St. Anthony Messenger June 2018

Sharing the spirit of St. Francis with the world V O L . 1 2 6 / N O . 1 • JUNE 2018

FATHER ROB GALEA

MUSIC OF

HOPE IN THIS ISSUE:

Television reviews from Christopher Heffron page 50

JUNE 2018 • $4.99 StAnthonyMessenger.org

A FATHER’S DAY PRAYER FROM GUILT TO GRACE A CUP OF MARITAL MEMORIES

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Prayer Everywhere

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VOL. 126 NO. 1

JUNE

2018

COVER STORY

COVER and ABOVE: For Father Rob Galea, the goal of his music is to spread the message of God’s love.

20 A Father’s Day Prayer

By Brian Doyle

Loving his wife, being father to their children—these are moments of grace for a prayerful man.

TOP AND INSET: COURTESY OF FRG MINISTRY

24 From Guilt to Grace

By Angela Steiert

A cultural immersion project in the Philippines sets the stage for a profound experience of God’s loving forgiveness.

26 Saying Our Prayers

32 Spreading Hope through Music:

An Interview with Father Rob Galea

By Susan Hines-Brigger

Addiction, depression, music, and faith—all are part of this popular priest’s journey.

40 A Cup of Marital Memories

By Kristina M. Santos

A 46-year-old mug, now slightly damaged but still intact, becomes an unexpected metaphor for her marriage.

44 Fiction: Doughnuts, Coffee,

and Redemption

By Michael T. Best

One night changed everything. Would the shop survive?

By Mary Ann Maynard

The prayers we learned in childhood don’t have to be left there.

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Beautiful. Simple. Life-giving.

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In All Seasons, For All Reasons Praying Throughout the Year James Martin, SJ The Christian desire to share anguish, fear, gratitude, and awe has found expression in a variety of forms of prayer. In this welcome and welcoming book, Fr. James Martin gives thoughtful, practical encouragement for prayer in all of its forms.

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LOWER LEFT: CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING

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VOL. 126 NO. 1

“Let us have charity and humility and give alms because these wash the stains of our sins from our souls.”

2018 JUNE

—St. Francis of Assisi

SPIRIT OF ST. FRANCIS 14 Ask a Franciscan

16 30 POINTS OF VIEW 7

My Problem with the Rosary

Letters from Readers

16 Franciscan World

12 Editorial

16 St. Anthony Stories

30 At Home on Earth

17 Followers of St. Francis

54 Faith & Family

Friars Minor Capuchin

St. Anthony’s Franciscan Spirit

Messenger Holds the Clue

To Till or Not to Till

Kathleen Flanagan

LOWER LEFT: CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING

Your Voice

MEDIA MATTERS 48 Reel Time

Pope Francis: A Man of His Word

50 Channel Surfing America Inside Out with Katie Couric

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Be Still

48 55 51 Audio File

Yo La Tengo: There’s a Riot Going On

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE 5 Dear Reader

51 Pete & Repeat

18 Notes from a Friar

56 Reflection

8 Church in the News

55 In the Kitchen

52 Bookshelf

The Cost of Compassion

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ST. ANTHONY

MESSENGER PUBLISHER

Daniel Kroger, OFM PRESIDENT

g

Kelly McCracken EXECUTIVE EDITORS

Christopher Heffron Susan Hines-Brigger

FRANCISCAN EDITOR

Pat McCloskey, OFM ART DIRECTOR

Mary Catherine Kozusko MANAGING EDITOR

Daniel Imwalle

EDITOR AT LARGE

John Feister

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Sharon Lape

dear reader A Higher Calling

I

f you’ve never been to the annual Los Angeles Religious Education Congress in Anaheim, California, imagine a sea of religion teachers, communicators, book authors and publishers, parish staffers, Catholic media titans, and sellers of spiritual swag gathered in a large convention center for three days.

It numbers 40,000—and it certainly feels that way. At this year’s Congress, however, one individual seemed to stand out: Father Rob Galea. Surrounded by fans, handlers, and selfie-seekers, Father Rob, I observed, was the breakout figure of this event last March.

Priest, singer, musician, author, evangelizer: He fits into each category, and yet he is impossible to categorize. My coexecutive editor, Susan Hines-Brigger, interviewed him for this month’s cover, and we think you will be inspired by his story.

Growing up in Malta, Father Rob wrestled with addiction until the grace of God brought him to a higher plane—and a higher calling. The humanness of Father Rob’s story is one to which we all can relate. Who among us hasn’t felt broken, lost? His visceral pleas to God will surely resonate.

The staff of St. Anthony Messenger would like to thank you for joining us in this journey of faith. As members of the body of Christ, isn’t it humbling to know we’re in this together?

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE ADVERTISING

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Susan Hines-Brigger, Executive Editor

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PRINTING

Kingery Printing Co. Effingham, IL ST. ANTHONY MESSENGER (ISSN #0036276X) (U.S.P.S. PUBLICATION #007956 CANADA PUBLICATION #PM40036350) Volume 126, Number 1, is published monthly for $39.00 a year by the Franciscan Friars of St. John the Baptist Province, 28 W. Liberty Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-6498. Phone 513-241-5615. Periodicals postage paid at Cincinnati, Ohio, and additional entry offices.

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To subscribe, write to the above address or call 866-543-6870. Yearly subscription price: $39.00 in the United States; $69.00 in Canada and other countries. Single copy price: $4.99. For change of address, four weeks’ notice is necessary. See FranciscanMedia.org/subscriptionservices for information on your digital edition.

Writer’s guidelines can be found at FranciscanMedia.org/ writers-guide. The publishers are not responsible for manuscripts or photos lost or damaged in transit. Names in fiction do not refer to living or dead persons.

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MICHAEL T. BEST

BRIAN DOYLE

KRISTINA M. SANTOS

Doughnuts, Coffee, and Redemption

A Father’s Day Prayer

A Cup of Marital Memories

writer

writer

PAGE 20

PAGE 44

Michael T. Best is the author of two novels for young readers (The Road to Thune and Odyssey Rising) as well as Great Americans: The Founders, a history book that profiles 10 forgotten heroes of the Revolutionary War era.

His writing has appeared in Liguorian, Elks Magazine, and Boys’ Life. He is married with two sons.

writer

PAGE 40

Brian Doyle was a novelist and essayist in both the religious and secular literary worlds. As the editor of the University of Portland literary journal, Portland Magazine, his work and words influenced thousands. He passed away in May 2017.

Kristina Santos has published short stories and articles in a variety of Catholic and Christian magazines.

She and her husband, David, live in an organic apricot orchard in California’s Central Valley. She is grateful for spring blossoms, her books, and her cats.

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The Hearts of Faith Rosary Bracelet will be sent to you in gratitude for your gift of $10 or more. Your donation will support the ministries of the Missionary Oblates as we serve poor and needy people in our missions around the world.

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POINTSOFVIEW | YOUR VOICE Sister Jean for the Win! I thought the March issue was great, especially during Lent. It was fortuitous to pick Sister Jean Schmidt for the cover, given the Final Four race (“Courtside with Sister Jean,”

by Karen Calloway and Joyce Duriga)! I was intrigued by Jim Auer’s “‘I Was in Prison and You Wrote to Me’” and thought I would look into a prison pen-pal program.

Pat Frey, Cincinnati, Ohio

New Magazine Design Keeps Fan Favorites First off, I like the new format of St. Anthony Messenger. It contains so many interesting images. I also appreciate how the features were rearranged, while keeping some of my favorites such as “Pete & Repeat,” movie and book reviews, and Susan Hines-Brigger’s “A Catholic Mom Speaks” column repurposed as “Faith & Family.” I also enjoy the new format for “Ask a Franciscan.”

Kathleen Farago, Cleveland, Ohio

A Very Franciscan Magazine Thank you for a wonderful magazine. The redesign is well thought-out and easy to read.

I’ve been a subscriber for many years and appreciate the high standards you adhere to and the hard work that goes into making this a first-rate publication.

In “Faith & Family,” Susan Hines-Brigger’s ability to integrate faith and current events with being a wife and raising her four children always feels authentic. Her candor with her many life difficulties (MS, parent/ caregiver) helps support my faith and perhaps others also struggling with life’s difficulties.

I look forward to reading the “Media Matters” section as well as Pat McCloskey’s

“Ask a Franciscan” and Kyle Kramer’s “At Home on Earth” columns. Your new column “In the Kitchen” and other monthly columns are so interesting and informative. Thank you for keeping up your high standards and the Franciscan mission. My only disappointment with the new magazine is that the fiction stories don’t appear every month.

Janet Hebert, Schenectady, New York

Letters Represent Diversity of Views I must reply to letters submitted in the April issue of St. Anthony Messenger. Travis Middleton (“Time to Face Reality”) asserts that the Catholic Church must bear the sin of all abortions—or the moral decay in America.

His broad strokes include suggestions that we should “stop the theatricals and start facing our reality.” He seems to support abortion on one hand and criticize all Catholics on the other. I guess I’m missing something here.

He does make the suggestion that personal responsibility for both men and women could stem the tide of the bloodletting.

I believe the pro-life marches bring to light the breadth and scope of the human need.

If they are “theatrical,” then so be it. Let the information be disseminated by whatever means it takes to grab the attention of folks.

This is effectively the Gospel in the streets.

Hence, I might repeat the comment by Jim Littwin in his letter, “The Oneness of Creation,” that you are “fair-minded enough to allow the opposition a voice.” Hopefully, this letter serves the purpose of allowing all readers the benefit of disparate points of view so that our collective conscience becomes informed and then impacted to be the good that we wish to see in the world. Yes, yours is a fine publication. Kudos.

Ann Werner, Venice, Florida

Editor’s Note: We’ve received a number of letters asking for more resources regarding prison pen-pal ministries. Below is a list of organizations with pen-pal ministries and other prison ministries you can contact for more information: • The Catholic Diocese of Raleigh: DioceseofRaleigh.org • The Franciscan Friars of Holy Name Province: hnp.org • The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph Human Rights program: HumanRightskcsj.org • St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Communty (McKinney, Texas): StGabriel.org • International Network of Prison Ministries: PrisonMinistry.net DISCLAIMER: Letters that are published do not necessarily represent the views of the Franciscan friars or the editors.

We do not publish libel. Please include your name and postal address. Letters may be edited for clarity and space.

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people | events | trends

VATICAN RELEASES PAPAL DOCUMENT ON JOYS OF DAILY LIFE

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n April 9, the Vatican released Pope Francis’ latest apostolic exhortation—“Gaudete et Exsultate” (“Rejoice and Be Glad”)—on “the call to holiness in today’s world,” reported Catholic News Service (CNS).

The majority of the document was written in the second person, as if the pope were speaking directly to the reader. He said it was not a theological treatise on holiness, but that he focused mainly on how the call to holiness is a personal call, something God asks of each Christian and which requires a personal response given one’s state in life, talents, and circumstances.

“We are frequently tempted to think that holiness is only for those who can withdraw from ordinary affairs to spend much time in prayer,” he wrote. But “that is not the case.

“We are all called to be holy by living our lives with love and by bearing witness in everything we do, wherever we find ourselves,” he said.

In the document, the pope makes references to the “saints next door,” saying he likes “to contemplate the holiness present in the patience of God’s people: in those parents who raise their children with immense love, in those men and women who work hard to support their families, in the sick, in elderly religious who never lose their smile.”

At the press conference, Archbishop Angelo De Donatis, the papal vicar for the Diocese of Rome, said, “The pope wants to tell us that holiness is not something else apart from our everyday life, but it is exactly our ordinary existence lived in an extraordinary way.”

An apostolic exhortation is considered one of the highest-ranking papal documents, after encyclical letters. Pope Francis has issued two other exhortations: “Evangelii Gaudium” in 2013 and “Amoris Laetitia” in 2016.

POPE MAKES ‘HISTORIC’ APPOINTMENTS

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n April 21, Pope Francis appointed three laywomen as consultors to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith—a move the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano referred to as “historic.” The pope’s appointments mark the first time women and laypeople were named as active contributors—not support staff.

The three appointees are Linda Ghisoni, Michelina Tenace, and Laetitia Calmeyn. Ghisoni is one of two women Pope Francis named to be undersecretaries of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family, and Life in 2017.

Ghisoni is a seasoned canon lawyer and jurist, having served as both a lawyer and a judge on the Diocese of Rome’s tribunal, the Roman Rota, and the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments. Tenace is a professor and head of the Department of Fundamental Theology at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University. In 2016, she was one of the 12 men and women the pope appointed to a commission to study the issue of women deacons, particularly their ministry in the early Church. Calmeyn teaches theology at the College des Bernardins in Paris and is a nurse specializing in palliative care.

THREATENED TREES PLANTED IN VATICAN GARDENS

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n an attempt to protect certain tree species, a number of Italian fruit and nut tree species were planted in the Vatican Gardens this past April, according to CNS. The Italian tree conservation association, Patriarchi della Natura, made the donation as part of its national effort to protect biodiversity by collecting and propagating native tree species that are threatened or in danger of extinction in their natural habitats.

Rafael Tornini, director of the Vatican Gardens, Sergio Guidi, “The Pope’s Orchard” will be a small “field gene bank,” or collection of living plant species in need of protection, the association said in a written president of an Italian tree conservation association, and Vincenzo Soldano, who works in the Gardens, are pictured after press release.

The fruit and nut trees represent some of Italy’s oldest and most rugged planting a donated sapling in the Vatican Gardens April 18. species that are naturally resistant to inclement weather and pests, which means they do not need pesticides or other chemicals, the association said.

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CNS PHOTO: TONY GENTILE/REUTERS

By Susan Hines-Br ig ger

TOP: CNS/COURTESY GABRIELE PIAZZOLI/PATRIARCHI DELLA NATURA; BOTTOM: CNS

church IN THE NEWS

PRIESTS’ GROUP RECOMMENDS REVISIONS IN US PRIESTLY FORMATION

CNS PHOTO: TONY GENTILE/REUTERS

TOP: CNS/COURTESY GABRIELE PIAZZOLI/PATRIARCHI DELLA NATURA; BOTTOM: CNS

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his past March, the Association of US Catholic Priests (AUSCP) sent a letter and eight-page document to the chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations. It called for revisions in the way seminarians are prepared for ministry so that the US Catholic Church can better address challenges such as declining membership and falling seminary enrollment, reported CNS. The letter and document sent to Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, chairman of the committee, addressed five areas of concern: the “departure of millions of Catholics from active participation and membership in the Church”; the decreasing number of priests and men entering studies for the priesthood; the declining number of Church marriages and Baptisms; fewer parishes; and the “growing identification of Americans as ‘spiritual’ rather than ‘religious.’”

The bishops’ committee is currently reviewing the Program for Priestly Formation, the fifth and most recent edition of which was published in 2006.

The committee is expected to submit revisions for a new edition of the guide at the November 2019 fall general assembly of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The work partly comes in response to the December 2016 release by the Vatican Congregation for Clergy of “The Gift of Priestly Vocation,” a detailed set of guidelines and norms for Latin-rite priestly formation. The new guidelines and norms also ensure continuing education, training, and support for priests.

Father Ronald C. Chochol, a retired priest in the Archdiocese of St. Louis and chairman of the AUSCP’s Working Group on Priestly Formation, said the organization’s members have become increasingly concerned that the Church has not adequately addressed a series of challenges that have emerged in recent

Priests lie prostrate during their ordination by Pope Francis during a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.

decades because priests are not as closely connected with their parishioners.

“The issue is maybe this system, this model [of formation] is not adequate to the present,” Father Chochol told CNS. The AUSCP represents a minority of the total number of US priests. There are 37,959 priests, according to the 2017 edition of the Official Catholic Directory.

CARDINAL BURKE ADDRESSES PAPAL AUTHORITY

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uring a conference in Rome this past April regarding confusion within the Catholic Church, US Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, a canon lawyer and former head of the Vatican’s supreme court, said that while the pope is the highest authority in the Church, he can exercise that authority only in obedience to Christ. If he does not, it is up to the Catholic faithful to object, reported CNS. “Any expression of doctrine or practice that is not in conformity with divine revelation, contained in the sacred Scriptures and tradition of the Church, cannot be an authentic exercise of the apostolic and Petrine ministry and must be rejected by the faithful,” said Cardinal Burke, regarding papal authority.

The meeting—titled “Church, Where Are You Going?”­—came out of what participants see as growing confusion in the Catholic Church, particularly because of the way Pope Francis opened the possibility for some divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion in his apostolic exhortation on ministry to families—“Amoris Laetitia.”

In 2016, Cardinal Burke, along with German Cardinal Walter Brandmuller, a Church historian, and two cardinals who are now deceased, released a set of dubia, or questions on which they asked Pope Francis for clarification regarding the issue. They said opening a process that eventually would allow such couples to receive the sacraments would seem to indicate that “people who are not married can, under certain circumstances, legitimately engage in acts of sexual intimacy”; “the divorced and remarried are legitimate spouses and their sexual acts are lawful marital acts”; or that “the faithful can approach the eucharistic table even with consciousness of grave sin, and receiving absolution in the sacrament of penance does not always require the purpose of amending one’s life.”

After the meeting, organizers released a statement saying, “Amidst the grave danger to the faith and unity of the Church that has arisen, we baptized and confirmed members of the people of God are called to reaffirm our Catholic faith.”

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church IN THE NEWS

POPE APOLOGIZES FOR ‘SERIOUS MISTAKES’ REGARDING CHILEAN ABUSE CASES

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his past April, Pope Francis sent a letter to the bishops of Chile, in which he apologized for underestimating the seriousness of the sexual abuse crisis in the country, following a recent investigation into allegations concerning Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, reported CNS. In the letter, the pope said he made “serious mistakes in the assessment and perception of the situation, especially due to a lack of truthful and balanced information. I ask forgiveness of all those I have offended, and I hope to be able to do it personally in the coming weeks.”

Abuse survivors Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton, and Jose Andrés Murillo traveled to the Vatican the weekend of April 28.

Greg Burke, director of the press office of the Holy See, said on April 25 that during the personal encounters, Pope Francis “wishes to ask them for forgiveness, to share their pain and his shame for what they have suffered, and, above all, to listen to all their suggestions so that such reprehensible acts do not happen again.”

Burke said that the Holy Father will meet each survivor individually, allowing them as much time as they wish to talk about their experiences.

During his visit to Chile this past January, the pope asked forgiveness for the sexual abuse by clergy but pledged his support for Bishop Barros. “The day they bring me proof against Bishop Barros, I will speak. There is not one piece of evidence against him. It is calumny,” he told reporters.

He later apologized and admitted that his choice of words wounded many.

Abuse survivors alleged that Bishop Barros—then a

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priest—had witnessed their abuse by his mentor, Father Fernando Karadima. In 2011, Father Karadima was sentenced to a life of prayer and penance by the Vatican after he was found guilty of sexually abusing boys. The priest denied the charges; he was not prosecuted civilly because the statute of limitations had run out. Protesters and victims said Bishop Barros is guilty of protecting Father Karadima and was physically present while some of the abuse was going on.

Shortly after his trip to Chile, Pope Francis sent an investigator, Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, to Chile to listen to people with information about Bishop Barros.

Archbishop Scicluna is president of a board of review within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; the board handles appeals filed by clergy accused of abuse or other serious crimes. The archbishop also had 10 years of experience as the Vatican’s chief prosecutor of clerical sex-abuse cases at the doctrinal congregation.

Pope Francis said that Archbishop Scicluna and his aide, Father Jordi Bertomeu Farnos, heard the testimony of 64 people and presented him with more than 2,300 pages of documentation. Not all of the witnesses spoke about Father Karadima and Bishop Barros. Several of the witnesses gave testimony about abuse alleged to have occurred at a Marist Brothers’ school.

After a “careful reading” of the testimonies, the pope said, “I believe I can affirm that all the testimonies collected speak in a brutal way, without additives or sweeteners, of many crucified lives, and, I confess, it has caused me pain and shame.”

WANT MORE? Visit our newspage:

FranciscanMedia.org/catholic-news

CNS PHOTOS, LEFT: EDUARDO MUNOZ/REUTERS; MIDDLE: PAUL HARING; RIGHT: SEBASTIAN SILVA/EPA

LEFT: Juan Cruz shakes hands with a Franciscan friar following a meeting with Archbishop Charles Scicluna (middle) of Malta, Italy, in late February at the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus in New York City. Pope Francis said that, after he read the archbishop’s report on clergy sex abuse in Chile, he felt “pain and shame,” especially because of the many “crucified lives” of victims. Chilean Father Fernando Karadima (right) attends a 2015 hearing at the Supreme Court building in Santiago.

4/30/18 12:19 PM

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POINTSOFVIEW | EDITORIAL

St. Anthony’s Franciscan Spirit “A solution lies not in one side versus the other, and not in running away from today’s lepers.”

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here are three giants in the earliest years of Franciscanism: Sts. Francis, Clare, and Anthony. Francis and Clare, of course, were founders. In the broadest sense, one could think of Francis as the heart of the movement, a heart profoundly engaged with the world, seen through the lens of poverty. Clare, as Franciscan scholar Ilia Delio, OSF, describes her, was a woman who coupled her own engagement in the real world with contemplation found in poverty and in a lifelong struggle against men to fulfill her radical calling.

What Francis and Clare were showing in deed, St. Anthony of Padua brought to the booming movement in word. Yes, he was a Franciscan in his poverty and in his radical lifestyle. He brought, though, intellectual formation both as a tool for evangelism and as a foundation for ministry.

Interestingly, all three were from well-off families.

Anthony had been a fully trained priest in Lisbon, one who was moved by the witness of friars to join the Franciscan movement. He sought to follow the friars, possibly in martyrdom, engaging Muslims in Morocco.

Instead, he wound up in Italy, called to bring his intellectual formation to bear on the rapidly growing brotherhood of Franciscans. The little group that had followed Francis into poverty outside Assisi’s walls had grown wildly, in a short time, to thousands of friars.

Anthony joined the friars at a time when they were sorely in need of his skill. Friars knew simplicity, but there was a war of ideas happening around them too. Anthony took to preaching Scripture and, with Francis’ approval, teaching the friars sacred theology. In granting permission to Anthony to chart this new Franciscan course, the founder said Anthony could teach the friars “as long as you do not extinguish the spirit of prayer and devotion with study of this kind.” As scholar Dominic Monti, OFM, notes, St. Francis may well have granted this permission begrudgingly, realizing both that the Franciscans needed more formation and that more formal education would introduce a worldly temptation.

A FAITHFUL PATH

That’s all very interesting—or boring, depending upon your take. But it’s relevant as we consider the Franciscan spirit today. There are foundations of heart, spirit, and intellect in each of these Franciscan heroes, and we need to retain all three as we consider how to be modern followers of Francis.

For Anthony, understanding Christianity correctly involved not only deep knowledge of Scripture (and, of course, sharing that knowledge) but also establishing social justice. In Father Dominic’s telling, it was reconciliation

among warring political factions and relieving the poor of unjust debts. Sound familiar?

Today’s society is as fraught as Anthony’s with warring ideologies, violence among competing political interests, religion mixed in with politics, struggles for power, injustice against the poor, and more. Especially in our country, it’s also competing religious visions—some see religion as something disengaged from the world, while others see religion as justifying one or another political cause.

Like the earliest Franciscans, we can see that a solution lies not in one side versus the other, and not in running away from today’s lepers, but in finding a faithful path among the factions and maintaining a fruitful presence among the poor.

We know from our Catholic tradition that a faithful path includes seeing our social reality through the lens of Gospel values. That means advocacy for life “from womb to tomb,” one that includes protection of the unborn and the dying, without a doubt, but also includes protecting the vulnerable who are somewhere between womb and tomb. Beyond protection for the powerless, it also involves the work of justice, of helping people get on their feet and utilizing the power that human dignity gives to each of us. We not only ensure that our newest little ones are born, but also that they live in economic security. We advocate for a dignified death just as we have advocated for a dignified life along the way.

Flowery as it may sound, it all gets real and challenging as we practice this Gospel sense. We actually work to protect the unborn. We work to provide shelter and dignity to homeless people. We use our vast resources to provide opportunity rather than barriers to immigrants, to pursue alternatives to for-profit prisons, to judge our social policies and our elected leaders against the measure of justice.

Along the way, in the spirit of Francis, of Clare, of Anthony—of Jesus himself—we seek joy. But ours is not some kind of plastic joy, ignoring the pain of the world so that we can be ever-smiling but unconcerned Christians. We seek the joy that comes from being who God wants us to be in the world. It’s not the joy of empty fervor; it’s the joy of standing with people weak and strong, doing the work of justice, praying the prayer that opens our hearts, walking the talk of Christianity.

It’s the joy of digging in with Anthony and doing our homework so that we can speak not only with the authority of personal witness, but also with the authority of spiritual formation. Book learning is part of the package. That, perhaps more than anything, is the spirit of St. Anthony, inspired by the spirit of St. Francis.

—John Feister

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SPIRITOFST.FRANCIS | ASK A FRANCISCAN

By Pat McCloskey, OFM

My Problem with the Rosary

I was raised Catholic but drifted away in my early 20s. I came back in my late 20s, very much influenced by a man who prayed the rosary with great devotion.

Unfortunately, he eventually betrayed me, lied to me, and acted in a completely ungodly way. Now when I try to pray the rosary, I can’t stop thinking about him and how he betrayed me. Does the rosary still count for people like that?

Father Pat welcomes your questions!

ONLINE: StAnthonyMessenger.org E-MAIL: Ask@FranciscanMedia.org MAIL: Ask a Franciscan 28 W. Liberty St. Cincinnati, OH 45202

All questions sent by mail need to include a self-addressed stamped envelope.

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’m sorry for what you experienced, but I don’t think any of us can afford to link our faith completely to someone else’s. Human sin is all too real, often ensnaring individuals whom we considered people of great faith.

Can you afford to let your faith rise and fall with the holiness or sinfulness of an individual follower of Jesus? What about the “faith of the Church,” to which the celebrant refers at every Mass after the Our Father?

Your faith is apparently touching your life at a deeper level than it was touching his. I encourage you not to allow his actions to rob you of a faith that you are now allowing to become deeper every day.

Telling My Children about Muslims I am a Roman Catholic mother. What should I tell my children about Muslims and their faith?

The history of Islam is terrible, and what is happening now in Europe is no better.

WANT MORE? Visit our website: StAnthonyMessenger.org

WE HAVE A DIGITAL archive of “Ask” Q & As, going back to March 2013.

Just click: • the Ask link and then • the Archive link.

Material is grouped thematically under headings such as forgiveness, Jesus, moral issues, prayer, saints, redemption, sacraments, Scripture—and many more!

Our faith calls us to respect followers of other religions.

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ou should tell them what the Catholic Church believes: Muslims are people created and loved by God. Like all other people, some of their members reflect that love better than others. Although some Muslims are terrorists, the vast majority of Muslims are not.

Section three of Vatican II’s “Declaration on the Relation of the Church to NonChristian Religions” says that the Church has a high regard for Muslims. “They worship

God, who is one, living and subsistent, merciful and almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has also spoken to humanity. . . .

They highly esteem an upright life and worship God, especially by way of prayer, almsdeeds, and fasting.”

The bishops then acknowledged past conflicts between Catholics and Muslims but urged all Catholics to achieve mutual understanding. “For the benefit of all, let them together preserve and promote peace, liberty, social justice, and moral values.”

In the “Addresses” section of Vatican.va, you can find many speeches of Pope Francis to Muslim groups, reflecting and expanding what Vatican II taught in 1965. Blessed Paul VI, St. John Paul II, and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI did the same. More recent events (including violence by Christians against Muslims in Europe and the United States) do not nullify Vatican II’s teaching, but rather make it even more urgent.

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Pat McCloskey, OFM

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Quick Questions and Answers I occasionally take a medication to become intimate with my wife. What is the Church’s teaching on this?

The Church has no specific teaching on this—only a recommendation that you do this under a doctor’s direction.

Individual Catholics may have strong feelings about this, but there is no Catholic position about this book or film. Because I need no convincing that evil is very real, I have chosen not to read the book or see the movie.

That does not make me better or worse than Catholics who have made the opposite choice. Exorcists officially designated by the Catholic Church tell us that genuine diabolic possession is fairly rare.

I am confused by Romans 8:19–21. Is earth to become heaven if we learn properly? The passage reads: “For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.”

Jesus cautions us not to think of heaven simply as an extension of earth (for example, in Matthew 22:30, whether there is marriage in heaven). I think “the glorious freedom of the children of God” should make us ready to accept whatever God has prepared for those who go to heaven.

BREAD s

FRANK JASPER, OFM

I found the novel and movie The Exorcist very powerful and affirming of my Catholic faith. Are Catholics urged to accept or reject both the book and the film?

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ST. ANTHONY

The National Shrine of St. Anthony is located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Consecrated in 1889, it includes a first-class relic of St. Anthony and serves as a center for daily prayer and contemplation.

The Franciscan friars minister from the shrine. To help them in their work among the poor, you may send a monetary offering called St. Anthony Bread. Make checks or money orders payable to “Franciscans” and mail to the address below.

Every Tuesday, a Mass is offered for benefactors and petitioners at the shrine. To seek St. Anthony’s intercession, mail your petition to the address below. Petitions are taken to the shrine each week.

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viSit our webSite to:

How can I help the Dreamers and my fellow brothers and sisters wanting to come to the United States?

Pray for Dreamers, support local efforts on their behalf, and make your views known to those who represent you in Congress. Every country, including the United States, has a right to control its borders. All three branches of government work together to do that. By the way, our country has had a tradition of family reunification long before the term chain migration became a negative expression.

The accounts of Jesus’ passion make no mention of St. Joseph, his foster father. Where was he?

St. Joseph disappears from the Gospels after Jesus was lost in the Temple and then reunited with Mary and Joseph (Lk 2:41–52). Christians have assumed that he died before Jesus began his public ministry at about the age of 30.

StAnthony.org

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mAil poStAl communicAtionS to:

St. Anthony Bread 1615 Vine St. Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498

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SPIRITOFST.FRANCIS “Each saint in heaven rejoices over the glorification of the other; mutual love overflows in both directions.”

—St. Anthony of Padua

FRANCISCAN WORLD

By Pat McCloskey, OFM

Friars Minor Capuchin

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WHEN FRANCISCAN Father Ambrose Sanning was looking for a patron for a new magazine, he did not have to look far. In the United States, at least, more churches have a statue of St. Anthony of Padua than of St. Francis of Assisi.

Anthony’s preaching was extremely fruitful and was the basis for this publication’s three aims: to help readers be better Catholics, better family members, and better citizens, including an ability to recognize social justice as flowing from the Gospels.

and frequent guest speaker at international conferences, may be the most well-known Capuchin friar today.

Capuchins have been active in foreign and domestic missions while also serving in parishes and emphasizing studies as a means of spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.

In the United States, Capuchin provinces are headquartered in Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Colorado, with vice provinces in Texas and Puerto Rico.

ST. ANTHONY STORIES

Messenger Holds the Clue

May he continue to inspire all of us!

—Pat McCloskey, OFM

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Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa

WANT MORE? Learn about your saints and blesseds by going to: SaintoftheDay.org

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was late mailing out our family Christmas cards and could not find my address book. My daughter said, “Mom, don’t forget to pray to St. Anthony as Great-Grandma Yahn always did.”

So, while searching, I said a quick prayer, and lo and behold, not only did I find my address book, but it was hidden under my newest issue of St. Anthony Messenger! Thank you, St. Anthony!

—Liz St. George Donovan, San Jose, California

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JOHN FEISTER

Anthony continues to be our patron as we begin our 126th year of publication.

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ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA

he Capuchin friars, once a reform group among the Observant friars, received papal approval in 1528. They follow St. Francis’ Rule of 1223 and their own legislation.

Committed to very strict poverty and fasting, the friars combined itinerant preaching and life in hermitages. They also received permission to wear beards.

The Capuchins were nominally under the Conventual general minister until 1619, when they received the right to have their own general minister (worldwide head) and general chapter (a regularly scheduled meeting to elect new leadership and make major decisions for the order).

As the Capuchins grew in Europe, they soon became famous for their care of poor people and victims of plague.

Lawrence of Brindisi, Felix of Cantalice, and Fidelis of Sigmaringen were among their earliest recognized saints. St. Pio of Pietralcina was a Capuchin, and so was Solanus Casey, who was beatified in Detroit last November. Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household since 1980

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FOLLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS

What Was Bitter Has Become Sweet

SUBSCRIBERS

“It was during that process that something had changed in my life.”

JOHN FEISTER

UPPER LEFT: FRANK JASPER, OFM; TOP: CNS/PAUL HARING; BOTTOM: MC KOZUSKO/SAM

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t. Francis famously gave it all away to follow God into poverty. Kathleen Flanagan gave away a life of financial opportunity to follow St. Francis. It was crisis and pain that led to her radical change.

Kathleen moved around the United States during her career in finance— from New York to Maine, to Arizona, and, finally, to California, where she oversees management of the multifaceted Franciscan mission there at San Luis Rey, north of San Diego.

She had worked a career in payments as officer of “small companies, large companies, and public companies,” she explains. Her last job was directing global operations for a finance company, a job that took her to various parts of Europe, Asia, and South America.

By then, she and her family lived in Scottsdale, Arizona. An inactive Catholic, but spiritual nonetheless, while traveling she would find “a synagogue or a church or a mosque, whatever was available, and just sort of sit and do my meditation.”

She found her way back to active Catholicism at The Casa, a Franciscan retreat center in Arizona. It was at an intense time of what turned out to be her last corporate job. “It was during that process that something had changed in my life,” she says, recalling a deep tragedy. One of her daughters, a young adult, fell into heroin addiction.

Kathleen’s life unraveled.

Drug addiction soon took away her daughter’s personal freedom. There was dissension in the family; Kathleen stood by her daughter, who eventually overdosed and died. One can only imagine Kathleen’s pain. Her family never fully recovered.

Kathleen Flanagan

Her time standing by her daughter, by then homeless, opened her eyes to another world. She had been, “you know, a little frightened, maybe a little disapproving, maybe a little judgmental.” Her daughter shared with her “lots of stories about another addict who was kind to her, who gave her money,” or outsiders who offered her work, “who buoyed her self-confidence.” That gave Kathleen new eyes for poor people of all types, including immigrants finding their way to Arizona from south of the US border.

While all of this was going on, her friends at The Casa prayed for her: “I could literally feel it. I could literally feel being held up by it.” She found herself identifying more deeply with the faith community.

Eventually, Franciscan Father Joe Schwab, OFM, of St. Barbara Province, told her of a need for a businessperson at Mission San Luis Rey. There the friars receive guests, host a formation program for friars, serve a worshiping community, and operate a large columbarium for the preservation of ashes of the deceased. Kathleen made her final move west, using her well-honed skills to ensure the financial health of the old mission.

“I think, really, this newfound faith or worldview helped me see the goodness and the sweetness in these worlds that I thought of as horrible,” she says.

She considers herself a Franciscan now, in a sense. She sees the world through new eyes, “taking more time to notice beauty in the fog, the flowers, people holding hands when they walk by.”

Though her pain will never be gone, she sees the world through eyes of hope.

—John Feister

On the go?

St. Anthony Messenger has a digital edition that is available to all print subscribers.

• Does not change your print subscription • Easy to register at: StAnthonyMessenger.org

Want more inspiration?

Visit the website FranciscanMedia.org for: • Saint of the Day • Minute Meditations • Family resources • Prayer downloads • Information on the seven sacraments

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SPIRITOFST.FRANCIS | NOTES FROM A FRIAR

by Friar Jeremy Harrington, OFM

Hiding from God WHY RUN?

“God’s very being is love,” states the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

God is not a spy—a security camera capturing our every movement.

“God does not abandon his creatures to themselves. At every moment, he upholds and sustains them in being” (301). His love is like the warming sun.

We are embraced by it. “In him we live and move and have our being,” Paul reminds the Athenians.

In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the priest prays: “God the Father of mercies, by the death and resurrection of his Son, has reconciled the world to himself, and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins.”

There are feasts within the month of June that help us appreciate the personal and pervasive love of God. The feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, June 3, celebrates the real, personal presence of Christ with us in the Eucharist. Out of love, he gave us the gift of himself. He is always available, ready to listen, to support.

June 8 is the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the revelations to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Jesus promised: “Sinners shall find in My Heart the source of an infinite ocean of mercy. I will console them in all their troubles.”

Who needs to hide?

Jeremy Harrington, OFM, is the associate pastor of Transfiguration Parish in Southfield, Michigan. He is the former publisher of Franciscan Media and editor of this publication.

“Sinners shall find in My Heart the source of an infinite ocean of mercy. I will console them in all their troubles.”

–Jesus’ words to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

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he response of Adam and Eve to their tragic sin would be almost comical if it didn’t indicate how we deal with guilt and try to hide—or at least hide our sin—from God. “When they heard . . . the Lord God moving about in the garden . . . the man and his wife hid themselves.” God called, “Where are you?” Adam answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself ” (Gn 3:8–10).

An incident from my childhood comes to mind. When I was 4 or 5 years old, all my siblings were in school.

My mother was busy at her sewing machine. I was playing with her yardstick, trying to wedge it in a doorway.

She told me if I try to force it, it will break.

Sure enough, it broke! I ran to the back of a closet and hid. Amused rather than angry, she coaxed me out. No punishment.

We humans know the temptation of following our own plans, even when they are contrary to God’s. We know better and have to try our way. If it creates a mess, shame can prompt us to try to hide our sin from God. The profound truth is that we cannot hide from God. Psalm 139 expresses this deep truth quite movingly: “Where can I go from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee? If I ascend to the heavens, you are there; if I lie down in Sheol, there you are. If I say, ‘Surely darkness shall hide me’. . . Darkness is not dark for you.”

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ell, my first prayers as a parent were before I was a parent because my slight, extraordinary, mysterious wife and I had been told by a doctor, bluntly and directly and inarguably, that we would not be graced by children, and I remember us walking out of the doctor’s office, silently, hand in hand, and then opening the passenger door to our car for my wife, as my mother had taught all her sons to do or else she, my mom, would reach up and slap you gently on the back of the head for being a boor, and I helped my wife into the car, and bent down to escort the hem of her blue raincoat into the car before closing the door gently, and then I started to walk around to the driver’s side, and I burst into tears, and bent over the trunk of the car, and sobbed for a moment.

My first prayers as a parent, those tears.

Then we prayed for a long time in all sorts of ways. I prayed in churches and chapels and groves and copses and hilltops and on the rocky beaches of the island where we lived at that time. I would have prayed to all the gods who ever were or ever would be except I know somehow deep in my heart that there is one Breath, one Imagination, one Coherent Mercy, as a friend of mine says, and that everything that is came from and returns to That which we cannot explain or understand, but can only try to perceive the spoor, clues, evidence, effect, the music in and through and under all things.

I have never thought that prayers of request can be answered; I do not think that is the way of the Mercy. Yet we do whisper prayers of supplication; I think we always have, since long before our species arrived in this form. Sometimes I think that beings have been praying since there were such things as beings; I suspect all beings of every sort do pause and revere occasionally, and even if we think, with our poor piddly perceptive apparatus, that they are merely reaching for the sun, or drying their wings, or meditating in the subway station between trains, or chalking the lines of a baseball

A FATHER’S DAY

PRAYER

Loving his wife, being father to their children— these are moments of grace for a prayerful man.

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By Brian Doyle

field ever so slowly and meticulously, perhaps they are praying in their own peculiar, particular ways. Who is to say?

Who can define that which is a private message to an Inexplicable Recipient?

So that he who says a scrawny plane tree straining for light in a city alley is not a prayer does not know what he is saying, and his words are wind and dust.

THE TARGET OF MY PRAYERS

Three children were granted to us, a girl and then, together, one minute apart, two boys; and my prayers doubled, for now I knew fear and trepidation for them, that they would sicken and die, that they would be torn by dogs and smashed by cars; and I felt even then the shiver of faint trepidation that someday, if they grew up safely, and did not suffer terrible diseases, and they achieved adulthood, that they would be heart-hammered by all sorts of things against which I could not protect or preserve them; and so I did, I admit it, sometimes beg the Coherent Mercy, late at night, for small pains as their lot, for relatively minor disappointments, for love affairs that would break apart but not savagely, for work that they would like and even maybe love. In the end, I remember vividly, I boiled all my prayers as a parent down to this one: Take me instead of them.

Load me up instead of them. Let me eat the pains they were served at their tables.

I don’t think I ever fully understood the deep, almost inexplicable love of the Christ for us, why he would accept his own early tortured death as a sacrifice, until I had been a father for a while.

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MIRACLE OF THE VIRGIN MARY

Somehow, being a father also slowly but surely changed the target of my prayers over the years. Before we were granted children, I chatted easily and often with my man Yesuah ben Joseph, a skinny gnomic guy like me, a guy with a motley crew of funny, brave, hardworking, boneheaded friends, a guy who liked to wander around StAnthonyMessenger.org | June 2018 • 21

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Somehow, being a father also slowly but surely changed the target of my prayers over the years.

moments when I chanted the Hail Mary to myself while waiting for the coffee to brew.

Why? Because, I think, she was a mother—is a mother. He came out of her. That was a miracle. It is a miracle when a child emerges from his or her mother. I had seen this miracle not once but twice, with my own eyes, from very close to the field of action, and I think something awoke in me after that, something that knew she was there, available, approachable, patient, piercing. Not once in the days since my children were born have I ever felt her absence. I do not say this in a metaphorical way, or as a cool literary device, or as a symbolic hint. I mean what I said. I feel her near us.

I have no opinion about visitations, other than to grin at the ones where people see her face in tortillas and on stop signs, and to wonder quietly about ones like that which occurred to Juan Diego on the Hill of Tepeyac, long ago, that poor man who had to return to the hill for proof to offer the ecclesiastic authority, who gaped when a shower of roses fell to the shivering floor. Perhaps most reports are hallucinations; perhaps all of them. But perhaps hallucinations are illuminations, and there are countless more things possible than we could ever dream.

One thing I know at this age: If you think you know the boundaries and limits and extents of reality, you are a fool.

Thus we pray.

A PRAYER FOR MY CHILDREN

I still pray for them every day. So does my wife, in the morning, by the bed, on her knees, in her pajamas, with her face pressed down upon the blanket of the bed, abashed before the light of the Lord. I have seen this, though I try to be out of the bedroom so that she can pray in private; and every

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outdoors, a guy who delighted in making remarks that were puzzling and memorable and riddlish, a guy—I felt like I knew him pretty well, what with us both being guys and all, and I had confided stuff to him not only as a child, but again after the years during which every Catholic boy in my experience ran screaming and shouting away from the Church, away from authority and power and corporate corruption and smug, arrogant, pompous, nominal bosses issuing proclamations and denouncing dissent.

You tiptoe back toward religion, in my experience, cautiously and nervously and more than a little suspicious, quietly hoping that it wasn’t all smoke and nonsense, that there is some deep wriggle of genius and poetry and power and wild miracle in it, that it is a language you can use to speak about that for which we have no words; and in my case, as in many others I know, this was so, and I saw for the first time in my life that there were two Catholic Churches, one a noun and the other a verb, one a corporation and the other a wild idea held in the hearts of millions of people who are utterly disinterested in authority and power and rules and regulations, and very interested indeed in finding ways to walk through the bruises of life with grace and humility.

So when I tiptoed back into Catholicism, and began taking it seriously, and began exploring and poking under the corporate hood, curious and fascinated by the revolutionary genius under the Official Parts, it was because I was a father, and knew that I needed a language with which to speak to my children of holiness and prayer and miracle and witness and hope and faith. I found, month by month as my children grew from squirming lumps to toddlers and willowy young people and now almost men and woman, that it was to her that I turned, both in desperation and in cheerful, silent 22 • June 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

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time I see it I get the happy willies, that she believes with such force and humility. But I pray on my feet, by the coffee pot, while walking, while waiting for eyeglasses, while stirring the risotto, while washing the dishes, while brushing my teeth, while scratching the dog. I pray that they will be happy.

I pray that they will find work that is play. I pray that their hearts will not be stomped on overmuch—enough to form resilience, but not enough to crush their spirits. I pray that they will live long and be blessed by married love and be graced by children and maybe even grandchildren. I pray that their minds hum and sing and do not stutter and fail. I pray that they will not be savaged by illnesses, but be allowed to live healthy and happy for years beyond my ken and my own life. I still pray to die before they do. I still say thank you, every day, every single day, for being granted children at all; for I am a man who was told, bluntly and directly and inarguably, that my extraordinary bride and I would not be graced by children, and we walked out of the doctor’s office, silently, hand in hand, and we wept.

Our first tears as parents.

We have cried many tears since, for many reasons, and our children have been tumultuous, and troubled, and in great danger, and our marriage has been wonderfully confusing, and troubled, and in great danger. But even now, all these years later, every few weeks I will find myself in tears for what seems like no reason at all; and I know it is because we were blessed with children, three of them, three long, wild prayers; and they are the greatest gifts a profligate Mercy ever granted shuffling, muddled me.

When I am in my last hour, when I am very near death, when I am so soon to change form and travel in unaccountable ways and places, I hope I will be of sound enough mind to murmur this to our three children, and perhaps, if the Mercy has been especially ridiculously generous, our grandchildren: It was for you that I was here, and for you I prayed every day of your life, and for you I will pray in whatever form I am next to take. Lift the rock, and I am there; cleave the wood, and I am there; call for me, and I will listen; for I hope to be a prayer for you and yours long after I am dust and ash. Amen.

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This article is excerpted from Eight Whopping Lies and Other Stories of Bruised Grace (shop.FranciscanMedia.org), Brian Doyle’s final book before he was taken by cancer in 2017. He was a prolific writer, St. Anthony Messenger contributor, and editor of Portland Magazine from the University of Portland, founded by the Congregation of the Holy Cross.

Find your way.

“Brian Doyle was the best Catholic writer of his generation.”

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—Michael Leach, National Catholic Reporter

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From

GUILTGRACE to

A cultural immersion project in the Philippines sets the stage for a profound experience of God’s loving forgiveness.

T

his story begins with my confession: I have looked into the face of Christ and walked away. But this is a story of the healing light of love, not one of darkness.

In graduate school, I happily signed up for an urban-poor immersion in the Philippines as part of a systematic theology course. On the first full day after our arrival, our group of six theology students and a professor were taken on a tour of Manila. We ended up in a local market teeming with people, sounds, and sights. As we were hurrying back to the van, I found myself the last in our single-file line weaving through the crowds.

Still desperately trying to absorb this new world around me, I ended up catching the eye of a woman. She and the baby she clutched to her breast were skin and bones. It was as if the image of starvation I had seen on hunger charity ads throughout my childhood had popped out into my world to meet me.

I stopped in my tracks. I will never forget how the cloth draped over her head or how her hand reached out to me in a wordless entreaty for help. I stared deeply into her eyes and saw Christ, crucified and thirsting. I looked at her and then glanced toward the rest of my party disappearing into the crowd. So many thoughts were wriggling through my head in that split second: Should I give money even though our tour guide told us not to? Should I take the time to give and maybe lose the rest of the group in the crowd? I would have to excavate my money to access it, as it was hidden at the bottom of my bag.

I made my choice, locked eyes with her, begged her forgiveness, and ran after my group.

WHAT DID GOD WANT FROM ME?

I left riddled with guilt that I put myself before her desperate need. I had turned away the Madonna and child who

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FOTOSEARCH, LEFT: ALPTRAUM; RIGHT: WRANGLER

By Angela Steiert

FOTOSEARCH, LEFT: ALPTRAUM; RIGHT: WRANGLER

had come to my door. I had chosen my security and comfort over Christ’s desperate plea for succor. In a bid to rectify my wrong, I cajoled a young Jesuit into taking a few of us back to the same market a few days later so I could shop.

I was so ashamed by what I had not done that I couldn’t even tell my companions the truth of why I wanted to return.

I walked around, craning my neck to locate the woman who was seared into my memory. She was nowhere to be found.

The slow work of God unfolded within my heart. Four months later, I was given the opportunity to lift my guilt and change—to make the choice God had called me to make all along. Until that day, I had not been able to speak my sin aloud. When I finally had the courage to share, I was with a fellow theology student walking toward a church for an ordination.

The words came stiltedly, and the exact moment I finished my confession I was approached by a woman and her two young daughters. She stopped me and asked if I could give her daughters some food. She had run out of money, her daughters were hungry, and she would not get her paycheck for another week.

Turning, I saw Christ in this woman humbling herself before her daughters on their behalf. Gathering them together, I guided them to a restaurant to appease their hunger while listening to their story. I knew the healing light of God’s absolving love through a mother’s face shining with relief.

BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS

I never would have guessed God would teach me such a powerful lesson through my experiences with these two women.

We are taught to first take care of ourselves. American society is steeped in a culture of “every man for himself ” and a blind belief in a nonexistent utopian meritocracy, yet it heaps blame on the most vulnerable. I fight these messages within myself and find that they hold less sway the more I choose the message of Jesus first.

We are made to love. This is both a belief of my faith and a reality I have come to intimately experience in my service to others. We fear what we do not know and in doing so close ourselves off to our very nature. We were meant to pour out our compassion and love on others, and it takes bravery to tear down the barriers of separation and fear that prevent this outpouring. Best of all, when the stranger I serve ceases to be a stranger, I am gifted in turn with euphoria—a taste of the mystical union.

To me, this is the good news Jesus preached and suffered for, and it is how we can fulfill our call to build the kingdom of God with love.

Angela Steiert is a writer and poet who resides in Portland, Oregon. She teaches theology at a Catholic high school and holds a master’s degree in theological studies from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California. She has previously written poetry for this and other Catholic publications.

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Saying Our

PRAYERS The prayers we learned in childhood don’t have to be left there.

By Mary Ann Maynard arlier in my life, I was wary of formulaic prayer—the Catholic prayers I’d grown up with. I’d listened to Protestant friends who condemned repetitious prayer based on the line from Jesus in Matthew 6:7: “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words.” Or, in other versions: “Don’t use vain repetitions.”

I’d observed people who seemed to use standard prayers as magic—in a superstitious sort of way. They seemed to worry that they might not get that house or promotion or cure because they were short one Hail Mary.

I’d prayed, I thought, from the heart, in my own words, and also silently. I felt as if I’d reached a deeper level of sincerity than I had with traditional, recited prayers.

On some level, I considered this kind of traditional prayer outdated, something that might fade away with the older generation. I felt that truly spiritual people outgrew this kind of approach to God. I can’t pinpoint exactly the moment all this changed and I returned to the prayers of our tradition. I do know that I attended informal First Friday mini retreats at the parish I went back to after decades away from the Church.

And partly to be respectful and polite, I learned to participate again—in the Divine Mercy Chaplet, in the prayers for Holy Hour. And I loved it. A couple of rosaries fell into my hands. My hands, more than my mind, remembered the way around the beads. The words came back; they just followed my fingers. And I loved it.

More recently, after a few years of the habit of daily Mass, I found myself going in the middle of the day rather than in the morning, now and then. Just before noon, I’d find myself on my knees with everyone else, saying the Angelus. It came back to me from childhood, across dec-

ades, across centuries.

And so today I put down a few words to defend, encourage, and promote the use of our traditional Catholic prayers.

THE PRAYER CONNECTION

First, they are not only prayers that lift our minds, hearts, and souls to God when prayed thoughtfully and sincerely, but also prayers that connect us. They link us to all the saints who have prayed these prayers, all the faithful who have prayed these prayers, all the priests, religious, Catholic educators, and parents who taught us these prayers. We’re connected to all in our parishes and throughout the world who are saying these prayers in a multitude of languages today.

Many of us, in saying these prayers, are layering our voices and hearts onto those of our own grandparents and our ancestors before them. This is what tradition is. This is what tradition does. In addition, all our internal and external voices are continuous, much like the Mass or the Liturgy of the Hours, in offering our united lives, thanks, praise, petitions, and contrition to God. I love that connection.

I also think about the depth of these prayers in terms of their application at various stages of our lives. I think about how the very connections mentioned above are anchored in childhood when a child is taught to pray like this. I think of the comfort and love children can experience during regular prayers with parents, and I like to think of children absorbing, like a seed absorbing nutrients or an embryo absorbing nourishment, things that they need to grow spiritually— things that will take them to the very heart of the mysteries of these prayers, of God—all below-the-surface “babbling.”

I think of the meanings of the words unfolding over the course of childhood and young adult years, and into middle

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Most of us learned how to pray from our parents and grandparents. When we share those same cherished words with our own children and grandchildren, we help build a sacred bridge between generations.

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and old age. scious has been steeped in I was probably in my 40s them for decades—there is a greater likelihood that they before I experienced the will provide us a spiritual cumulative shock of a sinconnection to reality even cerely prayed, thoughtful when other things are failing Hail Mary, the never fully grasped rightness and truth and fading. They can be a lifeline at the end for some contained in a Glory Be. All people, sending them on, of the desires of God and the drawing them over: a chain needs of our souls—and a of beads, a chain of connecblueprint for the unfolding of tion, a chain of love to simply the world—are present as the words of the Lord’s Prayer are hold on to—a chain that links heaven and earth, person voiced. and God, as we pray our way It was during a normal In dark times of pain or sorrow, illness or injury, we might lose the ability to around it. I find rosaries in my babbling of the rosary that I pray spontaneously. That’s when prayers from our childhood, as familiar as father’s pockets when I check suddenly began to appreciour own name, can be a lifeline between heaven and earth. them before doing laundry. I ate the mysteries. I think of a find them under his pillows when I make his bed. He still babbling brook becoming a creek, flowing into a river, and finally pouring out into the great, vast sea. The water babbles knows the prayers.

I believe the meanings of the words grow and unfold all the way, gaining force, and suddenly a mystery opens. Or as we ourselves do. Maybe we say our childhood Hail at least we get a glimpse of it and can stand, stunned, at its Marys. Maybe we read something or hear something and unknowable expanse and depth. consciously learn to go a little deeper with the Our Father as a young adult. Maybe we get down some more Marian PRAYERS THAT SUSTAIN US prayers, adoration prayers, or saints’ prayers in middle These prayers operate in our subconscious. And that’s why age. Maybe links are discovered in the words of our old, memorization is so important. That’s why it’s not a bad memorized prayers and new ones we may happen upon and thing that we learn these prayers to a point where we can say choose to learn. them mindlessly. During dark times, during times of trial But sit at a deathbed sometime and say a silent Hail and fatigue, when our own words are perhaps silenced or we Mary. Say “now and at the hour of our death” and realize don’t find our own thinking trustworthy, we might not be that this is a lifetime-deathtime prayer. Say an Our Father: able to come up with sincere expressions of thanks, praise, “Thy will be done” and “forgive us our trespasses as we trusting petition, or contrition. forgive those who trespass against us.” Understand that these When we’re so dog-tired or stressed we can’t even sleep, are prayers that accompany us, that grow with us. We need we might not be able to spontaneously pray or meditate. Or we might have trouble, say, in anger, in traffic, or at a sickbed, to make a point of continuing to give them to the young.

They wrap gifts that can evolve exponentially as we age or as when it’s hard to express the conflicting love and everything we need them. else we might feel. I have found that there is something I still can do: I can cling to my beads and say those repetitive rosary prayers and invite all of heaven—and sometimes PRAYERS FOR MIDLIFE AND BEYOND others on earth—to join me. And God does something with I think I was in my early 50s, in my car, when it came to that, under and above the place of thought. my awareness that I really had a guardian angel. It was a I am living with a father who is in the early stages of complete surprise. And I might have dismissed it, except dementia. I know some others who are in more advanced for my immediate, unthought-out response. It came to me stages. So I have been reading about it. One of the things I’ve across decades, my voice together with my mother’s: “Angel tried to think about is how spirituality is connected to all of of God, my guardian dear, to whom his love commits me this. How does a person lift a mind that isn’t fully there to here, ever this day be at my side—to light, to guard, to rule, God? to guide.”

Research indicates that these people function best when It is a different thing to ask for light, guarding, rule, guidanchored in repetitive things from the past: old songs, old ance at 50 than it is at 6. But the same words work. I almost habits, old prayers. The farther back the songs, habits, and had to pull over to consider my lack of appreciation—my prayers go, the deeper they are ingrained, and the more likely lack of submission and cooperation with light, with a being it is that they will not be completely lost. They will retain to guard me, to keep me in line with God’s rule, to guide value for the person and for God. me. The silliness, the ridiculousness of this moment hit me, When prayers are automatic—when our whole subconof course. But all the saints believed in guardian angels. The 28 • June 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

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Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches their existence.

And I was inexplicably happy behind the wheel. I decided to hedge my bets. I now truly believe that such an angel exists for me, for each of us. “My guardian dear.” Who knew? Well, it turns out that I did, all along, the knowledge buried under that early prayer.

When my mother was dying, and I was praying silently beside her bed, I remembered her praying with us before we went to sleep at night when we were young. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul.” I hadn’t heard those words since childhood bedtime prayers. But I didn’t have to think about them. I knew them. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, be with me in my last agony. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, may I breathe forth my soul in peace with thee. Amen.” I hope this prayer is so ingrained in me that I can say it as I near my own death, God willing. Again, this is a prayer that spans a lifetime.

GOD, OURSELVES, OTHERS

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There are so many of these prayers, different ones special to different people, different needs, different occasions. Of course, we can’t just sit around saying all of them. And, of course, there are other forms of prayer. But steady reliance on a handful of our most treasured Catholic prayers will put us in good stead.

These prayers are concentrated. There is great spiritual power in them. There is great potential for us to grow in them and for them to evolve in us during the course of our lives—connecting us to God at deeper and deeper levels.

They help us converse with him, hear him, communicate with him in more and more meaningful ways. They help us lift our minds and hearts to God. Finally, about those vain repetitions. That babbling. Well, first it was gentile, or pagan, babbling that was condemned.

