PRIORITIES

Do you remember your definition of a sacrament? It is something close to this: “An outward sign instituted by Christ to give us grace.”

Do you remember your definition of grace? It is something close to this: “Any divine help we receive to bring us closer to God.”

Lastly, do you recall what the angel said to Mary in greeting? “Hail full of grace!”

Mary was fully open to God. Unencumbered by the baggage of sin, jealousies, insecurities, vengefulness, lustfulness, impatience, intolerance, etc., God was able to burst forth from her into the world in a most dramatic way. God walked among us!

Today we get to honor Mary as patroness of the United States. She is our model and guide, and what a perfect example for us as a nation. Like her, the fuller of grace that we can become, the more God can break in on the human scene and establish his kingdom.

Grace builds on grace. Try to make it to Mass today on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. You, your family, your parish, and you nation are enriched by your worship today.

Remaining Masses at St. Sebastian: 5:30 extraordinary form (Latin) and 7 PM.

TUESDAY QUOTE OF THE WEEK CLXLXII

FINDING TRUTH WHEREVER IT MAY BE FOUND: “The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.” from G. K. Chesterton’s, “Introduction to the Book of Job”

QUOTE II: “For when once people have begun to believe that prosperity is the reward of virtue, their next calamity is obvious. If prosperity is regarded as the reward of virtue it will be regarded as the symptom of virtue. Men will leave off the heavy task of making good men successful. He will adopt the easier task of making out successful men good.” ibid.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Just a friendly reminder: Tomorrow is a holy day of obligation!

Want to read more on the Immaculate Conception? Go here.

Awesome 2 minute video:



The Villanova School of Business has an interesting site for their Center for the Study of Church Management. Here is their website.

The next Chesterton Society meeting is coming up quickly. This is the last meeting before we begin "Orthodoxy." Click on the picture of Chesterton to the right for more details.

For those of you who wanted to see it:

The Diocese of Cleveland Enewsletter asks, "Did you know, the USCCB has launched an extensive new website dedicated to the new book Benedict XVI: Essays and Reflections on His Papacy, which was published this fall?" Click here and here.

From the same source: "The Catholic faith community will celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, 2010. This holyday of obligation is especially celebrated by Catholics in the United States.

"Under this title, the Bishops of the United States formally placed the country under her patronage. On Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. an extra Mass will be celebrated at the Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist so the Catholic faith community may gather to celebrate Mary's feast." More here.

MONDAY DIARY: CLOTHES MAKE THE MAN

Apologies to you that there was not a post on Friday. We were so swamped here at St. Sebastian that there was simply no time for such things. It was one of those (couple of days) in which there was little free time to do much other than parish duties. Sunday was pretty much like that too. This can be the cause of ending up in pretty interesting outfits.

Of course we were dressed for the Mass schedule and so I had on my cassock. Under that was a formal white short and collar with cufflinks and such. It was donut Sunday and PSR Sunday morning confessions among other things so by the time the 1:00 Mass rolled around we had been so busy that Sebastian had not gone for a walk and he is acting pretty desperate. It was snowing quite hard so I did not want to go out in my nice shoes so I substituted my cowboy boots (complete with spurs) for my dress shoes and we headed out. When we got back there was still a half an hour to go before the Mass was to be finished. Both Fr. Pfeiffer and I had obligations later in the day and would be away, but the Christmas tree had to be brought in that day so that it would relax enough to be decorated for the staff party on Tuesday. I took off my cassock (they are hard to get off with spurs on by the way) but did not want to change completely out of clerics for I would need them again in a short spell. So I grabbed an apron out of the kitchen to keep the white shirt clean and pair of gloves for the moving of furniture and the bringing in of the tree.

Of course when the furniture was moved out of the way the carpet had to be vacuumed first (it was a mess) so there I was in formal clerics and cufflinks, cowboy boots, cooking apron, and work gloves pushing a vacuum around. I actually didn’t think much of it until my parochial vicar who shall remain anonymous came in, laughing at me and taking a picture with his phone.

It may sound strange but it was immensely practical. When we were done, taking off the apron and gloves, changing shoes, and putting the cassock back on I looked the very picture of a Sunday morning pastor.

So if you should knock on the door of your rectory and find your priest oddly dressed, there is a chance he is not insane but trying to keep pace with the clothing demands of his day in the most economical way possible.

NEVER STOP THINKING IT THROUGH

A little bit of marketing goes a long way. Putting the right spin on a topic may sway public opinion in any direction on any particular topic. Just for example, in many circles the Church is labeled as being more restrictive in rights of human beings such as in the case of abortion. Some ways in which this is done is by portraying the teachings of the Church in this matter as being the whim of white haired old men in Rome forcing their morality on women and the rights that they should have over their own bodies; rights that those cranky old men retain while taking them away from women. “Keep your rosaries off my ovaries” is a common slogan.

It is proposed that pro-abortionists are more compassionate because they care about women and extending such rights to them; rights which “the Church” wishes to curtail. The two sides can then be separated into “pro-women” and “anti-rights” camps. If nobody bothers to think beyond these first salvos of the argument it seems to be pretty clear who cares more about women, rights, and freedom.

But is this the case? The Church puts forth that far from being more limited in extending rights that individuals should have over their bodies than the pro-abortionists, the Church casts a far greater net, includes more people, grants more freedoms and protects more rights. Human dignity, the right to life, the right to integrity of one’s body is preserved not just for those who can speak for themselves, not just for those with power, money, or influence, not just for those who can be seen, not just for those who have developed enough skills, not just those protected by law, not just those who are seen as productive to society, but all human beings, men and women alike, old and young, capable and challenged. No, the Church, the teaching of Christ are not more restrictive than Pro-Choicers, it is far more generous. And of course it will not seem so to those who wish not to recognize human life as human life and who feel restricted in their choice to end a human life that is not desired by them for one reason or another, but it cannot be argued (at least I think) that their net of human life to which they extend protection and integrity of life is far smaller than the Church – interestingly enough this is so even with those who are aborted who are female.

WHAT WON'T PEOPLE BELIEVE?

So there’s a big brouhaha over atheists putting up signs about not believing in God. After the story in the paper there was a rush to condemn the behavior and then a backlash of letters saying these are just good honest folk “coming out of the closet” so to speak. Of course, if they were simply stepping into the light and announcing themselves in a non-antagonistic way they would not have called themselves, “Freedom from Religion” but something along the lines of, “Freedom in Atheism.” But clearly the title leads one to believe that this is a movement against something rather than for something – ironically the very thing they proclaim to hate about believers.

I have run into this same phenomena between Christian denominations. At my first assignment there was a Protestant Church that used to sneak into our parish church and leave tracts condemning Catholics to the everlasting fires of hell, worked at converting Catholic children at school, and spent, according to various reports, an incredible amount of time in their worship services proclaiming, “Catholics are going to hell. We are not Catholic so join us.” (This done we were informed because they love us and want to save us.)

Now I do not have a problem debating someone who says that they have a better message. “Here is what we believe, we believe it better, more true, whatever, so give it a shot.” But I do have a problem when converting others is based on burning everyone else’s house down in order to make theirs look good.

Among the letters to the editor there was of course the usually diatribe about how faith is the cause of war throughout the ages. It is a tired, old and almost lame horse whipped out of the barn and forced to trot around the paddock. And even if evidence is presented, very little analysis is brought to bear on it. It can’t be for it would show itself to be the broken down old gelding that it is – unable to carry any weight on its sagging back.

