And a Little Child Will Lead Them

Audrey and I were good friends when we were young. In high school, our paths didn't cross very often as we simply didn't have many classes together.

But in middle school, things were different. On one occasion, she came to my house, and we ended up at the church. That wasn't so odd, because my brother and sister and I were in the church quite often after hours. It was almost a second home (since our dad was pastor there). And it was just a block away.

When you're twelve or thirteen, you begin to think of church differently. You notice that people don't worship the same. And you talk about the differences.

It's not like when you are young - and oblivious.

It's not like when you are older - and you are sure your way is the right way.

When you are young, you are malleable. You are eager to learn how you are different from your friends - and how you are the same. You have a great desire to open your world up and make new friends. Try new things. Experience new places.

Audrey and I found ourselves in the church sanctuary (a very small country Presbyterian parish). At first, we just played church. But then, we realized that we were drawing on different worship experiences. Soon, we were taking turns, explaining to each other what worship looks like at our church. How we do it. What the preacher does. What the priest does. What the people do.

We didn't quite grasp the finer points of each other's faith, but we were having fun. We were talking. We were showing, explaining, experiencing something very important.

Even at that young age, we felt the great desire to participate in ecumenism. To discover what we each believed - and to find common ground.

And like all good ecumenism, it was grounded in friendship and goodwill. There was no desire to win. We simply wanted to share.

I forget these things - now that I'm all grown up. I forget the friendship part and want to go right to the explaining part. I forget the desire to find common ground and find myself wanting, instead, to win.

I can still see Audrey in my mind, standing on the platform where my father stood every Sunday, explaining to me what the priest does in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

And I realize that I would love to go back to that childhood home and visit the parish where many of my friends received the Sacraments. What we were yearning for all those years ago, we've actually discovered.

True ecumenism leads to unity.

While we have grown up and gone different ways, in the most important way, we have come together. We are both part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

“Christ bestowed unity on His Church from the beginning. This unity, we believe, subsists in the Catholic Church as something she can never lose, and we hope that it will continue to increase until the end of time. Christ always gives His Church the gift of unity, but the Church must always pray and work to maintain, reinforce, and perfect the unity that Christ wills for her…. The desire to recover the unity of all Christians is a gift of Christ and a call of the Holy Spirit” (n. 820).

And a Little Child Will Lead Them

One Bread, One Body, One Lord of All

I taught Spanish in a Catholic school a decade and a half before I entered the Church. It was my first significant exposure to the Mass. During those two years at Beckman High School in Dyersville, Iowa, I frequently attended the school-wide Masses and sat with my students. I picked up little pieces of the back-and-forth liturgy that transpired between the priest, the student body and God, but I always remained seated as the students went forward to receive Holy Communion. I didn’t quite understand why I wasn’t permitted to receive. I felt the sting of this separation most acutely when the Communion song was ’”One Bread, One Body.” I longed to be with my students as they went forward.

When we returned to the classroom, students would sometimes ask me why I didn’t go forward to receive the Eucharist, and I would simply say, “I’m not Catholic.” That seemed to be reason enough for them.

Years later, I finally entered the Church. Today, my favorite Communion song is “One Bread, One Body.” I pause and listen to the voices around me. Then I stand to my feet and make my way to the aisle, joyfully letting the words soak in. Memories from those school-wide Masses fill my mind as I make my way forward to receive Our Eucharistic Lord, and I am amazed that, some fifteen years later, I am more in unity with the students I met all those years ago than I was as their teacher.

When the priest says, “Happy are those who are called to this table,” my spirit always says, “Indeed.”

When the priest holds the Eucharist before me and proclaims, “The Body of Christ,” I blink back tears and choke out my “Amen.”

It isn’t just sentimentalism because I no longer feel like an outsider. It is so much more than an emotional attachment to past memories. Today, I receive Holy Communion in the Catholic Church because I really am in union with Christ. My “Amen” is a yes to what the Church teaches and who the Church is. My Amen is a yes to the truth of the Real Presence. My Amen is a commitment to accept my place in the Body of Christ and a yes to whatever that reality might demand of me.

There is more.

Sometimes, I get a glimpse of just how deep the mystery of our unity really goes, and I realize it is doctrinal unity, physical unity, and it is also a mystical, spiritual unity.

Recently, my husband took a business trip to Seattle. He came home and pulled out a couple of little presents for our daughter, and then he said he had something for me. A co-worker had given him a gift bag and told him to give it to his wife. I do not know this woman. She wouldn’t know me if we met on the street.

The woman’s note to me explained that I had come to her mind while she was in prayer and again while reading her own copy of the book she was giving to me.

Inside, I found an inspirational book of daily readings. Immediately, I turned to the entry for the date mentioned in the note. With divine precision, the reading went directly to a problem I was facing.

How can someone in Seattle know what someone in St. Louis needs to hear? What makes a Catholic woman on the other side of the country act on the quiet voice of the Spirit rather than dismiss it as a silly thought of her own making?

There is no other explanation except to say we really are one in this One Body. During the month of January, we pray for unity. It is a tradition that began in 1908 as an octave created to begin on January 18 (the Protestant Feast of the Confession of Peter – similar to the Catholic Feast of the Chair of St. Peter) and to end on January 25 (the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul).

In this Year of St. Paul, let us be particularly faithful in praying for unity in the Body of Christ, “That the world may know that the Father has sent the Son” (the words of Our Lord in the Gospel of John 17).

Lord, hear our prayer.

One Bread, One Body, One Lord of All

Blessed Feast of St. Francis de Sales

Hansel and Gretel left bread crumbs so their father could find them. The saints leave quotes and a legacy of holy living so that we can find The Father. Here are a few great quotes from today's saint:

"It is the part of an unprofitable soul to amuse itself with examining the lives of other people."

". . . offer up all your grief, pain, and weakness as a service to our Lord and beseech him to join them to the torments he suffered for you."

". . . have particular love and reverence both for the guardian angel of the diocese where you live and those of the persons with whom you live, and especially for your own guardian angel."

"Confide in him with a daughter's respect for her father; respect him with a son's confidence in his mother."

"A faithful friend, Holy Scripture says, is a strong defence, and he who has found one has found a treasure. . . have this faithful friend who by advice and counsel guides our actions and thus protects us from the snares and deceits of the wicked one."

St. Francis de Sales was a brilliant preacher of the Gospel. He was driven by love more than the desire to win an argument. Within four years, his love and zealous preaching were responsible for bringing most of the Calvinists back to the Church. Let us look to St. Francis de Sales in this month of Christian unity and do our part to bring unity to the Body of Christ.

(All quotes taken from Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales.)

Blessed Feast of St. Francis de Sales

Unity in the Call to Come and Reason Together

Okay, it is time for a reality check. By now, you must be saying I have deliberately overlooked some scandalous times in Catholic Church history. You may even be thinking of a few Catholics that you know and feel quite certain that they are the last Christians you want to emulate.

And guess what? You are right.

On March 12, 2000, Pope John Paul II stunned the world when he asked for forgiveness for the errors and sin of some Catholics throughout history. With great humility, he reached out to people of every faith and culture and said I’m sorry, please forgive us. Is it any wonder that so many paid their respects when he passed away? Indeed, the whole world mourned.

The truth is, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Catholics included.

But the Truth is, Our Lord promised that the Church would survive and that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. Look at the Saints of the Ages and judge the Church – if you must. But be careful; do not judge Her based on some who call themselves Catholic. The wheat and the weeds will grow up together (Matthew 13:24-30). And so they have.

When I was young, my mom had a record that was very special to her. She came from a very musical family, and one of her cousins had produced and directed the album. Mom’s favorite song was a translation of Isaiah 1:18 - Come let us reason together.

I have been thinking about that a lot these past few months and doing a fair bit of reasoning with the Lord. If the prayer of Our Lord is ever to be actualized and if we are ever to be One as He and the Heavenly Father are One, then we must seriously pause and consider the state of Christendom. Can any other denomination or Christian organization forge a path to complete Christian unity? Imagine the impact the Church could have (even beyond what I’ve described) if we were One – truly and completely One – all Christians everywhere. The world would stand up and take notice – and realize that Jesus is the Son, sent by the Father to redeem a lost world. Think it’s a pipe dream? Well, it was Our Lord’s dream (and prayer) first. So that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me - John 17:20-23.

Come, let us reason together. There is much to forgive on both sides. And yet, there is much to be gained if we come together once again. Perhaps the greatest gain is the fulfillment of what Our Lord prayed for when He was headed to Calvary. Father, make them One as We are One.

Unity in the Call to Come and Reason Together

Unity in the Magisterium - Part Two

There is sound doctrine, and it is knowable. There is perfect unity, and it is attainable. We have been led by word of mouth and by letter (II Thessalonians 2:15). Our terra firma is the Teaching Magisterium of the Catholic Church. This "word of mouth" speaks about all that the Apostles have taught (I Corinthians 3:12-13). By the power of the Holy Spirit, the Teaching Voice of the Catholic Church has taught us to be One Body with One Faith in every age (Ephesians 4).

There is no other way to have unity. There is no other way to fulfill the prayer of Jesus Christ on the night He was betrayed.

Unity is the net result of having this one Deposit of Faith, but there is a wonderful by-product that occurs when we give up our individual need to argue and debate Scriptural passages. Once we can put that to rest, once we read the Catechism of the Catholic Church and realize that it is completely reasonable and theologically sound, once we know there is a two-thousand-year-old Deposit of Faith and it’s not going to lead us into error, we are free to consider next things.

You, my friend, have a unique calling, one that nobody else can fulfill. That is what you must grapple with and discern. And talk about the abundant life and the joy-filled journey! That is when it all begins. Let us leave childish bickering behind and mature into the spiritual adults God has called us to become. There is one Body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one Hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:4-6).

(article by Denise Bossert first published by One Bread Lay Apostolate http://www.1bread.catholic.org/)

Unity in the Magisterium - Part Two

Unity in the Magisterium - Part One

I must have been around four years old when I was first paraded in front of the church to sing with my sister. The song was “The B-I-B-L-E,” and I belted the words out with all the zeal I could muster. The B-I-B-L-E, yes that’s the book for me; I stand alone on the Word of God, the B-I-B-L-E!

I wasn’t sure what the words meant. Was I proclaiming that I would believe in the Bible even if I was completely alone in doing so? Or did it mean that I would believe only in the Bible and nothing else?

Years later, I realized that the song was proclaiming the second of these two possibilities, a little thing Protestant Reformers called Sola Scriptura. But as a small child, I just liked to sing about Jesus, and I had no idea the problems that existed in the theology of Sola Scriptura.

Then my dad switched denominations (Wesleyan to Presbyterian) and everything changed.

I think that is when I first realized that there are many interpretations of Holy Scripture and that just because it is the inspired Word of God, it doesn’t mean all Christians believe the same way. That is a perplexing thing. The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost to lead the Disciples into all Truth; so why didn’t we all believe the same thing? Truth isn’t just a matter of opinion. But some of the denominations had totally different ideas on when one should be baptized, how one is sanctified and justified before God, and if one can ever lose the gift of grace and mercy once he has it. The questions weren’t simply whether Eve ate an apple or pomegranate. These differences concerned key issues of life, death, and salvation.

To complicate matters further, it was about this same time that my cousins began receiving the charismatic Gifts of the Holy Spirit (they were Assembly of God), and neither the Wesleyans nor the Presbyterians talked about that at all. Obviously, there was a problem with “standing alone on the Word of God” because that’s exactly what everyone seemed to be doing. And nobody could agree on anything.

First and Second Peter talked about following sound doctrine. First John warned about being led astray. The Book of Jude said to beware of those who seek to divide. In First Corinthians, St. Paul reminded us to be perfectly united in mind and thought.

For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how this was possible.

If all Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching as it said in Second Timothy, then we should all be teaching the same thing. And that’s just not what I saw happening. Furthermore, if there is a disagreement in the Body of Christ, the Bible says we are to take some of the elders with us to iron out the disagreement. Fine. But which elders? From which church?

Either Pontius Pilate was right when he said, what is truth? Or Truth is a constant. It can be taught. It can be trusted. It can settle quarrels rather than create them.

There was one more problem with “standing alone on the Word of God.” We live in a changing world. The Bible doesn’t directly address issues like abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, or human cloning. Where is the teaching voice that we can trust to interpret Scripture and guide us through the cultural changes? Who can help us to stand on the Word of God without having that same Word tear us apart? Who is the benefactress and keeper of Truth? Yes, the Holy Spirit leads us into all Truth, but which voice speaks for the Holy Spirit on issues that divide? Private inspiration had not inspired unity. It had inspired over 30,000 different denominations.

The Church had always been the pillar and foundation of Truth - not the Bible. And those were the words of Holy Scripture (Timothy 3:15-16). The Church, not the Bible alone.

Part Two in tomorrow's blog

(article by Denise Bossert first published by One Bread Lay Apostolate at http://www.1bread.catholic.org/)

Unity in the Magisterium - Part One

Unity in Baptism

When I became Catholic, I was asked one question regarding my baptism: Have you been baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit? I was not asked my age at the time of baptism. I was not asked if I was baptized Presbyterian or Wesleyan or Baptist. I was not asked if someone sprinkled me, dunked me, or poured water over me. I was only asked if I had been baptized in the name of the Triune God.

In St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians (4:5), we are told that there is one baptism. In the Gospel of Matthew (28:19), Jesus tells his disciples to “go into all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Since there is one baptism, and it had been done in the Name of the Triune God, there was no need to do it again. While it did not mean the Church and I were completely and perfectly One yet (as in one faith and one doctrine), it did mean that the miracle of unity had begun.

In the third chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again, and Our Lord goes on to describe this new birth by saying, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.”

The Disciples called the crowds to baptism, and the people presented themselves to be baptized – they and their entire household with them. We see five references in the New Testament to the baptism of entire households (so that unity can encompass everyone under the roof). Peter baptized the household of Cornelius (Acts 11:14). In Philippi, Paul baptized the household of Lydia and the household of the jailer (Acts 16:15, 33). He also baptized the household of Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue in Corinth. In his First Letter to the Corinthians, he refers to baptism of the household of Stephanas (1:16). Here’s something you may not realize – in the Greek, the word for household included everybody. Grandparent, parent, teen, child, and infant. It even included the servants and their families. Nowhere in the Bible does it turn away someone on account of age.

Through Baptism, we are born into the family, and we learn to walk and skip and run in the Spirit. We are taught “to preserve the unity,” by embracing the “One Body and One Sprit,” which we have because of our “One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; One God and Father of all” (Ephesians 4:3-6).

Unity begins with baptism, it grows by the Power of the Holy Spirit, and it finds fullness in the arms of the Church.

(article by Denise Bossert first published by One Bread Lay Apostolate at http://www.1bread.catholic.org/)

Unity in Baptism