December 27 John the Apostle

John,

Good morning
I love you
Merry Christmas
Happy Birthday

That’s a mouthful.

I hope your Christmas day was full of good tidings and cheer – lots of dad feeloughts, too. Keep the twelve days of Christmas in your heart over the holidays, across the new year demarcation, and through the Epiphany. [Even the Greensboro paper explained how it was the Epiphany we celebrated long before “Christ’s Mass” day got to be a feast; and both of those stand behind Easter and Pentecost in Church holy days.] May the spirit of the Christ child infuse you daily.

And, yes, birthday. Baptism day, 1987. We didn’t plan your baptism day for the same day as John’s feast. It was the day we could put together St. Elizabeth of Hungry church and Kevin O’Connell, SJ, and a family trip to the City. It was a coming together of great joy for our tiny family within our Nolan clan. [Only your godmother on your mother’s side attended, and she missed the ceremony.]

We named you before your conception. A boy would be John Kenneth, after our fathers, your grandfathers. I’m sorry you didn’t get to know John Ed. And, I have believed that if he were to have lived past 1995, it would have been less likely that your mother would have divorced your father – but he didn’t and she did. I am sorry for that, too. I’ve asked JT to fill you in on your grandfather – the experience of the man was very different by the men in the family than by the women. Assuming that you’re a man, you’ll want to drain JT of all his memories about your grandfather.

John the Apostle and John the Baptist became your patrons in kindergarten. Sr. Luke raised them up for you at this season of their special feasts. She also explained to you that your real name was John, not Jack. [I wish I hadn’t urealed your Jack at home, regardless of what Sister said or you preferred at the moment. A bad precedent was set. Regardless, Jack or John, John the Apostle is your patron saint. Still and forever. I’ve leaving all of the Catholic on line and the on online Catholic encyclopedia entries in the letter to make it easier for you to renew your acquaintance….]



John the Evangelist/Apostle
December 27


Maybe we should have taken a hint from the gospels and named Thommy ‘James’. It’s always James and John in the gospel. I half considered James for Thommy but that was too close to the heart of my brother James Anthony.

John, the son of Zebedee and Salome, and the brother of James. Here we are two thousand years later and the usual starting point of presenting John is to give you his parents. Usually, “the sons of Zebedee”. You, too, are forever, the son of William and Johannah. You and Thommy are the sons of William….

Like John and James, you and Thommy are the world’s best brothers – and that’s not only genetic and not by accident. Don’t ever do anything but enhance that tie with Thom.

How does Jesus enter John’s life? Your life? John, a disciple of the Baptist, thus primed to recognize and respond to the Messiah when he arrived, was doing his usual thing – wrapping us a day’s fishing – when Jesus came along. What put the two of them together? Chance? God’s plan? Jesus’ choice? You were born into an Irish Catholic family and brought by your parents to the baptismal font that brought your father and uncle sacramentally into the church, affirming the familial presentation that was made with your conception.

John, the one, he claimed, whom Jesus loved the most, had several unique experiences with our Lord. Fr. Scherer says that Jesus loves him best. He knows that to be true because Jesus loves everyone best. Amen to that. Jesus loves you best. I love you best, too. [I also love Thommy best.] What is the obligation of one so infinitely loved? How do you respond to the ones who love you? Love you no matter what. Love you forever.

John was with Peter and James for the raising of Jairus’s daughter; at the Transfiguration; praying [dozing] with Jesus in Gethsemane. It was John who went with Peter to make preparation for the last supper. We generally it was John who hung with Peter as they followed Christ after the arrest into the palace of the high priest.

John, alone of the Apostles, remained at the foot of the Cross on Calvary, with Mary. Talk about ‘stand by your man’!

John, at Jesus’ dying request, too Mary into his care.

After the resurrection, John and Peter were the first disciples to rush to the grave.

John was the first Apostle to believe that Jesus had truly risen (John 20:2-10).

With your patron, where do you stand? How do you display your faith? Your loyalty? Your response to being so loved?

