Journeys of a Catholic Poster Girl

I’ve never been one of those people who has questioned why God “allows” pain, or natural disasters, or what have you. That’s never really been my bag. I guess my reasoning is that if God’s only Son came to earth to suffer and die for us, then how can we, His creations, His sons an daughters, surely, but not His SON, think we can escape it? It is part of life, from time immemorial. God no more “allows” it than he “allowed” Eve to eat from the tree. Part of free will is the consequences.

What about cancer? What about my own situations? (for more, check out The Bucket) Well, I’ve always thought God set nature in motion, as it says in Genesis. And sometimes, nature does it own crazy whacked-up things. This doesn’t just apply to humans, but to natural disasters as well. I don’t think they’re the “punishment” of God. In fact, my favorite Bible verse says just the opposite:

John 9:1-3:

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth.  [2] And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” [3] Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him. (RSV)

That is my philosophy. God can work through us, if we let him. It’s why I find the Church’s doctrine of Redemptive Suffering, which has been enunciated by such luminaries as JP the Great and St. Therese of Lisieux, so profound and attractive. Nothing is wasted in Catholicism if we join our sufferings to Christ.

The above quote also is why I get made when people say that if you are sick, or some misfortune has befallen you, that you “Didn’t pray enough” or “don’t have enough faith.” Bullcrap. Not having “enough” faith is something Jesus totally discounts. He says that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed we can accomplish great things. Now anyone who cooks knows a mustard seed isn’t very big. So having a lot of faith must not be a prerequisite.  Of course prayer in times of distress is a good thing to do (prayer is always a good thing to do, no matter what. It is vital to the spiritual life.). But not having enough faith or failing to “pray through,” as some say, doesn’t have anything to do with your circumstances. God gives you no more than you can handle (Paul says that, somewhere in Corinthians, I think…I’ll look it up for you), but, as Mother Teresa said, “I wish He didn’t trust me so much.” Even saints had trouble with God’s plan sometimes.

Even Jesus had trouble with it. Below I posted the Gospel passages related to Gethsemane. He didn’t want to die. He must have really loved life on Earth, to be that sorowful in the garden. I find it comforting to know that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph experienced everything a human being can experience. Jesus was truly human and yet truly divine. It is a great mystery we will never be able to fully comprehend. But when I need a boost, I remember Jesus in the garden. He was with us, suffering as one of us.

If you’ve ever seen (or listened to) Jesus Christ Superstar, you probably remember the song “Gethsemane(I only want to say)” in Act II. It’s a powerful piece of music, and while some may consider it slightly sacrilegous, there are parts that speak a great truth of the human experience. If you’ve willed yourself to God and have placed your life in His hands, then these lines will ring true to you:

Then I was inspired.

Now I”m sad and tired.

After all, I’ve tried for three years.

Seems like ninety.

Why then am I

Scared to finish

What I started?

What you started–I didn’t start it.  

God, Thy Will is hard

But you hold ev’ry card

I will drink your cup of poison

Nail me to your cross and break me

Bleed me, beat me

Kill me, take me now

Before I change my mind.

Now

Before I change my mind.

Now

Before I change my mind.

There is also an opposite idea, found in Milton’s Paradise Lost. In it, Jesus begs God the Father to send him to earth to redeem humanity. He can’t bear to see us seperated from God and wants to bring us home. Both of these renditions can give us something to think about as Holy Week starts tomorrow.

I just finished the fantastic  Catholic novel In This House of Brede. Amazing. One of my favorite books of all-time and I encourage all of you to go pick up a copy of this novel, published as part of the Loyola Classics series (and formerly edited by Amy Welborn, who is responsible for a lot of content on this blog…. ).

The protagonist, Philippa Talbot, was a wealthy, powerful woman in the British Government when, in mid-life (or somewhat thereabouts) she stuns her social circle by deciding to enter the Benedictine Monastery at Brede, where she will be cloistered away from the world. For her undersecretary, Penny, this seems an amazing leap. But Philippa does it, selling her house and giving her cat to her housekeeper, Maggie, and going to Brede to attempt to “take the veil.”

One of the best parts about the novel is the characterization of the nuns and cloistered life. As anyone who’s read Story of A Soul or anything about monastic life, it is not the picnic that some might imagine. The nuns are human, after all. And here they are painted in all their failing, faults, and virtues, to glorious success. The current abbess, Hester, is charismatic, but upon her death early in Philippa’s novitiate, secrets are revealed and stories brought to light that divide the convent. And once a new Abbess is chosen, things take an entirely new direction.

The story is sprinkled with great characters, such as Dame Catherine; Sisters Hilary and Cecily, novices to Brede; Sister Veronica, the cellarer (nun in charge of the money), who has great devotion to Abbess Hester and some secrets of her own; Dame Monica; Dame Colette, the French nun in an English monastery; the Japanese postulants, and many others. Fortunately, the book comes with a list of characters so you don’t get confused as to who’s who, and all of the nuns special positions and offices are explained within the text, but not in a Hawthorne-esque way (i.e.,”let’s stop the entire story so I can explain all this to you in minute detail that you will not remember.”).

The prose is beautiful and the story riveting. Flashbacks are used to a nice effect, and the story doesn’t just stay on Philippa. It is also concerned with Cecily, who was one of my favorite characters; she’s entered the convent, hoping to become a “choir nun” (the higer rank, the ones who are called “Dame” and can hold office) over the objections of her mother, who wants her to marry the boy next door. She and Hilary are a good pair.

I will have to read this again post-haste; well, as soon as I finish the other books vying for my attention. This is a fantastic read, even if you’re not Catholic.

No, but by looking at these pictures from Barbara, I can pretend to be:

I tried to upload the pictures to this site, but for some reason it wouldn’t work. So visit Barbara and then come back here…
The Kidron Valley
John 18: 1: “Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to where there was a garden, into which he and his disciples entered.”

The garden of Gethsemane

Matthew 26: 26-40, 42: “Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, ’sit here, while I go yonder and pray.’ And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even unto death; remain here, and watch with me.’ And going a little father he fell on his face and prayed, ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.’ …Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, ‘My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, thy will be done.’”
Luke 22:43-44: “And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like the great drops of blood falling down upon the ground.”

Barbara N. of “Church of the Masses” is there….

http://churchofthmasses.blogspot.com

“liturgy was better.”

“The music was better.”

“We were much more aware of the Real Presence.”

Etc.

These sound familiar?
Now I have no doubt that Mass was, in general, probably more reverent than it is today (at least I don’t think there was the abundance of OSU t-shirts at Mass!). But still, it can’t have been perfect–can it?

Amy talks about this today: (my comments in bold)

It’s simply not real to imagine that everything in liturgical Christianity was great up until 1965. Again and again the liturgy has been reformed, and not just because people thought it would be nice to add new prayers. Something was being lost. Something had to be recovered.

(A moment to bring up something my friend David Scott once said: “The worst liturgical abuse at every Mass I attend is me.”)

So in the century before the Second Vatican Council, the sensibility deepened that something was being lost. Pius X (yay my parish’s patron saint!) saw it – speaking of motu proprios, his on Sacred Music from 1903 is worth a read. See if you can discern the problems he sees, from these excerpts:

Still, since modern music has risen mainly to serve profane uses, greater care must be taken with regard to it, in order that the musical compositions of modern style which are admitted in the Church may contain nothing profane, be free from reminiscences of motifs adopted in the theaters, and be not fashioned even in their external forms after the manner of profane pieces.

6. Among the different kinds of modern music, that which appears less suitable for accompanying the functions of public worship is the theatrical style, which was in the greatest vogue, especially in Italy, during the last century. This of its very nature is diametrically opposed to Gregorian Chant and classic polyphony, and therefore to the most important law of all good sacred music. Besides the intrinsic structure, the rhythm and what is known as the conventionalism of this style adapt themselves but badly to the requirements of true liturgical music.

17. It is not permitted to have the chant preceded by long preludes or to interrupt it with intermezzo pieces.

22. It is not lawful to keep the priest at the altar waiting on account of the chant or the music for a length of time not allowed by the liturgy. (Music minister at Seton, we’re talking to you!!!) According to the ecclesiastical prescriptions the Sanctus of the Mass should be over before the elevation, and therefore the priest must here have regard for the singers. The Gloria and the Credo ought, according to the Gregorian tradition, to be relatively short. More on this below.

23. In general it must be considered a very grave abuse when the liturgy in ecclesiastical functions is made to appear secondary to and in a manner at the service of the music, for the music is merely a part of the liturgy and its humble handmaid.

So…theatricality, subversion of the ritual to the needs of the music…etc.

But also note Pius’ concern – that the music not hide the prayerful content for those participating in the worship. Involved, conscious participation – it was a concern even then, and continued to be so throughout the century. I will get more into this in a post tomorrow, a brief review of another recent read, but the truth is that the concern that the Mass was general seen as the more or less private prayer of the priest to which the rest of us attached ourselves was real.
ME: Wow, the part about the music being overlong? Somebody needs to tell Certain Parish Music Directors Who Shall Not Be Named Here that rule. I’m sorry, I love “O Sons and Daughters” but all eleven (or however many) verses is just pushing it, for the choir, the congregation, the priest, etc. If the priest is on the altar, you stop. You do not blithely continue with the next 6 million verses, even if you happen to like them the best.

I sing in our church choir, as we know. I love it. It’s great. Our Choir Director’s motto (well, OK, one of them) is that we are here to serve the congregation. We are not here to be the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Put On A Show. Now, at Christmas, we do a nice 40 minute prelude. This year we did Christmas excerpts from the Messiah. That’s a little different. People knew we were doing that and if they wanted to come early to hear it, they could. But we weren’t going to shove it in the middle of the Mass! The same thing for Easter, when we do the “Hallelujah” after Mass is over, so that people don’t have to hear it if they don’t want to (but they should because it’s great and we do a good job ).

Music is a tricky thing anywhere–where to put the choir in these post Vatican II non-choir loft churches, how much music, how little music, how contemporary, how non-contemporary, guitars or not?, etc., etc. But some of it is just common sense!

If you feel like you’re being called to be a sister/brother/priests/etc., what do you do when the orders thwart your calling? Does that mean it wasn’t a real calling to being with? Were you just imagining things?

Every order that I am interested in requires “good physical health,” even the Carmelites, which I think is sort of ironic, given their legacy (i.e., St. Teresa of Avila, St. Therese). But no matter.

Any suggestions?

If you’re a fan of EWTN, or Catholic bookstores, you’ve probably seen Fr. Benedict (Franciscan Friars of Renewal) on TV or on a book jacket. The NY Times did a recent interview with him…you can read it here.

From Amy:

The rumors are heating up that the famed and legendary Motu Proprio on the “freeing” of the 1962 Missal is on its way this week or Holy Thursday at the latest.

This is such a crucial moment, I think, for Benedict. Some folks scoff at my interest in the writings and words of Pope Benedict, but I do come by it honestly, I think. I was fairly unacquainted with him before his election, was brought up short, in a good way, by the homily he gave at his installation Mass, in which he went through the symbols with which he was being vested (the pallium, etc) and explained each one in this amazingly clear, pastoral and rich way. “There’s a teacher,” I thought.

Read the whole thing here.

Just a few thoughts I’ve been having. But first:

**Housekeeping note: being new to St.Blog’s, I didn’t know that you had moderate the comments before they were posted. I know that now. So if you leave a comment I will look at it! I promise!!

**Why is Hollywood making a second Da Vinci Code movie? The first one tanked and the book is awful. No, I didn’t not read the whole book. I read two pages. But I saw no need to continue reading a book where the “facts” listed on the FACTS page were not, in fact, facts. And if one more person tells me that the book is just fiction and I “need to chill” I will scream. I’m sorry. As a writer I believe that you have a certain obligation to your audience. If you’re dealing with real people and history, then you have to be accountable for that. It would be like writing a novel about Henry VIII and saying that he didn’t really behead Ann Boleyn and there’s a whole secret society of Boleyn kids out there with a “shadow crown” or whatever. The best historical fiction (i.e., Phillippa Gregory, whom I love, or even Allison Weir’s recent venture into this genre) is well researched. DVC was not. As we know.

**A side note: can you imagine what would happen if something akin to DVC had been written about Jews or Muslims? I doubt it would’ve been made into a movie. Heck, I doubt it would’ve been published. Of course anti-Semitism is alive and well in the West, so maybe I’m wrong about that. I read once that Orthodox Jews and Roman Catholics have more in common than Catholics and Protestants. There may be something to that.

**Here in Ohio, the Governor (a pro-choice D) is saying he wants to end the abstinence-only sex ed program in public schools and he won’t apply for more federal money when our current grant runs out in September. The fact that the teen pregnancy rate has dropped by about 20,000 a year doesn’t seem to register when he says it doesn’t work.

Here’s the thing. If you teach abstinence, and that’s all kids know, then you would drastically cut down on the spread of STDs and AIDS, wouldn’t you? I mean, if you talk about not having sex until you’re married, then it seems like that would stick…for some kids, anyway. You have to be consistent with your message. Now I went to Catholic grade school, so our sex ed consisted of the biological facts only There was no discussion of birth control or anything. Which, it being a Catholic school, is how it should be. But if you go into a classroom and say, “Well abstinence is best, but if you really want to screw around, here’s how to do it safely,” what message are you sending them? Besides the fact that no birth control method is 100% other than abstinence, as we know. It just kills me when this stuff happens. Besides the fact, I don’t want teachers teaching my kids about sex anyway…unless they’re at a Catholic school. I want to make sure they know my personal beliefs (read: The Church’s).

**Who came up with the idea that all Catholics are gloom and doom? Or that we’re all these awful people? Every single book I read that has Catholic characters (with some obvious exceptions, like Waugh’s Brideshead) treat Catholics like evil, abusive idiots that are slaves to doctrine and rule with an Iron Rod. That has not been my experience at all. Maybe I should write the pro-Catholic life book. Hmmmm. (I guess this can connect with my DVC point, above)

As if the last post wasn’t enough, this is enough to totally appall you. I post it in it’s entirety (h/t: Danielle Bean)

‘Why is you crying? You ain’t pregnant.’

Guest post by Sarah

[Note from Dawn: Yesterday, I saw that a woman identifying herself as "Sarah" had left a comment on an old post in which I quoted a woman who claimed to have been mistreated at Planned Parenthood. Sarah wrote that she had just undergone emergency surgery after Planned Parenthood had failed to diagnose an ectopic pregnancy. I e-mailed her and asked if she would like to share her story with Dawn Patrol readers. (I let her know my feelings about Planned Parenthood upfront, in case she had any reservations about her story's appearing on a pro-life blog.) She sent me the following, which appears here unedited. She did not mention which Planned Parenthood clinic she visited; if she lets me know, I will add it to her story. She will be reading this entry, so you can leave messages or prayers for her in the comments.]

My first trip to Planned Parenthood was on March 3rd. I went in there and filled out my paperwork for the abortion. As I sat there the waiting room filled up with women. It amazed me how many people would go in there and kill a life without an extremely good reason other than selfishness. They herded us back there like cows. Literally they called a bunch of names and told us to pay at the window. Then we were sent to urinate into a cup and sit in another waiting room.

One by one we were sent into a little room with a woman who “counsels” us. There is NO counseling done here. They tell you that you will be given certain medications and give us an instruction list of what not to do afterwards. They then give you an ultrasound to see how far along you are. Fortunately I was not far along enough to have an abortion at that time so they sent me on my way.

March 13th I went back this time to attempt to have a medical abortion instead of a surgical one. Once again they did the urine pregnancy test and an ultrasound and announced that I wasn’t pregnant. After taking 4 home pregnancy tests and one at Planned Parenthood along with all the usual symptoms of pregnancy that I had with my daughter, I was appalled that they wouldn’t look into this any further to see what was going on with me. I had seen the ultrasound screen and knew that my uterus looked pregnant even though there were no signs of a baby or a fetal sac.

(Read on …)