Year: 2009

By Barb Arland-Fye

My family is looking forward to spending Christmas in the Twin Cities with many of our relatives. But no one is more excited than my 22-year-old son, Colin, who is practically jumping out of his skin with anticipation. And once we’ve arrived and settled in, he’ll be anticipating our return trip home.

That’s the way it is when you have autism; you try to ground yourself for the change in routine because change is a source of anxiety, even if it involves a change you’re looking forward to.

Autism has been in the news lately because of reports of its prevalence: an estimated one in 110 children is reported to have an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site. These developmental disabilities can cause significant social, communication and behavioral challenges, the Web site states. The Autism Society reports that as many as 1.5 million Americans live with an Autism Spectrum Disorder and that it is the fastest-growing developmental disability.

Behavioral challenges forced our family to turn to medication when Colin was 7. I remember that Christmas as being especially sad because the medication put Colin in a daze. I vowed that would never happen again.

For his eighth Christmas, he was completely absorbed with his new baby brother, Patrick, whom he has adored ever since. Each subsequent Christmas has brought its joys, challenges and indelible memories. While I don’t study autism as frequently as when Colin was younger, I am learning more about the disability from him as he settles into adulthood.

IQ tests don’t begin to assess the depth of his intelligence and thought processes.  Once, when he was angry with a man who works with him, he told the man he was going to have him diagnosed with “religious autism.”  I think Colin gets frustrated with autism and how it affects him, and sometimes his efforts to articulate his frustration result in wacky as well as profound observations.

We’re never quite sure what Colin will say; while most people keep random thoughts in their heads, Colin blurts them out — especially when he’s anxious. But if you listen carefully enough, you’ll get to the underlying message. I sometimes imagine that when we’re in heaven together, he’ll say to me: “Mom, why was it so hard for you to try to figure me out?”

In the meantime, his conversations make for interesting and sometimes embarrassing interactions with people. Fortunately, our relatives “go with the flow” — a phrase that has become Colin’s mantra.

With the financial crisis still in our midst, many people are suffering with unemployment or underemployment and finding joy in Christmas may be a greater challenge this year. The challenge is even greater for people with disabilities.

But Colin has been blessed since this fall — volunteering for the agency that provides services to him and other people with disabilities. He absolutely loves his work, and even asked if he could go in on Saturdays and Sundays (when the office isn’t open).

Colin finally has a sense of purpose, and that’s bringing me joy this Christmas.

By Deacon Art Donart

A number of years ago, I was teaching English at a Thai public school in a poor neighborhood in Nonthaburi.

My wife was teaching at an International School that followed the American school year and curriculum. So when Dec. 25 rolled around, she had time off. Christmas was celebrated in the gated International Community of Nichada Thani. It wasn’t celebrated in my neighborhood school, Prasertislam.

However, I was invited to explain Christmas to the students so as to enrich their understanding of Western culture. Prasertislam School had 1,300 students; about half were Buddhist and the other half Muslim. The school janitor and I, both Roman Catholics, were the only Christians at the school. Thailand is about 93 percent Buddhist, 5 percent Muslim and 2 percent “other,” including Christian. So Christmas is not much of a holiday there.

I bought an artificial Christmas tree and the lights and decorations for it, and with the help of the English Club we put the tree in the library and decorated it. Students asked, “Why do you use an evergreen tree?” I answered, “An evergreen tree never loses its green color; it stays green all year around. That reminds us that God’s love is always there for us, all year around.”

“Why do you put colored lights on the Christmas tree?” “We put them there to remind ourselves that although people are of many different races and cultures, all are beautiful and all have the light of Christ in them. We should all be a light to the world.”

“Why are we putting decorations on the tree?” “If we are to be a light to the world, we must make our world a more beautiful place for everyone. The light helps us to see the beauty.”

For me it was an explanation that should be, even though many of our customs are carried out without much thought or meaning.

Finally Christmas Day arrived. The tree had been moved out to the courtyard where the whole school had assembled. I was dressed in a Santa Claus suit. Then I handed out a pencil and a candy cane to each student. I had purchased these at the Thai equivalent to a COSTCO or Sam’s Club. I had decided to give them a pencil each because they would wear their pencils down to a nubbin and those without pencils would wait to borrow a pencil so they could do their school work. The candy canes were a nice treat since they seldom got any candy.

My explanation for giving gifts at Christmas was rather simple. I had previously taught them the Prayer of St. Francis, so I told them the gift-giving was to remind us that “it is in giving that we receive.” The smiles and hugs and “thank yous” I received from 1,300 Thai students made a gift far greater than anything I had given. For the next five years, Christmas survived at Prasertislam. They would drag out the tree and decorate it and Santa would dutifully show up and hand out gifts. In my absence, my friend Susan would take care to see that Santa was there. If I were there, then I’d be Santa again.

Lee, her Thai nickname, sent me an e-mail asking for an explanation of Christmas. She had volunteered to help me two days a week while I taught English at Prasertislam for the 2005-06 school year. Now she is teaching at a Thai school in Bangkok. I told her Christmas could be a Buddhist holiday. To be a Buddhist, you do not have to give up any of your previously held beliefs. This is why Buddhism is so confusing to Westerners.

Actually, Christmas fits very well. Buddha became enlightened and out of compassion shared his path to enlightenment with the world. God send Jesus to save us. We celebrate this gift and in doing so we work to become gift to one another. Just as the Buddha and Jesus are a light to the world, so must we be a light to the world.

(Deacon Art Donart is a member of Prince of Peace Parish in Clinton.)

Name: Msgr. Marvin Mottet

Age: 79

Years ordained: 53

Current assignment: Retired, but I work with four nonprofits: The Thomas Merton House, which operates Café on Vine; Quad Cities Interfaith; Project Renewal and Interfaith Housing. I’m a quasi-volunteer with the Social Action Team of the Davenport Diocese.

How did you know you were being called to priesthood? I was a freshman in high school, laughing at cartoons in a magazine. Father Michael Broderick (a teacher at Central Catholic High School in Ottumwa) asked me, “Have you ever thought of being a priest?” I said, “No. Why do you ask?” He said, “You have a sense of humor. I thought you might like to be a priest.” I never stopped thinking about it after that.

And then in 1948, after I graduated from high school, he came out in the corn field where I was working and said, “Are you going to college? I said, “I don’t know.” “You better decide,” he said. “Today is Friday and school (St. Ambrose College) starts Monday. I’m driving to Davenport on Sunday and there’s room for you if you want to go.” So I talked to my dad about it and he was all in favor of it. He always felt we should get more schooling, even thought he only had a seventh-grade education. I was a walk-on — no registration, no job, no place to stay, nothing.

I agonized over my decision (to become a priest). It was agonizing because I was considering marriage and I was in the lay apostolate and figured I was doing what I needed to do as a lay person. So why do I need to become a priest? The one Scripture that really nagged me was Matthew 19:23-30, and it said that if you give up one family, you would receive 100-fold more. I thought, “How does that work?” In 1968 when I had cancer surgery, they put a note on the door that read “Family Only” and the whole church walked through the door. They had to change the sign on my hospital room to “Absolutely No Visitors.”  I realized that’s how it works.

Aside from your ordination Mass, what was your most memorable Mass? Mass with Pope John Paul II in Rome in 1993. We were on sabbatical — 39 priests from all over the country — and we had Mass with him in his chapel. Afterwards, each one of us met with him and he gave each of us a rosary. He gave me two rosaries because he got interrupted. I said, “You already gave me one,” and he said, “Well have two.” I gave them to my two sisters.

What is most rewarding about being a priest? You get to be with people at the most important times in their lives, both joyful and sad.

What is most challenging about being a priest? When people don’t respond; you do your best and there’s not a response. Think about it, Jesus experienced that. So we shouldn’t be surprised.

What is your favorite Scripture passage? Different Scriptures have been important at different times in my life. In my work for social justice these Scriptures have been very important: Is. 61:1-2, “The Lord has sent me to bring good news to the poor…;” Is. 58:5, “This is the kind of fasting I want…;” and Mt. 25: “Whatever you do to the least, you do to me…”

Rom. 8:35-39 was very important when I had cancer: “Who can separate us from the love of Christ….?” Two passages have been very important regarding the power of the Holy Spirit (1Cor. 2:1-5): “… with a demonstration of spirit and power…” and 1 Tim. 1:6, “stir into a flame the gift of God….”

What is your hobby? Reading, gardening and swimming. When I was younger it was basketball. Basketball has been replaced by swimming. I read everything. I read a lot. I read a weekly magazine on current affairs and America magazine. I always get the most interesting junk mail in the world (it’s all about social justice). I read books about social justice and about the Holy Spirit and healing and the spiritual life.

By Frank Wessling

Today, Christmas Eve, Christians everywhere feel themselves arriving at Bethlehem. It is time to stop the toil, the rush, the searching for perfect gifts and allow the peace of a great hope to fill us.

The birth of Jesus which we celebrate on Dec. 25 is for us a birth of peace on earth for friends of God. Believing that God is with us makes peace possible. We carry out that possibility as we come to know and follow this God-who-is-love.

The Prince of Peace we sing about at his Nativity is the same one who spent himself fully in service for the healing, forgiveness and reconciliation of all humanity. Thus we know that the triumph of peace, the resurrection, is shaped as much by the cross of sacrifice as by the hope of new life.

This birth, like all real births, is not pain free even as it lights the world with promise.

Entering Bethlehem today means living through Calvary tomorrow on the road through a love so large, so strong that it forgives even those who hurt us, hate us, kill us. Following the Prince of Peace is a summons to fortitude and courage, the companions who lead to the feast of ultimate joy — our unity, our communion with/in God.

What was lost early in Adam and Eve is regained and offered as a gift wrapped in faith; the faith that finds Emmanuel, God-is-with-us, at Bethlehem.

A program to spread the vision and promise of peace in this country has quietly built over the last six years through the efforts of Pax Christi USA, an organization of Catholics who make the work of peace their priority. They called it “A Peoples’ Peace Initiative,” which meant convening dozens of groups and hundreds of individuals representing every class and race and experience. Through such meetings, listening, discussion and reflection on the “essential vocation of peacemaking,” Pax Christi USA developed the document “Called to be Peacemakers: The Challenge and Promise of Peace in the Twenty-First Century.”

That document was issued in the fall of this year, but made little impact at the time. It is a piece of adult faith-work that deserves serious, sustained attention. Since its focus is our role in being with the Prince of Peace, Christmas is a good time to think about it and even take time for an initial reading. It can be found on the Pax Christi USA Web site at www.pax

christiusa.org.

“Peace is not just the absence of war. …  Like a cathedral, peace must be constructed patiently and with unshakable faith.” These words of Pope John Paul II are used as an introduction to the document.

As a thoroughly Catholic piece of work, what Pax Christi produced is not woolly, starry-eyed optimism. Instead, it is faith-based realism, looking honestly at our condition, our needs, our deficiencies and, yes, our sins in order to correctly assess the work to be done by friends of God. Some readers may hesitate at the Pax Christi emphasis on rejecting all forms of violence, but don’t confuse their stance with a passive sort of pacifism. To the contrary, the spirit of “Called to be Peacemakers” is one of action to change some fundamentals that drive what we call our way of life in the world today.

Those fundamentals are part of what Christmas means. The reading of this document will take a bit longer than “The Night Before Christmas,” but doing so should fill the adult heart with similar warmth and hope for the great promise.

“Our hope is not based on optimism,” the document says, “— the belief that in time things will get better. Our hope is grounded in the belief that God is compassion for the world. Our hope is grounded in the conviction that God’s grace is sufficient for today — and tomorrow. And it is this hope that gives us the courage to love where others hate, to give without the desire for repayment, and to forgive when others seek retribution. In short, in spite of all the violence and suffering, we stand steadfast in solidarity and action on behalf of justice and God’s peace in the world.”

This is the ground, the substance, of Christmas joy.

On a Tuesday morning in Advent, the father and mother of an unborn baby heard the Good News of Jesus Christ on the sidewalk in front of Planned Parenthood in Bettendorf. 

Their problem, according to the dad, was that “it is expensive to raise children in America. We can’t afford another one.” The couple instead decided to cancel their abortion appointment and protect the life of their fourth child.

The Women’s Choice Center quickly came to their aid as did Ray Knight and the youth group at St. Paul the Apostle Parish in Davenport, who agreed to “bless” this family of five through the Elizabeth Ministry program.

The Helpers of God’s Precious Infants extend an invitation to each of you to join us on the sidewalks in front of the abortion clinics in your city. Bring a friend and pray a rosary or a devotion. The Helpers provide a peaceful, prayerful, presence to those who feel alone and abandoned.

Jeanne Wonio

Davenport

By Derick Cranston

A 14-year-old girl, in her last months of pregnancy, sets out on a journey with a husband her family arranged for her to wed. The husband is not the father of her child, and she wonders if he even loves her.

He is much older and remains somewhat of a mystery. An occupying power in their homeland has ordered them to report to the small, backwater town of her husband’s birth. This means a journey that will cover 100 miles over rocky desert terrain. Everything they own they carry with them, and the possibility of being robbed is always on their mind. They do not know where their next meal will come from. Fear and anxiety are their constant companions.

When they get to Bethlehem, they do not have any friends or family who they can stay with. Mary goes into contractions, and Joseph is frantic to find a place — any place — where his wife can safely give birth.  In the midst of strife and turmoil, persecution and abuse, God breaks into time and history to take on human flesh. In doing so, he sanctifies the human condition of suffering and heartache, and gives meaning to the meaningless of life.  The eternal life of glory breaks into the messiness of our ugly, temporary lives.

And this is the way God comes to us even today. Just when things get so crazy and out of control, and you are overwhelmed to the point where you cannot take it anymore, God is there. The grace of God shines through the murkiness of our lives to bring clarity and purpose.

We rush around from one appointment to another. We over schedule ourselves and our minds are always on the next task we need to finish. Fear and anxiety are our constant companions.

The first snowflake gently floats to the ground from the sky above. Then another one appears, and then two or three more. Like angels dressed in white with uplifted wings, more and more snowflakes gracefully dance from the heavens above, to the ground below. After a few hours everything is blanketed in a crystalline white tapestry. The dull barren countryside comes to life in brilliant bright shades of white. Drifts of snow are whipped around fences and roads like smooth delicate frosting on a birthday cake. Life comes to a complete standstill and silence shrouds the land. The cold and darkness force us to slow down from our over-busy lives and ponder the beauty of it all.

It is a silent night and a holy night. In the quiet stillness of deep winter, we can hear the faint singing of angelic voices serenading us, calming our fear and anxiety. Joseph has found a safe, warm place for Mary. The long, hard journey is over and all is well. The strife has ended and we can lay our weary heads down to sleep. The glory of God has been made into flesh, and has turned our fear and anxiety into peace and serenity. All is calm, all is bright.  As the song goes, “Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child. Holy infant so tender and mild.” Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace. And indeed they do. God is with us in the world — Emmanuel. Let us rejoice, and be glad.

(Derick Cranston is youth minister for St. Mary Parish in Riverside, Holy Trinity Parish in Richmond and St. Joseph Parish in Wellman. He is going through diaconate formation and can be reached at derickcranston@gmail.com.)

By Fr. Joe DeFrancisco

While celebrating the  Eucharist in homage to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, on June 19, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI announced “The Year for Priests.”

The Holy Father chose to use this year as a commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the death of a saintly priest, St. John Vianney.

Pope Benedict believed the Cure d’Ars to be a timeless example of a man who so completely identified himself with the self-emptying mission of Christ.

Imitating Jesus, the Good Shepherd, St. John Vianney ministered to the poor, evangelized those weak in faith and ministered “mercy” to the most rejected of society. In his homily outlining the meaning of his announcement, Pope Benedict stated: “The aim of this Year for Priesthood is to support each priest’s struggle towards spiritual perfection, upon which the effectiveness of his ministry particularly  depends, and to help priests, and with them the entire People of God, to rediscover and revive awareness of the extraordinary gift of grace which ordained ministry represents for those who receive it.”

Indeed, the sacramental gift of priesthood is something shared both by baptized Christians and ordained ministers. The Letter to the Hebrews exalts the Old Testament priesthood of Melchizedek, a pre-figure of the priesthood of Jesus Christ. This priesthood is one in which the priest is a self-offering, ministering the blessings of God’s Covenant, offering compassion and mercy, and sharing the spiritual graces of Word and sacrament.

The Letter states that there is only one high priest, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 4). Pope Benedict acknowledged in his homily that there exists two distinct expressions of this one priesthood, that of baptized Christians offering their ordinary service to the world and church, and that of ordained ministers offering themselves as  representatives of Christ “building up the Kingdom of God in love and in truth” (homily on the Feast of the Sacred Heart).

The Holy Father emphasized through the year in various homilies and exhortations to priests and laity that we must foster a close complimentarity between the priesthood of the laity — which invites us to continuous service — and the ministry of ordained priests — which bestows specific sacramental “faculties” on men to minister Christ’s sacramental love and presence to the faithful.

In essence, this year is meant to challenge all Christians to return to the heart of priestly life, and this is personal, spiritual renewal. The Gospels demonstrate very well the core source of Jesus’ public ministry, his life of contemplative prayer. Through a life of prayer, the Holy Spirit empowers our dual priesthood to enliven the charismatic gifts and sacramental graces offered to the world. Having created a solid spiritual foundation, the Holy Father inspires a further challenge to priests, a daily commitment to grow in moral perfection as well.

Because of the radical social complexities and changes within our global environment, the pope exhorts priests to become more visible and identifiable symbols of charity and faith and to lead exemplary pastoral lives — in order to inspire younger generations to priestly life and service.

Above all, says the Holy Father, “the Church needs priests and ministers capable of helping the faithful to experience  the Lord’s merciful love … and inspire others to acts of self-giving.” (Homily in honor of the Sacred Heart)

St. John Chrysostom, one of our great Eastern Fathers, wrote six beautiful tractates on the pastoral and spiritual meaning of the priesthood. In one book entitled, “The Glory of the Priesthood,” St. John indentifies what he believes to be the core meaning and power of our shared priesthood. He invited the faithful to contemplate the very moment at Eucharist where the priest co-mingles the sacred Communion with our Lord’s precious blood.

This “miracle” of Eucharist through the ministry of priests validates Jesus’ commissioning of men to bring his presence to the world.  It is the co-mingling of the sacred-divine and the imperfect, broken human men that perfectly symbolizes priestly ministry on earth.

The Holy Spirit has called men and women to inspire and lead us to holiness and most of all, to Christ. Pope Benedict’s closing prayer within his homily best summarizes what our entire priestly lives ought to become, “that our Lord set on fire all priestly hearts with the fire of charity.”

(Fr. DeFranciso is a professor of theology at St. Ambrose University in Davenport.)