feminine-genius

Sunday Snippets

Welcome carnival visitors. For those who meandered in from other paths, please enjoy the thoughtful ideas (and beautiful foliage!) at This That and The Other. Have a blessed Sunday!

A most delightful story

Few know that the Anglican Church has nuns, and now they have ten fewer than before:

After seven years of prayer and discernment, a community of Episcopal nuns and their chaplain will be received into the Roman Catholic Church during a Sept. 3 Mass celebrated by Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien.

The archbishop will welcome 10 sisters from the Society of All Saints’ Sisters of the Poor when he administers the sacrament of confirmation and the sisters renew their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in the chapel of their Catonsville convent.

Episcopal Father Warren Tanghe will also be received into the church and is discerning the possibility of becoming a Catholic priest. 

“For us, this is a journey of confirmation,” Mother Christina said. “We felt God was leading us in this direction for a long time.”

When they say a long time, they mean it, for their discernment was the result of tremendous systematic study and investigation:

Mother Christina Christie, superior of the religious community, said the sisters are “very excited” about joining the Catholic Church and have been closely studying the church’s teachings for years... Members of the community range in age from 59 to 94.

Before deciding to enter the Catholic Church, the sisters had explored Episcopal splinter groups and other Christian denominations. Mother Christina noted that the sisters had independently contemplated joining the Catholic Church without the others knowing. When they found out that most of them were considering the same move, they took it as a sign from God and reached out to Archbishop O’Brien.

“This is very much the work of the Holy Spirit,” Mother Christina said.

It is quite fascinating that their faith hasn't changed over the decades (except their understanding of papal infallibility, which was more of a misunderstanding, most likely). They have consistently held to a faith that is substantively Catholic while living in a religious body that has slid out from under them. Heroically, they thought they could hold the line, but eventually the scandal of what their hierarchy was doing undermined their own work and confused the wider world about their mission.

It came down to the Icon they were called to image. While they were each individually faithful, zealous and industrious witnesses, they couldn't attach themselves unreservedly to their church as the perfect model of bridal fidelity. They discovered that their fidelity, even heroically lived, couldn't pull their church back on track, because the Anglican hierarchy has only the most ephemeral ties to its original identity. Ultimately, their personal vocations couldn't echo the deeper reality that the Church must be -- unless they were lived within the authentic relationship to the vicar of Christ, whose authority has been entrusted to him by the Bridegroom.

It's lovely that their priest is completing the journey with them and that so many in the Baltimore archdiocese are waiting with open arms (and liturgical accomodations). God is patient, because He is the perfect Lover. Welcome home, dears!

Behold the trapeze artist!

Not really, but I've joined the entertaining Carnival hosted here. I recommend the sites for leisurely Sunday reading, and we should rejoice in our ability to share the faith in this nouveau way.

This is a highwire act that operates with a Net (hoot). Cheers! 

Here's a sweetie

I previously mentioned that I bounced up to Toronto to be interviewed by Salt and Light television. Below is a picture that includes the fine young woman who is preparing the piece on "the feminine genius" (should be ready by the end of July). She's on loan just for a few months, then heads back to Australia.

Such good things are happening in the Church -- often below the radar. Remember that as you fumble your way through the darkness that is our present culture. This too shall pass (one way or another!)

[Sweet Therese is second from the right.]

A remarkable interview

Jennifer at Conversion Diary offers an interview with a couple who have been entrusted with a very special daughter, Sunni. Honest. Penetrating. A stark and humbling witness to the beauty of life.

New endeavor

I'd like to draw your attention to a new endeavor by an excellent woman, Marguerite Peeters. Dialogue Dynamics is an effort to save local communities from the global "ethic" that seems to be swamping them. Marguerite has long been doing the yeoman's work of tracking global trends, especially where they undermine the family and dignity of life. Please give it a look.

Another beautiful voice

NPR has done a wonderful story on Emily, who chants in the choir at the Holy Cross Antiochian Orthodox Church in Linthicum, MD. her voice is lovely, her spirit infectious, and the services intriguing. I know that these Orthodox churches are not in union with Rome (at present) but they have all the sacraments and a mystical quality that would augment our own liturgies when one day the two "lungs" breathe together -- God willing, soon!

So he who sings well puts his soul in tune, correcting by degrees its faulty rhythm, so that at last, being truly natural and integrated, it has fear of nothing, but in peaceful freedom from all vain imaginings may apply itself with greater longing to the good things to come. For a soul rightly ordered by chanting the sacred word forgets its own afflictions and contemplates with joy the things of Christ alone. —St. Athanasius, The Letter of St. Athanasius to Marcellinus on the Interpretation of Psalms.

I must admit that, aesthetically speaking, I'm far more drawn to Byzantine chant than Gregorian, due to the combination of the proximity of the culture to that of Christ Himself and the ability to understand it when chanted in English.(I pray it's not simply the "novelty" that makes the words fresher, but the prayer on which the construction of the chants rests:

The poet-musicians of the Church were people of exemplary faithfulness: St. Romanos, St. Ephraim, St. Kosmas, and St. John of Damascus are some notable examples. Their words were inextricably bound up with the music they were set to (and visa-versa), and were carefully chosen not only to be grammatically and aesthetically sound, but theologically precise as well.

Modern orthodox composers who would translate and transpose Orthodox hymnology must be part musician, part poet, and part theologian in order to do justice to the works of Orthodox hymnographers. Strictly academic translation of hymns is not sufficient for Orthodox worship.

Interestingly, the same prayer foundation is at the heart of writing icons. Everything matters in the life of an artist.

A blessed Triduum to these brothers and sisters in Christ, and a happy Easter!

An honourable soul

I cannot reprint any portion of this essay (if the caution at the end is to be believed) but I want all of you to consider what it says about the sensational Susan Boyle. I get choked up just thinking about her performance, and yet this author reminds us of the nobility of her character that has nothing to do with her singing. Too good to miss!

Pantry issues

Mary Kochan is almost finished her series on pantries.

Part One, Two and Three. Get organised for Eastertide!

Tell your girls to be patient

If you're called to marriage, he'll be out there -- somewhere. Don't settle for less, dear ones, as this story of Christina Welykyl indicates:

What time she had for dating was further restrained by the demands of caring for her father, Mychajlo Welykyj, a widower and a Ukrainian immigrant with Parkinson’s disease. “It was just work, work, work,” she said of that time in the mid-1990s. Then it was off to the Bronx to care for father. “I’d go home and there was no one to take care of me,” she said.

As she crossed alone into her 40s, she made a conscious decision to remain patient. “You don’t hit the panic button,” she said. “You plug along.”

She [filled] out a faith-based profile on CatholicMatch.com in October 2006, identifying herself as a traditionalist. As she did so, she came to realize just how much her Ukrainian Catholic faith meant to her. “It’s a foundation of my values,” she said.

Weeks later on the site, she came across a posting from Brian Ante, a teacher with a doctorate in educational psychology from the Catholic University of America. His pitch included a photograph of him in a circa 1812 black and red uniform and fur-topped helmet he wore on ceremonial occasions as a part of the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, a private military organization affiliated with the National Guard (firsttroop.com). “I thought, ‘that takes a lot of moxie,’ ” Ms. Welykyj said. “Who’s going to post that on the Internet?

A hand-shake at the close of her first date intrigued her, as did the generosity of Mr Ante. It culminated in a wedding ceremony at Saint George's Ukrainian Catholic Church in Manhattan.

The couple remain patient and hopeful that there will be children in their future, “either by natural childbirth or adoption,” the bride said. And both say that they’re glad they waited for the right person to come along.

A joy delayed is a joy enhanced, to be sure.