Saturday, October 11, 2008

Thinking of all those Bishops gathered in Rome and the work they are doing.
That will make a difference to the whole world, eventually.

Got this link in the ZENIT newsletter that I get each morning by email.
I liked the upbeat comments from Pope John 23rd about the possibility of good in the world of the present, and how he didn't agree with the 'doom 'n gloomers' of his time.

"In the every day exercise of our pastoral ministry, greatly to our sorrow we sometimes have to listen to those who, although consumed with zeal, do not have very much judgment or balance. To them the modern world is nothing but betrayal and ruination. They claim that this age is far worse than previous ages and they go on as though they had learned nothing from history -- and yet history is the great teacher of life.

"They behave as though the first five centuries saw a complete vindication of the Christian idea and the Christian cause, and as though religious liberty was never put in jeopardy in the past. We feel bound to disagree with these prophets of misfortune who are forever forecasting calamity -- as though the end of the world is imminent. Our task is not merely to hoard this precious treasure of doctrine, as though obsessed with the past, but to give ourselves eagerly and without fear to the task that this present age demands of us -- and in doing so we will be faithful to what the Church has done in the past 20 centuries."
More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Morte D'Arthur)