2016
Super Cool #Basketball Moves in VIRAL Video by #Franciscan Friars with Music to SHARE
Canadian Bishops against #Euthanasia Free #ProLife Resources to SHARE
Resources and statements regarding Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia
Following the release on February 25, 2016, of the report Medical Assistance in Dying: A Patient-Centred Approach, by the Special Joint Committee of the Government of Canada on Physician-Assisted Dying, several declarations and reactions have been published beginning with thepastoral statement of the Most Reverend Douglas Crosby, O.M.I., Bishop of Hamilton and President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB). His Eminence Thomas Cardinal Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, also issued a statement, as well as the Most Reverend J. Michael Miller, C.S.B., Archbishop of Vancouver, and the Catholic Bishops of Alberta. Furthermore, the Assembly of Québec Catholic Bishops (AECQ) has just made available the English version of its pastoral letter, Approaching Death in the Company of Christ. This pastoral letter was published in French in December 2015 and includes a proposal of a number of steps that may be taken as part of the spiritual journey to accompany the dying.
Other resources promoted by dioceses across the country:
-The Archdiocese of Edmonton is sponsoring a campaign to promote the true dignity of life and death. The Every Life Matters campaign includes a website with a video to help parishes and Catholics understand the issues involved, and provides a list of practical suggestions on how to choose life. The website is http://www.commitlife.com/.
-The Archdiocese of Toronto is part of the Respect for Conscience project. This involves a detailed proposal on how to respect the conscience rights of doctors and health-care facilities without interfering with the patient's choice for assisted death. The project, and its websitehttp://www.canadiansforconscience.ca/, is an initiative of the Coalition for HealthCARE and Conscience, which involves the Archdiocese of Toronto, the Christian Medical and Dental Society of Canada, the Catholic Organization for Life and Family, the Canadian Federation of Catholic Physicians' Societies, the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute, and Canadian Physicians for Life. The project also represents some 5,000 physicians across Canada. The website allows concerned Canadians to indicate their support for the proposal, as well as providing an opportunity to write to the appropriate officials in each province or territory with respect to its plans to protect the conscience rights of health-care workers.
-The Archdiocese of Vancouver has launched a campaign to protect and safeguard freedom of conscience and religion for health-care workers. It includes a petition to the House of Commons for a national strategy on palliative care, as well as a postcard to the Minister of Justice on ensuring protection for the freedom of conscience of those who cannot ethically participate in assisted suicide. Information about the campaign, as well as copies of the petition and the postcard, are available athttp://rcav.org/assisted-suicide/.
Submissions received by Special Joint Committee on Physician-Assisted Dying:
The CCCB intervention, together with other written submissions received by the Special Joint Committee on Physician-Assisted Dying, has been posted on the latter's website,
http://www.parl.gc.ca/Committees/en/PDAM/StudyActivity?studyActivityId=8765254.
http://www.parl.gc.ca/Committees/en/PDAM/StudyActivity?studyActivityId=8765254.
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#BreakingNews 1 Killed and 12 Injured in Israel during Attack - Please PRAY
Intifada of knives, one dead and 12 injured. Israelis: Settlements hurt security
An American citizen was killed during a stabbing carried out by a 21-year old Palestinian. After launching attacks in four areas of Tel Aviv, the young man was shot dead by police. Biden meets Netanyahu and Abbas. In a survey, 30% of Israelis think that the settlements hurt security. And Muslims are discriminated against compared with Jews.
Jerusalem (AsiaNews / Agencies) - An American tourist was killed in a stabbing yesterday by a lone assailant, a 21 year-old Palestinian who carried out attacks in different tourist areas of Tel Aviv, before being shot dead by the Israeli security forces. In the assault, which took place in conjunction with the arrival of US Vice-President Joe Biden, 12 other people were injured, some of them seriously.
