Sunday, October 28, 2012

MONDAY MORNING MISSION MEDITATION for the week of October 28, 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://puresoftwarecode.com/christians_ic_files/db_23-The_Healing_of_Bartimaeus_the_blind.jpg

On Sunday, (Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, http://usccb.org/bible/readings/102812.cfm)   we read from the Gospel of  Mark about the encounter between Jesus and the blind man Bartimaeus.  This man cried out to be with Jesus yet he was rebuked by some of Jesus’ followers.  Jesus himself stops and tells his disciples to call the man over.  Bartimaeus jumps in excitement for this opportunity.  Jesus asks him what he wants; he says “to see.”  Jesus notes that his faith has saved him and given him new insights and sights.

Catholic Charities http://www.ccdoy.org  continues to be that beacon of hope for persons and families who have lost their way, and sometimes just need a hand or help in seeing things differently.  On many occasions our staff work with each client and family to help them see how they can best manage their finances or deal with stress in their lives.  Many persons and families who visit us also want to encounter a kind word, a hopeful message, and warm welcome.  Just as Jesus welcomed Bartimaeus, and he jumped at the chance to “see” Jesus, so too we as a ministry of the Church are that encounter.  We show the face of God to, as well as see the face of God in,  each person we serve.  


Reflection from Church Documents and Official Statements

Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship - Forming Consciences For Faithful Citizenship - Part III - Goals For Political Life: Challenges For Citizens, Candidates, And Public Officials

89. As Catholics, we are led to raise questions for political life other than "Are you better off than you were two or four years ago?" Our focus is not on party affiliation, ideology, economics, or even competence and capacity to perform duties, as important as such issues are. Rather, we focus on what protects or threatens human life and dignity.

90. Catholic teaching challenges voters and candidates, citizens and elected officials, to consider the moral and ethical dimensions of public policy issues. In light of ethical principles, we bishops offer the following policy goals that we hope will guide Catholics as they form their consciences and reflect on the moral dimensions of their public choices. Not all issues are equal; these ten goals address matters of different moral weight and urgency. Some involve matters of intrinsic evil that can never be supported. Others involve affirmative obligations to seek the common good. These and similar goals can help voters and candidates act on ethical principles rather than particular interests and partisan allegiances. We hope Catholics will ask candidates how they intend to help our nation pursue these important goals:
  • Address the preeminent requirement to protect the weakest in our midst—innocent unborn children—by restricting and bringing to an end the destruction of unborn children through abortion.
  • Keep our nation from turning to violence to address fundamental problems—a million abortions each year to deal with unwanted pregnancies, euthanasia and assisted suicide to deal with the burdens of illness and disability, the destruction of human embryos in the name of research, the use of the death penalty to combat crime, and imprudent resort to war to address international disputes.
  • Define the central institution of marriage as a union between one man and one woman, and provide better support for family life morally, socially, and economically, so that our nation helps parents raise their children with respect for life, sound moral values, and an ethic of stewardship and responsibility.
  • Achieve comprehensive immigration reform that secures our borders, treats immigrant workers fairly, offers an earned path to citizenship, respects the rule of law, and addresses the factors that compel people to leave their own countries.
  • Help families and children overcome poverty: ensuring access to and choice in education, as well as decent work at fair, living wages and adequate assistance for the vulnerable in our nation, while also helping to overcome widespread hunger and poverty around the world, especially in the areas of development assistance, debt relief, and international trade.
  • Provide health care for the growing number of people without it, while respecting human life, human dignity, and religious freedom in our health care system.
  • Continue to oppose policies that reflect prejudice, hostility toward immigrants, religious bigotry, and other forms of discrimination.
  • Encourage families, community groups, economic structures, and government to work together to overcome poverty, pursue the common good, and care for creation, with full respect for religious groups and their right to address social needs in accord with their basic moral convictions.
  • Establish and comply with moral limits on the use of military force—examining for what purposes it may be used, under what authority, and at what human cost—and work for a "responsible transition" to end the war in Iraq.
  • Join with others around the world to pursue peace, protect human rights and religious liberty, and advance economic justice and care for creation.




