Now What?

As we finish the book, we are called to recollection of ourselves and out lives in Christ.  How, the author asks us, do we know when we are home?

His answer revolves around one of the expansively Catholic experiences, a birthday party for the Pope.  I had a similar experience when I was fortunate enough to go to the Papal mass in New York City, about a year after being received.  The experiences were similar--the crowds, the security, the sense of exhilaration in everyone.

We too had trouble getting to the venue and had to walk a couple of blocks to Yankee Stadium surrounded by throngs the likes of which I had never seen, our Catholic family at its diverse best.  Sisters in habits, sisters, without, seminarians in cassocks, priests in their clerical clothes, chasubles over their arms as they hurried in to to prepare to distribute mass to over 80,000 people.  People hawking t-shirts, a sign with the Blessed Virgin Mary on it that said “Call your Mother!”  Well dressed, and motley, young and old, of every nationality and color.  

The mass itself had an air of rock-concert around it.  I stood in a crowded (chest to back) line for over an hour to buy souvenirs--rosaries, magnets, shirts--and the folks were jubilant, conversing with those whose personal space they had invaded, praying rosaries, smiling and waiting in patience for the line to creep along.

Even back at my seat, it was a little unreal.  The crowd started a wave with the yellow and white napkins we were given as we came in, and chanted Benedicto! Benedicto!  It was, upon reflection the kind of exuberance we should have, if only internally, at every mass: something incredibly special, something transforming.  We would, indeed, see the Pope that day, Christ’s Vicar on Earth--but best to remember that we were there to receive Him, Himself.

Once the mass started, an air of solemnity descended, but no less joyful.  I cannot begin to put words to what it was like to celebrate mass in such a secular arena (literally) with over 80,000 of my closest relatives.  I was, indeed, home.

I think we sometimes forget that if we stay in our own little cottage, our parish church, we lose sight of the fact that we are, in fact, members of the Body of Christ, a much larger family.  For that reason it’s good to venture out.  Go to mass when traveling.  Go to a daily mass somewhere near your work.   Get to know your family and all their various forms and customs.

I think it’s also important to remember that it really IS important to be a member of this family, and the Catholic faith is just not one equally valid denomination among others.  We do have the fullness of Truth, we are the Church that Christ established and it does make a difference being here.  I had a friend once ask me, knowing that I go to daily mass whether I ever go to churches that are not Catholic  just for variety.

No, I answered.  What would be the point?  They don’t have Jesus in the Eucharist.  It’s a sentiment that sounds exclusive in today’s anything-goes world, but it’s true.  And if we understand that and respond to it, it opens our hearts and our horizons.  And it deepens our faith.

One young woman, who came into the church recently and who has suffered a good deal of persecution at the hands of her Protestant family, told me I really would die before I would go back.  It took me time to grow into appreciation of the Eucharist, but nothing and nobody could convince me to abandon it now.

I was humbled.  That’s the kind of faith we ought to be striving for, the faith we should be defending.  It isn’t necessary to be antagonistic to our Protestant friends, but we do need to stand for the truth that this IS Christ’s one, true, holy and apostolic church and Christians ought to be a part of it, not divided and diminished.  Period.

Allen Hunt provides some practical ideas for fostering that kind of deepening of our faith, and such deepening brings with it greater love and greater hunger for God and His will.

Take a One Day Retreat:  I’d suggest you consider going to the Eucharistic Congress in Atlanta next June.  It’s an amazing experience, and it’s another of those grand, cosmic Catholic experiences.  You’ll be with 30,000 of your closest relatives, and you’ll see every kind of Catholic worship, from Aztec dancers preceding Our Lady of Guadelupe to the quiet Missionaries of Charity.  

The Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers and Ignatius House also offer retreats that are structured.  Look them up and as the Nike ad says: Just Do It.  Don’t complain that you have not time.   If you are too busy to make more room in your schedule for God, you are too busy.

But a retreat doesn’t require structure.  Take a weekend day sometime, and clear your schedule, then take a vow of silence for the day.  Pray the Liturgy of the Hours for one day.  Spend time in  prayer.  Go to adoration and mass, or just sit before the Tabernacle.  Read (prayerfully) that religious book that has been gathering dust.  You might even try making Sundays that kind of day: set aside a block of time in which NO other pursuits (no shopping, no cooking, no cleaning, no sports, no homework, no bill-paying, no eating out) are undertaken, and just be with God.  I have found that the more I try to do these things, the more I want to do them and the easier they are to arrange.  And what difference they make.

Attend Mass 7 Days in a row:  If this is beyond you, try this:  Block off the time of the Triduum.  Starting with the Mass of the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, refrain from work and set the time aside for reflection and prayer (yes, I mean take the day off).  Pray the Stations of the Cross.  Watch The Passion of the Christ, if you are able.  Sit before the Reserved Sacrament in the chapel.  At 3, go to hear what Holy Mother Church has to say to you about the death of Our Savior.  Go to all the services, and act between times as though you are still in church, for the Liturgy is not yet finished until the Great Vigil of Easter.  Go to that and don’t complain about how long it is, either!  If you are properly prepared, it will be a joyous end to a long three days.

And pretty much everyone can do this:  If you can’t get to daily mass, make a commitment to watch (engaged and prayerful) mass on EWTN for seven days in a row and make a spiritual communion.  It’s on at 7.  No excuses....

