Dec 1 John Beche aka Thomas Marshall d. 1539 beat 1895

John and Thommy
Good morning
I love you



Bl. John Beche aka Thomas Marshall
December 1
1539 beat 1895


John Beche was also smarter than the average bear. In 1515 he received a doctorate from Oxford. [ok, I have a doctorate and have known many people with a similar degree and I admit not all of us are smarter than the average bear. But, it’s a way high mode to bet that a person with a doctorate is that much smarter than most of us. And, the pedigree of the university tells you where on the food chain of smartness to put a person – Oxford is very close to the top. Alabama, on the other hand, is on the list somewhere not anywhere near the top….]

John Beche became the Benedictine Abbot of St. Werburgh, Chester for fifteen years then Abbot of St. John's, Colchester where he and sixteen of his monks took the Oath of Supremacy in July 1534.

In 1534, Abbot John Beche took the Oath of Supremacy. What, pray tell, got him to the other side? Refuting his baptismal faith. Embracing the secularization of faith and religion. Well, the given reason for his return to the church suggests that the reverse was the reason for his leaving the dissing the Catholic Church in the first place. When he saw his abbey being plundered, i.e., not protected by his nefarious Oath, John Beche rejected the Oath and re-embraced his faith and place in the Church.

John Beche was a friend of John Fisher and Thomas More. Their martyrdom horrified John Beche. And, it seemed, gave him the passion to refute Henry VIII’s right to suppress the English monasteries. [Possession of property was among the many reasons Henry VIII suppressed the Church.] For his courage, John Beche was arrested for treason. He held on to his faith to his terrible ending – hanged, drawn, and quartered.

You are smarter than the average bears. You have the opportunity to receive the best Catholic education. You have the opportunity to be friends of people like John Fisher and Thomas More. Have had and do have such opportunities, such gifts, resources, talents. Your taking your equivalent of the Oath of Supremacy [yourself being supreme may be one way to put it] is not the last statement. John Beche and Edmund Campion are two examples that verify that returning to the right and good embracing of Veritas Splendor is doable – a reasonable hope, a deeply felt hope….

I love you
dad

December 1 Edmund Campion, S.J. b. 1540 d. 1581 beat. 1886 c. 1970

John and Thommy
Good morning
I love you



St. Edmund Campion, S.J.
December 1 b. 1540 d. 1581 beat. 1886 c. 1970

I was in the novitiate from 1967 – 1969. The cause for Campion’s sainthood was coming down the home stretch, there was even speculation about which American Jesuits would be attending the canonization. I also knew his name because the stories about his being the author of Shakespearean works was slipped into our sophomore English class – Fr Bernard Murphy, S.J., did have a glint in his eye and a leprechaun grin when he said it.

Edmund Campion, born (1540) and raised Catholic, was the son of a London bookseller. Catholic in 16thc London – a faithful and brave family. As the son of a bookseller, Edmund Campion had the opportunity for a breath of learning very few boys receive. It’s reasonable to assume that he took advantage of that opportunity – unlike too many of us who reject the gifts given to us, scorn them.

When Mary Tudor entered London, Edmund Campion gave the Latin salutatory.

At fifteen, Edmund Campion received a scholarship to St. John’s College, Oxford; at 17 he became a fellow - - by far, smarter than the average bear! A Youth who took the talents given to him by his Master and leveraged them with dint of effort and drive and the resources he was given into the ten thousand talents we are expected to return.

Being born and raised a Catholic does make it ‘easier’ and more likely that one will live a Catholic life. However, circumstances and situations, our personal zeitgeist, deliver challenges to our faith. And some of us reject our faith and embrace the beliefs and ways of those around us – with whom we live, with whom we study, with whom we aspire to spend our time. A tragic consequence of the temptations presented to us and how our will uses the grace, talents, resources we have to succeed.

Edmund Campion’s brilliance, on display at the secular Oxford, attracted the attention of the political and royal mucky mucks of the time, including the Queen. Edmund Campion took the Oath of Supremacy – the sine qua non of entry into the opportunities of law, court, even the official religion of the time. In 1564, at twenty four years old, Edmund Campion became an Anglican deacon. With all his brilliance, he was betting on the dominant family, royalty, religion in his life at the time – dominant in the sense of most of the people and most of the secular and religious power.


In 1569, Edmund Campion went to Ireland for further study. His doubts about Protestantism grew. He studied and prayed and consulted to discern…. Continuous learning, daily probing of your faith, from examination of conscience to the study of scripture and tradition….

Edmund Campion returned from Ireland renewed in his Catholic faith.

In 1570, when Pope Pius V excommunication Elizabeth, she began a persecution of Catholics.

[Pius V’s bull of excommunication was only six paragraphs long and did not pull any punches: “the number of the ungodly has so much grown in power that there is no place left in the world which they have not tried to corrupt with their most wicked doctrines; and among others, Elizabeth, the pretended queen of England and the servant of crime, has assisted in this, with whom as in a sanctuary the most pernicious of all have found refuge. This very woman, having seized the crown and monstrously usurped the place of supreme head of the Church in all England to gether with the chief authority and jurisdiction belonging to it, has once again reduced this same kingdom- which had already been restored to the Catholic faith and to good fruits- to a miserable ruin. 2. Prohibiting with a strong hand the use of the true religion, which after its earlier overthrow by Henry VIII (a deserter therefrom) Mary, the lawful queen of famous memory, had with the help of this See restored, she has followed and embraced the errors of the heretics”]

Of course, the persecution began with those known to the crown, thus known throughout the realm – and Edmund Campion had to flee. He went to Douai, France to study theology. He had stepped into Anglicanism as a deacon, a political and church position that expected some degree of theology. In the renewal of his Catholicism, Edmund Campion’s brilliance and passion for faith led him to the path toward ordination.

While in Douai, Edmund Campion decided to join the Jesuits. He went barefoot to Rome and arrived just before Francis Borgia died. In 1573, Edmund Campion was the first novice accepted into the Society by the Fourth Father General Mercurianus. Edmund Campionion went to Bohemia for his novitiate. In 1570, Edmund Campion was thirty, having completed post graduate studies at the highest level, served as a deacon in the Anglican church – and he was a novice. The men who were novices with me in 1967 ranged from high school graduates, about a third of us, to lawyers, a career army sergeant, a DJ, college grads with outstanding undergrad accomplishments from all American athlete status to accomplishments in academia and extracurriculars. And we were all novices. The course our life takes – closer to and further away from Jesus, faith, family, church – is hard to predict. Edmund Campion’s travels of faith is another reason of hope, and I hope of inspiration, for you.

In 1578, Edmund Campion, S.J. was ordained. He and Fr. Robert Persons, S.J., were the first Jesuits chosen for the English Mission - The ex-patriot Englishmen who were ready for the excruciating conditions incumbent on unwelcome prophets returning to (re)convert their family, friends, community, and country; prepared even for martyrdom. Conditions for which you must prepare when you reconvert.

Edmund Campion wrote the Decem Rationes and his Brag – in anticipation of his being captured, Fr. Campion wanted it to be known from his own hand why he was Catholic and, more important maybe, why he had returned home to reconvert family, friends, et al. When his writings were published – given his status from Oxford, as Anglican Deacon, as accomplished priest – he became the object of one of the most intensive manhunts in English history.

[I have only a slight sense of what that was like. In 1994 I published in the Nashville paper a small ad that reported that I had challenges with the Dominican Sisters at Overbrook and if people wanted to know more to contact me. The Bishop determined that I was no longer worthy to be a [national award winning] column author for the diocese paper. The pastor determined that as a person of disunity, I was no longer eligible to be lector or Eucharistic minister. Your mother’s attorney engaged a [Catholic] Saturday morning local radio talk show host about the heinousness of a man bringing the conflict about his children into the public light. The good sisters told your mother that they would expel you two if I were not silenced. And your mother went to secular court to thus squash the public presentation of the facts – rather than say to the sisters, gee sisters, the information that he is seeking as the boys’ father is something you should be giving to him and if the father of the children is not to be communicated with by the school, then this is not the right school for the children.]

On 17 July, 1581, when Edmund Campion was captured, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. The Crown offered him money, power, position, and more to apostatize. He refused. Since the carrot did not work, they tried the stick – torture. Still, Edmund Campion held on to his faith. On December 1, 1581, Edmund Campion was hung … drawn … and … quartered – he was charged with treason because in Elizabeth’s England it was treasonous to be a priest of the Roman Catholic Church.


I love you
dad

November 30 Andrew, apostle d. 60

Thommy and John
Good morning
I love you

[my fingers play this salutation faster and more confidently than any other riff….]


St. Andrew
November 30 d. 60
Patron of Fisherman

Andrew, from the Greek, means manly, manhood, valour. Son of John, so, Andrew Johnson; John means gift from God – thus, Andrew, the manly son of the gift of God….

Andrew’s story, significant snippets directly in the Bible, may be an opportune metaphor or inspiration for us.

Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist. So what does this tell you about Andrew? Without knowing anything else about the man Andrew, his being a disciple of John the Baptizer tells us about him. What we know about JB tells us about his followers. In the desert, living an austere life, preaching the coming of the Messiah, soon! And baptizing. Men seeking holiness, together. A defining pursuit – holiness. A necessary modus vivandi – together.

Choose well whom you follow. Choose well those with whom you associate. Know well how you discern both through your relationship with God and faith and church and family….

Immediately upon JB’s pointing out the Lamb of God, Andrew followed Jesus. Literally, he began walking behind him, wanting to see where Jesus lived. In this way, it is said that Andrew in the answer to the trivia question, who was the first disciple. Maybe. Though I’m willing to bet that there were others who knew Jesus before Andrew did, not to mention JB or Mary, and who considered themselves devotees of the Man.

