Lent approaches, thinking about ...

The annual ritual of doing something special or different for Lent can serve multiple purposes.

We can give up something as a sacrifice - a penance, sharing in some small way the sacrifice of Christ.

We can also do or add something that will help us to pray and grow.

What I'm thinking of for Lent will combine both.

First, a fast from Twitter and Facebook. It would be a sacrifice to not check them daily. it would also be a positive thing as checking them tends to get me caught up in debates, to tempt me to be sarcastic or harsh, and leads me to waste time.

Second, giving up snacking, especially at night. I would be sacrificing the sweet treats, the chips, etc.  that I like, but, in a positive way, I would also be cutting down on calories and starting a diet to help lose some of those excess pounds I've put on. Thus I would benefit spiritually and physically.

And adding some prayers, perhaps memorizing some? Hmmm. Which ones?

I've got a couple of days to decide.

Pax et bonum

Dorian Gray (anti-porn, Catholic rock)

Pax et bonum

Franciscans oppose abortion

The provincial ministers of the seven Franciscan provinces describe the importance of a consistent ethic of life view and how it is related to the founder of the Order of Friars Minor, St. Francis of Assisi.

Franciscan Statement at the Anniversary of Roe v. Wade January 19, 2018

As Franciscans, our approach to social issues is always to seek deep solidarity with those who are vulnerable or on the margins of society. This stance was embodied by our founder, St. Francis of Assisi, who ignored the norms of his society and made direct encounter with the most despised and vulnerable of his time a priority. When we embrace our world, we seek to repair broken relations that lead to a variety of social issues and maladies: turning away the stranger/the immigrant; the challenge of climate change; lack of care for the elderly and disabled – both physically and mentally; a dis-ease with the dying process; the death penalty; and, as we mark the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, a particularly tragic one, abortion. Our approach is in line with the leadership of the Catholic church in that we utilize the rubric of the consistent ethic of life.
Some criticize this approach, claiming that the consistent ethic of life “waters down abortion” so that it becomes just one of many issues, or that its use does not pointedly challenge persons who might be called “pro-choice.” These criticisms may be fair in some circumstances where the consistent ethic of life is not held in its entirety and, therefore, does not see and respond to attacks on life at all its stages. Nonetheless, the consistent ethic of life teaching is central to the way our Church leadership engages with the world.
The consistent ethic of life is the methodology utilized by the U.S. Catholic Bishops in their “Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities.” In the plan, they quote Pope St. John Paul II and insist,

“Where life is involved, the service of charity must be profoundly consistent. It cannot tolerate bias and discrimination, for human life is sacred and inviolable at every stage and in every situation; it is an indivisible good. We need then to ‘show care’ for all life and for the life of everyone.”

Our Holy Father, Pope Francis also uses the consistent ethic of life in his teaching as reflected in Laudato Si. He writes:

Where life is involved, the service of charity must be profoundly consistent. It cannot tolerate bias and discrimination, for human life is sacred and inviolable at every stage and in every situation; it is an indivisible good. We need then to ‘show care’ for all life and for the life of everyone.” The culture of relativism is the same disorder which drives one person to take advantage of another, to treat others as mere objects, imposing forced labor on them or enslaving them to pay their debts. The same kind of thinking leads to the sexual exploitation of children and abandonment of the elderly who no longer serve our interests. It is also the mindset of those who say: Let us allow the invisible forces of the market to regulate the economy, and consider their impact on society and nature as collateral damage. In the absence of objective truths or sound principles other than the satisfaction of our own desires and immediate needs, what limits can be placed on human trafficking, organized crime, the drug trade, commerce in blood diamonds and the fur of endangered species? Is it not the same relativistic logic which justifies buying the organs of the poor for resale or use in experimentation, or eliminating children because they are not what their parents wanted? This same “use and throw away” logic generates so much waste, because of the disordered desire to consume more than what is really necessary. (emphasis added by provincials)

