Ecological Sin — It Makes Sense … and Controversy

Last updated on: January 29, 2020 at 9:14 am By Jack Hartjes

“Ecological sin: Idea of updating catechism sparks debate.” Catholic News Service ran this article as the year was just beginning. Several news organs reproduced it, including National Catholic Reporter in its EarthBeat section. Pope Francis had announced his intention to add a new category of sin to the catechism – ecological sin. It was one of the recommendations of the recently concluded Amazon Synod. Offhand, it seems that there must be such a thing as ecological sin. All sorts of... Read more

Liturgical Wishes, or Things I would Change if I Could: The Tabernacle

Last updated on: April 15, 2023 at 6:02 am By Jack Hartjes

I have just completed in several posts a journey through the Mass, getting help from an imaginaery visitor from space. Imagining this fresh observer helped me see, through her eyes, things that are easy to miss for a Catholic grown perhaps too used to the sights and sounds of typical liturgies. I hope my love for those Sunday gatherings has shown through all of these posts. Now at the end of the journey I want to speak lovingly as I... Read more

“Ite Missa Est” – Go the Mass is … Begun

Last updated on: June 29, 2021 at 3:12 pm By Jack Hartjes

……………………………………………………………………………………………… 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

The Loneliest Woman in the Bible

Last updated on: February 13, 2023 at 9:15 am By Jack Hartjes

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

Baptized into Death – Circumcision wasn’t Radical Enough for Jesus.

Last updated on: February 27, 2023 at 7:38 am By Jack Hartjes

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

Basiliad: Basil of Caesarea, Social Justice, and the World’s First Hospital

Last updated on: January 3, 2020 at 8:58 am By Jack Hartjes

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

Elder Raoni Metuktire, age near 90, Fights for Amazonia, its Indigenous Peoples, and All of Us

Last updated on: February 13, 2023 at 9:22 am By Jack Hartjes

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

The Communion Rite, the Dangerous Work of the Liturgy

Last updated on: April 15, 2023 at 6:15 am By Jack Hartjes

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

COP25 Climate Conference Disappointing; Churches React

Last updated on: December 21, 2019 at 9:34 am By Jack Hartjes

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