Deja Vu?

Watch for this Lent 2012.

    http://thebostonpilot.com/article.asp?ID=13337

Summary Report

Summary Report for the Archdiocese of Boston
Overall Objectives of the Process
Through ARISE Together in Christ in the Archdiocese of Boston we envisioned a movement that
would deepen spirituality, encourage multi-cultural participation, enhance collaboration within
the Archdiocesan offices, build up the morale of the clergy, promote healing and reconciliation,
reach out to inactive, alienated, and young adult Catholics through evangelization strategies, and
use the media to promote the Good News of the Spirit’s presence in the people and parishes in
the Archdiocese. As we look back on all five seasons, we see clearly each of these objectives
have been achieved to a greater or lesser degree.

Season One Theme: Encountering Christ Today 
Goal: To deepen our experience of Christ both personally and communally.

Season Two Theme: Change Our Hearts 
Goal: Personal conversion in light of our membership in the Catholic community.

Season Three Theme: In the Footsteps of Christ 
Goal: To explore what it means to be a disciple of Christ in today’s world and how this implies
active commitment to works of charity and acts of justice; becoming a young-adult friendly
parish.

Season Four Theme: New Heart, New Spirit
Goal: To experience communal reconciliation and healing following the merging of parishes and
the sexual abuse scandal; emphasis on outreach to inactive and alienated Catholics.

Season Five Theme: We Are the Good News!
Goal: To explore the meaning of evangelization in our lives; we are called to bring the Good
News of Christ into every human situation. Evangelization training helped prepare leaders to
welcome people back to parishes through “Catholics Come Home.


Outcomes 
By the Numbers
Parishes Participating  Over 60% of the 292 parishes in the Archdiocese
participated in ARISE. In addition, people whose parishes did not participated in ARISE have formed
groups on their own.

 3 new parishes started Season 5 in fall 2010

Workshops Conducted  200+ in four languages (English, Spanish,
Portuguese, Haitian Creole), plus several “make-up
sessions” via the web.

Adult Leaders Trained    3,000+
Small Group Participants    30,000+
Parishes Using Children’s Materials   44
Parishes with Youth Groups  26 representing 630 participants plus leaders
Nursing Homes/Assisted Living  Three—Brooksby Village, Peabody; Sunrise
Assisted Living, Braintree; The Boston Home, Dorchester

Prison Ministry  Norfolk Prison: Five groups in English, four in
Spanish, one in Vietnamese
Framingham Prison: 40+ participants

Supplemental Workshops    Liturgy, Youth Ministry and Catechetical Leaders

Campuses Participating    Three
Campus Leaders Trained    40-50

Theology on Tap Parishes    Five

Faith-Sharing Material Languages  Six options, including English, Spanish, Portuguese,
Haitian Creole, Vietnamese, and Lithuanian; largeprint editions available; e-text available on request

Reiterate

Arise, let us go: Jesus has uttered this command before, at the beginning of the preaching of the kingdom. Even though the disciples will scatter in failure and fear, Jesus has told them that after he has been raised he will go before them, as a shepherd leading his flock, into Galilee. Arise, let us go: no matter what our failures have been, no matter what the trials we fear to face, the crosses we fear to bear, we can trust that the Lord is with us, and leads us on where he has gone, into Galilee of the nations, into life with God.


h/t  Fr. Gregory Murphy, O.P.

Post Script

This free scrapbook created with Smilebox

Celebration

Free photo collage made with Smilebox

Some pix of the celebration the parish had to conclude our Arise Together in Christ program.

We are the Good News!

Final Post

Read Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8.

Arise Together in Christ is a three-year, parish centered program of spiritual renewal, evangelization and adult faith formation.  Those that have participated have developed a closer relationship with Christ, grown in community, and reached out in service to others.

These past three years, have done just that for me, personally.  I have been humbled by the faith I have encountered in others.  I'm sure others have felt the same, especially the Arise team.  Together as a team we have accomplished God's work by allowing the Spirit to move.  It certainly wasn't us.  We had no idea what we were doing; we didn't understand; we didn't know anything; we didn't "get it."

Yet, we did it.  We stepped out in faith.

I still don't know how we did what we did.
    
In looking back over the past three years, I'm awed.  It has to be the work of the Holy Spirit.  In meditation, I definitely see that the Arise program has brought me into a Trinitarian relationship with God.  Read John 14:11, John 14:20, and John 14:23.  IOW, our faith tells us that God is three distinct persons, each relating to the other two in a unique way, much like St. Mary's Arise team, and very much like my Sunday night Arise group, and I'm sure all the Arise groups.  Each person in God is equally and completely one and the same God.  We, who have been made in God's own image and likeness, grow in perfection by becoming ever more united to each other and thus to God, in our groups.  We grew together and still respected the diversity of each of us as being a unique individual.  Wowza. Think of it.

I thank God for this experience.

In the most wonderful way, the Arise team, and the Arise groups, have taught me to respect each person as someone unique,  and someone very special to God.  We have enriched each other.  Our variety has helped me to understand something of the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, imperfectly reflected in the unity in diversity in the Arise team, in my group, in my parish, my community, and the Archdiocese.  So it must be in the world.  And when you think of it, all of history.

I'm sorry.  Words aren't sufficient.  My vocabulary fails me.   Wowza.

St. Thomas Aquinas teaches us that everything aims toward God.  Everyone wants the best.  Of course the best is God.  All human beings want union with God, and working together toward the good is the best humans can be.*

Arise with St. Mary's Parish has done this.  The three years are finished.  We are in the last session.  Finis.
I hope you will continue to read your Bible, reflecting upon what you have read.  My heartfelt thanks to all who have participated in the groups, and those that have found their way to this blog.

OK then, before I go, besides thanking everyone overall, I need to thank some in particular:

• as always, to my husband, my Martha, for loving me
• to my children, for tolerating me
• to Father Dave, for giving me the ball and letting me run with it
• to Father Brian and Father Frank for their prayers and support
• To Deacon Dick for his leadership and prayers
• to Joe, for his marketing skills, his spreadsheet expertise, and running interference for me
• to Nancy, for her teacher skills and procurement abilities
• to Ray for reaching out to our elderly and infirm and Christine for her support and prayers (and I promise to never tell Ray to "shut up" again).
• to Robbie and Paul for stepping in and doing whatever was asked.
• to Brenda and David for the best banner in the diocese and other promotional works
• to Katie for her educational expertise, involvement with  the youth, and dedication to the parish
• to John for back-up and ideas
• to Betsy for back-up and help
• to Mike for his support and sales pitches
• to Neil for lending his presence and support and giving us the perception of "legitimacy"
• for everyone's dedication and faith

To everyone who participated, thank you for your prayers.

For a review of the past three years, check out the Arise pix.

*Thomas Aquinas, I-II, q. 36, a. 3, Summa Theologica, vol.2.

Scripture Sense

Wordsmithing the Mass

The Eucharist in the Mass is the center of a Catholic's life.  It is the best prayer, our best community, and the epitome of our expression of love to God.  IOW, it's how we who are gathered to pray together commune with each other to unite ourselves in worship.  It stands to reason that we should want to do this in the best way possible, right?  So how we say, what we say, is important, right?  Right.

This is the reasoning behind the changes in the Mass.  There are going to be changes in the wording of the Mass.  Amen will stay the same.  The Our Father will too.  That's about it.  Oh, the sign of the cross will remain.  The change will be done by Nov. 27, 2011--the First Sunday of Advent, which is apropos since Advent is the new liturgical year.

What do you think?  "Deja vu all over again."   This is reminiscent of the changes after Vatican II, and will certainly boost the sales of Magnificat and missals.

Actually, the priest is affected the most.  It's the Sacramentary that has the most change.  If the people can hear the priest praying they will appreciate the beauty of the mystery through this more precise translation.  "Lex orandi, lex credendi."  The new words will show us the relationship between what we pray and what we believe.

The Mass will be more poetic, more inspiring and more theological.  What more could you want?  Start looking for the changes. This will be a good time to start thinking about what you're saying.  Meditate on the prayers at Mass.  We will learn to love the Mass even more.    Deo Gratias.

Come and See

Seeing is believing, right?  Well....this time it is.  St. Mary's very last session of the Arise Together in Christ program is beginning next week.  Are you going?  What are you waiting for?

Read how Jesus handles this situation, John 1:35-46.  Would you behave like the disciples?  Prove it.  Come and See an Arise group.  Drop on by.  Go to one, or two.

What are you afraid of?  What have you got to lose?

I promise I won't bug you any more.  This is the last time.

Question?

This not a legitimate posting; it is a sincere question.  If you have a Liturgy of the Hours, 4 Vol. set, I'm going to give you a reference to read.  It is Wednesday, the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, the Second Reading from a sermon On Pastors by Saint Augustine, bishop, pp. 298-99.

What is Augustine telling us?

This is what I'm interested in:

Behold, I myself am over the shepherds, and I will claim my sheep from their hands; and I will turn away from them so that they may not pasture my sheep, and the shepherds shall no longer give pasture.  For when I say: "Let them pasture my sheep," they give pasture to themselves and not to my sheep.  Therefore, I will turn away from them so that they may not pasture my sheep.
  
How does the Lord turn away from them
to keep them from pasturing his sheep?  
Do whatever they tell you, but do not follow what they do.  







Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Here's the Entire Bible

Bible In A Minute

Earth made, Adam, Eve
Cain kills Abel, has to leave
Boring genealogy 
Great flood, olive leaf

Tower Babel, Abraham
Sodom and Gomorrah, and
Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses
Ten commands, promised land

Judges, David, Solomon
Sent away to Babylon
Job, then a bunch of psalms
Proverbs and the Song of Songs

Major prophets, lion’s den
Minor prophets, Bethlehem
Gold and myrrh and frankincense
Satan and Samaritan

Choose disciples, other cheek
Walk on water, thousands eat
Lazarus, fig tree
Last supper, Gethsemane

Blood money, third denial
Pontius Pilate, public trial
Forty lashes, to the tree
Why have you forsaken me?

Third day, empty tomb
Reappears, five wounds
Acts of the Apostles next
Epistles and Apocalypse!

h/t to Fr. Fleming of the Concord Pastor and Barats and Bereta

Ghosts

Abraham said, "If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead."

Read Luke 16:19-31.

I don't know about this.  I remember someone asked Sister once, how come we don't have miracles like Lazarus rising from the dead, or other dramatic happenings.  Sister's response was that we had her.  We didn't need to see anyone rising from the dead.

Mmmm.  I wasn't convinced then, either.

I think God needs a new PR firm.  I don't think reading and listening to scriptures are going to hook anybody. God needs drama.  You have to get people's attention first, then they'll turn to scripture.  So have a relative or someone one knows, rise from the dead.

It worked for Scrooge.

Last Call

“I didn’t even know they were Catholic!”  This was an exclamation from one small group leader who held an Arise Together with Christ Season, in her home.  She was talking about some neighbors of hers.  She was gushing about the community that had developed in her group.   Their faith sharing had created a strong bond that had spilled over into friendships that morphed into “family.”

Wow.

But was this everybody’s experience? 

“How was your Arise session this season?” I asked another small group leader.  “You wouldn’t believe what happened!”  He responded.   “One person, who had never been before, joined our group and seemingly seemed a silent participant, confessed in the last session, that our faith sharing had touched her.”   The theme for Season IV was Reconciliation.  The lady in question said that she understood from scripture that if she wanted to get to heaven she had to forgive.  She was not a forgiving person, by nature.  But from the New Heart, New Spirit Workbook, she was led to look at forgiveness differently.  From praying with her group for Forgiveness, she felt herself open to forgive her “ex”, her parents, her family, etc.  Her anger had kept her in a prison of negativity.  Praying to be forgiven and to forgive herself, visibly converted her. 

Wowza. 

“Redemption right before your eyes!”  He corrected me; “Redemption before all our eyes.  We all saw proof of redemption.  Right there.”

And the stories continue….

Each leader that I spoke with related benefits from the Arise Together with Christ Program.  From the scripture readings enhancing their Sunday liturgy, to feeling bonded in a community of faith, to serving the community and others with establishing a group prayer line, food for St. Vincent de Paul, helping at the Because He Lives Soup Kitchen, to becoming comfortable in sharing their faith with others, to learning new ways of prayer, to visiting nursing homes, to spiritually adopting seminarians and priests, to donating  an ox, cow, pig, goat, chicken…., the list of benefits goes on. 

You don’t believe me?  You doubt?

Come see for yourself.  By the way, this is your last chance to see for yourself.  Arise Together with Christ is a three year program.  This is our last year.  This is our last session.  This is your last chance to see what everyone in the parish is talking about.  What are you waiting for?  Don’t miss out!  It’s only a six week commitment.  It’s also non-sequential—meaning you don’t have to go every week.  Each lesson stands by itself, not dependent on any previous lesson.

Sign up the week end of Sept. 18-19                   Groups begin Oct.  3                 This is the Last Call.  

How to Cheat Your Boss

The parable of the unjust steward is confusing.  Read Luke 16: 1-13.

The steward is terminated from his employment.  But before he goes, he calls in all his master's debtors and forgives their debt, or lessons it considerably.  He does that so that when he needs help, after being fired, he'll have friends who will help him

This doesn't make sense to me because the master will have the steward thrown in jail for giving away what is rightfully his.  Who's going to help the steward now?

But the worst doesn't happen.  The steward gets away with it.  He's a conniving schemer and the master admires him for it.  If the master gets angry and has the steward arrested, he'll be the perceived as the bad guy.  But if he lets the steward alone, and lets his debtors alone, then the master is perceived as generous.

The point Jesus was trying to make was to be intelligent about planing for heaven.

But I can't get over the sneaky conniver's machinations to cheat his master.

Questions

Got Questions about the Arise Program? We’ve Got Answers!

Q. I didn’t join ARISE last year….can I still participate in Season 3? 
A. Absolutely! Each season stands alone.

Q. I’m not much of a church-go-er; I don’t know much about the Bible, would I feel out of place in an ARISE group?
A. Not at All! Each group reflects a beautiful variety of people at all different places in their lives.

Q. I’m in my 20’s (or 30’s), isn’t this kind of thing just for older people?
A. No Way! God doesn’t discriminate by age, gender, culture, race, or for any reason.

Q. It runs for 6 weeks…what if I can’t make them all?
A. No Problem! Life happens; do what you can.

Q. Can I pick my day and time?
A. Yes! There are many choices of days and times.

Q. Can I request a particular facilitator or group?
A. Sure!

Q. Can I host a group in my house even though I ‘m not the facilitator?
A. You Bet!

Q. I don’t like to talk in groups. Would I feel awkward?
A. No! Many participants were relieved to discover that they could talk or not according to their comfort level.

Q. Why would I do this?
A. Why wouldn’t you?

Created by St Agatha Team Milton, MA

I Yam What I Yam

"I Yam What I Yam."  Who said that?

Your husband?   Er....yeah, .....I was really thinking of someone else.
"Popeye."  Yes, you are correct.  But there is really someone before Popeye.  Read 1Corinthians 15:10.

Now, who said, "By the grace of God, I am what I am..."?

Negotiations

If you have ever belonged to a Labor Union, and been part of the collective  bargaining unit, then you'llunderstand where this post is coming from.

Read Exodus 32: 7.

Moses is the mediator.  Typical of membership, they just don't appreciate the hard work their contract negotiators have done for them.

Read Psalm 106: 5.

See?

Ingrates!  How would you like to be the Israelites steward?  Hey, they pay their dues, you have to advocate for them.  Although, you would like to say, "Fire the SOB," but you don't.  Neither does Moses.  He's excellent: calm, cool, collected.  Moses negotiates a deal.  Rather, he dusts off the original covenant.  Smart guy this Moses.  Luckily, the management Moses is dealing with never tries to screw you.  God doesn't go back on His Word.

I was thinking of hiring Moses when I stand at the pearly gates.  But then I thought better of it.  I know someone even better than Moses.  Read 1Timothy 2:5.

Scripture Come-back

 The pastor was out visiting Paddy Murphy, one day.  He didn't announce that he was coming, because he could always visit another parishioner, if Paddy wasn't home.  But he was home because Paddy's truck was in the driveway.  Father rang the door bell but no one answered.  Sound from either a TV or Radio could be heard through the door.  Father thought that the bell could be broken, so he knocked on the door, loudly.  Still no answer.  Father finally took out pen and paper and wrote "Revelation 3:20," and stuck it on the door.

Next Sunday, when Father was counting the offering he found his note, where he had written "Revelation 3:20," and saw that below, Paddy had written, "Genesis 3:10."

Plan "A"

Once upon a time, I actually wasn't a  mother.  I wasn't married.  I wanted to be.  I knew I had a vocation to be a wife and a mother, so I dated.  Before I would allow myself to get serious about someone, they had to fulfill certain criteria.  They had to be Catholic, healthy, good sense of humor, hard working, etc.   These were traits that were important to me at that time.

The point is, I was planning for the future.  Don't we all; or should be?  Read Luke 14: 28-33.

Our future is heaven.  Plan for it.

How to Make Your Prayer Better

Everyone's familiar with Luke 11: 1-4.  Right?

But what about when you don't feel like praying?  Jesus teaches us how to pray, Luke 11: 1-4, and also what to pray, and so does the rest of that section Luke 11: 5-13.  But what about when you're too tired, or just feel "blah."

I contend that it is when you push yourself, is when your prayer is worth more.  I think it is more worthy.

Follow my train of thought.
     You don't like children.  You don't know how to act, or say.....you're just uncomfortable with them.  But you're friend teaches little children.  And not only can't your friend understand how anyone could not like children, he actually thinks it's a terrible thing that you don't care for children.  He doesn't shut up about it.
     You meditate on it.  And you decide that you are going to try to look at children through your friend's eyes.  You'll try to see what's so wonderful about little kids.
      So your friend arranges for you to volunteer with him.  So the first day, a little girl pees on you while you're reading a story.  The next day, some little #^*# asked, "Why are you so fat?"  In fact, a day didn't go by, that you don't have some horror story.
      But you pushed yourself to go back every day, if only to prove to your friend that you really, really, did try to like children.
       Eventually, you know these kids by name.  Then you know them by personality.  You get to know when they're sad, mad, happy, and you know what?  You start to care about them.  Somehow, they wormed their way into your heart.
     Alright...alright!  You grow to love them.

This is the point of my story.  I contend, that your love is better, more worthy, if you will, than your friend's love,  because the friend did just what came naturally to him.  He loved children.  You on the other hand, had to work on it.  You pushed yourself to do something you didn't want to do.  And I think the same is true of prayer.  When you pray when you don't feel like it, when you have to push yourself, it's worth more.  Actually, you're praying to please God, not yourself.  An act of love that will please God.