Cookout on Sunday

The Dead Theologians Society will meet again Sunday from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

We will have a fire with hot dogs, marshmallows, s'mores, etc. Bring your own soda.

Don't forget we're on facebook now. I think this is the link: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6212762244

If it doesn't work, search for "DTS of STA" or search for me.

Four things

1. Please keep Brian Schuette and his family in your prayers.

2. The Dead Theologians Society will meet again this Sunday from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Please spread the word and bring some new (and old) people with you.

I have the Life Teen Mass that night and will need two adults to open up and get some games going until I arrive about 6:45.

3. Word has already spread about our proposed plans for World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney. Aimee Moore of the Fellowship Committee called and asked if we would like to help the F.C. and the Council of Catholic Women bake and sell pies to help raise funds to send us around the world. I of course said we would and now I need your help. (They might also have another Trivia Night to help us out.)

They want to bake the pies on Saturday, October 20th in the parish center and sell the pies after the Masses on Sunday, October 21st.

I will be in Quincy for a wedding that weekend and will not be able to help personally. I would ask that even if you can’t come to WYD that you still lend a hand in this endeavor. It promises to be a good time for all involved.

Please mark your calendars and tell the DTS members who aren’t on this list.

4. Is there a better way to get messages out to all of you? I’m not going to text message everybody all of the time. Would a spot on Facebook.com be helpful or would you check that as often as you check your e-mail? Let me know if you have suggestions.

I'm quite surprised

The English texts of the Holy Father's words - even the question and response session - from Loreto are up on the Vatican web site already!

I still wonder why it took so long when he went to Italy. No matter. It seems somebody's working faster, and may God bless them for it!

Essay Contest

Pauline Books and Media is sponsoring an essay contest for students age 13-17.

The details follow:

Rules: Pick one saint or blessed whose life or teaching offers a message that needs to be heard today. In an essay of no more than 500 words, explain what you believe his or her message is, why it is important today, and how you can help present that message to the world in your own life.

Deadline: November, 2007. Entries should be sent in the body of an e-mail (not as an attachment) to barrymichaes[at]aol[dot]com.

Prizes: The first, second and third place winners will receive a signed copy of Saints for Our Times: New Novenas and Prayers. Winners will also recieve $30, $20 and $10 for first, second and third places, respectively.

Do not be afraid!

Here is the homily Pope Benedict XVI preached to some 500,000 gathered at the home of Mary in Loreto, Italy, and to the youth of the world, with my emphases:

Jesus Christ, God made man, took on our flesh in Mary, took part in our life, and shared our history. To realize this new alliance, God looked for a young heart and found it in the girl Mary. Even today, God seeks out young hearts, he is looking for young people with great hearts, capable of making room for him in their life in order to be active players in the New Alliance.

In order to welcome a proposal as fascinating as that which Jesus offers us, in order to make an alliance with him, one must be young interiorly, able to let oneself respond to newness, in order to undertake new paths with him. Jesus has a predilection for young people, as we can well see in his dialog with the rich young man (cf Mt 19,16-22; Mk 10,17-22). He respects the freedom of youth, but he never tires of proposing to them higher goals in life: the novelty of the Gospel and the beauty of holy conduct.

Following the example of the Lord, the Church continues to give young people the attention that he did. That is why, dear young people, the Church looks at you with immense affection, it is with you in moments of joy and celebration, as well as in trials and confusion; it sustains you with the gifts of sacramental grace and it accompanies you in discerning your true vocation.

Dear young people, if you allow yourselves to be involved in the new life that comes from the encounter with Christ, you will be able to be apostles of his peace in your families, among your friends, within your church community, and in the different circles in which you live and work.

But what is it that makes one ‘young’ in the evangelical sense? This encounter of ours, which is taking place in the shado0w of a Marian sanctuary, invites us to look at the Madonna. And we ask ourselves: How did she live her youth? Why did the impossible become possible in her?

She discloses it to us herself in the canticle of the Magnificat: God “has regarded the humility of his handmaid” (Lk 1,48a). Mary’s humility is what God appreciated most in her. And the other two readings of today’s liturgy speak to us of humility.

Is it not perhaps a happy coincidence that this message comes to us precisely here in Loreto? Here, our thoughts go naturally to the Holy House of Nazareth, which is the shrine of humility: the humility of God-who-became-man, who made himself small; and the humility of Mary who welcomed him in her womb - the humility of the Creator and the humility of his creature.

From this meeting of humility, Jesus was born, Son of God and Son of Man. “The greater thou art, the more humble thyself in all things, and thou shalt find grace before God”, a passage from Ecclesiastes tells us (3,20); and Jesus, in today’s Gospel, after the parable of the wedding guests, concludes: “For every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk 14,11).

This prospect indicated in Scriptures appears even more provocative today because of the culture and sensibility of contemporary man. The humble is considered one who has given up, a failure, someone who has nothing to say to the world.

On the contrary, this is the master way, and not only because humility is a great human virtue, but because, in the first place, it represents God’s own way. It is the way chosen by Christ, the mediator of our New Covenant, who, appearing in human form, “humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross (Phil 2,8).

Dear young people, I see in this Word of God on humility a message that is as important as it is relevant to you who wish to follow Christ and be part of his Church. The message is: do not follow the way of pride, but that of humility. Go against the current: do not listen to interested and persuasive voices that, from many sides today, advocate life styles marked by arrogance and violence, arrogance and success at any cost, given to appearance and to possession to the detriment of being.

How many messages, which are reaching you especially through the mass media, are addressed to you! Be vigilant! Be critical! Do not be drawn into the wave produced by these powerful acts of persuasion.

Do not be afraid, dear friends, to prefer the ‘alternative’ ways indicated by true love: a life style that is moderate and fraternal; emotional relationships that are sincere and pure; an honest commitment to study and work; a profound interest in the common good.

Do not be afraid to appear different and to be criticized for what appears to be a losing cause or unfashionable.

Your contemporaries - but even adults - especially those who seem most remote from thementality and the values of the Gospel, have a profound need to see someone who dares to live according to the fullness of humanity that was shown by Jesus Christ.

Dear friends, humility is not therefore a way of resignation but of courage. It is not the outcome of failure but the victory of love over selfishness, and grace over sin. Following Christ and imitating Mary, we should have the courage of humility. We should entrust ourselves humbly to God because only then can we become obedient instruments in his hands, allowing him to work great things in us.

Pope speaks to youth

This past weekend the Holy Father went on pilgrimage to Loreto, Italy. He went to visit the home of Mary that is said to have been flown by angels from the Holy Land. It was in this house that the Archangel Gabriel addressed the young Virgin.

Pope Benedict XVI also went to speak to the youth of the world. Some 500,000 where gathered to hear his words and to pray with him. Here is what he said on Saturday, with my emphases:

What an amazing spectacle of young and engaged faith we are living tonight! Tonight Loreto has become, thanks to you, the spiritual capital of the youth - the center of convergence for the multitudes of young people who inhabit the five continents.At this moment, we feel surrounded by the expectations and hopes of millions of young people of the whole world. Right now, some are staying up, some are sleeping, some are studying or working. Some are hopeful and others are desperate; some believe, and others cannot get themselves to believe; some love life while others are wasting it.I would like my words to reach everyone: the Pope is close to you, he shares your joys and your pains; above all, I share your most intimate hopes; and for each of you, I ask the Lord the gift of a full and happy life, a life that is rich in sense, a true life.

Unfortunately today, not unusually, a full and happy existence is seen by many young people as a difficult dream, and sometimes almost unrealizable. So many of your contemporaries look at the future with apprehension and ask themselves many questions.

They are concerned about how to fit themselves into a society marked by numerous and grave injustices and sufferings. How to react to the selfishness and violence which often seem to predominate. How to give a sense of fullness to life.

With love and conviction, I repeat to you, who are present here, and through you, to your contemporaries around the world: Do not be afraid! Christ can fulfill the most intimate aspirations of your heart. Are there are unreliable dreams when it is the Spirit of God who inspires and cultivates them in the heart? Is there anything that could dampen our enthusiasm if we are united with Christ? Nothing and no one, the Apostle Paul would say, can ever separate us from the love of God, in Jesus Christ, our Lord (cf Rom 8,35-39).

Allow me to repeat this to you tonight: if you stay one with Christ, each of you can do great things. That is why, dear friends, you should not be afraid to dream with open eyes about great plans for good, and you should not allow yourselves to be discouraged by difficulties.

Christ has confidence in you and he wants you to realize each of your noble dreams for authentic happiness. Nothing is impossible for whoever trusts in God and entrusts himself to him.

Look at the young Mary! The Angel proposed to her something truly inconceivable: to participate in the most intimate way possible in God’s greatest plan, the salvation of humanity. Before such a proposal, Mary was troubled, aware of the smallness of her being compared to God’s omnipotence, and so she asked: How is it possible, why me? But she was willing to fulfill the divine will, and readily gave her Yes, which changed her life and the story of all mankind. Thanks to that Yes, we are here together tonight.

I ask myself and you: Can the requests that God makes of us - no matter how demanding they may seem to be - ever equal that which God asked of the young Mary? Dear boys and girls, let us learn from Mary to say Yes, because she knows what it means to answer generously to the requests of the Lord.

Dear young people, Mary knows your most noble and deepest aspirations. Above all, she knows your great desire for love, your need to love and be loved. Looking at her, following her obediently, you will discover the beauty of love - not a throwaway love, fleeting and deceptive, imprisoned in a selfish and materialistic mentality - but true and profound love.