We do indeed need to show joy as Catholics!

  My motto — “Be happily and uncomplicatedly Catholic.”..Michael J. Sheehan, Archbishop of Santa Fe

–         In Philadelphia, after two harsh grand-jury reports and four injunctions, Cardinal Rigali finally put on administrative leave 17 of 37 priests accused of sexually abusing minors. This report in The Economist added, “Philadelphia’s faithful are shaken.”

–         To promote dialogue with non-believers, in Paris the Vatican conducted a “Courtyard of the Gentiles”, which were three colloquia on “religion, enlightenment, and common reason.” The event closed with an evening festival in the courtyard outside the cathedral of Notre Dame, with music, art displays and a light show. (Comment: why not try this out in America?)

–         Congressman Peter King, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, seems to have blown it in his ill prepared and poorly thought-of hearings about American Muslin Community.

–         A federal judge upheld the right of the United States Air Force Academy to hold a prayer luncheon. The action to prohibit this event was from a bastard organization known as Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

 

Today’s Martyrs

We should honor the five Iranian Pentecostal Christians who have been sentenced to a year in prison for “crimes against the Islamic order.”

Since the crackdown on Christianity that began last June, 282 people have been arrested in 34 Iranian cities.

    My favorite priest, layperson, breathing saint or organization

In the January issue of Homiletic & Pastoral Review, Peter Etzell, of Claissa Minnesota, told this about Fr. Frederick Kampsen: “Fr. Kampsen was a proven “builder.” Young and enthusiastic, he inspired young an old alike and soon the idea took root to build a new brick church two blocks off Main Street, net to the recently purchase rectory. During those next three years Father led our parishioners through the planning pledging and financing of a new church.

He also had a profound effect on many Protestants in our small town. There was a joy about him that was ecumenically infectious.

(Now, tell me about your favorite Catholic priest, layperson or organization that is making a difference

aljagoe@comcast.net)

 

Interesting sayings

A reader in Geneva, Switzerland, correctly questioned the quotation in the last issue by Albert Einstein. I did my own research from a collection of his sayings and couldn’t find the one referred to me. But I did find this one:       

  Knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty—it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitutes the truly religious attitude in this sense and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man.

 

 

Life itself cannot give you love, peace and joy, unless you really want it. Life just gives you time and place; it’s up to you to fill it.

Bill Basansky 

My ideas area always changing, always moving around one center, and I   am always seeing that center from somewhere else. Hence I will always be accused of inconsistency, but I will not be there to bear the accusation.

Thomas Merton (written in 1964)

 No one every told me I was pretty when I was a little girl. All little girls should be told them are pretty, even if they aren’t.

Marilyn Monroe

 

Communiqués 

I don’t know whether to thank you or not. Your blog has morphed my concept of being Catholic.

Reggie Wentworth 

A Jew without a sense of shame for the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians is a calloused soul.

Regimra

I like your idea of letting us layfolks have a crack at theology. That puts our Catholicism down within reach and makes it enjoyable. It also incites us do a bit of our own thinking. Do it again.

Margaret McDougall 

 

Chuckle Time

In Jerusalem, a reporter interviewed an old man who claimed for 40 years he had been praying at the Western Wall for peace between Jews, Christians and Muslims, for the end of all wars, and for our children to become responsible adults and love their fellow man.

The reporter asked, “And how do you feel after doing this for so many years”

The old fellow replied, “Like I’m talking to a friggin’ wall.”

Special Intentions List

As you pray with a broad brush, please include these loved ones, who have been submitted by our readers. You, too, are invited to send me names of your special persons who are in need of prayer.  My address is aljagoe@comcast.net. They will be on the list for 60 days. At the end of that time, if prayers are still needed, you merely have to renew the name.

