ROAD TO RENEWAL...cont.

As we become an “extended” family within the Southern Tier, (the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels, St. John the Evangelist, in Olean and St. Bonaventure in Allegany), we are part of the larger “Family of Families” in our Diocese and we model ourselves after the Holy Family during this Year proclaimed by our Pope honoring the family unit.
 
As we undertake this renewal process, we call upon the intercession of Our Lady who is the first disciple of Christ who bore Him to the world. We just recently celebrated her birth on September 8th. She led the Holy Family in her prayerful motherly way by partnering with St. Joseph to help Jesus reach the full potential of His humanity as God became man. We celebrate St. Joseph this year, who taught Jesus his fatherly ways of being just and righteous as he protected and guided Him and his dear wife, Mary, through tumultuous beginnings by relying on faith and following our Father’s Holy Will. And, in the center of the Holy Family’s life and ours, Jesus lives in each of our hearts and is in the heart of every family that embraces His Name. As we trust in the loving heart of Jesus and we become more like Him each day by receiving Him and His Spirit in the Sacraments, through Sacred Scripture and through practicing His teachings within our communities, we cannot help but be RENEWED.
 
Why do we, as the Catholic Church in Buffalo need renewal? Each week I will present to you some reasons why the renewal is deemed necessary to help make our Diocese, our region, our family stronger to be the presence of God in our area. Renewal is critical to the whole Church as the Lord is most  desperately craved for and needed in our lives to transform all generations within our faith tradition and within our society. One reason for renewal exists in that there is a changing attitude about our faith, belief, traditions and teachings and in the minds of some of the faithful in relation to their commitment to the church. This changing in attitude which “affects” behaviors developed over the last 40 years has influenced the embrace of religion and religious practices. These changes in attitudes and practices can be mostly attributed to the rise of secularism and western societies’ emphasis on individualism and misguided “humanism.” These influences not only affected peoples’ association to religious institutions but also have impacted the quantity and quality of the leadership of the Church and our understanding of sacramental and liturgical practices. Current attitudes and supported behaviors of current governmental policies and several societal practices have begun to guide the implementation of Catholic teachings and are, in effect, often in opposition to the moral example set by the Holy Family. Secular society is allowed to set the nation’s moral compass as Christian teaching are often said to be at the very least limiting and at the most decried as discriminatory. 
 
More to Come . . . The Need and the Road to Renewal.   
Fr. John