Tag: Christianity

As Pope Francis poured water over their feet, dried them with a towel and kissed their feet, 12 women inmates at Rome’s Rebibbia prison wept.

The pope celebrated the evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper March 28 at the women’s prison under a tent set up outside.

The 12 women whose feet were washed by Pope Francis during the liturgy sat on stools on a raised platform so the pope, who has difficulty walking, could wash their feet while seated in his wheelchair.

Many of the women were wearing warmup suits and were fidgeting as they awaited the pope. They included women from Italy, Bulgaria, Nigeria, Ukraine, Peru, Venezuela and Bosnia-Herzegovina. All are housed in the medium-security section, Vatican News reported.

Since it was Pope Francis’ first Holy Thursday visit to a prison with only women present, it was the first time as pope that he washed the feet only of women.

After Mass, he gave a large chocolate Easter egg to a little boy, the only toddler currently living with his mother in the prison, according to the prison director. Italian prisons have special units for mothers with children and the law allows women who are detained to keep their children with them until they are 3 years old.

Pope Francis has made a tradition of celebrating the Holy Thursday Mass at a prison or juvenile detention facility, often washing the feet of both men and women, whether Catholic or not.

And, keeping with his practice at the facilities, he gave only a brief homily, speaking without notes.

By washing his disciples’ feet, Jesus humbles himself, the pope said. “With this gesture, he makes us understand what he had said, ‘I came not to be served but to serve.’ He teaches us the path of service.”

The evening Gospel reading also included the line, “The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over.”

Pope Francis told the women that Judas was incapable of love, and so “money, selfishness lead him to this horrible thing” of betraying Jesus.

But, the pope said, “Jesus forgives everything. Jesus always forgives. He only asks that we ask pardon.”

Quoting a “wise, old woman,” Pope Francis said, “Jesus never tires of forgiving, but we tire of asking forgiveness.”

“Today, let’s ask the Lord for the grace not to tire,” he said. “All of us have small failures, big failures — everyone has their own story — but the Lord awaits us always with open arms and never tires of forgiving.”

Before he washed the women’s feet, he encouraged the women to pray that “the Lord will make all of us grow in the vocation of service.”

The Vatican press office said about 200 people were present, including many seated outside the tent on the lawn. The prison director said 360 women are currently housed at the facility.

Archbishop Diego Giovanni Ravelli, the papal master of liturgical ceremonies, was the main celebrant at the altar.

Father Andrea Carosella, the main chaplain at the Rebibbia prison complex, told Vatican News that the women themselves invited the pope. “For them, the pope’s visit is a sign of his great attention to the prison reality and is a great encouragement.”

Pope Francis washing the women’s feet, he said, “is a sign of the mercy and love of God who goes out to meet the suffering and pain of humanity.”

Sister Maria Pia Iammarino, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, told Vatican News that Pope Francis’ ministry to the women is a model.

In her ministry at the prison, she said, “I do not need to tell them that God loves them, but to be a witness of God’s love for them, to look at them with benevolence and acceptance without judgment. Then, when you have gained the trust of the inmates, you can add words.”

Dostoevsky’s The Demons tells the story of a revolution within the context of a small village and a handful of personalities. The strange mix of philosophy and neurosis, crowd psychology and fashionable disdain for tradition all come together in the madness of a bloodbath. It is a 19th century Helter Skelter that presciently predicted the century to come. Our own version of the same sickness plays out with less bloodshed though with similar passion. This article attempts to describe that passion. I have termed it the “sin of democracy,” the notion that the universe is devoid of hierarchy and that all things, ourselves included, are rightly described as equal. This is the fourth appearance [with editing] of this article which indicates that my mind is frequently drawn back to its observations. It bears repeating.

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Healing the Centurion’s servant by Paolo Veronese, 16th century. Photo: dustoffthebible.com     

Jesus’ encounter with the Roman Centurion (Matt. 8:5-13) is one of the least modern experiences in all of Scripture. Of all the stories in the New Testament, this one would be the most difficult to repeat in our culture. In our world, we ourselves are our only authority – we are neither over anyone else nor subject to any. We are filled with the spirit of democracy, and, as such, despise the Kingdom of God.

