Father Stanko's Blog
PASTOR’S PONDERINGS - 2 - 5 - 12
On Sunday, Jan. 22, I informed you about the plans of the government to force Catholics to pay for medical drugs and procedures which are contrary to Catholic teaching. The news came from Kathleen Sebelius, a pro-abortion Catholic, delivered to Cardinal Designate, Archbishop Timothy Dolan, of New York. This proposed mandate requires all insurance plans to pay for contraception sterilization and some abortion drugs is official – and Catholics cannot escape. The government will give us a year to figure out how we can adapt to this policy.
Archbishop Dolan, a giant of a religious leader, responded by saying: “In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences.” Beginning, Aug. 12012, the insurance premiums we pay, including insurance premiums paid by Catholics for employees of churches and schools - - will be used to cover drugs and procedures that are in direct conflict with the teachings of our Church.
Make no mistake; this decision is a direct attack on you, our Church, and the religious liberty of all Americans. Pope Benedict
specifically has cited the “grave threats” to the freedom of the Church in American and has urged the Catholic community to respond.
Obviously, this topic was extensively cited by speakers at the March for Life. Over 300,000 people, many of them youth, stood in drenching rain to march for life. Obviously, this received very little coverage by the media. (Source: catholicvote.org)
Also, I ask you to be
attentive to upcoming pronouncements by the American bishops and also by our
own bishop. In particular, pay close
attention to the next issue of the Catholic Register.
conversion. There are only a few differences, but the one fact that stands out was that there was a great light which struck Paul. So complete was his conversion that he had to change his name from Saul to Paul.
Paul was the consummate Pharisee. He followed the Law of Moses so totally that he could boast of never transgressing the Law of Moses. He was so intent that he killed many early Christians, and we picture him urging the martyrdom of St. Stephen. However, after his conversion, he began to preach Jesus Christ and Christian Gospel with same intensity as he preached the Law of Moses to the Jews. There was no middle ground for Paul; he gave his all to everything.
becomes a scoundrel, and the man who was a scoundrel to the Christians becomes a great hero for the Christians. Paul
brought the Gospel to the Gentiles, to the nations, and he received the title of “Apostle.”
must realize that conversion is a life-long process, and hopefully we “will see the light” often. If we read the lives of the saints, we will see many such conversion stories like St. Augustine, St. Francis of Assisi, and St. Ignatius of Loyola. We must never regard any of our “fallen away Catholics” as being hopelessly lost.
during World War II right in the midst of the holocaust. Apparently, there was a country church that was very close to a rail line.
Every Sunday morning, during the morning
worship service of this church, which was at 10:00am, a train would stop by the church for a few minutes. The train was filled with poor unfortunate souls who were on their way to the dreaded
concentration camp of Auschwitz. During the summer months, this presented a problem. With the church windows open, the cries of the poor people inside those insidious rail cars could be heard inside the church. Sometimes it became so bothersome that the pastor of the church would tell the organist to play louder to drown out the mournful cries of the poor victims inside the cars of the train.
else?
out? Herod is still in our midst killing the Holy Innocents. God cannot be happy with our nation and he will make us pay for every single abortion!
Philippians 2:10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend. The Church’s veneration of the Holy Name of Jesus flourished the preaching of Franciscan St. Bernadine of Siena (+ 1444). This feast was mandated for the whole Church in 1721. However, after a period of time it fell into disuse. It was restored by Blessed Pope John Paul II.
In our contemporary world the sacred name of Jesus and the name of God have been abused in so many areas of our culture - in the movies, TV, modern music, novels, etc. How do you use the name of Jesus? Do you abuse it and use it in a sacrilegious and improper way. If you are a parent, do your children respect the Holy name of Jesus?
It is a strange experience to sit by a campfire on a dark and cloudy night. As long as we are close to the fire, we can see clearly. But beyond the radiance of the fire, we see nothing but darkness, utter blackness. We may hear the stirring of creatures in the blackness of the forest. How different is it for those who walk in darkness. Every step is dangerous and foreboding. However, creatures of the night can still see the light from a distance. They can either walk towards it, or they can walk away from it.
The coming of the Magi can be looked upon as a surprise. We can
make sense of the shepherds because they are the poor of Israel. The Magi are pagans; they are not of the people of Israel. We are the Magi! Those Magi who came to see Christ are seekers, seekers of the truth, and seekers of the light. They follow that brilliant star, traveling a long, dangerous, and arduous journey. At the end of their journey, they find the Christ Child; they find the light of the world. Meanwhile, Herod continues to walk in darkness because he chooses to walk according to his sinful passions. Enveloped by his own self imposed darkness, he continues to helplessly grasp for the truth, for light as he continues to walk away from the light.
All of us are seekers! We can either seek the light, seek the truth
as the Magi did, or we can continue to walk in the darkness of sin and evil as Herod did. The Magi traveled in a caravan. This caravan symbolizes the Church. If we separate ourselves from the caravan,
the Church, we will never find the truth; we will never find the light, and we will get lost. It is primarily in the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, that we get food for the journey in the Eucharist. Are you like the Magi? Or, are you like Herod? There are many people in our society who continue to walk from the light as Herod did, and, sad to say, there are many people within the Catholic Church who still accept the darkness rather than the Light.
We must remember that the Magi were pagans; they were not part of the People of Israel. Therefore, since we are all Gentiles and not
Jews, the Solemnity of the Epiphany is really our Christmas. The word “epiphany” literally means “manifestation” in that Christ came as a manifestation of God’s love for ALL people and nations.