The Intentions of Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, for October 2008:

General Prayer Intention:

"That the Synod of Bishops may help all those engaged in the service of the Word of God to transmit the truth of faith courageously in communion with the entire Church."

Missionary Prayer Intention:

"That, faithful to the sacrament of matrimony, every Christian family may cultivate the values of love and communion in order to be a small evangelizing community, sensitive and open to the material and spiritual needs of its brothers."

REFLECTIONS ON POPE BENEDICT XVI'S
MONTHLY INTENTIONS

October 2008

The Apostleship of Prayer receives monthly prayer intentions from Pope Benedict XVI and urges Christians throughout the world to unite in prayer for those intentions. The reflections below seek to illuminate the Holy Father's concerns.


General Intention:

Pope Benedict XVI asks us to pray for this month's Synod of Bishops as they discuss how we can use the Bible to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. The goal is that Catholics will spend time reading the Bible and, by doing so, grow in knowledge and love of God in unity with the whole Church. Strong in the Word of God, we may become courageous witnesses to the world.

Jesus promised the Apostles that the Holy Spirit would lead the Church into all truth (John 15:26). The Church sees the Word of God and the Tradition of the Church as the two great sources of this truth, and it is the Church's ultimate responsibility to codify the truths of our faith. Otherwise the meaning found in the Bible becomes subjective, with readers or groups of readers interpreting the Word of God in any way they wish.

Most Protestant denominations were born of such independent readings of the scriptures. As a result most Protestants have no authority to establish the true meaning of the Bible, and their churches split and splintered thousands of times, each group claiming to have the true interpretation but with no authority to do so. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church has upheld one faith.

The doctrines of the Church actually illuminate scripture. Take the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Although a triune God is clearly implied by the scriptures as a whole, especially in light of the New Testament, the doctrine of the Trinity was not proclaimed by the Church until the fourth century. That proclamation was based on scripture, at least two centuries of tradition in the Church Fathers, and the need to counter the Arian heresy denying the divinity of Jesus.

Thus, safeguarded from error, we Catholics benefit a great deal from reading the scriptures, whether we do it publicly at Mass or privately. If we hear or read the Word in a prayerful manner, we receive faith, hope, and love, grow in unity with the Church, and find new courage to proclaim the Gospel.

Reflection:
How has the bible enriched your faith? Can you think ways to increase your time reading and praying the scriptures?

Reading:
Psalm 119:97-105 - How I love your teaching, Lord! I study it all day long. Your command makes me wiser than my foes, for it is always with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, because I ponder your decrees. Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path.


Mission Intention

October is the month of the Rosary and the Missions. Pope Benedict asks us to pray this month that every Christian community may participate in missions through prayer, sacrifice, and concrete help. The Pope wants us to take missions seriously because he is aware of several grave threats to evangelization.

Some Christians have decided that evangelization must be modernized. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith calls it a "growing confusion" which misinterprets the "missionary command of the Lord" as a suggestion merely to present Christian ideas rather than preach repentance and Baptism into Christ. Some say that it is enough to try to help people act according to their own consciences without attempting to convert them to Christ, that it is enough to help people become more faithful to their own religions without attempting to convert them to the Catholic faith ("Doctrinal Note on Some Aspects of Evangelization," Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, December 2007).

But the Pope strongly contradicts these errors. In the same document cited above, we are reminded of the words of Jesus, who said, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you" (Jn 20:21). By his Church, Christ wants to be present in every time and place on earth in order to reach every person so there may be "one flock and one shepherd" (Jn 10:16). "The Apostles, therefore, prompted by the Spirit, invited all to change their lives, to be converted and to be baptized. It is the same Lord Jesus Christ who, present in his Church, goes before the work of evangelizers, accompanies it, follows it, and makes their labors bear fruit: what took place at the origins of Christian history continues throughout its entire course."

The Pope calls the Church to recommit ourselves to evangelization. How shall we proceed? Let us do what the Apostles of Prayer have always done. Like St. Therese of Lisieux, who never set foot in a mission field, we direct our prayers to God on behalf of missionaries and those they seek to reach. We sacrifice our time and our money to support them. We speak to others about the importance of evangelization. We look for concrete ways to build up a missionary culture. We deeply respect the Pope's wisdom in making these requests of us.

Reflection:
The Pope stresses the word "concrete" in this intention. How have you acted in concrete ways to support the missions? What might you do this month?

Reading:
Luke 5:10 - Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men."

We can't just avoid sin; we must also share the light of Christ

I was having a conversation with Matthew Parris, a good Catholic friend of mine, about the initiation of this blog and the motives behind it. As I mentioned in our first post "Setting ablaze the light", I hope to do more to engage the world around our family. Likewise, we hope to encourage others to do more of the same.

Matt agreed and responded with an except he heard from a Legionary of Christ priest. I quote Matt's recollection of the priest's passage:

In the excerpt, the author warned of Christianity becoming a way of life where one simply avoids evil. Taken to an extreme, this can result in legalism where actions are a result of following a rule and avoiding what is bad. Whereas this is a necessary first step for the Christian, his conscience must consider sins of omission. We are all here on a mission, each of which may be manifested in various ways. We as Christians must be active-- evangelizing, engaging the culture, etc. We must all look for opportunities to spread the light of Christ and not resort to just looking out for ourselves. We're not here for ourselves, but for each other.

This is the struggle I believe all Christians face -- being citizens in the world, but not being of the world (it's very important to know the difference). Some Christians respond better than others. For myself, I must admit that my response thus far has not be sufficient.

Up to this point, my journey of faith has not been unlike the path taken by many others; some mistakes have taken us away from God but we eventually gain the conviction to get back on the narrow road towards the Kingdom of Heaven. My journey, in brief, consists of growing up with the faith ("Cradle Catholic"), falling away when I began to get too wrapped up in worldy concerns, but then later returning to my faith with renewed vigor. I attribute my return to the Church to be due to God's grace and the desire He impressed upon my heart to pursue the truth that had been exposed to me in my youth.

And so in continuing to follow Christ wherever he may lead me, I now find myself writing here. The first step of avoiding sin as best as I am able has become my way of life. The next step involves this apostolate as just one way of helping me move away from simply avoiding evil to include doing more to serve our neighbors in need and to bring the light of Christ to a world full of shadows and darkness.

Despite the daunting expanse of need in the world today, none of us should be intimidated because our efforts, joined with the love of God, can truly change the world. We may never see the fruits of our labor in this world, but we can be sure that any good deed performed out of a love for God has its reward, for God sees all we do.

Setting ablaze the light

And so it begins... the Ruggiero family has begun this apostolate to bring forward topics of relevance to our lives with a Catholic perspective. We'll focus primarily on the issues that pertain to our family and all families of the world. Our readers are you -- friends, family, and the wandering visitor -- but you're not just a reader, you are a contributor. You will have the opportunity to comment on what we say or respond to what others say. Whether you agree or disagree, we want to hear from you.

You might be asking, "why this?" Well, to be completely honest, I have never been one to have an interest to enter in to the "blogosphere". In fact, I always told myself that I couldn't see myself sharing mindless, miscellaneous details of our life with others, like what kind of pizza we just ordered, the traffic-jam we encountered in town, or idle chat about the fleeting trends of the day (BORING!).

The change of mind has come through prayer... an inner sense that we, as a family, must be willing to actively shine forth the light of Christ by placing our lamp on a lampstand for all to see; not in a way to boast or showcase ourselves, but rather to demonstrate a positive alternative to the lifestyles promoted by secular society. Radiated light is never unsuccessful in displacing the darkness. In a world which will always have darkness due to the fall of man through original sin, we all must be willing to combat the darkness through the expression of Christ's light that exists in all of us.

Naturally, we seek to share Christ's love with all the people that we meet. We may not always be successful in that pursuit, either through our own sin or through missed opportunities. While we continue to pursue those ideals on a daily basis, this apostolate seeks to pair words with our actions.

Therefore, using the technology of our day to engage those we do not have regular contact with (and perhaps have never met), we can do more to reach out to all of God's children (i.e., YOU!). In essence, we can evangelize. We can share our joys and sufferings (and the joys found in suffering). We can stimulate your mind to consider things you won't hear in your regular communication circles. And hopefully, as a result, you will feel compelled to also increase your charitable and loving demonstration of Christ's light to others. Together, we can make a difference in the world.

So come back often and share in the joy of Jesus Christ, our eternal Father in Heaven. Praise be His name forever!

~The Ruggiero Family~

Related Post:
We can't just avoid sin; we must also share the light of Christ