religion
Pope Pius XII and the Jews
November 28, 2011
Joann at Into Stillness posted this video about Pope Pius XII. She has other very interesting videos and posts so you might enjoy visiting her site.
I’ve mentioned this Pope of my childhood, a person I cherish in memory and life, in Eugenio Zolli’s Conversion and Benedict, the German Shepherd, but this video about one of the greatest men of the 20th century expresses best why I feel about him the way I do.
A Pope is father to all humanity, not just to Catholics. No one is excluded from the Holy Father’s love and concern. Part of his leadership is to bring Christ to the world. God blessed us all with this great man who stood staunchly in the name of Christ against every “liar and murderer” (John 8:44) of his time.
As we consider the threefold meaning of Advent which is the anticipation of the birth of Christ, Christ coming to us daily in our lives, and His final coming at the Last Judgment, we can learn a lot from the way by example that Pope Pius XII brought Christ to the world. Most of us have not been called to do the great things he did on the world stage, but each of us in our own little way can bring the mercy and justice of God to the helpless, and to speak the truth with charity and courage as he did.
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R. Now and forever!
(Click on the link above to read why I end my posts this way.
Chaplet for the Holy Souls in Purgatory
November 9, 2011
In the past week I’ve written about purgatory a couple of times. Why the Catholic Church Pray for the Dead explains the doctrine of purgatory and its origins. St. Catherine of Genoa Explains Purgatory gives us insight into this state of being for many souls who die in the Lord but are not immediately taken to the beatific vision.
One of the great acts of charity we can perform is to pray for the Holy Souls, part of our heavenly family who have not yet taken possession of the mansion God has prepared for them. Here is a post containing a chaplet we can easily say for these people we will see again one day.
Easy Chaplet for the Poor Souls
I invite my readers to consider praying it throughout the year, especially in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. It’s also good to pray when you’re feeling under the weather or going through suffering of your own. Sometimes I don’t feel like praying for myself at all, except to do the will of God. This chaplet makes it easier for me to pray at those times. I figure at least somebody is going to get some good out of whatever blue funk I might be in.
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R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Sunday Snippets – A Catholic Carnival
July 24, 2011
Welcome to Sunday Snippets hosted by RAnn at This That and the other Thing. Visit her to read other Catholic bloggers’ posts for the week. Join us by including your blog if you wish and have a good time.
Being an art lover, I wrote about the discovery of another authentic da Vinci painting in Leonardo da Vinci’s “Slavator Mundi”.
How the Spirit Works in Us is part of my ongoing exploration into the effects of the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation.
In Sabbath Moments I recount our misadventures with zucchini this year and some thoughts on St. Vincent de Paul whose feast we celebrated this week.
Over at the Community of Catholic Bloggers I wrote The Action of the Holy Spirit.
Collect (Prayer) for the Sixth Sunday After Pentecost:
O God of hosts, to Whom all that is best doth belong, graft in our hearts the love of Thy name, and grant us an increase of religion: that Thou mayest foster what is good, and with tender zeal guard what Thou hast fostered.
Perhaps I should write a post this week on the virtue of religion as this prayer prompts me.
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R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
The Family That Prays Together, Stays Together
June 27, 2011
Father Patrick Peyton, Servant of God
In the late 1940s, before television had taken over many homes, listening to the radio and discussing the programs was a family activity for some. I remember well the children’s programs, especially The Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, and Bobby of the B Bar B which entranced my younger brother and me on Saturday evenings.
Another kind of programming found its way to our kitchen, too. It was Father Patrick Peyton’s Family Theater Productions, started in 1947 by this Irish priest who was ordained for the diocese of Albany in 1941. The year after ordination he started the Family Rosary Apostolate, preaching Rosary crusades in 40 countries to 28 million people. He was the “Rosary Priest” who always signed off his radio programs with, “And remember. The family that prays together stays together.”
Through the medium of radio Father Peyton reached well more than the 28 million people he preached his crusades to, and was right up there with Bishop Sheen for putting the Catholic Church out there in prime time.
Father Peyton’s cause is advancing for beatification. He died in 1992 and was declared a Servant of God in 2001. Now the diocese of Albany has gathered documents concerning a miracle obtained through his intercession and is sending them to Rome for further consideration.
I know many families – especially the homeschooling ones, who pray the rosary together every day. Family prayer is as important as family fun, family chores, and family meals. It’s a pillar of support to what Pope John Paul II called “the domestic church.”
I never expected to live in a time when people who have been fixtures of my life are recognized as worthy of beatification and canonization. These are real people, flesh and blood, who practiced heroic virtue. For what Father Peyton brought to my life I am grateful. For what he still brings to the lives of others I am more grateful. Family prayer is one of the most powerful protections against the diabolical disorientation of our age.
The words I want to say about living now and knowing about or knowing personally people who have stayed the course and heroically built up the Body of Christ are, I feel lucky, lucky, lucky. Or maybe I should say, blessed, blessed, blessed.
Holy Cross Family Ministries runs a website about Fr. Peyton and his cause for beatification at http://www.fatherpeyton.org.
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R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Consecration to the Holy Spirit
June 3, 2011
Descent of the Holy Spirit, 1365-68, Andrea da Firenze (active 1343-1377, Firenze), Fresco Cappella Spagnuolo, Santa Maria Novella, Florence
After the Ascension of Christ into heaven, the apostles and Mother Mary went back to the upper room where Jesus had celebrated the Passover before His passion and death. They began the first novena of the Catholic Church – praying for the coming of the Holy Spirit.
By this time they had all seen Jesus die, met with Him after His resurrection, and witnessed Him rising to heaven. Everything He had promised them He had delivered. This time now was a time of faith and anticipation – a time to prepare themselves for the great mission Jesus had laid before them; time to prepare themselves to receive the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, who would help them live that mission.
Today many Catholics emulate the apostles and Mary by making a novena to the Holy Spirit in the nine days before Pentecost. Here is a beautiful consecration prayer that you can pray as part of any novena:
On my knees before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses, I offer myself soul and body to Thee, Eternal Spirit of God. I adore the brightness of Thy purity, the unerring keenness of Thy justice, and the might of Thy love. Thou art the Strength and Light of my soul. In Thee I live and move and am. I desire never to grieve Thee by unfaithfulness to grace, and I pray with all my heart to be kept from the smallest sin against Thee. Mercifully guard my every thought and grant that I may always watch for Thy light and listen to Thy voice and follow Thy gracious inspirations. I cling to Thee and give myself to Thee and ask Thee by Thy compassion to watch over me in my weakness. Holding the pierced Feet of Jesus and looking at His Five Wounds and trusting in His Precious Blood and adoring His opened Side and stricken Heart, I implore Thee Adorable Spirit, helper of my infirmity, so to keep me in Thy grace that I may never sin against Thee. Give me grace O Holy Ghost, Spirit of the Father and the Son, to say to Thee always and everywhere, Speak Lord, for Thy servant heareth. Amen.
Another prayer you might find useful is this one, asking God to fill you with seven gifts of the Holy Spirit:
O Lord Jesus Christ, Who, before ascending into heaven, didst promise to send the Holy Ghost to finish Thy work in the souls of Thy Apostles and Disciples, deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me, that He may perfect in my soul the work of Thy grace and Thy love.
Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom that I may despise the perishable things of this world and aspire only after the things that are eternal,
the Spirit of Understanding to enlighten my mind with the light of Thy divine truth,
the Spirit of Counsel that I may ever choose the surest way of pleasing God and gaining Heaven,
the Spirit of Fortitude that I may bear my cross with Thee, and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation,
the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself and grow perfect in the science of the Saints,
the Spirit of Piety that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable,
the Spirit of Fear that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God, and may dread in any way to displease Him. Mark me, dear Lord, with the sign of Thy true disciples and animate me in all things with Thy Spirit. Amen.
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R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
A Missionary to Be Declared Blessed
May 24, 2011
Catholics who grew up in the mid 20th century and who attended Catholic schools staffed by devout nuns learned many good prayer habits, love for the Blessed Mother, and devotion to the saints in addition to the catechism and the Mass. To this day I marvel at knowing of the three shepherd children of Fatima, St. Pio da Pietrelcina, St. Damien, St. Therese of Lisieux, and St. Maria Goretti as part of our religion classes in the 1950s. These saints of the latter part of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century were real and alive to us as we studied their virtues and were exhorted to imitate them.
A person we did not hear of at that time was Blessed Clemente Vismara (1897-1988 – to be beatified in Milan June 26th), a missionary to Burma, now called Myanmar. Of course, that’s natural. World War II veterans who served in Burma know of the remote jungle terrain and primitive living conditions. Modern communication had not yet arrived where he went, and let’s face it – coverage of the Church in Asia has been slim in North America until recent years.
You can read Blessed Clemente’s story in more depth at In the Jungle of Myanmar. The Story of a Missionary Proclaimed Blessed, but to set the stage to understand what God accomplished through this priest we should be aware that Burma is primarily a Buddhist land. Only one out of 100 inhabitants are Christian and the fact that they are is due to his work.
On the border of Thailand, Laos, and China, Blessed Clemente, a member of the Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions (PIME), started his path of evangelizing the various tribes, setting up schools, hospitals, clinics, orphanages, and parishes in 1923. He had fought in WW I and wrote to a friend that the trenches could not compare to what he faced in Burma. Moreover he said, “Here I am 120 kilometres from Kengtung, if I want to see another Christian I have to look in the mirror”.
What is so exciting to me about this new soon to be Blessed is not only what he accomplished, but what Father Piero Gheddo wrote about him in a recent profile of Asia News, the online agency of PIME.
Why is Father Clemente Vismara being declared Blessed? In life he did not perform miracles, have visions or revelations, he was not a mystic nor a theologian, he made no great works nor had any extraordinary gifts. He was a missionary like the rest, so much so that when we discussed the opening of his beatification cause here at PIME, some of his confreres in Burma said: “If you declare him Blessed you need to declare all of us here blessed who have led the same life he did”. In 1993 I went to Kengtung with two missionaries who had been with Clement in Burma and we asked the Bishop Abraham Than, “Why do you want father Clement declared blessed?” He said: “We had many PIME missionaries saints who founded dioceses, including the first Bishop Erminio Bonetta, still remembered as a model of evangelical charity, and others whose memory is still alive. But none of them have sparked this devotion and this movement of people who declare them saints, like Father Vismara. In this I see a sign from God to start the diocesan process.”
Lest we are ever tempted to question whether we can become saints by living ordinary lives, Pope Benedict XVI wishes to dispel the doubt by declaring Vismara “blessed”. Is it not wonderful to know that we need not be great mystics, theologians, nor miracle workers in order to grow in holiness and be saints? We simply must live every day for Christ and witness to Him by how we conduct ourselves wherever we go. God will bring out of our ordinary lives the fruits of our relationship with Him. Whatever we accomplish for Him is done through Him. The cornerstone of it all is obedience, a virtue that shines brightly in Blessed Clemente’s life.
The life of Blessed Clemente also reminds me of the last petition Cardinal Merry del Val wrote in his litany of humility which he prayed daily after he celebrated Mass: “That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should.”
We should want everyone around us to be saints and live in a way that helps them to be so.
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R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Christ is Risen in Lebanon
April 27, 2011
A flash mob in the Beirut City Mall sings “Jesus is Risen”. Hearing the joy of Easter in Arabic words and music reminds us that we must pray for the Christians in the Middle East – that they remain a strong witness to life and love.
I thought this was really gutsy in the middle of the Islam world in a country largely controlled by Hezbollah. Makes me want to dance.
Eugenio Zolli’s Conversion
February 22, 2011
Lately I’ve been working on The Nazarene : Studies in New Testament Exegesis, a scholarly work by the former chief Rabbi of Rome, Israel Zolli, who became Catholic after World War II and took the baptismal name “Eugenio” after Pope Pius XII. Zolli was one of the most learned Jews of his time, and his conversion resulted in his being declared anathema and cast out of the Synogogue.
We can never have a deep enough understanding of the Old Testament and the meaning of Christ’s words and actions. Who better than a former rabbi steeped in its four thousand year old teachings can unlock the sublime, supreme mysteries? My faith has been greatly enriched by Roy Shoeman’s works, and Zolli’s bear similar promise.
A snippet from his conversion story, Before the Dawn
“I was a Catholic at heart before the war broke out; and I promised God in 1943 that I should become a Christian if I should survive the war. No one in the world ever tried to convert me. My conversion was a slow evolution, altogether internal. Years ago, unknown to myself, I gave such an intimately Christian form and character to my writings that an Archbishop of Rome said of my book, The Nazarene, ‘Everyone is susceptible to errors, but so far as I can see, as a bishop, I could sign my name to this book.’ I am beginning to understand that for many years I was a natural Christian. If I had noticed that fact 20 years ago, what has happened now would have happened then.”
“…I shall never stop loving the Jews. I did not abandon the Jews by becoming a Catholic.”
“Once a Jew, always a Jew” is a shibboleth too often quoted by well-meaning Jews as a sort of proof that a Jew cannot in his heart of hearts ever become a Christian. When Israel Zolli was asked whether he still considered himself a Jew he answered it with the same expression, but explained it in its deeply expressive significance. “Did Peter, James, John, Matthew, Paul, and hundreds of Hebrews like them cease to be Jews when they followed the Messias, and became Christians? Emphatically, no.”
A Jew who accepts a Messias today remains just as much a Jew as he would expect to remain if he were to accept a Messias at some distant future coming. In other words, a Jew who accepts Jesus as his Messias accepts a Jew and himself remains a Jew. Has any Messias ever done the like: could any Jew do anything greater to put the seal of God on His teachings? This may sound strange and even heterodox to Catholics who have only a surface knowledge of Jewish prophetic history and Catholic teaching concerning it. A Jewish-convert takes as his Messias the Jew-Jesus who traces his ancestry back to King David without a break: can anyone be more Jewish than that? The convert accepts the Jewish Messias who proved His mission was from God by doing the hundreds of things the prophet said He would do; chief among them His unquestionable and numerous miracles and His resurrection from the dead. His miracles are continued and multiplied in His Church even up to the present moment.
…If there is any notion that must be stressed both for Christians and Jews it is that Jesus did not give to the world a new religion, but only a new covenant or testament concerning the Old Religion which He Himself had given to the Jews. God’s very nature forbids Him giving to the world, at any time, more than one religion or more than one way of life and worship.
Christ in Glory, 1597-98, oil on canvas, Annibale Carracci (b.1560, Bologna, d. 1609, Roma), Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence
Zolli’s story is a lesson in the workings of God in the soul – of how deeply exploring the word of God in Sacred Scripture with a pure heart leads unerringly to the Word Himself. (“Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God.”)
As I read The Nazarene, I am gaining a much greater understanding of the sacred liturgy we have today. We often speak of certain parts of the Mass as dating from apostolic times. In reality, I am seeing that important parts of our Holy Mass and Divine Office came to us from the Old Testament Jews – from the Hebrew Bible itself. I don’t mean just the Psalms and various readings, but more about how the liturgy is celebrated and why in both the Eastern and Roman rites certain things are desirable.. I will be writing more about this later.
In the meantime, I recommend reading RAnn’s review of a contemporary book, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist, at This That and the Other Thing. This book could be excellent for Lent.
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R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
British Humor Hits Home
January 19, 2011
How much of the following video could apply to Post Vatican II American bishops and theologians? The description of Modernists in the Episcopal Church of England lets us laugh a little over a serious subject. Sometimes if we don’t laugh, we will surely cry. From Yes, Minister,
What’s a Modernist?
St. Simeon Stylites – A Hermit on a Pillar
January 5, 2010
St. Simeon Stylites icon, 1465 A.D., Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
For about 600 years in the early Church, God called certain followers of Christ to be hermits in the north African and Middle East deserts. St. Simeon Stylites was one of them. Stylos means pillar in Greek, and stylites is a person supported or standing on a pillar. Hence his name, Simeon Sytlites.
Today we can hardly imagine what it would be like to fast from food and water in the desert for the forty days of Lent, but St. Simeon did that and more. The average person would be dead in a week or so. Most of us can’t imagine being hermits at all, although God is still calling people to this vocation and you can find them in many dioceses in the United States and other countries. The 1983 Code of Canon Law in the Catholic Church provides vows and rules for the eremitic life.
St. Simeon Stylites received extraordinary graces to live the way he did because only God can keep somebody alive under the blazing desert sun, in sweeping dust storms, through cold nights and rain, fasting and praying always.
He was born in northern Syria in 388 where he tended sheep. Before St. Simeon was sixteen, he joined a monastery but horrified his fellow monks with his extreme asceticism. He quit the monastery and went to live in the wilderness where eventually he took up life at the top of a pillar adoring and praising God day and night.
Column Remains of St Simeon The Stylite topped with boulder, Syria, Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
As happened with many of the desert hermits, people flocked from miles around to ask for guidance to live in a holy way. St. Simeon prayed, preached to the crowds that came, wrote letters we still have today, and advised his disciples from the top of his pillar which was always exposed to the weather.
Although his manner of living seems extreme, God is teaching us a lesson: no matter how unusual a person’s calling is, we cannot judge God’s work in their heart. We should never interfere with someone’s vocation or criticize his path, especially when the person is under spiritual direction. God has a special job for each of us individually, a job He prepares us for often over many years without us realizing it. We can imitate St. Simeon Stylites by seeking God alone in all that we do.
If you’ve ever felt that you were banging your head against the wall with regard to your spiritual life, it means you are trying to do it all yourself rather than letting God lead you as St. Simeon let God lead him. Stop. Climb the spiritual pillar in front of you and get away from the incessant demands pressuring you. Be silent and contemplate the Lord. He is with you and will never leave you.
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R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Something to Chew On for Advent
December 6, 2010 – Feast of St. Nicholas, Patron of Russia
Magnificat Antiphon for the Second Sunday of Advent (Divine Office, Vespers):
Behold there shall come the Lord and King of the earth * and He shall take away our yoke of bondage.
This antiphon contains parts of the Rorate caeli desuper I covered yesterday.
*****
From my Advent reading, the book The Hidden Power of Kindness: A Practical Handbook for Souls Who Dare to Transform the World, One Deed at a Time
To do good to others in the hope that, in turn, our Lord will be good to you is a supernatural motive, even if it is self-centered. To do good to others with the consciousness that Christ asks it of you is less egoistic. To do good to others because you are convinced that Christ will consider it as having been done to Him personally is a sign of pure love of God. To do good to others because thereby you can please God, and you want to give Him the best you can, is perfect love of God.
Three Miracles of Zenobius, 1500-05, Sandro Botticelli (b. 1445, Firenze, d. 1510, Firenze), tempera on panel, Metropolitan Museum of New York
In front of an astonished crowd, St. Zenobius raises a young man already lying on his bier from the dead. He also saves a man who fell from his horse while transporting the relics of saints. The scene in the interior shows St. Zenobius healing his sick deacon. The latter gets up immediately in order to use the water St. Zenobius has blessed to bring a dead relative back to life. For enlargement, visit the Web Gallery of Art.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
St. Andrew, the Relationship Broker
November 30, 2010
Last week I wrote a little about St. Clement of Rome and my various patrons. Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. Andrew, the Apostle, who is also special to me because my brother closest in age to me is named after him. (Happy feastday, brother!)
I call St. Andrew the “Relationship Broker” because he is the one who brought Peter, his brother, to Jesus. He also brought the little boy with the loaves and fishes to Jesus when the crowd needed to be fed.
In neither case did St. Andrew get a commission for his “brokering”. He thought only of the needs of others and did all that he could out of the generosity of his heart to bring the right people together for the benefit of all. Of course Jesus was the key to these relationships.
By the time he started preaching the Gospel in Greece and other places, nobody could keep him quiet. Even when he was crucified upside down he preached until his last breath.
Because many churches and especially the Orthodox celebrate the feast of St. Andrew with great solemnity, every year the Pope sends a delegation to mark this day with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew 1st at the headquarters of the Orthodox Church in Fanar, Istanbul. Vatican Radio reports:
In a message sent to Patriarch Bartholomew, the Pope says “in a world characterized by increasing interdependence and solidarity, we are called to proclaim the truth of the Gospel with renewed conviction, and to present the risen Lord as the response to the most profound spiritual questions and aspirations of men and women today.”
In order to do this, the Pope adds, “we must continue along the path towards full communion, showing that we have already united our strengths for a shared witness of the Gospel. For this reason I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Your Holiness and to the Ecumenical Patriarchate for the generous hospitality you offered to delegates of the European Episcopal Conferences who – on the island of Rhodes in October – met with representatives of the Orthodox Churches of Europe for the Catholic-Orthodox Forum on the theme: ‘Relations between Church and State: theological and historical perspectives’”. Pope Benedict concludes his message by assuring the patriarch of “the interest with which he follows “your wise efforts for the good of Orthodoxy and for the promotion of Christian values in many international contexts”.
Bishop Brian Farrell, a member of the delegation sent to Turkey this year said:
“Andrew is the ‘first called’ of the disciples, it was he who then called Peter…Andrew, the brother of Peter, is as forceful symbol of the kind of embrace we would like to see between East and West.”
As an indefatigable evangelist, St. Andrew shows us that all we have to do is bring people to Jesus. We find those who are sad and searching and tell them there is hope – real hope – not in earthly pursuits but in the Son of God. We find people with special gifts needed in the world today and point them to Him. Jesus then does the rest.
Fair questions to ask myself are: Am I as generous sharing Jesus with others as St. Andrew was? Am I willing to bring the good news of Christ to others even to my last breath like St. Andrew?
St. Andrew is the patron saint of sore throats 
, Russia, Greece, and Scotland.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
St. Clement of Rome
November 23, 2010
Today is the feast of St. Clement of Rome, the third pope after St. Peter, consecrated bishop by the Apostle himself. He is considered the first of the Fathers of the Church and Patristic writer.
St. Clement’s name has been enshrined in the Canon of the Mass since the early Church. He died a martyr in the ferocious persecution of Domitian.
We know this early pope for a couple of epistles he wrote to the Corinthians concerning the need for charity, the evils of schism and ill treatment of priests. The fact that he wrote his letters as a successor of the seat of Peter indicates that the role of Pope was well-established from the beginning of the Church.
It wasn’t until 1997 that I realized St. Clement is a special patron of mine because today is my birthday. I became involved in the movement for restoration of the sacred liturgy that year, and who better than a former pope to look after me in this work? I have often felt he was with me and thank God that I was born on this day.
Co-incidentally my name patron, St. Barbara, whose feast is December 4th, is known for her devotion to the Holy Eucharist, a central part of the Church’s liturgy, and I was baptized on December 8th, the feast of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. How could anybody be so lucky? Now it remains to live up to the example of these three holy people in all that I do, to fulfill the blessings God has given me, to do the job He has asked.
God bless my readers and please pray for me.
11/24/10 – Addition to this post:
Who is your birthday patron? Your name patron? The saint of the day you were baptized? What have they to do with your life?
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Why Do You Write?
November 22, 2010
St. Cecelia - 19th century stained glass window from Stationers' Hall, London
Today is the feast of St. Cecelia, the early Roman martyr who proved very difficult to kill. She is the patron saint of musicians. Music was a big part of my life for many years and St. Cecelia was always there in the background for me. She was one of the first women saints I was introduced to as a child and has always been special to me.
Life changes, though, and rather than creating or making music, I now just indulge in my appreciation of it. Writing has become the dominant skill I use most often, but would you believe it, I really don’t like to write. It takes too much discipline and I’m lazy. I’d rather discuss or talk than write.
What a terrible thing for a blogger to confess! Seriously, I think of myself as a teacher, a trainer, an encourager, an information broker, and a perpetual student, but not a writer.
Although I’ve written two short business books, a weekly newspaper column for a business paper, many training manuals and programs, a monthly newsletter since 1999, and other stuff I’ve forgotten about, writing for me is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Perhaps that’s why I don’t think of myself as a writer even though I spend a lot of time thinking about writing when I’m not writing.
So why do I do it almost every day? Because I am driven to do what Pope John Paul II asked of Catholics – to use the new media to evangelize the world and writing is the only way I can do this now in my life.
Gone are my days of public speaking, conducting training, leading choirs and teaching children, although I still sometimes fantasize about giving talks on Catholic subjects. No sense in looking back nor in wishing for that which cannot be. Better to make the most of what is possible with Christ as the center of everything.
Faithful Christians evangelize within the unique context of their past and present, their talents, learning, behavior, their physical and mental capabilities. We are all called to do this and writing now has become my avenue of reaching out to others to share God’s love of all. Most especially sharing how I suffer with joy since there is so much suffering in this world and there is no point in wasting any of it by failing to use it as a way to come closer to God.
What about you? Why do you write?
If you are a blogger or some other kind of writer, why not write a post on this subject and link back here or leave a comment?
Thanks for visiting and God bless you.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Story of Henryk Gorecki’s “Beatus Vir”
November 15, 2010
“Hear, O Lord, my prayer: give ear to my supplication in Thy truth: hear me in Thy justice.”(Psalm 143:1)
I stretched forth my hands to Thee: my soul is as earth without water unto Thee. Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit hath fainted away. Turn not away Thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit. Cause me to hear Thy mercy in the morning; for in Thee have I hoped. Make the way known to me wherein I should walk: for I have lifted up my soul to Thee. Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord, to Thee have I fled: teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God. Thy good spirit shall lead me into the right land.” (Psalm 143: 6-10)
“Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant; save me in Thy mercy.” (Psalm 31: 16)
“Let my prayer come in before thee: incline Thy ear to my petition.” (Psalm 88: 2)
“May God bless us: and all the ends of the earth fear Him.” (Psalm 67: 7)
“O taste, and see that the Lord is sweet: blessed is the man that hopeth in him.” (Psalm 34:8)
Beatus Vir, subtitled Psalm for baritone, large mixed chorus and grand orchestra, is Gorecki’s masterwork commissioned by Cardinal Wojtyla in 1977 in honor of the 900th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Stanislaus, bishop of Krakow.
Not long after his election to the papacy, Pope John Paul II planned his first pilgrimage to Poland. The Communist rulers hated and feared him, and when they heard the news that he was coming home to, among other things, celebrate St. Stanislaus in a large public venue with a commissioned orchestral work, the significance was not lost on them.
St. Stanislaus in his life and death – assassinated by King Boleslaw in 1079 – symbolized for the Communists the age old opposition of state and Church, an opposition alive and well between the Party and the Church in 1970s Poland. Everybody saw it, and try as they might, the oppressors could not conquer the spirit of the largely Catholic Polish people.
Pope John Paul II was the 20th century’s stand-in for St. Stanislaus in the eyes of the Soviets. Whether they would admit it or not, the story of St. Stanislaus was a metaphor for the Pope they hated. The Psalm verses above served as the basis for the libretto, every one of them a rebuke to the Communist Party and all worldly governments who put greed and power above God.
Gorecki himself was a target of increased persecution by the Party when he resigned his post in 1979, but they could not make such a world famous composer disappear. In true totalitarian fashion they did the next best thing: they suppressed his name in all documents and newspapers relating to musical events in Poland. Suddenly he did not exist as far as public notice was concerned, but this did not discourage nor deter the composer from fulfilling his commission.
When Gorecki no longer had the responsibility and aggravation of leadership at the State Higher School of Music in Katowice, he was free to work intensely and quickly on Beatus Vir. The premier was set for June 9, 1979 and took place in Krakow with Gorecki conducting the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir. Pope John Paul II praised it highly while on the same trip condemning Poland’s Soviet leaders.
Gorecki joins the famous Estonian composer Arvo Pärt and English composer John Tavener in a category called “holy minimalism” or “mystic minimalism”, referring to simple texture, tonality, and repetitive melodies of religious orientation, drawing inspiration from Renaissance and medieval music, and Eastern Orthodox chant. All three of these composers, although of different nationalities and not influencing one another’s works, arrived at their approach to religious music as a consequence of apparently deep spiritual lives – two Orthodox and one Catholic whose compositions represent the longing of the soul for God.
Here is the middle section of Beatus Vir presented by the Polish Radio Choir, the Silesian Philharmonic Choir and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra with baritone Andrzej Dobber.
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