Read John Paul the Great:  Or any other spiritual biography that suits you and your life at present.  If you aren’t reading something that helps you in your spiritual life, start, and do it every day even if even for only 10 minutes.

Meditate on the statuary in the parish:  Our parish has some beautiful imagery, use it!  And begin to surround yourself at home and at your workplace, with the saints that matter to you.  St. Martha and Saint Paschal oversee my kitchen, St. Patrick is by my sofa, and the family prayer nook is full of images that have meaning in our journey.  My office similarly has prayer cards, a holy water font (how I start my day, in prayer), and a small crucifix just below my computer screen.  They remind me to take a minute throughout the day to check in with my family, and to connect with God.

Enjoy the life of St. John and St. Rita:  Or any other saint.  I’d add St. Patrick, St. John Vianney, and St. Camillus de Leyles  Just pick a saint and start reading.  While you are at it, learn a little something about the saints listed in the Litany of Saints....  

Make a spiritual family tree:  ‘Nuff said.  If nothing else this demonstrates in a very concrete way how beholden we are to the service of others--and how we are ourselves to serve....

Make a Pilgrimage:  No need to head for exotic places.  Go to mass at the Cathedral in Atlanta or the Shrine of Immaculate Conception or the Basilica of the Sacred Heart or Our Lady of Lourdes, founded by St. Katherine Drexel, in Atlanta.  Go on pilgrimage to EWTN in Alabama.  Go to the Monastery of the Holy Spirit and stay for Vespers.  But wherever you go, go prayerfully and thoughtfully and ask that the experience make you grow.

Read The Incorruptibles:  Great book.  I'd add to the list a book on Eucharistic miracles, or the diary of St. Faustina, or Dark Night of the Soul  Or take a look at the bigger picture: Read the Big Book of Christian Mysticism.  

Fast for 24 Hours:  No better suggestion than this.  But in addition, try mini fasts in your ordinary days.  Fast from taking the elevator.  Fast from coffee, or the extra piece of toast or from dessert.  Or fast from making snide internal comments about others--and when you do, say an act of contrition.  When we make fasting a part of our lives, it teaches us great lessons.  And while you are at it, go to confession!

Read the Catechism:  The big, green one, not a summary--it is not beyond the ability of an ordinary Catholic in the pew to read and understand the Catechism or even the Papal encyclicals--they are written for the faithful.  It's a good idea to listen to what the Church wishes to teach us!.  You will be amazed at the depth and stunned by the beauty of it all....


There's also a daily devotional guide, Day by Day with the Catechism.  Or listen to Fr. Corapi’s series (running perpetually on EWTN at 8 PM Sunday nights, and available on CD).  I make it a Lenten Discipline to listen to the series (48 hours, plus extra if you listen to the questions and answers) every year for Lent--it’s what I listen to in the car.  Every year, it is familiar, every year different and every year it makes me grow  And it’s a good way to prepare for my Lenten confession, the ultimate examination of conscience.

Share in a class:  Don’t wait to be asked--volunteer to help.   And then  start looking at the plethora of Catholic teaching on the web at least as often as you listen to the news or your favorite TV show.  The world of podcasts is vast and wonderful.  Go for it. The more you learn, the more you want to know and the more there is to explore....

Work at a soup kitchen:  Don’t just give of your money, give of yourself and do it regularly.  I’ve found it helps me if I do something I am not attracted to, for it makes me grow.  If we are not participating in ministry---we are not working in the Kingdom.  And remember, St. Paul said that hose who do not work ought not eat.  That applies to the Eucharist as well as to our breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Everyone can--and should--do something for Christ every day,  Even if it’s just taking last place in line to let others go first as a reminder of our obligation to serve....St. Therese of Liseaux taught us that little things done with great love serve Christ as well as great deeds. Best of all, small deeds are accessible to us all.

Examine what your are protesting.  This isn't just for Protestants.  There are plenty of pew-sitting Catholics who’ll say: I don’t believe the Church’s position on birth control, the Real Presence, the centrality of the Mass, the Sunday obligation capital punishment...  There’s a word for the cafeteria Catholic: Protestant.  It is fine to question and to explore.  Rejecting a well settled truth of the faith, or even rejecting the appropriate direction of the Bishops appointed to lead us in our particular time separates us from Christ's Church even when we remain in the pew.


The faith is a seamless garment, and we must accept it all, for rejecting any part of it it is rejecting the teaching of Christ.  If you have difficulty with a teaching of the church, in humility, accept it (this is an act of the will and requires the discipline to stop your old ways of thinking when they surface), then ask prayerfully for the grace to understand.  Read Humane Vitae and the great wealth of commentary on it in light of modern times.  Read Dead Man Walking.  Go..experience..accept..and soon it will make sense.  But don’t sit, arms folded, and presume that you know better than Holy Mother Church when it comes to matters that are essential to faith.....

Make a Vatican Pilgrimage:  Amen!  But if that is out of reach, do it virtually--there are amazing virtual tours on the web.  And do it with an attitude of prayer and thought.

Enjoy the Mass in multiple settings:  Easy to do around here.  Go to a Spanish mass (St. Stephen’s, Sts. Peter and Paul, OLPH or St. Jude).  Go to the Korean mass at OLPH.  Visit the Byzantine community near Knoxville or go to the Maronite parish in Atlanta.  Go, go, go and you will have the wonderful experience of being totally foreign and utterly at home.

In other words: It’s your faith.  Grow it and share it in joy and in confidence!

