St. Anthony Messenger December 2017

REFORMING SANTA CLAUS

BOX OF JOY

MINISTRY An Interview with James Martin, SJ Advent: A Time of Uncertainty Soul of Christmas Best Christmas Movies and TV

DECEMBER 2017 • $3.95 FRANCISCANMEDIA.ORG

POWERFUL MOVIES on GREAT SAINTS ♦ IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA

♦ MOTHER TERESA

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livia Hussey illuminates the life of the saint of Calcutta, a selfless missionary who brought hope and love to the poorest of the poor. The movie examines the key moments of her life from childhood in Albania to her calling as a nun, the decision to leave her order, and her founding the Missionaries of Charity to serve the poor around the world. Original full-length 177 minute film not seen before on DVD.

his movie on the founder of the Jesuits is a thrilling look at the real man behind the legend. In his quest to become a heroic knight, Ignatius stares death in the face repeatedly after his leg is shattered by a cannonball in battle. In his sufferings he learns to see God working in his life, shaping the self-obsessed sinner into the passionate soldier-saint. Many special features, and Collector’s Booklet.

IOL-M . . . 126 min, $24.95

MT2-M . . . 177 mins., $19.95

♦ THE 13TH DAY

♦ MARY OF NAZARETH

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n a world torn apart by persecution and war, three children from Fatima, Portugal in 1917 were chosen by God to receive a powerful message of hope and healing for the world. Based on the memoirs of seer Sr. Lucia Santos and other eye-witness accounts, this acclaimed movie dramatizes the true story of the shepherd children who were visited by the Virgin Mary, culminating in the famous Miracle of the Sun.

n epic motion picture on the life of Mary, mother of Christ, from her childhood through the Resurrection of Jesus. Filmed in Europe with outstanding cinematography, a strong cast, and a majestic music score. Actress Alissa Jung gives a compelling and inspired portrayal of Mary. Two-Disc Collector’s Edition. Includes many Special Features, 24 page Collector’s Booklet & Study Guide; and more.

13D-M . . . 85 mins., $19.95

MONA-M . . . 2 discs, 153 min., $24.95

♦ CLARE AND FRANCIS

♦ POPE JOHN PAUL II

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beautiful epic feature film on the lives of St. Clare and St. Francis of Assisi. Shot on location in Italy, film stars Mary Petruolo and Ettore Bassi give inspiring, authentic performances as Clare, the daughter of a patrician family, and Francis, the son of a rich merchant, who leave all to follow Christ. The definitive film on these great saints who founded new religious orders that helped change the world.

his film follows Karol Wojtyla’s journey from his youth in Poland through the last days of his Papacy.

It explores how he touched millions of people and changed the face of the Church and the world. Jon Voight stars as the Pope in a powerful performance, and Cary Elwes shines as the young Karol. Shot on location in Rome and Poland, this is the definitive film on the life of St. John Paul II.

CF-M . . . 200 mins, $19.95

PJPII-M . . . 180 min, $19.95

♦ PADRE PIO - Miracle Man

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tarring Sergio Castellitto as St. Padre Pio, this movie captures the Capuchin friar’s intense faith and devotion, and his deep concern for the spiritual and physical suffering of others. It reveals the amazing spiritual gifts he had (stigmata, bi-location, healing, etc.) as it portrays the dramatic events in Padre’s life from his childhood and through 50 years as a friar. In Italian with English subtitles, or English dubbed track.

PPMM-M . . . 200 min, $19.95

♦ JOAN OF ARC

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eelee Sobieski shines as the legendary young warrior and saint who, at seventeen, led one of the greatest military campaigns for freedom in world history. With an all-star cast, glorious cinematography and scenery, Joan of Arc is a riveting epic film of faith, inspiration, triumph and tears.

Also stars Peter O’Toole, Robert Loggia, Jacqueline Bisset, Peter Strauss, Maximillian Schell, Powers Boothe, Shirley MacLaine.

JATV2-M . . . 180 minutes, $19.95

www.ignatius.com P.O. Box 1339, Ft. Collins, CO 80522

1 (800) 651-1531

CONTENT S

| DECEMBER 2017 | VOLUME 125/NUMBER 7

38 Box of Joy Ministry

ON THE COVER

This Catholic outreach program delivers Christmas gifts—and smiles—to children in developing countries.

By Susan Hines-Brigger

Jim Cavnar is working to bring the joy of Christmas to children in impoverished countries.

Photo courtesy of Cross Catholic Outreach

F E AT U R E S

D E PA R T M E N T S

14 To Build a Bridge: An Interview with James Martin, SJ

2 Dear Reader

Should the Church welcome LGBT members?

“What would Jesus do?” asks this popular author and Jesuit priest.

By John Feister

3 From Our Readers

14

Brother Dick Tandy, OFM

6 Reel Time The Man Who Invented Christmas

20 Advent: Living in a Time of Uncertainty If you follow the example of Advent’s biblical figures, you’ll find that life’s uncertainties can draw you closer to God.

By Joyce Rupp, OSM

4 Followers of St. Francis

8 Channel Surfing The Sultan and the Saint

10 Church in the News 18 Editorial

24

24 Reforming Santa Claus

The Gift of Compassion

49 Catholic Sites to Explore The Cloisters Museum

Father Joseph Marquis has a passion for Santa Claus—the real Santa Claus. And he’s teaching Santa’s helpers about him.

By Maryann Gogniat Eidemiller

51 At Home on Earth One Nation, under God

52 Ask a Franciscan ‘I Need to Control My Anger’

32 A Christmas Celebration for the Soul Christmas doesn’t have to be all about money and materialism. We can allow our inner child to show us a new celebration.

By Thomas Moore

44 Tinsel in Tinseltown From Ebenezer Scrooge’s redemption to Charlie Brown’s existential angst, everybody loves a good Christmas story. Here are seven of the best.

By Christopher Heffron

54 Book Corner A History of the Church in 100 Objects

44

56 A Catholic Mom Speaks The Challenge of Peace

58 Backstory

DEAR READER

Befriending Sinners Born in northern Poland, Melchior Chylinski (1694– 1741) showed such religious devotion as a child that family members called him “the little monk.” After a Jesuit education, he became a cavalry officer.

In 1715, he joined the Conventual Franciscans in Kraków, taking the name Rafal. He was ordained two years later and served in nine cities before coming to Lagiewniki, where he spent the last 13 years of his life—except for 20 months ministering to flood and epidemic victims in Warsaw.

In addition to his extensive confessional ministry, he was well known for distributing food, clothing, and supplies to poor people. A gifted musician, he played the harp, lute, and mandolin.

The Conventual church in Lagiewniki continues to draw pilgrims from throughout Poland and far beyond.

During the homily for Rafal’s 1991 beatification, St. John Paul II said, “May this friar remind us that every one of us, even though we are sinners, has been called to love and holiness.” Rafal’s feast is December 2.

Publisher Daniel Kroger, OFM President K e l ly M c C racke n Editor in Chief John Feister Art Director M a r y C a t h e r i n e K o z u sk o Franciscan Editor P a t M c C l o sk e y , O F M Managing Editor Daniel Imwalle Assistant Editors S u sa n H i n e s - B r i g g e r K at h l e e n M . C a r r o l l Digital Editor C h r i s t o p h e r H e ff r o n Editorial Assistant S h a r o n L ap e

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STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION St. Anthony Messenger (ISSN0036-276X), 28 W. Liberty Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498 is published monthly (12 issues annually) for $39.00. Frequency: Monthly. Number of issues published annually: 12. Annual Subscription Rate: $39.00. It is owned by Franciscan Media, 28 W. Liberty Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498. Daniel Kroger, O.F.M., Publisher; John Feister, Editor; Daniel Imwalle, Managing Editor; 28 W. Liberty Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498. There are no other owners, bondholders or mortgagees. The purpose, function and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income tax purposes have not changed during the preceding 12 months, ending September 2016.

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15. a. Total Number of Copies (Net press run) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70,461 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69,301 b. Paid Circulation (By Mail and Outside the Mail) 1. Mailed Outside-County Paid Subscriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61,571 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60,400 2. Mailed In-County Paid Subscriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 3. Paid Distribution Outside the Mails including Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Paid Distribution Outside USPS® . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681 4. Paid Distribution by Other Classes of Mail Through the USPS (e.g. First-Class Mail®) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,571 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,302 c. Total Paid Distribution (Sum of 15b (1), (2), (3), and (4)) . . . . . . . . . . . . 65,817 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64,383 d. 1. Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies included on PS Form 3541 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,845 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,709 4. Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail (Carriers or other means) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 879 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 670 e. Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution (Sum of 15d (1), (2), (3) and (4)) 3,724 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,379 f. Total Distribution (Sum of 15c and 15e) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69,541 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67,762 g. Copies not Distributed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 917 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,539 h. Total (Sum of 15f and g) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70,458 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69,301 i. Percent Paid (15c divided by 15f times 100) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

ST. ANTHONY MESSENGER (ISSN #0036276X) (U.S.P.S. PUBLICATION #007956 CANADA PUBLICATION #PM40036350) Volume 125, Number 7, is published monthly for $39.00 a year by the Franciscan Friars of St. John the Baptist Province, 28 W. Liberty Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 452026498. Phone 513-241-5615. Periodicals postage paid at Cincinnati, Ohio, and additional entry offices. U.S. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: St. Anthony Messenger, P.O. Box 189, Congers, NY 10920-0189. CANADA RETURN ADDRESS: c/o AIM, 7289 Torbram Rd., Mississauga, ON, Canada L4T 1G8.

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2 | December 2017

Date 9/29/17

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S t . A n t h o n y M e ss e n g e r

FROM OUR READERS

All Are Welcome to the Table In reading Kathleen M. Carroll’s article in the October issue of St. Anthony Messenger, “The Reformation at 500,” I came across an item on page 34 that disturbs me greatly about the attitude of the Catholic hierarchy: “Despite the progress toward unity, Bishop Madden cautions, ‘We cannot simply ignore the differences or take Communion together.’”

This attitude is completely opposite to Christ’s attitude toward everybody. At the Last Supper—the institution of the Eucharist—did he

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not serve Judas, despite knowing his grave sin? There is no Christian reason to deny anyone Communion. It is the communicant who is responsible for having the faith that the celebrant is delivering Jesus’ body and also treating the bread with reverence.

Also, the practice of excommunication of any believer is an unchristian act, as it denies forgiveness—the bedrock of our Christian faith. Also, in Paul’s letter on love, he specifically states that we are not to force our beliefs on anyone.

G.K. Chesterton remarked back in the early 20th century that Christianity had yet to be observed, and we, of all denominations, continue to maintain this separatism. Pope Francis’ actions to continue the observance of Vatican II to reconcile our differences are refreshing and needed.

Pierre Demers Franklin, Massachusetts

Faith or Grace?

We are writing regarding Kathleen M. Carroll’s article in the October issue, “The Reformation at 500.”

The sidebar on page 35 states that, in 1999, the Church agreed to the “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification,” affirming that we are saved by faith alone. However, the Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to “a catechesis of grace” and points out that “it is by grace that we are saved” (1697). You have caused us to be confused on a matter of Church teaching.

Teresa and Bill Filtz Valdosta, Georgia

‘Pete and Repeat’ Always a Challenge St. Anthony Messenger fills a serious gap in Catholic periodical publications, and you are to be commended for your in-depth coverage of current and historical subjects. I read the October issue cover to cover. I

clipped out three articles to send to friends, as I knew they would find them most informative.

I subscribe to various other Catholic publications, both diocesan newspapers and nationally distributed magazines. But, in complete honesty, your magazine’s coverage outshines them all.

I’ve yet to discover more than seven of the eight changes in “Pete and Repeat,” but I’m working on it!

Please keep up the good work at St. Anthony Messenger.

Eileen M. Hynes Chicago, Illinois

Longtime Reader, First-Time Writer I have been a faithful reader of St. Anthony Messenger and have been tempted many times to write in and praise the fine articles that it has been my pleasure to read. However, I just never got around to doing so until now.

I just finished the September 2017 issue (better late than never!) and can truthfully say that I read it cover to cover. I especially liked the article by Jeanette Martino Land, “The Seven Sorrows of Mary.” I have been praying to Our Lady of Sorrows for as long as I can remember, but I never really put into my mind the detail that Land added. It will have additional meaning to me now.

“Pete and Repeat” is always a challenge to me and only once in a while do I find all eight of the differences between the two pictures. Today, even though I needed a magnifying glass, my 93-year-old eyes could spot a white stripe on the shoe of Pete’s friend. I will continue to look closely for the answers!

Keep up the good work with your fine publication. Incidentally, I pass it on to my son-in-law, who in turn shares it with residents at the local senior center.

Harry Cheatham Bayside, New York DECEMBER 2017 | 3

F O L LO W E R S O F S T. F R A N C I S

A Holy Longing Leads to Poverty

T Brother Dick Tandy, OFM

here are two kinds of poverty: the kind you choose and poverty you don’t. Brother Dick Tandy, OFM, has known both. This third-generation West Texas rancher is among the thousands in recent decades who fell behind financially and lost the farm. He had been married back then, 26 years ago. His upper-middleclass family fell into poverty. That brought forth everything that was wrong with a short marriage, which ended in divorce, then annulment.

A single dad, he moved east to an Austin suburb, where he reinvented himself as a landscaper. He founded a company and worked for 16 years, until he had raised his son through high school. Now in his 50s, he had done well enough to retire. “I had this longing to do something more,” he reflects, “like what you read about in The Holy Longing, by Ron Rolheiser.” A lifelong Methodist, he joined the Catholic Church.

But still he was searching.

