Three Crosses and Silhoutted Person in Prayer at Sunrise

Lent: Are You Giving Up or Taking Up?

So it’s lent. The question used to be: What are you giving up for lent? Now, people are asking: What are you going to do for lent? Instead of “giving something up,” many suggest we “take something up.”

The thing is that both of these questions can be good ones, and in both cases, our responses can miss the point.

The term “lent” comes from a word meaning “spring” or “springtime.” In the south, the whole of spring is a beautiful season of warmth, light, and growth. In the north, it’s often drab and dreary: muddy, cold, and barren trees well into early May. Many a blizzard has fallen after March 20th.

Regardless of where you live, the idea of spring is the season of rebirth, promise, and hope. Spring is when we see nature go from death-to-new-life.

Lent is about that death-to-new life transformation of springtime. Like Jesus’ time in the desert, it is a 40 day spiritual journey.

Read More Julie Dienno-Demarest Feb 19,2015

Article, Human Dignity, Justice

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They’re Children, Not Chickens

Two Moms go to a playground with their kids, ages 2 – 4. One child asks his mom to help him use the fire pole, so she holds him the whole way down. The second child asks the second mom for help. She says, “I’d be happy to teach you how to do it, but I’m not going to do it for you. Do you want to learn?” Second-Child hesitates before agreeing. Second-Mom explains how to reach out, hold the pole nice and high, then step out while holding on, wrap feet and legs around the pole, and gently loosen the hold to slide down. She guides her son’s grip, holds her hands out to catch him in case he needs it, but tries not to actually do the work for him. By the third try, he’s doing it with enough confidence that she can sit back and watch.

Read More Julie Dienno-Demarest Jan 22,2015

Conversion, Forgiveness, Grace, Humility

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Modeling Humility

Looking for a resolution you can stick to in the New Year? How about modeling humility?

You know how most Catholics prefer to sit toward the back third of the Church? Not my family; we sit in the front pew. For one thing, the pew at the front is almost always available. For another, it helps my kids (and me) pay attention when we can actually see what’s going on. The problem, as you might imagine, is that the boys behavior is on public display.

As this post is about modeling humility–not perfectly behaved children at Mass–I’d like to make it clear: we don’t have that good-behavior thing down. I’ve made two-steps-forward, one-step-back progress with regards to Church-behavior, but we are far from having “arrived.”

Two-Steps Forward

I finally realized that growling whispered threats between pursed lips to SIT-STILL-AND-BE-QUIET was probably not helping them to develop a positive attitude toward Mass. So I changed my language: Everything we say and do at Mass needs to show respect and reverence to God.
I encourage my boys to use the Magnifikid or the Missalette to follow the Readings as well as all the rest of the Mass prayers. Because participation shows reverence and respect.

Read More Julie Dienno-Demarest Jan 1,2015

Advent, Humility, Joy

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Preparing, Waiting, and Joy

I love how life teaches me about faith.

Advent is about waiting and preparation. I know that. I knew that. Except I didn’t really get it until the year I was pregnant. That was the year I encountered the blessed waiting of Advent as an expectant mother in her first trimester.

Up till then, my “preparations” were focused on gift-giving and party-attending. Don’t get me wrong – I planned, prepared, and purchased gifts from the heart. I organized Christmas caroling at the nursing home for my high school students. I participated in Giving Trees. It wasn’t that I was self-centered and materialistic… I just didn’t get the whole waiting and preparation thing.

But that Advent when I was pregnant with my first child, I sat at Church one Sunday, ever-so-aware of how nauseated I felt, ever-so-aware of the little life growing inside me, and ever-so-in-awe of the path that lie ahead. Preparation wasn’t about nursery colors, registries, and baby names. It was about preparing our lives–and our marriage–to receive and raise a child.

Fast forward nine years. I thought I knew what waiting and preparation were about. And then, on December 1st, the day after the First Sunday of Advent, my husband came home with the news that he was being furloughed. Furloughed is not unemployed; you technically keep your job but aren’t allowed to work until the company can afford to pay you. He’s an aerospace engineer, working for a company contracted by NASA… How long would the furlough last? Until contracts were signed and there were funds to pay for his position. Possibly in a day or so… possibly 4-5 weeks.

So we waited… and hoped… and prayed.

In the waiting, there was an absurd amount questioning (particularly second guessing financial decisions and employment possibilities) and the awareness of a humbling loss of control. From day to day there would be a glimmer of hope, and then a “no.” A lot of uncertainty.

Through it all, I was struck by a deep sense of perspective. We faced temporary unpaid leave. Many are in the midst of long-term unemployment. Others face terminal illnesses or a tragic loss of a loved one. Sure, we’d rather not be in this situation, but it could definitely be worse.

This past Friday, after two weeks of uncertainty, Peter went in to work for a meeting and then used up the last of his paid leave. There was one more glimmer of hope: his company had won a contract with three-persons-worth-of-work, but it was a matter of waiting to see if they would assign it to him.

Sure enough, the answer came Saturday night while we were at his boss’s house for a Christmas party. Praise God, Peter was assigned to part of that new project and could return to work on Monday. Awash in joy, I couldn’t wait to share the news!

The next morning was the Third Sunday of Advent – Gaudete Sunday, which is Latin for joy! We light the pink candle and remember to be joyful. Let me tell you, joy radiated from within, and it felt incredible!

Children seem to dabble in joy so easily, especially at Christmas; adults seem to struggle with stress, especially at Christmas.

We really do need that pink candle to remind us to be joyful.

Well, with this good news, I was determined to be joyful!

To be honest, although I had been setting aside money from Criagslisting old toys, I was hesitant to do any Christmas shopping until I knew whether we might need those funds in other ways. So between Amazon and all the other stores for all the other things, I’ve been buying gifts this week. It’s a little crazy out there. It’s tempting to forget joy and embrace stress… after all, everyone else is doing it.

So every day this week, in the midst of every errand, I find myself pausing in reflective prayer: I am so thankful for the opportunity to do this. I choose joy.

I invite you to do the same: choose joy!

How has your life taught you about faith recently?

How can you choose joy this week?

Read More Julie Dienno-Demarest Dec 18,2014

Article, Informational

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Moral Teaching on Torture

The release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s “Torture Report” brings a slew of articles on the use of torture and the deceit surrounding it. Although the report itself is 500 pages, there are plenty of sites that offer snippets of commentary alongside snapshots of the report itself.

It is difficult to read about the details. Even the vague descriptive terms make me squeamish. But I think that’s a good thing. It should be difficult to read. We shouldn’t be desensitized to the details of torture. A visceral reaction to articles about torture reflect our recognition of the evil in the act.

“Church teaching is clear. Torture is abhorrent and can neither be condoned nor tolerated.” (USCCB, Background on Torture)

Torture is morally wrong. It is discussed in the Catechism in conjunction with the 5th Commandment’s discussion of disrespect for human life and dignity.

Torture which uses physical or moral violence to extract confessions, punish the guilty, frighten opponents, or satisfy hatred is contrary to respect for the person and for human dignity (CCC, 2297).

Why does the Church teach that Torture wrong?

1. Torture debases the human dignity of both the victim and perpetrator. Not only does the act of torture violate the dignity of the prisoner, but in order to participate in such vile acts, the dignity of the torturer is also violated. All levels of authority figures who order and condone the practice of torture participate in violating the dignity of both the victim and the perpetrator. The practice of torture “estranges the torturer from God and compromises the
physical or mental integrity of the tortured” (USCCB, Background on Torture).

“An evil action cannot be justified by reference to a good intention” — St. Thomas Aquinas (CCC, 1759).

2. The end does not justify the means. People often speculate that torture is justifiable if it ultimately renders information that can save lives, thus asserting that it is a necessary evil.

Research has shown (and evidenced in the Senate report) that information gathered as a result of torture is not reliable.

But from a moral perspective, the focusing on the reliability of the information misses the point. Morally speaking, we must never do evil to achieve good, nor must we ever try to justify doing evil because good came out of it. We are not entitled to achieve our goals by any means necessary.

3. Do unto others is the Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12, Luke 6:31). Essentially this is the idea that we should not do to others what we do not want them doing to us. This is part of the reason why torture is illegal according to international law and the Geneva Conventions.

We cannot condone torturing another human being. As a matter of faith, we must reject this practice.

Prisoners by José licensed under CC BY 2.0

Read More Julie Dienno-Demarest Dec 10,2014