WORCESTER, MA (April 4, 2017)—Peter H. Raven, Ph.D., a leading botanist and advocate of conservation and biodiversity, will discuss Pope Francis’s 2014 Encyclical “Laudato si”, a powerful call of attention to the enormous challenge of global climate change, in his lecture, “Laudato si’: Saving Creation, Saving Ourselves.” Dr. Raven will speak on Monday, April 24 at 7 p.m. in the Salon of Assumption’s La Maison building, located at 500 Salisbury Street.

According to Dr. Raven, the world has changed profoundly during the Christian era, with a rapidly increasing 7.4 billion individuals, sharply divided between rich and poor, consuming far more potentially sustainable resources than the world holds.  “With a billion people in 1815 or so, we were already cultivating or grazing about a third of the world’s surface, our numbers growing rapidly to 3.5 billion in 1970 and more than doubling since then,” said Dr. Raven.  “By the 19^th century, the accentuation of social inequality prompted much concern among thinking people with Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 Encyclical Rerum novarum signaling serious concern many on the part of the Church.”

O God, who on this day, through your Only Begotten Son, have conquered death and unlocked for us the path to eternity, grant, we pray, that we who keep the solemnity of the Lord's Resurrection may, through the renewal brought by your Spirit, rise up in the light of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son. Amen.
(Collect, Easter Sunday Mass)

Christ became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every other name. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory!
(Verse before the Gospel)

David Torkington • March 23, AD2017

Did you know that you can’t really pray without distractions? Don’t take my word for it, take the word of St Teresa of Avila. When she went to confession to St Peter of Alcantara she told him that she couldn’t pray any longer because of the distractions that attacked her every time she tried to pray. He told her that you can’t really pray without them. If that is not enough to convince you, read about Jesus and the distractions and temptations that he had to combat during his forty days in the desert. The first Christians had similar experiences when they tried to follow his example in the forty days before Easter by setting aside extra time for daily prayer.

When Prayer Becomes Difficult

For those who take prayer seriously and journey on beyond the fizz and pop of first fervour, what was once easy and filled with sweetness and light will become dark and difficult and full of distractions and temptations. Prayer does not grow because distractions and temptations gradually disappear it grows because they get stronger and stronger and the ensuing battle is the place where true Christian prayer reaches its height. Beginners always think it is about having nice feelings and emotional highs. Romantics think it is all about having feelings of inner peace, and the latest gurus from the East, seem to think it is all about having high states of transcendental awareness and mastering the techniques that lead to Nirvana. When St Francis came back from his first serious attempts at prayer, he came back so exhausted that even his friends hardly recognized him. He probably overdid it as beginners often do, but the truth is, trying to fend off distractions and temptations in prayer can be rather exacting for those who persevere when they are tempted to throw the towel in too soon and turn on the telly.

This is the Body that will be given up for you; this is the Chalice of the new covenant in my Blood, says the Lord; do this, whenever you receive it, in memory of me.
(Communion Antiphon)

Six days before the Passover, when the Lord came into the city of Jerusalem, the children ran to meet him; in their hands they carried palm branches and with a loud voice cried out: Hosanna in the highest! Blessed are you, who have come in your abundant mercy! 
(Palm Sunday, Entrance Antiphon)

By: Bro. Ryan Carlsen, AA

With all the debate happening right now concerning the proper interpretation of Amoris Laetitia, I wondered: would Fr. d’Alzon, founder of the Assumptionists, take sides in this debate? For anyone wanting to learn more about the Assumptionists, I thought a brief reflection on the founder’s views might be useful since the charism of the congregation comes from the Holy Spirit through the founder. A possible answer to the question of whether he would take sides came to me after reading about Steven Spielberg’s upcoming movie The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara.

The Edgardo Mortara case was a big story in 19th-century Europe. Edgardo was born into a Jewish family in Bologna, Italy, the sixth of eight children. A severe illness in early childhood left him on the brink of death. At that point the family’s Catholic maid secretly baptized the boy. The Church’s teaching at that time, as it is today, was that no child could be baptized without parental consent and a commitment to raise the child as a Catholic. However, if death was near, this kind of baptism was permitted because it cleansed and saved the soul, preparing it for heaven.

At a recent Sunday “Conversations…” at the Assumptionist Center in Brighton, the topic of life as a Catholic single person as experienced by many in today’s world was addressed. The presenters were Elyse Raby, a doctoral student in Systematic Theology at Boston College, with an interest in theological anthropology and ecclesiology and Alfred Pang, a doctoral student in Theology and Education, also at Boston College and a resident at the Assumptionist Center.

In an issue of America Magazine (Jan. 2016), it was said that the “church is increasingly recognizing the vocational dimension of the single life, but that does not mean that today’s single Catholics have it easy.”

Both of our presenters presented some of the realities and challenges of this topic, as well as the gift of being a single person of faith. In addition they offered ways in which faith communities can nourish the possibilities offered by the single life in the church. It is a complex phenomenon.

ASSUMPTIONISTS ESTABLISH A NEW COMMUNITY IN MEXICO -  PDF file