St. James Parish
Fr. Ron Bacovin

Weekly Letter from Fr. Ron to his Parish
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2009

December 27, 2009

Warning: we are on Biblical, Liturgical and Holiday overload!

We just celebrated Christmas, this weekend is the Feast of the Holy Family, New Year’s Day (the Solemnity of Mary) is this coming Friday and we then we run into the feast of the Epiphany next Sunday! I hope we survive it all.

            Feast of the Holy Family: every child, sooner or later, wants to know why “we” can’t do what so-and-so’s family does”. The most realistic and honest answer is that “they are different from us”. That is not said in a negative tone – only a statement of reality. In many and varied ways of course we are like other families but it many and varied ways we are not like other families. We appreciate our commonality and ought to be glad with our uniqueness. To paraphrase, Jack London once wrote that “a family is, when you go back there, the place where they have to take you in.” In our earliest years on this planet this is the place where we realize “we are all in this together”. Blest is that family who cares for one another (even through tough love). Woes will befall that family when the atmosphere is an abusive one or filled with great jealousy. Here it is where the foundation of our view of the world is set down, our relational skills developed, and the courage and skills to “go out on our own” is nourished.

            The comedians will tell us ‘horror stories’ about their family – but they get so much glee from that telling. Can’t be all that bad!

For the New Year I think some laughter is in order. So, from an extended list of Murphy’s Laws comes the following: 

Rev. Chichester’s Laws:

1. If the weather is extremely bad, church attendance will be down.
2. If the weather is extremely good, church attendance will be down.
3. If the bulletins are in short supply, church attendance will exceed all expectations.

Planer’s rule: An exception granted becomes a right expected the next time it is requested.

Hadley’s Laws of Clothes Shopping:

1. If you like it, they don’t have it in your size.
2. If you like it and it’s in your size, it doesn’t fit.

The Sagan Fallacy: To say a human being is nothing but molecules is like saying a Shakespearean ply is nothing but words.

Jones’s Law: The man who can smile when things go wrong has thought of someone he can blame it on.

Law of Conservation of Tsouris: The amount of aggravation in the universe is constant… Corollary: If things are going well in one area, they are going wrong in another.

Gilbertson’s Law: Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.

Campbell’s Maxim: Hell is the place where everything tests perfectly and nothing works.

Ralph’s  Observation: It is a mistake to allow any mechanical object to recognize that you are in a hurry.

Benedict’s Principle: Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.

Armey’s Axiom: You can’t get ahead while getting even.

Anonymous: The shortest distance between two points is under construction.

Lowe’s Law: Success always occurs in private and failure in full public view.

Lerman’s Law of Technology: Any technical problem can be overcome given enough time and money. Lerman’s Corollary: You are never given enough time or money.

Beach’s Law: No two identical parts are alike.

McLaughlin’s Law: In a key position in every genealogy you will find a John Smith from London.

Bedfellow’s Rule: The one who snores will fall asleep first.

Jacob’s Law: To err is human; to blame it on someone else is even more human.

Evan’s and Bjorn’s Law: No matter what goes wrong, there is always somebody who knew it would.

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December 20, 2009

You can be sure of this: the church will be a little more crowded next week. On Christmas Eve we will have a 5:00 p.m. Mass both in the church and the gym (I will have a special homily for the children in the gym at this Mass and at the 11:30 on Christmas morning). Mass will be celebrated again on Christmas Eve at 11:00 p.m. On Christmas morn Masses will be at 8:00, 9:45 and 11:30.

            I ask you to continue your generous Christmas giving on that day.

In reviewing our finances we see that the parish needs to bring in $13,000 a week in our collections. In our electronic giving we receive approximately $5,000 per month. Envelopes are received in the mail and will be included in the next week’s total. The bulletin will report what we receive each week. I will give a fairly reliable report of what the parish receives each week in the collection (it will include an averaging out of the money from electronic giving).

            A mother and father came to church one Advent Sunday with their 3-year old daughter. They were good and decent people. They believed in Jesus and loved him very much. The pastor spoke about the coming feast of Christmas and that Isaiah, the prophet, said that the child to be born will be called, not Jesus, but Emmanuel – a name that means God-with-us. Not God available-to-us, or God listening-to-us but God-with-us… God in our shoes, God-in-our-environment but mostly God in our very skins.

            The pastor spoke about how God did not just become a human being in the person of Jesus but that Jesus chose human beings as a place where he would live, and work, and be seen on earth. The parents listened but did not really understand what had been said. To them Jesus in the Eucharist was their most-treasured experience. After Mass they went home to decorate their home and put up the nativity scene. The young girl had the honor of putting Jesus in the crib and as she did she asked bout his clothes. “They are old and worn,” the mother said, “because Mary and Joseph were very poor. But Jesus’ clothes are not important because Jesus is a very special person.”

            Then it was off to the local mall for last minute shopping. As they entered the mall they heard piano music and realized it was not the piped-in kind but the real thing. Their young daughter wanted to see what might be going on so they ventured toward the source of the sound. How nice the father thought to have a piano player entertain the shoppers. But he thought, why Chopin instead of Christmas carols, so close to Christmas.

            When they arrived at the make-shift stage the parents realized, to their dismay, that this was no mall employee. He looked like a street person, the type some would call a “bum”, who had made his way to the piano set up for an evening concert. The piano player was not even aware there were people passing by or stopping to listen. He wore a knitted hat, faded jeans and very worn sneakers and his long coat had mud spots on it which the father thought was probably from where he slept the night before.

            He picked up his daughter and tugged at his wife’s coat so as to move on. As they started on their way the young girl said to her mother, “That must be a special person, mommy. He was dressed in old clothes just like Jesus.” The parents looked at one another and smiled. The father said, “That must be what Father meant this morning when he said, ‘His name will be Emmanuel, God with-us’.”

             It is Christmas day every time we recognize the shepherds of Bethlehem in the people who roam the streets looking for a place to sleep. God is with us when we are visited by a friend who has our well-being in mind. God is with us when we know that someone is standing near us in our pain – and God is with us when we are willing to take a little less so that someone else can have more.

            God-with-us sleeps behind the frightened eyes of a battered child. God-with-us suffers when an aged person faces death. God is with us when we are with each other, when we share each other’s needs, and when we hold each other’s hand.

            Jesus is born every time we walk beside each other in common causes. Jesus is born when we point out the causes of injustice and struggle for equality. Jesus is born again every time we walk quietly with forgiveness in our hearts. (And yes, Jesus is with us in our laughter, joy and dancing.)

Merry Christmas!

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December 13, 2009

On Christmas Eve at 5:00 p.m. Mass in the gym and at the 11:30 Mass on Christmas I will gear my homily for the children… just thought you’d like to know.

            FYI… this year at the Vatican, the Pope’s Christmas evening Mass will not be at midnight (Roman time) but at 10:00 p.m. – a break from tradition. In the past the Mass has been recorded and then presented on TV at midnight, our time.

            As you have been in the past I ask you to be generous in your contribution to the parish.

            As of this writing there is some heavy machinery at the construction sight and they are filling in the area and preparing the ground for pouring of the concrete for the flooring. I would guess as to what comes next but I am not very good at it… but I venture to guess nonetheless: the concrete may be poured later this week.

            From the magazine The Christian Century comes this little bit of news: “The Tufts Free Thought Society wants the university to establish a humanist chaplaincy for students who wish to explore a meaningful and ethical life without being religious. Harvard, Rutgers, and Adelphi universities already have humanist chaplains. The humanist chaplain at Rutgers tries to engage students with what he believes are the three big human issues: what we know about the universe, how we make our mark on history and how we can survive and propagate the human race. The humanistic chaplain at Harvard is working with the Harvard Divinity School to develop a curriculum for training humanist chaplains. If this is a trend, it is an uneven one: Stanford and Columbia created similar positions and later eliminated them,,,”

            What we know about the universe is actually very little. The last time I checked, scientists were claiming that 93% of what makes up the universe is totally unknown to them. Add to that the fact that some scientists feel very strongly that our universe is not the only one and so complicates the subject even more.  The greater question hasn’t even made the list: “Why?”  Why bother to make a mark in this world? Why even bother to worry about propagation/survival? Is it a worthy end unto itself? Some say “yes” (when all is said and done it is just that: said and done) – others dream about more. Jesus talked about the Kingdom of his Father - of his own words he noted that heaven and earth will pass away but never his words (no other one I am aware of has ever dared to make that claim). And we have not even brought the question of suffering and pain into the conversation.

            I feel badly about Tiger Woods. The persona he worked so hard to create has crumbled within just a few days. I feel more badly for us. As a country we are discussing a national health bill, our state and nation are reeling in debt, we are sending young men and women off to Afghanistan, we haven’t recovered from the murder of the 13 military in Texas, etc and yet it is the Tiger story that dominates the news. Some things, more than others, simply demand our attention and thoughtful consideration.

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November 29, 2009

Joseph Campbell, a scholar on myths, wrote and taught us a great deal about myths. Today when you hear someone say “I’m spiritual but not religious,” well, Campbell is partly to blame. “Myth” is not a falsehood – and it is very relevant to us today as are today’s newscasts or headlines. He was fond of saying “The latest incarnation of Oedipus, the continued romance of Beauty and the Beast, stand this afternoon on the corner of 42^nd Street and Fifth Avenue, waiting for the light to change.” Its meaning: we live dramatic lives reflecting time and again the great stories we’ve read about throughout our lives.

            “Campbell acknowledged that his Catholic upbringing had proven a rich resource for his life. ‘I think anyone who has not been a Catholic in that sort of substantial way has no realization of the ambiance of religion within which you live. It’s powerful; it’s potent; it’s life-supporting. And it’s beautiful. The Catholic religion is a poetic religion. Every month has its poetic and spiritual value… I’m sure that my interest in mythology comes out of that.”

            “Truth is one,” he said, “and the sages speak of it by many names.” The common themes and images in our sacred stories and art transcend the cultures from which they come. He believed that a reviewing of such primordial images and themes in mythology such as death and resurrection, virgin birth, the hero’s quest and the promise land – the universal aspects of the soul, the blood memories – could reveal our common psychological roots. “They could even show us, as seen from below how the soul views itself.”

                 Celebration December issue.

            What moves the world ahead is the one who out of curiosity approaches and explores. They have a sense of awe before the unknown.

            In four weeks we will celebrate the birth of a child who inspires awe in us. He will teach and challenge us to explore the holy, to dare to seek union with God, and teach us that this journey is so important to our lives and spirits that we may have to withstand the “barbs and arrows” of those around us… but there is no greater journey to be made and none so rewarding as this one.

            This “myth” of Christmas is no falsehood… it is a mask behind which is our God. To many it simply is incomprehensible that God would take upon itself human flesh. To some it is a scandal and to others it is simply seen as irrelevant. To the believer it is a doorway, a first step, a beginning of life’s adventure.

            Advent is given to us to reflect on these things: to prepare our hearts to remember, to celebrate and to rejoice in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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November 22, 2009

(From Born Toward Dying – the conclusion) “”There is this about being really sick, you get an enormous amount of attention. I cannot say that I did not enjoy it… Sickness is an enforced pause for the counting up of our friends, and being grateful….

            “…I was surprisingly indifferent to whether I would live or die. It probably had less to do with holiness than with my knowing that there was nothing I could do about it one way or the other.

            On the other hand, there was the message: “Everything is ready now.” As though the decision were mine, to stay or go….

            “… Although I was often too tired to talk, when I had the energy I related in detail, over and again, every minuscule change in my condition…  And always in my talking, I was on the edge of tears. I, who had seldom cried in my adult life, was regularly, and without embarrassment, blubbering. Not in sadness. Not at all. But in a kind of amazement that this had happened to me, and maybe I was going to die and maybe I was going to live, and it was all quite out of my control. That was it, I think: I was not in charge, and it was both strange and very good not to be in charge.

            “Tentatively, I say, I began to think that I might live. It was not a particularly joyful prospect. Everything was shrouded by the thought of death, that I had almost died, that I may still die, that everyone and everything is dying. As much as I was grateful for all the calls and letter, I harbored a secret resentment. These friends who said they were thinking about me and praying for me all the time, I knew they also went shopping and visited their children and tended to their business, and there were long times when they were not thinking about me at all. More important, they were forgetting the primordial, overwhelming, indomitable fact: we are dying! Why weren’t they as crushingly impressed by that fact as I was?

            “…After some time, (it was months) I could shuffle the few blocks to the church and say Mass. At the altar, I cried a lot, and hoped the people didn’t notice. To think that I’m really here after all, I thought, at the altar, at the axis mundi, the center of life. And of death. I would be helped back to the house, and days beyond remembering I would simply lie of the sofa looking out at the back yard…

            “People are different around the very sick, especially when they think they may be dying. In the hospital, bishops came to visit and knelt by my bedside, asking for a blessing. A Jewish doctor, professing himself an atheist, asked for my prayers with embarrassed urgency. His wife had cancer, he explained, “And you know about that now.” Call it primitive instinct or spiritual insight, but there is an aura about the sick and dying. They have crossed a line into a precinct others do not know. It is the aura of redemptive suffering, of suffering “offered up” on behalf of others, because there is nothing else to be done with it and you have to do something with it. The point is obvious but it impressed me nonetheless: when you are really sick it is impossible to imagine what it is like to be really well; and when you are well it is almost impossible to remember what it was like to be really sick. They are different precincts…

            “That was seven years ago. I feel very well now. They tell me I might be around for another twenty years or so…

            “There is nothing that remarkable in my story, except that we are all unique in our living and dying. Early on in my illness a friend gave me John Donne’s wondrous Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions. The Devotions were written a year after Donne had almost died, and then lingered for months by death’s door. He writes: “Though I may have seniors others may be elder than I, yet I have proceeded apace in a good university, and gone a great way in a little time, by the furtherance of a vehement pace.” So I too have been to a good university, and what I have learned, what I have learned most importantly, is that, in living and dying, everything is ready now.”

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November 8, 2009

(continued… Fr. Richard Neuhaus: Born Toward Dying) “All philosophy stops at wonder, said the ancients. With exceptions, contemporary philosophy stops at wonder. We are told: don’t ask, don’t wonder, about what you cannot know for sure. But the most important things of everyday life we cannot know for sure. We cannot know them beyond all possibility of their turning out to be false. We order our loves and loyalties, we invest our years with meaning and our death with hope, not knowing for sure, beyond all reasonable doubt, whether we might not have gotten it wrong. What we need is a philosophy that enables us to speak truly, if not clearly, a wisdom that does not eliminate but comprehends our doubt.

            “A long time ago, when I was a young pastor in a very black and very poor inner-city parish that could not pay a salary, I worked part-time as chaplain at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn.

            (He then writes of the dying at the hospital and continues…) One such death is indelibly printed upon my memory. His name was Albert, a man of about seventy and (I don’t know why this sticks in my mind (completely bald. …) Clearly the end was near. Although he had been given a sedative, he was entirely lucid. I put my left arm around his shoulder and together, face almost touching face, we prayer the Our Father. Then Albert’s eyes opened wider, as though he had seen something in my expression. “Oh,” he said, “Oh, don’t be afraid.” His body sagged back and he was dead. Stunned, I realized that, while I thought I was ministering to him, his last moment of life was expended in ministering to me.

            (He then speaks of the death of another person, Charlie…) “…I held his hand as he died a painful death at age forty-three. Through the blood that bubbled up from his hemorrhaging lungs he formed his last word – very quietly, not complaining but deeply puzzled, he looked up at me and said, “Why?”

            “It has often been said that each death is unique, that each of us must die our own death. Enthusiasts such as Walt Whitman gild the inevitable. “Nothing can happen more beautiful than death,” he wrote in Leaves of Grass. In “Song of Myself” he trumpets: “Has anyone supposed it lucky to be born?/I hasten to inform him or her, it is just as lucky to die, and I know it.” Good for him…. “But in my own experience of dying, it struck me as so very commonplace, event trite, that his life should end this way. Perhaps I should explain.

            “The stomach and intestinal cramps have been coming on for almost a year…  ‘…on Sunday, January 10, 1993, about five o’clock, after four days of intense discomfort in which there was yet another probe and yet another x-ray, I was at home suddenly doubled over on the floor with nausea and pain. The sensation was of my stomach exploding.

            “(Fr.) Weigal had the presence of mind to bundle me off – pushing, pulling, half-carrying me – to the nearest emergency room, which, fortunately, was only a block from the house.

            “Very soon,…, I was flat on my back on a gurney, surround by tubes, machines, and technicians exhibiting their practiced display of frenetic precision, just like on television. (The doctors had discovered a large tumor in the colon and immediately prepped him for an operation.) “… and then there was someone putting a mask over my face and telling me to breathe deeply, and then there was “Now I lay me down to sleep…” and then there was the next morning.

            “The operation took several hours and was an unspeakable mess… “After they had sewed me up, the hemorrhaging began, they knew not from where. Blood pressure collapsed and other vital signs began to fade. What to do? The surgeon advised my friend to call the immediate family and let them know I would likely not make it through the night. The doctors debated. To open me up all over again might kill me. On the other hand, if they didn’t find and stop the hemorrhaging I was surely dead…

            “The particulars of the night, of course, I was told after the event. “It was interesting case,” one doctor opined in a friendly manner. “It was as though you had been hit twice by a Mack truck going sixty miles an hour. I didn’t think you’d survive.”

            (to be continued…)

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November 1, 2009

The work in our gym is going along very slowly – I had hoped it would have been finished by now. As of this writing a bit of asbestos tiling from the stage area has to be taken up (and this demands great caution). The big wall is up and painted, the doors are installed as are the lights (but the lights in the gym are yet to be replaced). Some electrical work, some painting, drop-ceiling, and flooring has to be installed and we should be in business. The next stage is to remove the tiles from the storage areas (as per state regulations).

November in our northern hemisphere Catholic tradition beckons us to reflect on the final things of life. To see where we’ve been and where we are going. Traditional Christian piety reflects on death, resurrection, heaven and hell.

            Richard John Neuhaus wrote an article originally published in February, 2000. For the next three weeks this column will be taken from that article entitled: Born Toward Dying.

            “We are born to die. Not that death is the purpose of our being born, but we are born toward death, and in each of our lives the work of dying is already underway. The work of dying well is, in largest part, the work of living well… As children of a culture radically, even religiously, devoted to youth and health, many find it incomprehensible, indeed offensive, that the word “good” should in any way be associated with death. Death, it is thought, is an unmitigated evil, the very antithesis of all that is good.

            Death is to be warded off by exercise, by healthy habits, by medical advances. What cannot be halted can be delayed, and what cannot forever be delayed can be denied. But all our progress and all our protest notwithstanding, the mortality rate holds steady at 100 percent.

            “...our wisdom is shattered, not by a sudden awareness of the generality but by the singularity of a death – by the death of someone we love with a love inseparable from life. Or it is shattered by the imminent prospect of our own dying. (Josef Stalin observed “One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic.’)

            “…Death and dying has become a strangely popular topic. “Support groups” for the bereaved crop up all over. How to “cope” with dying is a regular on television talk shows. It no doubt has something to do with the growing number of old people in the population. “So many more people seem to die these days,” remarked my elderly aunt as she looked over the obituary columns in the local daily. Obituaries routinely include medical details once thought to be the private business of the family. Every evening without fail, at least in our cities, the television news carries a “sob shot” of relatives who have lost someone in an accident or crime. “And how did you feel when you saw she was dead?” The intrusiveness is shameless, and taboos once broken are hard to put back together again….

            “A measure of reticence and silence is in order. There is time simply to be present to death – whether one’s own or that of others – without any felt urgencies about doing something about it or getting over it. The Preacher had it right: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die… a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” The time of mourning should be given its due. One may be permitted to wonder about the wisdom of contemporary funeral rites that hurry to the dancing, displacing sorrow with the determined affirmation of resurrection hope, supplying a ready answer to a question that has not been given time to understand itself…”

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October 25, 2009

On Saturday, November 7^th from 1:00 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. there will be a workshop on establishing a Parish Pastoral Council (this is not your fathers’ Parish Council). It will be held in the Blue Room and the day will be led by Ms. Terri Ginther. She is the person responsible for organizing the Diocesan Pastoral Plan that the MONITOR featured a few weeks ago.

It is important that the council be diverse and include a diversity of ages, sexes (2) and long-time/short-time parishioners. If you plan to come or if you know someone who has a talent to give to the parish please invite them to participate.

If you are coming please contact me at the rectory by mail, e-mail or phone.

            Msgr. Ron Bacovin

From NOTRE DAME Magazine (Autumn 2009) comes this little vignette  from an article entitled “The Careful Convert”. Marika Wilson Smith writes of the conversion of his father who was a physicist. Like a number of scientists, God did not hold much sway with him (at least not on the surface of his life). His father, James, at the age of 84 faced a serious health issue.             In a meeting with Fr. Matthew (a former physicist)  they were joking around and then “…my father stopped joking,… He described his marriage of 56 years earlier in the Greek Orthodox Church in Oakland to my mother, a first-generation Greek American.”

Next, he described his years participating as one of the founding members in the Unitarian Fellowship in Livermore and of his stint as president of the group before dropping out.

            ‘Why did you stop going?’ asked Fr. Matthew.

            ‘Because they have no liturgy,’ Dad said. ‘And no sacraments.’

            ‘What do you think the sacraments are?’ the priest asked.

            ‘A Catholic friend told me that they are symbols – symbols and metaphors that we need.’           

Father Matthew paused. ‘You told me you were married, married in the Greek Church. You were married, for what, 56 years until you wife died last year? Is that right? You, having been married all those years, probably know more about marriage that I do, in practical ways, so tell me, do you think your marriage was just a symbol? Or much more than that?’

            ‘Much more than a symbol,’ my father exclaimed.

            ‘Yes, and the sacraments are much more than symbols,’ Fr. Matthew said…”

Sacraments are much more than symbols…they are encounters with God. I see the faithful adherence of people coming together each (and every) weekend to meet God in the Holy Liturgy whether they are in good spirits or not. Not to come would be for them might be like missing an embrace from Divinity itself. Not to come is a decision that does not even enter their mind (unless quite ill). They come to pray or to be lifted up in prayer. They come “in season and out of season”. They too look back and realize it is much more than symbol – much, much more. It speaks to the heart and the heart to the spirit and the spirit to life.

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October 18, 2009

Since I first became a pastor (1981) I have been writing “pastor’s notes” – some were longer and more complex than the ones I write now. I get an opportunity to speak about things that I do not have opportunity to address from the pulpit. Sometimes I think I write what is of interest to the adult believer and at times I write what is of interest to me (and hopefully strike a chord with others). At times it is “thinking aloud” – there may be an article of interest I read, and though I might not be easy with it I find it interesting and thought-provoking. It is an ongoing conversation with my God and faith so that others may want to join in.

From Christianity Today I find these thoughts from Chuck Colson. “In recent years Great Britain’s chief export to the US has been a payload of books by atheist authors such as evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and literary critic Christopher Hitchens. They contend that faith is irrational in the face of modern science. Other prominent British atheists seem to be having second thoughts… they’re examining the rationality of Christianity, the very beliefs Dawkins and others are so profitably engaging, but are coming to opposite conclusions.

“Well-known scholar Antony Flew was the first, saying he had to go “where the evidence [led].” Evolutionary theory, he concluded, has no reasonable explanation for the origin of life. When I met with Flew in Oxford, he told me that while had not come to believe in the biblical God, he had concluded that atheism is not logically sustainable.

More recently, A.N. Wilson, once thought to be the next C.S. Lewis who then renounced his faith and spent years mocking Christianity, returned to faith. The reason, he said in an interview with New Statesman, was that atheists “are missing out on some very basic experiences of life.” Listening to Bach and reading the works of religious authors, he realized that their worldview or “perception of life was deeper, wiser, and more rounded than my own.”

He noticed that the people who insist we are “simply anthropoid apes” cannot account for things as basic as language, love, and music. That, along with the “even stronger argument” of how the “Christian faith transforms individual lives,” convinced Wilson that “the religion of the “incarnation”… is simply true.”

Likewise, Matthew Parris, another well-known British atheist, made the mistake of visiting Christian aid workers in Malawi, where he saw the power of the gospel transforming them and others. Concerned with what he saw, he wrote that it “confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my worldview, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.” While Parris is unwilling to follow where his observations lead, he is obviously wrestling with how Christianity makes better sense of the world than other worldviews.

Mr. Colson teaches in a college and he notes that “Students quickly see that only Christianity teaches that humans are created in the image of God, thus protecting their dignity. It is not coincidence that Christians have waged most of the great human rights campaigns.

Or take the question of sin. If people are good, as French political philosopher Rousseau argued, problems can be solved by creating a utopian state. Yet all of history’s utopian schemes have ended in tyranny. Meanwhile, Eastern religions see life as an endless cycle of suffering. There’s no way for sin to be forgiven. And grace is an unknown concept in Islam.”

At the end of his article he writes: “What does this tell us? People today have a caricatured view of Christians, seeing us as followers, often hypocritical and judgmental, of an outdated book of mere illusions. But if we can explain why Christianity is so reasonable, our faith becomes a very winsome proposition which will at least open the mind, if not the heart, of many a doubter.”

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October 11, 2009

(Random thoughts): What attracts a young man or woman to a religious life? For some unknown reasons the women in religious life in the USA are being investigated by the Vatican in order to “help them” in their vocation. Yet, when a report is made it will not be given to them. They are still wondering what kind of help does the Vatican think they need (no one comes into an investigation with blank papers or expectations). Being suspect is not particularly attractive for a calling to follow Christ. The aging clergy, the scandal of pedophilia, and the greater complexity of the modern parish are not particularly attractive come-ons to enter any vocation.

At the end of it all the attraction has to be love of God and Jesus. Jesus does not hold anything back when he talks about the possible costs of following him… and one’s commitment to Him must be total. And He promised that following Him will be most rewarding to such a disciple. A perceived life-style, advancement in clerical life, or personal gains as motivation to follow will lead to a dead end and a less then satisfying life. (Though there have been times when people did follow lesser purity of intentions but ended up as saints – you never know!) One has to know the Lord… and perhaps there is the rub. We think we know the Lord but too often one is only acquainted with the Name and not the humanity or mystery of God. Though the sacraments are encounters with God they are not experienced as such (I don’t mean just “feeling good”.) The Holy Scriptures are ignored and, if not ignored, they are quickly dismissed or forgotten. It was St. Jerome who said that not to know the scriptures is not to know Christ.

Should you happen to read some of the life stories of the incredible women who established a particular order (or “charism of service”) you would stand in awe at what they accomplished – often in the face of opposition by their bishops, etc. Yet, they heard the call of the Teacher and they did not waiver. Love if God and dedication to God directed them. 

John Grohol (CEO/Founder of PsychCentral.com) lists 5 core ingredients to a good marriage: Compromise, Communicate, choose your battles carefully, do not hide your needs, and the Need to Trust and be Honest.  Many psychologists will say that many marriages fall apart because one or both spouses are afraid or unable to communicate their needs and feelings to others. The Catholic Choice has an excellent process to help couples excel in doing what is needed. It called Marriage Encounter. A weekend process, highly focused on you as a couple (not a discussion group) that can open a lot of doors. www.WWMEcentralNJ.org or 1-888-827-NJME. Don’t ask about what happens on a weekend – ask a couple of what happened to them as a result of the weekend.