That’s when he chose poverty. At age 56, in 2009, he joined a Franciscan Covenant program in San Francisco, working among

Learn more about Catholic saints and their feast days by going to

STORIES FROM OUR READERS

SaintoftheDay.org.

Thank You, Donors!

STRAGYS/FOTOSEARCH

4 | December 2017

the friars with the very poor at St. Anthony’s Foundation. “Father Tom West, the guardian, one morning after prayer asked me if I considered joining. My first response was, ‘I’m past the cutoff.’ He said, ‘Well, we’re making an exception. We think you will make a good friar.’ I said, ‘Well, I need to pray about it.’ And then Friday, Father John Hardin asked, ‘D.T. [his nickname], have you made a decision?’ I said, ‘John, I need to really kind of pray and discern about this.’ He said, ‘Fine. Take all the time you need. Have an answer by Monday.’

“I actually walked the beach Sunday for half the day. I thought, What’s scaring me to say yes? I said yes, and it’s been a wonderful journey.”

Fully professed for about a year and a half, Brother D.T. has found his ministry among the poor and homeless at St. Anthony’s Foundation in downtown San Francisco, in the infamous Tenderloin neighborhood. He started in guest services, “kind of like social-worker-light,” he quips, then adds seriously, “where we really get to know our guests and have that human

I’m 83 years old, asking St. Anthony to help me find things more and more lately. He has always come through (although not as quickly as I would like, in some cases). My favorite story is when I lost my wallet and frantically prayed to him for help. It didn’t happen that day, but the next day the wallet was on the back seat of my car. I know I never would have put it there, and I considered it a little miracle. Yesterday I misplaced my purse, and a friend called to say I left it at her house. I would like to donate $50 [to Franciscan Media] in St. Anthony’s honor.

—Anonymous

S t . A n t h o n y M e ss e n g e r

y S T. A N T H O N Y O F PA D U A

Speedy Canonization Within 30 days of Anthony’s death, Padua sent a delegation to ask Pope Gregory IX to canonize him. The pope assigned the bishop of Padua, a Benedictine abbot in the area, and the head of the Friars Preachers to collect testimonies about reported miracles and the holiness of Anthony.

Papal legates in northern Italy added their own witness. The canonization took place in Spoleto on May 30, 1232, two weeks before the first anniversary of Anthony’s death.—P.M.

PHOTO BY CONSTANCE WOLFER/FRANCISCAN MEDIA

touch—to listen to them, and then if they need something, we help to navigate them to the right place to get help.”

Any day, you’ll find Brother D.T. at St. Anthony’s Dining Room in his Franciscan habit, bringing cheer, hospitality, and a listening ear to the thousands of guests (2,400 daily), volunteers (12,000+ annually), and a relatively small staff who come to St. Anthony’s to be served and to serve.

“It’s a ministry of presence,” he says in the spirit of the legendary Father Albert Boeddeker, OFM, who founded the dining room in 1950.

“We enjoy ministering to the marginalized,” he says, recalling his favorite story of St. Francis. “His father, and a lot of people, thought [Francis] was too holy. He grabbed a little kid and they played on a teeter-tot.”

People thought he was a fool, says Brother D.T. “It shows the humility of Francis. It’s an earthy presence,” adds this 5-foot-9 character, who pulls off being a bit of a holy fool and a serious companion at once. “We don’t put a lot of pomp into what we do: Francis didn’t puff himself up.”

—John Feister

Learn more about Catholic saints and their feast days by going to SaintoftheDay.org.

S T. A N T H O N Y B R E A D

FranciscanMedia.org

PHOTO BY FRANK JASPER, OFM

The National Shrine of St. Anthony is located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Consecrated in 1889, it includes a first-class relic of St. Anthony and serves as a center for daily prayer and contemplation.

The Franciscan friars minister from the shrine. To help them in their work among the poor, you may send a monetary offering called St. Anthony Bread. Make checks or money orders payable to “Franciscans” and mail to the address below.

Every Tuesday, a Mass is offered for benefactors and petitioners at the shrine. To seek St. Anthony’s intercession, mail your petition to the address below. Petitions are taken to the shrine each week.

To post your petition online, please visit stanthony.org, where you can also request to have a candle lit or a Mass offered; or you may make a donation to the Franciscans or sign up to receive a novena booklet.

Send all postal communication to: St. Anthony Bread 1615 Vine St. Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498

December 2017 | 5

REEL TIME

| W I T H S I S T E R R O S E PA C AT T E , F S P

The Man Who Invented Christmas

A Ghost Story An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power Maudie The Glass Castle Wind River

6 | December 2017

PHOTOS COURTESY GARLANDS FILMS DAC

NEW ON DVD

Dan Stevens and Oscar-winner Christopher Plummer play author Charles Dickens and his beloved character Ebenezer Scrooge in the film The Man Who Invented Christmas.

Here’s a new take on a timeless Christmas classic. It is getting to be the worst of times for Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens) in 1843 London. His publishers are unhappy since his last three novels failed. His wife, Kate (Morfydd Clark), is renovating their home while debts are piling up. Worst of all, Dickens is beset by a severe case of writer’s block.

When he asks for an advance on his next novel, his publishers want to know what it will be about. Out of nowhere, Dickens says it will be about Christmas. One publisher scoffs at the idea because it is a forgotten holiday. And this becomes the seed for perhaps the most famous Christmas tale ever: A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost-Story of Christmas.

Dickens listens to the family’s Irish maid, Tara (Anna Murphy), tell stories to his kids.

The author also takes in the sight of poor children—and one sickly child in particular.

The framework for his story begins to take shape. His parents arrive for a visit, but Charles wants his feckless father, John (Jonathan Pryce), to leave. But the son has a change of heart and, thus, the theme of A Christmas Carol is found.

This timely Christmas release is filled with humor, imagination, and the challenges of being a writer. It tells the story of stingy Ebenezer Scrooge (Christopher Plummer), three ghosts, and his dead partner, Marley (Donald Sumpter). Directed by Bharat Nalluri, the film is brilliantly written for the screen by Susan Coyne. Stevens gives a charming performance as Dickens.

Not yet rated, PG • Mature themes.

ST. ANTHONY meSSeNGer

© 2017 DISNEY PIXAR. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Coco, Disney/Pixar’s latest film, boasts the vocal talents of Benjamin Bratt, Renee Victor, and Cheech Marin.

Coco

The Square

PHOTO COURTESY OF MAGNOLIA PICTURES

Pixar’s latest begins in the village of Santa Cecilia in Mexico as the people are preparing to celebrate Día de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead). It is the day when each family remembers relatives who have died by preparing a table with photos and mementos.

Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez) is very excited when he finds a guitar that belonged to Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt), whom he believes to be his great-great-grandfather. His grandmother (Renee Victor) is upset and smashes the guitar while his elderly bisabuela (great-grandmother), Mama Coco (Ana Ofelia Murguía), rocks in her chair—lost in her memories.

Miguel doesn’t know why his family no longer sings or plays music, but he knows it has something to do with his ancestors.

That night, Miguel goes to the cemetery and takes the guitar from de la Cruz’s resting place. This leads him on a long night’s journey to the Land of the Dead, where family secrets are revealed.

Coco is a beautiful animated film that resonates with Catholic sensibilities, including the images of the cross and Our Lady of Guadalupe in the home. Themes of faith, love, prayer for the dead, and generational forgiveness abound. The ending will surprise you while the gentle, plaintive song “Remember Me” will stay with you for days after.

Not yet rated, PG • Some scary images.

in Sweden. He tries to explain the highconcept art to an American critic, Anne (Elizabeth Moss), but fails. He then hires a marketing company to promote a new social awareness exhibit, “The Square,” which is supposed to be “a sanctuary of trust and caring. Within it, we all share equal rights and obligations.”

But events challenge Christian’s high social morals. After getting robbed on the way to work, he goes to strange and extreme lengths to get his wallet and phone back. The marketing company creates a viral video that has dire consequences for Christian. He sleeps with Anne, who thinks that he cares about her, but he barely remembers who she is.

This slow-starting film picks up speed and action to effectively show the layers of racism in social relationships and the chaos caused by our own inconsistencies in how we see other people. The performance art

by Terry Notary imitating a chimpanzee during a formal dinner is revealing.

The Square is in Swedish and English with English subtitles.

Not yet rated, R • Sexuality, mature themes.

Sweden’s The Square is a satirical drama with an international cast.

C AT H O L I C C L A S S I F I C AT I O N S A-1 A-2 A-3 L O

General patronage Adults and adolescents Adults Limited adult audience Morally offensive

■ The Catholic News Service Media Review Office gives these ratings. See usccb.org/movies.

■ For additional film reviews, go to FranciscanMedia.org/movie-review.

Single father Christian (Claes Bang) is the chief curator of a modern art museum FranciscanMedia.org

December 2017 | 7

CHANNEL SURFING

| WITH CHRISTOPHER HEFFRON

The Sultan and the Saint

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SULTAN AND THE SAINT/JONATHAN MOUNT

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS /BAUMANN MANFRED

December 26, 8 p.m., PBS St. Francis may not have written the line “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,” but it’s been widely attributed to him because he lived those words. And he carried that message beyond the walled city of Assisi, taking him into dangerous territories to spread the message of Christ—even as far as Egypt. Francis’ historic meeting with Sultan al-Kamil, is the basis for the new PBS documentary The Sultan and the Saint.

Embracing the prospect of martyrdom, Francis braved the Crusades to meet with the sultan in the hope of converting him to Christianity. He failed in that mission, but in Sultan al-Kamil, Francis met a spiritual brother—in fact, he was likely spared martyrdom because the sultan recognized him purely as an emissary of peace.

Weaving historical scrutiny from experts with live-action re-creations, writer/director Alex Kronemer crams a lot into 58 minutes.

And while not everything works (some of the actors look as if they wandered out of central casting from an Illinois playhouse), The Sultan and the Saint soars when it stays affixed on the stable of scholars—including the compelling Michael Calabria, OFM, Homayra Ziad, and Emile Bruneau. But the message is what matters, and this film has a strong one: hatred divides; love unites.

The Best Show of 2017

Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath A&E, Check local listings Leah Remini first exploded onto the television landscape as Carrie Heffernan in CBS’ long-running The King of Queens. She excelled in that role, but her best work to date is for the unscripted, engrossing documentary series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.

Growing up in the Church of Scientology, Remini began asking policy questions that Church leaders deemed dangerous for its members to ponder aloud.

This led to a public exit from the religion in 2013.

Rather than go quietly, Remini rebelled, writing the best seller Troublemaker, which led to this series. And it’s astonishing.

Aided by Australian-born Mike Rinder, himself an apostate of the Church of Scientology, the two seek to tell the stories of those who left the controversial religion, many of whom allege physical, psychological, or sexual abuses that are sure to rattle even the thickest-skinned channel surfer. But credit is owed to the producers: this docuseries isn’t about shock or retribution. Like an onion, it’s a layered look at how one’s beliefs can harm or heal the believer in equal measure.

Winner of the 2017 Emmy Award for best informational series, Remini, a surprisingly deft investigative journalist, asks the question: What is faith? As viewers, we are left with no clear answer, save one: Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath is the best unscripted show on television.

AP D

Alexander McPherson portrays St. Francis in The Sultan and the Saint.

8 | DECEMBER 2017

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CHURCH IN THE NEWS

| BY SUSAN HINES-BRIGGER

Messages of Hope Follow Las Vegas Shooting

CNS PHOTO/PAUL BUCK, EPA

CNS PHOTO/ANDREW KELLY, REUTERS

People hold hands during an interfaith prayer service October 2 at Guardian Angel Cathedral in Las Vegas.

Actress Patricia Heaton served as the emcee for the 72nd annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner held in New York City on October 19. US House Speaker Paul Ryan was a guest speaker at the dinner.

“We cannot let hate and violence have the last word,” Bishop Joseph A. Pepe of Las Vegas told attendees at an interfaith prayer service at Guardian Angel Cathedral the day after the deadliest mass shooting in the United States took place in that city, reported Catholic News Service (CNS). The shooting, which happened during an outdoor concert, left 58 people dead and 546 injured.

“We come together in unity across our religious traditions, across race, across gender to stand with each other as living signs of that hope,” said the bishop. “And in the face of violence, we stand together. We pray and sing and listen to the word of God to remind ourselves that amidst this tragedy, God is with us.”

Pope Francis sent his “assurance of his spiritual closeness to all those affected by this senseless tragedy” via a telegram to the bishop.

Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops,

issued a statement the day after the shooting saying, “In the end, the only response is to do good—for no matter what the darkness, it will never overcome the light.”

A Catholic church right next to the concert venue, the Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer, was used “as a staging area and an initial place of refuge,” Father Bob Stoeckig, vicar general of the Diocese of Las Vegas, told CNS in an e-mail October 1. He added that “there were bullets near the doors” of the shrine, which is a popular place for tourists to attend Mass. There were no reports of damage to the shrine.

10 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7

House Speaker Takes Part in Al Smith Dinner On October 19, the 72nd Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner was held in New York City, with actress Patricia Heaton as emcee and

US House Speaker Paul Ryan as guest speaker, reported CNS. The event is named for Alfred E. Smith, a former governor of New York who, in 1928, was the first Catholic nominated by a major political party to run for president of the United States. It has traditionally been an opportunity for speakers to poke good-natured fun at themselves, one another, and prominent guests from the worlds of politics, business, and philanthropy—without inflicting wounds.

In his speech, Ryan referenced last year’s dinner where presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump spoke.

“Now I promise you, you can all relax about my remarks,” Ryan said in his speech. “I know last year at this dinner Donald Trump offended some people with his comments, which critics said went too far. Some said it was unbecoming of a public figure and that his comments were offensive. . . . Well, thank God, he’s S t . A n t h o n y M e ss e n g e r

N E W S B R I E F S N AT I O N A L A N D I N T E R N AT I O N A L

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has published the first official English-language translation of the ritual book Exorcisms and Related Supplications. Availability is limited to bishops, though exorcists, other clergy, scholars, and seminary professors also can obtain a copy with the permission of a bishop.

Mercy Sister Marilyn Lacey of Burlingame, California, was awarded the 2017 Opus Prize on October 12 for the work of her nonprofit organization, Mercy Beyond Borders.

Working in Haiti and South Sudan, Sister Lacey and her organization are helping women and girls escape extreme learned his lesson.

“Everyone will report what happened here tonight differently,” Ryan continued. “Breitbart will lead with ‘Ryan slams the president amongst liberal elites.’ The New York Times will report, ‘Ryan defends the president in a state Hillary won.’ And the president will tweet, ‘300,000 at Al Smith dinner cheer FranciscanMedia.org

poverty through educational, economic, and empowerment opportunities.

The $1 million award is presented annually by the Opus Prize Foundation to an individual or organization of any religious background, anywhere in the world. Recipients must demonstrate a pioneering approach to solving the root cause of social problems in their community.

Pope Francis announced the theme of the 2018 World Communications day—“The Truth Will Set You Free: Fake News and Journalism for Peace”—on September 29.

Most dioceses will celebrate World Communications Day 2018 on May 13, the Sunday before Pentecost. The pope’s message for the observance will be released by the Vatican on January 24, the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron of journalists.

CNS PHOTO

Mary Ann Glendon, former US ambassador to the Vatican, has been named the 2018 recipient of the Evangelium Vitae Medal, bestowed by the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Ethics and Culture. The award is given to “heroes of the pro-life movement” and honors individuals whose efforts have served “to proclaim the Gospel of human life by steadfastly affirming and defending its sanctity from its earliest stages.”

O. Carter Snead, director of the center, said that Glendon personifies what is at “the heart of the Evangelium Vitae Medal.”

Glendon is the Learned Hand professor of law at Harvard Law School, a commissioner of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, and a member of the board of supervisors for the Vatican’s Institute of Religious Works.

CNS PHOTO

CNS PHOTO/UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

“Love Saves Lives: Life Is the Loving, Empowering, and Self-Sacrificial Option” is the theme for the 45th annual March for Life. The march will take place on January 19, 2018, three days prior to the anniversary of the US Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade and its companion case, Doe v. Bolton.

The papal Twitter account of Pope Francis— @pontifex—has reached more than 40 million followers and has grown by over 9 million followers in the past 12 months, the Vatican Secretariat for Communication said October 11. The secretariat’s prefect, Msgr. Dario Vigano, told Vatican Radio that “the pope takes great care of his social profiles, to such an extent that he closely and carefully checks all the tweets, which are then published.”

The number of followers of the pope’s Instagram account—@Franciscus—has also grown, approaching 5 million followers since its creation March 19, 2015.

For more Catholic news, visit FranciscanMedia.org/ catholic-news.

mention of my name.’”

The House speaker ended his speech on a serious note, calling the evening “a magnificent event, and a much-needed one, one needed now more than ever.

“It is an opportunity for all of us to come together in support of a truly righteous mission—to bring hope to the neediest children of the

Archdiocese of New York,” Ryan said.

Others in attendance at the dinner included Mayor Bill de Blasio, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, former mayors David N. Dinkins and Michael R. Bloomberg, Catholic leaders, and other dignitaries. US Democratic Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer of New D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7 | 11

Catholic Scouting Group Accepts Decision to Allow Girls The leaders of the National Catholic Committee on Scouting, which has its headquarters in the Dallas suburb of Irving, have said they “accept and work with the new membership policy of the Boy Scouts of America” to admit girls, reported CNS. The Boy Scouts of America’s board of directors unanimously agreed on

CNS PHOTO/KEVIN J. PARKS, CATHOLIC REVIEW

York could not attend, as they had to be in Washington for votes.

The New York Times reported that outside this year’s dinner, about 100 protesters marched past the hotel, decrying Trump’s plan for a border wall. It said another 50 people demonstrated against the president’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, and accused Ryan of not supporting the continuation of the program. A CNN story from September said that Ryan was in favor of Congress trying to keep DACA.

Kenyatta Hardison, left, choir director at Cardinal Shehan School in Baltimore, poses with some members of the choir after fan Mel Ledbetter, back, surprised the group with a pizza party.

October 11 to allow girls into the Cub Scout program next year and let older girls become Eagle Scouts.

Upon hearing of the decision, George Sparks, national chairman of the committee, and the committee’s national chaplain, Father Kevin Smith, a priest of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, released

CNS PHOTO/GREGORY A. SHEMITZ

Recently, the Boy Scouts of America made the decision to allow girls in the organization. The leaders of the National Catholic Committee on Scouting have said they will accept and work with the new policy.

12 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7

a statement saying, “Once we have had more time to review the policy and a chance to consult our national membership, we will be able to comment further about how this new policy will reflect changes in the makeup of Catholic chartered units in the Boy Scouts of America.”

Sparks said that, two days later, a member of the Scouts’ executive board came to the Catholic Committee’s meeting “and brought us up to speed on it. We took an informal straw poll, and everybody at our meeting—there were about 18 people at our meeting—thought this was the right thing to do.”

This past summer, leaders of the Girl Scouts organization expressed displeasure when the Boy Scouts sought advice from its 270 councils on whether to accept girls. Girl Scouts of the USA’s president, Kathy Hopinkah Hannan, in a letter to her Boy Scouts counterpart, Randall Stephenson, said the Boy Scouts should stick to recruiting “the 90 percent of American boys not currently participating in Boy Scouts.”

The Boy Scouts currently have 2.3 million members, fewer than half of the 5 million the organization had at its peak in the 1970s.

S t . A n t h o n y M e ss e n g e r

An impromptu Facebook Live recording of students at the Cardinal Shehan School in Baltimore singing Andra Day’s song “Rise Up” has been seen at least 8.5 million times.

The students were practicing for a performance at the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s ninth annual gala for Catholic schools on September 29, where they performed for 1,000 people.

The response to the video came as a surprise to middle school choir director Kenyatta Hardison. She posted the Facebook Live video to her page with the caption “Cardinal Shehan School Choir Practicing. . . . I love my kids! Like and share please! Not perfect but Imperfectly perfect #thisisus.”

She thought the video “was going to family, let the families see their [children] are growing,” she told the Catholic Review, the media outlet of the Baltimore Archdiocese.

Eleven-year-old John Paige, one of the soloists in the video (opposite page, above on the right), said, “God has blessed us with gifts that he wanted us to have, and I’ve said this a bazillion times and I’m going to say it again: we have a purpose here.

You have a purpose in life, and our purpose, I think, is to make people happy when we sing songs.”

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8. Pete’s smile shows his dimple.

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D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 | 13

QA

TO BUILD A BRIDGE:

14 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7

Should the Church welcome LGBT members?

“What would Jesus do?” asks this popular author and Jesuit priest.

BY J OHN F EI S T ER

ST. ANTHONY meSSeNGer

PHOTO BY CHRIS CRISMAN

&

An Interview with James Martin, SJ

QA &

Father James Martin, SJ, is a best-selling author of books about Catholic spirituality. In 2016, after a horrific massacre at a gay nightclub, the Pulse nightclub, in Orlando, Florida, he spoke out on the silence about the massacre on the part of Church leaders. A talk he later gave became the basis for his book Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity (HarperCollins). LGBT, of course, refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

The book, published a few months ago, has garnered strong reaction, both supportive and negative. Father Martin is a consultant to the Vatican’s secretariat for communications.

PHOTO BY CHRIS CRISMAN

Q

I wonder if the negative reaction to your book was as much about how so many Catholics are conflicted about the whole LGBT issue. Some people think it’s contradictory to our faith.

A: I don’t quite understand how saying LGBT Catholics is contradictory. They’re baptized. They already are Catholics. It’s a question of whether or not the Church is willing to welcome these, our brothers and sisters.

on the margins. So he’s continually reaching out to people like a Roman centurion, a tax collector, a prostitute, those who are sick, anyone who felt on the margin. There’s no one in our Church more marginalized today than the LGBT person, period. They really are, in many places, treated like lepers.

I’ve heard the most appalling stories in the past couple of months since the book came out, from LGBT people and their families about how they’ve been treated. It’s really shocking.

Q: Many people have family and friends, people whom they love, who are gay, as you know. Is it OK for those people to openly accept their gay family and friends?

A: Of course! It’s imperative for people to accept everyone as a beloved child of God! This is the way God made them. The people themselves are a gift to us. Particularly for young people, it’s essential that parents and grandparents and families accept them.

The process of coming out or being open about your identity is extremely painful. I know people whose lives have really been destroyed by parents who have not been accepting. Yet this is what God asks us to do: to love one another. That’s the most basic of commandments.

Q: For example?

A: A few months ago, a woman wrote to me through Facebook and said, “Do you know any compassionate priest in my city?

Because I work at a hospice and there’s a man who’s dying here, whom the local priest refuses to anoint or see because he’s gay.”

Q: It’s a hard thing to love someone you’re basically discarding, right?

A: Look in the Gospels and see who Jesus goes to first. It’s people who feel like they’re FrANcIScANmeDIA.OrG

Young Catholics Q: In your book, you talk a lot about encounter as a way through, a way to a new understanding. What do you mean by that?

A: In my way of looking at it, it’s friendship. It’s coming to know people, listening to them, sharing in their lives, entering into their struggles, and celebrating their joys with them. So it’s really just being friends.

My book is a challenge to Church leaders.

Can people who are in positions of authority be friends with LGBT Catholics?

D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7 | 15

Q: Can they be friends?

A: Yes. Yes, and the question is, why not?

LGBT Catholics are already part of the life of the Church. They are music ministers, directors of religious education, pastoral associates, and teachers in our schools. Our Church leaders, unbeknownst, are already friends with these people!

Q: It seems as if there’s really a generation gap on this question, too. Young people don’t seem to be as conflicted as their parents. Do you have a feel for that?

A: I think that’s accurate. Straight, young Catholics have a problem with the way the Church treats LGBT people. It’s not the way that they treat their friends. They might ask, “Why would you treat my good friend, who is gay, like that? And why would I want to be part of a Church that treats my friends who are gay like that?”

Q: Why are many younger people more tuned in to acceptance than their parents might be?

A: Because a generation ago, people were generally not out—public about their identity. Now you have people who are out. As more and more people come out, it becomes more and more something that everyone is familiar with. As straight people become friends with LGBT people, there’s a higher comfort level.

Q: So, a lot of it does come down to personal relationships?

A: Absolutely. I think this is the genius of Pope Francis’ idea of a culture of encounter, a culture of encounter and accompaniment.

The LGBT people become not simply categories, but friends. Certainly it changes the family, it changes everything. It’s one thing to be homophobic; it’s another thing to be homophobic when your son is gay or your daughter is lesbian.

Who Am I to Judge?

Q: Soon after Francis became our pope, people asked him about this issue and he asked, “Who am I to judge?” He’s not really endorsing the gay lifestyle, is he?

What does he mean by that?

A: Well, it depends on what you mean by the gay lifestyle. What does that mean? Does 16 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7

it just mean living as a gay person? Does that mean engaging in same-sex relations? Does that mean getting married? The original question was about gay priests, and he said, “If a man is trying to find God, who am I to judge?” And then they pushed him and said, “Well, you meant just gay priests.” And he said, “No, everybody who’s gay.” By extension, he’s trying to move us away from this idea of judging people as sinners or as the worst sinners.

It’s quite discriminatory! You don’t have people being fired for living together before being married, for using birth control, for being divorced—you simply don’t! And yet it’s the LGBT person whose life, whose sexual morality is put under a microscope. It’s an instance of what the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls “unjust discrimination.”

Q: Some people say that a lot of priests are gay. True or not, is it relevant?

A: It’s both true and relevant. Imagine, for example, a year ago at the Pulse nightclub. Imagine if a priest would get up and talk about what it was like growing up as a gay boy who was bullied. Just imagine that.

How powerful that would be. That’s not to say a gay priest would talk about that kind of stuff all the time, but if you’re a priest who had been a refugee, you would talk about the stories of refugees from a personal standpoint. The Church is impoverished by having these people not able to be open about themselves.

Q: Sometimes people call this moral relativism. It’s “anything goes; anybody has a right to believe and do as he or she pleases.” A lot of Catholics in the pews don’t want to be closed-minded but also don’t want to give in to the idea that anything goes. How do you view it?

A: First of all, why are these people assuming that these LGBT people are sexually active to begin with? Second of all, why are these people assuming that anyone else they deal with is not engaging in behavior contrary to Church teaching? And third of all, who are they to judge? Why don’t you get to know these people? And just accompany them as friends? It really is a very judgmental attitude, to approach a person as a problem or a sinner, instead of the way Jesus approached people, which is first as brothers and sisters.

S t . A n t h o n y M e ss e n g e r

The whole premise of questions like that from people, which I hear a lot, is that we must look at LGBT people solely through the lens of sex. We don’t treat any other person like that. Imagine seeing a group of college students—now most college students are sexually active—and asking, “Well, how can I possibly talk to this group of college kids?

They’re all sinners.”

The Coin’s Other Side Q: In your book, the building bridges idea implies a two-way effort. After all the things you just said, it almost seems ridiculous to ask, but when two sides need to come together, both parties have to do something, don’t they?

A: That’s, I think, the harder part of the book. I make it clear that the onus is on the institutional Church, because it’s the institutional Church that has marginalized the LGBT person, not vice versa. Nonetheless, LGBT Catholics are invited to treat their bishops and Church leaders with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Those are just simply good Christian practices. But they’re also good strategy if you really want to enter into the dialogue.

