PathToHoliness

Today’s first reading at Mass (Ecclesiastes 1:2-11) made me feel compelled to make this note. I love this reading. Here’s a portion of the reading.

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains for ever.
The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.
The wind blows to the south, and goes round to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.
All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.
All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; and there is nothing new under the sun.

What hit me about this is how true it is in describing what I have felt as an arrogance by certain elements in our culture that think they know how things should be when in fact they know next to nothing and for all their words and actions, won’t even be remembered in the near future. Because of my work in agricultural communications I come into contact with people and information from groups who think they know how our government should work and be controlled, who think they know what everyone else should eat and who think they have found some new truth about the environment. Really? I think it’s more about using scare tactics to deceive stupid, gullible people into agreeing with them and providing them with power and control for their own purposes.

I’m all for sensible environmentalism. The farmers I know are the best environmentalists who walk the walk and talk the talk. The wackos who can do nothing but condemn every business trying to make a profit (farms) while holding their hands out to the government for a bailout have no credibility with me. But look at how much money groups like Greenpeace rake in. As if they are actually accomplishing anything or aren’t really trying to feather their own nests.

There’s so much good that can be done in the world but humility is needed as I think the reading of today suggests. Let’s take care of our resources but realize that there’s a bigger goal and that is to serve God and seek to join Him in His kingdom someday.

This week I had the opportunity to attend weekday Mass at SS. Peter & Paul Church in Naperville, IL.

Saints Peter & Paul was founded in 1846 and is the oldest established parish in DuPage County. The parish was originally established as St. Raphael’s, after the given name of its pastor, Rev. Raphael Rainaldi. The first church served 25 families, and was a small frame structure with a lean-to attached to the south side, which served as both sacristy and priest’s residence. This church was built on the west side of Front Street (Ellsworth) and faced east.

I love to show off my girls. Yes, my three daughters. They were celebrating Chelsea’s birthday (which was a couple of days ago) with my wife last night. I couldn’t be there due to a business trip so they sent me a phone photo. Chelsea is in the center with Caitlin to the left and Carly to the right. Chelsea writes here on Path To Holiness sometimes btw. You can find her regular writings on her own blog, Reflections of a Paralytic.

I miss them a lot between traveling and there activities but we do get to see them pretty often.

It looks like you have options if you want to watch live coverage of Pope Benedict’s visit to the United Kingdom. His trip will end with the Beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman.

For starters EWTN will be covering it live. It also looks like there will be live broadcasts from the Vatican Television Center.

Then it looks like the Catholic Communications Network will be live streaming as well. They’ve got a blog started. You can also follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

It’s time to celebrate 30 years of marriage. Cindy and I are taking a few days of vacation to do it.

This morning we attended Mass at Holy Spirit in Pensacoala, FL. After Mass we renewed our vows with the Deacon. We also talked him into taking a photo of us in front of the Altar.

So, all I can say is summed up in lyrics from a favorite song of mine:

Happy anniversary baby
Got you on my mind
Happy anniversary baby
Got you on my mind

I may be away from home this week but it’s not for work for a change.

Tomorrow is my wife Cindy and my 30th wedding anniversary. So we decided to take a real vacation. This is something we can’t remember doing. Just the two of us for a week on the beach.

The weather and the water are beautiful.

This morning we took a walk on the beach before it gets busy with holiday traffic. We’ll be attending Mass at Holy Spirit Church in Pensacola.

I’m going to add a photo to this post later. I’m taking a CoffeeZone break to get at least one post on. My travel schedule really shouldnt be an excuse for not posting more often.

I’ve been meaning to write about the Rosary again for a while now. I wanted to let you know that Chelsea and I make them and if you leave a comment request well send you one. We make a variety of types of rosaries. My favorite are with cord and the beads are knots like the one you’ll see in the photo. We also make them with plastic beads and slender cord too.

The rosary is one of my favorite forms of prayer for a lot of reasons. For one thing, you can say it anywhere, anytime. I have a rosary ring that I wear at all times. I can use it while driving, in a boring meeting, on the plane, etc. But I also have a nice rosary in a small zipper case in my pocket. I also have one of my cord rosaries with me when I travel that I keep by my bed in a hotel room. Whenever I have trouble sleeping for any reason I just pick it up and start saying it. It calms me down and I often wake up with it in my hand in mid decade.

I’ve got quite a few rosaries. Two of my favorites are the one handed to me by Pope John Paul II and one blessed by Pope Benedict XVI. I have a few from relatives and my rosary given to me when I became a Knight of Columbus. They all have special meaning but you can only carry around so many rosaries.

So, here’s a word of encouragement to get a rosary if you don’t have one (or leave me a comment and Ill mail you one) and start saying it. I prefer daily but I recommend at least once a week if you can. You’ll be amazed at the difference it will make in your life.

Here’s the latest church I was blessed to attend Mass at, as well as confession. It’s St. Mark Catholic Church. I was traveling with my wife, Cindy, for a change. We were doing some work at a swine health seminar in Wrightsville Beach, NC. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it. The beach was nice but it’s good to be home.

“St. Mark is a Roman Catholic Parish sustained by God’s Word and Christ in the Eucharist, empowered in the Holy Spirit, which provides for the sacramental life of our community. As a welcoming and diverse people, we are called to evangelize, to teach and to live the Catholic faith. We do this through our parish and school programs and our commitment to stewardship that span all generations.”

In case you haven’t seen the trailer yet for There Be Dragons I found it on YouTube. The movie about the life of St. Josemaria Escriva is still due out in early 2011.

Follow There Be Dragons on Facebook and Twitter.

I’ve been in a blogging drought here the last several weeks. In that time I’ve been to events in Panama City Beach, FL, Minneapolis, MN, Denver, CO, Willamsburg, VA and Des Moines, IA. Finally got home at the end of last week.

So I may not have been real diligent in my posting but I did make it to weekday and Sunday Masses at several churches like Holy Ghost Church in Denver. I’ll try to be a little more frequent here now that the schedule has calmed down temporarily!

Is it just me or does the news today read like a fiction novel? The stories we’re seeing are surrealistic. What kind of stories? How about the stories about the billions and billions of dollars being “given” away, right here at home, overseas, just about any where you look. No matter what source you look at it’s clear there is no money to be given away by our government. So where is it coming from? I have no idea and no one I know does either. By some estimates I’ve read, just the stimulus money can never be repaid much less items like the $500 million just announced as U.S. aid to Pakistan from a $7.5 billion package approved by Congress last year. Sounds to me like there will be 500 new millionaires in Pakistan.

Are people so far removed from personal responsibility and common sense that they can’t function without the government supplying them with money for everything? How about health care? Why should our government supply health care to anyone? Why does it become government’s responsibility?

I could make a long list of stories that defy reason but all you have to do is look at the news to see stories for yourself. From ideas like animals having rights to sue humans (they actually voted on this in Switzerland) to the idea that we should tax people for creating carbon emissions due to global warming, it seems like we’re living in a world dominated by insane people. I think the reality is we’re living in a world with a growing number of people who have no grounding in faith in God. You don’t see God and faith mentioned in news today unless it’s just to point out what church someone belongs to as a side note to a story or in a negative way like blame for something.

Besides these things it seems like people today are constantly feeling panic. Of course if you listen to the news much you’ll hear the word “crisis” applied to just about everything. We don’t have a crisis except a crisis of loss of faith. With true faith in God there is no need to worry or feel threatened by anything and that includes where your next meal is coming from or whether the Gulf of Mexico will still have fish living in it tomorrow.

I don’t think I ever did a post about the new version of iBreviary which is now iBreviaryPro. It’s another app I use almost every day. I’m finding it harder and harder to carry around and use my Liturgy of the Hours books, especially doing a lot of air travel. These apps are really helping make saying your norms easier.

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

Infomobile reports it brings complete missal and principal prayers in Spanish, French, English, Latin and Italian. “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.

Excerpt from CathNews.

After Mass this morning I was talking to a couple and the subject of mobile phones came up. Turns out they had been wondering why I was looking at my iPhone during Mass. As the wife put it, “I was thinking, Can’t he leave that alone during Mass?” It gave me a good chuckle but at the same time made me realize how many people aren’t aware of what new technology can do today. So I used it as a teaching moment and they were amazed.

So, here’s the app that I was using. iMissal by Cantcha, Inc. It has become one of the apps I use frequently since I go to daily Mass. It’s very solid and contains much more than just the daily readings. Here’s a full list:

Here is what is included in iMissal:

Mass Readings: All the Mass Readings for every liturgical cycle (A,B,C,I,II) are included! This includes First Reading, Psalm, Second Reading, Alleluia, and Gospel for all Sunday and Weekday Masses. Reading text is always available for every day, no WIFI connection necessary. Uses translations officially approved for Mass in the U.S. Great resource for Lectors.

Read the rest of this post…

I just had the joy of watching oldest daughter, Chelsea, appear as the guest on EWTN’s live show, Life On The Rock. It will air again on EWTN tomorrow at 1am and 1pm, eastern and again on Sunday at 11pm eastern. They did a good job of promoting her blog, Reflections of a Paralytic.

We of course recorded the show. Chelsea is a regular contributor here on Path To Holiness and her Mom and I are very proud of her. She is a very courageous young woman who has a challenging “path” to take through life and is doing so with full faith in God. During the show they talked about her auto accident that left her paralyzed, holiness, sanctity of life and stem cell research. During the program we were getting messages via Facebook from friends who were watching.

The show is archived so you will be able to watch it on your computer.

It has been a year since I was diagnosed with pneumonia and that’s made me think back on all that’s happened since. After the initial diagnosis it took a couple weeks before I wound up in the hospital where I stayed for 11 days and had multiple procedures that ended with some major chest surgery to get rid of the infection. Some time afterward one of my doctors used the term “near death experience” referring to the condition I was in before surgery. So this holiday weekend has been a good time to reflect on the experience and what it meant to me then and now.

Let’s just say that I’m glad to be alive. Every day is a wonderful opportunity to serve our Lord more. But more than that the experience taught me another lesson in patience and it has provided many opportunities to offer up some pain and suffering.

I remember hearing a number of family and friends say that maybe it meant I should “slow down” and not travel so much for work. I wondered about that and prayed for guidance on the issue. I don’t think it has been that simple. I’ve done quite a bit of travel since then but have had more periods of no required travel. One reason is that we lost a significant amount of work that required travel from one of our clients. That has meant more stay at home time but also more pressure on our cash flow. It seems like there’s always something.

I’ve found myself working harder to live a healthy lifestyle but now that I’m mostly back to normal I’m back to battling the same old temptations to eat too much and not exercise enough. Realizing that I’ve hit this one year milestone has made me re-commit to my resolutions though. It has made me think about how blessed I am to have a wonderful faith and family. My wife just had some major surgery of her own recently and now I can pay her back for her extra efforts when I wasn’t able to do much around the house!

So there you have it. A year since I didn’t think I would be here at all. But thank you Lord for allowing me more time to make amends for my sins and serve you more.