Our Lady of Guadalupe

Readings: Rev 11:19a.12:1-6a; Judith 13:18-19; Luke 1:39-47

¡Hoy es un gran día de celebración para todos los cristianos, incluso gringos, como yo! En la Basílica de San Pedro, el papa León celebró la misa en honor a Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe.

En su homilía, el Papa León dijo que le pidió a la Santísima Virgen «que enseñe a las naciones que quieren ser sus hijos a no dividir el mundo en bandos irreconciliables, a no permitir que el odio marque su historia ni que las mentiras escriban su memoria».

Today is a great day of celebration for all Christians! At St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Leo celebrated Mass in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

In his homily, Pope Leo said he asked the Blessed Virgin “to teach the nations that want to be her children not to divide the world into irreconcilable factions, not to allow hatred to mark their history, nor lies to write their memory.”

Celebrar la festividad de la Virgen de Guadalupe es recordar no solo algo bueno, sino también algo verdadero y hermoso. El tiempo de Adviento contiene muchas celebraciones marianas: la Inmaculada Concepción el lunes, Nuestra Señora de Loreto el miércoles y hoy la Virgen de Guadalupe. Como dijo Santa Teresa de Calcuta: «Sin María, no hay Jesús».

Celebrating the memorial of the Virgin of Guadalupe is to call to mind not only something good but something true and beautiful. The season of Advent contains many Marian celebrations: Immaculate Conception on Monday, Our Lady of Loreto on Wednesday, and today the Virgin of Guadalupe. As Saint Teresa of Calcutta said: "No Mary, no Jesus.

Under the title Immaculate Conception, Mary is the patroness of the United States of America and under the title Our Lady of Guadalupe, she is patroness of all the Americas and secondary patroness of our diocese. On Tuesday, the Church remembered Saint Juan Diego to whom Mary appeared.

Bajo el título de Inmaculada Concepción, María es la patrona de los Estados Unidos de América y, bajo el título de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, es la patrona de toda América y patrona secundaria de nuestra diócesis. La Iglesia recordó este martes a San Juan Diego, a quien se le apareció María.

Durante el tiempo en que fue favorecido con las apariciones de Nuestra Señora, Juan Diego era catecúmeno, miembro de lo que hoy llamamos OCIA. La primera aparición que experimentó fue mientras caminaba desde su casa hacia la misión franciscana donde recibía instrucción. Según las fuentes, la Santísima Virgen se le apareció a Juan cinco veces.

Fue en su primera aparición cuando le pidió, a través de él, que el obispo construyera una capilla en su honor. El obispo Juan Zumárraga, aunque nunca dudó seriamente del testimonio de Juan Diego, pidió una señal para autentificar lo que se le estaba contando.

During the time Juan Diego was favored with the appearances of Our Lady, he was a catechumen, a member of what we today call OCIA. The first apparition he experienced was while walking from his home to the Franciscan mission where he was receiving instruction. According to the sources, the Blessed Virgin appeared to Juan five times.

It was in her very first appearance that she requested, through him, that the bishop build a chapel in her honor. The bishop Juan Zumárraga, while never seriously doubting the witness of Juan Diego, asked for a sign to authenticate what he was being told.

During her fourth apparition Our Lady provided the sign requested by the bishop. This appearance took place under interesting circumstances. Juan Diego was determined to miss his appointment with Our Lady because his uncle had fallen ill and was in danger of death. As a result of his uncle’s illness, he set out to retrieve a priest to hear his uncle’s confession, anoint him and give him communion. In order not to be delayed by his appointed meeting with the Virgin, Juan chose another route, one that avoided the place he was to meet her.

Durante su cuarta aparición, Nuestra Señora proporcionó la señal solicitada por el obispo. Esta aparición tuvo lugar en circunstancias interesantes. Juan Diego estaba decidido a faltar a su cita con Nuestra Señora porque su tío había enfermado y se encontraba en peligro de muerte. Como consecuencia de la enfermedad de su tío, se dispuso a buscar a un sacerdote para que le confesara, le ungiera y le diera la comunión. Para no retrasarse en su cita con la Virgen, Juan eligió otro camino, uno que evitaba el lugar donde debía encontrarse con ella.

Pero ella apareció en su ruta alternativa y le preguntó adónde iba. Después de que Juan se lo explicara, la Virgen le reprendió suavemente por no haber recurrido a ella, utilizando sus palabras más famosas, las palabras que hoy están grabadas sobre la entrada principal de la Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe en la Ciudad de México: «¿No estoy yo aquí, que soy tu madre?».

But she appeared along his alternate route and asked him where he was going. After Juan explained, the Virgin gently chided him for not having had recourse to her, using her most famous words to him, the words that today are etched over the main entrance to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City: ¿No estoy yo aqui, que soy tu madre? (Am I not here, I who am your mother?).

The Blessed Virgin assured Juan Diego that his uncle was now completely healed. She then instructed him to climb a nearby hill and collect flowers growing there. Heeding her instructions, Juan found many flowers growing out of season on a rocky outcrop of the hill where normally only cactus and scrub brush grew.

Using his open mantle, or tilma, as a sack (with the ends tied around his neck) he returned to the Virgin; she re-arranged the flowers in his mantle and told him to take them to the bishop. On gaining admission to the bishop later that day, Juan Diego opened his mantle, the flowers poured to the floor, and the bishop saw that the flowers had left on the mantle an imprint of the Virgin's image which he immediately venerated. Juan’s tilma is with image of Our Lady of Guadalupe can miraculously still be seen today.

Nuestra primera lectura, tomada del último libro de la Biblia, Apocalipsis, nos brinda muchas de las imágenes que encontramos en la imagen de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. Esto nos muestra que la Santísima Virgen es quien dio a luz al hijo de Dios, quien quitó la maldición de nuestros primeros padres.

Our first reading, taken from the last book of the Bible- Revelation- gives us much of the imagery we find in the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This shows us that the Blessed Virgin is the one who gave birth to God’s son, who took away the curse of our first parents.

In thinking of the flowers the Virgin used to imprint her beautiful image on Juan’s mantle, it’s important to note that our word “Rosary” comes from the Latin word rosarium. A rosarium is a garland of roses. It’s vitally important to pray the Rosary often, preferably daily. Offering our prayers and petitions and those of people who have asked for our prayers to God through our Blessed Mother. So, don’t ever hesitate to ask the Virgin Mary to intercede for you.

Ofreciendo nuestras oraciones y peticiones y las de las personas que han pedido nuestras oraciones a Dios a través de nuestra Madre Santísima. Así que no dudes nunca en pedirle a la Virgen María que interceda por ti y/o por los demás. Ella constantemente nos dice lo que le dijo al humilde Juan Diego hace siglos: ¿No estoy yo aqui, que soy tu madre?

Year A Second Sunday of Advent

Readings: Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalm 72:1-2; 7-8; 12-13; 17; Romans 15:4-9; Matthew 3:1-12

The question is sometimes asked, “What is the main thrust of your preaching?” I think has to preach for quite a few years before discernible patterns emerge. My answer to this question certainly includes something like, “One of the main points of my preaching is that hope lies beyond optimism.”

In our second reading, taken from Romans, Saint Paul addresses this directly when he writes: “that by endurance and by the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”¹ Indeed, hope can’t be developed in any other way than through endurance. While it can be said that hope is born from the labor of enduring life's ups and downs, hope arises especially by enduring life’s downs. According to theo-logic, crucifixion always precedes resurrection. As we rush toward Christmas, barely stopping to prepare ourselves, it bears noting that the wood of the manger becomes the wood of the cross.

Eugene Peterson expressed the nature of hope quite well:

When nothing we can do makes any difference and we are left standing around empty-handed and clueless, we are ready for God to create. When the conditions in which we live seem totally alien to life and salvation, we are reduced to waiting for God to do what only God can do, create ²

What is the difference between hope and optimism? Optimism is being convinced that you’ll figure it out and get everything under control and realize, if not your desired outcome, at least one that is acceptable. Hope steps in when you realize you don’t have a clue, you’ve no idea what’s going to happen, and you’re not likely to figure it out, at least not on your own.

Our first reading from Isaiah is an expression of hope. It is likely passages like this Saint Paul had in mind when he wrote that hope not only comes from endurance but through “the encouragement of the scriptures.”³ By prophesying that “on that [non-specific] day [sometime in the future] the root of Jesse… shall become a banner to the nations” and that “Nations shall seek him out and his resting place shall be glory,” the scriptures Paul references bring hope not only to Israel, whose prospects look dim in the context in which this was written, but to the whole world.⁴

In his commentary on the tenth verse of the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, Robert Alter asserts that the phrase “his resting place” is typically “used for a place of settlement that is safe from enemies.”⁵ He goes on to say that its use at the end of this passage is likely “to resonate with the spirit of the LORD that ‘shall rest’ on the ideal king.”⁶ Of course, from a Christian perspective, Jesus Christ is the ideal king whose Advent, or coming, Isaiah is predicting, for which Israel is waiting, and in whom they’ve placed their hope during this dark time.

