Pray for World Peace: Feast of Our Lady of Fatima

Icon of Our Lady of Fatima
from Our Lady of Fatima Byzantime Catholic Church
San Francisco, CA





Prayer to Our Lady of Fatima

Immaculate Heart!

Help us to conquer the menace of evil, which so easily takes root in the hearts of the people of today, and whose immeasurable effects already weigh down upon our modern world and seem to block the paths towards the future!

From famine and war, deliver us.

From nuclear war, from incalculable self-destruction, from every kind of war, deliver us.

From sins against human life from its very beginning, deliver us.

From hatred and from the demeaning of the dignity of the children of God, deliver us.

From every kind of injustice in the life of society, both national and international, deliver us.

From readiness to trample on the commandments of God, deliver us.

From attempts to stifle in human hearts the very truth of God, deliver us.

From the loss of awareness of good and evil, deliver us.

From sins against the Holy Spirit, deliver us, deliver us.

Accept, O Mother of Christ, this cry laden with the sufferings of all individual human beings, laden with the sufferings of whole societies.

Help us with the power of the Holy Spirit to conquer all sin:
individual sin and the ‘sin of the world', sin in all its manifestations.


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Prayer from Pope John Paul II, excerpted from Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: The Message of Fatima (2006) by then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI)

Read more about the role of Mary and popular devotional practices such as those surrounding the private revelations of Our Lady of Fatima, in the USCCB's 2003 statement on Popular Devotional Practices: Basic Questions and Answers.

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Pentecost Sunday

The Holy Spirit: The Lord, the Giver of Life,
The Paraclete and Sender of Prophets
-- icon by Fr. William McNichols

A Peace and Justice Prayer from the Center of Concern's wonderful resource site: Education for Justice

Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Wind of God, continue to blow.

Sail over the barriers that we build

to divide ourselves from each other.

Pick up your seeds of freedom and truth
wherever they flourish,

carry them across frontiers

to be planted in other soil,

to begin fresh growth and new forms.


Blow from the South

to the ears of Northern peoples.

Blow away the blinders

which keep our eyes focused only on the past,

repeating its violence,

deepening its divisions,

and adding to its despair.
Reveal the new future

you have in mind for us.

Fire of God, continue to burn,

smolder in the hearts of people

where oppression keeps them in chains,

where unemployment and poverty

devalue their humanity,

and where hunger weakens the spirit.

Burn in them, like Moses' bush,

and do not let them be destroyed.

Tongue of God, continue to speak Shalom.
Speak peace where nations meet,

justice where ideas clash,

mercy where power reigns,

healing where minds and bodies hurt,

and love where churches seek your unity,

and wherever else Babel drowns out the sound of Pentecost.

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Celebrate World Fair Trade Day -- Saturday May 10th

World Fair Trade Day 2008

Have you been enjoying Just Coffee /Cafe' Justo? How about Divine Chocolate?

Saturday May 10th is WORLD FAIR TRADE DAY -- a day to celebrate the global movment that supports these and other fair trade products promoted in our Diocese and by Catholic Relief Services.

Things to do for World Fair Trade Day:

-- Read about this year's theme "FAIR TRADE + Ecology" at the World Fair Trade Day website.


-- Visit the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Fair Trade Blog

-- Learn more about Just Coffee/Cafe' Justo -- our "local" border area Fair Trade+ enterprise which got started in 2002 when small-scale coffee farmers in Chiapas bought a coffee roaster in Agua Prieta with a loan from Frontera de Cristo, a bi-national border ministry of the Presbyterian Church. Learn how Cafe' Justo creates one positive solution to the migration issue. Meet the people (growers and directors) behind the coffee in Salvador Urbina, Chiapas and Agua Prieta, Sonora.

-- Read a Fair Trade Overview and learn how to identify and find Fair Trade Certified products at the Fair Trade Certified website.


-- Browse A Greater Gift (on online catalogue promoted by CRS) to find hundreds of fair trade gifts and products (including Divine Chocolate!).


-- Reflect on how supporting FAIR TRADE is one way of promoting the Catholic Social Teaching principles of : The Dignity of Work & the Rights of Workers, Solidarity, and Care for God's Creation.

-- Pray for, support, and join with -- all those engaged in transforming our world by promoting justice and peace through FAIR TRADE.

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Action needed: May 8th meeting of the Casa Maria Coalition!

Background: In January a blog message was posted about the Casa Maria Housing Coalition and in March a message went out about a rally to SOS Save Ochoa School . The following post gives an update on the school issue and announces a meeting to address the next issues faced by the Casa Maria Housing Coalition:


In case you haven’t heard the news… THE SCHOOLS HAVE BEEN SPARED! Thanks to Brian and the Casa Maria Coalition (including many Just Faith participants), the TUSD Board has voted to keep the schools open! This is great news for the families of Casa Maria, but the struggle goes on…

On May 22 the City Council will meet again to continue discussions on the Rio Nuevo project, moving the Greyhound bus station to Marana (where homeless and low income families will have NO ACCESS) and police/immigration issues.

Please join us at Casa Maria (Maryada’s house) this Thursday, May 8, at 5 pm, to discuss these issues and ways to support our Casa families. Your presence is important and COUNTS! as we have seen this past week!

On behalf of Brian and all those at Casa Maria, Thank you for your support and willingness to stand as a voice for those who aren’t able to speak.

YOU CAN AND DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!! See you Thursday!

sent in by Barbara Padilla

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Celebrating 75 Years of "The Catholic Worker"

Catholic Worker
artwork by Ade Bethune



Quoted from The Catholic Worker website:
http://www.catholicworker.org/


"On May 1, 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression, The Catholic Worker newspaper made its debut with a first issue of twenty-five hundred copies. Dorothy Day and a few others hawked the paper in Union Square for a penny a copy (still the price) to passersby. "

"The Catholic Worker Movement is grounded in a firm belief in the God-given dignity of every human person. "

"Today over 185 Catholic Worker communities remain committed to nonviolence, voluntary poverty, prayer, and hospitality for the homeless, exiled, hungry, and foresaken. Catholic Workers continue to protest injustice, war, racism, and violence of all forms. "


See also this article from Catholic News Service:

"Catholic Worker Movement marks 75th anniversary without fanfare," by Dennis Sadowski at:
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0802398.htm


And keep Casa Maria -- our own Tucson Catholic Worker Community -- in your prayers today!
http://www.casamariatucson.org/

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St. Joseph the Worker

Artwork
by Ade Bethune

May 1 -- Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker

Today's feast day calls us to reflect on the value of work and advocate for the rights of workers. Read about the origins of this feast day at AmericanCatholic.org's Saint of the Day website.

Today we also remember the unemployed, all those seeking jobs, and -- in a special way -- all those who have died in the desert in a desperate attempt to find work in the U.S.

From the Center of Concern's Education for Justice website:

Prayer to St. Joseph, Patron of Workers

St. Joseph, Patron of Workers,
Help us to respect the dignity of all workers.
Help us to learn about and to care about
Workers who do not have fair wages, just benefits, safe working environments.
Help us to raise our voices for justice for workers.
Help us to ask our government and our representatives
To develop policies that create jobs with dignity.

You taught your son
The value of work and the joy of work well done.
Teach us these lessons.
Guide us in our own work
And in the work of justice we are all called to participate in.
Renew our strength and commitment
Each day as we face the work ahead
As we labor for the common good of all.

+ Amen.

Feast of St. Peregrine

May 1 is the feast day of Saint Peregrine Laziosi, patron of those with cancer, AIDs and other serious illnesses -- A good day to pray for the sick and advocate for a better health care system -- especially for the poor and uninsured.

Find out what our US Bishops have been advocating with respect to health care for the needy and justice for the uninsured by reading the various statements and pastoral letters posted at the USCCB's Health Issues webpage (part of the website of the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development --formerly Social Development and World Peace -- of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.)

In Arizona, we can advocate for better health services and promote heath care reform by joining PAFCO -- The Protecting Arizona's Families Coalition.

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