Christ, the Eschaton, and Watchful Anticipation
Last Thursday our curial offices had our annual Advent day of prayer and reflection. This year our day was facilitated by our diocesan director for marriage and family life, Deacon Patrick O’Toole. As one would expect, Deacon O’Toole talked about anticipating both the celebration of Christ’s nativity as well as his Second Coming. He challenged us to be prepared at all times — to live our lives with a sense of watchful anticipation, for “of that day and hour no one knoweth, not the angels of heaven, but the Father alone.” (Matthew 24:36) When Christ returns...
Read MoreFaith of my Grandfather
My paternal grandfather never talked about his experiences serving in World War II. I do know that he repaired radios in the African theater, and made it into Italy, but that’s about the extent of my knowledge. It wasn’t something he reminisced about or gloried in. He even refused any military honors at his funeral a few years ago. For my grandfather, the war was something in his past, and while he was proud of his service, he just as soon it stayed there. (My maternal grandfather also served in the war, in the Pacific, but he died well before I was born.) Similarly my...
Read MoreGood Celebration of Liturgy
Last month my office, in conjunction with our diocesan Office for Worship and the Catechumenate, offered a workshop on the Roman Missal, Third Edition to the faithful of our diocese. The introductory section, which I presented, was a brief (10 minute) overview of why good liturgical celebration is important to the life of the Church. We recorded the workshop and I offer my section below. You may notice from the context that the audience at this particular workshop was almost exclusively Catholic school teachers and staff. 2011 Roman Missal Regional Workshop – Good Celebration of...
Read MoreMinisterial Identity Crisis
Fr. Z has an interesting post today on the distinction between ministry and apostolate. Fr. Z. makes the traditional distinction between ministers (read: the ordained) and the lay apostolate (which is lived “in the world”), and warns against over-extending the use of the word “ministry.” All good. A couple of commenters press the issue: What do we call those of us who work for the Church in parish or diocesan positions? We are not “ministers” under the formal definition of the Church, yet neither are we strictly working in the lay apostolate. What are we?...
Read MoreTalked to Any Young Catholics Lately?
I read with some bemusement this morning an editorial by Ken Trainor at US Catholic about young Catholics and the “Spirit of Vatican II”: World Youth Day, I suspect, attracts, inspires and/or meets the spiritual needs of those young people looking for a highly structured, hierarchical, institutionalized approach to spirituality, which is what the official version of the Catholic Church currently offers. It does not reach the many young people, Catholic and non-Catholic, who define themselves as “spiritual,” but are suspicious of institutional religion, often with good reason....
Read MoreIn Praise of Religious Chastity (by a Lay Man)
A few months ago I read The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything by Fr. James Martin, SJ. (A book I heartily recommend, BTW.) Fr. Martin has a gift for talking about the faith in a way that even non-Catholics can understand and appreciate. I was especially taken with his discussion of the evangelical counsels, and this passage on chastity in particular: One of the main goals of chastity is to love as many people as possible as deeply as possible. That may seem strange to those used to defining chastity negatively—that is, as not having sex. But this has long been the tradition of the...
Read MoreMechanical Reconciliation
Like many people my age I made my first Reconciliation in second grade and then didn’t make it back to the confessional for over ten years. (Of course, come to think of it, my first Reconciliation wasn’t in a confessional. In fact, I don’t think I used a confessional until I was 24 years old!) When I did make my way back to the sacrament I felt awkward, unsure of myself and, in my normal fashion, probably over-thinking the whole thing. This made me even more reluctant to go. In fact, it wasn’t until I moved to Michigan for a year that I finally resolved to...
Read MoreJesus, Dumbledore, and Death
Viral Catholic has an interesting post critiquing the Harry Potter series’ take on death: The character whose attitude to death least resembled Jesus’ attitude is Dumbledore. So here is the problem. Knowing what we know about Dumbledore’s manliness regarding death, and his turning his nose down at Voldemort’s running away from death, we can only conclude that if Dumbledore had been in the garden that night of Jesus’ agony, he would have mocked and belittled Jesus the same way he did Voldemort. He would have shook his head in disgust at the sight of Jesus laying there on the...
Read MoreThe Priesthood Question
As a young lay man working for the Church – and I have no reason to believe that I am unique in this – I am often asked, in job interviews and when I tell people what I do, if I had ever considered the priesthood. It’s an honest question, and one I don’t mind answering, but it definitely belies a certain attitude that if you’re male and interested in “churchy” stuff, then you must be called to the priesthood. The truth is that I’ve never felt called to the ministerial priesthood. I thought about it when I was very little, in the same way I thought it would be...
Read MoreThe New Roman Missal is Not Better
I rarely make declarative statements regarding liturgy. As I’ve mentioned before I have had exactly one course in liturgy in my education; it is, to be sure, not my area of expertise. So at the risk of stirring the pot, let me say: The new translation of the Roman Missal we will be using this fall is not a better translation than the old translation. Now before you head to the combox, let me explain. I get very uneasy when I hear people say that the new translation will be “better” than the old. This implies that a) what we have been saying is somehow wrong or deficient,...
Read More
As Featured On