Of course, it is the kingdom of which Jesus is the king, which, in the end, will be the only kingdom, that John the Baptist announces announce with the words: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”⁷ The word “repent” in this passage is the Greek word metanoeite. It comes from the word metanoia and means “to have a change of heart,” to change from the inside out, to be completely transformed, that is, converted.⁸

John the Bapstist Preaching, by Mattia Preti (Il Cavaliere Calabrese), ca. 1665

As we look forward to Jesus’s return at the end of time, which is something the first two weeks of Advent, extending from the end of the last liturgical year, bid us do, we are called upon to have a change of heart, to conform our hearts more to Jesus’s Sacred Heart and his Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Heart. This is why the Sacrament of Penace, or confession, is not only mentioned more but is made more available during Advent.

Beginning next Sunday, which is Gaudete Sunday, the relatively short season of Advent takes a turn, makes a pivot. We turn our focus from the “not yet” to the “already.” But between the already and the not yet is now, today. As we heard on the First Sunday of Advent- it’s later than you think!

Looking at it from the perspective of this Sunday, it’s important to point out that when Jesus came as a babe in Bethlehem, he inaugurated the kingdom of God. “Kingdom” in Greek, the word John uses in today’s Gospel, is basileia. Jesus, to use a word coined by the Church Father, Origen, is autobasileia- the kingdom-in-person. Where Christ is, there is the Kingdom.

In his work, On Prayer, Origen noted that people

who pray for the coming of the Kingdom of God pray without any doubt for the Kingdom of God that they contain in themselves, and they pray that this Kingdom might bear fruit and attain its fullness. For in every holy [person] it is God who reigns⁹

If you want God to reign in you and bring his kingdom to completion in and through you, then you must not allow sin to reign over you.¹⁰ Indeed, at Baptism, you rejected “sin so as to live in the freedom of God's children.”¹¹

The Sacrament of Penance is an extension of Baptism. What better time to be reminded of this than on the Second Sunday of Advent when, each year, we hear the words of the Baptist, the seal of the prophets, which are as relevant now as when he first proclaimed them? And so, over the remainder of this Advent prepare the Lord’s way by making your heart a straight path. Go to confession and experience for yourself God’s love and mercy.

I hope that each of us and all of us together receive that baptism “with the holy Spirit and fire.”¹² And being so transformed, strive to make God’s Kingdom a present reality, for Christ to be born in us. As the second verse of the old hymn goes:

Then cleansed be every life from sin:
make straight the way for God within,
and let us all our hearts prepare
for Christ to come and enter there¹³

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1 Romans 15:14.^↩
2 Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology, 64.^↩
3 Romans 15:14.^↩
4 Isaiah 11:10 in The Hebrew Bible: A Translation With Commentary: The Prophets. Trans. Robert Alter, 660^↩
5 Ibid.^↩
6 Ibid.^↩
7 Matthew 3:1.^↩
8 Matthew 3:1 in The New Testament: A Translation. Trans. David Bentley Hart, 4.^↩
9 Cited in Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism of John to the Transfiguration. Trans. Adrian J. Walker, 50.^↩
10 Romans 6:12.^↩
11 Roman Missal. “The Easter Vigil,” sec. 55.^↩
12 Matthew 3:11.^↩
13 Charles Coffin. "On Jordan's Bank the Baptist's Cry."^↩

Year II Monday of the First Week of Advent

Readings: Isaiah 4:2-6; Psalm 122:1-9; Matthew 8:5-11

Worthiness. It’s often an issue, even if sometimes a bit overwrought. Over time, even among Christians, the issue has shifted from the default of not being worthy to the presumption of worthiness. What is lost in this shift is a sense of sin’s gravity. Its effects on one’s relationship with God, who alone is holy.

The Roman centurion’s response to Jesus’ declaration that He would follow him home to cure his servant are words with which we are very familiar: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.”¹ We say these words at every Mass after being told to “Behold, the Lamb of God. Behold Him who takes away the sins of the world.”

It’s easy for our Mass responses to become rote, uttered thoughtlessly and without passion. This must be resisted mightily. After all, I am not worthy.

Left to my own merits, no matter how much I strive, I will never be worthy. While this is simply a recognition of reality, it should pain me, nonetheless. I want to be worthy or should at least want to desire to be worthy.

One’s motivation for wanting to be worthy can be a mixed bag. On the debit side of the ledger, it’s often the case that someone doesn’t like needing help to be deemed worthy. It isn’t enough to want to be holy. One’s desire to be holy must be a holy desire, that is, rightly motivated. Part of this holy desire means recognizing that I need God, that I need grace given in and through Christ by the power of the Spirit.

Our first reading from the Isaiah (who we hear a lot from over Advent) is from first Isaiah. Therefore, it was written before Israel’s exile. This oracle speaks of those who remain in Jerusalem during exile. Remember, it was the elites who were led away into captivity. The hoi polloi, or, in Hebrew, the anawim- the little ones, those of no account, who remained. These, pronounces the prophet, “Will be called holy.”²

It is the poor and the weak who know they need assistance who remain in the holy city. These least among us ask for help, sometimes beg for it, like the blind beggar Jesus encountered in Jericho about whom we heard a few Mondays ago. God delights in these humble souls.

After acknowledging our unworthiness, we implore the Lord to “only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” As often as we earnestly ask, the Lord says the healing word. When one is aware of serious sin, Christ beckons him to the confessional to say the healing word.

Lord longs to say, “I absolve you of your sins.” Sometimes, we forget the extent to which Jesus turned things upside down. It isn’t humility to insist that your sins are greater than God’s mercy. On the contrary, it is damnable pride. After all, didn’t God give His only Son to extend divine mercy to you? As Saint Paul insisted, “you have been purchased at a price.”³

Confession is not where you go to admit defeat. It is where you go to claim the victory Christ won for you over sin and death! Don’t let pride, one of the devil’s best tools, keep you from claiming your victory. Christ’s Easter victory is your victory. Without Easter, Christmas doesn’t matter.

---

1 Isaiah 4:3.^↩
2 Matthew 8:8.^↩
3 See 1 Corinthians 6:20.^↩

"How soon is now?"

Readings: Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122:1-9; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:37-44

For this First Sunday of Advent, our "epistle" reading is a longer section of the thirteenth chapter of Saint Paul's Letter to the Romans than the reading found in Morning Prayer for the Liturgy of the Hours. Despite being a relatively short liturgical season, Advent has two fairly distinct phases. For the first two weeks, Advent is a continuation of the end of the liturgical year. As such, it focuses on Christ's return at the end of time and preparing for His return.

Advent, therefore, begins penitentially. Oddly, there are those who deny that Advent has a penitential character at all. This is belied by the fact that the predominant liturgical color for this season is violet. Liturgically, violent indicates penance. Besides, for most Eastern Christians the pre-Christmas fast is as rigorous or nearly as rigorous as the Lenten fast. Sadly, Latin Christians have largely dispensed with pre-Christmas penitential practices.

As noted a few weeks ago, there is something seriously defective about a "Christianity" that has lost its eschatological edge. In fact, such a "Christianity" is a pseudo-Christianity. Far from honoring, Jesus Christ, rending being a Christian as nothing more than choosing one existential option among innumerable existential options is to ignore what He taught. Our Gospel for today is one such teaching. Christianity isn't just one more moral code or even a moral code at all.

Faced with these eschatological passages, we have a tendency to water them down. Otherwise, we might get a bit uncomfortable. This discomfort might cause someone to examine his life. And, who knows, perhaps even repent.

Fundamentally, the message for the First Sunday of Advent is that being a Christian means living intentionally. The intent in living this way isn't to live this way when that just means adhering to a set of rules and regulations in order to receive a reward. It means living this way in order to be changed from the inside out. It means metanoia. It means desiring to be conformed to the image of Christ, wanting to be holy as He is holy.

"Maranatha" in the medieval Southwick Codex

In turn, desiring to be conformed to the image of Christ means recognizing that you cannot accomplish this transformation on your own. Without grace, you cannot be like Christ. Human beings were created in the image and likeness of God. While God's image, the imago Dei, is ineradicable, likeness to God is lost through sin and can only be restored by grace.

We are creatures who inhabit time. Time will end. Therefore, each day salvation draws nearer- whether that be the eschaton or your own death. This year is the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene-Constaninopolitan Creed. In that Creed, which we recite virtually every Sunday (we can use the Apostles Creed, but that in no way diminishes my point), we profess that Jesus Christ "will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead." This is a dogma of Christian faith. Therefore, it is de fide. Without it, one's faith becomes belief in something else.

It has been more than 2,000 years since the Lord's first advent. In human terms, this is a very long time. It is postulated that Israel's exodus from Egypt took place around 1446 BC. If one backs up from the exodus to Israel's "going down to Egypt," you get pretty close to 2,000 years. Please do not misunderstand me. I am not predicting that Jesus is coming soon. Yet, He might. Nobody can possibly know. The signs the Lord invokes, I believe, are deliberately ambiguous.

Rather, my point is that most of history is an advent, a time of waiting on God. Many have concluded that waiting on God is like waiting for Godot, that is, waiting for someone who never turns up. But that isn't true. Christ has turned up.

Through the Holy Spirit, who is Christ's resurrection presence, He remains present, especially and profoundly in and through His Body, the Church. This is why the response to the Intercessions for Evening Prayer for the First Sunday of Advent is Come and stay with us, Lord.Hence, we live between the already and the not yet. This is a place of tension.

Today, as we enter (another) Advent, we are urged to live this tension. We are exhorted not let either or both sides go slack. We are encouraged not give up our joyful waiting for the coming of our Lord. This is why we pray- מרנאתא - Transliterated, this is Maranatha!

Maranatha is an Aramaic word. Hence, it belongs to what was Jesus' native language. Found in 1 Corinthians 16:22 and alluded to in Revelation 22:20, Maranatha is translated in various ways: "Our Lord, come!" but it could also be credibly translated "Our Lord has come." Fittingly, there is no need to resolve this ambiguity, this tension, just as there is no need to resolve the tension of the already and the not-yet. Between these two is now.

Wake up! Stay awake! Be salt. Don't lose your savor. Await Christ with joyful expectation, which means seeking to make God's kingdom present here and now.

"I'm listening to the music with no fear"

Ah, Friday after Thanksgiving! I often post something on Thanksgiving. But this year, we did something we've been discussing for probably fifteen years: going out-of-town for this holiday. And so, we're in Hurricane, Utah, which is the extreme southwest corner of the Beehive State.

All of our children, minus one, are here as are my wife's Mom, brother and his daughter. It's been a nice break and a good time. A good way to realize how busy you are is to get away and take a break.

I love Thanksgiving. It's becoming my favorite holiday. It's easy to grouse about the origins of this national holiday. In reality, isn't it nice to set aside a day to give thanks? However you observed that day, I hope you took time, as Pope Leo suggested, to thank someone. It's probably something we should all try to do everyday- say "Thank you" whenever we feel gratitude.

As Brother David Steindl-Rast noted his wonderful book on gratitude: "Look closely and will find that people are happy because they are grateful. The opposite of gratefulness is just taking everything for granted." Or, even worse, focusing on that bad things, which, as human beings, we are predisposed to do.

Me at the end of today's trail in Kolob Canyon

I readily admit that gratitude doesn't come easily to me. This despite the fact there are a lot of people for whom I should be deeply grateful. Also, a lot in my life over 60 years now for which I should be far more grateful. It's much easier to focus what I will just call other stuff.

A big focus of mine right now is living with less fear. I am not gripped by fear, but I tend to worry too much. Even if you live to 100, life is too short to worry a lot. There is always something to worry about, for sure. Some things are worth worrying about. Most things are not, especially when you realize most of what you worry about is nonsense.

I had a great time driving down with my two middle sons. We listened to so much music. Some of it new to me. "Punkrocker" by the Teddybears, featuring Iggy Pop, is one such song. It is our traditio:

Happy "good thieves"

Jesus Christ isn't just king of the world, He is king of the universe, of the cosmos. As no less a brilliant mind than Einstein observed, we do, in fact, live in a cosmos. Cosmos is the counter to chaos. Hence, the Lord's insistence to Pilate that His kingdom is not of this world can mean more than one thing.

Christ's kingdom is out of this world as well as in this world. He is King of everything that is, was, or ever will be. For a Christian, this is axiomatic. It is an atomic statement, an ontological fact, just as the Church, as our reading from Colossians indicates, is an ontological entity, not a voluntary association of the like-minded.

