Mary, Untier of Knots

As Pope Francis settles into the tough work of governing the church, I’ll bet he’s drawing strength from a Marian devotion that he himself is responsible for–the devotion to Mary the Untier of Knots.  The devotion is depicted by this early 18th-century painting showing Mary calmly undoing the knots in a long rope.

The painting was commissioned by a nobleman to give thanks to Mary for saving the marriage of his grandfather.  The story goes that the couple, on the verge of separation, went to a Jesuit named Jakob Rem for help.  The priest prayed before an image of Mary that all the knots in the marriage be loosed.  Sure enough, they were.  Pope Francis saw the painting when he was a student in Germany.  He took a copy of it back home and promoted the devotion.  Devotion to Mary the Untier of Knots is widespread in Argentina and Brazil.

I love this devotion.  No jaw-dropping miracles; no thunder and lightening; no feats of spiritual heroism–just the patient, painstaking, dogged untying of knots.  That’s what Francis is going to be doing as pope.  That’s what all of us do every day.

from Ignatian Spirituality

for my prisoner friends ...

Source: jackanape-jay.tumblr.com via Susan on Pinterest

Returning Rubber Bands

When I started this blog, I said that it was a place to save things that I used to cut out of newspapers, or write down on scratch paper.  This is one of those things (from CNA).  Often I find myself looking through these quotes and musing posts, looking for something that I wrote years ago.  This may be one of those things.  I kind of like the way the pope calls himself Jorge Bergoglio (rather than Pope Francis, or Cardinal Bergoglio).  He sees himself as another man on the street, in the neighborhood, someone to whom this extraordinary thing has happened (as happens to all of us, in one way or another), taking him out of his ordinary circumstances ...

Pope Francis surprised the owner of a kiosk in Buenos Aires with a telephone call to send his greetings and explain that he will no longer need a morning paper delivered each day.

Around 1:30 p.m. local time on March 18, Daniel Del Regno, the kiosk owner’s son, answered the phone and heard a voice say, “Hi Daniel, it’s Cardinal Jorge.”

He thought that maybe a friend who knew that the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires bought the newspaper from them every day was pulling a prank on him.

“Seriously, it’s Jorge Bergoglio, I’m calling you from Rome,” the Pope insisted.

“I was in shock, I broke down in tears and didn’t know what to say,” Del Regno told the Argentinean daily La Nacion. “He thanked me for delivering the paper all this time and sent best wishes to my family.”

Del Regno shared that when Cardinal Bergoglio left for Rome for the conclave, he asked him if he thought he would be elected Pope.

“He answered me, ‘That is too hot to touch. See you in 20 days, keep delivering the paper.’ And the rest is, well, history,” he said.

“I told him to take care and that I would miss him,” Del Regno continued. “I asked him if there would ever be the chance to see him here again. He said that for the time being that would be very difficult, but that he would always be with us.”

Before hanging up the phone, he added, the Pope asked him for his prayers.
Daniel’s father, Luis Del Regno, said they delivered the paper to the former cardinal’s residence every day.

On Sundays, he said, the cardinal “would come by the kiosk at 5:30 a.m. and buy La Nacion. He would chat with us for a few minutes and then take the bus to Lugano, where he would serve mate (tea) to young people and the sick.”

Among the “thousands of anecdotes” the elder Del Regno remembers is one involving the rubber bands that he put around the newspapers to keep them from being blown away when they were delivered to the cardinal.

“At the end of the month, he always brought them back to me. All 30 of them!”

He said he gets goose bumps whenever he thinks about Pope Francis’ simplicity.

“In June he baptized my grandson, it was an amazing feeling,” Del Regno said. “I know what he’s like. He’s one of a kind.”

being Catholic

When the white smoke came, I saw it on the internet somewhere.  White smoke.  So I turned on the TV, and there it was.  The crowd was gathering in St. Peter’s square, excitement in the air.  Cameras focused on the balcony where the new Pope would emerge.

I am in Western Pennsylvania, many miles and an ocean away from Rome, but I am able to watch this scene in real time.  There is probably not more than a second’s delay from the time it happens until I see it.  It is as if I am in St. Peter’s Square as well, in the crowd and watching the balcony. 

