St. Barbara Young Adults

It's tough to relate to someone who's supposed to be God's mom, isn't it?

Perhaps the best-known story about Nicholas concerns his charity toward a poor man who was unable to provide dowries for his three daughters of marriageable age. Rather than see them forced into prostitution, Nicholas secretly tossed a bag of gold through the poor man’s window on three separate occasions, thus enabling the daughters to be married. Over the centuries, this particular legend evolved into the custom of gift-giving on the saint’s feast. In the English-speaking countries, St. Nicholas became, by a twist of the tongue, Santa Claus—further expanding the example of generosity portrayed by this holy bishop.

Here are ten little gestures, all of them easily within our grasp, that can spread goodwill in our own communities, as well as increase our own sense of mindfulness about the people around us and our relationship to them.

Morning Glory

Morning was glorious,
Thin clouds luminous,
The brisk breeze
Welcome relief
After sticky-hot yesterdays,

And it’s been that way
All week, Lord,

For though I keep
Getting confused,
Though the world
Persists in panic,

You’ve been working,
Stirring the stale,
Calming the tempestuous,
Whispering relief
Amid so much anxiety,

Telling us today,
As much as yesterday,
What it means
To rise again.

-- Thomas Flowers

• Amazing Grace
• Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee
• Simple Gifts
• Swing Low Sweet Chariot
• Faith of Our Fathers
• Holy, Holy, Holy

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
He who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time on and for evermore.

The USCCB begins its annual plenary session today in Baltimore. On the formal agenda, the bishops will consider a proposed pastoral letter on marriage (which they should scrap and start over) and the final approval of Mass translations (some are good, some not so good but it is past time to fight over them anyway). Behind the scenes, the issue that dominates all the others is the polarization within the Conference, a polarization that seems to have been imported from the political world into the USCCB. The most important thing for the bishops to do this week is to heed the voice of their president, Cardinal George, to resist the political categories of left and right and return to “simply Catholicism.”

In the event, there is a political issue that is tailor-made for the “simply Catholicism” model proposed by Cardinal George: pro-life health care reform. For decades the bishops have backed universal health insurance for all Americans. Since 1973, the bishops have been the leaders, in season and out of season, of the pro-life movement in America. Now, thanks to the 240 members of Congress who voted for the Stupak Amendment banning federal funds for abortion, and the 220 members who voted for the final bill, the possibility of pro-life universal health insurance is that much closer to reality.

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Wisconsin priest, Fr Dominic Roscioli has partnered with two friends to launch Holy Spirits Wines. The trio's wines, which now are on sale in stores and are being poured in restaurants around southeastern Wisconsin, feature saints matched with wine varietals.

"I was looking for a way to bring the saints marching back into peoples' homes," Roscioli told the Kenosha News. "What I find is there are a lot of people who don't go to church so much, but they're very spiritual. It's a way to get people to reconnect with their Catholic roots."

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The Pontifical Academy of Sciences is holding a conference on astrobiology, the study of life beyond Earth, with scientists and religious leaders gathering in Rome this week.

For centuries, theologians have argued over what the existence of life elsewhere in the universe would mean for the Church, at least since Giordano Bruno, an Italian monk, was put to death by the Inquisition in 1600 for claiming that other worlds exist, UK's the Telegraph said.

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