A journey of faith: God is always with us

		Living the Scriptures  with St. Paul University  Catholic Center  Annie Vorhes

You set out on a journey. You have no itinerary and no directions. You might not be prepared for what you will encounter.

You expect signs along the way to confirm that you are traveling in the right direction or indicate that you need to change course, but you have no idea under what guise they will come. You are sure of little except that God has called you and you must go. Welcome to the journey of faith.

Abraham and Sarah know this journey well. They set out with faith and a promise - land and descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Aug. 8, 2004) Wis 18:6-9 Ps 33:1, 12, 18-19, 20-22 Heb 11:1-2, 8-19 or 11:1-2, 8-12 Lk 12:32-48 or 12:35-40

Their faith helps them remain in a strange land when challenges come. God changed their desires such that going back to the land they left would no longer satisfy them. They now long for a heavenly homeland even while they live in tents without children or land of their own.

Faith allows them to cling to the promise God made, impossible as it seems. By faith, they glimpse what will be, a reality they hope for with all their hearts.

What is yet to come is as real to them as anything else. They know that God will do what he promised, and that is enough.

This is our journey of faith, too. The call, the characters, and the route will be different, but the echoes of the journey will be strangely familiar.

We will know the experience of wandering through places in our lives that do not make sense, unsure what is ahead but certain that going back to where we once were is impossible. There is no guarantee that the road will be smooth, direct, and clearly marked.

We will probably make a few wrong turns and even occasionally wander from the path that God intended for us. Yet each day, in faith, we can start again.

We live deeply with the realities of the world around us - but with the recognition that we are a pilgrim people and this world is not our ultimate home. We hope for the same heavenly homeland as Abraham and Sarah.

Fortunately, we do not journey alone. God is always with us, even when he seems distant.

We seek direction in prayer, we welcome God's tangible touch in the sacraments, and we journey as a community of faith across space and time. We share the stories of those like Abraham and Sarah who have gone this way before us.

	Reflection questions • Where is God calling you? • What guides you on your journey of faith?

God continually calls us out from the places where we are. Some may be called to distant lands. Others may be called to long interior journeys of the heart. Still others may be called to see familiar "landscapes" - a troubled relationship, ingrained habits, undeveloped gifts - with new eyes.

In faith and hope, go out where God calls you. You will be transformed, but you will not be disappointed!

Annie Vorhes, a post-baccalaureate student at UW-Madison, is pursuing a Certificate in Religious Studies and plans to study liturgical theology next year as a graduate student. At St. Paul University Catholic Center, she volunteers as a liturgy intern, coordinating various aspects of liturgical ministry. She is also involved in St. Paul's Graduate/Young Professional Group.

St. Paul's Web site is www.stpaulscc.org

Feast of the Assumption:
A time to honor perfection

		Living the Scriptures  with St. Paul University  Catholic Center  Fr. Steve Kortendick

I love tomatoes. No, not the pale, mealy ones which seem to come off the assembly line next to the Styrofoam coolers in February.

I mean the rich, red, juicy ones that are so flavorful and abundant only now. Fresh, cooked, as gazpacho, with sandwiches, in salads - everything is touched by the harvest of fresh tomatoes.

But whenever I plant tomatoes, whether the fast-ripening varieties or the slow, whether I plant early or late, they all seem to ripen on August 15. Somehow for me, the Assumption of Mary is inextricably intertwined with red, ripe tomatoes.

Feast of the Assumption (Aug. 15, 2004) Rev 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab Ps 45:10, 11, 12, 16 1 Cor 15:20-27 Lk 1:39-56

These nearly perfect August fruits bear little resemblance, and offer no flavor comparison, to their pale, bland, mealy counterparts we buy during the rest of the year. While they are of the same plant, there is no comparison to August's lush garden harvest. They are the fullness of what it means to be a tomato.

Today we celebrate the Assumption of our Blessed Mother, body and soul, into heaven. She who was without sin embodied the fullness of what it means to be human.

Like a tomato in mid-August, she does not share the shortcomings of her fellow human beings. She, whose every desire was to do the will of God, shows us how to be fully alive. And she who was untouched by original sin transcends the effects of that sin by being untouched by the corruption of decay.

	Reflection questions • How can Mary teach me to be completely open to Gods' will in my life? • In what areas of life is my growth stunted? • Am I satisfied with mediocrity within myself, like a tomato in winter, or am I open to God's grace to become fully human, fully alive?

St. Paul tells us "The last enemy to be destroyed is death." Mary has been assumed to reign as Queen of Heaven. She is so totally full of grace that there is no place in her that is untouched by grace.

She was fully ripe, completely prepared to enter her heavenly home. Where she has gone we hope to follow.

May we grow, develop, and, yes, ripen, that we, too, may enter the heavenly harvest.

Fr. Steve Kortendick is pastor of St. Jude Catholic Parish in Beloit.

St. Paul's Web site is www.stpaulscc.org

Faith Alive!

In a Nutshell "You are our dearly beloved brothers, and, in a certain way, ... you are our elder brothers," Pope John Paul II once said to the Jewish community. Local Catholic-Jewish dialogues try to develop trust, knowing that we live in a world where human diversity often yields conflict. Pope John Paul has called for Holocaust education on every level of Catholic education. Catholic News Service 3211 Fourth St NE Washington DC 20017 202.541.3250 cns@catholicnews.com	Food for Thought   "Jews and Christians have a special relationship," Pope John Paul II said in a 2002 letter. They share a "common heritage," part of which is "a message that comes to us from the God of the covenant with Moses, the patriarchs and the prophets." This message invites Jews and Christians "to collaborate in the life of the world." The pope's letter came on the eve of a European meeting of Christians and Jews. Writing to Cardinal Walter Kasper, who heads the Vatican office for relations with the Jews, the pope pointed to the contemporary progress in Catholic-Jewish relations. "Jews and Christians are bound to one another because of their respective identity," the pope wrote. He said: "It is our task to pass on to new generations the treasures and values we have in common so that never again will man despise his own brother in humanity and never again will conflicts or wars be unleashed in the name of an ideology that despises a culture or religion." The pope said that "the different religious traditions are called, together, to put their patrimony at the service of all," affirming "ties of brotherhood" in order to "establish a renewed humanity." full story   Pope John Paul II and the Jews By Eugene Fisher Catholic News Service Jews in 1978 were not at all sure what to make of a Polish pope. Yet he has come, despite a number of difficult controversies over the years, to symbolize for them much of what is best in Christianity. Pope John Paul II was the first pope to visit a death camp, Auschwitz, in 1979. Auschwitz is the symbolic center of Jewish remembrance of the Shoah (Holocaust). full story  Catholic-Jewish Dialogue in a Parish By Joanne S. Sanders Catholic News Service My husband is a permanent deacon. He and I met a wonderful Jewish rabbi in a neighboring community about five years ago. This rabbi has been an inspiration to us as well as a valuable resource to our parish community. Part of our commitment to the church as a couple is focused on planning and presenting various adult faith-formation sessions for our parish. Each year in the fall and spring we have a series of Scripture study sessions on various books of the Bible. full story  The Bible and the Jews By Father Lawrence Boadt, CSP Catholic News Service As a biblical teacher who has spent his life teaching the beauty and the power of God's revelation in the Old Testament, I see that today we truly have entered a new age of God's grace to the church. We are rediscovering the gift that Jews are to Christians. To be Catholic is to be rooted in God's revelation through Israel and its holy Scriptures, and through Jesus Christ and his teaching in the New Testament. We cannot really know God simply by admiring the created world and its beauty. Rather, God chose to initiate a personal relationship with us, enabling us to know his purposes and thoughts, and to experience his nearness. full story
	Faith in the Marketplace   This Week's Discussion Point: Give one reason why the Catholic-Jewish dialogue might matter to you.     Selected Response From Readers:
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