May 20, 2013 - Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown

Page 4 The Catholic Register, May 20, 2013
THE CATHOLIC
REGISTER
SERVING THE DIOCESE OF
ALTOONA - JOHNSTOWN
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Member Publication Of
The Catholic Press Association
Publisher:
Most Reverend Bishop
Mark L. Bartchak
Editor:
Rev. Msgr. Timothy P. Stein
Manager:
Bruce A. Tomaselli
Secretary:
Frances M. Logrando
Another
Perspective
By Monsignor Timothy P. Stein
Pope Francis
And Ordinary Time
Point Of View
“No man is an island.”
We’ve all heard that phrase. It’s
also true that “No marriage is an
island.” When a marriage breaks
up, the effects touch not only the
spouses but all around them.
The purpose of this article is
to offer a few resources for dealing
with the aftermath, because
the Church, in her compassion,
wants to offer understanding
and assistance in healing to all
involved.
Remember that affordable
counseling is available from
Catholic Charities.
For divorced individuals
there is an excellent DVD series
by Rose Sweet, “The Catholic’s
Divorce Survival Guild,” for
small group or individual use.
An accompanying workbook is
available.
Making Your Way After
Your Parents’ Divorce,
is a book for teens and young
adults written by Lynn Cassella,
a child of divorce herself. Cardinal
Wuerl says of the book,
“With a compassion born of her
own experience, she helps the
reader see that others have gone
through heartaches that often
seem impossible both to comprehend
and absorb.” She addresses
“the disaster of divorce
with intellectual honesty.”
Bringing in faith in a most
sensitive manner, Cassella
guides readers in their walk with
God, to get a hold of their life
and grow from the experience
of their parents’ divorce. (This
step-by-step, practical and wellreceived
book would be a most
appreciated gift!)
More than ever, children of
divorcing parents need the presence
of extended family (grandparents
and others) in their lives.
Joan Schrager Cohen’s book,
Helping Your Grandchildren
Through Their Parents’ Divorce,
offers practical wisdom
about how to talk to grandchildren
about the divorce, handson
activities for grandparents
who live nearby and ways to offer
grandchildren long-distance
support, guidelines for maintaining
family traditions, and
more.
Children’s pain is not always
obvious, but it is there.
Healing A Child’s Heart After
Divorce: 100 Practical Ideas
For Families, Friends, And
Caregivers by Alan Wolfelt and
Raelynn Maloney offers realistic,
do-able ways to be the caring
adults in these children’s lives.
Also helpful for catechists,
teachers and coaches.
What might grown children
of divorce need when they are
ready to marry? In their book,
Adult Children Of Divorced
Parents: Making Your Marriage
Work, family therapists
Beverly and Tom Rodgers, both
from divorced families, provide
proven exercises that help readers
heal from four major wounds
relating to trust, fear, insecurity
and the lack of a mentor, so they
The
Bureau Drawer
By Susan Stith
Doing The Best
With A Sad Situation
can move on to a successful
marriage.
Divorce breaks the hearts
of so many! It is a humbling
experience to feel so helpless
to change things, to watch
loved ones as they grieve and
struggle to rebuild their lives.
We can’t take away the pain, but
we can walk with them. There
are practical things we can do.
The above resources offer useful
tools and give us concrete ways
to show our love!
The books and DVDs mentioned
above can be borrowed
through the mail from our diocesan
Family Life Office: familylife@dioceseaj.org
or 814-886-
5551. These would be useful
additions to your parish library.
When last the Church’s calendar turned from a season of celebration
to the inelegantly named “Ordinary Time,” I wrote a column
touting the idea that Ordinary Time is the heart of the Christian life
- - that we work out our salvation by living through the highs and
lows of ordinary life: I wrote then: “We live out the bulk of our days in
Ordinary Time. There’s nothing special about Ordinary Time - - only
the extraordinarily special fact that God gave us each day of Ordinary
Time, and on each and every one of those days, we have a new opportunity
to meet Him and greet Him, and come to a deeper relationship
with Him. There are highs and lows in every life, seasons of
celebration and seasons of sadness, but most days of most lives are
ordinary days - - ordinary time, when we plug along, doing our best,
praying and praising God, serving Him and His holy people, and striving
to keep our heads above water.”
When I wrote those words, who could have predicted that before
the next hiatus in Ordinary Time, Pope Benedict XVI would announce
his intention to resign from the papacy? Who could have foreseen
that at the end of the second week of Lent, the Church would be
without a Pope? How could we have known in January that by mid
– March a new Pope would be elected, and that the glorious Easter
season would be marked by the opening days of the pontificate of
Pope Francis? And now, here comes Ordinary Time, again. As we
enter again into these green days of fresh hopes and new beginnings,
I will venture another prediction: this year, Ordinary Time is
more significant than it has ever been before. Now we have to settle
down, settle in and get used to our new Pope and what his papacy
will mean for the life of the Church. We have to find out what it means
for Pope Francis to be Pope in Ordinary Time.
Pope Francis burst onto the scene as we celebrated new life
at Easter. He came to us life a fresh breeze or a bracing wind: the
stories of his down – to – earth approach to life, his shunning of
pomp and circumstance, his willingness to be seen as a man, a mere
mortal like the rest of us, was all refreshing. There was a “feel good
factor” at work in the first days and weeks of Pope Francis’ pontificate.
The world was intrigued and sat up and paid attention. But
what happens now? What happens as we get accustomed to the
idea of Pope Francis? Will we continue to be excited by the message
he conveys, or will we soon start to complain and moan and groan
about the Vatican getting back to “business as usual.” Ordinary Time
will prove to be a critical time for this pontificate.
The signs are already out there that the honeymoon might be
over. In an address to the International Union of Superiors General,
a group representing women religious all over the world, the Holy
Father made the point that you can’t love Jesus if you don’t love His
Church. He also spoke of Sisters’ vow of chastity as a kind of “consecrated
motherhood.” Critics began to call “foul” - - intimating that the
new Pope was just another old misogynist who doesn’t understand
women, and who wants everyone to put obedience to the Church
before the call of conscience. Yet, what else could Pope Francis
say? As Pope, he is guardian of the truth, and he is called to speak
the truth. That’s the ordinary work of a Pope. That’s his task not only
during times of celebration, but most especially in Ordinary Time.
We welcomed our new Pope almost unrestrainedly when we
first met him. But now is the time for us to embrace him and stand
behind him. He is called to proclaim the good news in season and
out of season, but mainly, during the course of Ordinary Time. And
his message will be an extraordinarily ordinary one: love Jesus, love
His Church, and love one another as He has loved you. Strip away
the hoopla, and there you have the work of a lifetime - - a lifetime of
ordinary time.