Congratulations again to my lovely wife, Naomi Kritzer. One of her nominations has turned into an award – the Locus Award for Best Short Story. So, in honor of the accolade for “Cat Pictures Please,” here’s a picture of our new cat, Cassie, aka Fluffy McFluffFace, aka McFluff, aka Fluffypants.
When I was a young student, and the foreign language teachers wanted to convince us Latin-trained former middle schoolers to take a modern language in high school, they told us that we would have no trouble keeping the two languages separate in our brains. And it turned out to mostly be true. I became conversational in French and rarely tried to substitute a Latin word.
Looking back, I think I probably benefited from the fact that we didn’t learn Latin as a spoken language. There was no reason for Latin words to pop into my head while speaking French, because I never spoke Latin. But now I’m learning Spanish, and French words keep trying to show up. Sometimes I think it’s just that I don’t know the Spanish, but I’ve definitely substituted French words when I should have known the Spanish. Once I said “sept” and was met with “siete?” and I’m sitting there thinking “isn’t that what I said?” until it finally struck me why I was being asked this. Perhaps more disturbingly, Spanish is occasionally creeping in to my French. My daughter asked me a yes/no question in French and I said “sí,” and she just glared at me.
I’m learning Spanish, because I think it’s beneficial for a Catholic lay pastoral minister to be at least passingly familiar with the language. And I’m having fun learning another language. But it’s not without its challenges.
Science fiction author Naomi Kritzer, who in my unbiased opinion is an excellent writer, has recently been nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula awards for her short story “Cat Pictures Please.” Super exciting!
I was struck by something in the Pope’s letter to Patriarch Bartholomew, and I don’t know whether I should have been. Pope Francis wrote that there is no longer “any impediment to Eucharistic communion which cannot be overcome through prayer, the purification of hearts, dialogue and the affirmation of truth.” What struck me was the use of “Eucharistic communion” rather than “full communion.”
But like I said, I’m not sure whether this actually should be striking. Full communion implies Eucharistic communion. Similarly, lack of full communion, implies lack of Eucharistic communion. There is some nuance, but as a general rule, the Catholic Church is only in “Eucharistic” communion with churches with whom it is in “full” communion. Or, put another way, it’s only in Eucharistic communion with itself.
But the reason why it seems like this statement might be striking is that it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. Full communion certainly always implies Eucharistic communion, but we could theoretically have Eucharistic communion with churches that nevertheless maintain some independence. And I wonder if the Pope’s letter is a way of saying that the Orthodox churches could maintain an independence – a greater independence than the Eastern churches within the Catholic Church – yet we could become close enough to have Eucharistic communion.
I think that’s a potentially exciting idea, but I recognize that it’s possible I’m just reading too much into the Pope’s words. It’s possible that if I were more familiar with church documents, I would know that this is unexceptional. It’s possible that something got lost when the document was translated into English. I would love to see someone with more knowledge in this area discuss this, but so far I haven’t seen anything.
Advent begins tomorrow…or, I suppose, this evening, at least so far as solemnities begin the prior evening. (And remember that all Sundays are solemnities.) Welcome to Year C. May you have a fruitful consideration of the Gospel of Luke.
This new liturgical year also brings us the Year of Mercy, though that does not start until December 8. I’m excited for the Year of Mercy, both because the Church has some good things planned and because it will be an opportunity to explore what God’s mercy is and how it manifests itself in the world.
On a personal note for this website, Advent means that my previously unobjectionable header might now appear to be a liturgical political statement. So I want to assure you that my blue background, which has been in place since roughly the 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time, has nothing to do with Advent. Advent is purple. I do not have strong opinions on whether Advent should be purple, but I emphatically accept that it is purple. Meanwhile, the blue of my header image is based on a photo which my wife took in front of the painting Monochrome Bleu by Yves Klein at the Pompidou Center in Paris. Enjoy your purple season. I hope that you are able to experience it as a time of blessed anticipation.
Of course, when Catholics talk about ending the schism, they’re usually talking about the great schism of 1054 in which the Catholic and Orthodox churches separated. (Though that’s a simplification. There were already Orthodox churches which were not in communion with the rest of Christendom. But still, 1054 was a bad year for the church.)
Today we went to the Museum of the Middle Ages, aka the Musée de Cluny. The museum is best known for housing the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, which are pretty cool, but which I didn’t photograph on my usual grounds that finding photos online in the future will be easy.
Yesterday we went to the Carnavalet Museum of the history of Paris. It had pleasantly short lines and an interesting collection of Parisian history, beginning with archaeological finds from Lutèce and medieval Paris. Continue reading
Saint Germain des Prés is typically marked as the oldest church in Paris. Admittedly, dating churches can be hard. Do you mark them based on when construction began? When services were first held? When it was completed? From the first time there was a church on the site? By whatever measure, Saint Germain qualifies as old. A basilica was built in 543. Construction of a new church began in the 11th century, with the nave completed around 1050. The church was essentially completed in 1163, though a chapel to the Virgin Mary was finished in 1245, more or less marking the final completion of the church. It was extensively renovated in the 19th century. Continue reading
I went to the Eiffel Tower once before, at the end of a French exchange program. It was too windy, so we weren’t able to go to the top. I’ve always wanted to go back to see the view from the very top. Today we made it. Glad I got to see it, because you can see for miles. On the second floor, you can look straight out to the skyscrapers of La Défense. From the third floor, you can see over them. From the second floor, you can see lots of buildings. From the third floor, you can really look down into the patterns of the streets. In theory, the horizon is about 60 kilometers away. It’s a different experience and complements the visit to the second floor well. That said, overall the view from the second floor is better.
Today the Eiffel Tower looked out and saw its shadow, meaning that there will be six more weeks of summer.
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