From the Holy Father: Catechesis on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit

As many of our children prepare for Confirmation, that special outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Pope Francis has much to share with us about the the gifts the Spirit offers us:

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!
Today we begin a series of catecheses on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. You know that the Holy Spirit constitutes the soul, the life blood of the Church and of every individual Christian: He is the Love of God who makes of our hearts his dwelling place and enters into communion with us. The Holy Spirit abides with us always, he is always within us, in our hearts.
The Spirit himself is “the gift of God” par excellence (cf. Jn 4:10), he is a gift of God, and he in turn communicates various spiritual gifts to those who receive him. The Church identifies seven, a number which symbolically speaks of fullness, completeness; they are those we learn about when we prepare for the Sacrament of Confirmation and which we invoke in the ancient prayer called the “Sequence of the Holy Spirit”. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord.
1. The first gift of the Holy Spirit according to this list is therefore wisdom. But it is not simply human wisdom, which is the fruit of knowledge and experience. In the Bible we are told that Solomon, at the time of his coronation as King of Israel, had asked for the gift of wisdom (cf. 1 Kings 3:9). And wisdom is precisely this: it is the grace of being able to see everything with the eyes of God. It is simply this: it is to see the world, to see situations, circumstances, problems, everything through God’s eyes. This is wisdom. Sometimes we see things according to our liking or according to the condition of our heart, with love or with hate, with envy.... No, this is not God’s perspective. Wisdom is what the Holy Spirit works in us so as to enable us to see things with the eyes of God. This is the gift of wisdom.
2. And obviously this comes from intimacy with God, from the intimate relationship we have with God, from the relationship children have with their Father. And when we have this relationship, the Holy Spirit endows us with the gift of wisdom. When we are in communion with the Lord, the Holy Spirit transfigures our heart and enables it to perceive all of his warmth and predilection.
3. The Holy Spirit thus makes the Christian “wise”. Not in the sense that he has an answer for everything, that he knows everything, but in the sense that he “knows” about God, he knows how God acts, he knows when something is of God and when it is not of God; he has this wisdom which God places in our hearts.

Read the rest here.

Follow Papa's example this Lent!

Happy Feast of the Annunciation!!!

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end." And Mary said to the angel, "How shall this be, since I have no husband?"  And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.  For with God nothing will be impossible." And Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.

--Luke1:26-38

Happy Feast of St. Joseph (It's a Solemnity!!!)

CONFIRMATION RETREAT!!!

The Mandatory retreat for all receiving Confirmation this year is tomorrow, Saturday March 15, beginning at 9:15! See you there! Last minute volunteers welcome. Cost for the retreat and Confirmation gown is $70. If you already have a red gown, the retreat is $55.
Pizza will be served.

LENT

It's HERE.

And to start off the beautiful Lenten season I thought I would introduce you all to the recently beatified John Henry Cardinal Newman.  He was a 19th century English convert, apologist, philosopher, cardinal. His writings are incredibly insightful- he has a great gift for speaking to the modern world, encountering modern problems and responding to them with timeless love of Christ. I strongly encourage reading him - slowly, prayerfully- as part of your preparation for Easter. 

This is from a sermon he gave on the first Sunday of Lent in 1848, entitled "Surrender to God":

[F]asting is only one branch of a large and momentous duty, the subdual of ourselves to Christ. We must surrender to Him all we have, all we are. We must keep nothing back. We must present to Him as captive prisoners with whom He may do what He will, our soul and body, our reason, our judgement, our affections, our imagination, our tastes, our appetite. The great thing is to subdue ourselves; but as to the particular form in which the great precept of self-conquest and self-surrender is to be expressed, that depends on the person himself, and on the time or place. What is good for one age or person, is not good for another. . . . 

[O]ur Lord's temptation in the wilderness… began, you will observe, with an attempt on the part of the evil one to make Him break His fast improperly. It began, but it did not end there. It was but the first of three temptations, and the other two were more addressed to His mind, not His bodily wants. One was to throw Himself down from the pinnacle, the other the offer of all the kingdoms of the world. They were more subtle temptations. Now I have used the word "subtle" already, and it needs some explanation. By a subtle temptation or a subtle sin, I mean one which it is very difficult to find out. Everyone knows what it is to break the ten commandments, the first, the second, the third, and so on. When a thing is directly commanded, and the devil tempts us directly to break it, this is not a subtle temptation, but a broad and gross temptation. But there are a great many things wrong which are not so obviously wrong. They are wrong as leading to what is wrong or the consequence of what is wrong, or they are wrong because they are the very same thing as what is forbidden, but dressed up and looking differently. The human mind is very deceitful; when a thing is forbidden, a man does not like directly to do it, but he goes to work if he can to get at the forbidden end in some way. . . . 

What all of us want more than any­thing else, what this age wants, is that its intellect and its will should be under a law. At present it is lawless, its will is its own law, its own reason is the standard of all truth. It does not bow to authority, it does not submit to the law of faith. It is wise in its own eyes and it relies on its own resources. And you, as living in the world, are in danger of being seduced by it, and being a partner in its sin, and so coming in at the end for its punishment.

The law that saves us from the evil one and from ourselves is, of course, Jesus, the Word made flesh, who is not only waiting for us at the end of our journey in the joy of Easter, but also accompanies us every terrible, difficult, dragging step of the way.  We will all fall, give in to some temptation or another, neglect our duties and sleep, but as long as we keep trying and allow Christ to transform us, as long as we continue to strive to joyfully surrender ourselves to God this Lent, it will all work out.  That's the great wonderfulness of merciful Providence. 
As Papa Francesco said at Ash Wednesday Mass, "it is possible to realize something new within ourselves and around us simply because God is faithful, he continues to be rich in goodness and mercy, and he is always reading to forgive us and start all over."

Mrs. Wofsy

We are heartbroken over the loss of our Faith Formation Office secretary and 2nd grade catechist, Mrs. Kathie Wofsy, who died Saturday, February 22. She was a wonderful, sweet lady, whole-heartedly dedicated to bringing the little ones (the "itty-bits") to Christ.  Mrs. Wofsy directly prepared scores of first communicants over the years, and her selfless hard work was a vital part of the functioning of the program. She is sorely missed.

Requiem Aeternam dona eis, Domine

et lux perpetua luceat eis

Requiescant in pace. Amen.

Eternal rest, grant unto her O Lord

and let perpetual light shine upon her.

May she rest in peace. Amen.

May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed,

through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Amen.

Welcome

Welcome to Shrine of St. Jude Faith Formation's new website!
Here you will find handy reminders and updates [such as: NO CLASS THIS PRESIDENTS DAY WEEKEND or, MANDATORY FIRST COMMUNION MEETING POSTPONED TO NEXT WEDNESDAY 2/19 at 7pm]
as well as general Catholic awesomeness [like this gem from Pope Francis which you probably saw all over the internet a while back:

]

for parents and kids and anyone involved with SSJFF.

Hope you find it helpful! As always, let me know if you have any thoughts, questions, concerns! This time at stjudefaithformation@gmail.com