catholic life

Saturday was field trip day. I saddled up my trusty mountain bike and prepared to traverse the city of Chicago in search of the Chicago History Museum. I write “search” because I have this terrible habit of being able to picture where something, setting out to get there, and then realizing I’m not sure where exactly it is. In a car, not so bad. But on a bike or on foot, every wrong turn is a few more minutes or miles of exertion. Not that exertion is all that bad, but it was a little chilly Saturday morning.

Anyways, I managed to get myself to the museum which was not all that far from where I had envisioned it (411 saved me wandering around for too long). I parked my bike right in front and locked it up tighter than Fort Knox. I got my ticket and audio tour paraphenalia. How hip and relevant of the museum to use iPods?! Nice touch.

My goal was to see the exhibit Catholic Chicago. (Note: picture taken outside exhibit hall before signs saying “no photography”.)

Catholic Chicago explores the influence of Catholicism on the city’s ever-changing urban landscape. The exhibition highlights the area’s earliest Catholics; Chicago’s parochial school system; the church’s art and architecture; the city’s network of parishes and religious orders; Catholic activism; and the evolving nature of religion in the city.

Overall, EXCELLENT exhibit. I felt like I was truly home there because the sounds and images that surrounded me were ones that I’ve known my whole life. I was especially interested in seeing how religious life was treated in the exhibit — partly because I had talked with the curator and provided my “habit” for the exhibit. The Mercy Sisters had lent a traditional habit that they used to wear. The curator also wanted a contemporary habit which I provided in the form of a pair of pants, shirt, jacket and my crucifix and beads. (Note: I asked the security guard for permission to take some photos of my stuff since it’s not every day you see yourself in a museum! He graciously allowed me a few pictures.)

I gotta say, it is super weird to see yourself in a museum. I felt like kind of like an impostor because I’m not dead nor have I done anything heroic like Mother Mary Katharine Drexel or Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini (both featured in the exhibit). What was strange was watching people look at my clothes and picture and read the plaque … “Sister Julie Vieira, circa 2008″ … no it didn’t say that but just about!

More thoughts later on my field trip … gotta get to work now!

Results from my weekend survey question, “what are you fasting from?” …

0.0% coffee
5.4% celery
8.1% chocolate
8.1% meat
10.8% sweets
13.5% pop
18.9% snacks
54.1% nothing

These items were added in the “other” category:

• profanities!
• I’m giving up my free evenings to my friends, to be their free, on call babysitter.
• Trying to pray more and be more disciplined in that
• Television, phonecalls, visits
• trying not to be judgemental
• my own body, 9 months pregnant does not allow for much fasting or any of the good stuff either
• mac n cheese
• following weight watchers (not sure this counts - but in a way it’s fasting from all of the above) and reading a book on an enthomusicological approach to Gregorian Chant
• biscuits and recording all money I spend
• reading trashy novels
• music in the car
• my bed as an act of humility
• Fear (it’s not as smart-alecky as it sounds)
• Not fasting, but adding bible reading and extra prayers
• Time - I’m spending more time in constructive ways like reading scripture and service.
• trying to do some of the carbon and clutter fast
• I don’t participate in lent
• alcohol
• less computer time, more time praying
• control
• praying the Divine Office more
• I’m fasting from not counting my blessings
• MP3 player
• cookies
• tv
• french fries
• Impatience
• clutter
• swearing
• criticism of others

I am truly inspired as I read through these fasts. The people who wrote these really show how the Spirit calls each of us to a specific way of fasting and taking spiritual inventory during Lent. Their fasts are a reminder that fasting is not so much about “giving up something” but freeing ourselves to be most fully ourselves.

Come Easter, I’m going to want to know what are you doing to celebrate! Just as during Lent we fast, we take a good look at where we are at with life and God, so to during the spectacular season of Easter I think we should take stock of our joys and blessings, and “indulge” in the good things that bring us closer to God and one another.

Blessings to those of you who are fasting this Lent. Be encouraged.

Results from my “highly scientific” Sunday Indulgence survey:

1. Do you know what the Sunday Indulgence is? (observed during Lent)

• 45.2% (28) Yes.
• 54.8% (34) No.

2. Do you observe the Lenten Sunday Indulgence?

• 27.4% (17) Yes.
• 22.6% (14) No.
• 50.0% (31) Since I have no idea what it is, how can I observe it?

3. Do you know where the Sunday Indulgence came from and if so, can you cite the source?

• Mass is always a celebration of the resurection, a mini Easter with the repitition of the last supper, etc. No idea of where besides Biblr and Catechism of Catholic Church. too lazy and pregnant to look up.
• Yes, In a decree dated August 3, 2002 by the Apostolic Penitentiary.
• Sundays are not considered part of lent as all Sundays are considered little easters
• The fact that Sundays are always feast days, and that there are no feast days during lent. So sundays aren’t part of lent. No idea where it comes from. Thought it was just common sense.
• Because there are more than 40 days during the lenten season, some think that you can take Sundays off. I don’t agree.

Sister Julie’s Comments:

The Sunday Indulgence (as I understand it) means that there is no fasting on Sundays (not even during Lent) because Sunday is always a feast day. It is the Lord’s Day, a day of celebration and joy. Even though Lent is a time of preparation for Easter, we live in the reality that Christ has already risen from the dead.

Though I hadn’t ever heard it called “The Sunday Indulgence”, it’s something that I always took for granted since I was a kid. I haven’t been able to find an actual church document that specifically addresses this but I’ll keep an eye out!

Grace MacKinnon, in her column “Ask Grace” at Catholic Online, confirms the gist of the Sunday Indulgence, though not citing it as such:

Every Friday is a day to prepare for Sunday – the day that, for us who believe, is Easter every week of the year. And Sunday is never a day of fasting (not even during Lent). It is the glorious Day of the Lord!

MacKinnon also provides some very good background on the season of Lent and our practice of fasting. She makes a great point that whatever we do, we are to do not just out of sorrow but love for God. Each Catholic must take the Church’s recommendations to heart and practice them in a way that is fitting to them (e.g., persons with health issues might not be able to fast from food).

Tomorrow … results from the question, “Since we’re talking Lent here, what are you fasting from?” …

I had a delightful brunch with my friend Jennifer this morning. She mentioned an informal survey she’s doing. I thought it be fun to put the question out to you all and get some real “scientific data”. So I created a survey on SurveyMonkey.com, a cool survey generator that not only works well but has an awesome name! So, please follow the link to my handy, dandy survey so we can find out all there is to know about The Sunday Indulgence!

Click Here to take survey

Survey results and commentary by yours truly will be posted on Monday here at ANunsLife.org.

It seems like only yesterday that we were celebrating Christmas. And now Lent is here. My thoughts on Lent are much the same as they were last year in my post Why Lent Rocks.

What’s different however is that this year I feel like Lent has arrived just at the right time for me. It’s as if it is synched up to my own spiritual life as I’ve naturally moved into a space of regrouping, taking stock, cleaning up, and looking forward. It’s pretty cool when the seasons of the liturgical year match up with how we feel in our own life. Sometimes when Christmas rolls around I’m not in a personal space of new life, or when Lent comes I’m feeling joyful and full of life! That’s the beauty of the liturgical seasons — we are able to honor the different “moods”, stories, celebrations, core beliefs, rituals, disciplines of the Church even if we are personally in a different space. For me it keeps me aware of not only our tradition but the fact that I can personally be in one space but enter into the mystery of another sacred space.

But yesterday, as I trudged through slushy snow and got smacked by snowflakes bigger than basketballs to get to the Ash Wednesday prayer service, I realized that this is where I am right here and right now in my own life and in my life as a daughter of the Church. What a blessing!

Blessings to you in this season of Christmas! I’m having a wonderful time with my family and my nuns. It has snowed and snowed and snowed here, and Christmas morning you could even see the tracks in the snow left by reindeer!

It is amazing to celebrate yet again the birth of Jesus. The Mystery of the Incarnation — God becoming human — always blows me away. Here you’ve got God — the holy one, the incomprehensible mystery who is beyond our understanding — who desires to draw close to us. God does this not by floating around earth on a cloud with an angelic entourage. (I think that would freak a lot of people out, and in fact the prophets testify to this fact saying that to see the face of God was to die.) Rather, God chooses to become human like us by sending his Son to be born of a human mother, Mary, and to grow up and live and work along side of us. And of all the places in which God could have chosen to enter human history, God chose a humble family living in a rather poor community that was oppressed by foreign invaders. Jesus’ entry into the world was also not exactly what one would expect for the one who would be the savior. Mary and Joseph weren’t even home for the birth of the child. They were on the road traveling to Bethlehem for the required census. And the birth took place not in a hospital or the home of a family member or even in a hotel room — Jesus was born in a stable. He was laid not in a bed fit for a king but in a manger, a trough used to feed animals. And these animals were the first, after Mary and Joseph, to witness the birth of the savior. Scripture tells us that shepherds who had been out tending their flock were the first to visit Jesus. Shepherds were not exactly high society and were generally poor and literally on the fringe of society (they were, after all, outside the cities spending their days taking care of grazing sheep).

