Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • May 31, 2019 11 Called...Formed..Sent From page 10 Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis, popularly known as Father Simeon, a Cistercian monk serving in Rome, has reflected beautifully on the meaning of “coming to Jesus”: “Coming to Jesus,” he says, “is the condition for finding relief. All we need to do is choose to enter the sphere of his presence, and the unnatural pressures borne down upon us by both the world and ourselves begin to dissipate. To the extent that we are far from Jesus, we are the source of our own greatest burdens; without him as Lord, we are in thrall to the tyranny of our passions and, therefore, susceptible to the world’s manipulation and the influence of the Evil One. Without the all-consuming love of Jesus burning in our heart as pure transforming fire, the passions roam the landscape of the soul like ravenous orphans…. “Jesus, whose name means ‘Savior’ is by definition the source of relief from all oppression, whether self- generated or imposed on us from without. The toil of living, abstracted from the compassionate power of God, only bears fruits of dejection and despair.” 24 In this vein, Dom Blosius the Venerable says: “The servant of God, then must believe without the slightest doubt that the invisible God is near him, yes, within him…. He finds God in himself now whenever he fills his memory with the thought of his presence, but in a far more excellent way will he experience his presence when he has found out how to penetrate to the inner sanctuary of his own soul.” 25 ©2018 The Birmingham Catholic Press, Inc. Birmingham, Alabama 18 EG 30. 19 EG 31. 20 John Paul II, Vita Consecrata, 29. 21 Vita Consecrata, 25. 22 Pope Pius XI Ad Catholici Sacerdotii , 16. 23 Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes , 48. 24 Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis; Magnificat , Vol. 20, No. 5, pp. 276-277. 25 Dom Blosius the Venerable, pp. 316-317, Magnificat , same issue. Catholic Sharing Appeal Welcome to the Catholic Sharing Appeal Corner ! I’d like to use this forum to highlight the important ministries and programs that are made possible by your contributions to our annual diocesan appeal, as well as keep every- one updated on the progress of the appeal. Additionally, I’d like to use it to answer your questions about the Catholic Sharing Appeal with a “Q & A” format each month. I think a good place to start is an explanation of what the Catholic Sharing Appeal is, and how it serves the people of our diocese. In response to the Lord’s call to be His Disciples, we are called to serve. We are called to serve the Lord, but we are also called to serve each other, His Mystical Body. The smallest form of the Church is the family, or the domestic Church. In it, parents and guardians serve each other and their children by providing shelter, food, clothing, and by teaching and practicing their Catholic Faith. As a family we are called to help others who are in need, but we are often limited by time and resources. When we come together as a PARISH family, we combine our faith, our time, and our resourc- es to enable us to help one another, to help those less fortu- nate in our communities, and to share the Good News of Salvation in Jesus Christ with others. The parish, or “extended family,” demonstrates what we can do when we unite our efforts to serve the Lord and His peo- ple. There are still needs in our communities that are greater than families or even parishes can minister to on a regular basis. For these needs we come togeth- er as the Diocesan Church to help serve an even larger group of people. The Catholic Sharing Appeal is an appeal from the bishop, directly to the parishioners of the diocese to ask for our prayerful and financial support for the ministries and programs of the Diocesan Church. It is this annual occasion that enables us to come togeth- er, join our resources of faith, time, and treasure, to answer the Lord’s call to serve that larger group of people in our communities on our jour- ney into deeper discipleship in Jesus. Your prayers and financial gifts to the Catholic Sharing Appeal help fund over 20 min- istries of the Catholic Diocese of Biloxi that serve thousands of people in the 17 counties of our diocese. If you have already made a pledge or given a gift to this year’s Catholic Sharing Appeal , THANK YOU! If you have not, please prayerfully consider a gift, of any amount, to this year’s appeal. If you have questions about the annual CSA please submit them to me at via email at dwyr- wich@biloxidiocese.org . Questions and answers will be published in subsequent issues of the Gulf Pine Catholic . As we launch this monthly “ CSA Corner ,” I thank you for your past and future support of the Church in the Diocese of Biloxi! Until next month, Happy Summer! It is not how much we give, but how much love we put into giving. -- St. Teresa of Calcutta In Christ, Dave Wyrwich Director of Stewardship & Development Diocese of Biloxi Catholic Sharing Appeal Corner Wyewich Bishop Kihneman’s homilies are available in video and audio form on the Diocese of Biloxi’s website. To access these homilies, visit www.biloxidiocese.org . Pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life in the Diocese of Biloxi by visiting www.invisiblemonastery.com