In His Service--Martha

Chapter 7 - Front Porch

Before commenting on Chapter 7, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Allan Hunt's "confession".  It was honest, refreshing and similar to Scott Hahn's conversion story in many ways.

With that said, it was most interesting that Allan began his presentation with the importance of "front porches"... a convenient setting to get to know one another.  He then tied that to Christ's desire that His followers be perfectly one.  Being a "cradle Catholic", it is my firm belief that God created one church and that means one truth, one theology etc. Logically, there cannot be more than one truth despite those who promote truth as individual or changing. Thousands of Christian denominations all having different theologies or different "truths". A good nun friend of mine often remarked that God must say to Himself "look at what man has done to My church"!

We humans have constant battles about the meaning of documents such as the constitution. What did its authors really mean? What is constitutional?   

We need to remind ourselves of the gift of oneness...one truth which comes from God regarding our Catholic beliefs. How blessed we are.  We must keep in mind that "cafeteria catholics" have infiltrated the one true Church and that is not much different from how the many protestant denominations developed over time.

Allan Hunt relates his experience oneness in attending a Papal teaching at the entrance to St. Peter's Basilica with 20,000+ pilgrims from all over the world. He saw this as the "front porch" to the world. Hunt's journey home to Christ's real Church obviously was given to him because he sought the truth and the Holy Spirit provided the grace to make it all happen.

Theodore

EXTRA! Extra! Read All About It!!!

Luke--knowing this is something that would pull my chain, asked me to post on this chapter--specifically on the bit about the guy sitting in the back reading the paper during mass.

This odd behavior actually has precedent in the old Latin Mass, which made it clear in a way that the current Novus Ordo does not is that the priest is, in fact, re-presenting the  sacrifice of Christ on behalf of the people.  In those days gone by, it was not uncommon to see people in the church carrying on their own devotions (rosaries, novenas, etc) during the course of the mass.  One reason for the consecration bells was to remind the faithful, offering their own devotions to be presented along with the sacrifice of the altar, to engage for a moment in the critical moments of epiclesis, consecration and elevation 

This, by the way, is why the priest did not face the people--he was their representative, part of them.  Priests who celebrate ad orientem--facing the altar--these days will tell you how powerful it is to be part of the people, not a focus of them.   The model--priest offering sacrifice on behalf of the people who bring their own sacrifices of prayer, devotion and self---remains, but we have lost the powerful reinforcement of the physical action of the liturgy because people did not know enough to understand why they were doing what they did.  Everything about the mass teaches us something about our faith and expresses something about our relationship to God.  

When we come to mass, we are there to present ourselves--our souls, our bodies, our works, our needs, our sufferings, our joys, our works, all of us, the sum and substance of our lives-- as a sacrifice to be offered up with the gifts, and returned to us, like the bread and wine, changed by the Holy Spirit into something new, different and beautiful, and holy.  That is why we are at mass: to be a part of the sacrifice that redeems us and makes us holy, to join ourselves with Christ in the Eucharist.  When we deliberately  focus on each other or on ourselves rather than on the the mass, we give God a lesser gift.  And He deserves everything for from HIm everything comes.

That being said, reading the paper during the mass is just plain wrong.  Wrong, wrong, wrong.  So is reading the bulletin or chatting with your neighbors.  Our focus is to be on God because we are in a sacred place and we are there to worship Him and to listen to what HE has to say to us.  Not to socialize, not to meet our own needs, but to give the honor and glory to the God of the Universe that HE deserve, and then to receive Him in the Eucharist.  And it is good to remember, Christ Himself is before us in the tabernacle, as surely as He was on the cross or on the road to Emmaus.  And if we are to listen, we must first be silent and attentive, in our hearts, in our mouths, in our minds and in our bodies.

It’s easy to criticize the fellow with the paper, but consider this: does our behavior before, during and after mass reflect the reality of Christ’s presence and the object of our worship?  I’ve found that the WORST place to try to pray is church before or immediately after mass.  I might as well try praying in a cocktail party.  (I’ve taken this as an opportunity to “focus...focus”)  A few weeks ago, I had the chance to hear vespers in the Trappist monastery in Conyers.  Not a sound in that church except for the prayers and the quiet coming and going of the congregation.  So easy to lose oneself in the presence of God in a beautiful church (like that one and like ours) when there is silence and the world falls away!  So hard when the world follows me in and elbows me in the side.

Watch how people enter the church--casually talking, sometimes never making a acknowledgment of the fact that they have entered the very presence of God.  GOD.  The Creator of the Universe. The One who made everything out of absolutely nothing  That GOD.  Conversation continues, and few people genuflect to acknowledge Christ, or pause to pray to greet Him.  It’s social hour in the parish.

The peace--it’s a prayer, not a conversation with our neighbors.  We are in the middle of the greatest prayer we have--the mass!  Why, oh why, do we think this is time to socialize?  And when the communal prayer resumes again with the Agnus Dei, it’s time to stop passing the peace....and return our thoughts to God alone.

And then the moment that is the miracle of miracles--we mortals receive the God of the Universe into our very selves.  If we really believed that we were about to receive our Lord, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, we’d likely be crawling on our knees, like the woman with the hemorrhage who followed Christ in the crowd--hoping just to touch the hem of His garment, let alone receive Him in fullness.  Not strolling up and too indifferent even to say “Amen!” when we do receive Him.

How many of us kneel to pray in thanksgiving afterward?  How many of us even know the traditional prayers before the crucifix, and after receiving?  

Do you know what the Missionaries of Charity do at the words of institution?  They fall on their faces before their God.  Sound extreme?  In Augustine’s day, when people prayed the prayer of contrition and the Agnus Dei you could hear the thuds resounding through the chapel as people beat their breasts in real sorrow for their sins. Different time and place, surely, but it seems to me that we have made a virtue of indifference.  We are in a place where heaven touches earth, and time touches eternity, where we are closer to God and the hosts of heaven than we ever will be before our individual judgment.  He reaches out His hands in love and we yawn and turn away, or worse yet, don’t even realize it.

Then there’s the contingent that leaves mass early (or arrives habitually late...).  In my never to be humble opinion there is NEVER a reason to leave mass early unless life itself is at stake.  We give God so little of our time, it is a great insult to shave time off mass for worldly purposes.  If we do, we are fitting God into our schedules, not fitting our schedules around God.   God asks us to put Him first, not second or last, and how we respond to mass is one very good indication of how far we are in that particular journey.  

For heavens sake (literally), it’s only appropriate, fitting, respectful, prayerful (pick your adjective) to arrange our schedules so that we acknowledge that mass is not a dreary obligation but a joy we would not think of missing, arriving late for or leaving early from!  We have a date with God...isn’t that worthy of at least as much eager anticipation, energy, enthusiasm, planning, joy, and respect as that memorable first date with our spouse so long ago?

Fr. Larry Richards, in his series Living in the Spirit, notes that in his parish, if anyone leaves early, he tells them--out loud, in front of God and everyone--not to come back, for his parish is not a place where God can be insulted.  

That’s what we do when we leave early--we insult the God of the Universe.  And remember--the first person to leave mass early was Judas--not the best role model.  Fr. Larry is abrasive and direct, but he has a point and it’s one I wish more priests--and parishioners---would make.  (One priest In our archdiocese  had all his acolytes dress out one Sunday and stand in the back of the church, the announced that anyone who felt the need to leave early would be escorted to his car by an acolyte with a candle because he was a vessel carrying the sacred Body, Blood Soul and Divinity of our Lord. There are many ways to make the point.)

After dismissal and the hymn, the church erupts into chatter again--even though Jesus is still right in front of us.  We simply ignore Him, because after all, we’ve done our duty, given Him the time He deserves, and we are ready to get on with the really important things of our lives that take up all the rest of our time.  Those who try to take a minute to kneel and pray in thanksgiving for the inexpressible gift of the Eucharist find it even harder to pray after mass than before.  I’ve even had people interrupt me while I am on my knees.  Sigh.

My mother, God be good to her, taught me that there is a time and a place for everything.  The church is a sacred space, a place for sacred things, not for the things of the world.  

She also taught me that how I behave will eventually inform how I think and who I am.  If we, in our heads and hearts, believe what our Mother the Church teaches us about Christ and about the mass, isn’t it about time we started behaving that way?

Reverence starts one heart, one mind, one body at a time and it forms our very souls.  It cannot be enforced, it must be cultivated and we are in charge of the garden.

Martha (who struggles with this just like everyone else but who has a saint on hand  to remind her to be mindful of the one thing necessary.....)

Ch. 6 Family Cemetery

Chapter 6:  Family Cemetery

If you are just going to read one chapter of this book, this is the one to read. It sums up the reasons that Allen Hunt was unhappy with the Protestant religion and the reasons he found the Catholic Church so meaningful that he completely changed most of his life to join it.

This is one of the longest chapters in the book and it is divided into five sections:

1.       Lessons from a Cemetery with Chickens

2.       Paul’s Lesson To Timothy on Authority

3.       Doctrine by Democracy

4.       Little Agnes

5.       God’s Exit Strategy

In Lessons from a Cemetery with Chickens, he discusses  visiting a Catholic Church in Carrolton, Georgia, and being shocked to see, not only chickens, but hundreds of white crosses planted in the church yard, with a sign that read, “In Memory of the Millions of Children’s Lives ended by Abortion.”  He pointed out that Methodist views on abortion are decided by a convention of elected church members, half lay people, with no theological training, held each four years.  Certain decisions could result in Methodists withholding contributions or leaving the Methodist church, so the Methodist church provides funds to both pro- and anti-abortion groups! He stated the crosses at OLPH Catholic Church in Carrolton literally took his breath away.  He now refers to it as “the family cemetery.” What he learned:  “Upon merely pulling into the parking lot, I encountered the Church who is not afraid to speak the Truth, regardless of the public response or pushback that comes with it.”

In an amusing side note, he describes the priest wearing high top sneakers and a parishioner reading the news paper in one of the back pews during Mass!  My comment:  I am perfectly happy if Monsignor wants to wear sandals or high top sneakers, but I don’t advise anyone to be reading the newspaper in the back of the sanctuary at OLM while he is conducting Mass!

In Paul’s Lessons To Timothy on Authority, he describes how Paul relates to Timothy, in 1^st Timothy and 1^st Corinthians, the basis of the Catholic Church’s authority. It is not the vote of the congregation, the Scripture alone, or each person’s individual interpretation.  It is the tradition, scripture, and teaching authority of the Church based on a six-line hymn Paul wrote to sum up the meaning of Christ, in 1^st Timothy 3:

Jesus

Was revealed…,

Was vindicated…,

Was seen…,

Was proclaimed…,

Was believed…,

Was taken up….

