August 14, 2018 Edition
Reclaiming Jesus: In God’s Likeness
Carissimi, 

Last Spring, a group of 23 senior pastors published a document entitled “Reclaiming Jesus” to address the crisis of moral and political leadership that continues to polarize our nation. They began with two questions: “Who is Jesus Christ for us today? What does our loyalty to Christ, as disciples, require at this moment in our history?”

Then they presented six affirmations of faith and, after each one, what they reject “in the practices and policies by political leaders which dangerously corrode the soul of the nation and deeply threaten the public integrity of our faith.” Here is the first one:

I. WE BELIEVE each human being is made in God’s image and likeness. That image and likeness confers a divinely decreed dignity, worth, and God-given equality to all of us as children of the one God who is the Creator of all things. Racial bigotry is a brutal denial of the image of God in some of the children of God. Our participation in the global community of Christ absolutely prevents any toleration of racial bigotry. Racial justice and healing are biblical and theological issues for us and are central to the mission of the body of Christ in the world. We give thanks for the prophetic role of the historic black churches in America when they have called for a more faithful gospel.

THEREFORE, WE REJECT the resurgence of white nationalism and racism in our nation on many fronts, including the highest levels of political leadership. We, as followers of Jesus, must clearly reject the use of racial bigotry for political gain that we have seen. In the face of such bigotry, silence is complicity. In particular, we reject white supremacy and commit ourselves to help dismantle the systems and structures that perpetuate white preference and advantage. Further, any doctrines or political strategies that use racist resentments, fears, or language must be named as public sin—one that goes back to the foundation of our nation and lingers on. Racial bigotry must be antithetical for those belonging to the body of Christ because it denies the truth of the gospel we profess.
Our Annual School Supply Drive  
For a number of years, our parish has generously supported SS. James & John, the Queen of Peace Cluster School on Somerset Street which educates approximately 230 students from pre-K to eighth grade. The children who attend this school are from families of limited means, and after they pay tuition and purchase uniforms, there is little left to buy the necessary school supplies. We can help. Listed below are the items each student needs. If you are able to assist, please fill a bag (or, better still, a child’s backpack) with the items listed below and return it to the church by Sunday, September 2. Your generosity will be greatly appreciated.

To download this year's school supply shopping list, click here .
Life Lessons
Life Lesson Video 1: Viktor Frankl: How Love Got Him Through

On the verge of death, legendary psychiatrist and Holocaust-survivor Viktor Frankl endured brutal beatings, malnutrition and depression with the hope that he would one day be reunited with his wife. This is the true story of how love conquers all. We thought it might strengthen you in your views about the difficulties of life!.
A few Viktor Frankl quotes:

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
Life Lessons Video 2: An Innocent Man & A Crooked Cop

As Jameel McGee was buying milk and groceries for his brand new baby boy, an officer stepped in to change everything and tie their lives forever. A true story of racial reconciliation and radical forgiveness. A crooked cop, an innocent man, and an unlikely journey of forgiveness and friendship. Racial tensions had long simmered in Benton Harbor, a small city on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, before the day a white narcotics officer, more focused on arrests than justice, set his sights on an innocent black man. But when Officer Andrew Collins framed Jameel McGee for possession of crack cocaine, the surprising result was not a race riot, but a transformative journey for both men. (Excerpt from their book “ Convicted: A Crooked Cop, an Innocent Man, and an Unlikely Journey of Forgiveness and Friendship ”)
Video: An Innocent Man & A Crooked Cop - An "I Am Second" Conversation
PREP Update
One of the projects that PREP children and their families have gotten involved with is the letter-writing campaign for Bread for the World, organized by the Justice and Peace Committee
Parish Religious Education Program (PREP) Is Gearing Up!
Our Parish Religious Education Program is gearing up for this September for our children in kindergarten through confirmation age! Our opening meeting for all parents and registered children will be September 16th, at 9:30 AM.  On opening day, parents will receive important information for the upcoming year, and will participate in a Meet-and-Greet with their child's teacher. Children will participate in a hands-on activity for International Peace Day! We are asking all of our oldest children in the 6th, 7th, and Confirmation group, to lead the younger children in this activity which will be set up for them that day.   

We are pleased to say that our program has grown to over 65 registered children this year! In addition to our Sunday lessons and Mass, we anticipate at least two Faith in Action service activities, service opportunities for our Confirmation group, our Christmas Pageant , a second retreat for our Confirmation group, and three sacraments of First Reconciliation, First Communion and Confirmation.    

PREP has been making an effort to join St. Ignatius ministries in their endeavors. This past year we had our first annual Mini Ministries, an in-house field trip where children were dispersed among different ministry representatives to learn about the work of that group. This type of communal w ork is only possible with parent and ministry help. Another way our families and children have gotten involved is by letter-writing for Bread for the World organized by the Justice and Peace Committee . Confirmation candidates experienced serving others during their work in the Loaves and Fishes ministry.  

