Beatitudes and Baptism - part 5

These are reflections of mine made in preparation for a baptism

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
How blessed are those who are able to give love where it has not been earned. And how hard to do. Yet time and again, Jesus tells his disciples to learn from him, to do what he does. He forgives, even from the cross, and I can think of no greater example of loving mercy than being forgiven prior to asking for forgiveness. The commensurate nature of mercy reminds me of the penultimate petition in the Lord's prayer: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."

My Kind of Hero

This was on CNN. It's a great story and an indication of at least a couple of things:
1) Sometimes a traumatic experience shakes us up to such an extent that we say, "someone's got to do something about this."
2) One person, with a vision of helping people, can make a difference.

If Russell Jackson has his way, any child who needs medical care but lacks the transportation to get there will have a safe and reliable alternative.

Russell Jackson started Kid One, which has ferried thousands of children to medical appointments.

"We found that there were 80,000-plus children in Alabama living in a home with no car," Jackson says.

"And in the rural areas, there are no cabs, there are no buses, there are no trains. ... Millions of children in our country every day have no access to medical care when they need to reach it."

Jackson is so determined that in 1997 he gave up his career as an Alabama firefighter, moved in with friends and dug into his retirement account to start Kid One Transport, a nonprofit organization that provides rides for needy children in his home state.

In 11 years, Kid One's fleet of vans has ferried more than 16,000 kids to and from scheduled medical-related appointments all over Alabama. Watch Jackson describe the need for medical transportation in rural Alabama »

Jackson never anticipated he would leave the fire department to head up a nonprofit organization. After all, firefighting was the culmination of a lifelong dream.

"What little boy doesn't want to be a firefighter?" Jackson says, laughing.

But an emergency call to his department in March 1992 changed everything. Jackson was dispatched to help an unresponsive 2-year-old who had accidentally hanged himself in the family car while trying to retrieve a toy.

"We did everything that we could to try to revive that young child," he says. The 2-year-old died despite their efforts.

"I took it pretty tough," Jackson remembers. "It's not that I had not been exposed to tragedies before, but this one hit me differently."

At the advice of a counselor, Jackson started volunteer work to help him process his grief. A friend suggested Jackson volunteer in the small rural town of Sayre, Alabama. Jackson was stunned by what he saw just 25 minutes from his home.

"When I drove into the community, it was a world of its own. It was a lot of homes that were deplorable. And that's really the only way I can explain them," he says.

Jackson says he was instantly ashamed by his own comfortable lifestyle. Watch Jackson describe the "turning point" that led to Kids One Transport »

"All it took was the one visit," he recalls, "and I knew I really wanted to come out and work with these folks, hand in hand, and do whatever I could to help make life a little bit easier for them."

When social workers told him about the neighborhood children who had no way to travel to and from appointments for chemotherapy, physical therapy and even for regular checkups, Jackson started driving them there himself.

Before long this one-man operation grew into a 13-van team covering 30 counties. Though Jackson recently stepped down from a daily role in the organization he founded, he says the best part of his work has been meeting the families and witnessing firsthand so many medical transformations.

There were some who learned to speak, another who learned to walk, and others who recovered from life-threatening illnesses -- even when doctors were less than hopeful. Watch a child who relies on Kid One to get to medical appointments »

"I saw so many lives changed, so many determined children and parents who wanted to beat the odds that were against them," Jackson says.

He says he believes that getting them to the care they needed made the difference.

"We're that missing part of the puzzle that is preventing so many people from reaching what we'd consider as world-class medicine. ... To know that they beat it all because of a simple ride," he adds. "That has definitely been worth every bit of founding Kid One Transport."


Thanks, Pat, for pointing this out!

Beatitudes and Baptism - part 4

These are brief reflections on the beatitudes I made while preparing a homily for a little girl's baptism.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Notice this is not self-righteousness, but the righteousness of God. Jesus simply says that if you want to do God's will as much as you want your daily bread, God will satisfy that desire. God will give us the grace we need to do what is right and just. That grace will make it possible to be righteous – but there's no promise it will be easy. Those who do become righteous, and live a virtuous life, discover that virtue is itself pleasurable. The best way to teach our children virtue is to model it.

