As we enter another campaign season, candidates and others are sharing their views on the role of government at the local, state, and national levels.
This year especially, the role government plays in society is a hot topic of discussion. In many races candidates are making it the defining issue.
On August 15, we celebrate the feast of the Assumption of Mary, body and soul, into heaven. Mary’s Assumption is God’s response to her committed discipleship, expressed through her motherhood of Jesus, and other graced ways that she did God’s will.
The feast of the Assumption is the oldest Marian feast in the liturgy. On November 1, 1950, in Munificentissimus Deus, Pope Pius XII declared Mary’s Assumption “to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”
Our sacred scriptural traditions convey the message that we humans were created by a loving Creator-God and assigned the mission to prosper, to steward all the resources of the planet, and to subdue, or cultivate the earth. And God has said he will provide food for our subsistence.
Bishop Giampaola Crepaldi, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has recently written, ” . . . People’s fundamental orientation toward the created world should be one of gratitude and thankfulness. The world, in fact, leads people back to the mystery of God who has created it and continues to sustain it. If God is forgotten, nature is emptied of its deepest meaning and left impoverished.”
I could get lost trying to find my way out of a paper bag, so I use a GPS for successful navigation. So long as I tell it where I want to be, it gets me there with step-by-step directions and even detours if I come up on obstacles like construction or closed roads.
I can view my whole route in advance, make changes should I stop along the way, or even change my destination mid trip! I don’t have to constantly monitor it — it updates as we go and keeps me informed of the right direction.
The ways in which we act out our Christian charity in the Church, for the love of God and neighbor, is evident in a number of ways throughout a given year.
Often it is through volunteering at our parishes or parish-related projects — things we feel attached to and with which we want to assist in a specific way. Other times it is through monetary donations to similar local campaigns, projects, or funds, benefiting things that we know, in faith, we need to support. Always, it includes our prayers!
|
| Andy and Mary Fabian |
This story begins in 1992, when one man married one woman the old-fashioned, non-destination way with eight bridesmaids, a wedding march, a dollar dance, and a DJ.
Cradle Catholic married Purely Protestant and the first issue up for debate was how to postpone pregnancy (the arguments about in-laws and money came much later).
In a recent article entitled “How We Created the First Synthetic Cell,” Dr. J. Craig Venter waxes broadly about how his research team succeeded in constructing a bacterial cell out of its component parts.
The story, which has captured the imagination of the media, appears to be a jaw-dropping breakthrough: “Scientists have created artificial life in a laboratory!” Such headlines evoke images of a Frankenstein creation, a Jurassic Park monster, or an alien life form. But in the final analysis, the scientific achievement of Venter and his team, although notable, is considerably less dramatic.
Editor’s note: The following is the homily given by Msgr. James Bartylla, vicar general, at Fr. Gregory Ihm’s Mass of Thanksgiving, St. Clement Church, Lancaster, June 27.
Fr. Greg Ihm, Bishop Morlino, and my brother priests, it’s an honor to give the homily at Father Ihm’s Mass of Thanksgiving at his home parish of St. Clement in Lancaster. Ray and Sherri, you should be very proud of your son who will make an exemplary priest.
It is also a privilege to come back to my adopted home of Grant County where I spent seminarian summers and my first years of priesthood. This includes time in Dickeyville, Lancaster, Kieler, Sinsinawa, Bloomington, and Patch Grove. In fact, I first met Fr. Greg Ihm at the Kieler picnic shortly after he finished a TEC retreat and decided to enter the seminary.
Father Greg spent most of his years in the seminary with me as his vocations director. As you know, Greg, vocations directors are always prone to giving advice to seminarians and maybe even newly ordained priests. I have to say there’s a bit of that still in me as a former vocations director. So today I offer you my top 10 tips on the priesthood as we look forward to your priestly ministry.
If there is an off-season in state government, summer of an even-numbered year qualifies. The campaign season is beginning and, to the extent they can, politicians will avoid controversial decisions until after the election.
But that doesn’t mean all policy work stops. In both the legislative and executive branches, our leaders are setting the stage for the debates of 2011.
If anyone were to evaluate our parish by the attendance at daily Mass, they might get the impression that ours was an “old timers’ religion.” It’s mostly a collection of gray heads with a few colors sprinkled in.
In my lifetime, I have witnessed that the biggest population change in our parish, however, is in committee members. This struck me most recently while attending our parish library committee meeting.
