Spiritual accompaniment

Book Review: Nourishing Love – A Franciscan Celebration of Mary

November 6, 2023

This book takes readers on a novel way of exploring Mary’s life (no, not a novel). For those of us who tend think of Mary either historically and/or as a saint, this book brings us an additional way to consider Mary.

Franciscan author (and priest) Murray Bodo offers us something similar to that of The Chosen TV series: a conceptual view of what it could have been like living Jesus’ or Mary’s lives – making their day-to-day lives more tangible for us than what many of us consider when reading the Gospels. Both this book and The Chosen contain historical aspects of the lives of Mary and Jesus (respectively). Reading historical accounts alone – however – don’t necessarily take us into thinking about the daily aspects what they did and felt as people.

In this book, Nourishing Love, there are reflections that take us to ponder, “what thoughts did Mary ponder?” After Jesus offered her and John to one another as mother-and-son, what conversations Mary and John have about Jesus? Possibly ponderings by Mary and possible – plausible – conversations between Mary and John are presented here to bring us into considering their lives on a very human level.

At one point in the book, the author writes, “Since Jesus was both God and man, he had his mother’s genes and was deeply influenced genetically, as most of us are, by his mother. He was Mary’s son, prompting us to imagine how Mary herself was in fact revealed in the person of her son.” Hmm….. Did genetics cause Jesus to look like his mother? Did Mary and Jesus share similar voice inflections? Did Jesus maintain some of Mary’s habits once he became an adult (ate the same foods for breakfast, had the same evening routines, etc.)? How much did Mary’s human personality influence Jesus’ human personality? The author of this book observes that the stories Mary told Jesus during his infancy and childhood may have influenced the types of stories Jesus chose to tell as an adult – including the parables he told. How she cared for the people around her could have been socially instructive for the human Jesus.

The way this book is constructed made me think of Ignatian exercises in terms of the creativity brought to subjects of faith. There’s a degree to which I felt uncomfortable with this book – I would more naturally gravitate to an academically-oriented sociological construct/analysis of people’s daily lives in first-century Palestine to get a sense of Mary’s life (that type of book would also be interesting!). Sometimes, though, discomfort is good. Discomfort can challenge us to consider topics in new ways; new perspectives help us grow.

Kim Burkhardt blogs at A Parish Catechist and The Books of the Ages (and a “Content Creator/Individual” member of the Association of Catholic Publishers). If you are a new visitor, it would be great to have you follow this blog (thank you!). If you know someone who would like this blog post, please share it with them (thank you!).

Welcome to Advent (with a free calendar!): A time of anticipation

November 3, 2023

Welcome to Advent 2023!

Welcome to the Christian new year (the new liturgical year starts at the beginning of Advent).

The Christian year has two anticipatory liturgical seasons – Advent anticipates Christmas and Lent anticipates Easter. Advent is the four weeks leading up to the fixed-date day when we celebrate the anniversary of Christ’s birth (December 25). Lent, on the other hand, is the forty-day period leading up to celebrating the anniversary of Christ’s death and resurrection (Easter). Easter, rather than being celebrated on a fixed date, is celebrated on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the Spring equinox (any date from late March to late April).

We don’t know the actual date of Christ’s birthday (Christmas). We’d like to think that Christ is more interested in us recognizing him than being hung up on a specific date. We celebrate his birthday on December 25, the story goes, because there was a time when Christians were looking to convert pagans who already had a winter solstice celebration; adding a Christian celebration at about the same time would “make it comfortable or natural” for said pagans to celebrate a holiday of a new-to-them religion at a time when they were already in a festive period…… As for additional relevant dates on Christian calendar, Christ’s mother is said to have visited a relative – Sarah, who was pregnant with John the Baptist – when Mary was about three months pregnant; we celebrate John the Baptist’s feast day on June 24 (thus, thinking of John as being six months older than Jesus). Likewise, we celebrate the feast day of the Annunciation (the date when the Archangel Gabriel came to Mary with the request that she consent to being the mother of God’s son) on March 25 – nine months before the date we celebrate Christ’s birth.

Advent is a time of renewal. We focus on our faith, finding ways to enrich it. We focus on charity (supporting the improved well-being of our neighbors and communities), penance (a reflective recognition of what we’ve done wrong with a view toward being better people), and prayer (an interactive relationship with God). You are invited to engage in these activities this Advent season. To that end, A Parish Catechist is providing this custom Advent calendar (2023). You are invited to print the pdf copy (below) and use it to reflect on ways to engage during this Advent season (see the calendar image below for a visual preview of the pdf calendar).

Also, visit A Parish Catechist’s Advent Portal (updates throughout the 2023 Advent Season).

Advent calendar

Welcome to Advent 2023!

Kim Burkhardt blogs at A Parish Catechist and The Books of the Ages. If you are a new visitor, it would be great to have you follow this blog (thank you!). If you know someone who would like this blog post, please share it with them (thank you!). You can also support this blog by clicking here when you are going to shop on Amazon (that lands A Parish Catechist a commission on Amazon sales).

Book Review: Healing as a Parish Ministry

November 1, 2023

I was happy to stumble upon this book in a Little Free Library and to then discover that this practical and helpful book was locally written (i.e., Seattle, Washington).

The summary of this book on Goodreads states: “Jesus’ mandate to heal the sick is beginning to enter into faith communities today. In this sound and practical book, Father Leo Thomas and Jan Alkire show how this vital ministry is rooted in Christian scriptural and sacramental tradition. Pastors and lay leaders will benefit from the authors’ faith-filled, balanced wisdom. ‘Healing as a Parish Ministry’ will help all who read it become more effective channels of Christ’s healing to those who are hurting.”

Jesus healed the sick during his time on earth. Jesus instructed his disciples to heal the sick. Pope Francis talks today about the church being a “field hospital.” In a workshop I’m taking through Franciscan University’s Catechetical Institute, the instructor talks about church-goers sometimes preferring to go to their pastor/church for help before going to mental health providers. The message is communicated in many ways that church is meant to be a place where people can come for healing and direction. This book – Healing as a Parish Ministry – provides practical, front-line instruction to parishes – local churches – on how to provide healing ministries at one’s church.

In their book Healing as a Parish Ministry:

Leo Thomas and Jan Alkire write about faith healing does not mean curing natural consequences of what happens in life; rather, that faith healing is often about bringing us into the fullness of who God wants us to be – a very healing experience!
Thomas and Alkire write about how to set up a parish healing ministry – and why it is important.
The authors provide useful resources on how to connect meaningfully and usefully with parishioners who are in a time of need. Of equal importance, they also provide practical tips on what NOT to do so as to avoid alienating parishioners or causing ill will.

I read this book as a person who has found healing in church and who wants healing to be something that happens for many people in church. In my case, I returned to church – after a time away – with a painful neuropathic medical condition. That condition includes a hyper-stimulated sympathetic nervous system and associated physical pain. After returning to church, I found that contemplative prayer (and yoga, in my case) slowly calmed my over-stimulated nervous system – resulting in a reduction in physical pain. When I later came upon this book, I found that the book speaks to the type of healing I’ve experienced – I see the book having practical and real – real-world – insights and application.

This book is a great resource! I recommend this book to anyone who wants churches to be a place of healing.

Book Review: Introduction to Christian Worship

October 26, 2023

This book – Introduction to Christian Worship (Third Edition) by James F. White – is an academic book elucidating the how-and-why of how Christian church services are organized, how the structure of church services have developed and changed over the centuries (i.e., pastors, liturgists, interested congregants, academics, and religious historians).

This book covers every aspect of the Christian liturgy – both in minutia and comparative details on how (and why) Christian church services (and other aspects of Christian worship such as Christian Initiation, baptism, weddings, and anointing of the sick) are the same across denominations as well as detailed discussion of how various aspects of church liturgy vary among denominations. The history of how church liturgy developed over the centuries is widely covered throughout the book. The wide breadth – and detail – of knowledgeable insight demonstrate many years of comparative religious study by the author (he was, after all, an academic).

Among the very readable insights of this book is an interesting point about the Bible readings that many denominations hear read at church on Sunday (page 75 of the third edition). James White informs readers that the Catholic church developed its’ current cycle of biblical readings read at mass after Vatican II. Many Catholics know of the three-year cycles of readings known as years A, B, C (there is a two-year cycle for the readings at weekday masses); White informs readers that many Protestant denominations also adopted the same reading cycle for weekend services – meaning there is a broad level of uniformity among many denominations of which Bible passages are heard each Sunday (news to me! I knew that several denominations – such as Episcopalians, Anglicans, Presbyterians, perhaps Lutherans and Methodists – read many of the same readings at church on the same calendar as Catholics; this shared practice seems to be more uniform and widespread than I realized. Denominations that read these shared Bible readings each weekend read from “The Lectionary for Mass” for Catholics and “The Common Lectionary” for Protestants). This standardization of readings moved some Protestant pastors away from only reading self-selected Bible passages at church that supported the political views of pastors and/or their congregations.

