What's Your Rule of Life?

Many third order members of religious communities follow a modified or even the full rule of their Order to attain a deeper spirtual life.  The Rule of St. Benedict is very popular even among the laity but it may not be suitable for you and your family.  So for those who would like a "Rule" to help their family grow spiritually the Catholic Truth Society of the U.K has a helpful resource.  The CTS publishes many books, pamphlets and other materials dealing with all things Catholic.  They've been around since 1868 and are a great resource for well done, affordably priced works and there's a good chance you've seen them in the rack at the back of your local Church.  One very useful pamphlet is A Rule of Life for Daily Christian Living which is available as a free download online.  It is a guideline on setting up your own 'rule of life' to be used by your family.

Another H/T to Auntie Joanna for this link

Too Much Too Soon - Sex Ed for 10 year olds

A recent report from the International Planned Parenthood calls for children as young as 10 years old to receive sex education indoctrination because we prudish Catholics are denying our youngsters the pleasures of sex.

Young people's sexuality is still contentious for many religious institutions. Fundamentalist and other religious groups — the Catholic Church and madrasas (Islamic Schools) for example — have imposed tremendous barriers that prevent young people, particularly, from obtaining information and services related to sex and reproduction. Currently, many religious teachings deny the pleasurable and positive aspects of sex." the report states.

Click here to read the report.

The report demands that children 10 and older be given a "comprehensive sexuality education" by governments, aid organizations and other groups, and that young people should be seen as "sexual beings."

"Young people have the right to be informed about sexuality and to have access to contraceptives and other services," Bert Koenders, the Netherlands Minister for Development Cooperation, wrote in the foreword to the report. It was his organization that helped fund the report.(Given that the Catholic Church in the Netherlands is virtually extinct one wonders how they are denying anyone anything.)

Joanna Bogle (Auntie Joanna) writes about a group in the U.K. that researches the cause and consequence of family breakdown.  The Family Education Trust publishes a number of bulletins to help parents combat the increasing attacks against the family.  Too Much, Too Soon details the government's plans for your child's sex education. 

Too Much, Too Soon sets out to tell parents what they need to know about sex education. It explains the law, identifies the aims of the key players, considers the research evidence, and weighs up the case for making sex education compulsory for all pupils from the age of five. It argues that young people do not need to be presented with a menu of sexual options from which they can make ‘informed choices’. Rather, the whole issue needs to be approached with honesty, modesty and within a clear moral framework that shows a proper respect for parents and for marriage.   The bulletin can be downloaded here. 

Even though this particular work pertains to the situation in the U.K. it is nevertheless relevant to all of us as the attacks on family life are global.

Knights of St. John Special on EWTN

This week EWTN will be airing a program on the Order of Malta. Please see details below.

THE KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN (1 hr)This compelling overview of the 1,000 year history of The Knights of St. John, explores the order’s evolution from hospital service to militaristic defense of the Faith, and back again to the care of the sick and needy.

Air Dates:

Sun 2/7/2010 10:00 PM ET / 7 PM PT

Tue 2/9/2010 1:00 PM ET / 10 AM PT

Fri 2/12/2010 4:00 AM ET / 1 AM PT

Please visit http://www.ewtn.com/channelfinder/ to find your local station.

Justice Comes From Faith, Not Politcal Parties

Made public today was the 2010 Lenten Message of the Holy Father Benedict XVI. The text, dated 30 October 2009, has as its title a passage from St. Paul's Letter to the Romans: "The justice of God has been manifested through faith in Jesus Christ" From the Vatican Information Service,

First of all, I want to consider the meaning of the term 'justice', which in common usage implies 'to render to every man his due', according to the famous expression of Ulpian, a Roman jurist of the third century. In reality, however, this classical definition does not specify what 'due' is to be rendered to each person. What man needs most cannot be guaranteed to him by law. In order to live life to the full, something more intimate is necessary that can be granted only as a gift: we could say that man lives by that love which only God can communicate since He created the human person in His image and likeness. Material goods are certainly useful and required - indeed Jesus Himself was concerned to heal the sick, feed the crowds that followed Him and surely condemns the indifference that even today forces hundreds of millions into death through lack of food, water and medicine - yet 'distributive' justice does not render to the human being the totality of his 'due'. Just as man needs bread, so does man have even more need of God. St. Augustine notes: if 'justice is that virtue which gives every one his due ... where, then, is the justice of man, when he deserts the true God?'

"The Evangelist Mark reports the following words of Jesus, which are inserted within the debate at that time regarding what is pure and impure: 'There is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him. ... What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts'. Beyond the immediate question concerning food, we can detect in the reaction of the Pharisees a permanent temptation within man: to situate the origin of evil in an exterior cause. Many modern ideologies deep down have this presupposition: since injustice comes 'from outside', in order for justice to reign, it is sufficient to remove the exterior causes that prevent it being achieved. This way of thinking - Jesus warns - is ingenuous and short-sighted. Injustice, the fruit of evil, does not have exclusively external roots; its origin lies in the human heart, where the seeds are found of a mysterious co-operation with evil. With bitterness the Psalmist recognises this: 'Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me'. Indeed, man is weakened by an intense influence, which wounds his capacity to enter into communion with the other. By nature, he is open to sharing freely, but he finds in his being a strange force of gravity that makes him turn in and affirm himself above and against others: this is egoism, the result of original sin. Adam and Eve, seduced by Satan's lie, snatching the mysterious fruit against the divine command, replaced the logic of trusting in Love with that of suspicion and competition; the logic of receiving and trustfully expecting from the Other with anxiously seizing and doing on one's own, experiencing, as a consequence, a sense of disquiet and uncertainty. How can man free himself from this selfish influence and open himself to love?

"At the heart of the wisdom of Israel, we find a profound link between faith in God who 'lifts the needy from the ash heap' and justice towards one's neighbour. The Hebrew word itself that indicates the virtue of justice, 'sedaqah', expresses this well. 'Sedaqah', in fact, signifies on the one hand full acceptance of the will of the God of Israel; on the other hand, equity in relation to one's neighbour, especially the poor, the stranger, the orphan and the widow. But the two meanings are linked because giving to the poor for the Israelite is none other than restoring what is owed to God, who had pity on the misery of His people. It was not by chance that the gift to Moses of the tablets of the Law on Mount Sinai took place after the crossing of the Red Sea. Listening to the Law presupposes faith in God who first 'heard the cry' of His people and 'came down to deliver them out of hand of the Egyptians'. God is attentive to the cry of the poor and in return asks to be listened to: He asks for justice towards the poor, the stranger, the slave. In order to enter into justice, it is thus necessary to leave that illusion of self- sufficiency, the profound state of closure, which is the very origin of injustice. In other words, what is needed is an even deeper 'exodus' than that accomplished by God with Moses, a liberation of the heart, which the Law on its own is powerless to realize. Does man have any hope of justice then?

"The Christian Good News responds positively to man's thirst for justice, as St. Paul affirms in the Letter to the Romans: 'But now the justice of God has been manifested apart from law ... the justice of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by His blood, to be received by faith'.

"What then is the justice of Christ? Above all, it is the justice that comes from grace, where it is not man who makes amends, heals himself and others. The fact that 'expiation' flows from the 'blood' of Christ signifies that it is not man's sacrifices that free him from the weight of his faults, but the loving act of God Who opens Himself in the extreme, even to the point of bearing in Himself the 'curse' due to man so as to give in return the 'blessing' due to God. But this raises an immediate objection: what kind of justice is this where the just man dies for the guilty and the guilty receives in return the blessing due to the just one? Would this not mean that each one receives the contrary of his 'due'? In reality, here we discover divine justice, which is so profoundly different from its human counterpart. God has paid for us the price of the exchange in His Son, a price that is truly exorbitant. Before the justice of the Cross, man may rebel for this reveals how man is not a self-sufficient being, but in need of Another in order to realize himself fully. Conversion to Christ, believing in the Gospel, ultimately means this: to exit the illusion of self-sufficiency in order to discover and accept one's own need - the need of others and God, the need of His forgiveness and His friendship.

"So we understand how faith is altogether different from a natural, good- feeling, obvious fact: humility is required to accept that I need Another to free me from 'what is mine', to give me gratuitously 'what is His'. This happens especially in the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. Thanks to Christ's action, we may enter into the 'greatest' justice, which is that of love, the justice that recognises itself in every case more a debtor than a creditor, because it has received more than could ever have been expected. Strengthened by this very experience, the Christian is moved to contribute to creating just societies, where all receive what is necessary to live according to the dignity proper to the human person and where justice is enlivened by love.

The World Needs Absolution

To recommend political and economic panaceas for he world problem of dehumanized forgotten man, is like recommending face powder for jaundice, or an alcohol rub for cancer. It is not our bodies that are ill; the soul of civilization is sick. The world is in a state of mortal sin and it needs absolution. The Cross and The Crisis by Fulton J. Sheen

This Lent the Archdiocese of Boston is sponsoring a wonderful initiative, The Light is On For You, to encourage reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Seeking to promote the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the Archdiocese of Boston has launched a new website about how to make a good confession. Its priests will also offer confessions in every chapel and church on Wednesdays during Lent. The website, www.TheLightIsOnForYou.org, describes how to prepare for confession with an examination of conscience. It also provides an act of contrition to recite before absolution.

Novena For Our Lady of Lourdes

Here is a novena to Our Lady of Lourdes whose feast is on February 11th. I'm sorry it's not in English, I will try and translate it tomorrow.

Vierge Marie, ô Notre-Dame de Lourdes,
nous tournons vers vous
nos regards et le chant de notre prière.

Comme Bernadette Soubirous,
nous contemplons votre visage,
y découvrant les traits de la tendresse de Dieu.

Vous avez accompagné Bernadette
dans la rencontre de Dieu,
de sa miséricorde et de son mystère.
Vous lui avez appris la beauté de la prière,
guidant son geste comme une mère
dans le signe de la croix.

Apprenez-nous le Christ,
guidez-nous sur le chemin de la foi
et sur nos chemins de vie.

Nous confions à votre cœur de mère
les personnes malades et tous ceux qui souffrent.
Accueillez aussi les pécheurs.
Guidez-nous vers Dieu.
Amen !

Hopital Sacre Coeur on Nightline Tonight

News story about Crudem's Hopital Sacre Coeur tonight, Feb. 3rd at 10:30 p.m. on ABC's Nightline.

Triage Ethics For Multiple Patients and Limited Resources

One of the most difficult challenges healthcare professionals can face is in a mass casualty incident with limited resources and multiple patients. In such cases we try and follow the principle, the greatest good for the greatest number of people. But sometimes this isn't so simple when it isn't an imminent question of life or death. The staff treating earthquake survivors at the Hopital Sacre Coeur in Haiti is dealing with such a situation and has sought the advice from the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. Here is the problem they face,

The National Catholic Bioethics Center received a call recently from a priest volunteering in Haiti at a Catholic hospital run by the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta. The hospital is facing critical decisions regarding the distribution of scarce medical resources among those in desperate need. They had only one ventilator, and the patient who was on it was consuming most of the hospital’s oxygen and needed round-the-clock attention by a physician. Everyone agreed that care for this one patient was making unavailable to others access to the hospital’s scarce resources. The problem was tragically reinforced later when an injured nineteen year old woman arrived who needed short-term ventilator support. Thirty more wounded, the priest said, were to arrive later that day. Inevitably, others would also need access to the one ventilator available at the hospital. “We have very little supplies here. The American physicians are not used to this. What should be done?” the priest inquired. “There is a feeling that the ventilator should be taken from the man in the unconscious state, but I reminded everyone that his life was no less important than any other here.”

In discussion, it became clear that an objective policy was needed to direct the use of their one critically-important ventilator that would apply equally to all patients, and that provided guidance for its use. However, an “objective” policy must also be flexible in order to be applied in such an extraordinary situation in which circumstances can change by the minute and patients of such varying conditions will be brought for treatment and care.

Some patients would benefit from short-term application of the ventilator; others would require long term use --- something impossible in the present circumstances. Furthermore, appropriate reassessments of patients on a periodic basis would be required in the event that a patient shows evidence of being able to benefit from limited medical resources. The hospital would need to determine, by established criteria such as those listed below, whether the patient shows evidence of being able to benefit from the use of the ventilator within a reasonable time frame. If evidence of improvement does not occur, the ventilator could be discontinued.

The crisis in Haiti has brought to light the importance of having policies in place to manage crisis situations. A clear policy would help physicians recognize the need to make careful judgments about who would best be helped by short-term use of the ventilator, and who would require more support than could be given. Policies also diminish the likelihood of arbitrary decisions being made which might appear as favoritism to some over others. We have provided, below, a set of criteria that could be used to guide such a policy. In all cases, when a decision has been made that a patient will not benefit from limited resources, appropriate palliative care should be provided.

Thankfully, more supplies, including another ventilator, will soon arrive at Sacre Coeur Hospital. The National Catholic Bioethics Center has been asked to remain on call for further ethics consultations from Haiti. We hope that the Center can assist the suffering people of that devastated nation and their care-givers by bringing the highly developed moral tradition and compassion of the Catholic Church to bear in these heart-breaking situations.

To see the ethical crieria developed by the NCBC you can visit their website.

Feast of the Presetation

Feast of the Presetation