Q: I’m thinking of some LGBT folks who just have taken five steps away from the Church. How can I expect them to come closer?

A: Well, I think there are two reasons. One is, it’s simply the Christian call. It’s like asking, “How can you expect me to forgive?”

Well, Jesus expects that, not me. Second of all, I think they can see that there’s change happening. Pope Francis’ five most famous words, “Who am I to judge?” really have changed things. He’s also talked about gay people he’s known. He met with a former student of his who’s gay, and his partner.

He’s used the word gay. He talks about how Jesus would never say, “Go away from me; you’re homosexual.”

So it’s happening. I think there’s also a call for trust on the part of Catholics who feel estranged from the Church that they, too, are part of the Church and are called to contribute to its flourishing. They have a responsibility, too.

The book is pretty mild, and so I’m shocked at the response it’s gotten from FrANcIScANmeDIA.OrG

both sides. It just shows why it’s important to talk about this issue.

Christmas Advice Q: The holidays are upon us. Do you have any pastoral advice for families who might be having awkward, or even heated, conversations?

A: First, love your LGBT son or daughter— or sibling, niece, nephew, grandchild. Love is the first thing. Second of all, make them feel welcome and not judged—the same way that you wouldn’t judge anyone else. Your family is filled with sinners because we’re all sinners. And third, listen to them, try to find out where they are, and what their hopes and dreams are. But love them—that’s the most important thing. As St. Augustine said, “Love and do what you will.”

Q: What about from the other side of the bridge, from an LGBT person who has felt isolated or awkward with his or her family? What advice do you have for that person?

A: I would also say, try to understand them. Try to understand his or her limitations and where they’re coming from. Be open to change and pray for their own openness. But also remember: you have just as much a right to be in the family as anybody else does.

John Feister is editor in chief of this publication. He holds master’s degrees in humanities and theology from Xavier University, Cincinnati.

Father Martin’s book, based on his talk, has put a Church debate into high gear.

D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7 | 17

RFE14

EDITORIAL

The Gift of Compassion In a year wrought with natural disasters and mass shootings, this Christmas is an opportunity to heal the wounds of the human family.

This is a time of year when the chill of the air is balanced out by the warmth of fond memories and earnest hopes for the future. The joy and promise of Jesus’ birth are shining lights for us to hold on to as the days grow short and the nights long. It should be a happy time. It’s also a time to look back on the past year and make some assessments, both personally and beyond.

It’s hard to get into the Christmas spirit when we think of all the people who have lost loved ones to natural or human-made disasters: earthquakes, hurricanes, the mass shooting in Las Vegas. One starts to feel powerless in the face of these calamities.

And that’s a dangerous place to be because, sooner or later, that powerlessness translates into numbness. If there’s a salve to this infection of the soul, it will be found in compassion, action, and a willingness to get out of our comfort zones. Here are four ways to support those who have lost so much.

Christmas tree lighting. It will warm your heart more than any crackling fire with stockings hanging from the mantel. Giving of yourself is Christ-like, and, who knows, maybe you’re serving Christ himself. After all, Matthew 25:35 is written in the first person: “For I was hungry and you gave me food. . . .”

3) Cut through the Information Overload It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information that’s thrown at us every day. So choose just a handful of organizations, such as Catholic Relief Services, that you want to support, and subscribe to their e-newsletters. Another alternative is to like them on Facebook and/or follow them on Twitter. That way, your social-media feeds are accented by reminders of crises that may have faded from the 24-hour news cycle’s memory.

4) Remember the Power of Prayer 1) Mobil-ize These days, there’s just no excuse not to give to charity if you have the funds to do so. Just pull out your phone, tablet, or laptop, and donate instantaneously to the charities and causes you care the most about. From helping a next-door neighbor through a GoFundMe campaign to donating to Catholic Charities USA online, you can make an impact without missing a moment of A Charlie Brown Christmas.

2) Be There Not everyone has the time or energy to do so, but, if you can, volunteer at a food drive or homeless shelter. There’s nothing quite like seeing the direct impact of compassion on those who are treated as shadows in society. Seeing someone’s face light up simply because you are helping deliver a basic need—such as food or clothing—will brighten your soul more than any 18 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7

We believe that prayer brings us closer not only to God but also to each other.

Sometimes it might seem as if praying doesn’t have a direct effect on people who are suffering hundreds or thousands of miles away. Like the apostle Thomas, many of us feel that we have to actually touch the wounds to know that it is Christ who is standing before us. However, prayers for those we don’t even know show how far-reaching the term the body of Christ really is. After praying, we may even feel more energized to donate or volunteer. The power of prayer cannot be overestimated.

As we celebrate Jesus’ birth, may we remember those in need of our compassion and support. It’s a challenge to not turn away from people who are suffering, because it can be so unpleasant to see. But if we fix our gaze on them and seek out ways to relieve their pain, we just might see Christ there, too, smiling back at us.—D.I. S t . A n t h o n y M e ss e n g e r

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advent living in a time of uncertainty If you follow the examples of Advent’s biblical figures, you’ll find that life’s uncertainties can draw you closer to God. B Y J O YC E R U P P, OS M

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ach spring my father planted seeds in acre after acre of our fields, hoping his hard work would produce a bountiful harvest. At the same time, all of us on the farm knew the uncertainty accompanying that hope: Would there be enough rain to sprout the seeds, or would a late frost kill the fresh shoots? When the green stalks swayed like ocean waves in midsummer, would a hailstorm shred them to bits? When the grain ripened, we knew a devastating wind could smash it to the ground before it was harvested. I soon realized that the question what-if was never far from us. At the same time, I learned from my parents how to approach that insecurity. My parents’ strong faith kept us from living on the verge of anxiety; I absorbed their trust. They took each day as it unfolded, believing in divine providence to care for us, no matter what happened.

Everyone lives with some ambiguity—none of us knows for certain how long we will live, when illness might develop, or if a valued relationship will endure.

Parents are never certain how their children will mature, and many families and businesses face regular questions about financial stability. Usually we try to tuck these unknowns away and pay as little attention to them as possible.

This current era, however, will not let us ignore life’s uncertainties. Significant change occurs more rapidly now. Globalization progressively influences our lives and reminds us that our good fortune could easily be upended. We see this possibility as the division between wealth and poverty grows wider, and world economies remain wobbly. Additional concerns arise as weather patterns topple previous norms, and less effective antibiotics

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indicate that not all disease can be alleviated. The proliferation of nuclear warheads and the growth of terrorism indicate a lack of safety no matter where we are. On the family front, diligent parents remain unsure of how children will grow amid the whirl of social media. Unpredictability also appears in the world of science, where discoveries elicit troubling questions regarding basic tenets of religious faith previously accepted as permanent beliefs.

These and countless other uncertainties tend to clog hope and repress love. Fear wraps a cloak of worry around past openness, squeezing the heart and withholding hospitality. The excess of unknowns creates a tendency to establish clear demarcations that expand into a “them or us” mentality; hostility erupts and violence results.

This cultural milieu requires an ever-sturdier trust in the Holy One to enable our peace of mind and heart.

During Advent, we are invited to regain our spiritual composure through the examination of the season’s biblical figures who provide models of hope to help us do this. When we meet these spiritual ancestors in their context and as metaphors for our lives, they can inspire and encourage us to choose differently from what an insecure society suggests.

The Advent readings reveal an amazing amount of information about unpredictability and the power of a strong faith. This liturgical season’s biblical characters face their own situations of uncertainty. They are taken aback by the unknown, concerned about their wellbeing and how the future will unfold. In spite of these hesitations and fears, they move through them by drawing strength from a deep well of trust. These faith-filled

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persons remind us to lean on God to believe that we can also be wisely guided on the steepest of hills and the darkest of valleys into an unclear future.

‘The virgin’s name was Mary’ (Lk 1:26–55) In Advent’s central figure of faith, Mary of Nazareth, we meet a young woman full of dreams and wedding plans.

The future looks predictable. However, the angel Gabriel comes with a statement that changes every inch of those plans. No wonder Mary “is greatly troubled” by his message—her moral reputation and life are suddenly at risk.

She has every cause to be concerned and fearful, even though the angel reassures her, “Do not be afraid.” After Gabriel explains further, Mary remains stunned and unable to immediately agree to his irrational proposal.

Instead, she questions, “How can this be?”

So the messenger explains further, inviting her to take that enormous leap into the bewildering future. This time Mary draws upon every ounce of her faith and consents, “May it be done to me.” With that brave response, she lets go of her planned security and steps into unmarked territory. What a wondrous gift we received because of Mary’s faith-filled yes to that uncertainty!

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Though she was stunned by the angel Gabriel’s announcement, Mary’s profound faith fueled her answer to God’s call.

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know’ is without all previous opinion; it does not perceive from old points of view, it is open to the many possibilities inherent in the moment. It doesn’t force conclusions, it allows the healing in. . . . The difference between confusion and ‘don’t know’ is that confusion can only see one way out and that way is blocked, while ‘don’t know’ is open to miracles and insights.”

Joseph accepted the ‘don’t know’ of the Holy One’s invitation. He let go of relying only on his logical mind to help him accept his journey of uncertainty. In doing this, Joseph truly became open to miracles and insights.

‘A priest named Zechariah’ (Lk 1:5–25)

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While asleep, Joseph received a challenging message from a messenger of God—one that would forever alter his life.

‘Joseph, her husband’ (Mt 1:18–25) Like Mary, Joseph also entered the arena of the unknown.

Imagine how drastic a turn his world took when he learned of Mary’s pregnancy. Matthew’s Gospel tells us Joseph also faced a difficult decision. He must have spent considerable time before deciding to “divorce [Mary] quietly” so she would not be disgraced. Joseph knew this gesture would keep Mary from harmful public exposure and set his future in a more secure direction. But security was not meant for Joseph; another angel with a preposterous message comes as he sleeps: “Do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.”

One of the big obstacles to living with uncertainty often involves letting go of the attempt to rationally figure things out. Joseph tried to do this. His logical decision to divorce Mary is suitable and compassionate.

But a greater compassion is asked, one that pulls Joseph beyond his rational mind. Only through a dream, when the ego and the intellect are at rest, does Joseph receive the full impact of what God asks of him.

Most often when faced with ambiguity of a spiritual nature, the deeper we go beyond the surface of consciousness (ego) and logic, the more we come to the place where the voice of the Holy One dwells. In Healing into Life and Death, Stephen Levine quotes a meditation teacher telling students to “trust that ‘don’t know,’” and goes on to describe what it means to do this: “It [‘don’t know’] is the space in which all wisdom arises, in which alternatives are to be discovered. ‘Don’t 22 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7

A messenger from God arrives as Zechariah offers incense in the sanctuary. Like Mary, he is terrified, and fear overwhelms him. This angel also assures Zechariah to not be afraid and then delivers the great news that this longchildless man will father a son. In spite of the predicted joy, the logical possibility of this birth fills Zechariah with incredulity. This message makes no sense to him: “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”

A lot of related questions probably worried the elder Zechariah when he thought of having a son: “Is Elizabeth too old to survive giving birth? I always longed to have a child of my own, but Elizabeth and I have never been parents. We have less energy than in our youth.

How will we manage to care for and raise this little one?

Will he be healthy? Will we live to see him grow into adulthood?”

Because Zechariah verbally chokes on the seeming improbability of the angel’s message, he ends up being literally speechless. We learn from Zechariah’s inability to accept mystery that faith is not about certainty. Like Joseph, his story tells us that faith is about living with what does not seem logical. Faith listens with an open mind and heart. Faith believes beyond the possible and gives spiritual energy to live with hope in a time of big questions but few answers.

‘Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit’ (Lk 1:24, 39–45) Unlike Mary, Joseph, and Zechariah, no angel comes to Elizabeth. Could it be that faith had ripened so fully in this older, wise woman that she believed without needing to have her situation explained? In contrast to Zechariah, Elizabeth responds to the news of her pregnancy with gratitude, relief, and joy: “So has the Lord done for me at a time when he has seen fit to take away my disgrace before others.” Not a trace of question, concern, or incredulity passes the lips of this mature woman.

When her cousin Mary, pregnant with Jesus, arrives at her home, Elizabeth feels the child in her own womb kicking and takes this to be another sign of the Holy One’s involvement in their lives. She greets Mary with S t . A n t h o n y M e ss e n g e r

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Elizabeth, though “advanced in years,” was blessed with a son, who would later prepare the way for Jesus—John the Baptist. a loud cry of joy and affirms Mary’s faith: “Most blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” The woman who trusted in her own surprising pregnancy did not doubt that Mary was given the supreme gift of carrying a special life within her. The cry of joy emitted from Elizabeth as she welcomes her young, pregnant cousin elicits Mary’s proclamation of the profound Magnificat. This response by Mary indicates the power of one person’s faith to call forth a more abundant faith in another.

‘The angel Gabriel was sent from God’ (Lk 1:5–11, 26; Mt 1:20) Let us not forget the angels of the Advent season. These messengers of change invite uncertainty when they speak words that split apart the neat, assured plans of each biblical person. These angels of Advent are still around. We encounter them through people who enter our lives and ask us to leave our well-established security in order to risk the future so something of value can evolve.

In my life, one of these messengers appeared in my late 20s. My community’s prioress, Sister Eleanor Galt, asked me to do what I thought was impossible: leave my contented life as an elementary school teacher and move into retreat ministry. Although I had no training for this, Sister Eleanor believed in me. With trepidation, I said yes to a ministry that gradually drew forth gifts I never knew existed and eventually led me to become a published author. None of this would have happened without my “angel’s” challenge and encouragement to face what seemed an insurmountable task.

That experience led me to the biblical figures of Advent to understand how spiritual growth comes when we allow ourselves to be stretched beyond our tidy plans and FranciscanMedia.org

desires. If we are to grow spiritually, there will almost always be some tension between what to hold on to firmly and what to yield. Yearning for security and certainty is a natural human response to the continual transitions of life. However, spiritual growth will not occur unless one is willing to befriend the unknown, detach from what binds too tightly, let go of insisting on logical conclusions, and be willing to stay open to possibilities.

All major religions teach that those who wish to discover deeper meaning and a stronger relationship with the Holy One will inevitably face relinquishment of what holds the self back from growth. The cultural and personal uncertainties of this era definitely provide seeds for this relinquishment. We learn from our Advent figures that we can mature in our trust of God’s movement through ongoing prayer and times of solitude.

Angels will be there both to challenge and assure us that we do not need to fear, no matter what ambiguity the future holds. We choose to live with mystery, to be at peace with not finding final answers, to discover a keener sense of the Holy One’s guidance. As we do so, this divine love becomes interwoven within every part of our lives.

Joyce Rupp, OSM, is a well-known author and speaker. She is a member of the Servites (Servants of Mary) community and was a volunteer in hospice care for 15 years. Her latest book is Prayer Seeds: A Gathering of Blessings, Reflections, and Poems for Spiritual Growth (Ave Maria Press).

Tips on Coping with Uncertainty Many of us face uncertainty in our daily lives.

Applying the wisdom of the ancient biblical figures of Advent, here are some ways to cope in today’s world.

• Receive the Holy One’s messengers when they extend an invitation to grow in faith.

• Listen to the heart’s intuition, to dreams in sleep, and the day’s hidden messages.

• Take our nudges, questions, doubts, and hesitations into reflection and prayer.

• Trust repeatedly in the Holy One’s desire for each person’s well-being.

• Be willing to let go of tightly held plans, boxed-in beliefs, and clenched securities.

• Keep steady hope for individual and world peace amid constant uncertainty.

D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7 | 23

St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra, venerated in the Eastern Church (left), later became Sinterklass in western Europe (center), then secularized Santa Claus in America.

PHOTO BY ANDY GREENWELL

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SANTA CLAUS

Father Joseph Marquis has a passion for Santa Claus—the real Santa Claus. And he’s teaching Santa’s helpers about him.

B Y MA RYA NN G OG NIAT E ID E M IL L E R

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oseph Marquis was nearly 5 when he met a most questionable Santa Claus.

It was early December 1953, Detroit, Michigan.

His mother, Laurette, could not afford to take her twin sons to visit a department store Santa in downtown Detroit. His father, Raymond, was in a sanitarium with tuberculosis, and Laurette was eight months pregnant, struggling to take care of her family.

It was midmorning when they, along with his twin brother, arrived at a cabin near a vacant lot in Lincoln Park. There was a dusting of snow on the ground, and the brothers stomped their feet to keep warm. Their teeth 24 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7

chattered while they looked to the sky for signs of reindeer and a sleigh. Nothing.

Then an ordinary man walked past, unlocked the cabin, went in, and closed the door. When it opened a few minutes later, there stood Santa Claus wearing a very fake beard and a cheap red suit, welcoming them to come inside.

Joseph told Santa that he wanted a train for Christmas and that, most of all, he wanted his father to come home.

The little boy, now 68 and known as Father Joseph Marquis, remembers it well. Santa’s eyes started sparkling, but maybe it was the lights. Or maybe it was tears, he recalls, S t . A n t h o n y M e ss e n g e r

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ALL PHOTOS THIS PAGE COURTESY OF FATHER JOSEPH MARQUIS

Joseph Marquis and his twin brother, Richard (right), visit Santa in 1952, with their parents, Laurette and Raymond.

Santa (Marquis) arrives at J.L. Hudson’s Thanksgiving parade, 1976.

telling the story, now even choking up a bit himself. would always remember. “My father’s coworkers from Although the boy had his doubts about this man who the Ford engineering lab brought a tree, decorations, and gave him a wind-up toy, he later recalled that “he had gifts,” he recalls. His Aunt Eva cared for the twins, even the eyes of Santa Claus.” taking them to a discount store Christmas Eve to buy a Still, there were no reindeer, the beard was crooked, crèche set. Then they prayed together, Father Marquis and didn’t Santa look like the man who had walked into recalls, for their many needs. “God listens to the prayers the cabin? of children,” he says today wistfully. He felt a warm pres“That’s not the real Santa Claus!” he recalls telling his ence, remarkable enough that he asked his aunt about mother as they were leaving. it. “That’s the Holy Ghost,” she said. “God is letting us She gently explained that Santa was so busy that he know we’re going to be OK.” Laurette, who had refused a needed helpers. It was a job like being doctor’s offer to abort during her risky a policeman or a cowboy. pregnancy, went into labor with some Joseph turned to his brother, Richfear of never returning, he recounts. ard, and said, “Someday I will be SanShe gave birth to perfectly healthy litta’s helper, too.” tle Raymond on Christmas Day. That promise was kept 17 years There was no model train, and later when he put on a suit to be a Joseph’s greatest wish didn’t come true department store Santa, and he hasn’t until February 1955, when his father stopped since. was released from the sanitarium, the Father Marquis, pastor of Sacred only one of six men in his ward who Heart Byzantine Catholic Church survived. But young Joseph’s prayers in Livonia, Michigan, started out were answered. portraying the traditional American Path to Priesthood Santa Claus, then later added both Father Marquis had a late call to the Eastern and Western versions of the priesthood. He first worked as a St. Nicholas (see images on opposite graphic designer in a department store page). and was an actor and ventriloquist His Santa passion led him into on the side. He went to a seminary all manner of places. He’s a noted and was ordained a deacon. In diacoauthority on St. Nicholas and the founder of the St. Nicholas Institute, a Father Marquis gives Santa John Bloomberg nal service, he worked as a hospital chaplain. training program—yes, there are such of Blanchard, Oklahoma, a blessing.

He was ordained to the priesthood things—for Santa Clauses. His program, though, has a religious purpose. Since 2012, men on February 12, 2006. “I fell in love with the Eastern litand women (as Mrs. Claus) have learned about the saint urgy when I was in the second grade,” Father Marquis behind the legend and how to be open to the Christmas says. But he never gave up playing Santa. This year will spirit—actually the Holy Spirit—in their portrayals of mark his 46th as the little red man.

During those decades, he has been featured in numerboth Santa Claus and St. Nicholas.

The spirit of that Christmas of 1953 was one that he ous publications, documentaries, videos, commercials, FranciscanMedia.org

D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7 | 25

and locally and nationally broadcast television and radio programs, including EWTN and PBS. For many years, he was Santa in Detroit’s J.L. Hudson Thanksgiving Day Parade and two others broadcast by both CBS and ABC. His list of Santa accomplishments is long: he’s performed annually for 25 years at Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, Michigan, and spent many a day as a department store Santa and visitor to churches, schools, and hospitals.

He even played Santa Claus in the parade in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

Recognitions include Emmy Awards for portraying Santa in a holiday musical and in Santa Goes Back in Time, both produced for WXYZ-TV Detroit. He received two Emmy nominations for Christmas commercials and the Go-4-It! Award from WDIVTV Detroit for his work with children in hospitals and nursing home residents. In 2012, he was inducted into the International Santa Claus Hall of Fame in Santa Claus, Indiana.

Yes, there is such a Hall of Fame, in a town with that name.

St. Nicholas Institute

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ALL PHOTOS BY WWW.ATWPHOTOGRAPHY.COM/SAMANTHA COVER

Santa Keith Carson, boasting his Scot clan heritage, receives his certificate.

Perhaps Father Marquis’ most significant Santa work, though, is teaching interested Santas about the real St. Nicholas. He founded an institute in 2012, initially as a retreat for some men who approached him after his induction into the Hall of Fame.

They kept coming back.

Those recurring retreats spurred Father Marquis to start the St. Nicholas Institute. His mission is to serve the spiritual needs of the “men and women in red” who come to immerse themselves in the core values of the institute: Nicholas as our model, Openness to the Christmas spirit, and Exercising compassion and Love for children (read “NOEL”—he never abandoned the marketing skills from his first department store job).

The four-day formation occurs every October at St. Paul of the Cross Retreat Center in Detroit. At the S t . A n t h o n y M e ss e n g e r

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Candy Carson, seated with her husband, US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson, received this year’s St. Nicholas Institute trophy (right). conclusion, there is an award ceremony that includes a national award for lifetime achievement. This past October that award was given to Candy Carson, who along with her husband, US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson, established in 1994 the Carson Scholarship Fund for needy students and the Ben Carson Reading Project, which finances the construction of reading rooms to serve low-income students across the country.

Then there are the graduating Santas. Those who attend for four years receive the Order of St. Nicholas Medal as a way to keep St. Nicholas in mind all year long.

Award-Winning St. Nicholases “I always felt that there should be some kind of spiritual attachment [to the role] because there’s truth in St. Nicholas,” says Dennis R. Sedlak, 65, a retired electronics engineer from Aurora, Ohio. A recent award recipient, he’s been portraying Santa and St. Nick for 20 years.

“It’s a good feeling for me,” he says. “It’s very inspiring when I’m with children to emulate some spiritual blessings. I let them know that this is a serious thing: it’s about Jesus being born.”

Some kids want toys, says Sedlak. Other requests tug at his heart. One little girl asked, “You make toys and all that, and you have magic, too, right?” He said yes. Then she said, “My mommy passed away, and I was wondering if you frAnciScAnmeDiA.org

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could bring her back.”

Sedlak took a deep breath and gently told her, “Every time you think about Mommy, any time you miss her and feel something in your heart or tummy, she’s with you.”

Jerry Owens, 66, of New Albany, New York, started his Santa routine in the engineering department of a Veterans Administration hospital, after his hair aged to white.

“People said, ‘You look like Santa Claus,’” he recalls. So every December he wore a red sweater and Santa hat to work.

Then an aunt asked him to play Santa for a school.

He reluctantly agreed, bought a suit, and found himself nervously sitting in a chair, waiting for the children.

One little girl jumped onto his lap, looked up at him and said, “I love you, Santa.” He was hooked. For the past 26 years, he has been portraying Santa at schools and churches. He added St. Nicholas along the way.

“I didn’t know what to expect at the institute,” Owens says. “Then it hit me. It was a good time to reflect on who I am and what I’m doing, and to get back to the real reason that I’m doing this, the real reason for the Christmas season. It’s a time to understand where this figure—Santa Claus—came from and who he was.”

In the spirit of the saint, Owens has an answer for children who ask why he didn’t bring them everything they wanted: he looked over their list and found that another special child somewhere in the world needed that gift.

He tells them, “When they open it on Christmas morning, they’ll see two names of who it’s from—mine and yours.”

A Christmas Gift in His Heart Norman Gerring, 74, of Lincoln Park, Michigan, started as a makeshift Santa for a Christmas Eve party 10 years ago. He put on a red flannel shirt, added a cheap Santa

The St. Nicholas Institute, at Detroit’s St. Paul Retreat Center, is visited by Dominican sisters from nearby Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Doing the “jingle jive” are (r. to l.) Jim Youker, Garner, North Carolina; Jerry Owens, New Albany, Indiana; and Larry Schuler, Santa Claus, Indiana.

PHOTO BY WWW.ATWPHOTOGRAPHY.COM/SAMANTHA COVER

PHOTO COURTESY OF BILL BRESLER OBSERVER & ECCENTRIC NEWSPAPERS, LIVONIA, MI

Notice Santa Norman Gerring’s Marquis-contrived “Order of St. Nicholas” medal, hanging beneath his silvery beard.

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Another Santa, James Youker, is certified as knowing the story of the real Santa Claus. hat, and four youngsters that evening stuck to him like glue. He later bought a Santa suit and attended a training school.

He learned about the real St. Nicholas from Father Marquis. “Being a Lutheran, I understood what a bishop was,” he says. “So I did some research and found the institute.”

He now portrays the elf (the American Santa was an elf before Coca-Cola reinvented him) and a contemporary version of the saint.

“It’s such a personally rewarding thing to do,” Owens says. “When you have a young child sitting on your lap, looking up into your eyes, you know that those eyes are looking at Santa Claus, and you’d better be the best Santa Claus there is.”

The final medal recipient is James O. Youker, 69, of Garner, North Carolina. He was 20, working at a Montgomery Ward department store, when he was asked to put on a Santa suit to fill in for someone. “It had a cheap nylon beard and wig, and I

looked terrible,” he says.

One little girl came with her grandfather, who smelled like wine.

Both were dirty, and the girl’s dress was torn. She climbed onto Youker’s lap and for 15 minutes she glowed with the magic of being with Santa.

All she wanted was a baby doll, and she gave him a letter before she left.

He opened it later and found a crumpled dollar bill and a note that it was for the doll.

“She put the gift of Christmas in my heart,” Youker says. “I really need to thank that little girl for where I am today. I wish I would have gotten her name and address so that I could make sure that she got the doll. All I can do now is believe in my heart that somehow she did.”

At the end of the now-annual retreat, Father Marquis blesses the participants with the manna of St. Nicholas, a clear liquid that flows from his relic bones, drawn annually in Bari, Italy.

Whether it’s at his St. Nicholas S t . A n t h o n y M e ss e n g e r

Institute or in a hospital bringing Christmas cheer to sick children, Father Marquis’ Santa Claus has the spirit of St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra, a saint who, rightly understood, embodies the holy season.

The real St. Nicholas is the one who’s left when kids stop believing in the elf—”the authentic hero in the true meaning of Christmas,” Father Marquis says. In St. Nicholas, we see “the joy, the giving, the love, and the Christ child.” Isn’t that the true Christmas spirit?

