Pope Francis calls for prayer and fasting Sept. 7th, for peace in Syria
  • http://www.usccb.org/news/2013/13-157.cfm

    I haven't seen anything more specific from the Boston chancery.

    Has any other diocese addressed it? Are you changing your music selections for the vigil Mass on Sat.?
  • My Archdiocese has addressed it; it will be in this week's Catholic paper and is making its way around the parishes.

    I don't plan to change anything on Saturday (we've been reminded that everything remains the same for the weekend Mass), but they've given permission to use the Mass for Various Needs and Occasions II. Civil Needs, For the Preservation of Peace and Justice.
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    Praying here and making phone calls to my mostly useless NY Senators and Congress Members. I have the distinct privilege (NOT!) of being a constituent of the ever bellicose and obtuse Cong. Peter King who hears from me on a regular basis.

    Since Peter King is a Catholic and attends a neighboring parish, I sent him an email yesterday quoting the Pope, the Bishop of Aleppo and Metropolitan Hilarion. I'll have to send him this letter from the USCCB as well, although I'm sure it will fall on deaf ears.

    May the Almighty Lord preserve and protect the Syrian people from our "humanitarian" missile strikes and "love" bombs.
  • Here in St. Louis, it would only affect the Saturday morning Mass and not the Sunday Vigil. Archbishop Carlson said:

    Here, in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, I ask all parishes celebrating Saturday morning Mass to consider using one of the following: in the Roman Missal, Third Edition, "Masses and Prayers For Various Needs and Occasions" - #15. For Promoting Harmony; #30. For the Preservation of Peace and Justice; #31. In Times of War and Civil Disturbance.


    Does anyone have any of these proper antiphons set to music? Or good hymn suggestions? No peace is flowing like a river! ;)
  • Simple English Propers has a couple of appropriate introits:
    24th Sunday in Ordinary Time (corresponds with #30 above)
    33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (corresponds with #31 and #32: For Refugees and Exiles)
    Thanked by 2Earl_Grey Ben
  • The Choral Graduale Simplex also has an appropriate introit: Give peace, O Lord, in our days (see p. 128):

    image
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,973
    My congressman, an honest decent guy, will not vote for any attacks against Syria. He also had the courage to stand up to his party and vote against the Iraq war. However, Tennessee senators are a lost cause. Instead of attacking Syria, maybe we could send our two senators, who will do them much more damage.

    No word yet from the local diocese on anything we might be doing.
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    The Diocese of Rockville Centre has just announced a Vigil for Peace this Saturday from 1-5 pm at the former diocesan seminary in Huntington.
  • Just read a posting, "why did he do this without more notice, when we are having a fund-raising pancake breakfast that morning at church."

    It's THEIR church....
  • Just checking ... Were all of you against the Iraq war too?

    I'm hoping that this is not falling along "party lines," but my cynical side, after listening to some radio talk shows makes me think it is.

    I truly hope that people are against this because it's the right thing to do - not because it's something Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi want.
    Thanked by 2Gavin Jeffrey Quick
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,973
    I agree with what my Congressman, Rep. John Duncan of TN, said on the floor of the House, when he indicated that we had no national interests at stake in Iraq. I quote:

    "Duncan voted against authorizing the War in Iraq based on opposition to what he believed to be an unnecessary foreign involvement. He also opposed and voted against a June 2006 House declaration in support of the war...Duncan and Ron Paul were the only two Republicans to vote against funding for the Iraq War on May 24, 2007. Duncan voted, along with three other Republicans, to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by April 2008 on July 12, 2007...On March 10, 2010, Duncan again joined three other Republicans in voting for the removal of troops from Afghanistan. Duncan and Paul were the only members of Congress to vote for the removal of troops from Afghanistan and against all recent bailout and stimulus bills."

    He also voted against the Wall Street bailouts. My kind of Congressman. I was against getting involved in Iraq, and am also against the current plans for Syria. I believe it is the right thing to do!
    Thanked by 1JulieColl
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,211
    I wonder if the parish with the pancake event could have an "anticipated fast" on First Friday.
    Thanked by 1noel jones, aago
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,973
    I had the misfortune to not get to penance services in my parish a few years ago. Easter was drawing near, so I had to go to a trendy, posh, wealthy parish to the west. They sang elevator music and a lounge pianist played all the way through confession time. All the elite Xanax crowd dreamily formed lines for "counseling" with various priests.

    However, there was this one older lady accompanied by husband of similar age with walking stick, that she ran around from one line to another. She was desperate for a shorter line. She turned to me and said, "I'm missing my program!" Kind of like the pancake breakfast. The whole point had been missed and priorities misplaced.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,211
    Who knew that having a DVR could have been good for her soul?
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,973
    You would be surprised at the number of folks who have never figured out how to operate one of those.
  • Just checking ... Were all of you against the Iraq war too?

    Also allow for the possibility for people to have changes of heart. It's possible to have been in support of going to war in Iraq, and have learned from that experience quite a bit about Catholic teaching, the morality of war, and the disastrous fallout of US meddling in the Middle East.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,086
    Well, I was part of the minority that was strongly against the Iraq war before it started, and as best I can tell sentiment here in bluest Massachusetts is running strongly against military intervention in Syria. So far, Democrats polled appear more against than Republicans. FWIW.

    Oremus.


  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,973
    Much of the strife in the Middle East is between tribes, or between religious factions. How can the U.S. possibly hope to win in such situations? With Syria, do we trade the devil we know for the devil we don't know? It's a no-win. Iraq was a mistake from the beginning.
  • Not for the first time, I wish that America's foreign policy was in the hands of The Onion:

    http://www.theonion.com/articles/poll-majority-of-americans-approve-of-sending-cong,33752/
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    Loved this glittering alliterative passage from Patrick J. Buchanan:

    Moreover, this war has debacle written all over it. Should it come, a divided nation will be led by a diffident and dithering commander in chief who makes Adlai Stevenson look like Stonewall Jackson.


    Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/09/just-whose-war-is-this/#GcmTJTBi2qUcvRwx.99
    Thanked by 2CharlesW R J Stove
  • And that's exactly what I was talking about.
    Thanked by 2CharlesW Gavin
  • For Sunday, I'm thinking to add the votive antiphon "Da pacem, Domine." It's in the PBC 2nd edition, page 186; it wouldn't be hard to add Psalm verses. (I'm sure it's in the 1st edition as well). Very like the English text posted above by smvanroode.

    This passage from the Sunday's Gospel (2003 Missal) seems rather timely:

    Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose another king advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? But if not, while he is still far away, he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms. In the same way, anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.”
  • I'm going to try and get to our parish church with my older boys and simply sing some chants they know from Choristers. And pray the rosary.
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    This is the single most powerful argument I've seen yet against the strike on Syria. Although you can't see her face, this articulate Syrian-American woman has managed to put a human face on our alleged "enemy."

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x_vusWz33c
  • I had misgivings about Iraq. The only reason that I really had for supporting it was to finish business that had been left unfinished by Bush the Elder. With hindsight, I would not have. Like Andrew suggested, we grow.

    The current would-be conflict cuts across party lines, both pro and con. And I am more embarrassed and outraged by the warmongers on my own team. Or should I say "my former team", because I see both as being totally useless. Fasting and prayer seems a lot more useful now.
  • Carl DCarl D
    Posts: 992
    God, we pray that you can bring a peaceful resolution to this conflict. Because, right now, we cannot see the way ourselves.