Martin J Schade Former Jesuit, "Being A Jesuit Meant Being A Roman Catholic, And The Limitations Of A Doctrinal, Dogmatic Church Reached Its Threshold In My Personal Life."

Fr. Roger Haight, S.J.

I'm grateful for the vision I have in that it brought me to an entire new understanding of reality. I have recentlyPierre Teilhard de Chardin and Karl Rahner as my most supporting philosophers/theologians. Besides this vision, the second imperative of Jesuit life, "Do Everything for the Greater Glory of God," instilled in me the desire to be a "man for others", which is, itself, another Jesuit motto.With my vision and motive of life rooted, the Jesuits then gave me the world of spiritual direction. The very first thing a Jesuit novice receives in Jesuit life is a spiritual director, the person to whom one shares "where God is in your life". Spiritual direction and daily prayer are to become basics in a Jesuit's life. Each year a Jesuit is to do eight day retreats, where one engages with God the elements of Ignatius of Loyola's well-known spiritual exercises.
finished a PhD thesis entitled, Incarnation: A Harmony of One Love, One Heart in the Totality of Reality. I use two Jesuits,

In Jesuit spirituality one learns the movements of life where there is consolation and desolation. With these movements, one is frequently called to the necessity of discernment; reflecting and praying with the continual question of, "Where is God in this?" Jesuits are well known for their spirituality of discernment. (For more information on the Jesuits one can read "The Jesuits! Who are they?" which I published in the Jamaica Gleaner, Tuesday, October 7, 2003).

Besides all these significant reasons behind my gratitude for the 21 years of life as a Jesuit, I thank God for the philosophy of education the Jesuits gave me. As stated, Jesuits find God in all things. Thus their understanding of education sees the entire person, body, soul and mind, in the one student. The Ratio Studiorum of the Jesuits has proved itself historically and globally with the existence of many Jesuit high schools and universities around the world. St George's College and Campion College here in Jamaica are two examples. Jesuit education is based on critical, philosophical thinking, always asking the "why?" question. Another reason for my gratitude is the strong sense of mission that the Jesuits gave me. Jesuits are known as "men on a mission". Interestingly, I continue to live my Jesuit mission by having brought philosophy and ethics to the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech). 

I originally came to Jamaica in 1982 to teach philosophy at St Michael's Seminary. I still bring that same Jesuit mission to Jamaica, but now it is in Jamaica's only national university. 

Philosophical, critical thinking must be instilled in our curricula. It is my mission to live this out. Another mission in which the Jesuits instilled in me is to break down the division of religions. We humans fight and kill in the name of God and religion. A first major movement of Pope Francis is his urging all religions to unite for peace and justice. This mission is lived out at UTech with our nine years of the Interfaith Awareness Day sponsored by the Faculty of Education and Liberal Studies and the Jamaican Council for Interfaith Fellowship.

Still, another reason for my gratitude is the living a cultural life of communal living. With a world that is mostly capitalistic, all out for their own profit, as a religious order, in comparison to diocesan priesthood, Jesuits live in community. It is a true 'communistic' existence, where the community lives "from each according to their ability, to each according to their need".

So with this strong prayer of gratitude for my life as a Jesuit, why did I leave?

The irony of my vocation is that with the very vision the Jesuits gave me and the motivation behind it, I could no longer limit my God, nor my 'self'. The Jesuits made me the fullest being I could have been, until my point of departure. I was approved by Father General Peter Hans Kolvenback in 1998 to profess solemn vows, but it was time to move on. 

Being a Jesuit meant being a Roman Catholic, and the limitations of a doctrinal, dogmatic church reached its threshold in my personal life.

My discovery of reality brought me to the fact that all aspects of the universe is dialectical, and therefore is masculine and feminine, having animus and anima. Living with merely a masculine understanding of priesthood and having "authority" only from a male perspective limited my God, my Self and, for me, my church. As a Roman Catholic priest, John Paul II forbade priests to even discuss women priesthood. In my vision and in my theology, 

God cannot be selective in the call to priesthood. We are all called to this vocation. I find it a travesty of justice that in my church women cannot be priests. As much as Catholic philosophy and theology speak of the equality of all humans, women are still second-class citizens. 

I could no longer actively minister in an institution which expected blind obedience to such a travesty. The world has seen what happens when those in authority passively sit back and do nothing. Historically, Jesuits have regularly had their hands slapped by Rome for their theological and social positions. What happens when one speaks out with a new vision? 