I don’t know what that was—maybe some kind of chant or mantra, maybe just lots of empty words. At any rate, the words were empty, vain, because they were addressed to idols. There doesn’t have to be anything vain about formal, traditional prayer. It was clear during his temptation in the desert that Jesus had the Scriptures memorized. On the cross, Jesus was repeating, perhaps even singing, lines from a psalm.

If I’m blessed to live for a couple more decades or longer, it will be a comfort to know that younger people carry on our traditional prayers. I pray now that parents and parishes make a point of ensuring this. It is a matter of joy, of peace, to think that another generation will be reciting the familiar prayers of a rosary, for example, repeating, babbling, sending out many words, maybe for souls in purgatory—for me, for all of us.

Mary Ann Maynard is a freelance writer and editor who finds joy in daily Mass, adoration, and various church goings-on. Her interests include gardening, hiking, support of local farms and food, birds and other wildlife, and poetry.

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POINTSOFVIEW | AT HOME ON EARTH

By Kyle Kramer

To Till or Not to Till

Kyle is the executive director of the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center, which offers interfaith educational programming in meditation, ecology, and social compassion.

He serves as a Catholic climate ambassador for the US Conference of Catholic Bishopssponsored Catholic Climate Covenant and is the author of A Time to Plant: Life Lessons in Work, Prayer, and Dirt (Ave Maria Press, 2010).

He speaks across the country on issues of ecology and spirituality.

He and his family spent 15 years as organic farmers and homesteaders in Spencer County, Indiana.

EarthandSpiritCenter.org

?

WANT MORE? Visit our website: StAnthonyMessenger.org

O

ne of the things that got me into gardening was a fascination with tilling the soil.

I loved wrestling a big tiller through a garden or pulling tillage implements across the fields with a large tractor. I loved the sight and smell of freshly turned soil. Everything felt full of possibility and potential.

There are costs to tilling, however. It takes a lot of energy, whether supplied by muscle power or fossil fuel. It destroys soil structure, kills beneficial organisms such as earthworms, releases plenty of planet-warming carbon into the atmosphere, and causes massive soil loss due to erosion. America’s historical love affair with tilling has sacrificed old-growth forests, perennial prairies (and the buffalo they supported), and the first people who tended this land long before Europeans came.

Fortunately, there are ways of growing our food and fiber that don’t have so many downsides. Contrarian gardener Ruth Stout became famous for her “no-work” mulch gardening.

Organic farmers are inventing new equipment and methods (and even new crops) to avoid tillage. And indigenous peoples—such as those in the Amazon basin of Brazil, who have been gardening the rain forest for millennia—have plenty to teach us. Since I stopped tilling years ago, I’ve had a lot less work, (mostly) splendid crops, and a profusion of earthworms.

I wonder if our attraction to tilling has deep psychological roots. Perhaps tilling rep-

HELPFUL

TIPS

No Tilling Required!

1

Put down a thick layer of mulch in your garden this year. Next year, you’ll find that earthworms will have left your soil moist, loose, and well fertilized!

2

Our throwaway culture is in some ways a “tillage” culture, plowing under the old in preference for the new. Consider which things in your life you might repair or repurpose instead of pitching them.

3

God wastes nothing, even sin. Reflect on how your faults and mistakes have helped you become the person you are.

LEFT: PHOTO COURTESY OF KYLE KRAMER; MIDDLE: 4774344SEAN/FOTOSEARCH; LOWER RIGHT: BEBEBAILEY/FOTOSEARCH

Kyle Kramer

resents our wish to control our environment and our lives. I think there’s an allure in the clean slate we imagine getting when we turn both our soil and our sins over to the forgotten dark. Maybe we’d rather ignore the less savory parts of our personal and collective history than integrate them in an honest way.

It’s always tempting to seek a new job, a new home, or even a new spouse, rather than stay planted and see if we might thrive where we are. We shape our outer landscape according to our inner landscape.

This is not a new tension. Cain was a “tiller of the ground,” while Abel shunned the plow in favor of herding and husbandry—and we know how that turned out. When we give up control, what remains is to trust in the slow work of God, embodied in nature’s wisdom.

If we take the time to listen to the land and God’s still, soft voice in our own hearts, we may discover a bounty richer than we can imagine.

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(Photo: FMC Missionary David Quinn visiting villagers in L'Asile, Haiti to pray, fellowship, and deliver bags of rice, beans, oil, and other essentials.)

Celebrate the

LEFT: PHOTO COURTESY OF KYLE KRAMER; MIDDLE: 4774344SEAN/FOTOSEARCH; LOWER RIGHT: BEBEBAILEY/FOTOSEARCH

Feast of St. Anthony on June 13!

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www.StAnthony.org The Franciscan Friars, Province of St. John the Baptist 1615 Vine St., Cincinnati, OH 45202 (513) 721-4700 StAnthonyMessenger.org | June 2018 • 31

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Spreading HOPE through MUSIC

Addiction, depression, music, and faith—all are a part of this popular priest’s journey.

FATHER ROB

I

n 2015, when Father Rob Galea stepped onto the stage for Australia’s version of the popular competition show X Factor wearing his Roman collar and black Converse gym shoes, he certainly didn’t fit the mold of the typical contestant—or the typical priest. Still, he wowed the judges with his performance and earned himself a place on the show. Not bad for someone who says he was kicked out of his school choir in elementary school.

GALEA

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ALL IMAGES COURTESY FRG MINISTRY

An Interview with

By Susan Hines-Brigger

4/30/18 12:11 PM

ALL IMAGES COURTESY FRG MINISTRY

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He entered the competition, he tells St. Anthony Messenger, because he saw it as a perfect opportunity for evangelization. And that, says Father Rob, is his goal: to spread the Gospel message and a message of hope in whatever way possible.

His time on the show did not last long, though. During the early “boot camp” phase, which required him to be away from his parish and other responsibilities, he made the decision to drop out of the competition.

“It was just getting to be too much, and too much about me and about success,” he says. “They were asking questions like, ‘Isn’t this the best thing you’ve ever done in your life?’ and I’m thinking, No, this is wonderful, but there’s more.”

Of his time on the show, he says, “It did the good it needed to in Australia, and then I stepped away.”

So how did someone who says he never wanted to be a priest and couldn’t sing or play the guitar end up on that stage? Well, for the answer, you have to go back to the beginning.

A DARK TIME

Father Rob grew up in Malta, which is just south of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea, where he lived with his parents and younger siblings, Rachel and Joseph.

He says he had a comfortable life surrounded by family and a menagerie of animals. “Some of my happiest childhood memories are set in that home with our animals,” he recalls.

During his teen years, though, Father

began drinking excessively, smoking, and experimenting with various drugs, as well as stealing—just for the sake of the thrill. Over time, he fell deeper into his addictions, but says, “I didn’t know how to get out of it.”

The lowest point, he recalls, was when he got caught in a lie about one of the guys he was hanging out with.

The group was well known for violence and Father Rob’s lie put him right in their crosshairs. They came looking for him, and Father Rob, fearing for his safety, retreated to his room where he spent most of the next six to eight weeks. During those weeks, he struggled with severe anxiety and fell into a deep depression, even considering suicide.

That rough period of his life, though, “is greatly instrumental in my work,” he says.

A RAY OF HOPE

When he was 16, Father Rob was invited to a local youth group meeting and says, as a result, he had a conversion that changed his life.

“Actually, the invitation wasn’t even for me; it was for my sister, Rachel,” he writes in his autobiography, Breakthrough. “I wasn’t particularly religious at that point, but I was insulted not to be included and said so.”

He left the sanctuary of his room to attend the meeting and recalls hearing the youth minister talk about having a personal relationship with God, where he could talk with God just like

He left the sanctuary of his room to attend the meeting and recalls hearing the youth minister talk about having a personal relationship with God, where he could talk with God just like having a conversation with a friend.

Rob found himself in a dark place. He became rebellious and often fought with his parents. He would sneak out at night to go to clubs, and by the time he was 16, he found himself hanging out with a rough crowd of people, some of whom were dealing drugs. He grew his hair long and pierced his ear. He

having a conversation with a friend.

The concept seemed foreign to Father Rob at the time, but intrigued him. He remembers thinking that he wanted to have that type of relationship. So he went home and tried to find it.

“I put an empty chair across from me and talked to it as if someone were StAnthonyMessenger.org | June 2018 • 35

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sitting there. Day after day, I talked. Day after day, nothing happened,” he says. On one particular day, though— December 2, 1999, to be exact—he says he encountered Jesus. Father Rob recalls releasing all of his pain and anger at God for his struggles. After laying it all out and breaking down in tears, a great sense of peace came to him.

“I could see that [God] understood my pain. He was perfectly aware of all my sin, my darkness, my mess, and my shame, and he loved me anyway,” he says.

A CHANGE OF HEART

That is when things began to change. Suddenly, Father Rob began to feel joy and hope for the first time in a long while and says he couldn’t get enough of it.

“I wanted to share the hope that I had experienced.”

The youth group that he had at first reluctantly attended became a constant in his life. It also introduced him to the world of music. The band for the group needed a guitarist, so he decided to step up.

“I simply picked up the guitar, watched MTV, played the chords that they were playing, and then played church

songs on the same chords I learned,” he recalls. His mom, who played guitar, also offered help.

For the next few years, he spent time traveling, playing music, and growing in his faith. Despite his deepening faith, though, he never even considered the priesthood. In fact, he had a girlfriend during that time and says he used to pray: “‘God, I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll sing, I’ll dance, I’ll go around the world. But please, Jesus, don’t let me become a priest.’ Because for me, the priesthood was something cut off from reality—far away from the world that I knew. It seemed so countercultural, and there were never any priests that I could associate with.”

But, as so often happens in life, God had other plans.

While performing in Italy, Father Rob met Padre Giovanni, who exhibited the type of energy and joy in his priesthood that Father Rob had not witnessed. He went home that night and prayed, “Lord, if I can be anything like this man, I will consider the priesthood.”

The road to his ordination had different stops along the way. One of those was when he started the Stronger Youth program in 2008 with the late Bishop Joe Grech on the

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“Ultimately, your purpose is being something, and that is a child of God.”

heels of World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia. The program consists of a series of youth retreats, rallies, and small groups, which are run throughout the Diocese of Sandhurst in Victoria in hopes of reengaging young people in the Church.

Two years later, Father Rob was ordained and says: “If I had a thousand lifetimes, I’d choose to be a priest in each one. I love being a priest.”

MINISTERING THROUGH MUSIC AND MEDIA

Currently, Father Rob holds down quite a few responsibilities. He is an associate pastor in a parish two hours from Melbourne, Australia. When asked how he got to Australia, he jokingly says, “an airplane,” before answering that he first went there during a gap year while in seminary and served at a parish in the bush. His heart, he says, is for the young people of Australia, pointing out that the country is largely secular.

In addition to his parish responsibilities, he works full-time as director of youth for the Sandhurst Diocese.

And then there’s FRG Ministries, which supports new and engaging means of evangelization, from music, social media,

and video production to mission trips and outreach events. It also provides educational programs and resources for schools and Catholic parishes.

“I go into classes, I go into schools, and I have a thousand students in front of me. I go and speak, and I’m a priest. They ask, ‘What’s this priest going to do?’ But then I go grab my guitar and sing a current pop song—a song by Skrillex or a song by Sia—and they think, Wow, he speaks our language. That’s what music does. Music is a universal language. It transcends the mind and goes to the heart. I go out and preach the Gospel, and I do that through music,” he says.

“I do this around the world as well. I get to speak to about 200,000 teenagers a year, and it’s an honor, such a privilege,” he says. The goal of his ministry is to spread the faith “one step at a time, one soul at a time. These young people need a sense of hope, a sense of purpose, a sense of excitement for life. Many people believe that their purpose is in doing something. But, ultimately, your purpose is in being something, and that is a child of God.” He does so through the six albums he has released, as StAnthonyMessenger.org | June 2018 • 37

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well as his popular YouTube channel, which has over 16,000 subscribers. On the channel, he posts videos for many of his songs and performances, as well as videos addressing various questions regarding the Catholic faith, such as “Five Ways for Christians to Deal with Stress” and “Tattoos and the Catholic Church,” in which Father Rob discusses his own tattoos.

TIRED YET?

You might not think that Father Rob has time for anything else, given his parish work and various ministries. But that wouldn’t be true. This year, he released his autobiography, Breakthrough: A Journey of Desperation to Hope, which tells his story. He says he wanted the book to be more than just that, though.

“I go to schools and then I leave, not having a good follow-up. So I thought, Let me write this down so they can take it to their schools, take it home, meditate, pray, and apply it to their own lives. Because it’s one thing to tell a story, but another thing to give the story to the person who’s listening.”

He wants readers to realize that if he can find hope and a relationship with Jesus in this darkness, then anyone can.

COMING SOON

But his journey doesn’t end there.

Next year, Father Rob’s story will reach even more people when a motion picture based on his life will be released.

The Singing Priest is currently in preproduction.

He says he was a bit scared when he first found out about the movie, but also excited.

“I’m excited that it is going for-

“I think I would have saved so much heartache if I would have just trusted God earlier.”

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ward, at the same time recognizing this is also making me vulnerable because people know very intimate parts of my life. But I don’t think we have time to worry about ourselves. We need to go out and share the Gospel.”

He says: “I will use anything I have, everything I have to evangelize, to give people this joy and this treasure that I have found. If it’s through film, through music, through books, whatever it takes. I’m not interested in fame. I’m not interested in influence if that influence is not entirely focused on glorifying Jesus.”

How does he do it all? He attributes his ability to accomplish so many things to being surrounded by a great team of people, as well as pillars he has in his own life. Those pillars are daily exercise, daily prayer and meditation, and taking time out, which he says he takes unapologetically because, “What use am I to people if I am broken?”

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NO REGRETS

Looking at where he is now and thinking about how far he’s come since his troubled early years, what would Father Rob say to his younger self?

“I often think about that,” he says.

“I probably would put my arm around my shoulder and say, ‘Rob, it’s going to be OK. You’re gonna have an awesome future. You’re gonna see so many great things in your life. Look at God and just trust God.’ I think I would have saved so much heartache if I would have just trusted God earlier.”

Still, he says he doesn’t have any regrets. “I’m grateful even for the mistakes. I don’t like the fact that I’ve hurt so many people on the way to where I got. But, at the same time, I’m grateful for even the negative experiences because through that I’ve grown to understand humanity, to understand myself, and understand the mercy of God.”

A wonderful gift for young Catholics and those that work with them—especially in this year of the Synod on Young People, Faith, and Vocation.

