Hans Urs von Balthasar: Vocation

The 1966 essay “Vocation” by Hans Urs von Balthasar, previously unavailable in English, appears in the Spring 2010 issue of Communio. (Original title: “Berufung.”) Read the full article here (pdf), and the Introduction to the issue here.

From the article:

Today, qualified, contingent assents cripple vocations everywhere like mildew. People either want to commit themselves only for a time (and thereby take away from God the possibility of being able to dispose over the whole man), or only for a certain kind of work they have in mind, that attracts them or seems timely (and thereby bind the hands of their ecclesial superiors, preventing them from disposing over those under them), or often, say, in world communities, already draft the group’s statutes in such a way that they allow for such half- or quarter-readinesses, and are content with this. Everywhere that this takes place, one asks only initially and superficially what “the Church” needs, or even what “our time” needs, or even worse, what today’s priest or religious “needs” in order to develop his personality harmoniously, and no longer, what God needs. . . . full text (pdf).

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The Paschal Mystery

The current issue of Communio focuses on the Paschal Mystery. Read the Introduction here. Articles include:

José Granados. Risen Time: Easter as the Source of History
Jean-Pierre Batut.  Believing in the Resurrection, or: The Logic of Love
Denis Farkasfalvy. Reconstructing Mariology
Keith Lemna. Mythopoetic Thinking and the Truth of Christianity
Philippe Richard. Romans 8 in Under Satan’s Sun: Bernanos’ Vision of Man and the World
Hans Urs von Balthasar. Vocation (Retrieving the Tradition)
Thomas Esposito. The Way From Emmaus to Us (Notes and Comments)
David L. Schindler. Regarding Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Unions (A Word From the Editor)

Spring 2010. Vol. 37, no. 1

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David Schindler on Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Unions

The Spring, 2010 edition of Communio publishes the following text from editor David L. Schindler, Regarding Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Unions. From the text:

It is important for the Church to say why she opposes recognition of a legal right to same-sex unions. It is insufficient for her to base her opposition simply on her own right to religious freedom and fidelity to her own beliefs and tradition. Why? Complete text.

A selection of additional articles by David L. Schindler:

Norris Clarke on Person, Being, and St. Thomas. (1993) | Religious Freedom, Truth, and American Liberalism: Another Look at John Courtney Murray. (1994) | Homelessness and the Modern Condition: The Family, Community, and the Global Economy. (2000) | Is Truth Ugly? Moralism and the Convertibility of Being and Love. (2000) | Creation and Nuptiality: A Reflection on Feminism in Light of Schmemann’s Liturgical Theology. (2001) | Toward a Culture of Life: The Eucharist, the ‘Restoration’ of Creation, and the ‘Worldy’ Task of the Laity. (2002) | Biotechnology and the Givenness of the Good: Posing Properly the Moral Question Regarding Human Dignity. (2004) |  The Dramatic Nature of Life: Liberal Societies and the Foundations of Human Dignity. (2006) | In memoriam: Patricia Buckley Bozell. (2008) | The Embodied Person as Gift and the Cultural Task in America: Status Quaestionis. (2008) | Editorial: President Obama, Notre Dame, and a Dialogue That Witnesses: A Question for Father Jenkins. (2009)