4^th Sunday of Easter – 2010 - Good Shepard Sunday

Jesus said:

“My sheep hear my voice;

I know them, and they follow me.

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.

No one can take them out of my hand.

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all,

and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.

The Father and I are one.”

How to talk today about vocations? How to talk in the present situation of constant attacks against the Pope and priests about priestly vocations? It seems that priesthood becomes the least desirable “job”, one of the most dangerous and the most loathed and despised vocation.

I think we have to realise that there is one principal and fundamental vocation we forgot for so many years. It is the first and the most basic vocation, the first even in a chronological sense. When God created humanity, He created it as man and woman and gave them an order: “"Be fertile and multiply”. I put into your hands a creative power. You are my co-workers in the task of creation.

And it doesn’t means only in creating human body but in creating the human being in his totality, the human personality, human attitude, human morality. Parents have an opportunity to model the lives of their children, to really and deeply form them. Is this a guarantee that their lives will be problem free ... of course not. It is a guarantee that the children will always have God in their lives ... to help them through hard times. But, it’s up to the parents to form the human’s values in their children, and it is parents’ primary vocation, the most fundamental and the most indispensable vocation, to create the human, the fully mature and responsible person.

We can even say that the school and the church, even the seminary is not able to correct or to supplant what was distorted in the family life.

And the enemy of God know this perfectly, and this is the reason that he is attacking so furiously just the family life. Fathers who have never time for their children, because they are so busy, mothers pursuing their goals and zeal, and children being form by TV.

Few days ago I got from one of our parishioners an interesting story:

 A few years after I was born, my Dad met a stranger who was new to our small Texas town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around from then on.

As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family. In my young mind, he had a special niche. My parents were only complementary instructors: Mom taught me good from evil, and Dad taught me to obey. But the stranger...he was our storyteller. He would keep us spellbound for hours on end with adventures, mysteries and comedies.

If I wanted to know anything about politics, history or science, he always knew the answers about the past, understood the present and even seemed able to predict the future! He took my family to the first major league ball game. He made me laugh, and he made me cry. The stranger never stopped talking, but Dad didn't seem to mind.

Sometimes, Mom would get up quietly while the rest of us were shushing each other to listen to what he had to say, and she would go to the kitchen for peace and quiet. (I wonder now if she ever prayed for the stranger to leave.)

Dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions, but the stranger never felt obligated to honour them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our home... Not from us, our friends or any visitors. Our long-time visitor, however, got away with four-letter words that burned my ears and made my dad squirm and my mother blush. My Dad didn't permit the liberal use of alcohol. But the stranger encouraged us to try it on a regular basis. He made cigarettes look cool, cigars manly and pipes distinguished. He talked freely (much too freely!) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing.

I now know that my early concepts about relationships were influenced strongly by the stranger. Time after time, he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked... And NEVER asked to leave.

More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family. He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at first. Still, if you could walk into my parents' den today, you would still find him sitting over in his corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures. 

His name? .... 

We just call him 'TV.'
  
He has a wife now....We call her 'Computer.' 
Their first child is "Cell Phone". 
Second child "IPod"

We have to be aware of the responsibility, parents’ responsibility and vocation. If we have problem with priestly vocation, if we have problem with our entire life … is it not due to the fact the the formation of our children we left to the stranger, whose name is TV?

If Jesus is telling us in today’s Gospel: “My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.” We have to ask ourselves a serious question: whom are we listening to, whose voice is forming our children, who has the bigger influence in our families?

Canadian Bishops: “Catholics for Choice” is Not Catholic

Canadian Bishops: “Catholics for Choice” is Not Catholic:

"The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) has reiterated that the group “Catholics for a Free Choice” is “not Catholic” and “does not represent the teachings or views of the Catholic Church.”"

The small group, originating in the United States and described as “fraudulent” by faithful Catholics, made media headlines in recent weeks by criticizing the Harper government for refusing to push abortion in the G8 maternal healthcare push.

Mainstream media outlets such as Canadian Press, the Montreal Gazette, and the Toronto Sun, all referred to the group as if it were authentically Catholic with headlines such as “Catholic group urges Harper to include abortion, contraception in G8 policy.”

The CCCB recalled that already in 2002 they had denounced “Catholics for a Free Choice” for “usurping the Church’s name” when, in fact, “it is in no way recognized as Catholic.”

A must read articles:


The Pope-hunters' pathological campaign on the "The Australian"

Should gay priests adopt? on the "Townhall.com"

Dear Friends,

Let us keep Poland in our prayers as she absorbs the devastating blow, the death of her president Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria, and many leaders of the government, the military, and the Church. There is a terrible double-blow because this plane crash occurred in Russia, near Katyn, which is the site of the Soviet's massacres of more than 20,000 Polish officers and intelligentsia during World War II. The leaders of Poland were flying there to commemorate that event. Yet Poland always rises up from her times of crucifixion, stronger than ever. Let us pray that she also becomes more united and as a whole nation turns to Christ during this severe trial—which occurred on the eve of the Church's universal feast of Divine Mercy.

Many things are being shaken in the world, and within the Church there is much sifting. For example, the media's desperate straining to find evidence of Pope Benedict's complicity in a sexual abuse cases is so very interesting, and very revealing. That he is entirely innocent of cover-up or lack of prudence in these matters is ignored, while the little shreds of nuanced inference are whipped up into a global crisis without any basis in fact. It is innuendo, circumstantial "evidence." If such groundless allegations were brought into a courtroom, any sane judge would immediately dismiss the case and fine the accusers for contempt of court. The unjustly accused could easily file a libel suit. 

 

Whenever the media goes into a shark-feeding-frenzy against the Church, their own radical bias is exposed. For example, the number of school teachers accused of sexual abuse of the young, during any given year, is usually about 10 to 20 times higher (one recent article claimed the figure is closer to 100 times higher) than the number of accusations against priests. It would be interesting to know the statistics about sexual abuse by journalists. Inevitably, when a teacher or journalist is found guilty of a sexual offense, the media reports it as an isolated case (if it is reported at all), and their attitude could summarized as, "That man (or woman) did a bad thing and should be punished." No one suggests that the institution of journalism is inherently corrupt and should be dismantled and rebuilt according to whatever sociopolitical theory is currently popular. Similarly, no one even thinks of, let alone disgorges oceans of ink and electronic text, calling for the dismantling and recreating of the education system. 

 

If a priest commits the same offense, the media instantly launches a full scale psyche-war. Moreover, if sins of persons associated with the Vatican are stripped bare in the naked public agora, the war gets hotter. There are thousand of employees at the Vatican, and they hold all manner of diverse opinions on a wide variety of topics. Being human, they are also capable of much that human beings are capable of, if they should fall from grace. Any honest journalist knows this, and  the disregarding of this fact is clearly a case of other agendas operative in their reporting. Josef Goebbels' Reich MInistry of Propaganda or Josef Stalin's organs of Disinformation would have been immensely proud of current media behaviour. Josef Ratzinger (Pope Benedict) enjoys no such power, and would never want it, never use it. Like Christ, like the Church, he chooses to be weaponless before the shrill irrationality of human malice. 

 

The sins of a small number of clerics are shameful, indeed evil. Yet the vast majority of pastors and consecrated religious are innocent, living heroic lives day by day, year after year. Why, then, this phenomenal obsession, one might say this hungry voyeurism, on the part of the media? The violation of normal journalistic standards is nothing other than a radical prejudice in action. As is the case with all bigots, they justify it to themselves and to their audience as a defense of truth. Truth, they should be the first to know, is the first victim of such double standards.

In the midst of these crises let us not be easily shaken. Let us keep our eyes focused on the true horizon, the coming victory of Jesus over the entire cosmos. As we approach that great Day, there will be much that will test our faith. Yet every test is an opportunity for growth, for strengthening, for purifying us as the Bride is made ready to meet the Bridegroom. That day may be near or it may be yet distant, but in every age and every generation we must stay sober and alert, and in a state of confident expectation.

