If you're looking for some online stations of the cross to pray during the Fridays of Lent, I've posted several versions here.

Labels: Lent, multimedia, podcasts, prayer, stations of the cross

This week, the priests of the archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis gather for their Presbyteral Assembly in Rochester, MN. As a result, very few parishes are offering daily Mass... a good reminder not to take our parish priests for granted.

Fr. Benedict Groeschel presented a great show on How to Treat Your Parish Priest on EWTN Live back on December 15, 2007. I have made the audio available on my podcast feed. (You can subscribe to the feed in iTunes here.) A teaser:

...Let's turn down the criticism. Unfortunately, you will find at the extremes bitter criticism at the far left and the far right. You know, if you go far enough to the left and far enough to the right, you end up in China together. And here is an incredible absurdity. There are some people who are so disrespectful to the Pope and to the Holy Spirit that they claim no priests have been validly ordained for 50 years. So when they look around for a priest to say Mass, they may not find one who is 50 years a priest, so they have Mass all by themselves, without a priest, which is condemned as heresy by the Council of Trent. On the other side, you get the people who want to have women priests, which the Holy Father has said is not possible, and so they have Mass without a priest, said by... the words are said by... a lady. So here you are, the far right and the far left and they meet over there in China, saying Mass, all of them, without a priest! Does anyone realize the absurdity of this? It is three-dimensional absurdity.

In the meantime, what about the priests who are trying to take care of everybody? What about the parish priests, and the chaplains, who have the job of bringing the Holy Eucharist to people, bringing the sacraments of Christ to people? What about them? We should think about this.

You know, with all due respect to the clergy of other religions -- and many are very sincere, devout, hard-working and dedicated -- theologically, the priests of the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches believe that we have something very unique, and that is that by holy orders, not through any merit of our own, we are able to bring into reality the mystery of the Eucharist, a mystery where Christ is present not only spiritually, but with His Body and Blood. This is a profound mystery. It was a mystery that preoccupied at times the fascinated mind of Albert Einstein, who loved to talk to priests about the Eucharist. It's nothing to be lightly dismissed.

Now, remember, a priest is someone -- as is a bishop -- given this power. Believe me, when I sit down and examine my conscience, and I make a retreat, the voice in my mind is saying, "How dare you do this? How dare you approach the altar of God!" And I do it because this is what I was called to do. And our holy father Saint Francis, as we call him -- Saint Francis, our father -- was not a priest. He was a brother. And he said: "I have such faith in priests that even if they persecuted me I would still have recourse to them, because they alone give us the Body and Blood of Christ." This should make every priest and every bishop humble to the core of his being....

Labels: church, multimedia, podcasts, priesthood, Year for Priests

Last evening, Catholic University of America (CUA) held a discussion entitled "The Obama Administration and the Sanctity of Human Life: Is There a Common Ground on Life Issues? What is the Right Response by 'Pro-Life' Citizens?" The discussion, featuring Professor Robert George and Professor Doug Kmiec, and moderated by the Honorable Mary Ann Glendon, was held at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. (A complete description of the event may be found here.)


I've transcribed the introduction by Professor William Wagner to give you a sense of the nature and format of the discussion:

Good afternoon.

I'm Professor William Wagner, the director of Catholic University's Center for Law, Philosophy and Culture. It's my pleasure to welcome you here today to a public exchange of views on the topic of The Obama Administration and the Sanctity of Human Life: Is There a Common Ground on Life Issues? What is the Right Response by Pro-Life Citizens? Today's event features presentations and discussions by two leading scholars and political commentators, both Roman Catholics, and both members of the pro-life community, presenting two different perspectives on the current administration's policies regarding such issues as abortion and embryonic stem cell research, and their impact on societal attitudes regarding respect for human life.

The purpose of the event is to advance understanding within the pro-life intellectual community in the United States of the issues, of what potential for common ground exists with the Obama administration on life issues, and what, in any event, is the right response of the pro-life community to the new administration.

The coverage in the press of issues relating to Obama's recent appearance at Notre Dame University indicates that discourse within the Catholic and pro-life communities on this question is of general interest to members of the American public. We are very pleased that members of our audience today represent not just the pro-life community, but other communities of discourse within the United States as well. These members of our audience are most cordially welcome.

We hope that the exchange of views we will hear today will be of value not just to members of the pro-life community, but to all members of the American public, regardless of their view on these issues.

You will note that today's event is billed as a discussion and not a debate. For it is not a debate. It is intended to present for the audience's consideration a fuller presentation of views on both sides of the question to be compared and considered within the largest possible lens. The tenor of our event is much in accord with the challenge posed by the nation's president while he was at Notre Dame. I quote him: "The question, then, is how do we work through these conflicts? Is it possible for us to join hands in common effort as citizens of a vibrant and varied democracy? How do we engage in vigorous debate? How does each of us remain firm in our principles and fight for what we consider right without demonizing those with just as strongly-held convictions on the other side?"

The Catholic University's Center for Law, Philosophy and Culture -- the sponsor of today's event -- exists to promote inquiry into the role of law in relation to culture and culture's orientation to the human good. The scope of its inquiry is both theoretical and practical. In its theoretical aspect, the Center aims to contribute to the academic fields of jurisprudence and the philosophy of law, as well as to Christian political and social ethics. In the practical dimension, it seeks to foster renewal and transformation of culture under contemporary circumstances through law and law reform.

In the President's remarks just mentioned, he concluded by calling for open hearts, open minds, fair-minded words. This is good. In the present setting, under the sponsorship of our Center, we would want, however, to clarify and make explicit what the President certainly meant to leave as implicit: What do we leave our hearts and minds open to, in particular? So as we convene this discussion today, let us leave our minds open to the truth, and our hearts open to love for one another in the light of our Creator's love for all of us.

I will now shortly turn the floor over to our able moderator, the Honorable Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and former United States Ambassador to the Holy See. Before I do, allow me to say just a word about our format. Professor Glendon will speak for several minutes, not just to introduce our speakers, but further to introduce our topic. Then she will keep time as each speaker presents in turn. Each speaker will come to the podium to give a twenty minute presentation of his basic viewpoint. Thereafter... the moderator and the two speakers will sit before us and Professor Glendon will pose questions to the speakers. She will then also read questions from the audience for the speakers to consider in turn. Monitors are prepared to pass out note cards to the audience. You're invited to write down questions as they occur to you and pass them to the outside of your aisles, to be assembled to be given to Professor Glendon. And then each speaker will have a brief time for closing comments.

Professor Glendon...

