Finding Your Happy Place

 

 

Our spirits have taken a beating for the past year, particularly with regard to the pandemic, and also the current events cycle surrounding the election and January 6.  So it is all the more important to find inner, and outer, resources in the form of places, situations, and activities where we feel safe and happy, and are able to find peace.

I came across an interesting article, Happy Places Are Real: 5 Tips To Help You Find Yours (mindbodygreen.com) which discusses finding the "happy space", whether it is a physical place, or a space within ourselves.

Neo-Jansenism?

 It has been said that there are no new heresies, just recycled old ones.

In this article Michael Sean Winters discusses similarities in some of the problems surfacing in the church today with the rise of Jansenism in the 17th century

Former President Trump (probably) won't be disqualified from running again

A Senate vote on Tuesday indicates that the House impeachment managers have an uphill climb to secure a conviction.

Breaking News: A Catholic (President) attends Mass regularly

 

Sunday services: Biden's faith on display in renewed presidential ritual

As the first president in decades to regularly attend weekly religious services, Joe Biden has plenty of options.

I like this story because in one sense it is not news at all. It is one of those good news stories, life is going along well, things are working that typically gets ignored.  

It is the life of a typical church going, community or professionally active Catholic, finding a way across a busy schedule in multiple locations to celebrate Mass each weekend.

It is also the story of a pastor who after seeing a Catholic attends regularly, but notices that he has not been coming recently, simply says "Is he still on the rolls"  And when the answer is yes, says there is a virtual Mass, two in-person Masses and that he will send a priest to the White House if that is needed.

It is also the story of relationships of pastoral attendance and pastoral care that persisted across time, and space.

On the other hand Presidential Church-going, like church going in general has been declining. So it is breaking news when a president changes all that.  

Will it mean anything? Will many religious leaders show appreciation for Presidential support for this ritual which keeps them in business?  Will some or many liberal, Democratic Catholics return to more frequent church going?  (Perhaps if the culture warriors in Catholicism ignore Biden- not much chance of that, however). 

Note to all pastors and pastoral staff: We now have not only a Pope but a Catholic President who is popular with liberals and Democrats. Maybe now is the time to emphasize the poor, the environment, and social activism to make these people welcome in our parishes!   

The Trump presidency, by the numbers

We checked in once before with Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn, when he shared some of his favorite tweets of 2020.  Now, in this column from January 19, he uses metrics to try to assess just what the Trump presidency has done to our country.  His method is simple: he compares a number of measurements and statistics at the time President Obama passed the presidency to President Trump, to the same stats four years later, as the presidency passes from Trump to President Biden.  In essence, he's comparing the state of the United States at the beginning of the Trump presidency to the state at the end.  Zorn uses the metaphor of a car rental agency comparing the condition of a rental car at the time you drive it off the lot, to the condition when you bring it back.  

Zorn's leanings are liberal, but he also is scrupulously fair in presenting these metrics.  In that spirit, he prefaces the metrics by noting the exogenous shock to our country: the pandemic.  Some of the numbers will have been altered significantly because of the pandemic and its effects.  For example, the unemployment rate has increased from 4.7% at the beginning of Trump's presidency to 6.7% at the end; it was actually lower than 4.7% for the entirety of Trump's presidency - until April 2020, when it skyrocketed.  But even bearing the coronavirus in mind, some of the metrics are surprising.  The entire listing can be read here.  In this post, I'm sharing a small sampling of them, with some brief comments of my own.

Responding to Jesus

 This is my homily for today, the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B.  The readings for today are here.   

A brief explanatory note: the first paragraph of the homily text alludes to a couple of things we did to mark that today is the Sunday of the Word of God: during the Gospel Acclamation, the book of the Gospels was processed through the church, up and down the pew aisles.  As we don't have altar servers during the pandemic, I recruited an adult at each mass to accompany me with a lit torch (processional candle).  In addition, after the proclamation of the Gospel, we "enthroned" the Book of the Gospels on a special stand which faced the people, to try to make it more visible.

Here is the text of the homily:

The Music, Prayers, and Readings of Biden's Inauguration Day Mass

If anyone is interested in the Scripture readings and music used for Joe Biden's Inauguration Day Mass at St. Matthew's Cathedral, NCR has an article here with the details.

 "The Jan. 20 Mass in Washington, D.C., on Inauguration Day morning was closed to the public, but the pastoral associate for liturgy and director of music ministries at the St. Matthew's Cathedral, who helped plan the liturgy, shares here the music, readings and prayer selections. Others involved in the planning of the liturgy included the presider, Jesuit Fr. Kevin O'Brien; the rector, Msgr. Ronald Jameson; the parochial vicar, Fr. Jon Benson; and members of the Biden-Harris inauguration committee."

The whole article is worth reading; I will just quickly summarize the music and Scripture readings.

Dulles: Church as Community of Disciples

Models of the Church by Avery Dulles is a favorite of book of mine largely because models serve to organize data much like theories do in the social sciences.  Dulles original book came out in 1978. He enlarged it in 1987 by adding a chapter at the end, “The Church: Community of Disciples.”  In an earlier post on Dulles, What is the Church Jim did not mention this model.  Perhaps that was because he could not find his copy of the book, or perhaps he was more familiar with the earlier edition. 

Review of Dulles Initial Models 

Dulles says that by its very constitution the Church is a communion of grace (Model 2: Mystical Communion) structured as a human society (Model 1 Institution) While sanctifying its own members it offers praise and worship to God (Model 3 Sacrament). It is permanently charged with the responsibility of spreading the good news of the Gospel (Model 4 Herald) and healing and consolidating the human community (Model 5 Servant)

For Dulles, models emphasizing different aspects of the Church were necessary; no super-model could adequately comprehend its mystery. Dulles realized that in practice theologians articulated a model and then incorporated aspects of other models into their favorite model. 

Dulles stated his own preference was for sacramental model as the starting point.  He was very much against using the institutional model as a starting point. However in his revision he admits that the anti-institutional biases of the sixties might have influenced him. Today, however we recognize that the sacramental model is also a strongly clerical model.  The importance of the clergy can be exaggerated both by the sacramental model of Catholicism and the herald model of Protestantism. Both the mysticism of the priesthood and charismatic preacher can promote clericalism.

Community of Disciples Model

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Dulles developed the “Community of Disciples” chapter as a variant of Model 2, the Church as Mystical Communion.  Pope John Paul II had used the phrase briefly in his first encyclical. Dulles thought that discipleship emphasized the personal, fallible, human aspects of the Church that were not captured by images such as the Body of Christ, or People of God that had been used to promote the Church as mystical communion

Dulles was attracted by the fact that “disciple” was one of the words that was used frequently in the New Testament as a designation for Christians. There are others including saints, brethren, believers, the assembly, and the way.. 

Dulles also recognized that disciples had more than one meaning, specifically that its use in the Gospels was different from it use in Acts. In the Gospels it usually refers to only people who accompanied Jesus on his journeys whereas in Acts it refers to all Christians. 

Dulles Misinterpretation of Disciples in the Gospels

(In criticizing Dulles, we must recognize that he regarded himself as a systematic theologian rather than a scripture scholar or pastoral theologian. I am sure his response to this critique would be that these are all interesting points but someone else’s job to correct).

Dulles presents an overly idealistic picture of the disciples. While he acknowledges differences between the Gospels and Acts he does not come to grips with different uses of the word.  Rather he claims that Jesus developed the disciples as a specialized group much like the modern Roman celibate priesthood or religious life. This misreading of the term disciple is easy to make from the Gospels. 

Misreading the Gospels as a Model for Church

What we have in the Gospels is very different from what we see in the Pauline Letters and Acts where there are communities which have an abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit on many people besides Peter and Paul. 

Much of the time the Gospels present Jesus as a teacher. It is tempting to turn these public teaching sessions into a model of the Church as a gathering or assembly. Many of our parishes and congregations seem to replicate what we have in the Gospel teaching sessions. There is a pastor who models Jesus, a staff who models the disciples that immediately surrounded Jesus, and the congregation which models the crowd.

Dulles “Community of Disciples” model has been well received in parishes. People who engage in various parish ministries can easily see themselves as living in a community of disciples.

My Summary of the two meanings of the Greek word for disciple. 

The first meaning is a technical term, a physical and social relationship of a student to a teacher. Both Jesus and John had disciples in this sense, i.e. people who spent most of their day with the teacher, including sharing meals with him and receiving private teaching, and attended him when he gave public teachings. 

The second meaning is metaphorical, one can be a student of Plato, Socrates, or Moses without being physically in their presence. That is the meaning of the word in Acts. In the classical world, philosophy was not simply an intellectual subject. Disciples of Plato, Socrates, Moses and as well as Jesus were expected to actually live out their beliefs.

My Analysis of "Disciple" in the New Testament

Most of the time disciple in the Gospels is used as a technical term. It describes the small group of male students that regularly surrounded Jesus as he went from place to place. Other people who showed up at these teachings are usually described as followers. People who gave hospitality to Jesus were not called disciples, nor where the women who provided physical and financial support. Many followers and supporters could be considered disciples in a metaphorical sense but this sense is not generally used until after the resurrection of Jesus. The flavor of the technical term can be easily experienced just by simply substituting words such as assistants, or staff. These describe well what is taking place in the Gospels.

In fact the persons called “disciples” are often portrayed in very unflattering ways. Sometimes this is a literary device, the disciples ask the dumb student questions that give the teacher the opportunity to shine.

However the Gospel of Mark has a clear agenda to point out that it is Jesus whom we are to imitate not the disciples. Many scholars have recognized this and suspect that the earliest gospel was written in a time of threatening persecution, and Mark wanted to make it clear that we cannot depend upon church leadership (look how they failed Jesus in his time!).  Rather only Jesus is our model.

Matthew and Luke tone down Mark’s criticisms of the disciples, and begin to build toward a positive notion of discipleship that reaches its height in John’s use of the “beloved disciple” as an ideal Christian. Quite obviously the term in early Christianity usage migrated from its original technical use at the time of Jesus to a metaphorical use in Christian communities at the time the Gospels and Acts were written.  

