St. Martin Chapel ‘a little jewel’ under restoration

There’s not much that Sister Jane Frances Mullaney gets nostalgic about, but she admits that the historic St. Martin Chapel in Sturgis often leaves her a little teary-eyed.

“If I’m nostalgic for anything in Sturgis, I am for that chapel,” said the Benedictine nun, who professed final vows there in 1938. “The frescoes on the ceiling are just so beautiful. I don’t very often want to cry, but every time I go there, I’m moved by its beauty.”

The public will get a chance to see the chapel’s beauty, and its ongoing restoration project, during the ornate church’s annual Memorial Day open house on Monday, May 28. Bishop Robert Gruss of the Diocese of Rapid City celebrates Mass there at 8:30 a.m. on Memorial Day. The chapel will be open to the public until 2 p.m. that day.

Often described as “a little jewel,” the 1911 chapel has a simple exterior that belies its interior. It was completed and dedicated in 1912 to serve both the nuns of St. Martin’s Convent and students at St. Martin’s Academy, which were located in Sturgis from the time of the nuns’ arrival in 1889 until they moved their monastery and school to Rapid City in 1962. They shared the church with the community of St. Aloysius parish until 1950, when another Catholic church was built in Sturgis.

Sr. Jane Frances, who grew up in a Sturgis family, recalls how the monastic nuns were cloistered from the main congregation during parish masses. They worshipped in two private side chapels that were enclosed by lattice work walls.

As a member of the St. Martin Chapel Restoration Committee, Joanne Harmon works to preserve both a historic community building and a family memory.

“My grandfather built it,” Harmon said of the ornate Catholic chapel. Her grandfather, Henry Bruch, and Nick Keffeler constructed the church as the capstone of a Benedictine campus that included a convent, school and dormitory at the west end of Sherman Street. The chapel is the last remaining structure on the property that adjoins St. Aloysius Cemetery. The others were destroyed by fire or neglect, and the intervening decades weren’t kind to the chapel, either, which was owned and used by other organizations over the years. Since 1987, the historic chapel has been owned by the St. Aloysius Cemetery Association, which is part of the St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church parish.

“I look around and see so many old buildings destroyed or taken out. There’s not much left in our town. … And I think this is really important to the history of our community,” Harmon said.

Harmon was in the first graduating class of Rapid City’s St. Martin Academy. Keeping the memory alive of the St. Martin Academy years requires that the building be maintained and preserved, she said. “If you don’t have something to point to … how are you going to pass on that history to future generations?”

The restoration work began in 1989 with a new roof, restored exterior walls and extensive interior work. Half of the church’s stained glass windows are sealed with protective clear coverings, and the remainder will be paid for with about $20,000 in grant funds expected from the Deadwood Historical Preservation Foundation, Harmon said. In 2001, the committee spent about $15,000 to repair and restore a damaged stained-glass window. The rotted wood floor in the basement was removed, and a new concrete floor will be laid this summer.

“It’s beautifully restored,” Sr. Jane Frances said. “In my heart, I wanted to go back to that chapel in Sturgis.”

“We’ve been really blessed by generous donations from people who have gone to school there, and people just interested in preserving our heritage,” Harmon said. One of the project’s principal donors is former student V.J. Skutt, former chairman of the Mutual of Omaha Insurance Co.

Still, the restoration committee is always fundraising. “Fish suppers during Lent, an occasional Bingo game; church breakfasts. Anything we can do to raise a little money,” Harmon said.

Today, the chapel is used occasionally for weddings, funerals and an annual Christmas Eve mass by the St. Francis of Assisi parish. In addition to its religious art and stained glass, the chapel’s interior offers something else of beauty, says Gloria Takahashi, church secretary at St. Francis: Exceptional acoustics. “It’s one of those old churches that you don’t need a microphone to hear in. It has great acoustics,” Takahashi said.

Contact Mary Garrigan at 394-8424 or mary.garrigan@rapidcityjournal.com.

When Reverend Mothers Cease Being Motherly

Reading most press accounts of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, one would think that the Vatican is attacking all of the world’s nuns.

A more correct read of the situation, however, is that the Vatican hasn’t attacked all of the Church’s nuns, but rather it has disciplined a select group of them in the U.S., and it has done so out of love for the Truth. For the past 40 years, some leaders within certain female religious communities – such as some Benedictines, Dominicans, and Franciscans – have wandered increasingly further away from Christ’s Church and her teachings.

The assessment revealed what it described as “serious doctrinal problems which affect many in Consecrated Life. … On the doctrinal level, this crisis is characterized by a diminution of the fundamental Christological center and focus of religious consecration which leads, in turn, to a loss of a ‘constant and lively sense of the Church’ among some Religious.”

Recently, Washington Post writer Lisa Miller brought the Virgin Mary into the discussion. While that is a correct approach, Miller did so in a peculiar way. Miller paints Mary as a kind of primal radical feminist.

Miller compares the imagined fury of the men of Galilee with a young, unmarried, pregnant Mary to that of the ordained men of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith issuing the doctrinal assessment and calling for reform.

“Mary was a poor girl from nowhere, living in a culture in which men made all the rules and owned all the property and women had nothing,” writes Miller. “For more than a thousand years, women like Mary have entered religious life hoping to find a safe place where they might receive an education and protection from the oppression of marriage and the dangers of child-bearing.”

Miller demonstrates an utter lack of understanding about the role of religious women and Marian femininity. Most religious women enter religious life not out of some fear of marriage or child-bearing. Rather, they sacrifice physical marriage to become the spouse of Christ. They forgo natural children to become spiritual mothers to many.

Miller further says that the Church’s contemporary view of women is that “they are equal, but inferior.”

Let’s examine how the Church views, esteems, and even exalts women, particularly through the example of the woman par excellence — Mary.

Marian Femininity vs. Radical Feminism

For all of the rhetoric about the Church being against women, in reality, the Church is the only institution that truly advances the dogma that there is no “glass ceiling” for women.

In 1854, Blessed Pope Pius IX defined the Immaculate Conception, the doctrine that Mary alone among all men and women was conceived without original sin. Nearly 100 years later, Pope Pius XII defined the doctrine of the Assumption, that Mary was assumed, body and soul, into Heaven.

The Church is the only institution that recognizes, teaches, and advances these truths about Mary’s place among humanity. These doctrines emphasize what God did for Mary. One safeguards her from the corruption of original sin; the other preserves her from the corruption of death.

Is there any human being whom the Church esteems more than Mary? She, as a woman, is the pinnacle of humanity. She is “blessed among women.” She is “full of grace.” She is the prototypical Christian, a model for us all.

What is it that Mary models through her actions?

She models perfect humility, perfect obedience, receptivity, and a profound “Yes” to the will of God.

What of Marian femininity is found in nuns who do not abide the Church’s teachings, but advance other doctrines?

Where radical feminism reigns, Mary is degraded and dethroned.

Some female religious orders proudly proclaim that they’ve been founded in “rebellion.” What in Mary’s actions speaks rebellion?

Hearing female demands to be ordained, one is reminded of the story of Korah’s rebellion in the Book of Numbers. Korah and his men grumble against Moses because only select Levites are chosen from the 12 tribes to be priests. Korah and his men could not serve in the Tabernacle as priests. In response to their rebellion, God opens the earth to swallow them and all of their possessions.

Would Mary, like Dominican Sister Laurie Brink, say that she was “moving beyond the Church, even beyond Jesus?”

Would Mary, like billionaire foundation co-chair Melinda Gates, suggest as so many religious sisters apparently did to her, that she should question “received teaching?”

Unlike Zechariah, when Gabriel tells Mary that she will bear a Son, she answers with belief.

Mary is the daughter of the Father, the Mother of the Son, and the spouse of the Holy Spirit. How is it that Mary has the three highest positions achievable in the faith? Mary did so through her complete submission to God and what He asked of her. It is for this reason that she is both hated and opposed by Satan and radical feminists.

“Let it be done unto me according to your word,” she responds, not “Let it be done unto me according to my word.”

A Trust Betrayed

As the doctrinal assessment noted, the Church is grateful and thankful for the myriad contributions of thousands of religious sisters. Many have profoundly given of themselves sacrificially, laying down their lives for their students, the sick and those in need. Many people have been touched by many faithful sisters.

Still, others have gone astray in their teaching, their service, and their way of life.

Pope Paul VI said following the Second Vatican Council, “from some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God.”

