Tenison Woods and MacKillop Centre News: Assuming into eternity

Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown.

Revelation 12:1

The unquantifiable devotion of centuries of the faithful ensured that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was lavished with a raft of titles: Theotokos, Star of the Sea, Queen of Heaven, Our Lady of Lourdes, of Fatima, Help of Christians, of Mount Carmel, of Sorrows, of Providence, of Guadalupe, of Lebanon, of Peace and there are many, many more. Each title has a deep and rich history. What they have in common is acknowledging Mary’s role in the story of human salvation.

Mary was, as we know well, a very young woman when she was engaged to Joseph. Her ‘Amen’ to the angelic visitation is the paradigmatic, Christian response. We actually know very little information about Mary and her motherhood from the scriptures and much has been made of the small amount that does appear. Inquisitiveness about Mary did not exist in the very early church, and this is reflected in the Gospels and Paul’s letters. In the generations that followed, however, the faithful’s appreciation of her generosity and her proximity to the divine, gave rise to speculation. There is an ancient adage, de Maria nunquam satis (Latin: one can never say enough about Mary)

Speculation and reflection (in some cases) over many hundreds of years led to development of several key teachings about Mary, and ultimately enshrined as dogma by the church: Mary as Theotokos (Christ-bearer, or more commonly the Mother of God) in Ephesus in 431 AD; the Immaculate Conception in 1854, and the Assumption of Mary in 1950.

The Assumption is a feast that was celebrated from the 7th century in Rome and while it attempts to describe what occurred after Mary died, it is a reflection on her whole life, her call, her parenthood, her faithfulness, her discipleship, her provoking of Jesus’ ministry, her companionship. She stands a model for the church, the model believer. We struggle with language to express Mary’s role, and given Mary’s extraordinary role in salvation history, we need to be able to link the human Mary and what was asked of her in life with the God who asked so much of her. Our experience and reflection tell us that on death, this wonderful and most unique creature in creation was invited in her entire humanity, body and soul into eternal communion with her creator. Would we expect anything less?

Today the Assumption gives us a foretaste of what we too can expect. Mary is indeed the model, the exemplar of discipleship and each of us could do no better than to follow her example. Tomorrow is the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Peter Douglas

HEAD OF SCHOOL SERVICES, NORTH

When did we confuse freedom of speech with the freedom to be rude?

From: Where I Stand (National Catholic Supporter) by Joan Chittister OSB

Sister Joan Chittister OSB

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” -- Dalai Lama

I’ve written or spoken a good many times about the incivility that unmonitored social media sites have generated in this country. Someplace along the line we have managed to confuse freedom of speech with the freedom to be rude, crude, mean, hurtful or brutal — anonymously. Secretly. Behind some silly moniker like “Darth Vader 2.” Or worse.

I grew up in a society where there were some words that were never spoken — in front of women, in front of children, in public, at a dinner table, in a professional setting, on a telecommunications program of any kind. But then, little by little, we began to see it painted on back walls of old buildings. And did nothing. Then we began to accept it in teenage music. And did nothing. Then it showed up in racy “literature.” And we did nothing. Finally, it was everywhere on the streets. And now, it seems, there is very little we can do about it at all.

Where did we lose the idea that freedom of speech is the right to have our speech protected, no matter what our opinion might be? That does not, however, include the right to libel, slander, and now bully people into submission. It does not include a license to abuse someone — meaning to call names or threaten harm or talk or harass those who are different than we are. Physically, socially, or politically. There are statutes against it. So much for the law. So much for our birthright. So much for the character of the nation. So much for our vaunted ideals of democracy.

Obviously, given the increase in the amount of outright lies or veiled insults in the public airwaves now, the threat of the law does not really much restrain an anonymous population, let alone educate it to a more civilized kind of communication. Those websites that employ monitors with the right to reject that level of so-called “comments” manage to maintain a higher standard of conversation and insight. But for smaller groups with fewer resources, the ability to engage that kind of monitor is more likely to threaten the existence of the website itself than it is to eliminate the problem.

Attention, college seniors and recent grads! NCR's Bertelsen Editorial Internship program is now accepting applications. The deadline to apply is Sept. 2. Learn more. And so we all know that. And so we don’t know what to do about it. Except maybe inspect our own children’s websites in the hopes of being able to separate them from the adults around them who are even more childish, and even more crude, than the average adolescent.

But now we have struck a new low. A gutter talk so bad that we don’t want children even to watch the news. Now it’s our national leadership who are leading the pack. These valiant types who purport to be the role models of the country. These high-level poobahs who speak from the Olympian heights of business, politics, and public service have long ago sliced and diced not only one another but the character of the country itself.

I am in Europe as I write this where their attitude about what they are seeing of us on television is clear but said in far more elegant, more honest, more caring language than ours for one another. They feel sorry for us. They wonder what is happening to those decent rank and file citizens, real Christians, genuine intellectuals, committed activists, genuine patriots who are embarrassed by their own political parties.

And we, for our part, ask ourselves what has happened to us. Where compassion — the ability to really feel for the other, to care for the other as well as ourselves, to be different than others but never destructive of others — has disappeared.

Maybe compassion here and now calls for us to quench this fire at its lowest level — on our comment boards, in our blogs, in our texts, in our chat rooms. To refuse to read them. To “unlike” all of them. Then, eventually, it can become unacceptable again to use that kind of language anywhere. Even in our presidential elections. At the top.

So now we’re split as a country, as a body politic, as a generation. Why? Because we ignored this malignancy and let it spread. Has it helped us express ourselves? Has it helped us to make our points any better, any more effectively? Has it brought us to the point of effective political discourse? Has it made us any happier? The Dalai Lama’s statement says it all: “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”

From where I stand, it seems that to be compassionate in this environment, we can’t say “it’s awful” anymore. We need to say: “It stops here. In front of me. Always.”

[Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister is a frequent NCR contributor.]

CCEL this August was held at Freycinet Lodge. The days were led by Jacqui Remond. Jacqui was assisted by Tony Brennan. It was the perfect environment for opening ourselves to the possibilities that Laudato Si invited us to. The content, collegiality, prayer, environment, accommodation, meals and our Thursday night sing-a-long were each highlights. Now to dialogue, make conversation and take action!