Pentecost Sunday – Mass during the Day Lectionary: 63 Mass readings from (USCCB) [Audio]

Pentecost Sunday—May 19, 2013 by Gayle Somers (Scripture Speaks)

On Resurrection Day, Jesus breathed on His disciples, a gesture odd in itself but packed with meaning for our celebration of Pentecost today.

A Mighty Wind May 19th 2013 – Pentecost Sunday (St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology) [Audio]

18 May: Saint John I, pope and martyr – Optional Memorial
19 May: Pentecost Sunday (Fiftieth day from Easter)
20 May: Saint Bernardine of Siena, priest – Optional Memorial
21 May: Saint Christopher Magallanes and companions, martyrs – Optional Memorial
22 May: Saint Rita of Cascia – Optional Memorial

Scott Hahn’s Consuming the Word – Book review by Christian LeBlanc (Standing on my Head)

Five Children. Any Questions? Comedian Jim Gaffigan Takes Sundays Off From Stand-Up (NYTimes)

The Paintings of an American Catholic Master, Carl Schmitt (Catholic Exchange)

“Come, Holy Ghost!”: A few thoughts about Pentecost… (Southern Fried Catholicism)

A Letter To A College Grad (Aggie Catholic)

Modernity and Morality: A commentary by Fr. Barron

Beyond Words May19th, 2013

Seventh Sunday of Easter Lectionary: 61 Mass readings from (USCCB) [Audio]

The Ascension of Our Lord—May 12, 2012 by Gayle Somers (Scripture Speaks)

On Ascension Day, Jesus gives His apostles, a group of men singularly lacking in influence, a worldwide mission. How would they be able to pull this off?

Perfection as One May 12th 2013 – 7th Sunday of Easter (St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology) [Audio]

10 May: Saint Damien Joseph de Veuster of Moloka’i
11 May: Saint Ignatius of Laconi
12 May: Saints Nereus and Achilleus, martyrs or Saint Pancras, martyr – Optional Memorial
12 May: Ascension of the Lord – Solemnity
13 May: Our Lady of Fatima – Optional Memorial
14 May: Saint Matthias the Apostle – Feast
15 May: Saint Isidore (the Farmer) – Optional Memorial
16 May: Saint Peregrine Laziosi

Judas Iscariot and Matthias General Audience of Benedict XVI Wednesday, 18 October 2006

Pope Francis and “The Religious Sense”: A commentary by Fr. Barron

Catholics Matter Episode 105 – Fr. Paul Sullivan

Fifth Sunday of Easter Lectionary: 54 Mass readings from (USCCB) [Audio]

Fifth Sunday of Easter—April 28, 2013 by Gayle Somers (Scripture Speaks)

At the Last Supper, Jesus announces that His betrayal by Judas begins an outbreak of God’s glory. How can this be?

New For All Ages April 28th 2013 – 5th Sunday of Easter (St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology) [Audio]

27 April: Saint Simeon
28 April: Saint Peter Chanel, priest and martyr; or Saint Louis Grignon de Montfort, priest – Optional Memorial
29 April: Saint Catherine of Siena, virgin and doctor of the Church – Memorial
30 April: Saint Pius V, pope – Optional Memorial
1 May: Saint Joseph the Worker – Optional Memorial
2 May: Saint Athanasius, bishop and doctor – Memorial

Catholics Matter Episode 100 – “Most Reverend Eduardo A. Nevares

GK Gems – The Church Saves Us From Tyranny

Fourth Sunday of Easter Lectionary: 51 Mass readings from (USCCB) [Audio]

Fourth Sunday of Easter—April 21, 2013 by Gayle Somers (Scripture Speaks)

Jesus offers a promise of eternal life. What must we do to receive it?

Shepherd and the Lamb April 21st 2013 – 4th Sunday in Easter (St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology) [Audio]

19 April: Saint Leo IX
21 April: Saint Anselm of Canterbury, bishop and doctor of the Church – Optional Memorial
23 April: Saint George, martyr, or Saint Adalbert, bishop and martyr – Optional Memorial
24 April: Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen, priest and martyr – Optional Memorial
25 April: Saint Mark the Evangelist – Feast

Does the Church condemn people with homosexual inclinations?

Third Sunday of Easter Lectionary 48: Mass readings from (USCCB) [Audio]

Third Sunday of Easter—April 14, 2013 by Gayle Somers (Scripture Speaks)

During Christ’s Passion, Peter stood near the warmth of a charcoal fire and denied knowing Him. Today, Jesus and Peter meet again near a charcoal fire. Why?

Fire of Love April 14th 2013 – 3rd Sunday in Easter (St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology) [Audio]

12 April: St. Teresa of Los Andes

13 April: Saint Martin I, pope and martyr – Optional Memorial

16 April: St. Bernadette Soubirous

17 April: St. Benedict Joseph Labre

Torchlight Procession Homily of His Holiness Benedict XVI Lourdes, Rosary Square Saturday, 13 September 2008

Gay Marriage and the Breakdown of Moral Argument: A commentary by Fr. Barron

The following post is by Heather King, who describes herself as a Los Angeles-based writer, speaker, sober alcoholic, and Catholic convert with three memoirs—Parched; Redeemed; and Shirt of Flame: A Year with St. Thérèse of Lisieux–and a a regular column in Magnificat. She blogs at shirtofflame.blogspot.com. Visit her website at heather-king.com. Heather very kindly granted permission to re-publish this post, which originally appeared on her blog on March 24.

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Is it me or does an unfortunate nosy-neighbor strain sometimes creep into our beloved mother Church? As I commented here the other day:

“I’m not wildly interested in hearing about other people’s sins but I’m always interested in looking more closely at my own: my fear, my self-righteousness, my hardness of heart, my terrible pride, my abysmal lack of charity. All the things that lead to loneliness and isolation and the desperate hunger that lead to wanting to anesthetize the pain with sex, food, booze, shopping, drugs, porn…I would like to hear more homilies on the beauty of the Narrow Gate! That Christ calls us to come fully awake, fully alive, fully open to joy…That doesn’t come from following a rule book and even less does it come from constantly peering around to make sure everyone else is following the rule book. Of COURSE when you’re awake in love, you’re not going to cheat on your spouse. Of COURSE you’re not going to be frittering away your life energy on porn. 

And of course you are going to feel your own pain and loneliness and hunger and fear very deeply, so deeply that at times it seems it cannot be borne. You’re going to be pruned into compassion. That is our whole value as followers of Christ: we allow our suffering to make us available and vulnerable to the suffering of the world; to the terrible sexual and emotional wound at the heart of mankind”…

I thought about that for awhile. I started thinking about the kind of homily I’d give if I were a priest. Now don’t get me wrong: I love priests. I have no desire to be a priest. Priests are doing just fine. But as we enter Holy Week (during which our poor priests are going to be vastly overworked), just for the heck of it, here’s the homily I’d give if I were PRIEST FOR A DAY:

“To be a follower of Christ is to participate in the victory of love over fear. And just on the off-chance we’ve veered from our place at the back of the church with the tax collector, folks, we’re not “following the rules” so we can look good in the eyes of our also-following-the-rules fellow church-goers. Come ON, my brothers and sisters! Those people were the PHARISEES! Those were the people who killed, and who continue to kill, Christ! Catholicism is not a country club whose members we vet to ensure we’re in the “right” company! The very thought should turn our stomachs!

Here’s how you know your life in Christ is bearing fruit:

In spite of your own suffering, loneliness, and pain, you’re welcoming. You’re warm. You’re kind (or you’re at least shooting for those things, and not just toward the people who can “do” something for you, but everyone). You’re in immediate, intimate contact with a few active drunks, someone who’s headed into or has just emerged from a psych ward, an incarcerated felon or two, several porn addicts, a young girl who’s pregnant out of wedlock, several women who have had abortions and are in silent, excruciating mourning, at least one stripper, several people in desperately unhappy marriages, about to be evicted from their apartments, or dying, a minimum-wage worker or two, at least three people who are certifiably insane, at least one U.S. Army chaplain and one peace activist (even better if they’re both priests and the latter is in solitary confinement in a federal prison), several homeless people (the more the better) and a whole TON of gay people, transgender folks, and sex and love addicts of all stripes…

If that’s not part of your circle–in my case, that IS my circle–you’re not getting out enough. If you aren’t sharing your struggles and heart with that circle, at the very least in prayer, something is wrong. Because those are the people Christ hung out with. Because “those people” are us: the people, the only people, suffering, struggling humans. Because if we’re going to be inviting people to a life of poverty, chastity and obedience, we sure as hell better be inviting each other into our homes, our tables, our hemorrhaging, conflicted hearts.

If you’re afraid all that is going to “lower your standards,” you’re very much mistaken. There’s no lower standard than self-righteous fear.

Share the joy, man. Tell a joke. Lighten up. Eat a meal with some friends. Exchange stories of how you’re walking toward the light.  One morning you’ll wake up and realize you are ‘following the rules” and then some. You’re not going to Mass just on Sundays, but every other day—because there’s nowhere else you’d rather be. You’re not going to just three AA meetings a week, but five—plus a trip to the jail to talk to the drunks there. You’ll realize you haven’t added it up but you’re probably giving away at least ten percent of my money. You’ll realize, with total wonder: I have not watched porn, masturbated, had sex outside marriage, or flirted with someone inappropriate for weeks, months, years…

You’ll realize: I actually let that guy who cut me off in traffic yesterday off the hook. I actually felt a stab of what felt suspiciously like affection toward my mother-in-law, my junkie son, my sex-worker neighbor, the Marine Corps soldier, the bleeding-heart liberal (depending on your stance, one of these is sure to be difficult), my boss (bonus points if you’re self-employed), the young girl who, from a one-night-stand, is having a baby…

You’ll realize: Oh. THIS is what Christ meant! I don’t have to be boiled in oil or have my eyes gouged out. This is laying down my life: this sharing, this exchange, this richness, this mercy, this mystery.

You’ll realize that love is a way more tender–and way more exacting Master–than fear.

Second Sunday of Easter (or Sunday of Divine Mercy) Lectionary 45: Mass readings from (USCCB) [Audio]

Sunday of Divine Mercy — April 7, 2013 by Gayle Somers (Scripture Speaks)

Today’s Gospel records a post-Resurrection appearance of Jesus in which His mercy to sinners begins to flow. Watch out! There is no stopping it.

Breath of New Life April 7th 2013 – Divine Mercy (St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology) [Audio]

5 April: Saint Vincent Ferrer, priest – Optional Memorial
7 April: Saint John Baptist de la Salle, priest – Memorial
The Feast of Divine Mercy (also known as Divine Mercy Sunday)
8 April: The Annunciation of the Lord – Solemnity
11 April: Saint Stanislaus, bishop and martyr – Memorial

Tolkien and the Feast of the Annunciation

To the Christian March 25th is the day that Lucifer is defeated by means of the incarnation and death of Christ. Likewise, the day Sauron is defeated is also March 25th when the Ring was cast into Mount Doom. One might argue that Tolkien is preparing his reader for Christ by means of a story.

9 things you need to know about Divine Mercy Sunday

Why We’re Sticking to Meatless Fridays (mattfradd)

Mass in the Basilica of the Annunciation Israel – Nazareth Homily of John Paul II 25 March 2000

Annunciation by van Eyck – Private life of a Masterpiece (1/4)

Catholics Matter Episode 101 – Deacon Doug Bogart

Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord Lectionary 37 and 38: Mass readings from (USCCB) [Audio]

Palm Sunday—March 24, 2013 by Gayle Somers (Scripture Speaks)

“Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord, the King of Israel. Hosanna in the highest!” (Mt 21:9)

Passion Sunday March 24th 2013 - Passion of the Christ (St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology) [Audio]

22 March: St. Nicholas Owen
23 March: Saint Turibius of Mogrovejo, bishop – Optional Memorial
24 March: Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion – Solemnity;St. Catherine of Genoa
25 March: Annunciation of the Lord – Solemnity
28 March: Holy Thursday – Solemnity

Celebration of Palm Sunday of The Passion of Our Lord Homily of His Holiness Benedict XVI April 2012

Chrism Mass Homily of His Holiness Benedict XVI 5 April 2012

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Pope Francis and his vist to Santa Maria Maggiore – The Hidden History

Fifth Sunday of Lent Lectionary: 36 Mass readings from (USCCB) [Audio]

Fifth Sunday of Lent—March 17, 2013 by Gayle Somers (Scripture Speaks)

Today, Jesus is confronted by a trap. It springs shut, but not on Him. What happened?

Something New: March 17th 2013 - 5th Sunday of Lent (St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology) [Audio]

17 March: Saint Patrick, bishop – Optional Memorial
18 March: Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, bishop and doctor – Optional Memorial
19 March: Saint Joseph Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Solemnity

Patrick Wasn’t Irish: He Was British. Deal with It. Philip Jenkins (First Things)

9 things you should know about the woman caught in adultery Jimmy Akin (NCR)

The First American Pope by George Weigel (NRO)
Catholicism’s turn into an evangelical future

Luis Palau: Why It Matters that Pope Francis Drinks Maté with Evangelicals (Christianity Today)

What the Greatest Catholic Thinker Says about the Latest Catholic Pope (AmericanThinker) Selwyn Duke is thinking of Chesterton

On this day March 15: Ides of March; 1875 – Archbishop of New York John McCloskey was named the first cardinal in the United States

The Election of Pope Francis

“Art is an instrument thoroughly of this world; it is not revelation and has no theology. It is poorly suited to the spiritual burdens laid upon it. Artists themselves are not up to the task of defining or divining the Kingdom. In his small gem of a book The Responsibility of the Artist, Maritain defines the artist as ‘a man using Art.’ He is bound, like any other artisan, to the perfection of the work of his hands: ‘Art by itself tends to the good of the work, not to the good of man. The first responsibility of the artist is toward his work.’

“Believing this—as I do—the term ‘Catholic artist’ seems precious and self- conscious. It risks becoming one more assault against humility, a quality already close to running on empty in the arts. It would be an act of mercy to scrap the category ‘Catholic art’ altogether. There is no longer any such entity; there is only art made by Catholics. This might or might not make use of religious imagery; it might or might not be successful or praiseworthy. Faith is not the origin of talent and cannot stand bail for it. Neither is piety an index of good taste or guarantor of good craftsmanship. There is only good art and bad art; Catholicism is no determiner of either.”     

This is from an article by Mauren Mullarkey originally published in Crisis. I don’t know much about Mullarkey; her website has some interesting essays, including the one from which the above quote was taken, along with some of her drawings and paintings. I can’t remember where I first discovered her, though I suspect it might have been in Image. Some of what she writes in this article, titled “An Unmanifesto: A Proposal to Retire ‘Catholic Art’”, reminds me of Flannery O’Connor, especially the latter’s claim that Catholic art need not be made by a Catholic and that the integrity of the work itself, not its maker’s faith or intentions, is what matters most. Both writers seem to be protesting the same things, such as the proliferation of tawdry religiously-inspired kitsch that hawks itself as art, and both appeal to Jacques Maritain for guidance on how to understand the main responsibilities of the artist. This is a touchy issue for many people. Shouldn’t the desire to praise God and lead people to a deeper faith count more than anything else? Here’s O’Connor from her essay “Catholic Novelists and Their Readers,” on a topic addressed in an earlier CP post :

“Poorly written novels—no matter how pious and edifying the behavior of the characters—are not good in themselves and are therefore not really edifying. Now a statement like this creates problems. An individual may be highly edified by a sorry novel because he doesn’t know any better. We have plenty of examples in this world of poor things being used for good purposes. God can make any indifferent thing, as well as evil itself, an instrument for good; but I submit that to do this is the business of God and not of any human being.

“A good example of a very indifferent novel being used for some good purpose is The Foundling, by Cardinal Spellman. It’s nobody’s business to judge Cardinal Spellman except as a novelist, and as a novelist he’s a bit short. You do have the satisfaction of knowing that if you buy a copy of The Foundling, you are helping the orphans to whom the proceeds go; and afterwards you can always use the book as a doorstop. But what you owe yourself here is to know that what you are helping are the orphans and not the standards of Catholic letters in this country. Which you prefer to do, if it must be a matter of choice, is up to you.”

No respecter of persons, that O’Connor. At least in the sense of accepting that authority in one sphere—as in Spellman being a Cardinal—has any connection to literary skill or judgment. This is, as she wrote elsewhere, a different matter than a Cardinal’s or Bishop’s authority to declare a work spiritually dangerous, which for O’Connor was rather liberating. Nevertheless, the Cardinal’s literary skills were paltry, in her view, which doesn’t detract from the good its earnings will do for the orphans. Or as a doorstop.

My thoughts inevitably turn to those ubiquitous Italian prayer cards one sees, well, everywhere. You know the ones. They make the saints look rather unreal, almost as if gnosticism decided to take a run at the prayer card market. “How can we make these folks look as inhuman as possible?” seems to be the implied intention. Likewise, much of the statuary I routinely see in churches makes me turn away. I know, I know. The intentions are good, and prayers before a genuine work of art are no more sincere than those offered before something less than beautiful. But the the long-term consequences are not good, as the Church has for some time now witnessed the gradual diminishment of the aesthetic sensibilities of a people who should be known by the beauty of their churches, their music, their art, and their lives.

Lest I be accused of being an aesthete, here’s what our Pope Emeritus wrote while still a Cardinal:

“The only really effective apologia for Christianity comes down to two arguments, namely, the saints the Church has produced and the art which has grown in her womb. Better witness is borne to the Lord by the splendour of holiness and art which have arisen in the community of believers than by the clever excuses which apologetics has come up with to justify the dark sides which, sadly, are so frequent in the Church’s human history. If the Church is to continue to transform and humanize the world, how can she dispense with beauty in her liturgies, that beauty which is so closely linked with love and with the radiance of the Resurrection? No. Christians must not be too easily satisfied. They must make their Church into a place where beauty—and hence truth—is at home. Without this the world will become the first circle of Hell.”

The nature of beauty—in the eye of the beholder only? one of the great transcendentals? the Infinite making itself finite and visible?—is contested in our day, and the idea that it is either the refuge of those disconnected from the real world or merely a subjective preference has confused many people, myself included. Some Catholics try to eliminate the confusion by ignoring the difficult questions and asserting something along the lines of “Catholic art,” which, as Mullarkey points out, usually means art from Renaissance and Baroque periods, when representational art was the only option. One priest described his criterion for discerning art in the wake of the 19th and 20th centuries by means of a 5-5 rule: If a five-year-old can tell you in five seconds what a painting is, then it’s art. So much for the world of abstraction. Maritain wasn’t the only Catholic writer of his time to see this kind of reduction as problematic. Here’s Mullarkey on Maritain’s contemporary Frenchman, the medievalist and philosopher Etienne Gilson:

“In his 1955 Mellon Lectures, later published under the title “Painting and Reality”, he argued that modern abstract art, far from being a falling away (from representation), had restored art to its essential dignity. He insisted that, in the wake of the Middle Ages, Western art had become devoted to a kind of literalism—call it empiricism—that limited art to imitating the visual world. According to Gilson, modern art rediscovered the idea of art as a means of creating forms for interpreting the world, not merely copying what greets our senses.

With characteristic brio, Gilson held that humanity continues God’s work of creation through the arts. The imitatio Dei, then is not a matter of copying. It is a matter, first, of comprehending; and, then, of seeking forms to render that comprehension.”

This search for forms to render our comprehension will take multiple paths, some of which will be appealing to many, some of which won’t. The history of the arts bears witness to a multiplicity of forms and methods, in the service of many ends, whether religious devotion, personal glory, rebellion, anger, the lust for approval and notoriety, etc. Our Pope Emeritus is convinced, as was Maritain, Gilson, and O’Connor, that art and beauty are essential to the Church’s witness to the Lord, once described by St. Augustine as “Beauty ever ancient, ever new.” This witness need not be explicitly Catholic, in the sense of featuring saints, biblical characters and scenes, or the conventional trappings and language of piety. But it should strive for good craftsmanship, and eschew labels and the kinds of reductionism they often imply. O’Connor cites St. Thomas in her criticism of the tacit utilitarianism of so much that passes for Catholic art:

“Saint Thomas Aquinas says that art does not require rectitude of the appetite, that it is wholly concerned with the good of that which is made.  He says that a work of art is good in itself, and this is a truth that the modern world has largely forgotten. We are not content to stay within our limitations & make something that is simply a good in and of itself. Now we want to make something that will have some utilitarian value. Yet what is good in itself glorifies God because it reflects God. The artist has his hands full & does his duty if he attends to his art. He can safely leave evangelizing to the evangelists.”

The witness to Christ in art is found not just in crucifixion scenes and saints at prayer, or in lovely meadows and serene landscapes, as beauty goes well beyond the merely pretty or comforting. The work well done and the life well lived bear the loudest witness to Christ, today as always. If we, and our contemporaries, do not have the ears to hear, perhaps it is due to our refusal to engage in the Church’s traditions about beauty and allow modern understandings, which are often rooted in a subjectivistic view of the world, to dominate our field of vision.