Our own “Franciscan stance” also reflects the consistent ethic of life in that we ground all our action in the radical interconnectedness of all creation. In authentically following Francis of Assisi’s embrace of the most vulnerable, we must view all the various “issues” we face in the context of this connectedness. When we address abortion, the death penalty, euthanasia, immigration or climate change, we are first speaking out against harmful and sinful activity and, from this stance of naming the injustice, we move to work for social change and transformation. A transformation that seeks to repair broken relationships and move a world to embrace our interconnectedness and interdependence rather than living the fiction of radical individualism.
At this anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we, like many people, pay particular attention to the challenge of abortion in this world. Abortion like so many other life issues is a complex one. However, we share our Holy Father’s contention that it stems, to a great degree, from a culture that ignores our interconnectedness and focuses on the individual. This “cultural norm” leaves women with unplanned or unexpected pregnancies isolated and feeling that they have few options. We must resist the culture’s overemphasis on the individual and embrace the other. This stance must be held with all issues of life: abortion, euthanasia, health care, war, immigration, racism, climate change, etc. If we consistently take a stance of radical encounter and embrace, we can bring some order to our society; overcoming the culture’s tendency to ignore our dependence upon one another and all of creation. In addition, when we embrace the most vulnerable, we discover—much like Francis of Assisi in his time—that the “other” has always been our sister or brother, and that our fears and/or rejection were terribly misguided.
In our Franciscan ministries we call upon our communities to:

• Speak out boldly about and not shy away from the complexity of the consistent ethic of life.
• Care for those who have felt no choice but to seek an abortion, through programs like Project Rachel.
• Address attacks on life across the entire spectrum and all stages of life through direct care for the individual and the local community, and through public advocacy.
• Approach the issue of abortion and all social issues in a way that clearly speaks out against the sin and injustice, but does not add to the polarization so rampant in our society.

Our world is hungering for connection. We pray that all can embrace the stance of a consistent ethic of life and, in doing so, answer God’s invitation to relationship with God, one another, and all creation.

• Very Rev. Robert Campagna, OFM, Provincial
  Immaculate Conception Province, New York, New York
• Very Rev. David Gaa, OFM, Provincial
  Saint Barbara Province, Oakland, California
• Very Rev. James Gannon, OFM, Provincial
  Assumption Blessed Virgin Mary Province Franklin, Wisconsin
• Very Rev. Kevin Mullen, OFM, Provincial
  Holy Name of Jesus Province, New York, New York
• Very Rev. Thomas Nairn, OFM, Provincial
  Sacred Heart Province, St. Louis, Missouri
• Very Rev. Jack Clark Robinson, OFM, Provincial
  Our Lady of Guadalupe Province, Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Very Rev. Mark Soehner, OFM Provincial
  Saint John the Baptist Province, Cincinnati, Ohio

Pax et bonum

The Monkees - Words

Yeah, I know, but Peter Tork just passed, so ...




Pax et bonum

Stand Up for Life, 2/23/19

More than 100 of us gathered outside Rochester's main Planned Parenthood today to Stand Up for Life - and to decry the expansion of abortion in New York State.

 

We heard from Jim Havens

 

and Dr. Angela Kristan.

 

We prayed a rosary, sang hymns, heard testimonies, and had time for silent prayer.

Earlier this week, some 50 people protested President Trump and the "border wall" - and that got wall-to-wall coverage. With double that number at our protest, we got no media coverage.

So it goes.

Pax et bonum

Chaucer Clerihew

Geoffrey Chaucer
never drank tea from a saucer.
But this wasn't due to courtly manners, you see,
it was just that in his day England didn't have saucers - or tea.

Pax et bonum

Kamala Harris

 

 

Kamala Harris
didn't mean to embarrass,
but her family's reaction to her Jamaican drug joke
suggests her presidential dreams might just go up in smoke.

