{"id":96552,"date":"2016-03-26T07:56:31","date_gmt":"2016-03-26T11:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aleteia.org\/?post_type=post&p=96552"},"modified":"2016-03-26T07:56:31","modified_gmt":"2016-03-26T11:56:31","slug":"to-remind-us-who-our-neighbors-are-whom-we-are-called-to-serve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2016\/03\/to-remind-us-who-our-neighbors-are-whom-we-are-called-to-serve\/","title":{"rendered":"“To Remind Us Who Our Neighbors Are, Whom We Are Called to Serve”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

From The Washington Post:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

In her 50th Easter season\u00a0as a nun, Sister Antonia Sanchez participated in something new.<\/p>\n

For the past 49 years, since she joined the order of Religious Mary Immaculate at age 16, Sanchez has watched priests wash the feet of men on Holy Thursday. This week, Sanchez was before\u00a0the altar herself at the nation\u2019s preeminent Catholic shrine. She was the one removing her shoes and socks. And then the pope\u2019s representative to America washed her feet.<\/p>\n

This was the first Easter since Pope Francis decreed in January that priests can include women in the foot-washing ritual, one of the most moving rites\u00a0of the holiest week on the church\u2019s calendar. The change had already happened in some churches, but since Francis made it official, it is now spreading worldwide.<\/p>\n

Sanchez has been waiting for this for half a century. \u201cI said, \u2018Maybe sometime,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThis is the first time the pope said this opportunity has to be for ladies too. In this moment, I feel I\u2019m privileged.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigan\u00f2, who is the Vatican\u2019s ambassador to the United States, spoke about the rite in his homily. \u201cBy cleansing their feet, he demonstrated his desire to cleanse their souls of sin,\u201d he said. \u201cOnly God stooping down to us can lift us up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026The Rev. Michael J. Flynn, the secretariat of divine worship at the USCCB, said his organization\u00a0does not track how many of the tens of thousands of parishes in the U.S. wash men\u2019s or women\u2019s feet, or include foot-washing in their Holy Thursday observance.<\/p>\n

But he\u00a0said that nearly every parish does choose\u00a0to perform the well-liked rite, and the new guidelines will likely spur holdouts to start including women if they did not before.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the understandable publicity over this recent change, it seems to me that there will be a certain level of expectation in most areas that both women and men will be included in the Washing of the Feet,\u201d Flynn wrote in an email. \u201cLike any change in our rituals, this alteration invites us to reexamine\u00a0why<\/em> we do it to begin with\u2026.\u00a0Perhaps part of Pope Francis\u2019s motivation for altering the ritual is to remind us exactly who our neighbors are, whom we are called to serve.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There\u2019s much more. Read it all.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo: Vatican Radio \/ ANSA<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From The Washington Post:\u00a0 In her 50th Easter season\u00a0as a nun, Sister Antonia Sanchez participated in something new. For the past 49 years, since she joined the order of Religious Mary Immaculate at age 16, Sanchez has watched priests wash the feet of men on Holy Thursday. This week, Sanchez was before\u00a0the altar herself at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":96553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"To Remind Us Who Our Neighbors Are, Whom We Are Called to Serve"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From The Washington Post:\u00a0 In her 50th Easter season\u00a0as a nun, Sister Antonia Sanchez participated in something new. 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