That smoke has been manifested in a variety of ways, including: bishops and priests who not only publicly dissented from the Church’s teachings, but also abandoned their vows and abused others; formerly Catholic powerhouse institutions of learning, higher education, hospitals, and charitable organizations caving into secularism; lay men and women who neither know the faith, nor teach it and pass it along to their children; and men’s and women’s religious orders that have lost their charism and ceased to be life-giving.

Witnessing the damage done to the Church and religious orders over the past 40 years, one cannot help but wonder if radical feminism wasn’t part of that “smoke.”

The CDF’s call for reform is the kind of correction that is most needed at this time.

Too many good religious women have been betrayed.

I recall a now-deceased older nun — a friend of our family — who belonged to an order that had discarded the habit. She, however, continued to wear it. I cannot forget the time she lovingly shared with us how she felt exiled, bullied even, by others in her community for her decision to live out her vows of poverty, chastity, and yes … obedience.

Or another older sister who was dismayed that her order’s religious shop was selling “holy” cards depicting secular “saints,” “sacred snakes,” sorcery, and New Age imagery.

A Benedictine order in Wisconsin reconstituted itself as an ecumenical community outside of the Church, while retaining the property and institution they had acquired over the years as members of the Church.

There has been a generational hijacking. How many dying religious orders continue to hang on to the property and money obtained through previous social capital while betraying the charism of their founders?

While fomenting dissent, many continue to hang on to the property and institutions paid for by previous generations, and they are provided prominent platforms from which to speak.

Many female orders have lost their charism. They are neither motherly, nor fruitful. They do not attract novices. They are not attracting young women because they do not offer something significantly different from what the secular world offers.

Clearly, corrective discipline, performed in love, is in order.  That is the purpose of the doctrinal assessment and the call for reform.

Pope Benedict XVI, in Light of the World recalls that after the mid-1960s ecclesiastical penal law was no longer applied.

“The prevailing mentality was that the Church must not be a Church of laws but, rather, a Church of love; she must not punish. Thus the awareness that punishment can be an act of love ceased to exist,” said the Pope in his 2010 interview.

“Today we have to learn all over again that love for the sinner and love for the person who has been harmed are correctly balanced if I punish the sinner in the form that is possible and appropriate. In this respect there was in the past a change of mentality, in which the law and the need for punishment were obscured. Ultimately this also narrowed the concept of love, which in fact is not just being nice or courteous, but is found in the truth. And another component of truth is that I must punish the one who has sinned against real love.”

The world is in search of the Truth. Christ said, “I am the way, the Truth, and the Life. No one can come to Father except through me.” Instead of being a bride of Christ, those individuals that divorce themselves from Christ, “moving beyond Jesus” himself, cannot possibly lead His people to the Truth.

A model Catholic

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Gregory Lynch, 61, of Exeter Township had a physician father who was an inspiration in life and also in the realm of religious art in the early 20th century.

A model for the artist Charles Bosseron Chambers, known as the Norman Rockwell of Catholic art, the handsome Thomas F. Lynch (1911-1979) posed for a series of portraits in the the late 1920s and early 1930s encouraging young men to enter the priesthood.

The works of art, mostly charcoal drawings but some paintings, were often hung in Catholic homes and institutions in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s and quickly became popular.

These days, Chambers’ religious paintings have become highly collectible, his most famous being Jesus portrayed as a young boy in “Light of the World.”

While also an illustrator of classic books and a society portrait painter, Chambers’ religious work earned him renown in the Catholic community along with paintings depicting Christ, the Blessed Virgin and various saints.

The paintings, made into prints, sometimes were handed out as holy cards at parochial schools as rewards for good behavior.

Lynch’s wife, Michelle, 50, recalled attending Central Catholic High School in the 1970s and walking past the school’s main office and seeing one of Chambers’ framed prints on the wall titled “Christ Calleth Thee” next to another painting promoting the sisterhood.

“I must have walked past it hundreds of times in the four years I spent at the school there, never knowing that I was destined to marry the model’s son,” she said.

The Lynches said that when they toured the school shortly before it closed last year, they discovered Lynch’s father’s portrait still hanging on the wall.

“I have this memory of my father at about 50 years old, always in a suit, jumping a fence and running to help people who were in a car accident,” said Lynch, a certified prosthetist and orthotist, owner of Prosthetic Orthotic Service, 114 N. Ninth St. “He was a pretty straight, fair-minded, stand-up guy

“His big thing was always to say, ‘Share the wealth,’ ” Lynch said.

