Saturday, January 29, 2011




"Blest Are They" - MS Baptist All-State Youth Choir & Orchestra 2009

Fourth Sunday Ordinary Time





THE FIRST COMMANDMENT
I am the Lord your God, you shall not have other gods before me
Everyone has a center. What I mean by that is we all need and indeed have something inside of us which holds our lives together. This center is the prism through which we see the world. It is the background upon which our lives are painted It is our primary motivating force , the engine of our lives. We shall call this our “core center.”
This core center lives inside of a person with other ties. Family, work, friends all in some way are also centers. Decisions in life are made in reference to these auxiliary(my own term) centers. As a matter of fact for most people these are the pragmatic basis for most of our action. Still they are colored by how we perceive them. This is the core center.. If someone has money as the center he will relate to people simply as economic functions. If the desire for power or prestige is at the center he will deal with people as instruments to attain both what he wants and in the case of power as objects of this power. .
We all have to ask ourselves the basic question: what is my core center and how does this relate to the other “centers.” in my life?
In the First Commandment God reveals Himself as the one who wants to be the center. It seems to me that the First Commandment is both a statement of fact, I am the Lord your God, and an invitation. The invitation comes in my either accepting or not accepting this fact. It is God standing in front of us and saying:
“Look, I am your God whether you know it or not. I am your God even if you say
I do not exist. I am at the very center of your existence. You owe your being alive to me. I realize that everything I said may be difficult for you to understand. In the age in which you live reality is measurable. If it is not measurable, if we can not touch it or feel it is not real. Certainly everything I said about myself is not measurable. It is my reality, which really goes far beyond what can be seen.”
“Anyway” God continues “what I am doing with this First Commandment is to remind you of the relationship I have with you and to invite you to respond to it. You see if it is not me it will be something else which guides you. Money, power, prestige all have the potential of being “god” in your life. They promise all the things that only I can deliver on. They promise happiness, peace, fulfillment etc…They are the great dissemblers, promise one thing and give the opposite. That is why I put that part about not having strange gods before me. These things are always trying to dislodge me from your heart. I do not want you to live in a lie.
SOME QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
To say “I am a child of God” is rather simple. Do I live that way or are these other “gods” the light of my life?
Do I perceive people in the totality of who they are, someone whom God has called His own or do I stay simple on the “what I see” about that person level?
All creation belongs to God. We are its stewards. Do I respect the ecology as belonging to God?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Bishops Support Three Bills to Strengthen Protections for Life and Conscience
WASHINGTON (January 24, 2011)—Three bills currently in the U.S. House of Representatives would help ensure that adequate protections are in place for the consciences of taxpayers and health care providers and against federal funding of abortion. In three letters, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), urged House members to support the bills. The Protect Life Act, H.R. 358, Cardinal DiNardo wrote in a January 20 letter, would address flaws in the new health care reform law and bring it “into line with policies on abortion and conscience rights that have long prevailed in other federal health programs.” It would do so by preventing funds under the new law from subsidizing abortion or health care plans that cover abortion, protecting the consciences of health care providers who decline to participate in an abortion, and ensuring that the law doesn’t override state laws on abortion and conscience. The full text of Cardinal DiNardo’s letter on the Protect Life Act is at: http://www.usccb.org/healthcare/cardinal-dinardo-HR358-ltr.pdf In a second letter January 20, Cardinal DiNardo urged support for the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (ANDA), H.R. 361, which will codify into law the longstanding policy of the Hyde/Weldon amendment and give health care entities that do not provide abortions legal recourse when faced with government-sponsored discrimination. The Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services would be designated to investigate complaints. “Passage of ANDA is urgently needed to protect the civil rights of health professionals and other health care entities,” the cardinal wrote. “This bill reaffirms a basic principle: No health care entity should be forced by government to perform or participate in abortions.” Full text of the ANDA letter is at: www.usccb.org/conscienceprotection/cardinal-dinardo-HR361-ltr.pdf In a January 21 letter, Cardinal DiNardo also voiced his support for the bipartisan No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, H.R. 3, which would “write into permanent law a policy on which there has been strong popular and congressional agreement for over 35 years: The federal government should not use taxpayers’ money to support and promote elective abortion.” The cardinal wrote, “Even public officials who take a ‘pro-choice’ stand on abortion, and courts that have insisted on the validity of a constitutional ‘right’ to abortion, have agreed that the government can validly use its funding power to encourage childbirth over abortion.” Cardinal DiNardo noted that this agreement is so longstanding that, during the recent health care debate, many assumed it was already in place at all levels of the federal government, when in fact the Hyde amendment is only a rider to the annual Labor/HHS appropriations bill and only governs funds under that act. The cardinal noted, “The benefit of H.R. 3 is that it would prevent problems and confusions on abortion funding in future legislation. Federal health bills could be debated in terms of their ability to promote the goal of universal health care, instead

Thursday, January 20, 2011

THIS WEEK

THE SERIES ON THE COMMANDMENTS....EACH SEGMENT WILL BE POSTED FOR TWO WEEKS. THIS GIVES PEOPLE AN OPPORTUNITY TO EITHER REVIEW OR TO READ FOR THE FIRST TIME. i DO HOPE YOU WILL FIND THEM HELPFUL.



ONCE AGAIN, THE ADDRESS FOR THE DAILY REFLECTIONS IS:http://www.usccb.org/video/reflections.shtml


Celtic Woman - Amazing Grace

Third Sunday of the Year

IRISH-LETTER Jan-19-2011 (470 words) xxxi
Vatican did not tell bishops to cover up abuse cases, spokesman says
Father Lombardi (CNS file)
By Cindy WoodenCatholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Vatican official downplayed a 1997 Vatican letter to Irish bishops about handling cases of clerical sex abuse, saying the letter did not tell bishops to keep the cases secret from the police.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said the letter aimed at ensuring the bishops fully followed church law for dealing with accusations in order to avoid a situation in which an abusive priest could return to ministry on the technicality of his bishop mishandling the process.
The letter, brought to public attention Jan. 17 by Ireland's RTE television and published by the Associated Press, was written by Archbishop Luciano Storero, then-nuncio to Ireland. The letter summarized the concerns of the Congregation for Clergy regarding proposed Irish norms for dealing with the sex abuse crisis.
Archbishop Storero said that according to the congregation, "the situation of 'mandatory reporting' gives rise to serious reservations of both a moral and a canonical nature."
Father Lombardi said, "One must note that the letter in no way says that the country's laws must not be followed."
He told Catholic News Service Jan. 19 that the Vatican "does not have a universal, specific position on mandatory reporting because the laws and situations are so different from country to country."
However, he said, the Vatican has made it clear to bishops that in their policies for dealing with abuse accusations and in concrete situations "they must respect the laws of their country," including when those laws require the church to report accusations to police or the courts.
Some news reports and some groups of sex abuse victims have pointed to the 1997 letter as evidence that the Vatican directly orchestrated the response of bishops' conferences to the sex abuse crisis and that even in the late 1990s, not everyone at the Vatican was convinced that abusers should be turned over to the police.
Father Lombardi objected to the letter being presented as some kind of "proof" that the Vatican wanted to cover up cases of abuse.
Instead, he said, the letter demonstrates the seriousness with which the Vatican was taking the need to formulate and adopt comprehensive norms that could respond to the crisis, which already was affecting several English-speaking countries.
"The letter rightly insists on the fact that it is important that canon law be respected always, precisely to avoid giving the guilty well-founded reasons for an appeal, therefore obtaining a result contrary to that desired," Father Lombardi said.
The Jesuit also said people have to realize that the letter was written before 2001 when Pope John Paul II issued new norms for dealing with abuse allegations and made the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith -- headed by the future Pope Benedict XVI -- responsible for overseeing handling of the cases.
END
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Copyright (c) 2011 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

INTRODUCTION TO THE COMMANDMENTS
We all learned the Commandments. Reciting them by heart was one of the signs that we had studied. For the most part we learned them when we were children. The relevancy of the Commandments was geared to that age. A whole string of “don’ts” was attached to each one. These “don’ts” served us well if for no other reason than they kept us out of trouble.
Unfortunately, many of us, myself included, kept these wonderful gifts from God embedded into that age. We grew. The world changed and we changed. In spite of all these changes many continued to use the guidelines we learned as children . It occurred to me that these wonderful words from God were becoming old. Old in the sense that they seemed distant from the world in which I lived. This had to be corrected. A re-visiting had to take place to place them inside the ambience of my life.
I know what God said the question that came to me was: what is God saying to me now? For example, the very first Commandment: I am the Lord your God you shall not have other god before me was a statement of warning to the Hebrews. They were going into a country with other gods and they had to be careful not to replace God with gods. How does God speak that Commandment to me now? What are the foreign lands, the other gods, which draw me away from Him?
Our God is a God who is much more interested in what I do than in what I do not do. When I die it is going to be the things that I should have done and did not do rather than hiding behind the cloud of “well I did not do what you told me not to do.” , “you shall not kill” has to mean more than not taking someone’s life. To leave it simply there would imply that God does not very high expectations of me….that I simply refuse to believe.
The Commandments are God’s gift to us. As any gift they should be treasured as a sign of love, they should be used and finally they should be the well spring of thankfulness
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
What is your basic attitude toward the Commandments?
Do they have a sense of challenge, excitement in them or are they humdrum?
When was the last time you thought about them in reference to your life now?

Friday, January 14, 2011

Christ be our light.m4v

Second Sunday of the Year



This week

This week we are starting a series on the Ten Commandments.What I am going to attempt is to bring the Commandments into the culture in which we live. Quite obviously these reflections will not exhaust the possibilities. Hopefully, they will be a starting point for your own reflections. Just scroll down.

