"In the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes a stream carves a canyon through rock formed during the 1912 eruption of nearby Novarupta Volcano. The snowcapped peaks are Mount Griggs and Mount Katmai (far right), part of an active system of ten volcanoes surrounding the valley, a hundred miles south of the proposed Pebble mine." -- National Geographic
The Trojans hurt themselves at the line in such a foul-plagued game, hitting just 15 of 25 free throws. They missed three of four over the next minute while Juvonte Reddic was scoring inside to make it 53-44.The basics still matter. You have to hit the free throws. Always. Read the rest here. It was a fun game to watch though, just for the thrill of seeing VCU play USC for once. Go Rams! Beat the Hoyas!
“Make a concerted effort to raise the status of the teaching profession” was the top recommendation.University teaching programs in the high-scoring countries admit only the best students, and “teaching education programs in the U.S. must become more selective and more rigorous,” the report says.
The Greek Orthodox Church has a more realistic view of the interconnectedness of nature and humanity. Rather than be at the top of the chain, human beings are considered part of the ongoing process of Creation. People are not stewards who manage and organise but priests of Creation whose role is to sanctify nature and who are open to the mystery of the creative process. When Job cried out to God in anguish, demanding to know the reason for his suffering, God put him in his place:
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding
Who determined its measurements - surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy? (Job 38:4-7)
On this day, we celebrate the feast of St. Patrick, "the first human being in the history of the world to speak out unequivocally against slavery."--from How the Irish Saved Civilization, by Thomas Cahill, Doubleday, New York, 1995, p. 114.
When thinking of Celtic spirituality, it is often difficult to imagine its application apart from the land of its origin. There are, however, numerous ways in which we can incorporate these practices into our own lives right at home. Here are a few suggestions:And of course the Irish Jesuits invite you into Sacred Space everyday with their great website.
How does this square with a tsunami? with nuclear meltdown? It doesn't. And that is hard. But I can't help but think, as spring flowers start to bloom, and the cherry trees start to blossom, that it gives hope, and with hope we can make it through today, into tomorrow.“Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Which one of you would hand his son a stone
when he asked for a loaf of bread,
or a snake when he asked for a fish?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your heavenly Father give good things
to those who ask him."
Margaret C. Schaus, in Women and Gender in Medieval Europe: An Encyclopedia, Routledge, 2006, defines secular canonesses:Canonesses "were generally recognized as women who had adopted the religious life and who lived in community, but yet differed from nuns in several important respects: they made no permanent vows, and thus could leave the community whenever they wished; they did not relinquish private property upon entering the community and even maintained separate residences and servants; they wore secular clothing rather than the black habit of Benedictine nuns; and they performed various public duties, largely freeing them from the requirement of claustration.""Communities of canonesses reaches their apogee in Germany during the ninth and tenth centuries, when a series of new foundations with strong ties to the imperial court were established. The women of these communities, who came from noble families, maintained their power and prestige within the community and were active beyond its walls as well. Under the late-tenth-century rule of abbess Gerberga II, a niece of Otto I, the community at Gandersheim developed into an enormously powerful and independent house, with its own courts, the power to mint coins, a representative at the imperial assembly, and the right to direct protection from the pope. Gandersheim was also, like many houses of canonesses, a center of learning where daughters of the aristocracy could gain an education. The Latin writings of Hrotsvit of Gandersheim demonstrate her knowledge of a range of classical and medieval authors and reflect the richness of the community's library. Other communities, like Chelles, where Charlemagne's sister Gisela was abbess, were active in book production and included female scribes amongst their number." Page 107.
It's true that the phrase "Vatican II" (as in "Vatican II priests" or "Vatican II parishes) has become Catholic shorthand for "more progressive or liberal," as opposed to "more traditional or conservative." How sad that even a mention of such an historic moment in our church has become divisive.
I was born during the Second Vatican Council, and the parish I grew up in embraced its reforms wholeheartedly. Critics would say it even went beyond what the council called for in some instances. But it did an excellent job of teaching and modeling the Gospel to me, and I tend to think it inspired me in a way that much of the church before Vatican II would not have. Still, the reforms of Vatican II were just that: a reforming and reclaiming of parts of our tradition that had been lost. In the years since, there has also been some tweaking of the reforms, as there should be.
