Author: cfliao
Play On?
In a church where parishes sometimes raise money by running Bingo games, leaders may well be reluctant to condemn gambling outright. A statement from the bishops of the New York State Catholic Conference about an approaching referendum on Nov. 5 to authorize up to seven full-scale casinos in the state, describes gambling, quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church, as “a morally neutral act.”
But the statement’s analysis of the negative impact of gambling points clearly to the conclusion: Vote no. The bishops repeat the catechism’s warning that “the passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement,” and they stress gambling’s connection to embezzlement, drunk driving and “catastrophic losses” to individual gamblers.
The United States already has 1,500 casinos in 20 states and legalized gambling of various forms in 48 states. Though casinos allegedly promote jobs, stimulate tourism and boost the local economy, in fact casino owners are often outsiders who bring in their employees from other places. Instead of stimulating business in the surrounding neighborhoods, casinos are deliberately designed to keep the players inside, with no sense of time or place. There are restaurants and shops, but no windows or clocks.
The strongest argument against casinos is that they exploit the weaknesses of vulnerable citizens, lured by a corrupted version of the American dream, in which Lady Luck suddenly delivers bags of gold. The obligation to empower those in poverty rests on the shoulders of the whole community, including government. One Christian response to poverty would be a just tax system that allows for a redistribution of wealth directed by prudence-not by slot machines.
Agios Nikolaos Anapafsas Monastery, Meteora
Founded in the early 14th century, Agios Nikolaos Anapaphsas is a monastery in the Meteora notable for its unique construction and splendid frescoes by the 16th-century Cretan painter Theophanes the Monk.
History
Hermits seem to have first occupied this rock in the early 14th century, as evidenced by remains of frescoes in the Chapel of St. Anthony. The present monastery was founded in 1510 by St. Dionysius, Metropolitan of Larisa, and Nikanoras, priest-monk and exarch of Stagoi. The name “Anapafsas” is of unknown origin; it may be the surname of an early monk or founder.
The monastery was abandoned by 1900 and fell into disrepair until it was renovated in the 1960s by the archaeological service. It was then inhabited by Father Palamas until 1982, after which the monastery closed. In 1997, priests of Kalampaka began to open the monastery to tourists every summer. Today, one monk lives at Agios Nikolaos, the abbot archimandrite Polykarpos Venetis.
What to See
Since the top of this rock is limited in size, the monastery buildings had to be extended upward instead of outward, rising three stories high. The small katholikon of St. Nicholas occupies the second floor. Its dome has no windows because of the floor built on top of it and it has an irregular floor plan in order to fit on the rock. A larger narthex extends to the west.
The frescoes of Agios Nikolaos are some of the most important in the Meteora, as they were painted by the celebrated leader of the Cretan school, Theophanes Strelitzas. He painted them in 1527, when he was probably a monk here. These frescoes are the first to bear the signature of the artist (“Ch.M.”) and are among his earliest works of this magnitude.
Depicting such scenes as the Passion of Christ, the Virgin Mary praying, Jonah and the Whale, the Liturgy of Angels and the Last Judgement, the frescoes demonstrate the characteristics for which Theophanes of Crete became famous: delicacy of line; vividness in imagery; and bright colors.
The first floor of the monastery is occupied by the tiny Chapel of St. Anthony, which contains some early 14th-century frescoes, and a crypt where relics and manuscripts used to be stored.
The third floor contains the old refectory, decorated with frescoes and recently renovated for use as a reception hall, the ossuary (for storage of bones), and the renovated Chapel of St. John the Baptist.
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
The Egyptian Antiquities Museum in Cairo, known more commonly as the Egyptian Museum, houses the largest collection of Ancient Egyptian artifacts in the world.
History
The Egyptian Museum owes its existence to the Egyptian Antiquities Service, established by the Egyptian government in 1835 to limit the looting of Egypt’s priceless artifacts.
The museum opened in 1858 with a collection assembled by Auguste Mariette, the French archaeologist retained by Isma’il Pasha. It was originally housed in an annex of the palace of Ismail Pasha in Giza, the museum moved to its present location in 1900.
What to See
The Egyptian Museum’s collection includes over 120,000 items. As at the Louvre Museum in Paris, it is necessary to be selective during a visit.
One major highlight is the famous Pharaoh Tutankhamen tomb collection on the museum’s upper floor. The tomb of “King Tut” (as he is better known) was found remarkably intact by Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings in 1923. Artifacts on display include the gold funerary mask and sarcophagus, four huge gilded boxes that fit inside each other, an ancient trumpet, thrones, and even a royal toilet seat.
Also upstairs is the royal Mummy Room, which houses 11 royal mummies from pharaonic times. It has a significant entrance fee and does not allow photos, but the adjacent (free) room has a nice assortment of mummified animals and birds.
St. Isaac Jogues, St. John de Brébeuf and Companions
Today in the dioceses of the United States the Church celebrates the optional memorial of Sts. Issac Jogues and John de Brébeuf (priests and martyrs) and their companions (martyrs). They were Jesuit missionaries who died martyrs in North America, where they preached the Gospel.
According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. Peter of Alcantara, priest. He was one of St. Teresa’s spiritual directors and encouraged her in her reformation of the Carmelite Order.
St. Isaac Jogues, St. John de Brébeuf and Companions
French Jesuits were the first missionaries to go to Canada and North America after J. Cartier discovered Canada in 1534. Their mission region extended from Nova Scotia to Maryland. Isaac Jogues, John de Brebeuf, Gabriel Lalemant, Noel Chabanel, Charles Garnier, Anthony Daniel, Rene Goupil and John de Lalande (the first six Jesuits, the last two laymen) preached the gospel to the Iroquois and Huron Indians, and after being tortured, they were martyred in the area of what is now Auriesville, New York. The martyrdoms took place between 1642 and 1649. Ten years after the martyrdom of St. Isaac Jogues, Kateri Tekakwitha was born in the same village in which he died. These martyrs are co-patrons of Canada.
The missionaries arrived in Canada less than a century after its discovery by Cartier in 1534, in the hope of converting the Indians and setting up “New France.” Their opponents were often the English and Dutch colonists. When Isaac Jogues returned to Paris after his first capture and torture, he said to his superior: “Yes, Father, I want whatever our Lord wants, even if it costs a thousand lives.” He had written in his mission report: “These tortures are very great, but God is still greater, and immense.”
In the Office of Readings we have an excerpt from the mission journal of St. John de Brébeuf, who had been a student of the great Jesuit spiritual writer, Louis Lallemant. He wrote:
For two days now I have experienced a great desire to be a martyr and to endure all the torments the martyrs suffered…. I vow to you, Jesus my Savior, that as far as I have the strength I will never fail to accept the grace of martyrdom, if some day you in your infinite mercy should offer it to me, your most unworthy servant…. On receiving the blow of death, I shall accept it from your hands with the fullest delight and joy of spirit…. My God, it grieves me greatly that you are not known, that in this savage wilderness all have not been converted to you, that sin has not been driven from it.
Discover the Leadership Values of Pope Francis
In the new book, Pope Francis: Why He Leads the Way He Leads, author Chris Lowney delves into what made Pope Francis who he is today and the impact of his Jesuit formation. Enjoy this excerpt.
The pope has already been articulating a vision that challenges his Church to reimagine itself in the twenty-first century:
– He challenged “lukewarm Christians” and “couch potato” Christians to engage much more energetically in spreading the Church’s message, not to “take refuge . . . in a cozy life,” but to get beyond our “comfort zones” and live with greater “apostolic fervor.”
– He challenged his Church to be more forthrightly “poor, and for the poor.”
– He warned Vatican diplomats-in-training that “careerism is leprosy.”
He challenged a global culture in which “money . . . for the mighty of this earth, is more important than people.”
– He challenged his own fellow bishops to be “Men who love . . . poverty, simplicity and austerity of life.”
He asked Brazilian bishops bluntly, “Are we still a Church capable of warming hearts?” . . .[H]e is fundamentally challenging our lifestyles and priorities, yet we are not dismissing him as a curmudgeonly old scold. Rather, we seem to appreciate that a plain speaker is telling us uncomfortable truths that we’ve long needed to hear.
But Pope Francis has done more than challenge his own Church; he is challenging our wider culture’s whole approach to leadership by embodying a refreshing, deeply countercultural vision of how leaders live and what they value. He seems deeply self-aware and authentic, for example, while so many prominent public figures nowadays seem superficial and fake, constantly trying to spin us. The pope seems driven by a passion to serve, not by a craving for status, money, or power. Our culture is becoming increasingly self-absorbed and fascinated with superficial pursuits; he is striving to focus us beyond ourselves, on the struggles of our neediest brothers and sisters around the world. As I watched him, I started to wonder whether this unlikely choice for pope, even while igniting change in his Church, could be an equally unlikely catalyst for a long-overdue global conversation about leadership.
Perhaps he can inspire us to take on what might be called the new leader’s habits. Cardinal Bergoglio literally donned a new habit, of papal white. And to lead well in this new century, the rest of us need new habits too, not literally, but figuratively—new ways of preparing ourselves to exercise leadership in our work and family lives. His call to lead his Church might invite profound reflection on the leadership call (yes, leadership is a call) that comes to each of us (yes, each of us), whether we live that call as chief executives, parents, or, who knows, as someday a pope.
And thus, this book about Pope Francis and how his Jesuit background has informed his leadership values and principles. It’s not a biography. Plenty of those have already been written; yet, oddly, they have largely glossed over the Jesuit spirituality that prepared him to lead and still drives his thinking. Don’t take my word for its critical importance; take his: “I feel like I’m still a Jesuit in terms of my spirituality, what I have in my heart. . . . Also, I think like a Jesuit.” Clearly, we can only understand this pope by first understanding what the following chapters explore: what it means to “think like a Jesuit.”
But, in another respect, this book is as much about the rest of us as it is about the global leader of the Catholic Church. Pope Francis is our case study, a prism, the catalyst for us to ponder why we are so disappointed with the leadership status quo, to imagine an approach to leadership that would better inspire us, and to articulate the commitments we can make to become better leaders in our own lives.
Learn more about the book here.
Chaar Hachamaim Synagogue, Cairo
The Chaar-Hachamaim Synagogue in Cairo is an unusual concrete block with a subtle Art Nouveau floral motif, easily overlooked from the outside.
Arrive early, passport in hand, act unthreatening (the security guards are touchy about letting people in) and enjoy one of Cairo’s great hidden treasures.
The synagogue has an interior of exquisite stained-glass windows and light fixtures rumored to be from Tiffany’s.
Erected in 1905 by the Mosseri family, the synagogue is seldom used because there are too few remaining Jewish men to hold a service (10 is the minimum).
Citadel, Cairo
Before Saladin came along, the local rulers of Cairo had overlooked the strategic value of the hill above the city. But within a few years of his arrival in Cairo in 1168, Saladin began making plans for the defense of the city with al-Qala’a – the Citadel – as the key element.
History
In the 12th century, Saladin and his successors built an impenetrable bastion in the Citadel, using the most advanced construction techniques of the age. For the next 700 years, Egypt was ruled from this hill.
During the 1330s al-Nasir Muhammad, who ruled on three different occasions for a total of 42 years (AD 1293-1340) and was considered the greatest Mamluk sultan, tore down most of the Ayyubid buildings to make room for his own needs, which included several palaces and a mosque in addition to barracks for his army.
These, too, were not to last, for when the Ottoman Muhammad ‘Aliassumed power in the 1800s he had all the Mamluk buildings razed and the complex entirely rebuilt; only the green-domed mosque and a fragment of al-Qasr al-Ablaq (the striped palace) remain. The Citadel’s appearance today is the vision of Muhammad ‘Ali, particularly the mosque that bears his name.
What to See
Nothing remains of the original fortress except a part of the walls and Bir Yusuf, the well that supplied the Citadel with water. The Ayyubid walls that circle the northern enclosure are 33 ft tall and 10 ft thick; they and their towers were built with the experience gleaned from the Crusader wars.
The Muhammad ‘Ali Mosque is the most noticeable in all of Cairo; for more than 150 years it has dominated the skyline. Ottoman law prohibited anyone but the sultan from building a mosque with more than one minaret, but this mosque has two. This was one of Muhammad ‘Ali’s first indications that he did not intend to remain submissive to Istanbul.
Behind Muhammad ‘Ali’s gilded mosque stands a far more elegant one, the Mosque of al-Nasir Muhammad. The beautifully crafted masonry, the elegant proportions, the ornate but controlled work on the minarets all indicate that the building is a Mamluk work of art. The conquering Ottomans carried much of the original interior decoration off to Istanbul, but the space is nevertheless impressive. The supporting columns around the courtyard were collected from various sources including ancient Egyptian structures.
Coptic Museum, Cairo
Housing the world’s largest collection of Coptic Christian artwork, the Coptic Museum in Cairo is a must-see for visitors interested in Christian art or Egyptian history after the pharaohs.
History
The Coptic Museum was founded in 1910 and recently reopened after extensive renovations.
What to See
The Coptic Museum is generally arranged by artistic medium. The first floor has carved stone and stucco, frescoes, and woodwork. The second floor includes textiles, manuscripts, icons, and metalwork.
The collection includes many exquisite works of art, as well as some artifacts notable for their religious syncretism – the gradual transformation of the Egyptian ankh into the cross and divine sun discs into halos, Christian scenes incorporating Egyptian gods, and ancient Egyptian columns transformed into baptismal fonts.
Some of the Nag Hammadi manuscripts, important early copies of Gnostic-Christian writings like the Gospel of Thomas, are upstairs.
Abbaye de la Cambre, Brussels
The Abbaye de la Cambre is a former abbey nestled in a lovely little wooded dell in Brussels.
History
The abbey was founded in medieval times but was suppressed by the French Revolutionary army. The attractive 18th-century brick buildings of the abbey, which surround a pretty little courtyard, are now used by several government departments.
What to See
On the courtyard is the main entrance to the lovely little abbey church (Notre Dame de la Cambre), with a simple barrel-vaulted nave. The church is an amalgamation of styles incorporating both Gothic and Classical features.
Inside is one marvellous painting, Albert Bouts’ The Mocking of Christ, an early 16th-century work showing a mournful, blood-spattered Jesus.
Behind the abbey’s buildings are walled and terraced gardens, an oasis of peace away from the hubbub of avenue Louise.
The Holy Spirit in the Trinity and His Mission in the World
by Rev. William G. Most
We already said the most essential things about the Holy Spirit in explaining the first article of the Creed. Let us add a few things here.
He makes holy the souls of the just by His presence. But a Spirit is not present in the sense of taking up space. We say a Spirit is present wherever it causes an effect. In the soul, the Holy Spirit transforms it, making it basically capable of taking in, after death, the infinite streams of knowledge and love that flow within the Holy Trinity. Thus we are really “sharers in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). This is a dignity so great that any earthly honor is insignificant beside it.
He comes with his Seven Gifts. These make the soul capable of taking in the special lights and inspirations He sends in a much higher way than what is had in ordinary graces. We do not notice much of any effects from these Gifts until we have advanced rather far in the spiritual life, for great docility and purity of heart are needed.
On Pentecost the Holy Spirit came down visibly on the Apostles. He gave them the power to speak in strange tongues to the crowds that came to Jerusalem for that Feast. He also transformed them, from selfish and timid men into giants of courage and faith.
Taken from The Basic Catholic Catechism
PART FOUR: The Apostle’s Creed VI-VIII
Eighth Article: “I believe in the Holy Spirit”