Repentance is The Ticket

Today is Ash Wednesday, and this morning I read a letter to the Corinthians by Saint Clement.  He quotes Ezekiel 33: 10-20.  This particular part offers much hope to my "cloistered brothers."

As for you, son of man, speak to the house of Israel: You people say, "Our crimes and our sins weigh us down, we are rotting away because of them. How can we survive?  Answer them: As I live--oracle of the Lord God--I swear I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! 

Short Shrift = The Bum's Rush

Last night, I began my Lenten reading.  It was a poem by Seamus Heaney, "Station Island XI".  I'm reading an anthology of Lenten poetry compiled by Malcolm Guite in The Word in the Wilderness, A Poem A Day for Lent and Easter.  Because I'm too dumb to get all of Heaney's imagery, I really appreciate Malcolm Guite's commentary.

This poem refers to Shrove Tuesday, which is the day before Ash Wednesday.  Shrove is an old English word derived from "shrove" or "shrift", meaning to hear someone's confession.  So you would say after confession, "I've been shriven."  Or going to confession, "shrive me Father."

Have you heard the expression, "He gave me short shrift."  Probably not if you are young.  But it's an expression meaning that someone didn't give you much time, or thought, or consideration. IOW, he gave you the bum's rush.  The following quote from Catholic Culture is clear.

Actually, the English term provides the best meaning for this period. "To shrive" meant to hear confessions. In the Anglo-Saxon "Ecclesiastical Institutes," recorded by Theodulphus and translated by Abbot Aelfric about AD 1000, Shrovetide was described as follows: "In the week immediately before Lent everyone shall go to his confessor and confess his deeds and the confessor shall so shrive him as he then may hear by his deeds what he is to do in the way of penance." 

Malcolm Guite says that priests were given the duty of hearing prisoners' confessions who were going to be executed.  If they failed to do this properly, the complaint was made that he gave short shrift. 

Mmmm.  Absolution is absolution.  Why give spiritual direction to someone who is going to die in the next minute?

But, I get the point.  I don't want to give short shrift to the time-honored expression, short shrift.

Give and Take

This morning I was listening to someone's list of what to give up for Lent and I realized that I was giving up only one thing.  I'm giving up cream and sugar in my coffee. It's a real sacrifice.  I hate doing this.  I've been doing it every Lent for over ten years and I still hate it.  Although I don't hate it as much as when I first started it because I can drink black coffee and keep it down without vomiting. But I certainly count the days until Sunday, where I can drink my regular coffee. I savor that coffee. 

Adding is more than subtracting.  I'm reading three spiritual books to deepen my spiritual level.  Two I chose and one that kept calling my name.

I'm restarting my monthly confessions on the 13th of every month.  I'm going to Stations of the Cross on Fridays.  And finally, I'm going to pray for people who I find difficult, every day during Lent.

The Worst Has Happened

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate tells the story of every parent's nightmare.  Six children are stolen from their parents.   The oldest was twelve years old and babysitting while the father brought their mother to the hospital to have twins.    Some people swooped down and kidnapped all the kids.  And the parents in the hospital were told that their twins were born dead when they weren't.

The frantic parents didn't know where to begin to look for their children.  The mother died soon after from an infection she probably picked up at the hospital.  The father took to drinking and drank himself to death.

All the children were brought to the Tennessee Children's Home Society Orphanage.  The youngest was adopted immediately.  Another who was a feisty handful disappeared one day.  I got the impression that she was killed because she was too much trouble. The others were eventually adopted.

As adults, detectives were hired and four of the girls found each other.  But it's only a story, right?  Yes, it is but there was such a place as the Tennessee Children's Home Society Orphanage and terrible things happened there, including kidnapping children.  Lisa Wingate is such a good writer that this story will haunt you for a long time. 

The characters do get confusing, but I was reading so fast to see what would become of the children that it was probably my own fault for skimming.  It is a good read.

Capiche?

CNS

"When you think of the fact that there were 200 bishops there representing over 180 bishops’ conferences, plus several different bishops or patriarchs in charge of different Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church, you realize this was the leadership of over 1 billion Catholics in the world coming together to reflect and pray about this issue, which in countries like the United States we have grappled with for years. However, for many bishops, it was the first time that they were being exposed in a serious way to this issue."

IMHO, this is the important message from the Vatican's Summit on the protection of minors in the church.

First and foremost was the task to introduce the subject to everyone because we in the USA think we are everyone.  We are not, in fact, this was the first time the issue was presented as something that affects and will affect all.  I hope the bishops understood.

Passing as the First African/American Ordained Priest

Father Augustine Tolton is on the path to sainthood.  The Pilot has an article on this saintly priest.  He is touted as the first African/American priest.  And technically, as we know from reading, Passing for White by James O'Toole, Tolton is not.  James Healy was.  James, Sherwood, and Patrick Healy were African/American priests.  But as the book Passing for White relates, the Healy children did not identify themselves as African/American, but rather as Irish/American.  They passed for white.

The Healys lived in the same era as Father Tolton.  I wonder what they thought of him.  Did they ever cross paths? 

My Lenten Reads

I'm looking forward to Lent this year because I have some good books I want to read.

(1)  The Word in the Wilderness, A Poem A Day for Lent and Easter by Malcolm Guite.  I discovered Malcolm Guite at the end of Advent.  I like his poetry.  He's an Anglican priest and writes so much that I can relate to and understand. 

(2) Lift Up Your Heart by Fulton J. Sheen, is a recommendation from a friend.

It's advice on how to live a spiritually complete life.

(3)  This one I never wanted to read, The Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Lisieux.  It was written a long time, ago.  Who wants to read stuff that old?  Not I.
     But St. Therese kept being mentioned in the teaching materials I'm using to teach Lectio Divina.  She was everywhere.  Since I wasn't paying attention, the Holy Spirit woke me up one night.  I couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up and turned on the television.  It was an hour-long show promoting Therese's The Story of a Soul.  Some of the program was about Therese, but what touched me were the individual stories of different people, from different walks of life, who had their lives altered after reading The Story of a Soul.
     "OK, Lord, I can take a hint."
    I thought I already had a copy somewhere on my bookshelves.  When I quickly perused the book- shelf, it practically leaped out at me.  A brand new book, St. Therese of Lisieux Story of a Soul, translation by John Clarke, O.C.D., prepared by Marc Foley, O.C.D.