Jim Mahoney's Blog - Sacred to Etc.

A and P Catholics

If you are in church ministry as a line of work, you probably use initials as a shorthand for various parish programs. Here are some of the most commonly used: RCIA - Rite of 
Christian Initiation of Adults; CCD - Confraternity of Christian Doctrine or a variety of other words designed to fill out the initials CCD; RC - Roman Catholic; PV - Parochial Vicar. The Vatican is filled with groups known by their initials - most Catholic can go their entire life and not have to content with any of them. Then we come to possibly one of the most used  - A & P Catholics - stands for Ashes and Palms Catholics. This can be a positive or a negative abbreviation - but still it is widely used in Church circles.

Ashes and Palms - Here is what it means and what is the connection:

 

Ashes are the byproduct of burning palms, a clear way of explaining - "Remember you are dust and unto dust you will return."  This is the positive spiritual meaning of A and P Catholics. Nothing denigrating about it. That is the way it should be. Unfortunately, there are some who use the abbreviation to look down on those people that they feel only come twice a year - Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday. There are some in Church ministry who do like to feel superior to people that are not as enlightened as they are. So they pity those pour souls who truly do not understand the beauty of the symbols and all the liturgies of Lent.

The Church ministers who seem to be putting people down by using the phrase "A and P Catholics" may see themselves as far more sophisticated than the rest of the people who really feel genuinely deprived if they do not receive ashes and palms. It seems to me that we forget who educated our people in the ways, the mores, and the customs of our faith. This topic puts me right on my personal soapbox - especially when I hear church ministers talking about the people who do not come to Church. Just a personal thought, but in my gentle view, how the heck can you criticize people for not coming to Church if the quality of preaching is not outstanding. A mountain (slight exaggeration!) has documented repeatedly how important are the following factors in whether people come to Mass (first is quality of preaching, then a welcoming community and music that draws people into a community of believers in Jesus. Can we not take and consider our own responsibility for the quality of preaching, the liturgical music, an environment of joy and caring within the parish community.

The quality of preaching in parishes is one of the most documented and addressable problems in the life of the church. The devotional life of our people is nurtured through all the various things that come so us from our senses - stained glass, ashes, palms, medals, statues, religious art and so many other things.

So my personal opinion, and off the soapbox, use the palms, use the ashes, use so many things, soak in the music- and everything about our faith we can use.  And, just a suggestion which I do apply first to myself, and often forget (sadly): we need to be gentle with each other. News flash:  few of us are perfect! Sorry, this is what the data shows!

 

I would make just one edit in the above graphic: "Work hard and be kind ABOUT each other."

 

 

St. Joseph - worth celebrating! - March 19, 2019

Arguably, Joseph has had an inconsistent history in the life of the Church. Clearly, the focus was on Mary, rather than Joseph. He was the foster father of Jesus. The Scriptures tell us little about Joseph - and we do not hear of him beyond the earliest chapters of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Despite those few references, through the history of the Church, Joseph accumulated many titles, devotions, and prayer in the Church. Pope Francis has dedicated this year to St. Joseph. He wrote that “St. Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden or in the shadows can play an incomparable role in the history of salvation.” Joseph was certainly in the shadows, silent, his words never recorded.

It seems that, over the history of the Church, we have all been invited to "fill in the blanks" of much of Joseph's life. How did people know what to fill in? My hunch is that people saw Joseph as one of the primary influences upon the life of Jesus. How could he not be? He was obviously filled with overwhelming love for Mary and Jesus. He was obviously present for some of the most miraculous events in the history of our salvation.

I'm simply suggesting that we not lose sight of who Joseph is and what he can be for each of us. Our doctrine about Jesus is quite clear that he possessed both humanity and divinity. He was God and Man. Joseph pointed us to this - this quiet person who helped to guide Jesus and did so through his love of Mary.

There is a statue of Saint Joseph that I just discovered a couple of years ago (I lead a sheltered life!). The purpose of this statue of St.Joseph is to write your prayer requests down and place them under the statue. Joseph will work on them while we are sleeping. It is not a bad leap theologically - we are asking the one who took care of Jesus and Mary to take care of us as well.

The sleeping St. Joseph statue can be found in religious goods stores around the world - and is in stock at amazon.com.

I like the theology of this devotion and what it suggests is the role of Saint Joseph. This makes a little more sense to me than burying a statue of St. Joseph in your backyard so your house will sell. But what can I say? Many houses do well. Many prayers are answered. St. Joseph has pretty good connections in the Holy Family. The older I become, the less I say things  like "oh, that could never happen."

Happy St. Joseph Day.

The sleeping St. Joseph statue can be found in religious goods stores around the world - and is in stock at amazon.com.

I like the theology of this devotion and what it suggests is the role of Saint Joseph. This makes a little more sense to me than burying a statue of St. Joseph in your backyard so your house will sell. But what can I say? Many houses do well. Many prayers are answered. St. Joseph has pretty good connections in the Holy Family. The older I become, the less I say things  like "oh, that could never happen."

Happy St. Joseph Day.

The sleeping St. Joseph statue can be found in religious goods stores around the world - and is in stock at amazon.com.

I like the theology of this devotion and what it suggests is the role of Saint Joseph. This makes a little more sense to me than burying a statue of St. Joseph in your backyard so your house will sell. But what can I say? Many houses do well. Many prayers are answered. St. Joseph has pretty good connections in the Holy Family. The older I become, the less I say things  like "oh, that could never happen."

Happy St. Joseph Day.

Saint Patrick and the Irish - March 17, 2021

(Explanation - this is the first time that I have repeated a past posting for a particular date. So, I wrote this about Saint Patrick two years ago. I like it! Hope you do as well.)

March 17, 2019

Ok, having spent yesterday’s post extolling the importance of recognizing that we are all part of a mosaic and not a melting pot, it is time to focus on one particular part of the mosaic - being Irish. I start with the customary disclaimer that everyone should focus on their own ethnic group - and revel in it. So today’s feast of Saint Patrick gives me the freedom, if not the responsibility, to focus on the Irish without intending any unflattering comparisons with any other nationality or ethnic group.

Where does one start? God is Irish. Jesus is Irish. The Holy Spirit is Irish. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is an Irish mother. The Irish discovered America, electricity, cures for cancer, solar power, properly brewed Guiness, fashion, music, baseball, golf, literature, sculpture, poetry, the family, the Catholic Church (only the good parts), computers, . The Irish were the finest in these occupations or livlihoods: acting, singing, architecture, science, medicine, the social sciences, horseracing, agriculture, falconry, politics, and the list goes on and on.

The Irish are humble, even-tempered, somber, sober, inquisitive, love golden retrievers, castles, and the color, green. Years ago, Thomas Cahill wrote a book titled “How the Irish Saved Civilization.” You’ll get no argument from me. We do this every single day. 

I have heard, possibly from legends, that there are Irish people who enjoy a good time, savor medicinal spirits in liquid form, and frequent roadside chapels in Ireland that some call pubs. 

Over a long time, I have been up to speed on the sociology of the Irish people - and most especially Irish Catholic Americans. What can I say other than there is no group like them. That is a safe non-belligerent statement = which also recognizes that there are Irish Catholics who are more than capable of being belligerent - none of you, of course.

I do revel in being an Irish Catholic American from Chicago. That is my particular lot in life. I hope that each of you revels in what ever nationality/ethnic group/place of birth you have. We each need to revel in what we are and who we are. To me, this is part of being Catholic and American. 

TODAY'S GRATITUDE: For being an Irish Catholic American Cubs fan from Chicago.

 

Statue at Croag Patrick, Mayo, Ireland

Nice vs. Not Nice - March 16, 2021

A number of people who know me more than cursorily know that I'm trying to learn vegan cooking. It is a difficult journey because cooking for me is, at best, an unnatural act. One of my most spectacular failures was a few years ago - Vegan Shepherd's Pie.  The healthy ingredients somehow were on the floor, on cabinets and counters, and naturally, my clothes. I am determined to keep at it. One of my most consistent successes is the vegan version of ice cream which I found in one of the books by Doctor Joel Fuhrman. Ice cream in his vegan recipes has been renamed Nice cream - a lovely name for food which is both healthy and delicious.

As you may be aware, the word "nones" has crept into social science research  and popular reporting. For some reason, I thought about this as I was considering the fact of those who are nice and those who are not.  Nones essentially means those who do not have a particular spiritual home. It is a growing number of people today.  I always considered myself blessed to serve in a parish with such an incredibly high number of "nice" people. What a pleasure to work with people who were genuinely nice. This did not mean that there were no challenges, but give me "nice" any day of the week. An awful large number of the "nones" are nice people as well.

Why am I carrying on about "nones" and "nice"? In all my decades of serving at the parish, I only encountered a handful of people who just were not nice. The fact was so pronounced that those who were not "nice" really stood out. I can sadly remember just about all those particular people by name. Some of them really got to me because they were so uncharacteristically vicious compared to all the other people. I tried as best as possible never to engage directly with these people, but it was difficult. Had to practice incredible restraint - and was mostly successful over the decades. I do know that this handful of people that were just not nice really got to me. They drained the oxygen right out of me. They made me wish that my home blood pressure monitoring machine could measure higher rates, etc. 

I felt really sorry for those who had to contend with this person on a more regular basis, especially at home, places of work, etc.  Frankly, I seethed inside = and hopefully did not show it.

It was far from an instant or default response, but after a while, I finally calmed down and I began to pray for the nasty person. I kept it up. Did it help? I don't know if it helped the person, but I do know it helped me.

Interesting thing was that these people who were not nice got to me not because they may have disagreed with me about something. Heck, that can happen in so many areas = and we can all disagree. This happened when they were simply nasty  = not nice.

Sharing these few lines about those who are not nice gives me another chance to appreciate so profoundly the type of people at the parish. I'm grateful for you in my life over these decades. I hope you have a great Easter in a few weeks. Heck, if I run into you, I may even give you "nice" cream! If I meet you and you are one of the incredibly few people who are Not Nice to me- GRRRRRRRR. I have forgiven you even though you still raise my blood pressure. Can't you try to be nicer? I'm a nice person. I might even give you "nice" cream!

By the way, the "nice" vegan ice cream is a lot healthier for you and your pets than regular ice cream.

 

 

Getting the Last Year Back - Were friendships lost during the pandemic - Part I - March 12, 2012

So many people feel that they lost a year. I know that I do. Certainly, my list of people with whom I'm in contact has really become much smaller. This was not a conscious act, but rather a process that happened when things were so totally different from the pandemic - and I did not know enough to do otherwise. I'm going to write a couple of posts about my friends - of all shapes and sizes.  This will actually help me look at those people who have not been part of my life since the pandemic began - and I really want to change things. 

True friends have been a valued part of my life, but candidly I have not finished what hopefully waning time of the pandemic with the same number of true friends.  I go back to this Irish bull which still seems to contain more wisdom than most words about friends: You only know who your true friends are - when the lights go out in the pub. How sadly true this is. I don't like it. Can there be objective reasons why I seem to have fewer friends, real good friends, at the end of the pandemic, rather than before the pandemic.

I have tried to figure out some different categories of friends - looked at things that, in hindsight, were preventable, looked at things that can still be changed, and realized that some were acquaintances or possibly even fair-weather friends.

I know there are different types of friends.  This clip from Frasier painful sense:

WE find substitutes, but there are really no commercial substitutes for great friends.  

I have some great friends who are genuinely outraged if someone has been mean to me or not fair to me, I easily and quickly share the favor - and we remind each other of loyalty.

These types of friends are valuable - but exhausting and treasured nonetheless.

I have tremendous feelings of abandonment - maybe due to my background or other factors. But I do not handle abandonment well. 

Winnie the Pooh says that "how lucky I am to have something that makes saying good-bye so hard."  I remember this at times when I feel abandoned, and start to recall the "abandoning" person with gratitude. But it takes a lot of effort to keep being grateful, especially when they are many miles away.

I return to the words of Jesus who reminded us what is so necessary in our lives and relationships. Jesus promised that he would not leave us orphans, but would always be with us. It is worth remembering, especially when there is a lot of abandonment going on!

Need friends for life who will never move away. Sometimes, this works, but many times things do not stay the same and that makes it hard. Feelings of abandonment stink. The pandemic makes it worse. We need to remember God's reminder:

 

I am blessed because only one of my closest friends moved away. But the loss is there.  How dare they? And - now I understand when people express their outrage over my retirement.  (What goes around comes around!)

To be continued in a few more posts. Want to share some of the incredible great things that I have received from extraordinarily good friends.

Lest you wonder, some of my closest friends were not golden retrievers!

 

 

 

 

 

This Past Year Evaporated - will we get it back? March 5, 2021

 

I'm feeling bummed. Actually have been feeling bummed a lot lately.  Nothing significantly different than a lot of people, I know. Why should I be different? Sigh.

I have become more and more aware of lost time, deprived time, even robbed time. I know that I was pretty busy on things during much of the past year. But now, when I look back, I am not really sure of what I accomplished. (That is a wonderful thought from an admitted overachiever!) Sigh.

The above photo from Back to the Future sums things up so well. Avoid 2020. As an astute person might observe, you cannot go back. We did it. Or more precisely, there are so many things we did not do. To be even more precise, there are a lot of things that I did, but it sure does not feel like it.  I can usually look back, go through the past  year's calendar, correspondence, etc., and get a good idea of what I may have accomplished during the past year. The product of my work during the past year just seems so paltry. I am conscious not so much of what I did, but that there were so many people, relationships, people important to me - whom I somewhat did not connect with during the past year. How the heck did it happen? But it clearly did. And this really bums me out bigtime.

It does come down to this = and well worth remembering:

 

Time for some course corrections as we begin to see light through this pandemic. Want to devote a few posts over the next several weeks looking are at how to recover through the pandemic, how to make up for the missed friendships, opportunities, and even times for hope. This objectively classified introvert really missed people! Not sure what I will find - but I want to try. Why not think about this for your own life as well? I think that a lot of us need to do this.

Can we reap the harvest of this past year?  We must.

 

I'm going to increase the number of my blogs over the next few weeks to explore some of the things raised in today's post. Hopefully, this will connect with things that you might have been thinking about as we move towards an end some day to the pandemic.