Religious Booknotes
Cunningham, Lawrence S.
"theological hermeneutics" there is a genuine attempt to explain and clarify for the nonexpert. A volume like this is both a handy reference work for gaining a sense of the sweep of theological...
...it reoccurs annually with the raising of a pint of beer on Saint Patrick's day...
...or both partners may have to work long hours on differing schedules in order to feed their families...
...Often those engaged as lectors are themselves deeply converted by the Word they proclaim...
...Treating Jesus as the "universal patron saint" in some ways does a disservice to the many who have lived their lives for Christ...
...The texts are arranged chronologically from the Bible down to recent times...
...One or the other spouse may be away for extended periods (in military service, on business trips, caring for aging relatives...
...Those who assist in the distribution of Communion (especially in parishes with an active ministry to the sick and homebound) are similarly affected, and those who engage in the ministries of hospitality become icons of the need for connectedness in an anonymous and uncaring society...
...A factor regularly overlooked is the effect of their work in church-centered ministry on the lives of individual ministers...
...Contact the National Pastoral Life Center: (212) 431-7825...
...PATRICIA M. McDERMOTT CLASSIFIED Gift Suggestion CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR PASTOR AND STAFF...
...To the Editors: The supplement on the laity [September 11] leads me to remark that the Chicago Declaration of 1977 went astray in its expressions of concern about lay involvement in church-centered ministry...
...Pregnancy is not necessarily the most virtuous solution to such conditions...
...Through them we can learn more about both Christ and our faith...
...In parishes where there are, say, 100 eucharistic ministers, 60 lectors, 80 altar servers (of both genders), and ministries for youth, families, and seniors, the demarcation between church-centered ministry and secular affairs is blurred, resulting in the incorporation of the secular into the sacred...
...A volume of this sort is no substitute for reading original sources but as a handy tour of the theological horizon it is a useful and readable tool...
...299 Elizabeth St., NY, NY 10012-2806...
...When Humanae vitae came out in 1968, I felt guilty that my own words in some small way may have helped mislead church leaders, because I had tried so hard to ignore the evidence of my own experience and the testimony of so many other women and men...
...If the author had omitted the biblical materials (easily accessible elsewhere) there would have been more space either to add significant persons omitted from this volume (e.g., Hildegard of B ingen, Clare of Assisi, Teresa of Avila, etc...
...Just $26, published quarterly...
...And Saint Paul admonished husbands and wives, "Do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement for a set time, to devote yourselves to prayer, and then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control" (1 Cor...
...NFP also eliminates the substantial expense of other kinds of contraception (to the dismay of their profit-making producers...
...We have seven wonderful children, ranging in age from thirty-nine to twenty-seven, the youngest an interracial adoptee...
...fax (212) 274-9786...
...MacHaffie's project, in short, is imperfectly realized but, one hastens to add, is still useful...
...That is probably how I will make use of this work: not as a primary text but one that will be on the reserve shelf as a resource for further avenues of study...
...Her texts touch on various historical periods (patristics, medieval, and Reformation) and are generously ecumenical in that Roman Catholic, mainline Protestant, Evangelical, and marginal groups (e.g., Christian Scientists) are represented...
...MacHaffie had the good idea of producing, at reasonable cost, an anthology of original sources that deals with the role of women in the history of Christianity...
...or that the couple simply lack sufficient faith in the wisdom of celibate rulemakers...
...RUTH B. MOYNIHAN Ministry & life Anderson, Calif...
...CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 2) Christ said married couples "are no longer two, but one flesh...
...It strikes me as the sort of work that students could be sent to get a broader vision of the hi story of the Christian tradition...
...An understanding of natural law not resting on an accurate understanding of the facts of nature is inherently flawed...
...Finally, since this work is quite clearly destined for classroom use, it would have been helpful to have added a bibliography, apart from the sources cited for each selection, since recent books on women in the Christian tradition have poured off the presses...
...In these and other circumstances, the spouses may be "put asunder" by man-made church law even during their limited time together...
...Without this melding, we face the danger of returning to the mentality that led to the rise of clericalism in the first place...
...I now pray that the pope and all Christians may soon clearly recognize the complicated moral choices involved in a truly loving, responsible, and continually growing marriage, along with the necessity of focusing on medical safety (many contraceptives now in use are condemnable on this score) and on improved contraceptive methods (including NFP...
...Reviewers cannot resist telling authors how anthologies should have been done and this reviewer is no exception...
...But as long as flawed philosophical distinctions muddy the teaching, the church's doctrine is destructive of both Christian morality and married love...
...or that the marriage is suffering severe financial or cultural stress...
...In many parts of the world, where sanitation, clean water, privacy, and all the other facilities of our privileged "first" world are often nonexistent, careful education and potential improvements in natural family planning methods may indeed be the only practicable form of contraception most of the time...
...my husband and I will soon celebrate our fortieth wedding anniversary...
...After reading Richard Mazziotta's "When the Saints "Pilgrim at ten o 'clock...
...I grieve that the papal decree helped precipitate a sense of excommunication for Catholics everywhere, including those of my own family: a disaster for Christ's mystical body which only time, much prayer, and compassionate clarification will remedy...
...What God has joined together, let no one put asunder" (Matt...
...Further, the assumptions have to do only with particular acts, considered outside of any context, rather than with the significance of the entire marital vocation...
...As usual, alas, the Orthodox world is unnoticed, which is doubly a shame both because of what is happening in Eastern Europe and because of such interesting materials on women from that part of the Christian world...
...As the evidence cited by Philip Murnion indicates, the growth in professional parish staffhas increased rather than lessened the level of involvement in every kind of ministry...
...If the parish is the domain only of "Father" and "Sister," and the people are to "pray, pay, and obey," there will never be a diffusion of our Catholic values into the world at large...
...19:6...
...Went Marching Out" [October 23], I understand better why that might be...
...Today very few doctors know anything about NFP and it is not even taught in Catholic hospitals and clinics...
...In a typical parish setting, the employment of a few professionals brings at least a hundred other parishioners into participation in both the ministry of the church and ministry in the community...
...or one partner may be aged or in some way disabled...
...Lay leadership in catechetics, sacramental preparation, youth ministry, liturgy, social services, parish development, and a host of subministries would never take place if parishes did not encourage the sharing of lay gifts in the church's mission...
...Add to this the possibility (or likelihood) that one or both spouses are less than ideally mature...
...Looking to the saints reminds us of the struggles of many of our predecessors in faith...
...That comes about only as a result of being changed ourselves by our involvement in ministry...
...Most couples today have to deal with many occasions of required abstinence...
...To the Editors: Despite eight years of Catholic grammar school education and four years at a Catholic college, any real education about the role of the saints in the church's history and in my own life was, for the most part, limited and even accidental...
...Wondering what to give your favorite priest, sister, deacon, or lay parish staff members this Christmas...
...A volume like this is both a handy reference work for gaining a sense of the sweep of theological issues but could also be put to use as a kind of quick refresher course on contemporary theology...
...Why not choose a gift that can be used and enjoyed all year and for years to come, a subscription to CHURCH, judged "the best professional magazine" for pastoral ministers by the Catholic Press Association...
...Many of us are torn between wanting to live as Christ calls us to live and wanting to live as our peers, the media, and the advertisers tell us we should live...
...This letter, written in the spirit of obedience to Christian discipleship, is my small contribution toward that goal...
...7:5...
...The biggest deficiency of this work is that the selections are too brief...
...Also overlooked are the expansion and development of ministry that would never happen in our parishes if left to "Father" or "Sister" to do...
...MIKE EVANS Deacon Mike Evans is pastoral associate in Sacred Heart Parish in Anderson...
...While we struggle to be like Christ, the saints embody Christ...
...or staying with the current selections (one cannot include everybody) but making them longer...
...Despite knowing only the Christ-centered church the article describes, I believe that the saints provide a rich resource for all Catholic Christians...
...The s a i n t s still serve Collingswood, N.J...
...While Christ should remain very much the center of our faith, the saints continue to serve on earth by showing us how to lead more impassioned, fuller lives in Christ...
...I hope that it enjoys the same success as the original work...
...Assumptions about the meaning of natural law in this regard were formulated at a time when the age of menarche averaged five to ten years older than is the case today, when menopause occurred five to fifteen years earlier, and when most women (and men) died before age fifty...
...or that one is temporarily disturbed, clinically depressed, abusive, narcissistic, selfish...
...If the church could fully recognize this reality, it might contribute to improvements in the method, and to greater cooperation among all people of good will to help women everywhere understand and establish control over their own sexuality...
...or other responsibilities (sick children, for example) may require extra attention...
...We also have nine grandchildren with more on the way...
...She subdivides her material into ten large categories and prefaces each with a brief introductory sketch, a note on the source of her document, and, where appropriate, a biography of the person in question...
...Gift card included...
...My exposure peaked with choosing a Confirmation name...
...I became a Catholic in 1955, and believed in the church so firmly that thirty years ago I even wrote a letter to Commonweal, rather similar to William Talbot's...
...Ask any lector or eucharistic minister to tell you how her or his everyday life has changed...
...I am fifty-nine...
...The church maintains that the use of any other form of contraception is wrong under all circumstances--even for those of other faiths or none, or those in polygamous cultures or truly exploitative relationships, thus effectively laying heavy burdens on the shoulders of the very women most in need of help and understanding...
Vol. 119 • November 1992 • No. 20
