Emmanuel Charles McCarthy podcast: Behold the Lamb

Here’s Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy’s recorded retreat “Behold the Lamb” in podcast form: podcast feed

“He takes as his central theme the Nonviolent Lamb of God and focuses on this biblical symbol and reality as the true icon and transcendental model for encountering God as revealed by Jesus, and for understanding and following the Way of God as taught by Jesus.”

The recordings:

  1. The Lamb: To Be Adored and Imitated
  2. The Lamb: The Mystery of Gods Suffering Servant
  3. The Mind of the Lamb
  4. The Lamb Who Glorifies God
  5. The Church: A Fold of Lambs
  6. The Love That Is Lamb-Like
  7. The Lamb in a Jungle
  8. The Means of the Lamb
  9. The Lamb Who Is Rich in Mercy
  10. The Security of the Lamb
  11. The Trustworthy Lamb
  12. The Mystery of the Oneness in the Lamb: Baptism
  13. The Lambs Lamb: Mary
  14. The Lamb of Forgiving Love
  15. The Lamb of Serving Love
  16. The Resurrected Lamb

More info at the Center for Christian Nonviolence site.

At a time when I had more or less convinced myself nonviolence was the way to go, I attended a small talk by Father McCarthy which sent me racing down that path.

Here’s the first part of the series, to whet your appetite:

Tribune: Jury selected in manhole murder case

South Bend Tribune:

Potential jurors in the murder trial of Randy Lee Reeder were reminded of their responsibilities on Friday.

In order to be fair as jurors, St. Joseph Superior Court Judge John M. Marnocha said, they must be able to set aside what they already may know of this case, which attracted “a lot of local media attention” earlier this year.

Yesterday’s paper:

Randy Lee Reeder, who was reportedly homeless at the time of the killings, was arrested in February after Daniel J. Sharp, 55, confessed to their involvement in the deaths of Michael “Shan” Nolen Jr., Michael Lawson, Brian Talboom and Jason Coates.

Previously:

Interfaith speaker series in South Bend (2007)

As reported in this morning’s Tribune, the Unity Church of Peace is hosting an interfaith speaker series in August 2007, Sundays at 10am.

  • August 5: Imam Mohammed Sirajuddin of the local Islamic Society
  • August 12: David Cortright of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, former executive director of the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE)
  • August 19: Deborah Dwyer, member of the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of South Bend
  • August 26: Rabbi Eric Siroka, spiritual leader of Temple Beth-El in South Bend

More about the Unity Church, including their practice of not complaining for 21 days.

South Bend diary

Last night I cooked dinner at the Catholic Worker here, and emerged from the kitchen to find a huge crowd assembled in the backyard for the meal. My heart filled with joy and I boomed out, “Happy Sunday!”

An Italian, in town for a conference, came up to me afterwards to remark that Buona Domenica is an established greeting, but that he’d never heard an English speaker say “Happy Sunday.” He said that Italians also say buona continuazione (happy continuance?), and buon proseguimento, which translates roughly as “happy follow-through” or “happy proceeding.” Also, they say buon lavorno for “happy work.”

I cooked pizza and white-bean-and-pasta soup. The pizza recipe is mostly from Cooks Illustrated. The soup is a white-bean-and-roasted-garlic soup from Isa Chandra Moskowitz, with a bag of pasta thrown in.

* * * *

This morning I attended the beginning of a Mennonite-Catholic theological conference at Notre Dame. It centers on the document Called Together To Be Peacemakers. This document does a good job comparing and contrasting the two faiths; I recommend it. The proceedings of the conference will soon be available at the conference website.

* * * *

You ever have one of those days when you’re hungover and sweeping out a soup kitchen, and feel like life is a burden, and then a ragged, weathered man sits down at the piano and riffs on “Let It Be” for 20 minutes, and the burden floats away? I love that.

Mr. Hetero’s final chapter, and other items

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Mr. Hetero’s final chapter
Worcester Magazine notes that Tom “Mr Hetero” Crouse has dropped his lawsuit against the City, in which he claimed he was coerced into paying for a huge police detail to protect his “Mr. Hetero” pageant (see City documents for more). The City Solicitor writes:

The suit was dismissed by Rev. Crouse when it became apparent in depositions that Mechanics Hall, acting as his agent and fearing that the agreed upon number of police officers would not be sufficient to protect event attendees, actually requested additional paid-duty police officers above and beyond the number recommended by and agreed-to by Rev. Crouse and Mechanics Hall for the event to further ensure the safety of event attendees.

Earlier in his statement, the City Solicitor engages in fantasy:

Attendance at both the event and the protests was far less than expected due for the most part because February 18, 2006 turned out to be one of the coldest days of the winter.

There’s no evidence that the weather was the key factor; days before the event, Worcester Magazine was reporting that advance ticket sales were extremely low. For February, the weather was actually pretty nice; at least there wasn’t a blizzard or icy roads.
Continue reading “Mr. Hetero’s final chapter, and other items”

Catholic Peace Fellowshop conference podcast

The Catholic Peace Fellowship posted the audio of their 2007 conference months ago, but I missed the announcement, so maybe you did too.

[Podcast feed]

Catholic Peace Fellowship co-founder Jim Forest: mp3

Merton noticed that when compassion and love are absent, actions that are superficially nonviolent tend to mask deep hostility, contempt, and the desire to defeat and humiliate the opponent.

My housemate, CPF head Mike Baxter: mp3

. . . the division besetting the churches is the product of the absorption of those churches into the U.S. mainstream, and, more particularly, into the political culture of the United States. The result is that the word of Christ and the way of discipleship gets tamed, watered-down, domesticate, so that non-Catholics—good Catholics, sincere Catholics, committed Catholics—imagine they must choose between thee two false and, quite honestly, unfaithful alternatives.

Catholic conscientious objector Joshua Casteel: mp3

Catholic conscientious objector Jonathan Lace: mp3

My housemate, Catholic conscientious objector Daniel Baker: mp3

Someone asked me in one of the classes, yesterday or the day before, “Do you think that there are vocations for this kind of thing? Do you think God provides people vocations for the military?” And I think that God does. But not for the institutions that we have. Not for this military. I think that there are vocations to defend people. To defend those who cannot defend themselves. However, I think the goal is to create those organizations, like this one, those institutions where those people can serve honestly for humanity, with their skills, their gifts that God gave them, and really make a difference without having to resort to violence.