It is very interesting that the Pauline letters, our earliest NT writings, never use the term disciple!!! Why? Obviously Paul was never a disciple in the original technical sense so he was not motivated to use the term for himself. In fact those who were actual disciple of Jesus during this lifetime may have questioned Paul’s authority. Paul regular uses another term, brethren, also widely used as a group identifier by Christians. Finally Paul developed the notion of the Mystical Body of Christ out of his personal revelation when Jesus asks “Why do you persecute ME?”

Some Examples in Mark

In Mark we see that Jesus calls two sets of brothers to leave their fishing boats to follow him. What did that mean?  Did they like modern priests and religious give up family and the family business?  No. We see Jesus with them in the house of Peter, and later they use the fishing boats in Jesus’s public ministry. My interpretation of their following (Mark does not use the word disciple although this section is often titled the call of the disciples) is that the fishermen reoriented their families and their livelihoods to the service of Jesus and his mission.

This story of two pairs of brothers is more about the universal brotherhood of Christians who are called to love one another as brothers in a new community formed around Jesus rather than about becoming disciples (students) in the technical sense. It is no accident that Mark portrayed two sets of physical brothers becoming members of a spiritual brotherhood by following Jesus.

Jesus pursued his mission in many places, not just in the synagogues or even the houses which would become the new places of Christian assembly in future decades.  He was in the marketplace and in the workplaces of seashore and agriculture. He went to the people rather than requiring the people to come to him, although some people did seek him out.. 

While a network of welcoming synagogues, houses, cities and towns developed, there is little evidence that Jesus asked his followers to separate themselves from people who did not follow him. In fact the early Jesus movement was an outward movement toward all those who were needy rather than inward movement to isolate and differentiate themselves from others as did the Pharisees.

Conclusion

The imitation of Jesus requires not just assembling for teaching (model 2) and sacraments (model 3) it requires going out to proclaim the Gospel in deeds more than words (model 4) as well as in service to others (model 5). 

Although the model of the community of disciples acknowledges the sinfulness of the Church it too easily can be used to justified the elitism of the standard phrase “the clergy, the religious, and the faithful”  in which the clergy does the teaching and ruling, the religious set the example and the laity has little to do other than the conventional “pray, pay, and obey.”  It also can be easy used to set up an elite within parishes and congregations of those who are known for their “discipleship”.

The community of disciples model can too easily become an inward church institutional model that fails to see a community of discipleship in the family, civic and work environments. It also can become a too intellectual model focusing upon beliefs and words rather than deeds and service to others.

Can the community of discipleship model be re-conceptualized to give stronger leadership roles for the faithful beyond those of merely assisting the clergy and religious as volunteers and lay ecclesial ministers ?  Can such discipleship be experienced in the world as well as in Church?

Yes if we recognize that leadership and discipleship are two sides to the same coin. 

Writers such as Greenleaf in Servant Leadership recognize that leaders can lead only if people follow (i.e. become disciples) and that followers discernment of true leaders, e.g. servant leaders, is just as important a choice as is the choice of becoming a servant leader.

Greenleaf's concept of servant leadership is really one of a community of leaders/disciples in which we are all sometimes leaders and sometimes disciples.  It is as applicable to the corporate world as to religious institutions. It offers a path to rethinking Community of Disciples in ways that avoid clericalism and elitism.

 

 

Bishops Divided among themselves and with Vatican on Biden UPDATED

 UPDATE: Father Reese gives his analysis

Catholic bishops split on how to deal with Biden

Archbishop Jose Gomez, as president of U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, tried to speak for all the bishops. He ended up creating more controversy.

The Vatican diplomatic service is idealistic in its goals but realistic in its approach to nations, including the United States. It looks for areas of agreement where it can work with other governments rather than look for fights.

It’s not always apparent, in part because everyone likes to see a fight. One U.S. ambassador to the Holy See described a meeting between a Democratic secretary of state and the Vatican where they spent almost all the time on areas of common interest. As they were walking out the door, the Vatican official said, “You know, of course, that in the press release we will have to mention our disagreement over abortion.”

The media focused on this one sentence of the press release, not knowing that abortion was not even discussed.

John Allen gives his analysis

Mixed messages on Biden reveal not just competing camps, but divided hearts

Cupich also appeared to issue a warning that he’s not prepared to just let this go, saying the “internal institutional failures involved must be addressed.”

So, today we have three groups, not just two, at odds within the Catholic power structure: The Vatican, the leadership of the USCCB, and an increasingly influential cluster of bishops who dissent from that leadership.

America gives a fine summary of various bishop's statements on this issue

In rare rebuke, Cardinal Cupich criticizes USCCB president’s letter to President Biden

The Common Good, and the homily given at the president's Inauguration-day mass

 Jack mentions below that President Biden and his wife began the day of his inauguration by attending mass.  As I commented under Jack's post, I think that is wonderful.  America Magazine reports that, making the gesture even more blessed, the president-elect invited his running mate and her husband, and Congressional leaders from both parties, and all attended.  

The celebrant was Rev. Kevin O'Brien, SJ, the president of Santa Clara University.  The Pray Tell blog has reprinted the text of Fr. O'Brien's homily, which was brief, tightly written and well-suited to the occasion.  I am going to make a comment about it.  

