Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 311

Epiphany Picture Gallery

Go here for a splendid picture gallery of Epiphany celebrations around the world.

English Catholicism Day Conference

Here's the personal story: I was newly converted to the Catholic faith. I had left my beautiful vicarage in the English countryside and was unemployed and didn't quite know what we were going to do and somewhere or other I met this bubbly, enthusiastic, somewhat eccentric Englishwoman named Joanna Bogle.



Joanna was an established writer, journalist and book author. She met me outside Westminster Cathedral in London and was thrilled to hear my conversion story and took me to Army and Navy for a cup of tea in the cafeteria and invited me to join the Catholic Writer's Guild. I went along--even though by then I had hardly published anything at all. She introduced me to some people, and I met Tom Longford who liked my idea for a book of English conversion stories like Surprised by Truth. So my first book idea was published and I went on from there. Joanna has stayed in touch over the years, and she's here in the USA to do some work for EWTN so I have invited her to come to Greenville and join us for a day conference. After that she's heading up to Washington for the March for Life before flying back to the damp lands.



Joseph Pearce I also met while in England. I began writing for his magazine, St Austin Review, and when he was visiting from Ave Maria he and his wife stopped in for a visit in our home in Chippenham. Little did we imagine that some five years later we would both be living in Greenville, South Carolina, tapping and typing--with him having an increasing reputation as one of the best English literary biographers, and me toiling away in our little parish.



So why don't you come and meet Joanna and Joseph. The Day conference will be an informal affair--no big deal. It's at Our Lady of the Rosary Church. It only costs $15.00 and that includes lunch. The talks will be interesting and fun. Joanna and Joseph are two of the best speakers as well as writers around. Because he lives in Greenville, Joseph will be there most of the day, and usually to hear him you would have a much heftier registration fee.



Here's the program for the day: Call the parish office to register in advance: (864) 422 1648

8:30 - Registration and Refreshments



9:00 - Deacon Ballard - Opening Comments - Why English Catholicism is Important for Americans Today



9:15 - Fr Longenecker - Merry Ole' England - Life in the English Middle Ages



9:45 - Joanna Bogle - Feasts and Seasons - How to Celebrate the Catholic Faith English Style



10:30 - Break



10:45 - Joseph Pearce - The Jolly Prophet - The Importance of G.K.Chesterton Today



11:30 - Fr Longenecker - C.S.Lewis and J.R.R.Tolkien - Conversion and Catholicism



12:00 - Lunch - Book Signings



12:45 - Holy Rosary Before the Image of Our Lady of Walsingham



1:15 - Joseph Pearce - Searching for Shakespeare - Was Shakespeare Catholic?



2:00 - Break



2:15 - Joanna Bogle - Catholicism in Tension - The Catholic Church in Britain Today



3:00 - Plenary Session - Questions



3:15 - Deacon Ballard - Closing Comments



3:30 - Departure



4:00 - Confessions, Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction






5:15 - Parish Vigil Mass

Jesus and Mary - Mary and Jesus

One of my favorite questions for Protestants is, "You couldn't have Jesus without Mary, so why do you want to have Jesus without Mary?"



Catholics have for ever insisted that there was a unique bond between Jesus and Mary. Galatians 4:4 says, "In the fullness of time God sent forth his Son born OF a woman." Not "through" a woman but "of". Prepositions are important.



We believe that the Blessed Virgin was not just a conduit or channel for the Son of God to come into the world. Instead he took his human flesh from his human mother. In other words Jesus would have looked like Mary, and Mary would have resembled Jesus. I guess if you want to see what Mary looked like you would have to imagine the man of the Shroud of Turin, but in female form and not so beat up.



Catholics have always insisted that this close bond between Jesus and Mary means that she shares in his joys and sorrows--indeed in his whole life in an intimate way. Indeed, in a far more intimate way than any other child and mother since he took his whole human flesh from her. So St Paul says in I Corinthians, "Man cannot be without woman nor woman without man." First Adam and First Even and Second Adam and Second Eve. Man and Wife one flesh. Man and Mother. One flesh.



