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Monthly Archives: April 2022
Spe Salvi 40: Offering It Up
One last thought on Action and suffering as settings for learning hope. 40. I would like to add here another brief comment with some relevance for everyday living. There used to be a form of devotion—perhaps less practiced today but … Continue reading
Takes On Time
Time is a frequent theme in science fiction. Various authors have handled it well in different ways, and when they do it well, it reflects our desire for change, even change in ourselves. There’s a Christian contrition aspect in how … Continue reading
Posted in science fiction, television
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Spe Salvi 39: Suffering For Others
What does it mean to move toward the person who is suffering? To shield and protect them? Or even just to bear the wrongs and hurts they bear, perhaps alone? This is where the topic Action and suffering as settings for … Continue reading
Lighting
Jonathan Liedl at NCReg asks a question: If you attended the Easter vigil … you experienced one of the Catholic liturgy’s most unique (and arguably spiritually compelling) aesthetic sequences: a pitch-black church, increasingly illuminated by the light from the Paschal … Continue reading
Posted in Liturgy
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Spe Salvi 38: A True Measure of Humanity
Sorry ’bout skipping a day on this topic, but let’s get back to Action and suffering as settings for learning hope. In today’s installment, numbered section 38, Pope Benedict XVI suggests that the phenomenon of suffering gives an opportunity for the … Continue reading
Spe Salvi 37: Suffering–Limiting, Fighting, But Not Eliminating
37. Let us return to our topic. We can try to limit suffering, to fight against it, but we cannot eliminate it. It is when we attempt to avoid suffering by withdrawing from anything that might involve hurt, when we … Continue reading
What’s Wrong With Isaiah?
Or, more accurately, that Deutero-guy? Another complaint in the comments here about Isaiah 40-55, but as we discussed many years ago, is it a real thing? Fritz Bauerschmidt: At least in the G&P music of the 70s and 80s (OEW … Continue reading
Posted in Liturgy, Scripture
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Spe Salvi 36: A Part of the Human Condition
Continuing our discussion on action and suffering we turn to the latter. 36. Like action, suffering is a part of our human existence. Suffering stems partly from our finitude, and partly from the mass of sin which has accumulated over the … Continue reading
Bread and Wine
Some few decades ago there was much handwringing about wording in the Roman Missal first edition, and in some songs that accompanied its use. A fine priest I knew got his socks bothered over Laurence Rosania’s “The Supper of the … Continue reading
Posted in Easter, Liturgy, Saints
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Spe Salvi 35: Action and Suffering
Suffering: Catholics of previous ages were told to submit, offer it up, or some such. There is a certain virtue in bearing wrongs for a greater good. First, human beings thrive as humans, not as doormats. It would seem we … Continue reading
V-W’s 5th
I’ve been listening to a good bit of Sibelius and Griffes the past few days. The secret masters of search and code online must have thought I’d like Vaughn-Williams 5th symphony, which I do. So it popped up, like magic, … Continue reading
Posted in Music
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Spe Salvi 34: Prayer as an Encounter
This paragraph concludes our look at Prayer as a school of hope: 34. For prayer to develop this power of purification, it must on the one hand be something very personal, an encounter between my intimate self and God, the … Continue reading
Red Egg
According to legend, Mary Magdalene brought a snack–eggs–to those in vigil at the Tomb. When she and the Lord had their “Noli me tangere” moment (presumably not uttered in Latin) the eggs in her basket turned red. The legend continues: … Continue reading
Spe Salvi 33: Prayer, Honey, and Vinegar
Let’s return to our look at Pope Benedict XVI’s examination of hope from 2007. From section 32 to 48, he describes “Settings” for learning and practicing hope. The first of these is the briefest. We started here before Holy Week. We … Continue reading
Catholic Sensibility 
After Hours, Open Door
I have few regrets in my current assignment. Certainly not being in a new parish. We’re still small compared to the surrounding suburban megachurches (Catholic and evangelical). That remains a big plus; we’re more nimble. We have fewer Issues. Newcomers … Continue reading →