Pope Francis in Havana on Who We Should Pray For, Who We Should Love

Pope Francis, who is in Havana, Cuba, said this:

But first, before they sleep, Francis said: "Look at the Virgin and remember these faces: the people who love us, those we love, those we don't love, those who don't love us and those who have done us harm."

This is a great man, one who understands what it means to follow Jesus.

Here's a link to the story in the New York Times: Pope Francis in Cuba

Gun Policy: Trying to Influence It

St. Mary Parishioners Try to Influence Governmental Policy on Guns

American Catholic Bishops have spoken out clearly on gun violence and too-easy access to deadly weapons. Echoing Pope Francis’s call for mercy and peacebuilding in our communities, the Bishops have asked that America implement reasonable regulations on firearms, such as: requiring universal background checks for all gun purchases; limiting civilian access to high-capacity weapons and ammunition magazines; making gun trafficking a federal crime; and improving mental health care for those who may be prone to violence.

To this end, three St. Mary parishioners, Krista Zivkovich, Dan Bergen, and myself, and the leader of the Cleveland Diocese COAR ministry, Mary Stevenson, met on January 27^th with Nick Ciofani, assistant to US Representative David Joyce. The meeting was held in Mr. Joyce’s Painesville office and lasted an hour. We introduced ourselves to Mr. Ciofani and were struck by all the personal connections we had to him and his family. Then we each proceeded to tell our stories why we were interested in this issue. The stories were riveting. I told the story told of my nephew Dillon Coughlin being in the Chardon High school cafeteria during the mass shooting that took place in 2012, leaving three students dead and one paralyzed for life. I also told of gun suicides of Lakeland College colleagues: our long-time psychology professor, a campus police officer, and one of my creative writing students. These tragic deaths profoundly affected me, my friends and family. Dan told of his wife’s work as an emergency room nurse and all the terrible shootings she had to deal with over the years. Mary Stevenson, the representative from the diocese’s COAR office, told how she herself had been shot in 1988, and the lifelong physical injuries she lives with. Krista told of her best friend’s suicide, a friend who was her son’s Godmother. In an astonishing twist of fate, that suicide victim was also the Godmother of Nick, Representative Joyce’s aide.

After telling our personal stories, we presented petitions signed by 134 St. Mary parishioners asking for reasonable limitations on gun availability. And we asked Nick to present these to Representative Joyce along with our hope that action could be taken in the future on these issues.

We left the meeting with no guarantees. But we did establish a relationship with Representative Joyce and his aide Nick Ciofani, and we did make clear the wishes of American Bishops and many St. Mary parishioners. We will continue to nurture this connection with our representative and keep trying to advocate for reasonable gun safety regulations. Our goal is in line with the goals of Pope Francis, the American Bishops, and many St. Mary parishioners: a safer, more merciful, and more just community. We are trying to do our part in building the Beloved Community, the Kingdom of God on Earth.

Postrcript: The petitions presented to Representative David Joyce have also been sent to Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman and to state legislators, Kenny Yuko and John Rogers. Let’s hope that they pay attention to the wishes of the American Catholic Bishops and many members of St. Mary’s Church in Painesville, Ohio.

Fr. Richard Rohr's Meditation on St. Francis of Assisi: "Alternative Orthodoxy"

Hope Fr. Richard Rohr forgives me for re-posting his beautiful essay. This essay speaks to our times, just as Pope Francis does.

Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation

St. Francis receiving the Stigmata (detail), by Giotto de Bondone from     the Legend of St. Francis, 1297-1300. San Francesco, Upper Church, Assisi, Italy.