Lynch, who grew up in Teaneck, N.J., and came to Reading in 1987, said his father came from a large Irish-Catholic family of 11 siblings, six of whom survived to adulthood.

“My father became a doctor, but two of his four brothers became priests, and a third intended to become one, but ultimately left the seminary because he felt he wasn’t a good enough speaker,” Lynch said. “He decided to become a social worker.”

His fourth and oldest brother wound up as a highly skilled blacksmith who did restoration work on the Statue of Liberty, made bronze lamps for Louis Comfort Tiffany and baptistry gates for St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.

Another religious connection with Lynch’s blacksmith uncle, Kenneth Lynch, was via Hollywood.

According to Michelle, quoting a 1985 New York Times article, Kenneth Lynch also designed movie props, including halberd blades, for director Cecil B. DeMille’s 1935 film, “The Crusades.”

Lynch, himself, was one of seven children, with two older brothers, two older sisters and two younger brothers.

He said his own career dreams tended toward the field of law enforcement rather than religion.

“I thought about being a priest for five minutes,” Lynch said. “I wanted to be a cop.”

But a 1971 accident he had with another vehicle while riding his motorcycle led to injuries that resulted in the amputation of his left leg above the knee.

His own experience ultimately took him down a medical path, not as a doctor like his father, but in the supportive field of prosthetics and orthotics, He is credentialed in all fitting techniques and componentry for artificial limbs.

When Thomas Lynch died in 1979, Lynch and his siblings each inherited one of the series of inspiring paintings that featured his father.

For Lynch, it was “May Thy Way Be My Way” (Lynch’s father kissing the feet of Christ), mounted on wood and in a gilt-colored plaster and wood frame.

Over the years, the Lynches collected other unframed prints in the series and either had them framed or gave them as gifts to nieces and nephews.

Michelle said she has seen some of Chambers’ original charcoal drawings featuring her husband’s father listed at auction with opening bids of $500 and estimated values at between $1,800 and $2,800.

“Greg and I were having a discussion regarding all the various items available for sale on eBay,” Michelle said. “I half jokingly said to him, ‘I could buy anything on eBay; I bet I could even buy your dad’s picture on eBay.’ “

And she did just that after finding some mint unframed copies for reasonable prices that were copyrighted in 1933 by the St. Anthony’s Guild, a religious association now in East Rutherford, N.J., guided by Franciscan friars committed to Sts. Francis of Assisi and Anthony of Padua.

“The only printed example of the color print ‘Christ Calleth Thee’ that I know of is the one that hung on the wall at Central Catholic,” Michelle said. “I have never found it on eBay. However, I was able to purchase a high-quality digital copy from a dealer of Catholic images online – for $5.”

Contact Bruce R. Posten: 610-371-5059 or bposten@readingeagle.com.

Portage County parochial school marks 180-year journey

RANDOLPH TWP.: Alyssa May was astonished to learn her elementary school didn’t always have indoor plumbing.

Her eyes widened in wonderment as she listened to her great-grandfather, Andy Englehart, recall his days at St. Joseph School.

“We had outside toilets; and boy, did they stink!” said Englehart, a 1935 graduate of the parochial school. “I walked 3› miles to school. Sometimes, I would ride the kid hack [a horse-drawn school carriage]. I still remember the names of the horses: Dolly and Nip!”

Englehart will represent the first of four generations who have attended St. Joseph, which claims the title of the oldest English-speaking elementary parochial school west of the Allegheny Mountains. His daughter, Barbara Fahrny, who graduated in 1967, represents the second generation. Her daughter, Jennifer May, who graduated in 1990, is third generation, and her children — Alyssa, 11, Andrew “Drew,” 9, and Aric, 4 — make up the fourth generation.

The Atwater Township family will join others in the Catholic parish and alumni and current students during a special Mass to observe the school’s 180th anniversary at 5 p.m. Saturday. Youngstown Bishop George V. Murry will celebrate the Mass. A reception and open house at the school will begin at 6 p.m.

The reception will include stations with foods prepared by school organizations.

The open house will give guests an opportunity to walk through the school, which has been decorated with memorabilia provided by alumni and with artistic expressions by current students.

At the Mass, Murry will bless items to be added to a time capsule that recently was unearthed at the school. The capsule, about the size of a shoebox, was placed in the school cornerstone June 18, 1922. It contained coins, holy cards, medals, a financial statement and money from 1922.

