MONDAY MORNING MISSION MEDITATION for the week of March 4, 2012

Catholic Charities. Providing Help. Creating Hope. 

VISION: Believing in the presence of God in our midst, we proclaim the sanctity of human life and the dignity of the person by sharing in the mission of Jesus given to the Church. To this end, Catholic Charities works with individuals, families, and communities to help them meet their needs, address their issues, eliminate oppression, and build a just and compassionate society.

MISSION: Rooted in the Mission of the Diocese of Youngstown "to minister to the people in the six counties of northeastern Ohio . . .(and) to the world community", we are called to provide service to people in need, to advocate for justice in social structures, and to call the entire Church and other people of good will to do the same.

GOALS: Catholic Charities is devoted to helping meet basic human needs, strengthening families, building communities and empowering low-income people. Working to reduce poverty in half by 2020.

KEY VALUE: Hospitality

WHAT WE DO: Organizing Love. "As a community, the Church must practise love. Love thus needs to be organized if it is to be an ordered service to the community" (Deus Caritas Est, par. 20) 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiok5T22CsqziHDxRHRjhz8ZhUblog07wMd1hC7JS_ycNXTog0M81AIeb5eie7D65z3FRfhyhCctvcO5ZJUfoUwPwvWMT7e4CaXSMZT7eLmp0TGcfKqcWQyOg9CVyCPIW06ybQcjdM6VVn5/s400/Versuchung+Jesu+2,+2007kk.jpg

On Sunday (First Sunday of Lent, B http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022612.cfm    ) we read in the Gospel of Mark about Jesus’ experience in the desert, as he was tempted by Evil.  Jesus returns refreshed from his experience, and proclaims the Good News to everyone he meets:  The Kingdom of God is at hand.  We then read in the first reading about the story of Noah’s ark.  We hear that God has renewed his covenant with us, and will always love us.  Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom is the fulfillment of that covenant and shows the depths of God’s love for us as God continually offers us forgiveness and healing.  This is a reminder to us during Lent that God loves us so much, and first,  that God is always welcoming us back with great affection.

In Catholic Charities http://www.ccdoy.org ,  we are signs to persons and families in need that God is alive and loves them.  When persons visit our offices, many times they are scared and intimidated.  Other times they are at their wits end.  Our Catholic Charities’ staff and volunteers welcome them with love and healing giving hope in times of distress.  Like the sign of the rainbow God gave Noah, we give the sign of the Cross reminding them of God’s abundant love.

Reflection from Church Documents and Official Statements

Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace
TOWARDS REFORMING THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL AND MONETARY SYSTEMS IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBAL PUBLIC AUTHORITY, October 24, 2011


Specific attention should be paid to the reform of the international monetary system and, in particular, the commitment to create some form of global monetary management, something that is already implicit in the Statutes of the International Monetary Fund. It is obvious that to some extent this is equivalent to putting the existing exchange systems up for discussion in order to find effective means of coordination and supervision. This process must also involve the emerging and developing countries in defining the stages of a gradual adaptation of the existing instruments.

In fact, one can see an emerging requirement for a body that will carry out the functions of a kind of “central world bank” that regulates the flow and system of monetary exchanges similar to the national central banks. The underlying logic of peace, coordination and common vision which led to the Bretton Woods Agreements needs to be dusted off in order to provide adequate answers to the current questions. On the regional level, this process could begin by strengthening the existing institutions, such as the European Central Bank. However, this would require not only a reflection on the economic and financial level, but also and first of all on the political level, so as to create the set of public institutions that will guarantee the unity and consistency of the common decisions.

These measures ought to be conceived of as some of the first steps in view of a public Authority with universal jurisdiction; as a first stage in a longer effort by the global community to steer its institutions towards achieving the common good. Other stages will have to follow in which the dynamics familiar to us may become more marked, but they may also be accompanied by changes which would be useless to try to predict today.




 


Some important date(s) this week:
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/ByDate.aspx

See website for biographies of Saints and Blessed celebrated this week.

http://orb.crs.org/wp-content/themes/orb/images/orb-logo.png

http://orb.crs.org/wp-content/themes/orb/images/crs-logo.png

Consider participating in Operation Rice Bowl,   http://orb.crs.org/   a Lenten program of Catholic Relief Services incorporating prayers, education, charity, and justice.

http://www.steugeneschool.org/pictures/ICON%20Drexel.JPG

SATURDAY March 3

St. Katharine Drexel (1858-1955)

If your father is an international banker and you ride in a private railroad car, you are not likely to be drawn into a life of voluntary poverty. But if your mother opens your home to the poor three days each week and your father spends half an hour each evening in prayer, it is not impossible that you will devote your life to the poor and give away millions of dollars. Katharine Drexel did that.

