PathToHoliness

This is the altar in the San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio, TX. My wife, Cindy, and I traveled together for a change to a conference there and attended Ash Wednesday Mass.

San Fernando Cathedral has always been at the center of San Antonio. It is a special place that occupies a unique position in this city and for the many visitors who come by the thousands every year.

From its founding on March 9, 1731 by a group of 15 families who came from the Canary Islands at the invitation of King Phillip V of Spain, this church was planned to be at the center of the life of this city.

Cindy went on a very short tour downtown and passed this outdoor statue of St. Anthony, patron of the town.

We were also in Grapevine, TX where we attended Mass on Saturday and Sunday at St. Francis of Assisi.

Although traveling does get old, the opportunity to see so many churches and attend Mass in so many places is a bright spot.

It’s that time of year to think about your annual retreat. Or your first ever retreat for that matter. With Lent starting this Wednesday perhaps it’s a good time to consider going on retreat to recharge your spiritual batteries. I’ve been attending retreats put on by the Wespine Study Center for over 10 years now and highly recommend them.

Wespine offers weekend retreats for working men seeking to further develop their relationship with God. The schedule includes daily Mass and Gospel reflections by a priest of Opus Dei, with Confession and spiritual direction available throughout the weekend.
Missouri Retreats

The retreats are held during the spring at Sojourn Retreat Center, in Dittmer, Missouri. (Click here for directions). The retreats run from 10:30 a.m. on Friday to 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, on these weekends in the spring of 2009:

* March 6-8
* March 27-29
* April 17-19

You can download a registration form with this link.

This past week I was in Orlando, FL and got to attend Mass at the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe.

This is a picture of the altar from when you first walk through the front entrance doors. There is a chapel directly behind the altar where they have daily Eucharistic Adoration. Here’s some description from the website:

A 2,000 seat Shrine Church adorned with inspirational stained-glass windows, depicting the story of God’s love for man, and Mary’s place in God’s plan for salvation. The Shrine’s fourteen aisle windows are entitled “The Magnificat Windows.”

The Outdoor Chapel, featuring a magnificent bronze sculpture of the Mother and Child, created by renowned artist Jerzy Kenar.

I don’t know if you’ve already received them but I’m getting spam emails from law firms claiming they can help me get my share of the stimulus money. Our local paper proudly proclaimed today that “Mo. could get $4.4B from stimulus.” Now that this thing has passed we’re already seeing the money grab begin. Yesterday’s local paper had a story on how our transportation department was hoping to get almost a billion dollars and that they were already working on a spending plan.

So, we have sectors of our economy suffering because of poor decisions on the part of both consumers and companies that has placed them so far in debt they’re having to take drastic measures such as bankruptcy and now our government thinks the answer is to put the whole nation in debt as a way to fix things? Does that make sense to you? Not to me.

Our elected officials have passed a plan that apparently no one, including themselves, really understands. What little I’ve seen leaves so much leeway in how this fictitious money is to be spent that I’m afraid we’re in for years of stories of misappropriated funds and investigations. There’s just too much temptation being thrown at us.

I hope and pray for our country and our society both now and as we move forward. I can’t help but believe that instead of solving a problem we’ve just thrown gasoline on the fire.

This morning’s radio news contained the word, crisis, several times. In referring to the economy the announcer said that there’s only one solution. He then played a one word sound bite from the President’s speech last night which was, “Government.” Yeah. Right. So I had to look up the definition of crisis and here’s how Merriam Webster Online defines it:

1 a: the turning point for better or worse in an acute disease or fever b: a paroxysmal attack of pain, distress, or disordered function c: an emotionally significant event or radical change of status in a person’s life (a midlife crisis) 2: the decisive moment (as in a literary plot) 3 a: an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending ; especially : one with the distinct possibility of a highly undesirable outcome (a financial crisis) b: a situation that has reached a critical phase (the environmental crisis)

I’ve been thinking lately that this has got to be the most overused word in the media and by politicians today. Think of: economic crisis, moral crisis, dietary crisis, world crisis, water crisis, food crisis, gas crisis, etc., etc. ad nauseum. Do you feel pity for these people or do you feel like you’re in crisis mode too?

