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In the past six months, there have been two incidents involving airplanes and the Hudson River. In the first incident, a plane safely landed on the Hudson and the crew and passengers all survived. In the second incident, a helicopter and a small plane crashed and fell into the river. There were no survivors.  In the first incident it was so easy to thank God for his providence, for such a skilled pilot , for the tragedy avoided. Last week, it was so easy to ask the question; where was God?  Why is one event truly “a miracle on the Hudson” and the other so clearly not?

Who Deserves a Miracle?

I imagine that like me, you have wondered from time to time about miracles. You have probably found yourself asking, in some cases, “what was God thinking?” We probably never think he chose the wrong time for a miracle, but wonder why this time is not the right time; a loved one who has a fatal disease, a car accident that kills, a situation that seems completely hopeless. We know the old saying, God answers all of our prayers, it’s just sometimes, we don’t like the answer. With miracles, sometimes, we miss what is the real miracle.

An Eyewitness Account

Over the weekend, Fr. Jonathan Morris, LC, a priest whom you may know from his work on FOX News wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal suggesting that indeed there has been another miracle on the Hudson. The full story is worth reading and can be found here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203863204574348703505285632.html#printMode

It’s the story that at the end of the day where there is love, there is God.

To the right is an unusual image of Christ and completely opposite of the more serious Christ we see far more often.  I love this image of the laughing Christ for one reason. The woman who gave me this picture knows me well and in recalling my first call to the diaconate, I told her, “I never in my life thought I would be a deacon.” This picture was a gift as I began formation. When I asked her why, she said, “I want you to know what Christ does when you tell him your plans.”

Does Christ have a plan for me?

In his letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul says, “For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.”

What are my gifts and how does God want me to use them?

In the previous post entitled “Marriage, the real vocation crisis” Laura rightfully expands the idea of vocation beyond the vernacular to include marriage. In all my years of working with youth, well-intended people often say one thing to young people that makes me cringe. Let me be clear – They mean well and they are actually trying to motivate a young person when they say it. Nonetheless, it makes me cringe because, it is simply not true.  Here it is:  “You can do anything you set your mind to” or, “You can be anything in life as long as you work hard enough.”

Brothers and sisters, for the Christian faithful, these cliches of motivation need some modification. For the Christian faithful, the first quote should read – “You can do anything God has called you to do, if you set your mind to it.” For the Christian faithful, the second quote should read, “You can be anything in life God wants you to be, as long as you work hard enough.” That is what we should tell young people and that is what we should be telling one another.

Peter’s calling and vocation

For example, Peter, the first Pope, tried to do what he wanted to do. Christ called him to possess the keys to heaven and earth and what did he do? He tried to be a fisherman again. And he wasn’t too successful, I might add. I am sure he set his mind to it and I am sure Peter tried hard enough. But, it did not work out because it wasn’t what God had called him to do. The Church was not built on the Rock of Peter because of his fishing prowess. The Church was built on the Rock of Peter because Peter followed Christ’s call.

“We only seek to do the will of God” – Mother Mary Lange, OSP

Brothers and sisters our life is not our own –It was given to us by Christ and it belongs to Christ. We have the free will to ignore that reality but, it is a reality nonetheless. In the Gospel according to John, Christ says, “It is not you who chose me but I who chose you.” Brothers and sisters, this is one of the most powerful statements of Christ. Christ has called all of us to a vocation. It is through this vocation that we can build up the Kingdom of God, we can spread the Gospel and we draw ourselves and others closer to Christ – Of course, we still have to work hard enough and put our minds to it.

We have  recently posted a number of blogs on vocation, courtship, and marriage, and it may seem like overkill…but here’s another.  Yesterday Catholic News Service published an article quoting Archbishop Timothy Dolan as saying, marriage and family is “where we have the real vocation crisis…If we take care of that one, we’ll have all the priests and nuns we need for the church.” Part of this crisis, he noted, is that only 50% of young Catholics are getting married.

How can each of us encourage young Catholics in their vocational discernment to marriage?

We can guide a young Catholic toward spiritual direction; we can support a friend who has just begun a courtship; we can speak about the vocation of marriage to a single son, daughter, neice, or nephew; and we can pray for the Spirit of Wisdom and Courage for all people.

Share with us what you’re doing to support marriage and family!

