That is a question believers of every generation have asked and have had to answer in their lives. If we look at the testimony of nearly 2,000 years, we see that the responses have been varied and many. Some believers lived out their faith in communities of vowed religious or clergy. Some have been missionaries, others monastics or even hermits.

The great majority of Christians since Christ, however, has practiced their faith bin what we could call “everyday life,” whether married or single, working in a job, caring for a home and children, or living a life of service in some other way. Those of us who take these paths are challenged by our faith to be “in the world but not of it.”

What does that mean? The words of Jesus and the gospel stories that depict him in action are timeless guides, as relevant today as when they first happened. Jesus lived and taught values and priorities that we can use to guide our own choices today. Here are a few of the most fundamental values:

First things first and eyes on the prize
“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides” (Matthew 6:33). Here’s all a Christian really needs to remember about following Jesus, today or in any age. We only have so much time and energy to give to the world, and life is indeed short. If we put other goals ahead of our spiritual aspirations, we may find we run out of time before getting around to being the disciple we had always meant to be.

Need further convincing? Try these passages on for size:
• Mark 8:36 (There is no profit in gaining the world if you lose your soul along the way)
• Mark 4:14-20 (Cultivate the Word carefully so that it can bear fruit in your life. Watch out for distractions!)

Keep it simple: Begin and end with love
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:36-40).

More?
• Matthew 7:12 (Dust off the Golden Rule and practice it.)
• Matthew 5:43-44 (Everyone loves their friends, nothing special there. Try loving and blessing your enemies!)

Service is the path to greatness
“Jesus summoned them and said to them, 'You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant' ” (Mark 10:42-43).

Don’t believe you are up to the job? Just ask for help:
• Luke 11:9-10 (Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened.)

Finally, for further inspiration, check out the biblical prophets. Here’s an example from one who knew how to boil things down to the essentials: “What the Lord requires of us is this: to act with justice, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with our God” (Micah 6:8).

Resource
• The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis has been inspiring Christians for centuries. Learn more and pick up a copy today.

THOMAS Aquinas, attrib. to Botticelli.

It’s almost easier to list what he didn’t do. In a mere 49 years this 13th-century Dominican friar and later Doctor of the Church became the church’s essential theologian. That Thomas was brilliant is beyond question, but especially in his later writings he betrays an increasingly passionate keenness of vision that might have tempered the earlier intellectualism of his ideas—had he but finished his great Summa Theologica. Death, however, didn’t really put an end to this immense project, Thomas himself did.

Thomas had the advantage of studying under another great Dominican, Saint Albert the Great, and was hugely influenced by Western giants like Saints Augustine and Gregory the Great. But he also sought to mine the Eastern church fathers for their wisdom—in fact, there was hardly a source of truth he didn’t like. Thomas studied and wrote commentaries on scripture all his life. He also read liberally from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and pagan scholars, convinced there was no contradiction between truth derived from reason as from revelation. Thomas composed The Golden Chain for Pope Urban IV, linking the scripture commentaries of Latin and Greek church fathers together.

His fellow friars considered Thomas both a genius and a warm and kindly man. He was also devoted to the practice of contemplation, which was really what put an end to his writing. After an intense mystical experience three months before his death, he felt incapable of continuing what he now considered a hopelessly inadequate expression of the God he had experienced in prayer. Thomas had defined God in his works as Pure Being: the very essence of Divinity is this Be-ing. The created world and all its creatures were “spoken” and “loved” into a share of this being, which made “friendship with God” the sole purpose for human existence.

Thomas approached divine mysteries with great humility. He qualified even his most stunning theological pronouncements with mental genuflections to reflect their approximate nature only: “to some degree,” “in a certain way,” “as it were.” He rejected theology that denounced the body or the emotions, seeing both equally capable of serving God when well-ordered and disciplined.

His best thoughts on original sin, free will, the role of conscience, divine-human cooperation, the fundamental benefits of a life of virtue, the inner presence of the Holy Spirit, and the nature of salvation in Christ are basic to any parochial school education—whether we recognize them as “Thomistic” or not. It is no wonder that he was canonized a saint within 50 years of his death and named patron of all Catholic universities as well as the “Angelic” Doctor of the Church.

Scripture
• Tobit 4:14b-19; Wisdom 6:9-21; 7:7-30 and chs. 8 - 9; Sirach 1:1-29; Proverbs 2:1-11; 3:13-24; 8:1-9:6

Online
• aquinasonline.com

Books
• Albert & Thomas: Selected Writings, translated, edited, and introduced by Simon Tugwell, O.P. (Paulist Press, 1988)
• Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Master by Robert Barron (Crossroad, 2008)

PORTRAIT of Archbishop John Carroll.

The answer is a person: John Carroll. The Carrolls were the “First Family” of American Catholicism, arriving in Maryland in 1688. The New World was not hospitable: Catholics were subject to double taxes, deprived of the right to vote, worship, hold office, and educate their children. Masses were held in private, and Jesuits illegally taught in secret schools.

The Carrolls had money, acquired land and influence, and sent their sons to be schooled abroad. Charles Carroll would become the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. He and his cousin Daniel—who would be one of the two Catholic signers of the United States Constitution—entered Maryland politics after being active on the new national scene. Daniel’s brother John remained in France after finishing his education, taking final vows as a Jesuit in 1771. Rome suppressed the Jesuit order in 1773. John Carroll went home to Maryland, declaring to his mother: “The greatest blessing which in my estimation I could receive from God would be immediate death.”

What he got instead was a diocese. How? Through family connections, John became useful to the Continental Congress in 1776 and made the acquaintance of Benjamin Franklin—a curious man to befriend for someone seeking anonymity. John also defended his faith publicly in the newspapers and published a tract for his fellow Catholics.

In 1783 he organized a meeting of ex-Jesuits in Maryland to petition Rome for the reinstatement of their superior, Father John Lewis. The Holy See consulted that most celebrated American, Franklin, for his opinion. Franklin recommended Carroll instead as the “Superior of the Mission in the thirteen United States.” By 1789, Baltimore, where Carroll had lived since 1786, became the first diocese of the United States with Carroll ordained its first bishop (though Carroll had to go England for his ordination, which took place on August 15, 1790 in the chapel of the Weld family in Lulworth Castle, Dorset).

In a 25-year episcopacy John Carroll accomplished miracles. He pushed for the creation of Georgetown College, opened the first seminary (St. Mary’s in Baltimore), approved the founding of the Visitation Sisters, brought in Dominicans, and encouraged Elizabeth Seton to begin the American Sisters of Charity to educate girls. Not waiting on Rome, he restored the Jesuits in America by affiliating them through the influence of Catherine the Great with Russians who had evaded the suppression of the order.

Carroll also encouraged lay leadership by instituting trusteeship of church properties. He supported Mass in the vernacular, the separation of church and state, and ecumenism among Christian denominations. In the meantime his little diocese grew to include the West Indies and the Louisiana Territory. By the time Carroll died, Baltimore had become an archdiocese overseeing the four sees of Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Bardstown, Kentucky.

Scripture
• 1 Timothy 3:1-7; 4:12-16; 2 Timothy 2:1-7; 4:1-5

Online
• History of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore

Books
• The American Catholic Experience: A History from Colonial Times to the Present by Jay P. Dolan. (University of Notre Dame Press, 1992)
• Creative Fidelity: American Catholic Intellectual Traditions, ed. by R. Scott Appleby, Patricia Byrne, and William L. Portier (Orbis Books, 2004)

 

Religious communities of women and of men have worked tirelessly on behalf of human rights throughout the centuries. It might be the monastic brother who serves as the monastery’s porter and feeds the hungry who knock on his door. It might be the religious sister trained as a civil lawyer who lobbies in Washington, D.C. on behalf of economic justice for those who are poor and vulnerable. It might be the cloistered nun who has given herself to praying ceaselessly for those who are caught up in drug abuse and drug war violence. It might be a missionary who is helping rural farmers in with land rights and sustainability.

No matter how religious communities live or what their mission is, care for people who are vulnerable, suffering, or poor is a significant aspect of being women and men rooted in the gospel and the social teachings of the church. Some communities may place more of an emphasis on a particular aspect of social justice—for example, setting up a network of homeless shelters and soup kitchens or ministering with people enslaved in human trafficking.

I encourage you to get to know religious communities and see how each is specifically committed to human rights in ways that come out of their particular mission. Ask a sister, brother, or priest how their life and ministry have reflected those very first words of the Second Vatican Council’s pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes: “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.”

Take time to ask yourself that same question. You may find that the ways you are attracted to serve and live the gospel resonate well with religious life!

Let’s start with some basic rules of liturgy set down by the Second Vatican Council in its Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. The aim of liturgy is to serve the need to worship God in “full, active, and conscious participation” (no.14). The rituals in the Mass should therefore bear a “noble simplicity” that is “within the people’s powers of comprehension” (no.34). The unfolding of the church year with its various feasts and seasons seeks to do that by revealing “the whole mystery of Christ” from Incarnation to Pentecost in due season (no.102). The church is to be particularly directed toward feasts of the Lord that point to salvation (no.108).

In other words, a huge principle in ritual is to move up and down a sliding scale of magnificence so that it will be clear to the youngest child what’s really important in the full spectrum of what the church believes. The Resurrection of Jesus is the number-one mystery Christians celebrate, so it’s enhanced with three days of intense liturgy (the Triduum), a full week of solemn commemoration (Holy Week), preceded by 40 days of penitential preparation (the season of Lent)—not to forget every celebration of the Eucharist of course.

Along with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to get ready for Easter, the church also fasts from saying or singing the word Alleluia (some traditions have even buried the Alleluia with great pageantry on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday and “resurrected” it again at Easter) as well as singing the Gloria. As one perceptive music minister put it: The church doesn’t sing these great words during Lent for the same reason the church don’t sing Jesus Christ Is Risen Today—until we get there liturgically.

Just as the church refrains from the Gloria during Lent, it does the same during Advent, which is another great season of preparation for a greater mystery, the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. We don’t sing Christmas carols during Lent (not in church, anyway!), so we don’t sing the mother-of-all-carols, the song of the angels, until then. Gloria in Excelsis Deo is heaven’s response to the glorious birth of Jesus. If the angels can wait until that holy night to sing it, I suppose the rest of us can, too.

The Gloria is an exalted hymn which is not to be replaced by any other at that time in the Mass, so say the norms of the Roman Missal. It adds a “celebratory character” to the Introductory Rites that is better expressed sung than in recitation, and increased in collaboration with a full choir—reminding us of its debut performance. “To sing belongs to lovers,” as Saint Augustine once said. To yearn also belongs to lovers—which is why sometimes the church saves the song until its proper hour.

Scripture
• Luke 2:14; Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 5:19; Acts of the Apostles 2:46-47

Online
• Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy

Books
• At the Supper of the Lamb: A Pastoral and Theological Commentary on the Mass by Paul Turner (Liturgy Training Publications, 2011)
• Days of the Lord: The Liturgical Year, Vol. 2: Lent (Liturgical Press, 1993)

Dating while discerning depends a lot on where you are in your discernment. If you are looking at your life and trying to figure out what path would best help you become fully who you are, then I encourage you to explore the possibilities! Date, visit religious communities, do a year of service, try out a new job, and go where you feel alive.

