Message ~ from Rev. Fr. Vincent Anyama

June 27, 2011

I worked at St. Monica parish in Dallas for a year as part of my formation to the priesthood. When I was leaving the parish to return to my place of studies in Houston, I received several gifts, especially cards. In the cards were contained people’s expressions of how they felt upon my departure. While going through the cards, it dawned on me that they were all saying the same thing, which was, “always remember that we love you”. Part of expressing love through concrete things such as cards, gifts, hugs, kisses, and photographs, is our attempt to ensure that the love expressed and received is remembered and never forgotten. If we love someone, we want that person to remember it for the rest of his or her life.

Just as we want our human loves for each other to always be remembered, even more does God want His love for us to dwell in our hearts forever. Speaking for myself, I know that when I am in bed, when I am at work, when I am in distress, when I am very sick, and when I am dying, I want to remember the love of God for me. We need God’s love to live a joyful life and die a meaningful death.

That’s why Christ came, precisely to help us, not to only remember God’s enduring love, but even more to possess it in our hearts. And so to show us how God loves, he died on the cross for those whom he loves. To make sure that we never forget the event of the cross, Jesus did not write a best seller book describing the death he was to endure for us, nor did he rely on the feeble memory of his apostles. Rather he instituted the Eucharist. This was to ensure that his blood, poured out on the cross, flows through our own blood vessels, and that his body, broken on the cross, becomes one with our own body.

At his Last Supper with his Apostles, Jesus took bread and wine, and made them his body and blood for our consumption. Then he authorized and mandated his Apostles (and their successors—the bishops, and those sharing their authority—the priests), to perform in his name the same action of the Last Supper. He gave them the resounding mandate, do this in memory of me, to ensure that his body and blood, soul and divinity, is easily accessible to many for all generations.

If there is a love to remember by all people, it is the love of God perfectly expressed on the Cross of Christ. In an unbloody way, the Eucharist always makes present before our very eyes, this divine love; and even more, it soaks our whole being with the live giving body and blood of Christ. If we forget the enduring love of God, we will all perish in despair. If we distance ourselves from the Eucharist, we become more forgetful of the divine love. Lest we forget our goal in life, the Eucharist is there to remind us of what it is: to be like God, love like God, and sacrifice ourselves in love as God did for us.

What Makes A True Friend

The Japanese have a term, kenzoku, which translated literally means “family.” The connotation suggests a bond between people who’ve made a similar commitment and who possibly therefore share a similar destiny. It implies the presence of the deepest connection of friendship, of lives lived as comrades from the distant past.

Many of us have people in our lives with whom we feel the bond described by the word kenzoku. They may be family members, a mother, a brother, a daughter, a cousin. Or a friend from grammar school with whom we haven’t talked in decades. Time and distance do nothing to diminish the bond we have with these kinds of friends.

The question then arises: why do we have the kind of chemistry encapsulated by the word kenzoku with only a few people we know and not scores of others? The closer we look for the answer the more elusive it becomes. It may not in fact be possible to know, but the characteristics that define a kenzoku relationship most certainly are.

WHAT DRAWS PEOPLE TOGETHER AS FRIENDS?

1. Common interests. This probably ties us closer to our friends than many would like to admit. When our interests diverge and we can find nothing to enjoy jointly, time spent together tends to rapidly diminish. Not that we can’t still care deeply about friends with whom we no longer share common interests, but it’s probably uncommon for such friends to interact on a regular basis.
2. History.  Nothing ties people together, even people with little in common, than having gone through the same difficult experience. As the sole glue to keep friendships whole in the long run, however, it often dries, cracks, and ultimately fails.
3. Common values. Though not necessarily enough to create a friendship, if values are too divergent, it’s difficult for a friendship to thrive.
4. Equality. If one friend needs the support of the other on a consistent basis such that the person depended upon receives no benefit other than the opportunity to support and encourage, while the relationship may be significant and valuable, it can’t be said to define a true friendship.

WHAT MAKES A FRIEND WORTHY OF THE NAME?

1. A commitment to your happiness. A true friend is consistently willing to put your happiness before your friendship. It’s said that “good advice grates on the ear,” but a true friend won’t refrain from telling you something you don’t want to hear, something that may even risk fracturing the friendship, if hearing it lies in your best interest. A true friend will not lack the mercy to correct you when you’re wrong. A true friend will confront you with your drinking problem as quickly as inform you about a malignant-looking skin lesion on your back that you can’t see yourself.
2. Not asking you to place the friendship before your principles. A true friend won’t ask you to compromise your principles in the name of your friendship or anything else. Ever.
3. A good influence. A true friend inspires you to live up to your best potential, not to indulge your basest drives.

