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I have written before on this phrase chosen by Pope John Paul II, to speak of the gift of women to the world and to the church. Over the next week we will celebrate the feasts of a number of women who were followers of Jesus and who set the standard for women of faith.  On July 22, we honor Mary Magdalene, called the “Apostle to the Apostles,” because it was she who first announced the fact of Jesus’ resurrection. On July 23, we reflect on Bridget of Sweden (1303-1373),  Co-Patron of Europe. Bridget was a lay woman, a wife and mother of eight, whom after her husband’s death embraced the ascetical life and a life of good works. She founded a community of sisters whose mission is the promotion of Christianity through hospitality and good works. Indeed, the sisters offer excellent hospitality in Rome and in many other cities around the world to this day! 

 July 26, we lift up the sacrament of marriage and the witness of Ann and Joachim who in their love for one another and for their daughter Mary, who became the mother of God, give witness to family life as a school of love. Then on July 29, it is the feast of Martha, sister of Mary and Lazarus, who loved the Lord as a friend and came to believe in him as her Lord and Savior. Martha believed in and proclaimed Jesus’power to raise her brother from the dead.

Under Fire

 These feasts could not come at a better time. Once again in the secular press, the role of women in the church is under fire. Watch here. The issue is a revision that Pope Benedict XVI has made to a document titled Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela.  Arguably, it is easy to wonder at how women’s ordination and child sexual abuse are connected or what would bring them together in a single document. One can also see the temptation of the press to jump right on it because it makes a great headline.  It instantly gets the– live chat, send link, add to F,acebook, add your comment– applications working.

Particularly Roman

The link between the two issues is not relational but rather in the nature of the document. The document is an omnibus document that includes both grave crimes against the sacraments, which now includes the attempt to ordain women along with such things as desecration of the Eucharist and grave crimes against morals, which now includes involvement with child pornography as well as sexual abuse of a minor.  With regard to the revisions to crimes related to the use of pornography and sexual abuse of minors, it ought to be noted that the Church continues to take steps to expand its commitment to protect minors and to deal effectively with abusers by allowing the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to move more quickly in helping the Church deal with the abuse of minors by its clerics.

Women and Ordination

It ought to make sense to people that because of the nature of the sacraments that any offense against them would be a serious one. What this document is saying is feigning the conferral of the Sacrament of Holy Orders is a grave violation like breaking the seal of confession. If ordination is attempted, it will result in excommunication. Why the clarification now? Some might wonder if there an increasing number of cases of the attempt to ordain women?   Fortunately, not. Present cases involve a very small number of people. Clearly stating the serious nature of the abuse reminds people of the harm that can be done to the structure of the Church itself.

The Catholic church is unequivocal in its teaching about the ordination of women as it is unequivocal in its teaching about the feminine genius and the gift of women to the church and to the world. I was very happy to see that Archbishop Wuerl, in his Press Conference on July 15 at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops specifically stated that “women have responded with extraordinary generosity to Christian service.” He references not only the essential role women have played historically in the life of the church (as we celebrate this week) but that today, “women serve in leadership positions at all levels in the Church. Women hold nearly half of the diocesan administrative and professional positions and about one-quarter of the top diocesan positions, such as chancellor, school superintendent or chief financial officer. About 80 percent of lay parish ministers are women.” These are not the kind of facts that support accusations of sexism or misogyny.  It is these facts that support the thought with which Archbishop Wuerl end his statement. “The Church’s gratitude to women cannot be stated strongly enough. Womenoffer unique insight, creative abilities and unstinting generosityat the very heart of the Catholic Church. Their activity and determinative participation explains much of what makes the Catholic Church the powerful force for goodness and holiness that it is.”

Today, July 11 is the feast of St. Benedict. Saint Benedict is a giant in the Western spiritual tradition. Benedict was born in Umbria, Italy in 450 AD. He desired to live the contemplative life and with a group of disciples established the first monastery in Western Europe. The rule he established to guide his life and the life of his brothers became the foundational rule for all monastic living and for that he is often called the Father of Western Monasticism.

A sister’s love

I am spending a lot of quality time with my siblings this summer and when I saw it was Benedict’s feast, it made me think immediately of his sister Scholastica, who following her brother’s inspiration founded a community of women and brought a feminine expression to the Benedictine rule. The story I want to share however, is more like the feature in one of the popular celebrity magazines called “They are just like us.” In this feature the magazine shares photos of stars doing ordinary things: grocery shopping, hailing a taxi, calming a crying child. In the lives of the saints, we might call the series, “Siblings just like us, “or in this case, “Sisters know best.” Pope Gregory tells the story much better than I could and here it is from his Dialogues.

Now Benedict had a sister named Scholastica, who had been consecrated to the Almighty Lord from the time of her childhood. She had the custom of visiting him once a year and the man of God would come down to meet her at a place belonging to the monastery not far beyond the gate. One day she came, as was her custom, and her venerable brother came down to meet her with his disciples. They spent the whole day in the praise of God and in holy conversation. The darkness of night was already falling when they took their meal together. The hour grew later and later as they sat there at table carrying on their holy conversation. His sister, a holy monastic woman, then made a request: “I beg you. Do not leave me this night so that we may talk until morning more about the joys of heavenly life. But he responded, “What are you talking about, my sister? Under no circumstances can I stay outside my cell.”

Now the heavens were so calm that no cloud appeared in the sky. When this holy monastic woman heard her brother’s refusal, she folded her hands and put them upon the table. Leaning down, she put her head on her hands to make a prayer to God. When she raised her head from the table, there broke forth such powerful lightning and thunder and such a flood of rain that neither the venerable Benedict nor the brothers with him could set foot outside the door of the place where they were sitting. Indeed, while resting her head on her hands, this holy monastic woman had poured out a flood of tears on the table, and in this way she had attracted the rain to the calm skies. The flood followed her prayer in an instant. The connection between the prayer and the storm was such that her head rose from the table together with the thunder as if both the raising of her head and the falling of the rain were one and the same action.

 When the man of God saw that he could not get back to the monastery because of the lightning and thunder and the great flood of rain, he was irritated and began to complain: “May God have mercy on you, my sister. Why have you done this?” And she replied to him: “See, I asked you, and you would not listen to me. So I asked my Lord, and he has listened to me. Now then, go, if you can. Leave me, and go back to the monastery.” But unable to go outside, he stayed against his will in a place where he had been unwilling to stay on his own. So it happened that they spent the whole night in vigil, and during their holy conversation about the spiritual life they found fulfillment for themselves in their relationship with one another.

I have told this story about what the venerable man wanted but was unable to have. And when we examine his mind, there can be no doubt that he had wanted the sky to remain calm, as it had been when he had come down. But contrary to what he wanted, he found a miracle worked by a woman’s heart with the power of the omnipotent God. It is no wonder that the woman who had desired to see her brother that day proved at the same time that she was more powerful than he was. For as John says: “God is love,” and according to that most just precept, she proved more powerful because she loved more.

Benedict returned to his monastery and three days later, he had a vision of his sister’s soul going to heaven and indeed learned shortly after that she died on that day.

The Rule of Saint Benedict and Lay Life

If you would like to explore the Rule of Saint Benedict, it is possible to buy a copy of this concise 73 page rule.  Esther DeWaal, in her book, Seeking God looks at the the rule can offer for lay people living in the world. The American writer, Kathleen Norris also has written a few books including The Cloister Walk, about her experience living a praying with a community of Benedictine monks.

 Last year when I published suggestions for summer reading, I got a number of positive comments and so I thought that I would do a Summer 2010 list.

Most Influential book

In my graduate class at CUA , I asked students to name the most influential spiritual book they have read and their favorite spiritual classic.  Not surprisingly, there were some titles that I expected to hear; Introduction to the Devout Life, by St. Francis De Sales and The Interior Castle, by St. Teresa of Avila.  However, there were some “lesser known” titles some of you may find quite interesting.

Of local interest

Two students named My Other Self, by Deacon Clarence Enzler. Deacon Enzler was in the first class of men ordained permanent deacons in the Archdiocese of Washington. He is also famous for being the father of Msgr. John Enzler, pastor at Blessed Sacrament Parish! This book is currently out of print, but if you belong to a parish in the archdiocese and it has a  library, I bet you will find the book on the shelf.

All kinds of classics

Another student, who was raised in a small farming village in northern Greece, said that the only book his family owned during his childhood was the Bible and so he would have to name that as the most influential spiritual book of his youth. Can’t go wrong with that! If you have never read the Bible and you are looking for something with drama, love, intrigue, war, peace;  this is the book for you. While I don’t recommend reading it cover to cover, moving around the books of the Old Testament, the Gospels and the letters and epistles can bring a new appreciation for the Good News.

New to me is Five Loaves and Two Fish.  It is the spiritual memoir of Francis Xavier Van Thuan.  Five Loaves explores the faith that saw Van Thuan through house arrest in North Vietnam, missionary work in China and service as a bishop and Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church.

If you like Medieval spirituality, consider Practice of the Presence of God. Written in the 17th century by Brother Laurence of the Resurrection it explores how we can keep our conversation with God going strong.  That certainly ranks high as a timeless topic!

The final recommendation that came from the class is In the Midst of our World: Forces of Spiritual Renewalby Paul Josef Cordes.

In my beach bag

I am working my way through Francis Cardinal George’s The Difference God Makes: Catholic Vision of Faith, Communion and Culture. It’s not exactly beach reading but it is a very interesting look at the opportunities and challenges for evangelization in the U.S..  On a lighter note, I am also reading Abbess of Andalusiaby Lorraine Murray. It is a look at the spiritual life of Flannery O’Connor. Written in a very conversational tone, it brings alive both the quirkiness and wit of O’Connor as well as her deep and abiding faith and love of the Eucharist.

If none of these peak your interest,  explore the books  in the Catholic Life-time Reading Plan selected by the Catholic Information Center in DC.

“All of you, who pass this way, stand still, pay attention, and see! Where can one find the kind of love, that can compare to this?”

This is the refrain of the chorus of  the Bavarian town of Oberammergau’s Passion Play.

In 1633, the Black Plague was raging through Europe and it had come to Oberammergau with a vengeance. People were dying and the residents of this small town knelt in prayer before the crucifix in the parish church. One can imagine it was a prayer of great desperation. They made a vow that if they were spared any more deaths they would portray the “passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ every ten years.” From that day, not another person died and the people of Oberammergau have faithfully kept the promise. What was for a century or so a small production staged in the cemetery of the parish has become a 500 person production staged in a theatre that sits 5,000 and welcomes visitors from all over the world. I was fortunate enough to be one of those visitors two weeks ago. While the amptheatre is state-of-the art and the staging contemporary, it remains a home-grown production. In order to be part of the cast you need to have been born in Oberammergau or be a resident for at least 20 years. More than half of the town’s 5300 residents are directly involved in the production.  Currently, the play is staged four-days a week from May through October for a total of 100 shows, though the cast and production team are at work two-years ahead of time preparing for the play season.

Evangelizing at its Best

From the opening lines of the play “Welcome to all, who with us follow the Savior, who came to heal what was wounded, to save what is lost”  it is clear that this play is about sharing the good news of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. The director has taken great pains to be faithful to the original text written by Fr. Jospeh Daisenberger in the 18thcentury and adapted to represent the best of biblical scholarshipsince that time. More importantly, the director is also committed to taking full advantage of the opportunity for evangelization.  It is a grand expression of the laitys’ full and active participation in the evangelizing mission of the church.

Ancient yet ever New

Ten years ago, they made a decision to incorporate into the play more of Jesus’ teaching, for example the Beatitudes and the Our Father because they are aware that many people who come to the play today may not be familiar with the Gospel story or even believers.  In an effort to trace the story of salvation the play combines tableaus of key moments from the Old Testament that are made complete in the life and death of our Lord.

