PathToHoliness

Summer travel for work has been at a hot pace lately and so has the weather. One of the places I’ve been to in the last couple weeks was New Orleans. This is the Cathedral-Basilica St. Louis King of France New Orleans. That’s a long name!

Few cities in the world are so identified by a building as is New Orleans. The city is instantly recognized by our cathedral and its position overlooking Jackson Square. The Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis King of France is the oldest Catholic cathedral in continual use in the United States. As the caretakers of the Historic place of worship, we constantly battle the elements and the aging of the Cathedral with ongoing conservation and restoration.

The church sits right on the edge of the famous french quarter where there is a lot of partying. For those of us who have to visit for work it offers a kind of retreat from the activity that’s going on at a frantic pace every day and night.

I’m doing a lot of summer highway miles. Last week that included staying in Pontiac, IL for a couple nights for a farm tour I was working on. We visited farms that are taking part in a project to manage nutrients on their crops in order to make sure they are doing all they can to take care of the environment.

While I was in Pontiac I got to attend weekday Mass at St. Mary’s. The church is downtown and easy to find and had early morning Mass on Thursday and Friday which was perfect for my schedule. I’ll be in Nebraska and back to Illinois this week. It’s always an adventure to see where my faith takes me!

Cindy and I are thinking of going to our local Independence Day activities this evening that includes the Little River Band playing on the Missouri Capitol steps before the fireworks. That’s a great way to celebrate. But so is attending Mass!

This is a photo from our morning Mass at the Cathedral of St. Joseph. Our new Associate Pastor, Fr. Nicholas Reed, celebrated. I would give up a hundred fireworks displays and free concerts to go to just one Mass as a way to celebrate this day.

I hope everyone has a very safe and blessed celebration wherever you are.

Our Holy Father has made headlines with one tweet. And one that’s not even on his own personal Twitter account. He doesn’t have one. He did it on an iPad using the Vatican’s Twitter account. His post says, “Dear Friends, I just launched News.va Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI.” If you haven’t checked out the new Vatican website you need to. It is much improved.

Last weekend I was working at the Iowa Corn Indy 250 race once again. Although it was a Saturday night race we had a Mass in the afternoon. Like last year, the Mass was held in the press conference room of the media center at Iowa Speedway.

Special thanks to the IndyCar Ministry for making this possible at race tracks everywhere.

IndyCar Ministry is a 501c3 not-for-profit, non-denominational organization, which was developed to help the racing community. We exist because of the donations we receive from the racing community and great partners that join with us to reach out to the people that are part of this great sport. Our financial records are available for review by contacting our office. We desire to be good stewards of the blessings we are given.

What does praying really mean? This short video clip is a new addition to the St. Josemaria Escriva YouTube channel. In it a young woman talks about what she has learned about praying from St. Josemaria. It is becoming friends with Christ. In The Way, St. Josmaria says, “Prayer is the foundation of the spiritual edifice.”

If you don’t know how to pray then he recommends, “Put yourself in the presence of God, and once you have said, “Lord, I don’t know how to pray!” rest assured that you have begun to do so.” This is advice that I love because it is so simple and easy to understand. But it means taking time for prayer, something that has to be a priority of our day no matter what is going on in our life.

June 26th, the anniversary of Saint Josemaría’s death in 1975, is now his feast day. Masses will be celebrated in many cities around the U.S. You can find a list of them here. Here’s the invite from St. Louis. Unfortunately I’ll be in Iowa and won’t be able to attend.

I’ve been tweeting notes from my retreat and thought I’d share some of them to date in case you missed them:

• “Is my prayer a heart to heart conversation with God?”
• “Read the Bible like it’s an email from God. Download it with prayer.”
• “I communicate with God the Father by meditating on the life of Christ.”
• “If my work is making demands that keep me from my daily devotions then I need to make a change.”
• “Our earthly experiences pass and are gone. Only Christ lasts forever. Are we prepared for death?”
• “Contemplate the reality of death & judgement. Fear not loving enough, not divine retribution, although it is real.”
• “The real poor, the real poverty is lack of love of God. What is the meaning of the hope within you?”
• “We are in armageddon. It’s spiritual warfare. Millions of unborn being killed, human engineering, etc.”
• “Announce the resurrection by who you are rather than what you say.”
• “Jesus shows us Joseph. A son reflects the father.”
• “Hey guys, what is it that your wife dislikes about you? Is she right?”
• “Repentance is the spring board for complete change.”
• “A mediocre Catholic cannot convince anyone that a life of Christ is more fulfilling than a life of sensual pleasure.”
• “Christ wants you to be an apostle. That’s what it means to be Catholic.”
• “Start by invoking the Holy Spirit. His job is to lead us to Jesus and to become like Jesus.”
• “The retreat is a time to pray, to communicate personally with God. If we don’t, we’ve wasted our time.”

One of the first priests of Opus Dei may someday soon be declared a saint in the Catholic Church.

The cause of canonization of Fr. José Luis Muzquiz, was officially opened in the Archdiocese of Boston on June 2. Father Joseph, as he was always known in the United States, was one of the first three priests ordained for Opus Dei in 1944. At the request of St. Josemaría, he came to the United States in 1949 to begin Opus Dei’s work in this country.

For biographical information about Father Joseph a good source is the recent book by John Coverdale, Putting Down Roots: Fr. Joseph Muzquiz and the Growth of Opus Dei (available here).

Here is what his prayer card says:

The Servant of God, Father Joseph Muzquiz
Prayer for Private Devotion

God, you helped your servant Joseph work with generosity and simplicity. He spread the message of sanctity in secular life to many people, teaching them to find joy and peace in their daily life. Help me to seek first the kingdom of God, by sanctifying my everyday work and dedicating myself generously to the salvation of souls. Glorify your servant Joseph, and through his intercession, grant me the favor I ask of you.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory be to the Father.

Happy Memorial Day Holiday. Many churches have a holiday Mass schedule. Hopefully you checked yours. This morning I attended an early Mass at Immaculate Conception in Jefferson City, MO. Normally I would go to the Cathedral but the Mass there isn’t until 9am this morning.

Today we honor, remember and pray for the souls of our deceased men and women who have died in service to our country. At 3pm today you may want to take a moment to say a prayer and remember these heroes.

To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the “National Moment of Remembrance” resolution was passed on Dec 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans “To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to ‘Taps.”

Last week my wife and I visited Pensacola, FL and Perdido Key in particular. Why? Because we love the area. We took some time to get to know the area and attended weekday Mass at different churches. I particularly liked this church, St. Anne’s.

The church has a Swiss design and is actually not as old as it first looked. It has a really nice outside Way of the Cross and lots of other property that includes a pecan grove that has provided financial support to the parish. We also attended Mass at Little Flower and Holy Spirit.

So here’s one nice part of traveling. You sure get to see a variety in Catholic churches!

I’ve done a little road work the past week or so. Week before last I was in Arlington, VA and was able to attend Mass at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More. I’ve been there before but not since when I worked for the Vitae Foundation. That’s been over seven years ago. It’s hard to believe my company is now over seven years old.

This past week I was in Des Moines, IA and attempted to go to a morning Mass downtown before an 8am mtg. I tried St. Ambrose Cathedral first but there is only a noon Mass. Next I tried St. John’s Basilica. Same schedule. I don’t know why I find that hard to believe. A Cathedral and a Basilica and neither one has a morning Mass on a weekday? I wound up saying my morning prayers outside the Basilica in front of this little grotto with Mary.

I also traveled to Albany, NY at the end of the week and attended Mass at Christ Our Light in Loudonville. It used to be St. Francis de Sales. I didn’t bother taking a photo. It was the first Mass I’ve ever been to where at least half the people walked directly out from receiving communion. I was attending a 4pm Saturday Mass. People just left in droves. But if you had been there and seen the scarcity of reverence for the church and loose interpretation of the norms you might understand.

I am attending the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit in Arlington, VA for my business. One of the speakers was Nebraska state Senator Tom Carlson. I thought you might be interested in a comment he made in an interview I did with him. At the conference we’re talking about animal rights activists who claim to care about the humane care of animals when in reality they have an agenda to eliminate the use of animals as food. Senator Carlson made a comparison of their agenda with human abortion where there is no middle ground on what is humane. He is unashamedly pro-life and I wish we had more of them in elected office!

You can listen to my interview with Sen. Carlson here: Sen. Tom Carlson Comment

We’re getting closer to the theater release of “There Be Dragons.” Have I mentioned that before? We’d love to see it in mid Missouri but so far no theater has it scheduled. That doesn’t mean we’re not trying though.

My wife and business partner had the opportunity today to speak with Paul Lauer, CEO, Motive Entertainment, the promotional company for the movie. Paul’s company also did the promotion for the Mel Gibson movie, “The Passion of the Christ.”

Paul says the movie is an “epic adventure.” He describes the main characters that include the saint, Josemaria Escriva, founder of Opus Dei. He says opening week plans include being on hundreds of screens nationwide with reactions being very high in the faith community. Critics reactions have been mixed but he says that was true with the Mel Gibson movie too. Pauls says that Director Roland Joffe at first planned to turn down the movie but after seeing a dvd of St. Josemaria talking to a group of people he changed his mind. He doesn’t think we’ve ever had a movie with a canonized saint shown in such a “genuinely human portrayal.”

Tthe movie does a very good job of showing the character of Opus Dei, the Work of God, according to Paul and people I know who have seen a screening of the movie. Paul explains exactly how that comes across in his interview with Cindy. It’s all about living holiness in the everyday life we all have to live through. I can’t wait to see it!

You can listen to the interview here: Paul Lauer Interview

It’s just about time. This weekend is the official release of There Be Dragons, the movie. I saw some preview scenes while on retreat this past weekend and can’t wait to see it. We’re working on a local theater to bring it to mid Missouri. Still have work to do apparently.