Monday, September 27, 2010

Go Green!


Our culture embraces the “green” movement. Everywhere you go you hear about more ways of reducing, reusing, and recycling. Many people are very passionate about reducing their carbon footprint and they think that you should be doing the same and are not shy about telling you so. In school, being environmentally friendly is taught as a fact the way math and grammar are taught. Who can argue with the facts… Our earth has limited resources, humans are consumers of these resources, and in the process we pollute! 

There are another set of facts that it seems our culture does not embrace. These facts are that God exists, He created the world good, He loves us, He wants us to be happy, He sent His son Jesus to save us from our sins. All Christians know this to be true but many are afraid to tell others about it. If you are  convicted about “being green” you probably have no problem living green and encouraging others to do so. But if your convicted that Jesus is Lord are you living it out so that people know you are a Christian, and are you telling everyone you know about His awesome Love and Mercy!?
Be an Evangelist!

Joe Mailhot

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Waiting on the Lord

 Let’s be honest…how many of us like waiting?  Doctor’s visits where you sit in the waiting room for close to an hour before even being seen, DMV lines that run out the door, and those 5 minute red lights when you’re running late are some of the most frustrating times known to man!  Then there are the bigger things we find ourselves waiting for: potential employers to call back, the healing of a loved one, children to return to the Church, a future spouse.

I’ve been apartment hunting lately and having a difficult time waiting for the Lord to provide in His timing and in His way.  Last week, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, the first reading described my current state rather well, “With their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses” (Numbers 21:4).  How easy it is for us to immediately start complaining when we are waiting for the Lord to provide something we feel we need!  We get so worn out by the journey that we fail to recognize all the ways that He has provided and trust in His proven faithfulness that He will continue to provide.  God had freed the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt, sent a pillar of fire to guide them by night and a cloud by day, provided the daily nourishment of manna, and so much more, yet their only response is to grumble and complain against Him!  Did you know that the Israelites could have made the desert crossing in as short as a few months if they had gone straight across the desert from Egypt to Canaan?  Yet, God allowed them to wander through the desert for 40 whole years!  Why?  Perhaps so they could learn to trust Him, so they could learn to rejoice in His provision for them, so they could learn the lesson of waiting on Him.  Their choice to grumble and complain against God instead of trust Him caused more suffering and a longer journey through the desert.  It certainly makes me think twice about complaining when waiting on God’s provision!  Let’s resolve to stay focused on all that we have to be grateful for, especially in those tough times of waiting on the Lord!

Sarah Houde

Pause and Look Up

Luke 9: 12-13,16-17 
"Late in the afternoon the twelve came to Him and said, "Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here."  But He said to them, "You give them something to eat!" And they said, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have, unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people. Then taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He said the blessing over them,  broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. They all ate and were satisfied. And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets."

With the new catechetical year beginning, I imagine us all taking a deep breath as we launch our programs.  This Scripture passage is one I pray with often because of the disciples' dilemma: "There are so many and we have so little." Maybe the disciples learned something that day that could help us all?

While reading between the lines, I had the impression that the disciples were becoming overwhelmed with the crowd and wanted to take a break by sending everyone home to regroup.  They told Jesus, "Send the crowd away..." Instead, Jesus helped them realize two things. First, they don't work alone,  it is Jesus who feeds people.... through their efforts.  This can help us keep our ministries in perspective. Secondly, our efforts, however inadequate we may think they are as we begin this new catechetical year, are enough for the Lord to work miracles!  We need to intentionally give the Lord all of ourselves: our minds, hearts, hands, and plans so that He can bless all of it and then, through us, feed His people with what they will need to draw closer to Him.  When and where and how our ministry will touch the hearts of God's people is perhaps not for us to know. However, we can be certain of this: Jesus will take even the little we have to give and multiply the blessings to overflowing if we ask Him.

So, on those 'stressful' days of activity, let's pause, look up, and receive the blessing Jesus gives us to give to others.  Because when we do this, I've discovered, we will always have enough... (energy, time, resources, etc.) to accomplish the tasks at hand with more left over for rejoicing!

Ruth Oakley

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Taylor Swift & the Beauty of Being Female


 
I don’t have a problem admitting that I really, really enjoy Taylor Swift’s music; it calls out to the desires of my feminine heart and helps me rejoice in being created female. This is a rare happening in today’s culture where so often the truly feminine is viewed as weak and immature instead of beautiful and a gift to the world in its own right. We are often too quick to forgo our darling dresses, penchant for pink and divine desires for motherhood for the sake of “equality” to men because in modern times – equality implies sameness. Perhaps this is why so many “feminists” attack Swift and particularly her latest song/music video in which, despite coming from a broken home, her desires for marriage and a family are fulfilled.

I am not saying that all women should be relegated to the kitchen, but I am saying that we have a unique gift to this world that men can’t offer and that we should quit trying to be something we are not. Taylor Swift seems to get this – she is both girlie girl and fully-capable woman. The fact that she likes sparkly dresses (that are much more modest than all of her pop culture rivals), that she writes about “fairytale” love (thus affirming that yes, we are all made for relationship and yes, love can and is in fact meant to last) and that she continues to break records – all tell me that we don’t have to be like men to be equal to them and, not only that, but that when we embrace our feminine hearts, we truly reflect the absolute dignity inscribed in our womanly beings – body and soul.

Shaina Tanguay-Colucci

Friday, September 3, 2010

Free to be Saints

I want my children to be saints.  Whew....there, I said it.

This does not rise out of some misguided pride for my children or some wishful desire.
My hope for them flows from my understanding of who they called to be by virtue of
their Baptism. They are destined for sainthood. As their parent, I, along with my wife,
am responsible for helping them to come to know that they have been loved into being
and therefore free to embrace the call to holiness throughout their lives.

In fact all of us who have accepted the call to teach our Catholic faith should have
this hope for all those who hear our words and see our actions. As catechists we are
obligated to teach the truths of our faith with passion, conviction and charity in order to spur an awareness of their dignity as children of God.

In the clip below, Fr. Robert Barron, S.T.D. eloquently speaks of how we, after knowing
our value as God's children, can be free to answer the call to holiness and be conduits
of God's love and truth for others:


The Saintly Way of Being from Office of Lifelong Faith Formati on Vimeo.

As we celebrate the "beginning" of the catechetical year over the next few weeks let
us all "relax" and abandon our lives to the One who loves us into being each and every
moment. Let us breathe and allow Christ to use us as instruments of His grace for the
many souls who will cross our paths in the evangelization and catechetical efforts of our
parishes and diocese. Let us strive for sainthood and hope for the same for our children
- for all our brothers and sisters, the young and the old, in Christ.

Wishing you a blessed Catechetical Sunday on September 19th! 

Dare to embrace the call to holiness.

Michael Lavigne

Permission was received from Fr. Barron to post this clip from his DVD, Seven Deadly Sins-Seven Lively Virtues. This is an excellent video which would be perfect for individual or group enrichment!
Please visit WordonFire.org

Heating Up


For some reason the brutal heat and humidity of last week got me
to thinking about sin. My train of thought was that my conscience is my
spiritual gauge and when I sin, it too heats up, like the thermometer.

Admittedly, I’m not a fan of all this heat and humidity. Never have
been. Anything over 80 degrees and I start looking for AC. There is no
AC when it comes to sin and I have to suffer the consequences of that.
I’m not talking about major stuff here, but rather the little things that are
easy to escape notice: the sarcastic remark; not taking time to help,
call, listen, console; failing to remain gracious and kind when I’m talking
to customer service. I’ve been trying to run interference with some of
these situations and I try to see Christ in each person. I often think of
what Jesus said, “That which you do to the least of these, you do to me.”

It’s not the black and white situations that get the best of me, it’s
the grey areas and if I’m not vigilante about what I say and do in these
situations my conscience will overheat. I have to remember that I am
first and foremost an emissary of Jesus Christ and I will be judged by the
standards which I proclaim. I have failed many times and will continue to
do so. Of that I am sure because I am, after all, a human being.

My goal however, is to have more successes (way more successes)
than failures and if that means my conscience has to “heat up” on a regular
basis then so be it.

Judy Michaud

Megachurch!


Have you seen or heard about megachurches? The term megachurch generally refers to any Protestant congregation with a sustained average weekly attendance of 2000 persons or more in its worship services.  Other characteristics of a megachurch include… a charismatic senior minister, a large paid staff, hundreds of weekly volunteers, membership that draws from a large geographic area, a multitude of programs and ministries, 7-day a week activities, contemporary worship, state of the art sound and video equipment, bookstores, coffee shops, multi-acre campuses, and huge parking lots. 

I’ll be honest; some of the stuff on that list sounds awesome! I will also admit that I don’t see most of these things in the Catholic parishes local to me. None-the-less, I believe that the Catholic Church is a Mega-Church!

“A charismatic senior minister”
Even if your local priest isn’t a “charismatic leader,” every time that a priest consecrates the Eucharist he is acting “in persona Christi” (“in the person of Christ”). And so, in the Catholic Church we believe that Christ himself has called and equipped our priests and even is present to us in their ministry.

“Large geographic area, massive attendance, 7-day a week services”
Every single day Catholic mass is celebrated approximately 350,000 times! That means that for every second of the day, 4 priests are consecrating the Eucharist, recalling his saving passion , and making Christ truly present in the world. Hundreds of thousands of Catholics go to mass each day and every single one of them celebrates the same liturgy, hears the same readings, and receives the same Eucharistic Lord. 

It doesn’t get anymore Mega than this! 

Joe Mailhot

Changing of Seasons


As the summer comes to a close and the new school year begins, I find myself reflecting on the changing of seasons.  I’ve always loved living in Maine because, unlike other places in the country where the climate is less changing, we are blessed to experience the fullness of all four seasons (perhaps some to a greater extreme than others!)  Summer allows for Maine’s beauty to shine in all its splendor with the sparkling harbors dotted with fishing vessels, the late night BBQs which permeate the whole neighborhood with the smell of summer, and the tranquil sunsets which cast a golden glow on everything.  And yet, as all this comes to a close, there’s something just as exciting about the sounds and smells and sights of fall.  I can’t wait for apple picking followed by the smells of freshly baked apple pie, the crisp, refreshing feel of a beautiful fall day, and the trees bursting with bold colors of orange, red, and yellow as the leaves rustle in the wind.  Besides just the excitement of the new season, I can’t fail to mention another significant benefit of the season change: variety in my wardrobe once again as by summer’s end my warm weather clothes are becoming repetitive and boring!

While I love the carefree-ness of summer, by its end I find myself longing for the discipline of routine and a steady rhythm of life once again.  Oftentimes my prayer life suffers in the summer due to my own laziness and lack of routine.  You would think that the summer and vacation time would bring more time for prayer with less demands on my schedule, but somehow I always find myself struggling to remain faithful to prayer commitments and daily Mass due to the changing nature of each day in the summer.  I find the season change an ideal time to check myself and re-establish daily prayer routines or make new prayer commitments to strengthen my spiritual life and relationship with God.  It’s a chance to clean the slate and start over in a way, evaluating what changes I need to make in any areas of my life and then implementing them as I settle into the new routine this season change naturally provides.

Sarah Houde