7th Grade Reflections

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to go into the 7th grade class at my teaching parish and spend some time talking with the kids about their faith life. My opening question to them was "why are we here". I didn't mean why we are at school, or in Muskego but rather I challenged them to think on a much larger scale. Here are there responses which I find incredibly inspiring, insightful, and some of them are really very funny. Please enjoy the wit of these budding theologians.

Why are we here?

Below is a compilation of answers to this question from 7^th Grade students at St. Leonard’s School in Muskego, Wisconsin

- To love one another and help others out. Take care of the needy, and be respectful to each other. Love ourselves and always look at the good not the bad of your life. Be God’s servant, do what he originally put us here for. Honor His laws and do what he asks to be done.

- We are here because we have a journey ahead of us called life. God gave us talents, and inspirations to live like we are dying. We have a duty to be the best we can be. We are here to spread news, take care of our world, and to use our unique creativity to make a difference.

- We are here to do God’s will.

- We are here because God wanted to create something in his own image.

- Because God put us on this earth to be His children. We are called to serve others and respect, care, love, and bring peace on Earth. Sometimes it’s hard to do that, but we gotta try, right?

- To carry out God’s mission and live on what he created.

- We are here because Jesus loves me and everyone differently. He gives us all unique talents. We are here because he wants us to live our life different from one another and just be our self.

- We are here to help people with their problems, to bring joy to others, and to teach others about a subject that they are not very strong on.

- We are here because . . . God made us. He wanted to create something beautiful – and He did.

- To serve God and His people.

- To change our world!!

- This is where I was born. My mom lived here so did my dad. I’m here because they’re here. God loves us so we’re here. God set us where we belong. We’re here because of God.

- I think we are here to see if we are ready to go in God’s Kingdom, to spread the good word about God and Jesus. God is Good!

- We are here to carry out our own destiny and to show the world what we can do.

- To take a chance on a long-shot distance. God gave us a purpose in life and the opportunity is where we are right now, which is why we should take advantage of that. The people that surround us right now are going to help us in life.

- We are here to fulfill God’s promise in life. We are here to help one another and be good friends. We are here to be brothers and sisters to each other. WE are here to love one another and make each other happy. We are here to respect one another. We are here to be grateful for what God has given us. We are here to respect God’s creation and love what he did for us.

- To carry out God’s plan. To make God happy so God wouldn’t be lonely.

- We are here because god is. God put us here and made us exactly who we are. We are here as God’s creation and because this is where he put us and this is where he wants us.

- We are here because God created us.

- I think we are here because God wanted to show his deep love for us by putting us here on earth to respect each other.

- We’re here because God was lonely so he made us.

- I think we are here to follow God’s works and be like him. WE are here to make this world a better place. We should love one another and respect each other because we are all people of God.

- We are here because God (maybe) got lonely and we were his pets like some of us have pets.

- Were here because God gave us a purpose to take care of the world.

- We are here to love each other and God. We are here because of God.

- There are a lot of scientific reasons, but I hate that earth science stuff! We’re here because God put us here, not because energy from the sun stuff. God put every little blade of grass on this earth. That blade of grass may only be for my dog to pee on but it’s a reason.

- We are here to spread happiness and joy to others.

- Because God loved us and wanted us to go to our parent and follow his plan for us to live.

2010 Ordination HD.mp4

The Journey with Jesus

Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)

Christ Has No Body

Christ has no body but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks Compassion on this world, Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good, Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, Yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

Born in Spain, Teresa entered a Carmelite convent when she was eighteen, and later earned a reputation as a mystic, reformer, and writer who experienced divine visions. She founded a convent, and wrote the book The Way of Perfection for her nuns. Other important books by her include her Autobiography and The Interior Castle.

The change in the coat-of-arms

Old Coat-of-Arms used on September 26, 2010

New Coat-of-Arms used on October 10, 2010

Many have already noted an interesting change made the other day in the Pope's coat-of-arms (left), without any official announcement.

In keeping with the tradition which goes back to Pope Paul VI and expecially Pope John Paul I, who wished to downplay the "regal" aspects of the Petrine office and emphasize instead the "episcopal" aspect of the role of the Bishop of Rome, Benedict began his pontificate with a coat-of-arms which did not include the triple crown, the papal tiara, but rather displayed the bishop's mitre.

On Sunday, the cloth unfurled under his window in the Apostolic Palace as he prayed the Angelus contained the tiara.

The actual crown itself, the Papal Tiara, also known as the Triple Tiara, the Triregnum or the Triregno, is the three-tiered papal crown worn by Popes from Pope Clement V up to and including Pope Paul VI, who was crowned in 1963.

The crown has not been worn by any of Pope Paul's successors, but it has not been abolished and it remains the symbol of the papacy and the Holy See, featured in the coat-of-arms of the Vatican and on many papal coats-of-arms.

Aggiornamento

Today is a good day to pray for the Church as we continue to grow in our understanding of the world-changing direction the Church took on this day in 1962 when Pope John XXIII opened the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council. Below is the prayer that Pope John XXIII opened the Council with.

God grant that your labors and your work,
toward which the eyes of all peoples
and the hopes of the entire world are turned,
may abundantly fulfill the aspirations of all.
Almighty God!
In Thee we place all our confidence, not trusting in our own strength.
Look down benignly upon these pastors of Thy Church.
May the light of Thy supernal grace aid us
in taking decisions and in making laws.
Graciously hear the prayers which we pour forth to Thee
in unanimity of faith, of voice and of mind.
O Mary, Help of Christians, Help of Bishops,
of whose love we have recently had particular proof
in thy temple of Loreto,
where we venerated the mystery of the Incarnation,
dispose all things for a happy and propitious outcome and,
with thy spouse, St. Joseph, the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul,
St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist,
intercede for us to God.
To Jesus Christ, our most amiable Redeemer,
immortal King of peoples and of times,
be love, power and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

On his deathbed, John XXIII said:

It is not that the gospel has changed; it is that we have begun to understand it better. Those who have lived as long as I have…were enabled to compare different cultures and traditions, and know that the moment has come to discern the signs of the times, to seize the opportunity and to look far ahead.

Pope John XXIII died on June 3, 1963. Pope Paul VI continued the work of the council until its closing in 1966. Click here to read excerpts from John XXIII's opening address at Vatican II and some key dates from this historic council.