So, when you find The Man to follow, the person in whom you know you will place your life, what do you do next? Andrew got his brother Simon and brought him to Jesus. So, the ‘first’ disciple was the one to bring to Jesus the ‘first’ apostle!?. When you find Jesus in your life, the experience compels you to share him with family and friends and community and the world…. Initially, these men continued their careers, fishing. Not unlike most Catholics, we followers of Christ. We live our daily lives, now forever changed by the relationship with Jesus and church, with our family, in our job, infusing our ‘extracurriculars’. And, at some point, we decide whether our vocation is full time as follower of Jesus, as proselytizer. Many are called. Could be you, too. Too many do not listen, say that they do not hear even; maybe they are not discerning for a vocation, listening for a calling, but rather have decided to do their own will not God’s, so why listen to anyone else?!. Too many hear the call and say no, not me, I won’t, I can’t, I don’t want to: no. … I pray that you discern your vocation authentically.

Peter, James, John, and, this time, also Andrew were sitting privately with Jesus on the steps of the temple. They asked Jesus to explain the eschatological inference he had made about the destruction of the temple. Imagine sitting around with your friends having a discussion about last things? How the world came to be and how it will come to an end. Such a discussion requires that you know something of what has already been said about those topics – know the bible, know your Catholic teachings, know also the teachings of Judaism and of other faiths. How can you pursue knowledge without knowledge? How can you enrich your faith now only without faith but also without knowledge. [one small reason for a daily excursion into the lives of the saints; for daily prayer; for daily study…. Yes daily. A little dab will do you. And ongoing study. And study in the midst of the faithful – on the temple steps, if you will….]


John 6:5-9ff. The miracle of the loaves and the fishes. So they sat down and Jesus saw all the people still with him at the end of a long day, as sunset was about to bring in the pasch. Jesus asked where will we buy enough food for all these people? [John tells us that this was a set up question because Jesus knew what he was going to do.] Philip tells him how much money they have and that it is not nearly enough – we don’t have enough money to pay for what all these people need. We never have enough money to pay for what our people need. Maybe part of the point here. Andrew told Jesus about the boy with the five loaves and two fishes; but this is even more inconsequential in the face of the task of feeding the multitudes. By themselves, by ourselves, there is not enough money and never enough food to feed people.

Until Jesus takes the bread and fish into his hands and passes them on to us….

We have only one other direct reference to Andrew in the scripture. But we know a lot about this man by who he was, where he came from, with whom he associated. From Galilee – what good can come from Galilee?  Jesus, of course, and his disciple…. Andrew as an apostle, a man who was close with Jesus; he was at the last supper; he witnessed the resurrected Jesus in the upper room; he was lit by the fire of the Spirit on Pentecost; and brought the Word into the unbelieving and persecuting world.

We can also make some guesses about what Andrew did not do, what he did not know/believe, how his life in faith evolved not unlike the other Apostles, not unlike us.

The early writers have Andrew traveling across a wide expanse – Scythia, Epirus, Hellas, Galatia, Bithynia, Byzantium, Macedonia. The historians generally agree that Andrew was crucified by order of Aegeas, the Roman Governor at Patrae in Achaia. He was bound, not nailed; and a later tradition describes the cross as the decussate cross. In about 357, Andrew’s relics were moved to Constantinople; and then the French took them to Italy when they took Constantinople about 1200.
Russia and Scotland have taken Andrew as their patron saint. At baptism you are given your patron saints – and you inherit the patron saints of your family and lineage. At confirmation you add you personal choice for a patron saint. And, at any time you may add others – and, depending on which countries you live in or which organizations you join, you are given patron saints. Honor your patrons by doing good and right; by emulating them. Do not hesitate to call upon you patrons for whatever you need – and remember how much you need….

I love you
dad

Nov 29 Brendan, abbot of Birr d. 573

Thommy and John,
Good morning
I love you


St. Brendan of Birr
November 29 d. 573

Thommy had a classmate at Overbrook named Brendan. We reach into many places for the names of our children. As much as our names connect with the saints, especially with our heritage, of course with our families, I’m always curious about how a name is chosen…. For our children, our pets, our homes, our companies…. The Brendan, Thommy’s classmate, was a very talented athlete – physically talented. He had a zealous desire to succeed – which is different that a drive to win. He wanted to be the best and never tolerated being bested. Unfortunately, that boy had a mean streak. Not only did he play soccer on the dirty side of the line, when playing fair to the fullest extent of his significant talents was not enough, he did so without qualm. I attribute his playing that way as a ten year old to his parents’ not doing their job – and then Overbrook’s coaches not doing theirs. A parent’s sins of omissions shows up in the child’s faults as well as his deficits…

We have several Brendan saints.

As with most of the sixth century Irish saints, they knew one another, were friends, in a patrimony system, they taught and mentored one another though the religious generations. Brendan, a monk a Clonard, was a friend of Brendan the voyager. Not only did Brendan belong to one of Ireland’s best monasteries, he was friend to one of our bravest saints, a Brendan who in his life literally showed us how to seek beyond what we can possibly see.

Brendan became Abbot of Birr, a monastery in county Offaly, in ancient times known as King’s county. Rory O’Commor, the last High King of Ireland is buried in Clonmacnoise.

Brendan is said to have advised Columba. Advisor of one of the cornerstones of the faith in Ireland – to whom are you an advisor? Who advises you? It does matter with whom you are connected, and why. Columba reports a vision of Brendon’s soul being carried into heaven by angels. What better tribute to your advisor than to see him as a saint in the hands of God?!

I love you
dad

Christ the King

John and Thommy

Good morning
I love you

[now is 1803 on 11/26/7, I started this missive at 1500ish]

Christ the King
2007 on Nov. 25th

Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17
Such an abbreviated version. Sculpted as much for the time allotted for readings/sermon as it is for our edification. Or, maybe, to whet our appetite and get us to read some more of Ezekiel. Try it. A good way to start the day – not only a saints litany but also the day’s readings….

11 For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. …. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice. 17 ?As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats.
Thus says the Lord God. Our ancestors, our tradition, sure talks funny. The Feast of Christ the King, our connection with Christ is as challenging as our assimilation of King. We are so modern. So American. And before that Catholic and Irish. Get with the language. Words help us be closer – the absence of common language, even worse, the rejection of common language, separates us: from one another and from God moreso….

God seeks us out. Our Lord searches for us. Our King, Christ our King takes the initiative – from the grace imbued in our souls at baptism and each and every day of our lives. Not unlike the secret of a Father’s Love.

We do get scattered. Play out the metaphor. Scattered within ourselves – our thoughts get scattered, our feelings get scattered, our sense of who we are and what we are to become gets scattered. We get scattered. We also get scattered from God. Ezekiel’s Jewish people had scattered from God over and over sense Abraham – on their own accord and by the powers of the warring tribes. We too get scattered from God. In our daily not connecting in prayer and community and action. In our bouts of rejecting His Love – because His Love asks us so much in our love for Him? We get scattered from family. By the turmoil of the people in our family. By the separations wedged between us within our family. By the choices we make along the way – the acts of omission as much, maybe moreso, than the acts of commission. By the evolution of our individual lives – creating our identity by the two year old’s first “no” to the adolescent’s “I am not you”. Developmental progress challenges our connection with others, including, especially, God and Family, Father Son Spirit; Father, Mother, Brother, and the extended family.

And when we scatter, our King, Lord, God, seeks us out – individually and as family, clan, church, and community. We are with him ourselves but never alone, always as a part of the Body of Christ.

Our King takes us in, even when, especially when, we are in the midst of our thickest darkness, suffocating in the clouds surrounding us, when we have strayed/walked off/left where we should be, when we are injured [how often and in how many ways are we injured!?], and when we are weak [we are always weak – unless we embrace our weakness it will be much harder to embrace God, our King.

[oops, I picked the wrong cycle. So, I’ve inserted 2Sam and Col.]


2 Samuel 5:1-3

David Anointed King of All Israel
5Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron, and said, ‘Look, we are your bone and flesh. 2For some time, while Saul was king over us, it was you who led out Israel and brought it in. The LORD said to you: It is you who shall be shepherd of my people Israel, you who shall be ruler over Israel.’ 3So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron; and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the LORD, and they anointed David king over Israel.

When you think of kings, how often do you pull up Brian Boru? The first High Ry of a ‘unified Ireland’ – about as unified as we are still here in the USA?  But David, as king – or as sling shot wielder par excellence. We do tend to mythacize our kings.

The people of Israel, just as we should as the Body of Christ, the People of Christ, come to the King as flesh of one flesh – the Son of God become Man; all cut from the same grace, aka soul. Maybe, yes?

The King as shepherd; his people as sheep – who know his voice; who are led by him to the food of eternal life… go with the metaphors and make them real in our lives.

God has made a covenant with us. We each have also made a covenant with Him – baptism and confirmation and each reception of each sacrament. …. Covenant, promise, vow, forever, no matter what….

As we acknowledge Christ as our King, we are also saying a lot about who we are, what our duties are, how we give liege and receive the blessings of living under His kingship.

1 Cor 15:20-26

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Christ delivers the Kingdom of God to all those who belong to Him.

Kingdom. About as foreign to us in our day to day lives as King. But our traditions, our culture [so many kingdoms in Ireland, alone ] we know about kingdom. In our literature. In our fantasies. We understand Kingdom.

Christ makes us fully alive in His Kingdom. Not the Kingdom of Palm Sunday, not the Kingdom that Pilate felt threatened by, but the Kingdom into which the good thief asked Jesus to bring him.

Our Father… Thy Kingdom come…. We live in the Kingdom of Christ now, in the anticipation of, in the hope of, in the expectation of the Kingdom that will come.

Into the Kingdom of Christ, after all of His enemies have been put under His feet, when we put His enemies, our King’s enemies, thus our enemies under our feet – destroying every rule, every authority, every power…. Expect the Love of God with Whom we come to knowloveandserve in this world so we might be with Him forever in His Kingdom….


Colossians 1:12-20

12giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled* you* to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.*

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16for in* him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. 17He himself is before all things, and in* him all things hold together. 18He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things.

To be a subject of Christ the King, Jesus our Brother, we share in the inheritance – Thy Kingdom come!

It is with Christ our King that we have forgiveness of our sins – Forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us…. Yes?!. Out of the clutches of the power of darkness into the embrace of our King, our beloved brother. Go with the metaphors because they are also authentic experiences.

We don’t have just any king. It’s hard to put my feeloughts around the statue of Christ the King – the plastic figure about six inches high, dressed in a red robe and crowned with ‘jeweled’ crown, holding a scepter – how that statue with which I grew up, stood for, reminded us of, called upon us to always remember that our King is the King of Kings, the creator of all things visible and invisible – the invisibles made metaphorically real with the statue and the understanding of what it represented – our King over all thrones or dominions, rulers or powers, whether in heaven or on earth, or under the earth. After Genesis, try Dante and then Milton….

Who is this King whom we follow? Who is this King who holds us in the palm of his hand? Paul is clear! Not subtle or indirect. Christ the King, head of the Body, the Church – of which we are integral parts; he is the beginning, the alpha, much more than our alpha male; Christ the King is the first born of the dead – who not only leads us into the Father’s Kingdom, but takes us there, admits us [except those Mary lets in the side door]

For us – put ourselves in Him, dwell in Him, through Him we are reconciled with each other and with God….
Some King!



Luke 23:35-43

And the people stood by, watching; but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!" The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him vinegar, and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews."

One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

BUT, THE PUNCHLINE!

Not the King of Palm Sunday.

Our King has been scoffed at – before the rulers, before Pilate, by his community, by the Pharisees, by the Sadducees, by the elders …. Our King is scoffed at today by people in your life, people in authority, people important to you, people who say they are your friends, protectors, putting your interest first – and they scoff at our King. And, yes, that is important to you, what is said about our King denigrates you more than Him; what does it say about you who stays close to those who reject, diss, disavow our King?

Our King – if you are King, save yourself! The saving this crowd has missed the mark by a mile, by an infinity. How do you save yourself with our King?

The same as the good thief – “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” And Jesus says yes. Yes because the good thief knew and admitted who he was. Because the good thief confessed his sins and asked forgiveness. Because the good thief rejected his world and embraced the Kingdom of God.

Christ our King. Be there or be square…..



Andrew Greeley’s online sermon for the day – a quote:

“perhaps we don’t quite understand any more the tragedy that is inherent in royal leadership. In fact, the kingdom which Jesus preached was the kingdom of his Father in heaven, a kingdom of forgiving love with no royal trappings at all, a kingdom which had always been there but which now (through Jesus) were beginning to recognize for the first time. The kingdom of Jesus is summarized in the words of the Our Father – forgive us as we forgive. No matter how many times we say that prayer, the meaning seems to allude us.”




FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING

I couldn’t find a quickie summary of the feast – so I went to the source, Pius XI’s encyclical that created the Feast in 1925.

We’ve had celebrations for the great Feast Day long before this pope created a universal church feast day. Many Asian and Latin countries today have tremendous processions through the town for this feast. It’s a biggie

Each proclamation by a Pope is embedded in the zeitgeist as well as his personal experience plus in the river of our traditions. Pius XI started this encyclical summarizing his times – and it sounds to me not unlike what we’ve been hearing Benedict XIV say: “manifold evils in the world were due to the fact that the majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law out of their lives; that these had no place either in private affairs or in politics: and we said further, that as long as individuals and states refused to submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations.” Not only vis a vis nations, communities, parishes but also for each of us individually.

The entire encyclical is dedicated to our better understanding how Christ the King leads us, is part of us and we of Him, and how this annual Feast is meant to remind us, enrich us, help us celebrate our relationship with Christ the King. Pulling out excerpts will say as much about me as what I want us to have in common, what I pray that you assimilate ….

Christ the King “is said to reign "in the hearts of men," both by reason of the keenness of his intellect and the extent of his knowledge, and also because he is very truth, and it is from him that truth must be obediently received by all mankind. He reigns, too, in the wills of men, for in him the human will was perfectly and entirely obedient to the Holy Will of God, and further by his grace and inspiration he so subjects our free-will as to incite us to the most noble endeavors.” Pius XI starts here. Appealing to our reason and our heart – reiterating our faith, the foundations of our relationship with Christ our King. His Knowledge, His being the Very Truth, Veritas Splendor! Which we receive obediently. To whom we give our will – not my will, but Thine be done. [try Ignatius’s prayer.] Our King incites us, motivates us, calls us to our/the most noble endeavors – and without him, we are less noble, sometimes even less than noble…. We share in nobility to the extent that we share in Christ the King, that we live in His Kingdome, that we seek The Kingdome….

Pius XI gives us the many references in scripture for King. Our faith, our religion, Scripture and Tradition. Scan the bible and put your arms around the multitude examples of King – the kind of King, the Kingdom of God…. From scripture Pius XI just logically concludes “It was surely right, then, in view of the common teaching of the sacred books, that the Catholic Church, which is the kingdom of Christ on earth, destined to be spread among all men and all nations, should with every token of veneration salute her Author and Founder in her annual liturgy as King.”

Then Pius XI gives us the tradition – tracing from the beginning of our Church, through our Church fathers, our many eras, how we have referenced Christ the King, called upon Christ the King, depended upon Christ the King…. Thus, the feast makes sense from this road in our Church. E.g., “moreover it is a dogma of faith that Jesus Christ was given to man, not only as our Redeemer, but also as a law-giver, to whom obedience is due.” E.g., “Not only do the gospels tell us that he made laws, but they present him to us in the act of making them. Those who keep them show their love for their Divine Master, and he promises that they shall remain in his love” a covenant of His Kingship. E.g., “This kingdom is spiritual and is concerned with spiritual things.” The Kingship of Easter not Palm Sunday.
“The gospels present this kingdom as one which men prepare to enter by penance, and cannot actually enter except by faith and by baptism, which, though an external rite, signifies and produces an interior regeneration. This kingdom is opposed to none other than to that of Satan and to the power of darkness. It demands of its subjects a spirit of detachment from riches and earthly things, and a spirit of gentleness. They must hunger and thirst after justice, and more than this, they must deny themselves and carry the cross.” This quote got me to stop and pray, meditate, educate myself some more. An exterior rite, an exterior life, that produces an interior regeneration – sacramentally over and over. We are in a Kingdom that is our relationship with Jesus-Family-Faith-Church, it is not against the Romans or other seculars or any religions … although we are in the midst of people and organizations and faiths who persecute you/us for our very faith. That our being in Christ’s Kingdom is such a threat to other people, sometimes even to our selves, may be to the extent that the person is in the darkness.

In this spiritual Kingdom, in our relationship with Christ the King, we are detached from riches and earthly things [and I got lots of things I’d like to detach from storage, from my living room – and will be sending to you, ‘leaving to you’, I pray that you will use and pass on. My learning the poverty of Jesuits, the detachment rather than the things necessary [truly necessary would be redundant] for the work of the vocation.]. We have a duty to a gentleness – would that I were so much better with this: gentleness with myself, gentleness with you, gentleness with those close and those far …. I am sorry for my many ungentlenesses. We must go beyond the thirst for justice and deny ourselves, carry our cross – do what is ours to do for the others, family, parish, community, work, school … to do for them what is right and good and get over all the reasons, the inhibitions, the fears that keep us from fulfilling our duties…

“It would be a grave error, on the other hand, to say that Christ has no authority whatever in civil affairs,.. the empire of our Redeemer embraces all men”…. We are the ones with the obligation to bring Christ our King into all of our affairs. Crassly, WWJD? More eloquently “When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony. Our Lord's regal office invests the human authority of princes and rulers with a religious significance; it ennobles the citizen's duty of obedience.”

“If the kingdom of Christ, then, receives, as it should, all nations under its way, there seems no reason why we should despair of seeing that peace which the King of Peace came to bring on earth.” The Peace of Christ, Christ the King, the King of Peace. Christ’s Peace.

Pius XI saw the feast of Christ the King as an antidote to the anticlericalism of his day, of our history, of our present, actually. He also wrote “When we pay honor to the princely dignity of Christ, men will doubtless be reminded that the Church, founded by Christ as a perfect society, has a natural and inalienable right to perfect freedom and immunity from the power of the state; and that in fulfilling the task committed to her by God of teaching, ruling, and guiding to eternal bliss those who belong to the kingdom of Christ, she cannot be subject to any external power”. This applies to our church in the midst of the civil authorities and to each of us in the midst of anti-Catholic authorities. It speaks to our obligation as members of the Body of Christ as well as our protection by Christ the King.

Pius XI hopes that we will be imbued with Blessings by celebrating the Feast of Christ the King

“The faithful, moreover, by meditating upon these truths, will gain much strength and courage, enabling them to form their lives after the true Christian ideal. If to Christ our Lord is given all power in heaven and on earth; if all men, purchased by his precious blood, are by a new right subjected to his dominion; if this power embraces all men, it must be clear that not one of our faculties is exempt from his empire. He must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ. He must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls, or to use the words of the Apostle Paul, as instruments of justice unto God.[35] If all these truths are presented to the faithful for their consideration, they will prove a powerful incentive to perfection.”

This paragraph alone is worth the price of admission – a core for any meditation at any time. Get yourself a statue of Christ the King; and ponder these blessings. Embrace the Feast of Christ the King and meditate upon these blessings. And when you pass a Christ the King Parish [remember, e.g., the one in Nashville and your serving there as altar boys, attending CCD] or a Christ the King school [some of my cousins with to Molloy’s archrival CK], assimilate a feelought about how Christ the King matters to you at that moment…. And beyond.



I love you
dad

Nov 27 Thomas Kotenda (and companions) d. 1619

Thommy and John
Good morning
I love you

There’s this one blessed for whom we have a three sentence blurb, including ‘companions’.
I pulled him out because
a. he’s a Thomas
b. he’s a Jesuit by education not by vow
c. he’s Japanese – well, for a. and b., actually either would have been sufficient. That he is Japanese is simply who he is. I used to say I had a Japanese. That is until I met her and she explained, with hard to understand English, that she is Okinowan, very different! When I was in the novitiate, I had a classmate, a retired sergeant in the Army who had been stationed in Japan, spoke Japanese [so what do you think he was doing there for uncle sam?] and who was hoping to, planning to, go back to the Jesuit missions there.


Bl. Thomas Kotenda and Companions:
Bl. John Ivanango & John Montajana
Bl. Matthias Kosaka & Bl Matthias Nakano
Bl. Michael Takeshita
Bl. Alexius Nakamura
Bl. Anthony Kimura
Bl. Bartholomew Sheki
Bl. Leo Nakanishi

[so, after I wrote my feeloughts connected to Thomas Kotenda (and companions) I continued down the list in Catholic online for November 27th. First I pulled out the Johns – Ivanango and Montajana; with fundamentally the same blurb as Thomas Kotenda. Then I figured that just maybe the other companions would be there on the 27th as well. Not so hard to find on a list with Christian first names and obvious ‘Japanese’ last names. So I figured I’d just append onto the Thomas blog….]


Feastday: November 27
d. 1619
Thomas Kotenda was a member of a high-ranking noble family of Japan. Pedigree does matter, I assume; especially since almost every blurb about a saint not only identifies the parents but the pedigree. And, for the Jesuits, having learned the missionary strategies from Xavier who probably picked a few pointers from Patrick, the first focus of proselytizing would have been the nobles. Leverage. A strategy for any change effort.

Thomas was a devoted Christian, having been educated by the Jesuits. I hope that your receive more Jesuit education that the tiny tidbits I have to offer from my living and my saying and my writing – from your learning. I’m sorry you were prevented from that and directed away from that by your mother; there’s still lots of opportunities – from retreats to parishes to universities et al.

Thomas Kotenda was exiled for his beliefs from his native province. Unfortunately you have abdicated your beliefs for fear of being exiled. Oro pro vobis; ora pro nobis. Thomas Kotenda has something to offer you in addition to the balls of faith….
Thomas Kotanda lived at Nagasaki until his condemnation and beheading, He was martyred along with ten companions. Yes, we do suffer for our faith – or suffer more for abdicating our faith. The former is the Peace of Christ; which I wish be with you always.

Bl. John Ivanango & John Montajana
“Martyrs of Japan, beheaded at Nagasaki with nine companions. They were beatified in 1867 by Pope Pius IX.” (Catholic online.) Maybe the “and companions” part is the more crucial. It is maybe impossible to keep your faith, to practice your faith, in the face of exile or termination, when you are alone. Who are your companions? More importantly, who are your companions in faith? Not only in the “I am Catholic” sayers but much more importantly the “I am Catholic Doers” those who may not even say a word. The list does not have to be nine. Certainly there a few necessary ones: Jesus, Father, and Spirit. I’d suggest Mary as sufficient after the Trinity. Pick some saints or angels – a Thomas or a William or a John or Kenneth to make it easy to connect. Then you also have your father, your uncle, your cousin [I wish you had each other, that would be the best]; the Nolans, most of us fersure. You have to scour and dig within your peer group; since you have been placed in communities/schools with so few Catholics and little or no connection with Parish, Catholic Schools, Catholic groups…. The and companions is helpful, important, sufficient, [not necessary beyond Jesus?]


Bl. Matthias Kosaka & Matthias Nakano
“Two martyrs of Japan. They were both members of a noble house of the country. Arrested in Omura, they were taken to Nagasaki where they were beheaded. Both were beatified in 1867.” How does a person choose their conversion name? [I don’t even know what your mother picked in her transition through rcia and Catholicism.] Not unlike your parents’ choosing your baptismal name – giving you a name, vowing for your as well as us. Not unlike your choosing your confirmation name – sorry, you confirmed, you chose, you vowed [that’d be a lifetime of eternity commitment, covenant]…. John and Uriel. The first is easy to connect. The latter is a stretch; I hope he is helping with some Catholicism from out of the angel cult from which he was chosen and the choice rewarded.] Put yourself in the head of some Japanese nobles, who were converted by Jesuits, and how do you come up with Matthias?



Bl. Michael Takeshita
“Jesuit martyr of Japan. Michael was a member of a high noble Japanese family and was seized during the persecution against the Church. He was beheaded with ten companions at Nagasaki at the age of twenty-five. Pope Pius IX beatified him in 1867.”
Michael had ten companions. Go figure – someone’s overcounting or missed one…. Maybe the persecution of Catholics and Catholicism is not personal? Maybe these actions are against The Church not against the individuals like Michael Takeshita [phonetically take a shit a?]? Maybe the failure to raise you Catholic, to put you in anti-Catholic schools, was not personal, maybe those acts were a rejection of and efforts to weaken the Catholic Church. But it is personal. It’s not “the Church” – we are Church; we, together are the Body of Christ; the Church is a personal relationship between each of us and Jesus and through Him with each other. It was Michael Takeshita’s head that was cut off – I’d say that was personal. It was John who felt that the school forbade him from writing about and, thus, in his mind, learning about what our Church, Faith, teaches us about right and wrong, i.e., ethics. That’s personal and that is persecution; sure, it’s also anti-Catholic and against The Church – being anti-every-church is no less personal and no less anti-Catholic.

Bl. Alexius Nakamura
“Noble martyr of Japan. Alexius was a Japanese born in Figen, a member of the Ferando family. He was beheaded at Nagasaki for the faith.” It just dawned on me that in this list of companions we do not have any women (or children). There is no doubt that the martyrdom of these men also cost their wives, daughters, probably even their mothers their lives, certainly their well being. They too were martyred for the faith – their own faith, the faith of their family, their husband’s/father’s faith. As it should be. That they are not in the list of the martyred is more church political uncorrectness – and the process of canonization which is in part a way to enhance the proposeers as well as the individuals for the good of the faithful. No women Jesuits – though it may be time for the feminists in our Church who have a relationship with the Jesuits, benefactors of the Jesuits, the revisit the Order’s legacy and put forward the important, saintly women….

Bl. Anthony Kimura
“Japanese martyr. A member of a noble Japanese family, he was also related to Blessed Leonard [aka Leo] Kimura. At age twenty-three, Anthony was beheaded at Nagasaki with ten companions.”

Bl. Leo Nakanishi
“Martyr of Japan. He was a member of a Japanese noble family and was beheaded with ten companions at Nagasaki, Japan. Leo was beatified in 1867.” Maybe the ‘and companions’ were all related? The politics of seventeenth century Japan – an opportunity to wipe out an entire family using The Church as the excuse? Not so personal? One branch of the royal family gets to wipe out another branch because their politics, their faith, their power, their influence, their love for others is inconvenient? Threatening to one’s own modus vivandi? Maybe by their very existence, the lives of some potentates in the family are held up to scorn by necessary comparison and contrast?

Bl. Bartholomew Sheki
“A martyr of Japan. A member of the royal family of Firando, Japan, Bartholomew was arrested as a Christian. He was beheaded at Nagasaki. His beatification took place in 1867.”


In the midst of your persecutions – from whomever – here are some saints to ask for the grace getting into your balls…. Oro pro vobis. Ora pro nobis.


I love you
dad

Nov 26 John Berchmans b. 1599 d. 1621 bl 1865 c. 1888

John and Thommy

Good morning
I love you


[BC v. Miami, a woman doing the play by play on espn. An experiment? A very very bad idea. Even when her call is perfect; in the phrases of the football announcers everywhere, her voice is still female, and, duh, football is a guy thing, please, thank you very much. Who wants to hear a woman doing the announcing. It’s bad enough that they’re part of the sideline ‘color’ commentary. Puleeeeese!]



St. John Berchmans, S.J
3/13/1599 – 8/13/1621 bl 1865 c. 1888
Patron saint of altar boys.

We have Aloysius Gonzaga – known if only via the basketball team – and Stanislaus Kostka, the patron saint of my novitiate. And then the third young Jesuit saint, John Berchmans. I can’t tell you why he became known to me only after our saint of the day routine. I’m sure we celebrated him while we were novices; at least his feast day and the reading of his bio at dinner. How could we not have. His bio, his name, did not stick with me – learning aurally is not a strength of mine!

Twenty two years old when he died. Not much time to create biographical material, never mind elicit a biography from some one. John Berchmans was a Jesuit, thus we have plenty of original source material and bios galore, especially for such a saintly and miracle making young man. 22. I was 22 in 1971; already passed through the novitiate [like crap thru a goose?] and into my last undergrad year at BAMA [BS 1972]. You have 22 to look forward to…. Or not, we don’t know when our bell will be rung.

Diest. Brabant. Belgium. Not so far from Brussels and Louvain. Check the map. Learn a touch of geography. And then maybe tune into early seventeenth century – what was going on in our European world around 1600? It was a fulcrum year. How did the zeitgeist effect John Berchmans?

John Berchmanns was the oldest of five children. Oldest. John and I know a bit about the responsibilities of being the oldest [older] – how well we’ve carried that mantle so far; well, not so far as Mickey’s homeruns, fersure. Not only the duties but also the burdens of breaking in our parents [I digress not here….] We have the grace to play the cards we are dealt – for each tipping point in our lives, we have the opportunity to become better and closer to God or not. Those moments in life that are looked upon as contributed to a person’s success or saintliness could just as well become the point at which the person stepped away from God into a worser life. Each has its inertia. And, each single moment, every opportunity creates a new, 100% opportunity to move closer to God, family, church, community…. Self. I admit it, I have very few notes in my songs… and fewer lyrics.

