaging in that... thing? I don't want to dignify it by calling it a "practice" ...... where I don't focus on anything much intellectually, but let the Liturgy kinda wash over me. (This can be very spiritually rewarding, don't knock it till you've tried it.)
Sometimes a word or a phrase will suddenly be illuminated so that it is thrown into relief, and observed from a slightly different angle, there may be some insight to be gained.
But strangely, especially for Lent, it wasn't penitence and mercy that called out to me, per se - it was solidarity with other sinners, [good, so far!] and yes, a great, big helping of, "oh, for the love of pete, stop whining, you particular bunch of sinners, everyone else has to deal with that too, me and everyone else, YOU'RE NOT SO SPECIAL, [bad.]

It's odd, because such an attitude as I have is, the exact opposite of what we call "compassion," right?
The ability to willingly suffer with someone else?
And yet my actual thoughts are, don't you get it, you idiots? we all experience the exact same thing, so if you really believe that's somehow "suffering," we're all already suffering with you!

What in the liturgy prompted such unChristian thought?
It started early.
Opening collect....
We pray, O Lord, that we may be constantly drawn away from unruly desires...

"Unruly"? As in "boisterous"? Who're you callin'..... Oh, wait, no, as in requiring some effort to get them in line, subdue them, be their master rather than lave. Oh, good. I'll use that at Sunday school - we all have temptations to tame. Lions, animal analogies appeal to this bunch, I'll -
And my thought are off to the races and instead of contemplating and being in the moment and letting, or at least hoping for something holy to "wash" over me, I am elsewhere. Get your head back in the game, Scelata, at least TRY to listen to -
Preface....
You have given Your children a sacred time for the renewing and purifying of their hearts, that, freed from disordered affections...
Yes.
YES. 
We all have affections, attractions, desires, temptations - not "needs" but "wants" that are "disordered."
And some of them are objectively so.
But I know it's the D word, not the O word that's giving the Professionally Aggrieved and the Highly Ranked Amateur Umbrage Takers a hissy, so that's what I'm dealing with.
Nobody's looking for a special way to insult you, LGBTQDW activist, I promise....

And by the time my thoughts get this far, I am dropping to my knees, having barely regained mindful consciousness in time to join in the sanctus....

I just wish.... I just wish before people began wearing their offendedness like a backstage pass, especially as it regards language, they would actually examine that which has them miffed, what its context is, how else and how fairly it is applied, and what its usage is in the realm where they find it.

One advantage a "dead" language has for official utterance is that something precise and completely lacking in opprobrium is not easily going to suddenly drift into "you can't say that anymore!" territory.
(I'm looking at you, "thug," "handicapped," and "whore.")

Temptation and the Three Pillars of Lenten Practice

Fasting, Alms-giving and Prayer?

So Satan tempts Christ with food, food out of nothing, power over others, over the oppressed, over those who do not have it; and appropriating to Himself divine powers He has ceded on taking on human form?

One of my 5th graders noticed the correlation.

I love these guys.

Initiates and the Uninitiated

When I as a young whipper-snapper, the catechesis of callow Catholics was in a dormant stage, at least in my neck of the American woods.
We painted rocks and sang along with a guitar wielding high school girl from red plastic books, (the red plastic books may be a false memory, as Glory and Praise had not yet blighted the landscape - on the other hand, the girl in question, a friend of our family, was a world traveller, very sophisticated, she may have brought it back from somewhere exotic, like France. I'm just remembering, she was also the one who explained the meaning of "to sleep with." At a drive-in, us little ones tumbling in the back of the station wagon like pajamed puppies, adults and semi-adults in the two bench seats, there was a "coming attraction" touted which I now think must have been the Cardinal, while we waited to see something like 3 Lives of Thomasina. In it, a woman in a confessional said, "I slept with a man." I asked her later how sleeping could be a sin, and she explained that not much sleeping often occurred during the act of "sleeping with.")
Until Confirmation class virtually anything I learned about the Faith was from the way people behaved in church, which was very powerful, and from my parents, both by osmosis and deliberately.
As is only right.
But I digress.)
In any case, until I was an adult I never heard the specific phrase "sacraments of initiation." (My own confirmation was a good long ways after what we now know should have been the final of the three, I had skipped a grade and was allowed to make my Communion with my older class-mates, but according to the diocese, IIRC, had to wait for the Seven Gifts until I was the "right age." Although I was lucky, very lucky, suddenly, after years of strum and hum and craft projects, they wheeled an ancient nun with a hair-sprouting mole out of the back, wearing a mask like Hannibal Lecter, who TAUGHT us actual THINGS. You know, facts, and precepts and principles and doctrines. I shall be forever grateful to Sister Clare Cornelius.)
Another digression, sorry.

