And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.
Mk 10:48
Thursday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
In his Holy Week homilies Bishop Patrick J. Zurek put forth the Encyclical of Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, as the standard for love and unity in our diocese. Today, let’s reflect upon paragraph #223 in that regard:
CHAPTER SIX
RECOVERING KINDNESS
223. Saint Paul describes kindness as a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22).
“In prayer, it is God who must convert us, not we who must convert God,”
He uses the Greek word chrestótes, which describes an attitude that is gentle, pleasant and supportive, not rude or coarse.
“As you will note, the focus of this proposed teaching document is on how best to help people to understand the beauty and mystery of the Eucharist as the center of their Christian lives,”
Individuals who possess this quality help make other people’s lives more bearable, especially by sharing the weight of their problems, needs and fears.
We have more than 16,700 Catholic parishes in the country that could become sanctuary communities providing reliable information, hosting vaccination clinics and being safe spaces where vulnerable people’s fears are no more.
This way of treating others can take different forms: an act of kindness, a concern not to offend by word or deed, a readiness to alleviate their burdens.
As usual, I’d saved the deadly sins for last: the lies and copied homework, snitching drinks, ditching school, hitchhiking … Before I reached the dirty snapshots of Korean girls, stolen from my war-hero uncle, Uncle Al, and still unrepentantly cached behind the oil shed, Father B knocked and said I was forgiven.
It involves “speaking words of comfort, strength, consolation and encouragement” and not “words that demean, sadden, anger or show scorn”.[208]
“The Glenn” in conjunction with the Laudato Si’ Action Platform has pledged to develop a Laudato Si’ Plan, which we can use to discern and implement our response to Laudato Si’. This part of the blog will update readers on this journey.
On 25 May, the new Laudato Si Platform for Action was presented in Rome. The Laudato Si’ Action Platform is a unique collaboration between the Vatican, an international coalition of Catholic organizations, and “all men and women of good will”.
Two priests have been given new assignments and a third has been granted retirement, according to Bishop Patrick J. Zurek.
Today this “restless” and formally unrecognized catechist, is asking our shepherd “under the dome “, “Wouldn’t doing away with the “quota” from the United Catholic Appeal make your parishes’ lives more bearable, especially by sharing the weight of their problems, needs and fears?”
Today I ask Saint Augustine of Canterbury to pray that “the few” , who like Bartimaeus were rebuked for not remaining silent, develop the Holy Spirit’s fruit of kindness so that they can be heard “speaking words of comfort, strength, consolation and encouragement”
