TUESDAY QUOTE OF THE WEEK CCCXIII

FINDING TRUTH WHEREVER IT MAY BE FOUND:  "We are only bitter against the law when we desire to break it."  Christopher West.

 

QUOTE II:  "Christ did not suffer, die, and resurrect so that we could have better coping skills, but that we might be set free."  Christopher West.

 

IN OTHER NEWS:

 

Apologize from our post office again.  There was no post yesterday because it was our staff outting day which, ironically, may be material for next Monday.

 

For those who are confused, here is a place to look to help.  Six Things to Know When Reading about Pope Francis.

Another article concerning the coverage of Pope Francis can be found here.

Mary sent this article in about the rise in seminarians.  The picture and part of the article featurs the Diocese of Cleveland's own seminary.  Thanks Mary.

Priest in residence at St. Sebastian, my cousin, and almost birthday boy Fr. Christopher Trenta wrote home from his studies in Rome, "Things are going here in Rome...the Italian is still a bit tricky when it comes to distinguishing all the past tenses in one document (instead of studying one tense at a time). Say a prayer for language wisdom."  But the main reason for his writing was to make us aware of something he wrote that appeared in America Magazine.  To find it go here and then, "Look under the "Reply All" section from their readers...it's the first letter."

"What Do I Do with My Pain?" is the topic of this 2 and half minute video.

 

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: YOU BETCHA SISTER

Continuing our look at Lumen Gentium on Religious Life, paragraphs 43 & 44

 

One of the great effects of the Second Vatican Council has been the renewal of religious life.  Granted, what exactly that renewal means greatly differs from community to community with differently results.  But there is no doubt that religious life is still an essential aspect of Catholic culture and life.

 

These men and women take on living out more fully the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience.  The institutional Church role is to make sure that these are lived out in keeping with the teachings of Christ.  (For example, she would put her foot down if part of obedience meant forced self flagellation.  That would not be acceptable.)  This way of life has always been so popular with some of our brothers and sisters that a great variety of forms of this way of life have grown up with the Church.  Different rules, different charisms, community or solitary life appear helping individuals toward a holier life which in turn feeds the life of the Church. 

 

Members join in order to receive help toward the call we have to be saints.  It is not some sort of middle ground between the lay and ordained state, but a way of life all its own to which both lay and ordained may be called. 

 

There is the story of a priest who went to visit a friend who had become a monk in a monastery.  The friend lived his life within the monastery boundaries while his priest friend was free to come and go where he pleased.  “I don’t know how you do it,” the priest exclaimed, “I could never live confined to these walls like you.  You must have great spiritual strength.”

 

The monk replied, “Funny, I was thinking what great spiritual strength you must have to be out in the world with all of its distractions and temptations.  I don’t know that I could do that.”

 

We are all called to certain ways of life that are best for us.  The men and women of the religious order seek out this way of life, a community bound in poverty, chastity, and obedience, as their means for them to live the best lives possible.  

 

They are also symbols for us of the spiritual promises made to us that are reaching out to us even in this life.  They are visual reminders that we are built for the life to come where eye has not seen, ear has not heard what God has ready for those who love Him.  The life they lead is an arrow pointing toward that heavenly life, the wedding feast of the Lamb. 

HAMBURGER VOCATION

This weekend is vocation awareness weekend.  “Vocation” means more than a priestly or religious life.  There are many vocations within the Church.  Marriage is also a vocation.  Religious life is a vocation.  The chosen single life is a vocation.  A vocation helps us live out our service to God.  One first chooses how they are called to serve and then figures out which vocation best fits their calling. 

If you have yet to figure out your vocation, actively look into it, pursue it, and live it with a vengeance!  Choose rather than settle for what is left to you.  If you are already in a vocation, start today to rededicate yourself to your vocation.  Let it never grow cool.  Be a person on fire, fully alive, living your life and your vocation to the fullest.  Be a light to others; a fire burning brightly and remarkably in a world that so desperately needs it.

Someone asked about a communion wafer on a hamburger.  (See yesterday's comments.)  One of the great things about being a Catholic is knowing the difference between an indelicacy and an indecency.  This one, however runs very close to the indecency.  Long time readers of Adam's Ale may be a bit surprised that I don't come down more directly and harshly on this matter.  Whereas I would never go to this restaurant, there may be more here than meets the eye and may point toward a deeper problem that this highlights.

 

It should be pointed out that even though they do use a communion wafer it does not mean a direct assault on the Catholic Church.  Other denomination also use communion wafers.  Let us make the grand assumption for the moment that they are good, practicing, non-Catholic Christians.  It may simply be that they do not have the same idea of what the wafer signifies as it does Catholics.  After all, if it is simply a symbol for example, so is bread.  Does that mean that we cannot use bread on our hamburger because it is a symbol of Christ Who says, "I am the Bread of Life"?  Of course not.

 

This is yet another reason we do not randomly say, "Do you believe in Christ?  Then come to the altar and receive the Eucharist."  Someone may indeed believe in Christ, may believe that the host is somehow connected to Christ, but then see no reason why it (unconsecrated) c

ouldn't be put on top of a hamburger.

 

With this in mind, I would not step foot in the establishment but would be moved to write a very kind note explaining why and wait to see if any kind of action takes place.  Who knows? Maybe the best kind of evangelization might take place because of this faux pas.  Nothing will happen if we let it slide under the table, not movement toward the unity to which Christ calls us if either we eat the hamburger with no comment or willy nilly share the Eucharist.

OREMUS

About this time of year pastors are making their financial reports available to the parish and giving some sort of “End of Fiscal Year Report.”  Hopefully yours is positive.  St. Sebastian’s report said that we were in the black and starting to do catch up with maintenance repairs that nobody is excited about: fixing boilers, tuck pointing, roofs . . . all the fun stuff most people are not interested in but which is none-the-less absolutely necessary.  There’s a lot more to go but at least we are on our way!

 

Whether you were sitting in the pew as your pastor exclaimed that your finances were as red as the dawn and your particular part of the bark of Peter was taking on water quickly, or if you were blessed to have a coal black financial standing and a pastor pleading with you to give your money elsewhere because they have run out of space to store the stuff, don’t forget to pray for your parish.  It does not exist out of thin air.  It doesn’t have to be.  It could just as easily not exist.  A parish is a delicate thing.  It might not take more than a factory closing, poor leadership, crime, a natural disaster, a dying city, a bad roof, and an institution that took 100 years to build up could be gone or start a long slow decline.

 

It is very important to support your parish financially but even more so with your prayers.  Pray first of all that she remain true to her mission and center herself on the Eucharist.  May she be a beacon of light for your part of the world.  May her leadership be skilled and in keeping with the call of Christ and with worldly requirements.  May she energize her people with apostolic zeal.  May she remain strong and relevant.  May she keep doing what she was meant to do.

TUESDAY QUOTE OF THE WEEK CCCXII

FINDING TRUTH WHEREVER IT MAY BE FOUND:  "Only God and a few angels know the difference between embrace and smother."  John Shea

QUOTE II:  "Don't hold on to anything so tightly that you can't reach out to your neighbor."  Fr. Ed Estok

IN OTHER NEWS:

Those in the Adam's Ale Post Office apologize that there was no post yesterday.  There was a funeral for a fellow priest, Fr. Jim Flood.

 Lynn sent this in with the note, "You know it's pastor appreciation month.  I thought that you would like this."

From the Diocese of Cleveland Enewsletter:  "There is certainly more activity this year on the campus of the Center for Pastoral Leadership (CPL) located on Euclid Avenue in Wickliffe, Ohio. The CPL is the home for both seminaries of the Diocese of Cleveland. The undergraduate school is Borromeo Seminary and the graduate school of theology is Saint Mary Seminary."  Read more here.

This article sent in by Mary:  "Bishop Tells Apologists: Beauty Must Infuse the New Evangelism"  Read more here.

Here is a three and a half minute film from the Black Friars:

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: AND THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE

Lumen Gentium paragraph 42

 

Love is not a feeling.  If love solely consisted of the ache you have in your heart, then virtue would consist of sitting on your bed aching for those who mean something to you.  But as it is, that is the feeling of love, it itself is not love.  Love is in deeds.  It is who you are and what you do.  God, Who is love, gives us, through the Holy Spirit, charity.  But if it is to mean anything within us, “each of the faithful must willingly hear the will of God and carry out His will with deeds, with the help of His grace . . .”  And ground zero for the source of our ability to carry this out is our celebration of the Eucharist and other sacraments followed by prayer, self denial, works of “brotherly service,” and the practice of the virtues.

