Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Tarot: A Review of "Meditations on the Tarot" by Anonymous (Valentin Tomberg) | Stratford Caldecott

Here is a good review, again, pointing out the fundamental orthodoxy of Meditations on the Tarot.

Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Tarot: A Review of "Meditations on the Tarot" by Anonymous (Valentin Tomberg) | Stratford Caldecott

‘No Religion’ on the Rise: 19.6% Have No Religious Affiliation - Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

Why are so many people not affiliating with a religion?

‘No Religion’ on the Rise: 19.6% Have No Religious Affiliation - Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

Why Pray for the Dead?

Lincoln's Log 11-11-12

“Therefore he [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.” (2 Mac 12:45)

“Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them.”

St. John Chrysostom

This week we celebrated the feast of All Soul's day, a day when we pray for all those who have died. At our parishes we have “Remembering Services” and spend time thinking about our loss, our mortality, and our eternal destiny.

Why do we pray for the dead? On one level, it is simply instinct. When someone we love has died, we miss them and long to talk to them. There is a void in our soul. Something is missing and we are incomplete, so we reach out with our thoughts and words to connect with the person who is gone.

Sometimes we are afraid. The reality of death comes home to us when we are confronted personally by the death of someone we love. This fear can move us to cry out to God. We don't know exactly what happens after death. It is a mystery to us so we try to reach out beyond the mystery and connect.

On a purely human level, fear and loss lead us to pray for the dead.

But there is more to it than that. There is more than psychology. The fundamental reason that Catholics pray for the dead is because of love. We know that “neither death, nor life, nor any other creature will be able to separate us fro the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38). Love conquers all. Death does not have the power to end a relationship of love.

Just as we would pray for someone during their lifetime, we can pray for them after death. We are motivated by love. The mystery of death is conquered by the mystery of love.

This month, as we continue to pray for the dead in a special way, let's always remember that it is love's victory over death that is at the root of all of our prayers for the dead.

Peace,

Lincoln A. Wood

Home : Institute of School & Parish Development, Inc.

Home : Institute of School & Parish Development, Inc.

Resources for development and engagement.  These folks were used by the Diocese to create our Catholic Schools Initiative.

CSMonitor.com article on Silence

A nice reflection on silence from the Christian Science Monitor.

Just a touch ... - CSMonitor.com

Day 3 #2 View From the World | Synod 2012

Day 3 #2 View From the World | Synod 2012:

Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay, spoke for the Asian Bishops’ Confederation at the recent Synod on the New Evangelization.  He emphasized that “For us religion is more a discipleship of a person than an adherence to a doctrine or obedience to a set of rules. The person of Jesus is deeply attractive: His message and His life, His passion, death and resurrection. Adherence to doctrine comes as fruit of discipleship of a master.”

From VIS 12-2-2011

BENEDICT XVI ATTENDS FIRST SERMON OF ADVENT

VATICAN CITY, 2 DEC 2011 (VIS) - At 9 a.m. today, the Pope and the pontifical family attended the first sermon of Advent delivered by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa O.F.M. Cap., preacher of the Pontifical Household, on the theme: "Go into all the world and proclaim the good news".

  This year's sermons, which are taking place in the "Redemptoris Mater" chapel of the Vatican Apostolic Palace, focus on the general topic of evangelisation, in view of next year's Synod of Bishops on the same subject. Particular attention will be given to four historical periods in which missionary efforts accelerated or resumed: (1) The second half of the third century when vast sectors of the Roman empire were converted thanks to the efforts of bishops. (2) The sixth to ninth centuries during which the monks worked for the re-evangelisation of Europe following the barbarian invasions. (3) The sixteenth century with the discovery and conversion of the peoples of the New World through the apostolate of the friars. (4) Our own day, when the Church is committed to re-evangelising a secularised West though the commitment of the lay faithful.

 These time periods and their delineation are very interesting to me.

Cardinal Pell on True and False Conscience

In doing some background reading on conscience for some articles and presentations on conscience I ran across the following article.

Cardinal Pell on True and False Conscience

The key paragraph that struck me was:

"Much of the debate over conscience in Catholic circles focuses on the possibility of a conscience against the Church's teaching. This seems to me a peculiar notion. For a start, it would mean that dissenters believed that following the Church on, for example, contraception or same-sex relationships, would actually give them a guilty conscience, not just frustrated wishes. Yet it seems clear that most dissenters do not fear guilt if they obey the Church: What they fear is precisely the frustration of their unsatisfied wishes. ... "

It makes a strong point about the difference in the experience of being convicted by our conscience and being frustrated in our desires. I cannot imagine anyone feeling guilty about following the church's teaching.

I take that back. I can imagine someone feeling guilty because they are allowed to express their sexuality while their homosexual brothers and sisters cannot. Hmmm. Something to think about.

Lincoln’s Log 11-7-10

Do you believe in the resurrection?

This Sunday we are presented with a question from the Sadducees. The Sadducees were a group of leaders at the time of Jesus who did not believe in the resurrection. The Sadducees were made up of aristocratic, priestly families who had become collaborators with the Roman occupiers. Their beliefs shifted with the political winds. They were invested in maintaining the status quo in order to protect their own power and privilege. This position blinded them. The faith of the Sadducees was completely in this world. Their question about who a dead man would be married to if he had married multiple times during his life reveals how this-worldly their thinking was. Their fate was tied to this world and so they could imagine nothing beyond it. An afterlife was inconceivable to them.

In contrast, our faith teaches us about the reality of life after death. There is more to life than can be found in this world. Our faith roots us in heaven; not in our position, power, or privilege in this world. As Catholics, we know that this world will never satisfy us. We are pilgrims in the world. We live in the world, but are not of this world.

In times of struggle and suffering our belief in eternal life becomes apparent. Because of his faith, Ignatius of Antioch could write, “It is better for me to die in Christ Jesus than to reign over the ends of the earth. Him it is I seek – who died for us. Him it is I desire – Let me receive pure light...” He wrote this on the way to the Roman Colosseum, condemned to be devoured by lions. Courage like this is rooted in a faith in eternal life.

May we always remember that we are made for a heavenly homeland far beyond this world.

Peace,

Lincoln

De Mello to Br. Roger - What a transition

A week or so ago I finished the volume of the Modern Spiritual Masters on Anthony de Mello and now I'm reading the volume on Brother Roger of Taize.

What a change!

• De Mello is full of humor and spiritual "shock and awe" with short stories and exercises packed like dynamite to jar a new insight.  Br. Roger is like a smoldering fire or a deep pool.  The insights are profound and invite the reader to the depths of the heart.
• De Mello invites the head to new understanding, Br. Roger invites the heart to new feelings.
• De Mello's writings are never about himself or his own experience.  They invite the reader to experience something new for themselves.  Br. Roger lays out the way his own heart sees the world and invites the reader to see the world with his eyes.
• De Mello focuses on the individual.  Br. Roger focuses on the person in community.
• De Mello is a thinker.  Br. Roger is a feeler.
• De Mello invites laughter.  Br. Roger invites tears.
• I'm reminded of the saying "life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel."
• De Mello seems light.  Br. Roger, heavy and profound.

Both of these men are spiritual masters, but their approaches could not be more different.  They each have come to know and communicate the God of Jesus Christ in powerful, life-giving ways.  I thank God for each of them.  I can imagine myself being healed through laughing with De Mello and weeping with Br. Roger.  Both men offer a way to God in freedom and love.

ZENIT - On St. Matilda, God's Nightingale

This address by Benedict XVI was recommended by my friend Dwayne.  It points out the power of the liturgy to make saints.  The formative power of the liturgy is incredible and I am struggling, as a Parish Director in a parish without a resident priest as Pastor to unleash that power.  How does one unleash the formative power of the liturgy in a community which gathers only once a week?

ZENIT - On St. Matilda, God's Nightingale

Nostalgia

This morning as I was shoveling snow, I was thinking about my class reunion coming up this summer and wondering what I would say to my classmates.

One phrase kept coming to my mind.

At one point in our lives, it seemed that "the future's so bright I gotta wear shades." It seemed like we were on top of the world. Now, at least for me, it feels like the world is on top of me. What happened?

I don't know what happened. Is growing up all about losing optimism or is it about gaining wisdom? What does hope look like after, or in the midst of, a mid-life crisis?

Hope is the key virtue of our time. The poster of Obama with the single word, HOPE on it has captured the imagination of many people. Hope.

I titled this post nostalgia and maybe nostalgia is an attempt to find hope in the past. It was good then, or at least the way we remember it was good - so it will be good again. Goodness is possible.

I don't know. I thought I had more insight while shoveling snow. It seemed wise at the time but now it seems trite.

Hope.

The Call of Samuel

Today's reading recounting the call of Samuel got me thinking. Our call comes from what wakes us up. Samuel is asleep, and is awakened by something. He doesn't know what it is that awakens him and mistakes it for Eli.

My own experience of call is one of awakening but also a similar confusion. What is it that is waking me up. I've mistaken it several times, like Samuel. Fortunately, Eli doesn't have a choice. My heart has realized some of the false things that I thought had awakened me. I know there are more. My career is one thing that I think should awaken to, but it is becoming clearer that it is only God that will satisfy.

Yesterday I was reading Nouwen's, The Inner Voice of Love and he writes:

There is a deep hole in your being, like an abyss. You will never succeed in filling that hole, because your needs are inexhaustible. You have to work around it so that gradually the abyss closes.
Since the hole is so enormous and your anguis so deep, you will always be temped to flee from it. There are two extremes to avoid: being completely absorbed in your pain [I have been experiencing that far to much lately], and being distracted by so many things that you stay far away from the wound you want to heal.

The call is to engage the pain of life. The pain awakens us, like Samuel was awakened. However, the challenge is to let that pain speak. Let the pain teach us and call us to God and not to avoidance (Eli). Eventually all Eli's will fail and we will be confronted with the pain of life that we have been avoiding. Maybe this is purgatory? Anyway, I'm rambling. I am glad this is a private blog and no one else will see this.

1-18-09 Reflections on Snow Shoveling and Prayer

I've always wanted to write an article on snow shoveling and prayer. OK, not always, just since I moved to WI and started to try to find meaning in snow shoveling (there is certainly a lot of it to do).

Teresa of Avila has the classic analogy of prayer as going through stages similar to watering a garden. First, one begins by hauling the water from a nearby stream. Then a pump is put in and the water is pumped. Third, the garden is irragated and comes with little or no effort. Finally, rain pours down from above. Prayer works the same way. At first it takes a lot effort. After some time prayer rains down with no effort from the one praying.

Snow shoveling.... When we first moved to WI we just had a shovel. It was a lot of work to shovel just a little snow. Now we have a "snow scoop" which makes it a lot easier. It still takes effort, but not quite as much. Eventually, we may move on to a snowblower and eventually the sun will come out and melt the snow.

Abhishiktananda chapters 8-9

 

Well, I finished the book, Swami Abhishiktananda:  Essential Writings.  I don't know what held me up but I'm done now.  It's strange, I vacilate back and forth between the contemplative approach to prayer, and the charismatic approach (which I actually know very little about).  One night this week I had insomnia and felt drawn to Francis MacNutt's book, Healing.  Strange...

 

Anyway, back to the book.  These two chapters really are a nice way to bring the book to a conclusion.  The chapter on prayer is excellent.  I can see the connections with John Main's teaching very clearly.  I may even want to get A's book, Prayer.

 

Some key passages from Chapter 8 on prayer:

The mystery of God is first of all the eternal call of the Father to the Son -- the call in which the Father and the Son essentially are:  'You are my Son' (Ps. 2:7; see also Mark 1:1-11).  It is also the response to this call, the eternal cry of the Son; "Abba, Father!" -- the ceaseless prayer of Jesus both on earth and in heaven, a prayer which expresses both the source and the fullness of his love, his sacrifice, and his unending intercession (182).

This passage reveals the deep Trinitarian understanding of prayer that A has.  We are swept up into the conversation of the Trinity.

The very reason for the coming on earth of Jesus the Son of God was to share with mankind that divine experience which was eternally his (181).

I share this foundational understanding of prayer.  A also stresses God's omnipresence.  God is everywhere:  beyond form, present in Creation...

A has an interesting comparison between the Jesus prayer and the prayer of namajapa as it is called in India (184-187).  He suggests that the Christian prayer has an emphasis on forgiveness, while the Hindu prayer focus on adoration.  The Christian Jesus prayer isn't about a morbid focus on sin but

it is one way of expressing a deeply personal experience of the love of God and the realization that in forgiving us he reveals most fully his love and almighty power.

While the Hindu focus on adoration

is rather a sign of total self-forgetfulness and of lack of concern for all that affects them personally -- in Christian terms, the complete trust of a child who knows that his father is caring for his needs and whose only personal wish is to continue gazing at him (186).

The chapter ends with an excellent discussion of the prayer of silence.

the main thrust of spiritual discipline and ascetic life should be to prepare man for the stillness of his faculties where he can be at the full disposal fo the Spirit (192).

Chapter 9:  "Awakening" was much more challenging.  It is apparent that his heart attack in July 1973 was a powerful spiritual experience for A.

I lived my heart attack in the first place as a marvelous spiritual adventure (199).

A returns again and again to the limitations, even the hinderances of concepts, ideas, and notions.

All notions are burned in the fire of experience (198).

There is only one awakening.  A doubts whether or not he is truly a Christian any more because for him doctrine has become completely relativized.  It is the experience of awakening that matters.  The freedom from self, from all situations, reveals an indwelling Trinity.

The Trinity is the ultimate mystery of oneself.  But in the very depth of this discovery of the Self-Trinity there lies the paradox:  in the mystery of the non-source, who still speaks of the Source?  It is only at the level of the Source, of the trickle of water springing up, that we speak of what is beyond.  In the beyond there is not beyond.  It simply is, etad vai tad!  That, just that! (203).

The symbol of the Grail is also introduces in the chapter.  It would be interesting to hear more of how this symbol played in A's thought.  He was obviously a seeker after the Grail and it seems that he found it at the end of his life.

The final selection in the book is a nice summary:

One who knows several mental (or religious or spiritual) languages is incapable of absolutizing any formulations whatever -- of the gospel, of the Upanishads, of Buddhism, etc.  He can only bear witness to an experience -- about which he can only stammer (205).

A does more than stammer.  He bears witness to a powerful experience of God and speaks the language of both Christianity and Hinduism well.  However, it is the experience, not the formulations, that are important for him.

Turning a Maze into a Labyrinth

I think that one of the things going on in my life is that I am starting to see my life more as a labyrinth than a maze. A maze is full of choices that are made. Some choices are "right" and others are "wrong." Some lead to dead ends, others take you closer to the goal.

Labyrinths, on the other hand, don't have wrong turns (or right turns for that matter). They are simply paths that twist and turn. You do arrive at your destination in spite of (or better because of) the twists and turns. The only choice in a labyrinth is to keep going, to stop, or to turn around. There is no other path.

The moral life, with its focus on freedom and choice, depicts life as a maze.

Spirituality depicts life as a labyrinth.

This decision to move to WI has made me rely much more on the image of the labyrinth. I am simply following a path that God has set out for me. This is a big turn in the road, but it is a turn in the road, not a turn I am choosing to make (other than to stay on the road).

Maybe that is why the labyrinth is speaking to me these days.

