February 2009
Last Thursday, oddly enough, was the 200th birthday of two people who’ve had immeasurable influence on 21st-century spirituality – both of them, I imagine, in ways that would have surprised them. One was Abraham Lincoln. The other Charles Darwin.
Darwin’s theory of evolution gave us a breathtaking new way to understand how God’s creative love is revealed to the world over time. (Unfortunately, some people concluded that evolution leaves no room for God. But that’s a topic for another day.)
And Lincoln, admirably, gave us a new way to infuse spirituality into public life. The result was an uplifting of the presidency and of America. His was a questioning, hard-won, pragmatic faith, summed up as “charity toward all and malice toward none.” If Lincoln truly is one of Barack Obama’s hero-models, there may well be reason for hope. Lincoln, it has been said, found peace – and the ability to take on the work that lay before him – by acknowledging his own powerlessness. He understood the need to act, and to base his actions on his faith as he understood it.
We are asked to do the same in our lives. Lent is just a few days away. Why not start it by contemplating how – not how well, but how – we live our own principles in our daily life on campus? Lent is a time for us to think again about how we can live our faith, to recommit to it and to be renewed. This is the Easter promise: that hope and new life are available to us perennially, and that we enter a renewed world through the revival of our own spirits. All we have to do is want it.
I hope you will join us for our annual Mardi Gras celebration after mass this Saturday, Feb. 21 (does that make it Samedi Gras?). Mass is at 5 in Harkness Chapel. Our celebration, with a world class lasagna, will be in the Hood Dining Room of Blaustein. Bring your friends, whatever their faith – or no faith.
After inaugurating Lent with the Mass and Distribution of Ashes at 5 pm on Wednesday, 25 February, in the Harkness Chapel we will continue to celebrate Mass each Wednesday and Saturday at 5 pm in the Chapel except during spring break. I hope you can join us.
Bishop Michael Cote will be with us April 4 for the Vigil of Passion (Palm) Sunday. We will observe Holy Week with a series of services that focus on the meaning of this extraordinary season. A full schedule is posted on our web site, www.conncatholics.com. You can also find links to some inspiring Lent sites there.
Spring semester is often stressful, especially for seniors. If you begin to feel pressured, remember what Lincoln once said: “the best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.” I am on campus at least every Wednesday and Saturday afternoon and evening. Please don’t hesitate to stop by my office in the basement of the Chapel or call me at extension 2452 if you’d like to talk.
Devotedly yours,
Father Larry
Monday, February 16, 2009
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