Saturday, July 25, 2020

Once at the Margins

Today’s Feast of St. James recalls once more that Jesus chose fishermen as he began to form a network around him. Modern folk, unlike Jesus’ contemporaries, may not wonder that he did. Rachel Lu wonders and asked, Why? One of her phrases, “lives at the margins,” caused an additional wondering: Do not Christians discover their true identity “at the margins?”

Now Seen

The undersea discovery of an ancient vessel confirms what up to now was only seen on pottery.

Racial Justice Initiative

The dean of Boston College Law School and president-elect of the Association of American Law Schools explained that the “the Forum on Racial Justice in America...will be a transformative process for the university and will launch a rethinking of how we understand our role in higher education, in the greater Boston community, in the nation and in the world.”

Sunday, July 19, 2020

Turning at a River

The midpoint of the month-long celebration of St. Ignatius of Loyola has passed. Daily reflections up to now and all July are available at the link in the sidebar (“31 Days with Saint Ignatius’). Today focuses on the revelation Ignatius received near the Cardoner River in Manresa.

Appeal More than Reflection

Dismissing the crowds, [Jesus] went into the house: easy to miss phrases in the gospel selection remind that Matthew allowed Jesus’ original parable to speak to his hearers, his faith community. Contemporary hearers may consider how the parable of wheat and tares (a weed that resembles wheat in its early stages of growth) illuminates and encourages them.

Jaime L. Waters considers how this parable shapes those who welcome it to work for justice.

Saturday, July 18, 2020

In Memoriam

John Lewis (U.S. Congress) has died. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December 2019. He had been the last living member of the civil rights activists who had the most significant effect on the movement.

Not Well Known

A line in Julian’s Showings is better known than the fact that “spent 15 years and more isolated in her cell, immersed in a deep, faithful struggle to comprehend the divine meaning of these words.” God’s promises are sure even though humans cannot reckon God’s timing of the promises.

Friday, July 17, 2020

Step by Step

On 16 July Vatican News reported that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) published step-by-step procedures for handling cases of abuse of minors.

The  Congregation Secretary detailed the manual to Andrea Tornielli of Vatican News.

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Another Resource

The Jesuits of Britain have been using Zoom to help people meditate. Included with the scheduled one is a link to past meditations.

Monday, July 13, 2020

Thinking 'Chrisitan' = Thinking Differently

Thinking the same way as other social groupings does no think with the mind of Jesus. Radical individualism modern, Western people take for granted did not exist in the time of Jesus; it did not exist when the scriptures written about him and homilies proclaimed him and his risen life.

Helen Orchard contrasted “St Ignatius Loyola’s approach in the Spiritual Exercises with that of modern spiritualities that can mask a self-indulgent individualism. …while the Spiritual Exercises begins with the human person, he or she does not exist in isolation as the centre of a universe around which all else revolves.”

Point of Care

This ship’s “crew is now committed to raising awareness and providing information to the local populations and offers on-the-spot first-stage outpatient treatment.”

Sunday, July 12, 2020

Jesuit and Others Recognized Venerable

Sabbath Gift to Humans

It is in Sabbath that we learn to rest and wrest ourselves from the anxieties of achievement, of making and doing, that clamor inside and out.”

Arranging the Pieces of Annexation


Pope Francis' Sadness

Pope Francis at the Sunday Angelus: “And the sea carries me a little farther away in my thoughts: to Istanbul. I think of Hagia Sophia, and I am very saddened.” For the Vatican transcription of the pope’s remarks at the Sunday Angelus.

Saturday, July 11, 2020

Perfection or Fruitfulness?

From the Thinking Faith archives spiritual director Christopher Chapman offered a way into Sunday’s gospel selection. His conviction remains current: “Old or young, God will dare us once more to emerge into being. The Spirit will lead us beyond ourselves in fruitful generosity.”

Focus: 18-35

For the Sunday Mass via Zoom on 12 July.

Return to Mosque

Early this month Turkey’s Council of State began its review of a request to return Hagia Sophia to use as a mosque. Yesterday the Council approved the change. 

This is not the first change in its use; it originally was a church, then a mosque before becoming a museum for the last 86 years. Concerns from different quarters—including Eastern Orthodox Patriarch and the Russian Orthodox Patriarch—and “grief and dismay” from the World Council of Churches have been registered.

Vatican News recently posted the change. However, the Orthodox Times considered “unjustified silence of the Holy See and personally of Pope Francis [to be] causes [for] concern and sadness in the Christian world.”

Wisdom for All

The church remembers St. Benedict, the founder of Western Monasticism. His graced insight and wisdom exceeds the monastery. Benedictine monk and priest Eric Hollas, OSB, observed:

“Benedict reminds us that God is not absent from our world. God regularly appears in the poor and the sick, and in the faces of our family and friends. And perhaps God even shines forth in our own faces when we serve others.
   “When it comes to a balanced life, Benedict is equally pointed in his critique.”

Relaying Truth

From a Financial Times 10 July interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci. “He imparts a message that is far from sugar-coated. …this pandemic really is ‘the big one’. Covid-19 has the worst elements of previous epidemics combined.”

About the disease processes caused by SARS-CoV-2:
“I have never seen a virus or any pathogen that has such a broad range of manifestations,” he says. “Even if it doesn’t kill you, even if it doesn’t put you in the hospital, it can make you seriously ill.”

Wednesday, July 08, 2020

For the World

The world is in the human imagination in ways it was not before it was seen for the first time from space. The current pandemic has made humans more aware of the earth’s fragility as well as its resilience. The word world evokes predicaments to its peace, health, economy, justice, relationships—to name a few.

At a press conference Cardinal Peter Turkson highlighted peace, harmony and security to which the Vatican’s COVID-19 Commission attends. Member of the Commission and economic professor Sister Alessandra Smerilli remarked about the perils to the global economy.

Airborne No Only Droplet

The body of knowledge about the novel coronavirus continues to grow as the pandemic surges in some places and ebbs in others. Ebbing is no sign of disappearing but of prudent behaviour of individuals and  by health-care tracking. Evidence now suggests that the virus is airborne, that is, no longer only contained in droplets expelled from airways of infected people.

Another system the virus seems to affect—it causes more than respiratory illness—is the neurological system.

Vigilance for Next Wave

Recently the Canadian Medical Association reminded vigilance remains key to staying healthy and mitigating the pandemic. Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health is “taking steps to prepare for a second wave of the COVID-19 coronavirus.”

Tuesday, July 07, 2020

Ethics for Opening

The concern to reopen schools weighs heavily everywhere. In the U.S. the couple hundred Catholic universities and colleges have Catholic ethics to guide them. A conversation is set for next week.

Monday, July 06, 2020

75 Years Ago

August marks 75 years since atom bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Pax Christi USA urged: “As the only country to use nuclear weapons in conflict, the United States has a moral obligation to lead the world in ending this menace and restoring communities impacted by nuclear weapons.” For the anniversary it is initiating The Peace Ribbon 2020. 

Keep Vigilant


To Transform Communities

The Yale School of Medicine and the Yale Law School together have begun the SEICHE Center for Health and Justice It seeks to identify “the legal, policy, and practice levers that can improve the health of individuals and communities impacted by mass incarceration.” The collaboration promotes both justice and health.

In Memoriam

Composer Ennio Morricone died in Rome today. Vatican News tweeted that the President of the Pontifical Council for Culture recalled that the composer had been “‘able to express the ineffable and the invisible at the same time.’” The Associated Press [AP] contributed this look at the Oscar-winning composer.

Sunday, July 05, 2020

Global Ceasefire

Pope Francis has supported a U.N. Security Council resolution that calls for a global ceasefire. “The resolution calls on parties to armed conflicts to immediately in a ‘durable humanitarian phase’ provide aid to countries to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Saturday, July 04, 2020

Most Distant

The Earth is at its most distant from the sun. It is an annual event. As a result the earth is “traveling most slowly in its orbit.”

Radical Rethink

Pope Francis has called this time of pandemic one of conversion: “…pass from the hyper-virtual, fleshless world to the suffering flesh of the poor. This is the conversion we have to undergo. And if we don’t start there, there will be no conversion.” The turn toward “suffering flesh” is not immediately inviting.

At Thinking Faith Karen Eliasen considers a story to assist this turn, the “story of Miriam’s wilderness bout of...‘a harmful skin disease’.” Ms. Eliasen notes the story of Miriam speaks to today's circumstances: “...in a complex mix of power struggle, emotional outbursts, disease, isolation–and even spitting. Add to this already compelling mix the timeless ur-issues of gender and prayer, and the juicy ingredients are all there to be squeezed for contemporary pandemic relevance.”

04th of July Gift

Facing Ugliness

“When we do not deal with the ugly part about the truth about our history we have no chance of going forward in any productive way.”
[Jeffrey Robinson, 9:08 of video]
The U.S. celebrates Independence Day. The dream has never fully been realized. in 2017 the American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU] streamed a video featuring Jeffery Robinson, who continues to be part of the ACLU. Acknowledging all facets of history, all actions within history is the beginning of reconciling and moving forward.

Friday, July 03, 2020

Non-stop Sun Watching

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory [SDO] has constantly watched the sun for a decade. Its assembled pictures offer a spectacular glimpse. The CNN International tweet offers a minute-preview (about 60 days). The hope: that the SDO’s data will serve the common good for all the planet’s inhabitants.

Quiet Attacks

Some are using the pandemic as cover for activities against the earth and against people: Israel seeking to annex Palestine; China exerting hegemony over Hong Kong. The president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences has called all Christians to pray “with great insistence” for Hong Kong because “‘the new law approved by China’s National People’s Congress…seriously weakens Hong Kong’s Legislative Council and Hong Kong’s autonomy’ and ‘radically changes Hong Kong’s identity.’” 

Benefit of Doubt

“The disbelief of Thomas has done more for our faith than the faith of the other disciples.” [Pope St. Gregory the Great, Homily 26.7]

Jesuit Harry Elias is in good company when he acknowledged, “I am not convinced that [doubting] is a fair descriptor” of the Apostle Thomas. Another convincing quality for today: Father Elias wrote his reflection after leading a bible study with “immigration detention centre residents.”

Thursday, July 02, 2020

In Memoriam

Georg Ratzinger, the brother of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died. Pope Francis wrote Benedict. Gerard O'Connell at America Magazine had written about the brothers and Benedict's surprise trip last month to visit Georg.

July Prayer Intention from Pope Francis

Families.

5 Debunked

Ontario Health (first tweet) reminds citizens to remain vigilant to mitigate the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). The next tweet from the Cleveland Clinic (via Cleveland 19 News) reminded that cloth face mask serve vital purposes.


Tomorrow: Racial Justice Webinar

Among the details is a transatlantic podcast. It may help prep for the Zoom Webinar “for Young Adults (18-35) on July 4th 2-4 pm.”

Vatican Continues Diplomacy