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October 12, 2008 –   28th Sunday of  Ordinary Time       DAILY LITURGICAL/THEME MEDITATION: "Everything is ready, come" UNIVERSAL CHURCH/WORLD EVENT(S): Holy See Calls for Human Approach to Disarmament SAINT OF THE DAY St. Seraphin of Montegranaro  GENERAL MARIOLOGY THE SECRET OF THE ROSARY - 11th-12th Rose DIVINE MERCY On Happiness, Joy, Delight, Rejoice: No Greater Joy  TEACHING/TESTIMONY/CONVICTION: Holy See on Disarmament   Monthly Index

DAILY LITURGICAL MEDITATION

Sunday (10/12): "Everything is ready, come" Scripture: Matthew 22:1-14 1 And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, 2 "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his son, 3 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast; but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other servants, saying, `Tell those who are invited, Behold, I have made ready my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves are killed, and everything is ready; come to the marriage feast.' 5 But they made light of it and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. 7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, `The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the thoroughfares, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find.' 10 And those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good; so the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11 "But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment; 12 and he said to him, `Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, `Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.' 14 For many are called, but few are chosen." Meditation: What can a royal wedding party tell us about God's kingdom? One of the most beautiful images used in the scriptures to depict what heaven is like is the wedding celebration and royal feast given by the King for his newly-wed son and bride. Whatever grand feast we can imagine on earth, heaven is the feast of all feasts because the Lord of heaven and earth invites us to the most important banquet of all – not simply as bystanders or guests – but as members of Christ's own body, his bride the church! The last book in the bible ends with an invitation to the wedding feast of the Lamb – the Lord Jesus who offered his life as an atoning sacrifice for our sins and who now reigns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Spirit and the Bride say, Come! (Revelations 22:17).  The Lord Jesus invites us to be united with himself in his heavenly kingdom of peace and righteousness.    Why does Jesus' parable of the marriage feast seem to focus on an angry king who ends up punishing those who refused his invitation and who mistreated his servants? Jesus' parable contains two stories. The first has to do with the original guests invited to the marriage  feast. The king had sent out invitations well in advance to his subjects, so they would have plenty of time to prepare for coming to the feast. How insulting for the invited guests to then refuse when the time for celebrating came! They made light of the King's request because they put their own interests above his. They not only insulted the King but the heir to the throne as well. The king's anger is justified because they openly refused to give the king the honor he was due. Jesus directed this warning to the Jews of his day, both to convey how much God wanted them to share in the joy of his kingdom, but also to give a warning about the consequences of refusing his Son, their Messiah and Savior. The second part of the story focuses on those who had no claim on the king and who would never have considered getting such an invitation. The "good and the bad" along the highways certainly referred to the Gentiles and to sinners. This is certainly an invitation of grace – undeserved, unmerited favor and kindness! But this invitation also contains a warning for those who refuse it or who approach the wedding feast unworthily. Grace is a free gift, but it is also an awesome responsibility.   Dieterich Bonhoeffer, a Christian teacher who died for his faith under Hitler, contrasts cheap grace and costly grace.  "Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves ..the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance ..grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. ..Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life."    God invites each of us to his banquet that we may share in his joy. Are you ready to feast at the Lord's banquet table? "Lord Jesus, may I always know the joy of living in your presence and grow in the hope of seeing you face to face in your everlasting kingdom." Psalm 23:1-6 1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want; 2 he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters; 3 he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for thou art with me;  thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. 5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies;  thou anointest my head with oil, my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;  and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. RETURN TO TOP

