At today’s 12:10 Cathedral mass, there were maybe twice as many people as normal. Pretty cool.
We had 6 people praying and fasting after mass and at the Federal Building. No incidents. (Don’t worry, I’m not going to blog every day of this.)
Ash Wednesday, 2008
If I recall correctly, last Ash Wednesday the noon Cathedral mass was packed. This year, the church was maybe 3/4 full.
Bishop Robert McManus, after mass
After mass we began our Lenten fast and vigil for an end to the Iraq War. We started out by holding a banner near the Cathedral door, but were asked to move across the street. This was unfortunate, in that it probably left some passersby with the impression that we were protesting the church or something.
Holding a banner across the street. In the spirit of “Let no one see you fasting,” I tried to take photos of people’s backs.
All of the response I saw from churchgoers or people driving by was positive. Meanwhile, people handed out Jagerstatter holy cards to those leaving mass.
Then we went over to the Federal Building, where they didn’t care where we stood, so long as we weren’t blocking a door. I don’t have any good face-free pix of this part, so here you see Scott and Ken posing with the banner.
Nice omnibus Ash Wednesday post from Rocco Palmo. This bit sums up the point of the vigil, for me:
The crux of Ash Wednesday is one that fascinates, and rightfully so: in a world — and, indeed, in a church — too often obsessed with appearances, with shirking blame and maintaining an image of perfection (sometimes at any cost), all that gets turned inside out: I’m far from perfect. I don’t have all the answers. I can’t go it alone. What I do matters beyond myself.
508 #20: Foreclosure
508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s co-host is Brendan Melican.
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A listener writes about the EPA, Worcester, and water treatment. Worcester Magazine has a great cover story on adult entertainment zoning. A Telegram & Gazette reader complains that they ran a letter based on a posting on their “Speakeasy” message board. (I can’t find the original letter with a Google search–let me know if you find it.) The New York Times, which owns the T&G, is having hard financial times.
Did you know that there’s another podcast that touches on local issues? Check out Facing East.
The Lincoln-Estates Elm Park Neighborhood Association website has gone blank. Worcester Magazine ran a bad editorial about surveillance. We tie the surveillance issue to reduced revenues from water and trash.
Mike talks about his adventures archiving City Council meetings.
Guest Grace Ross explains the foreclosure crisis and how it’s affecting local residents.
Lent 2008
What are Pie and Coffee readers and contributors doing for Lent?
Among other things, I’ll be participating in the Worcester Lenten fast and prayer for an end to the Iraq War. I’m not sure yet what form my fasting will take.
Feel free to post your thoughts below, or link to a blog post. Contributors, feel free to add resources to this post.
From the pope’s Lenten message:
The Gospel highlights a typical feature of Christian almsgiving: it must be hidden: “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,†Jesus asserts, “so that your alms may be done in secret†(Mt 6,3-4). . . . If, in accomplishing a good deed, we do not have as our goal God’s glory and the real well being of our brothers and sisters, looking rather for a return of personal interest or simply of applause, we place ourselves outside of the Gospel vision.
So I assume everybody is giving alms, and you don’t have to mention that.
Worcester Lenten Prayer and Fast for an End to the Iraq War
As Roman Catholics who love the Church, we listened closely to Pope John Paul II who called the 2003 Iraq War “a defeat for humanity” and to Pope Benedict XVI who said, “There were not sufficient reasons to unleash a war against Iraq,” and went on to say, “We should be asking ourselves if it is still licit to admit the very existence of a just war.”
We remember that, despite the Vatican’s clear opposition to the Iraq War, only one American Bishop, Most Rev. John Michael Botean, condemned it. In a 2003 Lenten Pastoral Letter, Bishop Botean called the Iraq War “objectively grave evil, a matter of mortal sin.”
On March 19, the Iraq War will enter its fifth year. More than 150,000 Iraqi civilians and nearly 4,000 American soldiers have perished. Hundreds of thousands of our sisters and brothers have been injured, orphaned, or left homeless.
We cannot help but wonder if this war could have been prevented with a stronger voice of opposition from all of us in the American Catholic Church. We admit our own complicity by our failure to raise our own voices more forcefully. But, even now, we believe that the voice of our Church can help end the bloodshed.
Therefore, inspired by the witness of Blessed Franz Jagerstatter, we join concerned Catholics in twelve other dioceses around the United States to call for a Lenten prayer and fast for peace. Like Jagerstatter, the only known Roman Catholic to refuse service in Hitler’s military during World War II, we believe that the Church must not stay “silent in the face of what is happening.” Starting on Ash Wednesday, we invite all people of conscience to join us at Saint Paul’s Cathedral for midday Mass each weekday, followed by a peace vigil outside the church and, shortly thereafter, at the nearby United States Federal Building. We will conclude our prayer and fasting during Holy Week on March 19th with a special Catholic peace witness at the Federal Building.
We hope and pray that this witness in Worcester and other dioceses around the country will draw the Church closer to the nonviolent Christ and help our nation to end the Iraq War and Occupation.
Worcester Gadget Fiesta
This weekend, 4 of us played with 2 gadgets that are intended to establish new market niches and which embrace “openness”: the XO (aka OLPC, a tiny laptop for developing-world kids) and the Chumby (a tiny wifi-enabled Linux box intended to compete with clock radios).
My blog post “The Chumby Is a Waste of Money” is coming soon, but I have to admit that watching the Worcester Commons webcam on this thing was pure fun.
Whatever the faults of OLPC’s strategy, their project already seems to have scared for-profit companies into making laptops for developing-world kids. And boy, the XO is a sweet piece of hardware: playing with it, I got the same thrill as when I first used the Wii and iPhone.
Odd UI: A big plus, in my book. What’s life without challenges?
Interesting apps: Two friends, much less geeky than I, had great fun seeing what they could get this thing to do. If there’s a fine line between confusing and intriguing, this is on the right side of that line.
Durable: I’m very hard on gadgets, so I love the solid feel of the XO. This is the only laptop I’d be comfortable using as a club or cutting board.
Cute as heck: Your iPhone will look sleek this year, old-fashioned next year. A thing of cuteness is cute forever.
We were telling one friend about the arty video game Passage (via Kottke), and Nick got it running on the XO. A cool end to a cool afternoon.
Related:
The XO in Darfur
XO vs. Macbook Air
Using the Chumby to build a robot car
508 #19: Our friend, Kate Toomey
508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s co-host is Brendan Melican. This week’s guests are Jeff Barnard and Anne Lewenberg.
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The City and EPA disagree about Worcester’s water treatment; we explore the social dynamics of having a city councilor as a Facebook friend. (Here’s the Cory Doctorow essay.)
We respond to some claims by Anthony Hmura, and note that his blog is totally avant garde. Brendan updates us on the median income debate. Note that he’s now Chair of the Cultural Commission!
HBML is “expanding,” and Mike won the giant plush squid.
Jeff Barnard talks about why there’s no “top story” in Worcester, and Anne Lewenberg describes the ongoing, successful Anarchist Theory and Action Skill Share Series.
Listen to the mp3 or other formats.
Update:Jeff created this fun short video using his own footage and the 508 audio:
Items
An extra $1,000,000 for Worcester’s homeless
Good article by Jay Whearly:
The ambitious initiative, announced by the Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts, is to begin immediately and will initially target 125 people, an estimated 20 percent of Worcester’s chronic homeless population.
[…]
Home Again pulls together the resources of Community Healthlink, Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance, Dismas House, Henry Lee Willis Community Center, Jeremiah’s Inn, and South Middlesex Opportunity Council’s People in Peril Shelter in Worcester. Brook [sic] Doyle, vice president of homeless and detoxification services for Community Healthlink will serve as project director.
Rep. Jim McGovern, Brooke Doyle, Brian Bickford, and Cha-Cha Connor at this year’s Worcester memorial for those who have died homeless.
Sad news from the Columbia, Missouri Catholic Worker
Read the letter:
Those of us who remain are hurting. I have lost my wife. My daughters feel abandoned and betrayed by their mother suddenly moving to another town without telling them when or why. My grandson no longer has his grandmother to dote on him. Other St. Francis CW members feel manipulated and saddened that she refused to confide in us. We don’t know if St. Francis operations in Columbia, MO can survive this crisis and we are struggling.
Ten other MLK quotes
Jay Smooth: Ten OTHER Things Martin Luther King Said
via Maximum Fun
Send WV Catholic Worker $1 to build house in Nepal
Jean Kirkhope: “It’s crazy to think I can fundraise $6,000 to build a house for a family in Nepal. Even if I asked one dollar from every person I knew, I’d still come up $5,730 short. But I’m told anything is possible with God and I’ve always been a sucker for an optimistic view of the world. So I guess I’ll start praying and asking a lot more people I don’t know, too!”
“Please send $1 in a secured envelope OR check or money order payable to:
The Catholic Worker Farm
c/o Jeannie Kirkhope
885 Orchard Run Rd.
Spencer, WV 25276”