Happy Thanksgiving!

 Enjoy the day! I hope you all bave much to be thenkful for, even if there are also sadnesses and difficulties as well.

Monastery and College 2023

In 2023 I visited the St. Anselm campus several times, twice for my usual retreats/visits to the monastic community, twice for events related to the Institute for the Humanities and a scholarship I had funded, and once for a funeral. I'll report on them in chronological order.

April 24 Over the winter I had funded a scholarship to be awarded to a junior at the college for a senior project. It's named the […] Scholarship for 18th Century Studies in honor of my father. He would occasionally say at dinner that if he could live at any other time he'd choose the 18th Century "because there was a ferment of ideas." On April 23 each year the English Department hosts a reading of Shakespeare's sonnets — this year on the 24th because the 23rd of April was a Sunday.The decision was made to announce the winner of my scholarship on that day, and I was invited to read a sonnet, which I did. Then the winner of the scholarship was announced. She had proposed investigating whether the 18th Century philosophers had contributedto sexism. I drove to and from the event on the same day: a 125 mile round trip.

July 6 I attended the funeral of Bishop Joseph Gerry, O.S. B., who had died on July 2, the 75th anniversary of his joining the order. https://www.saintanselmabbey.org/about/anselmian-hub/news/bishop-joseph-gerry-osb-called-eternal-life He was Prior of the monastery at the time I was considering joining. He was pleasant and affable, highly intelligent, and a good writer and preacher.

July 7-12 My summer visit had been scheduled well in advance of Bishop Joseph's death, so I returned to the abbey the following day. I had brought several books with me: I Heard God Laugh, by Matthew Kelley, a prolific popular writer on spiritual topics; Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist, a more serious book about Old Testament events and practices which illuminate the Lord's Supper, by Brant Pitre; and fo relaxation Murder in Marblehead, about an event in 1950 which was thoroughly investigated, but never officially solved. All three books were good reading. My notes on Kelley include the points that changing our habits can change us, that when we pray we should ask God, "What do you think I should do?" and that "the only thing worse than not knowing God is … believing things about God that are not true," which can "prevent us from really getting to know God," and that we burden ourselves with things and activities we don't need. His overall point is that we should make a habit of praying daily. Of course, I also enjoyed visiting with the monks at recreation and at the festive meals where talking was allowed rather than silence during table reading.

July 28 was the day of the dedication of the Gregory J Grappone Institute for the Humanities building. I had read in the alumni magazine a year earlier about the Institute and was very enthusiastic about it. That lead to discussions with the director of the Institute and a member of the college's Development Office about creating my scholarship as a part of the Institute, which I did with their encouragement. So I was invited to attend the dedication and was recognized as the donor of the scholarship. I hope that this will encourage others who can support the mission of the Institute to do so. https://www.anselm.edu/about/offices-centers-institutes/centers-institutes/gregory-j-grappone-04-humanities-institute/about I feel very strongly that the humanities/liberal arts should be the foundation of college education, and that this initiative — which goes counter to the trend at many universities and colleges to drop liberal arts in favor of what call "vocational" studies — should be supported.

December 4-8 was my winter visit/retreat. I had been scheduled to arrive on Sunday the 3rd, but I was too slow getting packed and ready to go, and by the time I was ready, I'd have been driving in the dark. At my age I find that glare from oncoming traffic can be a problem, so I avoid travel at night except on familiar roads around my home town. My spiritual reading included The Great Story of Israel, by Bishop Robert Barron, from which I read sections dealing with the books of Judges and Ruth; commentarries on the scripture readings assigned to December 10; and for recreation Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician, by Anthony Everitt, which I was reading on my Kindle. I also used my iPhone to keep up with e-mail and Facebook as well as to review the cruise down the Rhine which I had taken a couple of weeks earlier. Bishop Barron had some good insights on several passages in Judges which deal with very violent events. My late arrival meant that I missed the festive Sunday evening dinner and theKP which follows it. Recreation the four evenings I was there was mainly with a fairly stable group of four or five playing 98, which was easy to get the hang of. Unfortunately, I had something of a cough, probably a result of getting seriously chilled during the Rhine cruise. I was popping cough drops during prayers in the church. The heavier breathing during chanting seemed to aggravate the cough, which has largely gone away over the past weeks. As usual, it was pleasant to visit and refocus.

Overdue Report on December Visit to Monastery

 Most of my visits/retreats begin on Sunday evening and end on the afternoon of Wednesday or Thursday. This time, however, I arrived on the afternoon of Friday, December 9, and stayed until the afternoon of Wednesday the 14th, For my spiritual reading I had brought The Genesee Diary, by Henri Nouwen. It consists of extracts from the diary he kept for the seven months he was living alongside the monks of Genesee Abbey in upstate New York. I had thought that it would be way to long to finish during my visit, but instead of pondering every line, I read it normally, stopping to note really striking thoughts. In that way, I finished it while I was there.

A couple of weeks into his time at Genesee, Nouwen asked the abbot, "How am I doing?" and he replied, "I guess okay. Nobody has mentioned you yet." More striking was Nouwen's insight that when you want people to be thinking about you, to be paying attention to you, "you haven't even begun to create a little space for God in your heart."

