Find within these pages a clearinghouse of articles, news, links, events, collaboration tools and other resources shared with fellow priests. New pages every week — look forward to an expanding toolbox of practical resources at your fingertips!
On Conscience and Dignity
Precisely because we have a moral conscience, all of us know that we ought to seek the truth and to shape our choices and our lives in accordance with it. So says moral theologian William E. May in an essay on conscience. The act of seeking the truth and shaping our lives in tune with it is, he affirms, "one kind of dignity proper to man, to human persons: the dignity that they are called to give to themselves as moral agents." May points out all people have in their hearts a "law" written by God -- or rather, the Almighty's "loving plan for human existence."
Spiritual GPS
Participants at World Youth Day in Madrid were recommended to have a "spiritual GPS." At a session of catechesis, Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga of Honduras urged young people to tune their "GPS" to the Word of God, the Bread of Life, and the Virgin Mary. The cardinal also analyzed the effects that an absence of moral foundations has on the contemporary world. "If the point of reference is no longer God, society is disoriented," he said. "And it is striking that a world such as the present one -- which has such advanced technology for orientation as the GPS -- is disoriented."
News Bytes for Your Parish Bulletin
- Study: All Eyes Were on Madrid
- Church in Mexico Decries Latest Violence
- 3 Months Before Papal Visit, Benin Votes to End Death Penalty
- 22 New Seminarians Start Studies in Ireland
- Filipinos Ready to Pray 1 Million Rosaries
Summer Reading
Summer reading can be a good and normal way to relax, says Benedict XVI. And for those looking for something of substance, he suggests a time-tested tome. "Why not discover some of the books of the Bible which are not commonly well known?" he suggested at a general audience. "Indeed, many Christians never read the Bible and have a very limited and superficial knowledge of it." Among his suggestions for those looking for shorter works: the Book of Tobit ("a tale that contains a lofty sense of family and marriage") and the Book of Esther.
Silence as Oasis
Silence is the environmental condition that most favors contemplation, meditation, and listening to God and meditation, says Benedict XVI. In an address on the memorial of St. Clare of Assisi, the Pope recalled the spiritual "oasis" of the small convent of San Damiano. "The silence and beauty of the place where the monastic community lives," he said, "[…] serve as a reflection of the spiritual harmony that the community itself seeks to realize. The world is studded with these spiritual oases, some very ancient." The Holy Father added, "Looking at things from a spiritual perspective, these places of the spirit are a supporting structure for the world."