Announcing:
Saint Mary's Press winner for the week of February 28, 2011!
Congratulations to Linda D'Souza!

Linda will receive a copy of Catholic Connections Handbook for Middle Schoolers, a $18.95 value.

The Catholic Connections Handbook for Middle Schoolers
by Janet Claussen, Pat Finan, Diana Macalintal, Jerry Shepherd, Susan Stark, Chris Wardwell

Whether middle schoolers encounter this book as part of the Catholic Connections program in faith formation or pick it up out of curiosity, The Catholic Connections Handbook for Middle Schoolers offers great guidance and aims to help young teens learn about all the central aspects of the Catholic faith, including God, revelation, faith, Jesus the Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Church, liturgy and sacraments, Christian morality and justice, and prayer.

Catholic Connections Handbook for Middle Schoolers
ISBN: 978-0-88489-994-5, paper, 552 pages

Lenten Reflection and Resources

Continuing with the theme from last week’s Servant Leader of preparing for the season of Lent, this week I would like to direct you to an extremely valuable resource. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has created a wonderful resource for the 2011 Lenten season, replete with an assortment of content, to assist you and the youth with which you work with the Lenten journey.

My favorite feature on the USCCB Lenten Season Web site is the 2011 Lent Calendar, which appears on the right-hand side of the home page. This calendar provides daily suggestions for prayer, action, and reflection. For example, here is the suggestion for March 10:

Today's reading from Deuteronomy reminds us to "choose life." Learn more about the United States Catholic bishops’ framework for healthcare reform, which includes a commitment to the unborn and to healthcare for all, especially those who are most vulnerable, including the poor and migrants.

Within this suggestion, the USCCB has also included a link to their healthcare reform resources.

The main content on the USCCB Lenten Season Web site is divided into four categories:

- What We Believe: Resources about the teachings of the Catholic Church.

- What We Celebrate: Resources about the Sacraments, especially the Sacrament of Baptism and the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation. Additionally, there is information about Holy Week and the Paschal Triduum.

- How We Live: Resources addressing penance, fasting, almsgiving, and community service. There is also information about social justice issues such as poverty and the dignity of the human person.

- How We Pray: Resources exploring the daily readings, the Stations of the Cross, the Via Matris, the Rosary, and family and personal prayer.

The last feature of this Web site that I would like to point out is the Audio/Video tab on the left-hand side of the home page. The most compelling resources made available on this page are the three "Lenten Audio Retreats." The three 30-minute retreats that are currently up are from the 2010 Lenten season, but are still extremely useful as personal prayer and reflection resources.

In planning for the Lenten season for both you and your youth, I encourage you to take advantage of this Web site. Our Catholic faith possesses a wealth of resources to assist us in our journey to the Easter celebration, and the USCCB has done an admirable job compiling many of those resources into a single source. I pray that the Lenten journey is insightful for both you and your youth, and as always, I pray that God will continue to bless you and your ministry.

Peace,
Steven McGlaun

Click Here for More Information

Lenten Justice Crosses
From Justice and Service Ideas for Ministry with Young Teens

Overview

Through this hands-on project, the young people help spread the Lenten message of conversion to justice. They also become familiar with the message of the prophet Micah and the traditional spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

Suggested Time
30 to 40 minutes

Group Size
This strategy can be done with any size group.

Materials Needed
- newsprint and markers
- craft sticks, two for each person
- light-colored acrylic paints, and paintbrushes (optional)
- thin-line markers, one for each person
- wood glue or household white glue
- thin cord, string, or yarn
- scissors

Preparation.

It may be helpful to make one cross, as described in steps 3 and 4, to show the participants.

Procedure
1. Introduce the activity by reading the following scriptural quote:

"God has told us what is good, and what is required of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God" (adapted from Mic. 6:8).

2. On newsprint write the three commands that you just read from the prophet Micah: "Act. Love. Walk justly." Invite the young people to reflect on the three attitudes that put us right with God. Note that during Lent we are called to act, love, and walk in ways that do justice to God.

On the same newsprint, write the following three commands: "Fast. Pray. Give away." Comment that especially during Lent, Christians are called to do justice to others through the traditional practices of fasting, praying, and almsgiving. Some of the young adolescents may be unfamiliar with the traditional disciplines of fasting and almsgiving. It may be helpful to describe those practices as spiritual exercises that we do for the soul, along with prayer. Add that those kinds of practices help us to become disciples.

Explain to the young people that they will be making simple crosses that communicate this Lenten message of justice. If you have prepared a sample cross, show it to the group.

3. Give each person two craft sticks, such as those that come in Popsicles. If you choose, direct the young people to paint their craft sticks. Allow the sticks to dry before proceeding with the project. Then make available thin-line markers; glue; thin cord, string, or yarn; and scissors. Lead the participants through the following process:

- Carefully place one stick on top of the other to make a cross. Holding the cross in the center, mark where the sticks will later be overlapped and glued. Before you glue the sticks together, you will write some words on them. Be careful not to write any part of those words in the overlap area you have marked.

- Write the word, "Act," on the left side of the horizontal crossbeam. Write the word, "Walk," on the right side.

- On the top part of the vertical beam, write the word, "Love." On the bottom part, write the word, "justly."

- Turn both sticks over.

- On the left side of the horizontal beam, write the word, "Fast." Write the word, "Pray," on the right side.

- On the top part of the vertical beam, write the word, "Give." On the bottom part, write the word, "away."

4. Direct the young people to glue their sticks together. When the sticks are dry, tell the participants to carefully wrap and tie a piece of thin cord, string, or yarn around the area of overlap. Then direct them to add a light coat of glue over the cord, string, or yarn.

5. Conclude the activity by inviting group members to choose one of the words on the cross and tell the group how they will make a commitment in that area to do justice to God and others during Lent.

Alternative Approaches
- Provide adequate materials so that the young people can each create a number of the Lenten crosses, and then arrange for them to distribute the extra crosses at a parish or school liturgy on Ash Wednesday.

- The six commands of the justice cross can be used as themes for the six weeks of Lent. Create the cross throughout the Lenten season. Each week have the young teens add a different command to the cross and challenge them to find one way of doing justice in their world by living that command.

- Schedule this activity for the first week in Lent. Then hang the young people’s crosses on a small tree or branch displayed in the meeting room. At each gathering during Lent, ask the participants to write on a strip of paper an example of how they have practiced one of the justice disciplines. Invite them to glue their strip on their cross next to the corresponding command.

- Help the young teens make one large justice cross and hang it in the parish gathering space. Provide blank strips of paper and tacks. Each week during Lent, invite the people in the parish to write on the paper strips ways they have lived out one of the commands and to attach the strips to the cross.

- Encourage the young people to take the message home by making a Lenten justice cross for each member of their family.

Scriptural Connections
- Isa. 57:15 (God is a high and holy God who lives with people who are humble and repentant.)

- Matt. 6:5–7,16–18 (Jesus teaches about prayer and fasting.)

- Luke 9:23 (Take up your cross every day and follow Jesus.)

- 1 Cor. 13:3 (If you give away everything but have no love, it does you no good.)

Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
March 6, 2011
Matthew 7:21-27

Opening Prayer
Jesus, you invite us to have fleshy hearts that are open to hearing your Word and putting it into action. Continue to grace us with the strength to always live according to the spirit of your law. Amen.

Context Connection
This Sunday's Gospel concludes a section in the Gospel of Matthew that pulls together the teachings of Jesus that are instructions on how to live a Christian life. It begins in chapter five with the Beatitudes, moves on in chapter six to how to pray by using the Lord's Prayer, and concludes in chapter seven with Jesus's pointing out that his followers have to choose the narrower, more challenging way. Matthew is expanding on the wisdom of the Book of Deuteronomy, which says, "Assemble the people--so that they may hear and learn the fear of the Lord your God and to observe diligently all the words of his law" (31:12). It is Matthew's hope that believers will come to understand that obeying Jesus's teachings involves listening intently and then earnestly putting that teaching into practice so one observes not only the letter of the law but also the spirit of the law. "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven" (7:21). It is not enough to acknowledge Jesus as Lord. It is doing God's will, not just honoring God with words or reciting titles, that brings entry into the Kingdom. "But only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven" (7:21) will enter the Kingdom of heaven.

The focus is on the relationship between the teaching and putting the teaching into action. The firm foundation that is spoken about in verse 24 includes both words and deeds. Jesus's followers are challenged to listen and hear his words and understand their meaning and then do what these teachings say. To do this is to build one's house on rock, on a strong foundation: "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock" (7:24). The reward of putting Jesus's teachings into action is being welcomed into the Kingdom. Those who do not put his teachings into action will be sent away; in fact, Jesus will not even recognize them: "Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; go away from me'" (7:23).

James in his letter speaks of this idea of putting Jesus's words into action when he says be doers of the word not just hearers. In the lectio divina process you use each week to reflect on the Gospel. The final step asks you how will you put these words of Christ into action in your own life. A way of doing this is to ask yourself these questions in utter honesty: How is God challenging me? Is God calling me to do a certain good thing? Does God want me to stop doing a harmful thing? What is the next step I need to take? It is important to decide on a course of action (large or small), make the commitment, and follow through with your plan.

Tradition Connection
The Law of the Old Testament, which was imperfect, was the precursor of the Law of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Old Testament Law was a necessary preparation for the reception of the teachings of Jesus. The Christian understanding of Law and God's Commandments builds on the Jewish understanding of Law, improving and perfecting it.

The Old Law is the first stage of revealed Law. Its moral prescriptions are summed up in the Ten Commandments. The precepts of the Decalogue lay the foundations for the vocation of man fashioned in the image of God; they prohibit what is contrary to the love of God and neighbor and prescribe what is essential to it. The Decalogue is a light offered to the conscience of every man to make God's call and ways known to him and to protect him against evil:

God wrote on the tables of the Law what men did not read in their heart.1 (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1962)
The work of Jesus Christ perfected the Law of the Old Testament, making it a covenant of love. Jesus instructed his followers to take the Law of the New Covenant to heart and internalize its commands so that it would become integrated and thus part of the action of Christians. Jesus desired that his followers would have hearts of flesh, not stone, in which his new Commandments could be transformed from words into loving acts of charity for all humankind.

Christians find new hope in the Law perfected in the New Testament, for it fulfills all the divine promises that have been revealed throughout history. The Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount are one of the best examples of this perfecting of the old Law.

The New Law or the Law of the Gospel is the perfection here on earth of the divine law, natural and revealed. It is the work of Christ and is expressed particularly in the Sermon on the Mount. It is also the work of the Holy Spirit and through him it becomes the interior law of charity: "I will establish a New Covenant with the house of Israel. . . . I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."2 (Catechism, paragraph 1965)

Wisdom Connection
Matthew is preparing his community for the challenges that will face the Christian community from within and from without. This includes helping new Christians understand that more is expected of them than the mere observance of the letter of the Law. Rather, Jesus demands that they also observe the spirit of the Law and put it into action. Second, there is a time coming when forces from outside the Christian community will challenge their faith to it foundations. Matthew is anticipating the Roman persecution. The advice to survive the coming persecution is to have a faith life founded on the rock of Jesus the Christ. No matter what happens, Matthew guarantees his community if their faith is firmly founded in the teachings and actions of Jesus, God will continue to sustain them.

What is our faith today built on--the solid foundation of the teachings and actions of Jesus? Or is it built on the sandy soil of the most recent spiritual fad that is featured this month at the local bookstore? What will be our strong foundation in times of struggle in our own lives?

Acknowledgments
The scriptural quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Catholic Edition. Copyright © 1993 and 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

The quotations labeled Catechism are from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America. Copyright © 1994 by the United States Catholic Conference, Inc.--Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.

The Lord's Prayer is taken from Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers. Copyright © 1988 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc., Washington, DC. All rights reserved.

Endnotes Cited in Quotations from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
1. St. Augustine, En. In Ps. 57, 1: J.P. Migne, ed., Petrologic Latina (Paris: 1841-1845), 36, 673.
2. Hebrews 8:8,10; cf. Jeremiah 31:31-34.

Saint Katharine Drexel

March 3 is the memorial for Saint Katharine Drexel.

Born into a wealthy family in 1858, Saint Katharine learned early in life the responsibility of using her resources to help others. In an audience with Pope Leo XIII in 1887, she asked the Pope to send missionaries to Wyoming. His response was to challenge her to become a missionary, which she did. She entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Mercy,and later founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored, now known as the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.By 1942 her efforts had led to the establishment of black Catholic schools in 13 states, 50 Indian missions, and Xavier University in New Orleans.

For more information about Saint Katharine Drexel, go to http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-katharine-drexel/.