July 23, 2012, Volume VI, Number 30
FEAST OF SAINT BRIGID OF SWEDEN
Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Saint Mary Magdalene – July 24, 2012
Saint James the Great – July 25, 2012
Saints Joachim and Anne – July 26, 2012
Question of the Week
For the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (July 29, 2012)
“When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples, ‘Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted.’” How do you know when people (your guests) have had their fill? How do you know when you have had your fill? What do you do with food left on the plates? What do you do with food left in the bowls? How do you insure that nothing (not just food) will be wasted?
NCCL News
The theme for 2012 Catechetical Sunday is "Catechists and Teachers as Agents of the New Evangelization." The Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis has prepared a variety of materials to assist catechists and Catholic school teachers to better understand and embrace Pope Benedict XVI's invitation to be evangelists. The resources will assist parishes in celebrating Catechetical Sunday, not only in September, but also throughout the 2012-2013 year. These materials are provided free of charge. These resources can be found at Catechetical Sunday 2012 Resources (http://tiny.cc/m10nfw).
We are featuring a Family Retreat: Parents, Grandparents, and Siblings as Evangelizers by David D. Spesia, MA, Theology, and MS, Educational Leadership Director of Office of Lay Formation, Diocese of Joliet, Illinois You can download the PDF at http://tiny.cc/a7dnhw or by simply clicking on the title above.
As in past years, NCCL will sell printed copies of prayer cards, family commitment cards, posters, and certificates in English and Spanish. Check the NCCL website www.NCCL.org for more information on ordering your Catechetical Sunday materials This year’s reflection journal was written by Michele Harris and is entitled Open the Door of Faith. Sample pages are available on the NCCL Homepage (www.NCCL.org). The 2012 NCCL pin addresses the Trinitarian nature of our faith in its triangular design along with the pages of the Word of God open to the world where the cross of the Word made flesh rises from the Living Word. The Spirit of God in each of us is the agent of the new evangelization and is ready to go forth as catechist and teacher. Set on an ivory background (not the light blue pictured in the image), the gold cross and white enameled Scripture pages and dove are striking. Help your organization and order your materials from NCCL.
In the meantime, check out the Catechetical Sunday 2012 FREE Resources (http://tiny.cc/m10nfw) which include
· Theological Reflection
· Catechist-in-service
· Teaching Aids
· Parish Resources (excellent parish bulletin inserts)
This week we would also like to highlight three (3) additional resources.
- Bulletin Inserts:
Are You a 3G Catholic? by Fr. Larry Swink, Pastor, Jesus the Divine Word, Huntingtown, Maryland. You can download the PDF at http://tiny.cc/afenhw or by simply clicking on the title above.
2. Faith in Action:
These are articles by young adults engaged in the Church’s work of evangelization. This week we feature a Lasallian Volunteer, Kenny Latta in a piece entitled Committed to Christ, the Poor, and New Evangelization . You can download the PDF at http://tiny.cc/t6enhw or by simply clicking on the title above.
3. Leadership Institute website: Track III - New Evangelization features ten webinars. You can check out all of them at http://tiny.cc/aaiigw or by clicking on Track III above. This week we are featuring an in-depth presentation. It is entitled Humbly Walking with God's People by Eduardo C. Fernández, SJ. You can listen to the webinar at http://tiny.cc/rqenhw or simply click on the title above.
Webinar Description: Humbly Walking With God's People
Expanding about the evangelizing leader's need to be self-aware, ingenious, loving, and heroic, so as to help spark the cultivation of these virtues in others, this presentation reflects on each of these attributes as they relate to the spiritual life of the minister, especially within intercultural settings. Various pastoral examples provide a way of sharing how concretely these virtues are lived in service to others, afford an opportunity to examine oneself in light of them, and model some pedagogical tools such as the use of images, Sacred Scripture, background texts, self-reflective points to consider, and even a quiz!
Year of Faith postings on the NCCL Website – Check it out!
It’s up on the NCCL website and it already has two postings. You can find it under Resources on the Home page or you can simply click YEAR of FAITH Resources.
NCCL will be posting Year of Faith plans from parishes and dioceses on the NCCL website. If your committee or Forun has discussed the Year of Faith from an NCCL perspective, or if someone on your committee has plans for the Year of Faith, please emailthe information to NCCL Board member Joanie McKeown at .
We will continue post links to websites, outlines of plans, introductory articles, worksheets, etc., along with a byline crediting you (or your parish, diocese, committee, etc) for the materials you are sharing. By allowing others to see your plans you'll be helping other parish and diocesan catechetical leaders as they develop their local plans so that across the country, in parishes large and small, we'll have vibrant celebrations of the Year of Faith.
Cardinal Dolan sees US as 'mission territory'
The U.S. and other Western nations are “mission territory” for the Catholic Church in modern times, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York stressed in a July 17 online posting. “I was raised – as were most of you – to think of the missions as 'way far away' – and, to be sure, we can never forget our sacred duty to the foreign missions,” the New York archbishop wrote on his “Gospel in the Digital Age” blog.
“But, we are a mission territory, too. Every diocese is. And every committed Catholic is a missionary. This is at the heart of what Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI call the New Evangelization. …Maybe, we have gotten way too smug. We have taken our Catholic faith for granted,” the New York archbishop suggested. The entire Church, he said, can no longer “coast on the former fame, clout, buildings, numbers, size, money, and accomplishments of the past.”
On July 12, the Gallup polling organization released figures showing a historic drop in U.S. resident's confidence in religious institutions. Only 44 percent of Americans, from various faith backgrounds, now say they have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in “the church or organized religion.” That figure marks the lowest point since at least 1973, when religious organizations were ranked as the country's most trusted institutions with around 66 percent confidence. The figure has generally declined since then, reaching previous lows of 45 percent in 2002 and 46 percent in 2007.
But Catholics should not be “depressed” by Western countries' shift away from religious belief and practice. Instead, they should be “awakened and challenged,” Cardinal Dolan said. Today, he said, the Church is “with the apostles on Pentecost Sunday as we embrace the New Evangelization.” The campaign to re-evangelize historically Christian societies is the topic of an October 2012 synod in Rome, which will begin the Year of Faith called by Pope Benedict XVI.
“You and I are missionaries,” the New York archbishop told the faithful, emphasizing that the conversion of others “starts inside” with one's own conversion.
Wisdom from Blessed John Paul II for Natural Family Planning Awareness Week
“[R]esponsible fatherhood and motherhood directly concern the moment in which a man and a woman, uniting themselves “in one flesh,” can become parents. This is a moment of special value both for their interpersonal relationship and for their service to life: they can become parents—father and mother—by communicating life to a new human being. The two dimensions of conjugal union, the unitive and the procreative, cannot be artificially separated without damaging the deepest truth of the conjugal act itself. (John Paul II, Letter to Families,no. 12)
The logic of the total gift of self to the other involves a potential openness to procreation: in this way the marriage is called to even greater fulfillment as a family. Certainly the mutual gift of husband and wife does not have the begetting of children as its only end, but is in itself a mutual communion of love and of life. (John Paul II, Letter to Families, no. 12)
The work of educating in the service of life involves the training of married couples in responsible procreation. In its true meaning, responsible procreation requires couples to be obedient to the Lord’s call and to act as faithful interpreters of his plan. This happens when the family is generously open to new lives, and when couples maintain an attitude of openness and service to life, even if, for serious reasons and in respect for the moral law, they choose to avoid a new birth for the time being or indefinitely. (John Paul II, Evangelium vitae, no. 97)
The moral law obliges … [husband and wife] in every case to … respect the biological laws inscribed in their person. It is precisely this respect which makes legitimate, at the service of responsible procreation, the use of natural methods of regulating fertility. (John Paul II, Evangelium vitae, no. 97)
Supported by science, experience has confirmed the educational value of Natural Family Planning in contributing to an integrated vision of sexuality, marriage and responsible procreation. (John Paul II, Address to Participants in a Course Sponsored by the Centre for Studies and Research on the Natural Regulation of Fertility, 1993)
As ministers of a sacrament that is constituted through consent and perfected by conjugal union, man and woman are called to express the mysterious “language” of their bodies in all the truth that properly belongs to it…. According to the criterion of this truth, which must be expressed in the “language of the body,” the conjugal act “means” not only love, but also potential fruitfulness, and thus it cannot be deprived of its full and adequate meaning by means of artificial interventions. (John Paul II, Theology of the Body 123: 4;6)
Goodness Reigns: Mini Video Contest: Natural Family Planning Explained
Goodness Reigns, a Catholic media site, is inviting the public to view the videos submitted in its mini contest titled "Natural Family Planning: The Better Way." Building on its mission to engage young adults and media makers to explore important faith-related issues through media, Goodness Reigns launches periodic video contests. Judges for the event have already chosen as their favorite Leah Chen's video Natural Family Planning Explained (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PXxuVBjxQs&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL76021691A9BD9CBE) Judging criteria evaluated each video's impact, its appeal to a young adult audience as well as its technical merits. Check out this five (5) minute video and more at http://goodnessreigns.com/vote/.
Trying to Resist Temptation? Think about God
This was an interesting article in Scientific American that might suggest there is some scientific support for our notion of redemptive suffering. However, it also suggests that “Support for the notion that self-control taxes a limited resource, and that depletion of this resource will lead to lapses in resistance,….” Here are the first two paragraphs. If you are interested in reading more, please go to http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=trying-to-resist-tempation-think-about-god&WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_MB_20120718.
Do you have what it takes to resist temptation? Or do you find yourself indulging too often in a decadent dessert, using company time to check Facebook, or foregoing morning exercise in favor of sleep? We do not need a science experiment to understand the universality of cravings, desires and longings, or to understand how human desire serves as a double-edged sword. Urges motivate us in positive and important ways - to seek food, find shelter, make friends, get sleep, procreate. But left unchecked, our urges and desires can lead to a myriad of negative consequences, from obesity and poor health to reduced productivity, overspending, damaged relationships, substance abuse, and violence.
If your willpower is weak, a little divine intervention may help. In a series of studies, Kevin Rounding and colleagues tested participants' self-control by asking them to endure discomfort to earn a reward, or to delay immediate payment to obtain a larger stipend. Before the test of self-control, half of the participants were exposed to words with religious themes (e.g., divine, spirit, God) in a puzzle-solving task, and half completed the same task without the religious primes. Those who saw the primes were willing to endure greater discomfort and delay gratification longer than those who did not. Additional studies showed that religious primes also fortified self-control after the fact. In these studies, participants first attempted to resist temptation, and afterward half of the participants viewed religious primes while the other half did not. Finally, all participants were faced with an additional task involving self-restraint. Exposure to the religious words refueled resolve, as participants who saw the religious primes were able to persist at a frustrating task far longer than those who did not.
The Official World Youth Day Rio 2013 Prayer
Oh, Father, You sent Your Eternal Son to save the world and chose men and women, through Him, with Him and in Him, to proclaim the Good News to all nations. Grant us the graces necessary so that joy may shine in the faces of all young people, the joy of being, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the evangelists the Church needs in the Third Millennium.