March For Life Parent Meeting

Attention Everyone, if you are interested in attending the 2013 March for Life Trip on January 22nd-27th in Washington, D.C., there is a mandatory parent meeting that is going to be held in the Holy Spirit Parish Hall on Thursday, November 15th at 7:00pm.  Remember, space is limited so please RSVP for the trip as ASAP by turning in your registration from and $100.00 deposit.  For more information, please contact Ryan Bravata at rosaryinmypoket222@gmail.com or by phone at 334.797.5139.

Confirmation Questions Set 2

Hello Everyone,

Here are the the questions for the month of November.  These questions will be due on Friday November 16th for your sessions on Sunday November 18th from 3-4:30pm @Holy Spirit.  Please submit these via email in a word document if possible.  Thanks so much.

In Christ,

Ryan

 

Prayer Questions:

1.      Please know the following prayers:  The Sign of the Cross, Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Apostles Creed, Hail Holy Queen, St. Michael Prayer, Act of Contrition, Divine praises, Grace before Meals.

2.      What is prayer?

3.      What are the sources of Christian prayer?

4.      What is the Rosary?

5.      Please List and briefly explain the four different sets of Mysteries of the Rosary.

6.      Why do we begin all prayer with the Sign of the Cross and end with the Amen?

7.      What are the four types of prayer? Briefly define each.

8.      Explain the difference between private prayer and community prayer?  Why is communal prayer/worship a requirement for the Christian faithful?

9.      Explain the three forms of penance that Jesus identifies in the Gospel of Matthew?  What is the difference between mortification and penance?

10.  What are sacramentals?  Explain how Icons and statues are beneficial to a life of prayer?  How are they not a violation of the commandment against idol worship? How are they beneficial to a life of prayer?

 Saints Questions:

1.      What is a saint?  Explain the biblical defense of saintly intercession? How does this not go against Christ being the one mediator.

2.      Explain the difference between latria, dulia, and hyperdulia?

3.      List and briefly explain the four step process towards canonization? 4.      What is a martyr?  How is the canonization process different for one who has been martyred?

5.      What is the communion of saints?  List and define the three levels of the communion of saints.

6.      What is purgatory?  Briefly explain the Church Doctrine using 2Macc 10 and 1Cor 3. 

7.      What are indulgences? Articulate a response to the Protestant critique to indulgences.

8.      What is meant by the term Heaven?  What is Hell?  Explain the difference between hell and the Jewish notion of Sheol.

9.      Explain what is meant by the universal call to holiness.

10.  What is the judgment? Explain the difference between the general and particular judgment.

The Inconvenience of Faith: A Reflection on the Opening of the Year of Faith

            Within the life of every human, one of the things that can be said to be a universal aspect of our condition is the reality of choice.  Just think about it, each and every day we are faced with many decisions that will effect or lives.  Some of those choices may be as simple as what should I eat for breakfast? Or what should I wear today? Now these choices in and of themselves do not seem to have much bearing on the general well being of our day, but in reality the little choices such as these will effect the habits that one develops with regard to how he/she relates to the world.  For example, eating breakfast even if it is something small has great benefits to your general health as well as the amount of focus that you may have in completing your daily responsibilities.  Likewise, the way you dress for any given day may have effects on you beyond just being fashionable.  The first effect that it may have is purely practical—“Does what I wear allow me to adapt to my environment?”  Namely, is it weather appropriate?  And secondly, what you wear may have an implication on how the world responds to you.  For instance, “does what I wear allow me to be treated with dignity and respect or does my manner of dress allow others to view me as an object for their personal pleasure? 

            As you can see the little choices that we make do have an implication on one’s life, but today’s blog is mainly about the major choices and specifically the fundamental choice that all of us make in our lives.  That fundamental choice is either to be for Christ or against him.  When reflecting upon this choice and when writing this article, it is somewhat providential that I was inspired to write this article today.  The reason that I say this is because today is the day that our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has chosen to open the Year of Faith.  But why did Pope Benedict XVI choose to do this?  The main reason is because currently there is a crisis in the faith.  In his motu propio document Porta Fidei (The Door of Faith)—the document in which he chose to announce the year of faith—our Holy Father articulates this crisis by writing, “It often happens that Christians are more concerned for the social, cultural and political consequences of their commitment, continuing to think of the faith as a self-evident presupposition for life in society (§2).”  As the Holy Father puts it, this crisis is not the same type of crisis that the Church has encountered in the past.  In the past, the Church would defend the faith by speaking out against an overt heresy that was leading people away from the heart of the Church.  Now that crisis is more subtle.  Rather than overtly working against the hearts of Christians, the evil one has chosen to act by attacking our fundamental choice.  In any given parish, in the western world one common thing that is often seen is the complacency of the faith.  Rather than attending Mass to worship and adore, many find themselves there merely to meet the social obligation/expectation.  Unfortunately, in many hearts, there is a loss of the passion that once guided our fathers in the faith.  Rather than hearts on fire, we are faced with people who are inconvenienced by the Gospel.

            In order to address this reality, I would like to turn to two models of the faith and how it is that they answered the call of Christ; namely, St. Peter and Our Lady.  The first model that I wish to look to is the witness of our first pope St. Peter.  To do this lets turn to the Gospel of St. Matthew and see how the Apostle recounts St. Peter’s call:

        “As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter,

and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.  He said to them, ‘Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.’  At once they left their nets and followed him (Mt. 4:18-20).”

Due to the briefness of this call account, it is easy to miss the profoundness of the event. Just think about it, St. Peter was a fisherman.  That is what he did and that that is what he had known for his entire life and now, some guy who he hardly knew is asking him to leave everything behind and trust that his basic needs were going to be met so that he could survive.  Now, there is no way for us to know the internal dialogue that went on in St. Peter’s heart, but what we do know, as spoken by St. Matthew, is that St. Peter was willing to lay down every part of his life in order that he might be able to truly give his heart to Christ.  Modern readers would say that this is no minor inconvenience but more like and act of craziness.  You see, our society says get in line, go with the flow, get educated and get a job but the Call of the Messiah asks us to lay all down for the Glory of God even if that means leaving everything behind.

                    Our second model of faith is none other than the Blessed Virgin Mary, the

        Mother of God.  If anyone could be said to have been "inconvenienced" by the Gospel it could be her.  According to the Gospel of St. Luke, Mary was a young girl from Nazareth and suddenly, in a life altering encounter, the Archangel Gabriel appears to her and tells her that she would become the Mother of God.  In that moment, Mary’s heart was not so much concerned about the social consequences of her choice but her only response was “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word (Luke 26-38).”  In that moment, Mary was more willing to say yes than to worry about the fact that according to Jewish law she could be killed for being pregnant out of wedlock.  What bravery this woman had to be so willing to die so that “The Way, the Truth, and The Life” could become our own.

       

            As we can see, this basic commitment to the faith is something that is

livable, but just because it is doable that doesn’t mean that it will be easy, and it is precisely because of that perceived difficulty, many people have abandoned the pursuit of holiness.   As G.K. Chesterton put it, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting.  It has been found difficult and left untried.”  So if we want to genuinely pursue of life of holiness, we must remember that anything that is worth doing is going to be difficult.  Just imagine how hard we work at other pursuits in our life, whether that be athletic ability, the pursuit of knowledge, or the development of other musical or artistic talents.  These talents where not just developed by saying I want it therefore I can automatically win the Super Bowl.  Rather, it took many years of training and learning to develop those skills.  Well the same thing is true about our faith.  We cannot just say I want holiness and therefore I am entitled to salvation.  But as St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, the same attitude that athletes take towards training should be given to the pursuit of the Christian life.  If our hearts want to burn for Christ again we must take the pursuit of holiness seriously for the commitment is not just a onetime event but an event that begins a lifelong journey.   In order to see the truth of this reality, all we have to do is look at the history of the Church.  In that history, there have been many who have gone before us who have made that commitment.  It was that commitment that led St. Peter and the Blessed Virgin to radically change the directions that they thought their lives were heading.  It was that commitment to faith that inspired the Apostles to go and boldly profess the faith to the world.  It was that faith that inspired to hearts to be willing to lay down their lives for the Truth, and it is that faith that inspires us to do the same so that we might walk through that “Door of Faith” and become the saints of today.

    

October Service Projects

October Service Hours:
Oct. 13 12pm Rosary Rally @Resurrection Parish
Oct. 13 6pm Oktoberfest @Holy Spirit Parish Hall (help with nursery, busing tables, serving food, clean up)
Oct. 20 9-11am St. Bede Fall Festival Set Up
Oct. 20 12pm H.A.L.O. Fundraiser Set up @ St. James Church
Oct. 20th 2-5pm HALO Fundraiser @St. James Church (Need Stage Crew, Facepainting, Porta Potty Attendant, someone to build and paint scarecrow photo booth, Pumpkin Patch Hayride attendant and clean up)
Oct.21 12-4pm St. Bede Fall Festival (need people in concessions and to help with inflatables outside)

Please RSVP with me and let me know which ones you will be attending.

Confirmation Parent Meetings/1st Catechetical Session

Attention all Parents,
There will be a mandatory Confirmation meeting for all parents of Confirmation students who are in both the 1st and 2nd year of the formation process.  Please make sure that at least one parent attends the meeting that is most convenient.  Please pick one of the following:

Sunday October 7th 11:00am @St. Bede Cafeteria
Sunday October 7th 3:00pm @Holy Spirit Parish Hall
Tuesday October 9th 6:00pm @Holy Spirit Parish Hall
Wednesday October 10th 6:00pm @St. Bede Sanctuary

Also, as part of the catechesis program students who do not go to MCPS or have an approved Homeschool catechetical program are required to attend monthly catechetical sessions from 3-4:30pm.  Our first session will take place on Sunday October 21st in the Holy Spirit Parish Hall.  This is a mandatory meeting for private and public school students but all are encouraged to attend since the questions that will be gone over will be your study guide for your Confirmation Interview.  Below you will find the questions for this month.  Please answer all of the questions and email and/or snail mail them back to me by Friday Oct. 19th to be graded before your session.  if you have any other questions please feel free to contact me.

In Christ,

Ryan

Scripture Questions:

1.     What is the Bible?

2.     What does the Church teach about the Bible?

3.     Describe the four different stages in the development of the NT canon? 

4.     What is the difference (list the books) between the Catholic and the Protestant OT?

5.     How did this difference develop? 

6.     What the principal parts of the OT and the NT? 

7.     What does Torah mean  and what are the principal stories of the Torah?

8.     Who are the Major Prophets of the OT and what were their major concerns?

9.     List the Different people to whom books of the NT are attributed? 

10. What are the Catholic Epistles? Please list them. 

11. Why are there four different Gospels, and how should this effect the way we read the Gospels?

12. Explain why Catholics take parts of the Bible Literally (ex. John 6) and other parts not so literally (Creation Story).

High School Bible Study

High School Bible Study: Do you find it hard to read the Sacred Scriptures? Do you wish you knew more about what the Bible actually says? or Have you just been wanting a Bible Study that was geared towards the youth? If so then have we got an event for you. This Semester we will be starting a weekly Bible Study which will meet every Tuesday from 7:00-8:30pm in the Holy Spirit Conference Room. We will be beginning our study with 1 Thessalonians on Tuesday September 11th and all are welcome to attend. For more information contact Ryan Bravata at 334.797.5139 or by email at rosaryinmypoket222@gmail.com.

Friendship Mission--September 8th

"Service Project at Friendship Mission:  On Saturday September 8th from 9am-11am, Teen Cafe and Life Teen will be going to the Friendship Mission for our first Service project of the 2012-2013 year.  While there we will be serving in the food kitchen, sorting clothing, and/or gardening.  If you will like to attend please meet us at the mission located at 3561 Mobile Hwy. For more information contact Ryan Bravata at rosaryinmypoket222@gmail.com or by phone at 334.797.5139."

**NOTE: Please have the girls dress modestly and they asked that now one wear any jewelry or bring any money with them.  This includes no purses since we will have no way to secure them on the property.  if you must have your phone then you must carry them in your pocket and not set them down around the work site.  While it is a safe facility we nor the Friendship Mission will be responsible for lost or stolen items.