Anglicans...and other Anglicans

Apparently some few folks in the UK, presumably some Anglicans, are very upset over the possibility that a number of their fellow believers may depart the Church of England and enter into full communion with the Catholic Church.

Fr. David Waller, the Anglo-Catholic Vicar of St. Saviour’s Parish in Walthamstow, UK, received a voice mail threatening him with physical violence should he and his parishioners make the move to Catholicism. On the same evening vandals also defaced the church building with a painted message declaring: "C of E -- No Pope".  Although Fr. Waller has not yet publicly declared that we will enter the Catholic Church, based on his comments, I'd say that such a move is likely. And neither does he seem to have been intimidated by threats or vandalism. Commenting on the threatening voice mail, Fr. Waller said, “The message was distorted – it sounded drunken and I don’t want to make too much of it." And neither do I. I mention it only to show that Anglicans can expect resistance to any positive response to this historic invitation by the Catholic Church. You can read about Fr. Waller here: Anglo-Catholic Vicar Threatened.

And then there's Rowan Williams, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, who recently urged the Catholic church to overlook such issues as papal primacy and women clergy and focus instead on furthering the effort to achieve communion with the Anglican Church. The archbishop seems to think that, in the spirit of ecumenism, the Catholic Church can and should simply set aside any differences, even those it believes are grounded in divine law and part of the deposit of faith. I guess he thinks the Catholic Church can help God's law "evolve" so that it will better reflect the spirit of the times. I suspect the archbishop is starting to panic as he watches the Anglican Church self destruct. How very sad. Click here to read more.

...and the drama continues.

Pray for life and pray for unity.

"Comatose" Man Aware for 23 Years

I'm sure you've already heard of the Belgian man, Rom Hauben, who was injured in an auto accident 23 years ago and subsequently diagnosed as comatose. It seems, however, that the diagnosis was incorrect and that Hauben was actually fully conscious the whole time. Now Hauben is able to communicate via a nifty computerized device and subtle finger movements.

When I heard the news about this man who had been written off by his doctors, my first thought was of Terri Schiavo. I'm sure you remember her. She was the Florida woman who was killed by her doctors in March 2005 at the urging of her husband and under orders from the courts. And how did they kill her? They starved her to death, prohibiting anyone from giving her even a drop of water. It took two weeks for her to die -- the culture of death in action.

I thought of Terri because many of her family members were convinced that she was aware and conscious despite what her doctors claimed. If that were the case, can you imagine what she must have gone through during that two weeks of forced starvation? (The photo at left is of the supposedly "vegetative" Terri and her mother.)

Since regaining his ability to communicate, Rom Hauben said, "I screamed but there was nothing to hear...All that time I just literally dreamed of a better life. Frustration is too small a word to describe what I felt."

To read more about Rom Hauben and his "recovery" click here: Mail Online.

Advent Mission

As I may have mentioned on another occasion, our parish -- St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Wildwood, Florida -- is blessed to have eight permanent deacons assigned to assist our pastor, Fr. Peter Sagorski. Of these eight deacons four are "seasonal residents" (that's our local euphemism for "snowbirds") who spend about half the year with of us. Of course, we have this large number of deacons because of The Villages, the large retirement community in which most of us live. And because all future growth in The Villages will take place within our parish boundaries, I suspect we might collect a few more deacons over the next few years.

One nice benefit of having so many deacons is their willingness to take on the ministerial and pastoral needs of our parish community. Earlier this year, for example, five of us conducted a very successful Lenten mission here at the parish. It went over so well that our pastor suggested we conduct another.

And so next week five deacons of our parish will conduct an Advent Mission. The theme of the five-day mission is "Open Wide the Doors to Christ" and will focus on Advent as a time of conversion. Each day of the mission, conducted by a different deacon, has its own sub-theme:

• Monday - Stay Awake...Watch for the Lord
• Tuesday - Christ Comes to Forgive
• Wednesday - Receiving the Good News
• Thursday - Carrying Christ to Others
• Friday - Walk in the Peace of Christ
  

On each day of the mission the assigned deacon will preach at the 8:30 a.m. daily Mass. After Mass the Blessed Sacrament will be exposed for adoration throughout the day. At 6 p.m. the "deacon of the day" will lead a Liturgy of the Word, then give a mission talk on the particular sub-theme listed above. This will be followed by Benediction and reposition of the Blessed Sacrament.

We hope and pray for a large turnout and ask you to pray that the Holy Spirit will guide and inspire the five of us who will conduct the mission.

God's peace...

Publicity for the Wildwood Soup Kitchen

This morning, as a consequence of one of those Google searches that leads to wildly unexpected results, I discovered a blog of the National Association of Realtors. The particular post I encountered, dated November 13, was entitled, How to Volunteer at a Soup Kitchen. On the page there's a state-by-state listing of just a few of the nation's many food banks and soup kitchens, and right there, among the five sites listed for Florida, is our own Wildwood Soup Kitchen, including a link to our website. Our thanks to the realtors for including us on their list.

When I first put the soup kitchen's website together a few years ago, I thought of it more as an internal tool, as a means to keep our 100+ volunteers informed. But then I thought it might also be a nice way for others to learn about what we do and perhaps even contribute. While we don't get a lot of hits (soup kitchen websites aren't particularly glamorous), the site has generated quite a few donations as well as many requests to volunteer. So I suppose it's been worth the small extra effort.

Anyway, it's always nice to get a little publicity.

A Soup Kitchen Thanksgiving

20091126-SoupKitchen
Originally uploaded by deacondana

A long, tiring, but enjoyable day. Diane and I, along with my brother, Jeff, who is visiting with us, were up bright and early this morning and at the Wildwood Soup Kitchen by 7 a.m. to begin preparations for our Thanksgiving Day dinner. We had a record number of volunteers who joined us as we cooked, delivered and served over 230 meals. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, it was a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, complete with all the fixin's. Our guests, young and old and in-between, all seemed to enjoy the day and were happy to take a lot of the leftovers home with them.

Yesterday I also mentioned that our local media folks stopped by the house to give the soup kitchen a little publicity. As a result there was a wonderful writeup in the local paper, The Villages Daily Sun. They also gave Diane and me some face time on our local TV station, VNN, letting me ramble on about the nature of this wonderful ministry to those in need. My only complaint is that the TV folks didn't include my appeal for donations. I've included a video clip (above) of the local news show.

My other complaint is that I was so busy I didn't have time to sample the wonderful meal that Diane and her team of kitchen volunteers put together. This, I suppose, is a good thing since my waistline has been somewhat unstable in recent weeks and needs to settle down...way down.

Here are a few photos of some of our wonderful guests, along with the volunteers who made the day such a success...

Our team getting ready to fill those empty plates

 

Fixin' the sweet potatoes

A young guest samples the pie

Happiness is a full tummy...

A smile of satisfaction

Our guests enjoyed the food and conversation...

...and the coffee.

Blessings...and Happy Thanksgiving!

Homily for Wednesday, 25 November

Saint: Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin, Martyr

Scripture: Lk 21:12-19

______________________________

If the gospel message is good news, then why do so many oppose it with hostility and even violence?

Jesus warns us that we’ll be confronted with persecution, evil, false teaching, and temptation. Of course, the Gospel’s real enemy is Satan – the one Jesus calls a "murderer" and "father of lies." And, believe me, brothers and sisters, Satan’s not some psychological construct; no, Satan is very real, and he uses fear and hatred to generate hatred toward those who follow Jesus Christ.

And how does Jesus respond to all this? With love, with truth, with forgiveness. Only God’s love can defeat bigotry, hatred and envy. Only God's love purifies hearts and minds of all that would divide and tear us apart.

God’s truth is essential too. Only God’s truth can overcome the evil and tribulation in the world. Satan deceives and sin blinds the heart and mind. Only God's truth frees us from error and spiritual blindness. The truth. That’s what the Gospel is, brothers and sisters, God's word of truth and salvation.

And that’s why Jesus tells his disciples to proclaim the gospel throughout the whole world, even in the midst of opposition and persecution. Jesus promises his disciples that if they endure to the end they will gain their lives – they will see God's salvation and inherit an eternal life of happiness with God. But such endurance – the ability to remain faithful in the midst of trails, temptations and persecution – doesn‘t come from human effort. Such endurance is a gift, a supernatural gift of the Holy Spirit, a gift strengthened by hope – the assurance that we’ll see God face to face and inherit His promises. In this as in all things, Jesus is our model: Jesus who endured the cross for our sake and salvation; Jesus who calls us to love, to die to ourselves.

Did you know the word martyr in Greek means witness? That’s right, true martyrs live and die as witnesses of the Gospel. The Book of Revelation calls Jesus “the faithful witness ...who freed us from our sins by his blood." Tertullian, a second century lawyer converted when he saw Christians singing as they went out to die at the hands of their persecutors. He compared the blood of the martyrs to seed, the seed of new Christians, the seed of the church. St. Augustine spoke of this too: "The martyrs were bound, jailed, scourged, racked, burned, rent, butchered – and they multiplied!" They multiplied because the martyrs witnessed to the truth; they witnessed to the joy and freedom of the Gospel; and they did so through the testimony of their lives and their deaths.

