PathToHoliness

Yesterday Pope Benedict called on our Blessed Lady to protect families. Now is a great time to pray for all families and as usual, our Pope shows us the way. He spoke to a group of cloistered nuns.

. . . the Holy Father said: “To you I entrust my intentions, the intentions of the pastor of this diocese and the needs of everyone who lives in this land. In this Year for Priests I especially entrust you with clergy, seminarians and vocations. … Offer the Lord the sacrifice of your lives for their sanctification and for the good of souls”.

“Console those who weep, who suffer for human injustice; support those who waver under the burden of fatigue and look to the future without hope; encourage those who work to build a better world in which justice many triumph and fraternity reign, in which egoism, hatred and violence may end. May every form and expression of violence be overcome by the pacifying power of Christ”.

That’s my message to my wife Cindy. Today’s our 29th wedding anniversary! This photo was taken after breakfast this morning. We’re relaxing for a couple days at a Lake Ozark B&B.

It may sound a little sweet but I love my wife as much as ever. We started dating in college and got married the week after I graduated. I seriously encourage all married couples to keep working at it. It is worth it. Even when it isn’t easy. I would have to say that sharing our Catholic faith has been a real blessing in our marriage. Cindy converted prior to our marriage and that was her decision and I’m very grateful that she did and that the Lord has blessed her with a great faith.

This morning we attended Mass at Our Lady of The Lake. This is the huge statue of Mary that sits on top of the church overlooking the lake.

So I wish everyone a happy holiday weekend and if you are married then I pray for you and hope you have a long and satisfying marriage. Here’s a marriage prayer I found online.

We thank you, O God, for the Love You have implanted in our hearts. May it always inspire us to be kind in our words, considerate of feeling, and concerned for each other’s needs and wishes. Help us to be understanding and forgiving of human weaknesses and failings. Increase our faith and trust in You and may Your Prudence guide our life and love. Bless our Marriage O God, with Peace and Happiness, and make our love fruitful for Your glory and our Joy both here and in eternity.

There is a new series starting on EWTN beginning Sunday, August 30 that will focus on Opus Dei and its founder, Saint Josemaría Escrivá. The program consists of 13 parts. Pictured are co-hosts, John Coverdale, Seton Hall law professor and Damon Owens, founder of Joy-Filled Marriage. Chelsea tells me Damon is a Theology of the Body speaker. BTW, she does a weekly post on her personal blog about Theology of the Body and has a blog devoted to it as well.

Each segment will consist of a half-hour interview. One segment will be broadcast each week and will be shown in the United States and Canada three times during that week: Sunday at 5 p.m., Tuesday at 3:30 a.m., and Friday at 10:30 p.m.

Among the other guests in the series are Newark Archbishop John J. Myers, who discusses the role of Opus Dei in the Church; Olga Marlin, who helped start Opus Dei in Kenya; and Terry Hurson, a New York City police officer, who explains how Opus Dei’s spirit has helped him in his work.

I was asked today about how to live a holy life in today’s world. The implication being that it is difficult to do in a society that seems bent on removing religion from our everyday life and being focused on wealth and possessions while finding someone else to blame for everything without accepting personal responsibility.

Yes it does seem difficult. It makes me think of a saying you see printed along with an image of Jesus that goes, “I never said it would be easy. I only said it would be worth it.” I’m not sure where that phrase comes from but I have thought of it often when trying to do something I know is right even when it isn’t easy. Like going to daily Mass when I’m traveling and in a city that I’ve never been to before and have a tight schedule due to the work that I’m doing. It is often not easy to do but after Mass I can truly say it was worth the effort!

As a cooperator of Opus Dei one of the key elements that drew me to it to start with is centered in this concept of “Sanctification in Daily Work.” To sanctify is to make holy and that’s what we are called to do as lay people in “the middle of the world.” So to me, the idea of living a holy life involves doing what is right and I look to my faith to teach me that.

I also think it’s necessary to work at becoming or being holy in the world today and fortunately our faith provides us with a number of tools to help us. Here are the things that I think are necessary:

• Daily prayer done at specific times (first thing in morning and last at night). This can consist of the Rosary, morning offering, thanks before and after meals, etc.
• A short reading from scripture, especially the New Testament.
• A few minutes of mental prayer.
• Daily Mass if possible.
• A visit to Jesus in the Tabernacle.
• Frequent confession.
• Daily spiritual reading.

