St. Patrick's Cathedral

(April 1, New York) With a day of meetings I completed the work of this trip yesterday. Food and conversation at the home of local friends made yesterday evening the most pleasant evening of the trip. Returning for a second night at my favorite New York hotel, instead of blogging an article I've been trying to write since the first night of the trip, I gave new depth to the meaning of "persistant vegitative state" in front of the television.

My flight for Denver doesn't leave until three o'clock in the afternoon, so with my morning free I decided to visit the marvelous St. Patrick's Cathedral. I kneeled before the icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe and prayed the rosary.

The news is filled with reports of the approaching end of our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II's life in this world. I prayed for his rest and in thanks for his teaching and leadership. John Paul II became Pope before I became a Catholic. I also prayed for the Church and for whoever is to become her next leader.

I prayed for rest for Terri Schiavo's soul. Even if she is not a martyr, she has certainly suffered more than enough that I have little doubt that she now dances in the loving light of our eternal Father. I prayed for a change of heart for those who, while she lay alive but helpless, thought that the profound depth of her suffering nullified the value of her life itself. I prayed for comfort for her family. I prayed for health and virtue for my own family.

I lit a votive candle before leaving the cathedral. Votive candles are a devotional that I've missed living in Japan. I haven't seen a single church in Japan with a rack of candles for the faithful to light as a sign of their continuing prayerful presence in spirit before the holy. It may be simply because of fire codes that brook no exceptions for devotional practice, but I have long had the feeling, about candles and many other minor devotionals that seem extinguished in Japan, that at some point the Japanese bishops made a conscious decision that these traditions were merely cultural baggage from Europe and that Catholicism would be more easily aculturated to Japan if purified of them. I think they threw more than one baby out with the bath water, and in any case Catholicism doesn't seem to suit Japanese tastes any better stipped of the devotional traditions than it did with them.

I pray for the Body of Christ, the Church, in Japan.