For Fear of Offending Others

In my young adult ministry planning meeting last time we talked about evangelizing.  A lot of my fellow leaders mentioned that they don’t usually talk about being Catholic in their workplaces.  It doesn’t surprise me, Catholics seem to be pretty quiet about their faith for some reason.  Why is that?  Why are we so afraid of telling people what we do and believe?

I never considered myself an evangelist until my parish priest called me an “Evangelist” on one particular evening when I was introducing my 5 Protestant friends to him that I had brought to mass with me. (They came because it was my birthday and that’s what I wanted to do – bring them to my church and meet my friends there, etc.)  I’ve never been one to get up in people’s faces, but I love talking about my faith when given an opportunity.  I take pride in my parish and what is going on at my church so I talk about it at work because it’s part of my life.
Sure sometimes my friends look at me like I’m crazy when I tell them I’ve volunteered to chaperone high school kids on their weekend long retreat.  Or that I give up one night a week to sit and talk with 8th graders about God.  Sometimes I do care. It sucks to be looked at funny for something that you really, genuinely enjoy doing… but it’s also really great to share the great stories that I have to tell because of what I do at church and experience in my relationship with God.

It makes me sad to hear when people seem to be really timid to even bring it up. You can talk about your faith because it’s part of who you are.  It really surprises me that someone who is involved in a lot of things at the church can somehow go years of working at the same place and coworkers not even know he is Catholic.  There are countless other examples, I’m sure and I’m not really picking on anyone in particular.  But I’d like to challenge you and even myself because I know speaking out and “spreading the Good News” is something that I have to work on too.  There have been times when we’ve had a discussion at work and I feel something inside of me tugging to speak truth.  Sometimes I’m too afraid to say anything so I just keep quiet.

Let’s be proud of our faith. Not to the point of becoming like Pharisee’s where we look down on others.  But like Christ who was confident in God’s Truth to be able to speak that in a loving way to others.

The Pope, Our Father

I’ll be honest… I’ve been somewhat disappointed with Pope Benedict’s pontifical term so far. He seems a lot colder and less willing to reach out to his people. It’s my perception of the media coverage which very well could be just that. We all know that the media isn’t always exactly unbiased in their reporting.

I guess it’s hard because as a young woman, all I’ve really heard about Pope Benedict is all the things that he disagrees with regarding World Youth Day, the way that the youth enjoy music, the liturgy… And whatever else – especially in terms of his visit to the United States. As someone who learned how to appreciate the Catholic faith through this “unliturgical” music, it’s quite frustrating. World Youth Day Toronto was an AMAZING experience. To be with hundreds of thousands of other Catholics and celebrate Mass together in one place is one of the greatest experiences. I got to visit University of Stuebenville my first year of high school and went on the weekend conference. This is the moment my Sacrament of Confirmation really kicked in. I knew that I was Catholic, I owned my beliefs.

I agree that liturgy is really important! I don’t want the Church to fall victim to the world’s ever changing standards and moral code. I believe that the Holy Spirit works through Her and the Pope to guide God’s people. I also would agree that while these experiences are great, may not be essential to the foundation of our faith. But it’s still frustrating to not feel the same connection that I did with John Paul II who loved the youth of the Church. These extraordinary experiences help to keep us going.

That really is another topic but the truth of the matter is, no matter how disconnected I feel, Pope Benedict was appointed to his position for a reason. Because I believe the Holy Spirit works through the Church, I know that he has a purpose for our Church. And like God’s law, obedience is vital. Even if I don’t understand or quite feel right with it.

I think it’s important that as Catholics we stick by our Pope. Now, this doesn’t mean that we have to be quiet and not be willing to question or try and clarify when we disagree or don’t understand. I think some amount of discord helps to get us all thinking and learning. But when it comes down to it, I think we’re called to obey the Church. I realize that this is pretty controversial among the youth. Shoot, most of young adults seem to shy away from the Church because they feel this disconnect and it’s really hard to obey when you don’t feel a connection.

So while Pope Benedict may not be as charismatic as his predecessor, that’s ok. He has his purpose and he is the figurehead of the Catholic Church. God has a purpose and a reason for his strengths as well as his weaknesses. The Holy Spirit is doing something through him.

What Coffee and the Mass Have In Common

I love when people can break complex ideas down into simple analogies! It’s how Jesus taught (parables) and I stumbled upon a column by Steve Skojec called The Rubrics of Coffee.  This is a beautiful anaology of the liturgy.  Steve takes the process by which we make coffee.  You can make coffee that’s been ground about 3 months ago, stick it in your Mr. Coffee coffee maker and drink it.  You can also buy and grind the beans yourself, you can use a french press, etc.  The difference in tastes between the processes is pretty big. He compares this to liturgy.  How sometimes it seems rigid or ridiculous, but in fact it’s necessary.  It’s why we write out grandma’s chili recipe that’s so good so that we can recreate it when she can’t make it for us anymore.