 

The supreme act of love is in the laying down of your life for others as did our Savior and those who do so become more fully like him.  That is why the Church has always so highly esteemed martyrs.  And in a world that is highly suspicious of such things, she has also always fostered the lifestyle of virginity and celibacy for those who wish to devote their lives more fully to the service of God.  Also held in high esteem are those who actively choose poverty or simple lifestyles, subjecting themselves to the love of God and conforming themselves more fully “to the obedient Christ.”

 

A lifestyle say of poverty is not in and of itself holiness, but a great pathway to holiness.  What do we need to do to make our lives a pathway to holiness?  We can begin pondering this with the warning from Scripture, “Let those who use this world not fix their abode in it, for the form of this world is passing away.”  1 Cor. 7:31

This brings to an end the chapter on holiness.

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON

There is a legend that Pope John XXIII (soon to be saint it seems) was asked the question, "How many people work at the Vatican," and he replied, "About half."  Whether the stuff of legend or not, might it not shed some light on a current comment by our current pontiff? 

 

My sister was somewhat upset that Pope Francis was going to do away with the "court" aspect of the Vatican.  I think she interpreted that to mean that he is doing away with all that is dignified about the Vatican and indeed the pope does seem to tend toward the more simple yet elegant.  But I don't think that is that to which this current statement refers.  It seems to lean toward those who hang around the Vatican like courtiers of a king or queen who seem to make do by their association with "the court" rather than actually doing anything beneficial.  I picture Pope Francis with a broom and taking it to the backside of some idle flatterer drinking his espresso in the papal palace (where the pope himself has refused to sleep) and saying, "Get out there!  DO something!  This is about the people, particularly those in need!  Not hanging around the house drinking my coffee and sleeping in until all hours!"  (This, I hope, is a grave hyperbole, but you get my point.)

All sorts of popes have reforms; reforms of the clergy, reforms of the liturgy, and now we will have a reform of Vatican life particularly the bank!  The problem is that we do not exactly know what is changing or why and that can be scary. 

 

I recently was in a beautiful church in Ontario and there was scaffolding up in the nave.  "What's going on here?" I asked what turned out to be the maintenance man.

 

"Oh, they're redoing the church."

 

"Are the renovating or restoring?"

 

He thought about it a little bit and then said, "I think renovating."

 

What does that mean?  Are they painting and fixing up or are they replacing the pews with prayer mats and hanging lava lamps from ceiling?  I have no idea and if it were my parish, I would be nervous about not knowing.

 

So if you read something about the pope that makes you nervous (and there are plenty of nervous - and some excited,)  PLEASE do not take what you are reading in the paper is the truth, the WHOLE truth, and nothing but the truth.  There are so many places to look on line to find the complete statement and in context. 

"CATHOLIC" IS AISLE THREE, HALF WAY DOWN ON THE RIGHT, TOP SHELF

“Catholic” was never meant to be a subcategory like exists, for example, in the fiction genre.  There is fiction, and then under that are subcategories of children’s, or romance, or adventure, or what have you.  In a similar way it was not intended that there be movies or books or music and then a subcategory of “Catholic”; or healthcare or marriage or science with a Catholic version.  Catholicism is a world view, a way of seeing existence, a way of existing.  It is one of the reasons it is called Catholic, it is universal; all times, all places, all peoples.  It is given to us to help us live, not be an odd duck appendage to another way of life.

 

That is not to say that every book that is supposed to be about the rosary.  A murder mystery can be a great Catholic book.  Not every movie has to be about Fatima.  A futuristic movie about going into space and discovering a new planet can be a good Catholic movie.  Ideas on healthcare are not about making everyone a papist; it is about making good choices, upholding the dignity of all, and what it means to be fully human.  But as soon as there is a Catholic (or Christian) category, it can be ignored.  Catholics too may be reluctant to engage their Catholic way of life into their works and efforts for the exact same reason: Catholic means that healthcare initiatives are only good for and relevant to Catholics.  Social justice ideas stamped Catholic means that they can considered arcane and limited to only 2 billion people on the planet rather than something that is meant to help all people thrive.

 

“Catholic” is about bringing the one, the true, the good, and the beautiful into all that is done.  The best Catholic movies were made by atheists who were not trying to do so.  Some of the best Catholic books that I have ever read were either decidedly not about Catholics or were written by non-Catholics.  Conversely much of the best science we have enjoyed has come from priests.  All of them reached a larger audience because they did not subcategorize themselves, but were decidedly still Catholic in nature even when it has been via negativa. 

 

Catholic is not a Sunday activity.  It is a cultural way of living.

TUESDAY QUOTE OF THE WEEK CCCXI

FINDING TRUTH WHEREVER IT MAY BE FOUND:  "You don't decide not to be Catholic anymore - Catholicism is something that soaks into your skin like vitamin D.  You can't just stand there as the sun pours down upon you, saying, None for me thanks."  from Lynn Coady's, "The Antagonist"

 

QUOTE II:  "I think now that anyone who believes in God, even a little, can't help but yearn toward the evangelicals.  Let's face it, there's is the church we really want.  We want to be swept up.  We want to sob and roll around on the ground.  We want to feel the Holy Spirit as a living force and we want it to swoop down and kick us in the (*ss).  We want it to heal our souls.  We want it to remove every last doubt we ever entertained about our randomness as creatures of the earth.  We want certainty.  We want to see the face of Jesus on a grilled cheese sandwich.  We want to throw away our crutches.  We want Satan, and we want him to want us too, so we can always be at war, because war makes our daily (BS) righteous and significant.  We want to hear the voices - the ones that tell us what to do, and tell us how we're loved.  We want to be as little children and believe."  same source.

 

IN OTHER NEWS:

Pat sent this article in about the Little Sisters of the Poor taking on Health Care Mandates.

From the Diocese of Cleveland Enewsletter: "The Diocese of Cleveland, in conjunction with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops asks you to "stand with us" in defending conscience rights! Get informed, advocate and pray about this important issue."  Read more and see a video here.

 

Mary sent this video in.  Fr. Damien Ference, a priest of the Diocese of Cleveland and a professor in our seminary was recently interviews on Life on the Rock.  The hour video is below.

MONDAY DIARY: ALMOST EXCRUSIATINGLY TRUE STORIES: DOG GONE IT

 No doubt about it, dogs have a sixth sense.  They can predict things before they happen.  You hear about it all the time - the dogs going crazy before an earthquake, becoming restless when a predator is coming, getting antsy when the mail is about to be delivered, knowing exactly where to roll in order to get the maximum stink value.

 

Sebastian knows when I am going on vacation.  He can pick it up as quickly as the scent of a dead squirrel in the park.  I've tried everything because Sebastian makes leaving him behind for a couple of days about as pleasant as black fly season in upstate New York.  He KNOWS the difference between me leaving for an hour or two and me leaving for a week.  My latest trick was to pack 5 days in advance to throw him off, but he knew something was up immediately.

So the bag was in my car for five days.  One would think that he might forget about the whole thing.  Not so.  On certain things he has a mind like a steal trap: Where his bones are buried, what day his favorite secretary is coming to work, and that I have packed bags in the car. 

 

So he starts to get a little clingy.  Make that very clingy.

 Now, I will admit that being appreciated is a very nice thing.  But it can be wearing.  As the date for departure grew nearer, Sebastian became more insecure.  At night he would rest his big head on my bed and whimper.  He's a good sized dog so his head is high enough to make it to the height of the bed and that noggin must weigh about 10 pounds all by itself and so makes it self known not only by its whimpering noises but in the bounce of the bed as he slams it down several times just to let me know that he is there.

 One time when he was doing this I let him up on the bed thinking that it would ease his anxiety.  The only thing it did was increase mine.  He sighed.  A lot.  He also runs and talks in his sleep emitting little puffs of barks while his legs twitch back and forth.  AND he is a bed hog, pushing, pushing, pushing until I am on a sliver of bed, have to get up, walk around, and sleep on the wide open expanse on the other side. 

 

The day before I leave it reaches a climax.  It becomes difficult to leave the house whatsoever.

 Being finally on vacation I am plagued by thoughts of how Sebastian is getting along.  Is he Okay?  Is he still sane?  Is he tearing the place up?  Is he in a depressed stupor?  Is he mad at me?  Does he even notice that I'm gone?  Is this what people with small children go through?

 

So I say a prayer and try to send it to him, to calm and soothe him.  Do I worry about the parish?  No.  There are competent people there to handle everything.  But Sebastian . . .

 

On the way home I look forward to seeing him above everything else.  Is that pathetic or what?  But of course, all this also has its advantages . . .

MONDAY DIARY: ALMOST EXCRUSIATINGLY TRUE STORIES: GETTING OUT OF TOWN

Greetings!

I'll be heading out of town for about a week.  I leave the parish in the capable hands of Fr. Leonard and Sebastian.

There will be no posts for the rest of the week.  Hope we can hook up again next week!

God bless,

Fr. V

ARRRRG!  I just saw that I wrote "you're" in stead of "your."  Please forgive me!

FRIDAY POTOURRI: THIS MEAN YOU

Continuing our look at Lumen Gentium paragraph 41

Holiness is not the job of the clergy.  It is everybody’s calling.  Bishops are called to personal holiness, called to lay down their lives for their flock.  They may be called to lead their people to holiness but it is first and foremost by their example.  They are first to be holy.

 

Priests are called to a similar role, imitating the holiness of the great priests that came before them and gave them example.  I think of my home pastor, Fr. Ozimek, and his influence on me.  I took my confirmation name in part because of him.  One summer when it seemed that I was serving Mass a lot I walked in to the sacristy and he said, “You again!”  I responded, “Yeah, I have to serve again.”  He got a somewhat serious look in his face and said, “You get to serve again.”  That quite inspired me and I try to remember his example in my priesthood.

 

Deacons and those in the lay state that the Church calls upon to help with her mission in a specific way are no less called to this holiness.  Married couples give public witness to holiness in the love they are called to minister to each other and to their families.  We are only as healthy as “Church” as we are first in the domestic Church.  Widows and single persons are not exempt from this calling and have their unique way of growing in and exemplifying holiness particularly as they work to help others to holiness. 

 

The sick, the poor, the infirm all share in the universal call to holiness and are not exempt.  Furthermore they have much to offer for the salvation of the world.

 

The Church is a big place and it is more than the institution with which we often associate the word.  The institution is a necessary help which cannot do without, but the call to holiness is to all.

ROB, STEAL, RECYCLE

A newly ordained priest told the story of preaching at a daily Mass about the absolute necessity of prayer.  This is no choice.  We must pray.  A parishioner approached him and very earnestly protested that her life was too busy and that there was absolutely no way she had time to pray.

 

Your family doctor tells you that you must eat better or start exercising.  Your dentist instructs you to take more time brushing.  Your accountant recommends that you spend more time looking after your resources.  The lady on the television says that your child’s lunch sandwich should be cut into interesting shapes and kind notes written with the ketchup.  You want to spend more time with your family and really, the house is a mess.

 

And now your priest says that you must pray.

 

Well . . . yes.

 

But not all prayer has to be hour long stints (as good as that might be) or on your knees (as helpful as that might be) or in a quiet room (as conducive as that might be) or very formal (as much as that might be an aid.)  Rob, steal, and cheat to get some prayers in.  Recycle time.  Standing in line at the grocery store or at the bank or at the BMV may not be a very conducive place to pray especially now that we have televisions blaring at us, but you can say one Our Father or Hail Mary, or even, “Thank you God for the bounty in my cart.” 

 

When you are in love, it is absolutely great to have the evening or the day to spend with the person of your dreams.  But when that is impossible how reassuring – how much it makes your day to receive a text, “Just thinking of you.”  “Love you.”  “Can’t wait to see you.”  Do you think that God would rather have nothing than this little shot arrow of prayer?  Of course He wants to hear from you.  If you cannot say a rosary, send a hello.

 

Waiting for the computer to warm up, pouring the coffee, alone in the bathroom or shower, turning off the commercials on the radio while driving, walking through the doorway into a tough (or not tough) meeting, standing at the pump at the gas station, while taking the trash out – any of these are an opportunity to send a text message to God.

 

Fr. Leonard recently put the series 24 on our Netflix and I tried to watch it.  It might be a better series if you don’t watch it all at once.  Cracks in the plot start to show through.  For example, nobody uses the bathroom, sleeps, eats, or has a moment in their lives in which a major crisis is not happening.  I could believe that they possibly do not have time to pray.  Possibly.  But then again, they are fictional characters.  We are real people with a real God.

CONUNDRUM

When Marin Luther had problems with certain books of the New Testament which appeared to contradict the new theology he was developing, he tried to have those particular books removed from the Lutheran version of the Bible.  Wikipedia explains it this way:

“Luther made an attempt to remove the books of Hebrews, James, Jude and Revelation from the canon (notably, he perceived them to go against certain Protestant doctrines such as sola gratia and sola fide), but this was not generally accepted among his followers. However, these books are ordered last in the German-language Luther Bible to this day.

"If Luther's negative view of these books were based only upon the fact that their canonicity was disputed in early times, 2 Peter might have been included among them, because this epistle was doubted more than any other in ancient times.  However, the prefaces that Luther affixed to these four books makes it evident ‘that his low view of them was more due to his theological reservations than with any historical investigation of the canon’".  Read more here.

Failing to have the Epistle of James removed, he dubbed it the epistle of straw and invited followers to largely ignore it.  This may seem startling to us today, but it still takes place even within the Catholic Church.  Perhaps not with Scripture but we have our own versions of it.

An excellent example would be the documents of Vatican II.  There are certain ideas about Vatican II, which are very popular and almost ingrained into American Catholic society, that don’t quite stand up to all that VII said.  Readers of the documents are invited to skip over the parts that do not agree with this vision and are told they are in violation of VII documents if they, in fact, are trying to do as the actual documents state.

Here is an example that I told you about some time back.  A friend of mine was having dinner in a restaurant and having just come from a VII workshop, happened to have the documents sitting on the table.  A man came by and invited him to come to his church where they were truly putting the documents into action.  When asked which church this was, the man identified a community that had just broke from the diocese and the bishop and was operating as an independent entity. 

Confused, my friend asked how they could consider themselves more closely following VII documents when so much of them were about being in concert with the local bishop and the pope.  “That’s not in there!” replied the man.  Not only is it in there, but it is a major section of one of the constitutions of the Church.  The man had to admit that they disagreed that part of the document.  A document of straw.

Recently we were going to sing the Gloria in Latin for a short time.  My music minister received a certain amount of flack.  The worst came from persons accusing the parish of betraying VII (which in my estimation is one step short of accusing the parish of schism.)  Pointing out that the constitution of the Church not only states that Latin is the official language of the Church and that it is to preserved, but that every person should know their parts of the Mass in Latin and that steps should be taken in order for this to occur, had no sway. 

Now, if someone were to say they simply didn’t like this idea, I could respect that.  If they said that they, in fact, did not agree with VII documents, I would understand.  But if we cannot assume that all of the writing are guided by the Holy Spirit, no matter how contested they may have been at the time, how can we trust any of the writings of VII?  If we cannot trust the New Testament because certain parts of it might mislead us, how can we trust any of the New Testament?  Are we that lost?

I think not.

TUESDAY QUOTE OF THE WEEK CCCX

FINDING TRUTH WHEREVER IT MAY BE FOUND:  "The Church remains, as Cardinal Newman wrote, '…the poet of her children, full of music to soothe the sad and control the wayward; wonderful in story, rich in symbol and imagery. So that gentle and delicate feelings, which will not bear words, may in silence intimate their presence. The liturgy’s very being is poetry; every psalm, every petition, every prayer; the cross, the mitre, the incensor; each a fulfillment of some dream of childhood, or aspiration of youth.'” from Barbara Nicolosi's article, "Why Should Christianity Be "Patron of the Arts?"

 

QUOTE II:  "In most cases, what we are exposed to musically in our churches is bad compositions badly executed. Sometimes, it attains to bad composition well-executed, but as poor imitations of what is happening in secular music, generally, the stuff we are hearing in Church is inappropriate to the liturgy in style, excellence and lyricism."  Same source.

 

IN OTHER NEWS:

 

If you would like to read more of the above artice you may go here.  (Thanks Ellen)

 

St. Sebastian ended up in the paper this weekend.  Read the article here from the Beacon Journal site.

 

Mary sent this article in on "Will Beauty Save the World?"

 

Here's some exciting news coming soon for Chesterton fans:  "The staff of the American Chesterton Society has been busy at work redesigning and expanding our website. The new design includes a revamp of the local societies page where your groups are listed with your contact and meeting information.  The new format will allow us to designate a full page to each local society on our roster. In other words, it will be like having a webpage just for your group. Inquirers who search the web for local Chesterton societies will be directed to an interactive map, where push-pin icons will lead them to the page set up for your individual group."  You can visit their site here.

 

From the Diocese of Cleveland Enewsletter:  "Imagine Sisters, Lumen Vere Media and Altius Studies have produced a film titled, "Light of Love" which provides a personal look into the religious lives of Franciscan Sisters residing in Toronto, Ohio."  Read more and see the film here.

 

Here is the 2.5 minute trailer: