Unconditional Love
The simple things in life are the things we can learn in our very own homes, starting at birth. As a baby, there is only one person that can give a child all the nourishment the child needs—mom. Mothers are extremely important in everyone’s life.
From conception to death, a child is unconditionally linked to his or her mother by more than just birth, but also in spirit and love. A child’s first word, first step, and first memory are all made possible by the complete selflessness a mother shows for her child. But where does this pure love come from? Holy Mother Mary holds the answer to that question.
Mary willingly agreed to conceive Jesus as a virgin and raise him, trusting in God and His Divine plan, she shows just how deep a mother’s love for her child runs. This relationship is not one-sided, however. As Jesus respected and loved his mother, we too must show our mothers the love, respect, and appreciation they deserve. This perfect mother-child relationship also shows what love in any relationship should look like, because you cannot love a friend, wife, or even an enemy by being selfish, careless, and disrespectful.
As Mary leads us to her son, Jesus, we too as children must learn to entrust and follow our mother’s guidance throughout our lives. We must be thankful of her hard work and dedication to making our lives better than hers, and honor her special abilities to aid and restore us in our most trying times of need. Send a prayer to Mother Mary when your own mother is going through a time of need, and remember to show her she is appreciated on Mother’s Day. Because a mother works 365 days a year to help, guide, and protect her children, we must not limit our thanks for our mothers to Mothers Day, but remember to thank her everyday.
Joseph Chew
Eagle Scout, Troop 239
Senior at Hempfield Area High School
Member of St. Barbara’s Parish, Harrison City PA
Celebration and Thanksgiving
We gather again to celebrate the Eucharist as a Catholic Scouting community. Our foremost desire is to be one in body with Christ, growing in charity and faith.
This past year, we have seen the Holy Spirit at work in our Scouts and volunteers. His fruits are apparent and moving with us. Congratulations to our Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts who have worked diligently and faithfully toward earning their emblems. We pray that the journey has led you to a deeper friendship with God and that it continues to lead to a genuine holiness in life. Be open to His grace, especially through the reception of the sacraments and prayer. God is seeking you. Beware of the distractions of the secular work, and know that Jesus is the Way, Truth and Life.
Also, we wish to congratulate our adult volunteers who are being recognized at this Mass. A special note of congratulations to two of our diocesan committee members: Mr. Joseph Benamati and Mr. Glenn Johnson and his wife Carole. Mr. Benamati recently received the Silver St. George Award. This award is the highest national recognition for hard work and significant support of the Catholic Youth Ministry at the national level. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have recently been inducted into the Order of St. Gregory the Great. The Order of St. Gregory the Great was founded by Pope Gregory XVI in 1831 to honor the sixth-century pope and saint as well as loyal and well-deserving citizens of the papal states. It is one of the highest honors that a layperson can attain. It recognizes an individual’s outstanding contributions to the Catholic Church and community along with their personal character and reputation. Congratulations, and thank you for your outstanding service.
To our Scout leaders, committee members and all volunteers, a heartfelt thanks. You spend countless hours preparing for lessons, outings, meetings, weekends of camping, classes and retreats. You spend your own funds with little to no help for training, trips, materials, food, housing and gas. Sometimes, all you seem to hear is grief about what went wrong, or why you didn’t do something differently. Not often enough do you hear gratitude for spending (and I do mean spending) your time, talent and treasure to bring our youth closer to God through Scouting and through the programs of the National Catholic Committee on Scouting and its Regional and Diocesan components. So, once again, thanks to each of you. You, the volunteers, make all of these young Scouts’ lives richer by your faith and leadership. We, the Diocesan Catholic Committee on Scouting pledge our continued support with a goal of ever improving and supporting Scouting, especially as it pertains to scouting in the Catholic Church.
On behalf of the Catholic Committee on Scouting,
Chuck Boyer
World Day of Prayer for Vocations
The Fourth Sunday of Easter has traditionally been known as Good Shepherd Sunday because the Gospel is taken from chapter 10 of John’s Gospel. Here Jesus proclaims, “I am the gate for the sheep” (Jn 10:1-10), “I am the good shepherd” (Jn 10:11-18) and “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (Jn 10:27-30).
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In 1964, Pope Paul VI created the first World Day of Prayer for Vocations. In that first message for vocations, Paul VI stated that we see Catholics around the world united in a single prayer for the pastoral workers needed to serve God’s people. Paul VI also noted that the problem with the sufficient number of priests touches all the faithful, not only because they depend on the future religious for a Christian society, but also because this problem is an index of the vitality of faith and love of individual parishes and dioceses, as well as a testimony to the moral health of Christian families. He went on to state that where many vocations to the priestly and religious life bloom there are people generously living the Gospel. This is also a sign of exemplary parents who feel pleased and honored to give their children to the Church as well as earnest and faithful priests, for which the continuity of their priesthood is a very important part of their pastoral care. Above all, there are generous and open young people who are pure and courageous, nourished by the Eucharist, sensitive to the voice of Christ, desire to serve the Church, give themselves to others, imitate the Good Shepherd, and follow in his footsteps. It is amazing because as so much in society has changed over the past 49 years, Pope Paul’s message has remained timeless.
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In his message for this year’s day of prayer for vocations, Pope Benedict XVI adopted the theme, Vocations, the Gift of the Love of God. In his message to the faithful, Benedict XVI quotes Saint Augustine’s work, the Confessions, as he expresses that every human person is the fruit of God’s thought and an act of God’s love. The recognition of our reality as intended by God is what changes lives. In this, Augustine wrote about being caught up in the world and searching for God in worldly things: “You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I gasp for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more.” Pope Benedict hopes that our prayers will help God break through the deafness of holy and faithful young men and women so that they may recognize God’s plan for them. He also asks that we cultivate an environment in our parishes so that they become “places where vocations are carefully discerned and their authenticity tested, places where young men and women are offered wise and strong spiritual direction.”
In addition, Pope Benedict built upon Pope Paul’s connection between the community and the individual’s response to God’s call. Benedict XVI wrote that the Christian community is the manifestation of the Love of God in which every calling is contained. As a response to Christ’s command to love one another, this love is realized in Christian families. Within the family, young people can have a wonderful experience of this self-giving love. Indeed, families can be the primary and most excellent seed-bed of vocations, by helping their members to see the beauty and importance of the priesthood and the consecrated life.
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As we celebrate this year’s World Day of Prayer for Vocations, may we continue to be open to God’s call in our lives and continue through our prayers and works to support those God is calling to the priesthood, diaconate and religious life.
Father Jonathan Wisneski
Co-Director of Clergy Vocations
Diocese of Greensburg
jwisneski@dioceseofgreensburg.org
http://www.dioceseofgreensburg.org/vocations/priesthood
Thomas and I
It is now the second Sunday of Easter. The darkness of Lent has given way to the light of great joy from Christ’s resurrection. On this Second Sunday is celebrated the Divine Mercy. We hear in the gospel the recount of Jesus’ appearance to the disciples after he rose and his instructions to continue the will of God by spreading the good news. Thomas, who was not with the others at the time of Jesus’ appearance, did not believe that he had truly risen saying, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” Jesus then appeared the next week to the disciples, of which Thomas was present. Knowing that Thomas had doubted the validity of his resurrection, Jesus instructed him to place a finger on his hands and put his hand in his side. Immediately Thomas believed proclaiming, “My Lord and my God!”
How true is it that we often do not believe in something until we can actually see it with our own eyes? How true is it that our curiosity for the unknown causes us to lose faith and be skeptical?
Experiences in scouting teach young men and women to create a balance between curiosity and faith. Many times scouts will find themselves in situations that require a “leap of faith.” For example, on a repelling wall, the repeller must literally leap his/her way down the wall while believing that if anything should happen, their belayer will catch their fall. Hiking often requires a map and compass or a GPS. Hikers must rely on the abilities of the orienteerer or technology to keep them pointed in the right direction to arrive at their destination. In either case, the scouts must trust and by doing so their eyes are opened to an incredible experience and truth.
In this joyous season of Easter, the light of Christ and the delight of His resurrection will shine ever so brightly. May he touch the heart and soul of all those who doubt, who find it difficult to trust, and bring them to a peaceful and humble revelation of Your great love for them. Amen.
Shawn Knepper
Eagle Scout
Theology, Saint Vincent College
Alleluia!!! He is Risen!!!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Today Christ is risen from the dead!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
He has broken the control of sin over the world!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
He has been resurrected and walks among us!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
He is our Saving Lord! He is King for all ages!
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Scouts of every age are called to be reverent. If we do not believe the above statements, we as Christian scouts have not understood what the Church has taught for more than two thousand years. We have been given the gift of Salvation. God is good!
In our beliefs, we see Jesus the Christ who came to earth to be the Savior of the entire human race. He came in the form of man to manifest and reveal God to all humans. In His great and free love, we are made His children and He is Our God.
A very happy and joy-filled Easter to all!
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Steve and Sandy Black
Members of the DCCSB
How are we responding to God now?
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Today, we celebrate a most glorious feast day of our Blessed Mother, for this is the day on which she said yes to God’s plan for her life. In saying yes, she did not know the future and what her fiat, her agreement, would mean; only that she was placing her trust completely in God. What this would mean is that her life would be in danger because, as a woman who was betrothed in Israel at the time, Mary had made marriage vows to Joseph but was not yet living with him as he was preparing their new home. Therefore, they could not conceive any child until after he came to retrieve her. Mary’s pregnancy would consequently be seen by others as coming by means of another man, and so Joseph decides to divorce Mary quietly, lest she face public scandal, or even be stoned to death. But before this can happen, God sends His angel to Joseph to assure that Mary has conceived by the Holy Spirit. For both Joseph and Mary, their yes would be tested and tried every day until they were called home to God. Every day they had to renew themselves in their yes and in their trust of God.
The first picture I include is from a window in the parish church of Norcia, Italy, the birth place of Saint Benedict, the founder of my Order, which I visited back in 2007 while a college student. In both pictures we see the result of Mary’s yes. What we can think about as we look at it is the challenges that led up to this moment from the Annunciation and the challenges that came after. When we say yes to God’s plan for our lives, we say yes to the cross, and crosses, that come with that yes. These are not always hardships such as illness, but they also include growing in perfection, which means growing in virtue and giving up everything, even accepting the humiliation of the cross.
As we continue through this Lent, let us examine how we are growing closer to God. Do we pray more? Do we spend time alone with God, or is our day completely absorbed in other activities, even those last moments before we go to bed at night? Are we willing to say yes to the unknown? Are we joyful in the midst of sorrow? However we answer these questions now will determine how we will respond when the time comes and God calls us by name, whether right now or in a particular moment in the future. Let us choose to say yes and to give completely of ourselves to the vocation that God is calling us to, whether that is to the married life, consecrated life, priesthood, or single life. This may not be a perfect yes now, but don’t give up. Keep saying yes and one day, with God’s grace, it will become a perfect fiat to God.
Your Brother in Christ and Saint Benedict,
Br. Isaac Haywiser, O.S.B.
Eagle Scout Class of 2004, Troop 225, Greater Pittsburgh Council
March 12, 2012 an Idea Took Shape
March 12, 2012 marks the beginning of a yearlong celebration, 100 years of Girl Scouting in the U.S.A.
Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts of America, had been searching for meaning in her life and found a purpose when she met Lord Baden Powell in 1910. Through friendship with the Powells, Juliette came to realize that all her “God given gifts” would eventually be used to help others realize their God given gifts as well.
Scouts today begin each meeting, activity or event by reciting the “promise.” The promise begins by saying, “On my honor, I will try to serve God…,” the first and foremost consideration is God followed closely by love of country and concern for others. There is no doubt in my mind that both the Powells and Juliette were instruments of change that moved out of their “comfort zones” and left a powerful legacy in their wake.
I have been a Girl Scout for 38 years; 10 years as a girl and 28 years as an adult volunteer. Besides my relationship to God and my family, the next biggest influence in my life would have to be my experiences as a Girl Scout. So much of who I am and who I continue to be came from these three sources. Scouting offered me an opportunity to grow up with confidence, to develop a sense of adventure and to nurture a love for the outdoors that I may have never acquired if it weren’t for my scout leaders through childhood and adolescence.
As a parent I wanted my children, male and female, to have those same opportunities. I therefore began the second phase of my scouting experience…volunteering as an adult leader. Whether it was Cub Master, Boy Scout Emblems Coordinator, Girl Scout Troop Leader, Diocesan Scout Committee Member, or my present role as one of the Girl Scout Service Team members, I have always desired to “give back” what I so lovingly received from the world of “Scouting” all these years.
Thank God for people who seize the moment and act upon what they believe in. Juliette Gordon Low had many things going against her in 1910, but she was open to change and that’s what led her to create an opportunity for the young women of America to use their God given gifts to help others. As Catholic Christians, we too are called to be open to change, getting out of our comfort zones and actively doing something for others. The funny thing is, once we truly desire to affect a change in ourselves and others, we are blessed with unbelievable joys, friendships and stories that can never be taken from us. The ripple effect is limitless just as God has no limits.
So I thank God this March, 2012, for the opportunity to celebrate other Christians who got excited about an idea and trusted the Holy Spirit and moved out of their comfort zones so that people like myself could follow their lead and bring about the kingdom of God. What idea has God placed in your path lately?
Mary Blythe
Director of Religious Formation – St. Agnes Parish (N. Huntingdon)
Diocesan Committee on Girl Scouting
mblythe@dioceseofgreensburg.org
