Easter Actions

It’s coming! The warmer sun is coming. We Minnesotans get to bypass the latest forecast of snow as we move beyond the halfway mark of April -- because the April sun reports to our skin that all of nature is starting its warming season. Maybe we achieved bouts of nature bathing even when the snowdrifts were record breaking. But oh, that warm sun is really beckoning us to put specific nature walks on our weekly calendar.

In a recent natural health magazine, I discovered that one study found that people’s blood pressure, resting heart rate, and levels of cortisol (a stress hormone) were all significantly lower after a 15 minute nature walk compared to walking a 15 minute city block. These same reductions were found in people who spent 15 minutes just sitting in a chair in the woods. Thank you trees and plants for gobbling up our carbon dioxide and pouring out your oxygen!

Even five minutes in a natural setting is enough to boost your mood. And researchers found that time spent near rivers, lakes or oceans had the most powerful emotional effects. So I resolve to walk in nature areas whenever I can. I’m also dusting off my lawn chair, pulling out my fishing gear and checking if my swim suit still fits. I figure my heart, blood pressure and cortisol levels will thank me in the weeks ahead for these simple Easter Resolutions. And may the researchers’ promise of mood shifting effects somehow ripple into an expansion of loving actions and words. You who created all the harmonies of nature, let it be so.

Mary Rachel Kuebelbeck, OSB

A Touch of Spring

At the point when our calendars marked the Spring Equinox, but the skies were emptying out lots of snow upon earth, I received an e-mail entitled “A Touch of Spring” with the subtitle, “We’re all ready for a bit of spring.” I love snow, but this time the irony was more than I could resist . I was delighted, opened the attachment, and found an interactive piece before me. Using the mouse, I could click as often and wherever I chose on a completely black screen. Frankly, I went a bit wild! At one little click I could present to the black screen a multitude of flowers, spring flowers. In a matter of seconds I felt as if I were a creator of beauty. Soon I had a veritable flower garden! Fresh spring green leaves and stems, sky blue flowers, yellow daisies, bubble-like and graceful fronds, orange, purple, peach blossoms popped up wherever I chose to place them. Some were double-petalled, tall and proud; others bent over slightly, forming a graceful welcome to my eye. There were larger flowers, the size of a quarter and tiny ones, the size of an earring.


Sometimes there were different kinds of flowers rising out of the same stem. One was in the form of a cross; all the rest shouted out “New Life” or “Resurrection” or “Come alive; yes, you too!” There were even fire-cracker blossoms. If I stayed at the same spot on the screen and clicked multiple times at that spot, I marveled at the wonderful overlapping colors, textures, and designs. Everything seemed to fit; everything was lightsome.

A TOUCH of SPRING? Oh yes, for sure. . .yet there was more. For me, it was a reminder of how God must have delighted in Creation . . .and still delights in that creation. It’s no surprise, then, that God saw that it was good, that it was very good!

Renee Domeier, OSB

Breaking Bread

Four significant happenings converged to help me know what I might write for my blog today:

- Our pastor recently gave a homily in which he simply asked the question “What do you think makes us hate another or take from another what is theirs?

- A good friend and father of two little children was deported to Mexico last month. I was there for their good-byes. We cried, held one another and felt helpless before INS law.

- I watched the movie, AVATAR, in which U.S. forces take over the sacred places of an indigenous people in an attempt to grab their prize land. In addition to starting a brutal war between the two nations, the U.S. Colonel and all his incredibly destructive machinery are utterly destroyed.

- The fourth significant experience is to have read Ronald Rolheiser’s latest book, Our One Great Act of Fidelity: Waiting for Christ in the Eucharist.

How do these four happenings converge for me? I discovered that April is the month dedicated to the Eucharist, the place where, in a deeply significant way, we participants are most at home, least able to grab and always called to unity! In the Eucharist, we hear the Word of God and receive the physical embrace of Christ as we give thanks, break bread and share it with one another. Rolheiser indicates that in this ritual we are completely counter-cultural! Is it not true that here, at least, we do not grab, take, separate, keep for ourselves and thus create enmity? When we gather for the Eucharist we are faithful to what Christ asks of us. . .that, while we wait for Him to come again, we receive, we give thanks, we break bread together and we share it.

Let’s do that next Sunday or whenever we stand around our altars! There we can experience new life and love, even as we wait for Christ to come again!

Renée Domeier, OSB

Old St.Pat's Church
Chicago

Many Sunday mornings find some of us in the IRF (Institute of Religious Formation) and Hessburg Sabbatical Program choosing to go to a different church other than our parish church near CTU.  Such was the case two weeks ago when five of us drove (it is always nice to know someone who has a car) to downtown Chicago and attended Eucharist at Old St. Pat's.  Yes, that is actually the name of the parish.  If you Google the name it will recognize it as its proper name.

