Searching for silence
Elijah didn't find God in the noise of the world and neither should we
Good morning and happy Saturday. This is a Saturday Post from the Purple Catholic. Welcome to all of you who subscribed to have Michigan Mornings™ delivered to your inbox each day and welcome to all of you who were introduced to me this week on Kresta in the Afternoon.
Each week, I try to share news about the Church from around the world and provide some of my thoughts on the situation we find ourselves in. Please feel free to forward this to a friend or share it on social media. I also like reading comments and feedback on the newsletter, so you can post those below or connect with me on X.
As promised in my media alert on Sunday, here is my conversation with Marcus Peter on Kresta in the Afternoon. You can listen below or download it here.
Tomorrow is the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time. At Mass, we will hear readings from Job 38:1, 8-11, Psalm 107, 2 Corinthians 5:14-17, and Mark 4:35-41.
We are also entering Psalter Week 3 of the Liturgy of the Hours. In the Office of Readings, we will be reading through 1 Samuel except for Monday and Saturday. On Monday, we will be reading from the prophet Jeremiah, and on Saturday, we will be reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians.
Here is a calendar for the rest of the week:
Monday, 24 June - Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist
Thursday, 27 June - Memorial of St. Cyril of Alexandria, bishop and doctor (optional)
Friday, 28 June - Memorial of St. Irenaeus, bishop and martyr
Saturday, 29 June - Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, apostles
A great prophet has risen in our midst
God has visited his people.
Luke 7:16
In the news:
The United States
For those who need some red: Physician in Texas indicted with HIPAA violations after leaking medical records of transgender surgeries on minors; hospital previously claimed they were halting such procedures - Catholic News Agency
Why the Steubenville Diocese merger matters - J.D. Flynn in the Pillar
Four US archdioceses ordain record number of priests - OSV News
The Full Story of Baseball: Negro League stats are now MLB stats - America Magazine
Trump and Biden to debate next week on CNN - CNN
The Vatican
Vatican library to award NFTs to donors in ‘experimental project’ - Catholic News Agency
Pope Francis: “Welcome, promote, accompany, and integrate” refugees - Vatican News
The World
For those who need some blue: What Catholic social teaching has to say about Gaza, Israel, and Palestine - America Magazine
Bolivia to investigate diary of another Jesuit child abuser - Crux
Spanish nuns accused of schism must appear before tribunal - The Pillar
Pope Francis Erects New Metropolitan See in Zambia, Appoints Pioneer Local Ordinary - ACI Africa
A Pope Francis visit to India could be a distant possibility - UCA News
Searching for silence
In the past year or so, I have had two mentors of mine pass away. Last summer saw the death of Fr. Stan Drongowski, OP, the late chaplain of my alma mater Aquinas College. Last week, my former employer Al Kresta passed away.
Both Al and Father Stan taught me to appreciate the Catholic intellectual tradition, particularly of the Dominican flavor. Contrary to what some of my professors at Aquinas College thought and contrary to what you might see in the media or on X, you can be a faithful Catholic and have a deep wisdom and understanding of the world around you. Al and Father Stan both demonstrated this.
After I received news of both of their passing, I noticed a sort of mental silence. It is difficult for me to describe. When I reflect on both of their lives, my mind quiets down, almost as if I can feel that their soul is no longer in this world.
Silence is strange in our 24/7 cable news world and even stranger to those of us who work in the media. I confessed on Monday when I spoke with Marcus Peter on Kresta in the Afternoon that I had CNN on in my office at the same time; that is not irregular for me. If its not cable news, its Smerconish or its Ave Maria Radio. Something is always making background noise in my office.
The noise continues onto social media as well. This week, a blog reported that it had “reliable sources” that the Mass of St. John XXIII (aka the traditional Latin Mass). Of course that sparked a liturgy war on X. Priests and laypeople bickering and yelling at one another for which Mass has more people at it and which one produces more seminarians. Noise is everywhere.
So often in our prayer, we are noisy too. I am sometimes guilty of rattling off the Psalms during the Liturgy of the Hours without paying attention to the meaning of the words. At Mass, it is not uncommon for one’s mind to wander.
Noise makes good prayer and good communication with God difficult. So often we are looking for Him in the obvious places, in the noisy places.
When the great prophet Elijah met God, it was in the place he least expected:
“The Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. (1 Kings 19:11-12)
Elijah did not meet God in an earthquake or a great wind or a fire. He met God in (what the Revised Standard Version says) a “still small voice.”
As I mourn the recent death of my mentor Al Kresta and the past deaths of other friends such as Fr. Stan, I have learned to use that feeling of silence to my advantage so that I may better listen to where God is calling me.
I’m not likely to find God speaking to me through CNN or arguments on X, but in the “still small voice.” Perhaps this is what the Psalmist means when he prays, “On my bed I remember you. / On you I muse through the night” (Psalm 63:6, 1963 Grail); he too may be waiting for the “still small voice.”
I hope and pray that this silence I have found as I mourn for my friends remains just a little while longer. I also hope you can find silence in your life so that you too can meet God with his “still small voice.”
Al will be laid to rest today and I invite you to watch the funeral Mass from his parish on YouTube. You can find that video below.
Have a good weekend.
Matthew
Copyright notices:
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.