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Great parishes begin with invitation and inspiration. Let us help you in your important tasks of engaging your congregation with great content for your bulletin and parish website. Please browse the PREPARE THE WORD Library or enter a search term to find just the right item to pass on to your congregation. Consider including one or more of the following items in your next parish publication: Take Five for Faith Exploring the word Homily stories Questions Catholics ask Advent | Lent handouts

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For crying out loud

16 Aug 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Jesus promises in this Sunday's gospel to raise "on the last day" those who partake of the bread of life. A baby boy born 16 weeks early and declared dead at a hospital in Asunción, Paraguay apparently raised his head and cried at the last minute, as his family was preparing his funeral. Dr. Ernesto Weber, head of pediatric care at the state-run hospital in the country's capital, said the baby weighed just 500 grams (17.6 ounces) when he was born. "Initially, the baby didn't move, he practically didn't have any respiratory reflexes, nor did we hear a heartbeat and, as a result, we declared a premature fetus of 24 weeks dead," Weber said. The family was given a death certificate and a cardboard box with the baby's name scribbled on the outside, which served as a makeshift coffin. But on the way to his funeral, "I opened the box and took the baby out and he cried. I got scared and I said 'the baby's crying' . . . and then he started moving his arms, his legs and I got scared, we got very scared," said family member Liliana Alvarenga. The hospital has begun an investigation and the baby is now in a stable condition in an incubator. Source: An article by Reuters

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Go forth and blog, pope urges

31 Jan 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Pope Benedict XVI took advantage of the World Day of Communications last Saturday to urge those in ministry to use all the multimedia tools at their disposal to preach the gospel. But just as Saint Paul warns in the reading from 1 Corinthians that communication without love is nothing more than “a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal,” Benedict added that priests who venture online “should be less notable for their media savvy than for their priestly heart, their closeness to Christ.” The pope, whose own presence on the Web has grown heavily in recent years, urged priests to use all multimedia tools at their disposal to preach the gospel and engage in dialogue with people of other religions and cultures. “The spread of multimedia communications and its rich ‘menu of options’ might make us think it sufficient simply to be present on the Web,” but priests are “challenged to proclaim the gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources,” he said. The 82-year-old pope has often been wary of new media. He has warned of the tendency of entertainment media to trivialize sex and promote violence while lamenting that the endless stream of news can make people insensitive to tragedies. But Benedict has also praised new ways of communicating as a “gift to humanity” when used to foster friendship and understanding. The Vatican has tried hard to keep up to speed with the rapidly changing field. Last year it launched a YouTube channel as well as a portal dedicated to the pope, Pope2you.net. The social networking and communications portal offers news on the pontiff’s trips and speeches and features a Facebook application that allows users to send postcards with photos of Benedict and excerpts from his messages to their friends. The Vatican also announced this week that the pope has made changes to provisions of canon law. One concerns marriages for Catholics who have formally renounced the church and the other concerns the ministry of deacons. The changes came in a “motu proprio” titled “Omnium in mentem (In the Mind of All).” Source: Articles by Ariel David for Associated Press, CathNewsAsia.com, Zenit.org, and Vatican Information Service

Marriage communications canon law motu proprio omnium in mentem in the mind of all world wide web priests benedict xvi internet Deacons world day of communications

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Democratic Senators begin to exit, stage left

23 Jan 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The psalmist this Sunday seeks “to dwell in the house of the Lord" forever. A growing number of U.S. senators don’t feel the same about hanging around the upper chamber of Congress after 2012. Democratic hopes of retaining the Senate have dimmed in recent days with a series of retirement announcements. On Tuesday North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad said he will not seek reelection in 2012. The heavily Republican state is unlikely to throw its support to President Obama, so Conrad’s retirement makes the state's next senatorial race much less complicated for Republicans. That situation will also allow the GOP to put more resources into other Senate races. Wednesday Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, erstwhile Democrat turned independent, joined the exit line. Other potential retirements will not bring any better news for the majority party. Virginia Sen. Jim Webb is reportedly undecided about running for reelection and has done little fundraising. Were he to run, he could face former Virginia governor and senator George Allen in a 2006 rematch. Webb beat Allen by only one percentage point in their last contest. Democratic Senators Herb Kohl of Wisconsin and Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico are also considering retirement. Both of their states went heavily Republican in 2010. The Democrats already face a difficult challenge retaining the Senate because they will have to defend 13 more seats than the GOP in 2012. Source: An article by Cullen Linebargar for Examiner.com

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Will Libyan no-fly zone fly?

27 Mar 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

"We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" and a hope that "does not disappoint," Saint Paul writes to the Romans. Questions about the objectives of the United Nations-mandated military mission in Libya have challenged the faith and hope of those looking for peace and the end of dictatorship in that North African country. As of Thursday morning coalition jets had pounded targets for a fifth consecutive night but so far have been unable to stop Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's armored forces. In Misrata, Libya's third-largest city, a resident told CNN that snipers loyal to Gadhafi were operating from rooftops. The battle for that city has been going on for more than a week. On Wednesday U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking from Cairo, acknowledged there is no clear end to the international military enforcement of a no-fly zone over Libya and says no one was ever under any illusion that the assault would last only two or three weeks. He said that the U.S. could turn over leadership of the operation as soon as Saturday but could not say how the coalition operation might be resolved. The beginning of the transition from U.S. control was emerging Wednesday as NATO warships started patrolling off the coast of Libya to enforce an arms embargo. Gates said the goals for the mission are clear: the establishment of a no-fly zone and preventing Gadhafi from killing his own people, but he had no answer when asked about a possible stalemate if Gadhafi hunkers down. The U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the assault does not approve targeting him. But some analysts and U.S. politicians are questioning whether the Obama administration is being clear enough about the purposes of the Libyan mission and even whether it has the authority to conduct the operation. Max Boot, a senior fellow for national security studies for the Council on Foreign Relations, said the U.S. needs to look at what will happen in a post-Gadhafi Libya. He suggested sending in an international peacekeeping force if the Gadhafi regime falls, a move that would require another U.N. resolution. “In some ways this is like Iraq redux where we are very much focused on the immediate objectives,” Boot said. “And we are not looking down the road to how we create a stable and relatively peaceful Libya. A cease-fire is not going to be durable and as long as Gadhafi remains in power, the crisis will go on and on and on,” Boot said. In Congress some members are complaining that President Barack Obama’s decision to intervene in Libya is ignoring the legislative branch. In his two statements on Libya in the past few days Obama said he had acted “after consulting with my national security team, and Republican and Democratic leaders of Congress.” Instead of seeking a vote by Congress to affirm his actions, Obama cited as his authority the U.N. Security Council resolution passed last week. But Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) told NBC: “We have not put this issue in front of the American people in any meaningful way. The president is in Rio; the Congress is out of session. We have been on autopilot for almost 10 years now in terms of presidential authorization in conducting these type of military operations absent the meaningful participation of the Congress. We have not had a debate . . . . This isn’t the way that our system is supposed to work.” Sources: Articles by Tom Curry for msnbc.com, CNN Wire Staff, and the Associated Press

barack obama no-fly zone misrata libya moammar gadhafi jim webb un security council robert gates congress max boot

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Memo to churches: Gluttony is still deadly

10 Jun 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

This Sunday’s readings the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ offer Mark’s vivid portrayal of scenes from the Last Supper. In the present age of obesity, say health observers and religious ethicists alike, standards have fallen to the point where people are more likely to stop by the drive-through window to pick up a jumbo-sized value meal than eat in the style of Jesus—who, as an observer once put it, “walked everywhere” and “loved grilled fish dinners with friends.”While it seems the sin of gluttony has fallen off the radar at most churches, obesity rates have shot up nationwide. Kaiser Health News reports that 78 million American adults and 13 million young people are obese, with grave health and economic consequences for them and the nation.Health advocates want to change that and are calling on churches to help, particularly in Bible Belt states where obesity is especially high. Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Arkansas are all top-10 states when it comes to the highest obesity rates, according to U.S. News & World Report.It’s vital that obesity be addressed from the pulpit, said Scott Morris, a medical doctor and minister who founded the Church Health Center in Memphis, Tennessee. But church practices have to change, too. “The least healthy meal you can eat every week is at your church,” Morris said, referring to the heavily fried and starched foods that often show up at church potlucks, cookouts, and fundraisers. “The church has blessed the sin of gluttony. They have the hope of being able to draw people into the church in a way that is not necessarily great for the community. We have to change that.”Stephen H. Webb, a religion and philosophy professor at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana who wrote the essay "Whatever Happened to the Sin of Gluttony?", contends the sin got lost on its way from the ancient world to the 21st century. In times of scarcity, gluttony was a sin because one person eating too much food would mean another didn’t get enough, Webb said. That argument doesn’t hold in a world where the economy runs on food conglomerates, grocery supercenters, and dining out for fun.Well-known pastor Rick Warren, who leads the 30,000-member Saddleback Church in Southern California, recently lost 60 pounds and has promoted a diet called the Daniel Plan, named for the Old Testament prophet’s commitment to light fare. “I stood up before 20,000 people and told them I had gained 3 pounds a year, but I’ve been your pastor for 30 years, so I needed to lose about 90 pounds,” he told USA TODAY earlier this year.A number of churches are offering exercise and cooking classes to help overweight members. At Congregation Sherith Israel in Nashville, members take turns working in a garden that board member Miriam Leibowitz helped start. Congregational dinners always include fresh fruit and vegetables. “Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and many other religions talk about moderation as part of whole health,” Leibowitz said. “Keeping a healthy body is just as important as keeping a healthy spirit in order to have spiritual health.” Sources: Articles by Robert Parham for EthicsDaily.com and Heidi Hall for The Tennessean

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New venture to offer ethical ads to Catholic websites

30 Sep 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Untroubled by outsiders invoking his name to do good deeds, Jesus points out in this Sunday’s gospel that no one who speaks ill of him will be able to use his name to accomplish anything of merit. Catholic website managers who are concerned that meritless or offensive advertisements that do not represent Catholic values may show up on their sites if they use automatic ad-generator programs have a new option: AdEthic, a web advertising platform that aims to provide Catholic websites with positive and wholesome advertising messages.According to Andrea Salvati, a manager at Google Italy who will take the role of CEO at AdEthic in October, the platform wants to tap into the vast Catholic online market that has so far been unable or unwilling to use advertisements. Many Catholic webmasters are concerned that inappropriate advertisements, such as sexually related content or messages from "bogus religious groups," will be displayed on their pages by context-sensitive automatic ad generators such as Google's AdSense, said Father Paolo Padrini.Padrini, who launched an “iBreviary” prayer app for smartphones last year, will head the ethics committee that will ensure the Catholic values of the platform's ad partners. "We want to offer highly selected, high-quality, controlled advertisement to the Catholic online world," he said.AdEthic will also offer Catholic websites the chance to monetize their traffic while supporting charity at the same time. Part of AdEthic revenues will be used to fund charitable projects. "We want to turn the concept of advertisement upside down," said Padrini, transforming it from something that "aims exclusively at profit to something that promotes solidarity."AdEthic will start operating in Italy but aims eventually to expand to other countries. It hopes to attract websites with at least 2 million monthly users to its network by the end of 2012. "We will start selling advertisement space then," Salvati said.Homily hint: Raise awareness in the congregation of the amount of questionable advertising on the internet—offensive ads as well as scams abound online—and how parents of younger and impressionable children in particular need to be web savvy in order to help their kids separate the wheat from the chaff online. Source: An article by Alessandro Speciale for Religion News Service

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Online money laundering site goes down

02 Jun 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

A few loaves of bread and a handful of fish are mysteriously transformed into a vast meal distributed to a hungry crowd of 5,000, we learn in this Sunday’s gospel reading. With this week's arrest of the leaders of online currency exchange Liberty Reserve, federal prosecutors shed light on the mysterious world of underground cyberfinance, where real currency is transformed into electronic currency and disbursed to bank accounts worldwide with a few keystrokes that leave even fewer traces.The operators of Liberty Reserve ran a $6 billion online money-laundering operation, a central hub for criminals trafficking in everything from stolen identities to child pornography, federal prosecutors in New York charged on Tuesday. “The coin of its realm was anonymity,” said Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan.Liberty Reserve operated beyond the traditional confines of U.S. and international banking regulations in what prosecutors called a shadowy netherworld of cyberfinance. It traded in virtual currency and provided the kind of anonymous and easily accessible banking infrastructure increasingly sought by criminal networks, law enforcement officials said.Over seven years Liberty Reserve was responsible for laundering billions of dollars and conducting 55 million transactions that involved millions of customers around the world, including about 200,000 in the United States, according to prosecutors.Richard Weber, who heads the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigation division in Washington, said at the news conference that the case heralds the arrival of “the cyber age of money laundering” in which criminals “are gravitating toward digital currency alternatives as a means to move, conceal, and enjoy their ill-gotten gains.“If Al Capone were alive today, this is how he would be hiding his money,” Weber said. “Our efforts today shatter the belief among high-tech money launderers that what happens in cyberspace stays in cyberspace.”Homily hint: We’re raised to believe that crime does not pay yet signs all around us suggest that it can indeed be quite profitable. Reminding people of the emotional benefits of honest living, such as a sense of personal integrity and being at peace with oneself, might be a more effective way to help people steer clear of the temptations of easy money. Source: An article by Marc Santora, William K. Rashbaum,and Nicole Perlroth for the New York Times

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