Local sources say the attacker was a Palestinian young man from Qalqilya, a West Bank town; after hitting four points of the city, including the seafront in Jaffna, he was "neutralized" [shot dead, ed] by the police.
The victim’s identity is still unknown, he was an American citizen.
Since October last year, following ultra-Orthodox Jews provocation of praying on Temple Mount, there have been multiple violent episodes in Israel and the Palestinian territories, in the context of the so-called "intifada of knives".
So far they 184 Palestinians, 28 Israelis, two Americans, a Sudanese and one Eritrean have been killed. Most Palestinians were shot dead as they tried to carry out stabbings or car rammings on passersby or Israeli soldiers. Others were killed during demonstrations or clashes with the military.
Today Biden - who yesterday on arrival met with former President Shimon Peres - meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Talks will focus on a defense system, the total value of which amounts to 3.1 billion dollars a year. The US Vice President’s visit comes at a time when relations between the two governments is at a historic low. Recently the Israeli prime minister declined an invitation to the White House by US President Barack Obama to discuss security and peace.
Meanwhile, the results of a survey prepared by the US Pew Research Center are sparking widespread debate as they reveal that the majority of Israelis are not convinced that the settlements in the West Bank will strengthen the security of the Jewish state.
30% of Jewish Israelis polled believed that "the settlements hurt security". 25% instead think that they "make no difference" in terms of security. 42% are convinced, according to the policy of the Israeli right, that the settlements are vital for the security of the country.
The survey, developed between October 2014 and May 2015 on a sample of 5,601 adult Israelis, also reveals that Israeli Arabs - 205 of the 8.4 million inhabitants - believe that Muslims are discriminated against compared with Jewish citizens. For 79% there is indeed a "profound discrimination."
The settlements are communities inhabited by Israeli civilians and built in territories conquered by Israel after the Six Day War in June 1967, in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the Gaza Strip. In 1979, Israel withdrew from the settlements in Sinai after signing a peace agreement with Egypt, and in 2005 the then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the dismantling of 17 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.
Currently the colonies are located in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Golan Heights. According to data from the Israeli Ministry of the Interior, there are at least 133 recognized settlements in the West Bank - plus a hundred or so "outposts" - and are home to about 500 thousand people, home to about 300,000 Israelis in East Jerusalem, and 20,000 in the Golan Heights. Over the past five years, the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank has increased by 20 percent. Shared from AsiaNewsIT
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How to Talk to your Kids about #Modest Clothing - Hints to SHARE
Why Leggings Aren't Pants (or How to Talk to Your Child About Modest Clothing)
I grimace inside every time I hear a rant about leggings being okay to wear as pants. I instinctively know that leggings aren’t pants and the more I ponder the question, the more it leads me to think about why we even wear clothes at all. Not only that, but how do we explain, especially to a teenager, that leggings (along with many other items of popular clothing) might be ‘cool’ or ‘in style’, but are inappropriate to wear as pants? The following is what I came up with, and might help you in explaining to the kids and teens in your life why we dress our bodies appropriately in order to be classy – and holy.
Why do we wear clothes?
We wear clothes for a few reasons. First, because of the climate. Whether you live in a predominantly hot or cold climate, our bodies aren’t very good at protecting us against nature’s elements, so we must either keep warm or keep our skin covered to protect against the sun. Either way, the body needs clothes.
Secondly we wear clothes because of our societal standards. Our society dictates that certain parts of our bodies remain more or less covered. So we clothe ourselves to stay classy.
Thirdly, and most importantly, we wear clothes because the Lord asks us to cover our bodies appropriately. After they sinned in the Garden, something happened to Adam and Eve. They felt their nakedness, and wanted to cover themselves. Perhaps it wasn’t meant to be so from the very beginning, but humanity’s sin changed how we look at and treat our bodies forever. Ever since the Fall, we clothe our nakedness.
So why does God ask us to cover our bodies, especially certain parts?
He does so because our bodies are very special- different parts being made for different purposes. For instance our hands were made to live mostly uncovered. We put gloves on them when it’s intensely cold outside to help keep them warm, but mostly we need our hands as they are to pick up items, cook, clean, wash, write and go about our daily lives. They’re incredibly useful to us exactly the way they are.
But other parts of us – most especially the parts from the neck down and the knees up – these parts are very special, and were not made to be shown to the general public like our hands are. There are only a very small list of people that see the body parts between our neck and knees, and for a very small list of reasons: our doctor for medical reasons, our parents (if we’re children), our spouse for marital purposes, and ourselves for hygienic purposes - and that’s about it. Other than these, we keep these very special parts under wraps.
We don’t cover ourselves because we are afraid of our own bodies. We do so because our bodies are very beautiful, and special, and have depth and meaning beyond ourselves. And because showing our bodies, most especially the parts between our neck and knees, misrepresents us - as human persons - to the outside world. We are not only body, we are a crazy mix of body and soul, and when we leave the parts between our neck and knees uncovered, the public gets distracted and tends to think of us as mostly body - sometimes devoid of soul! So dressing ourselves in a way that shows particularly special body parts off to the world misrepresents us to the world, as we aren’t giving people the full picture, or living in the truth of who we are.
So how do we keep these special body parts under wraps?
First we clothe the actual nakedness. We wear stuff that covers the actual skin, and we do so with the thought that we are beautifully and wonderfully made. We don’t wear ugly, shapeless garments - but rather items that accentuate the beautiful parts of our bodies. For instance we wear blue items to bring out the blue in our eyes, or belts to bring out a small waist. We can also use clothing to cover our not-so-liked features, like stretchy undergarments to smooth out rolls or fuller skirts to even out broad shoulders. All shapes and figures can look gorgeous just the way they are!
But we don’t only clothe the actual skin of our bodies, we also clothe the form of our bodies as well. Tight, clingy clothing is not only uncomfortable to live in, but it distinctively outlines the body parts it’s covering, giving the impression of nakedness while the skin is still in fact covered. But the end result is the same – tight clothing (like leggings) makes it look as if we are naked. We are explicitly displaying parts of the body by accentuating their form - coming across, again, as only a body, rather than as what we are: a human person made up of a body and a soul.
So where to go from here?
The easiest thing to do is to ask ourselves a few questions as we’re dressing in the morning.
Ask the Lord – is what I’m wearing glorifying you, by covering the parts of my body that you ask us to guard for our sake and for yours?
Ask yourself – Am I covering the important parts of myself, so that people see me before they see my body parts? Am I comfortable with my outfit? Are my undergarments visible? Will I be adjusting this outfit all day: pulling things up or down? Do my clothes ride up when I sit, stand or walk? Can I bend over, lean down, walk, run or sit cross-legged without exhibiting (either the actual skin or the form of) the special body parts between my neck and knees? Is my clothing, as Coco Chanel once said, “tight enough to show that I’m a woman, and loose enough to show that I’m a lady?”
Then get rid of clothing that is tight, clingy or transparent. Add specific undergarments like scarves, camisoles or skirt extenders to help with issues of clothing falling open, plunging necklines or short skirts. If you want to wear leggings add knee-length tops to your outfit. While there are a few items of clothing that are irredeemable, most outfits can be salvaged by adding a few finishing touches.
Today's Mass Readings and Video : Wed. March 9, 2016
Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Lectionary: 246
Reading 1 Is 49:8-15
Thus says the LORD:
In a time of favor I answer you,
on the day of salvation I help you;
and I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people,
To restore the land
and allot the desolate heritages,
Saying to the prisoners: Come out!
To those in darkness: Show yourselves!
Along the ways they shall find pasture,
on every bare height shall their pastures be.
They shall not hunger or thirst,
nor shall the scorching wind or the sun strike them;
For he who pities them leads them
and guides them beside springs of water.
I will cut a road through all my mountains,
and make my highways level.
See, some shall come from afar,
others from the north and the west,
and some from the land of Syene.
Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth,
break forth into song, you mountains.
For the LORD comforts his people
and shows mercy to his afflicted.
But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me;
my Lord has forgotten me.”
Can a mother forget her infant,
be without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
I will never forget you.
In a time of favor I answer you,
on the day of salvation I help you;
and I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people,
To restore the land
and allot the desolate heritages,
Saying to the prisoners: Come out!
To those in darkness: Show yourselves!
Along the ways they shall find pasture,
on every bare height shall their pastures be.
They shall not hunger or thirst,
nor shall the scorching wind or the sun strike them;
For he who pities them leads them
and guides them beside springs of water.
I will cut a road through all my mountains,
and make my highways level.
See, some shall come from afar,
others from the north and the west,
and some from the land of Syene.
Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth,
break forth into song, you mountains.
For the LORD comforts his people
and shows mercy to his afflicted.
But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me;
my Lord has forgotten me.”
Can a mother forget her infant,
be without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
I will never forget you.
Responsorial Psalm PS 145:8-9, 13cd-14, 17-18
R. (8a) The Lord is gracious and merciful.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.
The LORD is faithful in all his words
and holy in all his works.
The LORD lifts up all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.
The LORD is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.
The LORD is faithful in all his words
and holy in all his works.
The LORD lifts up all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.
The LORD is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.
Verse Before The Gospel Jn 11:25a, 26
I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord;
whoever believes in me will never die.
“My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.”
For this reason they tried all the more to kill him,
because he not only broke the sabbath
but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.
Jesus answered and said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own,
but only what he sees the Father doing;
for what he does, the Son will do also.
For the Father loves the Son
and shows him everything that he himself does,
and he will show him greater works than these,
so that you may be amazed.
For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life,
so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes.
Nor does the Father judge anyone,
but he has given all judgment to the Son,
so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.
Whoever does not honor the Son
does not honor the Father who sent him.
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word
and believes in the one who sent me
has eternal life and will not come to condemnation,
but has passed from death to life.
Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God,
and those who hear will live.
For just as the Father has life in himself,
so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself.
And he gave him power to exercise judgment,
because he is the Son of Man.
Do not be amazed at this,
because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs
will hear his voice and will come out,
those who have done good deeds
to the resurrection of life,
but those who have done wicked deeds
to the resurrection of condemnation.
“I cannot do anything on my own;
I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just,
because I do not seek my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.”
whoever believes in me will never die.
Gospel Jn 5:17-30
Jesus answered the Jews:“My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.”
For this reason they tried all the more to kill him,
because he not only broke the sabbath
but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.
Jesus answered and said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own,
but only what he sees the Father doing;
for what he does, the Son will do also.
For the Father loves the Son
and shows him everything that he himself does,
and he will show him greater works than these,
so that you may be amazed.
For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life,
so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes.
Nor does the Father judge anyone,
but he has given all judgment to the Son,
so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.
Whoever does not honor the Son
does not honor the Father who sent him.
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word
and believes in the one who sent me
has eternal life and will not come to condemnation,
but has passed from death to life.
Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God,
and those who hear will live.
For just as the Father has life in himself,
so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself.
And he gave him power to exercise judgment,
because he is the Son of Man.
Do not be amazed at this,
because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs
will hear his voice and will come out,
those who have done good deeds
to the resurrection of life,
but those who have done wicked deeds
to the resurrection of condemnation.
“I cannot do anything on my own;
I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just,
because I do not seek my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.”
Saint March 9 : St. Dominic Savio : Patron of #Choirboys, Falsely #Accused, #Juvenile delinquents
 Information:
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MYSTIC, YOUTHFUL CONFESSOR, STUDENT OF ST. JOHN BOSCO
Here is a boy-saint who died at the age of fifteen, was one of the great hopes of St. John Bosco for the future of his congregation, and was canonized in 1954.
He was one of ten children of Carlo and Birgitta Savio. Carlo was a blacksmith and Birgitta was a seamstress. When Don Bosco was looking for young men to train as priests for his Salesian Order, his parish priest suggested Dominic Savio. Dominic became more than a credit to Don Bosco's school—he single-handedly organized those who were to be the nucleus of Don Bosco's order.
St. Dominic Savio was twelve when he met Don Bosco and organized a group of boys into the Company of the Immaculate Conception. Besides its religious purpose, the boys swept and took care of the school and looked after the boys that no one seemed to pay any attention to. When, in 1859, Don Bosco chose the young men to be the first members of his congregation, all of them had been members of Dominic's Company.
For all that, Dominic was a normal, high-spirited boy who sometimes got into trouble with his teachers because he would often break out laughing. However, he was generally well disciplined and gradually gained the respect of the tougher boys in Don Bosco's school.
In other circumstances, Dominic might have become a little self-righteous snob, but Don Bosco showed him the heroism of the ordinary and the sanctity of common sense. "Religion must be about us as the air we breathe," Don Bosco would say, and Dominic Savio wore holiness like the clothes on his back.
He called his long hours of prayer "his distractions." In 1857, at the age of fifteen, he caught tuberculosis and was sent home to recover. On the evening of March 9, he asked his father to say the prayers for the dying. His face lit up with an intense joy and he said to his father: "I am seeing most wonderful things!" These were his last words.
Thought for the Day: "I can't do big things," St. Dominic Savio once said, "but I want everything to be for the glory of God." His was the way of the ordinary: cheerfulness, fidelity in little things, helping others, playing games, obeying his superiors. This heroism in little things is the stuff of holiness.
(Taken from Catholic Encyclopedia) |
Saint March 9 : St. Frances of Rome : Patron of: #Benedictine #oblates; #Automobile Drivers
 Information:
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MYSTIC AND BENEFACTOR OF THE SICK AND POOR
One of the greatest mystics of the fifteenth century; born at Rome, of a noble family, in 1384; died there, 9 March, 1440.
Her youthful desire was to enter religion, but at her father's wish she married, at the age of twelve, Lorenzo de' Ponziani. Among her children we know of Battista, who carried on the family name, Evangelista, a child of great gifts (d. 1411), and Agnes (d. 1413). Frances was remarkable for her charity to the poor, and her zeal for souls. She won away many Roman ladies from a life of frivolity, and united them in an association of oblates attached to the White Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria Nuova; later they became the Benedictine Oblate Congregation of Tor di Specchi (25 March, 1433) which was approved by Eugene IV (4 July, 1433). Its members led the life of religious, but without the strict cloister or formal vows, and gave themselves up to prayer and good works. With her husband's consent Frances practiced continency, and advanced in a life of contemplation. Her visions often assumed the form of drama enacted for her by heavenly personages. She had the gift of miracles and ecstasy, we well as the bodily vision of her guardian angel, had revelations concerning purgatory and hell, and foretold the ending of the Western Schism. She could read the secrets of consciences and detect plots of diabolical origin. She was remarkable for her humility and detachment, her obedience and patience, exemplified on the occasion ofher husband's banishment, the captivity of Battista, her sons' death, and the loss of all herproperty.
On the death of her husband (1436) she retired among her oblates at Tor di Specchi, seeking admission for charity's sake, and was made superior. On the occasion of a visit to her son, she fell ill and died on the day she had foretold. Her canonization was preceded by three processes (1440, 1443, 1451) and Paul V declared her a saint on 9 May, 1608, assigning 9 March as her feast day. Long before that, however, the faithful were wont to venerate her body in the church of Santa Maria Nuova in the Roman Forum, now known as the church of Santa Francesca Romana.
(Taken From Catholic Encyclopedia) |
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