What It Means to Be a Change Agent

This was passed on to me by Fr. Paul W., with whom I live when I'm in Colorado Springs. It's written from a secular context by Dave Jamieson, a professor at Pepperdine, but fits well the religious one with some modifications which I've added after the ones Jamieson coined. After all, the heart of ministry is calling people to commit to the following of Christ as a member of His Church! That requires change in us all.

You will always be in the process of development.
You will find yourself often being alone and feeling marginal.
You will find yourself experiencing higher and higher levels of resistance.
You will get more and more in touch with what it means to move in and move out.
You will need to be caring and confrontive; guiding and directive.
You will keep trying to see situations with different eyes.
Edges of your patience will be pushed (nothing moves fast enough).
You will know rejection intimately.
You will constantly be revisiting your own values.
You will live with the tension between blending and differentiating with the client.
You will struggle between doing what the client needs and what you need.
Your honesty with yourself will enable you to relate to others.
You will truly be yourself only when you know yourself.
Your greatest joy will be what you can do for others, so they can do for themselves.
You will come to understand that we must care for ourselves, because no one else really can.

My version:
You will always be in the process of conversion.

You will find yourself often being alone and feeling marginal - but you're not alone, since Jesus promised to be with us always. On the other hand, you don't just feel marginal, you are marginal, like Him.

You will find yourself experiencing higher and higher levels of resistance from the Evil One, if the change you're encouraging points people towards Jesus.

You will get more and more in touch with what it means to move in when people need help and move out of the way when they don't.

You will need to be caring and confrontive; guiding and directive - and if you really love the other with Christ's love, it will be obvious which is needed.

You will keep trying to see situations with different eyes because you know your limited vision.

Edges of your patience will be pushed (nothing moves fast enough). But of course, you're not the Savior, are you?

You will know rejection intimately, just like the prophets of old.

You will constantly be revisiting your own values to make sure you've not abandoned Jesus' values for cheap and convenient imitations.

You will live with the tension between the desire to fit in comfortably with the world and the call to live as a sign to a fallen world.

You will struggle between doing what your brother or sister needs and what you need. But there are alternatives to selfishness and co-dependence, and you are your brother or sister's keeper.

Your honesty with yourself will enable you to relate to others. Humility is the foundation of lasting relationships.

You will truly be yourself only when you know yourself in Christ.

Your greatest joy will be what you can do for others to help them encounter Christ, so they can know and follow Him themselves.

You will come to understand that we must care for ourselves as good stewards of the life God has given us, and that in itself gives honor to God.

"Can the West be converted?"

Sherry drew our attention yesterday to an interesting article from the most recent issue of Lausanne World Pulse, an evangelical journal dedicated to the study and discussion of world missions. As I was perusing this issue I came across a very interesting question that the great missionary and theologian Leslie Newbigin posed upon his return from the mission fields of India: "Can the West be converted?" Embedded in that question, of course, is not only the can, but also the how. 

The whole bit: 

Over two decades ago Lesslie Newbigin asked a question that has yet to be sufficiently grappled with. Returning from India (where he had served as a missionary) to his home in the United Kingdom, he discovered that the Western world was just as much a valid mission field as the India he had departed from, and that Christians needed to be thinking missionally in the Western context just as much as outside of it. This prompted him to ask the question, “Can the West be converted?” a query that has consumed the thinking of increasing numbers of church workers in the Western world. Sadly, as Newbigin surveyed missiological literature for application to the West he concluded: 

The weakness, however, of this whole mass of missiological writing is that while it has sought to explore the problems of contextualization in all the cultures of humankind from China to Peru, it has largely ignored the culture that is the most widespread, powerful, and persuasive among all contemporary cultures—namely, what I have called modern Western culture.

With the global shift of Christianity’s growth from the Northern to the Southern Hemisphere, and the increasingly pluralistic and post-Christian nature of the West, the presence of the new religions and subjective life spiritualities may provide us with a context by which we can work through answers to Newbigin’s question and experiment with the development of new approaches at contextualization and new theologies for the rapidly changing Western world. 

The whole article is here.

The Saint of Hawaii

Blessed Damien, the apostle to the lepers of Molokai, is going to be declared a saint. He was the Mother Teresa of his generation and famoux for the same reason.

The canonization will take place in Rome, possibly at the end of next year, with celebrations in Belgium and Hawaii.

I find it odd that the Hawaii media story says that they are sending to Belgium (where most of Blessed Damien is buried) for a relic. The reality is that there is a wonderful storehouse of relics in the islands.

Specifically the tiny labor-of-love "Damien museum at St. Augustine's parish on Waikiki in Honolulu (right on the beach and with a great view of Diamondhead - what a location!). This museum was run by a husband and wife team and contained nearly every existing relic associated with Damien: his pipes, chasubles, the prie dieu he built with his own hands and used for his own prayer.

I am told that a ceiling leak several years ago forced the collection out of that location and that it is now scattered. This will make the local Church wake up to its treasures, I hope.

I remember kneeling beside the saint's prie dieu (covered in plexiglass). I sensed, I felt the presence of the numinous, the presence of God in that place. Not only had Fr. Damien built it with his own hands but no doubt poured his own fear and pain and loneliness to God after contracting leprosy himself.

I also experienced something very similar in the historic parish Church in Lahina on Maui. As I walked down the aisle I was suddenly overcome with a utterly unexpected joy. I sensed that there had been some kind of struggle or tragedy in that place which was now being redeemed and restored. "Weeping endures for a night but joy cometh in the morning." was the verse that flashed to mind.

As I have learned to do when I have these experiences, I asked a local: "Has something wonderful happened here lately?"

He thought for a moment and then said "Well, the pastor, who was greatly loved, was recently removed because of a sexual scandal" and that was very hard on the congregation. But we've just been assigned a new pastor: one of Mother Teresa's priests, of the Missionaries of Charity."

"Ah" I thought "I'm picking up the presence of a saint."

But our guide went on: "And of course, Fr. Damien used to serve here as well."

The presence of two saints, it seems.

Walking Through the Fire

Oh my.

You must read/listen to this NPR piece on the power of God to heal a broken heart and a broken life.

Kim Phuc is best known as the little girl in the famous photo of a Vietnam War napalm-bombing attack near Saigon. She now lives in Toronto with her husband and two children. Her organization, Kim Foundation International, aids children who are war victims.

She was 9 on the day in 1972 that the now iconic picture was taken. She spent 14 months in a hospital and had 17 operations.

"I spent my daytime in the library to read a lot of religious books to find a purpose for my life. One of the books that I read was the Holy Bible.

In Christmas 1982, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior. It was an amazing turning point in my life. God helped me to learn to forgive — the most difficult of all lessons. It didn't happen in a day and it wasn't easy. But I finally got it.

Forgiveness made me free from hatred. I still have many scars on my body and severe pain most days but my heart is cleansed.

Napalm is very powerful but faith, forgiveness and love are much more powerful."


All I can say is "Blessed be the name of the Lord" and "God bless and keep you Kim Phuc for responding to the mercy and grace of God so generously."

As Corrie Ten Boom observed of her experiences in a Nazi concentration camp a generation before:

"This is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still."

African Led Christianity in Europe

The July Lausanne World Pulse is out again and, as usual, is very stimulating. The topic this month is the new missionary movement from the Global south, especially Africa.

From an article by Dr. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu of Ghana.

Here are some snippets:

Today, some of the largest congregations in Europe—Western and Eastern—are either founded by Africans or are led by people of African descent. Discussions on African immigrant Christianity usually focus on churches whose memberships tend to be constituted by Africans or people of that descent. A good example is the Kingsway International Christian Center (KICC) in London, led by the charismatic Nigerian pastor, Matthew Ashimolowo.

My research has taken me to the doors of another type of African-led church whose membership is entirely European. This means the designation of these churches in the diaspora as “African churches” is no longer tenable. For example, Sunday Adelaja’s Church of the Blessed Embassy of the Kingdom of God for all Nations is based in Kiev, Ukraine. Founded some fourteen years ago, it has a membership of approximately twenty-five thousand adults.

African members of mainline denominations in their home countries initially joined similar denominations in Europe, particularly in the UK and Germany. With time, many have pulled out of these communions and throughout Europe today, one encounters Ghana Methodist, Nigeria Anglican, or Ghana Roman Catholic churches operating under the pastoral leadership of their own kind often posted from the home countries. The meaning of this development is that Methodism, Anglicanism, Roman Catholicism, and Presbyterianism have all, in African hands, acquired new ecclesial identities, liturgical structures and styles of worship that differ markedly from those inherited from nineteenth-century missionary endeavors.

To quote Jehu Hanciles:

In Western Europe, the rise of African immigrant churches and other non-Western Christian congregations has been dramatically visible because of the stark contrast between the dynamism of new immigrant Christian groups and the often moribund tone of the traditional churches.5

Painful experiences notwithstanding therefore, African Christians and African-led churches in Europe interpret their presence in terms of a call to mission and evangelism. In his book, The Go-Between God: The Holy Spirit and Christian Mission, John V. Taylor defines mission as “recognizing what the Creator-Redeemer is doing in his world and doing it with him."10 I have often revised this definition to read, “knowing what the Creator-Redeemer is doing in the world and allowing him to engage you in the enterprise.”

And there is much more. Read the whole article. The subject of African led Catholic parishes in Europe is fascinating.

Any readers have knowledge or experience of an African led parish in Europe?

Beatitudes and Baptism - part 3

These are brief reflections on the beatitudes I made while preparing a homily for a little girl's baptism.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Meekness is not a characteristic we think of in a positive way, but Jesus does. In our age of self-promotion, won't a meek child, especially a girl, get lost in the crowd? Not get asked to the dance? Not pursue the Stanford scholarship? But if we think of meekness as a type of humility, we can discover its blessing. A meek and humble person can get out of the way in a conversation, for example, and really listen. Everything doesn't have to be about them. In fact, nothing has to be about them, nor do they get all tied up comparing themselves to others. They don't have to be number one, they don't have to win the argument – they can actually engage the other as "other," – "not like me" – and delight in the difference. They can experience life, people, creation itself, all the graces God offers us daily, as an unearned gift – which is the nature of an inheritance.

"Personal Relationship" and Real Presence

There have been some discussions about the possibility of a personal relationship with God on this blog and others recently. Part of it was re-ignited by the recent Pew Forum Report on Religion in America that indicated that 29% of Catholics believe God is simply an "impersonal force," while 60% of self-described adult Catholics can clearly affirm that they believe in a personal God with whom they can have a relationship. Unfortunately, as has been pointed out in comments made on this blog, we have no idea what other factors led to their responding as they did.
Nor do we know how many of those who don't believe in a personal God actually attend Mass regularly, what education level they have, or how their response to that question correlates with other questions on the survey.

Various commenters on this blog have proposed that Catholics responded negatively to the question of a personal relationship with God because:
1) Catholics hear "personal relationship" as Protestant, especially Evangelical, language, and thus choose another response;
2) "personal relationship" implies a "me-and-Jesus" approach to faith which denies the need for community, sacraments, priests, the Church in general, and so some Catholics would not respond positively to a question about personal relationship;
3) a Catholic might read a question about the possibility of having a personal relationship with God and want to know, "just what do you mean by the phrase 'personal relationship'?"
4) Catholics hear in the words, "personal relationship" that Jesus is just another person, like Bob or Mary, yet a good Catholic realizes that He is so much more (fully Divine, too, I presume the commenter meant).

