Christmas Songs for the Refugee Christ: Psalm Offerings Opus 11

I am nearing the completion of a Christmas set of Psalm Offerings. Most of the music originated as four part choral psalm settings and motets I composed for my choirs and cantors to sing during the Season of Advent and Christmas over 40 years ago at St Hubert Catholic Community in Chanhassen. In this collection of 10 songs, 9 of them have been “reimagined” exclusively as piano music. One song is newly composed.

This collection of music is dedicated to the Holy Family present in the migrant and refugee families not only on my nation’s southern border but throughout the entire world.

The song I present here is Psalm Offering 8, Opus 11: In The Beginning Was The Word. I based this on the Prologue of the Gospel of John.

“In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God,
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be 4through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
A man named John was sent from God.
He came for testimony, to testify to the light,
so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light, but came to testify to the light.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world,
and the world came to be through him,
but the world did not know him.
He came to what was his own,
but his own people did not accept him.
But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.
And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth.”
(John 1: 1-14, NAB)

With this Prologue as my guide, I composed the following music for piano. Note that it is in 7/4 time. The number seven is a very special, in the Jewish and Christian traditions signifying Divine perfection. Jesus used the phrase 7 times 77 for the number of times we are to forgive one another. In numerology the name Jesus Christ Savior adds up to 777. When one is in 7th heaven, one has reached the pinnacle of heaven. Hence, I decided to compose this piano music with seven beats to a measure, a quarter note getting one beat. For those who are musically inclined, the time signature is 3/4+2/4+2/4, so that the beats in each measure are subdivided to be 123-45-67, with the 1st, 4th, and 6th beats receiving the accents.

Here is the music.

Psalm Offering 8 Opus 11: In The Beginning Was The Word (c) 2018, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.

 

Have our lives been fruitful or fruitless? A homily for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

This weekend, in all three church sites of the New Prague Area Catholic Community, we are celebrating the harvest during Mass. This coincides with the readings of this Sunday being the most eschatological/ the End of the World readings. I am preaching at two of the Masses and the following is the homily I will be giving.

HOMILY FOR THE 33RD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR B

I want to first express my great gratitude for all the hard work and sacrifice you do to provide myself, my family, and all of the world with the food we need in order to live. I personally know about farming through relationship, that is in having the great honor and privilege of courting and marrying a farmer’s daughter. Needless to say, I have had my share of bailing hay and stacking hay bales in the barn. I often thought her dad tied our visits to the farm to correspond with the cutting and bailing of alfalfa. I will be the first to admit that all of you can speak far more eloquently about the tremendous amount of work and skill it takes to plant and to harvest crops, and to care for livestock.

As a city slicker, I have observed that the two busiest and most important times in the year are the times of planting and harvesting. Prior to planting, great care is taken to prepare the soil, fertilizing the soil, and, then, planting the seeds. The time in between planting and harvesting is spent in caring for livestock, and handing over control of the crops planted to God. Much prayer is offered for the correct amount of rain, sunshine, humidity, and the absence of storms that can destroy a crop. This is a time best thought of as God’s time. St James, in chapter 5 of his apostolic letter, writes, “See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.” And, following comes the time we have just completed the harvest. An equal amount of care goes into preparing and repairing the machinery that will be used for the harvest, prayer offered up for dry weather, prayer that all will remain safe during the long hours of the harvest, that machinery will not break down, that the crop can be stored safely in bins and silos, and that a good price may be had for the crop. Scripture calls the time between planting and harvesting as the time that belongs especially to God. Once all that has been done, then we can give thanks to God and relax.

The scriptures today, also talk about harvest. The theological word used to describe God’s harvest is the word, “Eschaton”. It means the “end times” or the “end of the world.” Truth be told, we have been living in the end times, harvest time, from the moment Jesus ascended into heaven. While there will be one, final great harvest, the harvest has been going on from the moment we were born. In the Divine Harvest, it is you and I who are the crop. Our lives are the seed that God has planted. God planted us in the soil of this world the moment we were born. The soil in which we are planted is the soil of our family, and the soil of our community. Our lives are fertilized by the knowledge we acquire in school, in the skills we have learned, the life experiences and events that occur in our lives, and the choices we make in our lives. God waters us with the life of his Son, Jesus and with the sacraments, and then, like all farmers, patiently watches us grow, hoping that our lives will bear great fruit. ”What kind of fruit will our lives bear?”  We have the choice of either bearing great fruit or no fruit at all. And then, after a lifetime of growing in the soil of this world, you and I will be harvested by God.

