Varia

We’ve not done varia around here in a while, but since I’m procrastinating, let’s go for it.

Matthew Lickona attended a session on “Evangelicals and Catholics Together” at the ETS last week, and reports in the San Diego Reader.

At Hermeneutic of Continuity, Fr. Finigan reports on the news that one of the leaders of the fight to legalize abortion in Nicaragua – the father of a raped, pregnant stepdaughter – was just convicted – of his stepdaughter’s rape.

Diogenese at Off the Record gives us an excellent post on Blessed Miguel Pro, SJ and the role he and his image play in The Power and the Glory.

Get ready for Advent and Christmas by browsing and shopping at Aquinas and More.

One item I can wholeheartedly recommend that I ran across on the site is the marvelous book The Year and Our Children by Mary Reed Newland. Sophia has apparently (and wisely) reprinted this book, originally published, I think, in the 50’s. I have an old Image edition that I picked up in a used bookstore once, not because I was looking for it, but because it just looked kind of nifty. It’s more than nifty. It’s wise and practical and very knowing. There have been lots of “doing Church at home” books published, but I think that this one, after all these years, is the standard.

Zenit has an article on Mont-Saint- Michel, which is now staffed by the Fraternity of Jerusalem.

The Fraternity of Jerusalem, founded in 1975 by Father Pierre-Marie Delfieux in the heart of Paris at Saint-Gervais, now has monastic communities in Burgundy, Strasbourg, Florence, Brussels, Rome and Montreal. New communities are being planned for Cologne and Warsaw.

Father De Froberville told ZENIT: “Our mission is contemplative, looking for God in the desert of the city, finding solitude in the city.”

And here at Mont-Saint-Michel, though not a bustling city, “people are reminded they are Christian when they visit the abbey,” he explained.

The young community of men and women, all between the ages of 30 and 56, holds adoration every afternoon in the abbey church and one day a week at the small church of St. Peter in the village below the abbey.

Tourists are welcome to attend morning and evening prayer, while the abbey has a small retreat house available for pilgrims who want to pray for extended periods.

To live at the abbey, despite the natural and architectural beauty, is a difficult life, Father De Froberville reported. “The abbey is not well lit, as there are few windows. A person must be very mature to live the contemplative life here.”

The community believes beautiful liturgy is the best way to evangelize. Tourists’ children are asked to participate, gathered together to carry candles to the altar when the gifts are offered during Mass. Father De Froberville said, “When we ask the children if Mass was too long, they smile and say ‘no,’ while the parents look on with surprise. It is the richness of our liturgy that keeps them interested.”

As for the tourists who visit, Father De Froberville explained that “the age of anti-clericalism seems to be over. The young people are curious about us as compared to the older generations who still remember the anti-clerical attitude prevalent in France from the 1960s. But those younger than 60 are open to Christianity in a way not seen for a long time. They think its cool.”