Feb 01 2008

Finding God

Category: Catholicism,General — Lindsay @ 7:22 pm

I was delighted today to read a BustedHalo article about opening the canonization cause for “spiritual seeker” Fr. Isaac Hecker. Spiritual seeking has recently become very popular. As the “spiritual, but not religious” camp started to grow, more people sought the truth. Sometimes, they even find it.

As humans, we have a necessary and inherent desire for the truth. I have come to believe that the Roman Catholic Church has the truth. I wouldn’t call my lapse a time of spiritual seeking, but for many people, the road to God is long and winding. Perhaps my friend Br. Peter Martyr, O.P., (formerly Patrick Y.) explained it best in Bible study my sophomore year. God’s plan is the straight path to heaven. We might wander off, double back, or almost miss it completely, but as long as we make it to the end, we’ll be saved.

Fr. Hecker had a long journey to Catholicism and founding the Paulists. He was raised a devout Methodist, but even after falling away as a teenager, he continued to experience the presence of God. He spent his life trying to reconcile that call with the realities of the everyday while pursuing intense study and contemplation. (Sounds like many of the saints.) Eventually, he found his mission in becoming a priest and championing an American Catholic identity. The Church in America could use some work. I’m trying to help. Perhaps the intercession of Fr. Hecker will bring the advent of a world where the New Evangelization is no longer necessary. The American Catholic Church will hold on despite the trials, seeking refuge in her faithful followers.

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Jan 16 2008

Catholic Carnival 154

Category: Catholic Carnival,Catholicism,General — Lindsay @ 10:49 pm

This one’s hosted at the Catholic Carnival’s home, Living Catholicism.

Denise of Catholic Matriarch in My Domestic Church issues a catechetical challenge based on comments from Amy Welborn. She rightly argues that good catechesis needs support in the home. I can vouch for that. When my mom doesn’t go to Mass, my siblings won’t go. When I came home from First Timer’s Retreat with the CSC glowing and full of the Holy Spirit, Maura was more encouraged to stop by. Adults need religious education, too, especially the current generation with young children. They’re the ones who were the worst catechized of them all.

Fr. V. of Adam’s Ale (yes, friends, priests are allowed to drink) laments the awkward practice of eulogies at funeral Masses. I’ve only been to one Catholic funeral, for my great-grandmother. I was slowly making my way back to the Church at the time, so I had no idea eulogies aren’t allowed. My grandmother wrote a poetic letter, which I was conscripted to read. I knew it was awkward to be calling Grandma Bernice an “angel,” but I didn’t know the theological implications of it at the time. I do remember that the priest gave a proper homily, though, and that I was called forward at the very end, read my paper, and sat back down. It was the least abusive sort of liturgical abuse, I suppose. Reading Fr. V’s post makes me want to set down instructions for my own death, as morbid as it is. I just don’t want my parents and friends fighting. My friends know I love Latin; my mom would probably be lost, as much as I love her.

SWP of CatholicLand! reflects on the Holy Name of Jesus, which we venerate this month (and always!) I used to be guilty of breaking the Second Commandment all the time, but I’ve gotten better. Once I said, “Oh, my,” to avoid it, and my mom called me an old lady. I took up the emphasis on the name of Jesus in the Hail Mary, which he mentions, some time ago. Jesus wasn’t originally mentioned by name there. It was an important enough point to be added in, so we might as well emphasize it and add to the Christocentric qualities to boot.

Ian of Musings from a Catholic Bookstore provides us with criteria for good, orthodox Catholic books and publishers. (The full list can be found at Aquinas and More, his bookstore.) I appreciate his including imprints that have some questionable material but are otherwise great. It’s important to not throw out the baby with the bathwater. I feel the same way about Protestant translations of some of my favorite Bible verses: those Bibles are missing books, but the USCCB won’t even allow some of its own NAB translations in the Lectionary.

Tausign of Perfect Joy writes about his impressions of St. Blog’s as a new member. His most important point (besides the ubiquity of Catholic mom bloggers!) is that God should be the foundation of our lives. God doesn’t get piled onto the plate; he is the plate. Mine has an Augustinian glaze, so I guess that means it’s a little chipped and decorated all over with Scripture.

I just realized I missed Carnival 153. Oops. I do like keeping up with the Carnival, though. It’s a great way to see what other people are thinking and writing about in St. Blog’s.

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Dec 23 2007

Making Up for the Past

Category: Catholicism,General,Life — Lindsay @ 3:09 pm

My Catholic past is rather checkered. I was baptized Catholic as a baby in the church where my parents were married. My dad’s family is not Christian; my mom’s has been Catholic for generations. I went to a (non-Catholic) Bible preschool, then on to public elementary school. I attended Sunday School until my mom got tired of dragging me out of bed to catch the bus every week. I went to all the CCD classes I needed before my First Communion without ever setting foot in the church until First Penance and the rehearsal.

When we moved to Germany and it was time for my sister’s First Communion, my mom discovered that I had to attend 7th grade CCD before I could join the 8th grade Confirmation class. Luckily, I was in the 7th grade at the time. We started to attend Mass again (always the Saturday Vigil, because we’ve never been morning people). On my Confirmation retreat, I went to confession for the second time–ever–and fell in love with God again.

When we moved back to the U.S., we stopped attending Mass. I missed going to church, but not enough to do much about it. In the year before Ryan’s First Communion, I started college. I did a lot of stupid things during that time, including wholly unworthily receiving the Eucharist at the Mass where Ryan (whose name means “little king”) played a king during the Gospel pageant. That same year, my dad joined RCIA.

Being in church again reminded me of the peace I’d felt there before. Jesus started calling me out of my relationship with my boyfriend and back to him. It took months, but on Ash Wednesday during my freshman year of college, I recommitted myself to chastity, received an absolution that was four years overdue, and returned to Holy Mother Church.

When I hear about people who’ve been to Mass every Sunday of their lives except the one where they had chicken pox, dads who left seminary to marry moms, and families who celebrate name days with special dinners, my heart aches. I wish so much that I could have had that kind of spiritual upbringing. I don’t blame my parents, per se. It really was an ordeal to wake me up on Sunday mornings before I started sacrificing that for the Lord. So now, I have to make up for lost time. I have to learn prayers for the first time that my peers have known since grade school. I have to wonder whether my family even bothers going to church when I’m not home to make them feel obligated (which, of course, they are).

There are signs, though, that my catch-up efforts aren’t in vain. I don’t know much about the saints at all, for example. I love St. Cecilia, my Confirmation saint and the first whose story I really got to know. St. Frances of Rome, my first annual patron saint, is buried in the Church of St. Cecilia in Rome. My middle name is Nicole; I used to live in Germany, where St. Nicholas is widely venerated. My birthday is August 30, the old-calendar feast day of St. Rose of Lima, my second annual patron saint. And finally, next year’s annual patron, St. Wolfgang, is another beloved German saint who was a noted teacher. Even after all this time, God’s sense of humor still amazes me.

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Dec 13 2007

Hearing from the Halo

Category: Catholicism,General — Lindsay @ 12:10 pm

BustedHalo a great site that puts a lighter spin on spirituality. It’s run by Paulists, so there’s a large Catholic presence, but I really like the balanced, “seeking” way it treats other faiths as well. (Except for that article about the alleged religious sister who loves The Vagina Monologues….) Plus, I won a signed copy of James Martin’s A Jesuit Off-Broadway!

There have been some exceptional interviews lately. The Faith Between Us, by Peter Bebergal and Scott Korb, details the personal religious journey of the two men, who sought to be a Jewish mystic and a Catholic priest respectively, but found meaning else. Says Korb:

I was sitting there with my stepfather in the days before he died and he said to me, “Look, you have to take care of your mother when I’m gone.” And that became my Christian inheritance, and that became my experience. My stepfather was a very devout Catholic and for him, his experience was that his own afterlife didn’t seem to matter to him in the moment, but only that we—his children—would take over where he left off in taking care of my mother.

I think this moment is less about his stepfather’s focus on this world instead of the next, and more about his focus on leaving his family secure because he knows he’s going on. In that moment, heaven wasn’t as important as making sure his family would be okay. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t thinking about heaven like “a very devout Catholic.”

For twenty years of my life I was sure that I knew how to be a Catholic, that I knew how to live as a religious person, and that meant to be as disciplined as I could and to develop an eating disorder and to decide I wanted to be a priest because I thought that that was what God wanted—was for me to be lonely my whole life. And that’s not to say that I think that priests are lonely. That’s to say that in my perception of the priesthood I was lonely and I wanted to make loneliness—as I say in the book—my vocation.

I can understand this. A lot of times, I fear that I’m too legalistic in my practice of Catholicism. What it is, though, is that I just like living my faith that way. I like following the specific practices and traditions that have come down through the centuries. It’s comforting for me to do the same things at every Mass, every day. There’s no one single way to be Catholic (though I think his self-described “Catholic atheism” pushes it). Some priests (and laypeople) do well in the silence. Some crave activity and live fellowship. The apostles were all very different men, after all.

The magazine also featured an interview with Braddigan of the band Dispatch, which I think I’ve heard of in passing. Clearly, I need to pay more attention, because he is so profound and eloquent.

I think a lot of people identify with Christianity or any faith for that matter as a kind of external clothing. Something you were born into, a tradition, something that stays on the outside and it is in this box and then your life is in this box. People tend to approach their lives like there are the three or four boxes that.

[...] I don’t really understand exactly how as an athlete and as a musician and as a person who loves the Lord—how can I put all that stuff together. He said “You just live one life. You are never supposed to believe that ministry was over here and maybe church is on Sundays and your work Monday through Friday and your vacation…it’s one life and who you carry inside you internally, Christ, the Holy Spirit, this light that the Lord talks about that can’t be hidden…that’s your greatest gift.”

Later, he quotes St. Francis: “Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.” Braddigan really understands that faith is not something you can relegate to a box to check and a place to go on Sundays. Faith gives us life. Faith is life.

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Dec 06 2007

AP Musings about Mormons

Category: Catholicism,General — Lindsay @ 12:09 am

Another news story caught my eye today, this time from the Associated Press: “Theology divides Mormons, evangelicals.” It reads like a beginner’s guide to the LDS (Latter-Day Saints) church. I’m not a fan of Mormonism, but I know they favor the practical application of faith in everyday life and big, loving families, which I like.

The biggest concern people have about Romney in the Republican race is that he’s a Mormon. I always thought it was just their lack of familiarity with Mormonism. It seems to me to be more of a question of practical faith.

Another concern for some: that Mormon church presidents are held out as prophets with revelatory power that can alter the church’s direction and beliefs.

Said [Richard] Mouw, “That notion that things can just get changed is scary for a lot of people who worry that a church with a very strong authority center could influence a public leader by suddenly getting a new revelation that has an impact on public policy.”

This reminds me of what they used to say about JFK, that the pope would control the U.S. Thirty years later, they fear the LDS church leader will do the same. I don’t think either is true. It’s a pity that JFK didn’t live long enough for us to see more of his faith in action.

According to data gathered by the Pew Research Center (which has a great website), only 53 percent of people have favorable feelings towards Mormons; 76 percent towards Jews and Catholics. Clearly that 76 percent does not spend much time on college campuses.

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