MASH

When I was a little girl, one of the most popular things to do on inside-recess days was to play MASH. The object, of course, was to predict your future- who you'd marry, what career you'd have, where you'd live. The name comes from Mansion Apartment House Shack, the four options for living. Clearly, living in a Shack was the least desirable option.

Fifteen years later, The Shack is still not a great choice. This time, however, I'm referring to the runaway bestseller by William Young. A co-worker lent it to me a few weeks ago and I've yet to open it, mostly because I don't have time, and also because I've heard many less-than-glowing reviews of it, from both orthodox Catholic sources and Protestant ones.

I'm inherently suspicious of any pop-religion themed book, because they tend to be shallow at best and heretical at worst. Maybe I'm a snob, but I prefer to read things like the Bible, the Catechism, G.K. Chesterton, or Papa B16. Bubble-gum, empty-calorie theology just doesn't cut it for me.

This week Adoro wrote two great posts on the book - not the book itself, which she hasn't read, but the reasons we shouldn't.

First: Conduit to our Souls

And: The Importance of Authenticity and Truth

Additionally, last year Catholic Exchange gave a review, as did Paragraph Farmer. USA Today even did a piece on the controversy.

I think Adoro sums it up nicely, "Theologically, then, if you don't know a lot, and sincerely want to learn, and someone hands you a book full of errors, well, you're going to go on internalizing those errors. You're going to pass them on, and in the end, not only will your "patient" be spiritually dead...but so will you. And you'll propagate that error more quickly than Ebola or Swine Flu."

So I'll be staying out of The Shack.

Reason #19,273 why I love Papa B16

"Wherever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment. " (Spirit of the Liturgy p. 198)

Hat tip to Fr. Z.

St. Paul was not a hippie

It’s June, and the official end of the 2008-2009 Year of St. Paul is close at hand.  It’s been a great year- I’ve seen and heard of lots of Pauline Bible studies, prayer cards, workshops, and such.  All of them are great.  We had a terrific Pauline series at the Norbertine Center for Spirituality, my favorite of which was Sr. Diane’s lecture on “Paul and Women.”  If you think about it, St. Paul is probably the most important figure of Christianity aside from Jesus himself.  Thanks to his many letters, we know more about Paul and his life than anyone else in the Bible, including Jesus.  Along with St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, Paul’s writings have been the foundation for most of Christian theology.  Augustine and Aquinas were standing on his shoulders, though, so it really comes down to St. Paul.  Most of his letters were written before the Gospels, and were widely circulated long before the canon was established at a little seaside town called Laodicea in 360 AD. 

And yet, the poor guy gets kind of a bad rap. 

Some of Prog Cath’s favorite verses are of Pauline origin.  Many people love quoting Paul, especially when they say things like, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28).  Another favorite is “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)  These sort of [out-of-context] snapshots, along with Paul’s occupation as a traveling tentmaker/evangelist who fought The Man might leave us with the idea that Paul was all about love and flower power, granola and co-ops, Woodstock and women’s ordination. 

Um, no.

Paul was a hardass.  Paul had no problem telling it like it is and getting in trouble for it.  He was frequently stoned, expelled from towns, put in prison, rioted against,  and generally made lots of people angry for speaking the truth and writing things like, “If anyone does not obey our word as expressed in this letter, take note of this person not to associate with him, that he may be put to shame. Do not regard him as an enemy but admonish him as a brother.” (2 Thessalonians 3:14-15) or “Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, in which you tend the church of God that he acquired with his own blood.  I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock.  And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth to draw the disciples away after them.” (Acts 20:28-30)

I don’t even know if I would have been friends with St. Paul, had we been contemporaries.  I would have admired him, supported him, and welcomed him into my house (like Lydia, Phoebe, or Prisca), but I’m not sure I could have a nice cup of coffee with the guy and catch up on the news of the day and the goings-on of all our friends. He just doesn’t strike me as a bubbly coffee-klatcher.  

