An exhibit opening May 9, 2010 at the Maltz Museum in Beachwood. Rare artifacts, poignant photographs, compelling video and first-person accounts tell the stories of pioneering women who established schools, hospitals and other enduring institutions and continue to work for peace and social justice. WOMEN & SPIRIT: Catholic Sisters in America, will travel to Cleveland directly from its appearance at The Smithsonian to open at The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in Beachwood, OH on May 9, 2010.

WOMEN & SPIRIT is a project of The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an association of the leaders of congregations of Catholic women religious in the United States.  The Conference has more than 1,500 members, representing about 95% of America’s 68,000 women religious.  Click here to visit the Women and Spirit website: http://womenandspirit.org/

Today we recognize that the earth provides for all of us, and we commit ourselves to caring for it. We take only what we need, and we replenish what we take.

Food, including the ingredients for bread, is one thing that the earth provides for us. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Guide Pyramid recommends the following daily allotments: 6-11 servings of grain, 3-5 servings of vegetables, 2-4 servings of fruit, 2-3 servings of dairy foods, and 5-7 ounces of meat or fish or the equivalent in beans or nuts. Fat and sugar should be eaten sparingly.

Evaluate your family’s diet. Celebrate Earth Day by resolving to take only what you need!

Did you know that one tree in its average 50-year lifetime can clean-up $62,000 of air pollution? Trees and people keep each other alive. While trees give off oxygen for us to breathe, they inhale carbon dioxide, which trees thrive upon. Trees do other wonderful things, too; they recycle water, prevent soil erosion, and provide homes for animals and birds.

Planting a tree is great fun, and one of the best things you can do to save the Earth. The tree will reduce the carbon dioxide in the air, provide beauty and shade and attract wildlife. Every year, you and your tree will grow, proud to know you are both helping the earth.

Most of us do not have to look very far to find “non-practicing Catholics” in our circle of family and friends. Many of us are concerned about these loved ones however we don’t know how to help them. Obviously, most of them are searching, but how can we help them find their way home?

As baptized, practicing Catholics we have a precious gift of faith and love from the Lord that needs to be shared with our non-practicing brothers and sisters.

First, we need to pray for them. Secondly, we need to extend a personal invitation to them to come home to the Catholic Church. Most non-practicing Catholics are waiting for an invitation to return. Many mistakenly think they are excommunicated and are not welcome to return for a variety of reasons.

Many non-practicing Catholics carry a tremendous amount of guilt and misinformation about the Church so they are afraid of approaching the Church for fear of being rejected. You can make a tremendous difference in someone’s life simply by reaching out to them and telling them that we miss them and would like for them to come back home to our Church family.

Fr Shori began his presentation last evening with this selection from Everyone’s Way of the Cross

Sixth Station: Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus

Christ:

Can you be brave enough my other self to wipe my bloody face?

Where is my face you ask?

At home whenever eyes are filled with tears
At work when tensions rise
On playgrounds, in slums, at the courthouse, the hospitals, the jails

Wherever suffering exists there is my face
I look for you to wipe away my blood, my tears

All:
Lord, live in us, act in us, love in us so that we may reveal your glorious face

Fr Shori’s presentation focused on why people of faith need to be concerned about acting to transform the world

• Our faith calls us to it. The Gospel and church teaching place our service of the poor and vulnerable and our work for justice at the center of Christian witness.

• Our nation needs it. Too many Americans, especially children, are growing up poor in the richest nation on earth. The blessings and burdens of American life are not being shared fairly.

• Our world requires it. More than 30,000 children die every day from hunger, deprivation, and their consequences. Disease and debt, corruption and conflict are threatening the lives and dignity of millions in our increasingly globalized world.

• Our salvation demands it. In Jesus’ description of the Last Judgment, Matthew 25:31ff the critical question is ‘What did you do for the least of these?’ Jesus identified himself with the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the imprisoned, and the stranger, insisting that when we serve them we serve him.

• Our actions can make a difference.

The questions for us today:
• What are you doing personally and what do you see others around you doing to serve the poor and vulnerable?

• What is our church doing to serve the poor and vulnerable?

Here is a hand-out that can help you in your prayer and action in serving our neighbors- Transforming the World Action Plan

Often the topic of immigration brings up strong emotion in people.  Some think that anyone entering the country illegally needs to be immediately sent back to their homeland, in a swift and harsh manner.  Some only think that these immigrants are stealing their jobs and therefore have no place in our country.  I admit, those emotional responses can be challenging to look past, but they are not the loving, Christian response that God calls his people too.

Because of our life of faith, through our baptismal call and our confirmation of beliefs (and acceptance of Catholicism) we must move past the basic emotional response and see the human dignity in the broader world of our international brothers and sisters.

The question of Comprehensive Immigration Reform is about more than politics – it is about people.  People who have lived in deplorable conditions with no means to make changes, people who left the ones they love to make an (often lethal) journey into the unknown to possibly make a little money that they may send back to support their families.  For the most part, these people didn’t want to make that decision.  They wanted to stay in their home country, to work, to live, to raise their family.  Breaking up their family and risking their life was not their ideal future.

We, living here in the “Land of Opportunity” easily forgot (most likely have never known) what it means to be oppressed, to be starved, to be hopeless with no government agencies or parish support available.  Sure, we have tough times – especially in the past 2 years, but we have our families, our government, our parish and community support.  We have places to turn to.  We will be treated with dignity.  Others in the world deserve that same dignity!  That is what Christ told us, what the Bishops tell us and what our own heart tells us.

Take the step to move past the emotional and media response.  Take a look inside your faith, you can get plenty of information at the USCCB established website JusticeforImmigrants.org .

If your spirit speaks to you, please join in the postcard campaign to our elected officials.  You can sign the postcards after mass on March 7^th in Vincention Hall, obtain one from the church office, or print one off from the website here.

Direct Resource Links:

Immigration Q&A

Catholic Bishops Call for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Immigration and Catholic Social Teaching

Immigration and the Ecomony

Estranged from the Church?

Are you

• A cradle Catholic who has drift away from church practice as part of “growing up?”
• A divorced Catholic who “feels excluded from the table of Christ?”
• A disenchanted Catholic raised in the church, but who felt left out when some change occurred or felt ignored when you had issues to raise?
• A person who joined another church seeking to grow spiritually or renew your faith?
• An alienated Catholic who was offended in some way, whether intended or not, by a representative of the church?

Whatever the reason, you have been away too long; but no matter how long, it is never too late to return to the transforming power of God. We invite you to consider renewing your relationship with the Catholic Church. Call St Edward Parish at 330.743.2308 and ask for Sister Therese Ann Rich.