Tomorrow we celebrate the great feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. Our focus is on the revelation of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. I would like to note the indications in all three of our Scripture readings for the Mass for the feast that this glory is a share in that of the Father. In the prophet Daniel's vision, the "one like a Son of man" "receives" glory from the Ancient One. And the accounts of the transfiguration by Sts. Peter and (quite possibly drawing from him) Mark refer to the Father's voice identifying the transfigured Christ as his beloved Son. The glory of Jesus Christ is the glory of the Son, of the one who is begotten of the Father before all ages, who is true God of true God, who is of the same substance with the Father. It is the glory of the Son, the begotten - but also, and indeed "first" ([theo]logically, not temporally!), that of the Father, the begetter. It is the glory of the Son that reveals him as the Son, and that reveals the glory of the Father. It is the glory of the one who is the perfect image and revelation of the Father.

It is a glory that is always already received and shared. It is a glory that we, too, are called to receive. We are not sons (or daughters) of God by nature. There is a vast difference, a difference that dwarfs any similarity, between Christ's sharing by nature in the Father's glory, and our sharing through Christ by grace in that same glory. And yet, there is a similarity. It is indeed the same glory of the Father; and our sharing in it, coming by grace through Christ, is therefore a participation in Christ's sharing in it, is therefore like Christ's. The glory of the Father is also the glory of the Father's Son and of the Father's sons and daughters.

May we too, by listening obediently to the Son, come to share fully in the perfect glory of God the Father.

Saturday is the feast of our Holy Father St. Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers (of whose lay branch I am a member). The Dominican lectionary readings for Mass for the feast begin with the prophet Isaiah's words, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings glad tidings ..." What does it mean to apply these words to St. Dominic, and to those who follow in his way of preaching? What is the preacher's glad and beautiful message, in the beauty of which the preacher himself shares?

Isaiah says that the glad tidings are those that are "announcing peace, ... announcing salvation." Imagine being in a country that has long been attacked and oppressed by an evil ruler from elsewhere. Suddenly, a messenger arrives, over the horizon, with word of deliverance and true peace. Surely this would be a beautiful message. This, we are told, is the message of the one who preaches for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. It is above all a message of salvation and peace. It is also, therefore, a message about the God who brings us this salvation and peace, and about the actions by which he does so, and about the actions by which he calls us to enter into his salvation and peace. It is a message about the whole of Catholic "faith and morals" - the Trinity, the Incarnation, the death and resurrection and ascension of Christ and his sending of the Holy Spirit, the Church, the Last Things, the Sacraments and Liturgy, and morality, and prayer. It is a message that, perhaps, insists especially upon those elements of faith and morals that are rejected by many of one's contemporaries. But it is, above all, a message of glad tidings, of good news, of peace and salvation. It is a message of God's victorious love.

May God grant us to participate in this message - to hear and accept and preach it. And may we joyfully honor St. Dominic on this day and be helped by his example and intercession.

It seems all I had do on this blog these days is make excuses for why I'm not here, but since I've been back from Hong Kong, I've been both exhausted and sick.  I'm on the mend, but the cold I got once I got back combined with the extreme jet lag and has been wiping me out. 

I appreciate your patience, and I promise to start participating meaningfully in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, my thanks to those who are continuing to carry the HMS Blog banner.

Kim and I are taking next week off. I'm going to post something on Saturday's feast of St. Dominic. After that, I'll be off blog (and mostly offline otherwise) till at least into the week after next (blogging will remain very light for a while after that with the beginning-of-semester busyness) - i.e., I will not be posting on the readings for the next two Sundays or for the feast of the Assumption.

Hmm. I'm going to be on vacation. Greg is sick. Pam is dealing with the aftermath of her mother's death. Everyone else is just plain missing.

Rachel, can you carry the blog alone?

Hey, Kevin and Rachel - I'm coming back to blog again!  I've been wanting to get back after the crazy and difficult year and a half we've had - first with my toddler's leukemia diagnosis last year, followed by my mother's diagnosis with recurrent breast cancer, which just took her life one month ago.  There has been a lot going on, but now my mother is at peace with the Lord (though we miss her so terribly I can't even say), and Jonathan is stable.

I have been reading the blog all along, and think I may be able to come back and carry some more.

But watch out, Kevin - leave it to Rachel and me and it will be pretty, er, feminine when you get back.  No grunting, no hairy chests....absolutely no beer (okay maybe a touch of Hefeweizen here and there) or sports....

We'll even put up the lace curtains.   And hide the remote.

Look out!!

I hope you and Kim have a wonderful relaxing week off, and good luck getting into the groove of the new semester.

And blessings to you on the Feast of St. Dominic, the founder of your order!

This week has been World Breastfeeding Week.  Due to the chaos in my life, I haven't been able to mark it too well, but my good friend Sheila Kippley has been blogging on ecological breastfeeding every day.  I encourage everyone who may be new to ecological breastfeeding to read her posts from the whole week!  (Click on "Blog".)  Here's one to start you off:

Professionals and clergy can change.  Dr. Otto Schaefer, a German doctor, went to the Inuits in Canada, teaching the merits of formula.  He wrote down everything he observed and soon realized he was dead wrong about formula.  The observed facts led him to conclude that “breastfeeding had a greater influence on the life and health of infants than any other single factor” and that “the traditional Inuit custom of breastfeeding up until the age of three years…provided an effective type of birth control.” 

            Breastfeeding is God’s plan for baby care and baby spacing.  Today the Catholic Church speaks out against contraception in Humanae Vitae, and many in the Church promote natural family planning by charting the woman’s fertility and promoting the theology of the body.  John and I have promoted and taught ecological breastfeeding to space babies since 1969.  The research is there.  Ecological breastfeeding has so many health and emotional benefits for the mother and baby, including natural child spacing, that it should no longer be ignored by other NFP organizations, the clergy or church representatives.

            Learn God’s plan for natural child spacing by reading The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor.  Learn how the “theology of the body” is related to breastfeeding by reading Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood.