PathToHoliness

Let us continue to pray for our priests as we near the Year For Priests. To commemorate it, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has created a website:

Pope Benedict XVI has declared a “Year for Priests” beginning with the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 19, 2009. The year will conclude in Rome with an international gathering of priests with the Holy Father on June 19, 2010.

Please pray for our priests that they might always be faithful to their sacred calling.

We’re getting closer to the 26th June, the anniversary of Saint Josemaría’s death in 1975 and which is now his feast day. In case you’d like to celebrate it in a very meaningful way you can find a couple of listings of Masses in his honor.

There’s one on the Opus Dei website and you can also find one on the St. Josemaria Institute website.

Here in Missouri you can find them:

Immaculate Conception Church
2083 Hanley Road
Dardenne Prairie, MO 63368
636-561-6611
Saturday, June 20
11AM

Our Lady of Good Counsel Church
3934 Washington
Kansas City, Missouri 64222
816-561-0400
Wednesday, June 27
7PM
Celebrant: Bishop Robert Finn, Bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City/St. Joseph

Saint Clement of Rome Church
1510 Bopp Road
Des Peres, MO 63131
(314) 965-0709
Celebrant: Rev. Edward Richard

In today’s homily the priest started out by saying, “Happy Birthday,” as in today is kind of like the birthday of the founding of the Church when the Apostles received the Holy Spirit and were sent to spread the Gospel.

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

That’s from today’s Pentecost Mass reading, Gospel of St. John, 20:21-23.

One of the ways we can all do this today that’s very different than back then is with online communications tools like Twitter, blogs, podcasts and other forms of social networking like Facebook. Now that we have an iPhone app which allows us to view or listen to Vatican video (wifi connection only) the Pope is calling on young people in particular to use these mechanisms>

It falls, in particular, to young people, who have an almost spontaneous affinity for the new means of communication, to take on the responsibility for the evangelization of this “digital continent”. Be sure to announce the Gospel to your contemporaries with enthusiasm. You know their fears and their hopes, their aspirations and their disappointments: the greatest gift you can give to them is to share with them the “Good News” of a God who became man, who suffered, died and rose again to save all people. Human hearts are yearning for a world where love endures, where gifts are shared, where unity is built, where freedom finds meaning in truth, and where identity is found in respectful communion. Our faith can respond to these expectations: may you become its heralds!

Here’s some great news. On May 23rd in Rome, Bishop Javier Echevarría ordained thirty new priests for the Prelature of Opus Dei.

On the Opus Dei website you can find a lot of pictures from the ordination as well as video and video testimonials from some of the new priests.

You can also read Bishop Javier’s homily. I like this line from it:

With the words of our Father, I remind you that “the priestly vocation brings with it the need for sanctity. This sanctity is not just any sanctity, a common sanctity, nor is it even an excellent sanctity. It is a matter of heroic sanctity.”

The Vatican continues to develop new social media/networking applications to spread the good news of the Church. This time I found the . I just downloaded it and haven’t even tried it yet but I will.

The H2Onews application for the iPhone and iPod Touch brings you timely, insightful news about the life of the Church in the world. In collaboration with the Vatican Television Center and Vatican Radio, H2Onews connects you with video and audio news from the Vatican.

Through H2Onews, the first video news application dedicated to the Catholic world, you can follow the travels and speeches of Benedict XVI, as well as key international ecclesiastical events.

You can find more ways to connect to the Vatican on Pope2you. Here’s an excerpt of the message from Pope Benedict about using new communications technologies. You can read the full text here (pdf).

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

In anticipation of the forthcoming World Communications Day, I would like to address to you some reflections on the theme chosen for this year – New Technologies, New Relationships: Promoting a culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship. The new digital technologies are, indeed, bringing about fundamental shifts in patterns of communication and human relationships. These changes are particularly evident among those young people who have grown up with the new technologies and are at home in a digital world that often seems quite foreign to those of us who, as adults, have had to learn to understand and appreciate the opportunities it has to offer for communications.

While it’s still the month of Mary I thought I’d post this image that I currently have in the sidebar.

It’s a photo of a print we have hanging up in the adoration chapel at the Cathedral of St. Joseph here in Jefferson City, MO. The print is signed by Charles Bosseron Chambers and titled, “Most Gracious Advocate.” It’s one of my favorite images of our Blessed Lady. If anyone knows where you can find one of these prints please let me know. I’ve searched online but have not found this image of his.

Here’s one of my favorite prayers which is a poem written by Mary Dixon Thayer. Archbishop Fulton Sheen made it very popular.

Lovely Lady Dressed in Blue

Lovely Lady dressed in blue
Teach me how to pray!
God was just your little boy,
Tell me what to say!

Did you lift Him up, sometimes,
Gently on your knee?
Did you sing to Him the way
Mother does to me?

Did you hold His hand at night?
Did you ever try
Telling stories of the world?
O! And did He cry?

Do you really think He cares
If I tell Him things
Little things that happen? And
Do the Angels’ wings

Make a noise? And can He hear
Me if I speak low?
Does He understand me now?
Tell me for you know.

Lovely Lady dressed in blue
Teach me how to pray!
God was just your little boy,
And you know the way.

Asking a saint for help with a particular problem is a long standing custom and for people who are looking for work I just found one on the Opus Dei website. You can find the full novena with this link (pdf).

During these times of economic crisis, many people have lost their jobs and face serious difficulties supporting their families. With his teaching about the sanctification of ordinary work, St. Josemaría is a natural intercessor for all those seeking work or anxious about losing their job.

Above is a link to a Novena for Work that thousands of people have used to ask St. Josemaría’s intercession for finding or keeping jobs. Use it yourself and send it along to any friends or relatives looking for work.

Each day of the 9-day prayer starts with a quotation from St. Josemaria and then an intention for work or to do a good job.

Its been a while since Ive used the WordPress app on my iPhone to post with. I ought to do this more often.

I got my holiday started with Mass at our local Carmelite Monastary. Msgr. Weiderholt always hears confession beforehand which is nice.

So Im enjoying coffee and wishing you a nice weekend.

This morning I got to attend Mass at St. Francis of Assisi in Bakersfield, CA. It’s not the first time I’ve been here or to the church. It looks like they’ve got a major construction project going on. I hope that means the parish is growing.

I can’t say that all the travel I do is very exciting but I sure do get to attend Mass in a lot of different churches and meet a lot of very interesting people.

I’ll be back on the road tomorrow and hope to start the day with Mass at St. Francis again.

There are quite a few places you can find coverage of the Pope Benedict’s visit to the Holy Land. I did not know that he’ll on be the 3rd Pope to make this pilgrimage. Peter was first, then Pope John Paul II and now our current Pope.

Vatican
Catholic News Service, their blog, their Twitter feed
Florida Catholic
EWTN

I just came across this link that shows Opus Dei locations around the world via Google Maps. There are several pages of links that provide address and contact information.

On a recent trip to Atlanta, GA my wife Cindy and I attended daily Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in the downtown area. I meant to post this a couple weeks ago but better late than never.

We are in the heart of downtown Atlanta, Georgia. Our parish is 128 years young and is alive with history, cultural and socioeconomic diversity, and spirit! The downtown area is experiencing a rebirth and renewal. We welcome new and existing residents of this area, as well as visitors from neighboring hotels and convention centers.

We invite you to worship with our community, to live as a good steward of the gifts God provides through any of our outreach ministries, to strengthen your faith through our varied educational programs, and to join with other parishioners for one of our social activities.

I am a power Twitter user in my business and have never had as many problems with the service as I have in creating and using an account for PathToHoliness.com. My Twitter profile is twitter.com/PathToHoliness. Today it says my account has been suspended for too many login attempts. I’ve got a support ticket going and am keeping my fingers crossed.

Since I don’t have these problems on other accounts I manage it makes me wonder is someone is trying to shut the account down. I know that sounds paranoid but stranger things have happened.

This morning when you go to my profile you get one for someone with an ID of kakoui. Maybe Twitter is just having some serious problems. However, I’ve checked all my other accounts and they seem to be working fine.

So, I just thought I’d let you know. Very irritating to say the least.

I just got home from a trip to our Nation’s Capitol where I was able to attend daily Mass at St. Dominic’s. This is the stained glass window over the entrance to the church with the morning sun streaming through.

It was an interesting time to be in Washington, DC with all the news about the North American flu, also called H1N1 flu. I was in a meeting with our U. S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, who was bemoaning the fact that this has been mis-labeled as swine flu. It is not something that should make you worry about pigs and you can’t get it from eating pork. There are a lot of facts out now although you’re still hearing it referred to by the misnomer. That name is causing havoc with our farmers and not just those raising hogs.

To get some good facts about this new disease check these resources:

Center For Disease Control & Prevention
World Health Organization
USDA

I’ve seen news stories that are taking this whole situation to extremes as they try to scare people in the name of ratings. Regular influenza causes many more problems and to date not enough is known about this strain to make the “sky is falling” comments and convince people to take precipitous action.

Here’s some more ignorance gone to seed as a good friend of mine like to put it. This group, Catholic Climate Covenant, has bought into the notion that man is creating climate change on such a vast scale that the poor people of the world are being “hit hardest.” Their slogan, “What’s Under Your Carbon Footprint?” is a sick joke. This full page ad in Our Sunday Visitor shows a dark colored foot print showing a couple of supposedly poor African? people. So they’re resorting to emotional images to try to get you to feel sorry and donate. I say don’t on the donate thing.

They’re also making liberal use of quotes from our Pope and St. Francis. I find that disturbing. I’m all for the responsible use of our natural resources but there’s too much evidence that scientists are in wide disagreement on this issue. In fact, there’s ample evidence that instead of global warming, the opposite is true.

Nothing I’m saying suggest we shouldn’t support the poor. But we have plenty of opportunities and avenues to do that. This shouldn’t be one of them.