The world of kings and rulers began to collapse at the very time that nation-states began their rise. In 1534, Henry VIII of England repudiated any authority greater than himself with regard to the Church of England. A little over a century later, Parliament followed his example and overthrew the King himself and beheaded him. The same fate met the king of France 150 years later. The march of modern progress has meant death to tyrants.

Except that it has not. When Henry refused to recognize the Pope’s authority, he made himself a “Pope.” With every advance and repudiation of authority, authority itself does not disappear – it simply becomes more universalized. Today, in contemporary Christianity, it is said that “every man is a Pope.” Whereas a few generations ago, people asserted that the Bible alone had authority, today, that, too, has been overthrown. Each person is his own authority. And I will add, that if every person is his own authority, then there is no authority.

This is perhaps stated in an extreme way. We do have bosses in the work place, teachers in the classroom and other authorities. But as anyone in “authority” can confirm, such positions are under increasing pressure and scrutiny. They often have authority, only because they have coercive power. Authority that rests naturally with a person or position has virtually disappeared from our world.

I am fully sympathetic with the political place of democracy. It evolved as a means of addressing tyranny – though it is often quite ineffective in confronting modern leaders who tyrannize in the name of democracy (or the tyrannies of various “democracies” as they vanquish their foes at the ballot box). But I offer no political suggestions in this article and have no interest in a conversation on the topic.

I am, however, deeply interested in the spiritual disease that accompanies the interiorizing of the democratic project. We have not only structured our political world in a “democratic” manner, we have spiritualized the concept and made of it a description for how the world truly is and how it should be. The assumptions of democracy have become the assumptions of modern morality and the matrix of our worldview. It is this interiorization of democracy that makes the Centurion impossible in our time.

People of the modern world have a sense of inherent equality, and often resent any assertion of authority. Of course, equality is true in a certain manner, and utterly false in another. It is true that all people have equal worth – no one life is more valuable than another. But by almost any other measure, we are not equal, because we are not commensurate. I am of equal worth, but I am not as smart as another. I am of equal worth but I am not as talented, or handsome, or wealthy, skilled, or wise, etc. Apparently, intelligence, talent, beauty, skill, wealth and the like are not the proper standards of comparison when we speak of equality. But our interior sense of equality often makes us assert equality where none exists.

This is particularly true in the spiritual life. I am sometimes told, “I do not need to confess my sins to a priest. I can pray directly to God.” A young man said this to me recently and added, “The Bible says we should only confess to God.” I pointed out to him that he was actually incorrect, that in its only mention of confession, the Bible says we should confess our sins “to one another.” He was surprised and dismayed.

The Scriptures also speak of elders and leaders and obedience and respect and many other things that have no place within the spirit of democracy. The young man’s mistake was to think that the Bible affirmed his democratic world-view. But the Scriptures belong to the world of the Roman Centurion.

Much of what today passes for Protestantism is nothing of the sort. Rather, it is a thinly veiled cloak for the democratic spirit at “prayer.” “Salvation by grace through faith” is a slogan for individualism, a Christianity “by right.” There are no works, no requirements, only a “grace-filled” entitlement. For the ultimate form of democracy is the person who needs no one else: no Church, no priest, no sacrament, only the God of my understanding who saves me by grace and guarantees that I can do it alone.

Our outward forms of Christianity are morphing as quickly as the market can imagine them. Even the “New Atheist” Sunday meetings differ little from many Christian gatherings. God Himself may not be necessary to the spirituality of our democracy. Where does God fit in a world of equals?

The classical world of Orthodox Christianity is profoundly undemocratic. It holds that the universe and everything that exists is hierarchical. This teaching is not an artifact of an older patriarchy (a typical democratic critique), but an essential part of the Christian gospel. For if Jesus is Lord, then the universe has a Lord. Democratic spirituality distrusts all hierarchy – anything that challenges the myth of equality is experienced as a threat. “Jesus never said anything about…”

The veneration of saints, the honoring of icons and relics, the place held by the Mother of God are deeply offensive to modern democracy. The complaints heard by those who reject such things are quite telling. It is rarely the classical protest of true iconoclasts that are heard. Rather, it is the modern declaration, “I don’t need anyone between myself and God.” It is the universal access to God, without interference, without mediation, without hierarchy, without sacrament, ultimately without any need for others that is offended by the hierarchical shape of classical Christianity.

A spiritual life without canon, without custom, without tradition, without rules, is the ultimate democratic freedom. But it unleashes the tyranny of the individual imagination. For with no mediating tradition, the modern believer is subject only to his own whim. The effect is to have no Lord but the God of his own imagination. Even his appeal to Scripture is without effect – for it is his own interpretation that has mastery over the word of God. If we will have no hierarchy, we will not have Christ as Lord. We cannot invent our own model of the universe and demand that God conform.

I should add, parenthetically, that, despite our democratic sentiments, the universe is inherently hierarchical. We can imagine ourselve as utterly individualized and autonomous, without the need for others, but this is make-believe. If we throw off the true structures and hierarchies of God’s creation, we will only discover other masters who are demonic in character. The “gods” of our own making are never less than madness itself.

It is a great spiritual accomplishment to not be “conformed to this world.” The ideas and assumptions of modern consumer democracies permeate almost every aspect of our culture. They become an unavoidable part of our inner landscape. Only by examining such assumptions in the light of the larger Christian tradition can we hope to remain faithful to Christ in the truth. Those who insist on the absence of spiritual authority, or demand that nothing mediate grace will discover that their lives serve the most cruel master of all – the spirit of the age.

Ever since the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed in the early hours of March 26, Redemptorist Father Ako Walker has been acting as a spiritual support to the families of six Hispanic construction workers believed to have perished in the tragedy.

The pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus/Sagrado Corazón de Jesús in the city’s Highlandtown neighborhood serves a largely Spanish-speaking parish and is active in supporting new immigrants in the Baltimore area.

“I am here with them as a spiritual presence during this difficult time,” Father Walker told the Catholic Review, Baltimore’s archdiocesan news outlet. “They all have questions and can’t find the right answers to this situation, so I am here as a presence if anyone needs prayer or anything like that, I am available to help them.”

Officials from the U.S. Coast Guard and the Maryland State Police announced late March 26 that due to the length of time and the cold temperature of the Patapsco River waters, the six workers were presumed dead. On March 27, the bodies of two of the six missing workers were recovered. They were identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Dundalk.

Two other workers who had been on the bridge at the time of its collapse were rescued, with one of them sent to the hospital.

“There is a very, very strong reaction, a sadness that the only word I can use is inexplicable, a sadness that is affecting them,” Father Walker said about the families of the workers, known to be from Mexico and Central America. “And I can imagine the emotional scars they are suffering, the pain, the tears, the questions. It’s hard to explain.”

Father Walker said the families are receiving official information from different agencies such as the police, the fire department and the Maryland Department of Transportation. They’re
trying to assimilate the news and cope with the tragedy in the best way possible, he added.

“I am feeling the faith in everything because there are people suffering deeply and some seem to be accepting the reality of the situation that after so many hours, they may not find their relatives alive. So, it is a mixture of emotions,” he said.

Father Walker said he hoped to be able to hold a service or a Mass in the next few days so the community can honor the workers and show solidarity with the families through prayer. He hopes they can find comfort in the midst of their grief and can be surrounded by the support and affection of their community.

Father Walker called on the community to accompany the families with prayers during Holy Week.

“During this very special and sacred time of the church, we can offer blessings and prayers for God to accompany them,” he said.

For its part, CASA of Maryland, through its director, Gustavo Torres, confirmed in a noon press conference March 27 that two of the still-missing workers were members of his organization: Miguel Luna, a 49-year-old Salvadoran, and Maynor Suazo Sandoval, a 37-year-old Honduran, who had lived in the United States for 19 and 17 years, respectively, Torres said.

“In these times of attack and hatred of the immigrant community, we want to look at those quiet but extraordinary leaderships of Maynor and Miguel, who made a contribution to society for us to live well and comfortably,” said Torres, who added that 39% of construction workers in the Baltimore metropolitan area are of Hispanic origin.

“We know they were hard workers who loved soccer, who loved their families and their communities,” he said. “We know that they were both extraordinary human beings who came from Central America to this country, almost at the same time, to live the American dream, to contribute to this nation, to ensure that their families had an opportunity here.”

The bridge collapsed after a cargo ship collided with one of the columns of the structure. Local, national and international media quickly rushed to the area to report what, for Baltimore residents, is a tragedy that affects not only the Hispanic community but everyone in general.

Archbishop William E. Lori celebrated a March 26 Mass at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in support of all those affected by the tragedy, while some parishes in the area and beyond also celebrated special Masses.

“History as a ‘potentially dangerous initiative’ in the EU.” This is the title of the article by the historian Darina Grigorova, who is a professor at Sofia University. The article was published on the Bulgarian website “Glasove” on February 5, 2024. It focuses on “European Historical Consciousness,” the resolution adopted by the European Parliament on January 17, 2024. It says, “The diverse and often contradictory historical narratives of European nations and states are making every effort to consider history from the political perspective as a difficult and potentially dangerous undertaking.” According to the resolution, “European historical consciousness,” with its fundamental goal of “a common historical memory,” is based not only on “European values” but also on “European conscience”. To clarify this topic, we offer a conversation with Professor Darina Grigorova.

    

—The resolution of the European Parliament attempting to generalize and standardize European history, and accordingly, the teaching of history, calls on historians to be “responsible” and make an “honest assessment” of EU policies of the past. A certain “European conscience”, and “European values”, are suggested as the reference point. What can you say about this?

—I’d say that there are no European values, but there are Christian values and, based on this, there are “responsible” and irresponsible historians. The transnational reading of history through the prism of the so-called European conscience is in the realm of ideological, not historical thinking. As for the resolution about the “European historical conscience”, it is a manual about transnational historical memory aimed at creating an ideal “transnational” or “supranational European”.

There are no European values, but there are Christian values, and based on this, there are “responsible” and irresponsible historians

As for the generalization of history, the present-day Eurocrats haven’t invented anything new. They recapitulated A. Lunacharsky and his notion of “teaching history in the communist school” (1918). Lunacharsky had no concept of “international conscience” (analogous to the “European” conscience), but he explicitly stated that the purpose of teaching history was “a moral idea, [part of] the communist regime, or I would say, a religion.” Communism is a religion where, according to Lunacharsky, “the proletarian ‘we’” was the “collective Messiah”. The educational policy of the Bolsheviks during the 1917 revolution and the following ten to fifteen years was based on this postulate. National history associated with patriotism and the Motherland got in the way of the ideology of internationalism. Russian history was banned and was not taught until 1922. The word “Russia” was written in quotation marks and the word “Patriotic”, adopted before the revolution as part of the name of the War of 1812, disappeared from the name of that war. It was a blow to historical memory and, at the same time, to faith. The Russo-Turkish war of 1877–1878 to liberate the Russians’ Bulgarian brothers in the faith was also subjected to redaction—in post-revolutionary Russia, monuments related to this war were demolished. This policy continued until the mid-1930s, when the threat of another war became clear and patriotism, along with the memory of national heroes-defenders, was needed again for the defense of the Motherland. This is what brought the national history back.

Professor Darina Grigorova   

—Yes, despite the difference in ideologies, we can definitely draw parallels between the EU and the Soviet Union.

A famous science-fiction writer spoke about the necessity to destroy old history because it hinders the triumph of peace in the world

—I can give another example, this time from Great Britain. It’s from Herbert G. Wells, in his report, “The Poison Called History” written for the International Conference of History Teachers convened in London by the League of Nations. The famous science fiction writer spoke of the need to destroy old history because it hinders the triumph of peace in the world. It’s all in the name of peace. Wells spoke not of internationalism, but of cosmopolitanism. According to his opinion, the future lies in unified governance. That is why we need universal history, with one textbook, and historians all over the world should be trained solely on this textbook. He concludes his report:

“Hopes for universal peace will not become real if we don’t train people to accept the realities of new history. So let us get down to business—firstly, in our own minds and then in the universities, the encyclopedias, and the schools. Let us offer the burnt sacrifice of textbooks of old history as our contribution to the building of Cosmopolis—a natural, and currently simply necessary, Universal Brotherhood of Men.”¹

—In order for such ideas to work, one should generalize and bring to a common standard not only history, but also religion.

—Economically, Western Europe has already absorbed and digested Eastern Europe, but in spiritual terms, a greater part of Eastern Europe still remains Orthodox. In other words, it is incompatible with the Western European conscience and historical memory.

—It is obvious why this declaration has appeared in our days, as it openly speaks about the “latent competition and partial incompatibility” of memory in Eastern and Western Europe, disinformation, and “Russian historical revisionism,” and about the “protection of democratic memory.” But what reaction can it trigger in Europe proper, in both its western and eastern parts?

—Attempts to destroy national memory can lead to the opposite effect—nationalism, or even Nazism, and destabilization. It will not be possible to squeeze history into the Procrustean bed of yet another ideology. So, this utopian project with its possible consequences is entirely on the conscience of Eurocrats. The European resolution, through the image of its enemy—Russia in this case—is trying to introduce censorship on the freedom of historical perspective. But globalism may also become an enemy, and then we have the danger of the rise of nationalism.

The Balkans have always been a unique region. Historical memory is very strong here. Including its ties with Russia. Will the resolution be able to handle this?

—In the Autumn Pilgrimage to Ohrid—the Balkan Jerusalem Despite the vicissitudes of historical fate, belonging at different times to different states, having known several centuries of Ottoman slavery and decades of the atheistic system, Ohrid has preserved many monuments of antiquity.

“>Balkans, history is an important factor. And the fact that we are really keen on our history can be regarded as a plus—it helps to preserve our identity and protect us from dangers from Brussels. However, it does not protect us from nationalism.

The idea to replace our national holiday, the Day of Liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman yoke, has failed

This whole Euro thing is like playing with fire. There is resistance. The idea of replacing our national holiday, the Day of Liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman yoke, the major feast of our country and its people, has failed. This year, many more people than usual came to Shipka on March 3. But this holiday has to do with our liberator, which was Russia. All Orthodox churches in Bulgaria proclaim at every liturgy at the Great Entrance:

“May the Lord remember in His Kingdom our liberator Tsar Alexander II Alexandrovich in blessed repose, all the Orthodox leaders and soldiers who laid down their lives on the battlefield for the faith and liberation of our Motherland.”

The spiritual presence of Russia in the Balkans, by way of history and Orthodoxy, has nothing to do with geopolitics and remains a constant. This is certainly not something the European Resolution can cope with.

Christian leaders say they fully recognize the intense suffering that surrounds the Holy Land, as well as in many other parts of the world, as the faithful mark Holy Week.

“[We] repeat our denunciation of all violent actions in the present devastating war, especially those directed at innocent civilians, and we reiterate our calls for an immediate and sustained ceasefire,” reads the message from the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in the Holy Land.

The Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed over 32,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and driven a third of Gaza’s population to the brink of starvation.

It was launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which killed around 1,200 people.

After nearly six months of war, Gaza’s health sector has been nearly destroyed, with only a dozen hospitals partially functioning in the region of nearly 2.4 million people.

The message from the patriarchs also renews a plea for the speedy distribution of humanitarian aid; the release of all captives; the unimpeded access of fully-equipped doctors and medical staff to tend the sick and injured; and the opening of internationally facilitated negotiations aimed at ending and moving beyond the present cycle of violence.

“Only in this way, we believe, can a comprehensive solution be finally advanced for a just and lasting peace here in the land where our Lord sacrificed his life, breaking down the dividing wall of enmity, in order to offer the world the hope for reconciliation,” the message reads.

“While extending this Easter message to Christians and others around the world, we offer our special greetings to those of the faithful in Gaza who have been bearing especially heavy crosses over the past several months,” the Christian leaders say.

The message specifically notes those taking refuge inside St. Porphyrios and Holy Family churches, as well as the staff and volunteers of the Anglican-run Ahli Hospital, along with the patients they serve.

Israel has alleged that hospitals serve as command centers, weapons storage facilities and hideouts for Hamas. The Islamist group has denied the allegations.

