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Jan
31
St. John of the Cross
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Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent.
– St. John of the Cross
Jan
31
Vatican supports Denver Archbishop in his opposition to anti-Catholic legislation
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Archbishop Chaput objected to a bill which would bar all charitable agencies that receive state funding from ‘discrimination’ on the basis of religion in personnel policies.This would effectively preclude the Church from ensuring that the employees embrace Catholic teaching.
Denver (CNA) - At a press conference today on the Pope’s Lenten Message, Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes offered his support for Archbishop Charles Chaput’s recent stand against a potential Colorado law.
The bill would eradicate Catholic Charities’ ability to ensure its employees follow Catholic beliefs when working on state funded projects.
Last week, Chaput objected to a proposed measure before the Colorado legislature which would bar charitable agencies that receive state funding from discrimination on the basis of religion in personnel policies.
Chaput argued that such a measure would compromise the Catholic identity of church-run charities, and that he would rather see those charities stop delivering services rather than comply.
“This is not idle talk,” Chaput added. “I am very serious.”
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Jan
31
Christianity and martyrdom belong together. Yes, ut the martyr os something quite different from the rebel. Christ died a martyr, not a rebel. But there was a rebel: his name was Barabbas, and what Christ had said to Pilate was exemplified in him: If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting for me” (cf. Jn 18:36). For Barabbas, friends climbed the barricades; they called for his release - for Christ there were no demonstrations, nor did he want them. What, then, is the difference between the martyr and the rebel? That will be clear if we look at the first place where a Christian calls himself a Christian: at the First Epistle of Peter 4:15-16, where Saint Peter says to the Christians: “…Let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, a criminal, or even a mischief maker. Yet if any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name.” It is clear from this text that, for the Christian, it belongs to the essence of his Christian commitment to adhere to what is right even in a state where he himself is without rights. Jesus’ words “…Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s…” (Mt 22:21) also applies here. That is why Christians prayed for the emperor even during the centuries of persecution. As early as the First Epistle to Timothy, the New Testament bears witness that, even in a time of cruel oppression, Christians were called upon to pray “for kings and all who are in high positions” (1Tim 2:2). Christians refused to worship the emperor, but, even without being requested to do so they prayed for him and for the good of the state. Already, in the second century, they claimed that it was really then, the accused and maligned, who, by their lives, saved state and society from destruction.
From Zeitfragen und christlicher Glaube, pp. 35-36
Jan
31
Mark 4:21-25
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21 And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a bushel, or under a bed, and not on a stand?
22 For there is nothing hid, except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret, except to come to light.
23 If any man has ears to hear, let him hear.”
24 And he said to them, “Take heed what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you.
25 For to him who has will more be given; and from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”
Jan
30
Seeking Background Talent
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Jan
30
St. John Chrysostom
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Imagine your anger to be a kind of wild beast, because it has ferocious teeth and claws, and if you don’t tame it, it will devastate all things even corrupting the soul.
– St. John Chrysostom
Jan
30
Mark 4:1-20
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1 Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea; and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land.
2 And he taught them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them:
3 “Listen! A sower went out to sow.
4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.
5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it had not much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil;
6 and when the sun rose it was scorched, and since it had no root it withered away.
7 Other seed fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.
8 And other seeds fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
9 And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
10 And when he was alone, those who were about him with the twelve asked him concerning the parables.
11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables;
12 so that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand; lest they should turn again, and be forgiven.”
13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?
14 The sower sows the word.
15 And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown; when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word which is sown in them.
16 And these in like manner are the ones sown upon rocky ground, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy;
17 and they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.
18 And others are the ones sown among thorns; they are those who hear the word,
19 but the cares of the world, and the delight in riches, and the desire for other things, enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
20 But those that were sown upon the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
Jan
30
Church grows from the inside to the outside, not in reverse order. She signifies, above all, an interior union with Christ; she forms herself in the life of prayer, in the life of the sacraments; on the fundamental dispositions of faith, hope, and love. Therefore, when someone asks: What must I do so that Church will come into existence and continue to grow? the answer must be: You must strive above all to ensure that there is faith, that hope and love are actively present. Prayer builds the Church and the community of the sacraments in which she raises her prayer for us. This summer I met a priest who told me that what struck him most forcibly when he accepted the post as pastor whas that for decades, his parish had produced no vocations to the priesthood. But what was he to so? No one can make vocations; only the Lord can give them. Does that mean however, that we must fold our hands and do nothing? He made up his mind to make on foot each yeat for this intention the long and arduoud pilgrimage to Our Lady’s shrine at Altotting and to invite all those who shared his intention to accompany him and pray with him. Every year more persons joined him on his pilgrimage and this year, to the immense joy of the whole village, they were able for the first time in living memory, to celebrate a First Mass. The Church year grows from within - we say that in reference to the body of Christ, but it is true also in another respect: Christ formed a body for himself and I must incorporate myself into that body as a humble member - there is no other way of finding and holding him in his entirety, for I myself have become a member, an organ, of his body in this world and, therefore, for eternity. With this realization, the liberal notion that jesus is ineresting but that the Church is an unsuccessful undertaking automatically fades away. Christ exists only in his body, not just as an ideal; that means: with all those others - with the permanent, time-transcending community that is his body. The Church is not an idea, but a body, and the scandal of the Incarnation on which many of Jesus’ contemporaries came to grief, continues int he vexations of the Church, but here, too, the saying is applicable: Blessed is he who is not scandalized in me. This communal character of the Church necessarily means, then, her we character: she is not just somewhere; we ourselves are the Church. Certainly, no one can say: “I am the Church”; each must and may say: We are the Church. And “we” - that is not just a group that isolates itself, but one that belongs to the whole community of all the living and deceased members of Christ. Thus a group can really say: We are the Church. The Church is here in this accessible we that removes boundaried- not just social and political boundaries, but also the boundary between heaven and earth. We are the Church - from this proceeds our corresponsibility, but also the privelege of being co-workers; from this comes our right to criticize, but we must always begin with self-criticism. For Church- we repeat- is not just somewhere, someone else,; it is we who are the Church.
From: Kirche, Okumene und Politik, pp. 15-16
Jan
29
CBCP Statement : “Reform Yourselves and Believe in the Gospel!” (Mark 1:15)
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Beloved People of God:
Our Holy Father in his most recent letter to us reminds us of the gift of faith and hope: that when we believe, we hope; and that when we hope, we live differently (see Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi, November 30, 2007, no. 2). These convictions on faith and hope set the tone of our own letter to you in the present pastoral situation.
The Darkness of Our Situation—the Common Good Subordinated
For we live today as a people almost without hope, it would seem. We look at our landscape and see darkness everywhere. Many of us are more than aware that many problems are simply rumors, fears, suspicions, imagined wrongs. Because these are reported in the newspapers, we begin to believe that they are true.
In such a pastoral situation we are being asked again for guidance on various specific problems currently bothering us. The following have been brought to our attention:
(a) the perception that corruption in government is at its worst, fraudulent projects going on unchecked despite the bad publicity given them in the media, investigations into the truth of allegations of bribery often stymied or their results unreported;
(b) the suspicion that martial law will be imposed as a response to the likelihood that destabilizing coups against the government are still being planned by disgruntled elements of the military allegedly with some civilian support;
(c) the constant talk about plans and moves for Charter change being made by politicians which to all intents and purposes appear to be nothing but a ploy for the sole purpose of their staying on in power—not the kind and method of making the right kind of change in the nation’s basic law;
Jan
29
Bishops offer condolences to Greek Orthodox mourning leader’s death
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By Cindy Wooden | Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Catholic bishops of Greece offered their condolences to the country’s Orthodox majority as they mourned the death of Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens.
The primate of the Greek Orthodox Church, 69, died Jan. 28 in Athens after a long struggle with intestinal and liver cancer.
Under the leadership of Archbishop Christodoulos, who was elected in 1998 to lead the Greek Orthodox Church, relations between Catholics and Greek Orthodox improved remarkably.
The country’s Catholic bishops called his death “a great loss for the Greek Orthodox Church and for the ecumenical movement,” reported L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.
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