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Communio . . . December
28, 2003
To strengthen our shared life in Christ through mutual
participation
and the free exchange of ideas.
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A Big Thanks!
by Joe Pulizzi
As Bill Johansen and I prepared this issue for publication, I
realized how little we really do in the process, and how much YOU the
Community do  in bringing Communio to life. For that, I thank
you. Thanks especially to those of you who contribute to this
publication, whether regularly, or even once.
This past year has been a challenge for both the CSM Communications
Committee and for the Community. I have faith that all of us will
continue to focus on what keeps us together as a loving family.
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As those of you who read Communio on a regular basis know,
we had a some issues that tested the Committee and the Community.
There were a few issues I personally would like to take back – that
in hindsight did not fulfill the vision of what the Community and this
publication strives to be. Thanks to those of you who emailed me words
of support. I learned more about what this community truly stands in
those few minutes when I was close to forgetting what we are all here
to do.
God Bless!
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(Dr. Joseph Foley, Case Western Reserve University
professor emeritus and a world-renowned leader in the field of
neurology, is a member of St. Ann Parish in Cleveland Heights. He
wrote this for his own parish’s publication, The Flame, and
has given us permission to publish it in our Communio as well.
Thanks to Mary Englert for sending this in.)
Have you ever, as you listened to the scriptural readings, tried to
imagine what Jesus looked like and sounded like when he had his
conversations and adventures? The pictures by the artists over the
years are hard to accept.
For one thing, he’s always clean; both his body and his clothing
remain unmarked by what must have been a dusty land then, as it is
now. He spent a great deal of time around the lake in close contact
with fishermen and other working people, so there must have been times
when he got muddy and even smelled of fish.
What were his facial expressions? It’s impossible that he was
always solemn. Surely there were things that made him smile and I hope
there were things that made him laugh out loud. I like to think that
when Peter failed to walk on the water and Jesus rebuked him for a
lack of faith, a sympathetic grin and chuckle went along with the
scolding. He was big for calling people hypocrites; again, I wonder if
he didn’t shake his head and smile at the absurdity of man’s
weaknesses.
Some of the more difficult Gospel passages and parables make more
sense to me if I can conjure up a grinning Jesus who recognized the
improbability of some of his instructive tales, like the master giving
his servants the money to invest or the grape-grower who gave the same
wage no matter how many hours a person worked.
What were his gestures like? In the Middle East, then as now, there
must have been a great deal of talking with the hands. The shrug is
ubiquitous in the Middle East; it can be used to signify all kinds of
things like, “Who knows?” or “Who cares?” or “I don’t want
to talk about it” or even “What a silly question.” It’s easier
for me to see a gesturing Jesus, with changing facial expressions, a
little dirty and unkempt, than a squeaky-clean, single-expression,
humorless, halo-enclosed robot.
When you listen to the readings of Scripture, try seeing sights and
hearing sounds, even smelling smells. For me, it provides a
credibility that enhances faith.
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Loshon Hora
(This adaptation comes from “Loshon Hora,”
originally written for The Plain Dealer, November 26, 2000 by
Karen R. Long.)
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A Cleveland Rabbi, Chaim Feld, began a movement against malicious
speech. “Loshon Hora” is Hebrew for “Negative Speech.” During
Advent, we are summoned to a transformation of ourselves in preparing
for the coming of the Prince of Peace. The Scriptures tell us that if
one does not offend with the tongue, one indeed walks with God.
Consider making the Guidelines for avoiding “Loshon Hora” a
part of your advent observance.
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Rules of Loshon Hora
1. Say only positive statements. Derogatory statements, even if
true, are forbidden.
2. Promote people’s well-being. Any statement that can cause
someone physical, financial, or emotional harm is Loshon Hora.
3. Humor is great; but make sure jokes aren’t at someone else’s
expense.
4. Be kind to yourself. Speaking badly even about yourself is
Loshon Hora.
5. Loshon Hora cannot be communicated in any manner, be it
through writing, body language, or verbal hints.