Items to be added include a registration form, a school profile, a summary of the school budget and a memory stick containing photos and student schoolwork.

“We hope that when the time capsule is opened during the 200th anniversary, in 2032, people will say, ‘Wow! They really loved this place,’ ” Principal Beth Frank said. “Our making memories, keeping them and passing them on speak volumes about how passionate we are about this place.”

Jennifer May said she sends her children to St. Joseph because it continues her family’s tradition of instilling faith into their lives.

“It’s a great school academically, and it helps with faith formation,” she said. “I can’t think of a better place for them.”

Her children agree.

Aric, who attends the preschool, said that when he comes to school he learns “to write my letters and play.” After a little thought, he said the most enjoyable part of his day is when he gets to play.

Drew, who is in third grade, loves recess and gym time but admitted it’s nice that “we can learn more about Jesus and being Christians.”

Alyssa, who is in sixth grade, said her small class size — 14 — is a plus.

“We don’t have a lot of distractions because there aren’t a whole lot of kids in the classroom,” she said. “We’re like a family here. We all know each other and we all help each other.”

Campaign saves school

Last year, parents and members of the parish rallied to keep the school open after receiving a letter from the diocese that indicated it could be closed because of declining enrollment and dwindling finances.

To turn things around, the school consultative council of the parish launched a campaign to balance the budget, to prepare a five-year plan outlining the sustainability of the school, to collect signatures on a petition asking the bishop to keep the school open, to collect donations for tuition assistance and to recruit more students.

The undertaking netted its desired results and the school remained open. The council surpassed its goal to enroll 100 students for the 2011-12 school year by 32 percent. Current tuition at the prekindergarten through eighth-grade elementary school is $2,400 for the first child, with multiple-student discounts and financial assistance available.

The only other Youngstown diocesan elementary school in Portage County is St. Patrick, at 127 Portage St., Kent. Its website is www.stpatskent.org.

Early history of St. Joseph

St. Joseph school was established in a log house in 1832. Three years later, the Catholics of Randolph agreed to build a combination log church and school. The one-room schoolhouse, which was built first, was used for Mass until the church was built in 1838.

Church records indicate that sometime between 1875 and 1885, the school was moved to its current location at 2617 Waterloo Road.

The brick school on that location was dedicated in 1922. The school cafeteria opened in 1960. A kindergarten curriculum was added in 1979.

Englehart attended the school when there were four classrooms — each containing two grades. In those days, there was no tuition, and the Sisters of Notre Dame, from Cleveland, were in charge.

“They were hard to get along with sometimes,” Englehart said of the nuns. “But they were excellent teachers.”

During his daughter’s years as a St. Joseph student, the nuns were still in the classrooms and the school was still tuition-free. Fahrny recalled there were two classrooms for each grade and about 36 students in each class.

“I was here during the baby boomer surge and a section was added to the building,” Fahrny said. “Even though the education was free, we came because it was our faith.”

In the 1970s, the school assessed each family a “book bill.” As operating expenses grew and the nuns gave way to lay teachers, tuition was added.

Today, the nuns have disappeared from the school, tuition has been raised and a technology fee has been added.

The school has committed to introducing Apple iPads into the classroom next school year and is inviting families to explore what St. Joseph has to offer through an informational campaign (to be launched during Saturday’s reception) called Do a 180 Take Another Look at St. Joseph School.

Alyssa is certain that if they do, they will find something they like.

“It’s just a good place to be. We learn a lot and we grow in our faith,” she said. “I’m excited to be a part of something with so much history. One hundred and eighty years is a long time.”

For information about St. Joseph’s, call 330-628-9555 or go to www.sjsrandolph.org.

Colette Jenkins can be reached at 330-996-3731 or cjenkins@thebeaconjournal.com.

Liturgical calendar not lost on St. Martha students

Liturgical calendar not lost on St. Martha students

When Devotions Aren’t Helpful

Suz and I have a framed Divine Mercy image in our living room — not the most popular and widely disseminated version of the image (like the one on the right), but a different one that we greatly prefer.

We’ve never liked the Divine Mercy images you see on most holy cards and website — the ones based on the 1943 painting by Adolf Hyla, with Jesus tilting his head to one side and making good eye contact with the viewer. To our eyes this Jesus looks too much like the mild, slightly effeminate, northern European Jesus of too much sentimental Protestant devotional art — something that, as converts, we’re more than slightly allergic to.