St. Josemaria says this in his book Friends of God:

You should not let them become rigid rules, or water?tight compartments. They should be flexible, to help you on your journey you who live in the middle of the world, with a life of hard professional work and social ties and obligations which you should not neglect, because in them your conversation with God still continues. Your plan of life ought to be like a rubber glove which fits the hand perfectly.

With our Lord’s permission I took a picture of Him in the Blessed Sacrament in our perpetual adoration chapel at the Cathedral of St. Joseph here in Jefferson City, MO. I highly encourage all parishes to consider beginning perpetual adoration if at all possible. I’m not sure when I started spending one hour a week with our Lord but it is the highlight of my week. There is not a more peaceful place than in the chapel alone with Him. Although perpetual adoration is normally structured so that people sign up for a specific hour each week, you may also make a visit anytime.

If you’re not familiar with perpetual adoration, here’s some explanation from EWTN. A monstrance is the vessel used to hold/display the Blessed Sacrament (consecrated eucharistic host).

Perpetual Adoration is a Eucharistic devotion whereby members of a given parish (or other entity) unite in taking hours of adoration before the Most Blessed Sacrament (in most cases, exposed), both during the day and throughout the night, seven days a week.

To see Jesus visibly present under the appearance of the small white host is much more conducive to intimacy than hidden away in the tabernacle. Moreover, it adds an extra responsibility on the adorers to be sure to be faithful to the hours they are scheduled, since the suggested norm for having Jesus exposed in the monstrance is that there should be at least two adorers present, and He must never be left alone. Could not these words of our Lord be applied today: “Indeed, this is the will of My heavenly Father, that everyone who looks upon the Son, and believes in Him, shall have eternal life. Him I will raise up on the last day.”

So you may wonder what you would do for an hour in perpetual adoration. Here’s some advice.

This hour Jesus wants you to spend with Him is spent any way you want. You may bring your own prayer books, use the books in the chapel, read the Bible, pray the rosary, or just sit and relax and enjoy the sweet peace that comes from simply being in the Presence of God.

A new theme has been developed for Path To Holiness which I hope to have live this week. With it I hope to start posting more frequently.

I mentioned patience in my last post. Ive had to be patient in waiting for a new look for the website since my web developer has been so busy with business related websites. But in todays economy thats been a blessing.

So I hope you enjoy our new look when we get it finished and I welcome comments, ideas and suggestions.

Patience. Trust. Faith. Suffering. Hope. Disappointment. These are just some of the things I’ve felt in the last month of battling a complicated pneumonia infection. After over 2 weeks of an initial treatment that didn’t work I wound up in the hospital for 10 days. During that time I had pretty major surgery to remove the infection from around my left lung. The doctors finally figured out the exact bacteria causing it and now I’m on an extended antibiotic treatment and feeling much better. I’m home and having to carefully work back to a sort of normal routine.

So, I guess I’m writing to say how much this experience has meant to me spiritually. I think I’ve run the gamut of emotions you can have and really don’t know how I would have handled this without my faith. I always have a rosary with me but I’ve prayed it more often and fervently and I believe Mary has been by my side helping me to cope with all the uncertainty and fear of what was happening. Of course God has been with me every step of the way too and my guardian angel. We’re never alone!

One of the things that this whole experience has forced me to look at is the end of my earthly life. I know it’s not something to really worry about since it’s going to happen sometime and if we’re in a state of grace then it will lead to eternal life with our Lord. But I’ve always tried not to think about it and so I guess this experience has been beneficial in making me examine myself more closely to see how I can improve my life and what I need to work on even more, especially after recovering from this setback.

When I had my personal conversion experience years ago I knew my life would never be the same and that there were things in my life I would change permanently. I have been amazed to realize how much more I still need to work on and I am resolved to make more changes now.

So I thank God for this great spiritual opportunity. It’s not easy but it will be well worth it.

The very first book by St. Josemaria Escriva that I read was The Way. That is still my favorite book of his. It contains many inspirational thoughts that anyone would find helpful in their spiritual meditation on a daily basis. The book was first published in 1939.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the 1939 publication of St. Josemaría’s spiritual masterpiece, The Way. It has been and remains a source of inspiration and spiritual growth for millions of people all over the world, having sold over 5 million copies in 50 languages.

I purchase copies from Scepter Publishers and you can also find a copy on Amazon.com as well.

With it I hope you can do as St. Josemaria encouraged, “May you seek Christ, may you find Christ, may you love Christ.”

The latest edition of electronic news from Opus Dei has an article titled, “Work and Rest.” I found it very appropriate for this morning’s reflection since I’ve been on 2 weeks of forced rest due to a case of pneumonia. I’ve never had this before and hope you never do. But as bad as it has been it has allowed me a lot of time to contemplate on what is important in life. My wife and I have a very successful small business which has been a real blessing for going on 6 years now. The most difficult thing we’ve had to contend with is growth and managing our time. I’ve had concerns about us working too hard and traveling too much but haven’t done anything about it, although we have developed a list of free lance writers and photographers to call on. I’ve had to cancel 3 different events I was supposed to work at in this time I’ve been sick and that has cost us a significant amount of revenue while I’m sure we’re going to be getting multiple bills from doctors, etc. So we are concerned about what that will mean. At the same time though I’m taking this as a sign that I should slow down my pace and as we have since starting the business, put it in God’s hands what will happen.

The Opus Dei article focuses mostly on keeping Sunday a day of rest but makes it clear that rest is an integral part of our existence and important to our path to holiness.

God knows his creatures well. While inviting us to collaborate with him, he knows that our nature is fragile and vulnerable. The divine calling to work includes the need to rest. As we see in the creation account, “the alternation between work and rest, built into human nature, is willed by God himself.”[9]

So I guess in my reflection I would have to add that besides resting from work I also need to become more patient. I think part of why we don’t allow ourselves to rest properly is an impatient attitude that says “I have to get everything done now.” A lot of times that’s just not possible anyway. So, as this illness clears up it’s my resolution to take more time to rest from work. I don’t mean sit in the recliner in front of the tv either. I mean take time away from work to spend with family or on a project that will benefit others.

I have to add my thanks to my family, especially my wife and daughter Chelsea, who have helped me out so much during this last 2 weeks. I am a very blessed husband and father!

My prayers have been answered! Last month I did a post about the image in the sidebar of Mary that I have looked for but never found. There is one in our adoration chapel at the Cathedral. The print is signed by Charles Bosseron Chambers and titled, “Most Gracious Advocate.” It’s one of my favorite images of our Blessed Lady.

Lo and behold, we got an email and phone call from North Carolina that John and Renee had seen my post and they had a print for sale. So I bought it and now the print is on the wall in our home.

Holy Mary, our hope and seat of wisdom, please pray for us.

Last Sunday was Father’s Day but I couldn’t visit my Dad. However, my brother did and delivered a present from us kids (new GPS). So I got a photo during the week.

I’m very proud of my father and wanted to take this opportunity to say so. He has helped shape me into the person I am today more than he’ll ever know. I’m sure there have been plenty of times when I didn’t want to admit it too. I love him and miss getting to see him although my job has allowed me to visit at least once a year usually. Hopefully I’ll get to do so again later this year since my wife and I got to visit in April.

So, speaking of Father’s Day. Here’s me with my three daughters. They were all here for supper and we had a good time.

Like with my Dad, I don’t say how much I love them often enough. I’m very proud of them. Of course, you’ve met Chelsea since she writes here with me. My other daughters Carly and Caitlin are wonderful young women too who are pursuing career ideas right now of their own.

BTW. Chelsea is off to Catholic Familyland for their Family Fest right now where she’ll be speaking. You can follow her on Twitter and her blog.

We hear so much about the need to feed the hungry around the world. But how is that being done? Can it be done?

One of the things that will help is increasing the productivity of people who can produce food. That would be farmers. Biotechnology is helping them accomplish this. But like just about everything today it seems, there are people who want to protest it. I think most of them just don’t like big companies. They just use this as an excuse to promote their own personal agenda. Genetically modified crops are very safe and the amount of research that goes into the creation of what is essentially just speeding up a natural process is extensive. There’s never been a negative problem with a GMO.

So, why the Pope’s picture? It’s really because of the action of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and a letter from a Minnesota farmer. Thanks to Terry Wanzek who grows corn, soybeans, and wheat on his family farm in North Dakota and serves as a North Dakota Senator and board member of Truth About Trade & Technology, for bringing this to my attention.