Alternative Orthodoxy: Week 1

A Different Worldview Monday, February 8, 2016

Before we begin to outline Franciscan alternative orthodoxy, it is helpful to look at the Franciscan worldview, which grew out of the historical and cultural context in which St. Francis lived. Today's meditation will be a little longer to give a full background.   Francis was born in Assisi, Italy, in the year 1181. He died in 1226. It was a time of great social and economic change and much violence between Italian city-states. Before and during his life, Europe and the Muslim world were involved in four Crusades, and there were more to come. Christians were fighting Muslims; Muslims had overtaken what Christians considered their holy places in Jerusalem; and the Christians of the West were fighting the Eastern Orthodox Christians. Added to that, Assisi itself was in an ongoing war with Perugia, a little city to the west. In the year 1202, Francis was taken prisoner in a battle against Perugia. In 1204, he escaped from prison. He emerged dazed, disillusioned, and deeply hoping for something more, something different than all the terrible violence that had destroyed his youth. His world was obsessed with war, with security, with self-protection, and with fear of the outsider. (Does this sound familiar?) Everyone in Assisi was armed; revenge, scapegoating, cruelty, torture, and aggression against enemies were rampant and even socially sanctioned and idealized, much as they are today.   Francis seemed to realize that there was an intrinsic connection between violence and possessions, power, and prestige. So he rejected all of them. His father was among the first generation of the new propertied business class. Francis recognized that his father's obsession with money and property had destroyed his father's soul, and so he set out on a very different path. Francis concluded that the only way out of such a world was to live a life of voluntary poverty or "non-possession." He refused to be part of the moneyed class because he knew that once you owned something you'd have to protect it, and for some reason, you would inevitably try to get more of it. Francis said, "Look, Brothers, if we have any possessions, we will need arms to protect them. . . . Therefore, we do not want to possess anything in this world."   Francis felt that in order to find a way out, he had to live in close proximity and even solidarity with the excluded ones in his society. He literally changed sides. He had been born among the upper class in Upper Assisi. In the lower part of town lived the lower class. Francis not only moved to the other side of town, but he actually moved to the plain below Assisi where there was a leper colony. The word "leper" did not always refer to the contagious disease. Rather, the lepers in both Jesus' and Francis' times represented the excluded ones, the ones whom society had decided were unacceptable, unworthy, or unclean for a number of reasons. Francis told us to identify not with the upper class and the climb toward success, power, and money, but to go to where Jesus went--to where there was pain, to the excluded ones. We were to find our place not in climbing but in descending, not at the top but at the bottom, not among the insiders but with the outsider. What an upside down world!   Francis, seeing the beginnings of the propertied leisure class, told us to work for our pay; and if work was not available, we were to humbly beg, just as the Buddha advised his monks. Francis recognized that his society was becoming a structured system of protected and unequal social relationships. He knew the violence, mistrust, ambition, and pride which that worldview would engender. So he insisted on what he called equal power relationships in religious communities. He rejected all titles like Superior or Abbot. Francis did not want anyone to act as if he was higher than anyone else. Even those who led the community were to be called friars or brothers, and they only held the office for a short term and then returned to the equality of brotherhood. No one should stay at the top for very long; and when they were there, they were to be servant leaders or "guardians" of the mission and message of the friars.   In Francis we see the emergence of a very different worldview, a worldview that is not based on climbing, achieving, possessing, performing, or any idealization of order, but a life that enjoys and finds deep satisfaction on the level of naked being itself--much more than doing or having. He learned this from Jesus. It seems to me the Franciscan worldview is now desperately important if the 7.4 billion of us are going to exist happily together on this one limited planet. Voluntary simplicity is now essential for social survival. Francis warned us where we were headed eight hundred years ago.

Gateway to Silence Love with your whole heart, soul, mind, and body.

Reference: Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Art of Letting Go: Living the Wisdom of Saint Francis (Sounds True: 2010), disc 1 (CD).

"Most of us were taught that God would love us if and when we change. In fact, God loves you so that you can change. It is the inherent experience of love that becomes the engine of change."  --Richard Rohr   Join Fr. Richard for a live webcast: Authentic Transformation Tuesday, February 23, 2016 4:30-6:00 p.m. US MST*

Christmas Alleluia at My Parish, St. Mary's in Painesville, Ohio

Christmas Alleluia at St. Mary’s Painesville

On Tuesday, December 15^th, at 8 PM, I drove to St. Mary’s to pick up my wife, who was finishing up teaching her PSR catechism class. St. Mary’s has a very fine PSR program, directed by Dr. Shanon Sterringer, and made possible by many dedicated teachers. At the end of class, several of the 8-10 year old Latino students in my wife’s class asked to be excused to go next door to the Fr. Hanzo Center, where the Posados celebration was beginning. This is an ancient religious novena, 9 evenings, celebrated in parts of Mexico, Central and South America, and in a few communities in the United States—including Painesville, Ohio. To my astonishment, there was a procession of about 100 people, led by children dressed as Mary and Joseph, some people carrying candles, and almost everyone singing. The song was a dialogue between Mary and Joseph, desperately seeking shelter, and innkeepers, who responded that there was no more room. What a wonderful celebration of our faith—right here at St. Mary’s in Painesville, Ohio.

At the very moment this was taking place, members of several churches and St. Mary’s, including our music ministry, were holding a Christmas sing-along/liturgy in the Lake County Jail. They were meeting three large groups of imprisoned men and women—singing and praying with them, being with them, bringing comfort and companionship and the beauty of our Christianity to those who have temporarily lost their freedom.

These were three of the activities going on, almost simultaneously, in our parish, a community that is answering the call of Pope Francis for mercy, reconciliation, and celebration. Our parish is singing out, loud and clear, a Christmas Alleluia!

"Just Thoughts" for December 6, 2015

Krista and Ed Zivkovich have submitted this "Just thoughts" essay for the December 6, 2015 bulletin of St. Mary's parish in Painesville, Ohio:

Just Thoughts

"We must be the change we wish to see in the world."  Gandhi

In his encyclical, Laudato Si, Pope Francis called for a global effort to combat climate change.  This week and next, representatives from over 190 countries are attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris to discuss actions which could ultimately result in less greenhouse gas emissions that harm our planet, causing rising sea levels and temperatures with potentially devastating effects around the world.  Pope Francis wrote,"A global consensus is essential for confronting the deeper problems, which cannot be resolved by unilateral actions on the part of individual countries."

While heads of state, representatives of nations, scientists and others address this critical issue, Pope Francis reminds us,"Living our vocation to be protectors of God's handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or secondary aspect of our Christian experience." (217).  We all have a stake in and responsibility to care for our planet Earth. Following are 4 challenges from Pope Francis' encyclical prepared by the Archdiocese of Washington that are especially appropriate during this Advent season of waiting and reflecting.

1.     Celebrate Beauty - "See nature as a magnificent book in which God speaks to us and grants us a glimpse of his infinite beauty and goodness...The world is a joyful mystery to be contemplated with gladness and praise."  Action: Take time to be outside! Find the natural beauty in your community, and in doing so offer thanks to God for the beauty of all created things, including one another."

2.     Live in a Global Community - "We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it." (229).  Action: Make a commitment this week to serve the needs of the poor in a concrete way."

3.     Slow Down & Unplug - "Inner peace is closely related to care for ecology and for the common good because, lived out authentically, it is reflected in a balanced lifestyle together with a capacity for wonder which takes us to a deeper understanding of life. Nature is filled with words of love, but how can we listen to them amid constant noise..." (225). Action: Find time each day, especially on Sunday's, for quiet moments to talk with and listen to God.

4.     Practice Small Acts of Love - "St. Therese of Lisieux invites us to practice the little way of love, not to miss out on a kind word, a smile or any small gesture which sows peace and friendship. An integral ecology is also made up of simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness." (230).  Action: Practice a new small act of love as a way of living solidarity with those most in need and being a more responsible steward of God's gifts. For example, reuse & recycle, reduce water consumption & electricity use, avoid using plastic bottles and bags.                          

                                                       

Source: Archdiocese of Washington, www.adw.org/creation

Pope Francis Speaks Out About Basic Human Rights

Pope Francis, While in Africa, Speaks of Basic Human Rights

[from the Amecea News Blog: http://amecea.blogspot.com/2015/11/kenya-access-to-safe-drinkable-water-is.html]

Pope Francis has denounced the conditions slum-dwellers are forced to live in and said that access to safe water is a basic human right and that everyone should have dignified, adequate housing.

Speaking at Kangemi Slum in Nairobi during the last day of his visit Pope Francis said “Our world has a grave social debt towards the poor who lack access to drinking water, because they are denied the right to a life consistent with their inalienable dignity (Laudato Si’, 30). …. To deny a family water, under any bureaucratic pretext whatsoever, is a great injustice, especially when one profits from this need.

Residents of the Kangemi slum lined up along the streets to welcome Pope Francis. Those lucky enough to score access to St. Joseph's parish erupted in cheers and hymns when Francis arrived at the open-sided church that serves the slum of about 50,000 people.

“I am here because I want you to know that your joys and hopes, your troubles and your sorrows, are not indifferent to me.  I realize the difficulties which you experience daily!  How can I not denounce the injustices which you suffer?” Pope Francis asked.

On issue of infrastructure Pope Francis said that it is a serious problem if one lacks access to infrastructures and basic services.  “By this I mean toilets, sewers, drains, refuse collection, electricity, roads, as well as schools, hospitals, recreational and sport centers, studios and workshops for artists and craftsmen,” he said.

The Holy Father urged the authority to work with the people living in the slums upon the path of social inclusion, education, sport, community action, and the protection of families, for this is the only guarantee of a peace that is just, authentic and enduring.

In the conclusion of his speech Pope Francis said,  “Dear neighbors, dear brothers and sisters, let us together pray, work and commit ourselves to ensuring that every family has dignified housing, access to drinking water, a toilet, reliable sources of energy for lighting, cooking and improving their homes; that every neighborhood has streets, squares, schools, hospitals, areas for sport, recreation and art; that basic services are provided to each of you; that your appeals and your pleas for greater opportunity can be heard; that all can enjoy the peace and security which they rightfully deserve on the basis of their infinite human dignity.”