Visit with the Cousins in Kentucky

Michael eating, my sister Ann talking to Amy (those are her reading glasses suspended in the air), Ann's daughter Alex kissing her mom.

Joshua and Joseph discuss super heroes.

"Why did God become man?" Pope Benedict

Today's Angelus on the Feast of St. John the Apostle, from Asia News Italy:

“Why did he do it? Why did God become man?”

The chant the angels began singing in the grotto—“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests” (Lk 2, 14)—can help answer this question. The canticle of the night before Christmas, which is now in the Gloria, belongs to the liturgy as do the other three canticles from the New Testament which refer to Jesus’ birth and infancy: the Benedictus, the Magnificat and the Nunc dimittis.

Whilst these are included respectively in the morning Lauds, the evening Vesper prayer, and the nightly Compline, the Gloria found its place in the Holy Mass. To the angels’ words a few acclamations were added: "We praise You. We bless You. We adore You. We glorify You. We give You thanks for Your great Glory.” Later “Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father. You who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us” were added to form an ariose hymn of praise that was sung the first time during Christmas mass and then in all feast days. Included at the beginning of the Eucharistic celebration, the Gloria underscores the existing continuity between and the birth and the death of Christ, between Christmas and Easter, which are indissoluble aspects of the one and the same mystery of salvation.

The Gospel says that the angelic multitude sang: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will”. The angels announced that the birth of Christ to the shepherds “is” glory to God in the Highest and peace to His people on earth. Therefore, these angelic words are conveniently placed on the grotto to explain the mystery of Christmas that is fulfilled in the nativity scene. The word “gloria” (doxa) indicates the splendour of God that his grateful creatures’ praise elicits. Paul said that it is “the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of (Jesus) Christ” (2 Cor 4, 6). “Peace" (eirene) summarise the fullness of the messianic gift, salvation, as the Apostle puts it, which is identified with Christ himself. “For he is our peace," (Eph 2, 14). There is, finally, a reference to men “of good will”. “Good will” (eudokia) would ordinarily make one think of men’s “good will”, but here it refers to God’s, boundless, “good will” towards men. Hence the Christmas message means that with the birth of Jesus, God has shown his good will towards all.

Let us get back to question “Why did God become man?” St Irenaeus said: “The word became the dispenser of the paternal grace for the benefit of men [. . .]. For the glory of God is a living man—vivens homo—; and the life of man consists in beholding God.” (Adv. Haer. IV, 20, 5.7).

God’s glory manifests itself in the salvation of man whom God loved so much, wrote John the Evangelist, “that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life,” (Jn 3, 16). Love is therefore the ultimate reason for Christ’s incarnation. Theologian H.U. von Balthasar’s reflection on the matter is eloquent. He wrote that “God is not, first of all, absolute power, but rather absolute love whose sovereignty does not manifest itself in keeping what is his, but in giving it up” (Mysterium paschale I, 4). The God that we see in the nativity scene is God-Love.

At this point the angels’ announcement sounds to us like an invitation: “Let there be” glory to God in the Highest, “let there be” peace to His people on earth”. The only way to glorify God and build peace on earth lies in humbly and trustingly welcome the gift of Christmas: love. The angels’ song can then become a prayer to repeat often, not only during the Christmas period. A hymn of praise to God in the highest and a fervent invocation of peace on earth that may turn into a concrete commitment to build it with our own life. This is the commitment Christmas gives us.

Monk Tackles Rectory Intruders

Father Noah Casey is a monk of Saint Meinrad's who is currently stationed in Indianapolis at the Catholic Church right across the street from the RCA dome (where the Colts play). Why is someone from Lakeland, FL breaking into a Church in Indy? (I used to live in Lakeland myself--which is why I ask).

From the Examiner:

A Roman Catholic priest tackled a teenage boy he found rummaging through a church rectory Tuesday, foiling a theft attempt, police said. The intruder and another man escaped briefly. But police used a description by the Rev. Noah Casey to track and arrest them.
Casey confronted the intruders about 1:30 a.m. when he found them inside an office at the rectory of St. John's Catholic Church in downtown Indianapolis, police said.
"Once the individuals saw the priest, they attempted to get out through the window. One succeeded in doing that, but as the second individual tried to do that, the priest caught him and tackled him," said Marion County Sheriff's Department Capt. Doug Scheffel.
Both escaped, but Casey gave officers their description. A police dog tracked them to a nearby hotel where two men matching the priest's description were found inside a room that was supposed to be vacant, a police report said.
Police said Richard J. Todd, 19, of Lakeland, Fla., and a 16-year-old boy stole computer equipment and cell phones from the church.
Todd was being held in Marion County Jail on preliminary charges of burglary, theft and residential entry, and the boy was being charged as a juvenile.

Christmas Greetings from the Pope

Angelus for the Feast of St. Stephen

From The Indian Catholic:

Praying the Angelus December 26th on the Feast of St. Stephen Martyr, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the many Christians who are still suffering persecution in
today’s world and commended them to the care of Mary.
The Pontiff pointed out how the celebration of the Feast of the martyr St. Stephen on the day after Christmas, “can surprise us, because it strikes the contrast between the peace and joy of Bethlehem and the drama of Stephen, stoned to death in Jerusalem in the first persecution against the newly born Church.”The Pope also noted that, “St. Stephen was the first to follow the footsteps of Christ with martyrdom; dying like the Divine Teacher, forgiving and praying for his executioners (cf Acts 7,60).”Moreover, he explained that during the first four centuries of the Church, when all of the Saints were martyrs, “their deaths were not instilled with fear or sadness, but with a spiritual enthusiasm which is always aroused in new Christians.”“For believers, the day of death, and even more so the day of martyrdom, is not the end of everything, but the “passing” into immortal life,
it is the day of their final birth, in Latin “dies natalis.”“We can understand
then, the link which exists between the ‘dies natalis’ of Christ and the ‘dies
natalis’ of St. Stephen. If Jesus was not born on earth, mankind would not be
able to be born in heaven. Because Christ is born, we are able to be “reborn!”
exclaimed the Holy Father.In conclusion the Pontiff entrusted to Mary “the many
who are persecuted and suffering, in various ways, for their testimony and
service to the Gospel.”

Merry Christmas!!!

85 percent of U.S. dioceses report embezzlements

From NCR Cafe:

A whopping 85 percent of U.S. dioceses have detected embezzlement over the past five years, according to Villanova University researchers. “No question
about it, it’s a large number,” said Charles Zech, director of the school’s
Center for the Study of Church Management and coauthor of the 15-page paper,
“Internal Financial Controls in the U.S. Catholic Church,” that details the
findings. Supported by a grant from the Louisville Institute, Zech and Villanova
accounting professor Robert West surveyed 174 diocesan chief financial officers.
Seventy-eight responded.
The researchers don’t put a precise dollar figure on how much was embezzled, but the range indicates it’s significant. In 11 percent of the dioceses at least $500,000 was stolen over the last five years (meaning that a minimum of $4.3 million went missing) while one-third of the dioceses reported thefts of under $50,000. “You can only wonder about those [96] dioceses that didn’t respond to our survey,” said Zech.
Dishonest church employees and volunteers are the immediate cause, but the heart of the problem lies elsewhere, say the researchers.
“Unlike corporations which provide quarterly financial statements to the SEC and hold quarterly conference calls with outside analysts, the church is subject to almost no recurring outside financial scrutiny,” according to the report. Further, while “many dioceses provide parishioners with an annual financial and administrative newsletter,which provides a highly summarized view of the cash flows for the year and the results of social and spiritual programs offered by the diocese -- many other dioceses do neither.”
While external oversight of diocesan and parish finances is virtually nonexistent, internal checks are hardly any better. “Only 3 percent of the dioceses conducted an annual internal audit of their parishes,”while “21 percent of the dioceses indicated that they seldom or never audit their parishes.” When such reviews do occur, the researchers say, it’s frequently because a pastor or bookkeeper has ceased working in the parish.