Our Homegrown Harvest effort is working. Not only have we netted four new seminarians in the past year, but we have two men currently in the application process and one more who is in a pre-seminary online program that we offer to guys who are seriously considering a priestly vocation.
The health of a vocation department is not just quality and quantity of candidates; it’s also dependent on building up a good support system for all those who have a hand in promoting and supporting vocations. Here are some other initiatives that we recently ramped up with that in mind:
– We had our first ever POPS event on Sept. 24. The Parents of Priests/Seminarians/Sisters is an effort to support our parents who are supporting their children in discernment. The Knights of Columbus of the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle provided dinner. It was a great event. We are looking at doing a Christmas party in December.
Father Nick Adam
– I attended Southeastern Pastoral Institute’s Encuentro Regional (Regional Encounter Workshop) Oct. 12-14 to learn more about working with young Hispanic Catholics in our parishes and helping them discover their vocation. It was a great experience, and I enjoyed the networking and got some good ideas both for vocation promotion and parish best practices for Hispanic ministry. Bishop Kopacz and Faith Formation director, Fran Lavelle also attended this workshop which was held in St. Augustine, Florida.
– We hosted our first ever Bethany Night in mid-October. This was a dinner, talk, and time of adoration for young women open to the call to religious life. Sister Karolyn Nunes, FSGM, was in town and so I asked her to give a presentation to those who attended. Sister Karolyn is the vocation director for the Franciscan Sisters of the Martyr St. George, the same order that Kathleen McMullin, now Sister Mary Kolbe McMullin, entered last year. A great thanks goes to the Knights of Columbus from Holy Savior in Clinton for providing dinner and to this parish for hosting us. I also took Sister Karolyn to St. Joe High School in Madison to speak with two sections of Senior Theology, and that was a great time, the kids were full of great questions.
And our Homegrown Harvest Festival has brought in a record amount to go toward the tuition/books/fees for our nine seminarians. Thank you all for the trust that you have placed in the Lord as we have made a call for support of our men in formation and thank you for you the encouragement you continue to give to young men to consider the call to the priesthood and young women to consider the call to religious life.
CLINTON – Sister Karolyn Nunes, FSGM, speaks with members of the youth group at Holy Savior Clinton as a part of the Vocations office’s first-ever “Bethany Night.” (Photo by Father Nick Adam)
Si solo oráramos cuando quisiéramos, no oraríamos mucho.
El entusiasmo, los buenos sentimientos y el fervor no sostendrán la vida de oración de nadie por mucho tiempo, a pesar de la buena voluntad y la firme intención.
Padre Ron Rolheiser, OMI
Nuestros corazones y mentes son complejos y promiscuos, caballos salvajes que retozan a su propio ritmo, con la oración frecuentemente fuera de su agenda. El renombrado místico Juan de la Cruz enseña que, después de un período inicial de fervor en la oración, pasaremos la mayor parte de nuestros años luchando por orar discursivamente, lidiando con el aburrimiento y la distracción.
Entonces, la pregunta es, ¿cómo oramos en esos momentos en que estamos cansados, distraídos, aburridos, desinteresados y amamantando mil cosas más en nuestra cabeza y en nuestro corazón? ¿Cómo oramos cuando lo pequeño dentro de nosotros quiere orar? Especialmente, ¿cómo oramos en esos momentos cuando tenemos un disgusto positivo por la oración?
Los monjes tienen secretos que vale la pena conocer. El primer secreto que debemos aprender de ellos es que el lugar central del ritual es mantener una vida de oración. Los monjes rezan mucho y con regularidad, pero nunca intentan sostener su oración sobre la base de los sentimientos. Lo sostienen a través del ritual.
Los monjes rezan juntos siete u ocho veces al día ritualmente. Se reúnen en la capilla y rezan los oficios rituales de la iglesia (maitines, laudes, prima, tercia, sexta, vísperas, completas) o celebran juntos la eucaristía. No siempre van allí porque les da la gana, vienen porque son llamados a la oración, y luego, con el corazón y la mente tal vez menos entusiasmados con la oración, oran desde lo más profundo de sí mismos, su intención y su voluntad.
En la regla que San Benito escribió para la vida monástica, hay una frase muy citada. La vida de un monje escribe, debe regirse por la campana monástica. Cuando suena la campana monástica, el monje inmediatamente debe dejar lo que esté haciendo y dirigirse a lo que sea que lo llame, no porque quiera, sino porque es el tiempo, y el tiempo no es nuestro tiempo, es el tiempo de Dios. Ese es un secreto valioso, particularmente en lo que se refiere a la oración.
Necesitamos ir a orar con regularidad, no porque queramos, sino porque es el momento, y cuando no podemos orar con el corazón y la mente, aún podemos orar a través de nuestra voluntad y a través de nuestro cuerpo.
¡Sí, nuestros cuerpos!
Tendemos a olvidar que no somos ángeles desencarnados, con corazones y mentes puras. También somos un cuerpo. Por lo tanto, cuando los corazones y las mentes luchan por participar en la oración, siempre podemos orar con nuestros cuerpos.
