We Would Love
to Keep in Touch!

Conversion and Figs?

Untitled-1It is not surprising that Christ died a violent death. He was not only a good speaker, a good preacher; he was also a prophet for whom the truth was sacred. He spoke as he did because he could not speak otherwise. His words sometimes stung and burnt, offended and shocked. But they were always true.

The Call for Repentance

His words were not intended to be true in some distant future, but rather to touch our hearts now. About the fig tree (Luke 13:6-9), Christ, the vinedresser, said: "Cut it down, why should it clutter up the ground?" For those who do not repent – or begin to repent – the punishment is drastic and radical. This repentance business must be of urgent importance to warrant such an ominous action.

Read more Conversion and Figs?

God Cares About Our Suffering

Today’s world is hungry and thirsty to possess power and pleasure. It is without compassion. But our God is not like the gods of this world: they have eyes but do not see, ears but do not hear (Mark 8:18). God, Untitled-1in his compassion has seen the pain of his people. He has heard their cry. He shared their passion and death during their slavery in Egypt. We celebrate his saving Love. May God embrace us with his tenderness!'

The book of Exodus reminds us… 

“A long time passed, during which the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their bondage and cried out, and from their bondage their cry for help went up to God. God heard their moaning and God was mindful of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God saw the Israelites, and God knew….

“Meanwhile Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock beyond the wilderness, he came to the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him as fire flaming out of a bush. When he looked, although the bush was on fire, it was not being consumed. So Moses decided, ‘I must turn aside to look at this remarkable sight. Why does the bush not burn up?’

Read more God Cares About Our Suffering

Justice in the Bible

Untitled-1Editor: The following article is the first of three parts of Fr. Robert Schreiter’s original presentation on to the Province Assembly in Orlando on Oct. 12, 2014, entitled “Justice in a Ministry of Reconciliation.”

…What is distinctive about what you as Missionaries of La Salette, along with the La Salette sisters and laity, are trying to do is to give concrete form to a ministry of justice within your charism of reconciliation… I will recall briefly the Christian understanding of justice, from its biblical roots down to more recent thought on the topic…

The Christian Understanding of Justice

 Justice is a central category in all three Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It is fundamental to how all three faiths look at God’s action in the world: God is a God of justice. Here I want to concentrate on Judaism and Christianity, and how they see justice, since the Christian understanding of justice relies principally and nearly completely on the understandings found in the Old Testament.

Read more Justice in the Bible

A World in Need of Mercy

Let us reflect on the mercy and compassion of God as revealed in Scripture and at La Salette. We are invited to live it between ourselves and to witness it to the people of God. As St. Paul reminds us:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement, who encourages us in our every affliction” (2 Cor 1:3).

Following the example of Mary at La Salette, we look at the reality of the today's world through the eyes of God. We often realize the forces of death in a world too often without mercy and, at the same time, we hear our God, wounded by these oppressions, calling for a generous measure of compassion.

The Rich Get Richer…

Untitled-1

Today's world can be very hostile. It unhesitatingly sacrifices everything on the altar of the ‘god of business'. Economic profit determines the life of people as well as social and political alliances. It engenders the domination of some countries or classes of people; dependence and misery for others.

The current process of globalization of the economy, with its totalitarian characteristics, privileges the few who become wealthier while the many become destitute.

In this process of “progress”, community and solidarity, justice and peace, life and human dignity are all destroyed. Wars, dictatorships, the trade of arms and drugs, forced migrations, genocide, oppression of minorities, racism and socio-religious discrimination, corruption and social violence cause sufferings that cry out for compassion.

Read more A World in Need of Mercy

The Secrets of the Manger

 
Untitled-1The Adoration of the Shepherds by Hugo van der Goes (c. 1440-1482)Christmas means that someone thought enough of me to come to life as a baby, to comfort me and save me. God came to earth to enter every person's life and change it. That is good news.

For some, Christmas is a time of genuine rejoicing. They sing, dance, feast, give and receive presents. It is their favorite holy day, their favorite time of year.

Read more The Secrets of the Manger

Christian Mission – Basis and Challenges

Editor: This is a small extract from an address by Fr. James J. Greenfield, OSFS, CMSM President, to the 2014 Convention in Arlington, VA, of the U.S. Catholic Mission Association, whose Executive Director is Fr. Jack Nuelle, M.S.

Untitled-1Fr. James J. Greenfield, OSFS, CMSM PresidentThe Holy Spirit is the God of justice and has been breathing on suspecting and unsuspecting disciples from the dawn of creation, from when Jesus handed over his Spirit from the cross, and at the first Pentecost, to name just a few moments.

We see, especially, in the early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, which some Scripture scholars say should actually be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit, that the Spirit of God breathes life and energy into the early disciples to help them address immediate needs: taking care of widows, healing the sick, and sharing all in common.

The Holy Spirit inspired those disciples as they went from being fearful and pusillanimous to becoming mature women and men who were heroic—thinking and acting in magnanimous ways—all of this coming from the radical inspiration of Jesus in his paschal mystery, into which we are all baptized!

The Meaning of Gospel Justice

Read more Christian Mission – Basis and Challenges

Justice – The Call of the Gospel

Editor: This is the conclusion of Fr. Donald Senior’s talk, given during the 2014 U.S. Catholic Mission Association Annual Conference, held in Alexandria, VA, Oct. 24, 2014, directed by our own Fr. Jack Nuelle, M.S., Director of the U.S. Catholic Mission Association. The La Salette Missionaries were one of the four major sponsors of this conference.

Untitled-1Fr. Donald Senior, C.P., S.T.D. (Photo: Rev. Arthur Carillo, CP)It should be clear... that Pope Paul VI's famous declaration that "justice is constitutive of the Gospel" and the renewal of that call to a mission of justice in Pope Francis’ “The Joy of the Gospel” are neither novel innovations nor a modern trend, but a restatement of the Christian heritage as old as the biblical witness.

The social mission of the Church is not one topic among many; it strikes at the heart of the Christian witness; it is essential to an understanding of the very nature of the Gospel. To believe this and to be committed to it calls for constant conversion of heart.

Indeed, the Catholic Church is blessed with an incredible and powerful heritage of social teaching − teaching eloquently affirmed from the time of Pope Leo XXIII down to the most recent encyclicals of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis’ exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel.” The source and inspiration for that social teaching − even when it is not stated in biblical terms — is rooted in our Scriptures.

Read more Justice – The Call of the Gospel

Being Holy Families

Untitled-1The Holy Family by Jan de Bray (ca.1627 – 1697), a Dutch Golden Age painter
On the Sunday following Christmas we will celebrate the feast of the Holy Family. Mary and Joseph, the couple, became a family with the birth of Jesus.

Those of you who are parents will remember the birth of your first child – and undoubtedly remember how it changed your lives in so many ways. It was no different for Joseph and Mary. Like every couple who become parents, they too had to grow into their role as parents – and that growing took place together with their child.

They were a Holy family because each person took her or his role seriously, seeking to discover how to fulfill God’s design for them – individually and as a family unit.

Mary’s “fiat,” her “yes” to God’s invitation to becoming the mother of Jesus, was not a one-day affair. It was a life-long commitment.

Joseph’s “yes” to not being afraid to take Mary as his wife was also a life-long engagement. His fleeing with her and the child to the land of Egypt in the middle of the night in order to save Jesus’ life proved how committed he was.

Read more Being Holy Families

Strive for the Greater Gifts!

Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. (1 Corinthians 12:31)

Untitled-1It’s early in the new semester of fall 2014. I walked into our campus bookstore the other day and found the usual line which forms at the beginning of a new school year. The place packed with students who had that look on their faces that said, “This semester I’m going to get my act together.” The fall semester always brings new determination and focus.

In The New York Times Sunday Review article, “The Secret Effects of Motivation”, by Amy Wrzreniewski and Barry Schwartz (July 4, 2014) related a study of West Point Cadets that found that when students were motivated by higher values (make the world better, be a better person, a person who understands the world, become a leader, etc.,) they did better in their academics and five years out of college were doing better in life than those who studied to get a better job, make more money or become famous. They studied 11,000 cadets. Most surprising was the singular higher value motivation that did better than those with mixed motivations was create a better world and get a good job!

Read more Strive for the Greater Gifts!

The Gospel Meets the World

John Everett Millais Christ in the House of His Parents The Carpenters Shop Google Art ProjectChrist in the House of His Parents or The Carpenter's Shop by John Everett Millais (1829 – 1896)
Jesus was a man of his time and culture. He was a peasant Jew growing up, working, and ministering for most of his life in Galilee, in northern Judea. After the death of Joseph, he grew up in a single-parent household and earned his living as a tradesman, a carpenter.

When he looked around him he saw farmers sowing their seeds and harvesting their crops, shepherds tending their flocks, and fishermen on the Sea of Galilee hauling in their catch or mending their nets on the seashore.

Read more The Gospel Meets the World

More Articles …