PathToHoliness

This past week has been a challenging one professionally as I’ve had to make some important business decisions. A small home-based business is never without challenges! There’s been the temptation to grow too quickly and thereby take on too much at once. There’s been at least some efforts by outside forces to negatively impact the business.

As a result of the first I found myself putting in too many hours in a day. Cash flow became tight due to my not spending enough time on sales. This made it easy to start despairing and worrying.

Fortunately, my spiritual reading includes volume 3 on the life of the founder of Opus Dei. In this volume we read about the challenges St. Josemaria had in growing the Work, especially building the college in Rome. He faced serious financial difficulties, exterior persecution and health problems that were complicated by working without a break. What inspired me was his persistence, constant prayer and what can only be described as supernatural happiness.

By reading and meditating on his life in that time I have been able to put my own circumstances in perspective. I met with my spiritual director this past week who also made me look at what I’m worrying about by describing the worries of this life as “it’s all nothing.” It really is. I’ve always liked to quote this when asked about what I would do if my business fails, “The worst thing that can happen is I’ll have to get a job.”

This doesn’t mean that we don’t have trials and troubles. It does mean that no matter what they are, as long as we sanctify our work we don’t have to worry about the future. It’s hard to accept this without faith, making faith so important to our lives. I firmly believe that even if my business isn’t deemed successful by my peers I will not have ever failed because it’s dedicated to God, for His honor and glory. He gave me talents and I need to use them in His service.

Today is Priesthood Sunday USA. This is being promoted by the USA Council of Serra International.

Please join me on this special day, Priesthood Sunday, in praying for our priests, in praising God for their courage and their generosity. As your bishop I urge you to make your appreciation for your parish priest known. A simple note, a smile or a phone call to assure him of your loving care and gratitude for his presence in the life of your local church will go a long way to serve the greater good of our wonderful and growing Catholic Church.
BISHOP JOSEPH GOSSMAN, Diocese of Raleigh

It’s nice to see the Bishops affirm celibacy for the priesthood. See the story in the Washington Post.

The Synod is over and I’m sure we’ll see and hear more news from it as time goes on.

It’s a beautiful day here in central Missouri. The kind that makes you just thank God for the beauty of His creation!

Today is World Food Day. Not something that many people seem to pay attention to but after having been to the ceremonies and spent a week with the people at the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations I know there are a lot of people there who are truly concerned about relieving world hunger. Unfortunately some of them think the way to do that is to reduce population and they’re determined to make sure that abortion and contraception is pushed on the poor of the world. Very misguided people I’m afraid.

However, hunger is a reality, even here in America, the land of plenty. We have so much we take for granted. I wish everyone could travel to at least one other country and get some “perspective.” As we eat our abundant and wonderful food there are many, many starving. Let’s use today for what I think it really means and thank God for what we have and contemplate how we can help others who don’t.

The Prelate of Opus Dei, Bishop Javier Echevarría, has written a new book titled, “Eucharist and Christian Life.” So far it’s only available in spanish but there are some excerpts on the Opus Dei website like this one:

“Behold our God”

“The Word was made flesh”, writes St. John (Jn. 1: 14), thus summarising the plan of salvation that the Father had fixed by means of his Word. The nearness of God does not only mean that he moves and governs everything. It is not an Alliance limited only to a legal pact of which are conserved some paper documents as testimony. It rather brings with it a personal closeness that has made itself sensible and tangible. The Son of God has assumed our nature and thenceforth in the words of Tertulian, “the flesh is the hinge of salvation”.

The book is being published by Rialp Publishing in Madrid.

There’s an excellent article written by Rev. Michael Giesler, Wespine Study Center, St. Louis, MO in the July/August issue of Crisis magazine on mortification, “The Body’s Forgotten ally: A Brief Defense of Corporal Mortification.” So good in fact that a writer in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch mentioned it in another article he’s written about Opus Dei. I guess he’s doing a series.

I find it interesting that so many people still try to find something sensational and lurid about Opus Dei. That’s why it’s nice to see a reporter come out with an article like this one in the London Times Online, “A wholesome reality shines beyond the dark conspiracy.”

It’s written by a woman who makes some very good points. It appears that the reality of Opus Dei is much more “normal” than some people would like us to believe. I say, “duh.” Read the founder’s writings to find out why.

Boy the path to holiness was a tough one this past week. I was working from a hotel room in another state all week and there wasn’t a convenient Mass to attend so I missed several days. That’s like not working out physically to me. Something is missing from the day! I tried to make the fact that I couldn’t attend Mass on those days an offering since it did seem like mortification to just work and not take the time to find a church with a Mass.

I wonder if this happens to other people who travel a lot. Do you find it hard to attend Mass? I usually don’t. This was a slightly unusual situation and one I think I could have planned ahead for a little better.

There’s a pretty good story on Opus Dei in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch from yesterday titled “Opus Dei is unique in Catholic world.” The writer interviewed local cooperators and members of the Wespine Study Center.

The International Herald Tribune isn’t a paper I would normally expect to see Opus Dei mentioned in but this is interesting. It’s a story about 2 TV Networks (ABC and CBS) working on mini-series of the life of Pope John Paul II. In the article Opus Dei is mentioned starting on page 2 as they talk about where support has come from for at least one of the projects.