Call to Family, Community, and Participation

How we organize our society—in economics and politics, in law and policy—directly affects human dignity and the capacity of individuals to grow in community. families are central social institutions that must be supported and strengthened, not undermined. While our society often exalts individualism, the Christian tradition teaches that human beings grow and achieve fulfillment in community. People have a right and a duty to participate in society, seeking together the common good and well being of all, especially the poor and vulnerable.

The Church teaches that the role of government and other institutions is to protect human life and human dignity and promote the common good.

* No community is more central than the family; it is the basic cell of society. It is where we learn and act on our values. What happens in the family is the basis of a truly human life.

* The state and other institutions of political and economic life, with both their limitations and obligations, are instruments to protect the life, dignity, and rights of the human person. When basic human needs are not being met by private initiative, and then people must work through their government, at appropriate levels, to meet those needs.

* A central test of political, legal, and economic institutions is what they do to people, what they do for people, and how people participate in them.

Thanksgiving Day Dinner Prayer 2009

We are gathered together this Thanksgiving Day to give thanks to God, and we are thankful.

O Lord, with humble hearts we ask your blessing on this table and place. We celebrate this time of year because our Lord was born; But let us not forget that there are others who may mourn.

Touch those who may be suffering; touch every wounded heart; touch all those burdened souls; when they feel distant, set apart. Remove the pain, and fill their hearts with happiness and mirth, and let them all rejoice now in the Savior's holy birth.

Oh God, Creator of the world and Lord of our nation,

• We thank You for your many blessings.
  
  
• We thank You for the relationships You have given to us -- for family and friends.
  
  
• We thank You for the fellowship of believers in Christ
  
  
• We thank You for friends in a world where many walk alone
  
  
• We thank You for food in a world where many walk in hunger
  
  
• We thank You for faith in a world where many walk in fear
  
  
• We thank You for giving us eyes to see, ears to hear, mouth to talk, legs to walk,
  
  
• We thank You for those who are near to us, for those physically present, and for those who are near, though in distant places, and those who have come home to you.

We, also want to thank You for all the bad experiences and broken hearts. We have learned that you were there for us too

Creator of the universe you give us these gifts of food to nourish us and give us life. Bless the food that you have made and human hands have prepared. May it satisfy our hunger, and in sharing it together may we come close to one another. Come Holy Spirit, as this food feeds our bodies, So we pray you would nourish our souls.

As you blessed many with the five loaves and the two fishes, may we too, know your blessing as we share this food, your peace in our hearts and your love in our lives.

For this our daily bread, and for every gift which comes from you O God, we bless your holy name. Bless us O Lord and these gifts that we are about to receive from thy bounty Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Care for God’s Creation

On a planet conflicted over environmental issues, the Christian tradition insists that we show our respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation. Care for the earth is not just a slogan, it is a requirement of our faith. We are called to protect people and the planet, living our faith in relationship with all of God's creation. This environmental challenge has fundamental moral and ethical dimensions that cannot be ignored.

The world that God created has been entrusted to us, yet our use of it must be directed by God's plan for creation, not simply by our own benefit. Our stwardship of the earth is a kind of participation in God's act of creating and sustaining the world. In our use of creation, we must be guided by our concern for the welfare of others, both around the world and for generations to come, and by a respect for the intrinsic worth and beauty of all God's creatures.

Rights and Responsibilities

In a world where some speak mostly of “rights” and others mostly of “responsibilities,” the Christian tradition teaches that human dignity can be protected and a healthy community can be achieved only if human rights are protected and responsibilities are met. Therefore, every person has a fundamental right to life and a right to those things required for human decency: faith and family, food and shelter, health care and housing, education and employment.

Corresponding to these rights are duties and responsibilities—to one another, to our families, and to the larger society. While public debate in our nation is often divided between those who focus on personal responsibility and those who focus on social responsibilities, our tradition insists that both are necessary.

Flowing from our God-given dignity, each person has basic rights and responsibilities. These include: the rights to freedom of conscience and religious liberty, to raise a family, to immigrate, to live free from discrimination, and to have a share of earthly goods sufficient for oneself and one’s family. People have a fundamental right to life and those things that make life truly human: food, clothing, housing, health care, education, security, social services, and employment.

Solidarity

Our culture is tempted to turn inward, becoming indifferent and sometimes isolationist in the face of international responsibilities. Christian social teaching proclaims that we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, wherever they live. We are one human family, whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences. Learning to practice the virtue of solidarity means learning that “loving our neighbor” has global dimensions in an interdependent world.

Because of the interdependence among all the members of the human family around the globe, we have a moral responsibility to commit ourselves to the common good at all levels: in local communities, in our nation, in the community of nations. We are one human family, whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences.

On Tuesday November 4, 2008 the country elected a new president named Baraka Obama. We have turned the page on race and hate. Now is the time for us also to start a new. this prayer is written to inspire a new beginning.

A Prayer For a New Start

God of new beginnings and wonderful surprises, thank you for the gift of a new start. May it be a time of grace for me, a time to grow in faith and love, a time to renew my commitment to following Your Son. May it be a new time of blessing for me, a time to cherish my family and friends, a time to embrace my faith more fully.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love
where there is injury, pardon
where there is doubt, faith
where there is despair, hope
where there is darkness, light
where there is sadness, joy

Lord, as the dawns of this new start grant, that I may not so much:

seek to be consoled as to console
seek to be understood as to understand
seek to receive as to giving
seek to be forgiven as to forgive
seek to be big in little things
seek to be the joy which friendship brings
seek to be wise in what is right
seek to bear what burdens come my way.
seek to endure and less to fear.

Walk with me O Lord, every day and every hour of this New beginning, that the light of Christ might shine through me, in spite of my weaknesses and failings. Above all, may I remember this year that I am a pilgrim on the sacred path to You. AMEN

Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers

Traditionally, workers have the strong support of the Church in forming and joining unions and worker associations of their choosing in the exercise of their dignity and rights.

In a marketplace where too often the quarterly bottom line takes precedence over the rights of workers, we must believe that the economy must serve people, not the other way around. Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God's creation. Work is a way of fulfilling part of our human potential given to us by God.

If the dignity of work is to be protected, then the basic rights of workers must be respected—the right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to organize and join unions, to ownership and private property, and to economic initiative. Respecting these rights promotes an economy that protects human life, defends human rights, and advances the well-being of all.