Hartford Courant photo by Shana Surek, 7/26/07

Peter Wolfgang, the executive director of the Family Institute of Connecticut will be at our Holy Hour tomorrow night (Thursday, April 17) and after will speak about his work. We have always conceived the spirit of the Knights of Lepanto to be one of both prayer and action, and this spirit is exemplified by Peter and his colleague Larry Taffner.

Many of us know and appreciate the work FIC does, because we know how hard the anti-family and anti-life forces work to undermine traditional values, and we also know that without FIC, those forces would have been far more successful than they have been up to now.

Anyone who has spent even a modicum of time at the capital in Hartford knows how the same-sex marriage lobbyists walk around the State House as if they run the place and yet their schemes have been so often thwarted by the persistent efforts of just a couple of guys at FIC who keep up the fight everyday, while the rest of us show up now and again for the easy stuff. The efforts of those who donate, or show up at rallies and lobbying days, who volunteer to stuff envelopes and flood the legislature phone boards with calls to their legislators are not to be minimized; however, few of us realize how quickly Connecticut would be overrun by those who hate our values if it weren't for a couple of guys that just won't quit.

The fact is that the day to day work on the ground, in the State House and in the midst of enemies is being done by a couple of guys who bear up under the weight and keep going. This is a real knighthood, where men of honor do the right thing, no matter what the cost in the face of hopeless odds and push forward.

I really am urging the guys local to Connecticut to make the effort to come and pray with us during the holy hour and to hear Peter speak afterward. He really needs your prayer and support.

And speaking of crosses...did all of you see the design we have come up with for our new t-shirts?! I Marianne found a scanner and was able to get this image of my sketch. 

If you click on the image, you'll notice that the words on the back are written over the picture of a Crucifix and the words at the top are going to be on the front of the shirt. 

I think it looks pretty sharp (well, once we set the font and find a decent Crucifix picture) and the message presented is a great challenge to all who read it to become a hero and live out the Victory Christ won for us over sin and death.  Think about it and send us your comments on this design (or send us one of your own) as soon as possible because we will need them for our first fundraiser at Biggs! We'll probably be ordering the shirts sometime before the New Life Retreat.

Marianne got in contact with Biggs and they had a spot open for us to bag groceries from 11am- 6pm on Sunday, March 30th.  We need at least 6 baggers present the entire time (no, 6 people do not have to stay the whole time), so we will need all the help we can get! 

Other people need our help as well. The Riverview Nursing Home has told us that they would love to have us come and volunteer some of our time there helping to run Bingo or to come up with our own activities and run those with the residents.  However, before we do that, we need to take a tour of the facility and fill out some paperwork.  Marianne would like to call them and set up a time to do this, but needs to know as soon as possible if you are all interested in doing this and what days work best for you to do this. We'd like to get this out of the way by the end of March so that we can start volunteering there in April.

Also, the Pro Life/Pro Family Commission is hosting a Family Movie night on February 23rd and need some help setting up tables and running the concessions stand.  If any of you are interested, let us know and we'll pass along the message.  You can tell us for sure as late as February 22nd at the Lock- In (see Upcoming Events and Permission Slips pages).  By the way, today is the last day to sign up for the Lock-In and you can bring your permission slips, money and snacks with you that night!

Another deadline is fast approaching as well.  Please sign up for the Alive in You Youth Conference no later than March 12th!  We will be working very hard to make the trip as close to free for you as possible, so don't let finances be the reason you don't want to go!  This is going to be a great experience in which you will learn a lot about yourself, your friends and most importantly, your Faith!  Please consider it and talk it over with your parents.

 Last, but certainly not least, our parish has a tremendous opportunity to host a Monstrance which was blessed by Pope John Paul II!!  This is the decorative case in which the Eucharist is displayed for prayer and Adoration.  What makes this particularly special for our Youth Group is that Fr. Reutter has given us permission to host a holy hour designed to be high energy and enjoyable for youth.  We have invited all the youth groups from around the area and it should be a pretty big event!  I need to find someone who is willing to do a short reading during this hour, so the first to post a comment to this effect gets to do it! 

 Sorry for the outrageously long post, but I think you are now completely informed.  Please check the Upcoming events and use this post as a means to sign up for any and all events you want to attend.

AQUINAS - (Fr Vallee) -- reviewed a general timeline after the death of Thomas Aquinas in 1250.  William of Ockham gave rise to Nominalism (minimized metaphysics, which is the link between philosophy and theology).  The movie "Name of the Rose" reflected his nominalist attitude.  In the 19th century, debates in the Church led to extreme responses like Rationalism (sola ratio) and Fideism (sola fide).  As opposed to Protestant extremism (sola scriptura & sola fide), the Catholic Church maintains balance between "faith & reason" as well as "Scripture & Tradition."

CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY - (Fr Santos) -- reviewed characteristics of Modern Philosophy:

1)  Turn towards the "self" (anthropos becomes conscious)
2)  Turn toward "subjectivity" (reality + truth = function of the subjective)
3)  Renewed emphasis on the object (Scientism) (person = reduced to his material reality)
4)  "Fragmentation" of reality (cosmos = science, theos = theology, anthropos = philosophy, psychology, sociology, etc.)

An aside on Scientism brought discussion about genetically engineered mice that had their fear of cats removed via DNA.  A current example of how modernity influences our approach to solving life's "problems."  Scientific research + ethics + faith.

19th Century Philosophy ... brought Hegelianism / Romantic Idealism that REJECTED the Kantian dichotomy between the noumenon & phenomenon ... also brought a greater Kantian dichotomy in philosophy with (Marx) Dialectical Materialism, (Comte) Positivism, (Nietzsche) Nihilism.

MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY - (Fr Vallee) -- our final essay questions will deal with 4 areas for each philosopher ... (1) Aporia (1st question & basic theme) ... (2) Metaphysics ("What is?") ... (3) Epistemology (study of knowledge) ... (4) Ethics.

WORKLIST (1:30-3pm) -- starting next week, we'll have new Wednesday worklist jobs and new house jobs.

HOLY HOUR (4:30-5:30pm) -- intention for the seminarians at St Vincent's (major seminary) on 5-day retreat as well as the Southeast Bishops on retreat.  Found a prayer for meditation ... Invocations to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament:

Lord Jesus, through Your infant cries when You were born for me in the manger; through Your tears when You died for me on the Cross; through Your love as You live for me in the tabernacle, have mercy on me and save me.

Wie so manch anderer Musiker hat er sich jetzt auch bei Myspace eingerichtet.
Der Song ("Holy hour") ist für uns sehr speziell, weil Benni den bei unserem Abschied in D-Land für uns gespielt hat ... ich glaube, dass war das erste Mal überhaupt.
Wenn ich mich nicht verhört hab, haben meine Brüders bei dem Song auch wieder ihre Finger im Spiel gehabt.

http://www.myspace.com/benjaminsmusik

P.S.: Apropos myspace. Myspace ist hässlich, aber dank Flash nicht hoffnungslos. Bin per Zufall auf lovemyflash.com gestoßen und ziemlich begeistert. Schnell, einfach und (für myspace erstaunlich) schön.