LINDOM/FOTOSEARCH

Maryann Gogniat Eidemiller is an author and editor whose work has been recognized by numerous journalism awards, including from the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada. Mother of three and grandmother of two, she lives in Greenberg, Pennsylvania, with her husband, five rescue dogs, and one cat.

The Real St. Nicholas St. Nicholas was born in AD 270 in Greece and died in AD 345 on December 6, now his feast day. He was the son of a wealthy merchant but was orphaned as a child, when his parents died in an epidemic.

He was ordained a priest, became the bishop of Myra (in modern Turkey), and was known for giving away his inherited wealth in acts of charity for the poor.

In the most famous tradition, he gave three sacks of gold coins to a poor widower whose daughters were facing being sold into slavery because they didn’t have dowries. Different versions have him throwing the sacks through a window or tossing them on the roof, as one fell down the chimney, right into a stocking hung by the fireplace.

St. Nicholas was exiled, and tortured in prison. His faith remained strong.

“He is authentic, a real person whom we should imitate,” Father Marquis says. “He was a person who was willing to lay down his life for his faith. He fought the good fight, and he won the race. The same Holy Spirit that inspired him can inspire us.”

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A Christmas

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ST. ANTHONY MESSENGER

Celebration for the Soul Christmas doesn’t have to be all about money and materialism.

We can allow our inner child to show us a new celebration.

B Y THO MA S M OOR E

PHOTO BY © BORUT TRDINA/ISTOCK

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n the Gospels, Jesus points out that the kingdom is really for children. They aren’t fully adjusted to the rules of society and so, like mad people, they, too, live by a different logic. A child might well pay the same amount to people who work longer or shorter hours (see Mt 20:1–16).

You could think of Christmas in this way, as a festival for children who live more by a gift economy than by a structure based on work. At Christmas, we could all restore some of the enchanted, open, unspoiled otherworldliness of the child.

Christmas is the time to focus on the child: your childhood, perhaps your children, the world’s children, your child spirit, fragile beginnings, or an innocent rejection of the world’s adult ways. It’s the season to be unreasonably generous, interested in toys, and given to playing games and giving attention to dolls and puppets and electric trains.

The positive, affirming, and hopeful teaching of Jesus is not only foreseen in the infant of the Nativity; it is also symbolized by that child. When any child is born, we have no idea what he or she will become.

The possibilities are infinite, and therefore the child represents a new being. He or she is not a copy, but an original.

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Life and Love Christmas, whether it commemorates the birth of the infant at Bethlehem or the return of sunshine, is about the hope for new and abundant life. Christmas is a celebration for the soul, because the soul is the principle of life and vitality. The Greek word for soul (psyche) means “breath”; and the Latin anima leads to our English word animate, which means “come to life” or be “full of life.” The child reminds us of the infinite possibilities of life available to us, and we celebrate that vitality in the season of good cheer, gift-giving, and community.

When I was a child, I felt the magic of Christmas in my very being. If there is such a thing as a resurrected body, that is who I was on Christmas Day. My whole family together evoked that magic and laid an important foundation for me as a religious person and someone open to enchantment.

I didn’t know at that time that 70 years later I’d be writing about Christmas having a depth of meaning I have never read about elsewhere. My early experience of Christmas is now fulfilled in a way I would never have anticipated, and now I feel that this article comes out of my enchantment with the solstice, the Jesus philosophy, and my parents’ goodwill.

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When I mention the Jesus philosophy, I want to emphasize the role of Jesus in giving us a worldview that differs from the one we live by today. For him, human interactions are based on the model of friendship; love is the main dynamic, but it is not so personal or sentimental; and rather than go around being productive, he teaches and models an approach based on healing. This is a different way of being in the world, a new philosophy.

made two key points about this situation: 1) Be prepared. Don’t be left out in the cold.

There will be two kinds of people: those in this utopia and those outside it. You don’t want to be in the old arrangement. 2) Don’t presume that you will be part of the new regime simply because you are Jewish or Christian or virtuous, believing that, of course, you will be “in.” Just the opposite: many people who for external reasons think they’re automatically part of it will be left out.

A Vision for Humanity But my sense of Christmas is also different now. I understand better that Jesus was addressing all people on the planet, not wanting them to join his organization but to adopt his vision for a better human race.

I now see how Christmas and Jesus’ vision line up, and I see that the enchantment of Christmas is a taste of what would be possible if human beings could really love each other. Given all of that, I understand how the infant in the manger symbolizes the new life in me, the potential I have to be a new kind of being, dedicated to agape, “love of the other”—whoever he or she is.

This is a remarkable mystery worthy of celebration and suitable in any setting on earth. It makes no sense to see it exclusively as a ritual for Christians. It has meaning only as a plan for the entire human race. Therefore, Christmas is a celebration that belongs to every one of us.

It’s easy to be profoundly cynical about the possibility of a world living by love. So many find the idea of utopia and of Jesus’ proposal about loving your enemies not only preposterous but also naive and fantastical. It will never happen, they think, and if you expect it, you are not acquainted with the ways of the world. To these people, utopia is a wonderful, wishful fantasy—and an unrealistic, childish illusion.

A somewhat easier approach to utopia is to see it as a way of imagining an ideal future, and you strive toward it knowing that you will never fully achieve it. This kind of utopia keeps you on track. You hope for a perfect life, and that hope allows you to steadily improve. Your ideal motivates you.

But I don’t get the impression that this is the kind of world Jesus was recommending.

In an important set of words, he frequently said that the “kingdom of the sky” or “the kingdom of God” is drawing near. Then he 34 | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Small Scale, Big Impact You have to live this new way to be a member of the new community. You have to get the point that it’s all about a reversal of values. Financial success in this utopia could be an obstacle, not a measure of success. So, give up that idea.

That’s why the small-scale, experimental gift economy of Christmas is so important.

It’s a tiny example of a new way of life, a one-day utopia, when we don’t demand a quid pro quo financial economy. Generosity is the thing, not financial shrewdness.

Thomas Moore is the author of The New York Times best seller Care of the Soul (Harper Perennial) as well as 20 other books on deepening spirituality. He has been a monk, a musician, a university professor, and a psychotherapist. Today he lectures widely on holistic medicine, spirituality, and psychotherapy.

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CHRISTMAS

2017

GIFT GUIDE

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Rugged Rosaries Our paracord rosaries are handmade and rugged, but also refined and beautifully masculine. These are guaranteed not to break on you. The special cross on our Irish Blessings rosary is inspired by a 16th-century cross at the monastery of St. Kevin in Glendalough, England. Saint medals can be added at an additional cost. Please visit our website for more selections.

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Faith & Family Personalized Diamond Ring This beautiful 18K gold-plated diamond ring makes a meaningful statement on its own. But you can make it even more special when you provide up to six names of family members and loved ones to be engraved for free across the front of the ring.

PRICE: $99 WEBSITE: BradfordExchange.com Coffee & Goats Pair the gift of a goat with the very thing they are credited with discovering: coffee!

Proceeds from the sale of Heifer La Promesa Guatemalan Blend coffee enable families struggling with hunger and poverty an opportunity to achieve lives of true self-determination and dignity. We work to establish and develop strong communitybased organizations that emphasize the empowerment of women and youth.

Through the sale of their coffee, farmers are creating better financial futures for their families and communities.

PRICE: Coffee ($17); Goat ($120 or in $10 increments) WEBSITE: HeiferInternational.org 36 | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7

ST. ANTHONY MESSENGER

Hand-Crafted Jewelry This gorgeous pendant from the Franciscans’ Sarah Center is multicolored and abstract, with Rondell beads and an ornate, gold-accent clasp. The center helps economically disadvantaged women develop jobs and life skills.

A New Take on the Nativity NOEL: An Unforgettable Night is a charming children’s book that reimagines the familiar story of Jesus’ birth by giving it a universal meaning. Its art, filled with remarkable illustrations, is full of details on the world of the Great North.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF GETHSEMANI FARMS/DEAN LAVENSON PHOTOGRAPHY

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The Pope Francis Collection Pope Francis took his name after St. Francis of Assisi, and, like his namesake, he is inspiring generations of believers and seekers alike.

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D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 | 37

Box of Joy M

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ST. ANTHONY meSSeNGer

This Catholic outreach program delivers Christmas gifts—and smiles—to children in developing countries.

Ministry

BY S U S AN HI NES - BR I GG ER

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ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF CROSS CATHOLIC OUTREACH

For 60,000 kids this year, the Christmas experience will be completely new and exciting. For many, this will be their first Christmas gift ever.

FrANcIScANmeDIA.OrG

magine waking up to no presents on Christmas morning. That, unfortunately, is the reality for most children in impoverished countries like Haiti. For Jim Cavnar, president of Cross Catholic Outreach, that reality wasn’t acceptable, so he created a program to change it.

In 2011, he developed the Box of Joy ministry, a program through which Catholic parishes, schools, and groups can gather small gifts to send to children living in poverty in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and, starting this year, Nicaragua. Last year, the program delivered gifts to 31,712 children in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Guatemala. With the addition of Nicaragua, the ministry’s goal is to reach at least 60,000 kids.

The impetus for the program, Cavnar says, was seeing the excitement of his own children on Christmas morning. “I think for these kids . . . almost all of them have never gotten a gift before, and you can look around and see they almost don’t know what to do,” he said in an interview with The Catholic Week, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Mobile.

Groups take part in the program in various ways. Parishes, schools, groups, and families sign up to take part in the program and collect items or raise funds in a variety of ways, such as turning their campaign into a friendly competition to see who can pack the most boxes of joy. The project’s website is CrossCatholic.org/BoxofJoy. Those who cannot take part in group activities can take advantage of the Create-a-Box Online program, where all they have to do is select a gender and age-group, then pay for the gifts and shipment of the box. Members of Team Joy will then pack and ship the box.

Based in Florida, Cross Catholic Outreach is an official Catholic nonprofit 501(c)(3) relief and development organization that, since its founding in 2001, has given more than $1 billion in aid to help “the poorest of the poor” in more than three dozen developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and other parts of the world.

D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7 | 39

When the Box of Joy program began, only two dioceses took part: Palm Beach, Florida, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Since then, the program has continued to grow. Last year, 315 participating Catholic parishes, schools, and groups across 48 states participated, gathering small gifts such as toys, dolls, and race cars, as well as a few treats such as hard candy and coloring books. The boxes also include essentials such as soap, pencils, toothpaste, and toothbrushes. And an extra $9 helps cover the costs of sending the boxes.

Schools in Del Ray, Florida (top photo), and All Saints School in Jupiter, Florida (second), hold packing parties to get the boxes ready and sent (third) via one of the 73 drop-off centers, where members of Team Joy (fouth) screen and ship the gifts (bottom).

Even if someone misses Box of Joy Week or there is not a dropoff center in his or her diocese, boxes can be sent directly to the National Screening Center in Miami at: Cross Catholic Outreach–Box of Joy C/O MIQ Logistics 11210 NW 91st Street, Suite 1 Miami, FL 33178 40 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7

S t . A n t h o n y M e ss e n g e r

FranciscanMedia.org

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According to Box of Joy director Steve Bostian, when children open their boxes, many don’t even know what the items they receive are.

“The poverty is so extreme here that I think they are in shock,” he told Catholic News Service.

Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi of Mobile, Alabama, agrees, pointing out that “some kids live in homes without electricity or running water.

Some kids live in homes with dirt floors. Some kids live in the most impoverished areas.” That reality, he says, along with the fact that these kids have never received a Christmas present, makes the Box of Joy ministry an even greater blessing.

Jim Cavnar (opposite page, lower left) says that “while gift-giving is not the meaning of Christmas, it does help us remember the reason for Christmas—the birth of Jesus—and how our Lord received gifts from strangers. Serving Jesus through helping these children

42 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7

experience the joy of opening up presents is a beautiful way to show the love of Christ, and to see that love reflected in their happy faces.”

Smiles, such as the one displayed by Father Raul Monterosso and a little girl in Guatemala (opposite page, upper right), are a testimony to that. Father Monterosso is the director of Caritas for the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima in Guatemala.

Often after the children receive their packages, they will not play with the contents, but rather carefully repackage them, Cavnar said this past March in an interview with Catholic News Service. He was curious as to why this was so, until his Haitian staff explained that the children “know this is something for their whole family and they will first go to their family and share it.”

Susan Hines-Brigger is the development manager for Franciscan Media.

S t . A n t h o n y M e ss e n g e r

FranciscanMedia.org

D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7 | 43

NBVF /FOTOSEARCH

TINSEL IN TINSELTOWN The Greatest Christmas Films & TV Specials From Ebenezer Scrooge’s redemption to Charlie Brown’s existential angst, everybody loves a good Christmas story.

Here are seven of the best.

B Y C HR I S T OP HER HEF F R ON

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Sleigh bells ring. Are you listening?”

Nope.

“I want a hippopotamus for Christmas.”

That’s impractical.

“Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy: ‘Do you hear what I hear?’”

Talking lambs?

I cannot stomach Christmas music. As such, I have been called a grouch more times than I can count. But that’s hardly fair. It isn’t Christmas I find troublesome— it’s how the season is scored that bothers me. But what does get me into the Christmas spirit are the annual films and television specials that are as etched into my memory as my family’s plastic Christmas tree.

Film and television have had a long love affair with the Christmas season, with varying degrees of success. Some are crude (Bad Santa), some are chilling for all the wrong reasons (The Polar Express), and still others continue to mystify (Tim Allen’s The Santa Clause). Here are seven of the best.

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ST. ANTHONY MESSENGER

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

NBVF /FOTOSEARCH

Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye star in the 1954 classic White Christmas.

