Comments on: A Radical Leaps

By: Kat

Kat — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:44:59 +0000

Beautiful article. I plan to show it to my hubby who was born Lutheran into a largely atheist family, but who has attended mass with me regularly and goes to a church just to sit and meditate in times of real trouble. He is considering doing rcia but has some reservations. I feel also a little more hope that my girls, a toddler n preschooler, will benefit long term from the masses we attend and teaching we have even if they stray for a bit.

By: Rad Catholic Lady

Rad Catholic Lady — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 06:34:28 +0000

Your article really resonated with my own personal faith experience. It’s not an easy place to be, but it’s certainly a blessed one!

I’m also on the fringes of metro indie culture and a grad student, so most of my peers give me slide-long glances when I mention that I’m (still) Catholic. I also like to point out that leaving the Church will never solve anything and will only lead to a moral unraveling of both the people and the institution. I also mention that I’m constantly questioning and do struggle with many of the “hot topics”. And that we wouldn’t call faith if it was easy or explainable or fit neatly with our own world views.

By: RE RE

RE RE — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 13:58:15 +0000

Welcome homekaya!the monthly prayer book with meditations “MAGNIFICAT” has helped me plenty in the “daily” journey. Peace.

By: cynthia belotti

cynthia belotti — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 22:42:20 +0000

the previous year’s palms from Palm Sunday are burned and those ashes are used for the ashes on Ash Wednesday.

By: amiehartnett

amiehartnett — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:15:37 +0000

Yeah, its that balsam that is so strong; next Easter, I plan to see WHO is using chrism and then get in a communion line from someone ELSE! ;)

By: Phil Fox Rose

Phil Fox Rose — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:24:23 +0000

Don’t think the ash thing is true. It should be olive oil and balsam resin. (Not from a balsam fir, but from a Middle Eastern plant closely related to the source of myrrh, as in Balm of Gilead.) But I’m sure it’s the balsam resin that tasted nasty.

By: Kaya Oakes

Kaya Oakes — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:29:50 +0000

Perhaps there should be a warning around Easter: Please Don’t Eat the Chrism!

By: Max Lindenman

Max Lindenman — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:26:47 +0000

Kaya: Right you are. Chrism has got to be one of the world’s great natural perfumes. If the Holy See were to authorize it for use in a special Catholic aftershave, I’d be all over it.

amie: I’m not surprised it tastes nasty, though. If I’m not mistaken, it’s made by burning the fronds from the previous Palm Sunday. Palm, pine — bleagh.

By: amiehartnett

amiehartnett — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:51:46 +0000

Kaya & Max:
I have a slightly off-topic chrism story for you. This year @ Easter Vigil Mass, I went up in the communion line, and after taking the host, I was horrified that the bread was somehow POISONED because it tasted strongly of Pine-sol! I mentally debated whether or not to fully consume it, did, and then prayed like crazy that I would be ok.
After Mass, I approached the pastor and said, *Um Father, I think there was something wrong with the hosts; it tasted like pine! *

He gasped and then held his hand up to my nose and said, *Did it smell like this?* Apparently the chrism from the confirmations was still on his fingers as he said Mass and distributed communion! It may be great for hair & skin but it tastes TERRIBLE!
;)

By: Kaya Oakes

Kaya Oakes — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:19:11 +0000

Max, you forgot to mention how good chrism smells in addition to being a nifty hair tonic. I actually asked several people to smell my head on Easter, a request I will probably never repeat. But you’re right about preserving a certain degree of ironic distance — I think those who totally lose it lose the ability to ask questions, which is the root of critical inquiry. Sheesh, I sound like an English teacher! And Amie, you’re right; the diversity of the congregation at my church is one of my favorite things about it. Young, old, skeptical, devout, you name it. Indie can sometimes be a homogeneous subculture, which can make it a bit limiting, but whatever faith community one belongs too, you’re going to encounter things you didn’t expect. Which makes it all the more interesting.

By: amiehartnett

amiehartnett — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:41:09 +0000

I made this same journey into a recommitment to the faith in which I was raised about 4 years ago. Like the author, I also spent much of my teens and twenties steeped in *indie* culture – dj/mrg in college radio, wrote for a zine, attended grad school …and during all of this, never wholly *left* but kept that ironic detachment she mentions. I am so glad to be back and have found an incredible parish community that continues to surprise me with the diversity of people I meet and the lessons I learn from the experiences of others.

By: Max Lindenman

Max Lindenman — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:09:45 +0000

Kaya:
Good article. Certainly hit home for me. I’m finding that a sense of ironic distance — a quality for which a BH editor recently took me to task, though gently — can be good or bad, depending on how you use it. If you let it run on auto pilot, it can amount to nothing more than a kind of intellectual dandyism. But if you really own it and really work with it, it can be an engine, driving serious critical inquiry.

Oh, and nothing holds your hair in place like chrism.