Everyone has a vocation - whether it be to marriage, priesthood (for men), religious life, or single consecrated life.
Most of our students have gone home for the summer and are looking for ways to keep up their walk with Christ until they return to the vibrancy of CCM. A great way to do this is to spend time in prayer particulary regarding your vocation.
What is God calling you to? If you're still searching here is a great place to start: www.foryourvocation.org. This website will provide you with useful tools on how to discern and link you up with religious communities. Definitely check it out!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Plea for Mercy
It's stories like this that should spur us to absolutely BEG God for mercy on us.
Heartbreaking Story from Shanghai Daily
Aborted baby cries before cremation
By Wang Xiang 2010-5-14
An aborted baby declared dead by doctors in south China's Guangdong Province cried before he was due to be cremated, but died hours later as doctors refused to treat him.
A mortuary worker at Nanhai Funeral Home in Foshan City said the baby cried and scared him as he was about to throw the coffin into a furnace, Information Times reported today.
He opened the box and found the seven-month fetus moving, but apparently choking on some cotton wool in his mouth, the report said.
After the worker cleared his mouth, the baby yawned and breathed peacefully. Workers rushed him back to Guanyao Hospital which delivered the baby as medical waste earlier that day.
But doctors left him in the lobby, and confirmed after an hour that the baby died.
The vice head of the funeral house said Guanyao Hospital sent many aborted fetuses or still-born babies for cremation. This baby apparently survived an abortion at seven months, and he had videos to prove the baby was still alive before the cremation.
Hospital official Liu Sanhong said its staff checked the baby for an hour and made sure it was dead. Liu did not say whether the doctors tried to save the baby or not.
The body was later sent back to the funeral house. The report said all workers were ordered not to talk about the incident.
On March 31, at least 21 fetuses and dead babies were found dumped in a river in east China's Jining City.
Eight had tabs with clinic code numbers attached to their feet. The Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University responsible for the corpses said they were "medical waste."
Two hospital staffers have been detained while the director and deputy director of the hospital's logistics department were sacked. A vice president of the hospital was suspended.
Thanks to Fr. Z. for the tip on the article.
Heartbreaking Story from Shanghai Daily
Aborted baby cries before cremation
By Wang Xiang 2010-5-14
An aborted baby declared dead by doctors in south China's Guangdong Province cried before he was due to be cremated, but died hours later as doctors refused to treat him.
A mortuary worker at Nanhai Funeral Home in Foshan City said the baby cried and scared him as he was about to throw the coffin into a furnace, Information Times reported today.
He opened the box and found the seven-month fetus moving, but apparently choking on some cotton wool in his mouth, the report said.
After the worker cleared his mouth, the baby yawned and breathed peacefully. Workers rushed him back to Guanyao Hospital which delivered the baby as medical waste earlier that day.
But doctors left him in the lobby, and confirmed after an hour that the baby died.
The vice head of the funeral house said Guanyao Hospital sent many aborted fetuses or still-born babies for cremation. This baby apparently survived an abortion at seven months, and he had videos to prove the baby was still alive before the cremation.
Hospital official Liu Sanhong said its staff checked the baby for an hour and made sure it was dead. Liu did not say whether the doctors tried to save the baby or not.
The body was later sent back to the funeral house. The report said all workers were ordered not to talk about the incident.
On March 31, at least 21 fetuses and dead babies were found dumped in a river in east China's Jining City.
Eight had tabs with clinic code numbers attached to their feet. The Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University responsible for the corpses said they were "medical waste."
Two hospital staffers have been detained while the director and deputy director of the hospital's logistics department were sacked. A vice president of the hospital was suspended.
Thanks to Fr. Z. for the tip on the article.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!
Yesterday in Fatima, Portugal Pope Benedict XVI consecrated priests to the Immaculate Heart of Mary with the following prayer:
Immaculate Mother,
in this place of grace,
called together by the love of your Son Jesus
the Eternal High Priest, we,
sons in the Son and his priests,
consecrate ourselves to your maternal Heart,
in order to carry out faithfully the Father’s Will.
We are mindful that, without Jesus,
we can do nothing good (cf. Jn 15:5)
and that only through him, with him and in him,
will we be instruments of salvation
for the world.
Bride of the Holy Spirit,
obtain for us the inestimable gift
of transformation in Christ.
Through the same power of the Spirit that
overshadowed you,
making you the Mother of the Saviour,
help us to bring Christ your Son
to birth in ourselves too.
May the Church
be thus renewed by priests who are holy,
priests transfigured by the grace of him
who makes all things new.
Mother of Mercy,
it was your Son Jesus who called us
to become like him:
light of the world and salt of the earth
(cf. Mt 5:13-14).
Help us,
through your powerful intercession,
never to fall short of this sublime vocation,
nor to give way to our selfishness,
to the allurements of the world
and to the wiles of the Evil One.
Preserve us with your purity,
guard us with your humility
and enfold us with your maternal love
that is reflected in so many souls
consecrated to you,
who have become for us
true spiritual mothers.
Mother of the Church,
we priests want to be pastors
who do not feed themselves
but rather give themselves to God for their brethren,
finding their happiness in this.
Not only with words, but with our lives,
we want to repeat humbly,
day after day,
Our “here I am”.
Guided by you,
we want to be Apostles
of Divine Mercy,
glad to celebrate every day
the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar
and to offer to those who request it
the sacrament of Reconciliation.
Advocate and Mediatrix of grace,
you who are fully immersed
in the one universal mediation of Christ,
invoke upon us, from God,
a heart completely renewed
that loves God with all its strength
and serves mankind as you did.
Repeat to the Lord
your efficacious word:
“They have no wine” (Jn 2:3),
so that the Father and the Son will send upon us
a new outpouring of
the Holy Spirit.
Full of wonder and gratitude
at your continuing presence in our midst,
in the name of all priests
I too want to cry out:
“Why is this granted me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:43).
Our Mother for all time,
do not tire of “visiting us”,
consoling us, sustaining us.
Come to our aid
and deliver us from every danger
that threatens us.
With this act of entrustment and consecration,
we wish to welcome you
more deeply, more radically,
for ever and totally
into our human and priestly lives.
Let your presence cause new blooms to burst forth
in the desert of our loneliness,
let it cause the sun to shine on our darkness,
let it restore calm after the tempest,
so that all mankind shall see the salvation
of the Lord,
who has the name and the face of Jesus,
who is reflected in our hearts,
for ever united to yours!
Amen!
Today is the anniversary of Our Lady's apparitions to the three shepherd children, Lucia, Jacinta and Francesco in Fatima. May we continue to pray for all the priests and bishops of the Church as we near the conclusion of this holy Year of Priests in June!
Immaculate Mother,
in this place of grace,
called together by the love of your Son Jesus
the Eternal High Priest, we,
sons in the Son and his priests,
consecrate ourselves to your maternal Heart,
in order to carry out faithfully the Father’s Will.
We are mindful that, without Jesus,
we can do nothing good (cf. Jn 15:5)
and that only through him, with him and in him,
will we be instruments of salvation
for the world.
Bride of the Holy Spirit,
obtain for us the inestimable gift
of transformation in Christ.
Through the same power of the Spirit that
overshadowed you,
making you the Mother of the Saviour,
help us to bring Christ your Son
to birth in ourselves too.
May the Church
be thus renewed by priests who are holy,
priests transfigured by the grace of him
who makes all things new.
Mother of Mercy,
it was your Son Jesus who called us
to become like him:
light of the world and salt of the earth
(cf. Mt 5:13-14).
Help us,
through your powerful intercession,
never to fall short of this sublime vocation,
nor to give way to our selfishness,
to the allurements of the world
and to the wiles of the Evil One.
Preserve us with your purity,
guard us with your humility
and enfold us with your maternal love
that is reflected in so many souls
consecrated to you,
who have become for us
true spiritual mothers.
Mother of the Church,
we priests want to be pastors
who do not feed themselves
but rather give themselves to God for their brethren,
finding their happiness in this.
Not only with words, but with our lives,
we want to repeat humbly,
day after day,
Our “here I am”.
Guided by you,
we want to be Apostles
of Divine Mercy,
glad to celebrate every day
the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar
and to offer to those who request it
the sacrament of Reconciliation.
Advocate and Mediatrix of grace,
you who are fully immersed
in the one universal mediation of Christ,
invoke upon us, from God,
a heart completely renewed
that loves God with all its strength
and serves mankind as you did.
Repeat to the Lord
your efficacious word:
“They have no wine” (Jn 2:3),
so that the Father and the Son will send upon us
a new outpouring of
the Holy Spirit.
Full of wonder and gratitude
at your continuing presence in our midst,
in the name of all priests
I too want to cry out:
“Why is this granted me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:43).
Our Mother for all time,
do not tire of “visiting us”,
consoling us, sustaining us.
Come to our aid
and deliver us from every danger
that threatens us.
With this act of entrustment and consecration,
we wish to welcome you
more deeply, more radically,
for ever and totally
into our human and priestly lives.
Let your presence cause new blooms to burst forth
in the desert of our loneliness,
let it cause the sun to shine on our darkness,
let it restore calm after the tempest,
so that all mankind shall see the salvation
of the Lord,
who has the name and the face of Jesus,
who is reflected in our hearts,
for ever united to yours!
Amen!
Today is the anniversary of Our Lady's apparitions to the three shepherd children, Lucia, Jacinta and Francesco in Fatima. May we continue to pray for all the priests and bishops of the Church as we near the conclusion of this holy Year of Priests in June!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Send the Pope a Text!
Often looking out the window of my office or noticing students hanging out in the Nemwan Center, I see students constantly texting on their cell phones. Well, to all of you CCM students who are texting pros - you can show your support for Pope Benedict by sending him a text (at the standard international rates, of course!)
You can send the Pope a text at this number:
+39 335 18 63
We love you Papa B!
Learn more here.
You can send the Pope a text at this number:
+39 335 18 63
We love you Papa B!
Learn more here.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Thank You, Newman Council!
Thank you to all our outgoing Newman Council members! You all are great!
President: Kelli Foster
Vice-President: Matthew Puzzella
Secretary: Gina Rebeck
Spiritual Life Team: Matthew Puzzella, Cody Van De Ven, Laura Russell, Cory Ross
Outreach Team: Jose Luis Gallardo, Nick Ostendorf, Christine Ehrhard
Social Team: Charlie Marut, Nicole Conoyer, Anthony Holland
Service & Advocacy Team: Theresa Orlovsky, Anna LeBoeuf, Jamie Litteken
And to our incoming Newman Council: Welcome! We look forward to a blessed year!
President: Cody Van De Ven
Vice-President: Derek May
Secretary/Fundraising Chair: Christine Ehrhard
Spiritual Life Team: Cory Ross, Amy Strawhun, Janna Payton, Stephanie Kula
Peer Evangelization Team: Kelli Foster, Ben Beussink, Allen Kirchner, Nick Ostendorf, Susan Welker
Social Team: Denise Schmidt, Stephanie Holland, Chelsey Stoverink
Service & Advocacy Team: Sam Loos, Alex Heeb, Jocelyn Moylan
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Friday, May 7, 2010
The Human Experience Comes to SEMO
What does it mean to be human? What is suffering? What is joy? Why hope? Why love? Grassroots Films brought these fundamental questions to light in their most current production, a documentary called The Human Experience. Southeast Missouri State had the privilege of hosting a prescreening of this film on Wednesday, April 28th and Thursday, April, 29th which was attended by over 600 students, faculty, and community members.The Human Experience is the story of two brothers from Brooklyn, New York who set out on an adventure into the human heart that consisted of three life changing experiences: living homeless in New York City, visiting the lost children of Peru, and traveling to a remote leper colony in West Africa. While this film brought the face of suffering to the forefront, the real message was one of hope and unconditional love.
Amidst all their pain and hardship, the people they encountered on their journey believed in a greater purpose for their lives. They desired to be treated with dignity and to have communion with others. “As human beings, God created all of us with a desire for quality relationships and to be loved. When we learn how to love, we learn more about the Heavenly Father who is Love,” said Jennifer Dinan, a graduate student, after viewing the documentary.
After each screening two young men from Grassroots Films answered questions from the audience for about half an hour. Jeffrey Azize, the lead character in the film answered questions about his experiences in New York, Peru and Africa. Jeffrey Ptaszynksi, Grassroots Films Art Director, answered questions about the film’s production.
It is the hope of Grassroots Films that The Human Experience inspires change on an individual level as well as in our families, our communities, our nation, and ultimately the whole world. This film is appealing to people of all religions, races, and cultures. It has been shown to audiences internationally and all across the United States. Grassroots Films hopes to have The Human Experience available to the public for purchase within the year.
After the great success of Fishers of Men, a Grassroots Films production on the vocation of the priesthood in conjunction with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the company wanted to expand into doing feature length projects. The Human Experience is the fruit of that endeavor. Grassroots Films hopes to distribute The Human Experience to as many people as possible. The film can currently be seen in theaters in the southwestern area of the country.
To learn more about Grassroots Films and how you can bring the film to your area visit http://www.grassrootsfilms.com/.
Ali Martin is a graduate student at Southeast Missouri State University and active member of Catholic Campus Ministry.
View the trailer here:
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