Do these things responsibly of course. Be honest with the person you are dating and be honest with yourself. As you continue to explore, you will find that some of your choices feel more in sync with how you want to be in the world and how you feel God is calling you. That’s the time when you might begin to focus yourself and your search.

If you are at a point in your life where you have explored many options and are ready to commit yourself more fully to one pathway and give yourself to pursuing God in that manner (whether it is a relationship or ministry or way of life), then you will have to make serious choices in regard to the possibilities you have been exploring.

Becoming a member of a religious community or a hermit or a priest doesn’t magically happen on the day you enter. It occurs gradually because you’ve already begun to make choices in your life that resonate with consecrated life. You aren’t dating because “you are not supposed to do that in discernment” but because it’s not where you feel most alive to your calling from God. That doesn’t mean that a relationship was no good or wrong, only that you want to pursue wholeheartedly another way of being for God.

My prayers are with each of you who are called to find their way in the midst of relationships, commitments, and longings. I highly recommend that you have a good spiritual director who can help you navigate these waters and remain true to yourself and God.

Second in a series about Lent. The first time you hear it, it's disconcerting: "Ma'am (or Sir), there's some dirt on your face." No one wants to be thought careless in matters of hygiene! But after a few years, wearing ashes in public on Ash Wednesday seems almost natural. It invites opportunities to witness to what you believe as you explain it's no accidental smudge on your forehead but a deliberate decision: to be marked with the knowledge of what your mortality really means.

Ashes are an ancient sign of mortification. Often associated with the wearing of sackcloth-a harsh woven-hair fabric used for grain bags-any occasion that warranted the expression of grief, penitence, or supplication might involve scattering ashes, rolling in them, or smearing them on one's person. Such reverse adornment defined the humble spirit of the wearer, and both men and women might employ this sign in times of self-denial. In addition, the shaving of the head or beard might accompany such gestures, and fasting as well. Anyone reluctant to be signed with ashes annually might consider the alternatives!

The prophets recommended such signs when the evil of the times required it. Daniel himself adopted prayer, fasting, sackcloth, and ashes during the period of Israel's exile. In the gospels Jesus reprimands unrepentant Jewish cities by comparing them to pagan cities that would have long ago donned sackcloth and ashes in shame for similar crimes. The message is clear: A definite outward sign of penitence is a bold first step in the actual conversion of the human heart.

So Catholics begin the annual season of their repentance by adopting the mark of ashes. I say "begin": 40 days of fasting, prayer, and charity is expected to proceed from there. Many have noted that Jesus accuses the Pharisees of hypocrisy when they stand on street corners bearing the signs of fasting for all to see. Instead Jesus advises his disciples to wash their faces and anoint their heads while fasting. That is to avoid the temptation to be seen as doing good-and to be rewarded on the spot by the good opinion of others.

In a social climate impressed by the appearance of piety, it would be best to hide such signs. Modern culture, however, is more dazzled by bling, than by the rosary dangling from your rearview mirror. The effect of ashes serves more to remind oneself "that we are dust, and to dust we shall return." With the urgency of mortality clinging to us in every hour, it's wisdom to heed the call each Ash Wednesday not to waste any time but to "repent, and receive the Good News."

Scripture
• Isaiah 58:5-6; Jeremiah 6:26; Ezekiel 27:30-31; Daniel 9:3; Matthew 11:21; 6:5-7, 16-18; 23:5; Luke 10:13; also Genesis 3:19

Online
• St. Leo the Great on Lent, 5th century homily

Books
• Forty Days Plus Three: Daily Reflections for Lent and Holy Week by John J. McIlhon (Liturgical Press, 1989)
• Days of the Lord: The Liturgical Year, Vol. 2: Lent (Liturgical Press, 1993)

First in a series about Lent. The celebration of Lent is a long-
established tradition in the church—and I use the word celebration deliberately. The prayers of the liturgy refer to Lent as “this joyful season.” Though the character of the season is penitential, the intent of Lent is to prepare our dispositions for the greatest feast of the church year, the always-jubilant Easter. With all that to look forward to, Lent could hardly be a mournful time.

So where did Lent come from? Let’s start by saying that Christianity embraces one key belief: the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This central article of faith shapes everything we do as Christians, how we live and die, and certainly how we express our faith in worship. Easter is therefore the primary day of rejoicing. Every Sunday is considered a “little Easter,” a commemoration of how Jesus triumphed over sin and death through the power of God for the sake of humanity’s emancipation from those ancient twin evils that bound it. The entire church year spins on the axis of Easter faith.

In the first three centuries of the church Christians prepared for this mother-of-all-feasts by fasting—between two days to a week depending on local custom. In Rome the “paschal fast” may have lasted as long as three weeks. This extended fast was linked to the preparation of new members for baptism at the Easter Vigil.

By the 4th century a full 40-day period of preparation was observed, imitating the 40-day fast of Jesus in the desert before undertaking his great mission. Fasting and prayer were natural components of the season because that’s how Jesus prepared himself. Almsgiving was added to the practices of Lent as it, too, was a traditional way of making sacrifice to God in the wake of sinfulness. Following a calendar of feasts and seasons dependent on one’s faith is an idea rooted in Judaism. The Law of Moses established fixed times annually to recall the saving actions of God, centered on the commemoration of Passover. A liturgical calendar allowed Israel to practice gratitude and thanks, repentance and conversion, each in accord with the natural seasons, rains, and harvests. A cycle of liturgy also provided a way to instruct new generations about the faith in ritual and storytelling.

Easter, the Christian Passover, was fixed by the Council of Nicaea in 325 to coincide with the first full moon after the vernal equinox. That makes Lent the annual “springtime” of faith, quite literally, as the word Lent means "spring."

Scripture
• Mark 1:12-13; Matthew 4:1-2; Luke 4:1-3; Leviticus 23

Online
• “Grave matters: Take away the Resurrection and the center of Christianity collapses,” article by N. T. Wright 
• For fun: Wiki article on “computus,” the complicated story of calculating the date of Easter

Books
• Embracing the Sacred Seasons of Lent and Easter: Daily Reflections and Prayers by Janis Yaekel (Twenty-Third Publications, 2005)
• Living Liturgy: Spirituality, Celebration, and Catechesis for Sundays and Solemnities (Liturgical Press)

Although there have been 21 “ecumenical councils” convened so far in the church’s history, Trent (the 19th) has the rest beat in many ways. For one thing, it lasted the longest, from 1545-1563. It crossed the reigns of five popes, including Paul III, Julius III, Marcellus II, Paul IV, and Pius IV, and two emperors (Charles V and Ferdinand). This council comprised 25 sessions and issued more reforms and dogmatic degrees than any prior, setting the church on its course for the next 400 years.

An ecumenical council usually involves assembling bishops and others who represent the entire church from all over the world, so it’s not undertaken lightly or frequently. While two such councils have followed in the wake of Trent, Vatican I (1869-1870) lasted less than a year and was never formally finished due to the outbreak of war. The more well-known Vatican II (1962-1965) is the only council since Trent to have a significant impact on the direction of the church.

A SESSION of the Council of Trent.

Why did Trent pack such a punch? Timing: It was a response to the challenges issued by the Reformation and gave birth to the movement known as the Counter-Reformation. It reexamined the nature of faith, grace, sacraments, the power of the papacy, and education of the clergy.

But the council was also good for drama: a great historical mess of a convocation, adjourned several times due to turmoil from within and without. Paul III convened it, hoping to respond to Luther’s reforms in a matter of months. He made the greatest progress of the entire 18 years in the first two years by affirming the “equal reverence” of scripture and tradition—contrary to Luther’s insistence on scripture alone—and producing the response to Lutheran teaching on “justification by faith.” Paul III also oversaw teachings on the efficacious nature of sacraments and the affirmation of seven of them—contrasted with the Lutheran adherence to two. The rest of the agenda was left to his successors.

Julius III made his contribution in affirming other teachings on the sacraments, especially the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, opposing the purely symbolic approach of the reformers Zwingli and Calvin. Marcellus II showed great promise but died 20 days after assuming the office. Paul IV had no interest in continuing the council at all, holding what have since been called “unrealistic” views of papal authority; it was he who first issued the Index of Forbidden Books—so extensive it shocked even his supporters. Pius IV reconvened Trent in the face of new threats from Calvinism. He defined the nature of ordination’s indelible character and the sacramentality of marriage and brought the council successfully to a close. In the face of a sea change in the Christian world, the Catholic self-understanding had been expressed in ways that would prove enduring.

Scripture
• Predecessor to the councils: Acts 15, the “Council of Jerusalem”

Online
• Texts of the documents of the Council of Trent

Books
• The General Councils: A History of the Twenty-One Church Councils from Nicaea to Vatican II by Christopher M. Bellitto (Paulist Press, 2002)
• The Ecumenical Councils of the Catholic Church: A History by Joseph F. Kelley (Liturgical Press, 2009)

And how many are there?

The number of the precepts is confusing to Catholics of a certain age: Some memorized six in grammar school, but the present Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) lists five. Sometimes known as the “Commandments of the Church,” Catholics had observed the general content of these ecclesial obligations since the Middle Ages and later the Council of Trent recommended them in the 16th-century. Yet they weren’t issued as a body of laws until the 19th century by the bishops of England. The clergy of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884 in turn adopted this list for the United States.

The present list of five includes these obligations:

1. To attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation;
2. To confess one’s sins at least once a year;
3. To receive Holy Communion during the Easter season;
4. To observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the church;
5. To help provide for the needs of the church.

This list from the CCC reinforces the “indispensable minimum” of participation meant to instigate “growth in love of God and neighbor” (no. 2041). The current precepts are primarily focused on guaranteeing engagement in the liturgical life of the church. Although the former precept about honoring the marriage laws of the church is no longer on the list, anyone who approaches the church to be married can vouch for the fact that the laws regarding matrimony are still enforced (see CCC, nos. 1601-1654).

It may sound like the precepts are not really very obligatory for Catholics, considering that they’ve shifted around so much. But in any form they’re fairly old ideas. Since the 4th century, the church encouraged a distinct character and behavior for its members. Sunday and feast-day Mass attendance, the practices of receiving communion and confession, and the particular laws governing marriage were expected of all members. While an official set of obligations wavered between five and ten for another 1,000 years, Saints Peter Canisius argued persuasively for five and Robert Bellarmine for six in the 16th century. Most Catholics in different regions around the world today follow one of these two lists. Some countries add the obligation to provide a Catholic education for one’s children.