So just what does it mean to bear great fruit? It is quite simple. Our fruit will be determined by how we have we loved throughout our lives. Two weeks ago, Jesus gave us the definition of what it means to bear great fruit. It is to love God with all our heart, strength, and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We are to love as Jesus loved, completely and unequivocally, just like the story of the widow from the gospel last week, who gave all she had to God. How do we love God with all our heart, our strength, and our mind? What role does prayer play in our daily lives? Do we spend time in the morning, the afternoon, and the evening giving thanks to God for the blessings of our day? Do we spend time reading Holy Scripture? Do we faithfully spend time with God on Sunday, at this great celebration of thanksgiving we call the Mass? Prayer and celebrating the sacraments are all big ways in which our lives bear great fruit. However, that is not enough. If our prayer and celebration of the sacraments are bearing great fruit in our lives, it will show in how we love the presence of God in our neighbor. In Matthew’s Gospel, the Last Judgment is all about how people have loved the presence of God in others. Jesus asks those being judged, “Have you fed the hungry? Have you given drink to the thirsty? Have you clothed the naked? Have you cared for the sick? Have you visited those in prison? Have you welcomed the stranger, the immigrant?” Jesus tells us that if we have done all these acts of love for others, our lives have borne great fruit and we will have eternal life. If we have not done so, then we will be condemned for eternity. Jesus reminds us that just as the farmer separates the wheat from the chaff, so God will separate those who love from those who do not love. In John’s Gospel, Jesus describes this in terms of him being the vine and we being the branches. Those branches that bear great fruit are saved. The branches that bear no fruit at all are cut off and thrown into the fire.

The sole purpose of planting seeds, watching them grow, and then harvesting them, is to provide life and sustenance for all. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The sole goal of our lives is to learn how to love as Jesus loved, and then love as Jesus loved. Jesus said it quite simply and accurately, “Love one another as I have loved you.”  If we do this, then we bring Christ’s life to our world. This weekend is a good time to pause from the busyness of our lives and reflect on the fruit our lives have produced.  Have we produced great fruit, our have our lives been fruitless?

The Great Commandment of Jesus – A Reflection for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

Many years ago, I ministered alongside Fr Barry Schneider, a Franciscan Friar and the pastor of St Hubert in Chanhassen. One day, Barry asked me, “Bob, why does the Church complicate things so much?” I asked him for clarification. He replied, “The Pharisees were criticized for burdening the Jewish people with Mosaic Law, yet, the Catholic Church has over 3000 Canon laws governing the Church. Jesus gave us only two laws to follow, ‘Love God with all you heart, your mind and your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.’ This is all the law that we need. Why have we (the Church) complicated things so much?” His question remained unanswered. Barry fervently believed in the Great Commandment of Jesus, which we hear in the Gospel today. For much of his priestly life, Barry ministered to the Black Community on the South Side of Chicago. He marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr through the streets of Cicero, Chicago, enduring cursing and objects thrown at him and his fellow marchers by those along the street, many of whom he recognized as Catholic parishioners from the white suburban Catholic parishes at which he helped celebrate Mass on the weekends.

After all these years, I believe the question that Barry meant to ask was, “Why haven’t Catholics believed and lived Jesus’ Great Commandment of loving God and neighbor?” Mahatma Ghandi, a Hindu, studied the Bible and believed the message of Jesus in the Gospels. He once remarked to a Christian, that if Christians actually lived what Jesus commanded, Christianity would be the most powerful force in the world. Sadly, Ghandi observed, Christians have not done so. Ghandi’s words were so prophetic.

Over the past week there has been horrific violence in the United States. Two Black Americans senselessly gunned down in a Louisville grocery store as they bought food for their families. Eleven Jewish people slaughtered by gunfire as they worshipped in their Pittsburgh synagogue. Fourteen pipe bombs mailed to prominent American citizens, among them, two former presidents. Hateful rhetoric in political ads, speeches, and rallies.The separation and jailing of migrant children from their parents. Using the Great Commandment of Jesus as a template, it is clear that America is far from being the “Christian” nation about which some like to boast. How about you and me? How “Christian” are we? Do we believe and live Jesus’ Great Commandment?

THE ESCHATON (The End of the World). A reflection for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

The Eschaton (pronounced ES-ka-ton) is a fancy way to say “THE END OF THE WORLD.” As a kid, I was horribly afraid of the end of the world. All the dark images we hear in the scriptures (Daniel 12:1-3; Mark 13: 24-32) were highlighted and expanded upon by the nuns to frighten us kids into heaven. Sr. Angeline made it a point to tell my second grade class that ten of us were going to hell. (Of course, we knew who they were.) However, I wondered frighteningly, “Was my name in the book of the saved or the book of the damned?”

The images of the Gospel, sun and moon darkened, stars falling from the heaven, Jesus coming at the end of time to judge me and everyone, didn’t produce much hope for salvation. Allow me to illustrate this in an adaptation of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. “You better watch out! You better not cry! You better be good, I’m telling you why! Jesus Christ is coming to town! (And he is VERY mad!).” At that time, we didn’t run to Jesus to intercede for us. We were too afraid of him (read the English translation of the Dies Irae, sung at all Requiem Masses, funeral Masses at that time, to find out why.). Rather, we fled to Mary, so that she could soften Jesus up a bit so that he would not damn us. The END OF THE WORLD, as taught by the Church at that time, was a thing of nightmares. W.C. Field once stated, “The good old days, may they never return.” I completely concur with him!

It is true that we will be held accountable by God when we enter eternal life at our death. It is important that our lives must be ones that love God with all our mind, heart and strength, and, equally, love our neighbor as ourselves. Let us meditate upon and focus our lives instead on these words of St Paul, “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?  No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Everything indeed is for you! A reflection for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

There is a beautiful verse from St Paul’s 2nd letter to the Corinthians in which he writes, “Everything indeed is for you!” For those of us who are parents, this phrase expresses how we feel toward our children. We want our children to be happy and we are willing to do everything within our power for them to experience true happiness. God is the quintessential parent. God wants all that he has created to experience the fullness of happiness. We hear this expressed in John’s Gospel, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (John 3:16, NAB) If God’s will is to do everything for us so that we might find eternal happiness, are we willing to give fully of ourselves in return to God?

We are confronted with this question in today’s Gospel. Jesus and his disciples sit opposite the Temple treasury and observe the people contributing money to the treasury. Jesus points us that the rich, though contributing a lot of money, give from their surplus. In contrast, the widow gift, small in amount as it is, is her livelihood, the very funds upon which she feeds and houses herself. The rich hold back what they could truly give, while the widow gives totally of herself. Jesus’ observation forces us to examine our generosity of self to God. It is not just about what we place in the contribution basket on the weekend.  Rather, are we willing to give totally of ourselves back to God, or, do we like the Pharisees and the rich of Jesus’ time, hold back, and, only give a small portion of ourselves to God?

Are we willing, like the widow, to completely detach ourselves from not only material possessions, but detach ourselves from the pride and pretentiousness of our lives, and depend entirely and solely on God? If we truly wish to experience the full blessedness and joy of God we must live lives in which everything indeed is for God.

Psalm Offering 6 Opus 11 – Most Wondrous Mystery

Mary Ruth, Dad, and Mom around 1990.

On this All Soul’s Day, I am remembering my sister, Mary Ruth, my Dad and my Mom. Mary died on August 10, 1997. Dad died on November 13, 2004, and Mom died on June 30, 2018.

“Most Wondrous Mystery” is a Christmas motet I composed for them the Christmas of 1990. During my collegiate days in the Chorale of the College of St. Catherine’s, under the direction of Dr. Maurice A. Jones, I was introduced to the wonderful Christmas Motets composed by the French composer, Francois Poulenc. “Most Wondrous Mystery” was my attempt to recapture the power of those motets, specifically, Poulenc’s “O Magnum Mysterium.”

This is the text I wrote for my motet.

Most wondrous mystery, Word of God Incarnate,
In your humanity, you raise us up to heaven.
Sweet sacrifice of our redemption,
within your infant form
lay the source of our creation.

Most wondrous act of love
from the heart of God’s great love,
in your small hands contain
freedom from our from our sin and pain.
Sweet child nestled on your mother’s breast,
within your heart so small
dwells our source of all hope, peace, and rest.
(c) 1990, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.

This Christmas, I am releasing piano creations of all the Advent and Christmas music I composed when I was the music/liturgy director at St Hubert Catholic Church in Chanhassen, Minnesota. Psalm Offering 6 Opus 11, Most Wondrous Mystery, is one of the piano new creations of this music. It is classified as variations on a theme.

The choral motet is stated first as the theme. Following the theme are six variations, ending with a recapitulation of the original theme, though this restatement is in itself, a variation on the original theme.

If you know Poulenc’s music, the original theme utilizes much of the harmonic structure of his music. For the variations, I fell back on my experience of learning Felix Mendelssohn’s “17 Variations On A Theme”, 30 pages of piano virtuosity, frustration, hard practice, a small dent in the plaster wall of my parent’s home (the result of pounding my head in the wall), and night sweats leading up to my graduation recital. It was the concluding music in my 90 minute program (unlike other instruments, all piano recitals must have all music memorized) … I had a mental block on the 17th variation and just let finger memory carry me through to where I could see the score again in my head.

Here is the new piano recreation of the Christmas Motet, “Most Wondrous Mystery.”

Psalm Offering 6 Opus 11, Most Wondrous Mystery. (c) 2018, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.

A prayer for discernment as we prepare to vote next week.

We are gifted in our nation with the right to vote. It has become all the more apparent that the mid-term elections coming up in one week are very important for us and for our nation. I personally believe that this election is a fight for the soul of our nation. Throughout the past 18 months, the ideals and the principles upon which our nation was founded has been under a deadly assault. The time has come for the citizens of our nation to push back and defeat the racism, the greed, the misogyny, and hatred that has infected our government. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have a beautiful prayer for us to pray as we discern for whom we are voting. I invite all to pray this prayer everyday in anticipation of November 6th.

Prayer Before an Election

Lord God, as the election approaches,
we seek to better understand the issues and concerns that confront our city/state/country,
and how the Gospel compels us to respond as faithful citizens in our community.
We ask for eyes that are free from blindness
so that we might see each other as brothers and sisters,
one and equal in dignity,
especially those who are victims of abuse and violence, deceit and poverty.
We ask for ears that will hear the cries of children unborn and those abandoned,
Men and women oppressed because of race or creed, religion or gender.
We ask for minds and hearts that are open to hearing the voice of leaders who will bring us closer to your Kingdom.

We pray for discernment
so that we may choose leaders who hear your Word,
live your love,
and keep in the ways of your truth
as they follow in the steps of Jesus and his Apostles
and guide us to your Kingdom of justice and peace.

We ask this in the name of your Son Jesus Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

All Saints Day (and the poem, Portraiture)

In 2015, after another one of my surgeries, I was peering through the family photo albums, especially at night when Ruthie was away at work. I wrote this poem I entitled, “Portraiture.” Here is a little bit of that poem.

PORTRAITURE

Have you ever looked into
the eyes of a portraiture?
In these wells of the soul
lay the expressive depthso
of the human spirit,
the pain and sorrow,t
the hopes and dreams,
the love and the joy,
and peace and reconciliation.

On the picture boards
at wakes and funerals,
I peer into the eyes of
the deceased, trying to
catch a glimpse of what
they were thinking, what
they were feeling at the
various times of their lives
portrayed from infancy
through their school years,f
from courtship to weddings,
from young parenthood
to adolescent parenthood
to grandparenthood.

Generally late at night
when you are off to work,
I love to pour through
my photographs of you,
slowly, carefully savoring
the intricate pattern of
shading, highlighting
your cheeks, your smile,
and most especially,
your eyes,
your dark brown eyes,
in whose mysterious depths
resides the beautiful
portraiture of God.

(c) 2015, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.

In our church spaces we often have the “official photo album” of Church saints on display in the stainglass windows and statuary. As we look at our “Church family”, their images remind us of who they were when alive and much of what they endured in life. It is not often the “great accomplishments” of their lives we remember, but how they lived their faith in the everyday small stuff of life that intimately connects their lives to ours.

We have a less official photo album of the saints of the Church in our photo albums at home. I encourage you to take the time to view the family saints portrayed in your photo albums, on your computer, or on some digital cloud and look into the eyes of your family saints. Their lives are more intimately connected to ours than those of our official saints. If you gaze into the depths of their eyes, you will discover, as I did that night as I looked at a portraiture of Ruth, the beautiful mysterious portrait of God gazing back at you. At every celebration of the Mass, listen to the prayers immediately following the Consecration, and you will hear that ALL the saints of the Church, including your deceased loved ones, are remembered in the Eucharistic prayer. Celebrate the saints of your life not only on this All Saints Day but every day of your life. When we pass from this life into the next, they will be there welcoming us home.

Homily for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

HOMILY FOR THE 29TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR B

Imagine for a moment sitting elbow to elbow with many people around a very long table. You are extremely hungry, and placed right in front of you is a plate heaped with all your favorite food. The only problem is that you can’t feed yourself because your fork, knife and spoon are over 2 feet long and there is no way for you to get the food into your mouth using your own fork, knife and spoon (and, no, you cannot use your fingers). What do you do?
This is a scenario used to illustrate the difference between heaven and hell. In both heaven and hell, very hungry people sit crammed next to each other around a very long table. There favorite food is heaped on the plate in front of them, but they cannot feed themselves because the fork, knife and spoon are too long. In hell, everyone remains miserable and hungry because they can’t feed themselves. In heaven, everyone is happy and well fed because they used their forks, knives, and spoons to feed the person sitting on the other side of the table. In hell, the self-centeredness and greed of Original Sin infects and starves those infected. In heaven, the effect of Original Sin is overcome as people serve one another.

The guiding principle of Original Sin is encapsulated in the phrase, “What’s in it for me?” We see this played out in our politics, in our economy, in people’s involvement in their community, in their schools, and in even their churches. The words self-sacrifice and commitment to others or the greater good that once was the hallmark of our nation, has now been replaced by self-service and self-advancement at the expense of the common good of all.

In today’s readings, we hear Jesus declare that our present lifestyle of self-centeredness and greed is contrary to what God intended for humanity. In the Gospel, James and John place on display for us their own tendency to be self-centered and greedy. Believing that Jesus was going to create a political dynasty, they wanted in on the action. They wanted the highest positions in Jesus’ dynasty. When the other 10 apostles hear this, they get angry. Why? They want to get in on the action, too. Jesus then addresses the infection of self-centeredness and greed in his apostles. He tells them, “Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus is not only addressing the self-centeredness and greed present in his apostles, he is challenging them to confront the intent of their discipleship. Is the reason they are following Jesus based solely on the hope to possess positions of power and wealth in the dynasty they believe that Jesus will establish? What are the reasons that they have given up everything and are following Jesus?

Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus modeled for us what God had intended for humanity from the very beginning, namely, to live lives of loving service to one another. The writer to the Hebrews expresses it this way, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.” Jesus was tested many times to think of and place himself before others, but born without Original Sin, he was never infected with the self-centeredness and greed from which we all seem to suffer. This is demonstrated for us most vividly during the liturgies of Holy Week.

On Holy Thursday night, we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Curiously, the Gospel for Holy Thursday is not about the Paschal meal we hear about in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. The Gospel for that night is from John. John focuses the Last Supper not on the Eucharist, but on Jesus washing the feet of his apostles. The very one through whom all creation came forth, gets down on his knees and washes the feet of those he created. After he is done, Jesus says to them, ““Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”

This Gospel had a tremendous impact on St Francis of Assisi. St Francis saw that from the very moment of Jesus’ incarnation, Jesus’ life was spent giving and sacrificing himself to those he had created. All the miracles he worked, all that he suffered was always done out of love for the humanity he had created. St Francis observed that when Jesus had nothing else left to give us, he gave to us his very last possession, that being his last breath as he died on the cross.

Today Jesus asks us to examine the intent behind the actions, both bad and good that we do. When we do good things for others is the intent behind that good action, self-glorification, or recognition? Or, are the things we do for others based on genuine love?

The positive thing we can take away from our readings today is that we are not doomed to succumb to the self-centeredness and greed that infects our world. Look at the saints displayed in our stain glass windows and our statues here in church. This is our church family photo album. These people didn’t buy their sainthood through money and power. These people didn’t manipulate others in order to become saints. How did they become saints? They modeled their lives after the life of Jesus, their Savior. They killed the infection of self-centeredness and greed of Original Sin in their lives with the antibiotic of placing God and others first in their lives. They got down on their knees and humbly washed the feet of others. And, like Jesus, offered up their last breath in service of God and others.
“Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.” Jesus presents us with a choice to make. Using the opening scenario, we can choose to be among the damned and be miserable and starving by refusing to serve those around us at the table, or, choose to be among the saved, happy and well fed, by taking our long forks, knives, and spoons, and feeding the person those around us.

Bulletin reflection for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

I guess this can be called the sequel to the bulletin reflection/homily that was published on the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

I have had the great experience of having a strong, intelligent and loving mother. I have the great experience of being married to a strong, intelligent and loving woman. I am proud that both of my daughters are equally strong, intelligent, and loving women.

The following is not meant to be a visceral response to the horrible treatment of Dr. Ford by the Republican senators of the Senate Judicial Committee and the subsequent public ridicule from the present occupant of the oval office. The following article is the result of a lifetime of wonderful, healthy relationships I have had not only with the females of my family, but with those with whom I have ministered in the Church.

Years ago, I was introduced to Jane Austen’s wonderful novel, Pride and Prejudice. The two protagonists of the novel, Elizabeth Bennett, and Mr. Darcy, are equal in spirit, in intelligence, and in tenacity. Mr. Darcy, possessing an inordinate amount of pride, has the freedom that males had at that time to make his fortune in the world. Miss Bennett is frustrated knowing that her future is dependent on being married to a man of wealth. It matters not that her future husband may be a completely unsuitable dotard. Darcy and Elizabeth, after much confrontation, find that they are the perfect match for each other, complete each other, and happily marry at the novel’s conclusion.

In the reading from Genesis, a couple of weeks ago, it was proclaimed that male and female are equally made in the image of God. One does not dominate the other. Both are equal. How does this impact our Church?

Prayer, whether it is prayed by male or female is equal in its power. Aside from the ministering of the sacraments, the ministry of both male and female in the Church is equal in its power to touch, to teach, and to heal the lives of others. Observe the number of women on our parish staff and the marvelous ways they enrich our parish. Observe the number of females who serve in our liturgical ministries at Mass. Within our Archdiocese, women are occupying positions of power and authority within the Chancery.

As Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett needed each other to be complete in Pride and Prejudice, so the evangelization and vitalization of the Church has always needed the Mary Magdalenes, Catherine of Siennas, and Teresa of Avilas. Speaking for myself, this is not the sole responsibility of a tired, old, male hierarchy. All who are baptized have been anointed priest, prophet and king. The Church needs the entirety of the baptized (male and female alike) to fulfill the mission entrusted to it by Christ! Mary Higgins, Laura Schoenecker, and others are offering wonderful opportunities for women to grow in their image of God. Our CCWs do vital and important ministry within our greater parish and need vitalized women of all ages to carry on the ministry begun so many years ago. I encourage all women to examine how they reflect the image of God, and how this reflection can be put to use in this very important mission of the Church.