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Eucharist as Communion

Posted on by Josh Perry

In this final part of our look at Catholic belief around the Eucharist, we take a look at the effects of the Eucharist, which can be summed up in one word: communion. When we talk about the Eucharist at Mass, we often use the word “communion” and phrases such as “going to communion.” This is for good reason.

When we speak of communion, though, we aren’t necessarily referring to the object of the Eucharist (a better phrase to describe the object of the Eucharist is “Real Presence”) or the action of the Eucharist (a better phrase to describe the action of the Eucharist is “sacrifice”). Rather, when we speak of communion, we are best referring to the effects of the Eucharist, the effects of the Real Presence and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in our lives.

When I train extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, I like to remind them that at the heart of their ministry is the act of giving and a receiving of the Eucharist. That action lasts only a moment with each communicant, but in that action, there are three relationships that are nourished and strengthened.

The first relationship is the vertical relationship — the relationship between God and the communicant. The Eucharist strengthens our union with God. This is what we most often think about when we think about the effects of the Eucharist — that the Eucharist draws us closer to God. This is an invisible grace that remains with us even after Mass. And if we allow that grace to work within us, it very powerfully re-configures our entire life to be in union with Christ. This union is the most powerful gift God gives us to help us on our continual path of conversion. We move from being people who “receive communion at Mass” to people who live in communion with God. We move from simply receiving the Eucharist at Mass to living a Eucharistic life — a life rooted in communion with God that allows us to always give thanks. When we share communion with God, we cannot but help share in God’s love.

The second relationship is the horizontal relationship — the relationship between the communicant and the Body of Christ, the Church. “The Eucharist makes the Church” as French theologian and priest Henri de Lubac would say. The Eucharist strengthens our communion with the Church. We recognize our communion is strengthened with our brothers and sisters who are with us at Mass, but do we recognize that our union with Catholics throughout the world is also strengthened? The beauty of this communion is that it transcends place, culture, ethnicity, socio-economic status, citizenship status, and political belief. What would the world look like if we lived our daily life in that communion? “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35). And this communion in the Church gives us hope, for not only is our union with those in the Church on Earth strengthened, but also our union with those who have gone before us in faith — the Church Triumphant. The Eucharist even transcends death.

Listen carefully to the latter half of the Eucharistic Prayer, and you will hear the Church praying for this unity established in the Eucharist, unity with God, with one another, with the saints in heaven. Listen carefully, and pray it well!

— Josh Perry is the director of the Office of Worship for the Diocese of Burlington.

—Originally published in the Oct. 21-27, 2023, edition of The Inland See.

 

 

Author tells how Jesuit priest profoundly influenced Alcoholics Anonymous

Posted on by Submitted Article

For her first talk in the home state of Alcoholics Anonymous’s two Yankee Protestant founders Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, author Dawn Eden Goldstein stressed the spiritual basics — humility, love, and service – behind the good works of both non-denominational AA and one of the fellowship’s best Catholic friends, the late Jesuit Father Edward Dowling.

Goldstein built her talk at St. Michael’s College Oct. 17 around her new book — “Father Ed: The Story of Bill W’s Spiritual Sponsor” — that describes the priest’s keen interest in and profound influence upon AA and his close friendship with Wilson, who grew up in southwestern Vermont. “Dr. Bob” came from the Northeast Kingdom.

Goldstein spoke about Father Dowling’s essential humility, alongside his delight in connecting the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits, to AA’s “Twelve Steps,” leading to a lifetime close friendship with Wilson that amounted to being the AA founder’s “spiritual sponsor,” as the late Wilson once put it.

The speaker, a former writer and copy editor, was received into the Catholic Church in 2006 after being raised in Judaism and then having a born-again Christian experience in 1999.

Edmundite Father David Theroux, director of the campus-based and event-sponsoring Edmundite Center for Faith and Culture, introduced the speaker and shared some of her history: Born in New York City, Goldstein began her working life as a rock-and-roll historian. She went on to editorial positions at the New York Post and the Daily News before publishing her first of several books in 2006. In 2016, she became the first woman to earn a doctorate in sacred theology from the University of St. Mary of the Lake. In 2023, she received a licentiate in Canon Law from the Catholic University of America.

She said that as a non-alcoholic, she personally identified closely with Father Dowling’s words that his not being an alcoholic made him “underprivileged,” given the great gifts that he had witnessed through AA.

She said the priest, who died in 1960, “loved ministering to humble people” – that is, “the least of these” of Matthew’s Gospel, which were words Father Dowling “took very much to heart.”

