Australia

Romero

Ecumenism

Statement of solidarity by Windsor and Maidenhead community leaders (sent by Hazel)

May 24

May 23

Pope Francis	Tomorrow, May 24, please pray for Catholics in China (Many commentators have pointed out that up to now, Francis has rarely used the words "pope" and "papacy".  Whoever advised him to use "pope" in this message to China should be banished to a monastery....since that reference is antagonistic to China's leaders - jw)
Anscar Chupungco	New translation has made a mess of Trinity Sunday opening prayer (c.f. the late Anscar Chupungco OSB in Hong Kong, November 2011)
The New Translation	2013 survey of US priests - majority don't like NT
	The Charismatic Renewal - the second half of this article has lots of historical info that few people have heard of ....re how Pope Leo XIII tried in vain to get the Church more interested in the Holy Spirit
Joseph Girzone	We have to wake up! Let the people have a say during Mass. (c.f. some parishes in HK where lay people give a sharing at Mass once a month)

Matteo Ricci beatification linked to Church-China relations - may Pope Francis cut the red tape!

Real power is service  - Pope Francis, May 21 homily

The Harmonica Man  
- why so many kids are into music - lovely story from US

Latest The Good Oil has many interesting articles, 
including Francis and the Signs of the Times by Garry Everett

What is a "Public Juridic Person"?
- more responsibility for lay people, a sign of the Spirit

Victorian sex abuse inquiry:  Archbishop Hart admits "awful blight"

How religions change their mind

In this week after Pentecost, let's think about the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit

Pentecost: the Gift - a down to earth explanation of the seven gifts

Today is the birthday of one of the world's greatest missionaries...very few Catholics have ever heard of him:
Hudson Taylor - he followed Matteo Ricci in respect and love for Chinese culture and language, in wearing Chinese dress (for which he was laughed at by other foreign missionaries in his early ministry), a great spirit of Ecumenism ("non-denominationalism") and he had a great trust in God - refusing to engage in fund-raising...his motto being: "God's work, done in God's way, will never lack God's supplies"  ....a contrast to our modern way of running the Church like a business.
He was responsible for more than 800 missionaries going to China ....and he laid the foundation for the phenomenal growth of evangelical house churches in China today

This famous quote of Taylor is most suitable for Pentecost week:
“Since the days of Pentecost, has the whole church ever put aside every other work and waited upon Him for ten days, that the Spirit’s power might be manifested? We give too much attention to method and machinery and resources, and too little to the source of power.”

Other quotes of Hudson Taylor

Today is also the anniversary of St Eugene de Mazenod who died on this day 1861 in France.
As a young priest he nearly died after contracting typhus from prison ministry. 
He founded the Oblates of Mary Immaculte (OMI), a congregation with preference for the poor.
Coming from a troubled family, he is a patron of dysfunctional families.

Hudson and Eugene - pray for us!

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Christianity rapidly declining in UK

Victoria sex abuse inquiry:
Archbishop admits Church too slow to act against abuse

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Pentecost Octave?   In this article on May 18, I lamented the fact that Pentecost is not followed by an octave, like Christmas and Easter. Just discovered that this is a major concern of some of the Traditionalists! (Google: octave of Pentecost). Reason for abolition of octave in 1969 seems to have been that Pentecost is a time of completion of the Easter Season: it's the 50th and final day ....so....not good to add on another week. This argument satisfies the brain, but not the heart...which wants a Pentecost honeymoon, not just a one day stand  

In this week after Pentecost, let's think about the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit
Today:  Understanding.  According to the CCC, in understanding we comprehend how we need to live as followers of Christ. A person with understanding is not confused by the conflicting messages in our culture about the right way to live. The gift of understanding perfects a person's speculative reason in the apprehension of truth. 

