CCSJ embarked on a Project to take photographs of the interior and exterior of all Catholic Churches and some Chapels in our Archdiocese. One of our goals is to remind Catholics that our Churches and Chapels are sacred spaces. We used the photographs as a backdrop against which members of staff at The Chancery were taped while they prayed the Divine Mercy Rosary. Gregory Wong Fu Sue, a composer, composed the music especially for this initiative. A DVD is being prepared for wide distribution within the Archdiocese. In the meantime, visitors to this website can listen to the audio which starts with a reflection on the concept of “Sacred Space” and ends with prayers that focus on various aspects of social justice.
We know that all of life is to be considered as “sacred space”. However, as Bishop Joseph Perry said: “Since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), we have succeeded in educating ourselves that we are the Church; that the Church, first off, is made up of people. People are more sacred than anything we value. It follows that the place where we believers assemble each week is sacred because we are a holy people…we are called to holiness…Our Catholic faith embodies an ancient principle of religion called sacred space…The church building is indeed a special place…We give sacred space and sacred objects due reverence…
“While we strive to see holiness first in each other, there is still room for an essential reverence paid to the sacred place of the assembly and the objects, vessels and appointments used in worship …We teach our children a proper reverence for the church, its art, candles, furniture, books of the altar and pulpit and vessels, so that certain kinds of behaviour in church space is always out of place. …We live in a society which has discarded long held courtesies and formalities connected with a lot of things…we need a reverence for God, the things of God and one another…sacred space and sacred things serves only to remind us that we each are sacred…Postures of respect and reverence cannot help but model us for viewing all of life as sacred.”
CCSJ has responsibility in our Archdiocese for regenerating the moral and spiritual values of our society. God calls us to holiness. But to be ‘holy’ we need to be aware of the kind of morals and values that we must embrace as we journey through life.
Christian morals and values should permeate all aspects of our lives e.g. at home, at work, in school, and in society. These morals and values will help us to act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8). People should know that we are Catholics by the way we live our lives. Indeed, we should be exemplars in society and should strive to transform society to reflect these morals and values.
We learn about these morals and values by reading our bible and from the teachings of our Church over the years. For more than 100 years our Popes have written long letters called “Encyclicals” which help us to identify some of the issues with which we, as Catholics, and all people of goodwill, should be concerned.
Some of the main issues contained in these encyclicals are contained in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. You can purchase a copy of this book from CCSJ or you can access it free of charge from the Vatican website (www.vatican.va). The Compendium reminds us that the Church’s social doctrine is an integral part of her evangelising ministry (66):
“…in the social doctrine of the Church can be found the principles for reflection, the criteria for judgment and the directives for action …Making this doctrine known constitutes, therefore, a genuine pastoral priority, so that men and women will be enlightened by it and will be thus enabled to interpret today’s reality and seek appropriate paths of action: ‘The teaching and spreading of her social doctrine are part of the Church’s evangelizing mission’”.
This program would allow 30,000 seniors residing in the country to undertake free bus journeys to Canada to purchase low-cost drugs. visit for info commander cialis This Sildenafil citrate works almost similar to the branded http://aimhousepatong.com/item7842.html levitra without prescription. According to surveys conducted by the Sexual Dysfunction Association, commander cialis nearly 10% of men in the UK have experienced either temporary or permanent sexual dysfunction at some point in your life or another. Seasonal allergic rhinitis Perennial allergic rhinitis Allergies occur throughout the year Allergens that cheap online tadalafil trigger particularly dust, animal dander, mites, odor chemicals.
On November 4, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI stressed the urgent need “for commitment to educating Catholic laity in Church social doctrine.” He said: “A profound understanding of the social doctrine of the Church is of fundamental importance…”
An understanding of the social doctrine of the Church will help us to promote justice and peace in our society and in the world. Each of us has a role to play in this process. As our Catholic Bishops of the Antilles said in their document: Justice and Peace in a New Caribbean:
“We cannot separate action for justice, or liberation from oppression from proclaiming the Word of God. The expression of our religious faith must go hand in hand with our active promotion of justice…The Church has the right, indeed the duty, to proclaim justice on the social, national and international level, and to denounce instances of injustice, when the fundamental rights of men and women and their very salvation demand it…May our Church become known as a fearless defender of human rights and justice whatever this may cost in material or political terms.”
It is important to note Pope John XXIII’s (1961) advice in his encyclical: Mother and Teacher: “It is not enough merely to formulate a social doctrine; it must be translated into reality” (#226).
Since we are the “living stones”, we are the ones to translate it into reality. We are reminded in the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World that: “The joys and hopes, the griefs and sorrows of the people of this age, especially of those who are poor or downtrodden in any way, are the joys and hopes, the griefs and sorrows of the followers of Christ as well.”
Pope Paul VI also reminds us in “A Call to Action (1971): “It is up to the Christian communities to analyse with objectivity the situation which is proper to their own country, to shed on it the light of the Gospel’s unalterable words and to draw principles of reflection, norms of judgement and directives for action from the social teaching of the Church” (4).
We hope that this audio will inspire you to deepen your prayer life and strengthen your personal relationship with God.
LISTEN and join in praying the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy
