Catholic Teens 6-20-06
Hey All--
Ever notice some of the happiest and peaceful people you know happen to be people of faith? I always ask people if they’ve ever seen a picture of Mother Teresa not smiling? And people often speak of the incredible peace that exuded from the late great John Paul II. And I’m sure most of you know people who have a very deep faith…and chances are they are marked by a peacefulness and a happiness. Not that their lives are necessarily easy..Mother Teresa’s certainly wasn’t…and the same for JPII. But the Presence of God was with them. And that same gift is available to each of us.
I came across an interesting survey that sought to measure people’s happiness by country. On the one hand, it found that people in countries with material prosperity, like the USA tended to be happier then people in poor countries. That was a general conclusion. But then the researchers discovered something striking….a number of relatively poor countries had very satisfied and happy people, in spite of their poverty. The researchers looked a little deeper to find out why this was. The conclusion they came up with was those countries were the most Catholic. Hmmmmmmm.
The details are below:
From National Review 3-13-06, Kevin A, Hassett
Recently a survey was conducted in conjunction with an institute titled the “World Database of Happiness”, an exhaustive compilation of over 1,500 high-quality surveys about self-reported happiness around the world. One conclusion, “the higher a country’s income, the more likely its citizens are to be happy.”
-But there were some surprises as well. Countries like Columbia, Guatemala, and Mexico are far happier then one would expect given their incomes. Others like Ukraine and Zimbabwe are far unhappier then the survey would expect. The countries that had the “highest degree of happiness” in spite of their economic standing all happen to be Catholic.
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Question O' The Week:
I've always been told that the middle finger means you are swearing to God. Is that true? --No. It is still wrong, because it is swearing, but you are not generally swearing to God--generally that action is aimed at some person. The only instance where it would be swearing at God is if you pointed at God and aimed it at Him. And that would be seriously wrong. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Intentions:
-That the girls who attended the "Come and See days" at the Mater Redemptoris convent, may reflect on giving more of their personal time toprayer ,by the good Sisters examples shown to them, this week!
-For Fr. Louis and all those on pilgrimage to EWTN.
-For Fr. Derek Sakowski, Phil Kosloski, Natalie Timm, and all those others on a mission trip to Peru.
-For all the other intentions you hold in your hearts, we pray to the Lord.
Lord, hear our prayer.
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Announcements:
-The next Gen. JPII Youth Group meets Sunday night, July 9th!
-Vacation Bible School is July 24th-28th 845am-Noon each day. We’re looking for volunteers to help out! Interested? Send me an email!
-Looking for something fun to do on Monday nights? Our parish softball team, including yours truly, and the infamous Natalie Timm, plays at 630pm at Zenoff Park Field 2. The team is the St. Peter's Keys. We lost a tough one last night, 16-11 to Fill’s Bar.
God bless you!
Phil Lawson
For more information on St. Peters check out the parish website: http://www.saintpetercatholic.com/
Catholic Teens is a weekly email from Phil Lawson to Catholic Teenagers. To receive these weekly reflections, send an email to lawsphil@gmail.com. On the other hand, if you’d like to be removed from this list, please send an email indicating that.
Ever notice some of the happiest and peaceful people you know happen to be people of faith? I always ask people if they’ve ever seen a picture of Mother Teresa not smiling? And people often speak of the incredible peace that exuded from the late great John Paul II. And I’m sure most of you know people who have a very deep faith…and chances are they are marked by a peacefulness and a happiness. Not that their lives are necessarily easy..Mother Teresa’s certainly wasn’t…and the same for JPII. But the Presence of God was with them. And that same gift is available to each of us.
I came across an interesting survey that sought to measure people’s happiness by country. On the one hand, it found that people in countries with material prosperity, like the USA tended to be happier then people in poor countries. That was a general conclusion. But then the researchers discovered something striking….a number of relatively poor countries had very satisfied and happy people, in spite of their poverty. The researchers looked a little deeper to find out why this was. The conclusion they came up with was those countries were the most Catholic. Hmmmmmmm.
The details are below:
From National Review 3-13-06, Kevin A, Hassett
Recently a survey was conducted in conjunction with an institute titled the “World Database of Happiness”, an exhaustive compilation of over 1,500 high-quality surveys about self-reported happiness around the world. One conclusion, “the higher a country’s income, the more likely its citizens are to be happy.”
-But there were some surprises as well. Countries like Columbia, Guatemala, and Mexico are far happier then one would expect given their incomes. Others like Ukraine and Zimbabwe are far unhappier then the survey would expect. The countries that had the “highest degree of happiness” in spite of their economic standing all happen to be Catholic.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question O' The Week:
I've always been told that the middle finger means you are swearing to God. Is that true? --No. It is still wrong, because it is swearing, but you are not generally swearing to God--generally that action is aimed at some person. The only instance where it would be swearing at God is if you pointed at God and aimed it at Him. And that would be seriously wrong. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Intentions:
-That the girls who attended the "Come and See days" at the Mater Redemptoris convent, may reflect on giving more of their personal time toprayer ,by the good Sisters examples shown to them, this week!
-For Fr. Louis and all those on pilgrimage to EWTN.
-For Fr. Derek Sakowski, Phil Kosloski, Natalie Timm, and all those others on a mission trip to Peru.
-For all the other intentions you hold in your hearts, we pray to the Lord.
Lord, hear our prayer.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Announcements:
-The next Gen. JPII Youth Group meets Sunday night, July 9th!
-Vacation Bible School is July 24th-28th 845am-Noon each day. We’re looking for volunteers to help out! Interested? Send me an email!
-Looking for something fun to do on Monday nights? Our parish softball team, including yours truly, and the infamous Natalie Timm, plays at 630pm at Zenoff Park Field 2. The team is the St. Peter's Keys. We lost a tough one last night, 16-11 to Fill’s Bar.
God bless you!
Phil Lawson
For more information on St. Peters check out the parish website: http://www.saintpetercatholic.com/
Catholic Teens is a weekly email from Phil Lawson to Catholic Teenagers. To receive these weekly reflections, send an email to lawsphil@gmail.com. On the other hand, if you’d like to be removed from this list, please send an email indicating that.
posted by Phil Lawson at 8:44 AM
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