IN EXILE
By Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
In 1996, Muslim extremists martyred nearly an entire community of Trappist monks in Atlas, Algeria. Many of us, thanks to the movie, Of Gods and Men, are familiar with their story and are familiar too with the extraordinary faith and courage with which these monks, particularly their Abbott, Christian de Cherge, met their deaths. Indeed the last letters of Christian de Cherge reveal a faith and love that is truly extraordinary.
For example, in the months leading up to his death, when he already sensed what was to befall him, he wrote a letter to his family within which he already forgave his killers and hoped that they would later be with him in heaven, with both them and him playing in the sun before God.  As well, after his first face-to-face meeting with a terrorist leader, who has just beheaded nine people, he prayed: “Disarm me, disarm them.”
In his journals, which are published today, he shares this story: On the morning of his First Communion, he told his mother that he really didn’t understand what he was doing in receiving the Eucharist. His mother replied, simply: “You will understand later on.” His journals then trace how his understanding of the Eucharist deepened during his lifetime, especially in the light of his interrelation with Islam and one extraordinary incident in his life.  This was the extraordinary incident:
From July 1959 until January 1961, Christian was an officer serving with the French army in Algeria. While there, he befriended a man named Mohammed, a family man, a simple man, and a devout Muslim. They soon forged a very deep bond. One day, during a military skirmish, Christian was taken captive by the Algerian army. His friend, Mohammed, intervened and convinced his captors that Christian was sympathetic to their cause. Christian was released but, the next day, Mohammed was found murdered, in retaliation for his role in freeing Christian.
This act of selflessness by his Muslim friend, who in effect gave his life for Christian, permanently seared Christian’s soul. It was never far from his mind and his decision, as a monk, to return to Algeria and live in solidarity with the Muslim community at Atlas and remain there until he died, was largely a result of that foundational event. But it also deepened his understanding of the Eucharist.
His mother had told him: “You will understand later,” and now he did understand: The Eucharist doesn’t just make Jesus present; it also makes present his sacrificial death for us. Jesus died for us “and for the many;” but so too did his friend, Mohammed. He also gave his death for another and in that sacrifice both imitated Jesus’ death and participated in it. Thus, for Christian, every time he celebrated the Eucharist, he celebrated too the gift of Mohammed’s sacrifice for him. His friend, Mohammed, had also shed his blood “for the many.”
Mohammed’s sacrifice helped Christian to recognize and more deeply appropriate Jesus’ sacrifice because he believed that, in the Eucharist, Jesus’ sacrifice and his friend’s sacrifice were both made real and both rendered present. Christian believed that Christ’s sacrifice includes the sacrifice shown in every act of sacrificial love and consequently his friend’s sacrifice was part of Christ’s sacrifice.
He’s right. At every Eucharist we memorialize the gift that Jesus made of his death, but that memorial includes too the sacrificial gift of everyone who has imitated Jesus’ selfless love and sacrifice. In the Eucharist, the sacrifice of Christ that we memorialize includes the sacrifice of all who have died, however unconsciously, “for the many.”
The Eucharist is a far-reaching mystery with multiple depths and levels of meaning. We don’t ever fully grasp it. But we’re in good company: When Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper the apostles also didn’t really understand what he was doing, as is witnessed by Peter’s protests when Jesus tries to wash their feet. Peter’s protests show clearly that he did not comprehend what Jesus meant in this Eucharistic gesture. And so, Jesus’ words to Peter and the apostles are almost identical to those Christian de Cherge’s mother spoke to him when he told her that he didn’t understand the Eucharist: “Later, you will understand.”
When I made my First Communion, I had a childlike understanding of the Eucharist. In my seven-year-old, catechized mind, I believed that I was receiving the real body of Jesus and that, at the Mass where the Eucharistic hosts were consecrated, we celebrated the sacrifice of Jesus that opened the gates of heaven for us. Numerous theology degrees and 60 years later, I know now that what I understood about the Eucharist as a child was correct; but I also know that when those two things, Christ’s real presence and Christ’s sacrifice for us, are unpackaged, we find ourselves immersed in an ineffable mystery within which, among other things, all who sacrifice in love for us are also part of the Real Presence.
And so we keep going to Eucharist, knowing that later, we will understand.
(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, theologian, teacher and award-winning author, is President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX.)

Complete the circle
By George Evans
I am writing this column during the first week of Advent.  After hearing the voice of Isaiah from the Lectionary on Tuesday and Wednesday I knew I had my choice of topic as I stared at my blank computer screen. I find these two passages from Isaiah, 11:1-10 and 25:6-10, as the most meaningful, uplifting, inspiring and beautiful of anything in the Old Testament prophets. Please read them and join me in this Advent reflection.
“A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.” Why is this shoot so special? Because, “The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.” And because of this ‘’Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide, but he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land’s afflicted.”
This special one shall wear “Justice as the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.” As Catholic Christians we know this special one in Isaiah’s prophecy is Jesus whose birth we wait with anticipation to celebrate shortly once again. To do so well we must wear justice as a band around our waist and judge the poor accordingly not by appearances or hearsay. We must sprout because the Spirit of the Lord has rested upon us as He did upon Jesus. Isaiah then paints the magnificent vision of what will happen when all the above takes place.
The wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the kid, the calf and the young lion, the cow and the bear, the lion and the ox shall all lie down together and be at peace and “There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord, as water covers the sea.”
The knowledge of the Lord shall do all these things. It does it for us as well. Democrats and Republicans shall cooperate and rule for the good of all, progressive and conservative Catholics shall drop their anathemas directed at each other and embrace for the good of Christ’s body, the church. Rich and poor shall share the goods of creation given to all by the Lord of all and do the necessary tough work together to heal the scars of poverty, resentment, prejudice and fear in our culture. Our systems will be changed so that all prosper by the efforts of each other.
Isaiah’s Wednesday passage is so special I want it read at my funeral. “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.”
Everyone gets great food and wine.  No one can complain about that but we must all cooperate with the Lord to make it come true. And if we do, that same Lord will “Destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces.” That intimacy we all long for with the Lord which St. Augustine and all saints proclaim will finally be realized.
“On that day it will be said: Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us! This is the Lord for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us! For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain.”
The Jesus we long for again in this Advent season, though already with us, will come again in the blessed spirit of Christmas so that in the neediness of our flesh and blood we can be nourished in the incarnation of God into flesh and blood to forever show us the way and give us a model to follow.
Isaiah tells us what God will bring from the shoot from the stump of Jesse, how He will impact the world we live in, how He will bring peace and harmony to the animals and children, how on His holy mountain there will be no more harm or ruin for anyone. He invites us to eat rich food and drink choice wines, to have our tears wiped away forever, to rejoice and be glad that he has saved us.
We now need to buy in as He has taught us. To believe in Him as Lord and Savior, to seek and follow the will of the Father, to pick up our cross and follow him, to be a servant and not a master. To love unconditionally as He has loved us. To let love and compassion rule in our lives rather than anger and greed and to be active rather than passive. To welcome him again at Christmas with open arms and sheer delight. To enjoy rich food and choice wines and be glad and grateful that He has saved us.
(George Evans is a pastoral minister at Jackson St. Richard Parish.)

Reflections on Life
By Father Jerome LeDoux, SVD
Mother Nature provided somewhat windy but otherwise unseasonably near perfect weather Saturday, November 29. People had driven or flown in from states near and far to be a part of the final salute to a native son who had risen from the rank and file Christians to be an overseer of priests, as the Greek term episkopein expresses episcopus or bishop.
Both outside and inside the church, it was obvious from the outset that the religious mindset of the church members was that old-time, dyed-in-the-wool Catholic culture that permeated their demeanor, their smile, their greeting and their words. Equally, processing into the church and recessing out of the church, they were eager to touch or shake hands.
At the top of their skill set, the men’s choir did the honors for the homegoing of Bishop Leonard Olivier, singing for the processional and recessional “Lead Me, Guide Me,” the hymn whose opening words are the motto on his episcopal coat of arms. It was the same hymn sung as the processional at his episcopal ordination on Dec. 10, 1988.
“’Lead Me, Guide Me’ was the appropriate slogan that expressed exactly who Bishop Olivier was and how he served his people,” said Bishop Glen J. Provost of the Diocese of Lake Charles who was the principal celebrant and homilist for the Mass of resurrection. “He was a humble man of uncommon character and a willingness to serve.”