These are nice, optimistic speculations, and I hope they are true for some of the respondents on the Pew survey. But there are other statistics available that lead me to suspect that the respondents were actually telling the truth. 40% of the Catholic respondents were unable to affirm that they believe in a personal God with whom they can have a relationship. Interestingly enough, in February, 2008, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) out of Georgetown University published a survey on the belief and practices of Catholics regarding the sacraments. In it, 43% of the respondents claimed that at Mass, bread and wine are symbols of Jesus, but Jesus is not really present. The responses varied according to how often the respondent attended Mass. Among those who attend Mass weekly or more frequently, 91% believed in the Real Presence, while 65% of those who attend less than weekly but at least once a month believed in the Real Presence. Only 40% of those who attend a few times a year or less believed in the Real Presence.

What about other indications that might point to a personal relationship, like prayer, or reading Scripture? In the same Pew Forum survey, 42% of the Catholic respondents reported that they pray a few times a week or less. Only 58% claimed they prayed daily. 57% reported that they seldom or never read Scripture outside of religious services.

So let's look at a few numbers...
40% of adult Catholics do not believe a personal relationship with God is possible
43% of Catholics polled do not believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist
42% of adult Catholics pray a few times a week or less
57% of adult Catholics seldom or never read Scripture outside of religious services

I'm more and more inclined to take the Pew Forum numbers at face value. One commenter noted,

How can a Catholic NOT think they have a personal relationship with Christ when one considers the incredible intimacy in receiving the Holy Eucharist inside oneself? What could possibly be more intimate than that?

She's right, of course, but perhaps it's possible that the same 42% who seldom pray and the same 43% who believe the consecrated host and wine are just symbols are the same folks who don't believe a personal relationship with God is possible. I don't know that for sure, of course, because I'm looking at two surveys, and there wasn't a correlation made in the Pew Forum between prayer and the relationship issue. But at least one could argue that at least 40% of Catholics are behaving as though they believe a personal relationship with God is impossible.

Beatitudes and Baptism - part 2

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Mourning hardly seems like a blessing, but any parent has an insight into how mourning can be a sign of blessing. When a child asks for something that you know isn't in her best interest and you deny it to her, she cries. We live in what's been called a therapeutic society, where the goal is to never mourn: to have all that one needs, to be independent. But there is a terrible cost to self-sufficiency and complacency, even constant pleasure. We forget God, and we forget our neighbor. We are already living in hell, a small little world, though we don't know it. We will mourn then, because our hearts long for so much more than things, but there'll be no one to comfort us in our solitude. So blessed are those who give themselves to others in love. They are guaranteed to mourn whenever someone they love is hurt or suffering. But there will be those who love them, who will act as God's agents and offer comfort. And the Comforter Himself will be there in their deepest need, if they invoke Him.

The US Court of Appeals: Just the Place for a Snark!

Now here's a important cultural landmark:

A Federal Appeals Court has quoted Lewis Caroll in an important decision. 

CNN puts it this way:

"A federal appeals court has slammed the reliability of U.S. government intelligence documents, saying just because officials keep repeating their assertions does not make them true. 

A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington likened the Bush administration's case to a line in an 1876 nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll: "I have said it thrice: What I tell you three times is true."

To follow the Court's reasoning, I think we need to understand the quotation in its context:  The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits"

Fit the First

Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried,
As he landed his crew with care;
Supporting each man on the top of the tide
By a finger entwined in his hair.

"Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:
That alone should encourage the crew.
Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:
What i tell you three times is true."

See?  Isn't everything clearer now?

Sherry's Radio Interview on the Pew Survey & "Personal Relationship with God"

Amazing thing about technology.  Sacred Heart Radio Station e-mailed us the MP3 file for the interview on "personal relationship with God" that I did this morning and we've got it up  on our website here.

It runs about 20 minutes.  I felt like I was babbling at the time but critical listerners tell me its "lively".  Listening to it again, there are some theological nuances I would add (if this were in print and I had more time to work with) but hey, that's live radio.  Warts and all.'

Just click on the icon button to the right of "interview on relationship with God" and the radio interview will pop up. Click on that and it begins

Beatitudes and Baptism - part 1

I performed a baptism this past weekend for a former parishioner from Tucson. She chose the Beatitudes from Matthew's Sermon on the Mount for the Gospel text to be proclaimed, and I sat down and wrote a brief reflection on each of the beatitudes - more for myself, really, as I thought about the connection between them and baptism. I thought I'd share them with you over the next week, since I've not blogged about anything for ages.

Realize, these are just random thoughts - nothing systematic.

Baptism begins a new relationship between Aspen and God. She cannot offer any obstacles to the grace, the new life in the Holy Spirit, that God, Father, Son and Spirit offer her today. When the blessed water is poured over her head, original sin is forgiven, she becomes a daughter of God, her soul is marked with a character making her eligible to participate in the sacramental life of the Church, and she becomes a member of Jesus' body living today.

You make promises today to not only raise her in the Catholic faith, but to introduce her to God who has created her. All of us in the Church are to model for her what it is to be a disciple, and help her live in such a way that she can experience the blessings Jesus describes in the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount.

But these are peculiar blessings, and they have to be modeled and taught. We don't come by them naturally. Jesus and His mother are the best models of actually living the beatitudes he preaches, and I can't help but believe that he was preaching from experience. If that's the case, then we might presume that the blessings Jesus promises begin in this life, and find their fulfillment in heaven in the next. Thus, one of the greatest gifts you can give your daughter is to model for her "beatitude living" and teach her to live this way, too.

Let's look briefly at each of them.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
As you may know, in Luke's Sermon on the plain, Jesus says simply, "Blessed are the poor," and I believe that helps us understand what Matthew may be getting at with "poor in spirit." When the rich young man who has followed the commandments from his youth asks Jesus, "What must I do to inherit everlasting life?" Jesus responds by saying, "follow the commandments," but he's already done that and senses something's missing. So Jesus tells him to sell all he has – becoming physically poor, reliant on others – and then to come, follow him...become a disciple if he wishes to enter the kingdom. To be a disciple is to follow, and that means allowing another to lead, to make the decisions of which way to go, to trust when you can only see a few steps ahead. To be poor in spirit is to choose dependence over independence, guidance over self-determination, and trust over self-reliance.

Often we refer to headstrong, willful children as "spirited." You must teach Aspen to become poor in spirit. Rather than pursuing her own will, her own designs, you must teach her - and show her - how to make Jesus' will her own – to give up living for herself, relying on herself and her own goodness, and trusting the grace and providence of God to be enough. Teach your daughter to accept the kingdom as a gift, rather than a reward earned. And, help her learn to trust that following Jesus is to begin entering the kingdom now.

St. Paul (and Ambrose) in China

Here's a fascinating glimpse of Catholic life in China.  (HT to Gashwin)

A parish dedicated to St. Paul celebrates the year of St. Paul with confetti, prayer, and a real Chinese feast.

The blogger is an American woman blogging under the pseudonym of Ambrose who comes across as thoughtful and observant.  Check back regularly to get a window on Catholic life in her part of China.  

WYD Latin Style?

On the home page of the World Youth Day site is a fun map.  Roll over the various continents and the registered number of pilgrims from that continent/area pops up.

What immediately struck me was how few representatives there will be from the two centers of the new global Church: Only 4,000 pilgrims each from South America and Africa.

27,000 from North America

54,000 from Europe

100,000 from Australia

Understandable with rising air fares.

But its time for WYD to be held in South America, I think.  The enormous cost involved is one huge factor, I'm sure.  And the political and economic stability and infrastructure necessary to make it work.  And the strong interest of the local bishops.

If they did it in the Philippines, surely they can do it in Rio.

WYD would be a powerful response to the rapid "de-Catholicizing" of Latin America and might well drawn many back to the faith.

The Church on the Flip Side of the World

This weekend, the Pauline year was formally inaugurated by Pope Benedict.  Amy has all the news and a plethera of links.

World Youth Day is heating up as well.  I'm being inundated with World Youth Day news from down under - like the fact that 712 pilgrims will be coming from Tonga.  Tonga has never sent pilgrims to World Youth Day before but now it is happening in their backyard, so to speak.  It is easy for us northern hemisphere types to forget how far away Rome can feel in Oceania.  This World Youth Day will be one of the smallest - but what it could mean to the Church on the flip side of the planet is beyond price.