Abhishiktananda Chapter 7 "God" Notes

This short chapter takes a very apophatic approach. At times, A sounds like a Pantheist but he isn't because he always notes that God is beyond all things as well as the source of all things. The paradoxes abound in this chapter. It starts off well with

"God is beyond all notions. They are only the spring-boards to be used for
diving -- and the spring-board is not the lake" (169).

A makes the claim that God is more self evident than our selves. In fact, we flee God because His reality makes us aware of our own unreality.

"The absoluteness of being is as terrifying to him [our selves/souls] as
non-being, since it as surely destroys all that he wants himself to be, or
rather, wants to feel that he is" (170).

This fundamental reality of God is infinitely mysterious and transcendent, yet it is revealed through all created things. This reality of God is difficult to discover because

"God is too close to us. That is why we constantly fail to find him"
(175).

We fear this intimacy that strips us and threatens to destroy us. I am reminded of John of the Cross' description of the dark nights of the soul and spirit where we are blinded by God's presence and experience this presence as an absence. Again,

"We can only be distant from our conception of God, never from him" (173).

I wonder what this says about sin. From at least one perspective, sin does separate us from God. In fact, that is part of the definition of sin. And yet, to the degree that we continue to exist we are in relationship with God. All that exists is good, even us when we sin, although we are less "real" beings due to our sin.
A also writes about the contemplative call.

"A contemplative is not one who shuts himself away with the idea that he has
formed of God and takes pleasure in it. The real contemplative is the man
who has allowed the spirit of God to carry him off and to deprive him of every
kind of prop, even in what he calls his contemplation" (174).

The chapter ends with two very powerful prose poems: "Everywhere He Is, And Only He" and "Seek God." These would be great sources for contemplation and reflection and even discussion on the nature of our relationship with God.

Catholicism and Pop Culture

The average American spends 2.6 hours per day watching TV and 9 minutes in prayer or other spiritual activities.  With this as a starting point, Cathleen Kaveny, a professor of Law and Theology at the University of Notre Dame, writer, and blogger discussed five ways that Catholicism can relate to pop culture, drawing on the work of the theologian Reinhold Neibuhr.

These included two ways that see the church and culture primarily as adversaries:

• 
  
  "Christ against Pop Culture" sees pop culture and TV as irredeemable.  All TV and all aspects of the popular culture, in this view, are sources of temptation and corruption.
  
  
• 
  
  "Christ within Pop Culture" is a mirror image of this view.  It is the perspective that sees the values of Pop Culture as the values of the Gospel.  "The values of Friends or Seinfeld are seen as the values of Jesus," Kaveny said.  These values are then used to critique the church.

Two less antagonistic options for the relationship of the church and culture were:

• 
  
  "Christ above Culture" where religion is placed on the distant horizon.  In this view, religion is seen as a good thing, but "not yet" for me.  Kaveny cited St. Augustine's famous phrase, "Make me chaste, but not yet" as an illustration of this point of view.  "I'll live in the pop culture today, but maybe when I'm 65 I'll get religious."
  
  
• 
  
  "Christ and Pop Culture in Paradox" was the second less antagonistic option.  This is the all too familiar experience of living by the values of the popular culture on Monday through Saturday and reserving Sunday for "God" or "Church."  Pop Culture and religion exist side by side but do not engage one another.  There is a schitzophrenic relationship between religion and pop culture.

The final view that Kaveny presented was the viewpoint she saw as the most helpful:

• 
  
  "Christ engaging (or transforming) Pop Culture."  This point of view has its basis in the Catholic belief that the story of Jesus, the Christian story, is the ultimate expression of the human story.  "The joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the men of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted in any way, are the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well.  Nothing that is genuinely human fails to find an echo in their hearts"  (Vatican II Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World).  This search for anything genuinely human can lead to an enriching conversation with popular culture.