I also had Puritan's Diary, by Charles Coulombe, a history of America from the point of view of an integralist Catholic. He sees in the British colonization of North America and the subsequent history of the United States a tale of anti=Catholicism triumphant. He has a point, but his ideal of a Catholic establishment is hardly the necessary remedy.

The daily routine was similar to previous visits — prayers at 6:00 a.m., noonish, 5:30 & 7:30 p.m. (slightly different on Sunday), breakfast about 7:25, lunch after the noon prayers, dinner and recreation after the 5:30 service.

During recreation I spent more time than previously with the Prior, Fr. Augustine, who proved to be more genial than I had expected, and Bro. Andrew, a college student from a monastery in Alabama. Of course, there were other monks joining them for games and conversation.

At one point, Fr. Augustine mentioned that he had a video of the 1982 Midnight Mass at the Abbey. One of the networks would trans mit the Mass from a different location each year, and in '82 they chose St. Anselm. He dicided to play it for some of us on Tuesday evening after recreation and Compline. It was interesting to see the monks of the time. Most of them had been there in the late '60s (and most have died or left since then) while a few had entered in the intervening years.

One unusual event was meeting on Monday afternoon with an Assistant Vice President of the College and the Director of the Humanities Institute. I gave the money to create a scolarship for 18th Century Studies in memoery of my father. The awardee will work on a research project during his/her senior year, and present the results in a paper. Thei inspiration comes from my dad's frequent syaying that if he could live at any other time, he'd choose "the 18th Century, because there was a ferment of ideas." The money comes from an inheritance from my brother.

The Director of the Humanities Institute, Gary Bouchard, gave me a copy of a small book of poems he had written, What News, Horatio? He was inspired by some bizarre headlines in his local paper, and each poem has one of those headlines as its title, but then he lets his imagination run free. As the title of the book suggests, each poem also has quotes from or references to Hamlet. It's pretty amusing.

So in many ways this was similar to all my earlier visits, but there were also some unique aspects to it.

Visiting P.E.I., August 1-5, 2022

 My second cousin Marian White (my maternal grandmother was her great aunt on her father's side) invited me to visit. For reading during quiet times I brought along my Kindle as well as a book titled Life Is Messy by Matthew Kelly. I also had a brand new iPhone, my first, so I could check e-mails. I'm still getting used to it.

I was met at Charlottetown airport by Marian's nephew Darby White-Myers. After supper at her place in Tracadie Cross, he drove me around to see the old family farm, where new owners have demolished the old house, the cemetery where Marian's parents and Darby's mother are buried, and the apple orchard which Marian's brother Ed has begun.

On Tuesday, I went to Mass at the parish church which is less than 1/10 of a mile from Marian's place. Later, we were joined by her niece Natasha (daughter of her brother Maurice), for a drive to Georgetown at the east end of the island, where we had lunch. In the evening we were joined by Darby and his prospective fiancée Marlee for supper.

On Wednesday, August 3, after breakfast we drove to Tracadie Harbour to a mussel processing plant which is operated by John MacKinnon, a cousin of Marian's on her mother's side. She bought a $10 bag of mussels, which was way more than we could eat. She gave most of them to Ed. Back at Tracadie, we drove down a dirt path to Glenaladale. The estate was founded as a haven for Jacobite Catholic Scottish highlanders who were vicims of the "clearances" following the defeat of "Bonnie Prince Charlie" at Culloden. Eventually, the owners also facilitated the relocation of people from Ireland, among whom were my White ancestors about 1840 (before the potato famine).

In the afternoon we had a visit from cousin Ed and his 14 year old son Levi and their dog. After supper we went to say hello to another of Marian's cousins on her mother's side, Robert Hughes. Robert raises cattle and pigs, and he rents four fields adjacent to the path from Marian's to Glenaladale. He raises fodder there (last year barley, this year hay).

On Thursday at Mass, Marian's aunt Edna Kelly introduced herself to me, having guessed that the stranger would be the cousin from the States whom Marian said would visit. In mid-afternoon we drove to Charlottetown, where Marian had errands. As a hostess gift, I bought a gift certificate from Cow's, a popular ice cream and souvenir shop. I also got myself an oven mitt with an image of a sombrero wearing cow and the legend "Mooey caliente." The we met with Ed, Levi, and Ed's wife Janice for my "gala farewell dinner" — my treat.

Friday morning we went to the airport to pick up an Aussie woman who would stay at Marian's as part of the Workaway program — 5 hours of work 5 days per week in exchange for room and board. Then in the afternoon Marian drove me to the airport, U.S. Customs and Immigration procedures in Montréal were time-consuming and annoying, but I got home with no real difficulties.

Monastery Visit and Retreat July 6-13, 2022

 This was an unusual visit in several ways.

For one thing, there was less of the usual daily routine and more special events. For another, I had to take a break and go home for a memorial service, and I was away from the monastery for about 28 hours on Saturday and Sunday.

As you may recall, the normal routine involves lunch and dinner taken in the refectory without talking, while one of the monks reads from a book — except on Sunday evenings when dinner is either in the cloister yard or in the chapter room, with conversation among those present.