We are very pleased to say our  Parish Religious Education Program  is growing! Please bear in mind that PREP is designed for children to begin in kindergarten or first grade, so that our young ones have a proper introduction into our faith well before preparing for the sacrament of First Communion in second grade. If you are considering religious instruction for your child, please register in the spring of the prior year, so quality resources are available and ready to go. If you have yet to register your children, it's not too late and you can do it by clicking here .

Please help our children connect to our already active groups, and pray for our young children and families, that they may grow in com passion for our world, and in love for God.

Thank you for your support and hope to see your little one(s)in the future!
Coordinator for PREP and Children's Liturgy 
Here's something to get excited about!
Baltimore Agrees to 'Historic' Funding of Affordable Housing
Editor's Note: As you may remember, the Economic Justice Subcommittee of the Justice & Peace Committee has been working diligently to support efforts in bringing about affordable housing for low income residents of Baltimore City. We thought all would be thrilled to read about the progress as published in the Baltimore Sun this week! (Also, view video above!)

Jean Marbella | Contact Reporter
The Baltimore Sun

City officials have agreed to fund an affordable housing trust, two years after Baltimore voters approved its creation, committing an eventual $20 million a year, which Mayor Catherine Pugh called “historic.”

Pugh and City Council leaders agreed to levy two excise taxes on certain real estate transactions and other allocations to fund a trust to create, rehabilitate and preserve more than 4,100 affordable housing units in the next decade. Activists say it will help fill a critical need in a city where low-income residents in particular struggle to find decent homes or apartments to rent or buy.

“This is an agreement that came from the power of the residents on the ground,” said Destiny Watford, among the housing activists who worked to get the trust created, and now funded.

“This isn’t an agreement that was made by a wealthy developer coming in or the city making behind closed doors, said Watford, 23, who works with a group trying to get more affordable housing in the Curtis Bay neighborhood. “This is our vision, and it’s finally coming into fruition.” READ MORE
Worship with Offerings, Liturgy and Prayers for Others
POOR BOX 
Each weekend St. Ignatius specifies a Poor Box collection for a needful cause. This week's support goes to support the
Ignatian Spirituality Project. .

MASS MUSIC   
Attached is the listing for the music selections at next Sunday's 10:30 Mass. 
 
PERSECUTED CHRISTIAN REPORT
Weekly updates on Christian persecution around the globe. Keep a prayerful watch on what is
happening with your
brothers and sisters! 


Upcoming Events and Meetings

Feast of the Assumption (A Holy Day of Obligation)
Wednesday , August 15 - 7:25 AM & 6 PM
Masses in Chapel. Click here for complete information.

Bishop Madden's Prayer Walk for Peace in the City
Wednesday , August 22 - 5:30 PM
Click here for complete information

Embracing God's Gifts
Tuesday, August 28 - 7 PM
Click here for complete information
In the Media
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin hold a joint news conference after their July 16 meeting in Helsinki, Finland. (CNS/Reuters/Leonhard Foeger) 
The Russian Connection: When Franklin Graham Met Putin

When President Donald Trump stood beside Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki in July and said, "I don't see any reason why it would be" Russia who attempted to influence the 2016 election, the subsequent firestorm of criticism included liberals as well as prominent Republicans.

"I am a tea party conservative, that will never change. But Trump was a traitor to this country today,"  tweeted   prominent conservative and former congressman Joe Walsh.

But there was one group that kept uncharacteristically quiet: the president's evangelical advisers.

"Let's pray for @POTUS @realDonaldTrump in these key meetings," Franklin Graham, who heads his late father's Billy Graham Evangelical Association,   tweeted   before the meeting. After Trump and Putin's press conference, Graham declined to critique the president (who would later walk back his remarks), only   praising   him for "pursuing peace above politics." READ MORE
Faith Floods the Desert: Interfaith Leaders Unite to Assert that Humanitarian Aid is a Moral Imperative

Approximately 60 advocates and faith leaders from across the United States are joining No More Deaths in Ajo, Arizona, on Sunday, August 5 to call attention to the criminalization of humanitarian aid and the crisis of death and disappearance in the west desert (which stretches between Ajo and the Mexico–US border). These faith leaders are coming to stand in solidarity with humanitarian-aid workers and local residents who assert their right to provide humanitarian aid in the borderlands. 

Nine No More Deaths volunteers are currently being prosecuted for their work in the west desert. These charges come during a national attack on asylees and refugees, repression of humanitarian-aid workers, and an increase in deportation and incarceration of marginalized communities.

“Migrant deaths on the southwestern US border are a continued reality in 2018 and providing humanitarian aid is being treated as a crime,” said Alicia Dinsmore, a long-time volunteer with No More Deaths. “Each and every one of us has a fundamental right to give and receive lifesaving aid without the fear of persecution.” READ MORE