But he *definitely* wasn’t a hippie.  

GIRM Warfare: Part One

(<--- shamelessly lifted from Fr. Z's blog)

Even before I was Catholic, I loved liturgy. When I was ten, my family attended a traditional Episcopal church for a few months, where the liturgy was beautiful, the priest was reverent, and the community was flourishing. We ended up leaving because, among other things, the liturgy made my ex-Catholic mother uncomfortable. However, I can still remember loving the rhythm of the service; the mystery and beauty of incense, vestments, and chanting. (*note: I’m calling it “the service”, not “Mass.” Mass is where Jesus becomes present in the Holy Eucharist, made possible through consecration via apostolic ordination. Episcopalians don’t have a valid priesthood (so far as I understand it), so the liturgy they celebrate doesn’t culminate with true consecration like ours does).

I was drawn into the Catholic Church partly due to the mystery and beauty of the liturgy, and so I am easily saddened when I visit a parish where liturgy isn’t always up to snuff. I’m a huge fan of Fr. Z and his motto (“save the liturgy, save the world”), and I find myself often thinking about liturgical abuses. Where’s the line between nit-picking and being genuinely concerned?

A few liturgical abuses that secretly drive me crazy include:

Female altar servers. This is one of the areas I just bite my tongue and grimace, because I know that 99.99% of the parish would burn me in effigy if they knew how I feel about this.
If altar service is meant to inspire and foster a call to priesthood, why the heck are girls encouraged to be altar servers? To be fair , the girl servers at our parish are awesome, and most of them serve with reverence and do a great job. But it just seems strange. Of the dozen or so servers at our parish, more than half are girls.

I wonder if boys simply don’t serve because they think it’s girly? After all, an alb looks suspiciously like a dress to a teenage boy. This is what liturgist Fr. Edward McNamera seems to be saying: “Among the pastoral factors to be weighed is the obvious yet often forgotten fact that boys and girls are different and require different motivational and formative methods. This difference means that both boys and girls usually go through a stage when they tend to avoid common activities. Preteen boys in particular are very attracted to activities that cater especially for them, and they tend to reject sharing activities with girls.They also tend to have a greater need for such structured activities than girls who are usually more mature and responsible at this stage of life. As a result, some parishes have found that the introduction of girl servers has led to a sharp drop-off of boys offering to serve. Once the boys have left and enter the years of puberty, it is difficult to bring them back.” (source)

Similarly infuriating is mixed gender foot washing on Holy Thursday. One of my co-workers (who also happens to support women’s ordination…) organized twelve people to come forward and have their feet washed at the Holy Thursday Mass. This year I think there were six men and six women. I’m not aware of precisely what the GIRM says on the matter, but the foot washing recalls what Jesus did for the apostles. The apostles were men. It’s not really an accurate representation of the Last Supper, then, eh?

Extraordinary Ministers of Communion. Maybe I'm crazy, but it seems that one of the only redeeming qualities of the EM is speeding up the progress of the Communion line. Those who serve as EMs might find is a special ministry, which is great, but I have several issues with it. First, EMs seldom are comfortable with distributing on the tongue. Priests and deacons are trained to do this. EMs often aren't. Secondly, when I go to Communion, I want to focus on Jesus, not if the EM serving me is someone I know. Thirdly, during his ordination a priest's hands are bathed in chrism, specifically prepared to consecrate and distribute the Body of Christ. The EM's hands weren't. Fourthly, an EM is less likely (if at all) to withhold Communion from someone who shouldn't receive. This applies more specifically to people publicly dissenting from the Church. Last week at Abp Dolan's installation, Rudy Giuliani refrained from receiving- and good for him! However, had he gone up, would bet Dolan might have refused him the Eucharist (rightly so). Would an ordinary EM have the moxie to do that? My guess is no.

