Boo! A Halloween Candy Lesson

A Day With Mary

Go here for information on this special day of activities coming up on Saturday, November 17, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at St. Mary's Church in Corning.

The agenda includes:

• Video presentation about Fatima
• Procession of Our Lady into St. Mary's, with devotional crowning, Angelus, sung litany and the Five Joyful Mysteries
• Latin Mass in honor of Our Lady
• Lunch Break (bring your own)
• Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, conferences on Our Lady and the Blessed Sacrament, Enrollment in the Brown Scapular, and conferment of the Miraculous Medal

The link includes the details and a contact number for more info.

Obamacare explained

If you want to understand the nuts and bolts of Obamacare take the time to watch this video. It makes you wonder how in the world some in the Catholic hierarchy supported it, are still supporting it (the Nuns on the Bus). If you have elderly or very young in your family, you will want to watch how Obamacare will affect them. It is in direct opposition to Catholic teaching. (H/t to Fr. Byers at Holy Souls Hermitage)

Chant!

If you have visited Mount Saviour Monastery you may see some familiar faces in this video. In 1964, the monks at Mt. Saviour helped found the monastery at Christ in the Desert, which has gone on to become an abbey. Familiar faces performing on the CD include Fr. Joseph Gabriel, who is currently the Prior Administrator at Mt. Saviour, and Brothers Pierre (Mt. Saviour), Caedmon and Francis (Christ in the Desert). You can listen to samples of their new chant CD here, released by Sony Masterworks no less. You can buy their CD at Mt. Saviour, too.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Way We Were

At an estate sale on Friday a friend pointed out this print of St. Vincent's. The print is from an original watercolor by artist John C. Menihan. Titled "St. Vincent de Paul's, Corning, 1985 Ice Cream Social." Click on the photo to enlarge it a bit.

Classical Education

Segueing from how one goes about forming one's conscience, comes this article about how a Denver Catholic school turned itself around by implementing a Classical curriculum.

In 1947 English author and playwright Dorothy Sayers published an essay titled "The Lost Tools of Learning" (you can read it at the link), which has become a rallying cry for education reformers. One such reformer is Laura Berquist, a Catholic who has been at the leading edge of the homeschool movement for a decade or more. The article mentions her contributions such as the book Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum, and originating Mother of Divine Grace School, an online Catholic school in the Classical tradition. She was also a student at Thomas Aquinas College in California.

The money quote in the article on the Denver school states, "Anderson noted that classical education is meant to help students learn how to think, rather than merely teaching them 'subjects.'"

And one teacher at the school explains it this way, "I have to read and discover knowledge on my own before I can share it with my kids...It's definitely changed my teaching; I can't just look at a book anymore and read the lesson, and be prepared for the next day.”

“I've had to almost flip everything I know about education upside-down to teach classically,” she said.

Her students are now “required to think more,” rather than having “the information they need to know fed to them. ”

Thinking more can't be a bad thing. ;-)

(H/t to Fr. Z)

Right and Wrong

A Unique Conference

“How to Form Our Consciences” 

St. Patrick’s Parish Center

115 Maple Avenue, Victor N.Y.

Thursday, October 25, 7:00 PM

Doors Open 6:45

Free Admission, Desserts, Beverages

and Instrumental Music

An evening of lecture and discussion on the Role of Conscience...in voting and in life, how conscience differs from opinion, how to form our consciences, and how to resist the challenges against following our consciences. 

The program will open with a lecture by Daniel Kane, UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights and continue with a facilitated discussion for personal application led by Jann Armantrout, Director of the Diocese of Rochester’s Respect for Life Office. 

This Conference will be non-partisan and apolitical. No candidates or political parties will be discussed, and no candidate presentations will be made or any of their materials distributed.  The presentations will be consistent with the Life Ethic of the Christian Faithful, and help equip families to develop conscience from an early age, to hear and respond lifelong to the ‘silent voice within’.

Voting, among other human activities, should reflect the exercise of a well-formed conscience.  Speakers will discuss how conscience is formed, exercised and communicated, and why Truth matters.  Questions for discussion include:  What sources are valid and useful in forming conscience?  Is voting really a moral act?  Can voting ever be a sin?  How do we ‘know’ the Truth?  Can conscience be at odds with Church teaching or with the consciences of others?  How can we communicate our discernment of conscience with love, charity, respect, humility and hope, to our families, neighbors, business colleagues and to the community?   Must we always follow our consciences? 

All are welcome to join this important discussion, whether they are Catholic, of other faiths, or of no faith, since the basic natural law principles apply to everyone.

To reserve your free admission - and for further information, please contact:

Stephanie Ramos @ St. Patrick’s  -  585-924-7111

BIO’S

 Dan Kane

Born and raised in Geneva, New York, Dan returned to the area after an almost 30 year absence to care for his family. A devout Catholic, scientist, entrepreneur and home schooling father of three; Dan spends most days as an imaging physicist and his free time promoting a culture of life.

In 2008 Mr. Kane was named an Institute Fellow of the Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person. In 2010 he became a Director of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights at the European University of Rome and the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum. Both entities serve the greater good by promoting the dignity of the human person.

Work in both institutions involved different aspects of human dignity - the moral status of the human embryo, protection of conscience, questions involving same gender marriages, organ donation with heart-beating donors, human embryo adoption, promoting bioethics through art and emergency contraception in Catholic Healthcare Institutions.

On October 25th,  Mr. Kane will be sharing his thoughts on forming a moral conscience.

 Jann Armantrout

Jann has worked at the Diocese of Rochester for the past twelve years.  She was recruited by the Diocese for the position of Diocesan Life Issues Coordinator in 2000 as a result of her experience, both paid and non-paid, in Rochester, working on the issues of the consistent life ethic.  The CLE includes the protection of life from conception through natural death, and resistance to capital punishment, economic injustice and violence as a solution to domestic and international problems. The first half of her career included a decade of service to the developmentally disabled population of New York State and a decade of being a stay at home mom.

Jann’s undergraduate degree is in Political Science and she did masters work in Public Administration.  In 2005 she was certified through the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Health Care Ethics, studying with Fr. Tad Pacholczyk.  There are many different dimensions to the job of Diocesan Life Issues Coordinator including education, advocacy, administration and faith formation.  Of the many tasks she does, one that she enjoys most is being out in the parishes, helping parishioners to know and understand Catholic Social and Moral teaching on life issues.

She is currently a member of the NYS Empire State Stem Cell Board, having been nominated by Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb.  She was invited to serve on the Democrat and Chronicle’s Board of Contributors in 2012. Her greatest satisfaction however comes from her two sons aged 22 and 21 continued practice of  Catholicism.  Jann resides in Webster where she and her late husband Kenneth Arnold, raised their family.

On October 25th, Jann will be discussing Conscience regarding personal applications in today’s culture.

The Year of Faith

Today begins the Year of Faith that Pope Benedict XVI has proclaimed. It is fitting then to ponder that the 50th anniversary of Vatican II is also today. George Weigel weighs in on Vatican II. From the article:

What Vatican II did do was write 16 documents of divergent doctrinal weight, the interpretation of which set off an ungodly row that lasted for the better part of four decades. That row frequently centered on “Who’s in charge?” issues, which, intersecting with a much-advertised (although rarely defined) “spirit of Vatican II,” produced forms of do-it-yourself Catholicism that would have stunned John XXIII. For while it is true that “Good Pope John” wanted his council to offer the world what he called, in his opening address, the “medicine of mercy, rather than that of severity,” it is also true that, in formally convening the council 50 years ago, on October 11, 1962, Blessed John XXIII also said that “the greatest concern of the Ecumenical Council is this: that the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine should be guarded and taught more efficaciously.” And while the pope’s allocution 50 years ago noted that “the substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which it is presented is another,” it is also true that the pope lifted up “the Church’s solicitude to promote and defend the truth,” a notion that seems quaint to many (and dangerous to others) in a post-modern cultural environment in which there may be your truth and my truth, but nothing properly describable as the truth.

Thus the truths that Vatican II taught remained bitterly contested in the 15 years immediately following the Council. Then, in yet another unexpected twist in the story-line, two men of genius, both men of the Council, arose to provide the Church with authoritative keys for properly interpreting the documents of Vatican II. That, history will likely show, was the great task taken on by the unexpected Polish pope, John Paul II (who as a hitherto-obscure young bishop helped develop several council documents), and the even more unexpected Bavarian pope, Benedict XVI (who as a theologian in his mid-30s played a major role in articulating several of the council’s most important teachings on the nature of the Church as centered on the Gospel).

Although neither Hans Küng nor Marc Andrus (nor the Nuns on the Bus) seems to have gotten the message, both these scholar-popes have taught, correctly, that what was innovative in the teaching of Vatican II must be understood in continuity with, and as a development of, the tradition of the Church. The Catholic Church did not begin on October 11, 1962.

It is well worth it to read the whole article.

A few resources for the Year of Faith can be found here and here. And did you know the Pope has entrusted the Year of Faith to Our Lady?  And here is an opportunity for a Plenary Indulgence during this Year of Faith.

God is good and the one true Faith moves ahead despite all enemies within and without.

It's not about us

Truer words...

“The liturgy is not a kind of ‘self-manifestation’ of a community." -- Pope Benedict XVI

Here's the full article: Pope Benedict: ‘The Liturgy Is Celebrated for God and Not for Ourselves’

H/t to Cleansing Fire, which has a nice discussion beginning about the Liturgy.