Denver Newsroom, Jan 16, 2021 / 02:00 am (CNA).- Like many in 2020, Catholic author Leah Libresco Sargeant found much solace in the past year in spiritual reading— as well as in copious amounts of baking.
“The big thing this year, especially with the new baby, is making large batches of cookies and then freezing a bunch of the dough so that there could always be fresh cookies, even if it’s a very busy day and it’s not plausible to make any. It’s great,” she laughed.
Leah is a convert from atheism, and writes and thinks a lot about ways to build up strong Christian communities. In fact, she wrote a book about it a couple of years ago, called “Building the Benedict Option,” in which she encourages Catholics to create opportunities in their lives to interact more with their faith community.
These additional, intentional interactions can include taking the initiative to host people more often for dinner or events at your home, especially on feast days. Her book offers tips on how to make these interactions more successful in building tight-knit Christian communities.
Although many of the suggestions in Leah’s book are predicated on face-to-face interactions, she said she has found ways to adapt her community-building practices during coronavirus times.
“I think one of the hard things is just having a routine shattered; some of the connections you have with other people vanishing. And it takes a bit of work, then, to build up from scratch what you otherwise could rely on from other people,” she noted.
For example, she’s taken the initiative to maintain several penpals, keeping friendships alive by conversing via snail mail. A habit Leah practiced even before the pandemic was sending things to people that she found spiritually enriching— such as book passages, or information about interesting saints— in the hopes that they would find it spiritually enriching too.
Most dioceses in the United States, save for a few in the West, have reopened almost all their churches for Mass with continued precautions such as social distancing and mask wearing. Catholic churches in Princeton, New Jersey where the Sargeants live have generally been accessible since the summer of 2020, but Leah says there have been times when the Sergeants have had to miss in-person Mass and instead participate from home via livestream.
“We try and make that an opportunity to pray for people who are in more remote places, who have a traveling priest who doesn’t come every week, even in normal times— or people who are living under persecution,” Leah told CNA.
“To try and take this unexpected and unwanted fast from the Mass as an opportunity to pray for people for whom [access to the sacraments] is an ongoing struggle, pandemic or no.”
Part of the key to making it through “unexpected fasts” from the sacraments is to reach out to others and offer to walk through it with them, she said.
“If you can’t go to Mass, or can’t go to Mass as often as you used to, part of the question might be: do you have a friend who is also in this position?” she said, adding that you could call that person on the phone and offer to pray with them.
“Is there a way that this can become something you share with others, rather than just a time of isolation?
Adding that she does not want to “sugarcoat” the difficulties in keeping a sense of community alive during the pandemic, Sergeant said restrictions on public gatherings, including Mass, have made spontaneous, organic interactions with her neighbors more difficult.
“I think in some ways what the pandemic has done is strengthened some of my ties with people who I’ve fallen out of touch with a little, and who don’t live nearby, and weakened them a bit with my actual neighbors,” she said.
On the other hand, Sergeant said she has found that the extra time spent at home during the pandemic has helped her and her family to pray more in their home.
Leah and her husband Alexi welcomed their first child in January 2020, so a lot of their domestic church traditions in the past year have been shaped by that joyful fact. For example, the Sargeants decided against putting out a physical Advent wreath in 2020.
“A lot of our traditions have to be things that are less tangible, because literally everything in the house goes into [the baby’s] mouth,” she laughed.
One “intangible” habit that Leah and her husband have gotten into is doing spiritual reading every Sunday, out loud, to each other. They’ve made their way through works such as the biblical poetry of Gregory of Nazianzus and “The Day is Now Far Spent” by Robert Cardinal Sarah.
Leah has also continued her habit of blogging, attracting several hundred followers to an email newsletter in which she writes on topics such as motherhood, the benefits she has found from working from home, and a variety of others from a Catholic feminist perspective.
One of the keys to a healthy spiritual life is silence, and cultivating periods of silence every day for prayer and peacefulness. Leah says she’s been working on this for a while, and added that the birth of her first child has, perhaps paradoxically, helped her to find quieter moments than she had before.
“For me, a baby is sometimes an excuse not to find those periods of silence. But…a baby forces you to be fully present in the moment, to put aside some of your own goals or own plans for the day,” she explained.
“And if she falls asleep on top of you after what’s been a rough afternoon, suddenly it is enforced silence…and if you weren’t planning to have any silent prayer too bad, now is the time!”
The human toll of the pandemic has a lot of people thinking about death— not only the deaths of others, but their inevitable own. Leah says for Catholics, who believe in resurrection, thinking about death is not necessarily a bad thing.
“The Church has always told us to meditate on our own death, and to make that part of our spiritual practice,” she pointed out.
“[God] defeated death and freed us from fear of it, but that doesn’t make it easy. That’s why we talk about this as a spiritual practice, something we have to do deliberately again and again, to build up that trust in God and that knowledge of who He is. And so I think the pandemic is really forcing that good spiritual practice on us in a much more stressful and frightening way than if we’d chosen it ourselves.”
This meditation on what it means to die, and for things to end, applies not just to individuals, but to the Church as a whole. Even in non-pandemic times, there are always going to be people at Mass who are journeying through grief and suffering, and pastors shouldn’t shy away from addressing that, Sergeant said, seeking to assure people that experiencing spiritual aridity and grief does not make them “bad Christians.”
“There’s always someone in your neighborhood, in your parish, who’s going through a time that’s just as hard as it is now [in the pandemic], but it isn’t shared,” she said.
“So part of the question is: Whatever’s going on now that’s helping us take care of each other, how do we continue that when there isn’t the shock of a pandemic to remind us that people around us are suffering?”
The pandemic hasn’t only brought challenges, however. There have also been some fun opportunities for enhancing the Sargeant’s family life— several of which involve baking. Leah recommends seeking out a sourdough starter, as it makes for a fun baking activity as well as a potential gift to pass on to others.
“If you’re only feeding one thing in your house, it should be the baby, not the sourdough starter,” she laughed.
This interview originally aired on Catholic News Agency’s podcast, CNA Newsroom. It has been adapted for print. Listen to the interview below, beginning at 9:40.
CNA Newsroom · Ep. 89: Taking Back the Year
[…]
“Biden is in trouble with Catholic voters”.
The movie ‘The Way’ one of whose stars is Martin Sheen is being rereleased.
Martin Sheen played a very pro-choice ‘catholic’ president with a degree from Notre Dame in the series ‘The West Wing’.
In a scene toward the end of the series he smoked a cigarette which he snubbed out on the floor of a church during a soliloquy in the course of which he called almighty God a ‘sonofab…h’.
Now he is shilling for fellow ‘catholic’ Joe Biden.
Something doesn’t add up, or – maybe it does.
FYI – I have the original DVD and enjoy it.
Terence, I need to secure a copy of the original “The Way” myself. Last year I viewed the re-release and every change that they made diminished the movie from adding outtakes to changing at least 2 musical score. I love that movie and know it inside and out and the unfortunate changes were glaring.
Not to all: if given the choice between the two, go for the original release! It is a wonderful movie.
He is only a problem for The Faithful, although an unfaithful Catholic who desires to render onto Caesar or His/Her self what belongs to God is an oxymoron.
Interesting
So it would look like so-called catholics dont like either candidate. Well, they had better start to wake up and be truthful with themselves about the immense damage Biden and the democrats have done to the country. Millions for wars when we cant pave our roads, inflation, soaring violent crime in every city, open border issues and tax burden levied on our own poor to support illegals who have no business being here, on and on. Name one thing they have gotten right. Biden wants to give a free pass to the select group of students who took out loans, and in places like California, free college to illegals too. If you are hard pressed to buy gas, or groceries, or are afraid to go into your own city, you have reaped the rewards of voting for Biden and his ilk. Enjoy. My question to Democrat voters is , are you really that ill informed? Or is it that you just cant admit you were wrong to vote for the democrats?
So, it seems that so-called World Trade Center workers didn’t like either being burned alive or jumping from a building. Well, they had better have started to wake up and be truthful with themselves about the immense damage fire would do to their bodies and throw themselves out the windows.