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A Cup of Marital M

A 46-year-old mug, now slightly damaged but still intact, becomes an unexpected metaphor for her marriage.

he old wedding gift mug still fits comfortably in my hands after all these years. On this anniversary morning, steam rises from the hot coffee like a prayer rising to heaven—the prayer that my husband, David, and I have always been praying during our 46 years of marriage.

This old mug is so ordinary, and yet its familiar shape and glossy golden surface is so beautiful, even with the fine crack that mars one side. Our old marriage is also so ordinary, and yet it, too, is beautiful—its long relationship of love surviving the predictable aging of our bodies.

WEAR AND TEAR

I remember receiving this mug and its counterparts as a wedding gift from a cousin and his first wife. Inside the chunky box were eight ceramic mugs in warm earth tones, handcrafted, each one unique in shape and design—a kind of 1970s hippie gift. I loved them from the instant I saw them. They were a surprise, free of the confines of the gift registry at the department store where David and I had selected china, silverware, and other traditional household items.

I don’t know what happened to the other seven mugs. Perhaps some were broken, or

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COMPOSITE: FOTOSEARCH, CUP: ANDREUS; BACKGROUND: PASHABO

T

l Memories

By Kristina M. Santos

maybe my husband took one or two to his office and never brought them back. We were careful, as we’ve always tried to be with our things. But they’ve vanished into thin air or fallen victim to the wear and tear of ordinary life, leaving behind one last mug.

Many of our friends and family members have gone through divorces. Perhaps, like our missing mugs, their marriages also succumbed to the wear and tear, the losses and disappointments of life.

Over the years, we have lost so much: physical things such as those cute little sherry glasses in brilliant jewel tones—wedding gifts also—now gone, along with the red towels my aunt gave us. People such as my motherin-law, who lived to age 98; my parents, both of whom died recently; my brother, who committed suicide; and so many of our pets: dogs and cats, loving companions all.

Yet after all these years, David and I are still together.

s or

COMPOSITE: FOTOSEARCH, CUP: ANDREUS; BACKGROUND: PASHABO

THE FRAGILITY OF RELATIONSHIPS

I know how easily beloved people and things get taken from us. How quietly love can slip away. How quickly what we once had can disappear in a thousand ways.

I know how fragile a wedding gift is—and a marriage. Both need tenderness and care to survive. Our mug is still intact, even with its fine break. So, too, is our marriage, despite whatever losses, changes, and disappointments mar its surface. To survive as married people, we take risks: We risk loving, and loving more, and forgiving. We cry. We hurt.

We get tired. We sometimes teeter between stay or leave.

And we pray. Again and again, we call God into the midst of our worries and our needs.

And he always comes. He has never once been lost from us. He is here, anytime, anywhere—every time, everywhere—so generous with his mercy and his love.

“Abundant giving is God’s glory,” Pope Benedict XVI once wrote.

A GIFT FROM GOD

Since our anniversary falls on a Sunday this year, David and I go to the 6 p.m. Mass before our celebratory dinner date at our favorite restaurant.

As we enter the church, bless ourselves with holy water, and settle into a pew to pray, I think about how we are here in church once again, having lived and loved these 46 years “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.”

Today’s Gospel is from Luke 11:1–13. The disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray, and he gives them precious words: “When you pray, say, ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. . . .’”

Precious words that he also gives to us. We know that we can always turn to and talk to God our Father.

In his sermon, Father Mike uses the same wedding vow, those words I’d thought of earlier. He says, “God loves us for better, for

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We know that life can change fast. Life can change in an instant.

Loss has strengthened our bond and made us closer. We could never have been what we are to each other now if we had somehow managed to keep everything and everyone we started out with. Could we have it all back: my mother-inlaw’s fruit pies and furious love for us all, my parents’ energy and generosity, my brother’s intelligent humor, our beloved pets’ comforting presence, all of the everyday things—the mugs and dishes and sheets and towels that have been lost, broken, or worn out? If we could, I would open my arms in a heartbeat and receive it all with amazement and joy.

Although we can never get it all back, gratitude remains. And with the tightest grip I have, I hold on for dear life to what we still have. I hold the prayer that has carried us through the years—and maybe it’s all been a prayer, the way we have always been reaching for God, leaning toward goodness and love.

And I hold my husband’s hand, so strong and warm and familiar. The hand that has held mine, that has caressed worry from my brow. The hand that has always worked hard, that has generously given to family and community, the hand that lifts our grandchildren. And I hold this old wedding gift mug very carefully. I want to honor its presence, its usefulness, for a long time to come.

I am grateful for all the gifts that were showered upon us along with those happy wishes for our married life together.

But I think now—with all due respect to the old mug—that there is one other very special gift that has endured. This one has not become more fragile, but only grown stronger over time.

The gift is us. It is what we have become to each other.

Because, after everything, after the good times and the bad, we can look up and see, across the room, across a lifetime, a person who cares, who is there, who shares the story of each day, who brings God’s love to the other in so many ways. A person who has become the gift in the living of our lives.

And we can say: This is my husband, my wife, my wedding gift.

Kristina M. Santos is a freelance writer who lives in Patterson, California, and has previously written for this publication.

FOTOSEARCH, PIE: SADAKKO; QUOTE: CHRISTIANCREATIVE; BROWN BORDER: ZOOOOM

worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health.”

And his words feel like a special gift for David and me, affirming the truth of God’s faithful love guiding and inspiring our love through all of our married life.

When we join the Communion line, suddenly it truly feels like an anniversary celebration, connecting us, as it does, in such a beautiful way to our wedding Mass. Here we are, walking toward the altar, toward the love and life that is, and always has been, waiting for us in the Sacrament of the Eucharist: this most holy gift that Jesus has given us. Here, once again, we will receive the spiritual nourishment we need for our daily living: “the food that endures for eternal life” (Jn 6:27).

Although David and I have many differences, we have always shared the need to go to Mass— and this has been our blessing.

Maybe being at Mass week after week has done more to sustain our marriage than any counseling or arguing or vacationing (and we’ve tried all three) could ever do. The ritual of the Mass places us in a familiar holy space where we rest in God. We become partners in praise and worship and are held together in a loving relationship beyond our differences: We become one heart in Christ.

As husband and wife, we are called to grow in unity through day-to-day fidelity to our marriage promise, which, as the Catechism tells us, is “deepened by lives of common faith and by the Eucharist received together” (1644).

Sometimes I have an awareness of this deepening as we have grown closer to Jesus and to each other. David and I try to adapt to our differences, and we work hard to offer care and kindness each day.

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A Message from Pope Francis DEAR FAMILIES, the Lord knows our struggles: He knows them.

He knows the burdens we have in our lives. But the Lord also knows our great desire to find joy and rest! Do you remember?

Jesus said, “…that your joy may be complete” (cf. Jn 15:11).

Jesus wants our joy to be complete! He said this to the apostles and today he says it to us.

Here, then, is the first thing I would like to share with you this evening, and it is a saying of Jesus: “Come to me,” families from around the world, Jesus says, “and I will give you rest, so that your joy may be complete.” Take home this Word of Jesus, carry it in your hearts, and share it with the family. This Word invites us to come to Jesus so that he may give this joy to us and to everyone.

FOTOSEARCH, PIE: SADAKKO; QUOTE: CHRISTIANCREATIVE; BROWN BORDER: ZOOOOM

With trust in God’s faithfulness, everything can be faced responsibly and without fear. Christian spouses are not naive; they know life’s problems and temptations. But they are not afraid to be responsible before God and before society. They do not run away,

they do not hide, they do not shirk the mission of forming a family and bringing children into the world.

You say to me, “But today, Father, it is difficult….” Of course it is difficult! That is why we need the grace, the grace that comes from the sacrament! The sacraments are not decorations in life: “What a beautiful marriage! What a beautiful ceremony! What a beautiful banquet!”…that is not the sacrament of marriage. That is a decoration!

Grace is not given to decorate life but rather to make us strong in life, giving us courage to go forward! And without isolating oneself but always staying together. Christians celebrate the Sacrament of Marriage because they know they need it! They need it to stay together and to carry out their mission as parents. “In joy and in sadness, in sickness and in health.”

Address to participants in the Pilgrimage of Families, St. Peter’s Square, October 26, 2013

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DOUGHNUTS, COFFEE,and

REDEMPTION

MCKOZUSKO/SAM

One night changed everything. Would the shop survive?

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fiction

By Michael T. Best

MCKOZUSKO/SAM

T

he inside of the place was nothing special, just four yellow booths, a lottery-card kiosk, a long counter, a bulletin board for community announcements, some peeling walls in need of paint, a tile floor with a couple of cracked tiles, and a single bathroom tucked in the corner beside a refrigerator full of water, juice, and milk.

But outside, there was that sign—that golden brown sign—in the shape of an enormous doughnut.

Every day, like clockwork, regulars came for their fix of jelly doughnuts, chocolate-covereds, apple fritters, and blueberry muffins. You name it, Manny the owner made sure he had it.

A couple of minutes before 7:30, Bob, one of the regulars, sat at his corner booth, nibbling at his chocolate-covered old fashioned, sipping a tall black coffee, and scratching his scratch card with a nickel. Just a couple of months ago, at this very table, Bob won 50 bucks on one of those scratchers and did a brief victory dance that made everyone laugh.

Today, there was no dancing or singing. It was just another regular day.

Behind the counter, with a blue and gray rag in his hand, Manny looked over to Bob. Manny was a thin man with black hair, wrinkles on his forehead, and wrinkles under his brown eyes. He wore jeans and a blue T-shirt with an ocean wave rolling across the front.

“So, Mister Bob, you win anything today?” Manny asked.

Mister Bob shook his head. “Not today.”

“Better luck tomorrow.”

“It’s not luck, Manny. It’s mathematics.”

Manny nodded, a big grin on his face. “I see, Mister Bob, I see.”

“One of these days, I’m just bound to win.”

“You will win big, Mister Bob. One of these days.”

“Thanks, Manny.”

At 7:45, Miss Dorothy arrived. Today, like most days, she came in with three children. Since it was a school day, the kids wore their school uniforms: neat white shirts and blue skirts on the two girls and blue pants on the boy.

“How are your kids, Miss Dorothy?” Manny asked.

“Manny, these are my grandkids,” Miss Dorothy answered.

“Oh, Miss Dorothy, you’re not old enough to have grandkids.”

She chuckled, letting her rosy cheeks shake a little as her whole body bounced with joy. “Oh, Manny, you are too much.”

“What’ll you have today?” Manny asked.

“The regular,” Miss Dorothy answered.

“Jelly doughnut and a coffee. You got it.”

“So, Manny—” “Yes, Miss Dorothy?”

“What’s your secret to making the best coffee in town?”

Manny held back a belly laugh. “Well, Miss Dorothy, honestly, I just follow the directions.”

This was how it was all day long: Each customer made the place a warm and friendly little home away from home. Just a doughnut and a smile from Manny, and that was all it took to start the day on the right foot.

T

hat night, Manny’s night manager called in sick with a temperature of 102. Manny worked his second shift.

There were fewer regulars at night, and Manny often wondered why in the world he kept the place open.

With a lull in the customers, Manny sat down in the chair behind the counter and rested his eyes. On nights like these, an hour could go by without a customer. While listening to extra innings of a late ballgame, Manny cleaned the smudges on the glass display, which, in a few hours, would be filled with doughnuts of every size, shape, and taste.

Near 1:00 in the morning, three men walked into the Doughnut Shop. Groggy-eyed, Manny wasn’t sure if he was dreaming or not since each man wore a black ski mask.

They forced themselves to the back of the counter, knocked Manny to the ground, stepping on his hands and arms.

Manny didn’t fight. He didn’t need to be a hero, just needed to live.

One of the men forced open the cash register, took the cash from the drawer. Coins spilled to the black-and-white tile floor. Watching Manny, the second man held onto a tire iron, looking like a cleanup hitter about to smack a home run through Manny’s head. The third man, waiting by the front door, waved a gun toward Manny.

Manny lay flat on the cool tile floor. His life didn’t flash before his eyes. Rather, his heart raced, palms moistened, mouth went dry.

On the way out of the Doughnut Shop, with a few hundred dollars in cash, the thief with the tire iron swung it into the door.

All Manny saw was shattered glass, sprinkling like tears around him.

The parking lot in the shopping center was empty, except for Manny’s white van with the big doughnut painted on both the passenger and driver sides.

The ski-masked thief stopped at the van, slamming the tire iron through the windshield.

As the three men sped away in a dark sedan, Manny called 911. As calmly as he could, Manny told the emergency operator what had happened. They kept him on the line a long time, asking questions about what the thieves had looked like, what they had sounded like, how they moved, what they drove, what was taken. Manny swore it was a dark blue Ford Taurus, four doors, with no license plate.

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fiction would be another two hours or so before they arrived.

As he waited in the still of the night, for a moment, Manny calmed himself inside the open door, shards of glass at his feet, in front of him and behind him. On the horizon, the start of a gray sunrise poked through the clouds. At the intersection of Flores and Main, where Manny had traveled thousands of times, cars came to a stop. The early risers, up before the sun, waited for the light to turn from red to green.

Manny’s whole life was between the walls of the Doughnut Shop, and it was a mess.

W

hen he finally got home, his wife and two daughters were still asleep.

Barely awake, his wife rolled over. “Everything OK?” “Not really.”

Manny’s wife rolled to her side, facing him as he sat on the edge of the bed with his hands over his chin and mouth.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Everything.”

“What happened?”

“Robbery.”

His wife sat up, propping her back against the bed frame and reaching for his hand. “Oh, Manny, are you OK?” “Yes.” “The shop?”

“It’ll be OK. It can be repaired.”

Manny went on to tell his wife about the events of the night, the destruction, the fear, his life in the hands of skimasked men, the trembling of his hands as he lay on the tile floor of the Doughnut Shop, not sure what his fate would be.

“How will we pay for everything?” she asked.

Manny sighed. “Let’s just take it one day at a time.”

I

n the morning, Manny slept in a few hours. At the Doughnut Shop, the regulars showed up on schedule, but they found the doors closed.

Later that day, with sprinkles of glass still hiding in the corners of his broom-swept tile floor, Manny spent some time on the phone with his insurance company.

When Manny went back to the Doughnut Shop, customers wanted to know what happened. Was he OK? How much was taken? When will the window be fixed? Manny tried to answer each question, but he was exhausted and just wanted life to go back to normal.

When Miss Dorothy arrived for her regular jelly and a coffee, she lingered at the counter.

“Such awful people in this world. I really hope they catch them and throw away the key.”

“Thank you, Miss Dorothy.”

“Do you need anything?”

“Prayers. A new windshield. A new front door. A good night’s rest.”

“I can take care of the prayers, and I’d imagine your insurance will take care of the rest.”

Manny frowned, shaking his head. “Well, Miss Dorothy, I’m not sure about the insurance.”

“Oh, don’t say that. It’ll work out.”

“Miss Dorothy, I was a fool.”

“You are a good man. Don’t say that.”

“I let the insurance lapse.”

“Oh, well, dear, it’s all going to be fine.”

“Sure, sure. You bet,” Manny said.

Miss Dorothy could hear the ache of exhaustion in Manny’s voice and see it in his slumped, worn-out shoulders.

In the next several days, with the front door and main window boarded up, many customers stopped showing up for their regular coffees or doughnuts. Miss Dorothy noticed it. Every time she was there for her regular jelly and a black coffee, there was no line. Not even Mister Bob the gambler was sitting in his corner booth with three scratchers. She also noticed Manny’s white van sitting in the parking lot with the plywood still duct-taped across the windshield.

When Miss Dorothy left the Doughnut Shop, thoughts rumbled through her head. She started to formulate a plan.

She would do something to help. She had to.

But then Miss Dorothy did what most people do: She did nothing.

A week went by, then a second.

I

n the third week after the robbery, on a cool morning just before 7:35, Miss Dorothy arrived at the Doughnut Shop just as Mister Bob was getting out of his car.

“Hello,” Miss Dorothy said.

Mister Bob nodded, smiling. “Hello there.”

“Could I ask you something?” Miss Dorothy asked.

“Sure.”

“Do you really think you’re going to win the lottery?”

“Well, I guess so.”

“Oh, of course you do.”

“I won once.”

“It’s a real shame about the robbery.”

“I know. This neighborhood used to be so nice. Feels like the world is going down the tubes, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it, you know.”

“I know. I never thought this would happen here.”

“Well, nice talking to you.”

“Um, sir, I’m Dorothy.”

“Bob.” “Nice to meet you. I’ve seen you here so many times.”

“Yep. I’m a regular. And I guess I like my creature com-

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forts. And Manny’s doughnuts.”

“I wonder, Bob, wouldn’t it be something if we could do something for Manny?”

“Like?”

“Oh, well, I think Manny could use, well, some extra cash.

All the repairs. The money stolen.” Miss Dorothy paused, looking into the parking lot where Manny’s white van was parked. “He hasn’t even fixed his windshield.”

Bob noticed the boarded-up windshield. “Oh, well, I hadn’t thought too much about it.”

“When something like this happens, I suppose none of us do.”

Bob opened the front door to the Doughnut Shop. “After you.”

“Thank you.”

Miss Dorothy entered and saw Manny where he always was: right behind the counter, smiling, pouring a coffee for one of the regulars. When Miss Dorothy got to the front of the line, she greeted him. She took out her wallet, grabbed a 100-dollar bill, and dropped it into the tip jar.

Manny noticed. “Miss Dorothy, what in the world?”

“For your rebuilding fund,” she said.

“I don’t know how to repay you.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Yes, Miss Dorothy, yes I do.”

“One day, Manny, if you can, just lend a helping hand when someone’s in need.”

“I’ll do that, Miss Dorothy. I most certainly will.”

“So, Manny, how about my regular?”

Manny nodded as he went to get her jelly doughnut and a coffee. “Sure thing.”

Mister Bob walked to the counter. “Well, Manny, I think I’m done playing the lottery.”

“You are? I don’t believe it, Mister Bob.” “It’s mathematics.”

“How so?”

“See, if I stop playing, then I can give you a tip and Manny, well, you know, I kind of just enjoy coming into this place. The lottery can wait, you know.”

From his wallet, Mister Bob dropped a couple of 20dollar bills into the tip jar.

“Thanks, Mister Bob.” As Miss Dorothy finished her coffee, she smiled and waved to Manny and Bob. “See you all tomorrow.”

T r a t

“Eight Whopping Lies will make you a better person.”

—Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See

Michael T. Best is a Catholic writer from Oak Park, California. His short fiction has appeared in Liguorian magazine and other publications. A married father of two sons, he has volunteered in youth ministry and coached Little League and youth soccer.

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media MATTERS

reel time | channel surfing | audio file | bookshelf

By Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP

Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP

A Wrinkle in Time The Endless Spinning Man Loveless Every Day

I

n Oscar-nominated director Wim Wenders’ new documentary, the audience is invited to contemplate the character, spirit, and vision of Pope Francis as he endeavors to lead the Church in the spirit of his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi. Part docudrama, part travelogue, and part on-camera interviews, the film dramatizes the life of St. Francis (in black-and-white, silent-film style) and creates a narrative of Pope Francis living and teaching the Gospel today as the poor man of Assisi did centuries ago.

There isn’t much by way of biography in the film, though Wenders reminds us that Pope Francis is the first pope to come from Latin America and the first Jesuit elected to the See of Peter. This film is filled with inspirational words and beautiful images to reinforce the pastoral passion of Pope Francis for all people and for the earth.

The pope’s 2015 encyclical, “Laudato Si’,” from the hymn of praise of creation by St. Francis, frames this 96-minute documentary and is based on human dignity. The pope talks about the “culture of trash” that we have created on which the marginalized and vulnerable in society must survive. He speaks

of the need to believe what science tells us so that we can care for one another and the earth. And he expresses a deep concern for the care of immigrants and tells governments to stop the trade in guns and armaments.

This film is an inspiring meditation that will comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable into action to change the world.

At times, the film moves slowly, but I didn’t mind. I wanted to hear what our Holy Father had to say. Viewers get a clear sense of the burden he bears every day. Yet Pope Francis says two things are necessary to survive in our world: a smile and a sense of humor.

Not yet rated • Some graphic images of human suffering.

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WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR: FOCUS FEATURES; THE DEVIL AND FR. AMORTH: LD ENTERTAINMENT

NEWtoDVD

POPE FRANCIS: A MAN OF HIS WORD

LEFT: SISTER NANCY USSELMANN; POPE FRANCIS: A MAN OF HIS WORD: CNS PHOTOS, TOP: ANGELO CARCONI/EPA, INSET: PAUL HARING

Sister Rose is a Daughter of St. Paul and the founding director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies. She has been the award-winning film columnist for St. Anthony Messenger since 2003 and is the author of several books on Scripture and film, as well as media literacy education.

THE DEVIL AND FATHER AMORTH

P

WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?

WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR: FOCUS FEATURES; THE DEVIL AND FR. AMORTH: LD ENTERTAINMENT

LEFT: SISTER NANCY USSELMANN; POPE FRANCIS: A MAN OF HIS WORD: CNS PHOTOS, TOP: ANGELO CARCONI/EPA, INSET: PAUL HARING

F

red Rogers (1928–2003) was born in Pennsylvania and wanted to study for the ministry. He was eventually ordained a Presbyterian minister after earning a degree in music composition. Rogers married, had two sons, and began exploring the new medium of television in a way that would influence millions for over 35 years. His goal was to help children through the difficulties of life. As the film says, “He had an abiding belief that children deserve more from television.” Thus, he set out to produce shows that did just that.

This new documentary, directed

by Morgan Neville, is a gentle journey of love through Mr. Rogers’ television neighborhood and friends, with commentary from wife, Joanne, sons, James and John, Yo-Yo Ma, and François Clemmons, who was Officer Clemmons on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.

“I like you just as you are” was Fred’s catchphrase. He believed in communicating messages of peace, tenderness,

and peaceful coexistence. “Children cannot grow,” he said, “unless they are accepted as they are.” His own childhood experiences with bullying certainly influenced how he related to children.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? will have you reaching for tissues. It will also invite you to consider the television programming you allow in your home and to make wise choices.

Not yet rated • Some graphic images of human suffering.

Not yet rated • Some frightening scenes.

Catholic News Service Media Review Office gives these ratings.

A-1 General patronage

A-2 Adults and adolescents

A-3 Adults

auline priest Father Gabriele Amorth, SSP (1925–2016), was an exorcist of the Vicariate of Rome, Italy, for more than 30 years. He was involved in the formation of members of his religious community, the Society of St. Paul, and became a writer and editor. This new documentary comes from Oscar-winner William Friedkin, director of 1973’s The Exorcist. It is not clear why Father Amorth was asked to become an exorcist, but he did so with the permission of his superiors.

In an unheard-of move, Father Amorth allowed Friedkin to film an actual exorcism, which is partially included in the film. I asked an exorcist who had seen the film about this.

He said it is unfortunate and that he hopes anyone who watches this film will remember that people who are possessed or oppressed by the devil are truly suffering. It is the role of the exorcist, with the permission of his bishop, to relieve that suffering.

Father Amorth wanted people to know that the devil does exist, and it seems as if the filmmaker does too.

L Limited adult audience

O Morally offensive

?

WANT MORE? Visit our website: StAnthonyMessenger.org

Source: USCCB.org/movies

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media MATTERS

reel time | channel surfing | audio file | bookshelf

By Christopher Heffron

stream Return to the Wild

National Geographic, check local listings

K

atie Couric seemed born for morning television. When she joined Today as a cohost in 1991, a generation of workers and stay-at-home-parents awoke to her (by all accounts) genuinely cheery disposition. But don’t let the chipper voice and devilish grin fool you: In her career, Couric has matched wits with past presidents, dignitaries, and Supreme Court justices with disarming deftness. She became, in 2006, the only female anchor when she helmed CBS Evening News, but lasted only five years at the desk. With National Geographic’s America Inside Out, however, Couric has found a platform to suit her talents.

A documentary series that seeks to peel back America’s layers like an onion, Inside Out is as incendiary, as honest, and as visceral an experience as you’ll likely find on television. Couric juggles subjects ranging from the bruised middle class to young, female Muslim entrepreneurs with equal parts guts and grace. But perhaps the show’s crowning achievement, at least in its first season, is “Re-Righting History,” a hard look at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. Ostensibly, the rally protested the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue, but, as Couric’s series uncovers, its true mission was to unite foot soldiers in the white nationalist movement. This lone hour of television should be shown in schools—it’s that good.

While on the surface, Inside Out takes a bleak view of these United States, a closer look yields something deeper, richer. Humanity is never underreported here. Take Zyahana Bryant, for example. The articulate, righteously angry African American was only 15 when she started the petition to remove the famed Confederate statue—a bold move that etched her name into history. Channel surfers are left to wonder: Are we righting the wrongs of our nation’s past, or are we turning a blind eye to them? Couric’s series lets the viewer ponder an answer. But one thing is unmistakable: America Inside Out is the best documentary series on television today.

“

This is the last you’ll hear from me,” Christopher McCandless wrote to a friend in April 1992.

“I now walk into the wild.” The itinerant hiker, who burned his money—and all bridges to his prior life in Virginia—died 110 days later from starvation in an abandoned bus along Alaska’s Stampede Trail.

From there, a legend was born.

Jon Krakauer’s 1996 book about McCandless, Into the Wild, drew worldwide attention to his adventurous life—and needless death— as did the Sean Penn-directed 2007 film of the same name. Amazon Prime’s documentary Return to the Wild focuses not so much on McCandless’ final days in Alaska, but on the psychological scarring that drove him there; namely, coming of age in an abusive home.

Totally ill-prepared to live off the land, McCandless died alone, weighing only 66 pounds, but his spirit remains, and the abandoned bus is a destination site for hundreds of hikers each year.

What lessons can we glean from McCandless? Perhaps life is too short to haul the emotional baggage that weighs us down.

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YO LA TENGO: MATADOR RECORDS; BILL HALEY AND THE COMETS: DECCA RECORDS; PETE & REPEAT: TOM GREENE

America Inside Out with Katie Couric

AMERICA INSIDE OUT WITH KATIE COURIC: FSSTOCK/FOTOSEARCH, INSET: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/SHANKBONE; RETURN TO THE WILD: CONEFLOWER STUDIOS/ANDREW WEGST

Amazon Prime

reel time | channel surfing | audio file | bookshelf

m

Editor’s Pick Retro-spective

BILL HALEY & HIS COMETS | ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK

YO LA TENGO: MATADOR RECORDS; BILL HALEY AND THE COMETS: DECCA RECORDS; PETE & REPEAT: TOM GREENE

YO LA TENGO | THERE’S A RIOT GOING ON

F

or the past 30 years, Yo La Tengo has been delivering lo-fi rock gems that, despite never achieving mainstream success, have earned them scores of devoted listeners and widespread respect in the music world. Two of the band members—singer/guitarist Ira Kaplan and drummer/singer Georgia Hubley—are also a married couple, which adds a layer of authenticity to song lyrics that deal with love and the challenges of relationships.

Despite its title, There’s a Riot Going On is far from a raucous record. It’s characterized by a relaxed sound and an unforced approach to songwriting. A perfect addition to a late-night summer playlist, the album features vocals by both Kaplan and Hubley, who each reveal their unique lyrical abilities. In “Shades of Blue,” Hubley sings about her true love for her spouse from the perspective of his absence—possibly over the anxiety of having to live without him should he pass away: “Laid in my room to reflect my mood/Facing my feelings for a life without you/Red, orange, or yellow/Doesn’t matter, what’s the use?/Whenever I see them, they’re all shades of blue.” Sad words, yes, but they affirm the power of shared love between partners in a marriage.

Kaplan’s note to his best friend, his wife, is expressed beautifully in “For You Too.” He starts off with the admission that “I am just some guy, barely polite/The civil tongue and I barely collide/It builds inside until I just let it fly.” However, his love for her is redemptive and his desire to support her stands strong: “But if it’s not too late/If I could protect you, whenever you expect me to for you/Whenever there’s hurting, things uncertain/Maybe I could be that guy, I’d like to try.” Both husband and wife seem to be whispering to us that love, though sometimes hardearned, makes life all the more worth living.

There’s a Riot Going On is gentle and dreamy, with even a few ethereal instrumentals sprinkled throughout. You could play this album at a backyard barbecue or put a pair of headphones on and get lost in the pensive, touching lyrics.

PETE&REPEAT

These scenes may seem alike to you, But there are changes in the two.

So look and see if you can name Eight ways in which they’re not the same.

(Answers below)

GET THE BOOK

Great fun for puzzlers of all ages!

Go online to order: Shop.FranciscanMedia.org For ONLY $3.99 Use Code: SAMPETE ANSWERS to PETE & REPEAT: 1) Another branch is showing through the leaves. 2) There are now two bottles on the table. 3) The grill has an extra leg. 4) Sis’ shirt has sleeves.

5) The gap in the leaves is bigger. 6) The bush behind Sis is higher. 7) The tablecloth is behind the deck. 8) There’s an extra hot dog on the spatula.

AMERICA INSIDE OUT WITH KATIE COURIC: FSSTOCK/FOTOSEARCH, INSET: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/SHANKBONE; RETURN TO THE WILD: CONEFLOWER STUDIOS/ANDREW WEGST

O

ne of the first major rock-and-roll hits, “Rock around the Clock,” was a turning point in the history of music.

Originally penned in 1952 by Max C. Freedman and James E. Meyers, it was Bill Haley & His Comets’ cover of the song that exploded in popularity in 1955. When it was used in the opening credits of the film Blackboard Jungle, the song caught the public’s imagination, sending it to number one on Billboard’s Pop Chart, the first rockand-roll song to do so.

It’s telling that “Rock around the Clock” was used in Blackboard Jungle, a movie that depicted racial strife in inner-city schools. Rock and roll, with its roots in blues, jazz, gospel, and country, is proof that races coming together and sharing their rich artistic heritages is a healthy sign of social progress. Songs such as “Rock around the Clock”—which was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress in March—are proof of music’s power to not only entertain but also unify all of God’s children.

By Daniel Imwalle

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media MATTERS

reel time | channel surfing | audio file | bookshelf

By Julie Traubert

Martyrdom in Our Times

T

THE COST OF COMPASSION

BY BARBARA PAWLIKOWSKI ACTA Publications

“Many people are still being killed, tortured, or starved because of their tribes. . . . I’m so glad to be here to assist the people when I can and be a support to them in their suffering.

War is just so terrible.”

—Sister Barbara Ann Muttra (May 1992)

he age of martyrs is not over! A stirring book, which The Cost of Compassion certainly is, reveals five martyrs in Liberia as courageous, dedicated, yet normal, aging human beings whose choices place them in the path of evil. Author Barbara Pawlikowski has assiduously avoided hagiography, which can place saints outside our experience. Instead, she has recorded through extraordinary documentation and compelling prose the individual and community lives of five 20th-century women. These religious sisters gave their lives first in missionary service and finally in the sacrifice of their lives in 1992. Anyone might have thought them ordinary, even naive, but they responded to barbaric civil war with peaceful presence and perseverance—to the end.

One might suspect that a woman choosing the life of an Adorer of the Blood of Christ (also known as Precious Blood Sisters) might have some premonition of suffering. The very name lifts up the passion of Christ. The religious community, numbering about 2,000 at present, has about 200 members in the United States. Pawlikowski records no fondness for extreme hardship among the many sisters with whom she spoke. Nor did her interviews with the martyrs’ family members reveal more than the daily embrace of the cross, which religious life implies.

This biography begins by detailing the family history and vocational choice of each Adorer in lively detail.

Their stories might be thought predictable, except for their shared end.

Because of the reader’s knowledge that their lives don’t end well (according to Hollywood mores), it’s hard to put down the thick volume. Impending

doom stalks the pages.

Yet violent death seems distant.

About two-thirds of the way into the book, though, descriptions emerge of drugged and armed child Liberian soldiers that cast a cloud over the sisters, who lead lives of daily prayer and worship and serve as teachers and nurses in an increasingly hostile environment.

It’s ironic that Liberia, settled by American slaves who knew so much about inhumanity, would devolve into a morass of inhumanity as a nation.

Pawlikowski doesn’t have to resort to melodrama to convince readers that most sensible people would have long ago abandoned Liberia as the warring factions raped, stole, and murdered anyone who blocked their way to victory.

Perhaps the sisters thought their age, gender, skin color, vocation, and US citizenship would protect them.

Perhaps they waited too long to escape.

But when Sisters Barbara Ann (69) and Joél (58) began a four-mile sprint to take their nervous security guard to check on his family, they had to know security was an illusion. Two days later, their three sister-companions would learn the same.

Will readers relish the details? No. Will they be riveted by the documentation of women so much like their mothers, cousins, and friends being hacked, violated, and killed by people they had come to serve? Yes. They will have new conviction that faith calls for courage.

Barbara Pawlikowski has recorded it.

Readers will relive it. Believers will be challenged and changed.

Reviewed by Carol Ann Morrow, associate of the Sisters of St. Francis and former editor of this column.

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HOLY ROVER

SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF A LOVING GOD

BY LORI ERICKSON Fortress Press

THEY WILL INHERIT THE EARTH

BY JOHN DEAR Orbis Books

BY BRIAN ZAHND WaterBrook

“Mary’s House made me want to be still and silent—a sure sign that I’m on holy ground.”

“Life is a gift from God, a gift that is properly appreciated and respected by loving God and neighbor.”

“We are summoned to carry on Jesus’ campaign of nonviolence for justice, disarmament, and Mother Earth.”

A

T

I

n occasional travel writer for this magazine, Lori Erickson takes us on a trip to some of her favorite destinations, from Walden Pond to Wittenburg. Others of her 12 destination-chapters include Ephesus (in Turkey), Jerusalem, and Lourdes, France. A religious searcher in more than one sense, Erickson was raised Lutheran, dabbled as a young woman in Wicca, admires Tibetan Buddhism, and found her religious home as an Episcopal deacon.

Be ready for an eclectic ride to diverse locations, sometimes laced with humor that could seem irreverent. Erickson is ultimately devout and stands in wonder before these places that have had such an impact, from many angles, on our religious history.

he title evokes the iconic sermon of Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” a sermon pivotal to this author’s self-understanding. His premise: God is merciful, life is to be joy-filled, and we need to move beyond judgment and rigidity.

Zahnd is cofounder (along with his wife, Peri) and lead pastor of the Word of Life Church, a megachurch in St. Joseph, Missouri. He tackles the burning issue for evangelical Christians of how to incorporate God of the Old Testament with the merciful revelations of Jesus Christ. The result, as biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann calls it, is “emancipated evangelical joy.”

Catholic Best Sellers from Amazon.com

The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming,

by Henri J.M. Nouwen

KIDS’

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Fulfilled: Uncovering the Biblical Foundations of Catholicism,

by Sonja Corbitt The Lamb’s Supper: The Mass as Heaven on Earth, by Scott Hahn The Apostles and Their Times, by Mike Aquilina A Catholic Woman’s Book of Days, by Amy Welborn

n his subtitle, Peace and Nonviolence in a Time of Climate Change, activist and author Father John Dear defines the approach we must have toward others and the earth. Focusing on the beatitude that the meek (the nonviolent) will inherit the earth, he inspires us to be at peace with ourselves, one another, and our earth, creating a feeling of unity—oneness.

He shares many personal stories and those of other peacemakers, showing how active nonviolence is vital to sowing change. Devoting a chapter to “Mother Earth Rules,” Father Dear invites us to consider ways to incorporate this gentle and environmentrenewing mind-set in our own lives.

SAINT MARGARET MARY ALACOQUE

TEXT BY EMILY BEATA MARCH, FSP ILLUSTRATIONS BY DANI LACHUK

ritten for children ages 8 to 10, this is part of a larger Encounter the Saints series from Pauline Books. St. Margaret Mary’s visions of Jesus and Mary led to her special devotion to the Sacred Heart.

Here’s the story of her journey.

Books featured in this section can be ordered from:

St. Mary’s Bookstore & Church Supply

1909 West End Avenue • Nashville, TN 37203 • 800-233-3604

web: www.stmarysbookstore.com e-mail: stmarysbookstore@gmail.com

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POINTSOFVIEW | FAITH & FAMILY

By Susan Hines-Brigger

Be Still

A

Susan welcomes your comments and suggestions!

E-MAIL: CatholicFamily@ FranciscanMedia.org MAIL: Faith & Family 28 W. Liberty St. Cincinnati, OH 45202

?

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REALITY CHECK

I thought of that ad again yesterday when I was at my eye doctor appointment. After checking in, I made my way to the waiting area. During the five minutes I was sitting there, I switched from watching TV, to checking my phone, to gazing at the magazines.

When I was placed in a room to wait for the doctor, I saw a sign on the wall that read, “Out of courtesy, please put your phone away while in this room.” I happily obliged, but then started to realize something after about 30 seconds. I was bored. I started to look around the room but found nothing entertaining enough for me. What was I supposed to do? Stare at the walls?

Suddenly, I started bouncing my leg on the ground—a habit I have when I’m restless or anxious. I was surprised by how difficult it was for me to be still. The more I thought about it, the more fidgety I got. Was I really getting this anxious because I had been forced to sit without anything to do for a few minutes?

Luckily, the doctor came in at that time, so I was saved from stillness.

Later that day, I thought about what had happened in that room and realized that my reaction wasn’t something new. I thought about how in church or when I’m in prayer, I’m constantly shifting positions, looking around, or fiddling with something like my watch or rings. But why?

JOB HAZARD?

Maybe it’s the result of parenting, I tried to rationalize. After all, there was that time I tried meditation and after I lay down on the bed and closed my eyes, my youngest daughter, Kacey, ran in and jumped on top of me.

Yeah, that would be reason enough not to be still.

Or maybe it’s just a side effect of maintaining and coordinating the schedules of two parents and four kids. It seems one of us is always on the move for one reason or another.

Or maybe—most probably, in fact—it’s because I’m a product of my environment.

How many times do I check my phone, even though I just checked it a few seconds ago?

How many times have I turned on the TV not to watch it, but just for the sake of having noise in the background while I’m doing something else?

Do any of us really know how to be still anymore? If you look around, you would probably say not a lot of us do. Perhaps we could give it a try, though. We have tools in our faith, such as the rosary and prayers, that can help us at least slow down a bit or perhaps even sit still.

In addition to that, I may look into that whole floating thing. I just have to remember not to take Kacey along.

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FOTOSEARCH: TOP: DEANDROBOT; BOTTOM: ZORYANCHIK

Susan has worked at St. Anthony Messenger for 23 years and is an executive editor. She and her husband, Mark, are the proud parents of four kids—Maddie, Alex, Riley, and Kacey. Aside from her family, her loves are Disney, traveling, and sports.

LEFT: MCKOZUSKO/SAM; RIGHT: BÜRSNER & HEGEDÜS GMBH/CREATIVE COMMONS

Susan Hines-Brigger

while back, I saw an advertisement that intrigued me. It was for a session at one of those float spas where you spend time in a pod filled with water infused with a high concentration of Epsom salts. Because of that, you literally float on top of the water, similar to what happens in the Dead Sea. I went to the location’s website to find out more about this recent trend and read a number of reviews that commented on how calming it was to just be still and float. A number of people even commented on how clear and calm their minds seemed to be while they were floating.

in the kitchen

with Susan Muto

Pepper Steak Sandwiches

Yield: 4–6 servings • prep time: 20–30 minutes, plus time to marinate cook time: 10 minutes (steak); 8–10 minutes (vegetables)

Ingredients:

1 pound flank steak 4–6

fresh sandwich rolls

2 tbls.

olive oil

1

red pepper, sliced thin

1

green pepper, sliced thin

1

small onion, sliced thin

2

garlic cloves, sliced

1 tsp.

black pepper

½ tsp.

salt

1 tbl.

Worcestershire sauce

1 tbl.

flour

½ cup

dry red wine

Mix together in a bowl the red and green pepper, onion, garlic, salt, black pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, then sauté the pepper mix for about 5 minutes until soft.

Add the flour and red wine, blending together. Cook a few more minutes until the mixture thickens. Slice the flank steak across the grain (typically, across the width of the steak), which makes it easier to chew. Then place several pieces on a roll, pour some of the pepper mix over the beef, and serve.

FIND THIS AND OTHER RECIPES AT: FranciscanMedia.org/source/recipes

O

nce on the verge of company arriving and food preparation in full swing, I asked Mother why she objected so much to the idea of appetizers. What was the reason? Quickly she replied, “If guests come to the table without an appetite, why bother to cook at all?” She instructed us to forgo this ritual and simply begin with a firstcourse option like soup or salad. Once her guests started to eat, no one had to coax them to stay at the table and clean their plates. To this day, no matter in which restaurant I reserve a table, I find myself passing up the appetizer section of a menu and going to the main features or the chef ’s selections.

Cooking food made from scratch and eating it with gusto is a totally sensual and spiritual experience, moving us from the gratification of a biological need to the joy enkindled by beautiful plating and happy companionship.

Mother believed that seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, and touching food for the body was good for the soul. That is why she cooked with the finesse of the true artist she was. Her food looked as good as it tasted. She gave as much attention to presentation as to flavor.

“A compelling book about the intimate connection between the food we eat and the nourishment required for a healthy spiritual life.”

— F r . r a l p h ta j a k , o . S . B . , chaplain of the Epiphany association

GH

SuSan Muto is the executive director of the Epiphany association, a nonprofit ecumenical education, consultation, and research center. a prolific author and internationally renowned teacher and speaker, she holds an M.a. and ph.D. in English literature from the university of pittsburgh.

G ood Fo od for B o d y an d S p i r it

FOTOSEARCH: TOP: DEANDROBOT; BOTTOM: ZORYANCHIK

usan Muto invites you to experience meals as a sacred time.

her love for cooking permeates this book, as she shares her memories of growing up in an Italian family with a mother who also loved to cook. Muto’s stories make you feel as if you are right there in the kitchen with her and her mother as they go about preparing meals, each of which becomes an opportunity to experience the goodness of God through the food we eat and the company we share. Muto also includes recipes that are simple to prepare, using ingredients that are readily available.

Whether you are a novice cook or highly experienced, or just enjoy good food, this book will bring you to a new understanding of the gift we share when we take the time to eat well.

Table of Plenty

S

G ood Food f or B ody an d Spi ri t Muto

LEFT: MCKOZUSKO/SAM; RIGHT: BÜRSNER & HEGEDÜS GMBH/CREATIVE COMMONS

Instructions: Marinate the flank steak in Italian salad dressing, teriyaki sauce, or another marinade of your choice for 2 hours or more in the refrigerator.

Broil or grill the steak for about 10 minutes, turning halfway through the cooking process. When done, cover with aluminum foil and set aside.

Table of Plenty

LIMITED COPIES AVAILABLE. GET YOURS NOW!

s to r ies re f l ections recipes

CookInG—Essays & narratives

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“Although the Holy Family is unique, the virtues of its members are needed in every family.”

—Pat McCloskey, OFM 56 • June 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

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This artwork appeared in our first issue (June 1893). Welcome to our 126th year!

PHOTO ST. GABRIEL CREDIT ARCHIVES, HERE GLENDALE, OHIO/HEINRICH HOFMANN

reflection

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Edited with an Introduction by Joelle Chase and Judy Traeger Modern Spiritual Masters Series

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his book offers readers the essence of the popular Franciscan’s teachings, organized around the central theme of love.

Interwoven with a probing personal interview, this book draws on Father Rohr's many talks, books, and online daily meditations to illuminate a lifelong journey of growing in love—a journey open to all who are willing to undertake it: how we love God by loving others, how we learn to love ourselves, and how we ultimately seek and find love in everything.

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