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To: Siobhan; american colleen; sinkspur; livius; Lady In Blue; Salvation; Polycarp; narses; ...
Today is a result of all of our prayers, efforts and sacrifices over the past 15 months. He (Dolan) is a breath of fresh air."

Prayers do get answered!

2 posted on 08/29/2002 6:06:27 AM PDT by NYer
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To: NYer
You are absolutely correct. Anything is possible through prayer.

God bless.
12 posted on 08/29/2002 7:19:43 AM PDT by EODGUY
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To: NYer; Sock; Siobhan; patent; Romulus; eastsider; ELS; neocon
The second challenge, Dolan said, is to live in profound unity with Jesus by reaching out to the needy and living in holiness. "We've heard so much in recent months about the Catholic church in crisis," Dolan said. The antidote to this crisis, as to all the others in our long history, is fidelity, a fidelity which gives rise to holiness."

A good time to repeat Sock's excellent post the other day. I know it's still working on me.


The primary point in my post was to turn our focus from the scandals to ourselves. To turn the desire to change Cardinal “Whoever” to the desire to change and to bring ourselves closer to Christ.

Of course, we all experience the normal human emotions of outrage for the perpetrators of these crimes against children, but I don’t believe that to daily feed this rage serves any useful purpose. Certainly we, as faithful and informed Catholics, ought to be leaders in our small faith communities. We ought to inspire (and be inspired by) other faithful Catholics in areas in which we can make a difference.

Without saying too much, my personal interest is in pro life work. I am not a marcher nor do I confront women at the abortion mills. God has brought me to a different way and we actually counsel abortion-minded women in crisis pregnancy centers. My fellow volunteers are all Catholic and well informed. We don’t dwell on these abominations within the Church; we pray for the Church in our Chapel (btw: 24 hour Eucharistic adoration)

Look, I’m not trying to debate any of this. Yes we ought to stay informed, but I would just like to keep the focus on ourselves and what we can do as individuals for the Body of Christ. Our success depends not on our rhetoric, or our rage, or our daily debates. Our success depends on our interior life and personal love of God. Once we forget the real meaning of “Catholic", which in essence is the result of union with Christ, then our failure to affect any worthwhile change has begun.

If we as Catholics have not had the influence on society that our numbers should have produced, the reason is to be found in our individual lack of the interior life. Any change whether it be individual, social, or secular, within or without the Church, must begin and end in interior union with Christ.

Peace



15 posted on 08/29/2002 9:01:58 AM PDT by Askel5
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