Weekly Meditation
Please join us and the spiritual community throughout the world as we ponder the same words and share in the same prayers each week.
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April 2008
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Weekly Meditation
Posted: 4/28/2008
Pope Benedict's visit has inspired and renewed our sense of reasonable pride and simple gratitude for our Catholic faith. We have centuries of tradition, service, teaching the truths of the gospel, proclaiming God's love for us and our commitment to love and serve one another, especially the least and most vulnerable among us. This week the Liturgy offers us impressive examples of this tradition of truth, freedom, service, and commitment.
Today we remember two Catholic priests, St. Peter Chanel and St. Louis Mary de Montfort. Both served so many with compassion and sacrifice. St Peter was also a martyr as a missionary in the Pacific Islands. St Louis wrote his well-known book, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin.
On Tuesday we celebrate the memorial of St. Catherine of Sienna, virgin and doctor of the church, who died in 1380. She was so instrumental in bringing about the conclusion of the Avignon papacy, sometimes known as the great western schism. She is also one the co-patronesses of Europe.
Wednesday is the memorial of St. Pius V who implemented the reforms of the Council of Trent and promulgated the Roman Catechism, the Roman Missal and the Roman Breviary used until the Second Vatican Council.
Thursday (in most dioceses) we remember St. Joseph the Worker, honoring "that just man" whom God chose to be the foster father of Jesus and the spouse of Mary. (In some dioceses, Thursday will be celebrated as Ascension Thursday.)
Friday is the memorial of the great doctor of the Eastern Church, St. Athanasius, who died in 373 after spending 45 years as the Bishop of Alexandria. He was a champion at the Council of Nicea in 325. He was exiled five times for preaching the truth about the divinity of Jesus Christ.
And on Saturday we remember two of the Apostles Jesus chose to be committed to him and proclaim the gospel to the whole world. We remember Saints Philip and James.
And this is just one week! What a sense of gracious pride and deep gratitude for this wonderful gift of our Catholic faith. Each of us is called today to live that faith and to share it given the circumstances of our vocation and our contemporary world that ever calls for us to renew and strengthen our commitment as baptized disciples of Jesus Christ. -
Weekly Meditation
Posted: 4/21/2008
Pope Benedict has completed his visit to our country and returned to the Vatican. Surely we have sentiments of respect. gratitude and love for his bringing us the message of "Christ our hope" and challenging us to embrace and live that message. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life -- the Way we can safely follow, the Truth we can rely on, the Life in which we share. This gives such authenticity to putting our hope in Christ.
We continue living these 50 days of Easter with revitalized awareness of Christ our hope. We participate in the victory of Jesus' resurrection and cherish the gift of new life he gives us now and the promise of eternal life to come. Pope Benedict has urged us to know Jesus better and to develop a closer friendship with him. Jesus' Mother Mary can help us do that. We might use the prayer the pope gave us at the conclusion of his first encyclical "God is Love."
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Weekly Meditation
Posted: 4/14/2008
Here's a short excerpt from Pope Benedict XVI's message to us in anticipation of his visit to our country this week.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in the United States of America,
Together with your bishops, I have chosen as the theme of my journey three simple but essential words: "Christ our hope". Following in the footsteps of my venerable predecessors, Paul VI and John Paul II, I shall come to the United States of America as Pope for the first time, to proclaim this great truth: Jesus Christ is hope for men and women of every language, race, culture and social condition. Yes, Christ is the face of God present among us. Through him, our lives reach fullness, and together, both as individuals and peoples, we can become a family united by fraternal love, according to the eternal plan of God the Father.
I know how deeply rooted this Gospel message is in your country. I am coming to share it with you in a series of celebrations and gatherings. I shall also bring the message of Christian hope to the great Assembly of the United Nations, to the representatives of all the peoples of the world.
We ask God's blessings for Pope Benedict XVI and his ministry in our country. May we all listen as he challenges us to live our faith, grow in it joyfully and share it gratefully. Here are a few words from two of his Angelus talks.
Faith cannot be reduced to a private sentiment or indeed, be hidden when it is inconvenient; it also implies consistency and a witness even in the public arena for the sake of human beings, justice and truth. (Angelus, Oct. 9, 2005)
Sometimes, people think that holiness is a privileged condition reserved for a few elect. Actually, becoming holy is every Christian's task, indeed, we could say, every person's! (Angelus, Oct.14, 2005)
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Weekly Meditation
Posted: 4/7/2008
Pope Benedict XVI's general prayer intention for April is "That Christians, even in difficult and complex situations of present-day society, may not tire of proclaiming with their lives that Christ's resurrection is the source of peace and hope."
The theme of our Holy Father's visit to our country is "Christ Our Hope". We live our lives fully and joyfully when we have hope. Embracing Jesus' teachings and example gives us a positive way of living. Pope Benedict XVI in his encyclical on hope notes that St.Paul reminded the Ehpesians (Eph 2:12) that "before their encounter with Christ they were ?without hope and without God in the world.'" (On Christian Hope, #2).
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