Both Sacred Heart Church deacons were at the altar. Senior Deacon Edward Lavine read the Gospel and recently-ordained Deacon Erroll DeVille read the Prayer of the Faithful. So, in its own way, Sacred Heart Church is still producing vocations, giving hope  that someday other nuns – there have been a half dozen – and other priests will be called.
In fact, present at the Mass were also Robert and Roxanne Boxie, Jr., Sacred Heart regulars whose son, Robert Boxie III is completing his theological studies at the Pontifical North American College housed at the Casa Santa Maria in Rome, and is set to be ordained in October. Robert’s ordination should be a spark for other vocations at Sacred Heart. It is noteworthy that Robert is the first from Sacred Heart to study and be ordained in Rome.
Bishops concelebrating at the altar were James Terry Steib, SVD, of Memphis; Curtis John Guillory, SVD, of Beaumont; Dominic Carmon, SVD, retired, New Orleans; Martin David Holley of Washington D.C. and Shelton Joseph Fabre of Houma-Thibodaux.
The first five pews opposite the pulpit side were occupied with 28 priests, including SVD Southern Provincial Superior Father Paul Kahan, outgoing Provincial Father James Pawlicki, a generous sprinkling of SVD priests from area churches, plus a sampling of Josephites, a representative of the Norbertines, and diocesan priests such as Father August Thompson.
Congregational Leader Greta Jupiter, SBS was present with Sister Laura Mercier, and Sister Joseph Ann Gillett, of the New Orleans Sisters of the Holy Family flock.
Driven by a loving and reverent sweet melancholy, the women and men of Sacred Heart milled around as we filed out of Mass, huddled together, then milled around again at Sacred Heart Cemetery, and finally broke bread together at Sacred Heart Hall where the warm camaraderie was constantly in evidence and lingered until 4 p.m. There was an overwhelming atmosphere of faith, hope and Godly love in the extended faith family. My cousin, Rev. Randy LeDoux, could not get enough of the camaraderie and congeniality.
“Can any good come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael asked Philip in John 1:45 when Philip told him, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” Can any good come from Lake Charles? Yes, a lot has, as well as SVD Fathers John LaBauve, Joseph and Ray Guidry of Abbeville, Bishops Terry Steib of South Vacherie, Curtis Guillory of Mallet, and Dominic Carmon of Gradney Island.
Amid dazzling photos from Bishop Leonard Olivier’s priestly ordination in 1951, his surviving siblings, Theresa (Ninie) and Edward, basked in the afterglow of their brother’s heroic stint as God’s special servant, and his holy transit into our Father’s kingdom. Edward again, “There will be a mighty celebration up there! What a time we will have with God!”
Many alumni seminarians, who wondered why Bishop Olivier had not attended the most recent annual October alumni gathering in Bay St. Louis, Miss., were there in force with still other alumni. Massing together after the interment prayers, they boomed forth the Salve Regina, the same daily evening prayer song led by Prefect Olivier at St. Augustine Seminary. Initiated by a teary Deacon Lavine, it took all thoughts back decades.
“God is love, and all who abide in love abide in God and God in them.”   (1 John 4:16)
(Father Jerome LeDoux, SVD, is pastor of Our Mother of Mercy Parish in Fort Worth, Texas. He has written “Reflections on Life since 1969.)

Forming our Future
By Jennifer Henry
“Announce the Good News! Read the sign of the times.” These are the words of Sister Paula Blouin, SSND, director of Madison Assisi Early Learning Center, and trailblazer in early childhood education in the Diocese of Jackson. “There is a tremendous need for quality childcare. Young families are looking for a loving, safe, educational and nurturing environment for their children. Mothers and fathers want to feel good about leaving their children,” added Sister Blouin.
There are three early learning centers now in the Diocese of Jackson:  Assisi Early Learning Center, Natchez Holy Family Early Learning Center and Flowood St. Paul Early Learning Center.  Sister Blouin opened Assisi Early Learning Center in 1987 answering a need for early childhood education. She built a center that is a model for the rest of the diocese. Three years later she helped Father Edward Balser, pastor of St. Paul Parish, open St. Paul Early Learning Center. Holy Family is the oldest in the group. The parish was first established in 1890.
Sister Blouin warmly welcomes visitors to her center and has willingly and generously helped many parishes explore the possibility of establishing early learning centers in Mississippi. Sister believes there is a great need for early childhood education. “We don’t just babysit. We are more than a daycare,” she explained. She is like the foundress of her order, Blessed Mother Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger,  a revolutionary and exceptional educator who sent her sisters into communities where they taught girls who would have otherwise been deprived of an adequate education. Gerhardinger is quoted as saying, “The love of Jesus sees into the future.”
Research about early learning is filled with optimism about the possibilities of shaping children’s academic success through early intervention. We know how important it is to talk to babies, to read to them. This contributes to a child’s academic success. Sister Blouin says that it is a well-known fact that 50 percent of values and morals are formed by five years of age. The early years are a crucial time for children to grow in mind, body and spirit.
Catholic educators are particularly privileged  at early learning centers to observe and share in the development of the spiritual growth of children.  At St. Paul Early Learning Center, we have begun using the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program  where the mystery of God meets the mystery of the child. This program teaches young children about the covenant relationship with God. “I have called you by name, you are mine….Because you are precious in my sight and honored, and I love you,” (Isaiah 43:1, 4).
Gianna Gobbi, Maria Montessori and Sofia Cavelletti, all pioneers in early childhood education, each played important roles in creating the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. Their work designed a curriculum where children could develop concentration, order, grace and courtesy, care of self and the environment. The children are surrounded by a prepared environment, the atrium, that is simple, beautiful, neat, organized and authentic. The materials allow children opportunities to use their multiple intelligences. As Montessori said, “The hand is the avenue to the brain.”
The Good Shepherd program is rooted in scripture and liturgy. The children learn to live the life of the liturgy in the atrium. They listen to scripture, meditate on the stories and wonder. The work in the atrium helps the children build that relationship with Jesus that He initiates so we may have life to the full and joy.
Joy! It is what children bring to us so innocently, lovingly and generously. Pope Francis has called us as God’s people to live the joy of the Gospel. Early childhood centers are certainly a ministry of the church that create multiple ways of meeting the needs of parents and children. There is good news to share about the Early Learning Centers in the Diocese of Jackson.
Like Sister Blouin, hopefully more parishes will respond to the sign of the times and embrace the most important instruction at the most crucial time in our children’s lives.  As Jesus said, “let the children come to me, do not prevent them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these,” (Matthew 19: 14).
(Jennifer Henry is the director of the Early Childhood Learning Center at Flowood St. Paul Parish.)

Word on Fire
By Father Robert Barron
The controversies surrounding the recent Extraordinary Synod on the Family have often put me in mind of John Henry Cardinal Newman, the greatest Catholic churchman of the 19th century. Newman wrote eloquently on an extraordinary range of topics, including university education, the play between faith and reason, the nature of papal authority and the subtle manner in which we come to assent in matters of religion. But the arguments around the Synod compel us to look at Newman’s work regarding the evolution of doctrine.
When he was at mid-career and in the process of converting from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism, Newman penned a masterpiece entitled “On the Development of Christian Doctrine.” In line with the evolutionary theories that were just emerging at that time — Hegel’s work was dominant in most European universities and Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” would appear just a few years later — Newman argued that Christian doctrines are not given once for all and simply passed down unchanged from generation to generation.
Rather, like seeds that unfold into plants or rivers that deepen and broaden over time, they develop, their various aspects and implications emerging in the course of lively rumination. It is assuredly not the case, for example, that the doctrine of the Trinity was delivered fully-grown into the minds of the first disciples of Jesus and then passed on like a football across the ages. On the contrary, it took hundreds of years for the seed of that teaching to grow into the mighty tree of Augustine’s formulations in the “De Trinitate” or Aquinas’s complex treatise in the first part of the “Summa Theologiae.”
Moreover, Newman felt that even those definitive theological achievements in turn develop and unfold as they are mused over, turned around, questioned and argued about. He concludes: “a real idea is equivalent to the sum total of its possible aspects.” And those aspects appear only in the course of time and through the play of the lively minds that consider them. It is precisely in this context that Newman penned the most famous line of “On the Development of Christian Doctrine:” “In a higher world it is otherwise; but here below, to live is to change and to be perfect is to have changed often.” Ideas change because they are living things.
I realize that many, upon considering this view, will get nervous — as did many in Newman’s day. Does this mean that doctrine is up for grabs? Should we keep our dogmatic statements, as one cynical wag once put it, in loose-leaf binders? To get some clarity on this point, I would recommend that we delve a little further into Newman’s great book and examine the criteria that he laid out to determine the difference between a legitimate development (which makes the doctrine in question more fully itself) and a corruption (which undermines the doctrine). Newman presents seven in total, but I should like to examine just three.
The first is what he calls preservation of type. A valid development preserves the essential form and structure of what came before. If that type is undermined, we are dealing with a corruption. Mind you, type can be maintained even through enormous superficial changes, as, to use Newman’s own example, “a butterfly is a development of the caterpillar but not in any sense its image.”
A second criterion is what Newman refers to as “conservative action upon its past.” An evolution that simply reverses or contradicts what came before it is necessarily a corruption and not a development. In Newman’s own words, an authentic development “is an addition that illustrates, not obscures; corroborates, not corrects the body of thought from which it proceeds.” In accord with this idea, Christianity could be seen as the development of Judaism, since it preserves the essential teachings and practices of that faith, even as it moves beyond them. Cardinal George Pell alluded to this principle when he said, during the recent Synod debates, “the Church does not do back-flips on doctrine.” So, for example, if a proposal were put forth at the Extraordinary Synod that simply contradicted the teaching of John Paul II in Familiaris Consortio or Paul VI in Humanae Vitae, it would certainly reflect a corruption.
A third criterion that Newman puts forward is what he calls “the power of assimilation.” Just as a healthy organism can take in what it can from its environment, even as it resists what it must, so a sane and lively idea can take to itself what is best in the intellectual atmosphere, even as it throws off what is noxious. Both total accommodation to the culture and total resistance to it are usually signs of intellectual sickness.
Now how does all of this apply to the Synod? Well, let’s consider the proposal made by Cardinal Walter Kasper regarding communion for the divorced and re-married. Is it an authentic development or a corruption of Catholic moral teaching and practice? Would Newman be opposed in principle to change in this regard? Not necessarily, for he knew that to live is to change. Would he therefore enthusiastically embrace what Cardinal Kasper has proposed? Not necessarily, for it might represent a corruption. As the conversation continues to unfold over the coming months, I think all sides would benefit from a careful reading of “On the Development of Christian Doctrine.”
(Father Robert Barron is the founder of the global ministry, Word on Fire, and the Rector/President of Mundelein Seminary. He is the creator of the award winning documentary series, “Catholicism”  and “Catholicism: The New Evangelization.” Learn more at www.WordonFire.org.)

By Karla Luke
Intercessory prayer, to pray and seek good for others, is a powerful form of prayer and evangelization. It involves pleading with and thanking God on behalf of another person or persons. God loves a heart that is generous for others and we can find many examples of this in Scripture.
Consider St. Paul’s letter to Timothy, “First of all, then, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity.  This is good and pleasing to God our savior, who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:1-4)
Jesus Christ is our ultimate intercessor, as he stands between us and God, leading and modeling for us the way to the Father. Jesus himself said “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Jesus’ life is an example of interceding for us to the Father.
He interceded for the bride and groom at the wedding in Cana, for Mary and Martha when he raised Lazarus, and for countless sick and suffering people through healing miracles. Because Jesus is our holy model, He is showing us that He wants us to plead to our heavenly Father on behalf of others as well. This month, we honor the great intercessors of our faith, the saints. In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis highlights the graces realized from intercessory prayer.
“At the same time, it is the gratitude which flows from a heart attentive to others. When evangelizers rise from prayer, their hearts are more open; freed of self-absorption, they are desirous of doing good and sharing their lives with others.
“The great men and women of God were great intercessors. Intercession is like a “leaven” in the heart of the Trinity. It is a way of penetrating the Father’s heart and discovering new dimensions which can shed light on concrete situations and change them. We can say that God’s heart is touched by our intercession, yet in reality he is always there first. What our intercession achieves is that his power, his love and his faithfulness are shown ever more clearly in the midst of the people.” (282-283 Evangelii Gaudium)
Just as a mother prays for her children, so Mary, the mother of God and our mother too, prays for us! Just as we pray for our brothers and sisters, so the saints and angels pray and intercede for us. As we follow the model of Mary and the saints, let us also pray in thanksgiving to Jesus and to the holy men and women of God who are constantly praying, watching, guiding, pleading and thanking Him on our behalf until we are able to be with them in heaven.
(Karla Luke is the coordinator of operations and support services for the Office of Catholic Education.)