Every Friday

just one of the biggest stuffed animals in the library

Today's responsorial psalm:
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.
R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.

Every Friday:
Pray for the Unemployed Today
Pray for Our Nation Today

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

Every Friday

picture by Easter A.

Every Friday:
Pray for the Unemployed Today
Pray for Our Nation Today

Prayer for our Nation

Heavenly Father, You are the real foundation of nations,
raising them up to serve and care for the people
dwelling in their boundaries.
I thank You for making me a citizen of this land
of freedom and unlimited opportunity---
which are the result of its Christian base.
Send forth your Spirit to this country
and make it a source of wisdom and strength,
order and integrity throughout the world.
Amen.

The Closing of the Pauline Year - Milan

In Milan

On Sunday, 28 June, vigil of the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the diocese of Milan honored St. Paul by closing the Pauline Year with a special Eucharistic Liturgy in the Basilica of St. Ambrose.

Cardinal Diogenes Tettamanzi, Archbishop of Milan, and Auxiliary Bishop Erminio De Scalzi, abbot of the Basilica, concelebrated the Mass with a large group of Pauline priests. The Daughters of St. Paul, Pious Disciples and Pastorelle Sisters of the Lombard region, plus a group of Annunciationists, members of the Holy Family Institute and Pauline Cooperators Association and many parishioners, friends and acquaintances, also participated in the Liturgy. More.

Conclusion of St. Paul - Part II

ST. PAUL: YESTERYEAR AND THIS YEAR
By Brother John M. Samaha, S.M.


Adaptable

Certainly Paul was adaptable. He wrote to the Philippians (4:11-13), “I have learned to manage with whatever I have…. There is nothing I cannot do in the One who strengthens me.” He exhibited a determination to serve all people and to win as many as he could (1 Cor 9:19).

Lovable

Despite his occasional severity, it is clearly evident that Paul’s followers genuinely loved him and sacrificed for him. The very fact that his letters have been preserved is a clear indication of admiration and love. When Paul departed Miletus for Jerusalem the faithful broke into tears at the thought of never seeing him again (Acts 20: 27-38).

Magnanimous

The personal greatness of Paul and the magnitude of his achievements are of such proportions that they present an inexhaustible field of inspiration. The Church never ceases to study his teaching and to imitate his apostolic zeal.

During the Pauline Year Pope Benedict XVI repeatedly urged us to recall the phenomenal accomplishments of St. Paul’s evangelizing efforts and to revitalize our own missionary spirit in fulfilling our baptismal obligation to spread the faith.

At the time of his martyrdom at Rome, Paul was a relative unknown while the Emperor Nero’s notoriety was widespread. Yet, as one historian has observed, “the day would come when people would call their children Paul and their dogs Nero.”

From:
Sr Margaret Kerry, fsp
50 St Paul’s Ave
Boston, MA 02130
617-522-8911
Pauline Cooperator Weblog
http://paulinelaity.blogspot.com/
http://paulinecooperators.ning.com/

Conclusion of St. Paul - Part 1

ST. PAUL: YESTERYEAR AND THIS YEAR
By Brother John M. Samaha, S.M.

The Church has completed the celebration of the Pauline Year (June 29, 2008-2009) honoring the person and the teachings of the Apostle to the Gentiles on the 2000th anniversary of his birth. In a brief retrospect of this special year let us consider a summary portrait of St. Paul and his magnanimous, captivating, and intense personality.

How did St. Paul do it? What did he speak and write and do to attract so many to Christianity? He was a dynamic evangelizer. There is power to be found in his letters of faith proclaimed years before the gospels were composed.

Effective evangelist

Although he was addressing the people and circumstances of his time when he spoke and wrote, Paul’s theological reflections and ideas resonate today. What he said yesteryear is applicable this year. The meaning of his letters is the same today as it was for his contemporaries. His teaching is remarkable for its richness and appeal. His zeal evidences dynamism and determination.

Paul was the first New Testament author, and therefore the first to record the message and meaning of Jesus’ ministry on earth. He was the first to write about baptism and Eucharist as sacraments. Paul was Christianity’s first theologian, the first to give us a theology – a systematic and detailed explanation of our faith. Later theologians built on Paul’s foundations.

Decisive

St. Paul was a man of action. He did not hesitate to address quickly an error or scandal or problem within any of the Christian communities he assisted. Rapidly and decisively he made his position clear. One reason he communicated so effectively with so many was his strength of will. He was not diverted from the central purpose to which he was dedicated.

From:
Sr Margaret Kerry, fsp
50 St Paul’s Ave
Boston, MA 02130
617-522-8911
Pauline Cooperator Weblog
http://paulinelaity.blogspot.com/
http://paulinecooperators.ning.com/

Every Friday:

Pray for the Unemployed Today

Pray for Our Nation Today

Thought for the day

Thought for the day: Confidence in God. We can never have too much confidence in the good God who is so powerful and so merciful. We obtain from Him as much as we hope for.

If you are nothing, do you forget that Jesus is everything? You have only to lose your nothingness in His Infinity and think only of loving Him.

Source: Novena to St. Therese