Announcing:
Saint Mary's Press winner for the week of September 26, 2011!

Congratulations to Thomas Hanlon!

Thomas will receive a copy of The Catholic Youth Prayer Book, a a $18.95 value.

Help youth understand the meaning of Christian prayer. Introduce them to traditional and devotional prayers of the Church, as well as to contemporary styles and methods. Assist youth in developing the habit of daily prayer. This all-in-one resource for prayer forms was specially written for teens, in the PRAY IT! STUDY IT! LIVE IT!® model, like The Catholic Youth Bible® and The Catholic Faith Handbook for Youth. It is the most expansive prayer book for teens. But The Catholic Youth Prayer Book does more than teach about prayer. It helps teens become prayerful people.

The Catholic Youth Prayer Book
ISBN: 978-0-88489-559-6, paper, 232 pages

Respect Life Month

The first Sunday in October is Respect Life Sunday, and it marks the beginning of October as Respect Life Month. Even though we are called to work throughout the year to promote the protection and dignity of all life, Respect Life Month affords us the opportunity to focus more intently our efforts to educate young people on issues of life and invite them to action. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has developed numerous resources in support of Respect Life Month. These resources include a liturgy guide as well as pamphlets and bulletin inserts addressing abortion, the death penalty, persons with disabilities, reproductive technologies, embryo research, love and marriage, the end of our days, and contraception. In a resource developed last year for Respect Life Month titled The Measure of Love Is to Love without Measure, the United States Bishops provide the following concise explanation as to why we are called to action to protect life: Every human being, at every stage and condition, is willed and loved by God. For this reason, every human life is sacred. To deprive someone of life is a grave wrong and a grave dishonor to God. Because we are created in the image of God, who is Love, our identity and our vocation is to love.

When we acknowledge that “our identity and our vocation is to love,” we cannot do anything less than act to protect all human life. In our ministry with young people, we have a responsibility to share the truth that God loves and cherishes all of his children, no matter what age or life circumstance, and that we are indeed our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. We can share this truth with young people through education, prayer, and action.

Education
We are called to cherish and respect life from conception to natural death, and this is the message we must convey to young people. Respecting the dignity of life is not a matter of addressing a single issue. In the world today, we are faced with a wide range of assaults on the sacredness of life. From abortion to euthanasia, from capital punishment to domestic violence, the dignity and sacredness of life is threatened. In educating young people on the issues, we can start with the statement “Because we are created in the image of God, who is Love, our identity and our vocation is to love.” How do we show our love for unborn children, for those who are elderly or disabled, for the criminal, and for victims of war? In educating young people on these and other life issues, we need to be clear on what the issues are and what we believe as Catholics is the loving response. We can stress that although there are no easy answers to life issues, there are clear and certain answers that reflect and respect the sacredness of life. On the USCCB resource page linked above, you will find numerous resources to assist you in educating the youth you are in ministry with on life issues. You can also utilize online resources from the USCCB Pro-Life Activities page. Additionally, Saint Mary’s Press has reflections available on assisted suicide, the death penalty, the Christian response to violence, and the ethics of cloning.

Prayer
Perhaps the greatest resource we have in promoting a respect for life from conception to natural death is prayer. In the prayer we invite young people into, and in our personal prayer, we can continually pray that all develop a respect for life. Interestingly, October is recognized by the Church as the month of the Rosary. Invite your young people to gather throughout October to pray the Rosary, offering intentions for those who are threatened by a disregard for the dignity and sanctity of life. Additionally, you can arrange for a Respect Life prayer service planned by your youth. The USCCB has a 2010–2011 Respect Life Liturgy Guide as one of the resources available in the 2010–2011 Respect Life Program; it has intercessions for life and a litany for life that can be used as part of the service.

Action
Inviting young people to action in relation to promoting a consistent ethic of life can be challenging. We have to be careful to provide action opportunities that are relevant and age appropriate. One possibility is to have youth collect baby items to donate to local services that counsel and support women to carry to full term their unplanned or unwanted pregnancy and that offer support after the birth. You can also have young people collect Bibles to donate to local prison ministries. Additionally, young people can write letters to lawmakers encouraging their support for legislation that promotes the dignity of life. With any action you offer to your youth, it is important to also offer education about the relevant life issue and how their action is making a difference.

Sacredness of Life
One of the greatest things we can do in our ministries with young people is to help them develop an understanding of the dignity and sacredness of all life. This is not something that can be accomplished in a one-time talk, retreat, or service project. It is something that should permeate our ministries throughout the year. Respect Life Month is an ideal opportunity to renew our commitment to working with young people to promote the protection of life from conception to natural death. As always, I pray that God will continue to bless you and your ministry.

Peace,
Steven McGlaun

Click Here for More Information

Choose Life: Deuteronomy, chapter 30
From Leader Guide for The Catholic Youth Bible®

This activity suggests that Moses’ challenge to choose life has meaning to the teenager who at times also faces life-and-death choices.

1. Ask one student to read Deut 30:15–20 to the class. Point out the following items, in your own words:
- Moses offers the people a choice between life, prosperity, and blessing, and death, adversity, and curse. He basically puts forth two kinds of future: happy and unhappy.
- Moses’ offer deals with more than physical life and death. He challenges people to make choices that lead to a full life with God and others, rather than decisions that stifle the human spirit and lead to isolation from God and others.
- Most people want happiness, yet many make deadly choices to obtain happiness. Those choices may threaten the physical, emotional, or spiritual health of oneself, others, or the natural world.

2. Form several small groups and pass out several popular magazines or newspapers to the groups. Ask the groups to look for mention of five “death” (ultimately self-destructive) choices and to write a brief description of each. Direct them to discuss what kind of happiness the people involved in those decisions were actually seeking, and to propose an alternative, life-giving choice that really would have led to the desired happiness. Note that lifegiving choices often require more effort or self-discipline than do other choices.

3. Invite the groups to share their insights with the class. Identify any common characteristics of the different choices. Because life-giving choices are at times demanding, note that God’s guidance and support was a key element of Moses’ offer in the Bible passage read earlier.

Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 2, 2011
Matthew 21:33-43

Opening Prayer
Jesus, as laborers in your Kingdom, may our lives always be examples of Christian virtue. Through your grace, strengthen within us the virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. Amen.

Context Connection
In this Sunday's Gospel Jesus shares another parable with the chief priests and elders who earlier called his authority into question. The parable concerns a landowner who "planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower" (21:33). After completing this rather involved project, the landowner then leased the vineyard and departed for another country. At that time and place it was not uncommon for tenants to rent land for the purpose of working it. At harvesttime then the absent landowner expected to be paid the agreed-upon amount, usually a set percentage of produce from the year. We learn from the story that the landowner sends his servants to collect the rent, which causes the tenants to respond very violently, "The tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another" (21:35). The landowner then sent his own son, believing that the tenants would leave him untouched and pay their rent. The tenants, however, acted in the same violent way toward the landowner's son. "But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, 'This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.' So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him" (21:38-39). According to some scholars, the tenants concluded that the landowner had died, which in their minds explained why his son had come to collect the rent. By killing the landowner's son, they believed that ownership would revert to them.

In verse 40 Jesus, upon finishing the parable, poses this question to the chief priests and elders, "Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" (21:40). They respond, "He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time" (21:41). The chief priests and elders both indicted and sentenced themselves with this statement. Jesus goes on to quote from the Book of Psalms, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone" (118:22). Jesus used these words to tell them that God had chosen him, not them, to be the cornerstone of the new order in the Kingdom of God. "Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom" (21:43). Jesus turns the tables by challenging the chief priests and elders to reveal the source of their authority to speak and act. Verse 45 indicates that Jesus's words were not lost on them. "When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them" (21:45).

It is important to understand what each part of the parable, which can be considered an allegory, represents. The landowner is God, the vineyard is Israel, the tenants are the religious leaders of Jesus's day, the servants sent by the landowner to collect the rent are the many prophets of the Old Testament, and the landowner's son is Jesus. In the Old Testament, Israel is often represented as a vineyard. This Sunday the first reading, which comes from Isaiah, uses this very image. In the Gospel Jesus introduces an important change. In Isaiah the vineyard was destroyed because it did not produce quality fruit. In Jesus's parable the vineyard was not destroyed; rather, those in charge of it, the religious leaders of Israel, were replaced so the vineyard, Israel, could once again supply good fruit.

Tradition Connection
In concluding his Letter to the Philippians, Paul says to them, exhorting them, "Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you" (Philippians 4:8-9). Paul encourages his followers to be virtuous people by imitating the life of Jesus Christ. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines virtue in this way:
A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good. It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself. The virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions.
The goal of a virtuous life is to become like God.1 (Catechism, paragraph 1803)
What a noble goal to order one's life so that it truly models the example of Jesus, who invites us to be holy like God is holy. Virtues function as the guiding lights in our life, but come about only through hard work. The results of this hard work are beneficial to many people. "The moral virtues are acquired by human effort. They are the fruit and seed of morally good acts; they dispose all the powers of the human being for communion with divine love" (Catechism, paragraph 1804).

In our Catholic Tradition the four key virtues, or cardinal virtues, are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. They are called cardinal virtues because all the other virtues, the gifts and the fruits of the Holy Spirit, depend on or blossom out of these four virtues.
Four virtues play a pivotal role and accordingly are called "cardinal"; all the others are grouped around them. They are: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. "If anyone loves righteousness, [Wisdom's] labors are virtues; for she teaches temperance and prudence, justice, and courage.2 These virtues are praised under other names in many passages of Scripture. (Catechism, paragraph 1805)
Wisdom Connection
By preserving this parable, Matthew reminds us to be fearless in the face of corruption. We are called to imitate Jesus by confronting those who fail to lead people down the paths of goodness and peace. Leaders who cease to serve will witness their power slip away. Jesus knew that the days of the chief priests and elders were numbered. Indeed, all of Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70. It is important to remember that the Jesus of Matthew's Gospel takes issue with the leadership of Israel, the chief priests and elders, not the people of Israel. Interestingly, many of the individuals who made up Matthew's own community were converts from Judaism. Matthew affirms their goodness and invites them to continue to grow in faith through Jesus the Christ. The invitation is ongoing, and it is ours to accept and share with others.

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. Gregory of Nyssa, De beatitudinibus, 1: J.P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca (Paris, 1857-1866) 44, 1200D.
2. Wisdom 8:7.

Blessed Jan Beyzym
October 2 is the memorial for Blessed Jan Beyzym.

Blessed Jan Beyzym was a Jesuit priest and teacher who was called to minister to lepers in Madagascar. He displayed his commitment to the dignity of life through his care for those isolated from society due to leprosy.

For more information about Blessed Jan Beyzym, go to http://saints.sqpn.com/blessed-jan-beyzym/.