Young catholic blogger looking for some publicity

Sean Gough, 21, Catholic, and discerning his vocation. Share in some thought's on faith and other things here...

Making Things Happen at KI Sawyer, MI

Our Lady Help of Christians is an outreach of our parish here at St Anthony's, Gwinn. The Sisters of St Paul de Chartres have embraced it as one of their particular apostolates.

I expect that not many people will imagine that there can be poverty and deprivation in this remote and beautiful part of the Upper Peninsula.

Necessary funding was granted by Catholic Extension and their representatives made a fact-finding visit recently. Read their report about it at the Catholic Extension Blog.

Archbishop Vigneron leads the faithful of Detroit on pro-life vigil

Diane at Te Deum Laudamus reports on a massive turnout of faithful on a pro-life vigil led by Archbishop Vigneron. A pastor leads, the sheep follow.

Father Rutler on Nine Eleven

Father George Rutler, Pastor of the Church of Our Saviour on Park Avenue, New York City, writes a weekly "Pastor's Corner". In today's edition he says:

Christian civilization is again under attack, and little resistance is shown by a society of indolence, promiscuity, infanticide, eugenics, extravagant debt, crime, collapsed family life, and marriage so surrealistically redefined by Gnostics that 44% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 think that matrimony is becoming obsolete.

It is currently here but will probably be moved to an archive which isn't regularly updated. So I reproduce it here in full:

FROM THE PASTOR

September 11, 2011

by Fr. George W. Rutler

Providential symmetry sets the plaintive anniversary of September 11, 2001, on a Sunday, which is always a celebration of the Resurrection. By rare indult, Holy Mass on this day replaces the ordinary liturgical Propers with suffrages for the dead. We live as mourners, never forgetting the wanton rampage of evil on that Tuesday whose late summer brilliance was so affronted by the moral darkness of those who blackened the bluest sky.

These days pick up the pace from the pleasant torpor of summer, and on this particular day ten years later, we also move on into a new decade to engage a cultural war against the moral offences which have afflicted our time. The Second World War was won by people who knew the difference between good and evil. Things have changed, and there is a lot of ambiguity now about what constitutes integrity and truth itself. Many take the shortcut of denying that we are in a war at all. It was the mistake made by decadents in the 1930’s, like the “Cliveden Set,” who underestimated the pulsating hatred on the pages of “Mein Kampf.” Christian civilization is again under attack, and little resistance is shown by a society of indolence, promiscuity, infanticide, eugenics, extravagant debt, crime, collapsed family life, and marriage so surrealistically redefined by Gnostics that 44% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 think that matrimony is becoming obsolete. The battle of good against evil will not be won by a culture of narcissists led by leaders chosen because they make people feel good instead of being good.

Christians do not confuse optimism and hope. They do not optimistically think that “wishing will make it so.” They hopefully trust in God, who “made us to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in heaven.” So today we sing a grand hymn by Cecil Spring-Rice, “I Vow to Thee, My Country.” He wrote the first version as a diplomat in Stockholm in 1908. At the end of his career as British ambassador to Washington in 1918, Spring-Rice altered its bluster after the traumatic carnage of the First World War. It is set to the magnificent melody of Gustav Holst from the “Jupiter” section of The Planets, which sustains even the lame poesie of more recent alternative lyrics preferred by insensitive taste. Spring-Rice gave the strong chords for the moment, paraphrasing in cadence Proverbs 3:17:

And there’s another country, I’ve heard of long ago,
Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know;
We may not count her armies, we may not see her King;
Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering;
And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,
And her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace.

New Missal Translation "can help us, even more than before, lift up our hearts and minds to God"

Another excellent pastoral letter, this time from the newly consecrated Bishop of Aberdeen, the Right Reverend Hugh Gilbert OSB.

Father Tim Finigan highlighted the following excerpt from the letter:

‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.’ In Christ, the Son of God takes on everything human, except sin, and transforms it. And in the Liturgy this mystery of the Incarnation – the Word becoming flesh – lives on among us. Everything speaks of it. When we gather to worship we come together in a building – not usually in any building, though, but in a church, a building dedicated for worship. The ministers who lead our prayer don’t wear just ordinary clothes, but vestments. We stand, sit or kneel, but each of these postures now has a special meaning. We come together to listen to readings – not any readings though, but words inspired by the Holy Spirit, words that are now the word of God. We gather round a table – but not any table, rather a holy table, an altar. We eat and drink – but not any food or drink, rather bread and wine which have become that holiest of things, the Body and Blood of the Lord, his very Self. In the Liturgy, ordinary things are taken up by Christ and the Church and become vehicles of something greater than themselves. And so it is too with the words, the language, we use in prayer. Christianity has always, to some extent, created its own language. It took the words of ancient Israel or the Greco-Roman world and filled them with a new meaning. And so, in the Liturgy, we use words that carry the resonances of a long tradition, words that express our faith, and are rich with many centuries of experience of the God who has spoken to us in Christ. The new translation of the Missal is very aware of this and tries to be loyal to it. And, once again, when these words are sung, they can lift our hearts even more.

The rest can be read at the diocesan website.

Pastoral Letter from Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury

Bishop Davies has written a splendid pastoral letter to be read in all churches and chapels of the Shrewsbury diocese on the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time. His themes: Friday Abstinence, the anniversary of Pope Benedict's visit to the UK, renewal of the celebration of the Eucharist.

On the Anniversary of Pope Benedict’s Apostolic Journey

to the United Kingdom

To be read in all churches and chapels of the Diocese

on

the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

11th September 2011

My dear brothers and sisters,

The extraordinary scenes as they unfolded on the streets of London and Birmingham would disturb public opinion, shock media commentators and prompt a statement from the Prime Minister. I write to you today not of the rioting which brought violence to so many cities this summer but of the visit of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict, twelve months ago. In cities where mobs momentarily brought fear, much greater crowds gave witness to their faith and joy with Pope Benedict. Today I wish to mark this happy anniversary of the Pope’s visit to our country and to draw inspiration from those days last September. Just as so many Catholics from many different backgrounds stood together in public witness with the Holy Father so this September in two small ways we are being called to stand together in that same witness of faith and unity.

From Friday this week, the Bishops of England and Wales have restored the practice of abstinence from meat every Friday. We are familiar with this act of penance on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday but now it is extended to every Friday other than Feast Days like Christmas Day.

For a number of years we have been asked to choose our own act of self-denial on Fridays to mark the day on which Our Lord gave His life for us. But we know this obligation has in practice been often forgotten. So abstinence from meat each Friday (and for those who do not eat meat, abstinence from some other food) will become a weekly reminder that we are a people called to penance and to conversion of life together. It will become a small but significant weekly witness to our Catholic life and identity. And so I wish us to embrace this in a positive way despite the practical difficulties we may encounter. The very fact this will be an act of penance shared by all Catholics will be a witness to our faith in the midst our working and family lives.

I am also conscious we have just begun to use the new translation of The Roman Missal which unites us in worship. At the heart of Pope Benedict’s visit to our country was always the Holy Eucharist celebrated with great dignity and adored with love and reverence. The Holy Father asked that the introduction of this revised English translation would be something more than simply a change of wording: “I encourage you now to seize the opportunity that the new translation offers,” he asked, “for in-depth catechesis on the Eucharist and renewed devotion in the manner of its celebration.” As we become more familiar with this fresh translation, I hope it will enrich our prayer and understanding, help us to recognise more clearly in the Liturgy the words and images of Scripture and, by the beauty and richness of its language, express our wonder at the mystery and reality of the Mass. I hope we will always go beyond the translated words to the reality they express at the heart of the Mass: Jesus Christ, His Sacrifice and His Real Presence with us as we come together with all the Church.

We recall a year ago those extraordinary moments in London’s Hyde Park when more than 80,000 people knelt with the Pope in silent adoration of Christ, God and man who, “makes himself wholly and entirely present,” in the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist (CCC 1374). “Together,” Pope Benedict invited us, “in the silence of common adoration let us open our minds and hearts to his presence, his love, and the convincing power of his truth.” May the newly translated prayers of the Mass be such an invitation for us; and may the renewed practice of Friday penance become a weekly reminder of the people we are called by daily conversion to be. In all our homes, working lives and communities, by coming together each Sunday in the Mass, may we always give witness to the unity and joy of our faith seen so wonderfully during Pope Benedict’s visit to our country twelve months ago.

+ Mark

Bishop of Shrewsbury

Planned Parenthood manager coverts, facility closes.

From 40 Days for Life. Ramona's talk is about 8 minutes into the video.