Sunday, September 28, 2008

"The basic element of Christianity is joy...A joy that exists together with a difficult life and also makes this life liveable."
- Ratzinger

Notes on Christifideles Laici

- 3 pressing needs of the world today

- Secularism and the Need for Religion

- The Human Person: A Dignity Violated and Exalted. The dignity of the
individual: "the person is not at all a "thing" or an "object" to be
used, but primarily a responsible "subject", one endowed with conscience
and freedom, called to live responsibly in society and history, and
oriented towards spiritual and religious values."

- Conflict and Peace

- The lay faithful "seek the Kingdom of God by engaging in temporal
affairs and ordering them according to the plan of God"

- "For their work, prayers and apostolic endeavours, their ordinary
married and family life, their daily labour, their mental and physical
relaxation, if carried out in the Spirit, and even the hardships of life
if patiently borne-all of these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God through Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Pt 2:5). During the celebration of
the Eucharist these sacrifices are most lovingly offered to the Father
along with the Lord's body. Thus as worshipers whose every deed is holy,
the lay faithful consecrate the world itself to God"(23)"

- "The lay faithful are given the ability and responsibility to accept
the gospel in faith and to proclaim it in word and deed, without
hesitating to courageously identify and denounce evil...They are also
called to allow the newness and the power of the gospel to shine out
everyday in their family and social life, as well as to express
patiently and courageously in the contradictions of the present age
their hope of future glory even "through the framework of their secular
life"(26)"

- "They exercise their kingship as Christians, above all in the
spiritual combat in which they seek to overcome in themselves the
kingdom of sin (cf. Rom 6:12), and then to make a gift of themselves so
as to serve, in justice and in charity, Jesus who is himself present in
all his brothers and sisters, above all in the very least (cf. Mt
25:40)...But in particular the lay faithful are called to restore to
creation all its original value. In ordering creation to the authentic
well-being of humanity in an activity governed by the life of grace,
they share in the exercise of the power with which the Risen Christ
draws all things to himself and subjects them along with himself to the
Father, so that God might be everything to everyone (cf. 1 Cor 15:28; Jn
12:32)."

- "The lay faithful, in fact, "are called by God so that they, led by
the spirit of the Gospel, might contribute to the sanctification of the
world, as from within like leaven, by fulfilling their own particular
duties. Thus, especially in this way of life, resplendent in faith, hope
and charity they manifest Christ to others"(37)."

- "The vocation to holiness, that is, the perfection of charity"

- "Life according to the Spirit, whose fruit is holiness (cf. Rom
6:22;Gal 5:22), stirs up every baptized person and requires each to
follow and imitate Jesus Christ, in embracing the Beatitudes, in
listening and meditating on the Word of God, in conscious and active
participation in the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church, in
personal prayer, in family or in community, in the hunger and thirst for
justice, in the practice of the commandment of love in all circumstances
of life and service to the brethren, especially the least, the poor and
the suffering."

- "The lay faithful must see their daily activities as an occasion to
join themselves to God, fulfill his will, serve other people and lead
them to communion with God in Christ"(46)."

Saturday, September 13, 2008

"The help required by people on the street is not a coin or a soup kitchen or a food bank (yes, these are all good intermediate band-aids) but supervised housing, medical & mental health assistance, access to detox centres and the list goes on."

—Father John Laszczyk

Sunday, September 07, 2008

"...if too much time be given up to [games], they cease to be a recreation and become an occupation; and so far from resting and restoring mind or body, they have precisely the contrary effect."

—St. Francis de Sales
"Let fall, as far as possible, the delicious honey of devotion, drop by drop, now in the ear of one, now in the ear of another; praying secretly in your soul that God may let it sink into their hearts. Above all do this with gentleness and kindness; not as though correcting them, but by inspiring them; for it is wonderful how powerfully hearts are moved when goodness is set before them in a fair and lovely guise."

—St. Francis de Sales
"When the colt grows weary it turns aside"

-St. Francis de Sales