See Y'All on Tuesday!

I'm outta here until then. Have a great weekend everyone!

Pro-Life "Youth for Truth" Rally in Aurora, Illinois

Fox Valley Families Against Planned Parenthood is a grassroots coalition of citizens who oppose the Planned Parenthood facility set to open Sept. 18, 2007 at 3051 E. New York St. in Aurora, IL.

We believe that Planned Parenthood is bad for our community, with a long track record of undermining parents, leading young people into unhealthy sexual behavior, and above all taking the lives of unborn babies through abortion.

Thanks to Jane of Building the Ark for the heads up on this. She writes that "the great city of Aurora, Illinois (which is right next door to our town) is scheduled to open the LARGEST abortion facility in the US in just a few weeks with Planned Parenthood as its sponsor. ... I ask for prayers from everyone--even those of you who do not live local to the site. While it is a battle being fought locally, all who stand for life need to support one another in our quest for life. Please consider praying for this situation and for the truth to be seen by our city and our nation-to a culture that loves and respects life-at all ages and stages!"

For those who are close enough to do something more, the rally is tomorrow from 1-3. Join in if you can. Get the scoop here.

God Sends His Messages in Humble Vessels

One of the many lovely cemetery photos taken by Blogging in Paris.

From my friend Don comes this wonderful story.

Something happened this week that reminded me of you and one of your posts awhile ago. I had a business lunch date at a restaurant in Silver Spring, MD. I had gone to confession on my way to the restaurant, and I took a new way across the MD ‘burbs to the place. The drive was lovely—Sligo Creek Parkway. I had driven past it often, and I was always curious about just how much the parkway lived up to the name. As it turned out, it was beautiful. It follows the creek up into Montgomery County; the parklands were thickly forested w/ trails and picnic areas. Just beautiful. We were also enjoying temps in the 70s with no humidity. So the sun roof was open, and old Lyle Lovett was playing in the CD player. I arrived in a fine mood.

My lunch date was late, so I hung around outside. As I waited, a very scruffy older man shuffled up to me. He had bad teeth. His remaining hair was uncombed. He wore an old t-shirt and torn jeans. When he got close, I smiled, and he said, “Your light is shining.” I wasn’t expecting an exchange, and I was kind of distracted. I had no idea what he was talking about—my car’s headlights? I smiled again, and said “Excuse me?” He smiled and repeated, “Your light is shining.” I realized that he was talking about me. I thanked him profusely, and he grinned and wandered off. I was touched, and he efforts seriously brightened a day that was already wonderful. ...

I thought immediately of your posts regarding angels, especially the one about the homeless man on the median. A wonderful lesson: God sends his messages to us in humble vessels. You could go on forever from there.

On the related subject of angels, A. Alve left this comment yesterday on one of my angel posts. It was too good to leave buried there.

A few years ago, I took a one-week vacation in Geneve, Switzerland. I was flying from Lisbon with a stop in Italy. When I planned my return to Lisbon, I booked an early flight from Geneve to Rome and a late flight from Rome to Lisbon. My idea was to spend some hours in Rome to pray at Saint Josemaria's tomb, where I had been 15 years earlier. I had to arrive in Geneve's airport really early and therefore I had to leave the place where I was staying and catch a bus to the airport before sunrise, when it was still really dark. I was travelling alone and I was concerned about my safety. I had to be at the bus-stop, with all my luggage when it was still dark, and that prospect frightened me. The night before I prayed and asked for a safe journey to the airport.

When I arrived at the bus stop, I was relieved to see that there other people there as well, in particular a woman with a long blond hair who had a reassuring and peaceful smile. When my bus arrived, I was happy to see that she took it too. She left the bus before I did, and when she did it, she nodded at me, she smiled and I heard her saying "Bonne prière", which means "Good pray". How could she know what the purpose of my trip was? I had never seen her before, nor had talked to anyone about I was going to do in Rome. Up to now, I have the clear feeling that she was my guardian angel, to whom I had prayed asking for protection. This is one of the happiest memories I have and I wish I could go back in time and experience that moment again. Now I know the face of my guardian angel.

