Over the Christmas break, I was given some insights but little joy in my spiritual reading. The emotions we experience in prayer and spiritual reading are, of course, incidental; it is the insights (and the transformations occasioned by them) that are important. And when I say I was given little joy, I mean that my greatest insights so far during this Christmas Season have been insights into the nature of sin-including, above all, my own sins.

The first and most telling of these leapt out at me when reading the last chapters of St. Matthew’s Gospel. You may well take me for an idiot; surely I should have been reading the early chapters of the gospels at this time of year. But I am content to leave this to Providence; for whatever reason, that’s where I was in my reading and rereading of Scripture. Therefore, I call your attention to chapter 26, verses 14 and 15: “Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, ‘What will you give me if I deliver him to you?'”

How many times have I heard or read this passage? And yet on this occasion the nature of all temptation suddenly became crystal clear to me. For each temptation represents the possibility of gain in return for a betrayal. And each time we entertain a temptation, we ask the same question as Judas: What will you give me if I deliver him to you?

This is not just a matter of money, though it can be about money. Perhaps I have an opportunity to ridicule someone else to make myself appear superior. As I look at this possibility, I ask in effect, “What will you give me if I deliver him to you?” Or maybe, without being detected, I can shirk some responsibility in favor of enjoying some recreation. “What will you give me,” I ask of this situation, “if I deliver him to you?” In exactly the same way, when I entertain a temptation against purity, I am really asking the question once again: “What will you give me if I deliver him to you?”

For Judas, “you” stood for the group of chief priests, who were a temptation to him; but we can take “you” to refer to any temptation. The nature of temptation is always personal, exciting our wayward desires. There is always something we hope to gain from it. And the requirement to obtain this gain is always the same: The betrayal of our Creator and Lord.

A Second Insight for the Righteous

Since this insight brought me so little joy, I sought relief in a little book with a highly encouraging title, A Little Garden of Roses by Thomas à Kempis, the famous fifteenth-century author of The Imitation of Christ. It seems that in addition to the Imitation, Thomas wrote two small collections of meditations on virtue for the monks of his community. A Little Garden of Roses was followed by a similar work entitled The Valley of Lilies. Both have been published anew in a single volume from Ignatius Press, Bountiful Goodness: Spiritual Meditations for a Deeper Union with Christ. You can see from the titles why I turned here for encouragement.More……

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Together, Muslims and Christians constitute over 95 percent of Indonesia’s population. If they do not live in harmony then the country is in huge trouble.

Despite the media hyperbole, the overwhelming majority of Indonesian Muslims and Christians do live in peace, but the increasingly visible cases of discrimination, including the sealing of several churches, is indeed alarming.

The warning from our law enforcers of attacks during the Christmas season is another grim reminder that our longing for religious tolerance remains divorced from reality.

The bias against the religious minority is indisputably repugnant, based on the tenets of democracy, liberalism and secularism. But for those behind the discrimination, it barely matters as they believe that their one and only mission in life is to pursue God’s blessings. The lecture on the creeds of John Locke, Montesquieu or even Pancasila, will fall on deaf ears among those who venerate the words of God and the instruction of His prophet above everything else.

So the big question then is whether Islam really preaches hostility against those who espouse different faiths, especially Christians? If that is the case then those who claim to defend the faith by repressing others would be vindicated.

There are ample commandments in the Koran exhorting peaceful coexistence with non-Muslims. The Koran calls for Muslims to spread the message of Islam but the scripture also stipulates that there is no compulsion in religion (Al-Baqarah/2:256), for you is your religion and for me is mine (109:6), the Prophet is only a reminder not a controller over others (88:21-22).

There are some verses that can be misconstrued as promoting violence, “Allah does not forbid you from those who do not fight you because of your religion and do not expel you from your homes – from being righteous toward them and acting justly toward them. Indeed, Allah loves those who act justly” (60:8).

The aversion that some Muslims harbor against Christians is strikingly peculiar not only because of the Koran aforementioned general injunctions for religious tolerance but especially because Muslims and Christians share a myriad of things in common.

It would be disingenuous to claim that Christianity and Islam are identical considering they do have some fundamental differences. Nevertheless, it would also be misleading to argue that Islam and Christianity are antithetical.

Apart from Christianity, Islam is the only world’s main religion that recognizes Jesus or Isa as more than just an ordinary human being. While Islam does not accept him as the son of God, Islam still holds Isa in a high esteem as one of God’s prophets who delivered His words, a messenger who performed many miracles, including his birth from a virgin, someone that those who declare to be Muslims are compelled to revere.

Full Story: Is paying respects to Christmas 
un-Islamic?

Source: Jakarta Post

St. John, the son of Zebedee, and the brother of St. James the Great, was called to be an Apostle by our Lord in the first year of His public ministry. He became the “beloved disciple” and the only one of the Twelve who did not forsake the Savior in the hour of His Passion. He stood faithfully at the cross when the Savior made him the guardian of His Mother. His later life was passed chiefly in Jerusalem and at Ephesus. He founded many churches in Asia Minor. He wrote the fourth Gospel, and three Epistles, and the Book of Revelation is also attributed to him. Brought to Rome, tradition relates that he was by order of Emperor Dometian cast into a cauldron of boiling oil but came forth unhurt and was banished to the island of Pathmos for a year. He lived to an extreme old age, surviving all his fellow apostles, and died at Ephesus about the year 100.

St. John is called the Apostle of Charity, a virtue he had learned from his Divine Master, and which he constantly inculcated by word and example. The “beloved disciple” died at Ephesus, where a stately church was erected over his tomb. It was afterwards converted into a Mohammedan mosque.

John is credited with the authorship of three epistles and one Gospel, although many scholars believe that the final editing of the Gospel was done by others shortly after his death. He is also supposed by many to be the author of the book of Revelation, also called the Apocalypse, although this identification is less certain.

Pope Francis made a Christmas visit to Pope Emeritus Benedict yesterday (Dec 23) and said he found his 86-year-old predecessor looking well, according to television footage released by the Vatican.

Pope Francis, who was elected in March, spent about 30 minutes with Pope Emeritus Benedict in an ex-convent on the Vatican grounds where the former pope has been living in near isolation.

“It’s a pleasure to see you looking so well,” Pope Francis told Pope Emeritus Benedict, who in February became the first pope in 600 years to step down instead of ruling for life.

Television footage released by the Vatican – only the fourth time Benedict has been filmed since his resignation – showed him looking alert and in better health than on previous occasions.

He greeted Francis, 77, at the door of the residence, standing with an ivory-handled wooden cane. They walked to a chapel where they stood and prayed before speaking privately in another room.

When Pope Francis left Pope Emeritus Benedict, he said, “Merry Christmas, pray for me.” Pope Emeritus Benedict responded, “Always, always, always”.

Pope Emeritus Benedict resigned on Feb 28, saying he no longer had the physical and spiritual strength to lead the 1.2 billion member Roman Catholic Church. REUTERS

He was born in 1521 in Nijmegen in the Duchy of Guelders, which, until 1549, was part of the Habsburg Netherlands within the Holy Roman Empire and is now the Netherlands. His father was the wealthy burgermeister, Jacob Kanis; his mother, Ægidia van Houweningen, who died shortly after Peter’s birth. He was sent to study at the University of Cologne, he earned a Master’s degree in 1540, at the age of 19. While there, he met Peter Faber, one of the founders of the Society of Jesus. Through him, Canisius became the first Dutchman to join the newly founded Society of Jesus in 1543.

Through his preaching and writings, Peter Canisius became one of the most influential Catholics of his time. He supervised the founding and maintenance of the first German-speaking Jesuit colleges, often with little resources at hand. Because of his frequent travels between the colleges, a tedious and dangerous occupation at the time, he became known as the Second Apostle of Germany.

Canisius also exerted a strong influence on the Emperor Ferdinand I; he ceaselessly reminded Ferdinand of the imminent danger to his soul should he concede more rights to Protestants in return for their military support. When Canisius perceived a very real danger of Ferdinand’s son and heir, Maximilian, openly declaring himself a Protestant, Canisius threatened Maximilian with disinheritance should he desert the Catholic Faith.

Canisius was an influential teacher and preacher, especially through his “German Catechism”, a book which defined the basic principles of Catholicism in the German language and made them more accessible to readers in German-speaking countries. He was offered the post of Bishop of Vienna in 1554, but declined in order to continue his traveling and teachings. He did, however, serve as administrator of the Diocese of Vienna for one year, until a new bishop was appointed for it.

He moved to Germany, where he was one of the main Catholic theologians at the Colloquy of Worms in 1557, and later served as the main preacher in the cathedral of Augsburg from 1559 to 1568, where he strongly witnessed to his faith on three or four occasions each week. His preaching was said to have been so convincing that it attracted hundreds of Protestants back to the old faith.

By the time he left Germany, the Society of Jesus in Germany had evolved from a small band of priests into a powerful tool of the Counter Reformation. Canisius spent the last 20 years of his life in Fribourg, Switzerland, where he founded the Jesuit preparatory school, the College of Saint Michael, which trained generations of young men for careers and future university studies.

In 1591, at the age of 70, Canisius suffered a stroke which left him partially paralyzed, but he continued to preach and write with the aid of a secretary until his death in Fribourg. He was initially buried at the Church of St. Nicholas. His remains were later transferred to the church of the Jesuit College, which he had founded and where he spent the last year of his life They were interred in front of the main altar of the church, and the room he occupied during those last months is now a chapel which is open to the veneration of the faithful.

Three weeks after Typhoon Haiyan (“Yolanda” in the Philippines) wreaked widespread devastation on the Philippines, the survivors are slowly beginning to pick up the pieces.

The official death toll of 5,500 as of November 27 makes the typhoon the deadliest storm in the country’s history – and the number of dead is expected to increase.

“We’re just waiting for the casualty report from Task Force Yolanda…[The death toll] should increase later today or tomorrow,” Defence Undersecretary Eduardo del Rosario, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said at a televised news conference.

The disaster panel said 1,757 people are missing and 3.54 million people are displaced because of Haiyan, which whipped up a 15-foot-high storm surge that drowned many people and affected close to 10 million people. More than one million houses were damaged. Government estimates put the cost of the damage at close to US$6 billion.

A Wall Street Journal article quotes a presidential spokesman saying that work has begun on bunk houses to shelter people left homeless by the storm in Tacloban, Palo, and Ormoc on Leyte island, and Basey and Marabut on Samar island. “At least 2,400 families will be resettled in this first phase,” he said, adding that the government is pushing hard to get affected areas back to normal. In Tacloban, 78% of the city has been cleared of debris, and public utilities are starting to operate in the city centre.

Typhoon Haiyan relief supplies packed by SLB volunteersTyphoon Haiyan – SLB relief programme, Bangon PilipinasSimbahang Lingkod ng Bayan (SLB), the social justice arm of the Jesuit Philippine Province, has also begun rehabilitation efforts. SLB swung into action shortly after Typhoon Haiyan struck on November 8 with an emergency relief programme, Bangon Pilipinas (Rise Philippines). Bangon Pilipinas rallied thousands of volunteers to pack and distribute food, water, clothes, and other relief supplies to more than 16,000 people in affected areas such as Culion, Tacloban, Leyte, Samar and Capiz.

On November 11, Philippine Jesuit Provincial, Fr Antonio Moreno SJ, issued an appeal to Jesuits communities for assistance to the victims of the typhoon. In his letter, Fr Moreno said the country was still reeling from the Zamboanga City siege and the earthquake that struck Bohol and Cebu in October, and with evacuees in those afflicted regions still homeless, new crises arise from people suffering as a result of the typhoon. In view of this and the long-term consequences, Fr Moreno asked the Jesuits to simplify any Christmas or other celebrations over the coming months in solidarity with victims and to give attention to the needed long-term recovery.

Jesuit communities across the world have responded to the appeal. “The support and solidarity of the different Conferences, Provinces, Regions and from Fr General himself have been extremely overwhelming and heart-warming,” said Fr Moreno. “Some even tapped their partners and other communities to assist. Others would like some long-term development programmes to assist affected communities. One Jesuit community is fasting for four Fridays, taking only water and bread. The would-have-been expenses for these meals will be sent to typhoon ravaged areas.”

With the emergency relief programme concluded on November 24, SLB is now finalising rehabilitation plans. These will largely be focused on Culion, Palawan, the Jesuit mission island that was once the world’s largest leper colony. Culion was the last place hit by the typhoon and, although it was little mentioned in the media, local contacts show that 3,750 families (15,518 individuals) were affected. More than 1,000 houses were totally destroyed and about 2,000 partially damaged.

SLB director Fr Xavier Alpasa SJ said a team will go to Culion on December 6 for community validation. They will look into rehabilitation prospects in housing, livelihood, purchasing of boats, renewable energy, psycho-social interventions and social entrepreneurship ventures.

The rehabilitation plan to be implemented in 2014 with a 3-year time frame includes the construction of houses and boats for the fishing communities; and education and training for jobs. There is also a plan to install solar panels for electricity. The typhoon caused total power failure on Culion, which only had 12 hours of electricity a day before. Power is estimated to be restored in January.

Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan (SLB) through its Director, Fr Xavier Alpasa SJ, is coordinating all our efforts to assist victims of Yolanda.

Funds can be transferred through its bank (BPI [Loyola-Katipunan Branch], Peso Checking Account # 3081-111-61, Dollar Account # 3084-0420-12, Swift code should be BOPIPHMM, Routing #: 021-000-21).
In the Philippines, cheques can be made out to Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan, Loyola House of Studies, Ateneo de Manila University Campus, Loyola Heights, 1108 Quezon City.

The Philippine Jesuit Foundation (PJF) in New York also accepts donations. Please ask your contacts and friends to indicate in the memo “Yolanda Calamity Fund” to avail of the free service fee. PJF Donors can also earn tax credit for every donation made.
Bank transfers in the US can be made through our Merrill Lynch bank (Account # 176-04A01). Checks in the US can be addressed to The Philippine Jesuit Foundation, PO Box 312, New York, NY 10028, USA, through Fr Victor R Salanga SJ.

In Australia, donations for the Philippines are being received at Jesuit Mission Australia. Go to http://www.jesuitmission.org.au/site/5/donations. Donations can be made online or by telephone, fax or post by credit card. Call +6129955 8585.

Donations made through JCAP will be channelled to where they can be most effective.

For more information on SLB’s rehabilitation work in support of Typhoon Haiyan survivors, contact SLB at slb.ph.

Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) Social Justice & Ecology Philippines

Eighteen years after Samunder Singh stabbed and murdered a Catholic nun in northern India, the former prisoner has been invited to meet Pope Francis at the Vatican.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for Family, invited Singh after the pope expressed his desire to meet him. Accompanying him will be a Catholic priest and a nun, the younger sister of the slain Rani Maria.

“I am excited after getting the news,” 40-year old Singh told ucanews.com.

Singh, who with the guidance of the Catholic priest repented of his actions while serving a 12-year jail term, is busy preparing his travel documents.

The priest, popularly known as Swami Sadanand, was instrumental in counseling Singh after the killing. The Carmelite of Mary Immaculate regularly met him in jail.

The invitation to the Vatican is to attend a special screening of a documentary on the killing, called The Heart of a Murderer, by award winning Australian-Italian director Catherine McGilvray.

The documentary depicts the murder, Singh’s conversion and his acceptance by the murdered nun’s family. McGilvray, in an interview, said when she first heard the story, she was moved by the images of “the mother kissing her daughter’s murderer and of the assassin becoming like a real brother to the sister of his victim.”

Pope Francis was reportedly moved by the film.

The family of the slain nun had publically forgiven him and accepted him as one of their family members. Every year on the Hindu festival of siblings, the sister of Rani Maria ties a rakhi, or ceremonial thread, onto Singh. The ritual is a common practice among siblings.

The murdered nun was declared a Servant of God, the first major step toward canonization, in 2007.

Related reports
Church Recalls Murdered Nun´s Service To Poor
Vatican official visits nun’s tomb

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“Christian families are missionary families,” Pope Francis said in his homily on October 27, as he celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Square to conclude a Pilgrimage for Families.

The Pilgrimage, organized for the Year of Faith, had drawn more than 150,000 people to St. Peter’s Square the previous day. After completing their family pilgrimages to the tomb of St. Peter, the participants gathered in the Square to hear testimony from several families, and then an address by the Pope.

Responding to several people who spoken of the difficulties that families face, the Pontiff acknowledged: “Life is often wearisome, and many times tragically so. We have heard this recently.” However, he continued, “what is most burdensome in life is not this: what weighs more than all of these things is a lack of love.”

“Dear families, the Lord knows our struggles,” the Holy Father said, repeating with emphasis: “He knows them!” He encouraged the pilgrimage families to persevere amid difficulties and to have faith in God and in each other. He warned them, “do not pay attention to this makeshift culture, which can shatter our lives.”

In his homily at the Sunday Mass, the Pope mentioned three important characteristics of families:

First, “the family prays.” Pope Francis reminded the faithful to pray in the fashion of the tax collector from the Gospel story: “humbly, before God.” For the family, he suggested, saying the Our Father together “is not something extraordinary; it’s easy.” Praying the Rosary as a family “is very beautiful and a source of great strength,” he said. The Pope added that family members should not forget to pray for each other.

Second, “the family keeps the faith,” the Pope continued. Here he stressed the missionary dimension of family life:

How do we keep our faith as a family? Do we keep it for ourselves, in our families, as a personal treasure like a bank account, or are we able to share it by our witness, by our acceptance of others, by our openness?
Finally, the Pope said, “the family experiences joy.” A family that lives by the light of Christian faith will naturally communicate that joy, he said. “That family is the salt of the earth and the light of the world, it is the leaven of society as a whole.”

Edmund was born in London, the son of a bookseller. He was raised a Catholic, given a scholarship to St. John’s College, Oxford, when fifteen, and became a fellow when only seventeen. His brilliance attracted the attention of such leading personages as the Earl of Leicester, Robert Cecil, and even Queen Elizabeth. He took the Oath of Supremacy acknowledging Elizabeth head of the church in England and became an Anglican deacon in 1564. Doubts about Protestanism increasingly beset him, and in 1569 he went to Ireland where further study convinced him he had been in error, and he returned to Catholicism. Forced to flee the persecution unleashed on Catholics by the excommunication of Elizabeth by Pope Pius V, he went to Douai, France, where he studied theology, joined the Jesuits, and then went to Brno, Bohemia, the following year for his novitiate. He taught at the college of Prague and in 1578 was ordained there. He and Father Robert Persons were the first Jesuits chosen for the English mission and were sent to England in 1580. His activities among the Catholics, the distribution of his Decem rationes at the University Church in Oxford, and the premature publication of his famous Brag (which he had written to present his case if he was captured) made him the object of one of the most intensive manhunts in English history. He was betrayed at Lyford, near Oxford, imprisoned in the Tower of London, and when he refused to apostatize when offered rich inducements to do so, was tortured and then hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn on December 1 on the technical charge of treason, but in reality because of his priesthood. He was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970 as one of the forty English and Welsh Martyrs. His feast day is December 1.

by JAMES MARTIN, S.J.

Looking for some good, solid, basic, inviting, user-friendly books on the faith? My friend Msgr. Peter Vaghi, a fine writer, indefatigable priest

and pastor of Little Flower Church in Bethesda, Md., is hard at work on a fine new series of books on our faith that would prove inordinately useful in any Catholic home, dorm, rectory, chancery, or school. I first met Msgr. Vaghi a few years ago on a pilgrimage to Lourdes, when we were seated next to one another on the rather crowded plane. A former attorney, he’s a delightful conversationalist: energetic, intelligent, witty, articulate, forceful. As soon as we started talking, both of us realized that while we probably wouldn’t always agree on every single thing, we always agree on the basics. (Also, both of us suffer from terminal garrulousness. Thus, the trip from Lourdes to Baltimore passed very quickly!)

Besides the fact that (full disclosure) we’re now friends, I’m not sure why I like his books so much. But I can venture a guess: they are at once firmly grounded in Scripture and tradition, well written, clear, orthodox, to the point–and, best of all, wonderfully concise.

This summer he is finishing The Commandments We Keep: A Catholic Guide to Living a Moral Life, the third book in the series, which should be out next spring. The first book, which has sold extremely well is The Faith We Profess: A Catholic Guide to the Apostles’ Creed. It takes the reader step-by-step through the Creed, a good idea since most of us-even me–need to be refreshed from time to time on what “one in being” means, for example. The second book, which was published this past spring, is The Sacraments We Celebrate: A Catholic Guide to the Seven Mysteries of Faith. It shows how each of the sacraments is a transforming encounter with Christ, in his dying and rising. It reflects the church teaching on sacramental theology as well as Msgr. Vaghi’s 25 years of pastoral work. His zest for Catholicism and for Christ are evident in his writing; the books are “catechetical” in the best sense.

His new book, he tells me, will analyze first, “The Jewish Understanding of the Commandment”; second, “The Effect of the Christ Event on the Commandment”; and third, “Pastoral and Practical Implications of the Commandment.” He hopes later on to have a fourth book on prayer. Overall, the series will focus on faith, sacraments, moral life and prayer, thus mirroring the four-fold foundation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church–the four pillars of our faith.

Anyway, now you can’t say (a) you have nothing to read or (b) you have nothing to use in your parish.

And if that’s still not enough reading for you, check out my ten-year list of suggested readings for Catholic book clubs here.