FireUpChips10

FireUpChips10's Journal

April 28, 2017

Fr. John Jay Hughes: I've been a priest for 63 years. Celebrating Mass has never gotten old.

The girl caught in the act of adultery and dragged before Jesus may well have been a teenager. She knew the prescribed punishment (imposed only on women): death by stoning. How terrified she must have been. And when, at the end of this terrible story, all her accusers have slipped away and she hears Jesus say, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore,” how grateful she must have been (Jn 8:11).

I have personal reasons for gratitude no less than hers. Sixty-three years ago I knelt before a bishop to be ordained a priest in the Catholic Church. It was the fulfillment of the dream I had had, without a single interruption, from age 12. And not only a dream: I had it in writing. When my high school English teacher told the class to write an essay about “What you expect to be doing in 25 years,” I wrote about being a priest. I told my classmates about my answer, so from age 12 I have been called “Father”—with varying degrees of seriousness. I entered seminary eight years later not to “discern a vocation” (something I would not hear about for another quarter century) but because I was told that was what I must do to get ordained.

Has every one of the 63 years since then been happy? Of course not. That does not happen in any life. All of us must travel at some time or another through the psalmist’s dark valley. For seven years, from 1974 to 1981, I was without assignment and unemployed. Living in St. Louis, Mo., but subject to a bishop in Germany, I was like an Army officer detached from his regiment. The clerical system did not know what to do with me. Those years were hard and terribly lonely. I survived only by prayer.

If you were to ask me, however, whether I have ever regretted my decision for the priesthood, I would reply at once, “Never, not one single day.” I will say it another way. If I had my life to live over again, knowing in advance all the hard and difficult years which lay ahead, would I still choose the priesthood? In a heartbeat! I would change just one thing: I would try to be more faithful.

http://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/04/27/ive-been-priest-63-years-celebrating-mass-has-never-gotten-old

April 17, 2017

A miracle in Israel? Christian, Muslim and Jewish mothers march together

recent small miracle was almost completely ignored by media: thousands of Jewish, Muslim and Christian women walked through Israel, together, demanding peace.

Recently, alongside Israeli singer Yael Deckelbaum, they released the song “Prayer of the Mothers,” in which these women of the three Abrahamic religions claim peace is not only possible but, first and foremost, a duty.

They have been brought together by the “Women Wage Peace” movement, which emerged in the previous burst of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

In this context, in October 2016, Jewish and Arab women launched the “March of Hope” project, which among its many demonstrations brought together 4,000 women (half of them Israeli, half Palestinian) in Qasr el Yahud, in the north of the Dead Sea region.

http://aleteia.org/2017/04/13/a-miracle-in-israel-christian-muslim-and-jewish-mothers-march-together/

April 14, 2017

At Way of the Cross, archbishop challenges "judgmental" church on single mothers, gay people

“How is it that the church and its institutions could at various times in history, and not only in a distant past , have been so judgmental and treated broken people who were entrusted to its care with such harshness?

“How could we have tried to use the teaching and the merciful way of dealing with sinners to justify or accept harsh exclusion? Think of so many groupings who were misjudged: single mothers who wanted to keep a baby they loved, gay and lesbian people, orphans,” he said.

Dr Martin said Jesus was “demanding in what he expected of his followers” but “he was never a narrow moralist quick to get others to think he was better than them”.

“We can be so judgmental and hurtful towards those whom we decide have failed and those who drift outside our self-made ideas of respectability.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/archbishop-challenges-judgmental-church-on-single-mothers-and-gay-people-1.3049199

April 7, 2017

Top Vatican and US church officials back new gay-friendly book (xpost fm Catholicism/Orthodox grp)

The Vatican’s point man on family issues and a U.S. cardinal who is close to Pope Francis have both blurbed a new book by a Jesuit priest and popular author that calls on the Catholic Church to be more respectful and compassionate toward gay people.

They called it “brave, prophetic, and inspiring” and a “much-needed book.”

Such positive language from such senior church leaders is extraordinary and another sign of how Francis is reorienting the church toward a more pastoral focus.

...

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who was recently chosen by Francis to head the Vatican office on laity, family, and life issues, praises Martin’s writing in his blurb: “A welcome and much-needed book that will help bishops, priests, pastoral associates, and all church leaders more compassionately minister to the LGBT community.

http://religionnews.com/2017/04/07/top-vatican-and-us-church-officials-back-new-gay-friendly-book/

April 7, 2017

Top Vatican and US church officials back new gay-friendly book

The Vatican’s point man on family issues and a U.S. cardinal who is close to Pope Francis have both blurbed a new book by a Jesuit priest and popular author that calls on the Catholic Church to be more respectful and compassionate toward gay people.

They called it “brave, prophetic, and inspiring” and a “much-needed book.”

Such positive language from such senior church leaders is extraordinary and another sign of how Francis is reorienting the church toward a more pastoral focus.

...

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who was recently chosen by Francis to head the Vatican office on laity, family, and life issues, praises Martin’s writing in his blurb: “A welcome and much-needed book that will help bishops, priests, pastoral associates, and all church leaders more compassionately minister to the LGBT community.

http://religionnews.com/2017/04/07/top-vatican-and-us-church-officials-back-new-gay-friendly-book/

April 4, 2017

Poop thrown by chimp at zoo lands on grandma's nose

One West Michigan grandma got an unwanted gift from a feisty chimpanzee over the weekend.

In a video posted to Youtube on Sunday, April 2 by Jacob Mitchell, an energetic chimpanzee at John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids is seen throwing poop at onlookers.

The 17-second video shows the animal humorously jumping around before flinging feces underhand at the large crowd.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2017/04/poop-flinging_chimp_at_john_ba.html

April 3, 2017

From the Gospels to Elizabeth Warren, women nevertheless persist

Stories of persistent women abound in the Gospels. There is the woman in the Gospel of Mark who suffers from excessive bleeding or a hemorrhage. She has endured much at the hands of many doctors, but she has not been cured. Society shuns her as unclean due to the constant presence of menstrual blood. She persists in getting close enough to Jesus to touch the hem of his cloak, believing in Jesus’ power to heal her. Her persistence and faith are rewarded.

There is the Canaanite woman in the Gospel of Matthew, a foreigner, who persists in believing that Jesus can help her daughter. Jesus answers that he was sent only to the Jews. “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs,” he tells her. The disciples want Jesus to get rid of this pesky woman. But she persists: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Because of her faith, Jesus heals her daughter. Her persistence validates Jesus’ redemptive role for those who are not Jews.

There is the nameless woman in the Gospel of Luke, weeping and wordless, who washes Jesus’ feet with her tears and dries them with her hair. She kisses his feet and anoints them with oil. She persists in caring for him, even when Jesus’ dining companions condemn her as a sinner. Jesus forgives her sins, saying, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

There are the women in the Gospel of John who persist in following Jesus all the way to the foot of the cross when most of his other followers have abandoned him. Among them is Mary, the mother of Jesus, who loves her son with the persistent love we women hold for our children and reflects the parental love that God has for us.

http://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/03/29/gospels-elizabeth-warren-women-nevertheless-persist

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Gender: Male
Hometown: Kentwood, MI
Home country: USA
Member since: 2001
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