ANYWAY.

Since I am now in possession of this expression, the sacrament of initiation,  I was struck rather forcefully by a snippet I read.
"Family Day" in Italy was apparently an enormous outpouring of popular support for the Traditional, might I say Normal? notion of "family," despite possible neglect by, or at least ambiguity from the Pope and outright hostility on the part of some Italian bishops.
In following links to see what manner of man was head of the bishops' conference, I came across this from some time ago. It was,

reported that he said the Eucharist “is and must remain a ‘universal assembly’”, and that it must also be an “eloquent sign of the divine and his free gift for the ‘uninitiated’.”

I have nothing to say.
That was kind of a long way to go, I suppose for nothing to say.
Maybe I AM the Dutiful Brother.
But I want my prodigal brother to come home, I want him to!
But not to pop in for dinner, drop off his laundry for Mom or the servants to do and take off again, after pawning the finest robe and ring and sandals so he could squander the proceeds by resuming his life of dissipation.

Is that just me being selfish? Or is it me remembering that the spiritual acts of mercy are "not a devotion," they are required of us who dare to bear the name of Christian?

“When in the evening of life, we are asked if we fed the hungry and gave drink to the thirsty, we will also be asked if we helped persons come out of doubt, if we were committed to receive sinners, admonishing and correcting them, if we were capable of combatting ignorance, especially that concerning the Christian faith and the good life. This attention to the works of mercy is important: they are not a devotion. It is the concreteness of how Christians must carry forward the spirit of mercy.”

"Not a 'Casual Catholic'” ? Sorry, Father, That's EXACTLY What She Was

A very sad story in USCatholic about a sibling who left the Church for warm fuzzies.
There is no specific acknowledgement that that is what she left for, there is talk of "spiritual needs" being unmet, finding "warm greetings", "uplifting music",  easy to read lyrics...

So yeah, warm fuzzies.

The evidence that she was not a "casual Catholic" is that before her apostasy, she "was involved in youth ministry, retreat leadership, and liturgy planning."

How could anyone who either didn't know about, or simply didn't believe in the Real Presence be allowed to be "involved in youth ministry, retreat leadership, and liturgy planning"?

Because I can state categorically, no one who did know and did believe would abandon Him, Present in the Sacrament, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, for warm greetings and an available pastor.

"As I drove home, I realized how adult-centered this church was. This is in stark contrast to the typical Catholic parish, where a lion’s share of its time and treasure are committed to the education of children"

So, instead of "child-centered," we should be more "adult-centered"?
No. In fact, NOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Here's an idea -
HOW ABOUT WE MAKE OUR CHURCHES THEOCENTRIC?
The writer, who is a priest, (THAT is sad,) blames the flight of those like his sister on the lack of adult involvement and formation available in Catholic parishes? poppycock - the primary source of formation and involvement is the Liturgy.
And if we present the Liturgy, as too many of us have for decades, as a place where readings from the Bible; fellowship with our co-worshippers; and catering to our fluid tastes in music, art and everything else, are just as important as or, sometimes it seems, even more important than the sacramental Presence of our Eucharistic Lord, well no wonder we have several generations of malformed, and therefore necessarily "casual" Catholics.
When our faith is dependant on activities and experiences and things that we can get elsewhere, when it is tied to incidentals, why stay?
Why go to Mass?

Make such a big deal of the box and the wrapping, ignore the contents, is it any wonder that the Greatest Gift is held cheap, ignored, TOSSED ASIDE as in this case?

