Today, On the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Church of Ireland opens its doors to the world as it hosts the 50th International Eucharistic Congress. As with the first 49 congresses, Popes have called congresses for three main reasons:
promote an awareness of the central place of the Eucharist in the life and mission of the Catholic Church
help improve our understanding and celebration of the liturgy
draw attention to the social dimension of the Eucharist.
I participated in my first Eucharistic Congress in 1979 when the Archdiocese of Philadelphia hosted the congress and I served as an usher at the closing Mass. This year, I have the privilege of going as a speaker but more on that later.
The Archdiocese of Washington will be represented by myself and three other staff people who are at the Congress for different reasons and who have all agreed to blog so that you can follow the highlights through the eyes of our blogging team.
Sr. Revelacion Castaneda, who is traveling with a group of young people from all over the U.S.
Mary O’Meara, Executive Director of the Department for Ministry for the Deaf and those with Disabilities who is coordinating the program for an international delegation of deaf Catholics
Sr. Mary Dolora Keating, Director of the Office for Consecrated Life who is representing her religious community.
While the celebration of the Eucharist is the central event of each day, the place of the Eucharist in our lives is explored in catechetical workshops, personal testimonies and cultural events. We will try to give you a taste of each part of the congress.
“Buen Camino,” I quickly learned is the greeting of pilgrims along the way of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. Last month, I had the good fortune to walk 150 km of “The Way” with my sisters and a good friend. For nine days, we set out each morning to walk across Galicia toward Compostela. Not long into the first day, I started humming one of my favorite Gospel hymns, “Order My Steps.” Our days were dedicated to walking with Our Lord on a path carved with the footsteps of the millions of pilgrims who began to walk it in the ninth century and have not stopped. The first pilgrims were seeking to venerate the tomb of St. James the Apostle, the first evangelist to bring the Good News to Spain and to seek his intercession. Over the centuries, pilgrims have followed for many spiritual reasons and in some cases for no real reason at all! Some of the pilgrims I met admitted that what started out as a physical challenge, an extreme vacation of sorts, did become a retreat of some sort. I think it is the grace of what is holy ground. It really struck me that pilgrims, whether believers or not, entered the Cathedral and stood at the tomb of St. James, many even staying for the celebration of Mass.
Order My Steps
Order my steps also became the prayer and the fruit of the pilgrimage. In one sense the difference between a pilgrimage and a hike is not simply the destination—a holy place– but the way in which one walks. The entire endeavor and therefore each day was given to God. Beyond daily Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours and a rosary each afternoon, it became clear that we were entrusting every part of our day to God. The weather was everything from rain to snow to hail to sun and so we quickly developed an attitude of gratitude for seeing a break in the clouds over the next hill or receiving an hour or two of no rain. We trusted we would find a place to stay and food to eat at the end of our day, though we had not one single reservation placed ahead of time. When the miles grew long and the packs heavy and the feet sore, we remembered we were carrying hundreds of petitions from friends, family, and colleagues and we consciously joined our little suffering to Our Lord’s for all the intentions for which we promised to pray.
The daily routine of the pilgrimage has a monastic flavor to it. Pilgrims are asked to leave the hostels and hotels by 8:00 am. Most pilgrims walk anywhere from 10 to 20 km a day and so are walking for four or five hours and when done for the day, there is the washing of clothes, attending Mass, enjoying dinner and conversation with fellow pilgrims and sleep. The schedule in itself for most pilgrims is much simpler than a daily routine back at home. The walk allows for lots of time to think and ponder and pray and to enjoy the incredible gift of the beauty of Galicia but it offered me something more. I began to think a lot about the ways my typical day is ordered—or not—to God.
The Daily Pilgrimage
When I returned home would I be as conscious of ordering my steps to God? What needs to change in the pattern of my daily life that allows a more conscious sense of walking with the Lord and remaining “in the moment” with Our Lord. Thankfully, though my blisters are just about fully healed, what other little pain or discomfort or sacrifice can I make on behalf of the prayers people have ask me to pray everyday? Since returning home, I have been consciously aware of calling to mind the little practices of the Camino that ordered my steps toward God and to find a place for them in the hurried and harried pace that mark my days.
Today, the Archdiocese of Washington filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to challenge the Department of Health and Human Services’(HHS) unprecedented mandate dramatically redefining religious ministry and requiring religious organizations to provide coverage for drugs and procedures in direct conflict with their religious beliefs. Archbishop Carroll High School, Inc.; Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, Inc.; the Consortium of Catholic Academies of the Archdiocese of Washington, Inc.; and The Catholic University of America are also plaintiffs in the same action. This local lawsuit is one of 12 actions filed nationwide today, on behalf of 43 separate Catholic institutions around the country
We have posted a video message from Mrs. Jane Belford, Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Washington and created a webpage at which you can follow the developments.
Pray
There are two ways that we are asking you, firstly, join us in prayer. Prayer is our most significant tool in the fight for freedom. Each time we engage in conversation with our Lord, He gifts us with the grace to become His witnesses in the world. Join the faithful from the Archdiocese of Washington each day at 3pm and pray for the protection of religious freedom. Take a minute out of your day and pray the following:
Loving Father, Thank you for the gift of life and for the freedom to love and worship You. Through the power of the Holy Spirit inspire us to be your witnesses. Grant us the courage to boldly and joyfully stand in protection of our freedom. In your mercy, guard our religious freedom so we may continue to live out our faith and transform the world in which we live. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Talk with friends and family
If you are like me, you have had a lot of conversations about this topic and know that there is a lot of misinformation being shared. Help get good information into the hands of family and friends by sharing these links and having the courage to raise the issue.
The Archdiocese of Washington has formed an Anti-pornography task force which is bearing good fruit. I’ve invited Mr. Rick Kramer, Associate Director of Evangelization and Family Life to share the work of the task force.
The Gift of Human Sexuality
We were made to see God! But since the beginning our eyes have strayed. Genesis tells us that when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit they saw that they were naked and sewed figs leaves together to hide themselves. In his great teaching, commonly called the Theology of the Body, Blessed Pope John Paul II teaches that rather than being an expression of true love, our bodies became objects of sinful desires. Through time the sinful desire for the human body has taken many shapes. In our own era of technology it has become pandemic through easy and immediate access to pornography.
Donald Cardinal Wuerl, the Archbishop of Washington, in his pastoral letter Disciples of the Lord: Sharing the Vision tells us that “The attempt to recast human sexuality as casual and entirely recreational has led to an untold weakening of and continued assault on marriage and family…” This is a powerful obstacle to hearing the Good News, but as faithful Catholics we know that there is more to the story. God sent his Son, Jesus, to heal our hearts and bodies and restore our sight. Cardinal Wuerl continues: “But no darkness, no matter how dense, can thwart or shroud the seed of new life waiting to emerge in this fresh moment….” This fresh moment to hear the Good News about Jesus again is an opportunity to renew our own faith. Truth be told, the use of internet pornography today is no less prevalent among Catholics than anyone else; but like nowhere else, we have the tools required to combat this sin: faithful science and God’s grace.
Purpose of the Task Force
In December 2011 the Archdiocese of Washington implemented a task force comprised of experts in parish ministry and clinical psychology in the attempt to formally address the assault of pornography on our families and children. The purpose of this task-force is to listen to the needs and concerns of priests and laity and to set annual goals for parishes and schools to teach and equip families and individuals with the tools to protect themselves from the harm of pornography.
There are three areas the task force is focusing on: 1) Increasing awareness so that the effects and prevalence of porn and its harmful effects are truly known; 2) Education, through which parents and educators can gain assistance with creating safe environments at school and home for children and families to thrive; and 3) Healing by offering resources to clergy, schools, parish leaders for distributing to help heal wounded hearts and raise up the fallen so that forgiveness may be found and marriages healed.
Please see our website for resources for individuals and for families www.adw.org/healing You may also contact me in the Office for Evangelization and Family Life at 301-853-4546.
As an idealistic, optimistic, college student, I was introduced to the documents of Vatican II, specifically, the opening paragraph of Gadium et Spes. “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts.” This perfectly captured my desire to serve the Lord by serving the poor. I applied to the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and asked to be assigned to Alaska because I wanted to work among people of a culture other than my own. The JVC was happy to oblige and before long I found myself standing outside my new home—on the banks of the Yukon River in Tanana, Alaska, in front of a bright yellow trailer that was capable of running water but did not have it at the moment or in the next two months.