Some Inauguration Thoughts

 

I am glad Biden did the Covid-19 Memorial Event on Tuesday evening.  In case you did not get to see it here is the 20 minute video:

Joe Biden participates in national COVID-19 memorial | USA TODAY

While I understand everyone's desire to get past the virus and resume 'normal life,' I have great fears that we could come through this experience with a much greater toleration for deaths of seniors, the sick and minorities all in the name of "keeping the economy going."  I am also concerned that our fear for shutting down the economy has led to such a proliferation of virus mutations that more rapidly spreading and more vaccine resistant strains may continue to raise the death total for many months to come. 

The ceremony was very simple, not a lot of words, and Biden left most of the message to be given by Cardinal Gregory and the women, i.e. the traditional mourners in society, even though he does a good job as a mourner. Unfortunately he will probably have many opportunities to be mourner in chief during the next four years 

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I was very disappointed that the Mass was not televised. American Catholic should be proud of Biden's Catholicism as well as that of many political leaders in state government, the legislative branch, and the judiciary. While some  years back people tended to think of religion as something private separate from politics, I think we are beyond that and have to recognize religion as important to all aspects of life, e.g. health care as well as politics.

Why We Are All Nuns: Catholic Pride; Universal Call to Holiness  provides an explanation for my concept of Catholic Pride which is not the same as Catholic identity. When many people including non-Catholics and non practicing Catholics came to the defense of the Nuns who were criticized by the Vatican with the phrase "We are all nuns), they were expressing pride at the many accomplishments of Catholicism (e.g. education, health care, social services). It is possible to have Jewish pride without being Jewish, and American pride without being American. Or as Kennedy said "I am a Beliner."

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The most enjoyable part of the inauguration itself was to watch Obama afterwards as he worked the crowd. Today must surely seem to him, as well as to many of us, like the end of a four  year long nightmare, where he suddenly wakes up and finds that his Vice-President has become president and a woman of color has become Vice-President. Sure more like the outcome for his presidency that had once been his dream.

Your thoughts?

 

More on the media and the Capitol attack

 1.  ProPublica reporters have spent many hours wading through the fever-swamp of Parler to put together this collection of videos posted to the social media site by participants in the January 6 storming of the Capitol.  It divides the collection by timeline: videos shot while Trump and other speakers were getting the mob revved up; videos shot outside the Capitol when the assault was underway; videos shot inside the Capitol.  I haven't watched all the footage (it is voluminous), but have sampled it.  The bits I've sampled are riveting.   

January 6 was a work day, so I wasn't able to consume media reports of the attack while it was happening.  I knew, from my wife and kids, that protesters had entered the Capitol, but that was all.  By the time I was able to disengage from my computer and turned on television, late in the afternoon Central Time, much of the action inside apparently was over - or, if it was still ongoing, was not being captured by the reporters and videographers of ABC News.  It's only after the event that the enormity of the attack has become clear - and more so because of these cell phone videos by participants, than because of original, on-the-spot reporting by mainstream news organizations.  Am I the only one who missed the fullness of the story, or has your experience been similar?

2. At National Review,  in a piece entitled "The Right Wing Outlets That Told Trump Fans What They Wanted to Hear", Ryan Mills dives into the Internet archive to illustrate how Newsmax and One America News Network (OANN), two very-right-wing cable news networks which cater to Trump true believers, have propagated the untruths that the election was stolen.  I don't believe the Capitol attack would have happened if these right wing outlets hadn't been churning out propaganda for the previous two months.

Documentary screening: JFK: The Last Speech

Gene Palumbo would like to share this announcement.  It seems the virtual screening is this evening.  I believe Gene himself appears in the film - I fear I am embarrassing him even by mentioning it, but in my experience, it's worth attending to anything Gene says or writes. 

The film, "JFK: The Last Speech," is about the relationship between Kennedy and Robert Frost, and about the talk Kennedy gave at Amherst, at the groundbreaking for the Frost Library, twenty-seven days before he was killed. But the filmmakers had the bright idea of including short profiles of four members of the Class of '64 (we were seniors when Kennedy gave the speech).

To find out more about the film and decide whether you'd want to see it, you can take a look at its website (https://www.jfkthelastspeech.org) and at the following announcement (I confess that I'm not comfortable with some of the language on the website and in the announcement).

Film Screening of JFK: The Last Speech from the Concord Museum

On January 19, 2021 7:00 PM — 8:30 PM (ET)

On the eve of the 2021 presidential inaugural, the Concord Museum is partnering with Mass Humanities on a virtual screening of a new film JFK: The Last Speech, which explores the dramatic relationship between two American icons—John F. Kennedy and Robert Frost.  The documentary chronicles how JFK’s last speech in his home state of Massachusetts at the dedication of the Robert Frost Library at Amherst College on October 26, 1963 inspired a group of Amherst College classmates to lives of service.  Immediately following the film, Concord Museum Director Tom Putnam will moderate a conversation with presidential historian Ellen Fitzpatrick, Amherst College professor Rhonda Cobham-Sander, filmmaker Bestor Cram, and Middlebury Professor and Frost biographer Jay Parini.