Needless to say that I arrived sound and safe in Rome, where I prayed as I had planned, and in Lisbon.

To make a trilogy of humble vessels, Penni tells the story of how a 3-year-old boy inspired her to make a "Bible flip" that gives her God's answer to her innermost thoughts.

How can this be? This is one of my favorite places to be. I sigh inwardly and make my way out, pushing on the heavy wooden door to go back into the light. Quiet, silent. Disappointing. But even as I leave, I thank God for being with me, even if I can't feel Him. I thank Him for the steadfastness in being with me, even though I can feel no indication He is paying attention.

"At least I hope so," I thought to myself and returned to the clinic for the balance of the afternoon.

For anyone who is interested, my series of posts about angels are here:

• Let's Talk Angels
• More Angel Talk
• Just One More Angel Story
  

Wo ai ni.

wo = I 我
ai = love 爱
ni = you 你

Hannah is taking Chinese this year. She wanted Japanese but it was full so, in my opinion, got much the better deal by settling for Chinese. Of course, I have a love of Chinese so you can't go by me. She called to try out the five phrases the teacher taught the class and it was quite a relief to find that my own college memories of the language plus what I'd refreshed/learned from ChinesePod worked!

Even though I know that Chinese never use "wo ai ni" that is how Hannah signs off on her phone calls to us. We'll call it Hanna-ese!

The Eucharist and the Church

In my continuing efforts to keep up (which I am failing dismally) in sharing our bulletin inserts about Sacramentum Caritatis, here is #12.

The Eucharist, causal principle (A) of the Church

14. Through the sacrament of the Eucharist Jesus draws the faithful into his “hour;” (B) he shows us the bond that he willed to establish between himself and us, between his own person and the Church. Indeed, in the sacrifice of the Cross, Christ gave birth to the Church as his Bride and his body. The Fathers of the Church often meditated on the relationship between Eve’s coming forth from the side of Adam as he slept (cf. Gen 2:21-23) and the coming forth of the new Eve, the Church, from the open side of Christ sleeping in death (C): from Christ’s pierced side, John recounts, there came forth blood and water (cf. Jn 19:34), the symbol of the sacraments (30). A contemplative gaze “upon him whom they have pierced” (Jn 19:37) leads us to reflect on the causal connection between Christ’s sacrifice, the Eucharist and the Church. The Church “draws her life from the Eucharist” (31). Since the Eucharist makes present Christ’s redeeming sacrifice, we must start by acknowledging that “there is a causal influence of the Eucharist at the Church’s very origins” (32). The Eucharist is Christ who gives himself to us and continually builds us up as his body. Hence, in the striking interplay between the Eucharist which builds up the Church, and the Church herself which “makes” the Eucharist (33), the primary causality (D) is expressed in the first formula: the Church is able to celebrate and adore the mystery of Christ present in the Eucharist precisely because Christ first gave himself to her in the sacrifice of the Cross. The Church’s ability to “make” the Eucharist is completely rooted in Christ’s self-gift to her. Here we can see more clearly the meaning of Saint John’s words: “he first loved us” (1 Jn 4:19). We too, at every celebration of the Eucharist, confess the primacy of Christ’s gift. The causal influence of the Eucharist at the Church’s origins definitively discloses both the chronological and ontologicalE priority of the fact that it was Christ who loved us “first.” For all eternity he remains the one who loves us first.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The concept that Christ gave birth to the Church in his sacrifice on the Cross is one that the Church Fathers knew well but it is not contemplated much these days. Likewise, the idea of the Church as “the new Eve” is one that is not found frequently, if at all. Quite often these are new and surprising to modern Catholics.

