Thoughts and Prayers: The American Way of Evading Meaningful Action Through Resort to Meaningless "Religious" Nonsense

The first truckload of thoughts and prayers prepares to leave for Las Vegas. This should resolve our mass shooting problem. pic.twitter.com/dAUmAabStj

— Jim Beaver (@jumblejim) October 3, 2017

"A Conscience That Is Not Awake to Suffering and Fails to Respond Is Walled Off from the Love of God": Commentary on Trump and Religious Issues

With his performance at yesterday's National Prayer Breakfast (an event organized by the shadowy anti-LGBT group calling itself "The Family," as David Badash reminds us), and with the Supreme Court nomination of Neil Gorsuch, Trump and religious matters are in the news. Here's commentary in the past few days I'd like to recommend:

The Supreme Court on Christian-Specific "Ceremonial Prayer" in the Public Square: My Take

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy on religion-specific (i.e., Christian-specific) prayer at public meetings in the U.S., by way of Eyder Peralta at NPR:

Cold Water (and Sacraments) on a Summer's Day

Steve and I have just returned from bringing a copy of my book Fiat Flux: The Writings of Wilson R. Bachelor, Nineteenth-Century Country Doctor and Philosopher to a friend of ours. John and his wife Tina are pillars of the local Quaker community and have been extraordinarily kind to and supportive of Steve and me. We wanted to give them a copy of the book to express our gratitude for the kindness and support (and it actually does have some notes on the Quaker history of Wilson Bachelor's ancestors, who are also my own ancestors).

Ten Points about Love as the Signpost Along the Way: Retreat Notes, Day Three

Pilgrim Feet

More reflections from this period of retreat--which I offer with some concern that I'm foisting on others what are very private thoughts about very private struggles, which may not be of much interest to anyone but me, and which probably ought not to receive much attention from others, because these are idiosyncratic note-jottings from the margins of the Catholic church and its theological traditions today:*

Signposts Along the Way: Retreat Notes, Day Two

Pilgrim Feet

I've been thinking, as Steve and I talk and walk, or sit together in silence, about signposts along the way of our shared spiritual journey.  One of the most significant of these, it seems to me, has been the counsel Rilke gave the aspiring young poet in his letters to the young man.  Rilke tells the writer-to-be to live towards the future he glimpses, but which is not yet present--and may never be fully present in his life or in the world around him.

On Retreat: Notes from the Journey

Pilgrim Feet

Dear Readers,

This may be another of those weeks in which I promise to be quiet, and then end up posting a stream of statements here--because I am not good at holding my tongue.  I do want to let you know, though, that Steve and I are away for a period of recollection.  This is the week that we met 41 years ago, and we've chosen to spend it trying to wind down a bit from daily routines, to walk, listen to music, read, talk, and pray.

A Life Review, First Week of Easter

Some spiritual traditions (in the Catholic church, the Ignatian one; in Protestantism, Puritanism) emphasize a practice of ongoing review of life.  For Puritan strands of Protestant spirituality, this emphasis produced a strong tradition of daily journaling, in which one tallies up the good and bad one has done each day, and places it all in God's hands at the end of each day.

More Marilynne Robinson: Synchronicity, Synergy, and Nature as Shining Garment of Divinity

Marilynne Robinson finds science's inability to imagine the world analogically, or to speak of what it observes in analogical terms, a significant shortcoming.  The "scientific worldview" is altogether too narrow, she thinks, because it cannot fulfill its promise to explain everything that it observes, when it lacks the language of analogy to extend its definitions and observations beyond what is apparently only on the surface of "reality."

Reflections During the Sacred Triduum: Marilynne Robinson and the Central Narrative of Scripture as Wondrous Love

I'm also reading Marilynne Robinson's new book When I Was a Child I Read Books (NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012) these days, and am struck by a number of things that, to my way of thinking, have important significance for anyone trying to retrieve and celebrate the essential meaning of core Christian symbols at this point in American history.  First, Robinson is clear-eyed about the extreme damage many groups of Christians in the U.S. are now doing to the core symbols of Christian faith.  She minces no words about how the distortion of key affirmations of traditional Christian faith by ill-educated zealots who have little connection to what's central in Christian history and belief is tragically betraying the meaning of Christianity for large numbers of Americans today.  

Qais Azimy: Speaking the Names of The Dead

Käthe Kollwitz, "Woman with Dead Child" (1903)

Finally this morning, at Common Dreams, Qais Azimy points out that in the days following the news that American soldier Robert Bales massacred sixteen Afghan civilians in Kandahar, the media have been focusing on questions of the identity of the soldier, his motives, whether he acted alone, etc.  

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: "Write an Article in Support of Forcing the Followers of Jesus Christ to Pay for Contraception, Sterilization and Abortion"

My latest dropping from the Catholic birdcage is right here from Bilgrimage.  Earlier this week, one Steven Faludi logged into this blog to provide me with a list of five Lenten imperatives--a must do list (for me) for Lent:

Catholic Pastor in Illinois Forced to Resign for Liturgical Creativity

And, as top leaders of some Christian churches use their high positions and energies to spread toxic lies designed to assist a particular group of political leaders (and designed to inflict pain and suffering on fellow human beings), pastors within those same churches who are doing what the gospel tells them to do--feeding the hungry, proclaiming the good news, etc.--can find this happening to them:

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: Tics, Gesticulations, Swoops, and Flourishes Amidst Liturgical Bedlam

So many droppings, so little time.  I want to frame today's piece with a snippet that a reader sent to Andrew Sullivan recently.  The following isn't the birdcage dropping per se.  Instead, please regard it as the scoop with which I'll then pick up the Catholic birdcage dropping on which I really intend to focus:

One Pastor's Take on the "New" Liturgy: Fr. Nobert Dlabal on New Trans as Akin to KGB Document

Father Norbert Dlabal, pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Goodland, KS, and Holy Ghost in Sharon Springs, KS, weighs in on the "new" liturgical translations at National Catholic Reporter:

TWO Petition Asking Cardinal George to Resign Reaches Goal of 5,000 Signatures

Quick new year's eve note: I just noticed that the Truth Wins Out petition calling on His Eminence Francis Cardinal George of Chicago to resign after his hateful remarks comparing gay people to the Ku Klux Klan has just reached its original goal of 5,000 signatures, and has now upped the ante to 7,500 signatures.  The petition reached 5,000 mark just a minute or two ago.

Happy new year, and may righteous justice (and peace) roll down like a river in 2012, for everyone.

We Go to Mass, We Experience the "New" Liturgy, We Leave Shaking Our Heads

And speaking of the "new" liturgical translations (I just did so in my posting about Michael Iafrate's music): as I've just said, Steve and I went to the Christmas vigil Mass with our friend Richard.  We went to the old cathedral, St. Mary's, in Chinatown in San Francisco.  When I last blogged about our highly selective and sporadic liturgy-attending experiences in the past year, we had gone to Mass with Steve's aunts as we took them on a trip to visit relatives around Minnesota.

More Inspirational Music for Christmastime: Michael Iafrate & the Priesthood

More Christmas-season music (and music for meditation and inspiration all year 'round), and this, too, is a resource provided by a wonderful theologian-songwriter-activist to whom Bilgrimage has connected me: at his website M Iafrate (& the Priesthood), Michael Iafrate has links to his various albums, which include links to some of the songs on these albums.  You may already have noticed Michael's name in my bloglist, since it includes his catholicanarchy blog, and I did a posting this past September summarizing Michael's powerful theological reflections on militarism and discipleship, which notes that Michael is a doctoral student in theology at University of St. Michael's College in Toronto, Steve's and my alma mater.

More (Post-) Christmas Music: John Bijarney and "Lux Aurumque"

During the Christmas season, I pointed readers to the beautiful music that one reader of this blog, Fran Schultz, makes available at her Reverbnation site.  And now as the pre-Christmas madness transmutes into post-Christmas madness (more shopping!) and some of us keep looking for resources to maintain sanity and feed our souls, I want to recommend the equally inspiring and beautiful music of another reader of Bilgrimage.

The Dream of Home for All: A Christmas Meditation

Luminarias in Snow

Ryōkan* writes,

On a journey,
each night I stay
in a different place
but my dream is the same,
a dream of home.