Wonder in the eyes of 3yr old Granddaughter

David Jackson added 2 new photos.

6 hrs · Edinburg, TX · 

STAR OF WONDER....👧
This Christmas season I've been inspired by a number of posts on Facebook that show us wonders of the universe, the ocean, animals, etc. But little did I think that I would discover wonder in our Compost bin. Zennie (3 year old granddaughter) and I were outside providing food for our wild chicken who has been with us for months. After providing her with food a voice called for us to return to the back door and take out the compost container from inside ...

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Thomas Merton, Prophet of our Time

from: A Life in Letters, p.203  from a Sept. 1961 letter to Ethel Kennedy

"As a nation we have begun to float off into a moral void and all the sermons of all the priests in the country (if they preach at all) are not going to help much...It seems to me that there are dangerous ambiguities about our democracy in its actual present condition.  I wonder to what extent our ideals are now a front for organized selfishness and systematic irresponsibility...We cannot go on living every man for himself.  The most actual danger of all is that we may someday float without realizing it into a nice tight fascist society in which all the resentments and all the guilt in all the messed up teenagers (and older ones) will be channeled into a destructive groove..."
"Certainly our basic needs is for truth, and not for "images" and slogans that "engineer consent."  We are living in a dream world.  We do not know ourselves or our adversaries."

Ecumenical prayer gathering at the Wall in Hidalgo, Tx.

Blow the Shofar, let the Wall come down.

Some 50 people representing a number of different Churches prayed together.

Prayers for:

Our National Leaders.

All Nations

Law enforcement/Peace officers

Humanitarian treatment of all immigrants.

Sacramentalized but not Evangelized.

This quote from the book FORMING INTENTIONAL DISCIPLES sticks with me. "The majority of Catholics in the United States are sacramentalized but not not evangelized."

Pope Francis in THE JOY OF THE GOSPEL #3 "I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them;  I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day."

      "Could you briefly describe to me your lived relationship with God to this point in your life?" The author of the book Forming Intentional Disciples tells of the difference that this question made in their giving evangelization seminars. They found that The National Directory for Catechesis outlines two critical steps that should precede catechesis: pre-evangelization and initial proclamation of the basic kerygma, or the Great Story of Jesus. 

      They propose a pre-evangelization process.  "There is no way of knowing what a particular person's journey has truly been and where the person is now until we earn the right to hear his or her story and then listen carefully and prayerfully." 

Two short books: APOLOGETICS AND THE BIBLICAL CHRIST & SILENCE SPEAKS.

The Youth Minister at St. John the Baptist Church directed my attention on FACEBOOK to the web page
"Catholic Fundamentalism".  I interacted with the page and the anonymous postings for a bit.  It reminded me of the "Outside the Church No Salvation" controversy of some time past.  Many of the postings on this page reminded me of the course in Apologetics that began my Theological Studies back in 1963.  The text for that course was in Latin and used the classical Catholic "thesis-hypothesis".  Thanks be to God during the course of my studies I discovered Avery Dulles, S.J.'s book APOLOGETICS AND THE BIBLICAL CHRIST. We suffered from the same professor for Apologetics and then our Scripture Courses. Within the last week I re-read Dulles' book which had saved me from the horrors of our Theology courses from 1963-1967.
The second book SILENCE SPEAKS by Robert Nugent caught my attention because it covered four men who lived and suffered from Roman Silencing.  One of them was Teilhard de Chardin.  Roger Karbon in his homily posted in the National Catholic Reporter mentioned Chardin.  I recalled that the Rector of our College seminary made a dramatic announcement that Chardin's books were being removed from the library. Luckily I saw a reference to this book and read with great interest about Chardin, Yves Congar, John Courntey Murray and Thomas Merton.   The chapter on John Courtney Murray mentioned two theologians that our Professor of Moral Theology often referred to, Father Francis J. Connell and Father Joseph Fenton.  The latter our Moral teacher referred to as "Butch Fenton." For our Moral courses as well as our Dogma courses we used Manuals in Latin.  The moral teacher we had I often referred to as an "Obstructionist".  The two adversaries of John Courtney Murray, Connell and Fenton I believe were his mentors. 
One of my priest friends, now deceased, was a great disciple of Thomas Merton.  I must admit that I haven't read too much of his works.  I did read The Seven Storey Mountain and The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton by Michael Mott.  On retreat near Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky I also got directions on how to sneak in to find the Hermitage of Merton.  I took some pictures inside and out. 

THE DANGER OF SLOPPY THEOLOGY

Lately I have become aware how easy it is to live a kind of double life.  (I'm not thinking of political people here but of  "religious" people.)  This is connected with "piosity" which is a surface sort of religion but doesn't get beyond this surface.  This allows people to be very devotional and live in a contradictory way.  It's captured in the saying, "some people live one way on Sunday Morning and in a different way the rest of the time.  There is a lack of "integrity" in this way of living. 
Paulo Freire in his book, PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED tells us that perception or the recognition of our current situation is the beginning of transformation.  In psychological terms we can live out of "ego" and not own it.
I believe that Sloppy Theology leads to sloppy counseling, to sloppy living on the surface and never going very deep.

Don't Text and Drive

Not sure if there are any statistics about who text and drive more, women or men.  But my unscientific observation is that many more women text and drive than do men.  Secondly are there any statistics about whether more men or women are involved in accidents caused by texting and driving?  It occurs to me that women are much more used to "multi-tasking" than are men.  I'm curious however whether women's experience with multi tasking allows them to do this more safely than men.
Anyone have any thoughts or statistics on this ever present reality?

PIETY, PIOSITY, Sacred Heart Devotion as "this most beautiful form of piety".

This information (consult the previous post)  led me to backtrack and reflect on Shriver’s statement:  “Piety” is a tricky word”.  I have found myself saying, “I don’t like that person’s piety.” When do I say that?  On retreat at the beginning of this year I sat next to a woman who upon entering the chapel for Mass, immediately put a white mantilla veil on her head.  During the Eucharistic prayer, while all the rest of the attendees stood, she kneeled.  After reading Mark Shriver’s words on “piety” I confess I have been among those who do this:  “Today, when you hear someone called pious, the adjective usually implies sanctimony, a holier-than-thou bearing.”  In searching my Webster dictionary for the etymology for “piety” I was lead to “pious” and then to “piosity”. Webster describes the word Piosity this way, “the quality of being excessively or insincerely pious.”  These ruminations confronted me with the need to have the attitude Pope Francis had when asked about homosexuality, “Who am I to Judge?”

  Just recently I was contacted by David Schimmel , U.S. Province of the Priests of the Sacred Heart director of Dehonian Associates and lay director of the Dehonian Spirituality page. He wrote: I'm wondering if you might consider writing a reflection on your experience in the social apostolate.  During the June 2017 postings on the Dehonian Spirituality page, I will reprint Tom Sheehy's 1969 article, The Social Reality of Sacred Heart Devotion, in a four-part series.  What I would be most looking for is for you to share how these experiences shaped your understanding of Sacred Heart devotion and/or priesthood as an SCJ/former SCJ.”  During my years with the SCJ’s 1957-2007 my spirituality also was shaped by my novitiate experience. My own year as a novice with the Priests of the Sacred Heart was in 1956-57.  In May of 1956 Pius XII published his encyclical Haurietis Aquas (On Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus). Our novice master spent considerable time going through this encyclical with us.  In beginning to explore what I might write about my own experience in the social apostolate I went back to Pius XII encyclical on Devotion to the Sacred Heart.  I discovered that Pius XII started by defending the cult of the Sacred Heart from charges of naturalism and sentimentalism. Further on in the encyclical I was struck by the pope calling devotion to the Sacred Heart, "this most beautiful form of piety.” There was only the slightest touching on the subject of this devotion and the Social Apostolate.  No wonder I had continuously felt something lacking in our following of our founder.  He was a man of action and a promoter of the Social Doctrine particularly of Leo XIII.    In a retreat that Fr. John van den Hengel, S.C.J. gave in 2007 he talked about how reparation “found a fruitful harbor in the devotional life.  However, theology had not followed suit. …Something changed in the congregation’s understanding of reparation between the 1870s and the beginning of the 21^st century.” In the last conference of the retreat he spoke on the topic, “An Apostolic spirituality.” Fr. Van den Hengel writes: “Although he (Fr. Dehon) had tried to ground the spirituality of the community into the accepted forms of the devotion to the Sacred Heart, his own spirituality –certainly between 1877 and 1902 sought to burst beyond the seams.  I think that is the reason why Leo Dehon expanded the “Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus” in the late 1880s to “the reign of the Heart of Jesus in souls and societies.”  Van den Hengel quoted another SCJ, Wim van Paasen who wrote in 1993:  “We can now rightly call the social apostolate and the faith experience of Fr. Dehon together as the two integral parts of his charism with a new challenge for the future.”

Since  my departure from the SCJ’s in 2007 I have continued to follow developments in this area.  I believe that by becoming more international, the SCJ’s of the United States Province have become more aware of the social apostolate in action in other parts of the Congregation

I finally discovered the Key to who the Real Pope Francis is.

Pope Francis Prayer life.  His Jesuit (SJ)spirituality has formed him.  I’ve read four biographies of the pope,  but Mark Shriver’s book, Pilgrimage (My Search for the Real Pope Francis) unlocks, what to me is a key to who Jorge Bergoglio is.  I had read that the pope is an early riser, around 4:45 and that he prays his way to the preaching at the 7:00 a.m. Mass in Santa Martha’s chapel.

Sebastien Maillard gives further information on Pope Francis’ prayer life.  Writing in the Huff Post he titled his article, “A Day in the Life of Pope Francis, Who Lives Behind This Gas Station”. “When the mass ends, everyone remains seated.  Pope Francis gets up in silence, often moving to a seat in the back row, to pray among the people. … Pope Francis ends his day, as it started — in prayer. He prays before dinner, where he helps himself at the buffet. He switches off the light at around 10 p.m.”

In Mark Shriver’s book (in the chapter titled novice) I found, what to me is the key to the Real Pope Francis, his dedication to prayer. 

  I read  on page 62:   “Piety” is a tricky word.  Today, when you hear someone called pious, the adjective usually implies sanctimony, a holier-than-thou bearing.  But it has its root in pietas, the Latin word for dutifulness.” Mark Shriver quotes Fr. Paredes, Bergoglio’s former student: “We got the sense that Zaragozi (novice master) awoke in Bergoglio (novice) not just the habit but the rage for prayer that he has to this day.” Shriver writes: “The “habit ” the “rage for prayer”—clearly, both the novice master and the novice saw prayer as a welcome duty that gave meaning to their daily lives. “

If we forget the lessons of the past, we are doomed to repeat them.

Fr. Leo John Dehon the founder of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, wrote in his diary something that Benedict XV (not XVI) said:

Priests of the Sacred Heart (SCJ), U.S. Province

JANUARY 1 IS THE 50th WORLD DAY OF PEACE: Several months after World War I began, Fr. Leo John Dehon noted, “Pope Benedict XV sent us this magnificent prayer to the Sacred Heart for peace” and then copied the prayer in his diary. Sadly, this prayer remains pertinent. It is a fitting invocation for the commemoration of the 50th World Day of Peace on January 1:

Terror-stricken by the sight of a war that is wreaking havoc on peoples and nations, we have recourse, O divine Jesus, to your all-loving Heart as our sole refuge. It is to you, O God of mercy, that our distress leads us to ask for an end of this terrible scourge; it is to you that we address all our prayers to obtain the peace that is so greatly desired.

Through your divine Heart you have set the earth ablaze with the fire of your love so that, putting an end to all discord, charity alone may reign among all peoples. During your life on earth you were filled with compassion for the fate of humanity. O that your Sacred Heart may be graciously moved at this hour which has been made so distressing by the appalling hatred that it is provoking and the rivers of blood that it has unleashed.

Inspire governments and peoples with longings for peace. Put an end to the strife that is tearing nations apart. Once again lead all people to extend their hands in peace, you who have made them brothers [and sisters] at the cost of your precious blood. AMEN.