Of course, we may have friends who fit all these criteria and still don’t quite feel kenzoku. There still seems to be an extra factor, an attraction similar to that which draws people together romantically, that cements friends together irrevocably, often immediately, for no reason either person can identify. But when you find these people, these kenzoku, they’re like priceless gems. They’re like finding home.

HOW TO ATTRACT TRUE FRIENDS

This one is easy, at least on paper: become a true friend yourself. One of my favorite quotations comes from Gandhi: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Be the friend you want to have. We all tend to attract people into our lives whose character mirrors our own. You don’t have to make yourself into what you think others would find attractive. No matter what your areas of interest, others share them somewhere. Simply make yourself a big target. Join social clubs organized around activities you enjoy. Leverage the Internet to find people of like mind. Take action.

As I thought about it, there are four people in my life I consider kenzoku. How many do you?

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/happiness-in-world/201002/what-makes-true-friend

(Feast of the Body of Christ)

This feast is celebrated in the Latin Church on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday to solemnly commemorate the institution of the Holy Eucharist.

Of Maundy Thursday, which commemorates this great event, mention is made as Natalis Calicis (Birth of the Chalice) in the Calendar of Polemius (448) for the 24th of March, the 25th of March being in some places considered as the day of the death of Christ. This day, however, was in Holy Week, a season of sadness, during which the minds of the faithful are expected to be occupied with thoughts of the Lord’s Passion. Moreover, so many other functions took place on this day that the principal event was almost lost sight of. This is mentioned as the chief reason for the introduction of the new feast, in the Bull “Transiturus.”

The instrument in the hand of Divine Providence was St. Juliana of Mont Cornillon, in Belgium. She was born in 1193 at Retines near Liège. Orphaned at an early age, she was educated by the Augustinian nuns of Mont Cornillon. Here she in time made her religious profession and later became superioress. Intrigues of various kinds several times drove her from her convent. She died 5 April, 1258, at the House of the Cistercian nuns at Fosses, and was buried at Villiers.

Juliana, from her early youth, had a great veneration for the Blessed Sacrament, and always longed for a special feast in its honour. This desire is said to have been increased by a vision of the Church under the appearance of the full moon having one dark spot, which signified the absence of such a solemnity. She made known her ideas to Robert de Thorete, then Bishop of Liège, to the learned Dominican Hugh, later cardinal legate in the Netherlands, and to Jacques Pantaléon, at that time Archdeacon of Liège, afterwards Bishop of Verdun, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and finally Pope Urban IV. Bishop Robert was favourably impressed, and, since bishops as yet had the right of ordering feasts for their dioceses, he called a synod in 1246 and ordered the celebration to be held in the following year, also, that a monk named John should write the Office for the occasion. The decree is preserved in Binterim (Denkwürdigkeiten, V, 1, 276), together with parts of the Office.

Bishop Robert did not live to see the execution of his order, for he died 16 October, 1246; but the feast was celebrated for the first time by the canons of St. Martin at Liège. Jacques Pantaléon became pope 29 August, 1261. The recluse Eve, with whom Juliana had spent some time, and who was also a fervent adorer of the Holy Eucharist, now urged Henry of Guelders, Bishop of Liège, to request the pope to extend the celebration to the entire world. Urban IV, always an admirer of the feast, published the Bull “Transiturus” (8 September, 1264), in which, after having extolled the love of Our Saviour as expressed in the Holy Eucharist, he ordered the annual celebration of Corpus Christi in the Thursday next after Trinity Sunday, at the same time granting many indulgences to the faithful for the attendance at Mass and at the Office. This Office, composed at the request of the pope by the Angelic Doctor St. Thomas Aquinas, is one of the most beautiful in the Roman Breviary and has been admired even by Protestants.

The death of Pope Urban IV (2 October, 1264), shortly after the publication of the decree, somewhat impeded the spread of the festival. Clement V again took the matter in hand and, at the General Council of Vienne (1311), once more ordered the adoption of the feast. He published a new decree which embodied that of Urban IV. John XXII, successor of Clement V, urged its observance.

Neither decree speaks of the theophoric procession as a feature of the celebration. This procession, already held in some places, was endowed with indulgences by Popes Martin V and Eugene IV.

The feast had been accepted in 1306 at Cologne; Worms adopted it in 1315; Strasburg in 1316. In England it was introduced from Belgium between 1320 and 1325. In the United States and some other countries the solemnity is held on the Sunday after Trinity.

