Helping Those In Need

December means that the Advent Season is now upon us. Advent is a time when Christians prepare for Jesus' birth which we celebrate on December 25. A lot of people use the Advent season as a way to help those in need. Advent is a time for caring and sharing. Many of us will be collecting food or clothing for the homeless or food for the hungry. We will probably hear sermons about love and caring for the less fortunate. It is important to take our faith seriously, love is a verb, it requires action. We just don't love abstractly, we love in concrete ways: a meal, a jacket, some money.

Each day during the Advent season take a few minutes out of your busy day and pray for those in need; pray for the homeless, the hungry, the orphan, or the widow. Pray for those who are jobless and hopeless. Share your love with those who have no love.

Below is a partial list of some well known national charitable organizations. Take some time and look at their websites and see how you can help them. Each of us can share our God given time, talents, and treasures with those who have none.

There is also a national Better Business Bureau register of national charities, you can click here to find that link.

Click on each charity to learn more about them:

Meals on Wheels (provides food for the homebound)

Project Linus (accepts donated blankets for children who are in accidents, hospitals, and care centers)

Salvation Army USA (supports the homeless and poor in local communities)

National Red Cross (helps in times of tragedy)

Florence Crittenton Services (helps teen unwed mother's care for their babies and provides educational services)

Habitat for Humanity (builds homes for those who cannot afford their own home)

National Homelessness Awareness (helps educate people about homelessness and poverty)

What are some of your favorite charities? Leave your list in the comment box along with a link to them and in a few days I will add these to this list.

May we always strive to serve both God and neighbor!

Book Review Thomas Merton: A Life in Letters

I am a big Merton fan. When I was in college I devoured many of his books, especially his spiritual biography The Seven Storey Mountain as well as Contemplative Prayer. Throughout the years many publishers have released various collections of his writings, namely his journals and letters. The Merton Center, hosted at Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY has over 20,000 of Merton's letters, both the letters that Merton wrote as well as the ones that he received from fans or from business associates or friends. This latest paperback edition published by Ave Maria Press is a nice collection of a selection of Merton's letters and is a welcome resource for newcomers to Merton or longtime Merton fans.

This new paperback edition is identical to the hardcover edition published last year by HarperOne and edited by William H. Shannon and Christine M. Bochen. The letters are organized by topics such as: monastic living, the writing life, culture, peace and war, and various letters on the state of the Catholic Church.

The letters reveal not just Merton the longtime Trappist monk, but the human Merton, the Merton who struggles with his faith, the Church, living the solitary life, as well as seeking forgiveness and love in a world in which war and power rules. People are drawn to Merton first and foremost because he was a real person. So much of contemporary spiritual writing is what I called "sugary spirituality" which offers readers pleasant platitudes or cliched spiritual aphorisms which don't offer much. Reading Merton is like sitting down to a three course dinner. When reading the letters we see the ride range of longtime friendships that he maintained such as: Dorothy Day, Catherine de hueck Daughtery, a well as the French Catholic philosopher and writer Jacques Maritaan and his wife Raiisa, as well as poets, writers, and artists. While living a cloistered solitary life far from family and society Merton's letters reveal a person who was very much connected to the world around him. The letters reveal a man who was widely read, not just in Catholic theology but in Orthodox and Protestant theology as well as in art, music, and other world religions. We see Merton struggling with his Abbot James Fox as well as living in a large monastery with all the trials and tribulations of what that type of living presents. We see a man struggling with love and intimacy as well as his own faith in God.

I encourage newbies to Merton's writings to take and read Ave Maria's new paperback edition of A Life in Letters. Those who are diehard Merton fans won't find much new in this book, but they might want a copy to fill the Merton section on their bookshelves.

For more information about Thomas Merton: A Life in Letters click here

For more information about the Thomas Merton Society click here

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

Just wanted to wish everyone a good Turkey Day. I hope your day is peaceful and restful surrounded by family and friends.

On this day I am thankful for:

Family

Friends

Parishioners

Neighbors

A government which provides us freedom and safety

Creation

All those turkey's out there who sacrificed their lives for millions of Americans (I couldn't resist that one!!)

What are you thankful for on this Thanksgiving?????????

Book Review: Come Sunday by Isla Morley

I usually have four to five books sitting by my comfy blue office chair at a time. Depending on the mood that I am in I will read one book, then another, and then hopefully finish at least one during the month! When I saw an advertisement of Come Sunday by Isla Morley (Picador, 2009) in the Fall issue of Poets and Writers Magazine I knew that I had to read this book; and as I thought, I stayed up late to finish it, there was no way I was going to go to bed and not read to the end!

The two main characters, Greg, a Methodist pastor and his wife Abbe live in Hawaii. Abbe is a transplant from South Africa and is working as a freelance writer before meeting her husband to be. They have one child named Cleo who is killed in a car accident.

Needless to say once you start reading you can't stop. Come Sunday is a page turner, we follow Greg and Abbe as they mourn both their dead child and their soon to be dead marriage. Greg eventually takes a parish in Fresno, CA, leaving his parish, house, and wife behind. We follow Abbe as she visits her native Paarl South Africa where she deals with her difficult past, her alcoholic father and battered mother. We see the racial divide of South Africa as well as the sheer stark beauty.

Morley is truly a wordsmith. The writing is gorgeous and the sentences are crisp, there are no cliches in this book! Likewise the story revolves around the liturgical year beginning on Good Friday and ending on the Feast of Ascension a year later. This structure provides ample meaning as the turns of events hinge on certain feast days in the Church, drawing from their theology and context.

Come Sunday was not an easy read. Many times I caught myself getting mad at Morley because I didn't like the way the plot was turning. Of course this is my problem not Morley's! I wanted a certain character to act a certain way and others to get revenge for what was done to them. I wanted more forgiveness and less hurt.I wanted the book to end a different way too, but again this shows you how good Morley is, she leads you to places that you won't expect.

Come Sunday is also a theodicy asking deep questions about the existence of God and why there is evil in this world. Morley delves deep into Greg's vocation as a pastor and the "Church" people in his parish who don't always act in a Christian fashion. As a pastor I laughed at certain parts as Morley described some people to a "t" with their particular affections and mannerisms, people whom I have known over the years.

Do yourself a favor, go out and buy a copy of Come Sunday, do it now and find yourself lost in a book that delights mind, heart, and spirit.

For more information about Isla Morely and Come Sunday click here

Advent begins for Eastern Christians

For those of us in the Eastern Church (Orthodox and Byzantine Catholics) Advent, the lenten period before Christmas has started. There is a slight difference between the Advent season in East and West, Western Christians usually have four Sunday's of Advent, in the East we have a forty day period beginning November 15.

Wishing everyone a good Advent season this year.

What do you plan to do this Advent to prepare yourself for the birth of Jesus?

1. Support your local food pantry by donating canned food items?

2. Skipping a meal during the week or maybe cutting food consumption overall, as in, eating less at every meal?

3. Read the birth story of Jesus in Matthew chapter 1-2 and Luke 2?

4. Purchasing a few gifts for children in your local community?

There are a lot of ways that you can serve your neighbor!!!

For more information about the Christmas icon click here

For more information about Advent in the Eastern Church click here

Book Review: Defending Constantine

It has taken a while but we finally have a book that presents the Emperor Constantine in a more objective light than what we usually get: an evil secular/worldly emperor who co-opted the Church and imported the Church-state problem to the rest of the world! Or as Leithart says in the introduction, Constantine has been called an anti-Semite, heretic, and a hypocrite. Constantine has been blamed for a lot of things and now with the diligent work and research of Prof. Peter J. Leithart we have a new take on this important figure in Church History.

Leithart is a senior fellow at St. Andrews College in Moscow Idaho and serves as the pastor of Trinity Reformed Church in Moscow. He is also the author of Deep Exegesis: The Mystery of Reading Scripture.

Defending Constantine must have been a labor of love. Well researched with copious notes and references, clean crisp prose, and a good storyteller, Leithart brings Constantine to life for his modern readers, placing him in his cultural, social, and religious context. People generally refer to Constantine as a power hungry emperor who called the First Ecumenical at Nicea and eventually accepted Jesus Christ, reluctantly of course, on his deathbed. Not so says Leithart. Constantine was truly interested in theological matters and took much time to reflect upon the work of Nicea and the immediate aftermath. He was concerned about the future of the Church and the rise of heretical teachings.

In fourteen chapter Leithart goes through the evidence, parsing the great historians Eusebius and others showing us what Constantine actually was like and the legacy that he left behind. One major theme woven throughout the text is the relationship between Church and State, and the political impact of ones theology.

Defending Constantine is not a quick read. One has to read slowly, taking in all of the evidence and lengthy argument which Leithart presents. Defending Constantine is a book that I wish I had in seminary, it would have made Church History courses a lot easier! I hope that seminary students read Defending Constantine, not only will it make their life easier, it will certainly give them an alternative view of Constantine and his life.

If you are interested in Church History in general or the Emperor Constantine in general go out and get yourself a copy of Defending Constantine, it will fill your historical and theological appetite!

For more information about Peter Leithart and Defending Constantine click here

To view Peter Leithart's personal website click here

Book Review: Compassionate Fire

My mother always told me that great things come in small packages. I have to agree with that statement, especially regarding the recent publication of the letters between Catherine de Hueck Doherty and Thomas Merton called Compassionate Fire: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Catherine de Hueck Doherty (Ave Maria Press, 2010). The book is only about 110 pages, you could easily read it in one sitting. However, don't let this small volume fool you, it contains a lifetime of "food for thought" on the Christian journey.

Much could be said about either of these two people and much has been written by them and about them too. Needless to say Ave Maria Press wanted to share some of the more personal and intimate lives with readers who are seeking truth and some guidance in the spiritual journey. Both Merton and Doherty struggled with their inner demons and temptations, after all who doesn't? Doherty started work setting up her Madonna House and Friendship House in Harlem as a way to live with the mostly African American community there which was poor, hungry, and often left without much assistance. Doherty received support from her longtime friend Dorothy Day who also corresponded with Doherty as well after Doherty moved to Canada.

Merton of course struggled as a monk. As a Trappist he took a vow of silence yet was encouraged to write, an ironic fact in his life that this "silent monk" as Doherty says was called to write volumes about life in God. Merton fought with his superiors and the Vatican censors as well as his own temptations as well. It is also ironic that Brother Louis as he was called in the monastery was buried next to the Abbot Fox in the Gethsameni Monastery cemetery.

The letters are not profound, the reader will not learn anything "new" in them. What you will find are two Christian pilgrims seeking some way towards clarity and integrity in corrupt Church and world. Yes, both Merton and Doherty struggled with the human side of the Church, Merton with his censors and Abbot General and Doherty with the Vatican. Many times she applied for her Madonna House to be a full Apostolate and was turned down. She never gave up. The letters reveal the joys and sorrows, the troubles and tribulations of living a life in community.

Go and read Compassionate Fire, you won't be disappointed.

For more information about Compassionate Fire click here

For more information about Thomas Merton click here

For more information about Catherine de Hueck Doherty click here