Old St. Pat's is well over 100 years old. By the Celtic cross on the outside wall of the church and the inside, which has been completely renovated, one would be right in assuming that this parish served immigrant Irish for many generations.  As it sadly happens sometimes, inner city churches lose their parishioners who move to the suburbs, or at least out of the downtown area. Old St. Pat's was not the exception to the rule, not at first.  Attendance dwindled steadily over many years until it was no longer viable.  However, a miracle happened!  Cardinal Bernadin assigned a new pastor in the hope that the parish could be saved.  Saved it was!  Now on a Sunday morning each of the Eucharists is literally filled to the brim with people of all ages.  The nave and the balcony are packed and at the time of Eucharist there are about 12-15 Eucharistic ministers.  This year on the Third Sunday of Lent (St. Patrick's Day) if you wanted to attend Eucharist at Old St. Pat's you had to order a ticket!  So with only one pastor what is their secret?  It seems to me that there is a great deal of collegiality and that the life of the parish is not in the hands of only a few people, i.e. the more people involved the better.  Because they attract a large crowd it means that they also attract excellent presiders and homilists.  Some of us started going to Old St. Pat's because Fr. Ed Foley, a Capuchin and a well-known liturgist who teaches Liturgy at CTU is one of the regular presiders. 

The Sunday we were there recently the presider invited the 2nd Graders who are preparing for First Communion (40 little people) to come to join him around the altar at the time of consecration and he brought them into what he was doing, explaining and teaching as he went along.

Leaving church after a Eucharist at Old St. Pat's I am always renewed in hope for our Church. If you are ever in Chicago, the address is:  700 W. Adams Street.

Pope Francis' Resonance

Pope Francis’s Resonance

I recently read a thought provoking comment by Father Richard Rohr, OFM. He said, “Humans are like two-way mirrors, both receiving and reflecting. Humans are like tuning forks that pick up a tone and hand it on as resonance.”

Some of us may have had the experience of picking up a jovial tone when we entered a room filled with friendly companions. We almost immediately found ourselves adding our humorous stories to the flow of conversation. Might this phenomenon of spontaneous resonance be possible within the Roman Catholic Church in our current era?

The unique behavioral tone of the newly elected Pope Francis has already been experienced as he began to live into his role as supreme leader of the Roman Catholic Church. The authenticity of his solidarity with the poor, the marginalized, and the environment has been clearly noted by the media. It also has apparently resonated with millions at all levels of the church.

What hope if  this tone could provide for each of us a way to move forward and respond to the challenges we face! If we, the human tuning forks within the structure of the Roman Catholic Church, respond to the current tone of Francis, we also may be given a new vibrational frequency for resonating with others, and all of creation, with simplicity, humble authenticity and inclusive solidarity.

Lenten Lessons

I have always loved the season of Lent. I know - it's an odd season to love. But I like the simplicity, the paring down, getting rid of the "frills" of life. I think I like the fact that I can make a decision to give something up, read a special book, or perform a charitable act.

Somehow this Lent isn't quite measuring up to my expectations. Instead of reveling in simplicitty, life seems a little dull. Identifying that has made me realize that maybe the dullness is giving me more of a Lenten experience that my normal, rather ebullient, approach. I'm having to give my sense of dullness over to God and trust that it won't last forever. I'm learning the lesson that I'm not in control of things the way I am when I decide what my Lenten practice will be. Not being in control, which we never really are, and giving the uncertainty that this creates over to God, are teaching me a true Lenten lesson. They're also making me look forward to the bursting of the Easter light in a whole new way. So, I think I can end by saying that I'm grateful for my dull Lent.

Karen Rose, OSB

Counting Blessings

As I ponder the riches of life that God continues to lavish upon me, I am constantly struck by the wonderful gift of my family. I had parents and grandparents who loved life. They loved to sing, dance, play instruments, socialize, read, discuss, invite, and pray. I couldn’t possibly enumerate all of the qualities, but I do know that hospitality, kindness, sharing and love were some things at the core. They reached out to others constantly, and I learned that some people who were considered “undesirables” by others were given respect and even help by my family.

Education was valued and promoted. “Please” and “Thank you” were learned at a very young age as was “give her some of your candy” (or whatever). Fun and laughter were usually part of the day, and support in sorrow was a given. At times as a child I forgot that “No” meant “No,” but it didn’t take me too long to relearn it.

I guess I intend this blog to be a form of gratitude to God, my family, and all my friends. Though I am filled with thankfulness, I also remember those who did not or do not now have the security that a solid family life provides. I want others to know that we, my family, were not wealthy in material terms. We had to go without some things that would have helped make life easier, but the important things of life were always there: presence, caring, giving, helping, etc., and so much more, made life rich, exciting, inviting.

I hope that this little piece will motivate you to “count your blessings” wherever you are and whatever they be. The chief one is that God is in each of us, and with us daily in all we are and do. Each of us is unique and God loves us unconditionally. God is with the depressed, the addicted, the thief. I pray that each of us opens our mind and heart to God and that we then touch all who sit in darkness. Let there be light because of Love!

Roberta Werner, OSB