'Lifting Up Our Hearts'
Workshops highlighting new Missal to
begin with presentation, Feb. 9
While many people have heard that a new English translation of the Roman Missal is coming, some may not know the details of this important change.
According to the recommendation of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, these new texts will go into effect in all U.S. parishes on the first Sunday of Advent in 2011.
Parishes in the Diocese of Dodge City will have the opportunity to become familiar with the new English translation by participating in several upcoming events and programs. Among these is “Lifting Up Our Hearts: Praying with the New Translation of the Roman Missal,” a new offering from the Catholic ministry organization, RENEW International.
Healing and hope: Newtown's Catholic parish two years after shooting
By MARY REZAC
Newtown, Conn., Dec 14, 2014 / 05:22 am (CNA/EWTN News) - It was two years ago that Monsignor Robert Weiss rushed to the scene of the Sandy Hook elementary shooting, where nine of his littlest parishioners lost their lives, along with 11 of their schoolmates and six staff members.
And although the healing process is far from over, there have been some signs of hope and recovery at St. Rose of Lima parish in the tight-knit community in Newtown, Conn.
“The trauma is still certainly there, the awareness of the tragedy is certainly very present in our lives,” Msgr. Weiss told CNA. “For the families every day is December 14 so their friends, their neighbors, are very in tune with that.”
But the positive reaction of the victim’s families, Msgr. Weiss added, has set the tone for others’ responses.
“I think the fact that many of the victims’ families have established foundations and are doing really positive things has been a real blessing for the community, and a lot of us take our cues from those families,” he said. “To see many of them engaging in these really positive programs to benefit others has given us a real sense of purpose and hope.”
Some of the families have been involved in outreach across the country, others have created scholarships in honor of their children and one family is providing camps for children with autism, Msgr. Weiss said. The parish, too, has seen new growth from the tragedy.
“Several new ministries developed during that time, particularly for our men and for our women,” Msgr. Weiss said, “and a lot of the focus has been on dealing with stress, walking through life with a stronger purpose, and some of the psychological dimensions of this tragedy.”
Treasure hunting:
From thrift shop to eBay
to Catholic Charities
By JILL RAGAR ESFELD
Catholic News Service
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (CNS) -- As a volunteer at TurnStyles, the thrift store of Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas in Overland Park, Tom White is on the hunt for donated items that prove the old adage: “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
As a member of its elite eBay team, in fact, the parishioner at Holy Spirit Church in Overland Park has been trained to recycle that donated “trash” into the “treasure” that will keep Catholic Charities programs rolling -- with a little help from cyberspace shoppers.
No such thing as gloomy-faced saints, Pope Francis says
By ANN SCHNEIBLE
Vatican City, Dec 14, 2014 / 08:43 am (CNA/EWTN News) - Christian joy is borne out of nearness to Christ, said Pope Francis during his Angelus address for the third Sunday of Advent, adding that “gloomy-faced” saints are a contradiction.
“You have never heard of a sad or gloomy-faced saint,” the Holy Father said. “That would be a contradiction.” Rather, the heart of a Christian is “full of peace, because he knows to place his joy in the Lord, even in life's difficult moments.”
Those who have faith are not spared difficulties, he noted. Rather, having faith means “having the strength to confront them, know that we are not alone. And this is the peace which God gives to his children.”
Pope Francis delivered his address to the thousands of pilgrims who had gathered in St. Peter's Square, many of whom had brought with them little statues of Baby Jesus to be blessed by the Holy Father. The traditional “Bambinelli Blessing” takes place each year on Gaudete Sunday.
The Pope told the crowds that, while the first two weeks are centered on remaining “spiritually vigilant” in expectation of the Lord's coming, the third week of Advent calls for “another interior attitude”: joy.
Francis, This Is Your Mission
By SISTER JOAN L. ROCCASALVO, CSJ
The Way of Beauty
This was not the plan. Not the human plan. Xavier, the gifted, debonair hidalgo-turned-Jesuit was destined for great things. At forty-six years of age, exhausted from serving others, he died on an island off the mainland of China thousands of miles away from his community.
Xavier, the nobleman, who was unused to roughing it, became the greatest itinerant missionary-saint in history, second only to St. Paul of Tarsus. Such are the strange but wonderful ways of Providence to fulfill the divine plan.
For the Greater Glory of God
From his young years at the Javier castle in Navarre, Francis excelled in high-jumping. As a student at the University of Paris, he cut a handsome figure in his stylish clothes, and his extroverted personality won him friends. He and his chums were more attracted to the night life of the Latin Quarter than they were to studies.
Francis roomed with Juan de la Pena, an instructor, Peter Faber, the gentle Savoyard, and a middle-aged fellow Basque, Ignatius Loyola, a former soldier, reputed to be a religious oddity. Xavier avoided Ignatius and even scoffed at him in public. Ignatius warned him about his excesses even as he loaned him money to feed them.
In 1530 with licentiate degree in hand, Francis took a teaching post at the College of Beauvais at the University. Ignatius, with his religious project in mind, had already won over Faber to it. During the latter’s home visit, Ignatius broke through Francis’ facade and gained a second recruit and a friend. Francis went through the Spiritual Exercises and emerged from them on fire with apostolic zeal.
‘She played a foot-stomping jazz piano’
Marce Lemke Estlack remembered
Editor’s Note: While the SKR typically edits obituaries for space, it has decided to print the following in its entirety.
Marcelite (Marce) Lemke Estlack, 88, of St. Joseph Parish, Greensburg, died Dec. 10, 2010, at the home of her daughter in Lakewood, Colo. She was born June 23, 1922, in Muscoda, Wis., the second daughter of Peter O. and Emmaline Schlump Lemke.
She graduated from Muscoda High School and soon took a course in welding at the University of Wisconsin, joining the storied work force of shipbuilders during World War II at the shipyard in Green Bay.
Dominican Sisters of Peace
commemorate jubilees
As 2010 drew to an end, the Dominican Sisters of Peace closed a year of Jubilee commemorating milestone profession anniversaries of 23 Golden and Diamond Jubilarians, including two Sisters who were originally professed as Great Bend Dominicans.
Last year, these Sisters joined their congregation with six other Dominican communities to form the new Dominican Sisters of Peace. Today the Sisters continue in their ministries, sharing the Gospel in word and deed with a renewed sense of mission.
Dominican Sister of Peace Ann Metzen was born in Clonmel, Kans., into a family of two more girls and four boys. Even though throughout high school she began feeling a call to religious life, she kept pushing it out of her mind.
Muslims must speak out against terrorism, violence, Pope insists
Vatican City, Nov 30, 2014 / 05:47 pm (CNA/EWTN News) - On his in-flight press conference returning from a three-day trip to Turkey, Pope Francis said that Muslim leaders around the world must speak out against violence and terrorism carried out in the name of Islam.
“I believe sincerely that it can’t be said that all Muslims are terrorists. You can’t say that. Just as you can’t say that all Christians are fundamentalists because we have them too, eh. In all religions, there are these little groups,” he said Nov. 30.
“I told the (Turkish) president that it would be nice if all the Muslim leaders, whether political leaders or religious leaders or academic leaders, say that clearly and condemn it, no?” he continued, explaining that “all of us need a worldwide condemnation, also from Muslims who have the identity who say ‘We aren’t that. The Quran isn’t that’.”
The Pope also offered a firm warning on the situation of Middle East Christians.
Holy Family School in Great Bend
receives Governor’s Award
for third straight year
For the third consecutive year, Holy Family School in Great Bend is the recipient of the prestigious Governor’s Award for the students’ test taking skills on the state assessments.
Schools must have earned the Standard of Excellence in reading and mathematics for 2009 in order to be presented the award. The school must also have achieved adequate yearly progress (AYP) in reading and mathematics, as well as in attendance in 2009.
Pope: Knowledge alone doesn't reveal God; humble prayer does
Vatican City, Dec 2, 2014 / 12:47 pm (CNA/EWTN News) - In his homily on Tuesday, Pope Francis said that no matter how much we study, we will never know anything about God unless we speak to him humbly like children.
“Many may know science (and) theology well, so many! But if they do not do this theology on their knees, humbly, like children, they will not understand anything,” the Pope told those present in the Vatican’s Saint Martha guesthouse for his Dec. 2 daily Mass.
Although studying “will tell them many things, they will not understand anything,” he said.
Pope Francis centered his reflections on the day’s Gospel, taken from Luke Chapter 10, in which Jesus prays to the Father, praising him for hiding the mysteries of faith from the wise and instead revealing them to the humble and childlike.
Jesus “makes us know the Father, introduces us to this inner life that He has,” reveals him to us and gives us the grace to understand him, the Pope said, explaining that only those who are poor in spirit will be able to receive God’s revelation.