As you may have observed the new roof is going up over the gym (not part of the Capital Campaign). In the gym the front wall is up and spackled, most of the rewiring is done, and the floors and conference room are being worked on as I write this. I am hoping it can be completed, if not this week, then next. All this (and more) being done because of your generosity – to which I say “thank you”!

Dec. 1 & 2, 7:30 p.m. at St. Paul’s Church in Princeton (214 Nassau St.): a workshop – “The Liturgy after Vatican II. It is opened to RCIA teams, parishioners who want to deepen their understanding of Mass, deacons, church musicians, etc. It will address that have taken place and will take place again (yes, again) soon. For information contact Ernie Andreoli at 609-524-0507.           

The Malvern Retreat House 315 So. Warren Ave., Malvern, PA 19355 is sponsoring a day retreat for caregivers on October 22^nd from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The cost is $35 (lunch included). Whether you care for an elderly parent, some who is incapacitated, etc. this workshop is open to you. For more information and to register please call 610-644-0400.

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October 4, 2009

In this week’s gospel Jesus speaks of marriage and divorce. The divorce rate in the US is somewhere between 50 – 55%. The following are excerpts from Our Sunday Visitor – 9/20/09. It was written by Emily Stimpson.

“Infidelity happens… Infidelity happens to Catholics… It happens where it’s not supposed to happen and to people who thought it could never happen to them.

“Kathleen Knox (not the real name) learned that hard truth last year, when she discovered that Peter, her husband of eight years and father of their six children, had been carrying on a long-standing affair with one of his female friends.

‘I thought our marriage was founded on family and God,’ she said, explaining her shock at the discovery. I had married this really great Catholic guy, who’d worked at the Vatican and walked out of smutty movies. I didn’t expect my husband to lie to me as well as he did.’

Infidelity in Catholic marriages occur at about the same rate in the general population. Greg Popcak, author of For Better Forever: A Catholic Guide to Lifelong Marriage, states ‘That it is not faith that increases a person’s immunity to infidelity. It is character formation.’ In other words, most people think infidelity happens as a result of marital conflict, it doesn’t.

“The root of the problem is that the person cheating is terrible at dealing with conflict in interpersonal relationships and knowing how to get their needs met, so they don’t say things that need to be said.” “Over time, they become resentful of their spouse because they’re not happy. They become depressed. Then they bump into somebody who makes them smile, who it feels good to be around.”

The adulterous relationship that then forms becomes what Popcak described as “an attempt at self-medicating depression.”

Infidelity happens but it does not have to be the end of the road for a marriage. In fact, it shouldn’t be.

The article goes on to speak about Retrouvaille – a program for couples with marital problems that consists of a weeklong experience, along with 6 to 12 follow-up sessions. The program seems to be very effective.

The marriage of Kathleen and Peter survived. They learned that they had to work at loving each other and that they had to get back to talking about more than facts – money, children, the house – but also about their hopes and dreams, -- all those things you talked about when you were courting.  Kathleen: “Trying to be perfect isn’t helpful. What you need is love and kindness. You need to keep remembering that your spouse was hurting, there was something wrong with him. Only love and kindness can help him and you overcome those hurts.”

For his part Peter discover that winning back his wife’s trust is a long process made easier by total transparency. “Give over the keys to your privacy: e-mail passwords, voice-mail passwords, online-account passwords. Let your spouse know you’re hiding nothing” he advises. “You must try from day one to begin to re-establishing trust. And tell her everything on day one. Don’t stretch out the pain by hiding some things; all will eventually come to light, and the damage to trust will be greater if it isn’t all out at the beginning. Answer all her questions, to the last detail… In talking about these things with your wife try to understand how much what you’ve done has upended her world. Even if things were tough in your marriage, you were at least supposed to protect her and your children from harm. Now, you are the harm.”

(An aside: there are times when a partner, in an apparent attempt to be honest will disclose his/her infidelity to his/her spouse. What often goes in is not an attempt at honesty – it is a subtle way of wanting to harm the other. Know your motives…one treads on a land mine of sensitive issues.)

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September 27, 2009

Great news for those who subscribe to the MONITOR – the diocesan newspaper. Though the paper will now be a bi-weekly publication (with more news packed into it) they now have a website with up-to-date news, links to other news sites, blogs from the staff, feedback forum, a site where you can submit your own photos and special media content… in short, more information than the hard copy print will provide.

They have an E-edition that is the exact replication of the current edition and you will have the ability of going back into the archives.

Last week’s Monitor had all the information of this greatly expanded and exciting change. However, you have to be a subscriber to the Monitor to take advantage of all of this. I plan to go to it often and see what is happening and the interaction that will occur between the Pastoral Center and the people of the diocese.

May I take this opportunity to remind those who have made pledges to our Capital Campaign to be sure that you are up-to-date on your monthly payments. If you suffered some financial setbacks – of course, care for your family first and when better times come in please remember us.

From The Christian Century (9/22/09) come these following tidbits.

“Joshua Speed knew his friend Abraham Lincoln to be a religious skeptic, so he was mystified one evening in the summer of 1864 when he saw Lincoln poring over the pages of the Bible. Speed told the president, “If you have recovered from your skepticism, I am sorry to say that I have not.” To which Lincoln responded: “You are wrong, Speed. Take all of this book upon reason that you can, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier and better man.” (American History, October).

The great French painter August Renoir suffered from painful arthritis in his later years, and had to strap a brush to his paralyzed fingers to do his creating. When friends suggested he give up painting, Renoir responded, “Pain passes but beauty remains forever.” (Paul Coutinho, S.J. in Just as You Are).

“I asked (Senator Kennedy), ‘Where does this rabid concern about poverty come from?’ And he looked at me like I was from Mars. And he said, “Have you never read the New Testament?’”              (Tom Oliphant)

At first religious conservatives did not take kindly to J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, warned about “subtle deductions” in the book series that could corrupt the Christian faith, and evangelicals worried about the positive portrayal of wizardry. Now both the evangelical Christianity Today magazine and the Vatican newspaper have praised the latest Harry Potter movie. Some religious interpreters go so far as to see in Harry Potter a Christ figure. Russell W. Dalton, a professor at Brite Divinity School in Texas sees something else in Harry Potter: a theme of tolerance toward others, he says, is a critique of fundamentalism. (Boston Glove, Aug. 16).

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September 13, 2009

At Senator Edward Kennedy’s funeral one of more memorable moments occurred when his son, who lost a leg, recalled the time when he was frustrated and discouraged because he was unable to walk up a snowy hill. His father, in true Kennedy-esque fashion, told him that together they will get up that hill even if it took them all day. Hard work and perseverance will win out!

A famous pianist, giving an impromptu performance at a party was told by some guests that they would do anything if only they could play the piano like she did. They were taken aback when the pianist say “No, you wouldn’t! You could play the piano like I do but you don’t want to put in the hours and the discipline that is needed.” As it turns out, studies indicate that she was right. In his book, Outliers, Malcolm Glad well writes of studies that clearly indicate length of time and effort makes all the difference in the world (good circumstances help as well). The difference between the concert pianist and the night club pianist turns out to be the number of hours they practiced the piano week in and week out. A strong case was made that the reason the Beatles had become so good and so famous is because they played together time and again – thus perfecting their style and becoming outstanding musicians. (They often performed in Hamburg, Germany and their boss made them perform 8 to 10 hours a night when the usual expectations would have been 3 or 4 hours.) He even specified the number of hours a concert pianist or the Beatles needed to “put in” to reach the expertise they achieved: 10,000!!!

The adage that nothing succeeds so well as perseverance harbors a great truth. (Tallulah Bankhead once reputed that by saying: “They told me that it couldn’t be done. But I tried and I tried and I tried. By golly, they were right!” Perhaps the exception proves the rule.)

A Broadway actress told a story of how she wanted to play the piano and she begged her parents time and again to get a piano. Eventually they gave in and had a piano brought into the house. The first time she sat down to play the piano, of course, nothing sounded right. In fact, it sounded terrible. She gave up the idea of playing the piano at that moment. In her mind she was convinced that all she needed to do was to sit down and play.

How many hours, do you think, it takes one to be (for lack of a better word) a good or great Christian? 10,000 hours? Can an immediate conversion to Christ lead to a long term commitment to Christ? Do other dynamics apply here?

Some expressions of Christianity believe that if one accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior salvation is thus assured. The Catholic Church recognizes that one can (and must) do the same but were are “not practiced” enough. It is why we hold in high honor and respect the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We practice our faith so that we hope one day we will have gotten it “right” but along the way we don’t always hit the right notes (i.e. we do sin, etc.) and need to go back and try it again, and again, and again, etc.

Addendum: From The Christian Century (9-8-09) comes this little note. “Researchers are discovering that grit and determination are a better determinant of future success than intelligence. In a study conducted among fifth graders in New York City schools, after taking an IQ test, one group was praised for their intelligence, another for their effort. The ones praised for working hard raised their scores by an average of 30 percent on a subsequent test, while the ones praised for intelligence dropped their scores by nearly 20 percent. A “grit survey” is available at www.gritstudy.com. (Boston Globe, August 2).           

So, last words I have to offer come from a favorite movie of mine, Galaxy Quest (a comedy): “Never give up! Never give up!”

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September 6, 2009

The familiar scent of education is once again in the air and in our midst. Regardless of the protestations of the students, it is exciting. If one can keep in mind that the purpose of education is for life (and not for the marks) it will greatly enhance your outlook and your attitude.

If you were to take a walk back to the gym area you will see a large empty space – the stage area. This past week the electricians have been working on the necessary re-wiring in the gym and stage area. Hopefully that would have been completed by the end of this past week.

Although I have been calling it a “parish council” it is properly labeled as a “ parish pastoral council”. On November 7^th there will be a workshop for any who wishes to be a member of St. James Pastoral Council. Ms. Terry Ginther, who was greatly responsible for directing and forming the diocesan pastoral program, will be conducting the workshop. A priority for the new council, I suspect, will be to compose a parish mission statement… how we see ourselves in relation to God, what is it that we might be called to do, and clarify how this parish hopes to express its faith. A committee that was formed over a year ago has investigated and studied pastoral councils and has made their recommendations. Among them is that we not have elections but that people would step forward and live the stewardship of their talents by serving on the council.

Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed this year as “The Year of the Priest”. (Perhaps “The Year of the Priesthood” might be a better title.) This was done for many reasons: to remind us of the importance of the priesthood, to encourage vocations, to strengthen the faith and the resolve of the priests throughout the world, to let us see the varieties of mission that priests take upon themselves, to pray for your priests, and much more. Immediately after Vatican Council II was closed many felt that one of the glowing omissions of the Council was not to have had a chapter of the priesthood included among the many beautiful treatises of that Council (they did so for the bishops).

In his letter introducing the “Year of the Priest” Pope Benedict XVI held up as a model the holy priest – St. Jean Vianney - who served as a pastor in a very small village at Ars, France – there were approximately 230 people there when St. Jean arrived there. St. John lived during the French Revolution (in the middle of the 19^th century). I visited that very small village while on vacation. If a priest wishes to be humbled – this is the place to visit.

St. Jean Vianney had become a world renowned confessor. People from all over Europe would come to him to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Believe me, it’s a small task to even find the place today – and in those times it was no small accomplishment just to make the trip. On a slow day, St. John would hear confessions six hours a day (winter months) and it would not be unusual for him to hear confessions fifteen or sixteen hours a day. He would hear women’s confessions for three hours and then later hear men’s confessions for three hours. There is a clock in the rectory that is preserved that showed his schedule. Apparently he slept just about three to four hours a day, give time to prayer, to teaching the catechism, visit the sick, etc. I remember reading that for his meals he would, at times, boil potatoes on a Monday and eat them during the week (by the end of the week they may have been a little moldy). Twice he tried to leave Ars because he felt he was unworthy to be their priest and twice the people went out and brought him back. He wrote much about the priesthood (e.g. who make Christ present to us in the Tabernacle if there are no priests?). Years before the Immaculate Conception of Mary was declared an article of faith he had such a statue of Mary in his church).

Of course the pope held him up as a model of priesthood primarily because of St. John’s love of God, his love for his vocation and his dedication to his priesthood and people.

Please, pray for your priests and priests throughout the world. Pray that the Lord will send “workers into the vineyard” to serve the needs of God’s people.

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August 30, 2009

More meditations from the mind of Fr. Joseph Nolan

Eating and Drinking: To say that one knows God, or God in Christ or the risen Jesus through sharing a meal is not a new and strange notion that Christians invented. A passage from the prophet Jeremiah (22: 15-16) seems to prefigure the Emmaus gospel, even to express the doctrine of the real presence more richly. It says: Did not your fathers eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness, and then it was well with them? They judged the cause of the poor and the needy,and then it was well with them.
Is not this to know me?  Thus says the Lord.

The Devil You Say: A view from a college student: "I don't believe in the devil. I think all that stuff is a fairy tale and he's some kind of religious spook." His priest-friend answered, "Take the 'd' off, and what you have left is evil. Evil is all around us; you don't deny its presence. 'Devil' is a way of speaking about evil."

The Depth of Love: Dare we believe in (immortality) eternal life? This is how one person expressed his faith: "I am obliged to believe in an abyss of love which is deeper than the abyss of death: I dare not lose faith in that love. I sink into death, eternal death, if I do. I must feel that this love is compassing the universe. More about it I cannot know. God knows. I leave myself all to him."                      F.D. Maurice

The Deposit of Faith: The parable of the talents was probably told to warn the teachers of the Law that they were missing the forest for the trees. The Law was the great talent (treasure) given to Israel, disclosing a divine love that nourished and guided them. But their zeal in guarding the Law blinded many of them to the further revelation of God's presence, to the signs that the kingdom was at hand. Applying the parable today might lead us to examine our attitude toward the deposit of faith, the "Law" that we guard as our portion of the inheritance. We are right to put doctrine into words (or symbols) as well as express it in liturgies, and to use great care and scholarship in defining, preserving, and defending what the church teaches and what God as revealed in Christ Jesus means to us. But we are wrong if we refuse to see that God is never "codified" and creeds do not exhaust all possibilities of growth and new understanding of truth. We are wrong if we think that this deposit of faith can be "buried in the ground" or rigidly preserved from engagement with the world. Such an engagement with human life and changing cultures will be a dialogue that enables us to see the fresh meaning of God-and church, and religion-for our time. 

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August 23, 2009

I offer to you some thoughts for the week. They are from the wisdom and collections of Fr. Joseph Nolan who has been a long-time liturgist and faithful servant to the Church.

Daily Living: We can readily identify with this observation of Phyllis McGinley in her book Saint Watching:
         

"The trouble with most of us is that our souls are not strong enough to withstand the corroding effect of daily living. Fatigue and despair nibble away our good intentions. Lack of a night's sleep can destroy a resolution against peevishness; business troubles consume kindness. Saints master their environment as we do not (p.19)."

From Shakespeare: Hamlet: "To die, to sleep; no more; and by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural ills that flesh is heir to; this is a consummation devoutly to be wished." 

"The dread of something after death, the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns, puzzles the will, and makes us rather bear those ills we have, than fly to others that we know not of....Thus conscience does make cowards of us all."
 He's wrong. Christ returned. And heaven, union with God, is deeply to be desired.

Death and Fear: Tennessee Williams, in his play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, gives the climatic dialogue between Big Daddy, a wealthy southern plantation owner, and Brick, the favored son, a former football hero turned alcoholic. Big Daddy has just returned home from a thorough examination at a clinic and believes he has received a clean bill of health. Everyone else knows that he is dying of cancer, which he had originally feared. He reflects on his fear of death and subsequent relief when told he only has a "spastic colon." He says to Brick: "The human animal is a beast that dies and if he's got money be buys and buys and buys and I think the reason he buys everything he can buy is that in the back of his mind he has the crazy hope that one of his purchases will be everlasting life!-which it never can be...."

Death to Life: The artists help us to understand the doctrine of the cross, for they see deeply into reality with their art. In the 1960s the young poet and composer, Leonard Cohen, gave us the song "Suzanne." Several of its stanzas use metaphors strikingly to say that there is more to this man Jesus than a preacher, a miracle worker, a Todd Hunter kind of savior. He begins, "And Jesus was a sailor / When he walked upon the water." The literal-minded think immediately of the miraculous scene when he did walk upon the water. But the poem, like the Bible, refers to the waters of death, the tide that sweeps over us. Sailors may fear the sea, but they meet its challenge and they master it. The poet continues, "And he spent a long time watching / From his lonely wooden tower." Somehow we know right away that the lonely wooden tower is his cross. And somehow we know that he still sees, if not from the cross, from eternity, all the crosses that lie upon his brothers and sisters in time

Death to Life (2): Leonard Cohen concludes his poem Suzanne: 
"And when he knew for certain / Only drowning men could see him / He said 'All men will be sailors then / Until the sea shall free them.' "
 
There is a great power and insight in this verse. It is another way of saying what the gospel tells us of Jesus: "If a man wishes to come after me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross, and follow in my steps." We will dare the sea; in the world's eyes we will be drowning men. But we are the people of the promise and the victory is already won: "Whoever loses his life for my sake and the sake of the gospel will save it." In death there is life, and through the cross, salvation.

More thoughts for your reflection:

The Journey An ancient Roman philosopher, Plotinus, asked how we go to God or to this Fatherland from whence we have come.  Not a Christian, his words give witness to those words of Revelation, which affirm that Jesus, or God, is our Alpha and Omega, our first beginning and our final end.  How do we go to God?  Plotinus answers: "This is not a journey for the feet; the feet bring us only from land to land; nor need you think of coach or ship to carry you away; all this order of things you must set aside and refuse to see; you must close the eyes and call instead upon another vision which is to be waked within you, a vision, the birthright of all, which few turn to use."  

Alive in God - and for God: To be alive for God does not mean we must enter the monastery or convent; it means we must let the divine power come through. It must be present in our work, and play, and love. If God is love, those who love participate in him. If God is light or truth, then those who strive for wisdom, science, all forms of knowledge, participate in him. If God is beauty, harmony, and the source of all that is, and is new, then the artist and the worker and the maker participate in him. If God is joy, then the glad of heart witness to him.

Beethoven-and Suffering (2):
 What did happen to the deaf Beethoven? His great biographer, the Irish scholar J.W.N. Sullivan, says that his middle years were the least creative because he carried this burden and had not come to terms with it. It was only when he reached an inner peace that he achieved a marvelous peak of creativity with his Missa Solemnis and the Ninth (Choral) Symphony. The tension and triumph of his life are in that music, especially in the glorious climax. He conducted the orchestra himself on the night the Ninth Symphony was presented to the world, and could not hear the applause. One writer says of this great genius that "Beethoven kept drawing upon an inner reservoir of increasing profundity. That reservoir was not a thing of conventional pieties. It had a yet deeper orthodoxy going back to the most primitive of Christian truths: the redemptive experience of suffering as a source of illumination and power."

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August 16, 2009

This weekend is the feast of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven. It is under this mystery that the diocese of Trenton has been dedicated.

On this day I will be at Lourdes, France at the Marian shrine. A while back Deacon Jim Palsir handed me a book: My Life with the Saints – which I heartily recommend to you. Fr. James Martin, SJ is the author. He was baptized a Catholic but his life in the Catholic Church and culture was minimal… and so he found the lives of the saints (new to him), simply, fascinating.

One of his chapters is about  Bernadette Soubirous. Bernadette died in a convent in northern France at the age of 35. She was born in 1844. Her father had lost his business and when they looked for a place to live it was in a former prison cell that measured 10’ x 10’. There were two beds and six people living there.  On February 11, 1858 she went with her sister, Toinette, and a friend to scrounge some firewood for her mother. They went to a place called Massabieille on the Gave River. Pigs foraged there and eventually took up residence there. It was there that Bernadette heard a wind, saw a small rosebush in the middle of the grotto, and “gentle light” emanating from the spot. She reported seeing a young girl in that light, dressed in white and smiling at her. Bernadette was very much frightened and took a rosary from her pocket and tried to make the sign of the cross – she could not. But the young girl made the sign of the cross and then Bernadette did as well. When she finisher her rosary “she signed for me to approach; but I did not dare. Then she disappeared, just like that.”

This was the first of several apparitions she would experience – but anyone with her would not see any apparition. At times she was beaten for her childish pranks… but she stayed true to what she saw. People insisted she was seeing the virgin Mary but Bernadette persisted in referring to the vision as aquero (“that”). She described the vision as wearing “a white robe drawn together with a blue sash, a white veil over her head, and a yellow rose on each foot.” “When the police commissioner took notes, he slyly changed the record before reading it back to her. “The virgin smiles at me,” he said. “I didn’t say the virgin,” said Bernadette, correcting him.

Because the vision said that a chapel should be built there Benadette went to the local priest and told him. He wanted to know the name of the person in the vision. A name was given: “Que soy era Immaculada Concepciou.” I am the Immaculate Conception. Bernadette had no idea what that meant. (Four years earlier the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was proclaimed by the Church. It was strong possibility this little town “out in the woods” never even heard of this proclamation.)

Eventually, Bernadette, when stopped from drawing near to the grotto and separated by the Gave River said “I saw neither the boards (a barrier that was set up) nor the Gave.”  “It seemed to me that I was in the Grotto, no more distant than the other times, I saw only the Holy Virgin.”

Neither she nor her family benefitted from her visions. They continued to live in the cell & still poor. (The first miracle happened after the apparitions ceased… a woman’s deformed arm was healed.)

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August 9, 2009

I checked with our construction people and one or two permits had to be re-submitted and the hope is that the renovation on the gymnasium will begin on or about August 17^th.

This is too good to pass up… I hope you agree. RB           

“One of the more daunting, but, so they say, fulfilling experiences in the spiritual life is to set off for a journey with nothing, abandoning oneself to the generosity of the human instruments God places in the path. Along these lines, as they prepare to make final vows, a group of four Chicago Franciscans decided to follow in their Founder’s footsteps (St. Francis of Assisi) making a six-week, 300-mile pilgrimage to Washington by foot.

            Even before the trek’s close earlier today, the friars had made an impression on the road… and were already witnessing to the beautiful things they found along the way. The sight of six men in flowing habits, trudging single file on the side of the road, prompted many to pull over and talk, even confess. People on their way to work described their loneliness. College students wanted help figuring out what to do with their lives. Children, mistaken them for the Shaolin monks in movies, ran up to ask the friars if they know how to beat up bullies. “Dressed like we are in our habits, it’s like a walking sign that says, ‘Tell is your life’s problems,’ explained Cliff Hennings, the youngest of the friars at 23. in every instance, the friars made time for conversation. They shot the breeze with a gang of drunk bikers, dispensed relationship advice to the brokenhearted commuters and bore witness to one and all, yea, even the Chick-fil-A employee dressed as a cow.

            One night they were hosted by a man with tattoos on his arms, an unkempt ponytail and all of his front teeth missing. He had pulled up in his beat-up jeep and offered to let the friars stay with him in an old one-room schoolhouse in Nelson County. He looked like he had just gotten out of prison,” said  Hennings, but the man turned out to be a Native American healer. The friars stayed up all night talking to him. He told them Native stories and played his double flute. They chanted Latin hymns in return and told  him stories from the Gospel.

            Such moments of grace became a daily occurrence for the friars. Sure, some passersby gave them the finger. One guy even leaned out of the window to add a sprinkling of Nietzche (“God is dead!”) to his vulgarities. But most encounters were meaningful, even profound.

               Late they were eating at a Chik-fil-A: “It was the oddest experience sitting there at Chik-fil-A with everyone staring at us,” said williams, 45. “The high point was when the guy dressed up like a cow came out and gave us all high fives. He was in costume…

            …Their message will be simple: “Anything can happen when you live in the moment, one step at a time,” said Mark Soehner, 51, one of the mentors to the young friars. ‘But to find that out, you have to be willing to take that one step.”

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August 2, 2009

A guest article on our recent Work Camp.

Our Anchor House Riders  and our Crash Workcamp volunteers have returned, thank God, safely (with one exception on the Ride – but he’s up and around). With your support they have given a week of their lives for the benefit of people they do not know before they started. St. Augustine thought that “love” given to one we do not know is of the highest degree (and merit). To all: thank you!

CHOICE ONE is “wowed” by the generosity of our church. Those baby bottles raised $4,775 along with other gifts such as baby clothes, diapers, etc.

Thank you for your generosity.

Our gymnasium: with some luck the work on renovating the stage area will begin this week. Permits and work schedules will be the deciding factors.

The diocese of Trenton will be initiating a major pastoral effort to the greater love of God and strengthening of our lives in holiness. On the weekend of August 15^th, the feast of the Assumption under whose title our diocese is dedicated, there will be publications to inform and help direct the parishes throughout the diocese.            

As part of this process St. James Church will be organizing a Parish Council. If you wish to be a member of the council you need to nominate yourself… however, attendance at a P.C. workshop is mandatory. That workshop will be held on NOVEMBER  7^th.  That is on a Saturday and will conclude with our 5:00 p.m. Mass.

On or about August  15/16/17 I will be in Lourdes, France at the shrine where Bernadette had the vision of Mary (where Mary named herself as the “Immaculate Conception). I will have a booklet set up in the Gathering area this weekend and during the week. If you wish, please write down a name from whom you ask prayers. I will bring it with me to the shrine, remember them during the rosary and procession, and at any Mass I may be able to celebrate there. I will gather the book up on Sunday, after the 11:30 Mass.

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July 19, 2009

At the Pennington Board meeting (July 15), St. James Church was given permission to build the addition (approx. 1,700 sf) alongside the family center. Before the construction begins we need to have diocesan approval for our loan and those steps are well-near completion. Soon we will begin renovating the stage area and preparing the former storage areas for the new construction (i.e. moving stuff from the storage area.

Along with that discussion were some serious concerns by our neighbors on Eglantine Avenue as it pertains to the parking and to exiting from our drive-way. There are young families on that street (some are fellow parishioners) and safety for their children is a concern about such traffic… and ours, too.

In part response to their concerns I ask that you not “peel” out of the driveway when going on to Eglantine Avenue from the parking lot…not to block any driveways or portion of driveways on the street and do not use a driveway to when making a “K” turn.

Concern for the safety of children is always a high priority. I am aware that no one seeks to be purposely careless – and it is why focus on children’s safety in the neighborhood is always a “must”.

The neighbors observed that not all the parking spots in our own parking lot are being used and thus there is an overcrowding on Eglantine. If that is the case I ask you to please make sure our lot is filled first.            

On or about August 15^th the Diocese of Trenton will be introducing “Led by the Spirit: A Pastoral Plan for the Diocese of Trenton”.

For several years people throughout the diocese in collaboration with Bishop Smith have been setting goals and directions for the diocese for the coming decade. Every parish is to involve itself in a process of establishing a Parish Council, describing the mission of the parish, set goals for the future of the parish and some action plans. Diocesan offices will be available for any assistance that might be needed and several workshops are already set in place.

A year ago I asked some people to investigate what sort of Parish Council we need to form and how to establish membership. This will be the time to follow through. It was recommended that people nominate themselves to be on Council and attend a workshop (which will be held either in September or October – on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon). The workshop is mandatory. From past experiences of other parishes people find out whether or not they want to involve themselves in the work of a council… and establish a workable number of members. It is recommended that the Council be made of approximately twelve members… and they will give direction to the parish, formulate a mission statement for the parish, and meet four to six times a year (they will decide that). This will fall in line with the Pastoral Plan the Diocese of Trenton.

To be a member of the council we ask that you be a registered member, regular in your attendance at prayer with the community, and, of course, have a deep love for the community dedicated to God under the patronage of St. James. More information will be forthcoming as to dates, places, etc.

Last week I spoke about Pope Benedict establishing the Year of the Priest. A friend of mine wrote the following poem.

I heard the call, but wondered.

Could I answer and devote my

Being to it?

I heard the call, and began.

Could I study – Honing intellect

To serve it?

I heard the call, and questioned.

Could I master so much help

So many?

I walked the aisle, and prayed.

Prostrate at the feet of others

Who heard the call.

I still wondered, but answered.

I would daily try, With the Master

To be a man of God.

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July 12, 2009

A short but insightful story: a visitor asked an old rancher what the people are like in his region. The rancher responded: “What are the people like where you come from?” “They’re mean, sneaky rascals,” the traveler said. “That’s the way they are here too,” the rancher replied.

Then another man came along and asked the rancher the same question. The rancher again asked the man what the people are like where he’s from. The traveler said, “They’re great people, honest, kind-hearted and high-spirited.” The rancher replied: “That’s the way you’ll find people here are too.”

From Christianity Today July 2009 - (a conservative Baptist magazine) come these thoughts on stereotyping Muslims.

 There are books and articles ‘out there’ that claim we are at war with Islam.  “Certainly one could find anecdotal evidence (my emphasis) as honor killings or Islamic groups cheering terrorists attacks) to argue that Muslims are enemies of modernity, liberalism, and freedom. But are these horror stories representative?

“A wealth of data presents a different picture.” (cf John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed’s Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think)

“Surveys of the world’s Muslims find that most Muslims support democracy and freedom. Indeed, many Muslims complain that they are ruled by Western-supported secular despots who deny people their right to self-government. Most Muslims also support scientific advancements and seek more prosperity through free markets and global trade. However one reads the Qur’an or the historical record of Islam, no one familiar with this data can call contemporary Muslims enemies of modernity.           

At the same time, there are some anomalies. …(their) analysis shows that Muslims fear that ‘Islam is under attack’ and that the West is leading that attack. In addition, while most Muslims don’t support theocracy, they do want religion to have an important role in shaping their private and public lives. Even Shari’ah (law), with its draconian provisions against theft and adultery, enjoys wide support among Muslims, at least in the domestic sphere.

“To understand these seemingly contradictory currents, it’s helpful to distinguish two types of liberalism. One is the classical liberalism of the American founding. Call this Liberalism 1, which is reflected in such principles as the right to vote, to assemble freely, to trade with others and keep the fruits of one’s labor, to practice one’s religion, to tolerate different political and religious views, etc.

Then there is the modern liberalism that developed in the West after WWII. Call this Liberalism 2, which is characterized by the right to blaspheme, pornography as a protected form of free expression, the exclusion of religious symbols in the public square, the right of teenagers to receive sex education and contraceptives, the right to abortion, prostitution as a worker’s right, and so on.

The data show that the vast majority of Muslims support Liberalism 1 while rejecting Liberalism 2.  From Jakarta to Jeddah, from Islamabad to Istanbul, Muslims are deeply concerned that, through U.S. military force, economic pressures, and the global spread of American popular culture, the values of Liberalism 2 are being imposed on the Muslim world.

The implications are profound. First, we can better understand how radical Islam has widened its following. By portraying the West as atheistic and morally decadent, Islamic radicals can effectively recruit followers by appealing to a shared Muslim antipathy for permissive values. Moreover, the survey data show that nothing antagonizes Muslims, and presumably makes them vulnerable to radical recruitment, more than Western attacks of Islam as a religion of violence.

Second, the West would do well to show Muslims its more traditional face. Currently Muslims see America mostly through the lens of popular culture. But the values of Hollywood are not typical of the way most U.S. citizens live. If Muslims could see more Americans who go to church, raise intact families, and espouse traditional moral values, they would be less vulnerable to the propaganda of radical Islam.           

Finally, mainstream Christians are well situated not only to understand Muslim sensibilities, but also to work with the followers of Islam in combating the excesses of Liberalism 2.  After all, Muslims’ concerns about some of the excesses of American culture are widely shared among Christians. And, through our efforts at evangelism and dialogues, as well as pressuring our government to use diplomacy and media, we should highlight Christian values and traditional moral values around the world, especially in the Muslim world. In doing so, we can share the gospel while promoting mutual understanding, weakening Islamic terrorism, and making our own society safer. (Dinesh D’Souza)

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July 5, 2009

HAPPY 4^TH OF JULY!

There was a radio personality by the name of Barry Farber. Once or twice he spoke about his grandfather who was a Jewish immigrant to the USA from Russia. His grandfather was in awe of and loved his new land. (I believed he lived in Atlanta, GA at the time Barry spoke of him.) The grandfather saw different nationalities all around him living in harmony and without fear… the greatest blessing of his new homeland. For that alone (not to mention the opportunities available or the wealth or the freedom afforded him) he thought no other country could even come close to this unique blessing.

We certainly have our faults and everyone is anxious to point them out, or protest them, or call the conscience of the country to task… that alone marks the USA as special. (One Russian immigrant many years ago, when Ma Bell was the only phone system in the USA, would call and write constantly complaining to and about the phone service. A friend asked her why she did that when she knew her friend was quite happy with her phone service. She answered that she could never do that in Russia and she just got a lot of pleasure in being able to complain about a big industry– and be heard!)

Let us thank God for our country. When she is right we are strengthened. When she is wrong let us correct it – for that is the “American Way”.

The following appeared in Newsweek Magazine last November. Newsweek Mag. 11/3/08

Some “Murphy Laws”:

As soon as you mention something 1) if it’s good, it goes away and 2) if it’s bad, it happens.

When you dial a wrong number you never get a busy signal.

If you have watched a TV series only once and you watch it again, it will be a rerun of the same episode.

The last person who quit or was fired will be held responsible for everything that goes wrong – until the next person quits or is fired.

Any change looks terrible at first.

The only changes that are easily adopted are changes for the worse.

Brilliant opportunities are cleverly disguised as insolvable problems – and the reverse is also true.

It’s amazing how long it takes to complete something you are not working on.

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June 28, 2009

I was born 1 ½  years before the attack at Pearl Harbor in 1941. My older brother was almost twelve years old at the time. It was he who made me aware of what had happened in the world during my earliest years in life. When I went to high school I was much more aware of that history than most of my classmates.  It has been sixty-four years since WWII ended in Europe. Those who fought in and lived during that conflict are aging and leaving this earth. There are many who prefer not to talk about it and many others who do want to talk about it before they die so that the world will know what happened.

America magazine (6 – 22- 09) writes of a priest, Fr. Patrick Desbois, who does extensive traveling to hear and record the stories of the Jews who were incarcerated in the concentration camps. It is true, millions of others were lost in those camps but these keep alive those memories lest they are forgotten and that the world may not let it happen again.

“Witnesses share the trauma they felt six decades ago with Fr. Desbois and the team with whom he travels in an inconspicuous van. Because of the draining psychological effects of listening to such stories of death and destruction, each trip lasts little than two weeks. Fr. Desbois speaks of a growing need for solitude in his personal life, to be ‘in silent prayer before God.’ In Parish, he sets aside at least one day a week for that purpose. ‘Sometimes I go to a monastery, or else I stay in my apartment, out of reach of the telephone.’ The work is dangerous. In one city, someone shot at him from a window. Now he and his team travel with a bodyguard. ‘Even at home,’ he said, ‘I never enter my apartment without looking behind me.’”

He tells us that “So total was the acceptance of “the final solution” that German soldiers often took photographs of individual shootings and sent them to family members as souvenirs…”           

“Anti-Jewish hatred extended also to those who were only partly Jewish. One witness told Fr. Desbois of a Christian mother who was upset that her daughter had married a Jew. He was away in the army, and one day while her daughter was at the local market the grandmother took the couple’s little children to the Gestapo office and said, ‘shoot them,’ which they did. Such an occurrence reflects what Fr. Desbois calls “limitless imagination in the service of evil.

To belong to “church”, to be a disciple of Christ, to be a “practicing Catholic” means so much more than making sure children are baptized, that one is at prayer each Sunday, etc. It, among many other things, means to be aware of evil and its power – a power to hold a strong attraction for us. Ordinary people can do extraordinary harm. To the disciple of Christ challenges us to do more than just avoiding evil but to face it and deny its power to destroy. And that means we need the Lord Jesus, prayer, each other, the Word of God and the strength of the Holy Spirit.

The scene that took place at the Holocaust museum just a short time ago is a vivid reminder that anti-Semitism is not too far from the surface and that it should never be in the mindset of a disciple of Christ.

Ms. Nancy Lukash  has accepted the positions of Director of Religious Education and Adult Education for St. James Parish and begins her work on June 30^th. Ms. Lucash has worked as an accountant for ten years, taught preschool for 5 years and aws an administrator 2 years at Princeton Junior School. She has a degree in theology and philosophy and has taught at Stuart Country Day School for 7 years. She taught at St. James CCD for 8 years, CRASH work camp and at St. James Nursery school (3 years). She has been in the parish ministry of welcoming those who were coming back to the church and most recently has been in charge of the RCIA program.

We welcome her to her new position… and to make her welcomed and her work a little easier you can contact her to volunteer to be a teacher or an aide for the coming year.

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June 21, 2009

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads. After moms, the most influential person in a child’s life is their dad – either by his presence or his absence.

People who gather in prayer groups or bible study soon discover that there is a diversity of visions and opinion in how they see God. To be sure there are some constants – but further examination might reveal that we project our values and priorities onto our God.

Theologian Mary Daly wrote that where God is a male, there the male is god. Consider male fundamentalists who insist that God wants a man as undisputed head of the house.

But the opposite is also true. More important, wherever the male or female is considered “god”, there God is male or female. Whatever values a particular culture creates - those values will often be the values of their god(s).

Our sacred scripture was written in the Hebrew culture which was tribal, rural, patriarchal, and marginal. What if it had been written in highly civilized Egypt with its female deities and Queen Cleopatra, or amid the many gods of Babylon, etc?

Knowing where our scripture originated helps us appreciate its assets and its liabilities.           

Our first testament was written among small tribes of nomads and farmers. They were often at war over land, etc and bonded together to fight a common enemy. They were not very significant in the world order. Eventually they were defeated by Babylon and their cities and temples were leveled. A majority of the people were exiled in a foreign land (cf. Psalm 137).

The 2^nd Testament was written after the Jews returned from exile and rebuilt their cities and temple… but now they were a colony of Rome. It is said that history is written by the victors but our religious history was written by victims.

All written scripture must be interpreted by an ongoing, living community. The original church was in the same marginalized place as the writers of the scriptures and continued to interpret it from a victims’ perspective. Later it became popular under Emperor Constantine and then things looked quite different from a throne. The church entered European politics and the king was given divine rights and, in turn, God was given kingly rights… e.g. our feast of Christ the King.

As it is, successful Christianity has interpreted its sacred scripture as a success story and seemingly transformed God into a perfect American father; a benevolent lawgiver who demands respect, metes out justice, punishes disobedience, expects results – and is a good buddy. Think not? Watch some tele-evangelist  programs.  What would an American mother god look like? Affectionate, intimate, understanding, not too demanding, supportive, loving or relational?            

All this is to say that we should be aware of how our culture and we ourselves imagine God – and then go about incorporating the best images (with a healthy humility that you may sometimes be off-base, probably mostly correct but never totally complete in your knowledge of God). This is one of the reasons why people often find God so surprising and sometimes upsetting or marvelous.

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June 14, 2009

What’s going on with the building and renovation project?

We are waiting for the bids to come in and hope to have them this week. When we get the bids then the diocese will look over our (almost) final costs and give the final o k on the loan we will make.

We will be going to the Board July 8^th to seek approval for the addition of the meeting rooms. A lot of work has been put together in preparation for this meeting.

This week, Thursday evening, we will have a meeting for our surrounding neighbors to show them what we hope to build and to answer any questions they may have.

Roughly there are two stages to our project. The first is to restructure the stage area into storage area and the second is the new construction. The new construction is less than 1,800 square feet – about the size of a modest house.

Parish volunteers and children: In September, 2009, all adults who work with children on a regular basis will be required to wear identification badges when you are with the children. The badges assure parents that this volunteer has been finger-printed, had a background check, and has taken the VIRTUS (awareness) training for the safety of children.           

I ask our volunteers who are in the presence of children to check your current status. If you have been finger-printed over three years ago you must be finger printed again (I’ve been through the process twice already.) You can contact Betty at the Religious Education Office and she can assist you in doing this. I suggest that you complete this as soon as possible. The finger printing process is short and they are excellent at keeping on schedule. If you register now you can more easily get a date that is convenient for you. If you wait until late August or September you can be assured that there will be a crowd in front of you.           

Deacon James Palsir has entered into retirement and will no longer serve as director of Religious Education.

He has been our director for eight years and has guided our program in a variety of ways. At times new demands were put on his office (e.g. initiating and assuring that we are in compliance with the Bishops’ Charter for the safety of children) - that demanded special attention and care. He had a great love for the missions and instilled that love in the children in various ways, e.g. the Holy Childhood boxes. St. James Holy Childhood contributions were often highest within the diocese and the parish received recognition for that on several occasions - the children learned that sacrifice can be personally rewarding to those who receive and to those who give.

