Thursday, January 31, 2013
Mother Theresa on Abortion
"Many people are concerned with children of India, with the children of Africa where quite a few die of hunger, and so on. Many people are also concerned about the violence in this great country of the United States. These concerns are very good.
But often these same people are not concerned with the millions being killed by the deliberate decision of their own mothers.
And this is the greatest destroyer of peace today- abortion, which brings people to such blindness."
-Mother Teresa
VIS - RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FAITH AND MARRIAGE, THEME OF POPE'S ADDRESS TO TRIBUNAL OF THE ROMAN ROTA
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FAITH AND MARRIAGE, THEME OF POPE'S ADDRESS TO TRIBUNAL OF THE ROMAN ROTA
Vatican City, 26 January 2013
(VIS) – This morning in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace, the Holy
Father received members of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota on the occasion of
the opening of the judicial year. His address, from which ample extracts
follow, focused on the relationship between faith and marriage in light of the
"current crisis of faith that affects various areas of the world, bearing
with it a crisis of conjugal society."
“The Code of Canon Law
defines the natural reality of marriage as the irrevocable covenant between a
man and a woman. Mutual trust, in fact, is the indispensable basis of any
agreement or covenant. On a theological level, the relationship between faith
and marriage has an even deeper meaning. Even though a natural reality, the spousal
bond between two baptised persons has been elevated by Christ to the dignity of
a sacrament.”
“Contemporary culture, marked
by a strong subjectivism and an ethical and religious relativism, poses serious
challenges to the person and the family. First, the very capacity of human
beings to bond themselves to another and whether a union that lasts an entire
life is truly possible. … Thinking that persons might become themselves while
remaining ‘autonomous’ and only entering into relationships with others that
can be interrupted at any time is part of a widespread mentality. Everyone is
aware of how a human being's choice to bind themself with a bond lasting an
entire life influences each person’s basic perspective according to which they
are either anchored to a merely human plane or open themselves to the light of
faith in the Lord.”
"‘Whoever remains in me
and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing,’
Jesus taught His disciples, reminding them of the human being’s essential incapacity
to carry out alone that which is necessary for the true good. Rejecting the
divine proposal leads, in fact, to a profound imbalance in all human
relationships, including marriage, and facilitates an erroneous understanding
of freedom and self-realization. These, together with the flight from patiently
borne suffering, condemns humanity to becoming locked within its own
selfishness and self-centredness. On the contrary, accepting faith makes human
persons capable of giving themselves … and thus of discovering the extent of
being a human person."
“Faith in God, sustained by
God’s grace, is therefore a very important element in living mutual devotion
and conjugal faithfulness. This does not mean to assert that faithfulness,
among other properties, are not possible in the legitimate marriage between
unbaptised couples. In fact, it is not devoid of goods that ‘come from God the
Creator and are included, in a certain inchoative way, in the marital love that
unites Christ with His Church’. But, of course, closing oneself off from God or
rejecting the sacred dimension of the conjugal bond and its value in the order
of grace make the concrete embodiment of the highest model of marriage
conceived of by the Church, according to God’s plan, arduous. It may even undermine
the very validity of the covenant if … it results in a rejection of the very
principle of the conjugal obligation of faithfulness or of other essential
elements or properties of the marriage.”
“Tertullian, in his famous
“Letter to His Wife”, which speaks about married life marked by faith, writes
that Christian couples are truly ‘two in one flesh. Where the flesh is one, one
is the spirit too. Together they pray, together prostrate themselves, together
perform their fasts; mutually teaching, mutually exhorting, mutually sustaining
one another.’"
“The saints who lived their
matrimonial and familial union within a Christian perspective were able to
overcome even the most adverse situations, sometimes achieving the
sanctification of their spouse and children through a love reinforced by a
strong faith in God, sincere religious piety, and an intense sacramental life.
Such experiences, marked by faith, allow us to understand, even today, how
precious is the sacrifice offered by the spouse who has been abandoned or who
has suffered a divorce—'being well aware that the valid marriage bond is
indissoluble, and refraining from becoming involved in a new union. … In such
cases their example of fidelity and Christian consistency takes on particular
value as a witness before the world and the Church'.”
Lastly, I would like to
reflect briefly on the ‘bonum coniugum’. Faith is important in carrying out the
authentic conjugal good, which consists simply in wanting, always and in every
case, the welfare of the other, on the basis of a true and indissoluble
‘consortium vitae’. Indeed, the context of Christian spouses living a true
‘communio coniugalis’ has its own dynamism of faith by which the
‘confessio’—the personal, sincere response to the announcement of salvation—involves
the believer in the action of God’s love. ‘Confessio' and ‘caritas’ are 'the
two ways in which God involves us, make us act with Him, in Him and for
humanity, for His creation. … “Confessio” is not an abstract thing, it is
“caritas”, it is love. Only in this way is it really the reflection of divine
truth, which as truth is also, inseparably, love'.”
“Only through the call of
love, does the presence of the Gospel become not just a word but a living
reality. In other words, while it is true that ‘Faith without charity bears no
fruit, while charity without faith would be a sentiment constantly at the mercy
of doubt’, we must conclude that ‘Faith and charity each require the other, in
such a way that each allows the other to set out along its respective path.’ If
this holds true in the broader context of communal life, it should be even more
valuable to the conjugal union. It is in that union, in fact, that faith makes
the spouses’ love grow and bear fruit, giving space to the presence of the Triune
God and making the conjugal life itself, lived thusly, to be ‘joyful news’ to
the world.”
“I recognize the
difficulties, from a legal and a practical perspective, in elucidating the
essential element of the ‘bonum coniugum’, understood so far mainly in relation
to the circumstance of invalidity. The ‘bonum coniugum’ also takes on
importance in the area of simulating consent. Certainly, in cases submitted to
your judgement, there will be an ‘in facto’ inquiry that can verify the
possible validity of the grounds for annulment, predominant to or coexistent
with the three Augustinian ‘goods’: procreativity, exclusivity, and perpetuity.
Therefore, don’t let it escape your consideration that there might be cases
where, precisely because of the absence of faith, the good of the spouses is
damaged and thus excluded from the consent itself. For example, this can happen
when one member of the couple has an erroneous understanding of the martial
bond or of the principle of parity or when there is a refusal of the dual union
that characterizes the marital bond by either excluding fidelity or by
excluding the use of intercourse ‘humano modo’.
“With these considerations I certainly do not wish
to suggest any facile relationship between a lack of faith and the invalidity
of a marital union, but rather to highlight how such a deficiency may, but not
necessarily, damage the goods of marriage, since the reference to the natural
order desired by God is inherent to the conjugal covenant.”
St. John Bosco tidbit on Helll.....
St. John Bosco had a gift
of visions through dreams, which he used to help save and guide many of the
boys at his Oratory. In a vision of hell, he said that there were many traps
along the paved route: "Stepping back a bit to see which ones trapped the
greater number of boys, I discovered that the most dangerous were those of
impurity, disobedience, and pride. In fact, these three were linked to
together."
Saint John Bosco. Founder of the Society of St. Francis de Sales.
Today's Saint: Saint John
Bosco. Founder of the Society of St. Francis de Sales. Director, Educator,
Mentor, and Friend to hundreds of boys many poor and some orphaned.
St. John Bosco is a modern
saint who touched the lives of so many people that his order, founded and approved
in 1869, already holds 5 saints and 4 blesseds. St. John began his life of
preaching when he was still young. When his father passed away he took on many
odd jobs to help his mother and family. He would often sneak away to the circus
and fair and learn some of the tricks that he had witnessed at these events. He
would then put on his own, one man shows, to the children in his neighborhood
and end the show by repeating the homily that he had heard that morning. This
turned into children begging to see his tricks, and St. John requesting only
one thing in return, that they went to mass.
While the Church is always
cautions against personal reliance on dreams and visions, St. John would often
have prophecies in his dreams, guiding him to better minister to the children
in his care, and even informing him when one of them was going to die. He
always used this to better the spiritual states of all of his school boys.