There is the idea that man would have a natural instinct to build a much better society if it were not for religion. If there were no such thing as faith in God and a religion to protect, many argue, we could go about the task of building a utopia. Unfortunately there is little to no real evidence of that at all. There is evidence however of faith doing so. If I might quite G. K. Chesterton on the matter:

Morality did not begin by one man saying to another, "I will not hit you if you do not hit me"; there is no trace of such a transaction. There is a trace of both men having said, "We must not hit each other in the holy place." They gained their morality by guarding their religion. They did not cultivate courage. They fought for the shrine, and found they had become courageous. They did not cultivate cleanliness. They purified themselves for the altar, and found that they were clean. The history of the Jews is the only early document known to most Englishmen, and the facts can be judged sufficiently from that. The Ten Commandments which have been found substantially common to mankind were merely military commands; a code of regimental orders, issued to protect a certain ark across a certain desert. Anarchy was evil because it endangered the sanctity. And only when they made a holy day for God did they find they had made a holiday for men. (The Flag of the World)

Considering Christian Church and the horrors attributed to her in the world, I would say she was responsible for none of them. Rather I would say that it was precisely when men did NOT follow her that we ended in trouble. Christianity may not stop man from destroying the world, but neither will atheism. In fact, with atheism there is theoretically even less holding one back. Even if a Christian should destroy half of the world there is at least the chance that if his faith prick his conscience he will feel guilty and have some fear before God and leave the other half.

Christianity is a cure for what ails the world. But it neither forces men to act in a certain way nor prevent them for doing dastardly things in its name if they so choose.

Here is an example of what is both the down and upside of the Christian Church. Years ago I was working in a theater when a couple of young men walked in wearing the Catholic high school jackets. They created a bit of mischief in the restroom and I overheard a couple of adults commenting not on those to ruffians, not on those high school boys, not on those Catholic high school boys, but on those CATHOLIC boys. Where they living the Catholic faith at the moment? Of course not. But by identifying themselves as Catholic did they bring harm to the faith? Yes. But, they are also identified as Catholic and as a member of the Catholic community and I can bring some pressure to bear. “That is not the way Catholics act,” I might say to them. I could also go back to the community and say, “We need to do something. A couple of our Catholic boys are acting up. We need to start preaching and teaching about . . .” We may not prevent a fire, but we can set up a water brigade even as others fan the flames. Faith is about helping us see that dousing the flames is best and faith gives us the courage to go out and convince others, both Christian and none Christian alike, not just because the action is Christian, but because not burning is the correct thing to do – is truth.

The last word on this I will give to our friend Chesterton again who said, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.”

TUESDAY QUOTE OF THE WEEK CLXLXI

FINDING TRUTH WHEREVER IT MAY BE FOUND: Sebastian, “I wish I liked Catholics more.”

Charles, “They seem just like other people.”

Sebastian, “My dear Charles, that is exactly what they’re not particularly in the country where there’s so few of them. It’s not just that they’re a clique . . . everything they think important is different from other people. They try to hide it as much as they can but it comes out all the time.” from “Brideshead Revisited”

QUOTE II: “Show me ONE Roman Catholic who has really understood his faith, devoutly practiced it, loved the Church, and never dreamed of leaving it, yet who, through serious study, discovered that the Episcopal Church is in fact the one true Church, the Church that Jesus Christ established, the Church that has been entrusted with the fullness of God’s truth and means of grace, the Church that Jesus Christ has authorized to speak authoritatively and even infallibly in His name. Show me a Catholic like that who was therefore compelled by the direction of the Holy Spirit to enter the Episcopal Church. Show me just ONE Catholic convert to the Episcopal Church of whom all of this is true.” Fr. Raymond Ryland, formerly a priest of the Episcopal Church in the book, “Surprised by Truth 2”

IN OTHER NEWS:

Lynn sent in this great video. You have to get past the first minute or so before it gets food. Here is the Catholic Pick Up Song:



Here is a cartoon sent in by a priest that organists will love. Brides will not. I could not stop laughing. WARNING: There is one inappropriate word. Send it to your Church musician friends. They'll get it.

Cory sent this video in. If you loved the Macy's video last time you might appreciate the same idea taking place at a mall.


Here are three videos from our bell choir performing with the St. Joseph bell choir:

MONDAY DIARY: BREAKFAST TRUMPS THEOLOGY

My first Thanksgiving at St. Sebastian I drove past Snyder Park, the park one block west of the parish, on my way to the ecumenical service at St. Paul Episcopal. There were quite a few guys out walking their dogs on that brisk holiday morning and I remember thinking, “Now that looks like something enjoyable. I want to be one of those guys.”

Two years later I thought of that morning as I put Sebastian on his leash and started out for his walk. It was raining – hard – and cold and I laughed mirthlessly recalling that morning two Thanksgivings ago. Of course I was the only weirdo out there tromping through the mud and rain. But Sebastian was happy. At least I found my extra set of car keys that were in my raincoat pocket for the last six months.

Thanksgiving Day Mass is one of my favorite Masses of the year. It is well attended and the people who show up for this Mass seem to throw themselves into it a bit more than at just about any other Mass of the year.

This year, not only did we have our usual Thanksgiving Day Mass, we also hosted the community ecumenical prayer service. West Akron boasts the oldest, continual, ecumenical Thanksgiving prayer service in the State of Ohio. My first year here some of the other ministers were upset with me for not cancelling our Mass in lieu of this service and it was difficult for me to explain that we can’t just cancel a daily Mass even for something so worthy. This year it seemed there was an air of openness to our situation and graciously they allowed for a 15 time change in time in oder that it could be hosted at St. Sebastian. So after our Mass I invited our people to stay and then ran over to join the ministerial ecumenical breakfast already taking place in the rectory and being hosted by Fr. Pfeiffer.

The night before we worked with one of our parishioners who was taking a large part in making the breakfast possible. We took care of the mechanics, expanding the table, brining out chairs, setting up place settings and such and so. I had never been to one of these breakfasts because I was always saying Mass. Last year Fr. Pfeiffer attended for both of us and reported that it was a very simple breakfast. So we were going to run out and get bagels and make coffee. What did we know?

“Oh, that won’t do,” warned one of our parishioners. “You are able to do more so you should do more!” (Here is one of the admitted drawbacks of having a celebate clergy - we don't have someone to say "The people you are inviting are not bachelors! Feed the right!) So we tried to pull something together with the help of a person who often cooks for us in jams such as this and were able to pull off a simple but very nice breakfast. I was sure glad to see it anyway coming back from the Mass and joining them at the dining room table.

To be quite honest, we get along well but there always seems (to me anyway) to be a little tension in the room. Nothing hostile, just a bit of unsurity as to how to get along - which is precisely the benefit of having this every year. The elephant in the room is that we all are representatives of theologies and philosophies that in many ways contradict each other and this context is not one in which we could (or should) get into even friendly debates. Our job at the moment was to get along and to offer thanks on behalf of the community for all the gifts we have received from our God. So the elephants are left tied up in the parking lot.

It is quite exciting actually to be part of this unique gathering of representatives of the area. My prayer is that it goes a long way in helping bring understanding between all of us. If we can eat and pray together there is hope that if we cannot agree theologically and philosophically on certain matters, we can at least show that we can get along just the same.

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: Q R S TAU U V

The Tau cross looks strikingly like the letter “T” and is in fact a letter of the Greek alphabet. It has many uses in other religions as well as science but in Christianity has come to be a form of the Cross of Christ.

Sometimes it is called the “anticipatory cross” because in the Old Testament (Ezekiel 9:4) those who were mourning were told to mark their foreheads with this sign. Interestingly enough we do the same thing today on Ash Wednesday. So it is seen as an early echo of future events, a shadow of the Cross and the Passion to come though unknowingly. Thus is it often used in advent which we soon embark upon.

Saint Anthony used this Cross in his ministry and so it also carried the name, “St. Anthony’s Cross,” but it is St. Francis that makes it so popular with us today. He adopted this Cross on his own personal coat of arms and from there it was adopted by the whole Franciscan order. St. Francis noted that when a monk spread out his arms, his habit formed this symbol and as such they were to where the Cross of Christ always in their ministry.

You may notice that many Franciscan rosaries have this Tau instead of a crucifix. One is to mark it as belonging to someone devoted to Christ through following the way of St. Francis, the other, in part, is to picture oneself on the cross, dying to this world, joining your suffering to Christ, and looking forward to living with Him forever in heaven.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

AND GOD'S BLESSING TO YOU!

VIDEO

ALL YOU GOTTA DO IS . . .

When I was in the seminary, Bishop Pilla came to speak to the seminarians as he was wont to do from time to time. He would give us a little talk and then open the floor for questions. This was about fifteen years ago and even then we were concerned about the upcoming priest shortage. So we asked the question, “Will we still be able to be priests to a parish or will we become sacramental machines running from church building to church building dispensing the sacraments but not really getting to know the people of each congregation?” He did say that it was not in the immediate offing but did not say that it would never happen in our lifetime.

It does happen in other dioceses. In fact it is not all that rare that a man might be ordained and almost instantly become the pastor of two or three parishes.

There was a letter to the editor today (I question some of the facts put forth but am not desirous of debating them) that put forth a solution to the priestly shortage problem and the desire of many to keep closed or closing parish from being shuttered. It was suggested that we do as the dioceses above did and simply have a priest make a circuit through town hitting each of the churches and offering the sacraments. That would certainly make sacraments available in more spots but then it would take away from other things. There are calls for priests to be more available at the parish for phone calls and appointments, (where is Father now?!), to teach in the school and PSR, to offer adult education, (write a blog), to go to the hospital, to come to parish events and meetings, or to come to some civic event and offer the opening prayer or what have you (not to mention diocesan meetings, vacations, retreats, continuing education, day away.) Priests start to disappear off the scene the further you stretch out the priest between parishes. Every move has its consequences. As much as I wish certain parishes would remain open I am very grateful not to have to spend my day in the car running from building to building.

The interesting thing to note is that this is not a simply a Catholic problem though we mostly only hear about it from a Catholic perspective for some reason. In my home town a number of Protestant congregations have merged and/or closed. There are a couple of Protestant Churches in the vicinity of St. Sebastian that are looking to downsize and have placed their buildings on the market. The population of northeast Ohio is dropping and it is dropping for everyone, not just Catholics.

Yesterday I went to Canton to visit a closing (Lutheran?) congregation. They have a wonderful pipe organ for sale. (HEY! I can dream can’t I?) I was able to engage the pastor of the congregation in conversation and she told me that she and her assistant take care of the parish that has three separate congregations that are housed in three separate (and worthy) buildings, all within spitting distance of each other. On any giving Sunday she and her assistant make the rounds going to each of the sites. “I get to see each congregation a couple of times a month,” she said. This system does preserve the community to some extent, but the connection to a pastor is a bit more distant and his or her connection to the day to day goings on at the parish become more tenuous.

In the end, there is the choice of having priests available and connected or preserving a particular congregation of people. It’s a tough choice. I know what I prefer as a priest but might be inclined to think differently if I was coming at it from the other side of the altar rail so to speak. There are no easy solutions.

There is this however: to work together for the strengthening of the Church, to build up our communities, to live the faith well, to support our institutions, to speak well of the faith and of (good) priests, to make known that religious and priestly vocations are good and viable options for our young folk, and that there is nothing, NOTHING, NOTHING more important than the Eucharist. Then we are far more likely to preserve what we have and build on it for the future so that we may need never face these choices again.

TUESDAY QUOTE OF THE WEEK CLXLX

FINDING TRUTH WHEREVER IT MAY BE FOUND: “Love of money is called the root of evil because money is often the first agent of self-gratification . . . You can’t buy your way into heaven, but you can perhaps hoard your way to hell.” from Richard Russo’s, “Empire Falls”

QUOTE II: “You have your eternal life before you. You are a millionaire in immortality, and a millionaire whose fortune cannot be lost, whose fortune is less perishable than the stars and as long lasting as space or time. It is impossible for you to diminish your principle.” from Jack London’s “The Sea Wolf”

IN OTHER NEWS:

Thanksgiving is just around the corner! Kaz sent in this Thanksgiving Day quiz.

Catholicweb.com has a Catholic Directory to "Help people find Mass." Here is the link at CatholicDirectory.com This may be particularly useful for those traveling over the next few days. Mass Times Trust has also sent us their link and wrote, "I am writing to you today to tell you about some of the new wonderful benefits of our website MassTimestel.org. The I-Phone and other wireless devices will be activated shortly to supply you with Mass Times and allow access to our global church data."

The Diocese of Cleveland Enewsletter want you to know, "The award-winning Daughters of St. Paul Choir is know for their fresh arrangements of time-honored classics. Their Christmas concerts allow them to do what the Daughters of St. Paul do best: communicate God's extraordinary love for every person. They sing well-loved carols and holiday favorites to combine a heartwarming collection of both lively and moving songs that celebrates the glory of the wonder and joy of the Christmas season." They will be performing at our cathedral church of Saint John on downtown Cleveland on December 3rd at 7:30. I'll be there! Say hi if you make it!

Make sure your kids watch this valuable lesson before getting into the Thanksgiving left overs:

MONDAY DIARY: BLACK CLOUDS BUT NO STORM

So the deacon comes to morning Mass and says, “Did you hear the news? Someone made secret tapes during a meeting with the bishop about the closing of parishes! It’s going to be on the news tonight.” Now I don’t watch television news anymore. In fact I hadn’t watched television news for some years for reasons I won’t go into here. But one reason is because of the result of this story.

So everyone is abuzz. “What could this secret recording be? Did he have a mole on the inside that caught him in a relaxed moment blurting out something out of frustration? Was it at a parish meeting and did he blow up or something?” It was almost as exciting wondering who it was that did as to what was said and where.

Despite what anyone might think of our bishop, he is a prudent and pragmatic man in regard to law both civil and ecclesial, in public and semi-public. (I’m not in his inner circle and so can’t way what he says in relaxed moments but can’t imagine it would be much different.) So a few of us gathered in the rectory parlor to watch the news breaking story. I got out a pen and paper to try to accurately record what was said. Would I have to defend the bishop? Would I be able to defend the bishop? (Notice my first reaction is, “this is not going to be good. How can I help right the ship?” There was, after all, the real possibility that something could have been said that would upset already very upset people.)

The first clue that it was not going to be the Black Thursday that had been anticipated was the soft peddle that seemed to counter the hype that led up to the airing. The second clue was that it was not the very last story. Still, somebody said, “Shh! Shhh! Here it is! Turn up the sound.” I hit the remote and then grabbed my pen a pad. This was important me. The bishop is not the faith – that is inviolate. But he is the shepherd of this local Church and, to use the term bluntly, my boss. I believe in the faith and the institution of the Church (I dedicate my life to it after all) and this could have a strong impact on perceptions, levels of belief, and hence the difficulty of my duties.

Two sentences in I stopped taking notes. The biggest concern was the bishop’s bluntness and tone. Not what he said, but the way he said it. As to the bluntness – well God bless him, he is who he is. I think I would rather have someone tell me how it is rather than serve it up with an aura of false hope and confusion. And those who know the man know that he is not a Midwesterner. He doesn’t speak like a Midwesterner. His tone comes across very gruff to many born and bread Midwesterners and there are people who find it “a tone.” I get that. Our impression though was, “That isn’t his ‘tone,’ that’s just him.” Would it be great if he had a different tone? Sure. But he doesn’t. Perhaps he thinks the same thing about us, “I wish they were a little more blunt in their dealings!” But we are one Church, he is the bishop, and we are each who we are – all striving to be better.