She was born in Philadelphia in 1858. She had an excellent education and traveled widely. As a rich girl, she had a grand debut into society. But when she nursed her stepmother through a three-year terminal illness, she saw that all the Drexel money could not buy safety from pain or death, and her life took a profound turn.
She had always been interested in the plight of the Indians, having been appalled by what she read in Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of Dishonor. While on a European tour, she met Pope Leo XIII and asked him to send more missionaries to Wyoming for her friend Bishop James O’Connor. The pope replied, “Why don’t you become a missionary?” His answer shocked her into considering new possibilities.
Back home, Katharine visited the Dakotas, met the Sioux leader Red Cloud and began her systematic aid to Indian missions.
She could easily have married. But after much discussion with Bishop O’Connor, she wrote in 1889, “The feast of St. Joseph brought me the grace to give the remainder of my life to the Indians and the Colored.” Newspaper headlines screamed “Gives Up Seven Million!”
After three and a half years of training, she and her first band of nuns (Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored) opened a boarding school in Santa Fe. A string of foundations followed. By 1942 she had a system of black Catholic schools in 13 states, plus 40 mission centers and 23 rural schools. Segregationists harassed her work, even burning a school in Pennsylvania. In all, she established 50 missions for Indians in 16 states.
Two saints met when Katharine was advised by Mother Cabrini about the “politics” of getting her Order’s Rule approved in Rome. Her crowning achievement was the founding of Xavier University in New Orleans, the first Catholic university in the United States for African Americans.
At 77, she suffered a heart attack and was forced to retire. Apparently her life was over. But now came almost 20 years of quiet, intense prayer from a small room overlooking the sanctuary. Small notebooks and slips of paper record her various prayers, ceaseless aspirations and meditation. She died at 96 and was canonized in 2000.





SHARING HOPE IN HARD ECONOMIC TIMES.

Read Bishop Murry’s Pastoral Letter on Poverty.  http://doy.org/files/Scroller/PastoralPoverty.pdf

  Ask yourself as you prepare for Lent: Who Is My Neighbor?  How can I help?  Lent offers a great time to reflect, pray, share one’s gifts and share your sacrifice.  See information above about Operation Rice Bowl for ideas. http://orb.crs.org/

http://www.catholiccharitiesyoungstown.org/ccdoy-251.html

    
Catholic Charities' 2nd Annual Irish Comalya
Saturday, March 3, 2012 6:00pm - 10:00pm
Hippodrome Banquet Center  150 High St. NW Warren, OH  44481

 PAPAL INTENTIONS:   

February 2012

General Intention: Access to Water.
That all peoples may have access to water and other resources needed for daily life.

Missionary Intention: Health Workers.
That the Lord may sustain the efforts of health workers assisting the sick and elderly in the world's poorest regions.

March 2012

General Intention: Contribution of Women. That the whole world may recognize the contribution of women to the development of society.

Missionary Intention: Persecuted Christians. That the Holy Spirit may grant perseverance to those who suffer discrimination, persecution, or death for the name of Christ, particularly in Asia. 

Corporal Works of Mercy:  The seven practices of charity toward our neighbor Feed the hungry Give drink to the thirsty Clothe the naked Shelter the homeless Visit the sick Visit those in prison Bury the dead

Note: Please consider joining our
FACEBOOK CAUSE http://apps.facebook.com/causes/106889 
FACEBOOK GROUP https://www.facebook.com/pages/Catholic-Charities-Diocese-of-Youngstown/138817639487339
TWITTER account, CCDOY, http://twitter.com/CCDOY
for current updates and calls to action that we can all use. 

See our website at www.catholiccharitiesyoungstown.org for links to the our ministries and services.    
For more information on Catholic Social Doctrine and its connection to our ministries, visit my blog at:  http://corbinchurchthinking.blogspot.com/

Cardinal Dolan's recent comments about HHS Mandates

In a new letter to his fellow US bishops, USCCB President Timothy Cardinal Dolan asserts that President Obama’s accommodation to the HHS birth control, abortifacient and sterilization mandate has changed nothing and he again asks the bishops to help in the fight to pass the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act.
The letter, co-signed by Bishop William Lori and dated today, is the strongest statement yet on the subject of religious freedom which the writers say is a God-given right which “does not depend on any government’s decision to grant it.”

Full text below:

Dear Brother Bishops,
Since we last wrote to you concerning the critical efforts we are undertaking together to protect religious freedom in our beloved country, many of you have requested that we write once more to update you on the situation and to again request the assistance of all the faithful in this important work. We are happy to do so now.

First, we wish to express our heartfelt appreciation to you, and to all our sisters and brothers in Christ, for the remarkable witness of our unity in faith and strength of conviction during this past month. We have made our voices heard, and we will not cease from doing so until religious freedom is restored.
As we know, on January 20, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a decision to issue final regulations that would force practically all employers, including many religious institutions, to pay for abortion inducing drugs, sterilizations, and contraception. The regulations would provide no protections for our great institutions—such as Catholic charities, hospitals, and universities—or for the individual faithful in the marketplace. The regulations struck at the heart of our fundamental right to religious liberty, which affects our ability to serve those outside our faith community.

Since January 20, the reaction was immediate and sustained. We came together, joined by people of every creed and political persuasion, to make one thing resoundingly clear: we stand united against any attempt to deny or weaken the right to religious liberty upon which our country was founded.

On Friday, February 10, the Administration issued the final rules. By their very terms, the rules were reaffirmed “without change.” The mandate to provide the illicit services remains. The exceedingly narrow exemption for churches remains. Despite the outcry, all the threats to religious liberty posed by the initial rules remain.

Religious freedom is a fundamental right of all. This right does not depend on any government’s decision to grant it: it is God-given, and just societies recognize and respect its free exercise. The free exercise of religion extends well beyond the freedom of worship. It also forbids government from forcing people or groups to violate their most deeply held religious convictions, and from interfering in the internal affairs of religious organizations.

Recent actions by the Administration have attempted to reduce this free exercise to a “privilege” arbitrarily granted by the government as a mere exemption from an all-encompassing, extreme form of secularism. The exemption is too narrowly defined, because it does not exempt most non-profit religious employers, the religiously affiliated insurer, the self-insured employer, the for-profit religious employer, or other private businesses owned and operated by people who rightly object to paying for abortion inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception. And because it is instituted only by executive whim, even this unduly narrow exemption can be taken away easily.

In the United States, religious liberty does not depend on the benevolence of who is regulating us. It is our “first freedom” and respect for it must be broad and inclusive—not narrow and exclusive. Catholics and other people of faith and good will are not second class citizens. And it is not for the government to decide which of our ministries is “religious enough” to warrant religious freedom protection.

This is not just about contraception, abortion-causing drugs, and sterilization—although all should recognize the injustices involved in making them part of a universal mandated health care program. It is not about Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals. It is about people of faith. This is first and foremost a matter of religious liberty for all. If the government can, for example, tell Catholics that they cannot be in the insurance business today without violating their religious convictions, where does it end? This violates the constitutional limits on our government, and the basic rights upon which our country was founded.

Much remains to be done. We cannot rest when faced with so grave a threat to the religious liberty for which our parents and grandparents fought. In this moment in history we must work diligently to preserve religious liberty and to remove all threats to the practice of our faith in the public square. This is our heritage as Americans. President Obama should rescind the mandate, or at the very least, provide full and effective measures to protect religious liberty and conscience.

Above all, dear brothers, we rely on the help of the Lord in this important struggle. We all need to act now by contacting our legislators in support of the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, which can be done through our action alert on www.usccb.org/conscience.

We invite you to share the contents of this letter with the faithful of your diocese in whatever form, or by whatever means, you consider most suitable. Let us continue to pray for a quick and complete resolution to this and all threats to religious liberty and the exercise of our faith in our great country.

Timothy Cardinal Dolan
Archbishop of New York
President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Most Reverend William E. Lori
Bishop of Bridgeport
Chairman, Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty

Bishop Murry announces revised Diocese of Youngstown Website http://doy.org

MONDAY MORNING MISSION MEDITATION for the week of February 19, 2012

 

Catholic Charities. Providing Help. Creating Hope. 

VISION: Believing in the presence of God in our midst, we proclaim the sanctity of human life and the dignity of the person by sharing in the mission of Jesus given to the Church. To this end, Catholic Charities works with individuals, families, and communities to help them meet their needs, address their issues, eliminate oppression, and build a just and compassionate society.

MISSION: Rooted in the Mission of the Diocese of Youngstown "to minister to the people in the six counties of northeastern Ohio . . .(and) to the world community", we are called to provide service to people in need, to advocate for justice in social structures, and to call the entire Church and other people of good will to do the same.

GOALS: Catholic Charities is devoted to helping meet basic human needs, strengthening families, building communities and empowering low-income people. Working to reduce poverty in half by 2020.