He taught that their where 4
necessities that each follower of Christ must have to obtain holiness:
Frequent and devout Communions
Frequent and good Confessions,
hiding nothing
Loyalty to the Holy Father
Good Companions
These are 4 faithful points to
meditate on this day.
St. John Bosco, pray for us.
St. John Chyrsostom on the Mas
"When the Mass is being celebrated, the sanctuary is filled with countless angels, who adore the Divine Victim immolated on the altar."
St. John Chrysostom
Saint Quotes on Perfection etc...(Awesome!)
"God gives us some things, as the beginning of faith, even when we do not pray. Other things, such as perseverance, he has only provided for those who pray."
St Augustine
"To do God's will -- this was the goal upon which the saints constantly fixed their gaze. They were fully persuaded that in this consists the entire perfection of the soul. "
St Alphonsus de Liguori
"A person who rails at God in adversity, suffers without merit; moreover by his lack of resignation he adds to his punishment in the next life and experiences greater disquietude of mind in this life."
St Alphonsus de Liguori
OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS - Pope is a busy guy :)
OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
Vatican City, 31 January 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father:
- appointed Bishop Ignatius Menezes as apostolic administrator "sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis" of the diocese of Allahabad (area 46,774, population 32,199,000, Catholics 13,263, priests 90, religious 370), India. Bishop Menezes, emeritus of Ajmer, India, succeeds Bishop Isidore Fernandes, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Allahabad the Holy Father accepted, in accordance with canon 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law.
- appointed Fr. Laurent Birfuore Dabire as bishop of Dori (area 34,766, population 950,000, Catholics 10,000, priests 19, religious 20), Burkina Faso. Bishop-elect Dabire was born in Dissin, Burkina Faso in 1965 and was ordained a priest in 1995. Previously judicial vicar and chancellor of the Diocese of Diebougou, Burkina Faso from 2005, the bishop-elect holds a doctorate in canon law and comparative law from Rome's Pontifical Lateran University and teaches law at the Unite Universitaire of Bamako, Mali.
- appointed Fr. Jonas Dembele as bishop of Kayes (area 160,000, population 1,432,000, Catholics 8,000, priests 18, religious 18), Mali. Bishop-elect Dembele, of the clergy of San, Mali was born in Sokoura, Mali in 1963, and was ordained a priest in 1992. Along with having served as pastor to several parishes in Mali since 1992, the bishop-elect was general secretary of the Diocesan Union of the Clergy of San and the National Union of the Clergy of Mali between 2002 and 2008.
- appointed Bishop Stanislas Lalanne as bishop of Pontoise (area 1,246, population 1,160,719, Catholics 844,000, priests 175, permanent deacons 28, religious 216), France. Bishop Lalanne, previously of Coutances, France, was born in Metz, France in 1948, was ordained to the priesthood in 1975, and received episcopal ordination in 2007. On the national episcopal conference her serves on the "Etudes et projets" committee and is also a consultor of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and an advisor to the Catholic International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity (CIDSE).
- appointed Bishop Lucio Andrice Muandula of Xai-Xai, Mozambique as a member of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples. Bishop Muandula is president of the Mozambique Bishops' Conference. His Holiness also appointed Dr. Marco Impagliazzo as a consultor of that same pontifical council. Dr. Impagliazzo, who teaches Contemporary History at the University for Foreigners in Perugia, Italy, is president of the Community of Sant'Egidio.
The Holy Father has appointed these cardinals, created in the consistory of 24 November 2012, as members of the following dicasteries and organs of the Roman Curia:
1) to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria;
2) to the Congregation for the Oriental Churches: Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, O.M.M., Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, Lebanon and Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, major archbishop of Trivandrum of the Syro-Malankars, India;
3) to the the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, Cardinal Ruben Salazar Gomez, archbishop of Bogota, Colombia;
4) to the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, Cardinal James Michael Harvey, archpriest of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside-the-Walls, Rome, Italy.