6. It is Loshon Hora to speak against a community, or to make
harmful remarks about children – even your own.
7. Communicate with your spouse, but not Loshon Hora.
8. It is forbidden to listen to Loshon Hora.
9. Always give people the benefit of the doubt.
10. Loshon Hora is permitted, or even required, when warning a
person about potential harm.
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How often do we make a New Year’s resolution and less than a week
or two later we’re back to the same old, same old. Well, that was me
until years ago I discovered a way to make it work every year like
clockwork. On New Year’s Eve I kneel down by my bed and ask Jesus to
take one thing in my life that he wants me to change and help me
change it during the course of the year. Don’t tell me what it is I
say to Jesus, just change it.
I must say as far as I know, I haven’t broken one New Year’s
resolution yet. Because when you ask Jesus, he will change something
in your life that year. Give it a try!!!!!
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Struggle and Hope
by Cristine Schenk
CSJ
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In early December I reflected on the themes of Sr. Joan Chittister’s
book: Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope. The
second week of December we celebrated two Mary feasts, the Immaculate
Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe. I believe how we celebrate
Mary, the mother of Jesus, may have much to teach us about both
struggle and hope.
Each of these feasts gives us a slightly different picture of Mary.
The Immaculate Conception celebrates a certain purity of soul that was
to be Mary’s as she gave birth to Emmanuel, God with us. By
extension, the feast invites us to prepare our own hearts for the
birth of Jesus in our world and in us.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, on the other hand, celebrates the struggle
of a poor and oppressed Indian people despairing because they believed
God had abandoned them. To the indigenous peoples, the
conquering male God of the Spaniards was incomprehensible. In their
religious understanding, to be perfect as God must be, meant that both
male and female components would be present. They did not understand
how the new male-only God of the Spaniards could really be God...and
therefore felt abandoned and hopeless. It didn’t help that
thousands were also dying of smallpox and other diseases brought by
the Spaniards.
Enter Juan Diego with an image of a compassionate female figure
miraculously imprinted (to this day scientists don’t know how) on
his cloak. He encounters the mysterious Lady of Guadalupe on the
site of an ancient temple, Tepeyec, which was dedicated to the Indian
virgin mother of the Gods. When Juan Diego sees her, he simultaneously
hears beautiful music and sees roses blooming atop the hill, even
though it was December. In the Indian understanding, beautiful things
such as flowers and music are associated with the Sacred.
However this woman was not exactly God as they understood the Deity
to be. To indigenous peoples, the face of God is too sacred to gaze
upon, and so in their worship, God was represented only with special
highly stylized (and not very human looking) masks.
But on Juan Diego’s cloak we don’t see a mask. Instead we
see the gentle dark skinned face of a young woman. She is wearing the
black sash around her waist that Indian women wore when they were
pregnant. The woman speaks to Juan Diego in his native Indian language
and tells him that she is “the mother of the True God through whom
one lives.” Here we see a union of both Spanish and Indian concepts
of the divine. The Spaniards called God the “one true God,” while
the Indians understand God as “the one through whom one lives.”
Because she is portrayed as an Indian herself, Guadalupe can
understand and comfort her people. And she brings them hope. For
the Indians of Mexico, historians tell us, everything changed that
day. Fr. Virgil Elizondo reports that eight million Indians were
baptized in the next ten years. And so it is that the pregnant Mary
becomes a powerful image of the compassionate face of God through whom
the oppressed and struggling could finally live. To this day in
Mexico, Guadalupe represents God’s powerful love and protection of
the people.
Guadalupe is perhaps the quintessential sign of hope coming from
struggle.
Yet, while both the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe
are beautiful feasts to celebrate, they may still disguise from us the
true identity and experience of Mary the peasant woman from Nazareth.
Sr. Elizabeth Johnson’s fine work, Truly Our Sister, helps
us see Mary of Nazareth in her own context and may help us reflect
even more closely on our themes of struggle and hope.
Here are some bare bone historical facts that we can know about
Mary of Nazareth. She was a first century Jewish woman who lived
in peasant village in the non-descript Galilean backwater town of
Nazareth. She was the mother of Jesus, and the circumstances
surrounding the birth of her son were known to be unconventional.
She raised her son in Galilee where Jewish families were becoming
increasingly impoverished because they were losing their ancestral
lands to exorbitant taxation by Rome and its minions among the
religious establishment, such as Herod Antipas. During her lifetime
Mary would have witnessed the terrible suffering of her people. She
saw hunger, homelessness, violence and death by crucifixion at the
hands of political leaders, while their religious leadership not only
did nothing to help them, but levied temple taxes of their own.
Mary did not follow Jesus as a disciple during his ministry in
Palestine but later came to share the faith of the early Christian
community. As Johnson says: ”Mary was the Jewish mother of
Jesus who misunderstood and then believed”. This being said, it
is likely that at least some of Jesus’ profound understanding of God’s
power to save came from his Jewish mother who taught him about the
liberating Exodus God of the Hebrew Scriptures.
While these understandings of the “Mary of history” are not
exactly the more exalted ones we are accustomed to hearing, they open
new ways of conveying the “good news” for present day women and
men.
For example, Mary can now be understood as someone very much like
us who struggled both in her material life and in her spiritual life.
We can now reflect upon her as a “marginalized woman”... an
“unwed mother”,... a “refugee woman with child”... “a mother
of a political prisoner”... ”a widowed single mother”...
”the mother of an executed criminal” and other similar
titles often used in contemporary litanies.
Surely, someone who knew moments of desperate struggle and
suffering in her own life is in the best position to help us find hope
in the midst of ours. I think it no accident that Luke’s
infancy narrative places the Magnificat in the mouth of Mary.
Sometimes suffering, internal struggle and unjust structures
whether in society or in the church, cannot be healed without first
confronting, as Mary did, the religious thinking that believes the
status quo is the design of God.
And herein is precisely the hope underpinning both our struggle and
Mary’s. The woman from Nazareth can proclaim radical Magnificat hope
precisely because she is poor and needy.
Perhaps being poor and powerless in the midst of struggle isn’t
always the worst place to be. Could it be that it is only from this
place that we truly recognize whose power it is that “casts the
mighty from their thrones and raises up the lowly?.”
The source of our hope then isn’t in ourselves, or even in
the fact that we struggle. The source of our hope is in the compassion
and saving power of the “True God Through Whom We Live.”
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Values Expressed in the General Instruction of the
Roman Missal
by Fr. Tony
Schuerger
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As we implement The General Instruction of the Roman Missal
(generally abbreviated “GIRM”), some have been tempted to dismiss
the changes as “mere rubrics” (i.e. rules) for celebrating
Mass. This classifies rubrics as belonging to the category of
“policies and procedures” for doing something. Our pragmatic
American culture views “policies and procedures” as something
arbitrary which can be evaluated for their efficiency and usefulness
(or lack thereof) or even whether or not they “work for me.”
However, thinking about rubrics in this way reveals a limited
understanding of the nature and purpose of the liturgy.
Liturgy is a ritual activity and ritual activity is
meaningful activity. In ritual, even gestures or actions done for
practical reasons without a specific ritual meaning often are assigned
meaning over time. One example at Mass is the pouring of water into
the wine. Originally, it was a common custom of Mediterranean people
to “cut” their wine with some water. Priests from these countries
very naturally continued this practice at Mass. Over time, it was
given symbolic meaning: the wine symbolized Jesus, the water
ourselves. Ultimately a prayer was added: “Through the mystery of
this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ
who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” What was a practice
of daily life became a meaningful activity in the context of the
ritual of the Mass.
