Eastern Catholics Should Pursue Ties with Orthodox--Pope

From Catholic World News : Eastern Catholics should pursue ties with Orthodox, Pope says:



"Pope John Paul II (bio - news) has encouraged Eastern-rite Catholics to pursue their contacts with their Orthodox counterparts, saying that their 'common liturgical tradition' could furnish the basis for greater ecumenical progress.



The Pope made his remarks in an address to participants at an interparchal synod of Italy's Eastern Catholic communities. He told them that their faithful could profit greatly from a 'solid formation rooted in the Oriental tradition,' adding that the Byzantine perspective could also provide 'an effective manner to the growing challenges of secularization. Pope John Paul has frequently encouraged the growth of the Eastern Catholic churches, and urged Byzantine Catholics to protect their distinctive spirituality and liturgy. The intereparchal synod was set up to serve the two small Byzantine Catholic communities of Italy: the Italo-Byzantine community centered around the monastery of Grottafera, and the Italo-Albanian Church. Pope John Paul remarked that cooperation between the two is fruitful because they are 'heirs of a common spiritual patrimony.' "

Pope--SATAN WILL BE VANQUISHED

From AGI online:



Vatican City, 12 Jan - The Pope commented today on the Apocalypse before the 7,000 people attending the General Papal Audience today in the Nervi Hall, indicating that the fight between good and evil, personified by Satan, is a very hard one, as shown by the manifold violence and injustice in the world today, however the outcome is certain, evil will be vanquished. Pope John Paul II explained, "God and the Lamb, Christ, surrounded by the 'Council of the Crown', are judging human history in good and evil, but showing us however the ultimate end in salvation and glory. The songs which are found in the Apocalypse and which serve to illustrate the issue of divine glory which regulates the flux, often disconcerting, of the tide of human events". Of great significance is the first part of the hymn intoned by the 24 ancients who seem to incarnate the chosen people in their two historic stages, the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles of the Church. The Pope continued, Satan, the original adversary, who accused our brothers in the heavenly court, has now been cast down from heaven and therefore no longer has great power. He knows he has not much time left because history is about to see a radical turning point in freedom from evil and therefore he is reacting full of great fury. And then the resurrected Christ will rise up, whose blood is the principle of salvation and who received from the Father royal power over the entire universe, in Him are centred salvation, strength and the kingdom of our God. In his victory are associated the Christian martyrs who chose the path of the cross, not yielding to evil and it virulence, but delivering themselves to the Father and uniting themselves to the death of Christ by means of a testimony of donation and courage which brought them to give up life in order to die". He concluded, "the words of the Apocalypse regarding those who have vanquished Satan and evil through the blood of the Lamb, echo also in the splendid prayer attributed to the Christian martyr Simeon, from Seleucia-Ctesifonte in Persia, 'I will receive life without pain, worry, anguish, persecutor, persecuted, oppressor, oppressed, tyrant or victim, there I will see no threat of king, or terror of prefects, no-one will quote me in court or terrorise me and no-one will drag me or scare me".

Church Leadership Quick to Act Sometimes...

What a public relations nightmare...seems dealing with this silently would have made more sense.



From East Valley Tribune | Daily Arizona news for Chandler, Gilbert, Tempe, Mesa, Scottsdale:



"A marriage ceremony over the holidays, performed outside of the Catholic Church and without a priest, violated church law and has led to the firing of the diocese's Child and Youth Protection Advocate --the person responsible for ensuring sexual misconduct by church personnel doesn't occur again in the diocese.



Jenny O'Connor, 47, said she was dismissed Saturday after acknowledging to the Rev. Fred Adamson, a vicargeneral, that she and her boyfriend married without the sanctity of a Catholic wedding because he is dying from cancer and they did not believe there was time to plan for and hold a church wedding.



'They asked me to come in and just asked me why I got married, and I told them,' O'Connor said Tuesday from her Tempe home. 'They said it was outside the boundaries of being a good Catholic, and I explained all the reasons why.'



'They didn't seem to think that any of that is important, and that was it,' O'Connor said. She said she was first asked to resign, but when she declined, she was terminated. "

A Book Review of The Power of the Cross

For a copy of the book click on the cover image posted in the right hand column.



Thanks to Monsignor Vincent Haut, Pastor of Resurection Parish in Jacksonville, FL:

I knew Michael Dubruiel when he and I were much younger. In those days he was determined to do his best to preach the Gospel. He was a fiery preacher and relentless searcher for authentic faith. Reading his book is like hearing him speak again. He speaks with a desire for Christ and a passion for the Gospel that has become more refined and more insistent over the years.



This will be a good Lenten book for many people because it is divided into 42 short chapters, each of which provides a scriptural passage, some incisvive reflection, and a set of steps to take one day at a time. Whether you use it as a Lenten devotional or simply as a book of reflections, you will sense some of the author's fire and rediscover the hope that comes from the Cross.



I like this sort of book because it fits my life. Breaking things into short manageable segments is the best way to move through a book about Christ's passion. We discover what Christ means for us by following the recurring pattern set up for us in Michael Dubruiel's new book.

One Year Ago Today

From Father Benedict:



On January 11, I have an anniversary. It’s one that I never particularly wanted to have, or look forward to, but nonetheless it’s coming around. As I was thinking of this anniversary, I decided not to make it the anniversary of the day I almost died, but rather the anniversary of the day I came back from the dead.



I’m very grateful to God to be back and to be able to work and especially to have the use of my brain and mind. Just why I have this is quite mysterious and can be attributed only to God. Your brain cannot last for more than three or four minutes without oxygen; then it begins to deteriorate. Apparently I went twenty-seven minutes without oxygen or any vital signs, including blood pressure. No one can explain it, or at least nobody can explain it in medical terms.



I had several close calls in the first week, one just as close as the night of the accident, but the Lord obviously wanted me remain here and get some things done. How do you feel about life when you’re in such a situation? It’s very simple: You’re not looking for or desiring anything special, you just want to get your work done peacefully and as best you can and get going on the next step of the spiritual journey, which for most of us is that mysterious reality called Purgatory. Having trusted God all these years and looking forward over the edge of death, I have to say that Purgatory doesn’t scare me at all. It can’t be any worse than being on a respirator for nine weeks, at least I don’t think it can be.



I’ve learned over the past year to be very grateful to God that I have life and that I know how to use it well from the holy Gospel. I’m grateful to the Church for all the friends and brothers and sisters that it gives me. I’m grateful to my family and my immediate friends for all the support they gave me. I’m very grateful to my community of brothers and sisters who stood by me in this terrible time. I’m grateful for so many people, friends and relatives. I’m grateful to you who have cared about me, prayed for me, and watched this little website to see how we’re all doing.



Let’s celebrate together. Let’s say a prayer.

Biggest Non-story of the Day

I listen to sports radio normally on my way to work. This morning all the talk was about Randy Moss and his "mooning" of the Green Bay crowd, comparing it to Janet Jackson's stunt at the Super Bowl last year. What all of these people have failed to mention is that he didn't actually moon anyone. He pretended. Until I read the piece below I thought I had missed what I actually saw when the event happened on live TV.



From 24-Hour Sports News - Vikings upset Packers, move on to Philly - sacbee.com:



"Meanwhile Moss - whose reputation is still smarting for skulking off the field with 2 seconds left in a loss in Washington last week - pretended to pull down his pants and moon the crowd after scoring.



'Just having a little fun with the boys a little bit,' he told FOX. 'I hope I don't get in trouble by it, but if I do I'll take the heat.'

The Packers were feeling good after winning nine of their last 11 and drawing the Vikings, who had lost 20 of their last 22 games outside of domes.



You never would have guessed."

Where is God?

I have been preparing for a series of talks that I am to give to a group of Christian ministers of various denominations later this month on the subject of "finding God where you are". When I agreed to the task I felt that I it would be a simple matter, then the magnitude of this Asian dissaster and the incessant chanting of the crowd "Where is God?" has made it clear that my task will be more difficult...or will it?



It struck me this morning that if I believed in the God of the philosophers as Abraham Joshua Heschel used to term the god that most people argue with than this would indeed be the case. But the God of the Scriptures, "the God of Old" as one modern Jewish author has termed God is not a distant God and as a Christian that is the God that I worship this Sunday.



Start with the cross. Then think God and you'll see that all your distant god arguments start to dwindle. The Nancy Grifth song "From a Distance"..."God is watching us from a distance" while beautiful is actually heretical. Try this is on for size...



Philip says to Jesus: "Show us the Father."



Jesus tells Philip:"He who sees me (Jesus) has seen the Father."



Elie Wiesel told a story that I quote in my Praying in the Presence of Our Lord with Fulton Sheen book about a young boy being hung on the gallows between two older men in the concentration camp. The old men shout political slogans as they quickly die. The young innocent lingers on and says nothing. The inmates of the camp are forced to watch the whole ordeal as they march back and forth in front of the gallows. Someone in the crowd cries out, "Where is God now?" Wiesel tells of watching the young childs eyes as he slowly dies. "Where is God now?" the person screams again. Wiesel says something that Christians immediately recognize differently than the meaning that Wiesel has in saying them: "There he is hanging on that gallows." I think that for Wiesel that in the death of this child any hope that God existed was extinguished. But for the Christian there is an immediate recognition of the child as a Christ figure who like the early followers of Jesus the Son of God all met cruel deaths that were similar to the death of their Lord. In the young man God was being hung.



Chistianity in its good moments does not keep God at a distance. It recognizes God has come to dwell with us. It also remembers that the Lord said that the Kingdom suffers violence so it is not surprised when the innocent suffer--in fact I think it might be fair to say that we should be more surprised when we don't suffer.



In the end Jesus told his disciples that there would be two groups of people that all of humanity would be divided into the sheep and the goats. The difference between the two groups would be that one recognized God in the face of the hungry, thirsty, stranger, the naked, the imprisoned, the infirmed while the other group did not. The surprise of the other group is marked no doubt by their search for God in the distance, "When did we see you Lord?"



It is good that in response to this disaster that so many are responding with heartfelt generousity to help those who have suffered. In doing so we are helping God who is not off in the distance plotting the next disaster but clings to the wood of the cross as the storm seeks to destroy him yet again.