Thoughts, 2008
Wednesday,
June 11, 2008
Wednesday,
June 04, 2008
World Apostolate of Fatima
All night vigil on Friday, June
13. Mass will be at Our Lady of Lourdes at 9:00 p.m., preceded by confessions.
The vigil will end on Saturday, June 14 with Benediction and Mass at 5:00 a.m.
Celebrant is Father Joseph Totten. Come pray with us.
Wednesday,
May 28, 2008
He who kneels before God can stand before anyone.
Wednesday,
May 21, 2008
Right now is a real good time to say
"thank You" to God for your friends and family; for those
friends and family who have gone to be with Jesus, now is a
real good time to thank God for the wonderful memories of
those you hold dear.
Wednesday,
May 14, 2008
The laity are gathered together in the
People of God and make up the Body of Christ under one head.
Whoever they are they are called upon, as living members, to
expend all their energy for the growth of the Church and its
continuous sanctification, since this very energy is a gift
of the Creator and a blessing of the Redeemer.
The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church
Lumen Gentium, 31
Wednesday,
April 30, 2008
Give God what's
right -- not what's left.
Sunday,
April 13, 2008: Good Shepherd Sunday
Please pray for the Holy Father, Pope
Benedict XVI, that his travel to the United States is safe
and that his trip bears much fruit among the faithful in
America.
Wednesday,
April 02, 2008
The worst afflictions only appear
intolerable if we see them in the wrong light. When we see
them as coming from the hand of God, and know that it is our
loving Father who humbles and distresses us, our sufferings
lose their bitterness and can even become a source of
consolation.
--Brother Lawrence
The Practice of the Presence of God
Monday, March 24, 2008
Then Jesus approached and said to
them, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to
me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I
have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until
the end of the age."
-Matthew 28: 18-20
Tuesday,
March 18, 2008
Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had
come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own
in the world and he loved them to the end.
-John 13: 1-2
Wednesday,
March 12, 2008
"With great joy we anticipate the first apostolic visit of his Holiness, Pope
Benedict XVI, to the United States of America, April 15-20, 2008. We pledge our
prayers in preparation for this historic journey, that hearts may be opened to
God's love and fidelity by our Holy Father's pilgrimage."
--Francis Cardinal George
President, USCCB
Wednesday,
February 27, 2008
Statement of the Bishops on the Bodies
Revealed Exhibit
The Most
Reverend Joseph F. Naumann, Archbishop of Kansas City in Kansas, and Most
Reverend Robert W. Finn, Bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph have issued the
following statement in response to ‘Bodies Revealed,’ soon coming to Union
Station in Kansas City, Missouri.Catholic moral teaching regards the
human person as a unity of soul and body, spirit and matter --
beings capable of freedom and love in communion with other
persons and with God. As such, the body is more than just a
vessel for the soul. The Church’s concern for human dignity
extends to the body even after the soul is no longer present. The
bodies of the dead deserve respect and charity, preserving the God-given dignity
of the human person. In lieu of immediate burial, the Church does allow for –
and in some cases commends - the conscientious free choice of persons to
“donate” their bodies for legitimate scientific research and educational
purposes. In these instances, the deceased body and its parts deserve respectful
interment.
Concerning the “Bodies” exhibit, one of our brother bishops recently wrote, “The
public exhibition of plasticized bodies, unclaimed, unidentified, and displayed
without reverence, is unseemly and inappropriate. Whatever the merits of
‘Bodies’ as an educational exhibit, and however well-intentioned the exhibit’s
creators might be, we believe that the use of human bodies in this way fails to
respect the persons involved.” We regard the “Bodies” exhibit as an unfortunate exploitation of that which
is “real” to teach something that could be accomplished by use of models. As
such it represents a kind of “human taxidermy” that degrades the actual people
who, through their bodies, once lived, loved, prayed, and died.
Tuesday,
February 19, 2008
Most people want to serve God, but only in an advisory
position.
--Anon
Tuesday,
February 11, 2008
When praying, don't give God instructions - just report
for duty.
--Anon
Tuesday,
January 29, 2008
What is God calling you to do?
The Institute for
Pastoral Theology (IPT) at Ave Maria University is accepting
applications for the Master of Theological Studies degree
program that will be offered in the Diocese of Kansas City –
St. Joseph beginning August 2008. Classes will be held at
the Franciscan Prayer Center in Independence, MO. The IPT is
highly regarded as a program that is based on Sacred
Scripture, Vatican II, the classics of Catholic
spirituality, documents on the liturgy, and the writings of
Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Classes meet one weekend
per month, ten months each year. For further information,
please call the IPT toll-free (866) 866-1100, e-mail us at
ipt@avemaria.edu or visit our web site at
www.ipt.avemaria.edu. Application deadline is April 1st,
2008.
Wednesday,
January 23, 2008
God doesn't call the
qualified, He qualifies the called.
--Anon.
Wednesday,
January 16, 2008
X. INDULGENCES
1471 The
doctrine and practice of indulgences in the Church are closely linked to the
effects of the sacrament of Penance.
What is an
indulgence?
"An indulgence is a remission before God of
the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven,
which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain
prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the
minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of
the satisfactions of Christ and the saints."
"An indulgence is partial or plenary according
as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin." The
faithful can gain indulgences for themselves or apply them to the dead.
The punishments
of sin
1472 To
understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to
understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave
sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable
of eternal life, the privation of which is called the "eternal punishment"
of sin. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy
attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or
after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from
what is called the "temporal punishment" of sin. These two punishments
must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from
without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which
proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the
sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.
1473 The
forgiveness of sin and restoration of communion with God entail the
remission of the eternal punishment of sin, but temporal punishment of sin
remains. While patiently bearing sufferings and trials of all kinds and,
when the day comes, serenely facing death, the Christian must strive to
accept this temporal punishment of sin as a grace. He should strive by works
of mercy and charity, as well as by prayer and the various practices of
penance, to put off completely the "old man" and to put on the "new man."
In the
Communion of Saints
1474 The
Christian who seeks to purify himself of his sin and to become holy with
the help of God's grace is not alone. "The life of each of God's children is
joined in Christ and through Christ in a wonderful way to the life of all
the other Christian brethren in the supernatural unity of the Mystical Body
of Christ, as in a single mystical person."
1475 In
the communion of saints, "a perennial link of charity exists between the
faithful who have already reached their heavenly home, those who are
expiating their sins in purgatory and those who are still pilgrims on earth.
Between them there is, too, an abundant exchange of all good things."
In this wonderful exchange, the holiness of one profits others, well
beyond the harm that the sin of one could cause others. Thus recourse to the
communion of saints lets the contrite sinner be more promptly and
efficaciously purified of the punishments for sin.
1476 We
also call these spiritual goods of the communion of saints the
Church's treasury, which
is "not the sum total of the material goods which have accumulated during
the course of the centuries. On the contrary the 'treasury of the Church' is
the infinite value, which can never be exhausted, which Christ's merits have
before God. They were offered so that the whole of mankind could be set free
from sin and attain communion with the Father. In Christ, the Redeemer
himself, the satisfactions and merits of his Redemption exist and find their
efficacy."
1477 "This
treasury includes as well the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin
Mary. They are truly immense, unfathomable, and even pristine in their value
before God. In the treasury, too, are the prayers and good works of all the
saints, all those who have followed in the footsteps of Christ the Lord and
by his grace have made their lives holy and carried out the mission the
Father entrusted to them. In this way they attained their own salvation and
at the same time cooperated in saving their brothers in the unity of the
Mystical Body."
Obtaining
indulgence from God through the Church
1478 An
indulgence is obtained through the Church who, by virtue of the power of
binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in favor of
individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of
Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of
the temporal punishments due for their sins. Thus the Church does not want
simply to come to the aid of these Christians, but also to spur them to
works of devotion, penance, and charity.
1479 Since
the faithful departed now being purified are also members of the same
communion of saints, one way we can help them is to obtain indulgences for
them, so that the temporal punishments due for their sins may be remitted.
-- from the Catechism of
the Catholic Church, II.ii.2#4.
Thursday,
January 10, 2008
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth!
Thou whose glory above the heavens is chanted
by the mouth of babes and infants,
thou hast founded a bulwark because of thy foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at thy heavens,
the work of thy fingers,
the moon and the stars which thou hast established;
what is man that thou art mindful of him,
and the son of man that thou dost care for him?
Yet thou hast made him little less than God,
and dost crown him with glory and honor.
Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands;
thou hast put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air,
and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the sea.
O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is thy name in all the earth!
--Psalm 8
Monday, January 07, 2008
The Church Year in summary is:
- Advent (Four Sundays prior to Christmas)
- Christmas (Christ our Savior is born)
- Holy Family Sunday
- Mary the Mother of God (New Year’s Day)
- Epiphany
- Baptism of the Lord
- Lent
- Ash Wednesday
- Palm Sunday
- Easter Sacred Triduum
- Holy Thursday
- Good Friday
- Holy Saturday
- Easter Vigil
- Easter
- Easter season
- Ascension
- Pentecost
- Trinity Sunday
- Body and Blood of Christ
- Ordinary Time II (continued...)
- Solemnity of Christ the King
(End of the year, Sunday prior to
the
beginning of Advent.)
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
"Our Christmas hope and joy brings many opportunities for the New Year
for fresh obedience to the leadings and promptings of the Holy Spirit. What
we make of 2008 is already in our hearts and it is up to us to put it into
our hands."
-- Fr. Steven C. Rogers,
from his 06 January 2008
Bulletin letter.
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