MPHM MS CCD: January 2015

Reminders

Remind parents to sign attendance sheet.
Remind parents that the students must be dropped off and picked up on the alley. This is for their safety and liability on the Church.
Remind parents to check with their child if they have their letter completed for Father Jim to request the Sacrament of Confirmation.
Review the new schedule with the parents so they are all on the same page
Jan. 31 at 5:00pm Mass or Feb. 1 at 10:30am Mass - Rite of Election. Students may set anywhere with family. The Rite is very simple. Father Jim will call the students forward and they will come up and stand in front of the communion rail. He will address the congregation and then say a prayer over them. He will then ask them to return to their seats.
Feb. 15th - Remind the parents their child is required to attend the Back to Heartland JR High Confirmation Retreat. If they do not have a form there are additional copies on my desk. Deadline for early registration is Feb 8th of $10 at the door is $15 plus 2 canned food items.
April 19th - (Added) Their will be a recognition and reception for the Confirmation Students at the 10:30 AM Mass

Theology of The Body

Feedback & Q&A
for King & Country - Message to Women - http://youtu.be/jDWHIpe0p2o (Start @ 2:07) - 2:00

Accepting the Call

The baptized, anointed by the Holy Spirit (through confirmation), are incorporated into Christ, who is priest, prophet, and king, and called to share in his mission (CCC, no. 1241). We share Christ’s priestly mission by giving of ourselves daily in union with Christ’s supreme sacrifice on the Cross. As prophets, we announce the Kingdom of God in both word and deed and we witness to the Gospel in family, social life, and community, and in our commitment to human life and dignity. We share the kingly mission by seeking God’s Kingdom of justice in the world. We do this when we overcome the kingdom of sin, give of ourselves, recognize Jesus in “the least of these” (cf. Mt 25:40), and work for justice and peace.

1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19 - Samuel was called.
John 1:35-42 - Andrew and Simon were called. Jesus changed Simon's name to Peter because of his special calling to lead the Church.

Jonah 3:1-5, 10 - Jonah called to warn the people of Nineveh (He first ran from God when he was initially called) and to call them to repent of their evil ways.
Mark 1:14-20 - We hear again of the call of Andrew and Simon to follow Jesus.

As I read earlier: Those who are confirmed are called to announce the Kingdom of God in both word and deed and we witness to the Gospel...That's evangelizing. In this next video Fr. Baron speaks about want it takes for priests to be good Evangelists...but it applies to us as well.

Fr. Longenecker was raised as an Evangelical Protestant, became an Anglican Priest, and then ultimately converted to Catholicism and received a dispensation to become a married Catholic Priest. He is a wonderful speaker who is very easy to follow and understand.
In the next video Father makes the point that we evangelize others by telling our faith stories and we have faith stories to tell by accepting God's callings. He steps us through five steps we must go through to accept God's calling and have a faith story to tell.

One of the stumbling blocks, that we talked about last week, to hearing God's call for us is the noise in our lives. Many things create noise, from the busy life styles we lead to being happy in our comfort zone at Fr. Dwight Longenecker spoke about.
The song I have to close with tonight speaks about quieting ourselves so we can hear God. It is call "Quiet Enough" by Jon Nivens

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