Becoming God's Beloved

Becoming  God's Beloved
in the Company of Friends

Cascade Books (A division of Wipf & Stock Publishers), Eugene, OR

Paperback, ISBN 13: 978-1-55635-462-5

134 pages (viii + 126p)

Published 1/1/2008 (c2007)

Sister Mary Margaret Pazdan, OP,has ministered in Illinois, Maryland, Wisconsin, Missouri, Tennessee, and Georgia as well as Toronto, Canada. Her religious name was Sr. Marie Eugenie. Sr. Mary Margaret's ministry has been dedicated to teaching biblical studies and homiletics. In the Diocese of Madison, Sr. Mary Margaret taught at Edgewood College, 1980-1985. She has served as promoter of preaching for the Sinsinawa Dominican Congregation since 2004. In the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Sr. Mary Margaret has taught at Aquinas Institute of Theology, St. Louis, since 1985 and is now professor emerita of biblical studies and continues to live in community in St. Louis. Sr. Mary Margaret’s home parish is St. Giles, Oak Park, in the Chicago Archdiocese. She is the daughter of the late Edward and Eugenia (Ziemba) Pazdan. [Source: Biography for her 50th Jubilee in 2012]

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I recently finished reading Becoming God's Beloved in the Company of Friends (A Spirituality of the Fourth Gospel) by Mary Margaret Pazdan, OP.

I am so glad that I did not do what I originally had in mind with the book. I thought about purchasing about 20 copies for a "Company of Friends" and inviting them to read it along with me while studying the Gospel of John. Common sense prevailed and I decided it might be prudent to read it myself first. That turned out to be a good decision because the book proved to be a rambling, disjointed  mess. There was no Preface thanking an editor and it showed that either no one edited the book or whomever did was (rightfully) embarrassed to be associated with this disaster.

I was led to this book near the end of 2014 while studying some of the Minor Prophets. One of my references for that Bible study was Collegeville Bible Commentary OT17  (see picture below).  That study inspired me to search for more information about Sr Mary Margaret.

(c1986)

That search revealed that she had also written a book about the Gospel of John. It was then that I realized that I had not read John in a long time (i.e., I had not noted in my Bible any dates for when I read this Gospel).  After reading the Introduction to "Becoming God's Beloved" online, I began to get grandiose ideas about reading the Fourth Gospel (see above). 

Perhaps the summary (on the back cover-see below) stirred up my idealism:

"Becoming God's Beloved in the Company of Friends offers a fresh perspective and invites persons to develop a personal and communal Christian spirituality. It offers a way to deepen commitment to live as a disciple of Jesus personally and with others. It bridges the gap between a first-century biblical text and twenty-first-century readers who hunger for genuine spirituality today. Each chapter focuses on a few stories and a few teachings to illustrate a particular characteristic of becoming a disciple."

I was especially intrigued with the Introduction's suggestion to read the entire Gospel first before beginning the Pazdan book. This distracted me and I did not order the Pazdan book until near the end of July (2015) while in the middle of my third straight reading/studying of the Gospel.

Back Cover

After struggling through the first couple chapters, I concluded the book was a disaster and put it aside. After finally finishing my study of John, I decided to finish what I started and forced myself to get through the rest of this mess.

The book is contains touchy-feely instructions such as found at the end of Chapter 2: "Visualize the mutual relationships of the Father and Jesus by an abstract or concrete sketch with colored markers.  You may wish to go to a daily newspaper and some magazines. Cut out words and pictures that represent their relationships. Add them to your drawing or put them on a separate sheet of paper. The drawing and the design offer you a clue about what you treasure in these relationships."

Sr. Mary Margaret's identity as a Roman Catholic nun is also a well kept secret in this book. I found it quite annoying when she referred to St. Thomas Aquinas as (merely) "Thomas." I didn't think we were on a first name basis. There were several "Tables" in the book that seemed to serve no purpose other than to be able to say the book had some tables. They were generally poorly formatted and did not seem well integrated with the text. Quotations from Aquinas, Catherine of Sienna, and Henri Nouwen appeared to be haphazardly inserted.

The book appeared to be an attempt to take several lectures and essays and fashion into a book. It turned out to be a dreadful failure. I would not recommend this book to anyone. Don't waste your time.

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Links:

http://www.sinsinawa.org/news_events/jubilarians2012_50.html
http://wipfandstock.com/becoming-god-s-beloved-in-the-company-of-friends.html

http://www.ai.edu/Academics/Faculty-and-Administration/Faculty-Bios/Mary-Margaret-Pazdan-OP
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_John
http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/0
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Written Thursday 4 February 2016

Bethlehem 2015

Replica of the first Christmas cachet from Bethlehem, CT.
This over-sized replica hangs in the lobby of the Post Office.

Bethlehem. I have made the trek here to mail my Christmas cards for about each of the last 20 years. (One of these days, I should research that). The attraction is the annual cachet plus the "Bethlehem" postmark. More background can be found in my 2014 post or another's blog post that includes some illustrations of the post office and the town of Bethlehem, CT. Below are some pictures I took this year of the lobby inside the post office.

This is the west side of the lobby where much of the stamping occurs.
Note the baskets on the tables (filled with rubber stamps) and the green ink pads.

The is the east side of the lobby.
 Finished/stamped cards are placed in gray trays at the left.
The door leads to the sales counter.
Note the table at the right with cachet rubber stamps and green ink.

This poster shows all the current cachets. It is located  to the right
of the door (turn left when you enter). Each cachet is numbered in
chronological order. #1 is at the top (of the tree).

Usually (but not always), I have traveled to Bethlehem on a Saturday because it was a day off. However, this year I went on a Wednesday because I wasn't ready with my cards and "Holiday Letter." Since I had plenty of unused (paid) time off (i.e., PTO) I didn't mind taking off from work.  I spent the morning creating my "letter" (with a little help from the "Spirit") and then worked on assembling the cards, envelopes, address labels, letters, and stamps. Fortunately, I had purchased the stamps early this year. Sadly, the USPS did not create a religious stamp for this year, so I used a Madonna & Child stamp from an earlier year that was still available.

Typically, it would take me about an hour to drive to Bethlehem (CT is a small state) but this year it took an extra half hour. Boy, was I fuming. Highway construction and mall traffic were the main culprits I think. Luckily, I made it before closing time (and that lobby hours had been extended an extra half hour).

The 2015 cachet (but, see below...).

After arriving at the post office, my first task was to stamp all my envelopes with this year's cachet (see above). At the time, I thought it was a no brainer. But now as I write this post, I discovered that there appears to be an "extra" cachet. Last year's cachet was #78 (I thought). So this year's should be #79; but I assumed #80 was this year's (especially since it has "2015" on it). So either there are two cachets this year (#79 and #80) or I got mixed up earlier. (Some might concur that I have long been mixed up).

On the way home, I continued a somewhat recent tradition by stopping for "lunch" (it was actually dinner time by then) at G's Burgers. I had a cheese burger, sweet potato fries, and soda. Perhaps because I was alone (again), it didn't seem to taste as good as in the past.

As I mentioned in my "Holiday Letter," I consider being able to mail my Christmas cards from Bethlehem a tremendous blessing. Going to Bethlehem is an opportunity to remind me (and others I hope) of the true meaning and origin of Christmas.

Autograph manuscript of first stanza of O Little Town of Bethlehem.
Benson, Louis F. Studies of Familiar Hymns.
 Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. 1903. Public Domain.

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Links:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Bethlehem

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cachet

http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/2014/12/bethlehem-2014.html

http://www.marthahallkelly.com/lets-time-travel-back-to-christmas-at-the-bethlehem-post-office

http://www.ci.bethlehem.ct.us

http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/2014/12/bethlehem-2014.html

http://www.gsburgers.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Manuscriptolittletownofbethlehem.png

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Written Wednesday 23 December 2015.

The Body Snatchers

Poster for the 1956 movie, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

The 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers has long been one of my favorites. I don't know what made me decide recently to pull out my DVD copy of it and watch it again. I can't remember the last time I watched it. In any case, after watching it, I thought that many of themes of the movie seemed to correspond to the past year of my life.

DVD Cover

The synopsis on the back cover of the DVD case reads (in part):

Something evil has taken possession of the small town of Santa Mira, California. Hysterical people accuse their loved ones of being emotionless impostors; of not being themselves. At first, Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) tries to convince them they're wrong...but they're not.

Plant-like extraterrestrials have invaded Earth, replicating the villagers in giant seed "pods" and taking possession of their souls while they sleep. Soon the entire town is overwhelmed by the inhuman horror, but it won't stop there. 

In a terrifying race for his life, Dr. Bennell escapes to warn the world of the deadly invasion of the pod people!

I think the movie brought to mind how the RC Church has changed since Pope Francis took over. Perhaps it was reading Patrick Archbold's 11/27/2015 essay Zombieland-Convert or Die in the Remnant that got me thinking about the horror film-like comparisons with the RC Church except for me the comparison is with "pod people" rather than zombies (although zombies is not entirely inaccurate, but that is another movie).

For me, the recent rise in leftist positions as the new norm in our society has flipped everything upside down (including my birth religion). It seems like almost everything I once knew and believed is now considered suspect at best. In order to conform to social expectations, change or die seems to be the message. Even that may not be enough for some people.

Everything You Know Is Wrong

Invasion of the Body Snatchers has been described as being about individualism versus collectivism.  One of the quotes from the Firesign Theatre album referenced above is "Men and Women are the same sex!" So much of the satire of my youth is now today's new normal. Amazing and scary.

In the movie, Dr. Benell says,

"In my practice, I've seen how people have allowed their humanity to drain away. Only it happened slowly instead of all at once. They didn't seem to mind... All of us - a little bit - we harden our heats, grow callous. Only when we have to fight to stay human do we realize how precious it is to us, how dear."

Another quote from the movie that moved me was by the female lead. When Becky learns that she is to be replaced by a pod, she resists and tells Dr. Benell:

"I want to love and be loved. I want your children. I don't want a world without love or grief or beauty. I'd rather die."

Such an attitude seems so at odds with today's careerism and "safe spaces" on college campuses. What woman in her right mind today expresses a desire to bear a man's children. Talk about horror films.

It seems like the "pod people" are taking away our liberty today just as they threatened in the 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers movie. The early draft of the movie ended with Dr. Benell running onto a highway to warn others that "You're in danger! Can't you see?  They're after you. They're after all of us. They're here already! You're next! You're next, you're ...."

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Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_the_Body_Snatchers
http://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/articles/item/2177-zombieland-convert-or-die
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everything_You_Know_Is_Wrong
https://christopherjohnlindsay.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/invasion-of-the-body-snatchers
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/79341/Invasion-of-the-Body-Snatchers
https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/the_body_snatchers_theyre_after_all_of_us_and_youre_next
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Written Wednesday 23 December 2015