How to put this more simply?  
- he had a great understanding of the game
- he had a poor understanding of mathematics
- she had a deep understanding of handicapped people
- she had a solid understanding of the Bible
- Ricci and Hudson Taylor had a deep understanding of Chinese culture
- the old doctor had a profound understanding of human nature
- Empathy is the experience of understanding another person's condition from their perspective

Christian understanding, as a gift of the Holy Spirit, includes all of the above types of understanding, but goes further:
it's a special understanding of LIFE and of TRUTH 

When the Holy Spirit suddenly comes down on someone - Joseph Girzone - a beautiful true story, showing the sort of pastoral approach we should be getting back to ....away from a legalistic mentality

Pope Francis' Pentecost Sunday homily  - with three themes: 
Newness: "Do we have the courage to strike out along the new paths which God’s newness sets before us, or do we resist, barricaded in transient structures which have lost their capacity for openness to what is new?"   (w o w !)

Harmony: "If  we let ourselves be guided by the Spirit,  then richness, variety and diversity never become a source of conflict"   (love is a many splendid thing!)

Mission: "Let us ask ourselves: do we tend to stay closed in on ourselves, on our group, or do we let the Holy Spirit open us to mission?" (touché !)

In this week after Pentecost, let's think about the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (mentioned by the pope in his homily above):
Today - Wisdom:  this excellent article shows how Wisdom has been highly valued in all cultures and religions
...which makes us think: the Holy Spirit has been present, is present, in all cultures and religions, albeit unrecognized

Re Wisdom - c.f.  Brian Lewis' Conscience as Wisdom of the Heart which has the words:
Wisdom of the heart is not only a virtue we acquire through repeated efforts as we go through life, a product of our moral experience. It is also a Christian virtue, a quality of spirit given us with the grace of Christ through the indwelling Spirit in our hearts. What Vatican II says about this gift of wisdom has particular relevance here. 'The intellectual nature of the human person is perfected by wisdom and needs to be. For wisdom gently attracts the human mind to a quest and a love for what is true and good. Steeped in wisdom, the human person passes through visible realities to those which are unseen... It is finally through the gift of the Holy Spirit that the person comes by faith to the contemplation and completion of the divine plan' (Gaudium et Spes, n.15).

People are dying of hunger, but all we talk about is banks - May 18 homily  - Pope Francis

Illegal drugs to be legalised?  On international agenda - let it come soon DV so that small drug dealers no longer need money to buy their drugs...and therefore no longer need to find new users to get money for their habit 

Internet libraries for Africa - in shipping containers - only 15% of Africans have access to internet

Why Pentecost Sunday is called Whitsun in UK  ("Whit" from "white" or maybe from "wisdom")

Pentecost: a need for our lives - Ron Rolheiser OMI

The land of the Gerasenes - what's the best way to deal with emotionally unstable people?

Keeping up with Teresa Forcades - a nun on a mission

Pope Francis and the American Sisters

Vatican has 3 popes: Francis, Benedict....and the Black Pope just elected head of UISG ! - Jesuit takeover continues...fodder for Dan Brown! 

The liturgical vision of Vatican II 50 years later

The menstrual cycle and your body's natural signal of fertility - cervical mucus - a new video from the Billings Group - 
"You can use this information to optimise your chances of conceiving, or you can use it to avoid pregnancy naturally"

***  Feel the Spirit - The Tablet - Pentecost special report - Charismatic renewal among Indian Catholics in UK

***  The Holy Spirit    - from The Messenger (Irish Jesuits)

***  Mary's presence in the Upper Room at Jerusalem  (Pope John Paul II)

*** A reflection on the Holy Spirit to help prepare for Pentecost: Jesus is Christ, "anointed," because the Spirit is his      anointing, and everything that occurs from the Incarnation on derives from this fullness. When Christ is finally glorified, he   can in turn send the Spirit from his place with the Father to those who believe in him: he communicates to them his glory, that is, the Holy Spirit who glorifies him. From that time on, this joint mission will be manifested in the children adopted by the Father in the Body of his Son: the mission of the Spirit of adoption is to unite them to Christ and make them live in him. 

The notion of anointing suggests . . . that there is no distance between the Son and the Spirit. Indeed, just as between the surface of the body and the anointing with oil neither reason nor sensation recognizes any intermediary, so the contact of the Son with the Spirit is immediate, so that anyone who would make contact with the Son by faith must first encounter the oil by contact. In fact there is no part that is not covered by the Holy Spirit. That is why the confession of the Son's Lordship is made in the Holy Spirit by those who receive him, the Spirit coming from all sides to those who approach the Son in faith.  - CCC 690

 The problem is not that we are sinners; the problem is not repenting of sin  - Pope Francis

Video:  2.5 million bonded laborers in India - slaves - making bricks   

The wages of celibacy - Ron Rolheiser OMI     c.f. The evil of compulsory celibacy

What can a parish do about a priest's drink problem?

Call for UK to set up Australia-style sex abuse inquiry

 

Foster parent: you raise a child who is biologically neither yours nor your spouse's.
Step parent: you raise a child who is not biologically yours but is biologically your spouse's.
Which means Joseph was Jesus' stepfather, not his foster father.
Which means a lot of literature needs fixing (c.f. Google:  "Joseph foster father of Jesus")

I'd like to nominate this moving article for Most Beautiful Story of 2013 Award

Matteo Ricci beatification update - "Ricci thought outside of the box" (Pope Francis!)

Ireland needs better bishops - Brendan Hoban - "Bishops are a bit like Dublin buses. You wait for ages for one to come along and suddenly three arrive together"

A reflection on the Holy Spirit to help prepare for Pentecost:  The prophetic texts that directly concern the sending of the Holy Spirit are oracles by which God speaks to the heart of his people in the language of the promise, with the accents of "love and fidelity." St. Peter will proclaim their fulfillment on the morning of Pentecost. According to these promises, at the "end time" the Lord's Spirit will renew human hearts, engraving a new law in them. He will gather and reconcile the scattered and divided peoples; he will transform the first creation, and God will dwell there with people in peace. - CCC 715

Only the Holy Spirit can speak to our hearts of God's love - Pope Francis, May 8

The holistic vision of the family - Bishop Peter Elliot (Melbourne)

Big Yellow Duck deflates to duckling in Hong Kong

Fr Harry Winter's article re Anglican and Lutheran Ordinariates has received two most interesting comments, from Bro Jeffrey Gros FSC (USA) and Fr Austin Cooper OMI (Melbourne)

WordPress, one of the largest companies providing comment programs for websites (including v2catholic.com) is experiencing "a brute force attack".    On the good news side, WordPress statistics show that a pleasing number of people are reading comments posted on our articles. Here are the figures for the past week

A reflection on the Holy Spirit to help prepare for Pentecost: The dove. At the end of the flood, whose symbolism refers to Baptism, a dove released by Noah returns with a fresh olive-tree branch in its beak as a sign that the earth was again habitable. When Christ comes up from the water of his baptism, the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, comes down upon him and remains with him. The Spirit comes down and remains in the purified hearts of the baptized. In certain churches, the Eucharist is reserved in a metal receptacle in the form of a dove (columbarium) suspended above the altar. Christian iconography traditionally uses a dove to suggest the Spirit. - CCC 701

Pope Francis: Let us pray to the Holy Spirit every day

10 reflections on drones - John Dear SJ - technology breeding terrorism by killing innocent people

Apostolic Succession?  Program has many broken links?

A new website has been launched in Ireland - Association of Catholics in Ireland ...working in partnership with Association of Catholic Priests .  But seems a pity that priests and laity could not have shared the one association...as outlined in this article

Yesterday, May 15, was International Day of Families

R.I.P. Fr Kevin Casey OMI who died prayerfully surrounded by fellow Oblates in Indonesia the night before last.
Kevin taught at Iona College in Brisbane before leading the OMI team that went from Australia to Indonesia in 1969.
Kevin's Golden Jubilee was celebrated in Indonesia on May 21 last year.  

Brian Coyne (Catholica): A review of Bishop Geoffrey Robinson's new book
 - For Christ's Sake: End Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church ...for Good

Vatican (Pope Francis?!) to US bishop: re-open the 13 Cleveland churches you closed!

Pope (who was criticised for washing feet) comments on Judas' criticism of Mary M for washing Jesus' feet!

Fundamental Delusion  Bishop Greg Kelly SJ
A most informative article re "visionaries" who mislead people

Pope Francis and Liberation Theology - Video

Time to settle East Timor  - Australia boundary issue Frank Brennan SJ

Prominent US Legionaire priest seeks dispensation to look after son

A reflection on the Holy Spirit to help prepare for Pentecost: The finger is another symbol of the Holy Spirit.  "It is by the finger of God that [Jesus] cast out demons." If God's law was written on tablets of stone "by the finger of God," then the "letter from Christ" entrusted to the care of the apostles, is written "with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts." The hymn Veni Creator Spiritus invokes the Holy Spirit as " the finger of the Father's right hand."  - c.f. CCC 700

Saint Matthias was overlooked: c.f. this list of famous people who were successful after being overlooked or unsuccessful

After Bangladesh tragedy: Retailers are pressed on safety at factories
And the Rev. Seamus P. Finn, representing shareholders from the Catholic organization Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, has been circulating a letter among religious organizations — groups that control more than $100 billion in assets — to express displeasure with the nation’s retailers. He says the retailers have not done nearly enough to improve workplace safety for the more than three million garment workers in Bangladesh.

Sweatshops: where corporate greed and human misery meet

A reflection on the Holy Spirit to help prepare for Pentecost: The hand is another symbol of the Holy Spirit. Jesus heals the sick and blesses little children by laying hands on them. In his name the apostles will do the same. Even more pointedly, it is by the Apostles' imposition of hands that the Holy Spirit is given. The Letter to the Hebrews lists the imposition of hands among the "fundamental elements" of its teaching. The Church has kept this sign of the all-powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit  by having the priest at Mass extend his hands over the bread and wine as he says "Let your Spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy" - c.f. CCC 699 

This Saturday night and Sunday, Pope has 2 important engagements: 
18 Saturday - Pentecost Vigil
Saint Peter's Square, at 18:00
Pentecost Vigil with the Ecclesial Movements

19 Pentecost Sunday
Saint Peter's Square, at 10:00  
 Mass with the Ecclesial Movements

Romero sainthood cause on long tangled path

Yesterday, May 12: Pope canonised 802 saints

Benedict XVI did more than John Paul II for Christian Unity

A reflection on the Holy Spirit to help prepare for Pentecost: The seal is a symbol close to that of anointing. "The Father has set his seal" on Christ, and also seals us in him. 
Because this seal indicates the indelible effect of the anointing with the Holy Spirit in the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders, the image of the seal (sphragis)
has been used in some theological traditions to express the indelible "character" imprinted by these three unrepeatable sacraments. - CCC698

Russian Patriarch meets Chinese President
Could be a sign that Beijing may be willing to resume high-level dialogue with the leaders of Christian Churches, starting with the Catholic Church

12,000 Lourdes participants focus on the poor 

Interactive Bible Quiz - Exodus Based on the actual words of the Bible. How many times you can get 3/3 ?!

Climate Change: Hundreds of millions homeless?

North Dakota's last abortion clinic

Old age is a gift to be enjoyed Joseph Girzone
When  “The Homeless Bishop”  came out, and the new pope was elected, many of those who read the book were struck by the many similarities between the homeless bishop and the new pope, even to their decision not to live in the papal palace, but in a little apartment in a house on the Vatican grounds. One twelve year old boy who read “The Homeless Bishop” was watching the news one night and when the reporter was talking about the new pope, the boy ran out into the kitchen and told his mother to come and look the news, “The homeless bishop was just made pope.”  c.f. The Homeless Bishop

In view of reflections above - re Holy Spirit and fire ("Loss of enthusiasm") and re Holy Spirit and seal (Preparing for Pentecost), 
This song takes on extra meaning!
Set me like a seal on your heart,
like a seal on your arm.
Set me like a seal on your heart,
how right it is to love you

For love is stronger than death
stronger even than hell.
A flash of it is a flash of fire,
a flame of Yahweh himself

Come then my love, come my beloved.
No flood can quench our love,
for love, if real, has no end

Pope Francis: He ascended into heaven

Painful goodbyes & the Ascension Ron Rolheiser OMI

 A reflection on the Holy Spirit to help prepare for Pentecost: (((Ascension cloud was Holy Spirit!) Cloud and light. These two images occur together in the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. In the theophanies of the Old Testament, the cloud, now obscure, now luminous, reveals the living and saving God, while veiling the transcendence of his glory - with Moses on Mount Sinai, at the tent of meeting, and during the wandering in the desert, and with Solomon at the dedication of the Temple. 
In the Holy Spirit, Christ fulfills these figures. The Spirit comes upon the Virgin Mary and "overshadows" her, so that she might conceive and give birth to Jesus. On the mountain of Transfiguration, the Spirit in the "cloud came and overshadowed" Jesus, Moses and Elijah, Peter, James and John, and "a voice came out of the cloud, saying, 'This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!'"  Finally, the cloud took Jesus out of the sight of the disciples on the day of his ascension and will reveal him as Son of man in glory on the day of his final coming.      - CCC 697

Pope meets European bishops

Today also  World Communications Sunday But who's going to talk about communications on Feast of Ascension ...and Mother's Day? c.f. WCS needs a dedicated day

Today is the feast of Our Lady of China - A history of this feast - and Another history

By a happy coincidence, today is also the anniversary of both Matteo Ricci (1610) and his early companion Michele Ruggieri (1607) - the Jesuit pioneers in China who established a great love for Mary in the hearts of the people of China

A VIP article: Don't let spring turn to winter  Hans Kung re Pope Francis
If Pope Francis tackles reforms, he will find he has the wide approval of people far beyond the Catholic Church

Check it out: Today there will be  three popes in Vatican!

Put an end to fear in the Church

Tomorrow: Pope to canonise Colombia's first saint

A reflection on the Holy Spirit to help prepare for Pentecost: Fire. While water signifies birth and the fruitfulness of life given in the Holy Spirit, fire symbolizes the transforming energy of the Holy Spirit's actions. The prayer of the prophet Elijah, who "arose like fire" and whose "word burned like a torch," brought down fire from heaven on the sacrifice on Mount Carmel. This event was a "figure" of the fire of the Holy Spirit, who transforms what he touches. John the Baptist, who goes "before [the Lord] in the spirit and power of Elijah," proclaims Christ as the one who "will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." Jesus will say of the Spirit: "I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!" In the form of tongues "as of fire," the Holy Spirit rests on the disciples on the morning of Pentecost and fills them with himself The spiritual tradition has retained this symbolism of fire as one of the most expressive images of the Holy Spirit's actions. "Do not quench the Spirit." - CCC 696

Pope's meeting with 800 sisters: Report 01    02

Pope's morning homily: Evangelize, don't proselytize

A reflection on the Holy Spirit to help prepare for Pentecost: The symbolism of anointing with oil also signifies the Holy Spirit, to the point of becoming a synonym for the Holy Spirit. In Christian initiation, anointing is the sacramental sign of Confirmation, called "chrismation" in the Churches of the East. 
Its full force can be grasped only in relation to the primary anointing accomplished by the Holy Spirit, that of Jesus. Christ (in Hebrew "messiah") means the one "anointed" by God's Spirit. There were several anointed ones of the Lord in the Old Covenant, pre-eminently King David.
But Jesus is God's Anointed in a unique way: the humanity the Son assumed was entirely anointed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit established him as "Christ." 
The Virgin Mary conceived Christ by the Holy Spirit who, through the angel, proclaimed him the Christ at his birth, and prompted Simeon to come to the temple to see the Christ of the Lord. The Spirit filled Christ and the power of the Spirit went out from him in his acts of healing and of saving. It was the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. 
Now, fully established as "Christ" in his humanity victorious over death, Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit abundantly until "the saints" constitute - in their union with the humanity of the Son of God - that perfect man "to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" - "the whole Christ," in St. Augustine's expression. - CCC 695

A reflection on the Holy Spirit to help prepare for Pentecost: The Holy Spirit is the living water "welling up to eternal life" in the heart that prays. It is he who teaches us to accept it at its source: Christ. Indeed in the Christian life there are several wellsprings where Christ awaits us to enable us to drink of the Holy Spirit.

Speaking of water... Bangldesh: drinking water fast disappearing

A Vatican cardinal pulls back the curtain - on power struggle opera

Sisters meeting in Rome: Obedience to God's voice  heard in the poor

No mention of row as Pope meets sisters

Point of this article: include the laity and succeed, leave them out and fail. Has all sorts of ramifications

Jesuit Podcast: Young and imprisoned Inmates wrote to Pope  to thank him for washing inmates' feet

Ted's Talks - Video (6 min) Read Chinese easily (!)

Association of US priests to hold annual meeting June 24-27
Speakers include Robert Kaiser and Robert Mickens

What's in a name?
A great wrap up of the early days of Pope Francis' ministry

Pope Francis is attached to traditional devotions and not afraid to show it

Vatican meeting: Sisters grasp the extended hand
(Sisters due to meet with Pope today, May 8)

Protestant gathering praises Pope

Cultural blindness in Church abuse investigations

Enough already
There is no point at which those who accumulate money become satisfied

Why are we so resistant to teaching Jesus as our religion?

Cardinal in charge of Religious Life not consulted before LCWR decision
And notice in this article  Pope Francis' method to  chose the cardinal's secretary!

Smile:Red-faced robber!

Poor pay high price for our cheap clothes

Bangladesh tragedy: Guilt-free clothing

May 6

Denmark: crime down, streets safer because of legal drug centre
Would that such centres could be established in every part of the world. The drug market would collapse - jw

Interactive Bible Quiz - Genesis
Based on the actual words of the Bible.
How many times you can get 3/3 ?!

HK:  construction starting on massive highway system for central Kowloon
This site has links to videos  in English and Chinese

Men Alive website (Australia) Dates of 2013 weekends

There is no degree needed to wash feet. The washing of feet is a summary of the Gospel - Br Andrew

Can Catholic schools connect scholarly research and poor communities?

US: average age of new priests is 32

Hospitalized N.Y. dad gets to see  his daughter's first communion

Pope to meet privately with  Sisters  leadership group

Four fronts where the Vatican  isn't the real problem

More on Latin translations Questions from a Ewe

Today is 200th birthday of Soren Kierkegaard

May 4

Testament insults Jesus' mother
John W
See my comment at this article.
At top of comments, click "Best" rather than "Newest" or "Oldest" to find my commen

Pope Francis bringing Romero in from the cold  

Francis' secret weapon: a sense of humour

Thinking the unthinkable No more "I'm the boss" bishops

Vatican to house two popes

"The young priest and old man"- a sad story

A Christian school in China Note final 7 lines

Christian Brothers spent $1 million  to defend paedophile

May 3

Reforming Vatican is like nailing jelly to a wall

Gerry Blaszczak, S.J., discusses Pope Francis' frequent mention of the devil and how it reflects the pope's Ignatian spirituality - in this video

Video: Congo bishop talks about his country's 15 years of violence

Pope's May 1 Labour Day address:
An appeal to end slavery

Pope getting avalanche of advice about reform of Curia

SSPX rushes to mend Vatican fences

May 1

German Bishops' Conference chairman:
Let's have women deacons !

Pope invited to visit Israel

Benedict will return to Vatican tomorrow

Tribute to Bishop Jin of Shanghai
Fr Michael Kelly SJ

China's aid projects in Africa
US$75 billion in past 10 years

Why are priests called "father"?
Questions from a Ewe

 

I wonder what Matteo Ricci would think of this video?  How Chinese characters confirm Genesis stories   Would Ricci see it as just a co-incidence or would he see it as some sort of possible confirmation of his theory that ancient Chinese culture retained traces of primal Biblical revelation?