Anyway, in the end I felt sorry for the person who made the recording. I fear it backfired save for those who are looking for reasons to be disappointed and/or angry. I did not think it possible but my respect for television news casts dropped even further. Right after the story the T.V. went off – probably until someone comes into the sacristy again and says, “Hey – you should watch the news tonight.”

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: AT CROSS PURPOSES

I will admit that I never even heard of this cross before. I found it accidentally while looking at the site Seiyaku.com. Known as the Paternoster Cross (or Our Father.) Quoting the site, “Such a cross has been found on the walls of ancient Roman villas, with the letters A and O being the Latin equivalents for the Greek Α (alpha) and Ω (omega) terminating each arm showing Jesus to be the beginning and end, i.e. eternally divine.”

Using the beads of the Cross one starts with the large centre bead and prays the Our Father. The subsequent 10 beads one prays the Hail Marys as one contemplates the significant events of Salvation History and the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord. Therein is the nice tie-in with the mystery of the Cross.

IN OTHER NEWS:


Check the Chesterton site (click on the picture to the right) for meeting updates.

Anybody else as dissappointed as I am at the hype over Bishop Lennon on FOX news last night?

IF YOU HONK, LET IT BE WITHOUT SIN

There is a priest staying with us today who commutes regularly from Pittsburg to Akron. Talk about a commute! My commute is down the stairs in the morning. I suppose that allows me not to be so upset when driving (except by people driving erratically – I’m sure they do not think so – because they are on their cell phone) as some of my friends are who spend significantly more time behind the wheel than I do.

That being said I realized that I have relished in opportunities to honk my horn. I enjoy honking my horn but my father made it very clear that one only honks his horn when one absolutely needs to. So when someone is on their phone and doesn’t see the light has turned as quickly as I would like them to (because my life will be significantly different if I get through this light in two sends rather than one minute) I think to myself, “You have a right to honk your horn! Finally! It’s been months! Let them have it!”

Then someone sent me an Email (the kind I usually rarely read) about people being like dump trucks. Here is a link to the passage from the book. It is the only part of the book with which I am familiar so don’t think of this as a promotional for it. You will need to scroll down a bit to get to it. I thought it the most trite, inane thing I’d taken the time to read for a long time and erased it. (I had to search for it online to present it to you today.) But it kept bothering me and so revisited the whole idea that it presents.

Anger is not sinful – well – that is the emotion of anger is not sinful. “If you are angry, let it be without sin,” says Scripture. Emotions have no value on the sin/virtue scale. What we do with those emotions does however. There are times when anger for a just and holy cause should rouse passion and make one act for sake of righteousness. But even then we do not act out of the anger, the emotion that warned us that something might be wrong, but out of passion, compassion, and love to bring about good.

So, being cut off in traffic – is there reason for anger there? Yes. It is dangerous, rude, and self centered. But does that give another individual the right to be dangerous, rude, and self centered in return?

There is a traffic circle that is adjacent to our property. Occasionally there will someone who feels offended by what the person in front of them has done (to them) and will lay on their horn directly behind the person for their trip around the circle. Not a little toot that says, “Ooops! I’m here” accompanied by a wave – but a glaring fifteen second death blast with accompanying orphaned finger. This happens once or twice a month. Yes, they were cut off, yes they were wronged, yes, they will have to take three more seconds of their lives to get around the circle, yes, the person in front of them did something dangerous, but now they also allowed themselves to become what they hate. They are the distraction going around the circle.

And what of the driver against whom they honketh their horns? Having observe this happen a couple of times I’ve seen older drivers now shook up, penitent drivers, and those who are now equally mad right back. All that happens now is that driving conditions are now more perilous, and anger, like the flu in an elementary school in February spreading from person to person and being carried on out of the circle into the greater world. The garbage trucks fill up more and more and they will need to be dumped somewhere. Maybe around your dinner table tonight.

Garbage in – garbage out.

Don’t pick up garbage. Don’t give your garbage to someone else. Dispose of it properly.

Everyone will feel better.

And if this will help, go here and press number 17, my personal favorite.

MY MAMA TOLD ME YOU BETTER SHOP AROUND

Let’s face it, if you live in an area with an abundance of Catholic Churches as we do in northeast Ohio (though somewhat less in recent years) you can shop around a little bit to find a parish that is a fit for you. In the past you were pretty much stuck with the parish in which you were living along the same manner of being stuck with the family in which you were born. Today it is the practice to “adopt yourself out” to any family, sign up, and call it your home parish.

One of the things that we are discovering is that people find us on the Internet and come to check us out. We are not exactly on the beaten path and so having a website we are discovering is quite a boon for Roaming Catholics. One of our young families that moved into the parish not too long ago is now moving away to follow a job. *sigh* The way they found us was doing a Catholic Church search online and one Sunday we were next in line for a visit. Fortunately for us they landed here and nested. Now that they are moving, one of the first things that they are doing is searching online for a new spiritual home in their new city.

This trend makes me sit back and ask the question, “What makes a good parish.” I had a phone call the other day from someone selling something and they were telling me about their home parish. They went on quite at length about all the things that were happening at the parish and what a wonderful place it was and that every priest should spend some time there to know how to run a wonderful parish. Not once were sacraments mentioned.

At a recent diocesan meeting a guest speaker made the comment that if we want to compete with mega churches it is not matter of establishing one or two more ministries, but 20 or 30. I about choked on my overly sweetened coffee. My hero for the day stood up and said that we will never be able to do quite that much – nor should we. We should concentrate on what we do well – should be doing well anyway – sacraments and education. Then whatever we can do after that is icing on the cake.

Nobody joins the Catholic Church. I would discourage it if they tried. You don’t join the Catholic Church like you join the local gym that has all of the services you want. It is not the goal of the Church to entice people into the pews because we offer the most and best set of programs in town. Rather than joining the Church, you become the Church – you become responsible for the ministry.

So if you walk around your community and you see something that needs attention and think, “The Church should be here!” then realize that YOU ARE the Church and that you should then do something. If we blame the Church for not being present, we to some extent blame ourselves.

In this city we have licensed persons standing on street corners asking for money. There are all kinds of debates as to what a person should do. Give? Don’t give? One man from this parish decided it was neither a good idea to ignore them nor throw money at these people. These options did not seem like a Christian attitude to him. So he made it a point to go and talk to a number of these persons and offer to help them go from business to business and put in applications. Nobody took him up on it, but he did it. God bless him.

Now, the role of the parish is first to give that man in this ministry that he performed the opportunity to engage Christ, primarily through the sacraments, to give him the grace and the conviction of spirit that he needs to go out and be Christ for the world. The second role of the parish is to provide instruction in the faith that helps form his conscience and instruct him in Christian living. If the parish is capable, it would then work with him to give him the structure, credence, and possibly the pulled resources of communication, the gathering of likeminded individuals, maybe space, and other kinds of support needed to perform his ministry – all depending on the ability of the parish.

This has been the glory of the Church for two millennia. Many of the greatest movements in the Church were started just this way. Religious orders that did such great work did not start out as official Church institutions. Mother Theresa decided one day that should could not take one more day of seeing poor people neglected on the street and so started her ministry that evolved into an order. Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini began ministering to poor immigrants coming to the United States and an order was sparked. St. Francis decided on a life to live and was joined by others who liked what they saw, began an order and reformed the Church. In our own diocese a group of Catholics decided that there was a great need for apologetics and the now the group is so large that they are in need of seeking permission from the bishop to continue.

Is there something to which you are called? Does you parish celebrate the sacraments well? Does it provide opportunities to learn? And then, if it is capable, will it offer support. It seems to me that these are the signs of a good parish.