Manhood Monday: Firstfruits of a New Creation

From Today’s Readings:

Monday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Alleluia JAS 1:18

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Father willed to give us birth by the word of truth
that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

* [1:18] Acceptance of the gospel message, the word of truth, constitutes new birth (Jn 3:5–6) and makes the recipient the firstfruits (i.e., the cultic offering of the earliest grains, symbolizing the beginning of an abundant harvest) of a new creation; cf. 1 Cor 15:20; Rom 8:23.

For just as the Church cannot survive without the sacramental priesthood, so too, the father is an essential element of a healthy family. Fathers have a significant spiritual impact on their (and all men with) children precisely because of their unique role in the order of creation.

God bless your day.

Catholic Men Chicago Southland Apostolate (CMCS)

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Frank’s Photo of the Week

Architecture at the Quigley Center of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago. The far left statue looks like St. Paul; the middle one St. Thomas More and the far right one St. Aloysius Gonzaga.

While dining with sinners, Jesus was dreaming of their becoming saints.

Ike Reighard

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains, “in the Old Testament, God ordained or permitted the making of images that pointed symbolically toward salvation by the incarnate Word: so it was with the bronze serpent, the ark of the covenant, and the cherubim” (CCC 2130).

Thanks for Reading.

Make it a great week. See you back here again next Monday.

Frank J Casella,
CMCS Executive Director

A larger collection of photographs can be viewed on my portfolio.

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Manhood Monday: Being Light Through the Gospel

From Today’s Readings:

Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Alleluia See 2 Tm 1:10

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death
and brought life to light through the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

“Consider the deplorable conditions of life and political turmoil and crime that result in the massive trek of people from their homelands looking for relief and safety and a future for their children. We think of the children in cities across the country when they explode in racially charged violence. We think of Christian communities in Syria and Iraq who are remembered for their founding back in the days of St. Paul, but are today destroyed by unconscionable acts of fanaticism. We think of Bethlehem where the Christ savior was born mandated as a ghetto populated by a people who trace their lineage to Christ’s ancestors but who are pushed to the margins of society. All of this begs for prayer and a Christian voice. ….

Thank you, brothers and sisters, for your faith and hope, your sober words of calm in the midst of conflict and mistaken reference. Thank you for your generosity so eloquently evident with various causes and programs that lift people to see more clearly the light of Christ in their lives.“

From the 2015 CMCS archives by Bishop Joseph Perry

God bless your day.

Catholic Men Chicago Southland Apostolate (CMCS)

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Frank’s Photo of the Week

Photo: ‘In Daddy’s Arms‘ Copyright 2012 Frank J Casella

“Instead of death and sorrow, let us bring peace and joy to the world. To do this we must beg God for His gift of peace and learn to love and accept each other as brothers and sisters, children of God. We know that the best place for children to learn how to love and to pray is in the family, by seeing the love and prayer of their mother and father. When families are broken or disunited, many children grow up not knowing how to love and pray. A country where many families have been destroyed like this will have many problems. I have often seen, especially in the rich countries, how children turn to drugs or other things to escape feeling unloved and rejected. …

But when families are strong and united, children can see God’s special love in the love of their father and mother and can grow to make their country a loving and prayerful place. The child is God’s best gift to the family and needs both mother and father because each one shows God’s love in a special way. The family that prays together stays together, and if they stay together they will love one another as God has loved each one of them. And works of love are always works of peace.“

– Saint ( Mother ) Teresa

Thanks for Reading.

Make it a great week. See you back here again next Monday.

Frank J Casella,
CMCS Executive Director

A larger collection of photographs can be viewed on my portfolio.

---

Not signed up yet? Click here.

Please Donate What You Can

We rely on contributions from readers and members of our community to keep Catholic Chicago Men Blog free. If you’d like to pay what you can for the service, we’d greatly appreciate it. These contributions touch the lives of many and help us keep investing in new technologies and better content.

Thank you for being the best part of Catholic Chicago Men Blog! Your contributions make a difference. From all of us at Catholic Men Chicago Southland and all of those that will be helped, thank you.

Donate What You Can

The SALT Principle

The highest and best way to love others is to apply the SALT Principle:

See others as Jesus sees them.

Accept others as Jesus accepts them.

Love others as Jesus loves them.

Touch others as Jesus touches them.

Ike Reighard

Too often we get wrapped up in our own little world, and we’re consumed with our own needs without even noticing the needs of those around us. Or we’re so exhausted at the end of each day that we can’t imagine giving out to anyone else, especially to demanding kids or a spouse who is at least as tired as we are.

We have to break this cycle, back up, regroup, and bring some sanity to our lives so we’ll have the perspective, energy, and compassion for the people we see each day, and especially those who live under the same roof with us.

Then we can love them like we love ourselves. ….

God created us to function best when we are fully devoted to Him. When we do that, each part of our lives comes into alignment – or drops away because it’s no longer important. When we fail to put God first, everything seems equally important, and we spend all our energies trying to please people, proving ourselves, or hiding from risks. God’s first commandment demands complete devotion, and it makes perfect sense. It’s the way he created us to live.

From The One Year Daily Insights with Zig Ziglar and Dr. Ike Reighard.

Bishop Joseph Perry: Family Prayer for Vocations

Parent(s):

Good Lord, we beg your blessing upon our family.  We thank you for the children with which you have blessed us.  Bless us as we use this day to give you praise.  Help our children grow towards you through the various things they learn about the mysteries of life and creation sewn by your hand. Grant wisdom to me/us their parent(s), their teachers and others you have given to guide them.  Preserve our efforts to give our children all that they deserve.

We pray you grace our children with faith, openness of heart, a willingness to learn, a desire to do good to others as you have taught.  Keep them ever strong and ready for any test of character.  As they grow in knowledge and experience inspire in our children a desire to serve you in holiness of life.  In whatever walk of life they choose be for them a true path to your kingdom. May you find among our children generous hearts to serve you and the Church perhaps as a priest, or religious brother or sister.  Should their Calling be to extend this family of ours, may theirs be a holy matrimony and family life after the example of your life with Mary and Joseph. 

Child/Children:

O Jesus, whisper in my heart how I might best serve you.  Make me strong in faith, always attentive to people’s needs, ever spiritual, understanding and charitable.  Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I love you very much.  Bless our priest(s) and religious who serve(s) us.  Bless my parents, our bishop and pastors and all who help the Church’s work.

Family:

Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, increase the number of our priests and religious men and women.  Preserve them for your Church.  Keep them zealous in their vocation and successful in their labors.  May they do all things for love of you and the Church.  We pray through our Lord Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God forever and ever.  AMEN

Bishop Joseph N Perry

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Sub-Committee on African American Affairs

2020

Click here for more prayers by Bishop Perry

Prayer for VocationsDownload

Catholic Men Family Connection

Photo: ‘Learning the Game’ Copyright 2010 Frank J Casella

Families, as the domestic church, have the opportunity to make the family meal a time of prayerful encounter with one another and with Jesus. At a family meal we share our experiences of the day and connect them with the experiences of others in the family.

We can also enjoy the meal as an opportunity to reflect upon our family life in light of the Scriptures, that connects us to Jesus too.

Choose a family meal each week to share each of our experiences of the week. Perhaps take turns as family members to plan and prepare the meal together. Begin the meal by reading the Gospel for the day. As you eat, talk together about how these events speak to our lives in the light of Scripture.

Download and share Bishop Perry’s Prayer Before Meals.

family-prayer-before-meals-CMCSDownload

Next, each family member can share the things that are going on in his or her life. Consider what Jesus might say to each person if he were sitting at your dinner table. Conclude with a special prayer after your dinner.

Dad’s, as the priest of your family the domestic church, pray a prayer of blessing for each family member, asking that Jesus continue to be present in each person’s life, helping each one to be a better follower of Jesus. Conclude with a Sign of Peace.

A Father’s Love

Men, how many times have you (and I) done things with human understanding instead if seeing those things through the eyes of Christ. Do you have this regulator switch that turns Christ’s love ON and turns it OFF, instead of being filled with His love and making our ‘plans’ His. It’s all about relationships. If you are a Father, what is your relationship with your children? What is your relationship with the Lord Jesus?

I recall a few years ago when I spent a weekend with my teenage son attending a basketball tournament that he was playing in. I rationalized that because of the distance and cost of travel we would stay in a hotel, but the real truth is I knew that I needed to do a better job at giving my son my time. I always ask for lessons from God in everything that I do, but this weekend God had a lesson that I didn’t ‘plan’ for.

We all have the same amount of time, what is different is how we use it. We all have ‘important’ things to take care of: work, house, car, and many details in-between. Sometimes, we make all of these details so important that we let go of the one thing that is most important – relationships.

I was thinking about all of this while watching one of my son’s games, when he took a hard fall while driving the ball and was injured. This is a very rare occurrence for him. It wasn’t until after the game and on the way home that his knee started to puff up and become painful. I cannot find the words to describe how much I wanted to take that injury from him and carry the pain for him. If you are a Father I’m sure you know what I am talking about.

Then the Holy Spirit spoke to me. 1 Peter 2: 24 – 25: ” He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you had gone astray like sheep’s but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.”

The lesson the Lord spoke to me is this: Jesus envelopes you with his loving arms, like a father with a young child. It is impossible to love Jesus more than he loves you, more than how a father (or parent) loves their children.

A father’s love for his own child is only a glimpse of A Father’s Love from the Lord Jesus. Just like how Jesus says ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’, when you feel distant from God, who moved?

In other words, does your relationship with your children example A Father’s Love that you have with the Lord. If not, what has stopped that from happening?

Our first job as a Dad is to get our family to Heaven. Each child is different in making the connection and developing the relationship. It is never time wasted because, as a Father, the impact you have on your family can go three generations deep.

Frank J Casella, CMCS-Director

Bishop Joseph Perry: A Prayer for Employment

O God, Father of us all, You bestow on us gifts and talents to develop and use in accord with your Will and to advance your kingdom on earth.  Grant to me, through the intercession of Saint Joseph, the man chosen by God to care for you in your childhood and youth, employment and work that I may with dignity provide for my family. Grant me the opportunities to use my energy and abilities for the good of those who depend upon me for care and support.  You placed me in charge of this family.  I beseech your assistance in helping me provide for them as you would have me do. You are our God and head of this family.  Amen

Bishop Joseph N Perry

Click here to download (PDF) copy

A Letter from Bishop Joseph Perry on COVID-19

Dear Friends in Christ,

As we approach the feast of the Resurrection on Sunday, April 12, we may well feel like we are entombed by precautionary measures that have altered the rhythm of life these days given the threat associated with coronavirus.  All this is certainly without precedent in our lifetimes.  We struggle daily enough with the cold and flu and other physical discomforts and can find relief in most instances with over-the-counter meds.  And, let’s admit it, we Americans are not used to plagues of this nature and scope that hit other areas around the world.

The austerity of Lent and what the season can mean faces us dramatically.  What is God saying to us in this time of anxiety and misfortune?  It is a time for prayer and sober reflection on our dependence upon the mercy of God.  What prayer can we recite together as a household while we are waiting on the Lord?  For we cannot heal ourselves.  While churches are closed these days for sake of the fright connected with contagion, once they are reopened we hope many more unused to the regimen of weekly ritual focus upon God might be inclined to reorder their lives and join us.

I’ve been busy telephoning the priests of the vicariate, family and relatives and friends to make sure everyone is alright.  With the exception of one of our priests who is hospitalized with the virus, everyone else appears to be alright.  Thank God!

While we already have made necessary changes to our lifestyle and readjusted certain habits, we might measure which of these we might carryover once this is all over, what needs particular attention on our parts for a better quality of life and spiritual tone to our busy lives.  

Certainly, a healing in response to a bad turn with health is one of the gifts of God. 

“But first, seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all things will be added unto you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.” 

Matthew 6, 33-34

Blessings and good health I wish for you and all who are important to you.

Biship Joseph Perry
Archdiocese of Chicago
CMCS Episcopal Liasion