The Second Vatican Council or Vatican II (1962-1965) was the most important event in the history of the Catholic Church since the Protestant Reformation and the Council of Trent (1545-1563). But is it still relevant? It is a fact that Vatican II took place in a now distant past: during the optimistic world of the 1960s, from the perspective of a very Euro-Western theological culture, and by an all male, celibate council. But Vatican II is still very relevant for at least three reasons.
“I encourage you to continue constantly in the practice of reading the divine Scriptures. And don’t let anyone make excuses like, ‘I’m too busy with politics.’ ‘I’m a businessman.’ ‘I’m a skilled worker. I must get on with my job.’ ‘I’ve got a wife.’ ‘I’m raising kids.’ ‘I’m responsible for a household.’ In other words, ‘I’m a lay person; it’s not my business to read the Bible. I’ll leave that to professional Christians like monks, nuns, priests and theology students.’ What are you saying? It’s not your business to pay attention to the Bible because you are distracted by thousands of concerns? But that’s the very reason why you need to read the Bible! The more worries you have, the more you need the Bible to keep you going!”
—St. John Chrysostom Homily
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The Gospels were not written to convert outsiders but as catechetical documents to deepen the faith of those who have already committed themselves to Jesus and his community by adopting his vision the world, his values for living in it and the vocation to continue his mission of bringing the Good News to others.
The Diocese of Saint Cloud, in it’s effort to encourage reflection on the Year of Mercy, is providing a monthly online "Work of Mercy" catechetical lesson. It’s purpose is to offer an online learning resource for small faith-sharing groups, parishes, schools, and families. It serves as one model of how catechesis can be done simply online simply.
It follows the Msgr. Francis Kelly’s familiar Ecclesial Method:
1. Preparation - Each lesson starts with a prayer and a general Works of Mercy video, with a reflection question(s) 2. Proclamation - Each lesson will repeat the Works of Mercy each month, each linking to it’s lesson as it is released 3. Explanation - This step addresses a specific Work of Mercy with links to other resources as well as text and embedded video 4. Application and appropriation - Reflection questions and suggested activities for families, groups, parishes and schools 5. Celebration - Closing prayer
By Father Mark R. Francis, C.S.V., who is currently President and Professor of Liturgy at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. His most recent book, Local Worship, Global Church, Popular Religion and the Liturgy was published by Liturgical Press in 2013.
It’s time to stop celebrating confirmation as the sacrament of departure. There’s an old joke about two pastors discussing their mutual problem with bats in the attics of their respective churches. “I’ve tried everything,” Father Brown complains to Father Smith, “exterminators, electric wires, traps, poison—everything…but I just can’t seem to get rid of them.” Father Smith smiles and says “Don’t worry. I have found the perfect solution…. I had the bishop come to confirm the bats … and they never returned!”
‘The feast of Pentecost is a celebration of the mysterious movement of God in our lives through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.’ Sr Teresa White came across a useful analogy that can help us to contemplate the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, which she reflects on ahead of Pentecost Sunday.
Our local paper recently ran a story about a church that was being demolished. In the process, the workers discovered a time capsule from 1882. They found a newspaper that carried a story about a woman that had died from overexposure in the harsh winter. She was described as an “elderly woman of forty-seven!”
It is hard for us to imagine that just a hundred years ago the mid-forties was a full lifetime for most people. This got me to thinking about Mary the mother of Jesus, who would have been in her mid-forties at the time of His death.
How often do we think of Mary as “elderly”? In our culture, where youth is at a premium and people seem willing to do anything rather than age, we usually focus on Mary the teen-age maiden who learns that she is to be a mother. But what about the rest of Mary’s life? In particular, since Jesus was about thirty years of age when he began his public ministry (Lk 3:23), how can the mature Mary at age forty-five be our example too?
In order to reflect on this, we need to understand something about the cultural meaning of the age of forty-five for their world. Then, since Luke’s gospel highlights Mary more than the other gospels, we can reflect on Luke’s example of Mary at forty-five to discover how we might emulate her example of mature wisdom, connectedness and care.
We've all heard about "The Spirit of Vatican II." But what do we mean by "the spirit"? I mean basic orientations, themes, issues that run through the Council. They appear in many documents but transcend any particular document.
The Council issued 16 documents, which make up close to 25 percent of the documents of all 21 Ecumenical Councils held in 2,000 years of Church history. So I consider Vatican II a language event.
Vatican II operated differently from the basic model for councils. Let's take the first Ecumenical Council, the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., convoked by the Roman Emperor Constantine. It made certain laws, and with laws you get a penalty if you don't observe them. They heard the criminal case of the heresy of Arius and condemned him.
This is the pattern followed until Vatican II (1962–1965). Instead of making laws, Vatican II holds up ideals. It has a new vocabulary, not new in the Christian tradition but new for a council: Friend, brother, sister, partnership, cooperation, peace, freedom, dialogue, conscience. These occur again and again in the documents. So it's not simply dealing with what you can do wrong but rather what you can do right, and, therefore, is a universal call to holiness. That becomes a leitmotif of the Council.
Its documents build on one another, quote one another, paraphrase one another. There is coherence among those documents, and, therefore, you can have themes, you can have an orientation, you can have a spirit. To give you the kind of spiritual shift Vatican II tried to effect, here's how it goes: from threats to persuasion, from adversary to partner, from hostility to friendship, from exclusion to inclusion, from monologue to dialogue, from fault finding to common ground, from laws to ideals, from coercion to conscience, from behavior modification to conversion of heart.
This week we celebrate Rosh Hashanah when Jews in West Michigan and around the world will greet the arrival of our New Year. It is the first of our High Holy Days and is followed by Yom Kippur just 9 days later.
The book of Leviticus, the third book of the Torah, tells us that on this day we should not work at our occupations, but should rest. We also commemorate this day with loud blasts from one of the oldest instruments in human history, the horn of a ram, known as a shofar.
The shofar is most often sounded in the synagogue and heralds in the arrival of the New Year, but also serves as a wake-up call. Like an alarm clock rouses us in the morning out of our slumber, the sounding of the shofar is meant to stir us to action. The music is meant to inspire us to rededicate ourselves to our faith and to our traditions, and to challenge us to do more to heal and repair the world.
APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION EVANGELII GAUDIUM OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY, CONSECRATED PERSONS AND THE LAY FAITHFUL ON THE PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL IN TODAY’S WORLD
Today I would like to briefly highlight another term with which the Second Vatican Council has defined the Church, as "the People of God " (cf. Dogm. Const. Lumen Gentium, 9; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 782). And I do so with some questions, on which everyone can reflect.
1. What does it mean to be "People of God"? Firstly it means that God does not belong specifically to any people; because it is He who calls us, summons us, invites us to be part of his people, and this call is addressed to us all, without distinction, because God's mercy «wants salvation for everyone» (1Tm 2:4). Jesus does not say to the Apostles and to us to form an exclusive group, an elite. Jesus says: go and make disciples of all Nations (cf. Mt 28:19). Saint Paul states that in the people of God, in the Church, "there is no longer Jew nor Greek ... since you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). I would also say to those who feel far away from God and the Church, the one who is fearful or indifferent, who thinks he can no longer change: the Lord calls you to join his people and does so with great respect and love!
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