The "Other" Catholic Church?

In the past couple years, I have probably found out about more current events than I should admit from Facebook. The first place I saw the news of Michael Jackson's death was Facebook. The news that Chicago didn't get the 2016 Olympics was on Facebook a good 10 minutes before I saw it on any of the major news outlets.

The majority of the time that friends post links to articles, I take a cursory look at the headlines, but rarely take the time to read the entire article. In the last 24 hours or so, multiple people all posted a link to the same article so I had to read it to see what was causing such a stir. I'm glad I did.

Nicholas Kristof, an op-ed columnist in the New York Times, wrote the article "A Church Mary Can Love." In light of the way a lot of major news outlets have been treating the Church lately, I was a little wary, but as I read his description of the "other" Catholic Church, I so appreciated his description of the people who are on the ground every day working for faith and justice.

Obviously, we aren't two Catholic Churches, but one Body of Christ. And we must celebrate our triumphs even as we grieve our failings. There isn't one church of those "in charge" and another of those in the trenches, we are all part of the Church and need to do whatever we can to bring about the Kingdom of God here on earth. That left me with the question: what am I doing today as part of the Body of Christ to bring about the Kingdom?

~Lauren G

The Paschal Mystery Alive Today

Lord, as this bread was formed
From many different stalks of wheat
Which were picked, crushed, ground and baked
That it might be one loaf,

As this wine was fashioned from many grapes
Picked in different parts of the field,
Crushed, fermented in darkness and aged
That it might be one sweet drink,

So we pray that we who are many and different
By the joy we share and the sorrow we endure
Might be formed into a people of praise
For the glory of Your name.

Our Lenten and Easter observances are meant to remind us of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit at work in Jesus’ life. And they are meant to stir our faith in the great hope that the same will be true for us. St. Paul wrote in Galatians 2, “I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.”

These words sound so beautiful, don’t they? Yet the process of this truth is no less than the dying and rising of Christ within us. God is at work fashioning and forming us, like the bread and wine at Mass, into a more perfect representation of the Body of Christ. It is one thing to affirm this in the abstract. It is quite another to live this through the suffering of our lives.

Nowhere have I seen this Paschal Mystery more perfectly realized than in the death of my dear brother priest, Fr. Jim Willig. Fr. Jim and I were best friends, and for years we led pilgrimages around the world to holy sites. Ten years ago this summer, we returned from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to discover that Jim had developed renal cell cancer, a particularly deadly strain because it usually shows no symptoms until it is too late. In the operation, they discovered a football size tumor that had metastasized and traveled to his lungs.

Jim wanted to live. He didn’t want “early retirement” as he put it. But as Fr. Jim’s body grew weaker and weaker, his faith grew stronger and stronger. His voice became more and more frail, but his parish became larger and larger. Daily Fr. Jim would pray St. Ignatius’ famous prayer: “Take, Lord, receive all my liberty, my memory, my will, my entire self. All I have you have given to me. Now I return it to be used only according to your will. Give me only your love and your grace. With these I am rich enough and desire nothing more.”

For the first year of the cancer journey, Fr. Jim could only pray these words and half mean them. He wanted a physical healing, and he continued to beg God for this grace. But a year and a half into his sickness, Fr. Jim’s heart surrendered more completely to the transformation that God was working in him. He started to pray: "I don’t know what my future holds, but I know who holds my future."

With this change in attitude came a profound change in Fr. Jim’s spirit. He went from being a good priest to an extraordinarily holy priest. He went from being a very good preacher to an extraordinarily powerful man of God. We began to see so clearly Christ at work in Fr. Jim’s life.

When he died, just about two years after his diagnosis, there was no one who knew him who doubted that Fr. Jim was taking his place among God’s saints. Fr. Jim had chronicled this remarked transformation in a book entitled Lessons from the School of Suffering.

All of us want to grow into the image and likeness of Christ. That is the goal of our faith. We are called to this transformation not just as individuals but also as Church, as the people of God. And the surest way to allow this transformation to occur is to walk the path of suffering in faith as Jesus did. This Paschal Mystery is not just about what occurred to Jesus two thousand years ago. It is the pattern of every Christian who embraces Jesus call to “Pick up your cross and follow.” (Mt 16:24)

During this Holy Week and into the Easter season, with every Mass we attend and every communion we receive, let us pray for a deeper surrender to God’s will in our lives that “in the joy we share and the sorrow we endure, we might be formed into a people of praise for the glory of your name.”

-Fr J. Michael Sparough, SJ

Lessons from the School of Suffering is available through Heart to Heart.

Sunday Nights

Most people dread Sunday night because it means the weekend is ending. I however have been looking forward to my Sunday nights for the last several weeks. No, it is not the new episodes of Desperate House Wives or the break in the Lenten fast that Sundays provide; I look forward to Sunday nights because I am part of a small faith-sharing group through Charis Ministries held at St. Andrew’s Parish.

