The Pocket-Size God

Robert F. Griffin

Description

Fr. Robert Griffin, C.S.C. (1925–1999), was a beloved member of the Notre Dame community. With his cocker spaniel, Darby O’Gill, he was instantly recognizable on campus. He was well known for his priestly work counseling students as university chaplain for thirty years, his summer ministry to the homeless and parishioners in New York City, and his weekly columns in the student newspaper, The Observer, in which he invited the campus community to reflect with him on the challenges and joys of being Catholic in a time of enormous social and religious change. This collection draws together essays that Griffin wrote for Notre Dame Magazine between 1972 and 1994. In them, he considers many of the challenges that beset church and campus, such as the laicization of priests, premarital sex, the erosion of institutional authority, intolerance toward gay people, and failure of fidelity to the teachings of the church. Griffin also ruminates on the distress that human beings experience in the ordinariness of their lives—the difficulty of communication in families, grief over the loss of family and friends, the agonies of isolation, and the need for forgiveness. Griffin’s shrewd insights still ring true for people today. His efforts to temper the winds of institutional rules, cultural change, and personal suffering reveal a mind keenly attuned to the need for understanding human limitations and to the presence of grace in times of change. Griffin quotes from the works of literary modernists, such as Fitzgerald and Hemingway, whose novels and short stories he loved; in these allusions and in his own reflections and experiences, Griffin bridges the spiritual and the secular and offers hope for reconciliation and comfort.

Sujets

• Essays
• EDUCATION
• Philosophie et théologie
• Fitzgerald
• Catholicism
• Higher
• FitzGerald dynasty
• Congregation of Holy Cross
• Level
• Notre Dame
• University of Notre Dame
• School
• Catholic
• Christianity
• Religion
• Ernest Hemingway

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 15 mars 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268080822
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

THE POCKET-SIZE GOD
Portrait of Notre Dame Glee Club Chaplain Rev. Robert Griffin, 1975. Photo by Chris Smith. Courtesy of University of Notre Dame Archives
ROBERT F. GRIFFIN, C.S.C
EDITED BY
J. Robert Baker and Dennis Wm. Moran
THE POCKET-SIZE GOD

ESSAYS FROM
Notre Dame Magazine
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana
Copyright 2016 by University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
www.undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Griffin, Robert, 1925- author.
Baker, J. Robert, 1954- editor.
Title: The pocket-size God : essays from Notre Dame Magazine / Robert F. Griffin, C.S.C. ; edited by J. Robert Baker and Dennis Wm. Moran.
Description: Notre Dame : University of Notre Dame Press, 2016.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015047534
ISBN 9780268029906 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 0268029903 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Christian life-Catholic authors. | Spiritual life-Catholic Church. | Spirituality-Catholic Church.
Classification: LCC BX2350.3.G7535 2016 | DDC 282/.73-dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015047534
ISBN 9780268080822
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper) .
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [e-mail] .
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
J. Robert Baker
Late Have I Loved Thee, O Ancient of Days
Somewhere, a Summer of 42
The Pocket-Size God
Empty Spaces, Lonely Places
A Letter to the Class of 73: Darby and I Never Said We Didn t Love You
An Everlasting Morning
Christmas on 42nd Street
About Friendship
I Remember the Fire
On Ancient Rituals and Modern Youth
Premarital Sex: Thou Shalt Not?
The Holy Fool
A Mass for the Littlest Christians
You Cannot Sing a Night Song
Simeon s Christmas
Before the Daylight Fails
A True Confession
A Storybook Marriage
A Brother s Requiem
The Bag Lady s Windfall
Part of the Myth
Life in the Boot Camp Seminary
Bill and Pat
A Parting Gift
You Shall Be My Special Possession
You Get What You Need
A Broken-Down Holy Man
How He Plays the Game
Facing Life without Father
I Have Chosen You
Under the Dome, Most of It Seems True
We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us
I Prayed Like Hell Every Damn Night
In Defense of Those Who Care
A Rabbi Hears Confession
As American as God, Sin, and Jimmy Swaggart
Confessions of a Bibliomaniac
Apologia pro Vita Mea
One Pope at a Time
Love on Trial
Mortal Friends
The Flame Keepers
The American Dream as a Religious Experience
A Bridge Too Far
And One of Them Was My Brother
The Lost Youth of Mickey Ashford
The Flower-Child Priest Comes Home to the Cross
Stop the Fighting
Alter Christus
List of Sources
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We gratefully acknowledge the permission of Father Arthur J. Colgan, the Provincial Superior of the Congregation of Holy Cross, Eastern Province, which holds the rights to Father Griffin s writings, to collect and republish the essays gathered here; the work of Kerry Temple, editor of Notre Dame Magazine , in providing copies of the magazine issues in which these essays were published; the encouragement of Harv Humphrey and Stephen Little of the University of Notre Dame Press in the preparation of this book; and the meticulous editorial assistance of Rebecca DeBoer in improving the manuscript. The help and support of these people were generous and vital.
We have provided the text of Father Griffin s essays as they appeared over the years in Notre Dame Magazine , with very minor changes for accuracy, consistency, and clarity, following the Chicago Manual of Style in most questions of capitalization and numbers. Although we have added the serial comma, otherwise we have tried to retain the original punctuation because Griffin was an aural writer, who put in commas where he heard a pause in his sentences.
INTRODUCTION
The Pocket-Size God is a collection of essays by Reverend Robert F. Griffin, C.S.C., that were published in Notre Dame Magazine between 1972 and 1994. The forty-nine essays selected here, written over the course of twenty-three years, provide an incandescent look both at Father Griffin s developing spirituality and at a remarkable period in the life of the Catholic Church. These essays take up Griffin s vocation at the University of Notre Dame, his pastoral work at parishes in New York, the pain suffered by his family, his attempt to parent children not his own, the church s efforts to evolve, and more. Griffin was doing what the Council fathers had asked faithful Catholics to do when they closed the Second Vatican Council; he was reading the signs of the times and trying to respond with the generosity and love of Christ, although he was sometimes bewildered by these times-as he was when Notre Dame theology professor William G. Storey, whom Griffin refers to as Wystan in A Bridge Too Far, confronted him about his understanding of gay people.
Griffin s reflections trace his deepening awareness of the face of Christ in every human person. They remind readers of the struggles that the American church experienced as it adjusted to the reforms of Vatican II and the upheavals in American life in the late twentieth century. Through them he also tells the story of some of the changes on the Notre Dame campus, such as Gerry Faust s tenure as head football coach and Father Theodore Hesburgh s retirement as president. Griffin also ruminates on larger social issues with which he struggled, including sexuality, declining attendance at Mass, poverty, and intolerance. Through all of his writings, his own priesthood is a theme so deeply laid that it informs and animates every aspect of his ministry and his life. The essay Alter Christus hints at the archetype that priesthood became for his life. These essays remain luminously alive long after his death, for Griffin s spirituality remains focused on the ways in which God participates in our humanity and we in his divinity. Griffin consistently touches on the brotherhood of all humanity and resists the squabbling and animus that can divide people as they approach spiritual questions. It is a spirituality that we still need today.
Griffin s writings were part of his ministry at Notre Dame, a ministry that had deep roots. He converted to Catholicism in 1944, after reading the stories of writer John O Brien, and arrived as a student at Notre Dame the following year. He graduated from Notre Dame in 1949 with an English degree and went on to seminary; he took his first vows in 1950 and, four years later, was ordained a priest in the Eastern Province of the Holy Cross. He taught at Father Baker High School in Lackawanna, New York, for two years before taking a master s degree in English from Notre Dame in 1957 and going on to further graduate studies at Boston University. For seven years he taught at Stonehill College, but he was not very successful as a faculty member, according to Father James T. Burtchaell, C.S.C., who reckoned that Griffin s antipathy for academic discipline made those seven years a wilderness for him. A nervous breakdown returned him to Notre Dame and Holy Cross House. He taught at the high school seminary on St. Mary s Lake for a year before taking up residence in Keenan Hall in 1967 as assistant rector, becoming its rector two years later. In moving him out of that position, the university made him its official chaplain. Griffin s departure from Keenan was bitter for him, but he took his new role of university chaplain seriously. Despite his efforts to work with the office of Campus Ministry, his affinity and true ministry were for the marginal and the defenseless. After thirty years of service, he went once more to Holy Cross House, this time closer in age to the other priests who were in residence there. He died on October 20, 1999, after a life of struggle and goodness.
The obituary for Griffin in the South Bend Tribune described him as one of Notre Dame s most affectionate and affectionately regarded characters. Trailing after or leading his dog, Darby O Gill, Griffin was a campus familiar, one whom everyone knew. In fact, it was hard to miss Darby O Gill and Griffin. Dogs were a rarity on campus, and Griffin s weight made him instantly recognizable. (He once remarked that he and Father George Wiskirchen shared the friendship of overweight men living among youthful, thin students.) Darby and Griffin were highly approachable, too. The few students who were afraid or too bashful to speak directly with Griffin found an approach through Darby, who seemed not to mind the attention and, in fact, generally took it as his natural due. Griffin referred to Darby in such human terms and with such affection that most of us forgot the little beast was not quite a person. By his presence, Darby made Notre Dame more human; he was a reminder of the homes that students had left and sometimes longed for. It was easy to find the dog endearing. Griffin humanized the place as well; it was easy to find him lovable. One signal of the affectionate response came from the Glee Club, which made Griffin its chaplain and took him on their tours here and abroad. Another was the regularity with which students and alumni asked Griffin to preside at their marriages.
Griffin was, however, more than a character whose eccentricities inspired the affection of the campus. He was a serious minister of the Gospel, who took his priesthood as a vocation so deep and vital that it animated everything he did. He was constantly trying to find ways to minster to those who, like himself, were insignificant in the world s eyes and, sometimes, in Notre Dame s eyes. Though he loved both the world and Notre Dame, he knew the worth and dignity of those human persons