Grace and peace be with you in ever greater measure,

Michael D. O'Brien 

The Divine Mercy Sunday

There is a story about a climber who was determined to reach the summit of a high mountain. After years of preparation, he began his adventure, but he journeyed all alone because he wanted all the glory. He began his ascent, and as daylight faded he decided to continue climbing. Night fell. The night fell heavily and he was overcome by total darkness. The moonlight and starlight were hidden within the clouds. There was zero visibility. He was only a few meters away from the summit when he slipped as he was climbing a ridge and fell off, falling at frightening speed.

While falling he could only see shadows like figures in the darkness and felt the tug of gravity sucking him down. In those anguishing moments he saw his life pass before his eyes. He thought death was near when suddenly he felt the tightening of the rope around his waist that tied him to a nail embedded in the rock wall of the mountain.

In desperation, suspended in mid-air he screamed:- God, please help me!

Then unexpectedly a deep voice from heaven responded: - What would you have me do?

- Save me!

- Do you really think I can save you?

- Of course my Lord!

- Well then, cut the rope.

There was a moment of silence, and then the man tightened the rope around his waist saying:

- Are you joking with me?

The mountain rescue team reported that they found the man frozen to death, his hands wrapped firmly around a rope tied to his waist…

The man was HANGING TWO FEET FROM THE GROUND…

So ... How tight are your ropes? Would you let go?

“I am the Lord your God, who holds your right hand, and I tell you ‘don’t be afraid. I will help you.’” (Is. 41:13) “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”

"Divine Mercy Sunday" was officially established for the universal Church on May 5, 2000 by a decree of the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship.

God shows us His infinite Love and Mercy in different ways. The only concern and problem is: “are we able to believe, to trust Him?” or we are rather firmly gripping the security rope like "Doubting Thomas"? To see and know Jesus in our lives is to recognize where he comes to us in the day-to-day events and to trust Him even if it seems to go against reason.

From the diary of a young Polish nun, a special devotion began spreading throughout the world in the 1930s. The message is nothing new, but is a reminder of what the Church has always taught through scripture and tradition: that God is merciful and forgiving and that we, too, must show mercy and forgiveness. But in the Divine Mercy devotion, the message takes on a powerful new focus, calling people to a deeper understanding that God’s love is unlimited and available to everyone — especially the greatest sinners.

The message and devotion to Jesus as The Divine Mercy is based on the writings of Saint Faustina Kowalska, an uneducated Polish nun who, in obedience to her spiritual director, wrote a diary of about 600 pages recording the revelations she received about God’s mercy. Even before her death in 1938, the devotion to The Divine Mercy had begun to spread.

Devotion to The Divine Mercy involves a total commitment to God as Mercy. It is a decision to trust completely in Him, to accept His mercy with thanksgiving, and to be merciful as He is merciful.

"Divine Mercy Sunday" was officially established for the universal Church on May 5, 2000 by a decree of the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. According to St. Faustina, Our Lord promises to those who go to confession and communion on this day, the remission of their sins and all punishment for sins.

This Feast, which had already been granted to the nation of Poland and been celebrated within Vatican City, was granted to the Universal Church by Pope John Paul II on the occasion of the canonization of Sr. Faustina on 30 April 2000. In a decree dated 23 May 2000, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments stated that "throughout the world the Second Sunday of Easter will receive the name Divine Mercy Sunday, a perennial invitation to the Christian world to face, with confidence in divine benevolence, the difficulties and trials that mankind will experience in the years to come." These papal acts represent the highest endorsement that the Church can give to a private revelation, an act of papal infallibility proclaiming the certain sanctity of the mystic, and the granting of a universal feast, as requested by Our Lord to St. Faustina.

On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine floodgates through which grace flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity. (Diary of Sr. Faustina, 699)

He that is without sin, let him cast the next stone - enough already

former New York City Mayor Ed Koch in the Jerusalem Post

Many of those in the media who are pounding on the Church and the pope today clearly do it with delight, and some with malice. The reason, I believe, for the constant assaults is that there are many in the media, and some Catholics as well as many in the public, who object to and are incensed by positions the Church holds, including opposition to all abortions, opposition to gay sex and same-sex marriage, retention of celibacy rules for priests, exclusion of women from the clergy, opposition to birth control measures involving condoms and prescription drugs and opposition to civil divorce.

My good friend, John Cardinal O'Connor, once said, "The Church is not a salad bar, from which to pick and choose what pleases you."

The Church has the right to demand fulfillment of all of its religious obligations by its parishioners, and indeed a right to espouse its beliefs generally.

I disagree with the Church on all of these positions. Nevertheless, it has a right to hold these views in accordance with its religious beliefs. I disagree with many tenets of Orthodox Judaism - the religion of my birth - and have chosen to follow the tenets of Conservative Judaism, while I attend an Orthodox synagogue. Orthodox Jews, like the Roman Catholic Church, can demand absolute obedience to religious rules. Those declining to adhere are free to leave.

I believe the Roman Catholic Church is a force for good in the world, not evil.

The media tend to exaggerate the marginal scandals thus manipulating the public opinion.

UN Judge Says Pope Should be Prosecuted at International Criminal Court

By Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D.

(NEW YORK – C-FAM) In London last Friday, a high ranking United Nations (UN) jurist called on the British government to detain Pope Benedict XVI during his upcoming visit to Britain, and send him to trial in the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “crimes against humanity.”

Geoffrey Robertson touted his status as a UN judge in an article he published last week claiming that jurists should invoke the same procedures that have been used to indict war criminals such as Slobodan Milosevic. To try the Pope as head of the Roman Catholic Church who is ultimately responsible for sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests.

Robertson is one of five select jurists in the UN’s internal justice system responsible for holding UN officials accountable for corruption and mismanagement. His article was published in both the United States and Britain and reported on by the Associated Press.

Professor Hurst Hannum of the Fletcher School at Tufts University told the Friday Fax that it would be a “real stretch” to use the ICC since that court’s jurisdiction is mainly reserved for crimes during war. More likely, Hannum said, is that Robertson and likeminded experts would invoke the principle of “universal jurisdiction” so that national courts all over the world could detain the pope whenever he stepped foot on their soil. Critics say the principle, already used in practice, is a violation of sovereignty as it is enshrined in the UN Charter.

Yet Robertson insisted that the ICC could be used as long as the Pope’s sovereign immunity was waived and as long as jurists can show that the sex abuse scandal was carried out on a “widespread or systematic scale,” the way that child soldiers were used in the wars in Sierra Leone and the way that sex slaves are traded internationally.

Robertson, a tort lawyer, argued that prosecution at a higher level of the Church is necessary to get more money for victims of clergy sexual abuse in cases where dioceses have gone into bankruptcy. He specifically pointed out the fact that the diocese of Los Angeles has already paid $660M in damages and Boston has paid $100M.

One prominent law professor told the Friday Fax, “Without in any way minimizing the seriousness of the alleged offenses of Catholic priests, it would be a grave mistake to the laws of human rights to permit a trivializing of the responsibility to protect, and to play into the hands of American contingency-fee lawyers.”

Another human rights lawyer told the Friday Fax that the article could be part of a broader campaign. Robertson has long campaigned to strip the Holy See of its permanent observer status at the UN, and has publicly referred to the Holy See “the world’s largest NGO.”

When a campaign was launched to oust the Holy See from its status in 1999, UN Member States rallied around the Vatican, and in 2004 the General Assembly voted unanimously to expand that status. It is unclear whether UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon knew about Robertson’s leanings before appointing him to his current position.

More here

Jewish Sam Miller on Catholics

Excerpts of an article written by Sam Miller, prominent Cleveland Jewish businessman-- who is NOT a Catholic.

Why would newspapers carry on a vendetta on one of the most important institutions that we have today in the United States , namely the Catholic Church?

