PathToHoliness

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.

Path To Holiness is now on Twitter. It’s about time I got started there.

I’ve got the feed from the website updating the Twitter feed but I’ll also be posting to it separately and more frequently I’m sure.

So feel free to follow along.

BTW. Path To Holiness contributor, Chelsea Zimmerman, is also on Twitter. You can find her here.

Welcome to Holy Week 2009. Although I was on the road last week I did make it home in time to attend our Chrism Mass.

This is a photo from right after all the priests in our diocese went up on the Altar for the blessing of the holy oils by our Bishop Gaydos.

It’s a beautiful Mass and I’m glad I had the opportunity to attend. Here’s a description of the purpose of Chrism (holy oil) from Wikipedia:

Chrism is essential for the Catholic Sacrament of Confirmation/Chrismation, and is prominently used in the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Orders. Those to be confirmed or chrismated, after receiving the laying on of hands, are anointed on the head by the bishop or priest. In baptism, if the person baptized is not to be immediately confirmed or chrismated, the minister anoints them with chrism. Newly ordained priests are anointed with chrism on the palms of their hands, and newly ordained bishops receive an anointing of chrism on their foreheads. It is also used in the consecration of objects such as churches and altars.

These holy oils are usually stored in special vessels known as chrismaria and kept in a cabinet known as an ambry. When the oils are distributed to a priest for him to use in his ministy they are kept in a smaller vessel with three compartments, known as an “oil stock”. There is also a type of oil stock that is shaped like a ring, to make the anointing easier. The “jewel” of the ring is a container with a removeable lid.

Last week when I was working in Washington, DC I was lucky enough to be staying a couple blocks from the Cathedral of St. Mathew The Apostle.

I’ve been able to attend Mass here a number of times over the years. It’s one of the places that Pope Benedict said Mass when he visited the United States.

Established in 1840, St. Matthew’s originally was located at 15th and H Streets, NW. Construction of the present church began in 1893 under the direction of Monsignor Thomas Sim Lee. The first Mass was celebrated on June 2, 1895. The church was dedicated in 1913 and designated a cathedral in 1939 when the Archdiocese of Washington was established.

The Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle, which honors the patron saint of civil servants, plays a major role in the Catholic life of the nation’s capital. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Washington.

Last week I was in Danville, KY for some project work and attended Mass at Saints Peter and Paul Church.

This is a pretty little church in downtown Danville.

This weekend I made my annual retreat which was held at the Sojourn Center in Dittmer, MO. The weather started out sunny and warm but changed to rain and snow. That didn’t dampen our enthusiasm.

The facility is a new one to us who have been making Wespine Study Center retreats for many years. It’s really set up nicely to conduct a retreat with a beautiful little pond and trail around it and through some adjoining woods.

The annual retreat is part of my plan of life and very important to my continued development of my interior life. It’s a time to “recharge the spiritual batteries” and I highly recommend it to everyone.