This year, however, a man was admitted to the novitiate on Friday, with a festive lunch following in the cloister yard. The on Saturday a novice took temporary vows, followed by another cloister yard lunch. To top it all off, on Monday, another monk took his permanent vows‚ attended by maybe 180 family and friends, followed by a reception in the courtyard and a big lunch. Since Monday was the Feast of St. Benedict, we also had a festive outdoor dinner that evening. The result was that I got two lunches (Thursday and Tuesday) and three dinners (Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday) in the refectory with silence and table reading. Breakfasts were also a bit unusual. The monastery is in the midst of bringing in new kitchen staff, and the usual eggs were not available. Cereals, breads and toppings, and juices were available. Breakfast is always assembled by each individual from the available materials.

All the festive meals increased my time for visiting with the monks but cut into the time available for reading and pondering the books I had brought for my retreat — Entering the Twofold Mystery: On Christian Conversion, by Erik Varden, and Life is Messy, by Matthew Kelly. The Kelly book is based on a time of great difficulty in his life and basically encourages us not to let ourselves be defeated by the bad stuff. It's based on his journals from the time, and feels a bit repetitive.

Varden was abbot of a Trappist monastery in England,* and the book comes from talks he gave to the monks. It may seem unconnected with life "in the world," but there are lessons to be applied. One is about obedience. Monks don't just have to do what the abbot tells them. They also should obey one another. It's a good point for all of us: when someone needs us to do something, we should be willing to help. My other major takeaway has to do with "murmuring," which St. Benedict considered one of the worst vices in a monk. It can undermine a community because instead of speaking to the abbot or the person being complained about, the murmurer sows bad feelings among others, thereby creating disunity. When we resent what someone else gets, when we focus on what we wish we had instead of realizing the good we do have, if we start grumbling about it, it can disrupt the groups we're part of. So we should be aware of our feelings of envy or discontent.

All in all it was a very worthwhile and enjoyable visit/retreat.

*He later bacame a bishop in his native Norway.

A Long-awaited Visit to the Monastery — Part 2

 On Sunday evening, as I had planned, I read the introduction to Rowan Williams' book and turned the The Assignment. I had tried to begin reading it several weeks earlier, but the first chapter introduced so many characters that I couldn't keep them straight, and I set it aside. Now, however, I read two chapters and felt less confused.

As I began the book, I thought that the teacher's reason for the assignment made sense: it is necessary to understand the mindset of racists and bigots if we want to be able to argue effectively against them. Genocide is an ongoing problem. The class was one for outstanding high school seniors, taught by a much admired teacher. The school had no Jewish students. The two who objected were long-time friends Logan, who lived with her father, a college math professor, and Cade, whose parents ran an inn beside the lake (Ontario). Others in the class included Mason, captain of the hockey team and son of the abusive coach and Logan's rival for valedictorian; his girl friend; two other members of the hockey team; and a gay boy named Daniel. When the assignment was given, one of the hockey players gave a Nazi salute and said, "Heil Hitler," to which the other said, "Sieg Heil." The teacher rebuked them.

At 9:30. with nothing else to do, I went to bed. Although I never go to bed before midnight at home, since I don't bring the internet with me to the monastery, there is nothing to stay awake for once I've done all the reading I want for the evening.

Monday, Sept. 6, was Labor Day. I got up late, at 5:25, but still managed to be in church well before the start of Vigils and Lauds, which runs from 6:00 to about 6:45. Since it was a holiday, the kitchen crew had the day off, and monks prepared all three meals. For breakfast, at 7:25 Bro. Celestine offered a normal variety (eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes), plus "overnight apple french toast," which was delicious. He said that it was customary in his family on Easter Sunday.

Later in the morning I previewed the readings for the following Sunday's Mass, caught up on the newspapers in the chapter room, read Chapter 1 about Benedict and chapters 3 & 4 of The Assignment, and visited the graves of the two monks who died in July.

Mornings generally followed a similar pattern: rising shortly after 5:00, church, breakfast, newspapers, books. As time went on I found myself reading increasing amounts of the novel, and I held to my plan of a chapter of Williams in the morning and another in the afternoon — trying to draw applications for myself.

Midday Prayer at noon was followed by lunch in the chapter room. I don't remember who prepared it. It was pretty basic sandwich makings, chips, etc. I sat at a table with Abbot Mark and Brothers Ignatius, Basil, Celestine (both of whom were going to resume seminary studies on Tuesday), and Thomas (the new novice).

In the afternoon, it was more reading, napping, haustus (snack) at 3:30. (The pattern for the next two days as well.)

Mass was at 5:15, followed by steak (IIRC) dinner in the cloister yard, followed by Vespers, followed by KP, followed by more reading before my bedtime.

By this point I had read three chapters of The Way of St. Benedict. In the first two Williams points out that stability is a central part of a monk's vows. The monk will be part of the same community for life, which means that, whatever you think of him, he's not going away. So you have to live with him. Williams draws from the Rule of St. Benedict three necessary qualities for a monk: he must be transparent, a peacemaker, and accountable. Papering over pproblems won't work. Williams suggests that these qualities are needed in the wider world as well. In the third chapter, Williams recalls Augustine of Canterbury and the monks who accompanied him to England from Rome shortly before 600. He suggests that they and subsequent generations of monks evangelized the English by being an example of living as Christians peacefully in community.

Tuesday, September 7. Things happened at the usual times. We were back to having meals in the refectory, with reading at lunch and dinner from the book Grant, by Ron Chernow. While I was there, we were hearing about the years just before the Civil War, when Grant was in St. Louis and impoverished.

In the morning I went to the bookstore, where I saw The Boethian Commentaries of Clarembald of Arras, translated and edited by David B. George and John R. Fortin, O.S.B. Since Fr. John had been a college student about to enter the monastery when I was there in the 60's, I "had" to buy it. I read the introductory material while I was there, and now it's in my pile of books to be read.

At recreation after dinner, I was introduced to UNO, by Fr. Augustine the new prior and novice master, Father Bede, and Brothers Ignatius, Andrew the college freshman from Alabama, and Thomas the novice. I watched a couple of games and then played a couple (and almost got the hang of it).

To be continued.

A Long-awaited Visit to the Monastery

  In December 2019, at the end of one of my customary semiannual retreat/visits to St. Anselm Abbey in New Hampshire, I said to Abbot Mark and Brother Ignatius, "See you next summer." Covid prevented that, as the monastery was not receiving guests. Usually I visit in July, to include the celebration of St. Benedict's day, July 11. But when I learned that they were again receiving guests and tried to schedule a visit to include St. Benedict's Day and Bro. Aloysius' final vows on July 10, they were already at capacity with other guests who were coming for Bro. Aloysius. So I ended up scheduling my visit for September 5-9.

When I finally was able to schedule a visit, Brother Ignatius had just been appointed Guest Master, and when I arrived in mid-afternoon on the 5th, I found that he had assigned me to the last room on the guest corridor. It's on a corner and is the only one with windows on two sides. As I was arriving and bringing things in from my car, I briefly encountered Bro. Ignatius and later Abbot Mark.

On Sundays there is a service of Vespers and Benediction at 5:30, followed by dinner prepared by one of the monks. (There are employees who are a kitchen crew who prepare most meals, but not for Sunday evenings and holidays.) That day Abbot Mark had prepared cheesesteak sandwiches and fruit salad. I sat at a table with Brother Andrew (who doesn't seem to like me), Fathers Iain and Benedict, and Brother Amadeus, whom I had never met before. He is applying to transfer to St. Anselm from Belmont Abbey in North Carolina and he arrived during the lockdown. He is teaching in the St. Anselm College required humanities program for freshmen and he seems pleasant enough.

After dinner on occasions when the monks have cooked, they also do the clean up. So dinner was followed by Compline, and after that we trooped into the kitchen. It's something other guests usually don't do, but I feel a connection with the monks going back to the 1960's when I was an applicant to join, so I njoy being part of the crew. I joined the group drying dishes, which is what I always do. One monk puts things in trays which get run through a big machine. After "we" dry them, others put them away. Meanwhile, the Abbot washes the big pots that won't go through the machine, and others dry them and put them away.

All of that was over by about 8:00, and it was time for Silence until after breakfast, and I went to my room. As usual, I had brought two books, one religious, and one "other." The first was The Way of St. Benedict by Rowan Williams, the retired Archbishop of Canterbury, which had been the "table reading" earlier this year during meals taken in silence in the refectory. It has seven chapters most of which try to suggest ways in which the Rule of St. Benedict can apply to the contemporary world outside monasteries. Each chapter is based on an article he had written some time ago. I figured I could read the Introduction on Sunday, two chapters a day Monday through Wednesday, and the final chapter on Thursday morning.

My other book was The Assignment by Liza Wiemer a novel based on an actual incident in which two students objected to an assignment in an advanced history class. Students were required to support one of two sides at the January 1942 Wannsee Conference, where the question was whether to send Jews and others deemed undesirable to death camps or to sterilize them, confine them to ghettoes, and work them to death. The studebts in real life and in the book refused to take part and asked that the assignment be cancelled on the grounds that it's wqrong to require people to defend either alternative. My town's civil rights, anti-discrimination committee had decided to read it and discuss it at our meeting on September 20.

To be continued.

Insurrection: Participation by Police and Military

 The participation of police officers and active duty military personnel in the insurrection of January 6 is not entirely surprising, given what we already knew about the presence of racist, white supremacist, and pro-trump elements among their ranks. Nevertheless, it is a serious problem. People sworn to protect and defend the Constitution took it upon themselves to decide that the duly consituted legislative branch of the United States government was a "domestic enemy" of the government and that it was their right and duty to attempt to overthrow it by force and violence. They had no orders coming through their chain of command. They had only their personal belief. How did it come about, and how can it be prevented in the future? It seems to me that a large part of the problem may be a lack of education in civics. I could be wrong, but my impression is that most American schoolchildren do not receive the kind of education in civics which was commonplace sixty years ago. From the early years, they learned, in progressively growing detail, that America was founded on principles of God-given universal human rights, that our system of governments, federal and state, was designed to protect those rights by limiting governmental power and distributing it among different levels and institutions. Nevertheless, each element of government was authoritative within its own sphere. Our Constitution was studied as a work of genius, bakancing various interests in light of a keen awareness of human propensities to evil. In high school, the education was capped with a course specifically in American government, which presented the design and function of our constitutional system in detail. Such an education should prevent all but the most gullible from going rogue as far too many of our men and women in uniform seem to have done. Recently we have seen the 1619 Project proclaiming to all and sundry that racism and white supremacy are what it means to be an American — precisely what many of the insurrectionists seem to believe. I disaagree with that view of America. I say that America as a nation has always embraced the principles of the Declaration of Independence, even when we have failed to live up to them, when some Americans ignored or denied them, when others compromised them. I do not want future police officers and soldiers to be taught from their earliest days in school that America means white supremacy. We must overcome the deep mistrust of our system of government which allowed insurrection to flourish among people who were sworn to defend the Constitution but clearly did not understand what that oath meant. Certainly, the military and the police do not lose their right to have an opinion about what is best for our country and to vote for the candidates of their choice, but no citizen has the right to resort to force and violence to attempt to impose their opinion, much less one who has taken an direct oath to protect and defend the Constitution. Of course, a proper education in American history and civics is essential for the entire population.

Advent Is Here

     It's Advent! Time to get ready for Christmas. But wait, there's more to it than that.

    Sunday was the beginning of Advent, a season of four weeks leading up to Christmas. (Actually, the fourth week is usually shortened, since Christmas falls on different days of the week from year to year.) Advent actually calls our attention to three comings of Christ. Most prominently, we think of his coming into our world as one of us — the Incarnation — and we prepare to celebrate his birth at Christmas.

    But especially as Advent begins, the readings in the liturgy invite us to look forward to the Lord’s return at the end of time. In a way, this aspect continues the mood of the previous weeks. For example, this year, on November 8th we heard the parable of the ten virgins awaiting the bridegroom's arrival for the wedding feast (Matthew 25:1-13); on the 15th it was the talents (Matthew 25:14-30); and on the 11th, the judgment of the nations (Matthew 25:31-46. All three invite the hearer to live so as to be ready for the Lord's return. Then on the 29th, Advent began with Mark 13:33-37, a call from Jesus to be awake, vigilant, for his return.

    Finally, we are reminded that in the time between those two comings, Jesus comes to us daily with his grace. In the Catholic Church and other liturgical churches, we understand this as happening especially in the liturgy when he comes in the Sacred Word and the sacrament of the Eucharist.

    In addition to the reading from Mark, last Sunday we heard Isaiah 63:16-17, 19 & 24:2-7, which previews the Gospel with a prayer that the Lord would come down from heaven and that he would find us acting rightly. We also heard 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 with Paul's assurance of God's fidelity to keep us firm t the end. So all three readings direct our attention to the importance of right conduct in anticipation of the Lord's return.

    Isaiah has a preeminent place in the liturgy of Advent and Christmas. Not only are passages from him read at three of the four Sundays of Advent this year and at all the Masses of Christmas, but he is also read at weekday Masses during the first two weeks and occasionally thereafter — unless some major feast day with its own readings takes precedence. Those of you who follow me on Twitter — @blognaturgesetz — know that I usually post excerpts from scripture every day. Those are taken from the readings assigned for the Mass of the day. So you can follow along and at least get some highlights of what we're hearing for Advent.

"Fratelli Tutti" — Overview and Early Takeaways

It hardly seems more than a week since Pope Francis released his encyclical "Fratelli Tutti." Here's a brief synopsis which I wrote based on a summary from the Vatican Press Office.

On October 4 Pope Francis issued an encyclical which he began with the same words St. Francis of Assisi used to address an admonition to his Franciscan brothers. In it, says the Pope, he called for “us to acknowledge, appreciate and love each person, regardless of physical proximity, regardless of where he or she was born or lives.”

The encyclical has 8 chapters:

1. is about “certain trends in our world that hinder the development of universal fraternity.” 

2. focuses on the example the Good Samaritan gives us of active love for strangers.

3. speaks about moving outside ourselves in a broad network of relationships.

4. calls us to have “A Heart Open to the Whole World.”

5. envisions “A Better Kind of Politics.”

6. is about “coming to know and understand one another, and to find common ground.”

7. deal with the need for peacemakers and “paths of peace to heal open wounds.”

8. tells of the place of religion in “building fraternity and defending justice in society.”

Maybe you have already seen some comments, favorable or unfavorable, in the secular media. Catholics should have enough respect for the papacy as an institution to try to hear the Pope with the ears of faith, not of partisan politics. All people of good will should give a respectful hearing, if they pay attention at all So don’t let somebody else tell you what to think. It may not be easy to set aside our own ideas (It won’t be for me.), but maybe we can ;earn something.

The Vatican Press Office has issued couple of summaries of the document. Here’s a link https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-10/fratelli-tutti-pope-fraternity-social-friendship-long-summary.html to the longer, more detailed one; and here’s the link https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-10/fratelli-tutti-pope-fraternity-social-friendship-short-summary.html to the shorter one.