KEY VALUE: Hospitality

WHAT WE DO: Organizing Love. "As a community, the Church must practise love. Love thus needs to be organized if it is to be an ordered service to the community" (Deus Caritas Est, par. 20) 

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4003/4439135633_d2ee56a5b7_z.jpg?zz=1

 

On Sunday (Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, B http://usccb.org/bible/readings/021912.cfm    ) we read in the Gospel of Mark about Jesus healing both spiritually and physically a paralytic man.  All are astonished at the fact that Jesus’ healing connects both the spirit and the body.  His healing touch engages the whole person, and the whole community.  This paralytic had to rely on others for his needs.  His four friends certainly display their commitment to their ill compatriot by carrying him to the roof and lowering him down in a crowded room with many others trying to touch/hear Jesus.  The Lord’s healing reintegrates this ill man back into the full swing of life.

In Catholic Charities http://www.ccdoy.org ,  we are oftentimes like those friends who helped their ill neighbor.  We sometimes have to advocate for persons and families to obtain needed benefits and assistance.  We sometimes have to help an “ill” person recover both in spirit and in body.  As Lent approaches this week, we in Catholic Charities invite you along with us to reflect on who is our neighbor in our midst that we could stop and help; even to the point of carrying that neighbor to a roof top and helping him/her “see” and “touch” Jesus in order to be healed.



Reflection from Church Documents and Official Statements

Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace
TOWARDS REFORMING THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL AND MONETARY SYSTEMS IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBAL PUBLIC AUTHORITY, October 24, 2011


In the area of the G20, concrete tendencies can thus mature which, when worked out properly in the appropriate technical centres, will be able to guide the competent bodies on the national and regional level towards consolidating existing institutions and creating new ones with appropriate and effective instruments on the international level.

Moreover, the G20 leaders themselves said in their final Statement in Pittsburgh 2009: “The economic crisis demonstrates the importance of ushering in a new era of sustainable global economic activity grounded in responsibility”. To tackle the crisis and open up a new era “of responsibility”, in addition to technical and short-term measures, the leaders put forth the proposal “to reform the global architecture to meet the needs of the 21st century,” and later the proposal “to launch a framework that lays out the policies and the way we act together to generate strong, sustainable and balanced global growth”.

Therefore, a process of reflection and reforms needs to be launched that will explore creative and realistic avenues for taking advantage of the positive aspects of already existing forums.



 


Some important date(s) this week:
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/ByDate.aspx

See website for biographies of Saints and Blessed celebrated this week.

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 22.  ASH WEDNESDAY.  LENT BEGINS.
The Wednesday after Quinquagesima Sunday, which is the first day of the Lenten fast.
The name dies cinerum (day of ashes) which it bears in the Roman Missal is found in the earliest existing copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary and probably dates from at least the eighth century. On this day all the faithful according to ancient custom are exhorted to approach the altar before the beginning of Mass, and there the priest, dipping his thumb into ashes previously blessed, marks the forehead — or in case of clerics upon the place of the tonsure — of each the sign of the cross, saying the words: "Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return." The ashes used in this ceremony are made by burning the remains of the palms blessed on the Palm Sunday of the previous year.  http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01775b.htm

Consider participating in Operation Rice Bowl,   http://orb.crs.org/   a Lenten program of Catholic Relief Services incorporating prayers, education, charity, and justice.

SHARING HOPE IN HARD ECONOMIC TIMES.

Read Bishop Murry’s Pastoral Letter on Poverty.  http://doy.org/files/Scroller/PastoralPoverty.pdf

  Ask yourself as you prepare for Lent: Who Is My Neighbor?  How can I help?  Lent offers a great time to reflect, pray, share one’s gifts and share your sacrifice.  See information above about Operation Rice Bowl for ideas. http://orb.crs.org/

    
Catholic Charities' 2nd Annual Irish Comalya
Saturday, March 3, 2012 6:00pm - 10:00pm
Hippodrome Banquet Center  150 High St. NW Warren, OH  44481
http://www.catholiccharitiesyoungstown.org/ccdoy-251.html

 PAPAL INTENTIONS:   

February 2012

General Intention: Access to Water.
That all peoples may have access to water and other resources needed for daily life.

Missionary Intention: Health Workers.
That the Lord may sustain the efforts of health workers assisting the sick and elderly in the world's poorest regions.

Corporal Works of Mercy:  The seven practices of charity toward our neighbor Feed the hungry Give drink to the thirsty Clothe the naked Shelter the homeless Visit the sick Visit those in prison Bury the dead

Note: Please consider joining our
FACEBOOK CAUSE http://apps.facebook.com/causes/106889 
FACEBOOK GROUP https://www.facebook.com/pages/Catholic-Charities-Diocese-of-Youngstown/138817639487339
TWITTER account, CCDOY, http://twitter.com/CCDOY
for current updates and calls to action that we can all use. 

See our website at www.catholiccharitiesyoungstown.org for links to the our ministries and services.    
For more information on Catholic Social Doctrine and its connection to our ministries, visit my blog at:  http://corbinchurchthinking.blogspot.com/