HerbEly

Book Review: On-the-Job-Prayers

    Ellen Wulfhort’s story on “workaholism” prompted me to write this short review of William D. Thomson’s On-The-Job Prayers. Small enough to be tucked in a briefcase, glove compartment, toolbox, or top center desk drawer, this book has one hundred brief reflections on spirituality of work, a quote from scripture, and a short prayer. Each page can be read as a meditation in less time than needed for a coffee break. The index provides quick references for work related issues such as “Monday mornings,” happiness,” and “excellence.”
    Later this weekend, I plan a post on how work can be an addiction and a spiritual path to finding balance on one’s life.  For now, here is an extract

Teacher of the Year

Phi Delta Kappa has recognized my beautiful, talented and dedicated wife as the Central Virginia Middle School Teacher of the Year. The awards dinner was held in the dome room of the University of Virginia's Rotunda. It was a treat to dine in this building. We could almost feel Mr. Jefferson and his friends there with us. See the Charllottesville City Schools media release for the rest of the story.

Lay Ministry: Bishops Shoot Selves in Other Foot

    The Bishops unintentionally shot themselves in the foot when they published their document on Lay Ministry. By focusing on the ministry laity perform inside the parish, the bishops ignored parishioners who hear the words of the dismissal:

"Let us go forth in joy to love and serve the Lord."

and return to their homes, jobs and communities for the coming week. From this perspective, at least 99 percent of lay ministry is done outside the ecclesial structure. The document Coworkers in the Vineyard of the Lord is subtitled "A Resource for Guiding the Development of Lay Ecclesial Ministry."
    Now it appears that the Bishops have shot themselves in the other foot by insulting the work of the 99%. In this WaPo story on the Bishop’s effort to foster religious vocations. Mishelle Boorstein writes:   

"Fishers of Men," a 20-minute video released this month by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, presents priests as handsome and heroic, appearing in scenes of war and civil rights marches that are contrasted with the image of bored-looking people riding an escalator to meaningless jobs.

Are the Bishops really recruiting young people by saying “Be happy. Don’t go out and do the same meaningless, boring jobs as your parents”?

Defending Bush on WMD: A Better Metaphor

    Last week I took a shot at how the president might explain the failed prediction that Iraq had WMD.
    The problem is that the intelligence community had good reason to believe that WMD existed and would be used. I’ve argued that the deception might have been detected with more careful intelligence analysis  and more integrity on the part of top-level intelligence and defense officials.
    My arguments are abstract and speculative. Bush needs an argument that frames the question in a way that is understandable and compelling. Today Jonah Goldberg has a better metaphor  on Townhall.com. Based on captured Iraqi documents he suggests:

Hussein practiced a strategy that one Republican Guard commander called "deterrence by doubt," in which he hoped to bluff the world into believing he had WMD in order to deter Iran and keep his rep as an Arab strongman with serious mojo.
…
The fact that Hussein turned out to be bluffing about WMD isn't a mark against Bush's decision. If you're a cop and a man pulls out a gun and points it at you, you're within your rights to shoot him, particularly if the man in question is a known criminal who's shot people before. If it turns out afterward that the gun wasn't loaded, that's not the cop's fault.

Reagan and Clinton could bring this off. Bush might not. I understand that he does not want to defend himself against the "Bush Lied" sound bite. At some point he will be forced to mount a defense. this is a better way of framing the question.

NOTE: This post linked to Beltway Traffic Jam for 03/24/2006.

Are Leaders Always Out of Touch?

    Peggy Noonan’s column for today touches on a favorite theme of mine. She writes about the 1947 atrocities that followed Pakistan’s independence from India.

    Mountbatten and Nehru and Jinnah were brilliant men who'd not only experienced a great deal; they'd done a great deal, and yet they did not know that the Subcontinent--which each in his own way, and sometimes it was an odd way, loved--would explode in violence, that bloodlust would rule as soon as the Union Jack was lowered.
...
    The leaders of the day did not know that terrible violence was coming because of what I think is a classic and structural problem of leadership: It distances. Each of these men was to varying degrees detached from facts on the ground. They were by virtue of their position and accomplishments an elite. They no longer knew what was beating within the hearts of those who lived quite literally on the ground.

Catholic Carnival LXXI

is posted at A Song Not Scored For Breathing. Take a look and then spend some time at Hope's very personal and inspiring blog.

Lay Ministry: Russell Shaw Nails It

From his Beliefnet column.

For the past 30 years the American Catholic bishops and other leaders have been promoting lay ministry. This past November, the bishops went so far as to issue a 70-page document, "Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord," setting out training guidelines for lay ministers on parish payrolls.

The bishops have meant well—for their aim has been to encourage Catholic lay people to participate more fully in the life of the Church—but they have made a damaging mistake. Promoting lay ministry has come at the expense of an earlier tradition of promoting Catholic lay apostolate—and the two are very different things.

Over the past 35 years I have noticed a marked diminishment in the willingness and ability of pastors to work with laity. My friends from around the country report the same. Lay ministry as approached by the bishops seems to involve delegating to functions that the clergy could perform if they had the time. These are activities that the clergy can control.

Dismissal Ratio – an Index of Parish Effectiveness

     Here is a quote from he April 2006 Initiatives Newsletter:

“If you happen to be a layperson who is serious about faith, chances are the church will enlist you to teach Sunday school, serve on a committee or lead worship. "Ministry" happens within the bounds of the congregation or denomination (the "church gathered," as R. Paul Stevens from Regent College terms it). Little attention is invested in the "church dispersed." Rarely is daily work recognized as ministry.
Rare, too, is the teaching that all work is service to God.”

The quote is taken from an article  by by Wally Kroeker in Our Faith, a journal sharing previously published materials from a Mennonite/Anabaptist perspective. It struck me as absolutely true of Catholics.

Initiatives goes on with a quote from Russell Shaw:

Vatican II, says Russell Shaw, “made it overwhelming clear” that a lay person’s responsibility “is primarily [an] apostolate that  carries the gospel out into the world.” Yet since Vatican II, lay ministry inside the Church has  received most of the emphasis. Internal “lay ministry is a good thing,” says Shaw, author of Catholic Laity in the Mission of the Church (Requiem Press [2005], PO Box 7, Bethune, SC  29009; $14.95). But lay ministry within a Church organization is not the same thing as the Christian’s “right and duty to participate in the mission of the church,” on the job, around the home and in the neighborhood.

Barring a Miracle, this Will Continue

From a story by K. Connie King in the L.A. Kang on why Catholics don't tithe. ... The avoidance of tithing reflects the sense of ownership parishioners feel toward their churches — or more precisely, the lack of it.

While this is not the whole story, it is so true.

thanks Terry Mattingly

Weapons of Math Destruction

Our oldest son sent this today. If you know who wrote it, please let me know. I would like to give credit.

At O'hare airport today, an individual later discovered to be a school teacher was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a set square, a slide rule and a calculator.

At a press conference, the FBI spokesperson confirmed that U.S. intelligence reports suggest the man is a member of the notorious Al-gebra group. They wish to charge him with carrying weapons of math
instruction.

The general public is to be reminded that "Al-gebra is a fearsome cult", "They desire average solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in a search for absolute value. They use secret code names like "x" and "y"and refer to themselves as "unknowns", but we have determined they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country. As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, "there are 3 sides to every triangle".

When asked to comment on the arrest, President Bush said, "If God had wanted better weapons of math instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes."