Welcome Back BBQ Today!

Come join us after the 5:15pm Mass today for the Annual CCM Welcome Back BBQ! All are welcome! We shut down Cathedral Pl. at 3pm and get the party started... see you there!

Today at the Cathedral

Important Note:

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.

9am -- Mass with Bishop DiLorenzo.
11am -- Mass with Fr. Patrick Golden.
12pm -- "New Family" Social: Back to School Lunch
2pm -- CCM Student Leadership Team Meeting
5:15pm -- Mass with Fr. Michael Boehling.

The New CCM Website

Yesterday we launched our newest version of the CCM Website, thanks to the hard work of senior Kasey Miller. We hope that you will explore all that the site has to offer and now we want your feedback. What do you like, what do you want more of, are there any errors that missed our attention? Send us an email at nstein@richmondcathedral.org with your comments.

Just for Parents...

Parents of college students and "emerging adults" take note. This article in the New York Times Magazine today is just for you. Here's a taste:

"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."

Young Adult Catholics: Telling Our Own Stories

Thanks to a friend for sending me this link to another article on Patheos. This one on Young Adult Catholics.

"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.

The future of Catholicism seems very much to rest on how we young Catholics decide to remember and tell our own stories."

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!

On Being Deeply Conservative...

Gabriel Moran, of NYU, is considered to be one of the fathers of the modern Religious Education movement. Here is an essay he wrote "On Being Deeply Conservative." It is absolutely intriguing reading. Moving beyond liberal vs. conservative to seeing the inherent and necessary connection between the two is only one of the many important points of discussion in the article. Moran's deep understanding of the importance of history is another. Here's a taste:

"[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.

See a list of syllabi and essays from Moran here.

The Case for Stability...

Nussbaum writes about the virtue of stability in her column at NCR here. This is what the saints in the pews do for the church and especially for young adults, week after week, if only we'd listen to them....

"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."

Quote For The Day II - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

From last Sunday, but it took a week to sink in...

Quote For The Day II - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

"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"

More Saints and Memorials from the past week...

Wednesday: St. John Vianney, the Cure of Ars, and the Patron of this past year's celebration of the Year of the Priest, 1786-1859

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-36

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.

Saturday: Pope St. Sixtus II and his companions, ?-258

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.”

All New CCM @ VCU Resource Guide!

After weeks of work our new CCM @ VCU 2010-2011 Resource Guide is complete and ready for viewing here. Please check it out and let us know what you think. And even better, let us know if there is something that you want to sign up for. There are only two weeks until the freshmen move in -- so sign up for all of our events now!

The Canaanite Woman and Jesus

On Wednesday I gave the reflection during our noon Liturgy of the Word with Distribution of Communion. The gospel of the day was Matthew's version of the story of the Canaanite woman who asked Jesus to cure her child. In the course of my research for writing the reflection I came across two wonderful reflection pieces. You should read them here and here.

Money quote from the first one:

"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 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."

And from the second one:

"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."

Unexpected Joys of Life at the Cathedral

On Tuesday morning I gave a tour of the Cathedral to a visiting group from Louisville, Kentucky. The Confraternity of St. Ann for Disabled People came to Richmond for their annual week-long road trip. They had Daily Mass on Tuesday and then stayed to tour the Museum of Virginia Catholic History. For more information about this great group visit their website here.

Quote of the day from one of the group's chaperone's, a sweet little old lady, "That was the year I was born," pointing to a picture caption reading 1912, making her 98 years old. "You know, I've never been sick. I had the flu once in 1936, but nothing since then." God bless her and her ministry!

USC's New President

On Tuesday August 3rd, C.L. Max Nikias took the reigns as USC's newest President. I received my invitation to the Inauguration Ceremony, to be held on October 15th, in my inbox on Wednesday. Nikias looks to be a protégé of Steven Sample, the outgoing President. If he is then USC has a couple of decades of even more stellar growth and accomplishment to look forward to. I know that I and all of the Trojan Family around the world wish him our best and offer all of our support.

Last year, in what I would assume was a marker of things to come, Nikias gave the Pullias Lecture at the USC Rossier School of Education. You can read it here. It is nothing short of a manifesto for the future of higher education. It is incredible. Read it in its entirety. It is a vision of the future worth fighting for. In Jesuit-speak it is the equivalent of Ignatius' call to go "set the world on fire" -- except he ties it back to the Greeks, which for a man born and raised in Greece is only appropriate.

This past crazy week...

Hi All,
I'm back. Sorry for not posting this week. Things were busy at work with Fr. Patrick on vacation and then Samantha got sick and everything got thrown off--she's all better now and the boys are great. Anyway, lots of interesting items to pass along from the past week, and then plenty to post for the coming week. Enjoy and keep reading. And, remember, if there are things that you find that you think I should post send them to me and I'll see what I can do!
Nick

Further Reflection on Today's Gospel...

Listening to today's homilies and reflecting further on today's Gospel in light of yesterday's feast for Ignatius led me back to Ignatius' First Principle and Foundation from the Spiritual Exercises.

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.

Peter Chrysologus, Justin de Jacobis, and Alphonsus Liguori

Other Saints from the past few days in the Church's calendar include Peter Chrysologus, a Bishop and Doctor of the Church whose feast day was Friday the 30th:

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.

 

July 31: St. Ignatius of Loyola

I know this is a day late, but I couldn't pass up commenting on yesterday's feast day, even if I did take a couple of days off from writing.

St. Ignatius, the founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) is the closest thing I have to a personal patron saint. He's by far the most personally influential saint I have ever known and in so many ways is my role model. So, if you don't know anything about him, get to know him. If you do know about him, join me in thanking him for all that he has done for the "greater glory of God."

From the Liturgy of the Hours:

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.

And so in thanksgiving let us pray the prayer that Ignatius taught us, the Suscipe:

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.