Meditating on a Good Death in the season of Holy Birth

Susan Windley-Daoust offers an interested approach to Theology of the Body, drawing from Pope John Paul's principles in a reflection on what used to be called a "happy death." Even though our attention toward the end of Advent is drawn more to birth, for many bereaved families, this may very well be a season of dying. Windley-Daoust's post on "The Sign of the Dying Body" is timely for all of us, though.

Review of "Fill These Hearts"

Theology professor Susan Windley-Daoust posted her review of Christopher West's "Fill These Hearts: God, Sex and the Universal Longing," which she uses in an anthropology course. Here's a sample of what she had to say:

This text electrified most of the class.  People really resonated with the treatment of desire, were open to the treatment of design, and were really thinking through consequences by the time we got to destiny.  As a professor, it struck me as an ideal first text before moving into more “academic theology” and primary sources.  Indeed, we went from this text to reading Augustine's Confessions, and they got it: Augustine wasn't an overly guilt-ridden sex addict who talks too much about his sinfulness.  He was a man with disordered desires who opened himself to a new way of seeing through grace.

What was intriguing to me was how they latched on to a piece that West has been criticized for in the past: West writing from the perspective that people have received a Christian upbringing that was cold, stoic, and rule-centered.  Some have criticized West that most Catholics after Vatican II simply have not had that upbringing: the stereotype is more “felt banner and singing about God’s love round the campfire” (which is not a fair stereotype, but moving on).

These students thought the cold stoic Church description was right on.  The Christianity they know, they say, is ALL about rules.  This “frame” (as West calls it) of desire, design, and destiny, wrapped in God’s lavish love, was seen as truly radical.

The thing is, that is not their experience—because a lot of them have no experience of being in a Christian church outside of major holidays.  The Church they “know” is a bizarre echo chamber of their parents’ apathy and fear, the culture of the mainstream press and movies, and a projection of their fears.  It doesn’t exist.  But for them, the echo chamber is keeping them from listening to the wisdom of the Christian faith.

One of the reasons West’s approach is effective is because he is talking to Christians, especially Catholics, who have fundamental misconceptions of what Catholic theology is about: and he addresses those misconceptions head on.  You shouldn’t end your reading of theology with West (does he ever argue that?  of course not), but this book whets the appetite for a faith seeking understanding that they do not know they have.  People on the inside forget that teaching theology in American culture neither builds on a solid catechetical foundation, nor a blank slate.  We unteachbefore we teach.  Christopher West’s popularity in many young adult circles—to the point of people saying things such as “the Theology of the Body changed my life!”—is attributable directly to West exposing the delusion of this echo chamber and presenting the revelation of Christianity in both the natural world of signs and the Church they clearly do not yet know.  He is a dazzling "unteacher," and this book makes space to truly explore what it means to be human.

It’s a potentially life-transformative book.

New Catholic Marriage Prep Program

After years of pilot programs involving hundreds of engaged couples, with input from the long-married, from the theologians, from the pastors, and from all those engaged couples, comes "Transformed in Love," a complete and solid program to help couples begin and live a sacramental marriage.

Listen to Kari Collela (Archdiocese of Boston Family Life office) and her husband Stephen as they talk about the program, its components, and its "success stories" over the years they spent putting it together.

Please share this information (and these links) far and wide!

Media Skills for Pro-Life Medical Professionals

Over at Catharsis, they are planning a two-day workshop on essential media skills for pro-life medical personnel. ("If a camera arrived at your door today [for statements on assisted reproduction, Obamacare, "death with dignity"], would you know how to dress, how to move, where to look, and what to say?")

COMMUNICATING THE CULTURE OF LIFE

Oct 22-23, Azusa Pacific University

Post-Supreme Court reflections

Some fine, critically reflective pieces are appearing in a number of sources after yesterday's twofer from the Supreme Court. Here's one: Sex without Bodies (it's like a prequel to TOB from a Protestant perspective).

And another: "Marriage is a Mess and Homosexuals Didn't Do It"

The Diocese of Green Bay is hosting a FB conversation on a crucial question:
How can Catholics engage everyone, as we are called to do, including people with same-sex attraction, while maintaining the Church’s consistent, loving and whole teaching that sacramental marriage is the free, total, faithful and fruitful union of one man and one woman?

Airtime

I was scheduled to host "The Winds of Change" radio show tomorrow at noon, but with the Blackhawks' Victory Parade (for bringing the Stanley Cup back to Chicago) I figured it would be next to impossible to get in and out of the city with the street closings and security measures... So I was on the air today instead.
Listen in!

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Books and music featured on today's show:

NFP Awareness Week: Video Contest!

The ladies over at IUseNFP.com (a woman to woman website on Natural Family Planning) have just announced a video contest for NFP Awareness Week (July 27). Check their website for the details, which aren't out yet.

This video was featured on their site; perhaps it inspired the contest:

The "Conversation" from Cassie Wilson on Vimeo.