FRIDAY POTPOURRI: KEEPING IT IN USE

This is a ciborium; a vessel in which, among other things, one reserves the Blessed Sacrament to be placed in the tabernacle after Mass. This one belongs to me and I use it whenever a sacristan happens to put it out for use.  It came into my possession during my first assignment at St. Ambrose.  It sat black and unused on a bookshelf in my pastor's (the Rev. Bob Hilkert) parlour.

One day I told him he should shine it up and use it.  He let me have a go at it and it turned out rather swell.  When I brought it back he said, "You take it.  I'll never use it."  Of course I protest - feebly - and soon relented and have been using it ever since. 

At one point it was knocked to the floor by an accidental swing of the arm of a parishioner and at that point it had to be repaired and so I also had it replated.  Not too long after that it was dropped again (you would be surprised how often that happens) and now the cross is a little cockeyed.  But it is still serviceable.

As you can see there is much ornamentation but little of it symbolic. 

It is difficult to see here but just below the cup and above the node is a grape and vine design.

The base is quite nice.  There are six figures.  They were made separately and then attached.  Above the figure shown below is an ornate Greek cross barely visible through the glare.  This is the side that faces the priest during the Mass.  The figure below it is an angel holding a scroll on which nothing is written.  (Interesting.)

Moving around the base of the ciborium to the right there is Saint Matthew, Saint John, the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus, Saint Mark, and then Saint Luke pictured below.

There are no markings on the bottom of the base to indicate from where it came, how old it is, or whom it may have belonged.  Unfortunately I did not get the information before Fr. Hilkert passed on.

CATHOLIC PIE AND FOOTBALL FIELDS

In a recent story in "The Sun", Mary Kenyon says she was looking for a friend just like her; a mother of many children who breast-fed and home-schooled, but always seemed to find breast-feeding mothers who didn't home-school or home-schooling mothers who didn't breast feed. Her close friends however ended up being the ones who were different, accepting, and taught her to be open to others. "If I had ever met my twin friend," she said, "I probably would have found her annoyingly self-righteous."

In a similar way I sometimes daydream about being in a parish where everybody believes and thinks quite the same as I with the same taste in music and art. Such will never be the case. That is part of the richness of being the Catholic (or universal) Church - all peoples, all times, all places.

And really, that is not all that bad. I, too, as much a I hate to admit it, learn a tremendous amount from those with whom there is a differencing of opinion.

Fr. Robert Hilkert (RIP) my first pastor had to deal with a house full of priests who were just about as differently tempered as you could imagine. It is a testament to him as a pastor that we made it all those years with nobody ending up bleeding. His basic premise was that we were all priests and as long as we stayed on the Catholic playing field all was well.

The danger in identifying too closely with being liberal or conservative or whatever in the Church, is in becoming holier than she and limiting the legitimate expression of others (assuming that it is truly a legitimate option.) Rob said it well, our goal is orthodoxy - living the life that Christ calls us to in the manner it has developed within His church and as the Church allows.

That is not to say that we cannot have a vision or preferences and promote them - even strongly. Which I do. (Ask any of my friends.) But there is a big roof on this Church and it covers a lot of people with whom we are called to pray, not pray like. And sometimes that means breaking out of our private wedge of the Catholic pie. (AS PAINFUL AS THAT MAY BE AT TIMES.)

“I used to be a liberal, if liberal means concern for the other guy,” Father Groeschel said. “Now I consider myself a conservative-liberal-traditional-radical-confused person.” - (Taken completely out of context, but funny here I believe. For the scoop on what he was talking about, take a gander at the Curt Jester.)