Until the Blessed Sacrament regains its centrality in Catholic life, this is a sucker's game - the rock arena or the opera house will always have better music; the neighborhood pub is always going to offer better conversation and more fun, and the chance to be with people you really like; the library is going to be more informative; your psychoanalyst or you Mom will have more reassuring, easier to put in practice advice; and your favorite chair with a good reading lamp will make lectio divina more rewarding.

I have a suggestion for you non-casual Catholics - you "like" where you go to Mass now?

Go somewhere else once in a while.
That other parish with the wretched music. The pastor who puts you to sleep. The people you don't like. The ugly stained glass windows. The uncomfortable pews. The lousy parking lot.

Go to THAT Mass.

It'll remind you what, or rather Who you are really there for.

Plugging Away at This Churchy, Faithy Thing

I hope I do no wrong when I tell my Sunday School kids that Advent is kinda like the Church's time to be Old Testament people, to know what it was like for the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, B.(efore) C.(hrist)- waiting, longing, hoping, thirsting, begging for Him who was foretold to get here already!

I do enough complaining about it that I also need to praise, sometimes the lectionary, the choices made by its fabricators are incredibly powerful and perfect.

How many times have I read this, how many times have I PROCLAIMED the readings for this Sunday, and how have I never noticed this before?

He shall take His place as shepherd

by the strength of the Lord,

by the majestic name of the Lord, His God;

And they shall dwell securely, for now His greatness

shall reach to the ends of the earth:

He shall be peace.

Not, He will bring peace, or there will be peace in His time -- He will BE peace.

Peace Incarnate.
As He is Love incarnate, Mercy incarnate, and yes, Justice incarnate... PEACE INCARNATE.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus

The Rewards of Teaching Sunday School

Okay, so my ten-year-olds can't remember if they've ever received the sacrament of confession... or of reconciliation... or of penance... or of mercy.
And they cannot manage to learn the words o the Act of Contrition.

To ANY "Act of Contrition."

(Could you just say, "I'm sorry for my sins"? Five words...? Learn that? Please...? Too much?)

And they can't tell the difference between "confirmation" and "communion."

And it is impossible to get them not to write in the pages of their missals, and to write on the pages of their workbooks.
Or pick up paper off the floor.
Or not to taste the paste.
Or to keep their hands off my things.
Or to put down their phones.
Or...
Well, no matter.

Today one instigated, and the others kept going, with pertinent, insightful questions, a discussion of, I kid you not, chronos and kairos.

I love them. (Even the kid who tried to break a desk by pounding on it with his foot in a cast.)
I just love them

Great Catholic Artwork - and Your Children Can Get In On the Action!

This is major - Daniel Mitsui, one of the finest Catholic artisans or artists working today, has made CATHOLIC COLORING PAGES available.
Adult coloring books are having a moment, and these pages, which he offers, soli Deo gloria, are as beautiful as anything you will find in the collections at art supply or craft stores.

And he has made them freely available if - you cannot afford to make a donation. (But you should, if you can -- consider donating.)

The thing is, anyone looking for coloring pages for children knows how awful most of the religious stuff out there can be, not good and interesting enough for most past kindergarten age, and often grossly unworthy of their subject matter.
These are quite, quite magnificent.

In the World Yet Not Of the World

 Really thoughtful piece in First Things, by Robert Louis Wilken, regarding the "Church As Culture."

 Christ entered history as a community, a society, not simply as a message, and the form taken by the community’s life is Christ within society. The Church is a culture in its own right. Christ does not simply infiltrate a culture; Christ creates culture by forming another city, another sovereignty with its own social and political life.

Go read it.
One of the aspects of culture that he discusses is the ordering of time.
In Sunday school we've been talking about the whys of the Liturgy, of the liturgical calender, of the Ordo Missae, (though they inevitably think and speak of it as, "the missalette." Which reminds me, I said I'd post those lyrics.)

Nine and ten year olds have no trouble at all acknowledging the advantage of us all, "being on the same page."

Children are naturally liturgical beings and are naturally catholic.

They see the value of sharing a ritual, having a common focus of attention with persons of other places and of other times.