I proudly claim the label "Vatican II" Catholic.
What is a "Vatican II parish" or "Vatican II Catholic" to you? Should this phrase be retired? Is it too divisive?So, what's your answer?
The brothers in Egypt are said to have frequent prayers, but they are very brief and, as it were, suddenly hurled, lest protracted delays may cause to vanish or to dull the alert and aroused attention that is indispensable to one praying. By this they also show that this attention, if it shouldn’t be dulled when it can’t last, also shouldn’t be suddenly broken off when it continues. For if we shouldn’t indulge in a lot of talk in our prayer, neither should we avoid sustained prayer when fervent attention continues. To talk a lot while praying is to use superfluous words to ask for a necessary thing, while sustained praying brings the heart’s continued and pious emotion to the one to whom we are praying. For quite often praying consists more of groans than of words, more of tears than of talk. God looks upon our tears, and our groans are not hidden from him who made all things by his word and does not need human words. We need words, then, to help us consider and to observe what we are asking for, not in order to inform or to sway the Lord. (Augustine Epistle 130, 20-21; PL 33, 501-502)
At ALL Masses today there will be a Second Collection today for the Cathedral's Catholic Campus Ministry. If you would like to donate online, you can do so here.
Following Mass there will be hospitality on the plaza provided by the CCM Student Leadership. Please stop by the tables to register if you are a VCU Student, Faculty or Staff Member, or Alum. You can also pick up one of our new Polo or T-Shirts! All of the info about the upcoming CCM events will be available and tours of the CCM house will be on-going.
"The 20s are a black box, and there is a lot of churning in there. One-third of people in their 20s move to a new residence every year. Forty percent move back home with their parents at least once. They go through an average of seven jobs in their 20s, more job changes than in any other stretch. Two-thirds spend at least some time living with a romantic partner without being married. And marriage occurs later than ever. The median age at first marriage in the early 1970s, when the baby boomers were young, was 21 for women and 23 for men; by 2009 it had climbed to 26 for women and 28 for men, five years in a little more than a generation."
"We are in the midst of making our own stories -- stories of folk Masses, and writing petitions and stapling them to construction paper for grade school Mass, and CCD, and World Youth Day, and LifeTeen youth groups.So how are we going to tell our stories? If you are a young adult and have a story to share please send it to me. I'd love to start posting some of them!
The future of Catholicism seems very much to rest on how we young Catholics decide to remember and tell our own stories."
"[I]f one starts from "conservative" or "conserve," there is no reason why "liberal" is the opposite. In fact, the only way to conserve all that is best in the past is to be liberated from elements that are always a threat to our continuity with the past."I find myself to be "deeply conservative" in the way Moran describes. What do you think? I would love to hear your thoughts.
"Parish memory is an antidote to nostalgia. There was never a golden age when we prayed without ceasing, cared for the poor without complaining and shunned gossip. There was never a time when our priests were all attentive and wise in the confessional, eloquent yet brief at the ambo and saints on the streets. Lay and clergy, they were like us, humans who try -- and fail -- to love God and their neighbors."
"Why don't you think of [Christ] as the coming one, who has been at hand since eternity, the future one, the final fruit of a tree, with us as its leaves? What is keeping you from hurling his birth into evolving times and from living your life as though it were one painful beautiful day in the history of a great pregnancy? Don't you see that everything that happens becomes a beginning again and again? Could it not be his beginning, since a beginning in itself is always so beautiful? If, however, he is the most perfect one, would not what is less than perfect have to precede him, so that he can choose himself from great abundance? Would not he have to be the last one, in order to envelop everything within himself? And what sense would our existence make, if the one we longed for had already had his existence in the past?
By extracting the most possible sweetness out of everything, just as the bees gather honey, we thus build him. With any insignificant thing, even with the smallest thing--if only it is done out of love--we begin, with work, with a time of rest following, with keeping silent or with a small lonely joy, with everything that we do alone, without participants or supporters, we begin him: the one whom we shall not experience in this lifetime, even as our ancestors could not experience us. Yet they who belong to the distant past are in us, serving as impetus, as a burden to our fate, as blood that can be heard rushing, as a gesture rising out of the depths of time," - Rainer Maria Rilke, from "Letters to a Young Poet"
From Universalis: "He was the son of a peasant farmer, and a slow and unpromising candidate for the priesthood: he was eventually ordained on account of his devoutness rather than any achievement or promise.