Meanwhile, our own Aussie team is preparing to do their Called & Gifted thing in Melbourne before the major festivities begin.  Dioceses around the country are hosting pilgrims as they arrive and offering local events called Day in the Diocese.  20,000 pilgrims are expected in Melbourne - which is a truly beautiful and very cosmopolitan city.  The CSI gang will be presenting on Thursday, July 10. 

And then onto the really big show in Sydney and multiple presentations on Discernment and MIssion at the Youth Festival.  You can also meet members of the CSI team (OP and lay) at the big Dominican booth at the Vocations Expo, so be sure and stop by.  

Clara has had some very cool bookmarks made up as give-aways for pilgrims featuring Pier Giorgia Frassati and Caroline Chishom.  The theme:  mission, vocation, and discernment as lay apostles.  Unfortunately, I'm not techie enough to post the PDF files here.  But here's a sample of the text:

Pier Giorgio Frassati 

had a vocation 

...he was not a priest, 

   ...he was not a religious,  

      ...he was not married. 

When he was Baptised he  

was called and gifted.

 

He responded to that call  

and used those gifts to love  

and serve God by loving and 

serving those around him. 

He died at age 24. The poor of 

Turin flocked to his funeral. 

He lived life to the full sharing  

his material and spiritual wealth 

with others. 

The Siena Institute can help  

you discern your Gifts and  

your vocation. 

Good stuff.  By the way, if you want to reach our Australian team, you can reach Clara by dropping her an e-line at clara@siena.org.

Personal Relationship With God and Making Disciples

Radio interview done.  Liked Brian, the interviewer - he was very prepared and professional.

What was fascinating was to hear a bit of the station's promo - all about relationship with Christ!

This whole blog discussion of  "is personal relationship" with Christ Catholic?" has been revealing and fascinating and is going to go into our next Making Disciples seminar in Spokane which is coming up August 10 - 14.  

If this topic has caught your attention and you would like to be trained to help others grow in their lived relationship with God, join us there.  There are significant discounts available for groups of 2 or more.

Clearing Head

Radio interview this morning - Sacred Heart radio in Cincinnati  - 6:40 am my time!

Must make some tea and clear my head after the commotion last night.  Pippin the cat, strictly a house feline - 16 years old and still jumping - vanished last night.  

I got up from a phone call with my sister to find out that the back door was mysteriously open and Pippin, apparently, out in the night with our local foxes and coyotes.  Much hue and cry for 45 minutes, looking everywhere.  And then she walked out from her hiding place as though nothing had happen.

Not enough sleep.  Must clear head.

interview topic:  the blog conversation last week on the Pew Religious Landscape survey and the whole idea of  "personal relationship" with God.

Pope Praises Work of Lay Evangelizers

Zenit has an account of the Pope's comments when receiving the bishops of Honduras on their ad limina visit here. 

The presence of lay evangelists and "delegates of the Word" is apparently very important in the life of the Church in many places in Latin America. However, with the influx of immigrants from Central and Latin America in this country we would do well to increasingly rely on their training and formation when they become members of our communities in the United States. 

I have firsthand experience of the great value of the formation that many Latin Americans receive to proclaim the Word especially in catechetical settings from my time working at a small, rural parish in eastern North Carolina where we were very reliant upon their efforts within the Hispanic community. I worked with an 18 year old who had received some training and formation from his pastor in North Carolina and provided the Spanish language components of our multi-parish Confirmation retreat. He was by far one of the most effective preachers I have ever encountered. He held 90 other Confirmation candidates spellbound for over an hour as he preached on the power of Confirmation as a personal Pentecost. You could have heard a pin drop. 

Prayer Request

Last month, we asked you to pray for Bob and Linda Walker's son Robert who was in a terrible accident.  We just learned yesterday that he has died.  Your prayers for Robert and his family would again be greatly appreciated.

Catholicism: A "Relationship-Free" Faith?