He wrote a letter in which he mentions that the Pontifical Academy of Sciences has given it’s blessing to genetically modified crops as one solution to world hunger. Here’s the first two statutes of the Academy:

The Pontifical Academy of Sciences, founded by Pius XI of hallowed memory, is placed under the exalted and direct protection of the reigning Supreme Pontiff.

The aim of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences is to promote the progress of the mathematical, physical and natural sciences and the study of epistemological problems related thereto.

Here are a couple of excerpts from Terry’s letter:

There are some people around the world who think religion and science shouldn’t get along. For some reason, they believe the men of the cloth should disagree with the men of the lab coat, now and forever.

Are GM foods dangerous, as so many Europeans have been told? “No substantiated environmental or health risks have been noted,” says the academy. “Opposition to biotechnology in agriculture is usually ideological.”

Isn’t it great when science and religion can agree and even in the face of extreme emotionalism with a political agenda.

Today is the feast day of St. Josemaria Escriva, founder of Opus Dei. It is the anniversary of his death in 1975. This is a photo of him from the early 1920’s before he even became a priest.

Many Masses are being celebrated in his honor today and you can find a list of many of them here.

On May 17, 1992, Pope John Paul II beatified Josemaría Escrivá. He proclaimed him a saint ten years later, on October 6, 2002, in St. Peter’s Square, in Rome, before a great multitude. In his homily on that occasion, the Pope said: “Following in his footsteps, spread in society the awareness that we are called to holiness, without distinction of race, class, culture or age.”

I had the honor and opportunity to attend the cannonization of St. Josemaria in 2002. This is a photo of his casket which was displayed in various locations during the days prior to the ceremony in front of the St. Peters Basilica.

I can’t tell you how much the spirituality taught by St. Josemaria via Opus Dei has meant to my life. It’s such a simple thing, to live out holiness in the everyday world. But I realize how difficult it is in our world and culture and that’s why having a plan of life is so important.

This is me on the day of the cannonization ceremony with my headphones on to listen to the english translation of the ceremony and Mass. The crowd was unbelievably huge and went on as far as I could see. These are scans of my photos from then since it was pre-digital photography for me.

I have also had the honor to meet then Pope John Paul II and this was just one of a number of occasions when I was able to see him and how well loved he was by so many.

St. Josemaria please pray for me and thank you for everything.

Here are a couple of Twitter feeds you should start following. One is for Archbishop Eijk of Utrecht and the other is for FuturePriests.com. The Archbishop has issued a call for prayers for vocations on Twitter.

If you’re Twitter savvy just use the #futurepriests hash tag in your tweets.

On Friday, June 19, Dutch Archbishop Eijk of Utrecht asked the world to join in prayer for vocations to the priesthood – using Twitter. Using one of the computers of the archdiocesan seminary in Utrecht, the bishop launched a ‘Global Twitter Campaign for Vocations’ by posting a call for prayer on the fast-growing social network. In his message, he invites his Twitter-followers to spread the initiative around the world.

“The world is in dire need of priests to celebrate the Eucharist, the heart and the source of our faith,” the archbishop said. “We want to join the Holy Father at the start of this ‘Year of the Priest’ by answering Jesus’ call to pray for workers to bring in the harvest (Luke 10:2). Twitter is one of the fastest growing social networks in the world, so it’s a great medium to get many people involved in this prayer-campaign.”

You can learn more on the Future Priests.com website. Here’s the homepage prayer:

Loving God,

Amen.

Happy Father’s Day to all Dads everywhere. My Dad is not a computer kind of guy so I’ll call him later today to wish him well. Let’s all say a prayer to the patron saint of fathers, St.

Joseph.

Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly.

When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home. He had no relations with her until she bore a son, and he named him Jesus.

Mathew 1:18-25

Let’s hope that fatherhood grows in our society. Former President George W. Bush said this on Father’s Day:

Responsible fatherhood is important to a healthy and civil society. Numerous studies confirm that children whose fathers are present and involved in their lives are more likely to develop into prosperous and healthy adults. Children learn by example; and they need their father’s presence as examples of virtue in their daily lives. A child’s sense of security can be greatly enhanced by seeing his parents in a loving and faithful marriage.”

I agree. So Dads, I hope you’re finding a way to spend time with your children. Even in today’s culture you can do simple things even after they’ve left home like call them, email them a message, send ’em a text message even.

I love my wife and my children and today I also hope and pray for them.