Clásicamente, hemos tratado de hacerlo a través de ciertos gestos y posturas físicas (hacer la señal de la cruz, arrodillarse, levantar las manos, juntar las manos, genuflexión, postración) y nunca debemos subestimar o denigrar la importancia de estos gestos corporales.
En pocas palabras, cuando no podemos orar de otra manera, aún podemos orar a través de nuestros cuerpos. ¿Y quién puede decir que un gesto corporal sincero es inferior a la oración a un gesto del corazón o de la mente?
Personalmente, admiro mucho un gesto corporal en particular, inclinar la cabeza hacia el suelo que hacen los musulmanes en su oración. Hacer eso es hacer que tu cuerpo le diga a Dios: “Independientemente de lo que esté en mi mente y en mi corazón en este momento, me someto a tu omnipotencia, tu santidad, tu amor.”
Siempre que hago la oración meditativa solo, normalmente la termino con este gesto. A veces, los escritores espirituales, los catequistas y los liturgistas nos han fallado al no dejar claro que la oración tiene diferentes etapas, y que la afectividad, el entusiasmo y el fervor son solo una etapa y la etapa neófita.
Como han enseñado universalmente los grandes doctores y místicos de la espiritualidad, la oración, como el amor, pasa por tres fases.
Primero viene el fervor y el entusiasmo; luego viene el decaimiento del fervor junto con la sequedad y el hastío y finalmente viene la pericia, la soltura y un cierto sentido de estar en casa en la oración que no depende de la afectividad y el fervor sino del compromiso de estar presente, independientemente del sentimiento afectivo.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer solía decirle esto a una pareja cuando oficiaba su matrimonio. Hoy estás muy enamorado y crees que tu amor sostendrá tu matrimonio. no lo hará Deja que tu matrimonio [que es un contenedor ritual] sostenga tu amor.
Lo mismo puede decirse de la oración. El fervor y el entusiasmo no sostendrán su oración, pero el ritual sí. Cuando luchamos por orar con nuestra mente y nuestro corazón, siempre podemos orar a través de nuestra voluntad y nuestro cuerpo. Presentarse puede ser oración suficiente. En un libro reciente, Dearest Sister Wendy, Robert Ellsberg cita un comentario de Michael Leach, quien dijo esto en relación con lo que estaba experimentando al tener que cuidar a largo plazo de su esposa que padecía Alzheimer.
Enamorarse es la parte fácil; aprender a amar es la parte difícil y vivir enamorado es la mejor parte.
Esto es cierto también para la oración.
(El padre oblato Ron Rolheiser es teólogo, maestro y autor galardonado. Se le puede contactar a través de su sitio web www.ronrolheiser.com. Facebook www.facebook.com/ronrolheiser)
From the Archives By Mary Woodward JACKSON – In this installment from the archives, I would like to do two commercials.
First, October is American Archives Awareness Month. Archive collections around the country feature treasures of historical documents, artifacts and visual images. More and more, digital-born images are becoming common place inhabitants of archive collections. This is creating new and challenging ways to manage our collective memory.
The Gulf South region of the United States loves its history and that is reflected in those states attention to maintaining archives. I am proud to say that the State of Mississippi has one of the finest archives in the entire country. Alabama and Louisiana have fine systems as well.
Mississippi State University is home to the papers of President and General Ulysses S. Grant; the University of Southern Mississippi has an excellent library and information science program that trains future archivists. The archives at Ole Miss house a fantastic blues collection along with the “Rowan Oaks” papers of William Faulkner and papers of many other Mississippi authors.
NEW ORLEANS – Mary Woodward served on the environment committee for the “Ars Celebrandi: Something More is Required” gathering of the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions (FDLC) the first week of October. Pictured is the mosaic of ars celebrandi moments in liturgy featuring Region V bishops and archbishops. (Photo by Mary Woodward)
In terms of Catholic archives, our diocesan archives could be considered a national treasure because of its content dating back to Spanish Colonial times. Our documents on the Civil Rights Movement give witness to the church’s involvement in the struggle for justice during those most turbulent times.
Having visited the archives of the Archdioceses of Mobile and New Orleans, both have similar collections to ours spread throughout entire floors of buildings. The three collections put together capture the history and development of the region through the unique lens of the church dating back to the 17th century.
Archives are repositories of history, kept in a way that reveal history as it was and not as we think it was. Archives prevent us from being nostalgic and seeing the “good ole days” through the proverbial rose-colored glasses. Archives are living, breathing, organic insights into the soul of a community illuminating human nature in its most honest state. I like to call it the Kingdom of Memory.
What we do not often think about is each one of us is a walking archive collection. We keep family photos, birthday cards, love letters, diaries, etc., in our collections. Some of us have drawers neatly organized with our archive while others have refrigerators covered with a collection held together by eclectic magnets. But more importantly our hearts, minds and souls are filled with recollections and even scars of a lifetime. Each moment carefully tucked away in the repository of the kingdom of memory.
The second commercial is for the Diocesan Eucharistic Revival event being held Oct. 28-29, at St. Joseph Church in Gluckstadt. The U.S. bishops conference has created a three-year national Eucharistic Revival journey that began this past Corpus Christi and will culminate with a National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in 2024.
Our diocesan event will include prayer, adoration, opportunities for the sacrament of penance, and conclude with the celebration of the Eucharist with Bishop Joseph Kopacz. This Eucharistic renewal journey naturally flows out of a desire by all of us to deepen our ongoing understanding of the Eucharist. This past week, I participated in the national gathering of the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions, FDLC, which is a partner entity of the U.S. bishop’s conference engaged in formation of laity and clergy in fully implementing Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.
Our region hosted the gathering in New Orleans and the theme was “Ars Celebrandi: Something More is Required,” which is taken from paragraph 11 of the Constitution. Ars celebrandi is simply translated as the art of celebrating.
The full paragraph is worth noting here: But in order that the liturgy may be able to produce its full effects, it is necessary that the faithful come to it with proper dispositions, that their minds should be attuned to their voices, and that they should cooperate with divine grace lest they receive it in vain. Pastors of souls must therefore realize that, when the liturgy is celebrated, something more is required than the mere observation of the laws governing valid and licit celebration; it is their duty also to ensure that the faithful take part fully aware of what they are doing, actively engaged in the rite, and enriched by its effects.
As part of the environment committee, we created a mosaic of ars celebrandi moments in liturgy featuring our region’s metropolitan archbishops and our own Bishop Kopacz. A highlight of the conference for me was to be able to serve Mass in St. Louis Cathedral as the miter bearer for Archbishop Gregory Aymond. I am grateful for this honor and will certainly file it in my kingdom of memory.
During the Mass in the cathedral, I reflected on paragraph 11 and how much more is required of all of us in understanding the great gift of the Eucharist. Do we really understand the communal nature of worship and the importance of the postures and actions of liturgy as the Body of Christ? Do we know what actually is happening in the sacred mysteries when heaven and earth meet on the altar?
Throughout the next two years in tandem with our synodal encounter journey, we will strive to offer “something more” in an effort to profoundly increase our understanding of these questions. Please join us Oct. 28-29 in Gluckstadt and if you are not able to be there physically for this inspiring event, join us through prayer.
(Mary Woodward is Chancellor and Archivist for the Diocese of Jackson.)
Martin de Porres, the first black saint of the Americas, knew bigotry and racial discrimination firsthand. Born in 1579 in Lima, Peru, he was the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman and a black woman from Panama. He and his sister Juana were socially stigmatized for being of mixed race. For many years their father refused to acknowledge them as his children, mainly because of their dark skin. Lacking his support, they spent their childhood in poverty.
Discrimination based on race has a long and shameful history. Unfortunately, our country appears in several chapters of that history, with our state comprising an entire chapter of its own. During my childhood, there was no meaningful social interaction between the races, so I was blissfully ignorant of the struggles of people of color.
OXFORD – A stained glass window at St. John the Evangelist Church depicts St. Martin de Porres. Columnist, Melvin Arrington writes the column “Reflections of Life,” this week he reflects on his childhood in segregated Mississippi and the life of this very special saint. (Photo courtesy of Melvin Arrington)
I grew up in the 1950s in the Northwest section of Jackson on a little street off of Northside Drive. This was during the era of separate facilities for schools, hotels, restaurants – everything. And this included housing. There were five houses on my street, all occupied by white families. Adjoining my house, the fifth one, was a huge, overgrown vacant lot functioning as a barrier separating whites from the black families that lived on the other side of it. Families on the two ends of the street didn’t socialize in any way; it was as if they lived on separate planets. I knew there were boys my age who lived beyond that weedy field, but we couldn’t play together. That was just the way things were.
As an illegitimate, mixed-race child, Martin de Porres faced a bleak future because of the way things were during his era. At age 12 he had the good fortune to became apprenticed to a barber-surgeon (a person skilled at bloodletting), an experience that taught him about medicine and how to care for the sick. At 15 he had a vision of Mary, who told him to go to the local Dominican friary and ask to be admitted. He did so, and the Order accepted him as a lay helper, the most he could expect given his color and lack of social standing. In 1603, after serving nine years, he was finally allowed to take full vows as a friar.
Martin worked in the kitchen, laundry, and infirmary and also distributed alms to the poor. Always willing to do any menial chore, he was assigned the task of sweeping floors, earning him the nickname Brother Broom. People also called him Martin of Charity because of his love and passion for service. In addition to devoting much time to caring for the sick and the poor, he founded an orphanage, and took on the task of tending to black slaves brought from Africa, because they had no one to care for them. He even set up a shelter/hospital for stray dogs and cats. Martin never judged a person by his race or social class; in looking at someone in need, he only saw Jesus.
Martin had the gift of healing, sometimes performing an instant cure just by walking into a sick person’s room. Like his good friend, Rose of Lima, he often experienced mystical ecstasy during prayer. Other gifts included the ability to levitate and also to be in two places at once (bilocation). It was said that any room where he went to pray would become filled with light. Another rare talent was his ability to communicate with animals. According to one well-known story, he taught a dog, a cat, and a mouse to eat from the same bowl at the same time.
The beloved Brother Broom died in 1639, surrounded by the Dominican friars. All of Lima turned out to mourn his death. Pope John XXIII canonized him in 1962. His feast is Nov. 3. He is the patron of barbers, hairdressers, black and mixed-race peoples, and social justice. This black saint, who endured the bitter realities of racial prejudice and discrimination and struggled throughout his life to bring diverse peoples together, is also our patron of racial reconciliation.
In Oxford, one of the stained-glass windows at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church honors St. Martin de Porres. Fittingly, the window was placed in the southeast corner of the building facing University Avenue at precisely the spot where, in the fall of 1962 (the year of Martin’s canonization), U.S. Marshals lined up to begin escorting James Meredith to the Ole Miss campus. After several failed attempts to gain admission to the University, Meredith ultimately enrolled following a night of rioting that left two dead and hundreds injured. All of this bloodshed resulted from the state’s refusal to allow Meredith, an African American U. S. Air Force veteran and native Mississippian, to enroll in one of its institutions of higher learning.
Our state has made much progress since that incident. By way of illustration, here is the rest of my story. In my early thirties, I accepted a teaching position at Ole Miss and moved with my family to Oxford. One day, while having lunch at a civic club meeting, I met an African American gentleman who was a high-ranking administrator at the University. In talking, we discovered we had grown up in the same city and even in the same part of town! When we learned that we had actually lived on the same street, we were shocked! As a child he had lived on the other side of that infamous vacant lot! We had long ago been neighbors and yet, because of segregated housing, we had never met until that day at the civic club. My new-found friend should have been someone I grew up playing baseball with. As a child, we had been deprived of each other’s friendship because that was “the way things were.” Today, when my friend tells our story, he calls it a “Mississippi story.”
St. Martin de Porres, you taught the dog, the cat and the mouse to get along with each other. Pray for us that we might learn how to treat everyone with dignity and respect and live in peace with all our brothers and sisters, regardless of race. Amen.
(Melvin Arrington is a Professor Emeritus of Modern Languages for the University of Mississippi and a member of St. John Oxford.)
Llega un momento en la vida en el que es hora de dejar de escribir tu currículum y comenzar a escribir tu obituario. No estoy seguro de quién acuñó esa línea por primera vez, pero hay sabiduría en ella.
¿Cuál es la diferencia entre un currículum y un obituario?
Bueno, el primero detalla tus logros, el segundo expresa cómo quieres ser recordado y qué tipo de oxígeno y bendición quieres dejar atrás. Pero, ¿cómo escribe exactamente un obituario para que no sea, en efecto, solo otra versión de su currículum? Aquí hay una sugerencia.
Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
Hay una costumbre en el judaísmo en la que, como adulto, haces un testamento espiritual cada año. Originalmente, este testamento estaba más en línea con el tipo de testamento que normalmente hacemos, donde el enfoque está en las instrucciones de entierro, en quién recibe qué cuando morimos y en cómo legal y prácticamente atar los detalles inacabados de nuestras vidas.
Con el tiempo, sin embargo, esto evolucionó para que hoy esta voluntad se centre más en una revisión de su vida, el resaltar lo que ha sido más preciado en su vida, la expresión honesta de arrepentimientos y disculpas, y la bendición, por nombre, de aquellas personas a las que quieras despedir de manera especial.
El testamento se revisa y renueva cada año para que esté siempre actualizado y se lee en voz alta en su funeral como las últimas palabras que desea dejar para sus seres queridos.
Este puede ser un ejercicio muy útil para cada uno de nosotros, excepto que tal testamento no se hace en la oficina de un abogado, sino en oración, tal vez con la ayuda de un director espiritual, un consejero o un confesor. Muy prácticamente, ¿qué podría incluirse en un testamento espiritual de este tipo?
Si está buscando ayuda para hacer esto, le recomiendo el trabajo y los escritos de Richard Groves, el cofundador del Sacred Art of Living Center. Ha estado trabajando en el campo de la espiritualidad al final de la vida durante más de treinta años y ofrece una guía muy útil para crear un testamento espiritual y renovarlo regularmente. Se centra en tres preguntas.
Primero: ¿Qué quería Dios que yo hiciera en la vida? ¿Lo hice? Todos nosotros tenemos algún sentido de tener una vocación, de tener un propósito para estar en este mundo, de haber recibido alguna tarea para cumplir en la vida. Tal vez solo seamos vagamente conscientes de esto, pero, en algún nivel del alma, todos sentimos cierto deber y propósito. La primera tarea en una voluntad espiritual es tratar de enfrentarse a eso. ¿Qué quería Dios que hiciera en esta vida? ¿Qué tan bien o mal lo he estado haciendo?
Segundo: ¿A quién debo decir “lo siento”? ¿Cuáles son mis arrepentimientos? Así como otros nos han lastimado, nosotros hemos lastimado a otros. A menos que muramos muy jóvenes, todos hemos cometido errores, lastimado a otros y hecho cosas de las que nos arrepentimos. Una voluntad espiritual está destinada a abordar esto con una honestidad abrasadora y una contrición profunda. Nunca somos más generosos, nobles, devotos y merecedores de respeto que cuando nos arrodillamos reconociendo sinceramente nuestras debilidades, disculpándonos, preguntando dónde debemos hacer las paces.
Tercero: ¿A quién, muy específicamente, por nombre, quiero bendecir antes de morir y regalarle un poco de oxígeno especial? Somos más como Dios (infundiendo energía divina en la vida) cuando admiramos a los demás, los afirmamos y les ofrecemos todo lo que podemos de nuestras propias vidas como una ayuda para ellos. Nuestra tarea es hacer esto para todos, pero no podemos hacerlo para todos, individualmente, por su nombre. En un testamento espiritual, se nos da la oportunidad de nombrar a aquellas personas que más queremos bendecir.
Cuando el profeta Elías agonizaba, su siervo Eliseo le rogó que le dejara “doble porción” de su espíritu. Cuando morimos, estamos destinados a dejar nuestro espíritu atrás como sustento para todos; pero hay algunas personas, a las que queremos nombrar, a las que queremos dejar una doble porción. En este testamento nombramos a esas personas.
En un libro maravillosamente desafiante, “Las cuatro cosas que más importan,” de Ira Byock, un médico que trabaja con los moribundos, afirma que hay cuatro cosas que debemos decirles a nuestros seres queridos antes de morir: “Por favor, perdóname”, “ Te perdono”, “Gracias” y “Te amo”.
Él tiene razón; pero, dadas las contingencias, tensiones, heridas, angustias y altibajos en nuestras relaciones, incluso con aquellos a quienes amamos mucho, no siempre es fácil (o, a veces, incluso existencialmente posible) decir esas palabras claramente, sin ningún equívoco.
Una voluntad espiritual nos da la oportunidad de decirlas desde un lugar que podemos crear más allá de las tensiones que generalmente nublan nuestras relaciones y nos impiden hablar con claridad, para que en nuestro funeral, después del elogio, no quede ningún asunto pendiente. con los que hemos dejado atrás.
(El padre oblato Ron Rolheiser es teólogo, maestro y autor galardonado. Se le puede contactar a través de su sitio web www.ronrolheiser.com ywww.facebook.com/ronrolheiser)
Earlier this month on Oct. 2, the documentary film “Going Home Like a Shooting Star: Thea Bowman’s Journey to Sainthood” was released for public edification and inspiration both in the church and beyond to all Christians and people of goodwill who long for something better for all of God’s children. It is a dynamic nearly hour-long presentation of the life of Sister Thea Bowman, FSPA – the times in which she lived, her impact during her lifetime, and now more than ever her witness in the present and deep into the future.
Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz
It’s a time of great joy for the Diocese of Jackson as we celebrate the life of this religious woman whose story is a remarkable journey of faith. Sister Thea is officially a Servant of God, the first stage for those who are blessed to be on the path to canonization in the Catholic Church. This is a steep climb that follows the narrow road that the church has established for those set apart as faithful disciples who were extraordinary in their walk with the Lord during their time on this earth.
Pope Francis calls such a steady abundance of grace in the life of a person or a community “overflow moments” when the presence of God’s providence is palpable, and the path ahead opens up with new and unexpected ways. The opening prayer at Mass this past weekend expresses this desire for all of our lives. “Lord God, open our hearts to your grace. Let it go before us and be with us that we may always be intent on doing your will.”
Sister Thea had many “overflow moments” in her life of 50 years and certainly would include her entrance into the Catholic Church at age nine, her decision to enter into formation as a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration in her mid-teens, and her perseverance in her battle with tuberculosis early in formation that did not weaken her resolve in pursuit of her religious vocation. She “had made her vows to the Lord” early in life and her “yes” empowered her to celebrate and endure all that crossed her path until God called her home like a shooting star. The documentary celebrates an abundance of God’s grace across her lifespan.
Her voice will resound for generations to come in many and varied ways. She was a scholar and educator who demanded excellence from her students, young and older. She was a charismatic woman of praise who led congregations to sing out their joy to the Lord. She had a deep love for the truth and her prophetic voice has been heard and will gather more strength over time. She loved the church and its universality and she challenged us to be genuinely one, holy, catholic and apostolic.
She wholeheartedly loved her people and culture, but not over and against the universality and diversity of the Catholic Church in our country and in the world. She upheld the dignity of all of God’s children because we are all part of the family of God. She would have sung out full throated and unsparingly last Sunday’s Responsorial Psalm, “the Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.”
In the months ahead we will develop a study guide for “Going Home Like a Shooting Star” that will shed more light on Sister Thea’s blessed life. The Holy Spirit surely will open our hearts and minds through prayer, conversation and reflection to follow the Lord more faithfully on the path to holiness, our universal call. On her gravestone is her motto: “I tried.”
May Sister Thea, Servant of God inspire us to try in the uniqueness of our lives and times to live by God’s abundant grace.
JACKSON – Servant of God, Sister Thea Bowman is the subject of a new documentary “Going Home Like a Shooting Star: Thea Bowman’s Journey to Sainthood.” Pictured, Sister Thea Bowman emphasizes participation to music conference attendees, including the choir of Holy Child Jesus Elementary School, at Murrah High School in November of 1986. (Photo form archives)
I met Kai Lee I during my final year of seminary studies in New Orleans. One of the priests on faculty, Father Joe Krafft, told me that he had met this man at a parish in the area who was looking for an RCIA program that fit his circumstances. Kai had been married to a Catholic for about 30 years and had raised his son Austin in the faith. He was so active in his parish that most parishioners at Christ the King on the Westbank assumed he was already Catholic, but he hadn’t even been baptized! As Father Krafft listened to Kai’s story and realized he wasn’t baptized, he didn’t assume that Kai had already discerned whether or not to join the church, he asked him!
Father Nick Adam
Kai began to attend RCIA sessions at the seminary with myself and one of the other seminarians. He was an incredible student who left no stone unturned. He ended up reading through the entire Catechism of the Catholic Church (and he poured through much of it while he was taking instruction from us), and I always had to make sure I stayed up on my own studies so I’d be able to help answer the questions he would come up with during the week. Kai remembers how we would often go over our class time by 30 minutes to an hour just talking about the faith. Kai was baptized and received first communion and confirmation in May 2018. It was a joy filled day, and it was a great joy to see Kai, his wife Vicky, and their son Austin earlier this month as they paid a visit to Jackson.
The lesson I learned from Kai is one that I use in vocation ministry today: don’t assume, just ask. You may see a young man who is active in his faith and in the church and assume that he has already been encouraged to think about priesthood, or that he’s already discerned and decided against going to the seminary — but don’t assume, just ask! It is so helpful to all of us when we are encouraged by someone to share our gifts. We need that encouragement as human beings, and so never be shy to ask someone if they have considered priesthood and to tell them that they should.
There is one more step that is important to remember. If you can, make sure you help that person make the next step in their journey. Father Krafft helped Kai get connected to an RCIA program that fit his specific circumstance. You can help a young man that you encourage about the priesthood by putting him in touch with me! Remember that anyone who is interested in priesthood or religious life can call my office to get more information — my direct line here at the office is (601) 969-4020, or send me an email at nick.adam@jacksondiocese.org.
Don’t assume, just ask. And then help a young man make the next step in his discernment by encouraging him to talk to me!
There comes a time in life when it’s time to stop writing your resume and begin to write your obituary. I’m not sure who first coined that line, but there’s wisdom in it.
What’s the difference between a resume and an obituary? Well, the former details your achievements, the latter expresses how you want to be remembered and what kind of oxygen and blessing you want to leave behind. But, how exactly do you write an obituary so that it’s not, in effect, just another version of your resume? Here’s a suggestion.
Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
There’s a custom in Judaism where as an adult you make out a spiritual will each year. Originally, this will was more in line with the type of will we typically make, where the focus is on burial instructions, on who gets what when we die, and on how to legally and practically tie up the unfinished details of our lives. Through time, however, this evolved so that today this will is focused more on a review of your life, the highlighting of what’s been most precious in your life, the honest expression of regrets and apologies, and the blessing, by name, of those persons to whom you want to say a special goodbye. The will is reviewed and renewed each year so that it is always current, and it’s read aloud at your funeral as the final words you want to leave behind for your loved ones.
This can be a very helpful exercise for each of us to do, except that such a will is not done in a lawyer’s office, but in prayer, perhaps with a spiritual director, a counsellor, or a confessor helping us. Very practically, what might go into a spiritual will of this sort?
If you are looking for help in doing this, I recommend the work and the writings of Richard Groves, the co-founder of the Sacred Art of Living Center. He has been working in the field of end-of-life spirituality for more than thirty years and offers some very helpful guidance vis-à-vis creating a spiritual will and renewing it regularly. It focus on three questions.
First: What, in life, did God want me to do? Did I do it? All of us have some sense of having a vocation, of having a purpose for being in this world, of having been given some task to fulfill in life. Perhaps we might only be dimly aware of this, but, at some level of soul, all of us sense a certain duty and purpose. The first task in a spiritual will is to try to come to grips with that. What did God want me to do in this life? How well or poorly have I been doing it?
Second: To whom do I need to say, “I’m sorry?” What are my regrets? Just as others have hurt us, we have hurt others. Unless we die very young, all of us have made mistakes, hurt others and done things we regret. A spiritual will is meant to address this with searing honesty and deep contrition. We are never more big-hearted, noble, prayerful, and deserving of respect than when we are down on our knees sincerely recognizing our weaknesses, apologizing, asking where we need to make amends.
Third: Who, very specifically, by name, do I want to bless before I die and gift with some special oxygen? We are most like God (infusing divine energy into life) when we are admiring others, affirming them, and offering them whatever we can from our own lives as a help to them in theirs. Our task is to do this for everyone, but we cannot do this for everyone, individually, by name. In a spiritual will, we are given the chance to name those people we most want to bless. When the prophet Elijah was dying, his servant, Elisha, begged him to leave him “a double portion” of his spirit. When we die, we’re meant to leave our spirit behind as sustenance for everyone; but there are some people, whom we want to name, to whom we want to leave a double portion. In this will, we name those people.
