Politics and Faith

Recently the NY Times' Bill Keller wrote an article

"Asking Candidates Tougher Questions About Faith"

Having read the article and his blog with the questions I find nothing objectionable about the questions nor the concept of asking candidates how 

their faith would effect their actions as a president. I do feel bad that Mr. Keller has lost his faith.

I too am concerned about some of the views of the candidates in question. 

Looking at Presidents up to the present I really don't know that their faith has impacted their presidential actions all that much, with the possible exception of Jimmy Carter. Some would say that's a good thing because of separation of Church and State. Now I'm a Catholic sister so that's where I'm coming from but if your religious faith does not effect how you live every day. If it does not affect how you see the world and the choices you make then you're just playing games. 

I listen to some of the current crop of candidates and they pray, invoke God and talk about their faith but they seem to be cafeteria Christians and Mormons. Picking what they like and leaving out what is politically risky.

Through the years Christian presidents and other politicians have been able to ignore lots of the more inconvenient demands of Christianity. I think particularly of the Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5 or Luke 6: 20 - 26 "Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours". Check out this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9TBRPDcMOk

Or how about this quote from Leviticus 19: 34?
"You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself; for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt.^y I, the LORD, am your God."

The 10 Commandments are pretty clear and we all struggle with them but with politicians it appears that number 8 is often ignored,

"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Exodus 20:16

Just wondering are all the commandments suspended when you're running for office? Is it okay to let PACs make up stuff about your opponents that aren't true?
During the last campaign I recall John McCain softly correcting a women who

repeated one of the many slurs about Barack Obama. I thought wow! Integrity! 

I know all of us are hypocrites to some degree. I too have a plank in my eye when it comes to certain demands, but the point is you keep trying to grow and change and be more aware. So I'm praying for all our candidates that they may live up to the demands of both their faith and our constitution.

It would help if they read their books of faith, Bible or Book of Mormon and the Constitution thoroughly and don't skip the hard parts.

Family Blanket Time

Years ago I entered the Missionary Servants of the Blessed Trinity (MSBT) because I believed that God was calling me to be a sister and the MSBTs worked a lot with families and I wanted to do that in some way. Members of my family had really developed my faith and trust in God so I wanted to pass that on to other families. In the Trinita Family program we get to do just that and have fun in the process.
Everyday volunteers (and this week I'm a volunteer) get to meet with their family for the week in a daily hour long session called blanket time. A committee of parents and the sisters and staff of Trinita meet in the months before the summer family program and work out the theme and activities. So all we volunteers have to do is read the directions get the materials and the blanket and be ready when the bell rings. The point of this is to give the family a chance to talk to each other on a littler deeper level than usual.

Many of the families with whom I've worked don't seem to be able to fit in time as a family. Schedules today are tight what with work, after school activities, sports and commuting time.

I saw this statistic and I have to say it's scary. The number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: is 3.5 minutes. Minutes!!! Kids spend an average of 4 hours in front of the TV. So who is having more influence?

If I could give kids one thing  I'd give them the attention of their parents and caregivers.
In my work with school children I was surprised at how willing the kids were to meet with me. I worked in a school K through 8, junior high and high school as a social worker and all ages were very willing to leave class and go talk with me.
Now sometimes it may have been getting out of class, but I believe mostly it was to have the attention of an adult. So that's always my free advice to any parent. Don't worry so much about giving your kids the material stuff, Give them your time, give them you.

The Holy Spirit Drives Out Our Fear

This weekend as we celebrate Pentecost we see how the great love of God in the Holy Spirit drives out the great fear the Apostles and disciples - they were staying behind locked doors out of fear.
Then the Holy Spirit pours out upon them tongues of fire and great gifts for mission.


I think the greatest gift was the part about driving out the fear. Fear for our lives, fear of the unknown, fear of making a fool of ourselves, fear of doing things in a way that's not up to our standard of perfection, fear of ____________? Whatever your favorite fear is.


I know the Holy Spirit has helped me so many times to shed my fear and do what I needed to do, to say what needed to be said, yes even to make myself understood in a second language, maybe not well but good enough.
With the Spirit help I have been able to do things like speak in front of large groups of people, travel on planes (which I hate to do cause I'm not in control!), get through graduate school, keep my mouth shut when I need to listen, hold my temper when everything in me wants to be violent, work in countless meetings, committees and groups to grapple with how to work together in mission.


The point is the mission, the mission which is God's mission to spread His love and Truth as made so very evident in Jesus Christ to all people.


So we pray for the gifts of the Spirit: wisdom,understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord - which enable us to show forth in our lives the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control.


In 1913 our religious family, the Missionary Cenacle Family, began a perpetual novena to the Holy Spirit. To this day there are always two or three groups of our sisters, our lay groups, or brothers and priests praying the Novena. During the nine days before Pentacost Sunday we all pray the Novena.

We offer the Novena for the following intentions:

• for the spread of devotion to the Most Blessed Trinity, in a particular way to the Holy Spirit
• for the spread of the knowledge of and devotion to the mystery of the Incarnation and all the mysteries of our Lord Jesus
• to exalt in the holy name of Jesus
• to console the heart of Jesus
• for priests
• for the success of the Ecumenical movement and for the coming of the reign of God among all God's people.

