Help Wanted: Writers

[dUSt]

Phatmass is undergoing an extreme makeover.

I need writers.

Boring writers need not apply.
Unorthodox writers need not apply.

Ultimately, I'd like a team of about 5-6 people. Your job will be to update original content to the phatmass homepage. The format will be similar to a blog or journal, but instead of one person it will be many.

You can write about anything as long as it is moral, in line with Church teaching, and not boring.

You will not have a quota, you will not have deadlines, and you will not get paid. You will become famous.

That is all.

[Guest T-Bone]

Where do I apply?

[Starets]

sounds interesting.

[dUSt]

You can apply by replying to this thread with an example of what one of your typical articles would look like.

[Sojourner]

I might be interested. Lemme give it some thought.

Oh.

Will we be writing under our SNs or real names?

Edited April 24, 2007 by Terra Firma

[jmjtina]

sounds good. So I can post my example anytime.

sweet.

[Starets]

Well, here is one I wrote in my own blog, part of a series of posts on "Why I am Benedictine"
[i]If a pilgrim monastic coming from a distant region
wants to live as a guest of the monastery,
let him be received for as long a time as he desires,
provided he is content
with the customs of the place as he finds them
and does not disturb the monastery by superfluous demands,
but is simply content with what he finds.
If, however, he censures or points out anything reasonably
and with the humility of charity,
let the Abbot consider prudently
whether perhaps it was for that very purpose
that the Lord sent him.
If afterwards he should want to bind himself to stability,
his wish should not be denied him,
especially since there has been opportunity
during his stay as a guest
to discover his character.
But if as a guest he was found exacting or prone to vice,
not only should he be denied membership in the community,
but he should even be politely requested to leave,
lest others be corrupted by his evil life.[/i]
[b]Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter 61[/b]

This is part of a series of chapters about hospitality and the reception of guests. It starts by reminding us that a guest is to be received as Jesus would be received. Again, the relevant line of Matthew 25 is cited. Since I am not a guestmaster in a monastery, I like to think of any guests I might have as "wandering monastics".

I never did have a single guest while I was at my previous address. I did have a few people visit me, but they never came to my apartment. I have had guests in previous apartments, before my involvement with benedictine spirituality.

There are some general principles that St. Benedict has for the reception of guests. First and foremost, they are go be received as one would receive Jesus himself. There is something very "incarnational" about that. We meet and receive Jesus every day. In guests, yes, but also in the poor, in the sick, in each other, and in the Abbot.

Guests are expected to act humbly and respect the customs of the monastery they find themselves in. They can make criticisms as long as they do so humbly. The abbot is expected to mull over these criticisms. After all, that may be the very reason why they were sent there in the first place. If, however, guests and visiting monastics prove to be exacting, prone to vice, or just generally a pain in the ... gluteus maximus, they can be politely asked to leave.

Hospitality is something that is offered, not something that is demanded. St. Benedict's attitude contrasts very sharply with that of a former roommate. He once came up to me with an amused smile and told me how someone else in the building had refused to be "neighborly". I found out later that he asked one of the ladies in the building do his laundry for him and she had said no. If a complete stranger came up to me and asked me to do his laundry for him, I would probably refuse the request as well. The chutzpah of such a request is almost mindboggling!

also, the offering of hospitality is a virtue, not a vice. I once had a few people over for pizza and some softdrinks. When the aforementioned roommate found out about it a couple days later, he decided I couldn't possibly be christian. After all I "had a party". St. Benedict, however, would say the exact opposite. It's safe to say that he would have been just as ... amused by that judgement as I was!

All three of the monasteries I have visited have asked both guests and prospective monks to leave. I also have asked guests to leave. There is nothing necessarily unbenedictine or unchristian about that, as long as the reasons for the expulsion fall into the categories St. Benedict outlines.

[Sanvean]

I wrote this for my blog the other day, titled, "Are you scared yet?"
=

Last night, I was called a scary Church Lady.

You heard me. I bet some of you are even starting to giggle a little bit right about now.

I had just stumbled out of my bedroom on a study break, and started chatting with one of my roommates. I'm not sure how it came up (I think, though, we were discussing my terrible habit of volunteering for anything, and everything, I can... but that's a subject for another post), but my roommate commented on the fact that, while she loves little old Church Ladies, the young ones terrify her.

Young ones like me.

Baffled, I managed to keep myself composed long enough to ask her to explain why. Ever graciously, she explained to me that she had never, ever, met Catholics like me and another of our roommates; she thinks it might have something to do with the Cathedral. Either way, we scare her.

We're so... hardcore.

At this point, I confess that I did start laughing. Me? Little, rough-around-the-edges me... hardcore?

I wish.

Still, I tried to think about it from her point of view, and I can see where she's coming from. She sees us as these two, brilliant, successful, faithful, young women... who are also practicing Catholics.

It doesn't quite compute. If people like us believe in all this Catholicism stuff... well, maybe there's something to it.

And if that's the case, well... it might just call for some pretty radical changes in her life.

Of course, we might just be crazy, too.

Either way: it's pretty scary.

I know. I've been there.

Growing up, Christianity was absolutely foreign to me. I knew that, once upon a time, our family was Ukrainian Catholic(or Orthodox- the story changed every time I asked), but we weren't anymore. All I knew beyond that was that Christianity had something to do with God, and death... and some guy named Jesus. I was curious, of course, and wanted to know more, but it was strictly academic: Christians were weird, and I wanted nothing to do with them. It might be catching.

Of course, that was never much of problem: they didn't want much to do with me, either.

So, as I got to know a few Real Live Christians in my last year of high school, it was... pretty awkward. I thought they were not very smart, and a little crazy, while they thought I was just a hard-hearted little Heathen(that last wasn't really so far from the truth, as you know). Anyway, they scared me; they knew something that I didn't, and I wasn't sure that I even wanted to know.

Conversations went something like this:

Christian: Well, you see, Jesus loves you...
Me: Who?
Christian: He's God.
Me: Oh. Ok.
Christian: Anyway, well, He died for your sins...
Me: Wait! Sins? What's a "sin?"
Christian: *sighs*

It was pretty bad, as I'm sure you can imagine. You see, they were operating under the assumption, as do most people, that pretty much everyone in North America is familiar with the basic concepts of Christianity, but that assumption isn't really always that accurate. It certainly wasn't in my case.

A couple years of study later, I began to accept that perhaps there was, at the least, a pretty solid intellectual framework to Christianity, although I couldn't understand how anyone could actually believe any of it. It was a frightening thought, and I began to spent a great deal of time rooting out arguments against Christianity.

Ironically, as some of you know, things really began to come together in my first year of university: I studied under a rather anti-Catholic professor who spent a considerable amount of time teaching us Everything That Is Wrong With the Catholic Church. I loved it, and started studying up on my St. Augustine. The rest is, well... history.

Still, even on the night of the Easter Vigil, I was terrified. For that matter, I sometimes still am. I know very well that the truth of the Catholic faith necessarily called for some radical changes in my life.

Christianity is not something that can be lived by half-measures- God is worth far more than that.

We are all called to lives of radical love and servanthood, in service to Love Himself, and maybe... we don't think about that nearly enough.

It's something my roommate seems to know intuitively: this is something big. It's counter-cultural, and the very possibility that we might be right is a direct challenge to everything the world holds dear.

That can be a pretty scary thought... especially if you only know half the story. So many people, like my roommate, hear about Catholic moral teaching, and only see condemnation through a list of some very arbitrary rules. They don't look beyond the surface - maybe because no one has ever shown them.

They see the lists of rules, but never the reasons behind them.

They only see the condemnation, and never the love and freedom.

You see, each one of us, as Catholics, and as Christians, serve as a tangible reminder of the fact that there is something more to this life. We are Christ's representatives here on earth, and meeting us may serve as the closest many people ever come to encountering Him. Think about that the next time you speak with a non-Christian.

In many ways, it's the scariest thought of all.

[Domine ut Videam]

I wrote this on one of my blogs....

[b]sunshine and chocolate kisses[/b]
Current mood: jubilant

The Hindus' say that:

"The key to realizing happiness lies in the recognition of the true nature of our present existence."


They say that in every religion there is truth, well; i think that the Hindus' have hit the nail on the head with this. Do you ever notice that people in third-world countries can have next to nothing, practically no material possessions, and yet still be completely happy; and yet many, many Americans have all that money can buy them, fast cars, cellphones, big houses, lots of clothes, and yet they are not happy at all and are very discontent. Why is this?

We have all heard the old-adages of being grateful for what you have and what-not, but that never really satisfies the question. Sure the poor beggar in India appreciates his family and the one loaf of bread he receives all the more when he receives it, but what makes him happy over another man who has? Why does have not=happiness and having=not? We are dissatisfied with the answer.

This quote however, finally gives us the answer that we have searched for. In reality, it is not a question of having or not having, or even of being appreciative of what you do have. Because if that was the case then all those that had would be way more happy than the paupers because they could be way more appreciate. It is simply a matter of being happy in the present moment. Of enjoying being alive where you are, of doing what you are doing when you are doing it, and of doing it wholeheartedly. The Hindus' say that the key lies in realizing that happiness lies in [u]recognizing[/u] the true nature of our present existence because, the true nature of our present existence is one of joy, it is one of life, veracity, and joyousness. But to recognize this is the hard part. Often, the material possessions do get in the way.

So maybe this is why people in third-world countries are better at discovering that life is easier if you live it in the present moment; maybe it is because they are not hindered as we are by all of our stuff.

I hope that you all can find true happiness in your life in the present moment. It's in the little things. Like in sunshine and chocolate kisses, in vacuuming for your mom, in helping your brother with his homework, in jogging by the ocean. Happiness is living life fully.
It is the present moment. May it never pass you by.

Edited April 25, 2007 by Domine ut Videam

[Sojourner]

The trees outside the building where I work have been slowly sprouting leaves over the past week and a half. I’ve been watching these trees for several months. In fall the leaves turned color and fell. Over the cold winter the limbs bore the weight of snow and withstood bitter winds. And now, the tips have ever so slowly been pushing out little green leaves.

The other day I walked beneath the budding limbs and was struck for a moment by the futility of it all. These trees are going through all the work of budding and growing, but come October it will all be for naught. The leaves will wither and lose their luster, the blustery winds will blow them to the ground, and these lovely trees will once again be naked and defenseless to the onslaught of a cold, dark winter. I thought, why? What’s the point of going through all the effort, only to have it stripped away in a few short months?

The answer came almost as quickly as the question: This is how they’re made. They’re doing what they were created to do. The tree has no thought for the future cold and dark, only for the call that courses through its limbs with the warmth of the sun. It answers this call with joyful abandon. Come hail or high water, God brings renewed life.

Every so often I get a sense of a call like that, a song deep in my veins wooing me to do what I am created to do: to love as God loves, to give of myself with joyful abandon, without regard for the cold and dark that might be coming. Unlike the trees, though, I have a choice of whether or not to answer. The call for me comes a hundred times a day, sometimes in little choices and sometimes in big ones. How will I respond to my housemate’s crazy new demands? How will I handle the slight by my classmate? Will I take time to call my lonely friend and chat for a while?

I do have a choice: to love as God has loved me, or to assert my own wishes and desires and act out of fear and selfishness. More times than I’d care to admit I act out of selfishness, afraid of the vulnerability that loving as I’ve been loved brings. I become a dead tree branch in the midst of the glory of spring. So … these days I’m trying to listen closer to the call to love as I’ve loved, and to forgive as I’ve been forgiven, and remain open to the healing and renewed life that comes from doing what I’ve been created to do.

[catholicinsd]

I'd like to do this also. However I can't get free to write an article at present. Dust, when does this have to be done?

[philosophette]

Hmm...

Well, here is a selection [url="http://intothedeep.wordpress.com/2007/04/20/penance-what-does-de-sales-say/"]from my blog:[/url]



[quote][b]April 20[/b]
Let us walk lightly and joyously amid the difficulties of this passing life. Let us willingly accept the mortifications, pains and afflictions that we find on the way. We are certain that these trials will end with this life, after which there will be only joy and eternal consolations. ([url="http://www.oblates.org/spirituality/daily_with_desales/april.php"]Sermons 57; O. X, p. 247[/url])
[/quote]
One of the more interesting (and very random) conversations that I have with people usually centers on penance. Usually the conversation will start out with, “So, Brittany, what are you planning to do with your education?” and I meekly respond, “Well, actually, I think I’m going to enter the convent.”

*moaning and nashing of teeth*

“What? Nuns are so old fashioned, with those whips and living on bread and all.”
[i]
(I told you that I have some [b]interesting [/b]conversations.)
[/i]
As time passes I am finding it harder and harder to conceal the bemused look that must cross my face when people bring up whips and crusty old bread. I hardly possess the girth of one who lives on bread alone, but rather I am plump on “every word that comes from the mouth of God”. (Matt. 4:4)

In Salesian spirituality penance is very simple. St Therese understood very well the Sales-ian concept of sanctifying the everyday through love and surrender to God’s will.

Now I am not the best example of a Salesian who puts this into practice. I tend to lack faith and over all argue with the Lord a little too much, but if I was better (and I pray to be better) when I met an annoying person, or found myself in a difficult situation, or had a sandwich with mayonnaise on it (Oh, and I do [i]so[/i] hate mayonnaise) instead of complaining (when there is really no point to complaining), I would smile and offer it to God as penance.

Go ahead and tell me that is not penance, but try it yourself; see how long you can last on penances you do not choose for yourself! ha. It is rather humbling to realize that sometimes its easier to fast on bread and water than to endure the daily trials that are a part of life’s packaged deal. We want so much to complain, [i]so much[/i] to question Divine Providence, so much to think that God has abandoned us or “obviously” hates us. If only we had faith, if only I had faith, we would see that maybe that annoying person was put there by God to teach us patience and mercy, that difficult situation to make us more resilient and wise, and that sandwich with mayonnaise… well, there is just no excuse for mayonnaise on a sandwich (sorry Lord!).

At any rate, St Francis de Sales tells us to accept whatever comes our way and not to try to go overboard on penances we pick for ourselves (because then our ego can really inflate if we think we are doing “holy” things). Don Bosco reminds us, “If God permits these trials and tribulations, it is because He wants to draw great good from them. We must be brave, unselfish, and patient. We must keep going with trust in Him.” Ok, I guess I can endure a few mayo slathered sandwiches… … you endured much worse, Jesus.
[i]
Lord, I often try to go my own way in life, and complain about the path which you have chosen for me. I am impatient with those around me, and when things are especially tough I sometimes even question your love for me. Help me to have a greater faith in you and the humility to acknowledge that although I may not understand the “why” of everything, you do.[/i]

[jmjtina]

i usually write about current things in my life or stuff i read and my reaction to things, small and great, food and CCD, and sometimes duct tape.

Edited April 25, 2007 by jmjtina

[SJRod55]

I would love to dUSt when is the closing date for 'applications?'

[-I---Love]

Sanvean - I like how ur theme is tied together - very applicable to both sides (Catholic and non-catholics) - maybe it could be expanded on...?