5) to the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, O.M.M., Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, Lebanon;
6) to the presidency committee of the Pontifical Council for the Family: Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria and Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, archbishop of Manila, Philippines;
7) to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Ruben Salazar Gomez, archbishop of Bogota, Colombia;
8) to the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples: Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, O.M.M., Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, Lebanon and Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, archbishop of Manila, Philippines;
9) to the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, major archbishop of Trivandrum of the Syro-Malankars, India;
10) to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, O.M.M., Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, Lebanon;
11) to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), Cardinal James Michael Harvey, archpriest of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside-the-Walls, Rome, Italy.
EMERGING YOUTH CULTURES: THEME OF ANNUAL PLENARY OF PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR CULTURE
EMERGING YOUTH CULTURES: THEME OF ANNUAL PLENARY OF PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR CULTURE
Vatican City, 31 January 2013 (VIS) – The annual Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Culture was presented in a conference this morning in the Press Office of the Holy See. This year's plenary will be dedicated to the theme "Emerging Youth Cultures" and will take place from 6 to 9 February. Participating in the conference were Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi and Bishop Carlos Alberto de Pinho Moreira Azevedo, respectively president and delegate of that dicastery, along with Fr. Enzo Fortunato, O.F.M. Conv., director of the Sacred Convent of Saint Francis Press Office in Assisi and two youth representatives: Alessio Antonielli of Italy and Farasoa Mihaja Bemahazaka of Madagascar.
In an address presenting the event that was given a few days ago at the Convent of St. Francis in Assisi, Cardinal Ravasi said that its main area of interest would be "youth culture". "Walking down the streets with their ears blocked up with earphones, listening to their music, gives a sign that they are 'disconnected' from the unbearable social, political, and religious complexities that we adults have created. In a certain sense, they drop their gaze so as to exclude themselves because we have excluded them with our corruption and inconsistency, with uncertainty, unemployment, and marginalization. We parents, teachers, and priests, the ruling class, we must examine our conscience. The 'diversity' of youth, which in fact is not only negative, contains surprising seeds of fruitfulness and authenticity. We need only think of the choice to volunteer made by many young persons or their passion for music, sports, and friendship, which is their ways of telling us that man does not live by bread alone. We need only think of their spirituality, which is so original in its sincerity, or their freedom, which is hidden under a blanket of seeming indifference."
"For these and for many other reasons," concluded the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, "I am interested in the youth, who are the present (not only the future) of humanity. Of the five billion people living in developing countries, more than half are under the age of 25 (representing 85% of all the youth in the world). That is why, leaving aside the ever-necessary objective socio-psychological analysis of faith on the young, that is, the meaning of religious presence to them, we would rather focus on their faith, that is, trusting in their possibilities, even if they are buried underneath those differences that, at first glance, cause such an striking impression."
Bishop Avezedo, during his address at the press conference, laid out the plenary's program, clarifying that its objective is "to objectively enquire into the new, complex, and fragmented phenomenon of youth cultures with the help of experts and listening to the thoughts of the members and consultors of the Pontifical Council for Culture. Only the opening ceremony will be open to the public. It will be held in the Aula Magna of the LUMSA University and will have the novelty of a short rock concert preceding the first conference. The work document sent to all participants clarifies our perspective of cultural analysis of the transformations in adolescents and young adults who are questioning the practices of evangelisation."
"A few days ago," he commented, "the International Labour Organization said that 73.8 million young persons in the world are seeking employment and that there will be half a million more by 2014. This information raises a series of questions: Is there a distrust of government? Is there a fear of the future? Will the youth take to the streets in protest? Does the myth of eternal youth reveal a lack of value of adults?" In this context, and after the assembly takes an overall look at the situation, the program will focus on some of the most salient and wide-reaching cultural features such as how the "digital culture revolutionizes the model and the grammar of communications". The structures and rituals of this language, just like the importance of music, meeting places, etc. … All those questions that "require discernment on the part of the Church and a profound change in language and the creation of codes in which the Christian vision might be meaningful." Other topics for discussion will be the "emotional alphabet" of the youth, the value of the body, friendship networks, and the delay in attaining self-sufficiency.