For all the fretting about the synod, which I admit to sharing with other right-minded Catholics, besides our surety that the gates of hell shall not, etc., I am encouraged at the constant reminders that the Truth is accessible not just to the great souls and deep thinkers among us but to any child with ears to hear and eyes to see a soul to perceive, and having perceived, love.
Or any middle-aged layabout as well, of course.
Aquinas can give me a headache, and I may become catatonic in the presence of one too many Greek theological terms, and my mind may wander when I think I'm engaged in spiritual reading, but whatever it is that is needed, I know that the Lord has created me, like every other human being ever conceived, enough of it to know Him and to love Him and to serve Him and ultimately be with Him.

I digress -- where I was really going with that was, whatever mess Catholic adults make make of things, however rough the sailing as we stupidly rush en masse to the starboard or the port railing, there are new little people all the time and the Barq will be righted.

And another aside, I know very little of this St. Isidore, and this intrigues me, (I spend a great deal of my time with a person whose use of language is imprecise to the point of random, said person's extreme tenderness of ego dates from damage in youth; I am never wholly successful in explaining that I am NOT correcting grammar or disagreeing with an expressed opinion, merely trying to ascertain what is being said - sorry, is that a yes or a no? do you mean done to them or by them? because of that or in spite of that? that sort of thing. But I digress from my digression.)

Isidore recognized that grammar, “the science of expressing oneself correctly,” is crucial not only for reading, writing, and speaking, but also for thinking and understanding. Grammar is knowledge of the way language works and of the rules that govern the relation of words and concepts. Without grammar there can be no transmission of the text of the Scriptures and no understanding of its content; hence, no grammar, no Christian culture.

I Have Done the Unforgivable

I have asked  priest to spare five minutes of his time on a Sunday morning.

And he has done the unbelievable!

He said yes.

Craft Activities With Children in Religious Ed

Last year in Sunday school I had a group that really, really liked to do skits, so basically any story or situation on which I wanted to concentrate in a given class, I wrote up a quick sketch, trying to use the exact number of people who would be begging to take a role.
(Because yes, there were inevitably whines of "I only got one line! My brother has two..." answered with "Yeah, but yours has seven words and both of mine are only three, you have more, it's not fair!"; as well as cries of terror, "I have too many lines, I can't say three lines, why did you give me so many lines??!?@?!???")
Anyway, this year, nobody much wants to act, and although they are great with vocabulary and analogies, no one is keen on writing anything down.

Strangely, I don't actually need much in the way of activities, because they are far more inquisitive than any class I've had so far, we may not get to what I planned to talk about, but we have great conversations because they ask great questions and are quick to make connections and go off on worthwhile tangents.

But still, I do like having some craft ideas at the ready.

Probably any Catholic working with children already knows about this, or has favorites of their own, but Catholic Icing is new to me, and has some wonderful ideas, (I'm especially looking forward to adapting this to other seasons, if I get up the nerve to risk dye with a group that has two or three hyperactive guys....)

Giving to Those More Fortunate Than Ourselves

I used to, rather pointedly, say "Charity" when the theological virtues came up, because the word "Love" had become so meaningless, (not only hippified [look it up, it's a word....] but commercialized - who doesn't "love" peanut butter, or bacon? I can hear other kids e'en now, you love tv? why doncha MARRY it? and "lurve" is distasteful, for many reasons.)
But now that I'm, (all bow,) A Catechist, and that,  let's face it, the word "charity" has also been debased, ("giving stuff you don't need to poor people,") I am more  inclined to detoxify the word "Love."
It is a very difficult word for a ten year old boy to speak in the presence of a ten year old girl, even if he is addressing, rather than her, an old lady such as myself.

"Christian Love" seems to me a mouthful, and just as esoterically vague - and besides - non-Christians are very capable of offering caritas.
So for hashing out these things with kids, (and hash we do - the wonderful ideas they have! the marvelous questions thy can come up with!) I have settled on the phrase "Love in Action," and the reading from James on the first day of class made it very easy this year, (that's a great passage to let budding orators scold the air with.)

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?... If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it?...someone might say, “You have faith and I have works.” Demonstrate your faith to me without works...I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.

That is what genuine good works are - Love in Action. (Because no one is going to argue with, "and the greatest of these...")

