John Paul the Great Catholic University Launches Program in New Evangelization

The following press release is from John Paul the Great University:

Answering John Paul the II's Call

JP Catholic Launches program in New Evangelization
 

SAN DIEGO, CA - John Paul the Great Catholic University is pleased to announce the launch of its major in New Evangelization starting in 2010. At the turn of the new millennium, Pope John Paul II exhorted young people to spread the Gospel to all nations. The third millennium has ushered in an explosion of new media channels through which to spread the Good News. John Paul the Great called us to embrace these new means of communications to impact the culture for Christ. The New Evangelization major embraces John Paul's exhortation to bring the light of the Gospel to all nations by passionately articulating the faith using new forms of communication.

The New Evangelization major is the next step in forwarding the university's mission to impact culture for Christ. "It not only answers the call of Jesus, but also that of John Paul II, to use the media to evangelize the world" says JP Catholic President Derry Connolly. "We're leveraging the strengths that we have in other areas to create a program which we feel is a direct call of both Jesus and John Paul II." The core focus of the program is the melding of theology and new media. The New Evangelization major gives students a well-rounded education in both these disciplines, thus empowering them to create cutting-edge media and build sustainable apostolates.

Each JP Catholic student, regardless of his or her major, is given a firm grounding in Catholic thought. New Evangelization students obtain a particularly rigorous formation in Scripture, theology, and philosophy. They take classes with both their fellow undergraduates and with Masters in Theology students. These include courses in the Old and New Testaments, the Sacraments, and Catholic social teachings. Students are equipped to defend the teachings of Holy Mother Church. Each professor in this program is joyfully loyal to the Magisterium. The theological formation is bolstered by courses in philosophy. "Bad theology," says Michael Barber, Professor of Theology, Scripture and Catholic Thought, "often emanates from a bad philosophical foundation." The philosophical formation offered in the New Evangelization major anchors students in the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, an invaluable foundation for those seeking to study Scripture and theology.

On the practical side, the New Evangelization major focuses on three areas: creating new media, teaching others, and building apostolates. Students take a comprehensive mix of classes in media production, including screen writing, editing, and directing. New Evangelization majors take these classes alongside the Entertainment Media majors. Both receive a foundational education in the world of media; the chief difference between the two majors is the emphasis on theology. While Media majors become more specialized in a particular field in the entertainment industry, Evangelization majors delve deeper into Catholic thought. "With the New Evangelization major," says Dr. Connolly, "we're producing a generalist, not a specialist."

Through the Apostolate Launch Pad, students take the skills they have learned and apply them to an evangelization project. Entertainment Media majors are encouraged to focus more on reaching a secular audience with a solid moral message. "Evangelization majors," say Provost Dominic Iocco, "will do media projects that focus more on the Christian message." They will use new media to spread the Gospel. "We want our Evangelization majors to be the Saint Pauls of the twenty-first century," says Dr. Connolly.

By integrating the theology and Scripture education with the practical tools of media, JP Catholic hopes the New Evangelization program will further its mission to impact culture for Christ. To request a brochure for the New Evangelization, click here. For further information on the program, please visit our academic page. - click here

Prayer to Our Mother of Perpetual Help

Prayer to Our Mother of Perpetual Help

Mother of Perpetual Help, today we face so many difficulties. Your picture tells us so much about you. It reminds us to reach out and help those in need. Help us understand that our lives belong to others as much as they belong to us.

Mary, Model of Christian love, we know we cannot heal every ill or solve every problem. But with God's grace, we intend to do what we can. May we be true witnesses to the world that love for one another really matters. May our daily actions proclaim how fully our lives are modeled after yours, Mother of Perpetual Help.

OR

Mother of Perpetual Help, you have been blessed and favored by God. you became not only the Mother of the Redeemer, but Mother of the redeemed as well. We come to you today as your loving children. Watch over us and take care of us. As you held the child Jesus in your loving arms, so take us in your arms. Be a mother ready at every moment to help us. For God who is mighty has done great things for you, and God's mercy is from age to age on those who love God. Intercede for us, dear Mother, in obtaining pardon for our sins, love for Jesus, final perseverance, and the grace always to call upon you, Mother of Perpetual Help.