After Pentecost, John was a lead player with Peter in founding and guiding our Church. With whom do you stand in the sustaining of our Church. How do you contribute to the health and growth of the Body of Christ? John’s life offers you guidance.

In Acts. John was with Peter at the healing of the lame man in the temple. John was also thrown into prison with Peter because of our faith, our religion, our Church. The prison of freedom of faith. How imprisoned by non- and anti-Catholics do you feel? John went with Peter to solidify the faith of the newly converted in Samaria. By exhibiting and proclaiming their experiences in faith, the witness to the faith infused in baptism and sealed with the fire of the Holy Spirit (for them that was Jerusalem; for you, it was Nashville).

John spread the seed of faith throughout Palestine for about a dozen years, until the persecution of Herod Agrippa. John went, apparently, first to Asia Minor. He was at the Apostolic Council in 51 Anno Domini. By tradition, we have John in Ephesus, Asia Minor. The Roman historian Tertullian has John thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil at the Porta Latina – without harm! John returned to Ephesus where he died, the only Apostle not martyred, about 100 A.D.

John’s constant mantra in the last years of his very long life: “little children, love one another.” Something, I suggest, you might try on yourself each morning in the mirror.

Not so little son, love ….

I love you
Dad


C: Thommy

Decenber 13 Lucy

Thom and John

Good morning
I love you

12-13-08. An ordinary Saturday, less than 3 weeks to Christmas. Up and out to OLG’s 8 o’clock Mass. There’s a larger group there for advent – not quite as many as come during lent. With no other Saturday morning Mass in the city, Fr Mendes has an exclusive draw. There’s no coming for the sermon or any music – it’s the Mass per se, Eucharist, the Word and the transubstantiation, the communion of faithful. In the gothic church, after six years I’m still perusing the windows, the stations, the side altars, the ceiling – the architect of this church gave us plenty to help us get to God.

Not unlike spx [and most places] olg’s cast of Saturday morning characters are the same from week to week. The same lector. The same deacon. One of two priests [there’s been more change in priests in six years than the other roles.]. The same extraordinary ministers of communion. And, I suppose, pretty much the same people in the same pews in the church. A stylized minuet. It’s the only game in town on Saturday morning. The pastors these six years are holy men whose heart and words and presence are gracefilled and grace transmitting – tho neither is a noteworthy homilist. The usual deacon [>95/100 times] has no human or preaching appeal. Even his words are rarely enlightening or enriching. [but what do I know – I certainly don’t know the man.]

The church, ah yes, the church, even after six years, maybe 200 Masses, still has something more to catch my eye, to touch my heart, to direct my prayer, to add a touch to my meditations – and lets me light a candle [a good segue for St. Lucy, a saint of light].

And after Mass. A drive to Tex and Shirley’s. not unlike a breakfast Cheers for me. The usual country ham and eggs. One of the usual servers. Usually a recognized customer or two. An hour to eat, be served, read the paper – unrushed, even by those standing in line.

This morning I’m going to catch up on writing y’all. This afternoon, I’ll finish wrapping boxes. That’ll be a full enough Saturday, ya think? I have boxes and boxes to reorganize and repack – for y’all and others. Lots of stories wanting to be told, preferably orally but writing will have to be okay. I’ll probably go to tonight’s Mass in the spx gym – for the music and the homilist. Plus, it gives me all of tomorrow; I’ll not go to St Paul’s ‘youth mass’ because it’s Fr Bill’s turn….

Yesterday, I round tripped Raleigh. The Disability Rights board met. Maybe I’ll be an advocate down the home stretch. I’ve decided, I’m definitely going down the home stretch. I’m almost closer to 60 than 59. Maybe I shouldn’t think that 59’s been enough. When I think of the things I’m considering to do for the next ten years [whether work or volunteer], there is a terrific lots to do. When I was on the treadmill yesterday evening, doing my 5 miles [a golf course of say 7,000 yards, is 21,000 feet, that’d be 4+ miles of walking, thus my treadmill requirement], there was a twenty something guy doing his strength and conditioning exercises – with a body to prove his genes plus persistence work just fine. Me, I’ve got neither the genes or the exercise persistence to have the body I fantasize about – brief whimsies so as not to waste time on the fruitless.

I heard this morning on a health program that I have the perfect storm to become diabetic, I was told in the spring that I am pre-diabetic. And I said to myself: self, you’re almost sixty, sofuckingwhat! Maybe it’s sixty and living alone. Whatever. It’s not health per se that’s sufficient to get me to do and not do what is necessary; it’s vanity for which I have no reason, thus little vanity.

And you? What’s up with you? With all the dad questions. And a reminder of the secret of a father’s love.

I love you
dad


December 13
Lucy b. 283 d. 303.

Lucy surrendered her young life for our faith in Syracuse. Twenty, like nineteen or twenty-one, a young life, and for us an immortal one. How does your first twenty years achieve for you the immortality of our faith?

Pretty much, that’s all we know about her. Well, not exactly all. There must be much more if we are still celebrating her 1700 years later. This morning the vestments were red and the prayers mentioned her specifically. What do you know about a fourth century woman who’s been carried forward on the tsunami of our faith for almost two millennia? Or, could be, this fact tells us more about us than about her – our needs, our aspirations, our reminder of ‘never again’ that will be surely repeated over and over.

Lucy, her name means light. Yeh, it does matter what your name means. Moreso, it matters where it came from – after whom you are named, which saints are thus potential patrons from which you get to choose. [Well, there’s only one saint Kenneth, I think. That’s offset by so many Johns, I guess.]

“Lucy in the sky with diamonds….” One of my favoritest songs. Of course, Charlie Brown’s Lucy. And I’ve crossed path with a Lucy in Nashville [crossed swords might be a better description. The good Dominican Sisters became a cosmic difference between us.] None of the Lucys would make my ‘good people’ list – though good memories and a myriad of feeloughts.

We have the Bible and our tradition. There’s no Lucy in our Bible. And we have the benefits of our legends of Lucy and her what makes her martyrdom important to us. By the sixth century, our veneration of Lucy had traveled to Rome and was embedded in our Church. Lucy, courageous defender of our faith. What she did! What God achieved with and through her! If her, why not us too, ya think? Be a man of faith. Defend our faith. Know that God gives us the courage to stand in His name before anyone, even family, neighbors, classmates, ….

Lucy, we have from tradition, was a young woman who vowed her life to the service of Jesus. That’s a mouthful for a 4th century young woman in Syracuse. Her parents were Christians, though ones who lived their privileged lives without stirring up any repression from the officials. Lucy’s father was a Roman, her mother likely Greek (Eutychia – we have the mother’s name, Lucy’s of course, but what of her father?) A girl born to such a family, had no few advantages.

Lucy was a cradle Catholic. Not unlike us. And you, too, were born if not so much to rich parents, into a household that did not want for cash or stuff. Lucy lost her father in her infancy. Such euphemism! We might say that you lost your father in grammar school.? But not – neither she nor you; fathers are forever! Lucy was educated in our faith from the beginning – and to her end [unfortunately, your mother decided to stop your education in faith. She left you with your separated father, yourself, and the community which, with her, you avoid, for you to be educated. Now, nearing the peak of your educational adolescence, you have the responsibility to become educated, daily (one advantage of daily Mass).]

Lucy’s education in faith helped her assimilate her parents’, her community’s sentiments of piety. Lucy’s response to her graces led her to dedicate herself to God and to Him alone. Lucy vocation called her to distribute her inheritance to the Church and the poor; to immerse herself in the faith community: a virgin benefactor of the community. Lucy came to this vocation herself and kept it, initially, private – such a choice was not the province of a daughter. Even the daughter of a rich noble was a valuable family commodity first, a person of their own not so much.

As was the custom, Eutychia betrothed Lucy while still a youth – a familial, political, social arrangement; that’s simply the way it was. I’m a bit baffled that such a Christian mother would betroth her pious daughter to a pagan – though, maybe, Paschasius, Eutychia thought, would be like Monica’s husband. A man of Christian propensity and intention who would, as usual, seek baptism on his deathbed but in the meantime, navigate the Roman world, the world of human frailties, and allow his wife to be the Christian of her baptism. Just hypothesizing….

What would Lucy do? Love and obedience inclined her to be obedient to mother and family. Love and obedience also led her to fulfill her wish, her vow to God. How to achieve both? How to align her mother with her in the vow to Jesus.

Maybe the circumstances that evolved were God’s plan. Maybe they were the random outcome of creation which a holy and believing and clever girl took advantage of….

Fifty miles away in Catania was the tomb of Agatha, a martyr under Decian, – a site of pilgrimage and frequent miracles…. Eutychia had been suffering a hemorrhage for several years…. Lucy persuaded her mother to go with her to Agatha’s tomb. There Eutychia was cured….. Lucy took this opportunity to convince her mother to permit her to dedicate her life to God and give a great part of her inheritance away.

The story goes that Paschasius found out about both the change in betrothal and his loss of the wealth of marriage when he heard about Lucy’s gifts to the poor. And if you were Paschasius, what would you do? What, in his own time, would you recommend this jilted nobleman to do? The insult to him and his family. The loss of riches – he might not have been from a wealthy noble family and he and they might have been counting on Lucy’s inheritance to establish renewed familial security.

Paschasius betrayed Lucy to the governor. [The story goes on about what happens to Lucy. But what about Eutychia and their household? What was the effect of Lucy’s decisions and subsequent punishments on them? Why do we not hear of their martyrdom? A Paul Harvey opportunity for the story writers among us….]

The Christian woman declared herself, supported by her mother, to be a virgin bride of the Christian God. She [her family] reneged on the betrothal contract.] The Roman Governor had the perfect punishment – he’d commit her to the prostitution house before killing her when her usefulness was over. Her virginity alone would be sufficient to pay off the cost of the trial and a good part of what ole Paschasius lost. Alas, God dramatically stepped in.

And maybe this is why Lucy’s story remains with us seventeen hundred years later. Lucy dedicated herself to God. And God took care of her so that she achieved her vocation.

When the guards came to get Lucy, she was stiff as steel and heavy as a mountain. They could not take her away to be defiled…. They next tried to burn her, but the flames left her unscathed…. Finally they killed her with a sword. During Diocletian’s reign, many Christians suffered incredible torture and painful death for their faith. Lucy withstood, with God’s grace, the tests of her faith. The legends have it that her suffering included that Lucy’s eyes were put out by Diocletian as part of the torture. Thus, Lucy, the Patron Saint of the Blind.


I love you
dad

December 3 Francis Xavier, SJ b. 1506 d. 1552 c. 1622

Thommy and John

Good morning
I love you

December 3, 2008 – a beautiful bright, crisp, Carolina blue sky; chilly and a half on the way to the 0700 Mass, after a bagel at breuger’s. Now, after a few hours of preliminary work, piling up information for a project that’ll require more concentration than I have at the moment in the midst of noisy distractions – I’m easily distracted by other people’s noises, and other people seem to make their noises regardless of the need of others around them to do some concentrated work. Maybe I’ll go burrow into the bowels of uncg’s library to get this next phase accomplished…. Not much progress of late, anywhere….

Today is the feast of St Francis Xavier, SJ - - - one of THE biggies, period. And a saint I’ve been familiar with since earliest memories of faith and religion and saints. The name of the church across the street from Auntie’s and Mack’s – where we’d go to Mass on Sundays when visiting in Manhattan. F.X. ______ as a name was common when I was growing up. And this saint’s heroic story as founding member of Jesuits and his stupendous missionary work to East Indies and Japan – the residual effects are still rippling through the countries and our church in those countries…. Take a few minutes to say hi to this saint – get to know him - draw from him you own inspiration and let him be a source of your greater grace….


December 3
Francis Xavier b. 1506 d. 1552 c. 1622

It just struck me – I don’t think I was attentive to this before – Francis Xavier was only 46 when he died; and he accomplished his missionary work in only the last ten. Talk about cramming a lifetime into such a short period….

We don’t get anything of Francis Xavier’s early life from Catholic Online or the online version of Catholic Encyclopedia. Even in the pamphlet and books on him that I have there is very little spent on his pre-college life. Partly, I suppose, because of how much he did to get the Jesuits started and his missionary work. I regret that we don’t have more about the childhood of our saints. Something that we can relate to more personally. Kids are kids, for the most part.

And I know enough about the predictive validity of follow back research – i.e., start with how a situation ends, go back ‘to the beginning’ and then conclude that that beginning predicts, even causes, the outcome we started with. Follow back research is bunk – e.g., most heroine addicts used marijuana therefore the use of marijuana causes, increases the likelihood of, heroine use. That is a saleable proposition until we note that it is also true that heroine addicts used/drank milk…. So,

maybe starting with those canonized and going back to their childhood, we could say that their experiences with parents, their personal piety, the role of the church in their upbringing, etc. et al. would be guiding lights for us and our quest for saintliness. Wrong…. However, to see into a saint’s childhood, and how that childhood laid the foundation for subsequent saintliness – the good the bad the ugly of childhood being sorted out and coalesced into saintliness; well, that’s a story we might personally relate to….

I’m sorry I don’t have any of Francis Xavier’s childhood to start with here….

Francis Xavier was born in the castle of Xavier near Sanguesa in Navarre. The castle tells you something. And Navarre tells you some other things….

After completing studies in Spain, Francis Xavier entered the college de Sante-Barbe in Paris in 1525. This college, and the academe of Paris in General, was the hub of intellectual Catholicism in the sixteenth century – it was not a place for intellectual light weights nor a haunt of men who took life lightly…. Francis Xavier befriended Peter Favre here.

It does matter where you grow up. It does matter where you go to school – what places and positions you put yourself in [are put in]. Most importantly, it matters with whom you associate. The friendship of Xavier and Favre not only enriched them both but also led to the weaving of the tapestry that became the society of Jesus. Ignatius of Loyola was at the same college and was already planning the Society. First Favre then his friend Xavier joined Loyola in the formation of the Society. [maybe not unlike Andrew’s going to get Peter…] It does matter who your friends are; and how you follow them – or not.

Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier, Peter Favre, Lainez, Salmeron, Rodriguez, and Bobadilla made their first Jesuitical vows at Montmarte on August 15, 1534: poverty, chastity, obedience, and a special vow of obedience to the Pope: a Society dedicated to doing God’s will by doing what the Pope needed them most to do.

Francis Xavier completed his studies and taught at the university for some time. On November 15, 1536, Francis Xavier left Paris with his companions. His first stop was Venice where he attended the sick with zeal and charity. [Ministry to the sick, from the very beginning of the Jesuits, was an essential training stop as well as an integral service of the Order.

[Each Jesuit novice must complete a month’s service in a hospital. The New England Jesuit novices in the late 1960’s spent their month at Boston City Hospital serving a charity ward – there were actual wards then, t-shaped, bed after bed after bed ‘separated’ if necessary by a drawn curtain. Phil Chavannes, Paul Carrier, Jim (I’m blanking on Jim’s name at the moment) and I were together for December 1968. lots of stories from that month. Some of the stories were continued for the next few years. Our service at BCH, my experiences there, were and still are formative. I suggest that you consider volunteering for such an experience – for a month during your college time or for longer maybe as a source of personal growth after graduation.]

Francis Xavier was ordained, with Ignatius, on June 24, 1937. Francis Xavier joined Ignatius in Rome – including a period with Ignatius in drawing up the documents for the Society of Jesus which was approved by the Pope September 3, 1539.

