Tribulation Times
THE TRIB TIMES WILL RETURN NEXT WEEK, GOD WILLING (James 4:15).
(Jos 24:15) And if you be unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
VIDEO: Fr. Corapi on Notre Dame Scandal
NEWSWIRE: Arrested at Notre Dame; Statement by Randall A. Terry
ARCHBISHOP CHAPUT: Media culture and compromise undermining Christian life
EXCERPT ADDRESS ARCHBISHOP BURKE: Before the fundamental and great challenges which we as a nation are facing, how better to express our patriotism than by celebrating the teachings of our Catholic faith. The most treasured gift which we as citizens of the United States of America can offer to our country is a faithful Catholic life. It is the gift which, even though it has often been misunderstood, has brought great strength to our nation, from the time of its founding. Today more than ever, our nation is in need of Catholics who know their faith deeply and express their faith, with integrity, by their daily living.
EXCERPT HOMILY BISHOP WENSKI MASS OF REPARATION: But, today, too often Catholics are being told that in order to play in America one must pay the price of surrendering one's own convictions and principles. Catholics who want to enter public life more often than not have to pay the price "privatizing" their religious faith and convictions to play roles of significance in the halls of power. You can be sure that President Obama would not consider a Catholic for the position of Supreme Court justice – unless that Catholic "bracketed" his beliefs on the dignity and the rights of the unborn.
The options before us are not just between flight and capitulation: we need not retreat into a Catholic ghetto – for Christ calls us to be in the world; nor, must we necessarily surrender to the culture around us and accept to be absorbed by and assimilated into the ascendant secularism – for Christ tells us not to be of the world. There is a third option, to be for the world. We are best for the world, when we preach and live the gospel coherently. In a world which pretends that God doesn't matter, we must witness that life is meaningful and joyful only when we live in a way that shows that God does matter.
Jesus in the gospel says: I am the good shepherd: I know mine and mine know me. The challenge is not how to change the gospel message to make it more palatable, more relevant to the world, but to allow the gospel message to change the world. But, it will not change the world unless the gospel changes us first.
In today's first reading, Peter says: "There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved." This is a rather bold statement – but because Peter and those who share Peter's faith believed it – it inspired an equally bold evangelical movement to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth.
As Christian Catholics, we need not flee from the world, nor should we surrender to the world; rather we need to recover that bold conviction of Peter and the early disciples that will make it possible for us to change the world – not by imposing our beliefs but by making our proposal, informed by gospel values, about what constitutes the best conditions for human flourishing in our society.. Peter, in our first reading, spoke truth to power; today we need that the truth be spoken to our complacency.
GEORGE BARNA: "The enemy of America today is not Iraq. It is not Afghanistan or communism. It is not Somalian pirates. It's the moral degradation and spiritual complacency of Americans," contended Barna, founder of the research firm The Barna Group. "In essence it is the willingness of Americans to become victims of the imposition of values and objectives that defy our common good."
"Just think about the shift in mottos that characterize our nation," Barna noted. "We talked about one nation under God, but today really we are one nation under self, sometimes aided by one or more gods.
"We shifted from a nation that said 'In God We Trust' to 'Reality and self we trust,'" he continued. "We transitioned from being a land of the free and the home of the brave, to now we are the land of the indebted and the home of the self-indulgent. We also shifted from a land that believes you can be all you can be to now it's get all you can get."
FACT: The Fifty States Reference God in their Constitutions
Prayer request? Send an email to: PrayerRequest3@aol.com
READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/may.asp?version=63&startmmdd=0101
May 14, 2009THE TRIB TIMES WILL RETURN NEXT WEEK, GOD WILLING (James 4:15).
(Jos 24:15) And if you be unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
VIDEO: Fr. Corapi on Notre Dame Scandal
NEWSWIRE: Arrested at Notre Dame; Statement by Randall A. Terry
ARCHBISHOP CHAPUT: Media culture and compromise undermining Christian life
EXCERPT ADDRESS ARCHBISHOP BURKE: Before the fundamental and great challenges which we as a nation are facing, how better to express our patriotism than by celebrating the teachings of our Catholic faith. The most treasured gift which we as citizens of the United States of America can offer to our country is a faithful Catholic life. It is the gift which, even though it has often been misunderstood, has brought great strength to our nation, from the time of its founding. Today more than ever, our nation is in need of Catholics who know their faith deeply and express their faith, with integrity, by their daily living.
EXCERPT HOMILY BISHOP WENSKI MASS OF REPARATION: But, today, too often Catholics are being told that in order to play in America one must pay the price of surrendering one's own convictions and principles. Catholics who want to enter public life more often than not have to pay the price "privatizing" their religious faith and convictions to play roles of significance in the halls of power. You can be sure that President Obama would not consider a Catholic for the position of Supreme Court justice – unless that Catholic "bracketed" his beliefs on the dignity and the rights of the unborn.
The options before us are not just between flight and capitulation: we need not retreat into a Catholic ghetto – for Christ calls us to be in the world; nor, must we necessarily surrender to the culture around us and accept to be absorbed by and assimilated into the ascendant secularism – for Christ tells us not to be of the world. There is a third option, to be for the world. We are best for the world, when we preach and live the gospel coherently. In a world which pretends that God doesn't matter, we must witness that life is meaningful and joyful only when we live in a way that shows that God does matter.
Jesus in the gospel says: I am the good shepherd: I know mine and mine know me. The challenge is not how to change the gospel message to make it more palatable, more relevant to the world, but to allow the gospel message to change the world. But, it will not change the world unless the gospel changes us first.
In today's first reading, Peter says: "There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved." This is a rather bold statement – but because Peter and those who share Peter's faith believed it – it inspired an equally bold evangelical movement to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth.
As Christian Catholics, we need not flee from the world, nor should we surrender to the world; rather we need to recover that bold conviction of Peter and the early disciples that will make it possible for us to change the world – not by imposing our beliefs but by making our proposal, informed by gospel values, about what constitutes the best conditions for human flourishing in our society.. Peter, in our first reading, spoke truth to power; today we need that the truth be spoken to our complacency.
GEORGE BARNA: "The enemy of America today is not Iraq. It is not Afghanistan or communism. It is not Somalian pirates. It's the moral degradation and spiritual complacency of Americans," contended Barna, founder of the research firm The Barna Group. "In essence it is the willingness of Americans to become victims of the imposition of values and objectives that defy our common good."
"Just think about the shift in mottos that characterize our nation," Barna noted. "We talked about one nation under God, but today really we are one nation under self, sometimes aided by one or more gods.
"We shifted from a nation that said 'In God We Trust' to 'Reality and self we trust,'" he continued. "We transitioned from being a land of the free and the home of the brave, to now we are the land of the indebted and the home of the self-indulgent. We also shifted from a land that believes you can be all you can be to now it's get all you can get."
FACT: The Fifty States Reference God in their Constitutions
Ladder of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 16- "On love of money, or avarice"
7. He who has conquered this passon has cut out care; but he who is bound by it never attains to pure prayer.Prayer request? Send an email to: PrayerRequest3@aol.com
This month's archive can be found at: http://www.catholicprophecy.info/news2.html.
