Saturday 30 April 2011
Thursday 28 April 2011
We Thank You - John Paul II
John Paul the Great... pray for us!!
Sunday 24 April 2011
Saturday 23 April 2011
Thursday 21 April 2011
Sacred Heart's Altar of Repose
Wednesday 20 April 2011
Happy Sunday!!! Arise Together in Christ
the Resurrection won for by Christ. Weekly, his presence teaches,
nourishes, heals and raises us up. It is only when we gather to give
ourselves to him in the community of the Church that we begin to realize
the Kingdom of Life being built up in the midst of the Culture of Death
so prevalent in our society.
Our Diocese is beginning a wonderful process called ARISE
Together in Christ. This process will involve all the parishes of the
Diocese, the religious houses, prisons, campuses, schools, and religious
education programs. It is a total parish experience designed to
spiritually renew us while providing opportunities for us to grow in
faith and community. It is a way to move into the future as a Church of
hope.
The heart of this process will be the gathering of small groups of
people in homes to read and pray with the Scriptures. RENEW
International will provide training for those who will lead this process
in our parish. We are hoping as many people as possible will see this as
a moment of grace and will participate.
The first step in our renewal is prayer. Each week we will recite the
Arise Prayer as we are sent out with the Eucharist presence of Christ so
that we may encounter Christ in our daily lives.
Sunday 17 April 2011
Friday 15 April 2011
Do Catholic's have to believe in creationism?
We first have to understand a Catholic's relationship to the Bible. Many protestants define themselves through a literal interpretation of the bible. They are people of the book. Catholics see the bible as part of a living relationship where scripture and tradition are divinely inspired. The Bible is our book.
As Catholic we believe the bible is true!! We believe that God does create, sustain and order the world out of nothing through love and mercy (CC 295-327). They proclaim the deep truths of the purpose of creation "God wills... it is good". Adam and Eve make it clear that we created to live in the Garden yet the reality of sin separates us from God and one another. These are deep truths but they are not scientific truths.
Creationism is a pseudoscientific theory of how the world was created came into being in the 1920's was meant to challenge the theory of evolution. For Catholics there is no contest. The science of cosmology and evolution study how we came to be. While our faith answers who and why we are. Scripture is remarkably silent on how God created us. God said and we were created.
Many Catholics have been instrumental in the field of science (remember who founded all those universities). My favorite is, Monsignor Georges Lemaître, a priest from the Catholic University of Louvain, proposed what became known as the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe, he called it his "hypothesis of the primeval atom".
So Catholics can hold evolution as a scientific theory but it is important to remember that faith is the basis of a moral life not science. To that end, Pope Pius XII addressed the question of human origin more specifically in his encyclical Humani Generis. He stated that the origin our "body" from pre-existing and living matter is legitimate matter for inquiry. Catholics are free to form their own opinions. But Catholics must believe that the human "soul" is created directly by God. Being spiritual substance we are each created uniquely by God.
Our faith allows us to answer the moral question of should I do something rather than can I do something. Some people have made science their religion. This is a mistake because science, while useful, is incapable of answering the deepest, most human questions of life. Redemption is not found in science... no matter how great my i-pod is!! There is no app for that but Christ.
Sunday 10 April 2011
Dry Bones
https://vr.shapeservices.com/listen.php?hash=29ae0e3ed35440077ea077ebb3e578fe1e5842b0268218dc7
To be a disciple puts flesh on our humanity.
Thursday 7 April 2011
Sunday 3 April 2011
Healing's Purpose
https://vr.shapeservices.com/play.php?hash=287e039d363088fd87b040217981fb03feae07fffb2b9ec96
God's miracles equip us to proclaim the Kingdom.