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Lenten Gifts Of Home
BY FR. JEREMY MILLER, OP
The inspiration for this Lenten
meditation comes, once again, from the
biblical readings you will be hearing this
Sunday in Church. Perhaps I ought to
say at the outset why there is a
particular richness in developing
meditations with a gentle anchoring in
the Sunday readings. I mentioned two
weeks ago that Lent is a type of Church
retreat. All retreats take on a special
pregnancy, a special spiritual
fruitfulness, when they can follow in
the rhythms of the Church’s official
prayer and adopt its tones and
inspirations. The Sunday readings are a
major part of our official Lenten prayer.
This Sunday we will be hearing the
story of Abraham’s attemped sacrifice
of his son, Isaac, whose hand God
restrained only at the very last instant.
Then St. Paul will speak of a God who
did not restrain His hand from the
sacrifice of His only Son. And finally St.
‘3untw4&cuv
The Antics Of Archie
Mark will describe the Transfiguration
of Jesus before three of His disciples,
but then add the puzzling note that the
disciples will not fully understand what
this meant until after the Resurrection.
What can we bring into our homes
God who in choosing us as His own
blesses us in this world into which He
has brought us and through whose
events He directs us.
If this cherished someone or
cherished something is taken away,
THIRD IN A SERIES OF SEVEN
and into our personal lives from this
“message from the Lord?” Think of
something or someone you cherish
dearly, something which gives your life
meaning, direction, sustaining power
and hope. Perhaps it is a particular job
here in Georgia, a particular
neighborhood home and circle of
friends in which you can finally sink
roots after many moves and many years
of being forcibly uprooted. Perhaps it is
a spouse, a child, or for a single person a
unique friend, what the French so aptly
call an ame soeur. Perhaps it is a
personal sense of autonomy and
self-direction after being under the beck
and call of others.
All of these are cherished blessings,
and in moments of deep insight we see
and acknowledge them as blessings from
the Lord. Let us call them covenant
gifts, gracious expressions of a gracious
uprooted from us and snatched from
our appreciative grasp, then perhaps
after many painful and confused days
and weeks, or longer still, we may come
to see God’s purposes. Someone might
be able to say, in his or her
disappointment, “this is God’s will.”
That job, or that friend, was not meant
to be.
But wait a moment. Let me describe
what is really at issue in the Sunday
readings as they might apply to us. What
if that cherished something or cherished
someone not only comes into our
appreciative grasp but that we know for
certain, beyond any doubt, that God is
bestowing it, that God MEANS for us to
be so blessed, so covenanted. Would we
not claim it all the more dearly as
OURS? Could we ever imagine its being
snatched away? And could such loss be
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What Lent
Means To Me?
BY FATHER RICHARD KIERAN
I hope this Lent will be:
- A Springtime in my life in union
with God, with much new growth.
- A time to die to all that is centered
on myself and to refocus my life on
Jesus.
- A time to enter more deeply into
daily prayer of solitude.
- A time to come to know Jesus
better in the Gospels.
- A time to give away the possessions
I do not need and which limit the
freedom of my response to God.
- A time to fast from all that
distracts me from Jesus - TV, useless
reading, day dreaming, movies, food ...
- A time to love Jesus enough in my
brothers and sisters so as to share faith
and hope with them.
- A time to learn more about the
sufferings of others and to respond to
their needs.
- A time to retreat into the desert
alone with Jesus, to say a total “yes” to
my Father’s will.
- A time to celebrate Penance and be
reconciled fully with God, my brothers
and sisters, and myself.
- A time to seek spiritual direction.
- A time to simplify my life.
- A time to celebrate daily in the
Eucharistic Resurrection with Jesus to
newness of life.
Come, Lord Jesus!
Archie Bunker is 200 shows old this
week. If you are addicted to Bunkerism,
as 40 million Americans are, then you
have spent four full days out of your
life listening to his caustic insults and
his acceptable slurs.
It is sinful to say Bunker is complete
bunkum. He is not. He is an institution.
He has joined the
ranks of John
Wayne, Bob Hope
and all those other
sacrosanct idols
that are fourth of
July America. He is
without end.