UNIVERSAL CHURCH/WORLD EVENTS

Holy See Calls for Human Approach to Disarmament Urges Keeping It From Becoming "Game of Armed Truce"   NEW YORK, OCT. 10, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Disarmament should have a human approach, says the Holy See, since the human person is the ultimate aim of all public policies. Thus, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, urged the 63rd U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, to approach non-proliferation and disarmament with an interdisciplinary approach. "Without considering the social, economical, psychological and ethical impact of armaments, policies on disarmament and non-proliferation become a game of armed truce between states," he said. "Indeed," Archbishop Migliore added, "we realize a conflict emerging between security and military policies. The international community strives to fight nuclear terrorism with the adoption of stringent norms banning the production, possession and transfer of such arms; but, on the other hand, not a few states pursue the renewal or the acquisition of nuclear arsenals at the national level. Consequently a kind of conflict between security policies and development appears to emerge as well." "This contradicts the spirit of the United Nations and is not the way to build a durable and lasting peace. Arms regulation, nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation are key elements for a global strategy in favor of human rights, development and international order," he affirmed. Cluster bombs Nevertheless, the Holy See representative noted, last spring in Dublin, the Convention on Cluster Munitions was adopted. He said that the Holy See is "particularly pleased with this achievement." "This new convention, besides filling a serious gap in humanitarian law, provides a strong and realistic solution to an ongoing problem, characterized not only by the indiscriminate use of cluster munitions, but also by the fact that they can rest undetonated on the ground for many years, and, once disturbed, can devastatingly affect the daily life of thousands of civilians around the globe," he explained. "We need to invert the trend of erosion of multilateralism in the area of arms regulation, disarmament and non-proliferation," Archbishop Migliore continued. "The Conference on Disarmament has not had a program of work for more than 10 years, and the lack of political will in the international community regarding these projects is disconcerting. "It is well known that more progress can be made with an approach based on responsible, honest and coherent dialogue and cooperation of all the members of the international community than with individualized and contrasting approaches." He added: "Finally, disarmament is becoming an increasingly complex issue, which brings us back to more general problems, such as the reform of this organization, the procedural and structural reform of the Conference on Disarmament, the tendency of overlapping the civil and military economies and the scarce coherence of the policies adopted in the strategic sectors. "In this context, the Holy See calls upon the international community for a greater sensitivity and more efforts in promoting the peaceful coexistence and survival of the entire human family, and believes that the best formula for success is cooperation and partnership between states, the United Nations, international organizations and civil society." RETURN TO TOP

DAILY LITURGICAL SAINT

October 12, 2008 St. Seraphin of Montegranaro (1540-1604)  Born into a poor Italian family, young Seraphin lived the life of a shepherd and spent much of his time in prayer. Mistreated for a time by his older brother after the two of them had been orphaned, Seraphin became a Capuchin Franciscan at age 16 and impressed everyone with his humility and generosity. Serving as a lay brother, Seraphin imitated St. Francis in fasting, clothing and courtesy to all. He even mirrored Francis' missionary zeal, but Seraphin's superiors did not judge him to be a candidate for the missions. Faithful to the core, Seraphin spent three hours in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament daily. The poor who begged at the friary door came to hold a special love for him. Despite his uneventful life, he reached impressive spiritual heights and has had miracles attributed to him. Seraphin died on October 12, 1604, and was canonized in 1767. Comment: For many people these days, work has no significance beyond providing the money they need to live. How many share the belief expressed in the Book of Genesis that we are to cooperate with God in caring for the earth? The kind of work Seraphin did may not strike us as earth-shattering. The work was ordinary; the spirit in which he did it was not. Quote: In Brothers of Men, Rene Voillaume of the Little Brothers of Jesus speaks about ordinary work and holiness: "Now this holiness [of Jesus] became a reality in the most ordinary circumstances of life, those of work, of the family and the social life of a village, and this is an emphatic affirmation of the fact that the most obscure and humdrum human activities are entirely compatible with the perfection of the Son of God." Christians are convinced, he says, "that the evangelical holiness proper to a child of God is possible in the ordinary circumstances of a man who is poor and obliged to work for his living." RETURN TO TOP

GENERAL MARIOLOGY

THE SECRET OF THE ROSARY FOR RENEWAL AND SALVATION By St. Louis Marie de Montfort     (continued)   Eleventh Rose [The Creed] 34 The Creed or the Symbol of the Apostles, which is said on the crucifix of the rosary, is a holy summary of all the Christian truths. It is a prayer that has great merit, because faith is the root, foundation and beginning of all Christian virtues, of all eternal virtues, and of all prayers that are pleasing to God. "Anyone who comes to God must believe," and the greater his faith the more merit his prayer will have, the more powerful it will be, and the more it will glorify God. I shall not take time here to explain the Creed word for word, but I cannot resist saying that the first words, "I believe in God," are wonderfully effective as a means of sanctifying our souls and putting the devils to rout, because these words contain the acts of the three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. It was by saying these words that many saints overcame temptations, especially those against faith, hope or charity, either during their lifetime or at the hour of their death. They were also the last words of St. Peter, Martyr. A heretic had cleft his head in two by a blow of his sword, and although St. Peter was at his last gasp, he managed to trace these words in the sand with his finger. 35 The holy Rosary contains many mysteries of Jesus and Mary, and since faith is the only key which opens up these mysteries for us, we must begin the Rosary by saying the Creed very devoutly, and the stronger our faith the more merit our Rosary will have. This faith must be lively and informed by charity; in other words, to recite the Rosary properly it is necessary to be in God's grace, or at least seeking it. This faith must be strong and constant, that is, one must not be looking for sensible devotion and spiritual consolation in the recitation of the Rosary; nor should one give it up because the mind is flooded with countless involuntary distractions, or because one experiences a strange distaste in the soul or an almost continual and oppressive fatigue of the body. Neither feelings, nor consolation, nor sighs, nor transports, nor the continual attention of the imagination are needed; faith and good intentions are quite enough. Sola fides sufficit. Twelfth Rose [The Our Father] 36 The Our Father or the Lord's Prayer derives its great value above all from its author, who is neither a man nor an angel, but the King of angels and of men, our Lord Jesus Christ. St. Cyprian says it was necessary that he who came to give us the life of grace as our Saviour should teach us the way to pray as our heavenly Master. The beautiful order, the tender forcefulness and the clarity of this divine prayer pay tribute to our divine Master's wisdom. It is a short prayer but can teach us so very much, and it is well within the grasp of uneducated people, while scholars find it a continual source of investigation into the mysteries of God. The Our Father contains all the duties we owe to God, the acts of all the virtues and the petitions for all our spiritual and corporal needs. Tertullian says that the Our Father is a summary of the New Testament. Thomas a Kempis says that it surpasses all the desires of all the saints; that it is a condensation of all the beautiful sayings of all the psalms and canticles; that in it we ask God for everything that we need, that by it we praise him in the very best way; that by it we lift up our souls from earth to heaven and unite them closely to God. 37 St. John Chrysostom says that we cannot be our Master's disciples unless we pray as he did and in the way that he showed us. Moreover, God the Father listens more willingly to the prayer that we have learned from his Son rather than those of our own making, which have all our human limitations. We should say the Our Father with the certitude that the eternal Father will hear us because it is the prayer of his Son, whom he always hears, and because we are his members. God will surely grant our petitions made through the Lord's Prayer because it is impossible to imagine that such a good Father could refuse a request couched in the language of so worthy a Son, reinforced by his merits, and made at his behest. St. Augustine assures us that whenever we say the Our Father devoutly our venial sins are forgiven. The just man falls seven times, and in the Lord's Prayer he will find seven petitions which will both help him to avoid lapses and protect him from his spiritual enemies. Our Lord, knowing how weak and helpless we are, and how many difficulties we endure, made his prayer short and easy to say, so that if we say it devoutly and often, we can be sure that God will quickly come to our aid. 38 I have a word for you, devout souls who pay little attention to the prayer that the Son of God gave us himself and asked us all to say: It is high time for you to change your way of thinking. You only esteem prayers that men have written, as though anybody, even the most inspired man in the whole world, could possibly know more about how we ought to pray than Jesus Christ himself! You look for prayers in books written by other men almost as though you were ashamed of saying the prayer that our Lord told us to say. You have managed to convince yourself that the prayers in those books are for scholars and for the rich, and that the Rosary is only for women and children and the poor people. As if the prayers and praises you have been reading were more beautiful and more pleasing to God than those which are to be found in the Lord's Prayer! It is a very dangerous temptation to lose interest in the prayer that our Lord gave us and to take up prayers that men have written instead. Not that I disapprove of prayers that saints have written to encourage the faithful to praise God, but it is not to be endured that they should prefer these to the prayer which was uttered by Wisdom incarnate. If they ignore this prayer, it is as though they passed by the spring to go to the brook, and refusing the clear water, they drink instead that which is dirty. For the Rosary, made up of the Lord's Prayer and the Hail Mary, is this clear and ever-flowing water which comes from the fountain of grace, whereas other prayers which they look for in books are nothing but tiny streams which spring from this fountain. 