In the Greek Church the feast of Corpus Christi is known in the calendars of the Syrians, Armenians, Copts, Melchites, and the Ruthenians of Galicia, Calabria, and Sicily.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04390b.htm

Top of the morning to you! 🙂

Are any of you fascinated with the human mind or at least with the psyche of an individual? Or better yet have you ever tried a self-examination of how you analyze/size someone up? There are two different types of people: those who like to unravel a person ( so to speak) and others who want to know what makes a person tick. Both may sound similar but are two very different processes to how you might size up an individual.

Unraveling a person implies that your either curious about who they are and what they do, allowing you to determine whether you feel comfortable in their presence/with their personality, based on what you’ve just discovered of them. Now knowing what makes a person tick involves the first “type” as well as a little extra. When you want to know what makes a person tick, it implies that you want to not only discover their personality but you’d also like to determine what their next step is/know what their thinking process is like; another wards, predict what their outcome/personal motives might be. So which “type” are you? Are you the unravel-er, the ticker, or the hybrid (combo of both)?

I for one am a hybrid; I like to know what makes a person tick while unraveling them in the process. If you’re asking yourself what any of the above has to do with today’s post, here’s the answer to that question. I found this article posted on the front page of yahoo and thought it not only intriguing but pertinent to what I’m studying (psychology).  I will ask of you, to please keep an open mind before and after reading this article. Don’t believe yourself to be a psycho-analyst after reading it due to certain tips/statements that are mentioned. Take care on your perception of the material because you could end up becoming paranoid, by taking the article too LITERALLY, and we don’t want that 🙂  Remember these aren’t facts but an entertaining read and the material in the article works for both genders. You might even end up questioning how your own reactions are to circumstances while reading, I know I did :p…

Yours truly,

A College Student

Every Move You Make
Every last gesture—whether it’s a tilt of the head or plain fidgeting—tells a story. Do you look down when you speak? Play with your hair? Lean to one side? Learn what you’re telling others with your body language—and what others are telling you with theirs.

How to Read Faces

Brushing Hair Off Your Face
This movement, a combination of nerves and flirtation, helps call attention to and frame your feminine assets (think face and neck). No wonder it’s a staple of a promising date.

Smiling
Botox be damned! The only real smile, says Anita Barbee, a professor of social work at the University of Louisville, in Kentucky, is one in which eye muscles are engaged. People who grin for more than five seconds and only with their lips can be faking it. Frequent smiling in the workplace can make a person seem less serious.

Blinking
The normal blink rate is six to eight times a minute. But under stress, you’ll blink more often and somewhat more dramatically. Want to know who’s freaking out and who’s as cool as a cucumber at the next big meeting? The eyes have it.

Nibbling Your Lips
If you bite, suck on, or lick your lips when under pressure or in an awkward situation, you’re attempting to comfort or soothe yourself, says psychologist Carol Kinsey Goman, the author of The Nonverbal Advantage ($20, amazon.com).

Scratching Your Nose
Don’t get caught in a lie. “When a person fibs, it’s often accompanied by an adrenaline rush,” says psychologist Michael Cunningham, a professor of communication at the University of Louisville. This release causes capillaries to expand, making the nose itch. Another tall-tale tell: a sustained glance. A liar often overcompensates for being perceived as shifty by focusing a bit too intently on the person he is fibbing to.

Sending Darting Glances
This catch-your-eye game, usually played in guy-girl situations, tends to mirror your scattered thoughts. Does he like me? Do I like him? Do I want him to come over here? Also, unlike a direct gaze, the back-and-forth variety is a protective measure: If he doesn’t approach you, you won’t feel rejected.

Nodding Your Head
If you nod in clusters of three, the speaker will sense your interest, and this can lengthen her response threefold, says Goman. Word to the wise: Nod only once when trying to escape Chatty Cathy.

Closing Your Eyes
By rubbing, covering, or closing your eyes for longer than a blink, you’re trying to keep out certain auditory or visual cues. It’s a survival mechanism to prevent the brain from processing anything undesirable or threatening.

Lowering Your Gaze
This meek gesture is an unconscious bid for public support—a favorite tactic of small children, not to mention the late Princess Diana. It often elicits a parental response. If someone does it to you, she may be searching for your empathy. Be gentle.

Pursing Your Lips
Narrowing the red margins of your lips is a clear sign of anger, says Paul Ekman, professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco. Why? When a person is not truly mad, she typically can’t feign this gesture, even if she tries.

Tilting Your Head
Tilt your head to the side when hearing a friend’s sob story. This movement indicates that you’re interested and listening. On a more literal level, you’re revealing and angling your ear to her, physically showing that you want to hear every detail.