Pope Benedict expands upon these ideas to consider the centrality of the Eucharist in the Church’s existence, especially as rooted in Christ’s self-giving sacrifice for our sakes. The interplay between the Eucharist, the Church, and Christ can be confusing but actually is simply enough presented here. Read over the paragraph slowly and contemplate the life-giving cycle that was established by Christ, all because he loved us first.

Footnotes

(30) Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 3; for an example, see: Saint John Chrysostom, Catechesis 3, 13-19: SC 50, 174-177.
(31) John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia (17 April 2003), 1: AAS 95 (2003), 433.
(32) Ibid., 21: AAS 95 (2003), 447.
(33) Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis (4 March 1979), 20: AAS 71 (1979), 309-316; Apostolic Letter Dominicae Cenae (24 February 1980), 4: AAS 72 (1980), 119-121.

Explanatory Notes

A - Causal principle: the reason and means by which a thing or reality comes into existance.
B - His “hour”: Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension; His victory over sin and death.
C - Jesus “sleeping” in death: We read texts sometimes very simply — a series of words with meanings: assemble the words, assemble the meanings. The ancients, as well as students of literature and theologians read not only words but the images and symbols of the text. Such reading produces deeper understanding. In the Old Testament story of Adam and Eve, we see a symbol/type foreshadowing Jesus, the reality/archetype. The Old Testament story gives us insight into the new.
D - Primary causality: principle cause.
E - Ontological: ontology is the study of what a thing is and how and why it exists.

This one of a weekly series of excerpts from Pope Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis. You are encouraged to read the entire document. The Vatican link to that document as well as to Pope Benedict’s first encyclical can be found on the website, www.stthomasaquinas.org.

Around the House

The Bourne Supremacy
A couple of weeks ago we got around to watching The Bourne Identity, spurred by Rose's having gone to see The Bourne Ultimatum without having seen any other of the trilogy. It was really good and almost made me like Matt Damon. Last night we followed it up with The Bourne Supremacy and I came out of it truly having enjoyed both the movie and Damon's acting. The fact that he is an average looking guy really works in this tale of ... well, if you haven't seen either of the other movies as we hadn't I don't want to spoil it for you. But this is a great follow up and a thinking man's action movie.

Lean, Mean Thirteen
Janet Evanovich's fluff was mindless but hilarious fun for the first few of the series. Actually for about the first eleven of the series. Unlike some I don't mind fluff ... it can be just the ticket for those over-busy days when you just want to relax. However, I finally have tired of the same old thing over and over. I wanted Stephanie to choose between Ranger and Morelli and move things on to something new. However, Evanovich is no dummy. Why do any thinking when the same old thing is raking in the dough? (Except for one's own pride in workmanship, but let's not go there, shall we?) Twelve was ok and Thirteen, which someone is anxiously waiting for me to return to the library, was tired ... very, very tired. Thank goodness Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series has been taking on a few twists and turns toward a new trend ... I still have a new installment of those to look forward to every spring.

Rose's Good Friends
Rose was sidelined due to extreme knee pain, caused by a herniated disk (You know when they say you should choose your ancestors well? She's pretty young but the combo of yoga and kung fu brought her to an early realization of back problems.) At any rate, as she was languishing on the couch last night, at 9:30 we had a ring on the doorbell. Voila, two of her good friends were there with a care package they'd put together at Target ... a hat (Rose's trademark, I might add), a couple of movies, some snacks, and ... best of all ... themselves! They stayed and watched the movies, ate some of the cookies I'd made for a pool party on Saturday (how wise of me to choose a recipe that makes a ton of cookies), and just generally had a wonderful time. Not to mention that Rose was left very happy that her friends had brought the party to her.

