Sunday, March 24, 2013

MONDAY MORNING MISSION MEDITATION for the week of March 24, 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, ( Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, http://usccb.org/bible/readings/032413.cfm )    we read from the Gospel of  Luke about the trial, passion, death and burial of Jesus.  We enter into that place where Jesus confronts his enemies, but only shows love and mercy.  We hear in the second reading that powerful hymn recorded in Philippians, that Jesus, not grasping at His divinity, ‘Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness.”  We have now seen God face to face in the Person of Jesus (the Second Person of the Trinity), made flesh, and sacrificing His life, out of incredible and “wondrous love” (as the song goes  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP0tEceh8Bg), to give us abundant life.  As we enter into this Holy Week, reflect on how this love calls us to give love as we have received it by the Lord, in this most wonderful act.  How do we share such love?


Catholic Charities  (http://www.ccdoy.org) is called upon to “organize love.”  Through our efforts, we bring persons, families and communities who bring their own assets and giftedness but need some extra help, with those who are willing and able to share their assets of time, treasure and talent to provide assistance to those in need.  We in Catholic Charities have known this great and wondrous love of God, and help organize the Church to respond in kind.  As newly elected Pope Francis stated in his press conference on Saturday, March 16, “How I would like a Church which is poor and for the poor!” (see  http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/pope-francis-address-to-journalists) Through Catholic Charities -- Caritas around the world -- the Pope continues to organize love globally and locally through each of his bishops.  This is a great honor and privilege to be at the service of the poor.  We continue to share that wondrous love of Christ to our brothers and sisters in the name of the Church.  Thanks for your constant support to the Annual Bishop’s Appeal for Catholic Charities and Church (http://www.doy.org) as we continue to give persons, families and communities hope that they too will find love.


Reflection from Church Documents and Official Statements


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Vatican City, March 17, 2013 (Zenit.org)

Here is the translation of Pope Francis' Angelus address given at St. Peter's Square


Jesus attitude is striking: we do not hear words of scorn, we do not hear words of condemnation, but only words of love, of mercy, that invite us to conversion. Neither do I condemn you: go and sin no more! (8:11). Well, brothers and sisters, the face of God is that of a merciful father, who always has patience. Have you thought about God's patience, the patience that he has for each of us? That is his mercy. He always has patience, patience with us, he understands us, he waits for us, he does not weary of forgiving us if we know how to return to him with a contrite heart. Great is the mercy of the Lord, the Psalm says.  Continue reading  http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/on-forgiveness


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, March 25   Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

The feast of the Annunciation, now recognized as a solemnity, was first celebrated in the fourth or fifth century. Its central focus is the Incarnation: God has become one of us. From all eternity God had decided that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity should become human. Now, as Luke 1:26-38 tells us, the decision is being realized. The God-Man embraces all humanity, indeed all creation, to bring it to God in one great act of love. Because human beings have rejected God, Jesus will accept a life of suffering and an agonizing death: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).



Mary has an important role to play in God’s plan. From all eternity God destined her to be the mother of Jesus and closely related to him in the creation and redemption of the world. We could say that God’s decrees of creation and redemption are joined in the decree of Incarnation. Because Mary is God’s instrument in the Incarnation, she has a role to play with Jesus in creation and redemption. It is a God-given role. It is God’s grace from beginning to end. Mary becomes the eminent figure she is only by God’s grace. She is the empty space where God could act. Everything she is she owes to the Trinity.
She is the virgin-mother who fulfills Isaiah 7:14 in a way that Isaiah could not have imagined. She is united with her son in carrying out the will of God (Psalm 40:8-9; Hebrews 10:7-9; Luke 1:38).
Together with Jesus, the privileged and graced Mary is the link between heaven and earth. She is the human being who best, after Jesus, exemplifies the possibilities of human existence. She received into her lowliness the infinite love of God. She shows how an ordinary human being can reflect God in the ordinary circumstances of life. She exemplifies what the Church and every member of the Church is meant to become. She is the ultimate product of the creative and redemptive power of God. She manifests what the Incarnation is meant to accomplish for all of us.





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:  
MARCH 2013
Respect for Nature. That respect for nature may grow with the awareness that all creation is God's work entrusted to human responsibility.

Clergy. That bishops, priests, and deacons may be tireless messengers of the Gospel to the ends of the earth.


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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