The full text of the encyclical is available from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ in book form for $13.95 http://store.usccb.org/fratelli-tutti-p/7-678.htm or you can download it from the Vatican’s own website. https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20201003_enciclica-fratelli-tutti.html 

Perhaps, if we have consider what the Pope is saying, there will be things we disagree with, Perhaps we will look at some things a little differently.

        After reading the first 22 (of 1340 pages, I've been especially struck at two points. One was in §7, where he wrote "As I was writing this letter, the Covid-19 pandemic unexpectedly erupted, exposing our false securities. Aside from the different ways that various countries responded to the crisis, their inability to work together became quite evident. For all our hyper-connectivity, we witnessed a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all. Anyone who thinks that the only lesson to be learned was the need to improve what we were already doing, or to refine existing systems and regulations, is denying reality." (Emphasis added.)

        The second was a section titled "The Illusion of Communication." 42-46 In it he points out that digital communication itself does not promote true communication. "They lack the physical gestures, facial expressions, moments of silence, body language and even the smells, the trembling of hands, the blushes and perspiration that speak to us and are a part of human communication. Digital relationships, which do not demand the slow and gradual cultivation of friendships, stable interaction or the building of a consensus that matures over time, have the appearance of sociability. Yet they do not really build community; instead, they tend to disguise and expand the very individualism that finds expression in xenophobia and in contempt for the vulnerable. Digital connectivity is not enough to build bridges. It is not capable of uniting humanity." Perhaps some digital relationships can develop as friendships do; but one way or another, true community is needed. Certainly I feel closer to the internet friends whom I have spent time with in person, althugh I greatly enjoy exchanging ideas with everyone whom I follow or who follow me.

I hope I'll have more to discuss as I continue reading. As always I welcome comments.

2020/07/12, 19, 26 — 15th-17th Sundays in Ordinary Time — Year A

First Readings — Isaiah 55:10-11;  Wisdom 12:13, 16-19;  1 Kings 3:5, 7-12
Second Reading — Romans 8:18-23;  26-27;  28-30
Gospel — Matthew 13:1-23;  24-43;  44-52

There could hardly have been a better time for me to have missed posting on the Sunday readings than the past couple of weeks. Not only are the second readings for all three Sundays from close together in the Epistle to the Romans, but, more importantly, the gospel readings present the entirety of a section in Matthew which may be called "Parables of the Kingdom."


There are seven parables and they can be categorized in different ways, I suppose. I see four groups:

1. sower and seed (first parable);
2. mustard seed, yeast (second and third parables);
3. hidden treasure, pearl of great price (fifth and sixth parables); and
4. weeds and wheat, net cast into the sea (fourth and seventh parables).

The first parable is about the sower and the seed. The type of ground the seed falls on — path, rocky ground, weeds and thorns, good soil — determines its growth or lack of growth. God's word — above all, Jesus, but also the gospel of salvation — is effective for the growth of God's Kingdom to the extent that those who hear it are receptive. The Kingdom of God relies on people who internalize the word then spreading it in their turn.

The second group of parables tell of the internal dynamism of the Kingdom. If it is true that believers must evangelize. the Kingdom of God's growth also take place because of an unseen power which energizes it, just as the mustard seed seems to grow on its own and a bit of yeast has power to leaven a batch of dough. This unseen power is none other than the Holy Spirit. (See the second readings for July 12 and 19.)

The third group tell us the the Kingdom of God is worth more than everything else. That  is because it brings eternal happiness with God and the rest of the members of the Kingdom in a life beyond our present one. Next to that any good thing we can enjoy in this life is only temporary and worthless. That doesn't mean that it is easy to sell everything to buy the hidden treasure or the pearl of great price. There could be some really good stuff, there could be some stuff of great sentimental value. But in principle, we have to be ready to let it go, if necessary. And of course, we can't take it with us when we go. On the other hand, it is also true that most people get to keep most of what they have even as members of the Kingdom. For them, it's a question of understanding priorities.

The fourth group tell of God's patience as well as of a judgment at the end of time. As the first reading on July 19 makes clear, God is lenient and clement. Unlike plants, which can't change in midlife to another species, humans can repent and go from being "weeds" to "wheat." That's what God wants for all of us. Nevertheless, we are free. We can reject him. Jesus uses the image of fire to indicate how undesirable it is to end up as weeds or as what is bad from the net. I don't think this has to be taken literally. More importantly, I think many people whom seem to be rejecting God are not rejecting the true God but an image which may come from a literalist reading of certain passages of the Bible (Atheists can be the most fundamentalist of fundamentalists.), or feel-good stories told to children about a god who always protects us from harm which most adults learn to treat as fables, or scare stories of an angry god designed to keep people on the straight and narrow.

After all the parables, there is a final comment that "every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old." Perhaps the wisdom of Solomon (see first reading for July 26) is needed to know which to bring out when, but Jesus insisted he was fulfilling te Law, not abolishing it. Christians retained the Old Testament, and after 2,000 years we have retained the New as well. We also look to many writings of those who have lived and worked since the time of Jesus. But the Church is not static. We are always adapting to changing times and cultures as we attempt to present the word of God to people everywhere.

2020/07/05 — 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time — Year A

First Reading — Zechariah 9:9-10
Second Reading — Romans 8:9, 11-13
Gospel — Matthew 11:25-30



As is usually the case, the first reading has been chosen to accompany the gospel passage, while the second reading is independent of the other two.


