March 2015 by St. Anthony Messenger

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James Foley Journalist, Man of Faith 7 Easy Tips for Personal Prayer Welcome, Lent Surviving Shame

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CONTENTS

ST. ANTHONY Messenger

❘ MARCH 2015 ❘ VOLUME 122/NUMBER 10

ON THE COVE R

28 James Foley: Journalist, Man of Faith

A fellow captive said that Jim’s faith never faltered throughout the brutal ordeal. He was a source of inspiration for others.

He was murdered by ISIS as he exposed to the world the suffering of the Syrian people. His loved ones look back on his life and legacy. By Donis Tracy

Photo by Manu Brabo

F E AT U R E S

D E PA R T M E N T S

14 7 Easy Tips for Personal Prayer

2 Dear Reader 3 From Our Readers

How do we move beyond our busyness and listen to God’s voice? By Ronald Rolheiser, OMI

4 Followers of St. Francis Sister Carmen Barsody, OSF

20 St. Teresa of Avila, Mystic and Multitasker This Doctor of the Church and foundress of the Discalced Carmelites was a woman of contemplation and action. By Patricia Morrison

6 Reel Time

8 Channel Surfing Undateable

10 Church in the News

36 Welcome, Lent

13 At Home on Earth The Sound of Silence

Each year the season returns, like an old friend, to comfort and challenge us. By Amy Ekeh

27 Editorial We Walk the Line

40 Surviving Shame Our spiritual wounds are no match for God’s grace. By Joe McHugh

Still Alice

45 The Spirit of Francis

Running after Poverty

50 Ask a Franciscan Same Prayers, Different Responses

46 Fiction: Jefferson’s Face

52 Book Corner

The biggest challenges may teach us the most. By David Hull

The Week That Opened Forever

54 A Catholic Mom Speaks What’s Your Mission?

56 Backstory

DEAR READER

ST. ANTHONY M essenger

‘Doing Penance’ There are two versions of Francis’ “Exhortations” to laypeople who wanted to share his Gospel way of life in the single or married state. The older version, tentatively dated between 1209 and 1215, has two sections: one addressed to “Those who do penance” and the other addressed to “Those who do not do penance.” In the first section, Francis encourages people to receive the Eucharist and to produce “fruits worthy of penance.” The second part encourages those not presently engaged in conversion of life to start doing penance. This text is so important that it now serves as the prologue to the Rule of the Secular Franciscan Order. The later, much longer version may have been written about 1220, and is sometimes titled “The Letter to the Faithful.” Francis reflects on Jesus, the Eucharist, confession, conversion, and almsgiving. He encourages his readers not to become angry with another person’s faults but, “with all patience and humility,” to admonish and encourage that person. This text, filled with biblical quotes, ends with encouragement to practice Jesus’ words “with humility and love.”

Click the button on the left for more of Father Pat’s reflections on Francis as a writer.

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(U.S.P.S. PUBLICATION #007956 CANADA PUBLICATION #PM40036350) Volume 122, Number 10, 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. U.S. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: St. Anthony Messenger, P.O. Box 189, Congers, NY 109200189. CANADA RETURN ADDRESS: c/o AIM, 7289 Torbram Rd., Mississauga, ON, Canada L4T 1G8. 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: $3.95. For change of address, four weeks’ notice is necessary. See St AnthonyMessenger.org for information on your digital edition. Writer’s guidelines can be found at StAnthony Messenger.org. 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. Member of the Catholic Press Association Published with ecclesiastical approval Copyright ©2015. All rights reserved.

2 ❘ Ma rch 2015

St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

FROM OUR READERS

Celebrating All Things Merton I was very pleased to see the January issue of St. Anthony Messenger dedicated to the life and work of Thomas Merton, upon the 100th anniversary of his birth. This will be a year of celebration in the Merton world, and I can’t imagine a better treatment of him anywhere. The articles and photos told his story simply and beautifully, showing why he is as relevant today as he was during his lifetime. I remember being just as pleased in 1978, if my memory serves, when you observed the 10th anniversary of Merton’s death with another special issue. Your cover was a striking, illustrated portrait of the contemplative Trappist monk, reminiscent of Andy Warhol in style. Your coverage of Merton over the years shows just how Franciscan he

What’s on Your Mind? Letters that are published do not necessarily represent the views of the Franciscan friars or the editors. We do not publish slander or libel. Please include your name and postal address. Letters may be edited for clarity and space. Mail Letters, St. Anthony Messenger 28 W. Liberty St. Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498 Fax 513-241-0399

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was—and how generous you are. Keep up the good work! Gregory Ryan Wall, New Jersey

Hit and Miss I have been a reader and follower of Merton for a very long time and just recently read No Man Is an Island. Dan Morris-Young’s “The Legacy of Thomas Merton” began well and ended positively, but it lost me in between. I would much rather have read some great quotes by Merton and perhaps explanations of them. Most of his life he was searching and contemplating his relationship with God. His deep thought and prayer are what inspired me and many others to follow him. His genuine humanity and honesty are what will live on. These are areas I would have liked to see explored, not social justice or views on war. However, when I turned the page and read “Rediscovering Contemplation” by Richard Rohr, OFM, I found it much more to my liking. Carol Joyce Burton, Ohio

our Lord’s. One day, all genders, all forms of emotional commitment, and all degrees of faith and understanding will share in acceptance, respect, and the grace of God. Thank you, St. Anthony Messenger, for keeping the otherness of our faith visible and viable. We need constant reminding that Jesus loves and accepts all at his table. Brenda Boenig Fredericksburg, Texas

Faith without Frills In the “Followers of St. Francis” column from the January issue, Father Christian Reuter’s description of prison chapels (“a table and a few chairs”) was painfully accurate. A gentleman I write to, who works in prison ministry, sent me some photos of his profession with the Benedictine Oblate Order. In one photo, a chaplain dressed in black shirt and pants, says Mass—no robes, no vestments, no frills. Contrast this to my profession at a local parish, with family and friends present in a grand setting. Which of these is more Franciscan? Jim Myres, OFS Cincinnati, Ohio

One Day In contrast to several comments from other readers regarding St. Anthony Messenger being too liberal and not reflecting the views of the “real” Catholic faith, I laud and thank the editors and contributors to this publication. So often, when I am tempted to give up on the Church, along comes St. Anthony Messenger with the reassurance that things may one day be different. The openness of mind and heart—so apparent in this magazine—are often the only glimmer of hope that one day our closed Communion, our closed doors to all God’s children in need, and our closed hearts will open wide, as did

Pro-Life Means All Life As a lifelong pro-lifer, I took special interest in Susan Hines-Brigger’s column “A Catholic Mom Speaks” from the January issue, regarding her teenage daughter Maddie’s plans to participate in the annual March for Life in Washington, DC. It was disheartening, however, to see no mention of opposition to capital punishment and war. Does the Commandment “Thou shalt not kill” apply only to our nation’s unborn daughters and sons? Have we forgotten Christ’s admonition to “love thy enemy”? Louis H. Pumphrey Shaker Heights, Ohio M a rch 2 0 15 ❘ 3

F O L L O W E R S O F S T. F R A N C I S

Taking It to the Streets

“

ometimes home is in the relationships we hold.” Sister Carmen Barsody, OSF, cofounder of Faithful Fools Street Ministry, in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, appreciates that statement—made by one of the people who work with the ministry. “Our first effort is to be in relationship, and then we move on from there,” she says. Faithful Fools was founded in 1998 after Carmen, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls, Minnesota, met Unitarian Universalist minister Reverend Kay Jorgensen while they were working among the residents in the Tenderloin. “Fool is a call to ‘discover our common humanity,’” Carmen says, quoting the Faithful Fools mission statement. “In our Franciscan tradition,” she continues, “it would be working with the desire of Francis to not occupy a place, whether in position or attitude, that elevates us above another.” Fools also refers to the medieval fool who was the truth teller in the king’s court, the one who stayed close to the ground. In addition, it alludes to St. Francis, who has been characterized as God’s fool. To stay close to

Sister Carmen Barsody, OSF

the ground, the Faithful Fools live and work in the Tenderloin district in a place they call the Fools’ Court, on Hyde Street. The Faithful Fools’ approach is a bit different, however, from that of most ministries. “The way of Faithful Fools, like that of St. Francis, is an invitation into relationship with people that we are advised to avoid,” explains Carmen. They seek to do this through the arts, education, advocacy, and accompaniment. Carmen has always had a soft spot for those on the margins of society. “I knew at an early age that there was something within me that was drawn toward wanting to help others and change things that seemed unjust and unnecessary,” she recalls. The human needs are complex in the Tenderloin: addiction, mental illness, and difficult histories that require long-term commitments and responses. “There are more people being displaced than there are being placed in housing at this time,” she observes. “Also, drugs are available 24 hours a day, while food is available once or twice a day.” In addition to the arts, education, advo-

STORIES FROM OUR READERS A Miracle in the Snow

Learn more about St. Anthony and share your story of how he helped you at AmericanCatholic.org/ Features/Anthony.

4 ❘ Ma rch 2015

My husband, Ed, was installing a screen in our bedroom window, which is on the second floor of our house. As he was jostling it into place, his wedding ring got caught on the screen, came off, and rolled down our sunroom roof. Since it was evening, Ed went on the roof with a flashlight and, not finding it, assumed it was in the gutter. The next day, he removed the leaves, looked closely, and still could not find the ring. Several days later, we had a historic snowstorm that produced seven feet of snow. At that point, we thought the ring was lost for sure—buried in the snow. On Sunday, November 30—the first Sunday of Advent—as my husband picked through the leaves and melting snow looking for the ring once more, he found it after only a few minutes. It was truly a miracle! We give thanks to our God through the powerful intercession of St. Anthony. —Pat and Ed Jarosz, West Seneca, New York

St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

Click here for more on the Faithful Fools Street Ministry. Click the button on the left to hear an interview with Sister Carmen.

cacy, and accompaniment aspects of the ministry, Faithful Fools also conducts regularly scheduled street retreats, where participants walk the streets and become aware of the people, places, or situations they encounter. “People who are homeless or who are economically poor often get acted upon. We forget that they are people with stories, and we all have our own stories. And we need to listen to each other first,” says Carmen. In addition, Faithful Fools engages in seven-day Street Retreats and small group retreats to Nicaragua. There is no hiding one’s humanity in the Tenderloin. “As we often say, it is not that the people of the Tenderloin have problems that no one else does; it’s just that those problems are visible. In wealthier neighborhoods and homes, people have substanceabuse issues and mental-health struggles, families fight, and people work together, but it may not be as visible as it is in the Tenderloin,” Carmen points out. “We participate in shattering the myths about those living in poverty.” —Janice Lane Palko

tal Digi as Extr

ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA

Hermitage Chaplain After the Pentecost Chapter of 1221 ended in Assisi, the provincial minister of northern Italy assigned Father Anthony of Portugal to celebrate Mass for friars in the hermitage of Monte Paolo. He faithfully carried out that ministry until his preaching talents were discovered when he attended a priestly ordination and was ordered on the spot to preach. (The Dominicans and Franciscans present had assumed the other group was supplying the preacher.) Anthony preached eloquently about the obedience of Jesus. He became widely popular as a preacher after that. –P.M. To learn more about Franciscan saints, visit Saintoftheday.org.

S T. A N T H O N Y B R E A D

Fr ancisca n Media .org

Send all postal communication to: St. Anthony Bread 1615 Vine St. Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498

PHOTO BY RON RACK

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. To post your petition online, please visit stanthony.org, where you can also request to have a candle lit or a Mass offered; or you may make a donation to the Franciscans or sign up to receive a novena booklet.

M a rch 2 0 15 ❘ 5

REEL TIME

W I T H S I S T E R R O S E PA C AT T E , F S P

Still Alice

PHOTO BY LINDA KALLERUS/SONY PICTURES CLASSICS

SISTER ROSE’S

Favorite

Films about Art Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) Pollock (2000) My Left Foot (1989) Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)

6 ❘

March 2015

Julianne Moore is Oscar-nominated for her performance in Still Alice, about a woman with Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Alice Howland (Julianne Moore) is a 50year-old linguistics professor at Columbia University. She is married to John (Alec Baldwin), and they have three grown children. Lydia (Kristen Stewart), their youngest child, has a contentious relationship with her mother because she has chosen acting over a college education. Alice begins to notice that she’s forgetting the little things until one day she goes for a run and gets lost. She goes to the doctor and is diagnosed with a genetic disorder that is causing early-onset Alzheimer’s. The disease moves rapidly and, to compensate, Alice leaves notes for herself to read once she can no longer remember things. Alice is asked to give a speech to an Alzheimer’s research group. Her declaration, “I am not suffering. I am struggling,” offers clarity to loved ones of people who have Alzheimer’s. The devastating disease causes more suffering to a person’s family than to the person with it.

Alice plans to do something drastic, but when her short-term memory begins to go, something happens at the right moment, and she cannot remember what she was doing. Is it coincidental or providential? Still Alice is based on the best-selling novel by Lisa Genova. Julianne Moore, who is nominated for an Academy Award for her performance, makes Alzheimer’s very real. Kristen Stewart seems to have developed as an actor by adding maturity to her skill set. The film also features a reconciliation scene that is very powerful. For all the drama, however, it was hard to get beyond the feeling that Still Alice is a message movie—which can be a very good thing. A-3, PG-13 ■ Mature themes.

Big Eyes Artist Margaret Ulbrich (Amy Adams) and her daughter head for San Francisco after St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

Christoph Waltz and Amy Adams play Walter and Margaret Keane in director Tim Burton’s latest film, Big Eyes.

her marriage fails. Margaret is just beginning her painting career, which features waiflike children with big eyes. As Margaret struggles to support her daughter, she attracts the attention of another artist, a smooth operator named Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz). They soon marry. Keane convinces her to sign his name to her paintings because they will sell more. They become wealthy because Walter’s idea to make prints of Margaret’s paintings is extremely successful. But Margaret comes to regret the fraud that she and Walter perpetrate, so she flees with Jane to Hawaii. When Jehovah’s Witnesses visit her, she finds consolation and the courage to take her life back—by taking Keane to court. Big Eyes was an unknown story to me and it is very interesting. It shows a talented woman who gives up her identity and fights to get it back. Waltz’s performance seems forced, while Adams is good. But the film could easily have been a network television movie. Not yet rated, PG-13 ■ Mature themes and domestic violence.