For me it was the chorus that brought the production alive and made it more like a mini-retreat than theatre. As Judas betrays Jesus, the chorus sings “Oh Lord, whoever loses you, and leads a life removed from you, proudly rejecting your grace, will walk the darkest of paths! Woe to us, if we apostatize! Woe to us! Have mercy on us all!”  I found myself listening intently as I watched this most familiar of stories unfold before me. I think that knowing that the actors are amateurs who have made an enormous commitment to tell this story,you can’t help but see in them a glimpse of their own faith, their desire to reflect their own experience of  Jesus mercy and therefore think about my commitment to telling my story of of my experience of Jesus. At the end of the play, everyone exits the stage. The applause begins and one expects the cast to return to take a bow. They do not return. This is not about a production but rather about keeping a promise to tell a story.

Take a peek @ passionsspiele

As we bring the year of the priest to a close, I wanted to bring to your attention a habit that I have had since I was a child.

Happy Fathers’ Day, Father

On Father’s Day, I make it a point of wishing every priest whom I encounter a Happy Father’s Day. I must admit that I enjoy the mix of reactions I get when I do this. The priests who know me have come to expect it and welcome my lauds with grace. Others – in their humility I suspect – are more reticent to except my compliment because they are not biological fathers.  To these priests, I love explaining the importance of spiritual fatherhood.  Even more remarkable, some parishioners overhear my Father’s Day wish and invariably add their own.

Spiritual Fatherhood

Father’s Day is a wonderful celebration and biological fathers who are faithful to their vocation as parents are certainly deserving of special recognition on this day. However, I submit to you that spiritual fathers – namely our priests and bishops – deserve a thank you as well.

Thank you!

In my life, these men we call priests have been guides, supporters, cheerleaders, teachers, mentors and now, as an adult, friends. I may not go out and get them a card, I may not buy them a gift but, I certainly enjoy wishing them, and all priests and bishops, a Happy Father Day!

Last Sunday when I was at the Jubilarian Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, I had the opportunity to see the exhibit “Paintings on Silk” which currently is open to the public in the Memorial Hall of the National Shrine. I was immediately drawn to the paintings, especially the faces which appear to capture the mystery of the moment, seemingly fully present to the unfolding of Salvation history in which they have found themselves; they radiate a holiness that is the one and universal vocation.

Exquisite in detail

The artist, Manisha [her Baptismal name is Theresa] Winchell, a Catholic from Rajasthan, India takes a new look at paintings by Fra Angelico and the depiction of Our Lady of Guadalupe bringing India’s vivid colors – see for example the oranges, blues and yellows in the wings of the angel in the Annunciation – and intricate decorations onto the silken canvas. Upon close inspection of these highly detailed decorations one discovers Scripture, in Greek, Latin and Sanskrit, thus giving the paintings an additional spiritual dimension. Manisha shared with me that as she painted Mary’s robes it made her feel as if she were there in each story in Mary’s life and the design of the robes taught her something about Mary. Marrying the exquisite detail of Indian saris and a prayer of praise, Mary’s response to the angel is written on the hem of her robe.

A lesson in inculturation

Gazing at the silk paintings I was reminded of what we mean by inculturation. Inculturation is the word that the Catholic Church uses to speak of how the seeds of the Gospel are planted in every culture. The Gospel then can be incorporated in a particular culture’s customs and traditions. It is obvious to the observer that Our Lady of Guadalupe and the paintings of Fra Angelico speak to somebody who did not grow up in our Western culture and are at the same time enriched by that culture’s contribution. In “The Bridegroom,” it is Indian culture that predominates as one is drawn to a striking image of Mary, clothed in traditional Rajasthani dress walking with her son, Jesus, clothed as a bridegroom. While at first it seems completely unfamiliar to the Western observer, the imagery certainly is not. This painting captures the universal dimension of Catholic spirituality.

Mary, teacher of love

In the ministry of evangelization, we talk a lot about how to celebrate the diversity of the church of Washington in a way that celebrates the universality of our faith. In Manisha’s paintings, she captures it in the faces of the Mary, Jesus and the characters of her work. Manisha’s hope for people who view the exhibit is that “their minds will be raised to Mary, and that they will grow close to her because Mary is a teacher of love.”

The exhibit runs through June 24. Do make plans to visit.