The Catholic Bishops of Ontario, in cooperation with the Ontario Catholic Schools Trustee Association have released the following report identifying how Catholic schools in Ontario shoukld respond to the proposed Bill 13 in Ontario.
“RESPECTING DIFFERENCE”
A RESOURCE FOR CATHOLIC SCHOOLS IN THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO
Regarding the Establishment and Running of Activities or Organizations PromotingEquity and Respect for All Students
January 25, 2012
Contents
Overview
The Gospel Context: Against Bullying
Background to the Present Concerns regarding Equity, Diversity and Anti-Bullying
The Development of Equity and Inclusion Policies with respect to Catholic Education Respecting Difference: The Meaning of “Difference” Various Expressions of Bullying The Catholic Church’s Teaching Regarding Sexuality
The Catholic Faith Rejects Injustice and Affirms Human Dignity The Catholic Church and Morality The Catholic Church and Sexuality
Administrative Guidelines for Anti-Bullying Activities and “Respecting Difference” Groups in Catholic Schools .
Objectives . Administrative Strategies General Procedures for “Respecting Difference” Groups or Activities in Catholic Schools Administrative Procedures for “Respecting Difference” Groups or Activities in Catholic
Where’s that in the Bible?Mar7th20121 Comment Written by juvericciIt makes me laugh when people accuse me of proselytizing on the job just because I tell patients how certain medications can work.
It makes me laugh when people accuse me of proselytizing on the job just because I tell patients how certain medications can work. I thought it was my job as a pharmacist to know the different mechanisms of action of drugs but apparently I am getting this information from Psalms or St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.
Here is an example:
A third way is by changing the womb lining, making it difficult for a fertilized egg to attach to the lining of the womb (implantation). A fertilized egg (embryo/unborn baby) needs to attach to the womb to receive blood and nutrients and continue to grow. If an embryo/unborn baby does not attach, it cannot survive.
Man, that must be straight out of the Epistle of James! Actually, this is from the patient counselling leaflet of a popular contraceptive, Alesse.
Imagine a woman, who believes that life begins at conception, taking the pill for contraceptive purposes for years and never knowing about the potential abortifacient properties of the pill. Imagine yourself as a health care provider and having that same woman come back to you and saying, “Why didn’t you tell me if you knew?” Yes, the vast majority of women do not care. However, the vast majority of patients do not care if their antibiotic can sometimes cause diarrhea but I still tell them.
Women are being lied when they think that a pill is only contraceptive in nature. Sure, a group of “experts” magically changed the time when a woman becomes pregnant but it does not negate the fact that some women truly care if they are ending a life 7 days after conception. They deserve to know full well what is happening when they take the pill. It is not about proselytizing, it is about informed consent.
In one of the largest Catholic events of the year, more than 1,900 faithful came out in full force for the 22nd annual Ordinandi Dinner, an opportunity to hear from men on the cusp of priesthood. Organized by the Toronto area Serra Clubs, it’s a joyful occasion for our family of faith to support our priests to be and reflect on the vocation each one of us is called to discern in our own journey.We heard from four men that will be ordained this May for dioceses including Toronto, Pembroke and Halifax/Yarmouth. What struck me most this year was the joy in each one of these men as they shared their vocation story. Each one included the ups and downs of life but all wove a common thread of being drawn to their faith, falling in love with the idea of the priesthod and coming to the point where they could provide the resounding “yes” to the call, not to mention up to 10 years or formation in some cases. The dinner has come a long way in 22 years, from humble beginnings to where we are today, with virtually no additional room in the banquet hall for any more guests. There were also close to 300 students in attendance, in no small part due to the extensive efforts of Serrans to build bridges with our Catholic schools, encouraging them to be proactive in fostering vocations. In addition to facilitating participation from the students, chaplains, teachers and even Directors of Education were there to demonstrate their own personal support for the event. Yet the concept remains simple: sharing a personal faith journey. It’s a fascinating glimpse into a journey that most don’t have the opportunity to hear about.
Fresh on the heels of the elevation of Archbishop Thomas Collins to the College of Cardinals, there was a real energy in the room, a pride in being Catholic and a family atmosphere that was akin to old friends getting together once again. We need to harvest that pride and look for opportunities to channel it in our day to day activities and interaction with others.
There’s always an opportunity to recognize priests celebrating significant milestones and this year’s dinner was no exception. 10 priests were honoured, ordained 50 years ago in 1962 – imagine the considerable service and commitment they have given to the community over the last half century. It was also a special moment to have Bishop Pearce Lacey recognized, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Toronto and still very much engaged in the life of the Archdiocese at the age of 95 and coming up to 69 years of priestly ordination.
If you were looking for inspiration this Lent, you didn’t have to go far.
If you’d like to view a special video produced by Salt & Light Catholic Television for the Ordinandi Dinner featuring a number of Greater Toronto Area priests click here. You can also view additional photos of the evening by clicking here.
Kudos to the Serrans and all who were involved in organizing such a joyful, thoughtful and motivating experience. No doubt a number of seeds were planted and nurtured at this year’s dinner. The Class of 2022 may well have been hearing vocation stories last night, unaware that they’ll be sharing their own at the podium in 10 years.
To consider: these vocation stories surround us. Perhaps this Lent, it’s worth asking a priest or religious order colleague to share their own faith journey with you. You’ll likely be inspired so be prepared to pass it on.
Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D. C. began blogging on February 26, 2012. We read his introductory entry, and we thought that his ideas and his efforts were very much worth sharing with readers of
Everyday for Life Canada
. His hope to evangelize using the Internet shows the great untapped potential of this electronic medium. Here’s what he said to the faithful online in his opening blog entry:
While I have enjoyed for many years writing articles and even doing a weekly television program, this is my first venture into the world of blogs.
What I would like to do in this blog is to talk about our Catholic faith, what it teaches, why it is so important, certainly to me, and why, I hope, it would be important to you. My plan is to take some aspect of the teaching of the Catholic Church and comment briefly on it in the hope that there might be readers who would find this helpful or at least engaging. For example, as we enter the Lenten season, I would like to share with you in the future some thoughts on what this time of penance and spiritual renewal means.
The title for the blog, “Seek First the Kingdom,” comes from the challenge of Jesus to his disciples that in the midst of all the things that make up our daily life we would keep our hearts clearly focused on something that is not as visible as the creation around us, but is every bit as real – the presence of God in our lives. This presence we call the kingdom of God and it finds its expression in the things that we say and do.
Not all that long ago, a person asked me, “Do you really think religion brings anything to our world today?” I responded with a question. “What do you think the world would be like if we had not heard over and over again, century after century, the voice of religion telling us ‘You shall not kill,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ ‘Do unto others as you would have them do to you,’ ‘Feed the hungry,’ ‘Clothe the naked,’ ‘Visit the sick and imprisoned’?” Much to my delight, that person responded, “It would be a mess.”
Into the future, with this blog, I would like to share why it is that our Catholic faith brings so much to the world around us, why we are all empowered to begin to manifest the kingdom of God and what we can do to make sure that things don’t become one great mess.
My hope is that in this digital world we will have an opportunity, as Pope Benedict XVI once said, “to meet each other beyond the confines of space” in a way that we might create “an entirely new world of potential friendships.” It is in that context that I welcome you to this blog.
Presently there are only a few prelates online. We hope that more are encouraged by this effort to share the Word with the community in cyberspace. In his message for the 45th World Communications Day called “Truth, Proclamation and Authenticity of Life in the Digital Age, Pope Benedict XVI urges more priests and the faithful to utilize the Internet to spread the Gospel. We wish and pray that Cardinal Wuerl is successful in sharing how “our Catholic faith brings so much to the world around us” and how “to manifest the kingdom of God”. Thank you Cardinal Wuerl for inviting us to your blog. We have accepted your digital invitation.
Lent begins with the imposition of ashes on our forehead in the sign of the Cross. The one who administers the ashes may say, “Remember, you are dust and you will return to dust,” or, “Turn away from sin and believe the Gospel.” Personally, I prefer the first admonition because it is a stark reminder to us all, tempted as we might be to take life for granted, that we are going to die. Sooner or later, ready or not, we are all going to die one day. Lent is a time, therefore, to reflect on the fundamental question, “Since I know that I am going to die, then HOW DO I CHOOSE TO LIVE?”
As followers of Jesus Christ, it is clear that WE CHOOSE TO LIVE IN HIM; we choose to do what He did; we choose to follow His way. These 40 days of Lent give us time to do just that in three traditional and helpful ways: PRAYER, FASTING AND ALMSGIVING.
PRAYER helps us to renew and deepen our relationship with Him. We spend more time in prayer, giving thanks, or reading excerpts from The Bible, reflecting on his Word, or participating in parish programs and events, becoming familiar with His teaching. We do this to know Him better, and we want to know him better because, to paraphrase a familiar old song, TO KNOW HIM IS TO LOVE HIM!
FASTING allows us to simplify our lives – which is always good for the soul. When I was young, I would “give up” sweets for Lent one year, television the next year, etc. Then, for a while, I thought I was above all of that. Now, I see the wisdom of it – for when I “give up” something, I express my complete dependence on the One who is the centre of my life; I PUT JESUS CHRIST AHEAD OF ALL OTHER DESIRES!
Finally, ALMSGIVING. Those who teach that “stewardship” is the primary attitude for Jesus’ disciples, tell us over and over again to share “time, talent and treasure”! Lent is an opportunity to give an hour helping out at the food bank, serving at the school breakfast program, visiting an ailing friend, relative or neighbour, or calling (calling on) a lonely parent. Additionally, through the Share Lent collection, we are invited to be generous in our support of the good works of the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace. (A dollar a day – which amounts to $40 for Lent – will make an untold difference in the life of someone in a needier part of the world.) By remaining united in doing that alone, we can accomplish remarkable good! CHOOSE TO BE GENEROUS IN SOME WAY, ACCORDING TO YOUR MEANS.
When all is said and done, Lent is about living in right order with God, self and others. SUCH ORDER IS HOLY AND NOURISHES OUR LIFE IN HIM. We begin Lent with ashes on our forehead; we end carrying tapers, lighted candles, proclaiming CHRIST OUR LIGHT. From the ashes of death to the light of life, this Lent, may God DRAW US all closer to CHRIST and to one another.
In all the discussions regarding the new translation of the Missal, one item that frequently crops up is the discarded Missal of 1998.
What Fr Z calls ‘bad old ICEL’ worked very hard for several years to produce a new version of the Missal which went on to be approved by various episcopal conferences, but was then rejected in Rome.
Since the publication of our new 2011 Missal, many (especially on the Pray Tell site) have compared the 2011 version unfavourably to the unpublished 1998. Those who take this line usually have an advantage over mere mortals such as me, in that they have had experience, or at least sight of, the 1998 Missal, which has been kept as a jealously-guarded secret. Some of the arguments go a bit like this:
Fred: I quite like the 2011 Missal. Harry: Well you’re clearly not a liturgist, Fred! Now, the Missal of 1998, which we spilt blood over, was far superior until some Dark Forces in Rome proved that they knew nothing about liturgy by rejecting it out of hand. All that work, binned! Tom: Yes, Harry, you’re right. What chance did we get to experiment with the 2011? We weren’t even consulted, and we know about liturgy. The 1998 was tried out in all sorts of normative groups, ordinary parish situations, like the St Gregory Society, like the Bishops’ Conference LGBT awareness Caucus. Every word was pored over, weighed, agonized over. And now this Mgr Moroney can sketch some ideas on the back of an envelope, and because he has friends among the Dark Forces, can have it imposed on the whole English-speaking world! Fred: But I still like the 2011. It’s a lot better than the 1975. Harry: Hm; discuss. I don’t agree; though I think that the 1975 certainly needed updating. It had far too much sexist language in it, and it is true that a lot of the imagery had been ironed out. That is just why the 1998 is so good. Fred. I still like the 2011. Tom: That’s because you haven’t seen the 1998. You are speaking out of ignorance. I have seen, used, the 1998, and it is simply wonderful. In fact, I was one of the writers. Fred: Well, would you give me some examples? Tom and Harry together: No! Fred: No? Harry: Certainly not! It is forbidden for non-initiates to see. You must simply take our word that it a much better translation. You must remain in ignorance until you are Enlightened by us. Fred: Well, how do I become an initiate? Tom: You have to become a Liturgist. You must go to music days, join the Society of St Gregory, write bitter letters to the press, join What If We Just Said No, take the oaths of secrecy. and so on.
Well, all that changed for me this morning, because I found a
to your computer in pdf form. The veil of the temple has been torn, and all can see inside where, in my opinion, the Emperor is prancing around without many clothes on.
Don’t get me wrong. Genuinely I can sympathize with those who worked for years on the 1998 Missal. It must have been galling and disheartening to have the thing rejected when so many had given it the green light.
But it really does belong to a different era. Essentially, the Ordinary is that of 1975 with some tweaks and corrections here and there. EP4 is substantially rewritten, and is actually quite nice, but the text strains painfully to be inclusive. There is an alternative version of the Our Father; the Lamb of God is substantially altered to make it match up to the frequently-used ‘Communion-Song’ style; quasi-litanic in form. In the rubrics, ‘hostia’ is rendered ‘consecrated bread’; calix is ‘cup’ and ‘patena’ is ‘plate’:
The priest genuflects and takes some of the consecrated bread and the cup and, extending them toward the people, says one of the following invitations:
After the completion of communion or after Mass, the deacon or another minister, or, if there is no other minister, the priest, cleanses the plate over the cup and then the cup itself, either at the side table or at the side of the altar.
Ugh.
Taking inspiration (I expect) from the Anglican liturgy, the acclamations after the Consecration have priestly lead-ins that differ according to which particular acclamation the celebrant wishes the congregation to use, losing in most cases the ‘Mysterium Fidei‘ connection.
The collects aren’t bad, actually, much better than 1975, and actually some of the ones I have looked at are preferable to the rather tortured ones in the 2011 Missal. You can find some side-by-side comparisons here, on the What If We Just Said Stuff The 2011 Missal site (useful; though it would have been more useful to have had the Latin alongside).
1998′s texts and choices seem very much to come out of the Society of St Gregory school of liturgy. It really seemed, back in the 1990s, to be the way that liturgy was going, so the rejection of the Missal, and the publication of Liturgiam Authenticam must have seemed a real slap in the face. And you can see where comments such as ‘Pope Benedict is not a liturgist’ have come from.
I’m very glad to have been able to look at the 1998 Missal now. But if I had the choice, I have to say that I would stay with the 2011; our new translation isn’t all joy for me—I do find it tortured from time to time, and sometimes inaccurate (simili modo, for instance, does not mean ‘in a similar way’ [though see the comments]), but in my view, on balance, it’s much better than the 1998, and light years better than the 1975.
DENVER, March 6, 2012. A missionary with FOCUS, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, is one of two private citizens who has joined states, senators and others in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ mandate that nearly all health insurance plans cover contraceptives free of charge, says she would give up her critically important health insurance if the mandate is not overturned.
Stacy Molai, of Omaha, Neb., suffers from Crohn’s disease and says her health insurance coverage is critical in order to avoid financial ruin and possibly life-threatening consequences. Medical supplies for her condition cost up to $400 every month.
Molai, 31, raises her own salary as a lay Catholic missionary and says that, “Should the mandate be upheld, I would gladly give up my insurance coverage, despite the very real risk that would pose to my financial well-being and my health.”
“The government mandate violates my constitutional guarantee of the Freedom of Association,” Molai added. “I’m no longer free to associate with another Catholic employer without grave risks in abandoning a grandfathered insurance policy. I have had four surgeries and countless hospitalizations because of my Crohn’s disease.”
“But my relationship with Jesus Christ is at the core of who I am, and the government mandate violates my unalienable rights by interfering with that sacred relationship. I’m no longer free to follow the dictates of my conscience and the teaching of my Church without great financial and health risks. That’s not freedom.”
Jeremy Rivera, director of communications at FOCUS, stated that, “FOCUS is proud to have a woman like Stacy among our missionary staff. As her employer, we stand in solidarity with her and her convictions to remain true to her conscience and to exercise her religious liberty in the face of the government’s proposed HHS mandate. Given the reality of Stacy’s serious health issues, her courage should inspire all Catholics and people of faith to reinforce the necessity to overturn this unjust law.”
A great Western, The Magnificent Seven is a film about how tragedy, suffering, and even sin can be transformed in God’s plan into instruments of grace.
“If God did not want them sheared,” He would not have made them sheep!”
That cynical line was delivered by actor Eli Wallach in the great 1960 Western film, The Magnificent Seven. Eli Wallach portrayed the leader of a gang of marauding bandits who terrorized and extorted a small, peaceful Mexican farming village. The famous quote jumped out at me as a perfect start for this post about when bad things happen to good people.
In the end, the village was freed from its tyranny, but not without paying a steep price. After all, freedom from tyranny never comes cheap. But most people become willing to sacrifice for their freedom. People who no longer sacrifice for their freedom are no longer free. The freedom to live “In a City on a Hill,” as I wrote on Ash Wednesday, always requires sacrifice.
In The Magnificent Seven, the village was rescued, but those heroes who came to the villagers’ aid were also outlaws of one sort or another. They were gunfighters for hire recruited by the Man in Black – played by the great Yul Brynner – who used their vices to lure them in to rescue the village in his own quest for redemption. The Good Guys – who were anything but good guys in any other setting – were portrayed by some fine actors including Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, and Horst Bucholtz. “We deal in lead!” was their line in the sand drawn as The Magnificent Seven stood up to forty armed bandits while giving the oppressed and timid villagers a lesson In how to fight for freedom from tyranny.
But the best lines of all were an exchange between Eli Wallach and Yul Brynner: “I see you have built some new walls,” the bandit leader said. “These stone walls will not keep us out.” “These walls were not built to keep you out,” said the Man in Black. “They were built to keep you in.”
The message conveyed The Magnificent Seven’s brand of frontier justice: “We’re not here just to repel you. We’re here to rid the world of you.” What makes The Magnificent Seven such a great film is that each of the heroes has a past that isn’t so heroic. Each one of these accidental heroes converged on a specific place at a specific time and used the gifts he was given – or even the burdens he was given – to rid some innocent people of the evil in their midst.
As the story unfolds, these heroes all one by one came to understand they were duped by the Man in Black. There was no gold. There were no riches to be had there. They would not be paid, and they walked away with little more than the satisfaction that for once in their lives they acted for the good of others with no obvious benefit to themselves. And they did it under a hail of bullets. In the end, those who survived rode off as new men, transformed by their own sacrifices, their passion to satisfy their own greed forged into a passion to satisfy justice.
NO CRUELER TYRANNIES
Sacrifice can have an enormous impact against tyranny in all of its many forms. The tyranny holding a person hostage can be sickness, loss, fear, loneliness, tragedy, disaster, or – as in the case of the hapless villagers in The Magnificent Seven – the sins of others.
A person can even be tyrannized by his own crimes. There is a new prisoner who arrived a few weeks ago in the cellblock where I live.
Richard is 82 years old, and in prison for the first time in his life. I do not know or care what his crime was, but I’m not sure I can convey to readers how devastating it is for a man to come to prison at the age of 82. He just can’t get used to the cold. Old men in prison are always cold. And his isolation is oppressive. Young men in prison – who are the vast majority of prisoners – shun and avoid the very old who are like aliens in their midst. Richard is just beginning a sentence of ten to twenty years. In his case, it’s both a life sentence and a death sentence.
This old man was treated with abject cruelty by some prisoners when he first arrived. The more predatory among them assumed from Richard’s age that he wasn’t a bank robber, gang leader, or thug who could come back at them. It’s the nature of prison that the socially isolated and weak do not survive very well. So I make it a point to sit down and talk with Richard every day. No one will bother him if there is an appearance that he knows someone. I long ago learned in prison that predators and bullies are predictable, self-serving cowards. They don’t want the hassle when what they thought was a sheep turns out to be a ram with horns. The short of it is that Richard is no longer disrespected, and for an 82-year-old in prison I imagine that is a sign of improvement.
Hebrews 13:3, on the header of These Stone Walls, bids us to “Remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them; and those who are ill-treated since you also are in the body.” The line just above it in Sacred Scripture, Hebrews 13:2, is equally important: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” I have found that living with the tyranny of false witness and the theft of my freedom has made me painfully aware of how prison is experienced by others. It strikes me that this is why The Magnificent Seven were so aware of the tyranny imposed by that gang of thieves. They had lived with such debasement in their own souls.
PILLARS OF THE EARTH
One of my favorite novels is a book by Ken Follett entitled Pillars of the Earth (Wm. Morrow, 1989). It’s a weighty tome, over 900 pages, but I have recommended it to many prisoners who uniformly seem to lose themselves in it. The story is about a 12th Century family of stone masons building a cathedral in the town of Kingsbridge, England. It’s Ken Follett’s masterpiece, a well researched historical drama set against the backdrop of the history of architecture at a time when the Church and culture were emerging from the Dark Ages.
Despite the realistic grittiness of Pillars of the Earth – and parts of it are very gritty – its great appeal for me was its lesson in Divine Providence which is itself a character in the drama. The reader is thrust into the position of an Angelic Observer with a glimpse of God’s bigger picture. The novel’s characters, like most of us, are aware only of their own trials and tribulations while the reader is given a view of the interconnectedness of the entire story. Like the Angelic Observer, the reader cannot alter the story, but seeing this bigger picture makes it a riveting drama.
It becomes clear to the Angelic Observer that a tragedy afflicting one person sets in motion a great blessing for another. A sacrifice made by one family sets two other families free. A disaster afflicting one community alters the history of two others. A painful burden born by one generation in a family becomes a great blessing for succeeding generations. What all human judgment would call the tragic appearance of the proliferation of evil, the Angelic Observer comes to see as the triumph of Divine Providence, and the graces given to those who participate and cooperate with it.
In the story, the bad things happening to good people become the catalyst for God’s plan not only for them, but for their children, for their wider community, and for their souls as the Bigger Picture unfolds. Much good that lasts for generations to come has its roots in the struggles of one person, one family, or one village. A sacrifice made one day may not manifest its blessings until two generations later. Then the entire story culminates in one place: the cathedral the story’s characters are struggling to build to praise and glorify God. The talents of many, the burdens of some, and even the sins of a few, are all interconnected and committed – willingly or not – toward that end. I plan to mention this book in my post about St. Patrick coming up next week.
Pillars of the Earth – like The Magnificent Seven – made me wonder about Divine Providence and the burdens we bear. They made me ask some important questions – THE most important questions of our age and of our predicament:
Am I able to trust that God has a plan for me?
Am I willing to risk total cooperation in that plan?
Am I willing to sacrifice in order to cooperate in that plan?
Am I willing to accept that the life I am living is part of a symphony, and I am NOT its conductor, but rather a single instrument?
Am I willing to play that instrument to the very best of my ability to lend itself toward a symphonic score that I may never hear and understand in this life?
These are the questions of faith. Surrender and sacrifice do not mean that we must just surrender to whatever tyranny binds us. We are not sheep to be sheared – no matter what Eli Wallach said – by whatever injustice, sickness, or tragedy comes our way. Trust in Divine Providence also means trust in the graces we are given to stand up to tyranny. The trust we are called to means that in whatever way we may fail in this, God will send another to stand either at our side or in our place. We are not passive observers in this life, blindly assigning to God – or worse, to the government – the responsibility of fixing everything.
At some point in my writings for These Stone Walls, I began to offer the unjust imprisonment that has befallen me for the readers who come here with a search for truth and justice in their hearts. I wrote of that in the conclusion of my Ash Wednesday post, “In a City on a Hill: Lent, Sacrifice, and the Passage of Time.” This was an offering that I and some of our friends in prison decided that we were called to when we consecrated ourselves and our time in prison as Knights at the Foot of the Cross, a movement that arose out of St. Maximilian Kolbe’s Militia of the Immaculata. I wrote of this decision and its impact in “The Paradox Of Suffering: An Invitation from St. Maximilian Kolbe.”
As described there, readers may join us in this offering of personal suffering as Knights at the Foot of the Cross. The personal Consecration may be made on any Marian feast day, and there is one coming up. The Annunciation is commemorated in the Church calendar this year on March 26 because the 25th falls on a Sunday. The nine-day preparation for Consecration would begin on March 18.
This would be a great way to make a personal offering for Lent. The instructions for the nine day preparation, and for registering your own Consecration can be found at the Mary town website, www.Consecration.com. Another preparation for that day might include re-reading my post about the Annunciation, “Saint Gabriel the Archangel: When the Dawn From On High Broke Upon Us.”
I have come to believe that the huge success of These Stone Walls, and the more recent signs of hope for justice that have come my way, has little to do with me or anything I have written. It has everything to do with the prayers and the sacrifices of others. I have learned of readers who choose to sacrifice some of their suffering for me, and I will never be worthy of it. I never could be, but as I trudge through this Lent I am painfully aware of them.
There is a woman who lost her seven-year-old son to Leukemia and offers some of that loss for my freedom. There is a man whose marriage and family have fallen apart, and who suffers deeply under the depression of that loss. There is a mother of nine children who also must care for her aging and dying parents, and who had Mass offered, not for herself, but for me on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. There is a woman crippled by illness, a prisoner in her own bed, who offers her days and nights for Pornchai and me and our friend, Donald. There is the father of an alcoholic son, both held captive by that grueling tyranny, who has sacrificed much for the truth conveyed through These Stone Walls.
There are many others with other sacrifices brought forward in prayer in the hope for my freedom from tyranny and the eventual triumph of truth. Together, we form a symphony playing a score written by God. We are part of this great symphony we call a Church, and we must not let any government nitpick it into moral irrelevance and social obscurity. It is not, after all, a human symphony, and no human conductor – not even one ensconced in Earthly power – can be entrusted with its score.
Once again this year parishioners from our church, St. Bernard de Clairvaux Parish, in Toronto, joined other parishes to celebrate the World Day of Prayer. The ecumenical service was held at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. Other churches that participated were the Greenborough Community Church, St. David’s Anglican Church and the Church of the Advent. The theme for 2012 was “Let Justice Prevail”.
The service is held at a different churches in the community each year. In 2010, it was help at St. Bernard Parish. In 2011, the host parish was St. David’s Anglican Church. Council members come from the many church partners: Anglican, Evangelical Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Mennonite, Presbyterian, The Salvation Army, Disciples of Christ, United Church of Canada, Ukranian Catholic, African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Orthodox Pentecostal Assemblies.
The World Day of Prayer was started in Canada and the Unites States in 1922. Today it is observed in more then 170 countries. By participating in the service the faithful come together to pray and worship and strengthen their relationships with other Christians around the world, as well as over 2,000 churches and communities across Canada. Each year a theme is chosen and the prayer focus and awareness is to highlight a specific country. For 2012, the nation selected was Malaysia. In 2013, the women of France will prepare the prayer service and the theme will be: “I Was a Stranger and You Welcomed Me”.
The service this year featured the sad story of a Malaysian social worker, Irene Fernandez, who was jailed for advocating for the rights of migrant workers and other poor oppressed people in her country. She researched the problem and exposed the injustice by publishing the information. She uncovered the very sad reality of workers who were often housed in government detention centres that were unsanitary and with inadequate food and water. In addition, some workers were beaten and sexually abused. This resulted in a number of deaths. She was charged by the government for “maliciously publishing false news” and after a long detracted legal battle lasting seven years she was found guilty.
Fernandez spent one year in jail before the High Court overturned the earlier conviction that led to her acquittal. She is currently trying to stop her government from supporting the trafficking of persons that she sees as “the heinous crime of modern day slavery”. As well, she believes the survivors of this dehumanizing activity need to be helped to once again see themselves as children of God in order to regain their self-worth and dignity.
In the Lenten message 2012, Pope Benedict XVI focuses on these words taken form the Letter to the Hebrews “Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works” (10:24). The Pope wants to remind us that Christian life is centred on charity. The Holy Father considers three main points of Christian life: concern for others, reciprocity and personal holiness. By attending and supporting the World Day of Prayer, we are building those community bridges that can help us to care more for each other and do good works. The service creates a community awareness of the needs of others. The prayers, the hymns and the Bible readings chosen for the service served to renew the universal Christian call to be concerned and to pray for the entire Christian family all over the world.
One of the hymns sung during the service that best sums up the essence of the World Day of Prayer is “In Christ There is no East or West”. In one verse, we find the words that speak about our Christian responsibility because we are all connected to the Mystical Body of Christ: “In Christ shall true hearts everywhere their high communion find,/ Whose service is the golden cord close-binding humankind.” And so we end as we began, “Let God’s Justice Prevail”.
The deacon faced us from the podium, ready to proclaim the gospel of the day. “The Lord be with you” he intoned. “And with your spirit” 40 or so seminarians and visitors from a local parish responded as one.
An ordinary moment in an ordinary liturgy. A ritual greeting and an equally ritual response. The kind of predetermined, “by rote” dialogue that many claim makes the Mass a boring or even an alienating experience.
But that moment – to me at least – was anything but boring. Because 20 minutes earlier that same deacon had come running up the aisle of our seminary chapel, grabbed the Oil of the Sick from the ambry, and ran back to the room where a priest was waiting to anoint one of those visiting parishioners who lay on the floor after a heart attack. The parishioner received the sacrament, and also received life-saving CPR from one of our seminarians. He was revived and transported to hospital where he is recovering.
So the deacon and the people he greeted at mass that morning shared more than roles in a pre-scripted play. They also shared an encounter with death, with the fragility of our lives, with our dependence on one another, and on the Lord. Our dialogue was not empty but filled with meaning.
Shock Treatment?
But is that really a sufficient response to the naysayers? Why should it take a close encounter with death to fill that ritual moment with meaning? And what is the point of a Christian ritual (or a Christian) depending on that kind of shock treatment for us to achieve “full, conscious, and active” participation?
Good questions. In trying to answer them, I think, we can come to a better understanding of what’s going on when people describe the mass as “boring”. And that is valuable not just for them, but for us as well. Because I think the truth is that the distance between the ritual action of the Mass and how it’s experienced – the distance they name as “boring” — is something we sometimes share.
Of course the quick response to those who describe the Mass as boring is that they simply don’t understand what’s going on. If they did their boredom would quickly disappear. In my experience that observation is very often true. But it doesn’t exhaust the truth. As an ordained minister of the Church and a seminarian in his sixth year of formation, I’d like to think I have a pretty good idea of what’s going on at mass. And yet that morning in the chapel, the ritual moment was filled for me in a way I don’t recall from the many other times I had experienced it.
So am I a “bad Catholic”? Aren’t we all? But more to the point…was the gap ( between the rite and my experience ) bridged for me that day because a man almost died? Or was it because I became, at least in that moment, the man I was intended to be: a man in right relationship with the Lord, with his minister, and with the Church; and I became that man in such a way that I was able not just to say, but to actually inhabit the words I said? The role I was given?
I’m convinced it was the latter. Obviously the two are connected – directly connected in this instance. But what if there is another way? What if the way I arrived at the fullness of that moment wasn’t the rule but the exception?
I think that makes sense. After all, becoming the person God intended us to be is nothing more or less than our vocation as Christians, it’s our call from the Lord. And it’s the work, not of a moment, but of a lifetime.
The Faith of the Church
Think of the words the priest says after we repeat the profession of faith at baptisms — “this is our faith, this is the faith of the Church”. The faith we receive at baptism is not our personal faith, but the faith of the church given us as a gift.
And the words and prayers of the mass express that faith. Something which is indeed truly ours, but imperfectly so. Every Christian shares in that faith, but sinful creatures that we are, we never manage to make it completely our own in this life – however small, there’s still always a gap.
And so in the end, the gap between our experience of the mass and the truth of the words we are asked to say is, at least in part, the measure of that other gap – the gap between the person we are and the person we are called to be.
From time to time our Lord will bless us with an experience, or a flash of insight that helps us to bridge the gap — “road to Damascus” conversions do happen. But for the most part we draw nearer to the Lord – and to the person we are meant to be — in slow, sometimes barely perceptible increments; pulled along by God’s grace and pushed forward by faith – a faith which is both personal and corporate – my faith and “the faith of the church”.
Inhabiting the Mass
So in this light the Mass becomes not just an encounter with our Lord – a chance to join our offering of self to his offering on the cross – but also an encounter with the person we are called to be. In the prayers of the Mass we meet that person. And I believe that careful, loving attention to those words, both inside the Mass and outside it can help us become that person, and bridge the gap we so often experience as boredom, or even a vague disappointment. Listen to Ruth Burrows, a Carmelite nun and spiritual writer, in her book “The Essence of Prayer”. In the Mass, she says:
“…we find theology at its purest, theology that is prayed, theology that is prayer. If we were to absorb the contents of the Missal we would need little else. Study the four Eucharistic prayers, the Prefaces throughout the yearly seasons, and the great doxology “Glory to God in the Highest”. Look carefully at the Collects, especially the one so easily overlooked the ‘Prayer over the Offerings’. Then of course there are the daily readings from the Old and New Testaments, with verses from the psalms: a wealth of prayed theology, the Church’s understanding at its purest consisting of treasures old and new”. ( Burrows, p. 9 )
To close, let me share one such treasure from this week’s liturgy, the prayer over the gifts for Thursday of the second week of Lent )
“By this present sacrifice we pray, O Lord, sanctify our observance that what Lenten discipline outwardly declares it may inwardly bring about, through Christ our Lord.
This, as the baptismal liturgy declares, is our faith, this is the faith of the Church, we are proud to profess it through Christ Jesus our Lord!
Update: Interesting post by Amy Welborn on Msgr. Ronald Knox’s discussion on participation in his book “The Mass in Slow Motion”
