Today we celebrate the memory of St. Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus. Good Franciscan that I am, I didn't know the first thing about Ignatius until I had to read his Reminiscences for a course at school. It's really quite remarkable and worth the time. Ignatius is really an early modern person and thus may be easier for us to resonate with than some of the medieval or antique saints.
I find the similarities in trajectory in the vocations of Ignatius and Francis striking. Both embark on their religious life after a long convalescence from war injuries. Neither follows what would have been a traditional path for the time. Instead they grope about with their dreams and spiritual practice until a new form of religious life, suited to their time, emerges from their inspiration.
Let's keep our Jesuit brothers in prayer today as they celebrate. I know I'm grateful for the Jesuit education I've received from them.
July 31, 2006
July 29, 2006
Creation and Coincidence
I'm passing this weekend in a huge empty seminary. I'm between a workshop that was last week and another one that starts on tuesday. Yesterday almost half a day went without my seeing anyone. It felt like The Shining. Well, when I put the TV on last night to see if anything was on, there it was. And I watched it too.
And I thought, this is funny. This is a coincidence. A funny coincidence can be delightful; it makes us question the random and meaningless universe us late modern people have been taught to believe in.
In fact, the most primordial movement of reality is a delightful coincidence. God, such and overwhelming love and goodness, overflows into a perfect coincidence of God. God's perfect love and goodness demands that God be both Lover and Beloved. And so we see the original mutual delight within God that we call God the Father and God the Son.
Maybe when we delight in a coincidence and find in it something of that most human sense, humor, we can a see a faint shadow of that most originary movement: The procession of the Word from the unbegotten God.
And I thought, this is funny. This is a coincidence. A funny coincidence can be delightful; it makes us question the random and meaningless universe us late modern people have been taught to believe in.
In fact, the most primordial movement of reality is a delightful coincidence. God, such and overwhelming love and goodness, overflows into a perfect coincidence of God. God's perfect love and goodness demands that God be both Lover and Beloved. And so we see the original mutual delight within God that we call God the Father and God the Son.
Maybe when we delight in a coincidence and find in it something of that most human sense, humor, we can a see a faint shadow of that most originary movement: The procession of the Word from the unbegotten God.
July 27, 2006
Cardinal George
Keep Francis George, the archbishop of Chicago, in your prayers today. He's been diagnosed with bladder cancer.
July 26, 2006
Anne and Joachim
Today we celebrate the memory of Jesus' maternal grandparents. They were perhaps very ordinary people, apart from having a daughter whom God brought into the world without the effects of original sin. But maybe they didn't even have a sense of that great mystery.
It makes me think about ancestors and grandparents. From what little I know about my own grandparents, I already realize that there is a lot of them in me. It's one of those things that touches the mystery of human being; there's a lot about yourself that you don't know and perhaps can't ever know.
It makes me think about ancestors and grandparents. From what little I know about my own grandparents, I already realize that there is a lot of them in me. It's one of those things that touches the mystery of human being; there's a lot about yourself that you don't know and perhaps can't ever know.
Human Resources
This week I am at workshop on the human resource management of parishes, a little introduction to everything a pastor might need to know about being an employer in our litigious and service-based economy.
It all makes me see how much church life has come to be modeled as a kind of small business centered around the provision of pastoral care and spirituality as a consumer good. Is this a valid inculturation of the faith in our north american context? Or is it a submission to an economic paradigm at odds with the Gospel? If we really had a catholic culture, would we need to think in these ways?
I'm not pushing one opinion or the other; I'm genuinely unsure about this.
It all makes me see how much church life has come to be modeled as a kind of small business centered around the provision of pastoral care and spirituality as a consumer good. Is this a valid inculturation of the faith in our north american context? Or is it a submission to an economic paradigm at odds with the Gospel? If we really had a catholic culture, would we need to think in these ways?
I'm not pushing one opinion or the other; I'm genuinely unsure about this.
July 24, 2006
Travel
Today is one of those mornings when I'm off on a trip. That means packing a bag, turning off the alarm clock, changing the voice mail message, taking out the garbage, hitting the road for a week or two.
There's something about this process, even if I'm only going to some tedious workshop somewhere, that makes me feel curiously alive and optimistic. Maybe that's why the Holy Spirit made me want to join an itinerant order.
There's something about this process, even if I'm only going to some tedious workshop somewhere, that makes me feel curiously alive and optimistic. Maybe that's why the Holy Spirit made me want to join an itinerant order.
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