The following day, three young adults from different continents will reflect on the reasons for having confidence in the youth. Despite the fear of the future and the worsening of economic conditions, there are "potentials, an incredible creativity, a spirit of volunteering that is full of altruism, … and answers to the questions of meaning and hope."
The next topic to be dealt with will be that of "generating the faith, which we have called the 'cultural battle'. Effectively," Bishop Avezedo said, "that means that creating conditions that make meeting Christ possible have to have a cultural as well as a pastoral and theological focus. The fatigue, and at times failure, of ecclesial practices that widen the gap between young persons and the Church needs to be understood. Also, the rates of being born into the faith are low. Adult generations either do not know how or do not have time to deal with their own faith or to generate the faith in their children."
"The audience with the Holy Father at the beginning of the plenary meeting will be a major incentive for the assembly. For 2,000 years, the Church hasn't had a predetermined artistic style or a predefined language. She looks to the person and the message of Jesus to communicate in these totally 'multi-verse' times. Emerging youth cultures reveal the vulnerability, the insecurity, and the fragility of repetitive formulas. The Pontifical Council for Culture's promising assembly frees us from superficiality and apathy and is unafraid of confronting the truth of cultural situations."
HOLY SEE AND STATE OF PALESTINE: DRAFT AGREEMENT PLAN EXAMINED
HOLY SEE AND STATE OF PALESTINE: DRAFT AGREEMENT PLAN EXAMINED
Vatican City, 31 January 2013 (VIS) – Following the bilateral negotiations held in past years with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), an official meeting took place in Ramallah, Palestine on 30 January 2013, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Palestine.
The talks were headed by Dr. Riad Al-Malki, minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Palestine, and Msgr. Ettore Balestrero, under-secretary for the Holy See’s Relations with States.
The Parties exchanged views regarding the draft Agreement under discussion, especially the Preamble and Chapter I of the mentioned Agreement. The talks were held in an open and cordial atmosphere, the expression of the existing good relations between the Holy See and the State of Palestine. The Delegations expressed the wish that negotiations be accelerated and brought to a speedy conclusion. It was thus agreed that a joint technical group will meet to follow-up.
Gratitude was expressed for the Holy See’s contribution of 100.000 euro towards the restoration of the roof of the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
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Article9:"I believe in the Holy Catholic Church" (748 - 975)
Part1:The Profession of Faith (26 - 1065)
Section2:The Profession of the Christian Faith (185 - 1065)
Chapter3:I Believe in the Holy Spirit (683 - 1065)
Article9:"I believe in the Holy Catholic Church" (748 - 975)
748 "Christ is the light of humanity; and it is, accordingly, the heart-felt desire of this sacred Council, being gathered together in the Holy Spirit, that, by proclaiming his Gospel to every creature, it may bring to all men that light of Christ which shines out visibly from the Church." These words open the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. By choosing this starting point, the Council demonstrates that the article of faith about the Church depends entirely on the articles concerning Christ Jesus. The Church has no other light than Christ's; according to a favorite image of the Church Fathers, the Church is like the moon, all its light reflected from the sun.
749 The article concerning the Church also depends entirely on the article about the Holy Spirit, which immediately precedes it. "Indeed, having shown that the Spirit is the source and giver of all holiness, we now confess that it is he who has endowed the Church with holiness." The Church is, in a phrase used by the Fathers, the place "where the Spirit flourishes."
750 To believe that the Church is "holy" and "catholic," and that she is "one" and "apostolic" (as the Nicene Creed adds), is inseparable from belief in God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the Apostles' Creed we profess "one Holy Church" (Credo ... Ecclesiam), and not to believe in the Church, so as not to confuse God with his works and to attribute clearly to God's goodness all the gifts he has bestowed on his Church.
Paragraph1:The Church in God's Plan (751 - 780)
I. NAMES AND IMAGES OF THE CHURCH
751 The word "Church" (Latin ecclesia, from the Greek ek-ka-lein, to "call out of") means a convocation or an assembly. It designates the assemblies of the people, usually for a religious purpose. Ekklesia is used frequently in the Greek Old Testament for the assembly of the Chosen People before God, above all for their assembly on Mount Sinai where Israel received the Law and was established by God as his holy people. By calling itself "Church," the first community of Christian believers recognized itself as heir to that assembly. In the Church, God is "calling together" his people from all the ends of the earth. The equivalent Greek term Kyriake, from which the English word Church and the German Kirche are derived, means "what belongs to the Lord."
752 In Christian usage, the word "church" designates the liturgical assembly, but also the local community or the whole universal community of believers. These three meanings are inseparable. "The Church" is the People that God gathers in the whole world. She exists in local communities and is made real as a liturgical, above all a Eucharistic, assembly. She draws her life from the word and the Body of Christ and so herself becomes Christ's Body.
Symbols of the Church
753 In Scripture, we find a host of interrelated images and figures through which Revelation speaks of the inexhaustible mystery of the Church. The images taken from the Old Testament are variations on a profound theme: the People of God. In the New Testament, all these images find a new center because Christ has become the head of this people, which henceforth is his Body. Around this center are grouped images taken "from the life of the shepherd or from cultivation of the land, from the art of building or from family life and marriage."
754 "The Church is, accordingly, a sheepfold, the sole and necessary gateway to which is Christ. It is also the flock of which God himself foretold that he would be the shepherd, and whose sheep, even though governed by human shepherds, are unfailingly nourished and led by Christ himself, the Good Shepherd and Prince of Shepherds, who gave his life for his sheep.
755 "The Church is a cultivated field, the tillage of God. On that land the ancient olive tree grows whose holy roots were the prophets and in which the reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles has been brought about and will be brought about again. That land, like a choice vineyard, has been planted by the heavenly cultivator. Yet the true vine is Christ who gives life and fruitfulness to the branches, that is, to us, who through the Church remain in Christ, without whom we can do nothing.
756 "Often, too, the Church is called the building of God. The Lord compared himself to the stone which the builders rejected, but which was made into the corner-stone. On this foundation the Church is built by the apostles and from it the Church receives solidity and unity. This edifice has many names to describe it: the house of God in which his family dwells; the household of God in the Spirit; the dwelling-place of God among men; and, especially, the holy temple. This temple, symbolized in places of worship built out of stone, is praised by the Fathers and, not without reason, is compared in the liturgy to the Holy City, the New Jerusalem. As living stones we here on earth are built into it. It is this holy city that is seen by John as it comes down out of heaven from God when the world is made anew, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
757 "The Church, further, which is called 'that Jerusalem which is above' and 'our mother', is described as the spotless spouse of the spotless lamb. It is she whom Christ 'loved and for whom he delivered himself up that he might sanctify her.' It is she whom he unites to himself by an unbreakable alliance, and whom he constantly 'nourishes and cherishes.'"
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
A Tinge of "Christian Anthropology" - book excerpt
“The naïve exaltation of man by the humanist who believes that man can be perfected by social engineering or by psychiatric or behavioralistic reconstruction of his psyche is as far from the mark as the disregard of human potentialities by the cynic. Man is both better and worse than any view except the Christian view can adequately express. On the Christian view, even the dullest and most limited of us can grow in God into a glorious being beyond our present dreams of divinity. Even the noblest of us now can take the path that will lead him eventually away from God to nothingness. And this can and must affect our attitude to our fellow humans.”
—Richard Purtill
From his book “Reason to Believe”.
Some Aristotle
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Priesthood - Bishop Burke :)
By your priestly consecration, you will belong totally to Christ the Good Shepherd. Christ Himself consecrates you, so that your priestly heart made to be one with His glorious pierced Heart in the outpouring of self in love of the brethren, without boundary or condition.
Give your lives for those whom Christ entrusts to your priestly care, and never cease to seek out those who do not know Christ, their Savior, or, having known Him, have wandered from Him. Give yourselves without seeking any consolation or reward, trusting that the Providence of God will, in His God's good time, bring forth the fruit of your labors.
Archbishop Raymond L. Burke
Good excerpt on marriage
From the Catholic Herald in the UK, a profile and interview of our Archbishop here in San Francisco!
