Blogging Church – Online Advent Community Gatherings and More

Many blogs will feature ways to pray together during Advent. We have our St. Edward the Confessor Advent Reflections 2010 here on this blog and at that one. Please join us in reading and praying through the season and if you are so inclined, please consider submitting a reflection. Contact me for information and available days.

It is a gift to be a part of a powerful Catholic Christian blogging community via Loyola Press. Our brothers and sisters at Loyola are featuring an Advent journey for us all at various sites of theirs. Please click on that image to see what it is all about.

Friend of the blog, Meredith Gould has begun one of her fine Advent and Christmas traditions at her blog. For the first look at the annual humorous but yet quite serious, Schlep of the Magi, click here.

Another fine friend of our blog, Fr. Austin Fleming – aka, The Concord Pastor, will continue to offer up some of the finest Catholic blogging that you will ever experience. For example, in this post, he offers us some true Advent (as opposed to Christmas, which happens at the end of Advent) music.

Right here in Albany there is an exceptional Catholic blog that has quickly become part of my regular reading, my regular reading being a little scattershot due to the demands of my schedule.  Dating God is written by Brother Daniel Horan, OFM, who is in residence at Siena College.  Here Dan ushers in the new (liturgical) year which Advent brings us to.

And also here in Albany there is yet another great Catholic writer and blogger, Mary DeTurris Poust. Mary’s blog, Not Strictly Spiritual is a great source of wisdom, prayer and family life.  Mary also blogs at OSV Daily Take and has a fine Advent piece that you can read here, which include yet more Advent resources.

From across the Atlantic, we have UK blogger and poet, Philomena Ewing to visit. Phil is one of the most generous bloggers that I have come to know and she lavishes so many fine things for us to consider at this time of year and always. See her work at Blue Eyed Ennis.

Coming to us from France and Puerto Rico, a unique Catholic voice is heard from Claire Bangasser at her blog, A Seat At The Table. She is wise and deep and will enlighten you and challenge you with her words and images. Her blog is a table at which I am always fed.

Scientist and Catholic writer Michelle Francl presents thoughts worth pondering at her blog, Quantum Theology. I am ever moved by her words and thoughts and I think you might be as well. 

Through the blogging community at Loyola Press, I got to know Andie, from Meandering Through Life. She is a catechetical leader and a fine writer. Here is her post bringing us into Advent, which is quite wonderful. 

The Jesuit institution of higher learning, Creighton University has long offered daily scriptural reflections year round. Father Pat introduced me to them as we began our first parish reflections in Advent 2007. You can find them as well as other spiritual inspiration here and here.

Speaking of Jesuits, the Irish Jesuits have a wonderful daily inspirational prayer website called Sacred Space.

Blogging from Salt Lake City where is a permanent deacon at the Cathedral of the Madeline, Scott Dodge puts forth some deep theological thoughts for us to enter into prayerfully and in community. Read Scott’s post on Advent beginning here.

In our ecumenical corner I introduce you to another Christian blogger. Each year, Methodist minister, writer and artist and Jan Richardson presents a blog called The Advent Door. It is always a place worth visiting.

Another ecumenical addition is the fantastic website of ecumenist, liturgist and Anglican priest Fr. Bosco Peters from New Zealand. His website is called Liturgy and includes web resources for prayer and worship as well as a blog. It is an amazing place to visit and Fr. Bosco is truly a man of God.

Swords Into Plowshares… Advent Begins

Today I had an email from a friend who is editing a Very Important Document. The Very Important Document (she works for Very Important People – seriously!) has been worked on by many people and it is kind of a mess. Her words on the subject were, “I’ll admit that I’m really good at what I do, but I can’t turn water into wine!”

Can’t we all think of things that we face that we just don’t believe that we can do?  Editing, writing, cooking, cleaning, loving, being, transforming, being transformed, living, reconciling, exercising, helping, being helped… The list is endless, isn’t it? What we just can’t do is so clear, but what we must do is clear as well.  Of course, there is wisdom in knowing what we can’t do, but there is hope in believing what we might do.

The majority of us can’t turn water into wine, that much is true, but we can do a lot.  We are called to participate and cooperate with salvation and that often means challenging our own assumptions about what we can and must do. If we are to ascend the mountain of the Lord, which Isaiah is telling us about in the first reading, we might want to engage our faith and engage with one another to do so. I love how easily I type that and how I manage to avoid doing so. *sigh*

This kind of thing requires “waking up.” St. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, seems to understand this. Oh, I understand it intellectually, but I would be pretty hard pressed to actually ask you to wake up as I remain in my snoozey state. This is why we must all carry each other along. By the way, this is a tough reading. St. Paul is not just speaking literally about certain kinds of behavior, but speaking to the Romans who were given over to gluttony and lust. With Thanksgiving behind us and Christmas shopping before us, gluttony and lust are around hand and hand. It is not just about sex, that is for sure.

The Gospel, our first now that we are in the Year of Matthew, recounts the story of Noah for us. The theme is this – be awake! We do not know when the Lord will come and we must be vigilant. This does not, once more, mean taking this literally. It does mean that we are invited to quiet down, pay attention, change things and be aware of what is really important. This is our challenge. It can’t be done alone, that is why we meet and pray in community.

We know not the day nor the hour, but we know what we need to do. Now if only I could turn that sword into a plowshare… Will you help me?

Finding God in the Whisper – A Reprinted Guest Post in Memory of Deacon Chuck Taylor

The Parish Community of St. Edward the Confessor mourns the loss of +Deacon Chuck Taylor, who passed into eternal life on Wednesday November 24, 2010. We pray for peace and rest for Chuck and we ask for consolation and healing for his wife Jackie and for all who loved him.

In August of 2008, I heard Deacon Chuck preach this homily and asked him for his notes so that I might publish it on the parish blog. It got quite a few comments too!

One thing that strikes me about this homily as I reprint it is the theme of silence… which is what the blessed season of Advent invites us to, the silence that helps us to encounter our Lord.  The idea of finding God in the whisper is one attuned to this time of year and this, although not in sync with our Advent readings, begins the very first Advent reflection for 2010.

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(Editor’s note: I often take my inspiration for blog posts from the readings at mass and/or the homily. As I sat in church today and listened to Deacon Chuck’s words I knew that they were not the inspiration for the post, but that they were the post. He graciously gave me his homily text to publish here.-Fran)

God In The Whisper – A Homily by Deacon Chuck Taylor

We heard in our first reading from the first book of Kings “…after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a tiny whispering sound. When he heard this, Elijah wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.”

King Ahab’s reign was marred by spiritual compromise and failure. He had taken a foreigner, Jezebel, as his queen and she was despised by those who were faithful to Yahweh. She had replaced the priests of God with priests of her foreign gods, To understand this reading, we need a little background from the Book of Kings. The IsraeliteBa’al and Asherah. Only the prophet Elijah stood up to Jezebel. In the book of Kings, we are told that Elijah challenged Jezebel’s prophets to determine who was the true God. The false prophets called on their gods and Elijah called on Yahweh to see which would rain fire from heaven and consume their offerings. After the false prophets failed, Elijah repeatedly pour water over the offering and wood on his altar. In response to Elijah’s prayer, God rained down fire to consume his offering, the wet wood and even the stone altar. When all the people saw what had happened, they fell on their knees and cried that “The LORD indeed is God.”

Jezebel was angry and ordered that Elijah be killed. And for a time, Elijah in his fear, forgot about what God had done. Elijah ran as far and as fast as he could. God’s angels guided him through the wilderness for forty days, strengthening and feeding him, until at last Elijah came to a cave on the side of Mount Horeb, the mountain where Moses had received the Ten Commandments.

It was there that the word of the LORD came to him, asking what he was doing there. Elijah responded that he had upheld the law and God’s covenant, which the Israelites had forsaken. He cried that he was alone and that they were seeking his life. God told him, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD will be passing by.” It was at that point that we heard in the first reading there was a great wind that split the mountain and broke rocks, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. After the fire, a tiny whispering sound. When Elijah heard it he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

We don’t have to be a prophet to hear the voice of God. But we do have to listen. Sometimes to listen to the tiny, whispering sound of God.

For just a moment, think quietly to yourself, about how you would answer the question – Where is God? Where do you go to find God? Do you always find God there? Where is God, right now, in the moment for us?

Silence…

Aren’t we all too preoccupied and surrounded by too many distractions, too much noise, hunger, thirst and weariness, worry and fear, busyness and routine, to hear God speaking to us? We have all been taught to say daily prayers. But probably there is a piece of our prayers that is missing and it may take us some time to realize what is is. We need to stop long enough to listen. It is hard to hear God when our prayers are a one sided conversation.

The moment of prayer must be for us an awareness, a reawakened awareness. In prayer, the real person we are struggles to speak and to address God and to listen to God.

Like Elijah’s earthquake, wind and fire, life rushes by and around us, sweeping us along and we become so terribly accustomed to the pace. But every once in awhile, the voice of God cuts thought the fury that surrounds us and whispers in our ear, as He whispered in Elijah’s ear… “What are you doing here?” Can we step off the stage of our life long enough to listen for God, long enough to commune with God? Can we come out of the cave and experience the tiny whisper in the silence? This is at the heart of what we do when we come to worship. We come to listen for the whisper of God. For God is in every moment, even the hurried ones.

Catherine Doherty, foundress of the Madonna House in Ontario, Canada, a training center for the Catholic lay apostolate wrote: “A day filled with noise and voices can be a day of silence, if the noises become for us the echo of the presence of God, if the voices are for us messages and solicitations of God. When we speak of ourselves and are filled with ourselves, we leave silence behind. When we repeat the intimate words of God that He has left within us, our silence remains intact.”

The point is that God is always seeking to be present to us. It is we who tune God out and cease to listen. It is we who define that this particular time is a God moment. Elijah heard God in the tiny whisper, but let’s look at the story again… God was with him on the mountain top when he challenged the false prophets. God was with him in his journey through the wilderness. God was with him in the cave during the earthquake, wind and fire. But is was only in the tiny whisper that Elijah finally heard God. Can we come to know that God is here now – wherever here and now may be? Can we see God in the mundane and the miraculous? Can we listen for the whisper of God, even in the midst of our busy days? Can we redefine our lives to see God in EVERY moment?

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception–UPDATED

The Times Union has a nice piece on the Cathedral which you can read by clicking here. This photo is one of 6 accompanying the article and shows our bishop, Howard J. Hubbard anointing the altar with oil. I found the entire process of placing the relics in the altar and then the anointing very moving.

Another fine source of good reading in general, about a cathedral as seer, symbol and servant can be found by clicking each one of the words. These links go to the blog of Richard Vosko, a Catholic priest who has devoted his life to religious art and architecture, to sacred space. He is my professor as well. Richard is a lightning rod of a man, loved by some, reviled by others. I think that he is a prophet of sorts and as a result, he challenges, irritates but I find those things invitation and encouragement.

A cathedral is a building, an ornate one at that. It can be seen as frivolous or a waste of money. A cathedral is the place made of stone that is a place for the actual living stones – the real church, the people. We live in the tension between these seemingly contradictory thoughts. People alone without a locus have no common union. A building that does not become a haven, a beacon and a sanctuary is dead stone. We need it all.
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Today I was fortunate to receive a last minute invitation to the Re-dedication of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the cathedral church here in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.

The Cathedral was originally opened and dedicated on November 21, 1852 and on November 21, 2010 it was re-dedicated after an extensive and much needed renovation. Having only moved here 3 years ago and being, for good or ill, firmly ensconced in the suburbs, I had never been to the Cathedral. Dreary, dark and depressing is what I am told it was.

In any event, the walls were restored and repainted, better colors were used, stone was refurbished along with wood. Stained glass windows were cleaned. Pews were removed, remade (using the original pews) and put back in a different format. The altar was brought forward and into the transept.

It is quite a remarkable space! Beautiful – light, color space. It is all very transcendent, which is what a church building should be. I wish I had taken photos but alas I did not.

Here is a photo from outside of the Cathedral, in 1986. On Palm Sunday that year, there was a service of reconciliation in which Bishop Hubbard apologized to our Jewish brothers and sisters for all that had been perpetrated upon them. A famous sculpture was erected for the event, called The Portal. This photo shows Bishop Hubbard and Rabbi Silverstein coming through, holding hands. Bishop Hubbard is a dedicated to ecumenism.

In any case, it was a remarkable day. More photos and video to follow.

Christ the King – Last Sunday of the Liturgical Year

Today the liturgical year comes to its final Sunday and will end as each day passes until we get to the first Sunday of Advent a week from now.

Christ the King – it is easy to think of this as a big propping up of Jesus. It is a lot more than crowning Christ and imagining him on a throne.

The first reading, from 2 Samuel, reminds us of the great King David. Now if you recall, David, did not come from any royal line, he was chosen, the ruddy cheeked shepherd boy who will lead Israel.

Jesus. A savior. A king. Born in a manger.

In the second reading we hear many things, but this jumped out at me:

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

That is Christ – the head of the Body, in him all things, held together.

Ultimately we get to Luke’s Gospel to crown this Sunday with typically antithetical wisdom.  We are presented with the cornerstone of Jesus’ triumphant kingship… The Cross. There can be no kingdom without the Cross. The way we live out this magnificent gift is in the tension between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Without it, there is no king!

And what does our King do? Does Jesus wield his power with cruelty or with love? As he “hung among the thieves” (again – what kind of king?) Jesus continues to transform with love saying that “today” they will be together in paradise. No waiting, just mercy, just hope, justice.

That’s our king – not from a royal line that makes any sense, not isolated and alone on his throne with a court before him, not sending people out but rather bringing people in.

No wonder he was killed. No wonder we love him so.

(I was so happy to hear that we sang this as our closing hymn this weekend!)

The Long and Winding Road – An Anniversary of Sorts

 Last year I re-published this and now I am putting it up again. Oh what a tale to reveal that time does tell… I am very grateful, beyond measure, to work where I work. It is the best job I have ever had and the one that I have done with the most engagement and passion.

I am so thankful to God for putting me there. Good days and bad days – it is quite the joyful adventure either way.
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This was published one year ago, on my old blog. Well to be technical it was published on Sunday November 16, 2008.

Interesting to read today as my life is so different! I did of course, get the offer and took the job. And he didn’t like me that much at first, we had our challenges.

Now we get along really well and I can’t imagine calling him anything but Father. (You will have to read on to understand this.)

And I so love this job, in ways I never thought I could or would. Honestly, it is remarkable. Working there has changed me profoundly. 

Talk about unlikely! Beyond unlikely!

Go figure, who knew? Life is full of surprises.

There was no small amount of ambivalence about getting washed, dressed and out the door, but before I even get to that, I must examine what transpired.

It had been a bad night for sleep, something that comes in ill-timed cycles and might be hormonal and age related. At 5:40am, when I could not stay in the not-sleep anymore, I got up.

Oh well, I could catch up on email and blog-reading, right? Not before my prayers however, and the prayers did not come easily. How I loathe the dryness that so often appears out of nowhere. I am no St. Therese or Mother Teresa with this, I bitch about it to God quite often. Even my journal entry was lame and riddled with errors due to my poor non-Catholic-school penmanship. At least no one else will have to read it.

After coffee and the blogs, I looked at the clock… 7:22. If I were going to go, I had to leave at 7.30. I slogged upstairs, reconsidered, but brushed my teeth and washed my face anyway. Clothes went on and out the door I went.

I got into my car feeling leaden, as if I had some bowling balls in my pockets. Suddenly the remnants of my bizarre dreams came rushing forth like a bad, hot wind. I dreamt of the priest who married us, of small bottles of Gatorade and a place that was not at all familiar to me.

7.34am… Better hit the gas and go. The stupid garage door is screwed up and often refuses to close. Like today. Dammit! There, three is a charm indeed, it is shut.

Here, suburban quickly spills into the rural, as if the suburbs are fingers that push into the nearby farmlands. This road will soon be familiar. It is almost a straight shot, all 10.4 miles of it. Those miles will soon be my daily companions as I come and go. Offices, houses, school complex, then fields, barns, trailers. Land cleared for new homes that may never be built. Historical markers. A railroad trestle and a one way only pass under a bridge. I must wait my turn, it is 7.47! I have to be there by 8.

When it comes to punctuality I am an obsessive worrier of the worst sort and today my obsessive worrier was in a higher gear than my car, on this slow road. I pass the former mental hospital which is drug rehab facility now. It just has such a malevolent look to it. I shudder. What was that awful dream about? What did the little sample size Gatorade bottles mean?

Traffic light, turn right. Less than a mile now. Will the Obama sticker, in Hebrew no less, elicit anger or dismay from someone? Too bad, it is there and I have no need to remove it.

I pull in. Unlike my visit there on Friday, this morning the parking lot is reasonably full and getting fuller. That is a lot of people for 8am, I am impressed.

What am I getting myself into? I better go in and find out what this place and this guy is about.

I park in what seems to be the back, but like my own place, the sense of front and back are confused. In the 70′s and early 80′s, bad architecture was the sad norm for these places. Front? Back? There are too many doors here and it really is a reminder of where I go most weeks, most days at that. These two places are so similar yet so different.

Not wanting to cause a stir, I park where my sticker may be less obvious. Exiting the car I can feel the wind blowing hard on this gray morning, it cuts me like many little knives. This jacket is not warm enough for today. What does this wind portend for me?

I make my way in. People are not so friendly. It is actually rather nice inside. On Friday he showed it to me after we spoke. He made some minor improvements by covering the cinder block with dry wall. High wooden ceilings, vaulted. Windows – ok, but very much of that era. A cruciform building.

Scoping out the place I’d like to sit I find a good spot. Suddenly I realize that I neither genuflected or knelt down to pray. We are not big genuflecters at my place and we have no kneelers. I am as nervous as a cat. Whatever that means- my cat tends to sleep a lot and is generally mellow.

The altar is lovely really – raised up 3 steps and big. The altar table is odd however – it either looks like a big boat or a big bowl. I don’t have much time to think because as soon as I sit down it is time to begin.

City of God – as good an entrance hymn as any, if a bit dated. I can sing it without looking at the song sheet. Will my tears be turned into dancing here?

They process up the aisle, two altar servers, a lector with the Gospel book held high and the presider. He seems like a nice enough man, or at least he did on Friday when we spoke. He reminds me of a an ISTJ version of the guy at my place. That one is an I but is more NFP like myself, except that years of corporate life made my P a little J-ish at times and my N a little T-ish. I am sorry if this makes no sense to you non-Myers Briggs types. Today I write for my own need.

It is liturgically lovely. Really nice. Decent music. A good sized crowd for 8am. It is all pretty good, moves along at a good pace, appropriate moments of silence, good community, nice homily.

The mass ends, I go out the door and wait to say hello. He is shaking hands, people passing by, saying hello. Then he gets to me, shakes hand – says hello – smiles and then his delayed reaction… “FRAN!” he shouts. He is happy to see me and surprised. “You’re here, you came to mass!” “Yes,” I say “I thought I would come see what this community was like.” “So” he says, “what did you think?” The whole time he is gripping my hand rather tightly, something I know he has no clue of. “Father, it was a truly beautiful liturgy, really lovely. A nice place.” There is problem number one – I almost never call priests “Father” if I can help it. That will be interesting to resolve.

I know it is time to move on, so I simply say “See you Wednesday.” That’s when we have the second interview. He really likes me.

My unemployment runs out next week. Despite my trying, there is no job for me at my parish. Or seemingly anywhere else, except a total commission gig selling a kind of insurance associated with a duck.

I have a conflicted relationship with my church and working for it will only challenge that.

Time to get back on the rural road and head back to my suburban home. As I drive, I wonder if this is really the right thing to do.

It may be… if I get the offer.

Walking Together by Mary DeTurris Poust – A Book Review

Recently I had the pleasure of reading “Walking Together: Discovering the Catholic Tradition of Spiritual Friendship” by Mary DeTurris Poust (Ave Maria Press, $13.95). My review was published in our diocesan paper, The Evangelist last Thursday.

Please read the review here.  Here are a few words from my piece:

A recent piece in the LA Times newspaper left me stunned. Citing one study of Americans, the article stated that most people “had one-third fewer non-family confidants than they had 20 years earlier, and 25 percent had no one in whom to confide whatsoever.”


It continued, “Another study of 3,000 Americans found that, on average, they had only four close social contacts.”


We are a pilgrim people and, as Catholics, we are “covenantal” people, so those numbers startled me. That may be one reason I enjoyed “Walking Together: Discovering the Catholic Tradition of Spiritual Friendship” by Mary DeTurris Poust.  (continue reading here…)

This book is intellectual while remaining completely accessible and touches the heart without being saccharine. I think it would be a great book to give as a gift – or to receive! Walking Together is made for book clubs and small faith sharing groups.

Read and enjoy!

Fall in Love – A Few Words on the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Scriptures for this weekend are most interesting and not so easy to unpack. In fact, given the fact that our women’s retreat is just hours away, I was not even going to give it a go. **Calling all women: If you are anywhere near Clifton Park and want to join us at noon at St. Edward the Confessor, please come on over!**

Then I read this from Fr. Richard Rohr.

My words here will be brief. We get very tied into doctrinal matters and dogma. It is such a top down church. I’m not complaining, per se. I am wondering out loud.

This week we can see the the 7 brothers in the Maccabees reading have been seduced by God. They believe – deeply and truly – in new life. Their faith – their fidelity, is so strong because of what they love, what they believe. All of which is a response to the God who created and loved them first.

In the second reading, St. Paul exhorts us to faith – which is pretty much what he did so tirelessly. He is in essence reminding us to keep responding to the love that calls to us.

The Gospel from Luke says it all… The Sadducees are stuck in a doctrine that can’t hold up. No resurrection they say, no new life. That pretty much ends the conversation with Jesus, who came to give us this new life. Perhaps they were so concerned about doing it right that they forgot the part about falling in love.

Make no mistake, we need to do both, but love and relationship are the cornerstones.  Otherwise, why would the law matter? Let alone new life?

That’s it, that’s all I’ve got for you today. Not so much but may we all be reminded to be taken in by this God who calls to each and every one of us with a love more powerful than we can imagine and life that never ends.