PathToHoliness

Planning a scheduled retreat right now and looking at various options this year. For years I have attended a Wespine Study Center retreat which is currently being held at the Sojourn Center in Missouri. However, this year since I have re-located to north Pensacola, FL there are two closer Opus Dei centers offering men’s retreats.

One is Roseaire Retreat in Delray Beach, FL and the other is Featherock Conference Center in Schulenburg, TX. They are about equal distance driving for me and both look like they have scheduled retreats that are open dates on my calendar. I’m sure that I can find other retreats to go on but none offer the same type of spiritual opportunities I find on an Opus Dei led retreat. At least that I have looked at. I’m sure there are very good retreats available but I want to stay with the formative structure of Opus Dei as a cooperator in the work.

If you have not attended a retreat or perhaps have not thought about going on one this year then perhaps now is a good time to do a little research and see what would work into your schedule.

Happy St. Vincent, Deacon & Martyr, memorial day.

Sadly, today is also the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. St. Vincent, please intercede for us!

There are estimates that 55 million babies have been killed by abortion during this time. That’s an unfathomable number that I can’t wrap my mind around. Abortion takes an innocent life, a human life. It doesn’t make the news. But a few people killed in a war zone will. I weep for them too. I always wonder how we as a society can allow this to continue.

To help visualize this huge number Oregon Right to Life has posted a video on YouTube that tries to help.

Since abortion was legalized in 1973 by the Roe v. Wade decision, over 55 million developing babies have died through abortion. Fifty-five million is a big number and hard to visualize.

To commemorate the lives that were lost, one million deaths are remembered at the tolling of each bell and states begin to disappear to represent the numbers of children who have disappeared.


There is so much that has been written on this subject that I don’t know what to add. I spent two years working with the Vitae Caring Foundation which did ground breaking research into the emotional reasons why a woman would have an abortion. I spoke to groups all over the country and am glad to have had that opportunity. As the founder of Vitae once told me, “It will drive you crazy if you dwell on it.” It, being abortion in this country. So many human lives taken away from us. It is enough to drive you crazy. But we can pray harder and not be afraid to speak out in support of unborn babies. I pledge to do so.

We are in the Year of Faith as declared by Pope Benedict. To celebrate it in the Pensacola-Tallahassee Diocese our Bishop Parkes is holding a day to Celebrate Faith 2013: Encountering Christ. Everyone is invited. Find out all about it here.

Here’s a description of the logo for the Year of Faith.

The logo is composed of a square, bordered field on which a boat, symbolizing the Church, is represented as sailing on a graphically minimal representation of waves. The main mast of the boat is a cross from which sails are displayed in the form of dynamic signs which compose the trigram of Christ (IHS). The background to the sails is a sun which, associated with the trigram, refers also to the Eucharist.

If you have been watching college football bowl games you probably saw Coach Lou Holtz urging Catholics to come home. I think it’s a great ad and hope it will make all Catholics think about their faith.

They say football is like a religion for some die hard fans, that’s why Catholics Come Home® plans to air a new national television commercial during college football bowl week, and ending with the BCS National Championship (Notre Dame vs. Alabama), Jan. 7, 2013.

Catholics Come Home® Founder and President Tom Peterson says, “Faith is not a spectator’s sport; it must be lived…it’s interactive!” This is why his non-profit is trying a new play with the goal of winning loyal fans for Jesus and the Church.

Coach Holtz from Catholics Come Home on Vimeo.

Happy New Year. It’s that time to think about resolutions. Do you have any? Do you keep them? Perhaps a good resolution would be to keep your resolutions! Here’s one used in a Happy New Year from the St. Josemaria Institute.

“Form the resolution to set the world ablaze — you can —loving with a pure heart, and making all mankind happy by bringing them really closer to God.” St. Josemaria Escriva The Forge, 916

Sounds like a good resolution to me. How can we do it? How about practicing our Catholic faith “in the world,” meaning in our regular daily life. We’re not Sunday Catholics are we? We don’t practice our faith by just going to Mass once a week right? If so, then it’s time to take your faith seriously. It’s what should guide you and all your decisions.

I’ve been seeing more and more people I’m connected with socially (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) posting all kinds of “spiritual” quotes that are very nice sounding ideas about serenity, peace, happiness, etc. None of them mention God, religion or any kind of faith. I don’t see how it’s possible to ignore God and His son Jesus who came down to be born of a woman for our salvation. Most of these nice sounding quotes are from spiritual gurus of different types that don’t profess any belief in God. What they preach is all about what you do yourself, as if we can do anything by ourselves without God. Right?