……………………………………………………………………………………………… A dis– MISSA –l sends us on MISS –ion to the world. What kind of world IS that? You can best tell what a thing really is by the way it ends: I get that idea from an old saying about life. “Count no man happy until the end is known.” Here I’m applying it to the Mass. (It’s my excuse for writing such a long post on the shortest part of the Mass.) At the end of the... Read more
An article in AARP Magazine has me thinking about loneliness in our lives and lonely people in the Bible’s stories. Nobody can escape loneliness. It’s too near the heart of being human. Jesus was lonely. His closest friends didn’t understand him. In the end they abandoned him. On the cross Jesus didn’t cry from pain, but he did cry. “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” That AARP article tells a lot about the science of loneliness, but... Read more
Some of Jesus’ first followers had trouble with Jesus’ baptism by John. If anything, Jesus should have baptized John. But the very first gospel said John baptized Jesus (Mark 1:9), and from there the Jesus communities had to deal with it. The author of Matthew expresses his misgivings in words he attributes to the Baptist: “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?” Jesus replies, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for... Read more
Basil of Caesarea, well-known as a theologian, anti-Arian apologist, and defender of the Trinitarian theology of Nicaea, has a less known side. You can read about Basil’s theology elsewhere. I want to dwell the “city” with his name, Basiliad, and on his achievements as social justice reformer. This post is in the series “Ordinary Radicals,” heroic men and women described in Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals. Common Prayer (January 2 entry) says this about Basil of Caesarea: Basil... Read more
There probably is no region on earth where human activity has greater impact on my children’s future world than the Amazon. That is why I’ve written on the Vatican’s Summit on the Amazon here, here, and here. It’s also why I’ve taken an interest in Kayapó tribal leader Raoni Metuktire. Raoni, as people call him, has been advocating for the Amazon and indigenous rights since the 1950’s. That was when he started to gain knowledge of the world outside of... Read more
Established in African-American communities on December 31, 1862, Watch Night is a gathering to celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation becoming law. When the clock struck midnight on January 31, 1863, all slaves in the Confederate States were proclaimed free. Since that date … African-Americans have celebrated the good news of freedom in local churches on New Year’s Eve. Like the slaves who first gathered while the Civil War raged on, we proclaim freedom for all captives in Jesus’ name, knowing that... Read more
Communion is the most important part of the Mass. I believe that now, but I didn’t always. In the past I would have given that place to the Consecration. Well, the Consecration is a pretty big deal. What was mere bread and wine becomes, substantially, the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ. A miracle, if you want to call it that, though not the sort that gets around any laws of nature. This change is completely lost on... Read more
Some Americans, including in my town in Southern Minnesota, who are not necessarily climate-change deniers, still say, “Why should we be the ones to make all the sacrifices. Let other countries do their part.” Well, other countries are ahead of us in combating climate change. Meanwhile the United States under Donald Trump will back out of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement. That is the back story of COP25 the meeting of nearly 200 countries in Madrid. Here’s the good... Read more
I wrote the Prayers of the Faithful for the Mass of Resurrection for my son-in-law Carlos Ortega. The Gospel reading was the Beatitudes. That reading and the second petition sat almost right next to each other in the liturgy: Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. (Matthew 5:4) Be praised, O Lord, for all of us gathered here, may we receive the comfort you promised to those who mourn, we pray. It caused me to think about... Read more
I first met Thomas Merton in his early book Seeds of Contemplation. I was a philosophy student in the 1960’s, wondering how such an airy pursuit could matter in a time as troubled as the one I lived in. Merton’s life spanned a lot more trouble than mine had, but he managed to satisfy both my need for peace and my urge to explore the terrain of thought. It didn’t hurt that I found in and behind Seeds echoes of... Read more
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