PathToHoliness

It is Respect Life Sunday and our Associate Pastor at the Cathedral of St. Joseph, Fr. Ben Nwosu, preached a powerful sermon on the subject. He was well prepared with scriptural quotes and references to the subject.

I liked him quoting Mother Teresa of Calcutta as saying that when a couple adopts a child they are welcoming Jesus into their home but when they abort a baby they are shutting Jesus out. I don’t have the exact quote but that’s close enough.

You can see a photo of Fr. Ben after today’s Mass from my Twitter account.

Here’s part of the statement on Respect Life Sunday (pdf) by Cardinal Justin Rigali:

Respect Life Sunday, this year celebrated on October 4th is a day set aside for Catholics in the United States to reflect with gratitude on God’s priceless gift of human life. It is also an occasion to examine how well we, as a nation and individually, are living up to our obligation to protect the rights of those who, due to age, dependency, poverty or other circumstances, are at risk of their very lives.

Unborn children remain the persons whose lives are most at risk in America: Over one million children each year die in abortion facilities. The Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 rendered states powerless to halt this killing. Thankfully Congress and most states acted to prevent public funding of abortions (with narrowly defined exceptions). Yet despite the opposition of 67% of Americans to taxpayer-funded abortion, all current health care proposals being considered by Congress would allow or mandate abortion funding, either through premiums paid into government programs or out of federal revenues.

Twitter creator and co-founder Jack Dorsey is from St. Louis where he graduated from Bishop DuBourg High School according to an article in the St. Louis Review magazine.

Proud parents Tim and Marcia Dorsey, members of the Cathedral Parish in St. Louis, said they never expected their son would go on to create something as big as Twitter — which unconfirmed news reports currently value at about $1 billion. The Dorseys also have two other sons, Dan and Andrew.

Asked if they credited Jack’s Catholic education (he also attended St. Dominic Savio Grade School in Affton for a short time) to his success, Marcia Dorsey said, “sure, in a lot of ways … he was always involved in speech meets, those type of things were always his cup of tea. And Catholic schools were very good at offering that.”

You can follow the Archdiocese of St. Louis on Twitter here.

Today would normally be the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, my confirmation saint.

But it’s a Sunday, the 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time to be precise.

This is my statue of St. Francis that watches over my house and yard. So today I ask him to pray for me and my family and everyone.

You probably know that he’s the patron saint of, animals, Catholic Action, environment, merchants, Meycauayan, Italy, Brgy. San Francisco, San Pablo City, Philippines and stowaways.

That’s according to Wikipedia. You can also read more about him here.

Support for abortion in America is slipping according to new information out from the PEW Research Center. Well, it’s about time. When will Americans wake up to the reality of this terrible evil and do what they know is right and that’s protect all life, including the unborn?

Polls conducted in 2009 have found fewer Americans expressing support for abortion than in previous years. In Pew Research Center polls in 2007 and 2008, supporters for legal abortion clearly outnumbered opponents; now Americans are evenly divided on the question, and there have been modest increases in the numbers who favor reducing abortions or making them harder to obtain. Less support for abortion is evident among most demographic and political groups.

Here’s an unbelievable finding in their research though. How can this be?

The poll finds that four-in-ten Americans are unaware of Obama’s position on the abortion issue.

Speaking about priests, the New York Archdiocese has a vocation campaign that features a great video which is incredibly well done and inspiring.

In this Year for Priests a good book for spiritual reading is “The Cure D’Ars : St. Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney” by Abbe Francois Trochu. Here’s a description of the book.

The definitive life, based on the official “Process of Beatification and Canonization,” and thus totally factual and documented. Of humble education and assigned to a forgotten farmers’ village, he attracted the whole world to Ars and was proclaimed “Patron Saint of Parish Priests” in 1929. Ate one meal a day, slept only a few hours a night, heard confessions up to 17 hours a day, converted thousands. His body remains incorrupt. A grace-filled story of total love of God!

He is the patron saint of priests and the book is a very good look at his life like the description says. I’m only part way through it now but it is great reading and I highly recommend it.

The Pope has issued a message in advance of World Day of Social Communications. The day is celebrated on January 24 which is the feast of St. Francis of Sales, patron saint of journalists. I think it’s especially important in this era of new media communications which is allowing us to communicate in ways we never could before. Pope Benedict’s theme for the day is, “The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word.”

A communique made public today explains that the aim of the Message is “to invite priests in particular, during this Year for Priests and in the wake of the Twelfth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to consider the new communications media as a possible resource for their ministry at the service of the Word. Likewise, it aims to encourage them to face the challenges arising from the new digital culture”.

The communique concludes by noting that “if wisely used, with the help of experts in technology and the communications culture, the new media can become – for priests and for all pastoral care workers – a valid and effective instrument for authentic and profound evangelisation and communion”.

So priests, this means you need to get and start using your Twitter account and perhaps start a blog!

The last couple days I’ve missed daily Mass just due to my schedule of travel and meetings. However, this morning I have the pleasure of attending Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Kansas City, MO. This church is managed by the Redemptorists order.

I’m heading out to my annual pheasant hunt in South Dakota with several of my clients today and we’ve already made plans for attending Mass while there.

A movie is being made about the life of St. Josemaria Escriva. I’m guessing that this will be a very different look at Opus Dei and its founder than that sensationalist but from what I understand poorly made movie that got so much attention. Here’s some information about the movie from the Catholic News Agency.

The film “There Be Dragons” is a film set during the brutal Spanish Civil War in the second half of the 1930s, Catholic San Francisco reports. It is expected to be released in summer or fall 2010 and has a budget of about $30 million.

“At that time, that’s pretty heroic. That’s a time when almost all human beings were faced with making extraordinary choices.”

This morning I had the pleasure of attending Mass at Immaculate Conception Church in Dardenne Prairie, MO. This is the church where I have been able to attend an evening of recollection once in a while which is put on by the Wespine Study Center.

Mass was actually in what they call the Chapel which I guess was the original church. There is a large new church on the same property. I really like the Chapel though because it’s smaller and more “traditional.”

Here’s a meditation from their Sunday bulletin:

Mary, the mother of God, was very aware of the enormous blessings God showered on her and she gave credit to Him as the one “who has done great things for me.” Do we recognize the many gifts which God bestows on each of us? Do we also sing His praises by sharing our gifts?

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.