Seasons Are Changing

I never realized until this year how much the cycles of the Church have gotten into my blood and become the cycles of my life.

When at college, especially during the past two years, I immersed myself in CCM. As Liturgy coordinator and then as Spiritual Life coordinator, I followed the liturgical seasons closely. Feast days were exciting; Holy Days of Obligation a big deal. The changing of liturgical seasons had more significance on my life than the changing of spring to summer, fall to winter. But only this year, taken away from that world, am I far enough away to remember that this is not how the world works.

We are entering the shortest season of the Church year, the three day Triduum. Not only the shortest, but the highest, most holy time of the year. And I am used to the world standing still -- or being able to make my world stand still, creating my own retreat from the world into sacred time.

Instead, school lets out for three days. The atmosphere, rather than contemplative and anticipatory, penitent and prayerful, is celebratory -- we have freedom! Go on vacation! I understand it. We are out of school for only 3 extra days; there is no time to relax after Easter, and we are in need of a break. Still, I don't feel right unless I follow the cycles that are now a part of my blood -- which means the next three days are sacred time.

Simple Living

We don't make much money here. So we have simple fun. Take for example to entertainment of this evening.

After prayer this evening (we eat and pray together 3 times a week), the six of us were sitting out on the porch when someone asked, "How adventurous are you feeling tonight?" I hedged until I figured out why I was being asked this question. Apparently, I appear a convenient size to try an experiment : "Will you climb down the laundry chute?"

I stumbled out a few questions before we trooped inside to examine the chute. It goes from the second floor down to the basement, but Mee-Maw and Triss had already determined that I should drop from the first floor down. Which was a good idea; I have the feeling the second floor would have been dangerous.

I stuck my head into the metal passage and peered up and down at roommates at the top and bottom of the chute. The bottom seemed far away until Em opened up the bottom door. Then it appeared about a 7 or 8 foot drop. I determined that the distance was reasonable. Mee-Maw and Triss offered a bean-bag to cushion my fall, but it looked like it would block me in, so we used just a sheet.

Getting in was the hardest part. I (obviously) wanted to go in feet first. I wanted to be facing outside, but my knees had to bend for the angles to work to get my legs in -- the laundry chute is large enough for me to manipulate in a bit, but I don't have a whole lot of wiggle room. Eventually, I stuck my legs and hips in, then wiggled my way, leaning heavily on Triss and Ana, so that I had completely flipped upside down. At this point, I was half in the laundry chute with my torso sticking out, facing down. I scooted backwards in all the way -- I was in the laundry chute!

I braced myself against the four walls and shimmied down. Having worked out the angles of knees, hips, and laundry chutes up top, the getting out was a cinch!

Of course, that could not be the end of our adventures. Mee-Maw proceeded to climb up the chute, with the help of a sheet being dangled by Ana from the first floor.

On Brides, Prostitutes, and Chapel Veils

Recap : God wants to marry each of us! It is the command He gave to Hosea in the book that bears the prophet's name : to go marry the prostitute. We are prostitutes when we give ourselves to lovers other than God, to people, things, idols that will not bring us fulfillment. According to Hosea, God is a wild lover. We sin when we give ourselves to less wild lovers than our God.

The Song of Songs too shows the ardor with which God longs for us. Christopher West called the Annunciation the "New Song of Songs." It is "God's marriage proposal to humanity." It resulted in a "yes," from Mary and new life -- just as human marriage does. I love the implication this image has for the Rosary. Not only does it repeat an angel's words, honor Mary, and meditate on the Mysteries, but it repeats the manner and method of our salvation. It repeats God's proposal to us, His willingness to become man to marry us. We are like children, telling again and again the story of how our parents met, loving their love.

The Apostles experienced the same kind of union at Pentecost when they too were "overshadowed" by the Holy Spirit. We experience the marriage at the Eucharist.

Which means, incidentally, that we approach the altar for communion as a bride, prepared to conceive eternal life. As a bride! I don't want to spend too much blog space on the topic of women veiling themselves at church, but I love the relationship here. We come forward as brides... we are the bride of Christ. In modern times, the main place I find veils in Christianity is the head of a bride. In this way, wearing a veil can be a sign of my offering myself (as a layperson) as the spouse of Christ.

"Open Your Mouth and I Will Fill It"

As I continue with Christopher West's Theology of the Body talks (yeah, I know it's been a while), here's a summary of what I've written so far:

1) The human person is the inseparable union (marriage) of body and spirit.
2) The modern world teaches false focus on our sexuality, but agents of the Catholic Church often offer a false negative message about our sexuality.
3) The body has a sacramental meaning : it images the invisible God.

From here Christopher West offered this question and answer : What does this image of God upon our bodies mean? It shows the "innermost secret of God: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange."

Our hearts long, ache, pine for love. Modern culture and our own experiences speak to this truth. Chick-flicks, love songs, college hook-ups, online dating services, the omnipresence of romance -- all these demonstrate our human longing for love. This longing comes from the fact that we were made for and from God's infinite love.

We have three ways in which we can respond to this longing:
1) Become an addict. We indulge in every way to fill this hole inside us, using the venues the world offers us, venues that will never quite satisfy us, but which we cannot let go.
2) Become a stoic. We ignore the longings, squash them, try to pretend there is no hole, because it is so hard to fill.
3) Become a mystic. We seek God to fill this hole. We know that it will never be completely filled in this life, but we wed ourselves as closely as possible to our Lord, because He is the only thing that can fill it.

Most of the time, we respond in a combination of these three ways at various points in our life. Sin enters in following path 1 or path 2, when we go to something finite to try to fill a desire for the infinite. We can be seeking something good when we sin; the sin comes from choosing something good over something holy.

When we choose the road of the mystic, we enter into relationship with God. And through Scripture, we can discover the shape of this relationship. God reveals His mystery to us through a spousal analogy -- through His marriage to each of us. The analogy of marriage is the most common analogy in the Bible, according to Christopher. Importantly, marriage bookends the Bible. "In the beginning," God created Adam and Eve, the first, archetypal marriage. In Revelation, He shows to John a new marriage, one of Christ and the Church. The new Adam and the New Eve. Because we are all part of the Church which is the Body of Christ, through the Cross and (for Catholics) through the Eucharist, we are all "called to nuptial union with God."

In other words, God wants to marry each of us. The Old Testament describes this longing -- have you ever read Hosea or the Song of Solomon? If not, please do. Both unfold God's urgent longing, his unceasing desire for each of us. And then, in the New Testament, God fulfills the Old Testament -- He fulfills His desire for us, but taking on flesh and coming to the world as a bridegroom in pursuit of His bride.

Ultimately, He gave Himself in every way possible to His bride, His Church, in the Eucharist and in the Cross. Christopher West gave an exegesis of the passage from Ephesians 5 :

'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' This is a great mystery and I mean in reference to Christ and the church.

In reference to Christ and the Church, Christ (man) left first his Father (in heaven, during the incarnation) and his mother (Mary, on earth, first at his death, then at his Ascension) and was joined to his wife (the Church) and the two became one flesh (the Eucharist). Wow!

Madamoiselles

The Daughters of Charity were founded by a contemporary and colleague of St. Vincent de Paul, St. Louise de Marillac. Louise was the illegitimate daughter of a rich father. So while she possessed money, she did not possess the same social position that she could have. She never got the title of "Madame," but was "Mademoiselle," even after marriage. She funded many of the projects on which she and Vincent embarked and helped garner support from affluent communities. As a result, I refer to charitable wealthy people as "Mademoiselles."

I had the privilege of meeting some of them and hearing Archbishop Carlson address an audience earlier this week. A scholarship foundation had a gala, and when two of the guests our assistant principal was bringing cancelled at the last minute, Ana and I got invites. We hurried home from school Tuesday to change into pretty dresses and heels and rushed off like Cinderellas. Like Cinderella, the transformation was temporary and we had to be home early.

When we arrived as the crowd waiting in the receiving room, and the throng of people intimidated me at first... until we found our boss and her mother and a few other people we knew from school. Then we cycled upstairs into a dining room, where we ate delicious food and were serenaded by school children.

I've met more donors and financial backers this year than I had expected coming into the school. They have all sorts of personalities, kind of like the population in general. It can be hard dealing with the self-satisfied and self-righteous -- but then you end up with people like those we met Tuesday. They possess both material wealth and a desire to give. It overflows into charities such as this foundation; but it overflows into the children and parents from a desire to help the children and the parents. Every now and then, that's good to see.

On a more selfish note, I found it refreshing to hear people appreciate what we do. Ana and I got a lot of questions, since we were less than half the average age of guests. So we explained that we volunteer full-time as part of an organization, etc. etc. And people cared! They were impressed! The glam of the year has started to rub off, and it felt good to see it return, if only for an evening.

Dear Reader

Dear Reader(s),

If you read regularly, you may have noticed the layout and general appearance of the blog transforming. I've been working to find one that feels right... which apparently takes effort. Hopefully, this one will stay for a while, but if not, please be patient until I settle on one. Blogger just added more options for layout and background, so I might flit around a little more.

~Beth