St Mary Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church

St. Mary Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church RCIA

Opening Prayer: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

“Faith in God’s love encompasses the call and the obligation to respond with sincere love to divine charity” to all people (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2093). President Barack Obama called on the Muslim world to respect people’s right to choose their religion in his Cairo address on Thursday. (Obama upholds religious freedom in Muslim speech)

President Barack Obama called on the Muslim world to respect people’s right to choose their religion in his Cairo address on Thursday. “People in every country should be free to choose and live their faith based upon the persuasion of the mind and the heart and the soul, ” Obama said at Cairo University. “The richness of religious diversity must be upheld – whether it is for Maronites in Lebanon or the Copts in Egypt. "

“All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…. (Mt 28: 16 -20) Mt 28: 16 -20 The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they all saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age. "

What tradition says… Ø A basic duty every human person owes to God is regular worship. Because of this, and because of the basic longing each person has for God, a fundamental human right is the right to worship freely. No one should be prohibited from a free exercise of their faith, either in public or in private, and no one should ever be forced to worship in a manner that violates their beliefs and convictions. Because freedom of religion and worship is such an important and fundamental right, governments need to enact and enforce laws that respect and protect this right. (U. S. Catholic Catechism for Adults, p. 420)

Ø The human brain is bifurcated down the middle into two parts, popularly known as the left brain and right brain respectively. We know that different parts of the brain control different bodily and mental functions. Ø Over the years, a theory that has gained in popularity is that the right brain and the left brain are responsible for different modes of thought and that the way in which a person thinks will depend on which side of his brain predominates.

The Fifth Commandment requires us to value all human life as sacred. Ø In the News: Ø “Our bishops’ conference and all its members have repeatedly and publicly denounced all forms of violence in our society, including abortion as well as the misguided resort to violence by anyone opposed to abortion, ” Cardinal Rigali said. “Such killing is the opposite of everything we stand for, and everything we want our culture to stand for: respect for the life of each and every human being from its beginning to its natural end. U. S. Bishops Express ‘Profound Regret’ about Shooting Death of Abortion Doctor

You must keep his statutes and commandments that I enjoin on you today, that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may have long life on the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you forever.

Dt 4: 32 -34, 39 -40 Moses said to the people: "Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created man upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of? Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live? Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by testing's, by signs and wonders, by war, with strong hand outstretched arm, and by great terrors, all of which the LORD, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other. You must keep his statutes and commandments that I enjoin on you today, that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may have long life on the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you forever. "

Every human life, from the moment of conception until death, is sacred because the human person has been willed for its own sake in the image and likeness of the living and holy God. The murder of a human being is gravely contrary to the dignity of the person and the holiness of the Creator. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2319 -2320)

Closing Prayer and Intentions: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created: And you will renew the face of the earth. O God, on the first Pentecost you instructed the hearts of those who believed in you by the light of the Holy Spirit: under the same inspiration of the same Spirit, give us a taste for what is right and true and a continuing sense of the Spirit’s joy-bringing presence and power: through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Credits: • www. teamrcia. com • Day by day, Notre Dame Prayerbook for students -Thank you! Melissa Hendrick