Die Buchwalds

Call this a mini-carnival, if you will…
‘Tis the season, I suppose, to talk about life issues. I read about them on a daily basis, and if somebody asked, I’d tell them what I thought, but for the most part, I don’t dwell too much… until January rolls around. Then I start to think about The Trip. I dread it, and yet, somehow, I live for it. I’m speaking, of course, of the annual March for Life held in Washington, DC, on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade (or the Monday following, as it will be this year).

I offer some of my personal thoughts, a few prayer requests, and some other timely bloggings:

This will be my 10th march and Matt’s first. We’ll be travelling with the group from Beloved Disciple. The short & sweet summary is that we will leave Sunday at 11:30pm, arriving Monday at 7ish at the Basilica for Mass (broadcast live on EWTN) followed by the journey to the Elipse for the Rally and March. Afterwards, we’ll travel home, arriving back at the church at 11:30pm on Monday night. A whirl-wind journey, but worth every minute. I’m excited to be able to finally share this day with Matt so that he’ll see first hand why it’s so important to me. In some ways, it’s more of a pilgrimage than a political effort. I think a large part of that comes from being so surrounded by other people of faith – and not just fellow Catholics. There are so many other faith groups represented, it’s an amazing experience to see so many different types of people from all walks of life join together for the same cause.

Father Tharp, of Ragemonkey fame, has a guest column published at Crisis Magazine’s website. He expresses how this effort has touched his life very very personally. On Sunday, everyone should pop over to the blog & wish him a Happy Birthday.

Funky Dung at Ales Rarus posts some important information for college students who might be looking for a way to get involved in the March. He also advertises for a rally held this evening. I regret not pointing to his post sooner.

Everyone should read these two blogs often: After Abortion and The S.I.C.L.E Cell

Lastly, a few prayer requests. Please pray for a woman whose body is not giving her doctors enough clear answers to confirm or deny a pregnancy, for a woman who recently had an abortion for the sixth time, and for a woman who is “on the fence”, so to speak. Pray also for all expectant mothers and fathers and those hoping to soon become expectant mothers and fathers.

edited to add: I just discovered that Cardinal Egan will not be principal celebrant at the Mass again this year as I had previously thought. We get Cardinal McCarrick, instead.

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Tonight’s RCIA session was A Short Course on Paul. Two word summary: Paul rocks. I mean, really, I knew a lot of the New Testament was his letters to the early Christian communities, but until tonight I’d never seen so much of the good stuff put together in one spot. Talking about all that good stuff sent us in some interesting directions & brought up some wonderful questions and thoughts.
My favorite mini-discussion of the evening was about salvation. Paul talks about salvation as a gift. It was brought up that protestants like to point this out to Catholics and say “See? It’s a gift! You don’t have to earn it!” Paul does, though, also talk about working out our salvation. The presenter explained it as faith, which comes from grace (a gift from God), worked out in love. Another in class made the analogy that yes, it’s a gift, but you can’t just leave it in the box and put it on the shelf. You have to take it out & use it. She looked at it from the perspective of a child receiving a gift… if the child doesn’t use the gift and it sits, still in its packaging, mom will take it back to Wal-Mart.

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Funky Dung travelled north after Christmas Not real sure why he didn’t stop by to say hello, but we’ll let it slide this once. As you’ll read in his post, he wasn’t really thrilled with his visit to northwestern Pennsylvania’s diocese. I’ve mentioned in passing before that the Erie Church stands too much, and it came up again in the comments on his entry. The other night at RCIA, one of the members of the team asked Father why they do that.
The answer was pretty vague on the whole, and I tried to search the Erie website to see if the bishop had written a letter on the subject when the change was made, but the site was lacking. I couldn’t find anything other than the bishop’s office information. (Point: Pittsburgh)
So, the summary of the summary was that the bishop is allowed to make changes he thinks will benefit the faith community as a whole. As to why the bishop felt this change was necessary, the reason given was something about processing and being ready to move. Also that standing was more appropriate than kneeling.

Matt adds: It has to do with standing being ready to take action, and that communion was taking faith into action or something along those lines.

Basically, I should have taken notes, but either way I didn’t agree with the answer we were given. It makes attending Mass a little more difficult. Father did make sure to point out that we are by no means required to stand. I don’t like to stick out in the crowd, though, so it definitely makes it more awkward for me.

Anyone out there want to help make me feel better about kneeling by pointing me to some more concrete reasons *to* kneel? My best defense now is that it’s a 20+ year habit and it feels wrong to not kneel & thank God for the gift of the Eucharist.

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In my entry about Mary, I got a thought provoking comment regarding requirements for salvation:

I’ve never been comfortable with the idea that *anything* has to be believed so that someone can be saved, and I don’t think that’s what the Church teaches anyway. We can’t say that someone is going to heaven or hell – we’re not God. And I have absolute faith in the limitless possibilities of God’s mercy.

-rachel2205

I replied to Rachel’s comment as best I could, but I’m no theologian, so I’m not sure if I explained correctly or clearly. So, if anyone else wants to take a stab, go for it.
This was my reply:

Rachel, you’re right that the Church doesn’t say it can determine with certainty that someone will or won’t go to heaven because only God can determine that… humans can’t make that judgement. The Church also does not teach that salvation is impossible outside of the Church. BUT the Church does teach that the way to salvation is through Christ and full truth/knowledge of Christ can be found in the Church and it’s teachings handed down from scripture, Tradition and tradition. That said, the Church might say that a Catholic would be “on the right track” to salvation more than someone who out-right rejected the Church, but nobody could determine what would actually happen. For the Catholic, that would mean that accepting/believing the Church’s teachings would be “required” for salvation.
I’m not sure I explained this in the best way… let me see if I can’t seek out a better explanation….

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In the midst of sorting through attempting to celebrate Christmas during Advent, I discovered that our last RCIA class before Christmas will focus on Mary. I’m sure Father Z & the gang would welcome visitors so if anyone wants to come, email us for details.

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