Elliot’s custody, however, is Eloise’s other grandmother, Rowena (Octavia Spencer), who believes that Eloise needs all of her family in her life. Things get tense when Rowena hires her brother, Jeremiah (Anthony Mackie), a lawyer, to file for full custody of Eloise. He goads Elliot into admitting that he not only has a problem with alcohol, but is also a racist. Black or White is inspired by a true story. Writer/director Mike Binder adds humor to a human drama that shows that custody cases with biracial children involved are never clear-cut; they are complicated. The best interests of children can win out. As Binder and the actors have confirmed recently at a press conference, they want to move the conversation about race beyond stories of the past and start a conversation for the future. Costner gives a solid performance. Spencer plays a matriarch with her comic persona always near. Not yet rated, PG-13 ■ Some language, domestic violence, mature themes.

Jillian Estell melts the heart of her stoic grandfather, played by Kevin Costner, in Black or White.

Catholic Cl assifications

Black or White Attorney Elliot Anderson (Kevin Costner) and his wife, played by Jennifer Ehle, lose their teen daughter when she gives birth to a baby girl. Eight years later, Anderson’s wife dies in a car crash, and he is left to raise his biracial granddaughter, Eloise (Jillian Estell), alone. Elliot discounts any interest that Eloise’s absent, drug-addicted father, Reggie (André Holland), shows. The biggest threat to Fr anciscanMedia.org

A-1 A-2 A-3 L O

General patronage Adults and adolescents Adults Limited adult audience Morally offensive

■

The Catholic News Service Media Review Office gives these ratings. See usccb.org/movies.

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Find reviews by Sister Rose and others at CatholicMovieReviews.org.

March 2015 ❘

CHANNEL SURFING

WITH CHRISTOPHER HEFFRON

UP CLOSE

Returns March 17, Tuesdays, 9 p.m., NBC For a breezy look at the often uncomfortable moments that make up a friendship, channel surfers should tune in to Undateable, about five bachelors who navigate the uneven waters of dating. Danny (Chris D’Elia) is a commitment-shy lothario who takes in Justin (Brent Morin) as a roommate. Soon Justin and his hapless friends fall under the tutelage of Danny, who christens them “the Undateables.” The teacher/ student relationships are established, and the results are cringeworthy but enjoyable. The comedic force of this sitcom should be credited to D’Elia and Morin. Danny exudes confidence, while Justin is awkward and unsure. Like a modern-day Felix and Oscar, they are at once annoyed by their dissimilarities yet invigorated by them. This makes way for moments of real discovery for both characters. While some might find Danny’s rotation of one-night stands offensive, he is a work in progress who seems open to bettering his haphazard life. Just as Friends gave us a glimpse into the lives of six flawed and funny New Yorkers who banded together to create a different kind of family, Undateable—though not as polished—scores because it shows how friendship can serve as insulation from an often chilly world.

The Night Shift

Mondays, 10 p.m., NBC Those of us who were glued to our couches during NBC’s Thursday night lineup in the mid-’90s won’t soon forget the show that anchored it: ER. It seems the network is trying to retool that formula again with its latest hospital drama. The Night Shift, about an impossibly goodlooking staff of a Texas hospital, tries to emulate the velocity of ER, but never quite matches what its predecessor could do in its sleep: that desperate, delicate dance between doctor and patient; life and death. The strongest moments of this freshman series, rather, are the quieter ones where the cast of newcomers can resonate with viewers. Eoin Macken and Jill Flint lead the pack as Dr. TC Callahan and Dr. Jordan Alexander, whose romantic history and styles of practicing medicine lead to recurring clashes. There’s palpable chemistry between the two actors, which proves an essential ingredient when the show teeters on bland. TC, haunted by his work as a medic in Afghanistan, is a gifted physician, but cannot follow rules; Jordan walks a tightrope between hospital politics and ethical patient care. Although some moments border on the absurd, there’s much to admire about the series, thanks to its fresh-faced cast. Of the supporting players, Ken Leung and Jeananne Goossen shine brightest as dedicated hospital staffers, both of whom oscillate nicely between comedy and chaos.

Chris D’Elia (far right) leads a strong ensemble cast in the sitcom Undateable, about a group of friends who are unlucky at love. 8 ❘

March 2015

St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

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CHURCH IN THE NEWS

❘ BY DANIEL IMWALLE

Pope Visits Sri Lanka, the Philippines

CNS PHOTO/L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO VIA REUTERS

Pope Francis visited Sri Lanka (January 13-15) and the Philippines (January 15-19), marking the first papal visit to either country since 1995, reported Catholic News Service (CNS). In the Sri Lankan leg of his trip, the pope urged reconciliation in a nation still mending itself following a 26-year civil war, which ended in 2009. “The process of healing also needs to include the pursuit of truth, not for the sake of opening old wounds, but rather as a necessary means of promoting justice, healing, and unity,” Pope Francis said during a January 13 welcoming ceremony at the Colombo airport. Highlights of the pope’s Sri Lankan visit included a surprise visit to a Buddhist temple in the capital city of Colombo, a prayer service in the northern jungle city of Madhu that attracted 300,000 people, and the canonization of St. Joseph Vaz— the country’s first saint. While en route to the Philippines, Pope Francis surprised some by revealing that he plans to canonize Blessed Junipero Serra when he visits the

Pope Francis is greeted by young people at a home for former street children in Manila, Philippines, January 16. United States in September (US stops include New York City, Washington, DC, and the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia). Hundreds of thousands of Filipino Catholics welcomed the pope to the capital city of Manila on the evening of January 15, many lining the streets to get a view

as the popemobile delivered the pontiff from Villamor Air Base to the Vatican nunciature. In a nation where roughly 25 percent of the population live in poverty, Pope Francis emphasized the importance of caring for future generations during a January 18

CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING; (FAR RIGHT) CNS PHOTO/L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO VIA REUTERS

(Far left) Pope Francis receives a robe from Hindu Kurukkal SivaSri T. Mahadeva during a meeting with religious leaders at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall in Colombo, Sri Lanka, January 13. (Left) Pope Francis greets Buddhist monks in Colombo, Sri Lanka, January 14.

1 0 ❘ Ma rch 2015

St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING

N E W S B R I E F S N AT I O N A L A N D I N T E R N AT I O N A L

FOX News’ Bret Baier, actor Gary Sinise, and Molson Coors chair Pete Coors withdrew from attending the Legatus 2015 Summit due to concerns about the organization’s position regarding homosexuality, according to EWTN. Formed in 1987, Legatus is a group of business leaders that focuses on bringing together Catholic faith, family, and business. “Legatus embraces all that the Church teaches—nothing more, nothing less. Of course, at the core of all that the Church teaches is Christ’s love for every man and woman,” the statement read.

Mass in Manila that counted a record six million in attendance. “We need to see each child as a gift to be welcomed, cherished, and protected. And we need to care for our young people, not allowing them to be robbed of hope and condemned to a life on the streets,” said the pope in his homily.

Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Declares Bankruptcy Due to pending clergy sex-abuse lawsuits, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis filed for bankruptcy on January 16, according to the National Catholic Reporter (NCR). Archbishop Fr ancisca n Media .org

Immigration reform should be seen as a pro-life issue, a group of Catholic leaders told Catholics on Capitol Hill on January 20. The group’s message was conveyed by way of a letter—signed by bishops, presidents of various Catholic universities, and men and women from religious communities, reported CNS. “Our nation’s inhumane and flawed immigration policies leave migrant women, children, and families abandoned by the side of the road,” the letter stated. Furthermore, failing to pass comprehensive immigration reform “will only lead to more hardship, suffering, and death,” the letter read. The pope named Franciscan Father Fernand Cheri III auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans on January 12, reported CNS. Bishop-designate Cheri, who has long been involved in black Catholic ministry, is originally from New Orleans and currently serves as the director of campus ministry at Quincy University in Illinois. “I’d like to say first of all thank you to Pope Francis for appointing me to this position. . . . I look forward to just working with the people of New Orleans again,” he said.

CNS PHOTO/FRANK J METHE, CLARION HERALD

Pope Francis appointed Auxiliary Bishop Charles J. Scicluna of Malta to a new position as president of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s sexual abuse review board, reported CNS. The Vatican announcement of Bishop Scicluna’s appointment came on January 21 and named eight other Church officials to the board. Bishop Scicluna, who was formerly the chief prosecutor of clergy sex-abuse cases for the Vatican, will be tasked with leading the review board as it assesses appeals filed by those accused of clerical sexual abuse. Bishop Scicluna has warned against the Church responding to clergy sexual abuse with “inertia, a culture of silence, or repression.”

For more Catholic news, visit AmericanCatholic.org.

John Nienstedt of St. Paul and Minneapolis posted a letter on the archdiocese’s website on January 16 to address the matter. “It must be pointed out that this action will not in any way avoid our responsibilities to those who have been affected by clerical sexual abuse,” the statement read. “This is not an attempt to silence victims or deny them justice in court. On the contrary, we want to respond positively in compensating them for their suffering.” Filing Chapter 11 reorganization will have the immediate effect of postponing three sex-abuse cases against the archdiocese that were scheduled for trial in late January. Responding to the archdiocese’s deci-

sion, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) suggested that filing bankruptcy was more a smokescreen than an effort to aid victims. “Chapter 11 enables a bishop to protect what he cares about most: his own reputation, comfort, and secrets. It stops depositions, discovery, and clergy sex-abuse and cover-up trials,” said Barbara Dorris, outreach director of SNAP.

Hundreds of Thousands Gather for March for Life The 42nd annual March for Life kicked off on January 22—the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s M a rch 2 0 15 ❘ 1 1

CNS PHOTO/LESLIE E. KOSSOFF

1973 Roe v. Wade decision—in Washington, DC, with the theme “Every Life Is a Gift.” In a nod to the growing influence of social media, Pope Francis tweeted the very words of the march’s theme with the hashtag #MarchforLife on the morning of the event, reported CNS. The rally started with live music, prayers, and speeches from organizers and pro-life advocates. President of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and Archbishop of Louisville Joseph E. Kurtz led the opening prayer, joined by members of the clergy and patriarchs from a variety of Orthodox Churches. A number of elected officials attended the March for Life, including Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ). “There have never been more pro-life lawmakers in Congress than we have today,” Smith said in a speech at the rally. After the kickoff rally, pro-life supporters began their march at the National Mall and continued along Constitution Avenue until they reached the US Supreme Court building. Along the way, many in the

Andrew Juodawlkis prays the rosary with fellow members of Students for Life of Michigan outside the Supreme Court during the annual March for Life in Washington January 22. youth-oriented crowd shared cell phone photos of the march on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Appealing to the participants, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) tweeted, “Need to warm up after the #MarchforLife? Head over to @marcorubio’s office for coffee at 284 Russell Senate Office Building.” Leading up to the event, president

of the March for Life Jeanne Monahan-Mancini talked to CNS about her commitment to the pro-life cause. “I can’t not march. I march for women who have made that wrong decision and suffered greatly; most of all, I march for the unborn,” said Monahan-Mancini. “It is the worst human rights abuse happening out there right now.” A

Pope Francis Dedicates Mass to Charlie Hebdo Victims

CNS PHOTO/JACKY NAEGELEN, REUTERS

When Pope Francis said Mass in Vatican City on January 8, he paid tribute to the victims of the shooting at the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo, reported CNS. The day before, two gunmen forced their way into the

magazine’s headquarters in Paris and commenced an attack that left 12 dead and 11 wounded. The magazine had repeatedly depicted the prophet Mohammed and directed jokes at him and other Muslim leaders. “Let us pray at this Mass for the victims of this cruelty—there are so many! And, we pray also for the perpetrators of such cruelty that the Lord will change their hearts,” the pope said. Before addressing the attack during Mass, the pope met with Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois of Paris on January 8 to express his condolences. Pope Francis also communicated his thoughts on the attack to Father Federico Lombardi, the spokesman for the Vatican. A statement from Lombardi read, “The Holy Father expresses the firmest condemnation of the horrible attack. . . . Whatever the motivation might be, homicidal violence is abominable, is never People hold a placard that reads “I am Muslim, I am Jewish, I am justifiable. Every instigation to hatred should be Catholic, I am Charlie” during a vigil in Paris, following the mass shootrejected, respect for the other cultivated.” ing at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical newspaper in Paris.

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St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

AT HOME ON EARTH

❘ BY KYLE KRAMER

The Sound of Silence

Much like the land, we will be our best selves when we take time to be silent and rest. Fr ancisca n Media .org

too many years plowing up much more land than I should have, and then being overworked and overwhelmed the rest of the season. On this new place, I’m trying to be honest about what I can manage. Be Quiet The principles and quesCan you set aside some tions that guide good farmtime every day simply to sit ing and gardening also apply in open, receptive silence in teaching, management, with God? You can start social change, and elsewhere. with just five minutes; try I could pose the same questo work up to 20. tions I’m asking about our

land and easily substitute Take an inventory: with “student,” “organization,” or what people or activities in “community.” your life does true listening All of this comes down to guide your actions? In what relationship, grounded in lisarenas might you listen tening and self-knowledge. more carefully? We’ll relate well to our places, students, employees, or comSometimes it takes a “shock munities when we start to listreatment” to learn how to ten deeply to them and to wire silence into your life. the Holy Spirit. It will hapCan you make time for a pen when we begin to speak three-day silent retreat? truth in our own hearts— rather than just bulldozing our way through with egodriven, one-size-fits-all plans and agendas. Such patient, openhearted, open-minded listening can be a spiritual practice. Our Catholic tradition teaches that some of the most profound experiences of prayer happen when we fall silent and simply listen to the “still, soft voice” of our God. Silence and true listening don’t come easily, especially in a culture full of noise and distractions. But you can cultivate them, just like a garden. Like a garden, they bear wonderful fruit. A

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Click here to explore links on this topic. Click the button on the right to hear an interview with Kyle. M a rch 2 0 15 ❘ 1 3

BY ALES KRIVEC/UNSPLASH

ne of the biggest challenges of leaving our farm of 15 years was realizing that, in terms of growing food, we would need to start from scratch all over again. In fact, it’s been like starting from less than scratch: this new land is rocky, steep, thin-soiled, and shady. It may be ruggedly beautiful, but it’s hardly an ideal place to raise crops, at least compared to the sundrenched garden plots and orchards we left behind. It’s not possible just to replicate everything we did on our previous place. The land simply can’t support it. If we’re going to work with this new land rather than fight against it, and probably damage it, we have to, in a sense, listen to the “genius of the place,” to borrow a phrase from plant researcher Wes Jackson (and several poets before him). What does this particular piece of land want and need? What are its unique limits and possibilities? I also have to ask about my limits and possibilities. How much time, skill, and energy can I invest? On our previous farm, I spent

Easy Tips for

Personal Prayer

How do we move beyond our busyness and listen to God’s voice? BY RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI

T. AUGUSTINE wisely said, “You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” But the deep meaning of our longing isn’t always so obvious. Ultimately, our restless aching is a yearning for God. We need to connect with God. We need prayer. We know this, both in our more reflective moments and in our more desperate moments. It’s then that we feel our need for prayer and try to go to that deep place. But given our lack of trust and our lack of practice, we struggle to get there. We don’t know how to pray or how to sustain ourselves in prayer. Whether you’re a beginner or more advanced in prayer, these seven tips will encourage you in your practice of prayer:

Show Up

There’s no bad way to pray and no single starting point for prayer. The spiritual masters offer one nonnegotiable rule: you have to show up for prayer and show up regularly. Everything else is negotiable and respects your unique circumstances. Most days, we don’t pray simply because we don’t quite get around to it. Perhaps the best metaphor to describe our hurried and distracted lives is that of a car wash. For most of us, that’s just what our typical day does to us—it sucks us through. Prayer is truly a discipline. Show up! March 2015 ❘

Prayer has an ebb and flow.

Quiet Your Heart

Solitude is a form of awareness, a way of being present and perceptive within all of life. It’s having a dimension of reflectiveness in our daily lives that brings gratitude, appreciation, peacefulness, enjoyment, and prayer. It’s the sense, within ordinary life, that life is precious, sacred, and enough. Solitude isn’t something we turn on like a water faucet. It needs a body and mind slowed enough to be attentive to the present moment. The first step is to remain quietly in God’s presence in solitude, silence, and prayer. If it is your first time doing this, set aside 15 minutes for prayer.

Look Inside

Our culture can keep us so entertained, busy, preoccupied, and distracted that we lose all focus on the deeper things. We can go along like this for years until a crisis suddenly renders empty all the stimulation and entertainment in the world. Then we’re forced to look into our own depth, and that can be a frightening abyss if we’ve spent years avoiding it. We have to know when it’s time to unplug the television, turn off the phone, shut down 16 ❘

March 2015

the computer, silence the iPod, lay away the sports page, and resist going out for coffee with a friend, so that, for one moment, we’re not avoiding making friends with the deepest part of us.

Establish a Routine and Stick with It

The solution isn’t so much new prayer forms and more variety, but rhythm, routine, and established ritual. What’s needed is a prayer form that doesn’t demand an energy you cannot muster on a given day. What clear rituals provide is prayer that depends on something beyond our own energy. The rituals carry us: our tiredness, our inattentiveness, our indifference, and even our occasional distaste. They keep us praying even when we’re too tired to muster up our own energy. Prayer has an ebb and flow. Sometimes we have a deep sense of God’s reality, and sometimes we can’t even imagine that God exists. Sometimes we have deep feelings about God’s goodness and love, and sometimes we feel bored and distracted. At a deep level of our human relationships, the real connection between people takes place below the surface of our conversations. We St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

begin to know each other through simple presence. Prayer is the same. If we pray faithfully every day, year in and year out, we can expect little excitement, lots of boredom, and regular temptations to look at the clock. But a bond and an intimacy will be growing under the surfaceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a deep, growing bond with our God.

Be Honest, Vulnerable, Bold

What does it mean to be holy or perfect? To be perfect in the Hebrew mindset simply means to walk with God, despite our flaws. It means being in the divine presence in spite of the fact that weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not perfectly whole, good, true, and beautiful. God asks us to bring our helplessness, weaknesses, imperfections, and sin to him, to walk with him, and to never hide from him. God understands that weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll make mistakes and disappoint him and ourselves. What God asks is simply that we come home, share our lives with him, and let him help us in those ways weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re powerless to help ourselves. Every feeling and thought we have is a valid entry into prayer, no matter how irreverent, unholy, selfish, sexual, or angry that thought or feeling might seem. Simply put, if you go to

pray and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re feeling angry, pray anger; if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re sexually preoccupied, pray that preoccupation; if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re feeling murderous, pray murder; and if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re feeling full of fervor and want to praise and thank God, pray fervor. Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important is that we pray whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inside of us and not what we think God would like to see inside of us. No matter the headache or the heartache, we need only to lift it up to God.

Let Go of Anxiety and Shame

The opposite of faith isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t doubt but anxiety. It isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t so much the fear that God doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exist as the fear that God doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t notice our existence. Faith doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have you believe that youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have no worries, or that you wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make mistakes, or that Click here for more on prayer. you and your loved ones wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Click the button above sometimes fall victim to accito hear audio from Ronald dent or sickness. What faith Rolheiser on this topic. gives you is the assurance that God is good, can be trusted, wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t forget you, and is solidly in charge. Faith says that God is real, God is Lord, and thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ultimately nothing to fear. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in safe hands. Reality is gracious, for-

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use for crippling shame. Jesus said: “Love each other as I love you” (Jn 15:12). The tail end of that sentence contains the challenge. Jesus loved us by becoming vulnerable to the point of risking humiliation and rejection. We must recover our childlike trust and try to do the same.

Seeking God’s Voice Among all the voices that surround and beckon us, we need to discern the unique cadence of God’s voice. A number of principles that come to us from Jesus, Scripture, and the deep wells of our Christian tradition can help us discern God’s voice among the multitude of voices that beckon us. The voice of God is: • recognized in whispers, thunder, and storm; • recognized in the call to what’s higher and what invites us to holiness, even as it is recognized in the call to humility; • the one that most challenges and stretches us, even as it is the only voice that ultimately soothes and comforts us; • always heard in a privileged way in the poor; • always inviting us to live beyond all fear, even as it inspires holy fear; and • always heard wherever there is genuine enjoyment and gratitude, even as it asks us to deny ourselves and die to ourselves. The voice of God, it would seem, is found in paradox, but it is the voice of someone who knows us intimately and calls each of us by name.

giving, loving, redeeming, and absolutely trustworthy. Our task is to surrender to that. If we’re to take seriously the words of Jesus, “Change your life and believe in the good news,” then the coldness and distrust brought upon us by shame must be overcome. Shame is powerful. Its bite is deep, the scars permanent. Try to bring the warmth, trust, and spontaneity of childhood into your prayers with God, a God who delights in you and has no 18 ❘

March 2015

Listen for God’s Voice and Accept God’s Love

We’re surrounded by many voices. How do we recognize God’s voice among and within all of these others? God is the author of everything that’s good, whether it bears a religious label or not. Hence, God’s voice is inside many things that aren’t explicitly connected to faith and religion. Jesus tells us he’s the Good Shepherd and his sheep will recognize his voice among all other voices. A sheep recognizes the voice of the one safeguarding it and won’t follow another voice. The voice of God is the voice of someone who knows us intimately and calls each of us by name. We take for granted that anyone who sees us as we really are (unlovely, weak, pathological, sinful, insubstantial) will, in the end, be as disappointed with us as we are with ourselves. We fear God because we’ve never experienced the kind of love that is manifest in God. We avoid God when we’re most in need of love and acceptance. God is love, and only by letting that love into our lives can we save ourselves from disappointment, shame, and sadness. God understands us, accepts us, delights in us, and is eager to smile at us. Experiencing the unconditional love of God is what prayer, in the end, is all about. Remember: your heart is made to rest in God. If St. Augustine is right—and he is—then you can count on your restlessness to lead you into deeper prayer—the kind of prayer that leads to transformation and will not leave you empty-handed. A Material for this article is adapted from Prayer: Our Deepest Longing by Ronald Rolheiser, OMI (Franciscan Media). Ronald Rolheiser, a Roman Catholic priest with the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, is an internationally renowned speaker and spiritual writer. His award-winning weekly column, “In Exile,” is carried by more than 70 newspapers. He is the author of seven books, including the best-selling The Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality. St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

Keep faith close to your heart and

You’ll never walk alone

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St. Teresa of Avila Mystic and Multitasker

PHOTO COURTESY OF ICS PUBLICATIONS

This Doctor of the Church and foundress of the Discalced Carmelites was a woman of contemplation and action. B Y PAT R I C I A M O R R I S O N

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St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

PHOTO BY FR. MICHAEL BERRY, OCD

Within the fortified, medieval walls of the city of Avila, Spain (far left), is the Convent of the Incarnation (left), where St. Teresa entered religious life.

PHOTO BY FR. MICHAEL BERRY, OCD

HE ENTERPRISING duo had almost made good on their escape. The young sister/brother team were running away from home. Inspired by the stories of Christian martyrs, they decided they’d join their ranks, but figured the only way to do so would be to get out of their hometown and to “the lands of the Moors.” We don’t know how far the small adventurers got, but before long, a relative spotted them and promptly yanked them back home. Instead of getting beheaded as they’d hoped, 7-year-old Teresa and her closest brother, Rodrigo, most likely got a good scolding—if Fr anciscanMedia.org

not more. Describing the escapade some 40 years later in her autobiographical Life, Teresa, the instigator, recalls wryly, “Having parents seemed to us the greatest obstacle.” Today, almost 500 years after the two siblings of the Sánchez Cepeda y Ahumuda family attempted their escape out of Avila, Spain, thousands of pilgrims and visitors from around the world are streaming into those same city gates to honor Spain’s most beloved santa. March 28, 2015, marks the 500th birthday of St. Teresa of Avila. The spunky little girl who wanted to be a martyr grew up to become a reformer, writer, exalted mystic, and foundress of the Discalced Carmelite Order. The entire Carmelite Order and the Church worldwide are pulling out all the stops during this fifth centenary of Teresa’s birth to introduce 21st-century people to her writings and spirituality—and to encourage those already familiar with her to deepen their understanding of the saint’s teachings on prayer and love for God. When many North Americans hear “St. Teresa,” they immediately think of Thérèse of Lisieux, the popular young 19th-century French nun depicted with a crucifix and an armful of roses. But without her 16th-century patron saint, the revered Madre, St. Teresa of Avila, Thérèse—the Little Flower—would not have been who she was. It was the first Teresa’s single-minded quest for God that made possible the Discalced Carmelite monastery Thérèse of Lisieux entered—and its way of life. Today it’s hard to imagine, but St. Teresa— the first woman to be declared a Doctor of the Church (for the perennial richness of her spiritual teachings)—had to dodge the Inquisition during her lifetime, and was described March 2015 ❘

PHOTO BY SR. MARY GRACE MELCHER, OCD

in cheek. “Tomorrow I don’t pray because I might get a headache. And the day after, I can’t pray because I had a headache.” (Apart from shedding light on Teresa’s insight into the human condition, it explains why she is a patron of headache sufferers!)

DNALOR 01/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

A Down-to-Earth Mystic

Located in the Cornaro Chapel of the famous Santa Maria della Vittoria church in Rome, Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s “The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa” captures perfectly the mystic’s transcendent experience of God’s love.

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March 2015

by critics as “that restless, gadabout nun.” Teresa of Avila was smart, popular, witty, stubborn, a bit of a flirt, and too enmeshed at times with family and friends. She could be a savvy politician, knowing how to wheel and deal within the restrictions placed on women in 16th-century Spain to get what she wanted (and what she was convinced God wanted) from bishops and kings, in order to advance her Carmelite reform and her new monasteries where it would be lived. She was also a consummate expert in human psychology, knowing firsthand how we humans operate. “Today I don’t pray because I have a headache,” she wrote, tongue planted firmly

One of the most well-known representations of St. Teresa of Avila is Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s magnificent marble sculpture of the saint in ecstasy. The life-size statue in Rome’s Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria depicts the piercing of her heart recorded in her Life. In the statue, Teresa is reclining (some would say swooning), her bare foot dangling sensuously off the cloud she lies on, while a smiling angel is poised to shoot a flaming dart into her heart. The sculpture is based on an actual event in her life, in which Teresa describes being filled with God’s love. But while ecstasies and other spiritual experiences were common in Teresa’s mystical life, they never prevented her from being grounded in reality, or from being totally human. When a prioress fretted about a nun whose fainting spells were supposedly due to ecstasy, the practical foundress told her to make sure the woman was eating enough, and to keep her busy. And, for those who would have preferred a stroll in the garden to kitchen duty, Teresa reminded them (from firsthand experience) that “God walks among the pots and pans.” For this great contemplative, prayer St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

Who says nuns can’t have fun? Enjoying the recreation time that St. Teresa established after she founded the order, Carmelite nuns in Terre Haute, Indiana, play a round of Scrabble.

was never navel-gazing self-focus. The immense needs of the whole world were always to be at its heart. In advice as relevant today as when she wrote it, Teresa exclaimed: “The world is in flames! Now is not the time to be bothering God with trifles!” This was a woman who was warm, outgoing, and unfailingly loyal. She deeply loved her nuns, family, and friends, and longed for their news. Her down-to-earth letters are full of motherly concern about their health and even their financial problems. She wanted her nuns to have fun; in fact, in her Rule, she called for two periods of recreation every day—a healthy balance to the intense hours of prayer and work. La Madre herself even brought out the castanets and tambourine, dancing and singing for convent recreations. Teresa had no patience with gloomy personalities. “From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us!” she wrote. As happens with many saints, legends and sayings attributed to Teresa of Avila have multiplied. Many of them have no historical basis, but they do reflect accurately what we know of her. In perhaps the most famous (based on a true event), Teresa’s wagon lost an axle while the driver was negotiating a steep riverbank. The disabled wagon, its driver, and the nuns inside all landed in the muddy water. The saint supposedly complained loudly to God about it, and God is said to have replied, “My daughter, this is how I treat my friends.” To which Teresa shot Fr anciscanMedia.org

Take an armchair pilgrimage with St. Teresa of Avila It’s her birthday, . . . but the gifts are yours! St. Teresa of Avila was a great saint, reformer and mystic. She was also one of the most traveled women of her day. St. Teresa covered thousands of miles, crisscrossing Spain on the “divine adventure” of starting a new way of Carmelite living in her monasteries. Now, to celebrate her 500th birthday, you can take a fascinating armchair pilgrimage and travel with St. Teresa in The Divine Adventure: St. Teresa of Avila’s Journeys and Foundations. Filled with hundreds of color photographs, maps, charts, and historic artwork, this unique new book lets you walk with Teresa and see the places touched by her life and holiness. Visit some of Spain’s most breathtaking sites, and also get a rare glimpse inside the cloistered monasteries she founded, still extant today. With lively details, Teresa recounts her travels and the events and people connected with them in her classic book of The Foundations. The Divine Adventure gives you an overview of each of these, in stunning color and detail. (paperback, 246 pages)

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March 2015 ❘

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MONTE CARMELO, BURGOS/ ICS PUBLICATIONS

(Above) St. Teresa’s cell at the Convent of San Jose in Avila—the first of many she founded—is sparse, with a distaff near her bed for spinning and a low ledge on the left where she knelt to write. (Above right) A single flower keeps a statue of St. Teresa company in the cell—now an oratory—at the convent where she died, in Alba de Tormes. (Right) St. Teresa traveled far and wide, so it’s no surprise she had a walking stick—presented here by a Carmelite nun in Granada, Spain. back, “Then no wonder you have so few!” While the conversation is probably not factual, this story shows us the real St. Teresa at her best: fully human, often challenged by life, and always in honest relationship with the God she loved so much.

Reluctant Reformer Before she died at age 67 in 1582, Teresa had covered thousands of miles, founding 17 monasteries of nuns and two for Carmelite friars, crisscrossing Spain by covered wagon or mule cart. She had written major works of deep spirituality and hundreds of letters. 24 ❘

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But Teresa, the cloistered nun, never set out to be a traveler or a writer, much less a religious reformer. Religious renewal, however, was in the air in 16th-century Spain, thanks to the Council of Trent and the CounterReformation. Several leading figures set out to rekindle Catholics’ fervor, among them the Jesuit Francis Borgia, Franciscans such as Peter of Alcantara, and, unwittingly, Teresa herself. The Convent of the Incarnation, which Teresa entered at 20, was a large place—and financially strapped. In Teresa’s day, up to 200 nuns lived there. The nuns often were home with family and friends, or spent time cultivating benefactors in the convent parlors due to the religious community’s difficulty in feeding that many people. Nuns who came from wealthy families had servants and comfortable quarters; Teresa herself had a large suite with its own kitchen, which can still be seen today. With this busy round of socializing and coming and going, the nuns’ personal prayers went on the back burner. As Teresa realized that God was calling her into a deeper relationship with him, she felt that, in her current setting, she couldn’t achieve the recollection and attention to prayer she needed. She and some friends brainstormed about starting a small convent, based on the hermit roots of the Carmelite Order in the Holy Land. Here, a loving community of only a few nuns would focus on a life dediSt A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

cated to prayer—so that in Teresa’s plan, “all would be known, all would be loved,” which she felt couldn’t happen easily in a huge religious house. Being few in number, Teresa reasoned, the nuns also would have few needs. This would free them for the life of prayer they came for. But the prayer Teresa envisioned was not simply to be repetitive recitations or purely out of obligation. It was to flow from a deep friendship with Christ. Prayer, she explained in Life, “means taking time frequently to be alone with the One who we know loves us.” Teresa wanted all her nuns to enjoy mutual respect and equality. She set the example herself by putting aside her title of Doña, common among upscale Spanish families, and chose to be called simply Teresa of Jesus. Teresa’s grassroots movement caught on quickly. More and more women were attracted to her Discalced (meaning “shoeless”) Carmelite life. Soon Teresa was traveling to found other monasteries throughout Spain—first of nuns and then, with the help of St. John of the Cross and others, of friars as well. Today, on her 500th birthday, Discalced Carmelites number about 12,000 contemplative nuns in 98 countries, nearly 4,000 mendicant friars in 82 countries, and some 40,000 lay Carmelites throughout the world.

A Saint for Today During the period of her life when she had already reached the highest stages of mystical prayer and union with God, Teresa was simultaneously juggling many demanding down-to-earth duties that would challenge the busiest multitasker. Her whirlwind of activity, recorded in the book Foundations, reads like a blend of an entertaining travelogue and a Fortune 500 executive’s schedule. While reediting her manuscript on prayer (her censor/editor was aiming to keep her away from the clutches of the Inquisition), she was corresponding with superiors of her convents about issues ranging from personnel problems to property lines. In one case, a bishop attempted to renege on his promises to her regarding Fr anciscanMedia.org

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March 2015 ❘

St. Teresa, the Writer

eresa of Jesus never set out to be a writer; she was content living a life of prayer as a cloistered nun. But as a foundress and a businesswoman, Teresa soon discovered that writing came with the territory. Teresa had something of a love/hate relationship with writing. Practical as she was, she disliked the time that writing took from her community life. When asked for another book, she once complained, “Let me work at my spinning! . . . I’m not meant to write,” claiming she wasn’t healthy or intelligent enough to be a writer. But, in a few years, she penned nine books and hundreds of letters. There’s good reason one of the symbols for St. Teresa in art is a quill pen! Fortunately for us, Teresa’s confessors and superiors ordered her to write some of the books that have

come down to us today. Others were written at the urging of her nuns who were in need of guidance. Today, we have six major and four minor works that are her authentic writings. St. Teresa’s major works are The Book of Her Life (autobiography), The Way of Perfection, The Interior Castle, The Book of the Foundations, Meditations on the Song of Songs, and the Letters (almost 500 extant). Her so-called minor writings are Spiritual Testimonies, The Visitation of Convents, Soliloquies, and her Poems. The nun from Avila who complained about having to write could never have dreamed that 500 years after her birth her writings would have circled the globe and be published in more than two dozen languages. In 1970, Pope Paul VI named her a Doctor of the Church because of the theological brilliance of her writings and the timeless help they provide in explaining the spiritual journey.

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Click here to learn more about St. Teresa of Avila. Click below to hear a clip from Gina Loehr’s audiobook The Four Teresas.

March 2015

a monastery, and Teresa had to call in a lawyer on the matter. In the meantime, she noted, college students who had taken over the building had trashed the place. If this doesn’t mesh with your idea of what a mystic’s life is about, that is precisely Teresa’s message. She wanted to sweep away the cobwebbed notion that we grow in holiness only when life is tranquil and untroubled. Teresa might have preferred that kind of calm, stress-free life (she did, after all, set out to be a cloistered nun!), but she discovered through experience that it wasn’t going to happen. And she learned in that process that being very busy and having worries and problems didn’t prevent God from loving her— or her from loving and serving God. Perhaps St. Teresa’s greatest gift to busy people committed to the spiritual journey is the truth that ordinary life and holiness are not in conflict. There need be no separation from immersion in the real world and its challenges,

and ongoing, prayerful union with God. When she died, the following thoughts in her handwriting were found written in the margins of her breviary. We don’t know if Teresa composed what has come to be called “St. Teresa’s Bookmark” or not, but its message is one we know inspired her. It’s one she might well share with us today for her 500th birthday: Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. All things pass away. God never changes. Patience obtains all things. They who have God lack nothing. God alone is enough. A Patricia Morrison is editorial director for ICS Publications, the publishing ministry of the Discalced Carmelites in the United States. A longtime contributor to the Catholic press, Pat is a vowed laywoman in the Carmelite tradition. She writes from Miamisburg, Ohio. St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

EDITORIAL

We Walk the Line The Charlie Hebdo attack in France raises the question: Just because we can, does it mean we should? In 2005, this magazine ran an editorial in response to the violent fallout over images of Mohammed published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Two hundred people were killed in protests that followed the cartoon’s publication. Now, 10 years later, the world is once again confronting this issue—this time in France. By now, we’re all well aware of the January 7 attack that killed 12 people at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The rallying cry of Je suis Charlie (“I am Charlie”) has been heard and chanted throughout the world. Immediately following the attacks, the age-old debate of freedom of the press l a t i versus religious tolerance erupted. g Di as r t For years, Charlie Hebdo has published x E what many Muslims consider deliberately provocaClick here for more tive images of the prophet on Christian-Muslim Mohammed. One of the relations. basic beliefs of Islam is that Mohammed was a man, not God, and that portraying him could lead to revering a human instead of Allah. The magazine has also published cartoons lampooning Christians and Jews.

How Far Is Too Far? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, satire is “humor that shows the weaknesses or bad qualities of a person, government, society, etc.” And satire has its place in society. But one has to wonder— at what cost? Is there no other way in which to convey a message without being overtly provocative? Pope Francis weighed in on that very question, saying, “There is freedom of expression; a violent aggression is not good; it’s always bad. We all agree, but in practice Fr ancisca n Media .org

let us stop a little because we are human and we risk to provoke others. For this reason, freedom must be accompanied by prudence.” But even Pope Francis had to return to the issue and clarify his remarks on the subject when reporters said the pope’s initial statement wasn’t quite clear. Obviously, there are no easy answers to this type of situation.

Handle with Care Of course, the killings are completely unjustified. Murder and terrorism are not to be tolerated. New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan called the attacks “a nauseating perversion of religion.” On these things we all can agree. Cardinal Dolan added a “Freedom of expression caution, though, pointing must take account of out that “if you chip away at the sacredness of human the human reality and, life, the dignity of the for this reason, one human person, if you chip away at religious sensitivimust be prudent.” ties, if you chip away at —Pope Francis elementary civility and courtesy, sooner or later you’ve got a pretty harsh society and culture . . . that could then go to terribly radical, nauseating extremes.” These terrorists do not speak for Islam, and seem to be seeking any opportunity to try to manipulate their religion to justify their actions. So the question is: Can we do anything to try to prevent these types of attacks? This magazine has taken on topics in this very column that many have felt are inappropriate. But the purpose of this column has always been to help raise awareness—or to perhaps bring about change. It’s one thing to prick someone’s conscience; it’s something else not to respect the person or his or her tradition. Satire has its place. But to do it in a way that, to use the words of Pope Francis, “provokes others,” however, seems counterproductive. —Susan Hines-Brigger M a rch 2 0 15 ❘ 2 7

James Foley Journalist, Man of Faith He was murdered by ISIS as he exposed to the world the suffering of the Syrian people. His loved ones look back on his life and legacy. BY DONIS TRACY

N AUGUST 19, 2014, a troubling video, entitled “A Message to America,” was uploaded to the Internet. Freelance journalist James Foley, clad in orange, kneels in front of a camera. In halting speech, he delivers a statement condemning the US government. “I wish I could have the hope of freedom, of seeing my family once again, but that ship has sailed,” he says. His executioner, clad entirely in black, then identifies himself as a member of the Islamic State and spouts antiAmerican rhetoric before decapitating his prisoner. The video concludes by threatening further murders. Thousands of miles away, in Rochester, New Hampshire, John and Diane Foley receive the terrible news—the government has confirmed the video is authentic. Their oldest son, who two years prior had been captured in Syria, will not be coming home. Shock becomes horror. Sadness becomes devastation. As news of the horrific murder spreads through the close-knit community, Father Paul Gousse, pastor of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, the Foley family church, jumps into his car and speeds to the Foley house to mourn, to pray, to console. “I’ll never forget it,” he says sadly. “Diane came and hugged me and said, ‘Father, please pray for me that I don’t become bitter. I don’t

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want to hate.’ That’s the kind of person she is. That’s the kind of family they are.” That very night, the family issued a statement on Facebook. “We have never been prouder of our son Jim. He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people. We implore the kidnappers to spare the lives of the remaining hostages. Like Jim, they are innocents. . . . We thank Jim for all the joy he gave us. He was an extraordinary son, brother, journalist, and person.”

A Strong Faith Base James (Jim) Foley was born October 18, 1973, in Evanston, Illinois, the oldest of five children born to Dr. John and Diane Foley. The family St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

CNS PHOTO/COURTESY NICOLE TUNG

relocated to Wolfboro, New Hampshire, when Jim was a young boy. According to Jeremy Osgood, a friend of Jim’s since the first grade, “There seemed to be two absolutes in Jim’s life—his faith and his family, both of which gave him an incredible foundation. It was a well of strength and courage for him in a time of need. It was a source of compassion for others.” Osgood shared many of his memories of Jim—from his days at the Carpenter School, the elementary school where they met, to attending the prom at Kingswood Regional High School, which Jim proudly attended wearing a gaudy 1970s tuxedo. His prom date was one of the teachers. Fr anciscanMedia.org

“Jim always had a knack for reading people. He was a student of human nature, who could blend into any situation and used this ability to build people up, and not tear them down,” Osgood says. He believes this came from Jim’s upbringing. Ann McGregor, Jim’s former babysitter and longtime family friend, agrees. She shares one poignant memory from his childhood, which, according to McGregor, “accentuates the life Jimmy lived and died for.” As a teen, McGregor was invited to the Foley house on January 6 to an “Epiphany party,” where each of the five young children brought gifts to the baby Jesus in the manger, she recalls.

This photo of Jim in Aleppo, Syria, was taken in November 2012—the same month he and another journalist were captured by ISIS.

March 2015 ❘

Following his release from captivity in Libya, Jim spoke at a 2011 press conference in Boston.

CNS PHOTO/STEVEN SENNE, AP PHOTO VIA MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY

“He always wanted to hear everyone’s stories, and he made you feel like you were the only person in the world.” —Anders Hopperstead

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March 2015

“At a young age, the Foley children were taught to bring their gifts to Christ, to follow the light that leads us to Christ, wherever that may lead, and to bow down to Christ in service to him,” she says. She adds that Jim’s death was the epitome of that Epiphany party. “Jim went bearing his gifts for the oppressed, the impoverished, the neglected, the deprived, the unloved,” she says. “He traveled from afar—like the Wise Men—and he laid down his gift, his life. “Jim was loved internationally, but first and foremost, Jim was loved by God his Father,” she continues. “Jim was a light—and he took this light into some of the world’s darkest places, where few of us would dare to go, and his light never faded. His light will forever remain bright in my life.”

An Expanding Vision After graduating from Kingswood Regional High School, Jim attended Marquette University, a Jesuit school in Milwaukee steeped in a tradition of social justice. It was at Marquette that Jim first turned his attention to those less fortunate. “At Marquette, Jim began to realize that there were others who had not had what he had as a child,” Father Gousse says. “His mother told me once that the more Jim expe-

rienced poverty, the more his heart grew.” Tom Durkin, a friend of Jim’s during his days at Marquette, recalls that Jim “always wanted to know more, to learn more, to understand more.” In 1996, Jim graduated from Marquette, and went to work as a teacher in Teach for America, a nonprofit organization whose mission, according to its website, is “to build the movement to eliminate educational inequity” by recruiting recent college graduates to teach in underprivileged areas throughout the United States for a minimum of two years. In the four years he was involved in Teach for America, Jim taught middle school in Phoenix, Arizona. Anders Hopperstead, geographic information system analyst at the Ministry of Agriculture in British Columbia, befriended Jim during his days in Teach for America. He recalls Jim as a fun-loving man who was always very much attracted to the stories of others’ lives. “He instantly called you ‘brother,’” Hopperstead says with a smile. “He was a great listener. He always wanted to hear everyone’s stories, and he made you feel like you were the only person in the world.”

Uncovering People’s Stories In the mid-2000s, Jim changed his career focus to journalism. He enrolled in the MFA Program St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

for Poets & Writers at the University of Mas- familiar with how to supplicate rather than sachusetts–Amherst, where he graduated in pray.” 2003. He continued at Northwestern UniverAccording to Gillis, Jim would often pray sity’s Medill School of Journalism, graduating with her “for things we could tangibly feel. in 2008. While studying in Chicago, Jim also Prayers such as, ‘Give us the strength to endure taught English to inmates at the Cook County what this day brings’ or ‘Give Jail. us the wisdom to face our capClick here for more on One year later, Jim began working for a tors’ or ‘Strengthen our famiJames Foley and the USAID-funded development project in Bagh- lies’—those were our prayers.” Catholic Church’s efforts dad, where he helped organize conferences For Gillis, who describes herin the Middle East. and training seminars for a program designed self as not very religious, “it to rebuild Iraq’s civil service. In 2010, he began was very helpful and moving his career as a freelance reporter and was to see how these supplications embedded with US troops in Iraq. were effective.” The following year, he began to work for GlobalPost, a Boston-based online Divine Word news organization whose mission, according to its website, is to “redefine international news for the digital age.” At the October 18, 2014, memorial Rewards you with a fixed Mass held on Jim’s 41st birthday, Father income while supporting Marc Montminy, pastor of St. Michael Parish in Exeter, Massachusetts, and our mission to serve the close family friend, explained in a hompoorest of God’s people. ily, “It was people’s stories—the stories of mechanics, of oil workers, of mothers and fathers—people living in the extremes” that compelled Jim to write. While working at GlobalPost, Jim traveled to Libya to cover the uprising against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, embedding himself with rebel fighters. On April 5, 2011, Jim, together with American journalist Clare Morgana Gillis, Spanish photographer Manu Brabo, and South African-born British photojournalist Anton Hammerl, was detained near Brega, Libya, by Gaddafi supporters. Hammerl was shot; the other three were captured.

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Charitable Gift Annuity

The Strength of His Faith After his capture, Jim’s focus shifted. “Jim told me, ‘Once I saw Anton lying there, everything changed,’ recalls Father Montminy. “After that point, he wanted to seek justice and peace.” For the next 44 days, Jim was held prisoner. But his faith never faltered. According to Gillis, who spent many days in a cell with him, Jim’s faith was evident even in the darkest moments. Speaking from an Internet café in Istanbul, Gillis acknowledges that “in that situation, anyone would pray— sort of a ‘Get me out of here’ type of prayer. But not Jim. I say he was very Fr anciscanMedia.org

“If nothing else, prayer was the glue that enabled my freedom, an inner freedom first, and later, the miracle of being released during a war in which the regime had no real incentive to free us,” his article continued. “It didn’t make sense, but faith did.”

CNS PHOTO/NICOLE TUNG, COURTESY GLOBALPOST VIA EPA

A Missionary Heart

Jim traveled to both Libya and Syria because he wanted to tell the story of the people who were suffering in those regions.

“He taught us the meaning of life by being willing to lay down his own life for others.” —Father Paul Gousse

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March 2015

Gillis notes that during their captivity, she only saw Jim cry twice—both while he was praying for the lives of others—and never did she see him angry. “He never said an angry word to anyone—even to those who were holding us captive,” she recalls. Having met him only weeks before their capture, Jim’s faith came as a bit of a surprise to Gillis. “He never carried his faith heavily. He kept it a little close to himself,” she says. On May 18, 2011, Jim, Gillis, Manu Brabo, and another British journalist who had also been captured in Libya, were released without explanation. After his release, Jim wrote an article for Marquette Magazine, in which he spoke of his experiences in captivity. “I began to pray the rosary. It was what my mother and grandmother would have prayed,” he wrote. “I said 10 Hail Marys between each Our Father. It took a long time, almost an hour, to count 100 Hail Marys off on my knuckles. And it helped to keep my mind focused.

Those close to Jim all agree that when he returned home from captivity, there was a restlessness that grew within him. By early 2012, Jim began a series of trips in and out of Syria, chronicling for GlobalPost the unfolding of events as they occurred in Syria. Several people, including his siblings, were not pleased. “Just one week before Jim went back to Syria, I had supper with the family,” recalls Father Gousse, their parish priest. “And during the course of the conversation, I looked at him and said, ‘Jim, why are you going back?’ His response, and I’ll never forget it, was, ‘Father, I need to go back because the world needs to know the plight of people who are being walked on like grass underfoot.’ “It was then I knew that he had a missionary heart,” Father Gousse continues. “Jim’s missionary and evangelizing heart was willing to go into the darkest of places where no one else was willing to go. “Jim died for freedom. Jim died for truth. But the fact of the matter is that Jim died because he wanted the world to know what the Syrian people were experiencing,” he continues. “If I had to stand here and say what was the most important lesson Jim taught, it was at the end of his life. He taught us the meaning of life by being willing to lay down his own life for others.”

A Final Good-bye On Thanksgiving Day 2012, Foley was captured alongside British journalist John Cantlie in northwest Syria, close to the Turkish border. For two years, GlobalPost, the US government, and other agencies tried to locate his whereabouts, but were unable to free him. His family, his friends, and his parish all prayed for Jim to come home. It was not to be. Jim’s final correspondence came in June 2014, when Danish photojournalist and fellow hostage Daniel Rye Ottosen was released by ISIS. Jim had asked Ottosen to commit a letter to memory and relay it to his family. As soon as he was released, Ottosen called Diane Foley and dictated Jim’s final letter: “I know you are thinking of me and praying for me. And I am so thankful. I feel you all, especially when St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

(Far left) Jimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s parents, John and Diane Foley, bring up the offertory gifts with Jimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s niece and nephews at the Memorial Mass the family held last October.

PHOTOS BY DONIS TRACY

(Left) Father Paul Gousse, pastor of the Foley familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s parish, says that Jim had a missionary and evangelizing heart.

I pray. I pray for you to stay strong and to believe. I really feel I can touch you, even in this darkness when I pray,â&#x20AC;? Jim states. The letter goes on to speak to individual members of his family, offering a sort of goodbye. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Jim was a very brave man,â&#x20AC;? states Philip Balboni, CEO and cofounder of GlobalPost. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In no small part, that bravery comes from

the two people who raised himâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;John and Diane Foley. They are truly remarkable people.â&#x20AC;? Balboni notes that sitting atop his desk is a photograph of Foley shortly after he was released from captivity in Libya. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I shall always deeply regret that we couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t deliver that moment one more time,â&#x20AC;? he says sadly. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I never stopped believing that we would get

~ ~

Published in cooperation with the Vatican, this original collection brings the life and legacy of Learn from Saint Francis of Assisi to life through the popeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s uplifting and challenging words. Pope Francis the Saint often speaks and writes about Franciscan Who Inspired ideals such as simplicity, humility, forgiveness, Pope Francis! joy, compassion, peacemaking, and care for creation. His inspirational homilies, addresses, and writings on these and other Franciscan themes are collected in this book for the first time, giving you a simple way to renew your faith.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Inspired by Pope Francisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profound spirituality and ability to articulate the deep love that God has for all people.â&#x20AC;?

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Honoring Jim’s Legacy

—Michael Foley

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March 2015

willing to learn. His final lesson came in the form of his act of martyrdom. Jim died because of what he believed in.

PHOTO BY MANU BRABO

“Jim died because of what he believed in. Jim died for his faith.”

Jim out of Syria. And so the horror and the suddenness of [his execution] was really quite devastating.” Balboni notes that GlobalPost has continued to unravel the details of Jim’s detainment and ultimate execution. “From our investigation, we came to know something else about his character—that he was deeply admired by his fellow captives. Jim was regularly tortured by the Islamic State, but his captors never broke his spirit. It was Jim Foley who gave the others courage in that windowless room in Raqqa, Syria.” Although the final details of why Jim was the first American journalist to be executed have not been made clear, Michael Foley, his younger brother by two years, has little doubt. “I know in my heart he put himself first,” Michael said during his eulogy at Jim’s memorial Mass. “I’ll never make complete sense of why Jim died, but I know that’s not for me to understand. But he did not die in vain. He reminded us that good does triumph over evil.” Michael noted that growing up, Jim “was certainly the teacher, whether or not we were

PHOTO BY DONIS TRACY

Following his death, Marquette University established the James Foley Scholarship in the J. William and Mary Diederich College of Communication in his honor. Marquette President Michael Lovell issued a statement reading in part, “It is with great respect for James Foley that we at Marquette will continue to intensify our focus on creating future citizens who live their lives for others, work toward social justice, and improve our city, country, and world. . . . We will never forget James Foley.” In addition, the James W. Foley Legacy Fund was established by John and Diane Foley. According to its website, JamesFoleyFund. org, the fund’s mission is threefold: hostage support, conflict reporting, and youth education. “The James W. Foley Legacy Fund will honor what Jim stood for by focusing on three areas he was passionate about: building a resource center for families of American hostages and fostering a global dialog on governmental policies in hostage crises; supporting American journalists reporting from conflict zones; and promoting quality educational opportunities for urban youth,” the site explains. “Jim did not die in vain. Please help us build on his memory. —Diane and John Foley.”

“Jim died for his faith. Jim died because he was American. He represented the core values we believe in. He died so that others may live.” A Donis Tracy is a Catholic freelance journalist who lives and works in the Boston area. She is a frequent contributor to The Pilot, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston. St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

POETRY

Greenery of Spring

Spring Planting

The First Full Moon

I long for the greenery of springtime, pushing behind me strident snow and icy days.

A robin cocks its head, listens, then pulls an earthworm from the soil. I turn my ear toward the spot where newly planted seeds await their transformation and hear possibilities.

Shining alabaster bright in that obsidian night she revealed her purity while leaving obscurity. As heavenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s handmaiden every inch of her was laden with a winsome loveliness akin to holiness. Meanwhile ancient man below watched with curious eyes aglow.

Mid greenness, hope springs forth to wallow in new life and spree of garden and lea. I am born once more, rushed by deep rebirth to fulfill the purpose for which I was created.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Robert Louis Covington

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Sandy McPherson Carrubba

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Susan L. Taylor

Living Water In cloister garden . . . Fountain of living water, Bubbling now in me!

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Jeanette Martino Land

Rediscover Your Strength If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re facing difficult times, no matter your faith tradition, Dr. Robert Wicks is here to help you regain your balance by discovering resources you may have taken for granted. Through thirty daily reflections, you can gradually find your way back to a place of serenity and renewed energy. Wicks draws on the wisdom and insight of great teachers and healers throughout the ages to show how a renewed spiritual life can bring you to a place of psychological strength.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Spiritual Resilience is a rich, finely balanced integration of the best of Western spirituality, contemporary psychology, and sound theology. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll find here true refreshment for your soul.â&#x20AC;?

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;REV. DONALD COZZENS, author of Master of Ceremonies

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Welcome,

LENT Each year the season returns, like an old friend, to comfort and challenge us. BY AMY EKEH

OR CATHOLICS, Lent is a sure part of the rhythm of life. The sacred season comes around every year, like an old friend who visits, without fail. The familiarity of her visits creates a tension within us—we are reassured by something so regular, so certain; and yet, we are challenged to live each Lent with a true readiness to change, to embrace each Lent as precious and potentially exceptional. We ask ourselves, What will make this Lent special? Is there a new angle, a new inspiration, I can find this year? At the same time, we look forward to doing things just as we did them last year, finding peace and satisfaction in our Lenten traditions. This is as it should be. Every year, we should feel ourselves both deeply comforted and uncomfortably prodded by the familiar rituals, and the perennial demands, of this very special season. What we are looking for during Lent is simple. We are looking for a way to strip away the things that are not necessary, to be uncomplicated before God, to accept and imitate his love. Every year, as Lent comes around again, we realize that our beautiful old friend has come to tell us stories that are less about sorrow and more about love, less about a victim and more about a victor, less about sin and more about transformation—a transformation purchased willingly and at great cost. There is never really a new angle on Lent. Rather, every Lent, we stand at the foot of the

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cross—or, better yet, we join Jesus on the cross; we find that we are nailed there, too. Every ritual, every fast, every small sacrifice we make leads us to the cross. It is where we find our Savior. And it is where we must remain if we want to know the power of Jesus’ resurrection.

A Blatant Display of God’s Love St. Paul wrote to the Church in Corinth that what he wanted was to “know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). From Paul’s perspective, the crucified Christ is the spiritual lens through which our Christian lives come into focus. Knowing “nothing . . . except Jesus Christ, and him crucified” is a proclamation St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

CNS PHOTO/NANCY PHELAN WIECHEC

that at the very heart of our faith and our lives looms a cross. The good news is that this cross has an attracting power, a transforming power, a pull so strong that Paul is single-minded in his desire to be crucified with Christ and crucified to the world (Gal 2:20; 6:14). If we join St. Paul in this single-minded determination, if the crucified Christ fills our hearts and minds, then we open ourselves to the dynamism of Lent, and we prepare ourselves to be changed by this beautiful old friend. This is how we discover that Lent is nothing other than an experience of God’s love, a journey toward God’s love—because Lent is ultimately a study of the cross, a preparation for the cross, a meditation on the cross. When Fr anciscanMedia.org

we look upon Jesus Christ and him crucified, when we look upon the cross, we see the kind of love he has for us—sacrificial love, merciful love, unconditional love, divine love, real love. It is on the cross that God’s love for us is blatantly displayed. The cross is not a tragic display meant to elicit guilty feelings. It is a brazen show of the burning love of God. This is how God makes a new creation, and the new creation is you.

Every ritual, every fast, every small sacrifice we make leads us to the cross.

More than a Glance Do you remember the small detail in Luke’s Gospel about Jesus looking at Peter? At the Last Supper, Peter had promised Jesus that he would not leave his side; that he was ready to go with him to prison, or even to death. Of March 2015 ❘

It was later in my life that I began to think differently. I realized what could be communicated by a loving glance. I realized for Luke, the compassionate Evangelist, to include this small detail, there must have been more compassion and love communicated in that glance of Christ than words could relate. This glance cast upon Peter foreshadows the testimony of the cross—the man who is wronged but bears no ill will, the violated one who forgives his attackers, the victim who retains the power because of his love. Just as Jesus glanced at Peter across the courtyard of the high priest, from the cross Jesus looks upon us—who wrong him, who violate and attack—and in this glance, the crucified one communicates more love than could ever be spoken with words. Lent is a study of the cross, but not because the cross is a sad or guilt-inducing place. The cross is the place of God’s triumph, love’s triumph. From the cross, Jesus speaks words of love to each of us. We stand at the foot of the cross not because we need to feel guilty, but because we need to accept that love. Yes, we are sinners! Yes, we are broken! But he didn’t die for us because we are perfect and we deserve it. In Jesus’ own words, he died for us because we are his friends. “No one has greater love than this,” he said, “to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:13).

A Friend of Sinners like Us

Following Peter’s denial, the Gospel of Luke notes, “The Lord turned and looked at Peter.” Lent is a good time to ponder what Jesus sees when he gazes upon us.

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course, we know what actually happened. Peter denied even knowing Jesus—not once, but three times. After his third denial, Luke tells us that the Lord, standing bound across the courtyard of the high priest, “turned and looked at Peter” (22:61). I remember reading this story as a young person, probably as a teenager. It was the first time I had really noticed the detail of this look of Jesus, and I thought, Wow, that must have been some look. Peter must have felt really guilty. Not that I thought Jesus was giving Peter dirty looks—but I imagined it was a very sad look, with a touch of I-told-you-so.

The fact that God is friends with sinners is a little bit hard to wrap our minds around. It is not what we expect, and it is certainly not what those around Jesus expected. Throughout the Gospels, we read accounts of Jesus associating with sinners—a shocking practice that caused a lot of grumbling and complaining: “The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’” (Lk 5:30); “The Pharisee . . . said to himself, ‘If this man [Jesus] were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner’” (Lk 7:39); and “The Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them’” (Lk 15:2). There are many other examples in the Gospels. This man cannot possibly be the Messiah—he certainly cannot be divine—he eats with sinners, he allows them to touch him, he appears to be friends with them! Strangely enough, the very fact that we are sinners makes us eligible to be friends with St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

The Challenge of the Cross The cross depicts a terrible suffering—but a free sacrifice of love and, ultimately, joy. When we look at the cross this Lent, let’s not stop at the first level and be satisfied with feeling sad. Let us enter into what is happening. Let us intentionally enter into this mystery of God’s love. Hear Jesus’ words as he urges you to believe: “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down by my own choice” (Jn 10:18). This is not passive acceptance. This is not “making the best” of bad circumstances. This is the divine plan, the free choice of a saving God. Yes, the cross challenges us to be sorry for our sins, to avoid sin, to see the harm it causes— but it challenges us to even more. In the end, it challenges us to believe in Jesus’ love. From the cross, Jesus tells of his love, calls us friends, reminds us, “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you” (Jn 15:16). Have you ever had to accept a gift that humbled you completely? Have you ever allowed someone to love or forgive you when you knew you didn’t deserve it? This is the kind of gift we must receive, and we often refuse. The very last latch on the door of our hearts— a latch that our Lenten practice tries to budge loose—remains stubbornly fastened. For mysterious and unprofitable reasons, we go on as before; we keep God at arm’s length. Fr anciscanMedia.org

CNS PHOTO/ENRIQUE MARCARIAN, REUTERS

Jesus. Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous . . . but sinners” (Lk 5:32). So, if we consider ourselves sinners, he came for us. If we are sinners, we need him, we can be in relationship with him, we can accept the healing love Jesus offers, we can even be called “friends of God.” But, if we already consider ourselves whole and perfect, we do not need anyone. There is no relationship, no savior, no love. It kind of makes you want to be a sinner, doesn’t it? Fortunately for you, you are one! And so am I. This makes us eligible to receive God’s love. It means Christ didn’t die in vain. It makes us fertile ground for the grace of the cross. We tend to perceive our sinfulness as the thing that separates us from God—but that is only true when we cling to it. When we give it over to the one on the cross, the friend of sinners, then we are drawn to Christ crucified, united with him in the miracle of forgiveness, encouraged and embraced by his love. The sacrifice of the cross becomes for us a seal of divine friendship.

The cross is the old and new of our Lenten Each Lent, we are drawn practice. Everything familiar about Lent—our to the cross, where we are traditions and practices, the stories and songs— challenged to find ways to directs us to the cross. They lead us along live out Christ’s message. familiar paths to Golgotha, where we gather with one another and with those who have gone before us. The cross has the power to renew our Lenten practice, to make it special each year, to infuse us with a restored sense of God’s love and his plan for sharing it with us—if only we will allow it. The only reason we should resist God’s love this Lent—the love spoken on the cross, the same love that fuels the Resurrection—is that it will change our lives. It will convert us. So, if you are happy with the way you are, with the Click here for more tal Digi as way things are, it is best to resources on Lent. Click Extr avoid the cross this Lent. But, below to hear a clip of Dan if you want to be transformed, Horan, OFM’s audiobook if you want your perspective The Last Words of Jesus. to change, if you want to weep with Mary at the foot of the cross, run to the empty tomb with Peter, and reach out to the risen Christ with Mary Magdalene, then first go with Christ to the cross. Pray that its power may finally break down all of your defenses, and that you may walk into the loving embrace of the crucified and risen Christ. And if you do this, you will have made the most of your time with a beautiful, old friend. A Amy Ekeh is a freelance writer from Milford, Connecticut, where she writes her blog (amyekeh.com) and keeps busy with her four children. March 2015 ❘

Surviving

SHAME Our spiritual wounds are no match for God’s grace. BY JOE MCHUGH

HANCES ARE, like me, you’ve woken up in the middle of the night with no hope of getting back to sleep. This recently happened to me again. I turned to my TV for relief, clicking through the channels for that perfect show that would paradoxically relieve my boredom and put me to sleep at the same time. I settled for the last few minutes of a nature documentary about migrating animals in Africa. I watched a herd of zebras looking for fresh grass and clean water. As I watched, a tiny zebra foal tried to rouse what turned out to be its dead mother. It poked, prodded, and ran circles around the body, trying to get it to wake up, stand up, and play. Despite its efforts, the foal’s mother lay inert and unresponsive. The foal’s father circled back to be with its colt during its first brush with death. The father repeatedly paced back and forth in front of the foal, trying to get it to follow him back to the safety of the herd. The narrator suggested that, at a deeper level, the father was trying to imprint its stripes on the foal’s memory so it would see him rather than its dead mother as the one to follow for protection and guidance. After a few moments of instinctive

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hesitation, the foal finally followed its father back to the herd, where they both belonged. I eventually fell back to sleep that night, but woke the next morning convinced I’d been given a privileged glimpse into how God acts on our behalf. Call it divine instinct, but doesn’t God keep circling back to us, relentlessly intent on leading us away from death into new, hopeful, and creative ways of being alive? And isn’t God’s persistent call to fresh and fuller life what we call grace?

Shame Has Roots Sometimes God circles back when our lives seem to have suffered a fatal blow. But grace also meets us in less dramatic moments, when we face the choice between being alive and being more fully alive in God. Taking a chance on the fuller life of hope opens our imaginations to creative possibilities of being alive that come from God’s rich future, rather than our impoverished past. Such is life in God’s gracious reign. God’s saving stripes imprinted most deeply on Jesus. And the Scriptures show us how Jesus kept doing what God does by circling back to others and offering St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

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healing and restoration. If we allow grace to touch us, we can read them as stories about our lives, too—not only as accounts of what happened to others in the past. Seeing opportunities for new life, however, is never enough. We sometimes choose not to take a chance on God, preferring to stay where it’s safe and familiar. This proves true in the lives of far too many Christians.

but I just stared at the jumble of numbers and letters sprawled across the board, then looked down at my scuffed brown shoes. After Mr. Meier congratulated my classmates on their work and sent them back to their seats, I was left alone at the board with my unsolved equation for everyone to see. He sighed and said, “And then there’s you. Do us all a favor and sit down. Let’s get somebody up here who knows what they’re doing.” Those few minutes at the board reinforced what I wanted so much to hide: I was stupid and incompetent. Luckily, I’ve come a long way since then, but, at some level, I’m still trying to solve that equation.

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God Never Turns Away

Peter’s liberation from prison is proof that God’s love is as deep as it is mysterious. The night before Herod was to bring Peter to trial, an angel visited the cell and freed him from his captors. “They emerged and made their way down an alley, and suddenly the angel left him” (Acts 12:10-11).

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Wrestling with my own soul and working with others in spiritual direction have convinced me that the experience of shame is often an occasion of deadening spiritual pain for many Christians. That’s why God, true to form, constantly circles back to us in Jesus. He is eager to nudge us away from lifeless selfcondemnation and into the love that is our original grace. Guilt tells us we’ve done something wrong, but shame rubs our faces in the lie that there’s something fundamentally wrong with us as individuals. We feel flawed, defective, never quite good enough to be taken seriously. We feel unworthy of love. The shame-filled person’s deepest fear is being exposed as a worthless, incompetent fraud. The mere possibility of being seen that way triggers a panic too deep to be tolerated. Let me offer an example. Ninth-grade algebra with Mr. Meier was the most terrifying course I’ve ever taken. I sat there day after day, baffled, while my classmates solved problems. One day, four of us were sent to the board to solve equations in front of the class. Everybody else got busy,

We all know shame. A good friend once lost the election for class president to a less talented, but more popular, rival. He jokes that he now has trouble asking for a promotion. Someone else I know discovered shame when her husband left her because she wasn’t “good enough” for him any longer. While experiences like these disappoint and disconcert, they can also serve as unsolicited initiations into the kind of shame that can determine how we see ourselves and others. Unfortunately, Christianity’s history is littered with tendencies to turn sin into shame, brokenness into defectiveness, and love into a reward for being good, rather than into the creative grace that makes real conversion possible. Because many Christians imagine their fundamental relationship with God as sinner to judge, they misinterpret sinfulness as being religiously defective and perpetually unworthy of God’s love. Sin, however, always comes with an offer of forgiving love. But when shame masquerades as sin, it hijacks our sense of self and condemns us to a cycle of self-derision and isolation— experiences that know nothing of God. Sorrow springs from love, but self-contempt emerges from shame’s bitter condemnation. While exposure is the shame-filled person’s deepest fear, being seen and held in God’s gracious gaze is how shame slowly loses its chokehold on our soul, and contemplation is our only hope for healing the shame that holds our spirit captive. St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

When we allow God to see us in love—the heart of contemplation—grace has a fighting chance of doing its healing work in us, and we slowly learn we are neither dismissed nor defective. We can then live in the safety of knowing that God never turns away from us; instead, God always turns toward us, anxious to seek us out and save.

Painful Isolation Let me offer a Bible story that might help us better imagine how our healing from shame happens and serves as a springboard for prayer and reflection. The story of Peter the apostle’s miraculous escape from prison (Acts 12:1-17) can help us imagine how God circles back to us, eager to lead us away from shame. In the story, King Herod arrested Peter, threw him into prison, put him in chains, and posted guards to make sure he stayed put. But during the night, God sent an angel to release Peter from his chains and guide him past his captors out of prison. The angel showed up to set Peter free, just as the zebra’s father appeared to lead his foal back to safety. Peter probably daydreamed about escaping from prison—something he likely dismissed

as wishful thinking. The story in Acts tells us that Peter initially thought his escape was itself a dream, but, when he felt the solid support of the city streets beneath his feet, he “recovered his senses.” He realized that his freedom was at once real and miraculous. If we read this story prayerfully and let God direct our imagination, we might slowly see how shame may have seized us and condemned us to personal isolation.

Step Away from Fear Understanding shame is never enough. We need to feel the weight of our chains, recognize our captors, and act in the hope that God can set us free. We start to heal when we see Click here for more on ourselves as God sees us—preshame and ways to heal cious, lovable, treasured. We from it. also recover our senses when we trust the ground on which we’re led as trustworthy, solid, and safe. Saving starts when we finally and confidently rest in the assurance that, although we may be broken, we’re not defective. In the process, our memories are healed and our imaginations open to new possibilities of being

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Being seen in love by God is how we slowly, yet painfully, regain our strength, reclaim our fragile sense of self, and escape our isolation.

alive that come to us from Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gracious hand. Being seen in love by God is how we slowly, yet painfully, regain our strength, reclaim our fragile sense of self, and escape our isolation. Imagine what our lives might look like if we took steps away from shame and fear, and into new, creative ways of being alive in God. Who has God sent to reassure us that there is

life beyond fear and captivity? What does Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s angel need from us to lead us undetected past our captors? What does God ask of us to convert our wish for freedom into hard-won hope? The zebra foal could have stayed with its dead mother; Peter could have dismissed the angelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s touch. But itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in these threshold moments between our choices that we find opportunities for life to conquer death, and hope to take the place of fear. Not only do we then learn to trust our desires, but we also learn the transforming joy of being desired. The foal finds its place back with the herd, and, after his escape, Peter is led to a house filled with people who love him. Being seen and loved as we are by others becomes our grace. The truth that seems so hard for many of us to come to is feeling that God is always taking the initiative to love us back to life. God always circles back to hold and save us and welcome us to what we can only call eternal life. A Joe McHugh is a spiritual director, retreat leader, teacher, and writer based in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. His book, Startled by God: Wisdom from Unexpected Places, is published by Franciscan Media.

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St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

THE SPIRIT OF FRANCIS

❘ BY MURRAY BODO, OFM

CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING

Running after Poverty

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Pope Francis is aflame with a welcoming, charitable spirit. He’s photographed here during an audience at St. Peter’s Square last September as people strain to be close, to touch him.

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Click here for more on Pope Francis and St. Francis.

Murray Bodo, OFM, is a popular author and poet. His new book is Enter Assisi: An Invitation to Franciscan Spirituality (Franciscan Media).

Francis’ Popularity Brother Masseo once asked Francis why everyone was following him, a man lacking handsomeness, knowledge, wisdom, and noble birth. Francis responded by quoting St. Paul, that God has chosen those whom the world considers absurd, weak, and counting for nothing in order to shame those who considered themselves something (Fioretti X).—P.M.

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ILLUSTRATION BY JULIE LONNEMAN

ike his patron, St. Francis, Pope Francis keeps the poor and vulnerable before our eyes, even going so far as to install showers at St. Peter’s Basilica for the poor and homeless. And when he came to Assisi in 2013, Pope Francis went first to a churchrun center for physically challenged children and spent 45 minutes personally greeting them, and saying to them and their caregivers, “We are among the wounds of Jesus. Jesus is hidden in these young people. We treat the wounds of Jesus here.” That awareness of those who suffer, that compassion, is why people run after Pope Francis, and why they ran after St. Francis. It is why a little boy ran onto the stage in St. Peter’s Square and clung to the leg of Pope Francis. The boy felt drawn to this grandfatherly man who, like Jesus, welcomes little children and blesses them. Nor is Pope Francis simply a saintly-butsentimental man; for he also challenges us and reminds us of the dangers of our materialism. Those can create a culture of comfort

that makes us think only of ourselves, a culture of waste that seizes God’s gifts only to savor them briefly and then discard them, a culture of indifference that desensitizes us to the suffering of others. Pope Francis reminds us that the Church itself can get caught up in this kind of materialism. In Assisi, in the room where St. Francis stripped himself of his material goods, the pope said, “Many of you have been stripped by this savage world, which doesn’t provide work, which doesn’t help, to which it makes no difference that children die of hunger.” Then he added, “This is a good occasion to invite the Church itself to strip itself.” He has not let up on that message he delivered in Assisi. He gave a clear warning to the Vatican Curia last December, listing the dangers that positions of power can bring. It was an indication of the changes that are under way—bringing the Church away from temptation, into Christ-like action. Compassion and the challenge of the Gospel: that is why people run after Pope Francis. A

Jefferson’s Face

The biggest challenges may teach us the most. F I C T I O N B Y D AV I D H U L L ’M SORRY,” said Patrick’s mother, as she scrubbed another plate in the sink. “The church is only a few blocks away. I’m not driving you. It will be a pleasant walk.” “Trust me,” Patrick said, drying the plate she handed him. “There is nothing pleasant about piano lessons with Mr. Giovanni.” “Now, Patrick,” replied his mother. “Mr. Giovanni taught piano lessons to me, both my sisters, and your father. He’s been the music director at church for over 20 years. He’s such a sweet man.” Patrick sighed loudly as he looked out the window at the snow-covered backyard. It was January 1977. Patrick was 14 years old, and he and his mother lived in upstate New York. Patrick’s father was in the military, stationed in the Middle East. Patrick hated going to piano lessons three times a week, let alone walking all the way there and back.

“

A ILLUSTRATION BY DREW BARDANA

t 4:45 that afternoon, Patrick bundled up in his hat and coat, grabbed his sheet music from the top of his father’s piano in the living room, and headed for the door. “Don’t forget these,” said his mother, handing him the new gloves he had received for Christmas two weeks ago. “You don’t want to show up at piano lessons with frozen fingers.” “At least then I’d have an excuse for making mistakes,” Patrick said. His mother kissed his cheek. “We’re having your favorite for dinner—meatloaf. That should help get you through your lesson.” Patrick walked along the snowy sidewalks, counting off the blocks to the church—six more blocks, five more blocks, four more blocks. And as he ambled along, he thought about the piano

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lessons that his parents had insisted he take. At first, back in June, when Patrick started taking lessons, he had been terrible, always hitting the wrong key or losing his place in the music. But with Mr. Giovanni’s encouragement over the weeks, up in the church balcony at that highly polished, old piano, Patrick quickly improved. By mid-December he could play “Silent Night,” “Away in a Manger,” and most of “White Christmas.” “You’re a natural,” Patrick’s mother told him when she heard him practice at home in the evenings. She claimed Patrick had inherited his musical abilities from his father, who played piano, guitar, and trumpet. “The Lord must have been giving out extra musical talent on the day you were born, young man,” Mr. Giovanni said at the end of each of Patrick’s lessons. Patrick wasn’t sure which was responsible: his heritage, God, or just plain luck. But he could tell his piano playing was improving each week.

few days before Christmas, as he and Mr. Giovanni were finishing up his last lesson before the holidays, they heard footsteps on the balcony stairs. “Good afternoon, gentlemen.” It was Sister Abigail. She wore the traditional nun’s habit, and her head was covered with a wimple, hiding her hair and ears and encircling her narrow face. Sister Abigail had been Patrick’s Sunday school teacher for many years. “I have a surprise for you both,” she said, holding up the sheet music for “How Great Thou Art.” “What’s this?” Patrick asked. “As you know,” explained Sister Abigail, “the church organ is in desperate need of repair, but M a rch 2 0 15 ❘ 4 7

we don’t have funds to fix it. We’re all concerned about music for the Easter service this spring. So, after listening to you practice over the past few weeks, I have volunteered you to perform ‘How Great Thou Art’ on this piano for Mass on Easter Sunday.” She handed the sheet music to Patrick. “Easter Sunday?” asked Mr. Giovanni. “That’s a pretty tall order, Sister. It’s always a packed house for Easter.” Patrick stuttered, “I . . . I don’t think . . .” “Nonsense,” said Sister Abigail, shaking her head. “I’ve heard you play, Patrick. You’re wonderful. Isn’t he wonderful, Mr. Giovanni?” “Well, Patrick is a talented musician,” he replied. Patrick cleared his throat. “Maybe you could . . .” “The plan is all set, then,” said Sister Abigail, folding her hands together in front of her. “If we fail to plan, we plan to fail. You two should begin practicing this right after the start of the new year.” All of which brought Patrick to this January walk to the church. He climbed the brick steps and pulled open the heavy wooden door. Inside, the church was warm, but dark and quiet. “Well, hello, young man,” said Mr. Giovanni. He was waiting at the base of the balcony stairs. His hands were tucked into the pockets of his brown cardigan sweater. He was short and heavyset, with a bald head and a thick, gray beard. Patrick thought if he wore a red suit, Mr. Giovanni would look like Santa Claus.

ANSWERS TO PETE AND REPEAT 1. The tail on the kite is longer. 2. Pete is missing part of his cowlick. 3. Scruffy has joined Pete. 4. The fold in the neck of Pete’s turtleneck is gone. 5. The pattern on the kite is different. 6. Pete’s expression has changed. 7. The tree has another branch. 8. The clouds have a new shape.

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“So, have ya had time to practice ‘How Great Thou Art?’” “I’ve practiced,” Patrick explained. “But when I play it, the song should be called ‘How Great This Ain’t.’ I’m not very good.” “We’ve got quite a few weeks to prepare,” said Mr. Giovanni. “It’s not going to matter.” Patrick shrugged. “And Sister Abigail and my Mom are counting on me. Everyone will be here on Easter, and I’m afraid I won’t be ready.”

r. Giovanni tugged at his beard thoughtfully. “Ya know what this is, young man?” he said. “This is your Jefferson’s face.” “My what?” “Your Jefferson’s face,” he repeated. “Out in South Dakota, you know the national monument, Mt. Rushmore? It has four presidents on it. Ever been there, son?” “No, sir,” Patrick replied. “It’s beautiful, just gorgeous,” Mr. Giovanni said. “Anyway, back in 1927 when they started work on Mt. Rushmore, I went out there because they were offering folks stonecutting jobs at a wage of $1.05 an hour. That kind of pay was unheard-of for any kind of work. And did we ever work: every day of the year, spring, summer, fall, winter, anytime—except during a thunderstorm, that is. I had to climb 500 steps every morning to reach the peak of the escarpment, and then I dangled from a support cable, working with a jackhammer.” “What about Jefferson’s face?” asked Patrick. “Well, I’m talking about Jefferson’s original face,” replied Mr. Giovanni. “Not the one you see today to the right of George Washington. No, this was on the other side of Washington, on the left.” “Why did they move it?” “Well, after over a year of work, the cliff we were carving President Jefferson on became unstable and began to crumble away. There was nothing anybody could do. It had to be abandoned.” Mr. Giovanni shook his head sadly. “All they could do was dynamite

the cliff and destroy all that beautiful work.” “That’s terrible,” Patrick said. Mr. Giovanni nodded in agreement. “It was terrible. I felt so hopeless afterward. None of us wanted to start over again. But ya know what? Folks were depending on us. So we got back to work. And now, today, President Jefferson is right up there where he belongs on Mt. Rushmore.” “That’s an interesting story,” Patrick said. “But what does it have to do with playing the piano?” “Everything.” Mr. Giovanni rubbed his hands together. “This situation with that song, having a hard time with it, everybody counting on you— well, in a manner of speaking, this is your own personal Jefferson’s face you have to carve.” “I guess it is,” Patrick mumbled. “Of course it is,” said Mr. Giovanni, smiling. “All ya got to do is remember Jefferson’s face.” “If you say so,” agreed Patrick.

hat night, after he ate a heaping plate of meatloaf and mashed potatoes, and helped with the dishes, Patrick went to the bookshelf in the living room. He pulled out the edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica that contained information on Mt. Rushmore and then took it up to his bedroom. Reclining on his bed, Patrick read a variety of facts, figures, and dates about the monument. Then, on the side of one page, he found a short article corroborating Mr. Giovanni’s story about Thomas Jefferson’s original face. It was true. When Patrick arrived at his next lesson, Mr. Giovanni asked, “How’s it going, young man?” “OK,” Patrick said as he sat down at the piano. “I’ve been practicing, so I hope I’m getting better.” “Well, ya know what I always say,” replied Mr. Giovanni. “Jefferson’s face wasn’t carved overnight.” “I know what you mean.” Patrick nodded and began his lesson. As it always does, winter melted into spring, but that year, for Patrick, the weeks seemed to pass by a little faster, St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

as the date of his Easter performance approached. On the Wednesday evening before Easter, as Patrick stood up to leave, Mr. Giovanni gave him a thumbs-up. Patrick smiled. “Mr. Giovanni, it looks like I’ll have Jefferson’s face carved just in time for Easter, if you know what I mean.” Laughing, Mr. Giovanni replied, “Mount Rushmore is a beautiful place. Maybe you’ll get out there someday.” “I will,” Patrick said. “I promise.”

n the morning of Good Friday, Patrick’s mother got a phone call. Patrick’s last piano lesson before Easter had been cancelled. Mr. Giovanni had a bad fall at home and was in the hospital. He was unconscious and not responding to doctors or his family. “Do you think you’ll be OK for Sunday morning without Mr. Giovanni?” asked his mother. Patrick shrugged his shoulders. “I guess so,” he replied. Easter Sunday arrived cold but sunny. Patrick’s mother fussed around his bedroom making sure his shoes were shined, his tie was straight, and his hair was combed. “I don’t see why it matters,” Patrick complained as she circled him in her inspection. “No one’s going to see me in the balcony anyway.” “Good heavens, Patrick,” said his mother, picking invisible specks of lint from the shoulders of his navy blue suit. “Way up in that balcony, you’ll be closer to God than any of us. You want to look your best.” As soon as they arrived at the church, Patrick headed upstairs to the piano. He quietly snuck a peek down below at the pews filled with parishioners. He saw his mother in her yellow dress, along with friends and neighbors. Sister Abigail was sitting silently in the front row with the other nuns. Patrick thought of Mr. Giovanni; he missed him. His mother said they would visit the hospital tomorrow. The sheet music was on the piano, right where Patrick had left it. He opened to the page he needed. Something fell out and fluttered to the floor

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between his feet. He reached down to find it was a postcard—a postcard with a picture of Mt. Rushmore. Flipping the card over, Patrick read the scribbled note on the back: “Remember Jefferson’s face.” Patrick grinned. Mr. Giovanni must have tucked the postcard inside his sheet music after their last practice. Patrick slid the card into his coat pocket, sat up straight, took a deep breath, and began to play “How Great Thou Art.” After the Mass, people gathered in front of the church, chatting and complimenting each other’s Easter outfits. “Patrick,” said his mother when she saw him. “Your performance was absolutely wonderful. Your father will be so proud.” “You did very well, Patrick,” announced Sister Abigail as she walked up behind him. “Excellent job. It’s unfortunate that Mr. Giovanni couldn’t join us.” Patrick fingered the postcard in his pocket. “Don’t worry, Sister,” he said.

“In his own way, I think Mr. Giovanni was here.” Two days later, Patrick played “How Great Thou Art” one more time on the church piano, at Mr. Giovanni’s funeral.

t took Patrick 22 years, but he finally honored that promise to Mr. Giovanni, and in the summer of 1999 he took his wife, son, and twin daughters on vacation to visit Mt. Rushmore. While at the monument, Patrick reached into his back pocket, pulled out the dog-eared postcard from that long-ago Easter morning, and told his children the story about Mr. Giovanni and Jefferson’s face. “I carry this postcard with me all the time,” Patrick told his family. He hoped that one day, God willing, his children would also learn the lesson of perseverance. A David Hull is a freelance writer from Holley, New York. A retired preschool teacher, he has contributed to various Chicken Soup for the Soul books.

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M a rch 2 0 15 ❘ 4 9

ASK A FRANCISCAN

❘ BY FATHER PAT McCLOSKEY, OFM

Same Prayers, Different Responses Thirty years ago, my 15-year-old son suffered a traumatic brain injury. He was struck by an automobile while walking home from football practice. The injury left him totally disabled. We continue his care at home, trying to make his life the best it can be. During his initial hospital stay, we met a young girl in her teens and a 30-year-old man—both with brain injuries. Our families prayed in the hospital chapel for miraclous healings. Afterward, we would ask each other how things were going, was there any progress, etc. As it turned out, my son survived in a minimally conscious state, the young girl died, and the man survived to lead a normal life. We all prayed for the same thing, yet there were three totally different outcomes. How can that happen? Why are some prayers answered, and some are not? No one seems

to be able to provide an answer. I was taught that God hears and answers our prayers for healing, and all someone needs to do is ask. Some Bible quotes make this point. Well, we and others have been asking for 30 years and are still waiting. I commend you for your persevering prayers and for the care that you have offered to your son. Your prayers have not had the result that you desire, but they have been an important part of the care that you have offered for the past 30 years. Your question is a common and an urgent one. I must, however, begin my response with two questions: Does God operate according to human time? If not, what does praying mean for someone’s healing? If God operates only by human time, then God operates in past, present, and future. It is true that the

Why Incense?

CNS PHOTO/HEINZ-PETER BADER, REUTERS

Why do we use incense and what does it symbolize during Mass? Also, what does it mean when we strike our heart while reciting the “I confess” prayer at Mass? Incense predates Judaism and Christianity. Psalm 141 proclaims, “Let my prayer be incense before you; my uplifted hands an evening sacrifice” (v. 2). Incense rises—metaphorically, to God. Many people without allergies or respiratory problems feel that it makes Mass, Benediction, or processions more solemn. The Confiteor (“I confess to almighty God . . .”) is one option for the penitential rite at Mass. Gently striking one’s heart when saying “through my fault” is a penitential act that recognizes that the person praying is a sinner in need of conversion.

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Bible urges us to pray, but that is not because fervent prayer will cause God to switch from Plan A (what would happen if we didn’t pray) to Plan B (what we hope will happen because we are praying). We pray because it’s a key part of how we live truthfully before God. Our prayers never supply information that God lacks; they do not cause God to see certain needs as more urgent. If you had refused to pray for your son’s recovery 30 years ago, would you have been better prepared to care for your son these past 30 years? Would you have guessed then at what care you could provide these past 30 years? We should indeed pray for healing, but doing so cannot force God into a corner. “Produce this result, or I will stop believing in you” is simply no way to pray. Although we must live chronologically (past, present, future), God created the world even before time existed. The Bible often speaks as though God exists in human time. For example, God tells Adam and Eve not to eat the forbidden fruit, but later discovers that they have done so. Understandably, this way of speaking is the first way—but not the only way—that we can think about God. In several passages, the Bible cautions us not to project human time onto God. Psalm 90 addresses God and says, “A thousand years in your eyes are merely a yesterday” (v. 4). In the Second Letter of Peter, we read, “Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day” (3:8). Prayer creates solidarity among those praying for the same intention. That solidarity will not guarantee a St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

specific outcome, but it should enable those praying to grow in generous compassion. A personal example may help here. Fifty years ago, I prayed fervently for two nephews who were born two months premature. They did not survive. Last fall, I and many others prayed for the newborn son of my great-niece and her husband. The baby needed heart surgery two months after he was born and will need further surgery. Were my prayers 50 years ago a failure? Were my prayers last fall a success? The outcomes were different, but honest, persevering prayers can never fail because their purpose is not to change God’s mind or God’s timing. Yes, we should pray for our own healing and that of others. Prayer does not change God, but it always changes those who pray.

Is Agnosticism a Sin? I know that being an atheist is looked down upon, but I want to know if being an agnostic is a sin.

religious beliefs can discredit religion altogether. If one spouse abuses the other one, that is clearly wrong, but does this action discredit all married love? Similarly, people who believe in God are still people—with all their virtues and blind spots (places needing deeper conversion). What the world’s bishops in Vatican II’s “Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World” wrote about atheism also touches on agnosticism: “Taken as a whole, atheism is not a spontaneous development, but stems from a variety of causes, including a critical reaction against religious beliefs, and in some places against the Christian religion in particular. “Hence, believers can have more than a little to do with the birth of atheism. To the extent that they neglect their own training in the faith, or teach erroneous doctrine, or are deficient in their religious, moral, or social life, they must be said to conceal rather than reveal the authentic face of God and religion” (19). A

Click the button above to hear Father Pat’s insights on Catholic topics.

Father Pat welcomes your questions! Send them to: Ask a Franciscan, 28 W. Liberty Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498, or Ask@FranciscanMedia.org. All questions sent by mail need to include a selfaddressed stamped envelope. This column’s answers can be searched back to April 1996 at StAnthonyMessenger.org.

How to Subscribe to Agnostics say that there isn’t enough evidence to say with certainty that God exists. Many people who say this are not challenging God as much as they are observing that some of those who loudly proclaim their faith in God may, by their actions, make it harder for other people to believe in God. For example, people who try to justify violence to oppose certain Altar Questions Revisited: A couple readers asked why my response in December did not mention relics in the altar stone as the reason the priest kisses the altar at the start and end of Mass. Although altars in Catholic churches have not been required to have relics since 1969, celebrants still kiss the altar. Also, I incorrectly implied that all Muslims face east when they pray toward Mecca. In fact, the ones in Indonesia, for example, face west.

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M a rch 2 0 15 ❘ 5 1

BOOK CORNER

❘ BY CAROL ANN MORROW

The Week That Opened Forever

What Our

Readers Recommend In the School of the Holy Spirit Jacques Philippe A Jesuit OffBroadway: Behind the Scenes with Faith, Doubt, Forgiveness, and More James Martin, SJ The Promise Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope Austen Ivereigh If Nuns Ruled the World: Ten Sisters on a Mission Jo Piazza

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The Passion of Christ in a Different Voice By William J. O’Malley Orbis Books 238 pages • $18 Paperback/Kindle Reviewed by BARBARA BECKWITH, retired managing editor of this magazine. For 37 years, she was also the St. Anthony Messenger book review editor. She is now a writer for Weekday Homily Helps, published by Franciscan Media. The complexity of the title is a clue to the density of this book. It is dense for two reasons: First, the author’s writing style can be a daunting read at times. Second, it deals with Bible passages that are the heart of our faith. For the Passion, Crucifixion, and Resurrection are foundational to Christianity. William J. O’Malley, SJ, is a professor of religion at Seattle University and the author of 37 books. These include Holiness, Connecting with God, Lenten Prayers for Busy People, and Help My Unbelief, which won the Catholic Press Association’s Best Book Award in 2009. (He also played Father Dyer in the movie The Exorcist.) Into this new book he crams the fruits of his 50-plus years of teaching high school and college. It wasn’t until page 174 that I really understood what O’Malley was doing and why. There, the Jesuit mentions that the Ignatian method of prayer is to try to “infuse” oneself into any Gospel scene along with the other characters. It’s so ingrained in O’Malley that he takes it for granted.

For that reason, most chapters involve retelling the Gospel text with some emotion and psychological insight into Jesus and each of the characters in the Passion story. This is followed by “Puzzling Moments” and “Elements to Ponder” prompted by the passage. The author is not concerned about any scriptural problems that Holy Week’s crowded timeline might raise, such as how so much could have occurred during the morning hours of Good Friday. He never tries to harmonize the different Gospel accounts. O’Malley clarifies something that has puzzled me at many Good Friday liturgies I’ve attended: Why were there two interrogations/trials of Jesus? The answer is that the Sanhedrin (the ruling council of the Jews) tried to provoke Jesus into committing blasphemy, which he finally did when he said, “I am,” using the Hebrew name for God. Pontius Pilate, on the other hand, attempted to trick Jesus into treasonously claiming to be the king of the Jews—a threat to Roman power. O’Malley includes loads of startling details about the Crucifixion that are relatively new, such as the terrible whips with pieces of metal embedded into the leather that the Roman torturers used for Jesus’ scourging, and the fact that Jesus did not carry the whole cross—only the crossbeam—since the uprights were already in the ground. I love the explanation O’Malley gives for the necessity for all of Jesus’ suffering: God had dared to create a creature who has a choice whether to fall in line with God’s plans or not. Only humans have the free will that allows us to reject the Creator, and, other than Mary, we all have sinned against him at some time. The Crucifixion is the cost of our freedom. The author’s erudition is matched by his humility. I got a kick out of O’Malley’s admission, after describing Jesus’ washing of his disciples’ feet, that he has a hard time washing the feet of one of his confreres. I recommend this book to all homilists, to any parish staging a Passion play, and to any Christian looking for meaty spiritual reading for Holy Week, all of Lent, or anytime their faith needs refreshing. St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

BOOK BRIEFS

Voices of Catholic Women The Journey of Our Love The Letters of Saint Gianna Beretta and Pietro Molla Edited by Elio Guerriero Pauline Books and Media 304 pages • $17.95 Paperback/E-book

Cybertheology Thinking Christianity in the Era of the Internet By Antonio Spadaro Fordham University Press 137 pages • $24 Paperback/Kindle

Seven years of correspondence—from 1955 to 1962—between St. Gianna Beretta Molla and her husband, Pietro, chronicles their loving relationship, the down-to-earth challenges they faced together, and the deep faith in God that carried them through it all.

Love Will Steer Me True Reviewed by ANGELA ANN ZUKOWSKI, MHSH, D.Min, director of the Virtual Learning Community for Faith Formation (at the University of Dayton). She writes and lectures on the art of being human in a digital milieu. Cybertheology describes the early stages of a pioneering field concerned with how digital culture shapes the way we engage in conversations about God and faith. Antonio Spadaro presents us with reflections on the intersection of spirituality and technology, and how theological reflection will develop. Spadaro invites readers to consider the impact of the Internet on the future of the Church’s organization and understanding of theological themes such as grace, sacraments, revelation, and liturgy. He stirs our religious imagination to think differently about how we communicate faith in a digital culture. The Internet affects the capacity of believers to comprehend reality, which, in turn, influences their faith and religious practice. Spadaro reminds us that Christianity is a communicative event. The Internet, therefore, is a new context for addressing the Church’s call for new evangelization and faith formation in the digital age. Readers may need a basic understanding of the digital culture and the theological concepts he references in order to appreciate his depth of reflection. Digital natives, pastoral ministers, and leaders who are searching for new ways to engage the Internet for evangelization will find Cybertheology to be a tantalizing glimpse into the future. Fr ancisca n Media .org

A Mother and Daughter’s Conversations on Life, Love, and God By Jane and Ellen Knuth Loyola Press 197 pages • $13.95 Paperback/E-book The conversation continues in this warm series of reflections as a mother, Jane Knuth, worries how her daughter, Ellen, will maintain her faith after she accepts a teaching job in a remote part of Japan, while Ellen earnestly tries to soak in a new culture.

Profiles in Christian Courage Extraordinary Inspiration for Everyday Life By Kerry Walters Rowman & Littlefield 202 pages • $32 Hardcover/E-book Author Kerry Walters presents an ecumenical collection of concise biographies of true Christian heroes, including Thea Bowman, FSPA, and Blessed Mother Teresa. Broken into three sections—physical, moral, and spiritual courage— Walters’ profiles inspire the reader to find ways in daily life to bravely live like Christ. —D.I. Books featured in Book Corner and Book Briefs can be ordered from

St. Mary’s Bookstore & Church Supply 1909 West End Avenue • Nashville, TN 37203 • 800-233-3604 www.stmarysbookstore.com • stmarysbookstore@gmail.com M a rch 2 0 15 ❘ 5 3

A CATHOLIC MOM SPEAKS

❘ BY SUSAN HINES-BRIGGER

What’s Your Mission?

ILLUSTRATION BY MARY KURNICK MAASS

f one day you had your whole world turned upside down and found out that you had only a little while longer to live, what would your reaction be? Anger? Fear? Sadness? Maybe all of the above. As you ponder that question, let me introduce you to Lauren Hill. You

tal Digi as t Ex r

Click here for more on Lauren Hill and her work for pediatric cancer.

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may have already heard about her or seen her on TV. Lauren is a student at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, Ohio—my alma mater. She is 19, and was on the Mount’s basketball team. Oh, and Lauren happens to suffer from Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma—an inoperable brain tumor. Doctors have not given her a very long lifeline.

A Shining Example As of this writing, she is still holding strong. In fact, she is even helping coach the Mount’s women’s basketball team. She is aware that her time is limited. Her spirit, though, is not.

In fact, I could write five columns about all that Lauren has achieved in her life. She was named to Glamour magazine’s 2014 list of “Hometown Heroes: 50 Phenomenal Women of the Year Who Are Making a Difference.” NBA star Lebron James called her “inspiring” and “amazing.” And she’s been on a box of Wheaties cereal. But what I really want to talk about is the way Lauren has faced her illness and lived. I want to talk about the example she is setting for all of us, reminding us that we are each called to a mission in our lives. Hopefully, we can fulfill it as well St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

Click the button to the left to listen to Susan’s “Marriage Moments.”

PHOTO BY DON DENNEY/COURTESY OF MOUNT ST. JOSEPH UNIVERSITY

THANK YOU, LAUREN Shortly after I was diagnosed with MS, someone asked me what I desired the most when it came to this road I’m on. Of course, the obvious answer would be to find a cure. But, outside of that, I said, I just want peace: peace in the belief that there is a reason God chose me, peace with the realization that I am strong enough to take this journey, peace with leaving behind the me I used to know, and peace with the me I am becoming. I’m not there. I’m not sure when I’ll get there, or how. But I’m trying. God and I have had some serious talks about this process. I mean ugly, “I hate you,” red eyes, runny-nose kind of talks. I ask if this peace thing will ever come. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten an answer yet. Or maybe I have, and it just came through the example of a fellow Mount St. Joe student named Lauren Hill.

and as gracefully as she has. During an interview last December, she said that, shortly after her diagnosis, she said to God, “‘I’ll do anything to be a voice for this cancer and all the kids that can’t speak their symptoms.’ Parents are left baffled, because they don’t know what’s

wrong with their kids. [Kids] can’t express what’s happening to them. I prayed I’d be the voice and that I’d do anything that gave me an opportunity to raise awareness and raise research money.” And she has—over $1 million dollars for pediatric cancer research

has been raised through her LayUp4Lauren challenge.

What Would Lauren Do? Now, back to the question I asked before. What would you do in the face of such adversity? Would you retreat, knowing what lies ahead? Or would you run at it full force in the hopes of leaving a mark? At some point, we will all be faced with challenges or issues that will demand a response. Some of them will be personal—a health problem, a family struggle, or a financial crisis. Other challenges, however, may be on a much wider scale. Issues such as hunger, education, or violence serve as challenges to us all. So what do we do? Well, our faith tells us to act. That may be through action, by asking questions, or even by just praying. The important thing, though, is that we take action and do something. Only then can we make a change. A

Do you have comments or suggestions for topics you’d like to see addressed in this column? Send them to me at “A Catholic Mom Speaks,” 28 W. Liberty St., Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498, or e-mail them to CatholicMom@FranciscanMedia.org.

PETE AND REPEAT These scenes may seem alike to you, But there are changes in the two. So look and see if you can name ILLUSTRATION BY TOM GREENE

Eight ways in which they’re not the same. (Answers on page 48)

Fr ancisca n Media .org

M a rch 2 0 15 ❘ 5 5

BACKSTORY

Unsung Heroes

here are a lot of people who work behind the scenes at this publication. We lost one last December to cancer. Franciscan Brother Bob Lucero, once an assistant editor of this magazine, spent much

of his career helping to move us from the old days of manual, physical production into the digital age. He developed and oversaw our design-andproduction department for decades, until he left the magazine a few years ago, not so long after his cancer was first diagnosed, treated, and was in

PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER HEFFRON

remission. He was a friar of the Southwest, coming to Cincinnati as a boy to be like the Franciscans his family had encountered in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Back in the 1980s, Brother Bob and Father Greg were two who figured out how to transmit information digitally from the editorial office to the machines that would produce printouts, which would be laid into place for the printing process. In Bob’s early days, these pieces would be cut, copied, then pasted into place—the original “copy-and-paste.” The hundreds of corrections that happen during proofreading would carefully be pasted on design boards that eventually would be sent to the far-off printing press. It was tedious work, and Bob, a brilliant man, set up meticulous systems to keep things running smoothly. As these production systems became computer systems, he became a com-

PHOTO BY TONI CASHNELLI

Brother Bob Lucero, OFM, developed everchanging production processes here for decades.

puter expert, setting up networks in our offices, buying and installing seemingly miraculous software that would eventually do the whole process on a screen. There was a time I remember when we had a large machine producing films that competed for space with a coffeepot in a small room. Bob had to put up a sign, “Please do not place coffee on the developing machine!” He was a clear-spoken leader. Bob spent time away from the office as a tenor singer in the worldfamous May Festival Chorus, based here in Cincinnati, occasionally traveling afar to sing, even to New York’s Carnegie Hall. Before big shows, we would see musical scores spread among his magazine papers in his office. Like St. Francis, he was a troubadour for the Lord. His voice still rings among us.

Editor in Chief

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St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

REFLECTION

Christ’s cross

—Pope Francis

embraced with love does not lead to sadness, but to joy.

ST. ANTHONY M 28 W. Liberty Street Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498

essenger