God imbues a sacramental order into the things of this world to help us grasp these higher concepts. In writing down the detailed instructions that would help my sister-in-law make good coffee, I became aware of the presence of implicit ritual — ritual that was not the result of desire or personal taste, but of necessity.

It’s a very cool analogy that I hadn’t thought about before. Read the full column at InsideCatholic.com.

God is Green

And it’s not easy being green.   Ok, sorry. But did you see the news? The Vatican has officially declared that pollution is a sin. It makes sense.  We (as in all of humanity) were entrusted with the earth and all that was in it to take care of. (Review Genesis for further study.)  It boils down to what we do matters.  Everything.  Right down to the piece of gum you spit out on the ground or the trash that you throw away.  By taking care of our earth, we show respect and thanks to the Creator who made it all.  By taking care of our earth, we take care of one another.  Among the other sins that were officially announced were genetic manipulation: including cloning, stem cell research; drug trafficking and social and economic injustices.

Being more and more interested and wanting to go green, I was excited to see the Vatican itself has taken steps to setting an example with adding solar paneling to produce electricity and hosting some scientific conventions to create a forum for people to talk about what we can do to change.

One thing that’s frustrating is when you have good intentions to “go green” but not sure where to start.  It seems like a really big problem.  But it starts with one action – for example, do you recycle? Check if you have recycle pick up or a drop off location.  You can also subscribe to Cool People Care 5 Minutes of Caring. It has some great environmental suggestions and they’re EASY.  Sometimes the biggest changes can be quite easy.

Deserted

[Sorry for the blackout there for a couple days: 24 hour silent retreat followed by a full weekend o' fun and religiosity.]

The retreat I went on was called Poustinia. It’s the Russian word for “desert”, and it originated in the Eastern Rite of Catholicism, but is now a more common practice across Catholic traditions.

Basically, you spend 24 hours in a “cell” with just you, a Bible, a journal and pen, a loaf of bread, and water.

That’s it.

And it was AWESOME.

We did it in the empty rooms at the seminary, so they were single rooms that were your decent, old, bare, dorm rooms with a bed, a sink, a desk, and a window.

Nothing crazy weird or anything happened, just lots of great insights and personal peace.

After the first hour or so of just concentrating on being open, I was thinking about my post earlier about “that generation” it occured to me that I’d heard that Moses was never allowed into the Promised Land, but I’d never actually heard what he did that was so terrible. So I followed a lot of cross-referencing (side note: If you’ve never done this, I HIGHLY recommend it: It’s an experience in and of itself to see how tied together the ENTIRE Bible is!) to find out. Basically, he gave up on God’s mercy for sinners. He got short — and sort of downright mean, the way I read it — with the complaining Israelites! They were complaining for the second time of not having water in the desert, and he’s like (paraphrasing, obviously), “You Rebels!” (And I wonder if that actually had a swear-word connotation back then, as though he was saying something equivalent of “You ************s!”… food for thought…) “We’re just gonna get water out of the rock here again for you, even though you don’t deserve it, you ingrates…” And he has to strike the rock a second time because the first time doesn’t work, whether Moses was lacking in faith, or his negativity got in the way, or whatever the reason for not being able to perform a miracle is.

So God comes in and tells him that he just blew his chance at getting to enjoy the Promised Land. Now, obviously, he made it to heaven, seeing as how he appears with Jesus and Elijah at the Transfiguration, but while on earth he only gets to see the Promised Land, he does not actually get to enter.

So lesson: DO NOT, whatever you do, DO NOT think that you are any better than the next sinner, because God’s Grace is going to have to get BOTH of you through the Pearly Gates. And your sin of pride and lack of faith in God’s mercy is going just going to cause you suffering.

I also felt like I didn’t know enough about the Prophet Elijah. He’s the spritual father of the Carmelites, and beyond knowing that he was a big-time OT prophet, I didn’t really know him.

I highly recommend 1st and 2nd Kings, if you’re interested in him and his successor, Elisha. Not only did it really open my eyes as to why they were so important, but it also gave me an idea of why Jewish people kept calling Jesus just a prophet even with all the signs he was performing. Because they did a lot of the same kind of miracles! Ordering fire and water around? Bringing people back to life? Elijah did it! Multiplication of loaves and fishes? Elisha did it! So if you just heard about Jesus and His works and didn’t actually hear any of his preaching, you’d probably come to the same conclusion!

Plus, I got to the real roots of Carmel: Mount Carmel was the original place where Elijah did his greatest feat: Proving that God was the only god, and slaying all the prophets of Baal. Totally didn’t know all that.

So there’s the tip of the iceberg of awesomeness that is the insight I gained.

In other words: go into the desert — it’s pretty sweet out there