Five Things to Remember on Dec 3

1. The budget angst pervades Washington. It’s helpful to recall that Catholic social teaching calls for budget decisions to be made according to whether they protect or threaten human life and dignity, how they affect poor people including those who are homeless, hungry and without work. Also worth remembering is government’s responsibility for the common good of all, especially ordinary workers and their families who struggle to live in a manner worthy of their dignity in difficult economic times.
 
2. An Advent/Christmas custom is lessons and carols, a series of nine sets of hymns and biblical readings. They can be found here. A few moments with one of the series can be a reflective way to start or end the day.

3. With the Religious Retirement Collection coming up this weekend, the USCCB will post blogs by some people whose lives were touched by religious. The first blog is by ABC News analyst Cokie Roberts.

4. Dorothy Day (1897-1980), whose cause for sainthood is in an early stage, is attracting media attention. Now titled “Servant of God,” Dorothy Day was a social activist and pacifist and lived a life of voluntary poverty. She had an abortion in her early years and regretted it all her days afterwards. Her cause for sainthood was introduced at the Vatican by theArchdiocese of New York, where she died. 

5. God loves you.

 

Five Things to Remember on Nov. 30

 

1.  Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent, begins a new church year. The U.S. Conference of CatholicBishops has outdone itself with this year’s Advent resources. Among them is a downloadable family Advent calendar, in English and in Spanish. There are easy ways to make the hectic season holy.
 
2. Pope Benedict’s latest book “The Infancy Narratives—Jesus of Nazareth” is getting some negative press. Pundits like Stephen Colbert, the master of the tongue-in-cheek, are making the pope out to be a grinch for writing that the bible’s Christmas story doesn’t speak of animals at the crib and that the angels said, not sang, “Glory to God in the highest…” Reuters’ Journalist PhilPullella, however, clarifies what’s really in the book in his wire servicearticle. Hint: you can still sing carols and place replicas of dogs, camels, cows and sheep in your manger scene.
 
3. The National Religious Retirement Collection will be taken up in parishes the weekend of Dec. 8-9. If you want to know why it is important, consider the following: The U.S. Social Security system projects that it needs four wage earners for every retired beneficiary in order to keep the system solvent.  By 2022 religious institutes will have one wage earner for every four retired – the exact inverse. If you want a worthy collection, this one is it. Check out www.retiredreligious.org
 
4. When it comes to giving gifts, it is time to recognize the church’s largesse through the Catholic school system. Based on public school per pupil cost, Catholic elementary and secondary schools save the nation more than $20 billion dollars a year. Lots of info at www.ncea.org
 
5.      God loves you.