MONDAY MORNING MISSION MEDITATION for week of February 15, 2009

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 (6th Week of Ordinary Time Cycle B) we read in the Gospel from Mark about Jesus' 'radical' actions: 1) he touches a leper -- unheard of; 2) he heals that leper -- a miracle; and 3) he brings the man back into the community -- the leper had been excluded and removed from the community but now a new day dawns. For me, the miracle of this healing shows how the reign of God is present here and now: one is healed physically and communally. St Paul reminds us in his letter to the Corinthians that we are to be imitators of Christ. We are called upon to be agents of healing.

In Catholic Charities we continue, like our co-workers in health care, the healing ministry of Jesus. We work to bring persons to health through means of helping them care for their material and psychological needs. We also help bring persons back into the community by advocating for them directly with other institutions for help, and through our work changing public policies to include and benefit those most in need. We help in the healing process by our very hospitality showing how each person's dignity must be respected.


Some important date(s) this week:


SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21. St. Peter Damian. (1007-1072) Maybe because he was orphaned and had been treated shabbily by one of his brothers, Peter Damian was very good to the poor. It was the ordinary thing for him to have a poor person or two with him at table and he liked to minister personally to their needs. Peter escaped poverty and the neglect of his own brother when his other brother, who was archpriest of Ravenna, took him under his wing. His brother sent him to good schools and Peter became a professor. Pope Stephen IX made Peter the cardinal-bishop of Ostia. He worked hard to wipe out simony, and encouraged his priests to observe celibacy and urged even the diocesan clergy to live together and maintain scheduled prayer and religious observance. He wished to restore primitive discipline among religious and priests, warning against needless travel, violations of poverty and too comfortable living.


FEBRUARY 21. MEN WHO COOK Fundraising event; Catholic Charities of Portage County. Immaculate Conception Hall, Ravenna, OH.


http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/saints/bydate.asp



PAPAL INTENTIONS:


February 2009
General: That the Pastors of the Church may always be docile to the action of the Holy Spirit in their teaching and in their service to God's people.

Mission: That the Church in Africa may find adequate ways and means to promote reconciliation, justice and peace efficaciously, according to the indications of the Synod of the Bishops’ Special Assembly for Africa.

Corporal Works of Mercy: The seven practices of charity toward our neighbor

1. Feed the hungry
2. Give drink to the thirsty
3. Clothe the naked
4. Shelter the homeless
5. Visit the sick
6. Visit those in prison
7. 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/ and www.brianrcorbin.com.