Spreading the Order

Dear Catherine House,

I want to thank you all for responding to our last series of messages regarding the life of our house. What we will do is carry on with supporting each other through prayer, e-mail, and the blog.

Additional, but not required ways of nurturing our life as a Dominican family is the telephone, in face meetings, and computer enabled meetings, etc.

I want to thank especially Brothers George, Carl, and Rick who did research and are working on ways to expand our use of communication, not only for our Order, but for the sake of preaching the Gospel.

Each of us has a calling to be an evangelist – esp as a Dominican, but we also have a calling as Dominicans to spread the word about our community.

Please respond with any plans or ways in the past you have spread the word about the Order.

http://saintcatherinehouse.blogspot.com/

For example, I had a OP booth at the Diocese of North Dakota convention earlier this month.

Brother Kevin OP

Prayer Requests

Please post a prayer request that the members of the house can be in prayer for you about.

Our Life as A House

Dear Brothers and Sister,

As you know our Order is divided into two houses: Aquinas (East of the Mississippi) and Catherine (West of the Mississippi) for the purposes of common fellowship, support, and ministry.

As prior I oversee the house and have a responsibility for pastoral care and leadership of those in Catherine House.

I would like to hear suggestions and ideas about how we should conduct our life as a house.

What would help you to live your Dominican life more strongly? Ideas can be crazy and big, as well as less bold and more “realistic.”

Please post to the blog and/or e-mail them to the group.

http://saintcatherinehouse.blogspot.com/

I am expecting that every member of the house will respond via e-mail and/or to the group.

Also check below for a sermon by Brother Ken Murphy O.P. he is preaching it on October 19th and he would appreciate feedback.

Yours in Christ,
Brother Kevin+

A Sermon By Brother Ken Murphy O.P.

Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's.We have lived our lives on this spinning oasis created by the hand of God having no problem giving to the emperor what is the emperor’s.

We understand the emperor,the emperor is mom or dad,the emperor is the school teacher or instructor,the emperor is the city council and mayor, the emperor is the governor, the congress, President, the IRS,the emperor is anything or anyone finite, mortal, that has authority over us during our limited stay on this revolving rock rushing throughthe reality of the physical universe.The emperor is three dimensional, it has height and width and depth,but it is also the fourth dimension, it is time.

Time rules our mortal flesh.Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's.If we buy food, we pay the emperor.If we want gasoline, we pay the emperor.If we work, we pay taxes..... we pay the emperor.When we see time age our bodies, we are paying the emperor.Who among us isn’t thankful to see a 50% off sale orwho wouldn’t be happy to have their taxes lowered....Thank you, thank you, thank you .... all hail the emperor.

This authority can be good or it can be bad ...it can be evil,but we understand the emperor. How well do we understand,“give to God the things that are God’s.”God created this universe, all the physical things that we can see and touch and hear and smell,but God also created love, joy, kindness, grace and salvation.We can define these things, but they have no height or width or depth.They aren’t bounded by time.

They have no limits.I have heard people say, “no more cake please, I’m full.”But, I’ve never heard anyone say, “ No, thank you, no more joy or kindness for me, I’ve had enough.”We’ll never be able to pay our taxes with love.and God will never take a 20 dollar bill (despite the fact His name is on it) as penance for a sin.Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's.So what should we give to God?The things that are God’s.

What are the things that are God’s?The things that are God’s are the boundless unlimited concepts that existed before the creation of the universe.Love, joy, praise are not made of molecules, held together by ionic orcovalent bonds.They bond us to God and to each other. They existed before the first flash of light .... before the first sin of man.Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and withall thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatcommandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shaltlove thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandmentshang all the Law and the Prophets.

We need to give God our love and praise, in a reverent and respectful manner. We need to give our neighbor our love and praise, in a reverent and respectful manner. We need to attend Sunday School and Church together andexperience the love and joy and fellowship that God has given us andthat we can give back to him, as we praise Him and worship Him in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.The grace that He gives us can’t be purchased with all the wealth of the world. Yet, the poorest man can afford to give to God the things that are God’s. Amen

High and Low

Brothers and Sisters please share a high and low related to your walk with God and life in general - it should be something recent, in the last month or so.

Look forward to your postings.