In Doctrine by Democracy, he points out that there is not a core of standard belief in the Methodist church that cannot be challenged by the conventions held every four years. He stated that fundraising was done on a regular basis by those wanting to change the Methodist church versus those wanting it to remain more traditional.  The most well funded and politically connected won.  Over the years, he began to question his role in a faith that involved him as the pastor for serial marriages and marriages of couples he did not even know.  He stated that one of the last straws was when a pastor was approved for a post despite the fact that he had been married five times.  He began to think that his supervisors felt like he could just do whatever he wanted as long as he kept the contributions rolling in.

I think the best section in the whole book is Little Agnes, about Mother Teresa, who answered when she heard God calling her when she was 18, and became a teaching nun.  Then when she was 38, in response to finding a dying woman on the street, started her medical mission.  The power of the Catholic Church and Mother Teresa’s faith can be seen in Allen Hunt’s statement: “Fifty years after she met that first dying woman in the gutter, more than 3,000 women in 517 missions in 100 countries served alongside  Agnes.”  He again shows the impressive power of the Catholic Church when he tells us of Mother Teresa’s speech at the National Prayer Breakfast at the Clinton White House in 1994:

If we accept that a mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill? How can we persuade a woman not to have an abortion?  As always, we must persuade with love. Love means being willing to give until it hurts.  Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want.

Mother Teresa was to Allen Hunt a personification of what the Catholic Church is:  a living example of the power of the Church’s moral teaching and tradition.

Finally in God’s Exit Strategy, he writes about his transition to the Catholic Church after he pondered the fragmentation of the Protestants into 33,000 different groups each claiming to have the ultimate truth all based “solely on Scripture.”  He wanted to be a member of the Church that used “a little gathering of crosses” to speak “a message of life to a culture of death.” 

Chapter 5 "The Bedroom" Meeting the mystery

What strikes me after reviewing the chapter “The Bedroom” by Mr. A. Hunt is the question,  “What is a mystic?”    Standard dictionary defines a mystic as “a person who sees visions, one that tends to rely on dreams and fancies or on imaginary or ideal conceptions or projects having little basis in reality; an impractical person.”  Likewise a vision is “…something seen otherwise than by ordinary sight: an imagining, supernatural, or prophetic sight beheld in sleep or ecstasy; especially one that conveys a revelation.”  Wow!  That’s a mouthful and one with a slightly bitter aftertaste too, it seems.

What does holy Mother Church mean when she talks of mystics and mysticism?  It may be interesting to note that there are Protestant theologians who claim that mysticism is essentially non-Christian.  They fail to distinguish between the mysticism of Hinduism/Buddhism and the mysticism of Christianity.  These Protestants have no norms by which they might recognize mysticism. Still others consider mysticism a type of psychopathology --- insanity. 

Catholic theology describes mystics three ways.  A person may be one or all three of the following:  1.  Mystics are holy persons, 2.  Mystics are gifted contemplatives, 3.   Mystics may be persons who manifest charismatic phenomena. 

Mystics as holy persons have reached for and grasped or nearly grasped Christ’s perfection.  They are NOT beginners.  Their main concern is unity with Christ.

Mystics as contemplative are considered “infused contemplatives”.  Infused contemplation is a kind of prayer that we cannot achieve by our own efforts.  It is a prayer in which God’s real presence is felt and experienced.  The word often used to describe this experience is “bliss”.

Mystics are persons who manifest charismatic phenomena such as phenomena that do not occur in normal spiritual life development.  These charisms or phenomena when genuine are ALWAYS for the benefit of others and are apostolic and not “personal” gifts from God.    

According to Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.: 

            In God's providence, I have had occasion to deal professionally with persons who in my judgment were authentic mystics. They were people who had reached a high degree of sanctity. I remember the woman bedridden with agonizing pain for over 17 years. She was totally resigned to God's mysterious providence in her life. She saw the divine will in her sufferings and was a personification of peaceful and loving acceptance of the divine will. But I have also met and again dealt with professionally those who had the reputation of being mystics. But in my judgment they had neither reached Christian perfection nor were they gifted contemplatives. They had powerful imaginations, far above normal. They were so immersed in what they thought were either visions or locutions from God or specially inspired revelations from on high. Nothing I could say could change their complete conviction that they were specially chosen agents of the Most High with a special mission to the people of our day.

All this is not to say that you or I could not have real experience of God at any time that we could recognizes as being miraculous or visionary or even blissful.  What is to say is there is a “seen and unseen” that we profess belief in every time we recite our creed.  It is to say that if God in His perfect will chooses to let any one of us glimpse ”… as through a glass darkly…” His perfect love, mercy, beauty and majesty we will experience our Lord as He sees fit. But the life of a mystic is surely one to aspire toward; and our holy Mother Church has given us her blessing to do so.  We have been given permission to take the “leap” into the unknown toward the Unseen and embrace the mystery as we fly on the wings of eagles.  I have a daughter who once told me she could, for a time, perceive Jesus in the people around her (and it frightened her).  I told her that there were countless grown-ups – good people, who have lived their whole life for an experience like hers. 

As Mr. Hunt sums it up, “ God reveals Himself through human reason an intelligence to be sure.  But even more, God’s glory is shrouded in mystery.”  Our church helps to realize and treasure this mystery.  It is so much of what we celebrate as God’s people.  

check out the appendix pages 154-157

In His Grip,

S of A 

Chapter 4 - The basement - scary or sacred?

Mr. Hunt begins this chapter with the story of finding a trunk in his grandmother's "basement" full of old pictures of his family long past... but no way to find out who they were, when they lived or what they had done in their lives.  My grandparents have a picture in their home of my great-great-great grandfather who fought in the Civil War... but I can't remember his name at all.  I also have pictures from when I went to camp 25 years ago... and for the life of me, I can't remember the names of most of the people in them.  They must have been important to me at one time because I desired to keep an image of them to remind me of our good times in the future...

How easily we can forget.
And how long before our pictures are the ones future generations are puzzling over?

It wasn't until Mr. Hunt met John Fisher and Thomas More who stood up for the Truth to a king in the face of certain death that it finally began to sink in who the saints were, that they were Catholic, and that theirs was a faith much, much deeper than his own.  I, too, am a protestant convert, and it really was a bit scary to start learning about the Catholic faith because I knew where it could lead... to the Church herself... and I knew the consequences that could ensue with loss of friends, loss of family, and loss of what I have known regarding Christianity my whole life.  But it was well worth it all. 

One of my favorite things that I learned after coming to the Church is discussed in this chapter... the saints.  I was always taught that the "great cloud of witnesses" was just the angels... not the saints.  Sure, we knew that our beloved dead were "in heaven" provided they had "got saved", but that's where it ended.  They no longer had anything to do with us here on earth, their job was done.  We were taught that we would all have "jobs" in heaven, none of this nonsense about sitting on a cloud playing a harp for eternity - but no one ever really had a good explanation of what those "jobs" were.  I don't know enough adjectives to describe the jubilation and satisfaction I had when I learned what the Catholic Church teaches about the saints - that they are with us NOW, that they work with us HERE, that they pray for us WITHOUT CEASING.  We have a whole family of believers out there praying for us, working with God on our behalf, pricking our conscience and encouraging us - our spiritual cheerleaders.  We have names to go with the faces, statues and paintings of their images preserved over centuries to remind us of their lives and how they lived for Christ.  It really is amazing to me that the Church has kept so much information for us to know about our brothers and sisters in the faith over so many centuries, and I can't even remember the names of friends from 25 years ago.  It's actually pretty awesome to know that my grandfather (a very godly man and an incredible example to me growing up) is praying for me, can listen when I talk to him, and is engaged in my life right now, even though he died over 10 years ago... now THAT'S comforting!   

Like Allen, I have also encountered the accusation of worshiping the saints.  To answer that, I reply with what I read a blog recently that had said something to the effect that, "Whatever you worship will decorate the walls of your home."  Now, while I do have statues of Mary and a couple of saints, I also have some crucifixes... and a picture from my wedding, pictures of my son, pictures of my husband, pictures of my siblings, my parents and my in-laws... Now, I don't worship my husband or my son or my siblings, parents or my in-laws... but I love them and I appreciate them, I love to be reminded of them and the times we've been together, I also know that they love me and are praying for me even though they are not with me right then.  It's the same with the saints. We honor war heroes with statues... why not spiritual heroes with statues? We honor great politicians with statues... why not great theologians with statues?  Once you point out the hypocrisy of those making the accusations, they usually stop! 

I also completely identify with Allen's frustration with the sense that pervades protestantism of it's just "me and Jesus trying to run the race".  There was always this mantra that "Jesus is all I need".... but if it was not good for Adam to be "alone" even though he was with God, have things really changed?  I always felt as if I was floundering in the sea without a life-vest, just flying by the seat of my pants and blown about by whatever whim sounded the most "spiritual" at the time, hoping against hope that I had it right this time.  Hence the reason Mr. Hunt also points out that the basement is also the foundation for the house.  I am so glad to have my house truly built on the Rock of the Catholic Church now... I'm 100% sure I have it right this time.

St. Frances of Rome

What's Cooking in Your Kitchen?

Chapter 3: Kitchen

Or…, “What’s Cooking in Your Kitchen”

                When I think of a “Kitchen”, images of family and friends gathered in the most visited and used room in our house enter my brain.  Also, memories of my continuing apprenticeship as the Chief Cook and Bottle Washer in our humble abode.  My bride chides me repetitively about cooking food to quickly and with far too much heat.  I counter weakly with a statement like,     “… well, some like it hot” which usually brings a rebuttal of,             ”… darlin’, no one likes it burned, or … you’re cooking the flavor out of it!”  If we are not careful, life can be so stressful that we run the risk of burn out or cooking the flavor of life out of us and those we love.

                Allen Hunt and his family encountered that scenario.  Faced with radical surgery, two miscarriages, melanoma, and the added burden of being 1,000 miles from home.  Allen links holiness to the kitchen when in fact, in his own admission, the connection is not so obvious.  He does so because of the impact that Father Caj’s had on his life.  Father Caj’s life of giving, service and devotion to prayer led Allen to conclude that Jesus and Father Caj were good friends.  What a compliment!  The fact that they often met in the kitchen was the basis for the title of this chapter.

                As we delve further into this chapter, in my mind at least, a picture of a kitchen with a stew slowing cooking in a crock pot emerges.  We are preparing this meal – our lives - for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Just as Allen and his family were being forged deeply in a crucible of suffering, God was slowly drawing them to Him in a way that they had never imagined. 

