Easter in Ordinary

Mature, public conversation about issues that matter is foundational for democratic society. I am delighted that Mark Zuckerberg's " A Year of Books " offers such an opportunity. To contribute to that dialog, I will offer commentary on each of the readings proposed by Zuckerberg.  Mark Zuckerberg's12th selection in his "A Year of Books" is Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by historian Yuval Noah Harari of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. With just over 400 pages of text, Harari's well-written text is a delight to read. None extraneous, the 48 images selected for the work also drive the narrative forward. The Washington Post describes him as "an emerging rock-star lecturer at the nexus of history and science." Harari's work builds upon previous readings in Zuckerberg's list, especially Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature (cited explicitly by H...

Weekly, I will post four articles that I found significant, meaningful and a poem. Our lives are enriched by seeing better. One article likely will come from the world of photography, a discipline that is about seeing. Another article will come from the world of technology, hence seeing something of the future. Another article will take up some aspect of our life together, seeing more clearly the other. Another article will be directed to faith, seeing the unseen. Finally, the weekly post will conclude with a poem, because poetry is about seeing words whose arrangement allows us to see anew. In a week with King v. Burwell , Obergefell v. Hodges , funerals for the dead of Charleston, and Confederate flags, here are four articles and a poem for your consideration. " Laudato Si’ on Non-Human Animals: Three Hopeful Signs, Three Missed Opportunities ." The Catholic Moral Theology blog is a space shared by an interesting cross-section of younger Catholic moral theologians. Ch...

For Pope Francis, "mission" is a critical word. Evangelii Gaudium was all about mission. Laudato Si' may well be understood as an incarnation of a Christian's mission in this life. We are to care for our common home. In their 1992 pastoral letter, Stewardship: A Disciple's Response , the U.S. Bishops explained: An oikonomos or steward is one to whom the owner of a household turns over responsibility for caring for the property, managing affairs, making resources yield as much as possible, and sharing the resources with others. The position involves trust and accountability.(19) This understanding of a steward is keenly aware of its groundedness in the care of creation, calling Christian disciples to be "collaborators in creation" (26). In other words, Laudato Si' is a reflection on our discipleship as stewards. Stewardship is a spirituality that aims for a growth in holiness. We cannot be good Christian stewards without taking care...

Laudato Si' is a remarkable piece of papal teaching. It breaks new ground not so much in content as in style. If we do not talk about it, if we do not live it, in our parishes, it nonetheless will be destined to the ash heap of history. Here are some ideas about what you can do in your parish to make Laudato Si' a living part of who we are as Catholics. We Catholics talk about: "Think globally; act locally." Act locally. Act in your parish. Ask your priest to preach about it. The encyclical is not directed toward just governments and presidential candidates. Pope Francis has said that care for creation is an important part of personal holiness. When the priest does preach it, give him feedback . Be specific. Say more than "nice homily." When I preached, I often had the suspicion that "Nice homily," while it may be like similar to saying "Have a nice day," may only be the absence of having something better to say about the homily...

Weekly, I will post four articles that I found significant, meaningful and a poem. Our lives are enriched by seeing better. One article likely will come from the world of photography, a discipline that is about seeing. Another article will come from the world of technology, hence seeing something of the future. Another article will take up some aspect of our life together, seeing more clearly the other. Another article will be directed to faith, seeing the unseen. Finally, the weekly post will conclude with a poem, because poetry is about seeing words whose arrangement allows us to see anew. Laudato Si' . Rather than read a commentary or excerpts, read the whole thing. It may take a few hours, but it is worth it. Read it on the Vatican website, or download the .pdf from the linked page. The U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops has additional resources here . Don't read it with an eye for Red/Blue, agree/disagree. Read it with an eye for: What does the Pope say that I know t...

First things first: read the document. I saw someone suggest parents reading it to children.The full document can be found on the Vatican web page here: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html What is Laudato Si' about? Perhaps a wordcloud, courtesy of Catholic News Service' twitter feed shows some of the document's points of emphasis. Another helpful window to see something of it is this video prepared by the Vatican in English, Italian, and Spanish: The Vatican press conference that presented the document can be seen here (long video: 2 hrs): A handful of helpful summaries: CNS published " Five eco-lifestyle changes Pope Francis wants you to make ." The Washington Post published "What you need to know about Laudato Si' ." Rolling Stone composed a list of the Thirteen Most Radical Lines from Laudato Si' . America Magaine offers Eight Ingredients of the ...

Over the last few days, I have made my way through E.J. Dionne, Jr.'s Our Divided Political Heart: The Battle for the American Idea in an Age of Discontent . To begin with, the book posits that the United States is not an either/or, individualism or community, but a both/and. I have long enjoyed Dionne as a writer for Commonweal and the Washington Post and as commentator on MSNBC as well as someone I follow on twitter ( @EJDionne ). A Catholic, Dionne speaks gracefully about Catholic social teaching, a quality that particularly appeals to me. The book's premise, that we in the United States, have a divided political heart is attractive and rings true. Written in 2012, just ahead of the election, I panicked as I entered Chapter II which began by recounting revisionist history from Michele Bachman and Sarah Palin (53). I was not eager to revisit the ugly politics preceding the general election of 2012. I yearned for something deeper. Dionne delivers. E.J. Dionne, Jr., P...

Weekly, I will post four articles that I found significant, meaningful and a poem. Our lives are enriched by seeing better. One article likely will come from the world of photography, a discipline that is about seeing. Another article will come from the world of technology, hence seeing something of the future. Another article will take up some aspect of our life together, seeing more clearly the other. Another article will be directed to faith, seeing the unseen. Finally, the weekly post will conclude with a poem, because poetry is about seeing words whose arrangement allows us to see anew. What is Code? If you are reading these words, unless someone printed this out on paper for you, it is by means of code. My typing on this ubuntu operating system has created code that is discernible to the pad, phone, laptop, or desktop where you read these words. How it does that remains a great mystery to me. We were the first family I knew to have a computer at home. It was Radio Shack...

This has been my week for reading Nobel laureates. Today, I read James J. Heckman 's Giving Kids a Fair Chance: A Strategy that Works . Heckman, the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, was a recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences in 2000. While one might imagine complex formulas mathematical scenarios and unduly long phraseology from a Nobel Prize-winning economist writing about early-childhood interventions, in fact, Giving Kids a Fair Chance is not a difficult read. The slim volume is just 137 pages of content. The first 43 pages are from Professor Heckman, and the remainder include 10 replies to Heckman's work from various authorities, with Heckman having the concluding word. In fact, the work is eminently readable. Heckman and his respondents are passionate about children. The respondents themselves read like a who's who among people concerned about children: Mike Rose , Robin West , Charles Murra...

Currently, I am seeking work. This period of time between my life in the Congregation of Holy Cross and a new labor has also afforded the opportunity to read. I have long been interested in micro-lending and the work of Muhammad Yunus. I had time this week to read two of his books: Banker to the Poor (BTTP), written in 2003, and 2007's Creating a World Without Poverty (CWWP). Reading chronologically, I began with Banker to the Poor . Briefly, Muhammad Yunus, a Muslim from near Chittagong in what was then the British Raj, earned a Ph.D. at Vanderbuilt University, taught in the U.S. early in his career, and returned to teach at Chittagong University after Bangladesh achieved independence. He rose to be chair of the economics department. Amid an enormous famine in 1974, Yunus "kept trying to bring the academic world and the village together" (BTTP, 37). Eventually, he discover micro-lending as a means to improve the plight of actual poor people he met. Muhammad Yun...

Robert Putnam's latest work, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis , is alarming. Like his previous works, Putnam, in the research terms of sociology, tells us what we already know. This time, as usual the bearer of bad news, he tells us that "our kids" are in trouble. We've known that, but we prefer not to see those "other kids" as "our kids." "Scissor graphs," as Putnam dubs them, demonstrate the expanding gap between upper-class and lower-class parents and children in the U.S. (68). He includes 13 critical graphs in his work, and each one should raise an alarm. The word "gap" appears on at least 74 pages of the 277 pages of text, fully a quarter of the book (excluding acknowledgements, notes, and index). "Gap" would appear more frequently were it not for the rich illustrations of how so many American youth live. Perhaps the measured tones of the Malkin Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard University John...