The sarcastic sign Pilate had hung on the Lord's Cross was true as far as it went: Jesus is "The king of the Jews." But He is also king of the Gentiles, even of Caesar. Pope Pius XII wrote about Catholics having a supranationality. In the end, every knee shall bend and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

In his Apostolic Letter, In Unitate Fidei, promulgated today, given in advance of his Apostolic Journey to Turkey to observe the 1,700th anniversary of Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, Pope Leo XIV noted

The profession of faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and God is the center of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. This is the heart of our Christian life. For this reason, we commit to follow Jesus as our master, companion, brother and friend. But the Nicene Creed asks for more: it reminds us not to forget that Jesus Christ is the Lord (Kyrios), the Son of the living God who “for our salvation came down from heaven” and died “for our sake” on the cross, opening the way to new life for us through his resurrection and ascension (sec. 11)

Christ is not a king like other kings. He is not a demanding, selfish, cruel tyrant, paranoid about rivals and eager to assert His authority by using corecive means. He isn't drunk with power or domineering. While being perfectly just, He is merciful, selfless, and kind. When He mounted the cross, He mounted His throne.

As the Preface to the Eucharistic Prayer for today's observance puts it, Christ offered Himself "on the altar of the Cross" to present to the Father

an eternal and universal kingdom,
a kingdom of truth and life,
a kingdom of holiness and grace,
a kingdom of justice, peace, and love

Nothing really gets at the "theology" of observances such as today's like the Preface, which serves as a shining example of liturgy as prima theologia- first theology.

With one notable exception, it is only thieves who dwell in Christ's kingdom. Even this exception, Mary, the Mother of God, confesses herself a "lowly servant." So, the question is not whether or not you're a "thief." I am and you are. Rather, the question is, do you know you're a thief? Then the question becomes, are you a good thief or a bad one?

In his last will and testament, discovered after his martyrdom, Christian de Chergé, abbot of Our Lady of Atlas abbey in Tibhirine, Algeria, addressing his killer, wrote this: "I commend you to the God in whose face I see yours. And may we find each other, happy 'good thieves' in Paradise, if it please God, the Father of us both."

"To show you that I've thought about you and missed you"

A couple of posts back, 2025 became the most prolific year on Καθολικός διάκονος since 2016. I don't mind sharing that I am proud of that fact. This is a labor of love and vehicle for growth.

More than being something I love and that helps me grow, this blog is a way to share to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I try to do that in a credible way. At root, my blog was born as and hopefully remains an evangelical effort.

As my blog epigram puts it: "This is a public cyberspace in which I seek to foster Christian discipleship in the late modern milieu in the diakonia of koinonia and in the recognition that "the Eucharist is the only place of resistance to annihilation of the human subject."

I am glad that the Church prohibits the use of electronic devices for her liturgies. The use of the ritual books matters. Liturgy is analog and corporeal. In a word, incarnational.

One of the ways I try to share the Gospel is by a deep engagement with "secular" culture: books, movies, music, etc. There were ways that I came to faith and these also sustain my faith. One of the beautiful things about being Catholic and catholic is not to have to make some nutty hard-and-fast distinction between the sacred and the profane. Christ collapsed that.

Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Wednesday I read on article over on First Things by Stephen Adubato: "Rosalía’s Restless Heart." Let e clear, I claim no familiarity whatsoever with Rosalía's music. This article was my first exposure to her music.

Like me, Adubato is apparently a beneficiary of the work and charism of Monsignor Luigi Giussani. Giussani's "method," such as it is, lends itself nicely to attending to life, to looking at reality according to all the factors that make it up. This is indicated by Adubato's citation of Don Gius at the beginning and end of his article, citations that discuss music and celebate vocations.

I was very struck by a quote from the article- a citation from an interview with Rosalía:

The more we are in the era of dopamine,” she says, “the more I want the opposite. . . . There has to be something that pulls us . . . to be focused for an hour where you’re just there. I know it’s a lot to ask . . . but that’s what I’m craving

I think more and more people are craving something very like this as well. Just as Elijah did not find God in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire, God is not likely to be found in the dopamine hit to which so many of us have become addicted (see 1 Kings 19:11-13). Really, anything that adheres to the law of diminishing returns can't be God.

Como escribió el obispo dominico de la diócesis española de Sant Feliu de Llobregat sobre Rosalía después de escuchar Lux: «No consigo entenderte, pero me gustaría hacerlo.» As the Dominican bishop of the Spanish Diocese of Sant Feliu de Llobregar wrote about Rosalía after listening to her album Lux: "I don't understand you, but I'd like to."

Now I am listening to Lux. Hence, our traditio is a track from her album- "Dio es un stalker." Even for an English speaker that should be easy to translate. A bit different than "the hound of heaven," ¿verdad? The title of this post is my translation of lyrics from this song.

Hoy se conmemora la presentación de Nuestra Señora. Es una conmemoración muy especial para todos en la iglesia.