How are Catholics to engage with the popular culture?  The key, for Kaveny, lies in an authentic understanding of the human being.  This includes the understanding that all human beings are made in the image of God, are effected by sin, and seek happiness (although usually in the wrong places).  TV, movies, and other elements of the popular culture explore the perennial themes of the human condition.  Kaveny cited Friends, Entourage, and Sex in the City as struggling with the question of the relationship of friendship and erotic love.  The Sopranos explored and subverted cultural and religious ideas of redemption. Popular culture gives us insight into our situation.  What they dramatize and what they make fun of can challenge us to reflect on our faith more deeply.

While not everyone needs to engage the popular culture, it is important that some people do.  A conversation between Catholicism and popular culture has the potential of deepening and transforming all of those involved.

This lecture, given on the campus at the University of Wyoming, was made possible by the Commonweal Speakers Program due to the generous gift of James H. Duffy.

Abhishiktananda Notes Chapter 6 - Christianity

This chapter develops A's thought on Christianity. It has a strongly mystical thrust with a focus on experience. It also places the doctrine of the Trinity at the center of A's worldview.

"There is but one Reality and one alone, the community of life which exists at
the heart of Being, between the Father and the Son, in the unity of the
Spirit. That alone is; and it is within this community of life that the
man who is has his existence." (150)

This central reality is radically mysterious. The entire creation points to this Mystery at the heart of creation and as the individual soul awakens to this ultimate reality, this soul percieves the mystery signified more and more clearly but all things and even in the soul itself. Ultimately, the soul is united with this Mystery,

"... there is no place left, no spot in which she may declare "I, Me."
Before ever this "I" is evidenced within her the abyss is already resounding
with the I which God utters to himself from all eternity." (152)

The Christians task is simply to radiate this ultimate reality more and more clearly to the world.

"He has no other raison d'etre in this world than to recieve and transmit to all
his powers of body and soul and extend through them to the whole world the
radiance of this glorious awakening-to-being in the depths of the self in the
blessed place of resurrection." (153)

This is a profound vision and I share it. The challenge I see is the individualism inherent in it. It is the individual soul which awakens to ultimate Reality. I think this is because it is, like all of A's work, an experiential approach. The individual experiences himself as an individual which as gradually drawn into the abyss of community.

The rest of the chapter spins out this vision in various ways. He uses the example of Francis of Assisi as someone who lived this vision by responding the the radical call of the Gospel. I struggled with this because, while Francis is clearly an example of following God's radical call, it is difficult to see how "normal" men and women can respond to this call. This example limits the applicability to a select few and I believe that is its fatal flaw. He does move beyond the example in stating that

"Only the one who has been reborn in the Spirit and has allowed himself in the
same Spirit to sound the very depths of God can bear witness to the mystery of
the Father and the Son, and can pass on the consuming fire of the Christian
message, which speaks at once of God's inaccessibility and of his nearness."
(156)

This broadens the vision to include anyone who takes the Gospel call seriously, no matter what there state in life.

This chapter also approaches the question of the uniqueness of Jesus and relativizes the question.

"If, as non-Christians maintain, Jesus is only a man, then whatever natural
endowments he possesses must necessarily be available to every man. And if
he is the Son of God, as Christians believe, then they must not forgete that,
according to their faith, Jesus shares with them by grace all that he possesses
by right of his divine Sonship." (158)

In other words, the theoretical question of Jesus ontological status doesn't matter on the practical level. The important thing is to follow His teaching and have a spirit of discipleship.

There is also much discussion in this chapter of Saccidananda (Sat=Being, Cit=Consciousness, and Ananda = Bliss). This provides a new perspective on Trinitarian doctrine. A states,

"... just as Judaism and Hellenism have made their contributions, so the divine
preparation of India in its turn will serve to lead believers to contemplate the
mystery in a new depth." (164)

The chapter concludes with a description of Mass celebrated with a friend on the banks of the Ganges.

Jakobshavn Fjord, Greenland, Iceberg, Photo of the Day, Picture, Photography, Wallpapers - National Geographic

Jakobshavn Fjord, Greenland, Iceberg, Photo of the Day, Picture, Photography, Wallpapers - National Geographic

This is a beautiful picture of an iceberg.