Quickly, it became clear that I was seduced by the idea of poverty and completely unprepared for the reality. For example, I never imagined it involved a yellow trailer with the ugliest orange and yellow shag carpet I had ever seen. Poor is so much more than lack of money. I had never had to live in a community in which no one was untouched by the toll of alcoholism. From its effect on unborn children, to the destruction of family life to the social toll within the community, life was often bleak. What really, I asked myself, did it mean that the “griefs and anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted,…are the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ?”
We are not the Red Cross
Paragraph 22, of Gaudium et Spes suggests “Through Christ and in Christ, the riddles of sorrow and death grow meaningful. Apart from His Gospel, they overwhelm us.” This was proven true for me during my year in the tundra. My JVC year in Tanana taught me what makes the charitable and social service ministry different from the Red Cross. Our vision is that of the Gospel that enables us to look at the world through God’s eyes.
I have been thinking about this because last Saturday, more than 100 volunteers in social ministry and Pro-life ministry came together for a day of formation. The reading of the day, took us back to Jesus’ suffering, reminding us that even as we glory in the grace of the Resurrection and the Easter season, it is never separated from Jesus’ suffering. These are volunteers who work on issues that seem unsolvable and with people whose suffering is overwhelming . Volunteers whose work puts them in the face of the riddles of poverty, abortion, war, bigotry, euthanasia and advocacy. They work with some people who come over and over for help but often refuse the option that will be most helpful. When they have been blessed to relieve the suffering on one person, they remember the ten people they could not help. What keeps them from despair? What keeps them optimistic and enthusiastic? For many people they remember the moment of choice—to give in to feeling of overwhelmed and walk away from the ministry and the mission, or to turn to Our Lord and the Gospel. “Through Christ and in Christ the riddles of sorrow and death grow meaningful.” The gift of Catholic Social Teaching is that it marries the Gospel to the existence of grief, despair and injustice. The Church does not choose to simply preach the vision of the world to come and advise people to endure the present and wait patiently for the coming of the kingdom. The Church has not offered simple answers to what are complex riddles wrapped in mystery. The Church proclaims the truth, that the riddles of this age are wrapped in the mystery of God’s plan for the building of the kingdom. What the Church has to offer is itself—a community linked, joined, bound to humankind by the deepest of bonds. The Church knows that it will be judged on its solidarity with the poor and most vulnerable.
After overwhelmed
It is the mature follower of Christ who when feeling overwhelmed can dig deep and find courage and strength to continue to enter into the mystery of suffering in the story of the Church, in our sacramental life and in service. To embrace the gift of being able to grieve with the broken hearted and be an instrument of hope, to embrace the mystery that, as Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church reflected “All the way to heaven is heaven!”
On Easter Sunday I had the privilege of serving as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion at the 9:00 am Mass. By the time Mass began it was standing room only in the church. This was not a surprise. I bet it was the same at your parish. When it came time to distribute Communion, another person and I were asked to go to a station at the rear of the church. A line formed among those standing. At a certain point, I wondered why the line did not seem to get shorter and I realized that people were coming through the doors of the church and getting in line for Communion. After Mass, I learned that indeed people were standing three deep on the sidewalk during Mass. Because it was such a beautiful day, the doors were wide open and the music could surely be heard, but how much of the readings and homily and Eucharistic prayer did people hear?
I’ve been wondering what made them stay and what makes our brother and sister Catholics who don’t come to Mass often and maybe only at Christmas and Easter come on these feasts. On the one hand, if recent studies are correct and a majority of Catholics consider themselves as “active” if they go to Mass once a month on average, then making sure you plan to go on Christmas and Easter is a no-brainer. But for those who come infrequently, why stand on the sidewalk? Reverend Andrew Greeley, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago and a sociologist talks about the “sacramental imagination” that is nurtured in the Catholic mind and that like Baptism seems to leave and indelible mark and so even for the Catholic who is not practicing the faith, his world view is a Catholic worldview. Another priest pondered that maybe if a person calls themselves Christian, then at the very least they see a need to come to church on Easter to “represent” so to speak!