Pool Party
This afternoon is a pool party for the Beyond Cana couples' families that attended the last retreat ... and of course for us, the Core Team that presents the whole retreat. (In the winter, we throw a cocktail party for adults.) Because all work and no play makes us very, very dull, don't cha know? Our generous host couple is providing the pool and having someone come to be a lifeguard. There are supposed to be 39 kids in this gang (did I mention we're all Catholic? ha!) and they want a dedicated pair of eyes on the water which I think is very wise. My contribution is a batch of Supremes. I see that I haven't put a recipe up for these and can't believe I haven't yet as they are a really delicious bar cookie with a middle layer of chocolate that makes 64 in a batch and is always a hit. Sometime in the next few days I'll get that recipe up.

A Fascinating Look at a Fascinating Book

Most religious readers will reject that explanation [Christopher Hitchens saying that Mother Teresa discovered there is no God], along with any that makes her the author of her own misery — or even defines it as true misery. Martin, responding to the torch-song image of Teresa, counterproposes her as the heroically constant spouse. "Let's say you're married and you fall in love and you believe with all your heart that marriage is a sacrament. And your wife, God forbid, gets a stroke and she's comatose. And you will never experience her love again. It's like loving and caring for a person for 50 years and once in a while you complain to your spiritual director, but you know on the deepest level that she loves you even though she's silent and that what you're doing makes sense. Mother Teresa knew that what she was doing made sense."

Integration

I can't express in words — the gratitude I owe you for your kindness to me — for the first time in ... years — I have come to love the darkness — for I believe now that it is part of a very, very small part of Jesus' darkness & pain on earth. You have taught me to accept it [as] a 'spiritual side of your work' as you wrote — Today really I felt a deep joy — that Jesus can't go anymore through the agony — but that He wants to go through it in me.
— to Neuner, Circa 1961

There are two responses to trauma: to hold onto it in all its vividness and remain its captive, or without necessarily "conquering" it, to gradually integrate it into the day-by-day. After more than a decade of open-wound agony, Teresa seems to have begun regaining her spiritual equilibrium with the help of a particularly perceptive adviser. The Rev. Joseph Neuner, whom she met in the late 1950s and confided in somewhat later, was already a well-known theologian, and when she turned to him with her "darkness," he seems to have told her the three things she needed to hear: that there was no human remedy for it (that is, she should not feel responsible for affecting it); that feeling Jesus is not the only proof of his being there, and her very craving for God was a "sure sign" of his "hidden presence" in her life; and that the absence was in fact part of the "spiritual side" of her work for Jesus.

This counsel clearly granted Teresa a tremendous sense of release. For all that she had expected and even craved to share in Christ's Passion, she had not anticipated that she might recapitulate the particular moment on the Cross when he asks, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" The idea that rather than a nihilistic vacuum, his felt absence might be the ordeal she had prayed for, that her perseverance in its face might echo his faith unto death on the Cross, that it might indeed be a grace, enhancing the efficacy of her calling, made sense of her pain. Neuner would later write, "It was the redeeming experience of her life when she realized that the night of her heart was the special share she had in Jesus' passion." And she thanked Neuner profusely: "I can't express in words — the gratitude I owe you for your kindness to me — for the first time in ... years — I have come to love the darkness. "

Time magazine looks at Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (to be released Sept. 18) which consists primarily of letters between Teresa and her confessors and superiors over a period of 66 years. The letters reveal that she lived a "dark night of the soul" (an absence of any feeling of God being near) for most of her ministry in Calcutta.

A long article but very interesting indeed. It seems to me to echo many elements that I found in Teresa of Avila's writings about such an occurrence. I'm looking forward to reading this book.

Thank You, Yes, I Will Be Seeing This Movie

Queen Elizabeth I: Tell Philip I fear neither him nor his armies.
Spanish Minister: There is a wind coming that will sweep away your pride.
Queen Elizabeth I: I too can command the wind, sir! And I have a hurricane in me that will strip Spain bare!

Check out the trailer.
(Ladies, keep an eye out for Clive Owen. He's never looked better.)

An Amazing Conversion Story

Ok, all conversion stories are amazing merely by the virtue of their being ... conversion stories!

However, this one has Jesus in the Eucharist in such clear terms that you will be blown away. Here's a bit to whet your appetites and then you can go read it all at Historical Christian.

