The #1 thing you can do today to make the world a better place

Okay, call me a sap, but I simply love the Olympics. Not so much the sports part of it, although there were some remarkable moments in the competitions. I'm talking more about the way the whole idea of the Olympics makes me feel. In a word, it makes me feel hopeful--hopeful that the world can be a better place.

At the end of the closing ceremonies (which, let's be honest, did not compare even remotely to the opening ceremonies), one of the NBC commentators said about this world-changing spirit of the Olympics: If we can be this way for 16 days, why not three weeks? Why not a month? Why not longer?

I do believe that good Olympics, like good liturgy, gives us a little glimpse of what the Kingdom of God could be like on earth. And once we get a glimpse, we want more.

Continuing that note, ZenHabits has a post about the #1 lifehack (slang for something that improves your life) you can implement today for making the world a better place. It's not written from a religious point of view, but we in the Church can certainly be reminded of how simple it can be to do something today to make the reign of God more visible in our world today.

Novena for Faithful Citizenship

A new prayer resource is available on the Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship Web site. The USCCB is inviting Catholics to pray before the November election a novena for life, justice, and peace called the Novena for Faithful Citizenship. It is podcast and available for download.

The novena runs for nine days and can be used consecutively, one day each week, for nine days prior to the election, or in any way that works best for a community or individual.

The novena can be downloaded online at... http://www.faithfulcitizenship.org/resources/podcasts .

For other Faithful Citizenship resources and materials visit www.faithfulcitizenship.org.

Notre Dame University 37th Annual Conference - June 15 - 17, 2009

Paul as Liturgical Theologian
June 15 - 17, 2009
at the University of Notre Dame

From June 28, 2008 to June 29, 2009 the Church will be celebrating a Jubilee Year in honor of the apostle Paul, to commemorate the bimellenium of his birth. As its contribution to this commemoration, the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy is dedicating its 2009 conference to exploring "Paul as Liturgical Theologian."

Presentations will consider Paul's teachings on Christian worship and liturgy, and how the Church community's worship serves as matrix for his theology.

Keynote Speaker :
Fr. Robert Taft, S.J., Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome

Plenary Session Speakers:
Beverly Roberts Gaventa, Princeton Theological Seminary
"Faith comes by what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ."
Romans 10:17 (The Word in Worship)

Fr. Paul McPartlan, Catholic University of America
"The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?"
1 Corinthians 10:16 (One Body: Ecclesial and Sacramental)

Aurelie Hagstrom, Providence College
"To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good."
1 Corinthians 12: 7 (One Body: Gifts, Ministries, Responsibility)

Fr. John Behr, St. Vladimir's Orthodox Seminary
"As a plan for the fullness fo time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth."
Ephesians 1:10 (The Eschatological Dimension of Liturgy)

Click here for more info.

The Complete Works of the Bible: New Abriged One-Minute Version

Bible In A Minute - barats and bereta


Hat tip to Concord Pastor. Click the link for the lyrics.

Day of Reflection for RCIA Ministers - September 6, 2008

All catechumenate leaders and team members, priests, deacons,

and catechists are invited to a FREE diocesan day of reflection

Second Annual Day of
REFLECTION & INSPIRATION
“WORKERS IN THE VINEYARD OF THE LORD”

Saturday, September 6, 2008, 9:00am – 1:00pm
Santa Teresa Catholic Church

794 Calero Avenue, San Jose, 95123

Inspirational Speaker: Rev. Christopher Bennett

Reflection: Sr. Sharon Skain, SNDdeN

Hospitality and free Lunch provided

9:00am - Check in and Gathering

9:30am - Welcome and Prayer

9:45am - Scripture, Reflection, Questions, Speaker

12:30pm - Closing Prayer and free Lunch

Please RSVP by Tuesday, September 2, 2008, to Sue Marrion

sue@marrion.com or 650-694-7479

Please join the diocesan Catechumenate Committee as we prepare and look forward to another fruitful harvest, laboring in the joys of God’s vineyards. Each of us, as masters and workers, needs to nourish ourselves at this time of year. We expectantly look forward to a full harvest from our catechists and catechumens, knowing that each year, the vines we plant with love and care, require us to guide and nurture them so we are rewarded with an abundant fruitful harvest.

“No wine is better than the fruit used to make it.”

As part of the diocesan Liturgical Commission, the Catechumenate Committee's role is to assist parishes in the formation and implementation of an effective RCIA process through offering assistance, support, and the knowledge of an experienced team, some of whom have experienced this process themselves. Let the diocesan Catechumenate Committee help answer your questions and concerns, for example:

• “How can I help my team grow spiritually and confidently?”
• “What is my Faith calling me to do?”
• “How can we encourage others to join us in the fields?”

Choral Festival and Mass - November 15

Pueri Cantores, the national student choral organization of the Catholic Church, invites your parish or school treble choir to participate in a Choral Festival and Mass for singers ages 8-18.

Below is a link to the Pueri Cantores San Francisco Youth Choir Festival emailer, which details our upcoming festival at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco, Saturday, November 15, 2008.

CHORAL FESTIVAL
Archdiocese of San Francisco
Dioceses of Fresno, Sacramento,
Monterey, Oakland, San Jose,
Santa Rosa, Stockton and Reno

Click here to view more information.

Bringing Voice to Faith - September 6

Want a Voice in this Church you love?

Want to learn about...
Creating collaborative, effective, Parish Councils?
Celebrating the gifts of women?
Insuring intelligent and intelligible homilies?

Join us in this exciting follow-up

to last year’s lay-convened conference

Bringing

Voice to Faith

The Second Annual
Northern California Lay Convocation

Saturday, September 6, 2008

9:00am to 3:45pm
University of San Francisco

FREE PARKING for the first 300 registrants

For more info, visit http://www.norcallayconvocation.org/

A Concert / Retreat with Tony Alonso!

St Simon Parish invites you to...

A Concert/Retreat with Tony Alonso!

October 3, 2008

7:00pm Concert

October 4, 2008

9:00am-12:00pm Retreat

(followed by luncheon)

Click below for a map to St. Simon

1860 Grant Rd Los Altos, CA by MapQuest

All Parishes, all ages welcome.

Free Admission

Please click here for a flyer.

For information please contact

Amy Stacke: astacke@stsimon.org

or

Suzanne Fitzgerald: Litmusic@aol.com

Tony Alonso is one of the most prominent voices in contemporary liturgical music today. He is the author of several books, music collections and CDs, and has presented in many conferences and events throughout the US & Europe. In addition to his passion for sung prayer, Tony has a deep interest in engaging young people in the life & liturgy of the church. He currently serves as Director of Music for the Campus Ministry Team in Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles.

What is "real catechesis"?

Every so often, Pope Benedict XVI does a Q&A session with locals. His latest was at the Cathedral in Bressanone, Italy, with the clergy of that diocese. One priest asked the Pope what to do with people who ask for a sacrament but whose faith is superficial.

Here's the Pope's translated response, courtesy of Whispers:

Well, I can’t give an infallible answer right now, I can only try to respond based on what I see. I have to say that I’ve followed a path similar to yours. When I was young I was rather more severe. I said: the sacraments are the sacraments of the faith, and when the faith isn’t there, where there’s not practice of the faith, the sacraments can’t be conferred. When I was Archbishop of Munich I always discussed this with my pastors, and there too there were too factions, one severe and one more generous. I too in the course of time have realized that we have to follow instead the example of the Lord, who was very open also with the people who were at the margins of Israel at that time. He was a Lord of mercy, too open – according to many of the official authorities – with sinners, welcoming them or allowing himself to be welcomed by them at their dinners, drawing them to himself in his communion.

Thus I would say in essence that the sacraments are naturally sacraments of the faith. Where there is no element of faith, where First Communion would just be a party with a big lunch, nice clothes and nice gifts, then it can’t be a sacrament of the faith. But, on the other hand, if we can see even a tiny flame of desire for communion in the church, a desire also from these children who want to enter into communion with Jesus, it seems right to me to be rather generous. Naturally, for sure, it must be part of our catechesis to make clear that Communion, First Communion, is not automatic, but it demands a continuity of friendship with Jesus, a path with Jesus. I know that children often have the intention and desire to go to Sunday Mass, but their parents don’t make it possible. If we see that the children want it, that they have the desire to go, it seems to me almost a sacrament of desire, the ‘vow’ of participation at Sunday Mass. In this sense we naturally should do everything possible in the context of sacramental preparation to also reach the parents and – let’s say – also awaken in them a sensibility for the path that their children are taking. They should help their children to follow their own desire to enter into friendship with Jesus, which is the form of life, of the future. If the parents have the desire that their children should make the First Communion, this somewhat social desire should be expanded into a religious desire to make possible a journey with Jesus.

I would say, therefore, that in the context of catechism with children, the work with parents is always very important. It’s an occasion for meeting the parents, making the life of faith present also to the adults, so that they themselves can learn anew from the children – it seems to me – and to understand that this great solemnity makes sense only, and it’s true and authentic only if, it’s realized in the context of a journey with Jesus, in the context of a life of faith. The challenge is to convince the parents a bit, through the children, of the necessity of a preparatory path, which reveals itself in participation in the mysteries and begins to foster love for those mysteries.

This is a fairly insufficient response, I would say, but the pedagogy of the faith is always a journey, and we have to accept today’s situation, but we also have to open it up little by little, so that it’s not directed at the sole aim of some exterior memory of things, but so that the heart is truly touched. In the moment in which we become convinced, the heart is touched, it’s felt a bit of the love of Jesus, and it’s experienced a bit of desire to move in this direction. In that moment, it seems to me, we can say that we’ve accomplished a real catechesis. The true sense of catechesis, in fact, should be this: to carry the flame of the love of Jesus, even if it’s small, to the hearts of children, and through the children to their parents, thereby opening anew the places of the faith in our time.

An Empty-Nester's Prayer

This prayer by Diana Macalintal first appeared in Today's Parish Minister, 40:4, April/May 2008.

A Parent’s Prayer When Children are Leaving Home

Gracious God,
you blessed me
with the gift of my child
and entrusted me
with his/her care.
Now he/she leaves this home
and begins a new life
apart from me.
Surround him/her
with good people
and watch over him/her each day.
And let him/her know that I will always be near
whenever he/she may need me.
Heal any hurts we may harbor with one another
and forgive our failings as we learn
to be in a new kind of relationship with each other.
And when the sight of his/her empty room
pierces my heart with sadness,
may I find comfort in knowing that my child is your child too,
filled with your grace and sheltered by your love. Amen.