In 1818 he was sent to be the parish priest of Ars-en-Dombes, an isolated village some distance from Lyon, and remained there for the rest of his life because his parishioners would not let him leave. He was a noted preacher, and a celebrated confessor: such was his fame, and his reputation for insight into his penitents’ souls and their futures, that he had to spend up to eighteen hours a day in the confessional, so great was the demand. The tens of thousands of people who came to visit this obscure parish priest turned Ars into a place of pilgrimage.
The French State recognized his eminence by awarding him the medal of the Légion d’Honneur in 1848, and he sold it and gave the money to the poor."Thursday: The Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome (where I attended Mass on New Year's Day, Jan. 1 2000, with Pope John Paul II)
From Universalis: "The Council of Ephesus in 431 formally proclaimed the mother of Jesus as the Mother of God, and the church (basilica) of St Mary Major on the Esquiline Hill in Rome was built shortly afterwards to celebrate her motherhood. This is the oldest church in the West that is dedicated to Our Lady.
The title “Mother of God” may seem technical or even excessive; but it emphasizes the central truth of the Incarnation, that Jesus Christ was not only a true man, but God also; and not only God, but man born of a woman."and, Blessed Frédéric Janssoone, 1838-1916
"He was born in Flanders, the youngest of thirteen children. When he was nine years old, his father died, and he left school to help support his mother, until her death in 1861. He then joined the Franciscans and became a priest. After serving as a military chaplain and preaching in the Holy Land, he was sent to Canada on a fund-raising tour in 1881, settling there permanently in 1888. By his preaching and his writing he led many people to bear authentic witness to the Gospel and share his closeness to Christ."Friday: The Transfiguration of the Lord
The Gospel of the Day: Luke 9:28b-36Saturday: Pope St. Sixtus II and his companions, ?-258
Jesus took Peter, John, and James
and went up a mountain to pray.
While he was praying his face changed in appearance
and his clothing became dazzling white.
And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah,
who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus
that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.
Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep,
but becoming fully awake,
they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.
As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus,
“Master, it is good that we are here;
let us make three tents,
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
But he did not know what he was saying.
While he was still speaking,
a cloud came and cast a shadow over them,
and they became frightened when they entered the cloud.
Then from the cloud came a voice that said,
“This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”
After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone.
They fell silent and did not at that time
tell anyone what they had seen.
From Universalis: "Sixtus was elected Pope in 257. Twelve months later, on 6th August, as he was celebrating Mass in the catacomb of St. Calixtus, he was seized by the authorities (it was the time of Valerian’s persecution) and beheaded along with four of his deacons. He was buried in the same catacomb. St. Laurence, another deacon, was captured and executed four days later.We know most of the details of this martyrdom from a letter of St. Cyprian, who was himself martyred later in the same year."and, St. Cajetan, 1480-1547
From Universalis: "He was born in Vicenza and became a priest at the age of 36. He worked hard for the poor and the sick and for the reform of the Church; with this last aim in mind, he founded a congregation of secular priests which became known as the Theatines. These had three functions: preaching, the administration of the sacraments, and the celebration of the liturgy.
He encouraged the growth of pawn-shops as a means of helping the poor out of temporary financial difficulties and keeping them out of the hands of usurers. His congregation also cared for incurable syphilitics (a particularly virulent form of syphilis was sweeping Europe, having been imported from the Caribbean by Columbus’s men).
His example encouraged many others on the path to active sanctity. He said [in a letter to Elisabeth Porto]: “Do not receive Christ in the Blessed Sacrament so that you may use him as you judge best, but give yourself to him and let him receive you in this Sacrament, so that he himself, God your saviour, may do to you and through you whatever he wills.”
"Well, I love that story about this woman. I can see this woman coming up to Jesus and saying, “Heal my child.” And Jesus gives her the silent treatment. How often do we get silence from God. But silence is not to intimidate us.And from the second one:
And so she says again, “Jesus, please heal my child.” Jesus replies, “I am busy healing the Jews first. The Greeks come later.” She said, “I need help now.” She was not intimidated by the apparent busyness of Jesus.
She again persisted, “Please, heal my child.” Jesus replied, “Woman, you are like a yelping puppy. Yelp. Yelp. Yelp. Yelp. Yelp. You are like a yelping puppy under my table.”
The woman laughed and said, “Well, you feed a yelping dog and you shut him up. How about me?”
Jesus said, “Great is your faith. Your daughter is healed.”
That is the way we ought to pray."
"Matthew does not give us any indication of whether Jesus smiled at her word play and her cunning, or whether he accorded her the ancient Palestinian equivalent of, "You go, girl!" We don’t know what he felt at losing an argument. What’s clear is that he recognized truth when he heard it and saw a gentile ready to be part of a flock much bigger than the one he had been sent to. "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted."
The Canaanite woman’s persistence not only made her daughter whole; it also showed Jesus the larger world he had come to listen to and heal."
Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul.
And the other things on the face of the earth are created for man and that they may help him in prosecuting the end for which he is created.
From this it follows that man is to use them as much as they help him on to his end, and ought to rid himself of them so far as they hinder him as to it.
For this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things in all that is allowed to the choice of our free will and is not prohibited to it; so that, on our part, we want not health rather than sickness, riches rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, long rather than short life, and so in all the rest; desiring and choosing only what is most conducive for us to the end for which we are created.I really think the key is to read this Gospel in light of our "higher calling" to serve God, as Fr. Patrick put it in his homily today. By the way, you can see the New Yorker cover he referenced here.
He was born and died in Imola in northern Italy. He was made bishop of Ravenna, the new capital of the Roman Empire, and was responsible for many of the building works there. The name “Chrysologus” means “golden speech”, and was given to Peter because he was such a gifted preacher; unfortunately, most of his writings have perished, and only a collection of short sermons remains.Justin de Jacobis's feast is the same as Ignatius':
Justin was born in Italy in 1800. He joined the Vincentians (Lazarists) and later was sent to Abyssinia (Ethiopia-Eritrea) as a missionary. He studied the local language and culture and slowly developed a special love for the Abyssinian traditions which he used in his missionary ministry. Made bishop in 1849, De Jacobis worked hard for the formation of the Catholic Church, establishing a seminary together with Blessed Ghebre Michael, and ordaining several priests. He died in Eritrea on 31 July 1860. His missionary methodology, rooted in inculturation, is both a legacy and a challenge for missionaries today.And Alphonsus Ligouri, whose feast of August 1st is offset this year because it falls on a Sunday:
He was a Neapolitan lawyer who lost a court case in a spectacular fashion, when it turned out that a key document in his case had been misinterpreted by him and in fact proved his opponent’s case instead. He immediately left the law and studied for the priesthood. But God is not proud, and accepts people even on the rebound: Alphonsus became a priest.
He preached in the rural districts around Naples, and it was his boast that he never delivered a sermon that the poorest old woman in the congregation could not understand. His bishop asked him to establish an order of missionaries to work in the countryside, and the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (the Redemptorists) was formally established in 1749.
He was a bishop from 1762 to 1775, insisting on the dignified and unhurried celebration of the Mass and the firm treatment of persistent wrongdoers.
The Redemptorists proved to be a quarrelsome congregation: their formal establishment had been delayed by more than a decade because of internal dissension. After his retirement Alphonsus had to try to make peace within the congregation. Unfortunately his old failing returned and he signed a new Constitution for the Redemptorists without reading it properly (though, to be fair to him, he was 80 and in poor health at the time). The result was that the Redemptorists split into two separate congregations, both of whom rejected Alphonsus: peace was not restored until some time after his death.
Nevertheless, in spite of all this storm and trouble, Alphonsus lived an exceptionally holy life. He was also an outstanding moral theologian, and won back sinners to the fold by patience and moderation. His work needs to be better known today, when there seems to be no rational middle course between puritanism and permissiveness.
Saint Ignatius was born in 1491 at Loyola in Cantabria. He spent his early years at court and as a soldier. Later he was converted to God and undertook theological studies at Paris where he attracted his first followers, and afterward at Rome he joined them together as the first members of the Society of Jesus. He exercised a most fruitful apostolate both by his written works and in the training of his disciples who won great praise for their renewal of the Church. He died at Rome in 1556.From the Office of Readings:
From the life of Saint Ignatius from his own words by Luis Gonzalez:
Ignatius was passionately fond of reading worldly books of fiction and tales of knight-errantry. When he felt he was getting better, he asked for some of these books to pass the time. But no book of that sort could be found in the house; instead they gave him a life of Christ and a collection of the lives of saints written in Spanish.
By constantly reading these books he began to be attracted to what he found narrated there. Sometimes in the midst of his reading he would reflect on what he had read. Yet at other times he would dwell on many of the things which he had been accustomed to dwell on previously. But at this point our Lord came to his assistance, insuring that these thoughts were followed by others which arose from his current reading.
While reading the life of Christ our Lord or the lives of the saints, he would reflect and reason with himself: “What if I should do what Saint Francis or Saint Dominic did?” In this way he let his mind dwell on many thoughts; they lasted a while until other things took their place. Then those vain and worldly images would come into his mind and remain a long time. This sequence of thoughts persisted with him for a long time.
But there was a difference. When Ignatius reflected on worldly thoughts, he felt intense pleasure; but when he gave them up out of weariness, he felt dry and depressed. Yet when he thought of living the rigorous sort of life he knew the saints had lived, he not only experienced pleasure when he actually thought about it, but even after he dismissed these thoughts, he still experienced great joy. Yet he did not pay attention to this, nor did he appreciate it until one day, in a moment of insight, he began to marvel at the difference. Then he understood his experience: thoughts of one kind left him sad, the others full of joy. And this was the first time he applied a process of reasoning to his religious experience. Later on, when he began to formulate his spiritual exercises, he used this experience as an illustration to explain the doctrine he taught his disciples on the discernment of spirits.You can also read a reflection by Jesuit Father James Martin on Ignatius here in an excerpt from his recently published book (which I am currently reading) The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything.
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will. All I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me.
Saint Martha was a sister of Mary and Lazarus. When she received the Lord as a guest at Bethany, she looked after him with devoted attention. She begged the Lord to raise her brother, Lazarus, from the dead.Just a couple of weeks ago we heard the story of Jesus visiting Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, according to Luke. Martha the busy-bee in the kitchen providing Jesus hospitality and complaining to him that her sister wasn't helping. Jesus telling her that Mary chose the better part. And because of that story Martha sometimes gets a bad reputation. Martha is often the emblem of the problems of over-work, over-stretching, over-stressing -- of just being too busy to sit and listen. And there is a lesson there for us in that interpretation, and also a lesson in understanding the value of hospitality. But all of this is at the expense of overlooking her role in the Gospel of John.
"She said to him, 'Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.'"No one up to that point in the Gospel of John has made such a statement. Martha's belief, Martha's faith, was the first and as a result Lazarus was raised. Martha stands at the center of John's Gospel. Not Peter, not her sister Mary or any of the other Marys, not James or John. Martha.
Father, your Son honored Saint Martha by coming to her home as a guest. By her prayers may we serve Christ in our brothers and sisters and be welcomed by you into heaven, our true home. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
"The economists don’t pretend to know the exact causes. But it’s not hard to come up with plausible guesses. Good early education can impart skills that last a lifetime — patience, discipline, manners, perseverance. The tests that 5-year-olds take may pick up these skills, even if later multiple-choice tests do not."Patience, discipline, manners, perseverance. All traits learned early. All traits that make more of a difference in the working world than anything measured on a multiple choice test.
Tell me, then, what is the source of your wealth? From whom did you receive it, and from whom the one who transmitted it to you? “From his father and his grandfather.” But can you go back through the many generations and show the acquisition just? It cannot be. The root and origin of it must have been injustice. Why? Because God in the beginning did not make one man rich and another poor. Nor did he later show one treasures of gold and deny the other the right of to search for it. He left the earth free to all alike. Why then, if it is common, do you have so many acres of land, while your neighbor has no portion of it?Over at SLU's Center for Liturgy there are some great reflections and guides to the readings for those who are looking for multiple perspectives from which to tackle these thorny issues.
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,Often we hear that the answer is for the those who have to share with those don't. Or for a systematic restructuring of resources, or for more tithing, or more whatever so that there is more justice. But in this conversation Jesus' critique is so much more damning than that, and so much more universal. Jesus is, in effect, telling the brother to not want the inheritance. He does not believe that sharing is the answer, the answer is not wanting in the first place.
“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”
Then he said to the crowd,
“Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.”
"But for many of us, purpose is happiness—particularly those of us who find moment-to-moment happiness a bit elusive to begin with. Martin Seligman, the positive-psychology pioneer who is, famously, not a natural optimist, has always taken the view that happiness is best defined in the ancient Greek sense: leading a productive, purposeful life. And the way we take stock of that life, in the end, isn’t by how much fun we had, but what we did with it. (Seligman has seven children.)
About twenty years ago, Tom Gilovich, a psychologist at Cornell, made a striking contribution to the field of psychology, showing that people are far more apt to regret things they haven’t done than things they have. In one instance, he followed up on the men and women from the Terman study, the famous collection of high-IQ students from California who were singled out in 1921 for a life of greatness. Not one told him of regretting having children, but ten told him they regretted not having a family.
“I think this boils down to a philosophical question, rather than a psychological one,” says Gilovich. “Should you value moment-to-moment happiness more than retrospective evaluations of your life?” He says he has no answer for this, but the example he offers suggests a bias. He recalls watching TV with his children at three in the morning when they were sick. “I wouldn’t have said it was too fun at the time,” he says. “But now I look back on it and say, ‘Ah, remember the time we used to wake up and watch cartoons?’” The very things that in the moment dampen our moods can later be sources of intense gratification, nostalgia, delight."Give the whole thing a read though, parent or not. You won't be disappointed.
"From an ancient tradition, going back even to the second century, the parents of the Virgin Mary are known by the names of Joachim and Ann. Devotion to Saint Ann is found in the sixth century in the East, and by the tenth century it was widespread in the West. Saint Joachim was likewise honored, but at a more recent date."While it is great to honor them as the parent's of Mary, with the focus traditionally on Mary's Immaculate Conception, I want to take another angle. That is, they are Jesus' Grandparents! Now really, how cool is that?
God of our fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, you gave Saints Joachim and Ann the privilege of being the parents of Mary, the mother of your Incarnate Son. May their prayers help us to attain the salvation you have promised to your people. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
"Saint James, son of Zebedee and brother of St. John the apostle, was born at Bethsaida. He was present at most of the miracles performed by Christ and he was put to death by Herod around the year 42. He is especially honored at Compostela in Spain where a famous church is dedicated to his name."You can learn much more about the famous pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, or the Way of St. James, here, and here, and here from the Confraternity of St. James. You can learn more about the Santiago Cathedral here. Closer to home, the Seattle Cathedral is also named for St. James and you can visit this terrific parish here.
St. James,
We come to you in eager pilgrimage.
Place yourself, patron of pilgrims,
at the head of our pilgrimage.
Teach us, apostle and friend of the Lord,
the way which leads to him.
-- Prayer of Pope John Paul II at Santiago de Compostela, 1989
"Our Trojan student-athletes are indeed students first and foremost; thus the USC experience must ensure that they are nourished by and beholden to the noblest values of the academy and of society. And USC's athletic program, embodying our shared values and ideals, will continue to serve as the force binding this worldwide Trojan Family." -- USC President-Elect Max Nikias
He said to them, "When you pray, say:Question of the day: Do we actually forgive everyone in debt to us? And I'm pretty sure that Jesus meant real hard monetary debt. If we don't, can we really ask God to forgive us? I have to admit, Jesus makes praying hard when he frames it that way.
Father, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test."
"And I tell you, ask and you will receive;So maybe today's prayer needs to be the antecedent, "Father, help me to forgive those in debt to me." Pray, rest, repeat. Pray, rest, repeat.
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened."