OR

Oh Mother of Perpetual Help, grant that I may ever invoke your powerful name, the protection of the living and the salvation of the dying. Purest Mary, let your name henceforth be ever on my lips. Delay not, Blessed Lady, to rescue me whenever I call on you. In my temptations, in my needs, I will never cease to call on you, ever repeating your sacred name, Mary, Mary. What a consolation, what sweetness, what confidence fills my soul when I utter your sacred name or even only think of your! I thank the Lord for having given you so sweet, so powerful, so lovely a name. But I will not be content with merely uttering your name. Let my love for your prompt me ever to hail you Mother of Perpetual Help.

Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for me and grant me the favor I confidently ask of you. {mention your petition}

The above prayer can be found on Catholic websites.

The stained glass window detail was photographed inside of Our Lady of Victories Church. The Catholic Church is located on Fair Street in Paterson, NJ, USA.

Photograph Copyright 2010 Loci B. Lenar
Christian-Miracles.com

Signs of Unity: Forward in Faith Anglicans in Australia Unanimously Vote to Become Catholic

The photograph and following article appeared on Catholic Online:

Forward in Faith Anglicans in Australia Unanimously Vote to Become Catholic - Catholic Online

They will come into full communion with the Catholic Church while maintaining aspects of their liturgical distinctives and Anglican Ethos.

By Deacon Keith Fournier

SYDNEY, Australia (Catholic Online) – It has been an historic week for the Church in Australia and around the world. The move of many Anglican Christians into full communion with the Catholic Church has taken a decided move forward.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Bishop David Robarts OAM, the chairman of Forward in Faith Australia, explained that members of that Anglican association in Australia have decided they could no longer move forward in faith as a part of an Anglican Church in Australia which was not being faithful.

The Bishop explained that the Anglican Church was moving away from orthodox Christian belief and practice and leaving them behind: "In Australia we have tried for a quarter of a decade to get some form of episcopal oversight but we have failed… We're not really wanted any more, our conscience is not being respected."

The Bishop continued, "We're not shifting the furniture, we're simply saying that we have been faithful Anglicans upholding what Anglicans have always believed - and we're not wanting to change anything, but we have been marginalized by people who want to introduce innovations. We need to have bishops that believe what we believe."

So, on Sunday, February 13, 2010, Forward in Faith Australia voted unanimously to accept the invitation extended by Pope Benedict XVI in his historic Constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus. They will now take the next step in entering into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

The entire process of following the directions set forth in the Apostolic Constitution is being presided over by Catholic Bishop Peter Elliott. This Anglican group will now make Church history. They will come into full communion with the Catholic Church while maintaining aspects of their liturgical distinctives and Anglican Ethos.

Bishop Elliott explained the process in a recent article he wrote for the publication of the Traditional Anglican Communion:

"The Pastor of the nations (Pope Benedict XVI) is reaching out to give you a special place within the Catholic Church. United in communion, but not absorbed – that sums up the unique and privileged status former Anglicans will enjoy in their Ordinariates.

"Catholics in full communion with the Successor of St Peter, you will be gathered in distinctive communities that preserve elements of Anglican worship, spirituality and culture that are compatible with Catholic faith and morals. Each Ordinariate will be an autonomous structure, like a diocese, but something between a Personal Prelature (as in Opus Dei, purely spiritual jurisdiction), or a Military Ordinariate (for the Armed Forces).

"In some ways, the Ordinariate will even be similar to a Rite (the Eastern Catholic Churches). You will enjoy your own liturgical "use" as Catholics of the Roman Rite. At the same time your Ordinaries, bishops or priests, will work alongside diocesan bishops of the Roman Rite and find their place within the Episcopal Conference in each nation or region."

These members of Forward in Faith, Australia, will be accompanied on the journey to full communion by members of the Traditional Anglican Communion and others from the Anglican Church in Australia.

They have established a "working group" which, under the supervision of Bishop Elliott and the direction of the Holy See, will establish the process of establishing an Anglican Ordinariate in Australia. It may become a prototype for similar Anglican Ordinariates in other parts of the world.

Bishop David Robarts told the Daily Telegraph, "I love my Anglican heritage, but I'm not going to lose it by taking this step."

After the release of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, the Anglican Bishops of Ebbsfleet and Richborough issued a call for a Day of Prayer and Discernment on Monday 22nd February. February 22d is the Feast of the Chair of Peter. These are historic times.

Our Lady of the New Millennium

Our Lady of the New Millennium

Mother of the Redeemer, with great joy we call you blessed.

In order to carry out His plan of salvation, God the Father chose you before the creation of the world. You believed in His love and obeyed His word.

The Son of God desired you for His Mother when He became man to save the human race. You received Him with ready obedience and undivided heart.

The Holy Spirit loved you as His mystical spouse and filled you with singular gifts. You allowed yourself to be led by His hidden and powerful actions.

On the eve of the third Christian Millennium, we entrust to you the Church which acknowledges you and invokes you as Mother.

To you, Mother of the human family and of the nations, we confidently entrust the whole of humanity, with its hopes and fears. Do not let it lack the light of true wisdom. Guide its steps in the ways of peace. Enable all to meet Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Sustain us, 0 Virgin Mary, on our journey of faith and obtain for us the grace of eternal salvation. O clement, O loving, O sweet Mother of God and our Mother, Mary!

By Pope John Paul II

The photograph is a partial detail of a larger stained glass window which can be seen inside of Our Lady of Victories Church. The Catholic church is located on Fair Street in Paterson, NJ, USA.

Photograph Copyright 2010 Loci B. Lenar

Christian-Miracles.com

U.S. Marine Walks Away from Shot to Helmet

Feb. 15: Marine Lance Cpl. Andrew Koenig shows the spot on

 his helmet where a Taliban bullet struck right above his eyes.

U.S. Marine Walks Away From Shot to Helmet - Afghanistan Map War - FOXNews.com

The photograph and following story is an excerpt from FoxNews.com:

MARJAH, Afghanistan — It is hard to know whether Monday was a very bad day or a very good day for Lance Cpl. Andrew Koenig.

On the one hand, he was shot in the head. On the other, the bullet bounced off him.

In one of those rare battlefield miracles, an insurgent sniper hit Lance Cpl. Koenig dead on in the front of his helmet, and he walked away from it with a smile on his face.

"I don't think I could be any luckier than this," Lance Cpl. Koenig said two hours after the shooting.

Gunnery Sgt. Shelton, a 36-year-old veteran from Nashville, said he had never seen a Marine survive a direct shot to the head.

But next to him was Cpl. Christopher Ahrens, who quietly mentioned that two bullets had grazed his helmet the day the Marines attacked Marjah. The same thing, he said, happened to him three times in firefights in Iraq.

Cpl. Ahrens, 26, from Havre de Grace, Md., lifted the camouflaged cloth cover on his helmet, exposing the holes where the bullets had entered and exited.

He turned it over to display the picture card tucked inside, depicting Michael the Archangel stamping on Lucifer's head. "I don't need luck," he said.

Lance Cpl. Koenig put his dented helmet back on his head and climbed the metal ladder to resume his rooftop duty within an hour of being hit.

To read complete story, visit the following link: Fox News

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For additional inspirational news and photographs, please visit the following link and read the Miraculous Signs of Archangel Michael 

Dominican Nuns Appear on Oprah Winfrey Show

In my opinion, it's wonderful news to be willing to share the Catholic faith on television with the general public. 

With the Dominican Sisters appearing on Oprah Winfrey, perhaps the doors will open for other inspirational stories to be televised that are connected to the Christian faith, especially about caring individuals who have devoted their lives to God's work in supporting world peace and charitable causes.   -Loci B. Lenar

The photograph and following story is from Catholic Online:

INSPIRE: Called to Freedom: Dominican Nuns Image the Church on Oprah Winfrey - Catholic Online

The sisters were everything beautiful and truthful that the Church has to offer: they were Christ to Oprah and to a world in need of its meaning in Him.

By Sonja Corbitt

BETHPAGE, TN (Catholic Online) - It was a luminous report, burgeoning with respect, ripe with joy. It was a shot of glory between baking salmon fillets, disciplining a wayward 3 year old, and folding a load of colors.

Having previously abandoned Oprah for her politics and new-ageism after years of following, I was a little anxious at the treatment our Dominican convent in Ann Arbor, MI might receive at the hands of reporter Lisa Ling and Harpo producers.

But when, straight out of the chute, the convent was described as “thriving,” the young women “flocking” to it as they never had before, and the laughing, bright, fresh faced sisters proceeded to preach a full Catholic sermon simply by sharing their home and way of life, my apprehension turned to laugh-out-loud delight.

A Golden Opportunity Seized Through the Virtue of Hospitality

A golden opportunity rejected by other convents in the nation, the Ann Arbor Dominicans’ hospitality challenged conventional worldly wisdom in a forum that can only be characterized as miraculous and that represented Catholic women in the most refreshing way I have ever seen on TV. Because the convent is home to 100 sisters whose average age is 26, the feature communicated the vitality of a relationship with a living Christ in the most captivating way.

What constitutes restriction and freedom, happiness and joy, contentment and emptiness? How can I find fulfillment when the fabulous job, the designer duds, the handsome, fascinating boyfriend, and all the comforts and ideologies of modern life are not enough? Where can I “give who I am”? Where does consumerism and “being skinny” cease to matter for women?

These were the questions raised by the sisters’ testimonies of being called by God to religious life. “Did you hear an audible voice?” Oprah asked.

“God wanted me here and made it very clear,” 22 year old sister Francis Mary answered.

Those unexposed to Catholicism or religious life who might have expected inanity or “girliness” from a community of young women, were handed what amounted to a Catholic treatise wrapped in pithy packaging by one of the professed sisters: “Everyone is on a journey in life. But we are on a more intimate journey.”

Another went on to add that in the religious life [people] are “free to pursue God fully,” while admitting that such a life is not “for every woman,” only those in whom “noise gnaws at the human soul” and pleads for silence there.

Those who imagined religious life requires rulers hidden in the recesses of religious habits or faces clouded by somber melancholy were shocked at the brightness, the transparency and the unrehearsed sincerity of the nuns’ answers and a look at their daily routine and experiences.

What About Sex?

When asked about sex, and leaving it behind along with physical motherhood, one sister pointed out how the pervasive sexualization of our society “undermines the dignity of the human person,” while another took up the same thread by expressing that religious men and women “use the same desires [that “regular” people experience] for a greater calling.”

One postulant expressed her recent willingness to abandon sex and physical motherhood for the greater intimacy of spiritual motherhood, in part, because she did not “want to be an object.” Speaking of most nuns and their “spiritual marriage” to Jesus, Sr. Francis Mary admitted, to raucous laughter, that He is a “hard husband, because if something goes wrong in the relationship, I know it’s me.”

By far though, one of the best accounts was given by one of the sisters whose very loving, pre-convent relationship ended in separation, only to ultimately be rediscovered again later in God; she had entered the convent, and he the priesthood! What a breathtaking image of the Christian life, and it was on the world stage.

Spiritual Motherhood and Freedom

The sisters were everything beautiful and truthful that the Church has to offer: they were Christ to Oprah and to a world in need of its meaning in Him. I felt as though, finally!, someone was speaking with my voice and my faith, and not by rejecting men, sex, society, or even necessarily material things, but by their acceptance of something inexplicably more holy and beautiful. It was real feminism at its best, and true spiritual motherhood, for who knows how many vocations will be born from the womb of this broadcast?

Lisa Ling’s investigative report for Oprah inspired me to deeper love: to a greater, more total, more radical obedience, a brotherly love on which I place no limits, shocking generosity and simplicity, and an attractive, positive modesty and its accompanying spiritual allure.

In a world where religious brothers and sisters probably hold the seams of a morally teetering earth together with their invisible, fervent, ceaseless prayers for us all, the broadcast revealed the Church in all her glory through our religious brothers and sisters. Surely those sisters inspired Lisa Ling to investigate true freedom, for the last words about them before the end of the show were hers, “Their lives are much more liberating.”
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Sonja Corbitt is a Catholic Scripture teacher, study author and speaker. She is a contributing writer for Catholic Online. Visit her at http://www.pursuingthesummit.com/ and http://www.pursuingthesummit.blogspot.com/.