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CALLED TO LENT - 2
LENTEN DISCUSSION. Rose Marie and Don Nicosia along with
their children certainly seem to be looking forward to Lent as they
take time for a family discussion after Mass at Holy Cross.
BY DON & ROSE MARIE NICOSIA
The Nicosias are parishioners at Holy
Cross Church in Atlanta,
When Rose Marie and I recall the
Lenten seasons of our childhood,
above all else we remember Lent as a
period of great personal sacrifice.
That annual threatening question,
“What are you giving up for Lent?”
always seemed to be such a negative
way to start those 40 days.
We realize now that it might have
been, instead, a very positive time in
which we could have reflected on the
meaning of our existence, on death,
and on the promise of the
resurrected Christ. Denying ourselves
candy was not a very effective
approach to thinking about Christ’s
sacrifice for us because soon our
preoccupation was not on renewed
life, but on how many days were left
before we could gorge ourselves on
chocolate!
Keeping this in mind now as we
attempt to guide our three children
and ourselves in ways to come closer
to the Lord, we decided to make
Lent a time of positive actions.
Through these actions Lent
hopefully will become not an end in
itself, but a recognizable link to
Easter. To do this we have relied on a
number of books and pamphlets that
are filled with ideas for families.
We’d like to share these resources
and some of the activities that have
worked for us.
Since our three children’s ages are
quite diverse, with Andrea (14),
Donna (12), and Mark (6), it is a real
challenge to come up with activities
that are interesting and meaningful
to all, including, of course, Mom and
Dad. (Sometimes it’s especially
difficult for Dad to get into the spirit
of the activities because he’s taken
life seriously for so long). At first I
felt a little uncomfortable until I
realized that in a loving family
relationship it’s alright to let yourself
go. Once I rid myself of the
stereotyped image of how Dad is
supposed to act, I actually started to
enjoy myself!
One of the books that we would
recommend, not only for Lent, but
also for every conceivable family
prayer circumstance, is Gabe Huck’s,
A BOOK OF FAMILY PRAYER.
Chapter five contains 28 pages on
Lent. Mr. Huck reminds us that by
ancient custom the alleluia is not
spoken or sung during Lent. He
suggests renewing the custom of
actually burying the alleluias before
Lent. Last year, on the Tuesday
before Ash Wednesday, we all
dressed up in our favorite Mardi Gras
costumes. With a spade, an empty
shoe box, several beautiful
“alleluias” drawn on colored paper,
and candles, we formed a procession
to our garden, singing an “Alleluia”
hymn to the tune of “Tantum Ergo.”
After singing the last alleluia, we
placed the papers in the box and put
the “coffin” in its grave. Then each
of us took a spadeful of dirt and
buried the box. We found this to be a
vivid reminder to us of the absence
of the alleluia during Lent and it
brought home the fact that these
days are different. Be prepared,
however, to receive strange stares u
from overly-observant neighbors! >
On Ash Wednesday, we begin our <
dinner meal with a simple, two
minute Lenten service, as suggested
by a paperback entitled THE
BLESSING CUP, by Rock Travnikar,
O.F.M. Again, this book encompasses
24 simple rites for family prayer
celebrations throughout the year
centered around passing a blessing
cup. The service begins with the Sign
of the Cross, a reading from Matthew
4:1-2 and petitions asking that our
hearts be changed and that our love
for the Lord be renewed. The
Response is, “Be with us, Lord.” The
Collect states, “Lord, be with us as
we look forward to new birth at
Easter. Let us shine forth with the
joy of your rising.”
Then we partially fill with wine or
grape juice a special blessing cup and
pass it in succession from the oldest
to the youngest member. Mark takes
great delight in draining the cup, if it
contains grape juice. In fact, we have
found that wine tends to be
distracting, since the children don’t
particularly like the taste. To achieve
the proper mood, therefore, we
usually use grape juice.
For the remainder of Lent we set
aside about half an hour each day for
family prayer, scripture reading and
discussion. Our activity begins with
(Continued on page 6)
Vol. 20 No. 8
BulUtilX
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Thursday, February 25,1982
$8.00 Per Year
WHAT PRICE PROGRESS ?-2
“Empty Promises...
Broken Dreams...”
