July 12: Feast of St. Jason

The Feast of St. Jason.

http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=293

http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintj93.htm

yow.

Tomorrow's Readings: 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Cycle C, Year of Luke

1st Reading (Hebrew Scriptures)
Isaiah 66:10-14c
"as a mother comforts her child,
so I will comfort you"

2nd Reading (Epistle)
Galatians 6:14-18
A new sign of the covenant.

Gospel
Luke 10:1-12, 17-20
Sent two by two.

"The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few"

The Book of Courage by Matthew Kelly

The measure of your life
will be the measure of your courage.

-- Matthew Kelly --

Picked up this book at RE Congress and hopefully I'll make it part of a daily-read-one-quote-a-day thing. The book is a collection of about 200 quotes collected by Kelly in memory of those struggling with cancer.

I am wine, I am bread

Christ the Lord to us said:
I am wine, I am bread
I am wine, I am bread
Give to all who thirst and hunger.

all our hearts are filled with gladness

We Have Been Told

We have been told

we've seen His face

and heard His voice Alive in our hearts

I am the vine, you are the branches

no longer slaves, I call you friends

lay down one's life, for a friend

Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice

At today's Mass we had a speaker from the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice.

Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice Website
http://www.onlinecpi.org/programs_interfaith.html
(ICWJ)

"All religions believe in justice"

a call for human dignity and respect.

Definitions:

Interfaith efforts: Work and relations among all religions: Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.

Ecumenical efforts: Work and relations among Christians.

For whoever is not against us is for us. Mark 9:40

EASTER SUNDAY 2006

Friends, a blessed Easter to you all. Step into freedom. We are called to serve others & become the best we can be together. This is the purpose. Peace, j

Good Friday to Holy Saturday (Easter Vigil)

"It is accomplished"


The cross, the instrument of our salvation.

Holy Thursday to Good Friday

"If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do."

"Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me,.. ?"

"No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends."

"If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you"

FORGIVENESS..

Forgiveness is giving up hope for a better past.

day one of congress

Had 3 sessions today. Religious pluralism, morality and the law, and ecumenism in practice. Went to the nigerian liturgy. Ran into some old acquaintances.

We've Arrived (and to prove it we're here)

We had the opening ceremony with Cardinal Mahoney. Step into freedom. We arrived safely leaving at 6a. I'm waiting for the first period to start.

4:37 AM

Wooooooooooo, off to congress.

Workshops:
-How do we speak of God?
-Morality and the law
-Ecumenism in Practice
-Young Adult Catholics
-Freeing from past hurts
-Homosexuality, Celibacy
-The changing face
-Latest Research: American

Lent 2006: Hosea 001

Come back to me, with all your heart
Don't let fear keep us apart
Trees do bend, though straight and tall
so must we to others' call

Long have a I waited for your coming
home to me and living deeply our new life

The wilderness will lead you
to your heart where I will speak
Integrity and justice
With tenderness you shall know

Long have a I waited for your coming
home to me and living deeply our new life

You shall sleep secure with peace
faithfulness will be your joy

Long have a I waited for your coming
home to me and living deeply our new life

001 the first in an ongoing series

Lent 2006: 40 Days(?)

So there's been some confusion over which 40 days are we counting here in Lent.

Lent is the forty day period before Easter, excluding Sundays, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Sunday). [This traditional ennumeration does not precisely coincide with the calendar according to the liturgical reform. In order to give special prominence to the Sacred Triduum (Mass of the Lord's Supper, Good Friday, Easter Vigil) the current calendar counts Lent as only from Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday, up to the Mass of the Lord's Supper. Even so, Lenten practices are properly maintained up to the Easter Vigil, excluding Sundays, as before.] http://ewtn.com/faith/lent/ash_F17.htm

So we start counting at Ash Wednesday, exclude Sundays, and count until Holy Saturday (the day before Easter) but the calendar says count only till Holy Thursday.

Math time!
Ash Wednesday Week: 4 Days
1st week of Lent: 6 Days
2nd week of Lent: 6 Days
3rd week of Lent: 6 Days
4th week of Lent: 6 Days
5th week of Lent: 6 Days
Holy Week: 6 Days (or only 3, if you don't count Holy Thursday onward)

Without Sundays, counting till Holy Saturday: 40 Days
Without Sundays, counting until Holy Thursday: 37 Days
Total Days in the Season Lent, counting Sundays: 46

So it does work out, 40 days in Lent till Easter.

Could've been one of those "spirit of the law vs letter of the law" issues :).

It was on a Sunday Morning.

Good Mornin' Sunday Morning

Guess I'll take this random opportunity to list some books that I've been trying to read for the past so many years, some up to six years, aye. That's the kind of thing that happens after being so busy in college prep high school and a university.

In Progress:

• Love and Responsibility by Karol Wojtyla (read a little last night --lol not really a light subject, temper temper)
• The Robe [haven't touched in at least 5 years. What happened is that the test that I was supposed to get for it got cancelled, so even though I was making great progress on it every night (it's a bigger book, I took a challenge). For the record it was for a reading test, where you picked the book back in Sophomore English class --about 6 years ago now. --just a little scary]
• The Last Temptation of Christ (A book given to me by Santiago. I've been trying to read the whole of this book for four years now. Each time I get hindered by something. It's a controversial book and film, that I'll have to get into later but it attempts to deal with the dual substance, fully human, fully divine.)

One that I finished:

• Letters to a Young Catholic by George Weigel (I finished this book in the midst of the chaos cause it was so inspiring and uplifting. He really dug into the "stuff" of the faith and its great relevance in struggles as a whole today. Neil got me this one)

Lent 2006: Just a little bit

Today's Lenten reflection revealed the origin of what we said on Ash Wednesday:

"Repent, and believe in the gospel," Jesus told the crowds (Mark 1:15).

Lent 2006: Turn Away & Follow

At yesterday's Ash Wednesday Mass we said

Turn away from sin and follow the Gospel

as we gave ashes. This was the easiest to remember since it was made more action oriented by Fr. Dom, haha. (You can remember it through body language, you "turn away" then "follow")

People like to ask, "what are you giving up for Lent?"
Today's reflection answers that [http://ewtn.com/faith/lent/F18.htm]
Give up discouragement. . . . .be full of hope.
Give up bitterness. . . . . . . . . . turn to forgiveness.
Give up hatred. . . . . . . . . . . . . return good for evil.
Give up anger. . . . . . . . . . . . . .be more patient.
Give up giving up. . . . . . . . . . . hang in there!

The wilderness will lead you
To your heart where I will speak.
Integrity and justice with tenderness you shall know.

Lent 2006: Ash Wednesday

Welcome to Lent!

The period of time between Ash Wednesday, today, until Holy Thursday. 40 days, not counting Sundays.

Today is a day of fast and abstinence. So we abstain from meat and fast.
http://ewtn.com/faith/lent/fast.htm
This link goes into all the detail on fasting and abstinence.

The trick is that through Lent you can recenter yourself spiritually and physically. You can take on more to make time for God and prayer. Fasting and abstience can help remind us of our own mortality, to remind us of eternal God, and our humility required to be of service to one another in this life. Lent is a time for contemplation, prayer, almsgiving, and reconciliation. We are preparing to celebrate the Easter Season, the most important season of Christianity. Where the bonds of mortality and death are broken through Christ.

Pope Benedict XVI, in quoting his predecessors, says in his message for Lent that we are called to “increased esteem for the dignity of others, the turning towards the spirit of poverty, cooperation for the common good, the will and desire for peace”, but also “the acknowledgement by man of supreme values, and of God, their source and their finality” (Pope Paul VI).
http://ewtn.com/faith/lent/message2006.htm
Again, a call of unselfishness an ongoing theme here and a call for respect of the dignity of human life.

So today, Ash Wednesday, begin your journey through Lent.

Come back to me, with all your heart
don't let fear, keep us apart
trees do bend, through straight and tall
so must we to other's call.

Daily Lenten Reflections

http://ewtn.com/faith/lent/index.htm

Here's the link to the daily Lenten Reflections.

Enjoy.

Lent in 2 days..

Reconciling Evolution and Creationism: Short version

So last night we all went to the Burke Lecture on "Evolution and Divine Providence: Are They Compatible?"

The key (again) seems to be a harmonious co-existence and melding of the concepts. The trouble always seems to be a certain extremism for either side. As a Catholic, I've never felt that if I purported one, then I would have to deny the other. That's where all this trouble began, people think they only have one slot for one explanation.

The lecturer was John F. Haught, 'a distinguished research professor from the Department of Theology, Georgetown University.' He divided the explanations for universe into three layers. First, there's the scientific -Darwinist (not necessarily materialist) explanation. Second, there is the creationist/divine providence explanation. Science tells us that the universe is 13.7 billion years old. The image Haught used was that if you divide these years into 30 volumes of books humans are on the last page of the 30th volume. Deep time/divine patience can be put together.
The third is that these two thought processes are reconciled in divine patience, God's wish to foster a world in His own image, yet separate from his infinite nature (in the sense that the world is finite, and God is infinite). Our evolution is our attempt to reconcile our finite universe with the infinite universe of God.

A scientific explanation of life does not remove the value, lesson, and truth of the fall of Adam or the redemption by Christ Jesus. Sin, including the original sin, is the going against the grain of evolution. Evolution is love. People like to say that we should separate ourselves, and that way we will grow, which is wrong. We need to love together and build community and evolve. It's the humility of God to become incarnate and serve, sacrifice, and become the lowest of the low. It's just silly to "cage" God into "He can only do this, or He only belongs here, or there." We can't even fully take in the concept of the trinity. So it's arrogance to think we can out think God and that "the buck stops here" with us.

So with this, 4 things are established. We still have the scientific explanation, the divine explanation, a respect for the infinite, and a purposeful life ahead for us.

*subject to expansion/addition, gathering more notes --attempting to sum it up like this probably isn't going to do it justice [2/26 edit]

Lent in less than a week

Just a heads up that the season of Lent begins Wednesday, March 1st, Ash Wednesday. A day of fast and abstinence and to go get your ashes. "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust."

During Lent, the 40 days leading up to the most important Christian/Catholic Holiday (Holy Day), Easter Sunday, Catholics all over the world prepare themselves for the great celebration of Easter. [Abstaining from meats on Fridays, fasting and abstinence on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday]

When the time comes I'll post a link that EWTN has hosted over the past few years which features a daily Lenten reflection.

This is the time to get in touch with your faith and see what really matters and remember the essentials to basic human needs, the needs of the world community. With the great freedom and prosperity of life in the United States comes a call for us to answer, the responsibility and obligation to fight injustice and respond to the need to respect the dignity of all human life.

Lent is a time for reconciliation, almsgiving (charity), fasting/abstinence, and prayer/contemplation. It's basically a call to humility, that there is more beyond us and what we can "see" in this life and that we are in this life to serve one another.