Category: Religion

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

It’s an annual tradition here at Pie & Coffee to repost this video of “The Real Saint Patrick.”

In today’s Give Us This Day essay on St. Patrick, Robert Ellsberg writes:

Patrick’s thirty years as a wandering bishop are the stuff of legend. He is justly honored as the patron of Ireland. But it is well to remember that Patrick was the victim of Irish injustice before he became the symbol of Irish pride. His spiritual conquest of Ireland followed the prior victory of love over the anger and bitterness in his own heart.

Rocco Palmo covers the feast day in the Saint Patrick’s Day Capital of the World, New York City.

This week in Worcester Magazine, Scott Schaeffer-Duffy noted it’s the 15th (I think) anniversary of the local Catholic Workers being banned from the St. Patrick’s Day parade:

As a proud Irish-American, Worcesterite, and avid runner, I am delighted to see Worcester’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade grow with the addition of the Celtic 5K Road Race. As a member of the Saints Francis & Thérèse Catholic Worker community, I still do not understand why the Parade Committee banned us from carrying an icon of the saint with his words, “Killing cannot be with Christ.” That banner was carried in two parades prior to it being banned, and the Parade Committee gave us the Spirit of Peace trophy in 1994 and Book of Kells Award in 1995. The idea that excluding Saint Patrick’s call for nonviolence makes the parade, which includes many military units, more “fun,” as the current Committee Chair suggested in WoMag, is sad, especially in the context of Ireland’s long bloody struggle and our own wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Irish winner of the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, joined many others in appealing unsuccessfully to the Worcester Parade Committee to welcome our banner. It still mystifies me why they do not.

(This banner is still held at the side of the parade, and various local dignitaries still stop by for a kind word. This St. Patrick’s Day politics is weird stuff.)

Also, here’s the only known audio of Catholic Worker co-founder Peter Maurin. He’s reading his essay “Makers of Europe,” also known as “When the Irish Were Irish.”

Lenten crunchtime

Lent begins tomorrow. I hope you’ve had plenty of time to think about how you’ll spend the most DIY season of the church year.

My plan for Lent 2012:

  • Fasting: I am giving up about a dozen “comforting distractions.” As a vegan, I’ll be giving up soy rather than meat on Fridays.
  • Prayer: I like the idea of using a daily prayer book, but after 30 years of experimenting I haven’t found anything that really clicks for me. Recently I’ve been using Give Us This Day, and that’s what I’ll be using this Lent.
  • Almsgiving: File under MINE OWN BEESWAX.

Some years I gorge on “Lenten resources.” This year, mass, Give Us This Day, and my own community will suffice. Secular Lenten observers might enjoy Jacob Berendes’s Lent essay, and Susan Stabile has a nice roundup of resources for Christians.

Candlemas: Planning for Spring

Tracy had a short post today about Groundhog Day, the old pagan festival of Imbolc, and Candlemas, three holidays that fall more or less today.

In Massachusetts, the days finally feel like they’re getting longer. The battle against darkness continues, but it’s obvious the tide has turned, and these holidays mark a natural time to celebrate the impending victory and think about the end of winter, whether by preparing liturgical equipment or seeing if small animals can give us an ETA.

I’m officially beginning to plan for Lent today. That means starting to think about what I might want to give up (this year: a lot), and asking the people around me if they’re observing Lent this year (many non-Christians do!). It’s also turned out to be a day of garden and business planning, and reviewing the progress of my New Year’s resolutions. Candlemas—now my favorite neglected holiday.

Merry Christmas!

Hope all the P&C readers out there had a good Christmas.

I’m sure there’s a technical term for how the viewer separates the artwork from the background. I love taking creche photos in part because the background is so often completely inappropriate, and occasionally accidentally appropriate. Here, NO TRESPASSING and BEWARE OF THE DOG are a “No room at the inn” for our time.

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Continue reading “Merry Christmas!”

First Sunday of Advent, 2011: And with your spirit, mumble mumble

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Today is the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of four weeks of Christian preparation for Christmas.

This year, it also marked the day when American Catholics began using a new translation of the Roman Missal, the first big change in what we say at mass in 40 years.

The rephrasing began with the second response of the mass. The congregation used to say: “And also with you.” Now: “And with your spirit.”

At St. Peter’s I’d say 0 of 200 people (including myself) were following the missal closely enough to override the habit of decades and give the new response. “And with your spirit” popped up throughout the mass. By the end we were at about 50% compliance with the new text.

As part of today’s homily, the priest observed that the spirit of Advent is “To be awake, to be aware.” To a Buddhist sympathizer like me, this sounds like mindfulness. This Advent I’ll be giving special attention to silent prayer, perhaps lighting the Advent wreath briefly each day. Since Dorothy Day’s published diaries, The Duty of Delight, are finally available as an e-book, I’ll be including them in my Advent meditations. The US Bishops have sometimes published an online Advent prayer guide; I can’t find anything like that this year, so until I do find something comprehensive, I’ll be working with whatever Susan Stabile posts that day.

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Celebrate Advent with Agape Dec 3: “Gandhi Visits Occupy Wall Street”

“Gandhi Visits Occupy Wall Street”
Annual Agape Advent Evening

Saturday, December 3, 5:30pm
2062 Greenwich Road, Ware, MA

George Pattery, SJ, a Jesuit from Calcutta, will speak. He is currently teaching a course on Gandhi and Religion at Holy Cross.

(This event conflicts with the Stone Soup anniversary party, unfortunately.)

Anarchism, Catholic and otherwise

Bruce “Snow Ghost” Russell and I are doing a new cable access show! It’s called The Silver Mountain and the episodes will begin running at 9am and 11pm Saturdays, and 6pm Sundays, on WCCA TV13 in Worcester.

We’re very pleased that the first episode features our old pal Brenna Cussen talking about Catholic anarchism, with our other pal Anne Lewenberg representing the secular anarchists. Great folks talking about the things that move them: expect nothing less from the Snow Ghost.

No guidance on veg fasting from UK bishops

The Catholic Bishops of England and Wales last week decided “to re-establish the practice of Friday penance in the lives of the faithful as a clear and distinctive mark of their own Catholic identity.”

In practice, this means a return to “no meat on Fridays” for British Catholics.

From the resolution:

The Bishops have decided to re-establish the practice that this should be fulfilled by abstaining from meat. Those who cannot or choose not to eat meat as part of their normal diet should abstain from some other food of which they regularly partake.

Nice nod to vegetarianism. As a long time vegan, I always fret about what “some other food” I should give up Fridays in Lent. Soy seems an obvious one, but has tended to be more annoying than helpful. I’m curious to see if UK veg Catholics develop any traditions and practices around “some other food.”

I’m having a hard time at the moment (as I sometimes do, just worse), and I’m drawn to the idea of re-establishing weekly penance in my life. Prayer and fasting are always my last resort when I’m having a hard time, despite the fact that they most always work. One of the great blessings of going to mass with the late Father Bernie every Friday was that every week he’d encourage us to pray, and every week I’d think “Oh yeah, forgot about that,” and then I’d pray for a day or two, and many issues would be resolved. And then by the next Friday I’d already be out of the habit and in need of another reminder.