About this time the lady told me that "Jesus is very near" and so I was watching the alter very closely. She then put her arm around me and pointed to the alter and whispered "Jesus is here do you see Him"... Looking at the alter at first I saw no one except the priest but then a sudden awareness took hold and I knew that the Host held high in the priests hands was Jesus and with that realization I also became aware of His great love for me.

And then, with that realization, there came a wave much like a heat wave or a water wave but transparent up from the alter and over near the ceiling and I knew it was going to come crashing down on me. I was afraid so I ducked back into the pew to try and avoid it. But as I fled I felt a wave of love, that I now know was the Holy Spirit, pass over and thru me and I felt this Love completely envelope me.

The Holy Spirit and the Eucharist-2

Bulletin insert #11 from our parish's series of excerpts about Sacramentum Caritatis.

The Holy Spirit and the eucharistic celebration

13. Against this backdrop we can understand the decisive role played by the Holy Spirit in the eucharistic celebration, particularly with regard to transubstantiation. An awareness of this is clearly evident in the Fathers of the Church. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, in his Catecheses, states that we “call upon God in his mercy to send his Holy Spirit upon the offerings before us, to transform the bread into the body of Christ and the wine into the blood of Christ. Whatever the Holy Spirit touches is sanctified and completely transformed” (25). Saint John Chrysostom too notes that the priest invokes the Holy Spirit when he celebrates the sacrifice: (26) like Elijah, the minister calls down the Holy Spirit so that “as grace comes down upon the victim, the souls of all are thereby inflamed” (27). The spiritual life of the faithful can benefit greatly from a better appreciation of the richness of the anaphora*: along with the words spoken by Christ at the Last Supper, it contains the epiclesis**, the petition to the Father to send down the gift of the Spirit so that the bread and the wine will become the body and blood of Jesus Christ and that “the community as a whole will become ever more the body of Christ” (28). The Spirit invoked by the celebrant upon the gifts of bread and wine placed on the altar is the same Spirit who gathers the faithful “into one body” and makes of them a spiritual offering pleasing to the Father (29).

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With our understanding of the way the Holy Spirit has been moving in and through the world since Creation, it naturally follows that He would also be the chosen instrument for the creative act of the transformation of bread and wine into the Eucharist, the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ.

While Pope Benedict here traces the Holy Spirit’s involvement in this transformation, the Holy Spirit’s action does not stop here, although one would think that transubstantiation of bread and wine into the living Christ would be more than enough. Even more interesting and involving for us is the fact that, as St. John Chrysostom says, “as grace comes down upon the victim, the souls of all are thereby inflamed.” The Holy Spirit’s power comes upon us, transforms us in ways that are not visible to the eye but are substantial changes to our souls, and sends us forth into the world again to do the Father’s will. A careful reading of the Eucharistic prayers will find a kind of double epiclesis, the transformation not only of the bread and wine, but the transformation of ourselves into the Church, the body of Christ.

We can prepare ourselves for these changes, in part, by being open to doing the Father’s will and by recognizing the power of the Holy Spirit to make us into His gift to the world.

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(25) Cat. XXIII, 7: PG 33, 1114ff.
(26) Cf. De Sacerdotio, VI, 4: PG 48, 681.
(27) Ibid., III, 4: PG 48, 642.
(28) Propositio 22.
(29) Cf. Propositio 42: “This eucharistic encounter takes place in the Holy Spirit, who transforms and sanctifies us. He re- awakens in the disciple the firm desire to proclaim boldly to others all that he has heard and experienced, to bring them to the same encounter with Christ. Thus the disciple, sent forth by the Church, becomes open to a mission without frontiers.”
* Anaphora: (Greek, ànaphorá), offering, sacrifice, a word used commonly for the Eucharistic prayer.
** Epiclesis: The name of a prayer that occurs after the words of Institution, in which the celebrant prays that God may send down His Holy Spirit to change this bread and wine into the Body and Blood of His Son.
This is one of a weekly series of excerpts from Pope Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis. You are encouraged to read the entire document. The Vatican link to that document as well as to Pope Benedict’s first encyclical can be found on the website, www.stthomasaquinas.org.

