Back to Basics: Communion of Saints

It isn't just talking about saints in heaven but the entire Church.

... The term communion of saints is rich in meaning. It refers to the fellowship or community that exists between all the members of the Church. Three levels are traditionally identified.

• The Church Triumphant: Saints in heaven
• The Church Militant: Believers on earth
• The Church Suffering: Souls in purgatory

Catholicism believes that death can't sever the ties that bind the members of the Church, because the soul is immortal and only the body can die. So Catholics believe that the ties and connections that link them together in life continue in death. The beloved dead are still connected to the living and still love the living as much as they love the dead. Even though the body is dead, the immortal soul is very much still alive and in existence.

Saints in heaven: The Catholic Church believes that the saints are ordinary and typical human beings -- with faults and failures, talents and gifts, vices and virtues -- who made it into heaven not by being perfect but by persevering.

Believers on earth: The third tier of the communion of saints is the Church Militant, the believers on earth... The term militant refers to a spiritual warfare against sin and the devil. Catholics believe that their fellow man is their ally, not their enemy. The devil and sin are the real enemies... The spiritual battle is for souls -- to rescue them from sin and evil.

Souls in purgatory: Purgatory is an often-misunderstood Catholic doctrine. It isn't considered a spiritual jail or hell with parole. And Catholicism doesn't teach that everyone goes tot purgatory. On the contrary, the Church believes that many people are purified or purged, hence the term purgatory, in this life. For example, the Church believes that many innocent persons who suffer from disease, poverty, or persecution are living their purgatory now, and when they die, they probably go straight to heaven. The same goes for people who live an exceptionally good and holy life -- no need for purgatory. But the Church believes that most everyone else, although not bad enough to go to hell, aren't good enough to skate into heaven with no need for some introspection and purification... Known as the Church Suffering the souls in purgatory are definitely and absolutely going to heaven, not just yet...

According to the Church, purgatory is like a suburb of heaven. It's close enough to hear the laughter and singing, smell the sweetness in the air, and feel the warmth nearby, but far enough away to remind everyone that they haven't yet arrived.

Or, as some people would like to think of it, it's like being stuck in traffic on the day before Thanksgiving. You know for certain that you're on your way home, but you just don't know when.

Catholicism For Dummies by John Trigilio

This is too brief a discussion of a teaching like Purgatory. For a little more reading, here is a post I put together a while back.

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

What's Up with Us

All kinds of anticipatory things going on round here ...

• Rose starts school on the 15th. That sent her into overdrive finishing the book she had assigned herself for summer reading: Crime and Punishment. She loved it. "Wow, what a great book. You'd hate it, Mom, so depressing until the very last page ... but so good." Now she is plodding through her summer homework. I still think it's wrong to assign work over the summer.


• Hannah is off to Fish Camp this morning. That took us most of the weekend to accomplish. (Fish Camp: a four day A&M freshman camp for learning traditions and making new friends. Higly recommended by one and all.) She left this morning, driving with a friend, at 4:45 (yes 4:45, which meant we were up at 4:00!). Thinking about Fish Camp sent her into a spiral of hard reality about being separated from boyfriend for the school year ... which was not helped by a discussion with boyfriend during which he thought that maybe they should break up but then left it in the air until "after Fish Camp." Thanks so much, boyfriend. There's nothing like dealing with that fallout especially when Hannah's already freaking about leaving home in general. So that took most of my extra time and energy this weekend.


• Beyond Cana (marriage enrichment retreat) ... any couples who attended the retreat are welcome to be part of the ongoing retreat teams, whether on a support or core team. Since we have three couples who are getting it started in our parish, more are essential to being able to pull this off, especially when considering that two of the couples have small children. A gratifying number of them liked it so much that they want to help bring it to others. We're pumped about it! There was a party on Saturday for everyone to get together and just hang out. These people have some of the most adorable little ones I've ever seen.


• Knitting ... I really am hating knitting with the Lion Brand self striping yarn but am only halfway through one sock and Rose loves the colors so ... must ... push ... through. Luckily I am loving the Plymouth yarn I am using for the afghan so that makes a nice break. What I really have my eye on for a pair of socks is Bunny Hop ... there is just something so soft sounding about this angora blend yarn. I'd like to make these socks with it.


• I'm beginning Week 3 of the 34-week On-line Retreat along with a couple of friends. So far it is really going well. Working hand-in-hand with this is the fact that I'm also reading The Ignatian Workout: Daily Spiritual Exercises for a Healthy Faith and using the Pray-As-You-Go prayer podcast. As both are based in Ignatian spirituality, it is all working together to make this a very fruitful beginning.

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

Friendship

Blue must have had many friends. No man as generous of himself as he could have been long without them. Yet, he seems to have had few intimates. Friendship was one of life's fine things to him, and yet he did not look upon it altogether as the rest of us do. Sometimes, I think, he was a friend out of charity. Once, I gathered from his conversation, he had been mistaken in a friend. But he looked back on the treachery of the man he loved more with kindness than with pity, and more with pity than with grief. "Friendship, at worst," he once said to me, "is an investment. Your friend, no matter how he may turn out in the end, is an addition to your life. He brings some things, and whatever his disloyalty, these things he cannot take away."

Mr. Blue

What a Groaner!

Stay to read the post but go for the headline ... from one of the best punsters I know.

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

Wordly Wise

Fascinating! From the Word Origin Calendar.

MOOCH
In Old French, the verb muchier meant "to hide" or "to lurk." The English version appeared in the 1800s, but it was first used to mean "to sneak" or "to be truant," before the meaning evolved to a different sense, "to beg."

FORGIVE
The Latin compound word perdonare is formed from per-, meaning "thoroughly" and donare, meaning "to give." In Old English, both parts of this word were swapped for their English counterparts, for-, meaning "completely," and giefan, meaning "give," creating a new term matching the original in meaning.

Back to Basics: Priestly Celibacy and Priest Shortage

This was fascinating to me because as many times as I've heard arguments back and forth about this issue, I never saw the traditions that are observed by the Eastern Catholic Church explained.

... if a pope decides to change, modify, or end mandatory celibacy for the Western church, the Church would still maintain and follow the same tradition observed by the Eastern Catholic Church concerning married clergy. Among the married clergy in the Eastern Church, marriage must come before ordination, and if he's ordained unmarried, he must remain unmarried:

• Ending mandatory celibacy would only affect those yet to be ordained. Celibate priests who're already ordained wouldn't be allowed to marry.
• Seminarians would have to decide before ordination whether they wanted to be married. They'd have to find a wife prior to their ordination or remain celibate.
• Anyone having aspirations to be ordained a bishop would have to remain celibate.
• Catholic priests who were ordained celibate and then later left the active ministry to get married would not be allowed back into the active ministry as a married priest.
  

Catholicism For Dummies by John Trigilio

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

Loving a Mosquito

"What a Christian you are!" he [Blue] exclaimed. I think he was a friend to the fellow out of kindness. "I suppose you consider the exhortation 'love your neighbor' a figure of speech. You would love only the lovable. Did you ever try to love someone who was mean, petty, shallow, selfish? Try it."

I told him I was wiling to try to love a villain but that I could not arouse any affection for a mere annoyance, an irremediable nobody. "I think I could love a lion," I said, "but I doubt very much if I every could love a mosquito."

He regarded me seriously. "You consider yourself too much," he returned. "You could love a great enemy. Any healthy man could. Men have boasted that they were to be slain by Caesar. But one needs more than vanity to love a ... a ... what you call a mosquito."

He meant, I suppose, that I needed special graces in charity and fortitude. But the topic to me, being a poor Christian as Blue intimated, was distasteful. I let it drop.

Mr. Blue

I have my fair share of mosquitoes in my life. Even more humbling, what if I am someone's mosquito? Not even annoying enough to be considered "Caesar" as Blue points out. Something to keep in mind when attempting to love the buzzing pests that God has put me next to on a daily basis.

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

New to the Blogroll

Reflecting on Faith

• Smithereens
• So Many Devotions, So Little Time
• "Et tu, Jen?"
• Bonfire of the Vanities
• Elige Ergo Vitam
• Just Another Day of Catholic Pondering
• New Advent
• Rafting the Tiber
• Totus Pius
• Tremendous Trifles
• Chez Ouiz (updated. yet another that should have been included.)
  

Knitting

• Knitmodo
• Mason-Dixon Knitting

Books

• Librivox
• The Idyllist
• Maria Lectrix (updated - can't believe I missed adding this)
  

Foreign Lands

• On the Face

Love Made Visible

Go watch this video of Team Hoyt. Bring a hankie but don't let that stop you.

Then be sure to visit their website and especially the who are we page.

I have seen this all over the place but just now had the time to watch. Most recently at The Summa Mamas and I think that it originated at Catholic and Enjoying It.

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

Posing

This is so very true although it was food for thought for me that there could be a good sort of posing ... as long as one maintains one's humility.

Most of us like to pose. And most of us when we pose are found out. And most of us, accordingly, suffer. Yet there is something to be said for posing. All poses reveal imagination. Some reveal vanity, to be sure, and some reveal humility. Every poseur does not deserve the black name of hypocrite. We meet a man who is playing at being hero or saint. The man may be tired of himself. He may know in his heart that he is not so good or great as he might be. His pose is an attempt at nobility. We laugh at him. But we are laughing at ourselves. It is because most of us are such poseurs to ourselves that we so readily find a poseur out.

Mr. Blue

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

I Wasn't Interested in That DVD Until Now

Listening to the Lost podcast as they answer questions at Comic Con (yes, I need a fix that bad) it was mentioned that the second season DVD has an extra feature where they edited together every insult that Sawyer ever has given. I'm laughing just thinking of it.

Sawyer: If this was a scary movie I'd be with a hot chick. Not you Barbar.
Hurley: It's Babar.

Dazed and Confused

MR. BLUE by Myles Connolly

This was a fascinating book because I could never really get a handle on Blue's character or on how I felt about the book. I literally felt dazed and confused when trying to figure out how to sum it up. Yet would I recommend it?

Yes. Precisely because of how the confusion I felt.

Simply put, this recently reissued 1928 classic is about J. Blue, a contemporary St. Francis figure, who leaves the book's practical narrator as mixed up as I was. Blue gives everything away, wants only to serve Christ through serving the poor, and is an ultimate free spirit who despite all this fears only one thing ... taking up his cross.

As I vacillated between approving and disapproving of Blue I realized that this indeed is probably a similar reaction to that held by many of St. Francis' contemporaries. As our priest has reminded us many times, prophets are not there to make us comfortable. They are sent to shake us up, make us look from a new perspective, to make us uncomfortable because that is when God shows us ourselves. In that respect the author succeeds admirably. As with the book's narrator, we are not sure exactly what to think of Blue with his grandiose speeches and impractical nature. However, his impact on the people around him to show Christ through his actions is undeniable.

Myles Connolly went on after this book to work in Hollywood as a screenwriter, uncredited in some cases for such classic movies as It Happened One Night and Harvey. There are many nuggets of wisdom scattered throughout the book but considering Connolly's later screenwriting career, I found this to be especially interesting. It seems that he got to put into practice the philosophical attitude that Blue sets forth.

... "Once," he said, "the cathedral builders and the troubadours, interpreting truth, created a beauty that was as current as language and almost as essential as blood. Then came the printed word to spread confusion, to throw a twilight over the world in which men became little more than shadows, chasing shadows. But now we have a new art. luminous, vivid, simple, stirring, persuasive, direct, universal, illimitable - the animated picture. It can create a new people, gracious and graceful, kindly, religious, a people discovering in beauty the happiest revelation of God. No art has ever had the future the motion picture has. If it fails, no art shall have had as great and lamentable a failure."

I will be featuring a few choice excerpts from Mr. Blue over the next few days. Highly recommended. (Much thanks to the reader who tipped me off to Connolly's screenwriting career.)

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

Right on the Edge ...

... Nehring the Edge has his list of 30 movies that matter posted, with a fantastic intro of thought on Christians and movie watching that deserves to be read even if you don't care about his movie recommendations (but you should care).

He has them divided into Safe, Moderate and ... Are You Out of Your Head? Go see what you think and start taking notes for your next trip to rent movies.

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

Worshiping in Community: Keeping it Real

(On the Memorial of St. Ignatius, it seems good to feature something from a book dedicated to helping us learn Ignatian techniques.)

There is something in me that always protests, usually silently, whenever someone declares that they don't need to go to church, that they can worship God by themselves. For a very select group of people that is true, but most of us do not have the attributes that were granted to those of the Church Fathers who went to the desert alone. I, for one, really can't contemplate 16 years on top of a pillar. However, I digress. That is another matter.

The excerpt below points out the many reasons worshipping in a community is so important. I have only been a Christian for a relatively short time but have experienced examples of all the things mentioned below.

... Spirituality cannot be a solitary endeavor; it must be grounded in the life of a community, or else it becomes little more than an isolated and ineffective version of self-help. Spirituality that is grounded in community is like the house built on rock that Jesus described (Mt 7:24); it is less likely to be blown away by the winds of change that inevitably move through our lives. When our spirituality arises from our participation in community, several things happen. First, we are challenged to see our prayer as one part of the larger exercise of living the Christian life, for we must apply our prayer to the ordinary problems of living with other people. This prevents us from treating spirituality solely as a private exercise. We will be in a position to encourage others in tough times; in turn, they can help us to persevere in periods of spiritual dryness. Second, participation in community worship means we will be confronting ideas that make us uncomfortable, pushing us outside of the natural comfort zones we develop in our spiritual lives. This point, I think, is difficult but important. It's easy to fall into patterns that must change as we grow. Third, we will begin to see our own spiritual lives in some perspective by seeing the struggles and issues of people who are both younger and older than us. Seeing what younger people confront can make us cognizant of how much more we must still grow. Considering the spiritual journeys of people around us can help us to navigate the changes we, too, encounter...

The Ignatian Workout:
Daily Spiritual Exercises for a Healthy Faith

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

Saint Martha's Feast Day

It is no secret that Martha is my patron saint. I chose her because she is the patron saint of housewives but it soon became clear that it probably was God who chose to put us together. I relate to Martha in so many ways and her life stands as a measure of the person I work toward becoming ... a faithful servant who loves Jesus and is his good friend.

As they continued their journey he entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary (who) sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.

Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me."

The Lord said to her in reply, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her."

Luke 10:38-42

This is the story about Martha that springs to mind for most people and I think it is the first time (chronologically) that we hear her mentioned. We have all heard variations of the basic message about this passage of keeping your mind on Jesus no matter what else you may be doing.

However, I also like the confidence Martha shows when approaching Jesus with her complaint. What good friends they were for her to feel so comfortable coming to him like that. Jesus' affection is clear as he answers her much more gently than he often does his disciples. For me, it also is a lesson in the fact that there is nothing too small to go to Jesus about. He will always help us with anything, even if it is something like helping us have the right perspective.

Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill.

So the sisters sent word to him, saying, "Master, the one you love is ill."

When Jesus heard this he said, "This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it."

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus...

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home.

Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. (But) even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you."

Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise."

Martha said to him, "I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day."

Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

She said to him, "Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world."

When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, "The teacher is here and is asking for you."

John 11:1-5, 20-28

Again, a familiar story featuring Martha though more often it is told from the point of view of the miraculous raising of Lazarus from the dead. First of all, I wonder how Martha knew that Jesus had arrived when Mary didn't. What it makes me think of is someone who is attuned to all the little details even in the middle of her grief. Maybe there was a flutter of unusual activity that clued her in, so she went to find out.

When we look at Martha's conversation with Jesus, we see again how familiar and friendly she is with him. She doesn't hesitate to say that she is disappointed that he didn't save her brother. I love the confidence and trust that shows. Martha also shows her great faith and understanding in unmistakable terms: I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world. What an amazing moment that must have been between Jesus and Martha. And, yet, after such a moment, she also doesn't forget her sister, Mary, who is still at home mourning. Martha is both loving and practical to the bone.

We have an unmistakable example of that practicality when Jesus is getting ready to raise Lazarus from the dead and we are told: Martha, the dead man's sister, said to him, "Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days" (John 11:39). It makes me smile every time because Martha's unwavering, housewifely, detail-oriented common sense is used to emphasize the greatness of Jesus' miracle. The corpse is well into decay in that hot climate and yet he will still be brought back to life. How like God to use the mundane and practical moment to catch our attention and bring it to an even greater realization of His glory and love for us.

Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.

Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus 2 and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.

John 12:1-3

Through watching Martha's progression in the previous Scripture, this very simple mention speaks to the difference between the first time we saw her and now. Martha served. That is all that needs to be said. Nothing about needing help is brought up now. Mary serves Jesus in her way while Martha serves Jesus in hers. Together they complement each other as both have chosen the better part. A beautiful end to a beautiful journey of faith.