Everything about the Hyla-influenced Divine Mercy images, from the waves of Jesus’ hair and the shape of his beard to the cast of his upraised hand and the exaggerated bathrobe sleeves, is off-putting to us. His face is too gaunt, skin too creamy, his expression too dreamy. (I’m also not a fan of the “twinkling” effect of the red and pale rays in some versions of this image, though not the original Hyla.) One of us dubbed this familiar image “Seventies Dude Jesus,” and it’s stuck ever since.

The original Divine Mercy image created for St. Faustina by Eugene Kazimierowski at Vilnius (called the Vilnius image), a restored version of which has been available since 2003, is, we think, so vastly superior to Seventies Dude Jesus that it’s hard to quantify. This is the image that made Sr. Faustina cry with its inadequacy until Jesus told her it was good enough. I’m sure Jesus would have said the Hyla image was good enough too, but that would have been a lot more generous of Him in my opinion.

Everything about the Vilnius Jesus, from his attitude and expression to the handling of his robe and the rays of light, is more serious, weighty and classical to our eyes. Though still obviously a European image, this Jesus looks more universal, his ruddier skin tone less Caucasian-looking.

The smoothly even red and pale rays and the clarity of the colors (as with the original Hyla, though not some of its imitators) best reflects, I feel, the spiritual symbolism of St. Faustina’s visions. I like the translucence of His robe (particularly where the rays illuminate the sleeves), which looks more to me like something Jesus would actually have worn than does the smooth, heavy linen-looking fabric worn by the Hyla-influenced images.

As strongly as I feel about all this, I recognize that it’s a matter of taste. I don’t claim that anyone has to agree with me, although I suspect that I’m not alone in feeling this way. As a critic I’m used to considering the pros and cons of varying points of view on aesthetic matters, and while I don’t necessarily think that matters of taste are all completely subjective, I also recognize the difficulty of finding fixed points that can be known with certitude.

These questions go beyond matters of devotional art into wider devotional questions of hymnody, church architecture, spiritual reading and even prayer. Since I’m on the subject of Divine Mercy, here is a confession. Every year our family prays the Divine Mercy novena from Good Friday to the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday. I embrace this, and yet there is an aspect of it I find somewhat troubling.

Here we’ve made it through 40 days of Lenten penance, through the rigors of Holy Week and Triduum, with the abjection of Good Friday, finally arriving at the glory of Easter and the Easter Octave — and here we are, day in and day out throughout the Easter Octave, focusing with laserlike intensity on the sake of His sorrowful Passion, the sake of His sorrowful Passion, the sake of His sorrowful Passion, fifty times a day all Easter Week long. Isn’t that a little, you know, Good Friday for a season in which we ought to be joyously celebrating the resurrection of Christ, not His sorrowful Passion? (Perhaps we might add some special Easter devotions to sort of offset this? Does anyone know of any?)

Devotional literature and sentiment is another area that can present stumbling-stones as well as stepping stones. I know I’m not the only Catholic who has been taken aback by some of the more florid paeans to the Blessed Virgin in the writings of Alphonsus Liguori. I understand that devotional language is hyperbolic and poetic and needs to be read in context, but sometimes the effort of contextualizing something becomes more of a burden than any benefit to be gained.

“As the body cannot live without breathing,” St. Alphonsus writes, “so the soul cannot live without having recourse to and recommending itself to Mary.” If having recourse to Mary is the vital equivalent of breathing, what more essential and vital function remains for the intimacy we ought to have with the Holy Trinity? Again, “Take away the sun and where will be the day? Take away Mary, and what will be left but the darkest night?” Once you make Mary the sun, what room have you left in your picture for the Son of God and His Father?

Not long ago I encountered a passage from a 19th-century devotional work deploring the horrors of venial sin and purgatory:

God hates venial sin so much that in the next life He visits it with chastisements which, during almost an eternity, are a kind of hell, and He keeps the gates of His Paradise closed against souls which are His friends and are dear to Him until the complete expiation of the least of their sins. He hates it so much that even in this life He has often visited it with terrible chastisements. The wife of Lot permitted herself to indulge in thoughtless curiosity; at that very instant she is struck dead.