Some important date(s) this week:

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

http://www.allsaintsnc.org/images/allsaintsorthodoxchurch3.jpg

Thursday, November 1.  Feast of All Saints
The earliest certain observance of a feast in honor of all the saints is an early fourth-century commemoration of "all the martyrs." In the early seventh century, after successive waves of invaders plundered the catacombs, Pope Boniface IV gathered up some 28 wagonloads of bones and reinterred them beneath the Pantheon, a Roman temple dedicated to all the gods. The pope rededicated the shrine as a Christian church. According to Venerable Bede, the pope intended "that the memory of all the saints might in the future be honored in the place which had formerly been dedicated to the worship not of gods but of demons" (On the Calculation of Time).
But the rededication of the Pantheon, like the earlier commemoration of all the martyrs, occurred in May. Many Eastern Churches still honor all the saints in the spring, either during the Easter season or immediately after Pentecost.
How the Western Church came to celebrate this feast, now recognized as a solemnity, in November is a puzzle to historians. The Anglo-Saxon theologian Alcuin observed the feast on November 1 in 800, as did his friend Arno, Bishop of Salzburg. Rome finally adopted that date in the ninth century.




CHARITIES NEWSBYTES

Read Brian R Corbin’s Reflection on the Year of Faith  https://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/document.doc?id=3200&erid=5364625   published on-line by Catholic Charities USA

MEN WHO COOK:  Stark County Saturday, November 10th 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Barrette Business and Community Center Walsh University
All proceeds benefit Catholic Charities’ Emergency Assistance and First Step for Family Support Programs
Tickets:  $40.00 each, open seating.
Reserved table seating is available on a first come first serve basis only. You must call the office to reserve your table prior to making an online payment.
(330) 491-0896  or visit http://ccdoy.org/slider/stark-countys-8th-annual-men-who-cook/



 PAPAL INTENTIONS:   October 2012

General Intention: New Evangelization. That the New Evangelization may progress in the oldest Christian countries.

Missionary Intention: World Mission Day. That the celebration of World Mission Day may result in a renewed commitment to evangelization.



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


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 http://www.ccdoy.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/
 

Sunday, October 21, 2012

MONDAY MORNING MISSION MEDITATION for the week of October 21, 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://www.cccds.net/clientimages/45020/serve.jpg

On Sunday, (Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, http://usccb.org/bible/readings/102112.cfm)   we read from the Gospel of  Mark how Jesus shows the difference discipleship makes.  He challenges his followers to be servants to each other, and not to lord over others.  Jesus demands a new “way” of being and doing.  He calls each of us to be willing to give our all, even in sacrifice, for love of each other.  

Catholic Charities http://www.ccdoy.org  remains a visible symbol of that love poured out and shared.  We are called to be servants of those we serve.  Learning from St. Vincent de Paul and St. Louise de Marillac, who instructed their congregational leaders, to remember that the poor are our masters, and we, as followers of Christ, are called to serve each other, and to serve with great respect those who are poor among us.  These two saints minced no words; sometimes it would be a difficult path to follow.  But through God’s grace we can be open to the Spirit to be a loving servant to each person we encounter.  That is truly a gift of love that the world always needs.




Reflection from Church Documents and Official Statements

Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship - Forming Consciences For Faithful Citizenship - Part II - Applying Catholic Teaching To Major Issues: A Summary Of Policy Positions Of The United States Conference Of Catholic Bishops

Global Solidarity


  • 88.
U.S. policy should promote religious liberty and other basic human rights. The use of torture must be rejected as fundamentally incompatible with the dignity of the human person and ultimately counterproductive in the effort to combat terrorism.

  • The United States should provide political and financial support for beneficial United Nations programs and reforms, for other international bodies, and for international law, so that together these institutions may become more responsible and responsive agents for addressing global problems.
  • Asylum should be afforded to refugees who hold a well-founded fear of persecution in their homelands. Our country should support protection for persons fleeing persecution through safe haven in other countries, including the United States, especially for unaccompanied children, women, victims of human trafficking, and religious minorities.
  • Our country should be a leader—in collaboration with the international community—in addressing regional conflicts in the Middle East, the Balkans, the Congo, Sudan, Colombia, and West Africa.
  • Leadership on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an especially urgent priority. The United States should actively pursue comprehensive negotiations leading to a just and peaceful resolution that respects the legitimate claims and aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians, ensuring security for Israel, a viable state for Palestinians, respect for Lebanon's sovereignty, and peace in the region.
  • While the Holy See and our Conference have raised serious moral questions regarding the war in Iraq, as bishops we urgently call on our country to work with the international community to seek a "responsible transition" in Iraq and to address the human consequences of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Defending human life, building peace, combating poverty and despair, and protecting freedom and human rights are not only moral imperatives—they are wise national priorities that will make our nation and world safer.






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.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRi96wT9PUue3BgGp71yIIzWynJqLi2zlE38lfUGENsxqXi5m-axcraTAwk_20_dPQ1R4sihNE3jzNiCGJl5JRrqi12rDhDx2cr90PdJvFdD2213oTXOwkVAnqLkDk2umlIvSDEFS2KiZV/s1600/john+paul+II+icon2.jpg

Monday, October 22   Blessed Pope John Paul II   1920-2005

“Open wide the doors to Christ,” urged John Paul II during the homily at the Mass when he was installed as pope in 1978.

Born in Wadowice, Poland, Karol Jozef Wojtyla had lost his mother, father and older brother before his 21st birthday. Karol’s promising academic career at Krakow’s Jagiellonian University was cut short by the outbreak of World War II. While working in a quarry and a chemical factory, he enrolled in an “underground” seminary in Kraków. Ordained in 1946, he was immediately sent to Rome where he earned a doctorate in theology.

Back in Poland, a short assignment as assistant pastor in a rural parish preceded his very fruitful chaplaincy for university students. Soon he earned a doctorate in philosophy and began teaching that subject at Poland’s University of Lublin.

Communist officials allowed him to be appointed auxiliary bishop of Krakow in 1958, considering him a relatively harmless intellectual. They could not have been more wrong!

He attended all four sessions of Vatican II and contributed especially to its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. Appointed as archbishop of Krakow in 1964, he was named a cardinal three years later.

Elected pope in October 1978, he took the name of his short-lived, immediate predecessor. Pope John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. In time, he made pastoral visits to 124 countries, including several with small Christian populations.

He promoted ecumenical and interfaith initiatives, especially the 1986 Day of Prayer for World Peace in Assisi. He visited Rome’s Main Synagogue and the Western Wall in Jerusalem; he also established diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel. He improved Catholic-Muslim relations and in 2001 visited a mosque in Damascus, Syria.

The Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, a key event in John Paul’s ministry, was marked by special celebrations in Rome and elsewhere for Catholics and other Christians. Relations with the Orthodox Churches improved considerably during his ministry as pope.

“Christ is the center of the universe and of human history” was the opening line of his 1979 encyclical, Redeemer of the Human Race. In 1995, he described himself to the United Nations General Assembly as “a witness to hope.”

His 1979 visit to Poland encouraged the growth of the Solidarity movement there and the collapse of communism in central and eastern Europe 10 years later. He began World Youth Day and traveled to several countries for those celebrations. He very much wanted to visit China and the Soviet Union but the governments in those countries prevented that.

One of the most well-remembered photos of his pontificate was his one-on-one conversation in 1983 with Mehmet Ali Agca, who had attempted to assassinate him two years earlier.

In his 27 years of papal ministry, John Paul wrote 14 encyclicals and five books, canonized 482 saints and beatified 1,338 people.

In the last years of his life, he suffered from Parkinson’s disease and was forced to cut back on some of his activities.

Pope Benedict XVI beatified John Paul II on May 1, 2011, Divine Mercy Sunday.




CHARITIES NEWSBYTES

Read Brian R Corbin’s Reflection on the Year of Faith  https://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/document.doc?id=3200&erid=5364625   published on-line by Catholic Charities USA

MEN WHO COOK:  Stark County Saturday, November 10th 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Barrette Business and Community Center Walsh University
All proceeds benefit Catholic Charities’ Emergency Assistance and First Step for Family Support Programs
Tickets:  $40.00 each, open seating.
Reserved table seating is available on a first come first serve basis only. You must call the office to reserve your table prior to making an online payment.
(330) 491-0896  or visit http://ccdoy.org/slider/stark-countys-8th-annual-men-who-cook/




 PAPAL INTENTIONS:   October 2012

General Intention: New Evangelization. That the New Evangelization may progress in the oldest Christian countries.

Missionary Intention: World Mission Day. That the celebration of World Mission Day may result in a renewed commitment to evangelization.





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



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 http://www.ccdoy.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/