I Love Pope Benedict... Because of words like these, addressed to the Canadian Bishops yesterday in Rome: In our increasingly secularized societies, which you yourselves have experienced, the love that flows from God's heart toward humanity can be unperceived or even rejected. On imagining that removing himself from this relationship constitutes, one way or another, a solution for his liberation, man becomes in fact a stranger to himself, because "in reality, the truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light" ("Gaudium et Spes," No. 22). By their lack of interest in the love that reveals the fullness of the truth of man, numerous men and women continue to estrange themselves from God's dwelling to live in the desert of individual isolation, social brokenness and the loss of cultural identity. [Translation of French original by ZENIT] 3. Within this perspective, one sees that the fundamental task of the evangelization of culture is the challenge to make God visible in the human face of Jesus. In helping individuals to recognize and experience the love of Christ, you will awaken in them the desire to dwell in the house of the Lord, embracing the life of the Church. This is our mission. It expresses our ecclesial nature and ensures that every initiative of evangelization concurrently strengthens Christian identity. In this regard, we must acknowledge that any reduction of the core message of Jesus, that is, the "kingdom of God," to indefinite talk of "kingdom values" weakens Christian identity and debilitates the Church's contribution to the regeneration of society. When believing is replaced by "doing" and witness by talk of "issues," there is an urgent need to recapture the profound joy and awe of the first disciples whose hearts, in the Lord's presence, "burned within them" impelling them to "tell their story" (cf. Luke 24:32,35).

Guess Who? "I'm sure you'd agree that it's one of the most spiritually powerful works of the twentieth century, and I think one has to be a Catholic to really appreciate it. It's a living hymn to mercy, humility and the power of Divine Providence. It isn't a fantasy epic but an epic of virtue." - Carmelite Sister, Northeastern USA Hmm.... curious? In 1997, voters in a BBC poll named it the greatest book of the 20th century. The academics and the literati were furious. Another poll was taken, and then another. They all pointed to the same book. In 1999, Amazon.com customers chose it to be the greatest book of the millennium. PS - a millennium equals 1000 years. It's "The Lord of the Rings." How astounding! How ridiculous! Isn't that the book about hobbits, wizards, elves and dwarves written by an obscure English professor in the days before MTV? What has that got to do with us? Have we lost our minds? I would wager that the millions who've read the book have found their souls. In some powerful and perhaps subconscious way, a great void in the human heart, scraped clean by the reductionism of the modern world view, has been filled again with wonder, mystery and true romance. I am huge lover of the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. HUGE! Now I could have said I am a huge Lord of the Rings fan. But today, I think that makes people default to Peter Jackson's film trilogy. The movies were very good, don't get me wrong, especially the first one. But the book is better. Isn't the book always better? Isn't it always more memorable when the light of an author's words filters through the prism of your mind first? The first time I read the Silmarillion, which recounts Tolkien's creation myth, I thought I had found GOLD. It was like finally naming a melody I had been hearing all my life, just on the tip of my tongue, glimmering on the horizon, sweet and unreachable. Now it was in my hands and had a name: Ainulindalë I love Tolkien because his stories are sacramental. They have the fragrance of eternity in them. They teach us the ancient lessons we once knew and have forgotten. Now, it's almost September 22, and you know what that means! It's time to start reading the Lord of the Rings... again!! If you know why this date is key, then you're on the trip (wanna post a guess?) Visit http://missionmoment.blogspot.com I hope to share with you some of these lessons as I journey through Middle Earth again. So if you have a copy, consider taking the journey... and your thoughts and posts are always welcome at the Prancing Pony, a.k.a. http://missionmoment.blogspot.com

Humbly Receive

Humbly Receive

This Sunday's second reading was such an intimate one. So much of the imagery from the first chapter of James is spousal imagery. It awakens in our hearts that longing for communion, for union with Another.

"Dearest brothers and sisters: All good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change. He willed to give us birth by the word of truth that we may be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls."
- James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27

Amazing! The God Who made the world descends, stoops low, pours out, gives Himself, sows the seed of His Love deep in the soil of our hearts. The Greek word for this is kenosis, to empty oneself. What a miracle of Love that the God of the universe would do this! And yet when we search our hearts we discover that this is the very definition of Love. We have a glimmer of this word kenosis, it exists in our own families. It is not something distant from us, we echo it in our own relationships; we pour out our time and affection, we stoop down in service, and for those often times whom we may never meet, we give and we suffer.

The grace and the power we have to do this, even if we know it not, flows from God. He is the true source of all our loves. He is the One in Whose light all earthly love finds its true meaning and direction.

