Esprit de Corps in 2009 & More!
By Angela Santero
Greetings friends! It’s hard to believe that the holiday season has come to a close and that 2009 has arrived. We hope that you were able to spend quality time with your family and friends and that the Baby Jesus found a warm cradle in your heart.
I traveled to Houston where my husband and I spent treasured time with family. In all, we totaled about 26 people around the dinner table. While I was in town, my sister-in-love arranged for me to deliver a chastity talk to the local youth and a few parents. Special thanks to the Ross family for packing more than 45 people into their home and to each of the generous parents who supported us financially following the talk.
I was very impressed with the youth who attended. It was clear that their parents have taken a proactive role in their education, formation and upbringing. They asked insightful questions and carried a unique glow that transmitted the joy of purity. I am grateful that they entrusted them to me for a brief moment of their lives. The following remark from one member of the audience encapsulates what many of them had to say.
“The talk was engaging and inspiring. Youth groups look for ‘hands on’ talks and learning in an easy, fun environment. You did an awesome job handling the ‘sex’ talk and exemplifying the importance of purity. Thank you for inspiring me personally to continue in my chaste lifestyle. I go to public school so it’s hard to maintain that idea! You really touched me – thank you! God bless!”
Thank you! And thanks to each of you who has allowed us to serve you in 2008. The year 2009 promises to be as blessed as we allow it to be. As a ministry, we are centering in on the theme of “Esprit de Corps.” Anyone who has served in the Marine Corps is familiar with this term. It represents a spirit of unity that drives individuals to give selflessly for the sake of a greater mission. In our case, we can take this term very literally as “Corps” translates to “Body” and our mission is to mobilize the Body of Christ to embrace and share the benefits of pure love. One way we have begun to do this was through a dinner meeting attended by San Diego’s Bishop Salvatore Cordileone and several other leaders on January 3rd. Our goal was to invite the community to join us in launching several projects that we hope to introduce in 2009. The Chariots of Fire missionary program will allow recent high school and college grads to ignite hearts with the pure love glowing from the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Our membership program will team like-minded people to persevere in their desire to live chastely.
Special thanks to Anthony’s Fish Grotto for sponsoring this important event. We are already seeing fruits unfold with leaders who are committing their time and treasure to these critical projects.
You will also see a new spirit of unity in our monthly e-newsletters. Each month, we will focus on a chastity-related theme. In this way, we can navigate together through the complicated challenges that meet our culture today. We welcome you to invite others to join our e-newsletter at http://www.thegorettigroup.org/ and to blog your comments at http://thegorettigroup.blogspot.com/. May the Sacred Heart of Jesus reign in your heart now and forever!
US Bishops on Freedom of Choice Act
"A Good State Protects the Lives of All"
BALTIMORE, Maryland, NOV. 12, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is the statement Cardinal Francis George, the president of the U.S. episcopal conference, published today at the end of the bishops' three-day fall assembly.* * *
By Angela Santero
Greetings friends! It’s hard to believe that the holiday season has come to a close and that 2009 has arrived. We hope that you were able to spend quality time with your family and friends and that the Baby Jesus found a warm cradle in your heart.
I traveled to Houston where my husband and I spent treasured time with family. In all, we totaled about 26 people around the dinner table. While I was in town, my sister-in-love arranged for me to deliver a chastity talk to the local youth and a few parents. Special thanks to the Ross family for packing more than 45 people into their home and to each of the generous parents who supported us financially following the talk.
I was very impressed with the youth who attended. It was clear that their parents have taken a proactive role in their education, formation and upbringing. They asked insightful questions and carried a unique glow that transmitted the joy of purity. I am grateful that they entrusted them to me for a brief moment of their lives. The following remark from one member of the audience encapsulates what many of them had to say.
“The talk was engaging and inspiring. Youth groups look for ‘hands on’ talks and learning in an easy, fun environment. You did an awesome job handling the ‘sex’ talk and exemplifying the importance of purity. Thank you for inspiring me personally to continue in my chaste lifestyle. I go to public school so it’s hard to maintain that idea! You really touched me – thank you! God bless!”
Thank you! And thanks to each of you who has allowed us to serve you in 2008. The year 2009 promises to be as blessed as we allow it to be. As a ministry, we are centering in on the theme of “Esprit de Corps.” Anyone who has served in the Marine Corps is familiar with this term. It represents a spirit of unity that drives individuals to give selflessly for the sake of a greater mission. In our case, we can take this term very literally as “Corps” translates to “Body” and our mission is to mobilize the Body of Christ to embrace and share the benefits of pure love. One way we have begun to do this was through a dinner meeting attended by San Diego’s Bishop Salvatore Cordileone and several other leaders on January 3rd. Our goal was to invite the community to join us in launching several projects that we hope to introduce in 2009. The Chariots of Fire missionary program will allow recent high school and college grads to ignite hearts with the pure love glowing from the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Our membership program will team like-minded people to persevere in their desire to live chastely.
Special thanks to Anthony’s Fish Grotto for sponsoring this important event. We are already seeing fruits unfold with leaders who are committing their time and treasure to these critical projects.
You will also see a new spirit of unity in our monthly e-newsletters. Each month, we will focus on a chastity-related theme. In this way, we can navigate together through the complicated challenges that meet our culture today. We welcome you to invite others to join our e-newsletter at http://www.thegorettigroup.org/ and to blog your comments at http://thegorettigroup.blogspot.com/. May the Sacred Heart of Jesus reign in your heart now and forever!
US Bishops on Freedom of Choice Act
"A Good State Protects the Lives of All"
BALTIMORE, Maryland, NOV. 12, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is the statement Cardinal Francis George, the president of the U.S. episcopal conference, published today at the end of the bishops' three-day fall assembly.* * *
"If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do its builders labor; if the Lord does not watch over the city, in vain does the watchman keep vigil." (Psalm 127, vs. 1)
The Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States welcome this moment of historic transition and look forward to working with President-elect Obama and the members of the new Congress for the common good of all. Because of the Church's history and the scope of her ministries in this country, we want to continue our work for economic justice and opportunity for all; our efforts to reform laws around immigration and the situation of the undocumented; our provision of better education and adequate health care for all, especially for women and children; our desire to safeguard religious freedom and foster peace at home and abroad. The Church is intent on doing good and will continue to cooperate gladly with the government and all others working for these goods.
The fundamental good is life itself, a gift from God and our parents. A good state protects the lives of all. Legal protection for those members of the human family waiting to be born in this country was removed when the Supreme Court decided Roe vs. Wade in 1973. This was bad law. The danger the Bishops see at this moment is that a bad court decision will be enshrined in bad legislation that is more radical than the 1973 Supreme Court decision itself.
In the last Congress, a Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) was introduced that would, if brought forward in the same form today, outlaw any "interference" in providing abortion at will. It would deprive the American people in all fifty states of the freedom they now have to enact modest restraints and regulations on the abortion industry. FOCA would coerce all Americans into subsidizing and promoting abortion with their tax dollars. It would counteract any and all sincere efforts by government and others of good will to reduce the number of abortions in our country.
Parental notification and informed consent precautions would be outlawed, as would be laws banning procedures such as partial-birth abortion and protecting infants born alive after a failed abortion. Abortion clinics would be deregulated. The Hyde Amendment restricting the federal funding of abortions would be abrogated.
FOCA would have lethal consequences for prenatal human life.FOCA would have an equally destructive effect on the freedom of conscience of doctors, nurses and health care workers whose personal convictions do not permit them to cooperate in the private killing of unborn children. It would threaten Catholic health care institutions and Catholic Charities. It would be an evil law that would further divide our country, and the Church should be intent on opposing evil.
On this issue, the legal protection of the unborn, the bishops are of one mind with Catholics and others of good will. They are also pastors who have listened to women whose lives have been diminished because they believed they had no choice but to abort a baby. Abortion is a medical procedure that kills, and the psychological and spiritual consequences are written in the sorrow and depression of many women and men. The bishops are single-minded because they are, first of all, single-hearted.
The recent election was principally decided out of concern for the economy, for the loss of jobs and homes and financial security for families, here and around the world. If the election is misinterpreted ideologically as a referendum on abortion, the unity desired by President-elect Obama and all Americans at this moment of crisis will be impossible to achieve. Abortion kills not only unborn children; it destroys constitutional order and the common good, which is assured only when the life of every human being is legally protected. Aggressively pro-abortion policies, legislation and executive orders will permanently alienate tens of millions of Americans, and would be seen by many as an attack on the free exercise of their religion.
This statement is written at the request and direction of all the Bishops, who also want to thank all those in politics who work with good will to protect the lives of the most vulnerable among us. Those in public life do so, sometimes, at the cost of great sacrifice to themselves and their families; and we are grateful. We express again our great desire to work with all those who cherish the common good of our nation. The common good is not the sum total of individual desires and interests; it is achieved in the working out of a common life based upon good reason and good will for all.
Our prayers accompany President-elect Obama and his family and those who are cooperating with him to assure a smooth transition in government. Many issues demand immediate attention on the part of our elected "watchman." (Psalm 127) May God bless him and our country.
© Innovative Media, Inc.
Reprinting ZENIT's articles requires written permission from the editor.
© Innovative Media, Inc.
Reprinting ZENIT's articles requires written permission from the editor.
The St. Maria Goretti Mass—A Light for Life in the Darkness of a Culture of Death
By Peggy Tacchino
By Peggy Tacchino
“I came that they might have LIFE and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)
Unfortunately, we find ourselves living in a culture that has not embraced the gift of true life that Jesus came to offer. Our world is upside down in its understanding of love and life. With FOCA looming, poised to plunder the rights of children, women and faithful people in the United States, we find ourselves more desperate for truth than ever. What is this truth for which we thirst? It is the truth that each of us is a unique creation of God’s and a reflection of His own Being. It is the truth that our bodies were made to glorify God and we are designed appreciate the great gift of our sexuality through chastity, no matter what state of life we find ourselves (married, single, religious). It is the truth that God is love, and His love is the only thing stronger than the darkness that so strangles our society.
Unfortunately, we find ourselves living in a culture that has not embraced the gift of true life that Jesus came to offer. Our world is upside down in its understanding of love and life. With FOCA looming, poised to plunder the rights of children, women and faithful people in the United States, we find ourselves more desperate for truth than ever. What is this truth for which we thirst? It is the truth that each of us is a unique creation of God’s and a reflection of His own Being. It is the truth that our bodies were made to glorify God and we are designed appreciate the great gift of our sexuality through chastity, no matter what state of life we find ourselves (married, single, religious). It is the truth that God is love, and His love is the only thing stronger than the darkness that so strangles our society.
As St. Francis of Assisi said, “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light from a single candle.” Thus, since October 3, 2008, faithful people have been gathering every First Friday of the month at Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Downtown, San Diego, to be that light in the darkness and pray for the rise of more candles.
They come from near and far to share in the greatest prayer our Church has to offer—the Mass. Attendees join as one body in Christ, asking Our Father to heal their hearts, the hearts of those they love, and every broken soul living in this fallen world. The St. Maria Goretti Mass for chastity is a prayer to bring an understanding of the virtue of chastity back into our society, that we might fully comprehend the dignity and beauty of life and live the joy that Jesus said He would make “complete.” It is the hope of those who pray that a restoration of the fundamental truth of the joy of purity would not only bring freedom to souls enslaved to sexual sin, but would, ultimately, bring our nation and our world back to the truth that every life is sacred—from conception to natural death.
So impassioned to pray for the virtue of chastity are they, that the bright lights came out to shine even one day after the New Year holiday. On January 2, a loyal sixty or so attended this month’s St. Maria Goretti Mass, where Fr. Anthony Saroki, the vocations director for the diocese of San Diego, presided. Fr. Saroki shared an inspiring homily about how he found the grace to stay chaste in his own life. Prayer, exercise and accountability were his top three practices to stay pure.
They come from near and far to share in the greatest prayer our Church has to offer—the Mass. Attendees join as one body in Christ, asking Our Father to heal their hearts, the hearts of those they love, and every broken soul living in this fallen world. The St. Maria Goretti Mass for chastity is a prayer to bring an understanding of the virtue of chastity back into our society, that we might fully comprehend the dignity and beauty of life and live the joy that Jesus said He would make “complete.” It is the hope of those who pray that a restoration of the fundamental truth of the joy of purity would not only bring freedom to souls enslaved to sexual sin, but would, ultimately, bring our nation and our world back to the truth that every life is sacred—from conception to natural death.
So impassioned to pray for the virtue of chastity are they, that the bright lights came out to shine even one day after the New Year holiday. On January 2, a loyal sixty or so attended this month’s St. Maria Goretti Mass, where Fr. Anthony Saroki, the vocations director for the diocese of San Diego, presided. Fr. Saroki shared an inspiring homily about how he found the grace to stay chaste in his own life. Prayer, exercise and accountability were his top three practices to stay pure.
Following the Mass, Alex DePaulis, an Our Lady of the Rosary Parishioner, and convert to the Catholic faith, shared the beautiful truth about God’s passionate love for us and His desire for us to fall as in love with Him as He has with us. After recommitting themselves to living chastity, those in attendance praised and worshipped the God who gives us the grace to do so. All in attendance, left as they typically do—on fire with the Holy Spirit and ready to love as Jesus calls us to—with our whole heart, mind, soul, BODY and strength.
The St. Maria Goretti Mass is a bright candle in a dark world and it is our prayer that attendance will grow in 2009, and the lights that leave the church refueled and glowing brighter will multiply until the Lord’s love catches like wildfire. It is our hope that we will not only proclaim with St. John, but relish the fact that: “What came to be through Him was life and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1: 3-4) Please join us in glowing bright for Christ at the next St. Maria Goretti Mass, which will be held on February 6, 2009.
Mandy Erskine
The St. Maria Goretti Mass is a bright candle in a dark world and it is our prayer that attendance will grow in 2009, and the lights that leave the church refueled and glowing brighter will multiply until the Lord’s love catches like wildfire. It is our hope that we will not only proclaim with St. John, but relish the fact that: “What came to be through Him was life and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1: 3-4) Please join us in glowing bright for Christ at the next St. Maria Goretti Mass, which will be held on February 6, 2009.
Mandy Erskine
Mandy Erskine grew up in central Washington with her family. She was baptized Catholic as an infant and attended church regularly, but it wasn't until after she received the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Catholic Church that she really started taking the Faith seriously. Soon after her Confirmation Mandy began speaking at her high school youth group, then traveled the United States and Canada with REACH Youth Ministry for nearly 2 years.
While on REACH Mandy had the opportunity to share her faith and her passion for Chastity. After her time serving on the REACH team, Mandy moved to San Diego, CA. There she works for Catholic Answers in the sales department and speaks with The Goretti Group. She has been on the Speaker's Bureau with The Goretti Group since 2004.
During Mandy's presentations audiences are captivated by her energy. She takes her audience on a journey through the darkness of the world's view into the fullness of what we were created for as Men and Women, Male and Female created in the Image and Likeness of God. Mandy's goal in her presentation is to start a REVOLUTION by untwisting, untangling and restoring the beauty of our Sexuality. She accomplishes these goals and inspires by the Grace of God and through stories of her own life struggles.
Mandy has been described as INSPIRING, REFRESHING, FUNNY and LIFE CHANGING. She will have you laughing, crying and ready to start a new kind of 'Sexual Revolution'. One that is Chaste By His Grace.
