Sunday, February 10, 2013

MONDAY MORNING MISSION MEDITATION for the week of February 10, 2013



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) 



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On Sunday, ( Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/021013.cfm)   we read from the Gospel of Luke about Jesus’ challenge to Peter and his co-workers, all fishermen on the Sea of Galilee.  Jesus asks Peter to go deeper into the sea; Peter and his co-workers are skeptical.  They are the fishermen; Jesus is a carpenter.  What could he know about fishing?  With amazement, these old time workers snag a wonderful catch.  Jesus invites them to follow Him and be fishers of men.  They leave everything and follow the call.  In the first reading for today, the Prophet Isaiah responds also to God’s call and affirms that here is ready and willing to follow:  “send me” he proclaims.  St. Paul also reminds his readers that after his encounter with the Risen Christ, he too has left everything to serve the Lord.  

 

Catholic Charities  (http://www.ccdoy.org) continues to respond to God’s call to love and care for our neighbors.  Oftentimes our caseworkers have to reach “out into the deep” in order to find ways to support the many persons and families who come for material and social assistance.  Donors to the Annual Bishop’s Appeal for Catholic Charities and Church, as well as to our various special events and program requests, provide the means necessary to help persons and families in need to find solace, support and an understanding ear.  Through the generosity of our donors, we can proudly affirm, with the prophet Isaiah, St. Paul, St. Peter and the other Apostles, that when asked where we are in responding to those in need, we can say, “Here (we) are; send us.”  Catholic Charities is there to provide help and create hope each day.


Reflection from Church Documents and Official Statements


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Pope Benedict XVI's Lenten Message

"The Christian Life Consists in Continuously Scaling the Mountain to Meet God"


Believing in charity calls forth charity
“We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us” (1 Jn 4:16)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The celebration of Lent, in the context of the Year of Faith, offers us a valuable opportunity to meditate on the relationship between faith and charity: between believing in God – the God of Jesus Christ – and love, which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit and which guides us on the path of devotion to God and others.

1.   Faith as a response to the love of God
In my first Encyclical, I offered some thoughts on the close relationship between the theological virtues of faith and charity. Setting out from Saint John’s fundamental assertion: “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us” (1 Jn 4:16), I observed that “being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction … Since God has first loved us (cf. 1 Jn 4:10), love is now no longer a mere ‘command’; it is the response to the gift of love with which God draws near to us” (Deus Caritas Est, 1). Faith is this personal adherence – which involves all our faculties – to the revelation of God’s gratuitous and “passionate” love for us, fully revealed in Jesus Christ. The encounter with God who is Love engages not only the heart but also the intellect: “Acknowledgement of the living God is one path towards love, and the ‘yes’ of our will to his will unites our intellect, will and sentiments in the all-embracing act of love. But this process is always open-ended; love is never ‘finished’ and complete” (ibid., 17). Hence, for all Christians, and especially for “charity workers”, there is a need for faith, for “that encounter with God in Christ which awakens their love and opens their spirits to others. As a result, love of neighbour will no longer be for them a commandment imposed, so to speak, from without, but a consequence deriving from their faith, a faith which becomes active through love” (ibid., 31a). Christians are people who have been conquered by Christ’s love and accordingly, under the influence of that love – “Caritas Christi urget nos” (2 Cor 5:14) – they are profoundly open to loving their neighbour in concrete ways (cf. ibid., 33). This attitude arises primarily from the consciousness of being loved, forgiven, and even served by the Lord, who bends down to wash the feet of the Apostles and offers himself on the Cross to draw humanity into God’s love.

“Faith tells us that God has given his Son for our sakes and gives us the victorious certainty that it is really true: God is love! … Faith, which sees the love of God revealed in the pierced heart of Jesus on the Cross, gives rise to love. Love is the light – and in the end, the only light – that can always illuminate a world grown dim and give us the courage needed to keep living and working” (ibid., 39). All this helps us to understand that the principal distinguishing mark of Christians is precisely “love grounded in and shaped by faith” (ibid., 7).
2.   Charity as life in faith
The entire Christian life is a response to God’s love.   
To Read more. ...http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/pope-benedict-xvi-s-lenten-message



Some important date(s) this week:


See website http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/ByDate.aspx for biographies of Saints and Blessed celebrated this week.

MONDAY, February 11.  Our Lady of Lourdes.  World Day of the Sick

On December 8, 1854, Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in the apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus. A little more than three years later, on February 11, 1858, a young lady appeared to Bernadette Soubirous. This began a series of visions. During the apparition on March 25, the lady identified herself with the words: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”

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Bernadette was a sickly child of poor parents. Their practice of the Catholic faith was scarcely more than lukewarm. Bernadette could pray the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Creed. She also knew the prayer of the Miraculous Medal: “O Mary conceived without sin.”
During interrogations Bernadette gave an account of what she saw. It was “something white in the shape of a girl.” She used the word aquero, a dialect term meaning “this thing.” It was “a pretty young girl with a rosary over her arm.” Her white robe was encircled by a blue girdle. She wore a white veil. There was a yellow rose on each foot. A rosary was in her hand. Bernadette was also impressed by the fact that the lady did not use the informal form of address (tu), but the polite form (vous). The humble virgin appeared to a humble girl and treated her with dignity.
Through that humble girl, Mary revitalized and continues to revitalize the faith of millions of people. People began to flock to Lourdes from other parts of France and from all over the world. In 1862 Church authorities confirmed the authenticity of the apparitions and authorized the cult of Our Lady of Lourdes for the diocese. The Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes became worldwide in 1907.

See Pope Benedict’s Letter for World Day of the Sick.  http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/sick/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20130102_world-day-of-the-sick-2013_en.html


WEDNESDAY February 13.  Ash Wednesday.  Consider using Rice Bowl from Catholic Relief Services during this Lenten Season.  http://www.crsricebowl.org/







CHARITIES NEWSBYTES


                                                          

CRS Rice Bowl brings Lent to life.

                    http://www.crsricebowl.org/
CRS Rice Bowl is a Lenten faith formation program that helps us to live in solidarity with the poor and vulnerable around the world.
We pray to reflect on what type of person we are called to be.
We fast to remove the things that get between us and God, and to remember those without enough to eat.
We give to honor Jesus’ call to serve those in need.

Twenty five percent of the Rice Bowl collection remain in the Diocese to fund Catholic Charities and various parish efforts to feed the hungry.  Seventy five percent goes to CRS for their work in global food security.






PAPAL INTENTIONS:  
FEBRUARY 2013
   
Migrant Families. That migrant families, especially the mothers, may be supported and accompanied in their difficulties.
     Peace. That the peoples at war and in conflict may lead the way in building a peaceful future.


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

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