A Word from Your Pastor - October 6

Dear Parishioners:

Here is an Update on my Mother's journey:

This week, we are happy to report better news.  As of September 26th, Mom was moved out of the hospital (Mt. Carmel East) to rehab at Mother Angeline McCrory Manor.  This is a beautiful facility under the auspices of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm.  We were grateful for Mom to be in such surroundings, a real place of prayer.  Unfortunately, due to the fact that she contracted MRSA during her hospital stay, Mom did not have the opportunity to see much of her temporary home.  But she knows she was on the same floor as a couple of priests, and she had a few visitors that are there regularly.

Although she can be a bit stubborn at times due to the feeling of being cooped up for so long, Mom is getting stronger.  She actually finished her time of rehab at Mother Angeline McCrory Manor and  returned home on Friday, October 4th, to continue this effort in more familiar surroundings.

 

Dad has put in a new carpet in the living room at home and brother Bill has gotten her a chair that will lift her up slowly.  Home Healthcare will be able to assist us with her care at home.

We continue to be grateful for all the prayers and support.  I have personally been moved by the fact that a number of my brother priests have offered Masses for my Mom's intention.  Lovely cards and flowers have been sent by many.  Although we would never have chosen this journey, it has been a real grace for all of us.  I have certainly experienced a greater understanding of our need to be advocates for those who are in hospitals and nursing homes and for their families and the healthcare professionals who serve them. The paperwork alone (even if it is done on computers!) is nothing short of a nightmare.  May Heaven deliver us from bureaucracy!

I want to bring before our Parish Family a greater awareness of our need to care for each other, especially those who do not have family members close by.  Please look around and touch base with your neighbors and especially any fellow parishioners you have not seen for awhile.  Make sure they know we are with them.  Give support too to our members who work in the healthcare professions.  They have a big job in a bureaucracy gone wild.  Help them to persevere by showing them compassion and gratitude.

 

Year of Faith October 11, 2012 – November 24, 2013

 
We continue our journey through the Year of Faith.  As one way of observing this year, each week a small section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is read before the start of Mass.  This is a small way of offering some food for growth in Faith throughout this year.

CHAPTER THREE     MAN’S RESPONSE TO GOD

ARTICLE 1          I BELIEVE      III. The Characteristics of Faith
Faith and understanding

158 “Faith seeks understanding”:  (St. Anselm.) it is intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to know better the One in whom he has put his faith and to understand better what He has revealed; a more penetrating knowledge will in turn call forth a greater faith, increasingly set afire by love. The grace of faith opens “the eyes of your hearts”  (Ephesians 1:18.) to a lively understanding of the contents of Revelation: that is, of the totality of God’s plan and the mysteries of faith, of their connection with each other and with Christ, the center of the revealed mystery. “The same Holy Spirit constantly perfects faith by his gifts, so that Revelation may be more and more profoundly understood.”  (Dei Verbum 5.) In the words of St. Augustine, “I believe, in order to understand; and I understand, the better to believe.” (St. Augustine, Sermo 43, 7, 9.)

159 Faith and science: “Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth.”  (Dei Filius 4: Denzinger-Schonmetzer 3017.) “Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God. The humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are.” (Gaudium et Spes 36 § 1.)

Comment:  Faith and Reason are not opposed to one another.  Rather, they are complementary ways of knowing.  Faith concerns relationship with God and what He reveals.  Since is relationship with the world of earthly experience, what we come to know through our senses.  When these ways of knowing are used in their proper sphere and in concert with each other, they can take us far.  How do you make use of these ways of knowing in your own encounter with the world around you?

Focolare Word of Life for October 2013:

"Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law." (Rom.13:8)

http://www.focolare.org/en/news/category/parola-di-vita/