Service at Home for those unable to attend Mass -p8 Children’s Page

Dear Girls and Boys, Hunting for treasure is something that has interested people for a long, long time. Have you ever been to a party where they played a Treasure Hunt game? It is great fun! The game is played by giving each player a list of clues which, if followed correctly, will lead them to find a "treasure." Many times the treasure is just a cheap toy or a sweet, so when you play the game, it is important to remember that the fun is in the hunt, not in the "treasure." You might be surprised to know that Jesus had something to say about seeking treasure. One day he said to his followers, “Sell your possessions and give alms. Get yourselves purses that do not wear out, treasure that will not fail you, in heaven where no thief can reach it and no moth destroy it. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”(Luke 12:33-34) So, how do we lay up treasures in heaven as Jesus said we should? We do it by taking our eyes off of our own selfish wants, and look at others and their needs. We give to the poor, we help those in need, we love others as we love ourselves. Those are things that will build treasures in heaven and there is nothing that can take them away. Playing a Treasure Hunt game is fun, but building treasure in heaven is very serious business. Let's ask God to help us to search for the right kind of treasure. Father, we sometimes look at all the treasures that this world offers and we lose sight of what you want from us. Help us to serve you by helping others and, in so doing, build our treasure chest in heaven. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. ❖

Get yourselves purses that do not wear out, treasure that will not fail you, in heaven where no thief can reach it and no moth destroy it.

heaven treasure sell moth flock thief heart afraid little poor

All-powerful God, With humble hearts and heads bowed down, We thank you for the gifts which we have taken for granted. We thank you for life, health, joy, and peace. We thank you for our families, friends, and neighbours. We thank you for our country, its natural beauty, and its diverse peoples. We thank you for our earth which provides all that we need to sustain ourselves so that we can live. In this time of illness, confusion, and fear Look upon your people with mercy and love. For those already afflicted, We ask you to touch them with the grace of healing and deliverance. For those who are vulnerable, lonely and fearful, Wipe away their tears and help them to trust. We pray for all the essential workers especially those in healthcare, education, agriculture, and law enforcement. Bless their hearts, hands, and minds as they respond with generosity to the cries of your people. Bless your people here in Guyana. Guide the leaders of our country, that they may take wise decisions that will benefit us all. Help us to reach out to the poor, lonely, vulnerable, and fearful wherever they may be. We are on the same boat, fragile and disoriented, called to row together and comfort each other. Protect us, heavenly Father, so that we may be spared the worst of this illness and receive those who have died into your loving embrace. We make this prayer in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.❖

expertise is far more relevant to seeing the plausibility of the other side’s case – which is the essence of thinking and acting politically. Policy Forum Guyana (PFG) is proposing that Guyana needs a Citizens Assembly to give direction and recommendations to Parliament on how to move forward on implementation of the following portion of Article 13: “providing increasing opportunities for the participation of citizens in the management and decision making processes of the State, with particular emphasis on those areas of decisionmaking that directly affect their wellbeing. In pursuing this proposal, the ruling party would reap greater rewards from trusting the Guyanese people than from controlling them.

Path (From Page 3)

resolutions calling for reforms that can only be implemented at the universal church level would be submitted to the worldwide synodal process launched by Pope Francis in preparation for the 2023 Synod of Bishops on synodality. In a 2019 letter to German Catholics — a letter also quoted in the new declaration — Pope Francis emphasized that synodality is a process that must be guided by the Holy Spirit with patience and not a “search for immediate results that generate quick and immediate consequences.” Transformation “calls for pastoral conversion,” he said. “Brothers and sisters, let us care for one another and be attentive to the temptation of the father of lies and division, the master of separation who, in pushing us to seek an apparent good or a response to a given situation, in fact ends up fragmenting the body of the holy and faithful people of God,” the pope said. The July declaration from the Vatican reminded Catholics in Germany of Pope Francis’ words to them in 2019 that the local church and the universal church live and flourish together. If local churches separate from the whole, he said, “they become debilitated, rot and die. Hence the need to keep communion with the whole body of the church always alive and effective.” The Vatican declaration said, “it is hoped that the proposals of the Path of the particular churches in Germany will flow into the synodal path being taken by the universal church for mutual enrichment and a witness to that unity by which the body of the church manifests its fidelity to Christ the Lord.” The Catholic Church in Germany launched the Synodal Path Dec. 1, 2019, in a search for ways to restore trust lost in the clergy abuse scandal. Scheduled to conclude its work by February 2023, it is debating the issues of power, sexual morality, priestly existence and the role of women in the church.❖

