Flannery O’Connor: the only great Christian writer in the US

Flannery O'Connor.jpgEncountering the grace through the literature is a sufficient way of knowing Christ and the fruitfulness of the Gospel. For many, myself included, Mary Flannery O’Connor is wonderful entree into the Mystery of God. Watch the story, I think you’d surprised by what you’d learn.

Flannery O’Connor’s stories were instrumental in at least one conversion to Catholicism that I am aware of. And she seems to have introduced him to Saint Thomas Aquinas who then led him eventually to the acceptance of a vocation in the Catholic priesthood. Dominican Father Thomas Joseph White talks about O’Connor’s influence in his life.
Be sure to read the extended interviews of the people interviewed in the centerpiece.
An interview on this topic will be broadcast on PBS’s “Religion and Ethics Weekly” on Sunday, 22 November (look for local listings).
The New Georgia Encyclopedia entry for Flannery O’Connor

The Black Nobility and the Pope

Principe.jpgBet you didn’t know the Church had black nobility. Do you know the difference between the white and the black nobility? Not many good Catholics can anymore. AND certainly not many on this side of the pond. For most Americans the idea of nobility is foolish. Especially given our history of rejecting the monarchy. American interest in things monarchical is kept to a quiet interest in Britain’s queen and perhaps to one or two other royal personages of northern Europe. And if you watch 60 Minutes you’d be familiar with the Sultan in Bahrain.

Few would recall the “nobility” of Italy these days much less nobility of the Holy See. A few years ago the Bachelor show featured a “prince” looking for a bride. In reality the guy wasn’t a “real” prince but “royal” figure created by the papacy for the Borghese family, most of whom now live in the US, and some here in NY. 
UK’s Catholic Herald ran Edward Pentin’s piece today, “The Black Nobility Still Serves St Peter,” on the ancient, now past, noble servants of the pope.

Popery can be so much fun, fun, fun…

Not Squandering illness: Terminally ill priest meets with Pope, offers sufferings for the Church


Father Luigi Squarcia.jpg

The Catholic News Agency ran this brief article yesterday (11/19/2009).
It captured my mind and heart, like it did for others, because I know two
people with Lou Gehrig’s disease (and one is also a priest) and another priest
who’s living with MS. The courage, love and patience these men have witnessed
is incredible. At least I think so.


Father Luigi
Squarcia, a pastor in the Italian town of Acquapendente who has suffered from
Lou Gehrig’s disease for the last four years, met with Pope Benedict XVI on
Wednesday and offered his “sufferings for the good of the Church.”

After the
meeting with the Holy Father in Paul VI Hall, Father Squarcia said, “I came to offer
the Pope my sufferings for the good of the Church. I am here, for the
first time, after years of working with the parishioners and the children at
our school.”

Now, he told L’Osservatore Romano, “I can no longer move my arms
or legs and I know I will lose my speech and later maybe the ability to
breathe.”  He noted that more people than ever are coming to him for the
Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Lou Gehrig’s disease is a serious neuromuscular
disorder that causes muscle weakness, disability and eventually death.

*Father Luigi in a 2004 photo.

If you
want a keener sense of what Father Luigi is speaking of when he says I am came
offer my sufferings for the Church, then I would suggest you read Pope John Paul II’s 1984 encyclical, Salvifici
Doloris, where he deals with notions of suffering and how it can be redemptive. That is, how suffering can be useful for the salvation of the work if we unite
our suffering to that of Christ’s. Putting suffering to good use otherwise it will eat you alive and deaden you affectively and spiritually. If not redemptive then it’s all-consuming and verging on nihilistic.

Saint Agnes of Assisi

St Agnes of Assisi.jpg

God, our Father, You made Saint Agnes an example of seraphic perfection for many virgins. Grant that we may imitate her virtues on earth and with her possess eternal joys.

Considered a co-foundress of the Poor Clares with Saint Clare, Saint Agnes of Assisi died three months after Clare. And like Clare, Saint Agnes was an abbess but of a group of former Benedictine nuns. On some calendars Saint Agnes of Assisi is commemorated on November 16, but she is commemorated today on the current ordo of the Franciscans.

Saint Mechtild (of Magdeburg)

Mechthild von Helfta.jpg

“Then shall I leap into love”

I cannot dance, Lord, unless you
lead me.

If you want me to leap with abandon,

You must intone the song.

Then I
shall leap into love, From love into knowledge,

From knowledge into enjoyment,

And from enjoyment beyond all
human sensations.

There I want to remain, yet want also to circle higher still.

According to some scholars, this Cistercian-Benedictine nun and poet, theologian and mystic was the inspiration of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Interesting that her liturgical memorial comes at the end of the liturgical calendar given her visions of heaven, hell and purgatory! Some people register a doubt about her status as a canonized saint in the Church but she is remembered in the Roman Martyrology (2004) and venerated as such by many, including the Cistercian-Benedictines and that’s good enough for me. The Martyrology speaks of Saint Mechtild as a woman of exquiste doctrine and humility, and supernatural gifts of mystical contemplation.

The prayer for Saint Mechtild may be found here and her biography here.

Blessed Salome of Krakow and Blessed Cunegunda of Poland

Almighty God, You called blessed Salome from the cares of earthly rule to the pursuit of perfect charity; and You caused blessed Cunegunda to excel in purity of life and in wondrous charity towards the poor. Grant that through their example and intercession we may serve You with chaste and humble hearts and go forward rejoicing in spirit along the way of charity leading to eternal glory.

Blessed Salome’s bio can be read here.

Deaf Catholics: finding room for the deaf in the Church

From a recent Zenit news article, I learned something that I never knew before: “It is estimated that there are 1.3 million deaf Catholics,
and the Vatican is intent on ensuring that they can fully participate in the
Church.” Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski,
president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, gave this statistic at his department’s 24th international conference meeting this week in Rome. The conference’s theme is “Ephphata: the Deaf
Person in the Life of the Church.”

“The prelate,” according to Zenit said, “estimated that in developed countries, one child
out of 1,000 is deaf, but the problem is more serious in poor countries, where
80% of the world’s deaf live. In these cases, deafness is often the result of
insufficient medical care and lack of medication.” He indicated “the need to help people with
this impairment, precisely as ‘the world has begun to overcome the
prejudices and superstitions linked to physical disability.'”

A liturgical resource for helping the deaf is Joan Blake’s Signing the Scriptures:

Year A, Year B, Year C

Plus, there’s the DVD Tips and Techniques for Signing the Scriptures.