PathToHoliness

I just heard an advertisement for the People Magazine’s Best of 2008 issue that contains things like the top 25 celebrity quotes of the year and a whole bunch of other inane listings. It just made me consider how much our society seems obsessed with what other people are doing, saying, thinking or feeling. Then when I was working out at the YMCA I could see a certain cable news channel group of anchors sitting on a couch pontificating about their thoughts on “news” items. That brought up the same thoughts I’d had earlier. Our new information age seems to be focused on what everyone is doing (activities) and not much on how everyone is drawing closer to God on a personal level.

How about looking inside ourselves to figure out what we’re feeling and why and by the way, what about our relationship with God?

My latest spiritual reading is “Soul of the Apostolate” by Jean-Baptiste Chautard. I’m finding it a great read since it really helps you understand the absolute necessity of a well developed interior life. All the activity we participate in, including good works, can actually become a danger to our salvation if we don’t first devote time and attention to our interior life.

Somehow I think we’d all care less about what others do if we spent more time contemplating what we’re doing first.

Merry Christmas from mid-Missouri.

Here’s a picture from midnight Mass at the Cathedral of St. Joseph with Bishop John Raymond Gaydos celebrating.

Our family has been going to midnight Mass for a number of years now. Then we come home and open presents and have a very early morning breakfast. It was nice having all my daughters home. I hope that you and your families all have a very blessed day too.

To listen to our “mainstream” media you’d think the world is in some sort of crisis at every moment and in every way possible. I think the word crisis has got to be one of the most overused words in the last couple years. People I know who spend way too much time focusing on every word from the mouths of cable news channel anchors who know absolutely nothing about what they’re talking about (just trying to fill time) seem to be developing a heightened sense of fear. I’m not going to get into what that can do to a person’s decision making much less to society as a whole.

I’d rather focus on something positive like telling these people to turn the tv off and say some prayers. I know people who have been laid off recently or are working for a company that is discussing cut backs. Some are very nervous. Some are not too worried about it. I’ll bet these latter ones have a more developed interior and prayer life. So I thought I’d offer one of my favorite prayers for times of uncertainty and worry. This comes from a prayer card I have for a priest I knew when I was younger. I’m not sure of the source of it. If you know, please feel free to comment.

“He’s got the whole world in His Hands.”
And now, Lord, You have my problems:
My seemingly insoluble problems
Which I have been worrying over incessantly,
My own million-dollar, 24-carat problems,
And I leave them with You.
If You can keep the earth revolving,
If You can keep the galaxies in place,
If You can supervise creation,
I guess You can manage My problems.
They’re yours now, Lord,
These million-dollar problems.
My task is not to worry now.
I’ve got to trust You, believe You, Love you,
And not interfere with Your resolution
Of what Once were
My problems.
Thank You, Lord.

Hey iPhone lovers. There’s an app for the phone (and iPod touch) that you may want to get. It’s the iBreviary. I’ve got it thanks to Chelsea pointing it out to me.

She found out about it on American Papist. You can also read about it on Cath News:

The Vatican Council for Social Communications has approved an iBreviary application created by Italian priest Fr Paolo Padrini for the iPhone.

“That’s cool, but what really sets this application apart from all others in the AppStore is that it’s the first app with approval of the Vatican!” Infomobile says.
“As with almost any iPhone app, iBreviary is easy to use, sporting iPhone like user interface. In addition, size of the characters can be increased, landscape mode is supported (using accelerometer) and much more.

The text from the Pope’s last general audience of the year prompted me to write today. I realize how much I’ve neglected this website and have used the excuse that I am working too hard and don’t have time. The Advent season is supposed to be one of personal reflection and that has allowed me to notice how much more I can be doing to evangelize. That’s actually why I started Path To Holiness in the first place?

Here’s the segment from Pope Benedict’s message that really caught my eye:

“Christmas is the encounter with a new-born baby, wailing in a wretched grotto”, the Holy Father added. “Contemplating Him in this crèche how can we not think of all the children who still today, in many regions of the world, are born amidst such poverty? How can we not think of those newborns who have been rejected, not welcomed, those who do not survive because of a lack of care and attention? How can we not think of the families who desire the joy of a child and do not have this hope fulfilled?”

“Unfortunately, under the drive of a hedonist consumerism, Christmas runs the risk of losing its spiritual meaning, reduced to a mere commercial occasion to buy and exchange gifts. Actually, however, the difficulties, uncertainty, and the economic crisis that many families are living in these months, and which affects all humanity, can truly serve as a stimulus for rediscovering the warmth of the simplicity, friendship, and solidarity that are the typical values of Christmas. Stripped of its materialist and consumerist trappings, Christmas can become the opportunity to welcome, as a personal gift, the message of hope that emanates from the mystery of Christ’s birth”.

Hedonistic consumerism are the words that stood out for me. Our work utilizes computers, cameras, audio and video recorders, iPods, microphones, etc. Many look at them as gadgets. I look at them as cool tools and am blessed to be able to use them to make a good living. However, it’s easy to want the next best thing just for the sake of having it too. Something we all need to be careful about.