Hidden Delights

“The world is not only hungry for food, but also for beauty.” With those words, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta helps explain why Pope Benedict is encouraging us to return to Catholic art as a privileged place for prayer. The vision of a gifted, accomplished, faith-filled artist can reveal to us a glimpse of God’s beauty, sparking an encounter with his love – and that’s the heart of all Christian prayer.

When I was just discovering the Catholic faith, before entering the Catholic Church, I used to wander into churches and gaze at the works of art, sometimes for hours at a time (college students have plenty of free time). This high relief sculpture of the Annunciation caught my eye, and my heart, even before I discovered that the Renaissance master, Donatello, had carved it out of pietra serena (a type of gray sandstone native to Tuscany) in the early 1400s.

What I Wasn’t Looking For

I have to make a confession about this work of art. It is located in a famous Italian Gothic church in Florence, Santa Croce. This church is home to immortal monuments like frescoes by Giotto, chapels by Brunelleschi, and the tombs of Galileo and Michelangelo. The first time I visited this church, I was interested in those famous monuments, not in Donatello’s little relief sculpture. Likewise the second time, and the third. In fact, this Florentine treasure of a church became a favorite stop on my way to class – I would light a candle for prayer intentions there as a part of my morning routine.

These repeated visits brought me in regular contact with Donatello’s Annunciation. It is located on the right side of the nave, between other monuments and side altars. I would walk by it every time I went through the church. Gradually, day by day, it began to demand more attention.

An Elegant Drama

We are used to seeing this type of depiction of the Annunciation, the moment when the Archangel Gabriel appears to the Blessed Virgin Mary and invites her to be the Mother of our Lord. But Donatello was the first sculptor to depict this scene with such drama. And it was the drama that struck a chord with me.

On the one hand, we can see that St. Gabriel is interrupting Our Lady. She is just closing her little prayer book with one hand, and with the other hand she is pulling her cloak over her as if to protect herself. Her right knee is turning away from the angel, but her left foot is still planted and hasn’t yet caught up with her body’s motion. But even while her body is moving away from the angel, as if she is surprised or frightened, her face and head show that she is actually mesmerized by the vision and the angelic presence.

And isn’t that exactly how it is with all of us? When God breaks into our lives, interrupting our routine with an invitation to repent, or to serve in a new way, or to somehow follow him more closely, isn’t our automatic reaction one of fright or resistance? We say, “Well, Lord, I have a lot to do, and I don’t think your idea is going to fit into my plans.” And yet, even as we resist, there is a place in our hearts, way down deep, at the very core of our being, where we feel the excitement and the draw of the Christian adventure. We know that we are made for God and that his will is the path to the meaningful, worthwhile life that we truly desire. And so, our true self – represented in the sculpture by the Virgin’s face, since the face is always the fullest expression of the person – wants to pay attention to God’s voice and invitations as they stir our hearts and conscience. But our lower tendencies of selfishness, represented by the lower body of the figure in the sculpture, tend to flee from the Lord. As St. Paul put it: “For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind…” (Romans 7:22-23).

The Charm of Grace

The charming elegance and sincere reverence with which Donatello depicts that drama was something else that resonated with me, in addition to the drama itself. In Mary’s case, the interior battle was much less violent than in our case. She was preserved from original sin and free from personal sin. And so, though the angel’s message caused her to be “greatly troubled” (Luke 1:29), she recovered quickly. Donatello’s rendition captures in Mary’s postures and attitudes the graciousness and gracefulness of her soul: he says with pietra serena what Gabriel said in words: “Hail, full of grace!” How could I not be attracted and intrigued by such beauty? How could I not be inspired by seeing the Mary’s natural agitation being conquered by her supernatural affinity for God?

The year that I visited Santa Croce so frequently was the year that God first began calling me into his Catholic Church. Throughout that year, I played out in my own soul this drama that Donatello captures so beautifully. My lower self resisted God’s interruptions, but my soul was mesmerized, and dazzled, and won over by the sheer goodness and beauty of God.

This Advent, as we spend time contemplating Our Lady’s journey of faith, so full of joy and trepidation, perhaps admiring Donatello’s magnificent snapshot will release the adventuresome spirit within us, and give us a share of Mary’s courage so that we, like her, can answer God’s invitation (whatever it may be) with the perfect prayer: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38).

