We Want to be Taught

I just became aware of a site that is encouraging the Magisterium to implement an Ordinary Sunday catechetical lectionary. Here is what I commented on the site:

“I am extremely aware of the need for catechesis for the people in the pews. I can site many reasons, but here are a few: 1) Unless self-motivated Catholics receive no continuing formation after religious studies in grammar school, or for the lucky ones high school; 2) I've often commented on the "la la" homilies especially in liberal dioceses; and 3) Catholics are strongly influenced by the secular culture in which they live, contrary to church teaching and filled with misinformation from the media, and they don't even realize it.”

I encourage everyone to go to this site and learn more: http://www.wewanttobetaught.com/

There has been a lot of talk about the new evangelization; evangelization needs to start within ourselves, then within our local parish communities, then to the world at large.

Do you not see the need Christ has for you, as does His church? At this time when we are trying to protect our religious rights and support the efforts of Fortnight for Freedom, it is necessary for all of us to pray, inform ourselves, take action and be heard.

Fortnight for Freedom 2013

Today begins the second Fortnight for Freedom, a call for Catholics to Pray, Act, and Be Heard to protect our Religious Freedoms which are being trampled upon. I urge everyone to spend some time in these next to weeks to do just that: PRAY, ACT, and Be HEARD.

Pray:

Find a few moments each day to pray for our religious freedoms. Here is a start:

Litany for Liberty

INTRODUCTION 

Christ the Lord has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. 

Let us turn to him in humble but fervent petition, 

seeking the grace to root out from our hearts all trace of darkness, 

and all that holds us back 

from walking in the full freedom of the children of God.

As Christ is our great model for that inner freedom, 

which enables us to do the right, 

let us turn to him with confidence 

that we, too, may follow him to the fullness of spiritual freedom. 

Lord, have mercy; Lord, have mercy. 

Christ, have mercy; Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy; Lord, have mercy.

Jesus, victor over sin and death… Free our hearts. 

Jesus, source of light and hope… Free our hearts.

Jesus, fullness of truth and mystery… Free our hearts.

Jesus, teacher of seeking hearts… Free our hearts.

Jesus, healer of body and soul… Free our hearts.

Jesus, bringer of mercy and justice… Free our hearts.

Jesus, who humble the heart and mind… Free our hearts.

Jesus, release of captives… Free our hearts.

Jesus, voice against violence… Free our hearts.

Jesus, courage for the lowly/downtrodden… Free our hearts.

Jesus, origin of all authority and power… Free our hearts.

Jesus, true lawgiver… Free our hearts.

Jesus, unity of order and passion… Free our hearts.

Jesus, freedom of the Spirit… Free our hearts.

Jesus, obedient Son of the Father… Free our hearts.

For the freedom to love… Give us your grace. 

For the freedom to believe… Give us your grace.

For the freedom to hope… Give us your grace.

For the freedom to worship… Give us your grace.

For the freedom to serve in charity… Give us your grace.

For the freedom to care for the suffering… Give us your grace.

For the freedom to comfort the sick… Give us your grace.

For the freedom to feed the hungry… Give us your grace.

For the freedom to shelter the homeless… Give us your grace.

For the freedom to proclaim the Gospel… Give us your grace.

For the freedom to walk in chastity… Give us your grace.

For the freedom to live in peace… Give us your grace.

For the freedom to work in good conscience… Give us your grace.

For the freedom to stand in solidarity… Give us your grace.

For the freedom to seek justice… Give us your grace.

For the freedom to reject sin… Give us your grace. 

For the freedom to reject coercion… Give us your grace.

For the freedom to reject falsehood… Give us your grace.

For the freedom to reject evil temptations… Give us your grace.

For the freedom to reject injustice… Give us your grace.

CLOSING PRAYER 

O God, who gave one origin to all peoples 

and willed to gather from them one family for yourself,

fill all hearts, we pray, with the fire of your love 

and kindle in them a desire 

for the just advancement of their neighbor, 

that, through the good things which you richly bestow upon all, 

each human person may be brought to perfection, 

every division may be removed, 

and equity and justice may be established in human society. 

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 

one God for ever and ever. 

Amen. 

[Collect for the Mass “For the Progress of the Peoples,” 

Masses for Various Needs and Occasions, No. 29, 

Roman Missal, Third Edition]

Act:
Pick an issue that touches your heart. Update yourself with the current news about it. Then write your congressman. Take for example the Morning after Pill. A federal judge has mandated no age restrictions, no parental notification, no prescriptions. We need congress to enact a law that the morning after pill not be made available to anyone under 18 and that a doctor's prescription be necessary. Tell your congressman what you think; that you daughter is not allowed to bring an aspirin to school or be given one by the school without your approval, yet she can obtain this high dose drug.

Make sure you are heard.

Coming to a Vending Machine near You? The Morning-after Pill

Geez! What is next?

Here is the beginning of post from Breakpoint:

I seldom get hot under the collar on the air. But a recent decision by the Obama administration has got my dander up. Stay tuned to BreakPoint.

Last week, the President threw America's parents and their daughters under a bus. And I'm hopping mad about it—and not just because I have a young daughter of my own.

First, a little history: In 2011, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled the Food and Drug Administration's request to make the “Plan B One-Step” drug available to all women and girls without a prescription, no matter their age. Plan B is a so-called emergency contraception drug that its maker admits could “inhibit implantation” of a fertilized egg in the womb. Sebelius agreed with the decision to distribute the drug—but insisted girls must be at least fifteen to purchase Plan B One-Step.

Please go here to read the rest of it.

Should you say "Individual" or "Person"?

I would like to call to your attention a recent post by Taylor Marshall and begin with my own comments.

I think the below post by Taylor Marshall hit the nail on the head. When you look at the condition of our society – it explains a lot. We are focused on ourselves instead of seeing ourselves as part of a whole, whatever the whole may be: family, faith community, neighborhood, citizen, etc. An infant is by nature focused on her/himself and rightly so. Am I being fed, am I warm,  am I clean, am I being loved? As they grow older they learn about relationships, sharing, not hurting others physically or emotionally. Then in the teens another turn to the “me”, away from family and toward peers. Dating and love brings the focus back to others – at least one other. Than children are the focus. For the large part, I think this lasts until the 50s. We then turn our attention to others and try to be of some service.

Society has relapsed to an infant’s focus. No longer do we ask what is good for all of us, but what is good for me. This is seen in so many ways. To answer Taylor’s question I am a person.

Here is the beginning of Taylor's post:

Should you say "Individual" or "Person"?

By Dr. Taylor Marshall

Has anyone ever called you a "bright individual" or a "gifted individual"? What does that word "individual" mean? It means "undivided one." Stop for a moment and consider this, you "undivided one." Isn't "undivided one" a strange way to refer to people?

Referring to people as "individuals" became common in European languages after 1600, especially in English. It's a feature of the so-called Enlightenment.

Recall that the Enlightenment was that so-called Era of Light after the so-called Dark Ages of Christendom. For historical reference, the Enlightenment after the state establishment of the Protestant Reformation and ended with the bloody guillotines of the French Revolution...

The Enlightenment posited that the nation is divisible. The Church is divisible. The city is divisible. The town is divisible. The family unit is divisible. Even marriages were divisible. However, the person is not. He or she is triumphantly individual.

The problem, you see, is that viewpoint becomes a very individualistic way of looking at reality. Now all major intellectual shifts succeed after linguistic shifts have become previously established. The debate over the definition of "marriage" is a contemporary example. The move away from person to individual signified the enshrinement and idolization of the human individual. Man truly became the measure of all things.

You can see how the Reformation paved the way for this kind of language. To be an Enlightenment Christian all you need is yourself and the Bible. That's it.

We traded in the old communion of the saints and the universal fellowship of Christendom of previous centuries for that new shiny title of individual. Denominations will divide, but the believer never will. And so the individual believer trumped everything.

Read the rest of the post here.