Announcing:
Saint Mary's Press winner for the week of February 14, 2011!
Congratulations to Christine Golab!

Christine will receive a copy of The Catholic Faith Handbook for Youth, Second Edition, a $19.95 value.

The Catholic Faith Handbook for Youth, Second Edition is an understandable and down-to-earth guide to all things Catholic. This book is an eye-opener and a page-turner, whether you are brushing up on specific Catholic terms and concepts or learning them for the first time. The Ad Hoc Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has found this catechetical text, copyright 2008, to be in conformity with the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Now Available! Online correlation to the U.S. Bishops' High School curriculum framework Click here!

The Catholic Faith Handbook for Youth, Second Edition
ISBN: 978-0-88489-987-7, paper, 480 pages

God is Love

"All you need is love"
"Love conquers all"
"Love is blind"

I thought it was only fitting that today, Valentine’s Day, we focus on the topic of love. Each one of us can probably rattle off a dozen sayings about love (like the three above). Countless books, poems, songs, and movies have been created that address the topic. Searching for love, falling in love, being in love, mourning lost love, and making major decisions in our life based on love is a significant part of being human. On Valentine’s Day we tend to focus on "romantic love," but today is a day that can remind us of the source of all love, God. Pope Benedict XVI chose to title his first papal encyclical "God Is Love." I encourage you to take the time to read this encyclical. It provides amazing insight into the nature of love, our contemporary understanding of love, and the role love plays in our lives as disciples of Christ. Pope Benedict XVI chose to begin this encyclical with the following quote:

"God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." (1 John 4:16)

With these words we are reminded that the source of all love is God. We know love, we can recognize love, because we have first been loved by God. It is a love without limits that finds its fullest incarnation in Jesus Christ. It is a love that not only enables us to love others, it compels us to share love. On this Valentine’s Day, the greatest message we can hear and share with others is that each one of us is deeply loved by the source of all love, God. Whether or not we received flowers, cards, or candy, we each have received two amazing gifts of love: our life and salvation through the redeeming actions of Christ.

The "Make It Happen" resource this week is a prayer service to help young people recognize the ways they are loved in their lives. In addition, we have included below a reflection for the day that you can utilize for yourself and share with your students and youth. As always, I pray that God will continue to bless you and your ministry.

Peace,
Steven McGlaun

Reflection for February 14: Saint Valentine’s Day

We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

We celebrate loving and being loved on this special day. Of course, most of us find it easier to love someone who loves us first, and that’s what this verse is about. God loves us first and always; we only need to respond to that love. Imagine God sending you a valentine today. What would it say inside?

God who is love, on this day of celebrating love, I want to remind you that I love you. Even when I sometimes walk away or seem disinterested, please know that you have a special place in my heart.

For more: Loving God can appear to be an overwhelming task. Read First John, chapter 4, for some ways to start.

(This reflection is from Good News, Day by Day: Bible Reflections for Teens, by Dee Bernhardt, Larry Schatz, and Laurie Ziliak [Winona, MN: Saint Mary’s Press, 1999], page 51.)

Click Here for More Information

Prayer Service
From Creating a Christian Lifestyle Teaching Manual

This service is intended to focus the students on the experience of love in their own life by taking them through a guided meditation in which they converse with Jesus about the people they love.

1. In advance, ask a student to be the reader for the service.

2. Set the tone of the service by recalling that God is present in our relationships. Spend a few moments in silent reflection.

3. Signal the reader to read 1 John 4:16–20 (page 125 of the student text). Allow a few moments of quiet to follow.

4. Lead the students through the following guided meditation. Remember to play soft background music and dim the lights for a relaxing atmosphere. When the students are relaxed, read these instructions:

Now let’s go on a journey. . . . See and feel yourself walking slowly through a clearing in the forest. . . . Tall grass and wildflowers wave in the soft breeze. . . . The sun caresses your face. . . . You stop to take in the scene. . . . Birds flit among the wildflowers and fly into the pine trees ahead of you. . . . Butterflies float along among the flowers. . . . One of them stops near you. . . . You hardly breathe so that it won’t wing away. . . . You inhale the fragrances carried on the wind. . . . You breathe in and out deeply several times. . . . Slowly you continue to walk toward the forest. . . .

A person sits on a log in the shade. . . With a slight wave of the hand, the person invites you to share the log as a seat. . . . When you are close, he says, "Peace be with you." . . . Your eyes are opened, and you know that he is Jesus. . . . You look deeply into his eyes. . . . Jesus reaches out and takes your hand in his and says, "I love you with an everlasting love." . . .

Softly he continues: "Now, my friend, tell me of the people you love. Share with me stories of those you love and who love you." . . . You see before you the faces of several people whom you love. . . Now you tell Jesus about the loved ones who reside deeply in your heart. . . . He listens carefully. . . . [Allow several minutes of silence for this internal dialog.]

When you have finished talking, Jesus stands to go, saying, "Your sins are forgiven because you have loved much." . . . He embraces you. . . . Then you watch him as he walks slowly into the forest. . . . When he has disappeared, you gaze at the scene around you once more. . . . When you are ready, return from the scene and open your eyes.

5. If you think your group would feel comfortable sharing reflections from the meditation or offering prayers of petition or thanks, give them this opportunity at the end of the meditation. Or use the thank-you letters they wrote in the previous activity as their offering. Close the service with your own prayer, focusing on the theme of love or summarizing the students’ reflections.

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
February 20, 2011
Matthew 5:38-48

Opening Prayer
Jesus, in your Gospel today you invite us to take on a new perspective, to extend our Christian love to include loving our enemies and those who do unkind things against us.

We prayer that your Holy Spirit will embolden us so we can follow your wise words and live them out in our world today. Amen

Context Connection
In this Sunday’s Gospel, Matthew speaks of righteousness as being a proper and honorable relationship with other people and God. The focus is on retaliation and love of one’s enemies. In the Torah, in several places, it is written that retaliation is permitted (see Exodus 21:23–24, Leviticus 24:19–20, and Deuteronomy 19:21). Jewish society places limits on retaliation, in an attempt to civilize the previous practice of individuals or a tribe determining what is appropriate when someone is treated unjustly. "You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’" (5:38). Jesus sees the present practice as insufficient, as it often leads to an escalating cycle of vengeance.

What Jesus presents is a strategy to break the cycles of violence: "But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer" (5:39). This is Jesus’s instruction to his disciples on how to confront evil. "If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also" (5:39). At the time of Jesus, striking another person with your hand is a way to insult them or to humiliate them. It usually is administered with the back of the right hand to the left cheek of the other person. To turn the other cheek is a way of robbing the aggressor of the power of humiliating and shaming the other person. Likewise, the other examples Jesus gives show how nonretaliation can break the cycles of violence in confrontation. Jesus shows his followers what the fulfillment of the Law looks like.

Jesus finally declares that to follow him means to love your enemy. "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (5:43–44). Jesus makes it explicit that his disciples are to treat everyone the same, whether they are in the covenant community or not. Because God equally loves and cares for all people, that is the standard for the love Jesus models. Disciples of Jesus are called to love as God loves. In this case, love is not an emotion or feeling but rather a command that is reflected in deeds that are faithful to the covenant—praying for persecutors, welcoming the outsider. Loving only one’s relatives or fellow country folk does not adequately fulfill the Law. In other words, there must be no limits to our love, to the goodness we do for others, because God’s love has no bounds. "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (5:48). Perfect in this setting connotes not so much moral perfection as completeness or maturity. The process is gradual, allowing the spirit of God to perfect us.

Tradition Connection
According to the Vatican Council II documents, the Church, the People of God, is called to holiness. Holiness is no longer something that is relegated to priests and religious men and women but is understood as being a part of every Christian’s vocation. Because the Church is a community of human beings on a spiritual pil¬grimage, holiness is something to strive for. Perfect holiness may not be obtained here on earth, but it needs to be the goal to which we direct our energies.

A Christian vocation continuously works for integrating into itself perfect charity or love. Through this kind of awareness, disciples of Jesus Christ can more easily understand the Gospel message to love with God’s love. This perfect love, which is Jesus’s commandment to love your neighbor, does not have limits. We are commanded to love every human being because of the dignity they possess as people created by God in God’s image and likeness. That includes even those who are very different from us.

Wisdom Connection
Matthew continues to give examples of how Jesus fulfilled the Torah and that the community was to live this way of fulfillment of the Law. Jesus continues to call his followers to a higher standard of holiness. There is another way, instead of violence, to actively confront injustice in the world. How can an individual create a provocative act that challenges a violent act that opens the opportunity for gestures of reconciliation? Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi are examples of individuals who broke the cycle of violence by creating situations to change the unjust actions of those who oppressed others. Jesus presents the ultimate challenge to his believers: We are called to love with God’s love, thus abandoning our human perspective that would seem to prefer vengeance rather than nonviolence when injustice occurs.

Acknowledgments


Endnotes cited in quotations from the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Blessed Fra Angelico

February 18 is the memorial for Blessed Fra Angelico.

Born in 1387 Fra Angelico was a gifted Dominican artist. His given birth name was Guido di Pietro, and he took the name Fra Giovanna when he joined the Dominican order. After his death, the title Fra Angelico came into use as a way to honor the holiness of both his life and his work. His works can be found on display throughout Italy. In addition, his works can be found in museums around the world, including the National Gallery in London, the Louvre in Paris, the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas.

For more information about Blessed Fra Angelico, go to http://saints.sqpn.com/blessed-fra-angelico/.