John’s childhood bio describes him as a favorite with his peers, brave, open, attractive in manner as well as physique – a bright, joyful disposition. The all American, brilliant boy – well, Belgian. When his mother took ill, John Berchmans was nine. He spent hours each day with her, consoling her, sharing long and serious talks with her. John began serving Mass when he was seven – getting up early enough to serve two or three Masses in the morning. [I, like you, started serving Mass when I was ten. And served if not daily, more than once a week – we had lots of altar boys who wanted to serve Mass every day; especially when it helped us have the status of missing class every now and then. Such a pious practice on my part has not, yet, projected me into a saintly life. But it’s a foundational experience that I tap into regularly, including my continuing to serve at Mass or to attend Mass more than the weekly Sundays. All that helps. I wonder how bad I’d be without that much in my life? Kind of like the data of the effects of psychiatric inpatient treatment. Sure, the average patient isn’t much if any better six, twelve, twenty four months later; but the no treatment control groups are doing much more poorly. If it were relevant, and I suppose personally if not scientifically it is, then it would be good to see those who are doing better than those who are not and check the influence of the treatment/altar boy experiences….]
In addition to the service and education at the Canon’s home, John Berchmans attended religious instruction [kind of like a Catholic school student going to CCD on Sunday; or being part of the Teen Life Program]. We are told that John Berchmans, from his youngest years, paid close attention to the sermons at Mass – i.e., he remembered them, talked about them, assimilated them into his life. Would that we could say the same, not only with the sermons but also with the readings…. Of course, I suppose I should also acknowledge John Berchmans dedication to Mary and his recitation of the Rosary. We too? (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08450a.htm)


John Berchmans’ mother died when John was eleven. The stories readily available do not give us the details not only of her death but also the preamble to that experience for John. By the time his mother died, she had given their family five children – four younger sibs for the eleven year old John Berchmans and his father to take care of. That John Berchmans wanted to enter the seminary just could not be in the cards for this family whose income came from a shoemaker’s work. Until his mother’s illness combined with financial difficulties of the father had helped drain the family of its resources, the father found an opportunity for John Berchmans to become a servant in a Canon’s [of Diest] home, covering lots of bases – enhanced family income, one less mouth to feed at home, and education in preparation for the priesthood for John; although this also split up the family… not terribly unlike how grandpa’s childhood family was scattered from mother to grandmother to aunts – to make sure all got taken care of, each contributed to the sustenance of the family, and each survived, somehow, with family. When his mother died, John would have left his priestly training and taken on a trade to help support the family.
[There you have a question that you were not confronted with. I was not confronted with. There was a time, I’m guessing it was about 1959, when my family hit a financial rock in the road. I know it was then that my mother went back to work for a while. I know that I was out of catholic school for three years. Whatever it was, it was a family situation handled by the parents, by the spouses, together. I am sorry that you did not have a family in which marriage and family was first for both of your parents – it takes only one vote to dismantle a marriage; it takes two to create and maintain one – neither of which did you ever have. I am sorry.]

Were it not for his aunts, two nuns, who persuaded their chaplain to give John work as well as room and board John Berchmans would have become a holy shoemaker….

John Berchmans was brilliant – recognizably so from earliest childhood. Until very recently, I was proud of [I’d’ve said appreciative of] being smarter than the average bear. [I was; you are.] and being smarter than the average bear is a marvelous gift. There’s a huge gap between those blessings and being brilliant [130 IQ is smarter than the average bear but 160 is a quantum leap different and then there is brilliant in the 190s]. Still, our duty to maximize our gifts betters ourselves and makes for the 10,000 return on the talents given to us…. In addition to being a brilliant student, John Berchmans was a terrific actor. [See, he does have much in common with you. :)]
Not only was John Berchmans brilliant he also was pious – he had the discipline of faith as well as intelligence; the dedication to do what was necessary, what was demanded of his gifts to optimize them in the service of God, family, church, community, self. John asked his superiors [this alone is an important admonition for our modi vivandi – ask, especially as our superiors] …. John asked, and get this, this is the key, ‘what is the most perfect way?’ – it did not matter the what. what is the perfect way to do X? yes, perfect. Seek to be perfect even as the Father is perfect. What is the perfect thing to say? To do? To feel? To think? It is the pursuit of perfection that is at the heart of humility: the guidepost along the Way.

In 1615, John Berchmans was one of the first to enter the Jesuit College at Malines. Not only did he excel in his studies, this young man (16 y.o.) immersed himself in the Society of the Blessed Virgin. [I joined the Newman Center at BAMA; became a Knight of Columbus…. Would that I sustained any of this regularly. And I wonder how bad I would be were it not for those and other groups along the way…?] John Berchmans asks the sodality director to prescribe monthly acts of devotion to Mary. [Again, ask the leader, director, superior! First the humility of asking. Then the discernment of asking the right person.] He also prayed Mary’s Office daily. On Fridays, all Fridays, he would make the stations of the cross.

In 1616, John Berchmans became a Jesuit novice. He was 17 years old. Academically recognized as way ahead of his peers. More importantly, I suggest, was that his piety was seen by all - winning his entrance into the Society of Jesus as well as impressing his peers.
This turn of events displeased his sponsors. His father, his aunts, the canon of Diest, the priests [and their parishes] who took him in…. They had invested in him – they expected him to become a priest, even canon or bishop, and thus repay them tenfold and beyond with his service and his success – of course a successful canon was also financially secure with resources to take care of a father in his old age, subsidize the religious order of his aunts, and enrich the parishes and coffers of his mentors. John Berchmans gave them his answer – they are thus giving to God the boy that God had given to them. [That doesn’t pay the rent though….] [Not long after his mother’s death, John’s father became a priest – a lucrative profession for a respectable, holy, out of work shoemaker. Eventually, John Berchmans’ two brothers became priests.]
Like Therese of Lisieux, John Berchmans sought to be [and was we are told] perfect in the little things. “If I do not become a saint when I am young, I shall never become one.” [Not theologically sound but maybe he had a premonition? Maybe he knew he would die young?]
We have many stories about John Berchmans’ progress through his short Jesuit life – that’s the way Jesuits are. I wonder what’s in my records there?!. John Berchmans taught catechism in the area around Malines during his novitiate years. I got to teach catechism at the Berkshire Farm for Boys. We went over as ‘big brother’ types on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings. A bit of hanging out, some playing pool, and then for the Catholics there was a lesson on Wednesdays and CCD on Sunday mornings as well as Mass then. I wonder what impact we Jesuit novices had; I had? Maybe not even a drop in those boys’ hurricane racked sea of life. This brilliant young man, with all the acting talents [maybe a John Bosco type?], was liked and listened to than the ordinary sermons. The children would hardly let him go at the end of his assigned time with them; they would clamor back with him to the novitiate where he distributed holy cards, medals, and rosaries [we too gave these away, to Catholics and nonCatholics alike.].

In 1619, John Berchmans was selected to go to Rome to study – an acknowledgement that the Jesuit fathers saw something special in him. He was sent to the big house, the hq, as well as the center of our church. From Belgium to Rome was a ten week walk. …. Lots of time to be perfect in the little things. He did not disappoint his superiors in either his religious or academic development.
Before heading out, John Berchmans learned that his father had just died. In November 1968, I was told about Jimmy’s death via a message given to me by a novice to go see Fr Shanassey. He told me that my father had just called. He gave me the news. He gave me a bit of time to recover from the feeloughts that elicited tears and anger and sorrow. He told me how the Jesuits would let me go to the wake and funeral and stay a day with my family and then return to the novitiate. He then told me I had permission to call home, my parents were waiting to speak to me. I am on the edge of tears with this memory….
John performed ordinary actions with extraordinary perfection. Extraordinary because the rest of us, equally capable and blessed choose not to – some do not seek to [i.e., choose to refuse the invitation to seek perfection]. John Berchmans had an intense love for the rules of the Society of Jesus.; an intense love of obedience. I wish I knew John Berchmans when I was a novice, I would have learned so much more and better. I wish that the love of obedience, the duty of obedience, the love of the duty of obedience were passed on to you by either parent, by anyone; and I pray that you discover and embrace it soon. Me too. It is in the love of obedience, and the choosing of whom and what to obey, that we become pure and charitable. Simply put, John conformed his will to God’s in the persons of his superiors – starting first with his parents and growing up from there.
Unfortunately, you were taught that not obeying your father was acceptable, an option, a choice for you; and when you did/do disobey your mother rewards you for it. Hard to learn the love of obedience that way. Very hard to learn how to love that way. Not my will but Thy will be done…. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08450a.htm

In 1621, John Berchmans contracted a serious, contagious, and ultimately fatal disease. With his aspiration to being a martyr, he took this ‘setback’ as a step closer to his life’s purpose. If we simply start with a purpose to being closer to God, to knowloveandserveGodinthisworld, then whatever comes our way can be taken in stride, in our striding toward the Father. The priest administering the last rites asked him if he had anything on his conscience. [I pray, and St. Joseph is a patron saint of this prayer, that I and you will have the opportunity of a holy death, a death preceded by the sacraments’ cracking open the gates of heaven for us.] John Berchmans could answer “nothing at all.” If we’re prudent in our pursuit of perfection, then we’ll be able to keep that list short. I was doing an examination of conscience earlier today in prep for confession later – the list is short, but it covers a short period; and it’s too redundant with previous lists. Ora pro me.
During his brief [adult lifetime] journey as a Jesuit, John Berchmans left nothing that he did to chance. John dedicated himself to Mary, his heavenly mother – and, I bet, he saw his own mother as an exemplar of Mary. Dedicated to your parents is a proxy, maybe even a sine qua non, for dedication to God. And, as in intermediary, and intercessor, dedication to Mary or any or several of the saints, there is a personified reason, motive, dedication, passion to do what it is that you do. Why do you do anything that you do? For John Berchmans it was to please Mary and to serve Jesus. Take a stretch here with me. Maybe you have a vocation to be married. If so, I pray that you discern not only your vocation correctly but also the identity of your spouse. One essential purpose for anything you do in marriage must be your dedication to your wife, an exemplar of Mary. You must dedicate yourself to your wife, not your self, to the marriage, the sacrament, your personal personification of the love of Jesus for us all, especially His Church. Without such direct, explicit, persistent, loving dedication as the purpose of everything you do then your marriage in not likely to be sacramentally successful. In this way, your devotion to your wife and the blessings of your marriage will increase every day.

