ORDER OF MALTA MOMENT

All Members of the Federal Association are invited to participate on a pilgrimage to The Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, Wisconsin.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help is the site of the only Marian apparition in the United States approved by the Catholic Church. Approval was received on December 8, 2010 by Bishop David Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay. He also approved the chapel at the site as a shrine.

Click here to view the invite and to register.

It’s fashionable these days to describe oneself as “spiritual but not religious”, meaning that one is open to an experience beyond the commercial or political but not tied to “institutional” religion. One claims an experience of transcendence that is bound by no one else’s rules.

Why should anyone care where someone else gets a spiritual high? Because no one really cares, the claim to be spiritual but not religious is always safe, it is not a threat. The claim to be religious is different. It is a claim that God has taken the initiative to reveal himself and tell us who he is and who we are. Religion binds us to God according to his will, not ours, in a community of faith that he has brought into existence. Being religious can therefore be threatening.

Being religious as a Christian starts with the belief that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. Faith in Christ’s resurrection is central to Christian religion. Those who are “spiritual” often deny Christ’s resurrection as a physical event. They prefer a Christ who is safely an idea in their minds, made in their image and likeness. By contrast, the risen Christ breaks into our experience and seeks those he calls to be religious, to believe what God has done for us, much to our surprise.

Meeting the risen Christ spiritually depends upon believing in him religiously. We are given the gift of faith in Baptism, in which we are configured to the risen Christ. Faith perdures, even when there’s not a lot of spiritual “tingle” in our lives! “Lord I believe, help my unbelief,” is the cry of a religious person who asks Christ to take him beyond his own spiritual experience into a new world where bodies as well as minds share in God’s grace. The faith-filled person is sure of God and distrustful of himself. Unlike faith in God, experience is often wrong in religious matters.

Personal faith needs communitarian buttressing, lest it degenerate into individual spirituality. One sure means of corroborating personal faith is to check it against the faith of the Church, the community founded by Christ. The Apostle St Peter and his successors confirm our faith and keep us on the path of true religion.

A short time ago, the Church welcomed a new Universal Pastor, a Bishop of Rome who chose to call himself after Saint Francis of Assisi. Saint Francis was called by Christ to renew and rebuild the Church, and he checked every move he made with the pope and his advisors. Now Pope Francis has taken up Peter’s ministry in the universal Church. He will continue to confirm our faith and keep us tied to God’s loving plan for our salvation.

This fall, we will welcome 52 new Members into the Order. Please join us for the many events throughout the weekend, including our annual Defense of the Faith forum on Friday. The principal speaker will be Kathryn Jean Lopez, Founding Director of Catholic Voices, on “Defending the Family”.

There are still have rooms available for all nights and they must be reserved not later than September 23

The weekend events will be held at the Mayflower Hotel. Mass will be at St. Matthew's Cathedral and the Annual Dinner will be held at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in Washington, DC.

• Class of 2014 Registration
• Hospitaller Registration
• Member Registration

The Sovereign Order of Malta’s Ebola kit containing medicines and healthcare products arrived in Monrovia, Liberia on 2 September last. The kit mainly consists of supplies for the protection and hygiene of the local population and medical personnel in hospitals and healthcare products for patients, including tests and medicines, water purification tablets, disinfectants, soap, surgical gauze and thermometers.
This consignment is financed by the Global Fund for Forgotten People (the Order of Malta’s special agency which raises funds for its humanitarian projects) and implemented by the Ordre de Malte France. The relative agreements were made during a meeting held in Rome at the end of July between the two Liberian ambassadors to Italy and to the Sovereign Order of Malta and the Grand Hospitaller Dominique de la Rochefoucauld-Montbel. Click here to read more.

The Malade applications are available. Please log in to the Members section of the website to download the application or contact the office at 202-331-2494 to request an application.

In our most recent mailing, you received a beautiful prayer card, a part of the work by the Prison Ministry. Please click here for an e-mail explaining the purpose.

Applications for admission - Class of 2016 have been revised and updated and are now ready for distribution. There are two important changes this year: the deadline for submission is December 1, 2014 and original signatures on the application form are required from the applicant, both sponsors and the Regional Hospitaller. Applications can be found on the Members section of our website. Sponsors should be willing to commit to mentoring their candidate during his or her formation year and during their first year of membership