Rowan Williams and St. Teresa of Avila

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, gave a talk at Boston College, this morning.  It was on St. Teresa of Avila.  His talk centered on her spirituality.

St. Teresa was a mystic and a theologian in the sixteenth century.  This was unusual for the times.  She was declared a doctor of the church in 1970.  She is famous for founding the Discalced Carmelites.

Her spirituality includes community.  Even though she was a contemplative nun she focused on other people.  One has to be practical besides being mystical.  One's prayer life should foster the care of others.

Spiritual intimacy with God occurs in and through living one's life in genuine concern for the welfare of others.  As a Lay Dominican, I would put it as my contemplation leading to action.  My prayer life helps my apostolate.  This makes perfect sense to me.  Before Saint Dominic founded the friars, 800 years ago, the first thing he did was found a monastery of contemplative nuns.  Prayer came first.  Then comes action.

Catholic Wiccan -- NOT!

"No, you can't be both."  One of the candidates in RCIA asked me if he could be a Catholic Wiccan.  The answer is "absolutely not!"  You can't even compare the two.  I think I'll make him a chart.

                      Wiccan                                                                                     Catholic
founded by Gerald Gardiner in the twentieth century-/-founded by Jesus Christ 2015 years ago
Human invention-/-                                                         divine revelation
worship creation and acknowledge a creator-/-  worship the Creator & are amazed by His creation
perhaps a revival of a Druid religion-/-       Jesus is a real historical figure
attracted to a belief system-/-                      in love with Jesus Christ
choose their beliefs -/-                             positive in their faith
free to change their beliefs to suit their lives -/- Catholics change their lives to suit their beliefs
to be Wiccan is the object of attention -/-  Catholics make God the center of attention
lives life on their own terms -/-           live by God's terms (commandments)
promises control over their environment -/-  God is in control
believe in magic*   -/-                                   believe in prayer*

*  Magic and prayer may seem alike, but Viva la difference!  The difference is that we ask God to hear our prayers. We pray for God's will in our lives and trust Him to bring good out of evil.  A wiccan prays for power to bring about his own will.

MEK drawing

Well!  I think this chart will bring about a good discussion.




             

Omnipotence, Freedom, and Evil

There's no end to this discussion.  In our Lay Dominican Study Group, my "cloistered brothers" and I were discussing the age old dilemma of how an  omnipotent God could allow evil if He's omnipotent.  We had no absolute definite answer.  In fact we had more questions than answers.

One thing for sure in this particular study group--they know evil.  I also, as all humans, know evil.  However, they are stigmatized by society's definition of evil.  But for our intents, we defined evil as turning from God, turning away from Love.  The further away from God's love--the more evil.

That's about all we agreed on.  We didn't agree on God's omnipotence.  He may be omnipotent but doesn't choose to control all--not that He couldn't--He just chooses not to.  Then is He omnipotent?  Would a good God do that?

There must be nothing God is not able to do.  Then do away with evil.

Does our freedom to choose make us independent of God?  But God knows all, so He knows what we will choose.  Isn't that predestination?  If we are predestined to choose what we choose, then isn't that a contradiction of free will?

What about evil being part of God's plan and we see it as "evil" but it's really not?  God's goodness is beyond our experience, so maybe our understanding of evil isn't complete, either.

We never finished the discussion.  This post will continue, as the discussion continues, next month, at our Lay Dominican Study Group. 

Bible Trivia

Finally, I won.  I mean my team won.  We blew everyone away.  There were seven of us but Howard and I knew just about all the answers.  My "cloistered brothers" and I were playing Bible Trivia.  There were four teams and we were the best.

What surprised me was that I knew just about everything I was asked.  I really didn't have to refer to my team, but I did to keep them involved.  Last year when we played I hardly knew anything.  I wonder why the difference.  I am involved in two Bible studies.  One is faith sharing and the other is a real Bible course.  That has to be the reason.

Whatever, thanks be to God.

Come As You Are Party

Many people think they should dress up for Mass.  Some even want women to have their hair covered.   I can see why when I see people come to Mass dressed for the beach.  However, more often, I think the way people dress should be the way they usually dress.  Let me explain.

When I came out of the side door from Sunday Mass this morning, I notice a group of bicycles.  I'd say between 5-10 bikes were parked on the lawn.  I thought it rather nice that a family, or a bike club, stopped at Mass, on the way to their bike excursion.  Mass was crowded so I didn't notice any people wearing bike gear, but I'm sure that if they bicycled to church, the women weren't wearing dresses, high heels, and mantillas, nor the men wearing business suits.

Believe me or not, this led me to a meditation.  Does God care how we dress to worship Him?

It depends.  If church is a special occasion for you, then yes, dress for God.  This is special.

However, if church is something you do every day, even two or three times a day, then going to church isn't a special occasion; it's more like "home."  Before I retired, I went to daily Mass, stopped back into church to pray on my lunch hour, then more often than not, had to go back to church, at night, for prayer group, or Bible study, or book club, or women's club, etc.  You get the idea?

I think it's nice to see a cop at church, or any uniform at Mass.  It shows that this man or woman thinks going to Mass before work, is an important way to start their day.  I think the same for kids in sports' uniforms.

Not to mention the poor homeless people that frequent our Masses.  I don't want them ever to feel unwanted because they aren't dressed properly.

So when I think of it.  Everyone is welcome to Mass.  Our church is universal and that means everyone is welcome.  Come as you are.

One of my favorite Masses is St. Rocco's Mass.  My parish puts on an Italian Festa every year.  Father celebrates a very late Mass on Saturday for the workers.  It's after the fair closes on Saturday, like 10:00 PM.  We workers all go dressed in our work clothes.   When I look around I see people wearing aprons, security uniforms, kids with face paint on, cops, clowns, and all of us tired, sweaty, and devout.  It reminds me of the kind of people Jesus attracted.  The Catholic Church is composed of all, not just the "dressed up."

Bowling

The thunder storm finally broke.  It had been threatening for hours.  “Well, we can use the rain, that’s for sure.”

Ma was in the kitchen doing the dishes.  She was talking to me but I was busy shutting windows and wiping wet windowsills. 

When I finally finished and went into the kitchen I was surprised to see Ma crying.

“What’s the matter?”

“Don’t pay any attention to me.  I’m just being an old fool.”

“C’mon, what happened?”

“I was reminiscing about when you were little and afraid of the thunder and we told you it was the angels bowling.  Do you remember that?”

“I certainly do.  And I also remember that I didn’t know what bowling was but I knew if angels were involved, it was OK.”

The conversation ended right then and there because the rain turned to hail and was pelting out a rhythm on the metal deck furniture.  “Well Ma, what are the angels doing now?”

“Playing marbles.”

“Throwing away moth balls.”

“Testing percussion instruments.”

“Playing with the kittens.”

“Playing with the kittens?”

“You know like you tease Tabby with the catnip ball.”

“Oh.”

“You want to go bowling?”  We both went out the door smiling.

Society's Lepers

You'll have to forgive my missing a few postings, here and there.  I'm kind of in "vacation mode;" although I'm not on vacation. I guess it's the hot weather; that's as good an excuse as any.

OK.  I'm lazy.

But I've been thinking of what to post ever since Monday's Sunday Mass.  See my "cloistered brothers" can't get a priest on Sunday.  Hence, their Sunday Mass is Monday.  And I am blessed to attend two Sunday Masses.

Father Jack Sullivan

7:30 AM Mass on Sunday, the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time at my parish, found me reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians. Not many were awake enough to hear me tell them to open their wallets and give.  And they didn't even wake up to listen to Father Jack  tell them about Jarius' daughter coming back from the dead.  So it's a good thing he skipped over the part about the woman with the hemorrhage.  That story didn't fit into his excellent homily.

Our God is not God of the dead.  He created us to live forever.  Don't forget that fact.  This life is temporary.

Although, I don't think there's a woman alive who doesn't think of the hemorrhaging woman, once a month.  So about half of the population (women) know this story.

Msgr. Peter Conley

And it's exactly this story, that Msgr. Conley focused on, in his homily.  You see, back in the day (Jesus' time), blood meant disgustingly unclean.  When a woman was menstruating, she kept herself separate from the rest of society because she was dirty.  And this poor woman was bleeding for twelve years!  Think suffering, emotionally distraught from isolation and rejection.  No wonder the poor woman snuck up on Jesus to touch Him.  If people knew, they would have pushed her out of the crowd.  She probably thought Jesus was going to reject her also.

Isn't this exactly how my "cloistered brothers" feel?  They, like the hemorrhaging woman are considered the "lepers" in society--rejected and isolated from society.  Msgr. Conley hit a home run with this homily.  I as a female identified, and my "cloistered brothers" as inmates in a prison, identified.

But what does Jesus tell this "leper" from society?  "Your faith has saved you."

Thank you, Jesus.