Communicating Christ, Transforming the World

Brazil Conference

2006-02-17T14:11:00.000-05:00

E-mail Gail for update on the Secular Institutes
Link to Fr. Matthew’s aggregated institutes page if he has it up in time.
Tell Sr. Rose a deadline

This blog has moved

2005-09-26T19:03:00.000-04:00

This blog has moved to CatholicNewsAndViews.blogspot.com. Bookmark our new site! We hope to see you there!

Important Show This Week About "The Choking Game"

2005-09-25T14:11:00.000-04:00

If you haven't heard of it, chances are your kids have. We have been very attuned to the growing public discussion around this very dangerous game because one of our sister's nephews died while playing it.

Gabe Mordecai, 13 years old, was found by his twin brother Sam. Gabe had shut off the oxygen to his brain to get a sort of high, Kauffman explains. Other names for "The Choking Game" include "Fainting Game," "Passing-Out Game," even "Space Monkey."

Sam says he and his brother had played it several times: "It's hard to describe how it feels. It's kinda like, just, like, somewhere not on earth, but you're just dreaming, kind of. But then it only lasts for a few seconds and when you wake up … you don't know where you are or what's going on."

Sarah, Gabe's mother, has been working very hard since May to bring this game to the attention of parents and teachers. She has been on CBS The Early Show and has even started her own website to get the information out to other parents and teachers.

She will be on Dr. Phil this coming Tuesday September 27, 2005
CBS - check local listings (4:00pm in Los Angeles)

NCC offers free download of 'Love for the Poor' study guide

2005-09-24T14:02:00.000-04:00

Washington, D.C., September 19 -- Hurricane Katrina will perhaps forever be remembered for having shined an unflattering spotlight on racial and class disparities in the United States. In an effort to help the nation move forward, the National Council of Churches USA is releasing, “Love for the Poor: God’s Love for the Poor and the Church’s Witness to It,” a 40-page booklet that seeks to help churches engage more fully in prayer, reflection and shared action on behalf of the poor.

“The Church has wisdom about what to do to address poverty, not just what to feel about it,” said Riggs. “Christians are not just to worry about the poor but we must also have some concrete things to do together,” she said.

According to NCC’s President, Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt, Jr., and General Secretary, Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, “Love for the Poor” is both timely and urgent following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. “The Gospel directs us to show loving care for those among us who are poor, and the member churches of the NCC USA and our partner Christian communities have much work ahead in carrying out this principal Gospel task, and in urging one another and the wider community of persons of goodwill in our nation to respond wisely and generously to the needs of our day,” they noted in the foreword of the booklet.

R. Keelon Downton, a post-doctoral fellow in NCC’s Faith & Order Office said, “This booklet is important because it challenges the individualistic, spiritualized conceptions of love and is a reminder that if as Christians, we ignore the poor during our time, we are in fact breaking with historic Christianity.”

Copies of “Love for the Poor” can be downloaded free of charge at: http://www.ncccusa.org/pdfs/LFP-final.pdf
or by contacting Friendship Press, 7820 Reading Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45237, 1-800-889-5733 or via email at Rbray@gbgm-umc.org. The booklet will be expanded and printed in book form next year by Paulist Press.

How Could God Do This Again?

2005-09-23T08:36:00.000-04:00

Americans, believers or no, at this point are holding their breath and whispering a prayer for the people trying to evacuate the Texas and Louisianna coasts.

"How could God do this to us again?" I've heard people ask, even very religious people.

Scientists are explaining to us the cycle of these more violent weather systems, and the factors that come together to make them happen. There seems to be a satisfactory enough explanation on a natural level that is that it doesn't seem necessary to blame God. Rather, we have the promise from God himself that no matter what befalls us from the powers of nature, he will be working through it nevertheless for our salvation. In other words, God's love is reliable because the storm is not stronger than God. Regardless of what category the Hurricane hits land as, God will work simultaneously in each person's life to bring good out of the evil.

And in this case, I believe that God will be working simultaneously in and through each Americans' life to bring about some unexpected good for our country. It may not be more money, pleasure, or success. Those aren't things God considers very important. But it will be something on the lines of a greater awareness of the needs of each other, a more serious commitment to justice for the poor in our cities, a willingness to change our lifestyle because we see and know the people now who are in desperate need. They are in our house. God also will be working miracles that we'll find out about after. I was e-mailed this from a friend who is a Sacred Heart Brother:

Sacred Heart Brothers, students survive hurricane in Mississippi
By Larry Wahl
Catholic News Service
MOBILE, Ala. (CNS) -- One hundred fifty men, women and children faced a dreadful choice, nightmarish in intensity, but all too real if they were to survive. With floodwater rising and 120 mph winds whipping outside the third floor of St. Stanislaus College School in Bay St. Louis, Miss., survival was a moment-by-moment nightmare with diminishing choices for escape.

On Aug. 28, the day prior, the 20 or so Brothers of the Sacred Heart who teach at the school, or live there in retirement, had made provisions for hunkering down with the 45 foreign students who were unable to return to their homes and families outside the United States. Joining them were numerous lay faculty and their families.

In anticipation of high winds and storm surge, the brothers selected what they considered to be the sturdiest of the buildings at the St. Stanislaus complex: a three-story residence used by the brothers.

St. Stanislaus, a boarding and day school for boys in grades 6-12, and the brothers' residence are located just a stone's throw from the Gulf of Mexico and just a few miles from what would be their own ground zero -- Hurricane Katrina's landfall.

Knowing from past experience that flooding from a storm surge could occur, the brothers and students had moved food, mattresses, blankets and other provisions to the second floor of the brothers' residence.

As an uneasy night progressed into the early morning, Katrina taught them all new things about hurricanes.

No one anticipated, by past experience, the menace and power of this hurricane, especially the storm surge's quickly rising water.

By late morning the group had to abandon the second floor for the third floor.

Just a short time later, with angry, gray-green waters continuing to rise rapidly, the group was faced with an escape route that would lead them to higher ground -- but at great risk. A 50-foot-long open-air walkway leading to the school was quickly becoming a last option for safety.

The hurricane-force winds and a brutal 35-foot-deep sea roiling just 10 feet below the walkway had all the makings of a fear-based reality show.

But there was one more thing. During the whole ordeal, the peak of which lasted more than four hours, brothers, students, faculty and families had been praying.
Then, just moments before that first tenuous step was to be taken on that walkway, the waters began to visibly recede, the winds began to calm, and desperation finally turned to thanksgiving and hope.

Still, the group of 150 souls was stranded without food or water. It wasn't over yet. But the power of prayer begets other things, too, like inspiration.
About 100 miles to the east, another Brother of the Sacred Heart, Brother Paul Mulligan, a faculty member at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School in Mobile, asked a local bus charter company to assist in a blind rescue effort.

Without having been able to contact those at St. Stanislaus and no human way of knowing the fate of those at St. Stanislaus, Brother Mulligan made arrangements to pick up the brothers and students as soon as the waters had receded enough to make the roads passable.

The bus, packed with brothers and foreign students, made it safely from Bay St. Louis to the brothers' residence in Mobile. From there the students, accompanied by a smaller cadre of brothers, rode from Mobile to the Sacred Heart Brothers' residence in Baton Rouge, La., to catch flights home.

In Baton Rouge, U.S. officials, realizing the students had lost virtually everything -- including their passports -- in the hurricane, waived passport-carrying requirements for them.

In this days, it is more than true: If we look for God we will find him. If we listen to the inspirations in our heart to help others, we will be the arms and heart of God for them.

2005-09-21T16:11:00.000-04:00

I just finished a group chat among Catholic journalists and communicators, brainstorming ways that we could help the dioceses of Biloxi and New Orleans. One important thing we all can do right away with just a phone call: Call your senator and ask that federal aid to New Orleans students include money for those who were in private and Catholic schools.

One of the Senate's best known Catholics has worked to reject a proposal by President Bush that would have given families displaced by Hurricane Katrina financial aid to send their children to private or parochial schools. A bipartisan student relief package put forth by Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy and Wyoming Senator Michael Enzi did not include a provision that would have given students up to $7,500 because Kennedy opposed the provision, according to a high level Congressional staffer who spoke with Culture & Cosmos.
Culture & Cosmos also learned that a prominent Church prelate said he was furious that aid to private schools had been kept out of the package and he was especially angry that it is being blocked by "four Irish Catholic Senators."

25% of students attended private schools in New Orleans and of them 81% or 50,000 attended Catholic schools. The poor educational system in New Orleans is no secret and Catholic and private schools have long been the main opportunity for an excellent education.

Despite the high percentage of New Orleans students who attend private school, Kennedy said "we need to focus on rebuilding the public school systems which are the cornerstones of the Gulf Coast communities and economies." (Reprinted from Culture and Cosmos)

Catholic schools have taken in thousands of students from New Orleans and are educating them free of charge. After the brainstorming today, if it clear that money is tight for everyone, yet at the same time people are reaching out above and beyond their means. You can help today by calling your senator asking that private and Catholic schools be included in the student relief package.

Last Words of John Paul II

2005-09-21T08:44:00.000-04:00

Zenit posted the following regarding the last hours of John Paul II's life:

Pope John Paul II's last words before his death April 2 were, "Let me go to the house of the Father," says a chronicle published by the Holy See.

The chronicle of April 2 begins at 7:30 p.m. with the Mass celebrated in the Holy Father's presence, "who began to experience the beginning of the loss of consciousness." "At the end of the morning he received the cardinal Secretary of State for the last time and then began a sharp increase in temperature," the document said. "

Around 3:30 p.m., with a feeble and hoarse voice, in Polish, the Holy Father pleaded, 'Let me go to the house of the Father,'" the text said. "A little before 7 p.m. he entered a coma.

"According to a Polish tradition, a small candle lit up the darkness of the chamber where the Pope was slowing fading away. "At 8 p.m. began the Mass for the feast of Divine Mercy at the foot of the dying Pontiff's bed.

"Liturgical songs accompanied the celebration and they blended with those of the youth and the multitude of faithful gathered in prayer in St. Peter's Square. At 9:37 p.m. John Paul II fell asleep in the Lord."

"Let me go to the house of the Lord." John Paul convinced many with his life and words that life is about the Lord, being seized by the fascination of Christ, being attuned to God's "tastes," so much so that we no longer find "tasty" what is not of God or what distracts us from him. Focused, oriented, in love, John Paul could indeed with these words sum up his life: "Let me go to the house of the Lord."

How Far Does Faith Go?

2005-09-20T08:28:00.000-04:00

From a personal essay by Sr. Thomas Halpin, FSP

It is a strange era that we are living in as Christians. We find ourselves in a world of confusion and compromise. There are time when we come face to face with a dilemma that we'd much rather back away from. It's so much easier to look the other way, to pretend it's not happening. Maybe we should just admit the chaos and move on from there.... But it seems that some issue demand a statement, an honest response, a non-negotiable.

Be that as it may, in our current climate it's frequently politically incorrect to advance the "cause" of truth. It's much easier to be mediocre. To not "pronounce ourselves" so often seems the more practice and safe way.

And yet there seems to be a general convergence coming upon us today. The essential question are inescapable: Is there objective truth? Can it be applied to life? Or is truth merely a matter of personal choice or taste? Is SELF the real norm to live by? Which is the way to embrace?

Recently the issue of same-sex marriages has come to the fore. Isn't that going altogether too far? Probably not, it you're only looking at it in light of the cultural climate we live in. "Well, what about same-sex marriage is the real problem, if there is a problem at all?" Is a moral issue like this a matter of opinion on the same plane as "What dress shall I wear?" or "What shall I have for breakfast?" Is there something so fundamentally Christian and Catholic about this issue that it immediately triggers an emphatic response from us? The bottom-line question is: Are there absolute, unchanging moral principles Jesus wants me to base my life and decisions on, and, if so, why? I think that is the question we all want to ask, yet we are immediately confronted with current cliches like "Everyone is free to do whatever they want...."

When we embrace Christianity we embrace the totality of who and what it represents. Faith is the fundamental factor here. Do we or don't we believe in Jesus Christ? That's the first question. The second is: If we believe (as an essent of mind and heart to all he did and taught), do we really intend to follow him without compromise? These are two rather loaded questions, yet they need to be answered personally in the depths of each of our souls.

posted by Sr. Kathryn James, fsp

Religion and Public Life--Benedict XVI

2005-09-18T10:48:00.000-04:00

These are extracts from recent statements Benedict XVI has made to ambassadors, presidents and bishops.

Social and public life needs a religious element

"At the very center of social life there must be, therefore, a presence that evokes the mystery of the transcendent God," he said. "God and man walk together in history."

The role of religion in a secular, modern state

"Christ is the Savior of the whole person, spirit and body, his spiritual and eternal destiny and his temporal and earthly life," said the Holy Father. "Thus, when his message is heard, the civil community also becomes more responsible and attentive to the needs of the common good and shows greater solidarity with the poor, the abandoned and the marginalized."

Quoting the Second Vatican Council constitution "Gaudium et Spes" (No. 76), Benedict XVI noted that both the Church and the state are autonomous and independent. Yet, they have in common an interest in the human person, albeit in different ways. There is room, the Pope continued, for "a healthy secularism of the state." This does not mean, however, that religion should be excluded from a valid role in ethical matters…. The Church desires to maintain and to foster a cordial spirit of collaboration and understanding at the service of the spiritual and moral growth of the country."

Relationship between Civil Law and Moral Law

The Pope stressed the need "to recover a vision of the mutual relationship between civil law and moral law which, as well as being proposed by the Christian tradition, is also part of the patrimony of the great juridical traditions of humanity." In this sense, he continued, we can see what should be the limits to claims to rights, which should be linked to the concepts of truth and authentic freedom.

He went on to explain that only through the help of moral values and strong convictions is true progress in building society possible. "If there is no moral force in souls, if there is no readiness to suffer for these values, a better world is not built; indeed, on the contrary, the world deteriorates every day, selfishness dominates and destroys all." This moral force, the Pope explained, must be rooted in love. "In the end, in fact, love alone enables us to live, and love is always also suffering: It matures in suffering and provides the strength to suffer for good without taking oneself into account at the actual moment."

Posted by Sr. Kathryn James

2005-09-16T19:08:00.000-04:00

Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt, Jr., President of the National Council of Churches and Christian Methodist Episcopal bishop of Louisiana and Mississippi, welcomed President Bush's pledge Thursday night to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

In his speech to the nation, Mr. Bush promised one of the largest reconstruction programs in history. The President also responded to charges that help was slow in coming to hurricane victims because most were poor and black. "That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America," Bush said. "We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action."

The text of Bishop Hoyt's response to Mr. Bush follows:

It is commendable for President Bush to apologize for the mistakes made in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. We welcome his pledge to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. We celebrate his promise to address the injustices that were so profoundly exposed by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding of New Orleans. Both his apology and his promises will help us move forward as a nation.

Yet, as his sisters and brothers in faith, we feel it is our duty to remind the President that an apology and promises will only go so far. Now, as a nation, we must acknowledge that this crisis has only exposed what lies just beneath the surface of prosperity and progress in this country. In America, we have a past that haunts us on every level of our existence. We now see all too clearly that a person's race and class can often determine whether or not you are left behind in the Super Dome or escorted to safety.

As we look beyond the President's welcome candor, we must now look to our government and to the private sector for a long-term change in behavior that recognizes and corrects the glaring inequities of American society in housing, jobs and wages, health care and education -- the list is long and growing. Disaster relief and rescue must go beyond the flooded streets of New Orleans and reach into the desperate lives of the millions in poverty across our land -- a disproportionate number of whom are African American.

Today, we stand on the threshold of what is a great opportunity. It is an opportunity to become the America that we have always dreamed of being. It is an opportunity to become the America that Martin Luther King, Jr. so vividly portrayed in his "I Have A Dream" speech more than 40 years ago. It is an opportunity to stop making empty promises, to practice what we preach, to walk what we talk. It is way beyond overdue that America treats all its citizens as full participants in the economic and educational and cultural mainstream. We may have come to America on different ships, but we're all in the same boat now.

In our rush to repair the levees and restore the neighborhoods of the Gulf Coast, let us not continue the injustices -- and yes, the sins of omission and commission -- of the past. Let us not continue to allow children to be left behind by under-funded school systems and inadequate healthcare. Let us not continue to allow poor people to live in neighborhoods that are environmental hazards. Let us not continue to allow honest, hardworking people to work for less than livable wages.The Book of Nehemiah (2:18) records that the people of Israel, seeing that Jerusalem was destroyed, said, "Let us rise up and build. Then they set their hands to this good work."

As the Bishop of the Fourth Episcopal District of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church presiding over Mississippi and Louisiana and as the President of the National Council of Churches USA, I say to you: Let us rise up and build! How we respond as a nation to this crisis can be the beginning of a new era of progress, prosperity and promise for a new America that will be true to its spiritual and ethical values and worthy of its leadership among the nations.

posted by Sr. Kathryn James, fsp

World Summit Document a Disappointment for Abortion Supporters

2005-09-16T09:56:00.000-04:00

After months of demands to include language that would create a broad international right to abortion, proponents of abortion were disappointed with the final document issued by UN Member States at the Millennium Development Summit ending today in New York. Everyone from Kofi Annan to special UN commissions to non-governmental organizations to UN member states called vigorously over the past year that the new document must contain far reaching ratification of reproductive rights language, language that is used to promote abortion. It appears they have for the most part failed.

Earlier drafts of the document called for nations to ensure access to "sexual and reproductive rights." Pro-life lobbyists were able to get the reference to sexual right and reproductive rights removed. The paragraph was replaced with a call for "Ensuring equal access to reproductive health." The term "reproductive health" has never been defined by member nations to mean abortion but the language is still seen as dangerous since proponents of abortion will likely try to interpret it as broadly as possible.

Under a section on "HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis and other health issues," a paragraph calls for "universal access to reproductive health by 2015, as set out at the International Conference on Population and Development" held in Cairo. Cairo explicitly stated that it did "not create any new international human rights." Cairo also said its implementation had to be "consistent with national laws and development priorities, with full respect for the various religious and ethical values and cultural backgrounds of its people. . ." Cairo also said abortion can never be used as a method of family planning.

At the last minute this morning pro-life and pro-family lobbyists are hurriedly pushing friendly delegations to enter "interpretive statements" into the document. The "interpretive statements" would make clear that the term "reproductive health" is not understood to include access to abortion. These must be entered into the document sometime today.

Copyright 2005 - C-FAM (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute). Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required.

True Rights as the Good of the Whole

2005-09-16T09:14:00.000-04:00

Regarding the Roberts nomination proceedings, Erik Jaffe on Volokh Conspirator makes an extremely important point in this post.

Demanding a Justice that would distort the laws to serve a particular end, be it civil rights, the environment, or what have you, is basically demanding a jurist who would be dishonest and violate his oath of office. Judge Roberts has naturally refused to be goaded into such silliness.

Benedict XVI enlarges upon the concept, albeit not in direct reference to Roberts but in reflecting upon freedom and individual rights:

The criterion of real right—right entitled to call itself true right which accords with freedom—can therefore only be the good of the whole, the good itself..... Accordingly, the history of liberation can never occur except as a history of growth in responsibility. Increase of freedom can no longer lie simply in giving more and more latitude to individual rights—which leads to absurdity and to the destruction of those very individual freedoms themselves.

Increase in freedom must be an increase in responsibility, which includes acceptance of the ever greater bonds required both by the claims of humanity's shared existence and by conformity to man's essence....

For Benedict, the responsibility we need to be exercising in a country of democratic freedom, needs to be a responsibility that answers to the truth of "man's being." Such a responsibility, then, is something we grow into. In his words, it consists in "the purification of individuals and of institutions through this truth."

It is this demand made upon us by the truth of who we are that means we must be people who listen.

One idea, which is implicit in this experiment, seems to me correct: reason must listen to the great religious traditions if it does not wish to become deaf, dumb and blind precisely to what is essential about human existence. There is no great philosophy which does not draw life from listening to and accepting religious tradition. Wherever this relation is cut off, philosophical thought withers and becomes a mere conceptual game. The very theme of responsibility, that is, the question of anchoring freedom in the truth of the good, of man and of the world, reveals very clearly the necessity of such attentive listening.

How Healthy is Our Freedom?

2005-09-14T13:25:00.000-04:00

In an article in 1996, Benedict XVI, then Joseph Ratzinger, addressed issues we see playing out before us in the Robert Nomination proceedings. The Senators want to make sure that the freedom of Americans is preserved from a Catholic Supreme Court Justice who could "force" his religious beliefs on the country. Benedict XVI, who has done a tremendous amount of thinking about the history and concept of freedom in modernity, asked questions that might enlighten the national conversation. Benedict stated that the demand for freedom can be aptly explained by Karl Marx's dream of freedom:

The state of the future Communist society will make it possible, Marx says, "to do one thing today and another tomorrow; to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, breed cattle in the evening and criticize after dinner, just as I please.... "

Benedict reflects on this dream which today has been raised to a "right":

This is exactly the sense in which average opinion spontaneously understands freedom: as the right and the opportunity to do just what we wish and not to have to do anything which we do not wish to do. Said in other terms: freedom would mean that our own will is the sole norm of our action and that the will not only can desire anything but also has the chance to carry out its desire.

But we need to ask ourselves at this point:

How free is the will after all?
And how reasonable is it?
Is an unreasonable will truly a free will?
Is an unreasonable freedom truly freedom?
Is it really a good?
In order to prevent the tyranny of unreason must we not complete the definition of freedom as the capacity to will and to do what we will by placing it in the context of reason, of the totality of man?
And will not the interplay between reason and will also involve the search for the common reason shared by all men and thus for the compatibility of liberties?

Benedict concludes: It is obvious that the question of truth is implicit in the question of the reasonableness of the will and of the will's link with reason.

Then he takes up the current assessment of democracy:

The feeling that democracy is not the right form of freedom is fairly common and is spreading more and more. The Marxist critique of democracy cannot simply be brushed aside: how free are elections? To what extent is the outcome manipulated by advertising, that is, by capital, by a few men who dominate public opinion? Is there not a new oligarchy who determine what is modern and progressive, what an enlightened man has to think? The cruelty of this oligarchy, its power to perform public executions, is notorious enough.

Anyone who might get in its way is a foe of freedom, because, after all, he is interfering with the free expression of opinion. And how are decisions arrived at in representative bodies? Who could still believe that the welfare of the community as a whole truly guides the decision-making process? Who could doubt the power of special interests, whose dirty hands are exposed with increasing frequency? And in general, is the system of majority and minority really a system of freedom? And are not interest groups of every kind appreciably stronger than the proper organ of political representation, the parliament? In this tangled power play, the problem of ungovernability arises ever more menacingly: the will of individuals to prevail over one another blocks the freedom of the whole.

Benedict then draws 5 conclusions:

Freedom is tied to a measure, the measure of reality—to the truth.
Freedom to destroy oneself or to destroy another is not freedom, but its demonic parody.
Man's freedom is shared freedom, freedom in the conjoint existence of liberties which limit and thus sustain one another.
Freedom must measure itself by what I am, by what we are—otherwise it annuls itself.
Right is not an obstacle to freedom, but constitutes it. The absence of right is the absence of freedom.

To read the entire article published in the Spring 1996 issue of Communio: International Catholic Review, click here: http://www.ewtn.com/library/THEOLOGY/TRUEFREE.htm.

Justice Roberts Nomination and the Court

2005-09-14T08:45:00.000-04:00

Most of us are following the nomination proceedings for Justice Roberts through the soundbytes and headlines of the news that comes across our way. We are intensely aware of one or two issues that mean alot to us (or to our life- agenda), and our ears perk up whenever that topic is mentioned. I found some helpful information from another blogger to help weed through the ambiguous and at times misleading headlines and soundbyte reporting:

Read quick, accurate, perceptive continuous commentary on the Justice Roberts Nomination at Edward Whelan's blog. Edward Whelan is president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. His blog is at Bench Memos: http://bench.nationalreview.com/archives/whelan/

Here are few quotes from his latest postings:

http://bench.nationalreview.com/archives/076468.asp

“Privacy” Does Not Mean Abortion Ed Whelan 09/14 07:59 AM] The Washington Post is so used to the euphemisms of the Left that it doesn’t seem to understand that the Left’s code is not ordinary English. Consider this passage from today’s article:

Biden asked whether "there is a right of privacy to be found in the liberty clause of the 14th Amendment?" Roberts replied, "I do, Senator. I think that the court's expressions, and I think if my reading of the precedent is correct, I think every justice on the court believes that, to some extent or another." The answer appeared ambiguous because some of the current justices have made it clear they would support overturning Roe.

The reporters evidently think the phrase “right of privacy” would ordinarily encompass abortion and find Roberts’s answer “ambiguous” only because “some of the current justices” Roberts referred to—namely, Scalia and Thomas—would overturn Roe. But there is no reason at all to suppose that “privacy” would ordinarily mean “abortion”. In other words, one can believe strongly in privacy rights (as I do) without supporting abortion at all.

http://bench.nationalreview.com/archives/076394.asp

“Roberts, Pressed on Abortion, Cites Respect for Settled Law” Edward Whelan 09/13 02:25 PM]
This is the New York Times’s misleading headline. I guess that “Roberts, Pressed to Discuss How Stare Decisis Applies to Abortion, Discusses Stare Decisis Generally” wouldn’t make a good headline, but it would have the virtue of accuracy.

http://bench.nationalreview.com/archives/076387.asp

"Worthy of Respect"[Edward Whelan 09/13 02:06 PM]
The Washington Post’s homepage is running with the headline “Roberts Says Roe v. Wade Decision Is ‘Worthy of Respect’”. As it happens, a text search of Roberts’s testimony indicates that he never used this phrase. And his statement that Roe is “entitled to respect” is merely a specific instance of his broader position that every Supreme Court precedent is entitled to respect. That respect calls for a justice to proceed carefully in determining to overrule a case, but does not itself bar overruling.

http://bench.nationalreview.com/archives/076333.asp

Specter, Roberts, and JFK[Edward Whelan 09/13 10:45 AM]
Specter asked Roberts whether he agreed with JFK that “I do not speak for my church on public matters — and the church does not speak for me.” Roberts simply replied that he did. I wish he had instead said something like: “That’s certainly how I understand my role as a judge.” The notion that the religious beliefs of political actors should never influence their judgment on “public matters” is one that doesn’t take religious belief — and religiously grounded moral argument — seriously.

The Wisdom of C.S. Lewis

2005-09-14T08:23:00.000-04:00

"For God seems to do nothing of himself which he can possibly delegate to his creatures. He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what he could do perfectly in the twinkling of an eye. He allows us to neglect what he would have us do, or to fail. Perhaps we do not fully realize the problem, so to call it, of enabling finite free wills to co-exist with Omnipotence. It seems to involve almost every moment a divine abnegation." -- C.S .Lewis

Almost without us being aware of it the fabric of the South is gently being changed and strengthened, rewoven in patience and suffering and solidarity. In one article I read:

A small church with a gym has become a recreation center for teens staying in shelters. Another is a warehouse for food and clothing. And one is focusing on
helping people find jobs.
"You just don't think of those things," Rothberg said. "People gotta get their hair cut. You just don't think about things like that."
Baton Rouge, which is about 80 miles from New Orleans, has doubled in size to almost 800,000, by most estimates.
About 1,500 people attended a service at Istrouma, one of the biggest Southern Baptist churches in Baton Rouge. People from New Orleans wore wristbands, which allow them to get into the shelter.
"We are in the fellowship of suffering together," Rothberg told his congregation. "We are filled with sorrow. But we are blessed and privileged to have guests with us." The congregation clapped.
"You are not refugees. This is your country."
More applause.
"For the present, and for the future, this shall be your home."
The churches have undergone profound change.

For a good and soul-uplifting read, check out the rest of the article:
http://www.freep.com/news/religion/kchurches5e_20050905.htm

Hurricane Victims Ask for Bibles

2005-09-13T14:21:00.000-04:00

As people were rescued from the Superdome in flooded New Orleans and transferred to Texas, the Daughters of St. Paul and Mrs. James Hunt heard a request over and over again: “Now that we have food and other essentials, the most important thing we need right now is a Bible.”

“We have a storeroom full of books of comfort we could send to these people: Bibles, Surviving Depression, God is Here… When Bad Things Happen, small prayer books for courage and strength in times of anxiety and difficulty, coloring books for the kids,” Sr. Margaret Charles Kerry said, as she spoke with Mrs. James Hunt, initiator of the plan. And the project to send Books of Comfort to the Hurricane Survivors was born.

“It’s important to rebuild homes,” said Sr. Anne Joan Flanagan, a Daughter of St. Paul stationed in Chicago who is herself from New Orleans. She has spent days following Hurricane Katrina trying to locate her family members. She knows now, first hand, that it’s also important “to rebuild lives.”

Books of Comfort will bring Bibles and other books of spiritual comfort and healing to people throughout the Gulf Coast Region. “We don’t realize the power of prayer,” said Angela Kerry, who is still living with her husband in a temporary home after everything she owned was lost in Hurricane Ivan, 2004. “We keep on thinking we are in charge. But God is in charge. Books of hope and comfort are exactly what people need. You just can’t deal with this without faith."

The books of comfort will be distributed with the help of religious communities working in the areas affected by the hurricane. The Daughters of St. Paul had to flee their own convent and Pauline Books & Media Center in New Orleans and have a community near the shelters for the hurricane survivors in San Antonio, Texas.

Donations to send Books of Comfort can be made online at http://www.pauline.org/; by calling 1-800-876-4463; or by sending a check made payable to Daughters of St. Paul to Books of Comfort, Daughters of St. Paul, 50 St. Paul’s Ave., Boston, MA 02130.

About the Daughters of St. Paul:
The Daughters of St. Paul are a congregation of women religious founded to use the media to announce the Gospel. Their publishing house, recording studios, Pauline Center for Media Studies, and Spanish radio apostolate are located in Boston. They are located in 16 states across the US and in Toronto, Canada.

Contact:
Sr. Kathryn James Hermes, fsp
Daughters of St. Paul
617-522-8911
http://www.pauline.org/; http://www.transformingtheworld.blogspot.com/

###

Resources for Kids Coping with Katrina

2005-09-13T14:17:00.000-04:00

Whether kids are talking or not, they are probably wondering:
When it rains are we going to lose our house?
Will the kids who were separated from their parents find them?
Why do bad things happen?
Is the world an unsafe place?

Teachers and parents will find a wide variety of material at www.myfriendmagazine.org to address the needs of children. The material can gently be incorporated into ongoing lessons to help children process this national tragedy and find security again.

Helping Kids Cope with Hurricane Katrina
Prayers, activities, discussion guides, Q&A’s, Kids-to-Kids Project
Link to http://www.myfriendmagazine.org/.

The Anniversary of Another September Day -- 911

2005-09-10T20:48:00.000-04:00

Looking back now at the early September morning four years ago, how much has changed, and how much hasn't changed. I sat around a table in a Greek Orthodox seminary studying Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians. A phone call from New York was our first indication that something terrible was happening. Fr. Ted put down the phone. We immediately prayed one of those wonderful Greek Orthodox Prayers and finished class. For the rest of the morning I was in the car, breathlessly following the news reporters trying to piece together the story of what had happened. A year later I still prayed and followed the story as the US pieced together our response. It found it interesting to read Ronald Rolheiser's reflections from September 16, 2001:

First of all,

that each life lost was unique, sacred, precious, irreplaceable. None of these persons had ever died before and none of them should have his or her name lost in the anonymity of dying with some many others. Their lives and deaths must be honoured, individually. This is true too for the suffering of their families and loved ones.

Second, clear voices must call us, especially our governments, towards restraint. Many see this as an attack on civilization itself. They're always our belief that violence is wrong, whether it be theirs or ours. The air we breathe out into the universe is the air that we eventually breathe back in. Violence begets violence. Terrorism will not be stopped by bitter vengeance. Catharsis won't bring about closure. We shouldn't be naive about that. Nor, indeed, should we be naive in reverse. These terrorist acts, with their utter disregard for life, offer us a very clear picture of the world these people would create were they ever given scope and license to do so. They must be
brought to justice. They're a threat to the whole world. In bringing them to justice, however, we must never stoop to their means and, like them, be driven by a hatred which blinds one to justice and the sacredness of life.

No emergency ever allows one to bracket the fundamentals of charity, respect, and justice. Indeed, horrific tragedies of this sort, call us to just the opposite, namely, to fiercely re-root ourselves in all that is good and Godly - to drive with more courtesy, to take more time for what is important, and to tell those close to us that we love them. Yes, too, it calls us to seek justice and it asks for real courage and self-sacrifice in that quest. We are no longer in ordinary
time.

Most of all though, this calls us to prayer. What we learned again on Tuesday morning is that, all on our own, we are neither invulnerable nor immortal. We can only continue to live, and to live in joy and peace, by placing our faith in something beyond ourselves. We can never guarantee our own safety and future. We need to express that in prayer - on our knees, in our churches,
to our loved ones, to God, and to everyone whose sincerity makes him or her a brother or sister inside the body of Christ and the family of humanity.
And we are called to hope. We are a resilient people, with faith in the resurrection. Everything that is crucified eventually rises. There will be a morning after. The sun will shine again. We need to live our lives in the face of that, even in times of great tragedy.

http://www.ronrolheiser.com/arc091601.html

It is a piece of advice that offers hope as well as accountability this September day four years later. You might like another reflection on these difficult days of September by the famous Christian author: Max Lucado: What Katrina Can Teach Us at www.MaxLucado.com/Katrina.

Rebuilding the City--But What Kind of City Do We Want to Rebuild?

2005-09-09T11:01:00.000-04:00

Everyone is in a rush to clean things up and rebuild in the Gulf Coast Region. Anyone or anything that stands in the way of doing that in the most "efficient" way possible needs to be removed. A question that nobody seems to be asking, in the understandable haste to get the clean-up underway, is what kind of cities do we want to rebuild? There are deeper questions to ask than where and how the homes and businesses and government buildings will be reconstructed, important though these are. In five short days the weaknesses of American society have been displayed before the world: the illusion we could handle any and every crisis that came along; the lifestyle of having sometimes at the cost of being; the competition of the marketplace which is touted as the catalyst for progress, which in some ways it is; the way we hide our poor.

I was speaking last evening with a Daughter of St. Paul who fled New Orleans the morning of the mandatory evacuation. "I put in a suitcase all our family photos, some from the 1800s, which I had because I was doing the family history. But other than that the only thing on your mind at that moment is, 'What about so and so? What about the employees? Will they be safe? What about my 90-year-old voice teacher? Where will she go?' You can't say good-bye to anyone. You can't even ask where they are going so you can get in touch after. I left everything in my room, even all my books, and you know I LOVE books. At that moment your priorities are completely changed. It's people you worry about."

Perhaps Johann Christoph Arnold is right that this moment may actually be an hour of grace for our country. That this suffering may bring us closer to each other and to God. The secret, I think, lies in the word closer--a word that reminds me of communion.

Chiaro Lubich, founder of the Focolari, instituted the Economics of Communion. She began in Trent in 1943, during the war. She writes:

"We were trying to live the communion of goods to the maximum extent possible to resolve the social problems of Trent. I thought ‘there are two or three areas where the poor live... let's go there! We will take what we have and share it with them...' “ Our reasoning was very simple: We have more - they have less. We will raise their living standard to achieve some level of equality." And it is from those beginnings that an "amazing" experience of gospel began. "'Give and it will be given to you.' In the midst of a full-blown war, food rations, clothing, and medicine arrived in uncommon abundance.” We became convinced that putting the Gospel into practice holds the answer, in a nutshell, to every problem for individuals and society.

The Economics of Communion website further clarifies what this means for those businesses that take part in it today:

A culture of giving is not some form of philanthropy or welfare - these are individualistic virtues. In a deeper sense, the very essence of a person is to be in "communion." Consequently, not every type of giving, not every act of giving creates a culture of giving. For example, there is a "giving" which is contaminated by the desire to have power over another person and that seeks to dominate or oppress individuals and populations. This only appears to be "giving."There is a "giving" that seeks satisfaction and self-gratification from the act of giving. In essence, this is an egoistic self-expression and usually is perceived by those who receive it as offensive and humiliating. There is a"giving" that is self-interested, or utilitarian, found in some of the current neo-liberal tendencies that always seek their own advantage.

And finally, there is the "giving" that Christians find in the gospels. In this giving, the giver opens up to the other person and remains respectful of his or her dignity. It generates an experience of the words in the gospel "give and it will be given to you" even for the managers of a business. These words from the gospel might manifest themselves to the businessperson in the form of a financial windfall, or in the unexpected discovery of an innovative technical solution, or as an idea for a new winning product From the perspective of the market economy, the normal economic efforts that we make to satisfy our material needs become part of a broader anthropological framework. In the process, we affirm our own capacity to respect and value the dignity of every human person including our co-workers, those connected with our firm's production chain and distribution channels, and end-customers.

The economy of communion works to stimulate the passage of the economy of a whole society from a culture of having to a culture of the giving.

I agree with Arnold that this actually may be an hour of grace for our country and, if so, then for the world. It is an hour when the Gospel has a unique opportunity to be sown in new ways into our everyday behavior, business practices, and personal decisions.
--Sr. Kathryn James, fsp

After Katrina: Can Prayer Do Anything?

2005-09-08T09:15:00.000-04:00

Next to the military, mayors, money, technology to pump out the city of New Orleans, medical workers, thousands of hearts opening houses and pocketbooks, is there any need for prayer? Do we still need it? Will it do anything?
Prayer reminds us of who we are and who God is. Prayer places us in right relation with God, with others and with ourselves. Prayer places our experience in the much larger context of God's work of creation, salvation, and sanctification. Prayer places us in the authentic position of the creature: adoration. Prayer gives us the channel to express our emotions, our feelings, our thoughts to God: anger, confusion, distrust, fear, exhaustion. Prayer connects us to a power greater than ourselves, especially needed in the face of other powers, such as hurricanes, that are greater than ourselves.

Prayer can bring what no other power working for the rescue of New Orleans can bring: inner healing. Praying for the inner healing of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina is one of the greatest gifts we can give them. They have seen horrible sights and endured tremendous amounts of anxiety. We can ask Jesus to wipe away the memories that may haunt them and the anxiety that they may still be feeling. We can ask that they feel God's presence near them and around them, a comforting and strengthening presence. Sr. Virginia wrote this prayer for peace and healing:

A Hurricane Blessing
"He shall be Peace." (Micah 5)

O Lord, peace to our weary, agonized world.
Peace to the refugees who are in pain and loneliness.
Peace to those who have passed through the night of terror.
Be kind to them, O Savior, and hold them gently to your heart.
Be kind to all those who have lost lives or homes or jobs or family or friends.
Peace to those who have lost their city.
Peace upon the rescue workers and volunteers
and peace upon all those who are doing the thankless jobs no one knows about.
Peace above all to the children and divine protection be upon all their little hearts. Amen.

--Sr. Kathryn James, fsp

After Katrina--Time for Comfort

2005-09-07T19:12:00.000-04:00

I receive each morning by e-mail a poem. I remember, as it if were yesterday, the poem that was sent out to the list on the afternoon of 911. I want to share part of it here today because of its tremendous tenderness. The poem is by Hafiz, a great Sufi mystic from the 14th century.

You have done well
in the contest of madness.
You were brave in that holy war....
Once I found a stray kitten
And I used to soak my fingers
In warm milk;
It came to think I was five mothers
On one hand.

Wayfarer,
Why not rest your tired body?
Lean back and close your eyes.

Come morning
I will kneel by your side and feed you.
I will so gently
Spread open your mouth
And let you taste something of my
Sacred mind and life.

Surely
There is something wrong
With your ideas of
God.

O, surely there is something wrong
With your ideas of
God

If you think
Our Beloved would not be so
Tender.
(The Gift, Poems by Hafiz, Transl. by Daniel Ladinsky, 1999 Penguin Press, page 271-2).

"Come to me all who are weary and find life burdensome,
and I will refresh you."
Jesus

Katrina: Questions of Soul

2005-09-07T09:36:00.000-04:00

The immediacy of the tragedy has inundated our senses and our sensitivities through the past week. I don't know about you, but I had to stop watching at a certain point. I couldn't take in any more images. My soul was full. I poured it out with my sisters during our hour of Eucharistic Adoration together on Sunday evening.

Only for a few can the suffering of our brothers and sisters in the Gulf Coast remain as far away as the suffering in the Sudan. One gentleman said as he left an elevator, "They laugh at us sitting in four feet of snow, now it is their turn." I think, however, this gentleman is an exception. The web of family connections and friendships has networked the country in an incredibly short period of time in the efforts to locate, to rescue, to reunite, to comfort, and to provide. In Massachusetts alone, an unprecedented number of people called the governer's office yesterday, offering to help cook for those "refugees" who will be our guests on the Cape, prompting him to suggest people volunteer for a week of service in the kitchens.

As our senses begin to recover from the overload of pictures and stories, the next step will be to find meaning--for humans are meaning-making creatures. Searching for meaning will involve us in the realm of mystery and the spirit and the conscience. Questions have been searing my soul: what does this event mean for my life? my decisions? the things I use and buy and consume? the way I respond to the person on the street who asks me for money?

Johann Christoph Arnold, of The Bruderhof Community, in The Daily Dig, asked this very question:

Not surprisingly, the news media is obsessed with the economic consequences of Katrina: the skyrocketing cost of gas, the instability of the real estate market, and the weakening of the dollar, to name just a few. As usual, it seems that the financial and material aspects of the disaster are of paramount importance to us. For many people, the biggest question seems to be, “How long will it be before the price of gas goes down again, and I can return to life-as-usual?”

Very few people seem to be asking what sort of a spiritual impact this disaster will have, and whether we are going to let it affect our consciences and our collective soul. Shouldn’t we all be praying for a spiritual renewal, and for a new era of justice and love? To me, that is the sort of question we should be asking.

I have begun to appreciate the opportunity to change something of my life in the wake of Katrina. It is freeing. I am less tied down by things or money when I can give them away freely or willingly share them when asked. When I let go of these things that surround me, I don't find poverty. I find a desert--that privileged place where one can finally encounter God unhindered by anything else. Even though I personally have little, Katrina has shown me how attached I am to the little I have, how I have bought into the American dream, the pride and the power, and the expectation of luxury and comfort.

As the waters are pumped out of New Orleans, we as a people can also be emptied out in order to begin again--united with one another, seeking the way forward with one another, leaving no one behind.

--Sr. Kathryn James, FSP

Katrina: I only have now to be for others…they need me now

2005-09-06T19:44:00.000-04:00

It is only now that people are beginning to have time to reflect on the experiences of this past week. I share with you the thoughts of Sr. Martha Moss, FSP, who arrived in Houma just as Hurricane Katrina hit. Her father being there to get here meant so much at such a frightening time. As Sr. Martha remembers the experience, she discovers new depths in how God is there for us.

August 27, 2005…I was enroute to New Orleans for my vacation home, and really hoping (somewhat simplistically…was I in denial?) that Katrina would not hit the city. I had packed quickly that morning after a late night of work, so it was easy to ignore what was becoming apparent, that the hurricane was making its way slowly but oh, so surely, toward a city I loved so well. Now as I listened to fellow passengers list the preparations they would frantically attend to as they hit the ground running, I came face-to-face with the realization that New Orleans would be deluged.

My brother was supposed to pick me up, but now I knew he would have to be securing his three boats and home in Falgout Canal. In fact, I could picture his anxiety in trying to get his and other’s property as safely put away or tied down as possible. So it was my father who picked me up in an anxious, traffic-clogged city where together we made our way down to Houma in Terrebonne Parish. From there we left that evening for Houston, TX, to be safe with my sister’s family, out of harm’s way.

Thinking back on this now that all of my family relations are known to be safe (the last one to be found was my Uncle Mike, working in a Gulfport, MS hospital, trying to keep things going where surgeries were being carried out by flashlight), I realize how good it was to see my father’s face in that crowd at the New Orleans airport. He was there for me, and had come to yes, rescue me and take me to a safe place. Seeing the devastation of Katrina, I wish that everyone had had someone to come and take them away. I know that God suffered and continues to suffer with all the victims…and he gives them us, to rescue, care, console and nurture them with all the loving energy we can muster.

This is certainly a call and an invitation we cannot refuse. At the Last Supper, Jesus’ actual words in Aramaic were, “This is me, for you.” I too can be that, you can be that...for others. It’s our turn to be the ones giving ourselves for you, for others…those hit by Katrina and those we come across in our every day life…whether I’m helping refugees locally, traveling to the disaster area to help personally, sending a check to help victims. And there are other ways to be for others: like paying attention to help my nephew who struggles with his homework or the secretary at my office who seems to be having a hard time. I want to say with Jesus, “This is me, for you,” and notice who needs me to be for him, for her.

I have all seen the overwhelming needs of so many on the TV images in these days. I have seen how life can be snuffed out instantaneously. I only have now to be for others…they need me now. Lord, help me realize that you give us each other, that we are the people you are calling to be your healing touch, your caring face, and your help in time of need. Here I am, take me, "This is me, for you." --Sr. Martha Moss, FSP

--Sr. Kathryn James, FSP

Katrina's Lessons: All Creation Is One Holy Web of Relationships

2005-09-05T09:20:00.000-04:00

Over 2,000 people from New Orleans are coming to a military base on Cape Cod. Pennsylvanis is accepting over 2,000 people. I read in the newspaper this morning about the Black Church Coalition getting together to raise money with concerts and car washes and to accept into their homes individuals needing a new start. This morning' quote from the "Daily Dig"--a daily thought that blesses my e-mail each morning--says it all:

Whereas This Is the Truth
Julie Polter

This is the big lie the world tells us: that the universe is connected by trade agreements, electronic banking, computer networks, shipping lanes, and the seeking of profit—nothing else. Whereas this is the truth of God: all creation is one holy web of relationships, and gifts meant for all; that creation vibrates with the pain of all its parts, because its true destiny is joy.

--Sr. Kathryn

Christ Has No Body Now But Yours

2005-09-04T18:55:00.000-04:00

Once upon a time, September had been such a wonderful time of year. Autumn sights and smells, kids going back to school, U-Hauls around college campuses, almost perfect weather. But as Bob McMillan, SJ said to us in this morning's homily, for the last four years September has turned into a nightmare. In 2001 there was 911. In 2005 there is Hurricane Katrina.

It has been said that all our lives changed on 9/11, and not all of that change has been for the better. Perhaps it will be said that our lives changed as well this past week. We could pray this morning that the spike in gasoline prices will not be the only change, but that would be facetious, I think. What more productively could change us all is that we contemplate on the reality that when the evacuation order was given to the citizens of New Orleans last week, it was every man and woman for himself or herself. As we have seen, this led to a phenomenon known as the survival of the fittest, something that finds no blessing in the Sermon on the Mount. According to the 2000 Census 38% of New Orleans residents are under the poverty level as defined by our government and 23% of New Orleans households do not own a car – that means that 120,000 people did not have access to a privately owned vehicle. Who were those people? They were the poor, the elderly and the sick. That they were also people of color is well documented on our TV screens.

As we contemplate these sad events of September, we are challenged to dedicate ourselves to one another and to our neighbor, to be proactive to the needs that are all around us. As those who believe that Jesus is in our midst, we hear the prayer of St. Teresa of Avila, and we commit ourselves to help, in any way we can, the poor, the elderly and the sick not only in New Orleans and Biloxi, but in the closer world all around us.

Prayer of St. Teresa of Avila:
Christ has no body now
but yours,
no hands but yours,
no feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes
through which
Christ’s compassion must look out on the world.
Yours are
the feet with which
He is to go about doing good.
Yours are the hands with
which He is to bless us now.

After speaking with a friend about the concept of the survival of the fittest, she shared with me how moved she was after hearing a Fox News commentator from the Superdome:

P.S. I don't know whether or not you saw coverage of it, but there was a group of Catholic Vietnamese housed, I believe, in the Superdome. Speaking of the "survival of the fittest" mentality, they were calm and recollected and said they would wait for the last bus so that everyone else could go ahead of them. The commentators (Fox News) couldn't contain their genuine amazement or their compliments of such action. Not so bad an image for the Catholic Church!!!!

We witness the more than heroic efforts of those who are working to rescue the remaining people trapped in New Orleans. The Sermon on the Mount is being written in blood: Blessed are the merciful, Blessed are those who give their life for another, Blessed are those who mourn, Blessed are those who show pity.... Let us pray for them, and let us pray for ourselves.
--Sr. Kathryn

Deep Waters Cannot Quench Love

2005-09-04T18:16:00.000-04:00

Canticle of New Orleans
by Sr. Margaret Charles, FSP

Waters of the earth, bless your Maker.
Be kind to the people who need you to quench their thirst.
Hold back your raging destruction of flood and overflowing banks.
Be kind to the city that sings about you in legend,
that travels over you to unknown places.
Unite people - do not disperse them.
Waters of the earth, bless the Lord!

Winds of sky, bless your Maker.
Keep cool breezes flowing over the people of God.
Keep away disease and danger by your healing movement.
Hold back your anger in storm and destructive power in tornado.
Be kind to the city that knows when you caress the land
and keep the heat from overtaking the plants and livestock.
Remind people of God's care.
Winds of the sky, bless the Lord!

City of man, bless your Maker.
Keep your people safe who have built you.
Allow them to write music, sing, play and dance
in praise of God-given life.
Keep those in leadership from misusing what is gifted
by the unity of men and women, children and family.
Be kind to the City that brings happiness to so many.
Be kind to her history that tells the human story.
May the city be a city on a hill that shines God's light.
May your music, dance, and food be a foretaste
of the eternal banquet.
City of New Orleans, bless the Lord!

People of God, bless your Maker.
Keep hope in your hearts in time of distress.
Give hope to those around you and know that
your are loved by those who worry about you
in your distress.
Reach out to those who are near. Reach
from afar in times of trouble - reach in prayer
if you can't reach physically.
Let us ask forgiveness when our response to trouble
seems slow and unthoughful.
Open your hearts to those who are vulnerable.
People of God, bless the Lord!

People of New Orleans, bless your Maker!
Know that you are loved.
Know that the rain, wind and water that bless the city
and surround it as a hug outside of times like this
will return to their banks and sky.
Your hope is our hope. May we share what we have
with you as you share your faith with us.
We reach you in prayer even as we long to reach
you with a helping hand and pluck you from distress.
We share in your distress and hold in our hearts
your pain and sorrow. May God renew you!
People of New Orleans, bless the Lord!

“This poem came from the depths of my own struggle with the tragedy in New Orleans my home city. I too am still looking for lost family friends, friends from Chapelle Highschool (our 30th anniversary was going to be celebrated this September 10th at the Yacht Club) and people with whom I worked in ministry.

“Our history as a people has created a culture of blessing. Music that wafted in our streets was made from the stuff of deep joy and overbearing sorrow. In our joy we bless, in our tears we bless, in our loss we bless. In our lives we now hope to bless another.

“My parents lost their house of 30 years last year in Hurricane Ivan. They lost the family Bible, heirlooms handed on to them that they would have handed on to grandchildren, friends and neighbors. The large six-foot statue of the Sacred Heart in our house, left to our family by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in New Orleans, was smashed. But there in the rubble was the heart from that statue. There was the sign of hope that God's love does not abandon us. Their life now centers on people who have suffered more than they have, the people in nursing homes, those who are abandoned and homeless, those without hope. And this faith that has been passed on to me was nourished by the people of New Orleans. The heart that is now enshrined in my parents’ temporary home is a sign that ‘Deep waters cannot quench love’ (Sg 8:7). This is the heart that now beats inside of all of us for those who are suffering from Hurricane Katrina.”
Sr. Margaret Charles Kerry, FSP, is a native of New Orleans and a Daughter of St. Paul. She can be reached at Kerrysso@aol.com. Website: http://www.pauline.org/; BLOG: http://www.transformingtheworld.blogspot.com/.

Copyright (c) Daughters of St. Paul. Reprinted with permission.

Permission is granted for the free reproduction of the Canticle of New Orleans in newspapers, magazines, bulletins, websites, or in photocopied format, provided that the entire Canticle and the author byline and credit is printed with the Canticle.

--Sr. Kathryn

No Greater Love Has Anyone

2005-09-03T19:37:00.000-04:00

This past week we have all been living a nightmare. I am sure I am not the only one who is feeling depressed.... And I live in Boston, far away from the states that have affected most directly by the hurricane.

I live the nightmare of this week with my sisters who are searching for family members, and I live it with the grief over losing our center of apostolate in New Orleans. I have lost the stability of my friends there, I may never find them again. I am sure all of us are going through these and many other emotions at this time.

I spoke with someone who felt so powerless to help, and encouraged her to close her eyes and spiritually take up the hand of someone who had lost their mother (as she herself had under other circumstances). In the presence of God, she may never know who this person may be, but she can truly share with this person the comfort of her prayer and her love and her understanding. "I know how it feels. I have been there. I adopt you as my own child in spirit and will follow you throughout your life." In heaven that child will know who she was.

As a nation we stand humbly grateful for the kindnesses being shown to us by others, and in awe of the kindnesses we are showing each other--opening not just our pocketbooks, but also our homes, our schools, our places of employment, giving to these people who must be so afraid of what such an uncertain future could hold, the stability of being loved and provided for. Opening truly ourselves. "No greater love has any one than to lay down one's life for a friend."

I found an excellent reflection on Hurrican Katrina from a biblical perspective--Christ, Katrina, and My Home Town--perhaps the beginning of the answer to the question, "Why?" --Sr. Kathryn James, fsp

Send Help for Hurricane Victims

2005-09-03T19:32:00.000-04:00

These entities are posted on the website of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops:

Catholic Charities USA

Catholic Charities USA, which has been commissioned by the U.S. Catholic Bishops to represent the Catholic community in times of domestic disaster, responds with emergency and long-term assistance as needed. Its Disaster Response Office connects the Church's social service agencies and disaster planning offices across the nation. Catholic Charities USA is collaborating with the American Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations to respond to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.To make donations online for Hurricane Katrina relief:
Online at: http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/news/katrina.cfm
Phone: 800-919-9338Mail: Catholic Charities USA -- Hurricane Katrina
P.O. Box 25168
Alexandria, VA 22313-9788.

Society of St. Vincent DePaul

Contributions may be made online or by regular postal mail:
Mail: The National Council, Society of St. Vincent de Paul, 58 Progress Pkwy.St. Louis, MO 63043-3706.
Online: www.svdpusa.org.

Knights of Columbus

Checks payable to Knights of Columbus Charities USA Inc. should be sent to: Knights of Columbus Charities USA Inc.
Gift Processing Center
P.O. Box 9028
Pittsfield, MA 01202-9028
Attn: Hurricane Katrina Relief.

Donors in Canada should make checks payable to Knights of Columbus Canada Charities Inc. and send them to: Knights of Columbus Charities Canada Inc.
Gift Processing Center
P.O. Box 7252 Station A
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5W 1X9,
Attn: Hurricane Katrina Relief.

Catholic Extension Society

Donations may be made online or by regular postal mail:
Online: www.catholicextension.org
Mail: Catholic Extension, Hurricane Emergency Relief, 150 S. Wacker Drive, 20th Floor, Chicago, IL 60606.
Donors are asked to write "hurricane relief" on the memo portion of their checks.

National Collection in U.S. Dioceses

August 30, 2005
Bishop William S. Skylstad, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), announced on August 30 that a National Collection for Hurricane Relief will be taken up in the 195 Catholic dioceses throughout the United States, and most, if not all dioceses are planning special collections in the first weeks of September. To read more, see the USCCB news release, National Collection For Hurricane Relief Announced By USCCB (05-183).

--Sr. Kathryn

Hurricane Katrina--Talking It Out with God

2005-09-03T19:28:00.000-04:00

How do you have it out with God? I know a friend who did. “Where were you?” she asked weakly, her eyes filling with tears. “Where were you when I needed you in the hospital? Where were you when my brother died? You left me all alone.” Her accusation hurled into the darkness almost frightened her. But nothing happened so she continued. “In fact where were you two years ago when my younger brother died, and two years before that when my sister died.” There. It was said. God had been notified of exactly how she felt. Broken. Alone. Rejected. Often we are ashamed of our anger and pain. We apologize for angry words and stifle cries of sorrow, pushing our hurt out of sight. We try to make peace with ourselves without the anger and the crying—these somehow seem unacceptable to us. But these are never unacceptable to God.
Talk it out with God. --Sr. Kathryn

Sisters and Employees from New Orleans Pauline Center

2005-09-03T18:34:00.000-04:00

The Daughters of St. Paul stationed in New Orleans are safe as well as all their employees. We are still trying to locate family members of some of our sisters, and ask for your prayers for their safety. We are grateful for the concern people have expressed, and unite in prayer for all those suffering from this devastation.

God, our loving Father, you who know our weakness, hear our prayer. Give us the courage to face life's struggles and the joy that comes from knowing your nearness in our needs. We ask this through your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen. -from Novena for Courage --Sr. Kathryn