The Jesuit, Roger Haight, SJ, who was my primary mentor in writing my new philosophy and theology has been silenced by Rome; he is not to teach at a Roman Catholic institution and has also been forbidden to teach at any protestant school of theology. It has been deemed that his Christology does not conform with formal Roman Catholic theology in light of the divinity of Jesus the Christ. Oh, how we limit God! 

So my gratitude for my life as a Jesuit passes over to my love for the church. If a Jesuit vision could awaken me from my dogmatic slumber, my hope and prayer is that this same Jesuit vision of Pope Francis can awaken the Roman Catholic Church from its dogmatic slumber.

Link (here) to the Jamaica Observe to read the full article by ex-Jesuit priest  Martin J Schade

Fr Saju George Moolamthuruthil S.J.  preforms the Hindu dance Bharatanatyam in a German Catholic church, watch the video (here)  at Catholic Church Conservation

The Jesuit Priest Who Converted And Became A Taoist Priest

Michael Saso

The seven alchemical formulas are already stripped down to core practices. I don't think you need to invoke, as does the Mao Shan sect, the "lu" or name registers of hundreds of deities, or use special mantras and talismans to command them. 

You can learn that; it’s a lineage method. Michael Saso, the Jesuit priest who converted and became a Taoist priest, learned it and told me it works powerfully. But he told me there are only a handful of people left who know it. It is complicated for Westerners; you probably need to learn Chinese. I personally decided my time was better spent practicing nei gong than learning spoken Chinese.

My alchemical tradition works with the polarities of qi in nature and with the natural shen, which manage the natural flow of qi. You can directly tap the energy of the sun, the moon and the stars, volcanoes, water, wind and rain. All of these are natural forces and they are all represented microcosmically within your body. You can resonate those outer forces into your body and do all this work right inside your body without invoking any particular deities other than the natural shen, the spirits that are living inside you and which are connected to the natural spirits that run the body of this universe. Spirits don’t occupy any physical space. That’s why it is possible to unite an entire universe of spirits "inside" the microcosm of your body. I have no problem with people having connections to religious deities or special guides or anything. Those often appear and people maintain whatever alliances they want to. The principle is what counts, and the efficacy of one’s method. How do you work the different levels of polarity—of water and fire, yin and yang? How do you grasp the essence and open the mysterious gate, the "hidden period" or timeless state, and enter into it? 

Link (here) 

The Jesuit Of Christian Anarchism

Fr. Daniel Berrigan, S.J. has embraced what has been called “Christian anarchism,” because of its persistent alienation and hostility to all forms of power, is the most effective form of resistance. And it is the clearest expression of the Christian Gospel. Berrigan has been arrested numerous times—“I don’t waste time counting,” he told me—for also protesting American intervention in Central America and the first Gulf War, as well as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has demonstrated against the death penalty, in support of LGBT rights and against abortion. And even in his 90s he is not finished. “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal,” he said to me, quoting Emma Goldman. He added his brother Phil’s reminder that “if enough Christians follow the Gospel, they can bring any state to its knees.” “Some people today argue that equanimity achieved through inner spiritual work is a necessary condition for sustaining one’s ethical and political commitments,” Berrigan writes. “But to the prophets of the Bible, this would have been an absolutely foreign language and a foreign view of the human. The notion that one has to achieve peace of mind before stretching out one’s hand to one’s neighbor is a distortion of our human experience, and ultimately a dodge of our responsibility. Life is a rollercoaster, and one had better buckle one’s belt and take the trip. This focus on equanimity is actually a narrow-minded, selfish approach to reality dressed up within the language of spirituality.”
Link (here) to read the full piece at Truth Out

Reiki And Soul Painting

A soul mandela

"The History of Woman," a fundraising exhibition featuring 115 pieces of art by 49 local artists, faculty and students, runs through Saturday, June 23, at the Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery at Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. All the artwork -- in celebration of cultural acceptance and individual expression -- is for sale, with proceeds benefitting the Quick Center and Montage Initiative, a Bridgeport-based nonprofit organization that works to improve the status of women. Also a related book signing and reading will take place Thursday, May 31, at the Fairfield University Bookstore, 1499 Post Road in downtown Fairfield. Author Julie Barbero Mughal, assistant director for the Center for Faith and Public Life at Fairfield University, will read from her book "Land Without Hats," a collection of oral histories exploring how widows are treated in different cultures. Accompanying the reading will be demonstrations by two "History" artists: Anna Linley, a Reiki master and soul mandala artist (drawing portraits of the soul) and Diane Platt, sculptor. The event is free.

Link (here) to read the full article at CTPost,com

Jesuit Priest Offering "Sex Class" Course

Fr. Christian Rutishauser, S.J.

Nestled amid farmland and forests in central Switzerland, the tiny hamlet of Edlibach is not a likely hotbed of controversy. But that may change in May when a Jesuit priest and a Catholic theologian begin offering sex classes for couples at the village’s Jesuit center. The seminar, entitled “Make Time and Room for Sensuality,” is intended “to remind people that Catholic doctrine considers sex to be an expression of love and not just a functional act for making babies,” Christian Rutishauser, the priest organizing the course, said in an interview earlier this month with the German-language newspaper Neue Luzerner Zeitung. “Until now, the Church has expressed particular prohibitions and set conditions for sex. It has said little about how sex can be active and positive.” In the same newspaper, theologian Eugen Bütler, a sex therapist from the city of Luzerne who will be conducting the seminar, said the course will help couples “go beyond the usual quarter-of-an-hour sex.” 

According to promotional materials, instruction will take the form of discussions, meditation and unspecified “body exercises.” Participants will also be encouraged to put what they learn into practice on the spot—retreating to private rooms at Edlibach’s Lassalle-Haus spiritual center for “time for love.” A Catholic-themed course that instructs participants how to improve their sex lives, then urges them to get actually find “time for love” on the premises, would seem destined to incur the wrath of religious leaders. Indeed, both Rutishauser and Bütler declined TIME’s request for interviews because of fears over a possible backlash from the Catholic Church. 

In an email to TIME, Bütler said Catholic authorities are “allergic to this theme and see a lot of problems with the course,” without specifying what those problems are or whether he and Rutishauser are under pressure to cancel the project. Although the Lassalle-Haus spiritual center is run by Jesuits, it is not linked to any physical church. And unlike regular parish priests who serve their congregations, Jesuits are mainly involved in missionary work and education. Rutishauser is program director at the center, organizing courses that primarily deal with worship, meditation and spirituality.

Link (here) to Time Newsfeed

Very Different

In the 1960, Fr. Gaspar Koelman, a Jesuit working in India, did a meticulous study of Patanjali, The Patanjala Yoga, that is invaluable even today. From a very different angle, in 1990 Ravi Ravindra, a Hindu scholar, published an insightful interpretation of the Gospel according to John entitled The Yoga of the Christ. And — lest we forget — there have been many columns, essays, and letters by Christian leaders cautioning Christians against being enchanted by physical practices that ultimately mean a whole way of life — possibly or probably incompatible with Christian values. So the fruits of my seminar — this latest “Jesuit Yoga” — need to be carefully assessed, for the sake of the general question, How can we benefit from the ancient and wise tradition of yoga, as Christians? My hope is to add at least two more to this series of reflections — Jesuit Yoga II and III — to spell out a bit more of what I mean. I also very much welcome comments from readers who (for better or worse) have brought yoga together with Christian (and/or Ignatian) spirituality.

Link (here) to read the full article by Fr. Francis Xavier Clooney, S.J. at Christian Yoga Magazine
Link (here) to read a New York Times article on the licentious nature of Hatha and Tantra yoga   

A critique of yoga (here)

Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J. on Yoga (here)

Fr. John Hardon, S.J. on Yoga (here)

Articulation Of Christianity

David Lynch is not frequently mentioned in the same sentence as Saint Paul the Apostle. But both Lynch and St. Paul end up earnestly articulating the message of Jesus in a way their audiences can understand and embrace. While Paul preached around the Roman empire, Lynch spoke to viewers of prime-time TV. He gives us what’s arguably the best articulation of Christianity ever to air on CBS. Watch what would certainly be St. Paul’s favorite scene from town of Twin Peaks here. See what I mean? And this from the guy who, in Blue Velvet, puts together one of creepiest opening montages in film history. (If you haven’t seen Blue Velvet, or even if you have, Siskel & Ebert’s must-watch synopsis and review can be found here. Blue Velvet’s plot begins in a manicured suburban neighborhood where an all-American teenager stumbles upon an ant-infested ear . Lynch starts the film there, because, more than anything, he wants to show us the startling and unexpected parts of peoples’ lives.

Link (here) to read the post by Perry Petrich, S.J. entitled David Lynch the Apostle at the multi-Jesuit authored blog The Jesuit Post

Some Blogger Notes

Saint Ignatius in his "Rules for Thinking with the Church"  states in Rule #12

"It is a thing to be blamed and avoided to compare men who are living on the earth (however worthy of praise) with the Saints and Blessed..." 

You can read this rule and the other seventeen (here)

David Lynch is a practitioner of neo-Hinduism and is a student and follower Maharishi Mahesh Yogi the originator of Transcendental Meditation and an early advocate of yoga in the West.

David Lynch, who grew up in a Presbyterian family, discusses his practice of transcendental meditation as a way of connecting to the divine. He says of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the religious figure who influenced the Beatles in the 1970s, "I think he's a holy man, and I owe him the discovery that the possibility for happiness dwells within us." Mr. Monda reflects his personal beliefs in the question that he shoots back to Mr. Lynch, "What about that is different from St. Augustine's 'Noli foras ire, in te ipsum redi, in interiore homine habitat veritas ('Go not about, retire within: Truth dwells in the inner man.')?" Mr. Lynch replies, "Transcendental meditation is a mental technique that I practice twice a day; it allows each human being to dive into his own ego and reach pure consciousness and pure happiness. In St. Augustine, on the other hand, it's all closely tied to Christian revelation."
Link (here) to the article originally found in the National Catholic Reporter

One can not help connecting Lynch's cynicical mockery of Christianity by exploring Lynch's characters. In Erasurehead a character is called "the Lady in the Radiator" in the movie the she sings a satirical hymn entitled "In Heaven" Lynch's clasped hands and blue lighting compare to the holy imagery of "Our Blessed Mother" and the infamous character in Twin Peaks' "Log Lady" with images of "Our Lady and the Christ Child"  or how about Erasureheads swaddled reptilian? (here) to the Nativity? (here)

The Vatican specifically criticized Eastern meditative practices such as yoga, Transcendental Meditation and Zen in a 23-page document released Thursday. It was the closest Rome has come to admitting the attraction some Catholics have for Eastern religions. The director of a local meditation center said that Catholics are very involved in TM. "I've instructed mainstream Catholic priests, nuns and leading Catholic lay people," said Bruce Beal, coordinator of Houston's Transcendental Meditation Center at 2110 Lexington. "Out of the 1,500 people in Houston that we know practice Transcendental Meditation, a strong percentage are Catholic.' However TM, as well as yoga and Zen, are unacceptable for Catholics, said the "Letter tothe Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of ChristianMeditation." It was released by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the pope's guardian of orthodoxy.
Link (here) to the full article at The Houston Chronicle
 

Tragedy Of The Day

Bikram Choudhury the founder of Bikram Yoga

The one holy catholic and fairly apostolic church of Bikram Yoga. It is a place where people enter into suffering to attain a new kind of purification. 

We do yoga in this ridiculous heat chamber and sweat out toxins and dark thoughts and the tragedies of the day. We enter into poses and postures we once thought unimaginable. 

Poses that, by our sheer wills and some vital Spirit moving through the heat and spandex and foam mats, we manage to pull off grandly.

.

Link (here) to the full post by Joe Hoover, S.J. at The Jesuit Post 
A critique of yoga (here)

Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J. on Yoga (here)

Fr. John Hardon, S.J. on Yoga (here)

The Shamanic Mass Was Celebrated On Sunday, August 14, 2011

Some excerpts of an article by Fr. Joseph "JoJo" Fung, S.J. and his liturgical practices.

The shamanic mass was celebrated on Sunday, August 14, 2011 at the Tulana Research Center for Encounter and Dialogue, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. The celebration was divided into the Liturgy of the Word, conducted in the open, under the canopy of the coconut trees and liturgy of the Eucharist which was held in the chapel.(1) The aim of this creative liturgy was to share with fellow Jesuits an experience of indigenous religiosity and how this dialogue shaped the way the liturgy is conducted. 

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"The penitential rite was the breathing exercise which allows Ruah Elohim to cleanse and purify us"

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"All were seated in the chapel for a powerpoint sharing of a story of a sojourner at the margin, dancing with the spirit on the water of shamanic religiosity."

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"After communion prayer, the elder of the community, the beloved guru and master Aloyisius Pieris was requested to offer a chant in Pali as a final blessing to send us forth."

