PathToHoliness

This is St. Joseph Church in Salisbury, MO. I had forgotten all about the photos I took there last month until I was cleaning up my memory cards.

This is the home of Fr. Bill Korte, Pastor and my spiritual director. Salisbury is pretty far removed from the hustle and bustle of big city life. I think I envy that country lifestyle a little bit.

Most months Fr. Korte comes to Jefferson City to provide spiritual direction to myself and some other folks. But every once in a while I need to drive up there to see him. One thing I can tell you is that in your plan of life you need regular direction from a good priest. I come away with some new insight, thoughts, resolutions every time. I highly recommend it.

It looks like the Shrine of the Holy Innocents is open. While I was searching for information about Divine Mercy Sunday I came across this announcement from the Marians of the Immaculate Conception who manage the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, MA. The property where it sits is called Eden Hill.

The new shrine is contained within the lower level of the Mother of Mercy Outdoor Shrine — known best as the location of the Sacred Liturgy during Divine Mercy Sunday and other special events. The new shrine, said Fr. Anthony, is like “the womb” of the outdoor shrine.

A life-size statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe had just been installed days prior. Upon the wall were colorful glass tiles, which will soon contain a growing list of etched names memorializing children who died from abortion, through miscarriage, who were stillborn, or who died from any cause at a young age.

The Vatican Information Service now has its own blog. You can subscribe to the blog with this RSS feed url.

As of the morning of Friday 9 April the Vatican Information Service (VIS), apart from its daily news bulletin, now has its own blog which includes news items from the last few years in Spanish, English, French and Italian. The blog also allows access to the Vatican’s Twitter account and YouTube portal.

Follow VIS on Twitter or visit their YouTube Channel.

The Knights of Columbus is urging all Knights to say a novena in support of our Pope Benedict. You can learn more about it on the national Knights website.

All Knights of Columbus are encouraged to join in a special novena for Pope Benedict XVI, beginning Divine Mercy Sunday, April 11, and concluding Monday, April 19, the fifth anniversary of the Holy Father’s election in 2005.

We pray for the pope and for his pastoral mission, asking God to protect, strengthen and uplift our beloved Holy Father at this time of considerable challenge.

This is the image and prayer from the prayer card they have created (pdf).

PRAYER FOR POPE BENEDICT XVI

Lord, source of eternal life and truth, give to your shepherd, Benedict, a spirit of courage and right judgment, a spirit of knowledge and love. By governing with fidelity those entrusted to his care, may he, as successor to the Apostle Peter and Vicar of Christ, build your Church into a sacrament of unity, love and peace for all the world. Amen.

Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory Be…

Today is Divine Mercy Sunday and a time for celebration and to perform acts of mercy. Our parish will have a holy hour this afternoon. If you aren’t familiar with Divine Mercy prayers you can find the daily chaplet and the novena on any of several websites. Here are a couple of links for you: Chaplet (daily) and Novena. To get a full understanding of Divine Mercy I would encourage you to read the “Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul.” You can also find the Vatican’s Decree on Divine Mercy here. The image here is one created by Sister Faustina and that we venerate in our celebration today.

Here is a description of why today is called Divine Mercy Sunday taken from DivineMercySunday.com.

During the Mass of canonization of St. Faustina on April 30, 2000, the year of the Great Jubilee, Pope John Paul II proclaimed: “It is important then that we accept the whole message that comes to us from the word of God on this Second Sunday of Easter, which from now on throughout the Church, will be called Divine Mercy Sunday.” The readings on that Sunday are always about mercy, trust and the forgiveness of sins.

The words of Our Lord in the diary are very clear, He said, “I want the image to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter, and I want it to be venerated publicly so that every soul may know about it. By means of the Image I shall be granting many graces to souls; so let every soul have access to it.” (Diary 341, 570) The Image should be placed in the church so that everyone can see it, perhaps in the sanctuary area and at all the masses on that day so that everyone may venerate and know about it.

I’m a member of the Bishop Michael F. McAuliffe Knights of Columbus Council 12992. Each year we hold a benefit barbeque to raise money to support pro life causes. Except for a little bit of wind we had a beautiful day for it today.

I manage our council website and have an online photo album for council activities which I’ve added a number of photos to from today’s event. We have a great time and meet a lot of wonderful and hungry people. You might just guess what’s for supper in our house tonight!

I don’t know about you but this era of extreme political correctness is really wearing on me. One of my latest retreat notes said, “Satan hides behind politically correct words like diversity, pluralism, choice . . .” Isn’t that the truth? I’d add words like tolerance to the list. People who preach the mantra of tolerance seem to be the most intolerant people themselves. If you don’t agree with them they attack you and if that’s not intolerance I don’t know what is. How about this word to describe them: hypocritical.

Another word I’d add to the list is sustainability. I work in agricultural communications and this has to be one of the most overused and misunderstood words in our vocabulary, along with organic and natural. What does sustainability mean? Ask 10 people (including so called experts) and they’ll give you 10 different answers. It’s a hide behind word for people with a political agenda for the most part. Guess who’s hiding behind it? Answer is found above.

Sadly, these words are not bad in and of themselves but in how they’re being used in our mainstream media and by politicians, lobbyists and people who want to attack Christian values. So, what can be done about it? For starters let’s use these words in a context that’s defined by our religion and faith. Let’s not lash out in anger at those who are misusing them for their own ends but pray for them instead. Do you have any other suggestions? Feel free to comment.

I don’t know if you’re following me on Twitter or not but I’ve been trying to post daily meditation notes from my recent retreat. The photo is a screen shot from my account with this morning’s note.

I’m trying to stay more active here and on Twitter and hope you’ll join in and feel free to reply or comment.

My Twitter image is a photo of my St. Francis of Assisi statue under my deck.

Audio Bibles is a very interesting concept and something being produced by Faith Comes By Hearing. They’re recording the New Testament in many languages and versions since they are an interdenominational organization. A big area for distribution has been Catholic Bibles in Latin America where groups are being formed to listen to the Bible.

The parishes listening through the New Testament are representative of a movement among the Catholic church in Latin America. During 2009, Audio Bibles in seven different languages proclaimed God’s Word in 10 Latin American countries. Demand is so great that plans are underway to send another 3,600 Audio Bibles this year.

The Audio Bibles have been well received. A Guatemalan priest said, “I’ve used Audio Bibles both at the parish and diocese level. People show interest, paying close attention. Above all, the children in the biblical catechism classes concentrate much more on the message. The congregation is motivated and shares what they have heard with their brothers.”

There are a number of rosary apps in iTunes for your iPhone. Chelsea pointed me to the iRosary which I downloaded and installed last night. I will use it when I say my rosary today!

Speaking of saying the rosary, did you know that Real Men Pray The Rosary? They do according to a post on the Wall Street Journal. That led me to the RMPTR site. You can follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

Our goal at RMPTR is to do our part to keep the devotion to praying the Rosary alive and well in our time. In a world filled with fast – paced distractions and ubiquitous technology, we would like to encourage people to unplug from time to time, to share in something that doesn’t need electricity or an LCD screen. Just a clear mind for prayer and meditation on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Perhaps even daily?

This site is an invitation to ALL Christian men and women (the Rosary is not just for Catholics!)to experience the peaceful joy of praying the Rosary. We invite you to share in this journey with our Rosary community.

An AP article has made a major announcement for the people of Los Angeles.

The pope on Tuesday named Archbishop Jose Gomez of San Antonio, Texas, to take over the Los Angeles archdiocese when its current archbishop retires.

Gomez, 58, is a priest of the conservative Opus Dei order.

It’s nice to see Opus Dei formed priests in positions like this one. We need more of them!

Images like this one are too often the main focus of people today when it comes to Easter. Coloring Easter eggs and eating chocolate bunnies are nice ways to celebrate but they sure aren’t all we should contemplate today.

On one of my annual retreats which seem to often happen during Lent the priest called Easter “the greatest event to ever happen in the world.” Jesus rising from the dead. I’ve never forgotten that.

We see lots of media outlets come up with their lists of the top events of the year, decade or century. However, nothing can compare to what happened on this day so long ago. Nothing ever will. It’s impossible.

So today, when we enjoy our candy and big meals (those who can) let’s also take time to meditate on what God has done for us. He sent His Son as our savior to redeem us from our sins since we can’t do it by ourselves. Of course we often think we can control our lives and destiny but that’s just human arrogance. We should try to live our lives as Jesus taught us and look to His mercy when we fall down or stray from the path to holiness. That’s the gift He offered and we can choose to accept.

I don’t know about you but I look forward to the time I can join Him in Heaven and I pray every day that I will be able to. I can’t imagine anything that could ever happen in the world that could top what Jesus did for us on this day since it allows us to accomplish this goal.

Our Diocese celebrated the annual Chrism Mass last night and I think we had more people attend than normal. We had a full Cathedral.

This is a picture of our Bishop John Raymond Gaydos receiving the oils which would be blessed later.

It was awesome to see all our priests together including one celebrating 70 years as a priest! He’s 94 years old and drove himself to Jefferson City from St. Louis.

As we’re entering Holy Week, it’s a really good time to pray for our Pope and the Church. There is much being said in the news about how abuses by some priests have been handled and it’s obvious that the Church is under attack because of their actions. There is no excuse for what those have done. It has caused great harm to individuals and the Church.

We’re seeing news reports that are speculating (is that news?) on whether the Pope should resign and polls of what people think about this or that. One I just saw from the N.Y. Times is titled, “At the Vatican, Up Against the World.” Just the title ought to tell you something. I would challenge all the people who are so up in arms about what a very small element of Church personnel have done to put their effort into prayer and look first at their own actions before casting stones. If we had more people spending their time in prayer maybe we wouldn’t have these problems. Our faith is a supernatural virtue that allows us to believe what God has revealed. The world is and always will be at odds with that.

My faith is not dependent on polls or public opinion. There are still truths of our faith that can not be changed just because someone wants them to. I’ve seen nothing factual in the news to weaken my faith. It hurts to know what some have done but I can only pity them and pray for them and I will continue to do so.

Here’s some good spiritual reading for Lent.

In this book, Fr. de la Palma provides an aid for meditating on the Passion. He recreates the events of Jesus’ life beginning with Holy Thursday and concluding with the burial of Our Lord and a powerful evocation of the coming resurrection. With vivid detail and a constant recognition of the role the Blessed Mother played in those days, Fr. de la Palma helps the reader enter into the Last Supper, the institution of the priesthood and the Eucharist, the arrest of Our Lord, the denial of St. Peter, the trials before Caiaphas and Pilate, the scourging and mocking, and finally, the Crucifixion. His meditations hew closely to the Gospel accounts, adding to them insights from other scriptures and frequently culminating in fervent prayers to Our Lord and Our Lady. Fr. de la Palma emphasizes that through it all, Jesus was offering Himself to the Father of His own fee will for the salvation of the world. This book is a striking reminder of the immensity of that offering of love.

Available from Scepter Publishers.