Sunday Snippets – June 3

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Sunday Snippets – June 3

June 2, 2012 by Ellen Gable Hrkach

Please join me and other Catholic bloggers at RAnn’s Place for Sunday Snippets, where Catholic bloggers share their posts from the previous week.

Here are my posts:

Marital Texting

Growing Up in God’s Image – Excerpt Full Quiver Publishing’s newest book will be released soon. Growing Up in God’s Image by Carolyn Smith is a book on how to talk to your kids about sex.

7 Quick Takes Friday- Favorite Gifts During this post, I shared seven of my favorite wedding and anniversary gifts.

Posted in cartoons, Catholicity, Marriage | Leave a Comment

Leading doctor in the UK opposes assisted suicide.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Dr. Iona Heath

Michael Cook reported in Bioedge.org (June 1) on the article by Iona Heath, the President of the Royal College of General Practitioners in the UK,

that was published in the British Medical Journal

opposing euthanasia and assisted suicide. The article by Iona Heath is particularly important considering the push by the suicide lobby in the UK to legalize assisted suicide. Cooks report was titled:

Head of GPs in UK takes stand against assisted dying

.

This is a reprint of the article:

The president of the Royal College of General Practitioners in the UK, Iona Heath, has taken a strong stand against the legalisation of assisted suicide. In an eloquent article in the BMJ she argues that campaigns in support of assisted dying rely on an excessively rosy view of society.

First of all, she feels that it will be impossible to draft a law which protects the vulnerable. “Most of the discussion of and support for assisted dying revolves around exceptional individuals who are intelligent, articulate, and facing the prospect of intolerable suffering and who clearly understand their situation and predicament. Yet legislation has to protect everyone, including those who struggle to express or even fully understand what is happening to them. It seems to me to be impossible to ensure that an apparently voluntary request for assisted dying is not in some small way coerced.”

Second, supporters assume that governments will be generally benign. This is naïve, she says. “A malign government coming into power with legislation supporting assisted dying already in place is a deeply disturbing prospect.”

Third, assisted dying is a technical fix to an existential problem. “One of the huge challenges of human life is to find ways of living a meaningful life within the limits of a finite lifespan that will always involve loss of love and the inevitability of grief. Doctors have a regrettable tendency to ignore this reality and to persist in active and invasive treatment beyond the point at which it has become futile and even cruel.” ~ BMJ, May 29

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Leading doctor in the UK opposes assisted suicide.

Catholic Teachers, What’s Their Deal, Man?

Saturday, June 2, 2012

The

National Post

is carrying an

article

about a teacher who may lose his teaching job for refusing to follow the his principal’s ‘No Zero Policy.’ This is in the Edmonton School Board. He failed a student who did 6 of the 15 assignments.

It focused my thinking on the situation of the Catholic Schools here in Ontario. I think about the OECTA – their union – how miserably informed and committed it is to their mission of Catholic Education. It’s easy enough to deride from the outside such egregious failures in education as this particular case in Edmonton, but what about the equally – no, greater – failure of Catholic teachers to do their job? Yes, abundant apologies to those good Catholic school teachers I know. They, however, are in the minority. Visit the OECTA site any time and tell me if you are impressed by their commitment to excellence in education and in handing on the Catholic Faith. You’d get more Catholicity from a Jewish Board of education, if there were such a thing. I’m not joking.

There is very little Catholicity on that site. In fact, there is basically none. It is a disgrace. Here is something priceless from their president:

“Respecting Differences” is a document produced by the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association, which represents the officials elected to sit on Catholic school boards in Ontario. The document is not reflective of any views or input from the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA), which represents the 45,000 elementary and secondary teachers who work in Ontario’s publicly funded Catholic schools.

It’s hilarious when incompetence happens 2000 kms away in Edmonton, but not when it occurs here with those who teach my children.

So, in the spirit of Mr. Lynden Dorval (the Edmontonian teacher mentioned above) why don’t we bring in some of kind of performance review for the OECTA teachers? Most industries incorporate some kind of performance review process. I am sure the teachers get measured on their classroom performance, but I bet not on their knowledge of the Faith. I could design a very simple test to measure the knowledge and commitment of these teachers. And, I’ll do it for free – just because it’s that important!

Unless Mr. Dorval and I are both wrong, and objective performance doesn’t actually matter, neither for teachers nor for students.

Original article:

Catholic Teachers, What’s Their Deal, Man?

Five Minute Mass Reflection – June 3, 2012 (Trinity Sunday)

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Five Minute Mass Reflection – June 3, 2012 (Trinity Sunday)

By

Mike

on Saturday, June 2nd, 2012

This weekend we celebrate the feast of the Holy Trinity (my parish’s patron), God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The first reading is Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40 (where Moses reminds the people of how close God is to them), the responsorial psalm is Psalm 33 “Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own,” the second reading is Romans 8:14-17 (how God has placed His spirit in us to be able to call Him ‘Father’), and the Gospel is Matthew 28:16-20 (Jesus’ ‘Great Commission’ to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit- and His presence with us in that mission.)

The full text of the readings can be found here: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/060312.cfm

In each of these readings, the common thread is the promise God gives through Moses to the Israelites, what Paul reminds the Romans, and the last words Jesus utters before ascending to the Father: the closeness of God to each of us. This is a profound reality- that we are never alone, never abandoned, always loved. It should stand for us as a testament of hope that whatever situations we might find ourselves in that we have a faithful companion, a Father who keeps His promises. It should remind us that God is better at keeping His word than we are- and that He has chosen to dwell with us and in us. As Christians, it might also stand as an encouragement that He is with us in the things we do that perhaps we shouldn’t. He is with us always: when we feel like it, when we don’t, and even when we’d rather He wasn’t. And we are very, very blessed to know that He is.

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Five Minute Mass Reflection – June 3, 2012 (Trinity Sunday)

Lacordaire: A Protestant is his own unity

Saturday, June 2, 2012

O altitudo divitiarum sapientiae et scientiæ Dei: quam incomprehensibilia sunt iudicia eius, et investigabiles viæ eius! Quis enim cognovit sensum Domini? (From the Lesson for Trinity Sunday, Rm xi: “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible and His judgments and how unsearchable His ways

See the article here:

Lacordaire: A Protestant is his own unity

A brilliant column by Barbara Kay at NaPo

Saturday, June 2, 2012

About the social and financial war between

Boomers and Millennials

. Interestingly, the piece concludes that the solution lies, not with the nanny state, but “spontaneous kinship altruism”. I think that means ‘family values’. Go figure.

h/t Deborah Gyapong
.

This article:

A brilliant column by Barbara Kay at NaPo

Cathedral of the See of Ottawa with Parliament

Saturday, June 2, 2012

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Cathedral of the See of Ottawa with Parliament

PHILADELPHIA 2015, THE NEXT WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Vatican City, 3 June 2012 (VIS) – At midday today, after having celebrated Mass in the presence of almost one million faithful at Bresso Park in Milan and before praying the Angelus, the Holy Father announced that the eighth World Meeting of Families will be held in Philadelphia, U.S.A. in the year 2015. “I send my warm greetings to Archbishop Charles Chaput”, he said, “and to the Catholics of that great city, and look forward to meeting them there along with numerous families from all around the world”.

Before bidding farewell to the participants in the seventh World Meeting of Families, Benedict XVI expressed his thanks to Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, and to Cardinal Angelo Scola, archbishop of Milan, as well as to all the organisers and volunteers.

The Pope then went on the greet pilgrims in various languages. Speaking French, he spoke of his joy at today’s beatification in the French diocese of Besancon of Fr. Jean-Joseph Lataste of the Order of Friars Preachers, whom he described as an “apostle of mercy” and “apostle of prisons”.

“Dear families of Milan, Lombardy, Italy and the whole world, I greet you all with affection and thank you for your participation”, the Holy Father concluded. “I encourage you to show solidarity towards families experiencing the greatest difficulties. I am thinking of the economic and social crisis, I am thinking of the recent earthquake in Emilia. May the Virgin Mary always accompany and support you”.

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PHILADELPHIA 2015, THE NEXT WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES

LOVE IS THE ONLY FORCE THAT CAN TRULY TRANSFORM THE WORLD

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Vatican City, 3 June 2012 (VIS) – At 10 a.m. today, Benedict XVI presided at an open-air Mass at Bresso Park in Milan, Italy, for the closure of the seventh World Meeting of Families. The meeting began on 30 May and has had as its theme: “The Family: Work and Celebration”. Extracts of the homily delivered by the Pope to the one million faithful present are given below.

“The liturgical Solemnity of the Holy Trinity that we are celebrating today … urges us to commit ourselves to live our communion with God and with one another according to the model of Trinitarian communion. … It is not only the Church that is called to be the image of One God in Three Persons, but also the family, based on marriage between man and woman. … God created us male and female, equal in dignity, but also with respective and complementary characteristics, so that the two might be a gift for each other, might value each other and might bring into being a community of love and life. It is love that makes the human person the authentic image of God. Dear married couples, in living out your marriage you are not giving each other any particular thing or activity, but your whole lives. And your love is fruitful first and foremost for yourselves, because you desire and accomplish one another’s good, you experience the joy of receiving and giving. It is also fruitful in your generous and responsible procreation of children, in your attentive care for them, and in their vigilant and wise education. And lastly, it is fruitful for society, because family life is the first and irreplaceable school of social virtues, such as respect for persons, gratuitousness, trust, responsibility, solidarity, cooperation. Dear married couples, watch over your children and, in a world dominated by technology, transmit to them, with serenity and trust, reasons for living, the strength of faith, pointing them towards high goals and supporting them in their fragility”.

“Your vocation is not easy to live, especially today, but the vocation to love is a wonderful thing, it is the only force that can truly transform the world. You have before you the witness of so many families who point out the paths for growing in love: by maintaining a constant relationship with God and participating in the life of the Church, by cultivating dialogue, respecting the other’s point of view, by being ready for service and patient with the failings of others, by being able to forgive and to seek forgiveness, by overcoming with intelligence and humility any conflicts that may arise, by agreeing on principles of upbringing, and by being open to other families, attentive towards the poor, and responsible within civil society. These are all elements that build up the family. Live them with courage, and be sure that, insofar as you live your love for each other and for all with the help of God’s grace, you become a living Gospel, a true domestic Church.

“I should also like to address a word to the faithful who, even though they agree with the Church’s teachings on the family, have had painful experiences of breakdown and separation. I want you to know that the Pope and the Church support you in your struggle. I encourage you to remain united to your communities, and I earnestly hope that your dioceses are developing suitable initiatives to welcome and accompany you”.

“We may recognise the task of man and woman to collaborate with God in the process of transforming the world through work, science and technology. … In modern economic theories, there is often a utilitarian concept of work, production and the market. Yet God’s plan, as well as experience, show that the one-sided logic of sheer utility and maximum profit are not conducive to harmonious development, to the good of the family or to building a more just society, because it brings in its wake ferocious competition, strong inequalities, degradation of the environment, the race for consumer goods, family tensions. Indeed, the utilitarian mentality tends to take its toll on personal and family relationships, reducing them to a fragile convergence of individual interests and undermining the solidity of the social fabric.

“One final point: man, as the image of God, is also called to rest and to celebrate. The account of creation concludes with these words: “And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it”. For us Christians, the feast day is Sunday, the Lord’s day, the weekly Easter. It is the day of the Church, the assembly convened by the Lord around the table of the Word and of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. … It is the day of man and his values: conviviality, friendship, solidarity, culture, closeness to nature, play, sport. It is the day of the family, on which to experience together a sense of celebration, encounter, sharing, not least through taking part in Mass. Dear families, despite the relentless rhythms of the modern world, do not lose a sense of the Lord’s Day!”

“Family, work, celebration: three of God’s gifts, three dimensions of our lives that must be brought into a harmonious balance. … In this regard, always give priority to the logic of being over that of having: the first builds up, the second ends up destroying. We must learn to believe first of all in the family, in authentic love, the kind that comes from God and unites us to Him”.

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LOVE IS THE ONLY FORCE THAT CAN TRULY TRANSFORM THE WORLD

Pope celebrates Mass in Milan

Saturday, June 2, 2012

2012-06-03 Vatican Radio

Pope Benedict is celebrating Mass at Park di Bresso in Milan on the final day of is visit to the Archdiocese for the 7th World Meeting of Families.

Below in the the full English Translation of the Pope’s Homily.

Dear Brother Bishops,
Distinguished Authorities,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
It is a time of great joy and communion that we are experiencing this morning, as we celebrate the eucharistic Sacrifice: a great gathering, in union with the Successor of Peter, consisting of faithful who have come from many different nations. It is an eloquent image of the Church, one and universal, founded by Christ and fruit of the mission entrusted by Jesus to his Apostles, as we heard in today’s Gospel: to go and make disciples of all nations, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:18-19). With affection and gratitude I greet Cardinal Angelo Scola, Archbishop of Milan, and Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, the principal architects of this VII World Meeting of Families, together with their staff, the Auxiliary Bishops of Milan and the other bishops. I am pleased to greet all the Authorities who are present today. And I extend a warm welcome especially to you, dear families! Thank you for your participation!
In today’s second reading, Saint Paul reminds us that in Baptism we received the Holy Spirit, who unites us to Christ as brothers and sisters and makes us children of the Father, so that we can cry out: “Abba, Father!” (cf. Rom 8:15,17). At that moment we were given a spark of new, divine life, which is destined to grow until it comes to its definitive fulfilment in the glory of heaven; we became members of the Church, God’s family, “sacrarium Trinitatis” as Saint Ambrose calls it, “a people made one by the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”, as the Second Vatican Council teaches (Lumen Gentium, 4). The liturgical Solemnity of the Holy Trinity that we are celebrating today invites us to contemplate this mystery, but it also urges us to commit ourselves to live our communion with God and with one another according to the model of Trinitarian communion. We are called to receive and to pass on the truths of faith in a spirit of harmony, to live our love for each other and for everyone, sharing joys and sufferings, learning to seek and to grant forgiveness, valuing the different charisms under the leadership of the bishops. In a word, we have been given the task of building church communities that are more and more like families, able to reflect the beauty of the Trinity and to evangelize not only by word, but I would say by “radiation”, in the strength of living love.
It is not only the Church that is called to be the image of One God in Three Persons, but also the family, based on marriage between man and woman. In the beginning, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply’” (Gen 1:27-28). God created us male and female, equal in dignity, but also with respective and complementary characteristics, so that the two might be a gift for each other, might value each other and might bring into being a community of love and life. It is love that makes the human person the authentic image of God. Dear married couples, in living out your marriage you are not giving each other any particular thing or activity, but your whole lives. And your love is fruitful first and foremost for yourselves, because you desire and accomplish one another’s good, you experience the joy of receiving and giving. It is also fruitful in your generous and responsible procreation of children, in your attentive care for them, and in their vigilant and wise education. And lastly, it is fruitful for society, because family life is the first and irreplaceable school of social virtues, such as respect for persons, gratuitousness, trust, responsibility, solidarity, cooperation. Dear married couples, watch over your children and, in a world dominated by technology, transmit to them, with serenity and trust, reasons for living, the strength of faith, pointing them towards high goals and supporting them in their fragility. And let me add a word to the children here: be sure that you always maintain a relationship of deep affection and attentive care for your parents, and see that your relationships with your brothers and sisters are opportunities to grow in love.
God’s plan for the human couple finds its fullness in Jesus Christ, who raised marriage to the level of a sacrament. Dear married couples, by means of a special gift of the Holy Spirit, Christ gives you a share in his spousal love, making you a sign of his faithful and all-embracing love for the Church. If you can receive this gift, renewing your “yes” each day by faith, with the strength that comes from the grace of the sacrament, then your family will grow in God’s love according to the model of the Holy Family of Nazareth. Dear families, pray often for the help of the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph, that they may teach you to receive God’s love as they did. Your vocation is not easy to live, especially today, but the vocation to love is a wonderful thing, it is the only force that can truly transform the world. You have before you the witness of so many families who point out the paths for growing in love: by maintaining a constant relationship with God and participating in the life of the Church, by cultivating dialogue, respecting the other’s point of view, by being ready for service and patient with the failings of others, by being able to forgive and to seek forgiveness, by overcoming with intelligence and humility any conflicts that may arise, by agreeing on principles of upbringing, and by being open to other families, attentive towards the poor, and responsible within civil society. These are all elements that build up the family. Live them with courage, and be sure that, insofar as you live your love for each other and for all with the help of God’s grace, you become a living Gospel, a true domestic Church (cf. Familiaris Consortio, 49). I should also like to address a word to the faithful who, even though they agree with the Church’s teachings on the family, have had painful experiences of breakdown and separation. I want you to know that the Pope and the Church support you in your struggle. I encourage you to remain united to your communities, and I earnestly hope that your dioceses are developing suitable initiatives to welcome and accompany you.
In the Book of Genesis, God entrusts his creation to the human couple for them to guard it, cultivate it, and direct it according to his plan (cf. 1:27-28; 2:15). In this commission we may recognize the task of man and woman to collaborate with God in the process of transforming the world through work, science and technology. Man and woman are also the image of God in this important work, which they are to carry out with the Creator’s own love. In modern economic theories, there is often a utilitarian concept of work, production and the market. Yet God’s plan, as well as experience, show that the one-sided logic of sheer utility and maximum profit are not conducive to harmonious development, to the good of the family or to building a more just society, because it brings in its wake ferocious competition, strong inequalities, degradation of the environment, the race for consumer goods, family tensions. Indeed, the utilitarian mentality tends to take its toll on personal and family relationships, reducing them to a fragile convergence of individual interests and undermining the solidity of the social fabric.
One final point: man, as the image of God, is also called to rest and to celebrate. The account of creation concludes with these words: “And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it” (Gen 2:2-3). For us Christians, the feast day is Sunday, the Lord’s day, the weekly Easter. It is the day of the Church, the assembly convened by the Lord around the table of the word and of the eucharistic Sacrifice, just as we are doing today, in order to feed on him, to enter into his love and to live by his love. It is the day of man and his values: conviviality, friendship, solidarity, culture, closeness to nature, play, sport. It is the day of the family, on which to experience together a sense of celebration, encounter, sharing, not least through taking part in Mass. Dear families, despite the relentless rhythms of the modern world, do not lose a sense of the Lord’s Day! It is like an oasis in which to pause, so as to taste the joy of encounter and to quench our thirst for God.
Family, work, celebration: three of God’s gifts, three dimensions of our lives that must be brought into a harmonious balance. Harmonizing work schedules with family demands, professional life with motherhood, work with celebration, is important for building up a society with a human face. In this regard, always give priority to the logic of being over that of having: the first builds up, the second ends up destroying. We must learn to believe first of all in the family, in authentic love, the kind that comes from God and unites us to him, the kind that therefore “makes us a ‘we’ which transcends our divisions and makes us one, until in the end God is ‘all in all’ (1 Cor 15:28)” (Deus Caritas Est, 18). Amen.

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Pope celebrates Mass in Milan

The Origins of the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Saturday, June 2, 2012

This is the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in Catholic tradition. Thus, it follows that an examination of the origins of this devotion may be warranted.

The devotion to the Sacred Heart of
Jesus may be quite unfamiliar to those of Anglican origin. Some may
argue that it is a “Romish” post-Reformation development with no
real place in the Anglican patrimonial heritage. However, the origin
of such a devotion bears a closer look.

The origin of this devotion in its
modern form is derived from a French Roman Catholic nun, Marguerite
Marie Alacoque, who claimed she learned the devotion from Jesus
during a mystical experience. However, facets of the modern devotion
arose earlier, in the Middle Ages in various aspects of Catholic
mysticism.

Indeed in the first ten centuries of
Christian history there was little indication that any form of
devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus existed. We have to look to the
10^th and 11^th centuries to find the first
indications of it. It was in the milieu of the Cistercian and
Benedictine monastic communities that the devotion began to make its
nascent appearance. It was well known to the likes of St. Gertrude,
St. Mechtide and St. Bonaventure, a Franciscan theologian and
scholar.

From the 13^th century on,
until the 16^th century, the devotion continued, but
without any real form of formulization. We see it practised by
individuals and various religious congregations, such as the
Franciscans, the Dominicans and the Carthusians. There was no
evidence of a general movement. However, the Franciscans did develop
their devotion to the five wounds, which included the wounded Heart
of Jesus which figured in a prominent way.

In the 16^th century the
devotion passed from the hands of mystics to ascetics as evident in
the writings of the Carthusian Lanspergius of Collogne,of the
Benedictine Louis of Blois, John of Avila and Frances de Sales.

The image of the Sacred Heart became
well known everywhere due to the popularization of the Franciscan
Devotion to the Five wounds. Indeed, the laity belonging to the Third
Order of St. Francis may have played a part in this. The Jesuits also
assisted by placing the image on the title pages of books and on
their church walls.

The devotion remained private and
individual until John Eudes ( 1602-1680) made it public, formed an
Office based on it and establshed a feast day for it. The devotion
was really tied into his devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
but the devotion became a separate one on August 31^st,
1670 when the Feast of the Sacred Heart was celebrated in the Grand
Seminary of Rennes. The feast soon spread to other dioceses and to
other reigious communities.

After this, beginning in 1673, we have
the first apparitions of Our Lord to Margaret Mary Alacoque. I will
not repeat the story of that here. More can be found about her at this link:

http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/MARGMARY.HTM

The next topic will be a discussion of
papal approvement for the devotion.

Link to original:

The Origins of the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Homily- A Mystery You Can Believe In: The Holy Trinity

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Please click here for a Printer Friendly Copy

A few weeks ago, I had the honour of being the sponsor for my nephew’s confirmation.

The celebrant was Fr. Liborio Amaral. Fr. Liborio is a wonderfully enthusiastic priest and you could tell he was deeply committed to seeing that these young folks had an understanding of what the sacrament of confirmation was all about.

Fr. Liborio had an obvious impression on my nephew, especially in one area. It seems that Father had made it clear to them that he was going to be asking them questions as part of the Confirmation. The confirmandi were all talking about this terrifying possibility as they gathered in front of the church.

Just before we began, Fr. Liborio appeared in his red chasuble, and he called all of the sponsors over for some instruction about the celebration and a prayer. He ended by telling us that he had decided not to ask the kids any questions after-all. Instead, he would be asking the sponsors.

As we returned to our places, you could hear the soft rumbles from the gathered Catholic sponsors. The woman behind me pleaded that she was just the grandmother, while the man in front stated that he was a truck driver not a theologian.

It was an opportunity for me, as a highly trained deacon specialist, to offer them some advice on how to answer questions about the Holy Spirit.

I told them, “If Father calls upon you listen very intently to what he is saying. Perhaps rub your chin as he talks, and after he asks you the question, ponder it for a few seconds and then look at him and say; “Father, it is a mystery!”

This works with all most any question concerning not just the Holy Spirit but with the teachings about the Holy Trinity.

What is a mystery of the faith?

The Vatican Council has explained… that a mystery is a truth which we are not merely incapable of discovering apart from Divine Revelation, but which, even when revealed, remains “hidden by the veil of faith and enveloped, so to speak, by a kind of darkness”. In other words, our understanding of it remains only partial, even after we have accepted it as part of the Divine message.

One such mystery of faith is summed up as follows:

+ In the Name of the Father, the son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

This of course is the Sign of the Cross. Perhaps the first thing we are taught as Catholics. In this one simple gesture, we symbolize the great mystery of the Holy Trinity.

At one point in the confirmation, I was talking about earlier, Fr. Liborio asked the young people to stand if they had the courage to answer a question.

You can imagine the uneasiness. A few brave souls stood. Fr. Liborio encouraged them further with the words of the scripture- “Do Not be Afraid.” Within a few minutes, the entire confirmation class was standing.

He then asked them all to answer three simple, yet mysterious questions. Each of the questions shared the same answer- I do.

I would like to ask each of you to answer these same questions. The answer is a loud “I do.”

First question: Do you believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth?

Response: I do.

Second Question: Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died, and was buried, rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father?

Response: I do.

Final Question: Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting?

Response: I do.

If we are honest with ourselves we will concede that in a large group like this it is easy to say I do in response to these questions.

It is more difficult to say what our agreement with these statements actually means in how we live our daily lives.

Most of you just agreed that you believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

As followers of the way, as Christians, we believe that God, the Father is Love.

Fr. Robert Barron points out in a discussion on the Trinity that our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters believe in the same God- the God of Abraham. They believe that God loves his people.

We believe this as well but as Christians we go further. We profess that God is Love.

If you said I do in response to this first question then you believe in the mystery that:

God is the creator of all that is seen and unseen;
God created you in his own image;
God loves you completely;
And perhaps most importantly- You are called to believe that you are worthy of this Love.

Most of you have just confirmed that you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died, and was buried, rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father.

We believe in the mystery that God is Love and Jesus is the Beloved. We believe Jesus is consubstantial with the Father. Christ is of the same substance as the Father.

A God who is Love, loved the world so much that he sent his only Son to be with us. He was born. He suffered. He died. We share these experiences with God in the person of Jesus.

Then He rose from the dead and He revealed to us the mystery of everlasting life.

Those of us who come to fully embrace the mystery of God made flesh in Jesus come to know that “All things are possible in Christ.”

Life is still full of pain; suffering and we cannot escape the impact of death. As followers of Christ, however, we know we are the beloved of God and through Jesus we experience the Love that is God.

Most of you have just confirmed that you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.

The Holy Spirit is the love that God the Father and the Son share for each other poured out on us.

If we believe this, if we have faith, we will know we are never alone. Jesus sent us an advocate to guide us home.

And most importantly we know- though we cannot prove it and we do not know how the mystery of the last day will work, we believe we will rise again and live in the everlasting love that is The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

This is our faith. This is the faith of the Church.

If you are proud to profess it, in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord then let me here an enthusiastic AMEN!

Tags: big question, faith, gospel of matthew, gospels, Reflections from the Pulpit – Wandering with Deacon Mike, teachings of the Church

Link:

Homily- A Mystery You Can Believe In: The Holy Trinity

St Mary’s High School, Kitchener’s Gay-Straight Alliance

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Some Catholic schools already ‘emboldened’ by Bill 13 to promote homosexuality: pro-family group

BY THE EDITORS

Thu May 31, 2012 15:59 EST

ONTARIO, May 31, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An Ontario Catholic pro-family group is warning that while the Ontario government’s anti-bullying “Bill 13” is an unprecedented threat to religious freedom in the province, the effects of the bill are already showing themselves, with some schools and boards having already been “emboldened” to openly promote the homosexual agenda .

“From the start, Campaign Life Catholics predicted Bill 13 would undermine biblical teaching on human sexuality. Now we have the proof,” said Suresh Dominic of Campaign Life Catholics.

“It arrived early, even before passage of Bill 13, in the form of open rebellion against Christian teaching by the Waterloo Catholic School Board and the Peterborough Catholic board.”

On May 1st the Waterloo Record reported how the vice principal and a teacher at St. Mary’s Catholic High School started an LGBT student club called PRISM (Pride and Respect for Individuals of a Sexual Minority).

According to the Waterloo Record, the school allows students to self-identify as “gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered,” and to discuss homosexual issues in a peer group forum.

“Emboldened by the proposed legislation, dissidents within the system have moved ahead with a homosexual agenda that will indoctrinate kids to celebrate the gay lifestyle,” said Dominic, “and by necessity, reject a moral doctrine of the Church.”

Dominic argued that the PRISM homosexual student club at St. Mary’s Catholic High School clearly contravenes a document put out by the Ontario bishops earlier this year. On January 26, Ontario’s Catholic School Trustees Association (OCSTA) had released Respecting Difference, co-authored with the bishops, that provides a framework for student-led “anti-bullying” groups in Catholic schools.

The bishops’ document re-affirmed Catholic teaching on the sinfulness of homosexual acts. It also made clear that homosexual activism must never be permitted under the guise of a Respecting Difference support group, and that all discussions, materials and resources must be respectful of Catholic teaching.

Subsequently on May 17, the Waterloo Record reported that St. Mary’s conducted a school-wideInternational Day Against Homophobia campaign that is organized by a Montreal-based group, Fondation Émergence inc., which promotes homosexuality in schools and workplaces.

Dominic said that such an event was clearly “not appropriate” for Catholic schools, adding that, “At the school-wide assembly, young people ‘came out’ as ‘gay’ in front of the entire faculty and student body.”

LifeSiteNews contacted the Board of Trustees and the administration of the Waterloo Catholic School Board for clarification of the board’s position on the issue. Only one trustee, Mr. Greg Reitzel, responded. He said in an email, “As an individual trustee, I cannot speak to the school board’s position but I can tell you that personally I am in support of the Respecting Differences document that was co-authored by OCSTA and the Bishops of Ontario.”

Dominic also pointed to the Catholic school board in Peterborough, specifically its pamphlet called “The Colour of Equity,” as another example of Catholic schools gone awry.

LifeSiteNews reported earlier that the booklet was criticized by both homosexual activists, who said a quote in it was “derogatory, patronizing and discriminatory,” and by faithful Catholics who lambasted the pamphlet for not being Catholic enough.

The original 29-page Colour of Equity booklet, produced by the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland Clarington Catholic District School Board (PVNCCDSB), entered the spotlight in March when a lesbian, whose two children attend a Catholic school near Peterborough, demanded that the board remove a Catholic Catechism quote stating Church teaching that the homosexual inclination is “objectively disordered.”

But complaints from other parents noted that the pamphlet misrepresents Catholic teaching in numerous ways and calls on schools to highlight homosexual role models and familiarize students with terms like “LGBTQQ” and “two-spirited.” The booklet indicates that Canada legalized same-sex “marriage” in 2005 without mentioning that the Church opposes such unions.

Subsequently the board pulled the booklet and issued a second, revised version of the booklet at the end of March that deleted the Catechism quote and replaced it with an out-of-context quote from then Cardinal Ratzinger – now Benedict XVI – that could lead an uninformed reader to conclude that the Church supports the goals of homosexual activists.

Further confusion was created when the revised booklet was pulled and returned to the writing committee with 81 proposed revisions from critics.

Lorne Corkery, city of Peterborough representative for the PVNCCDSB, told LifeSiteNews earlier in May that the booklet was referred back to the writing committee because of what he called a “fair bit of input from a number of sources,” some of whom said “it’s non-Catholic, throw it out.”

Campaign Life Catholics is urging concerned people to take action to stop Bill 13 in light of the proof of homosexual activism already in place in the province’s schools.

“It is difficult to claim the Catholic character of Ontario schools will not be watered down with proof like this,” Suresh Dominic stated.

“This sort of propaganda is certain to flood the Catholic system after Bill 13 is passed. Families of other faith traditions with kids in the public system will also have their religious beliefs trampled by Premier McGuinty’s sexual agenda,” Dominic concluded.

Contact info for your local MPP and Premier McGuinty is available here.

Contact info for Ontario Catholic bishops is available

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St Mary’s High School, Kitchener’s Gay-Straight Alliance

That Old Time Religion

Saturday, June 2, 2012

One of the many wonderful things about this weekend’s Solemnity is that every parish can make some movement towards truly liturgical music. Hopefully some parishes who sing hymns, for example, will slip in a proper or two, or chant some of the presidential prayers, or at the very least sing a Psalm at the beginning of Communion.

For those parishes so far away from solemnity that propers are completely out of the question, Trinity Sunday still affords an opportunity to sing texts that are really worth singing, and which very, very few congregations would find objectionable: two of the most excellent hymns in common usage. Holy God, We Praise Thy Name is a remarkable hymn and very apt for this feast. Msgr. Ratzinger, the Holy Father’s brother, sat down at the piano to play it as soon as he returned from World War II, and the whole family sang it together. It is a paraphrase of the Church’s hymn of thanksgiving, the Te Deum, and long associated among US Catholics with Benediction, which is a liturgical action. And as an added bonus, people love it! A music ministry moving towards solemnity will make friends, not enemies, by singing this hymn, and goodwill in situations like this is priceless. The same goes for O God, Almighty Father, which is not an excellent hymn but is certainly acceptable and which people enjoy singing.

Most importantly, this Sunday everyone would be happy to sing Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty. The tune is called Nicaea for a good reason, as the hymn expresses the Trinitarian faith of the Church from this early Christological Council. And again, no one will object. It may not be as beloved as Holy God, We Praise Thy Name, but it is a great hymn.

If you are looking for a way to begin moving a parish away from an All Are Welcome/ Be Not Afraid/ One Bread, One Body/ Sing a New Church into Being rut, the hymnody appropriate to this Sunday’s festival is a great place to begin. And these hymns sound just fine on a guitar.
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That Old Time Religion

What’s Your Poison?

Saturday, June 2, 2012

I have a friend who is an alcoholic. He says, “I have an addictive personality.That’s just the way I am.”

OK. But that’s not really an excuse. I tried to sympathize by saying, “So you’re addicted to booze. That’s a bad addiction. But why are you addicted to booze? What does it do for you?”

The whole story came out about how booze made him feel better and how it made him feel strong and confident and happy. The more I thought about the dynamics of addiction it seemed to me that everybody has some sort of an addiction. We are all “addictive personalities” in one way or another and our American society is an addictive society big time.

Its just that some addictions are physically destructive. Some addictions are illegal. Some addictions are socially shameful. Some addictions lead to violence and crime and terror. But there are other addictions which are socially acceptable. In fact our society rewards some addictions. Geesh, we give honorary doctorates and all sorts of awards to some of our addicts.

Greed, unquenchable greed is a heady addiction just as much as any drug. Gaining and exercising power is a rush inducing addiction. Sexual conquest and sexual pleasure is an addiction. Materialism is an addiction. All of these things can enslave you.

As the Brits say when asking what you want for a drink, “What’s your poison?”

What are some other addictions: The addiction to the approval of others, the addiction to the love of our family and friends, the addiction to being right all the time no matter what, the addiction to being smarter than everybody else, the addiction to adventure and thrill, the addiction to someone else looking after us. The list goes on.

I’d say an addiction is anything we rely on other than God. Even your religion can be an addiction if it is a substitute for God.

There is only one antidote to the poison of your choice: The Divine Mercy.

Only the Divine Mercy can fill the void within you which you seek to fill with your particular poison. Only the Divine Mercy can miraculously cure you of your addiction. Only the Divine Mercy can complete you.

Read article here:

What’s Your Poison?

Inside the Vatican’s power struggles – World – CBC News

Saturday, June 2, 2012

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Inside the Vatican's power struggles - World - CBC News

Why Bother With The Trinity?

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Hey, Happy Trinity Sunday, y’all!

Some folks using that there Google thingy on the Internet discovered one of my early posts from last summer, about why the Trinity matters. I had forgotten all about that post, but read it, liked it, and thought I would share it with you.

Here’s the link (I realize my links are invisible, because I need to redesign the blog, and don’t have time!):

The Trinity: Why Bother?

Hope it helps you enter the spirit of the feast!

They like calling it a sting operation II

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Back when the Lie-la Rose debate first burst onto the blogosphere, defenders of Li

v

e Action used the example of a sting operation being done a group of drug dealers as a means of shutting them down and saving the children from them.

But that would mean first, that Planned Parenthood is an illegal operation, and second, that “dealing drugs” or rather, helping out rapists, was all they did. That is to say, that they helped rapists as drug dealers deal drugs: that that was their one particular dealing.

In the case of the drug dealers, possessing the actual drugs and making ready to sell them (to the sting team) is the lynch pin that lands them in jail. In the case of Live Action, there is talk. And that’s it.

There is no next stage in which they bring in the pregnant mother with her statutory boyfriend and proceed to enlist for the “illegal” abortion and go into the operating room, at which point the “mother” lying on the operating chair yells into her microphone for the waiting team of cops to come, and the cops bust in and start arresting everyone.

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They like calling it a sting operation II

Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II Seen in Quebec

Saturday, June 2, 2012

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Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II Seen in Quebec

Empire Builders

Saturday, June 2, 2012

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Empire Builders

What did I miss ???

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