BY THEA JARVIS
Repercussions from the urban
renewal project in Atlanta’s
Bedford-Pine community, begun
almost 20 years ago, are still being
felt by many of those who once
formed the heart of the
neighborhood.
While many former residents have
moved out of the inner-city since the
mid-sixties, countless others have
been placed in public and subsidized
housing in and around the
Bedford-Pine area.
Much of the neighborhood they
once knew has been ground down,
smoothed over, or replaced by the
unfamiliar. Vacant lots and public
housing complexes bask humbly in
the glow of new tennis courts and
chic condominiums. Intown is now
the place to be for the upwardly
mobile as well as the modestly
placed.
Change has taken its toll,
oftentimes on those least able to
shoulder its considerable weight.
Evelyn Echols knows the
Bedford-Pine area - and most of its
old residents - like the back of her
hand.
A lector and teacher of religious
education at Our Lady of Lourdes
Church in northwest Atlanta, Evelyn
graduated from the parish school
almost 35 years ago. She has seen
much in the way of change since her
girlhood days on Dallas Avenue.
In the 1960’s, Evelyn and her
husband, together with their son,
were living on Linden Avenue when
they learned of the urban renewal
project in Bedford-Pine. As the
project moved forward, they were
placed in temporary housing down
the street and remained there for two
years.
From Linden, they re-located in
the Angier Courts Apartments, a
neat, brick, subsidized low-rise where
they live today.
“We moved to Angier Avenue
because it was close to my husband’s
job, close to Crawford Long
Hospital,” Evelyn recalled. Boulevard
THE FACE of the “man of the Shroud” as it emerges not when
seen by the naked eye, but when seen as a photographic negative.
One of the discoveries about the image on the Shroud is that details
emerge startlingly when a photograph of the Shroud is seen as a
negative in the darkroom. The full image on the Shroud seems to
show that the man’s body was laid at one end of a 14-foot long
piece of linen and the cloth was then pulled over the top of his head
to cover his face and the front of his body. A front and back image
emerges, head to head on the cloth. The photograph was taken by
Vernon Miller of the Brooks Institute during the October 1978
scientific study of the Shroud in Turin, Italy.
Custody Case Wins
Pro-Life Support
KING’S FOOD STORE on Boulevard is one of the few
commercial survivors of the Bedford-Pine renewal program.
was a rougher neighborhood, she
claimed, but on Angier, “I wasn’t
afraid to go to sleep at night.”
Other Bedford-Pine residents
chose Decatur, Techwood Homes,
Bowen Homes or Wheat Street
Gardens, she explained.
From the sidewalk on Angier
Avenue, where the Atlanta skyline
looms not far in the distance, Evelyn
can watch intown progress in the
making.
“Diagonally across from me,” she
noted, “are the new public tennis
courts.” The courts are clean and
inviting, but, claimed Evelyn, “the
people are complaining because they
thought it would be a shopping
area.”
She points to the left and indicates
the sprawl of the Civic Center “right
behind me.” About three blocks
away sits Renaissance Park, «
confident gathering of earth-hued
condominiums that seems somewhat
disconnected from the simpler
lifestyles of the Echols and their
neighbors.
“Miss Mary” Marshall lives across
the street from Evelyn in a sturdy
little house she has occupied for
several decades. She is ailing now,
and elderly. Like many of her
neighbors, Mary Marshall buys some
of her food from the vegetable truck
that passes down Angier Avenue
once or twice a week, a welcome
vestige of the past.
Miss Mary gives Evelyn an order
for some collards and talks about the
restaurant she once owned with her
husband on Linden Avenue.
“Called ‘Charles Place,”’ she said
in a tired voice. “The government got
it -- it was torn down. The
neighborhood got thin and they tore
down everything.”
(Continued on page 2)
BY GRETCHEN REISER
The Pro-Life Action Committee of
the Archdiocese of Atlanta and the
Georgia Right To Life Committee
Inc. have intervened on behalf of a
divorced white mother whose son
was taken from her by court order
after she gave birth to a mixed-race
daughter out of wedlock.
In a friend of the court brief, the
pro-life organizations told the
Georgia Supreme Court that if a
lower court’s decision depriving
Kathleen Blackburn, 26, of custody
of her son, Nicholas, is allowed to
stand, unwed pregnant women will
have abortions instead of giving
birth. It also said the decision to
deprive Ms. Blackburn of custody of
one of her children appeared to have
been made solely because she chose
to bear a mixed-race child while
unmarried.
Mrs. Blackburn is mother of
three-year-old Nicholas by her
marriage to Mark E. Blackburn. The
couple was divorced in July 1979
and Mrs. Blackburn was given
custody of Nicholas.
Almost two years later, in May
1981, she gave birth to Jennifer, a
mixed-race baby.
In November 1981 Jenkins
County Superior Court Judge W.C.
Hawkins awarded custody of
Nicholas to Nancy Blackburn,
Kathleen Blackburn’s former
mother-in-law, who had petitioned
the court to turn Nicholas over to
her care. No visitation rights were
provided Kathleen Blackburn.
In his ruling Judge Hawkins stated
that Kathleen Blackburn had
“surrendered her right to continued
custody” of Nicholas, saying she had
“failed to provide adequate
supervision, moral guidance and
medical attention as are necessary for
the child’s well-being,” had “given
birth to an illegitimate female child
while in custody of the minor,
Nicholas Evans Blackburn,” and had
“become an unfit custodian” of
Nicholas.
Nancy Blackburn, the
mother-in-law, said on one occasion
she had seen Nicholas playing with
other children unsupervised in a
parking lot near his house and on
another occasion had seen dirty
dishes in the sink inside the house.
She also said, however, that she had
never seen Nicholas improperly
dressed for the weather.
Critics of the decision have
charged it was discriminatory.
The Georgia Supreme Court
agreed last week to review the case.
In their brief, the pro-life groups
said the lower court judge’s decision
raised the questions of whether a
divorced mother of a white child
could lose custody of that child if
she has a racially mixed child out of
wedlock and whether she should be
considered unfit for custody of one
child but not the other.
Unless the Georgia Supreme Court
reverses the lower court decision, “it
will thereby clearly indicate to all
unwed mothers and all prospective
unwed mothers that they have no
rights with respect to their living or
prospective children,” the brief
stated.
“To tell a woman who is expecting
a child out of wedlock that she can
have no right to the custody of the
child whom she is bearing is to give
her a very plain signal that she should
terminate her pregnancy by
abortion,” it argued.
THE SHROUD OF TURIN:
Clearer Image,
BY GRETCHEN REISER
In the movie “The Silent Witness,”
two scientists are shown
manipulating photographs and
transferring the images onto a screen.
When ordinary photographs are
used, the faces look fine in the
original, but emerge as caricatures on
the screen, with twisted and
distorted features.
When a photograph of the Shroud
of Turin is used, however, the face of
the man of the shroud emerges on
the screen in correct proportion,
with all the features as clear and
recognizable as in the original
picture.
They tell us, as the movie
proceeds, that this is because,
somehow, there is “information”
about proportion in the image.
Somehow, in the shades of darkness
and light that make up image, there
is also information about the
distance between the cloth and the
body. The scientists use it to
summon up a three-dimensional
image.
The scientists are Dr. John
Jackson and Dr. Eric Jumper, who
were filmed from laboratories at the
U.S. Air Force Academy in
Colorado. They looked scrubbed,
earnest and excited, even though
they cannot explain why this image
on the Shroud of Turin has these
properties that other images do not.
Drs. Jackson and Jumper are part
of the Shroud of Turin Research
Project, Inc. (STURP), a team of
scientists who were permitted, in
October, 1978, to conduct a series of
nondestructive tests on the cloth
believed by some to be the burial
cloth of Jesus Christ. The Shroud has
been kept in the Cathedral in Turin,
Italy since 1694 and only rarely
made available for public display. It
is only recently that scientists have
been permitted to examine the
Shroud and to begin to turn their
skills, and the devices of space age
technology, to the question of the
Shroud’s authenticity.
The STURP scientists gathered
information, took photographs and
conducted tests after the Shroud had
been on display in 1978. Since then,
they have continued to analyze the
(Continued on page 6)
“See Your Gift as a Way
Blessings to You” - -
of Thanking God for All
Charities Drive, March 7
v ,
His
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