39 People who say the Lord's Prayer carefully, weighing every word and meditating on them, may indeed call themselves blessed, for they find therein everything that they need or can wish for. When we say this wonderful prayer, we touch God's heart at the very outset by calling him by that sweet name of Father. "Our Father," he is the dearest of fathers: all-powerful in his creation, wonderful in the way he maintains the world, completely lovable in his divine Providence, all good and infinitely so in the Redemption. We have God for our Father, so we are all brothers, and heaven is our homeland and our heritage. This should be more than enough to teach us to love God and our neighbour, and to be detached from the things of this world. So we ought to love our heavenly Father and say to him over and over again: "Our Father who art in heaven" - Thou who dost fill heaven and earth with the immensity of thy being, Thou who art present everywhere: Thou who art in the saints by thy glory, in the damned by thy justice, in the good by thy grace, in sinners by the patience with which thou dost tolerate them, grant that we may always remember that we come from thee; grant that we may live as thy true children; that we may direct our course towards thee alone with all the ardour of our soul. "Hallowed by thy name." The name of the Lord is holy and to be feared, said the prophet-king David, and heaven, according to Isaiah, echoes with the praises of the seraphim who unceasingly praise the holiness of the Lord, God of hosts. We ask here that all the world may learn to know and adore the attributes of our God, who is so great and so holy. We ask that he may be known, loved and adored by pagans, Turks, Jews, barbarians and all infidels; that all men may serve and glorify him by a living faith, a staunch hope, a burning charity, and by the renouncing of all erroneous beliefs. In short, we pray that all men may be holy because our God himself is holy. "Thy kingdom come." That is to say: May you reign in our souls by your grace, during life, so that after death we may be found worthy to reign with thee in thy kingdom, in perfect and unending bliss; that we firmly believe in this happiness to come; we hope for it and we expect it, because God the Father has promised it in his great goodness, and because it was purchased for us by the merits of God the Son; and it has been made known to us by the light of the Holy Spirit. "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." As Tertullian says, this sentence does not mean in the least that we are afraid of people thwarting God's designs, because nothing whatsoever can happen without divine Providence having foreseen it and having made it fit into his plans beforehand. No obstruction in the whole world can possibly prevent the will of God from being carried out. Rather, when we say these words, we ask God to make us humbly resigned to all that he has seen fit to send us in this life. We also ask him to help us to do, in all things and at all times, his holy will, made known to us by the commandments, promptly, lovingly and faithfully, as the angels and the blessed do in heaven. 40 "Give us this day our daily bread." Our Lord teaches us to ask God for everything that we need, whether in the spiritual or the temporal order. By asking for our daily bread, we humbly admit our own poverty and insufficiency, and pay tribute to our God, knowing that all temporal goods come from his Providence. When we say bread we ask for that which is necessary to live; and, of course that does not include luxuries. We ask for this bread today, which means that we are concerned only for the present, leaving the morrow in the hands of Providence. And when we ask for our daily bread, we recognize that we need God's help every day and that we are entirely dependent upon him for his help and protection. "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." Every sin, says St. Augustine and Tertullian, is a debt which we contract with God, and he in his justice requires payment down to the last farthing. Unfortunately we all have these sad debts. No matter how many they may be, we should go to God with all confidence and with true sorrow for our sins, saying, "Our Father who art in heaven, forgive us our sins of thought and those of speech, forgive us our sins of commission and of omission which make us infinitely guilty in the eyes of thy justice. "We dare to ask this because thou art our loving and merciful Father, and because we have forgiven those who have offended us, out of obedience to you and out of charity. "Do not permit us, in spite of our infidelity to thy graces, to give in to the temptations of the world, the devil, and the flesh. "But deliver us from evil." The evil of sin, from the evil of temporal punishment and of everlasting punishment, which we have rightly deserved. "Amen." This word at the end of the Our Father is very consoling, and St. Jerome says that it is a sort of seal of approbation that God puts at the end of our petitions to assure us that he will grant our requests, as though he himself were answering: "Amen! May it be as you have asked, for truly you have obtained what you asked for." That is what is meant by this word: Amen. (to be continued)  RETURN TO TOP

DIVINE MERCY

Dairy from St. Faustina On Happiness, Joy, Delight, Rejoice  No Greater Joy Oh, what great happiness fills my heart from knowing God and the divine life! It is my desire to share this happiness with all people. I cannot keep this happiness locked in my own heart alone, for His flames burn me and cause my bosom and my entrails to burst asunder (Diary, 491). No greater joy is to be found than that of loving God (Diary, 507). Already here on earth we can taste the happiness of those in heaven by an intimate union with God, a union that is extraordinary and often quite incomprehensible to us. One can attain this very grace through simple faithfulness of soul (Diary, 507). RETURN TO TOP

CATHOLIC  TEACHING/CONVICTION/TESTIMONY

Holy See on Disarmament "Non-Proliferation Must Have an Interdisciplinary Or Human Approach"   NEW YORK, OCT. 10, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is the statement Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, gave Tuesday to the 63rd U.N. General Assembly. * * * Mr Chairman, Two months from now we will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This event invites us to a renewed commitment to disarmament, development and peace. All States are called upon to promote disarmament and non-proliferation as key elements for an international order in which the fundamental rights and freedoms of every person can be fully realized. Peace and security are threatened by terrorism, and even more by widespread violence, neglect of human rights and underdevelopment. As the human person is the ultimate aim of all public policies, arms regulation, disarmament and non-proliferation must have an interdisciplinary or, more importantly, a human approach. Without considering the social, economical, psychological and ethical impact of armaments, policies on disarmament and non-proliferation become a game of armed truce between States. Indeed, we realize a conflict emerging between security and military policies. The international community strives to fight nuclear terrorism with the adoption of stringent norms banning the production, possession and transfer of such arms; but, on the other hand, not a few States pursue the renewal or the acquisition of nuclear arsenals at the national level. Consequently a kind of conflict between security policies and development appears to emerge as well. States, and especially the major powers, aspire in the nuclear sector to a maximum national freedom, and at the same time to incisive forms of international and regional monitoring. This explains also in large part the scarce interest in fully complying with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and reaching the necessary quorum for the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). This contradicts the spirit of the United Nations and is not the way to build a durable and lasting peace. Arms regulation, nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation are key elements for a global strategy in favour of human rights, development and international order. Despite the negative trend of multilateralism, this past spring in Dublin, a group of 107 States, with the support of 20 Observer States, international organisations and a coalition of non-governmental organisations, adopted the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which will be opened for signing on 3 December 2008 in Oslo. As a member of the Core Group of the Oslo Process, the Holy See is particularly pleased with this achievement. This new Convention, besides filling a serious gap in humanitarian law, provides a strong and realistic solution to an ongoing problem, characterized not only by the indiscriminate use of cluster munitions, but also by the fact that they can rest undetonated on the ground for many years, and, once disturbed, can devastatingly affect the daily life of thousands of civilians around the globe. The Oslo Process not only represents an important political and legal step forward but is also a warning signal. As a matter of fact, like the Convention on Antipersonnel Mines, the Convention on Cluster Munitions has been negotiated and adopted outside the Conference on Disarmament. As emphasised by the 62nd General Assembly, multilateralism is "the core principle in resolving disarmament and non-proliferation concerns" (Resolution 62/27). The Holy See shares this view and supports the plan for a fourth Special Session of the General Assembly on disarmament which could foster multilateralism within international organisations and in particular the Conference on Disarmament. We need to invert the trend of erosion of multilateralism in the area of arms regulation, disarmament and non-proliferation. The Conference on Disarmament has not had a programme of work for more than 10 years, and the lack of political will in the international community regarding these projects is disconcerting. It is well known that more progress can be made with an approach based on responsible, honest and coherent dialogue and cooperation of all the members of the international community than with individualized and contrasting approaches. The adoption of the Arms Trade Treaty is uncertain. A greater transparency, given the enhanced complexity of the arms trade linked also to an increase of the exchange of so-called "dual-use" goods and technologies, would contribute to actual security and provide the premises for a future limitation of the arms trade. In this prospective it seems opportune to recall General Assembly Resolution 62/13 which refers to the "objective information on military matters, including transparency of military expenditures", and Resolution 62/26 which speaks of "national legislation on transfer of arms, military equipment and dual-use goods and technologies". Finally, disarmament is becoming an increasingly complex issue, which brings us back to more general problems, such as the reform of this Organisation, the procedural and structural reform of the Conference on Disarmament, the tendency of overlapping the civil and military economies and the scarce coherence of the policies adopted in the strategic sectors. In this context, the Holy See calls upon the international community for a greater sensitivity and more efforts in promoting the peaceful coexistence and survival of the entire human family, and believes that the best formula for success is cooperation and partnership between States, the United Nations, international organizations and civil society. Thank you, Mr Chairman.     RETURN TO TOP

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