Ritual activity communicates meaning in its actions and gestures. A
famous example is the Japanese Tea Ceremony. Everything that happens
at the Tea Ceremony is done very deliberately in a formal, stylized
manner. Each action, each gesture is traditional, and vested with
great meaning. It is the formal, repeated, meaningful actions and
gestures of the Tea Ceremony that make it such a rich experience for
those who participate and such a rich encounter with traditional
Japanese culture. In the same way, because the liturgy is a ritual,
the General Instruction of the Roman Missal seeks to embody or
express certain meanings or values.
The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy states the primary
value for anything done as part of the liturgical renewal: “It is
very much the wish of the church that all the faithful should be led
to take that full, conscious, and active part in the liturgical
celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy, and
to which the Christian people, ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a
holy nation, a redeemed people’ (1 Peter 2:9, 4-5) have a right and
to which they are bound by reason of their Baptism. In the restoration
and development of the sacred liturgy the full and active
participation by all the people is the paramount concern, for it is
the primary, indeed the indispensable source from which the faithful
are to derive the true Christian spirit.” (#14)
In addition to this central value of “full, conscious and
active participation, the revision to the Communion Rite would seem to
embody or express six other values:
· Liturgy as “Source
and Summit” The
Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy states “From the liturgy,
therefore, and especially from the Eucharist, grace is poured forth
upon us as from a fountain, and our sanctification in Christ and the
glorification of God to which all other activities of the church are
directed, as toward their end, are achieved with maximum
effectiveness.” (#10)
· Awareness and Reverence
for Christ Truly and Sacramentally Present:
A sense of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist probably is
the deepest belief most Catholics have about the Eucharist. For many
years, individual Catholics have expressed this belief when
receiving Communion in varied ways, including making the Sign of the
Cross before or after receiving Communion, bowing, genuflecting,
kneeling to receive Communion. For some, the decision to receive on
the tongue (rather than in the hand) is a sign of reverence. The
GIRM asks that all join in making a common sign of reverence
– a bow of the head – before the Body and the Blood of Christ to
express belief in and reverence for Christ’s real presence.
· The Assembly of the
Christian Faithful as the Body of Christ:
The image of the Church as the Body of Christ is rooted in Scripture
and Church teaching. St. Paul wrote: “Because the loaf of bread is
one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one
loaf.” (1 Corinthians 10: 17) The whole congregation standing
during the entire Communion Rite (Lord’s Prayer to the end of the
distributing of Communion) reinforces our community identity
as one body, one spirit in Christ. Our standing together during
Communion is a sign of our unity and solidarity in Christ.
· The Communal Nature of
the Reception of the Eucharist:
Closely connected with the previous value, the revisions of the
Communion Rite clearly call us to envision receiving the Eucharist
as a communal, rather than an individual act. This calls for
a change in our devotional understanding of what it means to receive
Eucharist. Most of us were trained to think of receiving Communion
in terms of “Jesus comes to me” and we were all taught that we
should return to our pew, kneel, and offer our personal
thanksgiving. Thinking of going to receive Communion as a procession
(rather than forming a line), singing together before and after we
personally receive as a member of the community, and offering our
personal thanksgiving all at the same time (i.e. after everyone has
received) helps us to recognize that receiving Eucharist is a
profoundly communal act, and not only personal.
· In Order to Give, One
Must First Receive: This
principle is true in everyday life – you cannot give what you do
not have. If you are broke, you have no money to spend and there is
nothing you can buy. If you have no presents, you cannot give a
gift. This is even more true spiritually: a person cannot share
Christ with others without first having received Christ. For this
reason, the GIRM instructs the priest to receive Communion before
sharing the Eucharist with the Eucharistic Ministers and the
Eucharistic Ministers must receive Communion before sharing the
Eucharist with the entire community.
· Ministers as Those
Being “Sent Forth” to Bring Christ to others:
To be a minister is to be one who is called and then sent out. The
Gospels tell of Jesus sending out the Twelve and the Seventy-two.
St. Paul in his writings again and again speaks of being called by
Christ and sent to proclaim the Gospel. The GIRM now calls for the
Presider (assisted by the Deacon) to present the ciborium or chalice
to the Eucharist Ministers. In doing so, the Eucharistic Minister is
“being sent” to minister the Body or Blood of Christ to the
gathered community, so that they, in turn, will be sent to bring
Christ to the world at the end of Mass.
Reflecting on the meanings or values which the revised Communion
Rite embodies not only will help us to understand “why these
changes?” but, even more, to more fully participate and pray
the Communion Rite.
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My Trip to National Catholic Youth Conference
by Maura Garven
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If you found yourself inside Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas a
few weeks ago, the roar of the crowd might cause you to wonder which
teams were playing. In fact, the stadium will be the location of the
2004 Super Bowl. But on November 13-16, 2003, the turf had been rolled
away and in its place were 23,000 Catholic teenagers, youth leaders,
and Catholic/Christian artists—all experiencing God in a powerful
way through the prayer and music.
At St. Malachi’s, where clapping at the end of Mass is standard,
we are very familiar to displays of joy and love for God through
vibrant music and liturgy. But few of us have had the opportunity to
be with tens of thousands of people who feel this strongly about their
faith. This year, 21 of us from both the Parish and Community were
lucky enough to do so.
As young Catholics, Americans, and human beings, we are constantly
challenged with our faith. We struggle with stereotypes, questions,
scandals, and conflicts everyday. It was an incredible experience to
be with thousands of other people who were so different, but were
unified by the bonds that brought us to the conference.
The many speakers inspired and challenged us. For example, Bud
Welch, the father of a victim of the Oklahoma City bombing, told us
about his personal journey that led to his being opposed to the death
penalty for the bomber Timothy McVeigh. Craig Kielburger, a 20 year
old Canadian, spoke to us about how at 12 years old he read about the
murder of a sweat shop worker in Pakistan who had spoken out against
child labor and, as a result, decided to organize his classmates and
do something to help those children still in sweat shops by working to
provide them with an education. The group he started called, “Free
the Children,” has since built more than 350 schools which provide
education to over 20,000 children.
Something common to both key note speakers was the challenges they
gave us. Catholic young adults are not just the future of the Catholic
Church, we are the Church now, so we must act as the Church. We don’t
have to start an international organization, but we are expected
change the world using our own unique talents. We were all asked to
make a commitment to serve and to make a difference in the world.
Besides the key note speakers we also had time for recreation.
There was a Velcro wall, a mechanical bull, and many service
opportunities.
The music was definitely the highlight of the event. There were so
many different styles of music: from rock and pop to Celtic and rap.
Every musician had their own way to show their love for God, and it
created an atmosphere unlike any we had ever experienced.
Now the turf is back in Reliant Stadium and the young adults have
returned back to the many corners of the United States from which they
came. However, these young adults left Houston a little different
because of the experience. They left with a lot of hope, faith, and
desire to change their world.
We St. Malachi young adults all thank all of you for your
extraordinary generosity with our fundraising efforts over the past
two years. We are very grateful for you and kept all of you in our
prayers on our trip. The next conference is scheduled for Atlanta in
2005, so we hope to see you at our bake sales, car washes, and pancake
breakfasts for our next trip! Thanks and God Bless!
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Rocking Down the “River of Life”
by Andy Turner
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How can one person make a difference in the world? One way to start
might be to take seventeen energetic and spirit-filled young adults
from St. Malachi, add four chaperones, combine them with
heart-grabbing Catholic music, vibrant liturgy, dancing, singing,
juggling, humor, and 23,000 other young adults from around the nation,
and then place them in Houston, Texas, for four days at the single
largest and most exciting Catholic youth gathering in the United
States – The 2003 National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC)!
After two years of fundraising and preparation several of our high
school young adults from the Christian Formation program set sail on
November 13, 2003, down the “River of Life,” (the conference
theme) to deepen their relationship with God, share their faith, and
explore the Church’s invitation to serve the people of the world and
their local neighborhoods.
The keynote address of the conference challenged the young adults
to live the Gospel every day and to encounter Christ in every person,
even those who have acted against our faith belief. Outside of the
many concurrent interactive lectures and music concerts, the majority
of the young adults found fun in meeting other Catholic teens, trading
buttons and key chains, and playing around in Bayou Village, a
thematic indoor park with more than one hundred Catholic exhibitors,
games, and food. There they also found opportunities for service such
as collecting food, teddy bears, and personal care items for the
working poor and needy of the Houston area.
For myself, one of the highlights of the conference was late in the
evening, after the day’s events had been completed, the St. Malachi
young adults would gather in the parking lot while they waited for the
next shuttle bus to the hotel, and reflect and pray on how God spoke
to them that day. Frequently mentioned reflections were on a key note
address by Craig Kielburger and the antics and stories of APeX
Ministries. This time also provided the students an opportunity to
offer prayers of thanksgiving as well as prayers for family members
and friends who were in need.
Events like NCYC call our young adults to a more profound and
energetic Catholic faith in a world where many teens are finding
interests outside the Church. As a community of faith we should be
proud to support events like NCYC, which challenge our young adults to
live their faith every day. May it be our hope and prayer that through
this conference, and our prayers, our students will grow into the next
leaders of our church, our local community, and our world.
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NOTE: This month’s calendar will be included in our next issue of
The Newsletter, which will be published January 11, 2004.
Thanks!
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Community of St. Malachi, 2459 Washington Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44113-2380
216-781-3110 www.stmalachi.org
Sunday Community Mass 11 a.m. Parish Masses Sat. 4:30 p.m., Sun. 9:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m.
Holy day: Vigil 5:30 p.m., 7 a.m., noon. Weekday: 7 a.m., noon. Legal Holiday: 9 a.m.
We celebrate Children’s Liturgy of The Word every other Sunday, please see the Calendar.
For information on the Sacraments, please call the Community Office.
THE COMMUNITY OF ST. MALACHI is a lay-directed, non-territorial personal
parish of the Diocese of Cleveland. Although separate from the Parish of St.
Malachi, we join together for many worthwhile activities. All are welcome to
worship at the 11 a.m. Community liturgy on Sunday. Community members are
expected to actively contribute of their time, talent and treasure.
Communio is a monthly publication of the Communications Committee of the
Community of St. Malachi. Deadline is the second Sunday before publication. You
ease our task by submitting materials by E-Mail or on disk. All viewpoints of
interest to our Community in the context of our journey of faith are welcome
here. Viewpoints are those of the writers and not necessarily the teachings of
the Roman Catholic Church.
For e-mail delivery of Communio or Newsletter through CSM’s E-Subscription service, write
dasas@nccw.net
© 2003 Community of St. Malachi. Reprinting of articles originating in Communio
is encouraged – please contact the Editors for permission. |
Newsletter: Mary Englert
216-228-8417,
fax 216-861-5340,
14921 Lake Ave # 10, Lakewood 44107.
E-mail mtenglert@juno.com
Communio: Chief Editor: Joe Pulizzi
216-941-5054
E-mail
joe_pulizzi@yahoo.com
Editor: Bill Johansen
440-353-0606
E-mail bmjohansen@yahoo.com
Calendar: Lisa Diomede
216-991-9038,
E-mail lisadiomede@yahoo.com
Volunteers to collate and staple:
Pam Pulizzi 216-941-5054
Volunteers to hand out after Mass:
Nick Aylward 216-228-4332
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Copying and attachments: Kimberly Kramer, Ellen McIntyre and
Carol Lavelle
216-781-3110
St. Malachi Web Site: Mike May
Email stmalachiweb@catholic.org
Prayer Request: If you have a prayer request, please contact Carol Lavelle
216-781-3110
To receive CSM e-mail prayer alerts, contact Dolores Sullin at dasas@nccw.net.
Joe Pulizzi chairs
the Communications Committee.
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Send articles or comments to joe_pulizzi@yahoo.com or bmjohansen@yahoo.com.
Deadline for the December 28th issue is December 14th.
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