Here's a link to the Novena prayers: Holy Spirit Novenas  Y en espaňol: 

Novenas al Espíritu Santo                                                                                                                                                                       




     

Living Easter Every Day

Easter - the central most important Event in the Christian calendar. Why?  Its only because of the the death and Resurrection of Jesus that we are followers of Jesus the Christ. Without this event, life as a Christian would not be possible. 


As I go to Mass daily I get to experience a lot of homilies and I must say most are very good. Unfortunately the sermon I heard during the Easter Vigil this year was uncommonly poor. As I wondered why the priest could not just talk simply on the beautiful mystery that we were celebrating my mind moved back to a passage in Ronald Rohlheiser's book "The Holy Longing" on the Paschal Mystery. 


“a process of transformation within which we are given both new life and new spirit. It begins with suffering and death, moves on to the reception of new life, spends some time grieving the old and adjusting to the new, and finally, only after the old life has been truly let go of, is a new spirit given for the life we are already living”.


Fr. Rohlheiser outlines Jesus' paschal journey in stages:
1.  Real death (Good Friday)
2.  Receiving new life (Easter)
3.  A time to grieve the old and readjust to the new life (the 50 days)
4.  A time to let go and let the old bless you (ascension)
5.  Receiving the new Spirit to go with the new life (Pentecost)


He then gives examples of people who have lived the paschal mystery in their lives. The idea is they go through a kind of death in their lives; an experience of loss of some kind that causes great pain. Within the grieving of the loss they receive a new life and eventually the spirit to live that new life.  


This makes clear the living presence of the Spirit as we go through the ups and downs of life. Our faith in the Risen Christ does not protect us from the painful things of life. It does not make us rich, handsome or smart. 
The gift of the presence of the Living Christ in our lives is all about presence and relationship. Through our relationship with Our Lord we have what we need to go through the many transitions of life, both the joyful and the sorrowful. And yes to get through the ordinary not so exciting times too. 


Dear Lord, please give us the grace to continue to live the Easter celebrations in our everyday lives. May we go through life open to recognize your Presence and ready to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Self Sacrifice

For Christ, while we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly.
Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die. 
But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.   Romans 5: 6 - 8

We’ve been hearing about the self sacrificing workers in Japan like the Fukushima 50 (although there's lots more than 50; they work in shifts of 50) who for the sake of others  have stayed  at the dangerous Nuclear power plant in order to do what they can to avert a worse tragedy. 

It's so hard to let go of self interest and put the interests of others first. Some would scoff at that notion I know but for a follower of Jesus that's what it's about.

Lenten sacrifice means just that - not so much the giving up of food, candy, drink although that has its place too- but the giving up of self. For that much prayer is needed. 

Decisions

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.”
When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him
and took his wife into his home.


Looking at Joseph 2000 plus years later, we might think well of course he'd do the right thing by Mary and when he was guided by his dream follow up by trusting the angel's words to him about her. But he didn't know the ending that we know. His decision was made based on his relation with God and most likely with Mary. This is the thing about making decisions we don't always know the outcome.


Joseph could have done the easy thing; the morally acceptable and legally approved thing. Let Mary be shamed, probably stoned for adultery and get on with his life. But no, his intention was to act righteously with generosity and mercy. And after being visited by the angel in his dream his response was to do as the angel of the Lord told him.
He thought only to do the right thing. We don't know what this meant to Joseph. Yet his decisions, his actions and his treatment of Mary and Jesus have impacted believers throughout the ages. 


Joseph would probably not have been invited to the talk shows of his day, or wherever famous people of his age
were extolled. He was just a regular guy with a regular job trying to do the right thing and trying to be just and merciful. Not famous just essential.

Art by Sr. Richard Mehren, CSJ

These are the people we don't often hear about. Hopefully everyone has someone like this in their life. 
These men, women, youth and children who through grace and training act with integrity, justice and mercy.
Like Joseph they don't talk a whole lot but their actions say it all.

Life is a Gift of God

I've come to know that following Christ is all about how you are, how you act every day. That's the thing about Jesus. His teachings attract people for sure but when I think of why I love Jesus the first thing that comes to me is the way he is with people in the scriptures.

I've been thinking of one of Jesus' followers who recently died. Sr. Ann Miriam Gallagher, MSBT was well loved by many. Here's some of the comments people have made in the wake of her death:

• Her smile and spirit could light up a room. 
• Sr Ann was a gift to everyone she touched. I am honored to have known her and worked with her.
• Sr Ann came into my life when I truly needed spiritual guidance and a friend I could trust.
• Sr Ann was a gift. She made my faith real to me.
• Simple gifts are what you teach. And you place them right in reach. Within each of us. And we will never be the same.
• I feel privleged to have known her.
•  She was the kindest person I have ever known.

She lived her life as a person who believed in God and in the resurrection of Jesus. Armed with this faith she added own gifts of person and disposition and shared her joy in God's goodness with others
in the most ordinary yet uplifting ways. She was ever about lifting people up of pointing out the good, the holy and what was of God.The thing is, she did it in such a down to earth way. She was life giving in a way that inspired you to be your best self. Always, she sought to try & understand people.


We do miss you Ann. It helps me to remember that our life is a gift from God. The people in our lives are gifts freely given to us, yet not to be possessed. So I try to let go and rejoice in your being home. Perhaps in your new mode of life you can help us who knew you to be life-givers in our daily life.