Jim was the person who got the ball rolling for additional meeting rooms. His love of and his loyalty to his faith in God and to the church have never been in question. Would that there be more like that.          

It is to be noted that Jim has not gone into total retirement. He will continue to fully function as a deacon at St. James… baptizing, witnessing marriages, preaching, given baptismal classes, etc

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June 7, 2009

A bishop was asking young people who were to be confirmed about their cell phone usage. When he asked how many minutes the confirmands spoke on their phones, most just said, “a lot.” The bishop told the congregation when he once asked that question one young lady responded over 5,000 minutes a month! (About three and one-half days a month.)

“Whom do we talk to the most on our cell phones?” the bishop asked. “Our friends,” the students responded. “And why do we talk to our friends” he asked. “To get to know them better,” or “to find out what they are doing,” or “to tell them about the stuff in our own lives” were among the answers.

“And is Jesus a friend?” the bishop asked. “Yes,” they replied. “And how much time do you spend talking to Jesus?” he asked.

Result: lots of blank looks and a self-revelation.

For more than one might expect – even though some say they believe God exists as they believe outer space exists – neither existence means anything to them. It makes no (real) difference in their life.

Most likely it is not their fault because faith is extremely difficult these days. There was a time when distance was not measured in minutes but in how many Our Fathers you could pray between here and there. Morning, noon and night were measured by the “Angelus”. Everyone automatically believed in God, families practiced religion and society supported godly behavior. Atheism was no more acceptable than divorce; both were antireligious and antisocial.           

Today it often seems as though atheism has become the norm and that everyone is doing it. It is popular and non-fattening. Society has virtually outlawed God from civic activities and the public square. Politicians may use God as a running mate, but as a silent partner. The typical family prays together even less than it eats together. Belief in God has become a private option. The only public institution that promotes God is the church.           

For these and other reasons the fact that some do not experience God may not be their fault. But it remains a huge lack in their life. Of course, it also not your fault that you are not a millionaire – but you still lack the experience of all that money, faultless or not. Not matter what the reason, godforsaken is a very sad situation.

But it may not be all that bad. At least you are not misled by false gods. But, of course, many feverishly chase the false gods of popularity and success and sex and money.

Let us make God a little more known. (Insight of Fr. Smith) “Every single object that you sense is imbedded within a larger background; every single fact that you know is implicated in a broader network. Now stretch all of your knowledge past outer space. Way out there, beyond all knowledge, beyond infinity, just beyond the horizon – there is God.

Every single person that you love, every single thing that is beautiful and good – all those people and things are that way only because they are images, representations of the One who is lovely and beautiful and good. You must sense that divine substratum of reality.

Right now, look deep inside yourself. Recall that time when you were overwhelmed by love, when you were helplessly beyond control, joyful and seized by a sensation beyond your imagination. That was the mystery of God. Now, recall that moment whey you were scared out of your wits, or sad beyond measurement, or despairing of life itself. The wholeness of which contained that void was God.

Every human being has these mysterious experiences. But some do not experience them as the saving presence of God because of their inexperience, ignorance, superficiality of lifestyle. Make it your life task to name the mystery of God in your life. Otherwise, you miss the point of life. That would be a very bad thing. And it would be your fault.”

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May 31, 2009

From a homiletic resource (“Prepare the Word) comes this article:

What if I’m wrong?

by Alice Camille

If the riveting movie Doubt taught us nothing else last year, it’s that there’s always room for being dead wrong. We don’t like to entertain that notion even in the privacy of our midnight thoughts. It’s especially critical for those who are parents; those who teach and guide the impressionable; for leaders of every kind, and policymakers and deciders—heck, it’s crucial for all of us to try to be sure about what we claim is true. Because when we’re wrong, we’re often taking others down the path of error with us.

How do we avoid the painful consequences of being wrong about what we hold true? First, we accept our mortal limitations. At the end of his life Michelangelo had the humility to say of his art: “I am still learning.” The guy who did the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the Pietà, and the astonishing David—still learning? If one of the most gifted artists of any age had not reached his potential after creating such dazzling beauty, it’s a safe bet you and I haven’t maxed out our understanding either. There’s always more to read, to ponder, and to comprehend. And when we’ve done a lifetime of that, we’ve still got all that’s yet to be revealed to discover.

So task number one for avoiding error is to keep on learning. Number two is the twin sister of that task: Stay humble. There’s nothing like pride to trip us up and make fools of geniuses. The humble, by contrast, remain teachable. The third necessary element is to pray, asking the Spirit for guidance. Pentecost has no meaning if it remains a static historical event. The Spirit is given for our help. But the Spirit won’t trespass human freedom. If we want the aid of the indwelling Spirit, we have to ask.

For Christians, those three steps will keep us out of harm’s way. The Spirit of truth, as Jesus says, can only lead us to truth—and will lead us to all truth. Jesus makes no exceptions, doesn’t outline any grey fuzzy areas where we’ll have to wade in on our own. If we don’t know what to do, we should pray and ask. If we’re 100 percent sure what we should do, we might want to pray about that, too!

I remember making the decision, 25 years ago, to quit theology school. I was tired, sick, and sure the whole thing was a big mistake. After a weeklong retreat dedicated to confirming my decision, I visited the chapel one more time before leaving the retreat center. Gripped by the eyes of a madonna, I sat down for one more prayer—and stayed in school, and in ministry.

After over a decade of ministry at St. James Church, Sue Ziegler has resigned from her position.  She led Adult Faith Formation, along with a number of important ministries in our parish community such as the Miryam Group, Eucharistic Ministers to the Homebound, the Samaritans and others.  Reaching out to others, especially to the bereaved or those who were ill,, was important to her.  Just as important was her commitment to prayer – whether the weekly Miryam Group or the Wednesday Morning Prayer GroupShe was our leader for adult ministry and among the many things in which she worked her ‘magic’ are the various prayer groups, the Soup and Study programs, parish days of recollection/retreat, retreat weeks at Weston, VT., November Memorial services, managing the Resource room, providing prayer and resources for the prayer groups, keeping the magazine rack update, arranging the maze prayer, etc. Her attitude and demeanor reflected a spirit of openness and welcome to all who met her – and a reflection of what we at St. James hope to be.

May God bless her along her yet unfulfilled journey with wisdom and good blessing… and thank you Sue for all that has been.

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May 24, 2009

One of our earliest instructions in the faith may have been to avoid evil… have nothing to do with it. It is good advice – as far as it goes. But evil is oftentimes aggressive and/or so violent we need to do more. We need, at times, to resist evil… even to be ‘aggressive’ enough to take it on so its devastation is stopped.

           
The early church, common wisdom tells us, was built on the blood of the martyrs…those who went to their death holding to their faith. They would rather die than participate in the evil of denying their faith or worshipping false gods.

How does one resist evil… even an evil that is forced upon a village or a nation? Throughout the ages the response was to go to battle – to wage war. WWI & WWII are the most dramatic examples in recent history. This weekend our country will remember those who entered into combat in those wars (and others) and did not come back alive. The number is in the millions but their loss is suffered by brothers, sisters, moms and dads, wives, friends, children and so many more. Is there anyone who has not been touched by such a loss in their family?

It is time (it has always been the time) to search out new and more effective ways of encountering and resisting such evil. Support the works of peace. Speak of peace and encourage peace in the family and amidst our community. Do it in memory of those whom we will remember this weekend. It is an honor worthy of their sacrifice on our behalf.            

At two of the Masses last week Deacon Dick Currie spoke, among many things, of the Gathering area in our church. He noted that it was designed so that before Mass people may gather, talk, welcome each other and strangers, and process into church. He spoke of the welcome he received when he first entered St. James Church and how that led to a series of events and changes that resulted in helping so many people.            

Let me focus on the idea of how and why and how we go from the Gathering area. We process into church – we do not parade into church. There is a big difference. When one is in a parade you are there to be seen. That is its purpose. You wave at people, you make big signs to tell people who you are or what you represent. No doubt about it – you parade to be seen.

To be in a procession is of another nature. You are not there to be seen – but rather to demonstrate or give witness to others. Processions in the Catholic Church used to be somewhat frequent (other than the procession line for Communion):  processions on feast days, procession of the Holy Eucharist on Corpus Christi, Holy Name processions, etc.

We process with others because we have purpose and we are going to a specific destination. In this case we are processing into the church, to our place of community prayer to give thanksgiving to God, to hear the Word of God and to share from the table of the Lord. It is a divine calling. The altar server calls us to attention in the ringing of the bell and the introductory remarks of the priest announce the purpose of our gathering and announces a specific focus to our prayer for that day. Our processing in may look haphazard but there is purpose to it.

(Just thought you might like to know that.)

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May 10, 2009

There is an account given by someone anonymous who approached St. John the Evangelist and asked why he kept preaching the same sermon time and again. His sermon was clear and simple: love God above all things and love your neighbor as yourself. It is reported that John replied: I will keep preaching that sermon until people start living it.

Fr. Frank Bauer O.F.M. wrote a book entitled Life in Abundance (The book is out of print) He writes the following about God and love and us.

“Whatever God is about, God is about the relationship of loving. And since the love-relationship is determined in equal part by the lover and the beloved, you and I have an everlasting and immeasurable impact on the love of God. The very passion of the involvement of God in human affairs testified by the prophets bespeaks the thirst of God for an intensity of experience not dependent on his will alone.

“Need we note that the language of the Scripture is co-operation: God calls, we respond; God asks, we answer; God commands, we choose to obey; God pleads, we are moved; God loves, we love in return. This is not the language of coercion and force; it is the language of concern, respect, desire and love. In our wildest dreams could we venture to express how important we are to God? Just as you and I create the quality of each other’s experience through our gracious relationships of love, so also the depth of our being is created out of the quality of God’s love, and this loveliness of ours can now be returned as gracious gift to the eternally loving One.”           

Here lies a small insight into the Holy Trinity. Some like to divide the Trinity into three different functions: the Father is the creator; the Son is the Redeemer and the Holy Spirit is the Sanctifier (or bringer of Wisdom and spiritual gifts). Once in a while you will hear someone start a prayer in this manner: “In the name of the Creator, and of the Redeemer and of the Sanctifier.” The small insight into the Trinity is that it is not a matter of identifying functions of God or how God functions in three different ways. Rather, it is all about relationships… and you can’t have a relationship by yourself. The Father beholds the Son and loves him – that love is the Spirit of God. It is a constant life of a loving relationship. (That’s how the good Bishop Fulton J. Sheen once described it on TV.)            

Into this ideal world enters another mystery – it is the mystery of Evil – of separation, alienation and hatred. We see testimony to this evil in our news media all the time. This past week the news media reported a massacre (in the East) at a wedding: 47 people were machine-gunned down: a family from children age three and six to grandparents.  How can two polarized mysteries (Love and Evil) manage to exist side by side? On which side will we settle? Christ invites us to follow Him into the Kingdom of the Father. When evil touches us personally we get all turned around and have trouble remaining faithful to our commitment to follow the commands of Jesus. It is here, I believe, that Divine Grace alone can deliver us. It is why we seek to be connected to that which is Holy.

God bless our First Communicants and their families. The two Masses last week went so well and our community is blessed with teachers and volunteers (as well as staff) in preparing the children. We thank the children’s choir for leading us all in song and praise.

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May 3, 2009

A little updating on parish finances, building and renovation projects.

Our budget is roughly a million dollars for the year. That amount makes us break even. This year our expenses up to this date have been 2% more than anticipated and our income is 2% less than we had anticipated. 4% doesn’t sound like much but for us it means we will run a deficit of $40,000 for F(iscal)Y(ear) 08/09.

Our building committee has been meeting and getting updates from architect and construction managers and the finance committee has reviewed our finances – it will probably not be possible to get the two to meet, i.e. the building committee has been cutting the project to minimal expectations and the finance committee may tell them to cut out more. The finance committee deems it prudent and necessary to keep a minimum amount of money in reserve for emergencies, etc and after our projects it will at its lowest in approximately fifteen or more years. I thought that perhaps we could reduce our maintenance program to about $40,000. I was informed that there are two projects (not envisioned in the renovation or building project) easily come to $50,000+ (we have been budgeting $60,000 a year for ordinary repairs).

With this in mind I hold my breath as we continue to collect pledges for the building and wipe my brow as “soft costs” that have not been included in our budget (e.g. lawyer’s fees, consults, etc.) hoping that they do not add up to much. What makes St. James somewhat different from other parishes in which I have served is the fact that we have no financial resources other than our collections. We have no fund-raisers. Contributions other than weekend collections (e.g. grants or as a benefactor of a will, etc) are not part of the St. James’ mindset… even though they are encouraged. (Once in a while I do get a vague commitment from someone that if they should hit the megabucks lottery we might be remembered. LOL).

Do be aware that the above is meant to be informative and not a complaint. You have never heard me or staff complain about lack of finances. Your generosity has been most splendid and as your pastor I am very appreciative of what you do and contribute to the vitality and life of the parish.

First Communion: two Masses were celebrated this weekend and I would like to thank the teachers, their assistants and Religious Education staff for the number of hours, professionalism and intensity of purpose they bring to this work - all will have  worked out quite well (they always have).

"An Easter Poem"

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April 26, 2009

(Notes from Priest magazine, March issue)

Volunteer religious education teachers are gold in the church. Every week they struggle to pass on the faith they love so much to the young people (many of whom, by the way, resent being at class or even at Mass).

When some teachers (not ours) once got together to tell their “war stories” the show stopper came when one person spoke of an irate mother confronting her about teaching the Trinity to the students. The mother accused her of not teaching what the Church taught about Trinity. She asked the mother what had so upset her. The mother angrily replied “You taught my child that the Trinity is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” Puzzled, she asked the mother what was wrong with that. Even angrier, the mother responded, “Everyone knows that the Trinity is Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!” (It’s very sad to say that this story is true.)

We have, in our church, “cultural Catholics” and “committed Catholics” (I use “committed” for lack of a better term). Priests and deacons, for example, constantly come across cultural Catholics. At times, children are presented for baptism by couples who haven’t seen the inside of a Catholic church since either their Confirmation or their wedding. In truth we do wonder that if they aren’t interested in the faith then why bring the children forward? (You might ask: “then why do priests and deacons baptize those children?” Church law says we must unless we know that the children will not be raised as Catholic. And sometimes the Godparents do “get after” the parents of the children and hold them to their responsibility to do so.)

One of the most notable areas that demonstrate a lack of understanding of Scriptures and teachings of the Church is the thought: “I don’t have to go church to be a good Catholic.” (This statement is made in all Christian denominations – not just Catholics.)

The mark of what Jesus did was the formation of a community of disciples. Peter’s early “sermons” were within the context of a community – a gathered community –and he was trying to move the people from one way of living to another way of believing and acting.

“One of the complaints of Islam about the West – which is identified with Christianity – is the way people live. Just as every Christian is not devout, neither is every Muslim. However, Islam influences everyday behavior of Muslims more profoundly than today’s Christianity influences Christians. It is true that radical Islam is oppressive in enforcing its teachings, but, radical Islam aside, the positive influence of religion on the daily lives of Muslims is greater than that of Western Christianity on our lives.

“We cannot practice what we do not know. We cannot believe what we have not learned. Faith is an act of the heart; depth of faith is an act of the heart and the intellect. John tells us bluntly, “Those who say ‘I know him,’ but do not keep his commandments are liars, and the truth is not in them.’” How do we know God’s commandments? How do we allow our faith in Jesus Christ to change us? We study. We gather in community to experience God’s Word and to understand it.”           

I would like to thank those who are keeping me in prayer as I go through my treatments. It means a lot and it  bears much fruit.  Msgr. RB

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April 19, 2009

The following is based on an article by Charles Dickson that appears in Priest magazine: 4/2009).

“I think you’ll like our parish because we…” How would you finish that statement: friendly, welcoming, prayerful? One thing we should add (but wouldn’t think of) is: “We are a people set apart by God’s Gospel!”

Dean Hoge, a sociologist (not a Catholic) says conviction is precisely what people are looking for if they are to either return to church or even to join the Church for the first time.

Most of our children are in public schools and they are given a steady diet of religious relativism which assumes that one religion has no more claim to truth than any other. As a result many adults may still think religion is important but they’re slow to make any commitment to the faith of their childhood.

A personal statement (but not untypical): “I don’t go church, but that doesn’t make me a bad person. I remember when I was growing up, my father knew the whole service by heart. He didn’t even have to open the book. What’s good for dad and my brother isn’t good for me.”

What could bring him back to church? Here is what research has indicated as some definite strategies:

     1)Religious education for children with family support. We must begin by providing our young people with a solid foundation including a knowledge of the fundamentals of the faith. This is accomplished primarily through Bible study, church, school, and confirmation classes.

     2) Personal support and reassurance are also vital. People seldom join the Church because of some compelling intellectual arguments. But they do join because of personal relations, personal identities, and other human factors which makes them feel affirmed as individuals.

     3) People want inspirational and spiritual guidance. If the Church doesn’t provide it for them they will go elsewhere for it.

     4) Teach fundamentals of the faith to adults who have either never been exposed to it or have forgotten much of what they have learned in earlier years.

     5)”All too often the real spiritual fiber that binds a congregation together is missing because we are prone to substitute activity for real spiritual growth and solid understanding of the teachings of the Church.

            “…Registration in a parish may mean friendly parishioners, good music, and the parish softball team, all of which are commendable; but in the final analysis it must involve a personal commitment to Christ.”

            “…People must be challenged to become part of caring, learning fellowship that knows they are part of the ekklesia, the Greek word for church, literally meaning those who are called our or called apart. We are called out of this world into a special relationship with Christ whose kingdom is not of this world.

            Ultimately we are members of the universal church which is in but not of the world.”

            Our greatest and sincerest gratitude and appreciation to all who have fashioned for us a prayerful Lenten and Sacred Triduum Season: Fr. James McConnell, our choirs and cantors who have dedicated hours and effort into their music to lead us in song, to Joann Held (Liturgy Co-ordinator), our deacons, CRASH club, Ushers, Lectors, Eucharistic Ministers, Servers at the Altar, Decorators of the church, leaders of the Stations of the Cross, volunteers for various large and small jobs (adults and children), sextons, banner makers, and our Parish Staff.

Our prayer life, our parish life, our souls have been touched by your diligence and generosity. We have drawn closer to God – and we thank you!

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April 12, 2009

Easter Sermon of St. John Chrystotom: circa 400 AD

Are there any who are devout lovers of God? Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival!

Are there any who are grateful servants? Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!

Are there any weary with fasting?
Let them now receive their wages!

If any have toiled from the first hour, let them receive their due reward; If any have come after the third hour, let him with gratitude join in the Feast! And he that arrived after the sixth hour, let him not doubt; for he too shall sustain no loss. And if any delayed until the ninth hour, let him not hesitate; but let him come too. And he who arrived only at the eleventh hour, let him not be afraid by reason of his delay. For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first. He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour, as well as to him that toiled from the first.

To this one He gives, and upon another He bestows. He accepts the works as He greets the endeavor.
The deed He honors and the intention He commends. Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord!

First and last alike receive your reward; rich and poor, rejoice together! Sober and slothful, celebrate the day! You that have kept the fast, and you that have not, rejoice today for the Table is richly laden! Feast royally on it, the calf is a fatted one. Let no one go away hungry. Partake, all, of the cup of faith. Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!

Let no one grieve at his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has risen from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free. He has destroyed it by enduring it. He destroyed Hell when He descended into it. He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh.

Isaiah foretold this when he said, "You, O Hell, have been troubled by encountering Him below."
Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with. It was in an uproar because it is mocked. It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed. It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated.
It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive. Hell took a body, and discovered God. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.

O death, where is thy sting?

O Hell, where is thy victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!

Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead; for Christ having risen from the dead, is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen! + + + + +

(Christ is risen, alleluia! As He said, alleluia!)

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April 5, 2009

St. Augustine was caught up in wonder to the fact that Christ had taken upon Himself our very nature, our humanity. He was caught up more with the fact that the Church, as described by Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians, is the very body of Christ. Augustine would instruct those who were asking for Baptism and the Holy Eucharist to become what they professed and become what they would receive: that is, to become the Body of Christ. Both Paul and Augustine were convinced that if we understood what this meant and believed it then if one needed to be corrected or led away from sin they need only remind the sinner of who they were and of the dignity of calling. Centuries later Pope Pius XII wrote a wonderful encyclical about the Mystical Body of Christ – Mystici Corporis (i.e. we, the church). Today, we are comfortable with and somewhat knowledgeable of the multi-meaning of the words the Body of Christ.

In a commentary of the psalms St. Augustine wrote this little phrase: “He (Jesus) prays for us as our priest, he prays for us as our head, he is the object of our prayers as our God.” It would be well to call this to mind as we walk through this Holy Week and come to the feast of Easter.

We can have a lot of fun discussing and finding fault with so many restrictions and philosophizing as to whether they more harmful than helpful… but truth be told, society would be a mess (it could not function) without laws and some restrictions.

In the Lenten season in which we are engaging (I hope you are engaging) concerns itself with the more serious battles of life. Where is our liberty in God being undermined? What are we doing to ourselves that is so destructive to us and those we cherish? Is it a disease such as alcoholism? Is it destructive behavior we have been trying to tame time and again – such as physically abusing others or living a lie? Is it a compulsive competiveness that tramples over others so we can be at the top? Working so hard and long that our family and our friends not only get precious little time with us but we are now somewhat of a stranger to them? How in the world did we get entangled and what can break these chains?

Is our life style freeing and ennobling? What price are we paying for whatever prize we are seeking? Jesus shocked the crowds when he posed the question: “What does a man/woman, gain if they possess the whole world and lose their soul?”

Lent can force us to ask the question and answer it. Once we answer it, do we find it satisfying? What do you gain if you have lost your soul in the process?

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March 29, 2009

I started to write a different set of notes but I came across this homily by Pope St. Leo the Great. I can’t do better than this.

“In the gospel of John the Lord says: In this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for each other. In a letter of the same apostle we read: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God; he who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

The faithful should therefore enter into themselves and make a true judgment on their attitudes of mind and heart. If they find some store of love’s fruit in their hearts, they must not doubt God’s presence within them. If they would increase their capacity to receive so great a guest, they should practice greater generosity in doing good, with persevering charity.

If God is love, charity should know no limit, for God cannot be confined.

Any time is the right time for works of charity, but these days of Lent provide a special encouragement. Those who want to be present at the Lord’s Passover in holiness of mind and body should seek above all to win this grace, for charity contains all other virtues and covers a multitude of sins.

As we prepare to celebrate that greatest of all mysteries, by which the blood of Jesus Christ did away with our sins, let us first of all make ready the sacrificial offerings of works of mercy. In this way we shall give to those who have sinned against us what God in his goodness has already given to us.

Let us now extend to the poor and those afflicted in different ways a more open-handed generosity, so that God may be thanked through many voices and the relief of the needy supported by our fasting. No act of devotion on the part of the faithful gives God more pleasure than that which is lavished on his poor. Where he finds charity with its loving concern, there he recognizes the reflection of his own fatherly care.

In these acts of giving do not fear a lack of means. A generous spirit is itself great wealth. There can be no shortage of material for generosity where it is Christ who feeds and Christ who is fed. In all this activity there is present the hand of him who multiplies the bread by breaking it, and increases it by giving it away.

The giver of alms should be free from anxiety and full of joy. His gain will be greatest when he keeps back least for himself. The holy apostle Paul tells us: He who provides seed for the sower will also provide bread for eating; he will provide you with more seed, and will increase the harvest of your goodness, in Christ Jesus our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

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March 15, 2009

Disjointed thoughts are to follow but you might find something there you like.

            On radio a poet was observing how often people gripe about things, about neighbors, about family, about their work, about government (any level), and so forth. Thus he penned the following lines:

“Everyone wants a comfortable earth

and a sumptuous heaven.

The crane stands on one leg drinking his “rum” contented.

            To what are we entitled and who is the guarantor of such gifts? JFK would say that life isn’t fair – but what is fair? If everyone is given a healthy body, mind and soul are not all the rest just added bonuses (come to think of it, are not the first three things anything other than pure gift?)? Christians, most of us, recognize this in some rock-centered way and it is why our greatest prayer is called Eucharist – which means “thank you”, “giving thanks”, “thankfulness”, etc. Our basic stance in life is one of being aware of what we have and grateful for having it.

            Here are some remarkable words on fidelity.  They come from a learned man, famed in his lifetime as an historian.  His name was Page Smith, of the University of California at Santa Cruz, and he wrote: "I would like to say a good word for fidelity.  Somewhere someone might hear it and take heart; it might stir some ancient memory or lodge in some brain with a little space left for a startling new idea.  Fidelity is made up of mutual belonging.  For as long as I can remember, I have wished, I suppose above all else, to belong to someone, and to have someone belong to me.  I'm afraid I lack the courage, moral hardihood or resolution to go it alone... I need all the support I can get from my wife, my friends, my children, all those I love who, I trust, love me; all those I belong to and who belong to me."

            "Fidelity is an act, not simply an expression or an avowal.  One does not become faithful by taking a marriage vow; one becomes faithful by adhering to principle, or, more important, to a person."

             Remember that he wrote these words at a time, still continuing, when up to half of all marriages, for good or bad reasons, end up in divorce, a time when promiscuity is trivialized or viewed as a party game, and fidelity is a virtue seemingly practiced only by a minority.  Let the minority flourish.  Of such is goodness - of such is the kingdom of heaven. (Fr. Joseph Nolan)

            For your convenience our parish has instituted electronic giving. You can find more information and even sign up when you visit the parish website.

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March 8, 2009

Our Promise to Protect, Our Pledge to Heal

The Diocese of Trenton is committed to the initiatives outlined in the U.S. Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in regard to the reporting and investigation of sexual abuse allegations involving minors.

If you have been sexually abused as a minor by a member of the clergy or anyone representing the Catholic Church, or if you know of someone who was, you can report that abuse through the diocesan website (www.dioceseoftrenton.org) or by calling Msgr. Joseph N. Rosie, diocesan chancellor, at (609) 406-7400 - ext. 5510.

Continuing the Mission Campaign: I have been told by several people that they were expecting someone from the parish to visit with them to discuss a campaign pledge and to find out more about what is to be accomplished. Because of a shortage of volunteers and my schedule we were not able to visit as many people as we had wished. If you haven’t yet made a pledge and want to know more about it please contact me and I will be happy to sit with you and discuss the campaign. My number is on the bulletin.

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee will become the new Archbishop of the diocese of New York on April 15, 2009. The new archbishop will face a number of problems coming into the diocese, some of which are familiar (but not going away): priests who are/were child abusers, lack of vocations (only three are to be ordained priests this year in NY – and this from the second largest diocese in the US), the media attention that one gets when one is archbishop of NY, etc.      Archbishop Dolan is a good an capable priest. He was one rectory of the American seminary in Rome. He has the talent and the energy to measure up to his task and our prayers go out on his behalf.

An update on my health: about a year ago I made mention in the bulletin that I had prostate cancer and that it was minimal. I will begin radiation treatments within three or four weeks. It involves going for treatment five days a week for eight weeks. The process for the patient seems not all that complicated. I am told that there can be some side effects but none that cannot be treated quite easily. One of the possible effects is that as the process goes on I may find it tiring. I feel quite confident about the effectiveness of the treatment and, for me, it seems to be the best way of going about this. Say an ”Ave” for me once in a while – I will be very grateful for that.           

To all of you who came and to all who planned and conducted the “Faith and Fun Night” for the Lenten season I am most grateful and thank you for your time and talents. So many people make so many things “go on” around here that it is easy to lose track of them all – but the parish would never be the same without them… and for that we say “Thank You!”

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February 22, 2009

An update on our Capital Campaign.

First I would like to thank all of you who participated in the campaign and for those who have made a pledge in these difficult times.

We have reached a million and fourteen thousand dollars in pledges and that will allow us to proceed with some of our plans (as outlined in the brochure you had received – it was mailed out to every parishioner). At the outset of our campaign our directors estimated that we would have five hundred contributors. We have three hundred and forty-five. Had the estimate been on target we would have made the 1.5M target.

To date we have already collected $260,000.00 +.

Within the past three weeks we have had very good meetings with the finance committee and the building committee. As of this moment it looks like we will proceed with the work in several phases: the first would be that of lowering the stage to floor lever, cover the proscenium and create storage space. That will also mean taking out the old lighting panel and update the lighting in the gym. This will prepare the way for any future construction.

We have to get a number of permissions to remodel and a chance that construction can start in 2009 - this is the addition of the five meeting rooms and hallway – alongside the south side of the family center.

Again, I would like to thank all who have made the sacrifice and pledge to the campaign.

Lent begins this coming Wednesday. It is a penitential season the Church takes upon itself… a retreat, as it were, to not only step back and take a good look at ourselves to see and repent of the evil we have done. It is a spiritual quest to see if we are in denial of the harm we cause to ourselves and others and fall short in our love of God. Its intent is primarily to be corrective and to make amends as best we can.

To assist us in this journey we are encouraged to practice prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The Church requires that on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday everyone refrain from eating any meat or meat products and if you are between the ages of 21 and 59 to fast on that day (at the least to have only one meal on that day and other nourishment that does not equal another meal).           

On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday all those who are fourteen or older are to refrain from eating meat.

You may want to be somewhat creative and choose some other practices that would enhance your spiritual life – such as a daily practice of reading the scriptures, taking a short course in scriptures, a pro-active series of helping others, seeking ways to mend harm done to others, etc. Some choose to put aside the money they would have spent if they were not fasting and contribute to a charity or cause. It’s all up to you.

We will have Mass during the season of Lent at the church with Eucharistic adoration every Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and on the first Friday of the month from 9:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

We have small booklets available in the Gathering area that makes for a short and excellent and reflective reading. Please read the rest of the bulletin for more good stuff.

For no particular purpose – more extensions of Murphy’s Law.

            Kin’s Rule of Committees: After an hour has been spent amending a sentence, someone will move to delete the paragraph.

            We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

            Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first.

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February 15, 2009

spiritual: 1: of, relating to, consisting of, or affecting the spirit: INCORPOREAL 2: of or relating to sacred matters 3: ecclesiastical rather than lay or temporal.

The above is a definition taken from Merriam-Webster’s Desk Dictionary. In my practice and in my reading I’ve often heard people say “I am not a religious person but I am a spiritual person.” It is not rare to hear that phrase coming from a person who neither believes in a God nor in a life (or existence) beyond their death. Ronald Rolheiser writes in one of his books that spirituality was not a word many Catholics were familiar with thirty or forty years ago. Catholics would have been more familiar with words such as ‘devotions,’ ‘novenas,’ ‘stations of the cross,’ ‘rosary,’ etc. These were practices (apart from the sacraments) that would bring them into a world of spirituality… a world that could touch their souls, lead them into an experience that transcended the world they were living in the here and now, bring them to a familiarity to what is sacred and cherished, and to a reverence and awe of “something” (God) who is beneficent, loving, comforting and demanding. (Christianity reveals to us that God is a Person and therefore personal.) If such a power exists then we suspect deeply that to enter into the presence of God we must be, in some manner, worthy to be there - for to gain this privilege is a noble endeavor that challenges us to “straighten up” and do the right thing or, as spiritual writers might put is: to be righteous in our living. In the Judeo-Christian spirituality morality is part of its very essence. Our faith is ‘relational’ and all relations are inherently of a moral nature.

If one yearns for, works for, and tries to live lives of truthfulness, justice, honesty, etc does that make them a ‘spiritual’ person? If you have school spirit, a civic spirit, team spirit, or a spirit of love of tradition does that make you a spiritual person? Does appreciating the arts, or nature, or beauty make one a spiritual person? In a limited sense I suppose you could call one ‘spiritual’ but unless you also name these realities as ‘sacred’ it doesn’t seem to fit a popular understanding of the ‘sacred’ or of ‘spirituality’ as that which is beyond us - or of an inkling of a reality that goes much deeper that our surface living.

When Jesus speaks of the ‘Kingdom of God’ or of his “Father’s house” filled with many mansions or of the beatitudes he is speaking of that which is sacred and transcendent. He went to his death aware that the care of his Father follows him… and that was a revelation of what is sacred, as well.

The season of Lent begins February 25th. We recall and repent of our sins – but why even bother unless it is a striving not only for a life of integrity in the here and now but also as a striving for that which is more… for that which is of a spiritual nature and sacred. Perhaps a productive exercise in which to involve ourselves is to write out our understanding of ‘spirituality’ and why we love to claim that we are a ‘spiritual person’. As the late Bishop Fulton Sheen might have summarized such a quest he summarized it all in the phrase that “Life is Worth Living”.

In the little collection box that we have out for Fr. Andrew Danjuma and his parishioners in Nigeria we have a grand total of $2,436 to send off to him. Thank you so much for your generosity!!

The Bishop’s Annual Appeal has been started and many of you have received letters asking for your support. When we started out campaign drive it was made clear that the BAA would continue on as in the past.

You may approach this in your own way but there are some campaigns and appeals that I see not so much as asking for money but rather as opportunity to make something happen – to build up the Kingdom of God.

The bishop very much appreciates whatever you may be able to give to his appeal – especially in these most difficult times.

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February 8 , 2009

From the pen of Fr. James Smith:

“Job was crushed by the burden of life. Our own hearts start getting broken early on. Our mother leaves us to seep alone in our crib. Our father leaves us to go to work. The doll breaks its head. Then a girl languishes on the fringe of the dance floor while a boy anguishes over asking for a date.

We survive adolescence and then deeper heartbreaks wrack our lives: we don’t get into the right college, the love of our life marries someone else, we get cancer…We should not make light of heartbreaks. Every heartbreak is equally important and every ache feels fatal. A broken toy hurts a child just as much as a broken marriage hurts an adult. A broken heart at any age means that the center of life is shattered beyond repair.

Or so we think at the time. But experience teaches us how unbreakable we really are. We learn that reconstructed hearts are amazingly strong, that our wrecked lives can be restored. But that is a bitter education.

Once we have our life in order, we imagine that is who we are. We finally establish a workable self – and then even bigger disaster floods over us like a tsunami.

Up to this crisis, we thought that the self we had was the only possible one. But with nowhere to go, we see that we made this particular self by various decisions: this job, that conversation, etc. if we had made the opposite decisions, we would have ended up a different person, and yet the same person. It dawns on us that our present personality is only one of many different possible personalities. By the grace of God, w accept breakdown as the window to expand our life possibilities, the chance to engage different gifts and opportunities.

Heartbreaks build character. But we dare not look for them. To break a heart on purpose is the act of an arrogant soul which thinks it can survive any catastrophe. Real heartbreak must come from outside us, some force beyond our control. Heartbreaks are the practice field for dying. Our hearts are bruised by loss of reputation, loss of vitality, loss of everything we hold dear. But as unbearable as these losses may feel, they are merely precursors of the ultimate loss. When we die, our hearts are literally broken beyond repair.

It is fortunate that someone went before us. The heart of Jesus was broken by people he cured who then got sick, people he forgave who then sinned. His heart was broken by enemies who scorned him and by friends who left him. But those lesions were nothing compared to what happened to his heart when he died.

On the cross, with his shattered life swirling in the dirt at his feet he turned to God and said: “What happened to my life… what happened to me? How did it end so differently than I expected? I did not establish your kingdom; I could hardly even last more than 30 years. My heart is broken except for you, God.” But God didn’t say anything. So Jesus said: “God, why have you abandoned me? But if you will not fix my situation, if you will not justify my life, if you will not save me – then Father, into your hands I commend my broken heart.”

You and I die the same way. Death comes as a rest for lives too broken to mend. Even God can’t repair a fatally broken heart. But the Father can kiss the pain away.”

(Preaching Resources, Feb. 2009)

“Work is either fun or drudgery. It depends on your attitude. I like fun.” (Coleen C. Barrett)

When people are bored, it is primarily with their own selves that they are bored.” (Eric Koffer)

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January 25, 2009

Pastoral council

Pope John Paul II called for a revision of Canon Law (Church Law). The last time that was done was in 1918. The revised code was promulgated in 1983. Echoing the spirit of Vatican Council II, the new code emphasized the collegial nature of the Church. Than canons (laws) defined the role of the laity in the local church.

“The Christian faithful are those who, inasmuch as they have been incorporated into Christ through baptism, have been constituted as the people of God; for this reason, since they have become sharers in Christ’s priestly, prophetic and royal office in their own manner, they are called to exercise the mission which God has entrusted to the Church to fulfill in the world, in accord with the condition proper to each one. (Canon 204)”

“After the diocesan bishop has listened to the presbyteral council and if he judges it opportune, a pastoral council is to be established in each parish; the pastor presides over it, and through it the Christian faithful along with those who share in the pastoral care of the parish in virtue of their office give their help in fostering pastoral activity. (Canon 536, #1)”

As I recall the history the name given to the group was: “Parish Council”. Since this was ‘new’ to every diocese in the USA, pastors had to find their way through organizing their councils and trying to determine how they are to work. The model most familiar to the American church, of course, was a legislative or business model. Which one do we follow? What rules of order do we follow? Roberts Rules of Order? Congressional Rules of Order? Is this a decision-making council, and if it is, is a vote won by simple majority, two-thirds majority or fifty percent plus 1? What constitutes a quorum (i.e. how many people are needed to make this a valid decision)? Should we have working committees? If we do then how do we integrate them into our already-functioning staff and organizations? How many members? How long should the terms be? How big should the Council be? What distinguishes a ‘Parish Council’ from other councils?

Parishes and pastors and councils have learned a lot from their experiences as to what works and what does not; as to what ‘feels right’ and what does not; as getting a sense that this council is productive or not; and how this differs from similar bodies of work. We have gone:

From: Parish Counsel To: Parish Pastoral Counsel

From: a body of leaders To: A Leadership Body

From: Coordinating Ministries To: Articulating the Ministries

From: Crisis Management To: Pastoral Planning

From: Doing activities To: Empowerment & Oversight

From: Business and Politics To: Prayer & Discernment

From: Competition To: Collaboration

From: Voting To: Consensus

“This revision attempts to place at the heart of the parish a consciousness of and zeal for the Mission of Jesus Christ. When there is a clear awareness of this “larger vision” proposed by the gospels and taught by the Church, a parish finds itself energized by a sense of mission and directed to matters that will do more than simply fill the annual calendar.” (Revisioning the Parish Pastoral Council pg. 11)

(to be continued)

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January 18, 2009

Pastoral Council

In April, 2008, I asked some members of St. James Parish to meet, investigate and to present to me three models of a Pastoral Council for our parish. I asked them to present three models from which I would choose one for our parish… and they were to list them in order of preference.

The members were William and Gerri Brennan, Dee Davis, William McDermott, Pat and Pete O’Hara.

They would have access to any materials and resources they found necessary to complete their work. I met with them at the initial meeting to make clear the expectations of the committee, to answer any questions they might have, and requested that they bring their findings to me in September. I would not meet with them again during the process unless requested.

On September 3, 2008 they presented their findings. I informed them that because of upcoming fundraising campaign, the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays that I would not present their findings to the parish until the new year (January 2009) so as to give it the attention that is needed.

Their work was substantial and the final report was comprehensive. Their work revealed some interesting and exciting discoveries.

The term “Parish Council” was avoided and the term “Pastoral Council” was to replace it. They wrote: “The term “Pastoral Council” connotes energizing and helping to direct the spiritual energies and activities of the parish body, laying out general goals for the next year or several years. We urge the use of the term Pastoral Council.”

They outlined the function of the Pastoral Council as follows

“The Pastoral Council represents the needs of the wider parish community to the Pastor and the staff.

The Pastoral Council develops a strategic pastoral plan envisioning the spiritual well-being of the parishioners of St. James.

The Pastoral Council is consultative to the Pastor, who is the ultimate authority.”

There was a recommendation that the Council consist of a minimum of ten members plus the Pastor.

They suggested that besides the Pastor being an ex officio member, the parishioners are invited to nominate themselves. The pastor, the deacons and members of the parish are encouraged to invite parishioners to self-nominate. There will be no elections. “Through the process of meetings and retreats, those able to serve will emerge. It is important to have a diverse group representing all ages, length of time in the parish, and life choices (married, single).

“In any case, the task force felt strongly that the membership be diverse and representative of the parish make-up, especially regarding age groups, but considering such matters as length of time in the parish, and singles as well as married couples.”

“The council should have the following officers: Facilitator, Assistant Facilitator, and a Scribe. In addition, each meeting should have assigned leaders for both opening and closing prayers rotating from among its members.”

(To be continued…)

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email to stjames1@bellatlantic.net