Goldstein said that fact motivated her to speak on three points relating to Father Dowing, Wilson and humility: “How Father Ed as a young Jesuit gained his love of humility; how he brought his life of humility into work of AA and friendship with Bill; and how his encounter with the humility of AA members strengthened him in his ministry.”

She shared engaging and sometimes humorous stories that brought forth the priest’s humanity and simplicity: a star baseball player nicknamed “Puggy” in his St. Louis youth, his spiritual crisis that amounted to a “dark night of the soul” in novitiate with the Jesuits that helped him relate to alcoholics “hitting bottom,” his physical suffering from a calcified spine. She also told of Father Dowling’s great interest in journalism and politics, including activism advocating for true democracy, with insights ahead of his time (as were his pre-Vatican-II ecumenical instincts on the spiritual front, she said).

Goldstein said Father Dowling felt what really saved him in his early spiritual crisis was “the negative path to God.” He said that if he ever found himself in Heaven, “it will be by backing away from hell,” she related.

“That’s how young Puggy found humility and made his surrender,” said Goldstein, who characterized this as a perfectly valid spiritual path, both in AA experience and Catholic theology.

— Mark Tarnacki

—Originally published at smcvt.edu/about-smc/news

Having a chapel is ‘transformative’ for Mater Christi School

Posted on by Cori Urban

Before Mater Christi School purchased the former Mount St. Mary Convent — and with it its chapel — in Burlington, students attended Mass in the school gym, the same place they had basketball practice and school events.

But since last year, the former convent’s Chapel of the Sacred Heart — where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved — has been used for more than just school Masses. It’s used for school such things as retreats, adoration, morning and private prayer, and school choir concerts. It’s also used by the Sisters of Mercy — who founded Mater Christi School and had their motherhouse at Mount St. Mary — for funerals, jubilee celebrations, and covenant ceremonies. The sisters join the Mater Christi School community for their annual Mercy Day celebration in September.

“Having a chapel is transformative,” said Jason Moore, assistant head of school. “It’s really beautiful.”

Mater Christi’s enrollment has grown to more than 300 students, and not everyone has seen such a sacred space before, he continued, so for them, the chapel is a place to encounter rich Catholic traditions and beauty.

Head of School Tim Loescher said children can be told about the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, but for them to experience that in the chapel is more meaningful.

The chapel was for many years a place for the Sisters of Mercy to be nourished by the Eucharist so they could “go out an be mercy in the world,” said Moore, a Mercy Associate, noting that it’s important for students to get that message and to do the same.

Sister of Mercy Laura DellaSanta, a former Mater Christi principal and current sister life minister for her religious community, said when the former motherhouse became part of Mater Christi, there was a sense of joyful relief and gratitude among the sisters. “It was like Mount St. Mary stayed in the family, and our chapel was once again going to be the sacred space it always was.”

—Originally published in the Fall 2023 issue of Vermont Catholic magazine.

Vermont Catholic Community Foundation annual meeting

Posted on by Vermont Catholic

The eighth annual meeting of the Vermont Catholic Community Foundation took place at St. Catherine of Siena Parish Hall in Shelburne Oct. 19; nearly 100 people attended from parishes around the state to learn more about the foundation’s impact in Vermont.

The foundation investments adhere to the Catholic social teachings and investment guidelines set forth by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and provide a safe, affordable option for Catholic investments. Funds in the foundation are restricted and support 22 cemeteries, five Vermont Catholic Charities programs, 11 diocesan ministries, 29 parishes, 36 Catholic school financial aid and operation funds, and four VCCF charity grants.

Msgr. John McDermott, administrator of the Diocese of Burlington, opened the meeting with a prayer. He acknowledged Hartford Co-adjutor Archbishop Christopher Coyne, 10th bishop of Burlington, for establishing the foundation eight years ago and thanked Ellen Kane, executive director of the Vermont Catholic Community Foundation, for her efforts to grow the foundation.

The Vermont Catholic Community Foundation was established in 2015 to support the apostolic ministries of the Catholic Church in Vermont and support parishes, schools, cemeteries, and charities that help those in need.

“When I started shortly after the foundation was established,” Kane said, “I realized that no funds had been established yet in the foundation, and that is when I adopted the motto ‘with God all things are possible.’”

As of the end of the fiscal year — June 30, 2023 — there were 107 funds and almost $23 million invested.

David Mount, a long-time board member, reported on the investment management of funds in the foundation, celebrating positive returns even in unpredictable markets. “We have had increases of 11.3 percent. This is an amazing amount when we consider the fluctuating market. In the spring of 2023, VCCF distributed earnings to the beneficiaries of the foundation. The distribution was $1,227,328. This was a record distribution for us, exceeding all previous years.”

According to Kane, one of the primary goals of the foundation was to provide a pathway for individuals to leave a legacy of faith for the next generation. She thanked people like Christopher and Delana Braves who recently established two funds honoring family members to support Holy Rosary and St. Mary cemeteries in Richmond and Mount St. Joseph Academy in Rutland. She also celebrated the tripling of the Christ Our Hope Legacy Society with the partnership of FreeWill, a confidential and easy software available to the Catholic community to create a legal will.

“Nearly 70 percent of people do not complete or update their will, including their Catholic burial wishes,” Kane said, “And unfortunately, if family members are not practicing the faith, they may not give their loved one a Catholic burial if it is not requested. And that is why we decided to offer this resource to the Catholic community.”

In addition, the software has an optional prompt to leave a bequest to a Catholic parish, school, ministry, or other charity. “We have been notified about 18 bequests since launching in August,” Kane said. “We are only notified if the individual wants us to know, and we have been overwhelmed by this generosity that is mostly benefiting parishes. This gives them hope for a bright future, and even if the bequests is small, it has a great impact in combination with others.”

Another priority of the foundation is to give back to the community. “I am happy to report that this year we were able to make grants to 13 parish outreach programs that serve the needy in their community ranging from food pantries to migrant worker outreach to meals for shut ins,” Kane said. “We were also able to grow emergency-aid funds that help thousands of households in financial crisis each year through Vermont Catholic Charities.”

Beneficiaries and grant recipients from several ministries shared the impact of the support, including Andrew Nagy, principal of Rice Memorial High School in South Burlington. “We have nearly $2 million endowment funds invested in the foundation, many being financial aid funds,” he said. “Nearly 40 percent of our students receive financial aid, and I am grateful to the foundation and the individuals who established these funds to help make Catholic education accessible.”

Jennifer Patenaude, coordinator of the Mater Dei Parish Food Shelf in Newport said, “With the recent discontinuation of the Covid-19 aid, we have seen a rise in requests for food. We are so grateful to the foundation which has helped us meet this need.”

Patty Lewis, chair of the Catholic Migrant Ministry of Addison County, said the county has Vermont’s largest population of migrant workers. The VCCF grant helped provide monthly Masses in Spanish and meal gatherings for migrant workers and their families.

“We help those in need because we are Catholic not because they are Catholic,” said Mary Beth Pinard, executive director of Vermont Catholic Charities.

Kane concluded the event thanking the community for their trust and generosity to the foundation and the ministries it supports.

For more information about the foundation, go to vtcatholicfoundation.org.

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World Mission Sunday called ‘even more important’ amid wars in Holy Land, Ukraine

Posted on by Our Sunday Visitor

Amid wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, this year’s World Mission Sunday is “even more important” than ever, said an executive from the U.S. offices of the Pontifical Mission Societies.

The universal Catholic Church will mark the observance Oct. 22, and the collection taken up that day forms the primary financial support for the societies, which have a presence in some 1,100 dioceses in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Pacific Islands and parts of Europe.

Pope Francis’ theme for the 2023 World Mission Sunday is “Hearts on fire, feet on the move,” which recalls the encounter between two disciples and the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus (Lk 24:13-35).

In an Oct. 18 message that he recorded for the Pontifical Mission Societies and posted by the societies on X (formerly Twitter), Pope Francis said that World Mission Sunday was about “worship and mission.”

Speaking in Spanish, Pope Francis urged the faithful to “recognize the Father and worship him in spirit and truth, and go out to announce that message. Not as one who proselytizes, but as one who shares a great grace.”

He described it as a mission “shared with brothers,” that says “this is what I feel, this is the grace I received, I pass it on to you, I give it to you.

“You can do this if you are capable of worshipping,” said Pope Francis.

With “the ongoing situation in the world,” World Mission Sunday “should actually open us to be even more generous,” Ines San Martin, vice president of marketing and communications for the societies’ U.S. office, told OSV News from Rome ahead of the observance. “Now more than ever, the church in the Holy Land needs us, the church in Ukraine needs us.”

“The oldest church has to help the youngest church currently suffering so much due to the devastation of war. We at TPMS strive to model peace by supporting all those suffering from conflicts around the world,” Msgr. Kieran Harrington, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies, said.

The societies’ worldwide network, which operates at the service of the pope, consists of four organizations designated as pontifical by Pope Pius XI in 1922.

The Society for the Propagation of the Faith supports the evangelization efforts of the local church; the Missionary Childhood Association educates children about their part in the church’s missionary outreach; the Society of St. Peter the Apostle trains the next generation of missionary clergy and consecrated religious; and the Missionary Union of Priests and Religious focuses on forming clergy, religious and pastoral leaders more deeply in their role as evangelizers.

The collection taken up on World Mission Sunday forms the primary financial support for the Pontifical Mission Societies, with U.S. Catholics donating about $30 million in 2022.

The generosity of the nation’s Catholic faithful “cannot be underscored (enough),” said San Martin.

“World Mission Sunday is a concrete response to what is happening in the world,” she said.

Cardinal Christophe Pierre, papal nuncio to the U.S., noted in a reflection for the autumn 2023 issue of Mission magazine, published by the societies, that the collection makes it possible “to provide annual subsidies to missionary dioceses, and to directly support mission seminaries and religious formation houses, the education of children in mission schools, the building of chapels and churches, as well as sustaining homes for orphaned children, the elderly and the sick.”

The support is far more than financial, said San Martin.

“When we say that (the societies) feed the poor, we do mean hunger, but we also mean the hunger of the soul,” said San Martin. “And World Mission Sunday is a great response to give peace — not just material peace, but also spiritual peace to those in need.”

Having a missionary spirit “means we truly are open to our brothers and sisters, and (we are) sharing with others the joy that comes from having met Christ,” she said.

That joy can help to build peace among communities and nations, San Martin said.

“Do you really hate your brother when you see Christ in him?” she said.

Yet “the problem is that we have in many ways given up our missionary animations,” San Martin admitted. “It should be a desperate need (for us) to go out and spread the Gospel, to really answer the great command (of Christ) to make disciples of all nations.”

World Mission Sunday is an opportunity for Catholics to recommit themselves to fulfilling that task, she said, adding “it truly does start with knowing that Jesus died for us to save us.”

—Gina Christian, OSV News

Movie review: ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’

Posted on by Our Sunday Visitor

Emotional ambiguity pervades the dramatization “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Paramount/Apple TV+). Epic yet intimate, director and co-writer Martin Scorsese’s masterful recounting of real-life events in 1920s Oklahoma is too gritty for kids, but deeply rewarding for grown-ups and possibly acceptable for older teens.

As relatively few viewers may know, shortly before the turn of the 20th century, oil was discovered on land owned by the indigenous Osage Nation. By the dawn of the Jazz Age, the windfall that followed had brought the Native Americans prosperity. But it had also excited violent envy and greed among some of the area’s whites.

Stepping into the midst of this volatile blend of good fortune and malice comes returning World War I veteran Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio). The uncertainty characteristic of the story takes hold when Ernest meets strong-willed, wise Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone).

Ernest’s cattle rancher uncle Bill Hale (Robert De Niro), a local bigwig, points out the economic advantage to be gained by marrying an Osage woman who, like Mollie, has a headright to a share of the petroleum profits. But the screenplay, which Scorsese penned with Eric Roth, also establishes that Ernest and Mollie do genuinely fall for each other before rapidly tying the knot.

There’s a lengthening shadow hovering over the Osage community as they do so, however. A series of initially uninvestigated deaths have taken place that hardly seem attributable to natural causes. The remainder of the film, adapted from David Grann’s 2017 bestseller, is devoted to exploring the effects of this ongoing rash of fatalities on Ernest, Mollie and Bill.

By the time Federal agent Tom White (Jesse Plemons) arrives to delve into the mystery, Scorsese has presented us with a panorama of the time and place that serves as the backdrop to an intense tale of love, corruption and racial hatred. Top-flight writing, acting and cinematography all combine to make his outsized, three-and-a-half hour movie memorable.

Interestingly, Mollie is shown to be a devout Catholic who nonetheless practices various rituals traditional among the Osage. We’re not given enough evidence, though, to judge whether this combination represents inspired do-it-yourself inculturation or some unacceptable form of syncretism.

Mollie’s genuine faith stands in stark contrast to the religious hypocrisy of one of the other central figures. And it may account for the aura of tranquility she manages to maintain throughout the unfolding tragedy by which she – along with many others – is eventually victimized.

Mollie’s enduring stillness at the center of a human storm is just one of the powerful impressions viewers will take away from this subtle and unsettling saga. The fate of Ernest’s Everyman character, as he makes decisive moral choices that typify, in microcosm, a consistent theme in American history, is another. Overall, Scorsese’s audience will be left with much to ponder.

The film contains brief but graphic episodes of gory violence, gruesome sights, a scene of marital sensuality, several uses of profanity, a few milder oaths and occasional rough and crude language. The OSV News classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

—John Mulderig, OSV News