                The result of this “trial by fire” is that God intends to make us holy.  The only question is whether we will cooperate with His intention now or will we wait for him to cook up a new batch with us.

                Scripture tells us that Saint Paul coached early Christians on how to live.  It is important not merely that we think rightly, but also that we behave and live rightly.  Why?  To please God.

                 Saint Paul’s receipt for our “stew” is quite simple:

                                I love you.

                                I give thanks for you.

                                Jesus is coming, so please God – rather than ourselves.

                                God wants us to be holy.

                                Holiness means not repaying evil with evil, but seeking to do good.

                Put the ingredients together, slowly cook under a gentle and loving fire (life) and you yield the climax of Saint Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians: our destiny of holiness.

                The spices of this stew (our life) are suffering (bitter herbs), prayer (sweetener), service (salt), and generosity (secret ingredients – I would tell you, but then I would have to … well, you know)!  When we suffer, we are being conformed to the image of Jesus.  When we pray, we are being made holy in the image of Jesus.  When we quietly serve a person in need, we are being shaped into the image of Jesus.  When we give generously, our heart is being remade into the image of Jesus, Our Lord and Savior.  Wow!  I want to make/taste/live this stew!

                Allen emphasizes that God will do it.  It is not you or I that produce holiness.  We are called to be holy.  The holiness comes from Him – not from us.  That holiness originates on the altar of church where Jesus feeds us with His own body and His own blood.

                The example cited by Allen of Sister Diane and her devotion to prayer and the Mass simply enforce the overwhelming effect such devotion can have in our lives – if we let it.  Devotion to God was not something Sister Diane did – it defined who she was!  You pray, you make time for worship – together they produce holiness – the best version of yourself.

                Allen  closes the chapter with the story of Pope John Paul II’s attempted assassination by Mehmet Ali Agca.  Pope Paul’s message of prayer, forgiveness, and compassion are key ingredients in this “stew” as was Saint Paul’s instructions to the Thessalonians, “See that none of you repay evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all”.

                We are all called to holiness.  Be careful with life’s ingredients, cook them very slowly and hopefully over a low heat.  Maybe dinner (our lives) will be well done and deliciously spent/served/consumed before the smoke alarm goes off in the kitchen of life!

In His Service,

Saint Anthony of Padua

ch 2 "Dining Room"

As a former Methodist/Presbyterian I could relate to Hunt's belief that communion was just symbolism but 3 events led him to the Catholic church. Being asked by a nun why he didn't belong to the Church caused him to consider how the scriptures were so consistant in talking about the Eucharist. Secondly, in many other churches the sermon was the focal point of the service. I think that is true in most protestant churches. Some members are "married" to the minister rather than the church and its beliefs.  Finally, Hunt sees the need to spend time "pondering the mystery of Jesus' gift to us and His presence with us."

Intro and Chapter One: Extended Family

Allen Hunt's story resonated with mine, too. I grew up in a Methodist family, and so I too was not exposed that animus against Catholics that sometimes we encounter in the South (it came as something of a shock when I experienced it--as a Catholic--for the first time). My neighbors were good Catholics and I was always intrigued by their faith: the mass, the rosary, those mysterious holy days of obligation. But in my neck of the woods, Catholic is what you were born, not what you became, unless you had to to marry a Catholic.

Five years into this journey, I never cease to be amazed at the treasures this House contains. I am constantly encountering new experiences, new devotions, new explanations of things that are at once familiar and still very new. One of the things that strikes me most is that among the treasures of the Catholic Church is her ..well..catholicity.

In all my years of worshipping as a protestant, the congregations were invariably very homogeneous--sharing economic status, skin color and for the most part culture. Not so in my experience in the Catholic church, even here on Lookout, which is a pretty small community.

It really came home to me at the Eucharistic Congress last June. The Saturday mass starts out with a Eucharistic procession, and churches from all over the Archdiocese send groups to participate, with banners and great felicity. It goes on forever, and the entire hall is ringed by the banners that the groups leave behind in stands for the rest of the congress. I remember watching the Vietnamese community and being not so vaguely jealous of how beautiful the women looked in their traditional dress. There were various social and charitable groups, like the Knights of Columbus, with the men dressed in uniform and their ladies stately and elegant. There were African women in their colorful dresses and impossibly intricate--and very lovely--head scarves. There were Hispanic groups processing with Our Lady of Guadalupe. But perhaps the most unusual to me was a group of Aztecs, in full regalia, who preceded Our Lady with an exuberant dance complete with feathers, head-dresses, ankle bells and drums. It reminded me of David dancing in front of the Ark of the Covenant (as well it should, given that is exactly what it was--only they were dancing in front of the Ark of the New Covenant). There were traditionalists, charismatics, young, old, immigrants and native born Americans, of all colors, shapes, stripes and inclinations. It was loud, it was enthusiastic, it was passionate, and it was reverent. And it was so very different from anything I had ever experienced before.

I loved it.

In years past, I would not have entered into different kinds of worship so easily. Now I have discovered the great wealth in different traditions, and, while I find great joy in my own particular way of entering into the mysteries of the mass, and the practice of my faith, I have also gleaned a great deal from others. I take great pleasure in the exuberance of Latin and African liturgies. I find great comfort in the quiet of the Trappists at Holy Spirit in Conyers. I delight in Latin, and I find an unexpected home in the personal expressions of prayer that are the norm in the Eastern Catholic Churches. I love the rich liturgy at the Cathedral and I love the simpler worship in Trenton.  It's all my family, and I have only begun to explore the contents of the house....

I make it a point to seek out different worship experiences when I travel--making family visits. I've heard mass in Irish, in Latin, and in Spanish, in a smattering of Tohono O’odom,  and--as they say around here--I'm fixin' to go hear mass in Korean, as I have discovered a Korean community here that has a vernacular mass at one of the local parishes. I've worshipped in old mission churches and temporary quonset buildings. Many different rooms in that old house, but the Architect is the same, and so is the Food,  so I am always at home. There’s always a place in that old house for one more, and there will be someone who shares a convert’s story....and many more who will want to hear it, and embrace it and their new sibling in Christ.

In short, my spiritual world has exploded! The rooms of that old house hold so many brothers and sisters, and we have so much to share. If it is the wish of Christ that we all be one, there is no better start that to be drawn together by our worship of Him and to discover each other in the rooms of this old house.  In His service--Martha

Confessions of a Mega Church Pastor: David's Tale and Chapter 1: Old House

I am going to talk about the Introducton: David's Tale and the First Chapter: Old House to Confessions of  Mega Church Pastor. 

First, I want to say that when I started this book, I could not put it down.  I did not start out a Catholic and neither did Allen Hunt, but he kept feeling drawn to be a Catholic through inexplicable forces and coincidences in his life, as did I.  The Introduction, David's Tale, is really Allen Hunt's story. He was pastor of a 15,000 member Methodist church in the Atlanta suburbs, but gradually felt a calling to become a Catholic that he could not deny, even though  he states his family did not change with him and he lost friends and obviously he gave up his pastorate. The first chapter, Old House, explains how Allen Hunt sees the Catholic Church as an old house, much like one that belonged to a family of his friend Steven. When Steven's father moved in with the family years before, he told Steven that everthing he needed was in the house, much as Allen Hunt now sees the Catholic Church. Allen Hunt then goes room by room through a house comparing the rooms to parts of the Catholic Church as he tells us about his transistion. This comparison constitutes the other chapters of the book.

Allen starts out telling about working as a stockbroker and seeing a homeless man sleeping in the doorway and the he hears God speak to him about who he is going to serve in life.  (Of course, I could not help but think of Mother Teresa coming across the dying person and changing her path in life as well.   This thought comes to Allen Hunt later in the book.)  This prompts Allen to become a Methodist minister.

I could identify with Allen Hunt in what may seem to be an unusual way, but it just shows how God and Christ can reach out in ways we do not expect.  I grew up with a Presbyterian mother and, of all things, a Unitarian father.  My mom was Dutch and my grandparents had sent tons of food and clothing to Holland after WW II, plus I had seen endless slide shows of post WW II Holland, concentraton camps, and the devastation of the post WW II flood. My family always tried to help out in some way. In addition, during the days of integration and equal rights in the 1960's, the Unitarian Church was full of passionate souls devoted to that cause.  Strangely enough, television news and even the Unitarians would often mention their allies:  the Council of Catholic Bishops! So as a child sitting in the Unitarian Church, I heard almost every Sunday about the Council of Cathlolic Bishops and all the good they were doing for us!

In the meantime, I had a cousin who became a medical missionary in Africa, and over and over I heard that when everyone else left, Catholic Relief stayed to help in any disaster.  Because of all the social conciousness of the Unitarians and my Dutch relatives, I became very interested in what each church actuallly did to help others. I could not understand how the Unitarians were so concerned with equal rights and the death penalty and still be pro-choice!  I had gone to Christmas mass for years with my high school best friend and always loved the Catholic Church visits with his family.  So of all things, when I got to college, I joined the Cathloic Church Right to Life Committee and was the treasurer!  We did bake sales and bought ads on bus benches for Right to Life Centers.  This was at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas.  I saw from several of my sorority sisters who cried themselves to sleep night after night what the need for this was.

Then, of  course, I met Paul and we got married, and as you know he is about as strict a Catholic as can be.  But when you think of God and Christ moving in someone's life as you read this book, think of me as another example. What are the odds that I would meet, much less marry, a Catholic who had gone to St. Patrick's Catholic School from Phoenix City, Alabama?  How rare are Catholic Schools in that part of the South?

I see exactly what Allen Hunt was talking about when he said he was looking for a Church that had a committment to Christ's teaching no matter what other people thought or whether it was the most popular or profitable moneywise.  He is an example of a person called inexplicably (in some people's eyes)  to choose the Cathlolic Church and he cites one of his old church members who called him "crazy" for doing it.  I love that he is an example of Christ moving in our lives, if we will just listen, to draw us closer to Him.  The door to the house is always open seems to me to be a big part of Allen Hunt's message.  Christ is repeatedly inviting us into His house and giving us the exact directions if we will just listen to the instructions he Has given us over and over in His gospels. Allen Hunt points out the ways that the Cathlolic Church is the church that has remained true to Christ's teachings. Despite this, according to Allen Hunt, there are over 33,000 versions of Christianity that have deviated in some way or other from Catholicism. It is as if certain religions think they know the directions to Christ's home better than the ones He has given us Himself!

Posted in Honor of St. Teresa of Avila

Getting Ready

We will be posting soon on Allen Hunt's Confessions of a Mega Church Pastor, so please check back regularly.  Our hope is to put up posts for comment each Tuesday and Thursday.  Enjoy the book and let us hear from you!

Luke