Where the people of St. Scholastica Parish in Aspinwall, PA meet for conversation about our parish life.
Why the name?
"Holy Conversation" does sound like an exceptionally pious name, even for a parish blog. And we can't guarantee that everything here will meet the high standard the name implies. But the phrase comes from the story of our patron saint, and we think it fits. Here's why.
St. Scholastica was a sixth-century abbess who, according to the Dialogues of Pope Gregory I, used to meet once a year with her brother, St. Benedict. On the last occasion they were together, they spent their time "satisfying each other's hunger for holy conversation about the spiritual life."
We hope that this blog can become a place where the members of our parish can find a taste of the companionship and conversation that Scholastica and Benedict enjoyed so much. Welcome!
Our parish study of Laudato
Si’, Pope Francis’s letter on care for the Earth, has reached its halfway
point.We have two groups meeting, on
Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.If you would like to read or download the pope’s letter, you can do so
on the Vatican website here
(+).
In our first session, we began with prayer: St. Francis’s
“Canticle of the Creatures.”Then, as an
introduction, we watched a brief video from Sr. Sallie Latkovich, CSJ, of the
Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.The video places Laudato Si’ in
the context of the tradition of Catholic social teaching.
We then began reading Bill Huebsch’s summary
reading guide to the letter, stopping from time to time to consult the pope’s
original text, and to discuss the Pope Francis’s ideas and our own experiences
and reflections.
Pope Francis addresses the letter to “every living person on
the planet.”He summarizes the strong
words of his predecessors, Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Emeritus Benedict
XVI, on the need to change our behavior and social structures to respond to
threats to our environment.And he cites
the words of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (of the Orthodox churches) who
has written: “For human beings… to destroy the biological diversity of God’s
creation; for human beings to degrade the integrity of the earth by causing
changes in its climate, by stripping the earth of its natural forests or
destroying its wetlands; for human beings to contaminate the earth’s waters,
its land, its air, and its life – these are sins.” (8) [Note: numbers cited in parentheses are the paragraph
numbers of Laudato Si’.]
The pope recalls the life of St. Francis who, during the Middle
Ages, identified with the poor and praised God for the elements of nature,
which he spoke of as our sisters and brothers.Pope Francis writes: “If we approach nature and the environment without this
openness to awe and wonder, if we no longer speak the language of fraternity
and beauty in our relationship with the world, our attitude will be that of
masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on their
immediate needs.” (11)
“The urgent challenge to protect our common home,” Pope
Francis writes, “includes a concern to bring the whole human family together to
seek a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can
change. The Creator does not abandon us; he never forsakes his loving plan or
repents of having created us. Humanity still has the ability to work together
in building our common home.” (13)
We watched another CTU video, this one from Fr.
Stephan Bevans, SVD, on how the pope’s call to care for the earth fits with his
previous challenge for Catholics to pursue the mission of the Church.
Check this blog in the future for more information on Laudato Si' and on our study!
