Lent, week 2

The first episode of “Vatican II and You” went well. The speaker just read portions of the text of Lumen Gentium with little interjection at all. He got things rolling with a reading of Pope Paul VI’s opening address to the second session of the council. The reading is ironic, since many of Paul VI’s hopes turned out to happen the opposite way: instead of clarity, there was confusion, and instead of continuity, there were seismic shifts. The good priest did not preach about the discontinuities, but acknowledged the mixed results of the council, and announced his hopes that Pope Benedict XVI can fix the deficiencies.

Some of the topics that were touched on:
Misunderstood ecclesiology
Ecumenism as guiding those in partial communion with the Church to full communion with the Church.
Ministerial priesthood vs. common priesthood
“ The Church begins in the home.” About family life and the vocations involved
Infallibility, teaching in union with the Magisterium
The Church is necessary for salvation
Obligation of obedience to Bishop in matters of faith and morals ( are there any other issues?)
Universal call to sanctity
Mary, at the conclusion of Lumen Gentium, as model for the Church.


In other news, I received a decidedly uncomplimentary e-mail this week, by accident. I imagine that the sender was unaware that she was replying to multiple parties, and disparaged my work. I was a bit indignant over it for a while, but then decided that the whole situation wasn’t worth worrying about.

A coworker of mine embarrassed himself a bit with his blog, not only blogging at work, but slagging the guys he works with. It reminds me of something I learned in Ethics 101, about only writing things you wouldn’t mind your mother or minister to read, or, in this case, your coworkers.

I nailed another birdie, my second ever, this week. It was a 315 yard, par 4, and I had pulled my tee shot into a clearing surrounded by pines, and was approaching a downhill green over the trees and a sand trap, into the wind. My partner suggested my 7 iron instead of the 8 iron I grabbed, and I put the shot 7 feet in front and below the hole. Thanks Rich! The uphill putt broke a wee bit right to left, as I had expected, and dropped into the cup.
That birdie erased a bit of the quintuple bogey I got on the first hole of that round. I’m still bad, but I have occasional flashes of “golfiness” that keep me wanting to play.

I have an ikon of the Theotokos, with the Child Jesus, in my living room. My 2 year old girls see it and identify it as “Jesus’ hugging His Mommy.” She is our mother now, too, don’t be afraid to embrace her as well.

"We adore you, o Christ and we praise you, because by your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world."