{"id":1106,"date":"2013-05-27T07:55:33","date_gmt":"2013-05-27T11:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1106"},"modified":"2013-05-27T07:55:33","modified_gmt":"2013-05-27T11:55:33","slug":"memorial-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/memorial-day-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Memorial Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shortly I will be celebrating Mass at one of our parish cemeteries.\u00a0 Here are some of the thoughts I plan to share.<\/p>\n

Today is Memorial Day (May 27, 2013).\u00a0 For many, it marks the unofficial beginning of summer.\u00a0 From now until Fall we expect warm weather, shorts, and picnics.\u00a0 Many people will have their first picnic of the summer this weekend.\u00a0 These things are fine but we need to think about\u00a0why <\/em>we celebrate Memorial Day.<\/p>\n

Memorial Day is a day to remember those who died in service to our country.\u00a0 There are various stories of the origin of Memorial Day.\u00a0 North of us, Waterloo has been designated as the official birthplace of Memorial Day.<\/p>\n

Does our celebration of Memorial Day mean we glorify war?\u00a0 Absolutely not.\u00a0 War is never a good thing.\u00a0 Isaiah (9:1-6) speaks of those in darkness and gloom.\u00a0 War can be full of darkness and gloom.\u00a0 Lives are lost, some of them completely innocent of anything to do with war.<\/p>\n

As we celebrate Memorial Day, we gather here at Calvary Cemetery to celebrate Mass.\u00a0 We bury our loved ones in this dignified place because we believe in the resurrection of the body.\u00a0 We do not just throw dead bodies away.\u00a0 We give them a dignified burial.\u00a0 We don’t forget them after they are buried either.\u00a0 We maintain our cemeteries to keep them always as\u00a0a dignified place.<\/p>\n

For this Memorial Day, the graves of veterans are marked with flags.\u00a0 This is not because we glorify war because we do not.\u00a0 War is a terrible thing.\u00a0 But what we can honor is the service of this people.\u00a0 They put the needs of others before their own lives.\u00a0 That’s what Jesus calls us to in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12a).<\/p>\n

What is our primary concern?\u00a0 Are we most worried about ourselves?\u00a0 Are we concerned for the needs of others?\u00a0 What can we do to help?<\/p>\n

The best way we can honor our deceased family and friends who died in service to our country is to stand up for what is right.\u00a0 All life is special.\u00a0 We stand for life.<\/p>\n

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

Shortly I will be celebrating Mass at one of our parish cemeteries.\u00a0 Here are some of the thoughts I plan to share. Today is Memorial Day (May 27, 2013).\u00a0 For many, it marks the unofficial beginning of summer.\u00a0 From now until Fall we expect warm weather, shorts, and picnics.\u00a0 Many people will have their first …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Memorial Day’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-hQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1107,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106\/revisions\/1107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}