This might be very helpful and edifying to some people. It isn’t to me. For one thing, whatever the sufferings of purgatory may be, to draw so close and unqualified an analogy between the condition of the Holy Souls in purgatory to the Lost in hell seems to me … unhelpful. And yes, any sin, even venial sin, ought to fill us with dread and sorrow. I always tell my CCD students that the accumulation of venial sins is what makes mortal sin thinkable. But I have trouble with the idea of God striking people dead for a moment of “thoughtless curiosity.” Surely the sin of Lot’s wife was something worse than that.

Having said all this, I hasten to add an important clarification.

I certainly don’t want to surround myself only with the devotions and forms of spirituality that are naturally congenial to me. For one thing, discomfort with a particular spiritual idea, image or style may very well point to an area in which I need to grow. It’s precisely what I don’t initially understand or appreciate, not what I do, that is likeliest to help me in the long run.

Even if my discomfort with a particular spiritual expression is purely a matter of taste, there’s something to be said for not having everything my own way. I don’t want to become some kind of spiritual gourmet who must have his devotions attuned precisely to his delicate tastes. A church doesn’t have to look exactly like the kind of church I most prefer. Hymns don’t have to be my own favorite style. Different things speak differently to different people, and even if something is never going to be “my” thing, I can still work with it and benefit from it as best I can.

But this kind of spiritual de gustibus can also be taken too far. Not only is it okay for people to gravitate to devotions that they find most edifying, sometimes when we’re uncomfortable with something it may be because there really is a deficiency. I’m not saying that Seventies Dude Jesus is an example of that. But other things are. Not every hymn has to be my favorite style, but some hymns are genuinely flawed or bad. And not every flawed hymn was necessarily written after 1960.

What do you think? What devotions do you find most helpful or unhelpful? How do you deal with devotions you find unhelpful, particularly in group settings?

Incidentally, I got an email recently from someone thanking me for an old post on our family’s Jesus Prayer chaplet. This has been a wonderful devotion for us for years, and I’m delighted to hear that others have found it helpful. I highlight it again here for the benefit of others who may appreciate it as well. If you aren’t familiar with the Jesus Prayer or don’t pray it regularly, I encourage you to check out this post and look for ways to incorporate the Jesus Prayer into your life.

Follow an Old Tradition: Make Crosses Out of Palm Sunday Reeds

Christians may not get any closer to heaven by folding the palm reeds given out in the churches of some denominations this Palm Sunday, but many will create for themselves a symbol they can display to remind them of God.

And have some fun while they’re doing it.

“It’s popular with Italians, but I think you’d find it in Catholic culture everywhere,” said the Rev. Rich Futie, pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Stamford, about the cross-making practice.”Italians certainly have had a great tradition of doing it, making it a sign of faith. Some can be quite artistic.”

The practice is also popular in Greece and Spain, said Msgr. Stephen DiGiovanni, pastor of the Basilica of St. John the Evangelist in Stamford.

Greek Orthodox Churches follow the practice, as do some Episcopal churches. Karin Hamilton, director of communication and media for the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut, said she’s seen some Episcopalian palm crosses at some of the churches.

The crosses are made by folding two reeds in ways that essentially work like knots. No glue, tacks or other clamping or adhesives are used—just folding and, at the end, tucking extra ends into the middle, or cutting them off with scissors. Like a good knot, a tightly folded cross can be quite sturdy and hold up well over time.

The Rev. Greg Markey, pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Norwalk, said the making of palm crosses isn’t any kind of requirement or obligation of the Roman Catholic faith, or even an important part of it. “It’s just something people do.”

People often keep them for a year, until the next Palm Sunday, and sometimes have one in each room of their homes, Markey said.

“It’s a sacramental — something that helps us to drive toward the sacred,” he said. “Many other things are sacramentals, too. That’s why we bless the palms on Sunday… They’re very much like holy cards we have in our homes and blessed medals.”

In the Roman Catholic Church, palms are blessed as the priest begins the Mass with the procession to the altar, Markey said. The significance of palms “goes back to the Old Testament,” he said. “Jews would wave palms in the air as part of certain festivals or as a sign of joy.

Christ proclaimed king

When Christ entered Jerusalem and was publicly proclaimed a ‘king,’ palms were placed before the donkey that he rode in on, Markey said.

“People will keep them in their homes as signs of the holy in their lives, and many will take them to the cemetery also to place them on graves,” Futie said.