Speaking during his homily for Holy Thursday Mass in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, said the war, “with its burden of violence and hatred, suffering and death, makes celebrating this feast difficult.”

“Yet, Easter is never truly easy, unless we reduce it to an ancient rite, a mere religious feast among others. If what we mean by feast is only a moment of rest, a moment of merriment which makes the grayness of daily life more bearable, then yes: Undeniably, this year there is little or no room for lightheartedness and leisure, while there is plenty of room for sorrow and tears,” he said.

“If instead Easter is the celebration of Christ’s passion and resurrection, if it makes the passage from death to life real for us here and now, then it is not only this Easter that is difficult, but it is Easter itself that is always difficult,” the cardinal continued.

Pizzaballa said the circumstances in which Christians in the Holy Land were celebrating this Easter are not so different from those of the Lord’s Passover.

“As then, so today, the desire for peace is too often confused with the need for victory. As then, so today, the way of Barabbas seems more convincing than that of Jesus,” he said.

“Like the disciples on that supreme and dramatic night, we too are lost and confused. Sadness tempts us with an irenic slumber and with losing the courage of the parrhesia. Without this courage we are unable to allow ourselves to be wounded by another person’s pain,” the cardinal continued.

“Alternatively, like Peter, we too are tempted to take up the sword, to strike, and to be overpowered by feelings of violence and rejection, which only lead to death. Worse yet, we run the risk of betraying the Master by devaluing His message and prophecy by forsaking the grace of forgiveness and self-giving, which leads to true life,” he said.

Pizzaballa noted the painful circumstances of the present period make leisure difficult, on the other hand, they paradoxically increase our awareness and help Christians to enter the Paschal Mystery.

“It is a difficult mystery, not so much because of the difficulty of the dogma, but because of our difficulty in welcoming it and living it,” he said.

Meanwhile, the top United Nations International Court of Justice on Thursday ordered Israel to take measures to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, including opening more land crossings to allow food, water, fuel and other supplies into the area.

Lismore, Scotland, March 29, 2024

Photo: lismoregaelicheritagecentre.org     

Six years of archaeology work on the Scottish island of Lismore have yielded exciting results: Experts believe they have uncovered evidence of the monastery built there by St. Moluag, the 7th-century evangelist to the Picts.

The work, organized by the Lismore Historical Society, uncovered various remnants of a monastic site in the area where the St. Moluag Cathedral stands today, including a stone building dating to the 7th century, an enclosure, a burial site with grave markers and cross slabs, a craft working area, and more.

The entrance to the monastic oval building. Photo: lismoregaelicheritagecentre.org     

Workshops where craftsmen made jewelry from precious metals and carvings in stone, wood, bone, and antler “confirm that the site ranks in importance with other prominent ecclesiastical and monastic early medieval establishments in Scotland such as Iona, Portmahomack, and Inchmartin,” reports the Lismore Gaelic Heritage Centre.

In all, 1,500 significant objects have been found at the site.

St. Moluag (†592) was an Irish nobleman, a contemporary of St. Columba, who evangelized the Picts of Scotland. He founded a number of monasteries, including on the island of Lismore.

Read more about the saint in the article, “Saint Moluog of LismoreSt. Moluog was an Irishman destined to become one of the most venerated saints in Scotland. He was born in about 530 in what is now Northern Ireland to a noble family. His first monastery was Bangor in Ireland; and about the year 562 he crossed the Irish Sea and founded a monastery on the Scottish isle of Lismore.

“>Saint Moloug of Lismore.”

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One recent morning I found myself in downtown LA hanging out in front of the Superior Courthouse’s Grand Avenue entrance.

I was sipping a Starbucks, idly thinking, watching the parade of humanity pass by. Kids hefting backpacks, fashionistas with crossbody bags, young guys on bikes, languidly weaving in and out of pedestrian traffic with plastic bags dangling from the handlebars.

Lawyers schlepping briefcases, couriers humping banker’s boxes of files, mothers-to-be carrying babies in their wombs, fathers carrying babies in the crooks of their arms.

Homeless people pushing impossibly heavy carts. Everybody carrying a phone.

I myself had a purse as well as a tote bag with snacks, water, and a book.

Everybody, in other words, was carrying something. Incarnate beings that we are, from the time we’re born practically till the day we die, we’re carrying loads of some sort. At first rattles, dolls, toy trains. Later, the groceries, the laundry, tool kits.

Our breviaries, our missalettes, our rosaries, our prayer cards. The ushers carry the offertory, the altar server carries the water and wine, the priest lifts the chalice.

Even the Russian stranniks — wandering pilgrims endlessly reciting the Jesus Prayer — carried a hunk of black bread, some salt, and a copy of the Gospels.

The Fourth Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary is The Carrying of the Cross. In his book “The Rosary of Our Lady,” theologian Romano Guardini observes:

“In the last analysis everything is a ‘burden,’ not because it is painful instead of joyous, but because sin has stamped it with the curse of hardship. Man seeks to escape it. He will not take it upon his shoulders and persevere beneath it. Indolence, cowardice, resistance against the hardships of life, all mean here for Christ the obligation to carry a weight that is beyond His strength.”

Our body is our first cross and the one we carry all our lives. In youth, we suffer its lust, hunger, and ambition. In old age, we begin to collapse beneath its weight, its aches and pains, the psychic suffering carried for decades in our nervous systems, our minds, our hearts.

That we are going to age (if we live that long) and die is our biggest cross.

The carrying of the cross put Christ in eternal solidarity not only with all of humanity but, though he died at 33, with the aging, the old, the dying. Like an elderly person, he was debilitated and diminished. He could no longer carry the load by himself. He had to accept help.

“Truly, truly, I say to you,” he had already told Peter, “when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go” (John 21:18).

The Apostles’ Creed we pray at the beginning of every rosary ends, “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.”

The resurrection of the body. This body that has carried us all our lives, that is our joy and our torment, that we are with 24/7 and still don’t understand or know, to which we are nailed as surely as Christ is nailed to the cross.

But as with Christ, the instrument of our torture and death will also be the instrument of our redemption.

As we age and mature in faith, for example, perhaps we’re freed from some of our psychic and spiritual burdens. Perhaps we then devote our lives to atoning for the sins of the world — ours, always, but the sins of others as well: those we love; those we’ll never meet; those who have no one to pray for them, and never will.

The “Pange lingua,” a medieval Latin hymn written by St. Thomas Aquinas, runs:

Sweet the wood

Sweet the nails

Sweet the weight they bear.

Do we carry our bodies, or do our bodies carry us?

Did Christ carry the cross, or did the cross carry him?

Anna Kamienska (1920-1986), a more contemporary poet beloved in her native Poland, lived through both the Nazi and Communist eras.

In “Those Who Carry,” she writes of the men and women of the streets of Warsaw — but she could just as well be speaking of the young mothers, the guys bringing takeout to their grannies, the homeless of downtown LA.

As we ache for Easter morning, she could just as well be speaking of all of us.

Those who carry grand pianos

to the tenth floor wardrobes and coffins

the old man with a bundle of wood hobbling toward the horizon

the lady with a hump of nettles

the madwoman pushing her baby carriage

full of empty vodka bottles

they all will be raised up

like a seagull’s feather like a dry leaf

like an eggshell a scrap of newspaper on the street

 

Blessed are those who carry

for they will be raised.

London, March 29, 2024

Patriarch Bartholomew with “Metropolitan” Epiphany Dumenko, head of the schismatic OCU which openly persecutes Orthodox Christians in Ukraine. Photo: spzh.news     

“The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople is obligated to make his voice heard on the persecution of Orthodox believers in Ukraine and to weigh in on the proposed legislation which aims to ban the country’s oldest church,” says the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s lawyer.

Robert Amsterdam, who is representing the persecuted UOC Ukrainian Orthodox Church receiving pro bono defense from international law firmThe canonical Ukrainian Orthodox has enlisted the help of a major international law firm to protect its rights.

“>pro bono, penned an open letter to Pat. Bartholomew this week, noting that his granting of a tomos to the “state-sponsored Orthodox Church of Ukraine … opened a Pandora’s box” against the canonical Church, reads a press release concerning the open letter.

