A prayer out for Stephanie

Where ever you are, whatever you are doing, however you feel, remember that you are loved by many.

St. Michael, the Archangel, St. Anthony, and St. Francis,

Through your intercession, I pray for her safety and return to her family soon.

Through Jesus Christ, our savior's name.

AMEN

Eucharistic Ministers should be Pro-life

With the Pro-life issue so hot right now especially with some Catholic Universities inviting pro-abortion speakers to their commencement ceremonies,  I wonder how deep this issue really goes.  For instance, the lay ministries have grown throughout the Catholic Church during the past decade to the degree that some Catholics probably haven't received communion from a priest in months or even years with the growing use of Eucharistic Ministers and shortage of priests.  What are these special ministers of the Church?  How much training to they receive, by whom, and what are the requirements needed by these individuals to fulfill this sacred post?

In the Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict XVI writes extensively about the Eucharist and how it is the source and summit in all aspects of the Christian life, not just on Sunday mornings. He writes, "Thus men and women are invited and led to offer themselves, their works and all creation in union with Christ."  Second Vatican council stated,

"the Church, in Christ, is a sacrament - a sign and instrument - of communion with God and of the unity of the entire human race."  The good pope continued in writing that, "The fact that the Church is the 'universal sacrament of salvation" shows how the sacramental economy ultimately determines the way that Christ, the one Savior, through the Spirit, reaches our lives in ALL their particularity."

The pope speaks of social responsibility to the Catholic Social teachings in regards to Catholics holding political and legislative positions, these teachings that cannot be negotiated such as: respect for human life, its defence from conception to natural death, the family built upon marriage between a man and a woman, the freedom to educate one's children and the promotion of the common good in all its forms."  The synod fathers stated that,

"The Christian faithful need a fuller understanding of the relationship between the Eucharist and their daily lives. Eucharistic spirituality is not just participation in Mass and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.  It embraces the whole of life."

The Eucharist and the lay faithful should be "lived," meeting each of us where we are, making our existence the place where we experience daily the radical newness of the Christian life...a call to holiness - which must be clearly evident in the way individual Christians live their lives - as a vocation for God's glory.  The moral transformation of the Eucharist that takes place in a believer

has the value of a 'spiritual worship' (Rom 12:1; Phil 3:3) flowing from and nourished by that inexhaustible source of holiness and glorification of God which is found in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist;  by sharing in the sacrament of the Cross, the Christian partakes of Christ's self-giving love and is equipped and committed to live this same charity in all his thoughts and deeds."

To summarize all this, I see that the Eucharistic Ministers are a witness to all those who receive the holy body of Christ from them.  They are the Church's helpmates, service stewards representing the Church in all the splendor Christ desired for her here on earth.  She, the Church, cares for the flock of the great Shepherd until He comes again in glory.  Those who serve Her should likewise be a mirror of Her.  One who does not totally understand the teachings of the Church, should refrain from serving her until they can be understood.  Those who train them up should have this in mind as they recruit and train individuals to be Eucharistic Ministers.

Families fighting cancer

There's some fighting going on in my neighborhood.  Two families that I know of that are in the midst of aggravated assault in the most unforgiving way.  The enemy?  Cancer.  Cancer is a word that no one ever wants to hear out of their doctor's mouth.  Cancer, a topic that most folks feign away if possible.

Cindy, her husband Howard, and 10 children are under fire.  This is a family that is the epitome of traditional values.  They are devout clingers of the faith, believe in a good education for their children and have homeschooled them since as long as I have know them...which is about 8 years now.  Cindy drives a big van, toting all these gifts around town to this appointment, that lesson, church, bible studies, youth groups, whatever....there she'd go.  She blogs about her situation on her blog, faithful Promises.

Another siege is waging in the house next door where Mel and her husband are taking cover when ever possible.  Surgeries, treatment, kids, school assignments,work, and everything else that continues despite the battle.  There is hardly a moment to stop and take a breath.  Their children have rallied around their father as he endures the treatments, surgeries, and pneumonia. The cancer has metastasized to his lungs and the treatments have been hard to come by and/or to get covered with their insurance company.  Their younger daughter comes by to visit with our eldest daughter sometimes, but she doesn't say much about her daddy.

Anyway, I wanted to say something about these two families, good families, loving families.  Good neighbors and their wars are our wars too. We think about them, pray for them, and ask to help them.  What is there to do?

Please pray for these two families, Cindy and Dennis are fighting, but their families are at their sides holding the line of fire.

Pope speaks to the families of the World

Quoting St. Peter, who said, "We must obey God rather than any human authority," the Holy Father told his listeners,

"The Word of God speaks to us of an obedience that is not mere subjection, nor simply an obeying of orders, rather it arises from an intimate communion with God and consists in an interior vision capable of discerning that which comes from on high and is above everything."

With the traditional family constantly threatened by society, it seems that we must be boldly living the traditional life. I just found out that another divorce is eminent in my neighborhood, the husband moved out a few months ago, the wife is getting the house ready to sell, the children surely are effected. How could this have been prevented...do we know these things are happening? Can we help in any way?Yes, it is our business, we are the body of Christ as a whole society. As families, we must understand the importance of our presence in society.

He added,

"It is the fruit of the Holy Spirit which God grants without measure."

Benedict XVI affirmed:

"Our contemporaries need to discover this obedience, which is not theoretical but essential.

"It means opting for specific forms of behavior which are based on obedience to God's will and which make us fully free.

"Christian families, with their domestic, simple and joyful lives, in which day by day they share their joys, hopes and concerns, and live in the light of faith, are schools of obedience and environments of true freedom. They know this well who over many years have enjoyed marriage in accordance with God's plan, […] experiencing the goodness of the Lord who helps and encourages us."

Before continuing the Mass, the Pope emphasized that "Christ is truly present in the Eucharist," and he is the "bread that comes down from on high" to strengthen us and "help us face the effort and fatigue of the road." The Pontiff added, "He is on our side."

Yes, halleluia, Christ is truly on our side, who can be against us??  If God, our triune Father, is for us, blessing us, giving us His graces as we pray, how can we not prevail?  We must, not alone either.  Halleluia! AMEN!

The Notre Dame/Odrama issue

There is a huge uproar about the Chancellor of Notre Dame University,  a Catholic University,inviting the present president to speak at it's commencement ceremony and be honored with a law degree from the University.  I have been asked by many of my friends and acquaintances, especially that know I am a devout Catholic, my take on it.  Here it is for the blogging world:

The Roman Catholic Church has been a pro-life voice forever.  Her stand has been to protect life from it's very beginning (conception) until natural death is a core teaching that is not up for negotiation.  In the 60's when the hippie craze started the free love&sex, drugs and the introduction of the pill and other IUD's, the Church stood her ground.   It was not easy as the many churches bent from this position around her.  With so much grey area and less and less right and wrong, our society is losing it's moral ground....we are out-of-control for the most part.

So now we have the chancellor inviting, as traditionally done, the present president, who has the reputation of being a proud pro-choice supporter.  The fact that Odrama is an abortion advocat, with his very first act as president signing over the taxpayers money to pay for abortions in foreign countries and making it known that he "doesn't want his daughters to be punished with a baby" if they make a mistake, flies in the face of the strict teachings of the Catholic Church.  His radical activism in socialized health care, FOCA, and legalization of doctor-assisted euthanization, hid zealous support to Planned Parenthood and sex education in the younger grades is appalling, not to mention that he doesn't care about the conscience aspect of doctors, especially pro-life physicians who do not want to be forced to perform abortions and abandon surviving infants in attempted late-term abortions.

