Friday, April 22, 2016

Spirit & Life - Priests and Seminarians Ready to Lead







Your Support Helps HLI Defend Life & Family Around the World! 
Dear deaconjohn,     


I have to say -- you guys rock!
You should see what you have helped to happen here in Antioquia, Colombia. Seven hundred priests and seminarians are enjoying a three day immersion in the Gospel of Life thanks to your prayers and your support of HLI.
Seven hundred! That's about 350 of each group, both seminarians and priests, led by their bishop, Bishop Fidel León Cadavid Marín, and supported by a wonderful team of professionals.

I am so grateful to you all for your prayers and support of HLI's mission. I'm also grateful to our great director of Latin America, Mario Rojas, whose tireless work made this event possible.
Thanks to this wonderful team of faithful Catholics -- many who have never met each other -- we get to offer a message of hope, courage, and truth in a time of confusion. We get to celebrate Holy Mass with incredible gratitude for men who have great reverence for the Eucharist and who will fight for Christ, strengthened by His Body and Blood.
Think about the multiplier effect here -- when these priests and future priests are able to reach those under their care with a greater awareness about how the Culture of Death is attacking families. This completely reshapes their pastoral approach. What an awesome gift and responsibility.
We have posted pictures to our Facebook page, which I encourage you to check out. Of course, they never convey the entirety of the energy and enthusiasm we are seeing here. Along with Mario I am honored to be sharing the stage with Nancy Tosi and Raymond DeSouza, and Dr. Rafael Cabrera, three of HLI's greatest teachers. When Our Lord arranges this array of talent in His service, it is a beautiful thing to behold. I would be happy to just sit with my brother priests and listen to all that is being said.
I always enjoy meeting with those we serve, getting to hear their stories, their hopes and concerns. A question that is very common has to do with the Church's role with regard to political issues and popular cultural trends. Can priests speak out? Where do you draw the line?
The answer is not only that priests can speak out, but they must. Of course one must have prudence and be aware of what are sometimes complicated situations, but if prudence leads to a permanent silence it is no longer prudence but fear. The Church rightly eschews endorsing politicians and parties, but she cannot be afraid to tell the truth about the moral law she has been given to share with her people, even as it impacts politics. The priest is often the only voice of the Church a Catholic in the pews will hear, though they will certainly hear distortions of the Church's teaching through the media. 
The priest has to make sure that those under his spiritual care hear the whole truth. We must preach the love and mercy of God, and we must preach that mercy detached from truth is not mercy at all, but a falsehood and failure to call the faithful to conversion. Yes, the mercy of God is a free gift to all! And in order to receive it, we must prepare our hearts, have true contrition that comes from awareness of our sins (sins we are aware of because our priest is not afraid to tell us what they are), and confess our sins in complete trust of our loving God's mercy.
It is almost too good to be true - but it is true! And it is too great to be cheapened by giving people the idea that their sins are not a big deal, that they can continue living in sin even and seek "absolution" without repentance and a firm amendment to abandon their sins.
God gives His mercy without cost. We must actively receive it in love and truth.
And priests must be unafraid to share these truths. It is their vocation as spiritual father to do everything in their power to lead those under their care to heaven. We succeed when we are unafraid, when we speak to our people in love and truth, when we empty ourselves as Christ did for us.

This is true whether one is in Antioquia, Denver, Kampala, Sydney and Singapore. And it is true in season -- even in a political season -- and out of season.
I truly wish you could be with us here, though you are certainly with us in your prayers. Please keep them up! And know that you are in my prayers at every Mass as well.

(Link to article here.)
 
Sincerely yours in Christ,  
Father Shenan J. Boquet
President, Human Life International
Send a reminder: Catholic=Pro-Life!
Adam spoke "up" when he spoke with God, and "down" in the naming of the animals, but it was not until the creation of Eve, "bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh" (Gen 2:23), that he had a dialogue with an equal. Adam and Eve had no proper names of their own before they met each other (cf. Gen 3:20). The animals were altogether other; he was himself; but Eve was, in a way, himself and yet other-formed from him and for him by God, just as the Father and Son, though distinct, are not separated from each other, the One ever proceeding from the Other and turned towards him, from and for him. - continue -
 
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