Each week I attend the 5:30 Mass at St. Andrew’s, my home parish, and then have a few minutes to reflect on the Mass before joining my group. Our group structure is based on a format provided by Charis Ministries but led by the Holy Sprit. People come to share their struggles, bring new perspective to the group and discuss where they are at on their journey of Faith. When a member shares their struggles it allows the others a chance to pray for that individual and offers insight to one’s own life. While we may not know each other outside the group and are all coming from different backgrounds, it is amazing how closely connected you can feel to others when you have come together in Christ.

I leave the prayer groups pumped up for my coming week and have new thoughts and prayers floating in my head, I love hearing how other people are doing on their journey of faith and having the opportunity to share my own journey.

- Tina F.

So, what do mainstream movies have to do with our faith?

I hear this question on a regular basis when I tell people that my husband and I talk on Spiritual Popcorn: Finding Jesus in your favorite movies. Frequently as a teen I was hearing the Lord speak to me through TV shows, music, and movies. It wasn’t until I met my husband Paul that I realized that this was real communication directed to me from our Lord to guide me and help me along my journey through life. He, the Lord, talks to us so clearly through Christmas Movies, from the Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, to Miracle on 34th street, and the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. We have been journeying through Advent for the past couple of months preparing for this wonderful Advent Day of Reflection and I am looking forward to walking with you through this day of slowing down to reflect. To reflect on what the Lord has been telling us throughout our life through the movies and images around us. He loves us and is finding every avenue to talk to us and show us that love. Join us as we wait and reflect on our favorite Christmas movies.

-Sarah J.

Tidings of Comfort and Joy

Once, on a silent directed retreat, I was struggling with questions related to an ended relationship and my future after college. After three days of gloomy weather and arguments with God, I witnessed 5 minutes of sunlight on the trees across the lake before the sun set. A sudden spirit of peace and happiness wove through me and settled inside me. It made me realize that during the times when I face transitions and change and may not know what God’s doing or where he’s leading me, if I wait patiently, his Light will give birth and shine again.

Advent is a season of light, goodness, comfort, peace, and joy. It's fitting that the American holiday of Thanksgiving comes at the end of the liturgical year and the beginning of the season of Advent. Our practice of "giving thanks" for the blessings we've received over the past year opens our hearts to receiving the love of Christ born during this time of waiting and hopeful anticipation. Thanksgiving helps us enter Advent with an "attitude of gratitude" - a thankfulness that comes from being loved by God and witnessing his presence working in our lives. We're thankful for our families, who support and encourage us through life's big ups and downs; our friends, who make us laugh and help us relax and have fun; our significant others, who teach us about love and selfless giving; our jobs which provide financial security and hopefully allow us to do good in the world; our health, especially in a time of high health care costs; our safety and security, when much of the world experiences extreme poverty or violence. Whether it's big or little things, we have a lot to be thankful for this year and every year.

Last night I heard a talk by Claire Noonan, who runs the Siena Center at Dominican University in Chicago. The topic was "being called by our baptism." She and other responders shared about God's love being enough. Our baptism calls us to accept that love within ourselves and to share it with others; that is our mission, and that is enough. As we enter Advent, we begin reflecting on Mary's choice to accept and share God's love. She was grateful for the blessings of her faith, and she chose to follow God's call by being mother to Jesus. In turn, Jesus accepted God's love and shared it with others during his public ministry, to the point of death on the cross, which we celebrate in Lent/Easter.

It's fitting that the liturgical season starts after Thanksgiving, and that it follows a circle between Christ's birth and Jesus' death. During Advent, we are called to reflect on the light of Christ, the love of God, and the call of our birth and baptism - let us do so with open and grateful hearts.

-Briana C.

Sequestered in Chicago…Charis Somehow Continues without the Laurens and Briana

I know shocking right?

Somehow in the midst of globetrotting down under and melting in Mississippi heat, Charis is gearing up for our summer Come to the Quiet retreat and closing the books on another fiscal year. Jealous? Maybe a little?

Let me say that there is a lot of glamour and grace in the behind-the-scenes work. Prepping a retreat, cleaning up mailing lists, writing transition plans, and balancing the books may not seem like grace-filled work but it is. This work is the like liver to body, the mirepoix* to the soup…wait…better yet, the bass player in the band. It’s vital. There is such joy in creating the foundation of a successful retreat and organization. So remember friends, the girls may have the cool passport stamp and soaked in southern accents but I have the joy of the Green room (and I am blasting ChrisPod**…you better believe it!)

Stay Positive
ChrisP

*for the non-foodies out there – a mirepoix is a traditional base of a stock that consists of chopped onions, carrot and celery. The trinity if you will…in fact the Cajuns replace carrots with green peppers for base of many dishes and they call that the trinity.

**for the non-music snobs out there – the ChrisPod is filled with many different musical gems that simultaneously keeps the Green room at Charis rocking and annoying Lauren G and Briana C throughout the day!

Blog?

Ta da! Welcome to Charis Ministries' first foray into the world of blogging. As we expand our programming, our staff, and our travels, we wanted to keep you posted on what we're up to.

Upcoming posts should include live updates from Lauren Gaffey while she's in Australia for World Youth Day, as well as Lauren Berke on the Service Trip in Pontotoc, Mississippi.

Check back soon!

- Lauren B