Juanita Caldwell, Isola Todd, Jill Todd, David Abbey, Linwood “Skip” Williams, Roseanne Somlock, Nicholas Gallagher, Tom Lewis, Donald Whitcomb, Violeta Zepeda, John Aylor, Rev. Joseph Marini, Enrique Portillo,

 Sharon McPike, Tom Ryan, Joseph Normile, Jim Quimby, Russell Edwards,  

Rev. Stephen Huffstetter, Hugh Cannon, Eric Moore, Joan Barrett, 8-year-old Michael Fotta and his parents, Lolita Alvarez, Camilus Musselman,

 Ed Block, Isobel Milligan, Peter Bartkiewiez and his family,

 Joe Toles, Camilus Musselman,   Ed Cole, Bishop Thomas Olmsted, Jay Parker, William Stephenson, Roger Stoven, Bob Abbott, Denny Kline, Lois Pinkin, Larry Mannino, Cheryl DeSantis, Lenore Sommers

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Laura Marsh, Marie Lyons

Christian martyrs in the Middle East, those in refugee camps throughout the world, the Japanese victims of their recent calamity.

Be happily and uncomplicatedly Catholic.

We do indeed need to show joy as Catholics.   My motto — “Be happily and uncomplicatedly Catholic.”

Michael J. Sheehan, Archbishop of Santa Fe

 

The Age of Apathy and Ignorance 

Realizing that we are the last of the Catholics in our family, last week my wife and I donated our massive family Bible to our church library.  Our splendid four children, two sons-in-laws and two daughter-in-laws have no interest in Catholicism, and our ten remarkable grandkids have little (if any) knowledge of Christianity.

          Several years ago, our adorable six-year-old granddaughter was visiting us. At breakfast one morning when I mentioned I had trouble understanding the Buddhist religion, she told me all about when Buddha was under a tree he had this revelation that he taught to his followers, etc., etc. I then asked her what she knew about the 5,000 year history of the Jews and about Jesus Christ. With the truth of youth, she said, “I haven’t the foggiest.”

        Our two generations following us are all admirable individuals—intelligent, well-educated, loving one another and their neighbors, thoughtful, sensitive, good and popular citizens in their communities and enjoyable company.  They have made themselves healthy and financially successful.  They are all good kids, of whom I am busting with pride.  Yet I am concerned about their satisfied two-dimensional lives, devoid of religion.

          St. Augustine compared religion as a bridge to a higher location.  To me, I relate it to an experience I had years ago when I would take early morning swims in the clear sea at the Costa Brava.  I enjoyed it as a refreshing way of starting the day. Then one morning I had my initial experience with a snorkeling mask.  I was stunned to see clearly the beauty of the under-water world. Before, I had been content with skimming along the surface, ignorant of the sea treasures below me. Now, thanks to my mask, like magic an entire new world opened for me.

          I feel that way about my Faith.  There are boundless spiritual treasures that Catholicism makes available for me every minute of the day.  It gives me the opportunity to view all with new and fresh sight—though the eyes of others, of Christ, of Blessed Mary, and of thousands of saints. This gives meaning, purpose and enjoyment to the hum-drum of life.  As the theologian Ewert Cousins wrote, “Theology is concerned with the ultimate level of religious mystery which is even less accessible than the mystery of the physical universe.”

 I have the uncomfortable feeling of being a frustrated billionaire who hasn’t figured out how to share his wealth.  Without intent, I am a hoarder of spiritual blessings I want to share.  My failure to pass my appreciation of religion on to my children is a puzzlement, and I don’t know the answer.  As one who has experienced this feeling, Kenda Creasy Dean, professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, said she has spend the most depressing summers of her life, interviewing teens about their faith.

As an interesting tid-bit, I read this in the North American Almanac 1929: “He who fights religion and its institutions kicks at the stars. He who incurs religion’s enmity must be a brave fighter for he may have 1,000 hands of logic, yet cannot lay low the one hand of religious prejudice.”

You readers, give me your thoughts and advice.  I welcome it!

thejoyfulcatholic@comcast.net.

Recommended readings

–         “Twelve instant ways of beautifying the Novus Ordo” by Monica Miller. PhD., in the August/September issue of Homiletic & Pastoral Review.

–         “What’s Extraordinary?” by Gerald Coleman, S.S., in America, August 30 – September 6.

–         “The Traditional Sources of Thomas Merton’s Environmental Spirituality” by Patrick O’Connell PhD in Spiritual Life, fall 2010.

–         “A Tree Full of Monkeys – Why The Soul  Needs Silence” by John Garvey, in Commonweal, July 16