Note: I’m using the antiquated word courtship on purpose. To court is defined as “to seek the affections of; to seek to win a pledge of marriage from; to perform actions in order to attract for mating.” (Merriam-Webster) Courtship is what leads to marriage and mating…which leads to little boys and little girls growing up and consecrating themselves in service of the Church. It also leads to little boys and girls growing up and making the commitment to court and marry. The circle of life!

A Washington Post reporter, Catholic special education and the Kennedy family

In October 1956, Ed Fouillard, a Washington Post political reporter, was covering Adlai Stevenson. At an event at a Knights of Columbus Hall in Elkins, West Virginia he sat next to Robert Kennedy. Fouillard, whose son Michael attended Holy Spirit, a fledgling school for “mentally retarded” children in Washington, DC, told Kennedy about the school and that he’d read in the Catholic Standard newspaper that Joseph Kennedy funded schools for the disabled. In a 1976 interview, reprinted in a history of the Kennedy Institute, Fouillard noted that Bobby Kennedy said nothing in response.

Fast forward to April 1957. Fouillard runs into the family patriarch, Joe Kennedy, at a Senate hearing. Joe mentions that “Jack [Fouillard says he thinks he meant Bobby] was telling me about your boy and about that school. I am interested.” Fouillard immediately calls the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur to tell them. A few days later, Ethel Kennedy calls him and comes to visit the school, then in the basement of a convent at North Capitol and K Streets.

Next, Fouillard drafts a letter to Ethel Kennedy. The letter is forwarded on to Joe and a few days later, Ethel contacts Fouillard, saying, “Grandpa is willing to go for a half-million.” Then-Archbishop O’Boyle, who was deeply committed to providing education and services for those with disabilities, contributed the other $500,000 and the Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Institute was founded. Now a program within Catholic Charities, on October 1, 2009, it will celebrate its 50th anniversary of service at 801 Buchanan Street, NE, Washington, DC.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s Role

As a 1970s-era history of the Kennedy Institute found in the archives of the Archdiocese of Washington notes that Eunice Kennedy Shriver, director of the Kennedy Foundation, “wanted to prove through model recreation and sports programs, that retarded children and youth could not only enjoy these leisure time opportunities, but that, through such stimulation, these youngsters would improve in all aspects of their personality – psychological, emotional and mental.”

Living out this belief, she became the driving force behind the physical education program at the Kennedy Institute. In January 1965, she established and funded, through the Kennedy Foundation, a Saturday Recreation Program. Students participated in morning activities either at the school or off-site. Believing more was needed, she next pushed for regular physical education as part of the curriculum and volunteered as a physical instruction teacher at the school from September 1965, for two years.

(Eunice Kennedy Shriver teaches physical education circa 1965 at the Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Institute of the Archdiocese of Washington)

As Dolores Wilson, one of the founding staff of the Kennedy Institute recalls: “Each time [she came to teach], she brought along one of her own children, beginning at a ‘toddler’ age. The weather did not matter. All five classes were alerted that Mrs. Shriver was here and ready to meet them outdoors in the school yard for their exercises. She spent a half hour with each class. We bundled up the little ones who did not want to go outside in the cold and if they were too slow, Mrs. Shriver appeared at the classroom door with ‘Sista, sista, are the children ready yet?’ Mrs. Shriver came to our school for two years and was our teacher, our helper, the one who encouraged us and was grateful for the work being done to spread the word of caring for families and children with special needs. Mrs. Shriver became our friend!”

Inclusion Program at Our Lady of Mercy School

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, of course, went on to found the Special Olympics. She also obtained the funding – $150,000 – to start a model inclusion program for Our Lady of Mercy School in Potomac. The principal at that school today herself was inspired as a teen volunteer at Camp Shriver.

Never to forget the vulnerable, Eunice Kennedy Shriver also was an advocate for the unborn, writing on their behalf in publications and encouraging support for pregnant women in need. She received the 1982 National Figure Award from the Archdiocese of Washington’s Catholic Youth Organization and the 1996 John Carroll Medal from the John Carroll Society.

In the 1990s, working with Archbishop Donald Wuerl (then Bishop of Pittsburgh) she helped develop the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Program, a religious education curriculum for children with special needs that has been implemented in dioceses nationwide.