Thursday, August 4th was the Feast of St. John Vianney - the patron saint of diocesan priests. Two of our diocesan priests, Monsignor Terrence Montrose and Fr. Carl Philadelphia celebrated the day by having lunch together. ❖ (St. Joseph, Husband of Mary Roman Catholic Church FB page)

with Indigenous peoples who experienced abuse or attempts at forced assimilation at church-run residential schools. “When an episcopate is united, then it can deal with the challenges that arise,” the pope told his Jesuit confreres. “If everything is going well, it is not because of my visit. I am just the icing on the cake. It is the bishops who have done everything with their unity.” The pope met with 15 Jesuits from Canada during his July 24-29 visit to the country. As has become the practice when the pope meets Jesuits during a foreign trip, a transcript of his remarks was released later by the Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica. According to the transcript of the meeting, published Aug. 4, the pope said that while he witnessed the “familiarity between the bishops and Indigenous peoples,” there are still “some who work against healing and reconciliation.” “Even last night,” the pope recalled, “I saw a small traditionalist group protesting and saying that the church is something else; but that is the way things are. I only know that one of the worst enemies against the unity of the church and of the episcopates is ideology.” Touching upon the themes of the pope’s visit, particularly reconciliation and listening, a Jesuit asked Pope Francis if his experience in Canada We stand before You, Holy Spirit, as we gather together in Your name. With You alone to guide us, make Yourself at home in our hearts; Teach us the way we must go and how we are to pursue it. We are weak and sinful; do not let us promote disorder. Do not let ignorance lead us down the wrong path nor partiality influence our actions. Let us find in You our unity so that we may journey together shaped “your synodal vision of the to eternal life church.” and not stray from the way of The pope said he was “bothered” by truth the use of “the adjective ‘synodal’ as and what is right. if it were the latest quick fix for the church.” All this we ask of You, “When one says ‘synodal church,’ the who are at work in every place expression is redundant: the church is and time, either synodal or it is not church. That in the communion of the Father is why we have come to a synod on and the Son,synodality, to reiterate this,” he said. forever and ever.The pope reiterated that the synod “is not a political meeting nor a com- Amen mittee for parliamentary decisions” but rather an “expression of the church where the protagonist is the Holy Spirit.” He also warned that Christians risk “losing the overall picture, the sense of things” if a synod is reduced to focusing on singular issues. Recalling the 2015 Synod of Bishops on the family, the pope said some erroneously believed that “it was organized to give Communion to remarried divorcees.” Nevertheless, he said, his postsynodal exhortation, “Amoris Laetitia,” only addressed that specific issue in a footnote “because all the rest are reflections on the theme of the family, such as that on the family catechumenate.” “There is so much richness,” the pope said. “One cannot squeeze it all into the funnel of a single issue. I repeat, if the church is church, then it is synodal. It has been so from the beginning.” Pope Francis also spoke about the fact he did not meet with victims of sexual abuse during his visit to Canada. Apart from scheduling issues, the pope said he also wanted to focus his visit on the Indigenous people. “Many people responded to me saying that they understood that this was not an exclusion at all,” he said. Lastly, a Jesuit asked the pope regarding the debates surrounding the liturgy and its importance in formation. The pope noted that when “there is conflict, the liturgy is always mistreated.” “In Latin America 30 years ago, there were monstrous liturgical deformations. Then they moved to the opposite side with a backwardlooking intoxication with the old. A division was established in the church,” he explained. The pope said his actions, including his recent apostolic letter “Traditionis Custodes” (“Guardians of the Tradition”), “aimed to follow the line taken by St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, who had allowed the ancient rite and had asked for subsequent verification.” “Traditionis Custodes,” Pope Francis said, “made it clear that there was a need to regulate the practice, and above all to avoid it becoming a matter, let us say, of ‘fashion’ and remaining instead a pastoral question.”❖