HYRMA /FOTOSEARCH

FRANCISCANMEDIA.ORG

6) Miracle on 34th Street A lawyer defends an institutionalized gentleman who claims to be the real Santa Claus.

Perhaps no other Christmas film does a better job of toggling between fantasy and reason, but that’s half the fun! And this 1947 classic wouldn’t work without Edmund Gwenn’s Oscar-winning performance as Kris Kringle, who stood in for a generation of baby boomers as the best film representation of Santa.

But a closer look uncovers a deeper meaning. The film is a quiet study of faith and how it sustains us, culminating in the scene where Maureen O’Hara tells her young daughter, played by Natalie Wood, “Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to.” Amen.

MERCURY NASHVILLE RECORDS PRESSING/CREATIVE COMMONS

The title doesn’t lie: there’s scarcely a person of color to be found in this 1954 film about two soldiers who join forces with a sister act to save a Vermont inn. But White Christmas still ranks as a favorite among fans.

Is it dated? To be sure. But its message is timeless—and melodic. White Christmas is a candy-cane-colored look at the importance of community and tradition, framed by song and dance. And with the vocal prowess of Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney crooning about Christmases that are “merry and bright,” it’s hard not to melt into your couch as you watch it.

TROY WASON/CREATIVE COMMONS

7) White Christmas

5) How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Author Anna Quindlen once opined that Dr. Seuss will be remembered “for the murder of Dick and Jane, which was a mercy killing of the highest order.” That proved true in 1966 with How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, about a creature of undetermined origin who schemes to rob the Whos of Whoville on Christmas Eve. Animation may have been birthed by the French and perfected by Walt Disney, but Dr. Seuss made it edgy, less literal. Combine his laser wit with a story of a frozen heart warmed by the grace of a little girl named Cindy Lou Who, and what you have is a beautiful tale that binds Gen Xers everywhere. With effortless rhyme, The Grinch speaks to a holy season that casts light in even the darkest corners of our souls, illustrated with this line: “Christmas Day will always be, just as long as we have we.”

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4) It’s a Wonderful Life

A Midwestern boy goes to exhausting lengths to get what he wants for Christmas: an official Red Ryder, carbine action, 200-shot, range model air rifle.

Forget for a moment that the young protagonist, so memorably played by Peter Billingsley, spends the entire film with gun lust, and think of how beautifully this story balances adolescent angst and postDepression Christmas glee. Jampacked with classic lines (“You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!”), A Christmas Story works best not as a tale of holiday avarice, but as a funny look at a flawed family navigating the choppy Christmas waters together.

Set in the 40s, released in the 80s, but ever timeless, it reminds us that, on December 25, we’re all children at heart. It also shows what can happen when we stick our tongues to poles in midwinter. Thank you, Flick.

2) A Charlie Brown Christmas Our titular hero feels that Christmas has become too commercial: how some things never change! With the help of friends Linus, Lucy, Snoopy, and Schroeder, the gang puts on a Christmas pageant.

Nothing about this 1965 television 46 | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed, It’s a Wonderful Life is a fan favorite. landmark should work. It is crudely animated. It is voiced by untrained child actors. It has a jazz score! But if you assemble the many imperfections of Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts” perennial, what you’re left with is nothing short of perfection. As Linus, blanket in hand, recites Luke 2:8–14 on that dusty auditorium stage, he commands the attention not only of the children present, but of the audience as well. That seamless weaving of biblical storytelling into pop culture wouldn’t fly on today’s mainstream television landscape.

A Charlie Brown Christmas, the greatest animated special of all time, preaches without being preachy.

too often it is inauthentically rendered. But Scrooge’s rebirth as a person of integrity never seems forced or false. As viewers, we endure his evolution—his reawakening as an instrument of good. And as the old man hoists a once-sickly Tiny Tim atop his shoulders at the end of the film, the closing lines can warm even the chilliest hearts toward Christmas: “God bless us, everyone.”

Christopher Heffron is the director of communications at Franciscan Media and the digital editor of this publication.

1) A Christmas Carol A crusty miser in Victorian England learns the meaning of Christmas from three cantankerous spirits.

Any interpretation of Charles Dickens’ 1843 Honorable Mentions novel is time well spent— even the Muppets got it Rudolph the Red-Nosed right. But for this movie Reindeer (1964) lover, George C. Scott’s Gremlins (1984) towering 1984 interpretaHome Alone (1990) tion of Ebenezer Scrooge is still the one to beat.

The Nightmare before Redemption is a tricky Christmas (1993) theme in film. In the Love Actually (2003) hands of lesser writers,

y

y ANDREY KUZMIN /FOTOSEARCH

3) A Christmas Story

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

To earn his wings, an angel helps a suicidal family man (Jimmy Stewart) by showing him what life would be like if he had never existed.

Director Frank Capra’s 1946 classic might be too saccharine for contemporary film fans, but cynics should give it another go. Deceptively dark, the film tackles suicide, emotional desolation, and the resiliency of the human spirit, themes rarely explored this thoughtfully in postwar American cinema. As Stewart’s George Bailey rediscovers the beauty of life and the importance of Christmas, his emergence from a cocoon of despair is pure movie magic.

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Children’s Holiday Shop at the Carmelite Gift Shop

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S t . A n t h o n y M e ss e n g e r

C AT H O L I C S I T E S T O E X P LO R E

| THE CLOISTERS MUSEUM

PHOTO BY JOSE OLIVARES/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Medieval tapestries, sculptures, rooms, and an entire chapel have been preserved in this unique museum at the north end of Manhattan.

Uptown Cloisters

I

n northern Manhattan, the Cloisters Museum incorporates rooms, chapels, portals, columns, and cloisters from several medieval churches and monasteries.

George Grey Barnard once displayed his medieval art collection nearby. When John D. Rockefeller Jr. bought the collection, he donated it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with many of his medieval sculptures and land near the Cloisters.

Charles Collens, architect for New York’s Riverside Church, designed the series of rooms and chambers in the Romanesque and Gothic styles to showcase medieval paintings, sculptures, tapestries, stainedglass windows, and liturgical vessels and vestments.

The Cloisters’ glories include: • The Fuentiduena Chapel, from a 12thcentury Romanesque church in Spain. A large fresco shows the Virgin and Child, archangels Michael and Gabriel, and the Magi about to adore the Christ Child; • A richly detailed wooden sculpture of three saints by Tilman Riemanschneider, an excellent sculptor of late medieval Germany; • Robert Campin’s luminous triptych of the Annunciation, depicting the donors FrANcIScANmeDIA.OrG

kneeling in prayer and St. Joseph laboring in his carpentry shop; and • The magnificent Unicorn Tapestries woven in or near Brussels, Belgium, around 1500. These seven masterpieces portray incredible details of animals, plants, and the full range of human emotions.

Some works at the Cloisters are too fragile to be displayed full-time. Among its greatest treasures are a walrus-ivory cross (1148) and the Antioch Chalice, a large silver cup from sixth-century Syria.

Each cloister is lovely in its own way.

At the Bonnefort Cloister, the museum’s gardeners tend flower and herb plantings popular during the Middle Ages.

Adapted from 101 Places to Pray Before You Die,

by Thomas J. Craughwell (Franciscan Media).

Next: Monastery of Christ in the Desert, New Mexico The Cloisters Museum NEW YORK

• New York

99 Margaret Corbin Dr. Fort Tryon Park New York, NY 10040 212-923-3700 www.MetMuseum.org/visit/ visit-the-cloisters D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7 | 49

We are grateful

FOR YOUR GENEROSITY DURING THIS SEASON OF GIVING!

Your gift to the friars supports our work among the poor in domestic and foreign missions, care for the elderly and infirm friars and seminary training for young men discerning life as a friar.

To make a Christmas offering, visit stanthony.org or call 513-721-4700.

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The Franciscan Friars, Province of St. John the Baptist 1615 Vine St, Ste 1 · Cincinnati, OH 45202-6492

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ST. ANTHONY meSSeNGer

AT H O M E O N E A R T H

| BY KYLE KRAMER

One Nation, under God

I

have safeguarded it and encouraged us to heed the “better angels of our nature.” I may be discouraged about the current state of American politics, but I was struck by the notion that our democracy has withstood the Tips and Resources battering rams of history and may just do so again.

If you are concerned about how Most inspiring to me, howto practice faithful citizenship, ever, was not DC’s imposing I’d encourage you to read Parker granite, marble, and sandstone Palmer’s Healing the Heart of architecture, not all of its Democracy: The Courage to Create power and pomp, but a few a Politics Worthy of the American quiet moments the morning Spirit. we visited George WashingPolitics happen on the local, state, ton’s Mt. Vernon home. My and national levels. Get to know daughters, one of their friends, your representatives and try to be and I sat on a stone seawall an active voice in helping shape alongside the Potomac, in the their legislative agendas. shade of a cypress tree, near the old wharf where WashAlways remember that being a ington would send his wheat good citizen is not just political down the river. In our converinvolvement, but first and foresation, I realized once again most, cultivating essential human what wonderful young women qualities like open-heartedness, they are becoming, and how courage, respect, and integrity. much I owe it to them not to give up on the country they will inherit, even if I don’t exactly know how to ensure them a “more perfect union.”

Mary and Joseph brought their child into a world even more tumultuous and dangerous than ours, and they stayed faithful to him to the end. My Christmas prayer is to have even a fraction of their faith. My daughters and their country deserve no less.

1 2 3

MY LIGHTSCAPES/FOTOSEARCH

CNS PHOTO/JACLYN LIPPELMANN, CATHOLIC STANDARD

t’s easy to be cynical about our nation.

Our history contains genocide of native peoples, enslavement of Africans, inequality for many groups, and environmental destruction, among many other sins. And you needn’t look far to find political figures who care more about self-aggrandizement and beating opponents than serving the common good. Still, I’m not quite ready to throw in the towel on the American experiment in democracy.

My convictions crystallized this fall, when I helped chaperone our twin daughters’ school field trip to Washington, DC. I had dreaded the trip, anticipating the grueling schedule and unruly eighth-graders, but mostly because I had little desire to visit the epicenter of our toxic, dysfunctional national politics.

I still marvel at how much we saw and how little we slept. We visited an impossible number of national landmarks and museums, including Mass at the magnificent Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

While in DC, I couldn’t help but be inspired by the founders who envisioned an ingenious system of government that has endured and evolved for over two centuries.

I couldn’t help but admire the leaders who

Kyle Kramer is the executive director of the Passionist Earth and Spirit Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, is often referred to as America’s Catholic church.

FranciscanMedia.org

D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7 | 51

ASK A FRANCISCAN

| B Y FAT H E R PAT M c C L O S K E Y, O F M

‘I Need Help to Control My Anger’

St. Francis of Assisi often said, “You are what you are before God, and nothing more.” With no disrespect to Francis, I always add, “and nothing less.”

When we witness an injustice, we need to respond with a controlled anger. Francis told his friars that they should not become angry over the sins of other friars because such anger does not accomplish God’s justice.

Some people find it very easy to remain angry. It takes very little to set them off because they are always near their boiling point. You cannot make the injustice that you have just witnessed “unhappen,” but you have many options for how to respond—some more useful than others.

There is always a way to speak the truth in love and act on that truth, but these options are usually not the first things that come to mind.

If I follow the advice of St. Francis, the more truthful that I am 52 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7

INNOVATEDCAPTURES/FOTOSEARCH

I struggle to control my anger and rage when I witness individuals who appear to me to intentionally mistreat others needing assistance: the ill, the injured, the oppressed, the impoverished, or the marginalized.

I have used strong words—but not profanity—in voicing my objection to such mistreatment.

I feel out of control during these moments and have even lost a job after one such incident.

I need help interpreting the rage I experience and how I can permit God to work through me.

I need help interpreting Jesus’ action in the Temple when he turned over the tables of the money changers.

The more truthful we are with ourselves, the less likely our anger will escalate. before God, the more ready I am to identify my options beyond simply venting. As I become more truthful before God, I will always become more truthful about other people.

I will also be more honest in how I see myself.

Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and move to the back of the bus, inspiring the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. Wasn’t she both angry and constructive?

Good people may differ about the best way to respond to an injustice, but they will not waste considerable time or energy in venting.

When Jesus drove the money changers and merchants out of Jerusalem’s Temple (Mt 21:12–13, Mk 11:15–17, Lk 19:45–46), he was demonstrating a controlled anger.

Mark Twain once said that nothing is so enjoyable as examining another person’s conscience. That is true, but it is unlikely to counteract positively whatever injustice has just made you extremely angry.

Anger is not always bad; neither is it always effective. A controlled anger arises from a person who knows who she or he is before

God—and then acts on it.

Your question shows that you realize that God wants to work through you more effectively. I suggest that you start by swallowing your anger for a moment while you consider which response to a particular injustice reflects your deepest values. Of which response will you probably be proud 24 hours later?

Perhaps you should pray to St. Jerome, who learned to control his terrible temper. Ask him for help in controlling yours.

Marriage Certificate Needed?

If someone’s parents were not married in the Catholic Church, is that a problem if that individual seeks to enter a religious community? Wasn’t a copy of the marriage certificate for the candidate’s parents once required?

A canon lawyer whom I consulted clarified that the lack of such a certificate presents no canonical issues.

There could be other practical issues, S t . A n t h o n y M e ss e n g e r

but nothing canonical.

For their own purposes, some religious communities have made this documentation part of the paperwork requested for joining that group.

What Was That ‘Good News’?

In Luke 9:6, we read that the 12 apostles “went from village to village proclaiming the good news and curing diseases everywhere.”

What was that “good news”?

The Gospels were not yet written. Similarly, what did St. Paul preach?

The good news is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The apostles had already lived it partially before Jesus first sent them out to preach it. They still had much to learn.

Euangelion is Greek for “good” (eu) and “announcement” or “news” (angelion). Latin renders this Greek word as evangelium, from which we get evangelist, evangelical, and related words.

The good news of Jesus was first lived, then spoken, and finally written. The Gospel of Mark, the first one to be completed, reached the form in which we know it about 40 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. In the meantime, the good news lived through zealous preaching and generous works of mercy by all Christians.

Acts of the Apostles and Paul’s letters give us a good idea of what Paul preached. Your question about the content of his preaching indirectly affirms the role of the Church in our receiving the good news: it comes to us through a living, breathing faith community. Paul learned about it several years before he set out on his first missionary journey. The Christians in Damascus, Jerusalem, and eventually Antioch were his first teachers.

The earliest chapters of Acts record several sermons from Peter.

FranciscanMedia.org

Many Scripture scholars believe that the Second Letter of Peter is basically a homily explaining the Sacrament of Baptism.

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This is not only proper but also a great service to one’s friends, relatives, or whoever must make crucial medical decisions for that person.

The term living will is not used very much now, having been replaced in the United States at least by advance medical directives and medical power of attorney.

The directives, which specify procedures to be used or declined, reflect the state of medicine and what the person understands when those directives are drawn up and duly notarized. The power of attorney designates who should make crucial medical decisions for you if you cannot do it yourself.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: “Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of ‘overzealous’ treatment.

Here one does not will to cause death; one’s inability to impede it is merely accepted. The decisions should be made by the patient if [s]he is competent and able or, if not, by those legally entitled to act for the patient, whose reasonable will and legitimate interests must always be respected” (2278).

Father Pat welcomes your questions!

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D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7 | 53

BOOK CORNER

| BY CAROL ANN MORROW

A History of the Church in 100 Objects

By Mike Aquilina and Grace Aquilina Ave Maria Press 448 pages • $24.95 Paperback/Kindle

WHAT OUR

READERS

RECOMMEND Thomas Aquinas in 50 Pages: The Layman’s Quick Guide to Thomism

Taylor R. Marshall

The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation

Rod Dreher

The Trinity Game

Sean Chercover

Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen

Mary Sharratt

A Pope and a President: John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Extraordinary Untold Story of the 20th Century

Paul Kengor

54 | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Reviewed by JAMES A. PERCOCO, who teaches history and humanities at a private school in Ashburn, Virginia, and is a eucharistic minister at Nativity Parish in Burke, Virginia.

Just in time for Christmas, Mike and Grace Aquilina have given us a lush look at 100 objects that speak to the heart of Catholicism. The best part of this book is that it is full of surprises, thereby making it a singular delight to read. In solid prose based on extensive evidence, the authors present readers with more than just the great objects of our faith, such as Michelangelo’s Pietà, but also objects that are used as part of our everyday faith journey, such as a set of rosary beads.

Every object is treated with spiritual reverence and is set in a proper historical and religious context as to its place in Catholic heritage. The authors place the objects in categories that reflect different eras of Church and human history, starting with the early Church and ending with the global village.

While text informs through the word, objects inform through a tactile experience, and the authors have chosen wisely and widely. Collectively, the objects reflect a dynamic faith that is deeply rooted in humanity, as is seen through the tunic of

St. Francis of Assisi and the skeletal remains of St. Ambrose, which lie in state in a glass crypt. The choice of objects also includes a guillotine, a pen used by Pope Benedict XVI, a sign from a Nazi concentration camp, and a Vatican II parking pass. Given the history of the Church, it was clearly a monumental task to select 100 objects that reflect two millennia of history. The choices the authors have made are admirable, robust, lively, and even controversial—as the place of birth control pills is given a billing as well.

For each object, there is a companion photograph and a two- or three-page historical discussion and analysis of the object. In some ways, the authors have made this book into a museum of sorts, as it gives a glimpse into what Catholics think and believe and how those thoughts and beliefs have been put into practice for over 2,000 years. Some objects, like the Dome of St. Peter’s, are clearly too large to fit in a museum. In fact, by themselves they could be considered museums of a sort, but they are included because they address how Catholics have chosen to express their faith.

This is a terrific book that need not be read all at once. Rather, it makes for wonderful bedtime reading as you can pick and choose which object you want to read about. The introduction alone is a pure delight to read as it lays out the premise of the book as to why human “stuff” matters.

The authors note that God has saved his people time and time again through objects such as Moses’ staff and the cross on which our Savior was sacrificed.

Since Catholics are a pilgrim people, the stuff in this book reflects not only the history of the Church but also its geographical reach. In reading this book and studying the objects, you will encounter a rich and vibrant heritage that remains just as human and alive as those who spread the Gospel after Christ’s ascension. It is a fun-filled romp through how we have made manifest the spiritual and divine through the work of our hands.

ST. ANTHONY MESSENGER

BOOK BRIEFS

Yuletide Reading The Light of the World Daily Meditations for Advent and Christmas

The Magnificent Story Uncovering a Gospel of Beauty, Goodness, and Truth

By James Bryan Smith InterVarsity Press 192 pages • $22 Hardcover/E-book Reviewed by LINUS MUNDY, an author of books and articles on spirituality and pastoral care.

He is the creator and founder of the CareNotes booklet series and the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Catholic Publishers.

I have so often discovered that if I find a book difficult to describe, I generally do not find the book recommendable. Also, as an editor, I find that if a book is trying to do too much, I am reluctant to recommend it. Both of these objections come to mind here. However, as they say of the country roads of Ireland, “They are at least well-intentioned.” This beautifully designed book is certainly well-intentioned.

The book intends to offer “an inspiring vision of the Gospel,” suggesting that the Gospel story is truer, better, and more beautiful than we imagine it. With quotes from such standbys as G.K. Chesterton, one can say the book achieves this goal—but only to modest effect as a whole. The book offers “soul-training” exercises to train our senses, to give our hearts and minds a new discipline of attuning them to what is beautiful, good, and true.

Thus, we are to become within ourselves more well-intentioned before our neighbor and our God. Perhaps anything that helps us achieve this latter goal makes a book worthwhile. Spiritual master Thomas Merton summed this up in just a few concise words: “Lord, I believe that the desire to please you does, in fact, please you.”

FRANCISCANMEDIA.ORG

By Phyllis Zagano Twenty-Third Publications 136 pages • $14.95 Paperback/Kindle Acclaimed author Phyllis Zagano guides readers through the holy seasons of Advent and Christmas with these pithy and potent reflections.

Each day’s entry is only two to three pages in length, making this book accessible for even the busiest of us.

A Season of Little Sacraments Christmas Commotion, Advent Grace

By Susan H. Swetnam Liturgical Press 144 pages • $14.95 Paperback/E-book Amid the constant barrage of advertising that has become the secularized Christmas, author Susan H. Swetnam invites readers to look at the distractions of the season—even last-minute gift shopping—as opportunities to experience God’s grace.

Numbering My Days

How the Liturgical Calendar Rearranged My Life

By Chene Heady Ignatius Press 224 pages • $16.95 Paperback/E-book This is a wonderful title for readers to take with them into the new year. Chene Heady starts with Advent and Christmas, and then continues through the liturgical year, demonstrating how following the Catholic calendar closely can effect deep and lasting spiritual growth.—D.I.

Books featured in Book Corner and Book Briefs can be ordered from

St. Mary’s Bookstore & Church Supply 1909 West End Avenue • Nashville, TN 37203 • 800-233-3604 www.stmarysbookstore.com • stmarysbookstore@gmail.com Prices shown in Book Corner do not include shipping.

D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 | 55

A C AT H O L I C M O M S P E A K S

| BY SUSAN HINES-BRIGGER

The Challenge of Peace

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARY KURNICK MAASS

W

elcome to the Christmas season—the season of cards heralding “Peace on Earth.” The season of Linus standing on that stage with his blanket, reciting the words “on earth peace, goodwill toward men” as he tries to help Charlie Brown understand the true meaning of Christmas. The season of listening to John Lennon sing “Happy Christmas (War Is Over).”

And a season when I struggle with even the simplest acts of peace, like the sign of peace at Mass. Yes, you read that right.

Every week, I find myself faced with the same struggle. It happens just prior to Communion, when the priest says, “The peace of the Lord be with you always.” I instinctively respond, “and also with you” and immediately feel the eyes upon me.

What can I say? Old habits die hard.

Did they really need to change the

56 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7

wording anyway?

The priest then invites us to “share with one another a sign of Christ’s peace.” Before I even extend my first offering of peace, the ritual begins to veer off course as questions in my mind begin to form.

How far should the sign of peace extend? I have to greet my family, but there are six of us. That takes time. My kids give me the obligatory kiss, but my oldest two simply offer their cheek, sending a clear message that they are now too mature to have their mother kissing them in public—even if it is in church.

Moving on, I struggle with the parameters of the sign of peace. How far should I extend my greetings of peace? Do I greet only my pew?

One pew forward and back? What if I know someone a bit farther back?

Should I make the effort to lean over and reach them? Or do I just raise

my hand in recognition and mouth the word peace? Does that even count?

I mean, I want to try to extend greetings of peace to as many as possible, but I don’t want to turn the Mass into an overly friendly neighborhood block party, either.

And then there’s the challenge of flu season. Should I even shake hands? Didn’t that guy down from me cough into his hand just before?

Would it be rude to pull out my hand sanitizer immediately following the sign of peace?

Before I even realize it, the Mass has moved on and I’ve once again completely missed the point of the sign of peace.

The Bigger Picture So how can I ever expect to play a part in bringing about peace when I can’t get it right on such a small S t . A n t h o n y M e ss e n g e r

scale? You know what, though? I think that missing the opportunity to truly extend peace to others is a problem on a scale much larger than just inside our churches.

I think that when it comes to truly living the message of the sign of peace, the whole world is just going through the motions and missing the point. We get bogged down with the enormity of the challenge and all the questions that surround it. And so we end up doing nothing more than giving lip service to a pretty important topic.

What Now? But we have to do something, right?

So what do we do? Author Glennon Doyle Murray has something to say that I think fits for this situation—and any other overwhelming situations: “Just do the next right thing.”

That’s a pretty good challenge. For myself, that means starting with the sign of peace and erring on the side of reaching back two pews to send a message that I see you and I want to work together to find some peace for both of us.

Growing up & Changing Names: Next month, you’ll notice that this column has changed—new look, new name. But, don’t worry, the focus will still be the same: helping families deal with the joys and challenges of our faith.

Let me know if you have comments or suggestions for topics you’d like to see addressed.

Mail to:

Faith & Family 28 W. Liberty St. Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498

E-mail to: Family@FranciscanMedia.org

LET’S GET MOVING How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.

In the spirit of that joke, let’s start working toward peace—one bite at a time.

Do that by thinking of something small that will help be one step toward the goal of peace.

Maybe it’s working to find peace in your own life. That could mean forgiving someone—that person might be yourself. Or you can share a message of peace with someone through social media, a note, or letter. Donate to an organization working toward peace. It could be local or national. Sign a petition for an effort working toward peace.

Whatever it is, just take the first step. Do the next right thing.

It will be worth it. It will make a difference.

P E T E a n d R E P E AT These scenes may seem alike to you, But there are changes in the two.

ILLUSTRATION BY TOM GREENE

So look and see if you can name Eight ways in which they’re not the same.

(Answers on page 13)

FrANcIScANmeDIA.OrG

D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7 | 57

13 10 ⁄8 103⁄4 10 ⁄16 7

101⁄2

B AC K S T O R Y

A Closing Prayer

T

his month marks the end of one era for St. Anthony Messenger. Our new, redesigned look will be unveiled next month, in the January 2018 edition. As you’ll see in January, in a piece that Father Pat and

I are pulling together, this magazine has had a number of different styles over its many years. It seems fitting that we would launch this new look in

PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER HEFFRON

the midst of our 125th anniversary year, doesn’t it?

This department, “Backstory,” will be a casualty of the new design. Even if no one else does, I’ll miss it! There is a bigger change, too. I’m taking this redesign as an opportunity to withdraw from my role as editor in chief. I’ll remain a contributing editor for some months to come, to create content and assure a smooth transition, but, after 28 years here, it’s time for me to move on. Maybe back to ministry among the poor, as in my distant past? We’ll see.

Somewhere near the beginning of “Backstory,” in June 2013, I wrote a column about Ambrose Sanning, OFM, the magazine’s founding editor. I mentioned that, like him, back in 1893, we always are asking: “What’s next? How do we meet the needs of God’s people today and lay the groundwork for tomorrow?” Like Father Ambrose, we, too, seek miracles.

So let’s seek them, of course, in prayer. I want to end this column with a reflection on one related to a piece of overlooked “Franciscana” that I found a few months ago in a former coworker’s desk. What is it? I thought. It looks like a rosary, but the beads are all wrong.

I asked a Franciscan—namely, “Ask a Franciscan” columnist Father Pat (there are advantages to working here). “It’s a chaplet of St. Anthony of Padua!” he said, as if I should have known. I quickly went to Google to learn more. I was directed to StAnthony.org, a website that I helped get started years ago for our related ministry, the national Shrine of St. Anthony. (How embarrassing, but I honestly think they added a page later.) The page “How to Pray the Chaplet” explained the whole PHOTO BY MARY CATHERINE KOZUSKO

story, with Franciscan prayers and the rest. My, how we eventually find the things right in front of our noses!

“St. Anthony, guide of travelers, bring us to safe harbor.” That’s my prayer for all of us. It’s paraphrased from the chaplet guide. (St. Nicholas, himself patron of mariners, would approve.) Merry Christmas!

Editor in Chief JFeister@FranciscanMedia.org The chaplet of St. Anthony directs our prayer, of course, to Jesus.

58 | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7

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“I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”

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