Now there is this very cool research that has been done to show that the child's stem cells remain in the mother's body. Not only do some of them remain in the mother's body, but they remain active. They do stuff. It's kind of like they are alive in her. Mothers--the bond with your child is more literal and real than you think. You can read the article here that explains this beautiful reality.



What are the implications for the incarnation? It means Jesus remained in Mary in a real and amazing way. "A sword shall pierce your own heart also." Mary the sorrowful mother identified with her son's passion and with all his works because he remained in her and she in him.



This is a physical sign of a greater truth we believe about the Mother of God--that her union with her Son is a sign of the spiritual reality that we all experience through the life of grace: that Christ is in me, the hope of glory--that he is the vine and I am the branches--that for me to live is Christ--that I am baptized into him--that he is in me and I am in him.



When I am born again what was a physical reality for the Blessed Mother becomes a spiritual and ontological reality in me.



Yes. Christ is in me...the hope of glory.



Takes my breath away!

Three Wise Men...

... or Three Stooges. Here is my latest article for Crisis Magazine.

Neumann and Chaput

I believe St John Neumann was not a large man. Physically short and frail, he was nevertheless a terrier of a bishop--tireless and fervent in all that he attempted. Read more about him here and here. What a dynamo! Serving the poor, establishing parishes, building churches, building schools, learning umpteen languages. Lord, give me a portion of that energy and focus! St John Neumann pray for us!



What struck me today at Mass for St John Neumann is that he did all this in the midst of great opposition. He faced poverty and persecution (the Know Nothings) and hardship and peril. He was an immigrant and away from his home country, yet see what he did in Philadelphia!



Now the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has another "little guy" to lead it. Archbishop Chaput has taken the helm of a diocese reeling under yet more stories of corrupt priests, financial crisis and seemingly terminal decline.  Parishes and schools must be closed and consolidated. There is a shortage of priests. There is loss of faith. There is heresy and complacency and persecution and resistance. See how Chaput has begun to face this head on from the beginning by reading his letter--which Jimmy Akin fisks here. All of this St John Neumann also battled. All of this all of us have in one way or another if we seek to proclaim the gospel and be faithful to the cross of Christ. To be a priest, to be one of the faithful baptized we must battle all these things.



Abp. Chaput has gone into the storm with a firm resolve to put things right. It will be interesting to see how things go in Philadelphia. I think what we are witnessing is the beginning of a great change within the American church. The old establishment, complacent, cultural Catholic church of the great cities is dying, and if not dying, then evolving into something very different. This article by Fr. McCloskey explains what is going to be required: a leaner, more efficient and committed Catholic population. We must be "Intentional Disciples"-- equipped to evangelize, sacrifice and live the faith of the apostles in a way that is, as yet, unexpected and unpredicted and unimagined by many Catholics.



We will have to have the same, astringent and invigorating missionary spirit that charged St John Neumann. I believe Archbishop Chaput has such a spirit as he begins his new task.



I hope and pray he succceeds. May St John Neumann--his saintly predecessor intercede for him.

The Masks We Wear

Randy Hain encourages us to "get real" for the new year. How phony are you? How many different masks do you wear? You put on your career mask to please your boss and fit in. Then you put on your parent mask or your child mask. Then you put on your friend mask.



We all have to do this from time to time in different ways. That's how society works. However, we also have to be authentic. We need courage to actually be ourselves. The problem with being ourselves is that we don't trust who we really are. We worry that the unhappy, insecure, immature and selfish person will show his face.



So we plaster on that happy smiling face, but the smiling face is too often a grimace. We plaster it on in the morning and expect it to stay put. When we do we're kind of like botox victims. We have a plastic face which we present to everyone.



The problem with being more real is that our dark side might show. We might reveal things we wish to keep hidden. The only answer therefore is to be transformed from the inside out. Only when we are beautiful on the inside--full of the Holy Spirit and full of Christ's love--will we have the confidence to be totally real.



Remember the story of the Velveteen Rabbit? He only became real by being loved.



So what's the answer? Pray More. Only in prayer will we be truly transformed.



Read Randy's article here.

The Politics of Oz

Someone said Mitt Romney was "Slick and robotic." Sounds like the Tin Man to me, and I think that is why he doesn't inspire enthusiasm. He's too canned, too rich, too slick, too entitled. Just another rich guy from a rich family who can buy the White House. More of the same.



Meanwhile, the people respond to a person with "heart". Santorum has heart. He speaks from personal conviction. He speaks and acts according to his beliefs, and people like that. They like it a lot. But if Romney is the Tin Man without a heart is Santorum the lovable Scarecrow without a brain? If he's being quoted correctly, I worry that he's said some stuff that is well, dumb. Go to war with Iran? Please, not another Middle Eastern adventure.



So is Ron Paul--the cowardly Lion? He seems too isolationist, too disengaged. Does he lack backbone? Does he lack that pro active warrior spirit that is required? Dunno. He certainly has brains. What he says seems smart. He has heart and passion but does he have the will to succeed?



Newt Gingrich? He's the grumpy gate keeper isn't he? "Washington? The Emerald City? Naah. You're not getting in here!"



Rick Perry's got to be Toto...running along behind everybody else yapping at their heels.



Dorothy? That must be Bachmann...and she already went home to Kansas...err I mean Iowa.



Wicked Witch of the West? Nancy Pelosi...



...and I'll let you figure out who the flying monkey is.

Made the Top Twenty!

Marcel LeJeune puts this blog among the Top Twenty Catholic Blogs. Thanks Marcel!



The agreed payment will be in the mail to you shortly...

St Elizabeth Ann Seton

St.Elizabeth Ann Seton






Go married former Anglicans!

Liturgical Cookies

Winter Holiday Cookie Recipe (1970s Version)

Serves: All.

Get some butter, margarine, or other oil-like substance of your choice. Also get some sugar or other sweetener. (Note: exact amounts are patriarchal and legalistic! It's up to each person to decide how much of these ingredients to use!)

Mix them together, apologizing to each for inflicting this oppression on them; use the opportunity to reflect on injustice.

Now add an egg, unless you are a vegan and you'd be offended. Stir the egg in vigorously but don't "beat" it, because "beating" is violent and wrong.

In another dish, preferably an earthenware bowl of no particular design that is by its sheer ugliness authentic and real, mix some flour and salt. Add this, with some cruelty-free vanilla, to the butter/sugar/egg, or margarine/sugar substitute/no egg, or whatever you've done so far.

Make sure everyone has a chance to stir the dough so that all will feel welcome. Then chill the dough in the refrigerator for a time, and ponder the coldness of the old, rigid way of making cookies compared to this new enlightened approach.

Bake the cookies in a reasonably hot oven. You can, if you like, use cookie cutters, but free-form dough shapes are more compelling and tell their own stories, while cookie cutters impose dull uniformity and inflexible shapes on the dough, which is really sad when you think about it.

The cookies are done when you feel like they're done! Serve them to groups of people sitting in circles on the ground, because we don't want to get all formal or anything.



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Christmas Cookie Recipe (Revised Translation)



Serves: You and many.



Having procured one chalice butter, 2/3 chalice sugar, cream these ingredients, that by their commingling, you may begin to make the dough.



In a similar way, the butter is having been made commingled, with the sugar, beat in one egg.



Gather these dry ingredients to yourself, which you have received, so that, having combined them, you may add them to the dough which you have already begun to make: 2 1/2 chalices sifted all-purpose flour. 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon vanilla.



Make the precious dough with your venerable hands.



Into the refrigerator graciously place the dough, so that it, having been chilled for the duration of 3 or 4 hours, before the rolling and the the cutting of the cookies.



When, in the fullness of time, you are a ready to bake these spotless cookies, these delicious cookies, these Christmas cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.



Rolling out the dough and taking up the cookie cutter or stencil of your own choosing, fashion the cookies into forms that are pleasing.



Sprinkle colorful adornments of the cookies like the dewfall.



Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the cookies have just begun to attain to the brownness that is graciously granted them by the oven's heat.



May these cookies be found acceptable in your sight, and be borne to a place of refreshment at your table whereon they may be served with milk, hot chocolate, or with your spirits.