Furthermore…

At the start of our meeting we always read a series of  resolutions that includes

“It is our hope that the true business of this meeting

will be our spiritual transformation

and the transformation of others through us,

and not simply the accomplishment of tasks and projects.”

I always thought this was  ‘a consummation devoutly to be wished’  (where does that come from?) but was wondering to what extent it may be happening.  Yesterday, as the meeting drew to a close, one of the members launched into, without referring back to the prayer, a kind of sermon exhorting us to focus on how and to what extent we are bringing our readings and discussions to bear on our individual lives.  I’m thinking about how we ought to figure out a way to make this kind of attention to practical applications into everyday life  a regular part of our routine. The prepared materials we use to guide us through our readings often have little questions such as “In what ways do Jesus’ words in the Gospel remind you of … ” but they seem so artifical and contrived compared to the sincere, spontaneous testimony we heard yesterday.  It’s the old conundrum: how to be spontaneous on cue!

This year I will be teaching about the faith at our parish to 5th graders every Sunday after Mass. Today I attended “A Day for Catechists, Educators, RCIA Teams, Liturgists and Postoral Leaders” put on by our diocese with the title Catechesis in the Proclamation of the Word. The morning session was a spirited combination of  instruction, prayer, music, singing,  and performance of ’stories’ based on the Gospels. It was presented by Tom Kendzia, an accomplished liturgical music composer and ValLimar Jansen, a highly talented vocalist, performer and recording artist. Without doubt the assembled ministers were greatly pleased and impressed.

In the afternoon we heard from experienced editor Nick Wagner about how to better understand the RCIA and evangelistic proceses, and then from liturgist, director of music and director of worshp Daina Macalintal on how mystagogy fits into the Christian worship community.

I greatly profited form the day’s content in terms of becoming better prepared for my assignment, and also through becoming better acquainted with many of my parish catechetical colleagues who up until today I only knew in passing acquaintance.

This week we looked at the readings for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary time, B Cycle, Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15, Psalm 78:3-4, Ephesians 4:17, 20-24, and John 6: 24-35. The passage from Exodus relates how God sent manna and quail in the desert to satisfy the hungry and grumbling Israelites. I came across a reference, which we didn’t address during our meeting, to something in the Psalm which seems to harken to a follow-up by God to the provision of the quail. Verses 29-31
29 They ate and were well filled; he gave them what they had craved.
30 But while they still wanted more, and the food was still in their mouths,
31 God’s anger attacked them, killed their best warriors, laid low the youth of Israel.
indicate that God carried out some kind of retribution, perhaps involving the quail that was eaten, that I look forward to learning more about. I saw a note in one of the commentaries I looked at in preparation for our meeting that those affected were poisoned. I’ll have to be alert to encountering additonal material shedding more light on this peculiar episode.

At our last faith enrichment meeting we discussed the readings for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B Cycle), 2 Kings 4:42-44, Psalm 145:10-11, 15-16, 17-18, Ephesians 4:1-6, and John 6:1-15.
The psalm is not long, so we read all of it. We didn’t discuss the fact, but there are some good lines in the psalm that tie in well with the gospel story of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes:
15 Patiently all creatures look to you to feed them throughout the year; quick to satisfy every need, you feed them all with a generous hand.
19 Those who fear him need only to ask to be answered; he hears their cries for help and saves them.
And especially 21a Yahweh’s praise be ever in my mouth,
“in my mouth” – much as is His miraculous food!

We talked about the reading for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, B Cycle, Jeremiah 23:, 1-6, Psalm 23: 1-6, Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians 2:13-18, and Mark 6:30-34. I had it in my mind to mention something about the various ways I saw Paul’s words about “you who were far off and you who were near” were interpreted in different things I read. One meaning ascribed to them was the the Gentiles were the ones who were far off, and the Israelites were those who were near. Another take on it was that the Isrealites taken to Babylon were those far off, and those remaining in their own land with Jeremiah were those addressed as being near. A third sense was that those living in Jeremiah’s time were the near, and people living sometime in the future such as ourselves might be the ones ‘far off.’
Until I read these views, I thought he was referring to those distant spiritually from God, versus those spiritually close to Him. Or maybe he meant … … just kidding!

Today we looked at the readings for the Body and blook of Christ Sunday (N Cycle). I was the presenter, instead of just another participant, so I spoke a little about a couple of the resources I use in preparing each week, the Modern Catholic Dictionary, and the verse-by-verse Bible Study analysis materials to be found on the website of St. Charles Borromeo Church in Picayune, Mississippi.
One of the members spoke with feeling about how receiving Communion is a unique experience for each person, in how we pray, what we say, the way we give thanks and praise, what it means to us, and all. This struck a chord with me, because I had been thinking a lot lately about how the Rosary is said uniquely by each person, and these two observations seemed to dovetail perfectly. I had made a lot of notes of things I wanted to work into the discussions, but as it worked out the interchanges were so lively (with our fewer than usual participants) that it would have been a stretch to work in my points.

Some of our members are away on vacation, travel and all so we had a somewhat smaller group as we talked about the Cycle B readings for Holy Trinity Sunday. As the sessions drew to an end one of the members (who is quite zealous about his faith) was inspired by the reading of “The Great Commission” at the end of Mathew’s Gospel to give us an exhortation to be more active and vigorous in evangelizing within our everyday lives as opportunities present themselves, or indeed actually making opportunities where none are apparent. As far as carrying over our Bible study to everyday life, we have been pretty good about praying for people we know to be sick or suffering, and encouraging one another with our fellowship and sharing of our experiences within the faith, but not too focused on everyday evangelization, so this was a good emphasis.

My grammar school was blessed to be taught by the School Sisters of Notre Dame. Their Mother House or novitiate or something was located in Baltimore, Maryland. As I paid attention to them year after year, I noticed that everytime the subject of baseball somehow came into consideration, they would mention only the Baltimoere Orioles. I was a Rochester, New York kid, in love with The Rochester Red Wings of the International League. The Baltimore Orioles were our RIVALS! Not ball-itically correct to mention the Orioles! But it also bothered me that they were, seemingly, the only team that the sisters knew anything about. I felt they should mention a variety of teams, to show that they knew a little something about the subject. At least a Major League team once in a while. How ironic – years later the Baltimore Orioles WERE a Major League team, and a World Series team, with an outstanding, notable stadium. Not so the Red Wings.

Yesterday we talked about the Cycle B readings for the 6th Sunday of Easter, Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48, Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4, 1 John 4:7-10, and John 15:9-17. In the Acts passage, Peter and some disciples visit the home of Cornelius a Centurian, and as Peter preaches they witness the Gentiles there receive the Holy spirit, “for they could hear them speaking in tongues and glorifying God.”
We didn’t talk about speaking in tongues, but I wonder if that (glossolalia) was something that was familiar to the people of the time, or was it something that only came into currency with the establishment of Christianity. I wonder if they were actually uttering in languages not known to them, or were they rather making emotional and exhuberent sounds that manifested how deeply they were moved. If speaking in tongues was not something familiar to the people of the time, the occurance would tie into the occurance at Pentecost more significantly as something directed by the Holy Spirit, but if it was common at the time for people feeling some kind of religious exhilaration to express it in such a way, it would seem to be less unimpeachably attributable to a distinctly Christian origin.

Kid asking question in class:

“How come those Bible people didn’t go to a psychic like most people instead of waiting around for a prophet?”