The Meek Savior Who Gives Us Rest

Jesus tells us that he is meek and humble of heart, that his yoke is easy and his burden light. He is also the one who reveals the Father to us. Zechariah tells us that this meek man is our savior and our king. He will have a world-wide rule that will be one of peace. In other words, he will bring rest to our souls.

We should understand this rest ultimately in an eschatological sense. Certainly there is comfort in the hope given by our faith, but we still have trials and troubles of many different kinds in the present life. Genesis tells us that God rested from the work of creation on the seventh day. It is when we join him in the new creation that we fully enjoy the rest for our souls which Jesus promises to those who come to him



Living by the Spirit

The second reading also reminds us that the ultimate fulfillment of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives is our resurrection. But for now, there is a struggle going on between the flesh and the spirit.

It's not that the body is bad. After all, it is to be raised as Jesus was. It's that we have sinful tendencies — tendencies which draw us away from God and from living holy lives such as the Spirit inspires.


Conclusion

Jesus reveals God the Father to us, and gives us the Holy Spirit to enable us to live according to his example and teachings. We have the promise of the rest that is eternal life with God.

Annoyance at the Fish Market

I went to the fish market today to buy 1/2 pound of haddock and about 10 ounces (.625 lb.) of mussels. There was a piece of trout and I thought that could be fun to have for a change, so I asked how much it weighed. It was .68lb. The clerk began to wrap it, but I insisted it was too much, and I'd have a half pound of haddock instead.

The clerk took a large piece of haddock and cut off a piece. It weighed .44lb. I was going to take it but she asked if she should cut a little more. I said, "Okay, just a little bit." She cut another piece, and when she added it to the scale, the total was .68lb. (the same as the trout which had been too heavy). BTW .68lb. is just a tiny bit over 11 ounces, and .44 is a bit over 7.

Well, I figured in a way it was my mistake to agree to have a bit more added to the haddock, and I'd compensate by only getting 1/2 pound (8oz.) of mussels. So I asked for that and she verified the amount I wanted. Then she started testing mussels by knocking their shells together. Some were bad, and she put those aside. The good ones she put into a plastic bag. when she was through, she weighed them: .70lb. She made no move to take some back and before I could tell her to do so she had gone to a side room, where she scooped a lot of ice into the bag with the mussels.

My total price was $12.00*, which is not bad for two meals. The mussels were particularly inexpensive, possibly because they wouldn't be salable much longer. But if I had been given what I had asked for, the haddock would have been $8.00 and the mussels $2.50. There is a 10% senior discount on Wednesdays, which would have lowered the price to $9.45.

* When I calculate the prices for the quantities I got, I find the haddock basic price would be $10.87 and the mussels $3.50, for a total of $14.37. The discount would be $1.44 and the net (no pun intended) $12.93. Maybe she cut me an extra break because she knew she had sold me more than I had asked for.

So, as I say, it was annoying to be sold so much more than I had asked for. Since the mussels seem to be on their last legs, I think I'd better cook them tonight, and setting aside the shells, I may be able to eat them all. But 11oz. of haddock will be too much for one meal. There will be leftovers.

Did John Roberts Swing the 2020 Election to Trump?

People who are pro-life generally believe that abortion is wrong in all or most cases because it involves the willful killing of a human being and that Roe v. Wade, which ruled that obtaining an abortion is the constitutional right of any pregnant woman, is wrong both morally and as a matter of law. Most would agree with Justice Thomas, that nothing in the Constitution was intended to create such a right or did so inadvertently. Therefore, we believe that the decision in Roe v. Wade should be reversed.

In light of the number of lives taken by abortion, we see abortion as one of the greatest evils of our time, and reversing Roe is a high priority. For many, it is the highest priority. A few of us see facts such as the decades-long decline in rates of abortion and the fact that States could still allow abortion even if Roe is reversed as reasons not to make it the single determining factor in how we vote.

It had seemed that with the appointment of Justice Kavanaugh there was a solid "conservative" majority on the Court — Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh — which would reverse Roe when it got the chance. That belief could lead some pro-lifers to decide to base their vote for president on factors other than the appointment of conservative Supreme Court justices. Now CJ Roberts has called that belief into question, if not contradicted it.

In the Louisiana case just decided, June Medical Services, L.L.C. v. Russo, CJ Roberts found a Louisiana law unconstitutional, when only four years ago he thought a similar Texas law was constitutional. He claims that he still believes that the Court was wrong four years ago when it disagreed with him. But now he followed the decision he disagrees with and became the swing vote to strike down theLouisiana law. He did so based on a principle called "stare decisis," which he describes as follows:

The legal doctrine of stare decisis requires us, absent special circumstances, to treat like cases alike. 

It has long been “an established rule to abide by former precedents, where the same points come again in litigation; as well to keep the scale of justice even and steady, and not liable to waver with every new judge’s opinion.” 

Stare decisis is not an “inexorable command.” Ramos v. Louisiana, 590 U. S. ___, ___ (2020) (slip op., at 20) (internal quotation marks omitted). But for precedent to mean anything, the doctrine must give way only to a rationale that goes beyond whether the case was decided correctly. The Court accordingly considers additional factors before overruling a precedent, such as its adminstrability, its fit with subsequent factual and legal developments, and the reliance interests that the precedent has engendered. See Janus v. State, County, and Municipal Employees, 585 U. S. ___, ____–____ (2018) (slip op., at 34–35).

Stare decisis principles also determine how we handle a decision that itself departed from the cases that came before it. In those instances, “[r]emaining true to an ‘intrinsically sounder’ doctrine established in prior cases better serves the values of stare decisis than would following” the recent departure. Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Peña, 515 U. S. 200, 231 (1995) (plurality opinion). Stare decisis is pragmatic and contextual, not “a mechanical formula of adherence to the latest decision.” Helvering v. Hallock, 309 U. S. 106, 119 (1940).

If he feels bound to follow a precedent he thinks is wrong and that is only four years old, how can he overrule a precedent that he thinks is wrong (if he does) and that is 47 years old? There can be grounds for overruling a precedent, as stated in the quotes. But would any of them apply if Roe v. Wade were directly challenged?

Is Roe difficult to administer? There have been numerous cases with respect to laws States have enacted. The question is whether they are the power os States to regulate abortion or whether they place an "undue burden" on women seeking abortion.

Are there new "factual and legal developments?" There are none I can see that call Roe into question.

As for "reliance interests," certainly people have grown accustomed to having a legal right to an abortion.

Was there an "intrinsically sounder" doctrin established by a previous line of cases? No. This was a new area, not one in which previous decisions were set aside?

Maybe CJ Roberts could find the distinction between the right of women to abort their unborn children and the right of States to legislate standards of safety and to protect viable fetuses is too difficult to administer. But there is certainly no guarantee that he would do so. And apart from that, what he says here suggests that he would feel compelled to uphold the precedent of Roe v. Wade in any case that sought to overturn it.

To me, the decision just shows that you can never be sure how a justice will vote, so voting for a candidate just so he'll nominate a conservative to the Court is no guarantee of getting the decision you want. And even if Roe is reversed, that won't end abortion. Trump is so terribly unfit for office that we have to get rid of him; but I still can see how some people could decide in the light of CJ Roberts' decision that they have to vote for Trump.

The result is that for pro-lifers who believe that overturning Roe v. Wade outweighs all other considerations, voting to reelect Donald Trump becomes an absolute obligation. Before this decision, they could have thought that there was a solid majority already on the Court and based their decision on other issues. But by clearly signaling his unreliability, Chief Justice Roberts has certainly delivered a number of voters to Donald Trump. The question is whether the election will be close enough for their votes to decide the outcome in a State or States which will change the electoral college majority.

2020/06/28 — 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time — Year A

First Reading — 2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16a
Second Reading — Romans 6:3-4, 8-11
Gospel — Matthew 10:37-42



I see two messages in last Sunday's readings. One is in the first part of the gospel and it goes along with the second reading. The other message is in the second part of the gospel, and the first reading illustrates it.


A Prophet’s Reward

Jesus tells us that those who receive us receive him and the Father, and since our baptism makes us prophets, those who receive us will have their reward. The story from Second Kings gives an example. The woman of Shunem was hospitable toward Elisha. She knew he was a man of God, and she wanted to be generous toward him. She wasn’t expecting anything in return. But she received a reward. And it was not just a small token of gratitude. It was probably the greatest thing a woman could hope for in that culture and that time: a baby son.

This reminds us of what Jesus says in the parable of the Judgment of the Gentiles: any good deed done to the least of his brothers is done to him and will obtain eternal blessedness for the benefactor. Not only does this encourage us to imitate the kindness of the woman of Shunem; it also gives us a reason to expect that God will give his reward to everybody who shows kindness to us.



Losing One’s Life for Jesus’ Sake

The second reading begins by reminding us that baptism unites us with the death of Jesus in order that we might also have a share in his new, glorified life. That new life isn’t just for the next life, after we die. St. Paul tells us it has already begun: we must be dead to sin and live for God here and now.

When Jesus tells us we must lose our lives for his sake in order to find them, it means the same thing. There are places where persecution of Christians is so bad that people are literally losing their lives for Christ. But for us, it is more metaphorical. We take up our cross and lose our life when we live the life of holiness to which we are called by our baptism. And if the words about not loving parents or family more than Jesus seem startling, demanding, and almost impossible, let’s remember that love is not a zero-sum game. To love Jesus more does not mean loving parents or family less. And we aren’t talking about emotion. We are talking about a conscious choice. If our family members are somehow leading us into a sinful way of life, we need to refuse to follow their lead. If we don't follow the example of others — whether it's smoking, having another drink, playing a sport, or anything else, sinful or not — they can feel rebuked, and they can resent it. But we mustn't let them draw us into bad behavior. Because we still love them, this can feel like carrying a cross. What Jesus is telling us is simply that we don’t give up our Christian way of holiness even if someone we love wants us to.


Conclusion

We should want to be people who are received as representatives of Jesus, as righteous men and women, so that kindness to us is kindness to God. We don’t let others lead us away from Jesus, we lead them to Jesus.