James F. White’s Introduction to Christian Worship is an informative read for anyone interested in Christian liturgy.

Prayer: Standing on the Threshold

October 22, 2023

Rev. Maria Grazia Angelini O.S.B. wrote – in an article addressed to the October, 2023 Synod in Rome: “As we prepare to celebrate the Eucharist, let us permit ourselves a little ‘statio‘ on the threshold. Since listening to the Word is never – for anyone – a matter of course. To make it possible, we are asked to stand on the threshold. We are asked to gather from dispersion the thoughts of the mind and the feelings of the heart, to rediscover in them an open question, indeed an invocation. Only in this way will it be possible to hear the Word, the delivery of the body and blood of Jesus, the Son. The words of Jesus, the words all of the Holy Scriptures are our “mother tongue’. And yet there is always a need to regain possession of that language. Such a need is signaled precisely by Jesus’ supreme gesture.”

So it must always be, too, with prayer. Rather than prayer being an activity sometimes thought merely to be a uni-directional communication from us to God, prayer is meant – and in its’ fullness is – a “gather[ing] from dispersion [of] the thoughts of the mind and the feelings of the heart” to pausing on the threshold of our own existence, willing to vulnerably be in the presence of God. In such instances, when in private prayer, no human language needed. God’s presence to us in prayer is fullness of prayer.

Certainly, there are also times for additional forms of prayer – talking to God about our lives (either our own prayer or psalms), intercessory prayer, rote prayer, being in community of prayer at church….. My own favorite prayer is when vulnerably feeling God’s presence is the totality of the prayer experience (my second-favorite prayer is when we sing in exultation at church services such as Easter and Christmas!). Dry periods of prayer – when we don’t feel God’s presence – can also have value (though less exultative on our end); John of the Cross aptly points out that willing to allow God to be present within us allows God to form and change us – even if we don’t sense change that is happening “beneath the surface” while it is happening. The beneficial/productive work God does within us at such times becomes clear to us later. God loves us.

The ultimate indicators of faith well lived

October 16, 2023

Being a person of faith has a two-fold objective. Sometimes, people only seek to cultivate the first half of this faith equation: developing a personal relationship with God (i.e., seeking one’s own salvation and freedom). While a personal relationship with God is absolutely part of the faith journey (i.e., there can be no faith without prayer)…..if our personal faith journey were all that we were to focus on, that would very much limit the scope of being a person of faith. Faith necessarily takes us to loving our neighbor. Sometimes, sociologists and mythologists observe that faith traditions provide us with a framework of how to live well in the world.

In Jesus’ day, he was asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus replied, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22: 36-40)

When we grow in faith, our faith becomes visible to the degree that we begin living the seven virtues of Christianity: the four cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude and the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. One of these outward signs of our faith is that we increasingly become loving, caring people (i.e., charity….”love your neighbor as yourself” is very much bound up with charity and justice). Loving our neighbor requires caring for the people around us – being upstanding citizens, taking care of our families, being nice to our friends and relatives (even when that’s difficult!), providing for our communities (soup kitchens, prisoner visitation programs, performing well at our jobs, etc.).

Living these concepts well is an ongoing learning aspect of our faith journey. How well do each of us “love God and love our neighbors?” It varies from person to person. While few of us will become like Mother Teresa, the degree to which we become loving should become increasingly visible over time. Fortunate are the individuals who are graced with a natural ability to be good and loving to everyone (or most everyone) they encounter. For all of us, we – and the people who know us – should be able to see incremental increases in our loving behavior over time. For those of us who have to work toward “love your neighbor,” we are fortunate that there are an abundance of lessons within Christianity that move us toward “love your neighbor.” An insightful aspect of how we experience pouring out love to the people around us was recently summed up by Fr. Tim Clark of Seattle: “The sacrificial nature of love saves us from ourselves.”

Etsy sale: Parish Catechist’s Christmas greeting cards

October 9, 2023

Great news: Etsy is offering an Etsy-wide sale through Wednesday. If you are thinking ahead about ordering Christmas cards, a sale on our Christmas cards is an option. Our cards can be found on Etsy here. Thank you.

Accompanying one another in our faith journeys

October 6, 2023

Our faith formation – spiritual exploration and growth in faith – is personal and at the same time communal. It takes interaction with each other – a faith community – to learn, grow, and mature. Specific faith traditions offer spiritual insights learned over a period of time – we aren’t going to find adequate insights to grow and mature our faith on our own. Further, faith communities are often where we learn social mores that nudge us forward more than what we would glean from sitting home alone reading books (“Hey, come put your faith into action by helping at our soup kitchen,” learn about treating each well within a faith community, etc.). Friends, communities (prayer groups, faith circles, book clubs, etc.) and leaders within a faith community can help us avoid taking detours down unproductive rabbit holes.

Within that context, some individuals emerge who provide us with spiritual accompaniment: pastors, spiritual accompanists, faith mentors, spiritual directors, soul friends, and the like.

Spiritual accompaniment is a relationship in which one individual helps facilitate another’s exploration and continued growth (maturity) in their faith journey.

Spiritual accompaniment takes innumerable forms, such as:

A youth minister takes a spiritually curious young person “under their wing.”
Someone at a parish notices that a parishioner “is at loose ends” or “looking for direction in their faith” and takes on a one–on-one faith guidance role.
A parishioner who is experiencing a life transition – starting college, entering the workforce, having a child, losing a loved one, retiring, etc – asks their pastor for guidance and is directed toward “Hey, X or Y person would be a good person for you to connect with at this time.”
An individual looking to potentially join a faith tradition – or a different denomination within a tradition – may be assigned a mentor and/or a lay minister to guide their faith inquiry.
A parishioner may admire a fellow parishioner who has matured in their faith and ask the person for guidance and/or “faith friendship.”
In various contexts, individuals exist who provide formal spiritual accompaniment (and/or spiritual directors) to individuals looking for direction in their faith. Such accompaniment often takes place when an individually formally seeks this out; during a period of questioning, doubt, or struggle; during periods of transition (life transitions, transitioning from one stage of faith to another); when a person wishes to continually hold themselves accountable in faith.

While spiritual accompaniment sometimes occurs in some kind of a formal or leadership capacity, we can also support each other – in peer or mentor capacities – in our faith journeys. There are a number of ways to support one another:

Participate in faith groups – book clubs, prayer groups, bible studies, etc. Support and discussion about faith happens within such groups.
Be welcoming to new people at church – reach out and initiate friendships.
Reach out to people in your faith community who seem to be at loose ends or are having difficulty – look for ways to be present and supportive.
Be someone in your faith community who talks about how you experience your faith. Someone may be listening for feet-on-the-ground insights about living one’s faith.
Consider your faith-related strengths and look for opportunities to discuss those strengths with other people. If prayer is one of your areas of interest, for example, look for opportunities to talk to people about the nuts-and-bolts of cultivating a vibrant prayer life. If you take an interest in community service (running your church’s food bank, etc.), invite people to get involved in service projects.
Participate in church-based programs that assist people in their faith – becoming a guide or leader in healing prayer groups, grief support groups, faith education classes, etc.
Have an active prayer life. In order to relate to people in faith, we need to have an active relationship with God. Prayer is a relational activity between us and God (rather than a uni-directional monologue). Prayer is essential for growing in faith.
Listen to people. Authentic listening is a deeply attentive activity. Hearing people makes it more possible to know “where a person is at” – making it more possible to identify how to support people. Further, being heard is an encouraging activity.
Recognize that faith development incorporates a whole person – spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and the context of a person’s life circumstances.
Offer insights or encouragement to people – this can go a long way.

Legos, faith….Didn’t anticipate this outcome

October 2, 2023

A recent trip down memory lane led me to wanting a Lego set (my maternal grandmother had Legos for us to play with when we were children…..). So, it seems that I’ve joined the Legos craze. I wasn’t going to be satisfied with just any of the latest “Legos sets.” I drove across town this morning in search of a Legos store where one can find “anything Legos.” I ended up combing through several bins and tables of individual Legos pieces in search of the pieces and colors I wanted. After a time, I realized “perhaps I’ve been here awhile?” I checked the time, I’d been combing through bins for two hours in search of the individual types of Legos pieces I was there to find. A bit manic, perhaps! Perhaps the store clerk was a bit amused (I was the only customer in the store for most of that two hours, so my active hunting through piles of Legos was readily observable). The money I paid for my carefully-selected bag of Legos was perhaps justified simply by the enjoyment of two hours searching intently through piles of Legos!

I subsequently spent much of the afternoon at home beginning to assemble the Legos creation I had envisioned – a Legos church. An unlikely way to spend my day off?