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

A Couple of Good Books

PROVEN GUILTY (The Dresden Files, Book 8)
by Jim Butcher
This is the most recent in the series about Harry Dresden, the magic wielding, wise cracking detective who is constantly in trouble up to his neck while having to save the world. This book finds Harry investigating a vague tip about black magic at a horror movies convention. Anyone who is a horror movie fan probably will get more out of the convention and monster scenes than I do as I am not really a fan. That said, I always enjoy the books in this series but this one was better than usual as it moved the series in new directions at the end. Also, although Harry usually describes himself as "theologically neutral" there is an unusual amount of Christian conversation (relatively speaking) since Michael's (the Templar Knight) family is present for a significant part of the book.

I frowned over a thought. "Padre. Tell me something. Why in the world would the Almighty send Michael off on a mission just when his family most needed him to protect them?"

Forthill arched an eyebrow. "My son," he said, "God knows all things at all times. By His very nature, his omniscience enables Him to know what has happened, is happening, and will happen. Thought we might not be able to see His reasons, or to agree with them from our perspectives, they are yet there."

"So what you're saying is that the Almighty knows best, and we just have to trust Him."

Forthill blinked. "Well. Yes."

"Is there any reason that the Almighty couldn't do something blatantly obvious?"

Poor Forthill. He'd been preparing himself for years for a theological duel with the shadowy wizard Dresden, and when the moment came, I wasn't even giving him a real fight. "Well. No. What do you mean?"

MASON-DIXON KNITTING: The Curious Knitters' Guide
by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne
I am not at all sure that these authors' names aren't pseudonyms for the Summa Mamas. The same down-home, hilarious, quirkiness runs throughout this book. The narrative is delightful and the patterns are simple enough that even the most inexperienced knitter (raising my hand) feels confident at substituting their own touches to make it their own. There is everything from washcloths to felted boxes to rugs. Just when I would look at a section and be prepared to skip it ... never having ever been a fan of the log cabin quilt pattern which they adapted for knitting for example ... I would flip a page and be entranced at how it had been tweaked into a modern and new look which made me want to knit it right then! This was a library book but has gone on my Amazon wish list because their ideas are inspired, varied, and flexible enough to last a long time. As I already said, the narrative is both homey and wacky ... but equally inspired. Below are a few selected items from their timeline of knitting history.

1595 B.C.
Woman waiting for Hittite husband to return from sacking of Babylon picks up string and two sticks, begins "Support Our Troops" scarf.

1595 BC (two minutes later)
Woman drops first stitch, utters first curse word related to knitting.

1896 A.D.
Siobahn Ogwnngyfleioghnn knits so poorly that she accidentally discovers the cable stitch.

1924 A.D.
Kleenex invented.

1924 A.D. (one hour later)
Mildred Farnwinkle of Dubuque, Iowa, completes first Kleenex box cozy.

Also, check out their blog.

As a side note, reading this book is when I realized that I do not have the common problem that most knitters do with a yarn "stash." However, I am finding myself collecting patterns like crazy, especially for socks as of late ... mine is a pattern "stash."

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

I Have Found Some New Patron Saints

Saint Typo
Patron Saint of Spell Checking and Google Searches

Courtesy of this saint-loving artist who saw a distinct lack of heavenly patrons for graphic designers, come The Patron Saints of Graphic Design. Do not miss these.

Via James Martin, who wrote that heavenly book, My Life with the Saints.

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

Comments Moderation Enabled

For the time being while I deal with a little troll problem. Note to self, put more chicken wire under that bridge!

In the meantime, should the troll slip through, please don't feed it. Thanks!

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

Puzzling

Scrutinies can't figure this out and really wants to know the answer. Y'all are good at these classically styled puzzles right? If you know the answer, help her out.

While you look for me and use your head to find my whereabouts, I am something. But as soon as you find me, I am nothing. Who am I?

Speaking of brain teasers, check out GOP Soccer Mom's puzzler.

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity

The Global Catholic Church

I had an interesting conversation during one of the retreat break times that began with a question about the lack of vocations in the U.S. and wound its way through many subjects about the American Church.

It made me remember this good overview of the global Catholic Church from John Allen.

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity