by Paul Brian Campbell, SJ  

One day I was walking through an open field and in the distance my eye caught sight of something in the pasture grass, some movements. As I approached nearer and nearer I noticed a great, big monarch butterfly fluttering its wings frantically. It was caught, but the sad and strange part about it was that its beauty — its wings — were holding it down, captive. Three long strands of grass loosely connected at the top enclosed it, but because the wings were so huge these three tee-pee forming blades of grass were enough to keep the butterfly from escaping into the open spaces and using its most beautiful attributes. If it would only calm down and slowly walk away from this very loosely knit cage it could fly away forever and be free.

Calm down, butterfly.

It is your beauty that is keeping you captive,

your beautiful large wings.

Calm down… and walk away… then fly, fly, fly…

– written on July 13,1986 by the late Ray Desgroseilliers, S.J.

The new editor of the influential Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica has compared Apple co-founder Steve Jobs with St Ignatius Loyola and Pope Pius XI. Speaking on Vatican Radio, Father Antonio Spadaro SJ said that Jobs, like Pius XI, who founded Vatican Radio and built the Vatican train station, recognized the importance of expanding communication.

According to Fr Spadaro, Jobs, who died at the age of 56 on October 5 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, made technology part of the lives of millions and millions of people, not just technicians.

“Steve Jobs had something in common with Pius XI and that is that he understood that communication is the greatest value we have at our disposal today and we must make it bear fruit,” the Jesuit told Vatican Radio, adding that Jobs had a “great ability to believe in dreams, to see life not only in terms of little daily things, but to have a vision in front of him. Basically, Steve Jobs’ most important message was this, ‘Stay hungry, stay foolish’ – in other words, maintain the ability to see life in new ways.”

The ‘stay hungry’ quote was from a commencement address Jobs gave at California’s Stanford University in 2005. Follow the link below to listen to what he said. Some of the points he made echoed what the founder of the Jesuits, St Ignatius of Loyola, preached. In his Spiritual Exercises, St Ignatius wrote that one way of making an important choice is to examine how one would go about making that decision if he knew he were about to die. Jobs told the new graduates in 2005: ‘Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.’

Father Spadaro wrote in his blog: “In the cases of Ignatius and Steve, death isn’t a bogeyman,’ but is present as a reminder that in the face of death, the only thing that remains is what is truly important for each person. Acknowledging that he did not know whether the founder of Apple was a believer, he wrote that in the Stanford speech, Jobs was ‘speaking simply about the interior disposition one must have when making important decisions in life, focusing on what counts. No one, believer or non-believer, can make choices in life if he thinks he’s immortal.”

Under the headline ‘The talented Mr Apple,’ the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano put news of Jobs’ death on its front page. “Steve Jobs was one of the protagonists and symbols of the Silicon Valley revolution,’ which brought changes not only in technology, (but) also a ‘revolution of customs, mentality and culture,’ it said. Jobs was ‘a visionary who united technology and art,’ the paper said. He was a man of ‘talent, pure talent.”

Index of Shalom  November 2011 

• Praying with the Church
• The Road to Daybreak – A Spiritual Journey

31st Week in Ordinary Time

• 1 Nov  All Saints
• 2 Nov  All Souls
• 3 Nov  St Martin de Porres
• 4 Nov
• 5 Nov

32nd Week in Ordinary Time

• 6 Nov  Sunday
• 7 Nov
• 8 Nov
• 9 Nov  Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
• 10 Nov
• 11 Nov  St Martin of Tours
• 12 Nov

33rd Week in Ordinary Time

• 13 Nov  Sunday
• 14 Nov
• 15 Nov
• 16 Nov
• 17 Nov  St Elizabeth of Hungary
• 18 Nov  Dedication of Basilicas of Peter and Paul
• 19 Nov

34th Week in Ordinary Time

• 20 Nov  Sunday
• 21 Nov  Presentation of the BVM
• 22 Nov  St Cecilia, Patroness of musicians & choir
• 23 Nov  St Clement I, pope
• 24 Nov  Ss Andrew Dung-Lac, priest and Companions
• 25 Nov  St Catharine of Alexandria, Virgin & martyr
• 26 Nov

1st Week of Advent

• 27 Nov  Sunday
• 28 Nov
• 29 Nov
• 30 Nov  St Andrew, Apostle

Bendu (Benoit Vermander) exhibits around sixty of his paintings in Shanghai from November 5th to 30th at DPARK (see details below). On the day of the opening (November 5th), from 2pm on, he also signs his books (click here to access his bibliography).

Opening on November 5th – From 2pm to 5pm, books dedication with Benoit Vermander, cocktail at 6pm.

Nov. 5th – Nov. 30th

DPARK
N°738, Changyang rd, 200082,
Shanghai China
Tel: +86 (0) 21 51607676
For taxi: Changyang rd,Tongbei rd.

James Martin, S.J., explains why joy and laughter are essential to the spiritual life and why they have been too often neglected in the church.

Discussing his new book, Between Heaven and Mirth, Fr. Martin retells some humorous stories from the Bible, and remembers the lives of light-hearted saints like Philip Neri.

He also shares why he finds joy in his vocation and how he remains joyful even in difficult times. Illustrations by Anita Kunz.

St Pierre de Montmartre, one of the oldest churches of Paris

In 1534, Ignatius and his companions went to the church of Sainte Pierre in the village of Montmartre north of Paris, and took vows to work together as a company. It was an important moment because this band of brothers soon became the first Jesuits. When my wife and I went to Paris a couple of weeks ago to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary, I was eager to visit this spot.

On the day we visited, Sainte Pierre didn’t look much like the church in the painting by Maurice Utrillo above. Trucks and cars were parked in front and the small courtyard was filled with booths for a street fair.

We were stunned when we walked inside. An experimental video with some disturbing imagery was playing on a screen in front of the altar, accompanied by a loud and harsh sound track. The video was part of an arts festival. Either the pastor or a friend of his had created it; our French wasn’t good enough to fully understand the explanation from a somewhat chagrined church secretary.

This wasn’t what I was expecting. I was disappointed and a little angry. But then Ignatius and his companions didn’t get what they were expecting either when they made their vows. They thought that God would send them to serve in the Holy Land. They implemented Plan B – putting themselves at the disposal of the pope – when travel to the Holy Land proved impossible.

Things change. Montmartre was a quiet village on a hill overlooking Paris when the companions made their vows in 1534. No doubt they wanted a quiet place to pray and reflect. Today Montmartre is a lively, noisy place with throngs of Parisians and tourists enjoying the restaurants, cafes, and art galleries. It’s a place well-suited to the Ignatian spirit.

We went back to Sainte Pierre a few days later when the arts festival was over. The video was gone. The church was quiet. The light was soft. (At the left is stained glass window depicting St. Ignatius.) It was a good time to thank God for what happened here in 1534.

by Paul Brian Campbell, SJ   

The Master seemed quite impervious to what people thought of him. When the disciples asked how he had attained this stage of inner freedom, he laughed aloud and said:

“Till I was twenty I did not care what people thought of me.

After twenty I worried endlessly about what my neighbors thought.

Then one day after fifty I suddenly saw that they hardly ever thought of me at all.”

By Tim Muldoon 

In his forthcoming book Catholicism, Fr. Robert Barron makes the passing observation that Jesus was a layman: he was not trained in one of the formal rabbinical schools, or a priest or scribe of the tribe of Levi.

Jesus was not, to use contemporary language, part of the religious “establishment.” Some would make him therefore into a kind of hero of liberation-the gritty iconoclast who critiqued the Powers That Be.

Yet that kind of image speaks more of us than of Him. We love the stories of the pilgrims, the pioneers, the cowboys, the rebels: those who forge their own path, who choose (to use Robert Frost’s image) “the road less traveled by.”

Jesus the layman was not Jesus the rebel. On the contrary, he sought God’s kingdom. He sought to unite Israel and to bring people of other nations together under the kingship of the Father. What he hoped for was the perfection of the establishment that God had already begun in Israel over its history.