Sloppy terminology. A few months ago our pastor decided to slightly tweak the way in which people come forward for Communion. The new set-up makes a lot more sense, and things go more smoothly now. To explain the new system, he included a “map” in the bulletin to demonstrate the Communion flow. The map showed the six stations where people receive the Body of Christ, the six where they receive the Blood Christ, and how to move among them. It was a great map.

Except that instead of “Body/Blood” of Christ, it said “bread” and “wine.”

I almost screamed. I brought this up with several people and explained (I had to explain this? Really?) that labeling the stations as “bread and wine” is simply bad theology. When people come to Communion, they don’t receive bread and wine. They receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. If they want bread and wine they can go down the block to the Lutheran church. All of them scoffed at my concerns. "Everybody knows what it means," they reassured me. "What the map says doesn't matter."

But doesn't it?

Last Sunday at youth group one of my eighth graders - a smart girl very involved in the parish, whose family attends Mass each week -- was genuinely surprised when I explained that we really receive Jesus' Body at Communion. Was this news to her? Really? I shudder to think about the misunderstandings rampant among the kids who don't even come to Mass; the kids who parents drop them off on Wednesday nights and that's it.

"Save the Liturgy, Save the World." No, I don't think everyone should revert to solely using the Extraordinary Form. Novus Ordo has a place, and I think Mass in the vernacular can be a good thing. But we need to ensure that a Novus Ordo liturgy is still sacred, reverent, and holy; after all, the Mass is Heaven on Earth!

The Three-Pronged Attack: Part One

Last winter I read Matthew Kelly's excellent book, Rediscovering Catholicism. It's a great read and I highly recommend it. One of his main points is that people, especially Westerners, find authentic Catholicism too demanding. He finds this puzzling, since for centuries people may have misunderstood the Church or disagreed with her, but people didn't accuse the Faith of being "too difficult." He chalks this up to a three-pronged phenomenon of postmodern culture: the combination of minimalism, hedonism,and individualism that haunts our (particularly American) culture. Just to be clear, he defines his terms:

Minimalism: What's the least I can get away with?
Hedonism: Pursuit of pleasure is my chief end
Individualism: My own needs & wants are more important than the general good of society

Of course, these problems are hardly new; ancient societies (particularly Rome) wrestled with the same problems.

Right now in my own life & ministry, I'm struggling with the effects of minimalism.

I'm blessed to be working at a great parish; one that's supportive of youth ministry, has a dedicated young priest, an excellent religious education program, and parishioners who support the parish spiritually (prayer) and materially (resources).

However, despite a contingent of active, supportive parishioners, there are also a whole host of people on our parish mailing list who do little more than send their children to Religious Education each Wednesday for ninety minutes. That's the entire extent of their participation in faith: no Mass attendance, no prayer at home, no setting an example of a holy Christian life for their kids to observe. It's hardly a new problem in the Church, but one that drives me absolutely crazy.

I was nearly driven to screaming when, during February and March, we were preparing for the Living Stations of the Cross play performed by ninth and tenth graders right before Holy Week. The DRE and I decided that this would be a class endeavor: all ninth and tenth graders in religious education would be (ideally) involved in some capacity. Mindful that teenagers are insanely busy with school, sports, jobs, friends, families, etc., I devised four different levels of participation in the play: actors, singers, ushers, and babysitters. Between the sixty kids in the class, there's no reason why all four groups couldn't have adequate participation. After the first week of sign ups, I had two volunteers for actors (of a needed 18), three for choir, eight for ushers, and four babysitters.

After the initial week of apathy, I began a campaign of phone-tag and tracking kids down before they raced out the door on Wednesday night to personally invite them to take part in a beautiful opportunity. Three weeks later, I had thirteen actors, five choir members, eight ushers, and five babysitters. An improvement, to be sure, but given the amount of time and effort I've invested in announcements, bulletin blurbs, take-home handouts, phone calls, Facebook messages, and personal appeals it seems a paltry yield. This is minimalism at its zenith.By the end of the seven weeks of rehearsal, I had everyone I needed, but things barely came together at the last minute.

The attitude? "I have to come to CCD on Wednesday because you take attendance. But I certainly am not going to Mass, since 10:30 on a Sunday is far too early, and I won't give a rat's patoot about any other youth ministry events in our parish or Diocese, especially if it requires me to do more than show up and sit as a warm body in a chair."

How did we get here? How did this minimalism become so rampant? Even among "good kids" who do well in school and have it "together," I most often get blank stares when I pitch anything - even "fun" events like ski trips, lock-ins, movie nights, camping, and concerts. In a parish of 1100 families, half of which have children, we have an average participation of ten to fifteen kids at youth events. I know it's not a numbers game, but what about the other 95%? Why don't they care?

The phenomenon isn't limited to teenagers, either. Adults (particularly the "Lost Generation" raised in the 70s and 80s in a black hole of kumbaya, clown Masses, and poor catechesis) aren't any better. Most of the ushers, Eucharistic ministers, choir members, and prayer ladies in our parish are over 65. What happens to the Church when they're gone?

Minimalism drives me crazy. I used to have arguments about it with Evangelical friends before I was Catholic- friends who meant well but just couldn't understand my "fascination" with all the "extra stuff" in Catholicism. "It seems like you're just looking for a way to make more work for yourself," one told me. "Why can't you just be happy with the faith you have? You love Jesus- why do you need anything else!"

Why? Because we are not meant to be complacent. We're meant to push the envelope, and "being happy with the faith you have" in the context my friend was describing is a route to becoming lukewarm. And what does God think of that? "I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth." (Revelation 3: 15-16) Kimberly Hahn so eloquently writes, "I wasn't going forward in my faith, so I was going backward, since our relationship with Christ never stands still."

I don't know the cure for minimalism. I don't know how to inspire people to step out of their comfort zones. All I can do is pray.

The best of all Fridays

Jen isn't hosting 7 Quick Takes this week, given that it's Good Friday, but I think I'm going to anyway, since it seems to be the only time I ever write.

--1--

Yesterday marked the beginning of Triduum and my three-year "Catholic Birthday;" the third anniversary of the first Holy Thursday when I, a very contented Evangelical, "accidentally" went to Mass with three wonderful Catholic friends and was so entranced by the beautiful liturgy that I had to keep coming back.

--2--

It may seem like a silly thing, but my favorite part of Holy Thursday's Mass is hearing the Gloria again. After a six week hiatus, we again echo the angels proclaiming "gloria in in excelsis deo!" For whatever reason we don't often sing the Gloria at my parish, so singing it in my favorite Mass setting after a long drought was like heaven on earth. And in fact, it was! Mass is heaven on earth! If you don't believe me, read Scott Hahn's take on the subject.

--3--

Living Stations was a huge success. I'm so proud of my students. I was horridly worried about it, but they came through in ways I never could've guessed, and really took ownership. I think this demonstrates, once again, that teenagers are capable of great things, far more than adults often give them credit for. If we set the standard high, they will meet it and be better for it.

--4--

A year ago at this time I was six weeks away from graduation with no idea what I would be doing. Now I'm happy in a job I love, two hours away from most of my friends, but still very happy overall. Ironically, I've had a handful of emails from friends and colleagues in the past weeks about other job opportunities; jobs I would've leaped at a year ago... but I can confidently decline them, knowing that it's far more important for me to be here. At first those emails were a horrendous temptation, but now I can just be thankful and flattered for their offers and re-assert that I need to be here.

--5--

This video makes me smile. A lot. And not just because the priest is really, really good looking.