In a wonderfully challenging book, The Four Things That Matter Most, Ira Byock, a medical doctor who works with the dying, submits that there are four things we need to say to our loved ones before we die: “Please forgive me,” “I forgive you,” “Thank you,” and “I love you.” He’s right; but, given the contingencies, tensions, wounds, heartaches, and ups and downs within our relationships, even with those we love dearly, it isn’t always easy (or sometimes even existentially possible) to say those words clearly, without any equivocation. A spiritual will gives us the chance to say them from a place that we can create which is beyond the tensions that generally cloud our relationships and prevent us from speaking clearly, so that at our funeral, after the eulogy, we will have no unfinished business with those we have left behind.
(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser is a theologian, teacher and award-winning author. He can be contacted through his website www.ronrolheiser.com.)
JACKSON – In the last episode we had travelled with Bishop Gunn out West for a series of retreats. He had just arrived in Seattle on Aug. 14, 1918 and found himself with a week before his next engagement. Seizing a few days off, he left Seattle and made his way across the border to British Columbia in Canada. Bishop Gunn had visited this part of the world before and he comments on its progress, although he makes a very “Gunnian” comment about war rations and the inhabitants of this British province.
“I left Seattle and went up the Puget Sound and spent a few days in Victoria and British Columbia. This was during the hottest part of the war when the Americas were eating stale bread, doing without sugar, sparing of everything and it was strange to find in the British Dominion that restrictions were unheard of. We were starving ourselves for the British and they were growing fat on our service and sacrifice.”
Wow. Bishop Gunn’s candor and wit are priceless moments of discovery. The journey continues below: “I had been in Victoria and British Columbia years before, but the change and the betterment of both places was a distinct surprise. The trip on the Sound was ideal and when I got back to Seattle I was sorry to leave it.
“Seattle had grown from 20,000 to 600,000 between my two visits although there was not more than ten or fifteen years between the two. I had stopped in a little wooden frame hotel called the Washington. I looked for the same place in 1918 to find a hotel almost as big as the Waldorf-Astoria of New York.
“I enjoyed the week’s rest and left Sunday the 18th for Portland where I was booked to preach the retreat for the Archdiocese from the 19th to the 23rd. Archbishop Christie received me like a prince. I was comfortably installed in the Holy Cross College known as Columbia University and I found the priests attentive and respectful.
“There were about 85 in attendance. I gathered that the men would rather talk then mediate and it was like squeezing blood out of a turnip to me to give six original talks each day. However, I did it and they enjoyed it.
“At the close of the retreat, we had a big dinner at the Archbishop’s house and I was surprised to meet there Mgr. Kelley of [Catholic] Extension and Chas. Denechaud of New Orleans. After dinner we took a drive on probably the finest highway in America – the famous Oregon Highway which runs along the Dalles for fifty or sixty miles and affords scenery which cannot be duplicated anywhere. “I left Portland for Helena arriving there on August 26th to begin a retreat which ended on the seventh anniversary of my consecration, August 29th.
“There were about eighty priests present and there was more formality in Helena than in St. Paul’s, St. Cloud or in Portland. The bishop, Bishop Carroll, assisted from the throne vested in all his glad rags. “I tried some heavy stuff on the first day, but I found that the priests were human like everybody else and I switched to things practical and pastoral, with the result that we had really a very interested, I was told, and enthusiastic retreat.
“On Thursday a surprise, and frankly a very welcome one, came to me. The bishop was all apologies and told me that he was up against it – that some state law had come into effect on which all the priests had to take immediate action in view of getting St. Charles’ College accredited as a war college during the period of the war.
“The bishop said it was vital to the diocese that the priests should all hurry home and get busy pulling political strings on Friday and Saturday and make college announcements on the following Sunday. I yielded with internal joy and external resignation.
“The bishop asked me to give a closing lecture on education and as a talk like that needed no preparation on my part, I satisfied the bishop and primed the priests for their work, especially on the following Sunday. The result of their action was that St. Charles got the appointment.
“On Thursday night I left with the priests and many of them came as far as Butte and among them was an ex-Marist who was pastor of one of the Butte churches. I had taught this man in Washington in 1892. He was a little scatter brained and his assignment to Salt Lake College gave him wanderlust and he managed to get identified with the Diocese of Helena. He was a good fellow and I really enjoyed him.
“I got away from Butte on the night of August 29th and spent the two remaining days of August on the train. On September 1st I arrived in Chicago where I ran into a well-organized strike. This strike was among the cabmen, taxi drivers and streetcar men and I found myself at the railroad station and no means to get myself to a hotel.
“The strike was thorough and not a wheel could be turned in Chicago for money. I was in such a pickle that I threw timidity to the winds and asked a gentleman who was driving a private auto to take me to my hotel.
“I was in a city of churches on Sunday, September 1st and I could not find a Catholic Church in Chicago, with the result that I neither said Mass nor heard Mass – a nice example of a man who had been preaching retreats to priests for about a month.”
This concludes our world wind 1918 summer journey across the continent with Bishop Gunn. I hope it gives us a better understanding of and appreciation for our early church leaders in this country. Quite the time…
(Mary Woodward is Chancellor and Archivist for the Diocese of Jackson.)
As Christians, we do have the inside track on the road to eternal life. The Lord Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, and his appearances to the disciples, although not a matter of historical evidence and scientific proof, are breath taking in the scriptures. The wounds, the baked fish and bread, the burning Word, the breaking of the bread, the personal encounters, the forgiveness, the peace, the joy, the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church.
It may not be the work of the laboratory, but it is the labor of love through faith in the risen One in a bond that can never be broken, and in an eternal promise that is sealed in the Blood of the Lamb. With St. Paul we press on to the finish line (Phil 3:14) because our citizenship is in heaven. (Phil 3:20) For our eyes are fixed not on what is seen but rather on that which cannot be seen. What is visible is transitory; what is invisible is eternal. (2 Cor 5:18)
Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D.
However, our belief in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting does not place us on the sidelines of this life. Rather, the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead places us squarely in the thick of this world’s joys and sorrows, tragedies and triumphs, as we await the blessed coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, all creation groans and is in labor pains until now…(Romans 8:22), and the Christian groans and grieves with the rest of humanity, but with hope because Jesus is risen. As Jesus said to the woman at the well, the life of God within us is like a spring of water within welling up to eternal life. (John 4:14)
Eternal life has begun and this is the source of our hope in our commitment to respect life across all stages of the human lifespan. With all of the attention of the baseball world on Aaron Judge, a New York Yankee, as he surpasses 60 home runs, the memory surfaced for me of another superstar who packed Yankee stadium back in 1979.
St. John Paul II did not disappoint. Only two years into his apostolic ministry he launched moon shots during his presiding at Mass and preaching that carried far beyond the stadium’s confines into the hearts and minds of Catholics and people of good will around our nation and our world. From the perspective of history, we know that he was a warrior on behalf of life, unborn and throughout the lifespan, and one of his landmark encyclical letters that revealed the depth of his passion, was published around the time of his second apostolic visit to our nation in 1995. In it he warned about a culture of death that was plaguing America.
Back in 1979 with a full stadium as the launching pad, the Holy Father’s words arose from the proclamation of St. Luke’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus. St. John Paul framed his social teaching to follow in the power of evangelization.
“When we Christians make Jesus Christ the center of our feelings and thoughts, we do not turn away from people and their needs. On the contrary, we are caught up in the eternal movement of God’s love that comes to meet us; we are caught up in the movement of the Son, who came among us, who became one of us; we are caught up in the movement of the Holy Spirit, who visits the poor, calms fevered hearts, binds up wounded hearts, warms cold hearts and gives us the fullness of his gifts.”
From this fountain of God’s eternal movement, John Paul II continued: “Catholics of the United States are to walk hand in hand with your fellow citizens of every creed and confession. Unity among you in all such endeavors is essential, under the leadership of your Bishops, for deepening, proclaiming and effectively promoting the truth about human life, the dignity and inalienable rights, the truth such as the church receives it in Revelation and such as she ceaselessly develops it in her social teaching in the light of the Gospel…The parable of the rich man and Lazarus must always be present in our memory; it must form our conscience. Christ demands openness to our brothers and sisters in need — openness from the rich, the affluent, the economically advanced; openness to the poor, the underdeveloped and the disadvantaged. “All of humanity must think of the parable of the rich man and the beggar. We cannot stand idly by. Nor can we remain indifferent when the rights of the human spirit are trampled upon, when violence is done to the human conscience in matters of truth, religion and cultural creativity.
“We cannot stand idly by, enjoying our own riches and freedom, if, in any place, the Lazarus of the twentieth century stands at our doors. In the light of the parable of Christ, riches and freedom mean a special responsibility. And so, in the name of the solidarity that binds us all together in a common humanity, I again proclaim the dignity of every human person: the rich man and Lazarus are both human beings, both of them equally created in the image and likeness of God, both of them equally redeemed by Christ, at a great price, the price of “the precious blood of Christ.” (1 Pt 1:19)
I close with the following reflection which was a beacon for St. John Paul across his long and fruitful apostolic ministry. He was the missionary disciple without parallel.
“In the cultural wars of the recent past the church has defended the fundamental values of our civilization. We must be proud of those pastors and intellectuals who led those struggles. We must, however, ask ourselves. Is it possible to defend Christian and natural values in the public arena if their root — faith in the living presence of Jesus Christ — has dried up? If the root is rotten the tree will fall; we must first of all seek to strengthen the root. We must become missionary disciples: before preaching the law we must enter the hearts of the people. Only then will we be able to speak with authority, and only then will our people feel that the law is not an external imposition, but the answer to the most profound desire of their heart.” Rocco Buttiglione, Discovering Pope Francis The Splendor of Truth, The Gospel of Life, The Joy of the Gospel!
From one generation to the next you are our hope, O, Lord.