John Berchmans was canonized on the same day as Alphonsus Rodriquez and Peter Claver.

In October 1866, in Grand Coteau, Louisiana, just north of Lafayette, in the bayou country, we had one of the miracles that contributed to the canonization of John Berchmans. Mary Wilson, a Canadian Presbyterian, was baptized by the Jesuits in 1862 when she was 16. Four years later, rejected by her own family, she joined the Sacred Heart nuns. On the day before she was to receive her habit, she became deathly ill. Now here’s a weird story. After receiving the last rights, she prayed to John Berchmans for either a cure or the acceptance of her illness – I wonder how John Berchmans was known to her in Grand Coteau, LA?! Then she placed a holy card of John Berchmans on her tongue. At once, she felt a finger on her tongue. She confirmed with the vision that he was John Berchmans, who said he was sent by God to tell her that she was cured. http://www.stthomasirondequoit.com/SaintsAlive/id789.htm Grand Coteau, LA?! A Canadian Presbyterian. You put the pieces together….

I love you
dad

Nov 24 Kenan d. 500

Thommy and John

Good morning
I love you


St Kenan [Cianan]. d. 500

Follow the bouncing relatives – related by blood and in faith. Conchessa. She the Gallic mother of St. Patrick (387 – 493). Conchessa was a close relative of Martin of Tours. St. Kenan we are told was a disciple of Martin of Tours with Patrick. Imagine what dinner around that table was like? ! .

Kenan wound up as Bishop of Duleek in Meath, where he left us a stone cathedral.

And all the rest of the details I’ll leave for you to search – you’ll have to go past the first four google pages….

Just what language did Kenan speak? Probably some Latin? Gallic? Gaelic?

What kind of persona did he have to hold his own with Patrick and Martin? Or, what was necessary for him to absorb what Martin had to offer and bring it to enough other people to be selected their bishop?

How did Kenan get the idea to build the cathedral in Duleek out of stone?

It does matter whom God gives you for parents and parents’ relatives are His gifts to you as well. Who woulda thunk it that Conchessa’s being related to Martin would matter so much…. And to be cut off from all these relatives whom God has given you - - what, pray tell, is this costing you and us and our posterity….?

I love you
dad

Nov 24 colman b. 555 d. 611

Thommy and John,
Good morning
I love you.

St Coleman of Cloyne, County Cork, Ireland
b. 555? d. 611?
Cloyne is about 20 miles east south east from cork south off of the highway to Youghal.

[insert map of ireland here]


St. Colman of Cloyne
Feastday: November 24

I didn’t know where Cloyne is, thus the map. Not such a big place, as this map shows by not showing it. Not even a port on the bay….

Born in Munster. Omnes Gallus in tres partes. And Ireland is in four parts; Munster being the southern province. Caesar’s writings was part of my sophomore year of latin – and revisited in the novitiate. Not so hard to read in latin; and eloquent even in murky English translations….

Colman was a poet. So very Irish. It would be something else to have his and his contemporaries’ poetry extant today. But ours is much an oral tradition. And Colman pursued his vocation to the top of the hierarchy, becoming the royal bard of Cashel; which is about ten miles east north east of the city of Tipperary. In the tradition of Celtic bards, Colman must have been a wandering minstrel who developed his reputation on the road and won reputation then favor with the king of Cashel.

It’s said that St Brendan baptized Colman. Best bet, when Brendan had converted the king of Cashel, the good bard, then fifty years old, was also converted and baptized. And as the Irish do, Colman jumped into the new religion, the new faith, the assimilated way of life, with the zest and passion of, well, the royal bard of Cashel! As the bard, he was the story teller, seanachae [ok, the spelling’s wrong], thus then the preacher and of course the priest for these people. Following your vocation includes immersing yourself in your entire being. The baptismal vows are integral to who we are and our expectations of how to do what we do – for ourselves but more importantly for our family, clan, community, church…. That Colman was fifty when he was baptized, when he fully assimilated the faith into his life means that you may have plenty of time, and infinite opportunities to regain your stance….

Colman, so the story goes, was St Columba’s teacher. We are known by whom God gives us as parents and mentors as well as how we, to whom we, pass it all forward, never mind how we give it all back. Colman is a synapse from Brendan to Columba – and if he did no more than that he’d be a saint. As poet, bard, priest, and teacher Colman did so much more.

Colman was the first bishop of Cloyne. You figure out how he got from Cashel to Cloyne – a long walk, even today a goodly drive. Following his vocation is the short answer. When we stand at a particular point in our journey, a point on our trajectory, it appears to be so obvious how we got there. And how everyone in our life at that moment was there as well. However, back up just a smidgen and try to predict how that moment came into being, it makes for the essence of the story. How did you get to where you are at this moment? And how did everyone else get to be in the picture relative to you? And, just imagine how one better decision [or worse?] by you or anyone else in the picture would have brought you closer to God at this moment than you are? Purpose, to knowloveandserveGodinthislifeandbewithhimforeverinheaven. It’s one word in my Baltimore catechism memory [memorization].

And then there was this morning’s breakfast reading – and feeloughts sans your presence….

Mark Mangino. KU football coach. One heckuva story. And as I was reading the story, the story I read was the one about Mrs Mangino, or, better, about the marriage of mr and mrs mangino. How they are living their vows, their sacramental oneness. The story gives lots of credit to the values of the old neighborhood. Maybe so. But more maybe so is the essence of the faith, the sacrament, the living waters of their witness. Or so I want to believe – for my own hope [maybe I will find a wife for whom I will be a worthy husband: moreso my hope for my sons to find such a wife, to give a husbandly self, to live such a marriage. I am sorry I did not give you anything like this.

On tv this morning I was surfing channels and there was this super sophisticated conversation between a 12 y.o. boy and his divorced model-looking mother, in their very upper middle class living room. A sermon on modern family? The topic was that the mother’s man about whom she professed her deepest love. The man was going to move in with them, with her, in her bed. She made a point that he would keep his place and if it did not work out then he would move back to his place and she and her son would have the relationship they had before. Then the coup de grace, the selling point – the mother said that she loved this man and wanted to have a husband again and that this was the man she thought was the one BUT no matter what happened with this man that her son was the number one love in her life and that he was more important to her than anyone else in her life, now or forever.

Sounds compelling. And it is a truly modern morality scene. A scene of devastating immorality. That it is presented so matter of factly, so genuinely, so persuasively, is a sign of how far we have gone down this immoral and anti-Catholic and fractionating family/community/society road….

First the divorce – and the prelude to the sermon about the goodness of the experimental living together was about how the son had assimilated the mother’s portrayal of the father/husband [no mention of annulment, thus still husband and always father] as the evil doer of the unforgivable acts. [and maybe the guy is a shit, so one would say about Monica’s husband….] what is the indoctrination of the son? Qua husband? More importantly, about marriage – how to discern the choosing of vocation of marriage, the selection of wife, the way to be husband, how to be spouse – especially that the ‘til death do us part’ is not true, valid, to be kept promise/vow/covenant/sacrament. And what does it say about the responsibility of one parent to foster the relationship of the child with the other parent? Not to mention the duty of the parents qua spouses to their God given gifts of children?

Then, the rationale that it is the ‘best interest of the child’ that is the more important criterion, that is the essential point of all ‘this’. Sorry, wrong. Actually, not sorry – it’s very wrong. The foundational priority is the marriage. And without that, every action toward spouse and children is going down the wrong road. It is not about me. It is not about, for sure, the preeminence of the child above all others, above all else, even ahead of the parents’ the spouses’ self.
Practically, after divorce, the parent, especially the mother, who puts the child ahead of the husband, and, of course, the self ahead of both the child and the husband, has set in motion dysfunction in both parenting and marriage.

In the scene from the tv, there’s no reason to mention the immorality of the shacking up, the message that living together is a parentally endorsed lifestyle, or how great an idea that no commitment is….

But I digress. Or not. How more important a message that we could, should, be talking about?

The editorial in the Times about ‘modern travelers.’ I was talking the other night with our floor man at the hospital – about flying. There is no more fun in traveling by air – unless you’re a pilot and don’t have to take off your shoes to go thru the screeners. I find traveling by air degrading, insulting, and no fun whatsoever. I do admit that once past the “security” screeners and in the southwest seating area, and especially once on their plane, that southwest provides the closest thing to an enjoyable travel experience. Get in the southwest groove and it’s actually an ok experience.

Yesterday’s Journal. Stem Cell Breakthrough op ed piece. “patient specific pluripotent stem cells” … “embryonic stem cells” (can only be obtained by destroying human embryos) … the op ed piece suggests that the moral and ethical and political confrontations engendered by ESCs could be resolved scientifically. There would be no ends justify the means quandary if science could produce induced pluripotent state cells (iPSCs). Sorry, you don’t get off that easily. The moral, ethical, religious, faith principles require the same engagement even if we started with iPSCs and never had the ESCs at the beginning. Having a practical way to avoid debating [even within yourself] the necessary fundamental principles of faith does not negate the fundamental principles.

