On Zenit News, the Vatican Web Site, and Other Features
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Last week’s post offered two sources of stability
in the faith: a collection of traditional prayers
from a Catholic prayer book, and four brief books
on the subject of meditation from Benedictine monk
Fr. John Main, OSB. Also, since September 21 is
the feast of St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist,
three web pages are dedicated for this feast: one
features a page on books and music at discount
prices through our affiliate program with Ignatius
Press; second, a blog post on a brief biography of
St. Matthew; and third, an article that helps those
who wish to have a general understanding of the
gospel of Matthew. To review the information from
last week’s post, you can click here.
This week’s post is fully loaded with a lot of
information you can learn on the Catholic faith:
first there are three news clips from Zenit
news on the subject of John Paul II, the meaning
of the pre-Vatican II posture of the priest at
the Mass, and a message on wealth, poverty and
the equal distribution of goods by Pope Benedict
XVI; second, there are two book reviews on the
subject of ministry and apostolate in a corporate
environment, and the holy use of money in the
light of Christian faith; third, there is a
page featuring books, films, music and art on
the subject of archangels and angels; and lastly,
there is a new resource that will be provided
to you, our loyal readers and feed subscribers
- occasional feed items on official resources
from the Vatican web site.
This post features:
- He ‘wanted to be let go, to
go to the Lord’ - Zenit News - Becoming Catholic -
Learning of the RCIA Program - General Presentation of
the Reformation and Counter-Reformation - Lectionary Readings for
the 26th Sunday of the Year, Year C - Meaning of the “priest
and ‘his back to the people’” - Zenit News - Heart Business: Building
a Kinder, Gentler Workplace - On Wealth and Poverty and
Equal Distribution - Zenit News - The Holy Use of Money:
Personal Finances in Light of Christian Faith - Vatican Web Site:
Searching For Official Resources - Celebrating the Feast
of the Archangels with 20% off!
He wanted to go to the Lord.
According to an article in one of Italy’s newspapers,
Dr. Renato Buzzonetti, the attending physician to
John Paul II’s last days, said the Pope’s last words
were “the prayer of a saint that loved life until
the good Lord called him to himself”. Though John
Paul II suffered much during his last days, his prayer,
which expressed a desire to “go to the Lord”, is
more to be seen as an ascetical prayer - an elevated
form of prayer of one who wanted to draw himself
to the Heavenly Father. Since the start, John Paul II
wanted to remain in the Vatican despite his condition.
When his conditions worsened and he could no longer
feed himself by mouth, a nasal gastric tube was applied
to give him nutrition. The ‘passion’ of John Paul
II was long but he never gave up - reminding us
of his statement that “Jesus never came down from
the cross”. Up to the last hours, John Paul II was
guaranteed uninterrupted and quality specialized
medical assistance, with highly specialized personnel.
Becoming Catholic
One of the missions of our web site is to help others
have contact with the Catholic faith through the Net.
All the articles, blog posts, and pages featuring
books and other Catholic items for sale are
supplementary helps for those who may want to
learn more of Catholicism. Eventually, if one feels
a strong desire to become Catholic, getting connected
with a Catholic community near you can help you be
linked with a Catholic parish. The Catholic parish
can then help you find means and ways to enter into
the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults. As you
enter into this program, you will be taught all the
basic things needed in order to be initiated into
the sacramental life of the Church. Once initiated
through baptism, confession, eucharist and
confirmation, you can then follow-up on your
knowledge of the faith through the articles, blog
posts, and web pages of our web site and continually
be in contact with the parish community in which
you were baptized. The page presented in this
feed item presents a way of learning more about the
Catholic religion after you have finished the
requirements of the RCIA [Rite of Christian
Initiation for Adults] program.
General Presentation
Though the Catholic Church is always in need of
reform because of the human elements that make up
her organization, there was a time in her history
that she was really more in need of reform compared
to the centuries that have passed since the Church
became highly organized. This was during the 15th
to 17th centuries. It was a time of a growing
decadence and laxity in many church systems -
including that of the papacy. A reform movement was
started with Luther and Calvin as the more prominent
protesting voices. The reform of Luther was
initially within the folds of the Church. Sadly
and unfortunately though, it broke off with Rome
and eventually was directed into the Protestant
Reformation. Catholic Reformation or the Counter
Reformation was not organized as quickly as it
should have been. Thus, Christian Europe was deeply
divided, with more of the north embracing Protestant
doctrines and the south of Europe still very much
staunchly loyal to Rome. Eventually, events transpired
that helped solved this crisis: the organization of
the Council of Trent. This council spanned about
25 sessions for over a length of 18 years. However,
after its conclusion and the implementation of its
decrees, the Catholic faith was able to restore itself
by re-defining and re-establishing its doctrines under
the leadership of many good and saintly ecclesiastical
and grass roots reformers. The post-Tridentine age
is commonly described by some Church historians as
an “era of saints”.
Lectionary Readings
The lectionary readings for the 26th sunday of the
Year, Year C, are taken from the book of the prophet
Amos, the letter of Paul to Timothy, and the gospel
of Luke. In the book of Amos, the prophet Amos speaks
in behalf of Yahweh, and warns that those who live in
revelry and licentiousness and are not made ill by
the collapse of Joseph, shall be the first to go into
exile. Then in the letter of Paul to Timothy, Paul
encourages Timothy to a life of integrity, piety,
faith, love, steadfastness and gentleness so as to
be pleasing to God. Finally in the gospel of Luke,
we have Jesus teaching the Pharisees about the parable
of the rich man and Lazarus. In this parable, Jesus
tells about the reversal of fortunes when the time
of God’s judgment comes. If the rich man lived in
luxury and comfort during his lifetime and Lazarus
lived in poverty and misery, at judgment, there will
be a reversal of fortunes - the rich man will now
be in torment and Lazarus, who once was in misery,
is now comforted and consoled on the bosom of Father
Abraham.
Meaning of Priest’s Posture
With the go ahead signal from the Vatican to
celebrate the Latin Mass, there is also a move to
use the old posture of the priest with “his back to
the people” compared to the new Vatican posture of
his facing the parish congregation. Father Uwe Michael
Lang says that the priest’s “back to the people” is
really the “ad orientem,” or “facing east” in
liturgical prayer. Tradition says that the early
Christians saw in the rising sun a symbol of the
Resurrection and of the Second Coming. It was thus
a matter of following this direction in their prayer
to face “east”. And there is also strong evidence
of this eastward prayer in most parts of the Christian
world from the second century onward. The link to
this is Zenit news clip tells about how this Christian
tradition was also part of a bigger tradition in
other religions like Judaism and Islam - where Jews
pray in the direction of the Temple of Jerusalem
and Muslims pray in the direction facing Mecca.
Heart Business
Corporate environments often are stereotyped to
portray workplaces as arenas of fierce competition
were “mean” is “in” and the race to the top is like
a stampede where many get stepped on. This is
however not the true picture. Corporate environments
also have humanity in them, though it may at times
not be as dominant or apparent. Dolores Lynn Torrell
makes a difference in her book “Heart-Business” by
influencing her corporation and also others with
her style of blending spirituality and ministry
with her corporate work. In this book which
features her ministry she gives seven principles
by which faith and business can be blended:
“do business with a heart”, “trust and be trusting”,
“be compassionate”, “be kind, be honest, be kind”,
“listen with a ‘third ear’”, “be supportive”, and
“be of loving service to others”.
On Equal Distribution of Goods
The holy father Pope Benedict XVI addressed a crowd
of people at St. Peter’s Square and spoke about wealth,
poverty and equal distribution of riches. The pope
said that wealth in itself is not bad; if it is qualified
and balanced with the equal distribution of goods, then
it can contribute to the welfare of many in the economy.
His message for all is simple. We are called not to think
only of our own interests with regards to the goods we
have, but also are called to consider the poor. He also
adds that the profit motive is not bad as long as the
produce of goods is well-ordered and well-distributed
among all. He refers to Jesus as an example for us: He
who is rich became poor [took our human flesh] so that
we may be enriched.
The Holy Use of Money
Jesuit John Haughey has a special ministry and
apostolate. Aside from being a pastor and a lecturer
in theology universities, he also worked with business
people and entered into dialogue and reflection with
them. This resulted in a ministry that dealt with
connecting business and faith. He has written many
books in this line and one of them is “The Holy Use
of Money”. This book is well written and very
informative. Its basic message is that many among
us succumb to the illness he calls “mammon illness”.
This illness is a wrong placement of our trust.
According to him, the cure to this illness in our
personal finances is the Pentecost symbol. By
placing our trust on the Spirit of God, we become
healed of “mammon illness” and we receive the gift
of confidence, faith and trust in God’s providence.
Although John Haughey writes with some theological
jargon, there are passages in the book that can
easily be understood given a basic knowledge of
the bible and the Catholic faith. Reading Chapters
1, 8 and 9 is enough to absorb the basic message
of the book.
Vatican Web Site
Starting with this feed item, we shall occasionally
also include web pages from the Vatican site to augment
your subscriber resources. As a first feature, this
feed item will link you to the Vatican English page
where you can make a search on their new search facility
at the upper right corner of the page. There are also
many other links which you can browse and visit. The
Vatican web site is the official web site of the
Catholic Church. All official information regarding
the Catholic faith can be found here. We will be
happy to serve you with whatever information that is
provided here that is also related to the articles,
web log posts, Catholic books and other items featured
on our web site.
Celebrating a Feast
Featured on this page are books, films, art and
music in honor of the feast of the archangels and
angels. The book by Kreeft answers popular questions
many people have of angelic spirits. There is also
a video about angels by the late Bishop Fulton Sheen.
Also featured on this page is a special item of art
depicting angels serenading the infant Jesus by artist
William Bouguereau.
