Conversion of Saint Paul


Conv of St Paul.jpgI planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the increase, Alleluia.

O thou great Doctor, Paul, we here beseech of thee Lead thou our spirits up to heavenly mystery,

Till ends the partial knowledge that to us is given, While here below, and we receive the fuller light in heaven.

May everlasting honor, power and glory be, And jubilation, to the Holy Trinity, The One God, ever ruling all things mightily, Throughout all endless ages of eternity. Amen.

O God, Who has taught the whole world by the preaching of the blessed Paul the Apostle; we beseech Thee, that we, who this day celebrate his conversion, may by his example advance unto Thee.

On this day 50 years ago (1959), Blessed Pope John XXIII, at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls, announced the Second Vatican Council.

What’s happening in Gaza today? The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem gives a perspective


FTwal.jpgTrue to itself and its focus on what Eastern Christians have to say, Oasis asked His Beatitude, Archbishop Fouad Twal, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, for his opinion about what is happening in Gaza right now. Oasis met him at this home, in Jerusalem, a few days after the start of Israel’s ‘Cast Lead’ operation. Archbishop Twal’s words show a man clearly affected by the situation, concerned that things might be going backward with disastrous consequences for the whole region.

Your Beatitude, what are your thoughts about the latest developments?

In our Christmas message we had given voice to hope for peace in the Holy Land. Things seemed close at hand. More and more private meetings were taking place; pilgrims were coming in greater numbers; the economic situation in the Territories was getting better. Now, things are back where they were years ago. Military solutions are never good; violence begets violence. There is a clear imbalance between the parties. There have been too many innocent victims who have nothing to do with Hamas: women, children, families who had a right to lead a normal life, free. Gaza is under siege by land, sea and air. The city has been turned into an open air prison. Objectively such conditions cannot favour peace and reconciliation. In any case it certainly will not boost hope that violence will stop one day. On the contrary!

Doesn’t Israel have a right to defend itself?

Of course! Everyone has the right to self-defence. Israel has won every war in defending itself, but has achieved neither peace, nor security. Counting only on the military option without offering people real alternatives is not a solution. Gaza’s siege does not date from yesterday. This applies to Palestinians as well because even the most extreme situation does not cancel one’s moral responsibilities vis-à-vis one’s actions. But this is true not only for Palestinians.

What is a way out then?

I’ll leave that to the politicians and the specialists. It’s obvious that diplomatic negotiations have not led to good results as far as violence in Gaza is concerned. And yet we can also see that awareness about solving this problem has increased at the international level. There are three or four good initiatives underway. The world seems to be doing more to solve the problems of the Middle East. Hope never dies, even if it is already very late. The only way out is political. But if there is no good will by the parties involved, all we’ll ever get are empty words, promises and meetings without any results.

What should Christians in the Holy Land and around the world do about events in Gaza?

First of all everyone must assume his or her responsibilities. Violence calls for our conversion. Our heart must convert, what we say must change, our outlook must change. Widespread mistrust does not help; it is very destructive.

Foad Twal2.jpegIs the visit by the Holy Father a good idea?

In Jerusalem we are grateful to the Pope for his constant attention and words. We are certain that a visit would help us a lot; the same is true for pilgrims who come to the Holy Land. They can help us remind the international community that joint action is always more courageous; they can exert pressure in favour of greater justice and peace for all. Pious words are not enough; we need acts of courage.

Courtesy of the Oasis International Studies and Research Centre

 

Saint Francis de Sales

Thumbnail image for St Francis de Sales.jpg

With the Church we pray:

O God, Who did will that blessed Francis, Thy Confessor and Bishop, should become all things unto all men for the salvation of their souls, mercifully grant that being filled with the sweetness of Thy love, we may, through the guidance of his counsels and the aid of his merits attain the aid the joys of everlasting life.

Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622) born in Thorens, Savoy, in France, was a brilliant student and lawyer. At an early age he was nominated Bishop of Geneva and later he vigorsly fought Calvinism. Together with Saint Jane Frances de Chantal he founded the Order of the Visitation. A classic book on the spiritual life is de Sales’ Introduction to the Devout Life. He died in Lyons and was canonized in 1665. In 1877, Pope Blessed Pius IX proclaimed him Doctor of the Church. Pius XI declared him patron of journalists and other writers.

New Patriarch for the Syrian Catholics: +Joseph Younan

Joseph Younan.jpgYesterday, Bishop Joseph Younan, 65, eparch of the New Jersey centered Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance (in the USA & Canada) was elected Patriarch of Antioch of the Syrians today. His Beatitude, Ignace Joseph III Younan succeeds His Beatitude Mar Ignace Pierre Abdel-Ahad and a temporary administration of the patriarchate.

Pope Benedict accepted a request for full ecclesiastical communion with the new patriarch (according to the Eastern Code of Canon Law), here is the letter of concession. The granted the request of communion “willingly, thus performing a part of the Petrine ministry which gives me particular pleasure. Communion with the Bishop of Rome, Peter’s Successor, established by the Lord as the visible foundation of unity in faith and charity, guarantees the bond with Christ the Pastor and introduces the particular Churches into the mystery of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church”.

Pope Benedict XVIs address (in French) to the new patriarch and the bishops of the synod.

In brief, the Pope said: “My hope is that in the East, where the Gospel was first announced, Christian communities may continue to live and bear witness to their faith, as they have over the centuries. At the same time I hope that all those outside their homeland may receive adequate pastoral care so as to maintain the bond with their religious roots”. The Pope then voiced his hope that the Eastern Churches, “wherever they may be, are able to integrate themselves into their new social and ecclesial surroundings without losing their own identity and conserving the imprint of their Eastern spirituality, so that, using the words East and West, the Church may speak effectively of Christ to modern mankind”. 

The bishops of the Syrian Catholic Church have been meeting in synod in Rome since the 18th.

More info about the new patriarch and the Syrian Catholic Church can be had at a H2O News video segment, a 2008 CNEWA article and in a Wiki article.

May Mary, Mother of God intercede for the new patriarch and the Syrian Catholic Church before the Throne of Grace.

Protecting the unborn NOW

ProLife.jpgOur nation is at a critical point in the fight to protect the unborn. The latest proposed legislation, the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), calls for a significant increase in unlimited amount of abortions in this country. But FOCA goes far beyond that – it seeks to force hospitals and health care providers to violate their own consciences by requiring that abortions and abortion referrals be made available to clients seeking such services. This legislation seeks to eliminate the choice for those whose beliefs would preclude their participation in the acts of death which the proposed law would require.

The impact on the lives of those who practice medicine and those, such as the Catholic Church, who provide hospitals and health care facilities, would be profound. This is on top of the “rights” which the bill purports to protect that virtually eliminates any restrictions on abortion and removes parental rights of notice when abortions are performed for minors.

The Bishops of the United States have asked all Catholic organizations to support a campaign that will also be rolled out through parishes throughout the country – it is being called the National Pro-Life Postcard Campaign to Congress. Cardinal Justin Rigali referenced this campaign in his homily at the Pro-Life vigil on Wednesday at the National Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.

Every person who believes that abortion is wrong, that “Freedom of Choice” actually denies choice to those whose conscience would be violated by the legislation’s requirements, needs to take action. As the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have said, “FOCA goes far beyond the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion decision. No other piece of legislation would have such a destructive impact on society’s ability to limit or regulate abortion… The national postcard campaign will send a timely message to Congress that abortion advocates are out of step with mainstream America, and that their agenda should not become part of our nation’s laws in any way.”

Please link to the USCCB’s website by using the URL here – it will conveniently allow you to send electronic postcards to your Senators and your Congressional delegate, expressing your strong opinion in opposition to FOCA. As Edmund Burke is so often quoted, “All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.” Place your cursor on the URL and press Ctrl & click or paste the URL in your internet browser.

http://actions.nchla.org/Core.aspx?Screen=compose2&SessionID=$AID=970:SITEID=-1:VV_CULTURE=en-us:APP=GAC:ISSUEID=15856$

Malta cross.jpgWe cannot do nothing – this postcard campaign is not enough, but it is something – a small but important step to insure that the voices of those who support the pro-life movement are heard, loud and clear. Please take the few moments required to send the electronic postcards.

AND we have to be even more vigilant in a variety of areas legislation which threatens the unborn and the conscience, e.g., foreign policy.

Turkey Threatens Christian Monastery

The rights of Christians in Muslim countries is always threatened. A Reuters story sheds some light on the problems that the Mor Gabriel monastery in Midyat, Turkey faces right now. The monastery of Syriac Christian monks has been present on this site for 1600 years and now faces a reduction if not factual extinction. Can you imagine the extinction of a monastery built in A.D. 397 dedicated to the witness to Jesus Christ???

Is this one more reason to consider NOT admitting Turkey to the European Union??? Religious freedom is not a valued in Muslim countries and there are countless examples of this fact. Many will point to the fact that millions of dollars of land and other cultural artifacts have been stolen by the Turkish government over the years but the matter is not merely about the material wealth but about the existence of the Christian presence in the land of their birth. What has to be done is to convince the nations of Islamic rule that religious reciprocity is a value and significant to the greater freedom of all people as well as a part of the cultural heritage of the respective countries. Now a minority Christians were once a majority in many of these Muslim countries.

This article is interesting because of the facts presented, particularly the facts that show how the Christians have diminished since the radical state secularization of the country.

Let us pray to Our Lady of Lourdes, February 11th, on whose feast day the court will determine the fate of the Mor Gabriel monastery.

Haight speech about Christ muzzled

The Church has judged that Jesuit Father Roger Haight’s writings are beyond the limits of orthodox theological reflection on the nature of Christ (Christology).

Either one is a Catholic theologian teaching orthodox theology or you don’t teach. The problem with Father Haight is that Church’s objectivity is reduced to school yard monitor and while he is an ordained Catholic priest, Haight very rarely celebrates the Mass. AND then there is his own admission that he considers himself not a Catholic theologian but a Christian theologian. I suppose that’s what you get when a Catholic priest destined to teach priesthood candidates is educated by the Baptists. The objectivity of the Faith means something: one, holy, catholic and apostolic for starters.

Once asked if he would revise his thinking/publications sentire cum Ecclesiae so that he could be missioned by the Jesuits to teach, Father Haight told two scores of Jesuit seminarians that he would not do so. I guess that is what is called by many Jesuits “loyal opposition to the Church.” Of course, if you understand the Church to be a sacrament founded by Christ then saying no to the Church is saying no to Christ. Does this remind you of a conversion story from the Acts of Apostles where the protagonist in the narrative hears said: “…why are you persecuting me?”

Sandro Magister’s article

The 2004 CDF notification on Jesus, Symbol of God

As Jesuit Father Gerald O’Collins once said: “I wouldn’t give my life for Roger Haight’s Jesus. It’s a triumph of relevance over orthodoxy.” Neither would I, would you?

A Newman anniversary and a new website

Newman.jpgOn this day in 1991, Pope John Paul the Great recognized John Henry Cardinal Newman was indeed a man who possessed heroic virtue. This recognition carried with it an ecclesial title of “Venerable Servant of God.” Henceforth, we say “Venerable Servant of God John Henry Newman.”

The process of determining whether Cardinal Newman is a saint continues along. To assist our understanding of the process of canonization and to have a better appreciation for the great work of Newman, a new website was recently launched. Visit the JHN website here.

 

Read John Henry Newman one step closer to sainthood

 

 The Prayer for John Henry Newman’s Beatification

God, our father, your servant John Henry Newman upheld the faith by his teaching and example. May his loyalty to Christ and the Church, his love for the Immaculate Mother of God, and his compassion for the perplexed give guidance to Christian people today. We beg you to grant the favors we ask through his intercession so that his holiness may be recognized by all and the Church may proclaim him a Saint. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

    Church, dogma and certainty
    There is but one rule of faith for all; and it would be a greater difficulty to allow of an uncertain rule of faith, than (if that was the alternative, as it is not), to impose upon uneducated minds a profession which they cannot understand. But it is not the necessary result of unity of profession, nor is it the fact, that the Church imposes dogmatic statements on the interior assent of those who cannot apprehend them. The difficulty is removed by the dogma of the Church’s infallibility, and of the consequent duty of “implicit faith” in her word. The “One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church” is an article of the Creed, and an article, which, inclusive of her infallibility, all men, high and low, can easily master and accept with a real and operative assent. It stands in the place of all abstruse propositions in a Catholic’s mind, for to believe in her word is virtually to believe in them all. Even what he cannot understand, at least he can believe to be true; and he believes it to be true because he believes in the Church.
    A Grammar of Assent, Garden City, NY: Doubleday Image, 1955 (orig. 1870), p. 129.

Beginnings, translations and God’s Plans

Rusty Reno tackles the question of where to begin when considering our life in God in his First Things essay, “In The Beginning.” Reno provokes me to ask a few questions. Where do we begin, when, why and for what purpose? What is our destiny, in other words? Where do our loyalties exist? Are we wedded too much to our ideas? That is, are we blinded to a particular theological lens and biblical interpretation that when truth is presented we pass it by because we are too comfortable in our belief system? If we are rigidly following what we think is right versus wrong will we ever advance in wisdom, grace and love? AND the problem is thus exposed: who’s wisdom, grace and love are living in? God’s or ours? What place does Torah and the Gospel have in our lives? Do we follow a political personality or Jesus, the Savior?