Scripture
The church has always adopted behavioral codes expected of its members, such as:
• Acts 4:32-35; 15:22-29; Ephesians 4:25-32; 1 Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 2:1-8

Online
Precepts of the church in the CCC

Books
• This Is Our Faith: A Catholic Catechism for Adults by Michael Pennock (Ave Maria Press, 1998)
• Catholic Essentials: An Overview of the Faith by Michael Amodei (Ave Maria Press, 2008)

I would start with the word literally, pointing out that the question probably should say historically. Reading a story literally isn’t the same as believing it happened in a moment of history. Modern biblical scholars, including Catholic ones, understand the Genesis Creation saga as the centerpiece of biblical theology. As such they explore it word for word with great care. Genesis 1 is a confession of faith, a hymn of praise, and a tremendous answer to the question: What does it mean to be human? It’s “the superscription under which the Bible stands,” as Jesuit John Scullion put it. It tells us God is the source of all that is—and believers take that quite literally.

Story is to be read as story: a narrative that seeks to tell us something. Ancient storytellers didn’t share our modern preference for the historical event: Truth remains true whether it occurred in time or not. It’s a mark of our mortal self-absorption that we’re partial to what happens in history and reluctant to contemplate what belongs to eternity. The Genesis writers were collectors and arrangers of stories already being told in the oral tradition of Israel. They didn’t erase the seams of their sources but allowed them to stand side by side to enhance understanding through the appreciation of truth’s complexity. We see traces of these collections in the discrepancies, repetitions, and variant points of view. Here are a few of the truths these storytellers hoped to assert and preserve:

1. God is the ultimate source of everything, and therefore God alone is to be worshipped.
2. The sad history of humanity is that we steadily refuse to worship God alone.
3. God’s word is an event: When God speaks, things happen.
4. Humanity is also given the task of naming reality and sharing in dominion over reality.
5. God creates the world by establishing order out of confusion—literally cosmos from chaos in the Greek rendering. God calls this original order “good” and “right.”
6. Sin contradicts the divine will. It’s the choice we make for chaos that is neither good nor right.
7. Our freedom to choose makes us “like parent, like child.” It’s the basis of our relationship with God and lifts us above all other creatures.
8. Our choice against God’s will leads to the alienation from God that is the burden of sin. We carry this burden through history until God fully restores our relationship.

It would be pretty hard to get more truth from a story than that!

Scripture
• Genesis 1; 2; 3

Online
• "God's Beloved Creation" by Elizabeth Johnson (America 184 no. 13:8-12)
• “Peace with God the Creator, Peace with All of Creation,” message of Pope John Paul II for the World Day of Peace, 1990,

Books
• Collegeville Bible Commentary Old Testament Volume 2: Genesis by Pauline A. Viviano (Liturgical Press, 1985)
• Genesis: A Commentary for Students, Teachers, and Preachers by John J. Scullion (Liturgical Press, 1992)
• And God Said What? An Introduction to Biblical Literary Forms by Margaret Nutting Ralph (Paulist Press, 2003)

The official Catholic position on this issue has been restated several times since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. Pope Paul VI commissioned the biblical study of whom might be ordained; reportedly dissatisfied, he issued his own statement through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: the Declaration on the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood (Inter Insigniores) (1976).

Pope John Paul II wrote several apostolic letters on the subject, the last in 1994, To the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis). Here you find a summary of the traditional argument. Fundamentally it is not admissible to ordain women because: 1. The example of Christ was to choose only men; 2. the constant practice of the church has imitated Christ; 3. the constant teaching authority that excludes women is in accordance with God’s plan for the church. While the church recognizes “the greatness of the mission” to which women are called, “of capital importance” for the “renewal and humanization of society,” the pope concludes: “I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.”

Scripture (cited by church documents)
• Mark 3:13-19; Matthew 10:1-4; Luke 6:12-16; 1 Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9

Books
• The Catholic Priesthood and Women: A Guide to the Teaching of the Church by Sara Butler, M.S.B.T. (Hillenbrand Books, 2006)
• Woman at the Altar: The Ordination of Women in the Roman Catholic Church by Lavinia Byrne (Continuum, 1999)

“Do this in memory of me,” Jesus told his disciples—but he never told them exactly how to do it liturgically. The rituals of our Eucharist have been in flux ever since. The history of the Mass is one of nearly continual evolution.

Why does just about every generation make changes? To serve the community of faith. Some developments are fundamental, as when the Greek liturgy shifted into Latin in the 4th century, leaving only the Kyrie behind; Latin had become the language of the marketplace. The Mass entered the vernacular in 1970, acknowledging that a dead language might not be the best choice for a living celebration. Those offended by the appearance of guitars (a vehicle for rock music!) in church in the 1960s should be reminded that others were similarly horrified when the organ first entered the building in the 700s, replacing stringed instruments. Organs had previously had a vulgar association with gladiatorial combat.

Some changes simplify: The expert advisors at the Second Vatican Council eliminated repetitious gestures and prayers. Other changes clarify: Host and chalice were elevated in the 13th century to emphasize the consecration. Customs change: We no longer bless oil, cheese, and olives after the Eucharistic Prayer as they did in the 3rd century. For most of church history the community handed over food and livestock at the offering; by the 12th century they were encouraged to bring money.

Parts of the Mass predate Christianity: singing psalms, swinging incense, and the use of “Amen,” “Alleluia,” and “Let us pray” are rooted in Jewish prayer. By the 2nd century, scripture, the homily, and petitions of the people were standard. Yet the homily disappeared by the 8th century, as did the Prayer of the Faithful by the 1500s. While the Kyrie, Gloria, Creed, Eucharistic Prayer, and many dialogues (like “The Lord be with you” and “Lift up your hearts”) were in place by the 4th century, other familiar elements like praying for the dead weren’t regular until the 8th century. Kneeling for the Eucharistic Prayer started in the 13th century. Before Vatican II, only 1 percent of the Old Testament and 17 percent of the New were heard at Mass. Now 14 percent of the Old and 71 percent of the New Testament are proclaimed.

Scripture
• Mark 14:22-26; Matthew 26:26-30; Luke 22:14-20; Acts 2:42-47; 1 Corinthians 12:23-26; Colossians 3:16-17; 1 Timothy 2:1-4; Hebrews 9:11-28

Online
• Resources on the new Roman Missal

Books
• At the Supper of the Lamb: A Pastoral and Theological Commentary on the Mass by Paul Turner (Liturgy Training Publications, 2011)
• From Age to Age: How Christians Have Celebrated the Eucharist by Edward Foley (Liturgical Press, 2008)

"There are so many communities to choose from. How can I know which ones to look at?" —Josephine L.

Discerning religious life is one thing—deciding with which community to live that calling can be quite another! In the United States alone there are over 400 religious communities of women! It can be confusing, but there is a way through it.

Sometimes the call to religious life and a particular community are one and the same. Very early in my discernment, for example, I knew that the Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters were for me. As I spent time with them I knew I was “home” and that my vocation was as much to I.H.M. as it was to religious life. Other people feel a call to religious life and then further along in their discernment they begin to consider within which community that call will become incarnate.

Here’s a bit of an analogy to consider. Think about what it’s like when a person wants to get married. Do they need to check every available potential spouse? Thankfully, no! What do they do? They get to know people, befriend them, and sooner or later they hit it off with someone and that may be the beginning of a life-long commitment.

In religious life it is a similar situation because you need to be in relationship with sisters, or brothers for men discerning a vocation, in order to know what they are like and see if there’s a good connection. You can certainly read about them online and in brochures, but to truly know a community you have to know the members. You need to develop real relationships with them as individuals and as a community. You need to immerse yourself in their life and spirituality and at the same time open your life to them.

What are some things you might look for in finding a congregation that fits? First and foremost it is important that the community have a healthy sense of Catholic faith, community, ministry, and spirituality. These will be expressed and emphasized in many different ways, but that they are there is essential.

On a more personal level, take a look at how the community resonates with you. Does the community feel like “home” to you? Can you be fully yourself when you are with the community and as you envision your life with them? Do your values sync up with theirs? Do you feel a sense of joy, of “lightness” when you are with them? These are all questions to carry with you as you are with sisters or brothers, as you pray and discern, and as you talk with spiritual mentors and trusted friends.

My prayers are with you as you deepen your connections with God and with sisters.

Editor’s note: Another good way to sort through all the community possibilities is to take the VISION VocationNetwork Match!

Yes. Church teaching about Purgatory was made official as early as the 15th-century Council of Florence and endorsed again at the Council of Trent (1545-1563). Here’s the gist of it: “Purgation” is not a punishment. It’s an option granted by God’s mercy for which we should be very grateful. Occurring after death and before heaven (not between heaven and hell—purgation’s only available to those guaranteed salvation), it’s a “condition” more than a “place” in which the soul is prepared for the perfection of God’s presence.

This teaching emerges from long tradition based on several scriptural ideas. First, Jesus named blasphemy against the Holy Spirit an unpardonable sin “both in this age and in the age to come.” That presupposes there is an age to come in which other sins might be forgiven. Second, the biblical practice of praying for the dead indicates that the fate of “those who go before us” can be influenced to their advantage. Other passages speak to the possibility of making reparation for the sins of others through good works. Taken together these ideas framed the church’s understanding of a time of purgation for those who need it due to their own lack of readiness for the total experience of perfect divine love.

The Council of Florence noted that the church is composed of three kinds of citizens: “wayfaring pilgrims” (the living); those who have died and are being purified; and those who are “in glory” with the Triune God. The glorified ones or saints intercede for the good of the pilgrim church on earth. In the same way we pilgrims can intercede for those in Purgatory for their good. It’s a sort of economy of grace that flows from one member to another.

Members of the pilgrim church are in a position to make choices about their fate; citizens of Purgatory, having passed beyond volition and not yet one with the will of God, can do nothing for themselves. Their passivity makes them vulnerable in their need, which is why God offers the remarkable gift of purgation to remove whatever obstacle remains to receiving the vision of eternal beauty ahead. The mystic Saint Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510), sensing herself united to the experience of souls in Purgatory for a time, wrote movingly of how the “joyful souls” would choose purgation 1,000 times over, knowing it will deliver them to God’s embrace. That our prayers might speed them to this joyful union is a tremendous idea.

Scripture
• 2 Maccabees 12:46; Job 1:5; Matthew 12:31; 1 Corinthians 3:15; 1 Peter 1:7

Online
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 1030-1032
• The Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium), nos. 49-50

Books
• Fire of Love! Understanding Purgatory by Saint Catherine of Genoa (Sophia Institute Press, 1996)
• Purgation and Purgatory: The Spiritual Dialogue by Saint Catherine of Genoa (Paulist Press, 1979)

If you were to put this question to a church scholar, the weight of centuries of writings by popes and councils, saints and church doctors would fall on your head. Happily you’re asking a humble catechist. So let me say the most persuasive argument for me comes by way of Saint Ephrem, a songwriter of 4th-century Syria, who penned a little tune about the Eucharist:

“He called the bread his living body
and he filled it with himself and his Spirit.
He who eats it with faith,
eats Fire and Spirit.”

As we share in the Mass regularly we become “fire-eaters” by Ephrem’s standards. When Jesus said “do this in memory of me,” he didn’t ask to be remembered in a sentimental way. The Eucharist isn’t a locket to wear around our necks. We become what we eat. We participate in the life of Christ, Body and Blood, Spirit and Fire! In a cold, cruel world, why visit the fire now and then when you can become the fire and bring its warmth and light to everyone you meet?

But we don’t become fire-eaters simply by showing up. The Second Vatican Council, in its document the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, states the matter with all due urgency: “Mother Church earnestly desires that all the faithful should be led to that fully conscious and active participation in liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy. Such participation by the Christian people as ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a redeemed people’ . . . is their right and duty by reason of their baptism” (no.14). Full, conscious, and active participation involves more than singing, praying responses, and receiving communion. It requires an ever-deepening understanding of the mystery we’re entering. Like any relationship, you don’t get that on the first date or by fading on and off the scene.

Our celebration fosters genuine relationship since “it is Christ who speaks” in the scripture proclaimed at Mass, Pope John Paul reminds us in his apostolic letter Dies Domini (no. 39). In his encyclical letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia he also writes: "The church was born of the Paschal Mystery. For this very reason the Eucharist . . . stands at the centre of the church's life" (no. 3). It also has a cosmic dimension: “Because even when it is celebrated on the humble altar of a country church, the Eucharist is always in some way celebrated on the altar of the world" (no. 8). Don’t miss it.

Scripture

• Matthew 26:26-30; Mark 14:22-26; Luke 22:14-20; John 6:34-35; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Hebrews 9:11-28; 1 Peter 2:9; cf. 2:4-5

Online
• Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium)

Books
• Eucharist by Father Robert Barron (Orbis Books, 2008)
• The Eucharist and the Hunger of the World by Monika K. Hellwig (Sheed and Ward, 1992)

The rosary is a method of prayer, not a mandate. It doesn’t hold the weight of a precept of the church, like the one that obliges Catholics to gather for Mass each Sunday. Like the Stations of the Cross, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, or daily scripture reading, I think of it as an offering of the church: a way to grow closer to God and the divine mysteries.

So what’s to be gained by this particular prayer form? The rosary supplies a healthy appreciation of Mary’s role in Catholic identity: the whole-souled human response to God's invitation that she embodies so beautifully. Mary is the realization of our vocation to “be church.” She is what we must become. Mary shows us how discipleship is done. But she’s not to be confused with a celestial celebrity. She's better than that. She's the one who assures us that saying yes to God, fully and completely, is possible. Her story and her destiny shine a light on human potential in relationship to God. We, too, yearn to become “full of grace.”

The rosary offers a unique view of the gospels through the heart of the woman from Nazareth. Mary was the first to ponder the greatest events of salvation history. Through her eyes, we reflect on these moments of joy, light, sorrow, and glory and learn to appreciate life’s sacred dimensions. Birth and death, joy and grief, expectation and loss are not only details of our humanity but mysteries connected to sin and grace. We reclaim all the hours of our experience as holy when we pass these simple beads through our hands.

The rosary multiplies the avenues of prayer. It's Scripture meditation, petition, song of praise, and instruction in the faith all at once. Pope Pius XII called it a "compendium of the entire gospel" presented in jewel-like cameos. Blessed John Henry Newman declared that the rosary provides us with a way of "holding in our hands all that we believe." Silence and vocal prayer are the rosary’s alternating energies. If we race through it, we miss the graced encounter that lurks between the beads. Pope John Paul II declared that a "rosary personality" is a witness against violence, injustice, arrogance, and intolerance in any form. In which case we might hope more folks will take up the practice of the rosary.

Scripture
• Luke 1:26-55; 2; 9:28-36; 24:1-8
• Matthew 1:18-23; 26:26-30, 36-46; 27:22-26
• John 2:1-12; 19:1-5, 26-30
• Mark 1:1-8, 14-15; 15:20-22
• Acts 1:6-12; 2:1-3

Online rosaries
• comepraytherosary.org/
• virtualrosary.org/

Books
• The Rosary: Mysteries of Joy, Light, Sorrow, and Glory by Alice Camille (ACTA Publications, 2003)
• The Rosary Prayer by Prayer: How and Why We Pray the Christ-Centered Rosary of the Blessed Mother by Mary K. Doyle (ACTA Publications, 2006)

What we call the Saturday evening Mass is technically a “vigil Mass.” Vigil comes from the Latin word to “keep watch.” The prayer candles in church are known as “vigil lights” for the same reason: They symbolically keep watch over our prayer intentions. Christians are “vigilant”—always watching—for the Day of the Lord, a reminder that every Sunday of the year is a little Easter, as the early Fathers of the Church noted.

Holy Saturday night inaugurates “the mother of all vigils” at nightfall with the lighting of the Easter fire and the sharing of the light of Christ from the paschal candle. Darkness is a necessary component of the Easter Vigil because the coming of Christ’s light dispels it. Vigils sprang up before many great feasts of the church, including Christmas, Epiphany, Ascension, Pentecost, the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, and the eight feasts of the apostles, Saint John the Baptist, All Saints, and, curiously, the feast of Saint Lawrence.

The weekly vigil Mass accompanied the liturgical reforms of Vatican II, acknowledging the pastoral needs of workers and others who cannot keep the Sunday obligation. Pope John Paul II noted in 1998: “Because the faithful are obliged to attend Mass unless there is a grave impediment, pastors have the corresponding duty to offer to everyone the real possibility of fulfilling the precept. . . . From a liturgical point of view, in fact, holy days begin with First Vespers. Consequently, the liturgy of what is sometimes called the ‘Vigil Mass’ is in effect the ‘festive’ Mass of Sunday.”

Many ancient cultures perceived a “day” as lasting from sundown to sundown, including our Jewish ancestors. This perspective is recognized in the Creation story, in which “evening came, and morning followed—the first day.” Perhaps from the desire to distinguish between the Hebrew Sabbath on Saturday and the Lord’s Day on Sunday, the Hebrew day is not mentioned in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which notes only the canonical permission to celebrate the vigil Mass (CCC 2180). The permission itself can be found in the 1983 Code of Canon Law, which states that “the precept of participating in the Mass is satisfied by assistance at a Mass which is celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite either on the holy day or on the evening of the preceding day” (canon 1248). This canon gives the most direct answer to “why” by legitimating the practice. The rationale of “why” is justified by the primacy of the Easter Vigil in our liturgical life.

Scripture
• Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31

Online
• Dies Domini, "On Keeping the Lord's Day Holy," Apostolic Letter of Pope John Paul II, 1998

Handout
• The Lord's Day: Reflections on Dies Domini by Bill Huebsch (Twenty-Third Publications)

“I feel called to be a sister, but I am not yet 18 years old. Should I follow in the footsteps Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (who entered religious life) early, or wait?”

It can be challenging to know what to do with feelings of being called to religious life when you are younger than the typical minimum age requirements to enter a community. What should you do? What is God saying to you? How could this possibly be for real?

You are not alone in feeling this way, and there is no doubt in my mind that God is calling you into deeper relationship. That is very exciting and also probably a bit scary because it can be tough to know what to do, especially because most religious communities require that a candidate for membership be at least 18 years old—and it’s also tough when your friends and classmates might not be thinking the same thing!

I am glad to hear that you are a friend of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. She is a very good companion for you during this time because she herself desired to become a Carmelite nun even though she was too young to formally enter. But Thérèse did not take “too young” as the end of the story. She followed through on the calling she felt. Writes Father James Martin, S.J. on the blog In All Things in honor of the feast day of Thérèse:

“Faced with the sad prospect of having to wait until the age of 16 to enter the monastery, an adolescent Thérèse travels to Rome with her father to petition the pope for a special dispensation to enter earlier. Her request is granted a few months later by the local bishop, and Thérèse enters the ‘Carmel’ on April 9, 1888, at age 15.”

What is important is not necessarily how Thérèse followed through on her calling but that she followed through. As we follow in the footsteps of Thérèse and other saints, we are called to take their stories to heart and prayerfully consider how their stories can illuminate our own. One of the biggest messages in Thérèse’s story is that she didn’t give up even though others would say it was impossible or foolish or childish of her to think she could be called to become a nun.

So what are some steps that you can take in order to be faithful to the calling you feel? You don’t have to petition the pope to get moving on responding to God’s call! Here are a few resources to help get you going:

• “Four steps to hearing your call” by Sister Anita Louise Lowe, O.S.B.
• “How to become a Catholic nun” by A Nun’s Life Ministry
• “Nine ways to open up God's will for you” by Father Michael Scanlan, T.O.R

So keep on the path of Saint Thérèse by pursuing your calling, praying, seeking counsel from others, and exploring how you can most fully be yourself in God.

The short answer: certainly not all of them. The identity of the composers of the entire Psalter, like most other questions of biblical authorship, is complex and possibly unknowable. Some 73 of the 150 psalms claim David’s authorship; a few of them are more likely to be by the historical king than others, in the view of most scholars. The Book of Psalms we have today is a compilation reflecting generations of liturgical songwriting—much like the centuries-long contributions to the hymnals we use at Mass today.

Let’s start with David. Was he a composer of psalms at all? The Bible tells us he was a shepherd, soldier, lover, and skilled player of stringed instruments. Not every musician writes their own music but in the cycle of stories about David (1 Samuel 16 through 1 Kings 2:11) he does chant a few songs: an elegy on the deaths of his troubled King Saul and friend Jonathan and another for his general Abner. Psalm 18 is also inserted into the text of 2 Samuel and attributed as “sung” by David.

We also know David danced freely and showed great interest in liturgical matters like the return of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and building a suitable Temple for the Lord. It’s conceivable that a man of his talents and interests might have written hymns for ritual use or at least commissioned some to be written. David’s patronage may have been enough to render him the godfather of the Book of Psalms.

Our present Book of Psalms has five divisions: Psalms 1-41; 42-72; 73-89; 90-106; and 107-150. The deliberate way these divisions and their ending doxologies parallel the five books of Moses makes scholars suspect they were imposed later when those books became available after the Babylonian exile; that includes the “footnote” after Psalm 72 that states: “The prayers of David ben Jesse are ended.”

Similarly, subtitles were later added to many psalms linking each one to an event in David’s life: Psalms 3, 7, 18, 34, 51, 52, 56-57, 59, 60, 63, and 142. Scholars view these subheadings as having little historical value. (If you’ve seen ABBA’s Mama Mia! or Across the Universe done with Beatles' tunes, you know that any group of songs can be arranged into a story with a bit of creativity.) Dating the psalms has proven rather hopeless. Psalm 29 may be the oldest, predating the monarchy of Israel. Others may be as late as the post-exilic period 500 years later.

Scripture

• 1 Samuel 16:14-23; 2 Samuel 1:17-27; 3:33-34; 6:14-23; ch. 7; ch. 22; Psalms 1-72 and 89

Online
• “From Lamentation to Jubilation: Praying the Psalms in Daily Life” by Jane Redmont
• “Praying the Psalms” by Lawrence S. Cunningham

Books
• Psalms for Praying: An Invitation to Wholeness by Nan C. Merrill (Continuum, 2007)
• Praying the Psalms: Engaging Scripture and the Life of the Spirit, 2nd ed., by Walter Brueggemann (Cascade Books, 2007)