An interview with Archbishop Naumann on Spiritual Direction and a New School For Spiritual Direction

I recently had the opportunity to interview with his Excellency Archbishop Naumann of the archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas for Register Radio on an important work going on in his archdiocese to train spiritual mentors. Because of the time constraints of the show we had to cut it down quite a bit. Below you will find the content of the longer interview.

Archbishop Naumann has a deep commitment to the spiritual welfare of those under his care and has demonstrated that commitment through tangible and significant means of catechesis and formation that I hope inspires other diocese and laypeople to pursue the same. I have had the opportunity to review the content of a number of the courses provided by the School of Faith and I highly recommend them, particularly to those who believe they are called to provide spiritual direction. Here’s the transcript of the interview:

Archbishop Naumann, welcome to the program.

Thanks Dan, it is good to be with you.

Archbishop, Pope Benedict has consistently encouraged the faithful to pursue spiritual direction during his pontificate. On his recent visit to the Teresianum he went as far as to recommend it “not only to all those who wish to follow the Lord up close, but to every Christian who wishes to live responsibly his baptism, that is, the new life in Christ.” I have two questions related to the Pope’s comments. First, what exactly is spiritual direction, and second, why do you think the pope is so strongly recommending it to all Christians?

Spiritual direction is accessing a spiritual guide who can help you grow more rapidly in your spiritual life than you could on your own. It is going to someone who has training and expertise in guiding a person through the spiritual life, helping them see the opportunities for growth and holiness and then charting with them a plan to do that. It is really somebody that accompanies you on your spiritual journey and serves as a guide. Just like a personal trainer for your physical well-being can help you get in shape more quickly, so too a spiritual director is a trainer in the spiritual life.

Regarding the Pope’s recommendation of spiritual direction to all, I think the Holy Father has a pastors heart and he realizes that the aim of, the goal of the Church, is to help people draw close to Jesus and to grow in relationship to the Lord in holiness. And, for all of us, not just for priests, consecrated, or religious, spiritual direction can be a great help to anyone that is serious about really growing closer to the Lord and learning how to better pray and build a spiritual life.

It is interesting that the Pope says “not only to all those who wish to follow the Lord up close” which seems to be a reference to priests, consecrated, and religious, but really, this should be the desire of every Catholic – to follow the Lord up close. I think he is encouraging all Catholics to do what is prudent, what can help all Catholics get closer to Christ more quickly; and that would be to have a spiritual director, spiritual mentor, or guide in the spiritual life.

Around the time the Pope was speaking these words, a new school opened in your diocese for spiritual mentors – can you tell us about that? What was the impetus behind this effort?

I hope the impetus was the Holy Spirit, not necessarily a brain child of mine. But it developed because of the unique ways we have been blessed in the Archdiocese. We have a group that has really helped us with adult catechesis called the School of Faith. They originally began their efforts at the University of Kansas at the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center.  At that same center, some years ago, we were able to attract a new religious community called the Apostles of the Interior Life. They were a complement to this catechetical program because the program was opening people to the beauty of the truths of our faith and creating a desire for them to want to know the Lord more. The charism of the Apostles of the Interior Life is spiritual direction so we had these young people who were primed to pursue their spiritual development and then we were able to support them with spiritual directors.

Then, the School of Faith wanted to broaden their offerings beyond the St. Lawrence Center to reach more adults and I specifically asked them if they could help with the formation of our Catholic school teachers. As they did this, then we had a greater number of people looking for spiritual direction. Because we only had six of the members of the Apostles of the Interior Life, we were limited as to how many people we could support in spiritual direction.

I asked the Apostles if they would consider helping to train more spiritual directors in order to increase the availability of spiritual direction to meet the demand.

Their school opened in May?

Yes, they had their first gathering in May to start a two and half year process. Individuals come for an entire week for catechetical training, personal spiritual development, and the training in how they can help others that they would accompany in the spiritual life. Four times during the course of the year they will come together for a full week, in between these times there are online materials that they work through. The school doesn’t provide the full training that the Apostles of the Interior Life has for spiritual direction (they have graduate degrees from universities in Rome). Still we believe it will be enough to be able to provide sound mentoring to those who are trying to be able to grow in their spiritual lives.

I hear that the response has been great. How have people responded to the spiritual mentoring course offerings? Did the courses generate a lot of interest?

We were hoping we could get at least thirty people to launch the effort in order to make the economics of the school work. We were thrilled when we had over sixty come and we had to put a cap on the number of attendees.

Archbishop, in some informal research that I have done on the topic of spiritual direction and the interest out there I have had 6,000 people respond to a simple question, about their perspective on spiritual direction. Almost 2,000 responded that they are in a spiritual direction relationship. Over 4,000 indicated that they wished they were in a relationship or that they were yearning for a deeper relationship with Christ and wanted and understood that a director might help them to achieve that. Do you have any ideas or encouragement for people about how to find a spiritual director or mentor in other diocese?

That is a great question. The numbers don’t surprise me. As a pastor you hope that you can create a hunger in people to want this fullness, this abundant life that Jesus talks about that is really the fruit of a strong rich relationship with the Lord in prayer. For finding a spiritual director, I would encourage people first of all to start with their pastor to determine if he himself is willing and able to help depending on the size of their parish and his workload. Your pastor may also be aware of other resources. If there is a monastery in your area often times the monks or in the case of sisters, they may be equipped to do that. If there is a retreat center near you often times they will provide directed retreats and they might have a list of potential spiritual directors as well. These are some of the ways that I would encourage people begin looking. They could go to your website, your blog as well probably. [Archbishop was referring to my blog, Roman Catholic Spiritual Direction]

Thank you, that’s a good plug. I’ll have to add the information that they can find out more tips on how to do that [I created an index you can find here.]. It is a challenge sometimes to find a director. But we do understand that our priests are overloaded. Sometimes, is it not true that in confession we can ask our priests for practical advice can’t we?

Absolutely, I think that in most cases priests would welcome that. It is an advantage if you can have a spiritual director who also can be your confessor. This is a great blessing. Regular use of the sacrament of penance or reconciliation is one way that you can find a lot of good help and guidance.

Archbishop, thank you so much for joining us here on Register Radio. Thank you for what you are doing in the Archdiocese. It is a great encouragement to hear of the resources you are providing to train spiritual mentors. From what I hear as well, people can come to your school from outside of the state to get training?

Yes, about two-thirds of the participants are from our area and a third are from all over the country. We hope we can assist other dioceses in this way as well.

Archbishop as we close can you give us your priestly blessing?

May the blessing of God descend upon all of our listeners and remain with them forever. Amen

To find out more about faithful catechesis go to www.SchoolOfFaith.com. To learn more about the Apostles of the Interior Life click here.

Isn’t it enough that I am just a good person?

Q: Isn’t it enough that I am a good person? What does it matter if I don’t believe the doctrines of the Church?

I am undone

I am undone. I stand before Him naked. I bring nothing but need. He is faithful. I am undone. He will care for  me. I am a child. I am undone. I bring nothing. He is everything. In Him I am what he desires me to be. In Him I will have the strength to do whatever He calls me to. I can do nothing by my own power. I will do everything He asks by the ability He gives. I am undone. It is glorious and painful to come to know what I truly am… nothing. It is glorious and joyous to come to know that though I am nothing, I can do all things because of His goodness, His desire, His mercy, His will. He is good and perfect and holy and true. I am undone. But He will lift me, strengthen me, and send me until I see Him in all His glory.

I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet, and with two they hovered aloft. “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!” they cried one to the other. “All the earth is filled with his glory!” At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with it. “See,” he said, “now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” “Here I am,” I said; “send me!” Isaiah 6:1–8

Dreading an irreverent and careless implementation of the new missal translation… What do I do?

Q:  Dear Father John, I am looking forward with dread for the new missal translation in our parish. Our priest doesn’t take the liturgy very seriously and, well, I don’t think it is going to be good. Can you provide some practical insight into how I should look at all of this and prepare my heart?  I really care about how we honor Christ in Mass and already struggle a lot with the lack of reverence that I see.

A: First of all, for any of our readers who aren’t familiar with what the new missal translation is, I want to recommend a couple of resources.  The new English translation of the missal (the book containing the prayers, antiphons, and responses of the Mass) goes into action on the First Sunday of Advent, November 27, 2011.  What is this new translation and why is it being instituted and what’s it all about?  Here are some worthy (in my opinion) explanations:  Life Teen’s video; The Bishops’ Conference videos (longer and less flashy than the Life Teen video; EWTN’s discussion with Fr. Mitch Pacwa (hour-long video interview).  And if you prefer to read about it, here are a few of the best resources:

National Catholic Register

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Now on to your question.

