St. Peter Parish of Kirkwood
Welcomes Men of the Church
to the Men´s Group

Please join us (the coffee’s always on)
All men of the parish are welcome!

Every other Saturday Morning
in the rectory basement classroom.

BENEDICT XVI on EVANGELIZATION

 

My dear children: may Jesus watch over my daughters and sons for me!

Ever since she (The Church) received the Lord's apostolic mandate (Mt 28:19-20), the Church has never stopped evangelizing. Many fruits have come with the passing of centuries, including, by the grace of God, Opus Dei and each of its faithful. As in other times, now also a vigorous process of de-Christianization is unfolding in many spheres, bringing grave losses for humanity. God always sends saints to the Church who, by word and example, are able to lead souls back to Christ. As Pope BenedictXVI

 

said in his encyclical on hope, Christianity is not only '"good news, the communication of a hitherto unknown content," but "news that makes things happen and is life-changing."!

 

Here are some aspects of the formation for our spiritual life and for taking part in the "new evangelization," as Blessed John Paul II defined it in 1985.  The first successor of our

 

 

Father wrote us a pastoral letter, encouraging us to participate very actively in this apostolate, and insisting on the need to take great care of our personal formation and in extending it to other souls.

 

Now also BenedictXVI is guiding Christians along the same paths. The recent creation of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization!?) is a sign of that concern. All of us felt he was addressing us at the recent World Youth Day, when he encouraged young people "to bear witness to the Faith wherever you are, even when it meets with rejection or indifference. We cannot encounter Christ and not want to make him known to others. So do not keep Christ to yourselves! Share with others the joy of your faith. The world needs the witness of your faith, it surely needs God."[3]

CONTENTS

 FORMATION FOR THE NEW EVANGELIZATION                       Like the first Christians                                                     Need and importance of formation
                      Freedom, docility, sense of responsibility

 HUMAN FORMATION                                                        Temperance                                                                        Fortitude                                                                              Human tone.                                                                        The human tone of sacred ministers

 SPIRITUAL FORMATION

    Identifying oneself with Jesus Christ                                     The means: 

    The Sacrament of Reconciliation                                     A spirit of initiative and docility                                         Humility and prudence in giving spiritual direction 

    Liturgical formation                                                             Liturgy of the Word

   The Eucharistic Liturgy

                             

 FORMATION IN CATHOLIC DOCTRINE                                                                                                                  Fidelity to the Magisterium and freedom in

     matters of opinion   

 

  FORMATION FOR THE APOSTOLATE                           

    Personal apostolate of friendship and trust                     Apostolate of family and youth                      

    Apostolate and culture

 

  PROFESSIONAL TRAINING AND FORMATION                                                                          

     Work and unity of life                                                                                                                             Right intention                                                                                                                                       Apostolic spontaneity

 

 

The material of this October 2nd Letter of  Benedict's has become the subject 

matter for our discussions until Lent of 2012.

 

 

 

      

 

 

            
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REFLECTIONS ON POPE BENEDICT XVI'S

MONTHLY INTENTIONS
February  2012

     

Editor's Note: Apostleship of Prayer receives monthly prayer intentions from Pope Benedict XVI and urges Christians throughout the world to unite in prayer for those intentions. The reflections below seek to illuminate the Holy Father's concerns.

Click here for a printer-friendly PDF version of this month's reflections. You will need Adobe Reader to view. If you don't have Adobe Reader on your computer, you can download it here.

General Intention - Access to Water
That all peoples may have access to water and other resources needed for daily life.

An estimated two-thirds of the earth's surface is water. For most of us all we need to do is turn on a tap for clean water for drinking, cooking, and bathing. Water seems so cheap and available that we tend to take it for granted and waste it. Yet lack of access to water kills more children annually than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined. The United Nations declared 2005 to 2015 as the "International Decade for Action: Water for Life."

This month Pope Benedict draws our attention the need to take care of this precious resource so that all people will have the water they need to live. The Holy Father maintains that access to water is part of every person's right to life. In a message for the 2007 World Water Day he wrote: "Water, a common good of the human family, constitutes an essential element for life...Access to water is in fact one of the inalienable rights of every human being." He repeated this message a year later saying that water is not "an economic commodity" and the right to water "is founded on the dignity of the human person."

Water also has a profound religious significance. The Sacred Scriptures use water as a symbol of purification and of life. God, the Creator, uses water to sustain and clean all that lives. In Baptism water purifies from sin and gives new life.

We pray this month that the nations, communities, and people of the world will value God's gift of water and use it in a way that makes it accessible to every one of our brothers and sisters in the human family. We join St. Francis of Assisi in his prayer: Be praised, My Lord, through Sister Water; she is very useful, and humble, and precious, and pure.
 

Reflection: 
In what ways do I value and conserve the water that I consume each day?
 

Reading:
Ezekiel 47:12 Wherever the river flows every sort of living creature shall live.
 

Links


Mission Intention - Health Workers
That the Lord may sustain the efforts of health workers assisting the sick and elderly in the world's poorest regions.

Every year on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, February 11, we celebrate the World Day of the Sick. On this day we pray for our brothers and sisters who are carrying the cross of illness.

With that in mind, this month Pope Benedict asks us to join him in praying also for health workers, especially those in the poorest regions of the world. Health workers in poor countries are truly missionaries as they offer people the Gospel not so much with words as with their actions of love.

Caring for the sick is extremely challenging. The work is hard, especially without adequate medicine and equipment. The work is also dangerous, as health workers are continuously exposed to infectious diseases. Even diseases that are easily prevented and treated are rampant in many of the poor areas of the world. Health workers in these areas are often exhausted and tempted to hopelessness. We join Pope Benedict in praying that God may sustain them.

Blessed John Paul II called the work of health workers "the apostolate of God’s mercy." Health care is, in Pope Benedict’s words, "central to the mission of the Church." In some areas of the world, the only health care available is provided by the Church. The Church as the Body of Christ carries on Jesus' healing ministry for the benefit of all, without discrimination.

Jesus commanded us to care for the sick when he told the parable of the Good Samaritan and said: "Go and do likewise." We pray that the Lord may strengthen health workers to continue to serve God's poorest children throughout the world.

Reflection:
What are some of the qualities that you have appreciated in health care workers who have cared for you or a loved one?
 

Reading:  
Luke 10:25-37 You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
 

Links

  • Pope Benedict's 2012 Message for World Day of the Sick
  • Pope Benedict's 2010 Message for World Day of the Sick
  • Blessed John Paul II's 1985 Apostolic Letter establishing the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers
  • Pope Benedict's Message to the 25th Conference organized by the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers


Prayer of the Month

God our Father, you sent your Son Jesus to reveal the great love you have for each one. Look upon the world’s health care workers—doctors, nurses, administrators, and all who serve our brothers and sisters who are sick. They share in your Son’s ministry of healing. May they continue his work with respect for the sacredness of life and with the compassion that filled the Heart of Jesus when he met anyone who was sick.
 

Amen.


 

 

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Copyright, 2012:  Apostleship of Prayer
     
Apostleship of Prayer · 3211 S. Lake Dr. Ste. 216 · Milw

Next Meeting

Saturday,

  February 4, 2012

    February 18, 2012

     March 5, 2012

 

Schedule:

  • 7:15 am Discussion
  • 8:15 am Mass

At this week’s Men’s Group meeting, we’ll reflect on the Gospel readings for the day as well as use the new Compendium of the Catechism as we discuss “Christian Prayer”. "The importance of being a son to our father which orders us in His and our creation." 

   

Contact

For more information:

Call Terry McHugh 314-324-3358

Terrence.mchugh@solvedirect.com

Terrence McHugh [mchugh.marketing.leader@gmail.com]

______________________________________________________________________________

Fatherhood in America - An excerpt with Permission of the Author - a parishioner

 

"For fatherhood in America, these are the best of times and the worst of times. So says a new Pew Research Center report on fathering trends.

The report, released in June, found that today's fathers are active in their children's daily lives to a degree not seen in nearly half a century. Live-in dads now regularly eat meals with their children, play with them, read to them, help them with their homework and ask them about their day. They also log more than twice as many hours on kid duty than did their own dads: In 1965, the average married father spent only 2.6 hours a week caring for his children; by 2000, that average had risen to 6.5 hours.

The consequences for children are profound. As statistics in the 2011 Father Facts report make clear, children who live apart from their biological fathers are more likely to suffer abuse, run afoul of the law, abuse drugs or alcohol, struggle with emotional and behavioral problems, live in poverty and engage in early sexual activity. Children raised by their married fathers and mothers, by contrast, fare better on nearly every sociological measure available, from their rates of graduation to their incidence of out-of-wedlock childbearing and divorce.

Politically correct squeamishness has convinced us to ignore this common-sense connection between marriage and effective fatherhood for too long. The Pew report, and decades of earlier research showing how father absence hurts children, suggest it is time to start telling young men the truth: Being the best father you can be means more than stepping up to the plate with monthly checks and weekend visits. It means stepping up to the altar and giving your child the ultimate fatherly gift: your daily presence in his home and his life."

Colleen Carroll Campbell is a St. Louis-based author, former presidential speechwriter and television and radio host of "Faith & Culture" on EWTN. Her website is www.colleen-campbell.com.