The Clam Rampant

Kasia March 12th, 2007

…Bishop Flores likes to talk about WORDS! 

I attended (the first half of) the Holy Trinity Apostolate’s Lenten Symposium at my parish, St. Anastasia. I actually attended two Masses Saturday (plus the usual half-a-Mass Sunday) because I got there early to get a good seat, and the parish was still having our 8 a.m. Saturday morning Mass. So the weekend was Mass-a-riffic… 

 Anyway, our newest auxiliary bishop, the Most Rev. Daniel Flores, celebrated the Mass (with sixteen concelebrants, four seminarians, two deacons, and a battalion of altar servers, muchas gracias!). Bishop Flores gave an excellent homily – it was almost more of a mini-lecture than a homily, but I, being a giant nerd, loved the daylights out of it – during which he mentioned that he’s a grammar nerd (WOOO! Grammar nerds of the Church, unite!). He then went on to draw out a nuance of Spanish between “a good memory” and “a memory that is good.” (He assured us that the nuance is easier to see in Spanish than English, and based on my low-intermediate knowledge of French, I  see what he’s getting at.)

A good memory means you retain information well. A memory that is good means that you remember good things.

It worked really well in the context of the homily, which was about the Prodigal Son. I find that it’s very easy to fall into the mindset of the elder son, even though I know rationally that any grace, any goodness, any ANYthing good I have is a gift from God. I still tend to fall into the “what is mine by right” and “what is his because he’s getting away with something” (another Flores-ism). The other line that just made me laugh was when he quoted a Hungarian priest who had taught him at seminary, complete with faux Hungarian accent: “If I cut you, you will bleed Pelagian.”

I left early to take care of shopping for RCIA the next day, cleaning, etc., because I had a friend’s farewell party in the evening and I knew I’d be scrambling otherwise, but the first two talks (Damon Owens on NFP and Fr. Roger Landry on John Paul II’s juvenology) were excellent. If you’ve got $35 (CD) or $45 (DVD) to spare, I strongly recommend contacting Holy Trinity Apostolate to see about getting a copy of the symposium. You can order it by sending a note and your check to:

Holy Trinity Apostolate
P.O. Box 7095
Sterling Heights, MI  48311-7095

Enjoy!

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