In imitating Christ, our aim is not to forge our own way, but to work with vigor toward the establishment of that same kingdom, to build a church of real people and not of vague ideas. Our aim is perfect conformity to God’s will in communion with others.

Whether we are cleric or lay, we are called in service to different roles in the building up of that kingdom. We imitate Jesus the layman who becomes Jesus the new High Priest precisely because his will and the will of the Father are one.

The task of the lay person today is thus in one sense no different from that of the cleric: to embed ourselves in the life of the Church in order that our will might be conformed to that of Christ. His church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic: established to serve the Father, of one united will to reflect God’s greater glory. One of the great tasks of the spiritual life is to learn how one’s own will might decrease in order that His might increase. Let us sit at the feet of Christ’s body, the church, and learn how to participate in the building of that kingdom.

Tim Muldoon is a Catholic theologian, author, speaker, and retreat leader specializing in the ways that Church traditions speak to contemporary life. He has written extensively on the themes of young adult spirituality, Ignatian spirituality, theology in postmodernity, sexuality and marriage, and adoption issues. 

by Kathy Henry

“But why do I have to tell my sins to a priest? Can’t I just go directly to God?”

This time it’s the Confirmation students asking the question. And yes, you can pray directly to God, and God has already forgiven our sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But perhaps we have missed the point of sacramental reconciliation. As catechetical leaders, it is our responsibility to meet people where they are and lead them gently to a new place on their personal faith journey. Coming to the Lord in the Sacrament of Reconciliation with an open heart and willing spirit can be instrumental in moving forward. As I prepare to meet with the parents of the second graders who will be receiving this sacrament of healing for the first time, I know the question will arise again. So what can I do for these parents, for their children, and for the Confirmation students that may stir in them a desire to meet the Lord in this sacrament?

Discussion of the Sacrament of Reconciliation at a Parent Meeting

I find it helpful to begin with a nonthreatening exploration of their personal attitudes and beliefs regarding the Catholic Church in general and the Sacrament of Reconciliation in particular. I use a very simple reflection sheet that asks each person to privately reflect on five questions:

1. What is your attitude toward the Church?
2. What feelings are evoked when thinking about confession?
3. How would you describe sin?
4. By what means do you reflect on your own conscience formation?
5. In what way have you experienced forgiveness most intensely?

After everyone has had an opportunity to think about the issue, I invite sharing within the group. It also helps for me to reflect on whether or not my own attitudes and beliefs have changed since the last time I held this meeting! Then we pray together, asking for open hearts and minds as we approach this sacrament with our children.

A Scripture reading and a brief presentation breaking open the Word of God follows, providing some biblical and theological background. Two of my favorite stories are the healing of the paralytic (Mark 2) and the healing of the woman healed of hemorrhages (Mark 5). In both passages we have the opportunity to explore several important points:

• We acknowledge our belief that our God is a loving, merciful, and forgiving God, and we are all in need of healing. The woman cured recognized that she was sick, that nothing she could do would cure her, and that Jesus has the power to heal her. The paralytic and his friends recognized the importance of a personal encounter with Jesus. The emphasis is not on the sickness but on the healing. What happens in sacramental reconciliation is no less miraculous than what happened to the paralytic or the woman. Jesus heals us of our brokenness. Do you believe Jesus can heal you?
• We acknowledge our need to recognize, name, and confess our sins. If we cannot think of what it is we’ve done that offends God, or we never take the time to do so, we need to take a closer look at our relationship with God. We are all sinners. There is a real need for us not only to acknowledge our sinfulness, but to name our sins so we can work towards overcoming them. In order to grow closer to God, we need to recognize what it is that is keeping us away from God. Sacramental reconciliation provides the opportunity for us to identify our sin, name it, repent of it, and seek forgiveness for it. Only then can we move forward.
• We acknowledge our belief in the communal nature of the Body of Christ and the role of the Church in leading and guiding God’s people. Our communal celebrations of the sacraments witness to our reliance on the whole Body of Christ as we make our way through this life. We are not in this alone. And we recognize that our sinfulness not only affects our personal relationship with God, but it affects our relationships with our brothers and sisters. Celebrating communally the presence of God in our brokenness and in our healing, we are strengthened to move forward together.

Finally, we return to the first question, “Why must I confess my sins to a priest?” Instead of asking this question, I invite parents and students to think instead about why participating in the Sacrament of Reconciliation might be valuable for their own spiritual journey. How might we adjust our attitudes toward this sacrament? How can we develop habits of examining our consciences, forming virtuous hearts, and strengthening our relationships with God and neighbor? And how can we foster positive, healthy attitudes in our children?

As we approach the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we must be aware of the perceptions, attitudes, and feelings we have toward the Church and sacraments. We must have opportunities to reflect on our own relationship with Christ. Learning to be a forgiving person and learning to approach God and others for forgiveness are necessary aspects of Christian life and must take place in every dimension of our lives.

What else would you include in a parent meeting or conversation about the Sacrament of Reconciliation?

John Ogilvie, the son of a wealthy Scottish laird, was born in 1579 into a respected family near Keith in Banffshire, Scotland which was partly Calvinist and partly Catholic. He was sent to be educated in mainland Europe where he attended a number of Catholic colleges, under the Benedictines at Regensburg in Germany and with the Jesuits at Olomouc and Brno in the present day Czech Republic.

In a religiously divided Europe, he became interested in the debates between Catholics and Calvinists. Confused by the arguments of some Catholic scholars, he turned to Scripture. He was particularly struck by two texts: “God wills all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” and “Come to me all you who are weary and find life burdensome, and I will refresh you”. Gradually he began to see that it was the Catholic Church which could accept all kinds of people and he was impressed by the Church’s many martyrs. He decided to become a Catholic. In 1596, at the age of 17, he was received into the Church at Leuven, Belgium.

In 1608 he entered the Jesuits and was ordained a priest with them in Paris in 1610. It was then that he met two Jesuits who had just returned from Scotland after having been arrested and put in prison. With the tightening of the Penal Laws, which forbade preaching or endorsing Catholicism, they saw little hope of missionary work there. But their story got John thinking and over the next two and a half years he begged to be sent to the Scottish mission, especially to the few remaining Catholics in the Glasgow area.

With the blessing of his superiors, he entered Scotland in November 1613 variously disguised as a horse trader or as a soldier returning from wars in Europe. But, unable to do any meaningful work among the small number of Catholics, he returned to Paris to speak with his superiors. Rebuked for leaving his assignment, he was sent back to Scotland. Now he got down to his mission, secretly celebrating Mass in Catholic homes and even making some converts.

However, his ministry was to last less than a year. In 1614, he was betrayed and arrested in Glasgow and taken to jail in Paisley.

His trial dragged on until he had been without food for 26 hours. He was put in prison and not allowed to sleep. For eight days and nights he was dragged around, prodded with sharp sticks, his hair pulled out. Still, he refused to reveal the names of Catholics or to acknowledge the authority of the king in Church affairs. He underwent a second and a third trial but held firm. At his final trial, in a statement reminiscent of St Thomas More, he told his judges: “In all that concerns the king, I will be slavishly obedient; if any attack his temporal power, I will shed my last drop of blood for him. But in the things of spiritual jurisdiction which a king unjustly seizes I cannot and must not obey.”

John was finally convicted of high treason, because he converted Protestants to the Catholic faith as well as denied the king’s spiritual jurisdiction by upholding the primacy of the Pope and condemning the oaths of supremacy and allegiance to the Crown.

On 10 March 1615, aged 36 years, John Ogilvie was paraded through the streets of Glasgow and hanged at Glasgow Cross. His last words were: “If there be here any hidden Catholics, let them pray for me but the prayers of heretics I will not have.” After he was pushed from the ladder, he threw his concealed rosary beads out into the crowd. The tale is told that one of his enemies caught them and later became a devout Catholic.

Following his execution, Ogilvie’s followers were rounded up and put in jail. They suffered heavy fines but none received the death penalty.

As a martyr of the Counter-Reformation John Ogilvie was beatified in 1929 and canonised in 1976. He is the only post-Reformation saint from Scotland.