Let us never forget that we desire to incarnate Jesus Christ in ourselves, live from His life, be other Christ’s, and journey together with Him. - Emmanuel d'Alzon
WORCESTER, MA (April 06, 2016) —The modern market economy allows for a level of prosperity that is unprecedented in human history. However, current economic logic can often seem inhumane. On Monday, April 11, Mary Hirschfeld, Ph.D., assistant professor of economics and theology at Villanova University, will discuss some of the tools society can use to move toward a more humane economy. Prof. Hirschfeld’s lecture will take place at 7 p.m. in the Salon of Assumption’s La Maison Française building, located at 500 Salisbury Street in Worcester.
Prof. Hirschfeld’s talk, titled “Toward a Humane Economy: Ordering Economic Life to Genuine Human Happiness,” will explain that the economic decisions that aim at maximizing profits can have negative consequences for workers, consumers and the environment. She will show how the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas can give us a framework for rethinking economic life in a way that should allow us to better harness the power of markets to the project of serving genuine human flourishing.
Fr. Jean-François Petit, "Devenir plus humain avec Saint Augustin," Paris, Salvator, 2015, 183 p.
The author, an Assumptionist priest, is a specialist in the thought of St. Augustine. In this tome, he tries to show the meaning of the essential values of earthly existence by plumbing the depths of Augustine's voluminous writings. Although he is a citizen of an other age, Petit considers Augustine's thought ever relevant. In essence he argues that to be complete and authentic a human being necessarily includes a spiritual dimension, one that reveals a being moving toward the Absolute. Petit's audience is as much lay-people as it is members of the clergy and religious communities.
Jean-François Petit offers a movement with 12 points describing attitudes to be developed if one is to become truly human. I will not try to describe each of the 12 point but will try rather to get to the essentials of what is required. First, one must nourish a desire to be enlightened and to admit that it is in the Word of God that the truth that one is looking for is to be found. The goal is to make choices that will allow one to know oneself better and to recognize in what divine happiness consists. For Augustine, inspired by Isaiah, one must understand in order to believe and believe in order to understand; therefore it is faith that leads us to understand the Word.
The Bayard group is considered to be one of the jewels of the Catholic publishing world. Founded in France in the 19th century, where it is the number one Catholic publisher, it now features an international presence, with over 150 magazines, journals, and reviews in more than 15 languages. In France its two flagship publications, the daily newspaper, La Croix, and the weekly, Le Pèlerin, have been in print for more than 125 years. Its publications span the chronological spectrum from early childhood to senior editions. In North America, Bayard publishes in English and French, with titles such as Catholic Digest, Living with Christ, Catechist, Living Faith, Chirp, Owl, and others. Over the years it has acquired such respected and well-known companies as Twenty-Third Publications, Catholic Digest, Novalis, Peter Li, and Christian Communications.
For the last several years, the children and youth in our Faith Formation programs have undertaken an Assumptionist project to support through their Lenten almsgiving. They were asked to set aside some allowance or money they might use for a movie, snacks, new game, new clothes, etc. to help with the Beni School Project in the Congo. It was an opportunity for children to reach out to children.
A poster displaying some pictures sent to us by Fr. John Franck, A.A. was hung in each classroom. This gave us the opportunity to talk to students about the civil war waging in the Congo with villagers being forced to flee and take refuge in Beni. They were saddened to learn that many of the refugees were children who were orphans of war. They also could see progress being made on a new school for 240 children. Each week they remembered them in prayer.