John III, king of Portugal petitioned the Pope and Ignatius to send Francis Xavier to evangelize the East Indies. March 16, 1540 Francis Xavier left Rome for Lisbon, where he spent nine months evangelizing amongst both the royalty and the populace.

On April 7, 1541, Francis Xavier set sail for India: landing in Goa May 6, 1542 - - yep, over a year to semi-circumnavigate the world [and this less than 50 years after Christopher Columbus round tripped the new world to the west]. The Portuguese had settlements throughout the East Indies and the seeds of Catholicism had been sown – like the parable of the sower, some seeds had taken root and some had withered and some had been blown away altogether. Francis Xavier was sent to re-establish the faith as well as spread the word throughout the entire east…. The Chronicle of his ten years as the Missionary par excellence as well as the leading representative of Ignatius amongst the newly established and burgeoning Jesuits in the area is breath taking….

From May to October 1542, Francis Xavier spent in learning the language and the culture, preaching and, can you imagine, ministering to the sick. Francis Xavier would also go through the streets ringing a bell to invite the children to come hear the word of God – He would take them to a church and teach them their catechism…..

Having laid a foundation, including the establishing of missionaries and Jesuits-in-the-making, Francis Xavier moved on to the fisheries on the southern peninsula. Francis Xavier spent almost three years preaching to the people of western India – extending his, the Church’s, and [oh yeh] Portugal’s reach to Ceylon. The brief skimming across the work of Francis Xavier cannot give justice to the hardships [an understatement] he and him compadres encountered. The Portuguese who were there, especially the soldiers, were not exemplary Christians – how could this western/white man’s religion be sold when the power holders were not good never mind exemplar models of the faith? And the many petite kings throughout the regions who did not convert themselves, repressed any subject’s inclination to change sides. The typical stuff missionaries encounter – in spades!

In the spring of 1545, Francis Xavier went to Malacca – where he spent the rest of the year with spectacular and mixed results of conversion and compliance.

In early 1546, Francis Xavier went on to the Malucca Islands where he spent a year and a half preaching throughout the islands. He probably got as far as the Philippines!

Back on Malacca in mid 1547, Francis Xavier met a Japanese called Anger (Han-Sir) who sparked a zeal in the Jesuit to introduce Christianity into Japan. But first, Francis Xavier had to straighten out Jesuit affairs in Goa. [In the six years since he’d been in Goa, Ignatius had sent more Jesuits to Goa; many natives had also been accepted into the Order. They needed some additional Jesuititical umph.] In 1548, Francis Xavier sent missionaries to the centers of India. He established a novitiate in India and a house of studies. Then, in mid 1549, Francis Xavier, Brother Juan Fernandez, and the Japanese Anger who’d been baptized at Goa headed to Japan.

On August 15, 1549, Francis Xavier and his nucleus band of Jesuits landed at the city of Kagoshima, Japan. It took him a year to become fluent in the language – translating into Japanese, with Anger’s help, our articles of faith and the nuggets of a catechism. When Francis Xavier began preaching and converting, he [naturally] aroused the ill will of the bonzes who had him banished from the city. In mid 1550, Francis went into central Japan and got to some of the cities in the south, too. For about two years Francis Xavier planted the seeds of Catholic communities throughout the island country.

In early 1552, Francis Xavier returned to Goa. He discovered the Jesuit community there arguing amongst itself [not an uncommon challenge for the Order throughout its history – to the current day]. He, of course, ironed it out. Gotta take care of the inside of the engine as well as drive the car….

In April 1552, Francis Xavier laid the foundation for his efforts to go to China, the Celestial Empire. The Portuguese opposed his expedition. Francis Xavier worked with the Indian and Portuguese and finally got approval to set out for China. He made it to the island of Sancian near the coast of China where he took ill and died.


A rather boring litany/travelogue. I apologize for the absence of substance. The substance of his holiness. The realities of his miracles. All of which you now have to imagine…. Until I come back to Francis Xavier’s story with better sources for particulars….


I love you
dad