Transformed, Not Conformed

I don't have a homily to post this weekend, since it's mission appeal day. It's too bad, because today we hear my absolute favorite line from St. Paul:

I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.
Do not conform yourselves to this age
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)

In a world so wounded by selfishness, violence, and the culture of death, conformity is not an option. Instead of being conformed, we are called to be transformed, to be raised up in the renewing transformation we call the Resurrection of Christ.

16

Here I am receiving the post-baptismal anointing with the Sacred Chrism, having been a neophyte for no more than a minute. That was sixteen years ago today.

Trying to follow the Lord has been a wild ride; it's a good thing I didn't really know what I was getting myself into that day. Since then I've lived at seventeen addresses in six states and four countries.

Augustine's Footprints

St. Augustine was a great discovery for me in theological studies. It was there that I really began to understand the Augustinian nature of the Franciscan tradition. For example:

[One] must get accustomed to discovering the traces (vestigia) of spiritual things in bodies in such a way that when he turns upward from here and starts climbing (ascendere coeperit) with reason as his guide in order to reach the unchanging truth itself through with these things were made. De Trinitate, XII:5, translation of Edmund Hill, OP.

Then moving ahead to Francis:

In whatever way it seems good to you to please the Lord God and to follow his footprint (sequi vestigiam) and his poverty, do it with my blessing of the Lord God and my obedience. Letter to Brother Leo, my translation.

And then to Bonaventure:

For it is in harmony with our created condition that the universe itself might serve as a ladder by which we can ascend (scala ad ascendum) into God. Among created things, some are vestiges (vestigium), some images, some are bodily, others are spiritual...let us place the first step of our ascent at the bottom, putting the whole world of sense-objects before us as a mirror through which we may passs to God, the highest creative Artist. Itinerarium Mentis in Deum,, I: 2, 9, translation of Zachary Hayes, OFM.

St. Monica

The collect for the feast of St. Monica:

God of mercy, comfort those in sorrow, the tears of Saint Monica moved you to convert her son Saint Augustine to the faith of Christ. By their prayers, help us to turn from our sins and to find your loving forgiveness. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

I really think Monica is a saint for our time. So many times I hear from people about their sorrow and anguish at their children who don't go to church or seem to have forgotten about God. My own experience working in the parish confirms their complaint; each time I preside at a wedding and see the church filled with twenty- and thirty-somethings, I wonder where all these folks are on Sunday.

Several times I've expressed my opinion here that this is the fault of our preaching and religious education cultures that teach religious behavior rather than portable spiritual practice and vague moral lessons to follow rather than Mysteries to be stepped into. But that's not the point.

By Monica's prayers the grace of God saved Augustine from vanity, superstition, and concubinage. Seeing as these sins are flourishing in our society, our call to imitate Monica in prayer is clear.

Monica is also the name of the Dell Inspiron 6000 I use for blogging and everything else. It makes the monastery network diagram look funny.

Extraordinary Form

Perhaps you will find this hard to believe about me, but yesterday I went to a Mass celebrated in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite for the very first time.

When Summorum pontificum came out, I thought that I should at least acquaint myself with it, given that under certain circumstances the faithful are now allowed to ask for it in their parishes. So I bought a new edition of the 1962 hand missal, and put the Extraordinary Form in my calendar for each Sunday afternoon. Yesterday I finally got around to going.

It was a Low Mass, so there wasn't much to it. I was pleased to find that I was able to follow along pretty well in my missal. A couple of things really struck me about the whole experience:

First, the people were really dressed for church. Most of the men and boys had jackets and ties, and most of the women and girls were wearing dresses and chapel veils. Sundays are a lot more casual where I work! Second, I can see how this rite wasn't made for the sensibility of frequent communion. When each communicant receives the proclamation Corpus Domini nostri Jesu Christi custodiat te animam tuam in vitam aeternam it makes for a rather long process.

You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God

Peter's confession of apostolic faith is the rock foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ. My homily for this weekend is posted here.

Pedantry

This morning I'm trying to draft my homily for Sunday, and I get caught up wondering if "patient suffering" is a tautology.