Pearls...

                                                                                  

"There came a time when the risk to remain

tight in the bud was more painful

than the risk it took to blossom."

                                                                                     Anais Nin

Lay Preaching & Canon Law

So I have been reading the blogs for a few months now.  Admittedly, my motives in the beginning we purely from a "keep your friends close, but you enemies closer" perspective.  In light of my studies, my embarking on the 19th Annotation retreat, personal experiences as a member of some of the most "liberal" parishes in the DOR and a growing maturity in my faith that perspective is not so clear anymore.

There are still many things that I do not understand. 
And one of the things that I have some (OK, A LOT) of trouble with is the "it's not in the rubrics" or "canon law forbids this" stuff. 

So, never being one to by shy-
I'm going to jump in with both feet!

Let's start with some questions about "lay preaching".
Now, yes, I know this is a "hot topic" sure to bring strong reaction, my prayer is though, is that this helps to bring about a stronger response!  I am  not trying to use the Canon to suit my own agenda, I am looking for answers. 

Here you will find the Canon regarding preaching.

According to Canon 766~

Lay persons can be permitted to preach in a church or oratory, if necessity requires it in certain circumstances or it seems advantageous in particular cases, according to the prescripts of the conference of bishops and without prejudice to ⇒ can. 767, §1.

which states~

Among the forms of preaching, the homily, which is part of the liturgy itself and is reserved to a priest or deacon, is preeminent; in the homily the mysteries of faith and the norms of Christian life are to be explained from the sacred text during the course of the liturgical year.


Canon 767 is the one I see cited most often in describing "lay preaching" as liturgical abuse.
And while I know pretty much nothing about Canon Law, I do know a little about civil law, and enough to know that the most important phrase in these two canons is "without prejudice".

My understanding of this, in this context is: 
The homily is reserved to a priest or deacon,
but...
if need be, or better yet, if it seems advantageous, a lay person could preach a homily and it would not be a violation of Canon 767.

If you continue to read the whole section on preaching there are all sorts of very interesting things that could add a lot to this debate, but I think the most important ones are Canons 769 & 772.

As I said, I have no real knowledge of Canon Law, that is why I put this out there.  I have not taken Canon Law yet, but will have to to complete my degree.  I do not know any of the priests in the DOR who are Canon Lawyers well enough to bring this to them directly, so if there are any Canon Lawyers out there that can shed some light, that would be awesome!

Peace to All!!

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,

I am introducing a new feature to my blog.
I pray that it is not a regular feature, but I feel that it is an very important one.

A soldier from Rochester died recently (2 actually the past few months), and I want to do my part to make sure that our native sons & daughters are not forgotten.  I will be posting, sometime before Veteran's Day I hope, a listing of all those who have died in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom that are from the Rochester area.  If you have names of friends or relatives you would like to add send me an e-mail to oneofthewome@gmail.com. 
Before I say anymore, this post is not about how I feel about the war!! 

This is about honoring the men and woman who gave the ultimate sacrafice so that you and I can bit@# about it and the state of our govenment, each other, the world... WHATEVER!
It is about remembering that they were someone's child, parent, spouse or friend,
and a beloved child of God.
These men and women, and all of those who served before them and with them, deserve our respect, our prayers and our never ending gratitude for their service to our country.  Please honor them by not making this political.


Requiescat in pace

Army Pfc. Daniel J. Rivera, 22 of Rochester, NY, died October 18, 2009 in Mosul, Iraq.


Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon him.
May he rest in peace.

Peace to All!

Imagination: A gift from God

Over at Ten Reasons, Mr. Leonardi makes yet another comment against Bishop Clark that I find very confusing. I was not at the African Mass, and do not know for sure what context his (Bishop Clark's) comments regarding "imagine the day you were baptized" were used in. The thing I find disturbing is Mr. Leonardi's (and some of the commenter’s) total dismissal of using one's imagination (which is a gift from God, is it not?), as a means to cultivate a relationship with God. Nearly 500 years ago Ignatius, in his own conversion, used his imagination to become closer to God, and has given us, in his Spiritual Exercises, explicit instructions for doing so.

I recently have embarked on the journey that is the 19th Annotation of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, and I have found that through the use of my imagination, by putting myself into the scripture passage I am praying with on any particular day, I find myself really becoming connected with the Word, which in turn has helped me to start to cultivate a deeper relationship with God and Jesus, and to have a greater appreciation for the richness and traditions of our faith.
I think that this is an example of what bothers me most about some (read some, not all!) traditional Catholics. Here we have a form of prayer that has been part of the tradition of the church for nearly half a millennium, that is being, in my perception, lumped into a category of "new age-y, progressive thought that has no place in our church" (not Mr. Leonardi's words, but my perception based on my experience with the "traditional" set.)
Prayer is a very personal thing. I have tried many forms of formal prayer- the Liturgy of the Hours, the Rosary, contemplative prayer, Lectio Divina- some bring me peace and consolation (the Liturgy of the Hours especially, as no matter what time I recite a specific "hour" somewhere, someone else is doing it also, giving me a sense of community), and others (like the Rosary, which I find distracting, repetitive and not at all prayerful) do not.  How I (or anyone else for that matter) find God through prayer is not what matters.
What matters is that I pray!

Peace to All!

What is essential?

Lessons from "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint Exupery

The fox said:

"And now here is my secret, a very simple secret:  It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

I was reminded of this book in a conversation last night.  It had always been one of my favorites as a teen-ager/young adult.  I have not read it in quite a long time.  I think I need to pick it up again!

Peace to All!

"Your sins have been forgiven, go and sin no more."

How lucky are we that we have this awesome ritual called the Sacrament of Reconciliation?!

I will admit, that for much of my adult life (most of which was spent away from the church), I never really saw the need to confess my sins to another human being; I could just go straight to God.

And now, I see this sacrament as such a gift.

There is something about actually verbalizing my sinfulness, out loud and to another person, that gives me the sense of "letting go" of it, and allowing the unconditional love of God to manifest within my heart. There is a freedom in acknowledging my shortcomings and seeking the divine help of God, in knowing that I do not, ever, have to travel this road alone and that I am, and will always be forgiven and unconditionally loved by God.

Peace to All!

"Pearls..."

"Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action."

 Mahatma Gandhi

My Blog, My Rules!

To all anonymous posters-

While I have no problem with you posting, I do ask that you stay on topic.
Any post by an anonymous poster that is off subject, insulting, demeaning or rude will be removed.

This blog is for me to ponder things and to ask questions of a larger audience;  hateful, sarcastic comments have no place here and will not be tolerated!

As the title states-

"MY BLOG, MY RULES!"

if you don't like it- tough cookies!!

Who are the "great thinkers" of our day?

I attended a lecture today at SBSTM given by Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, OP.
One of the things that stuck with me was about the "great thinkers"- Aquinas, Benedict, the desert fathers and their contemporaries. And I started thinking, who are the "great thinkers" of today, and what are they thinking?

Someone else asked the question before I was able to, and I must say I was a little surprised by the answer,(*) so I am putting it out there for all in "blogland".

Who are some of the contemporary "great thinkers", (in the Catholic church and the larger world of Christendom), what questions are they asking, and how will those questions, and their answers effect us in the 21st century?

Peace to All!


*UPDATE 10/10:
To answer the commenter, no Bishop Clark was not mentioned. Actually the answer was that Fr. Timothy could not think of any one from this generation. He did mention Rahner, Conger, Schillebeeckx, (and a few others I can't remember) from the VII generation and said that for right now, he does not believe there are any "great thinkers" and that it is OK, because not every age can/should have them.

More questions about the CMA

Here is where the DOR websites new CMA allocation page. ( Sorry, I havn't figured out how to make a "link" yet, any advise would be appreciated.)

www.dor.org/sd/keepingthespiritalive.htm


It seems as though the original, where I got my information for an earlier post is now gone. That information has been replaced by an "Along the Way" column by Bishop Clark that gives a general overview, from his perspective, on what the CMA funds support.


HMMMMM......

I want to believe that the DOR, and the people who run it,
are honest, good-hearted people, who are trying to do good work, for the people of God. I can only speculate as to why the information was removed, and that, in my quest for "dialogue" seems to be counter-productive. I am hoping that this may have been an oversight, or that maybe, what we originally saw was not correct,and it is being corrected so that it can be re-posted. I don't want to believe that there is something "sinister" going on here.

I will be checking with the DOR about this, I guess I will just have to wait and see what their response is.

Peace to All!

God gave us two ears & one mouth for a reason

Dialogue: a discussion between representatives of parties of a conflict that is aimed at resolution.

This, in a word, is what I was hoping to find in the world of blogging. I am not sure if this is what is really going on and it has made me start to ponder a few things.

I found the blogs through an e-mail that was sent to me, from a rather progressive friend, as her example of the “evil, nasty, un-Christian people who have the audacity to call themselves Catholic” (her words, not mine!) My friend was referring to postings from the blog Ten Reasons regarding Joan Sobala, and some of the “changes” she has made to the parishes she is now “pastoral administrator” of.

I will admit that my initial reaction was that my friend was right, and then I started to read a little more, find more blogs, to do a little research and a lot of praying and soul-searching. The conclusion that I came to was that there are a lot of people out there, especially in our Diocese, who are hurting because of the actions of the people in leadership positions. I can understand and empathize with you all. I, too, have been deeply hurt by the actions of supposedly “pastoral” people, ordained and lay alike.

What was starting to make me uneasy though was the venom, hatred and animosity from both sides. Certainly not “dialogue” in any sense of the word. So I decided that I would create my own blog, and hoped that I would be able to facilitate some of the dialogue that I am looking for.

My initial foray into the “blog world” was not very positive. I have a tendency to be very passionate and emotional and I find that very hard to covey in writing. I have been trying very hard to make sure that any comment that I post to another’s blog is respectful, even when I have a different opinion. Because we are talking about religion, I understand that emotions are going to run high. Yet, I have to wonder, does either side really want true dialogue?

In a recent comment over at Cleansing Fire, I spoke of Sacred Heart Cathedral because it is what I know. Members of my family have been parishioners there since the early 60’s and the church had changed a few times (the church from the late 60’s when my parents got married looked nothing like the Cathedral I joined in the early 90’s and now the most recent renovation.) There are parts of the Cathedral that I really love, and there are things that I think are horribly wrong, but the bottom line is, what is done is done.
Enough money has already been wasted; let’s learn to work with what we’ve got.

Now, I am neither naïve nor trying to be provocative, as I was accused by one commenter, in thinking that I was not going to illicit very strong response, I was hoping to receive response, not reaction. Please understand I am not trying to diminish anyone’s pain. Being hurt by the church is a deep wound that takes a long time to heal, I know all too well!

But what can we do now, with what we have got.
Let us have a true dialogue and listen to one another, and try to come up with a resolution.

Peace to all!

"Pearls..."

This one is from The Talmud:

Every blade of grass has an angel that bends over it and whispers, 'Grow! Grow!'

What a beautiful image to remind us of God's awesome gift of the angels who guide and protect us!