I do not know what to expect.  A new pope.  I suppose that I expect the new pope to be much like John Paul II or Benedict – a cardinal, old, conservative.  So I watch.  When the curtain opens and the man in white appears, I know that he is the new pope but I do not know anything about him.  He stands there, in silence, and looks at the crowd.  Looks at me.  I look at him.  There is something so very personal about this.  I know that I like this man, no matter who he is.  I am so moved that I begin to cry.

This is my pope and this is my Church.

After years of feeling on the margins of the Catholic Church, not knowing whether I was in or out, I know now that I am in.

So I may re-vive this old blog again, and begin chronicling something (what?).  My return to the Catholic Church?  My deep yearning to Be Catholic?  I'm not sure what being Catholic even looks like anymore, but something tells me that I never stopped being Catholic.

There is something about the "look" of Pope Francis that speaks to me.  Out there on the balcony, but also here as well ...

Pope Francis

Such a joyous surprise, this Pope Francis! Brings new meaning to Being Catholic!

Alleluia!

know hope ...

the complaint of Peace

This is an extract from Erasmus of Rotterdam's "The Complaint of Peace." Peace herself is speaking:

That the clergy cover over this most irreligious conduct [war] with the cloak of religion renders the evil less capable of remedy. The colors in the regiments, (consecrated by ministers of peace!) bear the figure of the cross painted upon them. The unfeeling mercenary soldier, hired for a few pieces of paltry coin, to do the work of a man-butcher, carries before him the standard of the cross; and that very figure of the cross becomes the symbol of war, which alone ought to teach every one that looks at it, that war ought to be utterly abolished. What hast thou to do with the cross of Christ on thy banners, thou blood-stained soldier? With such a disposition as thine; with deeds like thine, of robbery and murder, thy proper standard would be a dragon, a tiger, or a wolf!

I see you, while the standard of salvation is in one hand, rushing on with a sword in the other, to the murder of your brother; and, under the banner of the cross, destroying the life of one who owes his salvation to the cross. Even from the Holy Sacrament itself, (for it is sometimes, at the same hour, administered in opposite camps) in which is signified the complete union of all Christians, the warriors, who have just received it, run instantly to arms, and endeavor to plunge the dreadful steel into each other's vitals. Of a scene thus infernal, and fit only for the eyes of accursed spirits, who delight in mischief and misery, the pious warriors would make Christ the spectator.

The most absurd circumstance of all those respecting the use of the cross as a standard to support the war and warrior, is, that you see it glittering and waving high in air in both the contending armies at once. Divine service is also performed to the same Christ in both armies at the same time. What a shocking sight? Lo! crosses dashing against crosses, and Christ on this side firing bullets at Christ on the other; cross against cross, and Christ against Christ. The banner of the cross, significant of the Christian profession, is used on each side, to strike terror into the opposite enemy. How dare they, on this occasion, to attack what, on all others, they adore?

Let us now imagine we hear a soldier, among these fighting Christians, saying the Lord's prayer. 'Our Father,' says he; O hardened wretch! can you call him Father, when you are just going to cut your brother's throat? 'Hallowed be thy name:' how can the name of God be more impiously unhallowed, than by mutual bloody murder among you, his sons? 'Thy kingdom come:' do you pray for the coming of his kingdom, while you are endeavoring to establish an earthly despotism, by spilling the blood of God's sons and subjects? 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven:'his will in heaven, is for peace, but you are now meditating war. Dare you to say to your Father in heaven 'Give us this day our daily bread;' when you are going, in the next minute perhaps, to burn up your brother's corn-fields; and had rather lose the benefit of them yourself, than suffer him to enjoy them unmolested? With what face can you say, 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us,' when, so far from forgiving your own brother, you are going, with all the haste you can, to murder him in cold blood, for an alleged trespass that, after all, is but imaginary. Do you presume to deprecate the danger of temptation, who, not without great danger to yourself, are doing all you can to force your brother into danger? Do you deserve to be delivered from evil, that is, from the evil being, to whose impulse you submit yourself, and by whose spirit you are now guided, in contriving the greatest possible evil to your brother?

-- By Erasmus of Rotterdam (1467-1536)
from “The Complaint of Peace”

full text:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complaint_of_Peace

a lecture on Erasmus by Jim Forest:
http://www.jimandnancyforest.com/2009/02/27/erasmus/

The Higgs Boson! So totally cool!

The Busy Trap

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/?ref=opinion

great article.  Don't want to lose track of it so it's going here.