--6--

Spiritual warfare has been on my mind a lot lately. It seems to be coming up a lot, either with friends, co-workers, or students. A youth minister friend at a different parish was dealing with some very scary things happening in her building, so we figured out a plan to get the priest to do a blessing/sprinkle some holy water, and we brainstormed prayers to say, saints to invoke, etc.... and thank God it seems to have worked. On Wednesday night one of my eighth graders casually mentioned that she and her friends love playing Ouija boards and holding seances... and I tried very hard not to scare her as I explained that those things are *not* a good idea, since they open us up to very bad things like demonic influence. I really hope that I didn't scare her too much, but if it's a choice between her being too scared to do it again or too apathetic to realize that occult practice are NOT GOOD THINGS... I'd honestly prefer she be a little freaked out.

--7--

Our Holy Father is the man. This isn't really news; just the latest episode of papal awesomeness. Papa B has come under so much fire lately for speaking the truth (!), and he and all bishops need our prayers.

I suppose this is technically and "eighth take" but... The Novena of Divine Mercy starts today!

Friday... whew!

--1--

I'm glad it's Friday, but I'm terrified that it's Friday. Friday means that Monday is only two days away and my term paper for my Old Testament class isn't done. Friday means that Wednesday is only five days away and I still have twenty-four costumes and accessories to finish for my 9th and 10th graders' Living Stations. Methinks this will be a weekend without much sleep and lots of caffeine.

--2--

Last Friday I didn't post because I was at a Diocesan conference on "parish revitalization." The first day of the conference was fantastic, mainly due to its amazing keynote speaker, Leisa Anslinger. However, I almost walked out of Friday's session, and many of my collegues did. Friday's keynote was Paul Wilkes, a less-than-orthodox Catholic known for his dissent from the CDF's document Dominus Iesus (and other things) and his less-than-positive view on our clergy. The morning started with his declaration that "the age of priests is over. It's time for the age of the laity!" Yes, we're living in a post VII world. Yes, laity are important. But the way he said it (and in the larger context of his talk) he seemed to be saying, "move over, guys with collers! You're washed up!" His wording was so eerie it actually gave me flashbacks to this guy -----> saying," "The age of Men is over. The time of the Orc has come." Anyway, he was giving away issues of the National Catholic Distortor/Reporter; that should have been my first clue that I was in for a long, frustrating day. Oy.

--3--

Despite Paul Wilkes and his boo-hiss Church schpeel, last weekend I was incredibly encouraged by the many faithful Catholic youth at the YOUTH2000 retreat in Madison run by the CFR brothers and sisters. The CFRs are a great community, and their honesty and pastoral approach to the truths of our Faith was awesome. The kids all seemed to respond really well. I was sitting with kids from St. Ambrose Academy though, so most of them are already from rockstar Catholic families. But even public school studnets seemed to be responding well. It was beautiful. I cried, especially at the end of the weekend when brothers invited anyone who had felt a preistly or religious calling that weekend to come forward. Three of "my" girls and three of "my" boys from St Ambrose went up, and I felt buyoed with so much hope I was soon a blubbering mess. Hope! The New Evangelization is happening; there *is* a coming springtime in the Church!

--4--

I was able to chat with a college friend who is in Ave Maria University's Institute for Pastoral Theology Master's program; he couldn't stop raving about it. He encouraged me to look into it, and it looks like something I definitely will pursue when I finish Commissioned Ministries in three years. I like that it's part time and once a month; I like that I can trust the professors will be from an orthodox theological background; I like it a lot! Something to keep in mind.

--5--

The Feast of the Annuciation was Wednesay, and so I kicked off my nine-month Novena (ending Christmas Day). My intentions list is really, really long this year. Really long. But I entrust it all to Blessed Mary and her powerful intercession!

--6--

I have had some more vocational clarity of late. Thanks so some brave people in my life who told me things I needed to hear, I'm getting closer to actually discerning my vocation *for real* rather than constantly waiting to discern. That sure will be nice.

--7--

I may have found a new spiritual director. I'm excited about this possibility. Spiritual directors = Made of Awesome. I love Fr. Philip's awesome post about SD here.