Then, disappointment. After so much effort to collect all the desired Legos pieces I could find, I found out at home (I rather suspected when leaving the store) that I don’t yet have enough pieces to finish erecting a church. I got the foundation laid, started the walls, installed doors and windows, and have something of an altar and tabernacle. Off to the side, I have Legos pieces for a steeple. There aren’t enough pieces, though, to complete the upper portion of the walls or a roof.

Perhaps, however, this is a case of art mimicking life. Or, more specifically, Legos mimicking how we experience faith. We can lay a foundation and start building a faithful life, but we’re really never done. Nor can we finish this on our own. We’ll likely never have all the pieces.

Perhaps I’ll never want a roof on this Legos church. If there were a roof, I’d never be able to see what’s inside. In faith, what’s inside needs to be made visible rather than hidden (i.e., the inside of this Legos church would be hidden to viewers if there were a roof) – we likewise lay ourselves (our insides) before God to be improved upon. We’re to take what we learn in church out into our lives and communities – our faith needs to be made visible by how we live (sometimes pastors say at the end of mass, ““Go forth, glorifying the Lord by your lives”).

In a sense, maybe my Legos church is as done as it is suppose to be. On with the continued building of life and faith.

List: How many ways to pray (types of prayer)?

September 30, 2023

The Benedictine monks of Saint Meinrad Monastery succinctly state on the back cover of their book The Tradition of Catholic Prayer, “Catholics have a rich and ancient prayer tradition that informs contemporary practice….” It’s no wonder that people seek out the variety of prayer options available within Catholicism.

Catholic prayer is a vibrant and varied tradition, bringing to fullness a life-giving relationship between us and God. Jesus came “that we might have life, and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). “…prayer is not merely an exchange of words, but it engages the whole person in a relationship with God the Father, through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit” (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB).

How many ways are there to pray?

The essence of prayer is communication, a relationship with God, a being-with or being-in-the-presence-of. When we find a relationship with God – an interactive, two-way interaction rather than a one-way monologue (we wouldn’t relate to the people in our lives exclusively via uni-directional monologues!) – there comes a discovery that God is present with us in prayer.

A friend said to me, “prayer is a very personal communion with God that is meant to be personal, and unique to you….People are… very different in their personal experience in prayer, and that in itself is a beautiful thing.”

Just as we have many differing relationships with the various people in our lives – and a variety of ways that we communicate with the people in our lives – there are any number of ways of communicating with God. A prayer style that works for one person may be very different than what works for the next person. Here are several approaches to prayer:

Rote prayer (formal, memorized prayers – these are often provided to us by our houses of worship). Prayers such as the Lord’s Prayer are full of meaning and help us learn to pray. Such prayers give us ready prayer content that we can easily put to use.
Psalms. The Book of Psalms – which were meant to be sung – are summarized by Wikipedia thus: the Book of Psalms are “an anthology of Hebrew religious hymns…including hymns or songs of praise, communal and individual laments, royal psalms, imprecation, and individual thanksgivings. The book also includes psalms of communal thanksgiving, wisdom, pilgrimage, and other categories.”
“Talking to God.” Our spontaneous thoughts and words directed to God. God wants to have a relationship with us; relationships are two-way, be open to feeling God’s presence in response.
Contemplative Prayer. Resting reflectively in prayer, without a need for words or any human language. Contemplative prayer can – and for some people, does – include a sense of God’s presence in prayer. For more information about contemplative prayer, visit Contemplative Outreach.
Praying the Rosary. The rosary is a reflective way of praying a set of rote prayers with a formulaic set of Catholic prayer beads (focusing time on specified topics). Instructions for praying the rosary is available here.
Lectio Divina. Lectio Divina “describes a way of reading the Scriptures whereby we gradually let go of our own agenda and open ourselves to what God wants to say to us” (this particular description provided by the Carmelites).
Singing at church. “Those who sing pray twice” (a popular phrase in churches).
Intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer that we pray for other people. We come to God with the challenges of those who are in need of support.

My favorite Catholic pray-ers:

Teresa of Avila, (16th-century mystic, Doctor of the Church, Carmelite nun, reformer of the Carmelite religious order, Carmelite saint)
John of the Cross (16th-century mystic, Doctor of the Church, Carmelite monk and priest, co-reformer of the Carmelite religious order, Carmelite saint)
Edith Stein, Carmelite nun, Carmelite saint
Fr. Thomas Keating, founder of Contemplative Outreach

Books for further reading:

Clinging: The Experience of Prayer (Emilie Griffin)

The Tradition of Catholic Prayer (The Monks of Meinrad Monastery)

Accompanying you in your faith journey