Freedom of Religion Does Not Mean Exclusion of Religion

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." For more than 200 years, that phrase from the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States has meant "a fundamental protection of our religious freedom and of the extraordinary pattern of tolerance and pluralism in religion that has marked religious life in America," according to Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center in Washington.

Endless debate and court cases have redefined the phrase, as academics and judges have argued about the extent to which religious practices as well as beliefs are protected. Unfortunately, the last two decades have seen current court interpretations increasingly intent on banning the mention of God from our public life.  As noted by Stephen Carter, professor of law at Yale, and author of "The Culture of Disbelief," the First Amendment was written to protect religious groups from government interference, not to protect the non-religious from the religious in our society. He observes that the belief or lack of belief by those in charge of our government is being imposed on religious believers via the secular bureaucracy.  Robert Wilkins noted in a November 1993 issue of First Things magazine that secularization is "practical atheism," while Raul Yanes and Mary Ann Glendon, in a synopsis in the same issue of four recent religious cases decided by the Supreme Court, said that "the continued reign of separationism means that the court remains a collaborator, witting or unwitting, of the cultural forces bent on secularizing America."  Nowhere is this more evident than in recent decisions regarding religious expression in our schools. In Arkansas, a teacher ordered a fifth grader to turn his T-shirt inside out to hide the Bible verse on it. In another case, a school principal in Spokane, Wash., told a student that by praying silently before eating in the cafeteria he violated the separation of church and state.

Commenting on a recent school prayer case in which he was writing for the minority, Chief Justice William Rehnquist said, "Even more disturbing than its holding is the tone of the court¹s opinion: It bristles with hostility to all things religious in public life."  Many people share Justice Rehnquist¹s belief that these current court interpretations go too far, and we must fight against the "bleaching out" of God and religious expression from public life.

Not too long ago, "Godspell," a perennial high school play, was banned from public school campuses on the grounds that it told the story of Jesus. The argument was that a religious subject is not fit for the tax-supported school system to which we have entrusted the education of our children.  Presumably, "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" will also have to be banned, along with any other play that talks about values rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition. All that is left by this new standard is the morally empty and politically correct stage play that passes under the banner of secular.

How does the new secularism being imposed upon our people play out? One example reported in the media was an attempt to recast the American tradition in the requirement in some schools that any reference to Thanksgiving be emptied of God.  The new "secular think" has now determined that the pilgrims did not thank God; they thanked the Indians. Bad history, bad sociology, bad scholarship, bad education, but presumably good secular indoctrination.

We live in a nation enriched by a wide range of traditions, various ethnic backgrounds, and a diversity of heritages and faith convictions. Christmas, Yom Kippur, Easter, Ramadan, Thanksgiving Day, Memorial Day, Martin Luther King Day, Kwanzaa, Labor Day, are expressions of the faith, heritage, traditions, experience and history of the American people.

Young people going to school should expect to find in their educational experience some mirror of real life. Children in the United States will grow up to be, we hope, mature adults who will interact with neighbors who are Christians, Muslims, Jews, Republicans, Democrats, African-Americans, English Americans, Italian Americans and many others.

They should be taught a wholesome respect and tolerance that are the signs of a good and just society. How does this happen if they are constrained at school within an artificial, neutral or secular world that excludes most of the values of the American people?

The recently invented and imposed secular view of separation of God from public life does all of us a disservice because it is not reflective of reality. God is a part of the lives of the overriding majority of people in this country.

To pretend in our classrooms or in the workplace that we hold no faith convictions, and to impose fines or punishments for expressing belief in God contradicts human experience and ill prepares young people to deal with real life.

One of the reasons the issue of prayer in public places will not go away is that most of our citizens know that freedom of religion does not mean exclusion of religion. The banning of any recognition of God in public is just as wrong as trying to force upon people a state-imposed religion.  Unfortunately, the current insistence upon secularism is itself an imposition of a kind of "religion." It is a form of ideological tyranny that says there must be a separation between any expression of religious conviction and public life.

All of us need to be concerned about this, particularly its effect on our young people in school. It is not enough to say that if you are unhappy with public schools you should send your children somewhere else. All of us are stakeholders in public education since all of us pay for it.

It is important for people of all traditions, heritages and backgrounds once again to proclaim the value of our pluralism, the importance of tolerance and our right to recognize God in our lives, privately and publicly.  It should not become the ideological property of a handful of people intent on imposing a vision that offers nothing to our young people and the future - both theirs and ours.

Top^

"Grandpap, Do You Love Jesus?"

I watched with joy and amazement at the unusual situation unfolding before me.  The eyes of 7-year old Stevie conveyed a sense of wonder as he listened to the older man and the woman next to him respond to the question he had just asked:  “Grandpap, do you love Jesus?”  I experienced joy watching three generations of a Catholic family  (son-mother-grandfather)  begin to share their personal faith story with one another.  I felt amazement at seeing similar family clusters sitting around tables throughout the parish hall discussing the same thing!  Family-centered catechesis had moved from the realm of dreams and possibility to become a reality!

 The Second Vatican Council in its “Declaration on Christian Education” set the tone in 1965:  “Parents have a solemn obligation to educate their offspring.  Hence, parents must be acknowledged as the first and foremost educators of their children.”  The National Catechetical Directory (NCD) in 1979 continued this emphasis by speaking of the family as the “domestic Church” – the primary focus for both evangelization and authentic catechesis.  The Church powerfully proclaims these words, but does she really mean them?  Do our parish catechetical programs truly work to enable and to empower families to fulfill this  fundamental role?

            The face of the American family has changed dramatically over these past years.  Consumerism, individualism, excessive mobility, and pluralistic values have caused countless hardships, difficulties, and heartaches for the family system.  But despite all this, the primary truth remains unchanged and central to our faith experience:  Parents were, are now, and will always be at the heart of their children’s life of faith!

            Bringing families together on a regular basis in some formal program of religious education, like the experience at little Stevie’s parish, has unlimited possibilities.  However, the Church’s mission of catechesis, in all its forms, must embrace this challenge: enabling families to fulfill their role as the primary educators.  The religious educator, Margaret Hover, reminds us that “all catechetical approaches must above all help family members take the time to examine critically their living together to discover the relevance to their defining of values and their search for ultimate meaning.”

            Family-centered catechesis seeks to help families discuss their every day experiences in the context of faith!  Parish religious educators must always work to provide parents with a common sense approach in fostering religious values in the home.  Only then will catechists in the classroom have something upon which they can build and elaborate.  Parents need to be affirmed and encouraged in their role as faith nurturers of their children.  Family-centered catechesis educates and enables parents to use more effectively those “teachable moments” at home: by celebrating family rituals together, by making a conscious effort to pray as a family, by fostering open communication and dialogue with one another, by watching television together  (the greatest influence on young children today) and discussing the values that are being conveyed.  When families learn to listen and to share their human story with one another, the ground is prepared for sowing the seeds of  our Christian Catholic faith-story.

Top^

The Journey of Faith

The new year invites and challenges us to newness of life.  We are asked to cross into new terrain; we enter anew into familiar relationships and discover new faces along the way; we make new resolutions with the intention of reaching the perfection we so long to achieve!  We see the world through different eyes.

Everything looks exciting, fresh, full of life and so very new!  Even our hearts overflow with an energy and enthusiasm enlivened by the celebration of Christ’s presence in our midst.  What an appropriate time to once again take up the journey we have been called to undertake – the journey of life and faith with our God.

This first Sunday of the secular year places before us the image of the journey.  St. Matthew the Evangelist speaks to the Church of the astrologers from the east who have come to see the newborn King, the Savior, the Son of God. They leave everything behind with total abandonment; they venture into unfamiliar and unexplored territory.  They have set themselves on a journey to seek after the answer to the stirrings in their hearts.

It is a journey that costs them a great deal,  it is a  journey that is far and long.  The astrologers follow signs but with no assurance of their certainty. 

But despite the difficulties encountered along the way, it is a journey not taken in vain.  “They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house, found the child with Mary his mother.  They prostrated themselves and did him homage.”

(Matthew 2:11). God incarnated himself in flesh not only for the salvation of the world,  but that he might be made manifest for his people.  Each one of the astrologers who had journeyed so far actually met their God.  In the poor and lowly surroundings, in a place certainly not fit for a king, in a place they did not expect,  the astrologers found their Lord.  The grace and glory of God shows forth in magnificent manifestation for those men and for so many others.

We are invited to continue the journey of faith by entering it with renewed zeal,  with total abandonment of self, with a willingness to enter new and unfamiliar terrain, with total disregard for the price that must be paid.  The new year offers us an opportunity to commit ourselves once again to seeking the face of the Lord day in and day out.

The celebration of the Epiphany reminds us of the manifestation of God in our midst – a manifestation of such overwhelming majesty and splendor!  An yet it is so easily missed and overlooked in the experience of our daily lives.  The Epiphany calls us to a radical re-orientation:  God is truly found in places that we simply may not expect.  Our walk of faith demands that we not pass a stranger by or take any detours around the places we don’t want to go!  Our journey requires that we stop occasionally to get our bearings so that we can be re-directed when we have wandered from the path.  Our journey demands a total and complete effort in seeking the face of God.  

But it is an effort that will never be undertaken in vain.  We are promised the manifestation of our God in countless ways.  We are given the hope that like the astrologers from the East, we too will see our Lord and King along the way.  It is a promise that the prophet Isaiah foretold long ago:

            “Then you shall be radiant at what you see,
            your heart shall throb and overflow,
            For the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you,
             the wealth of nations shall be brought to you.”

                (Isaiah 60:4-5)

The promise of the Epiphany calls us to willingly and completely undertake the journey over and over again.

Top^

Jubilee for Catechesis

Thunderous and sustained applause erupted from the nearly 200,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter¹s Square on Sunday, Dec. 10, as Pope John Paul II walked out from St. Peter¹s Basilica. I was privileged to be present, along with nearly 100 other American leaders in Catholic education to join in the pope’s Jubilee Mass for Catechists and Religion Teachers. Our earlier anxieties of rain and cold weather that are typical of Roman December days were unfounded. In fact, one of the Swiss Guards informed us of the jubilee reality – "Esche il Papa, esche il sole" ("When the Pope comes out, the sun comes out") - and it was indeed a bright, sunny and warm day for the jubilee celebration for catechesis.

I was present at the invitation of Bishop Donald Wuerl who along with a number of bishops from around the world, concelebrated Mass with the pope. As I joined in the enthusiastic outpouring of affection from those present for our beloved Holy Father, I was conscious that the bishop and I stood as representatives of the thousands of men and women in this diocese who share in the work of teaching the faith. In your names, I pledged our fidelity and loyalty to the Vicar of Christ.

In a talk to all of us the day before, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, prefect of the Congregation for Clergy ‹ the congregation responsible for overseeing the work of catechesis - reminded us of the great privilege we have to be catechists and teachers. What joy there is, he said, in being able to share with others the person of Christ and His message of God’s salvific love. It is a work, we were told, that will only succeed if we have a deep love for Christ and a fidelity to His church.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told us in another talk that the work of teaching the faith was critical to the success of the new evangelization. "We are obliged," he said, "to seek new ways of bringing the Gospel to all."

In his homily at the jubilee Mass, the pope spoke of the importance of catechists in the life of the church. As St. Paul wrote to the Romans, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the Good News." Without teachers and catechists, the message of salvation could not be handed down from one generation to the next. "Catechesis is," the pope said, "a labor of love in imitation of our Savior himself, a desire to teach another to embrace the Truth." He went on to say, "in order to fulfill their mission in the Catholic Church, catechists must live their faith and must present the faith to others in complete harmony with official church teaching."

As I joined with Bishop Wuerl in the prayer of the Mass that day with more than 200,000 others in communion with our Holy Father, I prayed for the wonderful and dedicated catechists and teachers in this diocese. I prayed in thanksgiving for their commitment to the important task of communicating the

faith to others in a way that leads people to embrace Jesus Christ and life in His church. I prayed, as well, that all of us who are teachers of the faith will never forget the awesome responsibility we have been given – the responsibility to love Christ and His church deeply ourselves and to embrace the teachings of Christ and His church completely so that we in turn can teach others to do the same. Our witness of lived faith is a far more powerful lesson than any words we could speak.

The pope ended Mass by giving a copy of "The Catechism of the Catholic Church" to a representative of each continent, a symbol that we were to return to our homes with a renewed commitment to share the message of Christ.

"With this gesture," he said, "I would like to underline that, in various languages and cultures, catechists are called to announce to the whole world the same Truth: Christ, the only Savior of the world, yesterday, today and forever."

May we who teach the faith always be faithful guardians of the Truth, joyfully announcing to others what we have received in Christ.

Top^

Understanding the Eucharist as the Real Presence of Christ

Recently, I was attending a meeting in Washington D.C. and the bishop was also there attending another meeting. He had asked me to meet him for lunch so at the appropriate time I was standing in the hotel lobby near the elevator. The bell captain, seeing me waiting, came over and asked if I needed any assistance. I replied, "No thank you, I am just waiting for my boss to arrive." He looked at me with a strange expression, leaned against the wall and said, "This I got to see!"

I guess we would all confess a certain amazement and incredulity at the thought of God actually arriving in our midst. I know that I would have been quite startled if God had gotten off the elevator that day instead of my bishop!  But really and truly, in a most dramatic way, our Catholic faith calls us to recognize the truth that God is with us, that God is really present to us.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church understands Jesus Christ to be the great sacrament of God. This is what the the Church proclaims so wondrously in the Preface for her Christmas Liturgy: "In Jesus Christ, we see our God made visible and so are caught up in the love of the God we cannot see." Jesus is truly our encounter with the Living God, our being caught up in the Love of God. And so we can call Jesus, "Emmanuel" or God-with-us.

This encounter with the Living God through Jesus Christ happens most concretely in the Church. The Church can be described then as the sacrament of Jesus Christ, the sacrament of salvation – the sign that actualizes Christ’s presence. The Catechism reminds us that Christ poured forth into the Church, his Living body, all the riches of grace and truth gained through his death and Resurrection. Historically, Jesus performed the work of salvation once and for all; sacramentally and liturgically, the Church makes present Jesus’ saving act in the celebration of the Mass. That is why the Mass is so important. "The Church celebrates in the Liturgy above all the Paschal Mystery by which Christ accomplished the work of our salvation" (CCC 1067).

It is clearly the Eucharist that reigns supreme over all the other sacred actions instituted by our Savior. "The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. The other sacraments and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented towards it. For in the Blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church" (CCC 1324).

The richness of a mystery of faith can never be conveyed adequately by any single description or characteristic and it is no different with the mystery of the Blessed Eucharist . The Eucharist has been explained in many ways: as the highest act of thanksgiving to God, the sacred meal, the breaking of bread, the Lord’s Supper, the memorial of Christ’s Passover, the sacrifice of the Cross, Holy Communion, the holy Mass, and the pledge of future glory. All of these descriptions merit reflection and explanation for they can ultimately lead us to a deeper grasp of the Truth revealed in Christ.

But perhaps the most powerful of all explanations is the one which conveys the notion that the Eucharist contains the "real presence" of Christ. Surely, Christ is present among us in many ways: in his Word, in the assembly of believers, in the priest, in the sacraments. All these in some way are "real" presences of our Lord and Savior in and through his Church. But the Eucharistic presence is unique among them all, for as we read in CCC 1374, "this presence is called real…it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present." What was bread is no longer bread; what was wine is no longer wine. Though the appearances of the elements remain the same in sight, smell and taste, the bread is now the Body of Christ and the wine is His Blood poured out for the salvation of all.

In the most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, "the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ and therefore the whole Christ is truly, really and substantially contained" (CCC 1374). This is what the Church has rightfully called transubstantiation. The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is unlike any other.

This is an important reality for us to consider today given recent opinion polls that indicate over 50% of all practicing Catholics do not profess belief in the real presence. For them it seems that the Eucharist is a kind of symbol but not really and truly Christ. It is hard to uphold this interpretation given Jesus’ teaching in the 6^th chapter of John’s Gospel: "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you will not have life within you." As Flannery O’Connor the great Catholic writer responded to someone who tried to tell her that the Eucharist was only a symbol, ‘Well if it is a symbol, to hell with it."

Such is the profound reality of what we believe about the Eucharist. Seeing in the Eucharist the real presence of our Savior is what our faith is all about. In receiving communion, we receive the real Jesus, whole and entire, in his flesh and blood. And in so doing, we are closer to him than even the apostles were because in the Eucharist, Jesus becomes intermingled with our own flesh and blood. We become more closely identified with our Savior through our sharing his body and blood. In fact, there are many fruits of the Eucharist, which manifest the awesome nature of the gift. As the catechism says, the Eucharist helps to separate one from sin, leads one to a greater service of the poor, creates stronger unity among the faithful, and helps us to live the challenges of the Gospel. But most powerfully we read in CCC 1396, "The Eucharist makes the Church. Those who receive the Eucharist are united more closely to Christ. Through it Christ unites them to all the faithful in one body – the Church.  Communion renews, strengthens, and deepens this incorporation into the Church." The Eucharist makes the Church and in effect we can say with certainty, the Eucharist makes our family what it should be.

Seeing the Eucharist as the real presence of Jesus Christ leads to another important reality. Because of this belief, even the fragments that are left over from the Eucharistic celebration are gathered together lovingly and reserved in the tabernacle. Jesus remains present for the benefit of his people. Christ is truly present – always and everywhere in our Church – in the Eucharist – to sustain, strengthen and support faith in a way nothing else can do. Pope John Paul II reminds us of the importance of Eucharist adoration. "The Church and the world have a great need for Eucharistic worship. Jesus awaits us in this sacrament of love…let our adoration never cease" (Dominicae Cenae 3). It is this simple but profound realization that led John Henry Cardinal Newman to write: "It is such an incomprehensible blessing to have Christ in bodily presence in one’s house, within one’s walls…to know that he is close by – to be able again and again throughout the day to go to him – what an awesome privilege and blessing."

Understanding the Eucharist to be the real presence of Jesus Christ, his very body and blood made present for us today, should lead us to a deeper reverence for the Eucharist, a stronger love for the sacrifice of the Cross, and should lead to a visible expression of selfless love for others. As Mother Teresa expressed so beautifully, "Christ changed himself into the bread of life. Changing himself into bread, he became totally at our disposal so that having been fed by him, we would feel the strength necessary to give ourselves to others."

While I was working on my doctorate, I spent 4 months living in Oxford, England with a group of Jesuits. Besides the Jesuits, of course, the worst part of that experience was the English food. Once in a while to preserve my sanity I would have to go out in search of something edible like the only Burger King in town) and I would end up in some restaurant eating all alone. It is a very strange feeling to eat alone, isn’t it? Sometimes we have no choice in the matter, but eating alone is a bit of a contradiction, always a bit odd. Because eating a meal is more than stuffing our stomachs; many human hungers are fed at a meal – not only physical, but social, emotional and spiritual hungers as well. To pass food is to pass yourself; to accept food is to accept presence, to accept another. A true meal is one where we give ourselves to those who surround us and we share in the presence of others. Isn’t that true of family meals especially at the holidays?

When we come to Mass, we gather to commemorate and memorialize, to re-present what is for js Christians the most significant meal of all time. And we are invited to share in this meal in the precise manner that Jesus intended it to be shared. "Do this in remembrance of me." Most Importantly we do this not as individuals, but as a family, as a community off faith. a people joined together in an unbreakable bond of unity. We are one family; we eat together in love at one sacrificial meal. What a joyous thought to know that we are never really alone – the Eucharist joins us with all believers – even our most precious loved ones who now sit at the heavenly banquet –joined together in one loving embrace.

This reality was always true in the Church but not always obvious to us. In the past the Mass was a very private affair, the stress as on my individual communion with Christ. Even though I was surrounded by a myriad of others, I rayed my rosary while the priest did his thing in some language that I did not understand and I did not usually interact with anyone around me or even say the prayers. The changes in liturgy in recent years helped us to re-focus once again on what the Eucharist celebration was intended to be at its foundation by the institution and design of Christ himself; a sharing in Christ’s sacrificial meal as a community of believers – altar rails disappeared, the priest faced the people and spoke their language, people said "peace" to one another, shook hands, embraced. Not everyone liked all the changes but something important is communicated: Christ gave us his body and blood, at the Last Supper and Calvary, to fashion one body – the Body of Christ – Linked in love with one another. The Eucharist demands that we recover this sense of family. This celebration is truly a Trinity: Jesus, myself and my neighbor.

And when we reflect on this sacred reality of the Eucharist – when we reflect on the meaning of the Eucharist for our everyday lives – there are four words which leap from the pages of Scripture and which we hear the priest say during the consecration at Mass every day – these words of consecration hellp us to understand the meaning of the Eucharist in our lives: Jesus took he blessed, he broke and he gave.

1. Jesus "took" a loaf of bread. Not some extraordinary Mediterranean cuisine but common, ordinary food. A staple of life indeed, but quite common. It reminds us of how God chose for His people a motley mob of unruly runaway slaves, culturally undistinguished, often rebellious, frequently unfaithful, unpredictable, unreliable. "It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you." And so for you and me, God chose us to be his children, his disciples, to be his beloved. He took us; we did not choose Him – and he he continues to choose us each day because of his unconditional love for us. All he asks is not that I understand his will but that I accept it with faith, with trust, with love each day. In the Eucharist, God chooses us again and again and we are called to respond.
2. Jesus "blessed" the bread. And something dramatic happened. What had been a split second before, a common, ordinary loaf of bread is now, instantaneously and miraculously transformed and transfigured into the incarnate Son of God. The bread and wine blessed by the priest at Mass each day becomes Jesus himself. Jesus is truly present in the Blesses Sacrament and his presence is real. "I will remain with you until the end of time, " the Scriptures tell us and with the Eucharist we know that the words of Jesus are more than symbolic People look everywhere for miracles (Pizza Hut sign, bran muffin in New York). But what greater miracle of faith could we ask for? And because of his priests this miracle is able to happen in every generation of people. That is why we need as god’s people to actively pray for vocations and encourage our sons to think of the priesthood for them.

   And if God can do that with bread, how much more can he work with us who have been created in his image and likeness? God’s blessing over us in baptism changed us from a lump of clay into a child of God. That blessing of God continues to transform us every day that is why the sacraments are so very important for us that we might receive this blessing, his divine grace, as lo often as possible. What is important for us is made possible through the grace of God. Each day, with God’s blessing, is a fresh creation, a ceaseless miracle of grace. How wonderful it is to have the gift of communion every day if we choose.

3. He "broke" the bread – he divided it up so that there might be enough for everyone. But even more importantly we are told that it was necessary for the body of Christ to be broken if it was to bring life into world. "Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat." Jesus had to die on the Cross on Good Friday so that we might have life.
4. So too it is with us – we have to be broken The Eucharist challenges us to destroy our false selves, to break the habits of sin and death that have taken hold in our lives so easily. So often suffering and difficulty can be the avenue for God’s grace. As. St. John the Baptist reminded us, "We must decrease so that God can increase. " This meal calls us every day to put aside selfishness, pride, arrogance, self-dependency and sin in all its forms – everything that keeps us from growing more dependent on God, more intimate with our Father.

The Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, is not your or my private party with Jesus. It will bear the fruit for which Christ gave it to us and for which Christ was lifted up on the Cross only to the extent that you and I become eucharists for the life of the world – every day. To receive the Eucharist is to share real presence, that of Jesus and of one another. We are strangers to each other no longer, but family and friends. You might recall that in the Gospel, immediately after Jesus institutd the Eucharist, he put on an apron, got on his knees and washed his disciple’s feet. The Eucharist – the Mass – meant to be a spectator sport for us. Jesus says, "As I have done, you must do." I receeive the real Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist not only so that I might have life, but so that I, like Jesus, can give the gift of my life in loving service to another. Only then will we really fulfill what Jesus commanded when he said, "Do this in remembrance of me!"