“Fighting for marriage is our way of loving God, and the struggle is the particular gift that God has given our generation. This is our particular trial, and by overcoming it we may achieve spiritual greatness. It will entail suffering if we are to oppose gay marriage, something which poses such destruction to the understanding of natural marriage, which is a child-oriented institution.”
Catechism "In Brief"
IN BRIEF
742 "Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!"' (Gal 4:6).
743 From the beginning to the end of time, whenever God sends his Son, he always sends his Spirit: their mission is conjoined and inseparable.
744 In the fullness of time the Holy Spirit completes in Mary all the preparations for Christ's coming among the People of God. By the action of the Holy Spirit in her, the Father gives the world Emmanuel "God-with-us" (Mt 1:23).
745 The Son of God was consecrated as Christ (Messiah) by the anointing of the Holy Spirit at his Incarnation (cf. Ps 2:6-7).
746 By his Death and his Resurrection, Jesus is constituted in glory as Lord and Christ (cf. Acts 2:36). From his fullness, he poured out the Holy Spirit on the apostles and the Church.
747 The Holy Spirit, whom Christ the head pours out on his members, builds, animates, and sanctifies the Church. She is the sacrament of the Holy Trinity's communion with men.
Why Consumer Confidence Got Crushed This Month
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/01/29/Why-Consumer-Confidence-Got-Crushed-This-Month.aspx#page1
Why Consumer Confidence Got Crushed This Month
January 29, 2013
Solid economic news seems to be everywhere these days. The stock market is on a tear, initial jobless claims are at a five-year low and gas prices are below $3.50 a gallon. The country averted the full impact of the fiscal cliff and pushed off a debt-ceiling showdown that threatened to destabilize the global economy.
Despite all that, consumer confidence as measured by the Conference Board’s index dropped to its lowest level since November 2011. The big-picture plusses were not enough to outweigh the hit to pocketbooks inflicted by the 2 percentage point payroll tax increase that took effect at the start of the year.
“Consumers are more pessimistic about the economic outlook and, in particular, their financial situation,” the Conference Board’s Lynn Franco said in a statement accompanying the report. “The increase in the payroll tax has undoubtedly dampened consumers’ spirits and it may take a while for confidence to rebound and consumers to recover from their initial paycheck shock.”
The index of consumer attitudes came in at 58.6, down from a revised 66.7 in December. Economists had been expecting a reading of 64.
“In one word: ‘Awful,’” wrote Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomic Advisors. “Today’s report presumably reflects fiscal cliff fears and, perhaps, the first hit from the rise in the payroll tax. The danger now is that these numbers could slide even further, even though expectations are already low enough to point to a decline in spending.”
The Conference Board report reflected responses through January 17, and economists will be looking to Friday’s release of the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index to see if the pocketbook pessimism continued throughout the month.
A Gallup tracking poll released Tuesday suggested a more upbeat view of the economy overall, with Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index reaching a five-year weekly high. “Americans’ current views of the U.S. economy clearly indicate a new wave of optimism during the start of 2013,” Gallup noted. “Americans are now more positive about the economy – taking into account current conditions and the outlook for the future – than at any time since the recession and global financial crisis. This likely reflects a combination of factors, including the recent surge in U.S. stock markets, [the] Democrats’ becoming more confident about the economy after the U.S. presidential election, and the lifting of the uncertainty that surrounded the election and the fiscal cliff budget negotiations toward the end of 2012.”
Some economists suggest that consumer confidence should bounce back fairly quickly. “With the debt limit out of the way for a while, and the equity market trending up, we expect the Michigan and Conference Board indexes will start moving up again,” Jim O’Sullivan of High Frequency Economics wrote in a note Tuesday. But the economic impact is likely to be felt for a longer stretch. “Even if confidence does rebound in the near-term,” wrote economist Amna Asaf of Capital Economics, “the hit to household income is likely to restrain first-quarter consumption growth.”
Read more at http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/01/29/Why-Consumer-Confidence-Got-Crushed-This-Month.aspx#3LrMuGi5K152O42w.99
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