Boston Archdiocesan Social Justice Convocation

 

A Poem for Dara and Dawn Mari in Heaven

 Today is the memorial of Dawn Mari's death and this is the first memorial where she is joined by her younger sister by a year in heaven. I wrote this poem this morning to commemorate that they are togehter once again

Join us for: A Word of Thanks: Poems of Gratitude

Tom - Photography Retreat

Forest That Always Always Surrounds Us (after Rainer Maria Rilke)

Your tranquil presence is like a quiet forest

Where we experience transforming calmness,

Leaving undisturbed on your abiding presence,

Reveling in the unspoken sense of peacefulness.

Today: I find peace in the Forest That Always Surrounds Us.

 

Chris - Photography Retreat

                              

            

 

Linda - Photography Retreat

 

Orysia - Photography Retreat

Washing ashore 

Renew, O Lord

Refresh my being

Humbly bending in the wind

Simply grasp and then let go..

 

Deb - Photography Retreat

                                                                     Beauty is both light and dark.

                                                                     It is what draws you to it. 

                                                              When there is spirit there is room to grow. 

                                                               It only takes one day at a time. 

                                                             You may never know what is ahead of you.

                                                             You have to take the journey of the unexpected. 

                                                                   May all souls never be forgotten.

                                                                   Don’t let time get in the way. 

 

Beverly - Photography Retreat

PATH

                                                                     Dappled light upon the path,

                                                                     Today, this is far enough to see.

                                                                                           LEAVES

                                                                 Brave purple flower, new this autumn,

                                                                 Push yourself into the world boldly!

                                                                                         BENCH

                                                                    brisk breeze blows off my hat…

                                                                    whisk away the cobwebs from my corners, please.

                                                                                         HOLLY

                                                                  Prickly leaves and noxious berries,

                                                                  How came you to represent a happy, holy day?

 

Cheryl - Photography Retreat

 Dancing in coffins 

Dancing in coffins, we kicked out of line. 

Our laughter still ringing, beyond end of time.

Seeking 

Following the light on the way, it is true. 

In stillness, I turned, I believe it was you… 

Growth 

Under your brilliance, we gain sparkle and glow. 

Leaning into the Sun, more splendor we show.

 Letting go… 

A leaf gently falls; shows a tree letting go. 

The crack may imply this hurts more than we know.

Paula - Photography Retreat

 

Campion Center's New Studio

I hope you are able to stop by soon to see Campion Center's new studio. We are inaugurating the opening with a Photography workshop on Saturday, October 16th. We will have poetry and painting classes there later in the fall. Christ plays in ten thousand places. We will as well. 

 

Photography Day of Retreat

Saturday, October 16th Morning Retreat: Learning to Compose Photos in Nature 

Directors: John Predmore, SJ 

This in-person Saturday Morning of Prayer begins at 9:00 AM and ends at 1:00 PM. Coffee & pastries are included. We will change the lens of our spiritual sight so we can celebrate what is holy and right with the world around us. 

Bring your phone or camera to learn principles of composing photographs in Campion Center’s wooded landscape. Wear comfortable sneakers to walk through the cemetery, around the pond, and across the fields and paths. 

 Deposits and payments are no longer required at the time of registration. Simply register, C&R will confirm your registration, and contact you closer to the date of your retreat for your online payment. 

https://www.campioncenter.org/programs/learning-to-compose-photos-in-nature/

Creativity Exercise: September 8th

Creativity Exercise 

Pay attention to your surroundings, and this week, I’d like you to notice what fragrances are around your environment. Note them down. 

Notice the foul stenches as well as the pleasant aromas. What does your sense of smell tell you? Does it bring back a memory of a loved one? Does it calm you down? Does it make you feel ready to flee to a safer area? 

Which ones makes you breathe easier? Which ones stop you from breathing? 

Ignatius of Loyola taught that the sense of smell was perhaps the most powerful sense in the spiritual life as it is connected to memory. Take, Lord. Receive. 

When you are finished, add your response to the comment section below.

Notes: An Introduction: What Happened at Vatican II

These are some notes I took on the Introduction of “What Happened at Vatican II” for our discussion tomorrow. I hope the material is helpful in this form and for those of you who were not able to get through those initial pages or do not have the book yet. 

 

Feel free to join. If you can't make it tomorrow, come next week. 

 

Here is the link for the meeting, which will be the same link for the semester:

 

Invite a friend, or send this link to someone you know who may be interested in it. The class meets every Tuesday from 8:00 – 9:00 a.m. – E.D.T. If a person cannot make every meeting, that’s okay. We know schedules are variable and we do our best to adapt.

 

The zoom link is below.

 

Join Zoom Meeting

https://bchigh.zoom.us/j/81168224605?pwd=UlA0VFpKZyttRmxSU1QzSnpvN2kvQT09

 

Meeting ID: 811 6822 4605

Passcode: 866898

 

 

 

What happened at Vatican II?

 

(At some point over these next weeks, we will discuss the Texas 6-week abortion ruling and the Supreme Court’s decision not to take up the case. We can’t let an important event remain unattended by us.)

 

 

The Introduction

 

Vatican II stokes hopes and fears, curiosity and speculation.

 

Parts of the Council were televised. It was the first time the Church was brought into our homes through the television. People could see the church in operation for the first time. The windows of the church were indeed opened.

 

The Council took four years (with much work done before and during.)

1. This book aims to provide an essential story line.
2. It places the emerging issues into context. (large/small, historical/theological)
3. It provides the keys to understand what the Council hoped to accomplish.

 

The Council met for four periods, each lasting four weeks. The important work was done before the Council and in its intersessions by bishops and periti (experts.)

 

It produced 16 documents that are authoritative (in a good sense) and accessible. There is a ranking to these documents, and though they appear in harmony, they were hotly contested.

 

Highest in Rank: - The Constitutions

            On the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium)

            On the Church (Lumen Gentium)

            On Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum)

            On the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes)

 

Next in Rank – the Decrees.        (First time many of these were mentioned.)

            On the Mass Media

            On the Catholic Eastern Churches

            On Ecumenism

            On Bishops

            On the Renewal of Religious Life

            On the Training of Priests

            On the Apostolate of the Laity

            On Missionary Activity

            On the Ministry and the Life of Priests

            

Then Followed – The Declarations     

            On Christian Education           

            On Non-Christian Religions     

            On Religious Liberty

 

All sixteen documents are interconnected in ways; they form a coherent corpus.

 

We will not get a detailed theological commentary of these documents in this book. These documents will be put into context – a before and after snapshot.  These documents will be located in their contexts.

 

The Contexts:

1. What happened centuries ago that led to this point? These are deep roots of church-state issues. Constantine and Trent make huge appearances in these proceedings. We need to see Vatican II as a progression of the first ecumenical council – Nicaea.
2. How does modernity shape the church? (the long 19^th century in which the French Revolution had a lasting effect on the role of church officials.) It was an attempt at healing.
1. Biblical, liturgical, patristic, philosophical scholarship.
2. Competition with Protestants in foreign missions, socialism, communism.
3. The end of World War II. Political and cultural changes. Cold War, Cuban Missile Crisis, end of colonialism, Christian Democracies arose from Fascist dictatorships, confront the Holocaust.

 

The Issues:

1. Use of organ in church service, place of Aquinas in curriculum of seminaries, legitimacy of stocking nuclear weapons, blessing of water used for baptisms, role of laity in church ministries, relationship of bishops to the pope, purposes of marriage, priests’ salaries, role of conscience in moral decision-making, habits for nuns, church’s relationship to the arts, marriage among deacons, translations of the Bible, boundaries of dioceses, legitimacy of worshiping with non-Catholics, and so forth…

 

Most important issues?:

1. A desire to recognize the dignity of lay men and women and to empower them to fulfill their vocation in the church
2. Three issues were not brought up – deliberately:
1. Clerical celibacy
2. Birth control
3. Reform of the Roman Curia

                                                                          i.      Creation of the Synod of Bishops by Paul VI.

These, though not brought up, were issues at the Council.

 

Bitter disputes 

1. over the relationship of the church to the Jews, and to other non-Christians
2. Religious liberty, forms of separation of church and state, primacy of conscience over obedience to ecclesial authority.
3. Sprawling scope of Church in the Modern World

 

“Collegiality” was used to address the relationship of council members to each other. 

“Conciliarism” is supremacy of council over the pope.

 

Ten to fifteen percent of bishops vehemently opposed the trends. (Same as today.)

New bishops were added; some retired. Majority-minority remains the same throughout.

 

Under the Surface Issues:

1. The circumstances under which change in the church is appropriate and justified.
2. How authority is properly distributed between papacy, Congregations of the Curia, and the rest of the church.
3. The style or model according to which each authority should be exercised.

 

This is about church identity – how to maintain it while dealing with change. 

 

John Courtney Murray, S.J., the development of doctrine is the issue under the issue. The elaborations of teaching they went beyond or even contravened previous teaching.

 

Aggiornamento injected the problem of change into the council in an unavoidable way, though it is very likely the relationship of the present to the past would have been front and center. 

 

At the heart of many teachings was the debate about two venerable traditions – the special leadership of the role of the bishop of Rome and the leadership of other bishops, especially when assembled in local or provincial synods. 

 

The leadership role of the papacy began in the Middle Ages and became explicit in 19^th century.

 

Problems: 

Distribution of authority in the church. 

proximity to the Bishop of Rome’s church.

What was the role of a pope when a council was in session?

            Paul VI removed four problems from the agenda.

            Resentment of the Curia for their methods.

            Vatican Congregations where steamrolled by the Curia.

            What to do now that lay people are involved?

 

For the life of the church to be healthy, two aspects need to be in equilibrium:

            Relationship of the center (law)

            Relationship to the periphery (inspiration and initiative)

Most felt that central administration of the church was too predominant up until the Council. 

            Charism, for the first time, enters into the vocabulary of a council.

 

Listen to the new words:

            Charism, dialogue, partnership, cooperation, friendship – a new style to exercise authority and to implicitly advocate a conversing to a new style of thinking, speaking, and behaving. This is a change from the more authoritarian and unidirectional style to a more reciprocal and responsive model. 

            Vatican II modified the legislative and judicial model that had been in place since Nicaea in 325, that it virtually abandoned it.   BIG.  BIG.  BIG. 

            Vatican II based upon persuasion and invitation. It uses pastoral language. The Spirit of the Council is put forward. Style is important.

 

It was a language-event that introduced a shift in values or priorities. It was an inner conversion with outward manifestations.  “The call to holiness.”

 

The church must deal with tension, not deny it. It must maintain and exploit the dialectic between continuity and change, between the center and periphery, between firmness and flexibility, between the law and mercy.

 

Karl Rahner, SJ in 1979

            1^st epoch:  Jewish Christianity, and Paul’s preaching to the Gentiles

            2^nd epoch: Period of Hellenism and the European Church

            3^rd epoch: Post-Vatican II council, the period of the world church

New Class: Compassionate Communications in times of Difficult Conversations.

New Class: Compassionate Communications in times of Difficult Conversations. 

Director: John Predmore, SJ 

Start : September 8, 2021 6:00 pm -7:00 pm (The First and Third Wednesdays of Fall 2021) 

This Wednesday online evening series uses Zoom to teach us how to keep ourselves balanced in the midst of difficult conversations. These conversations are ones in which we experience a power imbalance, negotiate and set boundaries, and deal with someone else’s anger. We will review deep-breathing techniques to listen meaningfully and to develop understanding. We will learn how to use right speech to bring to sustain a fragile relationship. 

Following a brief presentation, we will enter break-out rooms to interact with other participants about the materials presented. The presentations will last 50 minutes, and a time for questions and comments will follow. No artistic ability is needed for creativity assignments 

 

Register for the series, come when you can, drop out when you necessary. Deposits and payments are no longer required at the time of registration. Simply register, C&R will confirm your registration, and contact you closer to the date of your retreat for your online payment. 

We will send you a reminder with the ZOOM information in the days preceding your event along with information regarding payment options. All online programs at Campion Center are offered via ZOOM. You will need to have access to the ZOOM app. on your computer or smart phone. (https://zoom.us/client/latest/ZoomInstaller.exe)  

Registration Information follows below: https://www.campioncenter.org/programs/

Coffee and Conversation with Fr. John Predmore, S.J.

Coffee and Conversation with Fr. John Predmore, S.J. 

Death Notice

 Please pray for the repose of the soul of Dara Predmore, older sister of Fr. John Predmore, S.J., who died peacefully in her sleep on June 4^th. Dara suffered from the effects of a brain aneurysm in June 2019 and suffered poor health as a result of it. Throughout the time of COVID, she was in a custodial care facility until September 2020 when her boyfriend was able to move her back to her Los Angeles apartment to provide home care. Dara died at home in the middle of the night and did not appear to suffer. Her boyfriend, Dale, tended to her as a faithful caregiver and provided 24-hour companionship. Dara has one daughter, Erica Bell, of Webster, Massachusetts. Funeral arrangements are pending.

 

Notes of Condolences may be sent to:

 

                                Dale Krafcik

                                2017 250^th Street              

                                Lomita, CA 90717

                                (424) 328-0887 or (424) 383-2378

 

                                Erica Bell

                                63 Bigelow Road

                                Webster, MA 01570

                                (508) 789-4684

 

 

Dara’s other siblings are, in chronological order:

                                                

                                Dawn Mari, d. 1999

                                Richard of Douglas, MA

                                Jack (John) of Boston, MA

                                David of San Diego, CA

                                Diane of Biddeford, ME

                                Sharon of Douglas, MA

 

Parents:

                                Constance Predmore, d. 2018

                                Richard Predmore, d. 2021

The Magis Program

The Magis Program is a structured and creative way for people to engage more deeply in Ignatian spirituality, learn about the Jesuit Mission and Way of Proceeding, and meet other committed lay colleagues on the East Coast. The eighteen-month program consists of four 2-day seminars, one retreat, regular reading, personal reflection and prayer.

Magis participants are lay women and men who desire to develop a greater familiarity with the Ignatian and Jesuit charism. The program team and seminar presenters are lay and Jesuit colleagues drawn from a variety of ministries.

The four seminars topics are:

Ignatius the Layman: October 21-23, 2021, Jogues Retreat, Cornwall, NY


The Christ of the Exercises: March 3-5, 2022, Loyola Jesuit Center, Morristown, NJ


A Faith that Does Justice: October 20-22, 2022, Jogues Retreat, Cornwall, NY


Partnership: Life in Community for the Kingdom: March 2-4, 2023, Loyola Jesuit Center, Morristown, NJ

Magis is open to those within the boundaries of the USA East Jesuit Province (East Coast).

The $1,050 program fee covers lodging, meals, and materials for the four seminars. The retreat fee is paid separately and varies based on the retreat.

The application consists of the questions via the button below, your resume/CV (please be prepared to attach as a .pdf) and two references. The form for your references to fill out can be found here.

We will be accepting applications until the cohort is full. If you have questions about the application process or the requirements of the program please don’t hesitate to contact kobrien1@jesuits.org.


https://jesuitseastois.org/magis