Catholic Carnival for March 14, 2006

This week’s Catholic Carnival
1. announces a closing of the New Gasparian.The address will remain the same but the blog’s The new focus will be on prayer, study, Divine Worship, The writings of St. Gaspar, and faithfulness to the magisterium.
2. has five posts reflecting on scripture, literature and the spiritual life
3. has three posts on interacting with the world in our daily lives in ordinary and dramatic ways
4. has three posts on internal church matters
5. has two posts on natural family planning, and
6. my own reflection on the Abraham and Isaac story.

Reflections on scripture, literature and the spiritual life starts with Sharon Mollerus’ Meta-Reflection on the Religious Sense Course. Sharon reflects On the experience of taking the five-week Religious Sense course on the thought of Msgr. Giussani of Communion and Liberation. Her experience leads me to reflect on some of my own.

In The Acceptable Sacrifice Kevin Miller has reflection on the readings for the second Sunday of Lent, focusing on the Transfiguration as the manifestation of Jesus as God’s beloved Son and therefore as the perfect and acceptable sacrifice.

Christine gives us a reflection on St. Patrick’s day, Not Just About Beer and Parties is a wee bit of background on the great Saint Patrick, and the full text of St. Patrick’s Breastplate, along with links to further information on the patron of us Irish folk.

Our Penitent blogger reflects on Monday’s first reading (Daniel 9:4b-10) - the value of a fuller cry for mercy.

Spirituality counts when we put it in the context of our own lives. In Look for the Good Hope writes: History repeats itself as the author struggles with her son's choice of a girlfriend just as her future mother-in-law did with her. Both women turned to God for strength and wisdom.

In a reflection on teaching literature Fred K. looks at a quote from Flannery O'Connor on how reading 18th and 19th Century novels teaches students to be better readers of contemporary novels in his post the Absent Author.

Questions of how Christians interact with the world take place on both the everyday and the dramatic level.

In Withholding Funds: Christian Activism in the Modern World Jay explores how we as Christians can use (or not use) our money on companies based on their values.

Moneybags notes that he Age of Martyrs Continues and highlights to need to pray for martyrs and discusses some of the 26 missionaries killed in 2005.

Four of our contributors addressed internal church matters.

Kicking Over My Traces has a cautionary fable about what happens when church members lose sight of charity and obedience in St. Gary’s By the Sea: A Modern Fable

At Miss Kelley, Mary Beth provides some background on the decision last week of the Boston Archdiocese to stop providing adoption services. Catholic Charities recently announced it would no longer place children in gay households, but the state of Massachusetts said that was discrimination against gays. When anti-discrimination laws were passed, did anyone think that the laws would someday be used against an organization that's committed to placing children in a home with a mother and a father? Look at her post Boston Catholic Charities Won't Do Adoptions Anymore

Diary of a City Parishioner asks Is a Church a Banquet Hall or a House of God?

The Church Online brings us up to date about Fr. Altier's situation which is sustaining across the internet as parents are becoming aware of the criticisms of the VIRTUS program. This latest blog entry ties together some of the recent news and discussion. Look at More about Fr. Altier, VIRTUS for more on this topic.

We have two posts on Natural Family Planning (NFP)

Universal Call brings a podcast of a conversation with Dr Paddy Jim Baggot, MD. He is a Catholic Physician board certified Obstetrician/Gynecologist and Geneticist specializing in preconception health and NaProTechnology, which is a new reproductive science for assisting couples to conceive naturally without the use of artificial reproductive techniques.

Funky Dung sends his the second post in his series on NFP. It focuses on Pius XI's encyclical Casti Connubii

Finally, the story of Abraham and Isaac led me to reflect on the numbers of ways in which modern parents engage in Bloodless Child Sacrifice by overlooking the needs of their children while serving the modern idols of power and success.