The core values/teachings/morals of the Roman Catholic Church remain intact and should be honored by this Chancellor of Notre Dame by rescinding the invitation to the present president, agreeing with the Church, and the thousands petitioning this invitation, that the present president has no place speaking at Notre Dame staying true to the Magisterium not tradition.

Homeschool moment:

My youngest was doing her math on Thursday. She asked me:

"Mom, is billion bigger than trillion?"

Me: "No, Trillion is bigger than billion, why?"

"Well, I have a question that talks about the billions of stars in universe."

Me: "Yeah, and the government wants to spend more dollars than there are stars in the sky."

"Wow, hmm, wow."

Me: "Yep, more than there are stars in the sky.  Sheesh!! What are they thinking!!!

Fr. Jenkins, UNINVITE BO NOW!!

I am adamant that YOU rescind the invitation and do it now!  YOU are very VERY wrong and I have emailed YOU, signed the petition, joined the FB group, and complained on my twitter, facebook, and now my blogs about this.

You positively don't get it, that we have a core of values as a people of God, as the people of the Catholic Church and we should not invite ANYone who defies those values, thus vindicating their opposing views.

UN INVITE OBAMA NOW,  Fr. Jenkins!  NOW!!!

A Book Review: Finding Faith in a Skeptical World

Chet Galaska, a convert to Christianity from atheism, found his faith in his brothers and sisters that rallied around him throughout his life. Finding God and especially Christ's love and brotherhood spurred Chet to write it all down to share with others searching for the same thing he found.

Reading his book, at first I was struck on how completely detailed he wrote each topic, 27 topics specifically with 2 final thoughts at the end. In plain language, easy to understand comments he makes it clear how each topic brought him to Christ and his new life. In the Introduction, he says he doesn't "represent myself to be a scholar or my explanations to be scholarly." Sometimes, plain writing or non-scholarly sorts have more effect on folks searching.

It is also amazing how closely I related to his way of thinking. On evolution he explains very well the different schools of thought, but that the bottom line is there is obviously a Divine overseer. In reading the Bible not as a "plopped in your lap from the sky" God-written, but God-inspired in cooperation with appointed men collection of books and that knowing the history behind the words help to understand the message. In the chapter covering Sin, Chet talks about the differing of opinions of what is sinful. He is very kind and correct in his approach of the Roman Catholic Church. I liked that, in fact, I kept thinking that at some point Chet's next step was converting to Catholicism.

The bottom line is this, whether you are searching, already a believer in Christ, or just curious, Chet's book is a nice read to enjoy, learn, or just remember why Christianity makes total sense in this crazy and very skeptical world.

Thanks Chet, I appreciate your effort, your kind words concerning the Catholic Church and certainly your appreciation for all the Christian churches. Your book should be read by many and I highly recommend it.

Alleluia, Alleluia!!

Fr. Frank Pavone: "Mother Mary is why we are Pro-life"

A book Review: Keoni's Big Question

There was a time when children's books surrounded my knight and I with our children being small always ready for a story. Now they are reading on their own in middle school and grown, those well-loved and read books are being packed away. So, when Cheryl asked me to review a children's book, I gladly took it as a reprieve from the nearly grownup state of our household.

"Keoni's Big Question" takes place along the Ohio River with a young boy and an old man. Keoni asks his big question to many of his family and friends, even the pastor with no avail. Is it too big of a question to have an answer? Patti B. Ogden's description of this nature-loving young lad and the old man on a fishing excursion has the reader sitting in the little row boat along side the two. The curiosity of a child is reminiscent of our own younger years,especially as the thunderstorm rolls in on them. Things calm down after a desparate prayful moment, the sun shines again on the two of them in a special way and to both a delightful mystery is solved.

Not to be a spoiler here, let's just say this is a story that any parent would be happy to share with their children. Both of my middle-school daughters read the book and found it "cute".....oh well for lack of more descriptive words, they liked it. I did too, so if you have a small nature loving kiddo at home or a grandchild here or there, share this story with them, the message is universal and I'll admit cute, too.