Teaching Explained at OLS

“I think all of us can deepen our awareness of the Church’s teaching on this beautiful, beautiful … reality of the communion of saints,” said Sister Karen Ann Lortscher, OSB as she began The Communion of Saints and Mary during Adult Education: Year of Faith & Beyond at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in Homewood.
In her talk on February 9 Sister Karen Ann, a Benedictine Sister of Cullman, referred to several sources including the Acts of the Apostles, letters of St. Paul, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium, and Catholic.org. She noted that the communion of saints is mentioned in the Apostles Creed. She said the term ‘communion of saints’ was coined in the fifth century.
Sister Karen Ann, spoke of a communion of spiritual goods in the church and the communion of faith. “Not only do we share faith because it helps to build the other, but we share our faith because it enriches us. It helps to build our faith,” she stated.
She said Pope Leo XIII stated that the communion of saints is the mutual sharing of help, atonement, prayers, and benefits among all the faithful. In other words, she explained, the communion of saints is comprised of people on earth, people in heaven and people in purgatory. She said for those who have loved ones who have died it’s “a comfort…I’m sure everyone here has a story of someone or someones that they feel close to because of our belief in the communion of saints.”
Sister said we are all called to imitate Christ and knowing the lives of saints can be inspirational. “These folks are people who lived, tried their hardest to live in imitation of Christ and the ways in which they did it can inspire and help us on our journey in trying to do the same.” As for statues, pictures, and relics of saints, Sister said of course such things have no power in and of themselves, “These are just things that remind us of these people.”
Sister shared words of St. Dominic and St. Thérèse about interceding for others after death. “So, we ask the saints to pray for us as we might ask someone here on earth for his or her prayers and that’s usually the explanation that I give to my non-Catholic friends who wonder why we pray to saints,” she said adding that the church teaches that a prayer can end only with God. “Devotion to the saints is an optional practice in Catholicism,” she explained.
Sister encouraged reading well-written, modern books on the lives of saints. “They can be a help and a spur to the better practice of your own faith because they’ve been … through the struggle,” she said.
Turning to Mary, Sister Karen Ann said, “What Catholics believe about Mary is based on what we believe about Christ. And Catholic teaching about Mary illumines or shines a light on or enhances our faith in Christ. ”
Sister said that God willed that the Incarnation be preceded by Mary’s free cooperation. “That’s really awesome when you think about it. God could have just done it,” she said, “but in His plan He willed that our redemption, our salvation, would depend on her pre-assent.”
Sister Karen Ann offered several reasons why Mary is honored including: 1. God the Father honored her by sending the angel Gabriel to tell her that she has found favor with God; 2. Jesus honors Mary at the beginning of his public life; 3. the early Christian church honored her; and 4. St. Luke honored her by putting so much about her in his Gospel. “Mary is the saint par excellence for us,” she asserted.
Sister Karen Ann said we honor Mary in the same way we honor statesmen. “Think of government buildings named after famous politicians or we make statues in their likeness. So, we name churches in Mary’s honor and display statues and pictures of Mary, Our Beloved Mother. We don’t do this to adore or worship Mary. She’s a creature and a servant of God,” she said. “But Mary is part of the Communion of Saints.”

World Impacters Church International, Pastor James Martin Jr., located at 3725 Vanderbilt Road, Birmingham, Ala. 35217, will celebrate our First Church Anniversary, February 23rd, 5 p.m. Guest Speaker will be Apostle Joseph Hamilton of New Zion Bible Way Church, and special Guest bringing greetings from the City of Birmingham, Councilman William Parker, District 4. Please come out and worship with us. Regular Sunday services begin at 10 a.m.

Governor Robert Bentley recently recognized Rev. J. Andrew Caldwell for organizing and presenting a conference on the family, that was held in Phenix City, Alabama during the month of September.
Rev. Caldwell, founder of Faith Outreach Ministry, presented a two day seminar titled: “The Time Is Now,” where he shared information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on HIV/AIDS education statistics; Domestic Violence, where Alabama leads number two in the nation; bullying / suicide among gays and lesbians; alcohol and drug addiction; and the alarming rate of incarceration of youth and young adults across the state and nation. “I have heard the voices of so many groups from various walks of life and different cultures, that are hurting, and in a state of despair but feel their cries are not being heard.” “Many feel they have no hope”, he said.
Rev. Caldwell stated he was overwhelmed with a spirit of urgency to organize and present this two day event and to start in his hometown where he was a pastor for many years before relocating to the city of Birmingham through the African Methodist Episcopal Church. “It is my desire to educate and motivate families across this state and this county, on the need to become more involved in the lives of our children and learn what we can do before these situations become an epidemic.”
Also present was the Russell County Crisis Center and information was shared from representatives from Columbus, and Fort Benning, Georgia, on Domestic Violence and other community services.
Rev. Caldwell is an ordained minister and has served the communities of Russell County, Randolph County, Lee County and Jefferson County for more than thirty-five years. He is a motivational speaker, group facilitator for domestic violence and a member of the Alabama Justice Network Ministry, where he teaches and counsels prison inmates.

Understanding the Eleventh Commandment

One man went to St. Augustine, one of the fathers of the Christian church and asks, ‘Just in short, give me the very essence of religion. I am not a learned man; don’t make it very complicated and don’t give me many commandments, because I will get confused. You simply say one thing to me, just a key word.’ St. Augustine said, ‘Then that word is ‘love’. You love and don’t be bothered by anything else.’
I call this commandment the Eleventh Commandment. This is the only commandment we need to follow absolutely. Unconditional love is what God is all about. But many of us get lost concerning the real message of Jesus in arguments like the disciples did over who will be the greatest when Jesus left the earth. We, too, argue over what religious laws to obey and who is worthy to be saved. There are 1001 discussions, debates, theologies, dogmas, creeds, and conflicting philosophies on these subjects. Many of them leading to wars in the name of Christ and love.
If we don’t learn the eleventh commandment and practice it, we will live a miserable life and may miss heaven. I think there is a way to avoid this. We avoid the most miserable state of life not being able to love unconditionally by understanding the essential message of Christ Jesus. That message is Christ came, lived and died for the eleventh commandment of unconditional Love. This point is explained by a short story. One day a little boy asked his parents ‘how do wars break out? He was reading a book on history. Much of history is about wars, ugly wars. The boy became worried and anxious. How do wars start?’ he asked his parents. So the father, who was very learned in political and economic affairs, started talking about the economic causes of wars. But the mother thought that the little boy was too small to understand such complicated things and she said, ‘Let me explain it.’ The mother began to explain and the father became angry. He grew very annoyed and hostile, because he was going to teach the child and the mother jumped in. A great argument developed. The little boy became very frightened, and held up his hands and cried loudly, ‘Stop, stop! Now I know how wars start.” No one wants to be wrong! Everyone wants to be right and when we form an opinion about something, anything, we have to be right; and if anyone says we are wrong, we immediately go on the “warpath.” If there is dogma attached to what we believe, there is going to be a fight.  There are people, who want the world to be without war, but they have ideologies and their beliefs create war. As Americans, we know what’s good for everyone in the world. So anyone who opposes us, our competitive nature is to fight. We have to be right and we got the guns and world ending weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to back us up!
During the Olympics we watch to see who wins the most gold medals or leads in the medal count. That seems to be what the Olympics is all about for us? Our weekends are full with competitive sports. To us winning is everything! And we love a winner and hate a loser.  There are communists who go on arranging peace conferences because they say they know how the society should be. There are Catholics and Protestants talking about peace while hating each other. There are thousands of churches, hundreds of denominations and scores of religious beliefs. They all have a point of view about God and if you don’t like it they are ready to fight.  A world without war is a world without ideologies. A world without war is based on unconditional love. Love is not an ideology, it is not a theology, and it is not a philosophy. This, Jesus says, “is my new commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. This love is the eleventh commandment.

Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. Habakkuk 2;2

If you ask any successful person how they made it, many will tell you they sat down and decided what they wanted to do and then they set goals on how they would get it done. Financial planners will tell you to set financial goals, educational institutions with tell you to set goals to lead you through your educational process and any successful business has quarterly, semi-annual and annual goals. Why is it so important to set goals? Because thoughts change daily, circumstances change momentarily and life happens. If you don’t write down what your plans are, you don’t have anything to remind you of what you are working towards and nothing to drive you to make it happen. But you can’t just write the goals, you MUST make them a priority.

So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” Acts 9:6

When you go to God and ask Him for something, He will give you some instructions and directions. Sometimes they come through others, sometimes through His Word and someone even told me they received a message from God about their next step from a billboard on the highway. However He gives you the instructions, you MUST be willing to follow them IMMEDIATELY. Not next week, but right then. You must write it down so you don’t forget it, research what you need to do to make it happen and get busy with the process. Nothing and no one should stand in the way of you accomplishing your goal and if you keep it in front of you, they won’t.  It’s time for some of you to get serious about what you want and MAKE IT A PRIORITY not just a thought.

How bad do you really want it?
Minister Deidra Bibb

I don’t know how else to say it so I’ll just say it. I can be a chicken from time-to-time. I don’t like it. I know I shouldn’t be, but I am and I don’t want to be.
There’s so much I would do if I didn’t have chickenitis.
·         I’d try my hand at broadcasting again, a television or radio talk show for sure.
·         I’d open up a pie business selling sweet and savory hand-held pies.
·         I’d publish the children’s book I wrote several years ago.
·         I’d run for political office.
·         I’d charge a fee to teach artists, athletes and preachers how to speak correctly and in a more relatable/marketable way, especially when speaking to the media.
·         I’d travel across country starting in Mobile and ending in L.A.
·         I’d learn to dance (line dance, stepping, ballroom, tap, you name it. I’d be a dancing machine!).
·         I’d be a wedding DJ.
·         I’d ride the roller coaster at Six Flags that scared the living daylights out of me when I was six years old.
·         I would learn to swim.
·         I’d get another degree in Counseling or Human Resources.
·         I’d write a book about my life, especially the last 15 years.
·         I would live on a yacht for a month.
·         And the list goes on.
Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against chickens, just being chicken. I realized through research that chickens can only fly so high. I don’t want my chickenitis to be the cause of me never really making it off of the ground. If I have wings I want them to work! So there you have it. I don’t want my chicken. It serves me no purpose, and actually robs me of my purpose. So I figuratively ask, will someone please burn my chicken?
 Angela Scott Moore has sported many hats in her lifetime. She’s a former broadcast anchor/reporter/producer, a trained motivational speaker, fundraiser and marketing/PR expert. She spent nine years as a pastor’s wife working in full-time ministry before than union ended in divorce. A majority of her time in ministry was spent empowering women and girls. She’s an avid inspirational blogger and also a philanthropic community supporter who has served with more than 25 local and national organizations over her 15+ year professional career. Currently she’s working in the fields of Social Justice and Human Resources and operates the blossoming, full-service events planning venture Amazing Kreations with her business partner, offering media and event planning assistance at low or no cost to small organizations and businesses. Taking lessons learned from each phase of her ever-evolving life, Angela’s now donning the hat of a single woman on a single mission to use spoken and written words to motivate others to “thrive while they survive.”
Contact Angela Scott Moore about speaking engagements at amazingkreations2@gmail.com, follow her blog at www.angelamooreblog.wordpress.com, on twitter at @AngelaMMoore316 or check out her facebook page for people experiencing separation or divorce at I’m More Than What Happened.