An Early Happy Birthday to Hannah

Hannah's birthday is tomorrow but she'll be spending the entire day in a retreat so I'm putting up this post of the things she loves best ... nope, not cake ... simply lots and lots o' critters.

Happy birthday and we miss you, Hannah!

Cat Closeup

Goose

Colt

Mallard in Flight

Bunny

Friends

Pelican

Dinner Guest

Crystal River Heron

Hawk Landing

Pink Dolphin

Geese

That Was Unexpected

Your Score: Phoenician

You scored

You are the Phoenician Alphabet! Teacher of the Greeks and Etruscans, you are the one all languages bow down to. That is, until the Romans decide to wipe out your civilization. That's the way the cookie crumbles.

Link: The Which Ancient Language Are You Test written by imipak .

Via Linear B (a.k.a. Books, Words, and Writing).

Weekend? What Weekend?

It was one of those weekends which had every minute packed full of activity.

On Friday, Hannah and her friend Jenny (whose birthdays are only one day apart) threw themselves a party. That decision was made on Wednesday afternoon so I was busy during Friday afternoon grocery shopping, making the cake, and cooking Mexican food (very basic stuff, believe me).

Saturday was our family celebration of Hannah's birthday (which is Wednesday) which necessitated other sorts of shopping. Luckily she didn't really want anything that required me braving the tax-free school shopping crowds that day. As well, we were doing last minute preparations for her to return to school on Sunday (hence the early birthday celebration). We went out to Tong's House for Hannah's favorite duck and then had gala gift opening topped off by a viewing of Hot Fuzz (one of her gifts).

Sunday Tom and I drove Hannah back to A&M at College Station where we were relieved to see that her dorm was a lot better than last year. (This year she's in FHK. Last year she was in Hart. Just for anyone who knows the campus and cares.) She's rooming with a friend and is near a lot of her other friends. All in all, so much better than when we left that new freshman last year who had the abandoned look on her face as we walked away.

Not that I'm not feeling a bit melancholy this morning now that she's gone again ... but this too shall pass.

The Holy Spirit and the Eucharist-1

Continuing my occasional attempts to share our parish's bulletin inserts. This series focuses on excerpts from Sacramentum Caritatis. I believe this is the 10th insert.

Jesus and the Holy Spirit

12. With his word and with the elements of bread and wine, the Lord himself has given us the essentials of this new worship. The Church, his Bride, is called to celebrate the eucharistic banquet daily in his memory. She thus makes the redeeming sacrifice of her Bridegroom a part of human history and makes it sacramentally present in every culture. This great mystery is celebrated in the liturgical forms which the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, develops in time and space. (23) We need a renewed awareness of the decisive role played by the Holy Spirit in the evolution of the liturgical form and the deepening understanding of the sacred mysteries. The Paraclete, Christ’s first gift to those who believe, (24) already at work in Creation (cf. Gen 1:2), is fully present throughout the life of the incarnate Word: Jesus Christ is conceived by the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. Mt 1:18; Lk 1:35); at the beginning of his public mission, on the banks of the Jordan, he sees the Spirit descend upon him in the form of a dove (cf. Mt 3:16 and parallels); he acts, speaks and rejoices in the Spirit (cf. Lk 10:21), and he can offer himself in the Spirit (cf. Heb 9:14). In the so-called “farewell discourse” reported by John, Jesus clearly relates the gift of his life in the paschal mystery to the gift of the Spirit to his own (cf. Jn 16:7). Once risen, bearing in his flesh the signs of the passion, he can pour out the Spirit upon them (cf. Jn 20:22), making them sharers in his own mission (cf. Jn 20:21). The Spirit would then teach the disciples all things and bring to their remembrance all that Christ had said (cf. Jn 14:26), since it falls to him, as the Spirit of truth (cf. Jn 15:26), to guide the disciples into all truth (cf. Jn 16:13). In the account in Acts, the Spirit descends on the Apostles gathered in prayer with Mary on the day of Pentecost (cf. 2:1-4) and stirs them to undertake the mission of proclaiming the Good News to all peoples. Thus it is through the working of the Spirit that Christ himself continues to be present and active in his Church, starting with her vital centre which is the Eucharist.