Our world today is plagued by terrorism, by those who would sacrifice their own lives simply to take the lives of others. They do so out of hatred, out of revenge for perceived wrongs, and out of a misguided belief that God actually wills such obscenities. Despite their beliefs, they are, of course, not martyrs. Their sacrifice is motivated by everything but God's merciful love and forgiveness, His truth and righteousness. True martyrs pray for their persecutors and love their enemies. In their suffering and deaths they witness the truth: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

And so we must remember that Jesus died on the cross for Jews and Greeks, Christians and Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists, agnostics and atheists. “God so loved the world…” He doesn’t love just part of it. No, He loves it all. He loves each of us. It can’t be otherwise because He created each human being in an individual act of love.

It’s through our witness as Christians that others recognize Christ’s victory on the cross, his power to overcome sin, fear and hatred, even death itself. When the world looks at Christians it has the right to find in them a reflection of the glory of the Trinity. The world has a right to discover in our faith, our hope, and our love a testimony to the presence of the Holy Spirit. The problems that have arisen in Christ’s Church over the centuries, and exist even now, are not caused by the Holy Spirit; they’re caused by the mediocrity of Christians. That mediocrity can turn people away from Christ. What brings others to Jesus Christ and His Church is seeing Christians loving their enemies; seeing Christians joyful in suffering, patient in adversity, forgiving of injuries, and showing comfort and compassion to the hopeless and the helpless.

This, brothers and sisters, is our calling.

Thanksgiving at the Soup Kitchen

Time certainly has a way of passing quickly when you're busy, and this past week has certainly flown by. Diane and I and several other good, helpful folks have been working hard making preparations for our Thanksgiving dinner at the Wildwood Soup Kitchen. It's always a particularly challenging day for us since almost everything about the meal is a break from our usual routine at the kitchen.

First of all, we give most of our regular Thursday volunteers the day off, so they can spend the holiday with their families. We can do this because we get so many other requests to volunteer on this special day. The problem, though, is that most of these Thanksgiving volunteers have no experience working in the soup kitchen so we need to provide a lot of direct supervision. And there are a lot of them! We usually operate with about six to ten volunteers, but tomorrow we'll have 20 or more. We'll need them though.

On Thanksgiving we don't serve the meal in the usual cafeteria style. We serve each person individually at his or her table. They are met at the door, escorted to a seat, and shown the menu. (I've included a copy.) If there's something they don't want or like, the server notes it and takes the information to the kitchen where the person's plate is then made up. The server then takes the meal and drink to the guest. Other servers will move among the tables carrying trays filled with desserts. We try to make it a special day for all who come.

As you can see by the menu, the meal has a bit of a Southern flavor, which is to be expected given our location and dear Diane's Southern heritage. Cornbread dressing and sweet potatoes never graced my family's table during my formative years in New York and New England. But our four children all grew up enjoying Diane's true Southern cooking and have kept those recipes alive in their own households.


We have some local media folks coming by our home later this afternoon. They want to interview Diane and film her carving one of the turkeys that we'll serve tomorrow at the soup kitchen. Should be interesting, but first I have to finish my chores and vacuum the rugs. A retired husband's work is never done.

Our warmest wishes for a truly Happy Thanksgiving. Take some time tomorrow to thank our loving God not only for your family and the blessings He has bestowed on you, but also for the gift of life, for your very being.

And please keep us in your prayers as we do our best tomorrow to serve God and His people. God's peace...

Musicians: Among My Favorites

A little break from the usual today, a little taste of what makes being so good. God blesses certain people with extraordinary talents and together they are able to produce some wonderful things.

I've been a fan of the Modern Jazz Quartet since I bought my first album of theirs in 1962. Subsequently I had the opportunity to see and hear them in person several times in DC and New York clubs where one is up close and personal, certainly more so than in the larger concert venues. Their music is remarkable and nobody ever came close to the virtuosity of Milt Jackson on the vibes.

The quartet had its origins with the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra back in the late 1940s, and began playing together as a quartet in the early 1950s. They continued together for over 40 years, releasing their last record in 1993. Connie Kay died in 1994, Milt Jackson in 1999, John Lewis in 2001, and Percy Heath in 2005, and so all of the MJQ -- John Lewis (piano and musical director), Milt Jackson (vibraphone), Percy Heath (bass), and Connie Kay (drums) -- are gone now. But their music lives on.

So here's a sample of the MJQ's music, two of their classic pieces, Bag's Groove and Django. Enjoy.