MASSES For NEW YEAR

Thursday Dec 31st       New Year’s Eve
6:00 PM                     Masses as usual
Fri Jan 1 New Year’s Day
9:30 AM                     English Mass
10:00 AM                   Mass at the Cathedral (for the Phu Yai)
(N.B. no Cathedral Mass at 11:00)
6:00 PM                     Mass in Thai

Intentions of  Pope Benedict XVI

JANUARY
General
That young people may learn to use modern means of social communication for their personal growth and to better prepare to serve society.

Mission
That every believer in Christ may realize that unity among all Christians is a condition for more effective proclamation of the Gospel.

Some Feasts in January

Friday 1st          Mary, Mother of God & the Giving of the Holy Name of Jesus. The Patronal Feast of the Society of Jesus. Also New Year’s Day
Saturday 2nd    Ss Basil & Gregory Nazianzen
Sunday 3rd       Epiphany of the Lord
Sunday 10th     Baptism of the Lord
Tuesday 12th    Blessed Nicholas Bunkerd Kitbamrung, Martyr of Thailand.
Tuesday 19th    Jesuit Martyrs of Europe
Tuesday 26th    Ss Timothy & Titus
Weds  27th       St Angela Merici, Foundress of   the Ursuline Sisters
Thurs 28th        St. Thomas Aquinas

Also in January

Sunday 10th     World Refugee Day
Sunday 17th     Day of World Peace

In February

Tuesday 2nd      The Presentation of the Lord

Collection

The Sunday Offertory Collection for the month of November was 46,155 Baht. We thank you for your very generous support of the mission & outreach of The Seven Fountains Spirituality Centre.

Pope Benedict XVI greets people gathered for his Angelus prayer from the window of his apartment overlooking St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Dec. 13. The square was packed with children and families who brought their figurines of baby Jesus to be blessed by the pope. (CNS/Paul Haring)

Benedict XVI has already earned a reputation as the “green pope” because of his repeated calls for stronger environmental protection, as well as gestures such as installing solar panels atop a Vatican audience hall and signing an agreement to make the Vatican Europe’s first carbon-neutral state. Now he’s cemented that profile by issuing his most comprehensive document on environmental ethics to date, in the form of an annual message for the World Day of Peace.

Strikingly, the document appeared as the nations of the world were meeting in Copenhagen to hammer out a deal on climate change – one of a host of environmental threats Benedict identified as an urgent moral priority.

The pope’s language was forceful.
“How can one remain indifferent in the face of problems such as climate change, desertification, the degradation and loss of productivity in vast agricultural areas, the pollution of rivers and aquifers, the loss of biodiversity, the increase in extreme weather, and the deforestation of equatorial and tropical areas?” he asked.

“How can one overlook the growing phenomenon of so-called ‘environmental refugees,’ meaning persons who, because of environmental degradation, have to leave – often together with their belongings – in a kind of forced movement, in order to escape the risks and the unknown? How can we not react to the conflicts already underway, as well as potential new ones, linked to access to natural resources?”

“These are all questions,” Benedict XVI said, “that have a profound impact on the exercise of human rights, such as the rights to life, to food, to health and to development.”

The World Day of Peace is an observance launched by the Catholic church under Pope Paul VI in 1967. The Vatican released Benedict’s message Dec. 15.

Meditative/Contemplative Prayer Experiences you can download

Pray-as-you-go can be found at
www.pray-as-you-go.org

Sacred Space may be found at www.sacredspace.ie

livesimply is a challenge to live simply, sustainably and in solidarity with people in poverty.

www.progressio.org.uk/livesimply/AssociatesHome2/92990/livesimply/

Full text of Pope Benedict's World Peace Day message:

Benedict’s title was “If you want to cultivate peace, take care of creation” – a deliberate play on Paul VI’s famous injunction, “If you want peace, work for justice.”

Benedict accented a vision of the cosmos as a gift of God, which human beings have an obligation to “care for and cultivate.” In that regard, the pope called for “a profound and farsighted revision of the model of development,” based not only on the needs of today’s “living beings, human and non-human,” but those of generations to come.

At the level of specific policy measures, Benedict XVI advocated:

A new mode of calculating the cost of economic activity, which would factor in environmental impact;
Greater investment in solar energy and other forms of energy with a reduced environmental footprint;
Strategies of rural development concentrated on small-scale farmers and their families;

Progressive disarmament, including “a world free of nuclear weapons.”

While saying that primary responsibility for taking action must fall to wealthy industrialized nations, Benedict pointedly added that less developed nations “cannot be exonerated from their own responsibility.” Exactly how much less developed nations should be expected to curb emissions, and to take other steps potentially limiting their economic growth, has been a major sticking point at the Copenhagen summit.

At the same time, Benedict XVI wasn’t simply issuing a set of political talking points. He also insisted that protecting the environment is “the duty of every person,” one which demands changes in personal habits and attitudes.

Benedict called for “new styles of life,” based not solely upon the logic of consumption but also “sobriety and solidarity,” as well as “prudence.”

Benedict linked environmental protection to other core values, such as the right to life “in every phase and in every condition,” and the family. He cautioned against a “new pantheism with neo-pagan accents” that would elevate nature into an absolute value, at the expense of human dignity.

Benedict’s 2010 World Peace Day message builds upon what many experts already regarded as the most striking element of his social teaching. His track record on ecology is extensive enough that Catholic writer Woodene Koenig-Bricker collected it into a book in May 2009, titled Ten Commandments for the Environment (Ave Maria Press.)

An Online Retreat

A 34 week retreat for Everyday Life - A Ministry of the Collaborative Ministry Office at Creighton University.
http://www.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/cmo-retreat.html

The Green Pope

Pope Benedict XVI has been called the "green pope," because of his concern for the environment. He installed solar panels to generate electricity on roofs in the Vatican, and this year he added them to his home in Germany. Recently, the Vatican installed high-tech solar collectors to help heat and cool its buildings. He has also made the Vatican the first carbon neutral state through forests offsetting the Vatican carbon footprint.

"It's impressive they're actually doing what some people only talk about and (they) are doing it in a significant way," Mark Hopkins, director of the United Nations Foundation's energy policy program told Catholic News Service.

In his new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, the pope calls us to value nature as God's creation, while rejecting any pagan or pantheistic view. "In nature," he writes, "the believer recognizes the wonderful result of God's creative activity, which we may use responsibly to satisfy our legitimate needs, material or otherwise, while respecting the intrinsic balance of creation."

This gift is not to be exploited for purely selfish ends, rather, "The environment is God's gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole." Thus, Benedict combines his concern for the poor with his concern for the environment.

In the encyclical he applies his vision to energy policy. Like the Obama administration, he argues for conservation and the development of alternative sources of energy.

"The technologically advanced societies [that is us] can and must lower their domestic energy consumption," he argues, "either through an evolution in manufacturing methods or through greater ecological sensitivity among their citizens." This ecological sensitivity should lead to the adoption of new life-styles "in which the quest for truth, beauty, goodness and communion with others for the sake of common growth are the factors which determine consumer choices, savings and investments."

Unlike most American politicians, he is also concerned about "countries [that] lack the economic means either to gain access to existing sources of non-renewable energy or to finance research into new alternatives." He complains that "some States, power groups and companies hoard non-renewable energy resources" and this "represents a grave obstacle to development in poor countries."

He calls for "a worldwide redistribution of energy resources, so that countries lacking those resources can have access to them."

No American politician could say anything like this, but Benedict can and does because his environmental views are motivated by theology not politics. On September 10, he argued that people must "see in creation something more than a simple source of wealth or exploitation in man's hands." The gift of creation must be used "responsibly and respectfully, making it fruitful." For ultimately, we must see creation as "the expression of a plan of love and truth that speaks to us of the Creator and of his love for humanity, which will find its fulfillment in Christ, at the end of time."

Thomas J. Reese, S.J., a Senior Fellow, Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown University, writes a column for newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith.
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/georgetown/2009/09/the_green_pope.html

Understand each other: Dalai Lama, Taiwan Cardinal

Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama and Taiwan’s retired Cardinal Paul K.S. Shan have called for the cultivation of charity, honesty, spirituality and ethics in a dialogue between the two.

The conversation with former Kaohsiung Cardinal Shan in Kaohsiung drew an audience of more than 1,000 people, including Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu and Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. Chairwoman Nita Ing, China Daily reports.

Stressing that trust is an indispensable element in society, the Dalai Lama urged people to use their wisdom to resolve differences and avoid using harsh words to create rivalry.

According to the Tibetan leader, the purpose of religion is to discover the good of humanity and allow followers to understand universal values through various doctrines.

Both spiritual leaders pointed out that the goal of religious dialogue is not to convert the other but to understand each other. The Dalai Lama said he believes all religions should teach mutual tolerance, respect and cooperation with each other in order to promote world peace.

When the cardinal described the lung adenocarcinoma he was diagnosed with three years ago, which the doctor said will kill him in six months, as a messenger of good news, reminding him to cherish every day of his life and to devote himself to helping others, the Dalai Lama praised him as a true practitioner of Buddhist teachings.

Charity and honesty can safe Taiwan: Dalai Lama and Cardinal Paul Shan (China Post)

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