7QT {v. 12} - we happy few

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Finally, back to the blog. It's been a while - a much-needed hiatus, if you will. Every now and then it's a good idea to take some time and refresh your mind, your spirit. So, I thought, what a great day to return to blogging - St. Crispin's Day!

Also known as, An Excuse to Put Tom Hiddleston On My Blog Day

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At last, The Furlough has ended! Things can kind of go back to normal around here... It was a wake-up call to have the rug pulled out from under us like that; everything you depend on can be taken away just like that. Politics has always involved a certain amount of theatre (the Tudors, anyone?) but this was really too much. 

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Speaking of monsters, completely coincidentally, Ignatius Press is releasing a new edition of Bram Stoker's Dracula that coincides with the premiere tonight of NBC's "Dracula" series. Though I think this new series is more about sex than ancient pagan rituals, it's striking to me how obsessed with the occult and/or demonic our culture has become. Movies, books, TV shows, etc. - for a society that has decided religion is medieval hogwash, they are awfully obsessed with it.

Not your grandpa's Dracula...

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“The world, and men for whom His Son die, will not be given over to monsters … we go out as the old knights of the Cross.” -Van Helsing, Dracula

What's not included, notably, in many (if not all) of these depictions is any sign that the forces of good in this world stand a fighting chance against evil. Should we, as Christians, be dwelling on this as much as our culture is wont to do? Of course not. (“…there are things old and new which must not be contemplate by men’s eyes.”)  But we do have a role to play. In this brief article on the new Ignatius edition, the author notes how Bram Stoker accords this vampire the exact right silliness he deserves, and the exact right seriousness. Maybe we have something to learn from this. Maybe we shouldn't get too cozy with this strange, uneasy alliance. What do you all think? Agree, disagree, confused?

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Is it just me or do you feel like Pope Francis is speaking right to you? Lately, reading reports of his daily homilies, I have been so convicted by his words. 

 "The royal road the Lord paved for us 'is not a path to poverty for poverty’s sake' but rather 'an instrument so that God might remain God and the only Lord of our lives."

"For idolatry is a form of impiety...What is lacking is the sense we all have within us to adore God ... we all need to adore, because we have God's very imprint within us” and “when we do not adore God, we adore creatures”

"To hear the voice of God in one’s life, one needs to open his heart to surprise. Otherwise, one can start 'fleeing from God."

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And one more amazing quote from another awesome pope:

via Cassie Pease Designs

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Fall is slowly fading into winter; you feel the new cold snapping at your skin in the air now. What I love (among other things) about these fall-winter months is finding a good, long book or two you can really sink your teeth into. I just picked up the much-hyped, Man Booker-nominated book, The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt, because it was shiny and new in the library.

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via pinterest

So far so good. But I'm think of finally tackling War and Peace or Middlemarch this winter, and finishing up an Austen novel. Has anyone read these before? What is your favorite curl-up-with-a-blanket-and-cocoa book for this season?

7 quick takes {v. 11} - it is well

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What a wonderful couple of weeks it's been! I finished helping out at my church's summer CCD and it's been a really wonderful, surprisingly humbling experience. These kids were so open to the Gospel and had such great questions. For example: "Why can't God just snap His fingers and make all the bad things stop?" And that's from a 10 year old, ladies and gentlemen.

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Blessed are the men whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the roads to Zion. - Psalm 84:5

 I'm coming out of a somewhat difficult season in my life and have become very contented with the various quiet, daily routines that we take for granted. Maybe it sounds silly but looking out the window and seeing green all around me, pine trees, even the mailman, have been balms for my soul. I guess you never know how much you love home until you leave for a time.

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On a lighter note, Austenland is coming to theaters soon. I love all things Austen and am excited to see what this movie is all about. Seems like a cute summer rom-com. Also, where exactly does one find a life-size cutout of Colin Firth/Darcy?



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The new Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist CD came out this week, too. It's a beautiful order of sisters and the CD is amazing. It's so relaxing to just turn on the hymns and let them wash over you. It's even been a big help for me to get into the right stillness before prayer.

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Another neat ministry I read about this week was the relatively new brewery of the Benedictine Monks at St. Benedict's Monastery of Norcia, Italy. Not only is their beer (Belgian style) supposed to be amazing, but they've found it's been a great way to "preach the Gospel without preaching the Gospel".  Interesting, right?

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There's been so much evil in the news this week that it's hard to take in. Some of these articles I couldn't even get through because of the depth of evil. I'll never understand how a human heart can become so dark. The only thing I can think to do now is pray. Let's keep these intentions in our prayers this week.

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I'm starting the 33 Days to Morning Glory consecration program at my church this week and, really, I don't think it could've come at a better time. Have you any of you done this? I've heard so many good things. Pray for me, if you can, and share any intentions you want me to pray for too!

7 quick takes {v. 10}: lobsters, gungors, & harry potter

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What a week! World Youth Day came to an end and we were all left to read and ponder and pray over Pope Francis' messages. If you can read Spanish, here's a handy little compendium of all his messages from World Youth Day. If not, please do yourself a favour and read them. All of them. Chew on them for a while. I promise, it'll change you. I mean, come on, 3 million+ young people, on a beach, in Eucharistic adoration? Listening to a pope say Mass? That is nothing short of a miracle.

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On a similar note, I've been seeing people really trying to understand his supposed comment to "make a mess", given to his impromptu meeting with the Argentinian youth. As an Argentinian youth myself, I want to put it out there that this is a MIStranslation. The phrase in Spanish is, "¡Hagan lío!" It's hard to directly translate into English but it really comes closer to "stir the pot" or "make trouble" or "cause a ruckus". I love having a papa Argentino!

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In other, less global news, it was my birthday last Friday. I celebrated by heading up to Maine for some lobstah and coastline. There is nothing like fresh, seasonal Maine lobster! It was so wonderful to just relax with my family and hang out by the water. I don't think I could ever live anywhere away from the ocean again...

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As part of this awesome birthday, my parents got me tickets to a New England Christian music festival where I had front row spots to see Hillsong Live and Gungor! In case you don't know, I'm an all-things-Hillsong superfan. It was so awesome not just being close enough to touch the main singers, but just because there's nothing like a live music experience. Check these bands out if you haven't already!

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 On top of all the other cool things happening, this month is the 15th anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I don't think I'll ever get tired of Harry Potter! Scholastic debuted some new covers for the books; what do you think? I personally like the originals better, but that's probably because those are the ones we grew up with. There's also a list of 28 things that happened after the series ended, according to good old J.K. (or Robert Galbraith, if you please) herself. (Thanks for the link, Julie!)

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 If you were watching the Saturday night vigil at World Youth Day, you may have spotted Matt Maher, Catholic music extraordinaire playing for El Papa himself!

 
His song, "Lord, I Need You" is a beautiful take on an old hymn. Here's Matt talking about it: 

 

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"I hope that a UK buyer comes forward so this simple but elegant ring can be saved for the nation." 

Once upon a time, Kelly Clarkson anonymously purchased a rare piece of jewelry owned by Queen Jane Austen herself. After a quick Wikipedia search, the British auctioneers/Austenites realized this Clarkson character was an American(!) and was trying to pull a Wickham and run away with the family goods! If only there was a gallant, British Darcy out there to save the day....

Have a good weekend, everybody!

lost in translation: the pope francis story

So I don't usually do this, but I've seen so much confusion and misinformation in the news media that I felt it was necessary. It's sad to see, after such an incredible, profound, and transformational week took place in Brazil, all the mishegas now surrounding his words to reporters on the plane ride home. I haven't seen too many full transcriptions of his words so I quickly put together a direct translation of the Spanish which the press have claimed proves that Pope Francis is "signalling opennes" to gay priests. I'm Argentinian and am fluent so I figured I could help. I tried to stay as close to his words as possible since sometimes people take liberties with translation; it's not terribly prosaic but it does the trick. It was helpful to me to read what he said in its entirety and not in soundbites. Hope you find this helpful, too.

(For more extensive analysis and commentary on the subject I direct you here, here, here, and here.)

Q: You haven't spoken yet on abortion or on gay marriage. In Brazil, they have approved a law which expands the right to abortion and legalizes gay marriage. Why haven't you spoken about this?

R: The Church has already expressed itself perfectly on this, it wasn't necessary to revisit this, nor to talk about scams, lying, or other things of which the Church already has a clear doctrine. It wasn't necessary to talk about that but, rather, positive things which help young people on their journey. Also, young people know perfectly well what the position of the Church is.

Q: But what is your position on these issues?

R: That of the Church, I am a son of the Church.

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Q: What should be the involvement of women in the church? What do you think of the ordination of women?

R: Like I told the bishops, on the involvement of women in the Church we cannot limit women altar servers, the president of Caritas, the catechists... There must be something more, there needs to be thorough Theology of the Woman. Regarding the ordination of women, the Church has spoken and she says no. John Paul II said this, but with a definitive formulation [or "with decisive language"]. That door is closed. But I want to say something about this: the Virgin Mary was more important than the apostles and the bishops and the deacons and the priests. The woman in the Church is more important than bishops and priests. How? This is what we must try to explain better. I believe we are missing a theological explanation of this.

Q: The story of Msgr. Battista Ricca has thrown the world for a loop. We would like to know how you will address this issue and everything related to the alleged gay lobby in the Vatican?

R: With respect to Msgr. Ricca, I did what canon law demanded which is a preliminary investigation. And this investigation doesn't correspond with what has been published. We haven't found anything. But I would like to add one thing about this. I think that many times in the Church--in relation to this case or others--they are going to look for the sins of youth. And then they're published. Not crimes, crimes are another thing. Abuse of children is a crime. I'm referring to sins. But if a person--lay, priest, or nun--commits a sin and later repents, the Lord forgives. And when the Lord forgives, He forgets. And this is important for our life. When we confess, God forgives and forgets. And we have no right to not forget. You mentioned the gay lobby. Much is written about the gay lobby. I have not yet found a single person who gives me an ID card in the Vatican where it says that. They say there are those people. When one comes across a person like that, one must distinguish between the fact of being a gay person and the fact of lobbying, because no lobby is good. If a person is gay and seeks God and is of good will, who am I to judge them? The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains it very beautifully. It says that you should not marginalize those people because of that [being gay].  They should be integrated into society. The problem is not having this tendency. We must be brothers. The problem is making a lobby. Of this tendency or the lobby of the greedy, or of politicians, or of the Masons... So many lobbies... This is the bigger problem.

7 Quick Takes: Beach days, WYD & Tolkien

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I finally made it to the beach this week! And it was later in the day so it was nice and cool out, instead of boiling and humid. It was so good and refreshing to just lay there and read a book, the sounds of the waves just washing over me. I plan on doing a lot more of this before summer ends.

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Picked up my Divine Office today, and nothing felt better than the familiar thin sheets of paper, the red letters, the rhythm of psalm-antiphon-psalm-antiphon-psalm-reading. It was like drinking from a cool glass of water after subsisting on nothing for so long. I'm ashamed to say I stopped talking to God for a while, back when I was still working in South Dakota. And it hurt. I felt like God had gone silent on me, so I did too. I've been going to Mass again, and adoration. And now, today, I opened up my book of prayer. One that had sustained me for many long, hard months.

What do you do when you feel spiritually dry? Distant?

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Found this heartwarming little story amid all the World Youth Day Rio preparations. Two small stories in this wide world; simple faith.

 

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Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament… There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth...The only cure for sagging or fainting faith is Communion.

Who doesn't love a little J.R.R. Tolkien? I found this quote at just the right time, just when I needed it.

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It's been a rough few weeks, a rough news cycle, a rough economy, just rough. We've seen, played across our screens, and our Twitter feeds, some really dark places in the human heart. But I think we, as Christians, need to be the ones to keep hoping, keep praying, keep believing that God is alive and working and healing.

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And if I do speak, I still want it to be holy and broken. I want to find this pain and minster out of it because it’s through His own broken body we find our healing.

This. This beautiful post from over at Deeper Story about being and knowing God in the silent places and the broken places.

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So my quick takes this week were kind of a downer, I know, but this is what I felt these things needed to be said. Let me know what you think about anything I've mentioned above and if there's anything you want me to pray for.

This week, though, you should really be catching any World Youth Day coverage you can. Here are some places I like to follow along at:

For the telly - EWTN, CatholicTV
For the internet - SaltandLightTV, Magis,
For the Twitter - WYD official, The Jesuit Post guys, USCCB

WYD Cross & Icon on Sugarloaf Mtn, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

#Stand4Life, Stand with Ireland

You know when you're in a period of transition and everything feels in flux? Right. I'm working on some new posts and thinking about what I want for this blog. In the by and by, this issue came to my attention after I learned the pink sneakers of Wendy Davis have unfortunately led to a bus tour. Read it, follow it, and pass it around. Thanks!

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In the weeks following the infamous 13-hour filibuster by State Sen. Wendy Davis (D) over a Texas abortion bill, she quickly became the new (for now) face of pro-choice America. She's everywhere, capturing the attention of the deep-pocketed Planned Parenthood president, Cecile Richards, enough for the two to unite in a statewide bus tour called, "Stand with Texas Women!". The Democrats' new "rising star" she's set strategic minds spinning and seems to have secured for herself a shiny political future.

But the ugliness that has emerged along the pink-shirted, elaborately-marketed Wendy Davis Texas tour has been disheartening at best, grotesque and downright scary at worst. Hail Satan, anyone?

Yes, these are actual Texas lawmakers with actual coat hangers.

In Ireland, a similar drama is unfolding.

Over the last few weeks Fine Gael, Ireland's largest political party and the lead in the coalition government, has proposed the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013 which would legislate--for the first time--legal access to abortion in limited circumstances.

Lucinda Creighton, a Minister of State, has led the resistance to this bill. In a remarkable speech to the Dáil (a House of Parliament), she lays out why she's voting against the bill. 

In it, she calls out the "groupthink" behind the Bill, the irony that abortion has actually become a tool of oppression for women because of sex selection. She asks what the difference is between abortion and killing a baby after delivery, since the net effect is the same: an innocent baby, a human life, is wiped out.

She even throws out the idea that the unborn should have the right to legal representation, since babies as young as 1 day old are sometimes assigned court-appointed guardians ad litem. Ultimately, she argues abortion will irrevocably change the "compassionate culture of care for mothers and babies" in Ireland. Ultimately, abortion solves nothing.

Lucinda Creighton and the other ministers who will vote against this bill do so knowing that they will lose their jobs, be expelled from the Fine Gael party, and will, most likely, lose their careers. They've been told by other ministers to check their consciences at the door, but have refused. The central question they've proposed is this: "Is a fetus/baby defined from one moment to the next on the basis of whether it is wanted or not?"

In Dublin, on July 6, there was a massive Rally for Life which brought out over 50,000 people. The last few nights, vigils have been held for life. This could very well be Ireland's Roe v. Wade moment.

 On Wednesday, when the vote was supposed to take place, the Dáil debated past the 5 a.m. deadline. They had been debating for 24 hours. 24 hours. And the debates are scheduled to continue in the evening. Over 100 pro-life protesters vowed to spend a second night kneeling outside Parliament in prayer.

It's a foregone conclusion that the bill will pass, with the majority of ministers pledging their votes. And yet, the fight continues, because it's worth it. This Thursday, I'll be praying for and with the Irish people. Keep following this issue, and keep praying!

on shattered things

 There is no place where earth's sorrows
are more felt than in heaven.

According to CNN, 566 people were found dead today in Syria. Dead from war, a six day campaign in the area.

And a few days ago, this:

How to make sense of it all. To really realize that we aren't at all promised tomorrow, even the next moment. To realize that we can never truly know the heart of another person we share this earth with, but somehow must love them anyway. To even begin to let that word - mercy - reverberate around the chambers of your heart because it can't fit in your head.

How to walk down that sidewalk again? How do we not see death around every corner? How do we stand, tall and proud and strong, hate choking the life out of this world? How do we keep our hearts pure, and not be devoured by evil?

There are humvees rolling down the street and soldiers with assault rifles and blood on a sidewalk I've walked down a hundred times and shrapnel and a dead 8 year old and a father suddenly taken and at the center of it all, a family. 

Maybe it's because I'm away from my home, away from these streets and the thick of it, but I don't feel rage or acute hate, I feel a kind of deep down sadness. We can hardly look at this, it hurts too much, like looking right at the sun. But when I do, I see a 19-year-old boy. A 19-year-old boy, too young to even know who he is, somehow filling his heart up to the brim with enough evil to do this. When does a heart stop beating good and starts beating evil?

I wake up on a Saturday and hear how they finally caught him, huddled and hiding and dying in a boat, it feels like the morning after Good Friday.

At Mass this morning, because I don't live in Massachusetts right now, the priest didn't talk about it. He told a story about a little sheep that every day went further and further out of the fold and away from the good shepherd until one day he was so far the wolf devoured him. How much does the good shepherd mourn for the lost one?

 

I sit in church today and I listen to the homily, run my fingers over the smooth pages, the short gospel. He's talking about shepherds and all I picture are the cattlemen out here. The Levis and the rough hands and the dirt-caked boots and dusty wide-brimmed hat and the crinkly face, tanned by the prairie sun.

I picture the Good Shepherd like this. And my Jesus becomes so gritty and raw and real that he's right there in the mud and blazing hot earth sun with us.

Easter Mass, Vatican, 2013

More and more, I'm learning that there is only one thing, truly, that we can hold on to. When my students' stories get to be too much, and the world itself is too much, I can always find solace in the cross. I say it now and I'll have to preach it to myself every moment of every day for the rest of my life.

When everything is shattered and the whole world is falling apart, the cross is still held together. The Cross still holds all shattered things together.