It was U.S. policy to destroy the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, says Church’s lawyerIn an interview published yesterday, Amsterdam reveals that his team recently learned from the Assistant Secretary of State under Trump that the destruction of the UOC was a point of U.S. policy, which involved former Ukrainian President Poroshenko and Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

“>In an interview in February, Amsterdam revealed that his team recently learned from the Assistant Secretary of State under President Trump that the destruction of the UOC was a point of U.S. policy, which involved former Ukrainian President Poroshenko and Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

Now, thanks to Pat. Bartholomew and others, the UOC has become the “target of a vicious and unlimited campaign of intimidation, perpetrated by the Ukrainian authorities.”

Amsterdam notes that independent third parties, such as UN again sounds alarm on violence against Ukrainian Orthodox people and churchesThe UN’s latest report covers the period from December 1, 2023, to February 29, 2024.

“>the UN, have reported on the violence and persecution against the UOC.

“With a view of his role in Orthodoxy and his previous action of having supported the creation of the new state-sponsored Church in Ukraine, Patriarch Bartholomew has a moral duty to speak up against ‘dividing Christ’, banning the UOC and prosecution of Orthodox believers in Ukraine, stated Robert Amsterdam.”

Amsterdam’s firm, AMSTERDAM & PARTNERS LLP, has New site and video: Save the UOC (+VIDEO)A new website entirely dedicated to the tragedy of the persecution of Orthodox Christianity in Ukraine was launched this week, together with a short film.

“>launched a site entirely dedicated to the plight of holy Orthodoxy in Ukraine.

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Jesus is nowhere visible. Yet today’s Gospel tells us that Peter and John “saw and believed.”

What did they see? Burial shrouds lying on the floor of an empty tomb. Maybe that convinced them that he hadn’t been carted off by grave robbers, who usually stole the expensive burial linens and left the corpses behind.

But notice the repetition of the word “tomb” — seven times in nine verses. They saw the empty tomb and they believed what he had promised: that God would raise him on the third day.

Chosen to be his “witnesses,” today’s First Reading tells us, the apostles were “commissioned … to preach … and testify” to all that they had seen — from his anointing with the Holy Spirit at the Jordan to the empty tomb.

More than their own experience, they were instructed in the mysteries of the divine economy, God’s saving plan — to know how “all the prophets bear witness” to him (see Luke 24:27, 44).

Now they could “understand the Scripture,” could teach us what he had told them — that he was “the Stone which the builders rejected,” which today’s Psalm prophesies his resurrection and exaltation (see Luke 20:17; Matthew 21:42; Acts 4:11).

We are the children of the apostolic witnesses. That is why we still gather early in the morning on the first day of every week to celebrate this feast of the empty tomb, give thanks for “Christ our life,” as today’s Epistle calls him.

Baptized into his death and resurrection, we live the heavenly life of the risen Christ, our lives “hidden with Christ in God.” We are now his witnesses, too. But we testify to things we cannot see but only believe; we seek in earthly things what is above.

We live in memory of the apostles’ witness, like them eating and drinking with the risen Lord at the altar. And we wait in hope for what the apostles told us would come — the day when we, too, “will appear with Him in glory.”

Roman, Neamț County, Romania, March 29, 2024

Photo: Basilica News Agency     

Thanks to a new initiative from the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of Roman and Bacău, about 100 people in need will receive hot meals daily in their homes.

His Eminence Archbishop Joachim of Roman blessed the Filoxenia “meals on wheels” social service on Wednesday, reports the Basilica News Agency.

Explaining the motivation behind the new project, the hierarch said:

In our diocese, we try to constantly take into account the care of those in need, celebrating the eighth sacrament, or the sacrament of brotherhood, which is as important and consubstantial with the other Sacraments of the Church, without which personal and community salvation would not be possible.

The new service has the capacity to serve about 100 vulnerable people (shut-ins, people with disabilities, or families at risk of poverty), with hot meals delivered to their homes.

The diocese is also taking donations of food and money to help disadvantaged people.

Through its deaneries, parishes, monasteries, and various associations, the Archdiocese of Roman has 82 socio-medical and socio-educational centers and services, both in rural and urban areas.

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