Pax et bonum

San Damiano

                                                  

San Damiano

"One day in the church of St.
Damian, he (St. Francis) hears
words spoken from the Crucifix:
'Go, Francis, and repair my
house; as you can see, it is
falling into ruin."
- Fr. Stanislaus Majarelli, OFM

The roses are in bloom at San Damiano.
Their scent bleeds into the air,
flows down from the hills,
floods the streets of Assisi
like the beggars who cry,
"Bread and stones,
bread and stones.''

In the shadowy cafe,
men sit
hearing to the calls.
One man spits and mutters a curse.
Another man begins a bawdy song
that pours out
into the darkening air.

At midnight: Silence.
Fog shrouds the streets
and snakes into the hills.

The hills rise above the fog
like islands in a dead sea.
And taller still
rises
San Damiano's half-built steeple
reaching toward
heaven.

Pax et bonum

God Bless The Grass - Seeger

Pax et bonum

Why I Write Poetry

Why I Write Poetry

Forget the legends:
On a frozen, sun-bleached February Day
a groundhog warily raised his head
in the field behind my childhood home.
He blinked in the white brilliance of the sun
sniffed the mint-cold air
saw me
and fled beneath the surface.

I dream of his return.

Pax et bonum

Two moons cinquain

two moons
rise above the
lunatic asylum
inspiring the Martian inmates
to howl

Pax et bonum

Franciscans can care for creation in many ways

Number 18 in The Rule of the Secular Franciscan Order is, "Moreover they should respect all creatures, animate and inanimate, which `bear the imprint of the Most High,' and they should strive to move from the temptation of exploiting creation to the Franciscan concept of universal kinship."

We are called to respect and care for creation. There are many ways we can do this. On a social/governmental level we can advocate for policies and laws regarding pollution, the treatment of animals, the use of natural resources, renewable energy, and more. How we do this can vary - becoming a public official or servant, voting for those who will seek to care for the environment, researching and writing about the issues, educating others, praying, and much more.

But we are also called to care on more local, more personal levels.



Recycling.
Reducing the waste in our own lives. 
Using reusable bags rather than plastic bags when we shop.
Where water supplies are safe, avoiding water in plastic bottles.
Driving less.
Being aware of how the food we eat is produced - especially being cognizant of how the animals we eat are raised and treated.

There are so many other things we can do.

In my own life, for example, I became a vegetarian after learning how much acreage was used to produce grain to fatten cows, resulting in less food being produced for people in a hungry world, about the destruction of the rain forest to produce more temporary grazing land for cattle, and about the nature of factory farming and how some animals are treated. Not everyone has to become vegetarian, of course, but cutting back on meat consumption is better for the environment - and our health.

In addition, whenever I go grocery shopping, I bring along my own reusable bags. When I shop at other places, if I have only a few items that I can carry I always decline a bag.

At work, I have a cup and fill it from the tap rather than use water in plastic bottles. When I go hiking, I try to fill a usable water container and drink from that rather than from plastic bottles.

I never drink coffee made from K-Cups.

During summer vacations - I'm a teacher - when I can I ride my bike to morning Mass rather than drive my car.

Yes, I know these are small things, but if enough people start paying attention and taking action it might change products and policies.

After all, as St. Francis told us, all things in creation are our Brothers and Sisters.

Pax et bonum

Currently reading ...

I'm in the middle of guiding students through two books - Mark Twain's Joan of Arc, and Rosemary Sutcliff's Black Ships Before Troy. They - and several magazines that came in, are eating up my reading time, but in between I'm reading Sigrid Undset's Stages on the Road. I've always wanted to read her Kristin Lavransdatter - there's a copy of it in my "book-to-read" pile - so I figured this  collection will be one way to begin reading her.

Not far in yet, but enjoying her spin on "State Religion" and Protestantism.

Pax et bonum

Governor Northam clerihew

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam
has reason to feel pretty glum.
How do you deny something that's come to light
when it's there for all to see in black and white?

Pax et bonum