PathToHoliness

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.

While jogging at the YMCA this afternoon I saw on a tv monitor that the home construction industry is now asking for a bailout. Seems to me like another group that wants a free handout. Let’s face it, lately all we’re hearing about is the supposed handouts from the government (banking, auto, etc.) and lately for everyone (economic stimulus). Let’s not even get into who’s going to pay for all this. Let’s not even get in to who’s to blame and what’s caused it (greed, living beyond your means, corruption, ignorance, lack of faith).

This made me think about how much people in our society need to focus internally and develop their interior life and consider the long term view. I think this applies to all societies around the world too. Besides only living materialistically there is a constant attempt to blame everyone else (but yourself) and look to the government to “bail you out.” I always remember this saying, “When you point your finger, there are 3 fingers pointing at you.”

So, rather than look for financial bailouts maybe we should be looking for spiritual bailouts. We know that God forgives. Actually, in order to receive forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation you need to have contrition for your sin, go to confession, and make satisfaction for your sin. So it’s not as simple as a handout. You have to actively do something. I don’t think that’s any different than in the materialistic world either.

How often do you get discouraged? Maybe things aren’t going well at work or you fail at a resolution you’ve made. At this time of year a lot of people are making resolutions and many won’t keep them. This is where a developed interior life comes in to play.

I know I have lots of discouragements and many of them are my own responsibility. In fact, by doing a good daily self examination it’s easy to see how much I am responsible for things that go wrong or how I could have done things differently.

One of my resolutions has been to be more diligent in my devotions and that includes my daily prayers and spiritual reading. In the “Soul of the Apostolate” Chautard has a chapter on the danger of the active life without the interior life. The last section deals with discouragement and how a well developed interior life is a defense against discouragement. It’s really difficult to be discouraged when we speak directly with God and spend time with Him. I know that’s hard for anyone who hasn’t done so to understand.

One of my prayers for people today is that they will take time to meditate more on their life and their relationship with God. Then I believe they won’t be so discouraged.

I was in Gainesville, FL recently and although I couldn’t stop to go in, I did get a snapshot of St. Augustine Church. This is where Cindy and I got married over 28 years ago!

I can’t even remember when I’ve been in Gainesville other than stopping by off the highway. It was great to spend a day and actually meet some old friends.

I want to wish you all a Happy New Year and blessed Feast of Mary, Mother of God.

I just heard an advertisement for the People Magazine’s Best of 2008 issue that contains things like the top 25 celebrity quotes of the year and a whole bunch of other inane listings. It just made me consider how much our society seems obsessed with what other people are doing, saying, thinking or feeling. Then when I was working out at the YMCA I could see a certain cable news channel group of anchors sitting on a couch pontificating about their thoughts on “news” items. That brought up the same thoughts I’d had earlier. Our new information age seems to be focused on what everyone is doing (activities) and not much on how everyone is drawing closer to God on a personal level.

How about looking inside ourselves to figure out what we’re feeling and why and by the way, what about our relationship with God?

My latest spiritual reading is “Soul of the Apostolate” by Jean-Baptiste Chautard. I’m finding it a great read since it really helps you understand the absolute necessity of a well developed interior life. All the activity we participate in, including good works, can actually become a danger to our salvation if we don’t first devote time and attention to our interior life.

Somehow I think we’d all care less about what others do if we spent more time contemplating what we’re doing first.

Merry Christmas from mid-Missouri.

Here’s a picture from midnight Mass at the Cathedral of St. Joseph with Bishop John Raymond Gaydos celebrating.

Our family has been going to midnight Mass for a number of years now. Then we come home and open presents and have a very early morning breakfast. It was nice having all my daughters home. I hope that you and your families all have a very blessed day too.

To listen to our “mainstream” media you’d think the world is in some sort of crisis at every moment and in every way possible. I think the word crisis has got to be one of the most overused words in the last couple years. People I know who spend way too much time focusing on every word from the mouths of cable news channel anchors who know absolutely nothing about what they’re talking about (just trying to fill time) seem to be developing a heightened sense of fear. I’m not going to get into what that can do to a person’s decision making much less to society as a whole.

I’d rather focus on something positive like telling these people to turn the tv off and say some prayers. I know people who have been laid off recently or are working for a company that is discussing cut backs. Some are very nervous. Some are not too worried about it. I’ll bet these latter ones have a more developed interior and prayer life. So I thought I’d offer one of my favorite prayers for times of uncertainty and worry. This comes from a prayer card I have for a priest I knew when I was younger. I’m not sure of the source of it. If you know, please feel free to comment.

“He’s got the whole world in His Hands.”
And now, Lord, You have my problems:
My seemingly insoluble problems
Which I have been worrying over incessantly,
My own million-dollar, 24-carat problems,
And I leave them with You.
If You can keep the earth revolving,
If You can keep the galaxies in place,
If You can supervise creation,
I guess You can manage My problems.
They’re yours now, Lord,
These million-dollar problems.
My task is not to worry now.
I’ve got to trust You, believe You, Love you,
And not interfere with Your resolution
Of what Once were
My problems.
Thank You, Lord.

Hey iPhone lovers. There’s an app for the phone (and iPod touch) that you may want to get. It’s the iBreviary. I’ve got it thanks to Chelsea pointing it out to me.

She found out about it on American Papist. You can also read about it on Cath News:

The Vatican Council for Social Communications has approved an iBreviary application created by Italian priest Fr Paolo Padrini for the iPhone.

“That’s cool, but what really sets this application apart from all others in the AppStore is that it’s the first app with approval of the Vatican!” Infomobile says.
“As with almost any iPhone app, iBreviary is easy to use, sporting iPhone like user interface. In addition, size of the characters can be increased, landscape mode is supported (using accelerometer) and much more.