Battling the traffic
and rushing the
pork chops to hear
his gospel each
week is sabbath law. He is the family
situation, impossible to like but
unpardonable to miss.
Norman Leer created the farce. He
did it on a hope and a prayer. Both were
productive. Violence was on notice
from the podiums of the PTA. Leer got
the message and hauled out his brilliant
idea. It was an immediate hit.
Bunker bargains his way into your
living room with promises of outrageous
laughter. His first gimmick was the
virgin sport of insult. It had never been
tried. The captive millions loved it. Even
minorities loved it. Sammy Davis waited
in line to guest appear. The NAACP
made Archie an honorary member and
the Anti Defamation League invited the
Anti Semitic Archie to Israel.
But insult was just the beginning. The
blossoming Bunker was prepared and
coached to pounce on all the waiting
sacred institutions. Religion took its
belts, without discrimination. Be it the
local stumbling parson or the
traditionally mistrusted Catholic, we all
got equal time. The secrets of marriage
and the bedroom were subtly put on
display. Nudity, with the final arrival of
his grandson, was chanced. And finally
the bathroom of unmentionable noises
was opened as a living color spectacle.
All were greeted with uproarious
applause. Archie Bunker was immortal.
But the temptation was too much for
the networks. The plague got ready to
spread. Leer handled his character with
delicate and sophisticated brilliance. We
gave Archie our sympathic ear and he
returned his innocently straight faced
prejudices. Not so his imitators. Heaping
bar room junk and nonfunny farces at
us in 30 munute segments, the era of
Bunkerism descended into devastating
disaster.
The long line that Archie fathered
was heaped on us. Doc and Rhoda,
Alice, Chico, Laverne and Different
Strokes and all the others disgraced the
art of comedy, each one fading to
shelves of the forgotten, leaving Archie
supreme as king of his solitary castle.
But your TV Guide will quickly assure
that the networks never tire. More are
on the Way.
Lent is a time of action and reform.
That’s what you hear on Sundays. Take
the action and try the reformation.
Program Directors in their cozy
backroom television offices say “don’t
complain, just turn it off.” Without
knowing it, they are issuing a Lenten
challenge. Be ready to meet it. Trot the
Lavernes and Shirleys down to the
sit-com unemployment line. We might
all live happily after Easter.
Television is the relaxation of a
lifetime. Archie knows it and his advise
could be the Easter tonic we need:
“Will yez all shut up, I’m trying to
watch Bonanza.”
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 17 No. 10
Thursday, March 8,1979
$5 Per Year
John Paul II TO Visit Communist Poland
POPE VISITS PARISH - Pope John Paul II prays
before a painting of Our Lady of Czestochowa, the
patroness of Poland, at the church of the same name in
Rome. In his fourth visit to a parish since his election
in October, the pope told the parishioners of the
low-income community of his concern for their
problems.
Charities Drive Roaring Success
The furious activity in Atlanta’s
Chancery on Sunday night merely
reflected a day of furious activity all
over North Georgia. It was Charities
Drive Day and each parish was setting
sights on the largest amount ever sought
in the ten year history of this one day
Fund Drive.
The total amount sought was
$450,000. And the miracle occurred. A
total of $425,788 was reported which
was 95 percent of the goal. Commenting
on the success, Archbishop Donnellan,
who was present for the reports, said
“this year’s Drive demonstrates once
again the tremendous generosity of our
people in the Archdiocese. Raising so
large a sum of money is a difficult task
and I am grateful to all who contributed
to and worked for the success of the
Drive.”
Every parish, large and small, phoned
in a report before the evening ended.
Particularly encouraging was the fact
that only two major parishes failed to
collect the full amount. Pastors of these
parishes were optimistic that the full
goal would soon be reached.
Every Archdiocesan need, along with
the many offices and charities of the
Michael Trapp
Church in North Georgia are helped by
this annual drive for funds. It is a cash
drive which eliminated the need for
costly and time consuming pledges.
Every family and each wage earner is
asked to contribute.
The month of February has been
traditionally reserved to place the need
before the people. Every parish
organizes a Drive Committee which is
directed by a specially chosen
chairperson. The overall chairperson is
chosen by the Archdiocesan Finance
Board. This year the successful effort
was headed by Cathedral parishioner
Michael Trapp.
Commenting on the overall success,
Trapp said, “I’m grateful to the Drive
Committee for their work in preparing
another successful appeal. I know that
the parish chairpersons and the pastors
are gratified at the results. It was a good
effort all around, and we are very
pleased.”
So ends another Charities Drive and
on a perfectly high note. The books are
closed - that is til the dawning of 1980.
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Pope John
Paul II will visit Poland June 2-10 and
travel to Warsaw, Gniezno,
Czestochowa, Cracow and probably
Wadowice. This will be the first papal
visit to a country ruled by a Communist
government.
The Polish pope’s first visit to his
homeland since his election last October
was announced Friday evening, March
2, by Warsaw Radio and confirmed by
the Vatican about two hours later.
Low-key treatment of the decision on
both sides was widely viewed as a sign
that neither the pope nor the Polish
government was completely happy with
the compromise plans, reached after
long negotiations.
Pope John Paul, the former Cardinal
Karol Wojtyla of Cracow, wanted to
make the visit in May, coinciding with
celebrations of the ninth centenary of
the Polish national patron, St.
Stanislaus. His second choice for the
date of the trip was August, according
to Vatican sources.
Polish officials wanted a three-day
trip in June or July and are unhappy
about the longer visit, some sources
said. The nine-day stay is two days more
than the pope’s combined stay in the
Dominican Republic and Mexico at the
end of January.
The Vatican was apparently caught
by surprise when the Polish government
and bishops announced the papal visit
March 2. About two hours elapsed
before confirmation came from Father
Romeo Panciroli, Vatican press
spokesman.
Many Vatican observers were
surprised when the pope made no
mention of the trip to Poland at the
Sunday Angelus in St. Peter’s Square
two days later. It was his first public
appearance after the announcement and
his last for a week as he began a lenten
retreat that evening.
Two days before the announcement,
a Polish government information official
confirmed that the pope was being
invited to Poland and added the trip
would not be in May. Polish officials
said they were afraid a papal visit tied to
St. Stanislaus celebrations could create a
situation too volatile for them to
handle.
St. Stanislaus has become a symbol of
church independence from the state. He
was killed in 1079 by King Boleslaus the
Bold because he opposed the king.
Announcing the trip first in Warsaw
was a surprising break with protocol.
In the past, formal announcements of
papal trips have come first from the
Vatican.
Some sources speculated that the
Polish government wanted to forestall
any second thoughts by the Vatican.
Although the invitation technically
came from the Polish Bishops’
Conference, the government said it will
treat its native son with state honors.
Henryk Jablonski, chairman of the
Polish Council of State, called the papal
visit an “important event.”
Kazimirek Kakol, minister of
religious affairs, downplayed the
government’s rejection of the dates in
May.
“1 imagine that his election as pope
has changed him. Now he must take
into consideration universal problems,
not local ones. In the Vatican the
problems of the Polish church seem
diminished in importance,” said Kakol.
Many observers believe that the
timing of the papal trip was not only a
matter of concern within Poland but
also in other Warsaw Pact countries.
One Vatican source speculated that
the Soviet Union did not want a trip in
May, but favored one as soon as
possible. The trip might help divert
Eastern European attention from the
Soviet Union’s troubles with China, said
the source.
Shroud Believed Genuine
(NC News Svc)
Two more scientists involved in
studies of the Holy Shroud of Turin
have said they believe the cloth which
bears the image of a brutalized man is in
fact the burial garment of Jesus Christ.
One, Harry Gove of the University of
Rochester, also predicted papal approval
for a carbon-dating test to help establish
the age of the cloth. Until now,
guardians of the shroud have ruled out
any carbon tests, since such procedures
involve the destruction of part of the
object being studied.
Now, says Gove, chairman of the
university’s physics and astronomy
department, a new technique which he
was instrumental in developing could
date the cloth using “no more than a
single thread, four to eight inches long.”
Gove said he believes Archbishop
Anastasio Ballestreo of Turin, Italy,
custodian of the relic, will.change his
stand on carbon tests because of the
new technique.
Last October, Gove attended the
International Holy Shroud Congress in
Turin, where he participated in the
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