So this is how God chose to come to us — born of a humble family in humble circumstances. Jesus would live a life that was considered anything but kingly (in the eyes of the world) yet he would be the savior of the world. God would save us not from the outside in as it were (though God could have) but from the inside out — taking on our humanity, becoming like us in all things (all things!) but sin.

Wow. This never fails to amaze me. Christmas brings me real joy, not just happiness, but joy that the human family, indeed the world, is created with such love and care by this God who though infinite and beyond us, draws close to us and embraces us.

Blessings to you and may the Mystery of the Incarnation sustain you and energize you as we go forth into the new year.

Yesterday I listened to the broadcast of the conversation between Sister Marie Pappas, CR, and myself on the “Pathways to Learning” program on Sirius Radio’s The Catholic Channel #159. Strange to listen to oneself. Never quite sounds like yourself.

During the program we talked about what was happening in religious life around the time of the Second Vatican Council. This was a very important time of renewal for the whole Church including religious. In the document, Perfectae Caritatis, “The Decree on the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life” (1965), the Council called religious to adaptation and renewal “under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the Church.”

“The adaptation and renewal of the religious life includes both the constant return to the sources of all Christian life and to the original spirit of the institutes and their adaptation to the changed conditions of our time.” (Perfectae Caritatis #2)

So much could be said about this one sentence. It is filled with this call to return to our foundation — both our foundation in Christ (which all are called to) and our foundation as a religious community. Every religous community was founded through a unique inspiration of the Holy Spirit. No two communities are exactly alike. We might do the same ministries, wear similar habits, and pray in similar ways … but each charism (that original gift of the Holy Spirit) is unmistakeably unique.

I think this is an amazing idea … to renew ourselves we must return — not just once — but again and again to our foundations. I do this first through the “sources of all Christian life” — prayer, the Eucharist and celebration of the sacraments, meditating on Scripture, participation in the faith community and so on. As a religious, I also do this by immersing myself in the story of our foundation, of our founders Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin and Father Louis Florent Gillet, and of our “godmother” Mother Mary Lange of the Oblate Sisters of Providence. I read the letters, visit the places they lived and worked, and pray on this wonderful gift of IHM that the Spirit has given my community for the good of the Church and world.

I want you to visit Sister Susan Rose’s blog “Musings of a Discerning Woman” where she writes about her own experience of literally returning to the foundations of her community. Sister Susan Rose is a Sister of Saint Joseph of Peace here in the United States but is currently ministering in London. She’s had the opportunity to visit the places of the foundation of her community. Take some time to go through her back posts and read about her ongoing pilgrimage and what it has meant to her. Sister Susan is very much incarnating the call from Perfectae Caritatis to return to our foundations.

What are the foundations that you return to again and again for renewal?

A few people have asked me about the Pope’s recent comment regarding the Catholic Church. Dawn, for example, asked, “I was wondering what you thought about the Pope’s recent talk about how the Catholic Church is the only Church, anything else doesn’t count. I’m finding myself to be greatly disturbed by this.”

In a June 29 document (realeased July 10 via Zenit), the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith offered clarifications regarding Vatican II’s teaching that the Church founded by Christ “subsists in the Catholic Church.” The full document can be found here:

RESPONSES TO SOME QUESTIONS REGARDING CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE DOCTRINE ON THE CHURCH

Zenit.org also published this article about the document:

HOLY SEE CLARIFIES MEANING OF “SUBSIST”

Following the publication of this document, there were many questions about what this document was actually saying, especially in terms of other Christian traditions. One of the concerns that people have raised is the impact of this teaching on ecumenism — is the Church somehow drawing a new line in the sand of who is “in” and who is “outside” of the Church? Yet what the Church is saying is nothing new. It is simply a restatement of Church teaching. It is important to note the centrality of the Eucharist in these documents.

So I don’t think this is something to get too worried about. It is good however to be attentive to these debates and, more importantly, to how we articulate our faith for ourselves and in relation to others. As 1 Peter 3:15 reminds us, we are called to be able to give an “account of our hope” which means to be able to articulate the Gospel and our faith, why it is we believe in the centrality of the Eucharist, who we are as Catholic Christians, etc.