Spiritual Directors for the men in Diaconal Formation

Memo

Date: May 23, 2008

To: Spiritual Directors for the men in Diaconal Formation

From: Deacon Dennis Dorner

RE: Clarification

___________________________________________________________________________

I have heard that there might be some confusion regarding the spiritual direction policy for the men in Diaconal Formation.

The requirement that all men in formation be involved in spiritual direction continues.

While we would prefer that spiritual directors be either clergy or religious, we will be relaxing the requirement that it must be a priest. This is simply in response to the reality that demand exceeds supply. We will work with the men to identify a good director.

One significant change in the Formation program is that the Archbishop has named Father Tim Hepburn as the Spiritual Director for the Diaconate. Father Tim will be responsible for setting the overall spiritual tone of not only the Formation Program but he will also assist the Office of the Permanent Diaconate in scheduling liturgies, retreats, and ongoing spiritual development opportunities.

Evidently there was some misunderstanding that would indicate that the current spiritual directors would be in the formation “chain of command” and that they would report somehow to the Office of the Diaconate or the new Spiritual Director. This is NOT the case. Since spiritual direction is an issue of internal forum the only requirement we have for the men’s spiritual directors is to report that they are meeting on a regular basis with the candidate.

I trust this information is helpful. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Prayer for Church in China - May 24th

PRAYER OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
TO OUR LADY OF SHESHAN
ON THE OCCASION OF THE WORLD DAY OF PRAYER
FOR THE CHURCH IN CHINA (24 MAY 2008)

Virgin Most Holy, Mother of the Incarnate Word and our Mother,

venerated in the Shrine of Sheshan under the title "Help of Christians",
the entire Church in China looks to you with devout affection.
We come before you today to implore your protection.
Look upon the People of God and, with a mother’s care, guide them
along the paths of truth and love, so that they may always be
a leaven of harmonious coexistence among all citizens.

When you obediently said "yes" in the house of Nazareth,
you allowed God’s eternal Son to take flesh in your virginal womb
and thus to begin in history the work of our redemption.
You willingly and generously cooperated in that work,
allowing the sword of pain to pierce your soul,
until the supreme hour of the Cross, when you kept watch on Calvary,
standing beside your Son, who died that we might live.

From that moment, you became, in a new way,
the Mother of all those who receive your Son Jesus in faith
and choose to follow in his footsteps by taking up his Cross.
Mother of hope, in the darkness of Holy Saturday you journeyed
with unfailing trust towards the dawn of Easter.
Grant that your children may discern at all times,
even those that are darkest, the signs of God’s loving presence.

Our Lady of Sheshan, sustain all those in China,
who, amid their daily trials, continue to believe, to hope, to love.
May they never be afraid to speak of Jesus to the world,
and of the world to Jesus.
In the statue overlooking the Shrine you lift your Son on high,
offering him to the world with open arms in a gesture of love.
Help Catholics always to be credible witnesses to this love,
ever clinging to the rock of Peter on which the Church is built.
Mother of China and all Asia, pray for us, now and for ever. Amen!

Christian Culture - Not Outdated

Notes It's Current In Measure of a Lively Faith

VATICAN CITY, MAY 21, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The beauty of the Christian cultural inheritance is not something that is "outdated," but rather something that will remain alive and current in the measure of a lively faith, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope said this today upon delivering his weekly catechesis today in Paul VI Hall in which he commented on the Christian poetry of Romanus the Melodist, a theologian, poet and composer was born in Syria at the end of the fifth century.

The Holy Father explained that Romanus was an ordained deacon who dedicated himself to an original form of catechesis.

It is said that the Virgin Mary appeared to Romanus in a dream, explained the Pontiff, and gave him the gift of poetic charism. From that moment on he began preaching in the form of "chanted metrical hymns known as 'kontakia,' consisting of an introduction and a series of stanzas punctuated by a refrain."

"Faith is love," commented Benedict XVI, "and so it creates poetry and music. Faith is joy, and so it creates beauty."

Eighty-nine "kontakia" are attributed to Romanus, although tradition says he composed a thousand, recalled the Pope. He added that they "testify to the rich theological, liturgical and devotional content of the hymnography of that time."

An original

The Pontiff added, "Romanus was not only an eminent witness of the religious sentiment of his day, but also of a lively and original method of catechesis.

"Through his compositions we can see the creativity of this form of catechesis, of the creativity of the theological thought, of the aesthetic and the sacred hymnography of the era."

"Palpitating humanity, arduous faith and profound humility pervade the songs of Romanus the Melodist," continued the Holy Father. "This great poet and composer reminds us of the entire treasure of Christian culture, born of faith, born of the heart that has found Christ, the Son of God.

"From this contact of the heart with the truth that is love, culture is born, the entire great Christian culture. And if the faith continues to live, this cultural inheritance will not die, but rather it will continue to live and be current."

Benedict XVI affirmed that icons, medieval cathedrals and the music of Gregorian chant, Bach and Mozart are not things of the past.

"If faith is alive," he said, "Christian culture will never be 'outdated' but rather will remain alive and current."

© Innovative Media, Inc.

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Fr. Corapi's Conversion Story

That's why we keep them in Cages!

Incredible Story

In 1986, Peter Davies was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University .

On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Peter approached it very carefully.

He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant’s foot and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Peter worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Peter stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away. Peter never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.

Twenty years later, Peter was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Peter and his son Cameron were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Peter, lifted its front foot off the ground, and then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.

Remembering the encounter in 1986, Peter couldn’t help wondering if this was the same elephant. Peter summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Peter legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.

Probably wasn't the same elephant.

This is for all of my friends who send me those heart-warming stories.

The Greek Passion - presented by Dayle Geroski

In the remote mountains of northern Greece, there once lived a monk who had desired all of his life to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre—to walk three times around it, to kneel, and to return home a new person. Gradually through the years he had saved what money he could, begging in the vil­lages nearby, and finally, near the end of his life, had enough set aside to begin his trip. He opened the gates of the monas­tery and, staff in hand, set out with great anticipation on his way to Jerusalem.

But no sooner had he left the cloister than he encountered a man in rags, sad and bent to the ground, picking herbs. “Where are you going, Father?” the man asked. “To the Holy Sepulchre, brother. By God’s grace, I shall walk three times around it, kneel, and return home a different man from what I am.”

“How much money to do that do you have, Father?” in­quired the man. “Thirty pounds,” the monk answered. “Give me the thirty pounds,” said the beggar. “I have a wife and hungry children. Give me the money, walk three times around me, then kneel and go back into your monastery.”

The monk thought for a moment, scratching the ground with his staff, then took the thirty pounds from his sack, gave the whole of it to the poor man, walked three times around him, knelt, and went back through the gates of his monastery.

He returned home a new person, of course, having recog­nized that the beggar was Christ himself—not in some magi­cal place far away, but right outside his monastery door, mysteriously close. In abandoning his quest for the remote, the special, the somehow “magical,” the monk discovered a meaning far more profound in the ordinary experience close to home. All that he had given up came suddenly rushing back to him with a joy unforeseen.

To be surprised by grace is a gift to be prized.

Story by Nikos Kazantzakis, as cited in the book: The spirituality of imperfection: Storytelling and the search for meaning, by Ernst Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham. Bantam Books.

Class Song - Jubilate Deo

Class Song - Men of Ten

Jubilate Deo

Omnisterra sevite domino

In laetitia allelulia, alleluia

In laetitia allelulia, alleluia

In laetitia