Register for the virtual event at: https://concordmuseum.org/events/film-screening-of-jfk-the-last-speech/ 

Pence was in danger

 

This Washington Post Story which I am taking from Microsoft News feed should be free.

How the rioters who stormed the Capitol came dangerously close to Pence

My comments:

The rioters were more angry at Pence than anybody else because he would not throw out the results.

Think of the scenarios that could have happened if they had caught him.

They might have killed him.

They might have harmed him.

They might have taken him as hostage.

The Secret Service might have had to kill a bunch or rioters (wonder what their guidance is if the VP is in eminent danger. I presume in the case of the president it is shoot to disable or kill, don't take chances of just wounding ).

None of this fits into conventional notions of culture war motivations. This would have been about harming the person whom you hoped would have done what you wanted.  More like the Mafia which have hits not only again competitive enemies but also against anyone who fails to support the Don or who betrays him.

On Right Wing Catholic Media

 Gene Palumbo would like to call our attention to two articles on the Commonweal site by Paul Moses dealing with the role that right wing Catholic media has played.  As always, Paul Moses has some well thought out commentary.  I will link both articles, which are worth reading in their entirety; and will post some excerpts after the break. 

The first article, from January 7, is  The One Missing Fact | Commonweal Magazine. It deals with how EWTN misreported the letter by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano calling for the resignation of Pope Frances over the allegations against Theodore McCarrick. From the article:

New Liturgy of Hours YouTube Site

A new YouTube site is putting out a very attractive edition of what appears to be the official Roman Rite version of the Liturgy of the Hours for (Lauds) Morning Prayer and (Vespers) Evening Prayer.

It is done with very simple chant, close to a reciting note. I am not sure if it is done by more than one person. Some sites have become adept at having one person duplicate their voice. Each hour takes about sixteen minutes to do; not much different from sites that simply recite the Office. 

From the history, it looks like the site started during Advent, took a break during Christmas, and has now resumed in Ordinary Time. There is no indication of who is doing this or any affiliations. Probably an individual or small group that needs a lot of encouragement. 

So I suggest trying the site, that will give them some views.  If you like the site, do what I did, click the subscribe button. It does not cost you anything, just means you can easily see the newest videos by clicking on the subscriptions section of  your YouTube home page. Bring this to the attention of other people who might like the site.  

Liturgy of the Hours

NCR's tribute to Tom

Update 1/14/2021 8:51 am CST: Thanks to Katherine for pointing us to this more recent photo of Tom from the Palm Beach Post obituary.  The obit is worth reading for some great details about Tom.

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 H/T to Anne for calling attention to this fine piece in the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) in memory of Tom, who was an editor and columnist at the national Catholic newspaper for many years.

https://www.ncronline.org/news/media/tom-blackburn-former-ncr-journalist-dies-86

The Private Sector Pushes Back; or, How the Sausage Actually Gets Made

There are too many important story lines coming out of last week's riot at the Capitol Building for me to keep up with, everything from the sheer brutality and danger of what went on during the incident (it was much, much worse than what ABC News showed our household while it was going on), to what President Trump was doing while the mayhem was taking place (apparently, watching television news coverage, getting pumped up by the anarchy on his behalf, and declining to take the many phone calls from officials imploring him to direct his followers to stop lest things get even more out of hand), to the on-going investigations and arrests to those who took part, to impeachment proceedings in the House and the question of when the Senate might take it up, to Trump's rift and then make-up session with his vice-president, to reported plans for the anarchists to attack state capitals and disrupt the presidential inauguration on January 20th.  And then there are the wider political implications, especially what this all means for the future of the GOP (hint: not bright).

Among the outcomes of last week's attack is a change of tune by corporate supporters of Republican candidates. 

Plough Sunday (Monday)

 I was surprised yesterday to find out it was Plough Sunday in the Anglican Church. 

At about 11 minutes into Morning Prayer Dean Robert explained what it is about:

Morning Prayer – Sunday, 10th January 2021 | Canterbury Cathedral

I found this brief less than ten minutes scholarly explanation

Sacred Calendars; Plough Sunday with Alison Milbank

And here are some interesting examples

Plough Sunday Service from Grouville Parish Church

Virtual choir; 45 min 

Another Led by Rev Lindsay Yates, the service comes from Octagon Parish

32 min

Carlton and Drax church Church of England

23:56

Torridge Team Churches 10th January 2020

49:04 

While today Monday was the traditional day to go back to farm work after the Christmas holidays, it is also the time when I am beginning to set up my growing space for seedlings downstairs.

I have invested in a new LED grow light, so I really need a blessing for grow lights.

And, of course a blessing for seeds. There is some of that here in these services, although I think the main blessing of seedlings came during the rogation days in the spring.

Now the Theophany Blessing does provide water for the seeds.

The New Moon is tomorrow so I will plant some seeds in the next week or two since is was my Lithuanian grandmothers custom to plant seeds during the waxing Moon.  It is rather early but the LED grown light is 80 watts  (whereas my present one is 40Watts) and they advise you to place it 12 or more inches above the plants. So I am going to  start seeds now to  see what adjustments I have to make next month when the real seed planting will begin. Also to decide whether I want to replace all three grow lights. 

Francis opens formal ministries of lector and acolyte to women UPDATE

 

Pope Francis: Ministries of lector and acolyte to be open to women

Pope Francis changes the Code of Canon Law to institutionalize what is already allowed in practice: the access of lay women to the service of the Word and the Altar. The Pope explains his decision in a letter to Cardinal Ladaria.

With a Motu proprio released on Monday, Pope Francis established that from now on the ministries of Lector and Acolyte are to be open to women, in a stable and institutionalized form through a specific mandate.

There is nothing new about women proclaiming the Word of God during liturgical celebrations or carrying out a service at the altar as altar servers or as Eucharistic ministers. In many communities throughout the world these practices are already authorized by local bishops.

However, up to this point, this has occurred without a true and proper institutional mandate, as an exception to what Pope St Paul VI had established when, in 1972, even while abolishing the so-called “minor orders”, he decided to maintain that access to these ministries be granted only to men because they were considered to be preparatory to the eventual admission to holy orders.

Now, in the wake of the discernment which has emerged from the last Synods of Bishops, Pope Francis wanted to formalize and institutionalize the presence of women at the altar.

UPDATE: in a accompanying letter Francis makes clear that the Episcopal Conferences has the task of establishing criteria and formation of candidates, and also reminds us the Paul VI allowed conferences to institute others ministries, subject of course to approval by Rome

It will be the task of the Episcopal Conferences to establish adequate criteria for the discernment and preparation of candidates for the ministries of the Lectorate or Acolytate, or other ministries which they deem to be instituted, according to what is already disposed in the Motu Proprio Ministeria quaedam, subject to the approval of the Holy See and according to the needs of evangelisation in their territory.

 

American Cardinals Should Call Upon Trump to Resign

The six Cardinals who actively head American dioceses: Boston (Seán O'Malley), Chicago (Blase Cupich), Galveston-Houston (Daniel DiNardo), Newark (Joseph Tobin), New York (Timothy Dolan), and Washington (Wilton Daniel Gregory) should call upon President Trump to resign in the wake of the assault upon the Congress and the Capital.  They should also urge other religious leaders as well as political, civic and business leaders to join in their call for his resignation.

An orderly peaceful transition of power is essential to our democracy. While legal challenges to votes are an important part of that democratic process, once those were settled at the state level in December, it was clearly time for President and everyone to support the peaceful transition of power.

The states are in charge of voting.  Attempts to overturn the results in the states by appeal to the Supreme Court or to the Congress to overturn the results certified by the state are a threat to our democracy, and our national security. We must have a clear winner in December and not let this up in the air until January.

Furthermore locating the decision making in Washington, D.C., whether by the Supreme Court or by the Congress is an open invitation for supporters of a defeated candidate to rally in Washington, D.C. and thereby enable riotous possibilities upon the part of a minority of individuals as we saw happen on January 6^th.  As long as decision making remains at the state level, such rallies and their riotous possibilities will have far less consequences and be far easier to control.     

While it is unlikely that Trump will resign, a strong national consensus that events of January 6^th should never have occurred and should never occur again, and that also that a president who resists the will of the people once it becomes final in December should have no other alternative than to resign. This consensus is an important part of our healing.   

Care should be taken to not confuse this narrow but very important issue with broader issues such as impeachment, or the evaluation of Trump and the Trump presidency.  Congress may well impeach the President in order to levy the penalty of not being able to hold office again. Certainly everyone should evaluate how the Trump presidency has ended this way. There will be time for all that in the coming weeks or months. We should begin (but not necessarily end) with the call for Trump’s immediate resignation.

The American Cardinals are the perfect group to take this initiative. As Cardinals they represent not only the American Catholic Church but also as personal advisors to the Pope they hold a unique responsibility to the Universal Church and the world.  They far better than most bishops and most Americans are in a position to understand the events of January 6^th in global terms.  

How to get the American Cardinals to take this initiative?  I suggest that Commonweal, as the historic lay Catholic voice at the intersection of politics, culture, and religion call upon the Cardinals to do so. This will relieve them of the burden of being self appointed, and people asking why they are doing this. 

I am sure it would give great joy to Francis if the American Cardinals united to do this, especially at the initiative of a lay voice continuing the tradition of Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton

ADDENDUM

Rocco's Tweet: this morning

Note to Bench: despite your intent, this Church’s priority for the unborn has become instrumentalized, leading some Catholics to support suborning election fraud & a terrorist attack on our Capitol.

Before things get any worse, you have a unique mandate to begin to fix it.

Twitter said it feared Trump’s most recent tweets were being interpreted as supporting the rioters and that plans for future armed protests had already been proliferating both on and off the platform, including a proposed attack on the U.S. Capitol and state capitol buildings on Jan. 17.

What Catholics and Other Christians Need to Do

They need to make a searching and fearless moral inventory of themselves, to paraphrase from the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Under the category of, how we got to this place, are a couple of good articles shared by Jim McCrea in his email thread. The first is from the NCR site, entitled Catholics need to confess their complicity in the failed coup.

Did yesterday constitute sedition?

 

Legal experts say Capitol mob’s actions fit the definition of sedition

If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

The part in bold pretty much describes what took place yesterday.   No it was not just a protest that got out of control. It pretty much aimed to shut down the constitutional processes of the United States, and in the process attempted by force to size, take and possess the Capital building,

It does not matter how just or unjust where their concerns, or whether they were exercising free speech.

Video from yesterday's mayhem - Updates

Update 1/8/2020 3:53 pm CST: an AP article from about an hour ago reports that Democrats in the House will introduce articles of impeachment on Monday, with a vote to take place as early as Wednesday.  It's unclear what the level of Republican support in the Senate will be.  Concurrently, Democratic Congressional leadership continues to urge Vice President Pence and the president's cabinet to sideline the president via the 25th Amendment.  Personally, I don't think that's feasible.  The same AP article reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has spoken with the Joint Chiefs of Staff about preventing the president from taking even-more-unthinkable actions during his remaining days in office, with the nuclear codes(!)

My thoughts on the 25th-amendment remedy are: (1) it would be entirely fitting to force Republicans to take primary responsibility for cleaning up the mess their party leader created, with their complicity; but (2) the remedy doesn't seem applicable, because the president is not unable to discharge his presidential duties.  He is unwilling, but not unable.  (3) It doesn't seem likely that those loyalists in his cabinet who have held on this long (including after yesterday's string of resignations) will now turn on him.  (4) With a diminished number of cabinet officers, and with some of them possibly having the word "Acting" in front of their titles (i.e. never confirmed by the Senate), it's unclear that the remedy would have the appearance of legitimacy, even to those who aren't blindly loyal to the president.  

Update 1/7/2020 1:15 pm CST: Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) has been one of the very few Republican elected officials willing to speak up against President Trump in the wake of November's election.  After yesterday's debacle, he is now calling for an invocation of the 25th amendment.  "The president caused this.  The president is unfit.  And the president is unwell."  

https://twitter.com/RepKinzinger/status/1347207878801846276?s=20

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A friend sent me this seven minute Twitter video, consisting of on-the-ground video footage, apparently taken by iTV.  Pretty compelling.  One warning: it includes footage from a moment when someone was shot inside the Capitol - presumably the woman who died of a gunshot wound.

https://twitter.com/swinshi/status/1347171609086464002?s=20      

I wasn't able to watch much live coverage yesterday - by the time I could pull myself away from work, most of the activities had ceased.  What news coverage I saw yesterday late afternoon and evening was from a great distance away, outside the Capitol.  This video is different - the footage is captured from the midst of the mayhem.  

My sense of the mob is that they look just like the men (seems it was nearly all men) whom I would see at, say, a major league baseball game or an NHL hockey game.  I don't know whether alcohol was fueling yesterday's events, but this video gives me that "feel".   

The Last 24 Hours Updated

This morning I looked in vain for someone at the NYT or elsewhere to bring everything together.  So this is my attempt to put things together to begin a discussion.

The Transition of Institutional Power

1. The real transition of institutional power occurred  yesterday morning when it became clear the Democrats will have control of the House, Senate, and Presidency.

a. That control is fragile and could easily be undone in both the House and Senate in 2022. On the other hand, if the Democrats are successful in exercising power, they could gain substantial control by solid wins in 2022.

b. In both houses of congress power could gravitate to the moderates in both parties, and if they are successful, being a moderate in either party could be the place to be in the 2022 elections. Wouldn't it be great if primaries where about electing the most likely to succeed moderate!

c. The presidency of Joe Biden the moderate finally makes sense. He could be the catalyst to a return to moderation and bi-partisanship in both parties. As long as the Republicans held the Senate, a Biden presidency meant no progress was likely and no vision of progress would be formed for 2022.

The Attempted Coup

2. The attempted coup by Trump failed for many reasons.

a) Most importantly, there were not enough Trump supporters on the Mall. This was not a million man (or woman) march as have taken place in the past. Seems to me they numbered in the low thousands, not tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands.

b) Despite all the social media organization, the coup failed because the Virus made it impossible to gather tens, and hundreds of thousands let alone a million in D.C. or anywhere around the country.  As I have maintained for quite awhile, the Virus defeated Trump. Without it, I doubt the Democrats would have won the presidency.  Without the Virus, Trump could have spent the time since November going around the country rallying his supporters to come to the Mall in hundreds of thousands if not millions to overturn the election. He might have succeeded. Last night might have turned out very different if the Capital had been surrounded by hundreds of thousands of Trump's fans.

c) The symbolic trashing of the Capital will forever tarnish the Trump movement. I watched the Senate proceedings last night, and it was very clear that this was not only the institutional Waterloo of the Trump movement , it was also the symbolic Waterloo of the Trump movement.  Yes,  for many Trump supporters Washington is the symbol of all that is wrong with America, but there is still strong support across America for all the symbols of America, the Capital building, the Mall, etc. When you trash these, there isn’t anything to appeal to except either the Trump flag, or the Confederate flag.

The Future

3. The Biden vision of progress through moderation has about six to twelve months to achieve ascendency. As the virus recedes progress forward must become clear before Trump and/or the Republican Right can regroup to stage rallies across the nation. The clock is ticking, we are not home free yet.  Progress mush be made by 2022.

Update

Republicans Meet Their Monster

The politicians who have enabled Trump did not expect the president’s followers to ever break through the glass windows of the Capitol and ascend the Senate dais.

The above brief article in the Atlantic provides a fine interpretation along with on site reporting and interviews with the people at the rally and subsequent riot.

Message from the Dean - Wednesday, 6th January 2021 | Canterbury Cathedral

The above is a fine message of support for Americans. It was amplified at the beginning of Morning Prayer today.

Morning Prayer – Thursday, 7th January 2021 | Canterbury Cathedral

 

Feast of Theophany: The Baptism of Jesus

Today, January 6th, is celebrated as the Feast of Theophany by Byzantine and Orthodox Christians in the United States that use the Gregorian calendar. In much of the rest of the world these Eastern Christians still use the Julian Calendar; they will be celebrating Christmas on January 7th and will not celebrate Theophany until January 19th.   They will not be celebrating the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord (our Candlemas of February 2nd) until February 15th  Of course Ash Wednesday is on February 17th this year in the West.. Orthodox Lent this  year begins on Monday March 15th because their Easter is not celebrated until May 2nd!!!  I like the fact that Orthodox around the world are still celebrating the Christmas season for much of January, and I like to keep the pre-Vatican II extension of the Christmas season until February 2nd and their naming the Sundays as (after Epiphany) rather than Ordinary Time.

THEOPHANY

In the Byzantine Tradition (both Catholic and Orthodox) this is the celebration of the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus. It was in the Early Christianity one of primary days (along with Easter and Pentecost) for administering Baptism. It is not simply an historical event but one of great sacramental significance. It is accompanied by a Vigil that presents more than a dozen readings focused upon Baptism. At the end of the vigil the Great Blessing of Water takes place. Everything in the church is blessed with holy water and people take home blessed water to use in various ways. In many places after the Divine Liturgy today, the priest (or bishop) will go out to the nearest body of water (ocean, lake, and river) and bless its waters. Often some of the worshipers will swim in the water. 

Full text of the Litany and Blessing proceeded by only 3 of the twelve readings

The Great Blessing of Water in a parish church 

Great Water Blessing at the Sunset Lake, AB  How Canada does it outdoors with a hole in the ice.

GOSPEL OF MARK 

Tom has gone to heaven - Updated

Update Jan 5, 2021, 8:03 am CST: Thanks to Katherine for providing this URL which gathers together all of Tom's NewGathering posts.

Update Jan 4, 2021, 9:19 am CST: Many thanks to Rita for pointing us in the comments below to this photo of Tom, which I've taken the liberty of snipping out of a group photo.  I am glad that he happened to be standing near a typewriter and a clock, two implements which I am given to understand loomed large in the life of a newspaper reporter of that era.

 Further thanks to Rita for locating Tom's obituary:  https://www.tillmanfuneralhome.com/obituary/tom-blackburn  I am not certain how long the funeral home companies keep this content available online, so in some further liberty-taking, I am going to copy and paste it at the bottom of the post, below the break.

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Gene Palumbo called me today to give me a heads-up that Jim McCrea had sent out the following announcement on his email list, under the headline "Tom Blackburn 1934-2021, RIP":

Our apologies if this is the first you are hearing of Tom's passing.  He expired shortly after midnight on Saturday, January 2, 2021 due to complications from Covid-19.  We are told he died peacefully and without pain.  We cannot guarantee a response to email to this address.  Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

A few minutes ago, I received the same message directly from Tom's email address.  I assume a family member is notifying people with whom Tom corresponded.  I've asked for a link to an obituary; if one is forthcoming, I'll share the URL.

The Best Virtual Musical Performance of 2020?

 

Dean Robert of Canterbury appended this to Morning Prayer this morning"

#YoCanto – Aleluya de G.F.Händel

1,644,671 views • posted on Dec 20, 2020 

The website is all in Spanish, which I do not comprehend.  Perhaps others can enlighten me about the group that did this.

May God Bless Us In His Mercy

 Happy New Year, everyone!

The responsorial Psalm for today is one I have always liked, Psalm 67. "It starts out, May God have pity on us and bless us; may he let his face shine upon us."  A good thought for 2021.

Though January 1st is usually a holy day of obligation, the Solemnity of Mary, the mother of God; most people just think of it as New Year's Day. And the "day of obligation" is not always taken very seriously; the Masses are often sparsely attended. So I was surprised when I attended the Mass last evening to find a full house, at least as defined by Covid restrictions. You know you're getting too used to distancing when you feel a little claustrophobic and freaked out by a building less than half full, where everyone is wearing masks. It was more people than had attended any of the Christmas Masses, indeed more than I had seen at any time since the pandemic restrictions. If I hadn't been blocked by a pillar on one side of the pew, and someone to crawl over on the other side, I would have left. We are still under a dispensation from obligation. The crowd was additionally surprising given that there were still seven inches of snow on the ground from Tuesday, and the roads were slick. Most people weren't dressed as though they were headed to a party afterwards. I think we all just felt a need to be there, and pray that 2021 would be a better year in all ways.