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Quite often people will say that relating to the Holy Spirit is one of the the most difficult aspects of growing in our relationship with God. Perhaps that is because He is dificult to personify. We can’t get a good “picture” of Him in our minds. However, as Pope Benedict reminds us, the Holy Spirit is there from the beginning of time flowing through history, through Jesus’ life, through the life of the Church, and even now through our own lives as believers.

Take the time to look through the scriptural references which the Holy Father has given us above and see the Spirit moving through history, affecting lives and moving God’s works into space and time.

Perhaps we might find it fruitful to contemplate this simple prayer in which the Church has given us essential the truth about the Holy Spirit, indeed about God the three persons in one:

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit:
As it was in the beginning, is now,
and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen.

With our participation in the Eucharist and the effort to do God’s will, we too allow the Holy Spirit to be active in the world, which is a world without end.

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(23) Cf. Propositio 3.
(24) Cf. Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer IV.

This is one of a weekly series of excerpts from Pope Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis. You are encouraged to read the entire document. The Vatican link to that document as well as to Pope Benedict’s first encyclical can be found on the website, www.stthomasaquinas.org.

Medieval crucifix found in Austrian rubbish skip

It was found in 2004 in the lakeside winter resort of Zell am See by a woman combing through a skip filled with the discarded possessions of a neighbor who had just died.

Isn't the photo gorgeous? Get the whole story here. Thanks to Kacie for passing on this interesting tidbit.

And a Good Time Was Had By All

What a great time we had last night. Long-time Happy Catholic reader and dedicated knitter, Terri, was in Dallas and we rendezvoused at Passion Knit (great name, eh?). We spent an hour and a half perusing their wares while talking our heads off (natch!). How is it that you can meet someone and feel within ten minutes that you are talking to an old college buddy or some such long lost friend? At any rate, that's the feeling I had with Terri.

I was lured into buying my first hand-dyed yarn (that means expensive for those who don't know) for a shawl for Tom's mother, which I was assured by my Passion Knit pal would knit up "in a weekend" into an easy, yet elegant shawl. To be fair, she doesn't know what my weekends are like but I am going to be driving with Tom to take Hannah back to A&M on Sunday. That there's prime knitting time, y'all! So maybe I will have a shawl at the end of the weekend ...

We then proceeded to Mariano's for some brisket tacos and margaritas (yes we do know how to have a good time, thank you). And back to our house to show our knitting projects to each other. Although Terri's projects eclipse mine in expertise (and also quantity), I must say that I was proud to be able to introduce her to a very affordable, machine washable yarn (that means cheap for those who don't know), suitable for afghans, etc.

Of course, we never quit talking the entire time.

It was a glorious evening. Thanks Terri!

Reeves and the Motu Proprio That Binds

"Dash it all, Sr. Agatha, I won't --"

"Do be quiet, Willie. I did not travel all this way to listen to your blathering."

"But you can't expect me to --"

"What I expect, Willie, is that you will find a place in your diocese for young Father Thomas here."

I eyed the specimen, who sat perched on the edge of an armchair staring at the wall clock in rapt fascination. I would have said he had unhinged his jaw, the better to concentrate, but he lacked a visible jaw. The overall effect so strongly suggested a daydreaming fish that it was all I could do to refrain from offering him an ant egg.

"He wants some rounding, as I say, and the opportunities do not exist in our diocese. Something musical, perhaps, or the rector of a shrine. You do have shrines here?"

"Oh, rather," I said, my parochial pride a bit stung. "Some jolly fine ones, too. It's just that we're full up with rectors at the mo."

"Well, I'm sure you'll find something suitable." Sr. Agatha rose. "I shall check back in a week. Goodbye, Father Thomas."

"Hm? Ah." Father Thomas unmoored his gaze from the clock and smiled at the room at large.

"I am quite certain you will not disappoint me, Willie. Not this time," Sr. Agatha added, with a look that could make a cardinal deacon feel the sleeves of his rochet were too tight.

Then she left the room, if "left" is the mot juste for someone who moves with the self-possession of a Romanesque abbey.

P.G. Wodehouse fans will recognize the style and the players in this story by the inimitable Disputations. This is classic and hilarious. So far we have Parts I, II, and III. Go, enjoy ...

The Lord's Prayer: "Hallowed Be Thy Name" (part 2)

Continuing the contemplation from Monday of God's name.

It remains true, of course, that God did not simply refuse Moses' request. If we want to understand this curious interplay between name and non-name, we have to be clear about what a name actually is. We could put it very simply by saying that the name creates the possibility of address or invocation. It establishes relationship. When Adam names the animals, what this means is not that he indicates their essential natures, but that he fits them into his human world, put them within reach of his call. Having said this, we are now in a position to understand the positive meaning of the divine name: God establishes a relationship between himself and us. He puts himself within reach of our invocation. He enters into relationship with us and enables us to be in relationship with him. Yet this means that in some sense he hands himself over to our human world. He has made himself accessible and, therefore, vulnerable as well. He assumes the risk of relationship, of communion, with us.

Jesus of Nazareth by Joseph Ratzinger (a.k.a. Pope Benedict XVI)

The Dignity of Women

With this in mind, we bring our readers to the joyful announcement that the Vatican will honor the twentieth anniversary of Mulieris Dignitatem in 2008. The lay faithful everywhere are invited to study the document, meditate on it, create initiatives, and to give thanks for the beauty of God's plan for women revealed therein. Women in North America in particular are asked to consider it in light of one overarching theme: The dignity of woman in a technological and consumeristic society.

Genevieve Kienke, who blogs at feminine-genius, has a wonderful article explaining the creation of a new website, The Dignity of Women. This looks like a wonderful resource and a way to gain insight into a papal document of which I was unaware. C'mon, dig in!

The Lord's Prayer: "Father"

Whoops! I skipped right around this in posting that first part on prayer the other day. I liked these thoughts on the concepts of being children of God.

... There is is a unique sense in which Christ is the "image of God" (2 Cor 4:4; Col 1:15). The Fathers of the Church therefore say that when God created man "in his image," he looked toward the Christ who was to come, and created man according to the image of the "new Adam," the man who is the criterion of the human. Above all, though Jesus is "the Son" in the strict sense -- he is of one substance with the Father. He wants to draw all of us into his humanity and so into his Sonship, into his total belonging to God.

This gives the concept of being God's children a dynamic quality: We are not ready-made children of God from the start, but are meant to become so increasingly by growing more and more deeply in communion with Jesus. Our sonship turns out to be identical with following Christ. To name God as Father thus becomes a summons to us: to live as a "child," as a son or daughter. "All that is mine is yours (??? check this word)," Jesus says in his high-priestly prayer to the Father (Jn 17:10), and the father says the same thing to the elder brother of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15:31). The word father is an invitation to live from our awareness of this reality. Hence, too, the delusion of false emancipation, which marked the beginning of mankind's history of sin, is overcome. Adam, heeding the words of the serpent, wants to become god himself and to shed his need for God. We see that to be God's child is not a matter of dependency, but rather of standing in the relation of love that sustains man's existence and gives it meaning and grandeur.

Jesus of Nazareth by Joseph Ratzinger (a.k.a. Pope Benedict XVI)