{"id":523,"date":"2008-04-09T00:16:35","date_gmt":"2008-04-09T00:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2008\/04\/works-of-mercy.html"},"modified":"2008-04-09T00:16:35","modified_gmt":"2008-04-09T00:16:35","slug":"works-of-mercy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/04\/works-of-mercy.html","title":{"rendered":"Works of mercy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Where Bishop Olmsted of Phoenix spent part of Easter Sunday:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

More than 20 young women attended Easter Mass with Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted March 23 in a small chapel at the Black Canyon School, a juvenile corrections facility in north Phoenix.<\/p>\n

The bishop said he was honored to be with the young women, \u201cwho probably feel very keenly the absence of being near those whom they love.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his homily, he encouraged the girls to lift their hearts and minds to heavenly realities, rather than miring themselves in earthly worries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very easy to think of what is on earth, to remember the things that people do to make us angry or vengeful,\u201d the bishop said. \u201cBut St. Paul urges us to seek what is above.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"What is above is Christ\u2019s risen body, the bishop explained. And Christ\u2019s resurrection offers Christians hope and a future to strive for.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the risen Christ we have a future,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat we really long for is more than this life can give. That\u2019s why the resurrection of Christ from the dead is the best of all the Good News. In fact, if this had not happened, it wouldn\u2019t be Good News.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teenaged girls of Black Canyon School participated in the Mass by proclaiming the readings, offering the prayers of the faithful and bringing up the gifts to the altar.<\/p>\n

Eva Berney, a Catholic lay volunteer, said having the bishop share his Easter with the girls meant a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really brings something special to the young women that are here,\u201d she said. \u201cIt tells them that God will meet them wherever they are and I think that\u2019s really important for them to know, especially in their situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

For nearly two years, Berney has been leading Thursday night prayer services at the Black Canyon School with her husband Andy. In that time, the two have transformed what was originally a bare-walled, uncarpeted space into a proper chapel with artwork and pews.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the fact that we consistently come out makes a difference,\u201d Berney said. \u201cThey see us, they know us. It gives them some stability and makes them more open to the message we\u2019re trying to bring them about God and how much He loves them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Church: The Body of Christ, present in the world, with many members, all necessary, working as one.<\/p>\n

The Bishop,\u00a0bringing Christ to these young women on the morning that other women,\u00a0centuries ago, met Him in astonished joy.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Berneys, a lay couple, faithfully present week after week, hopeful in the power of God, trusting that He would touch hearts.<\/p>\n

These young women, hearts open, learning, praying…hoping.<\/p>\n

Church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Where Bishop Olmsted of Phoenix spent part of Easter Sunday: More than 20 young women attended Easter Mass with Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted March 23 in a small chapel at the Black Canyon School, a juvenile corrections facility in north Phoenix. The bishop said he was honored to be with the young women, \u201cwho probably…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWorks of mercy - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/04\/works-of-mercy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Works of mercy - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Where Bishop Olmsted of Phoenix spent part of Easter Sunday: More than 20 young women attended Easter Mass with Bishop Thomas J. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}