“They’re properly disposed of by either burning them or burying them,” Futie said, something that applies to all palm reeds brought home from Palm Sunday, not just those made into crosses.

“It’s quite common in parishes that the priest will say, ‘Please bring them in,’—maybe the week before Ash Wednesday—and they’ll be burned for the ashes used that day, and the ashes become a sacramental, too,” Futie said.

That’s just what St. Mary’s does, Markey said. “That’s a traditional way of doing it, so there’s a whole cycle there.”

Editor’s note: This article originally was published just before Palm Sunday in 2011. Anthony Gurliacci, in the accompanying video, is the father of David Gurliacci (then patch editor in Norwalk, now in Darien), who wrote this article and took the video.

Margaret M. Conway — Rochester – Post

Margaret M. Conway
31 March 1910 — 1 April 2012

God does not germinate in sad souls;
He wants a heart that is free and happy.

~ Saint Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi

The year Margaret Conway was born, Howard Taft was president, the average salary was $750 a year, life expectancy for women was 51, and the United States boasted 1,000 miles of paved roads. There were no Oreo cookies, no refrigerators, and no world wars. A pound of sugar was 5 cents, and Halley’s Comet flew so close by that the earth passed through its tail.

Margaret Mary Magdalene Conway’s formidable feminine character was prophetically evident on her birth certificate then gradually crafted by the rock solid farm family upbringing she received from her cherished parents, James and Mamie Olson in Kendall, Wis.

Her life on the farm was peopled with colorful aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors, and extra hands. She fell in love with nature by being outside in it.

How to Make Crosses from Palm Sunday Reeds

Christians may not get any closer to heaven by folding the palm reeds given out in the churches of some denominations this Palm Sunday, but many will create for themselves a symbol they can display to remind them of God.

And have some fun while they’re doing it.

“It’s popular with Italians, but I think you’d find it in Catholic culture everywhere,” said the Rev. Rich Futie, pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Stamford, about the cross-making practice.”Italians certainly have had a great tradition of doing it, making it a sign of faith. Some can be quite artistic.”

The practice is also popular in Greece and Spain, said Msgr. Stephen DiGiovanni, pastor of the Basilica of St. John the Evangelist in Stamford.

Members of Greek Orthodox Churches follow the practice, as do some Episcopalians. Karin Hamilton, director of communication and media for the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut, said she’s seen Episcopalian palm crosses at some of her denomination’s churches.

The crosses are made by folding two reeds in ways that essentially work like knots. No glue, tacks or other clamping or adhesives are used—just folding and, at the end, tucking extra ends into the middle, or cutting them off with scissors. Like a good knot, a tightly folded cross can be quite sturdy and hold up well over time.

The Rev. Greg Markey, pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Norwalk, said the making of palm crosses isn’t any kind of requirement or obligation of the Roman Catholic faith, or even an important part of it. “It’s just something people do.”

People often keep them for a year, until the next Palm Sunday, and sometimes have one in each room of their homes, Markey said.

“It’s a sacramental—something that helps us to drive toward the sacred. Many other things are sacramentals, too. That’s why we bless the palms on Sunday…. They’re very much like holy cards we have in our homes and blessed medals.”

In the Roman Catholic Church, palms are blessed as the priest begins the Mass with the procession to the altar, Markey said. The significance of palms “goes back to the Old Testament,” he said. “Jews would wave palms in the air as part of certain festivals or as a sign of joy.

Christ proclaimed king

When Christ entered Jerusalem and was publicly proclaimed a ‘king,’ palms were placed before the donkey that he rode in on, Markey said.

“People will keep them in their homes as signs of the holy in their lives, and many will take them to the cemetery also to place them on graves,” Futie said.

“They’re properly disposed of by either burning them or burying them,” Futie said, something that applies to all palm reeds brought home from Palm Sunday, not just those made into crosses.

“It’s quite common in parishes that the priest will say, ‘Please bring them in,’—maybe the week before Ash Wednesday—and they’ll be burned for the ashes used that day, and the ashes become a sacramental, too,” Futie said.

That’s just what St. Mary’s does, Markey said. “That’s a traditional way of doing it, so there’s a whole cycle there.”

Editor’s note: This article originally was published just before Palm Sunday in 2011. Anthony Gurliacci of Darien, in the accompanying video, is the father of David Gurliacci (then patch editor in Norwalk, now in Darien), who wrote this article and took the video.