News - January 2014 RSS Feed

We are often asked to pray for vocations to priesthood and religious life, but how? Certainly we should do so in our daily intentions as well as at Mass. Sometimes, though, holding a special Holy Hour for Vocations provides a more intensive focus for our intercession: as we join in adoration of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, we earnestly ask him to send more laborers into the harvest.

Father Dennis P. Zerr, administrator at Holy Family Parish in Taft, describes his church as a small town parish with all that involves. Everybody knows each other. It’s intimate. It’s family oriented.

Recent conflicts in California and Texas between physicians and the families of patients considered to be brain dead have prompted new questions about end-of-life decision-making.

Supreme Court justices Jan. 15 pressed attorneys about when it is constitutional to prohibit certain kinds of speech in a case over buffer zones around abortion clinics.

In her still-widely-read 1971 article “A Defense of Abortion”, Judith Jarvis Thomson sets up a thought experiment known as “The Famous Violinist Problem” to argue that abortion ought to be morally justified when a pregnancy arises out of sexual assault.

Pope Francis has ignited a useful and necessary conversation about our responsibilities to the poorest of the poor—those who some may be tempted to write out of the script of history as hopeless cases.

When looking for family role models, we cannot find a better one than the Holy Family, and with good reason. It provides Christian families everywhere a glance into family life. By reflecting on their persons and unity as a family, we can gain a great appreciation for their importance as role models and see God’s plan for the family revealed in them.

One of the banes of modern life is the plethora of bad books, bad both in the sense of poorly written and bad in the sense of poisonous content. It’s an observation that can be applied to movies, music, TV and other forms of human activity as well.

Mark’s Gospel is the earliest of the three Gospels known as the Synoptic Gospels—those written by Matthew, Mark and Luke. In them, we see an emphasis on activity as well as on prayer, all for the sake of the Lord.

Fifth grader Cyan Sepulveda-Guevara placed first at Incarnate Word Academy’s Elementary Level Spelling Bee on Thursday, Jan. 23.

If Texas parents want to choose new schools for their children for the upcoming (2014-15) school year, they need to start researching the schooling options available to their children right away. That is the message from organizers of National School Choice Week, which this week featured 460 events across the Lone Star State and 5,500 events nationwide.

Incarnate Word Academy High School presented a check of $3,000 to the Triumph Over Kid Cancer Foundation (TOKC) on Jan. 30. The money raised by the high school level’s student council and solidarity fund, will go toward finding a cure for cancer that attacks children and teenagers.

Pope Francis’ recently published exhortation on the “Joy of the Gospel” provides a new direction for the New Evangelization. That was the message participants at the 25th annual diocesan ministry conference received from Bishop Michael Mulvey and the conference’s keynote speaker, Peter Murphy, Ph.D.

The Fannie Bluntzer Nason Renewal Center, also known as The Spirit Center, has raised more than $1.7 million for Phase II construction of its retreat center located between Corpus Christi and Orange Grove. The project is a vision of the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament.

First Friday, a local volunteer organization dedicated to education about the importance of early detection of breast cancer, will hold an inter-faith prayer service to honor, remember and pray for friends and family members who have been touched by breast cancer. The service will take place on Friday, Feb. 7, in the sanctuary of Corpus Christi First United Methodist Church (900 South Shoreline) at 7:30 a.m.

St. Joseph Church and Our Lady of Corpus Christi will host the traveling icon of the “Black Madonna” of Czestochowa on Feb. 25 as the image makes it way around the world. The image is on a worldwide journey to encourage prayer for Our Lady’s help in the defense of the most vulnerable and to ask her intercession for the protection of the family and the sanctity of all human life.

The Diocese of Corpus Christi celebrated its annual Mass for the Evangelization of Cultures in Corpus Christi Cathedral on Jan. 17. Bishop Michael Mulvey was the main celebrant and was joined by other priests from the diocese, including Father Rogel “Ogie” Rosalinas, SOLT who was also the guest homilist.

Como la Sagrada Familia que emigró a Egipto y luego a Nazaret, familias están en marcha por todo el mundo en busca de asilo o de una vida mejor. Sus viajes normalmente no son fáciles, pero, como la Sagrada Familia, ponen su destino en las manos de un Dios cariñoso.

A vocation to the priesthood, consecrated life or marriage is a call to center one’s life on Christ and build up his kingdom, Pope Francis said.

The Diocese of Corpus Christi offices of Vocations and the Youth Ministry announced winners of their vocations essay contest at the Ministry Conference on Jan. 11. Winners included Angelique Saenz, a fourth grade student at St. Joseph School in Alice; Brooklyn Moreno-Arispe, a seventh grade student at Incarnate Word Academy Middle Level; and MyRanda Lynn Hager, a senior at Blessed John Paul II High School.