Always welcomed
Don’t get me wrong, I love that the congregation overflowed onto the sidewalk on Capitol Hill. What a witness to the truth that the Easter story has real meaning and continues to capture people’s imagination. When I ask “what are they thinking,” I really want to know, because if we who are serious about the New Evangelization can better understand what the pull is to come to church once or twice a year than we can use that as a starting point for helping them look more deeply at their own experience. We can better able in our preaching and teaching and conversation make a more convincing argument for how active participation in life of the church will make a real difference in every part of one’s life. Fr. Bill Byrne, the pastor, in his homily said that the story of the Resurrection does not just have meaning for a moment but rather calls for a commitment. If you believe the story, you need to make a commitment—to discipleship, to Mass, to service. How did people hear that? Are they still thinking about it today?
He knows as all of us know that it won’t be standing room only next week. When we better understand the impulse to come to church once, twice, a few times a year, we can better help our brother and sisters move from impulse to commitment. Any insights you can share with me?
Over the last month, I have been thinking about the relationship of body and prayer. At the Maryland March for Life in Annapolis, I fell in step with a woman who looked to be in her seventies’ using a cane and keeping a good pace as we walked up the long hill toward Lawyers’Mall. I wondered what made her drive through rush hour traffic to Annapolis to walk with us. Surely, her prayer would have been no less powerful had she chosen to stay at home and pray. A few days later, driving through DC, stopped at a traffic light, a young woman, standing perfectly still on the sidewalk caught my attention. Actually, the rosary she was holding is what caught my eye. Why, I thought, did she choose this spot and then I saw it. She was praying as part of the 40 Days for Life Campaign, at the Planned Parenthood Clinic. Two weeks ago, hundreds gathered in front of Health and Human Services to raise their voice in prayer and petition. Last Saturday, more than 200 young adults traced a 12 mile path through the city on the Seven Church pilgrimage in preparation for Holy Week. On Sunday, parishioners took palms and processed through parking lots, along sidewalks and into church. On Friday, at a number of parishes in the archdiocese, people will gather to follow the stations through local neighborhoods. All together, we seem to be a church in motion, on the move! Not just on the move, but on pilgrimage and more importantly, in prayer. At certain times, it just seems right to raise our minds, hearts and bodies in prayer.
In the tradition of St. Dominic
It seems right because just as we experience the presence of God through our bodily senses, our bodies themselves can be an expression of prayer. Saint Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers teaches us that “gestures of the body powerfully dispose the soul to prayer.” The Dominican Family captured “nine ways of prayer” that were the practice of Dominic, not just in communal prayer but also as part of his private prayer. I discovered this booklet when I was a student and it has deepened my appreciation for making my posture an extension of my prayer. Dominic would have been right at home in any one of our rallies, walks or processions because pilgrimage is just one of nine ways of prayer.
Triduum Prayer
As we enter the celebration of the Triduum, we practice many of the bodily expressions of prayer. Thursday, we will be invited to kneel in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament—to watch and wait with our Lord. On Good Friday, many of us will gaze on the Stations of the Cross as we commemorate our Lord’s passion. Our priests will prostrate themselves in front of the altar and we will be invited to venerate the cross, by kneeling or kissing our touching the feet of our Lord. At the Vigil, our catechumens will kneel in the saving waters of Baptism or bend and receive the life-giving water as it is poured over their heads.
What of the nine ways of prayer might you be able to make a part of your Triduum. If you have not fasted as much or as well as you hoped, Friday is the perfect day to practice the prayer of the bodily discipline. While kneeling is the traditional form of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, Dominic’s fifth way of prayer is to stand before the altar, perfectly erect, deeply reverent. The seventh position is a familiar one of hands raised in praise, is it an expression that you can use in personal prayer? In his eighth posture, study becomes prayer as he sits and contemplates God’s word.
As we walk with Jesus through his passion and death and as his body becomes for us the gift of our salvation, we are invited to pray in body, mind and spirit.
As we prepare to walk with Our Lord toward Calvary, this reflection from Saint Leo the Great for the Feast of the Annunciation helps us to understand what it means that God became man and willingly took on our sinfulness to offer us salvation.
He took on the nature of a servant without stain of sin, enlarging our humanity without diminishing his divinity. He emptied himself; though invisible he made himself visible, though Creator and Lord of all things he chose to be one of us mortal men. Yet this was the condescension of compassion, no the loss of omnipotence. So he who in the nature of God had created man, became in the nature of a servant, man himself….He who is true God is also true man. There is no falsehood in this unity as long as the lowliness of man and the preeminence of God coexist in mutual relationship. (Epistle 28 ad Flavianum).
