Fr. Bob's Corner

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Catholic World News (CWN)

Pearl S. Buck won the Nobel Prize in literature, the first American woman to do so. By the time of her death in 1973, Pearl would publish over seventy books: novels, collections of stories, biography and autobiography, poetry, drama, children’s literature, and translations from the Chinese. Here is a short inspirational story:

All Things Christmas: Stories and Poems: Christmas Day in the Morning

Fr. Andrew Greely the novelist-sociologist reflects on Christmas and ‘North American Secularism’. He has more hope and optimism than many! Below is a link to full article, and a short excerpt.

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Andrew Greeley :: God shows up where we least expect: “All of this is an effort to challenge the notion that America is so secularized that religion has no effect on culture. It is also aimed at the related notion — heard often from TV babblers — that Christmas has become so ‘commercial’ that it is no longer religious. The truth is that any really good story about God simply cannot be corrupted no matter how much controversy and paganism may surround it. Most of us know that at Christmastime we are celebrating God’s passionate love for us as it is reflected in our love for one another. We wish only that during the rush of the holidays we had more time to ponder this great surprise and live it.”

Development and Peace | Development and Peace successfully continues its reconstruction work: “2 years after the tsunami: Development and Peace successfully continues its reconstruction work”

Ten mega-trends shaping the Catholic church | National Catholic Reporter Conversation Cafe: “Ten mega-trends shaping the Catholic church”

Hope

Advent is the season of hope. We count down the weeks and the days until Christmas. We read scriptures that announce the arrival of the Messiah, the one who will be God Among Us. It’s all focused on how the ages have looked forward to – have hoped for – the coming of Christ, the Incarnation.And what do we really have at all, if not hope?Looking around, I can see all the human-ness of drudgery, expectations, duty, routine, weariness, brokenness, healing, triumph and persistence. We go through these things every day, and we keep coming back for more – even when it’s painful, when we are fairly sure we will be disappointed, again. There are times when we feel like giving up, when we just don’t want to try any more, but most people, most of the time, keep on going. And I blame that on hope.

Hope is what keeps us going when our marriage is failing, when ours kids are seriously ill or injured, when we’re fighting cancer or some other disease, when our aging parents rely on us for daily living, when we just can’t seem to work through and stay on top of our depression or anxiety, when we’re not sure how we will pay the rent or mortgage this month. God gave us hope so we can live. Without it, would life even be bearable?

For me, this ever-present hope is proof that God is alive in each of us. Some may attribute hope to our instinct for survival, or our desire to achieve, or our need to control outcomes, or some such other silliness. I’ll credit God for hope, and the Incarnation for sanctifying it. And when I see this hope in people, when I feel it in myself, I know I’m seeing God’s reflection.

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CECC / CCCB – HomeOn Saturday 16 Decembre 2006, Pope Benedict XVI named Most Reverend Thomas Collins as Archbishop of Toronto. At the time of his appointment, he was Archbishop of Edmonton. The Cardinal retires…..
Read more at the above link.

TIME.com: TIME Magazine — October 23, 2006 Vol. 168 No. 17

Some of you might be interested in reading about this new and potential rising star in American Politics that some think will be President one day in the near future. The book excerpt from his recent book entitled, ‘My Spiritual Journey’, is good food for thought for those of you still meditating on the Silent Prayer by Pope Benedict in the Blue Mosque. For me his words are a signal of hope in a world that seems so lost and confused. Here is a small sample from the excerpt:

“There are a whole lot of religious people in America, including the majority of Democrats. When we abandon the field of religious discourse–when we ignore the debate about what it means to be a good Christian or Muslim or Jew; when we discuss religion only in the negative sense of where or how it should not be practiced, rather than in the positive sense of what it tells us about our obligations toward one another; when we shy away from religious venues and religious broadcasts because we assume that we will be unwelcome–others will fill the vacuum. And those who do are likely to be those with the most insular views of faith, or who cynically use religion to justify partisan ends.”Go to the above link for more….

Comic Strip based on this weekend’s Gospel for the third Sunday of Advent . Compliments of http://www.agnusday.org/.