Humbly welcome this Word, the letter of St. James says. There in the dark interior of our souls, the seed breaks and germinates. New life, so often unseen, begins to grow. What an intimate bond God has formed with us. He doesn't want to remain so removed from us that we don't know His Name, or recognize His Presence. He plants Himself right here in our hearts and souls... Through the Eucharist He comes into our very bodies! What a harvest we can reap if we are attentive to grace, if we humbly welcome, if we water the seed through stillness and prayer, reading and good works. What abundant fruit will grow and what a gift we can give back to Him!

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Just Plain Sad (This one is a little edgy. You may need to adjust the volume.) We attended Mass this past Sunday at a packed church in NJ, and just three or four pews ahead of us sat a distraction of biblical proportions. Now most of the time, I actually close my eyes during the Mass. It's just me. I guess it helps me focus on the readings, that rich prelude of God-breathed human words that tick off in our missalettes until the Massive Explosion of Divine Love comes in the words of the Consecration; the Eucharist! "BEHOLD THE LAMB! Look up!" But when we settled into our pew and I saw this, I couldn't get it out of my mind. There was a man in front of us, with his spouse and two small children. He wore a t-shirt, and on the back of it, in massive bold letters were the words "Will Sell Wife For Beer." Now.... there are tacky t-shirts out there. They grow exponentially tackier as the environment around us increases in the number of persons (like one more than the person wearing it). But this was beyond tacky. This was just sad. Its message was the antithesis of everything surrounding it; the church, the scripture readings, the Sacrifice of Christ for His Bride the Church in the Eucharist, and how about his wife and family? I can't think of a more inappropriate message, and to broadcast it on your back in big bold letters? Was it funny? I thought it was pathetic. "Awww, come on! It's just a t-shirt. He doesn't mean it. At least he's in church." Oh there it is - the dreaded "At Least" - the bare minimum of belief that is crippling the Church. No doubt, I'm glad he was there, standing beside his wife and children. What a powerful message to send his young son... that a man is one who prays, who sings, who receives His Lord and King at the Altar like a knight preparing for his daily battles. But what a confusing counter-message on his back: "Will Sell Wife for Beer" ... What do his children think when they read it? Now some may say I'm being really judgemental right now. I should just pay attention to the altar and ignore the flock surrounding it. But sometimes it's absolutely necessary to make judgements. It's not a sin to decide when one thing is wrong and one is right; to discern prayerfully that this thing is a good and this t-shirt should be used to polish furniture. Now I'll be the first to say I've got a loooooong way to go in conforming my life to Christ. But I know I must conform my life to Christ. I know it means a life of harmony between my interior and exterior lives, so each should mirror the other. Not that I need to have JESUS SAVES in bold letters on all of my shirts, but He must be the seamless garment beneath everything I wear. Standing there in church, I thought about my wife. I prayed that I would sooner sell myself into slavery than have her come to harm. That's what it's about, that's my daily prayer: that I learn to lay down my life for her, every day. I think this is the great challenge facing men today. The challenge of putting ourselves at the service of our spouses. "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her," says St. Paul in Ephesians 5. And how did Christ give Himself up for His Bride? He died for Her, He took the bullet for Her. He opened wide His arms on the Cross and died for Love. Let's get that on a t-shirt.

The Adventure Begins... It's September, the day after Labor Day, and you know what that means. It means it's time to leave for work at least half an hour earlier than you lazily did all summer. Why? Because... THEY'RE BAAAAAACK!! Today, moms and dads across the land had to resort to all manner of tactics to resurrect their offspring at ungodly hours and herd them into large brightly colored rectangular machines. It's a Herculean effort, and some I'm sure grasped at the only incentives they could see to quiet the storm: "It's only 179 days 'til summer." or "Think about snow days." Today I had to iron again. I had to pick out a "tie" to wear. Today dozens of adolescents will pour into my sleepy-peaceful-quiet-all-summer-classroom. Today I will say again words like "homework" "test" and "due this Friday." Today I become, once again, "Mr. Donaghy" (pronunciations may vary). I do love teaching. In the hearts of the young there is such a longing for communion, for fellowship, for the knowledge that "I am not alone." There is a longing for Truth and for Beauty and for Goodness. My goal is to lead them into this trinity, to point toward that horizon where God is and where they can find their true name. That's the meaning of an education. The Latin means to "lead out." Now the obstacles are clear; there is the temptation to settle for the bare minimum, a shortcut on the path. There is the weight of peer pressure, dragging us down into the trench beside the road. There is the biting sarcasm that can shut down a sincere quest for Truth, like biting mosquitos can ruin a good hike. But all we need to do as teachers is use these realities and flip them on their heads. Show them their maximum capacity for God, create a peer pressure towards the Good, and use their witty sarcasm in a way that can lead to unity. It can be done! (I'll keep you updated on that one) So, let's pray for the young (and the old who teach them). Let's pray for safety. Let's pray for a renewed understanding that this journey of education is a gift and a responsibility; it's the field of the world where we're called to play and dig and question and run and sing. Ring that bell! School's in! When's lunch?

NJ - It's Not as Bad as It Sounds

We're in NJ on a rainy Labor Day weekend. This is my home state, and I have to say I had a blast growing up in this land of pine trees and blueberries; Browns Mills, NJ!

Now New Jersey, as we all know, gets a bad rap in the movies and is often stereotyped in jokes. We don't mind the sarcasm; it just makes us stronger! Little does the world know that we have much to be proud of! Including hundreds of strip malls and Taco Bells! So here are some facts about the Garden State that (might?) amaze you!

- New Jersey is a peninsula.

- Highlands, New Jersey has the highest elevation along the entire eastern seaboard, from Maine to Florida.

- New Jersey has more race horses than Kentucky.

- New Jersey has more Cubans in Union City (1 sq. mi.) than Havana, Cuba.

- New Jersey has the most diners in the world and is sometimes referred to as the Diner Capital of the World.

- North Jersey has the most shopping malls in one area in the world, with seven major shopping malls in a 25 square mile radius.

- New Jersey is home to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (yes, it is)

- Two-thirds of the world's eggplants are grown in New Jersey.

- Jersey tomatoes are known the world over as being the best you can buy.

- New Jersey is the world leader in blueberry and cranberry production.

- Here's to New Jersey-the toast of the country! In 1642, the first brewery in America opened in Hoboken.

- New Jersey rocks! The famous Les Paul invented the first solid body electric guitar in Mahwah in 1940.

- The light bulb, phonograph (record player), and motion picture projector were invented by Thomas Edison in his Menlo Park, NJ laboratory. We also boast the first town ever lit by incandescent bulbs.

- The first seaplane was built in Keyport, NJ.

- The first phonograph records were made in Camden, NJ.

- The first Drive-in Movie theater was opened in Camden, NJ.

- The first radio station and broadcast was in Paterson, NJ.

- and finally, the following are all New Jersey natives: Jack Nicholson, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Jason Alexander, Queen Latifa, Susan Sarandon, Connie Francis, Shaq, Judy Blume, Aaron Burr, Joan Robertson, Ken Kross, Dionne Warwick, Sarah Vaughn, Budd Abbott, Lou Costello, and I'll stop there!

Yeah for NJ! Let's get to the mall!

Ah, Those Unplugged Days! I gave a retreat yesterday for a high school faculty, a wonderful group of Catholic school teachers and staff. As part of the modern routine before a presentation, the request was made for everyone to "silence" their cell phones. When I got up to lead the retreat, I asked everyone to take those little pieces of metal and plastic out again and hold them up. Cell phones, pagers, beepers, Blackberries, Blueberries, a ton of gizmos went up and hovered in the air. I think about 8 people out of 65 were NOT holding something up. We looked around in amazement. Fifteen years ago, I said aloud, there was nothing. We are a "plugged in" people, there's no denying it. And trust me, I'm one of the biggest technoholics around. But there are moments when we need to get unplugged. Escape. Become invisible, unreachable. We need the tonic of solitude and silence (remember Maine!). I say this first and foremost to myself. Yes, cell phones are handy little suckers, and they give us a sense of communication with others.... we're connected. But what about the faces right in front of us? Real, living, breathing human beings? A friend told me once about a dinner out, when he watched three young people sitting at a table across from him; all three of them were on their cell phones during the meal. Is it just me? Is that weird? What's wrong with this picture? IMAGINE THIS: Jesus, the Son of God, is sitting on a mountaintop, just outside the town of Jericho. He is revealing the mysteries of Heaven to a multitude of humanity, pouring forth in human words the incredible love of the Father and saying "Blessed are you who hunger and thirst after... " - beep beep BOOP ba BOOP BOOP ba BEEP BEEP... a cell phone starts playing the theme from Beverly Hills Cop. Off to the right of the hillside, a young man is standing on a boulder, trying desparately to get a picture of Jesus with his camera phone, below him two teenagers are text messaging their friends in Galilee "He's here! It's totally awesome! He's saying stuff and he's so awesome, totally!" I think I'm going to draw this someday as a cartoon. Can somebody send me a text message so I don't forget?