Translation: You have two obvious choices. One of them is very bad. THAT DOES NOT PROVE THE OTHER OBVIOUS CHOICE IS NOT ALSO VERY BAD. What is needed is a GOOD option, not a lesser evil.
Outis;
You are correct in stating that what is needed is a GOOD option. Unfortunately one is not available this time, so – again – this is a hold your nose and cast your vote election.
Do you actually believe that voting for Donald Trump is equivalent to jumping out of the World Trade Center or perishing inside?
You know , there are readers of CWR who either have lost loved ones on 911 or are acquainted with people who have.
I know you don’t intend to cause distress and free speech is important but sometimes hyperbole isn’t the better choice.
There currently are only 2 candidates who have a chance of becoming president. I understand that in a perfect world we’d have a candidate that people of faith could endorse 100%. But these are the 2 choices we have and I know that things will only continue to unravel under 4 more years of a Biden administration. Or whichever Democrat takes his place. I want at least a little bit of our culture left for my grandchildren to inherit. Damage control is better than destruction.
US Constitution notwithstanding, non-religious things are being made to supercede religious; then the FBI and others are (supposedly) unable to resolve the divergence -or, they profess they are able to; later the Supreme Court tries to find ways to incorporate the dichotomies. As if there was any real and true answer to problems and their right resolution, through those approaches.
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2024/04/19/biden-administration-redefines-sex-discrimination-in-title-ix-to-include-gender-identity-2/
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2024/04/19/fbi-investigating-threats-against-multiple-faith-communities-in-pennsylvania/
Let’s face it, the general moral decay is causing the unraveling of the democratic form of government and we are heading toward totalitarian governments around the globe. Democracy demands a common morality, which we no longer have. Democracy was the product of the majority holding and practicing Judio Christian values. We no longer are the majority so we can’t expect our views to be upheld. Sadly, to say we are now becoming a persecuted minority. But on the bright side, we know that persecution brings purging and purity to the church : the more the persecution, the stronger we become, and we can expect triumph of Jesus in the end.
We’re still a Republic but it;s not going too well since we’re headed toward socialism. Lincoln remarked in his G address:”Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”.. basically an experiment. If the CCP comes though I’m not doing what they tell me.
Outis, I agree. To vote for the lesser of two evils, is to vote for evil. At this point it may may be better not to endorse or vote for either candidate since both pose serious danger to our country and society. Is there enough evidence to convict either candidate of being a Christian? This is not to say that a goojd candidate needs to be a Christian, but I think we can insist on one who promotes and practices the Judio Christian morality which has been the backbone of our democratic society.
Yes, Outis, there is no perfect option.
But see my comment below for a description of the worst of the two voting choices.
And I didn’t even mention the most horrendous Democratic policy ever — abortion, the absolutely worst, most horrific holocaust ever visited upon humanity.
More than a *billion* — yes, that’s Billion with a ‘B’ — children slaughtered around the world over the past 51 years.
And half of Catholics voted for it.
Now, go ahead. Tell me how boorish and loud Trump can be.
Your TDS is getting a little annoying and redundant at this point. There is no “better” option – we have the candidates we have. We have a responsibility to cast a vote that is the better or the two options. If you honestly think that Biden is the better option, you have had your head in the sand for the past several years.
Athanasius, Trump Derangement Syndrome made sense when it was possible to differentiate the issues he would be leading and CHANGING. Now, however, one thing melds into another and Trump demonstrates that he is free to do as he chooses yet always now to be bound to the shuttle.
Did you know TDS also stands for three times a day (in Latin) as well as Time Driven Switching and Total Dissolved Solids – among other unmentionables that look as bad on Trump as on Biden. Or as nice.
Outis: Let me get this straight. You believe that the man, through his concrete actions, his judicial appointments, at all levels, his restructuring of foreign aid and his executive orders that affected the saving of more human lives than the actions of any individual in the entirety of human history is irredeemably evil in your divine assistant judgment? Or is it that you reject the Christian notion that whatever a reprobate past a man might have had, can always be redeemed?
I agree with this! We need to vote for the lesser of two evils and not throw our vote away on a 3rd Party candidate who has no chance of winning.
Of course, abortion is the key issue, along with Pres. Biden’s misguided and unscientific support of IVF, and of gender-transition treatment being made available to children (which many scientists and medical professionals have spoken against). T
But the issue of forgiving student loans–this is awful! Where is the money coming from, and what happens to the financial health of the nation when these loans are simply sent “out to the cornfield?” (See famous Twilight Zone episode “It’s a Good Life.”)?
And what precedent does this set for the “forgiveness” of other financial obligations?
What’s needed is better education of young people about their many options after graduating from high school! An expensive four-year-college is not necessarily the best way for everyone to go! Young people, especially minority young people, as well as teens whose parents did not attend college, don’t get the full information package that they need to make a wise decision about what to do after graduating from high school. E.g., many of the medical professions only require a two-year degree from a junior college–and then the option becomes available to earn the B.S. from a four-year college to move up the professional “ladder”–and sometimes, the hospital will pay for that continuing education! How many young people know about this?! Or know about the skilled trades, which require a trade school or apprenticeship (some of these apprenticeships are paid!) and earn high salaries?
Better career counselling–not LOAN FORGIVENESS, students is needed across the country!
Vote wisely, friends.
The Democratic Party is a death cult.
To Democrats, sterilizing children is even better than aborting them. Because a woman who has an abortion might someday give birth again.
But a child who is sterilized can never procreate.
Legalizing drugs; gay “marriage”; the sexualization of children; the green new poverty; the open border fentanyl conduit; the denial of the biologically determined sexes; the racist, divisive CRT curriculum — everything the Democratic Party advocates is aimed at restricting life and promoting death.
Death is the Democratic Party’s central tenet.
Catholics who vote Democratic, look to your souls.
Perhaps those who vote Republican will be held to the same standard for the accountability of their souls! Just perhaps. 😇
Perhaps you will tell us EXACTLY what it is that Trump did that was so horrific??
Moving the US embassy after decades of promises to Jerusalem? The Abraham Accords? Energy independence? A booming economy? Leadership shown during covid? Yes indeed, horrific. I have asked that question of many people but NEVER get a coherent answer.Likely because there isnt one, just ginned up media emotion based on lies, and a desire to act on pure spite, as have many of our democrat DA’s. The Russia collusion story was proven a hoax by the special counsel, who worked literal YEARS investigating.
As for J6, sorry but we have actually had RIOTS which did much more damage yet nobody was prosecuted. Many. Throwing ill old women in jail because they walked into the Capitol isn’t my idea of justice. In fact its more like McCarthyism. And nobody throws an “insurrection” without military support and arms. There were none there that day. The “insurrection” story is pure propaganda pablum fed to the ill-informed and credulous. So, what else have you got? The country was clearly MUCH better off under Trump. What we have now is crime, chaos, sexual perversion and the general destruction of our culture and civilization. You’d rather keep the country on that track than vote for Trump? I call that an ill-advised and pathetic exercise in self indulgence.
You can have as many wishes as you want about who you’d RATHER have running for office. But the reality is, this is who we HAVE. Throwing a toddler tantrum and staying home instead of voting guarantees that the party which makes lies and cheating a part of their platform, along with supporting a hundred other degenerate issues, will win. Men in little girls locker rooms,abnormal sex taught to grammar school kids, library drag queen performances for kids paid with taxpayer money, our military sitting ducks in the Middle East? Thank the democrats for that. If you support that stuff, vote Biden or Kennedy, or stay home. The moral weight of such a “win” will be entirely on you.You may get some personal satisfaction out of such an outcome but the country as we have known it will be destroyed.
Obviously, which is why we keep reminding ourselves of this all the time, unlike our lib counterparts who presume to appropriate the power of God rather than consider His wrath.
What will end it all for Biden is for a reporter to ask him one simple question: “Could tell us what today’s date is?” He won’t be able to answer correctly.
Either that or “What is the 4th Luminous Mystery?”
Outis has the best comment. You have to come up to it not keep trying to out-match it or trying to find something that can substitute.
The fact that a void persists for the time being even when it can be and has been spotted, is part of the formation of the action.
The first Civil War was relatively simple before the stakes got raised and things got complicated. Lincoln’s original issue was simply whether slavery should be extended into the Western territories, or not?
As for our high-stakes complications of today, one fantasy is to suppose that both presidential candidates get derailed prior to the conventions, and both parties have to scramble. Who would look good running against Harris? Probably anybody?
Another fantasy is for the defense to play the first of the three Trump trials something like this…buying silence from a prostitute (possibly to shield an election, or possibly for personal reasons, or both?); how is this tangled episode any different from Congress itself—on a huge scale and systematically—buying voter-support from client groups—with earmarks and trillion-dollar annual deficits in monopoly money instead of cathouse tokens…and now with a national debt of $34 Trillion or twice what it was only ten years ago?
I think that was actually our second civil war Mr.Peter. I hope we don’t suffer a third.
Good point about the first civil war, which could have been averted if Franklin’s Albany Plan of 1754 had been approved. Proposed was greater unity among the thirteen contiguous colonies, which might then have enabled a “commonwealth of nations.” No need, then for a War of Independence: a “civil war” rather than a total “revolution” of French vintage in 1789 and beyond.
But, as for a third civil war, what is the difference, if any, between thirteen separate but contiguous colonies and a polyhedral Church of contiguous facets but with no consistent and unifying center?
What does any of this really mean since the Catholic reliion is not viewed favorably by a majority of Catholics?
Clearly that was a typo where I misspelled religion in reference to the religion that most Catholics fail to view favorably.
Catholics should wash their hands of politics. Never did Christ tell his followers to go to Rome and write man-made laws. God gave us the Church and the Word of God to change the world. We have an allegiance to God and have no allegiance to a man-made government. Our leaders reside in our Church and not in Washington, DC. Our job on earth is to fill our Churches with Followers of Christ so everyone can hear the powerful Word of God —-that will solve many, many problems.
Render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Remember? Most Catholics dont live in a monastery and dont have the luxury of pretending we dont see what is happening in front of us. Politicians who change the laws to allow men in womens locker rooms, support euthanasia, or support the surgical mutilation of children should NEVER get the support of any catholic.In addition, since our tax dollars are used to fund such perversions, it is our responsibility to raise loud objections to that. Opting out of voting is not a real option. In fact it is totally irresponsible.Further, overly generous immigration regulations pushed by liberals means the country is barely christian anymore.( Have you seen those antisemitic demonstrations on the news lately??) Those who are not Christian have little to no interest in our religious and moral point of view. You must work with the tools at hand, even if they are not perfect.
Last year the number of abortions in the USA increased and the number of people attending church decreased—-we need more people in church to fix America. The man-made government in Washington DC is not part of God’s plan.
Very noble sounding, etc.
Cliche time – for every person who, in a fit of high moral dudgeon refuses to vote for Trump – that’s one vote Joe Biden doesn’t have to worry about.
I repeat – hold your nose and cast your vote, but VOTE.
Exactly, Terrence.
If I was a Democrat operative I might consider planting comments in orthodox Christian sites encouraging high minded people to stay home on election day so as not to taint their conscience. Better to watch our nation self destruct as long as we can remain latter day Puritans.
To paraphrase the late, great Johnny Cash,I’d rather be a little less heavenly minded and do some earthly good.
🙂
The homilies aren’t exactly fire and brimstone anymore. Congregants need to walk away from mass shook up a little over guilt and feeling the need to do better, in my opinion.
Im voting for Trump simply because Deep State Washington hates him. That’s the only reason I need.
Principles over personalities! I’m voting for Trump!
I live in Canada and I for the life of me cannot figure out why a person would not vote for trump. There was peace, low gas prices etc under him. Yes he had mean tweets compare that to PF, Trudeau. His wife very lady like unlike past presidents and the ex of Trudeau who is on the trail trying to sell a book about her life with the juvenile. Trump didn’t take a pay check yet past & present president plus current cdn pM have become rich ! Crazy.
I can now see why roads to hell are paved with bishops and clergy. Their silence on these pro killing of babies is deafening.