The Perfect Prayer

Clearly, you care deeply about the Mass, the perfect prayer, the origin of all Christian prayer, and the central act of worship of all time.  Your concern and even anxiety about careless or irreverent celebrations of the Mass come across strongly in your question.  But that concern can work against you.  Even if a priest appears to you to be celebrating the Mass irreverently, the Mass still remains the Mass.  Even if he is sloppy and blasé, the Church is still praying through him and Christ is still offering himself to the Father through him.  And this is really the main point about praying at Mass: it is our objective worship.  Of course we would love to be emotionally (as well as spiritually) uplifted by the external beauty of a papal Mass every day, but even when the externals are sub-par, the reality remains exactly the same.

Room to Grow?

If our devotion to Christ in the Mass, therefore,  is easily disturbed by a sloppy or irreverent priest, then we know that our faith has room to grow.  Are we truly seeking to please God, or are we seeking the sweetness of consolation for ourselves?  If we seek to worship God, then sometimes the less glorious liturgies are even better than the glorious ones.  Not because Christ doesn’t always deserve our very best – he does.  And the liturgy of the Church should shine with reverence and beauty and respect and mystery (this is one of the reasons we have a new translation coming).  But if true worship is about our trusting in God in spite of everything, just as Jesus trusted in his Father on the Cross, then we can actually exercise our trust even more when the externals of a particular celebration of Mass are rather mundane.  To pray devotedly in that situation requires a more mature faith, a stronger faith.  We have to truly believe that God is working through his Church, through his priest, even when the appearance of things seems to say something else.

I am not encouraging priests to be sloppy – every priest will have to answer to God for how he cares for the sacraments.  And believe me, that is a harrowing thought.  But as long as the priest isn’t making up his own Mass or otherwise being sacrilegious – as long as he is celebrating the Church’s Mass, then Christ is truly, objectively there.  And that should be enough for us.

The Mass is not primarily about me.  The Mass is the prayer of the Church, the prayer of Christ.  So if I don’t like my priest’s style, that’s a secondary thing.  The primary thing remains.

Getting Personal

In my personal journey into the Catholic faith, this realization played an important role.  Before being Catholic, when moving into a new area I would shop around to find a church I liked.  When I began to be drawn into the Catholic faith, I realized that Catholics don’t do that – they don’t need to do that.  They just go to their parish.  I still remember moving into a new apartment about a year before officially becoming Catholic.  I was so excited to find out what was to be my parish.  I called up the diocesan office, told them my address, and they told me which parish I was in.  And I went to Mass there.  No shopping required!  What a relief!  The externals, including the notably eccentric style of the priest, were quite different from the beautiful Masses I had attended in Italy during the first stage of my conversion.  And yet, the structure and the substance was the same.  And I knew that by attending that Mass I was plugging into something much bigger than me, much bigger than that particular priest, much bigger than my own preferences and comfort zone.

Preparing Our Hearts

The advent of the new translation of the missal gives us all a chance to renew our deep faith in that which is “much bigger” than all of us.  And this, I think, is the best way to prepare our hearts to receive the new translation: activating anew our faith in God’s action through his Church, through his sacraments, through his very human and very imperfect instruments.  The Mass transcends styles and preferences.  The Mass gives us something we desperately need in today’s world, which is so focused on personal feelings and subjective fulfillment.  It gives us a chance to enter into something not of our own making, and to unite ourselves to an objective act of worship that is Christ’s own prayer, his own sacrifice, his own act of worship, really made present for us – whether or not we happen to feel any spiritual warm-fuzzies, and whether or not we happen to like the way our priest celebrates.

Getting Practical

On a practical note, though, I want to assure you that you don’t need to stay stuck at a dead end.  If the style of celebrating Mass at your parish consistently makes it impossible for you to pray during Mass and to appreciate what is really going on, you are not required to stay there.  The Church only requires that we attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days, preferably in our own parish.  But we are free to go to other parishes if there is a good reason, or to a nearby monastery or convent.  Likewise, if real and serious liturgical abuses have crept into your parish, you have the right (and the duty) to inform your bishop.  It’s his job to care for the sacraments as celebrated in his diocese, and to assure that the faithful have access to the liturgical life as the Church intends it.

One more thing.  Your question reminds me of a startling quotation from the patron saint of parish priests, St. John Vianney, and I would like to close with it: “There are no bad parish priests; there are only parish priests whose parishioners don’t pray enough for them.”  Please keep praying for us priests!!!

PS: I am sure our readers could also provide some suggestions on how they deal with these challenges in a positive and constructive way…