Professor George's opening remarks are now posted on the Public Discourse website here. A snip:

The common ground I am interested in is with pro-life Americans who, like Professor Kmiec, have supported the President politically. The election is over, and the current question is not who anyone thinks will do the best job as President, or even whether one may legitimately support candidates who deny the fundamental dignity and right to life of unborn human beings and who promise to protect and extend the abortion license and expand the funding of embryo-destructive research. The question is: On which issues will we support the President’s direction, and on which will we challenge him because he is heading in the wrong direction? Those pro-life Americans who voted for him and support him should not object when we speak for the most vulnerable and defenseless of our fellow human beings, even when that means severely criticizing the President’s policies. They should stand with us on common ground, and join their voices with ours.

You can watch the streaming video of the entire event on CUA website here.

If you simply want to listen to the audio, I've created an MP3 audio podcast available on my podcast feed, or directly here.

Additional resources:
Dawn Eden was there and files this report about Kmiec's answer to a question she had submitted.

Labels: church, communication, conscience, dialogue, human life, moral life, multimedia, podcasts, politics

I have been a long-time fan of the TV show LOST, but I was especially intrigued by the reference to Flannery O'Connor in the season 5 finale last night. Near the end of the first hour of the finale, a character we have never seen before -- Jacob -- is shown reading a copy of Everything That Rises Must Converge.





I haven't watched the second hour of the finale yet, so I'm going to wait before commenting on the significance.


Here's an article in the Union Recorder about the O'Connor reference. A snip:

Executive Producer Carlton Cuse says that O’Connor’s influence weighs in on his and partner Damon Lindelof’s writing of the show.

“Flannery O’Connor’s use of Christian theology in concert with sudden, unexpected violence was inspiring to us,” Cuse told The Union-Recorder. “She was truly an exceptional writer.”

Craig Amason, executive director of the Flannery O’Connor-Andalusia Foundation said that he was alerted by O’Connor’s publisher that the title would be a prop in the show.

“It’s just one more example of how influential Flannery O’Connor’s work is with pop culture. Over and over again we see this,” Amason said. “The lines from the Joker in [the film] ‘The Dark Knight’ could have come straight from ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’ or ‘The Misfit.’ Pop culture is fascinated with Flannery O’Connor’s work. It is obviously a huge hit.”

With so many storylines running in so many directions, it seems only natural that at some point, they would intersect, or converge. When asked if the nod to O’Connor was a clue for “LOST” addicts who watch episodes looking for hidden meaning, Cuse wouldn’t say.

“Damon and I try not to specifically interpret why we place any particular book in the show,” he said. “We hope viewers will explore the books and find their own answers.”

Even if the rest of the LOST franchise jumps the shark, the interest it has stirred in O'Connor's work will be salutary for those in the audience who will now discover her for the first time.

In the RCIA Hollywood program which I co-taught with Barbara Nicolosi, we've used several of Flannery O'Connor's short stories, including The Geranium (to talk about human freedom) and The River (to talk about baptism). Interestingly enough, last year we used both The River and video clips from the Season 3 finale of LOST for our class on the sacrament of baptism. Here's a link to the materials from this class, including an audio podcast, a PDF version of The River, and a Flash presentation on baptism in LOST. It's the second audio podcast that gets into a discussion of The River.

Other Flannery stuff: My lame attempt to adapt A Good Man Is Hard to Find into a screenplay (as an adaptation exercise in my first screenwriting class); a discussion of the Flannery-esque elements in the movie 21 Grams; and an audio podcast (with accompanying slides) from Barbara Nicolosi's presentation on "What Flannery Knew" from last October's Story Symposium in Hollywood.

Finally, read my favorite essay by Flannery O'Connor -- The Church and the Fiction Writer -- here.

Some favorite quotes:

For the writer of fiction, everything has its testing point in the eye, an organ which eventually involves the whole personality and as much of the world as can be got into it. Msgr. Romano Guardini has written that the roots of the eye are in the heart. In any case, for the Catholic they stretch far and away into those depths of mystery which the modern world is divided about -- part of it trying to eliminate mystery while another part tries to rediscover it in disciplines less personally demanding than religion....

It is generally supposed, and not least by Catholics, that the Catholic who writes fiction is out to use fiction to prove the truth of the Faith, or at the least, to prove the existence of the supernatural. He may be. No one certainly can be sure of his low motives except as they suggest themselves in his finished work, but when the finished work suggests that pertinent actions have been fraudulently manipulated or overlooked or smothered, whatever purposes the writer started out with have already been defeated. What the fiction writer will discover, if he discovers anything at all, is that he himself cannot move or mold reality in the interests of abstract truth. The writer leans, perhaps more quickly than the reader, to be humble in the face of what-is. What-is is all he has to do with; the concrete is his medium; and he will realize eventually that fiction can transcend its limitations only by staying within them.

Henry James said that the morality of a piece of fiction depended on the amount of "felt life" that was in it. The Catholic writer, insofar as he has the mind of the Church, will feel life from the standpoint of the central Christian mystery: that it has, for all its honor, been found by God to be worth dying for. But this should enlarge, not narrow, his field of vision. To the modern mind... this is warped vision which "bears little or no relation to the truth as it is known today." The Catholic who does not write for a limited circle of fellow Catholics will in all probability consider that, since this is his vision, he is writing for a hostile audience, and he will be more concerned to have his work stand on its own feet and be complete and self-sufficient and impregnable in its own right. When people have told me that because I am a Catholic, I cannot be an artist, I have had to reply, ruefully, that because I am a Catholic, I cannot afford to be less than an artist....

If the average Catholic reader could be tracked down through the swamps of letters-to-the-editor and other places where he momentarily reveals himself, he would be found to be more of a Manichean than the Church permits. By separating nature and grace as much as possible, he has reduced his conception of the supernatural to pious cliche and has become able to recognize nature in literature in only two forms, the sentimental and the obscene. He would seem to prefer the former, while being more of an authority on the latter, but the similarity between the two generally escapes him. He forgets that sentimentality is an excess, a distortion of sentiment usually in the direction of an overemphasis on innocence, and that innocence, whenever is is overemphasized in the ordinary human condition, tends by some natural law to become its opposite. We lost our innocence in the Fall, and our return to it is through the Redemption which was brought about by Christ's death and by our slow participation in it. Sentimentality is a skipping of this process in its concrete reality and an early arrival at a mock state of innocence, which strongly suggests its opposite. Pornography, on the other hand, is essentially sentimental, for it leaves out the connection of sex with its hard purpose, and so far disconnects it from its meaning in life as to make it simply an experience for its own sake.

Love her. That last line alone is perhaps the most stinging indictment of pornography (and its bedfellow, contraception) I have ever read. Modern man has an essentially sentimental attitude about sex. We are all about skipping past the cross to the eschaton, but this is a fundamentally dishonest way of relating to the world.

More on Flannery and LOST after I've seen the entire season 5 finale...

Labels: Flannery, human life, movies, multimedia, paschal mystery, podcasts, RCIA, sacraments, suffering

I've posted an MP3 audio version of the homily given by Archbishop Timothy Dolan this past Wednesday during the Mass of Installation at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.

It's available on my podcast feed, or directly here.

A favorite passage from the homily:

...This is not all about Timothy Dolan, or all about cardinals and bishops, or about priests and sisters, or even about family and cherished friends.

Nope ... this is all about two people: Him and her ... this is all about Jesus and His Bride, the Church. For, as de Lubac asked, "What would I ever know of Him without her?"

The Resurrection, Easter, is the very foundation of our faith, our hope, our love. Everything in the Church commences when, like those two disciples on the road to Emmaus that first Easter, we recognize Jesus as risen from the dead. The Church herself begins.

Past memorable quotes from the Archbishop, from his years in Milwaukee, here.

Labels: Easter, human life, multimedia, paschal mystery, podcasts, theology of the body

The feast of Divine Mercy is this coming Sunday. Visit the website of the National Shrine of Divine Mercy for all kinds of information about Saint Faustina, the Divine Mercy chaplet, and John Paul II's special devotion to the Divine Mercy.

I remember reading St. Faustina's diary about fourteen years ago, after visiting her convent outside of Krakow, and being very moved not only by her mystical experiences but also her deep and abiding love for God and for sinners. Two of my favorite quotes:

Only love has meaning; it raises up our smallest actions into infinity (Notebook I, #502)

Almost every feast of the Church gives me a deeper knowledge of God and a special grace. That is why I prepare myself for each feast and unite myself closely with the spirit of the Church. What a joy it is to be a faithful child of the Church! Oh, how much I love Holy Church and all those who live in it! I look upon them as living members of Christ, who is their head. I burn with love with those who love; I suffer with those who suffer. (Notebook I, #481)

So why not prepare yourself for this feast of the Church? Many parishes will be having Divine Mercy devotions this Sunday at 3 pm, the hour of mercy. While the Divine Mercy novena began on Good Friday, it's not too late to join in. You can also download a talk on Divine Mercy to your computer or MP3 player, compliments of Fr. Jay Finelli, the iPadre.

Labels: Easter, liturgy, mercy, multimedia, podcasts, prayer, saints

During the 2008 Triduum retreat for the RCIA Hollywood program, I gave this meditation:

Mary, the Bread of Life, and the Mystery of Holy Saturday

Today, on Holy Saturday, Lent is over. We spend three days enveloped in the liturgy of the Triduum, and we’re right in the middle of it. It is, as T.S. Eliot once said, “the still point in the turning world” (“Burnt Norton,” II, Four Quartets). We’re at the eye of the hurricane, and there’s a great silence.

There is a beautiful ancient homily on Holy Saturday -- we don’t even know who wrote it but it’s beautiful -- in the Office of Readings today. I’m just going to read a short excerpt:

Something strange is happening -- there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.
He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives of Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve… The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory….
I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.
(Office of Readings, Holy Saturday)

So the mystery of Holy Saturday seems to me a mystery of communion -- of restored union. What was separated has now been brought back together.

And how does this happen? What is this mystery of communion which we are anticipating and which we celebrate tonight?

It is, primarily, the mystery of the Eucharist, the sacrament of communion. It is the most exalted mystery of God’s own heart, and of His love.

We’re on pilgrimage today into the very heart of God. And who does the Church give us to accompany us in this time? Who can really show us the way?

It’s Mary. She alone did not flee… she didn’t panic… and she didn’t despair. Her mystery is that she is a steward of the great mystery of the Eucharist.

I want to make a brief examination of her life, as it relates to her Son, who is the Bread of Life (John 6:35).

First we go back to the Annunciation. In this moment when the angel Gabriel appears to her, Mary becomes, in a very real way, Bethlehem. The word Bethlehem literally means “the house of bread”.

She is Bethlehem more truly than the town she visits nine months later: she received the Bread that the “house of bread” would not (Luke 2:7). She becomes the dwelling place of the Bread of Life. She gives birth to it, and she tends it for thirty years in a mystery of silence we know very little about.

Like the centurion, she calls out to God at the Annunciation: “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof, but only say the word…” (Luke 7:6-7). She gives her assent: “Be it done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

Now did she know what she was saying yes to? In the details? No.

But she was docile. She was receptive to the One who has come to her. You see, she said yes to a Someone, not a something. It wasn’t a yes to a plan, or a schedule, or a series of foreseen events.

The somethings of her yes were constantly being challenged and purified. Think of the Presentation in the Temple, when she was told that her heart too would be pierced by a sword (Luke 2:35). Think also of her discovery of Jesus in the Temple after a long search. Her Son asked her: “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49)

The beauty of Mary is that, when confronted with the unknown and the unexpected, she does not flinch, cower or rant, but she receives it all, and ponders the word in her heart (Luke 2:51). Whatever word is spoken to her -- whatever word -- she receives confidently as a word of love coming from the very heart of God.

This strong, serene faith is seen at the wedding feast at Cana, when, in response to the news that they have no more wine, she responds by calling her Son into action. She tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). Notice that she doesn’t spell out the plan of action herself, but she refers them to her Son, trusting in His loving wisdom and power.

Fast forward now three years… to the very end of the life of her Son. As she receives the body of her Son when it is taken, lifeless, from the cross, she receives it lovingly. She kisses Him and gazes out at us as she holds Him. Her eyes are filled with grief, but no bitterness. “This is for you,” her eyes say to us. She is the gracious hostess of the divine meal, expressing a hospitality that has cost her everything. Her Son in her arms is no longer the thriving infant He once was, but a lifeless corpse. This is the annihilation of everything a mother’s heart could want for her child. And yet she is not raging. She’s not bitter. She’s not angry. She’s not clinging desperately to the body of her Son. Instead, she is holding Him with great tenderness and affection.

Why? Because she understands what it takes to make bread… in this case, the Bread of Life.

You see, all along the way of the Cross, her Son, the Bread of Life, was kneaded, pushed, contorted and bruised by the crowds. And now the bread will be covered with a shroud, and placed in the darkness, so that, three days later, it can rise.

So Saturday is a day of waiting. It’s a day of waiting for the Bread to rise, to be baked and to be ready for us. Saturday is Mary’s day, a day to wait with her, in stillness and in hope. And it’s a time to consider her service to the Eucharist, the Bread of Life.

Now in practical terms, what can this mean for us?

This evening, as you attend the Easter Vigil -- or tomorrow if you attend Mass then -- as you go to receive the Eucharist after this long fast, think of giving delight to the hostess of this divine meal.

Give joy to her heart by letting her know that her task, her stewardship of this Bread, has been accomplished. Give her joy by letting her overhear you say to the Father, as you approach the Bread of Life, “Let it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

Let her hear you expressing the words of the True Bethlehem: “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word and I shall be healed” (Luke 7:6-7).

Let this voice of the True Bethlehem rise up across the face of the whole Church today, as all of us, Mary’s spiritual children, raise our voices in a single cry of hope and of love: “Give us this bread always” (John 6:34).

* * *

Happy Easter!

Labels: Eucharist, Mary, podcasts, RCIA, sacraments, suffering

If you want to take a virtual retreat over the next few days, I've just posted all of the audio recordings from the RCIA Hollywood program's 2008 Triduum retreat:

The Triduum - Dr. Eric Hansen

The Stations of the Cross in Art - Dr. Eric Hansen

Good Friday at 3 PM: Miserere Mei Deus - Fr. Don Woznicki

Suffering - Barbara Nicolosi

Mary, the Bread of Life, and the Mystery of Holy Saturday - Clayton Emmer

The Last Things - Clayton Emmer

Some of the audio is not very high-quality. My apologies. It wasn't my intention to make listening a penitential experience. I was still learning how to use my new recording equipment, and wasn't aware of all the strategies for getting a good quality recording from a small file.

Labels: hollywood, multimedia, podcasts, RCIA, sacraments, stations of the cross, suffering

On April 1, my dad would've turned 80 years old. In honor of him, I'm posting a short bit of audio that was captured back in 1976 when he gave a short talk on personal prayer at our parish. I have no memory of hearing this talk at the time (I was five then), but my mom pulled an audiocassette out of the archives in 2005, the year after he died. I've digitized it, and it's available as a low-fidelity MP3 on my podcast feed, or directly here.

Here's a photo of Dad and I that was taken a few years earlier (probably 1973):

Labels: multimedia, podcasts, prayer, scripture

This week, I posted the ninth talk from last October's Act One Story Symposium:

"How Storytelling is True, Good and Beautiful" by Dr. Peter Kreeft


Here's a short excerpt:

We have strong defenses against goodness in our free choice. We have weak defenses against truth in rationalization -- or we can just ignore it, or live in denial, but that takes effort, and eventually all those walls we put up will come down. But we have no defenses at all against beauty. The will is strong and free. The mind is fairly strong and fairly free. But the heart is as weak as butter and doomed to fall in love with whatever it sees smiling at it. The movies you make are the smiles with which you hail passers-by, with the hope that they will sing "Pretty Woman" to you.

You can listen to the entire presentation by using the player above, or download the audio in any number of ways by visiting the Act One Story Symposium site here.

Labels: communication, hollywood, moral life, movies, podcasts, theology of the body

In recent days, I've uploaded four more talks from last October's Story Symposium:

"How Dark is Too Dark?" by David McFadzean


"What Flannery Knew" by Barbara Nicolosi


"In Defense of Happy Endings: A European Perspective" by Armando Fumagalli


"From Truth to Fiction" by Karen Hall





You can listen to the presentations by using the players above, or download the audio in any number of ways by visiting the Act One Story Symposium site here.

Labels: communication, hollywood, moral life, movies, multimedia, podcasts

This week I've posted the audio recording from our class on human sexuality and the sacrament of marriage, which was led by guest speaker Patrick Coffin, now the host of the radio show Catholic Answers Live. The class was held a year ago this week.

A short excerpt:

The will to contracept is very similar to the will to abort, because they are fruits from the same roots. They both desire the indulgence in sex without desiring the natural result of sex, which is the new human person. And a lot of the Catholic dissenters from Humanae Vitae... admit that you cannot argue against any other sexual perversion as long as you deny that each act of intercourse ought to be open to new life.

How can a couple who are married and are using the pill argue against gay marriage? Or against any kind of homosexual acts? They really can't, because the logic has a way of catching up with them. They have already, in a sense -- biologically at least -- gay-ified their own union by making every act sterile and therefore their rationality in condemning other sterile acts is, I would say, compromised.

Click here for the links to the audio and the materials we read in preparation for the class.

Labels: communion, human life, marriage and family, multimedia, podcasts, RCIA, sacraments, theology of the body

More audio from the RCIA Hollywood program: a recording of our class on Pope Benedict XVI's apostolic visit to the United States in April of 2008.

Topics include the contrast between media coverage of the events and what the Pope actually said, and an in-depth look at several of the texts from his visit, including the question-and-answer session held on the plane trip to the US, the Pope's words to the bishops, to leaders of Catholic institutions of higher education, and to ecumenical leaders. Duration: 91 minutes.

Click here for links to the audio, as well as to a PDF document containing the entire collection of the Pope's addresses during his visit.

Labels: hollywood, multimedia, podcasts, pope benedict xvi, RCIA

Finally getting around to posting more audio from the RCIA Hollywood program.

This week I've posted the audio recording from our class on virtues, passions, and the artist, which was led by guest speakers Dr. Daniel McInerny of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture, and Dr. Michael P. Foley of the Great Texts Program at Baylor University. The class was held almost a year ago to the day, and includes a reading about Saints Perpetua and Felicity, whose feast day is March 7.

Click here for links to the audio and to all of the materials we read in preparation for the class.

Labels: hollywood, multimedia, podcasts, RCIA, saints

I've just uploaded the fourth talk from last October's Story Symposium:

"The Healing Power of Stories" by Chuck Slocum


Here is the way Slocum sets up the discussion:

One of the things that began to weigh on my heart recently -- not for any particular reason, but just in thinking -- I began to become very aware that there were no doubt a lot of women in the audience for the film Juno who had made the opposite choice from Juno and had had abortions, and nonetheless were in the audience for that movie. There were some women no doubt who had made the same choice that Juno makes and had given up a child for adoption. No doubt there were other women who had raised the unanticipated child themselves. And I have not had the opportunity to sit down with any women in any of those categories and talk to them about the experiences of seeing that movie. No doubt, though, that it's a very different experience than me watching that movie. No doubt it's a very different experience for them from watching other movies themselves.

I'd be interested to know how that film interacted with their own personal experience... how the film mattered for them. Did it confirm their choice? Did it confront it? What was it like to have such an intimate aspect of their own life and such a difficult choice dealt with in this screen story and have to relate that to their own life? In some ways, you don't even have to go to see a movie like that to have that confrontation happen, because it's marketed so prominently that even the marketing of that film and the public discussion of that film brings up that confrontation with the experience of the individual.