In re. to the link for the daily reflections please delete one of the "/"s. There is only supposed to be two. This, as strange as it sounds, accounts for why many of you could not get to the talks...sorry.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

INTRODUCTION TO THE COMMANDMENTS


We all learned the Commandments. Reciting them by heart was one of the signs that we had studied. For the most part we learned them when we were children. The relevancy of the Commandments was geared to that age. A whole string of “don’ts” was attached to each one. These “don’ts” served us well if for no other reason than they kept us out of trouble.
Unfortunately, many of us, myself included, kept these wonderful gifts from God embedded into that age. We grew. The world changed and we changed. In spite of all these changes many continued to use the guidelines we learned as children . It occurred to me that these wonderful words from God were becoming old. Old in the sense that they seemed distant from the world in which I lived. This had to be corrected. A re-visiting had to take place to place them inside the ambience of my life.
I know what God said the question that came to me was: what is God saying to me now? For example, the very first Commandment: I am the Lord your God you shall not have other god before me was a statement of warning to the Hebrews. They were going into a country with other gods and they had to be careful not to replace God with gods. How does God speak that Commandment to me now? What are the foreign lands, the other gods, which draw me away from Him?
Our God is a God who is much more interested in what I do than in what I do not do. When I die it is going to be the things that I should have done and did not do rather than hiding behind the cloud of “well I did not do what you told me not to do.” , “you shall not kill” has to mean more than not taking someone’s life. To leave it simply there would imply that God does not very high expectations of me….that I simply refuse to believe.
The Commandments are God’s gift to us. As any gift they should be treasured as a sign of love, they should be used and finally they should be the well spring of thankfulness


QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
What is your basic attitude toward the Commandments?
Do they have a sense of challenge, excitement in them or are they humdrum?
When was the last time you thought about them in reference to your life now?

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Friday, January 7, 2011

The Baptism of the Lord

HAPPY FEAST OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD
THIS WEEK

The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord ends the Christmas cycle. Christmas is such an important celebration that one day (Dec.25) does not fully explain it. Therefore through the liturgy the Church delves deeper into the greatest event in history...God becoming one of us.
I have put the Great Doxology on the blog this week. this magnificent prayer comes from the Eastern Church. It is song on special days. The feast of the Baptism of the Lord is one of them. Great celebration..

NEXT WEEK...beginning next week there will be a series of reflections on the Ten Commandments. I found myself using them the same way I did years ago. Things have changed so a little revisiting was necessary to keep them alive. After all they are a gift from God. These reflections will be the form of a conversation with God. We have all seen the poster: What would Jesus do? These reflection ask the question: What would God say if He was giving the Commandments today? Next week's reflection will be a simple introduction to the Commandments.


For your daily reflections go to: http://www.usccb.org/video/reflections.shtml. Please put this on your favorites,

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

The Great Doxology

The Great Doxology is an ancient hymn of praise to the Trinity which is chanted or read daily in the Eastern Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Churches.

Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace, good will among men.
We praise Thee, we bless Thee,
we worship Thee, we glorify Thee,
we give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory.
O Lord, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty;
O Lord, the Only-Begotten Son, Jesus Christ; and O Holy Spirit.
O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,
that takest away the sin of the world, have mercy on us;
Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer;
Thou that sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us.
For Thou only art holy,
Thou only art the Lord, O Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.
Every day will I bless Thee and I will praise Thy name forever, yea forever and ever.
Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin.
Blessed art Thou, O Lord, the God of our fathers,
and praised and glorified is Thy name unto the ages. Amen.
Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us according as we have hoped in Thee.
Blessed art Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes.
Blessed art Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes.
Blessed art Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes.
Lord, Thou hast been our refuge in generation and generation.
I said: O Lord, have mercy on me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee.
O Lord, unto Thee have I fled for refuge, teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God;
For in Thee is the fountain of life, in Thy light shall we see light.
O continue Thy mercy unto them that know Thee.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.
The hymn is based on Luke 2:14 in which the angelic host appears to the shepherds and announces to them the Nativity of Christ. The hymn also incorporates verses from Psalm 145:2 and Psalm 119:12. The hymn is one of the most famous liturgical exclamations of praise (doxology) in the history of the Christian Church.

The Great Doxology comes from an ancient Greek hymn dating from at least the 3rd century, and perhaps even the 1st century. A very similar form is found in the Codex Alexandrinus (5th century) and in Pseudo-Athanasius (sometime prior to the 4th century). The hymn has been extended further than these earlier examples (and what could be interpreted as allusions to subordinationism have been corrected).

The Great Doxology has some similarities to Polycarp's final prayer before his martyrdom, as it is recorded by Eusebius. "I praise Thee for all, I bless Thee, I glorify Thee..." Polycarp is said to have been martyred 156-167 A.D.

As currently used, the hymn is found in several different forms: