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)
On Sunday (Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A http://www.usccb.org/nab/071711.shtml we read in the Gospel of Matthew several of Jesus’ parable about the Kingdom of God. The stories seem to display how a small thing -- a seed, leaven -- can create tremendous change and transformation. Take a mustard seed -- the smallest seed -- yet blossoms into a large tree. Take leaven -- all you need is a small amount of yeast to make bread. Then we hear that when the Final Days come, Jesus will separate the weeds from the wheat -- in other words, based on the fruit of our lives. How did we live our lives? As a disciple or as a weed? The first reading from Wisdom, however, gives one more insight into the ultimate kingdom of God, namely, that the power of God is not expressed as raw power, but as love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness.
In Catholic Charities http://www.ccdoy.org , we take the smallest of gifts by our donors, with the smallest of ability by our clients, and help them grow into persons with dignity. Catholic Charities provides an experience of the Church that many persons see/feel when we compassionately and loving welcome them into our offices and programs seeking to serve them in their needs without judgment. For many, that experience of welcome and love is a moment of the Kingdom of God growing in the world. Catholic Charities is that leaven in the world spreading God’s love and healing touch.
Reflection from Pope Benedict XVI's Encyclical, Caritas in Veritate
The challenge of development today is closely linked to technological progress, with its astounding applications in the field of biology. Technology — it is worth emphasizing — is a profoundly human reality, linked to the autonomy and freedom of man. In technology we express and confirm the hegemony of the spirit over matter. “The human spirit, ‘increasingly free of its bondage to creatures, can be more easily drawn to the worship and contemplation of the Creator'”. Technology enables us to exercise dominion over matter, to reduce risks, to save labour, to improve our conditions of life. It touches the heart of the vocation of human labour: in technology, seen as the product of his genius, man recognizes himself and forges his own humanity. Technology is the objective side of human action whose origin and raison d'etre is found in the subjective element: the worker himself. For this reason, technology is never merely technology. It reveals man and his aspirations towards development, it expresses the inner tension that impels him gradually to overcome material limitations. Technology, in this sense, is a response to God's command to till and to keep the land (cf. Gen 2:15) that he has entrusted to humanity, and it must serve to reinforce the covenant between human beings and the environment, a covenant that should mirror God's creative love. (par. 69)
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.htm
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://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Lellis2.jpg/200px-Lellis2.jpg
Monday, July 18. St. Camillus de Lellis. Patron of the sick, nurses, hospitals and physicians. Camillus de Lellis was born at Bucchianico (now in Abruzzo, then part of the Kingdom of Naples). His mother died while he was still a child and his father was an officer in both the Neapolitan and French royal armies. As a consequence Camillus grew up neglected. Camillus joined the Venetian army while still only a youth. After his regiment was disbanded in 1574 Camillus worked in a hospital for incurables; however, his aggressive nature and excessive gambling led to his dismissal. He later rejoined the Venetian army and fought in a war against the Turks. After the war he returned to the hospital in Rome from which he had been dismissed; he became a nurse and later director of the hospital.
Camillus established the Order of Clerks Regular Ministers to the Sick, better known asCamillians. His experience in wars led him to establish a group of health care workers who would assist soldiers on the battlefield. The red cross on their cassock remains a symbol of the order today. Members also devoted themselves to the plague-stricken. Camillus was so distressed at how hopeless plague cases were treated during his time that he formed the "Brothers of the Happy Death," for plague victims. It was for the efforts of the Brothers and his alleged supernatural healings that the people of Rome credited Camillus with ridding the city of a certain plague and, for a time, Camillus became known as the "Patron Saint of Rome".
In 1594 Camillus also led his friars to Milan where they attended to the sick of the Ca' Granda, the main hospital of the city. A memorial tablet in the main courtyard of the Ca' Granda commemorates his presence there.
Throughout his life Camillus' ailments caused him suffering, but he allowed no one to wait on him and would crawl to visit the sick when unable to stand and walk. It is said that Camillus possessed the gifts of healing and prophecy. He died in Rome in 1614.
Camillus was beatified by Pope Benedict XIV in the year 1742, and canonized by him four years later in 1746.
https://www.trinitystores.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/art_image_grid/LWJAM.jpg
Friday, July 22. St. Mary Magdalene. Except for the mother of Jesus, few women are more honored in the Bible than Mary Magdalene. Yet she could well be the patron of the slandered, since there has been a persistent legend in the Church that she is the unnamed sinful woman who anointed the feet of Jesus in Luke 7:36-50.
Most Scripture scholars today point out that there is no scriptural basis for confusing the two women. Mary Magdalene, that is, “of Magdala,” was the one from whom Christ cast out “seven demons” (Luke 8:2)—an indication, at the worst, of extreme demonic possession or, possibly, severe illness.
Father W.J. Harrington, O.P., writing in the New Catholic Commentary, says that “seven demons” “does not mean that Mary had lived an immoral life—a conclusion reached only by means of a mistaken identification with the anonymous woman of Luke 7:36.” Father Edward Mally, S.J., writing in the Jerome Biblical Commentary,agrees that she “is not...the same as the sinner of Luke 7:37, despite the later Western romantic tradition about her.”
Mary Magdalene was one of the many “who were assisting them [Jesus and the Twelve] out of their means.” She was one of those who stood by the cross of Jesus with his mother. And, of all the “official” witnesses that might have been chosen for the first awareness of the Resurrection, she was the one to whom that privilege was given. She is known as the "Apostle to the Apostles."
SHARING HOPE IN HARD ECONOMIC TIMES.
If you or someone you know needs family-based legal immigration services, call Catholic Charities Legal Immigration Services at 1-866-901-3700.
PAPAL INTENTIONS: July 2011
General Intention: That Christians may contribute to alleviating the material and spiritual suffering of AIDS patients, especially in the poorest countries.
Missionary Intention: For the religious who work in mission territories, that they may be witnesses of the joy of the Gospel and living signs of the love of Christ.
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/
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