It is always startling for me to listen to serious Catholics respond to the idea of "personal relationship with God" as has happened over at Mark's place today during a discussion of the Pew Forum study:

“I’d also note that having a “personal relationship with Jesus” is such a staple of evangelical rhetoric that many Catholics may be saying “no” as a way of saying that they don’t experience God in the same way that evangelicals say that they experience God. That is, Catholics meet the Lord in the Sacraments, in the liturgy of the community, etc., not just in private unstructured prayers.”

“Some Catholics might hear a reference to “personal God” and think it refers to an Evangelical understanding of Christian faith.   But overall it leaves me scratching my head. What the heck is meant by “personal,” anyway?”

“If I pray to God, isn’t that a sign of something personal? I am not praying to someone or something abstract. But I agree with sd that catholics are not taught culturally to think of that as a “personal relationship.” At least I know that I did not look on it that way. Much of the poll results could be attributed to linguistic tone deafness of a sort.”

To which I responded:



Y’all:



Re: “Personal” and “relationship”. As in relationships we have with others in our lives - family, friends, co-workers, etc. 

What I found mystifying is how seemingly normal adult Catholics, all of whom have some experience of personal relationship or they would never have lived to grow up, suddenly freeze when the idea of relationship with God is proposed. 



We all have some experience of relationship and we routinely talk about our relationships - with our parents, children, siblings, spouses, friends, etc. 

Relationship is a extremely common topic here at CAEI. And I have yet to hear anyone here say: 


 “Just what do you mean by “personal relationship” with your spouse or your child or your friend?  Relationship is something that Protestants talk about. That’s not something Catholics do.”

As though a Protestant is another species or order of being and their relationships are so totally different from our own.

We are all human beings here with the same basic frailties and capacities for grace and response to God and there is only one God. It is absurd to talk as though Protestants and Catholics are from different planets in this matter or seeking to relate to a different God.

I’ve never read a saint who reacted that way when asked about their relationship with God. Most of them couldn’t shut up on the subject.

Marriage -one of the most intimate human relationships possible - is used as the great metaphor for every Christian’s relationship with God in the Scriptures and therefore, is part of the Catholic Tradition. And the foundation of the whole Theology of the Body.

Relationship is the crux of our whole understanding of heaven which is eternal life in the presence of and participating in the life of the Blessed Trinity. Even the Trinity as understood by historic Christianity is profoundly personal and relational. Relationship and self-giving are intrinsic to the very heart and nature of God.

God is profoundly personal and relational.  And so are human beings. When we were baptized, we were baptized into Jesus’ relationship with his Father. We became adopted sons and daughters of God and therefore, Jesus is now our brother as well as our Lord - an extremely intimate relationship.

Relationship - whether mediated and nourished by the liturgy and sacraments or not - is the heart of this whole drama we are all engaged in. 

And I add here:

Pope Benedict began Deus Caritas Est with these words:

 “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 Jn 4:16). These words from the First Letter of John express with remarkable clarity the heart of the Christian faith: the Christian image of God and the resulting image of mankind and its destiny. In the same verse, Saint John also offers a kind of summary of the Christian life: “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us”. We have come to believe in God’s love: in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life.

and further:

“A personal relationship with God and an abandonment to his will can prevent man from being demeaned and save him from falling prey to the teaching of fanaticism and terrorism...Even in their bewilderment and failure to understand the world around them, Christians continue to believe in the “goodness and loving kindness of God” (Tit 3:4). Immersed like everyone else in the dramatic complexity of historical events, they remain unshakably certain that God is our Father and loves us, even when his silence remains incomprehensible.”

As the Pope said to the young people of America:

 “What matters most is that you develop your personal relationship with God. That relationship is expressed in prayer. God by his very nature speaks, hears, and replies. Indeed, Saint Paul reminds us: we can and should “pray constantly” (1 Thess 5:17). Far from turning in on ourselves or withdrawing from the ups and downs of life, by praying we turn towards God and through him to each other, including the marginalized and those following ways other than God’s path (cf. Spe Salvi, 33)….”

Catholicism is not a “relationship-free” faith.  

If the idea of a “personal relationship with God” gives us pause or strikes us as foreign, we need to re-evaluate our own understanding of the faith, and more to the point, our own lived relationship with God.