I don’t. I’m wondering if there is a crisis or if perhaps there are a whole lot of people who don’t have faith or are just trying to make us afraid so we make snap decisions without thinking through them. I don’t suggest that there are problems in our economy but there are always fluctuations in business just like the weather. Instead of quaking in fear, a little prayer and quiet meditation about what to do next can really help in a situation like we’re in.

The Communion Antiphon at this morning’s Mass was especially appropriate I thought. Matthew 19: 28-29 RSV.

“Truly, I say to you . . . And every one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.”

So what is there to worry about? Why rush to make decisions that will have momentous consequences now and for generations to come?

This is the view inside St. Mary’s Basilica in Phoenix, AZ. I attended Mass there while I was covering the Cattle Industry Convention. The Church is located right next to the convention center so it couldn’t have been more convenient.

One morning I went over for Noon Mass only to find that they had Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Then I looked at my phone and realized I was still on central time and an hour early. So, I got to pay a special visit with our Lord and come back again later for Mass.

How many times have you spoken with someone who is not pro life and had them challenge when life begins? For me, it has been frequent. Somehow they don’t understand that the beginning of a human life is very easy to prove scientifically. The real question then becomes when do they think a human life is valuable?

To answer the scientific question, Dr. Maureen L. Condic, The Westchester Intstitute for Ethics and The Human Person, wrote a white paper titled, “When Does Human Life Begin? A Scientific Perspective.”

Resolving the question of when human life begins is critical for advancing a reasoned public policy debate over abortion and human embryo research. This article considers the current scientific evidence in human embryology and addresses two central questions concerning the beginning of life: 1) in the course of sperm-egg interaction, when is a new cell formed that is distinct from either sperm or egg? and 2) is this new cell a new human organism—i.e., a new human being? Based on universally accepted scientific criteria, a new cell, the human zygote, comes into existence at the moment of sperm-egg fusion, an event that occurs in less than a second. Upon formation, the zygote immediately initiates a complex sequence of events that establish the molecular conditions required for continued embryonic development. The behavior of the zygote is radically unlike that of either sperm or egg separately and is characteristic of a human organism. Thus, the scientific evidence supports the conclusion that a zygote is a human organism and that the life of a new human being commences at a scientifically well defined “moment of conception.” This conclusion is objective, consistent with the factual evidence, and independent of any specific ethical, moral, political, or religious view of human life or of human embryos.

I found an article on this in the January issue of the Knights of Columbus Columbia Magazine.

This past week I was in Houston and attended weekday Mass one day at Christ, the Incarnate Word Church. This is a mostly Vietnamese parish I guess.

I arrived early and those attending were all standing and chanting. You can hear what it sounds like using this link. It was a very nice Mass although I certainly couldn’t understand the language. That’s one of the things I love about the Mass. It doesn’t matter where you are, the form is the same so you can follow along. In fact, with my iPhone and using the iBreviary application I could read the Mass readings. I’m finding that application very handy.

It was a crisp morning with frost but the sun was shining and it warmed up very quickly. I’ll be back on the road again this week to Phoenix and have to look online to see where I can attend Mass there.

Much has been made about our new President being so good at using today’s new media tools (blogging, Twitter, etc.) but how about our Pope?

The Vatican has officially launched its own YouTube channel which you can find at: http://www.youtube.com/vatican.

This channel offers news coverage of the main activities of the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI and of relevant Vatican events. It is updated daily. Video images are produced by Centro Televisio Vaticano (CTV), texts by Vatican Radio (RV) and CTV. This video-news presents the Catholic Churchs position regarding the principal issues of the world today. Links give access to the full and official texts of cited documents.

The channel is being offered in English, Spanish, Italian and German.

An effective daily examination of conscience should include questions we ask of ourselves. It doesn’t need to be a long list that would take hours to work through. However, a few at a time done daily will cover a lot of ground. If you’re at a loss for what to ask then there are plenty of resources online. Here are a few questions you’ll find in one of the documents on confession available from the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Have I gone to Mass every Sunday? Have I participated at
Mass or have I day dreamed or been present with a blank
mind?

Have I held resentments toward the Church or Church
authorities? Have I forgiven them?