Also in the paper this holiday weekend was an article about a state supreme court, Texas I believe, that upheld the state law that makes is a double homicide for killing a woman and her fetus, regardless of the age of the fetus. The same state, as all others for the moment under Roe v. Wade, explicitly says it is not a crime to terminate the life of that same fetus so long as it is the mother’s choice [regardless of the father’s or the fetus’s desire, principles etc.]. So, we admit, when we [yes, we. We are each and all culpable] kill a fetus, a person in utero, that is exactly what we are doing. Whether we decide to make such an act criminal or not does not depend on the act itself or any principle of life, but it is a political decision about whether or not we wish to give societal permission to the mother to kill her child or not [well, so long as the child is in utero.]. The debate, no matter how much we inject principle, faith, right and wrong, is about legal or illegal. One rationale to make abortion legal is that we [not sure whom we is in this case] refuse to inject religion, faith, our beliefs about right and wrong and truth. So long as we keep that out of the conversation, we can make anything legal. [Nevada proved that for us quite some time ago.]

Now, back to the saints, for a while. See all this on the blog too or instead.

I love you
dad

Nov 23 Columban b. 559 d. 615

John and Thommy
Good morning
I love you
[1149 pm thanksgiving eve….]

St. Columban


An Irish saint, who became a FBI for his service to God, kings, and the people whom he touched. It was the essence of his culture, his collective unconscious, his Irishness, and his faith by which he was identified, to which he returned over and over in his daily discipline and throughout his many challenges – for doing right and good, for God, church, community, and self..

Columban was born about 559, about sixty years plus after St Patrick died. He comes from a good family who ensured that he had a classical education. I would say as I look upon the Nolan-Gavin couple, that I come from a good family who did their best to see that I got the best Catholic education available – St Patrick’s in Albany, Sacred Heart (Sisters of Mercy) then Cheverus (Jesuits) in Portland, and Molloy (Marist brothers) in NYC. Unfortunately, you were not born to a good family – your parents were not joined in marriage nor did your parents embrace pater materque; nor did you receive the education that was available to you by your parentage – neither did you get classical nor Catholic [beyond eighth grade you did not have Catholic in school; from 1994 on you only got Catholic education in the classroom and in half of your homes. I am sorry.

Columban resolved early to live an ascetic life. In junior high, I conferred with our curate at St Patrick’s about junior seminary. He saw my desire as more running away instead of seeking service as a clergy. Maybe he was right. Running away from the fighting at home; running away from my fat self, too? Maybe. But I sustained my discernment, imbued with the Ignatian spirituality and not only persuaded myself but the priests of the Society that I did have a vocation. By the middle of my junior year, I was headed for the novitiate. It was an easy excuse, never once concurred in by my Jesuit advisors, to avoid girls and dating – being fat and debilitatingly shy. Columban was distracted by the vivaciousness of the Irish lasses. He immersed himself into his studies - but do you think that grammar, rhetoric, geometry would conquer the offerings available to him in the Irish maidens? Columban consulted an old woman recluse who “warned him that if he wished to maintain his purpose of self-conquest he must fly to a region where girls are less beautiful and seductive than Ireland. "Save thyself, young man, and fly!" “ (Catholic online) It was not girls or the vow of chastity that dissuaded me from following a vocation in the Jesuits. I have said all along it was my inability to adhere to the vow of obedience, an essential vow for a religious, more important for a Jesuit. Maybe, however, it was a more fundamental flaw in myself – an unwillingness to persist beyond first impressions, to be less than perfect in the eyes of those around me. After a little while, about a year and a half at Shadowbrook, I had certainly revealed some of my faults and flaws and had committed my share of indiscretions and antisocial offenses not to mention the failures of spirituality….

Over his mother’s protestations, Columban went to Lough Erne then on to Bangor in Northern Ireland. My mother did not object to my wanting to be a priest. No one in my entire family objected. I don’t remember any resounding support, either. If that’s what you want, then you should do it, was the closest to what I remember as encouragement. So always on my own….

So why didn’t Columban stay in Bangor under Congall? Columban tells us about his calling – hearing the voice that called Abraham to ‘go out of you own country, and from your father’s house, into a land that I will show you.’ The Irish monk was inherently a missionary. With the gift of gab, he was also a passionate preacher. And Columban heard the calling so incessantly that his abbot was not able to dissuade him.

In about 589, Columban and twelve other monks went to Gaul. Now get this picture. An Irish monk, passionate in faith, ascetic in self discipline, a tornado of righteousness. He encounters the Catholicism of sixth century Gaul – war ravaged and lacking in virtue, ecclesiastical discipline, and a hierarchy who neglected orthodoxy and their responsibilities. Columban and his mobile community lived and preached humility and charity. They also had a unique way of keeping one another on the straight and narrow without a harsh word among themselves. If one of them lapsed at all, his confreres would beat the crap out of him.

King Gontram of Burgandy was delighted by Columban and his community. He gave them an ancient Roman castle where they lived in stark austerity – eating the bark of trees, wild herbs, and whatever gifts the people around would give them. Like St Francis later, Columban was able to commune with the beasts and critters of the forest, who would do whatever he told them. He even persuaded a bear to give up his cave to Columban, who used it as his cell.

King Gontram provided Columban with the larger castle of Luxeuil when his community grew. In the midst of the castle’s Roman baths, the monks established their ascetic community. Columban and his monks attracted several hundreds of disciples who built three monasteries under his governance. The nobles brought their sons to him, they lavishly supported their work, and many joined him in their ecclesiastical and charitable works. The community so large and the faith so strong and their prayer so essential to their lives, Columban organized the Laus Perennis – a perpetual prayer by the monks.

Everyone worked the farms – hard physical work was an ingredient of their spiritual efforts. One rule was for the monks to go to rest so tired that he was ready to fall asleep on the way to bed; and then get up before he had slept off his weariness.
For twenty years Columban established and expanded his monasteries – and his influence and his audacity. He sent epistles to bishops and reminded them of their duties. Writing is an Irish gift – I cry each time I realize how your mother’s obstinacy and lack of skills and her keeping you away from me have prevented your receiving this talent too. Writing as a gadfly is also an Irish legacy. Letters. Letters to the editor. Even a brief period as columnist in the Tennessee Register. Now blogger and letter writer to you. Of course, the Gallo-Frank clergy did not take kindly to the Celtic peculiarities of tonsure, costume, and the observance of Easter, not to mention the public admonitions of this foreigner with the swelling following. No one takes kindly to anyone who writes and publishes a critique of them. And the response is usually ad hominem – like by the Dominican sisters, father Johnston, Bishop Kmiec, John Sieganthaler, not to mention your mother, too.

Not unlike today, even the slightest ecclesiastical peculiarity was treated as a monstrous heresy. In your being put into the anti-Catholic GDS, your peculiarities were your Catholicism, which were systematically punished by every mechanism available to the private school and the forces of peer groups, all reinforced at 2502, the source of your placement. Columban offers us an example of why and how not to succumb to the pressures of homogeneity, especially when the ingredients of the mixture are fiercely anti-Catholic. The Gallic bishops examined his conduct – to get him back in line, to abandon his eccentricities. Columban wrote to the bishops and the Pope, e.g., “perhaps it may not be an excess of presumption if I suggest that many men follow the broad way, and that it is better to encourage those who follow the narrow way that leads to life than to throw stumbling blocks in their path." (Catholic online) Columban persisted on his righteous trail. The bishops were still offended and remained against him but took no further action.

Columban’s greater and more wicked opponent was Brunehild, queen-dowager, grandmother of Theodebert, king of Austrasia, and Thierry, king of Burgundy. Brunhild held the reign of power in her grandson’s kingdoms by diverting their interests into sensual pleasures. The Austrasian nobles persuaded Theodebert to banish her. She was then warmly received by Thierry, whom she kept unmarried and without legitimate heir [although he had four sons]. She had the bishop of Vienne, who encouraged Thierry to marry, killed.

In the midst of this confluence of mishagosh, Thierry had religious instincts. As do you! He took pride in having a holy man of such stature as Columban in his kingdom. He visited the monk often – and Columban unhesitatingly admonished the king to marry, to get his house, his life, his kingdom in order. Columban thus earned the perpetual enmity of Brunehild. She tried to isolate him and his followers in their monasteries and forbade others from giving them gifts. Columban appealed to Thierry who removed the bans. Columban also continued to appeal to Theodoric to straighten out his life, threatening to keep him from communion. This infuriated Thierry and Brunehild, for obvious reasons; it also incensed the bishops who were angry at this use of the sacrament. This started a sequence of detentions and threats to Columban’s rule at the monasteries.

In 610, banished Columban and the Irish monks who had accompanied him back to Ireland. Put on a ship at Nantes, the vessel was left stranded on the banks at the mouth of the river. The sailors refused to go to sea with the monks on board. Columban and his monks stayed at Nantes. He wrote to his monks at Luxeuil to obey the abbot he left in charge and if they felt pressured by Rome to adhere to their Easter calendar, they were to leave and join him rather than accept the Roman computation.

Columban, after sixty years of effort in vain to reform kings and nations who called themselves Catholic/Christian, he resolved to do mission work among the non-Christians. He led his monks across Lake Zurich to Tuggen. Columban burst the huge vat of beer, the offering to the God Woden. One of his companions set the temples in Tuggen on fire and threw their idols into the lake. Not an auspicious beginning. They fled for their lives. They regrouped at Bregentz. Again they threw idols into the lake but the native people were stubborn in their opposition to Columban’s preaching.

Columban went to see King Theodebert, who was still at war with Thierry. Columban recognized the overwhelming power of Thierry and advised Theodebert to abandon the war and take refuge in the monastery. Theodebert laughed at Columban. But, the battle of Tolbiac ended Theodebert’s reign. Thierry and Brunehild annexed the whole of Austrasia. This made it unsafe for Columban to stay in Bregentz so he crossed the Alps and sought refuge with the king of the Lombards.