Well, in some ways Juno is not a great example for this type of exploration because we don't really know how it turns out. Juno, the movie, ends too early. We know that Juno expects to go back to her normal life, but we don't really know how it turns out years later. We know that the adoptive mother is happy with her family of two, but we don't really see what happens after that.

But it provoked for me this larger question of the way that stories affect each of us as we travel our own individual psychological journeys and then happen upon films or television programs that are relevant to wherever we've been traveling personally at a timely moment. If we're at a vulnerable place, can a film contribute to our healing, and to the contrary, can it hurt?

Essayist Joan Didion writes that We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live. We look for the sermon in the suicide, or for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five. We interpret what we see, select the most workable of the multiple choices, and we live by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the ideas with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience. Then she goes on to explain that this process broke down in her own life. She writes that she began to doubt the premises of all the stories that she had ever told herself. Indeed, she experienced a breakdown because the things that were happening in her life didn't fit the stories that she had told herself to understand the world. This was all in the same year she was named Woman of the Year by the LA Times.

Professional therapists sometimes use similar language to that used by Didion. Patients who are seeking therapy routinely will share their perception of their own situation with a therapist, and this is almost uniformly shared in story form, quite naturally. Some therapists write letters to the patient summarizing their perspective on the situation, perhaps in a way that the patient hadn't previously appreciated. Sometimes they'll write a letter to the extended family, if it's a family issue, describing the situation as the therapist sees it, or sometimes they'll have the patient write the letter to the family. Sometimes the therapist will write a hypothetical story about an alternate future, a future that gets around the problematic behavior and where the patient copes with the problem, or they'll have the patient write that letter about their own alternate future. The goal is to relate the problem to factors that the patient may not immediately see, and to provide the patient with plausible alternatives. Often the patients themselves are guided through creating those alternatives. The key is to have the patient recast themselves from victim to victor. In our language, the patient is writing a hypothetical third act for their own life.

Is that the same thing that Juno is doing for some of those audience members? Do all or most films have that same kind of potential? Does it have to be intentional? Do they have to be serious films? Can they be comedies? Can they be other kinds of movies?

You can listen to the entire presentation by using the player above, or download the audio in any number of ways by visiting the Act One Story Symposium site here.

Labels: communication, hollywood, movies, multimedia, podcasts

I've just uploaded the third talk from last October's Story Symposium:

"Heroes" by Dr. Peter Kreeft

Kreeft proposes seven preconditions for a hero — hierarchy, teleology/purpose/design, natural law, absolutes, free will, honor, and suffering — in order to start a discussion of the question: do heroes exist today?

Here's a short excerpt from Kreeft's introduction:

Do we live in a world without heroes? We can't answer that question until we know what heroes are. So logically, we should first define the key term: heroes. But I don't want to do that, because I think we have a deep, unconscious, intuitive understanding of what really important things are before we define them, and that should guide our definitions rather than vice versa. Define time, please. Define beauty. Define being. No, but you recognize it when you see it. So I think we know what heroes are because we know what a world without heroes would be like. It would be Brave New World, which I think is one of the most prophetic books of modern times.

Are we moving closer and closer to Brave New World? In the 50's, Huxley, who wrote it in the 30's, said "we're almost there." On the other hand, we're not there yet. It's still a cautionary tale. It's a dystopia; it's not a eutopia... except to some people. The first time I taught it in the 60's at BC, I just threw it at the students, and said, "bring questions about it," without any guidance. After about 5 minutes of questioning, I realized to my horror that most of them had totally misunderstood it. They thought that Huxley was for Brave New World, and then came a second horror, most of them agreed with him, and were very surprised that anyone wouldn't want to live in Brave New World. So maybe we are closer than we think.

Who are our heroes today?

You can listen to the entire presentation by using the player above, or download the audio in any number of ways by visiting the Act One Story Symposium site here.

Labels: hollywood, movies, multimedia, podcasts

I've uploaded the second talk from last October's Story Symposium:

"Story as Epiphany" by Chris Riley

After Chris spends about 20 minutes unpacking the notion of epiphanies in movie storytelling, and asking questions about the difference between epiphanies and moments of propaganda, he opened the discussion to the panel.

As a teaser, here's what panelist Dr. Peter Kreeft had to offer to the conversation:

In an epiphany, you see something new. You don't just get soothed by something you've known before, and you don't just get argued into something which grates on you. In an epiphany, you see something new and yet it's old. You always knew it, but you didn't know that you knew it until this moment, so it's coming from inside you.... If you're inside your art, instead of manipulating it from outside, however gently, you can appeal to that inner force in the audience: deep calls unto deep. Because in some mysterious way, your heart and the audience's heart are much closer than anything else in you to the audience, including the mind.

You can listen to the entire presentation by using the player above, or download the audio in any number of ways by visiting the Act One Story Symposium site here.

Labels: hollywood, movies, multimedia, podcasts

During the Advent and Christmas season, I hosted three evenings of discussion of Pope Benedict XVI's most recent encyclical Spe Salvi ("Saved in Hope"). All three discussions are now edited (roughly!) and available as audio podcasts, which you can download directly here:

• Spe Salvi, paragraphs 1-12: Introduction; Faith is Hope; The concept of faith-based hope in the New Testament and the early Church; Eternal life - what is it?


• Spe Salvi, paragraphs 13-31: Is Christian hope individualistic?; The transformation of Christian faith-hope in the modern age; The true shape of Christian hope


• Spe Salvi, paragraphs 32-50: "Settings" for learning and practising hope: Prayer as a school of hope; Action and suffering as settings for learning hope; Judgment as a setting for learning and practicing hope; Mary, Star of Hope

Alternatively, you can download the series of audio podcasts in iTunes here.

Labels: multimedia, podcasts, pope benedict xvi

Last October, Act One: Training for Hollywood held a two-day symposium on storytelling.

It was a great symposium. The format -- presentation followed by a roundtable discussion with a group of panelists -- was a great way to percolate and explore ideas. The panelists and presenters included:

• Dr. Peter Kreeft, renowned philosopher and author of over 50 titles, including Socrates Meets Jesus


• David Mc Fadezean, Executive Producer, Home Improvement, What Women Want


• Barbara Nicolosi, Act One Founder, Screenwriter, VP Development, Origin Entertainment


• Armando Fumigalli, professor, Catholic University of Milan


• Karen Hall, writer on several shows, including M*A*S*H, Judging Amy, Hill Street Blues, and Moonlighting


• Dean Batali, Executive Producer, That 70's Show, writer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer


• Bobette Buster, Creative Executive and International Story Consultant


• Chris Riley, Screenwriter and Author, The Hollywood Standard


• Bill Marsilii, Screenwriter, Deja Vu


• Chuck Slocum, Assistant Executive Director, Writer's Guild of America

I helped to audio record the entire event, which I'm now in the process of editing and posting as podcasts.

The first podcast is now available. It's a presentation by Bobette Buster on "The Big Idea." It's a good primer for what is going on in the entertainment world right now, and also has a few prophetic words about the Oscarability of Slumdog Millionaire.

Labels: hollywood, movies, multimedia, podcasts

I've been having a series of study group discussions at my apartment with friends. The topic has been Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict XVI's recent encyclical letter on hope.

Today, I've posted the audio from the second of three discussions.

You can listen to the audio over at my audio podcast feed.

Labels: multimedia, podcasts, pope benedict xvi

This week I'm hosting a series of three evenings of discussion of Pope Benedict XVI's most recent encyclical Spe Salvi ("Saved in Hope"). Last night's discussion (Part 1) is now available as an audio podcast, which you can download directly here or in iTunes here.

Labels: podcasts, pope benedict xvi

There's an initiative underway to provide a comprehensive pastoral plan for the Church in Hollywood. Currently headed up by Fr. Don Woznicki, a priest of the archdiocese of Chicago, this plan could significantly re-shape the forms of ministry and support that the Church provides to the entertainment industry. From the mission statement:

The Hollywood Project is a five-phase plan to establish a dedicated, committed, and resourceful presence of the universal Church in Los Angeles, California, to support the people of the entertainment industry in their special calling to bring truth, beauty, and goodness to the human race.

I've known Fr. Don since 2002. He was the catalyst behind Cardinal George's invitation for Barbara Nicolosi to bring the the Act One: Writing for Hollywood program to Chicago that year. I attended that program, which ultimately led me to move to Hollywood a year later to pursue an interest in screenwriting and to serve in various pastoral outreaches, including a Theology of the Body study group and the RCIA Hollywood program.

At any rate, after many months of preliminary planning, there's information about The Hollywood Project online. There's a blog, a Facebook group, and I've also posted an audio podcast from a recent presentation Fr. Don gave at Saint Victor's Catholic Church in West Hollywood:



I encourage you to support this spiritual endeavor at the service of artists here in Los Angeles.

Labels: hollywood, podcasts, theology of the body

Back in January of this year, Father Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap, preacher to the papal household, gave two talks in Los Angeles at a gathering of the SCRC about Pentecost and loving the Church.

I posted the first as an audio podcast back in May, and I'm posting the second today, along with a transcript of most of the talk.

It may seem a strange time of year to be posting a talk about Pentecost. However, some of Cantalamessa's words about divisions in the body of Christ, each person seeking the good of the other, and the importance of loving the Church and sharing her shame, seem particularly timely after the recent election season, which has left the Church in this country sorely divided.

The whole presentation is worth a listen. You can download the talk directly to your browser here, or subscribe to my feed using iTunes, or simply look up the episode on Podcast Alley.

I've divided the talk into thirteen sections:
the grace of repentance
weeping for the divisions in the body of Christ
being convinced of sin
the grace of surrendering to the Lordship of Christ
the joy of proclaiming the Gospel
union with the suffering of Christ
experiencing Scripture as a living word
in prayer, the Spirit draws us into Trinitarian communion: each eager for the good of the other
a noticeable change
the vocation to be an itinerant preacher
the importance of obedience in discernment and submission to the word of God
the grace of a new Pentecost
loving the Church and sharing in her shame

I want to speak about the charismatic renewal being an authentic way of living Christian and Catholic life, but not in a theoretical way, more in a practical way. Just telling my own experience: how I experienced the charismatic renewal, what blessings it brought to my life… because in doing that, you can recognize maybe blessings the charismatic renewal has brought to your life, and people who are here for the first time maybe can be encouraged to receive this blessing, to open themselves to this blessing.

the grace of repentance

In 1975, I started hearing about a new way of praying. A lady who I accompanied in her journey went back from a retreat house in Milan, and said to me, “I have met there strange people. They raise hands, they pray in a very joyful way, they even speak about miracles happening among them.” As a traditional and wise spiritual director, I said to this lady, “You never go again to this retreat house.” But women don’t give up easily, you know. So she obeyed, but she kept inviting me to some prayer meetings of the charismatic renewal. And I remember one day, I was in Rome, there was a prayer meeting in a religious house, and I was there, very critical. I was somehow scandalized the way they spoke about the charisms… “The Lord gives you this charism. The Lord gives you this other charism.” This seemed to me to be quite an inappropriate way of speaking of the Holy Spirit. The leaders of the group knew my position, so secretly, they said to the people, “Don’t go to this particular priest. He’s an enemy of the charismatic renewal.” But seeing a priest among them, people would approach me and ask for confession. And listening to these confessions was a big stroke, because I had never seen such a deep and pure repentance in my life. These people showed what Jesus meant when he said, “When the Holy Spirit comes, He will convince the world of sin.” They were really convinced of sin, in such a way that I had the impression that sins fell down, like stones, and at the end there were tears and joy. And I said to myself, “This must be the work of the Holy Spirit. There is no other explanation.” I was shaken. I remember this moment as the first time when I felt shaken, as when somebody shakes a tree. But somehow – I’m ashamed to admit it – I resisted. I started being curious, being interested. I gave a course at the University on the first charismatic and prophetic movements in the Church, trying to understand something of what was going on.

weeping for the divisions in the body of Christ

In 1977, again a lady – a different lady – there are many ladies in my life! – all have played a positive and wonderful role as instruments of God – a lady offered four tickets to come to the United States – all included – to attend a charismatic ecumenical rally in Kansas City, in July 1977…. So I came to Kansas City. There were 40,000 people there – 20,000 Catholics and 20,000 from many other Christian denominations. In the morning, we met separately, each church, and in the evening, together in the stadium. I always remember – I have mentioned it time and again – a detail of this meeting. One evening, one of the leaders took the microphone and started saying, “You bishops. You pastors. Moan and weep because of the body of my Son is broken. You people, you men and women, moan and weep because the body of my Son is broken.” And little by little I saw people start falling on their knees around me, until almost all this huge crowd was a single people sobbing out of repentance for the divisions in the body of Christ. And all this while there was a phrase written electronically against the sky: “Jesus is Lord.” It was a prophetic vision. I had the opportunity of mentioning this vision while preaching to the Papal household, because I said, “If one day all Christians shall be united, it will be like this: when we are all on our knees, repenting under the lordship of Christ….

being convinced of sin

I remember one day we were praying… there was a prayer meeting, and I still had objections: “What am I looking for here? What can these people give me that I don’t possess? I am already a Franciscan, I have a beautiful spirituality in my order.” Especially the phrase, “I have already Saint Francis of Assisi as my spiritual father.” At that moment, again, a lady… opened a Bible, and without knowing anything, of course, and it was the passage where Saint John the Baptist says to the Pharisees, “Don’t tell in your heart, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’” I understood that the Lord was speaking to me, so I stood up – I didn’t speak any English, I spoke Italian, but everybody seemed to understand – and said, “Lord, I will never say again that I am a son of Saint Francis of Assisi, because I realize that I am not. And if it is necessary to receive this grace to become a true son of Saint Francis, I accept.”

the grace of surrendering to the Lordship of Christ

Allow me to share another detail. One evening I was walking in the park of this religious house, and the Lord spoke to me through an image, as He does very frequently. And the image was this: I saw myself (mentally) as a man upon a chariot, holding the reins of the horses. And I understood that this an image of me in my life as a man wanting to be in control of his life, and decide himself where to go. At a certain point, it was as if Jesus stood up beside me and very gently said to me, “Do you want to give me the reins of your life?” There was a moment of panic, because I understood that this was quite serious! But by the grace of God, I understood that I could not be in control of my life: nobody can. We don’t know what tomorrow we shall be. So I said, “Yes, Lord, take the reins of my life.” I share this detail because I am convinced that it is very important to receive for the first time, to receive again, the Holy Spirit, to surrender in this way, to give the Lord the reins of our life…. Making the Lordship of Christ effective, real.

the joy of proclaiming the Gospel

So when I received the baptism in the Spirit, all of the prophecies were about a new ministry of preaching the Gospel. Somebody said while they were praying, “You will experience a new joy in proclaiming my word.” Now by nature I am not a joyful person. Not being that. On the contrary! Quite on the contrary. But when I proclaim the word of God, there seems to be a joy going out. I have a program on the Italian state television each week, on Saturday evening, on the Gospel, and they say that more than what I say, they are interested in the joy I share with them.

union with the suffering of Christ

Well, nothing special happened during my baptism in the Spirit except that, when they said to me, “Now choose Jesus as your personal Lord,” I lifted up my eyes, and I met the crucifix which hung above the altar, and in a flash it was as if Jesus said to me, “Be careful. The Jesus you are choosing as your Lord is not an easy Jesus. It’s me on the crucifix.” Now this helped me, because still I harbored some feelings that the charismatic renewal might be something superficial, emotional. At that moment, I understood that the work of the Spirit takes to straight to the core of the Gospel, which is the cross of Jesus. And how many times later on, I had to confirm the truth of this.

experiencing Scripture as a living word

The day after, I left the place to reach my friary in Washington, and on the plane I started seeing or realizing that something had happened. When I opened my breviary, the Liturgy of the Hours, the Psalms seemed to be written the day before for me. And I understood that one of the first results of the coming of the Spirit is that the Bible becomes a living book, not just a book full of beautiful stories and truth, but a living book, where you can listen to the voice of God. How many times later on I could verify this among very simple people. I like to share the story – some of you may have heard because I have given my testimony many times – to confirm this: how the Bible becomes precious for those who have been touched by the Holy Spirit. I was in Australia – preaching a mission in Australia – and the last day, a simple man, a worker, came to me, saying “Father, I have a problem in my family. We have a boy of eleven years who has not yet been baptized, and the reason is that my wife has become a witness of Jehovah, and doesn’t want baptism to be mentioned. So if I don’t baptize him, I am not at ease with my conscience because, when we married, both Catholics, we promised to raise our children in the faith. But if I baptize the boy, there will be crisis in my family.” I said, “Leave me time… give me tonight to reflect. Come tomorrow and we shall decide.” The day after, this man came to me. I could see that he was very relaxed, very radiant, and said, “Father, I have found the solution.” I was relieved because I hadn’t found one. “Yesterday, after speaking with you, I came home, and I prayed for a while, then I opened the Bible. And I happened to fall upon the story, the passage where Abraham takes his son Isaac to the immolation. And I have seen that when Abraham takes his son Isaac to the immolation, he doesn’t mention anything to his wife.” It was a perfect discernment, because it’s true! I baptized the boy myself.

in prayer, the Spirit draws us into Trinitarian communion: each eager for the good of the other

Then when I arrived at my friary in Washington, a second sign: I was attracted to the chapel. So prayer had been rather difficult for me, but now I was attracted to the chapel and the prayer acquired a new dimension – the Trinitarian dimension – which is the real sign of Christian prayer. It means that it’s not just a creature speaking to his Creator. Christian prayer – prayer in the Spirit – means that God is bringing you… you are praying with God… the Holy Spirit is praying in you. And I understood, without any theological inquiry, how the Father is eager to speak [and] reveal things about his Son, Jesus. How Jesus is eager to reveal to us the Father. Each person being concerned about revealing the other, not himself. If you pay attention, Jesus always reveals the Father. And the Holy Spirit doesn’t proclaim his name – his name is ruah – but never in the New Testament does the Spirit say, “I am ruah.” He always teaches us to say, “Abba” or “Maranatha.” So each person is eager to reveal the other, which is the Trinitarian law. And if this law would be applied in the family, the wife speaking always good to the children of the father, the father defending the wife… If this law was applied even in our religious communities, oh, what a difference! Everybody being eager to speak good, not evil, for the other.

a noticeable change

Well, after three months, I came back to Italy. This was my three-month honeymoon. I came back to Italy, and the people who had known me were very surprised. Some said, “Oh, what a miracle! We have sent to America Saul, and they have sent us back Paul!” I started to join people when I was able in these prayer meetings, sharing in their enthusiasm. This was a wonder, because when you discover this new world in the Spirit… you may have been baptized, ordained, even consecrated bishop, but nevertheless it is always a new discovery. It’s discovering a new world of freedom, joy, enthusiasm, spontaneity… I started to join these people.

the vocation to be an itinerant preacher

One day I was praying in my friary, my room, and the Lord again spoke to me through an image. Nothing miraculous or exterior, but something which has changed my life. And the image was this: While I was praying with closed eyes, it was as if Jesus passed in front of me. It was precisely the same Jesus as when he came back from the Jordan, right after his baptism, radiating the power of the Spirit and ready to start preaching the Kingdom. And passing in front of me in my heart, I felt he was saying, “If you want to help me in proclaiming the Kingdom of God, leave everything and follow me.” Now as a Franciscan, I was supposed to have already left everything… but the Lord knew very well I was very rich – rich in honor, in culture… Now I understood what he meant. He meant, “Leave your teaching position, your chair, and become an itinerant preacher in the style of your father Francis of Assisi.” I remember, I don’t know why, that I was afraid because Jesus seemed to be in a hurry. He invited me but didn’t stop. I was afraid of not being ready to give an answer. But by the grace of God, at that moment I understood what grace means… how grace can work with your freedom, without oppressing your freedom, but nevertheless, doing everything. By the grace of God, at the end of this prayer, I found in my heart a full “Yes, Lord. Yes.” Everything I had striven for fell down.

the importance of obedience in discernment and submission to the word of God

I started making a retreat to prepare myself. I was in a friary in Switzerland, and then I came to Rome to ask the permission of my superior, because as a religious, I couldn’t act on my inspiration. This is quite important: you can’t act on your own inspiration. You need confirmation somehow from your superior, spiritual director, confessor, your bishop, because you will never know if this was just your feeling or the call of God. At that moment I discovered what obedience means, what a gift it is in the Catholic Church to have a clear authority that can confirm you and make you sure that this is it. So I went to my superior, and he said to me exactly what any bishop or any provincial superior would say in that case: “Let us wait one year.” This is a very wise answer. I waited one year, I came back, we prayed together, and he said, “Yes, it is the will of God. Go.” So I started preparing myself, and when a phone call came from Rome it was my General Superior again, who said to me, “John Paul II has appointed you as papal preacher. Have you any serious reasons to say no?” I tried. I tried honestly to find some reasons, but apart from a certain nervousness, I didn’t find serious reasons, so I had to accept. This was back in 1980, twenty-eight years ago. So I started preaching Lent. So this ministry means that I must give a meditation to the Holy Father, the cardinals of the Roman Curia, the bishops and prelates working there – about sixty or seventy people – to the Pope… the Pope is always present. Every week in Lent and Advent…. So I started this strange ministry, which is very meaningful not because of me, the preacher, but because of what the Pope says to the whole Church with this practice. He gives an example of submission to the word of God. With all he has to do, he never misses a sermon. Sometimes going out after preaching, I see heads of state waiting to be received by the Pope, and he is there listening to a simple priest of the Catholic Church….

the grace of a new Pentecost

Now this is an occasion to say something about the Church. I think the Lord has used me, this poor instrument, to let resound on the very heart of the Church the grace of a new Pentecost going on in the Church, because the second year I preached to the Pope, I had to speak about the baptism in the Spirit. And now, last Advent, after twenty-eight years, I felt again the need of addressing this issue – baptism in the Spirit – speaking about the relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus as a relationship between baptism in water and baptism in the Spirit. I spoke about the baptism in the Spirit, because it is in the New Testament. It is not just something which belongs to the charismatic renewal. Jesus says, “You will be baptized in the Holy Spirit in a few days.” What did he mean by that?! Sometimes I raise my voice because some members of the clergy seem to consider baptism in the Spirit to be something strange, invented I don’t know by whom – Pentecost or some Protestants. It is there! When Jesus says, “You will be baptized in a few days,” what did he mean? You shall be baptized in water? What happened a few days later? Pentecost! So he meant Pentecost. So there is a perennial Pentecost and this grace maybe is received not always in the same way, not necessarily belongs to the charismatic renewal, but certainly it would be tragic if the leaders of the Church should decide while millions of people are experiencing this grace and have been empowered. So I spoke like this, very strongly. If you want to read the sermon, it is on the Internet, in English…. It’s the second meditation I gave to the Pope last Advent.

loving the Church and sharing in her shame

It has been an opportunity to let the institutional Church know and listen about this, but this has also been an occasion for me to convey to my brothers and sisters in the charismatic renewal the concerns of the institutional Church, the desires, the hope they have of the charismatic renewal and all the other ecclesial movements. And I feel the duty also to achieve this task of conveying to my brothers and sisters in the charismatic renewal what are the desires of the Church, even sometimes unexpressed… implicit. I think that the charismatic renewal should remain sane. Sane means focusing on the essential – sanctification and serving others with the charisms. So the charismatic renewal should not go astray in some very strange directions, focusing only on exorcisms or healings. These are a part of, but are not the essential. The essential is to let the Holy Spirit take away the heart of stone and give us the heart of flesh. Instruct us to bear the fruits of the Spirit. And one of the desires of the Church is certainly that we love the Church. Now the charismatic renewal has been perceived by the hierarchical Church as faithful. This has certainly been a mark which has helped the charismatic renewal being accepted in the Church, because already Paul VI said, “This is a chance for the Church.” And John Paul II, ten years later, said, “My predecessor, ten years ago, said this was a chance for the Church, and now I can confirm the truth of this word. It has been a chance for the Church.” So the charismatic renewal has begun with a strong connection with the institutional Church. There are usually no tensions about that, but something more is required: love of the Church. Solidarity with the Church. Especially moments like this, when because of the scandals, because of the uproar in the world, many Catholics feel ashamed to belong to the Catholic Church. Now, as in a family, we must share the honors and also responsibility of the Church. We should not consider ourselves outside and pointing the finger. We are members of the Church! A French writer, Antoine de Saint Exupéry, in a moment when his homeland, France, was in a humiliating position, subjected to the Germans and collaborating with the Germans, he said, “Because they are my people, I will not speak against them. I will not go around saying evil about them. A man doesn’t go around telling people that his wife is nothing good, is a prostitute. No! Once in the house, he will give vent to his rage, but he defends, because he feels part of her.” And the same applies to the Church. We should feel part of the Church, and pray, and atone for the other. I remember reading this passage from Erasmus of Rotterdam, the humanist of the sixteenth century. He was in relation with Luther, and Luther, in a letter, reproached him, saying, “Why do you remain in the Catholic Church, knowing how corrupt it is?” And he answered, “I endure this Church, in the hope that she will become better. Because she must also endure me in the hope that I become better.”

The Church is not defiled only because of sins of pedophilia. In the eyes of the media, yes, this sin seems to be the only relevant sin. But the body of Christ is defiled by any sin of pride, of lust, of avarice, of hatred… and who can say, “I am innocent”?.... So we must acknowledge what is evil, but not consider ourselves outside. I am very impressed by this phrase from the letter to the Ephesians: “Christ loved… loved… loved… the Church. Christ loved the Church.” Didn’t Jesus know what the Church was like? He knows that one of the apostles was betraying him, that others were quarrelling among themselves… he knew! He knew the real Church. But he loved the Church! And who are we to judge the Church and not love the Church?

In this moment it is particularly important that you Catholics in the United States show solidarity and suffering – suffering in your heart – but not abandoning the Church, not sitting outside and pointing the finger to the Church. And I think there is a secret, a spiritual riches in this, if in this moment we share in the shame of the Church… we share in the ignominy of the Church. There is a blessing. Then the Lord will use this opportunity as a purification: not as a punishment, but as a purification.

Labels: Holy Spirit, podcasts