In my current spiritual reading I’m learning of the necessity of a well developed interior life in order to be an effective evangelist. It’s surprising to read about how ineffective people are when they don’t practice what they preach. We hear that a lot but do we really understand it?

I started this blog because I didn’t think that I was doing enough to evangelize the faith. I reasoned that since God has blessed me with the talent to communicate using new online tools like blogging, that this is something I can and should do. I quickly realized that just having a blog and posting things wasn’t working. By that I mean that I wasn’t devoting time to it, including meditating on what I would post here. That’s because I was only doing the minimum in keeping up with my daily devotions and not spending enough time in personal reflection and meditation which is so necessary to develop in interior life.

If I’m going to be a good example for others then I have to take time for prayer, spiritual reading, spiritual direction, reading of scripture and all the things that help me develop my own faith. I see how lots of “actions” can be a real waste of time, even if they’re for very good causes, if the person doing them doesn’t have a well developed interior life of prayer.

I just completed an evening of recollection at Immaculate Conception in Dardenne Prairie, MO. I’ll add a photo later since I’m posting this from my phone on the way home.

Fr. Jay Alvarez gave two meditation talks on St. Paul’s call to be an Apostle and proclaim the Gospel, something we’re all called to do.

Post update: Fr. Jay was taking points for his talk from the Holy Father’s General Audience of last September 10. Here are some key points from Pope Benedict’s remarks:

Therefore, according to St Paul’s conception, what is it that makes him and others apostles? In his Letters three principal characteristics of the true apostle appear. The first is to have “seen Jesus our Lord” (cf. 1 Cor 9: 1), that is, to have had a life-changing encounter with him. Similarly, in his Letter to the Galatians (cf. 1: 15-16) Paul was to say that he had been called or chosen, almost, through God’s grace with the revelation of his Son, in view of proclaiming the Good News to the Gentiles. In short, it is the Lord who appoints to the apostolate and not one’s own presumption. The apostle is not made by himself but is made such by the Lord; consequently the apostle needs to relate constantly to the Lord. Not without reason does Paul say that he is “called to be an apostle” (Rm 1: 1), in other words, “an apostle – not from men nor through human means, but “through Jesus Christ and God the Father” (Gal 1: 1). This is the first characteristic: to have seen the Lord, to have been called by him.

Read the rest of this post…

I did a little searching in the iTunes Apps Store and found a few more apps you might be interested in.

: $3.99
: $27.99
: $4.99
: $32.99
: $3.99
: Free
(prayers): $0.99
: $0.99

In his column this week in the Washington Post, George Will talks about the absolute lack of common sense that’s turning our society into a nation governed by fear. It’s pretty much an indictment of our legal system which is completely out of control. I think it’s a great read if your paper carries it. You can find it online but you have to have a subscription.

In his column he gives examples of the lunacy that’s out there like schools that are afraid to touch a student so they call the police to handcuff and cart off a 5 year old, 40 pound girl. The list is endless. He also points to a book by Philip Howard that was just published called, “Life Without Lawyers: Liberating Americans From Too Much Law.” Boy does that sound like something we need.

We sure seem to be living in a society where so many people are depending on someone else to take care of them and demanding that someone else be blamed for their aggravations, disappointments or dangers. It’s pretty much a sign of a society that claims no personal responsibility and is lacking in faith. Almost every day I read or hear about someone demanding a law to make sure something doesn’t happen as if laws will cure all ills.

We need laws and good ones. The problem is we have way too many and most of them are bad. They can’t be enforced except sporadically and by people who interpret them the way they want so they can hide behind the law to push their agenda or accomplish their personal objective.

I pray that more people will turn away from this cult of legalism and turn to their faith in God. It all starts with a little bit of introspection (make that a lot) and taking personal responsibility for decisions and actions and using a little bit of common sense.

I’ve been using the on my iPhone for a while now and noticed that they’re now adding antiphons and even some songs.

This was an initial drawback but I think it was just a matter of time before they developed the app further.

So, if you don’t have your breviary or don’t want to travel with it then you might want to get this app on your iPhone! Since it also includes the Mass readings for the day, it’s very handy to use during Mass or if you can’t make it but want to read that day’s readings.