In 612, Columban arrived in Milan. From there he wrote against the Arian heresy which the Lombards had accepted. Columban’s writing becomes effusive in his impetuousness, railing on behalf of many worthy causes and reverting to admonishing ecclesiastical leaders, including the Pope, to lead by example or loose their credibility.
Columban acknowledges Rome as the head of all Churches, with a caveat for Jerusalems prerogatives.
He tells Boniface that the Irish are orthodox, adhering to the apostolic tradition. “I speak to you not as a stranger, but as a disciple, as a friend, as a servant. I speak freely to our masters, to the pilots of the vessel of the Church, and I say to them, Watch! and despise not the humble advice of the stranger....Pardon me if swimming among the rocks, I have said words offensive to pious ears. The native liberty of my race has given me this boldness. With us it is not the person, it is the right, which prevails.” (Catholic online)
Columban founded a monastery in Bobbio, between Genoa and Milan. When Clothair II defeated Thierry and became king of Austrasia, Burgandy, and Neustria, he sent for Columban to return to Luxeuil. The old monk declined but sent the new king a long letter filled with advice.

Columban died on November 21, 615, at the age of 72. Many miracles occurred at his tomb.

[To whom do you listen for right and good? Especially when this story shows that even your grandmother could be the source and sustainer of an evil zeitgeist….]

I love you,
dad

[0135 thnxgiving]

Father's day 2007

Thommy and John

good morning
i love you

thank you for this Father's Day (weekend).... [and thanksgiving eve] [2007]

as i traveled to our GSO base to be with y'all for Father's Day, i read the recent OSV - and the article about Church Fathers - two of whom come up for feasts soon - Cyril and Irenaeus

and as i prayed before Mass at OLG saturday morning, i scanned the upcoming calendar - and we have some biggies coming our way - not to mention, yet, the plethera of Johns and Thomases and the Irish and jesuits -

Sacred Heart of Jesus
Immaculate Heart of Mary
21 Aloysius Gonzaga
24 Birthday of John the Baptist
[today's 11th Sunday of ordinary time is sandwiched between that and Corpus Chriti - Father's Day in USA, a secular holiday worthy of being a holyday -- so, as i meditate upon the confluence of feasts and holidays, randomly put into proximity of one another, i take advantage of the circumstance given to us to celebrate and meditate and write.... ]
27 Cyril
28 Irenaeus
28 vigil of Peter and Paul
29 Peter and Paul
3 Thomas the Apostle

and, of course, for Father's Day
Joseph
Joseph and Mary - Holy Family; the necessity of pater materque for fatherliness (and motherliness)

and the secret of a father's love, your father's love, The Father's Love
a father's love is forever - - no matter what!
hearing that song for the first time the three of us riding around in the mustang with the top down!

Joseph qua Pater. - inseparable from the Son as well as the mother; Jesus and Mary -
each has a responsibility to the father to optimize his fatherliness as well as reap the benefits of God's having given the father to them....

[your mother and i had our wedding ceremony on May the oneth - feast of St Joseph the Worker... not only is Joseph my confirmation patron, he's the middle name for Uncle Ken and Grandpa.... Joseph has been an important person for me since i could not spell Christopher and substituted Joseph [i wanted Christopher because we traveled so much... Joseph traveled for his family even more, it seems....]

Joseph became a father by the grace and gift and miracle of God....
i became a father the same way - tho with the added privilege of the physicality of it all....

in 1982 your mother and i agreed that we would wait for children - and God went along with that plan.

in the fall of 1986, she and i agreed to be open to children - and God went along with that, too!

Joseph probably expected to have many children with Mary . [i did not have a preconceived number - your mother and i agreed to yes, eventually, before she was 40....] imagine his shock when he discovered her with child - i was shocked with happiness and thanksgiving when i heard - i'm guessing that Joseph's shock was more like helpless fury and deepest disappointment...

then God sent him a messenger. and Joseph accepted God's gift and the grace to care for the child. you were each a gift and Deo Gratias that your parents got the grace to take care of you [albeit sans pater materque - to your and each of ours great loss]

the joy of pregnancy is immeasurable - the bond between mother and father, the reaching out to the child - feeling, hearing, even seeing the lil black spot... remember,. a pregnant woman is NOT fat! she's pregnant. and beautiful! this is another time to give yourself totally to your spouse ....

the child is born and angels, shepherds, and magi come to sing praise to the boy! well, we didn't have any magi, but we did have angels and coworkers and family and friends come from far and wide, near and close to visit the child, sing the child's praises, congratulate the parents, and give thanks to God for the health of the child, the wonder of the gift.

the scene in the temple, with simeon. Joseph assured the proper sacrifice. he listened to anna and simeon - they addressed themselves to the mother, as people are still want to do - and committed these things to his heart as well. the father's heart is not given its proper due - from family, church, or community; you'll see.

Joseph took the child and mother to egypt.... we headed off to nyc, in december, for y'all's baptisms.
[I could digress into regrets, e.g., who was the we, white man? Joseph had a dream, he told his wife of the angel’s message, and they bundled up the baby and hit the road for the certainty of discernment of right but the fearfilled uncertainty of what lie before them. Faith – in their love, i.e., commitment to one another, now and forever, no matter what, and in God’s favor – was at the core of their journey. And essential core. A missing component for your mother and me, not at the core, not in the periphery, nowhere to be found. C’est domage. I am so sorry! In May 1982 we did not have a we; a false vow, a sacrilegious ceremony. We did not have the fundamental marriage from the beginning [thus the annulment coming within days of the application]. In hindsight, I wonder if there were any “we”, any agreement, anything but deception, including “agreeing” with fingers crossed, with the self claimed prerogative to withdraw the agreement, to renege on the agreement at any time for any reason. That’s not love. That’s not marriage. And, without both of those, don’t go needing a baby carriage…. I dreadfully, regretfully, apologetically, made the mistake that k i s s i n g in a tree led to love and marriage. Wrong! My mistake. Our paying for it forever. I am sorry.]

After the trip to Egypt, another angel let them [that’d be the husband-and-wife, regardless of who was the recipient of the dream, visit from the angel, the discernment. Coming to one meant coming to them both; they, together, received and decided and did, always together…. And, Jesus was their son, he did what his parents expected of him. [unfortunately in your case your parents had mutually exclusive expectations – one of your parents actually believes it is alright for you to disobey another of your parents; not only alright but something for her to reward you for, to defend you for. Imagine, one parent positioning herself in between a child and his father?!. And, with mutually exclusive expectations, you are left to discern where right and good reside. I am sorry you have so far been forced to, have opted to make so many wrong choices, engage in so many errors of commission and omission. You are the Augustine to my Monica?], the angel let them know it was safe to return home.

Joseph and Mary had a home. Joseph Maryque came from the same town, the same faith, the same broadly defined family – see Fiddler on the Roof. Your mother and I do not have and apparently never made ourselves a home – neither in city or place. She from Montgomery. Me from NYC. She from a potpourri of religions. Me Catholic. She from a myriad of bloodlines. Me Irish [one of her lines]. In 1981, she and I were dating, even talking about marriage. I was at UAB and helping her finish her dissertation in Tuscaloosa. And she was applying to jobs in Boston – how did that fit her stated desire to marry me; her explicit proposal, will you marry me? [I said I’d not consider the question until she decided where she was going to work/live; my marrying someone who lived in Boston while I was in Birmingham did not make much sense to me.] She chose [her only option?] UAB and then I accepted her proposal: when? She answered soon. That was February. We had a wedding May 1th.

Birmingham became our first ‘home’. A place for us to live together, own a condo together, work for the same university even. Each of us in our separate worlds, including religion; but having the same condo, the same bed, and rings on our fingers.

We agreed on my pursuing opportunities with hospital companies. HSA offered me a hospital in Covington with an interim before then in Auburn Hills. We agreed on the plan; with your mother staying at UAB then pursuing a position in New Orleans.

She went to Tulane and I was with HSA and then HCA. It was the fall of 1986 that your mother and I agreed that we would be open to children. The torturous conflicts about birth control before then. The negotiating, incredibly, about how we would raise our child(ren – no agreement on plural, she said none after 40), how we would accommodate our careers and parenting - our absence of a home base, a common birthright, a similar faith, a comparable upbringing made everything important a negotiation, even a win-lose encounter. Everything important, down to the name of our child. Your mother denies some of the essential agreements we made before accepting openness to pregnancy. I regret our not putting them into writing.

In late 1985, I was offered a ‘dream job’ at the Vanderbilt child and adolescent psych hospital. And at about the same time, just as we were deciding about my accepting the offer or not, she announced our pregnancy. I could stay in New Orleans. No, she agreed to the move to Nashville. She, though, would stay at Tulane until June 1987, six months after I started at VCAPH. She agreed to come to Nashville for house hunting and visiting and moving our us along. [whenever I write ‘she agreed’ there is the caveat of what she meant by “agree”.]

We celebrated father’s day 1987 with ‘spot’, aka ‘blackey’, by then we knew you were a boy and thus John Kenneth, Jack to us, in utero. Twenty father’s days – each with a story for each of us – for me as father and son, for you, still, yes?, as son. That’s almost a book – Twenty days as father….

In September 1987 your mother was 37. It took us almost a year – again with painful engagements about birth control and, now, too, abortion (she would not agree not to abort a pregnancy; I would not therefore risk a pregnancy. Imagine how that unfucksup a relationship!). – before we agreed on having another child. Your mother denies the parenting/work agreements we reiterated with this agreement. I am sorry about that – and even more sorry we did not put them into writing; some people believe only if written and notarized. That is one of the costs of living outside the common ground of home, family, faith, place and people. I pray that you do not continue to live in that realm.

We celebrated father’s day 1989 with both Jack and Thommy! Gloria tibi, Domine!

I keep wishing for the parallels with the holy family. We, I am sorry for us to say, were not very close to that model. We were not on the same page about faith foundations that would inform decisions about spouse or parents or children. And even in our ‘agreements’ there was not the concurrence of living that was agreed to. So you got a father and a mother, not pater materque, not ‘parents’, and we continue to pay dearly for all that.

And yet, on thanksgiving eve, still writing on the father’s day blog started in June, I am first and foremost thankful for the gift of sons. And the blessings God bestows on me in his gift of you to me and me to you. Ora pro nobis.

I love you
dad