At the cross her station keeping,Stood the mournful Mother, weeping,Close to Jesus to the last.Through her heart, His sorrow sharing,All His bitter anguish bearing,Now at length the sword has passed . . .Here it is the last Friday in Lent, and I have not yet participated in one of my favorite devotions, the Stations of the Cross. This pewchair pilgrimage, popularized by Francis of Assisi and his followers as a way of walking in the footsteps of Jesus' Passion without having to make the arduous … [Read more...]

Because March 25 fell on a Sunday this year, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Annunciation today. In England, March 25--Lady Day--was also New Year's Day, right up until 1752 when the Gregorian calendar was adopted. How appropriate to celebrate both the beginning of our salvation and the new beginning of the wheel of the year as spring seedlings were bursting into bloom!I love the iconography of the Annunciation, which is one of the most frequently pictured scriptural events outside of … [Read more...]

Rather than update my already-long post from Wednesday, here's another take on reasons why Catholics leave the Church. The Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey, has released the results of a survey of disaffected Catholics, and the reasons given for leaving--while no surprise--are interesting in the ways in which they overlap, and the ways in which they don't, Rachel Held Evans's list of reasons why evangelical Christians leave their churches and the Catholics Come Home organization's list of reasons … [Read more...]

I'm reasoning about reasons today.A friend, a spiritual director who works with disaffected believers from a number of faith traditions but is herself a Catholic of what I call the John23 generation, posted a Facebook link this morning to a piece by Rachel Held Evans entitled 15 Reasons Why I Left Church. My friend wanted to know whether these reasons resonated with Catholics of our generation. My own impression is that many of the complaints Held Evans shares are truer of the evangelical or … [Read more...]

This past Sunday was Laetare Sunday, the just-past-midpoint of Lent at which we are given a glimpse, through the penitential gloom, of the rosy dawn of joy ahead. The name comes from the old Latin introit for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, from Isaiah: Laetare, Jerusalem, et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam: gaudete cum laetitia, qui in trististia fuistis (Rejoice, O Jerusalem, and come together, all you who love her; rejoice with joy, you who have been in sorrow). In an old tradition newly … [Read more...]

Hail, glorious St PatrickWho fell from the atticAnd broke his bum-baticOn St Patrick's Day!That's the way my Boston Irish(ish) parents used to wake us up on March 17. A little rude, a little pious: the epitome of Boston Irish Catholicism. And even though we lived in Hollywood, and not the traditional Irish strongholds like Boston or New York, a weekday March 17 was worth the waking up. For Catholic school kids in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles--then, as until all too recently, mission territory … [Read more...]

It's 75 degrees and the sun is shining. In Ohio. In March! This morning, I walked out the door to be greeted by the impudent brassy trumpeting of the first lone daffodil, ruffling out from a bulb that hasn't bloomed in years.On a day like this, in spite of rich fodder--somebody wants the UN to order a ban on Dante, because the Commedia is politically incorrect; canonists and comboxers continue to parse who gets Communion; the US bishops have released a new statement on religious freedom--I just … [Read more...]

Dear Mr President,Welcome to Dayton! If you're not already here in town, you and British Prime Minister David Cameron will be here shortly to attend tonight's NCAA First Four game between Mississippi Valley State and Western Kentucky at the University of Dayton Arena. There are so many things about this confluence I love:Dayton. I'm delighted that your visit will bring attention to my adopted hometown, which has suffered mightily in the economic downturn of recent years. We used to have … [Read more...]

This past week, Jews around the world celebrated Purim. A spring festival with roots in ancient fertility myths and crossovers with Christian Mardi Gras carnivals, Purim (which means "lots," or dice, in Hebrew) celebrates the Jewish people's deliverance from genocide in Persia, through the heroic intervention of Queen Esther.In the synagogue, the entire scroll (megillah, in Hebrew) containing the biblical Book of Esther is read aloud on Purim--that's where we get the slang phrase "the whole … [Read more...]

Continuing the subject of the importance of living the truth in love, my friend The Hermit brought to my attention a blog post by Fr Seamus Griesbach, a young parish priest of the Diocese of Portland, Maine. Fr Seamus reflects in this post on the Church and the world that he and his cohort--those he refers to as the JPII Generation--have inherited. Like many of peers, Fr Seamus finds that inheritance nothing to write home about, and--also like many of his peers--he blames my generation for … [Read more...]

Love--as the root and ground of our public discourse, as the only answer to the tyranny of hate--seems to be everywhere this week. I asked if we as a Church could, should dare to love those who disagree with us so genuinely and visibly that we might stop getting in the way of the message we too often speak with pursed lips and arms folded defensively across our hearts. And all around me others are answering, Yes, of course we can, we should. What else is there?Cardinal Dolan, who doesn't know … [Read more...]

If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)I've heard these words from today's second reading four times now this weekend, and I'll hear them again in another couple of hours. I'm visiting parishes throughout the deanery to track how well we're doing rolling out the 2012 archdiocesan appeal, and it means hearing the Liturgy of the Word repeated enough times to hammer through the thickest of heads, like mine.Paul was being rhetorical, but this weekend, in the United States, his … [Read more...]