Ministers unite to build fellowship and community

CLARKSDALE – The youth director in Clarksdale is still getting settled in his new parish position but has already launched an exciting new ecumenical program that is bringing youth and adults of various faiths and backgrounds together in unity and in the love of Christ.
Meet Derrick Faucheux, youth director of Clarksdale’s St. Elizabeth of Hungary Parish and School and Immaculate Conception. “When I was in Greenwood, North Greenwood Baptist Church would put on this event. I was always impressed with it so I had an idea that we could bring it here,” said Faucheux about the new program “5th Quarter,” taking place after local high school football games and receiving a great deal of attention.
Faucheux arrived to Clarksdale in July with his wife Mary. He is the former youth director of Greenwood’s Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish and St. Francis of Assisi for the past three years. Shortly after arriving in Clarksdale, he met with Todd Bailey, youth director of Clarksdale Baptist Church and Chandler Nail, youth director of Clarksdale United Methodist Church.

Faucheux said the ministers welcomed him with open arms and took him “under their wings” giving him information about the small community of nearly 16,000 in the northwestern region of the diocese and an insight into the needs and opportunities of the youth there. “I’m so appreciative of these guys and the love they have for the youth of Clarksdale. They just don’t care about their individual youth groups but care for all the youth in town,” said Faucheux.
After meetings, discussions and brainstorming sessions, the men came up with the idea to create events throughout the year designed to merge the various youth groups from the different Christian organizations in events and activities. “That is when the idea of the “5th Quarter” came to be,” said Faucheux.
The new program takes place after the local private high school’s Colts take the football field. Lee Academy with its Colts is a private high school with an enrollment of more than 400 youngsters and the football games are a highlight for everyone in town.
Faucheux and the other two youth ministers team up organizing 5th Quarter nights that include an array of activities including sports, food and games. The events are rotated and held at the different church grounds.
The youth event still new has been well attended during football season according to Faucheux with an average of 50 youngsters coming to each event. He hopes that interests will grow as word spreads about the program. “All youth in town are welcome and invited. We have a very diverse group of youth from both the public and private schools.”
Bailey, happy with the success of the program, pointed out that 5th Quarter is twofold. First, it brings youngsters of the community together in fellowship and to enjoy activities in a safe Christian environment with adult chaperones. Parents, volunteers from the various churches and people from the community-at-large are also meeting, socializing and uniting as they get involved to help in efforts. “It’s not about us but about churches coming together to help these kids,” he said.
Jordan Bryant who is a volunteer worship musician believes that “5th Quarter” is unique, helping establish a greater sense of community in Clarksdale and connecting people of all backgrounds and faiths as brothers and sisters in Christ.
“It’s important for the community to come together and put aside the denominational and racial barriers that divide us,” said Bryant. “We must be in one accord in Christ.”
Oct. 25 marks the conclusion of 5th Quarter for this year. The ministers are hoping to bring the program back next year but are also continuing to collaborate and work together throughout the year on other projects. Nail is challenging members of his United Methodist Church and other citizens of the community to get involved. “We need to let down our own barriers because in the end we worship the same God,” Nail said.

Youth from diocese parishes gather in faith and as one church

MACON – Middle school youngsters from across the Diocese of Jackson stepped away from phones, computers and the world this month to take part in a spiritual retreat and to spend some quality time with the Lord.
“The theme of our retreat was “One Church” focusing on the universality of the Catholic Church,” said Abbey Schuhmann, diocesan coordinator of the Office of Youth Ministry, who helped organize the annual diocesan Middle School Fall Retreat Oct. 12-13 at Lake Forest Ranch surrounded by 50,000 acres of pine forest in rural Noxubee County. “The overnight retreat provided the youth with a high-energy, faith-filled program throughout the weekend,” Schuhmann explained.

MACON – NET Missionary, Molly Shanahan speaks to middle school youth attending the “One Church” retreat at Lake Forest Ranch on Oct. 12. (Photo by Abbey Schuhmann)

The weekend gathering was led by members of the National Evangelization Team or NET, a Catholic ministry program established 35 years ago out of St. Paul, Minn. Net ministers are typically aged 18-24. They volunteer a year of their time to work as trained missionaries without pay and solely focused on creating relationships with young people through retreats and programs and bringing them closer to Christ.
“NET was very popular in our diocese in the 1980’s, and we are excited to have them serving in our diocese once again,” said Schuhmann about the team of young men and women, who visited two schools during their Mississippi mission. At Sacred Heart Southaven and St. Joseph Greenville they staged mini-retreats and shared their own personal encounters with Jesus Christ and their faith transformations, inspiring all in attendance.
The fall program in Macon included talks, small group discussions, prayer, adoration before the Lord in the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. There were plenty of opportunities for the young people to socialize and have fun. Throughout the weekend there were games of friendly competition including ping-pong, basketball, volleyball and gaga ball, the latest craze. Saturday, there was a bonfire by the lake, and the NET Team performed funny skits throughout the weekend and a drama was also part of the entertainment lineup.
“Parishes from five of our six deaneries were represented at this year’s retreat,” said Schuhmann, pleased about the turnout. Adult youth leaders from the various parishes helped out where needed, and during the weekend, they had the opportunity to meet one another and discuss the youth ministry programs at their respected parishes.
Bishop Joseph Kopacz visited on Sunday morning and celebrated Mass bringing participants together in praise and worship and inspiring all with his message. In fellowship, he joined the teens and adult leaders after Mass.
For information on upcoming diocesan youth events and activities, please contact Abbey Schuhmann, coordinator for the Office of Youth Ministry for the Diocese of Jackson at abbey.schuhmann@jacksondiocese.org.

Divine intervention: Papal tweet of support for ‘Saints’ goes viral

By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – A hashtag mix-up caused a papal tweet meant to give thanks for the Catholic Church’s newest saints to be read as Pope Francis showing support for the New Orleans Saints’ football team.
After the Oct. 13 canonization of five new saints, the pope’s official Twitter account, @Pontifex, tweeted: “Today we give thanks to the Lord for our new #Saints. They walked by faith and now we invoke their intercession.”
However, the Twitter hashtag automatically uploaded a fleur-de-lis, the official logo of the National Football League team. Needless to say, the tweet caught the attention of many Saints’ fans, who interpreted the tweet as invoking divine intervention for their team’s game that day against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Pope Francis, tweeting about the new saints he recognized Oct. 13, inadvertently used a hashtag connected to the New Orleans Saints football team. But fans appreciated it, as did the team. (CNS photo)

“Big Guy telling you something for this afternoon,” a Twitter user said, sharing the pope’s tweet. “Adjust your bets accordingly, Vegas.”
Other fans were elated that Christ’s vicar on earth was in their corner. “Pope Francis told 18 million followers that he was #WhoDatNation. I love it,” another Twitter follower wrote, referring to the New Orleans football team’s “Who Dat” chant.
But the reaction of the day came from the New Orleans Saints’ own Twitter account after their 13-6 victory over the Jaguars.
“Couldn’t lose after this,” the Saints’ account tweeted after sharing the papal tweet. “#Blessed and highly favored.”
A Vatican official confirmed Oct. 14 that use of the hashtag to trigger the “hashflag” – the fleur-de-lis – was a case of “accidental evangelization,” but hoped that “maybe someone who didn’t know will become aware that there are other ‘saints’ to pay attention to.”

Northeast Hispanic Community Annual Encounter

By Berta Mexidor
TUPELO – Hundreds of parishioners gathered in the church of St. James on Saturday, Oct. 19 to hold a gathering of Hispanic families, youth and community leaders from all over the north part of the Diocese of Jackson under the motto “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening” based on 1Samuel 3:9-10.
The main speaker of the event was Alejandro Siller-González who was born in Mexico and works at the Congar Institute in San Antonio, Texas. Siller-González worked at the Mexican Cultural Center for several years until 2014 and has actively participated in the National Committee of the V Encuentro. Siller-Gonzalez addressed the youth at the event with the topic “Faith and Culture.” In his conference Siller-González told an anecdote about how important it is to call people by name because God communicates to each one by name, and each time the answer must be that of Samuel “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” To identify when God speaks “You need to have a very close relationship with God and know him better,” summed up Siller-González.
Danna Johnson, community leader of the Deanery V, says that “… More than three hundred people from all over the north approached the event, not counting the children.” This activity is celebrated annually. “We need models of laypeople and families to help the church,” Danna concluded. The organizing team received the participation of the parishes of Southaven, Holly Springs, Vardaman, Columbus, Corinth, New Albany, Pontotoc, Houston and Tupelo. Daisy Martínez, coordinator of young Latinos in the Office of Intercultural Ministries of the Diocese, said that ”It was beautiful to see the number of people who gathered on this cloudy Saturday to open their hearts to the message of the day, let God’s will be our will and remember that God’s time is perfect.” During the day, the priests Mario Solorzano of Corinth, Jesuraj Xavier of New Albany and Roberto Mena, ST of Forest, offered reconciliation and Mass with the assistance of Deacon Francisco Martínez.
At the end of the work sessions and conferences the singer-songwriter, Jesus Rodríguez directed a song and praise session that included a song of his own “Speak Lord that your servant listens.” Rodríguez, of Mexico, has two record productions and is a Doctor of Medicine. He is recognized as one of the most important Spanish-speaking Catholic singers. Rodríguez encouraged the audience to sing to the Lord with a phrase he repeated several times. “When you sing, you pray twice.”

Missionary disciples respond with joy

By Berta Mexidor and Linda Reeves
MOBILE – A 16-member delegation from the Diocese of Jackson attended Encuentro of Hispanic and Latino Ministry in October focused on the diverse, dynamic and changing realities of the ever-growing Hispanic/Latino population of the Catholic Church.
The Encuentro held for the Province of Mobile took place Saturday, Oct. 12 in the Archdiocese of Mobile, and it was organized by the Southeast Pastoral Institute (SEPI) headquartered in Miami, an educational and service organization that assists the Catholic bishops of the southeastern United States.
The October meeting carried the theme: “responding with joy to be missionary disciples” and included talks, sessions, sharing, and reflections. Participants represented the Archdiocese of Mobile, Diocese of Biloxi, Diocese of Birmingham and Diocese of Jackson, all part of the Province of Mobile, and the day began with Mass celebrated at St. Catherine Siena in Mobile. Main celebrant Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi, leader of the Archdiocese of Mobile, began the celebration by welcoming all. Concelebrating the Mass were clergy representing the various dioceses of the province.

MOBILE – Sister Claudia Ines Crisostomo of Biloxi (center-right) shared her experience of her vocation. (Photo by Berta Mexidor)

Father Rafael Capo, director of SEPI delivered the homily of the Mass during the Encuentro in Mobile. He explained that the motto of the national conference was “Missionary Disciples Witnesses of God’s Love,” a theme that is being continually carried forward. “We have not been chosen to keep knowledge for ourselves but to give the message to the whole Church,” he said calling all to action and discipleship.
At the heart of talks, was the final document with strategies and recommendations that came out of the National V Encuentro held in September 2018 called for by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops focused on ways in which the American Church can better respond to the growing population of Spanish-speaker’s presence, inspiring in them the call to evangelization and service. The working document, a result of the Encuentro process, focuses on including evangelization, stewardship and development, ministries to youngsters and adults, immigration, vocations, Catholic education and global solidarity among 13 areas.
This fall, a delegation of U.S. bishops and laypeople visited Rome to share with Pope Francis the same working document that came out of the national Encuentro. Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, spoke to Catholic News Service (CNS) on Sept. 16 while in Rome saying that “Latinos in the United States are excited about their faith.”
According to the most recent census in 2010, the Hispanic population by 2050 could reach 132.8 million in the United States. That projected number would be 30 percent of the American population. The 2010 Census shows that 68 percent of Hispanics are Catholic. The census that is now 10 years old states that the population of Latino/Hispanic in Mississippi is 3.4 percent. Some experts dispute the accuracy of that number due to people in communities hesitating to supply information for the census.
Data from the Pew Research Institute, released in 2016, showed a 129 percent growth in the population of Hispanics in Mississippi since 2000, with around 85,000 Latinos with an average age of 26 in the state.
Jackson is the largest diocese at east of the Mississippi River. Catholics comprise 2.3 percent of the population and are served at 72 parishes and 26 missions and chapels spread across 38,000 square miles. At least 27 parishes offered Mass in Spanish. Bilingual priests, community leaders, and catechists are the source of reaching out to the increasing Spanish population in the state.
At the conclusion of Encuentro, talks shifted to the youngsters, for a consultation based on the conclusions of the Synod of Bishops on “Youth, Faith and Vocational discernment” held in Oct. , 2018, the Pope’s letter, Christus Vivit and the findings about young people from the National V Encuentro.
The opinions were collected generationally: active young leaders working with the Youth Ministry, people under 35 and the rest in a group of parents or laypeople in general concerned about the future of the church in the hands of the new generations no matter their heritage or culture.
Encuentro participants reflected on an inspiring message delivered by Franciscan Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, archbishop of Boston, on a video presentation emphasizing “The mission of Encuentro is evangelization and transmitting the faith to the new generations,” he said.

In memorium: Father Frank Corcoran and Sister Loretta Beyer

Father Jeremiah Francis Corcoran

GREENVILLE – The funeral Mass for Rev. Jeremiah Francis Corcoran, known as Father Frank, was held on Friday, Oct. 25, 2019 at St. Joseph Greenville. He passed away Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019 at Delta Regional Medical Center.
He was born Dec. 3, 1930 in Nenagh Co. Tipperary, Ireland to Jeremiah and Julia Mary Corcoran. He was one of eleven children (6 girls and 5 boys). He attended school in Nenagh but went to St. Flannan’s College Ennis, Co. Clare for his high school education and graduated from there in 1948.
His family were active Catholics and prayer, especially recitation of the Rosary, was very strong. Increase of vocations to priesthood was part of those prayers.
In 1948 Father Frank went to St. Patrick Seminary in Carlow to study for the priesthood and was ordained there on June 6, 1954. It was there he met a fellow student named Paddy Haugh who had signed for the Natchez diocese in Mississippi. Paddy had an uncle in that diocese named Monsignor Carey. Father Frank made the decision to study for the Diocese of Natchez. However, Paddy died a year before ordination.
When he came to Mississippi in 1954, he was assigned by his Bishop to Pascagoula, Miss. His first pastor was Monsignor Carey. Father Frank served throughout Mississippi beginning in 1954. He served as assistant at Our Lady of Victories Pascagoula; St. Peter Cathedral Jackson; St. Therese Jackson; and St. Paul Church, Vicksburg. He was Chaplain at Mercy Hospital in Vicksburg and founding Pastor of St. Michael Vicksburg. Father Frank was Diocesan Director of C.C.D., Director of Vocations, Director of Irish Missionary Vocations and sat on the College of Consultors for 3 years. He was Pastor at St. Patrick Meridian; St. Joseph Greenville; St. Therese Jackson; St. John Crystal Springs and its mission St. Martin Hazlehurst. In 2004 he retired to St. Joseph Greenville and at the time of his death he had served for 65 years as a Priest.
Father Frank was preceded in death by parents Jeremiah and Julia Mary Corcoran; brothers, Michael Corcoran (Margaret), Maurice Corcoran and Willie Corcoran; and sisters, Olivia Hayes (James), Eva Creedon (Peter) and Joan Morris (Jimmy).
He is survived by 3 sisters, Mary Dagg, Patricia O’Brien and Ann Flannery (Frank) and brother, Danny Corcoran (Maureen).
In lieu of flowers donations may be made to St. Joseph Greenville.

Sister Loretta Beyer

LITTLE FALLS, Minn. – Sister Loretta Beyer, 82 died unexpectedly on Sept. 30, 2019, at St. Francis Convent, Little Falls, Minn.
Loretta Pauline was born on Nov. 27, 1936, in Brushvale, Minn. She was the second of 12 children born to the late Alphonse and Mary Gertrude (Miranowski) Beyer. She attended grade school in Campbell, Minn., and attended St. Francis High School in Little Falls, Minn. Her aunt, Sister Mary David Miranowski, was a member of the Franciscan Sisters.
Loretta entered the Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls on July 31, 1954, was accepted as a Franciscan Sister on July 31, 1955 and given the name, Sister M. Loyola. She was a Franciscan Sister for 64 years.
Sister Loretta ministered in St. Cloud, Little Falls and Onamia, Minn. In 1972 Sister Loretta, along with Sisters Louise McKigney and Beverly Weidner, heard the Franciscan call to step out of the “safe zone” and work among the poor as they challenged racism in Holmes County, Miss. They joined a black-led community organizing effort to protest discrimination in hiring and police brutality. In 1982, she and Sister Louise McKigney spent 30 days in jail and received a taste of “justice” usually reserved for black prisoners. The three sisters received the Rural Organizing Worker Reward in 1988 and the Unsung Heroes, Mississippi, Award in 1989. In 2003 they received the Franciscan Federation Reconciler Award at the Federation Conference in Detroit, Mich. Another of Sister Loretta’s contributions was converting weedy vacant lots into gardens. With the help of children and other community members, they supplied vegetables to needy families.
A Mass of Christian Burial took place at St. Francis Convent on Oct. 8. Arrangements were by Shelley Funeral Chapel, Little Falls. Donations to Franciscan Sisters ministries preferred.

New film on St. Faustina makes one-night-only debut Oct. 28

By Mark Pattison
WASHINGTON (CNS) – A new film on the life of St. Faustina Kowalska, the Polish nun whose visions of Jesus led to the Divine Mercy devotion, will have a one-night-only showing Oct. 28 (and December 2) on more than 700 screens across the United States.
The 90-minute movie, “Love and Mercy: Faustina,” will also have some features about St. Faustina surrounding it, according to Marian Father Chris Alar, who is seen on-screen during the film.
The movie was directed by Michal Kondrat, who may be familiar to some Catholics as the director of “Two Crowns,” a 2017 film biography of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish priest who died in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II.

Kamila Kaminska stars in a scene from the movie “Love and Mercy: Faustina.” The new film on the life of St. Faustina Kowalska, the Polish nun whose visions of Jesus led to the Divine Mercy devotion, will have a one-night-only showing Oct. 28, 2019, at about 700 screens across the United States. (CNS photo/courtesy of Kondrat-Media)

The filmmaker approached the Marians of the Immaculate Conception – Poland’s first native-founded religious order for men back in 1670 – which as a congregation has a special devotion to St. Faustina. It was a member of this order who weaved his way through Nazi- and Soviet-occupied Eastern Europe to journey to the United States and spread the word of the nun, for whom he had been her spiritual director.
Father Alar added that news of the Divine Mercy devotion – which is simply “love in action” – is “great and powerful and incredibly necessary,” because St. Faustina was told by Jesus the message for the end times: “’If you don’t pass through the doors of my mercy, you must pass through the doors of justice.’ Very few people are aware of it. Even Catholics.”
Father Alar wanted to caution potential viewers about one theme the runs through part of “Love and Mercy: Faustina” they may find problematic: the suicide of the painter who, at St. Faustina’s direction, painted the image of Jesus with red and white rays emanating from his heart to represent the blood and water that flowed from his side after being pierced in his side during his crucifixion.
The painter, Eugene Kazimierowski, was indeed a Mason, as the film noted, “but he converted” before being called upon to paint the Divine Mercy image, Father Alar told CNS. It is also true that he painted himself as Judas, but “not because he was siding with Judas and wanting to betray Christ, but because he was a sinner and wanted to repent of his sins.”
As for the suicide, “what isn’t said in the movie, not out of despair or lack of trust in God’s mercy (did he kill himself). The Nazis were coming, and he was for sure in an area that the Nazis were occupying and he would have been taken prisoner,” Father Alar said. “And he had information about different things that the Nazis knew he knew. He knew for sure he would have been taken, detained and tortured. It’s never a good decision to take your life, but one that he did fully and freely of his own free will.”

(Editor’s Note: This movie will be showing in several Mississippi locations including: Malco Madison, Cinemark Pearl, Malco Oxford, and Malco and Cinemark Tupelo. To find a nearby theater and to order tickets, go to https://www.fathomevents.com/events/faustina-love-and-mercy.)

Jesus does not tolerate hypocrisy

The Pope’s Corner

By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Jesus enjoys unmasking hypocrisy, which is the work of the devil, Pope Francis said.
Christians, in fact, must learn to avoid hypocrisy by scrutinizing and acknowledging their own personal faults, failings and sins, he said Oct. 15 during morning Mass at the Domus Sanctae Marthae.
“A Christian who does not know how to accuse himself is not a good Christian,” he said.
The pope focused his homily on the day’s Gospel reading (Lk 11:37-41) in which Jesus criticizes his host for being concerned only with outward appearances and superficial rituals, saying, “although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil.”
Pope Francis said the reading shows how much Jesus does not tolerate hypocrisy, which, the pope said, “is appearing one way but being something else” or hiding what one really thinks.
When Jesus calls the Pharisees “whitewashed tombs” and hypocrites, these words are not insults but the truth, the pope said.
“On the outside you are perfect, strait-laced actually, with decorum, but inside you are something else,” he said.
“Hypocritical behavior comes from the great liar, the devil,” who is a huge hypocrite himself, the pope said, and he makes those like him on earth his “heirs.”

Pope Francis gives the homily as he celebrates morning Mass in the chapel of his residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae, at the Vatican Oct. 15, 2019. The pope, in his homily, said Christians must avoid hypocrisy by scrutinizing and acknowledging their own faults and sins. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

“Hypocrisy is the language of the devil; it is the language of evil that enters our heart and is sown by the devil. You can’t live with hypocritical people, but they exist,” the pope said.
“Jesus likes to unmask hypocrisy,” he said. “He knows it will be precisely this behavior that leads to his death because the hypocrite does not think about using legitimate means or not, he plows ahead: slander? ‘Let’s use slander.’ False witness? ‘Let’s look for an untruthful witness.’”  
Hypocrisy, the pope said, is common “in the battle for power, for example, (with) envy, jealousies that make you appear to be one way and inside there is poison for killing because hypocrisy always kills, sooner or later, it kills.”
The only “medicine” to cure hypocritical behavior is to tell the truth before God and take responsibility for oneself, the pope said.
“We have to learn to accuse ourselves, ‘I did this, I think this way, badly. I am envious. I want to destroy that one,’” he said.
People need to reflect on “what is inside of us” to see the sin, hypocrisy and “the wickedness that is in our heart” and “to say it before God” with humility, he said.
Pope Francis asked people to learn from St. Peter, who implored, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
“May we learn to accuse ourselves, us, our own self,” he said.

Grieving as spiritual exercise

Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI

IN EXILE
By Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
In a remarkable book, The Inner Voice of Love, written while he was in a deep emotional depression, Henri Nouwen shares these words: “The great challenge is living your wounds through instead of thinking them through. It is better to cry than to worry, better to feel your wounds deeply than to try to understand them, better to let them enter into your silence than to talk about them. The choice you face constantly is whether you are taking your hurts to your head or to your heart. In your head you analyze them, find their causes and consequences, and coin words to speak and write about them. But no final healing is likely to come from that source. You need to let your wounds go down into your heart. Then you can live them through and discover that they will not destroy you. Your heart is greater than your wounds.”

He’s right; your heart is greater than your wounds, though it needs caution in dealing with them. Wounds can soften your heart; but they can also harden you heart and freeze it in bitterness. So what’s the path here? What leads to warmth and what leads to coldness?

In a remarkable essay, The Drama of the Gifted Child, the Swiss psychologist, Alice Miller, tells us what hardens the heart and what softens it. She does so by outlining a particular drama that commonly unfolds in many lives. For her, giftedness does not refer to intellectual prowess but to sensitivity. The gifted child is the sensitive child. But that gift, sensitivity, is a mixed blessing. Positively, it lets you feel things more deeply so that the joys of living will mean more to you than to someone who is more callous. That’s its upside.

Conversely, however, if you are sensitive you will habitually fear disappointing others and will forever fear not measuring up. And your inadequacy to always measure up will habitually trigger feelings of anxiety and guilt within you. As well, if you are extraordinarily sensitive, you will tend to be self-effacing to a fault, letting others have their way while you swallow hard as your own needs aren’t met and then absorb the consequences. Not least, if you feel things deeply you will also feel hurt more deeply. That’s the downside of sensitivity and makes for the drama that Alice Miller calls the “drama of the gifted child,” the drama of the sensitive person.

Further, in her view, for many of us that drama will only begin to really play itself out in our middle and later years, constellating in frustration, disappointment, anger and bitterness, as the wounds of our childhood and early adulthood begin to break through and overpower the inner mechanisms we have set up to resist them. In mid-life and beyond, our wounds will make themselves heard so strongly that our habitual ways of denial and coping no longer work. In mid-life you realize that your mother did love your sister better than you, that your father in fact didn’t care much about you and that all those hurts you absorbed because you swallowed hard and played the stoic are still gnawing away bitterly inside you. That’s how the drama eventually culminates, in a heart that’s angry.

So where does that leave us? For Alice Miller, the answer lies in grieving. Our wounds are real and there is nothing we can do about them, pure and simple. The clock can’t be turned back. We cannot relive our lives so as to provide ourselves with different parents, different childhood friends, different experiences on the playground, different choices and a different temperament. We can only move forward so as to live beyond our wounds. And we do that by grieving. Alice Miller submits that the entire psychological and spiritual task of midlife and beyond is that of grieving, mourning our wounds until the very foundations of our lives shake enough so that there can be transformation.

A deep psychological scar is the same as having some part of your body permanently damaged in an accident. You will never be whole again and nothing can change that. But you can be happy again; perhaps more happy than ever before. But that loss of wholeness must be grieved, or it will manifest itself in anger, bitterness and jealous regrets.

The Jesuit music composer and spiritual writer, Roc O’Connor, makes the same point, with the added comment that the grieving process also calls for a long patience within which we need to wait long enough so that the healing can occur according to its own natural rhythms. We need, he says, to embrace our wounded humanity and not act out. What’s helpful, he suggests, is to grieve our human limitations. Then we can endure hunger, emptiness, disappointment and humiliation without looking for a quick fix – or for a fix at all. We should not try to fill our emptiness too quickly without sufficient waiting.
And we won’t ever make peace with our wounds without sufficient grieving.

(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, theologian, teacher and award-winning author, is President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX. He can be contacted through his website www.ronrolheiser.com. Now on Facebook www.facebook.com/ronrolheiser)

“Not all who wander are lost”

Sister alies

FROM THE HERMITAGE
By sister alies
“Not all who wander are lost.” I’m not sure who said that but it fits well into my life and perhaps yours. Deep in the psyche of each person is a wanderer, someone who travels, someone who is on the move. In our faith-life we also wander, partly as we mature and partly by circumstances bringing us great joy or difficulty!
Pilgrimage, wandering, on the road again is a very ancient image and is certainly formative in our Catholic Christian tradition. The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years over terrain taking only 11 days to walk! Monks or prisoners sitting in their cells wander many miles each day as they pray. Francis, Dominic and their mendicants wandered all over meeting the poor, never quite sure how they might make ends meet. Today a great number of sisters and brothers, refugees, wander from place to place, country to country, looking for a place of safety and welcome, a chance to start again.
Having just celebrated the feast of St. Teresa of Avila we might be reminded of other sorts of prayerful wandering … into ‘interior castles,’ ’mansions’ or ‘a palace where God dwells.’
What of repentance as a sort of wandering … since the word reminds us to ‘turn around?’ As we follow a path not set for us, God will intervene in one way or another to suggest that if we continue to go in that direction, things might not work out so well. Angelus Silesius in Cherubinic Wanderer, says on page 47: “Go where you cannot go; see what you cannot see; hear where there is no sound, you are where God does speak.” Mysterious and koan-like. The path of this wanderer would seem to be the exact opposite of what one might think is ‘right.’
Or another example, an anguished path when one is experiencing fear connected to death … how does one keep going and where is that going to? We might say quite easily, when we’re not afraid, that the path leads to heaven and we can by faith, hope it does. This path, sunk deep in our interior, has to be followed carefully and faithfully, looking at Jesus and not the fear. Remember the “devil prowls around …” (1 Peter 5:8).
“Death is our constant companion, and it is death that gives each person’s life its true meaning. But in order to see the real face of our death, we first have to know all of the anxieties and terrors that the simple mention of its name is able to evoke in any human being,” says Paulo Coelho in his book, The Pilgrimage. Imagine the winding path through Gethsemane … the path up to the Cross … the walk toward the tomb. Here is the human experience, an experience of diminishment or of apparent folly.
As the autumn falls around you, look around and see all the winding paths nearby. See the roads or the tiny traces through the under bush. Look for the flight patterns of the raptors or the few hummingbirds still around. As the leaves color and fall, one sees the mighty trees and the little paths into them, as squirrels and other little critters hide their goods for the winter. What have we put aside that will nourish us when our journey becomes difficult? What have we hidden deep in the recesses of our hearts that will help us when all seems lost? What actually matters? What gives meaning to life?
One of the classics that helps remind me of some answers to those questions is in the The Way of a Pilgrim, (translated by H. Nacovcin), a 19th century Russian work. The story is about a young Russian peasant-pilgrim with a deep question in his heart: how does one pray constantly? The text and the one that follows it, The Pilgrim Continues His Way, both challenge one to reflect on just how serious our pilgrimage is. Indeed, he travels a lot, has a spiritual father and discovers some answers. Father Walter Ciszek, S.J. wrote the forward of this edition and says: “The Pilgrim was most receptive to this valuable knowledge about prayer (the Jesus Prayer), for he had earnestly been searching for as method of prayer that would satisfy his longing for uninterrupted communion with God … he spared no effort …”
Here is the real answer … he spared no effort. If we want to discover that deep joy, establish a real faith life, live out of a hope carved in the soil of our hearts…then we must spare no effort. All who wander aren’t lost if the wandering is a search for the Living God … isn’t this the longing of every pilgrims’ heart?