PathToHoliness

Last week I was on the road again. While in St. Louis I attended Mass at St. Ann in Normandy, MO which is a south side suburb. They’ve got a great website. Pastor Fr. William Kempf has his own blog called “Pastor’s Pen.”

It all started with the kindness of a woman, who like the widow in the gospel, was so incredibly generous with what God had given to her. In 1854, the widow Ann Lucas-Hunt donated the land along with a monetary donation to the Jesuit Order “to establish a church and see to the education of the children” in her beloved Normandy, Missouri. The Jesuits then tasked Fr. Peter DeSmet with the project of establishing St. Ann church. In him we know a parish founded with a missionary spirit. St. Ann was his ‘home’ when his feet were not on the road proclaiming the good news to the Native American Indians. Our first pastor, Fr. Adrian Van Hulst, would make the journey from the Jesuit provincial house at the corner of Lindell Boulevard and Grand Avenue by horse and carriage. It was said that he was so punctual that farmers could set their watches by his approach. In him, we see the virtue of a steadfast, faithful presence.

It’s a challenge to find time to write here when I am on the road live blogging events for my company. During the week I had several inspirations for posts that I have now forgotten. Hopefully I’ll come up with them this weekend.

However, a couple of things come to mind. Several people I’ve spoken with this week have expressed feelings of despair, hopelessness and doubt over what they see as a world out of control. They see and hear so much alarmist information that they feel on edge emotionally all the time. I think they may be bordering on depression as a result.

I understand why and how they can have those feelings. Let’s take abortion as just one example. If you really stop and think hard about how many babies are killed just in the United States each day it will drive you crazy. Especially when you consider how little you can do about it. But I’ve learned that you cant give in to these feelings of hopelessness. That’s what our faith is for, and not just my Catholic faith.

I just got back home from an agricultural animal health conference. There were people there despairing over the impact from animal rights wacko groups like the Humane Society of the United States. In case you think they are an animal welfare group that supports animal shelters, think again. They’re a huge scam operation of militant vegans. You can find out all you need to know about them at HumaneWatch.org. Don’t support them. Support your local animal shelter instead!

Okay, back to the subject. New digital media tools are allowing all of us as individuals to have a voice in the world. That’s why our Holy Father has urged priests and the laity to use them to evangelize the faith. At the same time they’re being used by anarchists, terrorists and to promote promiscuity and pornography. But I think we can let ourselves get overwhelmed by the messages and lose our peace.

Let’s step back. Take time to meditate in a quiet place. For me, daily Mass is a great way to put all that behind me and put myself in the presence of God who loves me and will always protect me. I get a fresh perspective and then go back to my work knowing that I will not allow the forces of evil in our society to discourage me and that I can make a positive impact for true change, not the kind touted in Washington, DC these days.

Consider this. If you courageously speak up when you need to for what is right, correct people you come in contact personally when they’re wrong and set a good personal example by your own conduct, you will be a force for change. I like to think that if I save one baby from being killed in my whole life that I will have made an accomplishment of immeasurable value. If I convert one person, if I bring one person back to the faith, if I change one mind for the good, I have done what God wants and I have something to be proud of. I don’t care if I ever know who I impacted. Maybe I will after I die. I don’t know but God does.

That gives me a real sense of peace even in light of the terrible things that are happening in our society and around the world today.

My Knights of Columbus Council 12992 met last night. It was very gratifying to see our Grand Knight pull out his rosary before we got started and lead us.

This is the month to especially honor our Lady and she means a lot to members of the Knights. When we become members we receive a rosary like the one in his hands in the photo. All Knights are encouraged to use their rosary daily, especially during this month.

At the evening of recollection I attended this week I had a chance to talk with Fr. Jay Alvarez, Wespine Study Center, who conducted our meditation talks. I didn’t know he has a YouTube Channel.

Here’s one of his videos which is a “Music video about two early Christians, Junia and her brother Marcus, around year 140 AD, in Rome. Based on the books of Michael E. Giesler. Video, Music and lyrics by Jay Alvarez.” I think he’s taking the Holy Father’s call to use the digital media to evangelize to heart!

May is the month dedicated to Mary. Pope Paul VI said the following about it in his encyclical, Mense Maio.

. . . a month which the piety of the faithful has long dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God. Our heart rejoices at the thought of the moving tribute of faith and love which will soon be paid to the Queen of Heaven in every corner of the earth. For this is the month during which Christians, in their churches and their homes, offer the Virgin Mother more fervent and loving acts of homage and veneration; and it is the month in which a greater abundance of God’s merciful gifts comes down to us from our Mother’s throne.

For spiritual reading during this month a great book to consider is “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin” by St. Louis de Montfort. You can find a pdf of it on the Montfort Missionaries website or buy it on Amazon. I also found it in the Amazon Kindle e-books and loaded it on my iPad.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers!

May I also say a special Happy Mother’s Day to our Queen of Heaven, Mary!

If you’d like to better understand why we give Mary the title of Queen of Heaven then read the Encyclical on the subject by Pope Pius XII. Excerpt:

AD CAELI REGINAM

From the earliest ages of the catholic church a Christian people, whether in time of triumph or more especially in time of crisis, has addressed prayers of petition and hymns of praise and veneration to the Queen of Heaven. And never has that hope wavered which they placed in the Mother of the Divine King, Jesus Christ; nor has that faith ever failed by which we are taught that Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, reigns with a mother’s solicitude over the entire world, just as she is crowned in heavenly blessedness with the glory of a Queen.

According to a story in USA Today, the birth control pill turns 50 on Mother’s Day. That is so ironic and sad. And there are so many things wrong with this story that I won’t even try to point them all out. In typical biased reporting the story makes wild unsubstantiated claims that show the author’s viewpoints on the topic of contraception.

Here are a couple of excerpts: “It became a symbol of women’s rights . . . ” “But the consensus among both physicians and sociologists is that a girl who is promiscuous on the pill would have been promiscuous without it.” The author claims the pill did not spark the sexual revolution. I’m sure she had scientific evidence of that too although none is cited. She also writes about Margaret Sanger as if she’s some kind of hero. Sanger looked at birth control and abortion as ways to get rid of unwanted people especially of inferior races, at least in her opinion.

This is really just a sad commentary on our society. The article doesn’t point out that STD’s, single mothers and abortions have all sky rocketed during the time since the pill was put on the market. It makes no reference to faith. And this is where I think things have gone so wrong. So many people have left their Christian faith behind. They don’t look to it for guidance. They don’t want to follow it. They don’t see themselves as God’s children. They are only concerned about themselves. There is plenty to find in scripture on this subject. Look at St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians as an example. I won’t quote verse here. You’ve probably got a Bible that I hope you read.

If people would follow their faith we wouldn’t have to be concerned with equality. Husbands are taught to love and respect their wives and vice versa. There never will be equality in the sense that I think many woman activists think of it. Men can’t have babies. That’s a pretty big difference and no amount of “control” over their bodies will change it.

To get a really good perspective from a woman’s point of view I would encourage you to read this news story quoting Dr. Janet Smith on this subject. She says:

Also, “it is really, patently absurd for women to be putting chemicals in their body to correct a condition that is not a defect.

“Fertility is a perfectly healthy condition,” Smith emphasized.

The Bishops of the U.S. have created a new website/initiative to be a resource for men and women who are discerning a vocation. It provides “an aid for promoting a vocation culture within the home, and a range of tools for educators, youth leaders and vocation directors.” The website is titled For Your Vocation.

Vocations to the Priesthood and Consecrated Life are tremendous and essential gifts to the Church, and it is the bishops’ desire that their two goals for this initiative are achieved:

To educate all Catholics on the importance of encouraging others through prayer and activities to promote vocations.

Follow along on Facebook, YouTube and their blog.

Here’s a great cause to get involved with. Host a viewing of a new film about the life of Archbishop Fulton Sheen titled, “Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: Servant of All.”

As Father Andrew Apostoli has said, “Our Church needs a hero of the faith like Archbishop Fulton Sheen, and maybe now more than ever. We can’t let his voice go silent; there’s too much at stake.”

The film “Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: Servant of All” was developed by The Archbishop Fulton John Sheen Foundation to ensure this hero lives on to inspire new generations. The Foundation’s mission is to make known the life, works and thoughts of Archbishop Sheen — and this film is perhaps its most important effort in leading others to a deeper relationship with God and His Church using Sheen’s example. The goal of the film is to fill viewers with the same zeal for the Church that Archbishop Sheen himself experienced.

Follow along on Twitter, Facebook or the film’s blog.

Here is my already favorite iPhone app and I just downloaded it. The St. Josemaría iPhone App!

The first iPhone application with Saint Josemaría Escrivá teachings, life and catholic prayer devotions.

Contents of Application:
•Biography
•Saint Josemaría Escrivá Prayer Card
•Saint Josemaría Escrivá Writings
•Daily catholic prayer devotions
•Videos of Saint Josemaría Escrivá via Youtube

Today I had the pleasure of delivering an image of the Divine Mercy to our parish office.

Pictured with me is our Pastor, Rev. Msgr. Robert A. Kurwicki. He blessed the image right away. We found a temporary home for it in the office area until they can decide on where to place it permanently.

On Divine Mercy Sunday my wife and I participated in our service and that’s when we found out that we didn’t have one available in the Cathedral Parish except for one in the school. So we ordered one right away from Divine Mercy Images. It is beautiful and I would recommend them if you’d like a nice image for your church or home.

It is great seeing our Holy Father embrace digital media and the internet as mechanisms to witness to our faith and evangelize the message of Jesus Christ. According to a note in my latest Vatican Information Service update, Pope Benedict spoke to a conference on, “Digital Witnesses. Faces and languages in the multi-media age”. The congress was organized by the Italian Episcopal Conference, the president of which is Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, archbishop of Genoa. Here’s what he said.

“The time in which we are living is seeing an enormous expansion of the frontiers of communication”, said the Pope. “The Internet is by nature open, tendentiously egalitarian and pluralist, but at the same time it also represents a new gulf. Indeed, we talk of the ‘digital divide’, which separates the included from the excluded, and this must be added to other separations which already divide nations, both from one another and within themselves”.

Benedict XVI also noted “the dangers of conformity and control, of intellectual and moral relativism, which are already evident in the diminution of the spirit of criticism, in the truth reduced to an interplay of opinions, in the many forms of degradation and humiliation of individual intimacy. We are witnessing a ‘pollution of the spirit which clouds our faces and makes them less prone to smile’.

Read the rest of this post…

There are a lot of people upset about either having a national day of prayer or a judge’s ruling that there shouldn’t be a national day of prayer. I don’t really understand either side. Every day should be a day of prayer. If you don’t want to pray then don’t. If you want to pray, then pray.

Unfortunately there are people who want to use the law to enforce their own views on everyone else. I’m only guessing that the idea for a national day of prayer came out of the fact that prayer has been so suppressed in our society. We’re a country founded on Christian principles and our Constitution was meant to protect people’s right to pray. Instead certain people have interpreted it incorrectly for their own ends which apparently includes removing prayer from society.

I think it is unconscionable to tell kids they can’t pray on a football field before a game for example. And although having a prayer breakfast or service in a state capitol or out nation’s capitol doesn’t excite me I see no reason for there not to be one.

Prayer is vital to a healthy spiritual life regardless what faith you have. Of course there are a few people who claim to be atheist but I agree with a statement I heard Archbishop Fulton Sheen make once that you have to believe in God to deny Him. People who claim they don’t believe in God often have a substitute like the devil or “mankind” and studies find that many of them actually do pray. Interesting. Probably a lot of them just don’t want to have to follow rules and make the claim as a way to justify their selfishness. There is a very small percentage of people who claim atheism anyway. I guess they’re just very vocal though.

I know I’ve posted a picture of the Redemptorist church in Kansas City, MO before but it is one of my favorites. This week my wife Cindy and I were in town to exhibit our company, ZimmComm New Media, at an annual convention. We attended Mass here.

Welcome to the website of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church – affectionately known throughout the area simply as “Redemptorist Church.”

Redemptorist Parish also sponsors the Redemptorist Social Services Center, one of the largest food pantries in Jackson County.

“If you really stop and think about all the children that have been killed by abortion it will make you crazy.” That’s a quote I’ll never forget from a pro-life leader I worked with years ago. It’s true. It is hard to imagine how many babies have never been born and how many are killed every day, primarily for “convenience.” Have you ever sat down and meditated on this? Ask yourself what it means for all of us. I know all the abortion supporter’s arguments about a woman’s right to choose but the consequences of contraception and abortion go way beyond that.

We’re all tied together spiritually which is why something as gravely wrong as abortion affects us all. It’s pretty easy to understand how an abortion can have an immediate affect on the family members of the woman having the abortion and the man/father of the baby. It shouldn’t be hard therefore to see a connection to all of us. And if you factor in how many millions of babies that have been killed in just the last 30 years there is an extreme amount of impact on all of us. None of it is positive.

This has been on my mind after reading an on a website that was supposedly written by a woman about having an abortion. She didn’t like it but had it done because she decided she wasn’t ready to be a mother. Her casual attitude about having innocuous sex after an involuntary sexual hiatus was disturbing enough. What really got me though was the comments written in about how brave and courageous she was. I don’t know about you but I would be very skeptical of anything that’s written anonymously on the internet. But if it was a truthful story it is as disturbing as many of the comments that people wrote on the site.

The man who shared the quote I opened with agreed with me that we can’t let the thought of how many babies have been killed by abortion discourage us or keep us from doing what we can to encourage a culture of life. I really believe we need to encourage people to return to God who is the only source of answers on this and any other issue. The removal of faith from our society is more at the core of why abortion was ever legalized and why it has grown so tremendously in just a few decades than that all of the sudden a woman’s right to choose became necessary. I have known a number of women who have had one or more abortions. I don’t personally know what went through their mind at the time of the abortion but I do know they regret it. I will continue to pray for a culture of life, for all who have made this choice and the souls of the babies who have never been born.