Happy Feast Day!

Today, June 29, is the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, both a great feast of the Church and our patronal feast.

Today, let us pray to these great advocates for the success of the work that we do.

A prayer to Saints Peter and Paul:

O God, Whose right hand raised up blessed Peter, when he walked upon the water and began to sink, and thrice delivered his fellow-Apostle Paul from the depths of the sea, when he suffered shipwreck: graciously hear us and grant, by the merits of them both, that we also may attain unto everlasting glory: Who livest and reignest world without end. Amen 

From the Roman Martyrology for this day:

Romae natalis sanctorum Apostolorum Petri et Pauli, qui eodem anno eodemque die passi sunt, sub Nerone Imperatore. Horum prior, in eadem Urbe, capite ad terram verso cruci affixus, et in Vaticano juxta viam Triumphalem sepultus, totius Orbis veneratione celebratur; posterior autem, gladio animadversus, et via Ostiensi sepultus, pari honore habetur.

And a translation for you non-Latinists out there...

At Rome, the birthday of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul,  who suffered martyrdom on the same day, under the emperor Nero. Within the city the former was crucified with his dead downwards, and buried in the Vatican, near the Triumphal way, where he is venerated by the whole world. The latter was put to the sword and buried on the Ostian way, where he receives similar honors. 

Finally, the preface from the Mass for this Solemnity:

It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,
always and everywhere to give you thanks,
Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God.
For by your providence
the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul bring us joy:
Peter, foremost in confessing the faith,
Paul, its outstanding preacher,
Peter, who established the early Church from the remnant of Israel,
Paul, master and teacher of the Gentiles that you call.
And so, each in a different way
gathered together the one family of Christ;
and revered together throughout the world,
they share one Martyr’s crown.

Happy Feast day everyone! Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us!

Theology by the Slice: True Devotion to Mary

On March 11, 2015, Sisters Magdalene Marie and Marie-Jean, MICM shared with us a thought provoking presentation on the practice of Total Consecration, or Holy Slavery to Jesus through Mary. The sisters came to us from their community as part of Saint Benedict Abbey in Still River, MA. There, along with the Benedictian brothers, the sisters teach elementary school, produce Catholic educational material, work on the abbey farm, and assist at the Traditional Latin Mass.

Total Consecration is a process of submission of self to Mary so that through her we might draw closer to God. Sister Marie-Jean explained that the process was introduced by Saint Louis de Montfort, a priest and itinerant preacher in 18th century France. The process consists of a 33 day period of reflection, reading, and prayer at the end of which the act of consecration is said. The member then commits to living a life completely with, by, in, and for Mary.

Sister Marie-Jean started her talk by outlining reasons why an individual might take on such a devotion. The sister reminds us that as a participant in the world, we are all a slave to something. She spoke of money, power, lust, or our own self-image as possible traps. Even those who claim to worship nothing, or nothing besides God, more often simply worship something else unconsciously. By explicitly declaring oneself a slave to Mary and consciously undertaking every action for her we make our slavery and our devotions a conscious decision rather than an unknown habit. She suggested that by explicitly choosing this path we might take control of our lives precisely because we give up all control.

The sisters’ devotion to Our Lady was clear. She spoke with passion about the personal attraction Mary holds for her as a figure of perfect submission. She beautifully described Our Lady as The Undoer of Knots who reverses the disobedience of Eve with her acceptance of all that was asked of her. She also spoke of the power Mary holds as the connecting link between God and man. She pointed out the strangeness of the miracle associated with Mary coming from our most powerful God: a virgin birth. God himself chose to become dependent on a human womb to be born fully man. The sisters spoke with reverence of the beauty of a woman who could deserve this gift and the possibilities that having this woman behind our cause might bring.

Sister Jean-Marie gave us some tips for praying a rosary in the Monfortian Method, that after saying the Holy Name (Jesus) in the "Hail Mary" parayer, add in a word that reflects the mystery being meditated on (for example, "risen" for the first glorious mystery of the Resurrection). They also gave us some helpful mnemonics for prayer, and closed with an analogy explaining their devotion to Mary. When we try to form ourselves in God’s image we are like a sculptor trying to hammer away at ourselves, chipping away the undesirable places to more closely resemble our best guess of what God wants. We are working from an imperfect picture, and we are using a hard and imperfect method which depends on our own skill. Total devotion to Mary, however, resembles formation with a mold. It is a softer and more fluid method which relies not on our own skill but on the help of our mother. By entrusting ourselves to her we allow ourselves to be formed by her more perfect knowledge of God’s will.

We are very grateful for the time and thoughts that the sisters shared with us last Wednesday and hope to visit them at Still River in the near future!

Kerry Cronin: Hanging Out and Hooking Up

On February 23, 2015, the Society of Saints Peter and Paul hosted (our first ever) campus-wide event entitled "Hanging Out and Hooking Up: Dating and Relationships in College." The speaker for this event was Prof. Kerry Cronin of the Boston College Philosophy Department. Prof. Cronin, in addition to teaching philosophy courses, began a class at BC that required its students to go on dates. In the wake of the continued success of that class, Prof. Cronin has been delivering "Bring Back the Date" talks around the area in which she instructs her audience on how to go on a date. We were very fortunate to have Prof. Cronin deliver such a talk at Holy Cross.

Our poster advertising Prof. Cronin's talk

This event was held at 7:30 PM in Rehm Library . Every seat in the library was taken, such that many onlookers were standing, sitting on the floor, or crowded behind where Prof. Cronin was speaking. Her wonderful sense of humor has the entire audience laughing throughout her entire presentation, and they seemed to hang on every word she spoke.

Prof. Cronin began by saying that her work with "Bring Back the Date" sprang from two sources. She was once advised by a wise Jesuit that in order for her teaching to affect the lives of her students, to truly participate in Jesuit education, it must somehow relate and be applicable to their everyday lives in the world. The other source was a discussion she once had with eight BC seniors. In the course of their conversation, these highly accomplished students revealed that they never went on dates and that only one of them had ever been on a date at all.

From her interactions with students Prof. Cronin has learned what exactly the hook up culture entails and how it affects their lives. The very term "hooking up" is inherently ambiguous, for someone who says to have hooked up could have done anything from kissing with a stranger to having had sexual intercourse. Yet this innate obscurity dominates and defines the college "romantic" scene, necessarily denying the intimacy it sets up as its goal. The hook up culture demands distance and detachment by discouraging people to communicate about their relationships. It demands that regular standards of conduct be abandoned, and ultimately leaves its participants lonely and afraid of the closeness they so deeply desire. As a result of this situation, students who do not participate in the hook up culture or are not already in serious relationships ("pseudo-married couples") opt out of the dating scene entirely.

Prof. Cronin described how in one of her classes (a one-credit senior capstone seminar) she attempted to get her group of fifteen students to go on dates. All but one of the students, however, failed to work themselves up to the task. In light of this outcome, Prof. Cronin decided that in the next semester's seminar that the date would not only be mandatory but required to pass the class (which, despite some chaos, did encourage the students to complete the assignment).  By the semester following that one, she had perfected her strategy for this assignment and introduced specific instructions for how the students should go on dates.

The students had a two-week frame in which they needed to go on the date. Students are encouraged to go to places like coffee shops, ice cream places, and other such low key environments for a first date. She requires for these "Level 1 Dates" that students:

• The student must ask someone out in person (no Facebook, texting, snapchatting, etc.)
• The date be arranged within three days of the asking. Waiting longer invites anxiety, drama, and unsolicited (or worse, solicited) advice form friends
• The person being asked be a legitimate romantic interest (not just a friend). Though it is a good idea that it not be someone on whom the student has had a crush for years, it should be someone whom they could envision cultivating a relationship with
• The person should know it is a date. Reference to the assignment is OK, but they should not be told the assignment is the only reason for the date
• IT should last between 45 to 90 minutes
• Have a straightforward plan for the date (do not ask them to decide), which will show care and concern and take the pressure off
• Pay for the date without fuss
• Choose three people to tell the date about, and no more. This limit helps to avoid vicarious dating and drama from friends (who often don't want the relationship to develop for fear of losing their friends)
• The date should involve no physical interaction, with the possible exception of a friendly A-Frame hug at the end
• They should not date someone whom they've dated before
• It may be during the day or the night (daytime is preferable), but it is only a date if the two are alone. No group dating, third-parties, or "wingmen" allowed

Prof. Cronin reported that students who participated in her dating class reported feeling more fulfilled and happy in dating than in hooking up. The hardest part was often just the asking, and the date itself proved relatively easy. Although dating does not instantly match everyone up with their future spouse, it helps students both to appreciate their fellow human beings more and to find out more about their own desires. She concluded with a remark from Pope Francis that our greatest fear is not so much rejection or failure, but becoming so numb and jaded that we are no longer capable of being moved by the joy, humor, suffering, and love of others. Dating helps to foster the sort of connection and relation that Pope Francis describes and which is so central to our human existence.

The winners of the Flying Rhino gift certificates are chosen

After a time for questions from the audience, we raffled off three $50 gift certificates to The Flying Rhino, a local restaurant in Worcester.  This event was a great success and a wonderful thing for Holy cross students to hear. We sincerely thank Prof. Cronin for her time and her superb presentation.