MONDAY MORNING MISSION MEDITATION for week of January 18

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: 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. Committed to work 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)

On Sunday (2nd Week of Ordinary Time, B Cycle) we read how Jesus' earliest disciples started to follow him. Jesus questions them: "what are you looking for?" The disciples do not know how to answer but rather change the topic and ask where he lives. Jesus invites them: "Come and see." We hear in the first reading from Samuel, that the Lord is persistent in His calling each of us; we have to be open to hearing that Word of invitation. St. Paul reminds the faith community at Corinth that as we respond to the Lord's call, everything changes: we are the Lord's and are called upon to act and be different.

In Catholic Charities we must demonstrate the same openness to each person who comes through our doors or call us on the phone. Since we continue Jesus' healing and loving ministry, we must be, look, and act differently with, to and for our clients. We are places of radical hospitality; people of great welcome no matter the need or fear you have, "Come and See."


Some important date(s) this week:

SUNDAY JANUARY 18-JANUARY 24: National Week: Christian Unity.

MONDAY JANUARY 19. National Holiday. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. See Bishop's Murry talk on Martin Luther King and call to reduce poverty as reported in the Youngstown Vindicator.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 22. St. Vincent Palloti. 1795-1850. Born to the Italian nobility. Priest. Taught theology. He lived in constant danger working with the sick during a cholera epidemic. Highly successful fund-raiser for charities for the poor. Founded guilds for workers, agricultural schools, loan associations, orphanages and homes forgirls. Felt a strong calling to bring Christ to Muslims, and founded a program to incorporatelay people in the apostolate of priests. Founded the Pious Society of Missions (Pallottines) for urban mission work. Started the special observance of the Octave of Epiphany for the reunion of theEastern and Roman Churches, and the return of the Church in England.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 23. St. John the Almoner. 550-616. Cypriot nobility; son of the governer of Cyprus. Married briefly, and father of one child. Entered the religious life when his wifeand child died of disease. Patriarch of Alexandria in 608. Archbishop. Known as the Almoner because of his generosity to thepoor. Helped refugees from Persian assults on the Holy Lands. Forced to leave Alexandria when the Persians threatened to overrun it, he returned to his home on Cyprus. Predicted the date of his own death.

PAPAL INTENTIONS:


January 2009
General: That the family may become more and more a place of training in charity, personal growth and transmission of the faith.

Mission: That the different Christian confessions, aware of the need for a new evangelisation in this period of profound transformations, may be committed to announcing the Good News and moving towards the full unity of all Christians in order to offer a more credible testimony of the Gospel.

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


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/