Dinner Was Catered by Three Sisters Catering and Began Approximately 6:30 Pm

Minutes:

Our meeting began at 5:30 pm with Mass, celebrated by Bishop LeVoir at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Dinner was catered by Three Sisters Catering and began approximately 6:30 pm.

President Dan Skorich introduced Bishop LeVoir, who then spoke on the topic of Theology of the Body.

The following Guild members were present:

Bruce and Maiya Henson, Dan and RoseySkorich, Matt Malecha, Dennis Soukup, Ed Ryan, Fr. Peter Muhich, Fr. Eli Gieske, Gordy Harvieux, Jonathan and AlissaGlickstein, Kevin and Ann Treacy, Mike and Sara Rowe, Mike and Sue Messer, Nancy Beery, Scott and Suanna Johnson, Steve Eyer, Tim and Beth Egan, Tim and Sandra Rich, Todd and Lindsey Freeman, Tom and Yolanda Nelson, Tom Shuey.

The following are notes from Bishop John LeVoir's talk on St. John Paul’s teaching on Theology of the Body. The talk is largely drawn from Bishop LeVoir’s book, Covenant of Love – Pope John Paul II on Sexuality, Marriage, and Family in the Modern World.

St. John Paul wrote and spoke of the Theology of the Body. It was a synthesis of theology, sociology, and the talks which he gave as Wednesday audiences between 1979 and 1984.
From early on, St. John Paul had done so much to work with young families. He took young people on hikes into the mountains to teach them theology and to avoid the Communists. St. John Paul's specialty was Christian ethics, and he was planning a book – which he ended up giving is a series of talks which were his Wednesday audiences.
Bishop LeVoir had met St. John Paul on three separate occasions. In 1986, Bishop LeVoir and his friend Fr. Richard Hogan were invited to a moral theology conference in Rome. They had an audience with then Pope John Paul. The Pope met with all 250 participants. Bishop LeVoir’s friends talked him into asking Pope John Paul to autograph the book Covenant of Love – which he had written with Fr. Hogan. (Covenant of Lovediscussed Pope John Paul II's teaching on sexuality, marriage, and family.) When Bishop LeVoir was finally face-to-face with Pope John Paul II and asked him to sign the book, Pope John Paul replied kindly, "Not at this time." – But he gave Bishop LeVoir a look as if he had known then Fr. LeVoir since he had been born. It was as if he was saying, "One day, you'll be a bishop!" (“And to think, now Pope John Paul II is a Saint!”)
Father Hogan and Bishop LeVoir were in seminary together when St. John Paul was elected to the papacy. The seminary at the time wasn't very good. They sought to educate themselves, and they were struck by the writings of then Pope John Paul II – he seemed to find a new way of seeing things. They both read more and more of Pope John Paul II.
St. John Paul discussed three different areas:
1. How God made us.
2. The damage of original sin.
3. Recreation in Christ.
1. How God made us: St. John Paul gives a discussion of anthropology– the nature of the human person. St. John Paul starts with Jesus. When Jesus was asked about divorce, He pointed back to the beginning – back to the book of Genesis. As described in the book of Genesis, we were created in the image and likeness of God. We are more and more a God-less society, and we therefore marginalize ourselves.
God is a personal God, and Jesus revealed him to us. He is one, but three Persons. Persons have the ability to think and to love. God knows everything about everything. God loves. There are many different types of love – but true love is the giving of oneself to the beloved.
We are created in His image – we think and we love. God is purely spiritual. Our powers to think and love are invisible;God gave us our souls to think andlove, and he also gave us our bodies to interact with others and to express our thoughts and our love. Human persons combine the material and spiritual. Body and soul were never meant to be separated.
The body participates with the person. We are not meant to be manipulated. The person has an infinite dignity. The body expresses the person. The body therefore participates in the dignity of the individual. Adam and Eve shared God's life. We were not meant to die.
Original Sin: Eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil means that we determine for ourselves what is good and evil. Satan positions God as Adam and Eve's adversary. They were made to accept God; however, Satan wanted Adam and Eve to become images of Satan – to do things his way. By doing this, they damaged their ability to think and love like God. They also damaged their bodies. Adam and Eve introduced disorder to humanity. As St. Paul so famously wrote, "I know what I should do, and I don't do it."
Recreation in Jesus Christ: Bishop LeVoir uses the image of the golf club: Let's say that he just bought a new golf club – a driver that cost $450. What would happen if he went to a baseball field and started hitting baseballs with this new golf club? It would break! The same is true with us when we are used for a purpose for which we are not intended. We, however, say that were damaged and not totally destroyed (as opposed to the belief of some Protestant denominations).
Jesus revealed to us who we are and how we are to act. He revealed to us our dignity. He returned to us the Father's love. He helps us to return God's love. We need to do this to find ourselves. We all – Christians and non-Christians alike – need to turn to Christ.
We act like Jesus through reflecting and imaging God. We have free will, but when we turn from God, we hurt ourselves. The Church, as Pope Francis states, is like a field hospital, and so many of us are hurting.
At Easter, Jesus shows us what were made for.
Some of us look at our faith as just a series of facts, but it's actually a relationship with Jesus.
The new evangelization means that we must share our faith, as Pope Francis tells us. Pope Francis told the young people at World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro – "Go home and make a mess!" By this he meant acting like a true disciple of Jesus and thereby upsetting the status quo.
St. John Paul also wrote on the topics of contraception, premarital sex, homosexuality, surrogate motherhood, etc.
A great resource is the National Bioethics Center, and Bishop LeVoir relies on John Haas who is a bioethicist there.
Questions:
Contraception – Love is the total giving of one spouse to another. A couple totally gives of themselves to each other. There also needs to beopenness to life. God loved us into existence – this should be reflected in every Christian marriage. Natural family planning is the lab work for the Theology of the Body. It is important to teach natural family planning to people of all ages/developmental levels. The block within the couple – the contraception – is a selfishness which damages the relationship. Our fertility is a part of us. Contraception is a violation of the body.
Work – Work is for man and not man for work. God created us for work – to subdue the earth. Also, God himself worked – through creation. St. John Paul described work broadly, including labor, thinking, and suffering. We aren't supposed to work until we drop. We need time to reflect. Work is to develop us and for the good of the family.