Oremus Communications (OC) is about the expression and promotion of Roman Catholic values such as prayer, sacrifice, repentance, the Culture of Life, faithful and complete adherence to the appropriate levels of the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church, unity under the Bishops, ecumenical dialogue, and reliance upon the intercession of the Saints and Angels, especially our patron, St. Maximilian Kolbe. Pursuit of these values and others is vital in the attainment of some measure of happiness here on earth and eternal happiness with Our Father in heaven whose name is hallowed and whose love for all of us is unbounded.
OC is focused on sending prayers of all kinds through live real time streaming on the internet to the Communion of Saints in heaven, including the Father, The Son, and Holy Spirit, Our Blessed Mother, the Angels and all the Saints. And in the case of intercessory prayer, we pray for their heavenly assistance in all of our needs and in the needs of those in Purgatory. The picture on the home page reflects this reality by depicting all of those who belong to the mystical Body of Christ, integrated as one.
The emphasis on prayer, sacrifice, and repentance are fundamental and have been mentioned in the formation of the faithful since the beginning of the church, two thousand years ago, with Christ, Himself, setting the example.
Sacrifice can be of many kinds, but they all have one thing in common, a denial of self for the sake of another. Repentance has also been part of the equation for that ultimate prize of eternal life. Think no further than the time of John, the Baptist, and the prophets in the Old Testament and we see very early the importance of repentance.
The Culture of Life is a relatively new term invented by Pope John Paul 2 in a visit to the United States in 1993 during a World Youth Day tour. It encompasses a variety of issues including for example: opposition to abortion, sterilization, human cloning, artificial contraception, human embryonic stem cell and fetal research, euthanasia, murder, suicide, unjust war, excessive selfishness; and the promotion of agape love and charity, matrimony, maternity, fatherhood, life, chastity, fidelity and virtue.
Faithful and complete adherence to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church calls for acceptance of the teaching authority of the Church on a number of levels such as when the Pope speaks “ex cathedra”, or when the Bishops in union with the Pope define a doctrine at a General Council, and so on. The point to remember here is that faithful Catholics accept all of these teachings and not just the ones with which they happen to agree. Case in point is the encyclical "Humanae Vitae" where Pope Paul , the sixth, in July of 1968, among other things, reaffirmed Church teaching by continueing to ban artificial contraception as a form of birth control. The encyclical met with much criticism but those faithful to the Church Magisterium did not blink, but accepted the teaching in its entirety and acted accordingly.
Unity in the church includes acceptance of the Bishops in their role as successors to the Apostles. (re: article 862 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church “….The Bishops have by divine institution taken the place of the Apostles as pastors of the Church, in such wise that whoever listens to them is listening to Christ and whoever despises them despises Christ and him who sent Christ.”) This translates in part into the mandate for meaningful attention by the faithful to the issues and policies raised by the Bishops in their collective gatherings. For example, the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) calls for action on the part of faithful Catholics in a number of areas such as the defense of religious liberty, the practice of faithful citizenship in accordance with an informed conscience, the promotion of marriage and the family, the embrace of cultural diversity especially in the area of evangelization, and the promotion of human life and dignity ( this area opens the door to a number of other issues including social and international justice and peace, domestic social development, meaningful immigration reform, but to name a few).
In speaking of the Holy Mother of God, we on earth have been blessed with her presence on a number of occasions in the form of church approved apparitions. Many times, she called for prayer, sacrifice and repentance , along with faithful obedience to the teachings of the church. By doing so, she gave confirmation to what we already knew, that by pursuit of these values, we are empowered to help save souls from hell and to help bring about world peace. ( i.e. In the six apparitions at Fatima in 1917, she repeatedly called for the daily recitation of the rosary, the regular practice of the First Saturday Devotion as well as a life of sacrifice.)
Ecumenical dialogue began in earnest with Pope John, the 23rd and the Second Vatican Council who emphasized the importance of dialogue with separated brothers and sisters and with separated churches and church communities. This was followed by more meaningful efforts under Popes Paul 6 and John Paul 2. The idea of reconciliation and peace as part of the Ecumenical Renewal also reveals the fundamental value of forgiveness, so basic to the Christian life. This is very well summed up in an article, “ Reflections by Cardinal Walter Kasper” on the Vatican website, stating under the Ecclesiological Foundation section “……that the churches see themselves no longer as enemies or rivals: no longer do they live in indifference to each other. There is a re-discovered Christian brotherhood involving all on a common pilgrimage to the re-establishment of the full visible unity of the Church through dialogue.”
Every generation has had those gifted people who responded to the call for proclaiming and promoting the Gospel and its attached values, by blending their own unique talents, available resources and technologies of the time with those very values into a variety of enduring and creative expressions. Witness the Renaissance and the creative energies of the great artists and sculptors like Michelangelo, Raphael, Da Vinci, Fra Angelico, et al., who took the fundamental Catholic values and gave them expression in such great works of art and religious devotion that they are still revered even to this day.
We live in the time of the Information Age where the key instrument is the computer and the World Wide Web. OC wants to follow in the footsteps of our predecessors and express and promote those same Catholic values in our programming, making use of the resources and technology of our time. OC is a collaborative effort between its leaders and its devoted listeners. Together, we ,too, like those before us, can make a difference with eternal consequences! OREMUS.