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Lenten season offers chance for Christian ‘spring cleaning’
By SUSAN DE MATTEO
TYLER
– The season of Lent, which will begin on Ash Wednesday Feb. 6, offers
Catholics an early opportunity for a bit of “spring cleaning,” a chance
to clear away the spiritual clutter that impedes a full relationship
with Christ and neighbor and to free themselves from habits and
attachments that anchor them to the world rather than to God.
In
his Lenten message for this year, released Jan. 29 by the Vatican, Pope
Benedict XVI called Lent “a providential opportunity to deepen the
meaning and value of our Christian lives” which “stimulates us to
rediscover the mercy of God so that we, in turn, become more merciful
toward our brothers and sisters.”
The message, called “Christ made himself poor for you”
(2 Cor 8, 9), focuses on the ancient practice of almsgiving, “which
represents a specific way to assist those in need and, at the same
time, an exercise in self-denial to free us from attachment to worldly
goods,” Pope Benedict wrote.
He said almsgiving also offers a
chance for penance, for the reparation of those sins which bind the
human heart and keep it from God.
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Churches, organizations in diocese schedule Lenten activities
By JO ANNE FLORES EMBLETON
TYLER
– Catholic communities throughout the Tyler Diocese are preparing for
the upcoming Lenten season, which begins Ash Wednesday, Feb. 6.
At St. John the Evangelist Church in Emory, Stations of the Cross will be prayed 20 minutes prior to every Mass during Lent.
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Dream comes true for at least a moment
TYLER
– The rabbi rocked with the black gospel choir in the Catholic
cathedral, and for a moment in time Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous
dream was fully alive in Tyler.
The performance was part of the
21st annual ecumenical service honoring the life and legacy of Dr.
King, held Jan. 21 in Tyler. The day began with the traditional march
from the downtown square to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception,
with participants braving the rain on a cold and windy day, and ended
with a morning of music, reflections and award presentations in the
cathedral, which was packed to capacity with a crowd of Anglos, blacks
and Hispanics, Christians, Jews and Muslims.
But the spirit of
the day, and the embodiment of Dr. King’s hope of true brotherhood for
all, was made most clearly visible when Rabbi Neal Katz of Congregation
Beth El in Tyler played guitar and sang with the New Life Community
Church choir providing lively accompaniment. In dark suit and yarmulke,
backed up by the black choir in blue robes, Rabbi Katz had the
standing-room-only crowd clapping and singing along to his original
composition, “Live Together,” using words from four of Dr. King’s most
famous speeches.
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’07 appeal at goal; ’08 climbing
By SUSAN DE MATTEO
TYLER
– Bishop Álvaro Corrada, SJ, said he is “very grateful for the
generosity and sacrifice of the people” of the Diocese in Tyler in
their contributions to the Bishop’s Appeal.
As
of Jan. 29, when the Catholic East Texas went to press, the 2007
appeal, with a goal of $1.25 million, has collected $1,251,361, and
pledges to the 2008 appeal, launched last October, have reached
$1,232,757.
The
2008 appeal had no specific goal, except, Bishop Corrada said, that “I
asked the people to prayerfully consider their gifts to the 2007 appeal
and give a little bit more.”
In
lieu of a definite goal, the bishop said, “What I really ask of the
people is that they commit to a life of prayer, penance, fasting and
almsgiving, that they commit themselves to a life in Christ and a life
of deeper communion with Christ.
“Within
that life, giving money to the appeal makes sense,” he said, “in that a
life committed to Christ and a life rooted in the love of Christ will
find expression, among other things, in giving to the church, whose
needs are many. The theme of the 2007 appeal was Christ’s command to
Peter – ‘Feed my sheep’ – and the theme of the 2008 appeal is ‘As I
have loved you.’ These should always be our responses to Christ’s love
for us, which he poured out on the cross.
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Interfaith service mourns lives stolen from God’s plan
By SUSAN DE MATTEO
TYLER
– Some 50 people gathered in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
Jan. 20 to pray for an end to abortion and for the more than 40 million
unborn children killed since the legalization of abortion.
Catholics, Protestants and Jews, clergy, lay people and politicians
gathered for the interfaith service marking the 35th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion on demand.
“We gather as people of different faiths, we gather as people of faith,
believing that the grace of God and the power of God’s love, the one
who is love, will bring about a miracle of no more abortions, no more
threats to the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death,
in whatever form it takes,” said Msgr. Joe Strickland, rector of the
cathedral.
“We gather in honor of those lives God planned would transform our
world, the lives cut short by abortion, and those lives harmed and
deeply wounded by abortion and other threats to life,” Msgr. Strickland
said. “And we pray that tragedy may never inspire us to hatred, but,
instead, to live God’s love that much more profoundly and (to)
recognize the ways that each of us must grow in living the sanctity of
life, in working to uphold it, in seeking the transformation of our
world that our God has called to believe in him, to live and proclaim
him.”
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