Raising or Furrowing Your Eyebrows
“Raised eyebrows, one or both, is a true expression of piqued curiosity and interest, while lowered eyebrows can indicate negative emotions, such as confusion and fear,” says Laura Guerrero, a professor of communication at the Arizona State University Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, in Tempe. If you’re not interested in a good or bad way, your face will remain still and unanimated.

Looking Up or to the Side
Want a little glimpse into the way someone’s memory works? Notice where the person moves her eyes. When recalling something that was seen, a person will angle her eyes skyward, as if trying to picture it. When remembering something heard, she will look toward one of her ears, as if listening for it. Especially emotional experiences tend to be relived through introspective downward glances.

How to Read Bodies

Standing With Legs Together
This conservative stance denotes deference, says Goman.

Angling Yourself
Do you align yourself with the head honcho at work? Most people position their bodies or feet toward the person who has captured their focus. Coming to attention and squaring your chest at the sight of your boss is a sign of respect. Another note about proper alignment: If someone approaches you and a friend in the middle of a conversation and you want to give the newcomer a nonverbal invitation to join in, angle your bodies outward by 45 degrees. This subtle sign of inclusion shows the person that she is welcome.

Standing With Legs Apart
This position, feet and legs shoulder-width apart, signals dominance and determination, says Goman. When asserting your side of an argument or discussion, stand your ground—literally. For an extra boost, place your hands on your hips. This is a traditional position of power.

Leaning
No surprise here: You lean toward people you like and pull away from those you don’t. On a date? Take note of your companion’s direction—and yours. Subtly mirroring movements builds trust.

Shifting Your Weight From Side to Side or Front to Back
“The way you move your body reflects your attitude,” says Goman. Constantly transferring your weight from one foot to the other or rocking forward and backward is a comforting movement that indicates you are anxious or upset. Basically, this is a physical representation of what is going on in your head: You are betwixt and between many unsettling thoughts and can’t stop moving from one to the other.

Massaging Your Forehead or Earlobes
These soothing actions counter feelings of uneasiness or vulnerability—for example, when you are seated in the front row of a lecture hall and hope not to be called on. The same goes for hugging your sides or rubbing your legs when you’re sitting. Stroking the nerve endings in some of these body parts helps lower blood pressure and heart rate.

Crossing Your Arms
Don’t be too quick to leap to conclusions: This pose doesn’t always mean anger, but when coupled with crossed legs, it is a defensive position. Take note of the surroundings. More often than not, this stance means a person is cold. Also, many people simply find it comfortable, says Cunningham.

Walking The way you tread speaks volumes about how others see you. Fast strutters come across as productive and competent, looking as if they have somewhere important to be. Those with a “bounce in their step” are perceived as having upbeat personalities. For a purposeful stride, walk from heel to toe. (Interestingly, most men land on their heels; most women, mid-arch.)

Sitting
When in doubt, spread out. Taking up space, such as by fanning out your papers in the boardroom instead of stacking them in a small pile, screams importance. Likewise, sitting with your legs apart assures others that you are large and in charge.

How to Read Hands

Opening Up Your Hands
By spreading your hands as if serving someone a treat off a tray, you are indicating that you are open to new ideas being offered. Facing your palms down or clenching your fists shows you have a strong position—one that may not be so flexible.

Flailing Your Arms
You’re not out of control. Research shows that those who gesture when they speak seem energetic, agreeable, and warm, while those who gesticulate less are seen as logical and analytic. Keep in mind that moderation is key; overly animated gestures that border on frantic make you appear unbelievable and less powerful. If you fear you may be too animated, perhaps in a job interview, hold on to something when you talk.

Hiding Your Hands
Stashing your hands in your lap, stuffing them in your pockets, and holding them behind your back are movements of deceit—you’re hiding something. “A person may be telling you one thing, but these cues indicate you’re not getting the whole story,” says Barbee.

Picking at Your Nails
Messing with cuticles is a sign of low confidence and timidity. Try steepling your fingers (hands folded together with index fingers extended) so you can’t pick and you instead appear self-assured.

How to Read Feet

Pointing Toes In
Even if you’re sitting up straight with your shoulders aligned and your head up—all signs of an open body position—your feet may be betraying you. If they’re cocked inward, big toe to big toe, this indicates that you’re closing yourself off because you feel awkward or insecure.

Fidgeting
Ever notice that you become more physically active—you tap your heels, slide in and out of your shoes, bop your foot up and down while crossing your legs—the more uncomfortable you feel? This is because these kinds of moves relieve tension. Fidgeting may also mean that you want out of a situation and your body is getting ready to take flight. The bottom line? At least in professional settings, cross your ankles to calm those fidgety feet.

Crossing Your Legs
Pay attention to the direction in which you cross your legs. In a seated conversation, people tend to point the toes of the top leg toward the person who they feel is the most approachable. The kicker? Lifting your toes means your feelings toward said person are extra-positive.

Pointing Toes Toward the Door
When you’re having a conversation with someone but her feet are angled toward the door, she may be unconsciously saying that she’s ready to cut the talk short and move on.

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/what-is-your-body-language-saying-2422402/#photoViewer=1

FEAST DAY: June 13
b.1195 d.1231

Saint Anthony was canonized (declared a saint) less than one year after his death.

There is perhaps no more loved and admired saint in the Catholic Church than Saint Anthony of Padua, a Doctor of the Church. Though his work was in Italy, he was born in Portugal. He first joined the Augustinian Order and then left it and joined the Franciscan Order in 1221, when he was 26 years old. The reason he became a Franciscan was because of the death of the five Franciscan protomartyrs — St. Bernard, St. Peter, St. Otho, St. Accursius, and St. Adjutus — who shed their blood for the Catholic Faith in the year 1220, in Morocco, in North Africa, and whose headless and mutilated bodies had been brought to St. Anthony’s monastery on their way back for burial. St. Anthony became a Franciscan in the hope of shedding his own blood and becoming a martyr. He lived only ten years after joining the Franciscan Order.

  So simple and resounding was his teaching of the Catholic Faith, so that the most unlettered and innocent might understand it, that he was made a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XII in 1946. Saint Anthony was only 36 years old when he died. He is called the “hammer of the Heretics” His great protection against their lies and deceits in the matter of Christian doctrine was to utter, simply and innocently, the Holy Name of Mary. When St. Anthony of Padua found he was preaching the true Gospel of the Catholic Church to heretics who would not listen to him, he then went out and preached it to the fishes. This was not, as liberals and naturalists are trying to say, for the instruction of the fishes, but rather for the glory of God, the delight of the angels, and the easing of his own heart. St. Anthony wanted to profess the Catholic Faith with his mind and his heart, at every moment.

He is typically depicted with a book and the Infant Child Jesus, to whom He miraculously appeared, and is commonly referred to today as the “finder of lost articles.” Upon exhumation, some 336 years after his death, his body was found to be corrupted, yet his tongue was totally incorrupt, so perfect were the teachings that had been formed upon it.

http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=24

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The SFYA Married Ministry will be launching a Bible Study on Thursday, June 9th from 7:00-8:45 PM at the church for Married Couples. The Bible Study will continue ever other Thursday. We will begin with studying The Acts of Apostles. Please contact Melissa Hunt at sfyainfo@yahoo.com to RSVP or for more information.

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Join the SFYA Married Ministry on June 10th at 7:00 PM as we dine in the Pope Room at Buca di Beppo, Frisco Location. For all our young married parents, you deserve a night out! Consider this a date night. Adults only for this event. To RSVP, contact Melissa Hunt at sfyainfo@yahoo.com.

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Join the St Francis Young Adults (SFYA) – Hispanic (Jovenes Adultos) Ministry as we invite you for a Retreat at St Francis. Saturday, June 11th from 9am-5pm. Saturday Mass following. For ALL Young Adults ages College, 20’s, 30’s. Drinks and food will be served. Please RSVP to Nancy & Diego Sandoval at sfyainfo@yahoo.com

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Join the St Francis Young Adults (SFYA) Unmarried Ministry to see Light the Skies & D’Ambrosio Family Band! for a night of Jesus and Java. The event begins at 7:00 PM, Saturday, June 25 at Mary Immaculate Catholic Church/Hall – 2800 Valwood, Farmers Branch TX in Main Church with praise and worship in Adoration led by the Friars. Followed by LIVE Entertainment in the Parish Hall by Light the Skies and D’Ambrosio Family Band. Bring your family and friends. For more information, please contact Tammy Weber & Ana Rodriguez at sfyainfo@yahoo.com

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The SFYA Married Ministry would like to invite Married Couples to a Bible Study on Thursday, June 23rd from 7:00-8:45 PM in the church youth room. The Bible Study will continue every other Thursday. We are studying The Acts of Apostles. We learn from each other, as many of us are dusting off our Bibles! This is a new event for the Young Adults and we encourage everyone to participate regardless of your Bible knowledge! Please contact Melissa Hunt at sfyainfo@yahoo.com if you are interested in joining this Bible Study or for information on using our church nursery. This will be a great way to meet other young couples and grow in faith together.