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The Eucharistic celebration is the locus for the liturgical realization of an emergent Eucharistic theology of sacred sustainability aimed at bringing about “an attitudinal as well as a structural transformation… by ritually enacting in the liturgy the new paradigm of the church, worship and priesthood” 

(Pieris 2010:186-7)

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"At the liturgical re-enactment of the Good Friday event at the moment of consecration, Jesus continues to configure the church to himself (Craffer2008).(7) As Jesus typifies the Galilean Shamanic figure of Nazareth, the reenactment further configures the assembly to be a type of Jesus the shamanic figure of early Palestine."

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"A re-envisioned liturgy of sacred sustainability, in short a shamanic mass, becomes a way to bring about a shamanic way of being church that is sensitive to the sacred spirits operative in the deepest depth of indigenous cultures and religiosity."

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Link (here)

Shaman Jesuit

Fr Joseph Fung SJ incorporated several Shamanistic symbols and customs in his Eucharistic sacrifice.  Fr Fung said the aim of the Shamanic mass, which he calls a re-envisioned liturgy of sacred sustainability, was to share with fellow Jesuits an experience of indigenous religiosity and how this dialogue shaped the way the liturgy is conducted. Read about the Shamanic Mass.

Link (here) to the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific website

Fr Jerry Cusumano, S.J. And The Cave

Shinmeikutsu

Besides my daily sitting I went for sesshin (intensive Zen sitting of 9-10 hours a day for five days or more while staying at a Zen temple) .I did these sesshin under the direction of Fr. Hugo Lasalle, the German Jesuit pioneer in Zen, at Shinmeikutsu (The Cave of Divine Darkness), the Zen facility which he had recently completed.[1] I also became a disciple of his own master, Yamada Koun Roshi in 1979. However, during these early years I did not go for guidance to Yamada Koun Roshi but practiced only with Fr. Lasalle. After seven years he urged me to continue my practice with Yamada Koun Roshi in the Sanbô Kyôdan at the Zen Centre (San Un Zendo) in Kamakura. I did so and have continued there under the two Roshi who succeeded Yamada Koun Roshi after his death in 1989, namely, Kubota Ji Un Roshi for 15 years, and since 2004 to the present, Yamada Ryoun Roshi, the son of Yamada Koun Roshi. In summary, during my first 10 years in Japan I did not practice Zen. After starting Zen in earnest, during the first 10 years in my Zen practice I was consistent with daily sitting and several sesshin a year but I was off and on with regard to receiving weekly/monthly guidance. However, for the last 25 years I would characterize my practice as that of a serious lay person: sitting at least for 30 minutes a day, participating in zazenkai (one day sittings, where I receive direction from the Roshi) four or five times a month, and participating in sesshin, four or five times a year.The Sanbô Kyôdan is a religious corporation recognized by the Japanese Ministry of Education and Culture. It was founded in 1954 by Yasutani Hakuun who continued to try to synthesize the Soto and Rinzai branches of Zen as his own master, Harada Sogaku, had begun to do. Yasutani Roshi’s successor was my first Zen master, Yamada Koun Roshi. The Sanbô Kyôdan is a lay organization with no affiliation to any of the major sects of Zen in Japan. However, partly due to the influence of Fr. Lassalle, it has been very influential in the West. As one commentator has noted: “the influence of the Sanbôkyôdan on Western conceptions of Zen has been far out of proportion to its relatively marginal status in Japan.”

Link (here) to the Jesuit website 

Blogger Note: It is important to read this link (here) about Yasutani Hakuun and his anti-semitic views.

Sacred Cows Make The Best Hamburgers

A few weeks ago there was a flurry of news around the rather sensational comments made by Fr. Gabriele Amorth, on the diabolical influence in both the Harry Potter series and in the practice of yoga. See for instance the version given at UCA News (a Catholic website in East Asia). I do not know Fr. Amorth, and could not discover on the web an exact transcript of his remarks, and so have been hesitant to comment. Many have, and there is no lack of comments about his comments, on the web.

Many are merely repetitive and seem singularly ill-informed. Some come from more educated Christians who refer to the Church’s record of suspicions about yoga – as in Cardinal Ratzinger’s 1989 letter worrying about the indiscriminate borrowing of Asian spiritualities, or the Vatican document, Jesus Christ, the Bearer of the Water of Life – while some come from thoughtful yoga practitioners who, whether Christian or not, fail to see what Satan has to do with yoga. 

Enough has been said, it seems. But I have been asked both by friends and relatives, and by Hindus in India, about the meaning and significance of the attack on yoga. I think it simplest to make a short series of comments, sketched here and none fully developed (we are at the end of the semester, after all…) First, mere recriminations against the religion of another are just about never acceptable or useful.

No Catholic likes it if the Eucharist is written off as merely “priestcraft” or “patriarchal machinations” or even the venerable “hocus pocus,” and it is hard to imagine that it helps in any way to burden the millennia-old theory and practice of yoga with the deadly charge of being Satanic. 

And it is a really bad idea to insult a nearly billion Hindus – who see Hinduism as having a special affinity to yoga – by charges of Satanism that echo centuries of heated Christian attacks on Hinduism, and

I hope Church leaders in Rome have instructed Fr. Amorth not to make such sweeping charges. Second, if one is a professional exorcist, one may indeed see everything in light of that profession, and so it is not surprising that Fr. Amorth sees the devil at work everywhere; 

perhaps it is his default explanation of the woes that afflict us. Others might appeal to literary or philosophical measures of worth, but the exorcist sees things in his own way. To others this will seem odd, exaggerated, and this is all the more reason to be careful when speaking to a wider audience who do not share one's profession or expertise, but see the world through other legitimate lenses.

Link (here) to read the entire post by Fr. Francis Xavier Clooney, S.J. 

The Standard of Satan by St. Ignatius of Loyola, S.J. (here)

The Standard of Christ by St. Ignatius of Loyola, S.J. (here)

More on the Two Standards (here) (here) and (here)

Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J. on Yoga (here)

Fr. John Hardon, S.J. on Yoga (here)

Sacred Cows Make The Best Hamburgers (here)

Green Monkey

As one enters the Jesuit Middle School of Omaha (JMSO) building, it is easy to see that it is decorated in traditional African colors of green, gold, red and black. There are many colorful tiles and painted lines displayed throughout the hallways, common area and even the gymnasium. However, the sixth grade class is taking the “green” color one step further by incorporating the Green Monkey Recycling Project into their curriculum. According to Mr. Mansour, project moderator and sixth grade teacher, the Green Monkey Project was born during a reading class in September 2006 during a lesson on sequence of events. Students were asked to invent characters and make up a story to practice sequence of events. From there, the Green Monkey and his nemesis, the Orange Tiger, were born. The class soon developed a story line about how the Orange Tiger destroyed the Green Monkey’s village, probably by polluting it. In an effort to make JMSO more eco-conscious, students researched various forms of recycling and pollution. With its mascot the Green Monkey, the then fifth grade class created the Green Monkey Schools website, dedicated to recycling and “green” uses of resources. Recycling bins for paper, metal and plastic products are located throughout the school and collected weekly for pick up. In addition, JMSO also utilizes printer cartridge recycling, double-sided copies, turning off the lights when not in use and energy conservation with computers and monitors. Students have also traveled to Holy Name, St. Pius/St. Leo, Holy Ghost and All Saints grade schools to present their ideas and to ‘audit’ the recycling efforts practiced at their schools.

Link (here) to JMSO

Fr. John Dear, S.J., "Beate Stolte Will Lead Us In Sitting Meditation"

Beate Stolte

I've been invited over the years to give Dharma lectures at Upaya Zen Center, a gorgeous Buddhist peace and meditation center in Santa Fe. Recently, Upaya Zen Center invited Natalie Goldberg and me to offer a weekend retreat together on writing and peacemaking. The date is set for April 27-April 29, 2012, and we're calling it The End of War, the Beginning of Peace: The Life and Practice of Creative Nonviolence. Along with the Upaya director and Buddhist leader Sensei Beate Stolte, we will explore the journey from violence to nonviolence, examining its different aspects in our interior lives, our interpersonal relationships (family, friends, work) and our efforts with grassroots justice and disarmament movements. I will offer reflections on these areas of nonviolence while Natalie will lead timed writing exercises for us to journal about our experiences and thoughts on violence and nonviolence. Throughout the weekend, Beate Stolte will lead us in sitting meditation in the magnificent meditation hall. We will have time for silence, small and large group discussion, and shared peace.

Link (here) to NCR fishwrapper to read the full blog post by Fr. John Dear, S.J.

Fr. Patrick Earl, SJ, “Just Having Something Public Is Not Going To Be A Big, Big Deal Here.."

Fr. Patrick Earl, S.J.

At St. Peter's Catholic Church, a Jesuit parish in Charlotte has canceled plans to read the Qur’an from the pulpit on June 26, the feast of Corpus Christi.  

“Just having something public is not going to be a big, big deal here, but to have someone come in and read from the Qur’an and to recognize publicly the existence of Islam and to reverence and respect is a good thing for the Church to do,” Father Patrick Earl, S.J., said on May 27. “I’ve heard from Muslim imams about what they and their congregations have suffered just from the fear, the fear of what they call Islamophobia.”  

On June 7, Father Earl announced the cancellation of the event; he said that he had been unaware that 2004 Vatican instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum forbade such readings. The document states that “it is strictly to be considered an abuse to introduce into the celebration of Holy Mass elements that are contrary to the prescriptions of the liturgical books and taken from the rites of other religions.”  

Link (here) to read the original story at Catholic Culture

 

Former Jesuit Ruben L.F. Habito On His Jesuit And Zen Experience

I went to Japan in 1970 in my early 20s, sent by the Jesuits to help out in the work there. And so, when I arrived I was enrolled in a language school and there I learned about Japanese culture and language and how to accustom myself to living and working in Japan. My spiritual director at the time, at the language school in Kamakura, was Fr. Thomas Hand. He was an American Jesuit from California who had already been practicing Zen himself under Yamada Koun-Roshi (whose Zen center was right there, in Kamakura). So, he recommended that I join him there at the San’un Zendo. So I did. That is what got me into the practice of Zen. This was as I was preparing my own studies for the priesthood in the Jesuit order.

And what was it about the practice of zazen that stuck?

I found it a very simple and direct way of coming to a point of stillness, without using discursive thought and without a lot of preliminaries. Of course there are physical and other preliminaries such as taking the posture, and so on. We had to go through eight introductory talks in the San’un Zendo as beginners before we could even join the rest of the group of sitters or being introduced to the Roshi. Again, the basic practice of zazen, is a very direct and simple way of being still. I found that very attractive and also very powerful. I came from a tradition of spiritual practice in the Jesuit order based on the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. These spiritual exercises can also lead to a very deep spiritual experience but it arrives there going through a lot of discursive language and theological presuppositions, and so forth, beginning with considerations of how the world is in a mess, and how I am part of that mess.

Link (here) to read the full interview of Ruben L.F. Habito at Sweeping Zen

A Book Review Of The Jesuit Authored "Divine Mother, Blessed Mother"

While attending a Catholic Record Society conference in England a while back, I came across Francis X. Clooney’s book Divine Mother, Blessed Mother among those Oxford University Press had put on display. I skimmed a few pages and surmised that it might be the fruit of anti-Marian feminism grafted onto anti-missionary ecumenism. I was wrong. It’s even worse. It’s an invitation to apostasy. 

In the preface, Clooney, a Jesuit priest, recalls that he first visited a “goddess temple” at age 23, in 1973. He has studied Hinduism for thirty years and has taught comparative theology at Boston College since 1984. In Divine Mother, Blessed Mother, he takes three hymns addressed to three Hindu “goddesses” and contrasts them with three hymns addressed to Our Lady, in order to teach us “what it means to worship a goddess.” 

He is writing, he says, with feminist scholarship as his “guiding frame,” to contribute to the rectifying of “gender imbalances.” No surprise, then, that his tome is dedicated to women who are “silenced” and “ignored,” especially in the Catholic Church.

Link (here) to the full and lengthy review of the book at The New Oxford Review.

Jesuit On Baba

On Easter Sunday, Sri Sathya Sai Baba (1926-2011) died in India at aged 85. The accounts of his death are many in the Indian press, and will increase as the day of his funeral, a state affair, approaches. (Just google “Death of Sai Baba” and you will see.)

Link (here) to the full article at America by Fr. Francis Clooney, S.J.

Statue Of A Pagan

Recently, administrators at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry (STM) inaugurated a new visiting statue at the entrance to the Brighton Campus: a ten-foot statue of Gandhi. 

Students and passersby alike were puzzled by the choice of a non-Catholic to serve as the focal point of the entrance to a Catholic institution during the Lenten season. 

The statue, which is on loan from the Peace Abbey, an interfaith nonprofit organization, serves as a part of STM’s “Lenten Focus on Gandhi, Peace, and Nonviolence.”

Link (here) to read the full article at The Observer at Boston College