Thoughtful

Popes of the 20th Century: John XXIII | National Catholic Reporter

STAYING IN THE MOMENT....

Summer time often makes us think of travel, vacations, and time off, being someplace else other than where we normally are. The problem is that we are often someplace other than where we are. One of, if not the, most difficult spiritual disciplines is to be where we are, to be here now, to be reading these words and not wandering off someplace else physically or mentally.
It is so often so difficult to just be in the present moment. Stuck in traffic? No one likes this, we would rather be someplace else, we get tense – worried about getting to our destination on time, and we fuss and fume. Waiting is not something we find easy to do: traffic, airports, checkout lines, paint to dry, flowers to bud, healing from an injury, living, dying; in all these and so many other ways we find something displeasing us in the present moment. We want to be somewhere else. We find some person, place or thing not to our liking.
In AA we say, “Acceptance is the key to happiness.” I would add that it is also the key to freedom and a deeper spiritual life. Accepting life as it is does not mean that we have to like it as it is, or that we shouldn’t work to change what is unacceptable. It doesn’t mean that we just resign ourselves to the present moment. What acceptance does is free us from the battle, the inner war that goes on within us, the inner war that is usually causing us more pain that whatever it is we are fighting. Acceptance calms us down, and then a host of new possibilities begin to emerge. Acceptance opens us up to the possibility of seeing God’s action in the most unpleasant of experiences.
A few weeks ago I drove down to LA to be on vacation with my dad. As many of you know, he’s been having shortness of breath, mostly from a valve that isn’t working quite right. I arrived on a Friday and the following Monday morning when we got up, he said he was having severe chest pains. [It turned out not to be a heart attack] At any rate, in rapid fire, I had these thoughts; “why is this happening? Don’t you know I’m on vacation? Looks like I am going to be doing a funeral.” Tentatively I asked, “Do you want me to call 911?” “No” came the reply. We stared at each other for what seemed minutes, I was sorting stuff out in my head and finally said, “Why do I drive you over to St. John’s emergency.” “That’d be a good idea” came the answer. In those few moments I had come to accept what was right in front of me. From that moment on, a host of possibilities opened up for us over the course of the next forty-eight hours. The details of what happened are interesting, even amazing, but far too long to state here. The end result is that my dad is back home, going up and down stairs and doing, albeit a tad slower, all the things he enjoys doing.
There was prayer in all of this too. I didn’t pray that God change the situation but rather that I have the patience, insight, assistance I needed to do the next right thing. When we pray for wisdom, unexpected and wonderful things begin to present themselves to us. A prayer of acceptance opens us up to the Presence of God in each and every moment.
For more on this subject I would recommend Fr. Richard Rohr’s, OFM book The Naked Now that outlines the need for and ways to develop the discipline of staying in the moment and celebrating The Presence.

What Inactive (Dormant) Catholics have to Offer

Right up front I will say that I do not like the terms: inactive, lapsed or fallen away Catholic.  I find those terms far too judgmental and certainly connote a negative judgment.  They represent a judgment, on the part of the Church about people who, according to the Church, are not living the way it expects them to live.  Most non church-going Catholics I have met understand themselves to be Catholic; they just don’t find themselves in the pews on Sundays for a variety of reasons, from having no time for church, or the Church is simply irrelevant to their lives and needs.

Over the past few months I have been using a term at missions, retreats and workshops that seems to have some traction with people.  I have been using the term “dormant” Catholics.  My belief is that they have faith, want more faith, and want a living spirituality that speaks to their daily lives.  What needs to be done is to have someone, or a lot of some ones, fan their faith into a living flame once again.  I believe that dormant Catholics are calling for prophetic leadership in the Church.  They are calling us from maintenance to mission.  They are challenging us to be about justice and peace making, engaging in environmental activism, truly making a fundamental option for the poor and oppressed, the migrant and immigrant, the homeless, hungry and powerless.

People seek to make a difference in their lives and the lives of others whether they are religious or not.  We can be selfish or altruistic in our strivings.   The Gospel calls for altruism, meeting the needs of our neighbors without counting the cost.  The Gospel is a radical prophetic approach to all aspects of our lives.  Jesus initiated a radical hope for personal and communal transformation working from the inside -- outward to all creation.

Being Catholic ought to mean a whole lot more than sitting in a pew on Sundays, or rattling off the same five sins in confession for the past thirty-five years.  I am not saying going to mass or confession aren’t good things to do, but that they ought to lead us to a fuller and more abundant life for others and ourselves.  We ought to be able to discern growth in our lives, progress in living and a discernable difference in our secular and religious communities in which we live.  There should be more caring, healing, forgiveness and peace; and less homelessness, hunger, poverty and prejudice.

If we are going to touch and invite dormant Catholics back to being living flames of faith and hope, we need to be that for others and ourselves.   We need to be communities of faith with doors wide open in welcome, a place of sanctuary, where all can feel safe and be nourished for mission.

Fr. Michael E. Evernden, CSP

WHAT'S SO BAD ABOUT CAFETERIA CATHOLICS?

I describe myself as a cafeteria priest for cafeteria Catholics.  Every Catholic is a cafeteria Catholic – but only some of us admit to it.  It is the choices on other people’s trays that some take exception to, never looking at the choices on their own trays.

Historically the institutional Church has been the largest cafeteria in the world. It has to be because no one person or group could possibly choose all the things that are available for Catholics to feed their spiritual hunger.  Novenas, rosaries, all the prayers said to all the different saints, thirty-day Ignatian retreats, weekend retreats, days of recollection, forty hour devotions, benediction, exposition, liturgy of the hours, pilgrimages, fasting, abstinence, becoming a sister, brother, priest, deacon, becoming a religious priest or belonging to a religious community of which there are hundreds, lay associate, altar society, Holy Name society, Knights of Columbus, Paulist Associate, Third Order Franciscan, a Daughter of Mary and Joseph, charismatic Catholic, taking vows of silence, working for peace and justice or with the homeless, concern for the environment, Catholic Worker Movement, English speaking or Spanish, Russian, Slovak, Vietnamese, Korean, French or Portuguese speaking, Knights of Malta, this list could go on and on.  The point is that no one person, no one parish, no one group within the Church could possibly entertain or observe all the possibilities the Church has to offer; so we make choices to develop a prayer life that suits each of our diets. 

Even within the official liturgical parameters (how mass is celebrated) we make all kinds of choices; Eucharistic prayer 2 rather than 3, or 4 rather than 1, alternatives to the opening and closing prayers, forms of blessing at the end of mass, styles of music, how communion is received, languages used, bells or no bells, incense or no incense, enough devotional candles electric or real, to light up Times Square or no devotional candles at all, times of mass, places of worship from gymnasium to cathedral to sports arenas, obviously there are norms but much diversity within the norms.  Historically the Church has always recognized that one size does not fit all and it is our diversity that makes us truly Catholic, universal.  Diversity is a strength not a weakness.  This is as true in nature as it is in and among communities of faith – those who are able to adapt are the ones most fully alive and most likely have a future.

When I look out at our Sunday Eucharistic gathering it is very evident that one size does not fit all:  happily married, unhappily married, divorced, separated, gay and lesbian, single dads, single moms, large families and small ones, families financially ruined and prosperous families, death and birth, mentally, physically or spiritually challenged people, light-hearted and depressed people, happy, sad, hopeful and dower ones, cancer, fears and phobias, young and very old, citizens and aliens, housed and homeless, sated and hungry – no one homily, no one prayer style will fit the variety and diversity present in even a small community of faith.

The Church will become a community of faith rooted in Jesus only in so far as we can recognize our diversity, our strengths and weaknesses, our common brokenness; when, ultimately we recognize that we are all in this together – not bemoaning the choices on someone else’s tray, or bemoaning what is on our own.

Fr. Michael E. Evernden, CSP