And yes, giving things, money, opportunities to those without things or money or opportunity is the kind of Love in Action/Charity that usually springs to mind.

And it is easy to be loving to someone who has less than you do, isn't it?

How much harder to fell charitable to those who seem to have more than you...

A guy I know, salt of the earth, giving, generous, very active in volunteer work, kind -- shocked me by getting on board with a rather ugly anti-immigrant stance someone else was taking, and I expressed surprise.

Well, it's not the immigrants per se, his liberality firmly in place, they are welcome, especially if they are political refugees in search of safety.
No, he is just "sick and tired of being asked to pay for things for people who are better off than I am."

And I thought to myself, "O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—ungenerous, unkind, thoughtless — or even like this buddy of mine"

And because God isn't letting me get away with any thing lately, I'm watching the news, and there's a woman on who's thrilled because she just met the Pope, and she took of selfie with him with her phone.
She is not homeless, but Catholic Charities helps her out with her rent.

And what is my first thought?

What's she doing with a phone that takes pictures? My phone is too cheap to have a camera in it, and I'm dreading when it breaks and I have to buy a new one so I hope it happens in a good month, but the thing is already about 6 years old and wouldn't you think someone would pay his own darn rent before he'd get a phone that could -

O my God I am heartily sorry....

Adventures In Sunday School Land

Of course, it had to happen.
As of this week, I do have The Kid.
Ya know him, ya love him -- you've had him in choir, or in gym, or at a family reunion until which you didn't know your cousin had spawned, or standing in front of you in line at Walmart making the most of the musical capacities of flatulence.

He is the one who never heard a rude noise he didn't enjoy, never accepted anything he was told on first hearing, never found an object with which he couldn't make noise or poke into his nearest classmate, never touched a book he was not tempted to tear, and never gave any adult a moment's peace.

My assignment, should I choose to accept it, is to love him.

And on the other hand, I don't have to take him home with me. One of my colleagues not only has an unruly class, several years ago she apparently gave birth to a Tasmanian devil, a girl not old enough for school but who, unfortunately,is of an age to be able to walk, and who, anyone who has ever babysat will know, the mother has no choice but to bring to class because no one else in their right mind would take custody of the imp. (Pause to offer up a prayer for all such mothers, who, see? are not limited to those with boys.)

ON THE OTHER HAND FROM THAT ONE, (that third hand I keep in reserve for just such occasions,) - this is the only group of kids I've ever had where all of them, or most of the boys at least, did not snicker every time I said the word "love."

(Which, as you can imagine, comes up a lot in catechesis.)

So, on balance, a good Sunday.

"To Teach Who Christ Is"

Last week a "guest" celebrant, who to all intents and purposes works in mission territory, preached on the gospel at our Mass.
Brilliantly, I might add - insisting that we answered that question by learning who we were, who we were meant to be.
But that first question, the one Christ asked his disciples...
That is the central question for us in our mission, isn't it? the one each of us answers through our mission, whatever it might be, Who do you say that I AM?

Today, I received in snail mail a letter from a parish I have a connection to back in Chicagoland, giving a heads up on a campaign that is being kicked off, "To Teach Who Christ Is."
I must admit, I would react with less ambivalence if the Cardinal whose idea this initially was. were still in charge.
I have been unkind in my reactions to a number of events recently, and to the people whose actions and attitudes drove those events.
I don't want to turn into one of those bitter people whose every reaction in such cases is negative, guided less by the actual merits of something than by preconceived notions of the people involved.

I am certainly as gung ho as possible about actual Catholic eduction, I support it.

But does the fact that I have doubts about the Catholicity of what some people call "Catholic" education say more about their failings or my own?

Yet I feel strongly that if the foundation of all attempts to spread the Faith, (even, yes, by the "solemn nonsense" of "proselytising,") if the foundation of our efforts is not the Source and Summit of our Faith, and if we don't employ the evangelical and catechetical power of the Holy Sacrifice of the Eucharistic Celebration that is the Mass, what hope have we?

Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.

And we encounter that Person, Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten, the Son of the Living God, most thoroughly, most completely in the Eucharist, and we bring others  most closely to Him in the same, life altering event.

Why do I not trust the intentions of some of my co-religionists?