St. Anthony Messenger February 2022

Sharing the spirit of St. Francis with the world VOL. 129/NO. 7 • FEBRUARY 2022 • PUBLISHED BY FRANCISCAN MEDIA

Faith and Family: The Reality of Love PAGE 44

HELPING CHILDREN

FACE RACISM

STORIES IN STAINED GLASS HIDDEN BLESSINGS OF THE PANDEMIC LESSONS FROM TURNING 30

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VOL. 129 N O. 7

FEBRUARY

20/21 2022

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FEATURES

34 COVER STORY: Helping Children Face Racism

COVER and ABOVE: Children raised with a healthy awareness of the reality of racism are better equipped to combat it later in life.

By Shannon K. Evans

Racism will never be eradicated. But guiding future generations to face it with courage and steadfastness will make the world a more just and loving place.

18 Faith Stories in Glass ISTOCK IMAGES: COVER: MANOAFRICA; ABOVE: FAT CAMERA

Story and photography by Jay Joyce

While traveling the world, this couple found their faith to be enriched by the universality and uniqueness of church windows.

25 Hidden Blessings of the Pandemic

By Susan H. Swetnam

“All manner of things shall be well.” Julian of Norwich’s words and the example of the hermit saints can help us embrace solitude as an opportunity to grow closer to God.

29 Turning 30? No Worries!

By David Kilby

In a youth-obsessed culture, 30 might seem practically over-the-hill. But this decade can be a time of growth, satisfaction, and renewed faith.

Coming in the

MARCH Issue

An article on how the holy season of Lent invites us to a deeper conversion amid our spiritual brokenness

StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2022 • 1

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he saints were real people with real stories—just like us! Their surrender to God’s love was so generous that the Church recognizes them as heroes and heroines worthy of being held up for our inspiration. Join Franciscan Media in our daily celebration of these holy men and women of God. Sign up for Saint of the Day, a free resource delivered right to your inbox.

February 4

St. Joseph of Leonissa was known for his austerity of life and single-minded commitment to preaching. Arrested and warned to change his ways, Joseph returned to his former behavior and was rearrested and condemned to die. He escaped, however, and continued a life of preaching.

St. Josephine Bakhita February 8

Kidnapped at the age of 8, Josephine acquired the name Bakhita, which means “fortunate one.” Her most fortunate blessing came when she was bought by an Italian consul, which eventually led to her conversion and freedom. She joined the Canossian Sisters and ministered in Italy.

St. Scholastica

St. Polycarp

Family ties and religious obligations may affect one another, but they are not necessarily opposed. St. Scholastica’s relationship with her brother, St. Benedict, is a good example. Close to one another, they also respected the Rule of Life of their respective communities.

Though we don’t know a whole lot about St. Polycarp, he has entered into the life of the Church because he was a martyr and a witness to the faith with his life. That alone links all Christians together.

That level of testimony to the faith is notable.

February 10

February 23

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Saints featured in the month of February include . . .

“When we see or hear people speaking or doing evil or blaspheming God, we must say and do good, praising God, who is blessed forever.”

—St. Francis of Assisi

SPIRIT OF ST. FRANCIS 10 Ask a Franciscan

FEBRUARY

20/21 2022

10 POINTS OF VIEW

Preparing for the 2023 World Synod of Bishops

44

15 Editorial | Susan Hines-Brigger Bishops: Be Teachers, Not Judges

12 Followers of St. Francis

16 At Home on Earth | Kyle Kramer

14 Franciscan World

44 Faith & Family | Susan Hines-Brigger

Carolyn Townes, OFS

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VOL. 129 N O. 7

Restoring the Great Conversation

Pope Francis’ Talk to OFS General Chapter

The Reality of Love

14 St. Anthony Stories

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40 ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

42 Film Reviews

West Side Story Being the Ricardos The Unforgivable

4 Dear Reader 5 Your Voice 6 Church in the News

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45 Friar Pete & Repeat 46 Let Us Pray 48 Reflection

StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2022 • 3

dear reader All Are Welcome

F

ew stories in our country’s recent history rattle me quite like the murder of Emmett Till. A 14-year-old Black Chicagoan visiting relatives in Mississippi in 1955, Till was ripped from his bed in the middle of the night, tortured, and killed for allegedly whistling at a White woman. Some historians cite his murder as the spark that ignited the civil rights movement. His mother, the late Mamie TillMobley, agreed, once calling Emmett “the sacrificial lamb of the movement.”

How far we’ve regressed. According to an annual report by the FBI, hate crimes have been on the rise in this country for the past few years. In fact, in 2020, more than 10,000 people claimed to be victims of hate crimes because of their ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, religion, or disability—an increase from the year before.

Last year’s rise in hate crimes against Asians illustrates this ugly trend.

We need to do better, to teach our children better. And that starts at home. On page 34 of this issue is Shannon K. Evans’ article “Helping Children Face Racism,” about raising a child of color in an uncertain world. “My task in raising a Black son is to help him cultivate racial identity and pride,” Evans writes. “He deserves to feel proud of the resilient, intelligent, creative, powerful community he belongs to, and it is my joy to assist him.”

We agree. And if you are reading these words, regardless of your skin color, sexual orientation, or gender identity, we’re glad you’re here.

PUBLISHER

Daniel Kroger, OFM PRESIDENT

Kelly McCracken EXECUTIVE EDITORS

Christopher Heffron Susan Hines-Brigger

FRANCISCAN EDITOR

Pat McCloskey, OFM ART DIRECTOR

Mary Catherine Kozusko MANAGING EDITOR

Daniel Imwalle

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EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

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Christopher Heffron, Executive Editor

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EP Graphics, Berne, IN ST. ANTHONY MESSENGER (ISSN #0036276X) (U.S.P.S. PUBLICATION #007956) Volume 129, Number 7, is published 10 times per year 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. US POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: St. Anthony Messenger, PO Box 292309, Kettering, OH 45429-0309.

WRITER Helping Children Face Racism PAGE 34

Shannon K. Evans is a writer whose interests lie at the intersection of the spiritual and the material. A married mother of five, this Iowa resident is the author of Rewilding Motherhood: Your Path to an Empowered Spirituality (Brazos Press).

JAY JOYCE

WRITER Faith Stories in Glass PAGE 18

Jay Joyce is retired and lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his wife, Shirley. After serving six years in the Army in both the United States and Europe, he worked for 35 years for Procter & Gamble. Jay and Shirley have one daughter, Christine, a military police officer in the United States Army, and four grandchildren.

4 • February 2022 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

ZACHARY REINHART PHOTOGRAPHER Helping Children Face Racism PAGE 34

Zachary Reinhart, PhD, is a husband, father, engineer, and longtime photographic hobbyist. He uses traditional analog processes along with modern digital tools to explore the art of photography. His favorite subjects include landscapes, travel, and portraitures. He resides in Ames, Iowa, with his wife, Catherine, and their two children.

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SHANNON K. EVANS

POINTSOFVIEW | YOUR VOICE Saving the Best for Last

I congratulate you on your November issue, which I believe is the best one ever—and I’ve been a loyal reader for many years!

The various articles on many saints were inspirational. Saints provide both examples and assistance on our journey here on earth toward heaven. I used the article about Blessed Carlo Acutis when I subbed as a sixth-grade CCD teacher. The students were surprised to see the pictures of someone whose age, dress, and activities were ones that they could relate to, and the article quickly obtained their attention.

But you truly saved the best for last. The Let Us Pray column (“Humble Grace and Gratitude,” by Deacon Art Miller—whose own story is remarkable—on his recollection of bringing Communion to the elderly parishioner Ms. Flowers) shows the dignity and joy of life we all hope to maintain as we age.

Don Pellegrino, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

A Broader View of the World

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My parents subscribed to St. Anthony Messenger when I was in high school.

Featured in it one month was a pen-pal club, where we could submit our name and address if we wanted a pen pal. I ended up corresponding with over 20 girls, and friendships developed—some lasting a year, others lasting throughout high school and even into my married life. Unfortunately, life got in the way, and correspondence ceased. But for a good five to 10 years, I sent and received letters from Catholic girls across the United States and got a taste of what life was like outside of my own little town.

Many years later, I found St. Anthony Messenger again and have remained a subscriber ever since. But I have never forgotten my first introduction to your magazine. Thank you.

Susan Julian, Jamestown, California

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On “Senior Moments: Wisdom, Grace, and Courage,” by Elizabeth Bookser Barkley, PhD (December 2021/January 2022) I very much enjoyed reading this article. It’s so real, so accurate. I am a Secular Franciscan, and, at 77, have recently moved to the Deep

South. Jesus has been with me the entire way, as always. I look forward to each day, and articles like this reinforce me. God bless you!—Gloria Wonderful article, reflecting how love and service bring joy. I recently retired, and this came at just the right time for me. The quote at the end brought tears to my eyes too. Thank you so much.—Kathryn

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On “A Starring Role for St. Joseph,” by Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP (December 2021/January 2022)

QUESTIONS: To better serve you, please have your address label and/or invoice available before calling.

Having made my consecration to St. Joseph last March, our group leader sends some reading material about St. Joseph once a month. This article offers much reflection, for which I thank you. I will forward this to her and others.—George

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On “Blessed Carlo: The First Millennial Saint?”

by Natalie Ryan (November 2021) Thank you for including Carlo’s story. I often find it difficult to relate to stories of medieval saints, but Carlo’s story is so uplifting. I had heard about him before but appreciate getting the whole story in one place.—Carla Thank you, Carlo Acutis, for helping me look at the Eucharist the way Jesus asked us (“This is my body”). I believe the blessed Eucharist is the earthly presence of God. Praise God!—Kathy On “St. Francis: Giving Comfort to Weary Soldiers,” by Katie Rutter (November 2021) This has touched my heart. St. Francis is still alive in the hearts of those who reach out to the most vulnerable in our society today.—Sister Kathy Francis saw himself reflected in the person of a leper. As a combat veteran myself and a hospital chaplain, I recognized what seemed to be PTSD-like symptoms in Francis’ biography. I was heartened to hear that others like me, with similar backgrounds, saw what seemed to be the same thing to them too.—Deacon Tim

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StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2022 • 5

people | events | trends

By Susan Hines-Brigger

BISHOPS GATHER IN BALTIMORE FOR ANNUAL MEETING

CLERGY SEX ABUSE WHISTLEBLOWER DIES

The US bishops gathered in Baltimore, Maryland, in November 2021 for their first in-person meeting since 2019 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

hil Saviano, an abuse survivor and whistleblower, died on November 28 at the age of 69, reported Catholic News Service (CNS). Saviano played a key role in uncovering years of abuse and the mishandling of it by the Archdiocese of Boston.

In a statement released November 30, Boston Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, called Saviano “a landmark voice of courage for survivors” who “played a significant role in uncovering the darkness of clergy sexual abuse in the life of the Church.”

Cardinal O’Malley went on to say, “Phil’s strident advocacy and his role in the investigative reporting of clergy abuse were important factors for the Church taking responsibility for the reprehensible harm inflicted on young people, to be held accountable for mandatory reporting to civil authorities, and to establish programs for awareness and prevention of abuse to children, young people, and vulnerable adults.”

Saviano was abused in the 1970s by Father David A. Holley, his family’s parish priest at St. Denis Catholic Church in Douglas, Massachusetts. Saviano’s story of abuse triggered the Boston Globe investigation that exposed Boston as the epicenter of a clergy sex-abuse scandal that has affected the whole US Church.

Saviano founded the New England chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and was a board member of BishopAccountability.org. His story figured prominently in the 2015 Academy Award-winning film Spotlight.

6 • February 2022 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

or the first time since November 2019, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops met in person for its annual fall meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, this past November. During the meeting, the bishops discussed a number of items, including the highly anticipated document on the Eucharist, reported CNS. On the first day of the meeting, the bishops heard from Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, on the need for synodality in the Church. The president of the conference, Archbishop José Gómez of Los Angeles, followed and asked his fellow bishops, “What is the best way to help our people to live and work and minister as Catholics in this moment?” He also made mention of the need for a eucharistic revival among Catholics and the bishops’ role in it.

The main item on the bishops’ agenda was their document on the Eucharist. Given the ongoing debate over Catholic politicians and the Eucharist, many expected the document to be hard-hitting. The document, titled “The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church,” was approved with 222 votes in favor, eight against, and three abstentions.

The bishops addressed the issue of public officials and the Eucharist, but only in general terms, writing, “Laypeople who exercise some form of public authority have a special responsibility to form their consciences in accord with the Church’s faith and the moral law, and to serve the human family by upholding human life and dignity.”

During the meeting, the bishops also voted to move forward with a National Eucharistic Congress in the summer of 2024 in Indianapolis, Indiana, and authorized the Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People to begin a review of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in advance of the June 2025 mandated review date.

CNS PHOTOS: LEFT AND INSET: GREGORY A. SHEMITZ; RIGHT: PAUL HARING

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CNS PHOTOS: LEFT: PAUL HARING; RIGHT: BOB ROLLER

Phil Saviano, a survivor of clergy sexual abuse and an advocate for other survivors, died last November at the age of 69.

DOROTHY DAY’S SAINTHOOD CAUSE HEADS TO VATICAN

POPE ACCEPTS RESIGNATION OF PARIS ARCHBISHOP

Paris Archbishop Michel Aupetit

A Sealed archival boxes of documents related to Dorothy Day’s canonization cause are seen in the sanctuary of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City following a December 8 Mass to mark the conclusion of the New York Archdiocese’s investigation of Day’s candidacy for sainthood.

CNS PHOTOS: LEFT AND INSET: GREGORY A. SHEMITZ; RIGHT: PAUL HARING

CNS PHOTOS: LEFT: PAUL HARING; RIGHT: BOB ROLLER

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n December 8, more than 1,500 people gathered at St. Patrick’s Cathedral to witness the formal end of the diocesan phase of the sainthood cause for Dorothy Day, reported CNS. Prior to sending the documents to the Vatican, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, following official protocol established by the Vatican Congregation for Saints’ Causes, stamped a hot wax seal onto red ribbon, binding the final box of documents collected during the 23-year process.

He then closed the diocesan inquiry with a decree. Cardinal Dolan and other officials of the inquiry took an oath attesting to its integrity and promised to safeguard the confidential testimony of those they interviewed in the process.

George Horton, one of the vice postulators of Day’s cause for sainthood, told CNS that Cardinal John J. O’Connor of New York asked him in the late 1990s to convene a group of people who knew Day to examine if she should be proposed for sainthood.

“There was unanimous support, but also concerns about the cost and how the Church would picture her,” he said. “Dorothy called people to put into action the Sermon on the Mount, to practice charity and justice. She called people to the deepest sense of the Gospel that was not always on the front burner.”

Once the documents are received in Rome, they will be studied. The next steps in the canonization process would be a declaration of Day’s heroic virtues, after which the Church would give her the title “Venerable.” Then would come beatification, after which she would be called “Blessed.” The third step is canonization.

In general, a miracle verified to have occurred through the intercession of the sainthood candidate is needed for beatification and another is needed for canonization.

fter a newspaper reported that Paris Archbishop Michel Aupetit mismanaged his archdiocese and had an affair with a woman while he was vicar general, Pope Francis accepted the archbishop’s offer to resign, reported CNS. In its November 22 report on the archbishop’s “contested methods,” Le Point said he had fueled a crisis with a “divisive and authoritarian” leadership style and had inadvertently revealed his “liaison with a woman” in a misdirected 2012 email.

The archbishop said he offered to step down to avoid “becoming a source of divisions.” In a November 26 interview, he told France’s Catholic La Croix daily that his behavior toward the unnamed woman “may have been ambiguous” but had not extended to “an intimate relationship and sexual relations.”

Pope Francis said he accepted Aupetit’s resignation because the situation had harmed his reputation, leaving him unable to govern.

“When the gossip increases and increases to the point that it takes away a person’s reputation, he can no longer govern,” the pope said. “He lost his reputation not because of his sin, which was a sin—like that of [St.] Peter, mine, yours, sins—but because of the gossiping.”

“A man whose reputation has been destroyed so publicly cannot govern,” the pope repeated.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2022 • 7

people | events | trends

PAINTING STOLEN FOLLOWING COMPLAINTS

he secondhighest tower on Barcelona’s Basilica of the Holy Family—the Tower of the Virgin Mary—was inaugurated on December 8. Pope Francis said the 12-point illuminated star that crowns the tower is a reminder that Mary is the “star of the new evangelization” and helps “us believe once again in the revolutionary nature of tenderness and affection.” Construction on the church, often referred to as Sagrada Familia, its name in Spanish, began in 1882, and is considered the masterpiece of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, a Catholic whose cause for sainthood is underway.

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SURVEY: AMERICANS THINK BAD THINGS JUST HAPPEN

A

ccording to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, many Americans believe that bad things just happen. The survey asked a nationally representative sample of 6,485 people: “In your own words, why do you think terrible things happen to people through no apparent fault of their own?”

Among US adults, 35 percent see suffering as random and nearly inescapable. More than one in 10 attributed human misfortune to God’s will. Smaller shares touched on the themes of free will, sin and evil, Satan, fate, or people and social systems.

CNS PHOTOS CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: TYLER ORSBURN; CHRISTIAN HARTMANN, OSC/REUTERS; WILLIAM RIETER; COURTESY CATHOLIC EXTENSION (2)

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his past November, a painting outside the Mary Mirror of Justice Chapel at the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law, which depicted a dark-skinned Mary holding a dark-skinned Jesus, was stolen, following complaints that the man in the painting represented George Floyd. Floyd was a Black man killed by a White police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020. The university has since replaced the painting—Mama,

by Kelly Latimore—with a smaller copy of the image that hung in the campus ministry office.

University President John Garvey sent a letter to the campus community about the incident. He pointed out that the criticism began after the painting was covered in the press and much of it came from people unconnected to the university.

LEFT: NACHO DOCE/REUTERS; RIGHT: PHOTO COURTESY OF CUA; BOTTOM: PEW RESEARCH

POPE INAUGURATES TOWER AT BARCELONA BASILICA

CNS PHOTOS CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: TYLER ORSBURN; CHRISTIAN HARTMANN, OSC/REUTERS; WILLIAM RIETER; COURTESY CATHOLIC EXTENSION (2)

LEFT: NACHO DOCE/REUTERS; RIGHT: PHOTO COURTESY OF CUA; BOTTOM: PEW RESEARCH

NEWS BRIEFS

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: A composite photo shows damage to a statue of Our Lady of Fatima near the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. St. Ursus Cathedral in Solothurn, Switzerland, is illuminated at night. Renowned author and speaker Donald Cozzens passed away on December 9. New York’s Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan accepts Catholic Extension’s Spirit of Francis Award (inset).

THIS YEAR’S WORLD PEACE DAY MESSAGE was “Education, work, and dialogue between generations: tools for building lasting peace.” The message was delivered by Pope Francis on January 1. World Peace Day was established by Pope Paul VI in his December 1967 message and celebrated for the first time in January 1968.

CATHOLIC AUTHOR AND LECTURER Donald Cozzens died on December 9 of complications from pneumonia caused by COVID-19. Cozzens, a Cleveland diocesan priest and former seminary rector, was known for sharing candid insights on the priesthood, as well as challenging the Catholic Church to confront clericalism and renew its structure.

ON DECEMBER 8, A MARBLE STATUE of Our Lady of Fatima near the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington was vandalized. In the attack, Mary’s hands and nose were cut off, her face scratched, and the cross on her crown broken off. The incident is under investigation.

IN A STATEMENT RELEASED DECEMBER 6, the Swiss bishops’ conference and the nation’s conference of religious orders announced that they have commissioned an independent study of sexual abuse cases within the Catholic Church in the country during the second half of the 20th century. Two history professors from the University of Zurich will assemble and lead a team of researchers who will begin their work

by March 2022.

AT A DINNER ON NOVEMBER 30, Catholic Extension awarded New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan its Spirit of Francis Award. The award recognizes an individual or group who has made a significant impact on the mission of the Catholic Church in America through service or philanthropy.

Proceeds from the event will benefit Catholic Extension’s Cuba Initiative. Since 2016, Catholic Extension, with permission of both the US and Cuban governments, has made a commitment to help the Catholic Church in Cuba.

TO CLOSE THE YEAR OF ST. JOSEPH this past December, Pope Francis made a private visit to the Good Samaritan home in Rome, which helps people experiencing marginalization, crisis, or substance abuse. The pope was welcomed by dozens of guests and members of the community and listened to some of the residents’ experiences. He encouraged them to “have the courage to tell others, ‘There is a better way.’”

StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2022 • 9

SPIRITOFST.FRANCIS | ASK A FRANCISCAN

By Pat McCloskey, OFM

Preparing for the 2023 World Synod of Bishops

I have seen a couple of articles about this synod. These articles suggested that it would be helpful to read (or reread) the Vatican II documents. Can you recommend a book describing what Vatican II was all about? Something in plain English without interpretation by the author? irst, start with the documents themselves.

I suggest Vatican Council II: Constitutions, Decrees, Declarations, edited by Austin Flannery, OP (Costello Publishing). This inclusive-language translation is very readable.

“For a synodal Church: communion, participation, and mission” is the theme for this synod.

Preparation documents are available via the synod link at Vatican.va.

Every book about Vatican II includes an interpretation. I highly recommend What Happened at Vatican II, by John W. O’Malley, SJ (Belknap Harvard).

If you read only the council’s final documents, Pope Francis celebrates a Mass at the Vatican on October you won’t know, for example, why the original 10, 2021, to open the process that will lead up to the draft of what became the Dogmatic Constitution assembly of the world Synod of Bishops in 2023. on Divine Revelation was rejected by most of the bishops in November 1962, requiring years of extensive revision before its final approval on November 18, 1965.

I had Father O’Malley as a professor at the University of Detroit in 1970, a transformative experience. His recent and excellent memoir, The Education of a Historian: A Strange and Wonderful Story (St. Joseph’s University Press), includes memories of his doing doctoral-level historical research in Rome between 1963 and 1965, attending several council events and following its work. He was the first Catholic priest to receive a fellowship to the American Academy in Rome, where he wrote his PhD dissertation in history for Harvard.

If you want an even closer look at the council, you might enjoy My Journal of the Council,

by Yves Congar, OP (Liturgical Press). Perhaps the busiest of the council’s periti (experts), he advised on the council’s preparation, worked during all four sessions on many of the council’s major documents, and was involved in the council’s implementation. Named a cardinal in 1994, Congar died the following year.

The synod, which will close in October 2023, was initiated last October. It will have a diocesan phase (October 2021 to August 15, 2022) and a later national/continental phase.

The word synod means “listening/journeying together.” In a sense, this synod is asking, “What is God asking of the Catholic Church in this time and place?” I think all of us need to ponder that question and our response. Answers to that question will certainly stretch everyone.

Father Pat welcomes your questions!

ONLINE: FranciscanMedia.org/ Ask-a-Franciscan EMAIL: Ask@FranciscanMedia.org MAIL: Ask a Franciscan 28 W. Liberty St. Cincinnati, OH 45202 All questions sent by mail need to include a self-addressed stamped envelope.

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Material is grouped thematically under headings such as forgiveness, prayer, saints, sacraments, and Scripture.

Satan’s Origins

Prior to becoming evil, when was Satan created? Did the rebellion of Satan and the fallen angels occur soon after the creation of humans? any people expect the Bible to say more about Satan than it does. Originally, the term meant “accuser.” Only later was he thought of as a single person. Many Christians are surprised to read in the Book of Job that Satan has easy access to God’s court (1:6–12 and 2:1–10).

Satan was created as an angel but rebelled. “I will not serve,” he famously says in John Milton’s Paradise Lost. In a sense, Satan illustrates this proverb from St. Gregory the Great, “The worst is the corruption of the best.” Satan’s rebellion must have taken place before the serpent tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden in chapter 3 of Genesis. Chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation refers to a battle between the Archangel Michael and Satan.

M

10 • February 2022 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

ISTOCK PHOTOS: COMPOSITE: MARIA MARGANINGSIH (ROSARY) AND MARIANA MIKHAILOVA (DOG WALKING)

Pat McCloskey, OFM

TOP LEFT: MC KOZUSKO/SAM; TOP RIGHT: CNS PHOTO: REMO CASILLI/REUTERS

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Is this required? Some Christians have first names that are not those of a saint or a variant on a saint’s name. his is customary but not required. Some Christians are named for virtues—for example, faith, hope, or charity.

The rule here is that a first name should not be contrary to the Christian faith.

Thus, for example, it would be inappropriate to baptize someone with the name Satan, adultery, murder, or something similar.

A saint’s name is no guarantee about how a person’s life will unfold, but it reaffirms actions and values that are important and trustworthy.

a

T

Numbering the Ten Commandments

Why do the Ten Commandments of the Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church differ from the Ten Commandments of most Protestant Churches? hey do not differ in overall content but only regarding their numbering.

According to The Catholic Source Book, the numbering used by Catholics and Lutherans dates to St. Augustine. Other Christians later divided the first commandment and then united the final two.

A third system begins with, “I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.” That system combines the 10 commands into nine, leaving the total at 10.

T

ISTOCK PHOTOS: COMPOSITE: MARIA MARGANINGSIH (ROSARY) AND MARIANA MIKHAILOVA (DOG WALKING)

TOP LEFT: MC KOZUSKO/SAM; TOP RIGHT: CNS PHOTO: REMO CASILLI/REUTERS

Giving a Saint’s Name at Baptism

that

Reflects Your Values

Leave a legacy of mercy, compassion, and care for the poor through a bequest to our friars.

For more information about including a gift in your will, call 513-721-4700 ext. 3219.

Praying Quickly or Slowly?

A friend of mine says that she can pray an entire rosary while walking her dog around the yard. I know the size of her yard and don’t think I could pray one decade in that amount of time.

In my younger days, I could move rather rapidly through the rosary, saying all the right words without skipping a bead. Now I wouldn’t call those “prayerful moments.” I uttered all the right words, but it was more verbal chatter than words expressing my heart and soul. Does the speed of praying make a difference? here is no prize for the person who finishes most quickly. Now you can make more connections between your life and the rosary’s mysteries than you could as a child. What truly matters is whether a prayer is opening you up to the movement of God’s grace in your heart.

Jesus told his disciples not to “babble like the pagans” (Mt 6:7) or to pray in order to be noticed (Mt 6:5–6). The speed with which one prays is not as important as the honesty and the compassion fostered by prayer.

T

You are the heart of our ministry.

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

www.franciscan.org www.stanthony.org

StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2022 • 11

SPIRITOFST.FRANCIS | FOLLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS

C

Planting Seeds of Justice

By Janine Walsh

graduated on time at age 17 and applied to Baruch College in Manhattan, majoring in psychology. She attended classes for two days a week and worked three days a week at the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, where she learned communication skills rooted in mindfulness.

In her mid-20s, while working in customer service at a tableware store, she injured her back after lifting a heavy box. The injury stayed with her, the pain intensifying as time passed. During the particularly painful nights, she began bargaining with the Lord. It worked. God took her pain away. She remembers distinctly praying late one night, “God, you’re really here,” and, as if standing next to her, she heard the Lord answer her, “My daughter, I’ve always been here.” Hearing the Lord’s voice caused a shift in her spiritual life.

On one of her lunch breaks, she went into St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Not wanting to disrupt NEVER ONE TO SHY AWAY the noon Mass, she sat and listened. During FROM A CHALLENGE Carolyn Townes, OFS the homily, the priest said, “God loves you.”

Carolyn attended Brooklyn Technical High Carolyn had never heard that before! She School for two years but ended up leaving was brought up hearing that she was a sinner and going to because the administration told her she wouldn’t graduate. hell. That simple phrase changed her. Every day after that She and her best friend found an alternative high school, she attended the noon Mass, which eventually led her to called City as School, where students got high school credit take an eight-week course on the sacraments. At the final for real-life work. During this time, she honed her skills for lesson, she learned about the Rite of Christian Initiation for working and teaching. “I took what the administrator for my Adults (RCIA). She didn’t know what that program would traditional high school said to me as a challenge,” she recalls. entail, but she loved learning about the Catholic sacraments, “I looked right at her and said, ‘Watch my smoke.’” She took so she joined the RCIA program. She did not walk into St. it upon herself to connect Columbia University with the City Patrick’s with the intent to become a Catholic. But God as School curriculum and was able to obtain her math and had other plans.

English credits from Columbia at the university level. She

Carolyn Townes (left) celebrates with Kathleen Carsten, recipient of the 2018 JPIC Award, and US Secular Franciscan National Minister Jan Parker (right).

12 • February 2022 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

Carolyn was the featured speaker on the final day at the US Secular Franciscan Order’s Quinquennial Congress in July 2016.

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF CAROLYN TOWNES/ROBERT STRONACH

arolyn Townes, OFS, was born in New York City in 1963 and had responsibilities from a very young age. There was a 35-year age difference between her parents. Her dad had a stroke and needed a caregiver while her mom worked, so Carolyn, at 4 years old, made sure he took his medicine and spent all her time with him. When she was 5 years old, her father died. The trauma of losing her father had a tremendous impact on her spiritual life.

“Both of my parents were Baptist preachers, so church and Scripture were a regular part of my life,” Carolyn says. “We attended church regularly. When I was 18, I decided I had had enough. Now I know, deep down, I was angry at God for taking away my father.”

However, she continued reading the Bible, especially the Psalms.

ST. ANTHONY

BREAD

FRANK JASPER, OFM

Carolyn attends Mass at Pax Christi Chapel in Corpus Christi, Texas, during the 2019 National Chapter.

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF CAROLYN TOWNES/ROBERT STRONACH

‘WHAT IS AN ANIMATOR?’

During her RCIA studies, she learned about the Secular Franciscan Order.

Carolyn began the formation process and was professed in 2000. Carolyn volunteered with many ministries at St. Francis Church in Manhattan. When the need arose for a Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) animator at the church, the pastor encouraged her to accept the position. No one really had an answer for her when she asked, “What is an animator?” Carolyn ended up defining it for herself as “someone who gives life to social justice issues, thus leading people to take action.” She started an Animator Notes newsletter to educate the people in the pews and often spoke from the pulpit on social justice campaigns.

When the National Secular Franciscan Order transitioned from the Apostolic Commissions to JPIC in 2007–08, she had experience from working at St. Francis. Having moved to South Carolina in 2011 to be with her mother, she was appointed as JPIC animator for the Southeast region. When the national animator position opened, she was offered it and took it on as well.

National incidents around racial inequality like Charlottesville, Charleston, and the murder of George Floyd sparked a different fire with Carolyn. “My phone and emails were inundated with messages and questions like, ‘What can we do?’”

Her response was always the same: “Listen to the stories of people of color.

Don’t try to fix anything; don’t tell them how you think they can fix things; just listen.” This, she found, was easier said than done. Carolyn took the Secular Franciscan leadership through a 10-week course on racial equity in mid-2020.

This led to a series of sessions and virtual book discussions on systemic racism in our country.

Carolyn is happy to lend a voice to discussions on racial equity and diversity.

She has a gift of being able to tie things together with the Gospels and Francis and Clare in a palatable way. No one likes to talk about politics, but Carolyn says, “We need politics to change the laws, so what can help is to adjust the way we talk about politics.” She recognizes that the Secular Franciscan Order has a great need to discuss issues around diversity. “Black and brown people have been uncomfortable for 500 years; it’s time to talk about it,” she says. Using her gifts, Carolyn presents new ideas in a gentle but firm language that invites people to reconsider their thoughts. “All I can do is plant the seed. The Holy Spirit does all the watering.”

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. viSit our webSite to:

StAnthony.org mAil poStAl communicAtionS to:

St. Anthony Bread 1615 Vine St. Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498

StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2022 • 13

SPIRITOFST.FRANCIS FRANCISCAN WORLD

By Pat McCloskey, OFM

Pope Francis’ Talk to OFS General Chapter

O

n November 15, 2021, Pope Francis addressed the members of the Secular Franciscan Order’s general chapter in Rome.

He noted that their vocation is born of the universal call to holiness requiring of them “a conversion of heart, attracted, conquered, and transformed by the One who is the only Holy One, who is ‘the good, every good, the supreme good’ (St. Francis, Praises of God Most High).”

The pope explained that conversion begins when God takes the initiative. Penitents then respond by placing themselves at the service of others and by using mercy with them.

“And the result is happiness,” he said.

After urging them “to embrace the Gospel as you embrace Jesus,” Pope Francis encouraged them “to go out to the peripheries, the existential peripheries of today, and there to make the word of the Gospel resound.”

He said they should be men and women of hope, “nurturing hope in tomorrow by alleviating the pain of today.” He encouraged them to fight for justice, work for integral ecology, collaborate in missionary projects, and make themselves “artisans of peace and witnesses to the beatitudes.”

ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY

WIFE, MOTHER, widow, Secular Franciscan—she did it all by the age of 24 and was canonized in 1235, four years after she died!

Daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary, Elizabeth married Duke Louis of Thuringia; they had four children. After he died on a Crusade, she and their children were driven out of their home by jealous in-laws.

ST. ANTHONY STORIES

St. Anthony: A Lifelong Companion

I

wear my birthstone ring somewhat loosely so that it slips from my finger if I wave my hand. I’m Italian, so I talk with my hands! One day, my friend and I were about kneedeep in a lake (I live in the Finger Lakes area in Upstate New York). I started waving my hand, and my ring flew off my finger. I was so bummed out—the ring was my favorite.

Another friend, who is an excellent swimmer, showed up about five minutes later. I prayed to St. Anthony and then asked him if it was possible if he could find my ring. I thought it was lost forever because of the small rocks and sand beneath the water. I kept praying to St. Anthony to help me find the ring. My friend found it within a few minutes. I thought to myself, What are the odds of him finding it? St. Anthony always comes through for me when I lose something.

All my life, St. Anthony has been with me. When I lived in the Bronx, I went to St. Anthony Church and St. Anthony School. When we moved to the Finger Lakes region, I attended St. Anthony Church in my new hometown.

—Anna Elshennawi, Penn Yan, New York

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In Eisenach, Elizabeth founded a hospital where she served food and dressed wounds.

She and St. Louis IX of France are copatrons of the Secular Franciscan Order.

—Pat McCloskey, OFM

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WANT MORE? Learn about your favorite saints and blesseds by going to: SaintoftheDay.org

LEFT: COURTESY OF VATICAN NEWS; RIGHT: PUBLIC DOMAIN MARKER 1.0

Pope Francis welcomed the members of the Secular Franciscan Order’s general chapter in Rome.

Once, as she carried bread to the poor in her cloak, her husband asked to see what she was carrying. When she opened the cloak, roses fell out. Louis never questioned her generosity again.

POINTSOFVIEW | EDITORIAL

CNS PHOTO/GREGORY A. SHEMITZ

A

By Susan Hines-Brigger

Bishops: Be Teachers, Not Judges

t their annual meeting this past November, the US Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States. bishops passed the statement “The Mystery of the The archbishop took a broader approach, focusing on the Eucharist in the Life of the Church.” The statement is concept of synodality, which comes from the Greek word meant to be a reflection on the transformative beauty of the synodos (to be on the journey together). While the word and Eucharist, which invites each of us into a deeper relationconcept of synodality might seem a little inside baseball for ship with Christ. many Catholics, the idea is simple: Don’t talk at us; talk with Many were surprised by the document, considering the us. It is the antithesis of what has been happening. tone of the debate and rhetoric that had been taking place He encouraged the bishops to face the issues they would for the past year on the topic of whether or not to offer the be discussing in that same spirit. Doing so, he believes, “is Eucharist to politicians who support policies such as aboran answer to the challenges of our time and to the contion rights. And while the bishops continually claimed that frontation, which is threatening to divide this country, and the topic was not politically which also has its echoes driven, it was hard to see it in the Church.” otherwise, seeing that the Speaking specifically to the debate began shortly after Eucharist issue, he told the the election of US President bishops: “We can become so Joe Biden, the second concentrated upon the sacralCatholic president. ity of forms of the liturgy that In fact, on the day of we miss the true encounter President Biden’s elecwith His Real Presence. There tion, Archbishop José is the temptation to treat the Gómez, president of the Eucharist as something to be US Conference of Catholic offered to the privileged few Bishops, announced plans rather than to seek to walk for the formation of a workwith those whose theology or ing group to address the discipleship is falling short, issue. The group never came assisting them to understand to fruition, but the topic and appreciate the gift of the “The Eucharist is not the reward of remained front and center.

Eucharist and helping them saints, but the bread of sinners.”

Some bishops said that they to overcome their difficulties.”

—Pope Francis would deny President Biden the Eucharist if he presented MOVING FORWARD It was not the first time the himself for it during Mass.

Others said that the Eucharist was not something to be used archbishop had encouraged the bishops to walk the path of as a bargaining chip and should not be denied to anyone synodality. Last June, amid the tension caused by the discussion of the eucharistic document, he told them, “The starting who is properly disposed. point, therefore, cannot be to shame the weak but to propose Pope Francis weighed in, saying that he had never denied the One who can strengthen us to overcome our weaknesses, anyone the Eucharist and that the sacrament “is not the especially through the sacraments of reconciliation and reward of saints, but the bread of sinners.” The head of the the Eucharist.”

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Luis They didn’t listen then. Maybe they will this time, seeLadaria Ferrer, SJ, cautioned the bishops last June not to move ahead with a planned document on eucharistic “coher- ing as the document only subtly refers to the issue, noting, “Laypeople who exercise some form of public authority have ence and consistency.” It seemed as if every time you turned a special responsibility to form their consciences in accord around, there was another twist in the ongoing dilemma. It with the Church’s faith and the moral law, and to serve the wasn’t completely clear what type of document the bishops human family by upholding human life and dignity.” were going to be voting on at their November meeting or The bishops have every right to speak out on the imporhow the discussion was going to go. tance of the Eucharist. They should. How they do it, though, WORDS OF WISDOM matters. Hopefully, in the spirit of Archbishop Pierre’s words, they’ll use their newly passed statement on the Eucharist as a Before any of the discussions or voting took place, the bishops heard their customary address from Archbishop conversation starter, not a litmus test.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2022 • 15

POINTSOFVIEW | AT HOME ON EARTH

By Kyle Kramer

Restoring the Great Conversation

Kyle Kramer

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WANT MORE? Visit our website: StAnthonyMessenger.org

—Father Thomas Berry, CP

I

n the beginning, goes the well-known opening to the Gospel of John, was the conversation (logos in Greek). This novel translation isn’t so novel at all: It connects to a rich Greek philosophical tradition in which the concept of logos was used to indicate that the very fabric of reality was dynamic and relational— conversational, if you will. We were made to talk not only with our fellow humans, but also with the rivers, the wind, and the stars—and through all this, with the creator.

Unfortunately, as Father Thomas Berry lamented, this great conversation has largely been cut off. We talk to each other on Zoom and social media and on our cell phones and even in person, but we have far fewer conversations with the rest of the living world. In many ways, we’ve even forgotten how.

Over the past few years, I’ve tried to be more intentional about having conversations with the more-than-human world and have found that it’s really challenging. To state the obvious, trees and rivers, wind and stars don’t speak English—or Spanish, or any other human language, including the languages of economics and politics. We have to encounter them on different terms than our own.

Falling out of the great conversation has consequences. At a soul-deep level, it hurts

16 • February 2022 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

to be cut off from the rest of God’s creation.

And it’s not good for creation either. That’s the point Pope Francis has made repeatedly: that our spiritual, physical, communal, and environmental health are all tied together in a single, integral ecology.

THE CHURCH’S ROLE

Many people and organizations are working to restore the great conversation between us and the rest of the living world. Here is my question: How can the institutional Church play a meaningful role in this effort? How can our religion “re-ligament” or reconnect us to what is most real? And what could be more real than the presence of God, dwelling in the sacrament of the living world?

But before we look to the Church to offer wisdom in these efforts, we have to acknowledge that the Church has been part of the problem too. The Church has a long history of cozying up to political and economic power, even blessing the missionaries and colonizers as they enslaved and killed the indigenous peoples who were immersed within the great conversation with creation. Our Church may have helpful teachings about care for creation, but they often don’t filter down to the level of parishes or even dioceses. Even the very

TOP: JACOB H/ISTOCK; BOTTOM: TAMARA DRAGOVIC/ISTOCK

EarthandSpiritCenter.org

“We are talking only to ourselves. We are not talking to the rivers, we are not listening to the wind and stars.

We have broken the great conversation.”

TOP LEFT: COURTESY OF KYLE KRAMER; TOP: BORCHEE/ISTOCK

Kyle is the executive director of the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center, which offers interfaith educational programming in meditation, ecology, and social compassion.

He serves as a Catholic climate ambassador for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops-sponsored Catholic Climate Covenant and is the author of Making Room: Soul-Deep Satisfaction through Simple Living (Franciscan Media). He speaks across the country on issues of ecology and spirituality.

He and his family spent 15 years as organic farmers and homesteaders in Spencer County, Indiana.

We can encounter God and nurture our spirituality in natural settings, such as the aptly named Cathedral Rock in Sedona, Arizona.

architecture of our churches has generally helped to disconnect us from the outside world, implying that the holy is to be found “in here” rather than “out there.”

As in any crisis time, the Church faces both great risk and great opportunity in this moment. The risk is that the Church becomes irrelevant, unable to respond to the signs of our troubled times. The opportunity is that it finds creative ways to help people reconnect with the living world.

In liturgical, sacramental traditions like ours, there are plenty of ways to invite deeper engagement with the living world, such as through homilies, prayers of the faithful, and eucharistic prayers that focus on creation. But honestly, our current liturgies and liturgical spaces can only do so much.

We also need new, additional forms and places of worship.

What if, alongside weekly Mass, we formed small groups that met for quiet, nature-based contemplation and ritual celebration—outside, in all weather, in natural spaces?

We need a “Church of the Wild,” as my colleague Victoria Loorz describes in her lovely new book by the same name: a Church deeply formed and shaped by contact with and care for the more-than-human world.

TOP: JACOB H/ISTOCK; BOTTOM: TAMARA DRAGOVIC/ISTOCK

TOP LEFT: COURTESY OF KYLE KRAMER; TOP: BORCHEE/ISTOCK

ACTIVE RESPONSIBILITY

There’s a rub here, though, and it goes both ways. On one hand, if “wild worship” is to take hold, it’s always going to be very specific to the gathering place and the people who gather. And so the institutional Church is going to have to let go of its need for centralized control, trusting laypeople to develop and lead independent, creative forms of worship that are faithful both to place and to the Christian tradition.

And on the other hand, we who would participate in such gatherings can’t just be passive observers on autopilot, in a worship service planned and performed by others (as, I hate to admit, I have often been at weekly Mass). We will need to take active responsibility and leadership roles as we preside over the Church of the Wild.

It’s going to take edge-walkers to create such forms of wild worship. These are people who are willing and able to

walk on the “edge of the inside” of the Christian tradition, as Richard Rohr puts it, and even those who walk just outside the tradition, as well.

I’m glad to say we have precedents for this. We have the early forms of desert monasticism, in which small groups of people lived radical lives of simplicity and contemplation, deeply connected to the wild places where they dwelled. We have St. Francis and his ragtag followers, living close to the land and in constant conversation with Brother Sun and Sister Moon. Who’s to say that similar movements can’t arise again? In fact, they are.

If we’re going to restore the great conversation with creation, it will mean plenty of conversations with leaders in our own Catholic tradition about how our worship and spirituality can connect more deeply with the more-than-human world. Isn’t that a wild idea?

HELPFUL

TIPS

WORSHIPPING WITH CREATION

1

Learn more about nature-centered worship experiences within the Christian tradition and find out if there is a “wild church” gathering near you at WildChurchNetwork.com.

2

Victoria Loorz’s excellent book on this subject is Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred.

3

If you are inclined to create a “wild church” worship experience, consider the following structure: • gathering ritual with silent meditation, • a land acknowledgment, • sacred readings, • time for individual encounters with nature, • time to reflect on and share those experiences, • a ritual common meal, and • a benediction and blessing.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2022 • 17

St. Mary’s Church in Banff, Alberta, Canada

18 • February 2022 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

Faith STORIES IN

Glass

While traveling the world, this couple found their faith to be enriched by the universality and uniqueness of church windows.

Story and photography by Jay Joyce

W

hile traveling through the Canadian Rockies several years ago, my wife and I attended Mass at St. Mary’s Church in Banff.

As I looked around at the beautiful stained glass windows, I noticed something that seemed just a little out of place. In a window depicting the Nativity, instead of donkeys, cows, or sheep, stood a moose and an elk. The infant Jesus was resting upon shafts of wheat like those grown in the surrounding province of Alberta. In the background, snowcapped peaks towered above evergreen trees and Banff ’s Bow River. Flying overhead was the Star of David.

After Mass, having noticed our curiosity, a parishioner explained to us how the local elements depicted in the scene help to make the story more relevant to local parishioners.

They remind us that Christ was born for all of us, no matter where we call home. The Star of David memorializes a local Jewish man who, since there was no synagogue in Banff, would pray in the former St. Mary’s Church. He donated this window in memory of his family killed in the Holocaust. It’s a window we will never forget, and a story we often tell during the Christmas season.

We have been blessed to be able to travel all over the world and to visit churches and attend Mass in many places that most people

will never get a chance to see. Whereas some people may choose to skip church services while they’re on vacation, we work hard to meet our Sunday obligation and to offer thanks for the opportunity to see this wonderful world. In return, we’ve often been rewarded with memorable worship experiences that add to the richness of our travels and our faith. Unique visions in stained glass have been a particular blessing and remain vivid in our minds.

THE SAINTE-CHAPELLE: PARIS

Stepping into the nave of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris for the first time on a sunny day, as we did in the summer of 1972, is a jawdropping experience. Fifteen windows, each over 50 feet high, depict 1,113 scenes from the Old and New Testaments, recounting the history of the world through the time of King Louis IX—St. Louis—who commissioned the chapel during his 13th-century reign. Considered among the finest in the world, the windows of the Sainte-Chapelle, and thousands of others like them in churches throughout the world, served to tell the Bible stories and lives of the saints to those who could not read. A visit to the Sainte-Chapelle is rarely forgotten, and we have returned several times, most recently in 2019.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2022 • 19

LA SAGRADA FAMILIA: BARCELONA LEFT: Like many church windows, those in the SainteChapelle in Paris were meant to tell Bible stories for those who couldn’t read.

RIGHT: Still under construction, the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona had windows designed and installed around 2000.

Similarly, the windows of the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain, create another remarkable “Wow!” moment.

For nearly 75 years after architect Antoni Gaudi’s death in 1926, his unfinished design for a magnificent cathedral stood as an open-air skeleton of a building in downtown Barcelona. At the turn of this century, a massive effort was undertaken to complete the project, and although construction on the building will continue through this decade,

20 • February 2022 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the church in 2010 and proclaimed it a basilica.

We visited the church for the first time in early 2001, while the building was still open to the outside, and it was remarkable to see its transformation when we returned in 2017.

The windows themselves were only designed and installed beginning around 2000. Like many other churches, the windows recount biblical events, though in a very abstract manner. But it is not the individual windows themselves that are most memorable. Rather, the cohesive use of light and color that illuminates Gaudi’s vision of a temple creates an almost metaphysical experience in a tremendously spacious interior.

However, despite the artistry, grandeur, and awe-inspiring nature of these lofty naves with such imposing windows, often they are almost overwhelming and difficult to describe. In contrast, the specific windows we tend to remember from our travels are those similar to what we discovered in Banff— windows that not only reflect our collective faith, but also reflect the faith of the community around them. They introduce us to new cultures and shed light on ways of looking at the world and our faith that stretch and challenge our past experiences. Here are a few more examples.

SANTA MARIANITA: GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS

The stories of St. Francis of Assisi’s love for animals are widely known, and St. Francis is often depicted with forest animals surrounding him. In the Galápagos archipelago off the coast of Ecuador, the Franciscan parish of Santa Marianita in Puerto Ayora offers a different slant on St. Francis and God’s creatures.

While a statue of the saint stands outside the church with a wolf beside him, the windows inside the church are beautiful scenes of the islands’ indigenous wildlife, studied and made famous by Charles Darwin.

The largest window shows a pelican feeding its young. Pelicans can be seen all over the wharves in Puerto Ayora eyeing the fishmongers and begging for some of their daily catch. In addition to being a common sight locally, images of pelicans similar to this window have been a symbol of Christ’s passion since around the 12th century. Other windows show dolphins, sharks, sea rays, and other birds and animals. A mural depicting a giant land tortoise illustrates the front of the church. While we spent a week cruising, swimming, and hiking among these creatures, seeing them in a church was an important reminder of God’s love for “all creatures great and small.”

NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL: TAHITI

The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception is the seat of the Metropolitan

Archdiocese of Papeete, Tahiti, a diocese consisting of 98 churches spread across 1,600 square miles of French Polynesia in the South Pacific. Lush with vegetation in a near-perfect climate, the islands truly convey the feeling of paradise.

Two of the cathedral’s windows depict St. Thomas the Apostle and Mary. In the former, rather than showing a doubting Thomas confronting Christ in the upper room after the resurrection, the window shows St. Thomas in the Shadow of Doubt under a coconut palm, a tree found throughout the islands.

In the latter window, Mary, Star of the Sea, with distinctive Polynesian features, holds a cross and seashell while standing in the heavens above a typical native canoe paddled by three Polynesian fishermen. In the middle of a great vacation experience, we were reminded that the stories of our faith really are catholic, which stems from the Greek word for “universal.”

The Franciscan parish of Santa Marianita on the Galápagos Islands celebrates St. Francis’ love for all creatures by gracing their windows with sharks, dolphins, and sea rays rather than the typical woodland animals associated with the saint.

ST. MONICA’S CATHEDRAL: CAIRNS

The city of Cairns—located on the northeast coast of Queensland, Australia—is considered the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef.

In 1942, Australia expected to be invaded by the Japanese, and many residents had already evacuated the Cairns region. In the first week of May 1942, only five months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the US Pacific Fleet confronted the Imperial Japanese

The Notre Dame Cathedral in Tahiti is the seat of the diocese that calls the South Pacific home, spreading across 1,600 square miles of French Polynesia and gathering 98 churches into its fold.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2022 • 21

Fleet 500 miles off the coast of northeast Australia in the Battle of the Coral Sea. Across both sides, over 1,600 were killed, eight ships were destroyed, and over 130 aircraft were lost. Militarily, the battle was essentially a draw, but the damage inflicted upon the Imperial Navy by the United States and its allies stopped the Japanese advance, and Australia was saved from invasion.

The seat of the Catholic Diocese of Cairns is St. Monica’s War Memorial Cathedral, constructed in 1968. In 1995, commemorating 50 years of peace in the Pacific, the cathedral dedicated its Peace Windows, composed of nearly 900 square feet of stained glass across three panels surrounding the main entrance to the nave. The windows are full of symbolism, including the story of Noah, the Crucifixion and Resurrection, and the triumph of peace over aggression, though at a huge sacrifice. The main panel over the doors shows the sea abundant with life, with a cross full of doves in the center. Around all three panels, the word peace appears in more than 20 languages, visible from both inside and outside the church.

The left side panel shows the wrecks of the Japanese carrier Shoho and the destroyer USS Sims. The right panel features a Japanese Aichi dive-bomber, the first type of aircraft used to drop bombs on Pearl Harbor and later, Darwin, Australia. At the top of the window, the sunken carrier USS Lexington calls to mind the 216 crew members who lost their lives when the ship went to the bottom of the sea.

As a veteran, as well as the son and son-inlaw of three WWII veterans, I spent considerable time reflecting on the story and losses recalled by this artistry in glass. I had simply been looking for a place to attend Mass on a Saturday afternoon while a long way from home. Instead, what I found was a powerful reminder of what Tom Brokaw named the “Greatest Generation.”

CHAPEL OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY: WEST POINT ACADEMY

I graduated from the United States Military Academy, and throughout my four years as a West Point cadet, I attended Mass regularly

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The Notre Dame Cathedral in Tahiti features stained glass windows filled with Polynesian accents, including Mary holding a seashell and three fishermen rowing a native canoe (left) and St. Thomas under a coconut palm (right).

Reflecting the losses inflicted during WWII, one of the three panels of the Peace Windows at St. Monica’s War Memorial Cathedral in Cairns, Australia, portrays sunken warships on both the Japanese and US sides.

A second panel features a destroyed Japanese Aichi dive-bomber in the foreground with the USS Lexington sunk behind it. The word peace, in more than 20 languages, creates a border around the windows.

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at the Chapel of the Most Holy Trinity on the academy grounds. Built in 1899 and modeled after St. Etheldreda’s Abbey Church in Essex, England, the chapel features 16 windows depicting the “warrior saints” and patrons of the military. Among others, these include St. Michael the Archangel, St. Joan of Arc, St. Martin of Tours, St. Barbara, and the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre.

West Point’s motto is “Duty, Honor, Country.” However, when surrounded by these holy men and women looking down upon them, cadets can’t help striving to devote themselves to “Duty, Honor, Faith, Country.”

WE ARE CONNECTED

For centuries, in churches throughout the world, stained glass has been and continues to be an artist’s medium for teaching us the stories of our faith and reminding us of the glory of God’s heavenly kingdom through light and color. Our travels have allowed us to stand in awe in front of giant rose windows found in Catholic and Protestant churches alike, such as Notre Dame in Paris, Cologne Cathedral in Germany, Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, and St. John the Divine in New York City.

Nevertheless, the windows my wife and I recall most frequently with fond memories and emotion are those we’ve discovered in more intimate surroundings such as Banff, the Galápagos Islands, and Tahiti. Those shown here are only a sampling of the treasures uncovered so far, and we’re still on the lookout for more. These windows not only tell a story or add beauty to their surroundings but also remind us that we share our faith with Catholics throughout the world, in ways that are special and unique to each community in which they’re found.

Jay Joyce is an author and self-described globetrotter who resides in Cincinnati with his wife, Shirley.

After graduating from the US Military Academy at West Point, he obtained master’s degrees in finance and psychology from Marywood University (Scranton, Pennsylvania).

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Cadets attending West Point gain inspiration from various “warrior saints” depicted in the windows at the Chapel of the Most Holy Trinity on campus.

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Hidden Blessings of the Pandemic “All manner of things shall be well.” Julian of Norwich’s words and the example of the hermit saints can help us embrace solitude as an opportunity to grow closer to God.

By Susan H. Swetnam StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2022 • 25

’ve had about all the isolation I can stand,” a friend tells me. “At first, distancing for COVID-19 felt kind of heroic, but now that it’s stretching on and the weather’s cold and dark—well, sometimes I’m so exhausted I feel like I can’t take anymore. Much longer, and I’m afraid I’ll start acting like one of those crazy old haggard desert hermit saints.”

As someone who has long studied and written about saints, I smiled at the wisdom in that remark. Though I haven’t become “crazy” or “haggard,” my own COVID-19 experience has been wonderfully supported by the example of just the sort of folks she was alluding to: early Christian desert hermits and medieval anchoresses.

essential to holiness. Pilgrims visited too, seeking advice and inspiration.

Many hermits spent time doing charitable work. Desert fathers and mothers wove reed baskets and sold them for alms; medieval anchoresses made clothing to donate. One desert elder ranked caring for the sick and praying to God as equally virtuous. These hermits’ prayers and mystical experiences in themselves were held to contribute to the broader salvation of the human community.

NURTURING FAITH IN SOLITUDE

And so these hermits made profound meaning of their lives as solitaries, seeing in their socially isolated state precious LESSONS FROM THE SPIRITUAL LONERS opportunities to seek God, tend their own souls, and serve What a gift their wisdom offers to us at this exact point in others. I believe that their positive take on isolation has much history. These men and women embraced solitude delibto teach those who are struggling with the social conseerately, reverently. As a widow and one of the 36 million quences of COVID-19 today.

Americans whose immediate houseTrue, our “vows” may be unsought hold consists only of themselves, in and temporary, even resented. And I’m fact, I’ve found it life-sustaining. not suggesting that we imitate these early We would do well to Granted, embracing hermit saints solitaries in the extremes of hermetic frame our presumably as mentors might seem like a bit of a asceticism. I’ll admit that somebody like once-in-a-lifetime stretch. For one thing, they seem so Pelagia—or even Julian—would likely eccentric—wildly enthusiastic and find me severely deficient in rigor, since I removal from others as devout, careless of physical appearance, confess to considering long, hot baths as a a holy opportunity, a people who lived in caves or isolated perk of more home time, and a new, cozy calling offering its own themselves atop pillars. Their ascetisweater comforts me on chilly predawn distinctive blessings. cism was so strict that it might border, mornings at the writing desk. to our contemporary eyes, on pathoStill, if you’re chafing at the seemingly logical self-punishment. endless restrictions and feel your resolve Even deliberately retreating from the world may appear slipping and your heart despairing, I invite you to join me strange to us. From childhood, after all, we’ve been taught in reframing your attitude toward solitude. It’s not too late that continual sociability is essential for a happy, healthy psy- to reboot. Just imagine how embracing the months immedichological life. Loners are mistrusted and scorned as losers ately ahead as holy opportunities—versus with resentment (think of all those crime shows where the observation that and sadness—might change your life for the better long after “he’s a loner” is the first clue to guilt). Many among us get the pandemic ends. nervous when alone, seeking the security of companionship How? Here are some suggestions. pretty much 24/7.

But these saints understood solitude very differently. They BECOME MORE DEEPLY AWARE OF GOD’S PRESENCE didn’t withdraw because they were deranged or shunned.

Prayer was the centerpiece of a hermetic life—in fact, given They embraced isolation gratefully and joyfully, rewriting the solitaries’ constant openness to God’s presence, it was life. In inner script of what retreat meant. For them, solitude wasn’t this period of decreased social interactions, consider adopta dreary punishment, but a potentially rich opportunity for ing your own formal daily prayer practice—perhaps employspiritual and personal growth. ing the time you’d spend commuting if you now work from Historical accounts suggest that both desert and medieval home. Pray the rosary or other traditional Catholic prayers hermits literally sang God’s praises, celebrating with joyful with an undivided heart; investigate centering/contemplative prayer. Listening to sacred music such as Gregorian chants music that passersby paused to enjoy. One famous medieval can also open prayerful communication. Let your spirit be anchoress, the mystic Julian of Norwich, emphasized God’s unfailing love in affirmative reflections even now familiar in quieted and soar in the early morning or night hours, feeling God’s presence. popular culture. “All shall be well,” was her credo, “All manAnother way to pray involves wordless celebration of ner of things shall be well.”

God’s created world as an emblem of divine goodness (the Neither did they totally shun contact with others. Over hermit St. Anthony recommended this). Take a walk alone time some desert monks banded into the first, loose monastic communities, and their sayings indicate that getting along in a park or forest; sit in your backyard or gaze out a window. No music or audiobooks: Be present with open eyes charitably with one’s neighboring monks was considered

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Another way to pray involves wordless celebration of God’s created world as an emblem of divine goodness.

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GO INWARD AND CULTIVATE YOUR SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT

Hermits withdrew from the secular world because they believed it distracted them from God and tempted them to grasping, ego, and wrong relationships with one another. In their cells, they strove for insight, humility, and gratitude. This wasn’t necessarily an easy task; many of their sayings record struggles with judgment and scruples, even after years in the desert. Yet they persisted, trusting that, with God’s help, they would grow in faith and purity.

Separated by necessity from at least some of the hustle and bustle of ordinary life, you might imagine yourself afforded a precious opportunity to follow their lead in the pursuit of watchful self-knowledge. It may be useful

to systematize the process, choosing a particular focus for each day. Consider using the corporal and spiritual works of mercy as a road map, or the seven virtues. If you’re feeling medieval, you can use the seven deadly sins, though please remember that honesty should lead ultimately to appreciation of grace, not corrosive self-loathing. Pray that you might grow in wisdom and note daily one or two concrete steps toward progress. Give thanks for the chance to seek God in such active ways.

Another way to cultivate spiritual development is by daily study. Focus on a part of the Bible you don’t know well, a subject in Church history or theology that interests you, or a saint you’ve been curious about. Consult reliable faith-based and scholarly Internet resources, read magazines, invest in books, and visit the library. This is your chance to take the perfect short course, no grades or papers required.

GO OUTWARD AND BE A BLESSING TO THE WORLD

You think you’re feeling isolated and lonely? Well, I’m betting you can think of others likely feeling even more abandoned. Call some to mind: that elderly person who sits alone on Sundays in

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Susan H. Swetnam is the author of more than a dozen books, including the award-winning In the Mystery’s Shadow: Reflections on Caring for the Elderly & Dying. A retired Idaho State University English professor, she now works as a massage therapist with hospice patients, cancer survivors, caregivers, and the bereaved, and is a music minister in her home parish.

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and ears, noting each day a few things that inspire you with joy, affection, or wonder. Make them specific (not “the birds,” but one particular chickadee perched on a sunflower head, bobbing as it picks at seeds and calls). Keep a journal of notes and/or sketches and photographs that lists each day’s particular reminders of the indwelling divine bounty.

the back pew, now isolated at home; that overburdened mother down the block now dealing with her boisterous brood at home all day, every day.

Vow to remind such souls that they are still part of the human family by reaching out to them in the ways now possible, imitating the historical solitaries who made care for others part of their vocation. Write someone an encouraging, admiring note; thank someone for friendship. Invite an acquaintance to a Zoom coffee date, a phone chat, or a pen-pal relationship.

Use your talents in the service of others, as those reed-weaving and needleworking hermit saints did. Make something to brighten another’s day and leave it on a doorstep: cookies, a few potted narcissus bulbs, a simple shawl, a wooden toy, a beaded bracelet.

Donate to wider charity, too, as you’re able, perhaps by giving to the food bank money you’d normally spend on restaurant meals or gas.

Above all, remember that this COVID-19 isolation—endless as it seems at this writing—isn’t going to last forever, and eventually we’ll all be called back out into the world’s noise and distraction. Even the great medieval saint Catherine of Siena, after all, heard Jesus ordering her out of her 3-by-9-foot room after three years of solitary contemplation and penance, prepared by that experience to give extraordinary counsel to others, including popes.

Like Catherine, we would do well to frame our presumably once-in-alifetime removal from others as a holy opportunity, a calling offering its own distinctive blessings. People spend a lot of money to go on retreats, after all. Why not embrace this found, free retreat as a time for blooming?

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In a youth-obsessed culture, 30 might seem practically over-the-hill. But this decade can be a time of growth, satisfaction, and renewed faith.

B

efore turning 30, I worried about my 30s. Now that I’m 35, I’ve noticed the 30s are not so bad. In fact, they’ve turned out to be the most fulfilling years of my life. God’s grace is working powerfully in places I never thought I’d find it. If you haven’t hit your 30s yet, you may have worried about some of the same things that troubled me.

Sitting here writing to you from the other side of the hill, I’d like to discuss seven of the biggest worries I had and the reasons you don’t need to worry about them.

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WHEN WILL MY SHIP COME IN?

I had ambitions. I planned to be a wellknown writer by 30, maybe have a few books published. When I graduated in 2008, the economy was going through the Great Recession. Young adults weren’t finding it easy to land a secure job of any kind, let alone one in their field of choice. According to the 2010 US Census Bureau, only 27 percent of college graduates had a job that StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2022 • 29

matched their major in 2010. I wasn’t among that 27 percent as I bounced around between odd jobs for years. By God’s grace, I was able to get freelance writing and editing gigs with a diocesan newspaper and a local newspaper chain.

Then things started coming together. I got a steady job as editor of a Catholic company’s blog, got married, had a son, bought a house, and became a parishioner at the local parish.

You could say that by 2018 my ship had come in—but then 2020 happened. I had become too comfortable with the good, steady job I had. With 2020, everything was thrown up in the air. My job and almost everything about our family’s future became less secure, less certain.

It took me a while to realize that there is very little in life that is certain, and most of the certainty I did have wound up being false certainty. I lost that steady job during the worst economy since the Great Depression, but I’ve learned to see this hardship as an opportunity to strengthen my faith. I can use unpredictable events to gain deeper faith in God because he always pulls us through when we have faith.

In these crazy times, I am turning more intently to God, who speaks to me through Scripture with words like “under his wings you may seek refuge; his faithfulness is a protecting shield” (Ps 91:4). I knew that no matter how crazy life got, God would provide. I’ve found that seeking God’s kingdom

30 • February 2022 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

first makes everything else fall into place.

I also discovered that providing as a father and husband is not simply about finding a job to support my family. The vocation to provide for a family also means providing wisdom, a good example, courage, and many other virtues.

WHAT IF I LOSE MY FRIENDS?

I used to wonder about Christ’s words in Luke: “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (14:26). I began to understand them when old friends started to fade out of my life. It wasn’t just because we were all getting too busy, but also because I was leaving behind the ways of the world to pursue an authentic Catholic family life.

As Christ said, if we are not putting God first in our lives, we need to put aside other relationships for a while to put God first, and that includes friendships. Then, once we find life in God, we can build truly holy relationships based on love of God. I’ve learned that true friends hang on through this transformation, and those friendships become stronger. God also brings new people into your life who have a spirit kindred to your own, and life becomes even more meaningful.

AM I READY FOR A FAMILY?

Your kids will definitely take time away from you. Does “me time” matter in family life? Yes, but sometimes God’s plan has bigger things in mind, and nothing is bigger than sharing life with the new life you brought into the world. Dying to self is a requirement no matter what vocation you choose.

But there is life on the other side.

Family life is not only about raising kids. It also includes taking care of a house and running a household. Broken appliances, bills, and maintenance needs will inevitably happen before you are ready. The best thing to do right now is putter around with stuff. If you know someone who has skills you lack, ask if you could learn from him or her.

The messy shed in my yard is often a cause of worry for me. I let my worry overwhelm me, which causes me to stay away from the shed. This is just plain foolish. We are cocreators with God, who wants us to look at our environment and learn ways to improve and maintain it.

WILL I LOSE SIGHT OF WHO I AM?

The words from “Once in a Lifetime” by Talking Heads sometimes ring in my head: “You may ask yourself, ‘How did I get here?’ And you may say to yourself, ‘My God! What have I done?’” I have asked myself these questions, specifically when I felt Christ calling me to something I knew nothing about—for example, working with youth in the high desert of Wyoming. I closed my eyes, took a leap, and when I opened them, everything in my life was different. This has happened several times.

In my 20s, my lifestyle and the surrounding scenery were ephemeral. In my 30s, the changes are much more permanent. You will likely find the truth in the words “you can’t come home again.” It’s one thing to move away from home in your late teens or 20s for college or a new job. In your 30s, though, there is more finality to the move. There’s not just the uncertainty of pulling up roots, but also the necessity of putting down new ones, which can be even scarier.

There is a remedy to this scariness, though. When I was a kid, my mom had this phrase printed on the top of her checks: “Bloom where you are planted.” Something about that advice reminds me that it is not about me. I planted a rosebush in the yard of our new home in late August. I wasn’t sure it would make it, but when roses kept blooming one week after another, I realized how simple, yet wonderful, that bush’s purpose was. God made it to be beautiful, and to provide hope for those who gaze upon it. When we do the same with our lives, we give glory to God. After being uprooted, replanted, and now settled in, I’m glad to finally be living proof of God’s words, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt 10:39).

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WILL I LOSE THE VIGOR OF YOUTH?

from God, and eventually we have to give it all away. We are Losing the vigor of youth means, among other things, losing all in debt, even if it’s just the debt Christ paid for our sins. your idealism and your will to press on despite the odds.

Acknowledging how we depend on grace every moment The remedy? Remember Christ’s words, “Whatever you ask helps us live a life of gratitude. Ironically, living in gratitude in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in also alleviates us from feeling we need to do more things that the Son” (Jn 14:13). Remembering that we are children of will put us more in debt. Gratitude shows us God has always, God keeps the fire of life burning and will always, provide all we bright in our eyes. need if we have trust.

Losing the vigor of youth If money gets tight, you may Acknowledging how we depend can also mean losing the will to have to take a job you never on grace every moment helps us exercise. But with a family of my wanted. I’ve worked at minimumlive a life of gratitude. Gratitude own, I’ve found that my will to wage jobs that tested my patience. shows us God has always, and exercise has doubled because I feel If you have to get a similar humwill always, provide all we need I have to be strong for the ones I bling job in your 30s, consider it if we have trust. love. Now that my life has more a character builder. The wisdom direction and structure, exercising and virtue you learn from these is part of an intentional, healthy, jobs will likely become some of the holistic, and holy lifestyle. strongest threads in the fabric of your character.

Sometimes losing the vigor of youth means losing touch Concern for money can become a heavy burden, one with pop culture and current trends. Two words about that may make you let go of the hobbies that bring deeper that: So what? I’ve never been more out of touch with the joy to your life. I used to journal on a daily basis. I haven’t trends of the day and pop culture, and I’ve never felt more gotten back to journaling consistently for years, but when I free-minded. So much of the culture around us portrays a do, the catharsis I experience is unparalleled. Never let go negative view of humanity and human dignity. We’ve been of the fervor and ideals of your youth. They are gifts from working on building a wholesome culture in our houseGod, and such gifts never become obsolete. Pick one dream hold and have found we’re better off leaving the TV off as and obsess over it. Even if money gets tight and you have to much as possible. take odd jobs, you’ll still be able to pursue at least that one Losing that youthful vigor may also mean losing the dream with the spare time you have, and it will reward you will to go out on the town and have other random advenfor choosing it. tures. For me, the last of such trips was to Brooklyn for my bachelor party. One HOW CAN I KEEP MY FAITH? of my friends referred to the subway Even with a strong foundation, losing faith can hapride as a “buzz killer.” Something pen. Pew Research says 13 percent of US adults are self-proclaimed former Catholics. What can we do to much deeper became clear when he prevent this from happening to us? I’d like to simply say said that. The whole party was a the important thing is getting back up, regaining your buzz killer, not because it was bad footing, and starting to believe again. But that’s not how but because I knew my future had a faith works.

People often lose their faith more fulfilling kind of joy in store. I because they lose their wasn’t losing the vigor of my youth; I focus on God and make was being reborn into my faith about themselves, then vocation. Marriage drown in the worries and brings with it a influence of the world. whole new kind Faith is a gift. Put God of youthfulness. first always, and I’ve learned the truth he’ll do the of Christ’s words, “I came rest. Don’t so that [you] might have lose your life and have it more abunfirst true love. dantly” (Jn 10:10).

I’ve found it WHAT ABOUT MONEY? easier to hold on to my love of God You may accrue more debt; you by having a relationship may lose your job; but hang on to with Jesus Christ. So often we faith, and you’ll make it through.

Everything we have is on loan overlook this obvious aspect of 32 • February 2022 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

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our relationship with God. We forget that God did the hard part by coming down to us so we may be one with him.

Many people believe Christ was a great teacher but not the son of God. They don’t see the value in having a relationship with him. If he is just a great teacher, the ways he can lead you to God are very limited. If he’s just a sage, you may start to see Christ as an idealist who expects too much of us. But if he is the Son of God, that changes everything. I can’t emphasize enough the difference this distinction has made in my life.

NO WORRIES

Everything above hinges on this teaching of Christ: “Do not worry about your life. . . . Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? . . . Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your lifespan?” (Mt 6:25–27).

Most of the things I worried about in my 30s actually did happen. I’m not sure if it was all inevitable, or if I have the gift of prophecy. Whatever the case, I was still wrong—not because I thought these things might happen, but because I worried that they would. Like a good father, God does not simply keep us away from the things we fear. Oftentimes, he takes us right into the thick of them, saying, “Don’t worry, I’m right beside you.”

David Kilby is a writer who lives in Manahawkin, New Jersey. A graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville (Ohio), he is the managing editor of Catholic World Report.

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For the first time, we are presenting a collector’s edition on the saints—a perfect gift or keepsake to read over and over again!

This collector’s edition, printed on high-quality paper, offers an in-depth and popular look at the saints, including: • Sts. Clare and Francis • St. Thérèse of Lisieux • Blessed Carlo Acutis: The First Millennial Saint?

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StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2022 • 33

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Helping Children F

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ce a F n Face Racism

Racism Racism will never be eradicated. But guiding future generations to face it with courage and steadfastness will make the world a more just and loving place.

By Shannon K. Evans

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very weekday morning, I zip around town in my minivan to drop my kids off at their respective destinations: The littlest three go to their grandparents’ house for a few hours, while the oldest two shuffle through the halls of our local elementary school. Five children whom I would do absolutely anything to help and protect. Five children who are my heart walking outside my body. Five children: four White, one Black.

My mother and father grew up in the Deep South during the civil rights era and were determined to educate their children about racism when they became parents.

From early on, they talked quite openly about the evils of racism with my sister, brother, and me. I will always be thankful that they did not shy away from such a painful topic, but rather taught us in no uncertain terms that all people were created equal. That early exposure to rejecting toxic ideologies enabled me to receive much from the Black community throughout my life: friendships, teachers, music, and, eventually, my first child.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2022 • 35

A MASSIVE REALITY CHECK

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country. Then in 2012, when my son was 2, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was murdered by a neighborhood watch volWhile preparing for the adoption of our son, my husband unteer for wearing a hoodie and looking “suspicious.” And and I were instructed by professionals on the importance of my whole world changed. diversity and inclusion. When social workers and veteran adoptive parents explained to us that our child needed to see AN EDUCATION himself represented in the predominately White world we were inserting him into, I bent over backward trying to undo It was not that this was the first time an unarmed Black the whitewashing that I suddenly realized marked our lives. child had been fatally shot by a police officer or someone in It was a massive reality check. a similar position of authority. And yet Almost overnight, I could see how with the dawn of social media, the news nearly everything around us was crewas finally reaching middle-class White As a White mother to ated for and marketed to White people. women like me. But what rocked my both Black and White From the board books on store shelves, world was not the fact that this single to the characters in television shows, event happened, but rather witnessing children, I’ve learned that to the people we spent the most time half the country rise to the defense of it’s not enough to “not with, everything communicated to my the murderer instead of the victim. I be racist,” but that what dark-skinned child that he was the odd listened as the character of the teenager is necessary is to insist on man out, the exception: not normal. was dragged through the mud as though becoming aggressively We realized what Black families had made to be something subhuman and anti-racist. long known: If we wanted our Black unworthy of our sympathy. son to see himself positively and It wasn’t his death that broke me; it equally represented, we would have to was White America’s justification of it. be very intentional about every single lifestyle and media In Trayvon, I saw my own son, and for the first time, I was choice we’d make. scared for him to grow up. The first time—but not the last.

From that point on, my husband and I vowed to work Less than two years later, it was the death of 12-year-old conscientiously to help our son construct a positive racial Tamir Rice in the headlines. Two years after that, it was identity—no small undertaking for a Black boy in this 18-year-old Michael Brown. I saw my son’s face in each of

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and White children, I’ve learned that it’s not enough to “not be racist,” but that what is necessary is to insist on becoming aggressively anti-racist. The future safety of my son may depend on the willingness of people like me to uproot racism from our unconscious thought patterns and demand change from the systems that were built around the disenfranchisement of communities of color: our educational, criminal justice, and political systems, to name a few.

REPRESENTATION MATTERS

PREPARING FOR AN UNBALANCED WORLD

My unique task in raising a Black son is first and foremost to help him cultivate racial identity and pride. He deserves to feel proud of the resilient, intelligent, creative, powerful community he belongs to, and it is my joy to assist him. But much more difficult is the task of providing him with information about racism, the still-unfolding history of our country’s horrific treatment of Black people, and the reality of police brutality, all without inciting either fear or shame. It has been a difficult path to navigate, to put it mildly.

Our family is lucky to live in a small university town with low crime, a wholesome atmosphere, and a police department that has a good track record of serving the community with level-headed empathy and peace.

While we talk honestly about racism in our family, I hadn’t felt the need to discuss police brutality with my son until the death of George Floyd in 2020 and the national riots that followed, which he and his brother heard about from a young neighbor.

LOWER LEFT: ZACHARY REINHART; TOP RIGHT: ISAXAR/ISTOCK

PHOTO CREDIT HERE

theirs. I peered into a terrifying future that Black parents all around me had shouldered for generations without my understanding. And we all know the story didn’t end there: Black boys and young men and women continue to suffer from police brutality at disproportionately high rates per population percentage.

For me, the revelation was too long in coming, but I am grateful it came.

Through seeking to be educated on the issue, I came to learn that racism is mostly not a personal problem, but rather a deeply systemic one. There are few people in the world who would admit to being racist, and yet we see racial bias and prejudice play out in ways small and large every day. I came to see that it was no longer enough for me to personally be against racism; rather, it was my responsibility to confront the poisonous bedrock of our society—bedrock that was laid on the backs of enslaved people—and the generations of injustice that have ensued.

As a White mother to both Black

The oldest and youngest Evans children play on their backyard trampoline, which for years has served as a gathering point for neighborhood children of many races.

TAKE INVENTORY of your children’s world. Are they seeing only white skin tones represented in the people, art, and characters around them?

Consider whether they could be seeing greater Black representation in the following areas: • friends—both children and adults—with whom you spend time as a family • professionals in their life (teachers, dentists, doctors, pastors, etc.)

• art on the walls of your home and magazines that come in the mail • television shows (e.g., PBS Kids Talk About: Race & Racism), movies, and picture books (e.g., The Colors of Us, by Karen Katz) • dolls, toys, and action figures

StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2022 • 37

It is much easier to talk to my White son about deadly racism than it is my Black son. I feel grieved explaining to my White child that racism exists, but at least I can present it as something he can take action against. I have the comfort of knowing that the conversation won’t make him personally feel less safe.

But talking about these things with my Black son is incredibly painful, yet I know he can’t afford to be unprepared as he enters his teen years. Like so many Black parents, I will soon have to give my son careful instructions on how to interact with the police or other potentially violent figures—instructions far more meticulous than I will have to give his White brothers, instructions that he and I will both know cannot guarantee his safety. (Just look at the case of Elijah McClain in 2019.)

The reality of facing these conversations with my beautiful, gentle, kind Black boy brings home the importance of opening up dialogue with my White children; and I hope, too, that it serves to remind my White friends to do the same with theirs. If Black children must hear about the dangers that exist because of the color of their skin, then White children are able to hear about it as well. And the only way to dismantle systemic racism is for White people to do the work. The onus of responsibility is not on the Black community. It’s on people like me.

THE HARD WORK OF ANTI-RACISM

As a mother of five kids between the ages of 2 and 12, I’m asking myself the same questions that most White parents are asking these days: At what age should serious conversations about racism begin? How much do I disclose to my children at each developmental stage? By disclosing these 38 • February 2022 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

systemic problems, will I make them ashamed of themselves for being White? How can I present it in a way that is realistic but not devoid of hope?

Few people are experts in this field, and I am not one of them. But I have sought out enough education to know that avoiding these questions does not serve anyone: not my White children, not my society, and more than anything, not my Black child.

Yes, I “see color.” I must. When White people say we are “colorblind,” we are failing to acknowledge the deep generational trauma and pain that has shaped the Black community and that continues to affect their lives. Being colorblind is simply not an option when the very economy we live in was established by the unpaid labor of Black people; it’s not an option when our policing system began as a slave patrol and then violently upheld segregation and unequal rights; it’s not an option when Martin Luther King Jr. could still be living today. The Black community continues to be painfully affected by a history that is far from ancient, so White people like me don’t get to pretend that the past doesn’t affect the present.

So what can White parents or grandparents do? First, we can acknowledge that anti-racism work is a lifelong journey for us as well as our children—a journey that requires ongoing education and a posture of humility. Simply declaring we aren’t racist is not enough; racism is so interwoven into the fabric of our country’s foundation that we must actively work to extract ourselves from it, or it won’t happen. Thankfully, there is now no shortage of books, podcasts, and documentaries to aid us on our journey. We no longer have the excuse of not knowing where to start. These days, anti-racism resources are everywhere.

ZACHARY REINHART (2)

Eric Evans says that raising a Black son has required him to examine the ways he personally has internalized racism, a process he says has been humbling and painful— but, ultimately, freeing.

Second, we can have hard conversations about race with our White children, knowing that our Black neighbors are having much harder ones with theirs. It’s important to note that this will not be a onetime conversation, but rather a topic that is explicitly integrated into the family’s values at every developmental stage from toddlerhood to teen years.

They need us to walk alongside them, communicate clearly, speak honestly, and be a safe space for their questions and confusion as they learn and grow.

Like most other parents who love their children fiercely, I balk at the idea of introducing tragic concepts to the hearts and minds of all my kids. But when I look at one black and four white faces, I know in the depths of my being that God created each and every one of them to make the world a more equitable, kind, and just place for all people. How can they fulfill this calling if I don’t equip them with the facts, language, reasoning, and empathy necessary to do so? Our children need us to help them become the people we imagine when we dream of their future.

Shannon K. Evans is a mother of five and author of numerous articles for St. Anthony Messenger, including “My One-Year Experiment with the Rosary” (October 2021). To learn more about her work, visit ShannonKEvans.com.

Dos and Don’ts for Navigating Awkward Conversations about Race with Kids DO normalize different skin colors and ethnicities (i.e., “Yes, I see that her skin is black. Yours is white, isn’t it? God made people in several different colors!”).

DO create a safe space for kids to ask questions. Children are naturally curious and asking questions does not make them prejudiced; they are simply trying to understand the world.

DO intervene in play when necessary. If you overhear or observe problematic things between children of any age while they play, stop and explain why it was wrong.

ZACHARY REINHART (2)

DON’T hush a child who is asking questions about race. Silencing the conversation sends a message that race is a taboo subject to be avoided, when in reality it is something to acknowledge, celebrate, and seek to understand.

DON’T make excuses for or ignore the racist behavior of others (i.e., “I know you heard what Uncle John said at dinner about Black people. I want you to know that I have told him that was unacceptable to us and that our family will not return to his house if he ever says that again.”).

Shannon and her husband, Eric, believe that equipping their children to be anti-racist is important to Catholic social teaching and part of the call of Christ for them as parents.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2022 • 39

By Susan Hines-Brigger

Want to Be Happy? Be Grateful TED Talk

I

Brother David Steindl-Rast

ICONS

MUSIC

BOOKS

PODCAST TV & STREAMING

FILM

VIDEO

E-LEARNING & ONLINE

SOUNDER AND WAITING TO EXHALE: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX; THE COLOR PURPLE:

to look around and take in all that we have been given. Then, he says, we must go. With this practice we can transform the world and make it a happy place, he adds.

Steindl-Rast divides his time among monastic life, writing, and worldwide lecturing. He has written 10 books and contributed to many other books and periodicals. He is the cofounder of Gratefulness.org, an interactive website with several thousand participants daily from more than 240 countries and territories. In addition to this TED talk, you can find many other videos from Steindl-Rast on YouTube regarding the topics of gratitude and happiness.

COURTESY OF VERENA KESSLER/PUBLIC DOMAIN

“Every moment is a gift, over and over again. And if you miss the opportunity of this moment, another moment is given to us. . . . That’s the wonderful richness of life.”

PHOTO CREDIT HERE

f you search on YouTube for videos on the topic of gratitude, chances are you’re going to find a video from Brother David SteindlRast, an Austrian-born Benedictine monk and interfaith scholar. He is probably best known for his 2013 TED Talk on that very topic. As of this writing, the video has been viewed almost 3 million times.

In the talk, Steindl-Rast digs into the connection between gratitude and happiness, saying that one leads to the other. Grateful people, he says, are joyful people, adding, “If you think it’s happiness that makes you grateful, think again.”

He acknowledges, though, that we cannot be grateful for everything. We are not grateful for things such as violence, war, oppression, or, on a more personal level, the loss of a friend or unfaithfulness. What we can be grateful for, he says, is the opportunity that those experiences provide us.

“Even when we are confronted with something that is terribly difficult, we can rise to this occasion and respond to the opportunity that is given to us,” Steindl-Rast points out.

“We have this saying that opportunity knocks only once,” he says. “Think again.

Every moment is a gift, over and over again. And if you miss the opportunity of this moment, another moment is given to us. And another moment. We always get another opportunity. That’s the wonderful richness of life.”

But how can we live gratefully? “By experiencing,” he says. “By becoming aware that every moment is a given moment. It’s a gift.

You haven’t earned it. You haven’t brought it about in any way.”

At the end of his talk, Brother David offers a simple formula for being grateful. He says it is the same way we learned to cross the street when we were younger—stop, look, and go.

If we don’t stop, we will miss the opportunities around us. We must then take the time

By Christopher Heffron

Examining the Black Experience

W

ith Black History Month upon us, film and television can provide windows into other lived experiences, including the Black experience. Here are five films to get us started, all of them available for streaming.

SOUNDER (1972)

THE COLOR PURPLE (1985)

GLORY (1989)

WAITING TO EXHALE (1995)

PRECIOUS (2009)

MOONLIGHT (2016)

The groundbreaking Sounder is all about a journey: a young man’s quest to make his fractured family whole again and for a life better than that of his sharecropper parents. Anchored by a career-defining performance by the late Cicely Tyson as the tough-as-nails matriarch, Sounder soars because of its realism and its rugged portrait of a proud family in a cruel world. It still packs a punch. Rated G

SOUNDER AND WAITING TO EXHALE: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX; THE COLOR PURPLE: WARNER BROS; GLORY: COLUMBIA TRISTAR HOME ENTERTAINMENT; PRECIOUS: LIONSGATE; MOONLIGHT: A24

PHOTO CREDIT HERE

COURTESY OF VERENA KESSLER/PUBLIC DOMAIN

Director Edward Zwick’s powerful ode to Black soldiers in the Civil War should be required viewing for young people. Morgan Freeman, Matthew Broderick, and Denzel Washington (in his Oscar-winning turn) lead the charge about the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, an African American unit that was an instrumental force within the United States Civil War. Glory proves that courage is colorblind. Rated R

In a performance of startling power, Gabourey Sidibe plays Precious, a Harlem teen twice impregnated by her father. She overcomes illiteracy, poverty, and the physical and emotional abuse of her mother (played to searing perfection by Oscar-winner Mo’Nique). Not for the faint of heart, but an important exploration of one facet of the Black experience, Precious is an unflinching look at the rebirth of a battered spirit. Rated R

Based on Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prizewinning novel of the same name, The Color Purple is still, after almost four decades, a seminal piece of work. In perhaps the greatest debut performance ever rendered to film, Whoopi Goldberg leads an impressive cast as Celie, an illiterate, abused wife who slowly rediscovers her agency and her innate worth in rural 1930s Georgia. Rated PG-13

It’s not a particularly great film but still worth considering, namely because of Angela Bassett’s spectacular, ragefueled meltdown after discovering her husband’s infidelities. Waiting to Exhale is flawed, yes, but it’s still a thoughtful examination of four successful, relatable Black women and how their friendship helps them weather life’s storms. Rated R

A character study in three chapters, Moonlight charts the evolution of Chiron, from a neglected adolescent to a wounded adult. The film manages to be both lyrical and savagely honest in its depiction of Chiron’s sexuality, cultural identity, and self-acceptance. Driven by strong performances by an ensemble cast (particularly by Mahershala Ali as the boy’s father figure), writer-director Barry Jenkins somehow manages to find beauty even in life’s darkest moments. A modern classic. Rated R StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2022 • 41

CULTURE

By Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP

Sister Rose’s

SHORT LIST FOR THE

OSCARS

Belfast

CODA West Side Story The Power of the Dog Spencer

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F

ifty years after Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise’s cinematic interpretation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Steven Spielberg presents a gritty, luminous new rendering that transports us, once again, to the Lincoln Square neighborhood on Manhattan’s West Side of the late 1950s.

The Jets are a White gang, led by Riff (Mike Faist). The Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks, is led by Bernardo (David Alvarez), a boxer.

As their neighborhood is being demolished around them to make room for the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and new high-rise apartment buildings, the gangs “rumble” for territory and dominance. The cops, led by Officer Krupke and Detective Schrank, are a constant presence in their lives.

The inexperienced María (Rachel Zegler) attends a dance at the local gym with Chino (Josh Andrés Rivera), her brother, Bernardo, and his girlfriend, Anita (Ariana DeBose). The Jets and Sharks dance off in a choreographed battle. But things heat up when Tony (Ansel Elgort), a former Shark who is now on probation after a year in prison, shows up at Riff ’s insistence and sees María. They are immediately attracted to one another and agree to get together the next afternoon.

Meanwhile, the two gangs agree to meet for a rumble. Riff and some of his gang members buy a gun. Tony, who was given a home and a job at the drugstore by Valentina (Rita Moreno), warns him to stay away from the Jets. When Tony tells María about the rumble, she begs him not to go, but Tony thinks he can stop it from happening. But the best of intentions and young love cannot prevent violence and the inevitable deaths to follow.

West Side Story runs a little too long at 156 minutes, but what struck me is how relevant the story still is. It’s a tale of star-crossed lovers in a changing world where there is a great deal of instability, social upheaval, distrust in the authorities, and violence fueled by racism.

With few opportunities and little access to education, hope is the most precious commodity on the West Side.

In this version, it is Valentina who sings the song “Somewhere,” voicing hope in tired, heartbreaking tones. She sings for all who come to America for a better life, while asking those already here to make room for immigrants and those on the margins. Her understated performance in a role created just for her (she won an Academy Award for playing Anita in the 1961 version) deserves a nomination. Zegler’s María is stunning, while Faist’s Riff is the most compelling character.

A-3, PG-13 • Strong violence, some language, suggestive material.

42 • February 2022 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

BEING THE RICARDOS: COURTESY AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES; THE UNFORGIVABLE: COURTESY NETFLIX

Sister Rose is a Daughter of St. Paul and the founding director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies. She has been the awardwinning film columnist for St. Anthony Messenger since 2003 and is the author of several books on Scripture and film, as well as media literacy education.

WEST SIDE STORY

LEFT: COURTESY SISTER ROSE PACATTE, FSP/MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS; WEST SIDE STORY: COURTESY TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION

Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP

BEING THE RICARDOS

BEING THE RICARDOS: COURTESY AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES; THE UNFORGIVABLE: COURTESY NETFLIX

LEFT: COURTESY SISTER ROSE PACATTE, FSP/MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS; WEST SIDE STORY: COURTESY TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION

L

ucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) and her husband, Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem), are hard at work producing and acting in their television series I Love Lucy.

During one week in their busy lives, the film takes us behind the scenes to see how an episode is produced at the creative nexus of personalities, talent, life-changing events, and deadlines.

The week starts off with a bang: Gossip columnist Walter Winchell announces on his broadcast that Ball is a member of the Communist Party. Everyone involved fears this information could lead to the downfall of America’s favorite television show. Ball explains she just checked a box in honor of her grandfather, while her husband tells everyone it was a mistake.

At a table read, when the actors, including William Frawley (J.K. Simmons) and Vivian Vance (Nina Arianda), voice the script’s dialogue for the first time, Ball insists that a joke be changed. The tension thickens because she and the writers do not agree.

Frawley and Vance do not get along and never have, which leads to ongoing issues among the cast. Ball and Arnaz seem to get along at Desilu Productions, but behind the scenes she accuses him of infidelity. The biggest challenge, though, is when Ball announces that she is pregnant. She and Arnaz want to include it in the story line, but the sponsor and the network resist. Eventually they concede. When she has her baby off-screen during a 1953 episode, more people watched it than Dwight D. Eisenhower’s inauguration.

I grew up with I Love Lucy, which made it a challenge to watch anyone else playing Lucy, Ricky, Fred, and Ethel. There are scenes from the series recreated in the film, and this helped with my unease of seeing terrific, contemporary actors take their place. I enjoyed the film even as it saddened me to know Lucy and Desi’s marriage would later fail. Their personalities and the choices they made had a lot to do with that.

A-3, R • Language, mature themes.

Catholic News Service Media Review Office gives these ratings.

A-1 General patronage

A-2 Adults and adolescents

A-3 Adults

L Limited adult audience

O Morally offensive

THE UNFORGIVABLE

O

scar-winner Sandra Bullock stars in this powerful Netflix drama about a wounded family that is one of the best I have seen recently. Bullock, known mostly for her light, comedic roles, is Ruth Slater, a felon who is released from a 20-year sentence for killing Mac (W. Earl Brown), the sheriff and family friend who had to evict her and her little sister, Katie (Aisling Franciosi), from their home. Both of their parents are dead.

Ruth works two jobs to make ends meet, and, through flashbacks of the shooting, we learn new facts. Some people are kind to her until they find out she killed a cop. Katie has been raised by a foster family (Richard Thomas and Linda Emond), who have never given any of Ruth’s letters to her. The people living in her old home (Vincent D’Onofrio and Viola Davis) help her, while one of the sheriff ’s sons seeks vengeance.

This is a story about the depths and reality of love—the lengths to which people will go and the sacrifices they will make for the ones they love.

Not yet rated • Violence, language, adultery.

Source: USCCB.org/movies

StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2022 • 43

POINTSOFVIEW | FAITH AND FAMILY

Susan welcomes your comments and suggestions!

EMAIL: CatholicFamily@ FranciscanMedia.org MAIL: Faith and Family 28 W. Liberty St. Cincinnati, OH 45202

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I

have a confession to make: Sometimes I don’t like my kids. The same thing goes for my husband, Mark, too. And I’m pretty sure they would tell you the same thing about me.

And that’s OK. Because we never promised to like each other all the time. We promised to love each other, and there’s a big difference.

That’s because liking something is fleeting. It can ebb and flow, such as what my kids are willing to eat for dinner. We tend to like things such as food, music, movies, TV shows, and sports teams. It is the reason that kids usually talk about liking each other rather than loving each other. Like gives us an exit plan. When we like something, on any given day, we may decide that certain thing no longer serves a purpose for us, and we move on.

But I don’t think love is like that. Love is a permanent commitment. Love sticks around, even when we would rather turn and run the other way as fast as we can. Like would run. Love stays put and stands on the shaky ground. That is because love requires putting in the work—even when you don’t feel like it.

LOVE NEVER FAILS

Whenever I think about the idea of love, I always think back to when Mark and I were planning our wedding ceremony almost 27 years ago. When it came time to pick out the readings for the Mass, there was one, in particular, that I wanted. We both wanted it, actually, but I’m not sure about his reasoning.

I knew mine, though.

The reading was the very popular reading for weddings from 1 Corinthians 13. I’m sure you’ve all heard it. In fact, most people can quickly quote the final line, “So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of

44 • February 2022 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

these is love” (13:13). And, while I think the whole reading is beautiful, that’s not the message that drew me in.

The words in the reading that stuck with me were ones I thought spoke so eloquently to the love Mark and I were getting ready to promise to one another. Those words were: Love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (13:7–8). They seemed to dig down a little bit deeper into the reality of love for me. Maybe it was the word endures that caught my attention. It seemed to imply that this journey we were starting wasn’t going to always be as magical as our wedding day.

LOVE ENDURES

In hindsight, I can see that my instincts were right. Endure is a very good word for summing up a marriage—and parenthood, for that matter. But it doesn’t work without the other part. For instance, when I was diagnosed with MS, I knew that Mark and I would have to endure some rough times. Even in those times, though, Mark’s love and support have softened the trials a bit.

When my kids haven’t liked me or Mark because of something that we’ve made them do or not do, we take comfort in knowing that love was 100 percent behind our decision.

Love is the key word. For, even on days when we don’t really like each other, and it seems as if we’re just putting up with each other, we can take comfort in knowing that love is right there to help.

So, no, my family doesn’t always like each other. In that, I suspect we’re not much different than most people. What I do know, though, is that we love each other.

And that endures.

TOP RIGHT: MC KOZUSKO/SAM;

Susan has worked at St. Anthony Messenger for 27 years and is an executive editor.

She and her husband, Mark, are the proud parents of four kids— Maddie, Alex, Riley, and Kacey.

Aside from her family, her loves are Disney, traveling, and sports.

The Reality of Love

TOP FAR LEFT: MC KOZUSKO/SAM; TOP: EVERSTE/ISTOCK

Susan Hines-Brigger

By Susan Hines-Brigger

FAITH and FAMILY

L

ANSWERING LOVE’S CALL

ove has asked a lot of me lately.

For two years and 10 months, I had been an advocate appointed by the family court for a boy whose parents were on drugs and whose dad had abused him in several ways.

Though a warrant was out, Dad could not be located. Good!

I followed this boy through four foster-care settings, two schools (he’d been in at least five before we met), and now residential treatment in an institution.

Somehow, he was overmedicated and ended up in a hospital for four days. His social worker felt that he should leave a facility that would make such a dangerous error. Through various networks available to the social services system and another agency founded by Dave Thomas of Wendy’s fame, the entire state of Kentucky was canvassed twice, searching for another home for this boy, now an 11-year-old.

But he was indeed an 11-year-old, had many behavioral issues, found transitions difficult, and had been removed from several homes already. No one in the entire state responded to this cry for help, this cry for love, this cry for security.

A social work supervisor, whom I don’t remember ever meeting, suggested at an emergency meeting that I might want to take this boy. I knew him; I knew his history; he seemed to care for me. I am practically eligible for greatgrandparenting, not fostering a troubled child. I have a peaceful life. I can write, I can garden, I can have a rather casual no-alarm-clock-needed schedule.

I also have a wonderful husband, so I couldn’t possibly make such a life-altering decision without his full support and engagement. I was sure he would remind me of all the reasons this would be an unworkable, impossible, and absolutely insane decision. When I choked out this startling invitation, Larry just said, quite simply, “Yes!” I cried, I called, he came. He came with history and

with troubles. He is as tall as my husband and me and has a cute nose and beautiful blue eyes. He is underweight (unlike us). He came with two pieces of well-used luggage and lots of boxes containing Legos, clothes, stuffed animals, dolls, and toys—but lacking someCarol Ann Morrow thing he needed.

Do we have it? We hope so. We reworked our staid guest room into a Batman cave. Its generous walk-in closet is intended as a cooling-off space. My husband put in a punching bag. Generous friends gave us a beanbag chair and lots of moral support.

It hasn’t been long. I have been notified by our newest resident that I’m an “old lady.” I have been told I am strict by an 11-year-old and “soft” by my husband. I’ve been “mean.”

I’ve been “rude.” I’ve gotten hugs but am not allowed to touch him first. He growls, frowns. He sings in the shower— when he’s willing to take one. He has said the water hurts him and makes his skin wrinkle. We’ve compromised on every-other-day hygienic showers, pending a sniff test. But my nose can’t get too close.

But my heart has gotten really, really close. When we say, “I love you,” he says it back. His favorite song is “Mom,”

by Meghan Trainor. It’s not about me. For him, it’s about a woman who has no rights over him anymore. She is on parole, I think, but she left him with strangers and allowed terrible things to happen for nearly nine years until pesky things like law enforcement, a judge, several social workers, and I became involved. She didn’t make her court appearances. She’s in the wind.

We are in love.

—Carol Ann Morrow

TOP RIGHT: MC KOZUSKO/SAM; FRIAR PETE BRAINTEASER: BOB VOJTKO

These scenes may seem alike to you, but there are changes in the two. So look and see if you can name eight ways in which they’re not the same.

(Answers below) ANSWERS: 1) There is another heart on the board. 2) The back of the chair is now flat. 3) The boy’s cupcake has more icing.

4) A fold in the cupcake box is no longer there. 5) There is an arrow in the girl’s Valentine heart. 6) The desk has legs.

7) One cupcake has sprinkles. 8) The girl’s shirt has long sleeves.

TOP FAR LEFT: MC KOZUSKO/SAM; TOP: EVERSTE/ISTOCK

Fr i a r Pe te & Re pe at

StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2022 • 45

LET US PRAY

reflect | pray | act

By Stephen Copeland

Live in Me, Love in Me, Act in Me

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E

tched on the back of my mother’s headstone are three simple prayers: “Lord, live in me, love in me, and act in me.”

Adapted from Clarence Enzler’s Everyone’s Way of the Cross, these prayers not only perfectly describe my mother’s life, which ended suddenly in February 2021, but also echo a ritual she loved during Lent: the Stations of the Cross.

My family religiously attended “Stations,” as we called it, every Friday during Lent throughout my youth. Honestly, I didn’t get it.

The Stations of the Cross—14 scenes marking Jesus’ journey to the crucifixion—felt like a terribly depressing story that always ended the same. What was the point? But I liked that it was only a half hour, and it came with tomato soup and garlic bread in the school cafeteria afterward. My parents, on the other hand, loved the Stations so much that they snagged Enzler’s book from the parish foyer so they could practice outside of Lent. It’s not really stealing, I guess, if it helps you pray.

As I got older, I stopped going to the Stations. I got my degree. I started my career. I moved south. I attended several nondenominational churches. Authors like Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen resurrected for me rich contemplative practices in

46 • February 2022 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

Catholicism I had long misunderstood. Still, the Stations remained something yet to be rediscovered on my spiritual walk.

When Mom’s life was ripped from us last year, one of the few things I remember from that week—of awakening day after day in the middle of a nightmare—was gathering in the warmth of my family’s living room on a snowy, Indiana day. We were weary from shock and tears, but Dad, with great strength and humility, took out his and Mom’s worn book and dared to read through Everyone’s Way of the Cross.

It all came rushing back. Why was this form of prayer so beautiful? What was it about the Stations that meant so much to my mother? We never got the chance to ask her.

PRAYERFUL GAZE

Early Franciscans were moved by Jesus’ journey to Calvary as well. St. Francis, St. Clare, and Angela of Foligno all practiced gazing upon the crucifix as a form of contemplative prayer. It’s likely their imaginations were stirred to intimately experience different moments on the road to Jesus’ crucifixion.

Their prayerful stance led to an embodied faith, as they were moved to let the Lord live in them, love in them, and act in them, as

TOP: LORENZO T81/ISTOCK; BOTTOM: BLUEHORSE PL/ISTOCK

Stephen Copeland is a storyteller and an Indiana native who now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. He recently published his first memoir, Where the Colors Blend, about his journey from doubt and despair to a place of faith and hope. He’s been published widely in this magazine and at FranciscanMedia.org.

You can follow his work at CopelandWrites.com.

TOP LEFT: COURTESY OF STEPHEN COPELAND; TOP RIGHT: PHOTO BETO/ISTOCK

Stephen Copeland

St. Francis became the first person to receive the stigmata.

All of this might be why the word Incarnation is a uniquely Franciscan term. Loving service and humble obedience become increasingly more natural to us when we place our “mind before the mirror of eternity,” as St. Clare encourages.

Perhaps because of St. Francis’ emphasis on the Incarnation, Franciscans began erecting the Stations in different places for prayer. By the 18th century, permission was granted to erect the Stations in churches as long as they were built by Franciscans and approved by a bishop. Today I wonder: What am I building in my own inner sanctuary? Am I erecting sacred statues that inspire a prayerful gaze as I carry my own cross or selfish idols that distract?

TOP: LORENZO T81/ISTOCK; BOTTOM: BLUEHORSE PL/ISTOCK

TOP LEFT: COURTESY OF STEPHEN COPELAND; TOP RIGHT: PHOTO BETO/ISTOCK

14 STEPS

As I reflect upon my mother’s life, I’m moved by how she carried her own crosses. I wonder how the Stations may have influenced that journey, perhaps without her even knowing it. Ritual has a way of getting deep in your bones, the truest form of prayer. Mom struggled for decades to “feel anything” at Mass, yet that spiritual desert never stopped her from going, nor from praying the Stations.

Her life was marked by humble obedience and small acts of kindness each day. She took Enzler’s prayer to heart: “Lord, make me realize that every time I wipe a dish, pick up an object off the floor, assist a child in some small task, or give another preference in traffic or the store; each time I feed the hungry, clothe the naked, teach the ignorant, or lend my hand in any way. . . . The kindness I extend to them I really give to you.” A couple weeks before Mom passed away, she caught herself “overhelping,” as she sometimes did, and laughed, “Oh, misguided helpfulness,” a phrase from Enzler’s book.

Mom was never one for deep spiritual or philosophical conversations,

LIVE, LOVE, ACT Lord, live in me— as I dare to pick up my cross and place one foot after another.

Lord, love in me— but she, like the early Franciscans, modeled an embodied faith, where simple obedience to love’s daily call made her a cultivator of joy. I’m learning in my own darkness and depression that unpleasant feelings do not have to evoke avoidance but can, instead, deepen my values.

During that awful week a year ago, Dad texted my sisters and me a question about Mom’s burial. It was some kind of absurd logistical question you don’t fathom asking until much later in life, when your parents have had the opportunity to become grandparents.

Dad misspelled cemetery, which autocorrected to veneration.

It’s silly, but I think about that a lot.

As Enzler’s introduction in Christ’s voice invites: “My life was incomplete until I crowned it by my death. Your 14 steps will only be complete when you have crowned them by your life.”

when my strength fades and night stretches into morning.

Lord, act in me— embolden my will and embody my being.

Amen.

ACTION

STEPS • COMMIT to going through the Stations of the Cross each week.

Whether attending in person or virtually, slow your breathing and enter into stillness. Each time an unrelated thought rises up, redirect your mind toward the words or images.

• READ a passage from Scripture at each Station and spend time sketching or writing a prayer in response.

• GO through one Station each morning. Consider a word or phrase that resonates with you, and come back to it throughout the day.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | February 2022 • 47

reflection

The color of springtime is flowers. The color of winter is in our imagination.

PHOTO CREDIT HERE 5UGARLES/ISTOCK

—Terri Guillemets

48 • February 2022 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

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