Do you know--the Catholic Church educates 2.6 million students everyday at the cost to that Church of 10 billion dollars, and a savings on the other hand to the American taxpayer of 18 billion dollars. The graduates go on to graduate studies at the rate of 92%.

The Church has 230 colleges and universities in the U.S. with an enrollment of 700,000 students.

The Catholic Church has a non-profit hospital system of 637 hospitals, which account for hospital treatment of 1 out of every 5 people--not just Catholics--in the United States today

But the press is vindictive and trying to totally denigrate in every way the Catholic Church in this country. They have blamed the disease of pedophilia on the Catholic Church, which is as irresponsible as blaming adultery on the institution of marriage.

Let me give you some figures that Catholics should know and remember. For example, 12% of the 300 Protestant clergy surveyed admitted to sexual intercourse with a parishioner; 38% acknowledged other inappropriate sexual contact in a study by the United Methodist Church, 41.8% of clergy women reported unwanted sexual behavior; 17% of laywomen have been sexually harassed.

Meanwhile, 1.7% of the Catholic clergy has been found guilty of pedophilia. 10% of the Protestant ministers have been found guilty of pedophilia. This is not a Catholic Problem.

A study of American priests showed that most are happy in the priesthood and find it even better than they had expected, and that most, if given the choice, would choose to be priests again in face of all this obnoxious PR the church has been receiving.

The Catholic Church is bleeding from self-inflicted wounds. The agony that Catholics have felt and suffered is not necessarily the fault of the Church. You have been hurt by a small number of wayward priests that have probably been weeded out by now.

Walk with your shoulders high and you head higher. Be a proud member of the most important non-governmental agency in the United States. Then remember what Jeremiah said: 'Stand by the roads, and look and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is and walk in it, and find rest for your souls'. Be proud to speak up for your faith with pride and reverence and learn what your Church does for all other religions.

Be proud that you're a Catholic.
Reprinted excerpts with permission of the Buckeye Bulletin - courtesy of
Brookside Council #3297, Cleveland Diocese.

Other articles by Sam Miller:

Proud to be Catholic" by Sam Miller, A Jewish businessman

Proud to be Catholic" by Sam Miller,A Jewish businessman 2

Redemption Comes Through The Jews… Jewish Businessman, Sam Miller, Whaps Anti-Catholic Bias in News Media (Full Text)

Redemption Comes Through The Jews… Jewish Businessman, Sam Miller, Whaps Anti-Catholic Bias in News Media (Full Text to print)

Be Proud That You're Catholic

THE CHAPLET OF THE DIVINE MERCY

Opening Prayer

You expired, Jesus, but the source of life gushed for souls, and an ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O Fount of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty yourself out upon us.

O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us. I trust in You!

---

1. Begin with the

· Sign of the Cross,

· 1 Our Father,

· 1 Hail Mary

· The Apostles Creed.

2. Then on the Our Father Beads say the following:

Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.

3. On the 10 Hail Mary Beads say the following:

For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

(Repeat step 2 and 3 for all five decades).

4. Conclude with (three times):

Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Closing Prayer

Eternal God, in whom Mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your Holy Will, which is Love and Mercy itself.

Prayer to Divine Mercy for the unborn

For all helpless, little children who die in the womb of their mother, I pray that all of these little souls will be given eternal life by Our Lord, Jesus Christ, through his Divine Mercy and I beg Jesus that He shows His Mercy also to the parents of these children, especially to the mothers, who don't know what they are doing. Lord, enlighten them and give them a deeper understanding of the value and beauty of life. May Your Divine Mercy forgive them all the hurt they have caused and show them the way of eternal life. Amen.

Prayer of consecration to the Divine Mercy

Jesus, the Divine Mercy, I consecrate my entire life,

from this day on, to You without reserve

Into Your hands I abandon my past, my present and my future

from this day forward, make me a true follower of Your teaching

Let Your Divine Mercy Image, protect my home

and my family from all the powers of evil in this world today.

May all who venerate it never perish,

may it be their joy in life, their hope in death,

and their glory in eternity. Amen.