Preaching Assignment #6(ish)

Here's My Latest Preaching Assignment

Brief Sermon Report (5%):
Visit 1 church on the day of their main service; choose a church that is different from your own tradition. Prepare a two-page report offering three commendations (page 1) and three recommendations (page 2) for the preacher. Due October 30th.

Consequently, this morning I forced myself to get up at 7 (after going to bed at 2:30am) to get myself to the 8am celebration of Holy Eucharist at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. James.
Interestingly enough, the Episcopalian Eucharist is VERY similar to a Catholic Mass, albeit with some rather stilted English (ye, makest, Thine, etc) and some additional pious confessions of our sinfulness. I felt very much at home as the practices and prayers are almost identical to my own as a Catholic. This was my first time attending an Episcopal service.

The reason I chose to go to the Episcopal Cathedral is that - well, it was one of the only services I could find that I could actually attend. I had already made plans to go to Divine Liturgy at 10am as I normally do each week with my friends, and had forgotten about this assignment until very late last night when I checked my email and some friends were emailing about going to Granger Community Church today to complete this assignment. Rather than calling off my normal plans at the last minute, I figured I had to find another way to squeeze in a non-Catholic service before Divine Liturgy; the earliest one I could find that I knew would be over before Divine Liturgy- was St. James'.

Also, St. James Cathedral happens to be the site of St. Margaret's House - the day center for women and children where I worked this summer. Over the summer I had met the bishop / rector of the Cathedral, and he had jokingly suggested that if I ever wanted to be ordained, they would be glad to welcome me into their diocese... to which I politely replied, "Thank you for the invitation, although I do not feel called to the ordained ministry..." (not even going into they very small detail about me never wanting to leave the Catholic Church). Anyway, at that point he had invited me to join them for worship sometime and so I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to take him up on his offer.

The homily for the day was interesting; but that's not what I want to write about.

What was even more striking to me was the open invitation to all to receive Holy Communion. For Episcopalians, as long as you are a baptized Christian, you are welcome to receive Communion in their church, regardless of what denomination you are a member. Obviously as a Catholic, my own discipline and beliefs barr intercommunion with those ecclesial communions with which we are not fully united. It was a rather strange feeling to be the only person in the entire church (very small community) which did not go up to receive Communion. I wondered if it offended them that I abstained, given their intentional open-door policy on Eucharist, or seemed like I was rejecting their hospitality, or whether they might have realized I was a Catholic and thought that I was looking down on their celebration as "invalid" - and therefore, frivilous to partake in.

This moment was a stark reminder of the divisions in the Body of Christ. It was a sad moment for me - and reminded me that there is still much work to be done in the field of ecumenical dialogue. At the same time, it was also a reminder that open-door policies on the Eucharist do not necessarily in and of themselves create union among different ecclesial bodies. While their openness and hospitality is a nice gesture, by itself it cannot create the unity it strives to attain.

At the same time, there is hope! I don't know if you follow Vatican news (ZENIT.org), but it seems as if there is a great deal of progress that is being made in ecumenism! First, there are a great number of Anglicans who are currently seeking communion with Rome - mostly those who feel that their own ecclesial bodies are betraying the tradition by admitting both openly homosexual persons and women to the ordained ministry. Rome is planning to admit them into full communion while allowing them to maintain their form of liturgy and prayers, almost as if forming an Anglican Rite within the Catholic Church.

http://www.zenit.org/article-27295?l=english

Even more exciting - is that there have been great strides made recently toward reunion between East and West - Orthodoxy and Catholicism! This is HUGE! I personally believe that JPII, whose great prayer and hope it was to see this in his lifetime, is now pulling some major strings up in heaven and helping push things forward in a way that he was unable to do during his life here on earth.

http://www.zenit.org/article-27299?l=english

That's all folks, TTFN.

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Now, as a 24 year old, I'm not too concerned with Breast Cancer. At the same time, every time I go to the doctor's office, most of the time they ask me: "Do you make sure to do self breast exams monthly?" Apparently, it's something I should be doing.

So today I went to check my mail and realized that because was fall break, no one had sorted the mail! We had three large bags of unsorted mail, and 50 gazillion boxes/packages everywhere. So as any good Assistant Rector would do, I dutifully set out to sort the mail so that when our residents return tonight / tomorrow (ND vs. BC tomorrow! Watch for me at the game!!! A friend gave me her ticket =) ) their mail will be in their boxes! (And also to see if I had gotten anything...)

Anyway, so I'm going through the mail, pulling out catalogues that are STILL coming in for residents who graduated six years ago... trying to figure out what to do with oversize envelopes that don't fit in people's mail boxes, etc. and I stumble across a letter addressed to one of our residents - the outside has this ridiculous image of a young girl grabbing her chest and the slogan "Feel Your Boobies!" on it. At first I thought it was a little inappropriate. I was a little put off. "Really?" I said out loud. Then, lightening up, I thought it was a bit funny. I shoved it in her mailbox and went on with my sorting.

So then I sign on to my computer and MSN's top story is now that MEN are also suffering from BREAST CANCER. MEN! Who would have thought? I mean, there are ubiquitous jokes about "man boobs" - but I never really thought they could actually GET BREAST CANCER! Apparently, they can.

So this reminded me of the letter I saw while sorting mail and I decided to do a google search. Here's what I found! "Feel Your Boobies" is actually a website and a whole campaign to get young women to do breast exams (informal ones, which apparently are as effective as the official ones they try to teach you at the doctor's office!).

Here's a testimonial from one YOUNG, YOUNG WOMAN - I mean, she's only two years older than me! - whose life was saved by this ridiculous, a bit scandalous, and otherwise humorous campaign!:

“I recently saw a Feel Your Boobies car decal on my way to work and later that night in the shower, I remembered the decal and ended up finding a lump . . . If I hadn’t seen the decal who knows if I would have found the lump. Thank you for such a wonderful foundation.”
Julie, 26 years old – Middletown, PA

So go ahead, feel your boobies. It just might save your life.

http://www.feelyourboobies.com/

Also, check out the following verses which seem appropriate to the occasion:

Psalm 22:10
Proverbs 5:19
Song of Songs 4:5, 7:4, 7:7-9
Isaiah 49:15
Luke 11:27

My Most Annoying Class Award Goes To...

I really dislike my preaching class. Here's why:

* I have to wake up at 8:30 on Friday in order to get there. (Blah! Who likes to get up at 8:30am when they go to bed at 1:30, 2am every night?)

* I am a lay person, so I don't see myself as doing much preaching (lay persons are not permitted to preach within Mass). That being said, there is the implicit expectation that I will preach at a dorm Mass as part of my training and I'm not sure how I feel about that...

* There are an exorbitant amount of readings... Shouldn't this be worth more than a measly two credits?

* This class effectively breaks down my ego, while my other classes build it up. It's easy to get an A on a paper you've spent lots of time working on; it's very difficult to deliver a good homily.

* We have to give our homilies in front of the entire class. So if you do poorly, everyone knows it. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't express myself well in words. The thought is beautiful in my mind and when I work at writing it down, but when spoken more often than not comes out in a garbeled spew of words that need some deciphering. Public speaking (hence: preaching) is not one of my gifts!

* Inflexible deadlines! One of the things I've discovered in graduate school is the concept of flexible deadlines / extensions. While I would have never dreamed of asking for one in undergrad, I've taken advantage of this on more than one occasion in Grad School. If a paper is lousy, I know I can just ask for an extension and work on it some more to make it better. There are no extensions for homilies... You can't say to your congregation, "Uh, I'll get you a sermon on Monday.." It has to be done on Sunday or else.

* Writing homilies is hard work! It involves praying with a scripture for several days in advance, waiting on God, listening for Him to speak through it a word that will reach not only my heart but also those to whom I will be preaching. Sometimes 'inspiration' comes, sometimes it doesn't. The fact that it's a team process (God-me) means it's not entirely in my hands. That's the frustrating thing! Especially when it's Thursday night and you're still waiting!

* My professor is Lutheran, and has a distinctly Lutheran bias, sometimes which I appreciate, and other times, which I don't. I like his emphasis on preaching being about what GOD has done and what GOD is doing in our lives - and about GRACE, and FREEDOM, and all that good news stuff - but sometimes he gets a little bit touchy when us Catholics start talking about COOPERATION with God's grace and the human response being an important part of the picture. Granted, we have to hold the two in tension... but it can be difficult when our theological emphases are of a slightly different color.

* Taking this class has made me hyper-attentive to all the homilies I hear at Mass now. This would seem to be a good thing; but it's not! I can't just listen to a homily now without critiquing it to death! This rather than being a help, has been a distraction. Not to mention, it has made me aware of how dismal many homilies are these days! The real gems are few and far between.

*Preaching is not about sharing all the cool theological insights you've gleaned from your coursework and wowing people with your eloquence. (darn!). It's about being an instrument through which God speaks to His people. I'm going to have to work on this one. Perhaps I should adopt one of the following as my motto: "I am not the answer, it's not my praise I sing, I am just the herald of the great King!" "He must increase, I must decrease." "Apart from me you can do nothing."

Swine Flu?

What do you call 3+ days of extreme fatigue, terrible cough, combination stuffy / runny nose, body aches, headache, and feeling like a menopausal woman (periodic hot flashes / fever)? I think I might have swine flu.

I've thought about going to the Health Center on campus, but I'm not sure they can do anything to help me and I might just need to ride it out. We had a confirmed case of it here in the hall this past weekend, and so it's quite possible I caught it here.

How does it compare to regular flu? It's about the same: you basically wish you were dead.

For the time being, I'm camping out in my room and waiting it out, trying to have as little contact with the outside world as possible. So far, that seems to be effective.

In the mean time, here's some flu facts that you should know, courtesy of the CDC. http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/qa.htm

Take these everyday steps to protect your health:

* Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.

* Wash your hands often with soap and water. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand rub.*

* Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.

* Try to avoid close contact with sick people.

* If you are sick with flu-like illness, CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. (Your fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.) Keep away from others as much as possible to keep from making others sick.

Other important actions that you can take are:

* Follow public health advice regarding school closures, avoiding crowds and other social distancing measures.

* Be prepared in case you get sick and need to stay home for a week or so; a supply of over-the-counter medicines, alcohol-based hand rubs * (for when soap and water are not available), tissues and other related items could help you to avoid the need to make trips out in public while you are sick and contagious.

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The only good part of having swine flu:

* I don't feel guilty about sitting home in my PJs eating Ben & Jerry's and sipping tea while catching up on some good ol' facebook stalking!